Hot. Sunny. Humid. Overcast. Rainy. Houston. Sunday was hot and humid, no rain, no overcast.
I did some small work in the garage, and I continue to be impressed with how well the exhaust fan keeps the temps down. Oh, it was still hot, but nothing like last year or the year before. Definitely worth doing.
I set two more traps for Sr. Raton. He walked past the traps I’d already set, so I baited these with peanut butter and bacon. I know he was there, because he knocked a package of Costco canned chicken off the shelf. However, someone‘s been nibbling on the poison block I screwed to the wall along a likely infiltration path…. so SOMEONE is not long for this world. I just hope he takes himself outside before expiring. I’m sure I’ll know it if he doesn’t.
I had a box of rat traps that I bought last year at auction, and I have been using the poison block refills for the bait stations. I have been baiting with Tomcat Attractant because all the previous rats learned that peanut butter equals death. It got one up in the attic, but my garage thief is not interested, hence the pb&b bait. If you don’t already have some pest control supplies stacked, I’d recommend getting some. If the slide continues, services like trash removal, junk pickup, etc. will be impacted. Your neighbors, floods, droughts, and new construction all influence the migration and presence of pests too. When the need arises, there might not be any available.
The same can be said for soil supplements, and garden pest controls. It will be critical if you are relying on a garden for food, even just supplemental food, that you get as much as you can. Can’t have pests eating or ruining food your kids need. We’ve already seen that gardening supplies can vanish if the demand goes up even a little. Having some reference books with alternative methods wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Of course the best case is you getting your garden up and productive long before you NEED it. In most places the learning curve is probably not as steep as here, but it can be hard to find the varieties that grow well for you in your location. Local knowledge helps a lot with that. And every farmer knows that luck plays its part, particularly bad luck. Start climbing that curve. (also, you probably don’t have enough seeds, or the right seeds. Work on that too.)
In other news, the Biddn administration has decided to punish Russia by blocking importation of guns and ammo. Give the popularity of the AK and SKS platforms, that is not good news. Cheap imported steel case 7,62×39 didn’t stay cheap during the recent drought, but it was cheaper than 5.56, and a bit more available. It made for a good argument to have both platforms available in your safe. Who knows, the UN peacekeepers and the chinese ‘advisors’ might become mobile resupply pods if things get super sporty, and in that case, 7.62 will be plentiful again. Until then, the supply chain just got broken.
If there’s something you want, or think you will need in the next 2-5 years, I’m suggesting you buy it when and if you see it. If you need fast computers, might want to accelerate your purchase schedule. Even I’m thinking about getting a new box for the house. Almost everything here is a decade or more old, except the NVR I built, and it’s not new. With all the chips that come from Taiwan, if things get a bit sporty on the global geopolitical front, and it seems likely that they will given our withdrawal from the world stage and increased focus on internal issues, it’s possible that the supply of new things of all sorts could be disrupted.
To put it bluntly, Chinese misunderstanding and foreign adventures could wreck Taiwan’s foundries. Chinese really don’t seem to understand that there are some things that actually must be done correctly and well to work, and not just have the appearance of quality. Chip foundries, like aircraft carrier battle groups and nuclear attack subs, are hideously complex and all the pieces have to genuinely work for the system to work. There is no ‘faking’ it and there is no commanding it to happen.
How long could you go if you had to start from what you have now? That’s the question to ask when considering what and how much to stack. It might not come to that. Sanity might prevail. Doesn’t seem like the smart bet though.
Stack it high and wide. Stack some in secret.
nick
74F and 95%RH at 6am. That’s a bit cooler than when I went to bed. Maybe Hot isn’t on the menu? Aw, who am I kidding? Of course it is, just later.
n
If you need fast computers, might want to accelerate your purchase schedule. Even I’m thinking about getting a new box for the house. Almost everything here is a decade or more old, except the NVR I built, and it’s not new.
Any motherboard a decade or less old with a 64 bit CPU and at least 8 GB of memory will run for a really long time. That was the dilemma the PC manufacturers faced until Covid forced everyone into an upgrade cycle at home.
Prices are still high for complete systems considering what you get in some areas.
Keep in mind that the graphics cards that are $600 are at the point in there life cycle where they should be in the bargain bin for less than $100. And integrated graphics systems without separate cards are strictly for light use, even at home.
Of course, if you want to get on the Windows 11 forced obsolescence treadmill, you will need a new PC and a plan for its successors every 5-7 years. At a minimum, I believe that the streaming services will eventually stop supporting earlier versions of Windows due to piracy with the graphics driver stack.
