Jericho Lake ATV Festival

I attended the annual Jericho ATV festival today.  It is held in the Jericho Lake state park, a bit north of Berlin.  State route 110 from Berlin took me right there.  It’s big.  Roads were crowded with ATV’s for miles around Berlin.  At Jericho Lake they had tents selling ATV’s, ATV parts and accessories, NH Fish and Game, and food and drink.  They were holding mud races between ATVs and an ATV jumping contest.  The jumpers could soar 30 feet in the air, do some acrobatics, and land safely.  Quite a show.  I didn’t get an attendance count, but I figure there must have been at least a thousand ATVs, and four or five times that number of people.  Weather was perfect, sunny and nice.  Everyone looked happy and enjoying the show.  They had big ATVs that could seat 4 (driver and three passengers) and medium (two seaters) and small ones (single seaters), plus off road motorcycles. 

Justice delayed is justice denied; and lawyers bill more hours

The Garner story, from New York, an over weight and out of shape black man, arrested by NYC cops  for selling loosies, (single cigarettes) who died during the arrest, crying " I can't breath" as cops put him in a choke hold.  The case has been enraging NY citizens and paying  lawyers billable hours for FIVE YEARS.  That  is outrageous.  The NYC law against selling loosies which gave to cops the excuse to hassle and then kill Garner is outrageous.  They are just cigarettes, it isn't like Garner was selling heroin or even pot.  The law against selling loosies was pushed by the brick and mortar merchants who did not want street vendors competing with them.
  As of right now, the NY courts have FINALLY rendered a verdict against the cop.  The NY police commissioner has a chance to confirm or overturn the court's verdict.  This is outrageous too.  The cop should have been charged with murder, and the verdict of the court should be final.  Allowing an employee of the city government to overrule a court verdict is ridiculous.
   Note to NH.  We don't want to do anything the way New York does it.   

Democratic Presidential Debate, late July version

I watched both nights.  Fell asleep during the second night.  First night, Warren and the Bern, was amusing to watch, but I don't think any of 'em said anything that will win them votes.   And they all said a lot of things that turn voters like me off.  Government run health care, higher taxes, the Hiawatha life style (Green New Deal) open borders. 

Democrats want to kill American's health care

Most Americans get their health care thru their company or thru their union.  It's provided by private insurance companies.  It's good stuff.  I had company health care for better than 40 years.  It paid to deliver my three children, paid for the wife's back problems, paid for yearly physicals.  I am still in decent health in my seventies.  Most US citizens feel the same way.
   Last night we had the Democrats calling to abolish this decent health care system and throw us all onto the tender mercies of a government health plan.  Do we want to give up very decent private health insurance for the likes of the VA, or Obamacare?  I think not.

Massive leak of customer data caused by "mis configurated firewall"???

Hmm.  Capitol One?  Firewall?  Did they have their customer database machine[s] on the internet??  Exposed to every hacker in the entire world?   Did they flunk computer security 101?  Can the American surplus of unemployed lawyers sue them down to their socks?
Basic rule.  Machines holding critical data should never be connected to the internet. Or the phone network, or anything else.   They should be kept in a locked room, with the number of key holders restricted as much as possible.  Three is about right.  They must be backed up to optical disk once a week, and the backups stored off site, in case of fire.  (or flood, had that happen once)  Windows machines are swiss cheese, important data should be kept on anything more secure, and every thing ever manufactured is more secure than Windows.  Use Apple, use Linux use anything but Windows. Know that bad guys can stick a flash drive into a USB port and download every byte off the hard drive[s] onto the flash drive in a few minutes.  Hands off too.
  I hope these yo-yos get sued into oblivion. 

The Social Security Scammer called again

This pitch starts off telling me my social security number will be trashed somehow.  And asks me to call back at another number.  They called me yesterday and again today.  I hung up both times.  US guvmint operations don't telephone, they send letters. 

Advice to the class of 2023, frosh this fall

That's you frosh entering college this fall.  College is fun and parties. I enjoyed it all immensely.  It's also serious stuff.  We are talking serious money for a 4 year bachelor's degree, like $100K, which either your parents put up, or you take out US guvmint loans for.   If you take out guvmint loans, know that you are stuck with the payments, declaring bankruptcy doesn't get you out of paying them off.  You are stuck.
   First thing you need to decide that you are gonna graduate, on time, no matter what.  If you give up and flunk out before getting your degree, all the money spent is wasted, you don't get squat for it, but you still have to pay off your student loans.
   Second thing you need to decide is what you want to do to make a living after you graduate.  You have to make a living somehow.  You will spend much of the rest of your life after college making a living. Best to find something that you like to do.  Selling used cars or waiting tables can get old, fast.  At this stage of your life you may not have a clue.  Talk to your parents, talk to your family, talk to friends, do some reading of biographies.  You need to have something in mind by Christmas freshman year.  Given you have chosen a career field, pick a college major that makes you employable in your chosen field.  Colleges and universities offer many majors that are totally worthless in the job market.  Avoid any major with "studies" in the name.  Gender studies, black studies, environmental studies. Avoid art history, sociology, archeology, and political science. Nobody hires graduates in those majors.
   Think about STEM majors.  Those are valued in the job market.  For you kids entering high school, be aware that STEM majors require integral calculus.  The subject matter is taught using calculus and if you don't have your calculus, the courses won't meant anything to you.  Figure you have to take integral calculus freshman year.  To do which, you have to have taken trigonometry and algebra in high school.  A high school course in geometry is extremely helpful, although not mandatory.  Plan your high school courses accordingly.
  Finally, beware, colleges have all sorts of obscure graduation requirements.  You have to have so many credits in a bunch of strange subjects.  If you lack ALL the required credits you don't graduate with your class.  Get a current copy (last year's copy may be obsolete) of the college catalog and research all the credits needed to graduate in your major.  At my school engineering majors needed 15% more credits to graduate than education majors.  Make a spreadsheet and print it out.  Bring it to your appointment with your college counselor.  Ask him if it is correct.  Remember that counselors have about 100 other students to counsel, and papers to grade and classes to prepare for, and don't have much time to help you.  Plus they see their mission as recruiting more students to their academic departments.  Listen to counselors but don't trust them much.