Hot again, but maybe some clouds for relief. Humid too of course. Another day of 100F+ heat and humidity in the 80% range? I hope not, but it’s Houston.
Did some things in the morning, mostly office stuff. Then dropped the Ranger off for what I’m sure will be a large bill, but probably worth it. If I can get a few more years for a few KBux, like less than $2000, I think it’s good. Took the Expy and did my auction pickups. Then came home and mostly read. Auctions too, but mostly just chillin’. Easier to do when you’re on strike.
Even though I don’t have much of a plan for today, I’m sure I’ll fill it with stuff, and some of it might be useful. I might do a pickup on the north side, as my Friday pickups will be all on the east and south sides of town. I might get a chance to stop by a Ford dealership and see about the issues with my radio and GPS, and all the recall notices. Any work taking more than an hour will have to be scheduled for next week though.
There is always more to be done, and more that can be done.
Do some of it.
n
(even if it’s just stacking one can a day.)
Thursday. Good morning!
First day of holidays. It is hot, but the supermarket was empty and cold at 9am. Deliciousness for breakfast purchased. Zwiebelmett. Mmm.
Enjoy!
Big money using “climate risk scores” to devalue real estate prices:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/08/05/wall-streets-new-hidden-tax-on-your-home/
Maybe I should write a model to calculate the probability that money managers are dishonest scheming bastards….
oh, wait…
don’t need a model to calculate unity.
FEMA flood maps have been evolving for decades and there are private companies endeavoring to improve them, particularly at the margins between risk zones. But what is described has no basis in science or risk management and is simply big money backing a deceptive evaluation to their benefit. I have no doubt that they already have congressmen in their pockets to block efforts at reform.
Thanks to the freak show command at MacDill. Florida has a cottage industry of ex Special Ops guys who go on Faux News and other outlets who all probably believe Trump should have consulted them before going to war with Iran.
Orange Park. Jacksonville. Not Tampa, with a big Faux corporate-owned station, or Miami, with Cutie Pie’s TV facilities out on the edge of Little Havana.
Or The Villages. Fascist living at its finest. Those guys tend to not have an “off” switch, and once they that off base housing allowance in ’em, they get all “antsy in their pantsy” to paraphrase “Supertroopers”.
They must protect the property values to get that tenbagger.
Speaking of which …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLdBARkBsmY
Skippy’s lawn is not the regulation height. Hut! Hut! Hut! Hut!
And since I invoked the sacred trilogy (so far).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMWkipkDUzE
“Is that legal?”
“I would not describe it that way.”
Sanitized for American audiences, but still funny.
I wonder if the actors portraying the parents grew up without having any first-hand Indian cultural experiences like the parents on “The Big Bang Theory”.
I also dig the “Prometheus” reference. For all their faults, Broken Lizard knows film.
The biggest holding in the balanced fund I use to accumulate dividends, interest, gains, etc. for taxes is a REIT run by the fund company.
I’m sure there are private residences in there as well as the usual commercial real estate.
There’s no grant money or conference invitations in a one-line program. What you want is a couple thousand lines of code with extensive comments which have little to do with the actual code. Include multiple “fudge factor” constants to “get the right answer”. Important note: Do not put in a comment “fudge factor to get the right answer”. That was UCL’s mistake in their global warming prediction model.
Thank you! I did.
Today is shaping up to be gluttonous.
Princely breakfast, iced coffee and gelato for lunch (vanilla, hazelnut and salted caramel), plum tart for afternoon tea, and grilling for dinner. We found a traditional butcher, with a really nice selection of meat and sausages. Vegan hell.
It is hot, but hot on one’s holidays is to be expected.
I’m thinking of opening a barbecue restaurant named “Vegan Ascension”. The brisket sandwich will be called “Kale Supreme”, a rack of ribs will be called “Corn on the Cob”, and so on. Bonus points if I can site it near a vegetarian co-op or an Indian grocery store run by a strict vegetarian family.
Double bonus if you can get a diversity loan for non-traditional cuisines.
DOJ gets referral for prosecution after Senate committee vote finds Fauci in contempt.
Potential roommates are reportedly looking at lipstick colors.
There has been a litany of retired/ex military experts forever. “You must consult me since I’m smarter than everyone else.” You’d think there was no training or experience in the standing military. When the podcasts and LSM bits pop up, you know they need cash and can do nothing else.
