Cold again. And wet. But, you know, winter. Because it’s cold in winter, even in the South. It did get into the 40s or 50s yesterday, but stayed wet and dreary. Today is likely to be the same. I feel your pain if your power is still out and hope you are doing ok.
Spent all of yesterday at home. Had some issue with my main PC and needed to get that sorted. Of course, to even get access to it meant moving and dealing with stuff that’s been piling up here for a long time. Got it out, cleaned, installed a new second hard drive for media storage, and back in service. Still don’t have all the cr@p back in my office or off to wherever it will live until next time.
Cleaning and moving stuff spilled over to the foyer, living room, kitchen, and bedroom. Attic too.
Time to add some of the waiting projects to the ‘catch as catch can’ pile and list and get moving on some of the stuff.
I did a quick run through the grocery store yesterday. Eggs are ~$4/dozen for large white eggs. Prime sirloin steak was on sale, 5.59/pound. I bought the last two trays. We eat a lot of sirloin steak, mainly because I can get it for just a little bit more than the cost of decent hamburger. Vac sealer, and freezer make that possible. Living better for less.
Today I’ll be wrapping some more of that up. Also trying to do a couple of pickups and maybe make a couple of calls trying to sell some freezers…
I’m sure there will be something that comes up to thwart my cunning plans. There always is. But we still slog onward… oh woe is me. 😉
Stack stuff. But not just junk. Good stuff.
nick
Lord, no. My point was that Hunters lawyers requested the criminal probe of Giuliani et al because they know that the Attorney General is going to give it to them because he is not sane.
To be fair, I worked for GTE during Bob Barr’s tenure there as general council, and I have my doubts about his sanity since the Verizon “merger of equals”, which happened, fortunately, just as I left.
I cashed out my options at the same time as Barr and his cronies, at similar strike prices. Now THAT was a decent return on investment with GTE priced at the equivalent of VZ at 68.
Hey 39F and wet. I”m a weather genius.
Better start some coffee.
n
140,000 homes still without power at Oncor alone.
Our power was restored after 10 PM last night, but I’ll break opsec at this point to say that we bugged out after sundown to the hotel cluster on the freeway where, according to local legend, NASA has a contract with one to host a backup Mission Control when necessary.
Even if the legend is false, they never seem to lose power.
I did go check on the house after Oncor reported the power issues resolved and pushed the thermostats to 68 so, even if we lost power again, the house would retain enough heat to stay above freezing until temps started to rise this morning.
A replacement gas log set for the fireplace is next on the purchase list.
North Austin looks like a war zone this morning with all the downed tree limbs.
BTW, inflation report for McDonalds last night: $4,75 for a 10 piece box of Chicken McNuggets after taxes.
Eh. They were open. Strangely, as we discovered driving by on the way back to the hotel with “dinner”, Chuy’s was too, and the parking lot was full.
And lest anyone believe that the Chuy’s workers were exploited, that is a class operation, and I have no doubt that a lot of overtime money was paid to anyone who worked last night.
The McDonalds operator was probably generous as well.
An entirely optional class of purchases…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/biggest-rolex-online-reseller-cuts-jobs-watch-prices-continue-downward-spiral
Down a third in a year.
n
Just means bargains are available! Yeah, even during the depression, deals were out there if you had the funds. Some really good deals.
The most desirable watch on the market right now is still Swatch’s own knockoff of their Omega Speedmaster.
$350 retail
eBay gold
Mechanical watches need service periodically, which can run as much as the timepiece purchased new.
Yikes, $350 for a plastic quartz watch?
n
For almost 12 years, we had two Labrador retrievers. A black (mix) and a yellow (pure bred). They disliked, almost despised, water. When it rained, they would just stand on the back porch and not go to the bathroom. This would last until they just couldn’t hold it anymore and jumped onto the grass and wen under the overhang of the roof.
Contrast that to now, with two almost one year old golden retrievers. One is the typical golden, and one is an English Creme (almost white). They both love rain. And water. And mud. Goodness, I’ve wiped off more dog paws, and dogs in general, in the last 6 months to make up for the last 12 years. I will be so glad when this wet weather pattern subsides a little.
ITGuy, you should set up a dog-sized automated car wash outside your back door and require that the dogs pass through it before they come inside. Spray ‘em down, soap ’em up, spray ‘em down again, then blow dry. Have the system give them a treat at the end and they’ll want to go outside, get dirty, and get clean seventeen times per day.
