And another day of mixed sun and rain, while being a bit cooler if the rain actually happens. It did get hotter throughout the day, but after the rain it was cooler, and only 78F when I went to bed. I see more of that coming for today.
I spent most of the day in my office at my computer, doing auction stuff. I did some other office things too, but mostly the day was spent on my @ss. Not the productive day I was shooting for. I did learn a lot about WWII rationing and a couple of ersatz recipes. And although the channel creator didn’t emphasize it, it was clear that people knew that both war and rationing were coming. The rationing board in the US was set up some time before the Japanese attack, and promptly sprang into action. Which consisted of mostly following the British model.
Some other things are clear too. Once rationing starts, it gets worse. As time goes by, more items are added to the restricted list. It also won’t work without price controls, and a black market WILL arise to fulfill peoples’ wants and needs. In Italy, the rulers didn’t even pretend to suffer under the same restrictions as the people, but in the US and Britain they did. The black markets in the US and Britain were subsequently smaller due to social pressure and a sense of shared suffering. There may be the Italians’ relationship to law and order at play there too.
Anything imported is easily controlled and will be in short supply if your supply lines or overseas sources are disrupted. For us that is pretty much all the technology we use, and a good deal of the food, especially the luxury food like fruit and veg out of season. And by technology I mean everything, as everything is now touched or incorporates stupid levels of technology, to where the toaster has sensors and a computer inside, and even our lighting is dependent on foreign chip and component makers. Switching power supplies are in everything, and lithium batteries are too.
In the same way I can now recognize that TPTB knew war was coming, I can see them taking steps now. Re-shoring of electronic manufacturing and reopening of mines are pretty big clues. They’ll be putting infrastructure in place too, to restrict access to information, to disseminate the official truths, to look for spies and foreign agents. They can ration power in most areas. They’ve already passed the laws they’ll use to restrict access to money, and to monitor its flow. Restriction of movement will happen too. Real ID was widely feared to be a national id program, which we are adamantly against mainly BECAUSE of WWII…
Nothing I see has changed my mind that war is coming, or that major changes in the way the world is organized will happen in our lifetime, probably sooner rather than later. Secret preps in addition to your public or known preps will be needed. Lots of people remembered how bad WWI got, but few of them took steps to make the inevitable WWII more tolerable.
What will you do? Stack, I hope.
nick
Still among the horde. Storming heaven…
Hoping for the first.
Real ID is a national ID program, intended to give everyone a card which fluoresces lIke a toll tag inside an RF field.
Drive down I69 to Brownsville and you will see the prototype checkpoints for the tracking system.
The flaw of Real ID is the crony contractors used to supply the cards, which vary from state to state. My new Texas drivers license already has a big crack down the center, and I doubt it responds with the numbers anymore in the RF field.
My new Amex has a similar crack, and I have not been able to “tap” pay since the breach first appeared.
One year old!
Of course, not every supplier is inept. The debit card I still use from the credit union in WA State remains crack free and “tap” capable after nearly three years.
In our previous house, we had an extra room that I was able to turn into a library. Floor to ceiling books on the walls. It was lovely! When we moved, though, that itch had been scratched. We sorted out the books – anything that was never going to be read again, and that didn’t hold sentimental value, was tossed. That was easily 90% of the books. Probably over 2000, but we didn’t count. The remainder now fill two shelving units in my pseudo-man-cave, where I have our home server and my fitness equipment.
I’ve always loved looking at a wall of books. That said, almost all of my reading nowadays is either online or on a Kindle. I haven’t bought a physical book of novel in years, with one recent exceptionb: the cheese book that Jenny recommended. I glanced at the eBook version, but it looks like a quick’n’dirty reformat. So I ordered a used, physical copy – hope it comes soon, and is in decent shape.
Free movies too.
“Jaws“ will be back in theaters in August, and Edgar Wright’s “The Running Man” has a November 7 release date.
Wright always delivers something interesting.
I saw a recent quote from Ahhhnold admitting that the remake could exceed his version.
Edgar must have had him cameo at a minimum. Ahhhnold may have even seen the film.
That is mostly my approach & experience.
I do find that used paper backs from A are often actually cheaper than the Kindle option, so if it is an author that I haven’t read and want to take a chance on it’s a inexpensive way to explore. Ditto on cookbooks and shop manuals & garage how-to stuff.
And very slow reading, math & engineering, where I might sit staring at something: it seems to stick better in my brain.
85F and sunny.
