08:39 – We’re doing science kit stuff today. We’re running low on both biology and forensics kits, so we need to build batches of both. The biology kits are just a matter of boxing up subassemblies we already have in stock, but we need to make up some chemicals and build chemical bags for forensics kits. So that’s what we’ll be doing over the next few days.
Last month was slow for science kit sales, and this month remains slow, averaging maybe one kit per day. Things will start to speed up considerably toward the end of this month and then through January, when we’ll be selling more kits some days than we’re selling now some weeks.
We’ll also be shipping seed kits toward the end of the month. Originally, I intended to ship the individual seed bags in a foil-laminate Mylar bag as an outer container. Talking to Barbara last night, I decided to ship the seed bags in just an outer plastic bag, and include the Mylar bags flat and empty. There’s no point to us sealing the seed bags inside the Mylar bags originally, because we’ll be encouraging kit buyers to plant at least a small initial crop (especially of herb seeds), which’d mean cutting open those bags and then resealing them. This way, people can do an initial small planting and then seal the individual seed bags inside the Mylar bags, simply by using an ordinary clothes iron or curling iron set on high.
So it’s beginning to look like straight up murder. No warrant existed, as was initially reported. “Cop” was sniffing around victim’s fiance. Judgement juice was involved.
Did cops shoot dead six-year-old autistic boy in a grudge over a WOMAN? New police probe as it emerges one of the officers was messaging and visiting the boy’s step-mom at home
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3312285/Police-investigating-one-cops-shot-six-year-old-boy-dead-grudge-father-emerges-officer-messaging-fianc-e-Facebook-visited-house.html
Well, I finally finished prepping for life. Now I just have to move in. Is 10 years worth of supplies enough?
The problem with places like that is they’re too well-advertised (Exhibit A: The Forbes Article). It will a frequent subject of speculation and assumption in the surrounding communities and when SHTF the place will be under siege by everyone within traveling distance. How long would it withstand hundreds or thousands of people trying to break into it day in and day out for weeks or months? Might as well build it in the shape of a target.
That’s why I have four of these roaming the property. Plus 10 years of ammo. lol
” one large 6,750 sf apartment and six 1,720 sf apartments.”
So the laird and his retainers…..
nick
Preference given to those with comely and biddable daughters, and perhaps, lithe young sons….
compatible blood and dna a plus…
Excellent prepping detail that most overlook. It’s a good idea to hold a surgical team and a few tissue matches prisoner when SHTF in case you need spare parts. 🙂
.. and a couple of universal donors that you know are clean…
nick
These peeps are out of touch with reality; as Mr. chad notes, they’ll become targets in record time once SHTF real bad. We’ve got a few of these up here in Vermont and everyone knows where they are and who they are and what they probably have.
I favor the “gray man” deal myself; keep a low profile, mind yer biz, be helpful and friendly to local peeps, do not advertise yer gear and supplies, and once things go south, send somebody for the daily or weekly food rationing thing, don’t let cooking smells envelop the ‘hood, and continue to be as helpful and friendly as you can be, while also linking up with allies of one sort or another.
And if goblins attack, deal with them accordingly and string the corpses up around the ville for a week or two as examples to incoming wanderers.
Went to vote in the town’s “special election” a couple of hours ago, three ballot articles on moving the highway department garages away from the lake shore further inland to a better site and building; a new salt shed for them which they’ll build themselves; and the junk ordinance. All fairly important issues, I woulda though, but few vehicles in the lot and only me and peeps even older than me there when I rolled on inside. I asked the guy at the ballot box about the turnout and he told me to look at the little window on the corner of the box; 437 as of that time “that’s all we got so far” and I said gee, that’s kinda depressing. With over 4,000 registered voters here. I dunno, maybe they’ll see a big rush when work gets out later. For those derps who still have jobs, that is.
I looked back to ’96 and ’00 general elections here and the turnout was much larger, but that was for the national chit, of course. Algore squeaked by then but since that time there seem to be way more Repubs and related Repub voting going on in this county. Which I don’t care about; but the garage and salt shed and junk are on my radar. I suppose the first two issues mainly concern us here in the bay village, though.
Doesn’t sound like an exciting election, so why get worked up? I mean, you’re not getting the first Viking president or IT dude governor, so who cares?
Naw – just kidding. All politics are local. That’s the stuff that affects you directly, and you have a chance of having a say in. 10% turnout in my neck of the woods, before end of the work day, is about right.
Unless Hillary! is on the ballot. That’ll get ’em turned out. Never mind that the judges are folks they might have to go before. And council members are voting on what to do with their property taxes. State Reps will be fighting over the next sales tax hike. Mayors will be giving the FD a raise (or not!).
Folks just don’t seem to get that the local races are the ones that matter.
