Some how I missed this one back in 1985. It's a fun, lightweight African adventure story featuring Richard Chamberlain as Allan Quatermain, intrepid great white hunter, and Sharon Stone, American beauty searching for a father lost in darkest Africa. Also has John Rhys-Davies as villainous Turkish war lord. A lot of scenes put one in mind of/were ripped off from, Raiders of the Lost Ark. Lots of action, including funny scenes of African cannibals popping the lead characters into a giant cooking pot filled with water and sliced vegetables.
The title of the movie comes from an old H. Rider Haggard adventure story, published a hundred years ago. It was a best seller back then, it's been mentioned repeatedly in other fiction stories, but I have never read the book. I suspect the movie takes little from the novel other than the title and the names of the characters. There were older movies of this title, one from 1937 and one from 1950.
All in all, an enjoyable flick. Lightweight but fun.
Saturday, December 2, 2017
Friday, December 1, 2017
New Product Design, Winners and Losers
Maybe a dozen years ago Boeing and Airbus were casting around for an idea for a new aircraft. Airbus decided to build the largest plane that available engines could hoist off the runway, the A380. It was a double decker, four engines, seating 500 passengers. Boeing did some market research and decided that more modest aircraft, seating 250-280 passengers was about right for the market. After all it takes some doing to round up 500 paying passengers to fill an A380. The Boeing plane, the 787 has only two engines (engines are the most expensive part of an aircraft), a very high tech "composite" fuselage and lithium ion batteries which gave a lot of grief.
As of right now, Boeing has sold several hundred, and has a backlog of close to 1000 787's. They judged the market right. The A380 has only one customer, Emirates, who has an order for another 42 A380's. After which, the production line will shut down. And as things are, Airbus is loosing money on every one they build. Emirates (and no one else) is thinking about ordering some more, but they fear that Airbus might stop building A380's at a loss. So they have not committed to an order.
Looks like Boeing's marketeers called it right. The Airbus marketeers followed the Field of Dreams marketing plan (If we build it they will come). Airbus has taken a big hit on the A380. So big that they might not stay in business at all.
As of right now, Boeing has sold several hundred, and has a backlog of close to 1000 787's. They judged the market right. The A380 has only one customer, Emirates, who has an order for another 42 A380's. After which, the production line will shut down. And as things are, Airbus is loosing money on every one they build. Emirates (and no one else) is thinking about ordering some more, but they fear that Airbus might stop building A380's at a loss. So they have not committed to an order.
Looks like Boeing's marketeers called it right. The Airbus marketeers followed the Field of Dreams marketing plan (If we build it they will come). Airbus has taken a big hit on the A380. So big that they might not stay in business at all.
Thursday, November 30, 2017
CongressCritters want a tax hike without voting for it
New twist to the tax bill. A "snap back" clause that pops taxes back up if the deficit gets too large. "Too large" is not defined, so it can happen anytime. The effect is a tax hike but Congresscritters don't have to vote for it. Constituents don't like tax hikes which accounts for Congresscritters reluctance to stand up and vote for them. They like this trick better, where they can cancel the tax cuts, pretty much anytime they like, with out voting for it.
This should not be allowed. When Congress raises taxes, each member must take a vote, in public (rollcall) so we taxpayers can know which Congresscritters are taking our hardearned money.
Speaking of the tax bill, I have been noticing some TV ads denouncing the tax bill because it will raise the deficit. The ads don't have sponsors, I don't know for sure who is running them, but I suspect Democrats. Might be RINO's. I'm thinking we voters ought to ignore political ads that don't declare their sponsors. The deficit argument is kinda bogus too. It really means that Congress wants to keep on spending, that shutting down the gravy train is just too painful to think about.
The deficit could be reduced by better economic growth, and shutting down worthless programs. Start with shutting down the federal education department. Education from preK thru college is funded and controlled by state and local government and parents. The feds just draw their salaries, they don't actually educate anyone. Then shut down the federal Housing and Urban Development department. Let the state and local governments do the work.
Those few ideas will do good things for the deficit.
This should not be allowed. When Congress raises taxes, each member must take a vote, in public (rollcall) so we taxpayers can know which Congresscritters are taking our hardearned money.
Speaking of the tax bill, I have been noticing some TV ads denouncing the tax bill because it will raise the deficit. The ads don't have sponsors, I don't know for sure who is running them, but I suspect Democrats. Might be RINO's. I'm thinking we voters ought to ignore political ads that don't declare their sponsors. The deficit argument is kinda bogus too. It really means that Congress wants to keep on spending, that shutting down the gravy train is just too painful to think about.
The deficit could be reduced by better economic growth, and shutting down worthless programs. Start with shutting down the federal education department. Education from preK thru college is funded and controlled by state and local government and parents. The feds just draw their salaries, they don't actually educate anyone. Then shut down the federal Housing and Urban Development department. Let the state and local governments do the work.
Those few ideas will do good things for the deficit.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Sexual Harassment bags three more newsies today
Wow. NBC fired Matt Lauer, host of the Today show. That hit my FM radio this morning at 7 AM. Then Garrison Keillor, who used to do the Prairie Home Companion on PBS announced the Minnesota Public Broadcasting had fired him. David Sweeney, a senior news editor for NPR, was also canned today.
Three down in just one day. Does not look like the sexual harassment crusade is letting up at all.
In these three cases, the accusations, and the accusers are still secret. Could be anything, or anybody.
Talk about a target rich environment.
Three down in just one day. Does not look like the sexual harassment crusade is letting up at all.
In these three cases, the accusations, and the accusers are still secret. Could be anything, or anybody.
Talk about a target rich environment.
Tuesday, November 28, 2017
Lawrence of Arabia uses Facebook in the Sinai desert
After the horrible attack on the Sinai Al Rawda mosque, Bedouin leaders in the Sinai have issued a call to their people to assist the Egyptian army. This was posted on Facebook by the Union of Sinai Tribes.
Our culture is spreading.
Our culture is spreading.
Sunday, November 26, 2017
Just how did the US Navy collide with two different merchant freighters??
I have done a bit of yachting in my time, various places, from the Chesapeake Bay up thru Maine. When at the wheel (or tiller, same-same) you have to stay situationally aware. You need to keep track of wind direction, state of the tide, buoys, lighthouses, landmarks, other vessels. You need to know where your vessel is on the chart. You have to keep an eye on the radar. You have to stay in the buoyed channels lest you hit a rock or get stuck in a mudbank. As a 30-40 foot vessel you have to give right of way to the big steamers, who draw much more water than you do, and don't dare steer outside the buoyed channel. The big boys find it cheaper to just run down a yacht than pay for the tugboats needed to pull them off a sandbar if they were to leave the channel even for an instant.
So just how did those two Navy destroyers manage to collide with freighters? At what distance did the destroyer's radar pick up the freighter? Who was officer of the deck? How much real sea time did he have? When was a plot of the freighter's course and the destroyer's course made, and did it indicate a collision was coming? At what range did the lookouts see the freighter thru binoculars and report it to the bridge? What did standing orders say about avoiding merchant traffic? Were the destroyer's navigation lights burning? Had anyone on the bridge read Admiral Dan Gallery's book where he wrote "Steer well clear of any merchie, lest he decide to liven up your day by ramming you." When was any change of the destroyer's course ordered?
I haven't seen any discussion of the seamanship leading up to collision[s]. Probably the newsies are all landlubbers and don't know what to ask. And the Navy is embarrassed to say what went wrong.
So just how did those two Navy destroyers manage to collide with freighters? At what distance did the destroyer's radar pick up the freighter? Who was officer of the deck? How much real sea time did he have? When was a plot of the freighter's course and the destroyer's course made, and did it indicate a collision was coming? At what range did the lookouts see the freighter thru binoculars and report it to the bridge? What did standing orders say about avoiding merchant traffic? Were the destroyer's navigation lights burning? Had anyone on the bridge read Admiral Dan Gallery's book where he wrote "Steer well clear of any merchie, lest he decide to liven up your day by ramming you." When was any change of the destroyer's course ordered?
I haven't seen any discussion of the seamanship leading up to collision[s]. Probably the newsies are all landlubbers and don't know what to ask. And the Navy is embarrassed to say what went wrong.
Saturday, November 25, 2017
Why I do my Christmas Shopping on line
There is more cool stuff on line. Cooler than anything Walmart carries. Littleton NH, my local shopping emporium, has been loosing good shopping for years. It is down to La Houte's Sporting Goods, some second hand and antique shops. Years ago, I would go Christmas shopping in downtown Boston, Washington street. There used to three good department stores, Jordan Marsh, Filene's, and Raymond's. The original Radio Shack, Lafayette Radio, Eric Fuchs Hobby Shop, a flock of good camera stores on Bromley St, book stores, jewelry stores, FAO Schwatz toy store. The department stores had Christmas decorations, shop windows, Santa Claus, huge operating electric train layouts, and the department stores carried a lot more than just ladies clothing. Not only was there cool stuff to buy, they put on a show for use shoppers.
