Author: The Timedok

Meteors Asteroids and other heavenly bodies

February of 2013 a meteor crashed into Russia.

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Noted astrophysicist and of course NASA have said that the meteorite that exploded over Russia was not related to 2012 DA14.

While they may understand the complicated mathematical formulas that go along with their craft, I do not.  I do however understand statistics.

What are the odds that at the same exact time-frame 2012DA14 is flying by earth we have three widely reported meteorites and other similar reports from all over the globe?

Their argument is that the trajectory of the meteor that exploded over Russia and 2012 DA14 are not the same and therefore it could not be related.

One thing to take note of is that the Chatyabinsk Meteor orbit shown in the photo below was calculated on the trajectory from when it hit the earth.

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This first paragraph is from Wiki.

Preliminary calculations rapidly showed the object was not related to long predicted 15 February close approach of what was at the time known as asteroid 2012 DA14 (later named 367943 Duende) that passed the Earth 16 hours later at a distance of 27,700 km. The Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, Russian sources,[107] the European Space Agency, and the Royal Astronomical Society all indicated the two objects could not have been related because the two asteroids had widely different trajectories.

Credit for these next two paragraphs are from a fellow wordpress blogger [1]

February 16, 2013 – HAVANA — An object fell from the sky over central Cuba on Thursday night and turned into a fireball “bigger than the sun” before it exploded, a Cuban TV channel reported Friday, citing eyewitnesses. Some residents in the central province of Cienfuegos were quoted as saying that at around 8 p.m. local time Thursday (0100 GMT Friday) they saw a bright spot in the sky comparable to a bus in size. The object then turned into a fireball “bigger than the sun,” said the witnesses, adding that several minutes later they heard a loud explosion. One resident told the TV station that his house shook slightly in the blast. Cuban experts have been dispatched to the area to look for possible remains of the meteor-like object, said the report. It remains unknown whether the reported phenomenon in Cuba is related to Friday’s meteor strike in central Russia, which set off a shockwave that shattered windows and left some 1,000 people injured. –Xinhuanet

Fireball seen in Bay Area skies: It may not have been as spectacular as the space rock that streaked across the skies above Russia late Thursday, but the Bay Area’s close encounter with a meteor Friday night was drawing its own attention on social networks. Comments on Twitter indicated the object that flashed across the horizon around 7:45 p.m. was blue in color and visible throughout the Bay Area and large areas of the West Coast, with at least one reported sighting in Washington State. Amateur video footage broadcast on KTVU-2 showed a bright streak lasting approximately five seconds that appeared to head downward. Some viewers described it as a firework in the night sky. One commenter on Twitter, who said they saw the meteor while driving in a car in Cupertino, said the object appeared to be headed west. Scanner traffic at the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office indicated that they were aware of the event, but a dispatcher said they had not received any emergency calls related to it. Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer with the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, was at the center Friday evening for its weekend stargazing sessions with free access to the center’s large telescopes, but he said they did not spot the meteor there. He said that the center received phone calls from people who reported seeing the meteor. Based on their reports, McKeegan said it may have been what astronomers call a “sporadic meteor,” an event that can happen several times a day but most of the time happens over the ocean, away from human eyes, and brings as much as 15,000 tons of space debris to Earth each year. Meteors, hunks of rock and metal from space that fall to Earth, burn up as they go through the atmosphere, which is what apparently caused Friday night’s bright flash of light, McKeegan said. It was likely smaller than another meteor that landed in the Bay Area in October, which caused a loud sonic boom as it fell, breaking apart and spreading rocks, called meteorites, in the North Bay, McKeegan said. –Mercury News

I think that they were related and I think a quick look at Newtonian physics will show why I think that they were. [3]

We must first look at; where do asteroids come from.  For that matter where did the earth come from?

Assuming that the big bang theory is correct, the cosmos was full of dust.  Even smaller than dust were most probably the elements that make up atoms.

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Above is the first image of a Hydrogen Atom.  Notice the orbits… 

One of the most mysterious forces today is “gravity.”  We think we understand how it works and this is where NASA and others I think are missing the boat.  Follow the link for gravity if you really want to “geek out.”  [2]

As the dust floated around in a “perfect vacuum” these particles began to stick together. The more “sticking” they did gave them differing amounts of mass, which gave them differing amounts of “gravity.”  Wouldn’t it be fascinating to think that the different types of elements that we have today were the result of the way that different parts of the different atoms just randomly glued themselves together?

The earth, moon and all heavenly bodies are currently falling unless they are so far removed from any source of gravity that they are not affected.  Since we have the Kuiper belt, we can assume that gravity extends quite a bit from the Sun.  Indeed even Pluto is falling along with its neighbors, cousins and so forth, all falling.

If you think about how large a Galaxy is, it too is swirling around some force of gravity, most probably a large black hole.

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Credit Wiki for the following 3 paragraphs.

The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets. The asteroid belt is also termed the main asteroid belt or main belt to distinguish its members from other asteroids in the Solar System such as near-Earth asteroids and trojan asteroids. About half the mass of the belt is contained in the four largest asteroids, Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea. Vesta, Pallas, and Hygiea have mean diameters of more than 400 km, whereas Ceres, the asteroid belt’s only dwarf planet, is about 950 km in diameter. The remaining bodies range down to the size of a dust particle. The asteroid material is so thinly distributed that numerous unmanned spacecraft have traversed it without incident. Nonetheless, collisions between large asteroids do occur, and these can form an asteroid family whose members have similar orbital characteristics and compositions. Individual asteroids within the asteroid belt are categorized by their spectra, with most falling into three basic groups: carbonaceous (C-type), silicate (S-type), and metal-rich (M-type).

The asteroid belt formed from the primordial solar nebula as a group of planetesimals, the smaller precursors of the planets, which in turn formed protoplanets. Between Mars and Jupiter, however, gravitational perturbations from Jupiter imbued the protoplanets with too much orbital energy for them to accrete into a planet. Collisions became too violent, and instead of fusing together, the planetesimals and most of the protoplanets shattered. As a result, 99.9% of the asteroid belt’s original mass was lost in the first 100 million years of the Solar System’s history. Some fragments can eventually find their way into the inner Solar System, leading to meteorite impacts with the inner planets. Asteroid orbits continue to be appreciably perturbed whenever their period of revolution about the Sun forms an orbital resonance with Jupiter. At these orbital distances, a Kirkwood gap occurs as they are swept into other orbits.

Classes of small Solar System bodies in other regions include the centaurs, Kuiper belt and scattered disk objects, and Oort cloud comets.

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So if they are falling why are they all not part of the large fireball we see each day lighting our way? According to Newton, an object that is doing whatever it is doing will continue to do so unless acted upon by another force.

While the moon is falling, because it has a velocity to it, it continues to “orbit” the earth at a near perfect speed to keep its distance.  I say near perfect because it is actually moving away from the earth at a very slow rate.

The thing to really pay attention to is the word perturbation.

As long as the moon is not messed with, it will continue to “fall” until it escapes earths gravity enough that its velocity will then carry it in whatever direction that it finally releases orbit from the earth.

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While we need the moon for life to exists here on earth and the NASA folks should really be looking at their tractor ideas to slow the moon down a bit to keep it from flying away, that is a subject for yet another blog.

We orbit the sun using the same physics that the moon uses to orbit us.

If the earth were impacted head on with a large enough object to change our velocity or mass, our orbit would necessarily change.  Would we move out further into the outer regions of the universe or would we “fall” into the sun?  This is “perturbation” and this is what happens to other things in space. Our fate would depend upon if we gained or lost velocity and or mass.  Whether life would still be here after such an event is another story.

The objects known as meteors and or asteroids were formed the same way that we were.  As the matter of fact as time progresses on, some of those proto-planets could conceivably gain enough mass to draw other objects toward them to become larger and or become perturbed.

