Mon. Jun. 13, 2022 – huh, Friday the 13th falls on a Monday this month

By on June 13th, 2022 in gardening, lakehouse, personal, Random Stuff

Hot, more hot, and a side of humid…

Starting at the BOL this morning.  Then home later.

Did a bunch of work yesterday.  Mostly cosmetic, but a couple of logistical things too.  See yesterday’s late comments for details.

And then I saw a beaver.  Still pumped about that.

I need to head over to the electric co-op, then get started home.   Normal crazy Monday too, with an ‘away’ swim meet on top of everything else.

Practice a little extra awareness today.  Things are getting weird.

And stack some food.

n

91 Comments and discussion on "Mon. Jun. 13, 2022 – huh, Friday the 13th falls on a Monday this month"

  1. Ray Thompson says:

    And then I saw a beaver.  Still pumped about that.

    Sounds like something I would say during my teenage years.

    Bit seriously folks, we had a beaver issue in Oregon. They would build a dam across our irrigation creek causing water flow issues. We would destroy the dam, which was no easy task, hoping the beavers would move downstream. Eventually it worked after a couple of years.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Bit seriously folks, we had a beaver issue in Oregon. They would build a dam across our irrigation creek causing water flow issues. We would destroy the dam, which was no easy task, hoping the beavers would move downstream. Eventually it worked after a couple of years.

    Pesky beavers. (Say it with a bad French accent)

    I wonder how badly my former corporate masters censored that Bugs Bunny cartoon short. Does Whoopi introduce it with an apology on HBO Max?

  3. drwilliams says:

    it seriously folks, we had a beaver issue in Oregon. They would build a dam across our irrigation creek causing water flow issues. We would destroy the dam, which was no easy task, hoping the beavers would move downstream. Eventually it worked after a couple of years.

    Spent one year battling them. Good natural engineers, but dams in the wrong place are destructive.

  4. Pecancorner says:

    I’ve never seen a beaver in the wild, but used to see gnawed tree trunks and limbs up at Lake Texoma.   It’s so cool that it swam right past you!  

  5. drwilliams says:

    Opinion: The surprising reason for Joe Biden’s low approval rating

    Opinion by David Masciotra

    https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/11/opinions/biden-approval-ratings-left-wing-fanfiction-masciotra/index.html

    I found this fascinating. 

    The contention that Biden’s approval rating is in the toilet due to losses on the Democrat side is trivially obvious, as there was never any support for a feeble serial fabulist, multiple plagiarist, liar and thief on the Republican side. From there it’s off the rails and into the bog.

    The left likes to talk about a conservative echo chamber, but they have their own full-on psychosis. A quick search shows that these terms appear:

    inflation: zero times

    energy: zero

    gasoline: zero

    Black: zero

    Hispanic: zero

    dementia: zero

    crime: one

    Whereas they form the focus of every recent poll that shows Brandon’s slide into sub-Carter ignominy. 

    Guess which term does appear frequently?

    Trump: 10

    Gasoline was down 15 cents over the weekend. I hope that’s a minor blip on the way to $8. 

  6. drwilliams says:

    Mexican authorities assist foreign invasion force in getting to U.S. border

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/06/13/mexico-dissolves-migrant-caravan-with-travel-documents-n475743

    I changed the headline to make it more accurate.

    Most countries have this thing called an army that is specifically tasked with defending their borders.

    The Democrat approach will be prominently featured in the news despite the best efforts of the media to bury it. I’m sure it will win back some votes for Brandon. Good photo op for Nancy, too–just take a cooler of those $5 frozen gelatos and greet the future Democrat voters.

  7. EdH says:

    Huh. 

    The 800SF 1Br1Bth aound the corner apparently sold for $300k…I don’t think it was on the market for a week.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    The contention that Biden’s approval rating is in the toilet due to losses on the Democrat side is trivially obvious, as there was never any support for a feeble serial fabulist, multiple plagiarist, liar and thief on the Republican side. From there it’s off the rails and into the bog.

    Biden was the key case study for the Plagiarism lecture in my Business Comm class in college 34 years ago. A few guys living in my dorm worked for the Dukakis campaign in 1988, and that’s where I learned about the nickname “Plugs” and “Dr.” Jill Biden’s divorce history.

    The Dukakis campaign’s dirty tricks crew was believed responsible for the plagiarism stories appearing about a year before the primaries. Ironically, Biden was aiming to be the youngest President in history running in 1988.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    Sunny and breezy this am.   84F and 80%RH at the moment.

    Wind is from an unusual direction.   

    Coffee is in order.

    n

  10. SteveF says:

    Mexican authorities assist foreign invasion force in getting to U.S. border

    The Democrat approach

    And then one day, for no reason at all, vigilantes began killing anyone with a Spanish name.

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    “youngest president”

    –shows that success in some fields is mostly just showing up and outlasting everyone else.

    n

  12. Clayton W. says:

    –shows that success in some fields is mostly just showing up and outlasting everyone else.

    I think it shows more how deeply unpopular President Trump was.  While we wasn’t as bad as I was afraid he would be, we was not a good president.

  13. ITGuy1998 says:

    I think it shows more how deeply unpopular President Trump was.  While we wasn’t as bad as I was afraid he would be, we was not a good president.

    Agreed. I have yet to vote for someone for president. Since my first election (88), I’ve always voted against someone, or choosing the lesser of the two evils.

