Opening night for the NHL is getting closer with most teams starting their season on October 1.  The American Hockey League, which serves as the primary minor league for the NHL, opened their training camps this week and they were immediately stocked with the first round of player reassignments from the parent teams on Sunday.  More cuts followed yesterday as the teams are whittling down to around 36 players competing for the top slots. 

All the NHL teams have to have their rosters set at 23 active players by September 30.  So it will be interesting to see how the general managers make the now-tough calls on who to send down and who gets to stay.  And there’s usually a surprise or two during the final cut.  Just a week from tomorrow the first puck drops to start the season.

By the way, Flyers fans ….. don’t be surprised when you see the Caps taking out the Rangers in six games during the Eastern Conf. playoffs next Spring.

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One of the events that we keep track of here at Geezer Central is the almost-annual parade down in New Zealand that bills itself as the Boobs on Bikes parade that somehow manages to step off each year despite the protests of various community groups.  The eye-opening procession of  busty babes riding motorcycles down the street is presented by New Zealand’s leading pornographic movie producer and lately has been held in downtown Aukland along Queen St. (where else?).

Work generally pauses as the Boobs on Bikes parade passes by

We found it necessary to cover the story last year because the protesters had threatened to pull the manual fire alarms in the office buildings along the parade route in the hopes that so many fire engine responses would disrupt the procession.  But the fire brigade took some preventive measures  to not allow that to happen and the parade maintained its integrity as the 100+ participants aired it all out.  You can read our last year’s report HERE.

I bring this up now because today is when this year’s parade is scheduled to roll in Aukland again.  In fact, if it went off as planned, it has probably already been held because of the 15-hour time zone difference.  It is our duty to report on events concerning public safety and as a service to professional life-safety specialists everywhere, we will keep you informed on this large public activity.

It’s time to get this equipment checked out now, so let’s get started on that.  I’ll get a fresh pot of coffee going.

According to the almanac, this is the first day of Fall.  So …. Happy Autumn, everybody!!

Yesterday we reported (HERE) on a tree house fire in Charlotte, No. Carolina, that killed the 32-yr.-old man who had built it and was sleeping in it Sat. night/Sun. morning.  One of our readers passed along that later yesterday the Charlotte Observer published what’s purported to be a photograph of  the tree house, obviously taken some time before. 

She also noted that family members posted comments relating that he was born totally deaf.  That leads me to muse on the situation where this man who could never enjoy the solitude of a woodland in the same way that the rest of us can, listening to the breeze rustle the branches and leaves, the calls of birds and creatures, yet he was able to create an entirely different environment that gave him the same sort of peaceful recluse that people often seek.  How tragic.

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I was reading an article the other day from the New York Times that was primarily talking about how electric, and electronic, appliances are becoming more energy-efficient through engineering advances.  For example, they point out that refrigerators use 45% less electricity than they did in 1990 and that clothes washers consume 70% less power than those from that year.

But what caught my eye in the first place was the lead paragraph in the story,

With two laptop-loving children and a Jack Russell terrier hemmed in by an electric fence, Peter Troast figured his household used a lot of power. Just how much did not really hit him until the night the family turned off the overhead lights at their home in Maine and began hunting gadgets that glowed in the dark.  “It was amazing to see all these lights blinking,” Mr. Troast said.

That sounds like an interesting experiment.  I have often been intrigued by just how many things are around the house that contiually burn lights (usually LED’s) that you cannot turn off.  Most of them are clustered around the TV (excuse me, entertainment) center and wherever the main computer is placed.  But along with all those gadgets are things like the digital clocks in the stove and microwave.  And every one of my telephones has a little red light that announces to the world that they are indeed plugged in and operating.

I’m curious about just how many watts of power are being used while I sleep by all these LED’s.  Disregard for a minute the sporadic operation of compressor and fan motors in the refrigerator and freezer.  Just the little, tiny lights and numbers that glow in the dark.  It probably wouldn’t be very much for one household during one night.  But when you start multiplying that number by a year’s worth and then by however many millions of households there are in the country, then you might be talking some impressive numbers.

One of the solutions mentioned in the above-linked article is the use of “smart” power strips for computers and entertainment devices.   These devices will shut off the power completely to electronics when they sense that they are not being used.  Much like the sleep mode on your computer.  But cynical me presumes that the cost of these “smart” power strips would probably exceed the cost of whatever miniscule energy they are saving.

Well,  let’s start expending some energy on getting this equipment checked out for today.  I’ll go start the coffee.  You know, at that machine with the bright red light built into the on/off switch.

You didn’t think that things are too quiet around here, did you?  Well, some people think so and they’ve convinced the global auto makers to come up with ways to make their cars noisier.  Let me explain.  There are several automobile companies that have plans and working designs to bring electric-powered cars onto the market as soon as they can, and some firms already have the so-called hybrids on the road that switch back and forth from electic motor to gasoline engine, depending on speed and power demand.

Enter the inevitable band of ninnies that is always determined to screw up a good cause and now there is controversy about whether the electric cars are dangerous to others because they can’t be heard.  It’s not so much that the sidewalks are awash with white-cane people who rely on listening for traffic as they cross the street, but there are millions of untrained children and inattentive adults who go strolling with ear buds planted on their heads so they can enjoy their walk while escaping into their sound system of custom music-making.  Thus the push to create sounds for the silent cars to make.

An ARTICLE in Bloomberg.com last week reported on work being done by both Nissan and Toyota to find ways for their electric cars to generate some sort of sound so that people can hear them coming.  It’s frustrating to the automotive engineers because they’ve just come off of years working on silencing their cars’ engine noise.  But instead of creating raucus sounds like engines running or car horns beeping, they are looking at creating pleasant, musical sounds that are less irritating, but still identifiable.

There is already one Japanese company that makes an add-on device that emits 16 different sounds and costs about $140.  The driver has his choice of which to play including a cat’s meow, a cartoon-like “boing” and a human voice saying “excuse me!”  There’s no doubt that a digital geek could hack this gadget within minutes and then sell thousands of customized sounds much like they do now for cellphone ring-tones.  Couple that with the technology being developed by BMW that will recognize objects approaching the perimeter of the car, such as pedestrians, and walking down a city sidewalk will be much like a stroll through any Walmart today where the person next to you suddenly has a 90-decibel burst of Achey, Breaky Heart coming out of their jeans pocket.

The car makers tell us that their  built-in sounds will only play when the car is going less than 12 mph.  Faster than that, the car will generate “tire noise” and in the case of hybrids, the gasoline engine will be kicking on anyway.  So once the traffic jam clears out, the streets will be a little more quiet.  But not so the shopping mall parking lots, or those massive lots that you find at amusement parks and sports stadiums where every body arrives at the same time.  Can you just imagine what it would be like with 10,000 ice cream trucks circling around you playing a loop of Pop Goes the Weasel?

We’ve got fun times ahead, folks.  I’ve already picked out the sound that I want my car to emit. I’m going to get a recording of a stampeding herd of buffalo for mine.  Use the Comments to tell me what preferred sound you’d like to have on your new car.

First, we’ve got to get this noisy equipment  checked out.  I’m going to get the coffee started.  Maybe I can rig up the Bunn-o-Matic with a Niagara Falls sound.