Month: May 2020

Telecommute Pay Cut Ripoff

Steven Guccione

I telecommuted most of my career.  This includes west coast tech companies and large New York City banks.  My salary was always the going rate for these locales.  If people want to negotiate using your living arrangements, I’m ok with that.  But I’m blown away that a company (Facebook, of course) is trying to tie salary to where you live.  How does this work, in the real world?  If I move to a more expensive neighborhood do I get a raise? Will I get a pay cut if I sell my house and move to a cheaper place, in the same city?  This is just another abusive tactic used by abusive employers.  Sad thing is they will probably get away with it.

Facebook employees could receive pay cuts as they continue to work from home

 

I Was Right

Steven Guccione

I like to read and keep up with the news, especially these days.  Since I get most of my printed (?)  news on line, a big problem is avoiding nonsense and click bait.  Click bait is an easy one to solve. If the headline isn’t a headline (that is a short summary of what the article is about) then I ignore it.  It could be a perfectly legit and interesting article, but if it has a  clickbait headline, I’m not reading it.

I also look at the source.  Something from a sketchy source I also tend to ignore.  Sometimes I may read it but, as they used to say, take it with a grain of salt.

Today I came across this one.  From the Times of Israel.  Seems to be a legit news source.  The person being written about seems to be claiming vindication of his theory that all infectious disease outbreaks peak in 40 days and end in 70.  Seems nonsense on the face of it.  Lots of plagues in history have gone on for years.  Who is this guy? Well, he is:

Isaac Ben-Israel, a prominent mathematician, chairman of Israel’s Space Agency, and a former general

Whatevs.  Still a crank it appears.  Then I did something I try to never do:. I read  some comments.  There were only a few, half highly dismissive, the other half laudatory.  I couldn’t resist looking up one of the positive commenters.  Someone from Bob Jones University.  Ok, call me an academic snob if you want.

Anyway, maybe it was click bait.  Should have been suspicious of any article that starts with “I Was Right”.

I was right, says prof who predicted pandemic would play itself out in 70 days

Isaac Ben-Israel says virus disappears everywhere at same speed, rendering interventions irrelevant. Public health expert: He ‘has no clue about epidemiology and public health’

Electric Riding Mower Project

Steven Guccione

I have a 20+ year old MTD Yard Machines riding mower.  I’m not much of a mechanic but over the years I have managed to keep it running.  No real engine work, but just about everything else has needed attention at one time or another.

I’ve been thinking about doing an electric conversion on this one but felt like it was a bit too much out of my skill set.  Saw some plans on line but many of them seem already dated.  With all the eBikes, electric motorcycles, scooters, etc around these days, the technology has really matured and lots of components are available that would make this much easier than it would have been even a year or two ago.

You can even buy new electric riding mowers at Home Depot now, but they tend to be pricey ($2500+), and that may be the right way to go, but where is the fun in that?  Can’t say I’ve decided to convert the old mower, but might start putting some notes out here as I go along.

Most of the early decisions would be around the engine.  It is a 14 HP.  Should I just replace it with a suitable electric motor?  This seems to be the simplest way at first.

Another approach is to use one motor to drive the wheels, perhaps directly from the rear, and two smaller motors to drive the blades.  This eliminates all the pulleys, belts and transmission functionality and could make for a clean simple design.  I’m leaning toward the three motor solution, but need to look at the rear transmission.

BTW, this lawn tractor / riding mower seems to be a popular if not durable beast.  Lots of YouTube repair videos out there which can give you some ideas and a good look at the internals without having to take the machine apart.

Spent last night looking at some smaller motors for the blades and associated controllers.  Interesting stuff.  This motor kit for an electric scooter also caught my eye.

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Feudalism American Style

Steven Guccione

A good Sunday read from the Los Angeles Review of Books.  Post-war America was mostly successful in keeping money and power at arm’s length from each other.  Since the Cold War wealth has concentrated, politics has been infused with vast sums of money in the form of “campaign contributions” which now seem limitless (see: Citizens United).  Where does this lead?  Back to one of the most stable systems ever, Feudalism.

Neofeudalism: The End of Capitalism?

 

A Lot of Bull

Steven Guccione

Ran across this fellow on a bike ride today.  They graze occasionally on the land of a big pharmaceutical factory.  Hard to keep up with who owns them these days; it seems to change hands every few years.  For non-Texans, this isn’t some sort of Texas “thing”.  It is a good old fashioned tax dodge.  All this land is now “agricultural” resulting in a vastly reduced property tax bill for this big corporation.  Hey, now that I think about it, what could be more Texan?

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Ramen Recap

Steven Guccione

Yesterday I made a large pot of soup for three.  I call it ramen, but again I used those flat Vietnamese (my tho) noodles.  I have gotten good at a simple broth with soy, garlic and ginger.  Added chopped onion and carrot and cracked in three eggs, one for each of us.  Cooked the noodles for four minutes and let everyone add some leftover sliced steak on their own.  Topped mine with a slice of cheese and some home made sauerkraut and a few green onions.  Got rave reviews.

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