Saturday, December 26, 2020

Năsui, Motorala și miliardele

O altă coincidență nenorocită. Două. Primul meu telefon celular, în 98, a fost un Motorola. Cel de acum este tot așa. Nu folosesc plan, ci doar wi-fi, pentru poze, etc.. Mi-a fost lene să scot SIM card-ul dinăuntru iar telefonul se cupla la turn tot timpul și emitea pe semnal maxim, deși nu aveam plan. De când i-am scos SIM card-ul, bateria ține de 2-3 ori mai mult. Chiar azi am văzut o ofertă super pe youtube, 3 luni gratuite și următoarele cu 15 dolari pe lună, cam la o treime din prețurile normale.

Astăzi văd pentru prima dată și o conexiune. Acest Năsui. Care se pare că e cunoscut în SUA, deci nu e o iluzie. Dacă dai un search, numele lui apare lângă Motorola.

Nimic dar absolut nimic din viața mea nu rămâne ne-exploatat într-un fel sau altul.

Mă repezisem să scriu ceea ce oamenii știau că voi scrie când văd asemenea chestii când m-am gândit că e una din numeroasele de acum curse.

Da, se pare că taică-su a furat 8 sau 16 milioane de dolari. Sau așa zic ăștia.

De câte ori am scris, dar lumea uită, după cum uită și asemănările mele. Văd ultimele, se gândesc că totuși poate lumea mai seamănă între ei, etc.. Dar câți și de ce toți dintr-o singură țară?

Cineva odată mi-a spus că dacă ajung la 1000 să-i spun și lui. Nu mai am cum, fiindcă l-am găsit și pe el pe liste. Din 1000 de asemănați, câți din cei care citesc acest post își amintesc mai mult de zece? Cine e destul de curios să defileze în jos pe celălalt blog să vadă măcar 100 din ei?

Dar ce mai uită lumea? Lumea uită că de exemplu un minister, ca cel al economiei, are un buget. De fapt vroiam să repet iar zilele acestea. Guvernul este parte inutilă din jurul bugetului. Ei, în cazul perfect ideal în care nu ar face nimic, ne-ar face cel mai mare serviciu. Adică ar lăsa bugetul să curgă, așa cum stabilește Parlamentul în fiecare an.

Dar ce să mai spun de alții dacă nici eu nu-mi amintesc cât buget are Ministerul Economiei, asta și poate fiindcă nu pot să-mi amintesc nimic din ce a realizat vreodată de acest minister.

Îmi amintesc însă perfect, fiindcă am repetat de atâtea ori, ceea ce mă roade, lipsa autostrăzilor: În 2020 de exemplu, Ministerul Transporturilor a avut aproape 12 miliarde din care numai 2 cred că au justificare. La fel la Agricultură, Dezvoltare și mai ales Muncii și tot așa până la o gaură neagră totală de vreo 200 miliarde, am estimat eu odată.

Deci ce înseamnă un tun de 16 milioane pe care l-a dat odată taică-su pe lângă tunul ce urmează să dea fiul, de câteva miliarde.

Sau poate lumea nu are percepția miliardului, care este o mie de milioane.

Stau însă și mă uit la fața lui și a lui sexy aia cu eugenia lor de pe pupitrul de parlamentar și în general a oricărui politician. Nu arată ei de banii aceia. Bine, dar cine îi mai vede după. Adică după ce au stat la coadă și și-au făcut ministeriatul. Am numărat eu odată vreo 600 de miniștri de după 90. Fiecare din ei au plecat, într-o ipoteză, cu câte cel puțin un miliard de euro! de căciulă. Cine îi mai vede după? Apropo, numărul lor e comparabil cu cel al asemănaților mei, deși nu sunt nici pe departe toți, eu mai am și din alte țări. Mulți sunt uitați pentru veșnicie. Câți din ei vă puteți aminti, așa, dintr-o dată, fără liste și alte chestii, doar din cap. Doar poate pe repetenți. Care era ultimul guvern al lui Ponta, IV?

LOL am scris odată de Simona Halep care dormea într-un hol al clădirii unde juca tenis și faptul că umbla îmbrăcată jigărită sau la o ocazie, cu o coafură cu care nici nu era obișnuită, deși teoretic ar trebuie să învârtă milioane. Alte pițipoance care nu au banii dar sunt învățate cu munca de teatru și prietene cu recuziterii se îmbracă super. Și iată că o văd azi într-o poză la volan și părea chiar happy.

Chestia e așa. Nu poate nimeni să cheltuiască un miliard. Hai să fim serioși. Ce poți să faci cu un miliard? Îți iei un iaht cât bricul Mircea și te duci cu el pe Dunăre în sus și-n jos sau pe Marea Neagră și bei numai șampanie etc.. A văzut cineva 600 de yahturi defilând în sus și în jos prin fața portului lui Dinescu sau chiar al insulei Belina?

