As predicted, we just got rain

Calm seas over NY Harbor as the storm passed

As BatteryPark.TV first predicted on Thursday the 25th, Hurricane Irene hit shore far more west than the models predicted, hitting the Carolinas and then dissipating into an eye-less tropical storm. Even after that occurred, however, New York Mayor Bloomberg and the TV stations reaping the rewards from hyped coverage, continued to scare tens of millions on the Eastern Seaboard. Bloomberg made the controversial move on Thursday to shut down the MTA subways and order the first-ever mandatory evacuation of the city.

The result of Bloomberg’s actions, copied by other leaders in the Northeast in a domino effect, has been the biggest man-made disaster in memory (aside from terrorism). As air travel, Amtrak, and the NYC subways have come to a halt during peak tourism season, and with hundreds of thousands forced from their homes due to evacuation, the cost of lost revenues will certainly be in the billions.

To protect their reputations, the TV stations, the MTA, and the city officials are hyping the alleged damage from the storm. As of 12:00 PM Sunday, the storm is far away from NYC, downgraded to a storm rather than a “hurricane”, yet officials still warn of deadly flooding from a “storm surge”, despite there never having been the wind to create such an epic flooding. The city is still a ghost town with no mass transit.

Manhattan can process massive amounts of rain water and high winds without significant flooding. What NYC received from “Hurricane” Irene would have been otherwise completely insignificant if it were not for the hyped status as “Deadly hurricane”.

As the weeks go by, the details of this scandal will unfold. Questions to ask will be:

1. Did Mayor Bloomberg simply overreact?
2. Was his absence during the winter blizzard a factor in this overreaction? Was he afraid of doing a George-Bush-Katrina misstep?
3. To boost ratings, did the TV stations report misleading images or stage any shots, such as making themselves wet when there was no rain, etc?
4. Did the TV weather producers use out-of-date older radar images of the hurricane to look more menacing than the reliable NOAA satellite images BatteryPark.TV relied on which clearly showed the storm breaking apart and losing the eye?
5. Did Con-Ed fabricate an excuse for warning that electricity might be cut in parts of NYC in order to scare people from their homes and comply with evacuations?
6. What role did President Obama and FEMA play. They were conspicuously absent from this process.

One of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World”

July 25, 2011

Peter Pronovost MD PhD, gave us a tour of his work at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His pioneering research has greatly reduced adverse outcomes, such as infections and OR, in hospitals around the world. For his work, Dr. Pronovost was named one of Time Magazine’s “Most Influential People in the World” and is a recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” award.

Dr. Steven Greer took a tour of his ICU and discussed his advances.

(In full screen 1080iHD)

Is P90X a mental health risk to congressmen?

June 7, 2011

A growing number of 40-something congressmen are getting into the best shapes of their lives after joining an informal “P90X caucus“, whereby they religiously workout to the instructions of the infomercial P90X program. However, is this detrimental to their careers? Should never-before-in-shape dorky white men receive psychological counseling before getting buff?

Earlier this year, a 46-yo married member of the P90X caucus, Rep. Chris Lee (R-NY) was ejected from his congressional seat after being busted posting a shirtless photo on Craigslist (while seeking a prostitute). Now, another 46-yo member of the P90X gang, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), will likely lose his seat, one way or the other, after posting on Twitter his surprisingly in-shape shirtless thorax created by his workout regimen (who knew that below that pencil neck were any muscles greater than a 10-yo girl?).

Politics is often called the Hollywood for ugly people. Now, with better knowledge of diet and exercise, and some “Low-T” prescriptions thrown in, these men are adding the aesthetic aspect to the mix. But this added power seems to be too potent for them, and they snap, risking it all with risky ultra-stupid sexting.

Of course, P90X might not be to blame. The State of New York might be the epidemiological risk factor here, given the past relics of Eliott Spitzer, Eric Massa, David Paterson, etc.

Update: U.S. Radiation levels from Japan

May 1, 2011

The radiation fallout levels in the U.S. from the Japan Fukushima reactors remain low. The EPA runs a national RadNet system that collects radiation samples from air, water, milk and other sources. In addition, most states (e.g. Maryland) have independent collection systems, as do nuclear regulatory agencies.