All that is gone. About the most exciting store left down town is a CVS pharmacy. Boring. So I thumb thru my stack of catalogs, fire up Windows XP, and start placing orders. Plus the internet stores wrap it and mail it for you.
All that is gone. About the most exciting store left down town is a CVS pharmacy. Boring. So I thumb thru my stack of catalogs, fire up Windows XP, and start placing orders. Plus the internet stores wrap it and mail it for you.
Wednesday, November 22, 2017
How can anyone talk politics over Thanksgiving??
What is there to say, other than I Like Trump, or I Hate Trump? That won't led to much of a discussion. I am a news junkie, and I just don't have anything worth discussing. Trump's first year hasn't accomplished much that you can put your finger on, let alone support or condemn. Stock market is up, GNP growth is up, unemployment is down, wages are up a little bit. All good things, but they might have happened no matter who won the 2016 election. I like Trump, but I cannot point to things Trump did that led to those good things happening. I like to believe that Trump's attitude and activity had something to do with it, but that's just a belief, I cannot back it up with concrete examples.
So what political can I say to all the left and hard left family members coming for Thanksgiving? Particularly now they all have smart phones, and will summon up facts and arguments to support their lefty beliefs at the drop of a hat. And now that politics is a religion that sees compromise as sin.
Best to stick to talk about grandchildren, home projects, cars, the model railroad, the great windstorm that put my power out last month, recipes, wildlife (I have bears, wild turkeys, weasels, moose, deer about the place).
So what political can I say to all the left and hard left family members coming for Thanksgiving? Particularly now they all have smart phones, and will summon up facts and arguments to support their lefty beliefs at the drop of a hat. And now that politics is a religion that sees compromise as sin.
Best to stick to talk about grandchildren, home projects, cars, the model railroad, the great windstorm that put my power out last month, recipes, wildlife (I have bears, wild turkeys, weasels, moose, deer about the place).
Wall St Journal opposes suit over Verizon- Time Warner merger.
Verizon, ($211 billion) wants to take over Time Warner (($79 billion). The Justice Department is objecting upon anti trust grounds and is threatening (or perhaps actually has) file an anti-trust suit to block it.
The Journal, in an OpEd and some coverage in the business section, is saying that the merger in not anti competitive because Verizon and Time Warner are not competitors. They offer different products and services, and so merging them doesn't reduce competition.
Hogwash say I. They are both in the cable TV and Internet business. Just cause their services have different names, it's still providing TV and internet.
Verizon is too damn big already. Letting them get even bigger is bad for me. I'm getting ripped off on TV and internet cable by Time Warner right now. It got so bad that Time Warner changed its name to "Spectrum" hoping that a lot of Time Warner bad feelings might go away if they changed their name. When last month's storm took out my electric, telephone, and Time Warner Cable, guess who was the last one to restore service. You guessed it, Time Warner took two days more than the electric and telephone companies did to restore my service. Does anyone think that a much bigger Verizon would be any better?
We passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act two centuries ago to limit the size and power of big companies. In the past, Sherman Anti Trust was strong enough to break up Rockefeller's Standard Oil. They tried to break up IBM in the 1960's but wimped out in the end. The last gasp of anti trust action was the suit against Microsoft over the browser wars. Anti-Trust wimped out on that one too, which is why we still have Internet Exploder letting viruses onto our PC's
And all those "too big to fail banks" that Dodd Frank is so kind too. If the damn banks are too big to fail, then they are plenty big enough for anti-trust action. And the humongous InBev merger that Justice OK'ed just this year.
The Justice Dept should be encouraged to do some more anti trust work.
The Journal, in an OpEd and some coverage in the business section, is saying that the merger in not anti competitive because Verizon and Time Warner are not competitors. They offer different products and services, and so merging them doesn't reduce competition.
Hogwash say I. They are both in the cable TV and Internet business. Just cause their services have different names, it's still providing TV and internet.
Verizon is too damn big already. Letting them get even bigger is bad for me. I'm getting ripped off on TV and internet cable by Time Warner right now. It got so bad that Time Warner changed its name to "Spectrum" hoping that a lot of Time Warner bad feelings might go away if they changed their name. When last month's storm took out my electric, telephone, and Time Warner Cable, guess who was the last one to restore service. You guessed it, Time Warner took two days more than the electric and telephone companies did to restore my service. Does anyone think that a much bigger Verizon would be any better?
We passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act two centuries ago to limit the size and power of big companies. In the past, Sherman Anti Trust was strong enough to break up Rockefeller's Standard Oil. They tried to break up IBM in the 1960's but wimped out in the end. The last gasp of anti trust action was the suit against Microsoft over the browser wars. Anti-Trust wimped out on that one too, which is why we still have Internet Exploder letting viruses onto our PC's
And all those "too big to fail banks" that Dodd Frank is so kind too. If the damn banks are too big to fail, then they are plenty big enough for anti-trust action. And the humongous InBev merger that Justice OK'ed just this year.
The Justice Dept should be encouraged to do some more anti trust work.
Tuesday, November 21, 2017
If you are gonna do crime,you last longer doing it at home
Three dumb ass UCLA basketball player made the news 'cause they were picked up for shop lifting in China. President Trump claimed some public relations points by talking the Chinese president (Xi?) into letting them off to go home.
Advice. If you are gonna do a crime, do it at home, in a place you grew up, where you speak the language, where you have some connections that might get you off, where you know the hideouts, the fences, the cops, the judges.
Doing a crime in a foreign land, like China, where you don't speak the language, where nobody cares if you get put in slam for 20 years, where you don't know where you can hide, where you can fence stolen stuff, is just plain dumb. You will get caught, and the locals will have no mercy on you.
UCLA is admitting some real stupid students. I guess you don't need brains to play basketball for UCLA.
Advice. If you are gonna do a crime, do it at home, in a place you grew up, where you speak the language, where you have some connections that might get you off, where you know the hideouts, the fences, the cops, the judges.
Doing a crime in a foreign land, like China, where you don't speak the language, where nobody cares if you get put in slam for 20 years, where you don't know where you can hide, where you can fence stolen stuff, is just plain dumb. You will get caught, and the locals will have no mercy on you.
UCLA is admitting some real stupid students. I guess you don't need brains to play basketball for UCLA.
Artichokes, a light meal in one pot
If you haven't tried an artichoke you are missing a taste treat. They have a light, slightly nutty flavor, they are an honest green vegetable, of which we all need to eat more, and they are fun to eat. Allow one artichoke for each diner. They are eaten by pulling off the leaves, dipping the leaf in a little mayonaise, and putting the broad end into the mouth and scraping off the delicious edible part with your teeth. The bulk of the artichoke leaf is stringy fiber too tough to eat. You discard it. BTW, never put artichoke leaves down a disposal, they will clog your drain but good. After you eat all the leaves, you still have the artichoke heart to eat. Cut the furry looking growth off the top of the heart, those are baby leaves waiting to grow, and entirely too tough and prickly for humans to eat.
Cooking is straightforward, put 'em in a pot, with a couple of inches of water on the bottom and steam them for 40 minutes or so. Bring the water to a boil on high heat and then cut back to medium, enough heat to keep the water bubbling gently. Cut the prickly top of the artichoke off, leaving a round spot maybe the size of a silver dollar. Before steaming them, drizzle some olive oil over the leaves and tuck some slivers of garlic inbetween to looser leaves.
One artichoke is enough to make a light meal, say lunch. And they go well with anything to make a bigger meal.
Cooking is straightforward, put 'em in a pot, with a couple of inches of water on the bottom and steam them for 40 minutes or so. Bring the water to a boil on high heat and then cut back to medium, enough heat to keep the water bubbling gently. Cut the prickly top of the artichoke off, leaving a round spot maybe the size of a silver dollar. Before steaming them, drizzle some olive oil over the leaves and tuck some slivers of garlic inbetween to looser leaves.
One artichoke is enough to make a light meal, say lunch. And they go well with anything to make a bigger meal.
Will there be anyone left in public life?
After the sexual assault accusations finally run down? They sank three newsies on Monday. Who is next? How many are next?
Monday, November 20, 2017
Garage Door Opener goes crazy.
Got home last night and found my garage door wide open, wind and rain blowing into the garage. I know I had hit the button on the door opener remote control to close the door, and actually seen the door start to close, before I had left. I tried the close button and the door would start to close, get to within a foot of the threshold, and then pop into reverse, drive full open, and flash the garage light furiously. I tried a couple ot times, no joy. Since it was dark and raining, I just pulled the emergency release, unhooking the door from the door opener, and closed the door by hand.
This door opener has a safety circuit, an electric eye that looks from rail to rail, and if the beam is interrupted by say a child, or a car, or a pet, or whatever, it kills the close cycle and opens the door all the way. Next day, I heaved the door up by hand and felt a light feathery touch from a twig that was stuck to the bottom of the door. So I took the shop broom and swept off the entire door bottom, and the threshold for good measure. Bingo, that did it, the door opened and closed perfectly. Must have been something stuck to the door bottom that stuck out enough to break the electric eye beam and send the door opener into it's emergency panic open response.