D4 and 5 read mostly urban fantasy with a smattering of SciFi (D4 has read a lot of the UF books you mention).
D3 reads a lot of horror.
D2, the teacher, reads a lot of non-fiction and *gulp* woke stuff.
D1 reads mainly romance novels.
D4 and 5 and a niece and I try to read books recommended from each other maybe every couple of months as a challenge and then discuss them.
The working on it list:
D4 – The Kaiju Preservation Society
D5 – A horror graphic novel, the title escapes me since we have to pass it around.
Niece – The Menendez Murders
Me – Earthcore
I think Mr. Lynn thought, as I did, you were talking about the AG opening an investigation into the laptop, as in, theft.
Yeah, the AG knows CrackHead Bidens request will put the laptop into discovery. The PLTs don’t want that.
This is a tough read.
https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-emt-medical-response
– that’s AFTER they waited 77minutes. They had over an HOUR to stage medical response and DID NOTHING.
https://www.firehouse.com/operations-training/video/21290992/many-issues-led-to-delayed-ems-response-to-uvalde-shooting
https://www.firefighterclosecalls.com/report-uvalde-videos-show-flawed-ems-response-to-robb-school-shooting/
n
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/chatgpt-destroy-googles-business-two-years
Sorry, but I just don’t see Google taking their ball (advertising revenue) and leaving. As a starting point point, what stops them from adding sidebar ads to their version of a chatbot’s textual output? Google has been refining their ad strategy for years and they will work hard not to become AltaVista 2.0.
Don’t let your kids play with your phone…
https://www.businessinsider.com/six-year-old-orders-1k-food-grubhub-michigan-home-2023-2
Six years old and his first order is chicken shwarma and the pizza was last!
I’ve never let my kids play with my phone. Wife used to start a game and hand hers to them occasionally, but I don’t play games on my phone. Nothing they can do with my phone except cause me trouble.
n
–weird
n
A real one is over $3500 the last time I looked.
Another adventure with the ceiling and the lights.
One of the junction boxes in the ceiling was really a box for a light, not really a junction box. I needed to replace that and properly ground the box. In removing the wire nut on the neutral side, one of the wires broke where the insulation ends. Must have been close to failing and I was just lucky. I removed all the wires from the box, removed the box, and installed a proper box with strain relief. I was able to get enough slack to connect all four wires (five with the wire grounded to the box) using WAGO 221 connectors.
It is so much easier with WAGO than wire nuts with the required twisting. Four wires (five for the ground with the box connection) is a lot of wires to put in a wire nut, needs a big wire nut. The WAGO connectors work really well. Some people claim the WAGO connectors are no good. They are UL approved. I see no problem in using the WAGO connectors.
Nah, they’re selling for ~$400-500 on ebay with markup.
n
added- genuine Omega Speedmasters are selling for $1500 and that’s a much nicer watch.
I hadn’t looked in a while. Swatch has been making an effort to get the watches into their stores and clearly stating that the line will not be a “limited edition”. When first introduced last year, the watches were $1500 and up on EBay.
A real Omega Speedmaster “Moonwatch”, the model certified by NASA for spaceflight, for $1500? That is a deal.
>> They are UL approved.
So are receptacles with ‘stab-in’ wiring on the back. I don’t trust them and have heard the same from several electricians. Nothing against WAGO connectors though. For large jobs I suspect the price difference still favors wire nuts.
Oncor is currently at 155,000 homes without power. Austin Energy is at 156,000
Most of the projections indicate tomorrow before power restoration efforts really start making a dent in outages.
Checking out of our hotel this morning, the clerk had to repeatedly stop to answer the constantly ringing phone. “No. We don’t have any rooms.”
True. I have not seen a back stabbed connection failure. I am certain that failures exist. As do failures with regular “J” hook connections. Even some wire nuts fail when the wire pulls out or the connection is not really good and the connection heats from contact resistance. I have seen complete outlet failures where the outlet is cracked or pieces missing. That is just from being a cheap product.
Almost all new home construction uses back stab connections. Quick and cheap. The outlets are also cheap, as are most back stab outlets. When an outlet sells for $0.59 in bulk, I really have to question the quality beyond just the choice of connection. Failure of the outlet is probably more of a problem than the back stab connection.
I think where a problem arises is the reuse of the back stab outlets and switches after removing the wires. I don’t like back stab having replaced 59 outlets in my son’s home with outlets where the wire goes behind a plate and is clamped down with the screen. Easier than “J” hook requirements and almost as fast as back stab connections.
