Divemedic

Petty tyrants

So a girl is graduating from a private High School, and decides to put an eagle feather on her tassel for the graduation ceremony, even though she was told not to. The school’s answer? A $1,000 fine, and withholding her transcripts and diploma until it is paid.
Another student was told that he could not get his diploma without performing 20 hours of community service, because his family cheered too loudly during the ceremony.
The valedictorian of an Oklahoma school used the word “hell” in her speech, and had her diploma withheld.

Each of these students performed all of the acts and lessons required of them to complete school and receive a diploma and are entitled to them. The things that happened to cause the school to deny their diploma were things that would result in detention, at most. To deny them the rest of their lives, and to deny them that which they have earned is a travesty. These are each cases of petty tyrants using the power of their positions to dictate the behavior of others.

More and more, I am beginning to oppose formal education at all levels.

By Divemedic, ago

Horizontal Loop

To end my posting about my HAM radio project, I finished up my installation of lightning protection this weekend, and spent the day yesterday installing my antenna. I have been experimenting with different antenna designs for the past few months. For this round, I bought myself a 500 foot spool of 14 gauge black THHN wire to make my antenna for $43 from Home Depot. I measured out 275 feet of wire, and ran it around the outer edge of the roof. I used hooks on the eaves to attach my insulating anchors, which are just short loops of parachute cord. I cut off the end, and this left me with a 260 foot antenna in a rectangular shape, about 10 feet off the ground. It is nearly invisible from the street.
I soldered the ends to a 20 foot section of 450 ohm ladder line, and attached the other end to a 4:1 balun. Antenna complete.
Do the math by dividing the number 1005 by the total footage of the antenna (260) and you get the resonant frequency of the antenna, 3.865 mHz. That means that I have an antenna that will resonate right in the center of the phone section of the 80 meter band. In theory, I have an 80 meter full wave horizontal loop. The problem here is that these antennas are supposed to be placed 30-40 feet above the ground. So we moved on to testing.
Receiving was greatly improved. Swapping back and forth between my old and new antennas, the difference was amazing. Frequencies that sounded dead with the old antenna had faint but readable signals. Signals that used to be audible but unreadable were crystal clear. I got a 3-4 S meter improvement in all bands.
Transmitting is amazing. The antenna works so well that I have disconnected my auto tuner. Hooked directly from the balun to the receiver, I get a 1:1 SWR in the 160, 80, 40, 30, 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, and 6 meter bands. That’s right: EVERY amateur band from 160 meters all the way up to the 6 meter band. Within 10 minutes of starting, I had made contact with the Hatteras Lighthouse 600 miles from my house.
For anyone that is a HAM operator, I would recommend trying this antenna.

By Divemedic, ago

On EMP and lightning protection

One of the things that we as preppers have to be prepared to deal with is a loss of communications. One of the ways that I have dealt with this is through HAM radio. There were some questions about my HAM radio setup and EMP protection when I posted about it last year. Now that I am back in my house, I have more options for making my radio systems a bit more hardened to EMP. Being that I live in the center of Florida, the lightning capitol of the world, this is a wise idea.
Some facts:

(If I am mistaken on any of this, there are some readers who are more knowledgeable than I, and they can feel free to correct me in comments.)
Lightning is an electromagnetic pulse that is pretty powerful, delivering an average of 18,000 amps to whatever it strikes. A lightning strike typically contains 2-5 pulses of electricity. The first pulse is called the leader, and it breaks down the resistance of the air as it heats it to 50,000 degrees F, changing it into a plasma state. This leader channel allows 3-4 more pulses to follow at 50 millisecond intervals. This is the reason why lightning seems to flicker.
The rapid rise of power with each pulse generates radio frequency energy at frequencies ranging from 20 kHz to 15 mHz. Unfortunately, this is the area where much HAM equipment operates, and it is thus vulnerable.
Where I live, we have an average of over 90 thunderstorm days a year. In my area, a 50 foot radio antenna will be struck an average of twice per year. This is why I have upgraded my EMP protection.

Protection:

I spent the weekend driving copper ground rods. 6 of them in all. There are three, 8 foot copper ground rods just outside of the room that I am using as a radio shack. They are in a triangle, and spaced 10 feet apart. They are connected to each other, and to a ground bus inside of the shack ( I used a 3 foot long, 3/4 inch copper pipe), with a 1 inch braided grounding strap. All of the radio equipment, my computer equipment, power supplies, and all other electronics in the shack, are grounded to this bus. The radio tower  is also grounded to another ground rod array. The shield of the antenna cable is grounded at both ends. All of this grounding gives any pulses or stray energy a place to travel that doesn’t include my sensitive electronics.
The antenna feed line is protected with an arc plug. An arc plug is two electrodes hermetically sealed in a gas filled ceramic cylinder.
Acting like a voltage dependent switch, the Arc-Plug can repeatedly
carry large currents to ground for brief periods.