And a good thing too. That door opener has been working steadily for ten years now. I don't know if I could find the instruction sheet, or even the makers name, let alone a spare parts place.
This door opener has a safety circuit, an electric eye that looks from rail to rail, and if the beam is interrupted by say a child, or a car, or a pet, or whatever, it kills the close cycle and opens the door all the way. Next day, I heaved the door up by hand and felt a light feathery touch from a twig that was stuck to the bottom of the door. So I took the shop broom and swept off the entire door bottom, and the threshold for good measure. Bingo, that did it, the door opened and closed perfectly. Must have been something stuck to the door bottom that stuck out enough to break the electric eye beam and send the door opener into it's emergency panic open response.
And a good thing too. That door opener has been working steadily for ten years now. I don't know if I could find the instruction sheet, or even the makers name, let alone a spare parts place.
Sunday, November 19, 2017
Beat the Press
They spent a whole hour talking about sexual assault, Roy Moore, Al Franken, and why they think President Trump deserves more heat over that tape that was dredged up shortly before the election. Boring. Probably they ran the hour long piece because it was cheap and easy to produce.
The suits who run American media think they are running entertainment. The stories they select are intended to boost TV ratings or circulation, not to inform the public. The media workers are mostly Social Justice Warriors who see their duty as getting Democrats elected. Only Rupert Murdock was savvy enough to realize there is a large audience for news without to heavy layer of socialist propaganda you get on the networks and even PBS.
The suits who run American media think they are running entertainment. The stories they select are intended to boost TV ratings or circulation, not to inform the public. The media workers are mostly Social Justice Warriors who see their duty as getting Democrats elected. Only Rupert Murdock was savvy enough to realize there is a large audience for news without to heavy layer of socialist propaganda you get on the networks and even PBS.
Thor Ragnarok
It had decent reviews, the proceeding comic book movies with Thor had been amusing, and it's run at the Jax Jr is over today. So I went to see it last night. OK but not great.
Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, and plays him fairly well. They got Cate Blanchette to play the part of Helle, goddess of death, and general purpose bad guy (bad chick?). I'm surprised she took the part, 'cause she didn't get much in the way of a speaking role. No sign of Jane Foster, Thor's earthly girlfriend, played by Natalie Portman, back in the first Thor movie.
There isn't much in the way of plot in this movie. It just drifts from fight to fight. We have Thor going up against The Incredible Hulk, Thor going up against Helle, assorted armies of guys in armor carrying spears going up against each other, and various minor characters hacking and whacking on each other. The Thor vs Hulk fight takes place on a distant planet, in a huge arena, packed with screaming fans, presided over by a sadistic, but wimpy looking nameless ruler addressed simply as "The Grand Master". How the Hulk gets transported from Earth to this mysterious distant planet is not explained.
Other features unexplained. Asgard now has a civilian population, under attack by Helle, that Thor manages to save, loading them all onto a giant spacecraft, obtained by mysterious means. Asgard used to be just the home of the gods, now it has a civilian population in need of evacuation.
Thor has finally wised up about Loki, and out wits him a couple of times. Thor used to be a sucker for Loki's treachery, in this flick he keeps one step ahead. Although there is a lot of swordfighting, Thor and Loki both find automatic firearms convenient for clearing out snake infested areas. And everybody, even Bruce Banner, can fly the numerous aerospace craft that turn up.
If you like Marvel's Thor character, go see it. If you are only lukewarm on comic book movies, you haven't missed anything with this one.
Chris Hemsworth plays Thor, and plays him fairly well. They got Cate Blanchette to play the part of Helle, goddess of death, and general purpose bad guy (bad chick?). I'm surprised she took the part, 'cause she didn't get much in the way of a speaking role. No sign of Jane Foster, Thor's earthly girlfriend, played by Natalie Portman, back in the first Thor movie.
There isn't much in the way of plot in this movie. It just drifts from fight to fight. We have Thor going up against The Incredible Hulk, Thor going up against Helle, assorted armies of guys in armor carrying spears going up against each other, and various minor characters hacking and whacking on each other. The Thor vs Hulk fight takes place on a distant planet, in a huge arena, packed with screaming fans, presided over by a sadistic, but wimpy looking nameless ruler addressed simply as "The Grand Master". How the Hulk gets transported from Earth to this mysterious distant planet is not explained.
Other features unexplained. Asgard now has a civilian population, under attack by Helle, that Thor manages to save, loading them all onto a giant spacecraft, obtained by mysterious means. Asgard used to be just the home of the gods, now it has a civilian population in need of evacuation.
Thor has finally wised up about Loki, and out wits him a couple of times. Thor used to be a sucker for Loki's treachery, in this flick he keeps one step ahead. Although there is a lot of swordfighting, Thor and Loki both find automatic firearms convenient for clearing out snake infested areas. And everybody, even Bruce Banner, can fly the numerous aerospace craft that turn up.
If you like Marvel's Thor character, go see it. If you are only lukewarm on comic book movies, you haven't missed anything with this one.
Saturday, November 18, 2017
Do I believe in battery 18 wheelers with 500 mile range?
That's what Elon Musk claims. He even has a prototype to show. Of course he didn't demonstrate the range. Cruising on the interstates at 70 mph such a truck needs 7-8 hours to travel 500 miles. Which is a good day's run. I think there are regulations, honored as much in the breach as on the road, limiting driving shifts to 8 hours. In short that battery, if it lives up to spec, will keep the truck moving as long as the driver is supposed to be driving it.
Nor did Elon mention a price. Last I heard you could get a conventional diesel tractor, new, for maybe $65K. Can Elon even come close to that? Who knows? How long does it take to recharge?
On the other hand, heavy trucks have the room for a massive battery pack. More weight just gives a tractor more pulling power. And heavy trucks run a lot more miles in a year than private autos, so a small improvement in operating costs will pay off sooner.
Nor did Elon mention a price. Last I heard you could get a conventional diesel tractor, new, for maybe $65K. Can Elon even come close to that? Who knows? How long does it take to recharge?
On the other hand, heavy trucks have the room for a massive battery pack. More weight just gives a tractor more pulling power. And heavy trucks run a lot more miles in a year than private autos, so a small improvement in operating costs will pay off sooner.
Friday, November 17, 2017
I didn't know that Congress had a slush fund to pay off sexual assault victims.
Not sure just where I stand on this issue, but the fact that Congress kept it secret doesn't speak well of it. Nor does it speak well of Congressmen.
How did the Russians win WWII?
First it helps to understand the relative sizes and strengths of the great powers in 1941. Today, we have just two, maybe three superpowers, powers so much bigger and stronger than ordinary powers that nobody dares mess with them. Back then, there were more great powers (Germany, Russia, Great Britain, France, USA, Japan) and they were closer to each other in strength. Germany was the strongest and scariest European power, the US lacked the regard that it earned during WWII. Certainly Hitler didn't think much of America.
Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, a bolt out of the blue attack. Hitler poured in 3-4 million soldiers, 5000 tanks, 10,000 warplanes. He caught the Russians by surprise, and captured most of western Russia, encircled and destroyed two huge Russian armies, taking 1.2 million prisoners of war. The Luftwaffe wiped the floor with the Red air force. That first year the Germans nearly captured Moscow. Advanced German patrols got as far as the Moscow trolley lines and claimed to have seen the domes of the Kremlin gleaming in the sun. By the end of the year, the Germans owned the Russian heartland, all Stalin had left were a bunch of remote frontier districts.
Somehow, I've never read a good description of just how, the Russians hung in there, drafted another 30 million men into the Red Army, picked up and moved a thousand factories from western Russia to remote Ural Mountain locations, got production of war machines going again from Siberia, and next summer at Stalingrad met the German army head on and beat it in a standup fight.
To do this, Stalin's regime had to have political control via the NKVD, and a lot of popular enthusiasm for the Great Patriotic War. Otherwise, those 30 million draftees might have decided that service in the Red Army was suicide and bolted for the woods. And just how did the Red Army turn draftees into combat soldiers so quickly? And trying to get a tank factory which had been dumped by the side of the railroad tracks back into production must taken superhuman effort on the part of the workers. Suppose the workers had lost heart and just leaned on their shovels?
In short, it took a miracle for the Russians to stay in the war, and fight back so effectively, after the tremendous damage the Germans did to them in that first summer.
Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, a bolt out of the blue attack. Hitler poured in 3-4 million soldiers, 5000 tanks, 10,000 warplanes. He caught the Russians by surprise, and captured most of western Russia, encircled and destroyed two huge Russian armies, taking 1.2 million prisoners of war. The Luftwaffe wiped the floor with the Red air force. That first year the Germans nearly captured Moscow. Advanced German patrols got as far as the Moscow trolley lines and claimed to have seen the domes of the Kremlin gleaming in the sun. By the end of the year, the Germans owned the Russian heartland, all Stalin had left were a bunch of remote frontier districts.
Somehow, I've never read a good description of just how, the Russians hung in there, drafted another 30 million men into the Red Army, picked up and moved a thousand factories from western Russia to remote Ural Mountain locations, got production of war machines going again from Siberia, and next summer at Stalingrad met the German army head on and beat it in a standup fight.
