Or Linked-In upgraded it's software. For the first time in years, I got a robo email from Linked-In with some real job offerings. First one was System Engineer at Raytheon. I worked at Raytheon once upon a time. I'm not really in the job market, I retired some years ago, but it's good to think the Linked-In's software thinks I am worth getting a resume from.
Let's hope it's the economy, I'd like to think the economy is improving despite Obama's best efforts to kill it and throw everyone out of work.
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
Monday, December 1, 2014
The Robocaller says goodbye.
This one has called me at least three times in the last month. The phone rings, I pick up, and nobody is on the line. I ought to hang up right then and there, but for some reason I give 'em the count of 5 to come on the line. This robocaller waits for the count of five and then says "Goodbye". It's persistant, it's called me three times in a month.
What is the robocaller is trying to achieve? It is a voice phone, they cannot suck my social security number or a credit card number out of a plain old wired phone. They don't sell me anything, or ask me any thing. Why do they bother? All I can think of is burglars checking to see if I am home before coming out to plunder the place. But that's gotta be crazy thinking.
Robocalling ought to be made a felony, with some cruel and unusual punishment attached. Boiling in oil would be appropriate.
What is the robocaller is trying to achieve? It is a voice phone, they cannot suck my social security number or a credit card number out of a plain old wired phone. They don't sell me anything, or ask me any thing. Why do they bother? All I can think of is burglars checking to see if I am home before coming out to plunder the place. But that's gotta be crazy thinking.
Robocalling ought to be made a felony, with some cruel and unusual punishment attached. Boiling in oil would be appropriate.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
US College education is too expensive
I'm on a roll. What do you do to slow the rise of college tuition? Which has been way higher than the general inflation rate for decades.
1. Fire the useless mouths. The only people who should be on salary are real professors, who teach three full credit (meets three times a week) courses per semester.. Administrators should be fired on general principles. Administrators do not contribute to the student education, they just steal student's tuition money.
2. Fire the janitors, the dishwashers, and the groundskeepers. Let the students mow the grass, sweep the halls, do the dishes, and shovel the snow. Tell the students if they don't like doing the chores, find another college.
3. Coaches should not be paid more than professors.
4. Insist on Saturday classes. That way you can schedule Mon-Wed-Fri classes AND Tues-Thurs-Sat classes and fit more classes into the same classroom space.
5. Stop constructing frills. Fancy student unions, gyms, pools, theaters, dorms, anything not used for instruction. Students can rough it, or private enterprise will step forward and fill the gap.
6. Drop the worthless courses and majors. Gender studies, racial studies, film criticism, art history, journalism, theatre, sociology, political science, anything that does not lead to gainful employment upon graduation. It's fraud to take a student's money are not equip him to earn a living.
7. Drop graduate education. The masters and doctorate and post doctoral programs lead only to jobs as college faculty, and there are virtually no job openings for college faculty. Students going for graduate degrees are getting fleeced by the college.
8. Be fair to athletes. Make sure that they graduate, in four years, with a useable degree. If they cannot do the work, they cannot play.
I hear UNH is warming up to cry for more taxpayer money this year.
1. Fire the useless mouths. The only people who should be on salary are real professors, who teach three full credit (meets three times a week) courses per semester.. Administrators should be fired on general principles. Administrators do not contribute to the student education, they just steal student's tuition money.
2. Fire the janitors, the dishwashers, and the groundskeepers. Let the students mow the grass, sweep the halls, do the dishes, and shovel the snow. Tell the students if they don't like doing the chores, find another college.
3. Coaches should not be paid more than professors.
4. Insist on Saturday classes. That way you can schedule Mon-Wed-Fri classes AND Tues-Thurs-Sat classes and fit more classes into the same classroom space.
5. Stop constructing frills. Fancy student unions, gyms, pools, theaters, dorms, anything not used for instruction. Students can rough it, or private enterprise will step forward and fill the gap.
6. Drop the worthless courses and majors. Gender studies, racial studies, film criticism, art history, journalism, theatre, sociology, political science, anything that does not lead to gainful employment upon graduation. It's fraud to take a student's money are not equip him to earn a living.
7. Drop graduate education. The masters and doctorate and post doctoral programs lead only to jobs as college faculty, and there are virtually no job openings for college faculty. Students going for graduate degrees are getting fleeced by the college.
8. Be fair to athletes. Make sure that they graduate, in four years, with a useable degree. If they cannot do the work, they cannot play.
I hear UNH is warming up to cry for more taxpayer money this year.
Saturday, November 29, 2014
US health care is too damn expensive
The United States pays put 19% of GNP providing health care to its citizens. That is a staggering sum of money. All the rest of the world gets by pays 8% of GNP, less than half. And, for paying all that money, US health is just fair, we rank about15th or so. Which means 14 or so countries manage to give their citizens better health care for half the money. Note that not one of our intrepid newsies has ever run a story explaining how that happens. Here is my list of what we ought to do to get the price down.
1. Competition. Allow insurance companies to do business in every state of the union. Right now to sell insurance in a state, the company has to do 100 tons of state paper work, and bribe a lot of officials. It's so bad that a lot of companies just don't bother. That's why we only have two health insurance companies up here. Pass a federal law that says any licensed insurance company has the right to sell policies in all 50 states whether the state insurance commissions like the idea or not. The Commerce Clause of the Constitution oughta cover this. This will bring some choice, and perhaps some better pricing to the private insurance market. Insurance companies will hate this idea, but companies don't have the vote.
