PBS Video;

That they torched the killing chambers as if to erase their crimes against humanity. That one really gets to me. It proves they knew what they were doing was wrong and did it anyways. Now I know why we tried a whole bunch of the bastards an Nuremberg. They had to pay for what they had done.

 

 

So apparently reading comprehension or just being able to read isn’t natural and it isn’t so good in the U.S. This article goes far in explaining why that’s the case.

The article makes mention that there’s active and passive resistance to changing the way we teach kids to read. I’ve seen evidence of that in my own travels. One was doing Program Reviews at local schools in RI. I think I’ve told of the one class where they were learning Microsoft Office and that particular day were using Excel and the teacher had handed out crib sheets for the tax lookup.

At this point I asked if the teacher was going to cover formulas in cells, or even dare I mention Visual BASIC for Applications. What that teacher replied with sticks in my craw even today. She said and I paraphrase “Oh, that’s computer programming and you need advanced math for that.” {sigh} Let me tell you I was not charitable in the report I wrote for that classroom. I explained basic number systems like base 2, base 8, base 10, and base 16 and perhaps Algebra I were all that was necessary.

That very attitude of the teacher explains why we have only about 1/3 of students at proficiency.

Because I’m being more logical. It’s because I know about many things including cars, electronics, computers, even networks, databases, and science and math and combinations thereof.

So I was in fact a little crestfallen when I went out there this morning but the frontal lobe kicked in and I thought, find the right police agency. You see it’s not like the north down here in Georgia. Where you live determines what department serves you. So know I know, DeKalb County Police. But that brings the question why do we also have a Sheriffs department?

Anyhow then I realized every month I get emailed a report from OnStar about the condition of my car. So I reasoned I bet they can track it. Sure as shit they could.

It’s why I didn’t panic. But now I know two things, the first is which police agency serves our address. And second OnStar even if you reject their service can STILL track the shit out of your car. Interesting.

 

There’s this young man we’ve been giving a little bit of money to in order to haul our garbage up to the dumpster.

Yesterday just after I got home I parked the car and came in the house. Didn’t see the car again until 6AM this morning. Or failed to see it. It wasn’t in the spot I’d parked it in.

I was perplexed. Then I realized spouses key fob for the car and house keys were missing. They had been hung on a lanyard on the bedroom door.

So I made two calls, actually many to get the right police department. Anyway got the report filed with the DeKalb County Police and then called OnStar. You know, I didn’t subscribe to their service but I realized every month they send me a vehicle status report via email. And I know the car has it’s gps and secret cell service. So That’s why I called OnStar, gave them the report number and guess what, 30 minutes later they found the car. Oh glory be.

Pro tip – if you’re going to steal a modern car learn how to disable the tracking

More specifically mattresses. Now if you go through Casper, or online some of the prices are astronomical. $1,000, $2,000 etc. Me I figure it this way why is a mattress several thousand dollars? I think P.T. Barnum had the answer.

I found a queen sized Gel mattress for $244. Yeah and this is one hotels use. Very interesting.

You see we’d been sleeping on an air mattress but they tend to leak. Or explosively let the air out. So I finally tired of that and said “We need a real mattress. It came in today and I let it fully fluff out. Very comfortable. And bed with frame about $340. Not too shabby when you consider a furniture store quoted $700 for the frame, $1,700 for the mattress. Or $2,400 total. So spending just 14% of what the furniture place quoted I got the setup. And I can easily upgrade the frame when the spirit moves me.

And where did I get this? I hate to admit, walmart.com seriously.

So I had found Fedex on Facebook and I posted about my packages not being delivered today and it being pushed to Tuesday and how the U.S. non-gov carriers sucked so hard and not in a good way.

Well – Fedex got back to me. Asked me to pm my address so I sent them that plus my tracking number. I bet you either before 11PM tonight or even tomorrow my packages will be here.

What I’ve found is that to get a companies attention you have to hit them online. That gets their attention.

It’s because for instance I ordered a new bed. All week it’s said it would be delivered by TODAY. And all day today it said TODAY. Now it’s saying Tuesday. What the bloody fuck. Granted I didn’t order it from Amazon at least they deliver. So to USPS. But the private carriers suck ass all the way. I mean in the bad way.

Go watch this video. It’s 55 minutes you can skip to the segment around 20 minutes in. They’re talking about the Uighur and how China is cracking down on them.

Plus you have Hong Kong in its eight month of tumult. And even in Tibet they’re getting very angry.

Good. It took a long time for this to come about.

And other things -France and preserving some of the building a chateaus. Now the program said 21 Million Euros among 103 sites. That works out to about 200000 euros per project. Not enough but every little bit helps. Hell if I had money I’d buy one of them and rehabilitate it. We cannot forget our history because if you don’t know the history how can you reliably know the present.

First let me state flat out I support Medicare for all. It makes complete sense to me. There is the fact that overhead costs for private insurers is about 20% for Medicare it’s 3-4%. You see right there the primary reason of mine.

But this article talks about how we’d need 50,000 more M.D.’s by 2040-2050. That ain’t gonna happen. It talks about Nurse Practitioners.

I’ve been treated by a few in the northeast and southeast. Here’s my experience. I had a little intestinal bug. I went to see the NP and she thought it was Hepatitis A. But in that little period where you sit an wait she came out and said to me “It can’t be Hep-A – the incubation period is too short.” Since Hep-A takes about a month or more to present symptoms upon reviewing what I said she realized it couldn’t be Hep-A. But the thing that surprised me when I got the after visit paperwork guess what diagnosis was on them, Hep-A. I mean I appreciate she told me about the wrong diagnosis. But that’s forever committed in the EMR system.

Now down here I got to see a D.O. as my primary care. She’s one that I like but quick to do referrals. That’s also good.

But I see little difference between an M.D./D.O. and an NP.

Politicians need to get their heads out of their posterior areas and stop accepting money from insurance companies and billing companies. Those are the main opposition to Medicare for All by the way.

So two things I’ve always heard about U.S. Make cars. First is that the power steering is always top notch and that the HVAC is spot on and relatively quiet.

Such is true with my Chevy – the power steering is no longer hydraulic but electric instead and can literally be steered with one finger. And the HVAC set to mid range blower is damned quiet.

I sort of dig this car, well crossover if we’re being picky about it. But what I really wish for is for GM and Ford and even FCA to bring back the stamping and full chassis only this time with big ass battery packs and electric motors driving them. Imagine if you outfitted those boats with more modern technology – more reliable power options etc. I would bet they’d sell like hotcakes.

I mean come on imagine something like this updated for the 21st century only keep the body pristine:

And I actually saw one of these beauties on the roadways here in GA, it was on I-20 in fact.

Come on, like i said tighten up the suspension and steering and make it electric. Dear non-existent deity I would love one.