Cool, then warm. Maybe even hot! And the forecast calls for clear, which is very nice. I was sweating in the sun yesterday, but that was only in the sun. In mixed light or shade it was the perfect temperature. SOOOoooo nice. I just want to sit on the porch…
But the list is like rust and never sleeps.
Yesterday I mostly worked on getting the natgas gennie connected to the house. Well, really, putting the connectors in place and doing the wiring for real to connect it. Of course it wasn’t anywhere near as simple and straightforward as it should have been. But that’s my life.
I did manage to get my laundry done and folded. Dinner was made and eaten. And the whole family was at the table. That is increasingly rare with the kids’ school activities. A few more years and we’ll be empty-nesters. Time flies.
Today I’ll finish up the gennie so I can get that off my list. I’ve got at least one pickup to do too, and maybe some grocery shopping if the time works out. If not, tomorrow will be ok too.
I should stop in and see my buddy at the gub store too. It’s been a while since I dropped in. I’m always happy to see him and his wife and chat for a bit. And maybe he has some fantastic plastic in 22LR to use as a trainer…
The list is long, and my focus is short, but maybe I’ll get a couple of things done, while I … … … keep stacking.
nick
I used to have quite a pile of spare everything. Mostly, this happened, because computers (or phone, or whatever) got replaced every 3-4 years. That doesn’t seem to happen so much anymore. My “new” computer is already 3 years old. My “old” computer is still doing duty as the guest computer in our office. Meanwhile, peripherals like keyboards and mice do break, so I’ve used up almost all of the reserve.
I have had a couple of duds over the years, but mostly I’m really happy with the wireless mice from Logitech. A battery generally lasts several months. The one I use with my laptop, well, Icarry spare batteries anyway, for things like flashlights.
Deficit spending on the scale of the US is insane. The price will be paid through inflation: the dollar will become internationally worthless. The next downgrade by the credit agencies will accelerate this. Of course, it will be great for US exports. But imports, travel, or anything the US needs from abroad will become prohibitively expensive.
Never thought about that! ChatGPT reports that carbon is also very scarce, and carbon is pretty important for things like growing food.
Pretty insane. People who hate him either have no concept of what the man has contributed, or they are secretly jealous and embarrassed at their own complete lack of meaningful contribution to…well, to anything.
You mean FLASHLIGHTS (or FLASHLIGHTs). Do try to uphold community standards.
Good dog!
Tuesday. Good morning. It’s lunchtime, so I am having breakfast. Logic.
There is a very happy-looking red squirrel enjoying the peanuts I put out for the birds. Odd how squirrels use their front paws to hold nuts while they nibble them, but not to pick the nuts up. Opposable thumbs, lads, it’s the way to go…
Lots to do today, and little motivation to do it. Ah well. It’s a great life.
Is Artemis worth the read? Reviews seem mixed. I did enjoy the Martian.
Hey, chicken boy! Up before me today.
Aha, squirrel is replete. It has switched to hiding the nuts!
Musk didn’t build Twitter. Twitter didn’t even create the app that made it “Twitter”.
Musk did found the original X.com which merged with Confinity to become Paypal, but Confinity’s principals, Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, got rid of him as fast as they could.
OpenAI was a group effort from the tech billionares, the key component to keep the financial circle jerk behind the monkey trick running.
I’ve seen Max Levchin speak in person. Five minutes listening to that guy, and you quickly realize who was the brains behind PayPal.
Levchin went on to build Affirm. Whatever I think of BNPL ethically, the concept is genius.
The currency debasement required to build the sex robots for the elites will be beyond what any other society on Earth is willing to take out of fear of the population unrest and return of the guillotine to the public square.
A large segment of the US population wants to see Trump swinging from gallows built on the very spot where he was Inaugurated in 2017, but that is a separate issue, having nothing to do with economics.
A large segment of the US population is easily led to believe and act in ways counter to their own interests.
Trump is objectively no worse than most of the past Presidents, and probably better if by better you mean “less beholden to the military industrial complex” and the web of self interest that makes up politicians. He was a social democrat until he got enough personal power to denounce them. HE WAS ONE OF THEIRS BUT LEFT, and that probably fuels a lot of the hate at least subconsciously.
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I didn’t put up the link, but was amused by this…
She probably got invited to the function and thought, “OH, squirrel people. I’ve got just the dress…”
I grew up with red squirrels who were friendly, intelligent, and everywhere, until the greys moved in and drove them out. Now the squirrels at my childhood home are bigger than greys but smaller than reds, and not very friendly.
I have a soft spot for the antics of the little tree rats, who’d rather work hard to steal than eat what’s in front of them.
