11:07 – It was 13F (-10.5C) when Barbara took Colin out the first time this morning. Our temperatures are to moderate somewhat over the next few days. We may even have highs above freezing, and the lows are to be mostly in the 20s.
Barbara left about 0800 to run some errands down in Winston-Salem. She’ll be back late this afternoon. So far, Colin has spent his day pestering me to take him out and barking at pretty much nothing.
I’m spending the day making up some solutions I need to bottle for kits, printing bottle labels, etc. We’ll spend tomorrow and Friday getting bottles filled and labeled, making up chemicals bags, and building more kits.
I’m noticing more and more articles in the MSM press and websites about preparedness in general and grid-down issues in particular. When the Winston-Salem Journal runs a front-page article above the fold about cyberattacks on our electrical grids and the need to prepare for outages, I know things are getting serious.
http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/06/hackers-shut-down-power-grid-in-ukraine/
“Are Climate Skeptics Too ‘Mentally Ill’ to Buy Guns Under Obama’s New Rules?”
http://www.mrctv.org/blog/are-climate-skeptics-too-mentally-ill-buy-guns-under-obama-s-new-rules
“When the Winston-Salem Journal runs a front-page article above the fold about cyberattacks on our electrical grids and the need to prepare for outages, I know things are getting serious.”
Thanks, probably, to all the hoopla around Ted Koppel’s tome recently. Plus we’re probably being greased media-wise and gummint-wise for some coming outages of the jumbo size. Savvy citizen-subjects will prepare accordingly, but they all seem to be leaving out the part where large segments of the population panic and explode when their EBT and ATM cards no longer work and the gas station pumps no longer pump gas.
I have been called a denier because I ask questions. It does seem like the climate has warmed up a bit in the last century but I have questions about the cause.
Recently there was some political press event in Alaska about renaming Mt McKinley. During a lunchroom conversation someone brought up that the president mentioned that a receding glacier on the mountain had revealed 1000 year old tree stumps. I then asked “What caused it to warm up enough 1000 years ago to recede and grow trees?” The response was “That doesn’t matter. The warming today is caused by humans.” I am a scientist and my brain rejects the notion that relevant (and contradictory) data “doesn’t matter.” This is no longer about science to so many, it is a political issue and that trumps reason even for so many of my scientist colleagues.
We are entering into a world where asking obvious questions can get a person into trouble. I don’t know how long my reputation as the guy with an eccentric view of the universe can protect me.
Your skepticism is shared by a huge majority in a recent survey of a large sample of people with hard-science PHDs. Something like 70% of them.
I am getting ready to cancel my subscription to the Houston Chronicle because of their global warming due to man advocacy and their blatant love for cankles. I told a friend of mine that the other day and he said he had been thinking about taking the Houston Chronicle again so he could call them again to cancel, he enjoyed it so much the first time. And I thought I was more conservative than him.
Your skepticism is shared by a huge majority in a recent survey of a large sample of people with hard-science PHDs. Something like 70% of them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming
What, the education and sociology PhDs don’t count for science questions?
Freeman Dyson is a denier. That is good enough for me.
http://noconsensus.org/scientists/freeman_dyson.php
My technical support guy’s favorite saying for simulation models is “garbage in, garbage out”. He tells this to our customers all the time.
“Your skepticism is shared by a huge majority…”
Darn. It is more fun to be in the minority questioning the majority, especially if you can back up what you say.
receding glacier on the mountain had revealed 1000 year old tree stumps
1,000 years is nothing in the cosmic scheme of things. To say “it doesn’t matter” when the time frame is well within Human existence is just dumb. AGW believers apparently come from a long line of uneducated hillbillies.
lol! I’d love to see Mr. OFD in this puppy.
It’s happened. Someone built a quadcopter big enough to carry human cargo.
