Let's hope Obama eats the rightie's lunch on the radio today.

Hello KRXA and everybody,

For awhile I couldn't get the station on the Internet (I'm in So. Cal--not Soquel!). Finally, I went to the search engine and found the new site. Thanks for having such a great station, and I hope Peter B. Collins comes back!

Thanks for the new site.

“Medicare for All” is often suggested in discussions about health care reform in the U.S. To the uninitiated, this implies the simplicity of a government run, single-payer system. Unfortunately this perception is not entirely rooted in fact and those insured by Medicare are actually forced to deal with multiple insurance companies. Medicare does not even pay medical bills itself; it contracts this duty regionally to large (familiar) insurance companies dubbed as “Carriers” and “Intermediaries”.

Medicare coverage alone is typically felt by seniors to be inadequate. While the “Part A” hospital deductible is a reasonably “low” $1,068 for a stay up to 60 days, out-of-pocket expenses increase dramatically to $267/day for days 61-90, and $534/day for days 91-150 (Lifetime Reserve Days). The beneficiary pays 100% of the costs for a hospital stay over 90 days once their “Lifetime Reserve Days” are exhausted.

The “Part B” medical outpatient deductible is $135/year. After paying the deductible, the senior pays 20% of the Medicare approved amount for covered services. While this coverage is often adequate for routine checkups, frequent extensive use of medical services can quickly become financially ruinous for those living on a fixed income.

The reality is that Medicare has become primarily become an underwriter to make the prudent purchase of additional medical insurance affordable. Seniors increasingly face a complicated maze of medical health plan choices. Initially, Medicare only allowed a few varieties of “Medi-gap” policies to be sold and insurance companies competed by selling these plans solely on price. Now 12 Medi-gap plans lettered A-L are available for this additional coverage. Some Medicare beneficiaries also have an option to continue or switch over existing employer or union-provided health insurance policies when they retire. Seniors may also financially qualify for additional coverage through their Social Services/Medicaid/Medi-Cal office.

Medicare has also added the controversial Part C “Medicare Advantage” plan choices such as Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs). Critics accuse Medicare of disapportionatly subsidizing the Advantage plans to lure seniors to plans that initially seem more economical but later prove to cut costs by restricting treatment options. The more educated and affluent and those that need extensive services often become dissatisfied with Advantage plans only to find themselves with few other options because of limited disenrollment periods and the fact that the more comprehensive Medi-gap plans can refuse to allow the transfer due to poor health.

The most recent addition is Medicare Prescription Drug coverage (Part D). Each area of the country has a myriad of Prescription Drug Providers (PDPs) each that offers several plans having unique “formularies” of covered drugs. Choosing a plan is so complex that Medicare offers a formulary finder on their website where seniors enter their prescription drugs and dosages to be informed of which plans might be the most economical over a year’s time. Unfortunately, prescribed medications often change over time and the PDPs are also free to modify their formulary at will (the beneficiary is usually locked by contract for a year). There are also various levels of Prescription Drug Subsidy assistance beneficiaries may financially qualify for some of which are administered by Social Security and some that are administered through the Social Services/Medicaid/Medi-Cal office.

One of the complaints about Medicare’s prescription coverage is that standard plans have what is known as a “donut-hole” coverage gap. The coverage gap begins once the beneficiary and their plan have spent $2,700 on prescription drugs. The beneficiary then receives no assistance until they spend more than $4,350 out-of-pocket (but they must continue to pay their monthly drug plan premiums). The donut hole continues until the beneficiary has paid $3850 out-of-pocket at which point “Catastrophic” coverage begins. Some of the PDP plans with the highest monthly premiums do offer partial coverage in the donut-hole but often this only covers generics. Legislation is proposed that may eventually alleviate the donut hole complaint.

The above only begins to scratch the surface of the confusing complexities Medicare beneficiaries often face. Often the complexities occur during a time of life when the senior is ill equipped to make appropriate choices. The winner in such cases is often an insurance company.

I like the concept of Medicare for everybody. Unfortunately, the truth about Medicare is not generally recognized. If Medicare is offered to all in its present form, I shudder at its likely complexities.

KRXA and its Progressive hosts have entirely missed one of the most important stories about air pollution, global warming, and the destruction of the nation’s resources. Worse, the battlefront of this environmental catastrophe has at times been all but at the front of KRXA’s own door and the effects have been evident to everybody living in the area. The catastrophe has at times caused hosts to report late to work, made it difficult for everybody to breathe, and drove infirm listeners to hospitals or to an early grave. Yet I hear nary a peep and certainly no common sense expressed about the matter. What am I speaking of? FIRE! Unnecessarily destructive forest fire that is releasing massive amounts of carbon and other pollution to our atmosphere and that is permanently destroying our nation’s timber resources!

Why do I say unnecessary? The massive forest fires of recent decades have been largely unnecessary. These fires have been the result of a conflagration of events including the past century’s increasing effectiveness of suppressing forest fires, global warming with its resultant moisture distribution changes, and most notably (and controllably), false environmentalism.

There was a time when our forests needed more protection against unscrupulous business practices. I’m not arguing that such protection does not remain necessary. However, in our attempt to “protect” the forests, the pendulum has swung so far that we are now actually causing our forestland unrepairable harm. Uninformed well-meaning do-gooders and “environmental” lawyers now file suit to stop everything including intelligent forest management that would reduce fuel loads and thus the damage done by fire.

