USA Looses Important Political Force.

USA Looses Important Political Force.

August 6, 2015:  The United States of America has lost an important brick of the national check and balance system with the loss of Jon Stewart.  For those who read this blog page from other countries, Jon Stewart was for most young people, their main and maybe only source of news.  He was beyond being a court jester because he and his writers were voices that no one seemed to control.  Their voice seemed to cut through the bull shit that we expect from politicians, the gutless “news” we get from print, the sensationalist TV “news” short stories amounting to nothing in the time line of history.  What Jon Stewart did was illuminate hypocrisy and shined light on the stupid which the United States of America, as well as any country, is full of.

Wikipedia – Jon Stewart
YouTube – Jon Stewart
National Public Radio – Fresh Air – John Stewart, August 6, 2015, audio only.

Husky Tool Chest and Tool Cabinet Review

Husky Tool Chest and Tool Cabinet Review

This is a type tool organizer that is found in garages to hold auto and home tools.  These are typically two separate units purchased separately and most often married into one push around tool organizing contraption.  A tool chest which typically has two hand holds on either end and can be carried around is placed upon a roll around cabinet that can be treated as a separate tool storage unit device.  The bottom cabinet typically has wheels allowing it to be moved around the garage at will.  Some cabinets come with a hand rail to more easily allow the cabinet to be grasped for movement.

Picture shows the top and bottom tool organizers.
Home Depot Display

Tool Chest Model: Husky 1000 937 536
26 inch 5 drawer.  Each drawer is held closed by some friction device until opened.  You can only open a drawer if the top lid is lifted.  The whole device can be locked with a key.
Heavy duty
$119.00

Tool Cabinet Model: Husky 1000 937 540
5 drawer.  Each drawer is held closed until opened.  The whole device can be locked with a key.
2 fixed wheels and 2 rotating wheels with ball bearings for wheel pivot.  The two pivot wheels have locks so the cabinet will not slide around the garage.
$179

Total cost for both units with liners was close to $300.
Liners cost extra.  3 thick liners each cost $12.97 = $38.91.  1 thin liner cost $6.97.

This is a “Limited Edition” which I was told by a sales person increases sales  but is nothing special other than the added logo.

This was a surprise birthday gift from my family.  I had been wanting to buy a tool organizer for years but just could not pull the trigger.  I had not yet done my typical Internet research to find out which brands were the best and which were the ones to stay away from.  When I first was given this gift I was torn.   I typically buy good to excellent quality and features which was taken away from me.   I was appreciative that I now had a tool organizer but was it any good?  I got the organizer late at night after a birthday dinner so I had the next day to go over to Home Depot, where the organizer was purchased and look it over.  It seemed smaller than what I think I needed but Internet reviews shared the view that this organizer was a reasonable size which is a good point.  Some tool organizers may require a crane to lift.  The Home Depot web site gave this organizer almost a perfect score (Home Depot owns Husky).  Some of the reviews seemed suspicious.  I got the impression that people with vested interests seemed to write some of the reviews.  Other reviews read more honest and also gave this organizer high score so I felt better about not starting an exchange for a different organizer.

My daughter and I opened the bottom cabinet and attached the wheels.  The wheels and mounting screws seemed impressive.  While I had the cabinet on its back and the wheels on, I oiled the two wheel pivot bearings.  We attached a handle bar that you can use to steer the device around.  There were no problems with this unit.  I did notice that each side of the cabinet end has its metal side ends sticking out a bit which is rather odd and looks cheap and stupid in my opinion.  A person could slide in an art board on any of the 3 sides with these metal wall hooks helping to keep the art board in place.

Cabinet walls have their ends bent out a bit to form a slight "J".
Cabinet bottom metal wall side end. Notice that the end of the metal plate is bent outward. This occurs top and bottom of each metal cabinet side.

 

By myself, I pulled the chest out of its box and put it upon the cabinet.  I noticed that the cabinet would rock.  The bottom was not level.  A front metal cabinet tab was incorrectly welded.

20150724_164633_resized (1)
Image is front bottom right corner. Notice the metal is not flush when welded. Notice the black pad I cut and placed upon the top of the cart just under the partial picture of the chest.

I then found that the whole left top side of the cabinet was bent inward.  I could not open the top lid.