Electricians are not generally in favor of something that reduces their time, and money, for the job. Back stabs are also more difficult to remove the wire than “J” hook or clamped connections. Most electricians just cut the wires as the outlet is not going to be reused.
No doubt. WAGO are expensive compared to wire nuts. It was certainly much easier connecting five ground wires into a single connection with the WAGO than using a wire nut. Getting five wires together, twisted, and in a wire nut is not an easy task in a confined space while reaching over the head. It is much easier to insert a single wire at a time into the WAGO connector.
The connections are for LED lights so there will not be a lot of current flowing through the connection. I don’t think I would use, or trust, WAGO for a dryer or stove connection.
Maybe offered a room in your house for $200.00 a night. With a $1K damage deposit.
They weren’t calling that hotel if they could afford $200/night.
We had the cat with us yesterday, and the hotel would take pets.
Plus, Austin. You never know who is on the other end of that phone.
This is why I know the FUSA is finished:
AOC invokes 9/11 during tantrum over some people removing Ilhan Omar from House Foreign Affairs Cmte
Really? Racism, sexism, and xenophobia is the only mantra PLTs have on everything and anything. Total disgrace and should be minimized and voted out. Back to the bar.
How can her district keep voting for such trash?
Elections has consequences, baby girl.
@greg, nope just generic omega speedmaster.
I used wago for audio connections, but never for power. I’ll pick up a couple though, as the wires in my boxes are often VERY short, and there is rarely slack in the wall.
n
“After fumbled warnings about prolonged power outages, Austin mayor promises changes”
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/02/austin-ice-storm-power-outages/
“Mayor Kirk Watson said he shared the frustrations of Austin residents left without power for days and said the city will improve how it communicates during storms.”
Note that the incompetent mayor did not say that they were going to fix the cause of the electric outages which is their wokeness. You must have an aggressive tree cutting program in order to protect your power lines. Or, spend $10 million per mile of power line lines to bury the power lines. Nobody has that much money as that is the low voltage cost, the high voltage lines cost $100 million per mile to bury. Remember, buried power lines must be encased in concrete crypts to prevent deaths.
I did a quick run through the grocery store yesterday. Eggs are ~$4/dozen for large white eggs. Prime sirloin steak was on sale, 5.59/pound. I bought the last two trays. We eat a lot of sirloin steak, mainly because I can get it for just a little bit more than the cost of decent hamburger. Vac sealer, and freezer make that possible. Living better for less.
I paid $6 for 18 eggs last night at HEB. Apparently the cost is still going to increase, a farmer lady was on with Sean Hannity Tuesday saying that many of their costs have tripled: diesel, fertilizer, etc. And their labor costs have gone through the roof, the kids won’t work for $4/hour anymore.
BTW, inflation report for McDonalds last night: $4,75 for a 10 piece box of Chicken McNuggets after taxes.
Eh. They were open. Strangely, as we discovered driving by on the way back to the hotel with “dinner”, Chuy’s was too, and the parking lot was full.
Don’t forget the truckers. I think that every McDonalds gets one 18 wheeler per day of buns, meat, and potatoes. The busy ones get two or three 18 wheelers a day.
Logistics is just not a word, it is incredibly important.
Just had a train with 300+ empty coal cars pass by the office heading for Wyoming. It will be back next week as the four coal power plants down the road are probably burning 1,000 tons of coal per HOUR per unit. There will be two or three more trains of empties today heading to Wyoming and three or four trains with four engines pulling fully loaded 300 coal cars coming in to dump and head back.
Just once, I would like to cross The Royal Gorge Bridge on a train. That must be awesome. I wonder if Buffet has finished his second bridge yet ?
D4 – The Kaiju Preservation Society
This is my next book to read. I did not realize that this was Scalzi first entry into another genre, the universe shifting genre, one of my favorites.
https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/chatgpt-destroy-googles-business-two-years
Sorry, but I just don’t see Google taking their ball (advertising revenue) and leaving. As a starting point point, what stops them from adding sidebar ads to their version of a chatbot’s textual output? Google has been refining their ad strategy for years and they will work hard not to become AltaVista 2.0.
Ads and Search are where the premier programmers at Google work. The other 90% of programmers work on other stuff like gmail, apps, and all the crazy stuff they do on a whim. Those 90% is where the roving bands of justice warriors come from that roam the halls and make people swear fealty to the wokeness. That is the real reason why my son would not go to work there, he was afraid that he would have a combat flashback and kill some of the justice warriors.