It should be noted that the forests we inherited in California are not entirely natural. Native Americans frequently set fires to manage their forestland. They understood that small fires set in early spring cleared undergrowth and made their forestland more accessible and productive. The forest fires of recent decades usually burn during hot weather and they burn land that has been allowed to generate large fuel loads. The resultant fires are so large that they reach into the crowns of larger older trees and they burn so hot that all animal and vegetative life is killed. Once big trees and their shade to the ground are destroyed, only dense brush and grass grow and the land is then more susceptible to future fire. Any repeat of fire then perpetuates the cycle by preventing the growth of large trees.

Environmental organizations seem to have lost all common sense. Many seem to have evolved into existing merely to line their own pockets by extracting (undisclosed and sealed) blackmail “settlements” that slow or eliminate all progress. This is just one of reasons I classify myself as a Liberal and not as one of the New-Age Progressive “propeller-heads” who often promote non-scientific based fantasies that don’t work to improve life for the masses.

For more information about proposals to properly manage our forests and the actions of “environmentalists” who block even the study of forest management, read about the Quincy Library Group, a pilot project in started in 1998 from federal legislation introduced by Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, and Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif:
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/apr/26/lawsuits-stall-quincy-library-group-vision/
and about other proposals that include generating electricity and construction materials from excess forest fuel loads
(that will invariably otherwise be totally destroyed):
http://www.redding.com/news/2009/apr/26/experts-disagree-on-methods-for-preventing-fires/

Can we not sue every insurance company denying people care for practicing medicine without a license?

Medicare for all is just a marketing strategy to make people believe things will be better and that we made the right choice. Until I see myself covered, I can't believe all this health care talk. Now I chose Humana health care and I pay for it from my own salary but at least I know that if, God forbid, something bad happens I'm covered.

The San Francisco Bay Bridge should perhaps remain closed until traditional and not “band-aid” repairs are completed! Caltrans has just proven their judgment about the bridge cannot be trusted.

Per an article in the Los Angeles times, Bart Fey, the Caltrans spokesman stated that Caltrans noticed vibration problems with the recent repair during a recent inspection. Fey said wind gusts of more than 50 mph Tuesday were a "contributing factor," to increasing the vibrations in the metal rods that had been observed. "We didn't get the modifications put in place in this for the latest windstorm" said the spokesman.

UC Berkeley civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl stated "The combination of the weight of the traffic and the force of the wind exceeded the capacity of this temporary repair." Both Astaneh-Asl and USC civil engineering professor James C. Anderson cited commercial tractor-trailers crossing the 73-year-old bridge as a "particular concern".

Why didn’t Caltrans install simple inexpensive strain gauges on the repair to at least provide continual monitoring of the recognized problem? Gauges or just common sense dictated that the bridge be closed or that commercial trucks be curtailed during Tuesday’s windstorm given the recognized problem.

Caltrans’ poor judgment about the San Francisco Bay Bridge is not limited to just this incident. UC Berkeley civil engineering professor Abolhassan Astaneh-Asl and Dr Bill Wattenburg (of KGO) both state the new bridge span being built is extremely vulnerable to terrorist attack or even a common gasoline tanker-truck fire. This is because the structure just under roadbed will provide the bridge’s primary support and thus any serious compromise that pierces the roadbed can easily cause the entire bridge to collapse. The solution is to not remove the cables that are being used to initially suspend the roadbed. However, this is not esthetically acceptable to politicians and therefore Caltrans refuses to recognize the problem. Caltrans just proved it cannot be trusted with such safety judgments. Politicians have no business dictating engineering decisions. We have been warned!

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bridge29-2009oct29,0,6312074.story


http://www.infrastructurist.com/wp-content/uploads/bay-bridge-crack.png
http://www.infrastructurist.com/wp-content/uploads/bay-bridge-crack.png

UC Berkeley Professor Astaneh-Asl has been interviewed about the SF Bay Bridge repair. I tried to write a summary of what the professor said and at the end I add my own thoughts.

Professor Astaneh-Asl is a world-renowned civil engineer and an expert in the integrity of bridges, structures, and buildings. He is often called upon for advise on complex issues and for forensic analysis after a failure. Professor Astaneh-Asl has worked twenty years with the Bay Bridge, five years of which were full-time after the Loma Prieta earthquake to analyze its safety.

Professor Astaneh-Asl states the SF Bay Bridge eyebars are made of nickel steel that is so hard that its appearance and properties are almost like glass. The professor states since one eyebar has fractured, the others are likely not far behind. All the eyebars are virtually identical since they were manufactured together and they have been exposed to similar stresses. All the eyebars need to be inspected for hairline cracks with x-rays and other techniques before the bridge can be considered safe.

Professor Astaneh states that eyebars pairs cannot be considered to have redundant pieces as the Caltrans spokesman so glibly initially offered. Eyebars are “fracture critical”, an engineering term meaning that the tremendous force of weight released from a fracture can almost instantaneously progressively shock-load the undamaged eyebars into total failure. Professor Astaneh states that clamping the eyebar as has been done is not a “repair” as the Caltrans spokesman suggested but it is a “band-aid” that will help prevent normal loads from further damaging the bridge while a true repair is fashioned.

