June 2018 Blog Topics

June 2018 Blog Topics

People Food

You know what dog food is. You know what cat food is. You know what fish (goldfish) food is. Some day they will invent a generic people food, a mass produced product that be a complete nutritious breakfast or lunch, not just part of "this nutritious breakfast."

It would come in large sacks or cartons or barrels. It would be something that could be distributed quickly and easily in a disaster zone in the aftermath of a hurricane, earthquake, or something like that. It could provide quick meals for soldiers in combat. It could be delivered to refugee camps. It could come in different forms but at least some forms must be non-perishable without refrigeration. All forms would be suitable for ages 3 and up. Most importantly it must be inexpensive enough to distribute in such quantities that people will not be fighting over it.

Large trucks could go up and down the still usable streets to give out people food and also water and baby formula.

I guess I cannot rule out finding it in subsidized school lunch programs or in food pantries.

Thumb Pushups

A recent news article was about the Guinness Book of World Records recognizing someone who did the most thumb pushups of anyone so far. Thumb pushups, if you did not know, are pushups performed with just the thumbs of each hand touching the ground in the vicinity of one's chest.

The problem is that, in the video in the news story, he did not do proper pushups. He only lowered his body far enough so he could bow his head and touch his forehead to the ground. A proper pushup starts with arms straight and elbows almost locked and lowering the body so the chest touches the ground. It will take much more effort for anyone else to beat the record doing proper pushups.

I do not recommend that anyone do thumb pushups, proper or not. It could cause carpal tunnel syndrome with the thumb tendons.

Home Depot (and Lowes and similar stores)

Every time I go into a Home Depot store I spend more time there than I planned to. It is not unusual for me to be there for a whole hour. I don't find the exact materials for my project and I have to brainstorm a lot to see what items they do have that I could cobble together to do the project.

A decade or so ago my (now late) mother often complained while we sat in the car outside Home Depot while my (now late) father went in to buy something. She thought that my father dawdled too much while in there. Now I understand why,

More decades ago it was my mother who went into a (clothing) store while the rest of the family waited in the car. After what seemed like an excessively long time my father got out saying he was going to look for my mother. While he was gone my mother came back, left her purchases in the car and went to find my father. Then my father came back, looked in the car, and left again to find my mother. You get the picture.

Cell Phone Turns On By Itself

A few years ago I read a news story about government investigating agencies tapping into your cell phone not only to listen in on your phone calls but also to record conversations in the room when you are not making a phone call. The agencies could also get pictures of you and your surroundings if the camera in the phone was facing the right way.

Now that I know about this, I could turn the cell phone off when I want to talk about something private. Not good enough. They said that the government agency, or even some knowledgeable person who wanted to spy on you, could make a call to your cell phone in a certain way to turn it back on again.

I don't like that. I don't want other people using up my phone battery to spy on me. It is bad enough when the phone uses up battery power "searching for service" every minute or so just in case I was driving or riding in the car and passed out of range of one cell tower and into the range of the next tower even if I was not talking on the phone.

There is another problem with cell phones coming to life when they should not. In at least one courtroom (in Massachusetts) they are really strict about having no private conversations in the room. The court officer announces at the start of each case that if he heard a cell phone ring he would come over and confiscate the phone. He then said, "You can come back at 4:30 and pick it up." He was not kidding. Yes I have seen the court officer confiscate a ringing phone.

I don't know what brands of cell phones can be turned on by remote control, but some can be hacked just like a computer if you visit the wrong web sites. Then malware could be downloaded into the phone by some miscreant to allow turning it on by remote control.

There are a few other things you can try. Get a shielding bag, which they sell to protect your hip or chest (depending on what pocket you put the phone in) from excessive possibly cancer causing radiation. Put the phone in this bag and it should not be able to receive or send anything. Or you could open up the phone and take the battery out when you want the phone to be quiet.

Powerless Puerto Rico

Why is it taking so long to restore electric power in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria back in 2017? Here is one reason. A lot of electrical contractors on the mainland were not offering to go there and rebuild. The contractors do not want to have their equipment and supplies stranded on the island as well as experence delays in getting paid for their work given that Puerto Rico's financial condition and credit rating is so poor.

Without contractors supplying equipment, the only alternative way to get equipment is to use government owned equipment such as that belonging to the Army Corps of Engineers. Also supplies need to be ordered and may need to be paid for up front.

What we are not sure of is whether the Puerto Rican government and electric company have been offered federal loans. This may have required pledging Puerto Rican's government pension funds and/or having the electric company go without profits for several years. Both of these options are quite politically unpalatable..

In addition, the costs of electrical grid repairs in Puerto Rico were greater than expected since more up to date and robust contruction would be needed compared with what existed prior to the hurricane.

Armed Teachers

Following the shooting at the Stoneman-Douglas school in Florida, there has been talk of having teachers carry guns to school to protect their students. Many teachers nationwide have volunteered to take the necessary training and take on this responsibility.

Many more teachers and school staff would have volunteered if they could be designated as self defenders as opposed to first responders. By this we mean that the teacher would be held to lower standards should s/he shoot the gun a bit prematurely, A self defender, unlike a first responder, could fear for his/her own life.

Also, properly protecting the school should not forbid shooting a fleeing shooter in the back. At such a moment it is not known whether the shooter was headed for a different classroom where s/he could spread more terror.

Last updated June 30, 2018

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