  14. Jenny says:

    @nick

    Re: Beavers

    Seriously cool critters. They populate several of the lakes in Anchorage. We make an annual pilgrimage to mile 42 of the Denali Highway. The Denali Highway is not the national park. It’s 120 miles of gravel road between Paxson and Cantwell. We enjoy walking a particular trail because a beaver dam and lodge abut the trail. We‘ve watched the beaver there for years. 
     

    I don’t know if beaver behavior around dogs and humans varies by region. In Anchorage the wise dog owner keeps their distance from the creatures. Our beavers are fiercely territorial and will take on a full grown retriever with no apparent qualms. The dog loses. They’ve chased humans too close to their water as well. 
    We keep a healthy distance usually. Or at least have a “run away!!!!!” exit plan. 
     

    @Clayton W

    how deeply unpopular

    More a case of 2016’s “voting against Hillary vs voting for Trump”, so in 2020 we got “voting against Trump vs voting for Biden”?

    I interact with a wide spectrum of folks. I know a few who chose Biden vs rejecting Trump. I know more who wanted Trump for a second go around. That doesn’t mean much. 
     

    After seeing amateur shenanigans in my local politics I wonder at vote counting honesty. A couple of examples up here : blank ballots delivered and stored with ballots waiting to be counted, delivered to the facility after watchers were told “go home, done for night”; Dominion employee connecting a flash drive to systems mid-count; systems described as isolated with network cables and active network jacks a few feet away;  fire alarms activating during the count shortly after candidate visited with a gift fir the elections clerk. 

    Our elections clerk became agitated and unprofessional numerous times at observers who were following the rules because they were recording and asking questions of processes that seemed odd. The Assembly passed numerous procedural changes (no binoculars, phones / recording devices / severely limited observers / observers selected and trained by clerk staff months prior to counting them few training opportunities offered) that gutted the conservatives ability to observe. Conservatives lost big time in the subsequent election. Hmmm.

    If these oddities are occurring in my podunk town surely they occur elsewhere. None of these are proof of cheating but each diminished confidence that the count was accurate. 

    I don’t find it at all implausible that cheating cheaters and lying liars changed the results of the 2020 election. 

    So – did people vote against Trump vs for Biden? Sure. Mean tweets, clutch your pearls and wring  hands. Is Trump a crass jerk with too high an opinion of himself? You bet. Was he a bad president? Compared to whom? 

    I don’t recall the last time we had a ‘good’ one. It has been lesser of two evils and trying to figure out who will least infringe on my constitutional rights as long as I’ve been voting.

    I yearn for candidates who deeply love our constitution and will uphold its principles.

  15. Jenny says:

    @ITGuy1998

    always voted against someone
     

    I take back part of my post. I voted -FOR- Ron Paul, I voted -FOR- our Mayor Bronson.

    So twice in 34 years I’ve voted -FOR- someone. Yikes.

  16. Clayton W. says:

    Reagan?  Maybe?

    Since then it has certainly been a choice of the evil of two lessers.

  17. RickH says:

    Since then it has certainly been a choice of the evil of two lessers.

    (Did you mean “lesser of two evils”?)

    And sometimes the ‘lesser’ isn’t. 

  18. Greg Norton says:

    I take back part of my post. I voted -FOR- Ron Paul, I voted -FOR- our Mayor Bronson.

    So twice in 34 years I’ve voted -FOR- someone. Yikes.

    I voted for Jeb! twice. He was an effective Governor.

    To be fair, I also voted for Bob Graham when he moved from the FL Governor’s mansion to the Senate and subsequently ran for reelection. I think the FL Dems biggest mistake of the many they’ve made in the last 30 years was throwing the Graham family under the bus in 2018 in favor of running the meth addict for Governor.

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  19. Clayton W. says:

    No, I meant the evil of 2 lessers.  That is all we have had since at least President Reagan.  Maybe since Washington.  

    Not having a GOOD candidate is evil.

  20. Clayton W. says:

    I voted for Jeb!  Graham wasn’t a bad Governor.  Andrew Gillum was terrifying and DeSantis turned out FAR better than I ever hoped.

    If DeSantis runs for President, perhaps I will be able to vote for a candidate.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    I voted for Jeb!  Graham wasn’t a bad Governor.  Andrew Gillum was terrifying and DeSantis turned out FAR better than I ever hoped.

    If DeSantis runs for President, perhaps I will be able to vote for a candidate.

    Andrew Gillum’s extracurricular activities were well known to the FL Dems. That’s the truly sick part about nominating him for the race to succeed Rick Scott.

    I couldn’t vote FOR Rick Scott since I almost went to work for him in his previous career as tech/healthcare  exec and wannabe Bond villain, but I did believe he was better qualified to beat Alex Sink that November, the real Evil in that race, so I selected Scotts name on the primary ballot in addition to doing my part towards putting Charlie Crist’s RINO head in Little Marco’s trophy case.

  22. drwilliams says:

    Part 1..

    Simple.

    It does not matter who runs for president in 2024. What matters is that no Republican president can govern without the backing of his party, and he can’t get the backing of his party unless the 10-20% who are soy-eating-surrender-monkeys (i.e. not Republicans) willing to collaborate with the Democrats at every turn are turned out.