We have buried power lines in my neighborhood, which is probably why we have power back already.
When the temps went below 50 in the house around sundown yesterday, we made the decision to bug out, not knowing when power would be restored. Even the cat was happier at the hotel, and she usually associates a car ride with the vet.
OK, $20.00 a night and a bottle of hooch.
Nice twisty take. Jeremy Robinson has a series on Kaiju that I really like.
“Apple cracking down to enforce its RTO policy”
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/apple-cracking-down-to-enforce-its
“Software engineers and their managers have started to receive warnings for not working in the office at least 3 days per week. I talked with engineers on how they see the policy being enforced.”
I see more software engineers walking the streets soon.
@Nick
Sent you an email Sunday evening. Are we still having email issues between us?
Maybe he’ll crow about the capital spending on the railroad again in the Shareholder Letter and mention the bridge. The publicity machine is cranking up since the BRK annual report, complete with Simple Homespun Wisdom Formerly Ghostwritten By Carol Loomis Of Fortune (TM) is due in a couple of weeks.
Carol Loomis retired. God only knows who he has ghostwriting it now.
I’m sure the revisions are flying in Omaha right now. The California-based owners of Oncor, Sempra, seriously screwed up this week, an I imagine The Gecko would like another shot at control of Oncor before he passes.
Buffett seems to have quite a scheme brewing for the Texas power grid.
Over The Hedge: Snow Mound
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2023/02/02
That does not look like much padding for a soft landing.
Get a box of twos, threes, and fives from Amazon. Not that expensive in the bulk assortment pack. With short wires WAGO’s may work better than wire nuts. Although in that situation one is supposed to create pigtails connected to the short wires. WAGO would work well. Insert the pigtail into the WAGO then attach the WAGO to the short wire(s).
The connectors that are sold by Home Depot and Lowes are push in, once, getting the wire back out requires destroying the connection. With the true WAGO connectors the wire(s) is/are easily removed by flipping up the lever.
The voters are probably lower on the evolutionary ladder than AOC.
And I say the same thing about Nancy Pelosi. Why do the voters in California keep voting for her? Never mind, it’s California.
Why? Let Darwin win.
Right. Put the announcements on TV while no one has power to watch the TV. Brilliant lip wagging by a politician.
>> I’ll pick up a couple though, as the wires in my boxes are often VERY short, and there is rarely slack in the wall.
No slack is when you send the apprentice out to the truck for the ‘wire stretcher.’
“Father of Anthony Huber Sues Kyle Rittenhouse and Police for Wrongful Death After His Son Was Shot at Kenosha BLM Riots”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/father-anthony-huber-sues-kyle-rittenhouse-police-wrongful-death-son-shot-kenosha-blm-riots/
This suit should be dismissed with prejudice immediately. Instead, they will probably drag it out over years.
I installed two overhead LED light “clouds” in the house using Wago’s for the connections.
Mr. Ray gave me advice on tapping into an outlet and putting it in a small linen closet where I house the network stuff. I’ll use Wago’s for the grounds if needed.
“SpaceX Again Delays Imposing High-Speed Data Caps for Starlink”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-again-delays-imposing-high-speed-data-caps-for-starlink
“The high-speed data caps were originally supposed to be enforced in December, then February. But SpaceX now says implementation will be ‘no earlier than April 2023.’”
I wonder what is going on at Starlink ? Usually there are a small number of users exceeding the normal usage causing pain for the rest of the users. My Starlink is almost unusable because of this.
“Cathie Wood Names the 1 Stock She’d Buy Today If She HAD to Hold It For 10 Years”
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/cathie-wood-names-the-1-stock-shed-buy-today-if-she-had-to-hold-it-for-10-years?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO
Wow, that is bold. Tesla at $1,500 in five years ? If I was Apple, I would buy Tesla now.
OK, both of my usenet providers, Eternal-September and AIOE, are both down now. I sense a disturbance in the Intertubes !
“’Momma can’t protect you’: Dave Ramsey has a blunt message for young adults who still live with their parents. 3 things you need to do to get ahead (and get your own place)”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/momma-cant-protect-dave-ramsey-110000358.html
Always good advice. But hard to take.
Why? Let Darwin win.
You would be fascinated how many Darwin candidates own XXXX lease backhoes.
Most recent subdivisions are being fed with 20,000 volt three phase nowadays. That will reach out and bite you hard.
