Sunday, May 31, 2015

John Nash's Death May Be Greater Loss Then The Most Imagine

John Forbes Nash, Jr. by Peter Badge

The New York Times reported on May 25, 2015- John F. Nash Jr., Math Genius Defined by a ‘Beautiful Mind,’ Dies at 86.

I suppose most people might respond by saying "big whoop".
Well actually it is!

According to "The Daily Mail"-- "The 'Beautiful Mind' mathematician who died along with his wife in a car crash on Saturday, May 23rd had told a friend he had discovered a replacement equation for Einstein's theory of relativity just three days earlier...

Villani told The Times [UK]: 'He explained it to me. He thought he had discovered a replacement for the equation.' He also said Nash claimed his replacement would help further explain quantum gravity."





If this were to prove true it would be the holy grail that physicists' have been searching for. Simply put, Einstein's equations work out perfectly for gravity and other stuff explaining the macro world of planets and stars. However when it comes to the subatomic particles and their quantum mathematical explanations for gravity at that level there's no linking of the two.

Check out the video starting at 38:40-40:30 minutes.


If John Nash Jr. came up with what he said he might have, his death is a major blow to the scientific world. One can only hope he left behind his methodical papers so other scientists have the opportunity to review them.

It could also be said if John Nash succeeded in doing this he truly was the Einstein of our day. His loss to the mathematical community will be sorely missed.

Ever Hear Of The "Lucky Chops" Band?

Grand Central 4/2/15

The Official "Lucky Chops" Website


Saturday, May 30, 2015

One Of My Favorite Lines About Poor People

Money Can't Buy Happiness


On This Day: Muhlenberg Collage Burned


On May 31st, 1947 "Chester Times reported the MAIN BUILDING AT MUHLENBERG COLLEGE BURNED-- "The 43-year-old administration building of Muhlenberg College was destroyed by a general alarm fire of undetermined origin... The fire, discovered last night about 10:30, brought virtually all Allentown equipment to the scene, but raged out of control until early this morning. Two students were overcome by smoke as they sought to salvage college records."


According to Muhlenberg College the building was gutted by a fire the night before Commencement. Later it was rebuilt and named the Ettinger Building.

Friday, May 29, 2015

Five Buck$ Per TV Show

Television sure sucks right now.



Despite receiving over 100 TV channels, for the next several weeks (and the two past) there's only 4 hours of programs we find worth watching per week.

I did a bit of ciphering and figured out it's costing us right now a bit over $5.00 a show.




If it wouldn't be for some of the 'Iron Pigs', one or two Phillies games & some TV news to fill in coupla of hours there'd be nothing to watch before bed. Usually we don't finish them anyway. These extras are used mainly to bore and nearly put us to sleep before we retire for the night. So there's at least that I suppose. :-)

Does Life Exist For A Purpose?

I contend not.

pur•pose
     noun: the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists.
     verb: have as one's intention or objective.


From a creator's (God's) prospective
If God is all there is and all that will ever be, God does not have need to achieve some goal. God is already complete. Therefore has no purpose in creating life to achieve some aspiration. Would logic not then follow we serve no purpose to him/her/it?

So how about this instead?
We only exist because he/she/it does. What if we live each day as if there were no tomorrow or yesterday. Only the moment as if there were no time (there actually isn't).

Just what if anything beyond the past or present moment were delusions wrought as a tool of Satan to create dissatisfaction against the creator? In other words create internal strife. Perhaps even humans themselves as a means to oppose the creator's completeness.



Just what if we were to accept everything just as it is?

Would that not bring about closure for once and for all?

