09:01 – Colin worked like a dog yesterday to get the house cleaned up and build a new batch of chemistry kits. Just in time, too, because yesterday afternoon someone ordered the last chemistry kit we had in stock. When Barbara got home, she was pleased to see that Colin had cleaned all the science kit stuff out of the den and living room and gotten a good start on cleaning it out of the kitchen and tidying up the workroom. She gave Colin a hug, and he’s now a happy dog again. Oh, and Colin found that partial box of 96-well plates sitting on the kitchen table, so our inventory of those just jumped from the 400 that arrived this week to 427, less the ones that Colin used to make up kits yesterday.
Barbara is having dinner out with friends after work, so Colin and I are on our own. I’m planning to have a dinner made from all shelf-stable ingredients, AKA PB&J sandwiches. Colin is all in favor. He loves PB&J.
The can of Nestle Nido Fortificado dry whole milk arrived from Walmart yesterday, and I need to do some experimenting with it. Unlike most powdered milk, which is no-fat, this stuff is full-fat whole milk. The best-by date is 12 months out, but many people have told me that they’ve drunk this stuff from sealed cans that were stored at room temperature and were three, four, or five years past the best-by date and found it indistinguishable from fresh product. Frozen, this powder would certainly stay good for 30 years or more.
My Spanish isn’t good, but my Latin tells me that the product name translates as something like “Fortified Nest (or Beehive)”, so I assumed the product contains honey. That’s reinforced by a warning on the can that says the product should not be consumed by infants one year or younger. But the ingredients label does not list honey, so I’m not sure what’s going on.
The 3.52 pound (1.6 kilo) can sells for $15.38 and reconstitutes to 3.3 gallons (12.5 liters) of “whole milk”, which I assume means 3.25% butterfat. On that basis, this can would reconstitute to about 5.4 gallons of the 2% milk that Barbara drinks, at a price of about $2.68/gallon. Of course, diluted that way, it’d be lower on milk solids than store-bought 2% milk, but that’d be easy to address by adding a couple quarts worth of non-fat dry milk powder. As I said, some experimenting is needed.
“My Spanish isn’t good…”
Really? You’re gonna have to ramp up on that ASAP. It’s replacing English.
I’ll be stopping by the Lowe’s Friday and the sign above the main entrance sez “Entrada.” WTF? Even the store down there is only 40 miles from the Quebec border.
I usually don’t have a problem getting the gist of written Spanish, but spoken Spanish often defeats me even though I grew up with lots of kids whose parents or grandparents spoke Italian at home. Any facility I had with Italian has pretty much disappeared.
And on an unrelated note
“Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime” And what was this horrible hate crime that will be tying up police investigators? Someone in an apartment complex posted a flyer asking specifically that African Americans keep down the noise after 10pm.
WTF is wrong with people. Burning someone to death is hate crime. Stabbing them 20 times is hate crime. Posting a flyer is protected free speech.
Incrementalism. Slippery slope. Descent into madness.
BTW “hate crimes” come with a sentence enhancement. I briefly worked with a kid who spent half his life as a guest of the state for stabbing another kid at a party. His sentence was doubled because of the words he used before the actual fight. Some ill chosen but very common words used in the name calling stage of the disagreement got him more time than he would have gotten if he had KILLED the other guy. Madness.
nick
I don’t buy the whole idea of “hate crimes”. And I can’t for the life of me see how “hate speech” is anything other than Constitutionally-protected free speech.
Truly, me either.
Canada has already prosecuted a man for thought crime, and it’s only a matter of time here, as this cop shows.
nick
FWIW, Popehat has written more than one article pointing out that “hate speech” is not a legal term, and that anything called “hate speech” is very likely speech protected by the first amendment. It’s a bit murkier here in Europe, especially in the UK.
In any case, truth ought to be the ultimate defense. Whoever put the flyer up should next post a link to a video of the next disturbance.
I’m planning to have a dinner made from all shelf-stable ingredients, AKA PB&J sandwiches.
Shelf-stable bread?
Shelf-stable bread?
our costco has some, sold in 3 loaf packs, french and sourdough (although the french tastes pretty much like sourdough.)
Good for 6 months on the shelf.
Very convenient if you don’t normally have bread in the house, or eat mostly naan bread but like a loaf to go with Sunday dinner.
nick
Shelf-stable in two senses. First, I can bake my own from all long-term storage ingredients. Second, if I couldn’t bake for some reason, I have a case or two of canned B&M brown bread on the pantry shelf.
http://smile.amazon.com/Brown-Bread-Original-Ounce-Cans/dp/B0025UCI94
Incidentally, we tried the Costco long shelf-life bread Nick mentioned, and didn’t much like it.
