This blog posts about aviation, automobiles, electronics, programming, politics and such other subjects as catch my interest. The blog is based in northern New Hampshire, USA
Monday, November 7, 2016
FBI Director Comey says there is nothing in the Weiner computer emails
This is the 600,000 odd emails found on Anthony Weiner's computer. How in the name of all that's holy can anyone, any gang of agents look at 600,000 emails in eight days? That's 75000 emails a DAY. Maybe the FBI had a computer program scan them looking for keywords? That sounds sorta flaky. Any how, the FBI director said he wasn't going to prosecute Hillary again last night.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Man vs Clocks Going back to Standard Time
So, this morning I did the clock reset thing. First my wrist watch, that's easy, just turn the knob. Then the clock radio. Not too bad, has a button marked "clock set" and a couple of arrow buttons. Now things get sticky. Antique Tiffany mantle clock, inherited from my long dead grandmother. Gotta be a hundred years old. I've been told you NEVER push the hands of such a clock backward, it breaks things and/or seriously confuses the hour striking mechanism. So I stop the pendulum swinging with my fingers, wait an hour, and restart the pendulum. And then we check the cell phone. Wonderbar, cell phone has automatically gone to standard time, hands off, no tinkering required. Wonder how cell phone managed that trick. Does the internal program have the dates of Daylight time burned in it? If so, does it still work after the Congresscritters change the dates again? Or does the cell phone home base broadcast a "Change clock now" signal to every cell phone in the land?
Then the VCR. Not that I use it much anymore, but it's still there. I find it is showing standard time. I guess I never bothered to set it on daylight time. It's a yard sale machine, with a remote picked up at a different yard sale.
And desktop, still running old but fast and trusty XP, made the change automatically.
Shortly I will go down to the garage and tangle with the car clock. Last time I had to dig the car manual out of the glove compartment to figure out how to set the car clock.
If I had my druthers, we would stay on Daylight time all year. We don't have enough sunlight in winter to give us light for both the drive to work and the drive home. Druther drive to work in the dark, when I am fairly rested, and have some coffee in me, and get a virtuous feeling of getting up early, than drive home in the dark, tired, and feeling like it's midnight cause it's black everywhere. Depressing that is.
Then the VCR. Not that I use it much anymore, but it's still there. I find it is showing standard time. I guess I never bothered to set it on daylight time. It's a yard sale machine, with a remote picked up at a different yard sale.
And desktop, still running old but fast and trusty XP, made the change automatically.
Shortly I will go down to the garage and tangle with the car clock. Last time I had to dig the car manual out of the glove compartment to figure out how to set the car clock.
If I had my druthers, we would stay on Daylight time all year. We don't have enough sunlight in winter to give us light for both the drive to work and the drive home. Druther drive to work in the dark, when I am fairly rested, and have some coffee in me, and get a virtuous feeling of getting up early, than drive home in the dark, tired, and feeling like it's midnight cause it's black everywhere. Depressing that is.
Friday, November 4, 2016
Can we believe the polls?
Good question. Especially as the wall-to-wall TV coverage of the election consists mostly of reading the latest poll over the air. That's why newsies love elections, they are so easy to cover, you don't need to know anything, you don't have to get out of the office and talk to people, you just read the poll results over the air.
Longish piece in the Wall St Journal over the difficulties of the pollsters in this cell phone age. The Journal says that a special law passed back in 1991 forbids the use of demon dialers on cell phone numbers. For a pollster to call a cell phone number, he has to hand dial the number. Which is slow. So all the pollsters prefer to call real wired phones. But, the Journal says that most of the people who answer the wired phones are over 65, which is not very representative. I can believe this, none of my three grown children has a wired phone. To add insult to injury, a large number of people just hang up the phone when they hear it is a pollster. I can believe that too. I have done a bit of political phone banking over the years. Used to be, the voters were sort of pleased to receive a call from the party and would talk to you about politics and stuff. Not any more. Now a days, they just hang up as soon as they learn who you are.