“How Putin is preparing massive assault with ‘500,000 men on two fronts’ – and Ukraine think they know the EXACT date”
https://www.the-sun.com/news/7287999/putin-new-assault-ukraine-date/
No wonder Ukraine wants more planes. Close air support to take out the tanks.
If this is true then it will be the biggest army raised since Desert Storm I in 1990 ???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
In my play account, I bought 2 share of TSLA at $122.83/share. It’s at $187 right now. I’ve been debating selling it, as it’s way past my goal of 15% gain for any share before I sell.
I did sell my 2 share of SHOP that gave me almost 7% gain.
Yes, the amounts are tiny. I never seed that account with more than 2k. My last withdrawal was in 2021 for a pool table. Better than spending it on beer I guess…
I should have said that I own ten shares of Tesla. I am thinking about significantly increasing this.
Cathie Wood is a loon.
Tim Cook isn’t Steve Jobs, but there is a reason Steve left Tim in charge and not someone else.
No one else has the iPhone, and none of the current competitors will be able to manage general purpose ARM laptops and desktops. If Apple has any weaknesses, it is AI-capable server hardware — they have none unless they backtrack on the Intel Mac Pro.
We’ll see if AI is anything of significance soon.
Meanwhile, Tim has a very deep and wide moat.
“Voters” have nothing to do with Cacafornia elections. Between mail-in ballots, stuffed drop boxes and legalized fraud (“ballot harvesting”), the Democrat Machine decides the elections. And Pelosi and her nephew Navin Gruesome control the Machine.
Well that was disturbing.
Scanner caught the cops locking down a school, surrounding it, VERY adamant about not letting anyone thru the perimeter. Then the order to not “rush in” no matter what they hear, even if shots fired.
Could have been a drill, but the voices were stressed and excited. Then the notice of where parent re-unification would take place. That gave me a neighborhood, and it wasn’t mine. Then the heads up that the suspect was wearing a black hoodie, and the inside team was trying to flush him from the auditorium to the gym… so 99% probability NOT a drill.
Fortunately a few minutes later they announced a suspect in custody, and after that released HFD and EMS (no injuries). Shortly after that, they re-opened a road which gave me the school- still not mine. Then they started releasing other agencies, mentioned a debrief followed by a thorough search for weapons.
Not too long after that it hit the news. Two guys shot at cops, cops shot one, the other ran into the school.
Unlike Uvalde, they had medical on scene, clear control of exterior teams and interior teams, and an assistant Chief all over the radio giving commands.
Tense moment though while I was trying to figure out where and what was going on .
n
The WAGO connectors sold by Lowes are almost useless.
First they don’t work with small wires anything under 18 gauge can’t be pushed into the connector.
Second you can’t disconnect the wires without destroying the connector.
I doubt if these connectors can reliably pass 12 to 20 amps safely considering the small contact area.
Doesn’t Apple have roughly a trillion dollar investment in mainland (red) china, in the news for being made sort-of-secretly, a year or two ago? If there is a Taiwan conflict in two or three years that all goes bye-bye.
Glad your kids are ok Nick !
““It May Necessitate New Elections” – Texas Gov. Abbott After It’s Revealed Harris County Election Day Ballot Paper Shortage Far Bigger Than Estimated”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/may-necessitate-new-elections-texas-gov-abbott-revealed-harris-county-election-day-paper-ballot-shortage-far-bigger-estimated/
“It turns out the paper ballot shortage on Election Day in Harris County was far worse than initially estimated so Greg Abbott said “it may necessitate new elections.””
Most of the 121 polling places that ran out of ballot paper were Republicans majorities. You cannot tell that was not intentional.
Apple wouldn’t be any better off owning Tesla if the Taiwan situation goes bad in a few years. If anything, owning Tesla would make them more dependent on China.
The TSLA stockholders are looking at Apple’s cash pile, whether they want an exit or think the money might solve the production problems of the Jesus Truck.
>> Just had a train with 300+ empty coal cars pass by the office heading for Wyoming.
Yikes, wouldn’t want to be stuck at the RR crossing waiting for that train to pass.
>> Still don’t have all the cr@p back in my office or off to wherever it will live until next time.
I guess your neighbors (HOA?) wouldn’t appreciate one of these in your yard…
>> Glad your kids are ok Nick !
+100
>> The WAGO connectors sold by Lowes are almost useless.
@Bob, from the Lowe’s app I don’t see that they carry WAGO…are you talking about these from IDEAL that are somewhat similar?
Makes me thankful for red flag laws.
