Know-it-Owls
AVIATION:
★ Piloting description:
★ American Airlines Flight 191: You would think that nothing more could be written about flight 191, one of the most tragic (and preventable) accidents in the history of aviation, but like too many front-page news stories, there is an untold fact that contradicts the published ones… My comment is very personal. I used that flight on a regular basis to commute from our Chicago to Santa Monica offices. A year before the 191 tragedy I was on that same afternoon flight when its left engine failed on takeoff… The captain shut it down, reversed the other engines and we came to a stop with the cabin full of exhaust fumes and the flight attendants literally hugging one another in the aisles. (The captain announced with typical nonchalance, that we had a “problem with a tire” and needed to return to the gate”). The cause of the flight that killed almost two hundred people was the separation of its left engine from the wing about three thousand feet down a twelve-thousand-foot runway. I still have nightmares (seriously, not literally) trying to understand why the pilot of this disastrous crash did not do what the pilot of my flight did.
★ Challenger Disaster: Nobody tells you that NASA scraped six thousand pounds of metal from the inside of the fuel tank that “came apart at the point of maximum compression” to order for this flight to lift its heaviest payload in its history.
★ Turbulence: Most people, including many pilots, think that wind movement causes “bumpy rides.” A more accurate description recognizes that at least half of it is caused by different air densities. The wings “ride” on air, and like a bicycle, when traveling over sand, then concrete, then grass, “bumps” occur. The density of air can change in very short distances, a cloud for example… you will always get a thump going in, and out.
BEHIND THE HEADLINES:
★ Embassy Takeover:
In 1980 the Iranian Embassy in London was sieged. The terrorists had machine guns and none of the captives were armed, so how did the confrontation end with all the terrorists dead and none of the captives injured? One of the great mysteries of all time, and one of the most clandestine. The only hint of how it happened was that most of the captives had burns on their wrists and abdomens. This miracle intervention was the result of the embassy being micro-waved… the metal guns of the terrorist were tossed down because they became too hot to hold. The intruders were all shot and their captors survived with only minor burns from their watches and belt buckles.
★ Panama Canal:
President Jimmy Carter deeded the Panama Canal to Panama effective the year 2000, The Republicans were irate, adamant that the canal was United States property. When George W. Bush took office, he ordered the U.S. military (Operation “Just Cause”) to invade the country and arrest Manuel Noriega on “drug charges”. It is a testimony to the CIA propaganda machine and the stupidity of people that anyone believed the takeover on this country had anything to do with drugs, instead of the canal.
Picasso’s famous “Old Guitar Player” is painted over at least two previous works, both of ladies… he reused former canvas, and now both can be seen through those cracks
CREDIT CARDS: “The Plastic Mafia”
How can the credit card companies violate the usury laws of all 50 states and the US Constitution? Every state had usury legislation that prohibit charging more than 10 per cent interest on loans, so how can these bank cards rob you of any amount they want… 40 per cent isn’t rare. Worse than charging illegally high interest, the plastic mafia also blatantly violates the U.S. Constitution Article 1, section 10: “only the federal government can create bills of money”. When you use a credit card with a “5% kickback” to purchase a $100 item your cost is $95, but use cash, you pay $100. Therefore, there are two monies, “credit cards” and “dollars”.
Why do we pay more than other people? The poor, minorities and those starting out are being raped because they cannot qualify to use credit card money – only dollars. So tragically, fifty million Americans pay $100 for groceries while those using credit cards pay only $95. And, if you add the credit card cost that the retailer includes in his price as a cost of doing business, the total is an outrageous 10 per cent. In effect, the plastic mafia steals at least $1,500.00 a year from those least able to afford it. That is so illegal. So immoral. So unconstitutional. So unfair. It is a class action lawsuit begging to be uncaged.
Why does Washington allow this criminal activity? The answer is so obvious that even that dumb rock can answer it. The Plastic Mafia owns Congress hook, line and page boy. The credit card companies admit to spending 100 million dollars a year lobbying congress and they still can report their profits at 50 per cent. (The average profit of United States’ companies is 7 per cent). If you use your credit card to send money to your favorite politician, the plastic mafia can pocket as much as 30 per cent of it.
