Happy New Year!

We want to wish all Mod-Bloggers a VERY happy new year. May it be a year of peace, prosperity, and lots of fun stuff to talk about here on the blog. And, if you want something to talk about today, how about the debate about whether the "two-thousand-teens" start now or a year from now?

THIS is how to respond to a customer complaint!

As part of my on-going quest for weight loss (and maintaining same) I regularly drink a 6 oz carton of OJ with my meals. It is provides a serving of fruit and is delicious to boot. Tropicana is my favorite of the various brands. Their current packaging is as pictured - a small carton with a telescoping straw that punctures the top like a drink box. Recently, I had noticed the straws becoming unusable. Some fell apart. Others couldn't pierce the box. So, after a few months, I decided I should write them to let them know - not looking for anything, just to get onto their Quality Control radar. Instead, I got the response below which is a GREAT example of how to do customer service. They have truly made me from a customer into a fan.

Wow!! Congratulations on your weight loss! What a great achievement and accomplishment; keep up the great work in 2010.

That said, I'm sorry the straws on your little cartons of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice haven't worked properly for you. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. I've mailed you a full value replacement coupon for the juice along with some new straws to try. Everything should arrive in about a week.

We do our best to provide you with quality products, and the information you provided is valuable to us. Therefore, I've shared your comments and experience with our quality assurance and packaging teams for review and we appreciate you bringing this to our attention.

With regards to the straws, they're designed to extend so they'll reach to the bottom of our little cartons. Once the straw is extended, you should feel a slight "click", indicating it has locked into place, locking air out. We're sorry yours did not work they was we intended it to.

Thank you, Mark, for your business and for being a loyal Tropicana fan. We hope you'll continue to select and enjoy our juice for many more years to come. After all, we know you have a choice of brands and always appreciate you choosing ours.

Happy New Year!

Margie
Tropicana Consumer Relations

Why haven't we found aliens? Global Warming. No, really.

We like to think that science is a cold, logical, precise search for Truth-with-a-capital-T, but the fact is that like any other human endeavor science has fads and fashions. For instance, it can still be career death for a physicist to suggest any explanation but String Theory for unifying gravity and quantum mechanics. At the moment, the "fad" in science is Climate Change a.k.a. Global Warming a.k.a. Sustainability. The idea that we have proven no human action is environment-neutral and that survival requires limiting human population growth and activity.

Now, SETI scientists have tried to explain our inability to detect alien life on this same principle. Essentially, the argument goes that any advanced civilization determines that their resources are limited, and thus becomes self-limiting before achieving colonies on other worlds. Thus, no aliens in our neck of the woods.

An interesting idea, but one that is bound to be "disproven" as soon as the winds of scientific fashion shift.

COBRA - Not enough for some?

COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985) is a government program which allows downsized employees to purchase insurance thru their former employer for up to 18 months. The Obama administration put into the bailout bill a subsidy of 65% of the premium, as well, to help out unemployed Americans who need insurance. This particular program has been of GREAT help to those in my family during tough times - so much so that at one point I suggested a compromise health care reform step might be to change COBRA to have no set end point for the unemployed.

But now, many unemployed Americans are saying it is no help to them at all - even with the subsidies.

Cynthia Parras decided not to enroll in Cobra after she was laid off from her job as a financial-services product manager in San Francisco in February, because she felt she couldn't afford it. Over the summer, she was diagnosed with shingles. The infection moved to her eyes, and doctors told her she could lose her sight without treatment. She paid about $2,500 out of pocket. To help compensate, she skipped her mortgage payment last month, and signed up for a state insurance plan for welfare recipients.

"This is scary and degrading," she says. "I never have been without insurance, and never in a million years thought this would happen to me."

Stories like these remind us that no government program can solve all of the ills of the health care system, because some of those ills are part of the human condition. We should be careful with the final health reform bill, and humble in not trying to overreach.

Wait, what?!

Stress leads to more baby girls?

Here is one of those facts that appears to e widely-known, but had somehow passed me by. Societal stress leads to more baby girls born, while male fetuses are spontaneously aborted.

