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Thursday, January 5, 2017

MYPILLOW

You've all seen Mike Lindell, inventor of MyPillow. Here is a 30-minute clip if you like to learn more about him.

His first pillow was sold in 2005, and the company struggled for six years. Then, the product took off after an infomercial in October of 2011. The long infomercial now runs 200 times/day. They have sold 10 million pillows and his staff of 50 has grown to 600. Guinness is set to name their pillow fight involving 6,241 participants at a St. Paul Saints baseball game as the world's largest.

Their pillow is of patented design involving a mix of open-cell shredded polyurethane foam. There is also a resin that enables the foam to retain the shape when molded to the user's preference. The pillow is non-allergenic, dust mite resistant, washable and dryable. There is a 10-year warranty. IN FACT, THIS IS WHERE I WAS STUNNED. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THE PILLOW BE WASHED AND DRIED EVERY FOUR MONTHS. TWO MONTHS IF YOU ARE PARTICULARLY ALLERGIC TO SOMETHING. HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE EVER WASHED YOUR PILLOW? I've never washed a pillow in my life.

Donald Trump would love Lindell's company, for not only is the pillow manufactured in the USA (Minnesota), but all materials are domestically produced. To quote Lindell:

I truly believe MyPillow is the best pillow in the world; if everyone had one, they would get the best sleep ever, and the world would be a better place. God Bless!

Portions of proceeds go toward The Lindell Foundation, a charity that assists addicts, veterans, cancer patients and other people in need. Apparently, the National Sleep Foundation endorses this product, and, no, it is legit. Lindell does not run the organization.

However, there are a few negatives:

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received 220 complaints for false advertisement.
A few months ago MyPillow paid out $1.1 million to California counties for saying that its pillows treat symptoms of fibromyalgia, restless leg syndrome, sleep apnea, cerebral palsy and acid reflux. They basically used anecdotal data to make these claims.
Lindell is not a sleep expert.
BBB just a few days ago revoked the accreditation for MyPillow and lowered their rating to F. Why? For years now they have advertised buy one and get one free. Apparently, you can't do this for a long period. Not exactly a condemning practice. Interesting that the day this action occurred, I received two MyPillows in the mail.

You can go to Walmart and get a range of pillows from $5 to $20 or so. However, one day, I saw a MyPillow while checking out, for in the wall of TV-sold products were a few. The price was about $40. When I went home, I thought, shucks, I should have bought one, as the MyPillow internet site showed a price of $90 for two queen pillows, and $100 for two king pillows. Because I trust Amazon, I ordered from them and paid $130 with free shipping. I then thought I'd buy a third MyPillow, went back to Walmart, and they had none left.

So is my MyPillow worth three times the best standard pillow from Walmart, many of which can be washed? I would say NO. MyPillow is kind of clumpy and fat, although, your head settles in a manner that is comfortable. (Note that the king-size almost sticks out of the standard pillow cover.) I got to admit I perhaps slept better, whatever that means. The first night I when I awoke I had a feelable itch on the right side of my chin, which could have been the result of dermabrasion or allergy. I had the same type of itch when I bought my favorite yellow shirt. My blog tomorrow will feature MY SHIRTS. But this itch eventually went away regarding my yellow shirt, and did not occur after night #2 of MyPillow.

Will I wash MyPillow every four months? Probably not, but, certainly, at least once/year, if not twice.

My recommendation? Look, I typically pay $300/night for a typical hotel room in major capitals of the world. Some of my lunches cost more than $130. Two MyPillows for $130 that will last the rest of my life are trivial expenses. If I later find out I hate them, I can always go to Walmart and buy two more that are washable for $40. I don't think my trusted old pillows are washable. Then, I can use these two MyPillows for guests who might stay the night. Then wash them.