    Easy to id the ones in the Senate, just look at the ones willing to eat from the Democrat catbox and vote for unconstitutional restrictions on the Second Amendment: Cornyn, Tillis, Blunt, Burr, Cassidy, Collins, Graham, Portman, Romney, Toomey. Unfortunately, they’re not all up in 2022.

    The list is longer in the House, but the two most prominent are Cheney and the Chinese spy flocker. It’s instructive that Cheney in particular, who is willing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with walking slime molds and lie about President Trump’s words, is not only still walking around, but her residence is not besieged by protesters 24/7/365.

    The majority party in the House and Senate in 2023 matters not one whit as long as Biden–as well as Jill and the twenty or so others that can do a reasonable facsimile of his signature on a veto–is still in office. What matters is who wins the GOP primaries.

    If the RINO’s are still in in 2023, then it will tell me that no lessons have been learned. Then I start the serious planning for Project Monkeewrench.

    To “not vote” or “vote against” is not sufficient. Keeping the country on track to learn from bigger and more frightening mistakes is the only solution. 

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    1
  23. MrAtoz says:

    It does not matter who runs for president in 2024. What matters is that no Republican president can govern without the backing of his party, and he can’t get the backing of his party unless the 10-20% who are soy-eating-surrender-monkeys (i.e. not Republicans) willing to collaborate with the Democrats at every turn are turned out.

    This in spades. The Redumblican Party is in shambles. Spineless, eats Dumbocrat poop, won’t vote together, etc. I dropped out when Mittens was put up against Obola. Stretch and Chucky Schemer laugh in the Redumblican faces over and over again.

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  24. lynn says:

    And then I saw a beaver.  Still pumped about that.

    Probably a nutria.  They are all over south Texas.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutria

  25. SteveF says:

    And they were apoplectic when Manchin broke ranks and wouldn’t vote as directed. It happens so rarely with the Democrat phalanx that the leaders didn’t know how to handle it.

  26. Alan says:

    >> If DeSantis runs for President, perhaps I will be able to vote for a candidate. 

    Sometimes I find his arrogance to be a bit much. It’s a big leap from legal protests to insurrection. 

    https://floridapolitics.com/archives/531891-desantis-insurrection/

  27. lynn says:

    I think it shows more how deeply unpopular President Trump was.  While we wasn’t as bad as I was afraid he would be, we was not a good president.

    President Trump was an amazing success on my scale.  All I wanted from him was a conservative SCOTUS justice.  I got three of them.  I rate that 300% success !!!!!!

    I cannot imagine how Hillary would have been as president. As bad as Biden is, I think that Hillary could have been worse.

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  28. ITGuy1998 says:

    It’s been 5 months since we lost my son’s yellow lab. We were going to get another lab puppy, but the breeding of his niece didn’t take, so it will be late in the year before it can be tried again. I’ve always wanted a Golden Retriever, so I’ve been looking for a couple of months. Tonight, I’m going to look a breeder that has 4 that are 7 weeks old. If I like what I see, I’ll be bringing one home. I also hope this will help our other lab. We got him when the yellow was a year old, and he’s been a little lost since he became an only dog. We shall see…

  29. Alan says:

    >> Easy to id the ones in the Senate, just look at the ones willing to eat from the Democrat catbox and vote for unconstitutional restrictions on the Second Amendment: Cornyn, Tillis, Blunt, Burr, Cassidy, Collins, Graham, Portman, Romney, Toomey. Unfortunately, they’re not all up in 2022.

    Seems from what’s been put out as the framework (more to be seen once we have the actual text of the legislation) the Repubs come out ahead here. Not that I agree with any changes to the 2nd Amendment but what’s been proposed so far is very minimal (I know, insert ‘slippery slope’ argument here) and allows the Repubs to claim a victory and later hold out the Dems as weak for settling for so little. And this should be old news once SCOTUS rules on NYS Rifle & Pistol Assn vs Bruen.

  30. lynn says:

    Agreed. I have yet to vote for someone for president. Since my first election (88), I’ve always voted against someone, or choosing the lesser of the two evils.

    For my first vote in a Presidential election in 1980 (I was 20), I voted for Ronald Reagan.  He was an amazing breath of fresh air and competence after Jimmy Carter.  Ronald Reagan said that the USA was best country on the planet and he was right.

    Jimmy Carter was horrible for the USA and horrible for our friends.  The Shah of Iran developed a bad case of prostate cancer in 1977 or 1978.  He came to the Houston Medical Center and they removed most of his organs in a six month nightmare at St. Lukes, the same operation that my grandfather had in 1976.   Jimmy Carter came to Houston and talked the Shah into letting Khomeine come back to Iran from Paris ?  Things went downhill in a hurry in Iran after that.

    The Shah had been our steadfast friend in the Middle East.  During the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973, he turned the pumps to overspeed and sent the USA and Europe five million barrels of oil per day, declaring that the USA had been very good for Iran. That oil kept us going.  In turn, Jimmy Carter led the coup that deposed the Shah.

    One of my study mates in Mechanical Engineering at TAMU was a nephew of the Shah and incredibly smart, straight As until he disappeared in 1980.  He showed me a letter in Farsi one day and said that the Iranian revolutionary government were cutting off his funding and inviting him to come home.  He knew that they were going to kill him if he returned home. He disappeared shortly after that, I have no idea what happened to him. Reagan did give all the Iranian nationals in the USA a permanent visa so I suspect he stayed here.

