Below is a graph made with the same data shown in an earlier post.  This time total deaths and deaths allegedly by or with COVID are compared week by week to the average deaths from before 2020.  For 2020 the 5 year average is from the years 2013 to 2017, 2021 is from years 2014-2018 and 2022 is compared with 2015-2019.  The data is normalized to the excess deaths so the five year average is by definition always 100% and shown and is thus a flat line in blue.

The grey areas denote the flu season in the northern temperate region.

US Excess Deaths during and after the COVID years

US Excess Deaths during and after the COVID years

It’s evident we are still suffering from more deaths than history supports.

 

The bumper pads on some old television speakers turned into liquid and ran down the wall.

OSHA is there for the employee’s welfare… except when it isn’t.

Perhaps at the expense of employee safety and redress for workplace injury, during May 2021 OSHA changed “the law” on a dime going from this statement in the FAQ…

https://web.archive.org/web/20210506085613/https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/faqs#vaccine

Are adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine recordable on the OSHA recordkeeping log?
In general, an adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine is recordable if the reaction is: (1) work-related, (2) a new case, and (3) meets one or more of the general recording criteria in 29 CFR 1904.7 (e.g., days away from work, restricted work or transfer to another job, medical treatment beyond first aid).

…to…

https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/faqs#vaccine

https://web.archive.org/web/20210601025712/https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/faqs#vaccine

Are adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine recordable on the OSHA recordkeeping log?
DOL and OSHA, as well as other federal agencies, are working diligently to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations. OSHA does not wish to have any appearance of discouraging workers from receiving COVID-19 vaccination, and also does not wish to disincentivize employers’ vaccination efforts. As a result, OSHA will not enforce 29 CFR 1904’s recording requirements to require any employers to record worker side effects from COVID-19 vaccination through May 2022. We will reevaluate the agency’s position at that time to determine the best course of action moving forward.

The employer requiring a vaccine is obviously on the hook for any health liability since the entire health chain has immunity from any bad health effects on vaccine recipients… but OSHA rules designed to protect the employee have bailed on your behalf via selective enforcement.

06 May 2021 · Topic: Health · Tags: , ,

Applying some science to understanding excess deaths from COVID-19, we take a deep dive into the death data from various countries and US states.

Facebook may be misleading its readers to thinking the COVID vaccines authorized for emergency use by the FDA have met the standard for FDA approval.

How to view the modem status pins on a serial port in Ubuntu linux.

12 November 2014 · Topic: Music · Tags:

Whoa there!!!

I know… I know what you might be thinking. What is a post like this doing in an engineering blog. Engineers are often musicians and writers. Not necessarily great ones mind you, but sometimes when you watch your family during the holidays, words just pop into your head.

Here is a retread of the 400+ year old hymn (We Wish You a Merry Christmas) out for Christmas 2014.

We Wish You a White Trash Christmas

We wish you a white trash Christmas,
We wish you a white trash Christmas,
We wish you a white trash Christmas,
And a tasty cold beer.

Chorus
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin,
We wish you a white-trash Christmas
And a tasty cold beer.

Grandma buys us gifts from offshore,
Grandma buys us gifts from offshore,
Grandma buys us gifts from offshore,
They don’t last one year.

[Chorus]

Grandpa pees with the door open,
Grandpa pees with the door open,
Grandpa pees with the door open,
So we can all hear.

[Chorus]

My cousins bring the main entree,
My cousins bring the main entree,
My cousins bring the main entree,
Its the rump of a deer.

[Chorus]

The in-laws are always fighting,
The in-laws are always fighting,
The in-laws are always fighting,
The kids hide in fear.

[Chorus]

My sis gives the gift of ammo,
My sis gives the gift of ammo,
My sis gives the gift of ammo,
We all can now cheer.

[Chorus]

We wish you a white trash Christmas,
We wish you a white trash Christmas,
We wish you a white trash Christmas,
And a tasty cold beer.

Merry Christmas

Copyright John S. Huggins

You think I’m making the lyrics up?

HahahaHAaah LOL LOL LOL lol… sigh… no 🙁

What follows is a letter of praise sent to the staff at LR Baggs.

===========================

After producing a Christmas music/drama variety show at our Church last Sunday I feel compelled to share my experiences with LR Baggs vs. other solutions that arrived during sound check. As many of you likely understand, sound check for a slew of different music groups is a nightmare at worst and challenging at best. Without going into too many details, sound check is a time for the house system to wring out its gear and mentally prepare for the segue between groups. This is not the time to debug the internal electronics for the performers’ acoustic guitars. Right?

Wrong.

Of the four initial acoustic guitars with installed pickup systems, only two, using Drum & Strum installed LR Baggs units, worked flawlessly. Other plain acoustics using sound-hole pickup systems also worked well. I can’t say the same about two other “high end” guitars with built-in electronics that caused no end of trouble during our sound check. The first guitar clipped and then… fed back and then… became unusable. A second of the same brand was swapped in – didn’t work. The quick thinking owners of these issue prone guitars borrowed our Norman and a “save the day” PRS acoustic (PRS Acoustic? Who knew?) that wandered in the door in response to a plea for functioning guitars. I’m not going to mention the brand of the otherwise superb guitars with coffee can sounding electronics other than to say some trade names rhyme with “depression.” My guess is the guitars’ batteries were low and these things seem to eat batteries like candy. I’m surprised the guitars from this maker don’t come with a replacement battery bandolier to wear on stage. Or, perhaps, they should just swallow their pride and create an external power supply solution. Alembic does this very well so this is not an odd concept.

