75F and saturated out…
Short week is short.
Gotta get some stuff DONE. Got a bunch of stuff in process, which means spread around the place, and I need to get some done and put back, or removed from the premises.
Forecast for more rain is putting a damper on my concrete pouring plans. And the garden work. Half my office is pulled apart and stacked in the hallway. Spouse is going nuts…
So I better get to it and start the day.
n
Anyone else notice that somehow, lefties got infected with the idea that they can control who likes their stuff?
“Hah! Lib Actress Says She Will Cancel Show if Melania Trump Likes It — Then Melania Calls Her Bluff, Says She Likes It”
We saw it in publishing as part of the WorldCon and Sad Puppies kerfuffle with science fiction.
We’ve seen it elsewhere, where someone is the wrong sort of fan.
I think it all comes down to control and reveals them to their core. They think they can control your likes and dislikes as well as your thoughts and desires. They think they know you well enough to be shocked when they find out they don’t actually know what you’ll like. And like the mental juveniles that they are, when they find out they’re wrong, they want to ‘take their ball and go home.’
n
Unfortunately, they won’t take their ball and go home. They insist on trying to change us. Stupid people, three Drill Instructors couldn’t do it and I’m older and more stubborn now.
This is worth the read, as it gives words to concepts, and there are some great turns of phrase:
http://americandigest.org/wp/on-americans-who-yearn-for-the-mud/
n
There is no alternative offered though, nor any anodyne.
Funny thing, that. I don’t have a problem following reasonable orders & directions. I managed to not get court-martialed in 4+ years in the army (4 + 3.5 reserves). Not that I couldn’t have been. I tend to get stubborn when someone tells me to do something stupid. REALLY stubborn. The kind of stubborn that leads to fights over things like tables when some seniors (when I was a Freshman in high school) told me I was sitting at their table. I had been there for the first semester of school. Next day, I was back there. The day after that, THEY moved. Or when a SSG told me to move a trailer without safety chains on a night maneuver. I had already connected the chains and he pulled them off. I refused to drive the truck. I don’t suffer fools gladly.
I suspect there are more than a few of us. People who don’t mind doing things “for the greater good”, but are tired of being told we’re wrong for disagreeing. We don’t mind petty things so long as everyone is treated the same. We’ll take a certain amount. But there comes a time when we’re going to say “no”, and things don’t get pretty from there.
Trump will likely be re-elected. But not because he’s doing a good job. He’ll be reelected because millions of deplorables aren’t going to take any more of their guff. Hold the house in 2018? The same. And for the same reason.
Had a phone conversation with a long time friend yesterday and he casually mentioned that we’ll only have to put up with Trump for ‘2 more years’. I corrected him saying, “you mean SIX…” I had to repeat it twice before he believed that he’d heard me correctly. So I asked him who he thought could challenge Trump from the D side, as they ran headfirst toward socialism. My exact words were “Twenty four year old SOCIALIST FFS….” after a pause he named someone I’ve never heard of.
I pay a bit more attention than your average voter and I had no idea who he mentioned.
Now, we’ve seen it before- the Ds took a nobody junior senator with no achievements, no record, no history, and made him president in only a few years. I’d like to think that trick will only work once, and today’s media environment wouldn’t let that happen. I’ve been wrong before though.
n
Great article, Mr. Nick. It fits right in with the new movie “First Man”, you know, where they don’t show the US flag being planted on the Moon ‘cause “this was a *Human* event, not an American event. My heroes as a child were the astronauts. I was *planted* watching those Moon shots (too bad Walter turned out to be a dooshnozzle). Aldrin and Yeager called them on it.
I wonder, if I directed some LibTurdProg friends to the article, would they still be friends. Need to scrub my friends list.
Now, we’ve seen it before- the Ds took a nobody junior senator with no achievements, no record, no history, and made him president in only a few years. I’d like to think that trick will only work once, and today’s media environment wouldn’t let that happen. I’ve been wrong before though.
