I've always had a love for sound. So when it came time to purchase a new stereo receiver as a gift for my wife's parents, I went to work finding the best stereo I could find for the price.

This was in 2003, before Amazon was really what it is today. I would shop in large chain stores to find really good products. Stores like Sound Advice, and BestBuy, then try to see if someone sold them online for cheaper.

I found this stereo receiver.

Here is a quick look at the specs:

The JVC RX-8040 features premium performance with high current 130 WATT x 6 This receiver also incorporates new convienience features such as Virtual Surround Back and Quick Speaker Set-up. The DSP processor enables the RX-8040 to provide the highest level of accuracy in decoding Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES and Dolby Pro Logic IIx. It also makes possible All Channel Stereo, and the JVC exclusive DAP soundfield.

• 130 watts x 2 min. RMS, both channels driven into 8 ohms from 20Hz to 20kHz with no more than 0.08% THD
• 130 watts x 6 min. RMS, into 8 ohms, 1kHz, 0.8% THD
• DVD Multichannel Audio Compatible (5.1 channel analog input and 5 separate amps) for connection to existing and future multichannel sources such as DVD Audio
• Texas Instruments 32/64-bit Floating-Point DSP
• Virtual Surround Back: allows users to playback 6.1 channels without adding a surround back speaker

If you noticed that little white sticker at the top of the receiver. It's a warning not to put anything on top of it, because it might catch on fire. But two pets put themselves on top of it, two of our cats. The receiver is powered on most of the time, and it gives off a decent amount of heat, just what cats love.

I never worried about it much, because the cats would just get off of it, if it was getting too hot. What I didn't consider was their hair!

I know that cats shed, but you wouldn't imagine that it's much when all they are doing is sleeping. They were never moving around on top of the receiver, they would just get on top and sleep, they didn't clean themselves, or do much moving around at all. But alas, the hair came out anyway. And man, did the hair come out!

Once I removed the cover, I was greeted with this. Mind you, there was never any hair on the cover ever -- because the cats were dusting it off with their bodies.

Cover first removed

Power transformer to the left

Discrete amplifier boards

As you can see, there was quite a bit of hair in there!

Cleaning the receiver was not too bad. I used a vacuum cleaner and shop air to get all of the hair out.

The next part was to come up with some way to keep the cats off of the receiver. I was bouncing around a few ideas, when my wife reminded me of "hostile architecture" video we saw a while back.

For those who don't know I'll show some examples. Hostile architechture was placed in various cities across the country, to keep homeless people from being able to sleep on park benches, or in store windows.

There's no sleeping on these benches.

The plan was to create something uncomfortable for the cats, but not block airflow through the receiver. After looking around my garage I came up with an idea.

I found some aluminum angle stock that I bought a few years ago, but haven't used it yet. I decided to make angle iron strips that would be good for airflow, and hopefully just uncomfortable enough for the cats.

When working with metal, I always like to make it look art-deco, because why not? People like that style now. Here's what I came up with.

Angle piece with markings

Angle piece once cut

The basic layout with angle pieces

Here are the angle pieces once attached using aluminum baling wire

How I twisted the aluminum baling wire to make it flush with the cover

The part where it says "HOT RESISTORS ARE 1.8Ω 2W" was from around 2010. My wife's parents purchased a newer receiver because they wanted one that could switch HDMI video. My wife's dad gave me their old one (this JVC). I cleaned it out, but noticed that there were resistors which had been so hot, that their color bands were almost gone. I wrote down the values in case I needed to change them some day.

It paid off, because some time around 2016, the receiver died. Once I started checking it out, I found that one of those resistors had burned open! I looked everywhere but couldn't find a replacement. Finally I found one on NewEgg. It was a 1.8 Ohm 25 Watt wirewound resistor, used for elevator controls, and made in Russia. 25 Watts is way more heat dissipation than was required, but that's fine because it just means it's overkill. I replaced all of the old resistors and it's been doing find ever since.

