Cool and sunny, scattered showers. That’s what we had yesterday. Beautiful blue sky, sun, and the occasional spatter of rain for a few minutes.
I made my dropoff at the auctioneer. He doesn’t want the second load today as he’s full up. I will be able to drop off a couple of big lab microscopes Thursday or Friday, if I can find the eyepieces. I’ve got several bins for the other auctioneer, and settlement to do for my last auction with her. She has a bunch of stuff already for the next auction, but I’ve got more waiting… I think I’m going to have to do some ebay listings because I’ve got more than anyone wants.
I picked up my new rent house fridge, so I hope to install it today too. Didn’t get in touch with the tenants yesterday but she works from home so it shouldn’t be an issue.
Then work the list some more. I am building a little bit of momentum that I want to keep going.
All I can say about the news is, there are now several places in the US with Army NG manning perimeters and providing security. If that doesn’t give you chills, I don’t know what will. And did anyone else notice how the local PD was outfitted for the search for their erstwhile colleague who went all shooty all of a sudden? See the pic of the one with the shotgun strapped to his side? It was stuck in his belt and strapped up under his arm. Pistol and rifle completed the loadout. So the PD has short barreled shotties in holsters and as part of their load out to make entry now? The guys were in full battle rattle. Cops. Cops that are undergoing a very strong selection pressure at the moment. Who’s gonna be left and what will their attitude be in a few months?
Keep stacking.
n
52F and 91%RH at 630AM
It has been around 54F at night for the last several days. It was a bit warmer than that last night when I went to bed but must have fallen a couple of degrees.
n
–those amish can sure get rowdy… no, wait…
n
Wow, one of my returns auctions has a dozen Harbor Freight inverter generators, and their regular gennies, and floor drying fans…. people are scumbags. They used the gear for freeze/flood cleanup then returned it.
Harbor Freight took all of the gear back?
Harbor Freight has a very liberal returns policy. Pretty much anything can come back. Which, honestly, they have to have or no one would take a chance on the cr@p.
n
And did anyone else notice how the local PD was outfitted for the search for their erstwhile colleague who went all shooty all of a sudden? See the pic of the one with the shotgun strapped to his side? It was stuck in his belt and strapped up under his arm. Pistol and rifle completed the loadout. So the PD has short barreled shotties in holsters and as part of their load out to make entry now? The guys were in full battle rattle.
The eventual takedown of the shooter — done by *Manor Police* — was pretty anticlimactic yesterday morning.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/nw-austin-shooting-suspect-charged-with-capital-murder-held-without-bail
Early voting for a special election in City of Austin started yesterday. Among the initiatives are a measure increasing the Mayor’s power and moving elections for the office to Presidential election years. Gotta scare the h*ll out of the masses, and staging a SWAT show in the Arboretum isn’t a bad way to kick off the two weeks.
Just to reiterate the link from yesterday, the scumbag blood dancers on the left used this family’s tragedy to further their own agenda, over the protests of that family.
So of the five deaths attributed to the “armed insurrection” 4 were medical emergencies, and only one was the result of violence, Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by a Capitol Police officer, who has STILL not been named officially.
Stinks like week old fish.
n
I worked for a national specialty pet supply company and was surprised at the liberal return policies. We would routinely get pet carriers that were purchased at a sister store across the country and would have to give full refunds to the “customer” when they arrived in my city and they did not need it anymore. These pet carriers had airline routing tags all over them. And when a hurricane threatened, we were told not to refuse any pet carrier refund after the event for any reason. We even had to give the “customer” a gift card when we saw them leave the store with the item without paying the day before. Of course, they had no receipt. Then we would call loss prevention and they might or might not cancel the gift card. Oh, and woe to the lowly manager who would call or email his co-workers who saw this person walk out without paying if he mentioned the race of the “Customer.”
We got lucky with our dryer yesterday. Thermal fuse.
I’m going to replace the hinge so I can safely do the diagnostics with my multimeter next time.
Russia is moving forward with their plans…
–um, NO. Putin knows exactly who Slow Joe is. If he’s testing anyone it’s kneepads, but I think he’s got her measure too. I can’t imagine a KGB that wouldn’t already have foot thick dossiers on her.
—ha ho hoho. It is to laugh. Biden is “too busy” to meet with the 2nd or first most important person in the world, who has just moved 40K troops into place for an invasion… you’re killing me, stop.
–hope you have been brushing up on your Russian language skills Ukrainians. Shouldn’t have trusted Goldman Sachs, and a bunch of promises.
–what is the current total UK Navy readiness and staffing? Two ships is a major commitment, but really nothing more than an armed observer. What does the UK expect to get from posturing like that?
n
Harbor Freight has a very liberal returns policy. Pretty much anything can come back. Which, honestly, they have to have or no one would take a chance on the cr@p.
The Health and Safety manager at the last job had a hard “No Harbor Freight” rule, particularly for power tools and safety-related equipment like jack stands.