IT HAS been known for a while that stressful conditions such as famine result in more girls being born than happens in good times. The shift in the sex-ratio is tiny—around 1%—but in a large population that is still noticeable. A possible evolutionary explanation is that daughters are likely to mate and produce grandchildren regardless of condition, whereas weedy sons may fail in the struggle to have the chance to reproduce at all. In hard times, then, daughters are a safer evolutionary bet. Regardless of why the shift happens, though, it has long been argued that the moment when it happens is conception—or, more probably, implantation. A womb exposed to stress hormones, runs the hypothesis, is less likely to accommodate a male fetus.

One wonders what the current Recession is doing to the future demographics of the nation. Will a shift in gender numbers change attitudes of the culture in general?

Non-Emergency 911 Calls Clog the System

Where do you go when you have a medical issue and have nowhere else to turn? More and more, EMTs are seeing people turning to 9-1-1 even for issues that do not require any emergency treatment. While the health care bill tries to reduce costs by rationing care, we are seeing more and more that people are willing to do whatever it takes to game any system to meet their immediate needs. Having been caring for an ailing mother with a horribly-painful-but-not-life-threating condition, I am seeing firsthand why people without family or a church are left with nowhere else to turn.

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14084125

Gas Prices by Year

I found this cool graph while searching for gas prices in the US by year. I can remember gas being around 79 cents a gallon which means I must be remembering 1986 or so.

Should we ban chocolate milk from schools?

When I was a kid, I hated milk. It was a mostly irrational hatred, but the white stuff simply had no appeal to me. There were only two ways to convince me to drink milk: soda milk or chocolate milk. Now, facing the obesity epidemic, some are arguing that chocolate milk should be banned from schools. I will admit that cutting sugary drinks (i.e. soda and lemonade) from my diet did make a huge difference in my weight.

While milk has been the keystone of America's school lunches since the federally subsidized program was established in 1946, the role of chocolate (and other flavored) milk has become a focus of late following a 2006 rule that required schools to establish comprehensive "wellness programs." Public school districts in Berkeley, Calif., and Boulder, Colo. — two of America's more progressive towns — have removed the drink from their list of daily offerings, opting for low-fat, organic white milk instead. That's a perfect way to force kids to shun milk completely, says the dairy industry.

My own opinion is that banning chocolate milk is likely to backfire and cause kids to drink soda instead. That's what they really want, after all, thanks to persistent advertising. Thus, the kids are left without the nutritional value of milk entirely. But I am interested to see what Mod-Bloggers think.

Teens disrupt Trumbull Mall

Yeah, I admit it. This is only posted because it happened nearby my own location. But it is proof of what happens when you combine high unemployment with rainy weather - teens with nothing to do will find something to occupy themselves. "Idle hands are the devil's tools."

Hundreds of teenagers became embroiled in a melee and were ejected Saturday night from the Westfield Trumbull mall after harassing customers and exhibiting "rowdy and disruptive behavior."

That resulted in a 17-year-old Bridgeport youth being stunned by a town police officer after charging and knocking the officer to the ground outside the mall, police said.

Here's hoping 2010 is a better year for the economy, so these kids can have better things to do with their time.

Fly Decals lead to cost savings

My mother was a sociology major in college, and sometimes enjoys telling us stories about the foibles of human interaction. So I am thinking she will greatly enjoy this particular story. Essentially, bathroom managers across the world have found that attaching decals of flies to urinals inspire men to aim more carefully, and thus reduce maintenance costs due to "spillage".

The presence of a fly in a urinal literally changes human behavior, he thinks — or at least the behavior of human males.

"Apparently," Berenbaum says, in males, "there is a deep-seated instinct to aim at targets..." When flies were introduced at Schiphol Airport, spillage rates dropped 80 percent, says manager Aad Keiboom. A change like that, of course, translates into major savings in maintenance costs.

I am thinking mothers across America are reading this story and pulling out their sharpies to tame their male children's bathroom habits.

