Sat. Feb. 17, 2024 – like I needed more work… but that’s the way it goes

By on February 17th, 2024 in culture, decline and fall, march to war

Cool and damp. Really damp. Not supposed to be any rain today but it should remain cloudy. The rain yesterday was spotty and light. Not much of an impediment to my pickups, but the ground is saturated again.

I spent the morning on auction stuff, and the afternoon doing pickups, with a visit to the Goodwill bins, and a swing past my storage unit. One of the lots I won is a ridiculously tall extension ladder. It overhangs the back of the truck by about 4-6 ft, and is flush with the front bumper. I need it at the BOL to reach one limb, and maybe to do some antenna work. It was stupidly cheap, so worth it. Until I can take it up to the BOL I’ll have to either keep driving around town with it on the truck or find somewhere to stash it for a while. I don’t fancy leaving it on the truck, but it’s long and heavy and VERY unwieldy.

Today I’ve got to move some stuff around and make room in my storage unit for the stuff in my truck, until I can get it to auction or the BOL. Then I’ve got to do two pickups on opposite sides of town, and somewhere in there I need to fix, or at least diagnose, the leak under my tub. I think I have what I need to fix it, if the brass drain is what failed. I picked up a tub drain and overflow in brass at the bins a week or two ago. It’s at storage but I forgot to bring it home yesterday. I thought I was just getting it for the brass… universe had other plans.

That is often how my life works.

Wife and girls have their first cookie booth of the season today. Hope they sell a bunch, despite the price increase. We’re at $6/box here and supposedly other places like NYFC are at $7. People were moaning when it went to $5… Let’s go Brandon!

We’ll see how the day goes. I’m stacking stuff and skills, and hopefully goodwill today. Stack some yourself.

nick

68 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Feb. 17, 2024 – like I needed more work… but that’s the way it goes"

  1. Ray Thompson says:

    All I could think as I drifted off was “Dude, RUN don’t walk.”

    Are you really certain it was a “dude”? Could have been a dude-ette.

    My main credit card got compromised. I have no idea how. As soon as I saw the transaction I went online and disputed the transaction. The card was immediately cancelled and a new card is on order. I have to go to multiple websites and change the card used for automatic payments.

  2. SteveF says:

    I keep on telling him to go to church and start dating there.  I figure that gives you a 50 / 50 chance.

    Optimist. “50/50”. -snerk-

  3. Greg Norton says:

    The Star Trek disintegration booths are coming.

        https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Disintegration_station

    “Half a Life”, the TNG episode with David Ogden Stiers.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_a_Life_(Star_Trek:_The_Next_Generation)

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Doesn’t drink but she and all her body builder friends do a lot of mushrooms and other drugs, because “alcohol is the worst thing you can do to your body.”   She spent ten minutes talking about microdosing…

    All I could think as I drifted off was “Dude, RUN don’t walk.”

    She was probably in the doctor’s office for testosterone.

    Not for trans purposes but just enough to increase her sex drive. That’s a quiet fad.

    Of course it has unpleasant mental side effects, but the users brush it off as people not being able to handle “strong women”.

  5. MrAtoz says:

    For executions, anybody can push the button (how about the victim’s family?). The issue is getting the necessary IV lines set up properly, but this is being done by prison staff who are not well trained in phlebotomy, especially when the prisoner is very obese. Stories of botched executions are not hard to find.

    During D4’s lab tech degree, during the Summer, she worked at a lab where she had to perform 100 “sticks” in three weeks. That is 100 successful blood draws witnessed by a certified tech. She said nobody wants to be the phlebotomist. It is the lowest paying job and most States don’t require you to be certified. She wasn’t sure she could meet the requirement until they were having her do 20 or more a day. All lab techs have to do it as backup to the phlebotomist.

  6. MrAtoz says:

    Nobody mentioned Futurama’s robot suicide booths. Walk in, deposit a quarter, and whoosh.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    “The Green Mile” has Old Sparky becoming Old Smoky.  Old Sparky never worked very well especially when they did not wet down the head cap or did not ground the legs to the Earth very well.

    Old Sparky worked just fine juicing Ted Bundy.

    Florida maintains the option for anyone who chooses that route.

    Ironically, the Governor who got Old Sparky rocking again was Bob Graham, a Dem.

  8. SteveF says:

    strong woman

    noun

    1. (prior to 2015) A woman who was able to keep the family together and keep the farm or business running at a profit after her husband died, was severely injured, or was conscripted.

    2. (2015-present) An angry harridan with anger issues and poor self control.

    Usage note: Often used sarcastically, as in “She’s such a strong, independent woman that she buys her own groceries and pays her own rent.” or “Her boyfriend dumped her because she’s a strong woman. Yah, Strong woman. I’m sure that was it.”

