ELEAZAR VARGAS WANTED FOR MURDER by Los Alamitos Police

Los Alamitos Police Department News: Homicide Investigation - Suspect Named: PRESS RELEASE October 30, 2015 The investigation of the homicide which occurred on October 25, has identified Eleazar Vargas, age 41 ...

Tripolymer Foam Shrinks Alot

I had some tripolymer foam installed a few years ago which was blow in from openings cut in the walls.  At first there was not much thermal bridging, but later I noticed it got worse viewed through my Flir thermographic camera.  After the wall was opened up for remodeling and I noticed that some places shrank a lot and other places shrank less.  Once the foam shrinks, it starts breaking up and pulling away from the studs and this diminishes the effectiveness of the insulation.

The shrinkage seems to be greater in areas that had more heat.  Seems like the dry heat in SoCal makes the foam shrink.  Overall it's still better than cellulose settlement, but next time I'll go with mineral wool Roxul even if I have to take off the drywall.

Near the floor Tripolymer Foam does not shrink that much.  Perhaps due to lower temperature fluctuations.  

In the wall adjoining the garage, the the blown in foam shrank by about only 10%.  

Closer to the eaves on an east facing wall, the foam shrank by 50%.  

Closer to the eaves on an east facing wall, the foam shrank by 50%.  

Triploymer foam seems to shrink in areas where it is needed the most.  

Benefits for Automated Car Safety Devices

Sometimes it is handy to show the benefits of an invention with a chart. For example, United States Patent 7,800,484 can be summarized as follows:

Benefits	Patent	Type of Product	Solution	Problem	Feature
	China patented products	Accidents > Products	When the driver is drunk driving, the alcohol sensor will flash and warn other drivers to keep away to avoid major accidents. It could also work as a warning to the drunk driver.	Drunk driving is dangerous to the driver, and to other people.	Alcohol sensor
As long as there are cars, there are markets for these products.	China patented products	Accidents > Products	When the driver is getting out of the car, the remainder will issue warnings so that s/he won’t leave any valuables behind.	When valuables are left behind in the car, they might invite thieves or incur major regretful events.	Reminder
These products can create endless jobs and revenues.	China patented products	Accidents > Products	When the car is crossing an intersection or getting out of the parking space, the extension mirror will make it easy to see the left and right, thus reducing the risk of accidents.	When the car is crossing an intersection or getting out of the parking space but the driver’s view is obstructed by the blocks on either side of the car, the chances of colliding with other cars will be great.	Extension mirror
Our government does not need our fines. They simply want us to drive legally and safely.	China patented products	Car accidents > Products	With the broader viewpoint provided by this convex mirror, the driver could ensure a safer and more precise change of lanes and car parking.	Blind corners are not easily perceptible when the car is changing lanes, thus easy for it to collide with the cars following close behind.	Convex mirror
	USA patented products
	China patented product Korea patented products	Speeding fines > Products
	1-15 224
There are 30 million cars in California and 3 billion cars in the United States. What about other countries?	16-30 338		Once the driving speed is beyond the legal limits, the speed warning will issue audio warnings to avoid speeding. And with the drivers’ eyes and ears both on alert, the driving will be safer and more convenient.	In the busy lives of modern people, they would sometimes speed before they know it.	Speeding warming
			This light is useful in other aspects. If the car is lost or stolen and the perpetrators are at large, this light will become red and easily detected by the satellites of the police force, thus making this case one of the easily resolved ones among all the lost cars.	U.S.-patented products
	China patented products
	Korea patented products		The light will register if the fee has been paid. It will work in the same way as is described in the next circumstance.	It’s imperative for a driver to pay fees. They will be fined if there is a delay.
			30% of the cars in California do not have auto insurances. If these cars are equipped with this light, it can be expected to decrease traffic jams by 30%. Otherwise, the government could impose more taxation on this.	U.S.-patented products
	China patented products
	Korea patented products	No insurance
		Fines > Products
		$796	The insurance light at the back of the car serves as an insurance scheme. If within the monitoring range, the light is green, otherwise it will become red.	It’s imperative to buy a car insurance for the car. It is often the case that this is neglected or postponed.	Insurance light
				U.S.-patented products
	China patented products
	Korea patented products			Seat belts not fastened
		Fines > Products
		$160	When the car is started in a hurry, this device will issue audio warnings that remind the driver to fasten the seat belt.	People tend to forget to fasten the seat belt when they have to drive in a hurry.	Seat belt

I just found out I'm overweight (for an Asian)

I just found out I'm overweight aka fat, for an Asian.  It's a real shock.