HP, Dell and Lenovo are going to have a ton of cr*p to unload this holiday season at Costco, Sam’s, and Best Buy, ahead of machines truly capable of meeting Windows 11 requirements instead of bare minimums. If you’re tempted, look carefully at the specs.
Speaking of spicy, it is getting real spicy in Australia. I wonder if citizens there still like that the goobermint took all of their guns. Blood is starting to flow. An article says officials ordered rescue dogs shot so people wouldn’t come out of their houses. Rubber bullets flying, tear gas spraying, it’s only a matter of time until real lead is used.
Next up for the FUSA: CWII.
RE: Australia
For a country that is a former prison colony and thus has a decent chunk of residents descended from criminals you’d think they’d have a little more civil disobedience in them. I can’t believe how submissive they are to their own government. I did read an analysis where the lack of any sort of revolution in Australia for their independence is a major reason they lack a national skepticism that the government is working in their best interests. Though, things are brewing…
Pfizer vaccine is now fully FDA-approved for ages 16+.
Pfizer vaccine is now fully FDA-approved for ages 16+.
Things will get uglier from here.
The local Faux News was gushing last night about the successful vaccine mandate at the music festival held at the race track this weekend and how it bodes well for Austin City Limits, coming up in about six weeks.
Of course, the demo of the crowd going to see Willie Nelson yesterday might be slightly different than the people heading to ACL to hear Meghan the Stallion sing “WAP” on opening night, but I’m not an expert.
Was doing some used car shopping over the weekend, and while prices seem to have recovered somewhat from their chip-shortage peak, the dealers are all saying that there’s zero price negotiation due to the chip issue.
Time to order more jammies…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-delays-office-return-least-041711630.html
My wife is work from home today while waiting for covid test results. Sent the kids to school though. :facepalm
She still has smell and taste, but felt cr@ppy. Almost guaranteed not wuflu given that. But hey, 2x moderna she’s probably a latent spreader for life now… right?
n
Was doing some used car shopping over the weekend, and while prices seem to have recovered somewhat from their chip-shortage peak, the dealers are all saying that there’s zero price negotiation due to the chip issue.
When I took my wife to the local Ford dealer to pick up her Exploder from the all day oil change service (cough) on Saturday afternoon, I noticed that the lot was empty save for a handful of F150s — no Mustangs, Edge, Rangers, etc., just the high profit margin vehicles.
You won’t get any negotiation on a late model vehicle right now, especially if you are shopping for a V8 or a hot SUV like a RAV4. The Toyota dealer where I bought my Camry keeps sending letters escalating trade offer prices — the most recent being $19,500 — but they want $29,000 for a 2021 version of the vehicle at the same trim level, no negotiation.
Time to order more jammies…
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-delays-office-return-least-041711630.html
Apple has a lot of room to expand the new Austin campus, but the first building isn’t complete yet.
Apple has a lot of room to
expandsublet the new Austin campus, but the first building isn’t complete yet.There, fixed it for you. 🙂
One thing missing from the latest reporting on COVID-19 patients is a definition of terms. What, exactly counts as fully vaccinated and what is unvaccinated.
I would use these definitions:
Fully vaccinated means 2 weeks after after thee last dose. Since the infection can take a couple of weeks to develop, I would consider any patient presenting symptoms within 1 month of last vaccination as partially vaccinated. I also would not accept a persons statement for being vaccinated, as there will be quite a bit of pressure to lie about vaccination status. At least seeing the vaccination card.
Partially Vaccinated is any patient means runs from 2 weeks after the first shot to 2 weeks after the last shot.
Unvaccinated is everyone not in the other 2 categories.
I would also like to see how many cases are CONFIMED by some definitive test (NOT PCR) versus suspected and the same for variant identification. I strongly suspect that the health professionals are far more confident of their data than they should be.
Apple has a lot of room to
expandsublet the new Austin campus, but the first building isn’t complete yet.There, fixed it for you.
No, unlike the other tech companies who want the writeoff to partake in Austin “culture”, Apple is serious about getting work done here. The new buildings are nice, but not extravagant.
This end of town has plenty of commercial space sitting vacant since it is far from the “hip” areas and never really recovered from Dell and HPE moving to H1Bs and/or outsourcing. Every time I go to Home Depot or Sam’s, I drive past the complex where Nvidia rents and three of the landlords four buildings are vacant since Zynga moved out.
