Another cool day, currently 62F and damp.
I’ve got groceries, rent house work, , rec association, housework, OFD lappy, and client care all on my list today. Swim team too.
I better get at it. An hope that the FMOD* doesn’t hit– I’m not ready!
n
*Flaming Meteor Of Death – one zipped by and we barely saw it before it did. And it was close.
And how can I leave these off???
Hundreds are evacuated from Hawaii after two feet of rain falls in just 24 hours triggering landslides and flooding
Teenager who coerced a 12-year-old boy into failed suicide bombing at German Christmas market and wanted his wife, 17, to blow up a US air base, is jailed for nine years
Austrian man, 19, guilty of involvement in two failed terror attack plots
Coerced boy, 12, to blow himself up at Christmas market near Frankfurt in 2016
The German-Iraqi boy attempted suicide bombing, but the belt failed
The 19-year-old had also planned for his 17-year-old wife to blow up airbase
[the teen/man/etc is never named in the article, and is “Austrian” only by the farthest stretch of the imagination. Also note, 17yo wife! and 12yo friends]
Man, 60, is arrested with huge cache of over SEVENTY illegal guns and 50,000 rounds of ammunition hoarded in the Queens home he shares with his 94-year-old mother
Ronald G. Drabman, 60, was arrested on Sunday in a raid in Queens, New York
Cops received a tip that he had illegal weapons and recovered arsenal of guns
Seized weapons included AK-47s, a Tommy Gun and a homemade zip gun
[this is the second “arsenal” they got this week. The first was a disturbed loser with a 16 year long grudge against school staffers.]
REVEALED: California trains are now late 15% of the time because of homeless camps on the side of the tracks
Trains have been forced to make more emergency stops this year as more people have been trespassing on the tracks
[so the economy is booming?? Hmmm.]
n
Transmitted the taxes last night. Wages with witholding slightly up, other income without slightly down. Two small refunds. Neither paying nor refund is of course the target. Pretty close.
Still a great irritation that Turbo Tax charges me an extra $25 to e-file the state. I could avoid it but it’s just easier and I’m lazy.
And the 10th was second installment property tax day.
Not Tax Day but Tax Filing Deadline Day. Every fucking day is Tax Day.
Ugg, left my Business Personal Property rendition form to the last minute, thinking it was tax filing day, but it was April 1. Dang. I’ll be filing a protest and going to the clerk’s office again.
In one year they tripled the assessed value of my stuff. TRIPLED. I successfully argued that even if it was made of pure gold it wouldn’t triple. WTF do they thing my junk is worth? I even got them to admit they just guessed, since they hadn’t visited me, didn’t even know what kind of business I was in, or what would be considered comparable. Thieves.
n
RE: UK version of “arsenal”
When we lived in the UK (Nottingham 1995 – 1998 / East End London 1998 – 2001) they were regularly publicizing discoveries of “arsenals”. I specificaly recall one “arsenal” discovered under a floor in Nottingham that consisted of two .17 Air Guns, a .22 pistol, and a crossbow.
In TN when I had to file for the Hall Tax (TN has no income tax, only on dividends and earnings) I had a choice of paying using Turbo Tax or having to pay the state $29 for filing paper. Only choice I had without paying was to use their online system and that required I use a debit or credit card. I never felt comfortable giving such information to the state knowing how incompetent they are with their data systems.
In my opinion E-Filing should be free for everyone for every filing. It saves the government and the states a lot of time and effort as everything is electronic. No paperwork that has to be handled by a person. It is also more accurate and quicker if a refund is due. Everyone wins. The states and the feds should pay Turbo Tax (or whatever software) for the E-Filing.
The couple of times I did owe money I did the taxes with Turbo Tax then printed out the return and put that in the envelope with my check. I wanted to make is inconvenient as possible for those leaches if I was going to have to pay them. There was no benefit to me for E-Filing so why bother? I also waited until the day before the taxes were due to mail the return, certified so I had confirmation of the date mailed. I don’t trust the IRS.
