Sat. Sept. 27, 2025 – starting at home, might head out

By on September 27th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall, lakehouse, march to war

Cooler than the last couple of weeks? It was 74F when I went to bed, so it’ll probably be low 70sF this morning, and get hotter throughout the day. Pretty boring weather for the last few weeks. Better than hurricanes I guess.

Did some office stuff and auction stuff in the morning. Took some stuff out of the house in the afternoon. Then did kid stuff until late. I tested several types of hearing protection last night. It was too loud in the stands and next to the band, so I brought my Walker in ear active noise reduction, my Axil in ear, and some passives that I didn’t get to.

The axil in ears are linked by a wire with two little control things on them. They were pretty much just like I remember, having them in sounds like not even wearing them, except that loud noises are reduced to the base level. They are very transparent sounding, but the lowest level of compensation is slightly too high for me. Ie. they are too loud.

The Walker Silencer ™ in ears are separate units for each ear, and are about the size of a sewing thimble. They are more muffled on the low setting, but you can raise the compensation until they sound transparent. They are VERY uncomfortable in my ears. The earpiece is dense foam in a cylindrical shape, and puts a lot of pressure on the inner canal. I wore them for the rest of the game, and I couldn’t wait to get them out. It takes some getting used to them when they cut the sound too. One ear would often trigger just before the other, which was noticeable. And the active noise suppression makes your ear feel ‘pressurized’ when it’s active.

Also, because loud noises (like the loud and overly enthusiastic mom behind me) trigger the reduction, you lose other sounds too, like my wife talking to me. In all, they don’t have swap-able differently sized earbuds, the noise suppression is not super sophisticated, and they are uncomfortable for me, but they do work on crowd noise and yelling. They do pair with blutooth, so you could link them to a phone or radio, although I’m not sure how the mic would work with blutooth.

Next time, I’m going to try changing the earbuds on the axil actives, and I’ll try two different passives. One designed for shooters, and one designed for ‘concertgoers.’

(Wife tried the ‘silicon loop’ passive ones widely marketed to concertgoers and sleepers. She’s happy with the size earbud she picked and their performance.)

People with normal hearing are probably ok in crowds where noise is in the mid 80 to mid 90s dB. With my existing losses, loud sounds can be painful, and I don’t want to lose any more, so I’m wearing ear pro.

———–
If I stay home today, I’ll be working the list. I’m making slow progress on several fronts, and I don’t want to lose what momentum I have.

I should go to the BOL. I’ve got a truckload of stuff to take up, and I’m sure the yard needs work. I also just don’t like it to sit empty for more than a couple of weeks.

But the easy choice is to stay home. (Both kids have activities this weekend, or we’d all be going up.)

Whatever I do, I’ll be stacking and working to improve.

nick

62 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Sept. 27, 2025 – starting at home, might head out"

  1. brad says:

    The Child is doing ok at college. Regarding living situation, she’s pretty well settled in and living independently. In a dorm I paid for, eating in a cafeteria I paid for and after running up hundreds on my credit card for housewares that she didn’t bring from home, using a car that I’m paying for*. I’m so old that I remember when being independent meant moving out and supporting yourself and, you know, being independent. I guess independence has to be reached in smaller steps these days. Academically, I guess she’s doing ok.

    Dunno, I think even in our college days, parents generally paid the kids’ way through. Not so much in my case, but only because my dad passed away during my first year. Hope she takes the academic side of things semi-seriously, and studies something semi-useful.

    – – – – –

    I had one of my college students ask me for career advice in IT. He’s looking to be an entry-level programmer. I had to tell him that – right now, with AI – the job market is a mess. It’s going to take a while to settle out.

    Also – though I didn’t tell him this – he has studied “Business Information Technology” which is 2/3 a business degree. He’s not likely to win a competition with people who studied “Computer Science”. I did suggest he look into related fields, like requirements analysis, QA, etc.. May be a better fit, and may be less affected by AI.

    “Secret Service Uncovers Network of SIM Servers Capable of Disabling Cell Towers”

    Fake news. From what I’ve read in tech forums, this was a pretty normal operation, of which there are likely dozens or even hundreds scattered around the country. They support spammers by providing local numbers to send spam from, either SMS or phone calls. Disable cell towers? Sure, enough SMS at once will overload the local tower, because SMS is an ancient technology, and that’s also not news.

    The big question is: why are they making such a big deal of it? Watch the shiny, ignore what the other hand is doing…

    Two factor sucks if you lose access to the second factor.