So the pollsters have trouble reaching a representative sample of voters. They compensate by "weighting" the sample they do manage to get. "Weighting" is adjusting the results based on past experience, or hunch, or voodoo. Actually it is surprising that they do as well as they do. And they have missed trends, like Brexit completely.
So, it might be worthwhile watching the election results come in next Tuesday. There might be a November Surprise for all of us.
Longish piece in the Wall St Journal over the difficulties of the pollsters in this cell phone age. The Journal says that a special law passed back in 1991 forbids the use of demon dialers on cell phone numbers. For a pollster to call a cell phone number, he has to hand dial the number. Which is slow. So all the pollsters prefer to call real wired phones. But, the Journal says that most of the people who answer the wired phones are over 65, which is not very representative. I can believe this, none of my three grown children has a wired phone. To add insult to injury, a large number of people just hang up the phone when they hear it is a pollster. I can believe that too. I have done a bit of political phone banking over the years. Used to be, the voters were sort of pleased to receive a call from the party and would talk to you about politics and stuff. Not any more. Now a days, they just hang up as soon as they learn who you are.
So the pollsters have trouble reaching a representative sample of voters. They compensate by "weighting" the sample they do manage to get. "Weighting" is adjusting the results based on past experience, or hunch, or voodoo. Actually it is surprising that they do as well as they do. And they have missed trends, like Brexit completely.
So, it might be worthwhile watching the election results come in next Tuesday. There might be a November Surprise for all of us.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
NH Senate debate on WMUR
We have Republican incumbent Senator Kelly Ayotte going up against Democratic Governor Maggie Hassan. First issue discussed was cyber security. Both candidates managed to speak for several minutes on this issue without ever mentioning the name of the cyber security problem, namely Windows. Any Windows computer connected to the internet can be secretly taken over, everything on its hard drive transferred to the attackers, malware emailed to every address in the victim's address book, keylogger installed to capture all the victim's passwords, and DDOS attack software installed. Plus other bad stuff.
Windows is so riddled with security holes as to be unfixable. If you want any security at all, you must run something else, Linux or Apple.
Anyhow neither senatorial candidate seemed to be aware of this.
Windows is so riddled with security holes as to be unfixable. If you want any security at all, you must run something else, Linux or Apple.
Anyhow neither senatorial candidate seemed to be aware of this.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Obama is on TV trashing the Donald for not paying enough taxes
Obama, your IRS has audited the Donald every year of your administration. They didn't find anything wrong with his tax returns. If The Donald ain't paying enough taxes to suit you, your IRS was OK with it.
Will this endless election actually end next week?
Lord I hope so. But it might not. The polls are very tight, the election could go either way, or worse, deadlock. That would throw the election into the US House of Representatives. Where the current Republican majority ought to be able to elect Trump. Even after they vote by states, one vote per state, as required by the 12th amendment, which was passed after the disputed Adams/Jefferson election of 1804.
Or it goes to the Supremes. Last time (2000) the Supremes had a 5 to 4 conservative majority. This time, since the death of Justice Scalia, the court is split 4-4. The Supremes are as partisan as all the other Washington pols, and so would be unable to reach a decision. What happens after that is any one's guess.
The newsies like elections. They are simple, horse races, and even the dimmest newsie can find things to saw that don't make him/her sound too dumb. So they will do what they can to keep this one going. That's essier for them than starting up the coverage of the 2020 election, which the newsies would otherwise do a couple of days after the polls close next week. We will surely hear more about Hillary's email and the FBI, whether she wins or looses. If she wins, the constant harping on the emails won't help her. If Trump wins, the newsies will settle down to harassing him for his entire term.
And, the voters on the loosing side are going to be unhappy, and stay unhappy. If you believe the polls, that's gonna be about half the country. Can the winner find anything to do or say to ease that unhappiness?
Or it goes to the Supremes. Last time (2000) the Supremes had a 5 to 4 conservative majority. This time, since the death of Justice Scalia, the court is split 4-4. The Supremes are as partisan as all the other Washington pols, and so would be unable to reach a decision. What happens after that is any one's guess.