@Clayton:
In other words, what you want is good hard well-defined data so you can analyze it yourself.
You will not be allowed access to good, hard, well-defined data. You are not allowed to think for yourself.
In fact, since you have questions, you’re probably a domestic terrorist.
The state has a vaccination tracker here:
https://tabexternal.dshs.texas.gov/t/THD/views/COVID-19VaccineinTexasDashboard/Summary?%3Aorigin=card_share_link&%3Aembed=y&%3AisGuestRedirectFromVizportal=y&fbclid=IwAR20VhMyB94DRz9NUeTJeFSpB1rlUo6s19qcpLDrOVxKRFo3lceBwDrRcbM
Looks like I fatfingered the county and Brown is at 35%.
What I have not seen is a definitive statement one way or the other that people get immunity to reinfection by having the disease.
They don’t.
Here is a study that shows that recovery + vaccine gives better protection that recovery alone.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7032e1.htm
“These findings suggest that among persons with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, full vaccination provides additional protection against reinfection. Among previously infected Kentucky residents, those who were not vaccinated were more than twice as likely to be reinfected compared with those with full vaccination. “
And https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/04/previous-covid-19-may-cut-risk-reinfection-84
People who had COVID-19 had an 84% lower risk of becoming reinfected and a 93% lower risk of symptomatic infection during 7 months of follow-up, according to findings from a large, multicenter study published late last week in The Lancet.
There is evidence that your antibody levels after vaccination give an indication of how well you are protected, which is why the recommendation for immune compromised people to get a booster. It also looks as if there is pressure for the FDA to only recommend boosters for the elderly and those with certain morbidities which are showing up in hospitalized breakthrough cases. Which makes sense and allows for rollout of vaccines to other countries, which is important in reducing the odds of a more lethal variant – Delta originated in India, for example.
Ran a generator test this morning. Turned off the grid to the house and the generator started and was synchronized to the house in less than ten seconds. My alarm clock did not even have the time to start blinking zero zero. Ran it for about ten minutes and then synchronized the house back to the grid. The generator ran for ten minutes more and shut down.
I am very happy with the generator and the installation. Generator Supercenter did a very good job on both. I still need to get my high pressure natural gas meter but Centerpoint will get around to that in a week or month. My salesman told me that the 10% discount that I got on the $12,500 generator was the last discount they gave out this year and probably won’t be giving out discounts for a long time with their backlog.
That is precisely what I want. Always. In every study and field.
When and where should I report to Gulag for processing?
My Pfizer vaccinated 85 year old friend is in the hospital today with covid on oxygen, no ventilator. I did not see him at church yesterday, just figured that he and his wife were playing it safe. But his wife called one of the members of our little group this morning and he is spreading the word around via email. The email says that they checked him in because his O2 was low but he is already getting better. They do plan to send him home with an oxygen bottle though. Or an oxygen machine, not sure what they do nowadays.
First service at church yesterday was around 450 people and then 75 people in my Bible class. Down a little bit but not much. Of course, a lot of the college kids have left already.
And school starts here today, I helped one of my neighbors install a new mailbox last night while we were out walking after dark. I did not know that he was our high school baseball coach. His old brick mailbox collapsed so he replaced the whole thing with a treated wood mailbox. Took him a lot longer than he planned as he had to get up at 5 am this morning. We got it good enough so that the mailman would leave the mail. He also teaches history in the mornings before afternoon practice. After they financially recover from having a baby three months ago, they are going to install a whole house generator also.
In other words, what you want is good hard well-defined data so you can analyze it yourself.
You will not be allowed access to good, hard, well-defined data. You are not allowed to think for yourself.
In fact, since you have questions, you’re probably a domestic terrorist.
That is precisely what I want. Always. In every study and field.
When and where should I report to Gulag for processing?
Harlingen, Texas. The Gulag is picking blueberries and strawberries this week. Bring your back brace. Just stop at the first field before town.
Oh yeah, bring a straw hat with a big brim too.
The weather geeks on the local newscasts are getting excited about a tropical wave currently traversing the Caribbean and the prospects of it mixing with the 87 degree Gulf water off the Texas coast.
Gas shortage for Labor Day!
You should load magazines and take a few of the storm troopers with you. “And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family?”
…chip shortages…
Was doing some used car shopping over the weekend, and while prices seem to have recovered somewhat from their chip-shortage peak, the dealers are all saying that there’s zero price negotiation due to the chip issue.
