Repairing the Infrastructure

[BaltACD]

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But why?  I'm not saying that further focused education past high school isn't needed, but what does a 4 year liberal arts degree do for a soldier?  The Army Command and General Staff College and the like are needed for senior staff and are focused on courses that directly pertain to the military. They are like high class trade schools. Just like pilots get type ratings and such.  But to need a degree just to have one is stupid and a waste of time and money.

The four year degree indicates two things to a potential employer.  The holder of a degree can be educated.  The holder of the degree can perservere through all the obsticals that life and the educational system can put in their way to obtain the degree - the person is goal orinted.

To my mind an 'involved' trade school that truly challenges the individual to master the skills of the trade, while offering the individual every opportuity to fail, with trade school taking a year or more has many similarities to a college education.

A individual I supervised when he was a trainman over the period of several years was promoted to several non-contract official positions.  He would work those positions for a period of 6 to 8 months and then quit and go back on his seniority as a trainman.  I never figured out what his goals were - and I don't believe he ever did either.

[Backshop]

BaltACD

 

 

The four year degree indicates two things to a potential employer.  The holder of a degree can be educated.  The holder of the degree can perservere through all the obsticals that life and the educational system can put in their way to obtain the degree - the person is goal orinted.

 

They got you brainwashed too.  You get an education if you need it for doing the job.  Spending tens of thousands of dollars to show that you can "persevere" is idiotic.  Aren't you one of the ones who always denigrates the management personnel who come straight out of college and don't have a clue to what they are doing and won't listen?  Maybe an "in-house" program for the people with the right aptitude would work better.

Here's another little fact.  Any pilot will tell you that flying a helicopter is much harder than a fixed wing.  Yet, most Army pilots are straight out of high school and do a great job.  Why?  Because the have aptitude, intelligence and desire.

[BaltACD]

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BaltACD 

The four year degree indicates two things to a potential employer.  The holder of a degree can be educated.  The holder of the degree can perservere through all the obsticals that life and the educational system can put in their way to obtain the degree - the person is goal orinted. 

They got you brainwashed too.  You get an education if you need it for doing the job.  Spending tens of thousands of dollars to show that you can "persevere" is idiotic.  Aren't you one of the ones who always denigrates the management personnel who come straight out of college and don't have a clue to what they are doing and won't listen?  Maybe an "in-house" program for the people with the right aptitude would work better. 

Here's another little fact.  Any pilot will tell you that flying a helicopter is much harder than a fixed wing.  Yet, most Army pilots are straight out of high school and do a great job.  Why?  Because the have aptitude, intelligence and desire.

I am a product of both a college degree and being on a company's in house training program for management.  My last several years of college were financed by my working full time, while attending school full time - and in college I also pointed out some of the fallicies of what was being taught by the 'ivory tower theorists' and what I observed in the ranks of working day in and day out.  I am a firm believer that theory is great - until it meets reality, then adjustments are necessary.  Just like every boxer has a game plan - until he gets hit by the first punch, then the game plan has to be adjusted.

Through my career I observed some college grads that 'had it' and more that didn't.  Some of those that didn't, didn't last long, others learned from their mistakes and developed into individuals to be admired.  The biggest mistake ANYONE can make is to believe they don't make mistakes.  

[blue streak 1]

There is a looming problem of infrastructure repair for the states of CT, MA, RI, and to a lesser extent VT & NH.   Have no idea how much is for public construction but private home owners are in the front line of the problem.  It appears that the  agregate used in concrete in those locations had a form of iron sulfide in it that is now showing rst and the concfrete is spaling.  Ct already has a $100M fund for homeowners but nothing is being said about public problems.

Now if the problem is spreading to infrastructure projects ? ?

https://www.finehomebuilding.com/2016/05/17/failing-concrete-foundations-linked-aggregate 

[Shadow the Cats owner]

Some of the dumbest people I've ever met have ever had the pleasure of dealing with have a 4 year degree from a college. Some of the smartest people I have ever worked with barely have a high school diploma.  Some of the college educated people I've worked with they need instructions to pour pee from a boot with instructions on a heel. 

