What's In The World?

    To some the world includes the Atomic Level.  That is a level that exists below our sensory capacity.  Does it exist?  Looking at existing nuclear energy generating facilities or two missing cities in Japan, one would reasonably conclude that it does.  Would this acceptance allow for a level of existence below the atomic level, commonly referred to as the Nano level or quantum physics?  I think it does.  Would this line of reason allow for a level of existence below the Nano level?  Possibly it would.  Then why not a level of existence larger than the one we experience?  I often refer to our universe as possibly part of a living thing.  Could there be intelligent life residing in the atomic level of our bodies?  If there were, would your body not be the universe to them?  Our current science community spends a great deal of time looking at the smaller levels of existence, but very little time searching for a larger level.  I suspect ego is guiding the research.

   Einstein once said “I believe two things are infinite.  The universe and human stupidity and I’m not sure about the universe.”  I think he was bitterly saying, I gave the human race a window into a different level of existence and they used it to blow each other up more efficiently. Humans may yet use this knowledge to end humankind.  There is something to be said in favor of his observation.  I will say it.  “Perhaps we humans are better off if we operate only in our limited natural perceived level of our world.”  I can see that this is an ignorant point of view, but nuclear plants produce nuclear waste and perhaps “ignorance is bliss.”  Ignorance obviously has never failed Donald Trump or thousands of religious leaders.  The teachings of a God that created the universe as we know it in six days, six thousand years ago and rested on the seventh, or that the creator of the universe fathered a child with a human mother goes to prove Einstein’s theory of human intelligence.  If you are a True Believer or a MAGA (Morons Against Government, Association) person, I apologize and hope that I haven’t offended you.

   So you are reading it in this blog.  Perhaps there are infinite levels of existence both above and below our level and that we should stick to our own level.  That is what we are here for.

Cheers, Old Buz       4/13/2024

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

Purpose of Life:

“Your life is a university for the wisdom of your eternal soul.” - Old Buz (If you are but a high school graduate, substitute the words high school for the word university.)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Patent Rights & You

   Perhaps you have never invented or created anything in your life and believe that patent rights have nothing to do with you.  I have found that belief can be very wrong.  Our government created and enforces patent rights.  The foundation of those rights is the belief that if someone has the creativity and perseverance to create a new product or system to benefit the lives of others that they have the sole right to financially benefit from their creation.  That seems fair.  This right is bestowed on both people and corporations.  Patent rights are designed to benefit all and reward the creator of the idea, while improving our quality of life.

   How could you argue with that business concept?  Easy.  The laws that guide patent enforcement are easily corrupted and at a great cost to society.  I think that I am safe to say that whenever corruption can be used to create great wealth for the greedy, it will be.  Would a pharmaceutical company take an action that will ultimately take Medicare away from you, your children and take the long term income away from them?  Oh, yes they would.  Corporate decisions are more and more influenced by quarterly profit reports, rather than long term benefits to the corporation or the society it serves. 

   My favorite example of this abuse to society is being done to you and me by a group of pharmaceutical companies, but the abuse is available to all companies.  Watch for it in your cost of living.  My cost of living is primarily paid by Medicare to AbbVie Corporation (CEO, Richard Gonzales).  You see, I have CLL (Chronic Lymphocyte Leukemia).   The disease would have killed me in 2019 without the AbbVie supplied drug, Imbruvica (ibrutinib).

   A quick history of the pharmaceutical scam would be: Celera Pharmaceuticals developed and patented ibrutinib.  During the FDA approval process, Pharmacyclics, a pharmaceutical company probably better able to manufacture and distribute the product, purchased the patent rights for three million dollars.  This figure is probably in line with the value of a lifesaving drug and the research and development required bringing it to fruition.  The next market transaction was a purchase of the patent rights by Johnson & Johnson (the baby powder folks) for nine hundred and seventy-five million dollars.  I have a hard time seeing the purpose of this transaction, other than giant profits through bilking the public for a lifesaving drug.  I would suspect that the next transaction exceeded J&J’s greatest expectations when they sold the rights to the drug to AbbVie for a whapping twenty-one billion dollars.  As you know, a million is a thousand thousands and a billion is a thousand millions.  So we are talking about a large purchase.  To give a better feel for the size of the purchase, a Japanese Corporation is currently negotiating the purchase of US Steel Corp. for $17.4 billion dollars.  So the Patent Rights enforced by our government must be of great value.  The basic purpose of any government enforced business law is to be a shield for its citizens, not a sword for the greedy.  This law is obviously being perverted.