Thursday, May 28, 2015

This Post Is So Politically Incorrect

Lehigh Valley Live.com is reporting Allentown police respond to reported shooting at Eighth and Washington streets"This is the third reported shooting that has wounded somebody and at least the fifth overall this week in the city. Police also responded to the following incidents:
•8:12 p.m. Monday: Man shot in thigh, Fullerton Ave. & Lincoln St.
•12:26 a.m. Tuesday: Shots fired, 1300 block of Chew St., apartment window and vehicles hit
•9:02 p.m. Tuesday: Shots fired, 600 block of Washington St.; homes and vehicles hit
•9:45 p.m. Tuesday: Man shot in legs, 1100 block of Catasauqua Ave.


Must be them damn Dutchmen acting up again, eh?


My Personal Experience With Racism
Way back when I was 17 years old I met this gorgeous chick who went out with me. She came from the former projects in Bethlehem where she and her family just arrived from Puerto Rico. Her family arrived poor and mother made the dress she wore when she went out with me. A few days later her Hispanic neighbors confronted her, her parents and me when I went to visit. Us both being young never considered for a moment this would have been an issue. To make a long story short we were both naive and experienced what racism was like for the first time. This was the first in what would become several instances where I was on the receiving end of reverse racism.

I once trained a new coworker who was hired from a mostly Hispanic production faculty. She told me how the people training her refused to speak English nor sit with her at breaks.

A friend of ours is married to a Hispanic. Guess what happens nearly every single time they go to an airport, drive somewhere or go to a restaurant.

What I learned over the years is racism is alive and well and continues to exist. Face it Puerto Rican-Americans are most comfortable with others of their kind. Same goes with both the Asians, Middle Easterners, blacks and whites. Anyone who gets too comfortable crossing those boundaries are apt to find themselves in uncomfortable situations. That's the reality everyone attempts to shy away from.

In my own case early on I've never gave it a thought but as the years passed (as a white person) I had several bad experiences. Unfortunately in the "real world" there's just as much prejudice among one group of people as another. We can pretend it doesn't exist but in all reality little has changed over my lifetime.

As far as Allentown goes it always had lots of culturally divided neighborhoods. There's nothing wrong with that. The difference is residents of old came into these neighborhoods looking to stay. They made a long term commitment for they and their families safety. Today's problems arise from broken families drifting through for a few years or months never intending to stay. Still others who drift into town looking to make trouble.

How Can We Fix This?
Well it sure isn't by providing massive cheap rentals. Nor by relying on cops to clean up the mess of these failed policies. The answer lies in attracting married couples & families who wish to find a peaceful community in which to raise a family long term like we all once did.

* Anything that holds landlords accountable for the type of people they rent to would be a start. Unfortunately too many absentee landlords (investors outside the city) hold deeds to these multi unit formerly single family homes. Three unit formerly single family homes' property taxes ought be adjusted accordingly.

* Legislation should be enacted that require landlords to kick out those who commit felonies even forbidding them from relocating within the city elsewhere.

* Legislation that would reduce property taxes the longer someone owns a home would be helpful.

I'm not going to go on and on, but the point is black, white, yellow or green... even if we can't all get along we should at least all want the same peaceful neighborhoods despite our ethnic cultural differences. Can we all not agree on this?

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Harsh Economic Truth About Mass Transit

There's a vast separation between perception & reality.

First, The Perception

Video Courtesy Pennsylvania House Of Representatives


My that sure does sound pretty and logical. However This is not how it plays out in the real world. If anywhere in the world things should work out economically you'd think it would be in NYC. Anyone who has ever gone to NYC can attest the buses are full. The subways are packed with riders. Logic would dictate they should be making money hand over fist.

But the reality is...

(May 26, 2015)


It's incomprehensible to me how we in "the little apple" would fare any better then they. Until someone provides me with a link to where 'mass transit' isn't bleeding government budgets I remain against these schemes.

There was a time trolleys and buses made a profit back in the early days in this area. Since then nearly every family member now owns a automobile. It is so because cars are required to take them to their jobs far from where mass transit would be a practical means of transportation for them. It worked back then because many of the jobs were on the other side of same the city. Even then it doesn't seem to work in NYC where most of them still do.

