“Your call is being recorded for quality assurance and training purposes.”
Great so then NO ONE should have a problem if I record the same calls for blog fodder!
Argh!
— 30 —
RANT: Since business now record all calls, so will I!
Thursday, July 30, 2026
Leave a Comment » | 
Ranting | Tagged: X-ray eyes | 
Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: MORE Bank of America stupidity
Wednesday, July 29, 2026Sure I’m going to type in 24 random characters, are you ^&$$%#^# kidding me!
*** begin quote ***
*** end quote ***
Bank of America has a shit show” running in “Human Resources”.
BOA HR RETIREE has cancelled by health coverage presumably because I moved to FL from NJ. Bear in mind I’ve moved from NJ 2 VA 2 NJ 2 NH 2 NJ, and never had a problem. One befuddled soul on a 3 hour conference call including 2 BOA HR, 2 UHC specialists, and me that my zip code 34787 wasn’t in the USA. P.S., I share the zip code with Disney Orlando. Argh!
And, BOA has sent “voluntary disenrollment” to UHC and CVS. Argh! FML!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: Bank of America | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
MONEY: Gooferment can’t print a barrel of oil
Tuesday, July 28, 2026Doug Casey’s International Man
*** begin quote ***
But the fundamental problem facing the oil market cannot be solved with derivatives, interest-rate cuts, newly created money, or manipulating the market.
A massive volume of oil has been removed from the global market as the Strait of Hormuz is essentially closed.
That supply will not be easily replaced.
Alternative pipelines have limited capacity. Spare production cannot be activated overnight. Tankers, ports, refineries, and storage facilities all face physical constraints.
Governments can print currency.
They cannot print a barrel of oil.
*** end quote ***
“There is an old German saying that goes, ‘Whoever does not respect the penny is not worthy of the dollar.’ It expresses the sense that those who neglect or ignore the small things cannot be trusted with larger things, and fittingly describes the problems facing both the dollar and our nation today.” — Ron Paul
Why is there no more “penny candy”, “nickel cigars”, “dime comic books”, or “quarter a gallon gas”?
Because the Gooferment “printing press” (i.e., the FED) … …
… … The Federal Reserve Bank is a misnomer. IT ain’t “federal”. It reserves nothing. And, it ain’t a “bank”. It is a private cartel of the elite banks run for their benefit and that of the entrenched politicians. … …
… … allows the Federal Gooferment to “spend fiat money” without limit.
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: Doug Casey, International Man | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: Member service advocates — > “go away”
Monday, July 27, 2026*** begin quote ***
Contact us
Help with your plan
Member service advocates are ready to answer your questions and provide helpful information.
Call 1-866-460-8856 to connect with a member service advocate.
TTY users, call 711
8 a.m. – 8 p.m.localtime: Monday – Friday
*** end quote ***
And what happens when <synonym for excrement> happens outside of those times?
On Friday, I spent THREE HOURS on a joint call with TWO people from UHS (Brenda was fantastic) and at least three different people at BOA.
If it wasn’t serious, (i.e., no medical insurance on 7/31), then it would have been a funny CATCH-22. At least twice, the BOA person said “not my department, call 1-800-EAT-SHIT” which when called routed right back to her. Argh!
Of course, there was no “supervisors” or “managers” available during this entire THREE hour call. (Hard to believe!)
Another interesting facet: my zip code 34787 is not recognized. I’m told that I am “not in the United States”. (The Governor of Florida might disagree!)
(NOTE: Many address selections on website put 34787 in OAKLAND; not WINTER GARDEN. Which I wouldn’t mind, if they would at least recognize that their lookup table might be wrong or incomplete. Of course, there is NEVER a way to contact a REAL human to get it fixed.)
So here I am on a Saturday night, in absolute frustration, with nothing to do but share with any readers, if I have any, my complete and utter disgust of technology, AI, and “Use Cases”.
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” — attributed to Einstein
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: BOA, Customer Service, UHC | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Maybe your backups are corrupt?
