Hot again, and humid again. Yesterday was mostly hot and humid, and only a little cooler when the sun was hidden. Then a front blew in and temps dropped for a while. Came back with a vengance after the front moved through though.
I did mostly auction stuff, but also some business stuff in the morning. Then did pickups, and started moving one of my storage units. That ate the day.
Today I’ll keep working on moving out of that unit. It’s the end of the month, so it’s the right time.
Sometime tonight, D1 will go to her first concert without us. She’s going with friends, and the dad will sit and wait for them at the venue. Baby is growing up. I was going to concerts with friends at that age, without any parents involved, and sometimes after being told no… It’s different time, so easing into it is appropriate.
Then Sunday we’ll head up to the BOL to meet W for a day and a half before we return home. The fledglings are trying their wings. I’m watching for hawks…
And stacking of course.
nick
Today in Haltern. Early morning trip to the local bakery for some backed goods and treats for the day. A local bakery that bakes their own stuff. Really good stuff. Four people doing the selling and there was a line four deep of people waiting to purchase.
We spend today and tomorrow in Haltern. Monday is the trip to Munich where we will remain for two weeks. That will be so much different, but a relief. A new bed, surroundings, every couple of nights gets old fairly quickly.
I think I have mostly adjusted to the time change. I went to bed a 10:30 PM and fell asleep quickly. That is a good sign.
We had dinner at a local steakhouse, really good meal. About $35.00 a person not counting soft drinks which add another $5.00 with no refills. There were six of us and another person paid so about $250.00 for the meal.
I do not have any Euros with me. I doubt that I will. Credit card everywhere for anything. Europe is more advanced as a cashless society than the U.S. I have no idea why as I would think it would be the U.S. on top. That lack of being in that spot speaks volumes about some of the regulations in the U.S. that hobbles the use of technology.
No law degree from Costco yet, but any Masters program in the US tagged “Professional Development” is essentially buying the paper. My undergrad alma matter was one of the pioneers in the concept, “educating” the C-suite of the Home Shopping Channel 30 years ago.
If you didn’t catch it, the med tech in “Idiocracy” is Justin Long, “Mac” from the Apple commercials of 20 years ago. He’s had a career filled with those kind of cameos.
Apparently, my alma matter ended Boise State as a serious NCAA football program yesterday. The age of the transfer portal will be brutal, and there is no such thing as a “patsy” team anymore.
Another NCAA top tier coaching career died in Tampa Thursday night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pgIv7OfPH0
At GTE in the late 90s, “Office Space” was widely regarded as a documentary.
Efficiency has a downside, and European countries gave up their industrial economies to become theme parks.
The Disney property in Orlando is very advanced in terms of being a “cashless society”.
I’d like a sack of the new UK Pound coins that look like the prop money in the old “Battlestar Galactica” TV series from the 70s.
The irony is that the British are mostly oblivious about their own Cylon threat developing in their cities.
Do the coins have King Chuckles face on them now?
I see Furries. Lots and lots of Furries.
@greg:
They will have, once the number of circulating pound coins falls a bit. The Royal Mint doesn’t issue new coins until they feel it necessary. Change of Monarch does not necessitate coin issue. I’m unaware of any Charles III coins in circulation as yet, but I don’t actually notice whose face is on the coins I (rarely) use. I have a single £1 coin in my possession, and that’s an Elizabeth II from 2013.
G.
My one experience in Germany in 2016 highlighted the wisdom of keeping a couple of Euro coins for reliable access to “public” restrooms.
Have they removed to pay-as-you-go restrooms? I figure the third-worlders would just soil the parks and sidewalks.
The one gift shop I absolutely positively needed to buy souveniers from, only took cash. It wiped out my entire travel stash and I didn’t get to buy everything I wanted.
Europe is more advanced as a cashless society than the U.S.
– they are more “advanced” in a number of other ways too, none of which are focused on the well being of their subjects. A cashless society could be unbelievably restrictive, intrusive, and controlling.