Ladies Ensemble from Christmas Eve

I thought my Mod-Blog friends might enjoy this little bit from our local Christmas Eve service

Prosperity Gospel Defended Saying Jesus was not Poor

A pastor of a Mega church in Arizona is preaching a "Prosperity Gospel" partially by saying that Jesus was not poor. His arguments are at best tenuous and at worst laughable. My "favorite" argument is that Jesus must have been rich because the soldiers at the cross gambled for his underwear. He argues that they must have wanted it because it was such great quality, not because he was a celebrity because no one wants celebrities underwear. That is a hard argument to partially base your theology on.

Handbells from Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas from the Nomad

May this day bring you joy and peace, as we remember the birth of the Savior of the World. Thank you, Lord, for sending your own Son to live among us, die for us, and rise to show us your victory!

Cool Tools: Fonolo gets you to a human being

This looks like a very interesting tool for those caught in the web of automated phone lines. It is web service that maps out the call trees for "popular" customer service lines, and gives you a chance to jump directly to a live person. I could see this saving me hours of touch-tone foolishness!

Christmas Cynicism

Lieberman's Official Response to Health Care Bill Messages

Here is the official response from Senator Joe Lieberman about his support for the Senate Health Care Bill. I got this after writing to his office:

Thank you for contacting me to express your opinion regarding health care reform efforts. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts with me, and I want you to know that I hear and understand your concerns.

Americans today are faced with great uncertainty about their health care coverage and insurance. These concerns focus on rising medical costs, access to coverage, and quality of care. With more than 45 million uninsured Americans and health care spending levels that exceed any in the world, our current health care system is unsustainable. Too often, we reward quantity over quality. The need for health care reform is clear. We must begin to provide Americans with the high-quality, affordable health care they need.

As you may know, over the last several weeks, I and several of my colleagues have worked together with Senate leaders to reach an agreement on a health care reform plan that addresses three critical goals: curbing the enormous increases in health care costs that burden almost every American family and detract from economic growth; regulating insurance companies to better protect patients and consumers; and making it easier for millions of Americans who can't afford health insurance to buy it.

In my view, the resulting legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590), would make significant progress toward reaching all three of these goals, and does so in a fiscally responsible way. It is estimated that, under this bill, 31 million previously uninsured Americans will be able to purchase health insurance, resulting in 94 percent of Americans being covered. This represents a historic achievement that will move us closer to fulfilling the goal of universal coverage. In addition, this measure contains a number of strong provisions designed to ensure that insurance companies treat their customers fairly. Specifically, insurers would be prohibited from denying Americans coverage because of a pre-existing condition and from rescinding an individual's coverage if they become sick.

H.R. 3950 also takes a number of substantial steps to reduce health care costs in the long-term. I am particularly pleased that this final package includes elements of several amendments I cosponsored to contain costs, provide patients with more information so that they can make better decisions about their care, and create incentives for physicians to deliver high-quality, efficient care.

According to the Congressional Budget office (CBO), this legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $132 billion over the next ten years, and will continue to reduce costs in the following decade. This bill will also extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund for an additional nine years. Because of my serious concerns about our nation's long-term fiscal imbalances at this time, I opposed the inclusion of a non-essential government-run insurance program, including expanding Medicare to those 55 years of age and older. I felt any such new program was duplicative of other provisions in the underlying bill and could easily saddle the federal government with billions of dollars in additional debt and exacerbate Medicare's already perilous financial condition. Consequently, I supported Senate leaders' decision to remove such a plan from the final agreement.

On December 21, 2009, the Senate, with my support, approved a procedural motion that will allow the Senate to begin consideration of a comprehensive amendment that contains key provisions of the final compromise package by a vote of 60-40. The Senate is expected to pass H.R. 3590 on December 24, after which it will have to reach a compromise agreement with the U.S. House of Representatives, which passed separate health care reform legislation (the Affordable Health Care for American Act; H.R. 3962) earlier this year. To keep track of further developments on this legislation, you can click on the "Track a Bill" button at http://lieberman.senate.gov/.

I am hopeful that leaders from both chambers will come together in the spirit of compromise to achieve meaningful health care reform that expands coverage, reduces costs, and improves the quality of care for everyone. Looking forward, I will not be able to support any compromise agreement that either includes a public option or does not contain provisions designed to lower health care costs and reduce the national debt over the long term. Please be assured that I will keep your thoughts in mind as this debate continues to move forward.

