UPS v.s. USPS v.s. FedEx - Don't Ask Obama

The other day Barack Obama was quoted as saying,

"UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

What I believe Obama was trying to say was that a government run health-care system would not hurt private medical insurance. The message that the poor man sent was just the opposite. What a stupid example! When I heard what he said all I could see was standing in long lines at the Post Office and the DMV.

Nobody wants a health-care system that works like the US Post Office.

A second point that Obama failed to make was that if the US Post Office is having such a hard time competing with private companies, why in all the world would he want to create a health-care system that will have the same disadvantage?

President Obama is not doing well right now as he struggles to promote a government run health-care system. He does not appear to know what he is talking about. First he claims that a government run agency has trouble competing with private interprise and then he claims that the governemt run agency will not need to be subsudized by the government. His teleprompters must have malfunctioned in the worst way!

This example shows that Obama simply does not understand how capitalism works. It also shows that he does not understand that all of governemt by definition is subsidized by the taxpayer.

I Can Hear Again!

Our physical bodies are wonderful things. As an engineer I appreciate the technical complexity of the various functions including our brain and thought process, muscles, digestion, vision, touch, smell, taste, growth and repair, disease control, and hearing. My first engineering boss admonished me to copy nature in my engineering designs, and I have found success as I have followed the example of the supreme designer of the universe.

One of our five senses is hearing. As a young boy I was blessed with an ear for music. I was able to tune my violin by listening to adjacent strings played together. I love to sing and to play numerous musical instruments. However, our ability to hear is based upon very delicate mechanical and electrical components inside our bodies. They can be damaged by loud noises as well as disease and normal aging.

Over my lifetime I have seen a gradual degradation in my ability to hear. Some of it may have been caused by playing loud music. It may have been caused by shooting guns without hearing protection. I am sure some damage was caused as I worked on servo motor design at Burroughs when loud noise from the motors caused physical pain. Then there is normal hearing loss due to age. My father and most of my grandparents had severe hearing loss as they got old. In addition I have ringing in my ears. That is more of an annoyance as it is a limitation.


I have had my hearing tested on numerous occasions during my life and the tests have confirmed what I suspected. My hearing is getting worse with age. Most of my hearing loss is at higher frequencies which means that everything I hear sounds muffled. I have a difficult time hearing consonants, which means I can't understand people with high voices, and most children.

I have compensated for my hearing loss by talking louder and asking people to repeat things when they talk. I sit close to the front in meetings and locate my seat closest to those with quiet voices. This helps a little but I can't sit close to everyone.

My hearing loss has become such a problem that I finally decided that I would get some type of hearing aid.

There are many types of hearing aids and numerous companies that manufacture and sell them. They are quite expensive as well! A good pair of hearing aids can easily cost over $5000. The prices can get much higher, especially if you add channels, and extras such as remote controls.

When I first put my new hearing aids in place I was amazed at the sounds that I could hear again. I had nearly forgotten them. It reminded me of the day I got my first pair of eye glasses. I realized that the green part of trees were made up of individual leaves and that there was cement between the bricks on the wall. There weren't two moons in the sky and I could read the words on traffic signs even at night.

That is how it was when I tried on my hearing aids. It was almost as though I could hear through the office walls. I could hear conversations across the room between people who weren't even facing my direction. I could hear consonants as well as vowels, which I had missed for so many years. It is a great blessing to be able to hear again and I am grateful for those who have made this miracle possible in my life, including engineers, doctors and audiologists, insurance companies and my employer who provides my job with health insurance so that I could afford to hear once more.

Are You A REAL Prius Owner?

The other day I was following behind a Prius on the Ventura Freeway. The highway was four lanes wide at that point and traffic was pretty light. For some reason the driver kept putting on their brakes. They weren't really trying to stop since they barely slowed down each time they tapped the brake pedal.

I have driven a Prius and I know what a thrill it is to watch the video screen which shows the driver which way the electricity is flowing and whether the engine is running or if it is just running off the battery. Then there is the average MPG numbers as well as the instantaneous MPG reading. Now that is the impressive number! The instantaneous miles per gallon! When you let off the gas you often exceed 100 MPG, much like you get when you drive down a hill. I also like the screen which shows you the battery charge. It is a bar graph which depicts how much power is stored inside the battery. The bar changes length when you draw current from the battery and when you generate electricity with the gasoline engine or with regenerative braking.

There is a term that you don't hear everyday...."Regenerative Braking". What it means is that when you apply your brakes you run the motor backwards and generate electricity that would normally be lost to heat from brake friction. It is perhaps the single most important aspect of an electric or hybrid car. Without regenerative braking, there is basically no benefit to an electric car and especially to a hybrid car. All the energy in a hybrid car comes from the gasoline engine with all the efficiency losses of the engine as well as the generator and the electric motor.

With my short driving experience in a Prius I finally figured out why the guy in front of me kept putting on his brakes. You guessed it!!!

USING REGENERATIVE BRAKING HE WAS PRODUCING ELECTRICITY TO KEEP HIS BATTERY TOPPED OFF!

Now is that a Prius driver or is that a REAL Prius driver?