Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Trailer Mods


It's spring time in the  Rockies time for mods

Trailer work continues lowering the axles to gain more ground clearance
 With my NEED to stay in more remote areas



Oops
I have gone up 4 sizes of tires and wheels from a 205 75r 14 size tire to a 225 75r 15 tire with new wheels, as you can see, I will need to move the axles again so the tires will not rub.

Now ...  waiting for the weather to clear,  more work will continue..






Sunday, April 26, 2015

Things are a changing


Rambling thoughts on rainy spring day...

For those who think change happens to everyone else ......


Disruptive technology :
is a tiresome cliche, as every Twitter/ AirBnB/ Uber/ Skype/etc. wannabe start-up declares itself disruptive.
 That the vast majority of self-congratulatory start-ups are over-hyped and derivative should not distract us from the larger reality that some technologies do in fact disrupt how things are done.

Fossil-fueled mechanization, for example, turned an overwhelmingly rural farming society into a highly urbanized services-dominated economy.

In the more recent past, CraigsList single-handedly turned the newspaper industry from an immensely profitable license to print money (via costly classified ads) to a struggling sector with an unclear future.

Digital file-sharing turned the $14 billion music industry into a $7 billion industry.

And now driverless vehicles are poised to disrupt the taxi and trucking sectors in ways few predicted.

The core idea of Disrupt or be Disrupted is that every sector and industry that avoids being disrupted just becomes a fatter target for disruption.

Higher education is a prime example. The industry has successfully staved off disruption by maintaining a lock on credentialing/accreditation--the famous signaling value of a college diploma, which verifies nothing about what the student learned or knows.

Now that student loan debt is $1.3 trillion and the administrative bloat of higher education can no longer be obscured, the industry is becoming a fatter, juicier target for massive technological disruption by the day.

As I outlined in my book The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy, it is not that difficult to lower costs by 90% and improve the actual education process.

Employers should receive more than an increasingly worthless signal--they should be offered an accreditation of each individual's actual skills and knowledge. This is self-evident, but impossible in the current cartel-state arrangement.

Healthcare is another sector with bloated costs and protected fiefdoms that is ripe for fundamental disruption. Reductions of 50% or more that lead to better overall health do not require whizbang science fiction advances; simply eliminating the paperwork and cartels and making patients responsible for their care and the costs of their treatments would be enough to unleash a disruptive revolution.

What few in these protected industries dare admit is the state/cartel cost structures are now so burdensome, the nation can no longer afford these services.Healthcare has risen from 5% of GDP to 19%. The more burdensome and intractable the systemic costs, the greater the gains to be reaped from disrupting the status quo.

The Military-Industrial/National Defense Complex is another sector ripe for massive disruption and reduction of costs. Compare the troubled $1 trillion F-35 aircraft program (which is increasingly looking like the most expensive weapons system failure in human history) with increasingly effective and cheaper drones: A Drone Has Never Linked Up With a Refueling Tanker Until Now.

In other words, protecting unaffordable, ineffective fiefdoms and cartels will be a losing strategy in the next 20 years. These costs will come down, one way or another, either by the erosion and collapse of the funding sources or by tech-enabled socio-economic disruptions.

That leaves everyone depending on any existing sector/industry that hasn't yet been turned upside down with a choice: either join the disruptors or prepare to be disrupted.

A little more along these lines ..

The Old Models of Work Are Broken

Any employer who pays humans to do work that can be automated or performed elsewhere for a fraction of the cost will soon go broke as competitors eat his/her lunch. Employers that want to survive recessions and competition can only pay for the value their employees create in the marketplace. Consumers don't pay for blue sky, and so neither can employers.

The government is currently immune to such pressures, but since the state is itself dependent on taxes skimmed from profits and wages, the erosion of the old model means the state's revenues are doomed to shrink right along with profits and wages.

No sector will be immune to the changing nature of work and value creation.

 



Here is an example of the old guard trying to hold on to the old ways, and keep their control.