The newsies like elections. They are simple, horse races, and even the dimmest newsie can find things to saw that don't make him/her sound too dumb. So they will do what they can to keep this one going. That's essier for them than starting up the coverage of the 2020 election, which the newsies would otherwise do a couple of days after the polls close next week. We will surely hear more about Hillary's email and the FBI, whether she wins or looses. If she wins, the constant harping on the emails won't help her. If Trump wins, the newsies will settle down to harassing him for his entire term.
And, the voters on the loosing side are going to be unhappy, and stay unhappy. If you believe the polls, that's gonna be about half the country. Can the winner find anything to do or say to ease that unhappiness?
Tuesday, November 1, 2016
WMUR (channel 9) TV NH governor's debate.
On one side we have Democrat Colin Van Ostern. Colin is in favor of building commuter rail, offering universal prekindergarten, funding alternate energy, signing up for Medicaid expansion. He is against the Northern Pass power line project. When asked how he plans to pay for all this goodness Colin claimed that he could do cost savings in NH state government which would be enough. Right. He did have enough political sense to say he would not put in a state income tax or state sales tax. " He took the pledge" as we say up here. Only smart thing he said all night.
Chris Sununu talked about trying to bring more business into NH, something we need. He is against commuter rail, pointing out that the $350 million for commuter rail would finish the widening of I93 and fix every worn out highway bridge in the state. He said that "alternate energy" merely raises every one's electric bills.
They both agreed that NH needs better mental health and drug therapy facilities.
None of the newsies on the panel had the stones to ask about right to work.
Chris Sununu talked about trying to bring more business into NH, something we need. He is against commuter rail, pointing out that the $350 million for commuter rail would finish the widening of I93 and fix every worn out highway bridge in the state. He said that "alternate energy" merely raises every one's electric bills.
They both agreed that NH needs better mental health and drug therapy facilities.
None of the newsies on the panel had the stones to ask about right to work.
Alley Cat Appreciation Month
We are in it. Although "Alley cat" is non PC. The PC word is feral cat. Seen a couple of pieces in the Wall St Journal, lotta posts on the 'Net. All saying nice things about alley cats. I met my first real alley cats when youngest son went to college in Brooklyn. They made me feel sorry for them. Skinny, grubby, coats in poor condition, living outdoors in a New York winter, it was clear that house cats have a much better life than alley cats.
There was a piece in the Journal about keeping feral cats around the Jacob Javits center to keep the rats in check. Nice color picture of a loading dock with a nice looking black and white cat on it. Except, that cat looked more like a house cat than an alley cat. It was well fed, it's coat was fine and glossy, it was sitting in the middle of the loading dock. Alley cats remain in corners, under cars, outta sight, they don't plunk themselves down in the open to get their pictures taken.
Then a nice puff piece on alley cats made it onto my facebook page this morning.
There was a piece in the Journal about keeping feral cats around the Jacob Javits center to keep the rats in check. Nice color picture of a loading dock with a nice looking black and white cat on it. Except, that cat looked more like a house cat than an alley cat. It was well fed, it's coat was fine and glossy, it was sitting in the middle of the loading dock. Alley cats remain in corners, under cars, outta sight, they don't plunk themselves down in the open to get their pictures taken.
Then a nice puff piece on alley cats made it onto my facebook page this morning.
There has gotta be something wrong
With a national political party going thru TWO party chair women in just one election season. First they had to dump Debbi Wasserman Schultz over her work against The Bern in the primaries. Now they dump Donna Brazille for feeding debate questions to Hillary. How do the Democrats select their chair persons?
Monday, October 31, 2016
FBI shrinks from getting their hands dirty
According to Fox last night, the FBI got a search warrant for the Weiner/Adebin laptop. I assume they were investigating the charges against Weiner for sexting a minor. After a WEEK, the laptop was turned over. Hell, give me just an hour and every single bit on the hard drive goes bye-bye for good. After looking thru the laptop the FBI discovered a deep pool of really ugly mud. To avoid going for a swim in filth, the FBI decided they needed another search warrant to look into it. They must have been hoping the courts would be slow. Well the second search warrant turned up in time for the election.