Replacement resistors

View from the front

View showing where I sanded the angle pieces to make them look swank

This is the cat that normally sleeps on the receiver checking it out

He's looking around trying to figure out what has happened

Success! He finally he decides that there's no way he's going to sleep on this "hostile" receiver anymore

Now my surround sound receiver should stay cat hair free for years to come. Also, it will have an edgy art-deco look about it. Haha!

It's always something...

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As a kid growing up in the 80s, I always made fun of the whole backwards music stuff. With a record, you couldn't spin it in reverse well enough to hear anything (plus it's bad on the needle) and regular tapes can't be played backwards.

You would need a fancy turn table for mixing/spinning records, or a reel-to-reel tape player to even hear anything played backwards. The idea that there were hidden messages in songs always seemed silly to me.

Some of you might remember "Bunchie" that weird green llama GIF file from 2003.

But what you might not know, is that there's a super secret hidden messages when you play the GIF backwards!

Fast forward to modern times, and playing music backwards is not a complicated task at all. In fact, there are many open source tools that can play any audio in reverse. Audacity is the first that comes to mind. I've used it for around 20 years for a number of audio editing tasks.

Back around 2016, there was a list of songs in an article, where some parts of songs actually did sound like they're saying something when played backwards. And you don't have to “listen closely,” it's actually pretty clear.

Being a skeptic. I downloaded these songs to see if I could hear the same thing, when reversing the audio using Audacity.

Here's what I found:

• Britney Spears "...Baby One More Time" - It sounds like she's saying, "Sleep with me I'm not to young."
britainy spears - baby one more time - backwards.mp3
• Missy Elliot "Work It" - She says, "I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it" twice. (This song is widely known for this, as it was not "hidden."
missy elliott - work it - backwards.mp3
• Pink Floyd "Empty Spaces" - It says:
  –Hello looker...
  –Congratulations, You have just discovered the secret message.
  –Please send your answer to Old Pink, care of the Funny Farm, Chalfont...
  –Roger, Carolyne's on the phone!
  –Okay.
pink floyd - empty spaces - backwards.mp3
• Queen "Another One Bites the Dust" - It sounds like he's saying, "It's fun to smoke marijuana."
queen - another one bites the dust - backwards.mp3

I'm sure there are more songs out there, but these were some where you could more easily hear the wording. Some backwards words are definitely in there on purpose. The one from Pink Floyd, and the Missy Elliot song are obviously not "hidden." But the others are much more likely to be coincidental.

I brought up the reverse music after seeing a Substack Note about the Supertramp album "Breakfast in America." Where there were some theories that perhaps the cover made references to 9-11 and the Twin Towers coming down. It made me think of the super secret hidden messages in songs.

Here's a link to the file Barbara was referencing.

My first question was, "Who has time to listen to all this music backwards, just to see if there's something hidden in it?" Or, perhaps some people can hear the backwards messages the first time they hear the song.

I've never known anyone that could pick up on backwards speech hidden within a song, but maybe some of you have?

What are your experiences with this?

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EVs (Electric Vehicles) were advertised as a replacement for standard automobiles. And that's the entire problem.

We've Got To Get These EVs Out There!

EVs were advertised as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and many people believed that, until they had a chance to use one. That's where the rental car industry comes in.

I believe the rental car industry sparked the downfall of the EV market. The prohibitive cost of EVs combined with their limited range likely kept most people from purchasing them. But the rental car industry is where many people get to truly test drive cars. Like they say, "Nothing runs like a rental!" You're not scared to slightly abuse a rental car, you paid for the insurance right? You're also likely to use it to do things you might do in your day-to-day life. Such as, run up to the store, run back up to the store for whatever you forgot, go out to dinner, then go out for drinks afterwards. Things that you would likely not do when you test drive a car from a dealer.

The rental car industry was pushed hard in 2021 through ESG and other financial incentives, to buy into the EV market. That's when the consumer side finally started to get a chance to test the EVs they've heard and read so much about.