According to the body mass index chart I have been using for the last few decades, I have been safely in the normal range at only 24.95 BMI.  Although this was on the borderline of being overweight, I was always very comforted by the fact that I was in the NORMAL range.  It was always very easy for me to stay outside of the overweight category by staying at just under 25 BMI.  As long as I was barely under 25 BMI, I had this wonderful chart that told me that I was normal.

This affirming and reassuring CDC chart was from 2005.

An Australian BMI chart used the same numbers and told me I'm not just normal, but healthy!  There's even picture of a healthy guy in the green zone and he's smiling too.  That used to be me.

Being smugly complacent with my healthy normality for my entire life, I never thought that there could be different charts for different races of people.

Yes, there are and I was using the wrong chart.  The charts that I had been using were not made for Asian Americans, but rather for Caucasians.  Evidently, Asians are supposed to be genetically thinner and will get diabetes more easily at the same BMI.  Ergo, the idea of Asians being genetically thin is not just some kind of cultural stereotype, or a cultural difference more related to food choices like less dairy and meat in favor of soy and veggies.  As far as type 2 diabetes is concerned, race is not a social construct, but rather basic biology.

The Joslin Diabetes Center has an Asian American Diabetes Initiative that came out with a new chart. It's a shocking new chart, just shocking.  It shifted me from the 'good' zone into the 'bad' zone.

The Joslin Diabetes Center: Asian American Diabetes Initiative that explains that I'm overweight for an Asian, and thus at elevated risk, even though I would be normal weight for a Caucasian.  I'm being held to a different standard.  This reminds me of when I got top 2% percentile in math and top 2% percentile in English on my SAT back in High School, and then all my Asian friends said that was actually kind of a weak score since I'm Asian after all, and besides they did much better.  Even though I had a Mensa qualifying score, it was only good in the context of being compared with non-Asian high school students, which my peers didn't feel was a valid comparison.  This was way before Ward Connelly's prop 209, so fortunately I still got into UCLA engineering school.  

The Center for Disease Control, Department of Health and Human Services has an Office of Minority Health in the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Diabetes Translation that explains: 

"Asian Americans are 10 percent less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to die from diabetes, however they have additional risk factors.

• Asian Americans are 20 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes as compared to non-Hispanic Whites.

• Asians are 10% less likely than non-Hispanic whites to die from diabetes.

• In 2009, Asian Americans were 20 percent less likely than non-Hispanic Whites to have an annual foot examination.

At a glance – Diagnosed Cases of Diabetes:National Health Interview Survey, NHIS

Age-adjusted percentages of persons 18 years of age and over with diabetes, 2011 

Asians	Non-Hispanic White	Asians / White Ratio
8.8	7.3	1.2

Source:  CDC 2012.  Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Adults: 2011.  Table 8.
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_256.pdf [PDF | 3.1MB]"

So the CDC is basically saying that non-Hispanic Whites are 20% genetically better suited for surviving a couch potato lifestyle eating lots of fried foods, sugary snacks, soft drinks and starchy carbohydrates.  The CDC makes the hypothesis that certain races have, "a 'thrifty gene' which helped their ancestors store food energy better during times when food was plentiful, to survive during times when food was scarce."  That certainly could be a likely hypothesis given that some of my ancestors starved or almost starved, for many thousands of years living on the Malthusian edge of existence.  Certainly none of my ancestors got an annual foot examination or worried about losing a foot to diabetes.  

Moreover, it's is not just type II diabetes.  Asians become susceptible to all kinds of diabetes, even GDM "gestational diabetes" at much lower BMIs.  It appears that Non-Hispanic Blacks have a high resistance to GDM so maybe someone will develop an African-American BMI chart that tells previously overweight blacks that they are actually at a healthy and normal weight.  