WRT eFiling;
Just another example of someone with connections getting a monopoly from the gooberment. What you are paying for is the turd-party that receives your eFile and then sends it on the the gooberment. No value added, just money out of your pocket. And is there any added security? Nope, probably a source of many id thefts IMHO.
Just another example of someone with connections getting a monopoly from the gooberment. What you are paying for is the turd-party that receives your eFile and then sends it on the the gooberment. No value added, just money out of your pocket. And is there any added security? Nope, probably a source of many id thefts IMHO.
Kinda like the money NASA spent to run the Space Shuttle program. It wasn’t as simple as ULA receiving a check from the Treasury.
That reminds me — NASA got $300 million in the spending bill to build a new launch tower for SLS after the test launch renders the existing, leaning tower structurally unsound.
Here’s a random thought.
What in the he11 was life like that the phrase “Skeletons in the closet” became a meme for ‘secrets you’d prefer to remain in the past and secret’?
How many skeletons have to be found in closets before this becomes a “thing”?
n
From Ray yesterday:
I use this Gamin device when taking my Jeep off the grid.
I can SMS, text to email account or smart phone via Iridium satellite system when out of cell coverage.
I can’t personally deal the thievery of my money any longer, I just turn it over to an accountant and consider it as a gift to myself.
Note to @Nick and others: when entering a URL/link into posts or comments, put a space character after the link. That will turn the link into a proper clickable link. Or, use the ‘link’ button when entering comments. You can highlight a word/phrase before you hit the ‘link’ button, then just paste in the link in the little box.
I fixed the links in today’s post so they will be clickable.
What in the he11 was life like that the phrase “Skeletons in the closet” became a meme for ‘secrets you’d prefer to remain in the past and secret’?
I’m guessing it came from Shakespeare.
I want to know where “I’m jus’ sayin” originated. It seems like everybody uses that as of late. Sounds like a rap thing.
Get well soon OFD — he would know these things.
What Slim said.
31º and snowing in the city by the bay. 4.9″ from the record. We probably won’t, but you never know. 5.4″ would make it an even 200″.
The SCO odyssey continues. I’m using Clonezilla bootable to make an image of the backup SCO box to see if I can get it running virtually. Clonezilla WILL boot under Hyper-V, and it sees the VHD file and the ext2fs file system, so I have some hope. Now if I can get HyperV to see the USB drive (not working) or if I can make a .iso file.
Progress, even a little, is better than nothing.
The Starbucks coffee incident keeps getting better. All store will close for a day in may for sensitivity training. lol! Mass punishment! I originally read the manager who called the cops quit, no I read she was fired. That seems like a massive lawsuit. Fired because you called the cops to give the bum’s rush to two bums? Maybe Starbucks paid the manager off to keep their Progturd cred.
lol! From Twitter:
Starbucks Training, Day One-
Instructor: A black customer walks into the store and smiles at you. What do you do?
Barista 1: Call the cops
Barista 2: Open fire
@Brad
Before Coach became all high-end and fancy, they were saddlers and tack makers.
I have been using the same bag for close to 30 years, but rarely see it any more.
A very simple thing, but durable as all hell. Very understated yet a beautiful bit of workmanship. I imagine it’s just what you want.
I’ll see if I can’t post a picture from my desktop.
In the meantime, scroll through this search:
https://www.google.com/search?q=vintage+black+coach+messenger+bag+site%3Aebay.com
Let’s see if I did this right…
http://www.alwaysthecritic.com/images/coach1.JPG
http://www.alwaysthecritic.com/images/coach2.JPG
http://www.alwaysthecritic.com/images/coach3.JPG
http://www.alwaysthecritic.com/images/coach4.JPG
Updated snowfall data: 0.9″ from the record. 1.5″ from something to talk about.
lol! Your TSA at work:
TSA at work
Parts of the economy are booming. There are two kinds of people in California who can’t afford to live there. The ones who can afford to move somewhere else, and the homeless.