Exactly. I dunno what their problem is when something so obvious stares them in the face; if the peeps around here are so doggoned worried sick about the wotta quality in this huge lake then maybe moving the highway department garages and current salt shed disaster AWAY from it would be important??? They don’t like seeing piles of junk and rusted out vehicles on lawns and yards around here?? Then maybe the friggin’ junk ordinance is important, too???
I’ll check the local rag paper tomorrow and see what the final turnout has been; if it stays crummy I’m writing a blistering letter to the editor along the above lines. And tell them to quit waxing angst-like over Cankles, Bernie and Chumpster while we have shit like this right HERE to deal with. And I have to admit the town made every effort via the local rag and their web site to educate the peeps here on these three issues and the exact language involved, I have no bones with them about it.
OFD is also gonna start haunting most of the town hall meetings accordingly. The side door to the building is about 75 yards from our front door, so I have no excuse.
Meatspace, ladies and germs; it’s the coming thing. Again.
An Amish farmer walking near his pond notices a man drinking from it with his hand.
The Amish man shouts: “Trink das wasser nicht. Die kuhen haben dahin gesheissen.” Which means: “Don’t drink the water, the cows have pooped in it.”
The man shouts back: “I’m from New York and just down here campaigning for Hillary. I can’t understand you. Please speak in English.”
The Amish man says: “Use two hands, you’ll get more.”
Just went and saw “The Martian” movie with my Dad and my son. Excellent story, just excellent with the message of perseverance in the face of all adversity. I loved the hard science in the movie, everything in there is achievable with today’s science.
Just bring a LOT of cash. I’m hearing $65 trillion for a human to Mars mission. And back.
Here is a much better review:
“The Martian” review by Howard Taylor
http://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/the-martian-movie-review
“I declared that The Martian (novel) was the best hard science fiction novel I had ever read. It is not a perfect book, but it is an outstanding book that does “book things” brilliantly.”
“I’m now declaring that The Martian, (movie) is the best hard science fiction movie I have ever seen. It is not a perfect film, but it is an outstanding film that speaks the way only a film can, and uses the medium in ways that the very best films do.”
Just bring a LOT of cash. I’m hearing $65 trillion for a human to Mars mission. And back.
Depending on the mission model, it’s $65 billion. At least the Mars missions I worked on were about that cost.
There are ways that could be much cheaper.
Depending on the mission model, it’s $65 billion. At least the Mars missions I worked on were about that cost.
Did you see the movie? The spaceship is at least 200 lifts above LEO. It is at least double the size of the ISS. Lets say five reusable rockets at $2 billion each. Each lift to orbit is $2 billion, 200+ of them. The materials for the spaceship are probably around a trillion dollars, the nuclear rocket being at least $100 billion alone (testing, construction, etc). BTW, each Mars mission was at least five separate spaceships with four of them unmanned. Two Mars rovers with pressurized cabin, one six passenger rocket to Mars LEO, two 6 person habitats, etc, etc, etc.
$65 billion won’t even get you to the Moon nowadays. According to this, the Apollo mission cost $24 billion in the 1960s and employed 400,000 people. There has been a little inflation since then.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program
Two way???
The lefties and SJWs really do live in some other dimension, or is it “dementia?”
http://www.ammoland.com/2015/11/editorial-says-govt-would-defeat-armed-rebellion-by-making-major-cities-disappear/#axzz3r988wElH
Yes, both ways. “The Martian” movie is about the six Marsnauts getting a “hurricane” and having to boogie out. On the way from the habitat to the MAV rockets, one of the Marsnauts gets hit by a transmission dish and carried away. They think that he is dead and leave him behind. They were wrong.
Nice, nice, nice spaceship. Of course, having to spend eight+ months in it both ways, it needs to be large. Probably at least 200 ft long with solar mirrors and a rotating habitat section so they can live in gravity. Plus the nuclear reactor for propulsion that has to be far away from the crew quarters.
My son says that if you like the five minutes in the “Apollo 13” movie where they are fixing the spaceship, you will like this movie because the entire movie is one crisis after the other.
“Linus Torvalds vs. the internet security pros”
http://www.zdnet.com/article/linus-torvalds-vs-the-internet-security-pros/
“The Washington Post feature story, Net of Insecurity: The kernel of the argument, opens “Fast, flexible and free, Linux is taking over the online world. But there is growing unease about security weaknesses.”
“Linus Torvalds takes security seriously, but not seriously enough for some critics.”
“Nonsense. Linux already runs the Internet and it has for over a decade now.”
“Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Netflix — unless its name is Microsoft, its Web presence is based solidly on Linux.”
“Oh, wait, what’s this? Microsoft is moving to Linux too. Microsoft Azure Networking principal architect Kamala Subramaniam announced that Azure Cloud Switch (ACS), a Linux-based network program, “allows us the flexibility to scale down the software and develop features that are required for our data-center and our networking needs.””