  31. Alan says:

    >> I cannot imagine how Hillary would have been as president. As bad as Biden is, I think that Hillary could have been worse.

    Just think of it this way, would you prefer “Dr.” Jill as First Spouse or Mr. Bill? 

    https://youtu.be/8WO6_IiZ_WI

  32. paul says:

    I did an experiment today.  I connected a phone charging cable to the radio’s USB port.  Opened a window a bit and left the cable hanging out.  Locked the truck, fed the bird, petted some cats, went back to the truck, connected the phone and it said it was charging.  Maybe 10 minutes.  I didn’t time it.  But longer than it takes the trucks computer to turn off dome and head lights.  Then I waited a couple of hours. 

    I don’t know how long the port stays powered.  Two hours seems enough time to see if it turned off. 

    The CD drive starts playing at the same spot as when the ignition was turned off.  Takes 3 or 4 seconds to spin up.  How much of that is from parking the laser, I don’t know.  The radio has the memory.  I figure the USB stick will be faster because it will get power when I use the remote to unlock the door(s). 

    Then again, if I left the phone charging, would the port turn off?  More experiment to happen comrades!

    Tomorrow.   Too darn hot and the phone is charged anyway.  

  33. Alan says:

    >> The first season of Bosch on Amazon was amazing.

    @lynn, have you seen any of the ‘prior’ seasons of Bosch?

  34. lynn says:

    I came into the office today and one of the LED bulbs in my 50+ can lights was blinking rapidly.  I doubt that I got five years at 70+ hours per week from the 100 watt equivalent bulb.  And this is the third or fourth LED bulb to fail.

  35. lynn says:

    >> The first season of Bosch on Amazon was amazing.

    @lynn, have you seen any of the ‘prior’ seasons of Bosch?

    I thought that this is the first season of Bosch (2014) and that there are about 6 or 7 more seasons ?  I never bothered to watch it before as the books were too gory for me.

        https://www.amazon.com/Chapter-One-Tis-the-Season/dp/B089XPDDMW?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Freevee is starting a new “Bosch: Legacy” series also.

       https://www.amazon.com/Chain-of-Authenticity/dp/B09PQGX65Y?tag=ttgnet-20/

  36. paul says:

    I bought a couple of cans of Libbey’s canned Sausage Gravy just to try it.  Yeah, I know…. 

    Actually tasty.  The “sausage” had the expected texture of Banquet Salisbury Steak TV dinners. 

    So dump a can into a pot, a bit more than half a can of water, add about 16 frozen Homestyle Meatballs from HEB and then a big handful of egg noodles.  Heat it long enough to cook the pasta.

    Needed black pepper.  Needed salt which was a surprise.

    I have two dogs.  They like ALL of my cooking.  

  37. Nick Flandrey says:

    @lynn, the LEDs may be rated for 50k hours but the switching power supplies certainly aren’t.  

    That blinking is probably  a failed capacitor in the power circut. 

    Spent way too long here today and now I’m really late getting out.   Got stuff done though.

    Shower and hit the road time.

    n

  38. paul says:

    I came into the office today and one of the LED bulbs in my 50+ can lights was blinking rapidly.  

    What brand?  I have Whatever Brand from Lowes in the hall bath and two of six have failed.  The rest of my LED bulbs are Phillips.   No real reason other than I bought a couple and Phillip’s version of Warm White is what I like. 

    Most are in track lights and on dimmers.  The recessed lights, well, once adjusted I taped over the various gaps with aluminum tape.  For silly things like air drafts and scorpions falling from the attic. 

    No failures yet. 

    I’m sure I don’t run the lights as much as you do.  Five years at 70+ hours per week seems pretty decent to me compared to incandescent floods. 

  39. lynn says:

    @lynn, the LEDs may be rated for 50k hours but the switching power supplies certainly aren’t.  

    That blinking is probably  a failed capacitor in the power circut. 

    The bases on these LED light bulbs are all discolored so I suspect that the can lights are causing them to overheat.  I suspect that the light bulb was designed for bulb up, not bulb down.

  40. Alan says:

    >> I thought that this is the first season of Bosch (2014) and that there are about 6 or 7 more seasons ?  I never bothered to watch it before as the books were too gory for me.

    Freevee is starting a new “Bosch: Legacy” series also.

    @lynn, okay, thought you meant the first season of “Bosch:Legacy” since that came out recently. (Available also on Prime as Amazon owns FreeVee – but still with the (limited) FreeVee commercials.)

    There are seven seasons of the original Bosch and supposed to be two of Bosch:Legacy. I don’t recall all that much gore in any of the seasons. I’d definitely recommend continuing on.

  41. lynn says:

    What brand?  I have Whatever Brand from Lowes in the hall bath and two of six have failed.  The rest of my LED bulbs are Phillips.   No real reason other than I bought a couple and Phillip’s version of Warm White is what I like. 

    Most are in track lights and on dimmers.  The recessed lights, well, once adjusted I taped over the various gaps with aluminum tape.  For silly things like air drafts and scorpions falling from the attic. 

    No failures yet. 

    I’m sure I don’t run the lights as much as you do.  Five years at 70+ hours per week seems pretty decent to me compared to incandescent floods. 