Thank you again for sharing your views and concerns with me. I hope you will continue to visit my website at http://lieberman.senate.gov for updated news about my work on behalf of Connecticut and the nation. Please contact me if you have any additional questions or comments about our work in Congress.

Sincerely,

Joseph I. Lieberman

UNITED STATES SENATOR

Christmas Cynicism

From here.

Santa Modernizes

Star Wars Weather

I love this site. Click on the image to get your own town's weather.

Snowfall in Shelton

Snowfall in Shelton
Originally uploaded by nomad7674.

In Snow, All Is Calm

Biking Update - December 19, 2009

Another week without bicycling. Mom is doing much better (but keep praying), but work and holiday life got in the way this week. December is never the time of year to start a diet. It is easier to maintain one (an object in motion tends to stay in motion) but not to make progress. So I am reasonably happy with the way things are. Hoping to resume in earnest in January, if not before.

Iran Invades Iraq

Iranians seized an oil field in Iraq that is close to the Iranian border. Although Iran and Iraq have disputed who's territory the oil field is in, it is widely accepted that it is on Iraq's side of the border. There were no shots fired and no one was injured when the Iranian forces drove to the oil facility this morning. So far the US representatives in the area have urged calm and are trying to set up a meeting for Saturday between Iran and Iraq to try and resolve the dispute.

I am proud to have voted for Joe Lieberman in the last election

From here. Sometimes "No" is the most powerful and patriotic word in the English language.

Iraqi Hackers crack Military Dones

For now, insurgents have only gained access to the video feeds from drones, but it appears that using off-the-shelf hacking tools they have gained valuable intelligence about American military operations in Iraq. This highlights the fact the age of dual-use technology is not just about making better toys available to the rest of us, but also about putting sub-standard security into some of our military hardware. This needs to be rethought before any war with a "real" enemy.

Senior defense and intelligence officials said Iranian-backed insurgents intercepted the video feeds by taking advantage of an unprotected communications link in some of the remotely flown planes' systems. Shiite fighters in Iraq used software programs such as SkyGrabber -- available for as little as $25.95 on the Internet -- to regularly capture drone video feeds, according to a person familiar with reports on the matter.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence that militants were able to take control of the drones or otherwise interfere with their flights. Still, the intercepts could give America's enemies battlefield advantages by removing the element of surprise from certain missions and making it easier for insurgents to determine which roads and buildings are under U.S. surveillance.

U.S. enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan have used off-the-shelf programs to intercept video feeds from Predator unmanned aircraft.
The drone intercepts mark the emergence of a shadow cyber war within the U.S.-led conflicts overseas.

The Muppets Sing 'Bohemian Rhapsody'

A great video of The Muppets singing a modified version of a great song.

Posted without Further Comment

Do you believe in political illusions?

From here.

They're Watching...

Whack-A-Banker?

Since I work in the financial services field (in Information Technology), it is no surprise to me that there is hostility to banker out there. Even before the Great Recession, bankers were often hated for obscure fees, labyrinthine rules, and a general lack of empathy. (Honestly, most of the banker I have known have been good people who went out of the way for their customers, but this is the perception.) When the crash came, things got even worse since the direct cause blamed was the Mortgage Derivatives market - clearly the fault of financial services management.

Now, one arcade owner is making a mint by taking advantage of anti-banker animosity with a retooled Whack-A-Mole called "Whack-A-Banker". The owner claims it is so popular, he keeps having to replace worn-out mallets.

Happy Hanukkah!

We want to wish all of our Jewish readers a very happy Hanukkah, which begins tonight. The Jewish festival of lights has a complex history and the New York Times has up an interesting analysis of the historical context of it all.

Biking Update - December 12, 2009

Another week where biking was not really an option. Mom continues to fight her battle against nerve pain from arthritis in her back, and most of my discretionary time was spent taking care of her, catching up at work, preparing for Christmas, or doing the needed work for Quiz Team or handbell choir. However, diet alone continues to be effective at maintaining weight loss. However, I am hoping to get a bit ahead later on this week, so that I can survive a few bouts with Christmas goodies as the season progresses.

Are Tamiflu sales for H1N1 a scam?