Professor Astaneh called the rods now clamping the eyebar “toothpicks” that would be of no use in an earthquake. The four rods together are capable of only carrying about 13% of the static load a good eyebar and the rod’s extreme hardness, thinness, and length makes them and their tensioning nuts brittle and susceptible to vibration and cracks. Professor Astaneh also states that now that the plate that fell is properly welded to the repair saddle, the forces released in the event of rod failure would cause the whole 15000 lb saddle to fall. The professor says the saddle can’t be welded to the eyebar and the newly devised method of containment would not have sufficient strength.

My contention is that keeping the bridge open with the current repair may be more dangerous in an earthquake than no repair at all. I came to this conclusion by simply extrapolating on Professor Astaneh’s statements. Since it is generally recognized that the current repair is inherently weak, I maintain that lifting the weight of the bridge with the temporary repair essentially creates a hairpin trigger that is set to release a huge weight and force. In the event of a serious earthquake, the temporary repair would certainly fail and this would suddenly release the massive bridge weight to sledgehammer and twist the questionable eyebars now holding the bridge at the very time they are already experiencing maximum loads and twist.

If such an event caused just one additional eyebar to fracture, then the process would repeat creating a progression of increasing strength overloads that would most likely collapse the entire section of the bridge. Professor Astaneh says it would only take ten 8-hour days (or as few as five 18-hour days) to inspect the other eyebars properly and to measure, fabricate, and replace the fractured eyebar. He suggests sliding the replacement eyebar alongside the existing damaged one rather than a complete replacement but he indicated it could be done either way.

Dr. Bill Wattenburg (the KGO interviewer) made another good point. Dr. Bill feels that since the stakes are so high, the engineering specifications for the current repair and any proposed new one should be released to the public for peer review. Dr. Bill also wants to know the names and qualifications of the engineers who are really in charge of approving the bridge repair. Dr. Bill says he is tired of hearing only from glib Caltrans spokespersons who aren’t qualified as engineers and who don’t know their back pocket from a hole in the ground unless they check with their bosses. Dr. Bill suspects that the people who approved the current “repair” are bureaucrats who aren’t much more qualified than the spokesperson when it comes to making engineering decisions.

Dr. Bill Wattenburg interviews Professor Astaneh-Asl
October 31, 2009 10PM
http://kgoradio.com/sectional.asp?id=31754

Look at excellent pictures & article here by by EngineerTony Alfrey & the above will make sense:
The Famous Bay Bridge Crack
http://www.sci-experiments.com/BrokenBridge/BrokenBridge.html

What are the things need to do while starting an insurance policy?

Thanks,
Life insurance

Hal- Your creditability as a Progressive who cares about people has become more & more clouded by your personal affairs & finances. Who is going to believe anything your hosts say, post your bumper sticker, or buy local advertising if you air scams & garbage on the weekends? (See the article pasted below.) Year after year convicted felon Kevin Trudeau continues to rank as one of the top marketers who have trouble with consumer agencies, the courts, & the law. Stop using your 10kw transmitter to “burn up the planet” airing his garbage. I'd rather you swallow your pride & ask for money like the other local station owner! The garbage you air on weekends just hurts the Progressive cause you profess to support!

I like most of your national programming & most of your weekday local hosts. I hate that you now air a program in support of animalistic boxing whose ultimate goal is to produce a brain concussion in an athlete who typically has meager education & an "underclass" social background. And then there’s the twisted Bob Oliver. You are giving that man more airtime? I think you both need a psychiatrist more than a chiropractor.

FYI, who is going to take you seriously when you preach about global warming once they hear of your monthly commute flight to Baltimore? I laugh every time I hear you tell us that “we” are burning up the planet. It’s sad you haven’t recognized that “you” typify the problem! Everyone has their excuses for not doing more to reduce their carbon footprint... me, my SUV driving neighbor, Hal, KRXA… even government & those big nasty corporations!

I'm sure that many who "think for themselves" recognize that you have become hypocritical on several fronts. I hope you find your way again so I can ask for a bumper sticker & recommend your station.


Top 10 Scams of 2009: Scam Artists Go Corporate
By Mark Huffman, ConsumerAffairs.com
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2009/12/top_10_scams.html

This year, our annual review of the Top 10 Scams finds more fast-buck artists functioning like legitimate businesses. The old tried-and-true scams -- advance-fee loans, phony lotteries, "free" cruises -- have by no means disappeared but in 2009, clever marketers added a few new twists.

1. "Free Trials" (Like the “free herbs & vitamins” advertised on weekends… Goggle your advertisers & read the complaints about shipments & charges that won’t stop.)

7. Kevin Trudeau
Marketer Kevin Trudeau is always selling something, and in 2009, it was his book "Debt Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About", his follow-up to "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About."
Some who bought the book claim it has almost no usable information that can't be easily gleaned from other, free sources. But the overwhelming majority who have written to ConsumerAffairs.com complain about the aggressive sales tactics they encounter when buying the book over the phone.
"I bought a Kevin Trudeau book from TV," Paula, of Susanville, Calif., said. "I am unemployed. He, and his group, keep sneaking $7-$40 charges on my unemployment debit card. I can't even figure where some of the charges are coming from. The phone numbers are not good, or are never answered! I have no grocery money now because of $70 in the last month!"
The book costs $29.95 but Tom, of Butte, Mont., complains the shipping charges amounted to $33. He got off easy. Jacqueline, of York Springs, Pa., said she called to order the book but by the time she got off the phone had been charged $152.85.