The last FMCSA person I dealt with on the phone 2 weeks ago comes to mind very fast. He couldn't figure out why our 1984 KW spotter driver still runs a paper logbook. He went that's illegal and I'm going to fine your carrier. I then had to recite the regulation to him that the ELD requirements were a 2000 and newer engine that had OBD2 diagnosis capacity. I went the truck in question in has zero computers at all it has no ABS computer nothing like that. 

[charlie hebdo]

Shadow the Cats owner

Some of the dumbest people I've ever met have ever had the pleasure of dealing with have a 4 year degree from a college. Some of the smartest people I have ever worked with barely have a high school diploma.  Some of the college educated people I've worked with they need instructions to pour pee from a boot with instructions on a heel. 

The last FMCSA person I dealt with on the phone 2 weeks ago comes to mind very fast. He couldn't figure out why our 1984 KW spotter driver still runs a paper logbook. He went that's illegal and I'm going to fine your carrier. I then had to recite the regulation to him that the ELD requirements were a 2000 and newer engine that had OBD2 diagnosis capacity. I went the truck in question in has zero computers at all it has no ABS computer nothing like that. 

 

Purely anecdotal and consider the source.  In general, higher IQ correlates quite well with more years of education, military training success, highly complex job performance, among other things and not well with low complexity jobs.

[Gramp]

"And did we tell you the name of the game, boy?

We call it Riding the Gravy Train."

 Pink Floyd - Have a Cigar

[MidlandMike]

In my area, with a shortage of skilled workers, companies are sponsoring students at intermediate school districts (I guess the modern equivalent of trade schools) to learn welding, machinist skills, diesel mechanics,  construction, etc.  Community colleges are also getting into the act.

[charlie hebdo]

In Illinois,  voc-tech is a major emphasis in community colleges. 

[Paul Milenkovic]

charlie hebdo

 

 

Paul Milenkovic

 But on balance, health care in the U.S. is head-and-shoulders above what is the standard almost anywhere else on the planet, including in our First World trading partners with good public transportation.

You do indeed get what you pay for, especially what you choose to pay for, and in the U.S., for better or worse, we have made different choices.  In advocating for passenger trains, the standard response is we could choose to pay less for a gold-plated military.  We could also choose to spend less on health care, as just about every other country does.

 

 

 

 

I suggest you speak with people who live in Germany and healthcare professionals and not generalize a remark from the UK about the Cologuard product. 

 

Two different countries.  NHS in England offers a less "gold plated" colonoscopy -- do you have evidence to the contrary?  Europe (in the form of the "EU" functions as a super nation state) is not a place where you can get the less-invasive Cologuard test -- the CEO of Exact Sciences, Madison, WI is the source of this information -- again, is he speaking an untruth?

As to alleged ignorance of the health-care system in German, I offer

https://mtrconsult.com/news/organized-colorectal-cancer-screening-program-started-germany

The "iFOBT" screening test is not in the same category of effectiveness as Cologuard.

There are tradeoffs in where different countries apply resources.  Transportation infrastructure is one.  Health care is another.  We can argue about outcomes and higher life expectancy and lower hospital infection rates among countries, but per-capita expenditure on health care is by far the highest in the U.S..  Do you have other data on this?

[BaltACD]

MidlandMike

In my area, with a shortage of skilled workers, companies are sponsoring students at intermediate school districts (I guess the modern equivalent of trade schools) to learn welding, machinist skills, diesel mechanics,  construction, etc.  Community colleges are also getting into the act.

Took a welding course at the local community college last year - I was the oldest by about 40 years with the students and 20 years with the instructor.  I have no intentions of being a professional welder, but I did want to have a working proficiency with the process.  When it comes to doing structural welding on my race car I know my limits and will pay experienced fabricators to work their magic.

