Wed. Dec. 22, 2021 – 12-22-21 – Hah! That’s an interesting number….

By on December 22nd, 2021 in ebay, personal, Random Stuff, WuFlu

Easily amused. That’s me.

Cold and clear today, if the forecast holds. It was cold and clear yesterday, and that’s the best predictor for today.

Holds true for most things, until it doesn’t.

Did my pickup in the morning yesterday, mostly shop supplies, and had a long conversation with my auctioneer. He’s ready for me to drop off a bunch of stuff come January. He’s expanding like crazy, adding storage space and staff. He’s worked his way through a huge bolus of stuff, and now he’s got some time and space again. I’m not messing around this time, I’m taking him as much stuff as I can without holding much back for ebay. As he put it, get caught up.

Then I headed out to my client’s house. Finished most of what I wanted to, but broke the system in the process. I unplugged the controller to dress up some cables, and it didn’t come back up when I put the power back. Long story short, there is a piece of gear that has a bug in the firmware so that it looks ok, until the power cycles. Then it keeps the whole system from working. With my partner checking in from the Virgin Islands where he is on vacation, and his guy who came down to work on the system, it got fixed to the point I can leave it alone until January. The ultimate solution requires the manufacture to update their firmware, so we’re probably weeks away from doing more work on it anyway.

And then I returned home to family movie night. Jungle Cruise with “The Rock”… I like him as an actor. He seems to be having fun with the roles. Movie was enjoyable but fluff, which is what I expected. Kids liked it.

D1 complained about the eggnog I brought home. WHY OH WHY did you get THIS brand???
!!!111! It’s not as good as the last one.!!!121!!1! –Global pandemic. Supply chain issues. We’re lucky there was any at all to get. It wasn’t bad, just lighter and creamier without the strong spice of good eggnog. But yeah, it was one of 4 bottles left. And did I mention I had to order solder on mono 1/8” mini plugs? None to be had in Houston after I bought the last 8 at Altex. I think I did mention that. I miss Radio Shack. There will come a time when if you don’t have it, you can’t get it, for large values of ‘it’.

The universe tried to get me to fall asleep in my office chair again. Who am I to wrestle with the power of the universe? But I did move to my bed as soon as I realized what the tricky b!tch was doing… yea! me!

Figure out what you are short of, and stack some.

n

(kinda silly there at the end, I blame the mysterious power of the universe.)h

57 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Dec. 22, 2021 – 12-22-21 – Hah! That’s an interesting number…."

  1. SteveF says:

    D1 complained about the eggnog I brought home.

    I get that a lot, too. "These breakfast sausages don't taste the same as the ones from last week. Waah!" I think it's because life is too easy for The Child: the house is full of food, she's never had to worry about the utilities being cut off, etc.

  2. Denis says:

    If D1 doesn't approve of your choice of nog, seize the opportunity to teach her how to make her own.

    There must be a million recipes online. I am lazy, I just dilute Advocaat liqueur with cream and add Demerara sugar and freshly rasped nutmeg to taste. It is of course possible to start with a chicken, fresh egg yolks, distilling a spirit, sweetening with honey from the home apiary, etc…

    Nutmeg / mace is a bit more tricky to acquire. I did pick up my own in the wild long ago in the Australian rainforest in Queensland, but these days I just buy it.

    Mmm. Nog. Too bad everyone else in the house is lactose intolerant. Too bad for them, that is. More for me!

  3. Greg Norton says:

    >> 55 MPG by 2026. Yeah, that isn't going to happen so every real vehicle manufacturer is either going to pay Tesla or face "gas guzzler" fines.

    Trump will roll them back come January 2025.

    Too late. After the 2018 election, the manufacturers decided that Trump couldn't make the rollbacks stick and started cancelling the projects which hedged their bets. The pipelines have to be filled 7-8 years out.

    As I've posted before, I have pictures of a new Crown Vic for the cops rolling around Chicago under heavy shroud, probably an early prototype built on the new rear wheel drive Exploder platform which is manufactured in the plant there. March 2019, but the car never happened.

    (Things that make you say “Hmmm …” — Where are the Cybertruck prototypes beyond the one Tony sends around the country?)

    What ultimately needs to happen is for Congress to develop testicular fortitude and take CAFE out of the hands of the Executive Branch, but that hasn't happened in nearly 50 years so I doubt it will happen in 2023.

    Trump needs to go away at this point IMHO. He sold us out to Fauci and Bill Gates' kinky needle fetishes and mask kabuki.

