OK, So why is this so smart?

 The NY Times reports that our Gov in NJ is threatening shippers with tens of millions in fines if they dare bring in Russian diesel fuel. Now NJ has a massive number of diesel trucks paying astronomic amounts per gallon. Along comes this person, with highly questionable authority, to prohibit the fuel further driving up costs.

The paper notes:

Gov. Mikie Sherrill sent a letter to 12 port and terminal operators in the state, warning them they “could be subject to millions of dollars in penalties” long after President Trump leaves office. Ms. Sherrill, a Democrat, said that accepting the fuel would violate federal law and that she was prepared to use “every available legal and regulatory tool” to block any tanker from offloading Russian fuel in New Jersey. It is unclear if any Russian fuel is headed toward New Jersey, but Ms. Sherrill’s position could put the state on a collision course with President Trump, who last month lifted a ban on the import of Russian diesel as part of his efforts to bring down the cost of the fuel. Gasoline and diesel prices have risen since the United States and Israel attacked Iran at the end of February.

 This is a blend of hubris and arrogance along with total disregard for the populace. 

 

 

Incompetence Returns

 Westchester County in NY has created a massive voter suppression action by its, in my opinion, gross incompetence in using paper ballot which cannot be read by the machines. They note:

The Westchester County Board of Elections (BOE) is aware of an issue involving the thickness of paper ballots that is preventing voting machines from accepting ballots at polling locations throughout the County. The Westchester Board of Elections wants to reassure every voter that your vote matters, your ballot will be secure and your vote will be counted. The Board of Elections is in constant communication with New York State officials, Westchester County Government and poll workers to address this issue and ensure that voting continues with as little disruption as possible. In the meantime, voters should continue to complete their paper ballots as instructed by poll workers. Ballots will be placed in designated orange emergency ballot bags, which will remain secure and monitored. These ballots will subsequently be counted in accordance with applicable election procedures. We strongly encourage all voters to remain in line, exercise patience and, most importantly, cast their ballots. The BOE sincerely apologizes to voters and poll workers for the inconvenience this situation has caused, and the BOE recognizes the importance of a smooth and efficient voting process. They are taking every necessary step to address the issue as quickly as possible. Let us be absolutely clear: Every eligible vote will be counted. No voter should be discouraged from participating in this election because of this issue. Your voice matters. Your vote matters. Please stay in line and vote.

 

 This should suppress a massive number of votes. Prior planning prevents poor performance. One wonders who may benefit from this? Follow the money? Or "you just cannot make this stuff up"

 

And This is Science?

 

I was amazed by the interview in the NY Times of the so-called science advisor to the President. This person, a BA from Princeton in Poly Sci, not any apparent technical expertise, notes:

S.I. for science is going to be the biggest unlock for scientific discovery in the history of the world. It’s going to impact everything from material science to chemistry to math. In our plan, I think the belly button of it all is something called the Genesis Mission, the idea that we should build a scientific instrument in the federal government to be able to leverage S.I. for scientific discovery, and that’s what we’re building in our national labs. And we’ve opened it up, and now have access to it, from all of our agencies across the government. So if you’re doing very important health care work or biomedical work that requires superintelligence, you can access this instrument at the D.O.E., and the same goes for lots of other agencies. The core thing we want to do is provide S.I. as an enabling tool for whatever scientific discovery you want to make.

Great, just what we need, more Government Labs building stuff!

I had the good fortune to have known three Presidential Science Advisors: Vannevar Bush, Jerome Wiesner, and EE David. In my opinion this is not one of them. But I continue:

 So right now, American Ph.D. programs are geared toward this, at a minimum, five-year Ph.D. But they’re also tailored to try to optimize the curriculums in order to train students to be academics, and the numbers don’t play out. About 60 percent of people who get Ph.D.s do not end up becoming academics. So we asked ourselves: In that environment, shouldn’t we be trying to do a better job of training these young technologists and scientists to go out and actually be prepared for what they’re ultimately going to do in industry? So we launched a four-year Ph.D. program in partnership with universities and with industry, so that during the last year of your Ph.D. program — at year four — you’re at an industry lab. You do work in industry, and your dissertation is written on the work that you do at that company.

