My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on January 30, 2016

I had an interesting text exchange with my son Taylor who is smack dab in the middle of finding his political “sense.” Thankfully he is far more rational, a questioner, independent thinker and a lover of history to be snookered into “herding” blindly with the crowd who are “Feeling the Bern.”

He has been closely watching the Bernie Sanders social network streams and picking apart the 140 character tweets that target younger voters — the ones who are frustrated with the injustice our capitalist society deals them, they perceive. Unfortunately it is another the age old “divide the country” practice and attempt of of using the power of government  to take from one group to give to another … in socialism’s case, no real prosperity is created. Our exchange this morning was centered around a Bernie Sanders tweet questioning student loan interest being higher than home mortgage interest. Thankfully my thoughtful son was quick to recognized that at least a home has equity for the lender if the borrower can’t pay … a student with debt and no job has zilch. Even worse, the student loans are handed out without much criteria as to career prospects or academic perfomance.

It is a good feeling to know my political minded son can rationally see though promises made by advocates of socialism. I see hope for the next generation.

In a similar vein, the WSJ had a great op-ed this morning by Peggy Noonan. Here’s a health care snippet from a Sanders rally …

“Health care is a right of all people, not a privilege.” He asks if any in the audience have high-insurance deductibles. They start to call out: “$4,000,” “5,000,” “6,000!” Someone yells: “Nothing’s covered!”

No one mentions ObamaCare, but it seems clear it hasn’t worked here.

Mr. Sanders says people don’t go to the doctor when they’re sick because of the deductibles. “Same with mental-health care!” a woman calls out. “Mental-health care must be considered part of health care,” he responds, to applause. He is for “a Medicare-for-all, single-payer system.”

How to pay for it all? “Impose a tax on Wall Street speculation,” he says, briefly. He does not elaborate and is not pressed to.

Read the rest: Socialism Gets a Second Life

Category: News, Politics | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 28, 2016

On the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, I re-read a post from my blog back on the 20th anniversary — thought I would share.

Saturday morning, January 27, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger and seven astronauts prepared for a cold morning ride into space at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; they didn’t launch …

Read the post from January 28, 2006: My Challenger Story

Category: Blogs, Space | 1 Comment »
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Posted By RichC on January 28, 2016

The stock market continues to move in favor of the “bears,” which goes against most long term savers and investors. One of the biggest stories today was that of Apple Inc $AAPL who reported earning of $3.28 per share which was 4 cent higher than the consensus. Revenue was nearly $76 billion and short by nearly $1 billion. As one would expect this slowing (based heavily on the slowest pace ever for iPhone sales) had $AAPL down 6.5% closing at near the 52-week low at $93.44.

Who knows how low Apple will trade in the coming days, but several advisors have “buy” ratings and targets substantially higher than $AAPL current levels. I hope I won’t regret picking up a few more shares at these levels.

Drexel Hamilton

Drexel Hamilton’s Brian White reiterated a Buy rating and $200.00 price target on the stock. He was glad to see the quarter end, adding that it was time to move on and “start to look forward to the ramp of iPhone 7.”

White also pointed out that the company’s 40.1 percent gross margin beat his estimate of 39.7 percent, while the 31.9 percent operating margin came in ahead of his forecast of 31.1 percent.

“Given the iPhone weakness in the late stages of this 6-Series, it is not surprising that Apple’s 2Q:FY16 outlook is soft,” he continued, noting the iPhone 7 cycle is now on the horizon.

Related Link: What’s Wrong With Apple…And What Tim Cook Can Do To Fix It

Canaccord

Canaccord’s T. Michael Walkley said Apple’s results were consistent with the firm’s estimates, and reiterated a Buy rating and $146.00 price target. The analyst attributed the “solid” results to robust iPhone sales and sustained growth in services. In fact, Apple sales would have surged 8 percent year-over-year in constant currency, but currency headwinds weighed on the results.

Despite his optimism, Walkley noted that “given the similar form factor for the iPhone 6S and softer smartphone global demand trends,” the firm anticipates “weaker and down year-over-year 1H/C2016 iPhone sales.”

Category: Financial | 1 Comment »
Tags: aapl

Posted By RichC on January 27, 2016

This little “toy” will be fun! (should receive mine in March)

Specs:

CPU:
1.2 Ghz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor. It has 64 and 32 Bit execution states for scalable high performance power – including a NEON Multimedia processing engine.
I/O EXPANSION:
Two I/O Expansion slots – the Pi-2 Expansion and Euler box – capable of allowing you to add more modules down the road.
VIDEO:
PINE64 provides almost full motion playback of up to 4K H.265 high-definition video.
GRAPHICS:
Dual core Mali 400 MP2 Graphics acceleration provides mobile users with superior experience in web browsing, video playback, and gaming effects.
MEMORY:
PINE64 comes with 512MB, 1GB, or 2GB DDR3 Memory integrated. Storage space supported up to 256GB Micro SD Expansion.

Order here

Category: Computer, Raspberry Pi, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: Computer, kickstarter, pine a64

Posted By RichC on January 26, 2016

Category: Humor, Misc, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: crocs, shoe

Posted By RichC on January 25, 2016

After an opinion piece was published last week in the National Review, the battle among Republicans for an appropriate presidential candidate became even more aggressive. It was already contentious between many in the large field of candidates, but a few high profile Republican voices made their concerns know against the vocal, attention getting poll leader, Donald Trump. I must confess, I share many of the concerns regarding his conservative pedigree, but don’t see the number two candidate in the polls as a “uniter” for the country either — although both are better than a Clinton or Sanders (poll leaders for the Democrats).