The idea here is that we “think” that everything is static. While there are those that declare there is no such thing as evolution, they are simply unable to comprehend the amount of time that has passed between the original creation of the earth and today.  4.2 billion years to our puny limited minds means nothing.  We have no context for that kind of time, so we cannot grasp even the idea of evolution; or the idea that the earth and everything that we see in the heavens at night was once simply dust.  That includes you and I. The simple facts are that things are very dynamic, we just have such short life spans we don’t get it.

If an object in the kuiper belt or the main asteroid belt is acted upon in such a way to slow it down it will loose the velocity necessary to stay in the orbit that it is in and “fall.”  While it is technically falling currently its orbit will change.  It will very slowly at first loose its orbit and start moving inward.  All objects that are currently in orbit around this object will also move with it, thus moving towards the sun.  Lets say that the asteroid is large enough that when it collided with another object pieces of it were knocked off of it, or possibly the colliding object was destroyed in the process.  This is exactly how the planets were formed.

Since there is mass/gravity to the object, some of that debris may very well have started to orbit this rock as it began to change trajectory.

As these objects were created in the same manner that we were created we have to assume that they have objects in orbit with them, it just makes sense. The larger the object the more “cousins” it may carry along.  Of course it goes without saying the greater the mass the greater amount of and size of these cousins.

2012 DA14 is such an object that was acted upon.  It is large enough to have its building blocks or other debris orbiting it.  As it begins to fall, those object stay in its orbit and as it’s velocity / trajectory change, so do the objects that orbit it.  Since they are all traveling in a perfect vacuum, there is nothing to change those orbits, no friction so it really doesn’t matter how fast it is traveling.

Now as DA14 cruises past earth, its cousins are moving along with it at the “speed of heat” all the while in orbit with DA14.  I emphasis ORBIT as that is how the trajectories of different meteorites that hit the earth can appear not to be related to DA14 when if fact they are.

DA14 now orbits around the sun as its orbit was acted upon by the planets that it passed by. Will its orbit change in the future?

[1] http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/02/16/meteorite-fireballs-streak-across-skies-over-cuba-and-san-francisco/

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity

[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton’s_laws_of_motion

Instead of writing yet another blog on this subject I will add this addendum here.

Celestial mechanics is an interesting subject worth noting.  One would think that the astrophysicist that get paid for this kind of work would have figured some of this out and not been so quick to rule out the relationship between the other meteorites that were associated with this event.

As the planets orbit the sun, our solar system is also in motion.  not only in the direction of the X axis but the Y axis as well.  Think about this for a second.  Our solar system is located in one of the arms of the milky way which is doing what?  It too is in motion , a spiral motion so it is dragging our solar system along in the X axis.

Since we know from previous scientific data that the universe is expanding; we must therefor assume that we are not in the center of it which means the the Milky Way is also moving in a Y axis or vertical as well as the X axis.  Again we are also being dragged along for the ride as “gravity works.”

So, the sun is our gravitational focus which drags this solar system with it.  The Milky way is the suns gravitation focus which drags it with it, as it spirals and as it also moves as a collective entity, along the Y axis.  Is Andromeda heading for us, or we to it, or are we both headed to each other?

As with any of my blogs, I welcome enlightened conversation, questions, and of course well thought out arguments.

C 2014 All Rights Reserved

-Best to you and those that you care about!

Life, Wealth and Happiness

I chose the title carefully as the three can me mutually exclusive.

Stuff and Reality

Most of us grow up seeing a pattern of “wealth = happy.”  In fact some of the poorest people that I know are some of the happiest.  How is that possible?

The world today tells us that we “need” an expensive car, or the largest flat screen TV or whatever the newest gadget is.  Apple is doing their part by providing a new version of their products about every 18 months or so.

A few years ago a “car phone” was for the most exclusive and wealthiest of us.  Today, kids in grade school have a much more sophisticated version than I would have dreamed possible just a few years ago.

A simple automobile that cost a few thousand not too many years ago now cost upwards or $40K.  Of course you can spend $24K for the same basic car but it does not have the “logo” that the $40K car has.  Will the less expensive car do the same as the expensive car, probably; but it will not have the social status of the $40k car?  I cannot envision spending $150K on a car but there are many on the roads.

If you are a churched person you no-doubt know that “God will provide.”  Does that mean that if you pray really hard and give money to the church that you will get the $40K  or $150K car?  No.  It means that you will have the necessities of life.  The trick of course is realizing what the “necessities are.”

This is where the poorest among us have the rest of us beat.  They are happy with what they have.  One of my favorite song writers penned the phrase, “it’s not about having what you want, it’s about wanting what you got.”  If you think about that, it is so true.

“Failure to plan is planning to fail!”

Am I telling you to settle for less than what you have or want?  No, I am telling you to set your expectations accordingly, set your goals a little higher than your expectations, and take the actions necessary to achieve those goals.

Much like project management, your goals need to be fully planned.  What do you want, what does the end goal look like, and what does it take to achieve it?  What milestones must you achieve to get to where you want to go or be?   Goals should be on some sort of timed deadline.  If you set dates to accomplish certain milestones you are more apt to succeed at the end goal. Start with prayer for wisdom.  Praying to win the lottery is probably not going to get you anywhere.  If it does; please keep me in mind.. J  Realistic goals are part of the prayer process.  Few grow up with the goal of being a garbage man.  If you did, “bless your heart.” Many end up there because they failed to plan.

Do I look down on those folks, not on your life!  It takes all kinds of folks to make the world go round.  If more folks planned better, I think that finding a ditch digger or garbage man might cost more money.   I make a point to know my garbage collection folks.  If I can, I go out and tell them good morning etc.  The same is true of the mail person and even the janitor at the office.  They are all people and disserve the respect that you yourself would want.  If you think that you are better than them you are in dangerous territory.

Wealth or the lack thereof.

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I would seriously recommend taking the Dave Ramsey course for you who are just starting out.  After listening to his radio show for several months, I am convinced that he should be a required course in high school.  Credit card companies would lobby against that but, that would be just too bad.  Our progeny need to understand the fundamentals of his wisdom, and the sooner the better.

The good news is that if you are a parent you can go through the course with your kids.  It does not need to be mandated from the Ivory towers of DC.   Many churches around the country offer this course.  Why?  A tenant of the course is to be generous, think there could be a connection?  Too Cynical? Only they and God know their motives.

His mantra goes against current trends in advertising and indeed the way that we spend money!   His philosophy and wisdom really came from making mistakes and learning from them.  These are mistakes he made many years ago.  So, why make the mistake if you can learn from those that have already done it?  Like history, if you don’t know it, you will repeat it.

The jobs that you take should reflect some part of the path that you are on in order to achieve your goals.  Jobs can be milestones.  Let’s say I want to be a geologist.  I would start out learning everything I could about the subject from books to social groups that are like minded.  I might take an internship at a company that studies core samples.  Even if I have to wash beakers or crush rocks, I would be part of the process and undoubtedly something I learned would stick that I could apply later.

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The society we are in today has kids out of college with no practical experience looking for the big paycheck and the corner office.  Bless their heart!

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Many out there just take anything to get some sort of income.  Folks, this is ludicrous.  Letting fate decide your future is a formula for a life filled with dead end jobs being someone’s slave.  If you can’t afford to leave the bedroom that you grew up in, you are on the wrong path!  If you are forced to return to the bedroom that you grew up in because you are not making enough money to live on your own and be investing money in your future, you are certainly on the wrong path, or making bad decisions.

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Briefly, fast food jobs are for kids in school.  Those jobs will allow them to earn some spending money, gasoline and insurance money and if they are strict with themselves, some savings for college.  They teach the fundamentals of the working world and truthfully make one appreciate a real job when they get one.  I am a firm believer that everyone should have a fast food job as a child.

 

Retail jobs in general are the same type of job.  Most retail jobs are not a career choice that should be anywhere in your decision making process.  If those jobs are part time they are for kids living at home.  Unless your end goal is to manage some high end retail establishment, you have no business working there unless of course, you are a teenager.