Modifying my morning routine. I’ll have a cup of tea, then in an hour I’ll have my big cup of coffee. That should moderate my afternoon crash. And it gives me an opportunity to enjoy the lovely tea I bought a case of in the auction. Some smoked chinese tea that is delicious.
———–
n
I think there is an additional layer of abstraction that occurs when reading on a screen that affects retention and comprehension.
Your body and brain use a constellation of sensory inputs when storing memories- touch, smell, kinesthetics, location and relationship information (ie where on a page some info was) and other things as well. Reading a physical copy in a physical place stores more of the associated inputs and I think helps with later recall.
That said, I mostly read for fun or my own learning goals and I do most of the recreational reading on a kindle paperwhite. I do read most of my technical topics in print magazines, and read mostly ephemeral stuff on screens.
Of course at this point in my life I have a LOT of practice and experience reading. That helps.
n
There are additional considerations wrt physical books, like actual ownership, resistance to revisions or censorship, long term accessibility and readability, etc. There are downsides, like bulk and storage conditions, damage from environment,etc. or even the flip side of their fixed nature- the information can go out of date and corrections can’t be made easily.
I’ve been building my “rebuild civilization library” both here and at the BOL. It’s not a serious effort, or a prep I really expect to need, but it’s a low effort and low cost thing to do, that I enjoy for other reasons as well.
I’ve linked to other lists and other peoples’ take on the subject before.
n
+1
Additionally, illustrations are rarely as effective on a small screen.
My neighbor‘s ID Buzz abomination disappeared this weekend, with another VW SUV parked in the driveway last night. iD4 maybe?
Either the Buzz is history or the imitation “micro” bus has a serious problem requiring a dealer loaner.
Regardless, the Bronco garage queen was back on the throne in the big space in the garage.
Re: Garage Queens.
A neighbor gave away (actually sold for ¼ of its street value) his old 60’s era bug to a friend of his kid. The friend loves it and has been babying and working on it.
He joined a local club for them and about eight of them drove down to Pomona for a show last week. Seven of the eight made it back under their own power…
Shades of ‘Sleeper’.
I doubt any EV has a usable lifespan of the typical IC vehicle at 15 years. We haven’t been through a complete battery replacement cycle for most on the road at this point.
I can understand the rationale for the Bronco, but the Buzz is not going to be a viable collector interest piece in 20 years like neighbor female’s previous queen, one of the last real Camaros to roll off the line in Van Nuys in 2002.
On books:
I have a ton of e-books. All novels I read are e-books. I try to get all manuals in pdf format and keep them on my iCloud Drive for ready access.
That said, I have paper copies of all my math books, electronics, hobby stuff, prepping stuff, etc. I also try to have an e-book copy as a backup.
I’m a sentimental fool for some old books, and just holding them brings back memories.
It broke my heart when I discovered mold in my old textbook carton. All 3 volumes of Knuth, the Dragon book, my Thomas calculus text. Right into the dumpster. Sniff.
I hve a falling-apart copy of “The Son of the Phantom” by Dale Robertson. Also Bertrand Brinley’s excellent “The Mad Scientist’s Club”. Heroic literature aimed at boys growing into men.
For a while, I was doing recreational reading on the Kindle app on my iPad, but I’ve got half a dozen in-progress novels that are not drawing me back. Is it the content? Or the format? Or the knowledge that the bits and bytes in the cloud are ephemeral, making me value them less?
Most of my additions of physical books are technical, like the ARRL Antenna Handbook (in 3 volumes). And cookbooks, which are purchased mostly for meal planning ideas and the photography. Once I have an idea, I go online for recipes, and I cook well enough that I can usually improvise.
http://www.madscientistsclub.com/MSC/Home.html
Tom Swift and Tom Swift, Jr.
Tom Corbett
Rick Brant
Danny Dunn
Bertrand R. Brinley’s The Mad Scientists’ Club
Donald Keith’s The Time Machine
Charles Spain Verral’s Brains Benton
Funny coincidence: I bought Brinley’s “Rocket Manual for Amateurs” and read it years after I had read “Mad Scientist’s Club” without realizing it was the same author. I made that connection much later.
Swift, Corbett, and Brant were published by Grossett and Dunlap. there was also “Tom Quest*”, who was much less well known, despite being created by Fran Stiker of Lone Ranger fame. “The Radio Boys”, published in the 1920’s largely during the brief period of battery radio that preceded rural electrification in the U.S., is similarly obscure.
For those interested, “All About Collecting Boys’ Series Books” by John Axe is a good introduction.