If the Dems run a wheezebag, they’ll lose. If they offer a clear age contrast with Trump, they might well win. I still believe Newsom 2020 running with a slightly younger VP candidate (say BETO if he wins Texas) would persent a problem for Trump/Pence.
Of course, my guess is that they will still run a wheezebag — too many “its my turn” Boomers still waiting for their chance over on that side — but nothing is certain until the data mining comes back after the election in November. I’ll give ’em credit — the lefties know the tech.
Catching up last night and the latest ESR comes right on time
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8106
Fortunately it was corrected.
I refer to the folks infected with “nostalgie pour la boue” as members of the anti-Promethean revolution. In case you’ve forgotten, Prometheus was the god who gave fire to man and was subsequently chained to a rock and had his liver plucked out in retribution. The same can be said for every environmentalist who wants to cut CO2 emissions. Without fire where would we be? In the mud, for sure.
Does anyone know where I can buy a simple, cheap watch I can read in the dark? I used to get standard army-issue watches with tritium tubes, but Marathon changed their design and they are now ugly as sin, and though I like the tritium tubes they do lose their fizzle after a few years. I also prefer mechanical watches, but I’ve gotten pretty good at replacing batteries so that’s not much of an issue, though I think Preppers would prefer just winding them everyday.
Timex makes some watches that are easy to read in the dark. The entire dial can be illuminated by pushing a button. Called Indiglo or something like that. You might also check Dakota watches as they have something similar. Neither brand is expensive.
I’m more interested in vintage, but Timex indiglo is probably the most common option. Real swiss army watches have some versions that might look good and do what you want.
n
Disaster and prep roundup
Tsunami and now earthquake in Japan
Hurricane gordon, and now Florence
Active shooter in Cincinnati
More wildfires
n
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Cross-Examination”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-cross-examination/
“Since the Bork hearings, the Democrats have been ridiculously grilling GOP nominees for the SCOTUS. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.”
From yesterday:
Sounds like progress to me! Don’t let the Missus get you up on a ladder just yet!
Funny you should say that. I’ve got a dead halogen bulb can light in the kitchen.
Call an electrician. Have all retrofitted with LEDs.
@lynn
I got one of those light bulb extension pole thingys. Used it to replace all of my ‘can’ light bulbs with LED bulbs. Got a couple of boxes of LED bulbs from Costco, I think. (Although the Big River has them at a good price: https://amzn.to/2Nlqdd6 – 6 for $15.)
The pole thingy is great for changing those can bulbs, or anything up high. Extends to 11 feet. If you need higher, use two, or a paint roller stick.
Like this one: https://amzn.to/2oLtggF . You can find them at your local home big box store. Easy enough to use.
Call an electrician. Have all retrofitted with LEDs.
I replaced one halogen bulb with an LED bulb. You never heard such caterwalling about brightness. So, I change the halogens in the kitchen out every year.
“Kai-Fu Lee’s new book says Artificial Intelligence will be Google vs China and will kill half the world’s jobs”
https://www.cringely.com/2018/08/31/kai-fu-lees-new-book-says-artificial-intelligence-will-be-google-vs-china-and-will-kill-half-the-worlds-jobs/
“One important point here is an idea I don’t really state very well below, that AI is going to take away a lot of jobs and throw society into a crisis of how to deal with that. Kai-Fu says the USA is approaching this crisis through what he calls the “Three R’s” — Reduce (number of workers), Retrain (workers to prepare them for new careers) and Redistribute (income, through giving everyone a Universal Basic Income – money for nothing). The Three R’s won’t cut it according to Kai-Fu Lee who, sadly, doesn’t give a fully-explained alternative strategy, though he is optimistic.”
I just don’t see this happening. There are just too many jobs driving 18 wheelers and bulldozers out there.
I replaced all the Halo’s in the kitchen with 100w daylight LEDs. Magnificent.
I replaced all the Halo’s in the kitchen with 100w daylight LEDs. Magnificent.
I tried to. She who must be obeyed said no.