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Usage note: Often used sarcastically, as in “She’s such a strong, independent woman that she buys her own groceries and pays her own rent.” or “Her boyfriend dumped her because she’s a strong woman. Yah, Strong woman. I’m sure that was it.”

    The leader of the undergraduate CS cheating society at the program where I got my Masters was a 30s-ish “strong woman” who I suspected was on testosterone.

    On the last day of classes before graduation, she held court with the society members in the back of my open lab, bragging about her cheating exploits and how she could snap necks if she wanted, one in particular if she had a mind to – implication mine.

    Austin has a lot of the “bodybuilder” type. The subject of this video, “Doctor” Racso, is typical of the Locust Class subset. The “gym” he mentions is something which looks more like a buyers club for weed and other “healthy” highs based on a quick look at the web site.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgJAzmc-p6A

    Houston probably has a similar facility.

  10. brad says:

    Executions – if you’ve got to do it, nitrogen is the way to go. The guy who was just executed put on a show trying to hold his breath. That’s because they set it up stupidly. He shouldn’t have known when the nitrogen started. They should have just put him into a room with fast ventilation, and at some point undetectable to him, the ventilation switches to N2. Quiet fade out, wait 20 minutes to be certain, done.

    That said, I do have a problem with capital punishment. Not because some crimes don’t deserve it, but because there have been numerous mistakes, prisoners railroaded through the system, only to be exonerated later.

  11. Greg Norton says:

    That said, I do have a problem with capital punishment. Not because some crimes don’t deserve it, but because there have been numerous mistakes, prisoners railroaded through the system, only to be exonerated later.

    The option should always be there to deal with a Ted Bundy.

    Bundy never thought that fate would catch up with him and that, at worst, he’d die in prison.

  12. Greg Norton says:

    Executions – if you’ve got to do it, nitrogen is the way to go. The guy who was just executed put on a show trying to hold his breath. That’s because they set it up stupidly. He shouldn’t have known when the nitrogen started. They should have just put him into a room with fast ventilation, and at some point undetectable to him, the ventilation switches to N2. Quiet fade out, wait 20 minutes to be certain, done.

    If I had to guess, the law firm – most likely Perkins Coie — hired a consultant to coach the condemned about how to act when the moment came in order to cast doubt on using nitrogen and raise the possibility that it is “cruel and unusual” punishment.

    That would translate into more $$$ down the road for lawyers, possibly via a class action lawsuit.

  13. drwilliams says:

    That said, I do have a problem with capital punishment. Not because some crimes don’t deserve it, but because there have been numerous mistakes, prisoners railroaded through the system, only to be exonerated later.

    What were the stats on the shootings in Kansas City?

    One dead, 22 injured, 9 of them wounded children? There could have been 22 more deaths.

    Guilty, short trial, expedited appeals, apply the death penalty to the shooter(s), and accomplices. Repeat for the next lot until random firing with deaths and injuries to bystanders becomes recognized as a short trip to Snuff City. Potential accomplices will soon get the idea that it’s much better to be a live snitch than a dead accomplice. 

    I’ve mentioned before that I recall Johnny Carson having a guest in the late sixties–the last state hangman in the United States. (There were later hangings, but I believe he was the last with an official title). He explained that he bought good 1-inch hemp rope, soaked it in water, and stretched it to 7/8-inch to get the ideal fit.

    There is no reason that hanging or firing squad should not be considered humane if done properly–see the Bruen decision for “history and tradition”.  Either is a lot more humane that the circumstances where most of the victims were killed. 

    As far as errors, if the system is set up to provide good defense to the accused, and the authorities are required to share all exculpatory evidence, and there is a good independent review, the results are acceptable. 

  14. nick flandrey says:

    Not testosterone at the chiropractor, and otherwise attractive, just a ‘softness’ like an asian who never starved.  Vaguely asian features.   Round soft shoulders and upper arm…

    The call was all about her, never once did she ask what “juan”  did, does, or wanted to do.   I was there drifting in and out for 20-40 minutes and she was jabbering the whole time.    Was discussing the intricacies of taking  ‘molly’ when I was called to the table…

    —————————–

    Blustery day.   Chilly and gusty and grey.

    But the coffee should be ready, then I’ll leap into action.

    n

  15. Greg Norton says:

    I’ve mentioned before that I recall Johnny Carson having a guest in the late sixties–the last state hangman in the United States. (There were later hangings, but I believe he was the last with an official title). He explained that he bought good 1-inch hemp rope, soaked it in water, and stretched it to 7/8-inch to get the ideal fit.