Friday, August 13, 2021

UFOs: Part 2--Latest Official Government Report

I'll start today with a concern about how the USA has been invaded by the Delta variant, comparing how many new cases occurred yesterday:

New Cases/Million Population

#1 U.S. 143,537 431
#2 India 40,078 28
#3 Iran 39,049 648
#4 Brazil 35,891 168
#5 UK 32,961 483
#6 France 28,554 437
Florida 24,869 1157
Texas 24,869 489
#7 Indonesia 24,709 89
Louisiana 5,387 1149
Hawaii 549 392

Florida and Louisiana are particularly suffering. Both are low in vaccination rate, while Florida is especially battered because of a batty governor. One positive about the Delta variant is that it is scaring the un-vaxed to get vaxed.

The mortality rate average for the World is just around 2%, so to predict the new deaths in ten days to two weeks, multiply the new cases figure by 0.02.

Thus, the new deaths after that period for the U.S. should be around 2870.
However, there are now many more younger people being infected, so it would not be surprising if this mortality rate drops to 1%. This would mean 1435 new deaths/day in ten days to two weeks. Yesterday, 660 died in the U.S. from COVID-19. So this pandemic is definitely getting worse in the USA.
Similarly, Hawaii, which has been experiencing from zero to 3 deaths/day for months, could well jump to 10/day, but should be around 5/day in that 10-day to 2-week period from now because the elderly are now mostly vaccinated. A month ago 15 Craigside residents were at 97%.

Cruise lines are in desperation. First of all, it was not only the Diamond Princess and Grand Princess that experienced COVID-19 early last year. Turns out that only from that first February case to June of 2020, over 40 ships showed positive tests in the initial wave of this pandemic. On that link I note that the Ruby Princess had 852 cases and Celebrity Apex experience 224, Disney Wonder 200 and several more exceeding 100 cases. Wow! There were also multiple suicides among the crew for stress and repatriation problems. I don't ever remember reading about any of this.

Cruise lines stocks also recently got socked when six passengers on Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas tested positive, including four who were already vaccinated. There are 5000 passengers and crew on sold out AoS cruises. Just run the numbers. If Moderna/Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective, 5% are vulnerable. This means 250 will be in danger. Then there will be more because some vaccines are not as effective, and there will be a few others who faked their vaccination cards.

With the school year just beginning, and elementary school students almost all not yet being vaccinated, looks like the U.S. and much of the world will have serious problems for the rest of the year, and longer. My world cruise that leaves in January is now definitely in jeopardy. September 21 will be crucial, for on that day we will need to pay the full payment. If the Dubai World Expo extends its closing date into April or May, that would be influential. They can't go any further in time because it is really, really hot there in the summer. I know, I've been there. It was October, and still already seriously uncomfortable.

Today I will focus on two topics that make you wonder about the validity of what appears in the media. I'll start with the claim by Donald Trump supporters that he will be re-instated as president in August. What's the story on this?

Way back in November after the presidential election, cyber con man Dennis Montgomery, who has previously been known to have been in trouble with the Pentagon and was once into junk bonds, promoted a conspiracy theory that the CIA and or China were somehow involved in hacking the U.S. election results.

Without initially citing this source, Pillow Guy Mike Lindell used that bit of information to feed Conservative media outlets about the return of Trump in August.
So Lindell is now hosting a cyber symposium in South Dakota to today release the big news that China hacked the voting machines, and that Biden would voluntarily give up his posting on the weight of this incontrovertible evidence.

Alas, on Wednesday, the air was let out of the pillow, as Josh Merritt, Lindell's personal cyber expert, admitted there was no proof. Who is Josh Merritt? He is previously known as AKA Spider/Spyder, who was involved with another of those Trump lawyers, Sidney Powell (that's her to the right), regarding doings of military intelligence.
What a bunch of jokers capturing too much media space, but this ignominious ending of the Pillow Guy's ranting is worthy of retelling.

The second topic is my UFO series, which began on Wednesday. To repeat:

The first official government report on UFOs was conducted by the U.S. Air Force, released in 1969 and called Project Blue Book. Of the 12,618 sightings, 701 were identified as unidentified.
In 1994 the Air Force also completed a study related to the 1947 Roswell incident. Conclusion: the items were consistent with a crashed balloon. No alien bodies and no extraterrestrial materials.