– given your history of attacks on people here, you’d be first in line for the dog shooters and door kickers. So I’d be careful what you wish for.
n
@alan, I keep pricing those. And nope, the HOA wouldn’t be happy.
n
Might be a bit late with that attitude there sport…
‘Let’s join hands again… and start treating each other with respect’: Biden’s plea to Republicans – as they prepare to investigate Hunter over his laptop, shady business dealings and whether Joe took a cut
n
How about if you led the HOA leadership into one and then locked them in? Asking for a friend.
Elections have consequences.
File that right next to “Let’s declare a pandemic amnesty for the harms we all committed on one another”.
When we moved from a 1/6th acre tract house in California to the outskirts of San Antonio, my wife was very insistent with our realtor; “NO HOAS!” It took her a while to find an older (late 1970’s) house on an acre with no HOA, and it has turned out pretty well. So if I decide to set up a chicken coop and start raising chickens for eggs, nobody can complain about it.
Especially since a couple of neighbors down the street are already keeping chickens. And one a few houses over who has peacocks.
Our CCRs were very common sense and simple, as they were over 50 years old. Between when we bought and when we signed, they added an update, basically in secret. It’s a lot less common sense and a lot less simple. I figure that since I never was made aware of it, never signed it, I don’t have to follow it. But that’s just me and my sense of morality. It’s as binding as the first one.
n
Especially since a couple of neighbors down the street are already keeping chickens. And one a few houses over who has peacocks.
I have heard that the peacocks are aggressive and noisy. Any experience yet ?
I’ve been copying my ripped DVDs to the new drive. Teracopy says they are moving at 100-150MB/s. It’s pretty dang fast compared to every other time I’ve tried to copy them somewhere.
BTW , it’s GS cookie season. Selling in our council starts next week. Support your local dialysis center, and your local troop! Seriously, you can buy a box for first responders if you don’t eat cookies, and the troop will deliver them, or just make a donation.
n
Peacocks have a cry which sounds like a woman screaming.
“Gas Stoves Are Back Under Scrutiny With New US Limits Proposed”
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/gas-stoves-back-under-scrutiny-201531302.html
“The Energy Department proposal, published Wednesday, sets first-of-their-kind limits on energy consumption for the stoves, drawing fear from the industry that the regulation could effectively end the use of some products from the market. The proposal also sets energy usage standards for electric cook tops and new standards for both gas and electric ovens.”
“The trade group is still evaluating the rule, but “it appears” that 95% of the market would not meet the proposed levels, Notini said.”
From the guys who made your toilets flush so well, they are going after cooktops now. Their new rules will convert cooktops to decorations for your kitchen.
Lynn says:
They’re on the next street over, I believe, so I can’t speak to “aggressive”. Noisy? Oh, you betcha! Their cries sound like a cat being tortured. LOUD, and somewhat disturbing until I started recognizing it. In the spring and autumn, when the weather is nice enough to leave the windows open, it’s very noticeable, and our cats kept looking around for that other cat in such obvious distress.
The voters are probably lower on the evolutionary ladder than AOC.
And I say the same thing about Nancy Pelosi. Why do the voters in California keep voting for her? Never mind, it’s California.
We have a serious problem in the USA. Basically it is Conservative versus Liberal. There are no clearly defined geographical areas other the cities (liberal) and rural areas (conservative). The suburbs are rapidly moving liberal from conservative at the moment which is really upsetting many of us.
I see the USA eventually either having a financial apocalypse or a civil war in the next 5 to 15 years. It will be desperate, brother against brother times if we do the civil war thing.
Lynn said:
A financial apocalypse is almost guaranteed. And a civil war?
Retired Col. Kurt Schlichter has written a series of adventure/dystopian novels beginning with “People’s Republic” in which the USA is split into the midwest and the coasts. The United States is the midwest and Old South, while the communistic “People’s Republic of North America” controls the Left Coast and New England. The capitol of the People’s Republic is in D.C, while the capitol of the USA is Dallas. I read the first 5, which are OK, but I haven’t bothered to get the next 2. Schlichter adopts EVERY liberal “woke” trope for the PRNA, while the USA becomes more like Texas.
https://www.amazon.com/Peoples-Republic-Kurt-Schlichter-ebook/dp/B01M0H7WQZ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=1CF77SB0GCG3K&keywords=Kurt+Schlichter&qid=1675390587&s=books&sprefix=kurt+schlichter%2Cstripbooks%2C304&sr=1-3&tag=ttgnet-20
I have to admit; one of the reasons (WAY down the list!) that we moved from Sacramento, CA to San Antonio was, if that separation happens, I know which side I want to be on! I SURE HOPE it doesn’t come to that, because I’ll probably still be around in 5 years. 15 would be getting up there.