My son is a fabricator by trade having been through motorsports fabrication cirriculum at a junior college in North Carolina and worked in NASCAR as a fabricator for several years.  He is truly a magician with thin gauge metal.

[CMStPnP]

JPS1

Many of the immigrants that come across the Texas border, which is close to where I live, work in lawn care or other menial tasks. 

I hope your not talking about the Dallas area because there are a substantial number in house construction..........qualified or not.    I built my home in 1999 and the crew was almost entirely newly immigrant.    One reason I paid $142k for a house that would have cost $320k in the Midwest.   Also, Collin County has some rule in place where they fine builders for uninsured medical claims from recent immigrant or they push the medical care to Parkland (which to me does not seem to be legal so I might not be understanding the program correctly).     Perhaps there are a multitude in lawn care as well but construction has it's share.

Interesting most landscape firms will no longer cut grass or fix sprinklers anymore since it is so low skill and so many other people are doing that now.   They have essentially lost that market to low ball estimates.

[CMStPnP]

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Here's another little fact.  Any pilot will tell you that flying a helicopter is much harder than a fixed wing.  Yet, most Army pilots are straight out of high school and do a great job.  Why?  Because the have aptitude, intelligence and desire.

I might add that American Airlines has just recently opened it's Commercial Pilots Training program to high school students following the lead of several foreign airlines as well.   American previously had an Army Helo Pilot to Commercial Pilot training program, not sure if they still do.    Seems the future demand of pilots have caused the Airlines to rethink the whole college degree requirement.

"Some of the dumbest people I've ever met have ever had the pleasure of dealing with have a 4 year degree from a college."

I have seen this as well and even now from IVY League schools as well.   Used to be an IVY League school was a specific benchmark in which you could expect a base level of intellect....liberals ruined it with their social equality programs.   I remember a Master Degree holder from Wharton that GM hired.   She was so stupid, EDS was able to support her with someone with a bachelors from the University of Florida that knew SAS better than her.    GM kept her around though because she was in multiple protected classes but would never let her produce anything without supervision.

I am happy with my Finance Degree and have used it for managing Finances and planning for retirement as well.   It's paid for itself many times over.........actually shouldn't say that since I got it largely free via the Army College Fund.

 

[daveklepper]

Many postings back I was asked how "I" intended to implement my ideas.  My answer is that if I were responsible, I would be willing to learn how, and studying the listed projects, a majority of which were quite controversial at one time or another, would help me learn how.  But I do know that education of the work-force in general, and specifically immigrants, is extremely imiportant, so the discussion has remained relevant.  I can think of several people more competent to administer my program than I am.  Bill Vigrass for one.  He would also be great at running Amtrak.

Maybe Federal money should reward freight railroads for just putting up with the nuisence if running Amtrak trains---   By finding out just what the difficulties are in keeping those Amtrak trains on-time and fixing the problems, which will also improve those railroad's freight-train performance,

[CMStPnP]

daveklepper

Maybe Federal money should reward freight railroads for just putting up with the nuisence if running Amtrak trains---

Or fix their track infrastructure so they can run multi-speed trains instead of trying to mimic a slow moving pipeline.

[daveklepper]

And again, how can the USA and Canada convert the problem of illegal immigrants into an asset?

Education and then a massive repair and update program would appear an answer.

Reverberation was for years considered a liabilitiy by many acoustical designers, although loved my musicians.  The music director and the clergy were in conflict over the issue in many cases.  But thinking "outside the box" brought an answer, and  two British engineers, Parkin and Taylior, were first to apply it at St. Paul's Cathedral, London.  From one of my papers at the website www.proaudioenclyclopedia.com   (With references and figures)

Wallace Clement Sabine is considered the "father of modern architectural acoustics," and Boston's Symphony Hall the well-loved monument to his work.  He developed the reverberation time formula and used it in the design of that hall.  For many years reverberation time, T₆₀, was considered by far the most important room-acoustics metric, complimenting attention to noise control and sound isolation for successful assembly space design.  L. L. Beranek proved that many post-WWII halls did not meet their design goals because audience sound-absorption was underestimated, with more comfortable and more widely-spaced seats.  He proved that the audience sound-absorption should be based on seating area, not the number of seats.