Not long after Hertz Global Holdings emerged from bankruptcy last summer, reorganized after the Covid-19 pandemic stalled the entire car rental industry, the Estero, Florida-based company boldly announced a $4.2 billion deal to purchase 100,000 Tesla fully electric vehicles (EVs) by the end of 2022. Just like that, the race was on within the industry to transition to EVs from internal combustion engine (ICE) models.

While Hertz was first off the starting blocks, its two biggest rivals, Enterprise Holdings and Avis Budget Group, have since joined in. But just like the full-scale adoption of EVs among American drivers is going to take years, the rental car shift also will be a marathon, not a sprint. “Companies that operate fleets at our size cannot just turn on a dime and next year go all EV,” said Sharky Laguana, president of the American Car Rental Association. “Our industry wants to move as fast as it can, but there are some serious and challenging constraints.”

The initial one, Laguana said, “is just getting your hands on the damn things.”

But they did get their hands on the damn things. And with that, came the new rental agreements. Like this one from Avis/Budget.

If your battery runs dry, and you call for road side assistance, you have to pay to have the car towed -- back to the rental place. Not only that, they replace your EV with a gas-powered vehicle. That's not because they don't trust you with the EV. It's because, if they drive an EV out to where you are, the battery in the freshly charged car will likely be too discharged for you to go anywhere.

I don't know about you, but that's not the kind of mess I would like to deal with -- especially when I'm out of town, most likely on a budget, perhaps on business, likely with limited time and planned engagements.

It All Comes Down to Range

With military fighter/attack aircraft you have two ranges. For example let's look at the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. There's combat range, and ferry range.

Combat range relates to flying out and returning back to base. Ferry range is based on a one-way flight. Remember that rental agreement? One-way rentals are not allowed, you'll need an ICE vehicle for one-way travel.

With a car, it's nearly always combat range. You expect to drive the car somewhere, and return home. An electric vehicle with a range of 200 miles, is measured as 200 miles one-way. You can only drive it out 100 miles, and 100 miles back. But that's maximum range on a full charge. Most of the time you won't have a full charge, at least not with a rental.

Now you have to consider quite a few things with your EV. If you picked it up at an airport, you'd better find a hotel with a charging station. There's a lot to consider when your charge time could be hours.

Your biggest challenge in renting an electric car will be charging it. If you’re only driving a few miles a day for the period of your rental, it might not be a big deal; as long as you return your car with a minimum of 10% charge (like Hertz requires of its Tesla rentals), you’ll be fine. But if you do start running down the battery and need to charge, knowing where and how you can do this before you set out on your journey is helpful.

First, determine what the car requires. All EVs can charge on a Level 2 charger, the public chargers you see in a lot of parking garages or sometimes at hotels or shopping malls. You should assume these are good for adding around 20 miles of range per hour to your EV (some may be faster, some slower). Charging a Tesla at a non-Tesla charger requires an adaptor, which rental car companies typically provide with the kit. Most new EVs can also use a DC fast charger, which are more powerful chargers that can recharge the car a lot more quickly than the slower Level 2 chargers; assume these chargers can add anywhere from 10-20 miles per minute when plugged into your EV.

But not all DC fast chargers are created equal, and not all EVs can charge at the same power, either. For example, if an EV can only accept 150 kilowatts of power, plugging into a 350-kW charger won’t make it charge any faster than 150 kW. One of the reasons Teslas are so popular is that there’s a large network of Tesla Superchargers that can recharge the vehicles fairly quickly, depending on how empty the car is and how powerful that Supercharger station is. There are three primary Supercharger types: 72 kW, 150 kW and 250 kW. They’re also dead easy to use — pull up, open the charge door, plug in and it automatically does its thing.

As soon as people began renting EVs and dealing with the realities of limited range, and limited charging options, they started realizing that they like their time, more than they like feeling "green."

The Push

The big idea backfired. The investors said, "If we just get the EV cars out there, people will love them. After all they sound great!" But, the investors don't drive EVs, nor are they likely to.

This is where the ESG (Environmental, Social, [and] Governance) nonsense comes in.

This is from a 2023-2024 ESG report by Avis Budget Group.