Many of the same things are done here, but by corporations, not .gov, and you can still opt out and use cash.
Cashless society is a dystopian nightmare if you think for even a couple of minutes about the downsides.
We’ve seen what happens. Canada freezing bank accounts of protesters. Cyprian banks just stealing half of everything. Was it Hungary or Herzegovina that just shut down the banks and turned off the ATMs a few years ago??? People couldn’t buy food or get to work.
Even when it’s misfortune rather than malicious, if the network isn’t up there aren’t any transactions. LOTS of things can take the network down.
No,no, and more no. It’s convenient, but a trap.
————–
Low 80s this morning, sunny and bright. I’ve got to get moving. Kid taxi services apparently start in the afternoon so I have to get my stuff done beforehand. Grr.
At least I have coffee.
n
Another data point in the march to war.
Trump Wins: All NATO Members To Reach 2% Spending Target In 2025
Increased spending on readiness.
n
Jerry Pournelle would have loved to see this.
H/T Greybeard https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/
n
Not everywhere. The airport is at no charge. The Deutsche Bahn stations are still pay although they take credit cards so no cash is needed.
Today we went to downtown Haltern, the public square. Several restaurants have tables set up outside. We went to our usual ice cream place. The stuff you get is exactly like the picture, and quite good.
Apparently I had a small piece of grit got on my MacBook palm rest area when the lid was closed. There is a mark in that area and a tiny blemish on the screen that matches the location and that mark will not come off. Bummer. Brings out the Sheldon in me as it is annoying me.
We changed houses, again. The mother of our exchange left on vacation so we moved from the exchange students house into the mother’s house. More space, by a lot. But another strange bed, in a strange location. Although we have slept in that bed on a couple of prior trips.
There is a sun room on the back of the house. I laid down and slept solid for two hours. Just like I did on the last trip to Germany. Sunny, cool breeze, the zzzz’s came easy.
I bought a few bags of Gummi Bears. There is more variety here and they are certainly much fresher.
Grocery stores are different. The clerk just sits and scans. The customer must bag the items using the customer supplied bag. The store will sell a person a bag for a Euro. Everyone I saw has their own bags. And they only buy for a couple of days. None of this full shopping cart stuff like in the U.S. Several U.S. items on the shelf. We found Dr. Pepper but it tastes different. Does not stop the wife and her addiction to the stuff.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15047981/CIA-program-occult-experiments-mind-control.html
n
Ah, .gov. So responsive to people’s needs. Only took 20 years.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-15049865/tsa-precheck-update-facial-recognition-touchless-id-security-airports-flying.html
Main article is about using facial recognition. Note the shift in language… “facial comparison technology”
n
you never know what’s gonna pop up on a weekend.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15046915/Robin-Westman-minneapolis-church-shooter-satanic.html
Presented as fact, and widely know fact at that. Where was this when those other linked attacks happened?
Read the article. Long but full of stuff, possibly misdirection but still something to look at and think about.
n
The TSA is rolling out ”facial comparison”, LOL, technology at the Vegas airport. I wonder if you have to enroll? Nah, they already have your facial recognition in the DB if you have preCheck.
This is interesting too, not just that AI use is influencing language online, but that people monitor such things.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-15048297/change-peoples-vocabulary-ai-chatgpt.html
I’ve watched “ operationalize” move from ONE google hit from an obscure and poorly written academic paper that came out of the Atlanta school district, to being widely used. I remember when “janky” was invented on TechTV.
People like buzzwords and jargon. They are signifiers.
n
No wonder the tranny-killer’s Mom bolted. She is probably a High Priestess of 764. The FBI will track her down.
The only “cashless” place around San Antonio – that I know of – is Sea World. The only things there that accept cash are the “cash to gift card” kiosks. There was a kosher deli called “Bubbe’s” that was cashless, but they closed a year or so ago. I don’t THINK that’s why they failed, but it was probably a factor.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/08/30/florida-cracks-down-on-illegal-alien-cdl-fraud-as-highway-accidents-involving-non-english-speakers-surge-n2662562
Show of hands–anyone surprised?