The 600-lb gorilla of the children’s series is Nancy Drew, followed by the somewhat svelter Hardy Boys. Original volumes of the latter were largely re-written in the 1950’s by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The originals are better books and worth seeking out–the claims that the rewrites were done to remove “racism” are spurious.
The original Tom Swift publications went to great lengths to avoid use of “said” in their dialogue, leading to the rise of a punishing art form called the “Tom Swifty”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Swifty
*The simlarity to the later animated hero “Jonny Quest” is notable.
The first several Radio Boys books are available online for free or cheap. Within the last couple of years I read them all (the free and cheap ones). I sought them out from an old memory of sneaking one off my uncle’s bookshelf as a kid. I didn’t remember anything but the partial title.
Anyone remember Alvin Fernald?
Boys need adventure stories if you want them to become readers.
“Anyone remember Alvin Fernald? ”
Yup. I’m sure The Pest was permanently traumatized and needed therapy as an adult.
“Boys need adventure stories if you want them to become readers.”
Double yup, pardner.
FAFO For Today:
Rubio to Drop a Beat on Anti-Semitic Brit Rappers? UPDATE: BBC Says … Oops, Our Bad; UPDATE: Revoked!
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2025/06/30/rubio-to-drop-a-beat-on-anti-semitic-brit-rapper-n3804315
Lost their agents and a 20-gig tour of the U.S. this fall.
Thanks to Secretary Rubio for keeping the trash out.
Whoopsie! It was 20 concerts in the U.S. plus 6 in The Smoky White North. Cancelled before Rubio revoked the visas.
I think I hear “Idiot Wind” in the background with some new lyrics.
Maybe they can book Gaza and Tehran.
The wISP sent a text message that they had a new gateway. So “We are Back!!!”. Ok, but circuits will be tweaked through the weekend.
Trying to be fair. I have the new router that can do multi wan inputs. It’s the white trash Chinese knock-off of Lynn’s Peplink. You can tweak priorities as to which is Main. It’s a pretty cool machine, you get a lot for your $50. So I power cycled the wISP radio. Disconnected Starlink and plugged the wISP into that port.
Hey, Super. First speed test says 1×1. Then 35×15. Then nothing. Then 15×5. Etc etc etc. Bouncing up and down same as normal. MAYBE the wind has moved my radio. If so, it will be the first time in twenty years. Maybe my circuit hadn’t been tweaked yet. I’ll try again in a couple of days.
Meanwhile. Starlink is testing from 120 to peaks of 350 down. Mostly almost 225 down. Time of day matters. Upload is a steady 15 to 23.
As for “maybe the wind moved my radio”, that’s just spatter from the back side of a cow. It’s an excuse.
Because. I have a pair of NanoBeams. Same tech as what the wISP uses. My pair is in bridge mode. Call it a wireless wire. I can make the connection speed change by moving either radio. But that’s all, the speed changes. The connection doesn’t bounce up and down.
There’s something else going on at the wISP. What? Who knows. They don’t say.
I’ve been shuffling stuff around. New floor in the living room. Got rid of a leather LazyBoy chair. Moved stuff around.
I like the new floor. I have to. Not the exact color I wanted. Sunburned Oak. I wanted more of a mesquite color and grain. But it’s done. It has a 20 year warranty…. uh, worthless but it sounds good.
My chair and the TV stay the same. The rest can move.
Today I turned on the stereo. Put the Squeezeplayer in random shuffle. Volume on the Yamaha, set to 6 channel stereo, an oxymoron there, but volume at 30. It’s not loud. The dam fridge is noisy. But I can set or sit anywhere and the sound is clear. Between songs I can hear the wall clock ticking . I can hear the grandfather clock ticking from 20+ feet away. Audio wise, new floor vs carpet is an easy choice.
So. Time to crank some Supertramp.
Gotta blow the dust offa the woofers, right? 🙂
Work had this concert on one of the TVs in the lobby today. I have no idea why.
I saw Blue Man and Venus Hum with Annette Strean (the girl’s name) do that song live. Her voice was a force of nature.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iFBXjRbVl0
Some other things are clear too. Once rationing starts, it gets worse. As time goes by, more items are added to the restricted list. It also won’t work without price controls, and a black market WILL arise to fulfill peoples’ wants and needs. In Italy, the rulers didn’t even pretend to suffer under the same restrictions as the people, but in the US and Britain they did. The black markets in the US and Britain were subsequently smaller due to social pressure and a sense of shared suffering. There may be the Italians’ relationship to law and order at play there too.