    This has also bothered me for a long time. Yesterday, I spent the morning solving the problem.

    I use a password manager (KeePassXC). On Android, I use KeePass2Android. They share a database, which can be synced over a lot of different cloud services (I use OwnCloud). KeePass apps can generate those 6-digit OTP codes. Which means that you now have multiple devices that can provide the codes. If your phone dies, or gets lost, it’s no longer a problem.

    On the downside, it may be less secure to have your codes on multiple devices. On the other hand the KeePass database is encrypted, and requires its own password to open. So if someone grabs your unlocked phone, they still can’t get to the codes.

    I have a lot of codes, so it took a couple of hours to revoke the old authenticators and set them up new on KeePass. Some services (ahem, Microsoft) make this a PITA. You have to be careful that you don’t screw up and delete the old, before the new is working: Stay logged in to the service in one window, and open a new incognito window to test the new login.

    Or if somebody dies, all the accounts tied to the phone are snafued if the owner did not give you the pin.

    Our kids have access to our safe-deposit box. I have a sheet there with PINs and passwords. In particular, the password to KeePass. I need to add a note about the 2FA stuff being there…

  2. brad says:

    A judge in Austria has just pronounced a group of men innocent of mass rape of a 12-year-old. For two reasons: first, they never used violence – they just intimidated her into cooperating. The fact that their own video of the even has her saying “stop!” apparently doesn’t matter.

    They were explicitly not prosecuted for sex with a minor, because she “looks older than her age”. Which is just bizarre. Do y’all remember this? 12 or 20 

    Edit: If you guessed that the men are all from the Middle East, you win the prize.

  3. SteveF says:

    Getting old.. not recommended..

    Though, as my mother says regularly, it beats the alternative.

    If you guessed that the men are all from the Middle East, you win the prize.

    Ten for one. It’s not going to stop until they’re in fear for their lives.

    And I’m talking about the traitors at least as much as I’m talking about the enemies.

    11
  4. Greg Norton says:

    I had one of my college students ask me for career advice in IT. He’s looking to be an entry-level programmer. I had to tell him that – right now, with AI – the job market is a mess. It’s going to take a while to settle out.

    Also – though I didn’t tell him this – he has studied “Business Information Technology” which is 2/3 a business degree. He’s not likely to win a competition with people who studied “Computer Science”. I did suggest he look into related fields, like requirements analysis, QA, etc.. May be a better fit, and may be less affected by AI.

    I tell white and male in the US to not even try IT. 

    QA is where the US companies banish white men over 40. I’ve escaped that trap, but, at one point, after being unemployed for nearly three years in WA State, I had to walk out of a new job when I realized that management pulled a bait and switch for a QA position.

    The irony is that the company really did need the skills along with my clean urine and non-existent criminal record in that job conducting tests onboard military aircraft, but they were not honest up front or, most important, willing to pay.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Ten for one. It’s not going to stop until they’re in fear for their lives.

    At this point, the native population in the theme park countries of Western Europe may have to restart Ze Kampfs for real and not just as an abstract threat to Ze Skippy for refusing the mask and jab.

  6. SteveF says:

    Forgot to mention last night: I finished Spider-Man: No Way Home yesterday evening. (It takes a while to watch these movies, 32 minutes at a time.) I had been informed that it was pretty good. I was misinformed. It was good compared to Shang-Chi or Eternals but that’s not exactly high praise. Considering the, shall we say, minimalistic praise for the next several MCU films, I’m reconsidering my plan to watch all of the MCU in order.

  7. ITGuy1998 says:

    Was the engine Hecho en Spain or Hecho en Cleveland?

    Cleveland.

  8. Greg Norton says:

    I had been informed that it was pretty good. I was misinformed.

    People were happy to see the lead and primary antagonists of Sam Raimi’s “Spiderman” films for Sony, a reminder of better days.

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Was the engine Hecho en Spain or Hecho en Cleveland?

    Cleveland.

    Cleveland is good, but I would still baby that engine.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    People were happy to see the lead and primary antagonists of Sam Raimi’s “Spiderman” films for Sony, a reminder of better days.

    “No Way Home” was also Disney and Sony attempting to capitalize on Willem Dafoe’s career resurgence after “The Florida Project”.

    Dafoe and “The Florida Project” both deserved Oscars but Disney wasn’t going to allow that to happen.

  11. lpdbw says:

    I tell white and male in the US to not even try IT. 

