Tues. Feb. 4, 2025 – sometimes when the pendulum swings, it’s a Damoclean Sword…

By on February 4th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse

Dunno what the weather will be today. Forecast shows ‘clear’ and I’m going with “starts cool, but warms to low or mid 80s”… because that was yesterday. Except for the “clear” part. We’re in the south Texas “run the A/C and the heat in the same day” season.

I got a couple of pickups done yesterday. Mainly stuff for the BOL (driveway crack sealer, amongst other things), but a couple of household things too. Picked up the kid from her practice, and made tacos for my Ben… Sorry, tacos for dinner. Tried a new flavor packet, and it was pretty much like the other flavor packets.

Today I have one, possibly two, pickups. And I have some auction stuff to clear up. I’m also thinking it might be a good day to get some electrical stuff for the BOL, so I can find alternative sources if needed. Wife has relatives coming to visit us there, and they will need a hookup for their RV. I will need to install that hookup before hand… and I need to get the wire and the breaker. I’ve got outlets. Then I actually have to install it.

Sun up to sun down a farmer‘s husband’s work is never done…

Neither is a prepper’s. Get to stacking!

nick

80 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Feb. 4, 2025 – sometimes when the pendulum swings, it’s a Damoclean Sword…"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    69F this morning.   Still dark, maybe it will be clear.

    Coffee is good.   Lunch is made.   Creatures are stirring all over the house….

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Because…Texas…

    https://www.chron.com/culture/article/bucees-texas-san-marcos-opening-20045336.php

    The NFL will eventually put a team in San Marcos. That Buc-ee’s will be just a few miles north of the most likely stadium site.

    The location is also just a few miles south of the point where the Spaniards’ toll loop around Austin rejoins I-35. If you drink the Elon Musk variety of Flavor Aide, the Gigafactory is on the loop near the airport, and the road provides easy access to Bastrop, where The Real Life Tony Stark has his company town under construction.

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14356403/Incredible-images-capture-Navy-testing-new-laser-weapon-NEVER-runs-power.html 

    – what a concept, an electrical weapon using light.   Baby duck’s breathless reporting aside, this is what they admit to.   My trade mags are soliciting power levels that are truly astounding while casually referring to existing systems that would be science fiction only 10 years ago.

    n

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    And I have one sick kid staying home today.   Hope it’s not contagious.

    n

  5. Denis says:

    A speedy recovery for the sick child, and may it not be catching!

    Wife has relatives coming to visit us there,

    Haha. Decades of living in the big smoke, and practically no-one comes to visit, but get ones’ self a BOL in a nice bucolic location, and suddenly friends and family have nowhere else they would rather be…

    Happened to us too!

    Super busy work day. Brain steaming. Taking a tea and internet break to draw breath. Some sunbeams visible outside, will take mug outside and attempt to harvest them.

  6. Denis says:

    O cruel deception! Viewed from the garden, the sun is already below the horizon. Observed sunbeams were reflecting from an upstairs window. Now standing facing that, with my back to the real star.

  7. EdH says:

    Lasers are nice, but I think  5 miles range is way too short for modern ballistic and cruise missle speeds.

    On the Preble they’ve removed the forward all-weather and any-sized-target Phalanx for a clear weather small & slow targets laser.

    It’s fine for peacetime demo and testing, but I think most captains would prefer the Phalanx.

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Phalanx is a close=in ship defense weapon primarily aimed at missile defense, right?    The laser is an anti-drone, anti-small aircraft weapon.  Dunno if it has the slew rate or energy on target to kill missiles..

    I think the stated range limit must be due to detection and aiming limitations, because that beam continues line of sight into space.   Better be really sure you are going to hit something, or that your backdrop is clear to orbit…  or maybe past that limit they can’t get enough energy on target quickly enough due to dispersion in the atmosphere?

    n

  9. Lynn says:

    “Jaw-dropping’ Study Finds Vaccinated Children Have 170% Higher Risk of Autism”

        https://www.theburningplatform.com/2025/02/04/jaw-dropping-study-finds-vaccinated-children-have-170-higher-risk-of-autism/

    “Vaccinated children have a 170% higher chance of being diagnosed with autism compared to unvaccinated children, according to a new peer-reviewed study.”

    “The study also found that vaccinated children had a 212% greater likelihood of developing a range of other neurodevelopmental disorders, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), epilepsy/seizures, brain inflammation and tic and learning disorders.”

    “According to the study, the childhood vaccination schedule is likely a significant contributor to the higher rate of autism and neurodevelopmental conditions in vaccinated children.”

    “The study of 47,155 9-year-old children enrolled in the Florida Medicaid program since birth was published on Jan. 23 in Science, Public Health Policy and the Law.”

    Something is going on here.

    Hat tip to:

        https://thelibertydaily.com/

  10. Lynn says:

    Daylight Savings Time starts on March 9, 2025.  I vote that we do not Spring Forward this year, nor do we Fall Back on Nov 2, 2025.

    Stop the madness ! ! !

  11. Lynn says:

    Haha. Decades of living in the big smoke, and practically no-one comes to visit, but get ones’ self a BOL in a nice bucolic location, and suddenly friends and family have nowhere else they would rather be…

    Big Smoke is London, UK ?

    It was rather clear when I lived there in the summer of 1973.

  12. Geoff Powell says:

    @lynn:

    Big Smoke is London, UK ?

    That’s its nickname, yes. Not so much in fact, these days. Dates from before coal was banned as a domestic fuel, when we got nasty smogs.

    G.