   AbbVie is having the drug Imbruvica produced in China so there are no manufacturing jobs being created.  Medicare pays AbbVie $195.125.74 per year for my Imbruvica.  My portion of that charge in co-pay is about $3,000 per month, but I don’t have that money available, so I turned the drug down.  “If living were a thing that money can buy, then the rich would live and the poor would die …”      Then comes a phone call from a foundation offering to pay my co-pay.  I asked who funded this foundation and was told “the pharmaceutical manufacturers”.  This funding comes back to AbbVie when the drug is purchased by Medicare along with my co-pay.  This is a monstrous scam on Medicare and will end the program.

  An effective government patent protection law would protect the inventor/creator of the product, as intended.  A single purchase with protections also might be allowed if the marketing of the right allowed the purchase at a maximum of 20% over book value of the protection.  No patent rights to a third purchaser.  This is what your government would look like if it represented you.

Cheers, Old Buz        3/31/2024

“Our Planet can provide for human needs … but not for human greed.” – Mahatma Gandhi

 

20K Today

    

   This little blog reached twenty thousand reads today, March 24^th 2024.  It is read around the world.  Sixty-eight hundred reads in the US.   Sixty-four hundred reads in Singapore.   Eleven hundred reads in Russia.  Eleven hundred reads in Hong Kong.  A thousand reads in France.  The remaining nations have read it less than a thousand times each at this point in time.  I will attempt to increase these numbers in the future, but am proud of the blog right now.

  I do ask myself from time to time, “What is pushing the readership up?”  I try to write it as a Patriot of The Planet, trying not to view the world as a view from one nation state.  This seems to me to be a clearer picture of my environment.  I see myself as a member of no group, with the exception of humanity.  I try very hard to be unbiased.  I accept no sponsorship.  There is hopefully no dollar influence.

   There is a formula in most of my blog posts.  1. Try to find some program that is not functioning well, but is generally accepted.  2. Try to define the problem.  3. Look at alternative and perhaps novel solutions.  Pick a solution that gives the most benefits to the greatest number of people.  If personal greed is the primary driving force behind the action, I normally point this out and attack the status quo for the benefit of the many.

   If I were to try to describe my point of view I would use words like independent, agnostic, mostly liberal, reasonable, logical and in search of truth.  I try to use unbiased data.  The blog is written in America which means I can freely state my point of view with freedom from government interference.  For that I am thankful. 

Happy 20K Day, Old Buz

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

 

“Born an agnostic and with the help of GOD* will remain one.” – Old Buz

*GOD – an acronym (G.O.D.) for Grand Omnipotent DNA – The system (rules) guiding the Universe as researched by science. 

"Border Crisis"

   What is presently called a border crisis is actually a crisis in problem solving.  It is not an immigration problem.  It is actually a problem of economics south of that border.  Thousands of people are not walking a thousand miles with their families to live in The United States.  They are enduring this hardship in hope of improving the living conditions of their families.  They are in search of food and shelter (economic opportunities).  Survival!

   Today’s "border crisis" is an effect, not a cause.  If one attempts to cure an effect, rather than the cause, at best you have a short term solution.  We all know that, but pay little attention.  The people of Mexico, Central or South America would rather stay where they are than walk to The United States.  Their first language is the language of their homeland.  The weather is fine, unless challenged by flooding and Global Warming.  Move to the US and your language becomes the language of an economic underclass.  You or I would walk too if it were a matter of survival for you and your family.

   China built a wall to keep the world out centuries ago.  We have a political party led by a madman seeing this as today’s answer to a problem.  The other party is going along with them with a border security scheme.  The better answer is: cure the cause.  Build a strong economic engine in all of the land south of our border.  All of the resources are there.  All but for adequate capital and a real desire to improve living conditions for all.  The Maquiladora Program failed because it stood for US investment in cheap Mexican labor and profits taken back to the US.  A successful program would benefit the Mexican Nation and its people, driven by a reasonable return on investment.