I'm not sure how we should get people from point A to point B. One thing I am sure of, mass transit economic promises are hype. I have no problem if mass transit could support itself. However see no reason why I or anyone else should have to pay dearly for something we may never use.

Some may argue, "well we all pay for highways & streets". Indeed that is true. At one time or another I've used them or will sometime in the future. I have no problem helping to pay for buses to use them too. That's fair. BUT I do have a problem helping to pay for other peoples rides on them.


It should be a pay as you go thing. Paying for something I may never use is unfair taxation. An entirely separate matter. Riders of planes, trains & buses... that should be entirely on them.

What do you think?

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Police Training (ca. 1971)


... and things have changed how?

The more things change, the more they stay the same.
~ Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr (1849) ~


Sunday, May 24, 2015

Defense Spending Are There Any Limits?

My Memorial Day Thoughts

The New York Times (05/23/2015): Stupid Pentagon Budget Tricks-- "... the House passed a nearly $612 billion defense authorization bill this month ...The measure passed by the House tries to protect the new Ohio-class nuclear submarines, estimated at $8 billion each, by shifting the funding from the Navy’s regular shipbuilding account to another.

...Under the House bill, the overinvestment in modernizing the country’s nuclear weapons, which is expected to cost $348 billion over the next decade, would continue.

The bill would supply more military equipment than the administration has requested — including the over-budget and technically challenged F-35 jet fighters."
According to Wikipedia the F-35's, "Total development costs are estimated at more than US$40 billion (underwritten largely by the United States), while the purchase of an estimated 2,400 planes is expected to cost an additional US$200 billion."

Further according to Wikipedia when it comes to the defense budget, "this does not include many military-related items that are outside of the Defense Department budget, such as nuclear weapons research, maintenance, cleanup, and production, which is in the Department of Energy budget, Veterans Affairs, the Treasury Department's payments in pensions to military retirees and widows and their families, interest on debt incurred in past wars, or State Department financing of foreign arms sales and militarily-related development assistance. Neither does it include defense spending that is not military in nature, such as the Department of Homeland Security, counter-terrorism spending by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and intelligence-gathering spending by NASA." Each of them received a huge amount of "supplemental funding" in 2014.

My Thoughts
It should be plain to see when the hidden costs are factored in we easily spend more the $1 trillion on defense related items. Well over one third of the entire 2014 U.S. budget of $3.5 trillion. Which is over a half a trillion more then revenues received.

BTW: When it comes to overspending Social Security is not a factor. Social Security has collected $3 trillion more then it spent from the nearly 13% tax on everyone's incomes. Congress is using those funds to pay for all this nonsense promising to pay back Social Security for the money it borrowed. Each and every American worker is owed this money just like foreign banks, China or anyone they rented money from in advance. Pay up and shut up already!

So this leaves us to talk about our priorities. Is it to build foreign nations, kill people and wreck things in the process or take care of our infrastructure, education and so forth? One will bring us greater prosperity. The other greater enemies.

There's nothing wrong with defending ourselves. However I don't see how my neighbors would learn to love me if I was constantly poking my nose into their business and held a gun to their face. This seems like a lousy way of making friends. People should want to be your friend rather then fear not being one. It doesn't play well one-to-one nor does it when it comes to some other nation's people.

It's not like we haven't been warned..


This warning didn't come from a Democrat but rather a former a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II who as a Republican landed the Presidency in a landslide over Adlai Stevenson(D)-- Dwight_D._Eisenhower. If you check out the link of the positions he took today's' Republicans would have tossed him under the bus.

Dwight wasn't afraid of using the bomb or a good fight, but he was also aware of the consequences when Washington does little else but beat the war drums constantly for the war industry.

Hence why on this "Memorial Day"...
We remember not only the sacrifices made by our soldiers past but avoid unnecessary sacrifices they may be asked to make in the future if our battles aren't chosen wisely. If anyone truly cares about our military members no one should ask of them or their families to risk everything unless the cost is truly worth the risk. Think about that next time we hear one of these candidates shooting off their mouths.