  13. tv says:

    @ Nick (from Monday)

    Hi Nick – Couple of quick comments:

    1. Market cap of a corporation is not the same as GDP (trade) so you are comparing apples to oranges (or as a wonderfully direct math teacher I had many decades ago used to say: comparing garbage cans to Cadillacs). I don’t understand what your point is.
    2. Mr. Lutke is not wrong in some respects, but often where you sit is where you stand.  Shopify is the major alternative to joining the Amazon online retailing world for companies wanting an online retail presence.  Tariffs between Canada and the USA will severely impact his clients and hence the bottom line of his company.  I don’t expect there to be single business owner in Canada that has a dependence on trade with the USA to look upon a trade war with anything but dismay, if not horror, and would accept almost any measures to avoid it.  They worry about the next quarter, as they should.  The tariff war is about long-term investment flows.  If nothing is done, Lutke will just move his company the the USA to avoid further uncertainty in his largest market – which is the point of Trump threatening tariffs.   We do need to make changes in Canada , many of those changes have been required for years, and they are independent of any actions taken or not by the USA.  If this actually kick-starts some of those changes, I may actually have something nice to say about Trump.  Of course this also requires Canada’s politicians to wake up, so it seems unlikely to happen.
  14. Geoff Powell says:

    The ban came into effect in London in 1956, with the first Clean Air Act, of that year.

    G.

  15. MrAtoz says:

    It is interesting watching the Dumbo’s self-destruct. DOGE’s take-down of USAID has touched the Dumbo’s slush fund and they are desperate to keep it. They started with, “It’s less than a percent of the total budget.” When that didn’t work, they went with “if USAID isn’t delivered…THE WORLD WILL END!” Dumbo’s with ties to USAID are being exposed. AOC, Cheney, Schemer had their ties exposed and they are yelling the loudest. “Get tRump! Resist! Don’t take those buyouts! It’s a coup! It’s illegal! Unelected Musk (my fav)!” Thrown in Hogg as the new Vice DNC Chair, and the Dumbo destruction is 9 seconds to midnight. The Dumbo’s don’t care about us, they care about our money and controlling us*.

    *Redumblicans, too.

  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    @Tv, just trying to give a reference for size of the issue.    The total amount of trade with Canada is a drop in the bucket, and the US can do without it entirely (not saying there wouldn’t be disruptions, or that it wouldn’t take time).  

    The reverse isn’t true.

    It appears to be moot in any case as the threat seems to have worked.

    n

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  17. Nick Flandrey says:

    Turns out living in a tiny trailer isn’t for everyone.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14359305/Couple-fled-NYC-Oregon-rude-awakening-tiny-house.html 

    Even coming from 400 sqft in NYFC, it was a big change in lifestyle.   Moved to rural OR too…

    Their other observation applies to any decrease in the conveniences and robots of our everyday life..

    The couple was surprised to find that life in the wilderness does not necessarily mean less work. 

    ‘To our astonishment, we didn’t slow down. Mother Nature truly keeps you on your toes,’ Castro said.

    — very unlikely that you will have any “free” time during a collapse or disaster.   If you think you’ll finally get  a chance to sit around and read all day… you might be mistaken.

    n

  18. Lynn says:

    ““These residential ‘micro-units’ might just solve Houston’s housing crisis”

        https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/houston-affordable-housing-20146324.php

    “A new study highlights the use of flexible co-living units with rents as low at $700.”

    “A new plan to alleviate Houston’s affordable housing crisis has the potential to kill two birds with one stone—add cheaper housing options and revitalize downtown’s dreary vacant office space.”

    No parking.  No plumbing in the “dorm units”, not even a sink.  

    They must be planning on converting existing tall buildings as the stairwell structure does not meet the current code of having a stairwell at the two opposite outside corners of the floor (9/11 major code revamp of tall buildings).

    Maybe.  Sounds like a boondoggle though.

  19. tv says:

    “I just had a good call with President Trump. Canada is implementing our $1.3 billion border plan — reinforcing the border with new choppers, technology and personnel, enhanced coordination with our American partners, and increased resources to stop the flow of fentanyl,” Trudeau wrote. “Nearly 10,000 frontline personnel are and will be working on protecting the border.”

    “In addition, Canada is making new commitments to appoint a Fentanyl Czar, we will list cartels as terrorists, ensure 24/7 eyes on the border, launch a Canada- U.S. Joint Strike Force to combat organized crime, fentanyl and money laundering,” he added. “I have also signed a new intelligence directive on organized crime and fentanyl and we will be backing it with $200 million.”

    “Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together,” he concluded.

    The $1.3 billion plan (over 5 years) was proposed to Trump when Trudeau went to Mar-A-Lago before inauguration, so this is the same deal that was offered weeks ago.  It seems to me Trump got cold feet over whacking both economies when he saw the Canadian government wouldn’t cave-in and was proposing it’s own tariffs on US products.  Of course, it is important to position all of this as a “win” for Trump – his own narcissistic ego requires that.  (Just like NAFTA was the worst trade agreement ever and 15 months later the USMC deal is the greatest in the world, in spite of few changes, because he was involved.  Of course, now that is all unfair and a terrible deal too.  Liar.)

    I still don’t trust a word said by either of those pols about their meeting.  Trump has already started to move the goalposts (talk of defense spending, etc…) and I worry Trudeau might agree to any short-term fix to end his time as Prime Minister looking like a winner.  Trump cannot be trusted to keep the word of the USA and Canada should be leery of making any deals with a liar.  This is all starting to feel like a Greek Tragedy in several acts.

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  20. Lynn says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14356403/Incredible-images-capture-Navy-testing-new-laser-weapon-NEVER-runs-power.html 

    – what a concept, an electrical weapon using light.   Baby duck’s breathless reporting aside, this is what they admit to.   My trade mags are soliciting power levels that are truly astounding while casually referring to existing systems that would be science fiction only 10 years ago.

    n

    “What a perfect response!”

       https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/02/what-perfect-response.html

    “The USS Preble was sunk approximately 30 minutes afterwards when it was boarded and overturned by 20,000 cats chasing the laser.”