Most of the ESG report is a bunch of "feel good" word salad, with a few parts about EVs. Those parts list some of the issues they are running into as it relates to EVs being in their fleet. That's not very promising.

Reality Comes For Us All

The EVs are on their way out almost as quickly as they came in. This article is from January 11, 2024.

Hertz’s investor report makes it clear it’s not just about consumer demand. It’s about Tesla.

The headline we (and others) are using to describe Hertz selling off some of its substantial fleet of EVs is true. Hertz is dumping 20,000 EVs, a not-insignificant portion of its roughly 50,000-EV fleet (as of October) and a third of its total EV fleet globally. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission related to the sale, Hertz "expects to reinvest a portion of the proceeds from the sale of EVs into the purchase of internal combustion engine ("ICE") vehicles to meet customer demand."

Tell me you're lying, without telling me you're lying. Hertz is ditching their EVs, because of decreased customer demand, and buying more ICE vehicles -- to meet customer demand.

If the overall customer demand didn't go down, then people are still requesting cars -- just not EVs.

If rental car companies, in the business of fleet management, can't make EV rentals profitable -- why would anyone assume that they would work out for a private owner? The article also points out the increase in accident related repairs for the EVs. Does that not effect auto insurance costs? Insurance on a high-end car is always more because of increased repair costs.

The Final Nail in The Coffin

I saw this article the other day, and it cemented the idea that EVs don't have a bright future.

BAE & Cummins to Make Hybrid Drivetrain for Transit Buses

Hybrid electric buses don't require investment in extensive charging infrastructure.

BAE Systems and engine maker Cummins yesterday announced a new collaboration on the integration and certification of a B hybrid-compatible diesel engine and hybrid electric drivetrain for the transit market. The targeted product launch is 2027.

BAE Systems will supply its electric drive hardware to interface with the engine and form a full hybrid electric drivetrain, as well as provide engineering support and system integration expertise.

BAE and Cummins have worked together to develop hybrid electric solutions for buses since 1994.

Hybrid electric buses facilitate workforce development for training on high-voltage systems and do not require investment in extensive charging infrastructure.

Public transportation doesn't have an answer for EVs either. The proposed answer is hybrid vehicles. Is there a demand problem with public transportation, such that EV busses are not a good idea?

It seems that everywhere transportation is important, internal combustion engines are used. Where are all the EV firetrucks, or ambulances? You won't find them, because EVs don't have the range, and are not reliable enough for serious tasks.

There won't be an extensive charging infrastructure, because there is no demand for electric vehicles that don't compare with existing internal combustion vehicles.

EVs were always fighting an uphill (cart before the horse) battle. Government policy shouldn't be used to "create demand" in any market. It just doesn't work well, because government policy is rarely driven by real need. There is a demand for vehicles, but it's already been met. The "demand" for electric vehicles is because of the "Climate Change" scam.

Maybe it's time for governments to come to the same conclusion that those with EV experience have. EVs are not all they are cracked up to be.

Are we going to start seeing bumper stickers on EVs, "My Other Car has an Internal Combustion Engine."

What do you think?

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Recently the toilet handle in my hall bathroom has become weak. It felt as if it was flexing, or bending, within the tank when you went to flush it. Also, there was the issue of the chain getting in the way of the flapper valve. Because the handle had drooped down, the chain was able to be pulled under the flapper causing the toilet to run continuously. I'm not a jiggle the handle kind of guy. Toilets are very easily fixed in most cases, and parts are pretty cheap too.

I decided to replace my handle with one that has a metal arm. The plastic ones seem to work fine for the older toilets with the smaller flapper valves, but the metal ones are my favorite, because they never droop, or flex. When it comes to toilets with larger flapper valves, the plastic handles bend a lot before you get the valve to unseat. The cost difference is about $3 between metal and plastic.

I ran into an issue because the square opening in my tank is much larger than the square on my new flush handle. So I used a scrap piece of aluminum angle iron/stock to make a spacer. I had to do the same thing on my other toilet years ago, but I used a plastic angle piece I had lying around.