I have calipers and a couple of specialty screwdrivers from that place. I haven’t had any problems with the tools, but the case for the calipers broke almost as soon as the return period ended.
You’ll find people online arguing endlessly about whether HF is ‘good enough’ or not.
My feeling is, if you are doing a job once, need a specialty tool, can’t rent or borrow one, and HF has it, then OK. Plumbing tools like a basin wrench come to mind, as the quality of the tools at the big box stores is the same- low.
Chip brushes, wooden furniture clamps, small tires, and trailer parts round out what I will buy there. Oh, and Evap-o-rust.
I wouldn’t buy anything my life depended on, or my job, nor anything that would leave me humped if it broke from HF. They are the Dollar Store of tools and hardware.
n
From the comments over at Commander Zero’s blog, a couple of alternatives for canned meat.
https://www.werlingandsons.com/
https://brinkmanfarms.com/product-category/beef/
alternatives are always good.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9490181/Indias-health-collapsing-Covid-19-spreads-faster-ever.html
–this is potentially very bad.
–the variant is spreading worldwide.
I suppose we should note the passing, but I can’t think of a more vanilla and less thought about guy…
n
This from a newsletter, the former American Express Financial Advisors…
–seem to be concentrating on price inflation, not monetary inflation. No mention of the deficit or proposed spending and subsequent money printing.
n
If enough people would wake up today and delete their FaceCrack accounts maybe Zuck would have a sh!tty day. Hope springs eternal…
I suppose we should note the passing, but I can’t think of a more vanilla and less thought about guy…
Mondale was right about the tax increases being necessary since Reagan couldn’t get Tip O’Neill to budge on cutting spending and even signed the first ‘infrastructure’ boondoggle. The 1986 “reform” was ultimately a tax increase offset by the change in depreciation rules which jump stared the PC industry.
Mondale was also Clinton’s Ambassador to Japan, and, depending on how you parse the words and cadence, his daughter may have been the subject of the famous “I did not have sex with that woman … Miss Lewinsky” line, a time when Eleanor Mondale’s name frequently appeared on the White House guest register.
The 80s and 90s were much simpler decades with easier-to-understand scandals.
I agree. I don’t understand the religious wars about tool brands on other forums. I generally have conumer grade tools, with a bunch of older American made Craftsman. For the past dew years, I’ve been buying Kobalt when I need something – usually the odd size socket or wrench.
I have some Harbor Freight stuff – the wood clamps are decent, and a few other one use items. I do really like their tool boxes, and I have their 44″ box.
I also have a couple Snap-On tools. Some second hand wrenches and big torque wrench I purchased new.
Can we talk about how amusing the “COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card” is? It’s black and white and printed on card stock. No watermark or other features to distinguish it as being genuine. They’re not under lock and key at clinics so grabbing a stack of 1000 and waltzing out the door with them is no feat. No signatures anywhere on the card. No unique identifier tying back to a database of people vaccinated. What is the point of the card if any 10 year old with a printer and 15 minutes of free time can make one and fill it out? Dumb. Just dumb. Why even have the card? Why even hand them out? Might as well get a sheet of notebook paper and write “I got the vaccine” on it in crayon. It would be as equally reliable. lol
Don’t get me started on the stupid size (small enough to lose, but too large for a wallet or billfold).
When I got my card I laminated it, and it is now illegible.
Another punt by SCOTUS:
SCOTUS once again kicks the can on Second Amendment
You would have to read the details to get full context, but c’mon man, you cheated on your taxes or sold illegal music cassettes (in the 80’s) and you are barred from owning a firearm for life? How does that apply?
A friend and consultant working with us in OK is a native Chicagoan. She told us a friend called her and said “I’ve got a stack of vaccine cards for $10 a pop.” Worthless. I’m going to try and get a good pic of a cert and make my own for a joke.
As Mad Max Waters continues her crazed rants, you gotta wonder about her district. It has to be Black idiot thugs just like her to keep being elected. She represents less than a percent of Blacks in ‘Murca. Where’s plugs and The Camel on this? I guess The Camel is Asian today.
Sure enough. It’s a thing now…
https://www.google.com/search?q=fake+vaccine+cards&tbm=nws
I carried my vaccination record with me for years when I traveled for business. There are lots of places where you want to be vaccinated before you go there, but none that I know of where it is required.
When you get 3 or more shots before a trip, and you do that a couple of times, you really do need a card to keep track.
n
(see, I’m not anti-vax, I ‘m just anti-this vax.)
(I’ve even had a full rabies series)
“If enough people would wake up today and delete their FaceCrack accounts maybe Zuck would have a sh!tty day. ”
–nope. Even if everyone quit, their history to date would still be valuable, and their ongoing history (collected by every website that has a FB button on it, whether they are members or not) still has value.
n
“If enough people would wake up today and delete their FaceCrack accounts maybe Zuck would have a sh!tty day. ”
–nope. Even if everyone quit, their history to date would still be valuable, and their ongoing history (collected by every website that has a FB button on it, whether they are members or not) still has value.