20150724_164613_resized_1
Rear view showing rear left side bent inward at the top.

 

The box that the chest was pulled from was pristine.  This tells me that the chest was defective when it was placed into the box.  I suspect that quality control is non existent or incompetent.  For this reason, that I do not think Huffy has adequate quality control.   I recommend that you purchase from a local Home Depot store and not the Internet unless you like to perform heavy item returns.   We found our local Home Depot was terrific for handing this return.  The second unit was perfect out of the box so my only next concern was drawer liners.

The drawers do not come with liners.  Most tools are metal.  The drawers are painted metal.  If you like to see that perfect painted drawer surface scratched up, omit the liners.   Husky sells rolls of liner material but I did not like it because the liner material has holes, allowing bad stuff to collect on the top of the metal drawer.  I want a continuous solid liner surface.  Here are my choices:

Tool Chest Liner: Con-Tact Brand Grip Premium Liner, 18 in x 4 ft, non adhesive, black.  Kittrich Corporation.  This is a thinner liner than what I put into the tool cabinet.  I figured smaller lighter tools requires a thinner drawer liner and I thought was a bit cheaper, but not.  It is easier to cut to size.  I did not like this liner because it had a noticeable chemical smell.

20150725_103609-1_resized (1)
Con-Tact Grip Premium Liner, non adhesive, 18 in x 4 ft, black.

Tool Cabinet Liner: Step Guard, Utility Matting, 27 in x 72 in, black, Multy Home, LP, is actually a floor mat with ridges on one side and a flat surface on the other.  I put the ridge side facing up.  I found this at Home Depot part of the store where they sell rugs.  I put one liner on the top of the tool cabinet so the tool chest places on top would not scratch the surface.  I then put this liner in each of the cabinet drawers and some of the chest drawers.  This liner is more expensive than Con-Tac Brand but seems way more rugged.  I did find out that each Step Guard roll end was not cut at a right angle.  I used a framing square and using the blue tape, made sure the end was at a ninety degree angle before making any more measurements and cuts.

20150725_114822-1_resized
Multy Home, L.P., Step Guard, black, 27 in x 72 in.

I chose black liners so cutting it posed a problem for marking where my cuts should be.  My daughter came up with a terrific, near brilliant, solution.  She said to use the blue painters tape.  I used short pieces to mark where I needed to cut at each end of a liner and then used a long straight strip of tape and pressed it down so one edge of the tape was the cutting edge.  I then cut along the edge of the blue tape.  This worked perfectly.  I guess I should stop telling blond jokes (my daughter is blond).

Blue painters tape mark the drawer liner as to where the cuts are to be made.
A short single piece of tape marks at each end of the mat as to where the cuts should take place. Then a long piece of blue tape goes on top to mark where the scissors are to cut. The blue tape for me was the best method to mark my cuts.

 

blue_painters_tape_top
The most difficult liner to cut is for the top of the chest. The two front corners need to have some liner cut out as well as two slits to allow the liner to slide past the two rear top lid supports that help the lid from slamming down. Then there are two small cuts on the back side of the liner to clear the drawer lock device. The lock device is two vertical metal bars running behind each drawer, which is activated by the top lid. When the top lid is down, each drawer is locked.

 

Summary:  Finally, the tool organizer seems to be functional. The price is very reasonable.  The drawer liner purchase, cutting and fitting was a bit of a drag but I felt necessary.  Why should a birthday gift come with added work?  As for the device, I am not impressed with Husky.  One might think that sticking Home Depot to deal with defective merchandise is inexcusable but Husky is owned by Home Depot so boom on them.  They, Husky/Home Depot, failed for a list of reasons:

  • The first chest front bottom left metal tab was a production mistake.
  • The first chest top left side of the chest being bent was a glaring alleged production mistake and should not have been offered for sale.
  • The prior two errors should have been spotted and the device should have never been shipped.  My point here is this points to an alleged quality control problem.
  • Sticking the customer with detecting the defect and making a store return is inexcusable.

Husky would not be my choice because they allegedly seem to lack product pride and integrity.   Once I received undamaged tool organizers and put liners into them, the whole system seemed to be functional.  The one main plus, as stated before, is price.  These organizers are inexpensive.