 

    Based on the Sabine’s pioneering work, criteria for speech acoustics give one set of criteria for optimum reverberation times for different halls’ volumes, for orchestral music a higher set, and for choral and organ music a still higher set.  The subjective quality of clarity was believed dependent entirely on the inverse of reverberation time for particular sized halls.  Dr. Beranek’s work on chair and audience absorption did not modift that design approach.

 

   The work of P. H. Parkin and J. H. Taylor challenged this assumption regarding speech in 1952 by introducing the concept of the Direct-to-Reverberant sound energy ratio.  At St. Paul's Cathedral, London, the direct sound came from a loudspeaker system that both minimized the amount of reverberant energy and also closely matched time of arrival at listener's ears with direct sound from the preacher's voice.  Others including W. Reichardt, U. Lehmann, A.C. Gade, J. H. Rindel, J. S. Bradley, L. G. Marshall, modified the idea to the Early-to-Reverberant ratio, because all early sound (in nearly all real situations) contributes to subjective clarity. They found 50 ms the statistically valid dividing point between early and late for speech and 80 ms. for music.  Thus, arose the abbreviation C₈₀ for an acoustic metric Clarity in evaluating music acoustics and C₅₀ for speech.

 

    W. Reichardt and U. Lehmann wrote the following as an English Language summary to a 1974 German language paper:

 

   "As is to be expected, there is a significant negative correlation between room impression R and Clarity C. The correlation factor, r_CR, is, however, only -0.77.  Therefore, these two quantities, R and C, must be separately defined, calculated and measured. The reverberation time leads to a certain anticipated value. The initial reflections lead, however, to significant deviations from this anticipated value. These deviations, as opposed to the statistical distribution of sound in a room, give a reason for the good and poor seating positions in an auditorium.

 

   "It is possible to enhance both room impression and clarity when reflections arrive at the ear, either laterally, or from the ceiling or the rear wall with a delay of 25 to 80ms.  The pairs of values of R (RT) and C₈₀ in real concert halls group themselves around equal values of the ratios, f_stat of statistical energy arriving from the front to ambient statistical energy for different reverberation times. Although the reverberation time in a room is a constant we see that for different ratios of frontal to ambient energy containing, as they do, the reflected energy, this is subjectively equivalent to a variation in reverberation time in the middle of the auditorium the frontal energy is higher and the impression clearer than would be expected on statistical distribution of energy grounds."⁴

 

 In the summer of 1954, the Boston Diocese wished to end the practice of renting sound systems, and contacted DeNambro Radio and Supply for a proposal.  DeNambro then asked BBN for a system design.  Dr. Leo Beranek had heard of the St. Paul Cathedral installation, and worked with DeNambro to design and install a test system based on the St. Paul design.  No addition of sound-absorbing material for reverberation-time reduction was permitted because of the musical requirements, a situation similar t0o that at London's St. Paul.  The system’s basic design,,,, (was repeated in)   ....the system that was finally installed thirty-five years later...

 

   In the autumn of 1954, Dr. Beranek's M.I.T. Electroacoustics class became the test subjects for the test system’s intelligibility testing.  (The author was in the class.)  The experiment was a success, but for whatever reason, the Diocese decided not to proceed with a permanent installation at the time.

 

      After joining Bolt Beranek and Newman on 1 May 1957, the first opportunity I had to apply this idea was at Westfield, New Jersey’s First Methodist Church.  Wilma Jensen was the church’s Organist and Music Director, and she hoped that intelligibility could be improved without adding sound-absorption to reduce the reverberation time.  The church had both a new Aeolian Skinner organ and a new sound system.  The latter used ten Altec (Western-Electric-designed) 755A loudspeakers five along each side wall, causing more reverberation than clarity.  Upon my recommendation, these were replaced by one Altec multicellular horn, aimed to avoid sound-energy toward sound-reflecting wall and ceiling surfaces and to evenly cover the congregation, and so increase the ratio of early-to-reverberant sound energy.  (Now) ... “my” muticellular horn has been replaced by a curved-line-source loud-speaker system, capable of wide-frequency-response music reinforcement as well as speech, but still providing the directional control of amplified energy that the multicellular horn did.

