Sunday, March 27, 2011
Federal Government's Lack of Commom Sense.
Hi Everyone: I read about today's blog about 6-8 weeks ago. But before I wrote about it, I had to do some investigation to make sure I had the facts. I was shocked and dismayed when I did learn the truth. How could the Feds do something so stupid without using any common sense. The bottom line is that the Feds actions will have an unknown effect on many businesses, people and advanced technology. The feds could have and should have had the foresight to determine that their actions would have far reaching consequences. What am I talking about? I am talking about helium. What is going on with helium you may be wondering? Well it seems that we are running out of helium and it is all the government's fault. Helium is not a naturally occurring element. Think about it, since helium is lighter than air, if it was found in nature, it would just float off into space and be gone. To verify the info that I had learned, I called a very good friend of mine, Greg. Greg, who just happens to be a highly respected chemical engineer, told me the honest truth about helium. First he informed me that helium is not found in nature, due to the fact that it would indeed float off into space and disappear. Oh, no, helium is made by a chemical reaction that can only be done in a highly specialized lab. Greg told me that it is a dangerous process but safe if done properly. There has never, ever been a helium processing accident. The problem Greg told me is that, President George Bush the first, under the guise of the EPA, banned the use of the second of three elements needed to make helium. The ban was to take effect in March of 2003 because of its cancer causing side affects. There was a long battle against banning the element but President George Bush the second, sided with his father and implemented the ban. Now 8 years later the helium shortage has begun. How will this affect you and me? Well first of all, you can forget about buying helium filled balloons. If you can buy it, it will probably cost you an arm and a leg just to fill up a medium size balloon. Helium is also the "glue" so to speak, needed in the process that makes titanium. Titanium is an extremely strong metal that it is also extremely lightweight. Numerous car manufacturers were getting ready (2015) to introduce new hybrid vehicles made entirely of titanium that could get up to 75mpg. The underlying factor of the superior high miles per gallon is due to using the lightweight material that could shave off 1,000+ lbs from a 2,400 lb car. Crash tests that compared titanium made cars and non titanium cars was a pleasant surprise. Titanium built vehicles fared far better then expected. The energy absorbing material was super strong and protected the passenger compartment better then ever before. That is huge and now it isn't going to happen. Greg also told me that helium was being tested in other applications. Most of the apps are top secret, but he did tell me about tires made with helium and then filling the tires with helium. Again, all of those innovations are dead in the water. By the way, Greg was laid off due to the ban. When push comes to shove, someone, somewhere, has to put their foot down and tell the truth. I am now that person and the truth of the matter that I have to say is, happy early april fools day. Gotcha? All of the above is complete and utter rubbish and totally untrue. FYI, helium is the second element on the periodic table. That means that it is the second most abundant element found in nature and it is naturally made. Next week I will return to more important lack of common sense issues. Til next week. Peter
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Common Sense Awards #3 and #4
Hi Everyone:
After a very long absence, since 8/2/09 to be exact, I have some good news to blog about while handing out my third and fourth Common Sense Awards. There are far too few people, businesses and politicians etc., that can or do think outside the box using good old common sense. In today's blog, the heroes so to speak, are not businesses, but a politician and an institution of higher learning who thought outside the box using common sense. Who would have thunk it? Not me. Go figure.
Drum roll please.....
Common Sense Award #3 (albeit a bit late) goes to New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie. This award is late, since it was only this past week that I read an article in my local Gannett paper about what New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie did. He signed legislation this past January, that allows school bus advertising. That makes New Jersey the sixth state that allows advertising on school buses. The others that permit the ads are: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas. FYI, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington are presently considering the idea.
But wait, are you thinking (like I did), about what kind of ads are on those school buses? In a nut shell, there are no ads about: beer, alcohol, bars, drug companies, tobacco, politics, religious organizations or anything sexual in nature. The school districts actually stay away from any ad that might be controversial. Advertising on 100 buses, on average, generate $500,000 over a four year period. Larger school districts will earn more, as will where the district is located may mean more money.
This is free extra money for the schools and is probably one of the best common sense, thinking outside the box, way to generate extra money, that is sorely needed in probably every school district in this country. A great idea in my book, to generate extra money.
Common Sense Award #4 goes to an institution of higher learning. But this story is about an airport and a college. What? Yes! In lower New York state, there is the Westchester County Airport, located in Harrison, New York, which is of course located in Westchester County. It is a highly used airport with a terrible parking problem. If you really, really want to park in the airport's covered parking lot, you should arrive about 60-90 minutes earlier then you normally would arrive. This is so you can go round and round and up and down, looking for that elusive vacant space.
Located about 5-10 minutes from the airport is Purchase College. The college is now allowing parking for airport customers for $5 per day and that includes help with your luggage and a shuttle ride to the airport. Of course, since this is a new venture for Purchase College, the price increases to $15 per day as of 6/1/11. Still, this is a fantastic way for the college to make extra money and simultaneously help alleviate the parking crunch at the airport. Another great use of common sense while thinking outside the box.
