07:49 – Barbara got home around lunchtime yesterday. Colin and I are both delighted.
Kevlar inventor Stephanie Kwolek dies aged 90. I never met her, although had things been different I might have. One of my junior high school classmates was her niece, Kathy Kwolek. Kathy was close friends with Debby Dailey, who lived two houses up the street from me. They were two of the first girls I noticed as girls. I was interested in both of them, particularly Kathy, who was far prettier than Debby, but both of them were too busy doing teenage girl things to take much notice of me.
More work on science kits today.
Who’s the winner here?
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/21/business/health-plans-bring-pressure-to-bear-on-drug-prices.html
Health Insurers Pressing Down on Drug Prices
“…Some big-selling products, like the respiratory medicine Advair and the diabetes drug Victoza, have suffered precipitous declines in market share because Express Scripts, the biggest pharmacy benefits manager, recently stopped paying for them for many patients…”
If I were a health insurance company, I would not cover any drug unless it was generic and available from multiple manufacturers. Period. Any policyholder who wanted a branded/specialty drug would have to pay for it 100% themselves.
My daughter brought me her beautiful Nexus 10 last last night (midnight of course). It is no longer charging and I have tried the tricks to no avail. Now the recommendation is to ship it in for a battery replacement or a do a disassemble and manual battery reset. I am very hesitant to dissemble this six month old device and drop the warranty. Advice?
http://www.amazon.com/Google-Nexus-10-Wi-Fi-only/dp/B00ACVI202/
OK, I found another website that said to plug it into the USB port on a pc rather than the wall charger. It is now charging very slowly as it has gone from 2% battery to 5% over the last hour. Something is very strange here.
Many things are very strange.
The Nexus charger situation.
The Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Kalifornia borders with Mexico.
The fact that no one cares the country is being invaded, blatantly this time, in our faces, treasonously.
The Sandbox Wars stretching back to 1990, instigated, organized and led by war criminals, causing untold destruction and countless casualties, and no one cares.
Half the country is allegedly outraged but sits on its ass; the other half is outraged at their outrage and continues its depredations.
Indeed, something is very strange here.
Mrs. OFD should be hanging around in the United Club about now at Dulles, for a lovely four-hour layover, before zipping on up here, allegedly around 6:30. She’s been at 8-10k feet for a week and this will be like swimming underwottuh for her when she exits the wondrous Burlington International Airport building then, home of the Green Mountain Boys, soon to get a squadron of F-35s so we can go up against crafty and lethal space aliens from Alpha Centauri or somewhere, as we have no enemies here that we can really use them against anymore.
This should be interesting; if I can find a higher elevation around here I’ll be able to watch the coming battles with them and take videos with my spiffy iPhone 4 and upload them to the Toob.
Something to live for, at last!
RE the Nexus:
Seems that many Android devices will do a reset if you hold down the Volume Up (or Volume Down) button and the Power button simultaneously for a few seconds. You’ll get a menu allowing you to choose the level of reset, right down to a wipe and reinstall.
The Nexus is up to 18% battery now. I have no idea what this difference between the wall charger and the computer usb line is for charging but something is obviously different. And when it finishes charging, there is an O/S update ready to to try and fix the charging bug. Weird.
I know there’s a standard electrical explanation; our cell phones charge up fast in the vehicles but the batteries also drain faster afterward. They charge up moderately fast on the computer USB ports but drain depending on usage within 24-48 hours. Best on the wall outlets but still for not more than a couple of days. I barely use mine and I gotta charge it every two days anyway. If calls or nooz updates come in, then it’s daily.
UVM has just announced vastly improved wireless sensors which will be produced in the next few years by the trillions; they’re still working on how they’ll be powered. And they’ll be in everything.
In local wildlife nooz, a very large male turkey stopped traffic on a road a couple of miles from here. Why? So he could escort a mother duck and her ducklings across it. I have the picture from the paper.