 

Observations For Keeping A House Cool

Observations For Keeping A House Cool

The following list comes from my impressions of what I have tried and think works or not for keeping a house cool.  None of these views are based on exacting research.  This is just my casual observations and thus I can be incredibly wrong or not.  These are some ideas for you to consider.

Local Geography

I live near an ocean coast and thus the water temperature most of the year is much cooler than inland.  Further inland there is a desert and these two geographical bodies sort of come into conflict.  When the sun rises in the East, where the desert is for us, the desert earth warms up causing an updraft because heat raises from barren soil, very little vegetation.  The cooler air over the ocean moves across the land to make up for the rising air deeper inland but heats up the more it travels from ocean inland.  This local air movement is called an ocean breeze.  My house has south facing windows which face this breeze and this is a terrific solution for us to cool our house when the sun goes down.

Temperature Reading Location

I frequently check the outside temperature using thermometers mounted in shady spots, front and back of the house.  The back or north side of the house is enclosed by high cement block walls which stagnates the air a bit from the ocean breeze. The North side of the house also has a pool is almost always 5 degrees hotter than the South side because the water stores the heat for a long time.

I have noticed that the thermometers mounted just outside our north and south windows really are in error.  The pool and stagnate air around it due to the high walls makes for about a 5 degree increase in temperature.

The South side temperature gauge is also a bit wrong because the house and ground near the gauge radiates heat from soil and building.  The whole house acts like a stored heat source for quite some time.  We have a wide driveway on the South side of the house which really stores heat for a long time.  The point I am trying to make is to be aware of your surroundings when placing a temperature gauge and always keep it out of direct sun light.

I have discovered that I must walk more than 20 feet south of the house to gain a more realistic feel for how hot or cold the ambient outside temperature is.   The house and all the cement driveway, sidewalk, stone work planters and any standing water store heat.  The outside temperature is definitely hotter closer to my house.  This became apparent when I checked my cell phone to see if it was cool enough to open the South windows and allow the ocean breeze to flow into the house.  The cell phone weather applications would show for example 76 degrees but the temperature gauge would be close to 80.  When I walked away from my house, the ambient temperature seemed to more closely match the weather application on my cell phone.

Cell Phone and Computer Weather Applications

I am quite annoyed with my cell phone weather applications reporting accurate up to date temperature readings.  I use Yahoo Weather, AccuWeather and The Weather Channel cell phone applications.  Readings can differ between products by as much as 7 degrees.  Readings can lag real time by as much as 15 minutes.  This may depend upon how you set up your cell phone for how quickly it receives updates.  Most applications allow you to force a weather update.  I recommend that you use different methods and try to get a consensus.  I recommend at least two weather applications, look at your outside temperature gauges and you might even walk outside away from your house to “feel” the temperature as a final check.

Air Flow

A very, very, important factor to consider is air flow, direction and intensity.  Almost always our house has a flow from the southern direction and almost no air flow from the North. For this reason, we put fans into the North facing windows to bring the cool outside air into the house in rooms where we get no south to north air flow.  I discovered that rooms with only North facing windows seem to never change inside temperature.   I have to use window fans.  We do not need to put fans in the other half of the house because we have South facing window rooms and if we open the bedroom windows on the South and North side of the hose, the air from the South rooms will flow right through the North bedrooms.  If privacy is an issue and someone closes their bedroom door this whole airflow cycle stops and we resort to window fans.

A real annoying science fact that throws a lot of people off is that a breeze will feel cool but you should never use a breeze to decide when to open windows of a house.  Always depend upon a temperature gauge and not how cool the air feels.  Example: if you are outside and feel a cool breeze and then open the house windows you must realize that that cool air flow typically will not be felt inside the house.  The cooling effect takes place when you receive the breeze upon your body directly.  You may be letting in hot breezy air into a cooler house if you do not follow this advice.  It is way better to look at the outside thermometer first to “see” what the temperature actually is.  Try to use science.  If the thermometer shows a higher temperature outside than inside your house, just park yourself outside the house, in the shade, in a comfortable chair, to enjoy the apparent cooler air flow experience.

A nifty trick is to put a fan in a room to get the internal air to circulate.  We love to use the vertical fans that cycle back and forth.  The room will feel less stuffy and the air flow across your body will provide a cooling effect.