Additional Reading
Overseas Contingency Operations: The Pentagon Slush Fund


Milton Hershey's Town In Cuba

Traces of Hershey's model town live on in Cuba
Michael Matza, Inquirer Staff Writer
"Pennsylvania chocolate baron Milton Hershey built a model industrial town here in 1916, along with an electric railroad completed in 1922, to support his lucrative sugar holdings in Cuba. Almost all that Hershey created is in tatters now. The town hospital, hotel, refinery, pharmacy, public school, tennis courts, and golf course - all lost to history ... Milton Hershey's role in Cuba runs counter to the robber-baron stereotype of a predatory industrialist."

My Comments About The Article Above


Kudos to Michael Matza & the Philadelphia Inquirer on their great article including a video. I wasn't aware of this.

These days the United States could sure use more responsible corporate leaders the likes of Milton S. Hershey.

It's amazing what this graduate of 4th grade accomplished in his 88 years of life.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

Recommended Reading

Here's several recent books I finished reading. Perhaps you might enjoy them as well.




"50 Steps To The Outhouse" by Will E. Makit

"A Simple Way To Lose Weight" by Andy Gravity

"French Overpopulation" by Francis Crowded

"House Construction" by Bill Jerome Holme

"Soak Your Ex-Husband" by Ali Money

"Parachuting" by Hugo First


Friday, May 22, 2015

Rentals Will Allentown Ever Learn?

Express Times: Allentown's Waterfront project more than doubles proposed apartments-- "The project can now accommodate as many as five more buildings and up to 433 apartments.."

Express-Time: 168 more are going up around 7th & Linden Streets.

The Morning Call: 200 more around 8th & Walnut streets

By my count that's just over 700 new apartments within these three projects alone. Even before these are built the home ownership rate in Allentown was just 48.2% (2009-2013) compared to the rest of Pennsylvania's 69.8%.

According to these same tables the number of persons under 18 years in 2010 was 26.2%. If we were to make an assumption based on those numbers these 700 units could add an additional 183 students. According to one source the Allentown School District spends $14,352 per student. These additional students could cost the district another $2,626,416 each year to educate. Everybody better hope federal and state funding will come through because I'm certain the school property taxes on these wouldn't be nearly enough. Not to even mention the added expenses for police and other city services.

In My View
This is where Allenton keeps going wrong decade after decade. Rentals encourage transient behavior from those who have no long term commitment to either who gets elected or how the city looks. It's doesn't take much vision to see where most of Whitehall Township's problems lie. Nor why the Parkland area has less of them then either that of Whitehall or Allentown. It's because a greater number of those people living in the Parkland school district area have a long term inve$tment because more of them own homes.

Allentown constantly keeps seeking quantity over quality when it comes to housing. It's not unusual to see three units converted from a single dwelling. In essence three families living in the same house that once was owned by one family yet paying no more on the property in taxes then would a single family. We keep going down this same path over and over again. This time we're told there will be a different outcome. How could it be possible this time will be different?

Taxpayers are going to invest another $325 million for the Riverfront project. Wouldn't it have been wiser to spend that money requiring new tenants to purchase their units? Perhaps even allowing them to use part of their taxes towards the mortgages rather then a few developers who stand to make a bundle.

Why not apply the same money instead to other areas of the city?

Most of the downtown row properties in Allentown are worth less then $50,000. At that rate taxpayers could have bought about 6,500 existing properties. Suppose they were bought for $50,000 or less and another $25,000 was spent to fix them up. This would result in around 4,300 of them being able to be sold to what the cities says are hungry young Millennials who are chomping at the bit to move into urban environments (or so we're being told).

Currently @ Trulia.com there are 372 properties listed for sale less then $50,000
At the current time the MLS list contains 191


NO IT'S NOT A CRAZY IDEA.
According to one mortgage estimater the mortgage would be less then $400 a month on a 30 year $75,000 loan. None of these new rentals will even come close to that figure.

