Carlsbad Cardiac Conscious Rodents?

On Sunday evening, I noticed 3 twigs of chrysanthemum plant leaves laying haphazardly on the ground in my backyard, near my grill.  "How did those get there?" I thought, as they were a good 10 to 15 feet away from the LARGE potted chrysanthemum plant Dr Desert Flower has near the outdoor fireplace in the backyard.  I picked them up, examined the stems closely, and it looked distinctly as if a rodent had chewed them off, dragged them away... and then got distracted or detected or possibly had to evade being eaten by an owl or something else, and just dropped them in front of the grill.  So I set them over onto a raised planter near the grill, and made a mental note:  "On Monday, take these to the green trash can", since it was dusk and we've got an abundance of orb web weaving spiders and I really Really REALLY dislike walking into any spider web and getting it on my face, with or without a spider on the web.

To my surprise, this morning (Monday morning, 31 August as I write this), I went out into the backyard in full day light, to fetch the chewed off branches.  They Were Gone.  Only thing left was a sad, trodden, tiny fragment of one of the 3 branches.  I was perplexed.  Where did these large, sandal sized branches go?  Then I remembered, we've got "citrus rats" (AKA Southern California rats that enjoy eating citrus... sounds better that way) and California Ground Squirrels.  Both are about the size of a men's size 12 sneaker, and are large enough to set off wildlife cameras in the yard.  The sadly squished single remanent was not much bigger than a sprig of parsley you might get at a restaurant, and obviously was not worth dragging away by the large nocturnal rodent who had gnawed off the other 3 branches.

Today, I tried to search for "chrysanthemum lined rat nests" and "+chrysanthemum rodent toxicity" and "+chrysanthemum +rat +nest".  I have known that chrysanthemums are used in natural "green" pesticides along with rosemary and peppermint, as many insects abhor and avoid these plants for the scents and toxins carried within them.  One time when we lived in South Carolina, I watched a Japanese beetle land on a marigold plant next to the driveway, take one bite, and fall over dead, instantly.  A few weeks later, I saw the same thing happen to another beetle who landed on a chrysanthemum plant, chomped it, and rolled over onto the ground on its back, legs in the air, twitching momentarily, and then died.  Granted, these were tiny insects, and dosage matters, so the rats (or perhaps squirrels?) won't die from nesting with chrysanthemum... but do they know the holistic benefits of having chrysanthemum lined nests to dissuade fleas and ticks from feeding on their children?  "My momma taught me, when I was a little rat, to always line the nest with chrysanthemum, yes she did!"

Or were these rats voracious readers of Chinese studies of the effects of concentrated chrysanthemum extract on myocardial fibrosis in rats with renovascular hypertension? 

link here:  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32186102/   and link here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf062088r  (Absorption and Excretion of Luteolin and Apigenin in Rats after Oral Administration of Chrysanthemum morifolium Extract)

I don't know for sure.  There are so damn many H1B visa holders in Southern California that the rodents in my yard might have been participants in the aforementioned scientific studies for all I know? (taking away jobs and resources from Umerikun rodents!  "Make 'Merica rat infested again!" [makes as much sense as Drumpf's inane con-man slogans that only the most gullible of American citizens embrace, hook, line, and sinker]).  

All along the Southern side of my property there's a 6 ft high wall that separates my yard from the neighbor's, and it is covered in jasmine and mandevilla vines.  My hypothesis is that there's a rat family living in the thick vines on top of the wall, and they wanted to help discourage parasites from living in their nest... or they're cardiac research scientist rats who are squatting without paying rent.  Not sure - and no, I'm not the president of the USA in Idiocracy.  

Promises vs Reality, Mexico

On my Aeromexico flight from LAX to Monterrey Mexico this morning, I was unexpectedly upgraded to Business Class.  Instead of a cramped coach seat in this Embraer 190 (2 x 2 seating in the back, 1 + 2 seating in business class, x four rows), I have a rather spacious left hand 3A seat, with a window all to myself and no neighbor.  Very nice.

Not having flown Aeromexico Business class for many years, I was curious as to what kind of alcohol they might serve.  I of course, looked at their in-fight magazine and immediately located the whiskey.  Whiskey Bushmills - international flight…. well, that’s what I’m on.  Cognac Courvosier - International Flight.  Mmmmm, choices choices.  I also noted that they had Johnny Walker black for those who love peat and smoke, various beers, 2 tequilas, 2 vodkas, and one rum (or Ron).  The white wine list included a Bordeaux, a California Chardonnay, a Riesling, and 2 others.  2 bubblies, and 3 or 4 reds. I’d ask for Courvosier, then go to the Bushmills if they didn’t have it, and then step down to the vino blanco if that was low as well.

“Courvosier Cognac, por favor” I said in my best Spanish to the flight attendant.  I received a blank stare.  I showed the flight attendant the page from GranPlan Aire magazine.  She looked, and said “whiskey?”  Si, Bushmills whiskey for favor.  She then walked back up to the front of the plane, 10 feet away, and opened a 1750 ml bottle of Johnny Walker Black, pouring me a generous serving.  Not my favorite by far, but drinkable compared to its red cousin, that is better off thrown as a molotov cocktail.  After lunch was served she politely asked if I wanted more whiskey.  “No gracias. Vino blanco for favor”.  I am now on my 3rd glass of vino blanco - I am not driving when I get to Monterrey.

Why am I not working? - you might ask?  Well, the company paid for a non-refundable cheap coach class ticket, where there is not room to open a lap top.  I’m up in business class not because of work, but because of the funerals and vacations I’ve taken with Delta this year that have almost made me gold medallion status.  The domestic and Tijuana based work flights I’ve taken have barely moved the needle.  If work wants me to work on a flight, they can pay for business class, and i will drink less, work more, and be a happier camper.  After 5 decades on this mortal coil, I have no patience for trying to placate cheap employers who drive to the lowest common denominator.  Therefore, I am composing my first blog post in many many many months.

I named this post “Promises vs Reality” because in Mexico, there are No Shortage of lofty promises.  Can you makes these parts? Si.  Can you meet the delivery date?  Si.  Will the parts be made from American bar stock and sheet metal?  Si.  Can you mark each part according to the instructions on the specification?  Si.  All promises made to try and make the customer happy.  None of the promises were kept…  no, not even slightly, remotely, partially kept.  Late parts, unmarked, with no data, made from very cheap Chinese sheet stock… a lie on every front.   This is what the last 4 months of dealing with Mexican suppliers has been for me.  And today’s Aeromexico flight is emblematic of what I’ve seen at various supplier throughout Mexico this year.  

No one ever wants to tell you know…  but they will slowly show you (demonstrating) no.

At least I got to sit in a nice, comfortable seat to compose this post... unexpectedly pleasant.  