    Quoted for truth.

  12. ITGuy1998 says:

    Cleveland is good, but I would still baby that engine.

    That goes for any engine. I don’t follow manufacturer recommendations for oil changes. I have a limit of 5000 miles. I don’t care if the car says oil life is at 50%, it gets changed. The other big consideration is engine temperature. Go easy on the engine until it is at operating temps. This is especially important for turbo life.

    All other maintenance gets done per factory recommendations. I don’t skip anything. Preventative maintenance is key for a long lasting vehicle.

  13. EdH says:

    Hmmm.

    Something took a dump on the mat outside my back yard french doors last night.  

    Without inspecting too close (shovel length) I would say there’s a lot of raw flesh in there, so probably a coyote. Whatever it was, it was small or clever enough to not set off the security cam.

    Gonna have to wash that mat.

  14. SteveF says:

    Something took a dump on the mat … there’s a lot of raw flesh in there

    Have you pissed off your “raw food” neighbor lately?

  15. EdH says:

    That goes for any engine. I don’t follow manufacturer recommendations for oil changes. I have a limit of 5000 miles. I don’t care if the car says oil life is at 50%, it gets changed. The other big consideration is engine temperature. Go easy on the engine until it is at operating temps. This is especially important for turbo life.

    Very wise.

    My 2021 Ford Probe GT made it to 300,000.   I was religious about getting to operating temperatures before driving. This would be the turbo charged 2.2L Mazda four banger.

    My mechanic was astounded that I never had to replace the turbo.

    An engineer at the same place I was working had exactly the same model. I would watch him come out and start the car, and basically be driving out of the parking lot while the starter was still spinning down. He was upset that his only lasted 150,000 miles, failing with “bolts backing out of the block“.

    My gearhead friend Karl and I would marvel over people’s inability to sit for 60 seconds or so.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    My 2021 Ford Probe GT made it to 300,000.   I was religious about getting to operating temperatures before driving. This would be the turbo charged 2.2L Mazda four banger.

    2021? 

    My 1993 Probe with a normally aspirated 2.2L Mazda was done by the time I traded the vehicle in 2001 with about 80,000 miles on the odometer.

    I put two $1000 repairs into the engine outside of warranty despite religious maintenance, and the rubber trim deterioration around the windows was something Ford never was able to resolve from surviving vehicles I’ve seen still on the road.

    The vehicle was also a constant rattlebox, like everything out of Flat Rock in that era, including the Contour-based Cougar which replaced the Probe as Ford’s import-like sports coupe for a brief time until the entire category lost favor with car buyers.

  17. Nick Flandrey says:

    If you guessed that the men are all from the Middle East  

    – what was the victim’s ethnicity?

    —————-

    80F and sunny.   IDK what it was at 7am, I rolled over and went back to bed.  Slept until 10:20.

    ————-

    HOA sent a nastygram about mold on the north side of my house and demanded that I rectify the situation.    MFs forget that their authority derives from ME and my neighbors and that the Board works for us, not the  other way around.   F’ing Board is corrupt and entrenched like a tick in a belly fold.  They are flat out making up rules and regulations that are not in the CCRs that I signed.    

    We tried to replace the most problematic members but it turns out, the Executive Board has all the power, is invitation only, and has all the lifers from 40-50 years ago on it.  It’s gonna take lawsuits (which cost US money in the long run) or the passage of time.  Or violent collapse of social cohesion.

    —————–

    Coffee and breakfast are almost finished, so it’s time to do some stuff.

    n

  18. EdH says:

    Yes, 2021 GT, still sitting out in the RV shed.

    Perhaps I got a good one?

    I don’t think it rattled anymore than any other car of that era, no issues with the seals, the (white) paint was pretty mediocre though, lots of micro pitting.  I remember renting a Honda at around that time period, same hatchback form factor, normally aspirated four, and was very unpleasantly surprised: now that was a rattle box!

    I did blow two spark plugs out of the head in the life of that car, but that’s just something that happens with long grades, aluminum blocks and turbo charging. My bad.

  19. EdH says:

    I was talking to a neighbor this morning and he mentioned the coyotes really have been out in force. 

    Two were standing off against his dog the other day. One apparently got one of his remaining chickens. 

    He saw two jumping the fence at another neighbor (with livestock).

    A third neighbor says they were yipping within hundred feet or so of his house last night.