Sunday, July 26, 2026https://www.makeuseof.com/old-files-may-already-corrupting-nothing-warns-you-until-too-late/
I checked my old files and found corruption silently destroying them before I ever got a warning
Windows file system
By Afam Onyimadu
Published Jul 24, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT
*** begin quote ***
Afam’s experience in tech publishing dates back to 2018, when he worked for Make Tech Easier. Over the years, he has built a reputation for publishing high-quality guides, reviews, tips, and explainer articles, covering Windows, Linux, and open source tools. His work has been featured on top websites, including Technical Ustad, Windows Report, Guiding Tech, Alphr, and Next of Windows.
He holds a first degree in Computer Science and is a strong advocate for data privacy and security, with several tips, videos, and tutorials on the subject published on the Fuzo Tech YouTube channel.
When he is not working, he loves to spend time with his family, cycling, or tending to his garden.
Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents:
One of my favorite photos that I had kept for years wouldn’t open. The filename was right, and the size seemed unchanged, yet it was somehow corrupted. Even though I hadn’t touched it in several months, that file was no longer the photo I had taken.
Sadly, computers don’t warn you when a file changes. Maybe it’s because, as far as they know, nothing has changed. But there’s a real chance that your old backups or folders that sat untouched since you saved them have changed.
*** end quote ***
Ouch, this really scares me. You mean all my time, attention, effort, and dikw into “backing up” and stuff may still be lost? I’m not a “happy camper”. Argh!
3 is 2! 2 is 1! 1 is none! Look for redundant capability; not redundant gear!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: Afam Onyimadu, makeuseof.com | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
POLICY: Amish Families in New York should have the Religious Vaccine Exemption
Saturday, July 25, 2026Amish Families in New York Lose Religious Vaccine Exemption Case
by Carolyn Hendler, JD
Published July 23, 2026
Federal & State Courts
*** begin quote ***
Yoder held that even a neutral and generally applicable compulsory education law could not override Amish parents’ religious objection to sending their children to high school. After Mahmoud, that exception applies broadly to any school policy that interferes with parental religious exercise.
The Second Circuit found the New York vaccine law to be a different kind of burden than set forth in Yoder. The court wrote that the law “does not regulate what children are taught, does not require them to affirm any belief, does not expose them to state-selected instruction contrary to their parents’ faith, and does not enlist school officials to displace parental religious formation.” The burden, the court held, “may be serious, but it is not the kind of state interference with a child’s religious development that triggered strict scrutiny in Yoder or Mahmoud.”
*** and ***
New York legislatures voted to eliminate the religious exemption in 2019 after an alleged measles outbreak centered in Rockland County among the Orthodox Jewish community. New York is now one of five states that does not permit religious exemptions to school vaccine requirements. The other states are California, Connecticut, Maine and West Virginia.
*** and ***
The current and past justices serving on the U.S. Supreme Court have given very little indication that they would be willing to overturn the pivotal 1905 Jacobson decision that has underpinned U.S. public health law for more than century. To have the utilitarian Jacobson decision reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in the 21st century could deal a fatal blow to medical freedom in America with repercussions that could last another 120 years.
*** end quote ***
For as much as I admire the Amish for their commitment to their beliefs, I don’t understand their choice. But that’s my problem; not theirs. While I don’t want to live that life style, I stand firmly as a little L libertarian with them in the resistance to the Gooferment’s tyranny.
Hard to imagine that “rights” are held in such disrepute.
The principles of little L libertarianism are Life, Liberty, and Property which all flow from the natural right of self-ownership. I can’t imagine that the RIGHT to self-ownership doesn’t extend to the RIGHT to raise your children as you see fit.
While it maybe debated as to exactly WHEN the RIGHTS of the child inure — to take or have effect — the parents’ RIGHTS are paramount. (Probably, at least when they can assert them, or have their rights asserted for them by a Guardian ad Litem as in cases of physical or mental abuse.)
Clearly, the the New York vaccine law interferes with parental religious exercise and as such should be subject to the strictest scrutiny. IMHO
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | Policy | Tagged: Federal & State Courts, Gooferment’s tyranny, LIBERTY, Life, Property, Self-Ownership, thevaccinereaction.org | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
ConspiracyTheories: COVID-19 vaccine-induced ALS-like neurologic syndrome?