We spoke with Clifford S. Mitchell, MD, MPH, of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The data are collected by measuring the activity level of the disintegrating isotopes. Each isotope emits a unique spectrum of energy, so the type of radiation, as well as total energy is measurable in picocuries (pCi/m3). However, those measurements are not clinically relevant.

One needs to then estimate a clinical dosage, which depends on the length of exposure and route of ingestion (i.e. inhaled, drank, touched, etc). Sieverts (Sv), or millisieverts (mSv), are the units of dosage one needs in order to compare fallout to other types of radiation, such as CT scans or X-rays. We do not have estimates for the mSv dose data.

The encouraging aspects of the data collected so far are that:

A) The total activity is not accumulating significantly

B)  The long-half-life, most deadly, isotopes such as cesium and plutonium, are not yet detected, for the most part, in mainland U.S. Hawaii does have detectable levels of some of the more concerning isotopes, as does California rain water measurements (Te-132).

Given that I-131 has a short half-life of 8 days, one would not expect to see an accumulation of activity in pCi. However, a continued inhalation of low levels can translate into a greater dosage on terms of mSv.

Bernanke’s missing link of chainmail on his underbelly

April 27, 2011

As investors know, The Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, gave a first-of-its-kind press conference today, pulling the curtain away from the Wizard of Oz. Coinciding with the event, the Fed released discouraging updates that downgraded the estimates for first quarter GDP, increased inflation expectations for inflation, and decreased job growth expectations.

All of this is after the $600 Billion spent on “QE2″, which was the perverse purchasing by The Fed of the US treasuries. Most economists and analysts have assessed QE2 as a dismal failure. As a result of the lack of political will, The Fed officially announced that there would be no QE3.

The Fed had hoped to trigger job growth with the various forms of “printing money”. The tradeoffs to these actions are always a triggering of inflation, reduction in the spending power of the American citizen as the dollar depreciates, and rise in commodity prices that are pegged on the USD.

The most important increase in commodity prices has been oil.

Politically, the current economic scenario and series of actions by the Obama administration is starting to have an uncanny similarity to the stagflation (inflation coupled with slow economic growth and unemployment), high gas prices, and foreign policy unrest as the 1970′s and President Carter administration. True inflation, not the bogus number used by the government that back out the costs of food and gasoline, is a now a reality and will get worse.

Chairman Bernanke was asked by the Wall Street Journal what the Fed could do to lower the price of gas. He answered by attributing the rise to supply and demand, unrest in the Middle East and Africa, and to Wall Street speculators manipulating the futures markets.  He made no mention of the powerful role of the Fed’s quantitative easing and low value of the dollar, when by definition, a low dollar will mean a higher price for oil.

If President Obama’s own policy actions, and those of his appointed members of the Fed, were to be implicated in directly causing inflation and the high price of gas, that would be a serious blow to his re-election chances. Therefore, one might explain Ben Bernanke’s peculiar answer leaving out the powerful role of the Fed in oil and gas prices, seen in the video below, to politics. As gas prices get higher, the Fed’s role in causing it will be Bernanke’s weak spot: his missing link of chainmail on his underbelly.

(The video can be viewed in full screen 1080i HD)

April 28, 2011

One day later, the White House was on the defensive denying the relationship between the low dollar, casued by the Fed, and the high gas prices.

Selectively enforced parking rules on West Thames

October 11

Matt Fenton has an interesting article in the Broadsheet about how State and City employees are parking their cars in no-parking zones on West Thames. The cars post government affiliations on their dashboard to avoid getting ticketed. Some use handicap passes.

The controversy is whether these car operators are really on government jobs and really handicapped or are just abusing the system while regular Joe’s like us get expensive tickets on the other side of the street.

As an update, we did notice this handicapped car was ticketed.

