The Pain Of Loss Is Like No Other

If you haven't felt the pain of loss that I am feeling now, then I pity you for never having experienced what can only be described as true “unconditional love”. Earlier this morning I suffered the loss of one yet another dog that was not only very special to me, but exceedingly special even amongst dogs. Most dogs are obedient, and many are loyal, but few go beyond that that express a level of love that most humans cannot even approach.

For those who don't know, the Siberian Husky is an exceptionally special breed to begin with. They are far from any common dog, because not only are they exceedingly intelligent and very personable, but also because they are both pack oriented and independent. Siberians do not simply obey a master, they accept you as one of their family (pack) for life … if you meet their standards.

The Shepherd-Malamute mix (middle back row) was also exceptionally intelligent, friendly, and agile, but like the Shepherd-Keeshond (far right) she was one to just be eager to please by obeying commands. Even though the Shepherd-Keeshond was fond of back-talking when given a command, she would comply. And the Min-Pin (center front) was just happy to please and mildly defiant only as means to garner more attention. The Siberians are not like the others...

Unless they choose to comply after you have earned their respect, chances are they're going just defiantly ignore you, and I firmly believe much of it relies upon the initial human-dog bonding, or lack thereof. You don't pick a Siberian Husky puppy, the Siberian must pick you. If there is no initial Siberian-human bond, there will never be any bond.

No need to state that the face of this blog belongs to my most precious little girl Sheba (left rear). I still say it was divine intervention, having drained the oil from the car before realizing I'd used the last filter from inventory on one of my welding machines, we didn't go for a driven when we intended to because I had to run to town for an oil filter. Nonetheless, we ended up meeting Sheba that day, and there was no doubt that little princess ruling over her brothers instantly picked me at the moment I first held her in my arms. The poor girl had nothing but problems her whole life, from a skin infection when she was a puppy, to persistent digestion and bladder problems, to a couple rapidly growing tumors that had to be removed. Through it all, she never complained about anything but being separated from her family. Just like my baby who passed this morning, she never once a whimper of pain for herself, just concern for her family right up to the very end.

Nothing can describe the loss I am feeling right now, because it's been 54 weeks since I lost Sheba and that pain is still cutting my heart to shreds. More to follow...

Finding Humor Amidst the Hype and Hypocrisy

In this day and time it's difficult to find the humor in anything. We're being bombarded by the political lies, unjustified accusations of racism, and the relentless assaults on our Liberties and Freedoms from every angle. It's enough to make one's head hurt from shaking it at the pitiful condition our world is in, and realizing that the people entrusted to run things, are in deed making them worse!

That aside, I was reading through Product Design and Development magazine this morning when I came across a lengthy article extolling the virtues of AI (Artificial Intelligence) in consumer appliances. I could not help but to find humor in the choice to include a picture of a toaster oven in this article. What better way to demonstrate the sad reality of what we see throughout our world today, than to span opposite ends of the intelligence and design spectrum with just one picture of one consumer appliance!

Pick a toaster oven, any toaster oven, and let's take a closer look at why such an otherwise unnoteworthy appliance can become the humorous focal point of what's supposed to be a geeky tech article. Let's start with the fact that toaster ovens are one of the best choices to demonstrate the hypocrisy of everything from design engineering to those who push energy conservation, yet lack any understanding of science.

Without boring you to tears by turning this post into a geeky tech article … let's start with the fact that the doors on toaster ovens are uninsulated single-pane glass which allows much of the heat to radiate into the house. Consider also that every single toaster oven door I have seen, is designed in such a manner as to allow the maximum amount of heat loss from the cooking chamber when the door is opened. Go a step further and we find that nearly every toaster oven is controlled by a thermostat located between the cooking chamber and outside case; this only works because there is no insulation between the cooking chamber and exterior case, and that's why the outside of these ovens get hot enough to fry your hide. While all that heat leakage into the home isn't an issue when you're baking Christmas cookies in the North Dakota winter, here in Florida it means your air conditioner must work harder and waste a lot of electricity pumping that heat back out of the house.

The humor comes in choosing a picture of a toaster oven with the most hideously inefficient and wasteful design of any other appliance in an article about AI. I have been, and likely I will continue to be chastised for pointing out hypocrisy, especially when it comes to politics, the media, religion and engineering. Sometimes I just stop and try to contemplate whether people can actually think for themselves anymore! I was “unfriended” on Facebook by people who claim to be “Christians”, and are working in “Christian media”, merely because I pointed out their hypocrisy in claiming the proclamation of truth, while repeating fictional propaganda created by people promoting a sociopolitical agenda. It's the same as being banned from an engineering forum for calling out the nonsensical unscientific claims of one who was only intent on promoting the agenda his sponsor paid him to promote. When one maintains an objective mind, it is easy to see the commonalities amongst the hired media types no matter what genre of media they claim.

So, how about heading into the weekend with a laugh at those who chose one of the worst possible examples of failed human intelligence in consumer appliance design, to promote artificial intelligence in consumer products! LOL

Counterfeiting and Piracy Costing Us Jobs and Money!

The International Chamber of Commerce Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy (ICC BASCAP) reports that the volume of counterfeit and pirated goods increased more than eighty percent over the five years between 2008 and 2013. Not so coincidentally, this is the same period of time in which President Obama funneled over $4,040,800,000 of your tax money to foreign companies under the guise of “Obama-Stimulus”. Yes, that's right, President Obama, along with your Congressmen and Senators, sent over four billion of your hard-earned dollars to create jobs in foreign countries. The US Department of Energy hired eighteen firms with your tax money courtesy of Obama-Stimulus, and of those eighteen contracts, eleven went to Chinese companies, two went to Indian companies, and one each to Denmark, Japan, Germany, and the USA. At this point it won't come as shock to learn that ninety-three percent of the jobs that were actually “created” by Obama-stimulus were in foreign countries.