Facebook will be over when Zuckerberg decides that it is over. He took Steve Jobs advice and retained 51% of the voting rights when people were still enamored with “The Legend of Zuck”.
And the movie, which, as I’ve pointed out before, even managed to make a soap retread like David Selby look Oscar-worthy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKnNUYknsuQ
If nothing else, Facecrack could monetize their VM, switch, and server tech at this point, the source code and designs for which they currently give out for free, including to commercial users.
I don’t wonder, I live about 20 miles away, but in a safe area with decently intellectual residents.
52F and 91%RH at 630AM
It has been around 54F at night for the last several days. It was a bit warmer than that last night when I went to bed but must have fallen a couple of degrees.
n
You may be in the upper 30s in the morning. “Very cold night for late April on tap for Houston”
https://spacecityweather.com/very-cold-night-for-late-april-on-tap-for-houston/
“Areas north of Interstate 10 will start in the 40s on Wednesday morning, and with northerly winds the “apparent” temperature for parts of Montgomery and Waller counties will be in the 30s. (The record low for Bush Intercontinental Airport for April 21, the city’s official weather station, is 42 degrees set in 1978). The bottom line, is that yes, you may want to bundle up when you head out the door on Wednesday morning. With sunny skies, temperatures should rebound to around 70 degrees, but a northerly wind of 10 to 15 mph will blow all day. Lows Wednesday night will be about 5 degrees warmer than Tuesday night.”
This is the type of event that sometimes goes out into the Gulf, picks up a boatload of moisture, gets blown back north and drops a ton of rain on us.
https://www.click2houston.com/weather/2019/04/16/look-back-at-houstons-2016-tax-day-flood/
Meanwhile, the UK has offered to send two warships to the Black Sea as a warning to Putin, according to leaked documents, after the US cancelled the deployment of two of its own vessels to the region.
–what is the current total UK Navy readiness and staffing? Two ships is a major commitment, but really nothing more than an armed observer. What does the UK expect to get from posturing like that?
That may be the entire UK surface fleet in the Med. They have a couple of subs also. The UK does not have a navy of any account anymore. I’ll bet half of these ships are mothballed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_active_Royal_Navy_ships
Ah yes, a Ship of the Line:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Victory
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9490181/Indias-health-collapsing-Covid-19-spreads-faster-ever.html
–this is potentially very bad.
–the variant is spreading worldwide.
Have you grown a third arm or a third kidney yet from the P&G vaccine ?
The wife is dreading the second Pfizer shot. I am not worried.
“Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Senate currently lacks the votes to pass permitless carry of handguns”
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/19/texas-constitutional-carry-senate/
Yup, this is what I expected. The Texas House would do something and the Texas Senate will clap with one hand.
I have my Texas LTC (License to Carry) and do not plan to let it go. Of course, that does put me on the short list for the gun seizures.
We desperately need a national right to carry in all 50 states and territories though. I do not see that happening.
–seem to be concentrating on price inflation, not monetary inflation. No mention of the deficit or proposed spending and subsequent money printing.
The Shadowstats SWAG is 6% consumer inflation right now.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts
As Mad Max Waters continues her crazed rants, you gotta wonder about her district.
I don’t wonder, I live about 20 miles away, but in a safe area with decently intellectual residents.
And lot of full grocery stores. They will come to visit you as they have trashed all their grocery stores. Pray that they do not come 300 to 500 at a time.
“Texas House targets power grid flaw that worsened February blackouts”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/texas-power-grid-failure-legislature-natural-gas-16114629.php
I would not hold my breath. They are not going to fix the problem, the cost is too high, at least ten billion dollars per year, maybe twenty billion dollars per year.
And there is 30,000 MW of new solar power and windmills coming online in the next two years in Texas alone. That will finish off the rest of the coal and natural gas base load units as they cannot compete with the federally subsidized so called renewables. We will have the 300+ gas turbines still but that is not enough power to meet the demand during extreme weather events.
Buy a generator if you need power below 32 F or above 95 F.
Lordy B Gordy:
Biden says the evidence is ‘overwhelming’ in Derek Chauvin’s trial and is ‘praying for the right verdict’ after he called George Floyd’s family
The White House is already backpedalling on plugs’ “right verdict” pronouncement. You mean plugs didn’t mean “take the trash out and execute him in front of the St. Floyd Memorial?” If tRump said that the ProgLibTurd MSM would be on him like stink on my doxie’s shit.
Dang! How many progs are in the Tejas Senate? I’m relatively new here.
I talked with http://www.oneringnetworks.com yesterday. They offered me $375/month for 10/10 mbps radio internet with a two year contract which is still expensive for my business but I am thinking about it. Not in a rush though. And I am 14 miles away from their antenna, they have a 15 mile limit for their service. And I have some reliability concerns about radio internet.
