Divemedic

Nope

Back in the day, I used to frequent the three bars in this story. Not any more. Orlando night life has gone to shit. Actually, all of Orlando has gone to shit ever since it became a Democrat run shithole wanting to be a workers’ paradise. I wouldn’t go near that area any more.

Gone are the days when Kevin Beary was the sheriff. He was the sheriff from 1993 to 2009, had a tough on crime persona, and was a real ally of the 2A. He was once interviewed because a CCW holder got in a gunfight with some fleeing criminals who tried to carjack him when the vehicle they were fleeing from police in was disabled. The CCW holder killed one and wounded another. They were eventually caught by Orange County SWAT. The reporter asked if the CCW holder would be facing charges. Beary responded by saying that he would probably offer the guy a job because he had saved the taxpayers of Florida so much money. The press hated his ass and supported the Demings couple.

The left hated Beary for approving NFA purchases for Orange county residents. They eventually were able to run him off. So now we have a downtown Orlando that is overrun with crime.

The preacher man says it’s the end of time
And the Mississippi River, she’s a-goin’ dry
The interest is up and the stock market’s down
And you only get mugged if you go downtown

I live back in the woods you see
My woman and the kids and the dogs and me
I got a shotgun, a rifle and a four-wheel drive
And a country boy can survive
Country folks can survive

By Divemedic, ago

Can I Eat Him?

If a deer attacks you on your own front porch, and it’s outside of hunting season, I would assume that it’s still lawful to shoot his ass. I’m sure a couple of handgun bullets to the cranium would take him down, no problem. (mute the audio. The woman screaming is annoying.)

My question here is: Would you then be permitted to add his meat to the freezer? Some venison steaks would be delicious!

By Divemedic, ago

Rearranging Titanic Deck Chairs

The hospital where I work has all sorts of issues. There is a nursing shortage, there are problems with long waits, patients holding in the ED waiting for space on the floor that isn’t available due to a shortage of nurses. Turnover has been enough of an issue that they can’t keep staff.

There have been multiple administrators that have come and gone, and each of them has addressed it in a different way. One way was hiring contract nurses at $200 or more an hour. That was too expensive. Another administrator tried paying large bonuses to get nurses to work more days per week. Still another tried bringing in foreign workers.

One thing that all of them have had in common was the dumbest, least effective action. They changed the colors of the scrubs everyone wears. When I was hired, you could wear any color except black, denim, camouflage, or pediatric prints. Six months later, the colors changed. Since then, we have cycled through at least four different colors. In less than two years, I have bought at least five different collections of scrubs.

Effective tonight at midnight, we all have to wear a new scrub color. These scrubs have to be embroidered with the logo of the hospital and your job title “Nurse,” or “Doctor,” or what have you. We have to buy them from one approved vendor. That vendor is owned by the wife of one of the administrators. I am not sure how that is legal, but there it is.

So I had to buy two sets of scrubs in the new color, complete with the logo of the hospital affixed to it. I’ve learned not to buy more than that, because we will just have to buy a new color within a few months anyway.

The managers are mostly assholes and treat staff rather poorly, although I can say that I like the ones in charge of the ED. They are mostly cool, and I don’t blame them for my recent suspension. That came from risk management, and wasn’t their decision. Still, this place has begun getting on my nerves.

I am giving serious thought to switching hospitals. I’ve been here for two years now, and one of the nice things about this profession is the ease of finding a job. I know one nurse who shows up to interviews in casual clothes and says something to the effect of “Here is my license. We both know that you need nurses badly enough that you are going to offer me this job. So let’s cut to the chase- what are you willing to offer me? Don’t waste my time with useless back and forth, give me your best offer,” and they present her with her options.