To do this, Stalin's regime had to have political control via the NKVD, and a lot of popular enthusiasm for the Great Patriotic War. Otherwise, those 30 million draftees might have decided that service in the Red Army was suicide and bolted for the woods. And just how did the Red Army turn draftees into combat soldiers so quickly? And trying to get a tank factory which had been dumped by the side of the railroad tracks back into production must taken superhuman effort on the part of the workers. Suppose the workers had lost heart and just leaned on their shovels?
In short, it took a miracle for the Russians to stay in the war, and fight back so effectively, after the tremendous damage the Germans did to them in that first summer.
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Who has $1 million in mortgage interest?
TV news is beginning too, at long last, offer some some specifics and comparison between the House and Senate tax reforms. The Senate will allow deduction of $1 million mortgage interest. Wow, that' one helova mortgage if the yearly payments run $1 million. Jeez, I'll bet that would pay the mortgage on the Empire State building. The House would only allow a half a million. Either amounts of mortgage interest will pay a mortgage of $20 million or so. That's one mighty fine house. I skim the "Mansions" section of the Journal on Fridays. They show some very fine houses there, but you can get into one of them for maybe $4 million. Which gives a mortgage payment like $200K. I'm thinking the only people paying $1 million mortgage interest are professionals in the real estate business, like president Trump used to be. In short, this is tax loophole for real estate wheeler dealers. Me, I would kill the mortgage interest deduction completely.
I paid mortgage interest on my house for years. It was like $10K a year. That was a nice deduction, until I finally paid off the mortgage, and the extra $12K standard deduction proposed in the tax reform will do me more good than a mortgage deduction, now that I don't have a mortgage anymore.
Another strange bit of tax reform information. Somebody, Congressional Budget Office perhaps, claims that killing the "individual mandate" (tax/fine on individuals who don't have health insurance) will SAVE $380 billion over ten years. How does killing a tax/fine save money?? Taxes raise money, killing them looses money. Perhaps "they" think huge numbers of people won't buy taxpayer subsidized health insurance without the tax/fine to encourage them, and thus the taxpayers won't have to pay to subsidize them? And "they" get their numbers from where? And we believe them. Right.
I paid mortgage interest on my house for years. It was like $10K a year. That was a nice deduction, until I finally paid off the mortgage, and the extra $12K standard deduction proposed in the tax reform will do me more good than a mortgage deduction, now that I don't have a mortgage anymore.
Another strange bit of tax reform information. Somebody, Congressional Budget Office perhaps, claims that killing the "individual mandate" (tax/fine on individuals who don't have health insurance) will SAVE $380 billion over ten years. How does killing a tax/fine save money?? Taxes raise money, killing them looses money. Perhaps "they" think huge numbers of people won't buy taxpayer subsidized health insurance without the tax/fine to encourage them, and thus the taxpayers won't have to pay to subsidize them? And "they" get their numbers from where? And we believe them. Right.
Tuesday, November 14, 2017
King Arthur: The Legend of the Sword 2017
I love the King Arthur legend. I've read several books, seen all the movies. So when this one turned up on Netflix, I went for it.
Disappointing is the best I can say for it. Most of the cast, including Arthur, were unknown to me. The only two actors I had every heard of, Jude Law and Eric Bana, had mere spear carrier parts. Other than the sword in the stone, the movie lacks any connection with the well known Arthur legend. No Launcelot, no Gawaine, no Guinevere, no jousting, no Grail, no Round Table, nothing. The story picks up with a young (looks to be in his 20's) Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone. And after that nothing much happens. Arthur does a lot of bitching, and a good deal of whacking and hacking with the sword (Excalibur). It's never clear just what the enemy has done to justify killing them, but that doesn't interfere with another mediocre sword fight. If Arthur has a cause, we never hear of it. He has no love interest. He never shows up leading his troops. The Arthur legend is about a great Christian hero-king saving his people from pagan Saxon invaders. I expected an Arthur movie to show me some heroism. I was disappointed.
Nobody is ever addressed by name, leaving us confused as to who is who. There is a cute young chick, who works magic with funny facial expressions, who ought to Morgan Le Fay, but all she is ever called is "The Mage". There is a Merlin character, played by a black man, but he is never, at least not in my hearing, addressed as Merlin. And other than showing up, he never does anything interesting.
Camera work was mediocre. Too many scenes were poorly lit, and they used the color washout technique entirely too much. Sound work was only fair, but somewhat better than Game of Thrones. I could hear and understand most of the lines.
According to IMDB they spent $175 million making this thing. It's been out since May, and it's only earned $40 million.
Disappointing is the best I can say for it. Most of the cast, including Arthur, were unknown to me. The only two actors I had every heard of, Jude Law and Eric Bana, had mere spear carrier parts. Other than the sword in the stone, the movie lacks any connection with the well known Arthur legend. No Launcelot, no Gawaine, no Guinevere, no jousting, no Grail, no Round Table, nothing. The story picks up with a young (looks to be in his 20's) Arthur pulling the sword out of the stone. And after that nothing much happens. Arthur does a lot of bitching, and a good deal of whacking and hacking with the sword (Excalibur). It's never clear just what the enemy has done to justify killing them, but that doesn't interfere with another mediocre sword fight. If Arthur has a cause, we never hear of it. He has no love interest. He never shows up leading his troops. The Arthur legend is about a great Christian hero-king saving his people from pagan Saxon invaders. I expected an Arthur movie to show me some heroism. I was disappointed.
Nobody is ever addressed by name, leaving us confused as to who is who. There is a cute young chick, who works magic with funny facial expressions, who ought to Morgan Le Fay, but all she is ever called is "The Mage". There is a Merlin character, played by a black man, but he is never, at least not in my hearing, addressed as Merlin. And other than showing up, he never does anything interesting.
Camera work was mediocre. Too many scenes were poorly lit, and they used the color washout technique entirely too much. Sound work was only fair, but somewhat better than Game of Thrones. I could hear and understand most of the lines.
According to IMDB they spent $175 million making this thing. It's been out since May, and it's only earned $40 million.
Sunday, November 12, 2017
We ought to repeal the death tax
The death tax is killing small business. Gas stations, bodegas, family farms, main street stores, barber shops, restaurants, repair shops, etc, are started by individuals, employ people, and are reasonably profitable. Eventually the owner dies. His estate is basically the business, there may be a few thousand dollars in the checking account, but essentially the guy's estate is the business. And upon the owner's death the government now wants that business to cough up 50% of it's assessed value for estate taxes. That's a lot of money, which most small businesses simply don't have. Net result, the small business goes out of business, its workers are laid off, a main street store front gets boarded up and customers have to go elsewhere. Not good. We would be better off if the owner could will the going business to his heirs (or anyone for that matter) estate tax free. This way the business stays in business, the workers stay employed, the main street storefront stays open for business, and customers keep getting served. And the going business will pay taxes. Better to collect a reasonable amount of tax every year, than a whopping big estate tax that drives the small business out of business.
Saturday, November 11, 2017
Sunset From my Deck
First Snow of 2017-2018. A half an inch. 
Mount Lafayette in Franconia Notch
Making snow on Cannon Mt. They have a ways to go before opening for skiing.
More Cannon snow making.Friday, November 10, 2017
What about this Roy Moore flap?
Far as I know, it's a one source story from the Washington Post. The Post claims that Moore molested some teen age girls 35 years ago. Moore, in case you don't remember, won the Alabama primary for US Senator. There will be a special election in December to fill the Senate seat left empty when the incumbent accepted Trump's appointment as US attorney general. He is also the judge who was kicked off the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments statue from his courthouse. That gave him pretty good name recognition down in his district.
A number of US senators, including John McCain, have called for Moore to resign (if he wins) and if there is any truth in the WaPo's accusation. The Constitution allows the Senate (and the House for that matter) to expel a member, and "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections,Returns and Qualifications of its own members," (Article I section 5). That ought to mean that the Senate can declare an election rigged, ballot boxes stuffed, or the electee is a scumbag, and refuse to seat that member.
Question: Is the Washington Post telling the truth? How can a story from 35 years ago be checked? We used to have a statute of limitations, but the lawyers have pretty much repealed it by now.
A number of US senators, including John McCain, have called for Moore to resign (if he wins) and if there is any truth in the WaPo's accusation. The Constitution allows the Senate (and the House for that matter) to expel a member, and "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections,Returns and Qualifications of its own members," (Article I section 5). That ought to mean that the Senate can declare an election rigged, ballot boxes stuffed, or the electee is a scumbag, and refuse to seat that member.
Question: Is the Washington Post telling the truth? How can a story from 35 years ago be checked? We used to have a statute of limitations, but the lawyers have pretty much repealed it by now.
Winter is coming.
I got a half and inch of snow up here in the White Mountains. Enough to make the ground white. And it's cold, 20F.
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Is it a middle class tax cut? Or a taxcut for "The Rich"???