  4. Ray Thompson says:

    An age limit. And term limits.

    They make commercial pilots retire at 65. The same should apply to congress critters and senators.

    Term limits I have heard good arguments both ways. Keeping the long term people who know how things work and how to get things done is probably good. On the other hand these long term people have lost touch with reality and are doing nothing.

    What I would like to see is that all federally elected officials be required to sell all stocks and bonds and place all their funds in T-Bills. Along with that the tax returns of all federally elected officials become public record. That may slow down some of the questionably, possibly illegal, activities on their part. There is no way someone becomes a multi-millionaire on a couple hundred thousand income in a year without some shady deals. Especially in the markets. Removing the markets from the equation may slow things down. Even better is to prohibit the elected official and immediate family members from participating in any stock market activity.

  5. MrAtoz says:

    Trump needs to go away at this point IMHO. He sold us out to Fauci and Bill Gates' kinky needle fetishes and mask kabuki.

    I don't believe tRump will run. He'll stay in the sidelines sniping and trying to be the Godfather. His age will slow him down real fast.

    They make commercial pilots retire at 65. The same should apply to congress critters and senators.

    Agreed. We need new blood in Congress. Every Federal position should have that rule to get rid of jerks like FauXi. He's made millions holding one goobermint position. He has to go NOW! Those are our tax dollars. Even the military cuts you off at 30 years unless Congress does something.

  6. MrAtoz says:

    LOL! Cramer posted a COVID quick test showing him negative two days after saying he was positive. Claims 3 vaxxes was why. Bullshit meters are off the scale today.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    LOL! Cramer posted a COVID quick test showing him negative two days after saying he was positive. Claims 3 vaxxes was why. Bullshit meters are off the scale today.

    The positive test may have been PCR while the negative was antigen. Plus, as I can attest from first hand experience, it wouldn’t be hard to fake gathering a sample to avoid a positive test at the CVS screening kabuki, which I assume is standard procedure.

    PCR was decertified in … April? … but the tests continue until the end of the year.

    Gotta make the numbers spike again if possible.

    Cramer’s orange suit has been due for 20 years.

    UPDATE: A home test. Really? Why do people believe Cramer. Why have people ever believed Cramer? If he got caught lying, he wouldn’t care — he’s a member of that club that believes the only bad publicity is your obituary.

    Who here has ever made money following Cramer’s advice? Real money? Tenbagger cash?

    As I’ve posted before, dropping nuclear weapons on the suburbs 30 years ago would have done less damage to civilization than basic cable.

  8. MrAtoz says:

    This story has be online for several days now:

    DC Librarian Who Made Children Reenact Holocaust Is Failed Dem Candidate, Convicted Fraudster, and Animal Abuser

    LOL Amish female. How in the H E Double Hockey Sticks does someone like this get a job in a school district? That's rhetorical, of course. We all know how she got the job.

  9. Ray Thompson says:

    Former exchange student is here for a visit. We traveled to Pigeon Forge so she could shop and ride a mountain coaster.

    Video is at http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Coaster.avi

    It will download to your computer (it is safe) and you can watch the video offline. The ride is over 9 minutes long with a large part of that being the ascent, which I have edited most of such boring stuff out of the video.

  10. MrAtoz says:

    Well, plugs made it official yesterday, the COVID cooties clot-shot doesn't protect you from getting the WuFlu. He backed off the "you will suffer, die and kill your family" idiotic statement. He insisted you must mask without *any* proof that it is helping because "doctors says so." Which doctors? There are thousands saying masks don't help. I believe he'll say in the coming weeks you need 3 shots to be fully vaccinated. Then 4, 5, 6. Quarterly? Who knows. It's like the CDC is pulling these numbers out of their collective bung holes. I fear Federal mask mandates won't go away until plugs is gone.

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  11. Greg Norton says:

    I miss Radio Shack. There will come a time when if you don’t have it, you can’t get it, for large values of ‘it’.

    Radio Shack is going to return as a crypto currency exchange.

    https://www.cnet.com/personal-finance/crypto/radioshack-is-getting-into-the-crypto-business/

    Radio Shack blew so many opportunities to save themselves going back 40 years.

  12. MrAtoz says:

    Huh:

    US Army Creates Single Vaccine Against All COVID & SARS Variants, Researchers Say

    Will it be available to the public? If it works, wouldn't that be a pisser.

  13. Nick Flandrey says:

    46F and 99%RH this am.  Wife is headed to the office, I'm home with the kids.   I've got plenty to do, so that's fine. 