Friday, July 24, 2026Actor Eric Dane of Grey’s Anatomy Dies of Rapidly Progressive Post-COVID-19 Vaccination Neurologic Syndrome
- ALS-like illness takes a more rapid and fatal course then previously understood
Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH
Jul 21, 2026
*** begin quote ***
One of the most tragic deaths in my practice over recent years was a man in his seventies who died from a COVID-19 vaccine-induced ALS-like neurologic syndrome. He came to mind when I heard about the death of actor Eric Dane—the man millions knew as Dr. Mark Sloan, on Grey’s Anatomy.
The Cruel Irony of Dr. McSteamy: Eric Dane, Rapid ALS, and the Silence on Vaccination
Eric Dane—the man millions knew as Dr. Mark Sloan, “McSteamy” on Grey’s Anatomy—died on February 19, 2026, at just 53 years old. His death certificate reads amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. What it doesn’t say, and what the celebrity obituaries won’t touch, is the timeline that raises questions the medical-media complex would prefer nobody ask.
Dane’s case was not the typical slow-burn ALS familiar to pre-pandemic neurology. It was a freight train.
*** end quote ***
It would appear that this is a distinct possibility?
Checking the Conspiracy Theorist Taxonomy “thermometer” (i.e., Type, Veracity)
Conspiracy Theory Type
• Health
Conspiracy Theory Veracity
• Plausible
I don’t know how this gets confirmed or disproved.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | CONSPIRACYTHEORY: | Tagged: Peter A. McCullough | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
LESSONSLEARNED: Collect all your model & serial numbers BEFORE you need them
Thursday, July 23, 2026LPT Collect all your model & serial numbers BEFORE you need them
Recently bought a house. I should have INSISTED that the previous owner and | or realtor supply an inventory of all the appliances with model and serial numbers.
All too late, I know discover that I have (a) an oven and (b) a range hood with no model / serial numbers. Argh! Very annoying.
When these require service as I am sure they eventually will, then I will be up the proverbial creek without a propulsion device.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | LESSONS | Tagged: LESSONSLEARNED: | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
SURVIVAL: Dont pet the fluffy cows
Wednesday, July 22, 2026*** begin quote ***
The man was the unfortunate object onto which an already highly aroused rutting bull directed its aggression. Had another person, cyclist, vehicle, or even another bison occupied that same place at that moment, they might well have become the target instead.
That is one reason wildlife biologists often say that rutting bison are among the most unpredictable large mammals in North America. During the breeding season, their behavior can shift from apparently placid to explosively aggressive with remarkably little obvious provocation.
*** end quote ***
See the video!
“There are two kinds of bulls: the ones that have tried to kill you, and the ones that haven’t had the chance yet.” — unknown
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | SURVIVAL | Tagged: malone.news, rutting bull | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
DISCOURAGING: I don’t want my orders sent by USPS
Tuesday, July 21, 2026A chat with amazon
*** begin quote ***
ME: USPS deliveries are inconvenient and always seem delayed. Can I specify I don’t want my orders sent by USPS?
REP: understand your concern.
I can take this as a feedback so that our team will check the details and will try our best to deliver the items directly
*** end quote ***
Have to tell Puritan’s Pride the same thing.
If they can’t deliver with UPS or FEDEX 0r something similar, then I have to take my business elsewhere.
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: amazon, USPS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
APPLE: In messages, all my contacts’ pictures are gone.txt
Monday, July 20, 2026MAC OSX TAHOE 26.5.2 (25F84)
2026-07Jul-16 DIALOGUE in messages, all my contacts’ pictures are gone.txt
*** begin quote ***
Acknowledged unfamiliar software version, sought current informationAcknowledged unfamiliar software version, sought current informationThis is a known, recurring bug with Messages/iCloud Contacts sync — it’s been showing up across macOS and iOS versions for years, and there are recent reports tied to macOS 26/iOS 26 specifically. Not something wrong on your end.
Quick fix to try first:
Apple menu → System Settings → click your name (Apple ID) at the top
Click iCloud
Find Contacts and toggle it off
Wait about 30 seconds, then toggle it back on
Restart your Mac and check Messages again
If that doesn’t work:
Check iCloud.com → Contacts to confirm the photos still exist there. If they’re intact on iCloud.com but missing on your Mac, it’s a local sync/cache issue, not lost data.