The idea here is to shunt dangerous pulses away from my equipment and harmlessly into the ground.I think this will do it.
The entire project of hardening this equipment cost me a weekend and about $250. As with most of my prepping projects, this one covered likely as well as unlikely threats, and was done for a reasonable cost. My electronics are now safe from the likely event of a lightning strike, and the unlikely event of a man made EMP attack.

By Divemedic, ago

Education

The educational bubble: It is being driven by the government. As I said in my post the other day, Abraham Lincoln passed the bar with less than a third grade education. It could be argued that the government requiring a competency exam is in place to protect the public, but to me the argument that the only place to gain competency is in a government approved college educational program is hogwash. Of course, by passing the bar exam on his third try, Frank Abagnale showed that competency examinations are no guarantee of competency, either.

In order to attend medical school as either a Physician Assistant (Master’s Degree) or as a Doctor (MD or DO), one is required to have a Bachelor’s Degree. It doesn’t matter what you major in for the initial 4 year degree: I know Doctors with a BA in film, and I attended a PA program with a degree in EMS administration.

The problem here is that requirements for education are increasing costs.Let me explain: In the United States, to be a Doctor requires a 4 year degree to attend Medical School, followed by three years of medical school, followed by a three to seven year (depending on specialty) residency program. In all, the new Doctor now has a student loan debt of  $250-500 thousand. Our new Doctor has had no (or virtually no) income for a decade, and has incurred a quarter million in debt.

Considering that the young doctor could have earned anywhere from $160-400 thousand in that same time period, our young doctor is $300-900 thousand and 10- 14 years in the hole before he has made any money. If we assume that a person has an average working life of 47 years (between the ages of 18 and 65), he is going to have to make a hefty salary to pay back his student debt, and still make up for the years that he wasn’t working, and his non-educated contemporaries were.

For example:  a person gets a job in a fast food joint making a starting wage of $5 at age 18, and tops out at $50,000 a year before retiring at age 65. Over the course of his career flipping burgers, he makes an average wage of $22,000 a year. Over his lifetime as a burger flipper, he makes about a million bucks.

Now consider the doctor: he only has a working life of about 35 years, and over that time must make that same million, plus the cost of the quarter to half million in loans to break even with burger flipping. This means that the doctor must earn more than double what the fast food worker does, JUST TO BREAK EVEN. If we cut out the requirement for the 4 year degree, and instead made medical school a 4 year program, the meat of the doctor’s education is still there, but we have reduced the costs of becoming a doctor by four years and $150K. This means that the doctor can make less and still earn what he needs to earn, meaning that medical care just became cheaper, and also more accessible for the poor.

By Divemedic, ago

A fool and his money

A man plays a carnival game trying to win an X box. He keeps losing, so he keeps going double or nothing, and spends his life savings- $2,600 trying to win the $300 game. All he won was a stuffed banana with dreadlocks. He calls the police and attempts to use them to get a refund.

– Why would you keep playing, when you keep losing?
– Why would you keep your life savings on you?
– Suing? Because you lost a game of chance? Vegas is gonna be in trouble.
– The police shut the game down? Under what authority?

PT Barnum was right…

By Divemedic, ago

Teen thugs

In 2011, the Miami police began a new program designed to reduce “juvenile delinquency” by simply not arresting them. You see, the criminal teen that is not arrested does not count when statistics of crimes by minors is compiled. This allowed the Miami-Dade Schools Police (the school system has its own police force?) to claim that they had reduced crime by juveniles by 60%- the largest reduction in the state.

Here is the press release (note the date)

The date there is significant because the family of teen Trayvon Martin was able to claim that the young man did not have a criminal record, even though school records show that he had been suspended three times between September of 2011 and February of 2012: Once for possession of drugs, once for vandalism and possession of stolen property and burglary tools, and a third time for unspecified reasons. (His family claims it was for truancy.)
There are claims that the Defense is trying to put the “victim” on trial here, but I feel like it is proper to expose the past of the person in a self defense case. To do otherwise is to permanently paint the loser in a fight as the victim, regardless of the facts.