For every crisis, there are people eager to jump in and make some money off of the fears of others. After 9/11, bogus sellers of "terrorism kits" (i.e. duct tape, plastic sheeting, and candles) popped up all over. H1N1 (i.e. Swine Flu) is one of our current crises, and it appears that we may have found out that overinflated claims for Tamiflu may indicate it is the next scam targeting our fears.

The Cochrane team eventually concluded that the evidence that Tamiflu reduces complications, hospitalizations, or deaths is weak at best, and if the drug does offer any benefit, it is slight indeed. This is precisely the conclusion of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the UK’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). As we reported in our story in The Atlantic, the FDA directed Roche to state on the drug’s label the following caveat: “Tamiflu has not been proven to have a positive impact on the potential consequences (such as hospitalizations, mortality, or economic impact) of seasonal, avian, or pandemic influenza.” An FDA spokesperson told the BMJ, "The clinical trials . . . failed to demonstrate any significant difference in rates of hospitalization, complications, or mortality in patients receiving either Tamiflu or placebo.” Yet in the wake of the H1N1 pandemic, the FDA gave temporary approval for the drug to be given to hospitalized flu patients, who are at risk of dying.

It's only fair

Watch your Language!

Inside Look At the Taliban

A very interesting account of a 14-year-old boy who was kidnapped by the Taliban and forced to become a suicide bomber who then escaped. The accompanying video talks about some of the other issues, such as getting people to turn members of the Taliban in, even though they are family. Stories like this need to be spread both here and in Afghanistan.

Air and Rope to Defend Against Pirates

BCB has created the Buccaneer, a ship-based device that uses compressed air and a rope or net to stop pirates in their tracks. The Buccanner is fires and when the prop of the pirates' boat runs over it, it becomes entangled and the boat stops. As a commenter mentions, it probably won't do anything for jet ski type craft. A good idea, but how long until the pirates add jet skis to their fleets

When Piracy Goes Wall Street

The Somali pirates have implemented a plan that is pure genius. They have set up a stock exchange where anyone can invest in one of (currently) 72 "companies". If a company you have invested in gets ransom money, you profit. Not only does this help fund the pirate activities, but it gives the local people a reason to support the pirates. On top of this, the pirates share the ransom money to help pay for items such as hospitals and schools. While I don't condone the actions of the Somali pirates, I understand that they are trying to prevent further destruction of their waters and get reparation for the damage already done.

New PS3 Firmware to Enable Playing PSP Mini Games

The next Playstation 3 firmware upgrade should allow people who buy PSP Mini games to play those same games on their PS3. You can already play your PSOne games that you download on the PS3 on either the PS3 or PSP. This seems like a great idea that will also discourage normal customers from trying to find hacks on the web to enable these type of features.

Wow, this is my job!

Is I.T. Responsible for the Economic Crisis?

I work in Information Technology, so I am sharply aware of the dangers inherent in a badly-built set of systems. It is not just the risk of the Blue-Screen of Death that Windows users are familiar with, or the spinning beachball that haunts Apple users. Even a system that never crashes can be a danger to your business if it doesn't get you the info you need, when you need it. A logical question then, is whether better I.T. systems could have prevented the Economic Crash.

This fragmented IT landscape made it exceedingly difficult to track a bank’s overall risk exposure before and during the crisis. Mainly as a result of the Basel 2 capital accords, many banks had put in new systems to calculate their aggregate exposure. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) spent more than $100m to comply with Basel 2. But in most cases the aggregate risk was only calculated once a day and some figures were not worth the pixels they were made of.

During the turmoil many banks had to carry out big fact-finding missions to see where they stood. “Answering such questions as ‘What is my exposure to this counterparty?’ should take minutes. But it often took hours, if not days,” says Peyman Mestchian, managing partner at Chartis Research, an advisory firm.

Of course, it never helps to blame technology for the failings of human nature and human decisions. But poor human decisions about technology can lead to even more poor human decisions. Quality counts.

Christmas ornaments - gold and red

Christmas ornaments - gold and red
Originally uploaded by nomad7674.