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There is definitely a difference between adult jobs and “youth” jobs.  “Youth jobs are training wheels for life.”

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One job does not fit all.

I see way too many older folks taking retail jobs in places where there should be kids.  I think this is a direct reflection of the times that we live in.  The sad fact is that these older folks in these jobs allow their attitude towards that job to come through while dealing with the customer.  It is not hard to tell that they are not happy and feel that the job is beneath them.  Guess what; it most definitely is!  Staying in that job is mistake of monumental proportions.  Stay in it long enough to retrain and re-invent yourself if necessary, and then leave it for the teenagers that it was originally designed for.

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Some older folks are taking these jobs to get out of the house.  If you need the money, at least shoot for management.  Leave the kid jobs for kids.  Of course if you had planned correctly you would not need the money and could be spending your time out of the house, volunteering somewhere.

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The last few years, entitlement spending is at an all time high.  We are paying people to stay home and live on the government tit.  That money that the government gives away comes from those of us who are working, not living on the ignorance of a government run amuck.   If the politicians that think that what they are doing is correct they need to revisit it.

 

Anyone taking money from the government that should be working should be “reinventing” themselves.  Currently if you are attending school you are not eligible for unemployment.  What kind of foolishness is this?  If you don’t find suitable employment in X months you should be required to take some classes and I would argue that those classes should be subsidized by the government.  If you get an “A” 100% re-imbursement and so forth.  It is almost as if we don’t want you to ever work again, we want you to live on some small amount of money taken from those that are working.  Folks this is crazy!

 

If you know a politician or someone that you can talk some sense into by all means lets push this initiative.  People need a hand up, not a handout!

 

Business is not ignorant of this fact.  To get skilled workers to work for peanuts on a part time basis vs. dealing with kids who often have not developed a good work ethic is a bargain.  If they get college graduates to slave away at minimum wage jobs, that too is a bargain for them!  Keeping them at part time so they don’t have to screw with benefits, another win!

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We see the argument to raise the minimum wage so people can make a living at these part time jobs that school kids should be doing.  The pay is not the issue, the issue is that adults should not be doing these jobs!

 

Slavery is not Dead!

 

The problem is that these kids need those jobs as that is the next part of their training to become good workers.  A part time retail or fast food job is not for anyone that is serious about making a living.  Managing these occupations is another story however; it is slavery at best as you are most undoubtedly salaried and will work 50 or 60 hours a week and “it will be expected.”

 

Raising the retirement age was another mistake on so many levels.  Companies are shoving you out the door when you are 50 and looking for the college kids fresh out of school to bring in and abuse.

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This guy still votes too.  That is another blog for another time.

Very few companies see the value in bringing in older Americans as they would have to pay them a decent wage.  On top of that, these folks have experience and to some degree that experience might be askance of the job requirements and or environment of that company.  The phrase “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” certainly may play through their mind.  Mature workers are excellent employees most always as they are skilled professionals and are not the party animals that they once may have been.  Their children are most probably out of the house, so little will pull them away from their task.

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Mature workers indeed need a vocation as we were designed to work.  Those of us who linger in the couch or in front of the TV or video games all day are most probably going to expire way before our time.  “A body in motion stays in motion!”  Keeping a regular schedule, going to bed at a decent hour, getting up at a decent hour, greeting the morning sun for fifteen minutes in the morning will keep you healthy.  There is of course more to it but these fundamentals are all too often overlooked!

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If you take a look at the richest people in the world (which is out there on the internet) you will notice Bill Gates is number 1.  The Wallmart and Sam’s ilk are close to that and there are so many others.  What I would like to call to your attention is that none of these made it there because they are “nice people.”  They are shrewd business people.  One has to wonder if they are “happy!”

 

Some of you may try to extol the virtues of Mr. Gates as he gives money to different charities, “what a nice guy!”  When Bill was buying the first operating system from a guy for $4k and licensing it to IBM for millions, I was involved with computers.  When Mr. Jobs was a criminal, phone phreaking, making his first large sum of money, I knew about it and how he did it.  When Bill got the windows idea from Xerox who happily showed him their ideas and products and told him about it being open source he happily took it and ran with it.

 

I have kept up with Bill, not because I am angry with him, he is a shrewd business man. One has to wonder if they “the richest folks in the world” are “happy” and how much money is enough?  How do people get so rich?  I wish I could say it was by treating people right and practicing good “ethical” business practices…

 

Retail stores hire folks are minimum wage and then give them just enough hours so they don’t have to pay for benefits.  Some reward their slaves with a few more hours for extra effort while only giving a few to the people who are not really motivated to be there.  Folks, it is hard to be motivated for $8 and hour, especially when it takes more than that to get a hamburger.  If you are working for someone, even as a slave, do your best as you are gaining experience not just in folding clothing but in dealing with people, managers and situations out of your control.  This also should teach you the value of an education and setting goals!

 

What is your goal?  Money is not a goal, but a tool.  Like a hammer or saw, it is nothing more or less than a tool. Money is a common tool that everyone can use to pay for or gain enough of to obtain food, shelter and the other basics for life.  In some cases it can buy you an island or maybe a small country.. It is still a tool and a means to an end.

 

Your goal should be to be happy, that I would wish for you.  Deciding on what is (happy) is another story.  Some find happiness in stuff, and others find it in family and friends.  Some of the happiest people that I know find happiness in serving others and or taking care of the other creatures that live amongst us.

 

I think that happiness is nothing more than a state of mind and those that have little to worry about seem the happiest.  I guess if you’re rich enough to hire people to worry about things for you, so you can focus on being “happy” that might be one example of being one of the world’s richest folks might work for you.

 

Personal growth, understanding the person in the mirror, makes me happy.  Each and every time I learn something about me, I am a little happier. There are few things that are in “your control.”  Getting a good education, understanding that knowledge is power is a great foundation for being happy.  Using that knowledge in a way that is consistent with “enlightened people” to me is a mark of wisdom.  Serving others, in some way that is consistent with who you are is another way to become happy.  I find that helping others takes my mind off of “self.” Looking at the bigger picture, one can appreciate the complexities of life and sort out the small stuff that should be in the noise, and not artificially elevated to demand your full attention.

 

This is a lot to chew on.  Questions and thoughts are always welcome.

 

-Best to you and those that you care about!

 

Yesterday, A simpler time.. #radio #vintage

Nostalgia is not lost on me.  To that end I truly enjoy bringing things back to life of the electronic type, that should have otherwise gone in the dumper.

Currently there are countless transistor radio’s that were dead and now work once again at least as good as they did new, and some of them probably better as materials are now better.  While the challenge of transistor radio’s is finding the parts; tube radio’s magnify that issue as no one is making new tubes for radio’s that I know of.

My latest project is this Tube Radio that I have had well over 30 years.  I bought this for next to nothing and of course it did not work.  If the case is in good shape and the parts are all there, that is about all I require.

The Radio is an Emerson 744B that was made in 1954.  It sold for $34.95 which, back then was a heap of money.

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Sadly there are many that will read this blog and not know what a tube is.  With that in mind I have taken pictures of my latest project and will “splain” a few things as we go.  The glass objects are tubes. These either are dead in the case of the rectifier tube or weak or leaky as with the rest.

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The tubes house a filament, some metal structures that emit and collect electrons as well as things that control the flow of the electrons.  Some house a thing called a “getter.” The Getters sole job is to collect and burn off any o2 that should get in by way of the pins.  The getter is coated with a chemical that accomplishes this.

The British refer to these “tubes” as “valves” and in actuality that is a much more accurate description as that is in essence how they work.

This is the audio output tube in action.  Notice the filament is glowing.

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Here is a top view of the radio in operation.

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Here is a bottom view of the radio showing the point to point electronic components.  If you know anything about electronics you will notice the modern parts that I have installed, replacing the parts that failed.