Computational trickery & Inflationary: One example – if your statement due amount is $2,100 but it is only convenient to pay $2,000 of it, (believing that you will be charged interest only on the unpaid $100). Wrong, they charge you interest on the full amount. Businesses pass on the 2 to 5 percent cost of you using credit cards. (Formerly, some of them would list and add this fee on your bill, but today it is automatically built in as one of their costs of doing business). In other words, if credit cards were not prevalently used, the cost of living in the United States would decrease by as much as 5 percent!
“Recurring charges:” One of the most offensive violations of your rights by these banks is the fact that you cannot call them to remove those unethical, if not outright, illegal charges. Maybe you subscribed to Disney last year before the Super Bowl, but since then you have not watched anything on their channel or
maybe, decided you just didn’t want it anymore. Good luck trying to cancel. If you wish to “unsubscribe” you better have Einstein’s IQ and a lot of patience to find that illusive cancel button. And, due to our human nature, most of us won’t be aggressive because, “it’s only $9.58 a month”, or procrastinate “I’ll cancel it later”. (For many, that will be years).
The people of every state voted to stop unfair interest rates. Washington should comply with their mandate.
EDUCATION:
★ One step to make students better – not realizing the long-term consequences, teachers practice “negative” reinforcement. When papers and tests are graded almost all teachers include comments… . “Not this, not that, wrong, should have, didn’t… ”. The students evaluated this way will be conditioned to respond as grown-ups using those same negative responses. Instead, our educators should complement and emphasize what is right about our youth’s answers, not train them to evaluate in negative terms. “Most of what you answered is good stuff, especially the part about how good your teacher is… “
FAMOUS QUOTATIONS:
★ Alexander the Great and his commanders looked across the Tigris River, separating Europe and Asia, having just conquered the “known world.” Across the water they saw herds of elephants that no European had ever seen before. The thought that their horses might have to fight those monsters must have entered their minds… he is rumored as standing up and saying, “Gentlemen, we’ve conquered the world, haven’t we… so let’s go home”. (Before leaving, they captured a couple dozen of the elephants and took them back to Iran, where they kept them captive in a “Zoo”, the word we still use today). (Alexander the Great was tutored by Aristotle).
★ “If just one person is inspired to be a scientist after reading this book my effort will be worth it”. John Bryan Lewellen: From his 1955 book, The Boy Scientist
★ “You can’t step on someone’s toes unless they’re standing around”. Monty Montgomery
★ “Babies do not come with directions or a return policy”. David Wotring
★ “Dream big dreams, then put your pants on”. Elsie Harrington
FAMOUS LIES:
★ Neville Chamberlin, after ceding Sudetenland to Hitler just prior to the Second World War, “So that we can have peace in our time”.
★ Joseph Stalin, while millions of Russians were dying of starvation, “There is no famine”.
★ Arthur Goldberg, US Ambassador to the United Nations, 1967, “The United States will protect the territorial sovereignty of every nation in the Middle East. It became UN Resolution 242. Since then, Israel has annexed East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and has created “settlements” in the West Bank. In 2026 it has occupied the Gaza Strip, parts of Jordan and Lebanon.
★ Tobacco Companies, “Nicotine is not addictive or harmful”.
GOVERNMENT:
★ Both Max Weber (1864-1920) and Joseph Shumpeter (1883-1950) wrote that all governments, regardless of type, eventually evolve into “bureaucracies,” that in fact, the elected or self-appointed leaders would come and go, but the entities that they create to implement policies would remain and “govern” forever. There is little doubt that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI (forty-eight years, eight Presidents), was more powerful than the White House. Further, there are a lot of intelligent people who would argue that the Russian-Ukraine and U.S.-Iran wars were not Putin or Trump decisions, rather they were created by “military-industrial establishment,” which Thomas Edison and General Dwight Eisenhower warned would happen.