 This is a work study program, not a research training exercise. Now to be simple, my PhD took 18 months. I had an SM from MIT already and needed a few extra courses, but I stuffed it all in. I also was a junior faculty member as well as finishing my first book. Plus a few other things along with two children. I never could have done that in some work study program. 

With my MIT PhD I ran the gamut of academic, Government Advisor, Movie and CATV business, COO of mobile phone business, venture investor and operator, etc. The PhD allowed versatility and MIT, at the time (and that was during the Viet Nam War folks) allowed me to explore. 

The current so-called Science Advisor seems to follow the path of using neologisms to espouse new policies. PhDs are not "trained". They are educated and tested. You may "train" your poodle but please let's not insult the Academy, it already has a multitude of problems.  

Would it not have been better to have an experienced PhD in this position, say in Science or worst case Engineering like the three I have known! Instead we get an apparently inexperienced political entity.

Spot On!

 The NY Times has a compelling article on clinical trials. They are costly, slow, bureaucratic. But the most recent twist is that with "personal medicine" they no longer work.

Here  is the issues. Classic clinical trials assumed the same therapeutic was give or not to a group of patients. The evaluation was then with or without and did it work and was it better than the previous treatment. Simple, yes?

But as the article noted:

A few converging forces make this bottleneck more consequential than ever. The first force is scientific progress itself. Science is creating treatments that the regulatory system was not designed to handle. The most striking case is that of personalized medicine: Thanks to technological advances in recent decades, we can now sequence a patient’s tumor to find out its specific vulnerabilities, and increasingly we can tailor therapies to the needs of specific individuals.

The problem is that the therapeutic is fundamentally different for each patient since we are examining the genes in the tumor cells. There are two basic approaches. One is the recent one treating melanoma as we have discussed previously using the immune system. The other is a antibody drug conjugate approach as we proposed for prostate cancer. Each therapeutic is different and designed specifically for the patients malignancy, cell by cell. Apparently one has gotten through the quagmire of FDA approval. Will others?

The article is broad and compelling, The US is often the slowest to get through as well as the costliness. Hopefully there will be a focus on improving personalized treatments. But the politics of the FDA and HHS may be the worst problem in the process and many lives may be lost as a consequence. 

The Idiots in Government and Facebook!

 We have seen floods in New England and mid state New York. To get emergency info the Government agencies use Facebook ONLY! But if you do not have a Facebook account you are out of luck. You are denied critical life saving information! 

It only makes sense if you understand that Government workers believe that everyone they serve must think the way they do. They never think outside their comfortable box. Secure in the belief that they and they alone know the truth! 

Software developers fall in the same class. They never think "what if", they assume that in their own self conceit and arrogance that their approach is the only one and all must follow!

Think the folks in DSA! 

The Incompetence of USPS

 The Government has not been known for any form of competence. From now not having enough munitions in the middle of a war to of course the USPS. Socialists beware! My latest example is the delivery of a tiny package from my local Post Office. It arrived there this morning. However they will not deliver it until Thursday at the very best, three more days, likely five. It is just an envelope!

Worst yet, try dealing with the IRS, they hold all the cards! 

Of course there is the NYC/NJ transit mess.  Take a train and you may go somewhere but often where you wanted to go. 

The theme of Government run enterprises is gross incompetence. Hint, that is the heart of socialism. 

 

Try a Flying Buttress?

 

The latest sign of collapse of NYC is the pending collapse of the Pfizer building. One would think that any competent Civil Engineer would have checked to see if the added stress on the building supports would have resulted in a collapsing strain. I recall having these courses some sixty plus years ago building upon the Medieval Church structures and the flying buttresses. But clearly someone paid no attention and built another building on top of the old one. You cannot balance a Ford 150 atop a Campbell's tomato soup can. It will crunch!

Clearly the NYC building folks seem to be in my opinion as incompetent as the total administration. NYC is collapsing everywhere. Just look at Penn Station, the temporary sidewalk roofing, the empty lots filled with trash, and so on. The current Administration will most likely just accelerate this problem.

So what can be done? Possibly the following:

1.  Close the streets for a few years.

2. Build some flying buttresses to  stop the forward movement. The more it moves the faster it will collapse.

 3. Using automated high cranes, start to remove the floors added.

Or

Get the Department of War  to use one of their smart bombs...just kidding.