Back in the day, capacitors were expensive to manufacture so they would use just what they needed and nothing more in terms of capacitance.  Today that is not the case and with technology I was able to offer much more capacitance and higher working voltages to the circuit for around $6.

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One old .05 MFD capacitor is still in the radio and functioning so I left it.  The white square capacitors replaced two of the three .05 which are now .047.

The two modern electrolytics replaced the huge combination capacitor that some “purists” will actually disassemble and install the newer capacitors inside of it.  I know very few who are going to take the metal bottom off of the radio and look underneath to see the parts.  This radio sounds like a new one.

Here in North Texas we have a station that plays music from the era that this radio came from.  http://www.kaamradio.com/

Big  Band music I just never get tired of….   Anyway, this radio sounds great playing that station.

 

-Best to you and those that you care about..

 

Follow up to #Karma #Florida @theBlaze #Kimcommando

 

 

Trying to piece the puzzle together requires that you not only look and observe but, listen and observe with an open mind.

 Towards the end of the video right before the “finger gesture and subsequent wreck” is the piece of the puzzle so many are missing.

 

He passes her and tries to get around her.

 

She then speeds up “listen to the background noise, her motor speeds up.”  Do you really think it was slick roads that she was worried about as she now speeds up to…

a: Further aggravate him and

b: Make a video that is sure to go viral!

 

He then flips her off which I am not sure who of us at that point would not want to and, B: gets in front of her so she can no longer mess with him.

 

He did not cut her off as it has been suggested, look how far ahead of her he is. He was trying to get away from her. 

 

Because she has now pushed her speed up to try and catch him, he is now going way too fast!  

 

Human nature is that we want to blame the guy who showed her the bird and accept that the girl is innocent.  Examine all of the facts, not just the facts that you want to see and the picture becomes clear.   

A little more telling of her “intention and nature” is the fact that she stopped, laughed, taunted by yelling at him all the while taking video and then made sure that not only did the police have record so they could ticket him, but posted the parts of the video that made him look like the bad guy on YouTube.  In my humble opinion “she is not a nice person.”  This man should get a lawyer…

 

-Best

Watch as Man With Road Rage Gets Dose of ‘Instant Karma’

Yesterday I talked about Drivers..

 

Today I come across a video shot by a “lady” who shot video as a driver who was tailgating her and subsequently passed wrecked because he was driving badly.

 

On the surface, one would absolutely agree with the girl driving, until you examine all of the facts.

 

Watch the video and then come back for the discussion of the facts.

 

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/27/watch-as-man-with-road-rage-gets-dose-of-instant-karma/

 

The girl is driving in the left lane which is for passing only, in many states.  Common courtesy is to move out of someone’s way if you happen to be in the left lane and they want to get around you.

 

Her “excuse’s” are:

a: The road was slick so I was driving slow

b: I was going to make a left turn up ahead in a half mile

c: There was a truck in the right lane.

 

The driver indicts herself by showing her speedometer.  Clearly speed on a slick road was not her main concern.  She passes the truck and stays in the left lane keeping the man blocked by the truck and herself.  She is shooting video at the time so if the roads are truly that dangerous as she alleges; she is negligent and should be ticketed for distracted driving.

 

She alleges that she was being tailgated by this driver for 3 minutes.  If she was going to turn in half a mile; how long does it take to go half a mile at 50 plus miles and hour?  I will do the math for you, a little more than a minute, about 80 seconds…

 

After the driver finally gets around her, she speeds up to catch up to him to video more of him.  He then flips her off.  As he accelerates further to get away from this “person” by now traveling way too fast on these slick streets he wrecks out.  This wreck was her fault!  Had she not sped up to further aggravate this poor sole, he would have been fine!  He would have had a story to tell around the dinner table but he would not have a wrecked truck.  She could have caused someone to be hurt or worse!

 

The very next thing she does is laugh at his misfortune and stops to take further video. 

 

That’s not Karma folks… Call it what you will but that was not disserved.

 

There is one thing that stood out to me of importance. she has a bright yellow blazer in the left from seat.  She most likely is a “crossing guard” and was on her way home from assisting children getting across the road safely by doing what? “Directing traffic!”  My thinking is that she was indeed driving slow and in the left lane.  My guess is she was daydreaming or thinking about what she was doing until the kids get out of school and she has to return.

 

This guy pulled up behind her to entice her to move over to the slow lane.  I think she went back into “traffic directing mode, a self appointed governor of speed on dangerous roads”, as well as taking video to post on YouTube to see if it would go viral!  Because it is touted as this guy was in the wrong, and you don’t have all of the context or facts to see that she was indeed the perpetrator, you agree and laugh at the guy.

 

When he finally got around the truck in the right lane she then sped up to shoot further video of him knowing he was pissed by now as she had been taunting him for no less than three minutes, by her own admission!  He knew he was being screwed with “the victim” and shot her the finger.  I suspect had that been a guy he might have pulled him over and had a conversation of another kind.  Here in Texas that kind of crap might get you shot!  It would certainly not be the first time.

 

In my opinion and with the supporting evidence, her video and her documented actions, she is the villain, and I think if I were on a jury, I would convict her.

 

I think this gentleman has a good case that some lawyer should take.  It looks very much like this lady is a control freak and actually enjoyed keeping this driver behind her.  I would allege that she pissed the guy off to such an extreme that he acted as most would, showed her his feelings for her actions and then tried to get away from her!

 

I would make the argument that she is at fault for this entire disaster and if the police indeed ticketed the guy, they are asleep. They should re-examine the facts.

 

Another thing I found of interest here is, on this thread, you will notice that people treat people badly.  If you don’t agree with their opinion, they name call etc.  Why?  They can do this because they go by pseudo names that give them anonymity.  I can act badly and no one will know it was me.  I can be a jerk and feel good about myself by talking shit to others, and no one can do anything about it.

 

Folks, you are no better than the videographer taunting that guy.  She is a bully and by your truculent attitude towards your fellow posters that you disagree with, you too are being a bully!

 

The Blaze and other such boards that allow “pseudo names” should stop that practice and only allow you to post with your “real name.”  There is no excuse for being an ass because you can.  The human condition is appalling at times.  This video and the subsequent post are only a small example of how far we have fallen as a race. 

 

Would you cut in front of someone in line at a checkout in the store?  No, because you are not anonymous.  But you will go get into your car and cut off anyone to get ahead of them.  Do you see the problem here?  People will act badly if they don’t have accountability.

 

Practice what you preach and look a little deeper into things before you throw stones.  I would start by looking in the mirror.

 

I hope that this guy gets a copy of this video and gets an attorney.  I have little doubt that he would win.  It would actually be “KARMA” to Judge Judy this.  Bring the attention craving “videographer” to the national spot light!

 

I am not a fan of daytime TV however if this case were to go there, I would make a point to DVR it! 

 

Cheers!

 

Drivers Beware …

I am unsure if the stars are out of kilter, the moon is lined up incorrectly or if people are just out of sorts however; yesterday was a bad day for drivers in general.

Here in Texas; yesterday was a normal spring day by all accounts.  The weather was nice, mid 60’s and sunny, open window weather for most of us.

There were accidents where I usually don’t see them, which was odd.

While going to clients yesterday I just about had the opportunity to test the air bags as some young blond women in a red Mercedes, “nice car,” ran the light right in front of me!  She had a phone stuck to her ear and never saw me.  Even as I came to a screeching halt she never looked.  I shook my head and was thankful that my breaks worked so well.

My truck would have made a mess of her paint and might have scratched my bumper had a hit her.  Actually 7000 pounds at 30mph in the side of her car would have made a mess.  I wonder if she would have looked up then.

The Day was not over for idiotic drivers.  I had dinner plans which took me to an out of the way restaurant. While parking some guy started backing out of his spot and came close to backing in to me.  When I tooted my horn to alert him I could see him screaming at me “I guess” through his window.  He then waved the traditional one finger salute and sped off.

