The Alleged Hypocrisy Of The New York Federal Reserve Exposed.

The Alleged Hypocrisy Of The New York Federal Reserve Exposed.

This American Life served up a rather shocking view, September 26, 2014, showing us an  inside view of the inner workings of  the New York Federal Reserve that appears to reveal how some administrators exhibit weakness and seem warm to the banks that they are expected to regulate.  If a staff member shows backbone and tries to adhere to the mission of the institution they may find themselves out of a job.   The sum total of this program seems to paint the New York Federal Reserve as a possible fortress of insincerity toward their mission.  The New York Federal Reserve appears by this example to be elevating the lemming management and firing the staff that may challenge the mission running off the rails.  I have friends that as they get older seem to become my cynical of the United States Government process.  We need more people like Carmen Segarra to work in government to do the work that we as citizens expect and maintain mission integrity.

536: The Secret Recordings of Carmen Segarra   Sep 26, 2014

Print version:  Inside the New York Fed: Secret Recordings and a Culture Clash by Jake Bernstein,    ProPublica, Sep. 26, 2014, 5 a.m.         

Restitution in this case appears to me to be that Carmen Segarra receive full back pay since she was fired, payment of all legal fees, and take over the job that her former boss had, who fired her.

WSJ: Climate Science Is Not Settled, by Steven E. Koonin

WSJ: Climate Science Is Not Settled, by Steven E. Koonin

The Wall Street Journal, September, 20-21 (weekend), Review section, page C1 had an article titled “Climate Science Is Not Settled” by Steven E. Koonin.  I have learned my lesson with this newspaper to look at the brief bio for the writer included with some stories to better measure their credibility.  This is especially true in the opinion section where it appears that the writers lick the boots of the oligarch who owns the paper.  I do find the paper very informative outside the opinion section.  So, I look at the writer’s credentials, in the Review section, and they seem sort of impressive until I see this guy is a former employee of BP.

The article about climate change, in short, portrays the situation as not being nailed down by science, not definitive by the science results.   If you sit back and reflect upon what the article describes you may see that it takes on one narrow viewpoint, that being that science tools have not been too successful at determining what is going on to any degree of exactness.  Implied in this is we are this expected to wait until the science comes back with better results.  How convenient for some that we should  kick the can down the road some more.  Mr. Seven Koonin even paints a picture in my mind that science is so far behind the curve that we may die before they know the cause, which is my point of this post.  What I find disturbing about this article is that this fellow seems to be looking at his computer simulations and not going outside to see that in real terms the climate is changing in ways that are, in some cases, dramatic.  If we look past the portrayal of the science not currently adequate to the job then why not dump science from any serious consideration of “not knowing” until they can catch up to what many of us see every day as being “alleged” climate change.  Gee whiz, for once, the common man may be way ahead of the scientists.  Why then get a science degree if it only gets you a seat at the back of the intellectual bus?

U.S. Medical System – An Inside Look (2014)

U.S. Medical System – An Inside Look (2014)

A doctor responds to our sending a copy of the Wall Street Journal article (Sat/Sun, Aug. 30, 2014, Page C1) to them with the title “Our Ailing Medical System” by Sandeep Jauhar.

“… many of the things that the article lists as ways to improve physician satisfaction are already being done, but the burn out is rampant. I think most of it has to do with expectations on how many patients to see in an hour, how fast you can turn an OR (operating room) around, how many patient e-mails you can answer each day, how many prescriptions you can push out each hour, how many x-rays can you take a day, etc. The pressure has increased dramatically since Obamacare went into effect because we have a lot more patients now, they are often much sicker because they have not seen a doctor in so long, and reimbursement is much lower, so the only way to stay afloat is to push the ‘worker bees’ (i.e., all health care workers, not just MDs) faster and harder (yes, EDs [Emergency Departments] always treated indigent patients and, for that matter, anyone who walks in the ED, but the numbers coming now are much larger). Of course, these patents deserve to be treated,  but they deserve to be treated properly and competently, not in a rush rush assembly line fashion. Obamacare has increased the demands without spelling out ANY way in which the demands can be met. All I see is pressure to meet the law’s requirements (which are a moving target because Obama feels compelled to change parts of the law on his own whim). The people on the ground do not know what is coming, do not know what will change in the law tomorrow, do not know where the patients are coming from or going to, do not know if there will even be any money to pay for the care, but we are mandated to provide it nonetheless.”

