Tues. Oct. 25, 2022 – maybe more work today, if the rain holds off

By on October 25th, 2022 in decline and fall, march to war

Warm and damp.  Hopefully clearing later.   Yesterday was misty almost drizzle in the morning waiting for the school bus.  Then I headed toward downtown, and didn’t see any rain, but when I got home everything had been sprinkled.  The overcast was ominous, so I went inside.

Had to pick up the kids from drama rehearsal, so that blew my afternoon.  Same same today, btw.  I’ll have to try to get some stuff done early.

I did get the plumber through what he needed to do to finish the install at the rent house.   It’s not enough that the water heater has a pressure release valve.  Someone decided that it could pop and spray you, so they mandated a discharge pipe to direct it down into the overflow pan.  THEN someone decided you’d never know it had discharged, so they mandated that it run to daylight, somewhere you would notice the water.  That was what he couldn’t do on the original install.   It’s done now.

One thing I’ve decided, with all the work I’ve been doing is that you can’t have too many channel lock pliers.  You maybe could have too many  in one place, but they are so versatile and handy that you can’t possibly have too many.   One mod I’ve been meaning to do is to grind the teeth off a pair or two, so that I can grab brass nuts without galling them.  Add it to the list, and do it to a cheaper pair.

Most of yesterday’s list slid to today.   So I better get on that.

Stack the things, use them, mod them if needed.

nick

87 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Oct. 25, 2022 – maybe more work today, if the rain holds off"

  1. SteveF says:

    I have to give them a project to work on for a few weeks, one that stretches their abilities and teaches them a bit. However, since the project isn’t graded, it also needs to be extra interesting and motivating.

    Contribute to open source projects? Lots of practical stuff involved in that: using git or other VC, wading through usually undocumented code, debugging, unit tests, even the politics of getting a pull request approved. If you find an “internet infrastructure” project that could use some documentation or other work, you can hype it to the students as them becoming some of the unsung heroes who keep the whole thing working. It’s usually not glamorous but it’s important.

  2. Nick Flandrey says:

    62F and 76%RH, after a storm rolled thru last night.   Shortly after I went to bed, the wind started up and got to  the point stuff in the yard was blowing around.   Rain started around 1 and I think it was done by 2.

    Woke up several times, so I’m STILL beat.  

    And there is still a bit of gusting from what I can here.

    Hope it settles down soon.

    Time to make some breakfast.

    n

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    @Brad, build a drone kit, then fly  it?

    n

  4. Greg Norton says:

    I was working for a musician my last trip to NOLA.  The hotel concierge drew us a map of what clubs to go to.  He was very specific about taking a taxi from one club to the next, and UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES were we to walk thru one particular area.   Well, we looked.   The street hulked.    It oozed menace.   I’ve never seen a vacant street that more clearly said STAY AWAY.  We  took a cab the few blocks to the club.

    Saturday night, we walked up Bourbon from Canal to see the LaLaurie Mansion, the template for the Haunted Mansion exterior at Disneyland. That started to be sketchy a few blocks down from the cross street the house sits on so we cut over. The walk still cost us $5 to one aggressive panhandler.

    We’ve been. We will have to go back one more time.

    Memphis downtown was equally creepy. Maybe it is the river.

    Legalized or semi-legalized weed also does bad things to the entertainment districts I’ve noticed. Tennesee has low grade CBD, and New Orleans has something similar. Dopey tourists gotta try everything, and it is indeed a “gateway” to other highs.

    It will be “Game Over” on 6th Street in Austin when legalized weed hits Texas. Abbott has been hinting at decriminalization *not legalization* next year.

    Decriminalization debate would allow the bail out of the utility companies to float through the Legislature unnoticed. Plus it takes some of the appeal out of “All right, all right, all right” who is a one issue candidate even though no one says it.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    I have to give them a project to work on for a few weeks, one that stretches their abilities and teaches them a bit. However, since the project isn’t graded, it also needs to be extra interesting and motivating.

    Contribute to open source projects? Lots of practical stuff involved in that: using git or other VC, wading through usually undocumented code, debugging, unit tests, even the politics of getting a pull request approved.

    Having Git involved isn’t a terrible idea, but an active production project isn’t the place for a beginner getting the hang of merge and, God forbid, rebase done incorrectly.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    “Well, listen, I know Charlie is interested in talking about Joe Biden and 2024, but I just want to make things very, very clear. The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”

    https://www.mediaite.com/politics/worn-out-old-donkey-desantis-gets-testy-in-debate-after-crist-asks-if-hes-running-for-president-in-2024/

    Charlie should know about ambition being a distraction. Crist spent his first term as Florida Governor running to be the Republican Vice President candidate in 2008.

