Wednesday, 2 March 2016

By on March 2nd, 2016 in personal, science kits

08:24 – We got chemical bags and small parts bags built yesterday for a new batch of biology kits. We’ll get the kits themselves built this weekend. Now is our slowest period of the year for kit sales, so we’re really building for inventory.

As expected, the two leading psychopaths dominated yesterday’s primaries. It’s really looking like November will be Clinton versus Trump, unless she drops dead or the GOP powers that be have Trump assassinated. I wouldn’t rule out either or both.


68 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday, 2 March 2016"

  1. Chad says:

    The Bernie Sanders’ SJW/FSA that have been hammering my social networking feeds with their Bernie Sanders zealotry for the last 3 months are all sorts of raging pissed now. Partially because Clinton, backed by the 1%’ers they hate, beat him and partially because no matter what comes out of Trump’s mouth he continues to advance.

    To use a millennial term…
    The amount of political butthurt on social media last night as Super Tuesday results came in was incredibly amusing.

  2. OFD says:

    “The amount of political butthurt on social media last night as Super Tuesday results came in was incredibly amusing.”

    It may become less amusing eventually, because a lot of hate and violence is being stored up on all sides, just like it was prior to our first civil war. Or over in the Balkans.

    Well, the weather liars failed again here; we were supposed to get two to four inches of heavy wet snow this past overnight after periods of freezing rain, sleet, rain and more snow. We got nothing. It’s overcast and looks like a snow sky but nothing is coming down now at nearly 11 AM.

  3. JimL says:

    Instead of 6-10 inches we were supposed to get, we have a dusting. On the bright side, there’s no slush out there to run through.

    I’ve found it necessary to remind several of my friends of how handily Dewey defeated Truman in ’48. There’s a fat lady. She’s going to sing. But nobody knows who or what yet, so being butthurt over Super Tuesday results is just foolish. I cannot believe how invested so many of my friends are in this election. Yes, it’s important. But it has no bearing at all on whether the dog needs to go out in the morning. And that really is more important right now.

  4. nick says:

    Here’s an example of why you need a grab and go bag, and a list, even if you think you will be ‘going down with the ship’ if SHTF.

    Temporary emergencies come up all the time, in all kinds of places. In this case, ethanol leaking is not that bad, but I can think of several things that would get you out of your home and KEEP you out for some time.

    “Dozens of homes evacuated after train carrying hazardous material derails in upstate New York

    The Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in Ripley, 60 miles from Buffalo

    Residents within 1,000ft of the crash site were told to leave their properties, while those living nearby were urged to stay indoors”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3472702/Cuomo-Train-derails-NW-New-York-forcing-evacuations.html

    nick

  5. OFD says:

    “But it has no bearing at all on whether the dog needs to go out in the morning. And that really is more important right now.”

    There it is. Why waste time being absorbed by the Klinton/Trump circus sideshow? The real stuff is happening out here in meatspace. Where we need to RESIST what is being done to us by the ruling classes. It’s no joke; they intend to get rid of cash, make us wholly dependent on them for whatever they deign to hand out, including their control of the food supply and distribution, and shut down all dissenting speech.

    The more time we blow watching these sideshows that they gin up for us, with the total cooperation of all the fawning media whores, the less able we will be to sustain any possible notions of freedom and liberty out here.

    “It has come to our attention, Citizen, that you were late to the One-Minute Hate last night. Your food ration has been reduced accordingly for this month.”

  6. OFD says:

    “Here’s an example of why you need a grab and go bag, and a list…”

    Indeed. If you live within several miles of a rail line, like we do, or an interstate highway (or any highway or road regularly traveled by cargo trucks and tankers), or an airport, you really ought to have go-bags already in your vehicles on the one hand, and a couple of larger bags in the house that you can just grab on your way out, depending on how many peeps gotta bail and for how long and to where.

    It’s no great trick to imagine a derailment up here, and there have been several along the line, just not recently or near this ‘hood. I get the sense from various reports that the rail lines in this region are somewhat behind schedule for maintenance and repairs, too.

    As for trucks, most of them are carrying manure, livestock feed, and milk. Still, an overturned truck and manure spillage across a main road up here would be no laughing matter, either.

  7. Miles_Teg says:

    “It’s really looking like November will be Clinton versus Trump, unless she drops dead…”

    I don’t expect her to be alive in November. Dead of natural causes.