Din ce am văzut eu până acum nici unul din speriații ăștia nici măcar nu miroase a miliard. Nici măcar a milion. Serios. Cu costumele lor de recuzită. Cu pala în vânt ca Trump. Nici măcar Țiriac, cu accentul și mustața lui. Nici însuși Elon Musk nu mă convinge.
Sunt doua ipoteze care de fapt converg într-una singură. 1. Banii aceștia de la buget nu există. Nu se strâng taxele respective, nu se cheltuiesc banii. Ceea ce, ca hoție este echivalent cu a doua ipoteză, 2. Adică banii se scurg undeva, poate pe autostrăzile care converg spre Budapesta și vilele de pe malul lacului Balaton, direct din contabilitatea bugetului. Sunt echivalente, fiindcă toate firmele care nu plătesc taxe sunt controlate tot de ei. Totul e controlat de ei. Dar și pe ei îi controlează cineva. Vă mai amintiți de un tip din blogul meu, HoReCa?

Că taxele din salarii sigur se strâng. Uitați-vă la fluturași.

M-am mai gândit în timp ce scriam și mai este o ipoteză totuși care însă se poate combina cu prima. Un alt motiv pentru care bugetul e umflat, cam de două ori, după cum spuneam, cam cu 200 miliarde lei anual, și împreună cu bugetul și PIB-ul, este ca deficitul, care se raportează la PIB să pară mai mic, ca să poată ei în continuare să împrumute, ca să se autofinanteze, adică să-și plătească diurna jigărită pe perioada cât stau în România. Că e mulți, câteva mii. Ceea ce face ca datoria publică a României să crească veșnic, la fel ca cea în toate "țările civilizate, industrializate, cu economie de tip vest".

Așa că mai lăsați-mă cu 8, 16 milioane. Omul e înșurubat pe direcția cea bună să dea un tun de câteva sute de ori mai mare decât taică-su cu Motorola. Depinde de cât stă. Dar nu pentru el. Asta e sigur.

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

The Dead Maggots From the Balcony

I was paranoid last summer about dust falling from the balcony upstairs. So i invested the pain of a half day's work and added some pieces of foam between the beams of the balcony. That i cut with a knife from big sheets and carefully fitted between the beams. It was a hot summer or spring day, work did me good. Later i added a piece of shower curtain under. Then they bought (i think it was after that) a bird feeder and a sack of seed for feeding the birds. The birds where making a mess and seeds where falling and squirrels were coming to eat the fallen seeds. Then the rains came and wetted the fallen seeds that could not fall through the beams anymore because of the pieces of foam and the seeds sprouted and grass started to grow. Then, i don't know how, the whole ecosystem completed with maggots. Cold came and some maggots died and then in warmer days maggots started to rot contributing to me who i stay here most of the time getting sick. And that's my story.

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Finally Figured

"Emanația cheamă trepanația" (Cațavencii, 1990).

How many times did i say that before? (That i finally figured).

About an hour ago i was sitting in the (small) bathtub full of very hot water just to get myself and especially my head (and ears) warmed up. How do i get so cold, kept asking myself. Cold enough for an infection to persist in that area including part of parotid glands, masseter muscle and adjacent lymph node. Symmetrical. I was not much outside in the cold today. It wasn't raining.

The woman upstairs came in the bathroom with me. I mean, in her bathroom, in the same time and kept squeaking for the same amount of time i was in there. Kept thinking. 12/22/2020 (for the next hour or so, local time). Last great numerological number of this critical turn of century and milenia. Last chance of the demented.

No matter what many would say, it was a good century. For the surviving that is. For those who lived in the last half of it. Unprecedented, unseen, unexpected scientific and technological advances in an impossible to follow (with our ordinary minds) rhythm made our lives in the same time way more comfortable, and why not, interesting. To me at least until i broke through the layers and layers of BS that came with it.

I won't go much further in that direction but instead come back to the theme i had in mind when i started it. Why my infection around ears that lasts for years if not decades.

I've been yesterday and two days ago (Sunday) outside in the cold rain, maybe for hours, though with a hoody and other things on my head, working on the car and got wet all over in temperatures near freezing. Pretty positive the building and parking spots where flooded with marijuana and/or cocaine smoke from reused and/or abused mole holes. That kept me outside, slow-moving, senseless and painless.