    A lot of daylight sightings … glad the Chihuahua’s are back with their owners.

    p.s. Apple’s voice to text is apparently AI now. It’s much worse than the direct transcription. I can see it do the transcription properly, and then go back and edit it to be something completely different, changing words, removing words,  and sometimes removing entire clauses.

  20. SteveF says:

    It’s gonna take lawsuits

    They can’t be board members if they don’t have houses in the HOA area, right? And they don’t have houses if there’s a spate of unattributed fires, right?

    Alternatively, they can’t remain board members if they never make meetings, right? And they can’t make meetings if they’re in a coma in the hospital because they were beaten with a ball-peen hammer, right?

    Not that I’m advocating anything, of couuuuuuuuuuuuurse. I’m jus’ askin’…

    I just moved my chicken coop and run, as I do every week or two. It normally takes about 45 minutes to get the gear (dolly and bungee cord, bring the long hose around, get the small wheelbarrow, bag of straw, and the small garden tools used to get the dirty bedding out of the coop), clean the coop, hose down the coop and anything else that needs to have poop washed off it, move everything about 20 feet, put the tray back in the coop and fill with clean bedding, and then clean the tools and put them back. It takes an hour or so if wife or daughter help.

    I let the chickens out while I was doing this, because they’d be terrorized and probably get stepped on if they stayed in the run. They stayed fairly close for a few minutes, then had to make a break for the neighbor’s yard because why wouldn’t they? Rounding them up took longer than usual because it was their first freedom in some time.

    After that I was going to mow but the grass is soaking wet even though it hasn’t rained. -shrug- Guess I’ll have to just be lazy, by which I mean sit at my desk and work for money.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    HOA sent a nastygram about mold on the north side of my house and demanded that I rectify the situation.    MFs forget that their authority derives from ME and my neighbors and that the Board works for us, not the  other way around.   F’ing Board is corrupt and entrenched like a tick in a belly fold.  They are flat out making up rules and regulations that are not in the CCRs that I signed.

    How much recently retired military or senior active duty do you have in there?

    I saw their latest racket in action this weekend, but I’ll post about it later.

  22. Brad says:

    what was the victim’s ethnicity?

    Not specified, but her first name is Anna. Given the larger story – she was pressured into group sex multiple times – her parents must not be tje best – may be a crappy home situation. Which excuses nothing – she’s still a 12 year old kid.

  23. Nick Flandrey says:

    In Texas and most of the US, threat of force is equivalent to force.  It’s called ‘strong arm robbery’ when the sainted George Floyd does it, or when the ‘banger comes up to you and demands your sneakers.

    n

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    The swiss don’t have ‘statutory rape’ for those who can’t legally give consent?

    n

  25. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hey hey hey, our lives are being vibrantly enhanced by the return of TB…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-15138319/Fears-Victorian-disease-thought-eradicated-discovered-Southern-state-high-school.html 

    and not just there, the article lists several other outbreaks.

    n

  26. EdH says:

    My Ring doorbell just emailed me to request charging.

    So, is this the future I was threatened with or promised?

  27. Lynn says:

    The Child is doing ok at college. Regarding living situation, she’s pretty well settled in and living independently. In a dorm I paid for, eating in a cafeteria I paid for and after running up hundreds on my credit card for housewares that she didn’t bring from home, using a car that I’m paying for*. I’m so old that I remember when being independent meant moving out and supporting yourself and, you know, being independent. I guess independence has to be reached in smaller steps these days. Academically, I guess she’s doing ok.

    Please tell me her major is not psychology or women’s studies.

  28. Lynn says:

    “Secret Service Uncovers Network of SIM Servers Capable of Disabling Cell Towers”

    Fake news. From what I’ve read in tech forums, this was a pretty normal operation, of which there are likely dozens or even hundreds scattered around the country. They support spammers by providing local numbers to send spam from, either SMS or phone calls. Disable cell towers? Sure, enough SMS at once will overload the local tower, because SMS is an ancient technology, and that’s also not news.

    The big question is: why are they making such a big deal of it? Watch the shiny, ignore what the other hand is doing…

    The Secret Service is trying to restore their very damaged reputation.  They let a shooter take four shots at Trump last year, that hurt their reputation very much.

  29. Lynn says:

    Over The Hedge: Red Dwarf Sun

       https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2025/09/27

    Um, the Red Drarf Sun is not going to be human form.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    The Secret Service is trying to restore their very damaged reputation.  They let a shooter take four shots at Trump last year, that hurt their reputation very much.

    The Secret Service let Ryan Wesley Routh escape.