Yup, I figure that the Dealers will be using that excuse for a few years. Ford has gotten a new chip supplier since IBM could not meet their needs and is installing computers and shipping F-150s and F-250s as fast as they can. Good luck on getting any discounts until Christmas.
When and where should I report to Gulag for processing?
Taylor, Texas has a semi-secret detention facility used to process illegal aliens from China. That could be easily repurposed for the unvaccinated after the Chinese are set free with promises to report back for their hearings.
Yes, the same Taylor, Texas that is home to ERCOT.
I’d link but it’s easier to just say Daily Mail. The first couple dozen stories are pretty much it.
Vax approved. Vax required or you’re fired. And you. And you. And you too. ‘Stan is f’d and so are the people there. Biddn is not acting normally, nor is Kamel. Big storms suck.
And then there is the unintended consequence…..
‘
“the price of burqas in Kabul doubles”
–and that kind of tangentially brings me to this observation.
In the coming unpleasantness, you might want to not look like ‘you’ all the time. It might be a good idea to have some ‘protective coloration’ available. I’ve been picking up some things when I see them in the thrifts, like oversized shirts that have patterns that are almost like camo and are muted colors, but are distinctly NOT camo. The camo non-pattern serves to break up your outline, and there are lots of other patterns that do the same without actually being camo. I also have picked up some stuff to use for “Halloween costumes”, like uniform shirts that say “Security”, or “FedEx”, or “UPS”, or “comcast”, or “Centerpoint Energy”. Ball caps that go with the shirt complete the costume.
Logo’d polo or golf shirts, a pair of khaki pants, and the right attitude will convince almost any office you belong there. Especially if the logo is a coffee or copier or other service company. Even a golf shirt that says “Pizza Hut”, some black dockers, and black sneakers, with a simple black visor makes a good ‘costume’ and is about as inoffensive as you could hope for… (in complete honesty, while in college I went to a party dressed as the Asst. Manager for a defunct fast food place. I added a cheesy mustache, and a name tag with a ribbon for “15 years of service”. I thought it was clever and horrifying at the same time.)
You might want some outerwear or clothes that are bigger than your current size, if you wore something bulky underneath, forex, or smaller than normal if times get tough and food gets scarcer. If you’ve prepped and you are getting enough to eat but others aren’t, you might want loose fitting clothes that hang on you so it’s not obvious you’re eating well… and if you are a woman during sporty times, you will want to dress like a man at some point. Sun dresses and WROL don’t mix.
Just some things to think about while watching our power and influence wane by the moment.
n
My salesman told me that the 10% discount that I got on the $12,500 generator was the last discount they gave out this year and probably won’t be giving out discounts for a long time with their backlog.
I’m sure that the cell tower near my house wasn’t the only site where the carriers were “swimming naked” in terms of backup generator coverage.
I don’t know which of the big three own the site, but they all rent space on towers from each other.
So, in 25 years?
“So, in 25 years? ”
–in 25 years the kid will be home from college, saddled with crippling debt, and living in his old bedroom. (if anyone believes the world will look like it does today in 25 years…)
you can get a sort of pause in outlays. You get all the kid stuff that’s good for a couple of years, you hand some down to the second kid and don’t buy as much new. Then they get pre-pre-tween and need/want computers, clothes, shoes, phones, bikes, etc and the spending starts again. After that it never stops til they get married and move out the second time.
n
In the coming unpleasantness, you might want to not look like ‘you’ all the time. It might be a good idea to have some ‘protective coloration’ available. I’ve been picking up some things when I see them in the thrifts, like oversized shirts that have patterns that are almost like camo and are muted colors, but are distinctly NOT camo.
When the Yucs fired the last head coach, he dumped all of his logo gear at the Goodwill closest to the team’s training facility on his way out of town. You too could have dressed like another coaching casualty of the Jameis Winston era in Tampa Bay.
Glad it is working as advertised but I’m confused. As I recall it’s something like a gazillion kW, so I thought it was for your warehouse. Is the rated kW the absolute maximum output but you only plan on ever using half of that?
I have a relative that has had all three vaccines. Both Pfizer injections, both Moderna injections, and the J&J single injection. He’s freaked about getting COVID-19. He just went to 3 different vaccine providers over the course of the last 6 months and acted like a new patient. I’m sure he’s been added to the CDC’s statistics as three individuals being fully vaccinated when it’s just him. He had no problems with any provider discovering he had been previously vaccinated. Unless you’re trying to get multiple vaccines from the same provider. Nobody is going to know. Especially when no ID is required and patient numbers aren’t even being written on most vaccine cards. Makes you wonder how many have already decided to go get their own booster by going to a different provider and pretending it’s their very first shot.
