Category: Village of Ridgwood

>Radio amateurs test their mettle
Sunday, June 29, 2008
BY STEPHANIE AKIN
STAFF WRITER
If you turn on the radio today, you probably won’t hear the thousands of amateur broadcasters exchanging simulated emergency signals thoughout the country.

But the frequencies have been buzzing since early Saturday afternoon.

Amateur broadcasters at five stations in North Jersey are participating in the 24-hour, nationwide display of their emergency broadcasting skills. During the event, called a field day, they will send signals from mountaintops and parking lots, using microphones and Morse code, broadcasting on frequencies usually too high or low to register on the commercial radio dial.

“This is really a drill,” said Joel Wagoner, a member of the Ramapo Mountain Amateur Radio Club. “It’s to test our ability to set up a station at any time and under any conditions.”

Wagoner spoke as his fellow club members set up a makeshift station in a clearing off Skyline Drive in Ringwood.

As they wiped sweat from their faces and swatted at flies, the group of mostly middle-aged men put together a showcase of modern radio technology.

Club members, among them a high school teacher, an accountant and a retired electrical engineer, hung antennas from the trees that could send signals as far as California. They wired high-frequency portable radios to microphones. They installed Morse code transmitters in a tent. All the equipment was powered by an emergency generator, so club members could practice working without electricity.

Club member Michael Mutascio of Ringwood created a command center in a trailer he usually uses to store his snowmobile. Inside, he sat at a desk with two laptop computers, a desktop connected to an early version of a police emergency tracking system, and – of course – several radios.

The club’s radios can send messages to the other side of the country, bounce signals off meteor showers and even use the moon as a reflector, he said.

“Those space sounds you’re hearing is actually text being sent to a computer server,” he said as one of the computers emitted an eerie series of blips. “The sounds are converted into text.”

For this event, though, the goal is to exchange as many signals as possible with other broadcasters operating from similar stations.

Clubs that contact the most stations win an award. But club members said completing the exercise is more important than winning the contest.

Amateur radio operators help communicate with the outside world during disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, when cellphone and Internet service are severed.

Because operators can’t predict which equipment or technologies will be available when they need them, it’s important to practice transmitting signals on several frequencies and with a range of equipment.

“Even though there is a lot of technology out there, we prepare for failure,” said Mutascio, who is a paramedic by profession and volunteers in international disaster response.

In an actual disaster, amateur radio operators can broadcast from their homes, from parking lots or from several emergency broadcast systems in the region.

The mountaintop site allows the club to send its signals farther. It also allows operators to simulate some of the stresses they might encounter in a real emergency, such as working for long hours with little sleep. Several club members planned to camp on the mountain, but only after they were too exhausted to send signals.

“This keeps me better-rounded in case something goes wrong,” Mutascio said.

E-mail: [email protected]

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Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration Information

Come celebrate Independence Day in Ridgewood – Friday, July 4th! TICKETS FOR FIREWORKS: Pre-event $5 (at Gate $10 adults/$5 children) NOW on sale in Ridgewood at Alice, Alice, Alice; Artventure; Backyard Living; Citizens Community Bank; Daily Treat Restaurant; Goffle Brook Farm; Harding Wine and Spirits; Hillmann Electric; Hoskins Propane; Irish Eyes Imports; Ridgewood Cycle Shop; The Wine Seller and Town & Country Apothecary & Fine Cosmetics. JUNE 27 – JULY 3 at Ridgewood Library

SCHEDULE DETAILS: www.ridgewoodjuly4th.org2008 Celebration Theme ChosenLet’s Make it a Safe CelebrationTicket Sales Information

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The Ridgewood Fourth of July Celebration needs small teams of 2-4 volunteers each to carry Sponsor Banners in the Parade. A great opportunity for a family or group of young people to participate and help to “Support the Tradition” of celebrating Independence Day in Ridgewood.

email: [email protected]

phone: 201-602-1922

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George Carlin
May 12, 1937–June 22, 2008

Great comedian – Rest In Peace

There’s some language (but what did you expect…It’s George Carlin) but not too bad and no, its not the 7 Dirty Words bit.

A quick Bio from Wikipedia

George Denis Patrick Carlin (May 12, 1937–June 22, 2008)[19][20] was an American stand-up comedian, actor and author who won four Grammy Awards for his comedy albums.
Carlin was especially noted for his political and black humor and his observations on language, psychology, and religion along with many taboo subjects. Carlin and his “Seven Dirty Words” comedy routine were central to the 1978 U.S. Supreme Court case F.C.C. v. Pacifica Foundation, in which a narrow 5–4 decision by the justices affirmed the government’s right to regulate “indecent” material on the public airwaves.
In the 2000s, Carlin’s stand-up routines focused on the flaws in modern-day America. He often took on contemporary political issues in the United States and satirized the excesses of American culture.
He placed second on the Comedy Central cable television network list of the 10 greatest stand-up comedians, ahead of Lenny Bruce and behind Richard Pryor.[21] He was a frequent performer and guest host on The Tonight Show during the three-decade Johnny Carson era, and was also the first person to host Saturday Night Live.