Great! Now you never really “own” your car either

GM thinks that because they hold a copyright to some software, that somehow gives them ownership over what you do with the copy you legally purchased with the car itself. Once that purchase is concluded, the vehicle owners should be seen to have given up any proprietary interest in the single vehicle you bought. But thanks to copyright and Section 1201, that’s an issue that faces “uncertainty.” And that’s a problem.
From the comments section;  “The logical next step is to disallow the use of the car without a software-license from the manufacturer, rendering most cars unsellable on the second hand market without paying large sums to the car-maker.  Further steps: yearly license payments to operate your vehicle & payments per designated allowed driver.”
Here’s the GM statement:
Proponents incorrectly conflate ownership of a vehicle with ownership of the underlying computer software in a vehicle…. Although we currently consider ownership of vehicle software instead of wireless handset software, the law’s ambiguity similarly renders it impossible for Proponents to establish that vehicle owners own the software in their vehicles (or even own a copy of the software rather than have a license), particularly where the law has not changed.

First, EMP can knock out your car. Now, this. When were computers first put in cars?  Mid 1970’s?  I wouldn’t be surprised if one day there isn’t a huge demand for pre-1975 vehicles.  Really, who needs this shit?

 

Friday, April 17, 2015

Between Seasons = Projects


In the Mobile lifestyle there are times where the weather extremes make it difficult to enjoy the outdoors every day.

This year we have left the snowbird season in the middle of March returning to the Rocky Mountain West to prepare for the spring hunting and summer fishing seasons.

We have taken advantage of this "down time" to do modifications to the apartment on wheels, upgrades to the equipment for communication,  (cell phone, internet, computers) so much so, I need to keep a list so as not to forget them before leaving from the home base..














One of the major upgrades this year is the installation of larger wheels and tires.
Going from 14 inch wheels & tires to 15 inch wheels & tires that increase the carrying capacity by approx. 1000 lbs each.
A big improvement, to eliminate, flat tires every 1000 miles.














Along with the larger tires we are raising the trailer (lowering the axles) by 2 1/2 inches to enable us to access more remote areas we love to be in










The boat is not immune to upgrades either.
A custom cover sewn up by Rusty's Originals Upholstery will help keep the boat cleaner on the dusty dirt roads, and keep it dry during the rain storms. 









A little before / after photos..










During the trips to Denver we find a few unique things to notice while setting at the zillions of traffic lights .. Great art work on this truck









A weather delay happening

So far over 2.5 inches of rain over the
last 2 days..
High temps in the 40"s
Wind gusts around 40 mph




Charlie, Libby and Cody pass the time with their new favorite treat bolo's from Costco















Looking forward to BBQ Season

Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Guaranteed Financial Security Is A Fantasy





During our travels we meet a large majority of older people that are convinced that the Gov. or pension check that enables their lifestyle will never end, and to try to relate to them that nothing in life is guaranteed .. well that is just preposterous.

So with this article maybe some will try and look outside if the perfect little box the propaganda machine has constructed for them.


Guarantees based on extracting higher taxes, borrowing trillions of dollars and creating trillions more out of thin air only guarantee eventual systemic implosion.

It is difficult for those living through tectonic social and economic shifts to recognize the passing of one era and the emergence of a new era. We are clearly in such a tectonic shift, yet it is slow enough and uneven enough that those who hope the old era will somehow endure despite the erosion of its foundations can find evidence to support their beliefs.

One such cherished belief is the faith that financial security can be guaranteed. This faith has two components:

1. The faith that risk can be identified and managed to the point it cannot disrupt the payment of promised pensions, benefits, yields, etc.

2. The faith that the system can pay what has been promised by one means or another.

If tax revenues are inadequate, taxes can always be raised. If tax revenues fail to rise, then the money needed to pay the promised pensions, benefits, etc. can be borrowed. If the money cannot be borrowed, then it can simply be created out of thin air by central banks or printed by government treasuries.

Before the advent of high finance, lowering risk could only be achieved by spreading the risk over a large populace. To lower the risk to individuals that their house would burn down in an accidental fire, insurance was sold to 1,000 homes. If one or two of the 1,000 homes burned down each year, the insurance could pay the claims and still build up reserves for future claims.

But if a conflagration burns down all 1,000 homes, the insurance is overwhelmed; the guaranteed coverage is rendered worthless.

The creation of a volunteer (or tax-supported) fire brigade will also lower the risk that an accidental fire could spread. But once again, such a brigade can only mitigate very limited fires; a second fire or a windstorm would exceed the capacity of the brigade to extinguish multiple fires.

The faith in guaranteed security is actually a faith that there will be no consequences from borrowing or printing enormous sums of money, and no possible risk to the system that cannot be anticipated and mitigated with some fancy financial footwork.