Maybe it’s time for a change of scenery. There are a couple of options:

  • I can go back to being full time. There are a couple of places that are offering $10k bonuses and more per hour than I currently make for full time, which is three shifts a week. The downside is I am on a fixed schedule, and I hate begging someone for time off.
  • There is also an offer of $7500 bonuses at a couple of places. The downside is that I have to work two shifts a week, and still have to beg for time off.
  • I can also take what’s called a seasonal position, which pays $65 to $85 an hour, depending on what unit you wind up in. The downside is that you get you no bonuses, no benefits, no shift differential, and have to work every holiday. You sign a contract that has to be renewed every six months, so you can take a few weeks off (without pay) between contracts.
  • Or I can look and see what PRN contracts there are and at what pay level. These allow the most freedom- you generally have to work 4 days per month, but can work as much and whenever you like. The only benefits you get are shift differential, shift bonuses (which most hospitals have done away with), and the freedom to work whenever, as little, or as much as you want.
  • The last option is travel. A recruiter just contacted me about working in Boston. Ten weeks, $3400 a week for three days per week. They pay the cost of your hotel. That works out to about $90 an hour. It costs $200 round trip to fly between Boston and Orlando, so I would be making $3200 a week for ten weeks but would have to pay Massachusetts taxes, plus would have to actually go to Massachusetts. I don’t think that’s in the cards for me.

I think I am looking at leaving this place in June or so, when my wife’s school year ends. I don’t need benefits, because I get health insurance from my wife’s job. Maybe I will take a month or so off, then look at my options.

By Divemedic, ago

What You Do Instead of Something

The government added sesame to its list of allergens as a the FASTER Act, which goes into effect on Jan. 1. This regulation triggers all sorts of complicated tests and requirements for consumer notification in order to prove that the food product you are selling don’t contain the allergen, in this case, sesame. The plants where your foods are handled and processed must be inspected, cleaned, and maintained in such a way as to ensure that there is no way that sesame could contaminate the foods handled there. It’s a costly process.

The costs of testing, certification, and other compliance costs were so high that some restaurants discovered that it was cheaper to simply add sesame to their food and then put a waring label on it, declaring that the food contains sesame. By adding sesame to products that didn’t previously contain it, companies may be able to skirt manufacturing processes that would ensure production facilities are clean enough to avoid cross-contact with the allergen.

So that is exactly what they did. Chick-Fil-A, Olive Garden, and other restaurants have added sesame to their products so that they can avoid the added expenses incurred in not having sesame in their food products, while still complying with the FASTER act. These establishments are now fully in compliance with the new law.

According to Jason Linde, the senior vice president of government and community affairs for FARE, a nonprofit working to increase food allergy awareness, the nonprofit is disappointed that companies seem to be defeating the purpose of the FASTER Act, potentially putting millions of people’s lives at risk.

The same is true of assault weapons bans. What the left says is an “assault weapon” is a semi-automatic rifle with certain cosmetic features (pistol grip, barrel shroud, collapsible stock, etc.) that don’t change its function. So when the last AWB went into effect, people complied with the law by using bullet buttons, fixed stocks, thumbhole stocks, eliminating bayonet lugs, etc. The left then accused them of “exploiting loopholes” when what they were really doing was complying with the law.

This is what happens when you demand that the government do something. They do something without regard for the unintended consequences of what it was that they did, then you wind up with sesame seed breadsticks or sesame flour on your chicken nuggets.

By Divemedic, ago

INFOSEC

INFOSEC, and its subset COMSEC, takes many forms. Included in that is the security of your persona, your online identity- bank accounts, email accounts, even access to your blog and social media accounts. I am having to tighten my information security yet again.

In 2000, I bought a car from a used car lot. The finance guy used my personal information to steal my identity. It was a financial mess. I increased security by locking my credit reports. Now you need a password to unlock and access them.

Back in 2014, my ex-gf used my passwords to steal my emails, access my social media, and stalk me. She used the information that she obtained to try and get back at me after we broke up. It created all sorts of problems. She also stole the MICR data from the bottom of my checks and used that to go on an online shopping spree.