For me, the take out is : ONE search warrant is all you need to search ONE laptop. The FBI was stalling, hoping the matter would go away.
Afterthought: They are now saying the laptop has 650,000 emails on it. Best I can think, they backed up Hillary's server onto the laptop. And that's a lot of emails. That's 445 emails a DAY, for the four years Hillary was Secretary of State.
For me, the take out is : ONE search warrant is all you need to search ONE laptop. The FBI was stalling, hoping the matter would go away.
Afterthought: They are now saying the laptop has 650,000 emails on it. Best I can think, they backed up Hillary's server onto the laptop. And that's a lot of emails. That's 445 emails a DAY, for the four years Hillary was Secretary of State.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
The economy is most important issue.
Why? Because with a strong economy all other things become possible. With a strong economy everyone can find a job, and the 10% of the working age population that doesn't have a job, or can't find full time work, or is on the official unemployment rate will all have jobs. And they will pay taxes instead of absorbing welfare bennies. Boosting tax revenue by 10% would do good things for the deficit, and provide money for all sorts of social bennies, better schools, more infrastructure, maternity leave, you name it, money makes it all possible. A strong growing economy throws off money like a tree shedding its leaves in the fall.
A strong economy reduces crime. It employs people. The unemployed have the time and motivation to do a little burglary, deal some drugs, steal a few cars. Put 'em to work and we will have less crime.
A strong economy improves civilian morale. When the economy is strong people feel better about life in general 'cause they no longer worry about loosing their jobs.
A strong economy gives the muscle needed to deal with Islamic crazies, Vladimir Putin, the NORKS, and the rest of them. Remember WWII, our economy won that one. Starting from scratch the American economy poured forth the war material, aircraft, tanks, rifles, av gas, rations, army trucks, and nuclear weapons that doomed the enemy. American av gas fueled the RAF for the Battle of Britain. Dodge army trucks and LL Bean shoepaks made the Red Army mobile. British troops drove American Sherman tanks to victory at El Alamain. Our economy was efficient and strong enough to keep running at the wartime pace even after 10 million men were taken out the economy and enlisted in the armed forces.
The economy has to grow 3% a year just to keep up with population growth. It has to grow to offer jobs to each year's crop of new high school and college grads. Obama has failed in this. Under Obama economic growth has been 1.5% instead of 3%. That's why so many new grads are still living at home and playing video games, they can't find jobs.
We need a new president who will make the economy grow. Open up all federal lands, and offshore waters to oil exploration. Restrain the NIMBYs and BANANAs who are stopping every sort of construction. Close tax loopholes and reduce the rates to keep business from fleeing the country. Shut down the patent trolls. Repeal Obamacare. Repeal most of Obama's business killing regulations. Stop pouring good money into greenie "alternate energy" ratholes.
A strong economy reduces crime. It employs people. The unemployed have the time and motivation to do a little burglary, deal some drugs, steal a few cars. Put 'em to work and we will have less crime.
A strong economy improves civilian morale. When the economy is strong people feel better about life in general 'cause they no longer worry about loosing their jobs.
A strong economy gives the muscle needed to deal with Islamic crazies, Vladimir Putin, the NORKS, and the rest of them. Remember WWII, our economy won that one. Starting from scratch the American economy poured forth the war material, aircraft, tanks, rifles, av gas, rations, army trucks, and nuclear weapons that doomed the enemy. American av gas fueled the RAF for the Battle of Britain. Dodge army trucks and LL Bean shoepaks made the Red Army mobile. British troops drove American Sherman tanks to victory at El Alamain. Our economy was efficient and strong enough to keep running at the wartime pace even after 10 million men were taken out the economy and enlisted in the armed forces.
The economy has to grow 3% a year just to keep up with population growth. It has to grow to offer jobs to each year's crop of new high school and college grads. Obama has failed in this. Under Obama economic growth has been 1.5% instead of 3%. That's why so many new grads are still living at home and playing video games, they can't find jobs.