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64F and coffee is ready.
n
Um…what’s the problem? It is precisely the invasive gray squirrels that are pushing the red squirrels out of their native habitat.
It seems likely that she offended some clueless greeny. She needs a spine.
Never heard of it, but: after visiting the site, isn’t this just another way to encourage irresponsible spending, and charge people interest for the privilege? Buy-now-pay-later is fundamentally a predatory practice.
When the ‘consumer protection’ laws about fees and interest rates went into effect, all the lenders found other ways to charge high interest and to target the ‘broke and desperate’ market.
They bought Payday Loan companies, Title loan companies, and created all the ‘buy now pay later’ options for ecommerce. There may not be a conspiracy, but the world is structured to keep the poor poor and the rich rich.
n
Another one going, going, …almost gone.
Eddie Bauer files for bankruptcy with 200 stores at risk of closure
This marks the third bankruptcy in just over two decades for the storied – but increasingly struggling – brand, which began as a Seattle fishing shop in 1920.
n
MDACC is under full mask protocols. I hate masks due to breathing used air. And the mask is smushing my longish beard which is sticking out in all directions.
All of my wife’s winter coats come from Eddie Bauer.
i knew something was up when their Sun Valley parkas were not restocked for Fall, when we looked for one for my daughter.
Good Germans all.
Is Artemis worth the read? Reviews seem mixed. I did enjoy the Martian.
Artemis is a 400 page look at the problems of running a Lunar city with 100,000 people. Since nitrogen is so scarse, they are running 5 psia atmosphere of 90% oxygen. Yes, very fire prone.
From an engineering viewpoint, the book is a masterpiece.
What’s the excuse? I imagine that the real reason is that a Republican is President and there’s an election later this year, but what did they say was the reason?
Koalas would agree.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/lawmaker-calls-fcc-take-action-after-bad-bunnys/
– shouldn’t be a surprise. Every year some school gets in trouble for a DJ playing obscene songs in spanish that none of the white peeple understood.
n
I got only a few chapters into The Martian. It seemed good enough but the little brat, AKA my darling beloved daughter, picked up my Kindle when she was in my office and I was working, read a paragraph or two, liked, it, and went back to read from the beginning. This lost my place, of course, and I just never got back to starting over.
The little brat did that repeatedly, from ages maybe 8 though 12. Even after I got her a Kindle of her own. Most likely this is because I didn’t beat her enough as a small child, an omission I shall attempt to retroactively rectify next time I see her.
And cats. Several times over the years a cat has watched me manipulate* something, tried to do it himself, fail, watch my hand, try again, look at its paw, and look at my hand again. There obviously something ticking between their ears.**
* Literally!
** Not orange cats, of course. They have only one brain cell. Shared among them.
Maybe a school teacher was secretly ‘transitioning’ her to read voluntarily?
A stretch, I know, but I once heard a middle school teacher say “it’s a victory if I can get a kid to steal a book to take home”.
Reading: the gateway drug to seeing the world and thinking on your own!
Stamp it out now!!
Nor would I; I had the concept and a connection with Harry Harrison, who published it (not for the first time) in an anthology. Google FTW.
Musk didn’t invent/create Tesla, either. But, it would be a historical blip without him.
Jeff knows the furthest point read in the book across all Kindle devices and apps. There should be an option to move to that point unless you have a very old Kindle.
I keep an old Kindle around which I manage with Calibre and dragging/dropping files to/from the USB mounted file system.
Guano-psychosis
And the mask is smushing my longish beard which is sticking out in all directions.
Which reinforces the ridiculousness of forcing you to wear one. It protects no one unless you expectorate sputum. A virus won’t care.
Musk brought the carbon credit grift.
V8 saloons were sacrificed so a small number of propeller heads could cruise to work at “Ludicrous Speed”.
Then came the Jesus Truck. Paying for that disaster will end Chrysler at a minimum.
What’s the excuse? I imagine that the real reason is that a Republican is President and there’s an election later this year, but what did they say was the reason?
They keep on saying there are sick people here, really sick, not fake sick. This is a cancer center after all.
V8 saloons were sacrificed so a small number of propeller heads could cruise to work at “Ludicrous Speed”.
V8 station wagons were killed by moms buying suvs so they could drive in a Suburban from the kid soccer fields with muddy shoes.
Which reinforces the ridiculousness of forcing you to wear one. It protects no one unless you expectorate sputum. A virus won’t care.
Please do not examine my various computer monitors that I have sneezed and coughed all over them. Every couple of years, I clean the worst of the nasty spots off. Usually using spit and a kleenex.