DUH... own a home for around $400 a month or rent a small apartment for nearly double or triple of that?
I don't think so!



Then again Allentown keep doing what you do so well.

Create never ending rental problems year after year.

My Favorite 2015 Freddy Awards Performance

Southern Lehigh High School
Toledo Surprise from "The Drowsy Chaperone"
video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player
Video courtesy of WFMZ-TV where you can find 39 more clips they posted.



Also check out The Official Freddy Awards @ Easton State Theatre's website. It is here were you can download a list of the award recipients.


BTW the "Drowsy Chaperone' garnered two awards. Dieruff's "In The Heights" won the top prize for a larger school.

Easton, Pa 1940s + Other Historical Video Clips


Courtesy of "19king14"





Check out this channel where there's more historical clips similar to this.
     Willow Park Butztown Pennsylvania 1950s
     Dorney Park Wooden Roller Coaster 1936

     ... and more

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Fact Checking U.S. Iraq Troop Withdrawal


FOX News.. there they go again blaming Obama for withdrawing troops too soon from Iraq for the mess it's in. I tried to ignore them but for the past two nights both S. Hannity and M. Kelly both are spouting what they should know is not true.

Anyone who takes ten minutes out of their time can just as easily check these facts out on the internet from multiple sources. Both have every right to air their opinions but when it comes to out right lying neither deserve any more respect then 'Tokyo Rose' or "Lord Haw-Haw" when they do.


* 'The Atlantic' (Ocober 21, 2011): U.S. Troops Are Leaving Because Iraq Doesn't Want Them There -- "The troops aren't being withdrawn because the U.S. wants them out. They're leaving because the Iraqi government refused to let them stay."

* 'The Daily Beast' (June 23, 2014): President Obama pulled U.S. forces out of Iraq in 2011 because he couldn’t get Iraq’s parliament to offer U.S. soldiers immunity from Iraqi prosecution.

* 'The Washington Post' (November 18, 2008): U.S. Security Agreements and Iraq-- "A draft of that agreement from October 2008 shows significant concessions from the U.S. side. For instance, the Bush administration agreed to a total withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011. The agreement would also place additional restrictions on how U.S. troops conducted missions, and require a pullout from Iraqi urban areas by July 2009."



Gasoline Taxes Evaporating

Oregon Testing Pay-Per-Mile System As
An Alternative To State’s Gas Tax
"With more fuel-efficient vehicles and hybrid cars hitting the roads every day and requiring less gas, some states are looking into how they can still collect enough money from drivers to keep maintain their roads and bridges."

Makes Sense To Me
What do you think?

POTUS Retirement Cap?

House Bill Would Cap $1M Annual Allowance For Former Presidents
"A House panel has approved a bipartisan bill that would limit expenses for former presidents who earn more than $400,000 a year."
Taxpayers spend nearly $3.7 million dollars for ex-presidents
Sounds like a good plan to me.
Nobody cares about our expenses after leaving our jobs.

What do you think?

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Allentown, Stay Classy

No matter how much money is spent on Allentown trying to classy up the joint....

Woman disrobes as Allentown officers break up melee
By Sarah Cassi | For lehighvalleylive.com
"Allentown police officers called Tuesday night for a group fight found a hostile crowd of between 75 and 100 at an intersection on the city's east side... "It appeared there was about to be some sort of event, as people were sitting in chairs waiting to see something happen," records say."

My Comments About The Article Above
The answer lies in getting rid of the debris that comes from allowing transients from renting cheap apartments. Long term home ownership is the key. When/until Allentown wakes up to the fact rentals are not the way to go we will continue to have these problems.



Healthcare Costs Through The Roof

"The cost of medical care is nearly $25,000 annually for the typical American family with health insurance coverage through their employer, according to a new study."
My Comments About The Article Above
Breaking it down, this would cost a married couple with two kids $12.19 an hour (after taxes). My conclusion is one of the wage earners in the family would have to make over $15 an hour (before taxes) to cover the costs. Toss into the mix a couple of families who have special needs children and these costs would be much greater.