  21. Lynn says:

    — very unlikely that you will have any “free” time during a collapse or disaster.   If you think you’ll finally get  a chance to sit around and read all day… you might be mistaken.

    Hunting and gathering takes an incredible amount of time.

  22. Lynn says:

    The $1.3 billion plan (over 5 years) was proposed to Trump when Trudeau went to Mar-A-Lago before inauguration, so this is the same deal that was offered weeks ago.  It seems to me Trump got cold feet over whacking both economies when he saw the Canadian government wouldn’t cave-in and was proposing it’s own tariffs on US products.  Of course, it is important to position all of this as a “win” for Trump – his own narcissistic ego requires that.  (Just like NAFTA was the worst trade agreement ever and 15 months later the USMC deal is the greatest in the world, in spite of few changes, because he was involved.  Of course, now that is all unfair and a terrible deal too.  Liar.)

    I still don’t trust a word said by either of those pols about their meeting.  Trump has already started to move the goalposts (talk of defense spending, etc…) and I worry Trudeau might agree to any short-term fix to end his time as Prime Minister looking like a winner.  Trump cannot be trusted to keep the word of the USA and Canada should be leery of making any deals with a liar.  This is all starting to feel like a Greek Tragedy in several acts.

    This is The Art Of The Deal.

  23. Lynn says:

    “It’s nice to have friends… “

        https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/02/its-nice-to-have-friends.html

    El Salvador is offering to house criminals for the USA.  Sounds good, send the leftover illegal immigrants there.

  24. Greg Norton says:

    Even coming from 400 sqft in NYFC, it was a big change in lifestyle.   Moved to rural OR too…
     

    Sauvie Island isn’t exactly “rural” as much as undeveloped.

    One look at the picture of the couple, and that would have been enough for me to know that the tiny house experience didn’t end well.

    Um. Yeah.

  25. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    If the vaccine effects on children are as described, the industry has destroyed itself. The EUA will get examined with a fine-tooth comb and be found to be fraudulent, and the lawsuits will follow. 

    And if the elites think having a commie rich kid bump off a health care executive, wait until parents start hunting pharma execs and board members. Then try to find a jury that will convict. 

  26. Lynn says:

    @Lynn

    If the vaccine effects on children are as described, the industry has destroyed itself. The EUA will get examined with a fine-tooth comb and be found to be fraudulent, and the lawsuits will follow. 

    And if the elites think having a commie rich kid bump off a health care executive, wait until parents start hunting pharma execs and board members. Then try to find a jury that will convict. 

    I suspect that we have over vaccinated our kids.  60 vaccinations before the age of five is way too many.  I know several moms that have totally given up on vaccinating their kids which I do not agree with.  At a minimum, we need Polia, Diptheria, Tetanus, and a couple of other vaccinations, maybe measles and mumps.  But once every ten years should be fine.

  27. Lynn says:

    “Defending Eden: Book Five, the Darwin’s World Series: An Epic of Survival” by Jack L Knapp
    https://www.amazon.com/Defending-Eden-Darwins-World-Survival/dp/107402933X/

    Book number five of a five book science fiction time travel parallel universe travel series. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback published in 2019 by the author that I bought new on Amazon. I think that the series is finished as the author wrapped up all of his dangling threads in this expansive book.

    In the 25th century, humanity has solved all problems and even created machines for time travel and parallel universe travel. There is no want for anything with unlimited power from fusion reactors and matter conversion units. But, they caused a new problem, humanity is dying out as people have lost the will to live.

    So the future scientists are bringing forward dying people from the 20th century, restoring their bodies to their 20 year old age, and transferring them to Earth 4428, a human less parallel world going through the end of the Pleistocene ice age. With nothing but a few tools and the clothes on their backs. Survive or die in the primitive conditions of what will be the southern USA but there are lions, big cats, mammoths, bison, dire wolves, deer, elk, short face bears, grizzlies, etc. And chest deep snow in the winters.

    Matt and several others were deposited by the futurists into what will be the eastern portion of Texas. They moved to the western side of Texas and closer to the Gulf of Mexico to reduce the number of slaver attackers and the terrible winters. They settled in what is the Rio Grande area, close to the Gulf of Mexico. Now the futurists are coming back to Earth 4428 and wanting some of the transplanted survivors to start moving back to Earth Prime. And another parallel Earth has discovered jumping to parallel universes and is mining unoccupied parallel Earths for needed goods for their 40 billion inhabitants.

    Now some of the parallel Earths are being attacked by dogfaced aliens. And pushing them out of their worlds are the ravenous race of froggies who can destroy a world in 20 years by overpopulation. They are coming for Earth 19 in a 3,000 space ship invasion force. The froggie invasions of Earth Prime and the other Earths cannot be far behind.

    If you liked Robert Heinlein’s “Tunnel In The Sky” book, you will probably like this series.

    My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (147 reviews)

    Lynn

  28. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’m not anti-vaccination, just anti-covid mandatory nottavax.

    I’ve pointed out here before that unless you have young kids in school, you really don’t understand the current situation with vaccinations.   The number, and the number they routinely give at the same time, has ballooned since anyone here was in school, or had kids in school.  

    We did the recommended list, but spread them out, did individual shots where available, and declined a bunch of crazy shirt.

    They normally give newborns the Hep vax.   NEWBORNS.  1 day old.  Yeah, I declined that.  Repeatedly.   And then the next day.  And the next.

    n

  29. Lynn says:

    “Hulu circling ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ revival”

        https://thestreamable.com/new-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-series-starring-sarah-michelle-gellar-nears-pilot-order-at-hulu

    “There are few details about the proposed reboot yet, but it appears Joss Whedon isn’t in the picture.”