And Angela's Christmas present from a co-worker in her last day of work. A sleigh made of candy. Very common type of gifts in the US. I'm really sorry i didn't take a picture of it. However, unlike in other later years, Angela started to eat it. And after eating much of it she got hooked to that sugar and went and bought a cake. A red one with white "glaze", that is a layer of sugar and vegetable oils flavored with citric acid on top. Could not help but sample of it, only the red, less than honey-sweet dough part of it, pushing the "glazing" aside.

Interestingly enough, my blood sugar, which i kept monitoring these days, didn't go that high. Instead, i started to get headaches. Sugar diffusing (or even pumped) through salivary ducts back to the parotid glands that were already infected triggered instant headaches by spreading through lymph to my sinuses, eyes and all my head that lasted for hours and interestingly, a very intense perception of light and colors. From inflammation to eyes, i recon.

Until i got desperate enough to get some antibiotics. Which i again kept in my mouth instead of swallowing. Within ten minutes of the first 500 mg my headache, which was most intense since i had "viral meningitis" as a child (who knows what i really had, when my headache and fotofobia lasted for at least one week) was gone. Kept taking those for more than 24 hours now.

So what did i figure tonight. I was sitting in the bathtub and listening to the squeak upstairs that again seemed to follow the pattern of my thoughts, so annoying i would have gladly gone temporarily deaf just not to hear it. And that was it. I had a revelation.

Don't know exactly how they get their feedback. I mean, how they know when my head gets heated up with thoughts, ideas and excitement which generally is not, but at times may be sinful.

What happens i think as a reaction, my vegetative or autonomous or vegetable part of my brain literally tries to shut down hearing just to get rid of the (extremely) annoying sound and it does so by lowering blood flow in the area of the ears. Which may be a temporary defense mechanism that on a long term, if abused, may result in loss of the facial hair in that area as it happened to me, and persistent infections, which i was not aware for a long time. That may spread in different areas of the body as i said before. Capisci?

When it happened the first time? December 1995. Same type of kabala, alchemical neighbors upstairs. Back then, not having a clue i went, literally, crazy, got arrested by that b... from CNN, "Amanpour" and then 3 wonderful weeks in a mental hospital (the first time when i felt relaxed in the US), after first 6 stressful months of being here.

Monday, December 21, 2020

Horses, Powerful

What is a HP (Horse Power, not to be confused with Hewlett Packard). A non-standard unit for measuring power. What is power. Something that creates mechanical work or heat, in general occurs when one form of energy is transformed into another, in a certain amount of time. Transformed in watts, which is a standard unit for measuring power (metric this time, not to be confused with SAE, or Standard American and English which is non-metric, confused already? Wait a minute, HP is SAE?).

"Well i never knew" there was a Horse Power and then there was a metric Horse Power, i don't have time for this right now, what i know is a HP is approximately 7 hundred something watts and this is what i want to talk about.

There is little concern in the US for like how many HP a car has. Some people look for things like, room, confort, safety. All these result in big cars, vans or SUVs and big cars need many HP to move and many HP mean usually big engines, V6 being midd range. Other people look for prices and smaller cars with smaller engines that are cheaper. Just googled and i saw the average power for a car in the US is 120 HP. That can't be right, from what i see on the streets.

Anyways. An internal combustion engine runs at a maximum efficiency of... Nevermind, i ran into something else. Google gives the answer for that question 80% which can't be true. Don't know how google picks the answer, next answer in line is closer to what i knew, 35-40% for "advanced engines".

But in reality, for real cars and real engines, with an average age of cars running on streets of 12 years, the real thermal efficiency of the engines is 20%. Which means 80% of the energy of the fuel is wasted in the radiator and exhaust. Heating the Universe as some would say. So it's the exact opposite of the answer picked by google to that question.

And here's where i wanted to get. Due to air drag, friction of tires with the road, an average size car needs about 15 HP on average to cruise at constant speed during long trips. The rest of the HPs, all the way to 120 or 200 or something is for acceleration. Usually you use for a few seconds all the power of the engine until you get "up to speed" and then you release the gas pedal and start cruising. From what i see on the instant dashboard indicator of the Elandra, engine goes to a consumption of 14-17 mpg for acceleration and above 35 for cruising. Hyundai Elantra indeed  has one of those advanced engines.

However, it's got a wasteful automatic transmission with hydraulic torque converter which is way more efficient at higher RPMs used during acceleration and wastes a lot during cruise. Waste in automatic transmission is so great it needs a whole section of the radiator just to cool it, in the range of 5 to 15%.

The newer continuous variable transmissions used in newer models (CVT) are much more efficient.

To compare that 15 HPs needed to cruise to the beach to let's say the energy used by a house, we need to transform the HPs into watts. 15 HPs by 750 would be about what, 10 KW, or the average power needed for 10 homes, including heating, dryer, AC, hot water, stove, other appliances. But when thinking that we use those 15HP coming from an internal combustion engine that has a 30 or even 20% efficiency, we realize that during those hours we use the energy needed to power up to 50 homes.