2. Curb the lawyers. The lawyers should not be allowed to advertise for plaintiffs on TV. We need a law to prevent mal practice suits for proscribing, manufacturing, selling, anything, of any FDA approved drug or device. Even if the FDA later dis approves said drug or device. Everyone knows that the FDA has been super cautious about approving anything, ever since the thalidomide disaster back in the '60s. After they do approve something, it's reasonable for any man to assume it's safe. We should not allow suits against those men just because they did something reasonable. The lawyers will hate this, but there ain't that many lawyers in the electorate.
3. More competition. Allow import of drugs from any reasonable first world country, say Canada, Britain, Germany, France. People should be able buy anything in Canada that the Canadian authorities allow on their market. US companies often sell drugs for much lower prices overseas, mostly because the overseas authorities insist on more reasonable pricing. Which is why drugs are often much cheaper from Canada. People ought to be able to take advantage of this. The drug companies hate this idea, but again, companies don't vote. The FDA hates this idea, but that's just a turf battle.
4. Drop the "electronic medical records" scam. Insisting that every provider keep your medical records on his computer, just means your medical records are visible to every hacker, every employer, and every enemy.
And it costs money and is driving the smaller providers out of the business. Large providers like this "feature", but again, companies don't vote.
1. Competition. Allow insurance companies to do business in every state of the union. Right now to sell insurance in a state, the company has to do 100 tons of state paper work, and bribe a lot of officials. It's so bad that a lot of companies just don't bother. That's why we only have two health insurance companies up here. Pass a federal law that says any licensed insurance company has the right to sell policies in all 50 states whether the state insurance commissions like the idea or not. The Commerce Clause of the Constitution oughta cover this. This will bring some choice, and perhaps some better pricing to the private insurance market. Insurance companies will hate this idea, but companies don't have the vote.
2. Curb the lawyers. The lawyers should not be allowed to advertise for plaintiffs on TV. We need a law to prevent mal practice suits for proscribing, manufacturing, selling, anything, of any FDA approved drug or device. Even if the FDA later dis approves said drug or device. Everyone knows that the FDA has been super cautious about approving anything, ever since the thalidomide disaster back in the '60s. After they do approve something, it's reasonable for any man to assume it's safe. We should not allow suits against those men just because they did something reasonable. The lawyers will hate this, but there ain't that many lawyers in the electorate.
3. More competition. Allow import of drugs from any reasonable first world country, say Canada, Britain, Germany, France. People should be able buy anything in Canada that the Canadian authorities allow on their market. US companies often sell drugs for much lower prices overseas, mostly because the overseas authorities insist on more reasonable pricing. Which is why drugs are often much cheaper from Canada. People ought to be able to take advantage of this. The drug companies hate this idea, but again, companies don't vote. The FDA hates this idea, but that's just a turf battle.
4. Drop the "electronic medical records" scam. Insisting that every provider keep your medical records on his computer, just means your medical records are visible to every hacker, every employer, and every enemy.
And it costs money and is driving the smaller providers out of the business. Large providers like this "feature", but again, companies don't vote.
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Ferguson
Clearly Ferguson has a lot of very unhappy campers. Questions that the TV newsies aren't asking. Does the black community of Ferguson get out and vote? Is Ferguson a real town, with a mayor, a town council, police department, fire department, and school department? Or is it merely a district of St. Louis? How many blacks and how many whites live in Ferguson? Census data ought to show it. Are there black candidates for municipal office? Do they get elected? What sort of turnout do Ferguson's black districts show, compared to the white districts?
The TV suggests that Ferguson's police force is mostly white, which is problematic. Is this because Ferguson's blacks don't come out and vote? The newsies would do the country a favor if they looked into this, rather than riot mongering.
The riots, burning down stores, reduce employment opportunities as well as retail opportunities in Ferguson. Hopefully the burned out store owners have insurance that will make them whole again. But I bet a lot of 'em don't. Certainly any businessman will think twice, maybe three times before setting up to do business in Ferguson. Which costs jobs.
The TV suggests that Ferguson's police force is mostly white, which is problematic. Is this because Ferguson's blacks don't come out and vote? The newsies would do the country a favor if they looked into this, rather than riot mongering.
The riots, burning down stores, reduce employment opportunities as well as retail opportunities in Ferguson. Hopefully the burned out store owners have insurance that will make them whole again. But I bet a lot of 'em don't. Certainly any businessman will think twice, maybe three times before setting up to do business in Ferguson. Which costs jobs.
Snow just started up here in Franconia Notch.
Follow up to the non stop weather forecasts. It's just at freezing, and light snow has started in the last few minutes.
Why do I bother to read them?
You gotta wonder about the Economist. A London based weekly news magazine with a long history and pretensions of seriousness. The end-of-the-year special edition just came in, thick with ads, and lots of speculation and prognostication about next year. Lots of good opining with little factual content, a sort of writer's delight.
Lead article, bylined "From the Editor". second sentence reads "Two grand gatherings toward the end of the year, the UN's meeting to set 'sustainable development goals' and a get together in Paris to combat climate change, will show whether countries can agree on way to tackle some of the planet's biggest issues. "
Wow. With Europe's economy tipping into recession, ISIS on the march, Ebola spreading, Putin taking over Ukraine, and China making moves all over the South China Sea, the Economist calls "sustainable development" and global warming some of the planet's biggest issues? Can you spell obsession? Can you spell liberal lightweight?
Lead article, bylined "From the Editor". second sentence reads "Two grand gatherings toward the end of the year, the UN's meeting to set 'sustainable development goals' and a get together in Paris to combat climate change, will show whether countries can agree on way to tackle some of the planet's biggest issues. "
Wow. With Europe's economy tipping into recession, ISIS on the march, Ebola spreading, Putin taking over Ukraine, and China making moves all over the South China Sea, the Economist calls "sustainable development" and global warming some of the planet's biggest issues? Can you spell obsession? Can you spell liberal lightweight?
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