  31. Lynn says:

    “Antifa Freakout”

        https://areaocho.com/antifa-freakout/

    The Antifa think that they can run.  Yes, the internet is forever.

  32. Lynn says:

    “17 days after Charlie’s death, it’s clear: We are now on the other side of the Rubicon”

        https://www.theblaze.com/shows/the-auron-macintyre-show/17-days-after-charlies-death-its-clear-we-are-now-on-the-other-side-of-the-rubicon

    “But it was the left’s response to his tragic death that revealed this reality perhaps even more than the shooting itself. Almost immediately, radicals took to social media to post videos celebrating Charlie’s murder, claiming he deserved to die and even mocking his wife, Erika, and their two children. Across the country, they defiled memorials, crashed prayerful vigils where his admirers gathered in grief, and even called for more violence against conservative figures.”

    “This wasn’t a fringe group, either. It was a minority, says Auron MacIntyre, but “a very large minority.””

    “But now that it’s clear the right will not follow the left’s suit and respond in violence, even the liberals who initially issued “half-hearted rebukes” are beginning to “[rip] the mask off,” caveating their original statements with hypocritical comments like, “Charlie Kirk was evil. He was a fascist. He was a racist. … Wasn’t he kind of asking for it?””

    “Auron warns: For too long conservatives have mistakenly believed that “history is over” and that modern politics is just a “debate club,” but we can no longer deny the reality facing us: A nation this divided cannot endure.”

    Yes.  And we do not have to have a civil war but we do need to imprison the violent protestors.  The protestors at ICE facilities should be mass arrested and held for federal magistrates and federal prisons.

  33. Lynn says:

    “Leaked Memo Reveals FBI Deployed A Stunning 274 Agents On J6, Causing Internal Revolt”

        https://www.zerohedge.com/political/leaked-memo-reveals-fbi-deployed-stunning-274-agents-j6-causing-internal-revolt

    “The FBI deployed nearly 300 plainclothes agents to the US Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, in an effort that became so chaotic it caused an internal schism within the agency that led many rank-and-file at the bureau that core competencies had been lost to “wokeness,” and that employees had become “pawns in a political war,” according to an after-action report hidden from the public for over four years until it was obtained by Just the News.”

    “Anonymous complaints were sent to the after-action team by scores of FBI agents and other personnel – many from the bureau’s premier Washington field office (WFO) – detailing how agents were sent into a dangerous situation without proper safety equipment or even the ability to identify themselves as armed officers to other police agencies.”

    The FBI management needs to be totally replaced.

  34. Greg Norton says:

    I thought that the Texas-Florida game in the Swamp was this weekend.

    College football has a “bye” week now?!? 

    I’ve either been busy or had access to really bad WiFi for most of the last week.

  35. Nick Flandrey says:

    Got the pressure washing done.   Of course, the job expanded as there are a lot of things around the house that would benefit from pressure washing….

    I’m waiting for the back yard to go into shade to run the mower though.  It’s pretty hot in the sun.

    Nice in the shade with the water mist from the washer though.

    n

  36. Lynn says:

    “DOJ Announces Charges Against Activists Who Allegedly Doxxed an ICE Agent After Following Him Home”

       https://redstate.com/beccalower/2025/09/27/doj-shares-frightening-news-on-how-activists-allegedly-doxxed-an-ice-agent-while-livestreaming-n2194470

    Today, we unsealed a federal indictment charging three women—two from Southern California and one from Colorado—with following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent home, livestreaming their pursuit, and posting the victim’s home address on Instagram.

    Each defendant faces 5 years in federal prison.

    Finally !

    These Antifa people need to be afraid of going to jail as they themselves are tracked and arrested.

  37. Lynn says:

    These Antifa people need to be afraid of going to jail as they themselves are tracked and arrested.

    And yes, also charge them as being part of a terrorist organization and for treason too.  Throw a whole box of charges against them all.  Make them bankrupt their trust funds trying to keep themselves from doing hard time in a federal prison.  Hopefully a federal prison in a hot desert or in a swamp.

    https://redstate.com/streiff/2025/09/27/antifa-might-have-cooked-its-own-goose-n2194472

  38. Lynn says:

    My TAMU Aggies are 4 and zero after beating a hapless Auburn.   We may have the best team that you can buy !

  39. ITGuy1998 says:

     Beating Auburn isn’t a great accomplishment. Just sayin…. 
     

    Oh, and Roll Tide!  Note I type this before the start of Bama/Georgia this evening. Just in case.