No, that’s not it. I read to her from infancy. When she was about 4 ½ we were reading the Magic Tree House series, a chapter before bed. One night she got mad that I had stopped at the end of the chapter, turned the light back on, and started reading the next chapter by herself. She asked what a few words were but otherwise read the whole thing without help and was able to tell me what the chapter was about.
The thing with stealing my Kindle was that I had better, more interesting books than she had. It mostly wouldn’t even have bothered me if the little brat had set a bookmark, as I showed her, before going back to the start, but she seldom if ever did so.
Greg, yes, I know that Kindles can go to “farthest point read” but that’s no help when she’s already gone past where I’d been, by the time I noticed.
@Denis
Is Artemis worth the read?
IMHO, Yes. Really enjoyable engineering bits, sassy main character who develops and grows, fun creative problem solving. Lighter than Martian however equally enjoyable in different ways. I grew up on a steady diet of the classic sci-fi authors – Mr. Weir scratches that sci-fi itch.
I also enjoyed his “Hail Mary”, though that one I’d try to get an edition before the screenplay was developed in case the original gets monkeyed with.
Musk brought the carbon credit grift.
V8 saloons were sacrificed so a small number of propeller heads could cruise to work at “Ludicrous Speed”.
Then came the Jesus Truck. Paying for that disaster will end Chrysler at a minimum. -greg
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V8 station wagons were killed by moms buying suvs so they could drive in a Suburban from the kid soccer fields with muddy shoes. –lynn
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guys, you are getting cause and effect mixed up.
V8s in cars were sacrificed on the alter of AGW and the eco grift of the EPA and mandated mileage and emissions requirements. (which were caused in part by the arab oil embargo and the sudden realization that letting foreigners control our ability to move around was bad. But instead of drilling and refining, and saying F U to importing oil, they took the cowardly route that had the benefit for them of increasing their power and control.)
Station wagons were killed by the same standards, that allowed different mileage targets for trucks, and the brand new category of SUV. Auto makers build SUVs because people WANT them.
People wanted them because they still needed big vehicles to move kids, gear, and teammates, but couldn’t buy them in the “car” category anymore because of mileage rules. So they bought SUVs. Have you actually LOOKED at how small SUVs have become? And they invented the “crossover” to get more car-like features and styling into SUVs.
Squint and the Cadillac SRX is a slightly taller station wagon. Most of the ‘mid’ sized SUVs are just tall station wagons, or short minivans.
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Sure, there are people that buy big trucks just because they are big. So what? It’s their money. The “ludicrous” appeals to the same sort of impulse that having a BIG truck does, the desire to thumb the nose.
“I’ve got an EV, but it’s the fastest EV and if I’m gonna drive a wuss mobile (all the previous EVs) I want one that isn’t for wussies.”
btw,
A normally aspirated V8 289cu.in. Mustang could get 22mpg on the highway IN 1966! It got what my Ranger gets in town too.
n
also, RLTS didn’t invent the carbon credit. A bunch of rentier middle men invented that market from scratch and made a shite ton of money doing it. Taking carbon credits for building EVs is morally superior to telling africans they can’t use mechanised farming, so that you can create carbon credits to sell, in my opinion anyway. There are other schemes that are almost as offensive.
Musk didn’t invent/create Tesla, either. But, it would be a historical blip without him.
Tesla was literally bankrupt when Musk showed up. He brought a few billion friends (USA dollars) and fixed their engineering and manufacturing.
Twitter would be bankrupt on the side of the road without Musk. Might have been better to make it easier to get rid of entitled peoples.
Forgot
Paying for that disaster will end Chrysler at a minimum.
– Chrysler hasn’t made cars people wanted in a long time, and should die if they can’t. As for buying carbon credits from tony, well, they are free to buy them elsewhere, or pay the fines, or buy a politician and get the law changed. But they won’t change the law, because laws are almost never relaxed or made simpler, or even repealed if someone can make money off of them.
n
And don’t forget that Bidden’s DOJ which was Bammy’s DOJ stepped in a forced Musk to buy twitter when he couldn’t get a look at the books and got cold feet.
Lots of dem propagandists saw an exit path and took it.
n
I miss Mopar.
But the Mopar I miss was 1960’s and 70’s Plymouth and Dodge. I owned a 1969 318 cu. in. V8 Barracuda.
A friend of mine told me, in about 1975, that MIT did a study showing that you could address the air pollution issues from autos by mandating tuning unaltered ICE engines for maximum efficiency without additional hardware like catalytic converters, and adding large air scrubbers in cities, to capture the pollutants and scrub the air. It would increase fuel mileage, reducing imported oil, and cost less overall.
He was an undergrad at MIT at the time, and he said the study was suppressed.