IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

Love and An Overheard Remark - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

We were seated in a diner earlier today where three elderly women were seated nearby. When I say "elderly", I would guess them to have been in their mid-eighties or so. Their conversation was fairly easy to hear and one of them said something really saddening:

"I wasn't pretty enough for my mother. My mother didn't love me."

For that lady, there was no going back to make something wrong into something somehow right and she knew it.

When one of my grandsons asked me "Grandpa, do you love me?", I let him know "Yes!!!" in no uncertain terms. His ensuing grin told me what I'd hoped to know.

When his daddy, one of my two sons, was just three years old and I told him that I loved him, he scowled at me and asked "Why do you love me?"  Since I loved his mommy, he didn't see how I could possibly love more than one person at the same time.

I told him that love isn't quantized. I can't go to the store and say "I'd like to buy a quart of love, please."  I told him that love is without bounds, that there is no limit to loving and as I said that, he seemed to calm down. That reassurance was very important, very important indeed.

Got anybody in mind just now?

Service Animals - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I saw this sign at the entrance of a nearby supermarket:

Then, on a neighborhood bulletin board, this was posted:

Message received loud and clear.

Two and Five - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Only two kinds of plastic containers are recyclable in this community, plastic #1 and plastic #2. Plastics #5 and #6 which are often used in food containers, cannot be recycled so I make it a habit to look for the recycling symbol on each item before submitting anything for the recycling truck to pick up.

However, I once got a bit of surprise about that. Please see the following:

The cover and the bucket of this container are NOT made of the same stuff. The lid is made of plastic #2 which is recyclable, but the bucket is made of plastic #5 which is NOT recyclable.

The two items look like they're made of the same material, they feel like they're made of the same material but they are NOT made of the same material, an easily overlooked fact.

It turns out that this kind of dichotomy is not unique to this product so please take a close look whenever you need to discard a container.

Skimmers - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Every so often, I find an on-line article warning the reader about not losing one's credit card or ATM card information to a "skimmer", a device that has been surreptitiously added to a gas station pump or to a stand alone ATM in some store, a skimmer which can read your card's information in the course of stealing that information. Even on a neighborhood bulletin board, I have read of skimmer based theft having occurred to someone.

"Examine the gas pump carefully!" is one of the standardly offered admonitions but I hold that advice to be of dubious value at best. When purchasing gasoline, I pay ONLY by cash and NEVER by card. Every gas pump is visually different. The pumps for Mobil look different from the pumps for Shell which look different from the pumps for Gulf which look different, etc., etc., etc.

The different appearances of these pumps means that I have to visually scan unfamiliar structures and signage which further means that I have a reasonable chance of NOT NOTICING that something might be different about some particular pump. I avoid any chance of falling prey to such an error by ONLY paying in cash. The few moments it takes me to walk back and forth twice between the pump and the cashier are a few moments well spent.  

In a similar vein, I absolutely NEVER use any of those conveniently located in-store ATMs because there too, the chance of my overlooking something is unacceptable.

When I do use an ATM, it is ONLY in a vestibule of the bank at which I am a depositor and even there, even though I know the ATM's physical configuration and appearance, I examine that ATM very carefully and the surrounding room as well for anything I might not recognize.

Caveat cardholder.

Word Abuses - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Certain words can evoke strong emotional responses. Persons with specific agendas they wish to promulgate can over and over again speak those evocative words toward the goal of imposing thought manipulation on undiscerning listeners. Two of those words are "Constitutional" and "Science".

The terrible events of January 6, 2021 at the United States Capitol were accompanied by repeated shouts of "Constitutional" by those who sought to disregard the very document whose name they had sought to usurp. If just one official here or one person there had chosen to comply on that day with the shouted demands being directed their way, it is possible that I would today be enjoined from presenting this essay to you and if somehow I got it out anyway, it is possible that you would be enjoined from reading it.

Just to note, my LinkedIn group called "Analog Developments" is no longer viewable in China. It has been blocked there and I do not know what writing(s) triggered that censorship.

Yes, we really did come that close.

There is a scene in the Woody Allen movie "Stardust Memories" where this lanky young guy with shoulder length hair and super-sloppy clothes whines to some similarly coiffed and clad companions:

"Science has fay-y-y-y-l-e-d."  

Since science describes every aspect of the physical world, that portrayal was of an attitude of total defeatism, but that scene presented just one example of abuse of the word itself.

There are those who invoke the word "Science" to put forth fallacies. When Richard Nixon appointed Edward E. David, Jr. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_E._David_Jr.) as his presidential science advisor, Mr. David eventually resigned from that appointment citing "disappointment that his advice had not been heeded." (New York Times, January 3, 1973)

My recollection is that Nixon had told his advisor what government policies Nixon had already decided upon and that it was his advisor's task to present the "Science" that would justify those already made decisions. To Nixon, what the actual scientific truths might have been was not important.

The so-called "Science" via which it has been asserted that the Apollo moon landings were faked, via which it has been asserted that there is no such thing as evolution, via which it has been asserted that climate change is "a hoax", via which it has been asserted that intelligence follows racially related bell curve distributions and so forth has caused and will likely continue to cause terrible things to happen.