    We won't be having friends over for Christmas dinner after all.   They will be having their own guests.  Oh well, more roast beef for me.

    In the course of asking them though, it became apparent to my wife that almost everyone we know has a current wuflu diagnosis.   Several of our neighbors, school friends, work friends, all diagnosed and staying home.   They are mostly people who avoided it so far.

    None of them are especially sick.

    And I remind everyone that there has been ONE omicron death in the whole US.

    n

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    FauxXi says cases doubling every 2 days.   Starting from the number of new cases, assuming there is no one with covid, in 22 days the entire US would have it.

    New York is has retaken the dubious honor of leading all states in confirmed Omicron cases, with 192 sequenced as on Tuesday morning. 

    The state has also seen a recent uptick in Covid cases, and recorded 22,258 new cases on Tuesday.

    Wisconsin has suffered a recent surge in Omicron cases, sequencing 187, trailing only New York. On Monday, state health officials issued a public health advisory, warning residents to get vaccinated and boosted before holiday travel later this week

    The New York City area has been a clear Omicron hotspot in recent weeks.

    Last week, the CDC announced that Omicron was causing 13 percent of new Covid cases in New York and New Jersey.

    This week, the CDC reports that 92 percent of new Covid cases in the region are caused by Omicron.

    New York state has reported record Covid cases in recent days, and average daily case counts in NYC more than doubled during the week ending December 17.

    All the hullabaloo over MODELS, because they aren't testing for variants in any large numbers.

    Surprisingly hard to find CURRENT case numbers.  Very easy to find daily number of new, and cumulative numbers. Worldometer say 10.6 million in the US.   Starting from that number, in 14 days every man, woman, and child in the US will have it. 

    So, FauxXi is full of it.    Because the real world doesn't look like that.   And if it does, and having chinkyflu gives you ANY immunity at all, then this whole thing is mostly over in two weeks.

    n

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10332665/Dr-Fauci-says-Omicron-spreads-truly-unprecedented-speed-cases-DOUBLE-two-days.html

  15. lpdbw says:

    re: Radio Shack

    Consider Electronic Parts Outlet in Houston.  They often lack what I want to buy, but they have bin after bin of stuff available.

    re: rollovers due to more trucks?

    I'm pretty sure trucks have been top sellers for a long, long time.  But adding lift kits  has become mainstream.

    My girlfriend t-boned a truck that made an illegal left turn in front of her, and the truck rolled on its side after hitting a curb.  She was driving a rented beetle.

    re: eggnog

    We make our own aged eggnog every year, using Alton Brown's recipe.  It is a much appreciated gift.  People return the empty bottles in hope of getting refills.  Slightly flammable (not really, but it ought to be).

  16. Greg Norton says:

    In the course of asking them though, it became apparent to my wife that almost everyone we know has a current wuflu diagnosis.   Several of our neighbors, school friends, work friends, all diagnosed and staying home.   They are mostly people who avoided it so far.

    We know one hardcore anti-vax household where the father now has Wuflu, but he is in a service business that has multiple daily contacts with some of the dumbest people in Austin so it was probably inevitable.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    Surprisingly hard to find CURRENT case numbers.  Very easy to find daily number of new, and cumulative numbers. Worldometer say 10.6 million in the US.   Starting from that number, in 14 days every man, woman, and child in the US will have it. 

    One of the problems with the testing stats which has never been corrected is that anyone contracting Wuflu, recovering, and needing a negative test result to return to work will be counted as a "new" case if they go in for testing and get a positive.

  18. SteveF says:

    Someone at my wife's church just died, allegedly of the Chinese Bioweapon, allegedly the Omicron variant. Thirty-one years old, no known health issues.

    Allow me to express some doubt about the claims. I have no reason to doubt his age or his death. Everything else I'm going to remain skeptical. "Died of" or "died with", just for a start. What drugs were administered and what drugs were refused?

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  19. drwilliams says:

    “How in the H E Double Hockey Sticks does someone like this get a job in a school district?”

    You want shiites and giggles? Pull the cv for you local school super and his second banana. Get copies of their dissertations. Try to read that carp. That’s the type that gets hired to run the zoo for the benefit of the reacher’s union. So if you want the root of the problem, find out who’s doing the hiring. School board, with every winning candidate endorsed by the union?

  20. lpdbw says:

     it was probably inevitable.

    If Omicron lives up to its Africa-based reputation, I'd say everyone who is not a hermit will be exposed and a very large number will get it.  Without regard to vaxx status or beliefs, since the "vaccine" doesn't seem to actually stop infection.