    New Hampshire still offers hanging as an option for their remaining death row inmates.

    And I believe that only the sight of Trump swinging from gallows built on the steps of the Capitol will satisfy a significant portion of the population suffering from TDS. Depending on how this year goes, that may yet happen.

  16. drwilliams says:

    The email chain has the committee checking the top 10 items in each category, with two people independently reviewing the nominees to verify they complied with Chinese censors. The committee members naturally “just followed orders,” as they cared about their clout within the science fiction community as Hugo Award gatekeepers rather than allowing votes to be processed democratically.

    It begs the question, if these science fiction clout chasers did this just to appease China, what happened in years past when their political opponents were getting nominations, and how much did they rig those Hugo Awards? Regardless, with a scandal of this level, an honest can’t look to the Hugo Awards as anything other than political-driven pointlessness. These aren’t the best science fiction works in craft. They’re just political propaganda pieces.

    https://fandompulse.com/2024/02/15/leaked-e-mails-reveal-hugo-awards-committee-spied-on-writers-on-behalf-of-the-chinese-government-for-chengdu-worldcon/

    Running yellow dog lackeys of Communist imperialism.

    “Only Nixon could go to China” He should have stayed home.

  17. drwilliams says:

    “But the coffee should be ready, then I’ll leap into action”

    I’m going to start by shuffling, then work up.

  18. dkreck says:

    They need to stop the griping about pain and suffering. Most of the victims of capital crime suffer far worse. If we can put our pets down fast and simple with a couple of shots what else do we need

  19. drwilliams says:

    “If we can put our pets down fast and simple with a couple of shots what else do we need”

    I’ll work on a list.

  20. nick flandrey says:

    I’m going to start by shuffling, then work up.  

    – yeah, by “leap into action” I mean shuffle, grump, ease, groan, and slowly stretch my way into action…

    WRT the Hugos, we’ve known they were corrupted political garbage since the Sad Puppies.   The dominance of Tor and certain authors, including authors who hadn’t published anything in years, and an ideological stance that was clear as day, were called out and proved by Larry, Sarah, and the others.   Note in the current emails that they “identified potential slate voting” and discarded those votes.   SO if I like all the same things as someone who puts together a recommended list or “slate” in the organizers view, my vote doesn’t count.  Wonder if they do the same for “slates” put forward by their peers…  probably not, and then have the nerve to call it a false flag…

    n

  21. CowboyStu says:

    A Manson Family killer was sentenced to death decades ago, but the state gooberment bureaucraps canceled the execution and she was recently paroled after 50 years  of prison funded by tax $$$$ stolen from me and other californicaton honest citizens.

  22. lpdbw says:

    As far as errors, if the system is set up to provide good defense to the accused, and the authorities are required to share all exculpatory evidence, and there is a good independent review, the results are acceptable. 

    So, in other words,  in fantasy land.

    You can’t even get Congress to release video showing how innocent the J6 protesters were, let alone politicallly active prosecutors.

  23. lpdbw says:

    50/50 chance

    50% chance of losing 50% of your stuff (or more) in the divorce.

  24. Brad says:

    cruel and unusual punishment.

    I have always wondered about that phrase. A direct reading would indicate that there us nothing wrong with cruel punishment, as long as it is not unusual.

    So you could, for example, institute branding for simple traffic offenses. Traffic tickets are frequent, so the punishment would not be unusual.

    Obviously, that’s not how the phrase is used. But that is what it says.

  25. drwilliams says:

    Our Gathering Storm by Vance Byers

    I’m not alone in my pessimism; Barbara F. Walter, a prominent political scientist, argues that the conditions for civil war are emerging in America. Her findings are a relatively sound synthesis of a large body of research into the correlates of civil war. What mars Walter’s study is that she embeds her findings in a tendentious analysis of American politics, laying the blame for these dangerous trends at the feet of white men, Republicans, and all the other boogeymen of the Left. There is a revealing irony in seeing an assessment of the prospects for civil war laid out so myopically by a rising member of the ruling class, as if the last eight years of Democratic Party-led soft coups and anarcho-tyranny never happened. It is this same lack of self-awareness that is driving our society to a breaking point.

    https://floppingaces.net/most-wanted/our-gathering-storm/

    Byers essay is replete with links and I’m not nearly done with it.

    The first link in the above excerpt is a Guardian article reviewing Walter’s book, which was published in Jan 2022. I’m going to put it on my reading list, which may be redundant as I also found this 57-minute video:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dynl-71hN1M

    Walter’s book is effectively at least three years old with publishing lead times, which means that it would not cover, or more likely, provide any excuses for the rampant anti-democratic lawbreaking of the Biden administration. She may have more recent work or speeches, but it’s a place to start.