Who knows? The Democrats claim it's a tax cut for "The Rich". Republicans say it's a tax cut for the middle class. Who to believe? The bill is still secret, and is probably 1000 pages long and written in deep gobble-de-gook, so even if I found it on the Web, it wouldn't mean anything to me. I only read English. I cannot focus on 1000 pages. The Journal favors the bill, but it prints a chart showing that a few classes of taxpayer will be paying more ten years from now.
The Journal says that a lot of its provisions have time limits of less than ten years. That hurts economic growth. Lots of projects, even just buying a home, let alone building a new factory, take more than ten years to pay off. And the payoff always depends upon the tax burden laid on the project. If we don't know what the tax burden will be ten years out, we are less likely to do the project.
Living in NH, which fortunately lacks a state income tax and state sales taxes, I'm all in favor of ending the deduction for state and local taxes. My mortgage is paid off, so the mortgage interest deduction does me no good. My children are grown up, married, living in their own homes, so child deductions don't do me any good.
The Republicans have to pass something or they get voted out of office next year. They already failed to repeal Obamacare, failure to pass tax reform will confirm voter belief that the Republicans are a bunch of blow hard RINO's, no different from Democrats. And they deserve payback at the polls for failing to live up to their promises to reform taxes and repeal Obamacare.
The Journal says that a lot of its provisions have time limits of less than ten years. That hurts economic growth. Lots of projects, even just buying a home, let alone building a new factory, take more than ten years to pay off. And the payoff always depends upon the tax burden laid on the project. If we don't know what the tax burden will be ten years out, we are less likely to do the project.
Living in NH, which fortunately lacks a state income tax and state sales taxes, I'm all in favor of ending the deduction for state and local taxes. My mortgage is paid off, so the mortgage interest deduction does me no good. My children are grown up, married, living in their own homes, so child deductions don't do me any good.
The Republicans have to pass something or they get voted out of office next year. They already failed to repeal Obamacare, failure to pass tax reform will confirm voter belief that the Republicans are a bunch of blow hard RINO's, no different from Democrats. And they deserve payback at the polls for failing to live up to their promises to reform taxes and repeal Obamacare.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Nobody uses hammers anymore
At least not on "This Old House". I watch an episode of the antenna day before yesterday. Which was nice, the cable doesn't carry "This Old House". What caught my eye was nobody was using hammers and nails anymore. Not even air powered nail guns. Everything gets fastened with drywall screws, driven in with battery drills. No pilot hole drilling, just drive right into the wood. As fast as hammering in a nail, not quite as fast as a nail gun.
Daylight Savings Time, the biannual hassle
So I have to reset all my clocks today. Antique Tiffany mantle clock, bedside clock radio,wristwatch, car clock, celery phone, VCR, and two Windows computers. I have been told you should never push the hands of antique clocks backward, it will confuse the striking mechanism and other badnesses. So I open the back, stop the pendulum, wait an hour, and then restart the pendulum. The bedside clock radio has a straight forward "Set Clock" button, no problem. Celery phone, bless its little silicon heart, handles the time change automatically, so does Windows. The car clock is so confusing that I have to dig out the car instruction booklet and re read how to set clock. The human factors department at Buick was out to lunch when they designed that car clock.
Hand Tools. Round Handles
There oughta be a law against round handles. When you set the round handled tool down on your bench, it promply rolls off the bench and bangs on the floor. Unless your bench is dead level. Few people level their work benches. Tool companies out to put hexagonal or square or triangular handles on tools, any shape that won't roll of the bench.
Xacto, the hobby knife company is a prominent offender.
Xacto, the hobby knife company is a prominent offender.
Over The Air TV
Gotta have something on the TV. While my TV cable was still broken, I hooked up my roof antenna to the big Sony flatscreen TV. That antenna is pretty beat up, a lot of fingers have broken off over the years. . They were still broadcasting analog TV when I put that antenna up on the roof, and that was a long time ago. Beat up as it is, it still gets enough signal to run my FM radio. And it gets enough signal to provide 17 digital and 2 analog channels for the Sony TV to tune in. Hurrah. Both of the analog channels are WMUR, the NH TV station (ABC) which at least has some local news and weather. The digital channels are all high def which gives lovely video, at least if you like watching Thomas the Tank Engine, Sesame St, the View, Jeopardy, and some other loser programming. No Fox News, no Sci-Fi channel, no CNN. Arggh. I want my cable TV back.
Celery Phones
What with my land line broken in two, I used my celery phone to call the power company. That didn't work. I dialed, got thru to the faraway call center, and listened to their auto answer machine. It got around to saying " Press ONE to report a power outage." Tough luck, my celery phone (Lucky Goldstar 305C) won't do that. Soon as it connects, the number keypad goes away. Without that keypad, there is no way to press ONE, or any other number for that matter. PITA. I had to drive down to Mac's Market in the ville to call in my power outage. I even dug up the celery phone instruction booklet off my laptop and read it thru. When all else fails read the instructions. No luck. Not a word about dial ONE or dialing an extension, or dialing anything at all after the celery phone places a call.
Back on Line!! Hurrah!
Back on the air, at last! Took long enough. We had a really serious windstorm go thru here Sunday night, October 28. At 2 AM a crash and a flash woke me up. Lights were out on the bedside clock radio. Since it was pitch dark, blowing hard and raining hard, I decided to stay in bed and go back to sleep. Whatever it was could wait for daylight.
Well, daylight came, and showed the wind had blown down two power poles, the ones that feed juiice to all of Mittersill. The pole right behind my house went over and pulled my service entrance clean off the back of the house, and snapped my telephone line clean in half, and broke my cable TV coax. The wired society had struck out.
It took the power company ( used be PSNH, now they call themselves Eversource) until Tuesday (THREE DAYS!!) to get a crew up here with new poles, and cherry pickers to fix the downed poles. The pole right behind the house had not gone all the way down; it just pulled sideways and was leaning at about 60 degrees. They just pulled that one back up straight. The other pole had snapped clean off about 5 feet off the ground. That one got replaced. They restrung the electric wires and bingo everybody else's lights came back on. Not me, I hadn't gotten my service entrance repaired yet. Power company won't do that, I have to.
Next day, Wednesday, I got Jim Price, very nice, very competent, licensed electrician from the next town over (Bethlehem) out to repair my service entrance. He got that done just before dark, and then by the grace of God, the Eversource people came out Thursday morning and hooked me back up the the grid. Hallelujah, lights came on, furnace started up, fridge started cooling, hot water heater started heating.
And, wonder of wonders, the phone company came by later on Friday and spliced my telephone wire.
Last player, the cable company, Time Warner, who is changing their name to Spectrum, didn't get here until just now. They ran new coax to the house and spliced it into the main cable on the troublesome pole, and wonderbar, TV and Internet came back.
Well, daylight came, and showed the wind had blown down two power poles, the ones that feed juiice to all of Mittersill. The pole right behind my house went over and pulled my service entrance clean off the back of the house, and snapped my telephone line clean in half, and broke my cable TV coax. The wired society had struck out.
It took the power company ( used be PSNH, now they call themselves Eversource) until Tuesday (THREE DAYS!!) to get a crew up here with new poles, and cherry pickers to fix the downed poles. The pole right behind the house had not gone all the way down; it just pulled sideways and was leaning at about 60 degrees. They just pulled that one back up straight. The other pole had snapped clean off about 5 feet off the ground. That one got replaced. They restrung the electric wires and bingo everybody else's lights came back on. Not me, I hadn't gotten my service entrance repaired yet. Power company won't do that, I have to.
Next day, Wednesday, I got Jim Price, very nice, very competent, licensed electrician from the next town over (Bethlehem) out to repair my service entrance. He got that done just before dark, and then by the grace of God, the Eversource people came out Thursday morning and hooked me back up the the grid. Hallelujah, lights came on, furnace started up, fridge started cooling, hot water heater started heating.
And, wonder of wonders, the phone company came by later on Friday and spliced my telephone wire.
Last player, the cable company, Time Warner, who is changing their name to Spectrum, didn't get here until just now. They ran new coax to the house and spliced it into the main cable on the troublesome pole, and wonderbar, TV and Internet came back.
Sunday, October 29, 2017
General Electric wants out of the locomotive business
Wow. The diesel locomotive business really got started right after WWII. All the railroads wanted to replace their steam engines. This was a huge piece of business. Between 1945 and 1957 every steam engine in the land was scrapped and replaced with brand new diesels. The Electro motive division of General Motors got the bulk of this work. Old line steam engine makers Baldwin and Alco offered product, and Fairbanks Morse and GE offered product but EMD got all the business. 90% or better of all railroad locomotives were EMD built by 1960. All the competitors dropped out except GE, who still offered fairly decent product, but wasn't selling much against EMD.
Somehow, in the 1980's GE pulled ahead of entrenched EMD and today is the best seller, with EMD just clinging to life. GE did some $4.7 billion worth of diesel locomotive business last year. A handsome chunk of change, even compared to GE's other businesses (jet engines, heavy electrical equipment) which brought in close to $100 billion.