  40. Lynn says:

    I tell white and male in the US to not even try IT. 

    Quoted for truth.

    Really ?  Is it really that bad ?

    I do tell young people to get Computer Engineering degrees, not Computer Science degrees.

    And no way on business computing degrees. Cobol, really ?

  41. paul says:

    I just finished watching  Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard.

    It’s a comedy.  With plenty of cussing and gunfire. From 2021.  I liked it.

    I guess it was in that batch of movies I bought from someone on Facebook a couple of months ago.

  42. Lynn says:

     Beating Auburn isn’t a great accomplishment. Just sayin…. 

    There are no dogs in the SEC.  Especially this year when Vanderbilt and South Carolina are not pushovers.

  43. drwilliams says:

    From what I’ve read in tech forums, this was a pretty normal operation, of which there are likely dozens or even hundreds scattered around the country. They support spammers by providing local numbers to send spam from, either SMS or phone calls.
     

    Seems that such a concentration of non-mobile cell phones would be easily located using statistical analysis. So what excuse do the cell companies and federal law enforcement have for allowing them to exist?

  44. drwilliams says:

    “Cobol, really ?”

    Still writes the checks. 
     

  45. EdH says:

    The FBI management needs to be totally replaced.

    Not one of those agents dropped a dime to anyone about it. 

    So the upper limit of the percentage of number of FBI field agents that knew and were willing to bring a really important fact to the public over four years (not even anonymously) is less than one in 1/275, i.e. about ⅓ of 1%.   

    But if you assume that they told one other agent, or complained to their supervisor, and talked to an analyst about it , then the number of FBI that knew and kept silent may be more like 1000.

  46. OldGuy says:

    Drone-killer using microwaves. An included short video shows all of the drones (49) dropping like rocks all at once. From the article:

    One countermeasure is the use of microwave weapons like Leonidas. Named after the Spartan king who held off a Persian invasion with a vastly inferior force at the Battle of Thermopylae, Leonidas is one of a family of weapons based on using long-pulse microwave beams to burn out the electronics of small drones.

    The idea isn’t new, but Epirus has improved on previous iterations by using Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductors to generate microwaves instead of fragile, power-hungry magnetron vacuum tubes. This allows for smaller, more durable, and more mobile systems that use less power. In addition, Leonidas is software driven and can tailor its waveform for optimum effect, it is safe to use around humans who may be in the field of fire, and the present system has twice the range of the 2022 version.

    But the core feature is its “one-to-many” capability that gives it operational flexibility to handle a variety of scenarios. For example, it can strike against targets with precision to take out hostile drones while avoiding collateral damage, be programmed to set up no-fly zones with safety corridors to take out hostiles while allowing friendlies to pass, sustain continuous fire without overheating, and take down swarms in one go.

    (link)

    From the pix, looks to be tank-mobile.

    10
    2
  47. Nick Flandrey says:

    That is a big freaking antenna.  NO WAY would I stand in front of that thing.

    n

  48. OldGuy says:

    That is a big freaking antenna.  NO WAY would I stand in front of that thing.

    Did you miss this part: “it is safe to use around humans who may be in the field of fire” ?? Don’t you think they have tested to make sure that statement is correct?

    Their website is https://www.epirusinc.com/ – and there are indications that they have a drone-based system on the site.

    5
    2
  49. lpdbw says:

    Really ?  Is it really that bad ?

    I do tell young people to get Computer Engineering degrees, not Computer Science degrees.

    And no way on business computing degrees. Cobol, really ?

    Negative on all counts.

    It is that bad, especially for white guys over 40, but white guys in general, too.

    When you look for a job you’re competing with bargain-priced H1Bs first,  then minority women, then minority men, then white women.  White young men are lucky to even win an interview.

    I got my last job at 59 years old,   I had a superstar resume, tweaked by my HR friend to get me in the door, and wowed them with experience.  I was also the last white guy hired in the 7 years I worked there.  You had to go 5 levels up in my chain of command to the next white guy.

    To be fair, the black VP 4 levels up was actually competent and experienced.  He was a Navy retiree, and he ran one of the hospital ships when he was in uniform.

    Not so much the others.

    My “stepson” with an ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) degree from UT-Austin struggled to get his first (icky) job at Qualcomm, and had strong competition for  his current better-fit job.  

    Seriously, if I ever get asked, I’m going to say to learn to weld or plumb or do HVAC.  Take some business classes so you can manage on your own.  Those jobs succeed or fail on merit, not DEI.