Gross Incompetence?

 NJ Transit is in my opinion and my experience one of the most incompetently run entities in the world! Warped tracks, broken equipment, filthy train stations (NY Penn especially), nasty employees, failed management. The list could go on. In the NY Times they note:

New Jersey train passengers could be in for a rough ride. NJ Transit, the state’s rail service, announced a number of delays and cancellations because of the extreme heat, and warned that the problems could persist through Saturday. High temperatures can cause overhead electrical equipment to sag and tracks to expand, potentially leading to long delays. The agency also warned that air conditioning systems on aging trains and buses, many of which are overdue for replacement, could be spotty. On Thursday morning, a number of NJ Transit trains traveling along the Northeast Corridor, which connects busy stations in New Jersey to Penn Station in Manhattan, were canceled because of mechanical issues and lack of available equipment, according to the agency. And delays and cancellations were announced on other trains, including some on the Morris & Essex Line, Pascack Valley Line and Main/Bergen County Line.

 Perhaps these are Acts of God, to keep people from going into NYC! 

 

An Interesting Geography Problem

 DHS has proposed removing ICE from airports in regions where sanctuary cities/states are. That would be Newark here in NJ.

Now the geography of Newark is below:

 Note Terminal A is NOT in Newark, Terminal C and Terminal B is kind of. So all international flights could be shuttled to Terminal A, recently upgraded and the rest would be domestic. 

Guess that would work. Not any good for New York however.  

Pet Discrimination

 I was approached by Antnee, my local squirrel representative, who proceed to tell me that the gang (8 squirrels, 5 chipmunks, 1 fox, 1 rabbit, 2 raccoons) are planning on filing a class action suit against the Governor here in NJ.

The reason is a new tax benefit bill proposed which says:

 What we know: New Jersey lawmakers are currently considering a bill that would grant dog and cat owners up to $900 in gross income tax credits to offset the rising costs of caring for a pet. The proposed legislation would give those taxpayers $300 for everyday pet expenses and up to $600 for veterinary bills, totaling a maximum $900 tax break. Qualified expenses would include food, crates, leashes, litter boxes, collars, grooming supplies and toys, annual exams, medications, emergency care and diagnostic testing. By the numbers: New Jersey is the fourth most expensive state for dog ownership in the country, according to MarketWatch. The 2026 study claims that New Jersey owners spend an average of $32,947 throughout their dog's life. That lifetime cost includes $1,129 in puppy costs, $698 in food and treats, $1,084 in boarding and grooming and$1,111 for insurance and vet care.

 Now the group states that I provide nuts, seed, clean water, and have from time to time rendered medical and psychological support and that the discrimination in favor of dogs and cats is unconstitutional. They argue that equal protection under the 14th Amendment is being violated, and that I should be eligible to get my $900 for each one of them whom I assist.

Later in the day Freddie the Blue Jay and Rocky the male cardinal stated they wanted to be amicus curia sing they also benefited by my care and upkeep.  

Now it is no clear who will file this complaint but I refereed them to my attorney,  who is fully aware of my predilections.

 

What Security?

 I had gotten a notice from the IRS to validate who I am. After some 65+ years they decided to force me to use the third party ID.me service. Now being somewhat astute at communications and computers I did find this complex. It demand that you have a cell phone with the updated capabilities that exceed my less expensive one about just three months ago. It took me some 4 hours to figure out how to work this annoying third party system. I had to give them a scan of my drivers license, front and back, my signature, my SS number, and connect to some foreign agent to validate me live and record my face, voice and God knows what other biometrics. Now some third party with foreign connections has more personal information on me that my attorney and accountant. The risk of ID theft has increased in my opinion many orders of magnitude.

To reiterate, the IRS demands you go through this process otherwise they will default any and all returns! I wonder what moron invented this scheme? Also why have a commercial third party control all this data?

Now the real problem is that for me, 4 hours is a burden, but I have a PhD from MIT in EECS and have spent sixty years in computers and communications. What does an 80+ year old have to do flopping around this junked up system? Our Government has managed to harass the older folks not to mention everyone else. I have a passport, why not use that? Answer, the want your video, voice, eye motions etc to have a full set of biometrics less a DNA swab. China and Russia are not this bad!