What will the DOJ do with the FauXi referral? FauXi got a pardon and now refuses to talk. There has to be a criminal prosecution or the DOJ looses all remaining credibility.
I don’t think FauXi will spend a day in jail. He would go to Canada and off himself. He would live stream it: “I do this for you, the Citizens of the FUSA. I saved you from AIDS and COVID. Worship me in death.” Only $19.99 to view the live stream.
I think Bracken is interesting, and I like his fiction as his writing has improved by leaps and bounds, but in what way is whatever is happening in Iran the worst think eva?
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88F and partly sunny. 83F at 3am, so warming as expected. A bit on the cool side for the time of day.
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Coffee should be made, and I think I’ll make some bacon for breakfast.
n
Unconventional warfare is as much an ivory tower as academia, and for similar reasons. Selecting for IQ via ASVAB requirements, rejection of general (conventional) training doctrines, and increasingly theoretical application of training and education without enough real-world failures to ground out the false assumptions. There’s a need for the skills and capabilities but it needs much stricter direction.
“SpaceX rocket’s impact crater on the moon spied by Korean lunar orbiter (photos)”
https://www.space.com/astronomy/moon/spacex-rockets-impact-crater-on-the-moon-spied-by-korean-lunar-orbiter-photos
“”Danuri secured both pre-collision and immediate post-collision footage, enabling analysis of changes caused solely by the collision and providing important research data.””
Yeah, lots of stuff has hit the Moon over the millennia. Including a couple of other spaceships.
“Hormuz Deal Shock: Iranian State Media Says US-Israeli Vessels Banned, Oil Surges”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/yemen-war-reignites-houthis-intensify-saudi-shipping-attacks-ground-assault-amid
“Summary
“As cited in Bloomberg from state media, key proposals include:
There is no way that we are out of ammo. We always have our nukes.
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/camp-david-clash-trump-hammered-hegseth-misleading-him-arms-supply-wapo-reports
I think Bracken is interesting, and I like his fiction as his writing has improved by leaps and bounds, but in what way is whatever is happening in Iran the worst think eva?
Bracken says that Iran is using multitudes of cheap drones and we are using expensive planes and missiles. It is a war of attrition and we are running out of ammo. Which, is a concern but not the be all and end all.
https://steelcutter.substack.com/p/wrong-war-wrong-century
Of course, there is the old saying, “Captains worry about fighting skills, Generals worry about Logistics”.
I am totally with Bracken, no boots on the ground. I already sent my son twice to the Middle East, it is a stress to the families that you would not believe.
https://steelcutter.substack.com/p/so-you-want-to-put-boots-on-the-ground
My wife has been watching “China Beach” on the Howdy (Amazon) network. It is a heart breaking series. I had forgotten about all of demonstrations and spitting on the soldiers going on back during the Vietnam war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Beach
Three of my uncles served in Vietnam. Two of my wife’s cousins served in Vietnam, one has two purple hearts and spent a YEAR in military hospitals.
I just got an alert on my phone that we may get some rain this afternoon.
It is pouring down rain outside.
Who generates these stupid alerts?
So Bracken says this war is starting like every other war?
Did he forget Viet Nam, where we were using multi tens of million dollar airplanes to move materiel and VC were walking barefoot on dirt trails and using bikes?
Or the flip side where farmers with muskets took on a world power with hundreds of warships?
Can we LOSE to Iran? what would that actually look like? Mullah pix on the walls of the State House?
What does winning in Iran look like? Never gonna be a representative democracy, so the Shah lineage back in charge? Why would we care who’s in charge if they don’t impede trade?
Is that the goal? No more trade interruption? We could do that.
Or are we busting hidden labs, wrecking centrifuges, and blowing up dual use labs? I don’t know either.
n
“Roadmap”
https://areaocho.com/roadmap/
“Stealing an idea from Democrats, the only way to ensure Fauci pays for his crimes is to prosecute him at the state level, because he was pardoned by President Autopen. Florida is doing that-”
“This is the exact strategy Democrats have been following when trying to go after Trump and his inner circle.”
I approve of this. Bankrupt the guy and make him spend his life in courtrooms.