The connectors from Lowe’s and Home Depot will not allow the insertion of stranded wire. The WAGO connectors handle stranded wire without issue. The push in connectors at those two stores are made by Ideal, and are less than their name. True WAGO connectors work well. I have not been able to pull a wire out of one of the connectors.
The Ideal network RJ45 connectors also suck. It is really hard to get the wires inserted into the proper channels in the proper order.
A financial apocalypse is almost guaranteed. And a civil war?
Of course, if the House and the Senate and the President don’t come to a workable compromise on the debt ceiling of the $31 trillion debt of the USA, we might be looking at that financial apocalypse in April.
https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2023/02/02/newsweek-poll-floats-gun-bans-for-senior-citizens-n66919
Suggestion for new t-shirt design:
Picture of senior with caption: “I don’t provide fire support for Democrats or RINO’s “
That district is pure blue trash. The previously elected trash was Keith Ellison–he’s now the state AG. Guv just signed the bill that makes abortion legal to birth. Avoid.
>> This suit should be dismissed with prejudice immediately. Instead, they will probably drag it out over years.
As usual, the lawyers win.
For those not familiar:
Typical hopper car is 100 tons of coal, maybe 110 tons. 10 cars per hour per unit. 300 cars would feed that 4 unit plant for just about one 8-hour shift, unloading a car on average about every 6.4 minutes. That’s at the usage rate, but reality is they unload faster.
Darwin is the House–always wins.
>> Of course, if the House and the Senate and the President don’t come to a workable compromise on the debt ceiling of the $31 trillion debt of the USA, we might be looking at that financial apocalypse in April.
Just a SWAG but I think Plugs folds on some level of cuts that Chuckie can choke down (accompanied by copious amounts of well-aged scotch) and that McCarthy claims a small victory (and the bourbon.)
Unique Catalyst for Low Temperature Cure Epoxy Powder Coatings
https://www.coatingstech-digital.org/coatingstech/library/item/jan-feb_2023/4068102/
The linked article does not describe the chemistry of the catalysts, only the experiments in which it was used. Not recommended for non-chemists, or even chemists without a solid background in coatings.
The authors are from King Industries, a company with solid achievements in polymer catalyst technology .
In a nutshell, these catalysts seem to be getting a reduction in powder coating application temperature of about 20°C. That is not a game-changer, but a very significant drop that could lead to large energy savings in the process, as well as start making possible materials other than steel as substrates.
It will be interesting to see some experiments testing performance of actual coatings with the new cat. Yes, I’m thinking about CK coatings for toys.
NBC says:
So no prohibitions on third-trimester abortions. That’s > 24 weeks, Pinocchio. Or are you saying NBC is so conservative they promulgated a Republican lie without contradicting it? That would be a hard sell here.
Activate The Hammers of Bob.
Done.
n
“Backblaze Drive Stats for 2022”
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/backblaze-drive-stats-for-2022/
“The latest figures published on the Backblaze blog cover the hard drive failure rates it saw for 2022 across its storage portfolio, which stood at 235,608 individual drives as of December 31. However, 4,299 of these were boot drives while another 388 drives were removed from consideration because they had been used for testing purposes or were models for which the company did not have at least 60 drives in operation. This still leaves statistics covering 230,921 hard drives used for data storage purposes.”
“According to Backblaze’s principal cloud storage evangelist, Andy Klein, there was a notable increase in the annualized failure rate (AFR) during last year, rising from 1.01 percent in 2021 to 1.37 percent during 2022. “In our Q2 2022 and Q3 2022 quarterly Drive Stats reports, we noted an increase in the overall AFR from the previous quarter and attributed it to the aging fleet of drives, but is that really the case?” he asked.””
I wonder if they are also seeing a higher failure from the helium filled hard drives ? And, the data is fairly clear, if you need or want reliability, buy WD drives.
More comments on the data:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/31/backblaze_older_drives_fail_more/
I am totally fascinated by the concept of 235,608 individual drives. That is a lot of building and maintaining disk farms.
Vegan Activists Trespass on to a Duck Farm and Chain Themselves to the Slaughter Line.
Then They Start Screaming When the Slaughter Line Starts Moving.