Temperature Difference

Another important factor to consider is temperature difference.  If the outside air is just a few degrees cooler than the inside of our house, I tend to not turn on fans to get that cooler air into the house.  I am way more willing to turn on a fan if the temperature difference is more significant.  By this, I mean that if the inside air temperature match, lets say at 77 degrees and I had the air conditioner on set for 77, I will turn the AC off but not open windows. The reason is outside air close to the coast is typically moist but air inside the house has had the moisture removed by the air conditioning process.  You may reason that there is no reason not to open the windows and shut the AC off at 77 but I think you would be wrong.  Instead, I coast what the AC provided by turning off the AC and keep the windows closed until the outside temperature drops a few degrees more, typically fifteen minutes to a half hour.  Reason?  Moist air will feel hotter.  If I open the windows too soon we feel hotter due to the rise in moisture.

 

Updated:  3-6-19 because AccuWeather link time out thus removed.
Me vs We Views Impact Social, Political And Personal Outcomes.

Me vs We Views Impact Social, Political And Personal Outcomes.

Let me share a viewpoint with you that might help explain some social, political and maybe marriage behavior.  Let me begin by briefly explaining the concept of a continuum.  A significant portion of becoming educated is looking at situations and attempting to break the whole into parts so we can better look at the parts, examine the parts instead of the whole, and try to see if the parts stand out in any way from other parts.  Differentiation arises out of this process; in fact, it is the process of looking for differences and then defining them or explaining them as to how they are different.  Differentiation is recognizing something that we think is different and separate in some unique way.  If it is different, then that component may become important enough to use as an analysis tool.

Sometimes one factor which we think is unique also has a factor of degree.  The concept of a person having a temperature is an ideal example.  A high temperature might tell us to take some action like taking a medication or taking a person to the doctor or hospital.

Differentiation can also be expanded to present two different, and often times, opposite measures.  Light versus dark is an ideal example.  Then there are shades of gray in-between those two extremes.  Many people remember better if the writer can offer some graphical image that really parallels what is being presented.  I wish to present to you the concept of continuum and at each end are two opposing political views.  To best offer a graphical image in your mind, think of this continuum as a horizontal line, ruler or board.

Let me first define the continuum.  A measuring ruler, held horizontally, is perfect for showing this concept.  The horizontal length is a scale of sorts.  At either ends are opposite components, in this case, views.  This really works when you find societal components that appear to be in conflict, typically opposites.  Freedom and slavery would be a prime example.  The ruler, in this case, is not a temperature gauge but a societal gauge.  The continuum ruler allows us to place individuals and parties, in relative positions along that ruler as to their beliefs and actions.  What is wonderful about the continuum analogy is we can typically  “see” this ruler in our minds.  People who have visual memory can really grab on to this technique.  What is also important and implied by the use of the ruler analogy is that we can place people and society groups anywhere we want along this continuum.  It is very important that you define what the two extremes are.  Also implied is that this continuum significantly sweeps up, includes, a lot of the society we wish to talk about and may help us talk about and possibly explain political behavior of individuals and groups.  In the prior example of free and slave, or, free and incarcerated, there are also degrees of how much freedom a person has or how many impediments are put upon a person that do not allow full freedom.  In this case putting free on the left or right might not matter, just make sure you put them at opposite ends.  But, there are some instances when one should place a defined social situation on the left or right of the ruler or scale.

“The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the ?president’s? right and supporters of the revolution to his left.”

In the Western world: “The Left seeks social justice through redistributive social and economic policies, while the Right defends private property and capitalism.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_politics

I wish to share with you a personal suspicion I have behind why individuals in the United States, and possibly other nations, have right or left political views.

It should not be enough to make a drawing in our minds with two opposite factors placed at either ends of a ruler.  We should endeavor to understand why the differences exist.  What is the why or reason behind two factors being opposed.

Here is the view.  I think whether you are a right continuum person or left depends upon, in part or whole, whether you are a “ME” and  “I”  type of person.  Let’s put the “ME” person at one end of the ruler and the “WE” person at the other end of the ruler.  The WE person is left and the ME person is on the right so that we follow the French and EU political seating arrangement.

Look closely at the Wikipedia use of words to describe the left; they are inclusive and recognize and embrace more people.  Look at the words to explain the right.  “Private” implies individual and family.  The word “capitalism” implies valuing profit over the needs of society.