Any rationing in the current USA will cause a civil war. The current population will not put with that nonsense.
Imagine not being able to go to Starbucks. You and I do not care but gen Z will throw a fit.
Plus flying over the place on a whim. Or just buying new tires for your Tesla.
Looks like a little grass fire to the SE (white smoke).
Tho since I don’t hearany sirens it might be further than I think.
I did get a text that my Amazon delivery would be delayed. Quelle horreur!
’tis the season.
I’d be more worried about the surplus farm equipment than some weed smoking white folks.
Penny has the chair. But sitting on the floor in front of the chair sounds really good.
I miss my Acculab speakers.
I’ve been burning “greatest hits of the 70s” discs to the hard drive in D1’s vehicle (wife’s old Honda Oddy). The mood, BPM, and production are very much in style now, so she loves them.
And then I snuck in Cheap Trick, Greatest Hits. We were singing along to Surrender, and a couple of others. She even looked up different versions while waiting for me to get my stuff and listened to them and decided that the live version on her disc was best.
I can’t wait for Supertramp Breakfast in America…
n
The Senate failed to get crimmigrants off Medicaid in the OBBB* because the Parlimentarian (a Dumbo) said no, gotta have 60 votes on this. Ridiculous. Crimmigrants get jack shite.
* One Big Beautiful Bill
That song is forever tied in my head to this bit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OI6g_pJMfs
“Surrender” is also on the original “Guitar Hero” for the PS2, and it took me a while to get past that one.
Gen-Z Office Workers Are a Special Breed
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2025/06/30/gen-z-workers-are-a-special-breed-n3804349
That’s nothing. I “humiliated” a whole group by asking a perfectly innocent question: “How about we get actual savings on these cost reduction projects after they have been implemented and see how it compares to the projections?”
Little did I know that they had just had one of those projects blow up big time and cause enough damage to equipment that it wiped out the savings of all their projects for at least a year.
But they were sure I knew.
I should have followed up at the next meeting: “I apologize for my question at lat month’s meeting. I didn’t realize that you guys were sitting on the bad news> Maybe next time just man up and clear the air?”
WHAT???? That is so sexist. I know of several places that would result in harassment complaints!
Most of us here are just too old and too white and too male.
I spent a few minutes tonight following links in my alumni newsletter. What they have done to the program I graduated from is criminal.
It’s nothing but equity and justice and “so you know you are being seen” crap. They’ve dropped all but one of the technical focuses and concentrated on activism and community involvement.
I had 13 FULL RIDE grad school offers. I probably would have had more if I’d interviewed with more schools. My experience wasn’t unique. . . one of my friends, probably the least talented of our group ended up at Yale for his Masters. Some of my friends are working on Broadway and in Hollywood, and on major projects. All that success and money earning thru technical knowledge blended with art, just wiped away.
Crazy. One of the most successful technical programs in academia at the time just completely dismantled and replaced by masturbation.
I’m so glad I never gave them any money.
n
I’ve been thinking about the fact that I left my industry without passing on what I’d learned. I would like to. That’s part of what motivates me to volunteer at my kid’s school. But after reading the details of the degree program and what they feature to attract students, I couldn’t return to that environment. I’d be hectored and bullied out of the room the first time I opened my mouth.
They live in a different world than I do.
n
Unlikely to happen, but I would love to have my ’66 Bug again. I loved that car. Dunno why I didn’t keep it.
Yeah, it’s really to early to say. I hope so. We’re pretty happy with our Ioniq, except that we miss the ground clearance of our old RAV 4. But the newer RAVs didn’t come in an EV variety, and they have gotten huge. We need an SUV-style vehicle for the dog crate in the back, we need a trailer hitch, etc.. But we don’t need huge.
Huge doesn’t even make sense in Europe – we don’t have the weird mileage loophole for bigger vehicles. In fact, big vehicles are a real problem, because they don’t fit in parking places, they don’t fit in garages, etc..
– – – – –
We’ve been having network problems. Intermittent, which is always fun. I’ve spend days replacing various cables, plugging stuff in different ports. It’s taken ages to narrow down the probabilities. My PC has more problems that other devices, so I thought for a long time it was my PC (or a cable, or a port) that was the issue. But I finally plugged the PC into the router, using the old cables, and it hasn’t had problems for two days now.
So, after way too much effort, I’m pretty sure our central network switch is going randomly flaky, and somehow my PC was just more sensitive to it. I’ve ordered a replacement, which should be here today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed that it fixes the problems.
I hate diagnosing intermittent problems…