“Nazi-like” pattern of behavior by the PEPs

March 1, 2011

The Community Board met tonight to discuss the proposed demolition of the Winter Garden stairs and the alleged assault of BPC resident Adam Pratt, first reported by BatteryPark.TV on January 29th. The Pratt incident was the last topic of the evening. The overwhelming consensus by the 20 or more attendees was that the Parks Enforcement Patrol (PEP) has been behaving in “Nazi-like” fashion, asking innocent dog owners for their identification without probable cause for any violation. The terms “Nazi” and “Asked for my papers” were used at least five times by different residents.

One 16-year old female attendee testified that she was routinely the recipient of sexual advances by PEP, and when she walked away, they would ask her for her ID. Most of the other residents complaining were dog owners reporting very similar problems of the PEP asking them for ID even though their dogs were on a leash. Recall, this is what Mr. Pratt alleges happened to him.

Of note, after a Supreme Court ruling in 2004, it is now a possible criminal offense for anyone suspected of wrongdoing to refuse to identify themselves to police. However, carrying an ID is not required, and if someone is going to the gym or jogging, for examples, they cannot be arrested for not having an ID card.

Other complaints focused in the inaction of PEPs for serious problems such as violent gangs of skateboarders (known to have struck PEPs officer over the head with a skateboard and filmed assaulting a food vendor), bicyclists riding in the wrong areas of the esplanade, and PEP phone texting messages while on duty.

The new CEO of Battery Park City Authority, Gail Horwitz, promised a “Zero tolerance” to any PEPs acting badly toward residents. She said that offending officers would be relocated to other beats in the city promptly. However, all of the PEP involved in the Adam Pratt incident are still on duty as normal and have not been punished. It is unknown whether this is a defensive legal maneuver by the BPCA or City to deny any wrongdoing by the PEP.

Regarding the Adam Pratt case, the PEP internal investigators have made no attempt to reach out to the numerous witnesses reported on video and in text via the local papers and BatteryPark.TV. The PEP supervisors mentioned that they had reached out to Mr. Pratt’s civil suit lawyer. When asked why they would be contacting civil lawyers, something an NYPD detective would not do, they did not reply.

Wasted Federal Stimulus Money

March 29, 2011

An example of why the Trillion-dollar Federal Stimulus Plan (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) created no jobs and simply vanished into State and City balance sheets: The New York DOT wasted $1.14 Million on these needless replacement machines and justified it by saying they were “Green”.

Why the Mid-term elections could destroy the GOP in 2012

Opinion October 16, 2010

It is a foregone conclusion that the Republicans will take control of the House of Representatives this November. However, will this be exactly what President Obama needs, and indeed has orchestrated, to be re-elected in 2012?

It was only four years ago that the American voters fired the GOP, and the duo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid led what would become a completely Democrat-controlled congress and executive branch. The GOP had become an out-of-touch political party catering to the special interests of Wall Street, Big Oil, Big Pharma, etc. Independents turned away from the Republican Party in droves and formed the Tea Party movement.

The GOP, along with plenty of help from Democrats, allowed the subprime mortgage bubble to balloon into the largest global financial catastrophe ever. The Republican Bush administration also led the country into the longest series of wars in history, costing trillions, as the deficit reached record levels. What has the GOP done since 2006, and the election of President Obama in 2008, to learn from their mistakes and recruit better leaders into the party? Are they ready to lead the country again so soon?

The top leadership of the GOP still does not seem to have gotten the message. RNC chairman Michael Steele has made a series of gaffes on par with Joe Biden. There are no popular stars in the party with novel ideas. Very few Americans have ever heard of soon-to-be Speaker of the House Boehner, and the Tea Party has all of the name recognition with Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, etc.

There are many indications that the new Republicans, soon to be control of the House, will squander this political goodwill faster than Lindsay Lohan violates probation. Numerous wackos with little experience at public speaking are stumbling over each other to make headlines, ala Mr. Paladino in New York and Christie O’Donnell in Delaware. The late night talk shows will graciously welcome all of this. Jay Leno is already poking fun at the lame appearances of Senate leader Mitch McConnell (see video below).