  Here is my simple solution to the “crisis.”  Convince the two most famous idiot savants in the world (Elon Musk & Jeff Bezos) to combine their net worth of $294 billion (37^th annual Forbes list for 2023) and give birth to The Great American (both continents) Economy.  I refer to them as idiot savants because as wealth producers they are both genius, but for having any empathy for humanity, idiots.

   These two bozos could make the world a better place rather than participating in the childish competition to reach close to space (a competition that the US and the USSR entered into and completed over a half century ago).   When two financial monsters such as Musk & Bezos enter into such a contest, no one benefits. If instead they financed The Great American Economy, south of the border, they would forever have a place in history as great men.  They would be curing the cause of a problem not trying to lessen an effect.  If they continue on their present trajectory they will have the momentary fame of two wealthy dingbats.  If you are reading this Jeff and Elon … REPENT!  (and help good people stay home).

   The economic engine described could be powered solely by Solar Energy, Musk’s field.  The distribution of goods & services produced would be the Bezos expertise.  Solar powered American Continents would reverse climate change (with the aid of solar desalinization watered forests).  Simple.

Cheers, Old Buz          03/21/2024

 

The Solutions:

“There are no perfect solutions to the problems of our imperfect world.”

(But, it is nice to keep searching.) – Old Buz 

WET ROAD

 

 WET

ROAD

   I was driving home, about to cross a bridge, on concrete pavement.  It was raining.  To the right, just off the roadway, mounted on a temporary barricade, was a sign that read, “WET ROAD.”   How are you to react, when driving in the rain, when a sign by the road says that the road is wet?  My first reaction was a slight chuckle.  I had already reacted to the rain by driving a bit slower and allowing a greater gap between my car and the car in front of me.  I was aware that driving in the rain slightly reduces visibility and tire adhesion to the pavement.  Is there anyone driving a car that is not aware of that?  If such a clueless human exists, how would that road hazard sign effect their driving habits?  I would suspect very little.

   The government of Pima County, Arizona not only bought the signs, but they sent out road crews (in the rain) to set them up.  This expense comes out of my county property taxes as does education, public health and public safety.  We build and maintain the roads with those funds.  Someone or some folks decided to spend money to inform the public that the road is wet … when it is raining. 

 

Cheers, Old Buz    02/18/2024

iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

The Curse of Questioning

 

The Curse of Questioning

   Questioning the truth of the propositions being daily proposed to you will put you at odds with many of the folks that surround you.  You will find yourself living in a different world.  This morning a breakfast experience pointed this out to me.  The milk bottle proudly displayed:

 

                                    “2% Milk*

                        * 37% Less Fat Than Whole Milk,

            2% Milkfat, Vitamins A&D, Grade A

                        Pasteurized, Homogenized”

 

   A question entered my mind when I read the above on the milk bottle.  “What is the fat content of whole milk?”  Apply a little algebra and the answer is: whole milk fat = x/.63, or 3%.  That is to say, “When one buys 2% milk they are reducing their fat consumption from 3% of the glass of milk to 2% of it (A one percent reduction in fat consumption).  I believe that “37% Less Fat Than Whole Milk” gives the reader a different image.  This is an example of the questioning curse.  Asking questions will put you in a different reality.

   Successful advertising makes great use of this lack of questioning mind set.  A perfect example (mentioned in a previous blog) is Liberty Mutual Auto Insurance.  A successful ad of theirs tells you that you can customize your coverage to fit your needs and what you can afford.  I started buying auto insurance in 1956 and have been able to customize my auto policy coverage from every company I have ever insured with.  It’s not a competitive advantage.  They all offer it.  We know that … and yet Liberty has run this ad consistently on TV for over a decade.  Someone must think it is quite an advantage.  You can fool a hell of a lot of people for a very long time.  When money rushes in … truth rushes out.