    In the current market, Excel skills are more useful and valuable than computer engineering of any sort.  For a white guy.

    I saw a statistic a few weeks ago that the unemployment rate for white male college graduates is higher than it is for white male high school grads.

  50. Greg Norton says:

    There are no dogs in the SEC.  Especially this year when Vanderbilt and South Carolina are not pushovers.

    Either Texas or Florida are done next Saturday.

  51. Greg Norton says:

    My “stepson” with an ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) degree from UT-Austin struggled to get his first (icky) job at Qualcomm, and had strong competition for  his current better-fit job.  

    Apple cleaned out all of the competent talent at Qualcomm in Austin more than a decade ago.

    Windows on Arm isn’t going anywhere now that Nvdia threw in with Intel.

    Apple may yet cut a deal with Intel for manufacturing at a minimum.

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    Did you miss this part: “it is safe to use around humans who may be in the field of fire” ?? Don’t you think they have tested to make sure that statement is correct?

    — I didn’t miss the first part.   It doesn’t quite say it’s safe to be in front of it.   As a radio operator, I have an idea of the amount of energy involved in FRYING electronics at a distance, and at that frequency water molecules are excited and get hot.  That’s how your microwave works.

    You can’t run your microwave with the door open without the risk of harm and the energy levels to fry electronics at a distance  are significantly higher than your microwave.

    Using it “around” humans is very  different from having it targeted on you or being in the beam inadvertently.   They talk about beam steering to hit one target close to another drone, which you’d expect with that style antenna, and they used it widely dispersed against multiple targets as well.  As long as the AI and beam control software work, you could probably stand to the side of the beam, like you could stand next to a high power laser beam, or a firing machine gun, and within limits, you’d be “safe”.   If that beam was swinging all over the place to engage targets, I don’t think you would want to be anywhere inside its nominal range of movement no matter how “safe” you’ve been told it is.

    — wrt the second part, no, I don’t think they tested it.  I think they measured RF levels around the antenna, and are confident that they can steer the beam.   I don’t think they put living creatures near the thing and ran it against targets.   The military has a different standard of “safe” than I do, or most civilians would, based on a concept called “acceptable losses”.   My tolerance for loss of myself is damn near zero.   And “safe” doesn’t always mean what you think it means.   When a chemical or additive is tested on rats, if 6 or more out of ten die, OSHA says “unsafe”.  If five or less die, “safe”.  BUT 5 rats still died.   (and no I don’t have a link, that’s what I was taught 30 years ago in school wrt dyes and other industrial chemicals.)

    I’m still not standing in front of ANY antenna that big.   FFS, even the 5 G poles have warnings on the poles to climbers that dangerous levels of RF energy exist near the antennas at the top of the pole, and those systems use orders of magnitude less power.

    n

    added- ham radio antennas, even at the limited power we can use, can give you RF burns if you aren’t careful. We’re supposed to do math to figure out if it’s safe to be anywhere near our antennas every time we change anything in the system because of the risks.

  53. drwilliams says:

    “Don’t you think they have tested to make sure that statement is correct?”

    I understand that “Free Palestine” translates as “Put me in front of a huge microwave antenna at maximum power and Allah will protect me”

  54. Nick Flandrey says:

    WTF?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15141333/North-Carolina-yacht-basin-Southport.html 

    Multiple people injured after gunman opens fire from boat into North Carolina restaurant

    By JENSEN BIRD

    Published: 23:35 EDT, 27 September 2025 | Updated: 23:55 EDT, 27 September 2025 

    Three people have been killed and eight were injured after a boat pulled up to a North Carolina tourist spot and opened fire. 

    The shooting took place between 9pm and 10pm on September 27. 

    The boat pulled up in the marina near the American Fish Company in Southport, NC and fired into the crowd at the pub. 

    The shooter then fled the scene on the water using the Intracoastal Waterway. 

    —-

    As of 11.30pm a person of interest was being questioned, according to Star News.

  55. drwilliams says:

    There are very few GI’s or thinking men in general who would not take “some harm to their person” in exchange for “blowing the enemy’s shiite up”.

  56. drwilliams says:

    When a chemical or additive is tested on rats, if 6 or more out of ten die, OSHA says “unsafe”.  If five or less die, “safe”.  BUT 5 rats still died.   (and no I don’t have a link, that’s what I was taught 30 years ago in school wrt dyes and other industrial chemicals.)