Now can it be scammed. Easy! One's drivers license has been used extensively to enter buildings in NYC and check into hotels. Thus getting that ID is simple. SS numbers are everywhere. AI allows for fake video to be used in their biometric system. Creating a false identity is simple! In fact they have made it fool proof.  

This has not in my opinion and my experience improved security, it has dramatically degraded it. It creates a massive burden on older  people. I would love to know who made this decision!

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!

Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance

 I have lived for a short or long period in over twenty countries. Some advanced and some not so much. I had become an expert on the Moscow subways as well as London, Paris, Rome (well kind of, it s bad but not as much as NYC). I have taken the TGV from Paris to multiple places in France and a train from Warsaw to Prague, kind of rickety.

But the NJ Transit is clearly the worst anywhere in this galaxy, if not in the entire Universe! Management, a real misnomer, has relentlessly managed to mess up everything.

The NY Times reports on the latest fiasco! The Bridge. It is like a Dante Journey to the Inferno. Cerberus awaits. You cannot get there from here. Now they did not get to tell you this until 48 hours before the collapse. You have to go to Hoboken, then a ferry of Path, then the subway, then walk. Hours later if you are lucky you may arrive at work. NJ Transit's management suggests you stay at home. The new Governor seems grossly unaware and lacking in any sympathy.

Management of the project is totally unaware that people must work to get money to pay them for the job. This clearly needs a reboot!  This is a classic example of no one in charge and no one responsible. It is New Jersey at its best!

As a side note, in the NYT there is video of a NJT worker on a bull horn yelling at the passengers. First. no one can understand her. Second, it just raise the level of angst. Third, it is just a nasty addition depicting the gross incompetence of management. It appears as a last minute addition. Just stop it! 

A Sense of Smell

 The new NY Mayor's Housing head allegedly is in favor of massive public housing, seeing individual home ownership as some capitalist evil. I guess I have a strong sense of small. As a young man, grammar school, I had an uncle by marriage who was the head of maintenance for one of the massive NYC housing projects. As I walked through them, because he lived there, the smalls were overpowering. Food, excrement, urine, and the overpowering odors of humanity on the edge.

Segue to the 1970s and Soviet Moscow. January, 20 below zero, yet as one walked along the streets one could smell the kerosene and borsch, from small stoves, and inside were people brushing their teeth with vodka because the drinking water was infested with giardia. It reminded me of NYC housing, just older!

Communism is forced communal degradation, and perhaps that is what this Housing person wants, One just wonders why? 

Taking Your Own Advice

 In PJ Media the Wrestling Lady in DC noted:

 “Two weeks in, millions of American students are still going to school, teachers are getting paid, and schools are operating as normal,” McMahon emphasized. “It confirms what the President has said: the federal Department of Education is unnecessary, and we should return education to the states.”

 But it did not stop her from "advising" Universities how to do their tasks. Perhaps this is nothing more than the "blind leading the blind"

Threats: Cutting one's nose to spite one's face

 This ludicrous "Compact" that the folks in Washington issued will, if implemented against Universities, will destroy American excellence. Consider the opening paragraph:

American higher education is the envy of the world and represents a key strategic benefit for our
Nation. In turn, the U.S. university system benefits in a variety of ways from its extraordinary relationship
with the U.S. government. These include (i) access to student loans, grant programs, and federal contracts; (ii) funding for research directly or indirectly; (iii) approval of student and other visas in connection with university matriculation and instruction; and (iv) preferential treatment under the tax code. To advance the national interest arising out of this unique relationship, this Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education represents the priorities of the U.S. government in its engagements with universities that benefit from the relationship. Institutions of higher education are free to develop models and values other than those below, if the institution elects to forego federal benefits

 This is a clear threat. Do what we tell you or we will bankrupt you! Who in their right mind would do this. Yes Universities have their childish problems. Yet this is more than throwing the baby out with the bath water, it a Hammas like act of execution.

There is a tool that works, namely via funding. If one wants to limit foreign nationals in Grad school, funded under Government contracts then put that in the contract. Namely only US citizens. 

Visa controls are already in place. Why burden the University. If the R&D funding delimits foreign nationals then clearly the system will act accordingly.