There are two basic forms of political views and philosophy that may result in different political parties.  This is very close to be the situation in the United States but it also works for other nations, too.  The concept starts out being extremely simple to conceptualize.  The first is the view of “ME” a rather self centered view.  The second view is “WE” which tends to include people outside my family, tribe and state.  These two personal outlooks by individuals seem to translate and expand into a political philosophy similar to what is listed below.  I will use only the word ME and US to represent the two opposing views.

We will next examine each separate end of the continuum,ME and We, in our next posts (soon to be added).

Marsun Rane edited this post.
Small 19″ TV Set – Insignia NS-19E310NA15 (Product Review)

Small 19″ TV Set – Insignia NS-19E310NA15 (Product Review)

I wanted a small TV to set beside my computer in my office and quickly check news or sports easily and quickly.  My prior (CRT) TV would power up from a 12 volt power source so this was an important requirement.  In case of a disaster our family could pick up any surviving TV station signals in the area by connecting the TV to the car battery.  I also wanted this next TV to be connected to my laptop so I was looking for an RGB input connector.
For emergency command operations that must rely on battery power, this TV might be an asset.   This TV also allows viewing of photo images from USB port so if an incident commander is given photographs from a photographer, they can be viewed and zoomed in for better closeup inspections.  For ham radio operators that might need a second monitor connected to their laptop (APRS & Winlink).  This TV has that capability.

Manufacturer: Insignia
Model: NS-19E310NA15

Features:
19 inch screen, LED, 720P & 60 HZ
HDMI = 2
VGA = 1
USB = 1
Component = 1
Digital Audio Out (Coaxial) = 1
Headset Out = 1
Antenna/Cable = 1

TV Set Controls:
In case you can not find your remote control the settings can be changed by buttons along the top right.  I plan to label the location of each button with a label on the front bezel so I don’t have to look at the TV from the top.

Setup menu, for me, was quite good.

Screen:
This screen is not high definition.  I am extremely demanding for good clarity and realistic flesh tones.  When using Time Warner cable box, the sharpness was OK but the human flesh tones looked pasty.
Blacks look deep and have scale.
Whites and contrast are a bit of a disappointment for me.  They looked like they were clipping.  I ran a diagnostic DVD and it confirmed that the whites easily clipped and lacked scale.  But, for casual viewing, most people would not notice nor care.
The image did not seem to change color or brightness much horizontally but it did change when your vertical angle changed.
Vertical = high = lightened up
Vertical = low = screen darkened.

Remote control features were very good and easy to navigate.  I especially liked the “Aspect” button.  The TV defaulted to “Auto” aspect but I wanted the image to fill the screen.  I just hit the “Aspect” button and the image would change size.
The channel search function worked perfectly for me. There have been reports that the tuner will not stay on a set channel, possibly if the antenna signal is interrupted.  (I did find this – look at “Outdoor Antenna” below)

A small item to note is that the remote does have “Insignia” name on the remote.  My Time Warner cable remote has no name and I have reached for the wrong remote a couple of times by mistake.

Sound lacks base but because there is audio output that can feed speakers.  I found the audio quite acceptable.  I got loud audio when I turned up the remote audio buttons.  I  also hooked up computer speakers to this TV set and the sound was very good.

Antenna signal:
Time Warner Cable = comes in as an analog NOT digital signal.  The TV set scan for channels actually found 2 analog stations, one good the other same but real noisy and bad.  The images looked like standard definition, OK but not good.  The images look a bit pasty.  I attribute this to Time Warner not providing a really good signal.
Outdoor Antenna = image looks way better than Time Warner Cable.  If the antenna is not getting a really good signal the image will go to still with or without breakup.  I would guess that a really good antenna is necessary.

HDMI Inputs: I seemed to get improved sound when using the HDMI inputs compared to the Time Warner cable box.  It seemed crisper and louder.  I hooked up a DVD Blue-Ray player so I would have another signal source that would be way better than the Time Warner cable box and the image looked quite good and crisp audio (Audio still lacking deep base).