Congratulations and kudos to the recipients of the third and fourth Common Sense Awards.
If you know someone who is deserving of a Common Sense Award, post in the comment section so you can share with everyone.
Til next week.
Peter
After a very long absence, since 8/2/09 to be exact, I have some good news to blog about while handing out my third and fourth Common Sense Awards. There are far too few people, businesses and politicians etc., that can or do think outside the box using good old common sense. In today's blog, the heroes so to speak, are not businesses, but a politician and an institution of higher learning who thought outside the box using common sense. Who would have thunk it? Not me. Go figure.
Drum roll please.....
Common Sense Award #3 (albeit a bit late) goes to New Jersey's Republican Governor Chris Christie. This award is late, since it was only this past week that I read an article in my local Gannett paper about what New Jersey's Governor Chris Christie did. He signed legislation this past January, that allows school bus advertising. That makes New Jersey the sixth state that allows advertising on school buses. The others that permit the ads are: Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Tennessee and Texas. FYI, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington are presently considering the idea.
But wait, are you thinking (like I did), about what kind of ads are on those school buses? In a nut shell, there are no ads about: beer, alcohol, bars, drug companies, tobacco, politics, religious organizations or anything sexual in nature. The school districts actually stay away from any ad that might be controversial. Advertising on 100 buses, on average, generate $500,000 over a four year period. Larger school districts will earn more, as will where the district is located may mean more money.
This is free extra money for the schools and is probably one of the best common sense, thinking outside the box, way to generate extra money, that is sorely needed in probably every school district in this country. A great idea in my book, to generate extra money.
Common Sense Award #4 goes to an institution of higher learning. But this story is about an airport and a college. What? Yes! In lower New York state, there is the Westchester County Airport, located in Harrison, New York, which is of course located in Westchester County. It is a highly used airport with a terrible parking problem. If you really, really want to park in the airport's covered parking lot, you should arrive about 60-90 minutes earlier then you normally would arrive. This is so you can go round and round and up and down, looking for that elusive vacant space.
Located about 5-10 minutes from the airport is Purchase College. The college is now allowing parking for airport customers for $5 per day and that includes help with your luggage and a shuttle ride to the airport. Of course, since this is a new venture for Purchase College, the price increases to $15 per day as of 6/1/11. Still, this is a fantastic way for the college to make extra money and simultaneously help alleviate the parking crunch at the airport. Another great use of common sense while thinking outside the box.
Congratulations and kudos to the recipients of the third and fourth Common Sense Awards.
If you know someone who is deserving of a Common Sense Award, post in the comment section so you can share with everyone.
Til next week.
Peter
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Bad Drugs
Hi Everyone:
This is a true story and no names have been changed to protect the guilty. In August 2002, Cheryl Eggert, a Quality Control Manager for Glaxo, Smith, Kline, (a huge pharmaceutical company with 80 plants world wide) wrote a letter to her boss (VP of QualityControl)
regarding the problems with the manufacturing processes at numerous plants around the world. But the Cidra plant was by far the worst with what Ms. Eggert saw as shoddy oversight of the entire manufacturing process. Ms. Eggert said that the Cidra plant had 9 serious problems including contamination of medicine and wrong drugs put in the wrong bottles. She told her boss that the plant should be shut down immediately and recall the drugs ASAP.
This is a true story and no names have been changed to protect the guilty. In August 2002, Cheryl Eggert, a Quality Control Manager for Glaxo, Smith, Kline, (a huge pharmaceutical company with 80 plants world wide) wrote a letter to her boss (VP of QualityControl)
regarding the problems with the manufacturing processes at numerous plants around the world. But the Cidra plant was by far the worst with what Ms. Eggert saw as shoddy oversight of the entire manufacturing process. Ms. Eggert said that the Cidra plant had 9 serious problems including contamination of medicine and wrong drugs put in the wrong bottles. She told her boss that the plant should be shut down immediately and recall the drugs ASAP.
Ms. Eggert's alarm went unheard. GSK told her that the plant just had a FDA inspection in July 2002 and had passed. So her concerns were not valid. Ms. Eggert continued with her very real concerns until April 2003. That's when GSK laid her off due to what the company called a reorganizing. Ms. Eggert saw it differently, so she became a whistleblower to alert the FDA. For years, GSK stated that there were no problems with their plants and all was well. Well, well, well, in November 2010, GSK plead guilty for allowing adulterated drugs to be sold. GSK paid $750 million dollars in fines.
What concerned me the most is that since GSK plead guilty, they had to have known about the problems, but still allowed adulterated drugs to be sold. It is obvious to me that GSK had no common sense what so ever and that the bottom line, (money) was more important then the health and safety of the people who took their medicine. Shame on GSK and shame on the FDA for not finding the problems themselves during their inspection!
Common sense still rules and greed still drools!
Til next week.