Let’s not be bashful… if it weren’t for the “no budget, no oversight” CIA, the United States would not have fought more wars (10) in the last sixty years than all the prominent countries of the world together!
★ Assassination Unlawful: Executive Order 12333, 1981, decrees that it is against the law for any United States government official to order a foreign leader assassination. It amended it for clarification, “targeted killings” are exempt.
★ The “Freedom of Information Act” was signed into law in 1966. Its intent was to make all government activities “transparent” to the public. However, our corrupt politicians immediately adopted a “redactions” policy which allow them to blot out anything they deem important to national (their) security.
★ Government Debt: To stop its government from overspending, Oregon voters unanimously enacted a law that required their governor to submit a balanced budget. In 2008 the governor complied by sending the legislature a balanced budget which would spend only what was collected. Days later however, she submitted an “amended” budget which borrowed a billion dollars. (If I had been the Attorney General I would have arrested her and put her in jail.)
★ Out of sight: I am sure it won’t surprise you, but it is an atrocious fact… the U.S. Government has billions of “OFF THE BOOKS” expenditures.
★ Armageddon spelled, “ U S D E F I C I T ”. Our politicians won’t even mention the national debt. It’s well over the 35 trillion… maybe double that. Gutless and shameless, they will continue to “devalue the dollar” to delay the day of reckoning.
★ Borrowing pit: How does our government continue to borrow so much money and force, not only itself, but everyone else, to pay staggering interest? Politicians may be dishonest, despicable human beings, but they are not dumb or shy in deceiving the voters. They use inflation to lessen the actual cost and force the banks to charge the public higher interest rates so that they can enjoy lesser ones.
★ Death ride: whoever introduced the bill that created the “bicycle on the right” law should be indicted for murder. I personally knew two bicyclist, Bob Petrulis’ wife and a promising high school student living on Friday Harbor, Washington… both killed “obeying the law” by riding their bikes in the right lane. Only an idiot politician can’t understand the dynamics… if the rider pedals on the left facing traffic he or she can see and avoid, not so riding with two-ton predators at your back. This insane law must be repealed immediately!
★ Her lips were moving: Only a politician would introduce a huge spending bill and brag, “In the interest of protecting the public I have also allocated a billion dollars in my bill to pay off some of the national debt. Really, how clever… borrow a billion to pay off a billion of debt. If that’s such a great idea, let’s borrow thirty-eight trillion and pay off the entire national debt. (I probably shouldn’t have said that for fear that it will become the campaign motto of some candidate running for office).
★ Economic Development Zones: Welcome to the i.e.… “Ford”, “IBM”, “Amazon” Economic Development Zone – signs entering a designated area from every direction. Large companies would be assigned them – like the south side of Chicago to co-ordinate with local business, governments, schools, churches, etc. to diminish crime, promote education and economic development. If I were the President of a company so assigned, I would want to make a difference – and assign some my most intelligent people to help improve that community.
★ Unemployment Agency: Instead of inefficient government agencies paying lines of unemployed people, I recommend that for every 50 employees a company has (or contracts) they must “pay” their average salary to an unemployed person. That person would be required to at least show up and “reside” in the confines of their workplace, though the company would be encouraged to train and inspire that individual to make some contribution, but not required. Second time under gov
HEALTH:
★ Following are examples where the profit motive and lack of doctor focus can result in unfortunate medical expense.
★ Do not use ice for muscular injury. After a million years of evolution the human body generates heat to promote healing, not cooling. Swelling is the result of the body’s emergency repair team surrounding the site to assist, just like ambulances and tow-trucks surround an automobile accident to provide help. Icing slows the blood “highway” that facilitate the healing process.
★ Dieting starts at the store.
★ Free radicals are the human body’s exhaust resulting from food converted to energy like the exhaust gasoline produces to propel cars. They are not “free”. They are “radical”. In fact, they are killers that our body extracts from our bloodstream, usually effectively until mid-life. The reason that they are lethal is because they contain single oxygen cells, which our chemistry teachers told us were very eager to combine indiscreetly with other atoms or molecules. Unfortunately, they are ruthless and often destroy those they “marry”.