I massively tightened my information security. The problem is that passwords are a weak spot. If you have a password that is easy to remember, it is also easy to guess. Especially if the person attempting to guess your passwords is using computer assistance. Humans being who they are, they tend to fall into patterns and people tend to be lazy with passwords. More than 80% of people use the same password on more than one account, and people also tend to fall into predictable patterns when choosing passwords. For example, here are the 20 most common passwords of 2022:

  1. password and its variations, like password1, p@ssw0rd, etc.
  2. 123456
  3. 123456789
  4. guest 
  5. qwerty 
  6. 12345678
  7. 111111
  8. 12345
  9. col123456
  10. 123123
  11. 1234567
  12. 1234
  13. 1234567890
  14. 000000
  15. 555555
  16. 666666
  17. 123321
  18. 654321
  19. 7777777
  20. 123

Not wanting to get pwned like that, I tried using a passphrase, something like “4_$core&seVenYearsL8Tr” but it is hard to create and memorize a different passphrase for each account. As a result, I used a complicated phrase for one level of account (financial), a slightly less complicated one for email accounts, and an easier, less secure one for general things like online shopping. That didn’t work for long, because data breaches at different companies meant that one breach compromised multiple accounts. Also, that phrase is still weak. A strong passphrase needs to be random, need not be easy to memorize or type, needs to have a mix of character types, and should be at least 12, but preferably 15 or more characters long.

It was then that I began using LastPass. That software is great. It uses one passphrase to secure and encrypt your password file (called a wallet), and saves the wallet in that encrypted format. That wallet is saved on the LastPass server and is encrypted with 256 bit encryption. Not even LastPass has access to it. This allows me to have long, random, complicated passwords like Gyhu#wyr4o3fuX6$dD83 that are 12 to 20 characters long and are nearly impossible to guess, even for a computer. It’s served me well for about 8 years now. (There are others, 1password.com, for example)

The obvious weak spot is the master passphrase. Since that master passphrase needs to be somewhat easy to memorize, it by definition won’t be random. That is the weak spot. If the encrypted wallet were to fall into nefarious hands, a brute force attack could be used to crack the password wallet’s encryption and the bad guy now has your passwords.

Due to a phishing attack at LastPass, black hats managed to gain access to the servers and downloaded customer password files, including the customer’s unencrypted email address and their password wallets. This is a major breach, because the email address can be used to gain a lot of information about the owner of the wallet, making a brute force attack on the wallet’s master passphrase an easier prospect.

I saw this and was worried about my files being compromised, so I spent several days changing all of the passwords in my and my wife’s password wallets, thus making the compromised passwords outdated and useless. We also changed the master passphrases for our wallets. It appears as though we have come through the breach unscathed and our accounts remained secure. The weakness of this system was a single point of failure that was even discussed when I last posted about password wallets, but I considered it to be a low risk at the time.

Now that the black hats are doing things like this, I am worried about a similar event in the future, so we will be upgrading security again. It’s a major problem. In fact, 31% of people in the US have reported being the victims of a data breach within the last 18 months. Nearly two thirds of breaches are due to stolen or weak passwords, and 85% of cyber breaches due to a human element, such as phishing or reused passwords, so it is important to find a more secure way to INFOSEC. Currently, the most secure way to lock your information is to use multifactor authentication(MFA). The idea behind MFA is to have more than one way to authenticate yourself as the proper user of an account.

The first level of authentication in accessing any electronic account is user name and password. As we have been discussing, this is not a very good way of securing high value stuff. Sure, it may be fine for securing access to your CVS frequent shopper card, it won’t be enough for an account with saved credit card numbers or access to your online banking account. So we use a second, independent method of ensuring that whoever is attempting to access your account is actually you, and not some person intent on stealing your information.

The lowest level of MFA is to have the company you are logging into send you an email containing a link that you must click on to confirm your identity, with the next lowest level being an SMS message containing a 4-6 digit number whenever you log in from an unrecognized device. This sort of message is easier to beat than most other methods, as many phishing attempts center around gaining access to these. The texts/emails are unencrypted, and if intercepted can allow a black hat to have access to your account.

There are also Authenticator applications. This is a separate program that must be periodically used as a second means to verify who you are. You try to log into your bank account, for example, and the login process includes using this app to verify that it is actually you. Google authenticator, for example.

A third, more secure way is to use something else like biometrics. Your fingerprint, voiceprint, or face, for example. Even though it is more secure than an SMS message or email, biometrics have one key flaw- they can’t be changed if they are ever compromised. Your biometric data is stored in a digital format, and that means sooner or later, someone will figure out how to compromise them. This makes them predictable and this is the weakness.