Check your iPhone — if photos are still showing there, that confirms the photos themselves are fine and it’s just your Mac’s Messages app not pulling them.
In Settings → Apps → Messages on iPhone (or the Mac equivalent under Messages preferences), toggling Shared with You off and back on has fixed this for some people.
Unfortunately, honest heads-up: several people on Apple’s own forums report this is a bit whack-a-mole — the fix works for a while, then random contacts lose their photos again weeks later. Apple’s support has acknowledged awareness of it but hasn’t shipped a permanent fix as of the reports I’m seeing. If it becomes chronic, re-adding photos manually in Contacts (Mac) tends to hold better than relying on iCloud auto-sync.
Want me to walk through the manual “re-add photo in Contacts” steps too, in case the toggle doesn’t stick?
*** end quote ***
Shame on Apple. Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | APPLE | Tagged: APPLE, Mac, Mac OSX, MAC OSX TAHOE 26.5.2 | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
AI: CLAUDE and TEXTEXPANDER don’t seem to work well together
Sunday, July 19, 2026*** begin quote ***
TextExpander note:
– TextExpander works in the Claude app/claude.ai input, since it operates at the OS/keyboard level.
Test message logged (2026-06Jun-14 0248):
“Test Book of Faces. 2026-06Jun-14 0248 idk IDK IDIDK GEIW FEIE FWIW fwiw Mother NatureSOME DONT WORK” – appears to be a TextExpander snippet test where some abbreviations did not expand.
*** end quote ***
Time to be an “unpaid ALPHA tester” for the nice folks at TEXTEXPANDER
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | AI | Tagged: CLAUDE, TEXTEXPANDER | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
AI: CLAUDE doesn’t have access to Google Maps or your saved places
Saturday, July 18, 2026*** begin quote ***
User: Print it
Claude explained it does not have the ability to send documents to a physical
printer, and suggested the user open the file from Google Drive or download it
to print locally.
*** end quote ***
Well that’s annoying.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | AI | Tagged: CLAUDE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
AI: CLAUDE doesn’t have access to Google Maps or your saved places
Friday, July 17, 2026*** begin quote ***
Dialogue – June 28, 2026
USER: Delete all New Jersey saved places in Google Maps
CLAUDE: I don’t have access to Google Maps or your saved places — there’s no Google Maps connector available to me.
To delete saved places in Google Maps yourself:
1. Open Google Maps and tap your profile icon
2. Go to Saved → Your lists
3. Open each list, find NJ places, tap the three dots on each, and select “Remove from list”
Or on desktop at maps.google.com, go to Saved in the left menu and manage from there. Unfortunately there’s no bulk-delete option in Google Maps — it has to be done one by one.
USER: Create text file and save in Google Drive Claudia folder
CLAUDE: What would you like the text file to contain?
USER: The previous dialogue
*** end quote ***
Sure AI and machines are going to take over the world?
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | AI | Tagged: CLAUDE | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
DISCOURAGING: Jeff Jacoby is ill and I wish him a speedy recovery
Thursday, July 16, 2026Tuesday, July 14, 2026
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Opinion columnist
*** begin quote ***
A note to readers from a longtime columnist
As some of you know, I am on medical leave from my job at The Boston Globe and have not been able to write my regular op-ed columns or my Arguable newsletter.
*** and ***
During the congressional debates on the amendment in 1866, I noted, Senator Edgar Cowan of Pennsylvania warned that birthright citizenship would undermine the ability of any state to defend itself “if it were overrun” — that word again — by immigrants of “a different race.”
*** end quote ***
Well, unfortunately, we can’t have “open borders” and a “welfare state”. If those, that come here, contribute to society, then by all means “open the golden door”, BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), if they are here for the dole, then we can’t admit them.
We have seen the abuses of our lax immigration policies and generous handouts. Birth tourism — pregnant women coming to the U.S. on tourism visas in order to obtain birthright U.S. citizenship for their newborn child becoming “anchor babies” is a very distinct problem.
End welfare; no problem. End warfare; no problem.
Get well soon, my favorite liberal author.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: Jeff Jacoby | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INSPIRATIONAL: Costco cashier Tony Barzar is a millionaire by slow and steady hard work
Tuesday, July 14, 2026He Earns $33 an Hour as a Costco Cashier. Now He’s a Millionaire.