    In fact, I have a sore throat for a couple days now, and I'm kinda hoping it's Omicron, so I can get this whole thing behind me.  I don't see the need to get tested, since I don't believe in the accuracy of the tests and it won't affect my self-treatment protocol.  TPTB want a lot of positives to justify their ham-fisted control of the population and they'll use PCR testing as long as they're allowed, so they can boost the false-positive count.

    You know, I can imagine a world where we have competent public health officials who actually know science and never lie to us and make reasonable, rational recommendations to us and we have open, honest discussion of all treatment options.

    But I don't live in that world.  I live in a world where hospitals get paid more to put people on ventilators and doctors are severely punished for exploring low-cost alternatives to high-dollar, poorly tested treatments and big tech conspires to censor all viewpoints that don't follow the narrative.

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  21. Alan says:

    >> What ultimately needs to happen is for Congress to develop testicular fortitude and take CAFE out of the hands of the Executive Branch, but that hasn't happened in nearly 50 years so I doubt it will happen in 2023.

    Out of the hands of POTUS and into the hands of the 'pure as the driven snow' Congress-critters?

  22. Alan says:

    >> I believe he'll say in the coming weeks you need 3 shots to be fully vaccinated. Then 4, 5, 6. Quarterly? Who knows. It's like the CDC is pulling these numbers out of their collective bung holes. I fear Federal mask mandates won't go away until plugs is gone.

    Our Israeli friends are rolling out number 4…how long til we're rolling up our sleeves as well?

    https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-offer-fourth-dose-covid-19-vaccine-people-over-60-2021-12-21/

  23. Alan says:

    >> In the course of asking them though, it became apparent to my wife that almost everyone we know has a current wuflu diagnosis.   Several of our neighbors, school friends, work friends, all diagnosed and staying home.   They are mostly people who avoided it so far.

    Any idea how many were vaxxed?

  24. Ray Thompson says:

    Our Israeli friends are rolling out number 4…how long til we're rolling up our sleeves as well?
     

    I expect five or six boosters will be recommended by the administration. Someone is making a lot of money.

  25. ech says:

    Life expectancy fell almost 2 years in 2020: CDC

    It will go back up after COVID is endemic and weaker. The CDC number assumes that the death rate for COVID from the last few years will apply forever. It's more or less a BS number during a pandemic or war. Life expectancy is for people born in the current year and assumes all health and death stats stay the same forever. For example, life expectancy in the US fell from 1942 to 1945. Oh, yeah. There was a war on. It went back up in 1946.

  26. ech says:

    PCR was decertified in … April? … but the tests continue until the end of the year.

    In July, the CDC announce the sunsetting of the CDC test kit for PCR because commercial firms had created kits the FDA certified. So, there was no need for the CDC to continue making their kits. Many news outlets announced this as the end of PCR testing, either because they have reading comprehension problems or they wanted to gin up clicks and fervor.
     

    LOL! Cramer posted a COVID quick test showing him negative two days after saying he was positive.

    Quite possible. The window for a positive antigen test for a vaccinated or naturally immune person (from a prior infection) can be only a few days. The immune system ramps up and kills the infection. This has been confirmed by quantitative tests of infected people.

  27. ech says:

    He insisted you must mask without *any* proof that it is helping because "doctors says so."

    A properly fitted N95 or KN94 mask will reduce the amount of virus you exhale and inhale. Lab testing by aerosol experts have shown this. It's probably cutting the amount you take in by a good percentage, maybe as high as 80%. Cloth masks and surgical masks are not very effective, maybe 10%. They are too porous and most don't fit well to create much of a seal. 

  28. drwilliams says:

    It appears that most of the KN94 masks and a good portion of the N95’s are ineffective fakes. 

    Chinese buyers probably sucked up 90% of the case quantity N95’s sold on eBay in early 2020. Customs should have implemented a “one and done” testing program: test one mask from somewhere not on the top of a container, and impound the whole thing for further testing ( when hell freezes over) upon failure. 

  29. ITGuy1998 says:

    A properly fitted N95 or KN94 mask will reduce the amount of virus you exhale and inhale. Lab testing by aerosol experts have shown this. It's probably cutting the amount you take in by a good percentage, maybe as high as 80%. Cloth masks and surgical masks are not very effective, maybe 10%. They are too porous and most don't fit well to create much of a seal.