Currently, the most secure way is to use a hardware key. A hardware key is a physical key, like a USB or NFC device that stores and generates a complex, unique code each time it is used. This becomes the second authenticator in the MFA chain. This is how banks, information companies, and other high security infomatics systems are authenticating users.

The two work together- you can’t access an account unless you have BOTH the username/password combo AND the physical hardware key. It becomes MUCH harder for someone to gain access to both means of authentication and provides a high level of security.

After quite a bit of research, I have decided to go with hardware keys. The one I have selected is Yubikey. I selected it because it works well with all of the browsers I use, it works with LastPass, and all of my banks and stockbroker accounts support it. The keys themselves come in a variety of forms: USB-A, USB-C, NFC, and others. Some of them even support biometrics, but I did not select that option.

I ordered two of the Yubikey 5 Series keys, and you can read more about them here. (pdf from Yubikey’s website) I will set my accounts up for both of them- one key I can carry, and a second, backup key that will stay in the safe to allow account access in the event my primary key is lost or damaged.

My keys will be here within the next two weeks, and I will review how easy they were to setup and use shortly thereafter.

As usual, the disclaimer: I don’t advertise, and receive no compensation whatsoever in exchange for my reviews or articles. I have no relationship with any products, companies, or vendors that I review here, other than being a customer. I pay what you would pay. I only post these things because I think that my readers would be interested.

By Divemedic, ago

They Are All A Grift

As of Sunday, you won’t need a permit to carry a concealed weapon in Alabama and Georgia. That’s right- those two states have gone to Constitutional Carry. The cops are opposed to this, and many times they claim that they are opposed to it because it makes it more difficult to fight crime. However, in at least one case, the cops have let slip that the real reason for the opposition is that CWP fees are a major source of funding.

“And those fees that are generated by the permit go directly to law enforcement purpose only…For instance, here at the sheriff’s office in Lee County, we use that for training and education primarily,” Sheriff Jones adds.

With gun permit requirements out the window, Sheriff Jones says they’ve already seen a 30 to 40% decrease in revenue. While it has not put a dent in their budget, he says sheriffs in smaller counties throughout Alabama have expressed concerns about how they’re going to make up for the loss.

It’s all a grift. I ask you this- why do you need a driver’s license? You say that it’s to make sure that each driver knows how to drive? Yeah? So why does it expire? What’s that you say? So they can make sure that you aren’t blind or otherwise have a disability that prevents them from being safe behind the wheel? So how can you make sure of that when a driver renews by mail? My guess is that collecting the fees is the real purpose there.

A Florida driver’s license costs $48 and is good for 8 years. So, $6 a year times the 18 million licensed Florida drivers equals $108 million.

A Florida concealed weapons permit costs $45 and is good for 7 years, or just about $6.50 a year. Multiply that by the 2.6 million Florida permit holders, and you see that the state gets another $17 million a year.

Permits are all a grift.

By Divemedic, ago

Oil

Crude oil inventories as well as inventory in the SPR continues to fall, gasoline inventories rise, but prices rose slightly for the week to $3.14 per gallon. Look beyond the spin and see what it means. The SPR is at the lowest inventory level since 1983 at only 375 million barrels. Gasoline stocks are sitting at 220 million barrels, a 24 day supply at current consumption rates.

So what’s going on? The economy is still being sluggish. A year ago, Americans were using 9.2 million barrels a day of gasoline. Now we are using 8.6 million barrels.

By Divemedic, ago

More Silliness

From Peter, we see this story about a man who is taking hormones to be a woman and is now claiming that he is having menstrual cramps. Impossible. Menstrual cramps are caused by the female reproductive organs responding to hormone changes: thickening endometrial tissue, then shedding that thickening tissue as a part of the monthly reproductive cycle.

Even ignoring the absence of endometrial tissue, the hormone changes that cause this cycle aren’t there. The hormones responsible for driving this cycle are the Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Estradiol, the Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and Progesterone. It’s a complex dance of hormones that work to control the menstrual cycle.