So that's why i'm tweaking the Hyundai almost every day, giving "them" opportunities to come outside and to their shows around me. Today it was raining and got wet and cold about 3 times (and they still started to move around me).

Because i saw one day i made from here to Spirit Mountain, a 49 miles trip, on other occasions, a mileage on the dashboard indicator of 39 mpg. But that was one day only. About half the times i get 37. It's not that much about the money, though a 15% difference in fuel consumption with that car would be about 1000 a year. It's curiosity and also pride. Hope i can prove something.

Then, every time something breaks allowing a vacuum leak. Last night coming back home it was 34. I replaced until now the hoses around the catch can i don't know how many times. Last time today, i found under one of the clamps a... hairline crack in the rubber hose? that was so straight it seemed a cut. I used high pressure, oil resistant breaded fuel lines. So i replaced them with PVC hoses. I modified the clamps, cause they were "gathering" the tire in one point or line and where not perfectly round.

I don't know why it's so important, but by freshly tightening those hoses, i get 15% better mileage. For that trip only. When i check the next day, i see they're loose again. The rubber gives in and then cracks. On the PCV ones, it looks like they get untightened. So i added extra nuts on the bolts.

The vacuum inside the intake while crusins is what, 15psi, but the problem is that is an average and it probably pulsates peaking at around 20 or something and probably the opening of the valves and sucking of the pistons gives shock waves through the hoses that combined with the movement (vibration) of the engine creates temporary pulsating leaks.

Original PCV hose (used without catch can) is preformed rubber, with spring clamps that barely tighten. I know Hyundai redesigned an engine with the shaft a bit off from under the pistons to make the angle at active stroke smaller just to get an increase of 1% efficiency when they are probably loosing for older or even newers cars up to 10% or more because of a hose and clamps.

I remember 15 years ago with the Nissan used mostly by Angela to go to work and for trips in weekends, i found a puncture in the heater hose, and i kept pouring coolant and coolant kept disappearing until i found that leak and went and fixed it. To me it looked a puncture made with a tool.

I don't know what to believe anymore.

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Cyber Threats. Real or Myth

My opinion. They are as real as everything else. Governments, politicians.

In an ideal world (not the one we live in obviously), we should expect no critical infrastructure communication network is physically connected to the internet. I personally don't believe they are. They shouldn't. Classical example, power grid. What else. The controlling part of the phone providers. The military. Etc..

They should and probably have their own separate physical networks. It would be insane if they didn't.

Many people can't make the distinction between the front sites of the institutions giving access to a tiny fraction of the information from those sectors and their internal networks. There may be connections but one way only. Read only, if  you want. By hardware design.

By example. One should be able to go and check online his account with the power company. But that is the accounting part of it. And only the read only of the accounting part of it that details power usage and whatever, price, cost. The rest of it as the IT infrastructure controlling the grid should be physically isolated from the internet and probably is. Same with banks, government agencies, etc..

From time to time they come and bring us this unverifiable "news". Things that happened in the past and "they didn't know". Those that if you search the source of, you would find to be the source of all confusions and misunderstandings we leave with nowadays. When they squeeze everything they can out of those that never verify in the end they switch to some other imaginary threat.

About the recent "Russian" cyberattacks. The main problem here is the Russians don't deny it or don't make the slightest effort to educate the public in "the other countries" they are supposedly menacing. I bet vast majority of Russians don't even know about. They have a totally different view of the world, with their own journalists and their own news, tailored to their needs. And the language and especially the alphabet barriers. Most Russians can't read latin alphabet so they can at least read the titles from the sites.

They a front news agency called Sput Nick that sometimes is as confusing as American main media. Who wants to read Sput Nick or Spit Nick? It is made mostly for their own English readers so they can believe they are not totally isolated. Because they are in the same situations. Fake politicians, fake governments controlling everything.

Why they need this constant tension? Simply to take peoples' mind out of the real problems.

"On the other side are experts who say such warnings are vast exaggerations peddling FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) – that natural disasters and rodents are more of a threat than cyber attacks to industrial control systems (ICS) that power the grid, water distribution, transportation and other critical services.

The evidence – so far – seems to favor the latter view. No cyber attack in the US has crippled the grid, water, communication or other CI systems even for weeks. Indeed, major storms have left tens of thousands of people without power for longer than any cyber attack has."

Rodents. They (CSO) compare cyber threats to rodents. Rats that is.

One more thing. Who ever needed internet as an open, international network? What are 99% of Americans 99% of the time searching in other countries web sites? Nothing.