AT&T offered me 10/10 mbps fiber again yesterday for $472/month with a three year contract. Not gonna happen.
Yup, this is what I expected. The Texas House would do something and the Texas Senate will clap with one hand.
Dang! How many progs are in the Tejas Senate? I’m relatively new here.
All it takes is one.
True, but when I got vaccinated, they got my PII. So a record, tied to my SSN and Tx DL exists for verification.
Almost any paper record is subject to being cloned, unless you go to passport or currency level countermeasures. Which are expensive.
True, but when I got vaccinated, they got my PII. So a record, tied to my SSN and Tx DL exists for verification.
What is a PII ?
BTW, apparently every entity out there sponsoring vaccine shots (Methodist Hospital, Fort Bend County, Harris County, etc) has a custom database. The chance of getting all those databases to talk to each other is not good.
”
Have you grown a third arm or a third kidney yet from the P&G vaccine ? ”
–no extra appendages yet, but on the gripping hand, I do still get weird hot flashes, and I had to take a nap this morning. I get fatigued easily and that is not something I’m used to. Could be tree pollen season, as that messes me up too, but it is a bit concerning.
Working the phone and web searching for truck this morning. Prices do seem to be up a bit from 2 months ago, and inventory is down, but that could just be normal variation. Vehicles that are priced right are selling quickly. Two that I called about had already sold. The sales guy on the last one said used sales are going crazy because of new availability issues.
n
So, do I have to show my ID to get a vaccine plugs promised to everybody? Not to vote, though.
And lot of full grocery stores. They will come to visit you as they have trashed all their grocery stores. Pray that they do not come 300 to 500 at a time.
All kinds of things happen at night in my neighborhood since the road was cut through for the H1B development to have an easy commute to Dell and HPE. The CapMetro rolling homeless shelter -er- light rail has a station out near the mall which is a bit of a hike but still walkable for someone determined.
Someone keeps coming up close enough to my house on a regular basis in order to vandalize the license plate on my old car.
Personally Identifiable Information. Tying your name/SSN/DL to other information.
yeah they got all my PII for my shot, and two different tracking programs run by two different agencies.
n
Tyler Durden cowardice covering someone who knows that the female Dem swing voters in the suburbs of DC and the tech hubs are starting to get worried about how much Joe and Kamala truly understand their plight.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/rich-democrats-revolt-over-salt-biden-tax-hikes-face-pressure-both-sides
Restoration of the SALT deduction is going to be a huge issue here before too long. Inside the city limits, about 800 yards from my front door, it isn’t impossible to pay $20,000 in property taxes on a house similar to mine.
Buyers remorse, but this meme still dominates.
Yeah, Biden. Still, Trump …
“No unique identifier tying back to a database of people vaccinated.”
Mine has my medical record number (used to be SS#) on it, and the lot numbers for each shot, I don’t know about their database or not but I scanned mine and sent it to my medical provider. Agree about the size, awkward.
Just got off the phone with enterprise car sales. They had exactly what I wanted at a decent price, in town. It was selling to someone in the office when I called.
Had a chat with the nice girl about their process. They use all their internal data from the rental side to cherry pick the best vehicles for themselves, then send the rest to auction. They include a 12mo/12K power train warranty, and will sell an extended warranty if you want one. She said they are closing offices because of lack of inventory, and sending the employees back to the rental side. They told her that the manfs won’t be building new cars until September at the earliest because of the chip shortage.
Their used car sales exploded after the lockdown, and are going nuts now too, but she thinks they’ll run out of cars to sell if new production doesn’t resume pdq.
n
Chauvin verdict in ~20 minutes.
My wife and I got ours done at two different places. Both cards just have our names. There’s a space for “Patient Number” but it was left blank on both. I’ve heard others say their “Patient Number” was just the last 4 of their SSN. Others it’s their patient number at that health system. For others it was just a transaction number at a chain pharmacy.
Essentially, it’s meaningless. Especially for any layperson examining it. I doubt, for example, the lady that might someday check it as you board a plane is going to have any idea if anything written on there is a valid other than your name matching the name on your ticket.
No one dead so not counted as a “mass shooting”??
“Severe weather this summer could cause another Texas power crisis”
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/15/texas-ercot-blackouts-summer-climate/
“The state’s grid operator included extreme weather scenarios in its early summer assessment and found that a combination of a severe drought, heat wave and low winds could lead to more power outages. Experts warn this summer could be hot and dry, enhanced by climate change.”
This is the real reason why I bought a whole house generator.
And the climate change thing is just malarkey. Texas summers have always been hot with a side order of extra hotness right around Labor Day. 113 F in Sugar Land, TX on Labor Day 1999. The Texas grid was shedding customers faster than we could fire up the BBQ.
Chauvin was tried by the media and convicted by Maxine Waters weeks ago. The legal system is now a media circus. “Give him a fair trial, then hang him”.