Health Care Reform Reality Check

Made me laugh out loud

Biking Update - December 5, 2009

The Good News: After my "free weekend" of Thanksgiving, I am back under 210 lbs and quickly descending back towards "normal", although not near enough to the 205 lbs I'd like to reach and stay at. But with Mom's medical issues, there has been no time or energy for exercise. Maybe this weekend. We are approaching the 1.5 year anniversary of the start of the diet, and we have almost reached the 1 year anniversary of my reaching 210 lbs for the first time since college. These are all good things. But it is hard to believe another year is almost gone.

Star Wars & Reading is Fundamental

Is defaulting on your mortgage ever acceptable?

A law professor at Arizona University has caused quite a stir by releasing a new paper that argues more people should be defaulting on their mortgages, and that defaulting on a mortgage in excess of the current value of your home makes economic sense. He claims that in as little as two years after a default, an individual can have returned to having "good credit." He argues instead that what holds individuals back is (1) the cultural shame of foreclosure and (2) the moral sense that one should hold to a contract once signed.

Frankly, I find it encouraging that the professor finds so many people "acting against their economic interests" by honoring their commitments. It speaks well to American morality, which has been belittled of late. What do Mod-Bloggers think? Is he right? Or is it right to keep plugging away, even when you know you may be permanently underwater?

FCC preparing switch to VOIP

Have you made a phone call using Skype or Google Voice or Vonage? If so, you are using a technology called "VOIP" or "Voice Over Internet Protocal". Basically, it routes calls over the internet instead of over the old hardware networks that cellular and landline calls use. This method is MUCH cheaper - international calls can be made for pennies per minute - although call quality and reliability can be somewhat less because the same networks are used to send e-mail, video, etc. which can hog the bandwidth. Most cable companies who offer their own telephone service are using VOIP technology.

Apparently, the FCC is ready to consider doing away with hardware-switch network entirely and move all phone calls onto VOIP. This could be a huge (and mostly positive) change for voice communication, as VOIP networks are much more flexible, cheaper, and merge voice, video, and textual information easily. And did I mention how much cheaper they are?

Abortion Issue may derail Health Care Reform Bill

Most supporters of the Democratic Health Reform Bills would claim their concerns are purely practical - budgetary savings, expanded coverage, and improved survival rates. But it appears that the Bills' passage may instead come down to a single moral/ethical/philosophical issue - abortion. While the House was willing to compromise in the name of practicality, the Senate is not ready to do the same.

Efforts to find such a common ground failed in the House.

Women's rights groups were caught off-guard by the provision that passed the House and are now vowing to keep similar language out of the Senate bill. Hundreds of activists organized by Planned Parenthood and other groups rallied Wednesday, holding signs reading "Listen up senators: Women's health is not negotiable."

Several House Democrats spoke, vowing to oppose final passage of any health bill with the tough abortion restrictions already approved by the House. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., called it "a devil's bargain" that she couldn't accept.

But the House language is just what Nelson wants to include in the Senate bill.

In reality, for all of President Obama's talk about this being a practical choice, these debates prove this is all about philosophy. Which is why they are happy to pass ANY bill - however flawed - so long as it is ideologically pure.

Google concedes to Rupert Murdoch

You may recall a few weeks back that Rupert Murdoch had threatened to pull all of his new properties from the Google Search Engine in a bid to increase profitability and decrease the number of unpaid hits coming from the outside. He was widely mocked at the time for thinking FoxNews, WSJ, etc. could stay relevant if they were delisted from the search giant. Instead, Google has given NewsCorp a major concession with its new "First Click Free" feature in Google News. Under this new algorithm, the first 5 times that a user clicks on an article in Google News that lives behind a pay wall, they are allowed thru. Then the 6th time, they are redirected to the "register (and pay) to view" site for the newspaper.

Seems like a reasonable compromise. At the same time, it is unclear why the NewsCorp sites couldn't do this themselves, rather than pawning off the functionality to Google. Technically, it is not a big challenge to implement. Perhaps this is merely a way to prove NewsCorp has power in the online world.

Bart's Blackboard Blog

This one is for CRChair - a blog dedicated to chronicling the blackboard gags from each and every Simpsons episode. Both a good resource, if you missed the first 30 seconds of the episode, and a fun place to while away a few hours with laughter.