I guess I could share a little more…
My wife and I went on the Atkins plan and cut bread from our lives. We lost the weight we wanted to. Then during the last phase, Atkins for Life ™, we added back some bread. Since we didn’t eat much we needed something that would last. Enter naan bread. Sold in a 10 pack, this flat bread freezes well, and reheats on the grill or in the oven. So I always have some in the freezer, and only heat it when we cook something that really calls out for bread accompaniment.
Costco started carrying the loaves, and they turned out to be really good. 10 minutes in the oven and they are ready to go. It’s nice to have a fresh warm loaf when cooking for company. Note that these aren’t the shelf stable loaves that are dark and include lots of seeds. I didn’t care for the texture or taste of those. These are just like a normal french loaf (not a baguette, but what we are used to here in the US) with slightly crunchier crust.
A great addition to the cupboard, in the 2 week to one month event category.
nick
The B&M bread is OK after you air it out for a couple of days. Fresh out of the can is kinda … pungent.
Ah, I think I may detect a prejudice in favor of commercial white bread…
I like some dark breads, pumpernickel, rye, but really didn’t like that shelf stable seed covered one. In fact I threw out the second loaf. I try to NEVER throw out food.
Even toasted, with stuff on it, that bread was nasty.
nick
well, stating that someone could understand Spanish because as younger heard Italian is something similar to someone using Germany and English, no, both (the formers) have Latin roots. But, is a common joke in Italia of people who thinks talking loud and some words, that they speak Italian.
Nido Fortificado is not a castle with milk inside, is something (milk) with extras adding force to the thing, in a sense related to vitamins etc.
And, living in the US, yo doesnt hear good Spanish, as example rufa as roof is not Spanish. Carro is car, in Mexico and North of the equator, but, if you say carro in Spain and Southern America, is a wagon (a.k.a Studebaker)
Cheers
Please forgive me, English is not my native tongue
Oops, I made a typo. It’s actually “fortificada”.
I think there’s a lot more commonality in Romance languages than some people think. Back when I understood spoken Italian pretty well, I could also make out enough of spoken Spanish to get at least the gist of it. Of course, having five years of classical Latin helps immensely, since it’s the basis of all the Romance languages.
My Latin teacher so long ago told me of the Latin speaker who toured Italy quite happily on the basis of a good knowlege of Latin and no Italian.
“Ah, I think I may detect a prejudice in favor of commercial white bread…”
Indeed. Probably rayciss.
There is commonality. I once had a boss who handed me a French software handbook to work with (before I had learned any French at all). I found I could mostly work with it, because it was all factual and straightforward. Add in classical Latin, and I could believe you would be able to make out basic, written Spanish and Italian.
The Germanic languages are quite different, though English has obviously taken a lot from German as well. They aren’t as closely related to Latin, and the grammar is very different.
Languages are fun – in another life, I would make a point of learning more of them. Now that I’m on my 3rd (depending on how you count), I’m getting the hang of how to learn them efficiently. What’s difficult is getting the practice in that you need for real proficiency. That’s only possible with some sort of immersion, and when you work full time, have a family, etc. is kind of difficult.
A ½” slice of that B&M Brown Bread has 400mg of sodium.
400 mg of sodium isn’t much. A recent long-term, large-scale study found that the recommended 2,400 mg/day was actually associated with higher morbidity and mortality than levels up to five times higher. The optimum (by no coincidence, I would maintain) is right around what people actually consume, which is around twice the recommended maximum.
That dark bread at Outback Steakhouse is freaking awesome, especially served hot with butter on it.
@Lynn, second that, awesome with a side of awesome sauce.
I used to eat at Outback a lot and thought it was the best steak dinner for the money you would find anywhere. I’ve probably had over 100 meals there. They never poisoned me, which is saying something. I used to be food poisoned about 5 times a year on average, eating about 500-700 meals a year in restaurants.
I’m told there has been a drop off in quality though. Too bad.
nick
“50 ‘Teens’ Beat White Man to a Pulp For Asking Brawling Girls to Get Off His Car”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/12/50-teens-beat-white-man-to-a-pulp-for-asking-brawling-girls-to-get-off-his-car/
Note to self: add another gun and more ammo to the truck. 50 rounds is probably not enough, especially the slow reloading revolver.
Note to self: stay the heck out of Baltimore.