Remember, Everything 45 Says Is A Lie

For American adults who are aware of politics, or follow election results and what happens in Washington DC after elections, 2017 has been a very bizarre, chaotic, inconsistent year so far, and it shows no signs of getting better.  I preface this with "American adults" because as kids, or even as teenagers or in my very early 20s, I really didn't pay any attention to what was happening politically in my state (Indiana and then South Carolina, both were led by Democrats back then) or in the nation's capital for that matter.  It was only after my son was school aged, and came home from parochial school during the Bill Clinton administration asking me 'why do people have abortions?' and 'what's a blow job?' that I began to pay more attention to who was running, why I should vote for them or against them, and what they might do once in office.

After we moved to Arizona in 2007 (10 years ago, yep), began this blog in 2008 at my friend Ron's recommendation, and then moved to California in 2012, I increasingly began to pay more attention, to filter out shrill voices, hyperbole, and nonsense, and embraced my own informed opinions about politics, our elected leaders, Congressional Oversight, and Constitutional checks and balances.  Visiting China, India, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Suisse, Austria, Australia, Romania, Poland, the Netherlands, UAE, Spain, Mexico, Canada, and Scotland for work also helped my perspective to compare parliamentary systems, command economies, and different versions of democracies with various levels of transparency, corruption, effectiveness, and quality-of-life for their citizens.  While some of my friends, 1/2 of my family, and many visitors to this blog may not agree with my view points and positions, I consider myself to be better informed than most Americans, and at least as informed about about American politics as a citizen of any of the developed nations I just mentioned (most non-Americans know far more about American politics than the average American, by at least one standard deviation on the curve).

So with that preamble, as I was trying to make sense of the election last November, and the aftermath and consequences it has led to in the subsequent months, with all the "disruption" and "chaos", the illogical choices and downright stupidity that has been unearthed, I no longer try and see a pattern or a reason behind anything except for these following 2 principles:

1) Everything that President Drumpf says (Drumpf is his real name, he got from his father, just like all the seed money daddy gave him) is a lie, or at best, a gross exaggeration.  He is incapable of telling the truth, except by accident - give a million monkeys a million type writers, and eventually one of them will type out a coherent sentence or two.  He is a habitual liar (pseudologia fantastica or mythomania) who believes himself a "disrupter".  Facts, reality, and the truth have no influence upon his actions or what comes out of his mouth.  Think of Jon Lovitz on SNL, and the Tommy Flanagan character he played where he was incapable of telling the truth.  That's who 49% of America elected.  When Donald accidentally tells the truth, he still thinks he is lying, or that there's a thread of obfuscation in there somewhere but in his perspective, the person he is speaking to is not bright enough to figure it out.  Everything he tweets, everything he says in interviews, everything he says in public, it's all a lie, or a gross exaggeration.

2) While he didn't think he was going to win the election, and he is completely unprepared to be chief executive of a local water district much less the largest economy in the world with the most powerful military the world has ever seen, he HAS and WILL take full advantage of his unexpected position of power to enrich his own coffers, empower his family and friends, and rake in as much money as quickly as possible, before anyone figures out just how corrupt 45's executive branch really is.  He doesn't want Putin to be the only plutocrat to be worth 60+ Billion dollars.  Heck, 45 doesn't even have 1/2 a billion to his name, or he would have proudly shown his tax returns, like a 4th grader who signs his name for mommy and daddy to see "look what I signed!".  Mark Cuban, a real billionaire (+3 Billion, with a "B") estimated that Drumpf's worth is probably south of 75 million dollars, and perhaps closer to as little as 25 or 50 million when all is said an done.  Drumpf doesn't want to "Make America Great Again".  No, America was already great.  He wants to enrich his own family's wealth and the wealth of his friends.  That's why he's appointed such incompetent-and-or-corrupt heads of agencies who want to dismantle the agencies they run.

Keep these two things in mind, and you won't be confused or shocked or aghast at what you see or hear in the news.  I've found that they help me tremendously, daily, or even several times a day on some days.

45 doesn't care about facts, or science, or helping the little guy, or being a "populist", or what is right or wrong.  He cares only about his own image,  his own self aggrandized "brand", which has become synonymous with corruption, incompetence, made-in-China goods, bluster, and a longing for a return to the 1950s by Americans who enjoyed outstanding economic growth and social privileges in that era (and to everyone else who was a 2nd class US citizen or not in the US at that time, too bad; "get him outta here!").

Waking Up to a Non Fact Based World

On Tuesday night, November 8th, I was very disappointed by the preliminary national election results coming in that I went to bed hopeful.  Hopeful that I'd wake up to a new brighter November 9th, along with my other fact-based fellow US citizens.

Instead, I woke up to the realization that the White Walkers (aka the Walking Ignorant) have chosen not only the most unqualified candidate for POTUS in the history of our democracy, but also a majority (54 of 100) Republican senators who
- will approve SCOTUS nominations be more like Thomas and Scalia
- deny climate change exists
- believe that women should make 76 cents on the dollar that a man makes
- like pre-existing conditions and denied health care, when they'll finally repeal the Affordable Care Act
- want the United States to look more like the failed state of Kansas than the flourishing Republic of California
- want their wives and daughters to be 9s or 10s and that it's fine to "grab them by the pussy" when they have celebrity status
and...
- who do not care about actual facts. Facts, verified and authenticated, not Brietbarted, not trumped up, not delusional and paranoid fabrications.

The Down Jones has plummeted 750 points in less than a day as I write this last posting.  There's no sense or use in worrying or hand wringing.  All I, my family, and my friends who live in a fact based world can do now is endure the next 2 years, and then the next 2 after that.

I'll be advocating that the Republic of California build a wall on our Eastern Border, to stop the influx of non-fact based immigrants who embraced Breitbart and Infowars over Politifact and Snopes (and The Guardian, and The Economist, and every reputable media outlet and fact checking source on the planet).

And since history has proven that fascist regimens and the masses who support them are unkind to journalists, intellectuals, and others who live in a fact based world, this will be my last JustJoeP posting of the year.  Perhaps the last one ever, as there's really no sense to shouting into a hurricane's wind anymore.  The vast majority reject the facts I present, and it just makes my voice hoarse over time.  Mike Judge's prescient film Idiocracy and Scott Adams' predictions almost a year ago were more accurate than any logical, fact-based citizen of the world were willing to believe.  Heck, even Michael Moore - who is often incredible hyperbolic - was accurate in his Trumpland predictions.

The White Walkers have won for a generation.  Winter's not coming... Winter is here, already.  It arrived November 9th, 2016.  America, you had a pretty good run... 240 years.  Now, it's the Chinese's turn I guess.  Commenting further here will only damage my and my family's best interests, so with a heavy heart, I say good bye to blogging and social media.  My real friends, those who live in a fact based world, still know how to reach me.