Kim SY, England L, Sappenfield W, Wilson HG, Bish CL, Salihu HM, Sharma AJ. Racial/ethnic differences in the percentage of gestational diabetes mellitus cases attributable to overweight and obesity, Florida, 2004-2007. Prev Chronic Dis 2012;9:110249. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd9.110249

This means that God made Asians skinny and I'm supposed to be skinny.  For an Asian guy, I'm suddenly now fat, porky, overweight, chubby.  Thus, I am currently opposing the will of God by being normal weight for a Caucasian, which means eventually God will punish my sinfulness with diabetes, and who knows what else, if I don't shape up.

The Asian Diabetes Prevention Initiative (a joint initiative between the Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Nutrition and the National University of Singapore, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health) says I also have to have ripped abs, not just an overall toned body.

"Even if you [Asian person] have a normal BMI, an 'apple-shaped body' (with excess fat around the waist) increases your diabetes risk. Your target measurement for waist circumference should be less than or equal to 90 cm (35.5 in) for men and 80 cm (31.5 in) for women." 

This by default makes New Year's resolution = losing 10 pounds to marginally get back in the green healthy zone on the BMI chart.  It's only 1 BMI away.  Time to hit the gym hard.

A Correlation Between Divorce and Obesity

The U.S. Census keeps track of some interesting data, like how Asian women have the lowest divorce rates.  Race and ethnicity are strongly correlated with duration of first marriages.  Asian women are the most insulated from divorce.  

(U.S. Census Bureau 2009)

Also, race and ethnicity are strongly correlated with obesity.  Asian women are the least obese and also least overweight.

(Center for Disease Control 2011-2012)

If race and ethnicity are strongly correlated with duration of first marriages and race and ethnicity are strongly correlated with obesity, then it follows that divorce rates are strongly correlated with obesity.

The approximate formula appears to be:
Female obesity rate plus about 10% = total % of marriages ending in divorce.

Norwegian researchers taking data from the Norwegian Child Growth Study in 2010 provided an epidemiological study entitled Parental Marital Status and Childhood Overweight and Obesity in Norway: A Nationally Representative Cross-sectional Study.  They cited that, "General overweight (including obesity) was 1.54 (95% CI 1.21 to 1.95) times more prevalent among children of divorced parents compared with children of married parents."  So even the risk of obesity in children of divorced parents is higher.

Does one cause the other?  
I once met a lady whose husband divorced her because she got too fat and he was simply not very attracted to her anymore.  It's very unfortunate but happens once in a while.  Actually to be honest, I have known several men who had lost interest in their wives due to the wife having gained too much weight.  On the other hand I have also known several men who have gained weight after their divorce, but I don't know if some of the men gained some weight first, and then later their wives became unattracted to them, divorced them and then the men gained more weight.  Yet, I also know some men that lost weight after their divorce.  Perhaps obesity causes divorce which causes more obesity.

It seems equally plausible that:
(1) divorce leads to stress overeating which causes obesity,
(2) overeating causes obesity which leads to divorce, or
(3) obesity and divorce are both caused by some other factor.

Some sensational articles such as Daily Mail's: "My husband says he'll divorce me if I get fat" offered by Samantha Brick, 2010 sheds light on this and suggests that some men detest their fat wives.  It reminds me of an acquaintance from high school that once remarked, "I used to have a girlfriend, but I dumped her because she got fat."  Fortunately for me I don't have to worry about any of these issues at this time, but the web appears littered with the carcasses of failed marriages and relationships.

Avoiding Bad Business Partnerships

As an attorney, I probably see a larger proportion of business partnerships end up in litigation or dissolution.  It seems like a lot of business partnerships end up not working well.  Even those among friends or family are plagued with problems.  This is probably because there is no way to resolve a deadlock when 50/50 partners do not agree on the direction of the company.  Just like in a marriage, the partners may feel stifled and not able to move forward when a major disagreement arises. Sometimes these minor disagreements become major disagreements.  This seems to happen quite often when a partner runs out of money, has a divorce or starts drinking excessively.  If a company is a partnership and selling a product under a trademark, the trademark is only owned in gross, and cannot be separated.  Trademarks by definition define a single source of goods.  The trademark could therefore only be used by consent of both partners. This leads to another potential for business interruption.  