    Buffy the Old Vampire Slayer ?

  30. Ray Thompson says:

    El Salvador is offering to house criminals for the USA.  Sounds good, send the leftover illegal immigrants there.

    And politicians.

  31. Greg Norton says:

    “There are few details about the proposed reboot yet, but it appears Joss Whedon isn’t in the picture.”

    Buffy the Old Vampire Slayer ?
     

    Joss Whedon was cancelled for some reason IIRC.

    Buffy the Disney Vampire Slayer.

  32. JimB says:

    We’re in the south Texas “run the A/C and the heat in the same day” season.

    Your houses must not have much thermal mass, which is a bit surprising for your typical slab-on-grade construction. Or is it over crawl spaces?

    Our house is frame construction over a basement, which gives it considerable thermal mass. In transitional weather, the temperature typically only changes a couple degrees per day in the absence of heating or cooling, and that is the upstairs. The basement might change that amount in a week. We spend about a month each Spring and Fall not running heat or cooling.

    With forced-air heating and cooling, I have to be careful not to let the house get too cool or warm. I can change the air temperature quickly, but the surroundings respond much more slowly.

    My new garage is even slower to change. It is slab-on-grade construction, with almost 150 tons of concrete in the slab and footings. The walls and roof are insulated frame construction, with 8” walls and a 16” roof. I have evaporative cooling, but have not completed the solar heat. It can be 73-75F in summer with cooling, and is typically 60F in winter with no heat. During seasonal transition, the slab changes about a degree per week.

    I am fortunate to live in a very good climate, but it favors designs with high thermal mass, especially in Summer when the daily temperature fluctuation is typically 35-40 degrees. The first summer, I was late installing the evaporative cooler, so for about a month I cooled the garage at night using a simple 20” exhaust fan on a timer. It would get down to about 75F by morning, and only rise a couple degrees during the day. I love the desert.

  33. JimB says:

    I love the desert.

    Especially when we have a dry winter, such as this one. So far, we have had one major rain, and that was about a third of an inch a week ago. The ground is still damp in places. We might have better than normal wildflowers this Spring.

  34. MrAtoz says:

    Joss Whedon was cancelled for some reason IIRC.

    Cheating multiple times on his wife was the final coffin nail.  Divorced. There is a history of misogyny with him with multiple females saying so.

  35. Lynn says:

    Yay!  Today is 1 minute and 28 seconds longer than yesterday.

    Tomorrow will be 1 minute and 29 seconds longer than today.  

    I sense change is in the air.

  36. Lynn says:

    Joss Whedon was cancelled for some reason IIRC.

    Buffy the Disney Vampire Slayer.

    Apparently Sarah Michelle Geller had to guard against Michelle Trachtenberg being alone in a room with Josh Whedon.   Not good for a 15 year old.

    I just learned that Michelle Trachtenberg and Seth Green are married with two kids.  Wild.

  37. drwilliams says:

    Aliens messing with the rotation of the Earth?

  38. Lynn says:

    We’re in the south Texas “run the A/C and the heat in the same day” season.

    Your houses must not have much thermal mass, which is a bit surprising for your typical slab-on-grade construction. Or is it over crawl spaces?

    Most houses around here in the swamp known as Houston are slab on gumbo mud.  Last week were 42 F at night and 78 F during the day which usually has somebody turning on the a/c at 4 pm.

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  39. Lynn says:

    Today’s Amazon order is scheduled to arrive at my house at 4am.  Wild.

    I may be still up.

  40. lpdbw says:

    I’m going to Hamcation, the 2nd largest Hamfest in the US.  Lots of hands-on technology enthusiasts rubbing shoulders.  It’s a 2-day drive each way.  While I”m in Florida, I’m visiting an old high school friend.

    He’s trying to convince me to go to Universal, but I’m frankly not interested.  in the least.

    When I get back, I’m having eye surgery.  I hope to restore full vision in my dominant right eye, and that I won’t have to practice weak eye shooting anymore.  For handguns, that’s doable, ’cause you can still shoot dominant hand and just close your dominant eye.  For long guns, everything changes.

  41. JimB says:

    Daylight Savings Time starts on March 9, 2025.  I vote that we do not Spring Forward this year, nor do we Fall Back on Nov 2, 2025.

    Stop the madness ! ! !

    I would prefer we go on DST and stay all year.

    My rationale: I live the farthest east in my time zone than anywhere I have ever lived. This means a very early sunset in Winter, which I don’t like. I don’t care when the sun rises.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    Joss Whedon was cancelled for some reason IIRC.

    Buffy the Disney Vampire Slayer.

    Apparently Sarah Michelle Geller had to guard against Michelle Trachtenberg being alone in a room with Josh Whedon.   Not good for a 15 year old.

    I just learned that Michelle Trachtenberg and Seth Green are married with two kids.  Wild.

    “Buffy” is not “Buffy” without Joss Whedon.

    The other problem with reviving the series is that, as with the “Blade” movie series, “Buffy” was a big DVD revenue franchise, and Hollywood killed physical media in the rush to streaming.

    As with Blade, one Buffy is all there ever will be.

  43. Ken Mitchell says:

    drwilliams says:

    Aliens messing with the rotation of the Earth?

    No, this is normal and 100% predictable. At any specific latitude, you can calculate the length of the day quite precisely, and track the day-to-day variation. Now in the northern hemisphere, daylight times are increasing (and night lengths decreasing, and it will until the Summer Solstice on Friday, June 20, 2025 at 9:42 pm CDT.  The most rapid day-to-day change occurs on the spring equinox on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at 4:01 am CDT; before then, the day lengths are increasing faster, and after that the day lengths increase more slowly. 

