What I Learned In Paris-2012 Part V

Published: Fri, 06/15/12

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In This Issue:
What I Learned In Paris-2012 Part V By Richard C. Young
I Like Rolling Stone By E.J. Smith
The School Bus Driver & The Union Boss By Richard C. Young
Self-Powered Ad-hoc Network (SPAN) The Editors
X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) The Editors
The 2 Goldman’s By E.J. Smith
Everything’s Fine By Richard C. Young

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What I Learned In Paris-2012 Part V

April in Paris. What a great tune. I think my favorite is Count Basie’s 1956 version. And late April in Paris is exactly the time I suggest you plan to go. There are dozens of reasons to visit Paris, and the Eiffel Tower is certainly a headliner. Simply breathtaking. I cannot wait to see it again. Debbie and I make certain we get an Eiffel Tower view room at the Left Bank’s Hotel Lutetia. Last trip we hit an ET snag when we were shown to an otherwise beautiful room, but with no ET view. Thanks to the timely efforts of head concierge Xavier Berenger, the problem went away and we were back in business with a room with a view. I emphasize often in my Paris series the value of a warm relationship with your hotel concierge.

In France things are different than here in the States. Protocol, pleasant formality, and relationships are headliners. And this is one of the many reasons we have come to love France, and especially Paris. We have found that if we conduct ourselves as Parisians do, good things can happen and a pleasant glow extends over all we take part of in The City Of Light. Over and over we have observed Americans acting as some Americans can act and the results are, shall we say, unsettling. Parisians shut down fast when it becomes clear that a visiting guest has no intention of making an effort to appreciate their culture. You are in for such a magnificent time in France that it would be a shame to have cold water thrown on your stay simply because no one ever told you that things are different in France, and especially in Paris, and that you needed to fine tune your guest approach.

OK then, off you go in grand style. And if on my strong advice you are off to Hotel Lutetia and would like a room with an ET view, be sure to have your travel facilitator make and confirm your request well in advance. Note the emphasis on the word confirm. Paris if nothing else is all about positive confirmation. Should you have a snag, have no written confirm, and act unpleasant about a snag, your goose will be cooked. So now you are ready with all your housekeeping chores handled well in advance of what I hope can be a lengthy stay for you. I say lengthy because every time Debbie and I go to France we wish, as we will do next time, we had planned to stay longer.

On our first visit to Paris, Debbie and I spent a full day with an experienced guide who greased the skids and lead us through Paris’ marvelous historical sites, neighborhoods, and museums. Courtesy our travel facilitator Ryland Stacy, we hooked up with Joslyn, a well-informed and fun local guide. I cannot imagine bucking the Asian hordes (yes, hordes) at Versailles without the help of an expert who gets tickets in advance and shows you through the secret handshake entrance.

Paris is a joy to walk and there is nothing more relaxing than a visit to Jardin du Luxembourg. One of our favorite things to do is simply walking Bvd. St. Germain (a main drag in the 6^th). You will be in the St.Germain/Rue du Bac/Montparnasse area where one could spend days (we do) poking about many of the side streets and discovering, for example, our favorite oyster spot, Regis Huitrerie, 3, rue de Montfaucon. On Sunday, you can hit the organic farmers market just down the street from Hotel Lutetia on Bvd. Raspail. Nearby Cherche Midi and Rue du Bac deserve your strolling and poking attention. The area is loaded with historical bistros, cafes and brasseries. If you consider yourself a rather informal individual and no special fan of extravagant shopping, I am pretty sure you will want to hotel it on the Rive Gauche. If instead the five star palace hotels have your attention, as well as the finest retail shopping in the world, you will be right at home on the Rive Droite. Le Bristol Hotel would be a fine choice. And if you want to do a fine job of drawing down your estate, reserve for dinner at Taillevent and Pierre Gagnaire, as well as Le Bristol’s three star main dining room. You’re in for a fabulous time no matter which bank you choose.

Download and take along my complete series of What I Learned in Paris posts. To hit the ground running and feel like a real Parisian insider from the moment you land at Paris Charles De Gaulle, here are a few useful apps you’ll also want to download: Google Translate, Andrew Harper’s Paris, Rick Steve’s ParisWalk, David Lebovitz’s Paris Pastry App Lite, Hidden Paris, Paris Metro, RailEurope, Best of Paris, Currency Converter, Musee du Louvre. Oh, and have a car service meet you at Charles De Gaulle. Your travel expediter should be able to put you with a first class group.

