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Month: February 2019 (Page 1 of 3)

Robocall Observation

My mobile number has been on the National Don’t Call Registry since forever. When I first registered my number, spam calls stopped completely for years. It was great. I recommended it to others and it worked well.

Around the middle of 2018, I started getting spam calls again, despite the registry. Most of the calls were from my own area code. It got worse and worse until I decided to install a whitelist/blacklist call blocker. This is completely effective. I put my contacts in the whitelist, my own number on the blacklist, and no more unwanted calls.

The call blocker maintains a log file. It was interesting and satisfying to see the calls that were blocked. Some spam callers would hit my phone six times in 30 seconds trying to get through. I wanted the blocker to play the sound of raucous laughter each time it blocked a call, but, alas, it doesn’t have that capability.

The weird thing is that the spam calls continued for about two weeks and then abruptly stopped. I haven’t logged a spam call now in two months. What’s going on here? It makes me wonder if these robocall operations are a lot more organized than I thought. Maybe they share information — share lists of numbers to avoid because it wastes their time. If that’s true, there might be a larger organization that could more easily be prosecuted for conspiracy than lots of small operators. I dunno.

Some Favorite TV Channels Will Stop Working

But don’t be alarmed.

The title sounds like click-bait but it’s true. All around the USA, during 2019, some TV channels will stop working. This is because the FCC has ordered them to change to a different frequency. In my area, there are four channels, including PBS that will be changing frequency. This may happen several times during the year in your area since different TV stations have different dates for implementing the change.

Fortunately, it’s no big deal nowadays. When your favorite channel “disappears”, just tell your TV to rescan for channels. It will find the new frequency and everything will be fine.

The change is something of a hassle for the transmitters themselves. It requires changes and adjustments to their equipment and modification or replacement of their antenna(s). But this doesn’t affect you.

The NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) has a web site here http://www.tvanswers.org/ to help with your questions. You can enter your zip code and get a list of coming changes in your area by station and date.

This Has Poisoned Everything

I’ve long wondered when/if some really serious and widespread contamination/pollution problem would be uncovered — something in what we’ve been consuming for years and years.

My fear is based on human nature. If something sufficiently horrible is discovered, it will be buried, hidden. “We can’t talk about this. We can’t let this information get out. People would freak out.”

There was an element of this going on in climate research done 30 years ago. The scientists fudged the climate change numbers down. “People will never believe this, and if they did, they’d freak out. We have to fudge it down.” This minimization of the problem doesn’t actually change reality, of course. What it does is it makes it worse when the effects physically hit.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/20/new-mexico-contamination-dairy-industry-pollution

“Right to Work”

Sounds great. It’s supposed to sound great.

Rand Paul is trying to make “Right to Work” the law of the land. Hah.

Republicans have been trying to destroy unions ever since I started paying attention to politics, which was 49 years ago. In the 1970s, I was opposed to the concept of unions, and there were reasons for this. Then, I learned some more and realized that my situation was very unusual — like 0.1% unusual. I learned more history and more about capitalism, and reversed my position. Then I spent some years in different countries and learned some more.

Unions are vital, especially in an unregulated capitalist regime like we have here in the USA today. Businesses will abuse workers unless prevented by law or by unions. That’s just how it is. So, unions it must be.

It’s common in politics to name things the opposite of what they are, and “Right to Work” is a great example. It’s right up there with Hitler and Goebbels including “socialist” in the name of their party — a fine joke it was.

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