Today, Part 2, the U.S. government's report on UFOs:

Senator Marco Rubio was instrumental in the commissioning of the report.
Released to Congress a week ago, this was a preliminary assessment.
Only nine pages long.

Compiled by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence created by the Pentagon last year.
Previously, all government reports debunked and discredited UFOs going back to the 1940's.
Covered 144 observations going back to 2004, and in 143 of them, found that too little data existed to make any conclusions. The 144th was a deflating balloon.
Five potential explanatory categories were established:

airborne clutter
natural atmospheric phenomena
government and industrial development programs
foreign adversary systems
"other"
Pentagon will formalize this task force mission.

What the report did not do was rule out extraterrestrial origin. That is a first. However, there was no statement about that link. When asked, one of the officials said:

That's not the purpose of the task force, to evaluate any sort of search for extraterrestrial life. ... That's not what we were charged with doing.

However, flying saucer believers should not necessarily celebrate. Your federal government just said the same thing using different words.

One development caught my attention. Earlier this week, Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb got a call that he was getting some new research money, which was followed by a billionaire visiting him at home to talk about aliens. Said Loeb: Never have I ever seen a situation where a faculty member gets funding without looking for it and even meeting the donor.

This new effort has a name, the Galileo Project. It's relatively simple: establish a network of small telescopes around the world to watch the skies in hopes of capturing something weird, Currently funded at $1.755 million, none from the federal government, some of his rich contributors include William Linton, founder of a biotech firm, who is also into researching magic mushrooms, and Frank Laukien, who has a scientific instruments company.

Loeb first got interested in this topic only in 2017 when asteroid Oumuamua passed by Planet Earth. Discovered through a Halemaumau Crater telescope on Maui, a Hawaiian name was bestowed, meaning scout or messenger. It looked and behaved in unusual ways that Loeb thought could be some kind of extraterrestrial craft, and wrote a book on the subject: Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth. I have an uncomfortable feeling that he has joined the ranks of the believers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average broke its all time record for the third straight day, rising 15 to 35,515.

Shifting subjects, I received in my email something from Dekanta that stunned me. According to their site, thirty customers have purchased this whisky. I've had that bottle for a decade or so now in Compass Rose of the Tokyo Westin Hotel:

Now I need to spend a couple of nights here to finish the bottle. Note in the mirror a reflection of me taking this photo. My next global adventure will skip Japan, but I'm thinking about another one that will begin in the Fall of 2022. Across the street is Robuchon's, which also needs to be visited.

I'll close with a birthday dinner. 15 Craigside is reacting to the Delta variant, and last night was our last supper in our dining room, at least until the end of the month, and maybe for the rest of the year. Beginning breakfast today, they are delivering our food to our apartment. Bob and I have birthdays one day apart in September. So we celebrated last night:

Our combined ages add up to 174. We were both born in the year of the Dragon. With that information you should be able to calculate our ages next month. Did some research and found that the dobash cake, also known as doberge and dobosh, was created at Brennan's Steakhouse in New Orleans.

Monday, September 14, 2020

DOES DONALD TRUMP HATE OLD PEOPLE?

From Worldometer, COVID-19 new deaths:

DAY USA WORLD Brazil India South Africa

June 9 1093 4732 1185 246 82

July 19 412 4606 715 675 85

22 1205 7128 1293 1120 572

26 450 4307 556 715 114
Aug 1 1462 6429 1191 765 193
3 467 4430 514 514 213

5 1362 6292 1394 849 345

10 534 4813 593 1013 198
12 1504 6556 1242 835 130
16 522 4525 582 961 162
18 1358 6312 1365 1089 280

24 510 4356 679 854 100

25 1290 5856 1215 1066 149

30 369 4182 398 960 47
Sept 3 1094 5886 830 1083 174
4 1033 5814 855 1066 115
5 707 4822 646 1044 101
6 432 4129 456 1008 110
8 496 4477 516 1107 82
9 1208 6222 1136 1168 82
10 1090 5988 922 1213 97
13 392 3905 389 1140 20

Summary: This novel coronavirus pandemic is going away. Hooray, right? Well, come back tomorrow.