Connor’s Law should include a provision that anyone–legal, illegal immigrant or U.S. citizen–who obtains a CDL fraudulently must be charged with manslaughter if found to be liable for a fatal traffic accident.
[The calculation of the energy of a 40-ton semi at 70mph compared to a single fired 9mm round or even a full magazine of 30 .223 rounds is trivial]
Anyone conspiring to fraudulently issue a CDL should be charged with a federal felony. That specifically includes rogue state officials up to and including the governor (Screwsum, this means you). And the exposure to manslaughter charges should likewise apply.
“People like buzzwords and jargon.”
https://www.quotes.net/mquote/114138
“A cashless society could be unbelievably restrictive, intrusive, and controlling.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender
Is it legal for a publicly-owned facility– i.e. an airport–to rent space to private entities that will not accept cash payment for service?
I grew up in Illinois. At one time, I could (proudly?) say that the last 3 governors had been sentenced to prison. Even the one Republican one.
Their crimes all related to kickbacks and bribes. One of them was due to a CDL issued as the result of a bribe. Before he became governor, he was the Secretary of State, responsible for licensing.
Even earlier, Paul Powell turned his Secretary of State job into a center for bribery. He made $30,000 a year and died with a $5 million estate.
Deposits to an account in the US with the words “money market” in the name become property of the financial institution post MF Global.
If you think this doesn’t apply to you, head down to that Too Big To Fail bank and ask them how long the waiting period would be if you wanted to withdraw everything.
Cracker Barrel inspired me to do some more house cleaning at Vanguard last week, and I noticed that one of the settlement options now was a money market fund paying something crazy.
The latest story making the rounds is that the Girl Boss at Cracker Barrel spent $700 Million on the rehab of the brand, and I imagine that a lot of that was paper from Vanguard and Black Rock.
Yes, it is possible to lose money on a bond fund. The “stable value” funds are the most risky, arguably worse than stocks, since all of those are essentially derivatives contracts.
BC: Incantation
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2025/08/30
Nope, not calling him or his minions.
xkcd: Sea Level
https://xkcd.com/3135/
Yup, constantly changing with enormous energies expended.
Explained at:
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/3135:_Sea_Level
Made one round trip from storage. I’ve got one, maybe two trips left, mainly because I don’t want to disassemble the shelves…
Soon I’ll take the kid to her friend’s house to “get ready” for the concert.
Then it’ll be switching trucks and moving more stuff. OF COURSE the clouds showed up and a few drops fell. Nothing to worry about with the stuff that’s left though.
96F in the shade has me cooling down and drinking water.
n
Ehhhh. Munroe is amusing but he will slant things to ‘make a funny’.
There are any number of binary asteroid systems and even contact binaries in the solar system, and Pluto and Charon make a minor planet binary.
It is quite possible that planets with large moons are uncommon, but with only 4 rocky inner planets one of them (Earth) has a large moon, making for an observed 25% probability.
“Amazon sued over Prime Video movie purchases”
https://thestreamable.com/amazon-sued-for-saying-viewers-buying-movies
“A class-action lawsuit was filed Friday against Amazon for saying that viewers who purchase a movie on its digital platform are ‘buying’ that film.”
I have thought that this practice was deceptive for a long time.
Port Lavaca ranks #1 for the “most affordable beach towns” for retirement.
https://financebuzz.com/beach-towns-retire-1800-budget
Although the one that was selling Obama’s Senate seat eventually got a pardon.