Now I come to the point of this message. The above Norman guitar and my Fender (yes Fender) 12 string acoustic both had LR Baggs pickups installed last year: Anthem SL and Anthem respectively. Since these two guitars were never scheduled to play at the same time, they shared one LR Baggs Venue DI with easy, pop-free, swapping via the mute/tune switch on the Venue. This show vindicated my decision to choose LR Baggs for my pickup and DI needs.

Let me preface my final point by stating I am an electrical engineer by trade with over two decades of circuit design experience including plenty of analog work. When I was first turned on to LR Baggs I reviewed their, and other, products with a critical eye towards value, not price. Once I discovered the Anthem Mic/UST hybrid with crossover mixing approach I thought to myself “Hey, that’s good thinking.”  Believe me, I was hesitant to put a $299 Anthem system into a $250 Fender 12 string, but this particular guitar has earned its stripes and I was tired of micing it. I purchased the Anthems for installation by the local luthier at Drum and Strum. Other than a bit of gain difference between the two guitars, the Anthem SL-Norman combo has more signal, the whole LR Baggs approach has earned the highest accolade I can give an analog audio system… and that sums to one simple word…

Transparency

With my examples of LR Baggs product installations, you don’t notice the system is there. It just works well. It is transparent. My cheap guitar benefits greatly and others notice. Can you tell a difference between the Anthem vs. natural sound? Of course you can, but you have to focus to notice. Whereas the high end guitars mentioned above have pickup systems that are unmistakably “electric”  sounding when and if they work; The owners of these guitars deserve better.

There is a saying “You only buy quality once.”  So far this is ringing true for my handpicked LR Baggs solution for my not-so-high-end guitars. You did not let me down. The sting felt to the wallet when I purchased your products has long since faded away in the Joyful Noise of beautiful acoustic sounds celebrating Christmas.

So thank you LR Baggs for making my electrified acoustics not part of the problem during sound check and the performance.

Merry Christmas.

John

Thanks to the efforts of a great many antenna enthusiasts, the Hoverman design is reborn to help TV viewers obtain off the air (OTA) television signals.

On my hamradio site I document some history, manufacture and testing of a modern version of the venerable Doyt Hoverman UHF TV antenna.

Please enjoy Superbowl TV Antenna.

The circuit below is a straight forward way to provide continuous control over the intensity of one or more LEDs using a current regulator circuit based on a crude current mirror.

Linear LED Intensity Controller

Linear Regulator LED Intensity Controller

Summary

  • Q1 buffers the potentiometer voltage a little.
  • Size R2 for maximum current through the LEDs.
  • Q3 “mirrors” the current pushed through Q2 despite the voltage drop of the LED string.
  • The compliance range of Q3 is the battery voltage less about 1V.
  • R3 and R4 are optional, but improve the balance of the mirror by reducing the variability of emitter resistance.
  • DS2 is optional, but you should be able to fit as many LEDs as the voltage range allows between 9V and the collector of Q3.
  • The lowest 20% or so of potentiometer swing results in insufficient voltage to overcome the two Vbe drops of Q1 and Q2 leaving the upper 80% to control brightness.

Details

Circuit Description
This circuit is simply a voltage to current converter with almost all battery voltage available on the output.

There isn’t a way to reliably control an LED with voltage as it is very much a current device. The attached circuit will take a voltage, set with the pot, buffer it a bit with Q1 and apply that voltage to R2. R2 changes voltage to a current which flows through the left side of the current mirror Q2 and Q3. Q3 will do whatever it takes to draw the same current through the series LEDs. Q3 essentially becomes a linear current regulator, controlled by the voltage made by pot R1, which is exactly what you want to regulate LED brightness.

The current mirror ratio is close to 1:1, but variances in transistors will cause some imbalance. The addition of R3 and R4 help to immunize the current ratio from transistor tolerances and alleviate the need for a matched pair of transistors.

There are simpler ways to create a controllable current regulator, but not by much. This is pretty robust.

R2 Controls Max Current
Note that the max current is governed by R2 which is sized just like you would for an LED in series with a battery. One small difference is Q1 and Q2 both have ~0.7 volt drop so the voltage across R2 is about 9-(2*0.7) or a little over 7V.

Potentiometer Partial Use
The LED is off for the first 20% or so of its setting due to the Vbe of Q1 and Q2. The remaining 80% smoothly controls current through the LED. If this bothers you, place one forward bias diode in series between the bottom of the pot and its ground connection. This will raise the minimum voltage 0.7 V or so and reduce the dead zone a bit. It’s up to you if adding one more component is worth expanding the potentiometer range a tiny bit.

Voltage to Current Converter
This circuit simply converts a voltage appearing on top of R2 to current through the LED, while keeping full voltage available for the LED string. In this example, R1 and Q1 provide the voltage, but any voltage will do.

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