- Long-tenured workers like cashier Tony Barzar are reliable, experienced and able to speed shoppers through a checkout line. Costco is willing to pay to keep them around.
By Sarah Nassauer
July 8, 2026 7:00 pm ET
*** begin quote ***
TUCSON, Ariz.—Costco cashier Tony Barzar unloaded his lunch in the breakroom, clocked in and headed for the checkout, just as he has for much of the past four decades.
That day, like most days, 60-year-old Barzar was assigned to the self-checkout area, a cluster of six registers. At 9:02 a.m., the first shoppers were ready to ring themselves up.
*** end quote ***
Not glamorous, not “big bucks”, but slow and steady wins the race.
A certainly no reason for ¾ of a million in student loan debt.
Maybe the zoomers need to adjust their expectations?
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | INSPIRATIONAL | Tagged: Sarah Nassauer, WSJ | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: Where are the “smart trash cans”?
Sunday, July 12, 2026I want one that takes itself out to the curb on “trash day” and return to its spot when emptied.
Then I might believe that the machines are gonna take over the world.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | ADHOC | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: HANDICAP spaces
Saturday, July 11, 2026Today, like many many other times, I see people use those spaces with no placard or plate. No one enforces it. Argh!
–30–
Leave a Comment » | ADHOC | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
RANT: “Hanoi Jane” deserves her own special ‘ring” in Hell
Friday, July 3, 2026https://x.com/Ikennect/status/2059026118036881822?s=20
<<FROM TWITTER>>
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-05-26>>
I am Ken
@Ikennect
*** begin quote ***
Barbara Walters writes:
Unfortunately, many have forgotten and still countless others have never known how Ms. Fonda betrayed not only the idea of our country, but specific men who served and sacrificed during the Vietnam War.
The first part of this is from an F-4E pilot. The pilot’s name is Jerry Driscoll, a River Rat. In 1968, the former Commandant of the USAF Survival School was a POW in Ho LoPrison, the “Hanoi Hilton.”
Dragged from a stinking cesspit of a cell, cleaned, fed, and dressed in clean PJ’s, he was ordered to describe for a visiting American “peace activist” the “lenient and humane treatment” he’d received.
He spat at Ms. Fonda, was clubbed, and was dragged away. During the subsequent beating, he fell forward onto the camp commandant ‘s feet, which sent that officer berserk.
In 1978, the Air Force Colonel still suffered from double vision (which permanently ended his flying career) from the Commandant’s frenzied application of a wooden baton.
From 1963-65, Col. Larry Carrigan was in the 47FW/DO (F-4E’s). He spent 6 years in the “Hanoi Hilton”. . . The first three of which his family only knew he was “missing in action.” His wife lived on faith that he was still alive. His group, too, got the cleaned-up, fed and clothed routine in preparation for a “peace delegation” visit.
They, however, had time and devised a plan to get word to the world that they were alive and still survived.
Each man secreted a tiny piece of paper, with his Social Security Number on it, in the palm of his hand.
When paraded before Ms. Fonda and a cameraman, she walked the line, shaking each man’s hand and asking little encouraging snippets like: “Aren’t you sorry you bombed babies?” and “Are you grateful for the humane treatment from your benevolent captors?” Believing this HAD to be an act, they each palmed her their sliver of paper.
She took them all without missing a beat. . . At the end of the line and once the camera stopped rolling, to the shocked disbelief of the POWs, she turned to the officer in charge and handed him all the little pieces of paper…
Three men died from the subsequent beatings. Colonel Carrigan was almost number four but he survived, which is the only reason we know of her actions that day.
I was a civilian economic development adviser in Vietnam, and was captured by the North Vietnamese communists in South Vietnam in 1968, and held prisoner for over 5 years.
I spent 27 months in solitary confinement; one year in a cage in Cambodia; and one year in a ‘black box’ in Hanoi. My North Vietnamese captors deliberately poisoned and murdered a female missionary, a nurse in a leprosarium in Banme Thuot, South Vietnam, whom I buried in the jungle near the Cambodian border. At one time, I weighed only about 90 lbs. (My normal weight is 170 lbs.)
