08:45 – The Kindle Fire proxy problem appears to be solved. There’s an add-on for Firefox for Android called uBlock, which appears to do the job and hasn’t crashed yet. It’s also a lot faster than Adblock Plus, takes far less memory and processor, and uses AdBlock Plus lists.
I finished Thomas Sherry’s Deep Winter last night. In relative terms–for PA fiction written by wannabe authors–it probably deserves three stars. In absolute terms, it rates 0 or 1 star. The guy never met an apostrophe he didn’t like. He thinks the possessive of it is it’s, the possessive of you is you’re and the plural of girl is girl’s. The dialog is stilted at best. He and his characters are fundies. He scatters bible verses and prayers throughout the text. His lead character is obnoxious and treats women not much better than muslims do. And the convenience of it all. His group just happens to live on an old farm in the midst of a normal suburban area in a major urban center. Any time he needs something, it just happens to be in one of the outbuildings or the barn. Even in the midst of a widespread catastrophe with millions dead in Washington state from an earthquake and volcanic eruption, it seems the local police and military(!) are seconds away when he needs them to deal with looters. They arrive immediately when he summons them, kill the looters for him, and thank him for being such a good citizen. Geez. This book is fantasy, and badly-written fantasy at that. I’m fortunate in that I read very fast, so I don’t waste much time reading this kind of crap all the way to the end. Reading it is like watching a train wreck in slow, very slow, motion.
More work on science kits today.
09:45 – Vermeer prepper.
I’ve seen a few other friends take political/election quizzes and also come back with Mark Rubio as an 85% or better match. I posted a quiz here on June 23rd and a few us also ended up “matching” Rubio as well. For a guy that so many people seem to match so well I very rarely hear his name at all. Is he one of those closet libertarians running as a Republican because third parties rarely get elected?
Not even close. He’s anti-abortion, anti-gay, and a typical big-spending Republican. There’s nothing special about him. He’s certainly no libertarian.
In practical terms, I don’t see much difference in any of those who’ve announced, either Republicans or Democrats. They’re all the same-old same-old. Rand Paul is a very pale imitation of his dad. A lot of libertarian-leaning people want to think Rand is like his dad, but he’s just another big-government Republican.
“Girl with XP-100” ?
Did you actually pay $5 for Deep Winter? ($40 for the paperback, now that’s funny!)
(Reading the 5 star reviews is priceless.)
No. Having been burned several times, including once when I paid for an entire series based on someone’s recommendation, I now just grab the first in a series with BitTorrent. If I like it, I’ll buy the first in the series and the next. I no longer pay for the entire series of anything at once because some of these series go downhill fast after the first.
Not gonna pay $39.50 for a trade paperback even if it was a Heinlein book.
Have you tried my cousin Seanan McGuire’s books yet? She wrote a series about life 20 years after the zombie plague started. This book was nominated for a Hugo in 2011. She has written several other series that are urban fantasy and biomedical.
http://www.amazon.com/Feed-Newsflesh-Book-Mira-Grant/dp/0316081051/
I’m not real big on horror/fantasy, but I’ll give it a quick try.
“These Superhumans Are Real and Their DNA Could Be Worth Billions”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-22/these-superhumans-are-real-and-their-dna-could-be-worth-billions
Interesting. Why do I see football behemoths here instead?
Vermeer prepper.
Nice! Finally looked up Vermeer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Vermeer#/media/File:Meisje_met_de_parel.jpg
Isn’t that a Star Wars hand blaster?
Just had this article on Lifehacker.com show up on my RSS Reader:
http://lifehacker.com/this-chart-compares-types-of-emergency-foods-best-for-y-1719525270
Interesting article, but how valid it is is still up to further research. The article links to the source:
http://survival-mastery.com/basics/best-emergency-food.html
Would be interested in RBT’s and others’ opinions on the site survival-mastery.com
Dunno. I recognize a Vermeer instantly, but I’ve never seen star wars.
@DadCooks
Utter garbage.
Even the Fed study blew away the 1-3 year canned food life. That sort of calls BS on the chart. I could live on Mountain House freeze-dried chili-mac, though. I have simple tastes.
My tastes are even simpler. I could live on Vegemite on toast.
The first was pretty good: mindless fun. They went downhill rapidly after that. I thought they’d bottomed out with the friggin’ ewoks in Ep6, but then along came Jar-Jar in Ep1. I didn’t bother watching Ep2 or 3, though I caught a couple bits passing through the room as my sons watched them … and wouldn’t you know, friggin’ Jar-Jar was there.
but I’ve never seen star wars
I can watch Star Wars 4, 5, and 6 (the first three movies made) any day of the week. But, I love SF. You will be amazed how much of the movies dialogues have made into our sayings. Or maybe I am just a geek.
http://dvd.netflix.com/Search?v1=Star+Wars
Don’t bother with Star Wars 1, 2, and 3. Unless you get hooked. Star Wars 7 comes out this winter and might be good.
Han shot first!
re: Yesterday’s discussion on interstates. A few years back, I drove a moving truck, (not particularly heavily loaded) coast to coast via I-10. I-10 & I-12 across Louisiana (12 is the part around the north end of Lake Pontchartrain, rather than taking 10 through New Orleans) was simply atrocious. In particular, the part over the Atchafalaya Basin and west to Lake Charles was really bad. I found I-10 through Texas to be pretty good – wide, smooth, and well signed. Both Houston & San Antonio even had markings painted on the lanes to help the traveler. I will admit that I planed my trip so as to avoid rush hours in those two places. Arizona, New Mexico, and California east of Palm Springs also were pretty good. From Palm Springs to LA, the interstate was fairly rough. I’m led to believe that’s simply a consequence of the very high traffic volume. And 10 across Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi were just fine. As I understand it, the freeze / thaw cycles up north are what damages the road, and of course here in Florida that’s not really a problem.
Of course, Han shot first.
The original three are all good, but especially episode 5. Dunno what idiocy happened in ep. 1-3, but I actually expect Disney to get the closing trilogy right.
I always found Texas roads to be very good. When I lived in New Mexico, and drove back to Texas to visit family, I always knew when I crossed the border into Texas, because the free massage from crappy NM roads stopped. Dunno how it is today, though…