 

Vist the website of the acoustical consultant Dan Clayton, Clayton Acoustics (no finaincial arrangement with me) and see some recent applcations of the idea.  Or I can provide a list of my own projects done 1957-1996.

So the clergy and the music director don't have to quarrel, and the acoustics needs of both can be met.

May the illegal immigration problem also have a useful solutioh.

[Shadow the Cats owner]

The problem with illegal immigration is twofold.  First they do take jobs away from people that could work them and suppress the local wage structure in things such as the trades and farm labor.  2nd since most of them work for cash only they also get Federal welfare benefits for their families which is a further drain on the taxpayers in the terms of higher spending by the government to take care of them.  They also cause issues in the education system as their childern require ESL classes that require more money to be spent and higher property taxes.  Then throw in the healthcare costs and other problems they bring in and they cost overall close to according to estimates 500 Billion a year in economic damage to the economy.  

[Backshop]

Here are two things to think about concerning current immigration...

1. As long as the focus is on the illegal immigrants themselves and not on the businesses that hire them, the problem won't go away.

2. I've done just a little bit of research and becoming a citizen nowadays is much harder and more expensive than it was when the majority of our ancestors came through Ellis Island.  People in the working or lower middle class, who could be productive members of society, can't afford it.

[charlie hebdo]

Shadow the Cats owner

The problem with illegal immigration is twofold.  First they do take jobs away from people that could work them and suppress the local wage structure in things such as the trades and farm labor.  2nd since most of them work for cash only they also get Federal welfare benefits for their families which is a further drain on the taxpayers in the terms of higher spending by the government to take care of them.  They also cause issues in the education system as their childern require ESL classes that require more money to be spent and higher property taxes.  Then throw in the healthcare costs and other problems they bring in and they cost overall close to according to estimates 500 Billion a year in economic damage to the economy.  

 

Your post is full of errors. If illegals are paid cash,  they aren't getting benefits.  Document what you claimed or stop posting your nativist,  right wing agitprop. Perhaps you are a Russian bot? 

[BaltACD]

DING DING DING - we have a winner!

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Here are two things to think about concerning current immigration...

1. As long as the focus is on the illegal immigrants themselves and not on the businesses that hire them, the problem won't go away.

2. I've done just a little bit of research and becoming a citizen nowadays is much harder and more expensive than it was when the majority of our ancestors came through Ellis Island.  People in the working or lower middle class, who could be productive members of society, can't afford it.

[daveklepper]

What about re-establilshing a path to citizenship by serving in the military?

[tdmidget]

daveklepper

What about re-establilshing a path to citizenship by serving in the military?

 

 

We have that now.

[Backshop]

daveklepper

What about re-establilshing a path to citizenship by serving in the military?

 

That's available but the vast majority of immigrants aren't males in their late teens, early 20s.

[BaltACD]

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daveklepper

What about re-establilshing a path to citizenship by serving in the military? 

That's available but the vast majority of immigrants aren't males in their late teens, early 20s.

The current administration is doing their best to disavow this path and punish the families of those who have sought it out.

[CMStPnP]

BaltACD

The current administration is doing their best to disavow this path and punish the families of those who have sought it out.

I think you might be referring to the MANVI program which was a brand new GWOT "accelerated" program where legal immigrants that had foreign language skills could serve in the military intelligence branch as interpreters to gain citizenship in a single enlistment. 

https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/what-is-mavni-information-for-designated-school-officials

  The problem around it was we had a past utopian administration that relaxed the security measures around the program and when General Mattis became SecDef he just about mimic'd Mt Vesuius with his emotional eruption (rumor).    The program was revised immediately, those without proper security credentials were sent packing (unfortunate).    Probably a little knee-jerk reaction but I have no idea what he saw at his level as SecDef........whatever it was, freaked him out.     I think MANVI is still around but I am not sure they are recruiting people off the street for it anymore and the rules have been tightened quite a bit.