We were Jane Fonda’s “war criminals.”
When Jane Fonda was in Hanoi, I was asked by the camp communist political officer if I would be willing to meet with her. I said yes, for I wanted to tell her about the real treatment we POWs received. . . and how different it was from the treatment purported by the North Vietnamese, and parroted by her as “humane and lenient.”
Because of this, I spent three days on a rocky floor on my knees, with my arms outstretched with a large steel weight placed on my hands, and beaten with a bamboo cane.
I had the opportunity to meet with Jane Fonda soon after I was released. I asked her if she would be willing to debate me on TV. She never did answer me.
These first-hand experiences do not exemplify someone who should be honored as part of “100 Years of Great Women.” Lest we forget. . . “100 Years of Great Women” should never include a traitor whose hands are covered with the blood of so many patriots.
There are few things I have strong visceral reactions to, but Hanoi Jane’s participation in blatant treason, is one of them.
Please take the time to forward to as many people as you possibly can. It will eventually end up on her computer, and she needs to know that we will never forget
*** end quote ***
I’ve ranted about her before. This just reminds me of her treachery.
Why she was never prosecuted?
Leave a Comment » | Ranting | Tagged: @Ikennect, Barbara Walters, Cambodia, Col. Larry Carrigan, Hanoi Hilton, Jane Fonda, North Vietnamese communists, South Vietnam | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
EVLYNN: The Universe either supplied what she wanted or she, in fact, “manifested” it.
Wednesday, July 1, 2026A WEBSITE ASKED:
What is your favorite road trip memory?
Send us your answer! Reply to this newsletter with a brief explanation of your response, and we’ll reveal the top answers in a future newsletter.
# – # – # – # – #
[Once upon a time, a long time ago, we drove to Biloxi.]
For the ride, we’d been to Barnes and Noble and got books on tape. (Like discs, but more fragile.) I had for my picks bought Denis E. Waitley’s “Empires Of The Mind” and Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”. Both suggest, but Covey really pushes “manifesting” what you want and the Universe would supply it.
She groused about it as “absurd”. Now mind you we were on a section of road in Alabama that we had driven before where there was literally nothing. So I said to her, “OK, we’ll have an experiment. What do you really want right now?”
She snaps: “a Dairy Queen ice cream cone”. “OK, in the next ten miles, we’ll manifest a Dairy Queen.”
And, I made her chant “I see a Dairy Queen.” For the next ten miles. Every time, she wanted to quit, I insisted. Just as the odometer is going to click ten, we see a hand painted sign on a 4×8 plywood that said: “Dairy Queen”.
It was brand new but no signs. And, it was open.
We went in and the manager thanked us for coming. It was their FIRST DAY open and their signs were late. We had lunch and ice cream. I laughed and she accused me of cheating. She was convinced I saw a sign.
Overlooking all the facts.
The Universe either supplied what she wanted or she, in fact, “manifested” it.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | EVLYNN | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
TECHNOLOGY: Shutting Down Traditional Phone Lines
Tuesday, June 30, 2026https://cordcuttersnews.com/california-wants-to-stop-att-from-shutting-down-traditional-phone-lines/
California Wants to Stop AT&T From Shutting Down Traditional Phone Lines
By
Luke Bouma
on
June 19, 2026
in
All News, News
*** begin quote ***
California regulators have formally accused AT&T of providing false information to the Federal Communications Commission in an effort to discontinue service on its aging copper-based wireline telephone network, according to Arstechnica. The filing, submitted by the California Public Utilities Commission on June 15, 2026, challenges AT&T’s petitions to preempt state rules and end landline obligations affecting roughly 199,000 customers. This comes as AT&T and others have been shutting down DSL and traditional phone lines that run on copper in many states.
*** end quote ***
Sad to say but as a fat old white guy retired injineer, copper-based wireline telephone network, sometimes called POTS (plain old telephone service) is and was very reliable and cheap. Power outages, tornados, and human stupidity aside, you picked up the phone and got “dial tone”.
Don’t forget the AT&T tradition of the operator dying at the switchboard to alert everyone of danger.
And, the old AT&T Motto, “no service is so urgent, that we can’t take the time to do our job safely”. Never mind the wags that amended it to “take time for coffee”.