★ Antioxidants are the solution, along with drinking a lot of water (most people past fifty don’t drink enough H2O). Antioxidants are molecules willing to join with those lonely Oxygen atoms without ill effect. Recommended sources, blueberries (you can add them to oatmeal every morning if you are not fond of their taste), broccoli, apples, beans, greens, and vitamin C (Lynus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner said that taking three thousand cc of this vitamin would result in less illness and the total avoidance of cancer).
★ Coffee is not good for you. Contrary to the reports (protests) of Joe’s user friends and profiteers, it is unhealthy. Not only lacking in sufficient quantity of nourishment necessary for good health, but one or two cups in the morning result in skipping the most important meal of the day. Those cups of one of the most addictive chemicals known to man inform your brain that you are “fueled, powerful, and ready for the day.” Not true. Your brain has been lied to. Your stomach may be satiated, but it is void of calories and of any value to good health. (If you are a caffeine defender, put a little in your mouth and witness your heart’s immediate reaction).
★ The Covid Vaccine: I am no fan of pharmaceutical companies, but this is the one positive story that should be headlining the Covid era. So many untruths have been written about this tragic epidemic that it is hard to believe that Pfizer should be awarded a Nobel Prize for their life saving contribution to humanity. Albert Boula, their CEO, is given the credit for inventing and manufacturing its ninety per cent effective vaccine in an amazing short time. However, most people credit Dr. Kathrin Jansen, an executive of Pfizer who was friends of Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci in Germany, as the real impetus. These German biologists were experimenting with “phony DNA” molecules that could fool the human body. They contacted Jansen at Pfizer and told her that they could create antigens to prevent covid cells from getting a stronghold. They were a small lab without money and hoped that Pfizer might fund them. Jansen convinced the Pfizer Board of Directors to commit one billion dollars. Not only was Pfizer the first with a vaccine, but it was also the most effective, and… contrary to all the naysayers, it couldn’t have any side effects, because it was not a “human” molecule, but in effect, a “plastic” replica! This engineered “DNA” is revolutionizing the pharmaceutical world and is the most important weapon to prevent or fight disease since Penicillin was invented.
★ Dizziness: Nobody is going to warn you or tell you why but using Sonic or vibrating toothbrushes will cause you to be dizzy, especially after age fifty. This disorientation is the result of your inner ear’s fluid to “splashing” and/or “vibrating” because of your toothbrush’s oscillation. If that fluid is jostled it sends erratic signals to your brain causing “spatial disorientation”. Most of the dental and medical world haven’t figured this out yet, so if you have these symptoms, be careful of any other diagnosis or remedy.
HEADLINES:
★ “Dewey defeats Truman: Chicago tribune, 1948
HOAXES:
★ Biggest hoax ever? Our government was so stupid that it believed that the financial world would crash because computers couldn’t handle the year changing to 2000. I had tears in my eyes when I received a written demand from the FAA that required I sign a document that indicated that my company was complying. You just cannot exceed that stupidity. First, because computers calculate the year using the date of Christ’s death as its baseline, which is a constant and an infinitesimally small number for a computer to process. Second, the government was terrified that our banks would all fail. But think about it for a second… how many thirty-year mortgages had they written in the previous twenty-nine years? Probably millions of them, each amortized through 2001 without exception. If stupidity was a star, this would be a whole galaxy.
★ Heat Index: Likely one of the biggest hoax’s ever, if the temperature is 35, but your meteorologist says the index is 30, only an idiot would feel compelled to add antifreeze to his car.
