Air Traffic Controllers Sleeping on the Job

After several air traffic controllers have been caught sleeping on the job over the past few weeks the Secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood announces new guidelines over work schedules for controllers. Now instead of working for eight hours and then having a mere eight hours off before the beginning of the next shift, they will be required to take nine hours off before the beginning of the next shift. If they rely on this scheduling, they will be working five shifts in just over three and a half days, and this is in direct contradiction with the natural circadian rhythm of human beings. Controllers that are forced to follow this type of schedule will end up being even more tired and fatigued than before. I have concluded that this is just political posturing by the administration and not really addressing the underlying problem; they need more controllers period. But at over six figures each, the main obstacle standing in the way is money.

A spokesperson for the transportation administration stated that they had concluded that the air traffic controllers were doing things other than resting during the required eight-hour period off between shifts. As Charlie sheen might say, “Duh”. Do you think that perhaps people might have a life outside of controlling air traffic? Perhaps they have a wife, husband, or children that need their time. Perhaps they have a typical honey do list of chores that need to be done as well. I can’t believe that the administration would think that with just a mere eight hours between work shifts, controllers would be spending that entire time sleeping, becoming rested for their next shift. How absurd is that “Duh, stupid”.  

The spokesperson cited a recent fatigue study that has yet to be published that advocates that this extra one hour between shifts would alleviate the fatigue that leads to air traffic controllers sleeping on the job. I would really like to see this study.

As a long haul truck driver, I have extensive first-hand knowledge of circadian rhythms and human sleep cycles. Humans are not nocturnal we are diurnal. So, working at night takes a certain mindset and physical conditioning in order to be alert and work safely during the hours that we should normally be sleeping. An especially dangerous period to be working is between the hours of midnight and six in the morning. The danger of nodding off on a job in which you are sedentary for the majority of your workday is even higher during this time, and all the more so as you age. I wonder what the average age of the air traffic controllers is. That wasn’t mentioned by the spokesperson as being a factor in the study he cited.

It seems funny to me that the regulations that govern commercial drivers now state that we must take a mandatory ten-hour rest period after having been on duty for fourteen hours, (eleven of which can be spent driving) before being legally able to drive again. Yet they expect traffic controllers to work 16 hours out of each 24-hour period. And are allowed fewer hours between shifts to rest. Apparently, the union must hold some sway over the rule making body (can anyone say "hired lobbyists").

Now I have not had many kind words for Ray LaHood in the past regarding rules against distracted driving, so I can’t really feel too sorry for him as he feigns outrage at sleeping controllers now. He has been hoodwinked by the damned union on this issue and he doesn’t even realize it, what a dupe.

There was a suggestion floated that the towers have two controllers on duty for third shift operations and that they alternate taking a nap. A well known and accepted Swedish sleep study from years ago states that humans sleep in ninety minute sleep cycles. Most people require between four and six complete sleep cycles per twenty-four hour period. Each sleep cycle has five stages. Stage 1 through 4 and finally REM. The most restorative part of the sleep cycle is the deep sleep achieved in stages 3 and 4 when the brain produces delta waves. Each additional consecutive sleep cycle has a longer period of REM sleep near the end of the cycle. It is very important to get a complete cycle when sleeping. In other words if you have to take a nap, taking a two hour nap will net you one complete cycle, a three and a half hour nap will net you two complete sleep cycles. This allows the time to get comfortable and to actually fall asleep. People who do not get at least four complete sleep cycles per 24-hour period will build up a sleep debt that they will carry forward until their body is allowed to catch up on the required cumulative amount of sleep cycles that have been missed. Your body will take sleep when it needs it regardless of your intentions to stay awake while you are carrying a sleep debt. If a sleep cycle is interrupted before it is completed, it does not count at all. That is why it is important to make sure that you allow enough time to get your desired number of sleep cycles completed before waking. Taking a one-hour nap will leave you just as tired as if you had not slept at all. On the other hand, when you start feeling tired a 20-minute power nap will net you about one hour of increased alertness which you can use to get to a safe location where you can get the rest your body needs.

Since this information has been published and widely accepted for several years now, it boggles my mind that the transportation administration would somehow expect that a different standard should apply to air traffic controllers.