  8. SteveF says:

    an overturned truck and manure spillage across a main road up here would be no laughing matter, either

    -shrug- Sounds like local politics as usual.

  9. SteveF says:

    Dead of natural causes.

    Just like Scalia…

  10. OFD says:

    Haters.

  11. Ray Thompson says:

    As for trucks, most of them are carrying manure

    In my vicinity of the woods trucks could be carrying some really dangerous stuff. Highly radioactive shipments to or from the nuclear weapons plant. When a shipment is sent several trucks depart, armored tractors, preceded by a couple of Suburbans with blacked out windows and followed by the same. All the trucks take different routes. Only one truck has the material, others are just loaded with the same weight in junk steel. No one in the convoy knows what they are carrying, not even the truck driver.

    The trailers themselves are rigged with toxic gas in case of forced opening. Axle assemblies on each axle are rigged with explosive brakes that will permanently disable the the axles and thus movement of the trailer. The tractors are tracked by GPS and in constant contact with the lead and trailing vehicles along with some federal agencies. All members in the convoy are heavily armed with orders, and permission, to shoot to kill.

    Really dangerous stuff in one of the trucks. If it overturned I am not sure what would happen. I would hope the stuff is in bomb, earthquake, fire, water, and hacksaw proof containers. Knowing DOE, some of the cheap contractors, completely ignorant workers, and other mistakes that have been made a paper bag may be all there is protecting the shipment.

    Some night I would like to get a dozen or so small cardboard boxes, fill them with sand, place a radioactive sticker on each box. Then under cover of darkness drive around Oak Ridge and scatter the boxes in a few vital intersections. Of course a vehicle will run over the box spreading the sand, the city workers would arrive to remove the offending box, discover the sticker, and all hell would break loose.

    Now since I have posted this and the NSA is reading this blog, if it ever happens I will disappear from the face of this earth.

  12. dkreck says:

    Mittens to make a major speech in Utah tomorrow on the election.

  13. OFD says:

    “If it overturned I am not sure what would happen.”

    In the USAF terminology I remember it would be a “Broken Arrow” incident and the area would be cordoned off, in this case, by Fed guards. Back in the day with yours truly and his trusty companions of the Security Police. Yes, with orders to shoot to kill. We had periodic exercises of this and “Bent Spear.” Always a gas. Teenage kids waving selective-fire and crew-served weapons around near populated areas.

    “Then under cover of darkness drive around Oak Ridge and scatter the boxes in a few vital intersections.”

    You’d get picked up with the first couple of boxes; I’m sure they’ve got drones and sensors and IR gizmos all over the area.

    “…if it ever happens I will disappear from the face of this earth.”

    So will all of us who just read this. Thanks a lot, lol.

  14. OFD says:

    “Mittens to make a major speech in Utah tomorrow on the election.”

    That should be good for boffo laffs. What could he possibly have to say? He’s been more or less completely off the MSM radar since his last stupid campaign.

    Well, if he decides to run, we’ll not only three or four psychopaths in the race, one of them will also be a Mormon. That’s not too wacky, is it? Next up: a Branch Davidian and a Wiccan tranny.

  15. Ray Thompson says:

    In the USAF terminology I remember it would be a “Broken Arrow” incident

    Was that for nuclear weapons? The stuff around here is just nuclear material, nothing that is weaponized.

    Had an incident maybe 10 or more years ago where some truck was transporting some low level liquid waste. Apparently the idiot unionized driver did not close a valve properly and the material would leak when going around curves. They used highway 95 with multiple curves and several dozen spots on the road got contaminated. Had to replace large sections of the asphalt. Any cars that had driven on the road that day had to report to a decontamination area. A couple of cars were impounded (apparently were close behind the truck) as they could not be cleaned and not released to the drivers. Don’t know if they got compensated.

    The biggest problem is the idiots that are handling the material. Generally union labor where if there is a problem they just ignore it because it is not in the job description. Closing a valve is for plumbers, not labor (thus radioactive material leaked). Turning off a breaker to save a machine is a job for electricians, not machinists (thus an expensive machine destroyed). Moving a desk is general labor, not painters (thus paint all over the desk).

  16. Lynn says:

    Mittens to make a major speech in Utah tomorrow on the election.

    Has Mittens been selected as the new prophet? Will he run for President now?