    But Charlie is not a meth head, which is a step up for the state Dem party from 2018.

  7. brad says:

    @Nick: It specifically needs to be software, more specifically Java…

    @SteveF: Supporting open source is definitely important, but I doubt my ability to sell it to a bunch of teenagers. I’m thinking more along the lines of RoboCode: where you write code to control tanks that shoot at each other. The cool thing about that particular game is that the tanks have very imperfect information, so they have to save what they find out and extrapolate from it. Which in turn calls for some clever programming.

    @Greg: I do plan to have them use Git, but only on a simple level: Commit, push and pull. Merges only when someone screws up…hopefully never…

    Since these teenagers are not yet adults, I have to get my criminal records pulled, to ensure I’m not some evil guy. The government emphasizes their super-easy online process. Which really is easy, until it generated a PDF that you…have to send in by mail. Online process. Right.

  8. Ray Thompson says:

    Which really is easy, until it generated a PDF that you…have to send in by mail

    Now the government has your DNA on the document. Best use thin gloves when filling out the form. Oh, and when you print the document there will be microdots that contain your printer information so the government knows who printed the document.

    Maybe I watch too much CSI and their fake forensics. Microdots I know about although I don’t think it does much except to actually identify a specific printer. Which would require a warrant to get access to the physical printer. DNA on paper, questionable unless you slobber when you sign the document.

  9. JAMA says:

    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797483

    Conclusions and Relevance  Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve time to recovery. These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19.

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  10. Nightraker says:

    Pricey, German, Imported, but really nice pliers/adjustable wrenches:

    https://www.amazon.com/Knipex-8701250-10-Inch-Cobra-Pliers/dp/B000X4J2H0/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=KNIPEX+10+INCH&qid=1666705822&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjk4IiwicXNhIjoiMy4yMCIsInFzcCI6IjIuNzcifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-1&tag=ttgnet-20

    https://www.amazon.com/Knipex-8603250-10-Inch-Pliers-Wrench/dp/B000X4OG94/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=KNIPEX+10+INCH&qid=1666705822&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjk4IiwicXNhIjoiMy4yMCIsInFzcCI6IjIuNzcifQ%3D%3D&sr=8-2&tag=ttgnet-20

    I carry a mini-set on my belt at work for when a Leatherman multi-tool isn’t enough:

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009RXXZI0/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=ttgnet-20

    There was a New Guy who joined us in the machine shop lo these many years ago, who we inveigled to request a “metric Crescent wrench” from the tool crib.  Craftsman wrenches of that style had their opening dimension in Imperial on one side of the handle and Metric on the other… 😉 

  11. ITGuy1998 says:

    https://channellock.com/pliers/

    I prefer Channellock pliers. Yeah, there are cheaper, but these work well.

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ah, checkerboard paint, left handed screwdrivers,  or metric screwdrivers…board stretchers, and in the theater lighting field, ‘beam block’.

    n

  13. Nick Flandrey says:

    Back from orthodontist.  D1 is down to the last two visits.   D2 had her first last week…

    Still  a bit blustery out, although the sun is in the sky.  Wore a jacket for the first time, although I’d have been fine without.

    n

  14. Greg Norton says:

    https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797483

    Conclusions and Relevance  Among outpatients with mild to moderate COVID-19, treatment with ivermectin, compared with placebo, did not significantly improve time to recovery. These findings do not support the use of ivermectin in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19

    JAMA goes straight to the garbage at our house. The AMA sold its soul to Obama to pass the bill so we could see what was in it.

    The crazy thing is that wee haven’t paid AMA dues since leaving Vantucky, where the clinic paid them as a graft deal because one of the higher ups hailed from Chicago and thought it was important. God only knows why. The organization still sends us the magazines and the occasional bills, eight years later.

    More Gish Gollop, Old Bean!

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  15. SteveF says:

    Back from orthodontist.

    My daughter got Invisalign late last Winter. It was projected to take about 18 months but she actually wears them the specified 22 hours per day, every day, so it looks like she’ll be done in after about a year. The orthodontist and assistants told her that this is quite unusual.

    Huh. My teenage daughter, doing what she’s supposed to and not sabotaging her own life? Are you sure? My daughter? 

  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    Are you sure? My daughter?    

    – yep I hear you.

    n

  17. EdH says:

    Ah, checkerboard paint, left handed screwdrivers,  or metric screwdrivers…board stretchers, and in the theater lighting field, ‘beam block’.
     

    Or “100 yds of flight line” in the aerospace world. 

  18. Pecancorner says:

    Ah, checkerboard paint, left handed screwdrivers,  or metric screwdrivers…board stretchers, and in the theater lighting field, ‘beam block’.
     