  26. drwilliams says:

    Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has captured the NCAA’s women’s all-time points record, surpassing 3,527 points on Thursday against the Michigan Wolverines.

    The Hawkeyes guard overtook previous record holder Kelsey Plum in 13 fewer career games, while taking fewer shots. Her deep 3-point shot, showmanship and competitive intensity have sold out arenas, where seats go for hundreds of dollars, and broken TV viewership records.

    Jackie Stiles is one of those watching. The Hall of Fame guard from Missouri State held the all-time points record from 2001 to 2017.

    “To see somebody so dominant in their craft — it just brings even non-sports fans to follow her and be inspired by her,” Stiles says.

    Clark’s NIL [NCAA Name, Image, and Likeness polct allows players to share in profits since 2021] value is in the millions, with sponsorships including State Farm, H&R Block, Goldman Sachs and, of course, Nike and Gatorade.

    When Stiles entered the WNBA as the fourth pick in 2001, her salary was $55,000.

    “She won’t have to work a day in her life after her basketball career ends if she’s halfway smart with her money,” Stiles says. “I would not have to be working right now if I got to be compensated like that — it’s pretty amazing to see.”

    https://www.npr.org/2024/02/15/1230701661/caitlin-clark-a-tsunami-of-impact-and-influence-breaks-the-ncaa-scoring-record

    Kudos to Jackie Clark for some real class and sportsmanship.

    The sad note is that until we get a policy in place that bans males from female sports, the women’s game from middle school to high school to college to pros is on a path to extinction.

    And frankly, I can’t wait until the day a second-string male coach puts on a dress and shoves a genetic female coach out the door.

  27. drwilliams says:

    Sponsor of Mills’ migrant resettlement office says “New Americans” deserve priority over US veterans.

    https://twitter.com/TheMaineWire/status/1755208019363631580

    There are documented instances of military vets being evicted from housing which is then turned into housing for illegal alien invaders.

  28. Alan says:

    >> “But the coffee should be ready, then I’ll leap into action”

    I’m going to start by shuffling, then work up.

    If you ask nicely, I’m sure @nick has a spare red cap in his stacks.

  29. Alan says:

    >> Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has captured the NCAA’s women’s all-time points record, surpassing 3,527 points on Thursday against the Michigan Wolverines.

    Clark is also in prime position to surpass the overall NCAA scoring record of 3,667 points, which Pete Maravich set from 1967-70 at LSU. Clark entered Thursday only 147 points behind Maravich. If she maintains her current scoring rate of 32.1 points per game, Clark would pass Pistol Pete in five games. (Now just 98 points behind Maravich.)

  30. Alan says:

    >> The sad note is that until we get a policy in place that bans males from female sports, the women’s game from middle school to high school to college to pros is on a path to extinction.

    If that policy ever is enacted, do we also have to bar females from male sports?

  31. Alan says:

    >> “If we can put our pets down fast and simple with a couple of shots what else do we need”

    Umm, a pharmaceutical company willing (able?) to sell those same drugs directly to a prison warden.

  32. Lynn says:

    Nobody mentioned Futurama’s robot suicide booths. Walk in, deposit a quarter, and whoosh.

    I can’t stand Futurama, I have never made it more than five minutes.  Shoot, maybe two minutes.

    2
    1
  33. Brad says:

    If that policy ever is enacted, do we also have to bar females from male sports?

    I read somewhere that most men’s sports are actually “open” categories. The women’s categories are the restricted ones.

    Dunno if that’s true, or perhaps, for which competitions it is true. Anyone have actual knowledge or sources?

  34. paul says:
    Umm, a pharmaceutical company willing (able?) to sell those same drugs directly to a prison warden.

    I hear fentanyl is affordable.  Go ax a bro on MLK street for a hit.  

    Or use morphine like a nursing home or hospice making folks “comfortable”. 

  35. drwilliams says:

    “If you ask nicely, I’m sure @nick has a spare red cap in his stacks.”

    I’m thinking about pitching an entirely new concept of Walker, Texas Ranger.

  36. Lynn says:

    WRT the Hugos, we’ve known they were corrupted political garbage since the Sad Puppies.   The dominance of Tor and certain authors, including authors who hadn’t published anything in years, and an ideological stance that was clear as day, were called out and proved by Larry, Sarah, and the others.   Note in the current emails that they “identified potential slate voting” and discarded those votes.   SO if I like all the same things as someone who puts together a recommended list or “slate” in the organizers view, my vote doesn’t count.  Wonder if they do the same for “slates” put forward by their peers…  probably not, and then have the nerve to call it a false flag…

    I ignore all Hugos after 2012.  “Among Others” by Jo Walton was the last decent Hugo in my book.