For some reason the new guy at GE, the one who sold off the GE corporate jet fleet, wants to get rid of the locomotive business. No reason given. That's some 10000 employees. The Wall St Journal had a picture of the locomotive production line, giant room, half a dozen big locomotives under construction.
Some business writer ought to do a book on how GE managed to take to diesel market away from EMD back in the 1980's. There ought to be some good stuff in there. Was it GE's AC powered locomotives that had greater tractive effort (pulled harder) and cost more? Was it sloppiness over at EMD? something else?
I wonder why GE now wants out of the locomotive business.
Somehow, in the 1980's GE pulled ahead of entrenched EMD and today is the best seller, with EMD just clinging to life. GE did some $4.7 billion worth of diesel locomotive business last year. A handsome chunk of change, even compared to GE's other businesses (jet engines, heavy electrical equipment) which brought in close to $100 billion.
For some reason the new guy at GE, the one who sold off the GE corporate jet fleet, wants to get rid of the locomotive business. No reason given. That's some 10000 employees. The Wall St Journal had a picture of the locomotive production line, giant room, half a dozen big locomotives under construction.
Some business writer ought to do a book on how GE managed to take to diesel market away from EMD back in the 1980's. There ought to be some good stuff in there. Was it GE's AC powered locomotives that had greater tractive effort (pulled harder) and cost more? Was it sloppiness over at EMD? something else?
I wonder why GE now wants out of the locomotive business.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Tempest in Teapot
"Don't Trust the Chinese to make Microchips for the Military" Headline to a Wall St Journal op-ed yesterday. The writer, Dan Nidest, clearly lacks experience in the design of military electronics. Whereas it used to be my day job.
US procurement regulations require that all the semiconductors in a military gadget be "Mil-Spec" semiconductors. Which cost ten times as much as commercial devices, and are of marginal quality. The Mil Spec thing got started back in vacuum tube days. The military knew that tubes with extra thick filaments would last longer than standard commercial tubes. And they bought such tubes, for a premium price. Trouble is, there is no way to inspect the insides of a glass vacuum tube without ruining it. And so unscrupulous vendors put mil spec markings on ordinary commercial tubes and sold them to the military. And so, the military demanded that mil spec tubes only be manufactured on special production lines, under inspection by government agents.
This quaint custom carried over to semiconductors when they came into service in the 1960's.
So, false alarm. All semiconducters used in military electronics are made in the US of A. Not to worry.
US procurement regulations require that all the semiconductors in a military gadget be "Mil-Spec" semiconductors. Which cost ten times as much as commercial devices, and are of marginal quality. The Mil Spec thing got started back in vacuum tube days. The military knew that tubes with extra thick filaments would last longer than standard commercial tubes. And they bought such tubes, for a premium price. Trouble is, there is no way to inspect the insides of a glass vacuum tube without ruining it. And so unscrupulous vendors put mil spec markings on ordinary commercial tubes and sold them to the military. And so, the military demanded that mil spec tubes only be manufactured on special production lines, under inspection by government agents.
This quaint custom carried over to semiconductors when they came into service in the 1960's.
So, false alarm. All semiconducters used in military electronics are made in the US of A. Not to worry.
Thursday, October 26, 2017
Dawn over Marblehead (Wall St) Finally.
Price of Puerto Rican bonds is finally dropping into the toilet. About time. Early in 2015 a Puerto Rican bond was selling on the street for 95 cents on the dollar. This price drifted down gradually thru out 2015, 2016, and most of 2017. It had reached 65 cents on the dollar by this summer. Only this fall did the price dive down to 30 cents on the dollar.
In actual fact, Puerto Rico doesn't have the money to pay off a nickel of the $93 billion that Wall St bankers were stupid enough to loan them over the years. It's been obvious for twenty years that Puerto Rico didn't have, and could not get, the money to pay off any of its loans. And yet, those clever Wall St banks kept loaning Puerto Rico more money. And trading Puerto Rican securities and bonds back and forth among themselves as if these securities were actually worth something. They aren't.
The amazing thing. The Wall St bankers only figured things out in the last few weeks. You gotta wonder where these people went to school.
In actual fact, Puerto Rico doesn't have the money to pay off a nickel of the $93 billion that Wall St bankers were stupid enough to loan them over the years. It's been obvious for twenty years that Puerto Rico didn't have, and could not get, the money to pay off any of its loans. And yet, those clever Wall St banks kept loaning Puerto Rico more money. And trading Puerto Rican securities and bonds back and forth among themselves as if these securities were actually worth something. They aren't.
The amazing thing. The Wall St bankers only figured things out in the last few weeks. You gotta wonder where these people went to school.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
OK, so Corker and Flake are bailing out
Two US republican senators announce they will not run for re election in 2018. They are no friends of Donald Trump, but up until now have been more loyal and useful Republicans than John McCain, Susan Collins, or Rand Paul.
They both come from reasonably Republican districts, which may elect Republican replacements. On the other hand, incumbents usually have better odds of winning the election than challengers.
Granted, Trump and his friends will have a more tractable Congress if Corker and Flake are replaced by Republicans. If they are replaced by democrats, life will be harder for the administration. The Republican control of the Senate rests on a mere two seats.
Note to Steve Bannion. You would do the party more good by attacking democrats, rather than Republicans.
They both come from reasonably Republican districts, which may elect Republican replacements. On the other hand, incumbents usually have better odds of winning the election than challengers.
Granted, Trump and his friends will have a more tractable Congress if Corker and Flake are replaced by Republicans. If they are replaced by democrats, life will be harder for the administration. The Republican control of the Senate rests on a mere two seats.
Note to Steve Bannion. You would do the party more good by attacking democrats, rather than Republicans.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
Opioid Crisis Some more bad stuff
Article in a local paper said that opioid prescriptions were down, from about 90% of patients in 2014 to maybe 70% in 2016. The article didn't bother to explain the percent numbers (typical of newsies who are totally innumerate). I'm guessing that it is the number of opioid prescriptions written over the total number of patients. Any one please feel free to correct me on this.
If this is progress we are doomed.
I take my self to the doctor today. I used to bring all three children to the doctor along with my wife. For 50 years, 200-300 doctor appointments at least. Never did I or any of my family receive a prescription for opioids. That's an opioid prescription rate of 0 for me and my family.
To hear that an opioid prescription rate of 70% is an improvement is ridiculous.
I can believe that there are some people with real pain problems for whom opioids are indicated. I cannot believe that 70% of people have real pain problems.
I am aware that most of the overdose deaths are caused by heroin and fentanyl , both of which are illegal. I'd like to know how many of these overdose cases got started with prescription opioids. I have never seen any numbers on this. But if 70% of patients are started on opioids, you gotta believe that a lot of 'em move over to cheaper (but more dangerous) street drugs.
If this is progress we are doomed.
I take my self to the doctor today. I used to bring all three children to the doctor along with my wife. For 50 years, 200-300 doctor appointments at least. Never did I or any of my family receive a prescription for opioids. That's an opioid prescription rate of 0 for me and my family.
To hear that an opioid prescription rate of 70% is an improvement is ridiculous.
I can believe that there are some people with real pain problems for whom opioids are indicated. I cannot believe that 70% of people have real pain problems.
I am aware that most of the overdose deaths are caused by heroin and fentanyl , both of which are illegal. I'd like to know how many of these overdose cases got started with prescription opioids. I have never seen any numbers on this. But if 70% of patients are started on opioids, you gotta believe that a lot of 'em move over to cheaper (but more dangerous) street drugs.
Monday, October 23, 2017
Whither the EU?
Just as it looked like the EU was coming together, the Brits pull out. Britain is the number 2 EU country, just behind Germany and ahead of France in terms of GNP, population, diplomatic effectiveness, American connections, lotta things. To have your Number 2 member pull out has gotta be disheartening for the advocates of European unity.
And we may have further breakups in the works. Catalonia, an important Spanish province, has voted in a referendum to succeed from Spain. There has been some pushback by the government of Spain, and some stories about how turnout for the referendum was very light, say 20%. If that's true, it says that only the hard core Catalans came out to vote. And, if the Catalans succeed, the Basque region will be right behind. And the Scots and the Welsh are making noises about pulling out of the United Kingdom (Britain). That's four small provinces making succession noises. Although I don't remember hearing anyone from these proto-mini-nations talk about joining the EU, it's a good bet that some, maybe all of 'em will apply for EU membership after they make their succession good.
The EU got started right after WWII. The European survivors of that disaster wanted to prevent WWIII by welding Europe together into a single country. The Americans were all in favor for that reason and to present a united front against Russian Communism. It started small with a trade deal called the European Coal and Steel Community. I don't remember, perhaps never knew, just what kind of a deal this was, but it worked. Sometime in the 1960's the Common Market was declared. Initially the Common Market had a mere six members, and Britain was not one of them. In fact the Brits put together a trade block of their own, which lasted for some years. Eventually the Brits, and their trade block joined the EU. Then the Soviets collapsed and all the Warsaw pact satellites rushed to sign up with the EU as a defense against Soviet revanchism. Then the big step, the Europeans launched a successful European currency, the Euro and that worked.