When you throw into the pot what Donald Trump, FOX News, Russia and a whole range of conservative sources say about anything--COVID-19, social justice, economy, environment and voting--compared to Joe Biden, most news organizations and the sensible masses, you wonder if, somehow, two parallel universes have merged. Fake news are becoming campaign ads, many are sheep and who really knows what is really the truth.

Here are some facts regarding Trump-Clinton in 2016:

Let me select just one segment: 44% of voters over the age of 65 voted for Clinton, 53% for Trump. So if some attempt is made to spread rumors that DONALD TRUMP HATES OLD PEOPLE, and those 65 and older feel insulted, subsequently reversing these numbers on November 3, that alone could make the key difference on who becomes president. By just asking that question posed by this posting, am I immorally spreading fake news? Not really, if I provide supporting evidence. Frankly, I don't find much, but surely, in Trump's mind there are some thoughts that seniors are more expendable than our youth, if choices had to be made. Turns out, it doesn't really matter, for, according to this source, Joe Biden holds a six-point edge among seniors in battleground states. Hmm, what happened to that page? No matter, for last week VOX reported something similar.

But old people will this year, because of COVID-19, mostly vote by mail. According to Fareed Zakaria (this 5-minute clip shows the following data--it's chilling!!) in his TV show yesterday, 87% of Trump voters will actually vote on November 3 (19% plan to use the mail--these are maybe tallies, so they don't add up to 100%). Only 47% (69% considering the mail) will show up for Biden that day. If the U.S. Post Office slows down the mailing process, most of these votes will not be counted until days, if not weeks, after November 3.

That being the case, Zakaria showed a possible MOST LIKELY result on election night, where only 15% of mail-in votes were counted. On election night, the electoral vote result would be:

Biden: 130
Trump: 408

Four days later, with 75% of mail-in votes counted:

Biden: 280
Trump: 258

Weeks later, with 100% mail-in votes counted:

Biden: 334
Trump: 204

You say, so what, Biden will win. Not necessarily. Zakaria indicated that Trump could anticipate all this (as actually happened in 2018 when he lost the House) and have Republican governors stop counting after election evening. He would surely by then be ahead in Florida, Arizona and a number of other states. The Democrats would take this to court and the Supreme Court could well side with Trump. It's possible that even the House could be flipped under this scenario. Then the U.S. Congress will make Trump president for life, as has happened in China and Russia. Something to lose some sleep over.

Oh, about Mike Bloomberg and his $100 million contribution to get Biden elected in Florida. It's too late now, but this will get other billionaires to, without so announcing, neutralize that effort for Trump. There are 540 billionaires in the USA and more are Republicans. Their ads will simply say Bloomberg is trying to buy the state of Florida for Biden, and that should rile up enough voters to give Trump the advantage. What Bloomberg should do, and without telling anyone, is place additional $100 million packages to half a dozen other battlegrounds states.

This is a good a time as any to clear out my desktop of Trump stuff:

Got give Mike Lindell some credit, though. Sure he is a crack addict, and continued though the early days of his MyPillow empire. But he says he's clean today and sells $300 million/year of his products. Of course, California authorities sued his company for making unsubstantiated health claims and the Better Business Bureau gives him an F rating. He is, if you think about it, just like Donald Trump. Oh, I did buy one of his pillows and still use it, but only because you can wash it. When did you last wash your pillow?

I originally wanted to keep this posting short by focusing only on Trump vs Senior Citizens, but got carried away. So one more:

The Walking Eagle

Trump was invited to address a major gathering of the American Indian Nation.

He spoke for almost an hour about his plans for increasing every Native American's present standard of living.

He referred to how he had supported every Native American issue that came to the news media.

Although Mr. Trump was vague about the details of his plans, he seemed most enthusiastic, and spoke eloquently about his ideas for helping his "red sisters and brothers.”

At the conclusion of his speech, the Tribes presented him with a plaque inscribed with his new Indian name, "Walking Eagle."

The proud Mr. Trump accepted the plaque and then departed, in his motorcade, to a fundraiser, waving to the crowds.