  37. drwilliams says:

    >> The sad note is that until we get a policy in place that bans males from female sports, the women’s game from middle school to high school to college to pros is on a path to extinction.

    “If that policy ever is enacted, do we also have to bar females from male sports?”

    Men should be excluded from women’s sports because they have an inherent physical advantage in sports that rely on strength, speed, height and stamina. Decades of competition and record keeping show that this is true, and biology and biomechanics explain why. The use of performance enhancing substances is banned in sports, and that includes hormones. 

    I’ve never heard of a case of men receiving female hormones to enhance their performance in sports. It may be possible. But if only for the sake of symmetry and to head off any weird shitte, I’d write the rules to prevent crossing either way.

    I’d just to be thorough and recognizing that there are a lot of sick perverted people out there that would consider it, I would also ban gene therapy that results in performance advantage. Nothing like a few gorilla genes to give the kid a power-lifting advantage, even if they become violent and a little slow.

    For completeness, we should ban species crossover as well. It’s only a matter of time before they enhance a dog to an IQ of 70 and it decides that it wants–with some nudging, no doubt–to run the 400m high hurdles.

    I think it was Steve Perry’s Ramal Extraction had a character that was an alien hybrid and successfully hid the fact when they were playing some sort of future football analogue. 

  38. Alan says:

    >> If you ask nicely, I’m sure @nick has a spare red cap in his stacks.

    Argh, “red cape”… dang auto-fill… 

  39. drwilliams says:
    Umm, a pharmaceutical company willing (able?) to sell those same drugs directly to a prison warden.

    I hear fentanyl is affordable.  Go ax a bro on MLK street for a hit.  

    Or use morphine like a nursing home or hospice making folks “comfortable”. 

    No shortage of confiscated street drugs. 

    Nitrogen needs more testing, though. Prefereably on the partners at Perkins Cloaca.

  40. Ken Mitchell says:

    Larry Nivens’ “Achilles Choice” features a future in which Olympians are chemically and genetically engineered to win both the Olympic Games and Nobel Prizes. 

    https://www.amazon.com/Achilles-Choice-Larry-Niven/dp/0812510836/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SMLOJ8WAJETT&keywords=larry+niven+achilles&qid=1708208873&sprefix=larry+niven+achilles%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1&tag=ttgnet-20

  41. paul says:

    The website thing?  FTP in and download everything.  Then when you find a new host, I use Dreamhost, maybe you can upload it all and after the DNS stuff goes through….

    Dreamhost has gone up to $155 a year including domain registration.  But after 20 years or so… hey.

  42. Lynn says:

    “Acheivement Unlocked: Thieves”

       https://areaocho.com/acheivement-unlocked-thieves/

    “The FBI isn’t just serving as Biden’s secret police, now they are stealing, too. This J6 arrestee had thousands of dollars of his property stolen when the Feds raided his home.

    Each day, we get closer to third world sXXXhole status.”

    Divemedic is not wrong.

  43. Lynn says:

    Larry Nivens’ “Achilles Choice” features a future in which Olympians are chemically and genetically engineered to win both the Olympic Games and Nobel Prizes. 

       https://www.amazon.com/Achilles-Choice-Larry-Niven/dp/0812510836?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Read Nancy Kress’s “Beggars In Spain” series.  That will knock your socks off.

       https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060733489?tag=ttgnet-20/

  44. drwilliams says:

    “But if only for the sake of symmetry and to head off any weird shitte, I’d write the rules to prevent crossing either way.”

    The exception would be sports that have only one team. 

    Title IX was used to require more opportunities for women in sports at the college level. The first result was more scrutiny of less popular men’s sports that were subsidized by the money-making football and basketball programs, and dropping some of those in favor of women’s sports. 

    The implementation of Tittle IX by a federal bureaucracy has essentially resulted in a quest for numerical parity. 

    Though interest in the sport of wrestling  has consistently increased at the high school level since 1990, scores of colleges have dropped their wrestling programs during that same period. The OCR’s three-prong test for compliance with Title IX often is cited as the reason for these cuts. Wrestling historically was the most frequently dropped sport, but other men’s sports later overtook the lead, such that according to the NCAA, the most-dropped men’s sports between 1987 and 2002 were as follows:

    1. cross country (183)
    2. indoor track (180)
    3. golf (178)
    4. tennis (171)
    5. rowing (132)
    6. outdoor track (126)
    7. swimming (125)
    8. wrestling (121)

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

    There are two things worth noting:

    First is the gradual increase of women enrolled in colleges and universities, which continues to put pressure on men’s sports.

