Cloudflare Stinks!

 It seems that more and more web sites use Cloudflare. This means more and more web sites have become inaccessible. One would assume if Cloudflare accepts you once then that is it. No, each web sites has its own idiosyncrasies. Which means you may pass the moronic test ten times then the eleventh they ban you! Worse, on one web site you get one article then the second is blocked by a never ending Cloudflare cycle! Why is page 1 OK and then page 2 blocked. 

What type of gross incompetents run this mess!  

Cloudflare states:

Automatically stop bad bots without interrupting legitimate users

Cloudflare analyzes behavior and detects anomalies in network traffic based on how requests deviate from the baseline.

Cloudflare's machine learning trains on a curated subset of hundreds of billions of requests per day to create a reliable bot score for every request.

 In reality it always interrupts legitimate customers like me. Whoever uses it. when I try to get on the website for which I paid and registered I am blocked at least half the time. One wonders what idiotic algorithm they employ. Frustrate the customer! Great way to lose business. 

 

 

Insane!

 The NY Times has an article on deer dying from a wasting disease, a prion disorder. Prior disease like Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD)is a deadly protein neurological disorder. It can be highly contagious from bodily fluids from a infected entity. The Times shows employees with dead deer noting:

The harvested deer were prepared at the state lab in Lena, Ill., for sample-taking and field dressing.

 If the deer prion disorder can jump species this is a great way to start another epidemic. No masks and blood on the floor! This is a Level 4 pathogen! If you thought COVID was bad this is a billion time worse.

Airport Surface Traffic Control

 In the summer of 1974 when I was at MIT I spent the time doing two projects. First was what was to become MITES, a minority student program to see if we could get more minority students into MIT by exposure and experience. With that group I also had a project called Airport Surface Traffic Control, ASTC, using what Lincoln Lab had developed using transponders called DABS, discrete address beacon systems. Namely ASTC would equip every vehicle with a DABS transponder and we could then detect locations of every vehicle on the airport surface and with added software anticipate possible issues. I never got to finish the project but it was workable fifty some years ago!

Now the NY Times reports on the LaGuardia crash noting:

On Thursday, before the report was released, Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told reporters that the agency would wait to see the report before making any changes. The Port Authority operates the three major airports in the New York area, including LaGuardia.

 Duh! Like so many of our NY/NYC employees just wait till tomorrow, and see if anyone else dies!

A Reason Why Tuition is so High!

 In reading a recent MIT News brief they lauded a new employee whose job is:

... associate director of student organizations and programming for the Student Organizations, Leadership, and Engagement Office (SOLE) in the Division of Student Life (DSL), empowers and equips students to lead and serve not only during their time at MIT, but also as they venture into their professional lives. With enthusiasm and a global mindset, she is dedicated to helping students thrive and reach their goals.  

Well there goes another couple of hundred thousand, How long has this organization been around. Do MIT students have time for this stuff, I never did.  

 

Late Night Visitor

 We have a collection of animals in front and back. This guy I have seen frequently looking for what I do not know.

Down with the Old?

 

The NY Times has a piece by some Yale Prof. Not surprisingly he proposes:

 Ageism has not ended, but that should not stop those questioning and seeking to rein in American gerontocracy.

Ageism is prejudice against older folk. Gerontocracy is the group of older who have been successful and prudent and have assets. Now this character is no saying "kill the old" but it comes close.

First home ownership. My current house bought in 1980 had a mortgage rate of 18.5%! It would have been cheaper on my credit card. I had to bear the Nixon/Johnson war tax if you will. Fortunately Reagan came in and put a halt to it.

Second, I drive a Honda. Not a BMW or Mercedes.

Third I worked seven days a week, and for several years by traveling around the world managed to get at times greater than 24 hours for a day.

Fourth, I have no country club, no country house, etc. 

Fifth, I saved wisely.

Thus due to my prudence I am in the gerontocracy. Perhaps this Yale Prof may be coming for me? This character further states:

Absolutely, but what your story misses is that older citizens are complicit in the lack of senior housing. We have very good studies of how land use decisions — typically at town meetings where there is a lot of white hair in the audience. Ironically, if we democratized land use we would serve elder citizens better — by building more age-appropriate housing for them, and more housing in general.

 Yep, ship me off to age appropriate housing...try NYC with the local Marxist! No wonder students, at Yale and elsewhere are so off center!

We have gone from "kill the rich" to now "kill the old"! Thank you US Universities....