USB Port:
As soon as I slipped a USB finger drive into the TV set, a screen menu showed “PHOTOS” and three options:
Browse Photos places you into seeing the folders on the memory card.  I had a folder labeled “Photos” for my test and it showed along with other folders in the drive.  When a photo is selected, you can even rotate it but only while viewing. It will not save the rotation.  When you go into slideshow, the image goes back to how it was shot.
Favorite Photos  Can’t figure this out yet.
Start Slide Show  The slide show will show each image you have in order as to how it resides in the folder.  If an image is not rotated correctly the browse function will not correct for this.  The slide show cycles only once and then goes back to displaying the folders and small image files.  I think this feature is rather useless.  I have looked to see if there is a setting to keep the slide show repeating but so far can not.
 Zoom is offered as a sub menu item .  Choices are Fill, 2X, 4X.
When the USB drive is inserted, You can get the TV to go to any other function by pressing INPUT button. If there is no USB drive inserted into that input, the whole screen goes black and shows “USB device was removed”.
The photo images seemed to be really good.  It seemed that the whites held more detail.  This tells me that the screen is more capable than the Time Warner Cable box.

Other Features:
Closed Caption On, Off, On when mute is turned on (clever).
Sleep Timer
INLink:
I was able to control my Blue-Ray DVD player from the TV remote.  The manual indicates that the remote can control Time Warner devices.

The Bad:  I tried to play a DVD “Ride Along” using HDMI cable between a Blue-Ray player and the TV set.  I could not get the promotion videos to output audio.  The movie was OK but not the short intro videos.  I am suspicious that there is a audio format compatibility issue.

Summary: this TV does not give a high definition image nor is the audio real high quality.  It is surprisingly good in the kitchen, desktop or given to a child.   Its features are impressive.

AAA Battery Roadside Service Is Shockingly Impressive.

AAA Battery Roadside Service Is Shockingly Impressive.

AAA Battery Roadside Service Is Shockingly Impressive

My wife and daughter tell me that our Toyota Camry will not start up.  I ask them to turn on the head lights and they look dim.  I get my volt ohm meter and read just over 9 volts across the battery terminals.  I tell them to use another family car and I will go get another battery.  I have changed out car batteries in the past and it is very easy, should take a couple of hours to shop for a replacement and swap it out.  I look at the date code sticker on the battery and it shows being over 6 years old.  But, all of a sudden I remember seeing AAA battery service vehicles from time to time.  Our family has AAA Roadside Service (California) and I call their number (800-AAA-HELP).  They can get a person out within 30 minutes, I was told.  The battery cost is just over $100 and the service call is included in us paying for AAA roadside service.   The local company who contracts with AAA, Brea (California) Towing, service technician shows up in about 10 minutes.  He checks my AAA card and pulls out two test equipment boxes, analyzer and I think a battery.   He uses the large analyzer to scan the car VIN identification tag in the drive door frame and knows the year of the car immediately and thus the battery needed for my car.

Camry-Battery-Being-Tested

 

He hooks up the analyzer and quickly determines that the battery has a bad cell.  He then checks our charging system and finds that it is working fine.  The tester prints out two paper reports, one he keeps and the second he hands to me.

Below is partial copy of the print out form the tester that I was given showing that our battery has a bad cell.

AAA-Battery-Service-Test-(cropped)

 

He removes the analyzer and inserts a backup battery across the car power terminals while he replaces the old battery with a new one.  The reason he does this is so we do not loose the saved radio stations stored in the car radio.  The technician has our battery in his truck and installs it.  Their batteries all say AAA but I am told they are made by Interstate Batteries.  The battery we received had a CCA (cold crank amps) of 700!  The whole process is completed within the time they told me the service technician would arrive, 30 minutes.  I was shocked at how fast this whole repair process took.

My analysis:

  • The whole process was incredibly, shockingly, fast.
  • I was guessing that the battery was bad (good guess).  For this company to come out with a very sophisticated tester and pinpoint the problem to be the battery and not the charging system is very important.
  • The battery cost was very reasonable ($119.88 total).  I checked and my research shows that I actually saved money by using this service, about $30.
  • I got a CCA rating that is impressive, 700.
  • The battery has a 3 year free replacement and a 6 year limited warranty.
  • The car radio saved stations do not get erased.
  • I did not have to drive to a store and pick up the battery.  I did not have to drive back to the store to return the bad battery.  I did not have to do the installation.