The pole thingy is great for changing those can bulbs, or anything up high. Extends to 11 feet. If you need higher, use two, or a paint roller stick.
I’ve got one of those things somewhere. I carefully put it up when we moved to the new house five years ago. The ceilings in our new house are just 10 ft high so a ladder works perfectly.
Seiko is famous for their “glow in the dark” lume paint. Their SKX007 -009 -013 are the usual jumping off point and ISO dive rated to boot. The “Turtle”, “Samurai”, and “Sumo” models are stylistic and I think movement upgrade$. Shop around, prices vary widely. [edit] The SUN019 has a hybrid “Kinetic” automatic/quartz movement, is large but has great lume, sapphire and a better than typical Seiko clasp
Chinese watch microbrands like Helm, Pantor, Armida or Helson use good Swiss lume and quality Japanese movements. The Helm KHURABURI is particularly bright and new production will be released in a few weeks…
Citizen Eco-Drive 3 hand divers do well, too. The Casio Oceanus does all that one could ask of a quartz piece in an attractive package but at a price.
Heh: “President Trump’s unemployment rate is so low, even Colin Kaepernick found a job!”
Heh: “President Trump’s unemployment rate is so low, even Colin Kaepernick found a job!”
Oh gosh, if it did not hurt so much, I would be rolling on the ground laughing now.
This watch works well for me.
“Twitter permanently bans Alex Jones and Infowars accounts”
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/twitter-permanently-bans-alex-jones-and-infowars-accounts.html
Given that Alex Jones is a KOOK (keeper of odd knowledge), does Twitter have the right to do this ?
What happens when Twitter bans Trump ?
“Japan’s nuclear reboot gathers pace, set to curtail LNG demand”
http://gasprocessingnews.com/news/japans-nuclear-reboot-gathers-pace,-set-to-curtail-lng-demand.aspx
I was wondering if they had the guts to restart their 50 remaining nuclear power units.
Twitter maintains that they have the right to ban Trump, but that he doesn’t have the right to block whoever HE wants.
I say if they want to police content, then they have to do so for ALL content that passes thru their system, regardless of origination. Make them LEGALLY and FINANCIALLY responsible and watch the lawsuits start…. they’ll be HOWLING to be treated as common carriers with the protections that affords. Right now we have the worst of both systems, they claim they can’t be responsible for content, acting as a common carrier, but then they claim the right to kick people off their private system for whatever reason they want. Can’t have it both ways, especially when you reach a certain market saturation, even if you’ve created that market from nothing.
n
@nightraker, thanks for those names, I wasn’t aware that people were doing that. Although most of them don’t appeal to me personally, I love the idea.
n
two dead baby rats today. one just laying in the driveway. one in a snap trap.
6? more to go?
n
Roger that! Remember all the horse and mule guys who were thrown out of work by the steam and internal combustion engines. Oh-oh, I almost forgot the guys that ran the sails up down on the ocean liners of the 1700s.
What happens when Twitter bans Trump ?
Gab?
I don’t know. I don’t look at Twitter much, is it full of ads? I don’t see any…. But if they have lots of ads, well, Trump brings a lot of eyeballs to the site.
I have some halogen downlights that are failing (they make a crackling sound and flicker.) Can I simply pull them out and replace with LED downlights? Do they both use the same connections and voltage/amperage?
two dead baby rats today. one just laying in the driveway. one in a snap trap.
Did you put out poison ?
If they are in standard screw type household fixtures, yes, they are direct replacements.
I converted my entire house to LED a couple years ago, even the fluorescent lights in the garage and mower shed.
@nightraker, et al.,
Appreciate the suggestions. I had assumed Indiglo was something from the 80s no longer manufactured, though I would rather not press a button to see the time. I wish I could buy radium paint somewhere, because I have an old watch almost exactly like mediumwave suggested, but the luminosity poops out after 4 or 5 hours. I suspect it’s a Seiko under the label.