Their used car sales exploded after the lockdown, and are going nuts now too, but she thinks they’ll run out of cars to sell if new production doesn’t resume pdq.
Hertz has a deal to get out of bankruptcy. This time last year, they were expected to go under and start shedding cars before Summer started.
By July, in North Florida, I saw a Hertz rental agreement on the dash of a new Ford EcoSport in the parking lot of our hotel. Granted, only a rental company is going to buy those, but it was still a new vehicle.
“St John Baptist sheriff expressed frustration that no one has come forward with information on the gunmen”
–because “Snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches…”
In other words, more BLACK GANG VIOLENCE.
n
We drove through west Texas back in 1991 in my dad’s old 1976 Plymouth Volare station wagon. It didn’t have A/C. We had the windows rolled down and the air blowing into the car was hot. It was like using a hot hair dryer to cool yourself on a hot day. Though, I don’t remember it being too miserable. Humidity was low and we were probably acclimated at the time having grown up using a car with no A/C.
I think it’s the wind that makes cold winters unbearable and the humidity that makes hot summers unbearable. Live in a place with dry windy summers and windless winters and you could tolerate quite a range of temperature extremes.
Mine has my medical record number (used to be SS#) on it, and the lot numbers for each shot, I don’t know about their database or not but I scanned mine and sent it to my medical provider. Agree about the size, awkward.
I saw a suggestion in Peter King’s NBC column this week about using a leftover trade show lanyard badge holder for the vaccination card. Maybe that was the original intent since, apparently, the size is perfect.
Then I start to wonder — why would you need that card to be as readily accessible as a badge at a trade show?
King didn’t touch the “Why”. He’s a big Lib like a lot of sports writers these days.
Hey Joe, the answers to the test are “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV”.
Otherwise go with “42”. But no worries, they score on a curve.
They call it Southern Arizona.
For Summers perhaps, but I need to be able to go outside and take a deep breath in January and feel the mucus in my nose freeze. I just want to do it without 40mph winds.
Texas summers have always been hot with a side order of extra hotness right around Labor Day. 113 F in Sugar Land, TX on Labor Day 1999.
We drove through west Texas back in 1991 in my dad’s old 1976 Plymouth Volare station wagon. It didn’t have A/C. We had the windows rolled down and the air blowing into the car was hot. It was like using a hot hair dryer to cool yourself on a hot day. Though, I don’t remember it being too miserable. Humidity was low and we were probably acclimated at the time having grown up using a car with no A/C.
I think it’s the wind that makes cold winters unbearable and the humidity that makes hot summers unbearable. Live in a place with dry windy summers and windless winters and you could tolerate quite a range of temperature extremes.
Come down to south Texas on a 100 F 80% humidity day and we will have you screaming for a/c.
None of my grandparents had central a/c until 1968 or so. Just window units. I cannot tell you how many times I heard “hey you kids, stop blocking the a/c”.
“BREAKING: Derek Chauvin Guilty On All 3 Counts In George Floyd’s Death”
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/04/20/derek-chauvin-guilty-verdict-george-floyd-death-trial/
To be followed by an instant mistrial.
Plenty for sale on Ebay. Supposedly there have also been auctions for blank cards but I didn’t see any. More likely available on the FB Marketplacs.
Yeah, I hardly read about Chauvin, but I could see reasonable doubt right away. And yet the cop who shot Babbitt is still unknown. We are not a nation of laws anymore. It’s public opinion, MSM, and politicians.
Mad Max Waters also skates on getting censored by the House. Pretty much party lines.
Well, reasonable doubt hasn’t existed as a standard since that kid got railroaded in Charlottesville over hitting the protesters with his car. I could have gotten a reasonable doubt with just two of the videos that were available.
The prosecutor with his line from the Grinch was all they must have remembered, because if the official coroner’s report didn’t provide a reasonable doubt, nothing would.
And SERIOUSLY, 3 charges for the same death? The felon could only die once. TWO more enhancers including “the presence of a child”? ANYONE remember voting for sh!t like that? Or ANY public discussion about whether a law like that was justified or appropriate?
double jeopardy vanished long ago with the war on some drugs and “charge stacking” with the intent to plea bargain (which in itself is sleazy AF. Charge the crime.)
n
So how does one get a fair trial in a place where the incestuous* local leaders say stuff like this?
n
*well, she married her brother in an immigration scam but I guess there isn’t any evidence she actually slept with him. What would the correct word be?
Gateway Pundit just went down…
[added — back up]
““Praying the Verdict is the Right Verdict” – Joe Biden Weighs in on Chauvin Trial After Judge Tells Govt Officials to Shut Up About the Case (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/04/praying-verdict-right-verdict-joe-biden-weighs-chauvin-trial-judge-tells-govt-officials-shut-case-video/
–When the President won’t let you get a fair trial, and publicly presumes you to be guilty, you are F’d.
On a different note, just about everyone I know that is serving will have to overcome years of behavioral programming….