Adieu.

View From My Yoga Mat, April '16

I had to travel to Eastern China last month, for work.  I took a larger checked suit case since it was a 12 day trip, and I already know that Chinese hotel laundry (even in the nice hotels in which I've stayed) destroys most of the clothes I've ever given them.  In that larger suit case I packed my yoga mat, after I practiced yoga the week before at the beach, for 3 of the previous 7 days leading up to the trip.

The weather in Northern San Diego County cooperated nicely before I left, being mild, and not rainy in the afternoons.  The on-shore breeze was pleasant, and the statis flowers were in full bloom on the Bluff at the top of Ponto Beach.

Once I landed in Shanghai, after a 14 hour flight in coach out of LAX, I planned a solid day of not working to adjust to the new time zone and to try and avoid deep vein thrombosis.  The view from the yoga mat in my hotel room window was less pleasant than the view from the Carlsbad shore.  No whales, no pelicans, no pleasant breeze... but a locked large city park with formidable gates, that (apparently) no in Pudong are allowed to pass through on Wednesdays?

While Shanghai today is a MUCH cleaner and prettier city than Chengdu was 15 years ago, it still is not even a fraction as lovely as Southern Coastal California is, even if the real estate prices are similar.  I'll take here rather than there, any day.

The day after I got back, I did yoga at the beach!

I would have POSTED this while in China... just one problem.  The government there blocks FaceBook, Google, Instagram, Gmail, Youtube, and Twitter.  Yes... one can VPN out and around them, but what a massive pain in the ass, China.  Thanks.

Trumping Hypocrisy

Jesse Drucker has an excellent piece in Bloomberg News this week, (link here) about how Donald Trump is using his son in law's company (Jared Kushner) to get cheap Chinese financing for buildings with Trump's name licensed on them, in exchange for getting not only quick and effective investor 2 year visas for the richest Chinese, who don't have to wait in line or earn it the hard way, as 98% of most immigrants, but also permanent residency for the investor and his family.  All it takes is $500,000 of investment in an American company, and if that investment creates jobs, then after 2 years, the rich Chinese investor gets to come and go into The United States as they please (can't come and go into and out of China as you please, as visas are required) and have permanent residency in the US.

While the program has been around for 25 years, in the last 5 to 6 years it has really taken off with Chinese investors who don't care about a return on investment, they just want the green card. 10,000 EV-5 visas given out last year by the US, with 85% of them to China.

"They’ve taken our jobs, they’ve taken our money, they’ve taken everything,"  Trump has said, calling it the "Greatest single theft".  Trump is raising money through a government program that many regulators see as "very troubled", and could be enabling dirty money from criminal ventures to enter the US economy.  Congress is worried that Chinese money laundering is happening with these rich investors, who have virtually no vetting... money talks.

Yeah, Donald Trump knows the Chinese.  He's been taking their money.  "Good at buziness."  Sure.

Lackluster Alaska Air

In the last month, I've had the misfortune to fly Alaska Air four times.  I say "misfortune" because I had previously held Alaska Air in rather high esteem when they were a partner with Northwest Airlines, and I was a NW Airlines Platinum member.  "Membership has its priviledges"... indeed.  Lemme 'splain.

The day after Halloween, I had to go to Hong Kong for a business trip.  I booked the trip with Alaska Air on the US domestic legs, continuing onto their PARTNER Delta Airlines for the international legs.  It was supposed to be all one big ticket, and supposed to be San Diego to Seattle, and then Seattle to Hong Kong DIRECT, Non-stop, so I could sleep on the flight and arrive Well Rested to talk to the customers I needed to talk to the day after I landed, 14 time zones away. The multi-national corporation no longer allows business class travel anywhere, so this was going to be 15 hours in a coach seat, hoping to not get deep vein thrombosis from the cramped inactivity of being a human sardine / steerage / valued-slightly-less-than-cheap-cargo-under-the-plane.  I booked the ticket..  and then... my corporate travel agent Split the Alaskan ticket and the Delta, then Delta cancelled the direct flight, routing me through Tokyo Narita.  Well, for an airline with useful IT support and adaptive ticketing, this should not have been a problem.  Unfortunately, Alaska Airlines has terrible IT support - very nice & friendly staff who interface with customers in the airports and on the phone, but abysmal computer infrastructure and inter-connectivity.

When I attempted, on Halloween morning, to check-in online, all I kept getting was an error message online "There has been an error, please contact customer service".  4 times I entered my information, four times I was foiled.  I called a customer service person... they manually checked me in, and then told me "we cannot check you into the Delta flights, our system doesn't talk to theirs. You'll need to check in at the airport with them when you get to Seattle."  WTF??? (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday...)  My $2000 flight over 15,000 miles of this planet, is checked in only from San Diego to Seattle? Seriously?  Great.

So I take off out of San Diego Lindberg field 45 minutes late, land in Seattle with barely enough time to SPRINT from the N to the S gates (along with a snail's pace tram ride, since both the N and S gates are not connected to the rest of the airport, and the underground tram is the Only way to get there = lame), wolf down a Wendy's Baconator without bread or cheese, arrive at the Delta gate to Tokyo, with no boarding pass (since Alaska Air's system doesn't talk to Delta's) and I am told by the gate agent that "I'm sorry, you not checked in"  Exasperated, I told her I was checked in, I'd spent two hours checking in the day before, I'd talked to both Delta and Alaska Air on the phone, and I do have a seat back in row 18.  Another passenger from San Diego who was also going to Hong Kong, had the same conversation with the next agent over at the gate desk... so it wasn't just me.  They printed up my Seattle to Tokyo and Tokyo to Hong Kong passes, and I was literally the 2nd to last person on the Airbus 330 (the other SD passenger was the last), squeezing my luggage into the already over-burdened over-head racks, and sitting down hot & sweaty & itchy in my coach seat.  Awesome.

8 hours later, when I get to Tokyo, and I get security scanned like all the passengers, since Seattle security screening is obviously incompetent and inferior to the Tokyo security screeners - and I am finally queued up to get into the next plane to go to Hong Kong...  Again, my boarding pass is invalid, and I am told that I need to step aside and let the other passengers board.  Incredible, and ridiculous.  Because Alaska's system could not communicate with Delta's system, I am being stopped at every boarding and being told I am not checked in.  Grrrrrrrrrrrr....

On the way back, the same thing happened... every time I tried to board, I was told that my boarding pass was invalid.  Maddening.  My frequent flyer miles didn't post, and I had to waste 30 minutes on the phone with Delta to get them to post when I got home.