How To Enter Your Call Sign Into Kenwood TH-D72 Radio

How To Enter Your Call Sign Into Kenwood TH-D72 Radio

I love Kenwood Ham Radios because their radios are easy to use without a manual but the TH-D72 was driving me crazy.  As is typical with a lot of technology items, the user manual was nice but totally lacking in a couple of places. If you want to use the APRS function, you must type in your call sign.  I tried this so many times and failed that I figured that the radio was defective.  I figured that there had to be a secret in the menu and kept on trying and finally did find the secret.  I will now share the secret with you.

APRS process for entering your callsign.

  • Press the “MENU” button on your radio (top right corner of buttons)
  • Move the large black button joy stick button just above the buttons to the right and advance to the next menu item which should be “APRS”
  • Move the large black joy stick button to the right to advance.
  • Go to menu 300 which should show as being “Basic Set”.
  • Just under that word “Basic Set” you should see the words “My Calllsign”.
  • Press the black joystick button again to the right to advance to the manu item “My Callsign”.
  • The radio screen should show “NoCall”.
  • Use the large black joy stick to position the cursor all the way to the left so you can enter the first call sign letter.
  • Press the keyboard button that corresponds to the first letter of your call sign.  Just keep pressing the same button as it represents about 3 letters and 1 number.  By keep pressing the same button the letters will cycle and then the number, over and over again. Once you type in the first correct letter of your cal sign, then use the large black joy stick to move your cursor to the next field.
  • After you successfully type in your call sign then use the key (top middle) labeled “A/B -CLR”.  This is really important as it will insert a BLANK field (being the secret trick).  DO NOT press any key that shows up as a dash (such as “ENT”).
  • Once you have your call sign showing correctly move the black joy stick all the way to the left as this initiates a “enter’ process and check to see if your call sign still shows correctly at the bottom of the HT screen.  If you move the cursor out of the call sign field and your call sign does not revert back to “No Call”, you did it correctly.

Sky Command  process for entering “Callsign”

  • Use Black joystick and advance from RADIO to GPS to APRS to SKY.
  • The arrow should rest just to the left of SKY.
  • Press the Black joy stick button to the right thus revealing SKY COMMAND and the menu number should show 50-.
  • Press the black joy stick button to the right so that the arrow moves down to “CMD Callsign”.  Note that the field below will show “NOCALL”.
  • Again, press the black joy stick button to the right so that “NOCALL____” shows a flashing cursor just after the last letter.
  • Move the black joy stick button so the cursor is all the way to the left at the letter “N”.
  • Now enter your call sign as described above.
  • Remove any wrong letters or numbers by pressing the “A/B -CLR” button.
  • Use “A/B-CLR” button to clear any fields after your call sign.
  • Now move your cursor to the right and this will cause your call sign to be entered.
Help Fight Anonymity

Help Fight Anonymity

For me, when I look at a person with body piercing, tattoos, new fashion clothing, noticeable shoes, fashion-glasses, unique hair, colorful nails, or I find a person practices interesting hobbies, writings, sports, etc., that person is, or may be, trying to avoid a sense of personal anonymity. Here is the logic for you to consider. After each person is born, that individual is indeed the center of their universe. This can have a profound effect upon any person to make them feel special.  Many children being brought up are admired as being a “new born” by parents, relatives and friends and often times they are taken great care of as special individuals. But this special treatment wears off with time.

