Brachs -- America's Candy Maker?

Frankly, the sugar crop supports by the federal government approach the ridiculous.  Currently U.S. producers of beet sugar get 24 cents per pound regardless of the price on the world market. In exchange they have growing allotments that are penalized if exceeded. World market price for sugar for 3Q 2015 was $.1591 per pound. This represents a difference of 8+ cents for each pound used in candy products. How do you keep this 8¢ per pound if you're the manufacturer? You make your candy outside the U.S., dumping U.S. jobs in the process. Does the sugar industry have that many more jobs than candy manufacturing?  That would be good to know--and who knows what other industries have moved manufacturing out of the country as a result of this price support.

In 2002, Life Savers production left the U.S. with the owner Kraft Foods complaining about sugar prices as the main reason. The mayor of Holland, Mich. where the plant had been previously, was quoted as saying the price of sugar was costing Life Savers "$90 million" a year. Sugar growers stated the cost difference in a pack of Life Savers was "about a penny". I'm guessing the Life Savers people were thinking "why should we put that money into a sugar grower's pocket, when we can move the plant, and put it in ours."

 And Mars, Inc., a $30 billion plus company--where do they make their candy destined for U.S. consumption? Evidently they opened a new plant in Topeka, KS in 2013, but it is mentioned in the article it's the first new plant in the U.S. since the 1970's. As a very secretive, privately held company, Mars is hard to track.

Which brings us to Brach's, a long-time Chicago candy maker (great back story here). Currently owned by Ferrara Candy, which picked up the brand when it merged with Farley & Sathers in 2012, one of their products that I have loved for years are their jelly beans.  Hopefully, they won't mess with the recipe (a la Life Savers, and Brach's orange slices, and a hundred other products), but I happened to read the last bag I bought.  I saw a bit of irony with their claims of "America's Candy Maker" and the small print with where it was made.  See for yourself.

Click for larger picture

Full Cost of WAVE Cable in Seattle / Bellevue Washington

(updated pricing 1/22/2016)
(Updated again 6/28/2016)

It's impossible to find out the actual cost for cable tv since the companies have gone to "below the line" fees/services charges.  Particularly obscene is the passing on of broadcast stations fees below the line. It's part of the TV package for heaven's sake.  Do you put on an "ESPN" fee below the line when that contract changes? Hypocrisy big time.

So to help out (if you ever find this blog...) here are complete prices for a cable tv configuration from Wave Broadband in western Washington--who bought the rights from Broadstripe, who were formerly Millenium Cable.

Costs July 31, 2015 / December 31, 2015 / June 28, 2016

ITEM	JULY ‘15	DEC ‘15	JUN ‘16
Local Broadcast Cable	25.95	25.95	25.95
HD DVR (includes HDTV access)	17.00	17.00	17.00
Broadcast TV Stations Fee (Local Broadcast TV Negotiated Fees)	7.60	7.60	9.65
Interactive Equipment Fee (Channel Guide for the DVR)	2.00	2.00	2.00
Expanded Content Fee (First level expansion beyond broadcast channels—around 70 stations)	45.09	48.34	52.33
Subtotal	97.64	100.89	106.93
Regulatory Recovery Fee	1.96	2.02	2.14
PEG Fee (public/education channels)	.12	.12	.12
FCC Fed Reg Fee	.12	.12	.12
Franchise Fee	5.41	5.59	5.91
Local Utility Tax	10.77	11.12	11.76
Grand Total	$116.02	$119.86	$126.98
Increase/(decrease)			+9.4%

What I HATE most is the price is constantly going up! Practically every month! What reason does Wave have to hold down prices if there is no fixed contract with its clients? While I have a choice to move to Comcast, I'm waiting for Century Link's fiber-optic service to arrive. 

This constant price increasing is what makes people leave for another service.

So for Basic Cable +HD Channels +DVR for one TV that is the real monthly price. Here's a list of the channels you receive. Many are dups, i.e. low-def and HD for the same channel. 

They will throw in one free converter so you can watch HD programs on another TV. After the first one it's $4/mo. (+taxes)

(July '16) Included Converter will revert to $4 charge beginning Jan. 2017.

Five Marines Have Been Killed by Radical Islam--Where are You Mr. President?

A well done editorial on the tragic shooting in Chattanooga.

How You Can Keep the Flash Plugin Activated with Firefox

I use Firefox as my main browser and once every two weeks or so I get the message about my Flash plugin being vulnerable. Like this:

If you click on the "Activate Adobe Flash" you can get Flash back for that site--but not all sites. Yes, you are vulnerable, but it should be your choice--not the programmers of Firefox. Today's culture is one of "we know better, you the customer(user) are not smart enough to decide for yourself."

So I went searching for a global answer to the issue.  It is so hard to find I couldn't find the place where I found the answer when I searched again just now.  So I can't give credit (yet) to the person who I thank profusely for the solution.

Here's what you need to do:

1. In the URL window, type about:config  You will see the following:

     Click on the I'll be careful part. You'll see a list of stuff about the settings for Firefox.

2. Anywhere to the right of the settings, right-click and select New, Boolean

3. In the window type in:  extensions.blocklist.enabled

    The default will be false, which is what you want.

4. Restart Firefox and you will have this solved.  If for some reason you want the blocking to start up again, just go into about:config , find the extensions.blocklist.enabled line and double-click the line.  I also type the word "blocklist" in the search window to easily find the correct settings line.

Good luck.

Where is that Town?

Civita de Bagnoregio
(courtesy of Wikipedia/Alessio Damato)

Pretty as a picture, this small town perched on a cliff top. But where is it located?

About 80 miles NNW of Rome, Italy just east of a small lake, visible on most maps.

Put it on your bucket list.

The Truth about Net Neutrality

This Forbes article (November, 2014) discusses Netflix's public complaint asking for "Net Neutrality". But the truth was far different than what appeared.  Netflix thought the Cable TV Providers were "throttling" Netflix pipes to customers, even showing a graph that demonstrated significant speed increases after a new contract with Comcast.
What was really going on?  Prior to the contract with Comcast, which allowed DIRECT hookup between Netflix and Comcast, providers like Netflix had to go through "transit providers". Their choice had been Cogent. So what REALLY happened was Cogent was intentionally throttling its wholesale providers, to the benefit of its retail providers. You cut Cogent out--transmission speeds go up!

Here are the details:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrydownes/2014/11/25/how-netflix-poisoned-the-net-neutrality-debate/

Now subsequent to this, Netflix is fighting for this "Net Neutrality" because their customers are now using over 30% of ALL downloaded traffic on the Internet. So ISP providers want Netflix to pay for that--Netflix doesn't want to pay. If they can shift the cost to Comcast--hey guess who's the bad guy?

http://bgr.com/2013/11/11/netflix-youtube-bandwidth-consumption/

So what happens if the FCC takes it over?
1) Expect taxes for Internet usage (minor)
2) "If you like your plan, you get to keep your plan".  Look for a whole new way to charge for usage.

but worst of all...

3) you just gave control of THE BIGGEST freedom of information vehicle to an organization who could shut down your use of the internet, i.e. familiar with the use of Internet in China?

What's needed is for YOU to send a message you do NOT want this FCC takeover.  Last day for comments is FEB 26, 2015.   Here's one place you can make your voice heard.

http://action.politicalmedia.com/17314/constitutionally-say-no-to-fcc-internet-takeover/?ifr=820