    Mostly GE. 

        https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017WY4IWM?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Yeah, I used to get 2 to 3 years out of the CFLs.  I swapped the building to CFLs when I bought it in 2011.  Saved me $100 to $200/month on electric bills.  With incandescents, first you heat the building then you run the a/c to remove the heat so it is a double whammy.

  42. Alan says:

    >> Five years at 70+ hours per week

    You’re working too many hours is the problem.

  43. paul says:

    The bases on these LED light bulbs are all discolored so I suspect that the can lights are causing them to overheat.  

    Recessed lights?  Perhaps they can be adjusted to put the lamp out towards the ceiling.  Uh.  Fixture was adjusted for a 150 watt incandescent  bulb….  

    Dirty sockets?  Perhaps a smear of some kind of grease.  Like a heat sink paste. 

  44. paul says:

    With incandescents, first you heat the building then you run the a/c

    Truth!!!!  When i switched from 75w floods to LEDs I spent a few weeks the first Winter freezing my butt off on the sofa.

    Oh.   Yeah.  Duh.  I’m not under a heat lamp anymore.

  45. paul says:

    You’re working too many hours is the problem.

    Gets him out of the house.  Maybe?  

  46. Greg Norton says:

    I came into the office today and one of the LED bulbs in my 50+ can lights was blinking rapidly.  I doubt that I got five years at 70+ hours per week from the 100 watt equivalent bulb.  And this is the third or fourth LED bulb to fail.

    I have 25 W equivalents in the sconces I got rewired this Winter, and they are already flickering, probably due to bad power supplies according to research.

    The 40 W equivalents I have in another fixture have been flawless for over two years.

    The lights run all night, and I would burn through a six pack of incandescent bulbs every six months for two fixture of two bulbs each.

  47. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    One of my study mates in Mechanical Engineering at TAMU was a nephew of the Shah and incredibly smart, straight As until he disappeared in 1980.  He showed me a letter in Farsi one day and said that the Iranian revolutionary government were cutting off his funding and inviting him to come home.  He knew that they were going to kill him if he returned home. He disappeared shortly after that, I have no idea what happened to him. Reagan did give all the Iranian nationals in the USA a permanent visa so I suspect he stayed here.

    In the early 1970’s the Iranians on campus used to protest about the Shah’s secret police spying on them. It may have been true or not, but it seemed like they were all speaking their minds and had no consequences that I could see. A few years later the Shah fell and they all rejoiced, then I heard the “come home” the letters went out, but I was not close to anyone still on campus at the time. I hope none were silly enough to go home, because in the Eyetwalla’s view they were all tainted, excepting only the ones that he sent to the U.S. to do his spying.

    I did have a friend who was an ME from Lebanon. He talked lovingly of his beautiful country but became more and more withdrawn as the Syrians destroyed it with their PLO proxy war on Israel. His father was still alive at the time, and I helped him find a small used Mercury outboard that we carefully crated and shipped home. We both changed jobs and I lost track of him, but I suspect he never went back. He kept it very quiet, but he was married to an American woman and should have been able to stay legally.

  48. lynn says:

    >> Five years at 70+ hours per week

    You’re working too many hours is the problem.

    A building is a resource and we use ours.  Two of my guys come in at 7am. Others drift in and out throughout the day.  I come in at noon or 2 pm, leave at 7pm for a walk in the death rays of the sun with the wife, come back at 8pm and work until 10pm or midnight.

    The older I get, the weirder I get.

  49. lynn says:

    In the early 1970’s the Iranians on campus used to protest about the Shah’s secret police spying on them. It may have been true or not, but it seemed like they were all speaking their minds and had no consequences that I could see. A few years later the Shah fell and they all rejoiced, then I heard the “come home” the letters went out, but I was not close to anyone still on campus at the time. I hope none were silly enough to go home, because in the Eyetwalla’s view they were all tainted, excepting only the ones that he sent to the U.S. to do his spying.

    The students that did come home and made the proper obeisance to the revolution become the new professors in the Iranian universities.  Somebody shot all the professors in the universities before the students came home.  One of the new professors actually wrote a paper in Oil and Gas Journal and added my name to the paper since we corresponded via email.  I had to explain that to the CIA.  Then the prof expanded his paper into a really good book on crude oil modeling that I have added to my software.

  50. EdH says:

    From ZeroHedge:

    Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, shows power demand hit 74.9 gigawatts around 1650 local time, surpassing the previous 74.8 gigawatts in August 2019. 

    79.4 Gigawatts!!

    “What’s a gigawatt?” M. McFly
     

  51. drwilliams says:

    How times have changed.

    A century ago Biden could have been termed a “mountebank” and most people who had a sixth-grade or better education would have understood the usage.

  52. Pecancorner says:

    With incandescents, first you heat the building then you run the a/c

    Truth!!!!  When i switched from 75w floods to LEDs I spent a few weeks the first Winter freezing my butt off on the sofa.

    Oh.   Yeah.  Duh.  I’m not under a heat lamp anymore.

    My grandfather used to build things that used light bulbs for a heat source.  I still have my food dehydrator that uses 4 100watt bulbs. I haven’t used it in 30 years.   He especially liked to add a light bulb to dog houses to warm them up. He would put a large fruit can over it to keep the light from bothering the dog, and added heavy screen wire so the dog wouldn’t be able to touch the hot surfaces.  Those pieces were installed permanently, and the light bulb would be changed from outside – where there was room for light to come out so he could tell when the bulb burned out.   Then he moved the house up near the porch so he could plug it in and the dog couldn’t get behind the house where the cord was. 