My only guess is that he is not a Texan, as we really are a little friendlier than that.  It was all his doing and I did not honk to be mean, just simply alert him that he was about to hit me.  “That is what they made the horn for.”  We are not talking a long horn blast either we are talking a “tap.”

 

They serve alcohol where I was going so I can only surmise that he had been drinking and his better judgment was impaired, or he is a jerk.

That is the reason for this “blog”..

As we guide our thousands of pounds of steel down the highways and roads we really need to be mindful that they are really “loaded guns.”  In a split second of indecision or distraction, we can take a life, if not our own, someone else’s.

While the girl in the Mercedes was not texting, she was clearly distracted.  If someone other than I was in that intersection that also was either not on their game or driving too fast or texting or otherwise distracted, thousands of dollars of damage would have ensued.  Damage to her personally could have happened and possibly me, as it would have been an abrupt stop.  I don’t know how solid a Mercedes passenger door is but, it might have triggered my air bags which would have sucked, because I heard that they hurt!

The guy that cussed me in the parking lot is another story.  People in Texas carry loaded guns.  An armed society is a polite society “don’t you know.”   You really don’t want to bring your “northern attitude” down to Texas and pick a fight.  WE DON’T SCREW AROUND HERE IN TEXAS!  Drive friendly or else!  If you decide to drink and drive and then come at a Texan with an Attitude, YOU WILL LOOSE! Our Prisons are full of your kind.  Be responsible if you come to Texas.  We will welcome you with open arms, if you are a jerk; you will not like it here.

About 25 years ago one day in November I was met head on with a guy driving a vintage Cadillac. His wife had just bought it for him as he whined about wanting another car because he had wrecked his previous car. “I learned this later on from her directly.”

 

We were on the freeway, I topped a hill and there he was, barreling down the road at over 60mph, on the wrong side of the freeway!

 

Friends, when you see something like this and you have exactly enough time to say “oh $hit!” followed by a large bang, your day gets ruined quickly!

 

In the few milliseconds between seeing him, and the subsequent crash, several things happened.

 

I quickly noticed a red truck beside me in the right lane, slammed on the breaks “locked up anti-lock breaks and actually bent the brake pedal, and then the crash.

 

Funny thing about a crash; time seemed to fragment. It was almost as if one were watching a movie in slow motion as the film went by, frame by frame.

 

My personal theory is time is like a frequency.  It has to do with gravity and motion and space and what have you but, the crash had somehow caused a ripple or harmonic.  Don’t know enough math to prove that; and I am certain that Michio Kaku could not come up with the equation either.  This is far past p=mv or F=ma.

I have heard that adrenaline causes this “effect.”  If adrenaline can cause “time distortions, ” than we have discovered how to slow down time.  While I am certain that there was a “shot of adrenaline we are talking about less than a second from seeing him there and the crash!

As we hit head on, the window beside me imploded.  Tiny pieces of glass tumbled horizontally in front of me to my right.  I remember vividly watching the glass tumble as past from left to right, I felt each piece bury itself in my face, arm and hands.  The steering wheel came in and crushed into my face and chest breaking my nose and most of  ribs and sternum. “That bone between the ribs up front.”

 

The dash came in, crushed into me knees and legs.  I distinctly remember the pain as my left leg was punched up under me, torquing my hips in such a way that the sacrum is twisted to this day.  This is how it happened and the order in which it happened, all in a split second.

There is a Star Trek Movie where Picard is with some gal who teaches him to “live in the moment.”  Friends, I think they got the idea for that from someone who has experienced this very phenomena, as that is exactly what it was like however; “and I stress this,” it was not pleasant!

I had just stopped at a service station before this and filled up not only my gas, but my stainless steel thermos full of coffee.  The thermos was sitting beside me.  As the truck went from 55mph to zero in about .025 seconds or less, the thermos tumbled down to the floor.  Little did I know at the time, the thermos had wedged itself between the firewall of the truck; and the frame of my seat!  I in fact have legs today because of that thermos and the fact that it was full of coffee.  Has something to do with hydraulics, if you are scratching you head.

As the truck came to a rest in the middle of the median, steam and Freon and what have you escaped from what used to be my engine which was now sitting underneath my seat.

The pain in my chest was unbelievable, and very soon after that, blood started coming out from everywhere, nose, mouth ears and of course where lots of glass was now buried up under my skin.

Very soon after that I began to loose my vision and figured well, this is it.  “Jesus, if this is your plan, I’m ready.”

I struggled with the seat belt, while I was still conscious thinking if I could get it off, the pain would subside and maybe, just maybe I could breath, no such luck.

There was no time for anger, or fear.  I was consigned to the fact that this was most likely it and I was waiting for the final “sting.”

Before too long, someone came to my door asking me if I was OK.  I turned my head to look at him, he had a camera and was evidently a free lance photographer.  As I spoke I remember blood escaping my mouth spurting, punctuated by my words, “no, I don’t think so.”

I must have looked a sight as the picture that made the front page of the local paper was of them taking me out of my truck..  For that I am thankful.

I remember watching as they took the old man out of his car and put him on a stretcher.  Not too long after that I heard loud sounds as they were cutting my door off of my truck and extracting me out of what was left of it.  As they laid me horizontally on that “board” my vision returned.  Hmm I thought, maybe he has another plan.

The man in the ambulance told me that he was going to stick me in the arm and it would hurt as it was an 18 gauge needle. The needle paled in comparison and quite frankly I was OK with it as if I felt it, I was still alive.  He told me they were putting “sugar water” in me… “Ok…..Fill er up…”I said as best I could!  He smiled as I said that, I knew that things were going to be ok…

The trip to the hospital was uneventful and before long I was being wheeled to some ER room.

The ER visit was terrible.  The doctor was summoned in from his day off.  He was wearing sports attire and clearly distressed that he was missing the game or what have you.  His bedside manners were terrible and quite frankly he sucked!

You know what they call the guy who graduates with the lowest grades from medical school, “Doctor.”

While there, a curtain divided me from the man who hit me.  He was drunk and later I learned he was on several medications that he should not have had alcohol with.  Oh yes, he was in his 80’s!

We had the perfect storm for a disaster and it struck.  He was not wearing a seat belt and because of his inebriated state only ended up with a small cut on his forehead which required a few stitches.

My care was abysmal.  After they took care of the old man they came “by they I mean an entourage of police, some “want to be doctor women” and the rude guy with the sports attire.” They ripped, cut my clothing off.  The paramedic was also there and the cop was telling the doctor that I did not have my seat belt on.  I told him that I had taken it off and he said “sure.”

I think that they somehow wanted this to be my fault, some how some way.

As my shirt was removed there was a huge purple stripe where the seat belt had cut into my skin through my clothes and across my belly.  The trooper was visibly upset as I think he wanted to write a ticket. I want to preface this next remark by saying that I have huge respect for law enforcement folks.  I know several and am friends with several.  I listen to the scanner, a lot, as I like to know what is going on that the press does not think is newsworthy.  Having said that, some cops are simply assholes!  The guy that caused this was on the other side of the curtain and he “the cop” was giving me shit…  I am laying there in pain, bleeding from everywhere, and this guy is looking for something to write me a ticket about or blame me in some way.

The “doctor” treated me like a cadaver flipping me over, was rather brutal and really did not take into account that most of my ribs were broken.  His final “test” was to stick a finger up my rear.  I really don’t know where he went to school but I can tell you that is probably the one place that it did not hurt.  Of course everyone watched the entire process.

You know my part in this; I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  God knew where I was so, I have to guess that all of this happened for a reason.

The old man had lived in this town his entire life and was most likely known; I was an outsider and relatively young so guess what “it just had to be my fault.”

Other than the sugar water they did nothing for me.  Other than leaving me naked on the table for all of the gawkers, nothing.  I was waiting for the doctor to start filling out a toe tag, as they were doing nothing!  I was in pain, probably scared although that the time I was more pissed than scared.  I worked in the Texas Medical Center for fifteen years.  I know what professional care is and I know what a real doctor does in a trauma situation.  This wasn’t it!

