Notes for auto designers

Let's talk about the driver on the interior of the car.  The dashboard has to be usable in full sun and in darkness.  Those dinky little digital displays, LED's usually, just aren't bright enough to see when the sun is shining in thru the windows.  Where as a good round dialface, with a nice bright pointer is readable day and night.  Even better would be the system we used in the Air Force.  All gauges were marked in green for their normal operating range and red for dangerous ranges.  Hence the term "redline". 
   And the cost cutters keep pushing the cheapest kind of control, a single pole single position push button.  And they make black buttons on a black control panel, with tiny little legends on the buttons.  Leaving us drivers fumbling in the dark just trying to change stations on the radio.  The radio on my car is so bad that Buick wired up a complete second set of radio controls on the steering wheel, to make it easier to use the radio.  Fine industrial design that, dual controls on a car radio.  If they just made the buttons a contrasting color to the control panel it  would help a lot.   And they could standardize those steering wheel stalks that work the wipers and washer, the lights, the turn signals, and the slushbox.   And important controls ought to be knobs that you can feel for in the dark, not pushbuttons.  For extra credit put different shaped knobs on different controls so you can tell them apart by feel in the dark. 

Arming school teachers?

Depends upon the teacher.  Most of my elementary teachers, Miss Shirley, Miss Gaudet, Miss Percy, Mr. Convery, Mrs Falby were courageous, determined, and cool under pressure.  Miss Coyne, not so much, but five out of six ain't bad.  Middle school we had Miss Macglaflin, Mr Davis and Mr Sanacandro who all would qualify as courageous and competent.  High school not so much.  It was a a Quaker school, with most of the faculty firm believers in the Quaker doctrine of non-violence.  Although I admired many of them, they were not the kind of people to draw a bead on a school shooter and let him have it right in center of mass. 
   But the public school teachers came from a tougher mold, at least back in those days.  I wonder how teachers are now a days. 

Effective TV commercials

They have been playing one commercial, for some kinda herbal supplement.   They explain it contains a miracle ingredient from jellyfish.  Well, I remember the jellyfish part, but I cannot remember the name of the product.  Effective that ad was. 
   Then there is William Devane, distinguished looking older guy, who pitchs silver and gold on TV these days.  One of his ads starts out on the deck of a retired US battleship.  Devane is standing in front of the main battery giving the pitch.  "When the US used battleships to make its points, things were better."  Although the US launched battleships starting when they were first developed, except for the Spanish American War, a tiny sideshow long ago, we never used them in combat.  By the time the US Navy became the world class force, it was WWII and the battleships had been replaced by aircraft carriers.
   And I still haven't invested in silver or gold. 

Parkland Shooter. What should have happened

This homicidal manic should have been confined to a mental hospital years ago.  But we didn't.  We don't have mental hospitals anymore.  Up here in NH, mental cases often spend days confined in hospital emergency rooms, hand cuffed to the bed, 'cause there is nowhere else to put them. 
   Everyone admits that this shooter showed plenty of signs that were ignored and not acted upon.  Resulting in 17 innocents dying.  
   The problem is homicidal maniacs allowed to run around loose.  If they cannot buy a gun, they will find other ways to do evil.
    We need a fair system to identify and confine these madmen before they do awful things. 

AT&T Last Company Standing

All the others have changed their names.  Marketing loves to change the name.  They think they are smart enough think up magic names that increase sales.  Right.
So here we are,
Company                       Old Name                          New Name
 Electric Company.         Public Service of NH          Eversource
Telephone company        Fairpoint Communicatons   Consolidated Communications
Cable company               Time Warner                      Spectrum

Only survivor

Long Distance Carrier     AT&T                                 AT&T

This ain't Chicken Feed

Alexander Soros, son of George Soros, donated $650 million to the Democrats.  Wow! That is a lot of money.  According to the Free Beacon. 

Congress critters blow it again

70% or more of the country wants to do something good for the DACA people.  Our Congress critters, Senate breed, were unable to pass anything today.  The Republicans lacked the votes to pass their bill, the democrats lacked the votes to pass theirs.  Neither side had the brains or the guts to find a compromise that both sides could vote for.  And so, the DACA people may all get deported beginning next month. 
Way to go Congress critters.