Obama's Real Agenda.

There are several reasons that the United States dollar became the world’s currency. The single largest part of it comes from the fact that our economy is the largest in the world. We import a vast quantity of goods and services from around the globe. Even though our currency has been a fiat currency since 1971 when it was taken completely off the gold standard, it has remained the currency of choice around the globe. Why is this so in spite of such economic upheaval lately? Because of our consumption of oil. We are the world’s largest consumer of oil. That is not necessarily a bad thing.

It is because of the greatness of our innovators and inventors, especially Henry Ford for inventing the assembly line process. He gave affordable transportation to the world, and gave rise to the largest middle class in any country in the history of the world ever. Because of Henry Ford, we have the most productive workforce in the world.

I would argue that our currency is in fact still an asset-backed currency. Rather than being backed by a precious metal, it is now backed by oil. Since our economy is 70% driven by consumption and our largest single consumable by far is energy in the form of oil, we have effectively replaced the gold standard with the oil standard. Oil around the entire globe is valued in United States dollars. It does not make a difference where it comes from, Brazil, Venezuela, Russia, or Saudi Arabia it all is valued in United States dollars.

Obama’s push to break not just our addiction to foreign oil consumption, but any oil consumption is really an attempt to trash our currency couched in an idealism about the environment; a convenient means to an end. His ideals are an anathema to what makes America great. If he succeeds with this green push and we lose our preeminent status as the world’s largest consumer of oil, our dollar will be pushed aside as the world currency and it will truly be free to float. The dollar will be cast adrift, and it will most likely sink like a stone giving rise to runaway inflation not at all unlike what happened to the Wiemar Republic (pre-war Germany), turning the greatest nation ever into just another failed one in the footnotes of history.

The people who have purchased precious metals like gold, silver, or platinum will be the only ones that have financial security when that happens. Because these investments are not volatile and will still have intrinsic value while the values of currencies fluctuate wildly.

If, on the other hand, we open up domestic production of oil, natural gas, and coal, we can stabilize our currency and continue economic growth and stability while pursuing alternative energy sources to supplement our consumption. This will give us the time needed to develop the technologies needed to produce viable alternative sources of energy. Obama has had over two years in office that he could have used to increase domestic production of energy. Instead, failing to foresee the current volatility in the middle east that was sparked by a 26-year old Tunisian fruit vender named Mohammed Bouazazi, he has done nothing but give us lip service about windmills and solar technologies that show only promise for the future but are decades away from scalability and economic viability.

So his idealism has in fact been an all out assault on the middle class that threatens our economic and national security. He is either clueless, or criminal in his course of action, and I can’t imagine that he is that clueless. In a just released video clip on Fox News we can see and hear Obama mocking a family man for complaining about the high cost of gasoline. Obama laughs at him for continuing to drive around in a large SUV chiding him that his family can't be that big. The man has ten children. Once again we witness the aloofness of a detached Obama as he steps in a big pile of do-do. I thought that gargantuan gaffs were the protected territory of only Joe Biden? Oh that's right, I forgot about the beer summit too. This jackass in the White house must not be allowed to serve another term come 2012. 

John Stewart Takes Issue With Obama's Promise of Transparency.

It is good to know that as different as the views are on both sides of the political isle, there is still common ground to be found. Case in point; even President Obama’s ardent supporters in the media are beginning to tire of his lack of leadership, and broken promises. Now, I am no big fan of John Stewart's views or his Daily Show, but I have to admit that this video clip is pretty darned funny!

Check it out here.

Even the Obama crazy media is now openly questioning his success as president. Apparently, the honeymoon is now officially over. Can you say, Duh, losing! It is amazing to me that Obama actually taught constitutional law at Harvard. I feel sorry for any of his students, whom he must have lied to repeatedly regarding the supreme document of our land.