“I’d love to see Mr. OFD in this puppy…”
OFD is too big for it, same sad old story, exactly why I couldn’t be a fighter jock. I’d wait a while, too, until they iron out all the bugs from the Beta version.
“We are entering into a world where asking obvious questions can get a person into trouble.”
We’ve been in that world already for some time now; for me it started in fourth grade, when I asked our teacher, Miss Crosby, why couldn’t we have a history class at school? She told me to go home and write a history of the world, which I did, staying up till the wee hours to do it, at age nine. The next day I proudly handed it to her; she smiled at me, took it, and tore it up, dropping the pieces into the wastepaper basket, as the class behind me laughed.
Saw the pesky question thing operating again in grad skool, where the rad-fembat matriarchy had taken over the humanities and social “science” departments and the administrations; ask certain types of questions there and get frozen out totally after being publicly shamed and reprimanded. Like in a Nork POW camp of the early 1950s.
Then we got the nuclear winter crowd, trolling for chum in the media and spreading FUD far and wide (OFD has a very long memory).
Lately, of course, it’s been the warmist assholes; follow the money. And the power. Pesky questions and dissent are verboten, but the funny thing for these jerkoffs is that information is free now and all over the net. We can find out if someone is lying or incompetent and saying things with bad intent and malice aforethought and out of greed, and then we can post it all over the world instantly for everyone else to see.
The Emperor Algore has no clothes!
The would-be Empress Cankles likewise! (sorry for that terrifying and nauseating imagery)
Another interesting POV on the events unfolding out in Oregon:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2016/01/06/malheur-another-perspective/#comments
My own inclination is to be aware of and keep basic tabs on various groups around the country but to also keep a very long arm’s distance from them, for the most part. We really are best off getting to know and work with our own neighbors and fellow townsmen as the system continues to unravel. Learn what we can from all these events and situations and train up on some basic home and neighborhood defense before tackling anything heavier.
That, and the models with the carefully tuned algorithm which gives the “correct” answer no matter what input you give it.
The “climate model” code I helped critique in 2009 or 2010 (the leaked Univ of East Anglia code) didn’t have anything quite that blatant but it did have “correction factors” in the code, with helpful comments like “need this to get the right answer”. My understanding is also that the input files were also “corrected”, much in the way NASA and NOAA show alarming graphs made from “corrected” raw data.
“…the models with the carefully tuned algorithm which gives the “correct” answer no matter what input you give it.”
Aint’ dat pretty much how electronic balloting/voting works or is gonna work? You know, the wunnerful democratic system we have here that gives us the ability to choose wise and honest officials to run the show? The stuff that some peeps here keep exhorting us to do all the time?
I read history books and I think I’ve seen this movie before; variations of it have been done but they’re fine-tuning it now with all the wunnerful new technology and paid whore programmers and developers, as with the national police state surveillance systems.
So the sheep are starting to wake up:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3387689/How-survive-mass-shooting-101-Georgia-city-holds-seminar-teaching-citizens-FIGHT-armed-gunman.html
” The city of Douglasville, Georgia held a course preparing citizens for a mass shooting last month
Law enforcement officials spoke to a group of about 80, teaching them to plan an escape route and even how to attack a shooter if need be
The recent high-profile attacks in Paris and San Bernardino are contributing to a demand for similar courses across America
”
The tone is a bit on the incredulous side, but not too bad. Of course, the DMail shows their racism when quoting blacks, they quote them in the vernacular, when quoting whites they standardize the language. Still better than all of our media.
Love the quote at the end from the Washington guy– basically Oh, you don’t want to do that, you need to be told the right thing to do….
nick
That town has a pop around 30k but is in the greater hellhole Atlanta metro area; so the classes on mass shootings are probably OK but I’d set a higher priority on classes dealing with looters after natural disasters and home invasions.
Mrs. OFD has had several recent instructor-training classes in that immediate area and points west; she likes and gets along great with Southerners.