I think the Red State economy might be booming, and the Blue State economy is well, blue.
Your TSA at work
Hmmmmm…… If that is true I can see some real problems. The person in the article was concerned about false positives but I think the real problem would be false negatives. Each time a swab is used it will pick up stuff: hair, dust, sweat, snot, etc. Anything that can come from a person and their environment. That will accumulate on the swab with each use reducing its sensitivity as it becomes overloaded with “stuff”.
Plus, putting dirty, sticky swabs in the analyzer might gum up its works, rendering it unable to read even a fresh swab properly.
Yeah, I’ve watched TSA do the same thing, although they swab mostly clothing and bags. The pat down search that I always get is followed by a quick hand sweep over my whole body then the TSA swipes his OWN gloved hands with the explosive detector swab.
I don’t have an issue with it, if they don’t reuse it on people.
I do make them change their gloves if they didn’t. In the early days, it was more common to have to remind them. Not so much any more.
I was always careful not to wear clothes I’d worn when on construction sites on travel days. Too much chance of powder residue from powder activated tools (Ramset.)
n
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5626379/Southwest-Airlines-flight-makes-emergency-landing-Philadelphia-engine-blows-out.html
I try not to sit in line with the rotor/turbofan blades for this reason. It’s happened before and will happen again.
I have to wonder how many of the passengers remembered or even knew to “tug on the hose to start the flow of oxygen.”
It’s also why it’s not just policy, but also a good idea to always have your seat belt fastened when seated. I believe that rule changed after the Aloha flight…..
n
I was always careful not to wear clothes I’d worn when on construction sites on travel days. Too much chance of powder residue from powder activated tools (Ramset.)
I’ve mentioned before that I no longer fly with my HP48GX calculator since 9/11.
Prior to 9/11, the calculator’s plastic would always set off the explosives detectors inside the carryon scanner at SFO, but everyone laughed it off. Sometimes, they would even swab the calculator to add to the comedy.
These days, I would probably get a strip search.
@Nick: I got burned by Newegg for a refurb T440, but Amex indicated that they would make it right and credit my card.
If I none of the parties involved want the hardware back after I receive the refund, I’ll swap you the T440 for the T420. I believe that the newer laptop has USB 3.0 which would make your life easier.
Nothing is wrong with the T440 beyond the screen resolution being 1440×900 on a 14 inch display. Newegg’s description clearly indicated 1368×768, but they refuse to admit being wrong.
On that size display, I either need 1368×768 or 2560×1440 with the fonts/icon display set to 200%.
Sweet, what OS?
n
Sweet, what OS?
License is for Windows 10 Pro for refurbs, but installing Windows 7 probably wouldn’t be an issue.
I’ll wait for my credit and then see if a shipping label shows up within a few weeks. I want to be honest … unlike Newegg in this situation.
I think Newegg went out and bought this refurb on Amazon when they couldn’t find actually find it in their warehouse. All the paperwork in the box was from Joy Systems, an established vendor on Amazon and Walmart.com.
RIP Barbara Bush.
If you look at the images of the plane the hole, the missing window, is well behind the wing, about three rows behind the emergency exit over the wing. The debris from the engine apparently was blown back by the force of the air moving over the wing. Seems in this case sitting in line with the rotors is a good idea. The rotors will not impact that aircraft at that location. Sitting across from the engines or forward of the engines would seem better.
Well, we have a sample size of two, and the American flight it was in line with the engine fan…. I still won’t sit in line with the fan.
And hey, why would anyone [cough*cough] ever need their trauma bag in their carry on?
Whatever happened, hopefully it will be found and not happen again.
n
On Starbucks and “Racism”
“24. Starbucks, in other words, has just announced its stores are not stores primarily, but are now privately-funded shelters and bathroom facilities for the homeless. You don’t have to spend a slim dime in the store to sit as long as you please and use the bathrooms.