    Curiously, the time of sunrise and time of sunset do NOT follow that exact pattern. Sunset times, for example, get earlier and earlier during the fall until around December 10, and begin creeping later after that. The Earth spins on its axis at a precise rate, but our orbital motion around the Sun varies, because all orbits are elliptical.  The Earth is closest to the Sun, with the highest orbital velocity, on (or around) January 4, and is farthest/slowest around July 2.

    You can look all this stuff up at https://www.timeanddate.com.

  44. Ray Thompson says:

    No, this is normal and 100% predictable.

    Don’t give me that scientific gobble-gook. I like the alien version better and it has the same result.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    Buffy news served up to function as a distraction from Disney ruining another piece of their IP portfolio.

    Stuntman #12 -er- Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards and a gender swapped Silver Surfer.

    Stick a fork in Disney Marvel.

    Not that the Fox “Fantastic Four” movies from 20 years ago were anything special, but they were cheap to make.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzMo-FgRp64

  46. Greg Norton says:

    The other problem with reviving the series is that, as with the “Blade” movie series, “Buffy” was a big DVD revenue franchise, and Hollywood killed physical media in the rush to streaming.

    I finally got a chance to see “The Shark Is Still Working” the other night, an extra included on the BluRay of “Jaws”, made for the 30th anniversary of the flick.

    That is as much a period piece now as the movie itself. Peak physical media.

    Another cancelled director seen in “The Shark Is Still Working” is Bryan Singer, a huge “Jaws” fan.

    The “X Men” is one more franchise Disney will soon ruin, but that was another film series which was huge on DVD. Singer’s films will be around for a long time.

  47. Greg Norton says:

    The last piece of film genius from Bryan Singer?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXbqiAZgeCE

    Yeah, Mike Myers (seen at the end) but that is a slow burn gag. 24 years … ?

  48. Greg Norton says:

    @Jenny – If you screen “Bohemian Rhapsody” for the kid, you must run “Wayne’s World” first.

    Despite the subject matter, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is remarkably tame. PG-13.

    As for “Wayne’s World”, well …

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-88mtgx2MU4

    The movie has minor inuendo with Tia Carerre and a surprisingly dark monologue from Ed O’Neil, but lots of kids were in the theater when we saw it in 1992. They didn’t seem phased; most were bored.

    I sat on Wayne’s chair while my son had Garth’s seat on the couch at the SNL exhibit in Chicago in 2019.

  49. Lynn says:

    “BREAKING: FBI admits that a MASSIVE number of agents worked on J6 prosecutions”

        https://therightscoop.com/breaking-fbi-admits-that-a-massive-number-of-agents-worked-on-j6-prosecutions/

    “The FBI has just admitted that over 5,000 of their agents and analysts worked on January 6 investigations, which came in the form of a release to the Justice Department.”

    5,000 FBI agents and analysts ?  Are you kidding me ?  What a waste of resources.

  50. Nick Flandrey says:

    Horror at Sweden’s ‘worst mass shooting’: PM and King express ‘sadness and dismay’ – as death toll ‘hits 11’ and footage shows heavily-armed shooter storming school campus

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14360605/sweden-mass-shooting-pm-king-sadness-death-toll-shooter-school-campus.html 

    Sweden has recently earned a reputation as the European Union‘s gun homicide capital. 

    In all of 2023, 53 people were killed in shootings across Sweden, which is home to around 10.5 million people. In 2022, that figure stood at 62 – and Stockholm’s per-capita murder rate was roughly 30 times that of London.

    Experts say the violence has been driven by a number of factors: Turf wars between gangs, a growing drugs market, an influx of guns into the market, growing inequality, high level of immigration and also a failure of migrant integration into society. 

    Mafia groups abroad have called the country a ‘haven’ for their activities, while organised crime groups have infiltrated business sectors and found ways to smuggle military-grade weapons into the country.

    n

  51. MrAtoz says:

    I just learned that Michelle Trachtenberg and Seth Green are married with two kids.  Wild.

    Huh? Where did you here that?

  52. Lynn says:

    Daylight Savings Time starts on March 9, 2025.  I vote that we do not Spring Forward this year, nor do we Fall Back on Nov 2, 2025.

    Stop the madness ! ! !

    I would prefer we go on DST and stay all year.

    My rationale: I live the farthest east in my time zone than anywhere I have ever lived. This means a very early sunset in Winter, which I don’t like. I don’t care when the sun rises.

    Yeah, but if we do DST all year long then Nick and his kids will be waiting for the bus an hour before the sun rises.

    Do it for the children !

  53. Lynn says:

    I just learned that Michelle Trachtenberg and Seth Green are married with two kids.  Wild.

    Huh? Where did you here that?

    The googles fooled me !

       https://lucerne.fandom.com/wiki/Michelle_Trachtenberg

    “Michelle Trachtenberg, and Seth Green have two children in the form of Wilhem, and Ashley Green of which both are young at the time of Westros and living in Lucerne with their mother.”

    What the crap is Lucerne ?

  54. Lynn says:

    When I get back, I’m having eye surgery.  I hope to restore full vision in my dominant right eye, and that I won’t have to practice weak eye shooting anymore.  For handguns, that’s doable, ’cause you can still shoot dominant hand and just close your dominant eye.  For long guns, everything changes.

    I’ve been dominant left eye and very right handed all of my life.  And the right eye is getting weaker at -7 diopters now.  The left eye is -4.25 diopters.

  55. drwilliams says:

    The 19 members of the Pulitzer Prize committee are defendants in a libel suit brought by President Trump. The suit is proceeding to discovery:

    Defendants made a motion for a protective order that would prevent Trump or his lawyers from making public certain documents that will be produced; in particular, “information about the internal deliberations of the Pulitzer Prize Board.” While this is not entirely clear from the Court’s Order, it appears that Defendants’ motion was directed to the confidentiality of such documents, not their responsibility to produce them.