But, the EU never was able to pull together like the American United States did. The EU members never surrendered control of their armed forces, or their diplomatic corps to the central EU government. The American founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution talk about base principles ( all men are created equal) and distribution of political power (executive, legislative, judicial). The EU founding treaties are silent on most of the issues Americans find fundamental, and have a lot of happy talk about all the bennies EU citizens are entitled to, free healthcare, universal education, and the like, but don't divvy up the political power the way the Americans did. The American states yielded up serious and important powers (rights to have their own armed forces, right to operate their own foreign policy, and a lot of other heavy duty stuff to the new federal government. The European states didn't yield up an ounce of their sovereignty to Brussels.
Where to next? Will the rest of the EU hang together? Or will more members follow the British lead and bail out? Will the US offer Britain membership in NAFTA? What about other EU refugee countries? Stay tuned for future developments.
And we may have further breakups in the works. Catalonia, an important Spanish province, has voted in a referendum to succeed from Spain. There has been some pushback by the government of Spain, and some stories about how turnout for the referendum was very light, say 20%. If that's true, it says that only the hard core Catalans came out to vote. And, if the Catalans succeed, the Basque region will be right behind. And the Scots and the Welsh are making noises about pulling out of the United Kingdom (Britain). That's four small provinces making succession noises. Although I don't remember hearing anyone from these proto-mini-nations talk about joining the EU, it's a good bet that some, maybe all of 'em will apply for EU membership after they make their succession good.
The EU got started right after WWII. The European survivors of that disaster wanted to prevent WWIII by welding Europe together into a single country. The Americans were all in favor for that reason and to present a united front against Russian Communism. It started small with a trade deal called the European Coal and Steel Community. I don't remember, perhaps never knew, just what kind of a deal this was, but it worked. Sometime in the 1960's the Common Market was declared. Initially the Common Market had a mere six members, and Britain was not one of them. In fact the Brits put together a trade block of their own, which lasted for some years. Eventually the Brits, and their trade block joined the EU. Then the Soviets collapsed and all the Warsaw pact satellites rushed to sign up with the EU as a defense against Soviet revanchism. Then the big step, the Europeans launched a successful European currency, the Euro and that worked.
But, the EU never was able to pull together like the American United States did. The EU members never surrendered control of their armed forces, or their diplomatic corps to the central EU government. The American founding documents, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution talk about base principles ( all men are created equal) and distribution of political power (executive, legislative, judicial). The EU founding treaties are silent on most of the issues Americans find fundamental, and have a lot of happy talk about all the bennies EU citizens are entitled to, free healthcare, universal education, and the like, but don't divvy up the political power the way the Americans did. The American states yielded up serious and important powers (rights to have their own armed forces, right to operate their own foreign policy, and a lot of other heavy duty stuff to the new federal government. The European states didn't yield up an ounce of their sovereignty to Brussels.
Where to next? Will the rest of the EU hang together? Or will more members follow the British lead and bail out? Will the US offer Britain membership in NAFTA? What about other EU refugee countries? Stay tuned for future developments.
Sunday, October 22, 2017
Driving down to a Boston Train Show
It was a lovely day, dry, warm, sunny. Leaves are a bit past peak in Franconia Notch, but are at peak down south. I93 was in good shape except the widening project south of Manchester hasn't gotten anywhere since I was thru there last. More NH infrastructure money spent with out improving the road at all.
The North Shore Model Railroad Club of Wakefield MA, of which I used to be a member until I retired to NH, put on the show. They had the swap meet at the Wakefield Americal Hall, across the street from the club layout. The vendors had a lot of rolling stock and some structures, no tools or parts. A fair number of steam engines that could serve as project locomotives, except I have two such project locomotive in my shop awaiting work. The crowd was mostly older guys, a few very small children who were entranced, no kids old enough to be into electric trains on their own. The hobby is not recruiting new hobbyists to replace the older guys who are dying off. The North Shore club had three member who I had known die just this fall.
The club layout is down stairs from Brother's restaurant on Main St. The layout is 90 feet long. The newest and last section toward the back is largely done. Benchwork is in, track is laid, trains run. Scenery is coming along nicely. The old core of the club was still there, still guiding the work. This layout was large enough to make a cover story of Model Railroader back in 1985, and it's bigger now.
Anyhow a nice day.
The North Shore Model Railroad Club of Wakefield MA, of which I used to be a member until I retired to NH, put on the show. They had the swap meet at the Wakefield Americal Hall, across the street from the club layout. The vendors had a lot of rolling stock and some structures, no tools or parts. A fair number of steam engines that could serve as project locomotives, except I have two such project locomotive in my shop awaiting work. The crowd was mostly older guys, a few very small children who were entranced, no kids old enough to be into electric trains on their own. The hobby is not recruiting new hobbyists to replace the older guys who are dying off. The North Shore club had three member who I had known die just this fall.
The club layout is down stairs from Brother's restaurant on Main St. The layout is 90 feet long. The newest and last section toward the back is largely done. Benchwork is in, track is laid, trains run. Scenery is coming along nicely. The old core of the club was still there, still guiding the work. This layout was large enough to make a cover story of Model Railroader back in 1985, and it's bigger now.
Anyhow a nice day.
Friday, October 20, 2017
Something must be happening that isn't Donald Trump
All the TV newsies talk about these days is Donald Trump. Nothing else is covered. Not even the stock market. Surely there is something significant happening somewhere in the world that isn't about Donald Trump. But we will never know. Unless we do some web surfing.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Oh Say Can You See
Small patriotic ritual, performed before sporting events. Americans are expected to stand and place their hand over their heart as the national anthem is played. It's a symbol of respect for the flag, and the Republic for which it stands, to borrow a line from the pledge of allegiance. And it's a sign of unity. Anyone who fails to participate is saying they don't like the flag, they don't like the country, and they don't like other other Americans.
No beef with anyone or anything justifies failing to stand for the national anthem. I don't like it, and a whole big bunch of my fellow Americans don't like it. It may be legal. but we don't have to like it. And we don't accept any excuses for failing to stand.
No beef with anyone or anything justifies failing to stand for the national anthem. I don't like it, and a whole big bunch of my fellow Americans don't like it. It may be legal. but we don't have to like it. And we don't accept any excuses for failing to stand.
The Microsoft Computer scammer calls again
This guy pretends to be from Microsoft, and wants to fix your computer. The first time he called (maybe a year ago) I played along until he tried to get me to upload a piece of malware onto Trusty Desktop. I used some salty service language on him and hung up. Since then he has called back about once a month, giving me another opportunity to insult him.
Anyhow, if you get a call from someone who says he is from Microsoft, he is trying to plant a virus on your computer. The real Microsoft never calls anyone.
Anyhow, if you get a call from someone who says he is from Microsoft, he is trying to plant a virus on your computer. The real Microsoft never calls anyone.
Monday, October 16, 2017
Print is up, E-books are down
According to the Wall St Journal, sales of printed books are up 5% this year whereas sales of e-books are down 17%. The Journal gave no reasons. Wow!
The electronic wave of the future stopped cold by Gutenberg's printing press from the 1400's.
I'm in favor, I like reading a printed book better than I like fussing with a laptop to read an e-book. I only mess with e-books to read old favorites no longer in print. Old Edgar Rice Burroughs, old E.E. Smith, old Andre Norton for example. The laptop is bulky but it has a decent screen, the special e-book readers are micro screen devices which don't excite me much. Even the idea of having the Library of Congress packed into a hand held device doesn't really excite me. Apparently the market agrees.
The electronic wave of the future stopped cold by Gutenberg's printing press from the 1400's.
I'm in favor, I like reading a printed book better than I like fussing with a laptop to read an e-book. I only mess with e-books to read old favorites no longer in print. Old Edgar Rice Burroughs, old E.E. Smith, old Andre Norton for example. The laptop is bulky but it has a decent screen, the special e-book readers are micro screen devices which don't excite me much. Even the idea of having the Library of Congress packed into a hand held device doesn't really excite me. Apparently the market agrees.
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Does Weinstein affair account for poor Hollywood movies?
No doubt about it, Hollywood is making fewer movies, many of them are comic book movies, and box office has been terrible this season. And then we have Harvey Weinstein, allegedly a top man in Hollywood. Maybe he doesn't pay enough attention to making decent movies, and wastes too much time harassing and raping actresses? If Harvey is typical of Hollywood management, no wonder the movies are lacking.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Cost Sharing Payments
President Trump has raised yet another firestorm from the Democrats. He has decided to stop "Cost Sharing Payments" to the health insurance industry. This is in accordance with a federal court decision calling the payments illegal, because Congress never appropriated the money for them. Plus the concept of my tax money going to private insurance companies boggles my mind.
Democrats claim these payoffs are necessary to keep Obamacare insurance premiums from going even higher than they have. To which one might ask why they haven't appropriated the money. And why the money should go to insurance companies, rather than to patients.