   One of my favorite examples of not questioning what you see is not questioning how those two buildings that fell on 9/11, in the manner that they did, without the aid of demolition.  You saw that they fell nearly as fast as a freely falling body and did not tip, but landed directly on their foot print.  Would the steel beams that support the structure have allowed that?   My first question in viewing that event was where are the beams?  The government answer is they melted.  My question from that answer is, if an aircraft can fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii burning the same fuel, yet not melting its engines (made of pretty much the same material as the beams) how the hell did the beams disappear?  And if melting of beams was involved, how could they have melted evenly on all sides of the buildings at the same moment thereby allowing the building not to tip during its fall, but land on their own footprint?  One building would be a miracle.  Two would be impossible.  A little research on the happening, not simply using reason, reveals that kerosene (jet fuel) burns at 1800 degrees and the beams melt at 2800 degrees.  The beams did melt.  Yet they had to; requiring modern demolition.  If you would like to see samples of modern demolition, watch the demolition of Trump Tower in Atlantic City or the demolition of the second half of the townhouse tower in Surfside, Florida.  They have the same signature of demolition as the Twin Towers.

   When you see one ex-football coach Senator hold up the promotion of over 300 military officers, do you question what rule of the Senate allows that?  When you see the majority leader of The Senate not allow any bill passed by the opposing party’s majority House (over 300 bills) not brought to the floor for discussion or a vote, do you wonder if our democracy is functioning.  Both houses of congress must pass a bill before it is signed into law.

  If you would like some alone time, question the prevalent world view.

Cheers, Old Buz          1/12/2024

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

“He who knows all the answers has not considered all the questions.” – Confucius

"Presidential Immunity"

“Presidential Immunity”

   The Presidential Campaign for 2024 seems to be centering on Presidential Immunity.   Democracy seems to be secondary, but perhaps it is the basic issue.  The Ex-President, Donald Trump and his law team seem to be arguing that a president should not be held responsible for his illegal acts during or after his presidency.  The man Trump will run against in 2024, Joe Biden, would argue that a President is responsible for his acts in office and that the Legal Branch of the government is responsible for judging the legality of those acts.  Which position would best guide the Nation forward?  Only Hope will protect the Nation if Trump is elected.  I would rather rely on logic and history.

   Mr. Trump stated in 2015 that a “star” such as him could grab a woman by her private parts, if he found her appealing, and that he could shoot a person on 5^th Avenue, with impunity.  He demonstrated this attitude throughout his time in office and beyond.  It is his guiding light.  He said yesterday that a depression in our economy before the 2024 election would help his campaign.  It is true, but what will it do for you?  Are you going to vote for your and your neighbor’s benefit or for the benefit of Donald Trump?  That has always been the question.

   Mr. Biden has a history of favoring large dollar interests.  That is the guiding force of Our Government as well.  When as a senator he argued against Harvard professor, Elizabeth Warren, Joe was on the Bank’s Team and Elizabeth sided with The People.  Senator Biden won that Senate vote and later Senator Warren lost a Presidential Primary against Biden, while withdrawing from the election and throwing her support to Biden.  Gold Rules!  This putting dollars ahead of people is a small amount helpful to people (you).  But Trump’s philosophy of “Me First” (Presidential Immunity) is only possibly advantageous to you if you are a criminal.

   That is why Biden will win the independent vote.  Those folks are not locked in.  Hopefully their vote will be based on history, reason and a realistic view of the future.  The independent vote hopefully will carry the election.  The independents are a large (about a third of the electorate) and growing group.  They are fueled in their independence by the childish partisan acts of elected officials.  Joe Biden is not the perfect candidate.  His guiding stars are the economy and its people.  Joe is too old for the job.  Donald Trump is not the perfect candidate either.  His sole guiding star is Donald Trump.  His star isn’t very bright and he is also too old for the job.  Biden has empathy.  Trump is a pompous ass.  Who are you going to vote for?

   In the previous post I quoted Albert Einstein saying in satire, “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe.”  If Trump wins in November, Einstein has something there and perhaps a democracy is not the best way to govern.

Cheers, Old Buz           January 9^th, 2024

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

 

“It is far easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.”     

     - Mark Twain