Trying to be the eternal optimist, I booked a last minute flight to Portland and back through Seattle via Alaska Air because they had direct flights, it was last minute for a business emergency, and I didn't want to have connections on the busiest travel day of the year, minimizing my chances of being stranded at some connection city too far to drive back to California.  I thought to myself "Alaska used to be very good...  top awards...  excellent safety record... they'll do better the 2nd time."  Plus the fact that they were not part of a 2 airline trip, so at least one variable was being eliminated with the "our system doesn't talk to theirs" excuse.

This Pre-Thanksgiving trip BEGAN very nicely... I was TSA pre-check, bumped up to First Class (because I am now Gold on Delta), got a big comfy seat, used glass glassware, steel knives and forks, and was offered copious amounts of cognac, which I had to refuse after the first one since I needed to drive once I got to Portland.  Getting to Portland was not a problem.  4 days later, when I attempted to fly home, was when the Alaska Airlines fun began.

You see, my incompetent corporate travel agent cancelled my ticket, and re-booked it, for a fare that was $120 cheaper.   This COMPLETELY discombobulated Alaska Airlines.  I was not allowed to check in (again) on my phone the night before.  I DID have a seat... but could not get a boarding pass.    The fourth day of my emergency trip ended 5 hours earlier than expected, so I headed to the airport hoping to get not he 3:50pm flight instead of the 6:50 flight (I got to the airport at 12:30, far in advance).  The Alaska Air desk agent before security worked for a full 20 minutes to get a boarding pass to print for me.  In her words "4000 key strokes later, it worked!"  Pathetic programming.  Completely non-robust.  Any change upsets the fragile software architecture and crashes on the traveller.  Sickening.

The ever-friendly gate agent tells me "we don't wait list passengers.  The 3:50 flight is showing full, but you CAN go to the departure gate and ask the agent there if anyone has not checked in."  Okey-dokey.  I can do that.. I have 3 hours to spare!   I go to the gate...   and the very polite agent there tells me "we are solidly checked in, but you can check again 30 minutes prior to the door closing."  OK...  I hover around... charge my phone... text my friends...  and then I notice the off-duty Alaska Air pilots wearing their hats and leather jackets, but not flying the plane... OHHHHHH!!!  They're the ones who get the last unclaimed seats...  3 of them!  Me, the paying passenger, I am no-body.  Personae non gratis.  The smirking, smug, elderly Alaska Air pilots laugh as I hover, and I hear one of them say "poor bastard thinks he'll get on" and nods in my direction.  Grrrrrrr  (again)

So now I am standing at my 6:50pm Departure gate, adjacent to an Anchorage Alaska departure gate, with a bunch of Alaskans and Alaska visitors all around me, as I rant about how I will never be flying Alaska Air again.  I don't care if they are the cheapest or the most direct, my behind will not be in another Alaska Air seat again.  Their IT system programming is walled off from American and Delta (the friendly gate agents told me "we have the same problem with American...  no one's system talks to ours"), they don't wait-list travelers, and they cater to their own off-duty pilots for the last unclaimed seats, as opposed to paying, ticketed passengers.  I am wasting an extra 3 hours of my life in Seattle because of Lackluster Alaskan Airline's non-customer-centric policies, pathetic IT programming, smug off-duty pilots, and my corporate travel agent's misguided metrics of "cost is more important than the traveler".

It will be good to finally decompress when I get home at 11 or 1130 pm this evening, after working 14 hour days the last 4 days through he weekend, and not give a damn about much of anything.  The Packers can smear the Bears by 40 points tomorrow, and I won't be surprised or sad by it, because I will just not be giving a damn at all this holiday weekend.

Rant over...  now I feel better.   = )

If you fly Alaska Airlines, and you like it, you're probably a Gold or Platinum frequent flyer.  Or, you're one of their smug pilots.

First 4th of July in N.SD For Us

I just finished hanging up my American Flag outside my home here in N.SD County, for the very first time.  Surrounded by lavender, hibiscus, mandevilla, palm trees, japonica, oleander, humming bird feeders, Allen's & Roufus & Anna's hummingbirds, and flapping gently in the 72F, 5 mph, intermittent breeze 3 miles from the ocean, it struck me as particularly beautiful... even with the gray over-cast sky.


I am appreciative that I live in a country where I can speak English, and not German (link here) - and English is Still spoken around the world by more people than any other language who control more of the world's capital and decisioning making  (even with nearly 1.4 Billion Chinese, not all of whom speak Mandarin), with the most influence internationally;

We hope to replace this grass with mulch and rock in the next 2 months, with the drought

[I once, while waiting for my company car to pick me up, observed a French business man try and check out of a very poorly run South Korea hotel in Changwon, "Hotel International" - a total pit, very unpleasant, highly NOT recommended for anyone who wants a pleasant stay -  using only French.  The poor man tried and tried, but the hotel clerk just looked blankly back at him, until in broken English, and with great venom & distaste in his pronunciation, he was able to pay his bill and leave the wretched hotel].

I have been able to live & work in multiple states, without the central government approving it (unlike my friends in China, who need central approval to relocate), [link here] going from Indiana, to South Carolina, then back to Indiana, then back to South Carolina 3 years later; then to Arizona for 5, OC California for 2.5, and now Northern San Diego County, where I hope I don't have to move again any time soon.

In this country, I don't have religious fundamentalists telling me how I can dress, what I can eat & drink, and what kind of music I am allowed to play in my home without head phones, like the Basiji do in Iran and the Mutaween do in Saudi Arabia.

In this country I don't have to worry that we are on the brink of national bankruptcy, as the Republicans & many Libertarians kept screaming we were when President Obama took office (yes months earlier, in the same financial conditions under Bush, no one on the right seemed to notice or care about a growing national debt - a debt which the Democrats have once again substantially paid down after the Republicans ran it up... again)... and it is not Greece with radicals on both the left and right rioting in the streets because their government has not had a spine to be able to make any hard choices and implement any austerity effectively for the last 4 bankruptcies.

America has its problems, but it is still a pretty damn good place to live & work and raise a family.  I am grateful to the men & women in the US military who have fought to keep us free, as well as grateful to the Federal leaders (Presidents, Secretaries of State, Senators, etc) who have kept us OUT of wars over the centuries making the spilling of the blood of our military unnecessary (Sorry Lindsey & McCain, we Don't need to bomb Iran and [what's left of] Syria and everywhere else that makes you wet your bed).  It's an English speaking, free movement of labor & capital (relatively, Joe M) =-) , pleasant country where peacocks can picnic wherever they please... "freedom baby, that's what it's all about!" [Freedumb Weekend Aloft, Greenville SC, 1992, yelled by a drunk redneck next to a fully armed A-10 warthog, at Donaldson Center].