    Or “100 yds of flight line” in the aerospace world. 

    Reminds me of a story. When I was maybe 7 or 8, my grandfather was at our house one day working on the toilet. He asked me to “Go to the house and get me the plumber’s friend.”  They only lived a couple blocks away, around the corner.  

    I walked over to their house, and looked and looked, and came back. I said “I couldn’t find Plumber’s Friend, but here’s the new copy of Popular Mechanics.” (a magazine).  When he stopped laughing, he explained that he wanted the plunger!  

  19. MrAtoz says:

    Are you sure? My daughter?    

    – yep I hear you.

    n

    x5

    Or “100 yds of flight line” in the aerospace world. 

    Addin a “bucket of rotor wash” for us choppers.

  20. MrAtoz says:

    Oof:

    APPEAL DENIED: Brittney Griner will begin nine-year sentence in a Russian penal colony…

    I know plugs was counting on this a a Hail Mary. “I saved a Black lesbian…” Maybe he can up the deal with the remaining SPR at $20bbl. Throw in free tanker service.

  21. Ray Thompson says:

    Lesbian, in a penal colony. The irony.

  22. SteveF says:

    x5

    You poor bastard.

    Though it’s partly your own fault. What, you couldn’t take the hint after about the third daughter?

  23. Lynn says:

    The LG Clothes Washer died this morning.  It was filling the washing machine with warm water.   It died with the hot water valve open so my first clue was one inch of water in the laundry room and the kitchen.

    Now I am looking for a Speed Queen TC5.

    And the pantry, and the edge of the carpets in the living room and dining room.

    One should always own a wet/dry vac. Especially one that works. However, we started by opening the back door and sweeping out the water. Yes, there was that much water.

  24. Brad says:

    Here, at least, the video of Biden getting lost in the garden is all over the news. Poor senile old guy – who is pulling the puppet strings? 

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  25. Lynn says:

    Though it’s partly your own fault. What, you couldn’t take the hint after about the third daughter?

    He has at least one pair of twins.  Girls of course but an engineer and a biochemist IIRC.

  26. Alan says:

    >> Ah, checkerboard paint, left handed screwdrivers,  or metric screwdrivers…board stretchers, and in the theater lighting field, ‘beam block’.

    Don’t forget the “stretcher.”

    Pick from paper, pipe or wire as appropriate.

  27. MrAtoz says:

    He has at least one pair of twins.  Girls of course but an engineer and a biochemist IIRC.

    Microbiology.

  28. Ray Thompson says:

    Don’t forget the “stretcher.”

    Pick from paper, pipe or wire as appropriate.

    I used a wire stretcher on the ranch. Used to pull barbed wire taught before stapling to the wooden fence posts or using wire brackets to attach to steel posts. Tight was when it was like plucking a guitar string. And in the process one hoped the wire did not break. Nasty event if close to the stretcher.

  29. MrAtoz says:

    Oof 2.0:

    BIG –> NY State Supreme Court reinstates all fired unvaccinated employees, orders backpay, says state (ahem, Dems) violated rights

    Repercussions be a comin’. If plugs doesn’t reinstate every soldier/sailor/marine who was cashiered for no vax, tough potatoes when tRump is back and cashiers the trannys.

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  30. MrAtoz says:

    On my solar experiment:

    The Jackery 2000 solar “generator” just stopped charging via any method. I’m not sending it back for repair. It is a lost cause. I think I can still use the 800W of folding panels via adapters. I’m done with Jackery.

    Anker is coming out with a new 2K+ “generator” in November that I will get an email on.  I like their products and my purchase one. I’m sure it will be pricey.

  31. MrAtoz says:

    On the Apple front:

    Mac Ventura is out today. Updated my laptop and it seems fine.

    iPadOS 16 is out today and my Pro is currently updating.

    I’ve been waiting for FreeForm from Apple, a kind of White Board app. Also, both Ventura and iPadOS 16 say “later this year”. I think FF and Apple Notes will cover 95% of my brainstorming needs.

  32. Alan says:

    >> https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2022/10/25/big-ny-state-supreme-court-reinstates-all-fired-unvaccinated-employees-orders-backpay-says-state-ahem-dems-violated-rights/

    Just because it’s NYFS…their State Supreme Court is not their highest level court, that would be the Court of Appeals. So likely to be appealed. 

  33. Greg Norton says:

    Here, at least, the video of Biden getting lost in the garden is all over the news. Poor senile old guy – who is pulling the puppet strings? 

    Defense contractors and anyone else with a vested interest in seeing the Ukraine mess continue.

    Six of the ten wealthiest counties in the US are clustered around DC, mostly in Virginia. Boeing is relocating their HQ again, out of Chicago to Viriginia to be closer to the money trough.