INCOMPITENCE:
★ IBM:
Big Blue blew it. The stockholders of IBM should be outraged. IBM created the PC, DOS and some of the best software in the world (PDS, BMS and Topview – likely software you never heard of…). They bought Lotus and instead of promoting 123 they allowed, if not encouraged, Microsoft to literally duplicate and call it Excel. WHY? IBM recruited the best brains in our country, an army of intellects, but led by Generals whose pants and certainly egos were bigger than their brains. IBM’s Armonk asses thought they were too smart to deal with “little computers”. Their shareholders lost billions in dividends.
★ Sears:
Management nightmare: The stupidity of Sears leadership was a forest compared to IBM’s tree. In 1886 Richard Sears founded his namesake company to sell watches (he was a telegraph operator, and time being of the essence, he designed a watch just for his fellow morse code operators). Sears became the largest retailer in the world selling via catalog… logic, and a high school diploma, should have been all that was necessary to realize that instead of using a catalog to list its products, it would evolve and do so on the internet. And even when Amazon was in its infancy what did Sears do. Less than NOTHING. Sears airplanes were based on Midway Airport on the south side of Chicago. Their President lived on the north side. That arrogant ass hired helicopters to fly him to Midway so he need not deal with a one-hour drive. Sears management not only missed this obvious trillion-dollar opportunity but also destroyed the company.
INTERNET:
★ Government built it with your money. Why do you pay to use it?
★ What are cookies and why does the internet want to serve them to you? Because they sell your preferences and profile to people who want to know what your buying habits are.
MOMS:
★ My mother carried me as an embryo for nine months and experienced pain no man has ever endured giving me life. For the next eighteen years she nourished me with food and education as well as protecting me from harm and disease. She taught me to tie shoelaces, make beds, wash dishes, brush my teeth and forced me to wear warm clothing during the winter months. She coddled me when I hurt and nursed me when I was sick. In return for all that she asked me to wipe my shoes when I came in doors and made me promise never to lie, always respect the law, be kind to others, and earn my own way. There was also a man in my life that I never saw, never heard from and to my knowledge never provided me with a thing. Instead, he impregnated a virgin, killed all the children in Egypt to prove to the Pharoh that his god was more powerful. Then he allowed fifty million people in the second world war to be killed – and none of those were the soldiers. Innocent deaths did not just occur then, today babies, who haven’t had the chance to do wrong, die from the worst imaginable diseases and seniors writhe in pain from loneliness, Alzheimer’s and demeaning, horrific diseases regardless of the quality of their lives. And death to humans is nothing in comparison to the slaughter of millions and millions of totally innocent animals. Half of them feed the masses and the other half (maybe more like billions) as the result of the destruction of their habitats and massacres on roads. I’ll never reconcile this paradox, but I’ve changed my blessing at mealtimes. Instead of praising the king of kings, I now take a moment to thank my mother.
MYTHS:
★ People who promote myths are seeking an audience and want money.
★ Kennedy Assassination: There was a twenty-two-hour mock trial created by London Weekend Television, with famous attorneys Vicent Bugliosi and Gary Spence, in 1986. It included a real federal judge and a Dallas jury. If you watch it, you’ll never doubt again that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole perpetrator.
★ Moon landings: Myth Busters completely debunks the naysayers by reflecting a light signal from Earth to one of the mirrors left by either Apollo 11, 12 or 13.
PRIVACY:
★ Phone: Your personal information is about as secret as the Pacific Ocean. What happened to the promise of “no advertising” when hand-held phones became available. Sorry folks… your phone conversations, searches, downloads, photographs, even your location – everything on it – and near it, is recorded. Those controversial data centers that are in the headlines are being built to store your personal information. All of it! It is then sold to advertisers – and shared with government agencies. All of them!
★ Computers: Your checkbook, your letters, your confidential files. Yep, someone else has total access to all your information as soon as you go on-line.
★ Television: Most TV’s have cameras built in. Oh yes, you don’t want to do that funky dance in front of your TV. It won’t be your dance instructor watching.
★ Email: That too… you may as well post it on Main Street.
PUBLICATIONS: (Two of Don’s books on Amazon, plus one of his original cartoons)
RELIGION:
★ The original bible was compiled in the Greek language about 300 years after Christ died.