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, no matter where you live!

14 to 1, LA tries to become livable

Today, I heard on NPR, that Los Angeles City Council voted 14 to 1, to eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020, a dollar a year (it's $9 an hour now, above the national minimum wage standard).  In doing so, LA becomes the LARGEST US city to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

What's the matter with you New York and Chicago?  Falling a little behind, ain't ya?  I'm sure it's easy to raise a family on $9 an hour in both NE Illinois and Eastern New York State, no problem.  While Mid Western states are often heading back to the 17th Century, California added 350,000 residents last year (yes, we'll get Another congressman soon).   Sure, San Francisco will get to $15 an hour by 2018 (2 years earlier than LA), but LA is 5 times the size of land locked & peninsula'ed SF.

Sorry Mitchell, but my wife is far smarter & hotter than yours, and has a much more progressive world view.

It's the one aspect of moving further south, towards San Diego, that makes me a little bit sad... as we'll be farther away from tempted-income-equality-LA, and closer to Mitt-Romney-loving-San-Diego County.  But Dr Desert Flower's commute will be cut in half, and the onerous Camp Pendleton immigration check point will no longer have to be endured non a daily basis.

Mitchell Englander, the lone Republican on the City Council, and the only fool to vote against the minimum wage increase, you're on the wrong side of history, as is your party and your ideology.  Watch, as the City of Angels continues to grow and thrive, instead of wither, atrophy, and decay (as you and your party have predicted).  You're an anachronism Englander.  If you really hate income equality, move to China, where the disparity is so pronounced, you can taste it in the actual air you're trying to breathe.

Do Mind The Bullocks

I saw a flash of orange outside my window as I was making tea this morning.  Sprinting to get my camera, I was able to snap these images  through the window & screen:

and

and

and then I checked Cornell's site (all about birds) and it Looks Like this is probably a juvenile male Bullocks Oriole.  It strongly resembles an Altamira Oriole, but those are only in Eastern Coastal Mexico, more than a 1000 miles away.  Many many photos on Cornell's site from California posters show Bullocks Orioles...   and one juvenile even looks somewhat like the body coloring, though the wing striping is more Altamira.

Had you told me 7 or 8 years ago that I would have ANY interest in birds whatsoever - other than eating them - I would have laughed and told you that you're insane.  But put a few Anna's, Costa's, Blackchinned, Rufous, and Allen's hummingbirds in my yard, a road runner or two, a few Gila Woodpeckers, some raucous Mocking Birds, some Phoebes, Robins, Warblers, Wrens, Sparrows, Tit Mice, Chickadees, Red Tailed and Red Breasted Hawks, Finches, Fly Catchers, Bee Catchers, an Oriole or two, and a Peregrine Falcon feasting in my street; pelicans, spoonbills, sand pipers, oyster catchers, cormorants, osprey, cooper's hawks, and even sea gulls at the beach, and then add in a 24X zoom lens that can capture them digitally and well...   I find them beautiful, fascinating, alluring, elusive, and fleeting.

I recall my good friend and co-worker Gary (Xiaobin) that he said to me in China when his daughter was just a toddler:  "I want my daughter to grow up where there are birds, and know what birds are".  His daughter will be going to college soon...  he told me that so many years ago.  He's a company  executive and a vice president now...   and I'm still just an engineer... but I sure do have my fair share of birds, and the pictures to remember them by and share with my friends.

Where Is 9M-MRO?

9M-MRO is the tail number of the Boeing 777-2H6-ER aircraft that was designated as Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing last week.  The location of the aircraft, crew and passengers, remains unknown, but on Friday night (US time) the Malaysian government issued a statement that they believe the plane's South and Westerly flight paths towards the Indian Ocean - instead of the NE direct route intended to go to Beijing over the South China coast line - were the result of a hijacking, and are now treating the disappearance of the plane as a crime.

While this may sound grotesque, I hope a debris field or fuel slick in the Indian Ocean are found soon.  Why?  Because if the passengers are still alive, they are imprisoned, hostages, or worse.  If they are all dead, then their families can begin to have closure and mourn their losses.  

Why would they be alive, and the plane possibly landed somewhere?  Well, consider the following evidence:
- Rolls Royce's monitoring system (9M-MRO was equipped with RR engines, instead of GE90s) continued to get satellite "pings" from the plane, for more than an hour past the time it was supposed to land in Beijing; meaning, the engines were still on, and still running.
- The built in Boeing transponder that sends out location signals was manually turned off over the middle of the gulf of Thailand, just after Kuala Lumpur air traffic control handed over guidance of the air craft to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon, in southern Vietnam).  
- The pilots (Zaharie Ahmad Shah [Zaharie was also qualified as a flight instructor] & Fariq Abdul Hamid) never checked in with Ho Chi Minh city.  They told Kuala Lumpur "Good night", and then turned their plane around, away from the Beijing flight path, over the Malaysian mountains, and out towards the Indian Ocean.
- yes, both the pilot and co-pilot were Muslims
- Not a single cell phone, black berry, iPad, iPhone, smart phone, smart watch, laptop, tablet, or other device carried by the 227 passengers has been answered, or has sent out any kind of tweet, FB post, distress call, text message, or anything else.  If the passengers (from 15 countries, most of them device happy Chinese) are alive, all of their electronic devices have been totally confiscated.  Missing not a single one.  If the mobile devices had been destroyed, then they would not be "going to voice mail" or ringing without being answered.  They would be giving "no longer in service" responses, from their respective mobile provider networks.

So where is 9M-MRO?  Why don't I call it MH370?  Well...  my theory is that it will never be seen again as MH370, unless it has crashed somewhere and a debris field is found, or a fuel slick spotted in the Indian Ocean.  Instead, either a "State Actor" or a "Non State Actor" has stolen the plane, killed or imprisoned everyone on it, and they are in the process of re-painting it to look like another country's airline 777...  probably a United States based airline, like Delta, American, or United, or a Emirates or Qatar airlines 777.  If there is an old, abandoned WWII runway somewhere near the Indian Ocean, and Zaharie was able to land his plane there, my guess is it being repainted, the electronics are being re-configured to send out a less conspicuously serialized signature that no longer resembles MH370, and the plane is being loaded with fuel, and (probably) explosives, or a WMD.  