Just thinking outloud here…
If you still catch, carry, and spread the virus even when you’re vaccinated (albeit at lower rates) then it seems to me it’s going remain endemic and continue mutating even if everyone is vaccinated. So, variants are a fact of life until there’s a vaccine that provides sterilizing immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Until then, the best we can hope for is the current vaccines make us all asymptomatic.
I do that every time I leave a job. Not Goodwill, though. I go to the donation drop box for a shelter or to a charity thrift store and donate all of my company logo stuff. The thought of my former CEO walking to a nice restaurant downtown with his wife and being accosted by a homeless panhandler wearing one of the company shirts is just too funny. Odds are it will never happen, but there’s that chance…
The new job scheduled an “all hands” meeting for early September about an hour ago.
I wonder what we are going to talk about.
Makes you wonder how many have already decided to go get their own booster.
Now that the concierge practices have the infrastructure for arbitrage, anyone willing to pay can get whatever they want in terms of vaccines.
Getting the booster shot for free in a timely manner will be the challenge as mandates start to roll out in Corporate America.
I do that every time I leave a job. Not Goodwill, though. I go to the donation drop box for a shelter or to a charity thrift store and donate all of my company logo stuff. The thought of my former CEO walking to a nice restaurant downtown with his wife and being accosted by a homeless panhandler wearing one of the company shirts is just too funny. Odds are it will never happen, but there’s that chance…
I wear the logo stuff to mow the lawn or the beach.
One day I had an uptight-seeming older woman walk up in a beach restaurant and ask me if my Death Star logo polo came from a garage sale, literally looking down her nose at me since I was seated. She stated she was a retiree as a secretary from New Jersey HQ and wondered how I got the shirt.
I responded, “No, I worked for Labs in research for a decade.”
Realizing I was a lot higher on the pecking order than she was in the company, she almost ran back to her seat in humiliation.
I did reject all of the logo-ed gear from my cube when I was canned from the last job. The interesting aspect of the exchange with the office manager is that she wouldn’t take my notebooks as required by my employment agreement when we went through the box of my effects. “No, those are yours.”
“Anything you say.”
Pearls Before Swine: My Coffee Name
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/08/22
I don’t go to Starbucks, I’m no boob.
After they financially recover from having a baby three months ago, they are going to install a whole house generator also.
So, in 25 years?
The baby is daughter number three. Maybe 50 years. The oldest daughter started second grade today. I am not sure if they have figured out what causes the daughters to show up every three years yet.
BTW, Coach is 6’5″. Daughter number one is already over four foot tall at the age of seven. I thought she was way older than seven.
““No, those are yours.”’
–I’ve always understood that your “engineering notebook” was yours and not the company’s.
I always used yellow pads so it was clear that they were my personal notes, and my property. I would scan them in after every project, and kept a pad for every big project, and good top of page headers for smaller projects.
I referred to them constantly and still do at my one remaining client.
n
–I’ve always understood that your “engineering notebook” was yours and not the company’s.
The offer letter I signed stated the notebooks belonged to the company and were to be surrendered upon termination.
I attempted to surrender but was rebuffed.
Fine by me, but I doubt the office manager understood the legal implications of what she did by assuming the responsibility of cleaning out my cube and rebuffing my offer of the notebooks.
Ran a generator test this morning.
Glad it is working as advertised but I’m confused. As I recall it’s something like a gazillion kW, so I thought it was for your warehouse. Is the rated kW the absolute maximum output but you only plan on ever using half of that?
Nope, it is a 38 kw generator at the house. I got the liquid cooled for the silence (55 db) which starts at 32 kw. They upgraded me to the 38 kw for free (I know, I know, nothing is free).
https://www.generac.com/all-products/generators/home-backup-generators/protector-series/38kw-rg038-qs
The office complex would require a 48 kw or a 60 kw since I have 20 kw of electric heat, a 4 kw water pump, a 2 kw septic tank, 15 computers using 7 ??? kw, about 700 light fixtures using 10 ??? kw (yes all LED except the 20 four foot fluorescents), a refrigerator, a microwave, 50 gallon electric water heater, etc, etc, etc. Right now, my office complex is on two meters and I make the warehouse tenant pay for their own electricity. The office building is on a 400 amp service and the warehouse is on a 200 amp service.