    That's at the heart of the problem. Every official telling us to mask up or else we will die. It doesn't matter what the mask is, just mask. We were even told not to buy the most effective masks at the start of the pandemic (even denied the ability to do so). If most masks used by most people are ineffective, then why the continued insistence that they be used? It couldn't be for alternative reasons…

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  30. JimB says:

    A properly fitted N95 or KN94 mask will reduce the amount of virus you exhale and inhale. Lab testing by aerosol experts have shown this. It's probably cutting the amount you take in by a good percentage, maybe as high as 80%. Cloth masks and surgical masks are not very effective, maybe 10%. They are too porous and most don't fit well to create much of a seal.

    And what kind of masks do I see 95% of the public wearing? Riiight! Plus, in my observation, as many of 20% of them wear their masks below their noses.

    My thought is to simply not wear masks. Very little difference in practice. I live by that principle. I have only once been asked to put on a mask, and I cheerfully did, with no argument. I consider it a courtesy to the uninformed. Also, I would not want a business owner to be in any kind of trouble for my disobedience. I should be the one who faces the mask police, but that has not happened… yet.

  31. SteveF says:

    Also, I would not want a business owner to be in any kind of trouble for my disobedience.

    Likewise. Depending on their Karenness and my mood either I'll pull on a one-layer balaclava which does approximately nothing or I'll turn and head for the exit, leaving the grocery cart where it is. (Usually the former. Only once did an employee, a shelf stocker, annoy me enough that I walked out.)

    I know that the governor's orders have no legal weight. The store owner or manager most likely knows it. But the county health departments and the police at all levels are eager to enforce all of the diktats and even an initial court challenge to a fine could cost a month's profits. In practice, everyone goes along with the orders with barely a peep.

    I should be the one who faces the mask police, but that has not happened… yet.

    I'm prepared for an arrest attempt. Nothing yet. We'll see if Kathy the Ho is able to ram through any of the NYS assembly bills authorizing "public health" arrest and internment. (Probably not, is my guess. Kathy the Ho appears to be even less popular among the public than Fredo's Stupider Brother, the legislators don't much care for her, and no one is afraid of her.)

  32. MrAtoz says:

    A properly fitted N95 or KN94 mask will reduce the amount of virus you exhale and inhale. Lab testing by aerosol experts have shown this. It's probably cutting the amount you take in by a good percentage, maybe as high as 80%. Cloth masks and surgical masks are not very effective, maybe 10%. They are too porous and most don't fit well to create much of a seal.

    And what is the majority of masks out there? Cloth and surgical. And I've posted before about improper mask wearing on flights. I believe you were in Vegas a while back. What did you think of the masking in the casino? My experience living there is you might as well not wear a mask. I still think hand washing and not touching your face are way more effective than a mask. There are no standards from the current administration. 

    Also, what lab testing on COVID shows an 80% reduction in virus emitted?

  33. drwilliams says:

    If you have virus in the lungs, you exhale it. Anything that gets caught on the inside of a mask when you exhale it can take flight and return to your lungs when you inhale. 

    And did you notice how diligent the governments have been about mask disposal? Not. Average parking lot has some in every aisle.

    An N95 on a shop floor during and OSHA inspection will result in a fine every time. 

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  34. Greg Norton says:

    You want shiites and giggles? Pull the cv for you local school super and his second banana. Get copies of their dissertations. Try to read that carp. That’s the type that gets hired to run the zoo for the benefit of the reacher’s union. So if you want the root of the problem, find out who’s doing the hiring. School board, with every winning candidate endorsed by the union?

    Be really careful about doxxing the local school board super. The guy in charge of our ISD had his extramarital affair exposed by one anti-mask couple, and he retaliated by having them arrested at home on the charge of disrupting a school board meeting.

    Of course, now, he's further discredited to the point that he will eventually have to be fired or resign in disgrace.

  35. Greg Norton says:

    Chinese buyers probably sucked up 90% of the case quantity N95’s sold on eBay in early 2020. Customs should have implemented a “one and done” testing program: test one mask from somewhere not on the top of a container, and impound the whole thing for further testing ( when hell freezes over) upon failure. 

    You Ain't Got No Ice Cream. It isn't about real need as much as denying it to someone who does need it.

    Thirty years of dealing with my in-laws have made me familiar with the game. It wouldn’t surprise me if they had cases of N95 masks stashed in one of their houses in WA State, maybe in the garage with their “new in box” tube TV stash.

    Of course, ironically, now that one aunt needs a kidney, America is supposed to show its generosity in their hour of need.