“James Talarico accused Ken Paxton of voter fraud. His own voter registration is raising questions.”
https://www.chron.com/politics/article/james-talarico-election-law-residency-ken-paxton-22377155.php
“Talarico reportedly voted in five elections using his parents’ address.”
Just remember, they always accuse you of doing what they are already doing.
I am getting rain fade in my office Starlink at the moment. But it comes back right after the lightning strike. Sometimes even before my office building stops shaking from the thunder.
We have gotten about a dozen electricity fades too. I’ve got computers rebooting all over the place.
“SpaceX stock got cut in half, but retail investors keep piling in: Chart of the Day”
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/spacex-stock-got-cut-in-half-but-retail-investors-keep-piling-in-chart-of-the-day-100000031.html
You know what they say: buy the dip and sell the peak.
“Ford’s new Fathom is its cheap EV pickup, starting at $28,350”
https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/article/fords-new-fathom-is-its-cheap-ev-pickup-starting-at-28350-130000587.html
“Ford is betting a Tesla-like formula with simplified parts and a sub-$30,000 sticker will be a winning plan for its next EV.”
Wait, didn’t Ford try this before with advertising lowball F-150 Lightnings for $40K but never having one for sale?
Ford can take their 5-year life disposable battery vehicles and drive them up the Hershey Highway.
They will subsidize the produce with sales of ICE models, they will not be honest about performance, and they will be outright dishonest about the availability of replacement batteries.
That was worth watching for Nurse McMurphy (Dana Delaney) alone. She really could act.
Bedtime here.
Grilled dinner turned out great.
W1 recreated one of her mother’s favourite salads: charentais melon with mozzarella and dry-cured ham. If the melon is ripe, the only seasoning necessary is white pepper and lime juice. For company, use little mozzarella balls and a melon baller for prettiness. For family, torn up burrata and melon chunks are fine.
Goodnight!
Hot & dry with high cirrus, the house is a cool 74F in midafternoon with ol’ Swampy on low.
The old female cat and myself are enjoying the warmer clime of the west-facing office. She is napping on top of some of the flatpac packaging that I have partially completed. I didn’t take any ibuprofen today so I don’t feel like crawling around on the floor to complete things anyway, so I won’t disturb her.
Computer oddities:
I didn’t have enough space left on my older (64GB) iPad to install the new operating system. So I reset to factory and updated, then logged into my account again. That seemed to work OK, but it also reinstalled everything, which suggests that I’m going to have to go through the same process again next time. Seems like last time that it asked me whether I wanted to install all the apps that I normally use on the main iPad.
It seems like the weirdness with the weather service webpage was due to it being a corrupted tab. I finally noticed that the tab actually said WUWT on it, not the NWS icon, so I deleted the tab and successfully opened the current NWS page in a new tab. I have noted issues with pinned tabs on stock Safari before, for example the Daynotes page – after two or three days everything freezes and you can’t enter any data.
My medical provider is having IT issues but I was able to finally log in and complete a couple of things.
—
After a quiet morning the fire aircraft are busy again.
“Taking Ground: Wolfhounds – Book Two” by John Van Stry
https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Ground-Wolfhounds-Book-Two/dp/B0CTTW1GDS?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number two of a six book science fiction space opera series. And there is a prequel series of two books and a sequel series of a few books. I read the well printed and well bound POD (print on demand) trade paperback self published by the author in 2024 that I bought in 2026. I own the other four books in the series and will read them soon.
I love Space Opera. And I love pulp science fiction. This series is both and a great example of the merging of the two. In fact, this series reminds me very much of the Robert Heinlein juvenile books, the Piers Anthony “Bio of a Space Tyrant” series, the “Mutineer’s Moon” series by David Weber, and the Perry Rhodan series. The dialog is very frequent and the action moves along quickly.
Chase Collis is a street rat. He and his mother lived in government housing in Imperial City until she died of a drug overdose when he was 12 years old. Just before that was the last time he saw his estranged father who screamed at his mother to keep hiding Chase or else the Emperor would kill them all. Chase ended up on the street at the age of 12, running with the street gangs, being arrested by the police time and time again.