He finally ordered x-rays and a sonogram of my chest.  Finally, some orderly came along and gave me a wool blanket.  Someone had some compassion but not the people that should have.

It is cold in ICU and it was winter, and oh yes, they were pumping me full of something cold. “Sugar water.”  I guess it is “hummingbird therapy.”  Isn’t that what they eat, sugar water? Oh, and did I mention I was naked!  Beat all to hell, naked and shivering is a terrible combination.  I would imagine there was also a “shock factor” involved as well.

This was clearly the hospital without funding as the equipment was a joke; it would not stay in place and kept moving after the tech would place it.

Wheeling one around on a gurney, “which way are you looking?”  You look straight up, at the ceiling.  The ceiling had several brown stains from leaks and what have you.  How much mold do you suppose is loose in that hospital?  Folks, if you run a hospital, look at the damned ceiling once in a while.  This was the basement where the morgue and radiology was.  If the ceiling in the basement is stained with dark brown stains from leakage, what leaked?

The old man was released that day and I got to stay in ICU for about a week before I was moved to a room.  I did not sleep for 72 hours.  I entertained myself by using biofeedback techniques to alter my heart beat.  I once got it so slow I scared myself.  One of the leads came off and the monitor went to that “solid beep.”  Twenty two minutes later someone showed up running to my bed to check on the reason.  I had a solid beep for twenty two minutes before they noticed!  Now you know why I was afraid to sleep!

Some doctor (dentist I think) came and stitched up my lip where my teeth had come through, another came and tried to straighten my nose without any kind of pain management.  Huge forceps up the nose with this guy twisting on it, without so much as an aspirin.

They did not do anything for my pain as they were worried that it would adversely affect my heart which had been “bruised”.  I had to take little breaths as it hurt to breathe.  I could not turn my head because of vertigo.  I could not lift the sheets to pee as I could not lift my arms.  When they pump you full of saline solution you have to pee a lot.  I had to have help each and every time; you would have thought that they would have installed a catheter.

On the third day in ICU I asked to be cleaned up because even with the broken nose I could smell myself.  The busted glass was still in my hide, my body was still covered in blood and my beard / mustache was caked in blood.  The nurse said she would have to shave my face as there was no way to get blood out of my beard… REALLY?  I told her, whatever just please get me cleaned up; I was going to live and if I did not for some reason I damned sure did not want my next of kin to identify a blood covered corpse.

She never did anything.

Would you believe that it was not until I got into a room, days later and was able to take a shower was I able to get “cleaned up.”  I dug into my luggage, found my tweezers and dug the glass out of my arm and hands and face myself, after the shower!  A male nurse came in as I was finishing up to check on me.  There was enough blood from my digging out the glass he got concerned.  I told him to get me some bandages but he sent on the doctor anyway.  I had not seen the guy since the first day as there were other Erudite s to take his place.  He seemed visibly upset that I had taken the glass out of myself.  I am unsure if he was upset with me or the fact that it was still there.

The entire time I was there they kept asking me “what I was on.”  I guess they thought that I was on some sort of recreational chemistry and kept confronting me.  “No, don’t drink.  No, don’t do drugs…”  They had taken my blood several times a day for a week and yet they kept asking.  Had I been able, I would have walked the hell out of there, it was that bad!

By the end of my stay the doctor was treating me somewhat better as I guess he was finally sure that I was indeed “clean.”  They had collected blood and urine for several days, I guess he was satisfied. Maybe it took that long for the tox screen to come back!   If you are young it would seem that you are guilty of whatever they decide you might be guilty of..  Small Texas towns… Be wary… BTW, most small Texas towns are speed traps so don’t speed.  They depend upon giving tickets for revenue.  Now if you are from the north and have attitude, forget what I said and speed all you like.  You too can meet some “nice trooper who will address you as “boy or son ” and will have absolutely no use for wise ass remarks from Yankees! Heaven help you if you give them attitude!

The old man and I had the same insurance company so I was lucky to get my bills covered and get what was left of my truck payments covered.  She (claims person) argued about the cost of my cooler and camping supplies which were ruined.  Looking back, I think that was a distraction from the bigger picture.  Pain and suffering was not covered here.  Embarrassment and harassment from the locals was certainly not remunerated.

Oh and pain today as a result of this was and is not taken care of either…  Insurance is not for your benefit.  They sell it as if it is, but trust me, have a claim and you will learn.

When this type of thing happens; nothing good comes of it. I don’t know whatever happened with the guy that hit me, that was 23 years ago so I am in hopes that if he is still alive, that he is not driving.

Insurance claims and such have a life of 2 years.  Statute of limitations…

Guess what, after an accident like that, things happen much later in life as a result, like bone spurs and such, which cause pain.  You are never normal again after an event like that.

I drive a larger truck today and have little to do with small vehicles.  Screw the mileage; if I get had again I want the larger vehicle. I support MADD, and encourage everyone else to as well.  I don’t care if you drink, just don’t drive!

If you don’t have a “hands free device” get one, or simply call back, nothing is that important.  Oh yes, that bell alerting you that you have a text, ignore it if you are driving.  It can wait.  Too many times I see people texting and driving.  I know that they are doing something because they are weaving or their speed is erratic.  Upon closer inspection they are screwing around with the phone.  “I drive a truck, I can see.”

This inconsiderate old man changed my life forever.  I live in constant pain, and had to quite my job and re-invent myself because I could no longer do my job.  “Not compensated for that either BTW.”

Over 30% of all drivers on the road are impaired by either alcohol or prescriptions drugs or “recreational chemistry.”  Add to this statistic now we have distractions of people who think that they can drive and text, or what have you.

There is nothing smart about a smart car!  I would drive a tank if I could get one.

 

Actions have consequences… Be safe and courteous and if you are in Texas, don’t speed, drive and text and don’t drink and drive!

 

Best to you and those that you care about…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out of the box thinking continued…

After doing a little research on prisons, I have come to the conclusion that there are huge financial gains for “thinking outside the box” on this issue.

 The average cost to house a prisoner is $20k per year, give or take.  These include statistics in states where there is over crowding and states where there is not.

 http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/Price_of_Prisons_updated_version_072512.pdf

 What if we took all prisoners with non-violent offenses, although I would start with the 75 thousand non-violent drug offense inmates and made farmers out of them?  This could be their choice but, time off for good behavior while learning how to farm and become productive would be a win! Monitoring of them could be easier and less expensive with technology i.e. drones or proximity devices etc.  

The simple facts are that this cost “the tax payers” tons of money each year, both at a state and federal level.

If we were able to get the 75 thousand currently sitting in prison on non-violent drug offenses off the prison role and working on a farm being productive, that alone is $1.5Billion a year of tax money that could be used for something else.   

 Now how many are in prison for other non-violent offenses?

Factor into this the folks that are on welfare that can work and don’t, as well as the street folks who might want to take part in this, (comes with a place to live, heat and food.)

 Lets get them to grow staples that the country needs and then they all of the sudden are a “profit center” if you will.

 Between making a business out of housing criminals, entitlement spending and spending on aliens that are here illegally; tax payers bear one hell of a burden.  We really need some “out of the box thinkers” to address these problems.

 We really need some of these thinkers for the illegal alien issues here in this country.  I really hate to use that terminology for them.  If I lived there, I would do my best to come here as well.  While I would do my best to come through the front door, that is certainly a lot easier said than done.   Some of the basic arguments that I read are false however.  There are plenty of “white people” that will do those jobs.  There are plenty of “Americans” that will do those jobs.  To say that white people and or Americans are too lazy to do them is a blatant falsehood and offensive to me.  If you need work, you will do what you have to.  If the government is paying you not to work, well that is really the cruckst of it, isn’t it?  Who would dig ditches if the government will pay you stay home and watch The View or some other absolute mind-rotting nonsense?