    Second is that the current denial of genetic male advantage in some sports has opened the door for a counter-argument: If there is no advantage, then the solution is simply to declare that all sports are open to females, who have equally opportunity to compete.

    Yeah, right. Let me predict first that such a claim would be denied out of hand–logical or not–if only on the sole basis that fedgov will fight to keep their job count intact.

    Be interesting to seem how many of the “feel like wymyn today” crowd would be competitive taking their hormone therapy to the competition for Big Ten offensive lineman. 

  45. RickH says:

    Hosting costs comparison – use your favorite AI to get an answer to this prompt:

    prepare a chart of the top 10 web hosting places. the first column is the hosting company name. second column is the initial monthly cost for a 3- year period. third column is monthly cost after the initial period. Plan for each hosting provider should be shared hosting with unlimited features (domains, unmetered bandwith, unlimited storage, email accounts included). 

    Very similar in costs and benefits.

  46. drwilliams says:

    COVID Vaccine Mandate At Rutgers Survives Landmark Court Ruling

    Did students at Rutgers have the “fundamental right” to refuse a vaccine? Nope, a federal appellate court ruled.

    https://patch.com/new-jersey/newarknj/covid-vaccine-mandate-rutgers-survives-landmark-court-ruling

    Only one way for this one to go.

    That “Right to Privacy” Amendment may get some traction.

    And there seems to be a disconnect, here. Fedgov sent lawtroops to Tennessee this week to claim that HIV-infected hookers in that state have a civil right to try to intentionally spread it to their clients. Could someone with dengue fever claim that they had a similar right, which is much more expansive than refusing the jab?

  47. Lynn says:

    Arlo and Janis: Transfer Portal

       https://www.gocomics.com/arloandjanis/2024/02/17

    Oh my, are things that bad for Garfield ?

  48. Lynn says:

    Wizard Of Id: Old Folk’s Home

       https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2024/02/17

    I laughed at first and then I went oh.  Bad taste ?

  49. drwilliams says:

    The National MS Society entered the competition for the Bud Light Suicide Award this week:

    Report: National MS Society Dumps Elderly, Lifelong Volunteer Because She Asked What Pronouns Were

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2024/02/report-national-ms-society-dumps-elderly-lifelong-volunteer-because-she-asked-what-pronouns-were/

    90-year-old women has been a volunteer for 60 years, took over a self-help group that her husband started, after he died of MS twenty years ago.

    Her thought crime? Not understanding why she had to include her pronouns in her email.

    She reportedly mad some people feel “unsafe”. I can’t imagine a 90-year-old woman asking a question that would make anyone feel unsafe, unless she had a gun or an axe in her hands and murder in her eyes.

    In 2020, the MS Society began prompting employees to recite its DEI statement before all meetings; it removed Columbus Day holiday and added Juneteenth as a paid holiday; and it started having race-based summits. The next year, the MS Society added “pronoun options” to standard email signature templates and ramped up its obsession with racial politics.

    By 2022, it began holding Hispanic summits extra to its annual black summit and established a zero-tolerance inclusion policy underscoring it is “committed to embedding diversity, equity and inclusion in everything we do.”

    Why do I smell the stench of hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations being spent on boar-milking “consultants” with five and six-figure fees to run “how to shove it to whitey” “summits”?

    I hope someone is doing a deep dive in their financials and helps assist in the self-immolation. 

  50. Lynn says:

    “Astronomers Convince UN to Examine Impact of Large Satellite Networks”

       https://www.pcmag.com/news/astronomers-convince-un-to-examine-impact-of-large-satellite-networks

    “Astronomers lobbied the UN’s Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to examine how much networks like SpaceX’s Starlink may interfere with their scientific observations.”

    I don’t trust the UN to do anything.  Except to make a money grab.

    It is time for the USA to exit the UN.  And NATO.

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  51. Lynn says:

    “Nvidia becomes world’s 4th most valuable company, surpasses Alphabet and Amazon”

       https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/nvidia-becomes-worlds-4th-most-valuable-company-surpasses-alphabet-and-amazon

    “AI frenzy lifts market cap of Nvidia, Microsoft, TSMC, others.”

    Why do I feel that AI is being overblown ?

    I have serious concerns about the decisions that AI machine make.  In other words, are they going to follow Asimov’s Three Laws Of Robotics at a minimum ?  Why do I doubt this ?

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

  52. Ken Mitchell says:

    I have serious concerns about the decisions that AI machine make. 

    We already know that AI lies like a rug. I would NEVER trust anything composed or influenced by an “AI” system.

  53. drwilliams says:

    Remember Biden Talking About That 1974 Classified Doc? It Was So Much Worse Than That.