–I used to sit in meetings and watch the long term guys in their constant circular scan– person’s ID badge, collar, face, look around, person, collar, face, repeat endlessly.
n
“The Minneapolis Star Tribune engaged in jury intimidation”
https://gunfreezone.net/the-minneapolis-star-tribune-engaged-in-jury-intimidation/
“Who are the jurors in the Derek Chauvin trial?”
https://www.startribune.com/who-are-the-jurors-in-the-derek-chauvin-trial-for-the-killing-of-george-floyd-in-minneapolis/600037651/
“Though the jurors will remain anonymous, here’s what we know about the jury seated for Derek Chauvin’s trial in the killing of George Floyd.”
The article goes on to physically describe each juror and tell where they live.
I guess prosecutors can now charge you with everything and get you on something.
Again, not a nation of laws anymore. I wonder if Chauvin will survive for his appeals. He will probably get Epstein’d. Or smashed to pieces like Whitey Bulger.
I hope this doesn’t end up like what happened when I was at Army Command & Staff College. One Black Captain complained there were not Black Generals portraits on the walls. There weren’t any worthy at the time. But he was Black, so mass punishment every week for an hour while I was there on Black History, sensitivity, etc (we were all forced to watch “Glory” in the auditorium. I had already seen it, good flick). Where do think an award is pinned on you when you get one. On your boobs, fool. Maybe awards should be on the back of your uniform. “Your looking at my ass!” And, as Dr. Bob always said, men are hardwired to look at women’s boobs. It’s nature.
Whole beautiful day wasted shopping for a truck, AND didn’t find one.
n
“Chauvin update”
https://gunfreezone.net/chauvin-update/
“This is going to go to appeal. Even the judge agreed that Maxine Waters was a bad influence.
Police will quit en masse, there is no reason to be a cop anymore.
Self defense is done. “It’s better to be judged by twelve than carried by six” means nothing. You will not get a fair trial, the mob will have you convicted and executed.
Mob rule is now how our judicial system operates.
We are a civilization in rapid decline to banana republic status.”
The decline has been readily apparent for quite a while now. The falsified national election last November was the big reveal in the ossified dumbrocrat plans to convert the USA into a third world nation.
“Flinx’s Folly (Adventures of Pip & Flinx)” by Alan Dean Foster
https://www.amazon.com/Flinxs-Folly-Adventures-Pip-Flinx/dp/0345450396/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number eight (in reading order) of a fifteen book space opera with psi series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Del Rey in 2004 that I bought new since I cannot find my copy in my packed books. I will continue to read through the series.
Flinx has his own FTL spaceship, the Teacher, built and given to him by the Ulru-Ujurrians. Flinx and Pip are visiting the Commonwealth planet of New Riviera, looking for Flinx’s close friend, Clarity, whom he has not seen in six years. As usual, trouble both follows and precedes Flinx and his sidekick.
The reading order of Pip and Flinx:
https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/alan-dean-foster/pip-and-flinx/
ADF has a website at:
https://www.alandeanfoster.com/
My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (110 reviews)
Geez:
Speaker Pelosi: “Thank you George Floyd for sacrificing your life for justice … Because of you and because of thousands, millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.”
St. Floyd was a career criminal and thug. He didn’t deserve to die, but hey, Stretch doesn’t pass up an opportunity to get her mug on TV. He didn’t sacrifice anything.
I received an email today indicating that the local Home Depot needs a senior programmer in Haskell.
Holy Hot Skillz!
I haven’t heard of anyone trying to pick that up since the late 90s. I gotta wonder what was going on in Atlanta 20 years ago that someone was able to commit Home Depot to using that language.
The late 90s were a golden era for useless Hot Skillz. “LEARN POWERBUILDER OR LOSE YOUR JOB!”
To be fair, I could kinda-sorta understand Home Depot looking for and expecting to find a PowerBuilder developer.
Whatever. More talk and no do. When I travel I take the Glock and a hand full of hollow points. Stashed under the trunk floor on top of the spare. I’m not going to be a victim if I have to change a tire.
I went wandering around today. Harbor Freight for the first time. Not super impressed. Nice enough store. Clean. I bought a couple of “diamond wedges” because I have a few tree stumps too close to the house to burn and too big to chainsaw low enough to mow over. So I’m going to try to split the stumps and ok, just think of the dentist working on impacted wisdom teeth.
They had a 24 foot long retractable dog leash for $5.99. My impulse purchase.
Then Wally World. Paper towels, freon, anti freeze. No Pepsodent in stock. Paid for all that, loaded the truck and went back to the garden area. Ten bags of water softener salt and three tomato plants. Heading out of the parking lot and carp, I forgot the beer. Big sign saying to diaper your face, no enforcement. I did get several evil looks but I’m gonna take it as they are jealous of my handsomeness.
Then Tractor Supply. My flavor of dog food was out. Six bags of cat food and a bag of dog cookies works. Cat food was $17.99 in November, $19.99 today.