A news reporter later asked the group of chiefs how they came to select the new name they had given to Trump. They explained that "Walking Eagle" is the name given to a bird so full of shit it can no longer fly.

However, checked the reality of this story, and Snopes discredited it. So much for this fake news posting.

Hurricane Sally is slowing down, which is bad, and could reach Category 3 strength. The eye is now expected to miss New Orleans and make landfall around the Mississippi-Alabama border near Gulfport. As much as two feet of rain can be expected, and the storm surge will be damaging.

I've never seen this before, but, in addition to Sally, there are six other active and looming hurricanes in the Atlantic/Gulf:

Teddy should become a hurricane, and the next two will be named Vicky, then Wilfred. Subsequently from the Greek alphabet. When did you last see that? Only once, 2005, when Katrina devastated New Orleans. That year, after Wilma came Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. If you want to read the list, click on that graphic.

The thought of Hurricane Katrina is unnerving, but Karina is today strengthening off Mexico and heading in the general direction of Hawaii:

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

MORE ENERGY MATTERS...and SMARTMATIC

One more thing about the Fox embarrassment, having essentially to admit guilt and paying Dominion almost $0.8 billion, there is that other Smartmatic suit seeking $2.7 billion. Smartmatic is a rival of Dominion in voting machines. The case is similar, seeking more money, and will proceed into a New York state court. However, while Fox can settle earlier if it so seeks, the trial will not occur until next year. From all reports, Smartmatic has more to expose.

Smartmatic is based in London and their machines were only used in Los Angeles County. For some reason, the Trump-people focused on them especially. Not only is the company suing Fox, but also Rudy Giuliani, OANN, Newsmax, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Sidney Powell. And, of course yes, Dominion still has suits pending against most of them. These judgements will seal the future usage of voting machines from these companies, until online voting takes over, which should be soon.

Did this last week, and will do it again. A summary of interesting news about the field of energy from Energy Matters.

A week ago I indicated that Hawaii is one of the finalist in the $7 billion Hydrogen Hub competition.

I did not mention that there are 22 other finalists.
However, the odds are not 1 in 22, for there will be 10 regional clean energy hubs across America.
Apparently, the legislation provided $8 billion.

Earth Day is this Saturday, April 22.

U.S. natural gas consumption reached the lowest rate of consumption for January and February since 2017.

Over the past 20 years, the mining industry has usually expended expansion capital spending close to 20%. This is now down to 10%. The industry is distributing dividend to shareholders, not investing in greener mining projects.

Top 2022 installers of onshore (land) wind energy in megawatt (a nuclear power plant is nominally 1000 MW):

#1 China 32,579
#2 USA 8,612
#3 Brazil 4065
#4 Sweden/Finland//Germany....all around 2,400
That pie chart represents total installed wind turbine power.

Did you know that, in addition to the Hoover Dam, there are hundreds of other hydroelectric dams along the Colorado River and tributaries, with a combined total of 4,178 MW (half from Hoover Dam) providing power for 7 million people? This is 53% of the total renewable energy supply in the West. However, the river level is at a historic low. Decisions will soon be made on who gets what. Let's see how output increases with the melting of considerable snow which fell this winter.

THE NEXT TWO ENTRIES ARE STARTLING.

Not exactly energy, but it is interesting to note that reported is the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

This is a defense organization similar to NATO.
Founders: China and Russia.
Original members include Kazakhstan and India (which will next chair the organization), with Krygyzstan, Tajistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan applying to join.
Dialogue is occurring with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Bahrain, UAE and Kuwait.

Global carbon dioxide emissions reached 417 parts per million, an increase of 2 ppm, the 11th straight year of increases above 2 ppm. Scarily, carbon dioxide is 50% higher and methane 250% greater than pre-industrial era levels.

Okay, we just arrived in Avatoru, Rangiroa on Day 42 of our 53-day cruise on the Seabourn Odyssey. We were yesterday in Fakarava, Tuamotu (right):

Called Mother Nature's ultimate sanctuary. All these island have some sort of inflated PR tag.
Designated by UNESCO as a Biosphere Preserve.
800 residents, with a Catholic church.

View from our veranda is not as picturesque.