83 pages of Kevin Trudeau consumer complaints here:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/health/trudeau.html

Kevin Trudeau Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Trudeau
(Hal Ginsberg & KRXA can get infamous mention here too with the next FTC or court action against Kevin Trudeau! Want to take bets how soon that will be?)


(ConsumerAffairs.com is an independent Web-based consumer news and resource center. They are not a government agency, not affiliated with any other consumer organization and not affiliated with any of the corporations whose products are reviewed on their site. They do not receive any taxpayer funds and do not seek or accept contributions from foundations or corporate interests. The site is supported solely by advertising.)

Shadetree Mechanic - you make some interesting points:

1) Kevin Trudeau's and Bob Oliver's views are not representative of management at KRXA as we make clear in disclaimers at least with respect to Trudeau's show. This is standard radio practice. You are always welcome to call my show to complain about Trudeau or Oliver and many more people will hear your concerns than either of their shows. You are also free to turn the dial or turn off the radio when their shows come on. Nevertheless, I take your criticism seriously.

2) I think your point about my trips to the Baltimore/Washington area fails for this reason: I have never claimed to be an exemplar. Nor do I chide individuals and I generally don't target individual behavior. My show is about describing problems and (hopefully) coming up with solutions. My solution to global warming is taxing carbon. My trips cross-country do not in any way undercut this argument. In fact, they support it. If it cost more to fly back and forth, I'd probably do it less often.

This is the same unemployment extension that Bush had been calling "fiscally irresponsible" up until the Department of Labor issued its latest round of historically high unemployment figures yesterday. Six Republican Senators voted against it. Automotive Tools and Equipment

President Obama: Please AIRDROP granola bars, MREs, & 3/4 full bottles of water to save the Haitians! These items can be dropped in bulk by C130s without parachutes! The items quickly reach "terminal airspeed velocity" allowing the food items safely “flutter down” without risk to people due to their light weight and without destroying the contents. Water can be dropped just outside heavily populated area and those in the cities can then easily hike to get it. Currently trucks can't safely deliver food or water except in limited areas because they are quickly mobbed.
see:
http://www.kgoam810.com/Article.asp?id=1662660&nId=0&spid=33179

http://www.kgoradio.com/viewentry.asp?ID=365348&PT=PERSONALITIES

Dr. Bill's Solution Could Provide Food and Water to the Desperate Haitians
Dr. Bill's idea for dropping food from planes

(From: Science April, 1993)

MREs From Heaven
It sounded ludicrously simple to experts in aerial supply - so simple they hesitated to use it - but no, parachute food aid got the ultimate test last week when food packages began arriving free-fall on Bosnian sidewalks.

This unorthodox method for feeding war victims was suggested by former U.S. nuclear weapons researcher Bill Wattenburg, an ex-Lawrence Livermore physicist turned radio talk show host. No shrinking violet, Wattenburg contacted the National Security Council staff at the White House last month to pitch a notion he'd first hatched 2 years ago, when the United Starts was involved in Iraq. Back then, he'd told US Army officials that, instead of bundling food in huge, bulky packages and parachuting it to spots easily targeted by hostile soldiers, they'd be better off omitting the parachutes and scattering small, durable US. snack packs directly onto trails and fields. Being a scientist, he’d even performed the crucial experiments - dropping granola bars from high buildings and leaving them exposed to the weather. Eureka, They remained intact and edible.

Still, obdurate Army officials passed up their golden opportunity to scatter granola bars for hungry Iraqi Kurds. And that left Wattenburg to wait for his second hearing. This time around, it was only a few days after his call to the White House that U.S. Airplanes began using the new technique – which the military dubbed "fluttering" - over the hostage Bosnian town of Srebrenica.

Rather than granola bars; the Army is raining down surplus "Meals Ready to Eat," or MRE meteors," as one Clinton official calls them. These Army rations may be less tasty and more dangerous than candy bars when airborne, but, says one White House official on background, 'they're better than nothing," and certainly better than starving,


(San Francisco Chronicle - front page March, 1993)

Dropping food in Smaller Bites
The Pentagon has changed the way it is dropping supplies Bosnia, showering hundreds of thousands of individual food packets across area after weeks of shoving 1500-pound bundles out of the C-130 cargo planes.
The bundles had missed drop zones and drawn the unwanted attention and firepower of the well-armed Serbs to the Muslims the food was intended for.
Maverick Bay Area engineer Bill Wattenburg – known for his bizarre, yet effective Inventions – he persuaded the pentagon to initiate the change. Pentagon officials acknowledged that his idea was received with a fair amount of enthusiasm, although they said the change in relief supply strategy been "coincidental" because others had also broached the idea.
The Pentagon began using the new scattering method Saturday night when three US planes flying out of bases in Germany dropped 17 tons of military style TV dinners over the besieged northern Bosnian city of Srebrenica.

