The best way to fall asleep

Two brothers are sitting at the kitchen table with their parents.
The mother asks the oldest:
“What would you like to have for breakfast?”
The boy says:
“I like to have fuckin’ French toast”.
The mother gets upset by this reply and slaps the boy in his face, once, twice, three times.
Than his father takes off his belt and hits the son in a way he never forgets.
When the harsh punishment is all over the mother asks the youngest son:
“And what would you like to have for breakfast?”
This boy replies:
“I’m sure I am not going to ask for fuckin’ French toast”.

Are we in the good mood now?
A good joke extends life three days.

This is why before to fall asleep the comedy channel of XM Radio is listened to.
Sometimes it happens a real good comedian makes the aspiring sleeper roll around in his bed of laughter.
What better way to enter the land of the thousand dreams, no?

But these days the option is not available.
The Fuso Szulc is equipped with special marine XM antennas.


Inside is not only a coil that serves as the receptor.
But also an amplifier to boost the strength of the satellite signal.
In this way it is possible to receive here in Mexico XM radio.


But for a week now, the signal weakens at the end of the day.
And already during the preparation of dinner, a fantastic moment to listen to the radio, it has become impossible to hear the XM radio programs.
The sound comes and go and on the screen of the XM receiver one sees only one bar for quality of reception.
A bar that goes on and off.

This poor reception continues all the way until it is bedtime.
And therefore no jokes as a lullaby.

But then in the morning we have two bars on the screen and reception is fine.
To listen to DJ Vincent Caruso and his excellent choice of classical music.

Somewhere it was read that reception with an XM antenna would improve if the base was of metal.
So, an aluminum foil platform was handymanned and put around the base of the XM antenna.



Any improvement?
No, not at all but thank you for the effort.

Fortunately the Sony XR-CA640X radio on board the Fuso Szulc is equipped with short wave band.
This radio is owned for at least 5 years and was specially ordered from Abu Dhabi.
Served first in the Summerwind truck camper.
Was used in the pre-satellite days to listen to the BBC, the radio from the Netherlands and the Voice of America through short wave stations.
But now the XM satellite radio being unavailable in the evening, it has been discovered that all those radio stations that used to be on the short wave have disappeared.
Probably because these days hardly anybody still listens to short wave because of Internet available.

The only radio stations left on the short wave are of religious American organizations.
Still spraying their holy propaganda to the few who have been stuck technically in time.

It is not advisable to fall asleep listening to an American preacher threatening with Bible texts.
To hear we are all sinners and will end up in hell if we don’t follow his words and please send your money order to...

The reason XM satellite radio has bad reception part of the day this time of year may have to do with atmospheric circumstances.
Because reception has been excellent in the recent past.

So now falling asleep is while listening to the waves of the Pacific Ocean.
Pacific like a good joke.

Communism in the USA

It is a fact now.
Yesterday the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) approved the merger of satellite radio companies Sirius and XM.

It was a 3-2 decision.
To notice is that the 3 in favour were Republicans and the 2 opposed were Democrats.

The President Bush appointee Kevin Martin, Chairman of the FCC claimed:

"I think it's going to be, in the end, a good thing for consumers and be in the public interest".

Critical and alert fervent and loyal blog readers will notice especially three words in this statement:
“…in the end…”
Kevin Martin is already putting up his defences for when contrary to all promises satellite radio is going to be more expensive.

Because now it has become a monopoly.
It has become a take it or leave it situation for the customers.
A situation every entrepreneur only dreams of.

The reality is that it is not a merger at all.
The fact is that Sirius eliminates competition by buying out XM.
This costs $ 3.3 billion (€ 2,1 billion) and we may wonder where that money comes from and where it goes.
For sure the XM subscribers will not see one penny of those $ 3.3 billion.
And the only way for Sirius to regain those $ 3.3 billion is by charging more to the 18 million-plus customers for the exclusive services they are the only one now offering.

We should expect that not much will change for the next three years.
Because Sirius voluntarily agreed to a set of conditions, including a three-year price cap and an 8 percent set-aside of "full-time audio channels" for public interest and minority programming.