Hat tip to Fred:
http://www.fredoneverything.net/Ballmer2.shtml
Here is a site with a ton of useful info in general and for TX specifically
Tx Dept of Public Safety main:
http://txdps.state.tx.us/
Emergency Management:
http://txdps.state.tx.us/dem/index.htm
And the daily SitRep:
http://txdps.state.tx.us/dem/sitrepindex.htm
nick
I looked after the muslim attack in Dallas, they had the event on their daily sitrep, but no specific threats were listed.
The libturd and libtard haters really hate Coulter; Too Effin Bad. Here she is, straight up:
http://humanevents.com/2015/06/03/immigration-advocates-frightened-by-99-pound-blonde/?utm_source=coulterdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl
“Note to self: add another gun and more ammo to the truck. 50 rounds is probably not enough, especially the slow reloading revolver.”
If I lived where you live, I’d always have an AR in the truck with me, ready to go, plus your choice of decent-caliber handgun and extra mags for both. As it is, I’m pretty much there now, even up here; no shortage of dirtbags, scroats, skells, leaks, creeps, goblins, gremlins, etc., anywhere in the country and this is gonna get a lot worse before it ever gets better.
And I second RBT’s choice of cases of B&M Brown Bread on stand-by. I love that stuff, and it comes plain or with raisins. It’s also not real hard to bake yer own with greased coffee cans, both ends removed.
But nothing beats a crusty French baguette, fresh from the oven, slathered with local unsalted buttuh.
I didn’t chime in on the previous discussion about # of mags to own, but will jump in here 🙂
All the attacks and shootings I’ve reviewed recently are over in <15 seconds approximately. Whether the shooter is bad guy, cop, or armed citizen, it's fast. Not one involved a reload. You either drop the guy, he runs, or you are dead right there. These types of encounters make up the vast majority of events you are likely to see before the zombie apocalypse. ONE spare mag or speedloader should be sufficient. If you survive the first 30 seconds, you can reload just to be on the safe side.
The exception would be blundering into a roadblock or riot. In that case, you want to do everything possible to avoid shooting so you don't get swarmed, but if you do, you want to push off the immediate attackers and DRIVE AWAY. In this case you may want more ammo, and have time to use it, so the one on your body and another accessible in the vehicle should cover it. Again, you are trying to stop the threat, and escape, not kill all the MF'ers who are standing in the road.
The third scenario is Mad Max bugout or moving around during the unrest (which you aren't gonna do, being smarter than that, right?). You have a long gun in the vehicle and accessible. It does you no good in the trunk. A short carbine (M4gery) or short shotgun, or AK with folding stock would be called for if you think you'll be blasting away out the window. Swinging a rifle or shotgun around in a vehicle is a good way to AD yourself or your family. Try it with a broomstick. The Keltec KSG bullpup shotgun or the UTAS should work well for high capacity and maneuverability inside a vehicle. Still, I'm pretty sure that even in a war zone, blasting away from a vehicle is going to get you ALL SORTS of unwanted attention. You are probably better off with a couple of full sized hi cap pistols, for close to medium shots than trying to work a long gun, even a short one. Besides, how are you driving to escape when you have your hands full with long gun? In a bug out you might have one or more other shooters in the car, but not driving around town…
Of course in a complete collapse, you'll be moving in teams whenever you leave the compound, but even then, the zombies are attracted to light, noise, and movement, so the minute you start to rock and roll, you're F'd anyway.
I carry one reload with me as EDC. I've got an additional reload in each vehicle. I'd up arm if there were gangs roaming the streets and I had to go out. But I'd be better off taking another shooter with me. Until I get the console vault installed, I'm not willing to arm the opposition by leaving a gun in the vehicle, so it's just my EDC unless I've consciously considered the trip and up armed.
I'm interested to see what thought you guys have put into it. What is your rationale for your decisions?
nick
“for-asking-brawling-girls-to-get-off-his-car”
Oddly enough, I had something similar happen to me. Stopped at a Burlington Coat Factory just before a Christmas trip up north. Yes, I know, only blacks shop there, and it was Christmas crowded too. Still, I was hoping for a cheap winter coat.
Inside was a zoo. The stock was covering the floor, everything was off the racks, people were just grabbing stuff and then tossing it aside. And yes, in an affluent suburb, in a city that is only 14% black, I’m pretty sure my wife and I were the only 2 obvious whites. It looked like video from a walmart doorbuster night. We quickly turned around and left. As we were walking out to my wife’s brand new SUV, a small group of blacks were walking near it, having a screaming fight right there in the lot. Right next to my car, one of the women hands off her toddler to another and cold cocks the man she’d been screaming at. Straight up, full on throat punch. And then- ‘it was on.’ Punching, shoving, yelling, all inches from our new car.