“You can shove a half a million of these things out the, back of a C-130," Wattenburg said. 'The people out there who are starving, they're shouting, 'Hallelujah, food's raining from the sky!' And they pick them up and eat them."
Wattenberg said he initially suggested to President Clinton and the military that U.S. forces drop millions of granola bars on the Muslim refugees, but Pentagon nutrition experts dismissed the bars in favor of MREs because the meals designed for combat troops pack more nutrition and energy into small packages. Each MRE packet contains three 1,300-calorie meals that can be eaten hot or cold.
In the packets are a basic meal, usually either meat, chicken, spaghetti or turkey loaf, as well as cheese and crackers, condiments, powdered coffee and sugar.


Danger of Pallets
One stumbling point of the 3 week-old U.S. relief program has been that the large pallets of food, airdropped from an altitude of about 10,000 feet, either miss the drop-zone, and end up in Serb hands or land where the huge white parachutes can be seen the next morning from Serb gun positions high up in the hills, Serb gunners reportedly fire on civilians trying to pick up the supplies.
But dropping individual packets in their 10-inch by 6-inch by 2-inch tough plastic wrappers makes recovery much easier.
“This scheme removes the danger aspect of parachute drop” Wattenburg said, "and allows immediate delivery to the most desperate - the children who starve before bulk supplies arrive weeks or months later."


How the Drop Works
Using the new distribution system, Air Force crews stack thousands of MRE’s on the deck of the aircraft, near the rear loading ramp. When the plane is over its drop zone, the ramp is opened and the loosely bagged MRE’s are pushed out. When the bags reach the end of their tethers, according to one Pentagon source, they break open and the MRE’s drop to earth.
Wattenburg, 57, is a Chico engineer who has frequently acted as a consultant to the Air Force and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Two year ago, he made headlines when, working with Livermore Lab colleagues, he modified agricultural plows Into a 1,200 square-foot blanket of clanking chains and blades that, when lowed behind a helicopter, could be used to clear more than 500,000 mines left In the Kuwaiti desert after the Persian Gulf war.

Sensational info. I look forward to seeing more.

business coupon

Helicopters and trucks can't safely deliver food or water to the majority of Haitians at this time because they are quickly dangerously mobbed. This is a presents a danger to both the relief workers and the mob itself. In addition, when food first begins to arrive, the quantities are insufficient and mob mentality leaves the weak and elderly without relief. Strong thugs often end up with the food for the purpose of selling it later. This situation is not unique to Haiti.

Due to the dangers of delivering inadequate supplies, relief workers typically wait to deliver food to the most desperate areas until it can be delivered in mass with reasonable security. Due to the poor infrastructure of roads that existed in Haiti even before the earthquake, tens of thousands may die before relief workers feel it is safe to deliver supplies to the most affected areas.

To help minimize the above problem, the military has chosen to airdrop pallets of relief supplies until it is safe and logistically possible to deliver more supplies by land. Unfortunately, it is not safe to drop pallets of food in the heavily populated areas where they are most needed as this creates many of the same problems as terrestrial deliveries of insufficient supplies.

There is a better but underutilized method of airdropping supplies to keep the masses alive until normal relief supplies can be safely delivered. Calorie-intense foods such as military ration "MREs" and granola bars can be dropped individually, ideally from large planes such as C-130s. This is not done out of disrespect, it is done out of practical necessity. The supplies are pushed out the back of the plane in large mesh bags tied to a rope that also remains tied to the plane. When the mesh bags drop to a certain point, the end of the rope still tied to the plane tears the mesh bag open and the small packets of food supplies are then scattered over large areas.

The items that fall in this matter are so lightweight and non-aerodynamic that they simply “flutter” to the ground where they land absolutely everywhere. This makes it virtually impossible for thugs to monopolize gathering the food and children get as much if not more than anyone. Some of the food does land where it is dangerous to attempt to gather it but this danger is minimized by the vast quantities that can be quickly delivered. Flying C130s to Haiti from the U.S. can be done within hours. There are many planes currently available on the ground not being used for relief because of Haiti's airport is too small to utilize all of them.

Water is too heavy to be delivered in this exact same manner but it can be delivered by helicopter in a similar fashion but from lower altitudes to empty fields and lots. Individual bottles will not normally break when they land; they bounce, especially if the bottles are slightly under-filled (as this leaves an air cushion to absorb the shock). In addition, under-filled bottles will float so the bottles can also be dropped over bodies of (contaminated) water and they will then naturally float to the land.

The above airdrop procedures were pioneered by Dr.Wattenburg, a (conservative) nuclear scientist who also does a weekend talkshow at KGO 810 AM. Although Dr. Wattenburg’s method has been previously used successfully in other areas, the military seems to have forgotten how successful this was and they are now resistant to follow these airdrop procedures fearing that release of bulk food in this manner will cause riots or be otherwise unsafe. President Obama needs to be advised that there is no other choice but to use this method, as tens of thousands are about to unnecessarily die of thirst, contaminated water, and hunger. The military has started dropping pallets of food using parachutes but this food is not arriving where it is needed most. Unfortunately, these desperate areas are also inaccessible to the press.
See:
ttp://www.kgoam810.com/Article.asp?id=1662660&nId=0&spid=33179

http://www.kgoradio.com/viewentry.asp?ID=365348&PT=PERSONALITIES

Trucks can't deliver food or water to the majority of Haitians at this time because roads are virtually impassable. The few trucks that get through are quickly dangerously mobbed by those that are strong and healthy; those that are weak are unable to fight to the front and thus get no food. Parachuting pallets of food requires waiting until secure drop zones can be established.