The path to citizenship via Military service however has existed since at least the 1980's and continues to do so and Green Card holders can enlist freely under the program even today....I don't think that ever was restricted.

[JOHN PRIVARA]

We've got good enough infrastructure.

I suspect most people complain about "infrastructure" only when they're stuck in traffic commuting.

In THOSE cases the "complaint" isn't really about "infrastructure". It could actually be rephrased as:

Why don't "they" widen this road so I can get to work ASAP; and if you have to wipe-out miles of peasant hovels to do it I don't care because people who live next to a road are nothing but losers and deserve what they get!

Otherwise, the "infrastructure" seems pretty good when it's not commute time.

[JOHN PRIVARA]

Shadow the Cats owner

The problem with illegal immigration is twofold.  First they do take jobs away from people that could work them and suppress the local wage structure in things such as the trades and farm labor.  2nd ...

Not sure about everything beyond "2nd" but the "1st" item - wage "competition" - has been used by the management-class since there's been a management-class.

In the 50's companies moved to "the south" to avoid union labor (remember the "look for the union label" song that the Libertarians used to laugh at so hard).  Then they moved to the south-west,  then (with "free" trade) companies moved TO Mexico (and Asia) to escape paying US wages.  If I recall, there was supposed to have been an Asian "free" trade agreement that sorta got delayed for a few years until the monied-class regains some control over their government again.

So,  it would seem the problem isn't JUST illegal (or legal) immigration.  It's generally the people in the top 20% (those who make hiring decisions) would rather have cheap labor than a healthy peasant class (ie the bottom 80%).   

Personally,  I know I've benefitted from US companies kicking our peasant class into the gutter (and our government allowing it).  Everybody with a 401k wants that thing to go up-n-up-n-up.   The EASIEST way is cheap labor.   

 

[NKP guy]

daveklepper

What about re-establilshing a path to citizenship by serving in the military?

 

Two thoughts come to mind:

1.  In the early days of the Roman Republic only patricians could serve in the army, on the supposition that plebeians and foreigners had not much or nothing to lose and therefore wouldn't fight hard.  I like this idea.  Let's draft only the sons and daughters of the rich and well-connected into the military.

2.  One of my grandfathers was a brand-new immigrant from Russian-occupied Poland when he joined the US Marine Corps in 1908 for a four year stint because he knew he could become a citizen (as he did) upon his discharge.  He couldn't speak English, at least for a while. He faked singing the "Star Spangled Banner" by learning it phonetically.  He was part of the Nicaraguan Expeditionary Force and wounded there at the Battle of Leon. He became a model US citizen.

   I'm aware these two ideas are in contradiction.

[zardoz]

JOHN PRIVARA

We've got good enough infrastructure......Otherwise, the "infrastructure" seems pretty good when it's not commute time.

Well, not exactly: https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/02/us/2018-structurally-deficient-bridges-trnd/index.html

https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

 

[York1]

In most states, "structural deficiency" is defined about the same.  The following is taken from Colorado, but is nearly identical in most states:

 

"What is a "structurally deficient" structure?

Structurally deficient means there are elements of the structure that need to be monitored and/or repaired. The fact that a structure is "structurally deficient" does not imply that it is likely to collapse or that it is unsafe. It means the structure must be monitored, inspected and repaired/replaced at an appropriate time to maintain its structural integrity. To remain open to traffic, structurally deficient structures may be posted, if necessary, with reduced weight limits that restrict the gross weight of vehicles using the structures. If unsafe conditions are identified during a physical inspection, the structure must be closed."  [emphasis added]

 

https://www.codot.gov/programs/BridgeEnterprise/BridgeFAQs