    Yesterday, Judge Pegg rejected the defendants’ objections and ordered them to comply with Trump’s discovery requests, without any provision for confidentiality. Absent a protective order, which the court refused to enter, there is nothing to stop Trump or his lawyers from making public any documents they receive from Defendants.

    There are two potential outcomes of this case. First, since the court denied Defendants’ motion to dismiss, a rural Florida jury may have the opportunity to award Trump damages for defamation. Second, we all may be afforded a behind-the-scenes look at how a thoroughly politicized Pulitzer board decided to libel Donald Trump in order to aid the Democrats in the 2024 presidential election.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/02/a-collusion-hoax-coda.php

    It seems that the 19 were sued individually because there is no Pulitzer Prize entity. They have no cover, but they used the imprimatur of the Prize to attempt to affect the presidential election. 

    Malice is perhaps not hard to prove if it is demonstrated in back channel email communications which are subject to discovery. 

    Maybe there are big libel insurance policies that come with a seat on the committee. It’s doubtful–why would they need such protection unless they are political operatives? Oh, wait…

  56. lpdbw says:

    full vision

    For some definition of “full”.  My retina is being covered by tissue, and it (the tissue) needs removed.

    This surgery will not correct my vision nor remove the cataracts.   Just un-obscure my retina.

    In a year or two or three, I’ll get  cataract surgery and probably correct all my vision issues, including astigmatism.  That’ll be expensive, but as I said while planning this little Florida trip, what’s my money for, if not to spend it.  5 nights in hotels so I can go to a big swap meet.

  57. drwilliams says:

    Can President Trump Really Shutdown the U.S. Agency for International Development?

    https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2025/02/04/tues-feb-4-2025-sometimes-when-the-pendulum-swings-its-a-damoclean-sword/#comment-297605

    A more thorough analysis that what I posted yesterday shows that the agency was created by Congress and the head requires confirmation, so Trump cannot shut it entirely, but he can gut it and leave the shell in place.

    or maybe not:

    Trump’s decision to end USAID is constitutionally and legally solid

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/02/trump_s_decision_to_end_usaid_is_constitutionally_and_legally_solid.html

    and for once, “standing” works in our favor.

  58. Lynn says:

    “The Threat of Carbon Capture”

        https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/02/the_threat_of_carbon_capture.html

    “The “climate hoax” and “Green New Scam,” as President Donald Trump calls them, have spawned countless bad ideas and even worse policies.”

    “In the transglobal elite’s attempt to direct the world’s economy by controlling average people, they have pushed an idiotic and dangerous vision of the nations of the world going net zero. I’m sure it’s purely coincidence that the policies developed to meet net zero just happen to benefit those same elites financially and in terms of political power.”

    One of my friends is peddling a CCS scheme where they feed pure oxygen to a steam boiler or a gas turbine to generate CO2 and H2O.  They liquefy the water away and capture the remaining vapor.  The pure oxygen generation system uses ¼ or more of the power plant electricity.  Not good.

    I have not had the heart to discuss it with my friend.  He is all about government subsidies.  He does not realize the government is broke.  He is very wary about Trump though.

  59. drwilliams says:

    “What the crap is Lucerne ?”

    Lucerne, Switzerland

  60. drwilliams says:

    NEW: Feds Investigate Soros-Backed Radio Station Caught Broadcasting Locations of ICE Agents

    https://redstate.com/terichristoph/2025/02/04/fcc-investigating-soros-radio-station-that-broadcast-ice-locations-n2185209

    Someone pulled a string on the Biden puppet to get him to bypass review on the sale of those 200 radio stations, and somewhere on FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr’s todo list–and higher than last week, now–is taking a look at how that deal can be rolled back.

  61. drwilliams says:

    Congratulations to AG Pam Bondi.

    Harren Enten has Tulsi Gabbard and RFK, Jr. at 99% probable:

    https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2025/02/04/harry-enten-remarks-on-trump-nominees-n2185211

    4
    1
  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    D1 is right handed but left eye dominant.   The instructor says “practice practice practice”.     

    I caught a youtube short where a tackticool instructor type was diagnosing problems and said that if you are cross dominant like that, your shot will be left of intended point, then right of intended point as you take the shots.  

    Be interesting to see it.   

    I asked D1’s instructor if tilting the pew was an option, and he was pretty dismissive of the idea.   It’s how I use the pew lefty… and how I was taught.

    Dunno what the answer is, so I teach point shooting.  (which might be coming back into favor)

    n

  63. Nick Flandrey says:

    Apparently the “words you can’t say on youtube shorts” also includes

    sexual assault

    rape

    nudes

    cigarettes

    boobs

    n

  64. Greg Norton says:

    I’m going to Hamcation, the 2nd largest Hamfest in the US.  Lots of hands-on technology enthusiasts rubbing shoulders.  It’s a 2-day drive each way.  While I”m in Florida, I’m visiting an old high school friend.

    He’s trying to convince me to go to Universal, but I’m frankly not interested.  in the least.

    At lunchtime, take Colonial east out of the fairgrounds, and find The Beefy King on Bumby, on the other side of I-4. 

    Order the tater tots with your sandwich.

    Not much of old Orlando is left, but The Beefy King endures, mostly unchanged.

  65. Ray Thompson says:

    I’ll get  cataract surgery and probably correct all my vision issues, including astigmatism.  That’ll be expensive,

    The procedure is considered medical and is covered by Medicare. The lens is not covered and will be expensive. My inter ocular implant (the lens) was $800 for each eye. For one eye I had to have it done twice. No warranty on the one that did not work out well. Medicare apparently feels removing the lens is OK, and really thick glasses are just fine. After all, no one needs to really see well.*

    I am certain the new technology lenses available today are even more expensive. My opinion when dealing with vision is to get the best available. Find the money.