  36. Greg Norton says:

    Out of the hands of POTUS and into the hands of the 'pure as the driven snow' Congress-critters?

    CAFE never would have gone to 55 MPG if Congress had to pass the bill.

    Look what happened to the idea of eliminating the filibuster to pack the Supreme Court.

  37. Pecancorner says:

    A properly fitted N95 or KN94 mask will reduce the amount of virus you exhale and inhale. Lab testing by aerosol experts have shown this. It's probably cutting the amount you take in by a good percentage, maybe as high as 80%. Cloth masks and surgical masks are not very effective, maybe 10%. They are too porous and most don't fit well to create much of a seal.

    The problem with this is that their lab testing is Challenge Testing, not real world. It makes things look far worse than they really are, because they use  extreme speed, forced-air, vacuum, and proximity in conducting those tests, none of which are comparable to the average real-world scenario that all of us out here shopping in Walmart are likely to face.  

    Good testing to assure absolute protection in hospital or industrial settings, but it is misleading to claim or imply that lesser masks "always" or even "often" fail to provide a hefty measure of protection in everyday life.

      An example of how challenge testing grossly overstates so-called "failures" of simple methods is found in the surprise results of verifying sterility of many-years-old autoclaved cloth-wrapped bundles.  When stored dry, under real-world conditions, most autoclaved cloth-wrapped bundles maintain their sterility indefinitely. But in the standard challenge testing, fabric bundles don't survive vacuums and forced-air testing for longer than a few months.

    When it comes to masks, as with everything else, we are learning that one's OWN common sense assessment of one's OWN needs is the most reliable guide to follow.

    My thought is to simply not wear masks. Very little difference in practice. I live by that principle. I have only once been asked to put on a mask, and I cheerfully did, with no argument. I consider it a courtesy to the uninformed. Also, I would not want a business owner to be in any kind of trouble for my disobedience. I should be the one who faces the mask police, but that has not happened… yet.

    For what it's worth, I agree with JimB, and I no longer wear a mask in most locations/situations, but I have resumed wearing gloves everywhere. I've begun to believe in my own mind that this is more likely transmitted through touch than through normal breathing/exhalation, that it lives longer on surfaces than they think, that hand sanitizer is not sufficient to kill these germs, and that gloves offer far better protection against not only COVID, but nearly all germs out there.

    So I bought some of those cheap food-service gloves and throw them away as I exit each store. Even better than the nitrile gloves I was wearing, because these can be carefully removed with the other gloved hand if I need to reach into my purse and then safely put back on. I still use hand sanitizer after putting away the shopping cart or leaving the store, but I trust the gloves more.

  38. SteveF says:

    I've begun to believe in my own mind that…

    That's about half a breath from "my truth".

  39. lynn says:

    Trump will roll them back come January 2025.

    I get it, but…geez, Trump will be 79 by then! Someone needs to hit the Republican party upside the head with a 2×4. There have got to be some decent, qualified, charismatic candidates who aren't half fossilized.

    An age limit. And term limits.

    Ron Desantis would be acceptable to me.

    The President (and VP) is the only person in the federal government with an age limit, he or she must be 35 and a natural citizen.  Elon Musk is not able to be President since he was born in South Africa of non-USA citizens. 

    Wait, Senators have an age limit, they must be 30 years of age.

    And the President is limited to two terms plus 1/2 term – 1 day.

  40. lynn says:

    D1 complained about the eggnog I brought home.

    I get that a lot, too. "These breakfast sausages don't taste the same as the ones from last week. Waah!" I think it's because life is too easy for The Child: the house is full of food, she's never had to worry about the utilities being cut off, etc.

    My parents lost a house in 1970 in Oklahoma due to inability to pay the mortgage which the builder was holding.  My dad went by the builder's house when we moved out and dropped off the keys.  We moved to Texas and into my grandparents house.  Made a lifelong impression on me.

  41. Greg Norton says:

    We saw the "Spiderman" movie today as part of my son's birthday present.

    I'm not a huge fan, but I recognized that the movie gave the fans *exactly* what they wanted.

    Imagine.

    It is a better Marvel movie than anything Disney has made lately.

    Sadly, no Cobie Smulders — the reason I watch Marvel. And would it have killed them to slip in a Nicholas Hammond (TV "Spiderman") cameo?

    Quentin Tarantino remembered Nicholas Hammond in his last flick.

  42. lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: Life

        https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/12/22

    Groan.  That was a cheap shot.

  43. Greg Norton says:

    Ron Desantis would be acceptable to me.