Off shortly to retrieve Mrs. OFD from the airport; we will be cruising back up the interstate in the yellow Saab convertible (our only operating vehicle right now) with the top down. She will have something to eat and then crash totally for about twelve hours, most likely.
And tomorrow I can futz around with the lawnmower; it wouldn’t start. Then it would start but stop after a couple of minutes. Put oil and gas additive in it and now it starts but clouds of white smoke. So gotta probably change the spark plug and air filter now, drain the oil and then add oil an ounce at a time and try again. If not, we’ll have to borrow somebody’s sheep and/or goats real soon.
Cat pee on concrete solution seems to be working; trisodium phosphate wash, and then suck up with the shop-vac, followed by spray of Odor-Exit. Doing the cellar one-quarter at a time and then anyplace else that needs it.
Living room ceiling and electrical projects next up, along with shelving assembly. After that, about eight windows gotta be replaced, along with the back door. Then shutters and rehab of the front door/entry. Hopefully all of this by fall.
Maybe the wall wart is bad? Did you try another one? Not enough current.
I have no idea what this difference between the wall charger and the computer usb line
The wall charger is bad. Get another. Any USB charger will work as long as it produces enough power. 12 watts or better. Anker makes good products. I have one that will charge 5 devices. Recommended.
http://www.amazon.com/Family-Sized-Desktop-Charger-PowerIQTM-Technology/dp/B00IBDOB5I/ref=sr_1_5?s=wireless&ie=UTF8&qid=1403394070&sr=1-5&keywords=anker
I have three of that model, in black. Raaaaacist! No, I really do. great travel chargers if you have gadgets.
Buncha dam geeks on this board.
Cat pee on concrete solution seems to be working; trisodium phosphate wash, and then suck up with the shop-vac, followed by spray of Odor-Exit. Doing the cellar one-quarter at a time and then anyplace else that needs it.
Is this your four ft tall cellar? If so, I am surprised that the floor is concreted. And why were cats peeing on it?
The wall charger is bad. Get another. Any USB charger will work as long as it produces enough power. 12 watts or better.
I am afraid that you are correct. Her wall charger will not charge my cell phone. I am will buy another one at Amazon.
“Is this your four ft tall cellar? If so, I am surprised that the floor is concreted. And why were cats peeing on it?”
The cellar is constructed of the heavily mortared stone foundation and at some point the floor was layered with concrete, with dirt underneath, as is usually the case with cellars this old in New England. The dirt-only cellar, I mean, including walls. Ours is dry as a bone and stays nearly as warm as the house above, and it is about six and a half feet high but there are lower-height beams and heating-vent pipes and plumbing and suchlike so that I have to scrunch up like a damn Hobbit in some places to do anything. Doorways in this house are exactly my height or a smidgeon less, so that I have to take care bounding through them. And both of us have to duck coming down either stairway.
Cats were peeing on it ’cause it was nice and dry and warm during the wintuh and to mark their territory, plus the two kittens weren’t house-trained yet then. Now we keep the cellar door closed up tight and no animals go down there anymore, not after all the cleanup work I’m doing. They all go outside now.
Mrs. OFD is home again, bless all the saints, only an hour late from the airline (United) and its shitty baggage handling ops at that airport. And home for three weeks; we plan to get a lot done, but as we all know, the best-laid plans of mice and men, etc. No doubt MIL will insist that she be driven twelve hours up to the northern Nouveau Brunswick cottage that is about to fall into the north Atlantic. And driven back again.
The other shoe, as in where Princess will be living and working for the duration of the summuh, has yet to drop.
The other shoe, as in where Princess will be living and working for the duration of the summuh, has yet to drop.
Isn’t the summer half over?
Summuh just stahted yesterday, Lynn, and won’t end until 9-20.
Of course here in northern VT, summuh basically ends in August when the leaves start turning. And we’ve had a fireplace going on a July 4th weekend before.
Universities here in the Great State of Texas ended the second week of May and will start the fall semester on the first Monday in September.