    *Nor does Medicare think anyone should hear well or chew well.

  66. Nightraker says:

    The lens is not covered and will be expensive.

    My new LAL (Light Adjustable Lenses), that I became aware of here, have been the “latest thing” for less than a decade in the US (longer overseas) were 5X Ray’s $$.  Cured my significant astigmatism and considerable near sightedness plus 1 cataract.  I was warned, well, informed, that “things” may, might, could grow on the backside of the lens in a year or so that would need to be lasered off.  Otherwise, I should be good to go as long as I’m breathing.  My right (dominant) eye is optimized for distance and the left for truly up close.  With both I can read the bottom of the chart, less optimally either near or far with any 1 eye covered.

  67. Lynn says:

    D1 is right handed but left eye dominant.   The instructor says “practice practice practice”.     

    I caught a youtube short where a tackticool instructor type was diagnosing problems and said that if you are cross dominant like that, your shot will be left of intended point, then right of intended point as you take the shots.  

    Be interesting to see it.   

    I asked D1’s instructor if tilting the pew was an option, and he was pretty dismissive of the idea.   It’s how I use the pew lefty… and how I was taught.

    Dunno what the answer is, so I teach point shooting.  (which might be coming back into favor)

    I shot 250 out of 250 at my concealed carry class with my Springfield XDM .40 S&W with the 4.5 inch barrel.  Which, I no longer shoot because racking it hurts like a you know what and then it jams once or twice per magazine as I limp wrist it.  Tendonitis and semi auto pistols do not mix at all.

  68. Lynn says:

    “CIA Offers Buyout to ENTIRE Workforce”

        https://thelibertydaily.com/cia-offers-buyout-entire-workforce/

    “(Conservative Playbook)—The Central Intelligence Agency has offered buyouts to its entire workforce, aiming to align the agency with the priorities of President Donald Trump, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. This move is part of a broader strategy by the Trump administration to reshape the U.S. government by reducing bureaucracy and installing personnel more aligned with its policies.”

    Hit the streets you deep staters !

  69. drwilliams says:

    For decades, this layer of ice and rock from Greenland’s core remained untouched, stored in cookie jars at the bottom of a freezer in Denmark.Then in 2017, it was rediscovered by Jørgen Peder Steffensen, a professor and curator of the ice core repository at the University of Copenhagen, and glaciologist Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, who were going through the university’s extensive collections of ice cores in preparation for a move to a new freezer.
    “Some were oddly labeled ‘Camp Century sub-ice,’” Steffensen told UVM Today. “I never thought about what was in those two boxes.

    “Well, when you see a lot of cookie jars, you think: who the hell put this in here?” he continued. “No, I didn’t know what to make of it. But once we got it out, we picked it up to see these dirty lumps, and I said: what is this now? And all of a sudden it dawned on us: Oh s–t, this is the sediment underneath it. The ‘sub-ice’ is because it’s below the ice. Whoa.”

    In October 2019 the overlooked bits of dirt finally had their time in the sun as more than 30 scientists from around the world gathered in Vermont to study what the silty ice and frozen sediment might tell us.

    The convention discovered that the sediment contained “fossilized leaf and twig fragments, proving that plants had once grown under one of the coldest regions on earth,” according to the Washington Post story.

    https://www.historynet.com/project-iceworm-army-attempted-to-build-nuclear-lair-greenland/

    A lot more detail in this linked from the above article:

    Secrets Under the Ice

    Global scientists gather at UVM to unpack Cold War soil and climate change clues

    The preliminary results that Bierman and two scientists in his lab—Drew Christ and Lee Corbett—presented at the workshop are troubling. “We should be hoping that this dirt has been covered for two or three million years or more,” he said. Instead, the team’s analysis of the sediment, with support from the National Science Foundation, suggests the massive ice sheet over Greenland must have been greatly reduced within the past million years or less—during a warm time when the Earth’s climate was similar to today.

    The UVM team’s data, compiled literally the evening before the workshop began, fell in line with results from the one other deep core to ever reach the bedrock of Greenland, GISP2. Both indicate that the ice where they were drilled can’t be older than one million years. Another scientist, Tammy Rittenour, geologist at Utah State University, Skyped into the workshop to report brand-new luminescence data from the material Drew Christ had sent her. It suggested Camp Century may have been ice-free as recently as 400,000 years ago.

    For most of the Earth’s history, the planet has been free of ice. During these long greenhouse periods, tropical forests sometimes extended north, even close to the North Pole, and the oceans were hundreds of feet higher than today. Paul Bierman and the many scientists gathered at UVM would like to avoid this happening again in the coming centuries—and to find out what a unique sample of mud in old cookie jars can show about what it took in the past to melt the ice on Greenland and cover it with trees.

    https://www.uvm.edu/uvmnews/news/secrets-under-ice

    The Vostok ice core temperature reconstruction on this wiki page:

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

    shows temperature peaks about every 100,000 years, so the sheet did not completely melt 100,000, 200, 000 or 300,000 years ago. It’s not clear why “We should be hoping that this dirt has been covered for two or three million years or more,”. This workshop only dealt with the bottom samples, and there is no discussion of dating on the rest of the core or comparisons with the longer cores referenced. 

    Unfortunately, I have far too many things on my list to spend much time trying to ferret out more detail, so unless there is an easily accessible conference record that points to earlier work, I won’t be following up.

    ADDED
    The link to Science magazine has some info of the GISP core.

  70. Nick Flandrey says:

    Cynthia Nixon reveals her son, her sister’s kids and her friends’ kids are all trans  

    – either this is true- there is a sudden and dramatic increase in sexuality related mental illness, or it’s a mania.

    If true, we need to get some epidemiologists working overtime to find out what is robbing us of the future.