I am sure that more of these type of videos will become commonplace in the near future. I look forward to that, I need a good laugh now and then. Don't we all! I hope that Leno's writers are paying attention to this stuff too!
Need further evidence of the left leaning media treating Obama as a pariah? On tonight's Nightly News with Brian Williams, Tom Brokaw was reporting from Baghdad, and as an aside to his report, he relayed that he was told on the way to Baghdad, that the Saudi's are so disappointed with the way that president Obama handled the crisis in Egypt, calling for Mubarak to step down, that they have sent emissaries to Russia and China telling them that they are prepared to do far more business with them than with the United States. Looks like Barack has really stepped in it now. If Saudi cuts oil imports to the United States while increasing them to Russia and China, our economy will be utterly devastated by increased energy prices.
Obama is standing on the sidelines and trying to give pep talks to congress to "get together and pass a budget". he is doing this because he fears leading. He wants congress to do the heavy lifting, so he can go duff a few more rounds on the links perhaps. This "Organizer in Chief" is killing our country with his ineptness as a leader. He is seriously compromising out national security with his incessant push for green energy instead of opening up the oil spigots here at home! Get ready, when it comes down we will long for the day when gas costs less than ten dollars per gallon. And there will be the jackass Obama, smiling away at his "success" at bringing our nation down. What Obama is doing is criminal, and he knows it.

Petrochemical Fuels, Their Uses, Facts and Myths.

There is an email that has been circulating around the web that implores readers to fill their gas tanks early in the morning while using the slowest setting on the pump. The reasons that it gives for doing so are false. As an informed worker in the transportation field, it is incumbent upon me to set the record straight regarding these myths.

This email has been circulating for some time. While the temperature component of delivered gasoline or other aliphatic hydrocarbon fuels via a closed pipeline system is true, the low vapor pressure and high volatility of gasoline does not account for significant losses when fueling your car at the pump regardless of pumping speed. Moreover, most pumps are calibrated with a temperature compensation component.

Not all pumps have vapor collection and return on them. Only newer pumps in certain areas that mandate them do. The largest contributor of gasoline vapors and other unburnt hydrocarbons in the atmosphere does not come from fueling or operating your vehicle, it actually comes from tanker truck accidents that occur while delivering fuel to gas stations or leaking underground storage tanks!

Gasoline is highly volatile but only burns within a very narrow range of vapor concentrations. Gasoline has a lower explosion limit of 1.4% by volume and an upper explosion limit of 7.6% by volume. This means that gasoline vapors mixed with atmospheric air at concentrations below 1.4% by volume will fail to ignite because the mixture is too lean, and gasoline vapors mixed with atmospheric air at concentrations above 7.6% by volume will fail to ignite because the mixture is too rich.

Gasoline is more volatile than diesel oil, Jet-A or kerosene, not only because of the base constituents, but because of the additives that are put into it. The final control of volatility is often achieved by blending with butane. The Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) test is used to measure the volatility of gasoline. The desired volatility depends on the ambient temperature. In hot weather, gasoline components of higher molecular weight and thus lower volatility are used. In cold weather, too little volatility results in cars failing to start. This is the reason behind differing blends of gasoline for each season.

In hot weather, excessive volatility results in what is known as "vapor lock", where combustion fails to occur, because the liquid fuel has changed to a gaseous fuel in the fuel lines, rendering the fuel pump ineffective and starving the engine of fuel. This effect mainly applies to (older) camshaft-driven (engine mounted) fuel pumps, which lack a fuel return line. Vehicles with fuel injection require the fuel to be highly pressurized, to within a set range (usually an extremely narrow range). Because camshaft speed is nearly zero before the engine is started, an electric pump is used. It is located in the fuel tank so that the fuel may also cool the high-pressure pump. Pressure regulation is achieved by use of a pressure modulator that returns unused fuel to the tank. Therefore, vapor lock is almost never a problem in a (newer) vehicle with fuel injection.

In the United States, volatility is regulated in large cities to reduce the emission of unburned hydrocarbons. In many of those large cities, so-called reformulated gasoline that is less prone to evaporation, among other properties, is required. Most countries simply have a summer, winter, and perhaps intermediate limit.