Again critical and alert fervent and loyal blog readers see one word shining in that promise.
“…voluntarily…”
It is therefore a promise worth nothing.
If they raise prices next year, who will stop them?

Democratic FCC-commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said after the vote:

" I hope they keep their edge and don't become a fat and happy monopoly."

That is very naive but much to the point.
Because in the USA, satellite radio is now organized like in a Communist State.
And we all know how that works in a devastating way imploding eventually the business.

It is a fact that both Sirius and XM were never profitable businesses.
All the years of their existence they have been losing money.
So, one could argue that it is better to have one company than eventually no companies at all.
However, one must remember that Sirius and XM have been in competition with each other in a lunatic way.
For example, Howard Stern, a popular radio talk host, was hired for $ 80 million a year and receiving Sirius stock worth $ 200 million.
Simple calculations show that never ever can that money return by getting more subscribers.

Stern was not the only one who had advantage of bad business strategies of the satellite radio companies.
Who willingly ran around like chickens without heads hiring all kinds of disc jockeys for enormous amounts of money.
Maybe a deliberate strategy: to open the way for a merger and monopoly.
XM walks away with $ 3.3 Billion and Sirius has the hands free to milk the 18 million-plus as much as they want.

We will see now how long it will take before a new posting will be published on this blog about Sirius/XM.
Announcing increase of fees or limitation of available channels.
Title will be:
“I told you so”
In Russian.

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To learn more about the irresponsible business practices of Sirius and XM, click on:


http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/26/technology/moritz_sirius.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008070109








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XM radio failing

Yesterday was a special day because Larry King on CNN interviewed the husband of a dear friend.
For two days the excitement was building up to share this event and hear what he had to say.

The Fuso Szulc is equipped with a Delphi XM skyfi2 satellite radio.
Receiving many channels and one of them is the sound of CNN TV.
There is a monthly fee to pay to receive from XM Satellite Radio their channels and usually everything goes well.
Even as far south from the USA as La Paz and its vicinity the signals can be received.

But as if the devil was playing one of its vicious games, the XM signal on Monday weakened and made it hardly possible to listen to any of the more than 140 channels.
Larry King’s program of Monday failed therefore to reach the Fuso Szulc.

Of course an effort was made to see if the reception problem could be fixed on this side of the digital pipeline.
With impressive acrobatic skills, the backside of the Fuso Szulc was climbed.
It looked like a scene from the Cirque du Soleil.
Up there the small XM-antenna was cleaned.


The theory behind this action was that dust or moisture on top of the XM-antenna might block the signals to enter.
But it had no effect.
The XM-signal remained too weak to be able to listen to the programs.

Hence, the Internet was accessed and research was done to find out if there were problems with the XM-satellite.
Maybe their batteries were low?
Or the satellite was out of position?
But no information could be found about the current XM-problems.

Because XM-radio is used a lot while living in the Fuso Szulc, the absence of it is rather dominant.

But the car-radio build into the Fuso Szulc is a Sony XR-CA640X and the only model in the world having short wave.
This makes it possible to receive radio stations from around the world.
Not exactly in HI-FI quality nor receiving CNN, but in a limited way it is possible to listen to the international news.

This brings back the days before satellite radio.
When next to the camper a high antenna was erected to be able to receive short wave radio stations.
And only at particular times the news was heard from the BBC.

Over the last couple of days a plague of flies was experienced.
The flies are gone now.
But now this new XM issue presents itself.

Things come and things go.





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150 billion peanuts

Breakfast could not be entertained with National Public Radio.
There was a program about Country and Western music and this kind of music is highly disliked.
Hence, a switch was made to CNN who have the sound of their TV news broadcasts on XM Satellite Radio.
Landed in the studios of CNN Barack Obama was heard saying that he will spend 150 billion US Dollars on green energy.
To create thousands of jobs and to make the USA less depended on foreign oil.

That is great !
To spend so much money on finding alternative sources of energy so we can quickly get out of this mess of high gas prices and suffocating and devastating pollution.
Barack Obama understands that it is simply a matter of money.
Give scientists a good salary, an excellent laboratory and enough woman and manpower and not for long we have bacteria’s eat plastic producing fuel.