I’d also emphasize that GTFO from a mass shooting incident in-progress is probably the first choice for someone, but if they’re up in your face or coming at you, then you gotta do something else. Also, moral questions arise if you are armed and trained; you gonna hightail it outta there and let the sheep get slaughtered? Keeping in mind the danger and the aftermath of shit you’re gonna have to deal with…
lol! Cankles in Henderson, NV (right next door to Vegas) “look outside and see snow on the ground..CLIMATE EJACULATION!!!!” What the frack is she talking about. We got several flakes a couple of weeks ago. There is snow up in the mountains, but, mountains in the Winter in NV always have snow. Geez. This is what our Fearless Leader will be. I’m getting in that human quad-copter and heading for France.
Trump was in Lowell, MA yesterday or the day before, I forget and don’t much care, but the place was SRO, at least 8k Murkan derps. In Burlington, VT today with the usual mob of progs, SJWs, college kidz, media flacks, etc., and a “lukewarm” reception, according to a headline I saw in one of the local nooz rags. He’d do better in Rut-Vegas (Rutland) or St. Johnsbury or maybe Barre. Certainly not Burlap, Montpeculiar or any of the college towns.
Mountains in most places have snow in the friggin’ winter; she’s either completely fucking stupid or trying to be cute. Which is a dead end in my book.
If I had a viable quad-copter drone that could support my weight and my EDC stuff, radio go-bag, pistol and rifle go-bags, etc., and had some decent armament, I’d head for the interior or remote coastal area of Newfoundland.
Also, moral questions arise if you are armed and trained; you gonna hightail it outta there and let the sheep get slaughtered?
The sheep should have armed themselves. I have a responsibility to my family to survive to support them. And, Lord forbid my family is there also.
Keeping in mind the danger and the aftermath of s*** you’re gonna have to deal with…
At minimum, you will lose that weapon. At maximum, you will be mistaken for perp by a roaming LEO and shot. Somewhere in between, you will be charged as the perp and forced to defend yourself in a court of law. Of course, there is always the old saying, “I would rather be judged by twelve than carried out by six”.
One of my nephews told his mom, my SIL who is currently staying with us, if it comes down to between Cankles and Trump, he will vote for Cankles because she does not scare him. Trump scares him. My SIL told him to forget about voting until he grows a brain.
“The sheep should have armed themselves. I have a responsibility to my family to survive to support them. And, Lord forbid my family is there also.”
Agreed 100%. But I can easily imagine circumstances during such an event where one has no choice but to step up to the plate and take a swing.
“Somewhere in between, you will be charged as the perp and forced to defend yourself in a court of law.”
Are we still talking about a mass shooting event? Or a home invasion? Or an encounter somewhere else?
“At minimum, you will lose that weapon.”
After LE and the court is done with it, I want it back and will sue to make it so. With accompanying info all over the net and the local media.
“My SIL told him to forget about voting until he grows a brain.”
How old is this nephew? And who’s been filling his head with the nonsense that Chump is scarier than Cankles? That’s the standard-issue media narrative, of course. Also, when he grows a brain, he can still forget about voting, at least in national and most state elections, because it’s a waste of his time and effort.
More stuff on the Oregon capers:
http://freedomoutpost.com/2016/01/military-special-ops-enroute-to-oregon-for-possible-raid-possible-agent-provocateur-in-bundy-group/
to be fair, the AGW crowd has been saying that we would see more extremes in the climate – wetter, snowier winters was to be expected, along with more severe storms due to increased energy in the atmosphere.
I’m an agnostic on the matter. I think it is entirely possible that AGW is going on. It’s also possible that it isn’t, and we are seeing a natural change in climate. Or a combination of both.
The computer models is, to put it mildly, suspect. The code that was leaked was abysmally bad – written by grad students over time, full of bad coding practices and kludges. I’d support having the government pay to have a spec document written and one of the major coding shops like IBM, LockMart, etc. (or a couple) implement the model and see what we get. And publish the whole thing as open source. As Jerry Pournelle said, we have been running an uncontrolled climate experiment for the last centuries.