Everything is unloaded and put away except the salt. Tomorrow. My back was hinting at a “eff you” event.
“Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Senate currently lacks the votes to pass permitless carry of handguns”
Whatever. More talk and no do. When I travel I take the Glock and a hand full of hollow points. Stashed under the trunk floor on top of the spare. I’m not going to be a victim if I have to change a tire.
You are clean. The hapless dofusses in Austin did pass an extension to the Castle Doctrine several years ago that it applies to your vehicle, your RV, and/or your boat. In addition to your castle, your home.
http://www.lusterlaw.com/page/texas-castle-law-doctrine-self-defense
I think I remember enough RPG to get by…but probably not on the Hot Skillz list, huh??
The Las Vegas Raiders, NFL, and other corps:
I CAN BREATH4-20-21
I wonder why I don’t watch any sports.
All hail St. George! This is healing?
I think I remember enough RPG to get by…but probably not on the Hot Skillz list, huh??
RPG is still in use. It isn’t Hot Skillz, but IBM updates it fairly regularly.
The closest I’ve ever come to Hot Skillz was in the late 90s when I knew enough Java to be dangerous.
HR must love hot skillz, they can just sort by buzzword.
n
“Starlink is a global ISP built at ZERO COST to SpaceX, enabling NASA’s Artemis launch”
https://www.cringely.com/2021/04/20/starlink-is-a-global-isp-built-at-zero-cost-to-spacex-enabling-nasas-artemis-launch/
“SpaceX’s Starlink has already won the global ISP war. You are forgiven if you didn’t know that and forgiven, too, if you didn’t even know there was such a war. But there is one, and Starlink has already won it at a net cost of ZERO dollars. In fact, SpaceX, which owns Starlink, has won at a negative cost, which means they are making a profit building what for any other company would have been a cost measured in billions of dollars — dollars that can now be diverted to projects like financing NASA’s Artemis lunar program.”
“I’m willing to bet that Elon Musk, cementing forever his title of World’s Luckiest SOB, didn’t come up with this idea — he lucked into it. Elon may have figured it out, but I doubt that this was the plan ab initio. The lightbulb went off just before SpaceX started dramatically increasing its estimate of the total number of satellites required. Required for what? One recent estimate has the number at 40,000, which would be enough to serve every Internet user on Earth, PLUS IoT, plus any other network services as yet uninvented.”
I signed up for Starlink at the office today and paid my $99 deposit. They are saying late this year to activate.
Yup, who will build the first Starlink phone ?
Elon Musk looks more and more like D. D. Harriman every day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delos_D._Harriman
Fakebook: I recommend you delete your FakeBook account. Then, if you’re on a Windoze box, go to C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc, and edit the “hosts” file. (You’ll need to “Run as Administrator” to launch Notepad, or if you use Notepad++, it will offer to edit the file with admin permissions.)
Add the line “127.0.0.1 http://www.facebook.com” to the list, and save.
This PC will never be able to connect to http://www.facebook.com again, because the DNS lookup will fail – because you’ve pointed it to the “null” device.
If you ever need to enable it, add the “#” remark symbol at the beginning of the line.
There’s probably something equivalent on Mac or *NIX machines.
HR must love hot skillz, they can just sort by buzzword.
HR is fairly useless at most tech companies beyond enforcing diversity so computers do all of the resume screening. Most HR people have no clue what the buzzwords mean.
At the last job, the VP running North America HR came from WalMart store management. The lead HR here in Austin was a regional manager at Chipotle with an online degree in some social science from the University of the Virgin Islands.
“which means they are making a profit building what for any other company would have been a cost measured in billions of dollars — ”
–so he’s complaining that a Musk company is making money? WTF?
Does the article ever say how they get to net profit? Because the DoD wants to use COTS providers for the nextgen satellite comms for the military… and that could be part of it.
What does Cringy think of iridium? It only exists to service the military and .gov, all the private users are just gravy. The current owners were encouraged and enabled to buy it out of bankruptcy, after all the expensive debt was discharged.
n
There is on Mac. I use freeware called Gas Mask to edit the hosts file and can save different versions.
“Starlink is a very big deal”
https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2019/11/02/starlink-is-a-very-big-deal/
“One final point is to compare the revenue per Watt of solar power generated for Starlink. Each satellite’s solar array is about 60 sqm according to photographs on the website, which means that they generate an average of around 3kW, or 4.5kWh, over an entire orbit. With a ballpark estimate of $1000 of revenue per orbit, each satellite is generating about $220/kWh. This is 10,000 times the wholesale cost of solar-generated electricity, once again demonstrating that space-based solar power is a losing proposition. Modulating microwaves with data is an enormous value-add!”
Apparently, SpaceX is starting another business to run next to StarLink, StarPower. Solar Power satellites to portable microwave receivers. It will probably melt the snow off your roof too.