With the plastic handles you can just crank down on the nut that secures it until the handle won't rotate in the square opening. With plastic handles, there’s usually enough surface area where the handle assembly contacts the outside of the tank that it won't spin. With a metal handle, there’s very little surface area, and I don't want to crank down on the nut, because the handle will still try to spin even if tightened VERY tightly. That's not good because you could crack the tank!

You can see how the angle iron piece takes up the extra space allowing the handle to fit in the square tank opening snuggly. Because it fits snuggly, you won't have to crank down on the nut holding the handle.

This is what it looks like when the angle piece is in place.

You'll have to hold the angle iron part in place when you install the handle, or you could tape it in place with some scotch tape. Put it in, tighten the nut, adjust the flush valve chain and you're good to go.

I hope this helps someone who's run into a similar issue.

Let me know what toilet adventures you've been on! 😉👉

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The WHO isn't going to stop, and the WHO's largest funder is the US government.

The WHO also has a system to determine, "which diseases pose the greatest public health risk due to their epidemic potential and/or whether there is no or insufficient countermeasures."

The list was first published in 2017 and the last prioritization exercise was done in 2018. The current list includes COVID-19, Crimean-Cong haemorrhagic fever, Ebola virus disease and Marburg virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Nipah and henipaviral diseases, Rift Valley fever, Zika and Disease X.

“This list of priority pathogens has become a reference point for the research community on where to focus energies to manage the next threat,” said Dr Soumya Swaminathan, WHO Chief Scientist. “It is developed together with experts in the field, and is the agreed direction for where we—as a global research community—need to invest energy and funds to develop tests, treatments and vaccines. We thank our donors like the US government, our partners, and the scientists who work with WHO to make this possible.”

Once again, the idea being that they are going to catch the next disease that has pandemic potential. The "Minority Report" version of "The Science," where people are able to somehow guess which viral pathogen is going to jump from an animal host to a human.

I don't think that determining which disease might jump from animal to human is even possible. I don't believe that those at the WHO believe it's possible either. It just looks good on paper, sounds scary, and will make governments spend money.

Why do I believe this? Because of the WHO's discussions around COVID-19 and the pandemic's global impacts. The discussions have nothing to do with science.

The key giveaway in all of this is the proposed answer to what happened during the COVID-19 scare.

FOREWORD FROM
THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL

In a little over 12 months the pandemic has claimed more than 2 million lives and damaged the economic and social fabric of every society. Across the world the pandemic has thrown existing inequalities into stark relief. Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals has stalled, and in some cases may have reversed. Up to 100 million people have slipped into extreme poverty – the first rise in global poverty in more than two decades.

...

Global collaboration and solidarity
continues to be critical

Up to 100 million people may have already slipped back into extreme poverty in 2020: the first rise in global poverty in more than two decades. A study commissioned by the International Chamber of Commerce concluded that even with high vaccine coverage in high-income countries, restricted [vaccine] coverage elsewhere would cost high-income economies an additional US$ 2.4 trillion in 2021 alone. The evidence is clear: solidarity and equity are the only routes out of the pandemic.

Solidarity and equity are going to get us out of the pandemic? I thought we need to prepare for Disease X. We could have another pandemic right?

Why is the WHO worried about the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals — and lists their stalled progress as one of the biggest setbacks caused by COVID-19? Wouldn't you imagine that the World (H-E-A-L-T-H) Organization would be more concerned about -- world health?

Why should we listen to people who are obviously aren't concerned with what they want us to be concerned with.

The WHO is very busy making sure that a vaccine/health passport system is in place though, another non-scientific endeavor. Vaccine passports were decided at the G20 Summit a few years back. They're coming no matter what.

The truth is that the entire world is being corralled into a precarious position. The WHO is at the forefront of a centrally controlled system, designed to limit people's movement globally. This has never been a concern until COVID-19 came along.

Everyone needs to ask, "If COVID-19 has come and gone, why do we need a system like this? COVID-19 obviously didn't destroy the human race, why would we assume that the next pathogen would?

What do you think?

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