“25. That’ll be great for Starbucks’ business. Their yuppie douchebag clientele love the homeless in the abstract, but we’ll see how much they appreciate their coffee shops being jammed with them, close-up-like, occupying most tables and chairs.”
From Ace’s keyboard to God’s ears.
Yep. Black people are now learning they can do what they want, where they want, when they want, by claiming racism. Send an unruly student to the office for refusing to take their seat and you are suddenly faced with a charge of racism and you are now the one on the chopping block and defending yourself (yeh, this happened to me).
I have always maintained that black people are the biggest racists. It is to their advantage to be racist. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson made a very good living being racists and keeping the racial fires burning. The media is feeding on this frenzy. Especially the commentators who write opinion pieces who themselves are black. Their claim is everything the US is doing is against black people and everyone else in the US must make special accommodations because these people are black. That of itself is racism but the commentators fail to recognize such. To do so would mean they would lose their jobs having simply been hired because they are black not because they were competent.
Whatever happened, hopefully it will be found and not happen again.
Southwest isn’t Allegiant.
IIRC, except for a few planes inherited from AirTran, Southwest flies all 737s.
I decided long ago not to fly Southwest if I had a choice. They have been underperforming on maintenance for years (and got fined by the FAA for it). Their planes are more stressed for their calendar age than other carriers due to their business model. They did some sleazy political moves in TX, got some bennies to get started, and now want to change the deal.
I don’t like the ‘flying bus line’ model of air travel and I like non-stop flights.
Anyway, I choose not to fly on them.
n
I don’t like the ‘flying bus line’ model of air travel and I like non-stop flights.
Anyway, I choose not to fly on them.
I’ve had ok experiences on Southwest, but I prefer Alaska to West Coast destinations.
I’m old enough to remember why Southwest’s ticker symbol is LUV. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHnqnyzegfc
(Ok. I know. Love Field.)
I really don’t get the whole Starbucks thing. What kind of CEO apologizes for kicking out idiots. They weren’t customers, they refused to leave, they were making a scene. That makes them trespassers. The fact that they were black is utterly irrelevant.
Some idiot freaks out? Starbucks shouldn’t even enter into a discussion. “They were making a scene, we had to call the police to have them removed.” No apology, no discussion. The whole issue would have blown over in a day. Instead, they’ve fanned a shitstorm. Starbucks must be big enough to have a publicity department? With a clue?
I believe the SWA plane was the 700. The 800’s are much roomier, but not sure on engine change. We fly mainly SWA so I can get the Companion Pass. We also fly nonstop 95% of the time. We save about $10k/yr with the Companion Pass.
@Brad
I really don’t get the whole Starbucks thing. What kind of CEO apologizes for kicking out idiots.
Remember where they are based.
Did you watch this week’s Silicon Valley? Really great. Gets in trouble for outing the gay christian. (because he’s christian). Makes every one in the valley uncomfortable.
Did you watch this week’s Silicon Valley? Really great. Gets in trouble for outing the gay christian. (because he’s christian). Makes every one in the valley uncomfortable.
“Silicon Valley” ended the Chick-fil-A boycott IMHO.
Go back and watch the first season episode with the Satanists.
For some, SWA makes sense. I flew them a lot when I lived in Cali and was servicing cities up and down the coast. Lots of turboprops! NOT my fav.
Starbucks knows that the “youths” will tear them apart if given an excuse. The antifa already did, as they see Starbucks as the worst sort of corporate destroyer of “authenticity” and small coffee shops. Hence the danegeld. But as Kipling points out, once you pay, you’ll never be rid of the Dane.
n
Starbucks knows that the “youths” will tear them apart if given an excuse. The antifa already did, as they see Starbucks as the worst sort of corporate destroyer of “authenticity” and small coffee shops. Hence the danegeld. But as Kipling points out, once you pay, you’ll never be rid of the Dane.
When I worked in Downtown Seattle, the annual May Day riots didn’t start until afternoon shift change at Starbucks, when the trust fund babies got off work.