I love the Paul Powell story. To this day, the “Welcome to Illinois” signs on the highways are “signed” by the Secretary of State of Illinois, not the Governor. Paul died suddenly ~1969. Closets at his office and home were jam packed filled with shoeboxes of cash. At the time. it was thought that these were vending machine licensing fees. The DMV is so slow, understaffed, in Illinois that there is a patronage gig for “friends” of the SOS who open micro offices all over the state for car license renewal, hunting and fishing fees. There was a $35 per vehicle “city sticker” for Rockford, IL resident addresses carried over from WWII and never repealed that nailed me a couple of times at “checkpoints”.
I more than suspect that corruption in Illinois is so routine that ALL officials in other states take notes on how to not get caught.
Tidal effects; I’ve read that it’s likely that the Moon may have been a primary driver of life here on Earth. Without a large moon, there wouldn’t be any tides. Tides cause, among other things, mixing of the ocean water. With no mixing, there would be a lot of stagnant surface water. If the oceans were essentially stagnant, there’s a good chance that life as we know it would not have developed.
There are common jokes that in Illinois, the governors always get two terms; one term in office, and another term in prison.
Oh please. This isn’t difficult.
You can “rent” a movie on Prime and watch it once. Same same as going to Redbox and getting a disc from the machine for a day. Or you can “buy” the movie and watch it many times and at different times and on different PCs and phones and whatever.
But “buying” the movie from Amazon does not give you physical media. You don’t actually own a copy of the movie. You just have it in your “library” of movies. And they can, just like Darth Vader, change the terms at anytime. See Kindle revising and deleting your books. I haven’t looked in a while but I don’t recall ever seeing a “download” link for something you can burn to a disc.
Buy your movies on DVD or BD or even video tape or LaserDisc. You have the media. Forever. Ok, as long as the playback hardware exists….
Port Lavaca? It’s a slum The entire Rio Grande Valley east of Edinburg is all a slum.
Yeah, there are bright spots. But when you see houses with eight foot tall cinder block wall fences at the property line instead of a four foot tall chain link or picket fences… and the walls have broken wine bottles embedded into the top of the walls…. slum. Keep driving.
Well, “most affordable” doesn’t necessarily mean “nicest”. But we haven’t been there yet.
That was quite common in the Philippines.
“Massive data breach: Google warns 2.5 billion Gmail users”
https://thenationaldesk.com/news/americas-news-now/massive-data-breach-google-warns-billion-gmail-users-passwords-shinyhunters-microsoft-ticketmaster-businesses-scammers-account
“(TNND) — Google warned its 2.5 billion Gmail users worldwide to be on the lookout for a rise in phishing scams.”
“As a result, the company is advising users to update passwords and use enhanced protections.”
Google wants everyone to use two factor. I hate two factor, it is a pain.
Port Lavaca ranks #1 for the “most affordable beach towns” for retirement.
https://financebuzz.com/beach-towns-retire-1800-budget
Yeah, Port Lavaca ain’t Rockport or Galveston. Wait, Galveston is an armpit also. Even Corpus Christi is nicer than Galveston.
https://townhall.com/columnists/joshhammer/2025/08/29/yes-president-trump-has-the-authority-to-fire-lisa-cook-n2662496
Allegations of at least two felonies due to false statements on mortgage applications and multiple years of tax fraud, accompanied by substantial evidence.
I’d call that sufficient. I’m sure there will be at least one PLT judge that finds otherwise.
But if I recall the geographic diversity of the alleged mortgage frauds, charges could be filed in at least three federal courts. The DOJ should do so immediately, refuse to plea bargain, and demand consecutive sentencing.
And use the same playbook on James and Schiff.
Government officials should be held to higher, not lesser standards than the public.
“Google wants everyone to use two factor. I hate two factor, it is a pain.”
Apple and all the others do, too. Security aside, it gives them more data on their customers.
But how long is it going to take before someone who clicks the wrong link and gets phony bank or credit card page that won’t login encounters the next level of scammer that also has the mark’s cell phone number and a sophisticated text phish for two-factor authentication?
Wait. Two factor is bull stuff. Like I’m on my phone and they are going to send a text message with a secret one time use code… to my phone. ? How is this secure?