Peter
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Big Bank Sticking It To Customers
Hi Everyone:
My wife received a letter this past week from JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. It was one of those, "You are pre-approved for a Chase Freedom with Exclusive Benefits", a Visa credit card. We get these alot. Having good credit means you are inundated with these offers.
Not that we need another credit card, but we decided to read the entire offer. The following is exactly as it appeared on the Pricing Information and Interest Rates and Interest Charges page under the heading - Penalty APR and When It Applies section:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29.99%. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. (Ed note: It is really 26.99% plus the prime rate, as stated in the very fine print at the bottom of the page. The penalty rate will increase when the prime rate increases).
The Penalty APR will be applicable to your Account if you:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you catch the problem I have with this offer? FYI, I have no problems with the first three, although a 29.99% penalty rate is excessive. But if it is legal to be able to charge that amount, so be it. My problem is with the last condition. To me, it states that if you do any of the first three with any other JPMorgan Chase account or loan or with a related bank, they will apply the 29.99% penalty APR to your Chase Visa Credit card. So if you are late with a payment to a Chase loan etc., etc., your credit card rate will increase?!!!
We couldn't believe it, so I took it a step further. I called Chase and spoke with a customer rep. The rep's response to my questioning that condition was very evasive. The rep kept saying that they "might" raise the credit card rate. I responded that the word "might" is not there and as I read it, they "would" raise your rate. Getting nowhere with the rep, I then asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor's responses were even more evasive. He also used the word "might" but kept dwelling on the first three conditions dealing with the credit card solely. After 5 minutes of playing word games, I finally got the supervisor to agree that Chase would indeed raise your credit card rate if you met any of the first three conditions on any other Chase account or loan. I then asked the supervisor if that made any common sense? He again became very evasive and wouldn't directly answer. I told him that it didn't make any sense. I said that anyone who reads all the conditions and fine print would not sign up and be subjected to that 4th condition and that it seemed to be based purely on greed. Believe it or not, the last thing the supervisor said to me was if I wanted to sign up for the card? I told him that it was obvious that he hadn't listened to what I had been saying so I hung up.
So there you have it. Please be very careful signing up for a new credit card in these times and make sure you read every single word in the offer, including all of the small print. Big banks lost their common sense years ago with the sub-prime mortgage mess and continues to this day. Big banks have replaced common sense with greed. They even train their customer service reps and supervisors on how to be evasive and deceitful. WATCH OUT.
Common sense rules and greed still and always will drool.
Til next week.
Peter
My wife received a letter this past week from JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. It was one of those, "You are pre-approved for a Chase Freedom with Exclusive Benefits", a Visa credit card. We get these alot. Having good credit means you are inundated with these offers.
Not that we need another credit card, but we decided to read the entire offer. The following is exactly as it appeared on the Pricing Information and Interest Rates and Interest Charges page under the heading - Penalty APR and When It Applies section:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
29.99%. This APR will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate. (Ed note: It is really 26.99% plus the prime rate, as stated in the very fine print at the bottom of the page. The penalty rate will increase when the prime rate increases).
The Penalty APR will be applicable to your Account if you:
- fail to make any Minimum Payment by the date and time due (late payment);
- exceed your credit line (if applicable);
- make a payment to us that is returned unpaid; or
- do any of the above on another account or loan you have with us or any of our related banks.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Did you catch the problem I have with this offer? FYI, I have no problems with the first three, although a 29.99% penalty rate is excessive. But if it is legal to be able to charge that amount, so be it. My problem is with the last condition. To me, it states that if you do any of the first three with any other JPMorgan Chase account or loan or with a related bank, they will apply the 29.99% penalty APR to your Chase Visa Credit card. So if you are late with a payment to a Chase loan etc., etc., your credit card rate will increase?!!!
We couldn't believe it, so I took it a step further. I called Chase and spoke with a customer rep. The rep's response to my questioning that condition was very evasive. The rep kept saying that they "might" raise the credit card rate. I responded that the word "might" is not there and as I read it, they "would" raise your rate. Getting nowhere with the rep, I then asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor's responses were even more evasive. He also used the word "might" but kept dwelling on the first three conditions dealing with the credit card solely. After 5 minutes of playing word games, I finally got the supervisor to agree that Chase would indeed raise your credit card rate if you met any of the first three conditions on any other Chase account or loan. I then asked the supervisor if that made any common sense? He again became very evasive and wouldn't directly answer. I told him that it didn't make any sense. I said that anyone who reads all the conditions and fine print would not sign up and be subjected to that 4th condition and that it seemed to be based purely on greed. Believe it or not, the last thing the supervisor said to me was if I wanted to sign up for the card? I told him that it was obvious that he hadn't listened to what I had been saying so I hung up.
So there you have it. Please be very careful signing up for a new credit card in these times and make sure you read every single word in the offer, including all of the small print. Big banks lost their common sense years ago with the sub-prime mortgage mess and continues to this day. Big banks have replaced common sense with greed. They even train their customer service reps and supervisors on how to be evasive and deceitful. WATCH OUT.
Common sense rules and greed still and always will drool.
Til next week.
Peter
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