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  34. Ray Thompson says:

    I think FF and Apple Notes will cover 95% of my brainstorming needs.

    I use OneNote. Available for PC, Mac, and IOS. Seems to work really well for doing my notes. Insert drawings, links, images, Visio pages, and yes, even text. The ability to see notes on my desktop, laptop, MacBook, iPad and iPhone is really nice. Changes made on one device will quickly appear on the other devices.

    Mac Ventura is out today. Updated my laptop and it seems fine.

    I updated yesterday with no issues. iPad, iPhone, Watch and MacBook. I now need to do both Apple TVs, the wife’s iPad, Watch and iPhone.

    The new weather app on the iPad and the MacBook is really nice.

  35. mediumwave says:

    * https://smile.amazon.com/Now-Hear-This-Daniel-Gallery/dp/B0007DV5L8/ref=sr_1_3?crid=ZYCV1TAJER8T&keywords=Daniel+Gallery&qid=1666725505&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIzLjk3IiwicXNhIjoiMy4zNCIsInFzcCI6IjIuNzUifQ%3D%3D&s=books&sprefix=daniel+gallery%2Cstripbooks%2C132&sr=1-3&tag=ttgnet-20

    Oh, that Daniel V. Gallery:

    Daniel Vincent Gallery (July 10, 1901 – January 16, 1977) was a rear admiral in the United States Navy. He saw extensive action during World War II, fighting U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic, where his most notable achievement was the June 4, 1944 capture of the German submarine U-505. After the war, Gallery was a prolific author of fiction and non-fiction. During the post-war military cutbacks, he wrote a series of articles criticizing the heavy reductions being made to the US Navy. These articles placed him at odds with the administration during the episode which became known as the Revolt of the Admirals.

  36. Alan says:

    >> Here, at least, the video of Biden getting lost in the garden is all over the news. Poor senile old guy – who is pulling the puppet strings? 

    @brad, is this new “wandering” or just new on your side of the pond? 

  37. Nightraker says:

    I use OneNote

    I keep 50k+ of my favorite web pages in Evernote.  I don’t even scratch the surface of what the program will do and the Android version, while attractive, is kludgy.  Makes for a multi platform searchable archive of my ‘net wanderings for more than a decade.  Probably well featured in my show trial. 🙂

  38. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    Crane operators sending the newbie for a sky hook…

  39. Greg Norton says:

    Another JAMA showed up in the mailbox this afternoon.

    It is a magazine published by a lobbying organization, not a scientific journal.

    Into the bin.

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  40. Nightraker says:

    The shop where I worked back then was several acres under roof.  Some anvil sized parts were a bronze alloy with a high iron content, although visually brass or copper colored.   The newbie would be sent out looking for the “big” brass magnet after the demo of attraction with any handy magnet. ..

    The oil wipe stuff came on fire hose sized reels about the width of TP and was referred to as a popular feminine hygiene product.  Hi-Spot Blue-ing was a toothpaste tube of Bic pen ink that was fun to apply to black  Bakelite knobs or… toilet seats. 

    We were obviously paid too much.

  41. Ray Thompson says:

    Updated wife’s iApple stuff to the latest IOS version, 16.1. Her iPad is an older model and it shows. Update is taking almost 30 minutes. Her iPhone is newer, took 10 minutes. Really should think about getting her a new iPad. It does what she needs so not a priority. May just run it into the ground until the batteries get below 50% capacity.

  42. Alan says:

    >> One of them ate a whole jar of brown mustard.

    It got into a glass jar, or was it a plastic bottle? In any case, something new to bait the traps with  😉

  43. lynn says:

    You know, if there was a good day to pressure wash the kitchen, today is that day.  72 F and a 10+ mph wind out of the north.  Dried the kitchen out well.  And the wife was after me to get those 100 cans off the pantry floor.

  44. lynn says:

    I now own a TC5 Speed Queen.  Now to get the old junk out and install the TC5.  I an apparently on the clock and she is counting.

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  45. Alan says:

    >> My daughter got Invisalign late last Winter. It was projected to take about 18 months but she actually wears them the specified 22 hours per day, every day, so it looks like she’ll be done in after about a year. The orthodontist and assistants told her that this is quite unusual.

    Did you consider these? My younger son did Invisalign. The ex twisted by arm to get me to pay for them even though it wasn’t in the settlement. Got a bit of a break as our old-school family dentist did them, saving some by bypassing the orthodontist. He also did extractions and dentures. Today, it seems everyone in dentistry is a specialist and the “family dentist” does cleanings, cavities, x-rays, and referrals for anything else.