For more than a dozen years, our military has had a sure-fire method called the Tri-wall Aerial Delivery System (TRIADS) to immediately and safely distribute food to refugees, without creating dangerous mob-scenes and without the necessity of waiting to establish secure drop zones for parachuted pallets of food.

The method is simple— from the cargo ramp of a C-130 or C-17 plane, simply drop huge thin-walled cardboard boxes that are full of small foil-wrapped foods such as granola bars, candy bars, and MREs (military Meals Ready to Eat). When the thin-walled boxes hit the slipstream from the plane, they disintegrate. The individual food packets survive and they then “flutter” down at low speeds that won’t harm people on the ground (due to their low “terminal velocity”). The food packets remain sealed and edible, even if dropped from thousands of feet and not immediately found.

Since the food does not fall to the ground in large bundles, it falls over a wide area. This prevents thugs from intercepting all the food for themselves (or to sell on the black market). Children get as much if not more than anyone. Some food will land where it is unsafe to recover it but this risk is offset by the huge quantities quickly dropped and easily found.

This procedure was first developed in the Bosnian war, and tested in Afghanistan. It works, and since the food falls over a wide area, the feared risk of mob-panic has never happened in real-life. In fact, dropping large quantities of food in this manner tends to disperse a crowd rather than to gather one as those that head towards open space find more food.

Some of the large benefits of this system are:

1) It requires no infrastructure on the ground such as the “safe landing zones” required for parachuted food.

2) It is far more cost-effective parachuting pallets of food as was widely seen in the media on January 18th, 2010. The 1997 figures from the military say that method costs $800 per bundle, while the TRIADS system cost just $72 per bundle.

3) It takes significantly less time to prepare food for being dropped in this manner since no parachute is necessary and this allows more food to be dropped faster.

Water is too heavy to be delivered in this exact manner but it can be delivered by helicopter from lower altitudes to empty fields and lots. Individual bottles will not normally break when they land; they bounce, especially if the bottles are slightly under-filled (as this leaves an air cushion to absorb the shock). In addition, under-filled bottles float so the bottles can be dropped over bodies of (contaminated) water and they will then naturally float to the land.

You can read more information about this procedure at the following links. Please forward this information to as many policymakers as you can. These food deliveries need to start immediately if we are to save the tens of thousands of Haitian earthquake victims in remote areas from thirst, contaminated water, and starvation who are dieing as you read this.

· Dr. Bill's idea for dropping food from planes:
http://www.kgoradio.com/Article.asp?id=1662660&nId=0&spid=33179
· YouTube video of Afghanistan airdrops of individual meal packets: YouTube video of Afghanistan airdrops of individual meal packets:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCxwprZekpM
· Dropping food from airplanes -- without parachutes?
http://muller.lbl.gov/teaching/Physics10/old%20physics%2010/chapters%20(old)/7-DroppingFood.html
· High-Tech Cardboard Boxes Used In Afghan Food Airdrops--Describes the Tri-Wall Aerial Delivery System used in Bosnia and Afghanistan to deliver tens of thousands of MREs
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=44648
· U.S. Air Force Airdrop News Page ((from the Internet Archive, because the military deleted this site)--has a ton of news items about the 2001 TRIAD air-drops that delivered 2 million packets of food in Afghanistan.
http://web.archive.org/web/20060222040836/www.usafe.af.mil/airdrop/news.htm

The horrible situation that develops immediately in refugee camps is that people are forced to relieve themselves on the ground near where they are living. Soon people are walking in their own filth. Disease spreads rapidly. Children are the main victims when they play on the bare ground.

During the Kosovo crisis in the late nineties, Livermore Lab scientists were asked what could be done to solve the sanitation problem in the sprawling refugee camps that were erected with tents on bare ground. Livermore staff recommended that each tent family be provided with a standard 5-gallon plastic bucket with lid to be used as a toilet. These buckets are available all over the world for less than $2.00 each. These buckets stack within each other for easy delivery. One person can easily carry ten or more of them.

The procedure was to tell each family that they had to bring their waste bucket to a disposal area (a pit in the ground). They had to empty and clean the bucket before they could receive more food for the day. This procedure was also published in the respected journal Science, “Plastic Buckets for Refugee Sanitation," Science, v 284, p409, 16 April 1999.

copied from: http://www.kgoradio.com/Article.asp?id=1662660&nId=0&spid=33179

Hi , Names Jeff , first timer so be nice, my comments are broad ranging , first i thing that the American government(us not elected anybody) make the elected officials we voted for vote the way we wont them to, not the way there party (dems or repobs) or fire them for not listening to the American voters. Second, I thinck people need to get off president Obama's back and let the man do his Job,(I think he's the right man for the Job. Third is to make shore me fire some how the great pat robertson and rush limbutt. I i'm beyond sick of hearing there bullshit , comments are incouraged

Corporations should not be treated as equal to people; they are simply organizations to which people give money in exchange a product. Giving a corporation “personhood” rights essentially grants the corporation’s officers rights in addition to their own as individuals and the gain reduces the rights of the customer and most other individuals.