I agree, bugs are bugs. People are the worst security holes out there.
Here is a cool picture of the “The Martian” movie Hermes spaceship:
http://www.space.com/30400-the-martian-how-to-stay-alive-on-mars-infographic.html
“…Microsoft Azure Networking principal architect Kamala Subramaniam…”
Yup, ol’ Dave Cutler moved on from that gig a coupla years ago and has been on the Hyper-V thang with the X-Box stuff. I dunno, kind of a bring-down from VMS and NT if you ask me…
In other nooz, wifey is flying back tomorrow after being gone for most of three weeks and will be home either late tomorrow night or the next morning. No more gigs until next month, by which time maybe her employer will have paid her the three weeks they already owe her for…many bills to pay, house stuff to take care of, and PREPPING chores to do.
I’ve also sent in the paperwork for four or five more jobs, only one or two of them IT-related…due diligence…filing for VA disability, SS, and working on other stuff. We can’t count on her employers paying regularly enough for us to organize our finances in any rational way. We need a regular squirt of revenue from somewhere…
The Martian flick leaves me cold; no interest in sci-fi, esp. improbably chit like that. We’re not in ANY possible shape for manned missions anymore, to there, OR the moon. it’s just amazing we can still do things with unmanned and telescopes.
well, iirc the air force is still a space going force….
Nasa, not so much.
nick
It’s actually much more serious and real than this little skit, kidz:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/modern-educayshun/
“well, iirc the air force is still a space going force….”
That’s right, always been true; back in the day OFD served with NORAD in Maine and Kalifornia when he was stateside and guarded the radar domes, nuclear weapons storage sites and he was doobie-smokin’ pals with the Space Surveillance Console Operators. We was a little spaced out ourselves then…
@OFD
” … 437 as of that time “that’s all we got so far” and I said gee, that’s kinda depressing. With over 4,000 registered voters here. I dunno, maybe they’ll see a big rush when work gets out later.
Maybe compulsory voting and universal voter registration is the answer. Require those ignorant of the issues to vote on something they don’t care about or be punished.
I think Cankles would be in favor.
Lets say five reusable rockets at $2 billion each. Each lift to orbit is $2 billion, 200+ of them.
I saw the movie and loved it. It’s mostly spot on technically. I had a few nits to pick – e.g. the Mars suits were not easily distinguished at a distance. This was discovered on Apollo 11 – they couldn’t pick out who was who from TV as their nameplates were too small. They added a colored band on the sleeves in later missions.
A Delta Heavy launch, which is about a shuttle in mass to orbit, is around $300 million, for a vehicle that is thrown away. If Musk gets his reuseable Falcon Heavy going, that drops to $30-50 million and has Saturn V mass to orbit capability. A Falcon launch, about 1/3 of a Delta heavy, is only $61 million with them throwing away the whole thing.
The spaceship design shown was the most unrealistic part of the movie. It would be a lot smaller in size and a lot cheaper. The base was pretty spot on for what was planned, but larger inside. It was sized like a doublewide mobile home. In practice, what has been looked at is more like a submarine in terms of habitable space inside. Probably done for filming reasons. A similar example is to compare the B-52 in Dr. Strangelove with an actual B-52. The movie version was pretty accurate as to the layout, but had more room – you couldn’t get a 35mm movie camera into a real B-52 crew cabin.
All in all, the price tag will be doable. And there are a number of technical developments in propulsion that could bring the cost down more. The biggest snags are going to be related to human physiology – can you survive the trip there and back without gravity? Is the cosmic background radiation going to hurt or kill the crew? Is Mars gravity enough to keep a human fit? If not, we may be limited to quick sorties – the “flags and footprints” missions of 6 months there, 30 days on the surface, 6 months back. We don’t know how much gravity is needed to keep a human fit long term.
Anyone who wants to dump the Winblows 10 nag icon on the tool bar plus the update scam M$ is running and downloading and the folders containing them, go here:
http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html
Got it working on this 8.1 box A-OK.
And the Windoze download folder was 8.1 GB!!!
“Maybe compulsory voting and universal voter registration is the answer. Require those ignorant of the issues to vote on something they don’t care about or be punished.”
Just like the old Soviet Union, perfect!
“I think Cankles would be in favor.”
Of course she would.
I’ll check the local rag tomorrow for the actual numbers and may well be scribbling a hate email to the editor, along the lines of “I don’t wanna hear anyone whining about lake water quality or junk on peoples’ lawns anymore. Ya’ll evidently don’t really give a fuck, just as you don’t about our endless foreign wars or the tanking economy and loss of Murkan jobs to robots and Bangladeshis. So keep watching the tee-vee and vote for the usual suspects like always and see how things change.”
Another fun filled review of the “The Martian” movie:
https://xkcd.com/1536/
OFD wrote:
“We was a little spaced out ourselves then…”
then?