Sony Pictures and Pakistan Taliban May Have Similarities.

Sony Pictures and Pakistan Taliban May Have Similarities.

In war it makes sense to initiate a surprise attack, choose soft targets that are unprepared for the attack and can result in measured success to advance your aims.  North Korea did just that when it hacked Sony Pictures.  But one must ask why did they follow the Japanese Pearl Harbor example?  Why was Sony Pictures so important to take down?

There is a similarity linking North Korea allegedly attacking Sony Pictures computer system through an attack and the Pakistan Taliban attack upon a school catering to children of the military.  The Talaban killed at least 141 children.  North Korea may have successfully diminished free speech, free expression in the rest of the world.  Both attacks were motivated by getting even for some perceived attack.

Because Sony Pictures was attacked in the way it was, should indicate that North Korea felt some pending hurt.  In the case of the Talaban in Pakistan the hurt came from the military carrying out a offensive against the Taliban.  The Taliban went after the children of the military staff a very soft target and unexpected.

I only wish to draw a parallel between the Pakistan Taliban and North Korea to show that the attacks in both cases seemed to be similar.  Both attacks were carried out with such force and both attacks seemed successful in that they were not anticipated and no protection was set up by the Pakistan  government and Sony Pictures.  Both attacks shocked the world.  We know the reason for the Pakistan attack but do not seem sure about why North Korea attacked Sony Pictures.  But, looking at both instances you might draw more understanding of why North Korea made their attack by looking at why the Taliban made their attack.

A key point I wish to explore is why would North Korea think the pending movie called The Interview?  North Korea is a heavily controlled dictatorship where the citizens are treated like slaves.  There is no free expression, no freedom of speech, no economic freedom.  The society is oppressive and demeaning toward its citizens all for the purpose of enriching the oligarchy.  The country is not on par with any western nation for enlightenment and being civilized.  The population is told what to believe.  It stands to reason that the leadership of North Korea would be horrified if any reference is made to assassinate their supreme leader in any public forum, anywhere.  This is point is my main recommendation, that being that North Korea wanted to kill The Interview so no one would view it and the idea it carries come into infect the minds of the North Korean people.  In other words, North Korea adores the notion that anyone would assassinate their supreme leader, even in fiction.  Ideas can be powerful and dangerous.

My second view, but less important in my mind, is the movie may ridicule the North Korean dictatorship.  It also implies that the rest of the world hold North Korea in some disdain due to its fascist political system.  The leadership of North Korea would not want their slave population realize that other people in other countries look at North Korea as backward and uncivilized as it truly is.  No individual in any country would want to think that their nation is backward (as North Korea is).  This notion would may also grate upon the North Korean population if they knew that other people in other countries think of them this way.

Sony Pictures does have a powerful weapon.  They can shoot back.  Here are some suggestions:

  • I suggest that Sony Pictures retaliate and try to get even with the scum lords of North Korea by releasing the movie.
  • I recommend that Sony Pictures makes a Korean language version so the chances are better that the movie is viewed by the North Koreans.
  • I recommend that Sony Pictures renames the movie “The Interview With Fat Boy” and releases the movie in a pay per view venue and  direct DVD sales.
  • I also recommend that Sony Pictures tries to find every method they can to invade copies of the movie into North Korea.  This may be likened to laying a garage of artillery shells at the country.  I just read that Google is thinking of putting balloons up high enough to offer more Internet connectivity.  Internet in North Korea is naturally heavily restricted but I am betting that there are enough bright people in North Korea that can circumvent these restrictions.
Target Does Stupid

Target Does Stupid

Target had a sale where you buy two games and get one free about the time of Veterans Day 2014.  My daughter reserved one game by putting down $1 and came in a few days later to pick up all three games.  As part of the deal my daughter was given a card that proved that she had one game reserved to be picked up.  The card apparently had a redemption code that allowed the buyer to get a free weapon in one of the games.  Problem is that she had to hand over the card to the sales clerk to get her games when she came in a few days later. This was a big mistake by Target.  She was told that the store needed the cards to track pre orders.  Problem for my daughter is that the card had a scratch off one time code that she needed to gain the game reward  The customer allegedly should have retained the card to activate the code.  It took my daughter some time to realize that she needed the code to activate the reward.  She called the store and a clerk gave her a code over the phone which did not work.  She called the store manager and was told that they threw all the cards away and did not have access to the codes.  The store allegedly did two things wrong. They took the cards that should have been kept by the customer. Second mistake is they threw the cards away, which I frankly do not believe they did.  My guess is they did not want to  go through the verification process of who qualified for a code and come up with a code that works.  My daughter did get an apology from the store manager. My daughter works retail sales and accepted the apology because she sees really bad customer behavior.  I am much older and less wiling to accept stupid for an excuse.

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.