If you disagree, please check out today's and tomorrow's news.

Monoclonal Antibodies and A Happy Note - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E.

On Friday, July 15th, symptoms began to show themselves so I ran an at-home test which came out positive for COVID. The first thought by our doctor for treatment was a medication called Paxlovid but because that stuff would interact with other medications I am already taking and must not diminish, Paxlovid was quickly ruled out of consideration.

Instead, I was instructed to report to a Northwell facility in New Hyde Park for an infusion of monoclonal antibodies. This afternoon, I did exactly that.

I was taken care of there by Elianora Safiev and Jassy Alabre. The care that I received was marked by professioniallism, efficiency and fluid communication skills which put all together come to a final descriptor of competence!!

I could not have been in better hands.

I have now and then heard people express at least some level of distrust of those in the medical professions. Even some of my own family have expressed such sentiments but my experiences have largely belied that.

The possible outcomes of COVID have been well publicized. To risk one's actual demise on the basis of anecdotes or even certain past personal experiences is unwarranted.

It is my exhortation to everyone to avail yourself of every medical resource you can. Kindred spirits of Elianora and Jassy are waiting for you.

Lithium-Ion Fire Traps? - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Several news items which I recently found as follows in which I have highlighted certain key words to which I hope to direct your attention:

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/05/tesla-megapack-fire-highlights-early-stage-issues-with-big-batteries.html

From a recent local newspaper:

From a Google search result:

Further Google searches will yield many more of these kind of search results.

Some writers are sounding alarms about lithium-ion battery fire dangers in electric vehicles (EVs). Other writers are publishing reassuring write-ups about the issue. My personal sentiment is that there are very many writers who espouse alarm and that there are lithium-ion chemistries in such wide use that there are more-than-I-am-able-to-tolerate risks of catastrophic fires.

Another issue is that fire fighting staff have in many locales, not been trained about dealing with lithium-ion battery fires. In one EV fire in Tennessee, I read where an entire burning vehicle had to be submerged in water in a hastily dug pit because every time fire fighters thought they had extinguished the blaze, it would start up all over again.

Imagine a scene like that happening in Manhattan, in front of Macy's on 34th Street. Where would they dig a pit? Conventional fire fighting methods in Tennessee were ineffective.

What's inside my cell phone, what's inside my laptop or what's inside anything that I can carry around by hand is irrelevant to me versus what I or my loved ones could be physically riding inside of along with lithium-ion devices.

Massive dollar investments have been made in lithium-ion battery technologies which means to me that those things are going to be used despite any associated fire issues. I am personally convinced that there are no intentions of letting that investment and inventory go to waste, lives potentially to be lost not withstanding.

I am very uncomfortable having noticed that a nearby neighbor is the proud owner a new EV.

Personally, I will NOT take a seat in any such vehicle and it is my fervent hope that my loved ones will not do so either.

July Fourth Epilogue - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

All kinds of h...ll broke loose in this area in explosive observances of the holiday. Our local bulletin board has some choice postings about that. With some freely admitted cherry picking (The 'shut up' was not in response to me.) and some highlighting, this was and still is, there to be seen

This stuff is sort of self explanatory.

.

Cultural Vulnerability - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I once new someone whose spouse was of Asian heritage. That person had been raised by a very loving and caring family in which personal virtues were of great value and importance. The lessons of that upbringing were well learned.

Hold that thought.

Scammers making literally billions of robocalls in attempts to perpetrate various frauds have been very much a news topic of late. Callers who impersonate government agencies, callers who present themselves as debt collectors demanding immediate payments, callers who convey urgent messages of loved ones in dire distress and so forth have been described in many venues.

The suggested response to such callers is often given in two simple words:

One day I was told that a scammer had telephoned where this couple lived and the spouse who was at home alone answered the call. It didn't take long to realize that the caller was bogus, BUT, this person could not hang up on the caller because to do so would be impolite and hanging up would break the most fundamental rule of that person's upbringing which was to be courteous and polite at all times to everyone and anyone no matter what.

That scam caller kept on pushing his bogus pitch. The situation actually dragged on for hours much to extreme spousal distress and upset.

The key point of this that in offering cautionary advice about such dealing with such abuse(s), be sensitive to and aware of whether the person to whom you might offer a well meant suggestion is actually receptive to that suggestion and to whether your attempt to aid is actually achieving its intended goal. In the described situation, it was not so.

Just in passing, we have recently been told in this household that our Amazon account is now locked, our diabetic strips supply is way overdue for renewal and that our student loan payments are overdue. Oddly, we haven't recently heard from the prince in exile who needs our assistance to transfer a large sum of cash nor have we heard about extending our car's warranty.

Don't Pick Up That Dollar Bill - John Dunn

This is undoubtedly one of the scariest news items I've ever seen.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/see-a-folded-dollar-bill-on-the-ground-dont-pick-it-up-tennessee-sheriff-warns/ar-AAYjKn3?li=BBnbfcL

A stray dollar bill that is contaminated with methamphetamine and/or fentanyl can be LETHAL.

Please take some time to read this, absorb the lesson and pass along the information.