    Nope. 

  57. drwilliams says:

    https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/09/26/oh-holy-smokes-jersey-mikies-husband-part-of-annapolis-cheating-scandal-n3807241
     

    Candidate for NJ Guv was part of the infamous “Cheating class of 1992” at Annapolis. Turns out, so was her husband. 
     

    Part of the toxic legacy of Slick Willy. The correct response would have been to expel every last ethically deficient piece of crap in the class and confiscate their rings and any other evidence of their enrollment, while putting a black mark on their record to prevent them from any government service and hopefully from leadership in Boy or Girl Scouts.

    When the time comes I hope to visit Hell and ask Satan how the afterlife is going for the spineless pieces if shiite that sat on SW’s draft board and didn’t send him to prison  

  58. Lynn says:

    Really ?  Is it really that bad ?

    I do tell young people to get Computer Engineering degrees, not Computer Science degrees.

    And no way on business computing degrees. Cobol, really ?

    Negative on all counts.

    It is that bad, especially for white guys over 40, but white guys in general, too.

    When you look for a job you’re competing with bargain-priced H1Bs first,  then minority women, then minority men, then white women.  White young men are lucky to even win an interview.

    I got my last job at 59 years old,   I had a superstar resume, tweaked by my HR friend to get me in the door, and wowed them with experience.  I was also the last white guy hired in the 7 years I worked there.  You had to go 5 levels up in my chain of command to the next white guy.

    To be fair, the black VP 4 levels up was actually competent and experienced.  He was a Navy retiree, and he ran one of the hospital ships when he was in uniform.

    Not so much the others.

    My “stepson” with an ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) degree from UT-Austin struggled to get his first (icky) job at Qualcomm, and had strong competition for  his current better-fit job.  

    Seriously, if I ever get asked, I’m going to say to learn to weld or plumb or do HVAC.  Take some business classes so you can manage on your own.  Those jobs succeed or fail on merit, not DEI.

    In the current market, Excel skills are more useful and valuable than computer engineering of any sort.  For a white guy.

    I saw a statistic a few weeks ago that the unemployment rate for white male college graduates is higher than it is for white male high school grads.

    Oh my goodness, I had no idea the DIE had infected companies so much now.  I did figure that if my software business failed that I would be instantly retired.  It has made me more careful since I turned 50 a long time ago.

    We had some Indian H1Bs working with us in the 1980s.  They were worthless as programmers.  We were selling our software in India and it was the only way that we could get paid.

    I do have a couple of Indian clients now but they pay me with USA credit cards.  I have no idea how they fund them and don’t really care.

    In fact, I am surprised how many people pay me with credit cards now.  

  59. Lynn says:

    My “stepson” with an ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering) degree from UT-Austin struggled to get his first (icky) job at Qualcomm, and had strong competition for  his current better-fit job.  

    In 1982, it took me 46 ??? interviews at TAMU until I found a job with Texas Electric Service Company (TESCO) with my Mechanical Engineering degree working for $1,800/month plus lots and lots of unpaid overtime.  Sounds like things are not any better since then.

  60. Lynn says:

    “Jesse Kelly Warns to Be Cautious Around Democrats – “They Program Them, No Different than a Jihadi is Programmed” (VIDEO)”

       https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/jesse-kelly-warns-be-cautious-around-democrats-they/

    Jesse Kelly of “The First” had very important warnings regarding Democrats. He warned viewers to be very careful around Democrats and explained that their mindsets are aligned with terrorism. He said rightly that they are communists.”

    ““Terrorism. Every single American knows about terrorism. And what do you think about when you think about terrorism? You think about jihadis, Islamic jihad,” Kelly said.”

    Shades of Scott Adams and a certain segment of our society.

    Hat tip to:

       https://thelibertydaily.com/

    7
    1
  61. Alan says:

    >>Please tell me her major is not psychology or women’s studies.

    Maybe something useful like Music History… 

  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    There are still symphonies and other places that someone with education and talent in music can find employment, but those are dependent on other people’s wealth, and a wealthy society.

    ———

    Had a nice tiny little fire by the water feature in front of the house.   Two rounds of gunfire in the distance, 7 and 9 shots, different guns.   Last time I sat out I heard gunshots too.   Not that usual here except on holidays.   More than I want to hear, and both times from the direction of the large apartment complexes.

    Got caught up in a new book and stayed up too late.   Time for bed now.

    n

    added.  when it’s impossible to get hired, you have to find a way on your own.

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