Volatility standards may be relaxed (allowing more gasoline components into the atmosphere) during gasoline shortages. For example, on 31 August 2005, in response to Hurricane Katrina, the United States permitted the sale of non-reformulated gasoline in some urban areas, effectively permitting an early switch from summer to winter-grade gasoline. As mandated by EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson, this "fuel waiver" was made effective until 15 September 2005.^[9]

Modern automobiles are also equipped with an evaporative emissions control system (called an EVAP system in automotive jargon), which collects evaporated fuel from the fuel tank in a charcoal-filled canister that is usually located inside the engine compartment while the engine is stopped and then releases the collected vapors into the engine intake for burning when the engine is running (usually only after it has reached normal operating temperature.) The evaporative emissions control system also includes a sealed gas cap to prevent vapors from escaping via the fuel filler tube. There is also a myth around "stuffing" your car with gasoline which says that the extra gasoline just evaporates into the atmosphere. As you can see, that would be an impossible thing in such a closed system. Modern vehicles with OBD-II emissions control systems will illuminate the malfunction indicator light, (MIL) "check engine" or “Service Engine Soon” light if the leak detection pump (LDP) detects a leak in the EVAP system. If the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) or Powertrain Control Module (PCM) detects a leak, it will store an OBD-II code representing either a small or a large leak, thus illuminating the MIL to indicate a failure. Some vehicles can detect whether the gas cap is incorrectly fitted, and will indicate this by illuminating a gas cap symbol on the dash.

Energy content (High and low heating value)

Gasoline contains about 35 MJ/L (9.7 kW·h/L, 132 MJ/US gal, 36.6 kWh/US gal) (higher heating value) or 13 kWh/kg. This is an average; gasoline blends differ, and therefore actual energy content varies from season to season and from batch to batch, by up to 4% more or less than the average, according to the US EPA. On average, about 19.5 US gallons (16.2 imp gal; 74 L) of gasoline are available from a 42-US-gallon (35 imp gal; 160 L) barrel of crude oil (about 46% by volume), varying due to quality of crude and grade of gasoline. The remaining residue comes off as products ranging from tar to naptha.^[10]

Below is a chart that compares the volumetric and mass energy density of some popular fuels compared with gasoline (in the rows with gross and net, they are from ^[11]):

        

Fuel type	Gross MJ/L	MJ/kg	Gross BTU/Gal (imp)	Gross BTU/Gal (U.S.)	Net BTU/Gal (U.S.)	RON
Conventional Gasoline	34.8	44.4	150,100	125,000	115,400
Autogas (LPG) (60% Propane + 40% Butane)	26.8	46				108
Ethanol	21.2	26.8	101,600	84,600	75,700	113
Methanol	17.9	19.9	77,600	64,600	56,600	123
Butanol	29.2	36.6				91-99
Gasahol	31.2		145,200	120,900	112,400	93-94
Diesel(*)	38.6	45.4	166,600	138,700	128,700	25
Biodiesel	33.3-35.7			126,200	117,100
Avgas (High-Octane Aviation Gasoline)	33.5	46.8	144,400	120,200	112,000
Jet Fuel (Kerosene Based)	35.1	43.8	151,242	125,935
Jet Fuel (Naphtha)				127,500	118,700
LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas)	25.3	~55	109,000	90,800
LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)				91,300	83,500
Hydrogen	10.1(at 20 Kelvin)	142			130

(*) Diesel is not used in gasoline engines, so its low octane rating is not an issue; the relevant metric used for diesel engines is the cetane number because it is burned by a different process called detonation instead of the deflagration process that occurs in other internal combustion engines.

As you can see from the above chart, Ethanol (Cornahol) and Methanol (wood alcohol) have a higher octane rating (RON) than conventional gasoline (which only means that it burns hotter and cleaner) but has a significantly lower energy density as measured by both mass and volume. This lower energy density coupled with the highly corrosive effects on internal combustion engine parts makes its use as a large-scale replacement fuel for conventional gasoline very impractical without massive government subsidies, which is a hidden tax on all taxpayers. The highly corrosive effects of both Ethanol and Methanol require that it cannot be pumped through a pipeline structure; instead, it must be trucked to market further increasing costs to bring it to market. The highest energy density based on mass in order goes Hydrogen, Liquefied Natural Gas, Aviation Gas, Autogas (LPG), Diesel, and then Conventional Gasoline. What makes Hydrogen impractical is that it must be stored cryogenically to achieve the highest energy density by mass (note the temperature of 20 Kelvin in the chart).