Between college expenses, housing and medical I don't see how a family can get by these days.

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Wonder Why Candidates Wait So Long To Declare?

WONDER NO MORE
CNN Politics:
The dirty little secret of 2016 announcements
"Super PACs, campaign accounts allow unlimited contributions, to raise millions of dollars as long as they aren't official candidates.. Until someone like Bush, Walker or New Jersey Gov. Christie formally declares for president, they are legally permitted to personally ask for money for a super PAC that will ultimately benefit their campaign. But once they formally acknowledge their candidacy, a legal wall goes up between the candidate and the super PAC that supports them."

Monday, May 18, 2015

Chris Christie Defense Spending Good: Social Needs Bad

Mon May 18, 2015
Republican Christie urges more U.S. defense spending
Reuters: By Emily Stephenson and Luciana Lopez
"abandon budget caps... his policy ideas, including plans to curb spending on Social Security and Medicare."

My Comments About The Article Above
This is typical of what all the conservative candidates are promoting. If this is the way things turn out with voters after next year's elections it will be a disappointment for me. There's little more I can say other then heaven help my grand children. How sad for them.

Update Mania

This is ridiculous. Today I tried to get on my blog via 'Internet Explorer 11'. Here's what happened....

Soooo I figured maybe I may need to update some things. In the end I spent two hours updating, 'HP Assistant', 'Quicktime'. my office applications, 'Norton', 'Java', 'CCleaner', 'WinX YouTube Downloader' and 54 'Windows Updates. Then decided to try and log in to blogger again.

THE REWARD FOR MY EFFORTS..

Same damn thing !


So I'm uploading this post via the 'Chrome' Browser'.

What The Hell?
Damned if I can figure these ever changing programming geniuses artists idiots out




UPDATE
FINALLY (after 3 hours) I found a solution on my own !

I unchecked the 'use Microsoft compatibility list' option
(I don't know why this changed. I only know I didn't do it)


Sunday, May 17, 2015

Strange Sounds Heard All Over The Globe

This is some really strange stuff !


... CLICK HERE for a whole bunch more like them on YouTube


"Similar outbursts have been captured on countries around the world including the U.S., Ukraine, Germany and Belarus."

My Comments About The Article Above
I tend to think it's nothing more then the wind resonating and producing these sounds under the right conditions. In the absence of wind there could be yet another explanation. The Earth constantly creaks and groans giving off lots of noises. Most of them are out of our hearing range. It is possible when two of these frequencies beat together the resulting frequency given off would fall into our limited range of hearing.

I found it interesting this phenomena occurs whether it be in a urban setting with tall buildings or out on open plains. So that doesn't seem to be a factor. No matter where they occur I will say it does seem extraordinarily spooky & perplexing.

Then again that's always the way it is when we face the unknown. Sort of like observing a magician and being astounded & confused Not so much after we learn how simple the "illusion" was created. I think such will the case in this matter once it can be explained. So let's sit back and enjoy this trick of nature before someone comes along, sticks a pin it and burst our bubble.


Map Courtesy Strange Sounds.org
Yeah there's even a blog about them :-)


Coupla Entertainment Videos

Boy does this bring back memories

Sam Rockwell starred as Chuck Barris in the 2002 film "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" directed by George Clooney


Original clips from the show itself


Chuck Barris now 85 years old was born in Philadelphia.
He created the 'Dating Game' & 'Newlywed Game' shows.
He also wrote the Freddy Cannon hit 'Palisades Park'.



Hot Damn.. Now Here's Some More Good Stuff !
A jam session video from the 2013 BIXFEST shot @ The Quality Inn, Davenport Iowa

Video Courtesy of Tom Warner

Dey' sur' can make dem' instruments sing, can't dey' !