    DeSantis' wife has cancer and he's ruled out a 2024 run for now.

    Plus, DeSantis really needs a clean reelection win next year, putting Charlie Crist into his political grave.

    Every newsroom in Florida *hates* DeSantis, including The Tampa Bay Times, which does not answer to traditional shareholders, and WPLG-10 in Miami, owned by … Berkshire Hathaway!

    If the Dems wise up and yank Crist in favor of Gwen Graham, reelection is not guaranteed.

  44. lynn says:

    "Russian State TV Says the US Will Be “Reduced to Radioactive Ash” If the US Doesn’t Meet Russia’s Demands Regarding Ukraine"

        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/russian-state-tv-says-us-will-reduced-radioactive-ash-us-doesnt-meet-russias-demands-regarding-ukraine/

    State threats via news media ?  I thought only the USA played that game.

  45. lynn says:

    "Menace of the Mutant Master (Perry Rhodan No. 18)" by Kurt Mahr, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
    https://www.amazon.com/Menace-Mutant-Master-Perry-Rhodan/dp/3441659880/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    Book number eighteen of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1972 that I had to be very careful with due to age. My copy is a second edition from 1974. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #101, plus the Atlan books.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan

    BTW, this is actually book number 24 of the German Pamphlets. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
    https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Der_Overhead

    In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500.

    There has been an explosion at the Arkonide reactor plant in Terrania and ten people were killed. Somebody managed to steal three of the new thirty meter destroyers that The Third Power just finished building. Looks like a new player is attacking and they are a mutant with mutants enslaved to them

    One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1972. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.

    Two observations:
    1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
    2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome "Mutineer's Moon" Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
    https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />

    My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars (1 reviews)

  46. lynn says:

    "Tesla Owner Blows Up Car After Discovering Cost To Fix Battery"

         https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/tesla-owner-blows-car-after-discovering-cost-fix-battery

    Well, that seems a little extreme.

  47. lynn says:

    "Starlink's Speeds Are Declining in US, Ookla Finds"

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlinks-speeds-are-declining-in-us-ookla-finds

    "While Starlink is still faster than any other US satellite internet provider, the effect of more users is starting to show."

    "According to Ookla, Starlink median download speeds in the US declined from 97.23Mbps to 87.25Mbps between Q2 and Q3 2021, although they were still far faster than satellite competitors Hughesnet and Viasat, which are stuck in the 20Mbps range."

    "As Ookla notes, modest declines in speed should be expected as a service ramps up its users. Starlink continues to launch more satellites to increase capacity, with the most recent launch of 52 satellites coming on Dec. 18. The publication Inverse estimates that the company will launch at least 36 sets of new satellites in 2022, increasing capacity."

    That is not much drop in speed.  And that is a lot of satellites being planned to be launched in 2022 (1,872 planned !).

  48. EdH says:

    D1 complained about the eggnog I brought home. WHY OH WHY did you get THIS brand???
    !!!111! It’s not as good as the last one.!!!121!!1!
     

    –Global pandemic. Supply chain issues.

    Funny, I actually saw a door labeled “Supply Chain” in Kaiser today (so that’s where it’s kept, always thought it was a concept or figure of speech).

    Heh.  Pouring into a shot of rum last night….and it was lumpy.  Carton I opened two weeks ago I realized. Dang. 

  49. Greg Norton says:

    Well, that seems a little extreme.

    YouTube money was involved. 2.2 million views in five days.

    Wait until the first disillusioned F150 EV owner gets hit with a bill for a replacement battery pack.

    1000 lbs of battery blowed up real good.

    Of course redneck practicality could kick in, but a bunch of toxic waste will be silently dumped somewhere.

  50. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    "And the President is limited to two terms plus 1/2 term – 1 day."

    So, Trump is ok for two more terms after he gets credit for the 3+ years of absolute total effing bullcarp conspiracy between the Democrat Party and the media.

    This time, though, it's going to be no prisoners. Day one is going to see thousands in fedgov get shiitecanned. McConnel and the Senate get a brand-new rubber-stamp for appointee approval, and real pipe-hitters take over at DoD, DoJ, and FBI to start.

    Day Two, letters go out to a few hundred retired military suspending their retirement checks until they come in "for a little talk" about violations of their oaths. That's the ones–like the general troika this week–that aren't simply prosecuted.