  53. lpdbw says:

    For my pemmican experiment a few years ago, I built a quick and cheap dehydrator to make the jerky:  Cardboard box, wooden skewers, and old-fashioned mechanics drop lights.

    But I could no longer find 100 watt bulbs, so I had to double up on the drop lights.  Now I guess you can’t even find the 60 watt bulbs.  I suppose you have to pay extra to buy on-purpose heat lamps.  Which probably won’t fit in the drop lights, so you have to purpose-build a lamp holder.

    If I had to do it over, I guess I could re-purpose a small space heater.

    Yes, I have an actual dehydrator at home.  This was at a remote location and I had to improvise.

  54. lpdbw says:

    re: heated doghouse

    My dad sold his business and bought a farm, and got a couple big dogs.  The first was Rex, a collie, and he was pure farm dog, and purely outside.

    Because of the harsh Illinois winters, dad built him a big, insulated dog house, with only one opening, and filled it with blankets, and a light bulb for heat.

    One night it snowed all night long, probably a foot or more.  When I went outside, I went looking for Rex.  Not running around, not in his doghouse, not anywhere I could see.  I was worried, and I started calling for him.

    Eventually, one of the snowdrifts in the front yard stood up, and shook off the snow.  Rex had been sleeping and I woke him.

    So far as I know, he never used the doghouse.

  55. Greg Norton says:

    My grandfather used to build things that used light bulbs for a heat source.

    The first Hewlett Packard product was an audio oscillator stabilized with an incandescent bulb in the negative feedback of the amplifier.

    This design allowed HP to sell their oscillators for a quarter of what competitors charged for similar devices, and Disney was the first customer.

    You can see one of the oscillators in the background of the video HP shot in William Hewlett’s office for the re-release of the HP 15C calculator in 2010. I swear I remember posting a link here.

    Geesh 12 years. Time flies. The calculator actually ended up being a bit of a disappointment and quickly pulled from the market so the video may no longer be around.

    2
    1
  56. CowboyStu says:

    ,,,,,,,,, besieged by protesters 24/7/365.

    What is that  24/7/365?

    24 hours for7 days (which is one week) and then 365 weeks?

  57. lpdbw says:

    What is that  24/7/365?

    Stu, it’s a figure of speech, in common use.  You aren’t going to erase it by pointing out that it’s a little silly.

    I would even contend that it uses redundancy to give it emphasis.  24 hours a day, every weekday, all year.   In other words, no time off for weekends, and no skipped weeks, all year long.

    People are not computers.  You know full well what was intended, and humans are expected to interpret meaning.  For all intensive porpoises, there are bigger nits to pick.

  58. lynn says:

    From ZeroHedge:

    Data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s grid operator, shows power demand hit 74.9 gigawatts around 1650 local time, surpassing the previous 74.8 gigawatts in August 2019. 

    79.4 Gigawatts!!

    “What’s a gigawatt?” M. McFly

    A really big lightning bolt.

    Texas went over the peak today with 25,000 MW of wind turbine power.    That is amazing.  

    https://www.ercot.com/

    But the solar power was less than 6,000 MW, a drop of 4,000 MW.  I suspect that the Saharan dust in the Texas wind today is obscuring the solar panels.  “The heavy dust particles will likely hinder significant rain chances and development of a tropical disturbance in the Gulf of Mexico.”

        https://www.chron.com/weather/article/houston-saharan-dust-tropics-forecast-17238151.php

    So much for our rain chances.

  59. RickH says:

    For all intensive porpoises,

    Speaking of ‘nits’ and the ‘picking’ of them, isn’t that supposed to be “all intents and purposes” ? 

    🙂

  60. lynn says:

    Got another customer trying to use our software with the new 64 bit version of Microsoft Excel.  I may have to dump everything and jump in feet first into the 64 bit project for our calculation engine.

  61. RickH says:

    Don’t plan on going to Yellowstone National Park in the near future  – or maybe longer. Every road in the park has damage due to flooding and road washouts. 

    Some areas (Gardiner, on the north entrance) are fully isolated because of road washouts and landslides. And more rain expected. 

    Video from the area should extensive damage to many sections of roads. 

  62. Greg Norton says:

    Got another customer trying to use our software with the new 64 bit version of Microsoft Excel.  I may have to dump everything and jump in feet first into the 64 bit project for our calculation engine.

    Cygwin is phasing out 32 bit support for their utilities and run time platform. It wasn’t that long ago that the 64 bit version was regarded as being unstable for production use.

    I install both on my Windows systems so it is an issue for me.

  63. Alan says:

    >>  My grandfather used to build things that used light bulbs for a heat source.

    The first Hewlett Packard product was an audio oscillator stabilized with an incandescent bulb in the negative feedback of the amplifier.

    More importantly… 

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy-Bake_Oven

  64. Alan says:

    >> Speaking of ‘nits’ and the ‘picking’ of them, isn’t that supposed to be “all intents and purposes” ?

    I always get them confused with dolphins. 

  65. CowboyStu says:

    Stu, it’s a figure of speech, in common use.  You aren’t going to erase it by pointing out that it’s a little silly.