 Propaganda comes in all shapes and sizes.  It comes from those that you “trust” on the nightly news, to shows from Disney with fuzzy little creatures.  Third world countries are not the only ones brainwashing their citizens.  While we can still get multiple views on certain topics, some countries have state run everything so the only “view” that they get is whatever the “government in power” wants them to have.

Currently we have the first amendment (free speech.) That however is under attack by the political correct police.  This needs to be stopped.  If what you say offends others let them not listen to you.  They have the right to not listen just like you have the right to make a complete and utter ass of yourself.  If I can control what you say under the guise of political correctness, than I can have free reign on a myriad of subjects and you cant say anything bad about.  Friends, that is not right and “UN-American!” 

The real trick is finding the multiple views as for some reason the media is in love “or in bed” with the progressives in this country.  I personally read news from all over the world as there is always something going on that other countries find newsworthy.  The BBC which is liberal is for the most part “right” of most of our media.

 It would be refreshing to have objective journalist again.  It would seem that the only time that they are tough on the government is when the GOP in charge.  I am not saying that the GOP is right, what I am saying is that we need objective standards in the media.  If the president drew a crowd of 5000 at some event, both FOX and CNN should say 5000, not “that there were only a few thousand” or “there were absolutely THOUSANDS that showed up for the event!”  Both statements are correct, and both are misleading. 

 There are thousands of folks out there “speaking of thousands” who have probably thought about these issues from time to time.  Let’s noodle this around a little and see what we can come up with.  Let’s have a little “enlightened conversation.”

-Best to you and those that you care about!

An Open letter to those that can make a change, “You.”

Today I want to talk about the uber poor.

 Currently there exist three classes of folks; The Rich, the middle class and the poor.  I would argue that there are more than this.  I would argue that there are five classes, the Uber rich, Rich, middle class, poor and very poor.

 Anyone with over a Billion dollars is Uber rich.  When you get into this club you have enough “gold” to make the rules.

 The rich are really just upper middle class as they cannot make the rules and must live by the ones created by the uber rich however; since they are in the upper middle class they know some of the folks who make the rules and can have influence.

Before you write me and tell me uber rich don’t make the rules, I know congress makes the laws / rules but I am also savvy to Avenue K and lobbyist and who hires them…

 I am skipping the middle class at the moment to jump to the poor. 

The poor have apartments, houses, cable TV, one or more televisions, at least one computer and have most likely figured out how to get enough government assistance or other “invisible income” to make up the difference between being poor instead of very poor.  I would argue that these folks are really middle class; they for a large part just pay taxes as if they were poor or living in poverty.

Then there are the very poor, they are street folks who live under bridges and basically exist on the benevolence of others, charitable organizations or what they can find on their own.

 Now we have the middle class.  These are the folks that strive to be upper middle class or rich and really have too much pride to be anything else.  These are the people that get up every day and go to work whether they feel good or not.  These are the folks that take two jobs, take their kids to soccer, and do all of the other stuff that most do but they are driven to press on, to get ahead, to give their kids a “chance” at something better than what they have.

 Some would argue that their eye might not be on giving their kids something better but on having more “do dads, or gadgets” or trying to keep up with the millionaires.

These are also the folks who have little to no control over the rules.  These are the folks that try to vote for the right person, do the PTA thing, and use whatever influence they have to make a difference.

 These are also the folks who are most taken advantage of, not only by the rich and uber rich, but the poor as well. These are the folks who the 9000 pages of tax code screw the most because they don’t have enough power to anything about it!

 These are the folks who get the Cable, satellite radio, cell phones with data plans and other do dads to fill voids in their lives that life quite frankly is not fulfilling.  These are the folks who have the “universal fees” taken out of their ass-pocket, not knowing that they are one of the government’s ways of redistributing wealth!

 I was in a park not long ago.  While there, a guy, “street person” walked by me.  He smelled bad and was a good distance from me.  That is not however what got my attention.  He was talking on a cell phone.  He was in fact calling 911 because one of his fellow street people had taken his trash bag full of stuff or so he alleged.  I am certain that the local police were really happy that this gentleman was able to call 911 with his “emergency.”

This is the uber poor or poorest of the poor.  Not only is he relegated to living on the street, carrying his stuff in a trash bag but, he has no support system.  Even though this is Texas it still gets cold in the winter.  Instead of getting these people phones, would they not be better served with some other assistance?  Let’s start with clean dry clothes and a warm place to sleep and some warm food.  Let’s get them some medical care, including mental health.  Let’s teach them what constitutes and emergency.  While I am certain that was an emergency to him, that call could very well take away from a real life and death situation. There are other numbers for non emergency stuff and that should be the number he used. Truth be told if he had called sanitation he most probably would have learned that they pick up and discard full trash bags left alone.

Some folks are there on the street because that is where they want to be, I get that.  Some are there because of mental illness.  Some are there because they have no training to get a job or are wrapped up in some sort of substance abuse problem and waiting to hit “true bottom.” Some are undoubtedly there because of “shit happens.“

These folks don’t need a cell phone or internet, they need help!  There is no money to be made in helping these folks however; giving them something tangible like a cell phone and allowing them to vote without a picture ID makes perfect sense to the government, and creates “more useful idiots.”

 The purpose of this diatribe is to offer a solution to the problem.  Unlike Washington and the uber greedy, I think outside the box.  So, take that cell phone money and cable TV money and all of those other “universal fees” that Carter started, Clinton pushed through and Obama expanded upon and do this.

 Set aside government land outside of large cities that is “farm worthy.”  Enlist faith based groups, and other groups like habitat for humanity and set these folks up farms. 

I am not talking about buying $150K tractors, just land and some modest accommodations and some hand tools while they make it a working business.  A mule pulling a plow worked for our forefathers, maybe that could be located until they could earn their own stuff.  Using the habitat for humanity model, they must put in sweat equity…  I would say they must stay clean, pass drug test etc but that is just common sense, isn’t it?

 Farming is not rocket science but, it is becoming a lost art.  Kids today who grow up on the farm are leaving it at alarming rates.  Involve the Aggies in teaching these folks the principles of farming.  As the population continues to grow, does it not make sense that we could use some more farmers?

 Offer this to the street people that don’t want to be on the street.

Offer this to the poor and downtrodden trapped in desperate situations; in neighborhoods that are virtual war zones with drug and gang activity.  Offer them a way out, a hand up.

 Find leaders among these people to self police themselves. Assist these folks to regain some sense of self worth. 

 First, get them medical help including mental and drug rehab.  Part of that is learning how to farm.  They can learn to farm, run a business and sell their product on the markets.  Subsequently they can make profits and purchase tractors and what have you.  If they could just feed themselves, that would be a huge win! It would be a “shot!”

I would also offer these types of programs to the 75 thousand currently in prison for non-violent drug offenses. Put ankle monitors on them and give them a chance to re-deem themselves.  Prison is no place to “rehabilitate oneself.”  Prison is a good place to learn how to be a smarter criminal. What if we had them help the others to become something more than a lost soul.

 If we could get 75 thousand out of prison which the American people are currently paying to house,feed and manage, as well as help the poor to re-gain their lives and self worth, would this not be “giving them a shot” Mr. President?  Would this not be “spreading the wealth,” in a way that makes sense?  

Wealth is not just money Mr. President, it is knowledge.  If I give poor people money and phones and other stuff I am enabling the poor to stay poor and in effect, I am crippling them.  I am giving them a handout, instead of a hand up!  All they learn is how to take.. Kennedy said, “ask what you can do” (paraphrased) Should we not teach them to fish?

 If I take currently non-productive people and give them a sense of purpose; is that not giving them a shot?  

Instead of kicking this can down the road people, we need to take ownership of it and make it our problem; instead of our grandchildren’s’.  We need more givers than takers and it starts now.