A corporation’s customers normally purchase products based on quality, value, and price, not to support a political agenda. The corporation’s interests are often quite disparate from the customer’s. Most consumers would become very upset if they understood how the recent Supreme Court decision now means (more than ever) that each dollar they spend will likely work against their self-interest at the voting booth.

Action Page: Congress Must Confront The Lawless Supreme Court Corporate Personhood Decision
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1029.php

Action Page: Impeach The Supreme Court "Unlawful 5"
http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1030.php

Hal- That pilot that takes you back and forth from Baltimore may be perpetually as tired as you are after making your flight!

PBS FRONTLINE Presents:
Flying Cheap Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS

In this episode, Frontline investigates safety problems of major airlines outsourcing flights to smaller "regional carriers". Watch the preview video here: http://www.pbs.org/frontline/flyingcheap/
where “you’ll hear about the lives of regional pilots, crash pads and the pressures that outsourcing brings to bear -- “pilot pushing” as its called in the industry”.

Later episodes may cover additional airline problems. Think you operate on a low budget and thus have technical problems at KRXA? Much of the equipment used by traffic controllers is 30-40 years old and some of it still uses vacuum tubes! The maintenance schedule for much of this equipment: FOF (Fix on Failure). In addition, many traffic controllers routinely pull double shifts due to manpower shortages.

I heard about this new PBS Frontline series when KGO’s Pat Thurston interviewed Miles O’Brien, a Frontline correspondent. The interview is archived one week here: 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

PBS Frontline investigates safety problems of major airlines outsourcing flights to smaller regional carriers.

PBS FRONTLINE Presents:
Flying Cheap Tuesday, February 9, 2010, at 6 P.M. Pacific Time on PBS

In this episode, Frontline investigates safety problems of major airlines outsourcing flights to smaller "regional carriers". Watch the preview video here: http://www.pbs.org/frontline/flyingcheap/
where “you’ll hear about the lives of regional pilots, crash pads and the pressures that outsourcing brings to bear -- “pilot pushing” as its called in the industry”.

Later episodes may cover additional airline problems. Think you operate on a low budget and thus have technical problems at KRXA? Much of the equipment used by traffic controllers is 30-40 years old and some of it still uses vacuum tubes! The maintenance schedule for much of this equipment: FOF (Fix on Failure). In addition, many traffic controllers routinely pull double shifts due to manpower shortages.

I heard about this new PBS Frontline series when KGO’s Pat Thurston interviewed Miles O’Brien, a Frontline correspondent. The interview is archived one week here: 4 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Hal- If it helps, Mike's show is a frequent “dead air” offender; Monday night is far from the first time you have lost his feed towards the end of his show. I can live with occasional “dead air” however. Remember that I (affectionately) dubbed you as King of Dead Air & suggested that you have to successfully put on a talk show (without VoIP problems) before you can be nominated (again) as best host (or D.J.).

I hope your statement that “This is symptomatic of a really serious problem” was in reference to the big farting sounds from the Stephanie Miller show. Stephanie is a smart cookie, and her support cast is sharp too (the impersonations are “spot on”). However, the sophomoric humor (such as farting) is embarrassing when I listen with others; it is over the top and needs to stop.

As I keep saying, consist quality programming is important if you want KRXA to attract a large loyal audience. How can I tell others good things about KRXA when I know that likely as not, they will first tune in to the farting sounds of Stephanie Miller, Bob Oliver twisting UFOs from night-vision goggles viewing “space junk”, convicted felon Kevin Trudeau skirting (I think violating) the conditions of U.S. District Court Judge Robert W Gettleman’s contempt of court ruling (by continuing to promote and misrepresent useless health and diet cures), or the promotion of "free" miracle vitamins that ask for your credit card (for the convenience of perpetual automatic refills that are impossible to cancel).

I'm glad to hear you are getting Christine Craft as a guest host. Christine can do some real hard-hitting political exposés; she is really good at finding dirt. However, like Karel, she is full of herself and thus fatally flawed. Let her on the air too much and her show will be all about animals and mindless blather supporting unrealistic and false environmentalism (like your hypocritical unrealistic take on how to solve global "burning"). FYI, solar and wind power can't reliably produce the quantities of cheap power needed if we to have any hope of bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. The threat of nuclear waste and other nuclear plant threats are entirely overrated, primarily because fat-cat lawyers have taken over the environmental movement and like the Republicans in Congress, they are making gobs of money by being obstructionists. In this case it is good but scientifically uneducated liberals that are getting tea-bagged into believing the mindless crap liars promote.

Give Karel free rein & he will never let a caller speak more than a few words before he is triggered to release another rant. Karel is actually a very good host when he allows his callers and guests to speak and ideas are exchanged. KGO did a good job of reining Karel & Christine in. The two used rotate into Bernie Ward's old time-slot on KGO for a week at a time; the lack of a full-time gig for either of them helped keep their shows vibrant and interesting. John Rothman finally won the slot, but while his previous weekend nighttime show was often incredibly interesting, KGO seems to have forced him to do a milk-toast show in his new slot. John’s mainstream feel-good crap is incredibly boring so I listen to Tom Hartman during this time-slot now even though I would prefer to listen to someone who would sometimes address local issues. Although you keep dissing Tom Hartman, I find him to be an excellent and interesting host who is just possibly your best.