★ The King James edition, which is the most prevalent version read today, had twenty-two chapters removed from the previous version around the year 1300ad.
★ The Mormons preach that “your body belongs to God” making it sacrireligi0us to abuse it.
★ Priest were allowed to be married until around the year 1200ad. The Vatican then prohibited them to do so to prevent “church” property loss due to divorces. Many of the crusades were led by the Pope’s sons.
REMEDIES:
★ Did you know that Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) is a fantastic blood stain remover (when it touches blood it rips its molecules apart turning it into water (H2O) and oxygen gas (O2).
SCIENCE:
★ Inventions:
“Inventing is ten per cent inspiration, ninety per cent perspiration.” Thomas Edison (instead of “perspiration”, maybe “trial and error.” would be more accurate).
CORIOLIS:
SPACE EXPLORATION:
★ Does exploring the cosmos benefit humanity, or would the money be better spent on housing and feeding the poor?
★ Is, “we must beat Russia and China to get there” a good argument?
SPORTS:
★ To play in the NFL, you need three things: skill, an agent – and a druggist.
TRUST:
★ People often say, “you can trust me”. But the sad truth is, everyone will do exactly – and only, what is in their best interest.
TRUTH:
★ Truth, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder.
★ What a shame to know that there will be two histories written: one by the republicans, the other, by the democrats.
★ When I was a boy doing carpentry with my father, I measured a “2by4” that wasn’t two inches by four inches. I told him we had a bad board, but he raised his eyebrows and said, “get used to it son, they’re all that way”.
★ It is hard to argue with the saying that “The moral history will be written by the victor,” until you learn that Hitler is the one who said it… and his idol? George Washington.
WELFARE:
★ Noble? – or perpetuating?
★ Food stamps: If you feed a million hungry people today, you should anticipate that you will then need to feed the next generation of twenty million, and eventually to an amount impossible to sustain… therefore, the question is… is it more humane to starve today’s hungry or potentially a billion in the future?
WHEELS:
★ If the invention of the wheel is evidence of a society’s intelligence, then Europe and Asia had the highest IQs.
WHY ARE PEOPLE SO UPTIGHT?
★ Why the angst? Regardless of all the wonderful, beautiful things in our modern world people seem more up tight than ever. No previous generation has ever had it as good as we do. It’s easy to blame the media headlines for their existential threats or the advertisements that life is meaningless without their product. What makes it worse is TV is supposed to be our time to relax and recharge, from work, the kids, the traffic… wow, even the weathermen don’t say “storm” anymore, instead they warn us of the imminent, terrifying “vortex from the north” knocking at the front door.
★ Ad Nauseam: If the lobbyists who bribe our politicians had their way, we’d have thirty minutes of ads per hour, instead of the suffocating fifteen minutes we have at present.
★ Choices: The computer revolution gave us miracles, but it also changed the “rule of choices”. That age-old, ad hoc rule, do not offer more than a few options, has been completely ignored. AOL initially dominated the ISP world (Internet Service Provider) but went out of business because it confused people with too many options. Imagine driving at 60 mph and a huge road sign overhead reads, “American, exit A, Delta, exit B, Braniff, exit C, Frontier, exit D, Air Canada, exit E, and Spirit, exit F. That’s exactly what Dallas Ft Worth Airport signage said until hundreds of accidents and road jams forced them to replace them with several big signs with just two or three options. Why? Most people’s brains cannot process more than three or four options efficiently, certainly quickly. It short circuits. The computer era changed the amount of options that were put in front of our eyes, our society for at least a hundred years offered two most often, sometimes three maybe four. IBM and 3M did extensive research that confirmed two significant facts.
★ The Five Second Rule.” People will look at a page (or sign) to decide whether to continue or not in five seconds.
★ The more options the brain has, the more anxiety: Smart signage, and any group of choices, like the entrance to DFW Airport, will offer only a couple at a time. It amazes me how this elementary brain function is ignored by intelligent people…