A gland in a woman’s brain (the pituitary gland) produces Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH). FSH is carried by your blood to her ovaries. FSH stimulates follicles to grow. As she approaches ovulation, one of these follicles will start growing bigger and faster than all the others. It’s known as the dominant follicle. It is this follicle that contains the mature egg that will be released when she ovulates.

While FSH is encouraging lots of follicles to grow, LH, luteinising hormone, is also produced in small amounts (by the same gland in the brain that produces FSH, the pituitary gland) throughout the follicular phase. LH encourages the follicles already growing to produce estradiol (estrogen). As a woman approaches ovulation, a surge in LH will help to ripen the dominant follicle and rupture it for the egg to be released. (This surge in LH is what the ovulation test kits try and pick up on.)

When the dominant follicle ruptures, it is now called the corpus luteum. LH stimulates the corpus luteum to produce progesterone. The corpus luteum produces both progesterone and estradiol, with the primary role of these two hormones ensuring that the lining of the uterus is fully prepared for implantation by making it thicker, so that it is ready in the event that fertilization occurs. If the woman doesn’t get pregnant, the corpus luteum breaks down, progesterone production decreases and the next menstrual cycle begins when follicle stimulating hormone starts to rise again.

He isn’t taking any female hormone except for Estradiol. Even though men produce many of these hormones, they do so in a steady level. LH and FSH order testes to produce sperm, progesterone is key in the production of testosterone, and estradiol is produced when men have an excess of testosterone, so it is converted into estradiol by an enzyme called aromatase. You can see that, even though men have all of those hormones, they are not cycling up and down from the actions of the pituitary gland and cannot produce a menstrual cycle.

So even if he DID have a uterus and other female reproductive organs, he doesn’t have the necessary hormone cycles to be having menstrual cramps. He is a delusional, mentally disturbed male who needs counseling, not pills.

By Divemedic, ago

Shut ’em Down

I don’t care if a man is interested in having another man push a penis in his rectum. That’s his business. I don’t care if a man wants to dress up like a woman and introduce himself as a woman. Just don’t expect me to go along with any of it, and don’t parade it around in front of kids. The problem is that the left just can’t let it stay there. They have to use is to groom kids, they have to parade around and demand that we accept it, too. It’s like they are trying to use this as a lever to relive the civil rights marches of the 60’s. This isn’t that.

The Orlando Philharmonic has been advertising a “family friendly” drag show and have been allowing kids inside. The state warned them that they had better not have the show in front of kids. The Philharmonic went ahead and performed the show with children in the audience any way. Look at the content of the show for yourself and tell me that this is OK for children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVzD682YfcI

That was one of the milder parts of the show. If you want to see more, you can check out this link, where there are more videos embedded. One of the performed songs was “Screwdolf the Red Nippled Reindeer.” Aimed at kids, but not kid appropriate, in my opinion. That apparently doesn’t matter, because the website was advertising for “all ages” yesterday.

Children were there, so they have raised and called.

Well, the Governor of Florida says he isn’t going to put up with it, but the process takes time. They were warned, and did it anyway. I am going to wait and see if DeSantis is going to actually take action, or if this is simply a stunt to gain publicity. The “drag brunch” that DeSantis threatened to shut down six months ago is still in operation, so I am not holding my breath. This event from last night is supposedly “under investigation.”

There are a number of laws that can be used here. Chapter 847 of the Florida statutes makes it illegal to have sexual performances in front of persons under 18 years of age. Chapter 823 states that anywhere that performs these acts for minors may be declared a place of public nuisance. Once that happens, all sorts of state laws and regulations come into play. No one can carry a concealed weapon there, no liquor license, no business license, no children allowed inside, and all sorts of other legal headaches.

One of the legitimate functions of government is the protection of those who cannot protect themselves, especially including children. This venue, the parents who brought their kids, and the performers all need to be prosecuted.

The Orlando Philharmonic has called the Governor’s hand. I look forward to seeing what the Governor will do about this- is he holding a full house, or is he bluffing with a pair of fives? Governor DeSantis needs to prove that he isn’t all talk- do something to protect those kids, our kids, and our state.

As for the Drag Show? The last event of the tour will be held in Clearwater on Thursday (tonight).

By Divemedic, ago