    If a mania, we need to do whatever we can to suppress and discourage the behaviors that lead to the insanity.

    The US culture is prone to manias.   It’s not prone to new disease or environmental factors that radically change humans.

    n

  71. drwilliams says:

    Bierman expected Greenland’s cold northern part—where Camp Century was located—would have been a stronghold of ice for millions of years, perhaps since the beginning of the Pleistocene 2.6 million years ago, when a gradually cooling Earth tipped into its current cycles of ice ages. Instead, the clock suggested ice has covered Camp Century for at most 1 million years—matching the GISP2 results. “It could be less, but a million years is the maximum,” Bierman says. “So you can’t argue for full Pleistocene stability at either site.”

    “Camp Century is sort of a litmus test,” Steffensen adds. If you can say it was ice free, “that actually points at a severely reduced Greenland Ice Sheet.” Sea level would have been many meters higher than today, even though the climate 1 million years ago was similar to today’s greenhouse-warmed climate. “This stuff is really scary,” Schaefer says.

    https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-soil-secret-greenland-base-suggests-earth-could-lose-lot-ice

    So they were hoping the more northern results would show that the ice cap did not fully melt.

    But note the genuflection to the Church of Global Warming:

    “ even though the climate 1 million years ago was similar to today’s greenhouse-warmed climate”

    Similar but today we have to blame it on greenhouse warming.

    If the world warms (and it’s been warmer during this interglacial), the ice melts and the oceans rise over centuries we can deal with the results. If the next ice age starts there will not be enough food or fuel to keep most of the world population alive.

    Robert Frost again:

    Some say the world will end in fire,

    Some say in ice.

    From what I’ve tasted of desire

    I hold with those who favor fire.

    But if it had to perish twice,

    I think I know enough of hate

    To say that for destruction ice

    Is also great

    And would suffice.

    https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice

  72. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    Cynthia Nixon reveals her son, her sister’s kids and her friends’ kids are all trans  

    – either this is true- there is a sudden and dramatic increase in sexuality related mental illness, or it’s a mania.

    If true, we need to get some epidemiologists working overtime to find out what is robbing us of the future.

    If a mania, we need to do whatever we can to suppress and discourage the behaviors that lead to the insanity.

    The US culture is prone to manias.   It’s not prone to new disease or environmental factors that radically change humans.

    Statistically impossible. Prima facie evidence of child abuse.

    Munchausen syndrome

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

    We have not had enough well-trained child psychologists for decades. Most kids that are screwed up to meet some perverted agenda of woke parents will never get straightened out. What we need to do is remove those kids from their toxic environment before they are irretrievably damaged.

  73. Lynn says:

    *Nor does Medicare think anyone should hear well or chew well.

    Medicare is broke.

    Of course, me and five million other boomers are jumping on Medicare this year.

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    Everybody is broke.  Even the people with money in the bank, because the new dollar will add zeros and wipe out savings…  they just don’t know they’re broke yet.

    It’s depressing to think about too much.  I don’t think even 12 years of Trump/vance/musk can right the ship.  I expect to see the same thing that happened to Reagan with a new generation [not Tip oneil, who was the guy in the senate??] co-opting and destroying the momentum and the movement.   

    n

  75. Lynn says:

    Everybody is broke.  Even the people with money in the bank, because the new dollar will add zeros and wipe out savings…  they just don’t know they’re broke yet.

    It’s depressing to think about too much.  I don’t think even 12 years of Trump/vance/musk can right the ship.  I expect to see the same thing that happened to Reagan with a new generation [not Tip oneil, who was the guy in the senate??] co-opting and destroying the momentum and the movement.   

    n

    Newt Gingrich was the speaker of the House who tried to reform it.

  76. Alan says:

    >> Hunting and gathering takes an incredible amount of time.

    If you include wood and you’re someplace COLD, then yes, pretty much close to full employment.

    A large moose should last several months. 

    A fish wheel can be a game changer if you have access to the right waterway. Ideal if you have a team of sled dogs to feed,

  77. Alan says:

    >>Of course, me and five million other boomers are jumping on Medicare this year.

    Many Medicare Advantage plans offer allowances for dental and vision. I went the Medicare supplement route since at the point of your initial Medicare sign-up the Supplement plans cannot refuse coverage because of pre-existing conditions. And more flexibility for some of those plans.

    YMMV.

  78. Alan says:

    >> I shot 250 out of 250 at my concealed carry class with my Springfield XDM .40 S&W with the 4.5 inch barrel.  Which, I no longer shoot because racking it hurts like a you know what and then it jams once or twice per magazine as I limp wrist it.  Tendonitis and semi auto pistols do not mix at all.

    Wheel gubs FTW.

  79. Alan says:

    >>Apparently the “words you can’t say on youtube shorts” also includes…

    Hmm, I must not know the right “channels,” all I get are Asian guys risking life and limb with crazy construction methods.

  80. Lynn says:

    >> Hunting and gathering takes an incredible amount of time.

    If you include wood and you’re someplace COLD, then yes, pretty much close to full employment.

    A large moose should last several months. 

    A fish wheel can be a game changer if you have access to the right waterway. Ideal if you have a team of sled dogs to feed,

    Did you include the time healing up from hunting the moose ?  I would only shoot one of those with a Remington .458 Magnum.   We are talking about 2,000 lbs of meanness and I am going to stop your assness.  I equate grizzlies and moose equally as being dangerous to hunt.

    One of my buddies goes to the Rocky Mountains ??? New Mexico ??? each year with four other guys to shoot a moose.  I keep on meaning to ask what he shoots it with.  But he just moved to Abilene so I may never see him again.

    And, everywhere is cold for six months out of the year except south Texas.  I’ve been 25 F and two inches of sleet in Dallas, Texas in late March.

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