I sent Barbara a happy note today. When Bob died I asked what happened to all of his silica gel desiccant, so I bought a kilo off her, and then she sent me all of his O2 absorber packets and even more silica gel packets.
A friend told me he had acquired one of those old WWII silk maps sent down with the paratroopers. He had it in a plastic bag, so I told him to take my desiccant and stick it in a mason jar for whoever might want it in the future. I think they are cool, and probably a dime a dozen, but who knows who might appreciate it in a couple generations, especially if it has been hermetically sealed in a mayonnaise jar under a front porch!
You can get new lume, it’s just expensive and not that effective. Gun guys sometimes paint it on their sights….
There is a technique for re-luming hands, lots of youtube for lessons….
WRT LED replacements for bulbs in can lights (or “pot” lights as some of our cousins call them) the replacement kits include the ‘bulb’ with a molded on trim ring, and a wire pigtail that screws into your socket. Then you mate the plug to the back of the ‘bulb’, hook up the springs, and it sucks up tight to the ceiling. You get a nice air seal as well as new lights. If you have a bunch and want them to always match, buy 2 extra. You might have a relatively early failure and won’t be able to easily find a match.
Add a dimmer if they are too bright! Lutron has a series for LED lights and they work very well. Make sure your replacement lamps are ‘dimmable’. I used the costco ones in the two pack, and a more expensive dimmer, and I don’t see any flicker at all. I’m super sensitive to flicker too.
n
Be careful of upside down can lights. The heat can build up and kill some LEDs. They make ones rated for enclosed. I had one A bulb 60w/rating LED in a square can with a glass cover (60’s era light) over the sink fail, about 1-2 yrs. I assumed it was heat on the electronics. I have several just like it, many in cans but no other failures. This one however burns all night as do the ones on the porch that are also in similar cans.
None of my can lights have covers at the house or at the office.
The leds are rated for tens of thousands of hours but the cheap chinesium switching power supplies are not. Every failure I’ve had has been the power circuit. Freakin’ cheap capacitors wear out, and the rest of the stuff in there isn’t very high quality either. Hence the reco to buy a couple extra if you want them to match…
n
wrt dead mice I do have one poison box, haven’t checked to see if it’s still got poison in it. will do and will buy another for the house attic too.
I got the SSD installed in my little lappy and got all the parts back together. Man you have to be careful with the cables. Currently updating.
This time I spent $8 and got a win7 “restore” kit. It’s all versions on one disk, NO license keys. It also came with the offline updates on another disk. I’ve been letting that run for the last several hours. Still more to go. Probably be faster to copy the disk to the SSD once and run from there… LOTS of updates. Lots of reboots.
n
re rats, mice, children moving back home after a divorce, and other vermin: fire takes care of most problems of infestation. Just sayin’.
My point on the upside down cans is they don’t really need covers as the heat just collects. Many installs lack any venting on top as insulation installers just bury them, especially when added later. The problem was particularly bad when high wattage incandescent floods were in use. I’ve tried to fix mine by removing the excess over light cans and in some cases using 12″ aluminum sheeting to surround them.
Activation typically occurs after the installation is complete. You go into settings to see the activation status.
If you need a WIN7 key let me know. I have a couple dozen that are legal. I would need to know which version of WIN7. Send me an email at rayt four three five at comcast dot fish catching accessory.
Yep, I meant the No Keys as a statement that there wasn’t piracy involved, ie, you still need a key for the version you install (and technically ebay requires you to include a hard drive, but the seller has an option to delete the HD and save on postage).
With that in mind, I harvested a bunch of keys off of auction machines online 😉 The seller just takes a pic of every sticker on the machine for the listing. And that means license keys….
If they don’t work, I’ll def take you up on it Ray.
n
Does anyone know where I can buy a simple, cheap watch I can read in the dark?
Casio Edifice “Tough Solar”. I have one which has seen continuous duty for nearly eight years without a battery change. It isn’t a diving watch, but I wear it to the beach and water parks without a problem.
Glow in the dark hands and dial position dots.