My extensive experience with blackout generators is that the demand always grows over time. If you marginally size one and add a new building with another a/c unit then you have to start playing games. Plus running generation equipment at the ragged edge is not good for its life as the equipment is not built to run 120 mph down the road day and night. Heat exchangers get hot, etc.
We built a complex with six 85,000 hp (65 MW) gas turbines while I was at TXU. The engineer in charge of the black start design put a 1 MW diesel for starting the gas turbines when the grid was down. His logic was the 400 hp starting motor on each of the gas turbines would just need to be doubled in size. His logic failed. I went out to watch the black start test and watched that 1 MW diesel strain mightily as the gas turbine came up to firing speed (2,200 rpm). We were running the 1 MW diesel at 1.1 MW and it was getting ready to trip when we put a fire in the gas turbine and she started turning on her own power. The design engineer left without saying a word as I was going to give him a few choice words. I later heard that we replaced the 1 MW diesel with a 1.5 ??? MW diesel.
https://www.luminant.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/MorganCreek_Facts.pdf
Cliffnotes of todays plugs’ speech on what’s happening in the World:
“Wear a mask and social distance running from the hurricane”
“Tell your kid to wear a mask outside the house”
Turns back and walks out taking no questions.
Tell me there isn’t something wrong with this man. I guess he’s hoping the Lame Stream Media will carry his water until he can say “Afghanistan? What, at this point, difference does it make?”
Tell me there isn’t something wrong with this man. I guess he’s hoping the Lame Stream Media will carry his water until he can say “Afghanistan? What, at this point, difference does it make?”
The point was to have the FDA approval of the Pfizer jab replace Afghanistan as the lead story for the week.
A lot of people are going to have some decisions to make regarding their careers soon.
Tell me there isn’t something wrong with this man. I guess he’s hoping the Lame Stream Media will carry his water until he can say “Afghanistan? What, at this point, difference does it make?”
The point was to have the FDA approval of the Pfizer jab replace Afghanistan as the lead story for the week.
A lot of people are going to have some decisions to make regarding their careers soon.
Sounds like some of the blue states are going to have roving gangs of vacciners going from door to door and jabbing people.
Wow, we just got notified that the two street intersection a house away from me is going to converted into a roundabout in the next year. In fact, our subdivision is going to get three roundabouts. This should be interesting. Maybe people will slow down then. The speed limit in front of my house is 30 mph, my motorcycle cop buddy gave a guy a 75 mph speeding ticket three years ago in front of my house, before I bought it.
You’re, like, all cynical n stuff.
Including me, I suspect. I need to get my butt in gear and start actively looking for a contract rather than once in a while replying to headhunter email.
Wow, we just got notified that the two street intersection a house away from me is going to converted into a roundabout in the next year. In fact, our subdivision is going to get three roundabouts. This should be interesting. Maybe people will slow down then. The speed limit in front of my house is 30 mph, my motorcycle cop buddy gave a guy a 75 mph speeding ticket three years ago in front of my house, before I bought it.
You must have WA State transplants in your area. They love roundabouts up there, at least where I lived.
It works for them, but the cities have real zoning and sales taxes down to the neighborhood level to pay for all the fun.
That reminds me — we haven’t heard from Dad Cooks as of late. He has the Eastern WA State perspective where I was SW WA State and Rick is Puget Sound.
Pressure only because of cries that the vaxx should be routed to third-world countries rather than be used for US booster shots? Or pressure for some other reason?
The CDC estimates that about one million people have done that already. I don’t recall if the article said how they came up with that number.
Not sure if the pandemic has changed things but prior to it a lot of thrift stores got so much clothing that they were sending truckloads to be made into rags.
Like many COVID numbers, thin air. Use a sample size of three, one got another injection, boom, more than a third of people surveyed got a booster. Easy.
So has anyone heard if all the evacuees have gotten the vaxx before they’re allowed on the plane?
Interesting podcast if you want to know more about roundabouts…
https://freakonomics.com/podcast/roundabouts/
If you like bad movies like I do, here’s what to do if you catch Covid: watch the 2020 version of _The Stand_. All 9 hours of it.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt1831804/reviews
I’m 23 minutes and already I can see a train wreck on the horizon. So I checked IMDb and, guess what! It’s too bad because I enjoyed the 94 version. I think I only saw it a couple times but it was certainly memorable.
@Lynn
So it does sound like you budgeted 200% average kW for the generator. But does the house really use 14 kW? It seems like a lot, but maybe your accounting for starting load on AC, etc. I’m just sort of curious how you arrived at the figure.