When Chase became an adult, he murdered another street rat and was caught by the police. He purposely got caught to go to the Imperial Prison for a few years to get more street cred and rise to the top of the street gang. But to his shock, when he went to his trial, his father was the judge. His father sentenced him to ten years in the Imperial Navy rather than the four years in Imperial Prison that he expected, and then escorted him to the Naval Basic Training school.
In the far distant future, The Solarian Imperium consists of 38 star systems. Emperor Charles Morgan, Chase’s grandfather, was the latest in a long line of Morgans ruling the Imperium. His family keeps power because they are genetically modified with machine interfaces in their DNA. So are all of the Nobles: the Dukes, the Earls, the Counts, and the Barons. Any machine of any importance, and especially the space ships and the military weapons, requires a human with machine interface to tell the AI what to do. And the Imperial family machine interface in their DNA is the best of all the interfaces and has special rights with all of the machines in the Imperium.
Chase Collis ends up in the Emperor’s own Wolfhounds after his Navy machinists mate training to be a glorified broom pusher. The Wolfhounds are special military fleet embedded in a large asteroid capable of FTL flights to anywhere in the Empire. The Wolfhounds were standing down in cryosleep until needed by Emperor to protect him or to take care of a special task. But their cryosleep has lasted for over ten years when it was supposed to be for six months at the most. And upon their accidental awakening, the Emperor and his family are dead and the Parliament and the Speaker have taken over the Imperium.
The author has a website at:
https://jvanstry.blogspot.com/
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (3,594 reviews)
Lynn
And Alice Kramden.
“Run Hide Fight: Infidels | Official Trailer”
https://www.dailywire.com/videos/run-hide-fight-infidels
“When radical Islamic terrorists hijack a liberal college’s pro-Palestine encampment, a Delta Force vet must arm up to save their clueless peers and keep America from surrendering to the enemy on its own soil. Coming exclusively to The Daily Wire, September 16.”
Sequels coming to a college near you in Europe and the USA.
We should use Iran as a live fire training range in perpetuity. Think of the mettle developed. Extra points for taking out “baby milk” factories.
Remember the only motto of our military should be: Kill, Crush, Destroy, and Eat Dead Babies. No spreading Democracy or nation building. That’s what the State Department is for.
The Lightning was never going to hit at $40k. People wanted to believe because they had student loan deferrals and stimmy check money to burn on nonsense.
Tony strip mined that price point first. The half ton trucks have been turned into fetish items.
Sex toys.
Dealer insiders killed the $19,500 Maverick, however.
I saw that sticker on a half dozen white Mavericks in the fleet sales section of the local dealer early one Saturday morning waiting for my wife to check in for an oil change on the Exploder.
Of course, all of the trucks were marked “Sold”.
The name is Fathom, as in that’s how deep in the red Ford will be if they actually try to ship the truck at that price.
The special forces types are the most “gung ho” of my wife’s transgender patient population.
The special capability stored in Tonopah will need occasional testing until the last of the airplanes are retired.
Delaney is in “Tulsa King”, cast as a love interest for Stallone’s character.
>>Auctions too, but mostly just chillin’. Easier to do when you’re on strike.
@nick, have you considered “renting” a couple of the locals that hang out in the Home Depot parking lot and give them some signs and walk a picked line?
>>I just got an alert on my phone that we may get some rain this afternoon.
It is pouring down rain outside.
Who generates these stupid alerts?
Better yet…who reads them? 😉
My phone gives me Warnings and you have to accept to use your phone. I mean, it would suck to be in Austin if Mansfield Dam goes. And what can I do Nothing.
Would suck real bad, I reckon downtown Austin up to 9th Street would be gone. I don’t know the geography south of Town Lake enough to guess.
So. Yeah. Got to read them.
Tonight’s movie was fun. It had enough plot to be interesting. Beerfest. A 2006 movie. There’s a beer drinking contest… and yeah, there are a lot of smarter movies to watch.
But this was fun. A few scenes where the German girls lose their tops. Not a bra in sight ever. That was almost all of the sex. Some language, a few f-bombs.
I have no idea where this movie came from. I bought a bunch from a FB Marketplace seller and I have all of Mom and Dad’s DVDs plus I had a lot on the “to watch” stack and I mixed everything together. Almost 400 movies. Take out the duplicates and stuff I’d never watch, call it about 350 movies. I’m just watching whatever is on the top of the stack so movies get rather random.