It was a “widows and orphans” stock, until in their infinite wisdom Judge Green and the FCC (a captive of the mobile telephone industry) decided that AT&T and the Baby Bells should be “aborted”. One casualty was the greatest national resource “Bell Labs”. Another was the millions of retirees who had — whether they knew it or not — dedicated their lives to providing the BEST national telephone service.
Shame on the US Gooferment for allowing this to fail.
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | Technology | Tagged: AT&T, Bell Labs, POTS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INSPIRATIONAL: My wife had to endure the old process … …
Monday, June 29, 2026https://openbionics.com/3d-printed-prosthetic-limbs-progress-in-prosthetics-challenges-in-access/
*** begin quote ***
At our Austin prosthetic clinic, upper limb specialist Travis Heins has seen firsthand how 3D printing can elevate the experience of receiving a prosthetic arm from a drawn-out series of appointments into a streamlined, more predictable process. Instead of multiple rounds of casting, adjustments and travel to and from the clinic, Travis uses digital models and printed test sockets to refine his patient’s fit in a fraction of the time. For families who often drive hours to reach a preferred clinic or rearrange work schedules for each appointment, these efficiencies matter.
“I print two test sockets from the same digital model, one based on conservative measurements and another designed for a more experimental fit,” he said. “Sometimes we end up going with the more aggressive modified one.”
*** end quote ***
My wife had to endure the old process … …
… … (I’d say God’s replacement wife because the Universe knows how much I need help. And, it sounds disrespectful to say “second wife” and hurtful to refer to my sainted “first” wife as anything but the best thing that ever happened to me in my college days. But enough distraction.) … …
… … and the insurance company paid 60k$ and we had innumerable appointments for fittings. And the end result sucked. It was hard to get on and almost impossible for the two of us to get it off.
AND most disturbing to her was that is looked like a man’s arm.
FMPOV the lack of an “elbow” was a terrible disaster.
Maybe the new stuff will be better.
BUT, (and there is always a BIG butt), not in our lifetime.
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | INSPIRATIONAL | Tagged: prosthetic | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
AI: What ClaudaAI (Claudia) can’t do — access Google Maps or saved places
Friday, June 26, 2026*** begin quote ***
Dialogue – June 28, 2026
USER: Delete all New Jersey saved places in Google Maps
CLAUDE: I don’t have access to Google Maps or your saved places — there’s no Google Maps connector available to me.
To delete saved places in Google Maps yourself:
1. Open Google Maps and tap your profile icon
2. Go to Saved → Your lists
3. Open each list, find NJ places, tap the three dots on each, and select “Remove from list”
Or on desktop at maps.google.com, go to Saved in the left menu and manage from there. Unfortunately there’s no bulk-delete option in Google Maps — it has to be done one by one.
*** end quote ***
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | AI | Tagged: ClaudeAI | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INSPIRATIONAL: One can judge from experiment or one can blindly accept authority
Thursday, June 25, 2026<<FROM FACEBOOK>>
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-06-09>>
Via @S Kent Troy
*** begin quote ***
“There are but two ways of forming an opinion in science. One is the scientific method; the other, the scholastic. One can judge from experiment or one can blindly accept authority. To the scientific mind, experimental proof is all important and theory is merely a convenience in description, to be junked when it no longer fits. To the academic mind, authority is everything and facts are junked when they do not fit theory laid down by authority.” — Robert A. Heinlein – Life-Line
*** end quote ***
It seems that we have had a belly full of “science by authority”. The politicians and bureaucrats have no one else to blame but themselves for “vaccine skepticism”. New item after news item keep “leaking out”, mostly via the inet, that destroy any credibility or “moral authority” they had.
Personally, when the undertakers reported big stringy clots and health young athletic men started dropping like flies, I was “convinced” that the truth was being hidden like Hunter Biden’s laptop. And, Fauci’s 6 foot rule and face masks for viruses just “confirmed” it for me. It was all <synonym for excrement from a male cow> to cover a giant cash grab for cronies and a payday for Big Pharma, Hospitals, and insider trading politicians and bureaucrats! Argh!