When I was in grad school, I had to do some coding assignments in my signal processing classes – the professors were gobsmacked that my C code had lots of comments, was indented for readability, and had function, subroutine, and variable names that made sense. I had been working as a coder for 10 years by then and had been trained in MilSpec coding, so it came naturally. Several were interested in having me do PhD work just to get a good coder in their lab.
probably no need to panic but remember that when 2008 happened it happened overnight.
and
IF you have some cash sitting in a bank account, you might want it sitting in your safe for the next few weeks.
nick
I’ve been following the Oregon situation a bit. The ranchers have certainly been wronged, and the federal prosecutor who appealed the sentences is apparently an Obama appointee devoid of any relevant qualifications, and it’s particularly fascinating that she resigned immediately after the appeal went through. Still, I find it odd that Bundy&Co. have joined in, apparently without being invited – and anyway, surely they need to go after that prosecutor rather than the wildlife refuge employees?
Don’t know if this has made the news in the US, but the current news from Köln, Germany is the massive number of sexual attacks on German women out celebrating New Year’s eve. Apparently around 1000 young guys from Northern Africa and the Middle East were roaming the city, in groups of 30-40. A group would surround a couple of women, feel them up, and while they were trying to protect themselves, their bags would be emptied. This is apparently a known tactic from other areas. The guys get to feel up a western woman, and this distracts her completely, so that she doesn’t notice that other guys are stealing all of her stuff.. Real sweet, and of course, it’s nearly impossible to identify individual culprits.
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, it is apparently the new normal for girls to be anonymously groped in crowded dance clubs. But this I don’t understand, because the problem could end from one day to the next if the girls would stop putting up with it. Grab a finger, bend it backwards, and shout for a bouncer – problem solved.
Ah but that would be ray-cisss! You must respect their culture, since all are equally valid, or even superior to the one that led to enourmous global prosperity, and putting a man on the moon.
Merkel says you all need to get used to the idea that immigrants are more violent and more criminal. Got that proles? And it’s your fault for not giving them jobs, money, and houses…
And the mayor says you deserved it for not behaving properly under the new reality…
What I’m interested in is the man on the street reaction to this. Are feminists ready to burn down the government for erasing 40 years of fem-progress? Are the football hooligans ready to start the ‘rough justice?’
or did all the European men with backbone die in the 2 wars?
nick
@brad, to answer your question, I just looked at 4 mainstream outlets and found NO mention of cologne or germany or the arab invaders on their landing pages.
That’s why I’ve got UK Daily Mail open. I know it’s a sensationalist tabloid, with a bunch of monkeys behind the keyboards, and no spell checker, but they are publishing the stories.
I used to read the Financial Times, but they’re behind a paywall now, and getting past it isn’t worth the additional 2 steps of effort.
But yeah, US media is silent.
added: canada too
nick
Holy crap, when did the canadian dollar fall to 70c? I thought it was cheap at 85c.
OFD, you should be headed to canadia, buy some jewels, return home. Cover your spousal commitments for the next decade!
Interesting day coming up in US markets….
nick
Right now we’ve got no money sitting in bank accounts or anywhere; wife’s pay checks are once again weeks overdue, while bills and taxes pile up, also overdue. Otherwise, sure, I’d pull most of it out in cash this week and also buy some stuff in O Kanada.
Here’s some commentary on our Murkan Alawites, i.e., progs and SJWs:
http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=6172
I kind of thought is was just on German-language news. The refreshing thing is that the news media has been up front with the fact that the culprits are muslims. The irritating thing is that the government is busy saying “don’t blame all immigrants because of this”. Geez, if there were 1000 of them – in Köln alone – then there are 10s of thousands across all of Germany.
Next New Year’s Eve there will be bands of German toughs roaming the streets looking for bands of muslims. This will not improve matters.