Like if my phone has been lost or stolen? Use small words to explain.
Hey, maybe I’m a tard. But it seems like it was just a couple of years ago where you could look someone up on the ‘net to get their phone number.
And today it’s all “pay us” links. What happened to phone books?
Ok, despite the rain, and getting soaked, I’m out of another storage unit. Very little in there that was worth the storage fees. Of course there was a bunch more stuff in there before it got burgled – twice.
Time to order some pizza.
W says it was raining hard at the BOL too.
n
Directory assistance and phone books were paid for by advertisers. No advertisers, no free books or lookups.
n
Ok, people are stupid, and so is the Daily Mail…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15048207/Toddler-hospitalized-mom-mistake-tracking-device-Disneyland.html
The kid swallowed a button cell battery. WEEKS after the Disney trip. Has nothing to do with Disney pr anything else, except this woman is clearly insane.
The “generally cautious” part is probably a GROSS mischaracterization. And the “careful with batteries” is just a lie.
Then the crazy comes out.
If you are worried, buy the ones with the bitter coating. Leave the screws that keep the covers on in place.
IMAO, you are much more likely to be hurt by just about anything else, including buckets and lithium rechargables, than button cells.
Bet she never thinks about the cleaners under the sink, the hair dryer cord, window blinds, or driving either.
Oy vey.
n
BD is licensed media with playback through HDMI, a licensed interface.
Sony could revoke the licenses and production would stop on players. New TVs could obsolete the old players’ HDMI interface.
DVD is arguably the ony “forever” format, but that limits resolution to 720×480 in two anamorphic ratios.
DVD was supposed to be licensed, similar to BluRay, but studio lawyers designed the encryption.
DVD Jon set the format free.
That’s why I have two phones and a desktop computer. All security codes go to phone #1, and no secure websites or apps are on that phone. Apps on phone #2 and websites from my desktop.
Doh!
https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/with-frustrating-defeat-at-ohio-state-texas-becomes-first-no-1-team-to-lose-season-opener-in-35-years/
This is the least secure method of 2FA, but the cheapest to implement. If any site you use offers implementation of a passcode generator, use that. Banks are cheapskates. Passkeys are better yet.
My one experience in Germany in 2016 highlighted the wisdom of keeping a couple of Euro coins for reliable access to “public” restrooms.
Have they removed to pay-as-you-go restrooms? I figure the third-worlders would just soil the parks and sidewalks.
The one gift shop I absolutely positively needed to buy souveniers from, only took cash. It wiped out my entire travel stash and I didn’t get to buy everything I wanted.
I used my Wells Fargo ATM card in France at an ATM in 2009. Gave me euros and charged me dollars.
Back in the day, I got cash from the hotel desk using my AMEX card, in the UAE. I don’t remember how I got cash in Norway, but I had some. Scotland too. Coins and bills are cheap souvenirs. Ended up with lots of change in China.
n
The kid is home from her concert. Doesn’t seem really excited. Her friend was bouncing off the walls. It’s late and time for me to shower and crash. I did have a nice tiny little fire while waiting to retrieve her… so that was good.
n
As I have been reminded so many times on this trip overseas.
I have done that on several trips in the past. Used my CU debit card to get cash at local ATM’s in the local currency. I would get the amount I thought I would need at one time as there was a fee charged by my CU for each transaction.
Here, at least, the restrooms are going electronic: You have to pay with some sort of card or app or whatever, instead of coins. This seems…odd. Sure, many travellers won’t have coins in the local currency. OTOH local residents do, and having to haul out your phone or credit card just to pee? There is so much wrong with that.
Exactly.
Yup, real superior. Currently, they let the rockets crash into the ocean at terminal velocity, and pick up a few bit of wreckage for “analysis”. Real superior. “Old space”, ‘nuf said.
So do like the bums do in New York, just pee on the side of a building. No credit card, or coins, required.