    I agree 100%, I here that gibberish all the time on TV and radio from those yappity-yappers trying to impress us.  Yes, no stopping it.

    Here is another one that I heard on the radio (which I only listen to while driving) this morning:  “… they preproduced…”.   Has anybody “postproduced” anything?

  66. Ray Thompson says:

    Has anybody “postproduced” anything?

    Nancy Pelosi?

    Speaking of which. I don’t blame her husband for a DUI. If I was married to her I would be drunk most of the time.

  67. Jenny says:

    @Alan

    More importantly… 

    Easy-bake

    I was envious of my neighbors easy-bake oven. The cupcakes came out pretty gross but really, it didn’t matter. 

  68. Pecancorner says:

    While we are sort of on the subject,  although I’m sure everyone here knows this: 

    “voila” is not spelt “wah-lah!”  

    Nor is “ciao” spelt “chow!” 

    Just thought I’d throw that in there since this is a safe place to grumble 😉 

  69. Geoff Powell says:

    @pecancorner:

    and my pet hate – “solder” is not pronounced “sodder”, even though nearly every American seems to think it is.

    There is an ‘l’ in there. Pronounce it, dammit!!

    G.

  70. Nick Flandrey says:

    Made it home in time tho come to the swim meet.  Away meet, so just watching.

    Are you all super gen-i-ass’s sure it’s not “ in tents and pour poses” , ‘cuz it cud bee.

    N

    🙂

  71. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    LED lights: These are VERY sensitive to heat buildup. I can’t use them in any kind of recessed fixture like can lights or my bathroom ceiling light; they fail in a few months.

  72. Ray Thompson says:

    TVA is asking customers to reduce electrical usage due to the heat. Imagine what it will be if there are several thousand electric vehicles being charged. The grid in many states cannot handle the increased load of charging electric vehicles. Such chargers consuming more power than many A/C units.

  73. Mark W says:

    I followed that link and disagree since lots of people pronounce the ‘l’ in “calm” – “kolm”. Also, I watch a Polish guy on youtube and he pronounces the ‘l’ in “half”, which is amusing.

    Speaking as a Brit, “sodder” is an abomination.

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, made it home.   Kid didn’t win any races.     It is hot and humid out there.  And hazy too.

     Y’all talk funny over there in limey land…

    And in kanuckistan.   One of the most soporific ‘fix it’ channels on youtube, Mr Carlson’s Lab, has the “L” debate occasionally.   I never heard anyone say the “L” until I started watching youtube. 

    Maybe someone can explain where the “J” sound in soldier comes from?  Hmmm???

    n

  75. drwilliams says:

    @CowboyStu
    “24 hours for7 days (which is one week) and then 365 weeks?”

    I had a brain fart and couldn’t remember how to spell “gazillion”.

  76. drwilliams says:

    Some years ago the deadline for banning 120v 100-watt bulbs was fast approaching. The local grocery store (chain) marked them down to 4/$1.

    I bought them all.

  77. lynn says:

    “24 hours for7 days (which is one week) and then 365 weeks?”

    I don’t know who it was that first typed 24x7x365 but I found and find it hilarious.

  78. lynn says:

    Some years ago the deadline for banning 120v 100-watt bulbs was fast approaching. The local grocery store (chain) marked them down to 4/$1.

    I bought them all.

    Not me, I am an engineer.  Efficiency is my middle name.

    BTW, by changing out my 100 watt can lights to 16 watt LED can lights at the main office building, my electrician and I were able to combine several circuit breakers together so we could open up some spots in the 400 amp breaker box.  We then properly wired the two (north and south) double circuit 60 amp (10 kw each) heaters properly.  So now I have heat in the office building.  My entire office property is total electric.

    BTW2, if you have two electric vehicles, you are going to need a 400 amp breaker box.  That means replacing everything back to the transformer, wiring included.  Because a 400 amp breaker box actually has four 200 amp circuits with four breakers.  I can put a picture up if someone wants to see.  

    BTW3, my 400 amp breaker box actually covers three of my buildings at the office: the main building of 5,400 ft2, the small office building of 450 ft2, and the well house of 100 ft2.  The well pulls 3 kw, 13 amps at 230 volts.

    The warehouse has its own service and meter along with its own office air conditioner (there is a 800 ft2 two story office building inside the 3,750 ft2 warehouse) and 50 gallon water heater.

  79. Nick Flandrey says:

    The electric co-op has ok’d me “undergrounding” my service drop to the house, will replace the meter, and handed me a new meter base…

    I just have to have MY electrician do all the work.   I have to trench, put in the conduit, mount everything, and then the co-op “measures” .  They will supply the conductors to their measurement, but my electrician needs to pull them.   Then they’ll come and do the hookup (or rather, move from overhead to underground feeders. )

    While this is added expense, it does solve several issues, let’s the electrician start work, and saves a disconnect, temp power, and reconnect later.

    Now, to do a plan, scope of work, and see what the electrician says.

    n

  80. Gavin says:

    Some years ago the deadline for banning 120v 100-watt bulbs was fast approaching.