Au revoir,

Dick

>> read more

I Like Rolling Stone

I recently resubscribed to Rolling Stone to keep up with the music scene—and for some political insight. Yes, political insight. Now before you call me crazy, stop and think about the taxpayer bailout of Wall Street. How angry were you? I know, it was bad. If every angry blog post, article, and sound bite were a grain of sand, you could fill the ocean and walk from Cape Cod to San Sebastian. But it’s hard to forget how Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone encapsulated the rage, calling Goldman Sachs a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”

On that pleasant note, I was interested in Taibbi’s take on Wall Street reform—the 2,300-page doorstop known as Dodd-Frank. Once again I find myself mostly in agreement with Taibbi’s “How Wall Street Killed Financial Reform” on how the law has been gutted:

The fate of Dodd-Frank over the past two years is an object lesson in the government’s inability to institute even the simplest and most obvious reforms, especially if those reforms happen to clash with powerful financial interests. From the moment it was signed into law, lobbyists and lawyers have fought regulators over every line in the rulemaking process. Congressmen and presidents may be able to get a law passed once in a while—but they can no longer make sure it stays passed. You win the modern financial-regulation game by filing the most motions, attending the most hearings, giving the most money to the most politicians and, above all, by keeping at it, day after day, year after fiscal year, until stealing is legal again.

There used to be laws that were effective in protecting you, the taxpayer, and your deposits from the trading and speculating of the big bad Wall Street banks. They were in large part the Securities Act of 1933, the Securities Act of 1934, the Commodity Exchange Act of 1936, FDIC protection, and the Glass-Steagall Act. But now the risk lies within the unregulated markets of derivatives like credit default swaps—a complicated web of financial engineering. They crushed the market in 2007–2009. And if you want to understand how, read The Big Short by Michael Lewis.

The unregulated markets are where anything goes. Prices can be whatever Goldman is charging. As Taibbi writes:

The best way to explain where those hidden taxes come from is to compare a regulated market to an unregulated one. It’s the difference between buying soap and buying drugs. You go into a corner store and there’s a price tag on the soap, but you can always go across the street, or on the Internet, to see what soap costs someplace else. But when you go to buy an eight ball of coke, you have to ask your dealer what the price is, and it’s not like you can compare prices online. If you’re tough and streetwise and you know what coke costs, you might get it for a couple hundred bucks. But if you’re some quivering Ivy Leaguer idling in a Lexus, the price might be $400.

It’s not hard to see how the little guy gets hurt in this game. Most would rather listen to music than keep up with the inside game between Washington and Wall Street. But it’s the taxpayers who end up being on the hook for their largesse.

>> read more

The School Bus Driver & The Union Boss

Are you aghast? You drive a school bus. You are a member of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Your union is not surprisingly the country’s biggest public-sector union. And it sets the tone for other public-sector unions, but unfortunately in a fashion any sane person cannot admire. You may know that your union boss is one Gerald McEntee who resides in southern Florida. Well, the nasty Wall Street Journal has let the cat out of the bag. It seems that your union boss has been depleting union funds in eye-opening fashion. As the WSJ outlines, “In 2011, Mr. McEntee took seven chartered flights between August and December, [we’re only talking four months here] at a cost of $98,115.66.” As you can see, the WSJ has the abuse checked down to the penny. Wow, that’s a lot of dues out of a school bus driver’s weekly pay envelope. Makes one wonder what other extravagancies are in the works.