But there is a natural distrust of politicians.
Promising to spend 150 billion Dollars and soon the problems will be over sounds too good to be true.
Like the vacuum cleaner salesman emptying a bag of dirt on your living room floor promising his machine will clean it spotlessly.

For the fervent and loyal blog readers some research has been made and the shocking outcome is that this 150 billion Dollars are peanuts.
What Barack Obama is not saying in his speeches is that his 150 billion Dollars will be spend over a period of 10 years.
That is 1,25 billion Dollars per month.
Now, we could argue that 1,25 billion Dollars monthly is still buying more than a Domino pizza.
But let’s revive in our minds how much for example the war in Iraq is costing:
9 billion Dollars a month.
And how much the USA is spending on its army and defence per month:
49 billion Dollars per month.

So, what is a meagre 1,25 billion Dollars per month compared to 49 billion Dollars?
Is that a good balance between current urgencies?

Will there be a shift in that balance once Mr. Obama becomes possibly President of the USA?
Hell no!
What did Obama told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs last April?

“I strongly support the expansion of our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines.”

That’s precisely the number favoured by President Bush’s Defence Secretary Robert Gates over a five-year period at a cost of $108 billion, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.

Is that the way to go to enforce the army and to moderately handle the energy crises?
To spend more on defence and just a little on more essential problems affecting people badly in their daily lives?

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To learn more on defence spending, click on:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures










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The devil at work

After the prayers of Sunday, there is a return to the agnostic attitude reserved for weekdays.

On a windless Monday morning, the barometer rising while currently at 1007,6 hPa, the humidity at 70 % and the temperature at 7.38 am about 25 Degrees Centigrade. (77 F)

Another beautiful and peaceful day in Baja California, Mexico.

In the margin of this gay existence the news has come that it is likely that the two companies offering satellite radio in the USA, Canada and parts of Mexico will be allowed to merge.
To create a monopoly.
These days we have Sirius Radio with 8.3 million subscribers and XM Radio with 9 million subscribers.
Sirius wants to take over XM for 5 Billion Dollars but has been stopped until now by lack of approval of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission).
And there is intense opposition from the land-based radio industry and most consumer groups, who say the deal will create a monopoly.
And consequently brutal exploitation of the consumers.

The satellite radio deal has also drawn an unusual amount of scrutiny from Capitol Hill, where the National Association of Broadcasters has fought an expensive advertising and lobbying campaign to block approval.

But guess what, the shareholders of Sirius and XM are in favour of the deal.
And the Justice Department has already approved it.

Now, the Chief of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has come forward to say that he recommends approval of the merger and the monopoly.
Leaving the other four commissioners of the FCC behind.
They, for the most part, keep their views on the deal to themselves.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin

FCC chairman Kevin Martin is not a democratically elected official although he decides about matters concerning the general population of his country.
Chairman Martin was nominated by President George W. Bush to a Republican seat on the Commission, and was sworn in on July 3, 2001.
He was designated chairman by President Bush on March 18, 2005. Chairman Martin was re-nominated for a second term as commissioner and chairman by President George W. Bush on April 25, 2006.
Martin is therefore a political appointee and is most likely not to speak for himself but for the interests of the political party he is representing.
A political party always defending the interests of business and money.
A political party recently allowing oil companies to make windfall profits while millions and millions of good Americans suffer of high gasoline prices.

FCC chief Kevin Martin is saying: "I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (the companies) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest."

Martin doesn’t explain what is exactly in the interest of the public when Sirius and XM merge.
And of course he will not be responsible if the two companies do not stick to the voluntary commitments they promise to make.

One of those promises is that Sirius will not raise rates for the next three years.
This cannot be true.
For sure somehow they will go up.
Both Sirius and XM have been making annual losses until now.
They were never profitable.
To this comes the 5 Billion Dollars needed to create the monopoly.

All Sirius and XM subscribers must realize that in the near future they will have to pay considerably more.

And that Kevin Martin is merged with the devil.

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Kevin Martin invites people to send him an e-mail.
Check:
http://www.fcc.gov/commissioners/martin/mail.html







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