The real tricks to adopt are maximizing your driven mile efficiencies by combining your trips and carefully planning your route for the least miles driven. Avoid excessive idling. Alter your driving habits to avoid jack-rabbit starts or excessive (hard) acceleration. Slow down gradually well in advance of intersections with traffic control devices or signs and avoid hard braking situations; this means no tailgating! Proper tire inflation and vehicle maintenance including regular oil changes will help you to control your expenditures on gasoline. Carpool when possible, and simply avoid all unnecessary driving. Beyond that, the prices we pay at the pump are primarily driven by environmental, geopolitical, and market forces that are largely beyond our individual control. How or when you fuel your vehicle is of very little consequence to how much we pay for that fuel or the efficiencies that we can achieve in the grand scheme of things.

Economics, Eugenics and Population Control

I was reading the latest edition of Imprimis from Hillsdale College the other day. Imprimis is latin for “in the first place”. Hillsdale College is a private college in Hillsdale Michigan that has never accepted one dime of government funding. You can not attend there if you can not pay for it by yourself, they will not accept “Pell Grants” or Stafford loans which are backed by the government. They promote conservative principles in regard to governing our country and that includes monetary policies as well.

The article was an adaptation from a speech by Seth Lipsky, the founding editor of the New York Sun delivered at the Hillsdale National Leadership Seminar in Poenix Arizona on Feruary 16, 2011. It was titled “The Floating Dollar as a Threat to Property Rights”. It focused upon the valuation of money in regards to pay for federal judges.

According to the Coinage Act of 1792 the value of a dollar was fixed at 371 ¼ grains of pure silver (this was based on a coin in wide use at the time called the Spanish milled dollar). Now the article failed to mention the conversion factors for grains to ounces so let’s first consider that convention. Precious metals are measured in Troy ounces. There are 12 troy ounces in one pound. One troy ounce is equal to 480 grains. Therefore, the original value of the American Dollar was .7796875 Troy ounces of pure silver. At today’s spot value of silver ($37.83 per Troy ounce), that original dollar was worth $29.50 in today’s dollars! My, how our dollar has devalued over the 219 years since it was introduced. I wondered, why has this devaluation occurred and what could be driving it?

In making comparisons of values over time, there are several factors to account for.  Everyone has heard about inflation. Inflation is defined as the situation that results from when there are too many dollars chasing too few goods. It is easy to understand this from a simple supply and demand view. When there are many people with money and there is not enough goods to go around, some people will be willing to pay more in order to acquire one or more of the goods available for sale. This is one of the natural mechanisms that operate in free markets to maintain equilibrium. The opposite situation would be an example of deflation but it operates in the opposite direction forcing prices lower, although in reality supply is adjusted to cancel this effect. But are there other significant drivers involved with inflationary pressures on an economy besides supply and demand? By the way, supply and demand principles apply to both sides of the economy, the goods and services sought, and the actual monetary supply (the amount of money in circulation at any given point in time). And then there are the monetary policies that act to moderate access to the money supply (interest rates, laws, access to credit, regulatory barriers etc.). We have heard of easy access to money causing “bubbles” and tight access to money causing businesses to close resulting in job losses (both conditions often have roots in well-intentioned albeit misguided administrative policies).

What occurred to me last night in a dream was that nowhere have we heard much of the effects of overall global population growth on monetary policy as it relates to currency valuations around the world. Let’s consider for a moment the fact that there is only a finite supply of the various precious metals. There is only so much gold on the planet, only so much silver, and only so much platinum. Let’s assume that most of these precious metals have been found, mined, and refined and are in circulation already. As the global population continues to increase over time, the value of currencies based on precious metals must naturally decrease.

If all global currencies were backed by precious metals, then overall poverty would be on the increase because of dilution of monetary values due to the increasing population growth. To combat poverty, progressives like FDR started the United States down the path towards a fiat currency. Nixon finished what FDR began by completing the removal of our currency from the gold standard in 1971.

Now that we have a floating currency the effects of global population growth in general and United States population growth in particular on our monetary devaluation have been lessened somewhat. What remains is regulation of the monetary supply through the FED and natural market forces with market forces being the more influential of the two.