In my opinion the issue is getting more US students in Grad school. Is a PRC student really better than any US student? If they are blame US education. If not, then fix it via funding.

This clearly is one of the most egregious documents I have ever read. In my opinion it reads like it was written by some Community College drop out trying to get revenge.  

The Incompetence of the USPS

 Again and again I have had to deal with the USPS incompetence. Welcome to the Government employee work ethic. To compound it I sent a Priority mail letter to Atlanta, the worst of the worst USPS sites. After a week it has arrived at Atlanta, NY, a small town near the Finger Lakes and no where near Georgia. Soon the letter will be lost!

Perhaps closing down the Government is a good idea, permanently! Amazon seems to get things done, they can do the mail! 

Fortunately General Sherman had a better sense of direction! 

AI, Medicare and Denial

 

 The boys in DC have selected NJ as one of six states to trial an AI based pre-approval for Medicare payments. They plan to use AI companies. The NYT states:

The A.I. companies selected to oversee the program would have a strong financial incentive to deny claims. Medicare plans to pay them a share of the savings generated from rejections. The government said the A.I. screening tool would focus narrowly on about a dozen procedures, which it has determined to be costly and of little to no benefit to patients. Those procedures include devices for incontinence control, cervical fusion, certain steroid injections for pain management, select nerve stimulators and the diagnosis and treatment of impotence. Abe Sutton, the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, said that the government would not review emergency services or hospital stays.

Specifically they intend to review:

 

• Facet joint procedures for back pain

• Nerve and muscle tests (electrodiagnostic testing)

• TENS units and similar electrical stimulation devices

• Hyperbaric oxygen therapy

• Spinal cord stimulators

• Deep brain stimulation (commonly for Parkinson’s)

• Sacral neuromodulation (for urinary conditions)

• Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)

• Arthroscopic knee cleaning or debridement

• Vertebroplasty/kyphoplasty for spine fractures

• Epidural steroid injections

• Non-emergency ambulance transport

• Botox injections for medical issues

• Negative pressure wound therapy pumps

• Hernia repairs

• Lumbar spinal fusion

• Skin graft substitutes for chronic wounds

 As my readers know I am a doubter in AI at this stage. Thus the application to millions of Medicare recipients is in my opinion grossly negligent. One should try at a lower level, not 15% of the US as a first bite. This is similar to the massive COVID vaccine program, just failing to test and just dumping on hundreds of millions.

One must ask who these "AI" companies are. What are their bona fides? Since we have no definition of what AI is it is likely that they will just be some friendly folks with the current Administration.  We should know these companies in detail. What is their technology, what is the basis for their decisions, what have they accomplished before? One suspects this will all be hidden behind some curtain of proprietary nonsense.

The test should be small, transparent and Congress should have a say as well as the Medicare recipients.

But alas, no one in DC gives a phenning! 

 

Medical Research

 Medical Research has been highly productive over the past fifty years. Much focus has been on cancers, and rightly so, since these diseases are often brutal as well as highly costly to deal with. Yet there are many other diseases that debilitate and are costly, namely those due to what is termed sterile inflammation. An example is osteoarthritis, the breakdown of bone joints inflicting pain and loss of function. In many of these disorders the solution is at best the "grin and bear it" approach.

Now research has found linkages between cancers and sterile inflammations, and as we learn more we see we often know less. The current assault on medical research seems to be highly counter intuitive. In fact it may set us back generations. However a factor in this process often is the researchers themselves. Their work may be highly laudable but the generational sense of entitlement should be mollified. Funding is often done in a closed cadre of associates which breeds a sense of being a protected class. 

I suspect much of the current attack on the research community is as much an attack on attitudes as it is an intent to reduce Government expenditures.  

An Observation

 In New Jersey there is a collapsed Interstate, I80.Going on a year of being closed. The reason is a set of mines under the highway which collapsed leaving "sink holes". Now if one looks at a map. they had such a few years back when the state decided to build, the Interstate went thru a town called Mine Hill! A hine perhaps that there would be trouble. But alas it was NJ's best employees who apparently did not get the hint. You see New Jersey in the early 1800s was the biggest mining state around. Duh!

BTW the Interstate is still closed. Perhaps the new Governor will take some action but do not hold your breath folks. 

BTW the NY Times finally caught on. How about the Gov!