    So, who is breaking the bad news to Rubio today? Man, he was whiny last night. While Trump was holding a press conference and looking very presidential. And future Attorney General Christie was looking lost?

  17. dkreck says:

    You got a problem with magic underware?

  18. OFD says:

    “The stuff around here is just nuclear material, nothing that is weaponized.”

    How do you know that? Would you stake yer life on it? lol.

    Oh crikey, I had to look up “magic underwear” and danged if ain’t yet another weirdo Mormon thang….

  19. Lynn says:

    You got a problem with magic underware?

    Is that a new computer scam?

    BTW, I mention the prophet becoming President often because that was the prediction in several of Robert Heinlein’s books. He predicted that a tv preacher from Louisiana would win the 2012 Presidential election. And that would be the last election in the USA until the revolt in 2100.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_This_Goes_On%E2%80%94

    “The story is set in a future theocratic American society, ruled by the latest in a series of fundamentalist Christian “Prophets.” The First Prophet was Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher turned President (elected in 2012), then dictator (no elections were held in 2016 or later).”

  20. Ray Thompson says:

    How do you know that?

    All the weapons have been dismantled and no weapons are currently stored at the facility. A lot of the nuclear material stored, and transported, is bomb grade stuff, very pure. It is common knowledge what is stored and processed at the facility.

    Would you stake yer life on it?

    Yes. My friend that recently died worked on major projects involving material handling and security. He stated that there were no longer any functioning warheads on-site. What had been on-site had been dismantled and the plant was in the process of dismantling the fusion-able material.

    But you do make a good point. The plant is run by the government and our government never lies, completely honest and open with the public.

    I fear a nuclear event such as leaking trucks or material that is released that should not have been released. I don’t fear a nuclear detonation.

  21. Lynn says:

    Oh! My! Goodness! “Trump Mockers in Crisis”:
    http://s29.postimg.org/ods2s5lgn/Trump_Mockers_In_Crisis.png

    That strip looks like it was drawn by Berkeley Breathed.

    Hat tip to Scott Adams blog:
    http://blog.dilbert.com/post/140333940251/super-tuesday-master-persuader-series

    Who said, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

    Yup, I am expecting the dead to rise and vote in massive quantities in November.

    My new AR-15 has an auto position on the selector switch. I am wondering how to activate it for the great zombie uprising in the general election.

  22. Chad says:

    In the USAF terminology I remember it would be a “Broken Arrow” incident and the area would be cordoned off, in this case, by Fed guards.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_nuclear_incident_terminology

  23. OFD says:

    “I fear a nuclear event such as leaking trucks or material that is released that should not have been released. I don’t fear a nuclear detonation.”

    Thus those old-timey USAF exercises and designations; it wasn’t so much fear of warhead detonations as leakage and contamination at an accident site. And the USAF had several such accidents, that we know about, around the world. And I see that our Mr. chad has posted a link describing all that stuff, thankee kindly, Mr. chad.

    “common knowledge” a phrase that makes me nervous. It’s “common knowledge” that our gummint never lies to us and is always out for our common good. Common knowledge also that we have a viable economic and political system that is in no danger whatsoever of disintegration or collapse. Common knowledge that we have nothing to fear from the police; the policeman is our friend. Etc. What your late friend stated may have been true at the time or he may not have been privy to everything that was going on, and/or maybe things have changed in the interim, in light of new world flashpoints and threats.

    “I fear a nuclear event such as leaking trucks or material that is released that should not have been released. I don’t fear a nuclear detonation.”

    Exactly. From incompetence or stupidity or both, most likely. But I’m such a cynical bastard I wouldn’t put it past the gummint to deliberately stage accidents and then run them as exercises, regardless of any public safety.

    “Yup, I am expecting the dead to rise and vote in massive quantities in November.”

    Uh-oh, another cynic.

    “My new AR-15 has an auto position on the selector switch. I am wondering how to activate it…”

    Gee, mine don’t. You must be a special snowflake. In any case, lol, you’d need to do a little tinkering to make that work the way you seem to want it to work. I recommend against that. For a several reasons.

  24. Lynn says:

    “My new AR-15 has an auto position on the selector switch. I am wondering how to activate it…”

    Gee, mine don’t. You must be a special snowflake. In any case, lol, you’d need to do a little tinkering to make that work the way you seem to want it to work. I recommend against that. For a several reasons.

    No tinkering here. Nuh uh, I am smarter than that. I was just amazed at the auto position indicator on the selector switch.