In 1800 the estimated global population was about 1.125 billion. Today’s estimate is 6.9 billion! This explosion in population is a good argument for fiat currencies as a way to keep many people from falling into poverty. However, even Jesus told us “the poor will always be with you”. Perhaps there is a better way besides monetary policies to combat poverty that we just have not yet considered.

This article up to this paragraph was taken from an email that I sent to family members about two weeks ago. What makes this remarkable is that the very next issue of Imprimus that I received just the other day had an article in it Titled "The Not So Dismal Science: Humanitarians v. Economists" that completely validates my supposition that there is in fact, a better way to raise people up out of poverty than just monetary policies!

What was particularly interesting was how the enlightened humanitarians referenced in the article were all in favor of population control instead of encouraging economic opportunity for all as the great economists of the day were! Why this was particularly poignant to me was how my own mother responded to my original article. She said that she was a believer in population control. She said that we should actually support an effort here in America to control the population!

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I reminded her about what Hitler was all about with his campaign to exterminate the Jewish race. How that an American atheist named Margaret Sanger picked up the hitleresque mantle of eugenics and focused it like a laser on the black race here in our own country. I reminded her how China's hideous experiment in population control was wildly skewed against females and led to rampant human rights atrocities.
Every one of my examples was also referenced in this newest article of Imprimus and well as a few others. Like the mass forced sterilizations in India, which caused the political backlash that ousted Indira Gandhi from power. 
I am outraged at the mere thought of any semblance of population control. I couldn't believe what my own mother was saying! It makes me wonder sometimes if I could actually belong to the postman! How could I have come from those loins?
It is nice to be validated and vindicated by this article taken from the speech of William McGurn delivered at Hillsdale College on March 3rd 2011. William McGurn is the Vice President of News Corporation and writes a weekly "Main Street" column for The Wall Street Journal.
You can view the latest article in Imprimus at the following link http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp 

Aimless and Leaderless; American Greatness Adrift on a Sea of Ineptness.

Well the back-benchers have finally taken up the thread that I planted last July about Obama's lack of leadership. What was it that Nero was doing while Rome was burning? It seems that Obama has bested that; while northeastern Japan lay in ruin with nuclear reactors burning and exploding, thousands of her citizens missing and feared dead, he decides to duff a few holes on the links. It is painfully obvious to anyone with a heart where his priorities are.

I am ashamed to call Obama my President after having acted in such an aloof and callus manor towards our brethren in Japan. I am not at all surprised by it, just completely ashamed of it.


I will reiterate what I stated last July, this man is not a leader. A great orator perhaps, but great oration is hardly a valued leadership skill. Being decisive, compassionate, resolute, and humble enough to get personally involved are highly valued leadership skills. George Bush 43 had leadership skills in spades despite being a fumbling orator. Moses had a speech impediment, but God used him to lead his people out of Egypt  (historically factual).


God help our nation; we have installed as our leader, a foolish man who is a great orator (when the teleprompters are working). He is more interested in the pomp and circumstance associated with the office of President than in leading. He is self serving instead of selfless. He is far more interested in broadcasting his bracket picks for the final four than in leading the free world, or supporting those around the world who desire to be free. He is far more concerned with how he is perceived on The View, Leno or Letterman than in being a leader. Perhaps he should have chosen to go into broadcasting arts instead of politics. He has had more face time on television than all other Presidents combined since the advent of the medium! Every time when it really counts, this damned fool just punts instead of going for it on fourth and long.


When political instability in the middle east threatens our energy supply and our economic recovery (or overall condition), this clown sits on his hands instead of oiling the process of permitting for domestic drilling operations. Then he simultaneously declares that windmills and solar energy will save us from our dependence upon foreign oil. He is woefully out of step with the will of the people, and completely out of touch with reality.


This clod is a bumbling idiot with real power. That makes him one of the most dangerous men on the planet. He is the real life version of Inspector Clouseau only he never actually gets it right, his handlers merely give his fantastic ineptness a somewhat plausible spin (at least in the eyes of those deceived liberals he counts as his base, the poor saps).