There are smarter people out there than I, and possibly with enough “think tank” collective from the American people, maybe something good can happen.  We have enough bad things on the news each and every day, it is time for something good, don’t you think?

Here is the challenge to you the readers.  I am not trying to get anything out of this.  This is my way of giving back. Writing a letter to the white house would end up in file 13…the bin.  One voice in the wind is one voice.  I need millions of voices.  The only way that this has a chance is to re-blog, re-post, re-tweet and make it as viral as possible.  If enough read it, someone with some “influence” will get this to the right person or people. Maybe some Hollywood type that is tired of his or her tax dollars going to keep non-violent drug offenders locked up might think outside the box as well.

Let’s give this administration a positive way that they can “fundamentally transform this country in a good way” by teaching those that need help, how to help themselves.

Yes there are details that need sorting out and I would offer that private citizens do it.  Maybe, just maybe some benevolent Capitalist might have some good ideas or contacts, or a way to help.  If the government gets involved too heavily with the details, we will have another 9000 pages of tax code, 60 thousand earmarks, amendments creating turtle tunnels in the tundra, and nothing will ever happen to help these people.  This process needs to be streamlined and someplace like Detroit might make a good pilot as that place “like Chicago” is a war-zone.

These kids need an out and learning how to take from the government is not it.  Learning how to not get shot walking to school, or how to look innocent in a lineup is not what they need to be learning.

This would also work at the state level.  How about it Mr. Perry, can you make this work and show the Country /World how Texans take care of things?

 

Some prisons have farms already, are some of those inmates candidates to teach others?

 

-Best to you and those that you care about, now get reposting… Thanks!

The Ubiquitous Wall Wart

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For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term “wall wart” it is simply a slang term for external power supply’s that hang out of the outlet.  The power supply has evolved over the years from being something external to the apparatus to be powered, cabled to same with large cables.

 

As technology “evolved” the power supply was integrated into the apparatus and a simple cord connecting it to the AC line was all that was needed.

 

After even more “evolution” the power supply went external again on some apparatus’s in the form of a wall wart.

 

It was during this time the wall wart was blamed for starting fires.  Many firefighters attributed the source of combustion to the wall wart.

 

Early wall warts were not fused or if they were the fuses were defective.  I still vividly remember smelling something “like hot plastic,”  finding a wall wart going to a radio was melted, very hot and still pumping out energy into a short length of cable that the cat had chewed on causing a short.

 

These power supplies still use energy even if the apparatus is powered off.  Those “green” people will tell you to unplug them when not in use as they waste energy.  I would tell you to unplug them simply because “in my opinion” they are still a fire hazard.

 

Unplugging them can be a pain in the rear as often times they are buried behind something etc.  To this I would encourage you to get a power strip that you could turn off the whole thing when not in use rather than trying to plug and unplug every time you wanted to use the device.

 

Case in point.  My phone stopped working.  When I did my “electronic technician thing” I discovered that the wall wart was dead.

 

Finding a similar wall wart today has not been successful.  It is a 7.5 volt with a current rating of a 1000ma.  The real trick is finding one with a 90 degree bend in the plug as to fit into the bottom of the base.

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Looking at the wall wart “I dissected it,” the failure was a capacitor that failed.  This should not be any surprise to those of us who work with electronics as there is a raft of faulty capacitors in the marketplace which are responsible for the early demise of many many things!  From computer power supplies to flat screen TV’s to just about any electrical device made in China.  Read all about that subject here. http://www.badcaps.net/

 This too made a smell which alerted me to the fact that something was awry.  The interesting part of this is the internal fuse did not blow.  Had I not been home and smelled the “hot smell,” would my house still be here?

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Because it is in an airtight container one has to think that any flame would have not had the oxygen to burn and eventually the fuse might have blown or the circuit breaker to the receptacle might have tripped.  The short answer is “we just don’t know.”

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Looking at the device you can see that they have dropped the 120V to 12V with a large 10ohm resistor.  From there they have rectified it, regulated it and I would guess cleaned up the dc and even the AC with a few small components.  You will note the top of the capacitor is puffed up which is a clear sign that it is defective.  You will also note that the board is discolored where the devices got hot when the capacitor failed.

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All Wall Warts are not the same!

 

I frequently am asked by different people to repair some small appliance.  I enjoy doing it so it is not much of a burden.  More often than not I am brought the device that no longer works with a wall wart that is not the correct wall wart for the device!

 

Looking at the back of the apparatus you will notice that there is just about always a picture or depiction of the place that the wall wart plugs into the unit.  That depiction will usually have the voltage and current required as well as the polarity of the plug.

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Back not too long ago it was anyone’s guess if the center was positive or negative and, the information about the voltage, current or even if it were AC or DC was just not there.

 

Looking at this early wall wart “from the 70’s” you will note that it is small in size and has a plug on it that when inserted into the radio momentarily is greeted with a short.  This type of plug should not be used for power.  This charger is rated at 9volts dc with just a few mils of current.  The reason for this is it was designed not to run the radio but to charge the batteries inside it.  While the radio that this goes to is otherwise a good radio this is a poor design.  Admiral would have been far better off to include the power supply inside the radio capable of running the radio as well as charging the batteries instead of using this, (which was a cheap alternative.)  Also note that the plug is broken and should be repaired before use.  Interesting to note: this supply is not regulated and in fact cranks out 21volts DC with no load.   

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With older devices I have to check before simply plugging in some sort of power source as some of the older radios that I mess with were made before any standards were envisioned.

 

Some manufactures made positive the ground, which makes an interesting troubleshooting exercise for those of us who are used to negative as the ground.

 

We all end up with a box of these wall warts before too long and often times they are not labeled as to what they went with.  My guess would be that the manufacturer of the device purchased power supplies from some vendor that would work with their device and a host of others.

 

It is a good idea to label what device that wall wart came with if it is not so labeled on the power supply itself.  I have seen some use a silver Sharpe to label them which is a great idea!

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Things to note when looking at your apparatus and trying to match up the wall wart.  Voltage required, Current required, size and type of connector, polarity if DC, or is it AC?

 

If you have cats you might want to examine the wires from time to time as some cats or other critters like chewing on cords.  For people in this predicament wrap your wires in “spaghetti.”   No not pasta but something called spaghetti which is a tough plastic coiled covering designed to keep all the wires together and neat.  It also deters small critters from chewing on them.  Larger critters may need better solutions like Panduit. I have found some of these things at IKEA.  Electrical Supply houses are another good bet and of course there is always eBay.

 

I would be remiss not to mention your smoke alarm at this point as many of us loose some ability to smell as we age, or have a cold, or what have you.

 

Feel of your wall warts from time to time, warm is normal, hot is not!  Some power supplies for laptops get too warm for my taste, but I think they would tell you it is normal.  If in doubt, have it checked out.  Safe rather than sorry is not a shabby way to live your life.

 

Look under the desk from time to time and examine your wires and cords to make sure that they have not been cut by the chair rolling over them or some other heavy object sitting on them.  This is especially true of your children’s room.  I was in a house doing some computer work when I noticed that there was probably 30 plus amps of current being taken out of one wall receptacle.  The wires under the desk looked like a bowl of spaghetti “the eating kind” and there were heavy objects sitting on the wires along with them being under the rollers of the chair.

 Wall receptacles in most houses are not made for this type of use.  The bedroom may be on one 15 amp breaker and the outlets wired with number 14 wire; which is basically made for lighting.  These are all things to look at when putting computers in bedrooms.  The good news is that again technology is becoming more efficient and less current is used with newer devices than older.  It is still something to talk with an electrician about if you have the slightest cause for concern.  The simple fact that this kids breaker did not blow for his room really bothered me in that he had a gaming machine, three monitors and a plasma TV… Add to this the stereo, lights,fans, guitar amp and other electrical things other than this being one spoiled child there was simply too much in that room for what the circuit should have been able to provide.

Feel the outlet covers, are they warm?  They should not be….

 

-Best to you and those that you care about!