IEEE Consultants' Network of Long Island

It Ain't Over - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Please consider this highlighted excerpt from the article at the following URL:

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/15/health/covid-rising-uk-us/index.html

Judy's Aunt Lillian, and my aunt too I happily assert, is in her nineties and lives in a retirement community where, over time, the facility seemed to have achieved zero cases of Covid. That being so, folks decided to have a group luncheon.

The event was held and subsequently, twelve people became ill with Covid including Aunt Lillian herself.

We learned of this by phone a few days ago and Lillian tells us that she's recovered, thank goodness, but I think there's a lesson in this story of which to take heed:

Now finish Yogi Berra's quote in your mind.

It ain't over.

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

There's been a lot of digging up of road pavement around here in the last several weeks. Many streets that had already been decaying with broken sections of asphalt have been made very much worse by poorly executed asphalt patching after what look like new gas main pipes being installed. However, there is another hazard as well.

Please see the following:

It is fundamental to heavy machinery use that when such machinery is idled, all of its movable parts MUST be brought safely to rest on the ground or pavement. In the image above, the rear scoop has been left approximately one foot up from the roadway which is plenty of room for a runaway toddler to get underneath..

That "Safety Begins With Teamwork" label stands in ironic contrast to the apparent attitude of the operators who left this hazard behind.  

By comparison, please see the following:

Di-Hydrogen Monoxide - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Way back when, I learned of an experiment that a college Sociology major did as part of his degree studies.

He made up a survey about a chemical for which he cited genuine statistics showing that chemical's involvement in a large number of deaths each year in the United States. He presented that survey to some large number of people and asked them if a ban should be enacted on that chemical in the name of public safety. In his later report, he cited a moderately high percentage of interviewees as agreeing that such a ban would be a good thing.

The chemical name he gave was "di-hydrogen monoxide". He had discovered that there were a substantial number or people out there who were so ignorant of the sciences that they did not recognize that the cited chemical was water.

Perhaps the first syllable "di-" invoked thoughts of dioxin or perhaps the second word "monoxide" invoked associations with asphyxiation, but many people's failure to see through the facade was amusing, alarming and statistically significant.

Amusing and alarming perhaps, but there are some persons to whom this story points out opportunities to spread conspiracy theories.  

False claims about ineffective medications against COVID, shunning vaccinations against COVID and unwillingness to wear protective face masks are all grounded in imagined conspiracies. Such conspiracies can be boundless in scope.

Using false statement after false statement, each theory leads to a raft of other falsehoods and creates a web of imagined offenses being committed by "them" against "us" which can never be debunked in its entirety. The sun would have time to use up all of its hydrogen by the time such massive numbers of  conspiracy falsehoods were all addressed.

The conspiracist's goal would be achieved though. That goal is to enrage the reader/listener in order to control the reader/listener. Control to what end(s) remains unclear but good will and benevolence are not involved.

Please don't fall prey.

Failed LED Lamps - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

Back in 1985, we re-did our kitchen and dining room. It was a major project. Fourteen "high-hat" light fixtures were put in the ceilings, each one holding a 120 watt incandescent bulb, a type of bulb that is today no longer available.

As bulb after bulb reached the end of its service life and blew out, we replaced them with LED lamps rated at 2700°K color temperature which comes close to replicating the lighting traits of the original bulbs.

One result of putting those LED products into service can be ascertained from the following:

The service life of these items has been utterly dismal. These four devices all went dark within approximately two years and that ain't supposed to happen.

To my mind, these devices are beset with design and/or quality control issues. There is no way that the above four (so far) failures should have occurred.

Comments?

A Persistent Scammer - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

I watched with some degree of fascination as three apparently bogus phone calls came in. Each time as my recorded greeting started to play, the caller hung up.

I'm sure that the apparent name and the apparent phone number are spoofed. If I had picked up the call, I can imagine being told about extending my car warranty with the administrative assistance of a former Nigerian Prince, now in exile.