  46. Alan says:

    >> Pricey, German, Imported, but really nice pliers/adjustable wrenches:

    I have these from Knipex, handy for putting loop ends on Romex when you need to fasten to a screw terminal.

    Most of my smaller cutters and pliers though are blue Channellocks.

  47. Greg Norton says:

    I now own a TC5 Speed Queen.  Now to get the old junk out and install the TC5.  I an apparently on the clock and she is counting.

    You bought it from a dealer, right, someone who explained the caveats of “Normal Eco”?

  48. Alan says:

    >> “Well, listen, I know Charlie is interested in talking about Joe Biden and 2024, but I just want to make things very, very clear. The only worn-out old donkey I’m looking to put out to pasture is Charlie Crist.”

    I guess we can take that as a “No”…

    In one of the most heated moments, Crist asked DeSantis to tell Floridians whether he’d carry out his full second term if re-elected, which garnered an awkward pause during the debate as DeSantis waited to answer.

    “Why don’t you look in the eyes of the people of Florida and say to them, if you’re reelected you will serve a full four year term as governor. Yes or no,” Crist prodded. “Yes or no, Ron?” After several seconds, DeSantis responded (see above)

  49. lynn says:

    You bought it from a dealer, right, someone who explained the caveats of “Normal Eco”?

    Dealer, yes.  No explanation though.

    I wanted the TR7 with the countdown timer.  She wanted dependable and rugged.  She got the TC5.

  50. Alan says:

    >> The crazy thing is that wee haven’t paid AMA dues since leaving Vantucky, where the clinic paid them as a graft deal because one of the higher ups hailed from Chicago and thought it was important. God only knows why. The organization still sends us the magazines and the occasional bills, eight years later.

    Like all the cr@p we get from my wife’s grad school fishing for donations. All high-quality printing on heavy stock, plus the envelope ad postage. At least we toss it all into the recycling bin.

    Which reminds me, when we lived in Tampa, trash went in the blue bin and recycling in the green bin. Here the colors are reversed. First time we put out some regular trash after moving in, by habit it went into the blue bin by mistake. A couple of weeks later I got a nastygram from the city in the mail to the effect that I was contaminating the recycling truck and please don’t do it again. Since the bins are dumped into the truck automatically I still wonder how the decided I was the culprit.

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  51. Rick H says:

    Since the bins are dumped into the truck automatically I still wonder how the decided I was the culprit.

    Perhaps someone found an envelope with your name on it in the contaminated trash?

  52. Greg Norton says:

    Dealer, yes.  No explanation though.

    I wanted the TR7 with the countdown timer.  She wanted dependable and rugged.  She got the TC5.

    The TR series has pathetic wash cycles, equivalent to “Normal Eco” on the TC. The TC series was the reaction of the company to complaints about the TR, both for durability and cleaning ability.

    In “Normal Eco” none of the options or temperature settings matter. You will get a cold wash with a half full tub and a weird water saving rinse that sprays water on the clothing while the drum spins.

    “Normal Eco” was the concession to the government to get the fairly old school washer through testing for the new efficiency standards.

    If you want any of the options or a different temperature than cold, you will need to choose another one of the cycles.

    Did the dealer/installer explain the self balancing system?

  53. lynn says:

    I am the installer.   I had to drive 48 miles to Tomball to get this today.  My close dealer got 30 of them yesterday, all sold already.  He said I could have one in three weeks.

  54. Greg Norton says:

    I am the installer.   I had to drive 48 miles to Tomball to get this today.  My close dealer got 30 of them yesterday, all sold already.  He said I could have one in three weeks.

    Ok. First, make sure to save both pieces of packing plastic in case you want to move the washer again one day, the little T at the bottom and the big drum protection that goes inside the top.

    The self balancing works like this – once you have the washer moved into place, tip it forward a teeny bit until you hear something spring loaded release tension on the back legs. Then lower the washer back into normal position, again listening for the mechanism to engage.

    Very easy, but if you move the washer even a little bit, you will have to reset the system.

  55. MrAtoz says:

    Uh, no thank you…

    WATCH: Joe Biden shames Americans who aren’t also getting their 5th COVID shot and therefore don’t care if people die in the pandemic he ended

    Back to the scare tactics. We’re all gonna die! I regret the two clot-shots I had to get to keep working in schools. I had a dry cough for a couple of days last week. I should have done a COOTY test ’cause it was probably COVID. That would have given me a baseline.

    Don’t studies show the clot-shot boosters aren’t effective with all the new mutations? Didn’t the CEO of Pfizer get the ChinkyFlu after 5 shots? I suppose the goobermint will start up the “well, 5 shots won’t prevent COVID, but you won’t die” without any proof.