    I also bought a lot of incandescent bulbs when they were being phased out, as at that time the compact fluorescents were being promoted in a big way. I really don’t like fluorescent lights and especially the CFLs, and at that time LED was scarce and expensive. I later found that there was an exemption (here at least) for rough-service bulbs, which were and are still available, more durable if not actually longer lasting, and in cost at the time were between the CFL and LED options. I actually had bought enough incandescent bulbs that I didn’t run out before I was able to get LEDs at low enough cost to switch all my lighting over, so I didn’t have to purchase rough-service bulbs, which, I note, are still available. Not sure what the current pricing is, though.

  81. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    “Not me, I am an engineer.  Efficiency is my middle name.“

    It’s not efficient to replace a proven technology with a piece of shiite from China that does not meet the engineering specs , fails prematurely, and creates a hazmat situation if it gets busted in an office. 

    And the CRI sucked. 

    But the kicker was the cheap pieces of shiite that had a noticeable delay between power on and light up. 

    I bought cfl’s and wrote the install date on the base. In an enclosed fixture they got 15-25% of their rated lifespan. In a closet the delay was inconvenient. On stairs it was potentially deadly.  

    LED’s in fixtures designed for ILB’s are carp, too. I have a few of the $20 versions by American companies that are 10x the engineering of the Chinese carp. And last 10x as long. If you look you can find fixtures with high CRI lamps designed to dissipate heat and show real colors. 

    ILB’s are high-efficiency heaters, 90% or better. And that’s why I still have a cattle water fountain that doesn’t freeze in the winter.

  82. lynn says:

    “SpaceX closer to launching giant rocketship from Texas”

        https://www.chron.com/news/space/article/SpaceX-giant-rocketship-texas-17239218.php

    “SpaceX tweeted: “One step closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship.””

    “CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX cleared a key hurdle Monday for its plan to launch a gigantic, futuristic rocketship into orbit from Texas.”

    “The Federal Aviation Administration concluded an environmental review of Elon Musk’s Starship base. The agency saw no significant environmental concerns, but is requiring more than 75 actions to reduce impacts to the region.”

  83. lynn says:

    What is CRI and ILB ?

    Yeah, I got rid of my last CFL the other day, it lasted almost ten years.  So I am either LED bulbs or four foot fluorescents.  I have about a hundred of the four foot fluorescents in the office also.  I hate them and wish they were can lights.

  84. Alan says:

    >> Dirty sockets?  Perhaps a smear of some kind of grease.  Like a heat sink paste. 

    Dielectric Grease.

  85. Alan says:

    >> But I could no longer find 100 watt bulbs, so I had to double up on the drop lights.  Now I guess you can’t even find the 60 watt bulbs.

    If the ‘Zon don’t have it then you don’t need it.TM

    100 watt

    60 watt

  86. Alan says:

    >> Video from the area should extensive damage to many sections of roads. 

    Obviously no nits to pick here, easily blamed on the dang auto-correct software  😉

  87. Alan says:

    >> What is CRI and ILB ?

    Color Rendering Index https://www.lumens.com/the-edit/the-guides/understanding-color-rendering-index/

    Incandescent Light Bulb

  88. JimB says:

    A typical 100 watt 120V incandescent bulb puts out 1600 lumens. A typical 100 watt 130V rough service incandescent bulb puts out 1020 lumens. You give up a lot of lumens.

    The rated life of a typical 100 watt 120V incandescent bulb is 1000 hours. The rated life of a typical 100 watt 130V rough service incandescent bulb is 2500 hours. The rough service bulbs can vary depending on design; I found one rated at 10,000 hours.

    Not all rough service bulbs are 130V, and not all 130V bulbs are rough service. There is a lot of variation. There are other types of long life bulbs rated for service in flashing signs; these are not a consideration here.

    In my experience, rough service bulbs used in a clamp reflector would almost always fail when dropped. Regular bulbs were about the same, but they were much cheaper, so I used them. Now, I use LEDs, and they are much more rugged. I haven’t had one fail yet in rough treatment.

    When we built our house in 1978, I happened to buy some 100 watt and 60 watt bulbs on sale in Kmart for $1 per six pack. They were manufactured in Hungary, and had a brass base. They were normal 120V, not rough service. They seemed equal brightness compared with popular US brands of the day. They lasted a long time, and I still have some in service in fixtures that are not run very much. I also have some 150 watt PAR lights that are original to the house. I have some rapid start 48” T12 fluorescent tubes that are original. I have gradually replaced lights that are run a lot with LEDs, and have found that they last much longer in enclosed fixtures compared with CFLs. I am particularly fond of the Feit 100 watt equivalent bulbs from Costco. I have not had one fail yet, but it has only been a few years, and only one is run much.

    In my experience, LED bulbs live shorter lives if mounted base up. Base down is best, but horizontal seems OK too. The horizontal ones are in enclosed fixtures, and they have not failed yet. CFLs did not last in those fixtures. I don’t have any “can” fixtures.

  89. Alan says:

    >> BTW2, if you have two electric vehicles, you are going to need a 400 amp breaker box.  

    We have two LEAFs that we slow charge one at a time from a dedicated 20 amp circuit on our existing 200 amp service. 24 hours to go from zero to 100 percent charge. Rarely do they go below 50% as we mostly drive locally. Top off at 85%. Works for us at the moment. 

  90. Geoff Powell says:

    @markw:

    Speaking as a Brit, “sodder” is an abomination.

    Indeed. But that’s a battle we’ve lost. Like many others.

    The United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language.

    often attrib. GBS, although apparently he didn’t write it.

    G.

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