We need a new president who will make the economy grow. Open up all federal lands, and offshore waters to oil exploration. Restrain the NIMBYs and BANANAs who are stopping every sort of construction. Close tax loopholes and reduce the rates to keep business from fleeing the country. Shut down the patent trolls. Repeal Obamacare. Repeal most of Obama's business killing regulations. Stop pouring good money into greenie "alternate energy" ratholes.
Saturday, October 29, 2016
Musta been a lotta heat.
After FBI director Comey let Hillary off last month, it must have taken a hell of a lotta heat to make him change his tune, in public, so close to the election. I've heard that a lot of FBI people are still mad about letting Hillary off. Maybe something really juicy turned up, and Comey had to fess up or they would leak it. Certainly most Republicans, especially the ones in Congress, were unhappy about letting Hillary off. The ones in Congress can make trouble for the FBI when budget time comes around.
There is talk that what ever it was turned up during the investigation of Anthony Weiner for sexting a teenage girl. Weiner clearly has some kind of psychological hangup. Some how, Huma Abedin, Hillary's close advisor, married the guy, and even had a child with him. Make you wonder about Huma, how smart is she really, if she couldn't figure out that Weiner was a screwball. And how smart is Hillary to rely on a woman who isn't very bright as a close advisor?
And how did the FBI get their hands on what ever it is? On Huma's computer? Hillary should have given Huma some lessons about wiping hard drives clean. Let's guess that "it" is an email from Hillary. A lot of the stuff Hillary wiped off her server must have been emails to Huma. And the FBI found them still on Huma's computer?
Come on FBI, let us see the dirt too. It's selfish to hog all the mud to yourselves.
There is talk that what ever it was turned up during the investigation of Anthony Weiner for sexting a teenage girl. Weiner clearly has some kind of psychological hangup. Some how, Huma Abedin, Hillary's close advisor, married the guy, and even had a child with him. Make you wonder about Huma, how smart is she really, if she couldn't figure out that Weiner was a screwball. And how smart is Hillary to rely on a woman who isn't very bright as a close advisor?
And how did the FBI get their hands on what ever it is? On Huma's computer? Hillary should have given Huma some lessons about wiping hard drives clean. Let's guess that "it" is an email from Hillary. A lot of the stuff Hillary wiped off her server must have been emails to Huma. And the FBI found them still on Huma's computer?
Come on FBI, let us see the dirt too. It's selfish to hog all the mud to yourselves.
Friday, October 28, 2016
Heat makes light
The blockbuster announcement by the FBI today that they are re opening the Hillary email case is a result of heat applied to the FBI. Enough heat will make some light.
Old USAF Cliche
"Any landing you can walk away from is a GOOD landing." I never really appreciated this cliche until the time we ground looped in a Gooney bird at Takli Thailand. We passengers were VERY appreciative and we all shook the pilot's hand.
Betcha Mike Pence understands the old cliche now.
Betcha Mike Pence understands the old cliche now.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Rail vs Air travel?
Europe and Japan take great pride in their high speed passenger rail. I've been to both places, ridden the trains, and they are slick. You board the trains in the center of town, no $100 cab ride to the airport, and you get a fine view of the passing countryside, and they drop you off in the center of town, where you can walk or take the subway to your hotel.
Why don't we have trains as nice in America? Simple, the US is too big, train takes too long to get anywhere. When I had business on the west coast, I could board a jet liner at Logan and be in California before lunch. That's 3000 miles at 600 mph. Even a science fiction 300 mph train would take all day. A practical 21st century high speed train (150 mph) would take a day and a night.
The only place in America with cities close enough for train travel to compete with air is the Boston-Washington corridor up the east coast. And, we have Acela, a medium high speed train. Not as fast as the French TGV or the Japanese Hikari superexpress, but fast enough. Acela can do the Boston New York run fast enough beat airline time, you can skip the taxi to the airport and the hour to get thru security. Funny thing, Acela fares are higher than airline fares.
Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown out in California is trying for high speed rail the length of California. It's gonna cost billions. Real passengers will fly anyhow. Good luck California taxpayers.