“Unfortunately, the belt was switched back on by someone and it moved as protesters were still attached.”
LOL. It’s like a feel-good reboot of Saw.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/402994.php#402994
Next time just get them all seated outside and deploy razor wire around them. “Sorry, folks, it will take all shift to clean up the mess you made. We’ll get to you later”. Put a case of ice-cold water outside the wire. Wait six hours and toss in 3-4 bottles. Film the fun from several angles and post it on YouTubze.
ADDED:
It’s also too bad that they didn’t process them through the slaughter line to the duck plucking line.
What’s the Oscar Mayer equivalent slogan for ducks? “Everything but the quack”?
Preliminary but still worrisome…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11706119/Mercks-Covid-drug-causing-new-virus-mutations-study-warns.html
n
“has not been peer-reviewed.”
Neither was any claim about the mRNA vaccines made by Fauxi and Pals.
And they killed the bad news when they could:
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2023/02/02/nih-quashed-study-because-it-wouldnt-show-what-they-wanted-n528107
“Mr. Potemkin! Mr. Potemkin! We got a new trainload of The Science!”
You know, I am wondering why the trolls want to shut this place down so bad. Does that mean that they win ? If so, keeping this place going is an affront to the trolls. Excellent !
This is a tough read.
https://www.propublica.org/article/uvalde-emt-medical-response
– that’s AFTER they waited 77minutes. They had over an HOUR to stage medical response and DID NOTHING.
This is why you assault the gunman immediately. And then too many cops showed up and probably had cop cars double and triple parked on the streets for three or four blocks around the school so that no EMS could get through.
It looks like the school police captain was just making time until retirement. Tough questions needs to be asked of these people in these jobs. All of them across the state. It is a tough job and the pay sucks.
“Tough questions needs to be asked of these people in these jobs.”
Yeah, along the lines of:
“There seems to be some shortage in the mess accounts. Would you like some privacy in the sitting room?”
probably had cop cars double and triple parked on the streets for three or four blocks around the school so that no EMS could get through.
—that very thing was an issue, and is called out in the report, and the reporting. Yet none of the cops set up a triage area, none cleared lanes for ems, none set up a helipad for rapid evac…
At least we have bleeding control kits in our schools now. You have a better chance than ‘wrapping a plastic bag around your arm’ to try and control the bleeding.
n
Yeah, along the lines of:
—“What would you like us to tell your next of kin?”
n
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-global-mega-projects-infrastructure-falling-apart-11674166180?st=0gx3c1mu8z3tyf8
The 0.97GW Chinese plant in Pakistan has been shut after 4.
Surveying Chinese-built projects around the world seems to indicate a common problem: cracks in the concrete.
Among other Late Night ONT topics, Ace wonders about the Three Gorges Dam:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/403013.php#403013
If you click on that link, the second story is about NYC using CO2 to kill rats.
Intentionally releasing deadly CO2!
Call Greta NOW!!!!
Broad-based mandatory training?
Broad-based mandatory training?
—everyone in the school gets StopTheBleed.org training every year, is what I understand.
n
Off to the land of Nod.
n
>> “Tough questions needs to be asked of these people in these jobs.”
Not to promote CNN but this correspondent has done some very good reporting from Uvalde.
Good night all…power or not, stay warm…
I have never trusted wire nuts. You don’t know how the wired are actually contacting each other inside the nut, and sometimes the contact really isn’t great. I much prefer a connector where each wire is individually attached. The “stab in” connections are fine, imho, as long as you’re using solid wire.
I was just reading an article about Google starting a crash program to create their own AI chatbot. The success of ChatGPT has caught them by surprise.
That said, one should also remember that Google handles around 100,000 queries per second. They have some seriously optimized software. Their database is also continually changing: not only from changing content on the Interwebs, but also changes in search algorithms and other external factors (right to be forgotten, legal requests, etc.).
Something like ChatGPT requires a lot more computational power to answer a query. Training is a huge investment, and not easy to continually update. It will probably quickly become a niche product, but I don’t see it scaling well to general search.
That lawsuit will be DOA. The suit is for a conspiracy between Rittenhouse and the police, which is pretty ludicrous. Even progressive sites like Reddit are laughing at the idea.
At best, they may be hoping for a settlement, just to get them to go away.
Un-fortunately?
and now for a feel-good piece about a Biden:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/403003.php#403003
Best laugh I’ve had all week.
It’s actually kind of eerie that the fictional Stepford was in Connecticut.
Jill just seems to fit into that family by design.