Is this faith reality-based? We know that borrowing immense sums of money does have consequences: interest must be paid out of future income, reducing the income that can be consumed or invested, and dependence on borrowed money creates moral hazard: rather than make difficult trade-offs, the borrower just borrows more money.

Creating money out of thin air is also not consequence-free. Fancy financial footwork can mask the consequences of creating money to pay promised pensions, benefits, etc., but eventually the reality that creating money does not create wealth intrudes on the fantasy that if tax revenues are insufficient, and borrowing has limits, then we can guarantee incomes, pensions, benefits, etc. by creating money out of thin air.

Those dependent on the promises made in the previous era will support any policy that "extends and pretends" the illusion that financial security can be guaranteed, regardless of seismic shifts in the natural and financial economies.

The irony of "extend and pretend" is these policies only push the system to extremes that guarantee systemic collapse. The more we avoid facing the intrinsic insecurities generated by tectonic shifts, the more we hasten the sudden implosion of old systems pushed beyond their limits.

Real security arises from the constant volatility, friction and insecurity of experimentation, adaptation and dissent. Guarantees based on extracting higher taxes, borrowing trillions of dollars and creating trillions more out of thin air only guarantee eventual systemic implosion.

Put another way: spreading the risk of a house fire amongst the 1,000 homeowners does not actually lessen the risk of a conflagration burning down the entire town.

Link to story

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Smart Meters Explode

Since we make our own power for our needs in the "apartment on wheels" I found this story about smart meters quite interesting.

At least so far they haven't taxed sunshine in this country "yet"
(check out Spain, they are trying to do it) ( and Arizona taxes grid tied power solar)

Melissa Melton
The Daily Sheeple
April 1st, 2015
Reader Views: 686

 Truck Hits Utility Pole, Thousands of People’s Smart Meters Explode

smartmeterNo, this is not an April Fool’s joke.

Perhaps smart meters aren’t the safest, nor the “smartest” idea to put on people’s homes after all.

Despite the fact that these meters have been known to burst into flames from time-to-time, and aside from the fact that they continuously expose occupants to electromagnetic radiation, and despite the fact that they can be used to continually collect data on everyone who lives in a home (the newer versions can send signals from individual outlets in a home every 15 seconds to be later broken down with disaggregation algorithms)… now this.

A truck crashed into a utility pole in Stockton a few days ago, causing a power surge that ultimately resulted in some 5,000 smart meters on people’s homes exploding, leaving all of them without power.

From CBS:
Neighbors in the South Stockton area described it as a large pop, a bomb going off, and strong enough to shake a house.

“The neighbor across the street, his meter doesn’t look as bad but his receptacles are all blackened.” said Brad Abernathy.

PG&E says a dump truck crashed near its Alpine substation on Arch Road. When the truck hit the utility pole, the top wire fell onto the bottom wire, creating a power surge.

So now, instead of just having to worry about continual data collection and surveillance, or the negative health effects of electromagnetic frequency exposure, or the potential for a random house fire, there’s also the possibility of a truck randomly hitting a pole and causing your smart meter to straight up explode, also damaging your home and leaving you and yours without power for at least a week, maybe longer until it can be replaced… to possibly happen all over again?

How “smart” is this smart grid again?

Link to original story

 


Neighbors in the South Stockton area described it as a large pop, a bomb going off, and strong enough to shake a house.
“The neighbor across the street, his meter doesn’t look as bad but his receptacles are all blackened.” said Brad Abernathy.
PG&E says a dump truck crashed near its Alpine substation on Arch Road. When the truck hit the utility pole, the top wire fell onto the bottom wire, creating a power surge.


No, this is not an April Fool’s joke.
Perhaps smart meters aren’t the safest, nor the “smartest” idea to put on people’s homes after all.
Despite the fact that these meters have been known to burst into flames from time-to-time, and aside from the fact that they continuously expose occupants to electromagnetic radiation, and despite the fact that they can be used to continually collect data on everyone who lives in a home (the newer versions can send signals from individual outlets in a home every 15 seconds to be later broken down with disaggregation algorithms)… now this.
A truck crashed into a utility pole in Stockton a few days ago, causing a power surge that ultimately resulted in some 5,000 smart meters on people’s homes exploding, leaving all of them without power.


Truck Hits Utility Pole, Thousands of People’s Smart Meters Explode