As a school bus driver, do you want to pay for the chartered jets of union bosses? Most certainly you do not if, of course, you had any say in the matter. It turns out that Mr. McEntee lives in Naples, a place I know well. We often fly in and out of the brand new and excellent Ft. Myers airport, conveniently just up the road from Naples. Jet Blue has super non-stop flights, and Ft. Myers offers one of the best non-hassle options in the country. Public-sector union boss McEntee does not use these great facilities. He flys charter! As to why McEntee flys charter, the WSJ quotes union spokesman Chris Policano as saying, “He’s (Mr.McEntee) not as spry as he was a decade ago.” Well who among us is? I put in thousands of miles a year on the road, as apparently does Mr.McEntee. The difference is that many of my miles are on a 750-pound Harley Davidson motorcycle. Mr. Mc. and I are not far apart on the age ladder. As a transportation comparison, I have ridden my Harley from Naples, Florida (Mr.McEntee’s home base), to Harrisburg, Pa., where Mr.McEntee took so many chartered jets flights on bus driver dues. But I did not get off a charter jet and into a limo at Harrisburg. Instead I rode on, ending in northern New England. Bully for me, right? Well of course not, but I do want to unmask for all public sector working Americans what bull this charter jet crap is. You all are being had in grand fashion. It is time to rise up and exterminate the public-sector union blight once and for all.

In case anyone slept through the Governor Scott Walker recall victory in Wisconsin, listen up. The game is over for public-sector unions, and I mean all of them. Wisconsin voters have gotten the message and have driven a bone-crunching punch to the face of public-sector unions. The anti-public-sector union movement will now spread like wild fire across America. Voters are clamoring for right to work/anti-union status. Every state is going to want to put out the WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSSINESS banner, which means vaya con dios for public-sector unions. It’s, as Al Kooper has written in song, a Brand New Day.

>> read more

Self-Powered Ad-hoc Network (SPAN)

Persistent surveillance for intrusion detection can prove to be a daunting challenge for military and security forces. Whether the mission is nearby a forward operating base or protecting remote critical assets and borders, Lockheed Martin’s Self Power Adhoc Networks (SPAN) situational awareness system will meet your mission requirements.

Introducing Lockheed Martin SPAN.
SPAN is a low-cost, imperceptible micro-sensing and reporting system designed to detect, characterize and disseminate situational awareness. SPAN combines microelectronics, distributed signal processing, low power, energy harvesting, and wireless mesh networking into a single integrated persistent surveillance capability system for force protection, intrusion detection and border monitoring.

SPAN leverages technological advances in the areas of perpetual power management, mesh networking, and embedded microsensor and processing technology optimized for users who demand rapid deployment with low cost solutions, low probability of intercept, and reliable and persistent surveillance.

Equipped with “palm-size” sensor nodes to ease concealment of deployed sensors for imperceptible surveillance operation, the system is powered by thin film energy cells coupled with energy harvesting for a self-recharging nearly perpetual operational life without changing batteries. SPAN is small and lightweight for single-person portability, and the low-cost COTS approach allows the system to be considered expendable as dictated by various sensitive missions.

SPAN: “Field-and-Forget Remote” Surveillance System

• Intuitive interface enables rapid deployment and ease of operation.

• No battery maintenance. SPAN utilizes energy harvesting for persistent operational lifetime.

• Small, lightweight nodes can be fitted into rock camouflage enclosure—hard to detect.

• Multiple backhaul communications including SATCOM option.

• Acoustic and seismic sensing.

• Low-power mesh networking reduces EM signature.

• Sensor nodes automatically cooperate to create network.

• Event characterization.

• Onboard data processing minimizes false alarms.

• Affordable through use of COTS components.

Configuration Options

• Perpetual Power: includes Sensing nodes and Gateway utilizing energy harvesting and thin film energy battery; ruggedized handheld computer for local monitoring and sensor emplacement.

• Expendable Power: includes Sensing nodes and Gateway with replaceable battery; ruggedized handheld computer for local monitoring and sensor emplacement.

SPAN is your one-stop-shop for providing remote, maintenancefree surveillance and intrusion detection to protect your most critical assets.

Source: Lockheed Martin

Recent News: The U.S. Military May Blanket Afghanistan in Tiny Spy Sensors That Last for Two Decades – May 29, 2012
This Rock Could Spy on You for Decades – May 29, 2012
Lockheed Martin Introduces Innovative Wireless Intrusion Detection Network of “Rocks” - October 10, 2012

>> read more

X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS)

SAN DIEGO, June 14, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The first major phase of flight testing the X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator aircraft came to a successful conclusion on May 15 when Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and the U.S. Navy wrapped up testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The airworthiness test phase, which comprised 23 flights by two air vehicles, proved that the X-47B will perform properly at all speeds, weights and altitudes associated with the Navy’s Unmanned Combat Air System Carrier Demonstration (UCAS-D) program. The flights included tests of several aircraft maneuvers required in the carrier environment, helping to reduce risks associated with operating a tailless, unmanned aircraft from a Navy aircraft carrier. Read the full news release here.