    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2024/02/17/remember-biden-talking-about-that-1974-classified-doc-it-was-so-much-worse-than-that-n2170266

    Trump is accused of mishandling classified documents that he had a right to be in possession of as president, had the absolute right to declassify without any kind of oversight, and had securely stored in a facility that had been vetted by the Secret Service. The National Archives was weaponized to fabricate complaints used to front the phony accusations that led to a search warrant,  and phony staged photos of documents thrown on the floor of Mir-A-Lago by the Biden DOJ searchers were blared across the media.

    Biden had documents from his Senate and VP days that he had to see under supervision, had no right to possess, could not declassify, and were scattered willy-nilly around his offices, garage, and among his boxes of papers at the University of Delaware. He also disclosed classified documents to his ghostwriter.

    Let’s parse that out again: FJB had documents from his Senate days that he could only see under supervision in a secure facility. Did he stuff them down his pants to steal them like Sandy Berger stealing incriminating docs directly from the National Archives to coverup for the Clinton Crime Family?

    But Slow Joe, who was a dimwit at the height of his intellectual powers, goes uncharged. So far. January 2025 approaches and the Democrats are ordering brown trousers.

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  54. Greg Norton says:

    “AI frenzy lifts market cap of Nvidia, Microsoft, TSMC, others.”

    Why do I feel that AI is being overblown ?

    As long as the possibility exists that Corporate America will be able to fire most of the white collar workforce using AI, they will continue to pour money into the monkey trick.

    Management bypassed me over the last few weeks to fulfill crazy request du jour from a potential customer. Officially, I’m too booked with work, but I can’t help but feel that something else is going on.

    The patch applied by the overseas developers is a lot of cut-n-paste of my code.

    Maybe the hack will work. Who knows.

    Is Batman a transvestite?

    We’ll find out Monday morning.

  55. Greg Norton says:

    I have serious concerns about the decisions that AI machine make.  In other words, are they going to follow Asimov’s Three Laws Of Robotics at a minimum ?  Why do I doubt this ?

    Armed autonomous drones violate all three.

  56. SteveF says:

    I don’t trust the UN to do anything.  Except to make a money grab.

    They’re pretty good at rape, too, especially of preteen girls.

  57. drwilliams says:

    “Is Batman a transvestite?”

    This week?

  58. nick flandrey says:

    The website thing?  FTP in and download everything.  Then when you find a new host, I use Dreamhost, maybe you can upload it all and after the DNS stuff goes through…. 

    – and that’s the problem with proprietary “site builder” tools.   No HTML files at all.  Images and files in their proprietary format.   I haven’t looked into the proprietary files, but if it was something simple, someone would have done it by now, given the amount of angst online about it.  Seems that as the host, they do some sort of translation or rendering when the page is requested.

    I’ve used their tool to archive the site as a zip, so I have all the images.   I can scrape the site to get all the  text.

    The HTML when I “view source” on a page is just a bunch of tables, scripts, and variables, with all the elements and files obfuscated with index numbers.

    Don’t use proprietary tools kids, no matter what promises they make.

    n

  59. nick flandrey says:

    The harrowing case of Crystal Magnum: True crime doc lays bare twisted tale of stripper and escort who shot to infamy after falsely accusing three Duke lacrosse players of rape – before being convicted for stabbing her own boyfriend to death

    • Crystal Mangum, from North Carolina, first made headlines back in 2006 
    • She falsely accused three college students of gang raping her during a party 
    • The mom-of-three would later be sentenced for fatally stabbing her boyfriend 

    yep, remember Mike Nifong?   Or the loudmouth race baiter and extortionist that rose to prominence on this case?   And all of it racially motivated hate.

    IIRC, none of the three different dna samples from her underwear matched the accused.

    Crystal, who later released a memoir titled The Last Dance For Grace: The Crystal Mangum Story, was never charged with making false accusations – but her legal troubles would only continue to worsen.

    Just a short time later, in February 2010, she was convicted on misdemeanor charges for setting a fire that nearly razed her home with her three children inside.

    But there was still one final tragic twist in the tale.

    On April 3, 2011, Crystal stabbed her 46-year-old boyfriend Reginald Daye following a heated confrontation

    In 2013, Crystal, then 34, was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison for second-degree murder

    She claimed that Reginald had been beating her at the time before she snatched the kitchen knife and stabbed him in self-defense

    ….

    The mom ultimately ‘poked him in the side’ of the chest at his apartment.

    Don’t put your d!ck in crazy.

  60. Greg Norton says:

    yep, remember Mike Nifong?   Or the loudmouth race baiter and extortionist that rose to prominence on this case?   And all of it racially motivated hate.