Why don't we have trains as nice in America? Simple, the US is too big, train takes too long to get anywhere. When I had business on the west coast, I could board a jet liner at Logan and be in California before lunch. That's 3000 miles at 600 mph. Even a science fiction 300 mph train would take all day. A practical 21st century high speed train (150 mph) would take a day and a night.
The only place in America with cities close enough for train travel to compete with air is the Boston-Washington corridor up the east coast. And, we have Acela, a medium high speed train. Not as fast as the French TGV or the Japanese Hikari superexpress, but fast enough. Acela can do the Boston New York run fast enough beat airline time, you can skip the taxi to the airport and the hour to get thru security. Funny thing, Acela fares are higher than airline fares.
Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown out in California is trying for high speed rail the length of California. It's gonna cost billions. Real passengers will fly anyhow. Good luck California taxpayers.
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
They voted for this or that awful thing
Hourly now, I have negative TV ads claiming that this candidate or that candidate voted tax breaks for big oil, or supported the "special interests" or some other just plain awful vote.
Never do these ads mention the name or number of this dreadful bill the target is accused to voting for, or the date of the vote, or anything that would allow you to fact check the claim.
And in this age of Democratic footdragging in Congress, that puts off voting funding bills until the last minute and then voting thru a 5000 page "omnibus spending bill" to keep the government running for another three weeks, it's meaningless. The Congressperson can vote for the omnibus and keep the government funded, and lay himself open to all kinds of charges, because an omnibus bill contains all kinds of bad stuff. In 5000 pages they can and do hide funding for damn near anything. Or he/she can vote against it, and get trashed from all quarters for shutting down the government. All the feeders at the federal trough will rise up in righteous anger against anyone who threatens to derail their gravy train.
So I ignore all the "Did you know so-and-so made some dreadful vote" ads.
Never do these ads mention the name or number of this dreadful bill the target is accused to voting for, or the date of the vote, or anything that would allow you to fact check the claim.
And in this age of Democratic footdragging in Congress, that puts off voting funding bills until the last minute and then voting thru a 5000 page "omnibus spending bill" to keep the government running for another three weeks, it's meaningless. The Congressperson can vote for the omnibus and keep the government funded, and lay himself open to all kinds of charges, because an omnibus bill contains all kinds of bad stuff. In 5000 pages they can and do hide funding for damn near anything. Or he/she can vote against it, and get trashed from all quarters for shutting down the government. All the feeders at the federal trough will rise up in righteous anger against anyone who threatens to derail their gravy train.
So I ignore all the "Did you know so-and-so made some dreadful vote" ads.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
New engines for the B-52 fleet?
Aviation Week had a short piece lobbying for a B-52 re engine project. From a technical standpoint, this might make sense, it would certainly give a nicer B-52 with more range, better takeoff power, and lower maintenance. Especially if a modern engine with enough power were selected that would allow the B-52 to fly on four engines instead of the current eight. As an old flight line maintenance officer, I can tell you, that maintaining four engines is a helova lot easier than maintaining eight engines.
But, speaking as a taxpayer, is it worth it ? Engines are the most expensive part of an aircraft. For a new airliner, the engines are a quarter to a third of the overall flyaway cost. The Aviation Week article didn't breathe a word about cost. The B-52's are old, so old that we ought to replace them all, right now, on general principles. Does it make sense to plow serious money into a plane that ought to be retired, and probably will get retired in the foreseeable future? Especially as the engines on the B-52 work, are reliable, and are efficient enough to give the old B-52 better range than any other USAF bomber, either in service or on the drawing boards.
But, speaking as a taxpayer, is it worth it ? Engines are the most expensive part of an aircraft. For a new airliner, the engines are a quarter to a third of the overall flyaway cost. The Aviation Week article didn't breathe a word about cost. The B-52's are old, so old that we ought to replace them all, right now, on general principles. Does it make sense to plow serious money into a plane that ought to be retired, and probably will get retired in the foreseeable future? Especially as the engines on the B-52 work, are reliable, and are efficient enough to give the old B-52 better range than any other USAF bomber, either in service or on the drawing boards.