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  56. Greg Norton says:

    CONCLUSIONS

    Treatment with ivermectin did not result in a lower incidence of medical admission to a hospital due to progression of Covid-19 or of prolonged emergency department observation among outpatients with an early diagnosis of Covid-19

    And the point of bringing this up now, Old Bean? The drug came up yesterday as an example of the more enlightened policy in Tennessee of making it available at pharmacists’ discretion. The efficacy was not being debated. Continuing this discussion just bores the room.

    Say, the faux Harris is looking sharp today. No more S&K for you, friend.

    Check those “Gish Gallop” spots on the new version of the home game.

  57. lynn says:

    Trolls gotta troll.  But those troll postings won’t stay around here long.

  58. drwilliams says:

     October 25, 2022 by Scott Johnson

    Friends in viral places

    Collins and Fauci have advocated since 2011 for the benefits of enhancing natural viruses in the lab with the hope of predicting future epidemics. From their powerful bureaucratic positions—they fund most virology research in the U.S.—they outmaneuvered critics who argued that the risks of creating novel infectious viruses were sky high and the benefits nugatory.

    From 2014 onward, Fauci gave money, via Daszak, to researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology to collect bat coronaviruses in the wild and to manipulate the viral genomes in the lab. The goal was to see which held the greatest potential for infecting people.

    In 2018, the Wuhan researchers applied to DARPA, a Defense Department agency, for a grant to construct novel, SARS-like viruses. Their plan was to take genetic elements such as the one known as the furin cleavage site and to insert them into a specific position on viral genomes. That position, a single point on the virus’s 30,000-unit long genome, is called the S1/S2 junction of the virus’s spike gene. Many viruses have furin cleavage sites, but none of the 300 known members of the SARS-like family of coronaviruses do. This is important because viruses often swap genetic elements with other viruses of their own family, but they cannot naturally acquire elements that their family does not possess.

    In 2019, a novel virus, SARS-CoV-2, emerged in the city of Wuhan, home of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and launched the Covid pandemic. The virus’s most unusual feature and a cause of its infectivity is a furin cleavage site inserted at the S1/S2 junction of its spike protein, just as outlined in the Wuhan virologists’ proposal to DARPA. The genetic coding of the virus’s furin cleavage site is designated in a sequence of units common to human cells and supplied in laboratory kits, but it is very rare in coronaviruses and unknown in the SARS-like coronavirus family.

    Though viruses spill over from animal hosts to people quite often, they usually leave a trail of evidence when they do so. In the case of the SARS1 epidemic of 2003, virus researchers were able to trace the host population of wild bats, the mutations in the virus as it adapted from bats to civets and then to people, and the immunological traces it left in the human population. If SARS-CoV-2 has a natural origin, we should expect the same pieces of evidence to emerge. In three years, none has.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/friends-in-viral-places.php

    Scott Johnson excerpts froma critical review of a new book, which apparently continues to follow the MSM/”Big Science” party line .

    Note that the evidence is circumstantial and will remain so until I am given the green light to introduce Dr. Fauci to water sports. Note also that the circumstantial evidence as outlined above is much more convincing than any “natural origin” hypothesis, for which there is zero evidence.

  59. Lynn says:

    Another JAMA showed up in the mailbox this afternoon.

    It is a magazine published by a lobbying organization, not a scientific journal.

    Let me guess, lots of articles about climate change and guns.  Two things that your local doctor can barely affect.

  60. Lynn says:

    You know, Big River makes it so easy to return crap.  I accidently bought two copies of a book so I am returning one.  I’ve just got to drop by my local UPS center.   

    One of these days, Amazon is going to start charging a restocking fee or something along those lines.  You will hear the screaming to the high heavens.

  61. MrAtoz says:

    Damn, where can I get my Yeezy’s now?

  62. Greg Norton says:

    It is a magazine published by a lobbying organization, not a scientific journal.

    Let me guess, lots of articles about climate change and guns.  Two things that your local doctor can barely affect.

    I don’t pay attention. The AMA has a checkered past, particularly with regard to civil rights, so when Obama came up in 2006, out of nowhere thanks to the unsealed divorce records of two opponents in the primary and general election for the Senate seat, the organization hopped on board the band wagon, and a lot of doctors stopped taking the group seriously.

    I went through the same thing with IEEE. They sold out to the offshoring vendors early, long before Y2k got cranked up.

  63. MrAtoz says:

    I’m watching some clips of the Dr. Oz and Uncle Festerman debate. The Dumbocrats want Uncle Festerman to win so he can just sit in his office and come in to vote along party lines. If he is even capable of doing that.

    Sorry the guy had a stroke, but who’s betting on him getting coherent before Putin nukes us? He should keep a low profile until his brain heals.

