Category Archives: Unfiled

Watch the video of awesomeness that has no words for description.  Cat Shit One is available on YouTube for the next two weeks.  The full episode starts about about 03:52.  Enjoy!

It creates a bunch of Sad Panda’s. 

When the law first went into effect, opponents argued there would be more crime and weapons assaults. That has largely proven to not be the case, Lorain County Sheriff Phil Stammitti said.
“We haven’t had any big problems since the law took effect in 2004,” Stammitti said.

Un amazingly the ability to get concealed weapons permits has not resulted in a rash of road rage shootings, a raise in violent crime, or simple arguments resulting in more shootings.  I what I loved seeing most though was this in the article.

Here in Lorain County, since 2004, a total of 5,416 concealed carry licenses have been issued. In 2010 alone, the Lorain County Sheriff’s Office issued 852 new licenses, according to data provided by the Attorney General’s Office and Sgt. Diana Nicholl. In 2009, 798 licenses were issued. The number of new applicants has grown annually since 2006.

Seeing that number increase year over year is a wonderful thing.  Yet some still think we are children and should be treated as such.

It was announced yesterday that TSA employees are going to be allowed to Unionize. 

The question of whether unions can negotiate on behalf of airport security workers has been a repeated topic of partisan debate on Capitol Hill, at times threatening to hold up major pieces of legislation or even the Senate confirmation of the agency’s director.

So now the agency which disparages, disgraces, and abuses the law abiding American public as a bunch of children to be abused will now be allowed to collectively barging by disrupting air travel through out the United States.  They have created a monopoly by denying any new alternative private airport screening operations.  Now with a monopoly over the entire system, they can proceed to shut down commercial air-travel for the entire country.  This isn’t like a pilot strike where you can seek a ticket from an alternative airline, if the check point is shut down no one is moving anywhere.  I foresee when the first strike occurs, numerous lawsuits occurring because of the self imposed monopoly. 

Unions are a skid mark in the underwear of our country, they have long outlived their purpose, and have proceeded to create inflated wages for those who do not really deserve it.   People should be paid on the quality and amount of work they do, not because they have enough people working with them and can cause lost revenue for the company.  Anyone who goes on strike has abandoned their job, and a replacement can be hired immediately, there should be nothing outlawing this, however some states have.  In this economy there are many who could take that position, and economics then state your pay isn’t worth as much.  The supply of people capable of doing your job currently out weighs demand.  If you want a raise, earn it, do something unexpected, volunteer for a risky project, find a way to save the company money.  Doing it by extortion should result in your immediate termination. 

The union at this point is supposed to focus on working conditions.  If you don’t like the working conditions find another job.  Strikes will probably occur because they don’t like passengers talking back and would like laws past outlawing it.  Shutting down all the travel across the country is a quick way to achieve your objective is it not?  People stranded will be yelling to give them their demands.  Currently passengers are subjected to court for saying no, and they win; that will probably change. 

Who was the moron who though this would be good or beneficial for the American public? 

In North Raleigh a man has been accused by a state Department of Transportation official of practicing engineering without a license.

The DOT official in question obviously does not understand what a Engineering License is, does, or what it is for.

Cox has not been accused of claiming that he is an engineer. But Lacy says he filed the complaint because the report “appears to be engineering-level work” by someone who is not licensed as a professional engineer.

News flash for the DOT thug employee.  The point of a professional engineering license is to provide someone to be held accountable in the event of negligence.  It is a certificate that states as my coworker put it, “This person is competent enough to be held liable should something go wrong.”  Once you have a license you can the professionally seal designs and carry the liability.  This is applied to designs and implementations, not studies.

There is no question despite what the DOT official claims, the person who wrote this report has not broken any laws, unless they sealed the document, or indicated that this work was done by someone with a Professional Engineering License.  Doing the work of an engineer does not require a license, carrying the liability that goes with it does.  Doing a traffic analysis, and establishing why a light is needed for public safety actually matches the definition of someone who is allowed to use the title Engineer.

The IEEE‘s formal position on this is as follows: “The title, Engineer, and its derivatives should be reserved for those individuals whose education and experience qualify them to practice in a manner that protects public safety. Strict use of the title serves the interest of both the IEEE-USA and the public by providing a recognized designation by which those qualified to practice engineering may be identified.” It is generally a requirement in the United States to have at least a Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering discipline or related applied science to be considered an engineer and practice as such.

Emphasis mine. The burden of proof for engineering credentials in this case actually rests upon the individual claiming the light is unnecessary.  The action if recommending a traffic light does not provide a danger to the public, however people pulling into traffic on a busy thoroughfare without a light is dangerous to the public.

Some have used this as a rallying cry to ditch government licensing.  This license as I said before is used to distinguish those who have separated themselves from the rest of the herd.  Even if private organizations took care of licensing and fees, you would still need legal recourse or anyone and their mother could claim they were an “Engineer”.  The term “Engineer” actually carries legal weight for liability.  However it would be nice to have ASME, IEEE, and ASCE get together to do the common portion of the licensing, and have each other organization do the specific tests for the fields.  At which point the government should recognize those individuals as having satisfied the requirements to be labeled, “Professional Engineer”.  It is annoying that each state you must be individually licensed in, there is no reciprocity. 

Being a P.E. is not something that is taken lightly, ethically they are bound to report anything that they believe to be questionable regarding practice and safety.  Marine Power and Electric made a fatal mistake when they asked my father to seal documents that he did not write and design.  They threatened to fire him for his refusal, he promptly quit.  The following day he was employed by the State Attorney General as contractor to aid in the investigation of Marine Power and Electric.  Being raised by someone who would unquestionably do the right thing I learned many things, ultimately we all are our own companies and who we work for are customers.  A person with a P.E. is liable for the work they do under that seal, even if working for a company.