As a “jittery” Republican, I’m also tired of dividing the populous on issue after issue — we’ve had 7 years of that after electing and reelection President Obama, someone who was uniquely equipped to unite the nation … but  instead went out of his way to ram through unpopular policy after policy and did exactly the opposite to our country (is Ted Cruz the same on the right?)

On the other hand, I want a principled leader who is a conservative and prevents the slow drip towards “even bigger goverment” and like the socialist democracies we see in Europe eroding personal liberty and the innovation incentive unique to capitalism that generations of Americans achieved. I’m hoping our next president will use the bully pulpit to “lead” … by that I mean convince the majority that the core Republican virtues of limited government, less regulation and lower taxes and a strong defense will benefit everyone in America. I’m not sure that either current leading candidate can do this … although I sense some in Washington DC are starting to pick their horse?

Jittery Republican senators think Donald Trump would actually give them a better chance of keeping their Senate majority if he were the party’s presidential nominee instead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

With the Iowa caucuses, the first contest of the 2016 presidential primary, just over a week away, some Senate Republicans are beginning to talk up Trump’s candidacy.

TheHill: Anyone but Cruz

Now how do those like me who don’t see this extreme division as good for our country? Well a few of us are still hoping that the third leading candidate in the Republican primaries, Marco Rubio, can inch forward and keep his campaign afloat to remain relevant. It’s still a long way to the finish line, but the current Trump movement sure seems to have a good head of steam … and might be even drawing discontented Independents and blue collar Democrats away from the very left-leaning Democrats either currently in the Whitehouse or seeking to be president. That may eventually be enough to convince the “less vocal” traditional valued voters to plug their nose in blind hope that a narcissist like Donald Trump really is a patriot and wants to “Make America great again.”  

For now, I’ll quietly support the #3 in the polls and hope as others drop out that Marco Rubio will pick up there votes and gain enough momentum to win the GOP nomination. Yes … it looks like a long shot.

Category: Politics | No Comments »
Tags: candidates, clinton, cruz, election, opinion, rubio, sanders, trump

Posted By RichC on January 24, 2016

Really, I did plan for a full Sunday afternoon and evening of football watching with my friends Mark and Dar, but couldn't resist the warm sunshine to add a little Cetol (marine varnish product) to the shaded trim around the companionway. Hopefully I won't be too late to miss anything worthwhile in the NFL playoff game, but since the two games will go into the night, I didn't want to waste the entire day.

All is good aboard Encore after the surprise drip, then stream of water the other day and still frustrated that just as I think a few mechanical issues are corrected, another shows up. I suppose such is the life of a boat owner?

It has been a bit chilly down in Florida (30s at night) but I'm not complaining considering the nasty weather in the mid Atlantic and Northeastern states.

Category: Misc, Sailing, Sports | No Comments »
Tags: cetol, encore, nfl, playoffs, varnish

Posted By RichC on January 24, 2016

Not much can top the great hospitality, enjoyable conversation (TV trivia talk) and great breakfast fixed by my friends Mark and Dar — or just having lunch at our favorite sandwich shop.  As Gomer, Mark’s fellow Marine would say, “thank you … thank you … thank you.”  BTW, the Jones really should open a “Bed and Breakfast” someday, it would be super!

I sure am looking forward to hanging out and watching the the NFL playoffs this afternoon  …  it sure beats shoveling snow! 

Category: Friends, Misc, Personal | No Comments »
Tags: dar, friends, mark

Posted By RichC on January 23, 2016

The weather isn’t perfect in Florida, but it sure is a lot better than most states to the north. As the snow comes down on most of the eastern part of the country, I at least won’t have to deal with it until I fly back.

I’m going to declare success in removing hatches, shipping them to Select Plastics and putting waterproof plywood in place as the heavy rain has mostly stayed out of the boat. I’m also optimistic that the waterpump I removed in December and replaced is all positive. After putting in the new Johnson Pump instead of the Volvo pump I rebuilt (my spare) I’m hoping it will run for many hours before dripping again … impellers aside.

Unfortunately after running the diesel for a bit to monitor the pump output and seals, I noticed that the propeller coupling was dripping. Hm … after shutdown, the drip turned into a stream (video below) and no amount of fidgeting with the coupling could get it to stop (slow down to a drip again, but not stop). I called one of the guys in the yard and he thinks it is an alignment problem. That’s better than automatically having to order a new coupling from Volvo, hauling the boat and pulling the prop shaft back so the new coupling can be installed. It could still come to that, but hopefully a realignment will solve the problem.

Category: Personal, Photos, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: coupling, drip, encore, sailboat, sunset, volvo, waterpump

Posted By RichC on January 22, 2016

Noticing the weather back home this past week, it was not a bad few days to head down to Florida for a couple more boat repairs.

High on the list was to remove and send my Lewmar Superhatches (predecessor to the Ocean series) off to Select Plastics in hopes THEY can prevent them from dripping; I failed.  Leaking hatches and ports has been an ongoing issue for Encore and it has been even worse lately (more rain in Florida?) I’ve held off repairing them as the cost has been prohibitive … and even now I’m hesitating. It’s not only the price, but the timeframe that is frustrating … I’m hoping they will be back sooner rather than later, but according to Tony, this is their busiest time of the year. That make sense since boats in the northeast are under cover for winter.

After removing the aft and forward larger hatches, I cut squares of plywood, wrapped them in “attractive tan/brown tarp” material and “dogged” them down over the hatch frame with a single center bolt and a cross beam inside. Hm, it’s really dark in the cabins now and we’ve lost our ventilation (the reason I haven’t taken the smaller one out of the main salon).

Category: Sailing | 1 Comment »
Tags: encore, hatch, lewmar, repair, sailboat