What would a State Actor do with such a stolen plane?  Well, "Red Dawn" showed what Cubans could do to the US with troop carriers disguised as commercial airlines.  Tom Clancy probably has several novels that could provide a road map as well.  It would have to be a state actor with few connections to the west - like North Korea or one of the former Soviet "disillusioned-stans".  If it is a non state actor, like Al Qaeda, Basque Separatists, Philippine Separatists, Shining Path, or a Bond villain, then all sorts of terrible things could be planned.
- fly it into a large commercial building, ubiquitous in SE Asian capitals
- fly it into a military base, again, ubiquitous 
- fly it into an LNG plant in the gulf (many to choose from)
- fly it near a US Carrier task force, and detonate a nuclear device within the plane, before the navy shoots it down
- land it in a Western airport, and then detonate the WMD (nuclear, chemical, or biological, basically destroying that airport for that city)
- execute one passenger every time a US drone strike takes place, anywhere in the world (it is well known that Al Qaeda fears drone strikes more than any thing else), delivering the video of the passenger execution to Al Jazeera each time it does, so it can't be traced as to where).  With 227 passengers, that will halt the drone  strike program.  

Like I said, I hope a debris field is found soon, and the families can begin the mourning and closure process.  If their family members are still alive, nefarious things are going to happen to them, or they will be used as bargaining chips and more pain and suffering and death will be brought to more people in the world.  

I theorized this on Monday of this week, when everyone in the media and all pilot experts were saying "it is too early to tell" and "we should not speculate".  BS.  Many humans are evil, and the smart ones who are evil have nasty plans for the rest of us.  Plan ahead to deal with such evil, and minimize its impact on the world.

If You're Homophobic, You Probably Won't Try Sushi Either

Over at the ever enjoyable ILoveCharts, they posted this gem (link here) from MotherJones.

Now, while I do not love sushi, I have tried it, and I have liked some of the sushi that I've eaten in advanced countries with reliable refrigeration and food safety standards (like Japan, and the Coasts of the US, but not like China or Mexico or most of Africa).  The further from the source - the longer the supply line and 'chain of custody' - the more dubious I am about the quality & safety of the sushi being served.

So Mother Jones published the Pew Research Center's report about the Public Policy Polling that interviewed 500 registered voters across the country, at the end of February 2013, with a error rate of +/- 4.4%.  The correlation - regardless of age -  of refusal to trying sushi and not approving of gay marriage is uncanny.  I'd say that the P value on this (just from my limited experience in looking at non-homogenious data sets, and working with many homophobes over the years in many red states) would be at least 0.01, or smaller.

Now, while this correlation is somewhat disturbing, it is good to know that the older you get - and the closer to the end of your average life span you are today - that you're more phobic about just about everything, and in another 10 or 20 years, after most of the boomers and silent generation are dead and gone, the rest of us can live in a more accepting society that has less fear of raw fish, less fear of gay people, and more accepting of the diversity that is intrinsic to the world in which we all live.

Two Awesome Californian Imperial Stouts

I've taken to drinking Imperial Stout craft beers.  I find them to be satisfying and delicious.  Karl Strauss  Brewing, San Diego California makes a wonderful Wreck Alley Imperial Stout.  I picked it up at my local Ralph's supermarket the day before the Superbowl, and drank it just after kickoff the next day.  Lagunitas Imperial Stout, brewed in Petalum California ("Doggone Good!") was a tasty craft beer as well.  I Think I picked it up at Total Wine last month, but I am not sure.   I know Trader Joes doesn't have it, as they looked at me as if I was speaking Greek when I asked them if they had any last week.  It might have been Albertsons.... ?  I enjoy asking waitresses at new restaurants that Dr Desert Flower and I visit "do you have any local beers?" "Yes, we have a XYZ IPA" they sometimes reply.  "Any Imperial Stouts?"  .. and they look at me as if I have just inquired if they have any Burmese Pythons, very confused. "A glass of water will be fine for now, as I look over your wine list".

See, the nice thing about local craft beers here in California, is that it is much easier to find them in multiple retail outlets than it was in Arizona or South Carolina.  They're made locally, distributed widely, and in high demand by discerning Californian beer drinkers.  So there is no shortage of supply or demand.

Both Karl Strauss and Lagunitas make IPAs, but I am honestly not a fan of IPAs.  Too heavy on the hops for shock value and impressive bitterness.  Similar to how many Californian red wines are too heavy on the oak.  Don't blast my taste buds with hops, oak, tabasco, or hot chilies (as Chengdu China Sichuan food does).  No, instead, give my taste buds a complex mix of subtle and nuanced flavors that delight the senses, instead of over-whelming them.

I will be sure to note further Imperial Stouts here, as I find and enjoy them.  Stay tuned.

China Breaks Its Own Record, Again

Beijing China again broke it's previous record for polluted air, but going off the charts for particulate matter suspended in the air.  (links here and here) As reported by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center this week, the level of 2.5 micrometer sized particles exceeded 700 micrograms per cubic meter (US Embassy Twitter feed stated a 755 level, which corresponds to 866 micrograms), or 35 times the maximum unhealthy level of 25 micrograms per cubic meter set by the World Health Organization (WHO).  According to the Chinese Government, anything greater than 300 micrograms triggers "emergency conditions".

Beijing, January 13, 2013 (not an alien landscape or an enhanced image)

It's not just Beijing.  Shanghai has filthy air too, as do all the major Chinese cities.  Yeah, developing nation, yada yada yada... sure.  See how well that works out for your people, image, and the planet.

So if your company is thinking about sending you to China for a temporary assignment, ask them if that comes with a free lung transplant at the conclusion of the assignment.  Or maybe they'll increase your life insurance pay out so that your beneficiary can get a larger sum since you'll be shortening your life inhaling all those pollutants? (doubtful, but good to ask about anyway)

Shanghai smog

Jinmao Tower, 2nd tallest building in Shanghai

Martian Spiders

It took almost 40 years since David Bowie asked "so where are the spiders?" (see link) But NASA saw something today, that appears Bowie was way more prescient than anyone ever thought.


The NASA story is here (link).  We shall see what these spidery shapes really are, (likely geysers... but geysers of what?) when they're viewed more closely than from 200 miles away.

Yeah, the "private sector" would definitely have done a better job than NASA at getting 3 long lasting rovers to Mars, doing all the science that is so extremely profitable, and inspiring generations of youngsters to embrace science and engineering as a career path.  Martian spiders  / geysers / anything Martian, would not pass Romney's litmus test of "is it worth borrowing from China to fund?"  Sorry Mars, you and Jim Lehrer and Big Bird would have to remain in the dark.

Clearing The Air In China

Diane Rehm had Atlantic contributor James Fallows on today, promoting his new book about how China is spending 1/2 a TRILLION dollars on developing their domestic commercial airline industry (link here).  Interesting, Fallows and his wife lived in China for 3 years, and in his words "was sick all the time" due to the massive air pollution in Shanghai and Beijing, where he lived & worked.   I found many of Fallows comments and the remarks of callers-in to be in-line with my own first hand observations of visiting China.