Shed a tear for the business jet business
Great Depression 2.0 put the kibosh on bizjet sales. Aviation Week shows a graph with a big peak in 07 and 08 followed by a steady decline. Naturally, as an industry spokesmagazine, Aviation Week is all in favor of more bizjet business.
In actual fact, the bizjets are mini airliners, nearly as expensive as a full size single aisle airliner. Expensive to own and expensive to fly. Only the biggest and richest companies have the money to play with them. For the top brass of a big rich company, a company jet is a very nice perk. Tax exempt too. For the shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders, a bizjet is money wasted that could have gone to expansion, new product development, dividends, wages, and plenty of other useful ends. In actual fact, the company brass can jolly well fly commercial, everyone else does. And since Great Depression 2.0 struck, the company stakeholder's views are prevailing over the views of top management.
In the real world, jet aircraft are so expensive that only air carriers who will fly them everyday can make economic sense for ownership. No corporate flight operation is going to fly a bizjet as hard as a real aircarrier will. If for some obscure reason the company bigwigs cannot fly commercial they could charter a bizjet for a lot less than it costs to own one.
And Aviation Week goes on at length about new and advanced bizjet models that might revive the market.
In actual fact, the bizjets are mini airliners, nearly as expensive as a full size single aisle airliner. Expensive to own and expensive to fly. Only the biggest and richest companies have the money to play with them. For the top brass of a big rich company, a company jet is a very nice perk. Tax exempt too. For the shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders, a bizjet is money wasted that could have gone to expansion, new product development, dividends, wages, and plenty of other useful ends. In actual fact, the company brass can jolly well fly commercial, everyone else does. And since Great Depression 2.0 struck, the company stakeholder's views are prevailing over the views of top management.
In the real world, jet aircraft are so expensive that only air carriers who will fly them everyday can make economic sense for ownership. No corporate flight operation is going to fly a bizjet as hard as a real aircarrier will. If for some obscure reason the company bigwigs cannot fly commercial they could charter a bizjet for a lot less than it costs to own one.
And Aviation Week goes on at length about new and advanced bizjet models that might revive the market.
Monday, October 24, 2016
Voting machines
The first all mechanical voting machines were introduced in the 1930's. At that time it was thought that the machines would reduce scams like ballot box stuffing. And the machines counted up the votes and displayed the sums on the back of the machine, so vote tallies were available as soon as the polls closed, and the poll workers didn't have to know how to add, subtract or count. Lotta places bought them, and they lasted for decades. I never heard of anyone trying to hack one. Tools were needed just to get the covers off, and under the covers the maze of little whirring moving parts defied all but the most skilled and trained mechanics.
After decades of service, the mechanical machines started to wear out, and the manufacturers had gone the way of the buggy whip makers. As cities and towns looked around for replacements, because after voting on machines, going back to paper ballots seemed primative, and a horde of eager beaver vendors (Diebold!) were offering electronic voting machines. These gadgets are basically low end desktop computers. A program displays the candidates names to voters and records the touches they use to vote. Groovy. But these voting machines have all the weaknesses of Windows computers. Anyone with access to the machines, before or after the election, can change the programming to help his party. And this scam is undetectable. They is no paper trail. The machine's program is unreadable. With the old fashioned paper ballot, the ballots were saved, and could be recounted in case of challenge.
We ought to go back to paper ballots. Up here in NH, we still use them. Works fine. If counting all the ballots in a big city is too much work, buy ballot reading machines. They work like the test scoring machines used in school and if the machine score is challenged, the paper ballots are still available to be hand counted.
After decades of service, the mechanical machines started to wear out, and the manufacturers had gone the way of the buggy whip makers. As cities and towns looked around for replacements, because after voting on machines, going back to paper ballots seemed primative, and a horde of eager beaver vendors (Diebold!) were offering electronic voting machines. These gadgets are basically low end desktop computers. A program displays the candidates names to voters and records the touches they use to vote. Groovy. But these voting machines have all the weaknesses of Windows computers. Anyone with access to the machines, before or after the election, can change the programming to help his party. And this scam is undetectable. They is no paper trail. The machine's program is unreadable. With the old fashioned paper ballot, the ballots were saved, and could be recounted in case of challenge.