Keep in mind that as you read this in 2016, there are currently over ninety-five million Americans unemployed, that includes the ones collecting unemployment compensation that the government counts, and all those who have exhausted their unemployment compensation claims and are still out of work. And thanks primarily to the insane costs mandated by Obama-care, we have approximately one-hundred-thirty million Americans who are identified as being “under-employed”; that means they are working less than forty hours per week. Obama-care has also given us sweeping changes in that employers now consider “full-time employment” as meaning sixty hours or more per week.

While the few Americans who are working, are being forced to work multiple part-time jobs for low pay, or full-time jobs with twenty-plus hours per week of mandatory overtime, as a country we're losing over five-hundred billion dollars annually, and nearly three million jobs!

All this brought to you by the same government that is now taking your tax money and giving more than seventy-thousand dollars per year of it to illegal immigrants and Islamic invaders! Wouldn't it be great if government worried about American and Americans as much as they do foreign countries and people who hate us? 

Solar Subsidies ... Wasting Taxpayer Money!

I posted the following on our local power utility's Facebook page in reply to people whining about wanting to get “government subsidies” to finance solar PV installations. Before you continue reading, just keep in mind that none of the things you enjoy in your daily life came about as a result of government subsidies, they came about because inventors and innovators creating things worked well and saved you time or money. If solar PV systems cannot produce an ROI (Return On Investment) either in dollars or energy, then why do people think that the government should confiscate money from taxpayers to fund things that waste energy, time, and resources? …

My Reply:

I was "green" before it became the "cool thing" and while we managed to survive the "imminent ice age" hoax, and now the "global warming" hoax ... the one thing they have in common with solar power plants, is that none of them have any facts to support the claims.

From Japan, to Norway, to Australia, to Iceland, to the USA, not one single utility-scale solar plant has prove profitable. The Ivanpah plant in California has not been able to operate without burning massive amounts of N-gas, and doing it exceeding inefficiently at that!

Government involvement has done nothing but stifle innovation by subsidizing technology, methods, and project we know will fail, while simultaneously prohibiting the implementation of technologies and methods that have been proven viable. Government has wasted massive sums of our tax money, and destroyed countless acres of land with solar and horizontal wind farms we knew would fail before they were even proposed. Meanwhile we have 1350 miles of shoreline and dozens of rivers and canals going to waste. Doesn't anyone else find it curious that government will subsidize small-scale solar projects they know will never produce an ROI, while at the time prohibiting low-impact hydro, and wave-pneumatic which are proven efficient and environmentally sound technologies? Private companies have been denied permits to construct those hydro projects, as well as vertical wind turbines, at zero cost to the taxpayers because they are proven to produce rapid ROI. Government is also the reason why over 18% of our total energy demand is being dumped into landfills rather than utilized! Not to mention that over 40% of landfill material can be recycled or repurposed if not for the hideously stupid government mandates!

Jimmy Carter created the Department of Energy, and in the thirty-nine years since October 1977 they have not only NOT solved the so called "oil crisis", but they've only managed to amass one vehicle for every employee, hire foreign workers instead of Americans, sell Energy Star stamps to the highest bidder, and make it so that "durable goods" which used to have an average thirty-year lifespan, now last less than five years while costing exceedingly more money! Just look at the massive waste of taxpayer money going on Bushnell*, and not a single thought was given to implementing thermal-solar into the massive heat-islands they're building that are going to increase the amount of energy required for cooling.

* Road and other taxpayer-funded construction projects currently happening in Bushnell, Florida.

Flaming Hypocrisy - NFL & Kaepernick 

In recent weeks there's been all sorts of hoopla surrounding the so-called “demonstrations” these hypocritical imbeciles like Kaepernick are taking part in. Now why is it that not a single member of the media, nor any official of any of the professional sports organizations, nor any one else in the spotlight, bothers to ask why these clowns like Kaepernick run around in clothing provided by Nike brand while collecting advertising money from the same, and not of one of them is in the least bit concerned about the slave, child and oppressed laborers Nike is exploiting in Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, India, and elsewhere?

Where is all the outrage and protests about the “evil corporation” of Nike exploiting underprivileged people for profit? Oh, that's right … they conveniently ignore those facts when those facts are what's putting massive sums of money in their pockets! How convenient it is that this Kaepernick clown doesn't say a word about the royalties he's collecting on jerseys produced by Nike with his name on them. Isn't it also amazing how these spoiled brats are so concerned about “black oppression”, yet they don't say a word about all the black folks that Nike and other other sports-funding corporations are exploiting in Africa?

Does it not warrant asking the questions as to why these imbeciles lay claim to being “African-American”, while not having the least bit of concern about the real Africans being exploited for their personal gain? And, doesn't it also bear asking why not a single one of these Kaepernick clown types don't bother to say a word about all the “minority” children being exploited as sex-slaves for sports fans? Why yes, these “protesters” are so concerned about the plight of others, unless it comes to admitting that the Super Bowl is the single larges sex-slave exploitation and sex trafficking event in America! Nope, the players and the NFL remain completely silent on the matter, and even go so far as to prohibit journalists who would ask these questions from even entering into press events. Isn't the extreme hypocrisy simply amazing?