The Democratic whining over "Cost Sharing Payments" has drowned out Trump's other Obamacare reform, announced the day before, allowing sale of economical insurance policies, instead of the "covers everything under the sun" Obamacare policies. The medical industry loves the Obamacare policies, they pay for everything, whether it does any good or not. Patients don't complain about cost, 'cause it's all paid for. Used to be you could buy "covers everything" policies for $12000 a year. They cover routine physicals, the wife and kiddies, prescription drugs, out patient treatments, chiropracty , drug rehab, maternity, mental health, and all the cat scans, ultrasounds and MRI's the patient can stand. This was the usually deal for employer provided health care.
But, they was another option, one that paid for the big stuff that nobody has the money for, and let the patient cover the little stuff out of pocket. This coverage could be had (before Obamacare outlawed it) for $3000. If you were in reasonably good health (most of us are) you could save $9000 a year by going with "big stuff only" or "hospitalization only" policies. The $9000 difference was more than enough for yearly physicals, out patient treatments, pills and plasters, just about anything. I used to go this way until Obamacare outlawed such policies, and I became eligible for Medicare. My doctor never approved, he wanted me to get an MRI, I asked what it would cost, he didn't know, it took months to finally get someone to quote me a price ($ Many Thou) at which point to matter was quietly dropped.
Trump is going to allow writing policies that only cover what the patient wants to pay for, rather than cover everything under the sun policies, which are outrageously expensive. Good deal.
Democrats claim these payoffs are necessary to keep Obamacare insurance premiums from going even higher than they have. To which one might ask why they haven't appropriated the money. And why the money should go to insurance companies, rather than to patients.
The Democratic whining over "Cost Sharing Payments" has drowned out Trump's other Obamacare reform, announced the day before, allowing sale of economical insurance policies, instead of the "covers everything under the sun" Obamacare policies. The medical industry loves the Obamacare policies, they pay for everything, whether it does any good or not. Patients don't complain about cost, 'cause it's all paid for. Used to be you could buy "covers everything" policies for $12000 a year. They cover routine physicals, the wife and kiddies, prescription drugs, out patient treatments, chiropracty , drug rehab, maternity, mental health, and all the cat scans, ultrasounds and MRI's the patient can stand. This was the usually deal for employer provided health care.
But, they was another option, one that paid for the big stuff that nobody has the money for, and let the patient cover the little stuff out of pocket. This coverage could be had (before Obamacare outlawed it) for $3000. If you were in reasonably good health (most of us are) you could save $9000 a year by going with "big stuff only" or "hospitalization only" policies. The $9000 difference was more than enough for yearly physicals, out patient treatments, pills and plasters, just about anything. I used to go this way until Obamacare outlawed such policies, and I became eligible for Medicare. My doctor never approved, he wanted me to get an MRI, I asked what it would cost, he didn't know, it took months to finally get someone to quote me a price ($ Many Thou) at which point to matter was quietly dropped.
Trump is going to allow writing policies that only cover what the patient wants to pay for, rather than cover everything under the sun policies, which are outrageously expensive. Good deal.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Republicans don't really control the federal government
So what is a Republican? Really. A real Republican votes for measures (Obamacare repeal!) important to the party. There is a shortage of real Republicans in DC these days. We have a lot of RINOs, who call themselves Republican but believe in Democrat policies like tax and spend. They actually like robbing their constituents of as much tax as they can get away with, and then using their ill gotten proceeds to buy votes in their districts with pork barrel spending. And we have a lot of just plain weirdos, like John McCain and Rand Paul and Susan Collins who stick it to the party every time they can, just because they can. And we have the "House Freedom Caucus", a bunch of "Republicans" from safe districts, who will bolt the party at the drop of a hat, for any reason at all, or no reason.
As we have seen on Obamacare repeal, these people cannot be depended upon to vote for crucial bills. In the Senate the Republicans have only 52 members and four or five of them are undependable weirdos. Things are a little better in the house, but not much.
Rather than saying "The Republicans control the government." it would be more realistic to say, "The weirdos have enough votes to stop anything."
As we have seen on Obamacare repeal, these people cannot be depended upon to vote for crucial bills. In the Senate the Republicans have only 52 members and four or five of them are undependable weirdos. Things are a little better in the house, but not much.
Rather than saying "The Republicans control the government." it would be more realistic to say, "The weirdos have enough votes to stop anything."
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Girl and Boy Scouts of America??
Just heard about this on the TV. Apparently the Boy Scouts have announced that all ranks of scouting are now open to girls as well as boys. The Girl Scouts of America have objected to what they see as a grab for their membership. Actually, a co-ed scouting program sounds like a good idea in many ways. Maybe the leadership of both the Boy and Girl Scouts can get together on this. Or maybe not. Stay tuned.
Forgiving Debt would Hurt Puerto Rico ??
Headline of an op ed in today's Wall St Journal. Author is a John Tamny, director of Center for Economic Freedom at Freedomworks, editor of RealClearMarkets, and author of "Popular Economics". He has some credentials, although the name is new to me. His arguments make little sense to me, even after re reading the piece several times. He says "By erasing Puerto Rico's debt, Mr. Trump would be handing the territory's political class more money to spend inefficiently." Let's be real here. Fixing up after Hurricane Maria needs lots and lots of money. Puerto Rico doesn't have any money at all. There are only two ways for Puerto Rico to get the needed money, borrowing it, or getting it as a free gift from mainland taxpayers. Lenders are scarce on the ground. It's obvious to real people (but perhaps not to dumb as rocks Wall St bankers) that Puerto Rico doesn't have the money to ever pay off the $93 billion in debt they have already racked up. Those lenders won't get paid back, not ever. New loans won't get paid back either. Lending to Puerto Rico is just plain charity, loans that won't get paid off are charity, not banking.
The other source of money to fix up the hurricane damage is for the US Congress to appropriate the money out of federal tax revenue, or by selling some more T-bills, or both. This is charity, and there is a decent chance that the Congress will feel charitable and will cough up the money, especially if the MSM and the Democrats get on board with the idea.
The concept of "forgiving" Puerto Rico's debts is just psycho-babble. They don't have the money, they will never have the money, and the lenders are never gonna get paid. For that matter Puerto Rico declared bankruptcy a couple of months ago, which means they won't pay anyhow, even if they had the money, which they don't.
The other source of money to fix up the hurricane damage is for the US Congress to appropriate the money out of federal tax revenue, or by selling some more T-bills, or both. This is charity, and there is a decent chance that the Congress will feel charitable and will cough up the money, especially if the MSM and the Democrats get on board with the idea.
The concept of "forgiving" Puerto Rico's debts is just psycho-babble. They don't have the money, they will never have the money, and the lenders are never gonna get paid. For that matter Puerto Rico declared bankruptcy a couple of months ago, which means they won't pay anyhow, even if they had the money, which they don't.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Decertifying the Iran Deal?
TV newsies have been talking about it. But they say "decertifying" isn't like canceling the deal. If so, why do we care? It may be a way of expressing disapproval of the deal, but if it doesn't do anything, why does it matter?
Monday, October 9, 2017
US Immigration reform
The TV tells me that the Trump administration has laid some 70 changes to current immigration law on Congress today. Of course the TV newsies don't bother to list just what these changes might be. They did manage to say that the Democrats oppose them, no reasons given.
For myself, I like the idea of a DACA program. People who were brought into the US as children, who have stayed out of trouble with the law, graduated high school or college, who have served in the armed forces, who are gainfully employed, and who want to stay in the US, sound like good and decent citizens to me, and more good and decent citizens make America stronger. We need all the good and decent citizens w can get.
I think anyone who served in the armed forces and received an honorable discharge ought to be offered citizenship if they lack it. For that matter foreign nationals who worked with US forces as interpreters ought to be offered citizenship.
America can take in a lot of immigrants, but there is a limit. I'd set that limit at 1% of the current population, which is like 3 million immigrants a year.
Since a lot of people want to come to America, we can be picky about who we let in. Make a list of desirable characteristics, young, educated, married, married with children, English speaking, no matter how poorly, parents already in the US, healthy, valuable skills, and many more. Assign a point value to each desirable characteristic, and we let in the 3 million with the top scores. Everyone else gets to try again next year.
For myself, I like the idea of a DACA program. People who were brought into the US as children, who have stayed out of trouble with the law, graduated high school or college, who have served in the armed forces, who are gainfully employed, and who want to stay in the US, sound like good and decent citizens to me, and more good and decent citizens make America stronger. We need all the good and decent citizens w can get.
I think anyone who served in the armed forces and received an honorable discharge ought to be offered citizenship if they lack it. For that matter foreign nationals who worked with US forces as interpreters ought to be offered citizenship.
America can take in a lot of immigrants, but there is a limit. I'd set that limit at 1% of the current population, which is like 3 million immigrants a year.
Since a lot of people want to come to America, we can be picky about who we let in. Make a list of desirable characteristics, young, educated, married, married with children, English speaking, no matter how poorly, parents already in the US, healthy, valuable skills, and many more. Assign a point value to each desirable characteristic, and we let in the 3 million with the top scores. Everyone else gets to try again next year.
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