We ought to go back to paper ballots. Up here in NH, we still use them. Works fine. If counting all the ballots in a big city is too much work, buy ballot reading machines. They work like the test scoring machines used in school and if the machine score is challenged, the paper ballots are still available to be hand counted.
Sunday, October 23, 2016
Who should I vote for? Hillary or The Donald?
Barring a massive miracle, one or the other will be president in a couple of months. Voting for anyone else isn't going to accomplish anything. Whereas the race between them is so close that your vote just might tip the election your way.
Lets not look at the candidate's pasts. They both have lotta problems. But the past is past, what's done is done. Constructive thinking is thinking about what each of them might do to America (for America?) if elected. You ought to vote for the candidate that might provide the best future for the country.
President Trump would cut federal taxes. He would sign an Obamacare repeal bill. He would oppose monopoly mergers, like the recent InBev merger. He would support Congressional term limits, he might not be able to get the votes to do it, but he has promised to try. He has promised a federal hiring freeze. President Trump would appoint real judges to the Supreme Court, judges who believe in enforcing the law as written and not writing new law from the bench. Trump believes in the second amendment.
President Hillary would hike your taxes. She would veto Obamacare reform. If you like your Obamacare, you can keep your Obamacare. She would play nice with Wall St, signing bills to give 'em tax loopholes and reduce regulation. She would continue to set the Middle East on fire, al la Libya, Syria, Iraq, Boko Haram, Turkey, and ISIS. You gotta figure that as president she would keep on doing the same stuff she did as Secretary of State. President Hillary won't freeze federal hiring, she thinks more government jobs are good for the Democratic party. President Hillary would appoint Supreme Court judges who believe in "a living Constitution" a liberal idea that allows judges to make up law out of thin air. Hillary believes in global warming and will sign legislation restricting citizen's rights to heat their houses, fuel their cars, and giving handouts to greenie scams like solar electricity and wind energy. Hillary is a gun control freak.
If you call yourself an American citizen, you need to vote for one or the other. Real Americans look toward the future, not back to the past.
Lets not look at the candidate's pasts. They both have lotta problems. But the past is past, what's done is done. Constructive thinking is thinking about what each of them might do to America (for America?) if elected. You ought to vote for the candidate that might provide the best future for the country.
President Trump would cut federal taxes. He would sign an Obamacare repeal bill. He would oppose monopoly mergers, like the recent InBev merger. He would support Congressional term limits, he might not be able to get the votes to do it, but he has promised to try. He has promised a federal hiring freeze. President Trump would appoint real judges to the Supreme Court, judges who believe in enforcing the law as written and not writing new law from the bench. Trump believes in the second amendment.
President Hillary would hike your taxes. She would veto Obamacare reform. If you like your Obamacare, you can keep your Obamacare. She would play nice with Wall St, signing bills to give 'em tax loopholes and reduce regulation. She would continue to set the Middle East on fire, al la Libya, Syria, Iraq, Boko Haram, Turkey, and ISIS. You gotta figure that as president she would keep on doing the same stuff she did as Secretary of State. President Hillary won't freeze federal hiring, she thinks more government jobs are good for the Democratic party. President Hillary would appoint Supreme Court judges who believe in "a living Constitution" a liberal idea that allows judges to make up law out of thin air. Hillary believes in global warming and will sign legislation restricting citizen's rights to heat their houses, fuel their cars, and giving handouts to greenie scams like solar electricity and wind energy. Hillary is a gun control freak.
If you call yourself an American citizen, you need to vote for one or the other. Real Americans look toward the future, not back to the past.
It's a Winta Wundaland
Snowed last night. 2 1/2 inches. Photos taken outside my place up in Franconia Notch NH this morning. Global warming strikes again.
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