@Lynn
So it does sound like you budgeted 200% average kW for the generator. But does the house really use 14 kW? It seems like a lot, but maybe your accounting for starting load on AC, etc. I’m just sort of curious how you arrived at the figure.
The salesman figured it up and I went with it. I do have two a/c units, a three ton and a four ton. A double electric oven. An electric clothes dryer. But our electric bill for July was only $240 at 9 cents/kwh.
OMG, this thing doesn’t even qualify in the so-bad-it’s-good category. I should have reviewed it after 24 minutes because Guinan just showed up in a really bad wig as Mother Abigail.
Mutations will be much slower, since if you are vaccinated your viral load is high enough for spreading for a much shorter time. I’ve seen 4 days vs 10 days for unvaccinated.
A combination of making it available elsewhere and not going to the expense and hassle of revaccinating kids and healthy young adults. The young and healthy will mostly shrug off reinfection, so there is no medical reason to give them a booster now, so reserve boosters for the elderly and those with immunosuppression, etc.
I had started the process to look into an Asus ROG laptop to replace my 8 year old HP Envy and almost went for it until last week I came across the following:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/16881/a-deep-dive-into-intels-alder-lake-microarchitectures
There are significant changes. New architecture and special tweaks for Win11 means that I will grudgingly have to wait a for a few months. It is pointless to buy a new laptop with older architecture when I intend to have that for the next 8 plus years…
If you don’t care about those changes, it would still pay off to wait a bit. There are substantial price reductions in carried stock sure to be had down the track.
I believe that the gun culture as is held by many states in the US is quite a very specific trait that many countries do not share. You can’t apply your set of beliefs that are based in your history and upbringing to other countries with very different past and set of beliefs.
I see where Israel has lowered the threshold for the booster down to age 40…
https://www.voanews.com/covid-19-pandemic/israel-offers-covid-19-booster-shots-anyone-older-40
You had ONE JOB Otterbox company…
…and you performed it perfectly.
Kudos to you for saving my iPhone! Again.
–not just a scumbag and murderer, but a scumbag murderer who would abandon a dog.
n
I’m not a fan of roundabouts but I think the intersection I live on could use one (two highways, 100km/h east-west, 100km/h south, 50km/h north in the town). We had a fatality MVA early this morning due to a high speed collision, AFAIK a westbound vehicle t-boned a vehicle turning left across the westbound lane (north into the town). Not the first, and surely not the last. Can’t have that type of accident in a roundabout. Of course, it would be large enough that I’d lose the part of my property the house is on, so maybe not that great for me.
Wow, we just got notified that the two street intersection a house away from me is going to converted into a roundabout in the next year. In fact, our subdivision is going to get three roundabouts. This should be interesting.
I’m not a fan of roundabouts but I think the intersection I live on could use one (two highways, 100km/h east-west, 100km/h south, 50km/h north in the town). We had a fatality MVA early this morning due to a high speed collision, AFAIK a westbound vehicle t-boned a vehicle turning left across the westbound lane (north into the town). Not the first, and surely not the last. Can’t have that type of accident in a roundabout. Of course, it would be large enough that I’d lose the part of my property the house is on, so maybe not that great for me.
That sounds horrible. Our worst accidents are a kid in a Yukon nailing a trash can at 50+ mph. The trash can flew about 100 ft (my neighbor has it on video). Luckily the trash can was empty.
And a school bus driver was driving down the next street, posted at 30 mph, and went into the five foot deep ditch and rolled his school bus. No kids in the bus thank goodness. The ruts from the back four wheels were left there by the lot owner for a couple of years, I guess as a warning.
All of our lots are at least 1.0 acres, many of them are 2.0 acres. Mine is 1.2 acres and so is my neighbor who is going to lose a small chunk of his lot. I am wondering if the powers that be are going to put in sidewalks at the roundabout. We do not have sidewalks or streetlights in our neighborhood. Just two lane roads with no shoulders and deep ditches. I would like to have sidewalks but many of my neighbors do not want them.
Disclosure: I am not Australian born but I do have an Australian passport issued decades ago.
That is a very dated view fixed in a point in time long gone and that does not reflect what Australia is today. Australia is a vast continent with a very small population that has been mainly increasing thanks to the immigration policies that have been in place for a very long time. It may have started with a prisoner intake but that changed a lot in time. A vast influx of Europeans during and after the World Wars and intake from SE Asia countries mostly recently should give you a hint for a different view as to what Australia is and to what it has become. British are still coming here and even North Americans more recently.