>AFP-NJ News and Views for June 24, 2008

Victory on “Clean Elections” Bill!

AFP activists have once again proven that we can win when we act together. It is because of your efforts that the “Clean Elections” bill has been taken off the legislative table.

Over 1,000 AFP-NJ activists sent almost 11,000 messages to Assembly committee members urging them to not post this expensive welfare for politicians bill. This response is incredible and demonstrates how much power we can bring to bear when we need to.

Thank you all for a job well done! Your messages, letters, and phone calls made the many committee supporters of this bill think twice about their position.

I would also like to thank Assemblywoman McHose (R-Sussex County, District 24) for leading the charge against this bill in the Assembly. We need more Assembly members with her ideals and courage.

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Letter to Steve Lonegan from Assemblywoman McHose
Dear Steve,

Thanks for your help and that of the hundreds of volunteers and activists from Americans for Prosperity in getting the message out on A-100. Because of you and AFP, this legislation has been at least temporarily halted in the Assembly Budget Committee.

As you know, A-100, is the enabling legislation for the so-called “Clean Elections” program for 2009. It is the brainchild of the Camden County Democratic machine and was cooked-up as part of a backroom political maneuver to put forward taxpayer-subsidized political campaigns for a few hand-picked districts, and call it “reform”.

This is a bad bill for a whole host of reasons — as even its honest supporters acknowledge. Thanks to you, we’ve made the Legislature think again before spending millions in taxpayers’ money to fund a selected group of politicians’ campaigns.

Not only can’t New Jersey afford it, the way this bill goes about it is ethically wrong. Now we must stay vigilant in case the bill is brought up again.

Thank you and thank AFP.

Sincerely,
Alison Littell McHose,
Assemblywoman
(R-Sussex County, District 24)

>Zusy’s Campaign Expenditures In Detail

As reported to the NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission by Anne Zusy (Candidate) and James R. Pfeiffer (Campaign Treasurer) on May 30, 2008.

Meet the candidate coffee gatherings – $2,115.00
Professional photographic portrait – $150.00
Mailing labels – $117.70
Postcards and postage – $752.85
Cardboard placard lawn signs – $983.20
Photocopies and miscellaneous supplies – $215.76

Grand Total = $4334.51

>Updated:11:30, Monday June 23, 2008

Councils have been urged to stop using controversial surveillance powers for “trivial” offences.

CCTV not being used properlyBosses have been warned by the head of the Local Government Association (LGA) that they risk alienating the public for so-called snooping.

They may also be stripped of the right to use spying methods.

But Sir Simon Milton defended councils that used surveillance to tackle fly tippers, rogue traders and tax and benefit fraudsters.

There has been growing anger about the methods used by councils to probe minor crimes, such as dog fouling.

The powers were introduced under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act as part of the Government’s anti-terror drive but it is claimed some councils are abusing the powers.

Sir Simon has now written to every council in the country urging them to review their use of the Act.

“Parliament clearly intended that councils should use the new powers, and generally they are being used to respond to residents’ complaints about fly tippers, rogue traders and those defrauding the council tax or housing benefit system,” he wrote.

Figures released by councils under the Freedom of Information Act show that the telephone and email records of thousands of people have been accessed under the Act.

A sample of less than 10% of councils disclosed using spying techniques 1,343 times.

Sky’s political correspondent Niall Paterson said: “If councils continue to use their powers in this fashion they’ll soon find them being withdrawn – especially given the focus of late on our ‘surveillance society’.

“It certainly lends weight to David Davis’ by-election campaign against the abrogation of our privacy, even if there’s no one of any real importance to campaign against in Haltemprice and Howden.”

>v.
Changes of Assignment Dr. Brennan

Administrator

OATES-SANTOS, Lorna � from Assistant Principal, Benjamin Franklin Middle School, to Principal, Somerville School, effective July 15, 2008, through June 30, 2009. From:� AP, 12m,

Step 4D

$126,784

Includes Doctorate Stipend

To:� EP, 12m, Step 4D, $136, 558, Includes Doctorate Stipend

Dr. Oates-Santos�s credentials are as follows:

� Bachelor�s Degree, History � University of Notre Dame

� Master�s Degree in Social Studies � Columbia University

� Master�s Degree in Administration � Caldwell College

� Ed.D. � Seton Hall University

� 2005-2008 � Assistant Principal, Benjamin Franklin Middle School

� 2002-2005 � Renaissance Middle School, Montclair, New Jersey

� 2000-2002 � Clarke Middle School, Lexington, Massachusetts

� 1999-2000 � Renaissance Middle School, Montclair, New Jersey

>2008 TERC Math vs. 2008 NMP Math: A Snapshot View

The March 2008 Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel recognized algebra as the gateway to all higher mathematics. The Panel carefully defined “school algebra” by identifying 27 specific topics, organized into major categories, such as linear equations, quadratic equations, and the algebra of polynomials. The Panel then identified the “critical foundations of algebra.” They stressed proficiency with the standard algorithms of whole number arithmetic and proficiency with fractions. The Panel said students should develop “automatic execution of the standard algorithms.” They cautioned that the use of calculators could “impede the development of automaticity.”