On the political front, my impression from across the border is that Merkel has entirely exhausted the population’s patience. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that they have accepted around a million immigrants in just the past year. The price for that will have to be paid, one way or another.
If the immigrants had a collective brain, they would put together their own bands of toughs, and police themselves, in an attempt to rescue public opinion. That doesn’t seem to be happening, so the sentiment is turning in the obvious direction: “muslim” is automatically “bad”, and people are less and less shy about saying so.
It’s not fair to blame the 0.001% of moslems for the depredations of the 99.999%.
Once again: you have a big bowl of jellybeans. 10,000 of them. Ten of them are lethally toxic. How many jellybeans will you eat?
When I was in grad school, I had to do some coding assignments in my signal processing classes – the professors were gobsmacked that my C code had lots of comments, was indented for readability, and had function, subroutine, and variable names that made sense.
When I first started programming in 1975, we kept our source code on a magnetic drum drive on a Univac 1108. The fee was about a penny per day per line of code. No comment cards were allowed. And yes, we modified the source code using card decks.
Was that the one with the hand crank on the side to start it?
Lynn wrote:
“And yes, we modified the source code using card decks.”
Ever had an operator drop your deck? I did, a 2000 card deck. I was *not* impressed.
Was that the one with the hand crank on the side to start it?
Never saw the mag drum drive, it was in Dallas and we were in Houston. Besides that, it was in the inner sanctum and we mortals were not allowed in there.
I sincerely hope that you are kidding about the hand crank on the side. We did used to have a mini-Vax with a two speed 8 inch hard drive. I occasionally had to kick it in order to boot it up. I suspect that ten years was way past its design life.
Ever had an operator drop your deck? I did, a 2000 card deck. I was *not* impressed.
After I did it to myself, I used to take a magic marker and put a diagonal stripe across the top of the cards. At least that would give you a fighting chance of reordering them.
I think I remember mentioning the stupid girl when I was in college whose sense of neatness was offended by making the line diagonal and insisted on marking her decks with a perpendicular line. She wouldn’t listen to anyone, so we all just waited for her to find out the hard way. Eventually, she did, and was pissed at us for laughing.
When I started out in 78 we had an IBM System 3 in the service side of the company. All programmed and data entry by cards. Not my thing fortunately. I used mini computers driving dumb terminals. I did however get to move that damn thing when we sold it a couple years later since I was also the hardware guy. Heavy shit. So were the minis but not that heavy. Rented a truck with lift to drive it a 100 miles to the buyer. Of course the truck broke down half way and they had to bring another to me and we transferred the sob on the side of the road. Great casters but if it got away you might be crushed.
Hand crank? Sure and wooden wheels. 🙂
The wheel had been invented way back then?
The wheel had been invented way back then?
Yeh, but the crank was still not yet on the drawing board (or is that rock chisel board?).
You think it’ll take that long? I suspect there’ll be either lynch mobs or small, quiet operations against the invaders in much less than a year.
If mohammedans in general had brains and self-control, the shitholes they left would not be such shitholes in the first place.
Germany could soon be revisiting the 1930s, with bands of hooligans beating each to death in the streets, gutters running with blood over broken glass. We can hope that Merkel and her minions will be caught up in it in a very bad way.
The musloids intent, however long it takes, is to invade the infidel West, which they still think is Christian, and take it over and render that a giant shithole, too, under sharia. They’ll make a desert and call it the Caliphate.
Next New Year’s Eve there will be bands of German toughs roaming the streets looking for bands of muslims.
You think it’ll take that long? I suspect there’ll be either lynch mobs or small, quiet operations against the invaders in much less than a year.
Just read up on the Goths and Kristallnacht. Also, the Protestant reformation riots in Germany were fairly nasty pieces of work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristallnacht
I suspect that the troublesome moslim camps will start to have serious problems in the middle of the nights.