Jerry Pournelle would have been so happy.
“which means they are making a profit building what for any other company would have been a cost measured in billions of dollars — ”
–so he’s complaining that a Musk company is making money? WTF?
Does the article ever say how they get to net profit? Because the DoD wants to use COTS providers for the nextgen satellite comms for the military… and that could be part of it.
What does Cringy think of iridium? It only exists to service the military and .gov, all the private users are just gravy. The current owners were encouraged and enabled to buy it out of bankruptcy, after all the expensive debt was discharged.
n
Cringely says that the FTC just gave SpaceX $885 million to serve rural customers in the USA. That is paying for the satellites and the launch costs for most, if not all, of Starlink.
Cringley is not complaining at all. He is totally impressed with the business model. After all, SpaceX is the first company coming from the Launch side of the business and have run the costs down by a factor of 100X with Falcon and is headed toward a Launch cost reduction factor of 1000X when StarShip starts flying.
Beta started in Oz. Very limited cover for now. It also means that the first few are getting 300+Mbps. Not cheapest option but it is initially meant for rural and the current services for that are not good so it will have traction. Oz is big and population is spread out… Permits allow outer suburbs of biggest cities. It will be interesting.
“Starlink is a global ISP built at ZERO COST to SpaceX, enabling NASA’s Artemis launch”
Beta started in Oz. Very limited cover for now. It also means that the first few are getting 300+Mbps. Not cheapest option but it is initially meant for rural and the current services for that are not good so it will have traction. Oz is big and population is spread out… Permits allow outer suburbs of biggest cities. It will be interesting.
1,200 of the Starlink satellites are up now. 38,800 Starlink satellites to go to achieve full coverage of the Earth.
Earth will have it’s own halo.
n
Does the article ever say how they get to net profit? Because the DoD wants to use COTS providers for the nextgen satellite comms for the military… and that could be part of it.
Selling the proxy history for marketing purposes.
I’d be surprised if the hardware/software package does not include something like a BlueCoat proxy which gets installed on a lot of corporate laptops to monitor users’ activities, even over HTTPS.
Earth will have it’s own halo.
n
Have you seen the Pixar movie Wall.E ?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/
Does the article ever say how they get to net profit? Because the DoD wants to use COTS providers for the nextgen satellite comms for the military… and that could be part of it.
Selling the proxy history for marketing purposes.
I’d be surprised if the hardware/software package does not include something like a BlueCoat proxy which gets installed on a lot of corporate laptops to monitor users’ activities, even over HTTPS.
I am assuming that I can plug the Starlink antenna into my Peplink 30 box that only does IPv4. I sure do not want to plug the Starlink antenna directly into my 1 Gbps 24 port ethernet switch.
Is my policy of “kill everyone” sounding better now?
I wonder how many cops were waiting to see what this outcome was before filing papers to retire…
n
See: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/11/spacex-starlink-beta-tester-takes-user-terminal-into-forest-gets-120mbps/
The package comes with an external router. From there on, you should be able to plug whatever you want.
Anyone else read Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon The Deep? He uses a framing device where every chapter starts with the pan-galactic version of some little chunk of the early internet. Someone posting about ping times, or dropped packets through certain parts of the galaxy (because an ancient evil awoke and destroyed a big chunk) and their attempts to route around the outage…
Starlink will evolve into an interplanetary ‘net, and who knows what comes after that….
n
(if it doesn’t become Skynet and kill us all)
The situation is a mess. Everyone knows that Russia wants the Ukraine back under the Russian thumb. The Ukraine doesn’t have any “allies”, because neither the US nor Europe want to go to war over this. Russia has already taken the Crimea and the eastern bit of the Ukraine. The only question is what sort of excuse they will cook up, to justify taking the rest.
I looked at a couple of news sources on that, but all of them carefully avoided the obvious questions: Why are teens (we’re talking 16- and 17-year-olds) at a 12-year-old’s birthday party? Packing heat?
I assume the non-PC truth is that this was a confrontation between two gangs, and likely involved drugs. Since race is carefully not mentioned in any of the articles, it’s a safe assumption that the teens were black.
It sure would be nice if the media would do its job, and report neutral facts.
Possibly justified. That said, I still find Floyd a bizarre choice for the BLM mascot. Breonna Taylor would have made a lot more sense, being obviously innocent, and not being a hardened criminal.
Anyway, as others have observed: Omar, Waters and others have made a fair trial impossible. This will be declared a mistrail, and the show will drag on for years.
A long time ago – I recall it as an absolutely glorious book. A galactic-scale novel that actually felt huge.
We can call it “The Floyd Effect” in honor of St. Floyd.
I did a little work with a researcher at NASA that was working on concepts for adapting IP to deal with interplanetary ping times.
A number of the characters at the nodes were based on prominent people on Usenet, which was the model for the interplanetary communications. (i.e. Sandor at the Zoo is Henry Spencer, who was active there and also happened to write regex)