    Day Three, the new guy at the NSA freezes every account in the building and has a little heart-to-heart with the staff, explaining, as they all sign their retirement requests for the file, that it doesn't matter a flying biffy how good the goods they gots on Putin and the rest of the international clowns when their agents (Clintons, Comey, AOC. Omar) are running amok in the CONUS. So first things first, every text, every email, every conversation by Steele for the last ten years, plus everything that might have been a coded message including strange tracks on what passes for toilet paper in the UK, sifted to ID every step of the conspiracy against Trump, and followed in every direction to it's origin and we do not care if that includes U.S. law firms having privileged conversations, frat boys under double-secret probation, or the sanctity of the confessional if that is where it leads.

    Day 4, the new guy at FBI, having fired every agent with commie background, right down to eating red M&M's or drinking the wrong energy drink, sets the rest of them to interviewing every congresscritter and/or family member that has made a pile on stock trading, reminding them of the Martha Stewart precedent, wherein you can get sent to jail for lying about something that isn't even illegal.

    …you get the picture.

    At least that's the picture that has the Democrat Party waking up screaming wrapped in sweaty sheets.

    And that's the reason Trump stays in the running.

    7
    2
  51. drwilliams says:

    But seriously…

    Two reports from the IEA worth reading, if only the graphs:
     

    The Future of Petrochemicals, 2018

    Key World Energy Statistics 2020

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/12/22/total-energy-used-and-petrochemicals/

    Simple figures showing that pols touting a 100% green energy future are idiots.

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    Starlink is probably just a cover for the real customer, US DoD.  If it makes money that's a bonus.

    I've talked about it before.  The US DoD wants new satellites, specifically an internet in space, with mesh networking, optical 'free space' links, etc. and they don't want to build it.  They want to rent it.

    https://www.militaryaerospace.com/home/article/14214826/eyes-in-the-sky-todays-military-satcom

    Previous articles have been coy.  This one isn't.    It's also not well written, and long, but if you have any interest in the subjects covered, it's worth the read.

    Overall, the Pentagon is signaling a desire to shift to a lot of small satellites instead of larger and more expensive ones. The SDA, part of the Pentagon’s Office of the Secretary of Defense, is working with L3Harris and Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) in Hawthorne, Calif., on this. The latter of which will use their Starlink design, created to provide better broadband internet access for commercial and military customers, as a jumping-off point.

    n

  53. drwilliams says:

    Sometimes Coulter nails it dead center:

    https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2021/12/22/the-daunte-wright-nyt-readers-dont-know-n2600991

    In a just world Officer Potter would have gotten a medal for protecting the life of a fellow officer. It's considered inappropriate to point out that the world is a better place without this particular stain on the family tree of humanity, but truth.

    His daddy misses him every day. Probably didn't go showing Daunte the rent money.

    (I did like the "hand sanitizer will block fingerprints." I'm going to be spreading that every chance I get.)

  54. Alan says:

    >> A properly fitted N95 or KN94 mask will reduce the amount of virus you exhale and inhale. Lab testing by aerosol experts have shown this. It's probably cutting the amount you take in by a good percentage, maybe as high as 80%.

    >> It appears that most of the KN94 masks and a good portion of the N95’s are ineffective fakes.

    The wife, who has some asthma, was constantly (pre-Covid) buying the multi-packs of the 3M N95 masks, then using one and the rest of the box winding up on the shelf. Stacking and she didn't even know it. Served us well. 

    Our county just reimposed an indoor mask mandate, however they dropped all the enforcement language. Probably not much will change. 

    ​​​​

  55. Nick Flandrey says:

    Got home from my pickup and played Settlers of Catan with the kids.  Went really long.

    n

  56. lynn says:

    "40 Genius People Who Found A Way To Protect Their Christmas Trees From Asshole Cats And Dogs"

       https://www.boredpanda.com/protecting-christmas-tree-from-dogs-cats-pets/

    "What would Christmas be without the beloved and highly ornate Evergreen tree? Without it, where would Santa leave his presents? Keeping your Christmas decorations safe and sound until the gifts come is an easy task if you live in a pet-less household, but if you're an owner to an evil cat named Mr. Mittens or a funny dog named Scruffy, it might become a mission impossible. "

  57. lynn says:

    Life expectancy fell almost 2 years in 2020: CDC

    It will go back up after COVID is endemic and weaker. The CDC number assumes that the death rate for COVID from the last few years will apply forever. It's more or less a BS number during a pandemic or war. Life expectancy is for people born in the current year and assumes all health and death stats stay the same forever. For example, life expectancy in the US fell from 1942 to 1945. Oh, yeah. There was a war on. It went back up in 1946.

    Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.

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