The TERC 2008 PDF document Early Algebra: Numbers and Operations vaguely defines “algebra” as “a multifaceted area of mathematics content that has been described and classified in different ways.” TERC doesn’t identify any specific “algebra” topics. They do list “four areas” that they believe to be “foundational to the study of algebra,” but nothing about mastery of standard arithmetic. TERC promotes nonstandard methods that attempt to avoid carrying, borrowing, and common denominators. These are three keys to computational automaticity! Here are two examples found in TERC 2008 materials.

1) How TERC avoids the concept of borrowing:
3,726
– 1,584
2,000
200
-60
2
2,142

This example of TERC’s “Subtracting by Place” method is found in the TERC 2008 5th Grade Student Handbook. The student somehow knows that 20 – 80 can be written as -60, a negative number, and the student also knows how to compute 2,142 as the sum of positive and negative integers. TERC avoids the concept of borrowing by assuming knowledge of negative numbers and integer arithmetic. These two middle school topics are not explicitly mentioned anywhere in the TERC 2008 program materials.

2) How TERC avoids the concept of a common denominator:

Shandra compares 2/5 to 3/8 by arguing “For 3/8, you need another 1/8 to make a half. For 2/5, you need half of a fifth to make a half. That’s the same as 1/10, so 1/10 is smaller than 1/8, so 2/5 is closer to 1/2. This means that 2/5 is more.” But how much more? If Shandra used 40 as a common denominator and converted 2/5 to 16/40 and 3/8 to 15/40, she would easily see that 2/5 is exactly 1/40 more than 3/8. Typical for TERC, Shandra’s method requires considerable time, significant conscious thought, and fails to give an exact answer. Converting to a common denominator should become an automatic skill. This skill is essential for exactly adding, subtracting, and comparing fractions.

Copyright 2008 William G. Quirk, Ph.D.

>Economics 101 : is a new series brought to you by local Independent Investment Representative

James J Foytlin
Horwitz & Associates
54 Washington Place
Ridgewood NJ 07450
toll free 1(866)492-3959
phone 1(201)301-2780
cell 1(201)966-7788
https://onesmallvoice.blogspot.com/

excerpts from BASIC ECONOMICS: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy
by Thomas Sowell

Chapter 3, “Price Controls”
To understand the effects of price control, it is necessary to understand how prices rise and fall in a free market. There is nothing esoteric about it, but it is important to be very clear about what happens. Prices rise because the amount demanded exceeds the amount supplied at existing prices. Prices fall because the amount supplied exceeds the amount demanded at existing prices. The first case is called a “shortage” and the second is called a “surplus”–but both depend on existing prices.

Simple as this might seem, it is often misunderstood–sometimes with disastrous consequences. A closer examination shows why shortages persist when the government sets a maximum price lower than what it would be in a free market and why a surplus persists when the government sets minimum prices for farm products higher than these prices would be in a free market.

PRICE CEILINGS AND SHORTAGES

When there is a “shortage” of a product, there is not necessarily any less of it, either absolutely or relative to the number of consumers. During and immediately after the Second World War, for example, there was a very serious housing shortage in the United States, even though the population and the housing supply had both increased about 10 percent from their prewar levels and there was no shortage when the war began.

In other words, even though the ratio between housing and people had not changed, nevertheless many Americans looking for an apartment during this period had to spend weeks or months in an often vain search for a place to live, or else resorted to bribes to get landlords to move them to the top of waiting lists. Meanwhile, they doubled up with relatives, slept in garages or used other makeshift living arrangements.

Although there was no less housing space per person than before, the shortage was very real at existing prices, which were kept artificially lower than they would have been because of rent control laws that had been passed during the war. At these artificially low prices, more people had a demand for more housing space than before rent control laws were enacted. This is a practical consequence of the simple economic principle already noted in Chapter 2 that the quantity demanded varies with how high or low the price is.

Some people who would normally not be renting their own apartments, such as young adults still living with their parents or some single or widowed elderly people living with relatives, were enabled by the artificially low prices created by rent control to move out and into their own apartments. These artificially low prices also caused others to seek larger apartments than they would ordinarily be living in. More tenants seeking both more apartments and larger apartments created a shortage, not any greater physical scarcity of housing relative to the population. When rent control laws expired or were repealed, the housing shortage likewise quickly disappeared.

As rents rose in a free market, some childless couples living in four-bedroom apartments decided that they could live in two-bedroom apartments. Some late teenagers decided that they could continue living with mom and dad a little longer, until their pay rose enough for them to afford their own apartments, now that apartments were no longer artificially cheap. The net result was that families looking for a place to stay found more places available, now that rent-control laws were no longer keeping such places occupied by people with less urgent requirements.

None of this was peculiar to the United States. The same economic principles can be seen in operation around the world and down through history.
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— excerpted from Chapter 3 of BASIC ECONOMICS: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell.
Find the book here: https://FreedomKeys.com/bkecon.htm