I just don’t see this happening. There are just too many jobs driving 18 wheelers and bulldozers out there.
My whole job at CGI was spent running down permissions problems during installs of a hideously complex JBoss server application. The gig should have been automated years ago, but I was the first person to even try to relieve the drudgery with a few scripts.
Once I left, what I managed to automate probably reverted to manual work.
There will still be plenty of tech jobs. Cr*ppy jobs, but jobs none the less.
Once I left, what I managed to automate probably reverted to manual work.
Management can always find warm bodies to throw at a task. Intelligent minds, not so much.
Robots can’t even fold a towel or a shirt. When they can slaughter a cow or chickens, then I’ll worry.
n
Robots can’t even fold a towel or a shirt. When they can slaughter a cow or chickens, then I’ll worry.
When a robot can slaughter livestock, we should all worry.
The local Kohls could use a couple of folding robots. From the way the place looks most of the time, not a single existing staff member would be displaced.
@Nick: You can start being mildly concerned:
Take the Work Out of Laundry Folding
Management can always find warm bodies to throw at a task. Intelligent minds, not so much.
H1B is strictly a warm body in most cases.
At CGI, I always felt set up to fail so the local management could claim that they tried hiring an older white male who didn’t work out. If my current job hadn’t come along, I was ready to call it a career ahead of my first review this year.
Since I quit, I’ve heard the wheels have come off the quota project to whom I reported.
@Greg – warms the cockles of my heart.
RE: Twitter – I still use it for announcements. I have feeds on a few pages that pull directly from my tweets to post information. It works incredibly well.
I can’t stand to go in for full-on-Twitter, though. It’s mind-numbing. It simply is not possible to have an intelligent, coherent discussion in 280 characters (or less). The result is a lot of shouting past each other, taking things out of (limited) context, and finger-pointing.
I suppose the reason it works well for the president is that it allows him to reach a large audience with a short, memorable message that they can then argue about until his next pronouncement. I wish he’d stop that, but wishes aren’t horses, and beggars don’t ride.
Or as Jane so memorably put it on Firefly, “If wishes were horses, we’d all be eating steak.”
The folding robot looks like fusion energy, always just that far away….
Perhaps I should have said “butcher” rather than “slaughter.” The slaughter part is much easier.
n
Casio Edifice “Tough Solar”
Dang that is one complicated watch. And the bluetooth tracking comes free!
n
Dang that is one complicated watch. And the bluetooth tracking comes free!
I have an EQS-500. The model does not include Bluetooth, but I will admit that the instruction manual is dense.
Casio Edifice “Tough Solar”
Dang that is one complicated watch. And the bluetooth tracking comes free!
https://www.amazon.com/Casio-EQS500DB-1A1-Stainless-Multi-Function-Bracelet/dp/B003URWNQE?tag=ttgnet-20
A shipping weight of 1.1 lbs ? How much does that watch weigh ? Is there a car battery hidden in there ?
100M water resistant would be cool for my FLASHLIGHTS !
A shipping weight of 1.1 lbs ? How much does that watch weigh ? Is there a car battery hidden in there ?
100M water resistant would be cool for my FLASHLIGHTS !
IIRC, the box was big. The manual is a little book.
The watch is pretty substantial, but it doesn’t sync with a time signal so the weight/thickness isn’t nearly as bad as Casio “Atomic”.
100 M water *resistant*. It isn’t a diving watch, but I’ve used the watch on two trips to Schlitterbahn without condensation appearing inside the glass (usual sign of a leak).
There are robots that can fold laundry. They just aren’t very fast right now. They went from 20 minutes per towel to 1.5 in the last few years.
I expect we’ll have automated 18 wheelers in a few years, ones that “follow along” a human driven truck on the interstates.
I expect we’ll have automated 18 wheelers in a few years, ones that “follow along” a human driven truck on the interstates.
Maybe but I doubt it. The automated driving trucks in the movie “Logan” freaked me out when the horses got loose on the freeway.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3315342/