“My first rule: I don’t believe anything the government tells me.” — George Carlin
“It’s a big club, and you ain’t in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.” — George Carlin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5dBZDSSky0
“The word ‘bipartisan’ usually means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.” — George Carlin
A plague on all their houses. They have set back human civilization and progress a thousand years or maybe 3 generations for it to be forgotten.
Argh!
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | INSPIRATIONAL | Tagged: @S Kent Troy, scholastic, scientific method | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
DISCOURAGING: US needs a leader that would just say “no”!
Wednesday, June 24, 2026When AI-Driven Deflation Collides With America’s Debt-Saturated Economy
by Nick Giambruno
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-06-08>>
*** begin quote ***
In other words, the US would need a leader who—at a minimum—returns the federal government to a limited Constitutional Republic, closes the 800 military bases abroad, ends entitlements, kills the welfare state, and repays a large portion of the national debt.
*** end quote ***
The current 1.2T$ budget deficit, added 121T+ national debt, and the guesstimated 200T+ in unfunded liabilities that our posterity will have to deal with is staggering. And, all the politicians and bureaucrats just keep spending along.
“Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.” –Herbert Hoover
“When in a hole, stop digging!” — old Wall Street maxim
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | DISCOURAGING | Tagged: internationalman.com, Nick Giambruno | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
INTERESTING: Do human brains synchronize during empathic connection?
Tuesday, June 23, 2026<<FROM TWITTER>>
<< EDITOR ADDED DATE 2026-05-09>>
https://x.com/TeeplesCY/status/2052951182025588797?s=20
Clint Teeples @TeeplesCY
*** begin quote ***
Someone praying for you in another building can change your brain in real time. There is a study that proves it.
Researchers at North Hawaii Community Hospital placed 11 people inside fMRI scanners, fully isolated. In a separate building, spiritual leaders who knew them personally sent focused intentions toward them at random two-minute intervals. The receivers had no way to know when. Their brains lit up at the exact moments the senders focused on them. Specific regions associated with attention and awareness activated on cue. The odds of this happening by chance were less than one in seven thousand.
Most people have never heard of this. Here are three more.
Hand-holding and pain. Researchers placed 22 couples under EEG caps. When the woman was in pain and her partner held her hand, their brain waves synchronized. The more empathy he felt for her, the more their brains coupled. The more their brains coupled, the more her pain decreased. Touch combined with focused care produced a measurable analgesic effect. The lead researcher got the idea while holding his wife’s hand during the birth of their daughter.
Two brains in shielded rooms. A Mexican neuroscientist named Jacobo Grinberg ran a series of experiments at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Two participants meditated together for 20 minutes. Then they were placed in separate electromagnetically shielded rooms more than 14 meters apart. One participant was shown 100 random flashes of light. The other, hooked to an EEG with no sensory contact of any kind, registered matching brain-wave responses one out of every four flashes. Pairs who had not bonded showed nothing.
Group prayer. Andrew Newberg at Thomas Jefferson University has spent more than two decades scanning the brains of praying nuns, meditating monks, and chanting Sikhs. His imaging work shows a consistent pattern. The frontal lobes activate. The parietal lobes quiet. The effect amplifies in groups. Brains in shared prayer entrain to one another the way two pendulums swinging in the same room eventually fall into the same rhythm.
These studies measure what physically happens to the human nervous system when people focus caring attention on each other, in the same room or at a distance. The findings are consistent across labs, methods, and decades.
The basic finding, that human brains synchronize during empathic connection, is now mainstream neuroscience. Newberg alone has published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers.
People have been doing this for thousands of years and calling it prayer. Christians alone offer a window into the variety. Latter-day Saints kneel as families. Catholics pray the rosary. Protestants join hands in prayer circles.
What is actually happening when you pray? On the imaging, something measurable. On the EEG, something synchronized. On the pain scale, something diminished.
Prayer works.
*** end quote ***
Never heard of this before.
Like most of the “factoids” that cross the inet on XTwitter, Book of Faces, or other social media, I have no first hand knowledge of it’s “truth”.
YMMV
— 30 —
Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Tagged: @TeeplesCY, Catholics, Clint Teeples, Latter-day Saints, Protestants | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj
Reinke Faces Life 
You must be logged in to post a comment.