  64. nick flandrey says:

    I still wonder how the decided I was the culprit.  

    – don’t know about your city, but my recycle bin has an RFID tag that is supposed to be linked to some online “credits” for something… and there is a camera that watches what dumps out of the bin into the truck.  It wouldn’t take much to double check if normal trash showed up in a particular truck.

    Houston uses black for trash and green for recycle.  Since blue is the international signifier for recycle, NATURALLY they chose green.  Now if they want to do greenwaste recycling, they’ll have to retrain everyone to use blue and green properly.

    @lynn, no one bid on the Perry ROdan. books.    If I win anything in that auction, I can ask if he wants to give them away, if you want them for no money…

    @alan, the possums ate the mustard after breaking the glass jar.   They’ve been knocking everything off my “store” shelves, the place I keep refills for the kitchen cabinets close at hand.

    @lynn, the dealer told us the “ECO” mode was only there to appease the EPA and not to bother with it as the results wouldn’t be what we were looking for.   In other words, it won’t get clothes clean.

    @alan, the hole in the jaw of regular wire strippers can be used to put the ‘hook’ on the end of wire.  Insert the end of the stripped wire, just barely thru the hole, then twist your wrist and put a hook on the end.  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder why you ever did anything else.

    n

  65. Greg Norton says:

    You know, Big River makes it so easy to return crap.  I accidently bought two copies of a book so I am returning one.  I’ve just got to drop by my local UPS center.   

    One of these days, Amazon is going to start charging a restocking fee or something along those lines.  You will hear the screaming to the high heavens.

    Amazon took nearly a month to refund a graphics card I bought for my daughter’s PC which didn’t have the kind of memory she really wanted to do high end drawing. I didn’t even break the shrinkwrap.

    They’ll become the Company Store before too long, when AWS Hot Skillz aren’t in as much demand as companies go back to bringing the server work back in house. Our division of the current company is the only one making decent money and hiring right now.

    Yes, everything is fully disclosed and known on Wall Street, hence the stock price.

  66. CowboyStu says:

    From lynn; 

    Trolls gotta troll.  But those troll postings won’t stay around here long.

    OK,  to which site should I go trolling next?

  67. Greg Norton says:

    @lynn, the dealer told us the “ECO” mode was only there to appease the EPA and not to bother with it as the results wouldn’t be what we were looking for.   In other words, it won’t get clothes clean.

    I use “Eco Normal” for small loads where the care label requires cold water.

    That reminds me – I need to swap out the hoses on our washer at some point. The installer used the braided metal type that look like they wouldn’t leak but that appearance is deceptive.

    He almost got away with taking my $90 pair, purchased in Vantucky 12 years ago, but I had him pull them off the truck before they left.

    “Where are my hoses?”

    “Hoses? Oh, right.”

  68. Greg Norton says:

    – don’t know about your city, but my recycle bin has an RFID tag that is supposed to be linked to some online “credits” for something… and there is a camera that watches what dumps out of the bin into the truck.  It wouldn’t take much to double check if normal trash showed up in a particular truck.

    Portland has mandatory composting and a snitch line for violations. That phone number was remarkably popular when the program started right before we escaped.

  69. Alan says:

    >> One of these days, Amazon is going to start charging a restocking fee or something along those lines.  You will hear the screaming to the high heavens.

    Then we’ll all take our business else where…to…umm…huh…Walmart??

  70. Lynn says:

    David Weber, my favorite SF author after Robert Heinlein, is 70 now.  How in the world are we all getting this old ?

    https://www.facebook.com/david.weber.5621/posts/pfbid02KdTD2RMiyrhW3XaJhkmNYSKa8EG9FX88VgCDAKXgquZXP4sf95JCphqoLtHxCXdel

  71. SteveF says:

    Just when we need him in these times of darkness, a new hero:

    Some Urban Legends Are Real (Daily Pundit)

    Some Urban Legends Are Real (Cold Fury)

  72. Lynn says:

    It is a magazine published by a lobbying organization, not a scientific journal.

    Let me guess, lots of articles about climate change and guns.  Two things that your local doctor can barely affect.

    I don’t pay attention. The AMA has a checkered past, particularly with regard to civil rights, so when Obama came up in 2006, out of nowhere thanks to the unsealed divorce records of two opponents in the primary and general election for the Senate seat, the organization hopped on board the band wagon, and a lot of doctors stopped taking the group seriously.

    I went through the same thing with IEEE. They sold out to the offshoring vendors early, long before Y2k got cranked up.

    I am a member of two societies, ASME and AIChE.  Both are so woke that it hurts.  Their monthly magazines are all about decarbonization and conversion of all fossil fuel powered engines to hydrogen.  It is disheartening.