Hal- You are probably aware of but the Monterey County Weekly went solar. See:
How the Weekly became its own solar-energy plant
Visit Our Sunny Portal
Graphs and charts on the solar power output and CO2 reduction. (Click back to 2009).

I'm all for solar electric power if it can be made economically viable. However, it is just plain hard to make the numbers work unless someone bets their economic tail on it for an extended period of time. Tax incentives help lessen individual risk but if done on a massive scale, then it's our entire nation's economy on the line. Although I agree there are offsetting environmental and thus economic savings to solar panel use, one has to be concerned that the proactive extra expense doesn't make us non-competitive in the world market. Such proactive expenditures would also further necessitate politically difficult to implement tariffs. Solar water heating, adding insulation, & painting the roofs of commercial building with white insulating foam makes a lot more sense but its not as sexy.

For new power, I think the cost effectiveness of nuclear is hard to beat. The real waste from these plants only has a half-life of about 40 years (meaning that after 40 years the waste has cooled to half its original radioactivity). About 97% of a "spent" fuel rod is not waste but is simply the original uranium the fuel rod was constructed of. While uranium does have a half-life of millions of years, this actually makes the material relatively safe to handle and store (unless you grind it to powder and breath it; industry commonly deals with much more toxic biological and chemical materials). The "hot" waste in "spent" rods can be separated and vitrified (turned to glass), then buried for the 300 years or so it needs to completely cool outside of the food chain. The remaining original uranium should be returned to the plant for reuse and not buried (this substantially reduces both the volume of "waste" and the necessity to mine new ore). New plant designs are on the horizon that won't even require the rods to be reprocessed.

I'm OK with whatever technology can proven to be overall economically competitive in the world market. Photocells just aren't there yet or there would already be a lot more in use (at least somewhere). Besides the economics, there are other downsides to the extensive use of photovoltaics that just aren't widely recognized or publicized. Those in the environmental movement and legal profession will come to recognize that they are dirty and energy intensive to build, they destroy the environment of open spaces, and (although you laugh) when installed & maintained in places such as roofs, they require lots of workers to accept jobs that are extremely dangerous (and difficult for OSHA to monitor).

It’s not too late to vote for best D.J. & best radio station in Monterey County! Voting ends Wednesday 02/17/10, not 02/12/10 as was previously stated. This is also a good time to show your support for the quality sponsors that make KRXA possible. You can also add a write-in category of best radio talk-show host.

What I’d really like is the fun of electing Billy Sunshine as the best D.J./talk-show host. Just imagine how pi**ed off Hal would be the next day when he did his show. And of course Billy would call Hal’s show just to rub it in. Then Billy would overdo it to really get Hal’s goat & Hal would take the bait by banning Billy from the show for 6 months…

Unfortunately, electing Billy as best D.J. can’t possibly happen. It would just waste your vote (something akin to voting for Ralph Nader, Jessie Jackson, or Ross Perot who I did actually vote for back when they used to project the winners before California polls closed).

Still, we can imagine the fun of having Billy Sunshine win. I think even Hal will see the humor though it is at his expense.

Log in and the survey link pops up. Click on the survey and then vote in a minimum of 25 different categories and you can submit the ballot. Voting is open until 02/17/10.

Hal is the strongest choice. Don't waste your vote!

Hal- How about a post-edit button on this blog for the original poster! Some sites have this & I could definitely use it.

Top post. I look forward to reading more. Cheers
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Thanks for the post. Keep the great work.

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The Bill that Jim Bunning made his stand against was ALREADY in existence 2 MONTHS BEFORE Congress passed Paygo. It was introduced on January 1st and dealt with extensions on Medicare payments to physicians, federal road construction, COBRA for unemployed, and unemployed benefits.

These were also EMERGENCY extensions and as "emergency" items they were EXEMPT from PAYGO (a new law passed by Congress to not borrow any money).

So, Bunning, who in the past has supported Bush's multiple tax cuts for the rich, which cost US $1.3+ trillion(passed by reconciliation), supported dumping taxpayer money into Pharma and Insurance companies through Medicare Part D, costing us $600 billion, and has previously supported extensions for the unemployment.

This man supported $2 TRILLION in unfunded BUSH bills, but steps on the unemployed families over $6.8 billion in emergency funds.

He demands PAYGO for a bill that is almost entirely exempt from PAYGO.

Even if it wasn't exempt, the bill was originated 2 months before PAYGO passed and only required 60 Senate votes to override PAYGO.

99 Senators were wiling to override paygo instead of sending the bill back to the House of Reps and costing valuable time.

The only item that may not have been "emergency" according to open congress is the medicare payments to doctors.

Now because of Bunnings amendment, they have to conference with the House and Vote again which will take how long?

I wonder how come this discussion has jumped from health issues and insurance to green thinking and alternative energy. I guess where smart people meet there are a lot of floating ideas.
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Mathew Farney | Email Hosting

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