Coincidentally, the large wall calendar my employer issues to each employee to hang in their offices has a night image taken from the tallest building in Pudong Shanghai, the Jinmao Tower, looking at the 2nd tallest building next door, and showing the Pudong Shangrila hotel where I often stayed on my trips to China.  The calendar photo is ridiculously clear and crisp, which means it was photoshopped, doctored, to remove the smog, haze, and chocking atmospheric particulate.  To get a geographic perspective of "where" the calendar image was taken, I google-earthed the hotel and area of Pudong where I had previously stayed.  At the time, the Jinmao was not yet built, so I thought that perhaps the night calendar image was taken by an aircraft with extremely fast film.  But no, in the 9 years since my last visit, the Jinmao Tower was built & dwarfs its neighbors.

Interestingly, the air has been "cleared" by Google over the highest rent district of Pudong (see the image below).  The top part of the image is not a "refresh" error.  It's the natural appearance, on a cloudless but smog ridden day in Shanghai, with air quality that would have made 1980s Los Angeles air quality look absolutely pristine in comparison.

With terribly polluted air, undrinkable water, widespread political corruption, glacially slow internet speeds (which are all run through government monitored proxies), a 30,000 character alphabet that resists digitization, nation-wide travel restrictions that require average citizens to have travel visas to go between provinces, and 20 main dialects spoken, it will be a long time before China catches up to the West or surpasses any modern country in livability indices, quality of life, or technological advances.  Sure, there's more Chinese billionaires than there are American billionaires... but there's also many more Chinese peasants with pitch forks too.

Housewivescheating? Really?

My Tom Tom Club post from last year continues to draw the dumbest, most poorly worded, foriegn spam I've ever seen.  I got this yesterday:   (seriously, cut and pasted)


"The stereotype loses past the freed cabinet. The march resets the harsh paperback throughout the scientific confine. The fabric dances. A caffeine bombs Toms Toms & Furs into the cheer. Toms Toms & Furs explains a dawn in a shouted discovery. Toms Toms & Furs pays the chain."

I don't know if this is Chinese in origin for sure, but I suspect it is.  Mandarin Chinese has no future or past tense (as I've been told in my many Chinese travels) and you have to take the tense "in context", so since this is entirely in the present tense, I suspect it's a Chinese Spambot / Spam slave posting, where some poor bastard is making less than a dollar a day to combat CAPTCHAs to promote the website "cheatuingwives" dot tk, with a hyperlink labeled as "housewivescheating". 

Normal Shanghai Air Quality

In my business travels, I've been to Shanghai a dozen or so times.  In the photo to the right, I've been in both of these structures.  In the fore ground is the tallest building in Shanghai, in which a Hyatt hotel is located.  I've been to the top of it.  In the back ground, is the "space needle" radio & observation tower, where tourists are JAMMED in, body-to-body, odor-to-odor, a crush of crowds that would upset even the most laissez-faire fire marshal on the ground, disregarding that these people are crammed in 100s of meters in the filthy, lead laden air. 

The dingy, smog-filled atmosphere in Shanghai, the "New York of China", and this is Pudong, the "Manhattan" of Shanghai, is normal.  In each of my visits, this was the typical air quality I saw not only in Shanghai, but also in Beijing, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Chongqing, and Xian.  In fact, the photo here shows relatively GOOD air quality because you can see both structures, which are less than 1 kilometer away from each other.  This is not rain or fog, this is typical smog in China.

Just beyond the space needle is the Huangpijiang river, that can barely be seen through the snog from the observation level of the space needle. To the left, just out of the picture's frame, is the Pudong Shangri-la hotel, also on the river ("on the Bund") where I usually stayed, all of these structures are within walking distance of each other - a walk through a gray, dusty, heavily-under-construction, trash strewn urban landscape.  Or short cab rides, to zip from door to door, and avoid the trash and spittle and fence-blocked sidewalks.

Contrast the photo above to the photo of Manhattan's Central Park to the left.  Yes, there's a gray and less-than-pleasant Hudson River there, but you can see green trees, building outlines, shadows, detail.  This photo was taken roughly around 30,000 feet, or an altitude about 30 times higher than the Shanghai photo.  One might say "you're comparing apples and oranges!".  Well, not really.   I am comparing a dirty crab apple to a sweet, succulent, polished honey crisp.  Or maybe it's a comparison between industrial grade citrus concentrate to hand picked, organically grown, fresh squeezed orange juice.

So for a better example of what firm, effective, enforced government environmental regulations can do take a look at the two photos of Los Angeles, taken roughly 18 years apart (circa 1994, vs 2012).  While I have visited the LAX airport on an Australian flight stop-over I've never spent any time in LA.  I have heard Bill Maher state over the last 15 years, how the air quality in LA valley has improved to the point where now, in 2011 and 2012, you can "see the mountains again".  Mountains that were previously occluded by the pervasive smog from the 70s, 80s, and 90s.  Take a wild guess which photo below is the 1994 image, and which one is 2012.

Every time I hear Republican primary candidates talk about "job killing environmental regulations", I think about this contrast that I have personally experienced.  I don't want the United States to turn into China with indentured servitude, shortened life spans, a poisoned environment & rampant corruption (though we're already well on the way to the corruption part). LA has been cleaning up their terrible air quality for the last 50 years.  As a nation, do we want to begin a corporately driven march from the clean milestones reached now, towards a smog-filled, Shanghai-like future?  I hope not.  Il faut voir.

Sylvania Failure

A few years ago, when the former state of my residence South Carolina began to push legislation to "fight Obama" and federal regulations that promoted compact fluorescent light bulb sales were in the news, I purchased a pack of CFLs at my local hardware store.  I had several light bulbs failing around the Arizona home we'd recently moved into, and the CFLs were touted as being so awesome, I bought an 8 pack of them from my local hardware store, and went around installing them in the lights of ceiling fans, outdoors for the garage and entry way, and various lamps around the house as the incandescent bulbs burnt out.

Selling points like "Tremendous Energy Savings!" and "10X the life!" made paying the more expensive CFLs price less odious.  Sadly, Sylvania chose to manufacture their 13W CFLs in China, probably to 'save manufacturing costs', but what they really did was aggravate this vocal consumer who has also been to China, has experience with getting Chinese mass manufacturing to produce repeatable, reliable, consistent quality, and who has a blog that gets 1000s of hits on selected topics.  So what they might have saved in manufacturing costs, they've lost in reputation and in bad publicity in selling sub-standard products that have demonstrated poor quality by failing to perform to even significantly lowered expectations. 

10X the life? No, the bed room ceiling fan's light runs less than 500 hours a year.  The light above shows that the CFL burnt out.  The 'sister' CFL lamp on the other side ceiling fan is still burning brightly, but it no longer shares the fixture with another Sylvania CFL.  No, there's a 65W GE Soft White incandescent bulb lighting my bed room.