Source: Northrop Grumman

Recent News: U.S. Navy, Northrop Grumman Complete X-47B Flight Testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Move Second Unmanned Aircraft to East Coast - June 14, 2012
A Day in the Life of X-47B UCAS – June 14, 2012 (VIDEO)
U.S. Navy Test Autonomous Aerial Refueling for Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstration – January 26, 2012
Expansion of Fleet Adds Momentum, Flexibility to Flight Test Program – November 28,2011
Gear Up! U.S. Navy/Northrop Grumman X-47B Demonstrator Flies in Cruise Mode for First Time – October 10, 2011
U.S. Navy, Northrop Grumman Successfully Test Systems Required to Operate X-47B Unmanned System From an Aircraft Carrier - July 5, 2011

>> read more

The 2 Goldman’s

>> read more

Everything’s Fine

“The private sector is doing fine.”

I wanted to let the dust settle on this Obama whopper from late last week. When I first heard that President Obama had made this statement, I thought, why is the guy saying this when such could not be further from the case? Well the man has zero business experience, or for that matter practical experience in anything that could point to a presidency, but why float out such an obvious fairy tale? Well I have given this fabrication thought and concluded that the comment was simply a throwaway line in another orchestrated Obama news conference. The president was no doubt as surprised as most of us were that he had said such a thing.

The greater problem here is that President Obama should not be in the White House from the get-go. I am not familiar with a single notable American senior executive with as shallow a background for the job. My clients are America’s small business owners. You know, the guys who generate most of the new jobs in America. Almost to a one my clients have struggled long and hard in their profession. They have risen and succeeded because of a background developed from the ground up. Barack Obama showed up to campaign for president as a most undistinguished part term Senator who mostly just hung out and cast present votes. Prior to that, his thin resume centered on community organizing and door-knocking. President Obama is truly the thin resume guy.

In my lifetime no other President has ascended to the presidency completely resume free. I really don’t get it. I don’t. Why did Americans vote for such a person? And why in the world given the foul position America is in today would a single American want the man back for a second term? Perhaps Americans simply hate Mitt Romney. But come on here. Mr. Romney has a solid record of success on a number of fronts—a statement both factual and not debatable. And I am not a Mitt Romney campaigner—far from it.

Today, we all live in two Americas. I look at Obama supporters and ask, what is it that you want? What goals of yours are so different from mine? I work hard seven days a week to help my clients survive and prosper. My sole interest is what’s right and helpful for my clients. Where am I so far apart from Americans who would vote for a man with no practical background whatsoever? Perhaps the divide is my belief in our Constitution as written and intended by Thomas Jefferson. Today’s Office of the Presidency has no semblance to the weak office of the presidency intended by our Founders.

Turn to Article. II. Section. 2. of the Constitution. Read this section out loud (hopefully to your family) a couple of times. Then take out some 3×5 cards and jot down, as I have done, one duty to a card, each of the handful of presidential duties. Pretty thin deck of cards. The Office of the President was to be a shaking-hands, kissing babies, largely part-time affair. George Bush and much more so Barack Obama have tortured the Constitution’s original intent as to the Office of the President. Such an attack must stop and direction reversed. President Obama offers zero hope in this regard. And this is one of a shopping cart full of reasons I want to see his tenure in the White House end.

As I enumerate in my upcoming Richard C. Young’s Intelligence Report, the private sector conditions continue to erode, Debbie and I are about to embark on a long multi-state/Canada road trip on our new 2011 Harley Heritage Classics. Along the way, I will gather a mountain of anecdotal evidence on the economy and ask loads of questions of small business owners. We will be travelling through country we know well, and I will instantly recognize economic improvement or decline. Such observations are readily made when looking for Sale or Closed signs and the number of empty buildings compared to prior visits. I will have lots to share with you.

Warm regards,

Dick