By Divemedic, ago

Guns at theme parks

So a guy today dropped his heater on a ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. He was barred from returning to the park, but no charges were filed. Let me start by saying that this guy screwed up, and he is lucky. Although Disney claims to prohibit weapons on their property, this prohibition does not carry the force of law. Where he broke the law is:

790.174 A person who stores or leaves, on a premise under his or her control, a loaded firearm, as defined in s. 790.001,
and who knows or reasonably should know that a minor is likely to gain
access to the firearm without the lawful permission of the minor’s
parent or the person having charge of the minor, or without the
supervision required by law, shall keep the firearm in a securely locked
box or container or in a location which a reasonable person would
believe to be secure or shall secure it with a trigger lock, except when
the person is carrying the firearm on his or her body or within such
close proximity thereto that he or she can retrieve and use it as easily
and quickly as if he or she carried it on his or her body.

(2) It is a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083,
if a person violates subsection (1) by failing to store or leave a
firearm in the required manner and as a result thereof a minor gains
access to the firearm, without the lawful permission of the minor’s
parent or the person having charge of the minor, and possesses or
exhibits it, without the supervision required by law:

(a) In a public place; or
(b) In a rude, careless, angry, or threatening manner in violation of s. 790.10.
 Of course, there are comments to the various news articles, claiming that no one needs a gun at Disney, but I can tell you that I have posted on this before.

I have no problem with him carrying a gun in a theme park. I do it regularly. However, carrying a firearm comes with a responsibility. The man involved here failed in that responsibility.

By Divemedic, ago

Higher cost, lower value

In 1880, it cost:
$400 per year to attend Vassar. This included tuition, room, board, heat, light, and laundry service. Adjusted for inflation, $400 in 1883 equals $9,635 in 2013.
$300 per year to attend Georgetown. This included room, board, and tuition. Adjusted for inflation, $300 in 1883 equals $7,126 in 2013. Georgetown law charged $150 for the entire law school tuition, and $100 for the entire series of medical school lectures.

Since 1980, inflation has caused everything to more than double in price. What cost $1 in 1980 now costs $2.15. However, every dollar in college tuition in 1980 is now $5.98. That’s right, college tuition is rising at a rate that is 5 times higher than inflation.

Abraham Lincoln took the Bar exam, and never even completed the third grade. It wasn’t until the colleges convinced the government that they should mandate a college degree in order to practice many careers that college became the large business it is today.
In the 1980s, it was possible to be a Physician Assistant with only an Associate’s degree. Now it requires a Masters. The school itself is still two years, but it now requires a Bachelor’s degree for entry. What the degree is in does not matter.
Nurse Practitioner was a master’s program, now it is becoming a PhD program.
Registered Nurse is fast requiring a profession requiring a BSN.

All of this increases the pay that people expect to receive for these careers, and therefore the costs of the services. Instead of being angry at what health care costs, the public should be angry at what it costs to be a health care worker.

In 1950, only one third of the adults in the United States had a high
school diploma. Many of the adults were blue collar factory workers and
made a good living. Only about 1 in 20 adults had graduated from
college.
That was before education became big business. School became easier, and
kids were passed on to the next grade, not because they had mastered
the skills needed, but because teachers were afraid of damaging the
kids’ self esteem. In 2010, 80 percent of adults were high school
graduates, and 20 percent had a 4 year degree or more.
The latest generation is flush with college degrees that mean little,
because many schools are offering degrees in things that are not needed
job skills. Because we have all of these degrees, we are demanding high
wages, and this has driven the blue collar jobs out of the country.
Unemployment is rampant. At the same time, we are paying people the
equivalent of $10 an hour to sit at home for up to two years, so there
is little to no incentive for work.
Instead of making things like cars and appliances, we sit around and
make war and college graduates with degrees in French Poetry and Women’s
Studies.

By Divemedic, ago

On race

My mother has been doing our family’s ancestry as a hobby. She was showing me the family’s history this past week, and showed me something a bit interesting: The US census record of her grandfather (my great grandfather) shows him as “negro.”

An octoroon is a person with 7 white great-grandparents, and one black one.That accurately describes my ancestry.

This means that under the law, I am an African American. See, much of the United States follows the “one drop” rule, where even a single drop of African blood makes you an “African American.” This also means that I am part of the protected class, and I can now get preference in hiring, promotions, and I can whip out the race card whenever I wish. It is also impossible for me to be called a racist.

The funny thing is that people who claim to be minorities are more likely to get a job. I know someone who was looking for work, and was having trouble even getting interviews. She had been looking for work ofr over four months, and had not even managed to get an interview. She has brown skin, so I suggested that she start putting down “American Indian” in the race column. Less than a week later, she got a job. 

Claiming to be a minority is a fast way to get a job, because employers use the fact that you are a minority to prove that they are an “euqal opportunity” employer, and use this as a talisman against racial lawsuits.

This, more than anything, proves that racial definitions are silly.

By Divemedic, ago