    Nifong used the case to win a primary and general election he never would have won on his own.

    The case smelled bad from day one, but 2006 was when the tide really started to turn against Shrub and the midterms were brutal for Republicans.

  61. Greg Norton says:

    Don’t put your d!ck in crazy.

    Nothing good happens in a frat house after midnight.

  62. nick flandrey says:

    Nothing good happens in a frat house after midnight.

    – fixed it to  what my dad used to say.

    ‘course the bad things that happened were usually things we wanted to do at the time.

    n

  63. nick flandrey says:

    Sh!te startin’ to get real.

    Trump-supporting truckers REFUSE to take loads to New York and say they are ‘tired of leftists f***ing with’ the ex-president after he was fined $355M in NYC fraud case 

    could be a nothing burger or could take off like FJB and Let’s go brandon.

    n

  64. drwilliams says:

    “In 2013, Crystal, then 34, was sentenced to a minimum of 14 years in prison for second-degree murder”

    And don’t let felons walk because they tic boxes on the diversity form.

    Put her away for the false accusations and a man lives, her children are taken away and have a chance at a better life. 

    Didn’t look up Nifong. be too much to hope that he was disbarred and became a drug addict and died of a hot shot.

  65. drwilliams says:

    playing some tunes today:

    The Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks 1964–1971

    A very good album if you want a serving of the Stones and don’t want to play one of their albums. The double LP was short (roughly 39 minutes total per disc), but not quite short enough that the tech of 2002 could fit it on one CD. 

    Tommy James and the Shondells: 40 Years: The Complete Singles Collection (1966-2006)

    A double CD set with 79 minutes on the first disc and 78 on the second, for a total of 2 hours 37 minutes. The first disc is TJ&S, the second is TJ. 

    As singles only, the 28 song first disc covers the same time period as the earlier Rhino anthology (27 songs and 72 minutes), but does not include the album cuts of the latter, so the mix is different. In playing this I’ve been struck every time at how well the music flows–James was the producer and did a fine job. I need to play the Rhino compilation on the same day to get a comparison. Either disc is recommended for anyone tired of the oldies endless repetition of Hanky Panky, Mony Mony, I Think We’re Alone Now, and Crystal Blue Persuasion.

    The second disc is solo TJ, and if your music then was provided by AM and the infant FM radio as mine was, you never heard it. Recommended.

  66. Alan says:

    >> Sh!te startin’ to get real.

    Trump-supporting truckers REFUSE to take loads to New York and say they are ‘tired of leftists f***ing with’ the ex-president after he was fined $355M in NYC fraud case 

    could be a nothing burger or could take off like FJB and Let’s go brandon.

    FJB and LGB didn’t cost you much more that a few bucks for a bumper sticker. Truckers refusing to take loads potentially costs them their income and/or their jobs. Gotta be a real hard-core DJT supporter to go all in.

  67. drwilliams says:

    The Great Reset Didn’t Work: The Case of EVs

    But then the next year began to reveal uncomfortable truths. Cold weather dramatically cuts the range of the EVs. Charging stations are not as readily available on longer trips, charging takes longer than one expects, and having to plan such matters adds time. In addition, the repair bills can be extremely high if you can find someone to do it.

    Tesla as a manufacturer had planned out all such contingencies but other carmakers less so. Very quickly the EVs gained a bad reputation on a number of different fronts. 

    Tesla did nothing with respect to spare parts, replacement batteries, and repair bills, except conceal the reality that none of these would function with the economy or speed that traditional auto owners were used to.

    the EV is deeply loved by many as a second car for well-to-do suburban commuters who own homes, can charge overnight and have a petrol or diesel car as a backup for cold weather and out-of-town trips. That is to say, the market is becoming exactly what it should be – a street-worthy golf cart with very fancy features – and not some paradigmatic case for the ‘Great Reset’. That’s simply not happening, despite all the subsidies and tax breaks.

    Subsidies and tax breaks that are all effectively concentrated in our massive $30 billion + national debt.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/02/17/the-great-reset-didnt-work-the-case-of-evs/

    The article views it through the lens of the lockdowns. 

    What is omitted is that elementary economic and engineering analysis predicted the problems, but were ignored. 

    Also omitted but beyond the simplistic scope of the article, is that previous meddling in the automotive market by Obama to rescue union jobs put the automakers on notice that that Uncle Sugar was going to get his way and have any market distortion that the dumb ass party wanted. If Chrysler had been allowed to go bankrupt and Delphi shareholders hadn’t been screwed, the runup to electric would have had more resistance. 

    And yeah, Tesla is going to get revalued and the fall is going to look like a SpaceX capsule returning to earth. 

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