When you examine the failed bulb closely, you can see the darkened tube where it enters the base just above the word "caution" which indicates that the ballast failed, and produced a pulse of voltage that through the bulb that the cheaply assemble Chinese circuit could not handle.  This arced, and failed - gratefully without leading to an electrical fire - at a -4 or -5 sigma below the predicted B1 life.  Dissatisfied?  No, I sort of expected it.  I am disappointed though that the "promising technology" or CFLs have performed SO POORLY in my experiences.  One of the bulbs I've installed outside has a pathetic pink glow as it struggles to put out less than a 1/10th the lumens it is supposed it - from the same "value pack".  It should have been called "value less".

Poorly Executed Blog Spam

The interwebs are prone to spamming, and push-marketing that tries to get eyeballs onto web pages to generate advertising revenue or "buzz" or exposure.  I understand that.  It's a necessary "evil".  Sometimes the adverts are actually interesting, legitimate, well placed, and useful... but the majority of the time, they're out in left field, irrelevant, barely germane in the more remotely tangential sense.

It appears that JustJoeP's web traffic visitor stream (up to about 150 hits a day now) has somehow gotten the attention of many inept spammers, who make a weak attempt at posting veiled comments that embed their advertising links. I discard most of them, but here's a few (unedited) so you can see what I mean:

"jasmin" on the "Delicious Bird Awaits" 
"I'm not going to profess to being that good with grammar. I don't know the ins and outs of it and go mainly by experience. Wine Gift "
where "Wine Gift" linked to a 'wine of the month' annoying membership. "

No thanks "jasmin", I don't want someone else deciding randomly for me, based upon whatever mass inventory they've gotten that month, to send some wine I don't like when I can go to the store and buy it MUCH LESS expensively myself.  perhaps you are not so good at "grammar" because English is not your first language?  The posting had nothing to do with "grammar". It was about an upcoming delicious feast.  You've failed "jasmin".

------------------

"plusclothingexpert" on the sarcastic & violent "Job Interview Coaching"
"That's funny. Well, you can get help for Interview Coaching Calgary and get the job that you desire. "

"P.C.Expert", the posting had nothing to do with what to wear or not wear or how to write a resume, it focused on a fictitious scenario wherein an interviewer asks a dumb question and the interviewee responds with an overt threat of massive physical violence.  It's not really about "coaching" per se.  So no, sorry, I will not embed your Canadian link.
-----------

"BOSS" has left a new comment on your post "How To Clean Your Own Hayward Pump Cartridge Filte...":
"thanks for provided a nice information
We Manufacturers and Suppliers of Single Spring Mechanical Seal, Dry Mechanical Seals, Reactor Mechanical Seal ,Cartridge Mechanical Seals, Mechanical Shafts Seal Manufacturers."

Now "Boss" is apparently affiliated with "Ashish Industries" which makes automotive seals.  So you see, "BOSS", a Hayward Cartridge Filter for a backyard pool has NOTHING to do with automotive seals, so you fail on context.  You've incorrectly conjugated the irregular verb "to be" by leaving out it entirely and then using the plural of "Manufacturer" and "Supplier" when you really MEANT (I think) to say "We are Manufacturers and Suppliers of..." or perhaps "We Manufacture and Supply...".  I cannot give you any credit or leniency for having English as a second language, because the British installed English & Hindi as the uniting language of India more than a century ago, and all of my Indian colleagues (and I have spoken to 100s of them) have repeatedly told me that BOTH English and Hindi are their country's national languages and everyone must speak one.  If you are not proficient in writing in English "BOSS", you need to find a new vocation, or use better grammar and spell checking software.
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Much earlier in December,
nr has left a new comment on your post "The Beauty of Prandtl-Glauert Singularities":
"Thank you for sharing this information.
It will really helpful to solve my confusion
Process $ Chemical Engineering "

Where the P&C Eng was an embedded link to a push marketed engineering website, that had nothing to do with Prandtl-Glauert Singularities. You've failed, "nr".
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Back in November
seo help online has left a new comment on your post "Re-Using Delicious Marinade":
"You have nice blog.
Aluminium Foil Pouch,Zipper Pouch,Aluminium Foil Zipper Pouch, Jumbo Bags, Gusseted Pouches."

"You have a nice blog" ... really, that's the best you can do?  And you did not put a single space after a comma, instead running your words together and misspelling "Aluminum"?  Is this really your company's best foot forward?  No, total failure.
----------------

And whoever this "SEO" company is, they really do a consistently poor job
seoshivakumar has left a new comment on your post "Mountains of Salt Beneath Us":
"Thanks for sharing with us
V.S. Forgings: Salt Tablets Manufacturers, SOFT Salt Tablets, Water softening salt, Industrial salt, Raw salt."

An Indian company pushing salt products.  Why would I want to import salt from India to the US?  Why would anyone, when nearly every country in the world can cheaply make their own?  And salt is water soluble, so transporting it over vast oceans, where it COULD get wet, is not the brightest of ideas.  Sorry seoshivakumar, you fail.
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Back in September, I previously pointed out "Asian Bridal's" freakishly funny ineptitude:
asian bridal has left a new comment on your post "Toms Toms & Furs":
"Asian wife dines into a seventh whistle. Our analyst soils the interview on top of a spotted buss. The brown freak disputes the lady. The amateur mates the utility variance. The turning basis clears Asian wife. Beside Asian wife recovers the fun fraud.

asian bridal "
...shows it is not just India who doesn't understand push marketing.  The Chinese are hilariously poor at trying to execute it as well.
-----------------------

Now, "Geopeach" gets it right.  So Geopeach's comment, was pushlished.

Geopeach has left a new comment on your post "Gluten Free Beer - Redbridge":

"Hey Just Joep,
If you are looking for another substitute to Redbridge, check out Daura, by Estrella Damm. You'll be happy to know it doesn't come from a large US corporation, but is imported from Barcelona, Spain. I work for the importer here in the US, so just let me know if you have any questions. It will have a different taste than Redbridge because Daura is made with barley malt instead of sorghum.

-Georgia (ghomsany@usbev.net)
http://www.estrelladamm.com/en/daura_gluten_free_beer/ "

There's a host of others who have tried, the above examples are just a small sample.  The volume is increasing, noticeably in the last month.  So I will be leaving the comment moderation on, going forward.  And as a word of warning to the inept, the stupid, the "in a hurry", and the misguided, when your comment is dumb enough, irrelevant enough, or just plain silly enough, I will post it here to mock you and point out your failure.  Maybe your manager, or the company that hired your firm will see the posting, and you can find a vocation that better fits your skills - perhaps one that doesn't require you to push market ads in English?