So I chirped the door locks a couple of times, hit the panic on the remote briefly, and they moved away from the car. When they were clear, we dashed over, got in, and quickly drove off.
NO way was I going to interject myself into that mutual combat. I just wanted to not have our new car damaged.
I was not carrying either, but even if I was, remember that the CHL is not a badge. And domestic disputes are one of the most dangerous things a cop walks into. I don’t know what that guy in the linked story was thinking, but if he was just worried about his car, he made a bad choice.
Ditto for the biker who felt compelled to scold the driver and got killed for his trouble. Sometimes it’s best to STF down and STF up then blog about what you SHOULD have done… 😉
nick
“… carry one reload with me as EDC. I’ve got an additional reload in each vehicle. I’d up arm if there were gangs roaming the streets and I had to go out. But I’d be better off taking another shooter with me.”
Yeah, you have several different scenarios going on there; I agree with your EDC carry; same deal here; one extended mag inserted, one extended mag spare. An upgraded handgun for the vehicle and the pistol-grip shotgun.
For vehicle travel during violent unrest in the area, a focused driver is needed plus at least one shooter. Failing that it’s a crap shoot.
During extended violent unrest in one’s own area, I’d be tooled up in near-full battle gear, with half a dozen mags for both handgun and rifle. Trauma first aid kit, water, Cliff bars, firestarter, lights, and probably armor plates; also a Baofeng or Yaesu radio and longwire antenna assuming I have other colleagues and we’re all teamed up.
That last part I can’t stress enough; we’re all gonna need to be with teams of people if the shit gets bad enough; no one, including experienced and trained mil-spec operators is gonna last very long alone.
OFD is about to go ballistic on browsers.
FF kept crashing on me; checked all the usual chit, nothing out of the ordinary, never used to do this. Gave up and started using Sea Monkey. Ran OK for a week and now it’s doing the same thing. WTF???
Am I being forced back to Chrome or what? IE? Opera and Safari too much of a PITA and I’m not used to either one.
Real Men use Gopher.
Did you turn off the Hardware Acceleration in FF? Not sure if Sea Monkey has it also but their code base is not that different.
Or Archie, or Veronica…..
nick
“Did you turn off the Hardware Acceleration in FF? Not sure if Sea Monkey has it also but their code base is not that different.”
OK, I just turned off the HA in FF and left open a half-dozen or so pages for laffs. Can’t find HA in Sea Monkey as an option so far.
We shall see.
Gopher, eh? Hey, I was using dial-up to get to the old Boston Computer Society’s BBS net and to log in to DEC’s data centers from home for my job. Late 80s.
Ladies and Germs, the Ghost Gunner:
http://www.wired.com/2015/06/i-made-an-untraceable-ar-15-ghost-gun/
Tips for later…a word to the wise…
http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/operational-security-opsec-communication-security-comse/
Hah, as a lad I was in Ward Christianson’s basement, looking at the modems he used to run his BBS, the one he wrote the software for that everyone ended up using.
He had a nice train set too.
That would have been really early 80’s or possibly late 70s.
nick
Somedays, I wonder about my son:
https://www.facebook.com/michael.mcguire.3726
Yes, that an a Muslim headscarf.
Looks like a chip off the old block. With a bit more hair, I’ll guess… 🙂
“The libturd and libtard haters really hate Coulter; Too Effin Bad. Here she is, straight up:”
She’s not right wing enough for my liking, but I bet she’d get more attention if she went on air with her kit off… 🙂
Real Men use Gopher.
Nope. Real men write their own. I did so back in the early days of computing. Easier than now since everything was text. Would never attempt doing so today. I guess I am no longer a real man. Make some space on that bench for me OFD.
“Easier than now since everything was text.”
I am given to understand that there are web browsers that work in text-only mode.
Plenty of room here on the bench, youngster.
“I am given to understand that there are web browsers that work in text-only mode.”
Reminds me of when Jerry Pournelle’s site was headed with Best viewed in a browser, or something similar.
Looks like a chip off the old block. With a bit more hair, I’ll guess… 🙂
Nope, the bald man curse has struck him hard. So he Bics his hair every three days or so. A summer in Iraq in armoured humvees will do that to you (no opening windows and no a/c in the early models).