    Actually, a much better solution for MZBs (mutant zombie biker gangs) is an RPG. I saw it on “The Walking Dead” so it has to be true. Here is Daryl shooting an RPG into the MZB gang:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBjZki8W45c

    Well, that is a particularly gruesome ending for the MZBs. As Abraham says, “Nibble on that.”

  25. OFD says:

    “Actually, a much better solution for MZBs (mutant zombie biker gangs) is an RPG.”

    +100

    Not standard mil-spec here currently so fah as I know. Therefore, again so fah as I know, the closest equivalent for that level of explosive force and damage would be the 90mm recoilless rifle and yes, OFD has had training with it but never used it in combat situations. (I was stuck with the Pig and the M79 most of the time).

    My advice is to lay off the tee-vee shows and learn up on all this nifty stuff; it ain’t hard to picture mutant zombie hordes of various ethnicities rampaging through that area of the country at some point. i.e., for starters, learn the AR platform backwards and forwards as the primary weapons goal. The Marines, as your son can tell you, have a pretty good rifle training program; if memory serves, the Rifleman designation comes with ability at the 500-yard range.

    Now picture a dozen bikers or three carloads of assholes sitting in your driveway with various firearms and hostile intent for you and yours. Yes, an RPG would be the ballz but you ain’t got one; the AR will have to do the gig. Hope someone else can pitch in, too; which reminds me; whenever Mrs. OFD is home for more than a day, I gotta get her up to the range and familiar with the whole shootin’ match, so to speak.

  26. MrAtoz says:

    and a Wiccan tranny.

    Hater. Six months “Caitlyn’s” bra adjuster.

  27. MrAtoz says:

    the 90mm recoilless rifle

    I fired one of the bipod ground versions. I lived to tell about it. Nasty.

  28. Lynn says:

    My former USMC son loves the M2 Browning. He was telling me last night about teaching newbies how to clean it and avoid getting the spring embedded in ones body. Apparently once that spring is tensioned, it is difficult to untension if the back plate has been removed for cleaning already. He had a special procedure for untensioning that spring if you did remove the back plate first. The first step was moving your entire body to the side of the gun.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M2_Browning

    Then he tried to explain the difference between open bolt and closed bolt weapons to me. I am sorry to say that he lost me fairly quickly. Something about if you drop one type, it will fire and continue firing. He got a personal demonstration of this in Iraq when someone dropped their M-249 and miraculously, no one got shot as it went through 200 rounds.

  29. SteveF says:

    Something about if you drop one type, it will fire and continue firing.

    )(*@&(${@ M-60. Someone dropped one near me, but it only went through half a dozen rounds or so before the twisted belt jammed it up. I suppose it’s a good thing that piece of crap is prone to jamming.

  30. OFD says:

    “I fired one of the bipod ground versions.”

    I also fired a bunch of them during training; the back-blast would turn whatever loose chit into flying shrapnel, so anyone standing in the rear was in nearly as much danger as the targets. We had various defunct armored vehicles and trucks to practice on; with that, the Pig, the various grenade launchers, etc. I LOVED my time in Security Police training; it was Paradise after friggin’ Basic. Then I went back for Security Police AZR Combat Training TWICE, even more fun. The second time, for the exact same chit, I had the instructors ask me WTF I was doing back there and when they found out, they basically made me an associate instructor with actual recent war stories to regale the noobs with, lol. I was 19.

    “Apparently once that spring is tensioned, it is difficult to untension if the back plate has been removed for cleaning already. He had a special procedure for untensioning that spring if you did remove the back plate first. The first step was moving your entire body to the side of the gun.”

    Same deal with the Pig. The first day of training with it the instructor deliberately let the spring/bolt fly out and hit the wall; it went right through it.

    “He got a personal demonstration…”

    I had up-close and personal demos of rounds “cooking off” in the belt sliding them into the feed tray on the Pig; very unpleasant.

  31. Lynn says:

    BTW, the Texian Firearms guy had some of his pride and joys hanging on the wall of his store. One was a funky little machine pistol with a 30 round mag that fired a 7.62×21 mm round. Looked like this minus the metal stock:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PPS_submachine_gun

  32. DadCooks says:

    For those of you who don’t understand what an effect Trump is having, a positive effect:

    http://blog.dilbert.com/post/140353736681/a-letter-to-donald-trump-from-a-voter-not-me

    I dare you to read it.