Unequal partnerships are no better.  If 50% ownership leads to headaches, less than 51% ownership is worse as it seems to always devolve into 0% ownership.  Limited partnerships also do not work out well.  Limited partnerships usually involve the stealing of limited partners' money by general partners.  Limited partners have little recourse against general partners especially when general partners are judgment proof and have their money outside of the United States.  General partners can steal money by making high-interest loans, mortgaging assets, paying for expensive consultants that are shell companies owned by the general partners and sometimes simply wiring money out of the United States.  Courts generally do not protect the rights of limited partners who have had their money stolen. The limited partners often go back to court to try to collect on assets that are located in shell companies. By the time the court system can act, the money in the shell companies have already moved around. Sometimes the shell companies move outside of United States jurisdiction.  Courts make it troublesome and a hassle to appoint a receiver.  Courts routinely deny relief to creditors.  

Probably the worst thing to do is to buy land with several partners.  Land requires payment of taxes, and when partners have to pay taxes equally, one partner will stop paying taxes and leave the responsibility to the other partners. The other partners will deduct that partners share, leading to strife. The strife will lead other partners to stop paying their taxes. This will lead to only one or two partners paying taxes.  Oftentimes there are other special assessments involved besides taxes. Sometimes the land needs to be maintained or cleaned up such as before a sale or development.  

Land partnership is not the only problem however.  Even in law firm partnerships, one partner can commit malpractice leading to  all partners in the law firm suffering.  Contractors that have partners, might not pay their taxes like payroll taxes and this could lead to bankruptcy of all partners involved.

When general partners breach their fiduciary duty by embezzling money, the criminal process does not get involved.  The authorities will say that it is a civil matter.  Litigation is expensive, and in states like California very slow especially with all of the court closures due to budget cuts.  Obtaining a judgment against a general partner is typically useless.  Even if criminal penalties are applied, the penalty is relatively light.  Engaging in bank fraud for example typically only leads to about six months of jail time tops, even if something like $4 million is stolen.  Criminal sentences for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and fraud are typically so short and lenient that they have negligible deterrence value.  

The legal system does not effectively adjudicate disputes between insolvent parties.  Considering that wealth is ever more concentrated in a smaller number of people, a larger majority of the population in the United States is judgment proof and should not form business partnerships with each other.  Business partnerships such as general partnerships and limited partnerships simply don't make sense since the person with checkbook control can take all the money and divert it away with one check.  Suing the embezzler leads the embezzler to divert funds to the embezzler's wife, children, cousins and other relatives that may or may not keep their assets within the jurisdiction of any United States Court.  

A long time ago, a physician friend of my family drew up his own limited partnership document by copying a form agreement so that he could save $500 instead of going to see an attorney to get a legal opinion regarding its deficiencies.  He trusted the general partner to take care of his money, and ended up losing about $10 million back in 1991.  It seems odd to me that people become enthusiastic and jump into business partnerships oftentimes without any legal counsel.  There really doesn't seem to be anyway to get general partnerships and limited partnerships to work.  The law is complicated, the court system is incompetent, and so people's trust is not honored.  

Some business partnerships have multiple partners stealing money. These business partnerships look more like embezzlement contests.  Once the civil lawsuit is filed, each partner tends to keep whatever they had taken.  

There really doesn't seem to be anyway to get general partnerships and limited partnerships to work.  The law is complicated, the court system is unresponsive, and this oftentimes leads to ultimate resolution in the form of violence and murder which we see on the news once in a while.  Because of all of these problems with business partnerships, I would not risk much money or time in one.  It is much easier to deal with a business venture when one person has 100% control and ownership. There is no potential for squabbling, embezzlement and litigation when only one person is in charge.  Perhaps I have seen too many partnership failures.

Partnerships are very difficult to maintain long-term, perhaps more so than marriages.  It seems like successful partners must be very good friends first and enjoy each other's company outside of the context of the business venture.  This would make the essence of the partnership greater than the business venture the partners embark on.  

If I have missed any pitfalls in establishing partnerships, please let me know.   

Fixing Transport Order for Outlook 2003 Windows 7

Using Outlook 2003 on Windows 7 in a Windows SBS Server 2003 environment will lead to the default email sending being set to Exchange.  If you want to set to a different SMTP, in Win 7 (64bit) stop the default email setting of the logon script by using regedit at Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\smallbusinessserver\clientsetup

In Win 7 on sbs 2003 Outlook 2003:
Right click on clientsetup folder in regedit and use pulldown menu to
Make new DWORD (32-Bit) Value named NoTransportOrder
    Value Name: NoTransportOrder
    Value Type: REG_DWORD
    Value: 1
    Base: Hexadecimal