Though the end of the article does call into question the character of the licensing board.

Andrew L. Ritter, executive director of the engineers licensing board, said it will take three or four months to investigate Lacy’s allegation against Cox. He said there is a potential for violation if DOT and the public were misled by “engineering-quality work”- even if the authors did not claim to be engineers.

Who determines what qualifies as engineering-quality work, and when I must obtain a license to do so?  If that is the case, the 4 year apprentice requirement should be removed, allowing people to seek licensure immediately.  I can not do work without a license, thus I need one.  As I said previously, a license just allows you to call yourself an engineer and seal documents.  You can still do work without it.  Sounds like some peoples heads have gotten a little to big on the Kool-Aid they’ve been drinking.

H/T to R Mason for the Email. R. Allen for the post I read 5 minutes later.

“Neither despise, nor oppose, what thou dost not understand.” –William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude

[America would be a much more comfortable and wonderful place if the tree of liberty was truly allowed to flourish without people attacking the branches that they dislike for lack of understanding.  It is amazing the number of people who would wish the Gun Culture away because the do no understand it and cannot fathom why it would exist. 

Even more though than the what William Penn wrote, I submit the following change, “Neither despise, nor oppose, what dost not affect thou.” That which affects you must be an actuality, not a potentiality.  For just because a bat could be used in a brutal assault, should not cause them to be outlawed from possession.

Why does the government prevent me from using a suppressor for my own benefit?  Because someone else at some other time despised it, opposed it, and outlawed it.  True criminals still have the pleasure of use, but I as a law abiding citizen have been robbed of this branch of liberty by those who do not understand it.  May new fertilizer come to the tree of liberty, that it may grow and flourish again.  -B]

I talked the other day about the idiocy of the “internet kill switch.”  While browsing today I found out how bad their claim of necessity was.  It’s the ultimate in creating “FUD”.

The bill, one aide said, would give the president the power to force “the system that controls the floodgates to the Hoover Dam” to cut its connection to the net if the government detected an imminent cyber attack.

At which point I’m going oh, really now.  Here’s why:

Anyone who works around process control and automation knows that the computer networks used are separate and isolated from the internet.  Why would they already be isolated you ask, because the government isn’t as afraid of an attack as much as the business.  Utilities for instance very rarely lease lines or use communication paths they don’t own.  They have shielding cables that also have fiber optics in side.  They run communications at the same time they run the power lines. 

Why is a business more afraid of an attack than the government could be?  Lets say someone causes a protective system to fail to operate, at which point a fault is caused in the power grid.  The result is a transformer exceeding it’s rated voltages, ultimately ending in a failure of the transformer.  A transmission level transformer easily costs millions of dollars and can take 18 months to 2 years for delivery since they are no longer manufactured in the United States.  All that time, that transmission line is out of commission.  If this transformer is tied to a generator, that generator is now no longer able to produce and sell electricity from that generator for 2 years.  Not to mention utilities have to comply with NERC-CIP regarding infrastructure security.

More are also screaming that these claims are “FUD”.  Nevada’s Bureau of Reclamation, responsible for the dam, are extremely pissed as well.

“I’d like to point out that this is not a factual example, because Hoover Dam and important facilities like it are not connected to the internet,” Peter Soeth, a spokesman for the bureau, said in an e-mail. “These types of facilities are protected by multiple layers of security, including physical separation from the internet, that are in place because of multiple security mandates and good business practices.”

So the thought of someone hacking in like Live Free or Die Hard is completely unrealistic.  Seriously, that movie is like any other movie from Hollywood, leave your suspension of disbelief at the door.  Unsurprisingly the morons in Congress do not seem to understand that Hollywood is not Reality.  Of course though the statements from our Congress critters cause people to believe that the loss of their freedom is justified due to this possible catastrophe.  [snark]They are so much smarter and wiser than we are, we must need to surrender our freedoms if they ask us to[/snark].

So please, remember if a politician is asking for something, seriously question the motivations, and most importantly, question any “examples” of dangers they use.  TSA and DHS hasn’t caught any terrorists unless you include the domains they confiscated.  The FBI and the DOD followed political correctness so hard that they allowed Ft. Hood to occur.  So why the name of Zeus’s Butthole would we hand over the power to shut down the internet.  We have seen what governments really do with that power.  Anyone who supports this bill is a Tyrant, no doubt, because, “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom, It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”   Reject “FUD” for what it is.

HB 1016-2011 passed the rules committee and has been placed on the calendar for a second reading.

Previous posts on HB-1016 are here and here.

When I find out when the second reading will be, I will post it here.

Update 2/7/2011:It just passed the house.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.  This is the sum of good government, and this is necessary to close the circle of our felicities. – Thomas Jefferson

[I came across this wonderful post the other day regarding who is paying what with regards to taxes.  What stuck out the most for me though was this chart illustrating net incomes based off the earnings in a year. 

Think about that for a second.  People actually get PAID for having lower incomes.  This is socialism no matter how you cut it, robbing the productive under force of law, to give to those who would rather not work.  Why am I paying taxes to subsidize people who don’t want to work?  I wish I could I’d stay home and do my hobbies all day, but instead I have to pay to support the bloated spending of Washington.  The wife and I keep working harder to try and build up more savings, all we get to do in return though is pay more taxes.  For those who say, “We all need to pay our fair share.” Anything but a FLAT tax is unfair.  Why should I have to pay more in taxes because I work harder and am more productive?  The economy is floundering and there is massive unemployment because people are finding it more profitable to not work.  By Mr. Jefferson’s statement, as can be plainly seen, this is not the sum of good government.  We are no longer free to regulate our own pursuits, and certainly the government is stealing the bread from labor, and this government is by no means wise or frugal.  -B]