The Rule of Law mostly works here even for the little things and even for politicians. There was a member of government that did not declare a 1k dollar of wine that he received as a gift and he was therefore in breach of either guidelines or law. He resigned over that. Other politicians that have benefitted themselves or family members have ended up in jail.
The two major parties have obviously differing views but the implementation of those views are mostly acceptable to the other side and more importantly to normal Australians by in large. There are other minor parties that allow for dissenting and more radical views and that tends to put some limits on the major parties. If we do not like the implementation of the party in charge we kick them out at most after the four year tenure and flip to the other side.
There is no need for civil disobedience. She’ll be right Mate is real and based amongst other things on what I have just outlined.
Ain’t capitalism great!
re Australians: What I just heard today is that, yes, they’re descended from prisoners. But they’re also descended from the prison guards.
Why the anti-sidewalk sentiment? Where do you take your late-night walks? Along the roads?
Are they anti-streetlights too?
We do not have sidewalks or streetlights in our neighborhood. Just two lane roads with no shoulders and deep ditches. I would like to have sidewalks but many of my neighbors do not want them.
Why the anti-sidewalk sentiment? Where do you take your late-night walks? Along the roads?
Are they anti-streetlights too?
Yes and yes. Late night walks, day walks, dawn walks, and dusk walk can be quite exciting in our neighborhood. After all, we do live on a country road. Our subdivision is an old 800+ acre farm that was originally split into five acre lots. Then most of the five acre lots were split into 1.0, 1.2, and 2.0 acre lots when nobody bought the five acre lots.
https://www.har.com/pricetrends/bridlewood-estates-realestate/6289
We live on the main road in our neighborhood. We go east one house and then turn north onto a cross road that only has 40 houses on it. Most people slow down and get over for us. And we hustle into the next available driveway for the teenage boys who think that they can drive past opposite way walkers in the same lane at 45 mph with one foot of clearance.
ADD: The anti-streetlight sentiment is the people that want to pretend that they live far out in the country. Night time is really dark around here with no streetlights. But in reality, we live a couple of blocks from Rosenberg, Texas who may annex us some day. As of five years ago, our subdivision was totally encircled by new subdivisions with sidewalks and streetlights. But the large lots are very nice. And the cost of putting in sidewalks would be incredibly expensive as we would have to put in drainage piping instead of the ditches we now have.
the big controversy in our HOA, of 1997 families, is sidewalks or no sidewalks. There is a fair bit of racism in the mix as most of the antis don’t want “those people” walking thru the neighborhood. “Those people” are usually the black and brown kids cutting thru to go to school.
n
Judas H. Priest:
President Biden declares that Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird represent the best of what America ‘stands for’
Rapinoe is a disgusting sack of shite. Nobody cares if she is a lesbian, she’s a shitty person.
Nothing says you’re out of touch like thinking she’s anything that America stands for.
n
And with that we’ll leave Bob rolling in his grave. ‘Nuf said. Civilization begins with civility.
Hmmm, the problem with the insulation and corrosion on my power company drop is getting worse and I haven’t heard a single word back from them, even acknowledgement that they got my request.
I’m getting black or brown out when it rains, but only some circuits. That tells me it’s in the drop. If it was the feed to the transformer, all the circuits would be affected.
Also, wife’s UPS is kicking a fit about mis-wired plugs. On an outlet that hasn’t changed at all.
I guess I’ll be starting my day with that issue, and not ebay or auction stuff.
n
For the right amount of traffic, roundabouts are a good solution. That said, I hope there’s enough space in the intersections for them to actually block people from driving straight through!
Back when I lived in Boston, there was one intersection where they took down the stop signs and declared it to be a roundabout. However, the intersection was so small that all they could do was paint a circle in the middle of the intersection. So it was really just a place for people to play “chicken”, as they drove through from all directions without slowing down.
I’m surprised – nay, amazed – that the Taliban is allowing evacuation flights to continue. Of course, there is always the question of just who they allow to get to the airport…
Here, at least, it seems that the “Greatest Generation” had a streetlight fetish. Every road gets lit up like an airport runway. Elderly neighbors still brag about getting the streetlights installed. What for? Newsflash: cars have headlights.
Pedestrians benefit, but there aren’t that many pedestrians, and even then, the lights could be tied to motion sensors.
I’d like to be able to see the stars at night. Even in our little town, the light pollution means that you only see the brightest.