This sense of being the center of family, friends, and community gets dispelled over time because the self-sense of uniqueness dissolves into other people’s lives. Maybe another child is born into the family and, the first child feels less loved or feels less noticed. Children soon discover in school that they are just a class-member and way-less unique than they thought earlier. If a child is not at the top in the classroom and in sports, they soon discover that any notion of a predestination of being important they may have had is only a false impression or a dream with no basis in reality. It may take a while, but a child figures out that they need to work toward not being a grain of sand on the beach of life.

I have no idea how my dad became the way he was, but, whenever we went out to a restaurant he would ask the server their name and he would inquire in a gentle way about them — to get to know a little about the person. You do not do this in a fast food establishment or any situation where the server is pressed for time. By the time my dad paid the bill, my dad knew a few details about our server. I also noticed that when we returned to dine again, that server would recognize my dad and a casual sort of friendship often times would gain traction between them. It took years for me to recognize the concept-of-community that my dad created with people: he really was trying to raise the person out of anonymity. I have used this to great effect at my local Starbucks where the baristas take great care to make my Zebra drink the way I like it — and sometimes I get a small benefit — like trying a new drink or pastry.

Now as a father, when I dine out, with or without my children, I always ask my server’s name if they are not wearing a name badge. I get the server to make a menu recommendation and this sometimes reveals that the server is a vegetarian, or hates fish, or favors a type of dish. Every time I find an opening like that I tend to make some joke to make them laugh. I almost always find some excuse to find out something about the person. If they are young, I ask about school. If they make any reply like “you all,” I ask if they are from the South. I have a lot of tricks to get to know my server. When I come into the restaurant again, I sometimes get better service because the staff sees me almost as a friend.

I sort of digress a bit from the point I wish to make. I simply loath meeting anyone and not recognizing the person in some way. I want to lift BOTH of us out of that moment’s perceived anonymity. For me, I love to make people laugh and I can only do that if I get to know the person I just met in some way. The results compound. I feel good about what I did. The person I just met no longer treats me with anonymity. I in turn lift them out of the level of anonymity. Finally, I do this sincerely and not for any other reason. I now have fun trying to get people to open up. I do recognize the benefits for me and the person I am treating this way. It always seems to be a win-win for both of us: call it fighting anonymity — or expanding a sense of community.

 

Chocolate Stout Beer Taste Test

Chocolate Stout Beer Taste Test

My wife had a chocolate beer at Disneyworld and the experience for her never left.  She kept talking about it from time to time.  We were in World Market and she picked up a local brewery chocolate stout, Bayhawk, to try out.  I noticed that Hanger 24 also offered a chocolate stout and we decided to do a taste test.  Here is the results of that test.

Date of test: August 17, 2014

 

Two chocolate beers were compaired in a taste test.
Chocolate Porter Taste Test

Bayhawk Chocolate Porter

  • Chocolate flavor: The chocolate flavor was subtle but recognizable enough.  As the glass became warmer the chocolate flavor seemed to become more pronounced.
  • Beer flavor: one almost had to remember that we were drinking a beer beverage.  The flavor was way more subtle in total.  The beer flavor was there but you had to remember to look for it.
  • Harshness:  way less harsh than Hanger.
  • Smoothness:  way smoother than Hanger
  • Strength:  lower strength than Hanger.

Summary:  refine, subtle, smooth and enjoyable.  This would be a better choice for a women, refined gentleman, or a person with a sensitive palate.

 

Hanger 24 Chocolate Porter

  • Chocolate flavor: seemed to be louder than Bayhawk and this might be party due to other beer factors seeming to make its flavor project or speak more loudly.
  • Beer flavor:  The chocolate was more pronounced and so was the beer flavor.  You definitely knew you were drinking a chocolate beer.
  • Harshness:  much more harsh can Bayhawk
  • Smoothness:  not smooth.
  • Strength:  way more strong than Bayhawk.  This beer was like experiencing a louder color while the Bayhawk was a pastel.

Summary:  Hanger came across as being a crud, brash, and masculine type of flavor.  It seemed to shout while the Bayhawk spoke with a more normal voice.  This is truck driver’s choice.

 

 

Updated: June 18, 2019 with prior Bayhawk link broken.