President Obama was accused a few months ago of throwing Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats under the bus when he mentioned that the GOP could take control of the House. Indeed, Rahm Emanuel might very well have been genius enough to have had Pelosi and Reid do the dirty work of passing Obama-care knowing that the subsequent rise of the GOP in 2010 would help the President get elected in 2012. If the economy continues to stall, the housing market continues to fester, and unstable European debt is not addressed before 2012, having a GOP-run congress to blame is President Obama’s only hope for re-election.  Conversely, if all of the problems improve, then the GOP could take credit.

Use medical device technology to seal the Gulf oil leak

May 16, 2010

It is now painfully obvious that the team of “expert engineers” working on ad hoc solutions to seal the oil-spewing pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico is incompetent. Saturday Night Live lampooned them on May 15^th. British Petroleum (BP) needs to look outside the box and learn from surgeons and the medical device industry how to seal a tube leaking fluid; whether it be high pressure arterial blood or oil at the bottom of the sea.

Every trauma surgeon and vascular interventional doctor knows that the first thing to do to stop a gusher is to apply pressure to the leaking pipe. Doctors do not try to suck up the blood, store it in a vessel, then rapidly reinfuse it back into the patient (although this can be done in surgery, but not as the first step). The latest solution by BP is to insert a pipe into the leaking broken pipe, bring the oil to the surface, then store it in a tanker. This is an idiotic idea. BP should be focusing on ways to seal the pipe.

The medical device industry has invented catheter balloons that can apply massive amounts of pounds-per-square-inch pressure to surrounding walls: enough pressure to expand bone during kyphoplasty spine procedures. Within 24 hours, if a team of engineers from Medtronic were dispatched to the Gulf to advise the BP team, a crude rubber balloon bladder surrounding a “catheter” could be devised, inserted into the leaking oil pipes, inflated, and seal the oil leaks. BP, the White House, and the medical device industry need to make this happen ASAP.

Coalition to save Tire Swing Park

Legal Professor Randy Barnett: the constitutional challenges to the healthcare reform law

April 20, 2010

The new healthcare reform law will impact local hospitals and state budgets as the number of Medicaid patients increase. The plan to close St. Vincent’s is related to Medicaid issues. Healthcare systems in states across the country are struggling and concerned about the changes in store. As a result, numerous Attorneys Generals have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the new healthcare reform law.

Georgetown Law Center Legal Theory Professor Randy Barnett discusses the core arguments being made by numerous State Attorneys Generals that the newly passed healthcare reform law is unconstitutional. In Part 1, the “commerce clause”, whether that empowers the federal government to mandate health insurance, and the tax penalty for those not purchasing insurance, are evaluated on the merits.

In Part 2, Professor Barnett discusses whether the new law infringes on the sovereignty of the states, and privacy rights of individuals. He then estimates the chances of the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Attorney General’s lawsuits.

More bad PR for Goldman Sachs

March 15, 2010

On March 14, 60 Minutes featured the author Michael Lewis and his new book about the collapse of Wall Street due to the subprime mortgage debacle. The video replay can be found here. In the story, the central villain, according to Mr. Lewis, was Goldman Sachs and how they duped AIG into insuring the CDL subprime mortgage securities. The story essentially blames Goldman Sachs for causing the global financial collapse.

As we reported previously, the bad publicity surrounding Goldman is now a material risk to business and officially listed as such in the SEC documents. Goldman Sachs has a launched a PR campaign. It remains to be seen whether it will be effective.

BPC Meeting to discuss Tire Swing Park

The “Botax” and mammogram guidelines

Dr. Jennifer Walden, one of the leading plastic and reconstructive surgeons in New York, discusses her opposition to the “Botax” tax on cosmetic plastic surgery proposed in the Senate healthcare reform bill. She also addresses the controversial recent AHRQ guidelines that recommended against routine mammography for women under the age of 50.

We met Dr. Walden at The White House. The interview may be viewed below.

The USS New York leaving port

The USS New York is the fifth ship in the LPD 17 San Antonio class of amphibious transport dock ships.

The USS NEW YORK (LPD 21), built with 7.5 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in her bow, was commissioned in New York City on Nov. 7, 2009.

(source USS NY web site http://www.ussny.org/)