  73. Lynn says:

    Just when we need him in these times of darkness, a new hero:

    Some Urban Legends Are Real (Daily Pundit)

    Some Urban Legends Are Real (Cold Fury)

    I was going to send you a dollar but I just changed my mind.

  74. Lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: The Present Is A Gift

       https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/10/25

    Oh rat !

  75. Lynn says:

    “IBM Diamondback Tape Library Announced”

        https://www.storagereview.com/news/ibm-diamondback-tape-library-announced

    “IBM is extending its data resilience portfolio by introducing the IBM Diamondback Tape Library, with over 27PB of capacity that can be deployed very quickly. The new solution offers a high-density archival storage system that is physically air-gapped to protect against ransomware and other cyber threats. The IBM Diamondback Tape Library, with increased data density in a smaller footprint, extends the tape’s addressable market to “New Wave” Hyperscalers.”

    27 PB ! ! !  

  76. SteveF says:

    but I just changed my mind.

    You’re just mad because you can’t summon him without laughing.

    > I went through the same thing with IEEE. They sold out to the offshoring vendors early, long before Y2k got cranked up.

    I am a member of two societies, ASME and AIChE.  Both are so woke that it hurts.

    I was in IEEE and ACM. Dropped both ages ago. Membership served no purpose, magazines served no purpose, and my dues supported their social engineering.

  77. Lynn says:

    Linus Torvalds wants to drop i486 support from the Linux kernel citing its age

       https://www.neowin.net/news/linus-torvalds-wants-to-drop-i486-support-from-the-linux-kernel-citing-its-age/

    Greg, don’t you have a 486 stashed away ?

    I can remember my 486DX-25.  It was a floating point monster compared to the 386 with the separate 387 chip.

    https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/intel/80486#i486DX

  78. Lynn says:

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/10/friends-in-viral-places.php

    Scott Johnson excerpts froma critical review of a new book, which apparently continues to follow the MSM/”Big Science” party line .

    Note that the evidence is circumstantial and will remain so until I am given the green light to introduce Dr. Fauci to water sports. Note also that the circumstantial evidence as outlined above is much more convincing than any “natural origin” hypothesis, for which there is zero evidence.

    I get the feeling that many people would like to hog tie Fauci and throw him into a Louisiana Bayou inhabited by a 12 foot long gator.  Too many people have died from the Koof and too many people have had horrible reactions to the various vaccines. And it looks like Fauci had something to do with the creation of the Koof.

  79. Lynn says:

    > I went through the same thing with IEEE. They sold out to the offshoring vendors early, long before Y2k got cranked up.

    I am a member of two societies, ASME and AIChE.  Both are so woke that it hurts.

    I was in IEEE and ACM. Dropped both ages ago. Membership served no purpose, magazines served no purpose, and my dues supported their social engineering.

    I still have my personal life insurance through ASME.  I just renewed it at the wife’s urging since we have two mortgages and the disabled daughter’s health insurance is tied to me even though she is 35.   Texas has a special state law about disabled children being on the parent’s health insurance no matter the age.

  80. Lynn says:

    This is the principal reason that I want to move our software to pure C++. Fortran is just not stable on any platform anymore using mixed programming.  And Windows may go Arm like the rest of the world. “Microsoft starts shipping its Windows on Arm device for developers: Windows Dev Kit 2023”
       https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-starts-shipping-its-windows-on-arm-device-for-developers-windows-dev-kit-2023/

  81. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    Lynn:

    How in the world are we all getting this old ?

    We just haven’t died yet. 

  82. Alan says:

    >> @alan, the hole in the jaw of regular wire strippers can be used to put the ‘hook’ on the end of wire.  Insert the end of the stripped wire, just barely thru the hole, then twist your wrist and put a hook on the end.  Once you get the hang of it, you’ll wonder why you ever did anything else.

    @nick, I’ve used these strippers for years, no hole. 

  83. Alan says:

    >> 27 PB ! ! ! 

    @lynn, best for you to order two, this code conversion will use up a lot of space. 

  84. JimB says:

    27 PB ! ! !

    TAPE!!!

    Raise your hand if you have some long-dormant backup tapes lying around!

  85. JimB says:

    I actually liked various tape backup systems. They had about 30% overhead for error correction, and rarely failed. They were frightfully slow, but ran in the background, so speed was not an issue. The ones for personal computers were almost as good. Most were noisy, but that was their only annoyance.

    I had one of those 100 MB Castlewood Orb floppy drives. They had a brief heyday, but were never very popular. We used them for incremental backups.

    We also used Jaz (?) Drives for bulk data transfer. They were unreliable, and compatibility across drives for data transfer was often poor.

    Fat pipes and servers are wonderful.

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