  33. JimL says:

    I have a request from a family member for a source of seeds (non-franken-seeds is what she’s asking for). I thought to recommend the seed kits here, but I cannot find a reference to the link to buy them. Is there one?

  34. nick says:

    Re: box of sand with a sticker on the side–

    In TX that would qualify as a hoax device, and IIRC you get the same punishment as if it was real. So might as well do the deed. Maybe crush up some smoke detectors to spook the responders even more??

    nick

  35. Ray Thompson says:

    In TX that would qualify as a hoax device, and IIRC you get the same punishment as if it was real

    Unfortunately, all my radiation stickers were lost in the Clinch River.

  36. nick says:

    @lynn,

    many of the custom or higher end gun makers put the auto position on every lower, since they also sell to .gov and .mil and it’s more ‘tacticool’ that way. I’ve got one from LWRC. Freaked me out, since I bought it used from a less than knowledgeable seller who also had a bunch of class III stuff. Thought I might have made a very expensive mistake and potentially life changing mistake.

    nick

  37. nick says:

    @ray, I had a coworker who put a biohazard sticker on his carryon. Thought it was funny until he got the rubber glove treatment at the airport 🙂

    nick

  38. Ray Thompson says:

    I had a coworker who put a biohazard sticker on his carryon.

    I have been the victim of the rubber glove strip search once. No body cavity probing, just stripped to the underwear and some feeling of my junk. Have no idea why I was singled out or what tripped the search. I asked and they said it was random. I don’t believe it but why is, and remains, a mystery. On the return trip I got TSA Precheck so no removing of shoes or computer from my bag. Odd.

  39. nick says:

    Every once in a while they feel the need to remind you who’s boss.

    n

  40. OFD says:

    Like any low-level screwball hirelings of a vast, bureaucratic regime. They think they’re safe, too, which is gonna be funny eventually.

    And here’s some very disturbing nooz:

    http://thepeoplescube.com/peoples-blog/hillary-mimics-cult-leader-jim-jones-to-get-minority-vote-t17629.html

  41. MrAtoz says:

    Rev Cankles! High Priestess of the Bathroom email Server! Our next President. BJ Klinton is already laying in a supply of *cigars* for use on the interns. Bottoms up!

  42. Robert Bruce Thompson says:

    @JimL

    I made up a bunch of prototype seed kits and offered them to readers while supplies lasted, keeping three kits for myself. I will be planting those this year. We will eat some of the produce, but my main goal this year is to save and dry seeds. Starting with publication of the prepping book, I’ll start offering seed kits again.

    In the interim, I’d reccomend the heirloom sed kit from Costco.

    http://www.costco.com/Organic-Storage-Seed-Kit.product.100225430.html

    It’s $48 for about half a pound of seeds (versus about six pounds for our $200 kit). It lacks what I consider key species that are in our kit, notably protein sources like Lima and soldier beans, calorie dense stuff like barley, oats, sweet corn, amaranth, and turnips, as well as the several key herbs we include and sunflower for oil/fat, but it is a decent basic selection.

  43. nick says:

    Some time back we were discussing PA novels. Well, someone has made a list. A BIG list.

    http://www.apocalypsebooks.com/books/

    Lots of reading there boys!

    nick

  44. OFD says:

    ” BJ Klinton is already laying in a supply of *cigars* for use on the interns.”

    I just finished Roger Stone’s book on LBJ, responsible for the murders of dozens of people, including the sailors on the U.S.S. Liberty and JFK. An evil piece of shit, if ever there was one, and murder was only the worst of his many crimes.

    Now about to start on his book about the Klintons; one look at either of them and you know they’re evil scum, the former President a serial rapist and probably pedophile and war criminal. As well as a coddler of drug dealers and other assorted criminal scum. She’s not even in the WH yet and she’s already a war criminal and probable facilitator of murder if not an actual murderer herself.

    And after that, Stone’s book on Jebster and the whole Bush family of criminal scum, going back to patriarchal scumbag Prescott.

    Hopefully Roger Stone will be around long enough to do another book on Obola and his capers since grade skool.

    I would have zero compunction about standing the lot of them against a wall and machine-gunning them myself. While digging up LBJ and trying him for murder and hanging the bastard. And next time Poppy goes up for one of his parachute stunts, shove him out the door with no chute.

  45. OFD says:

    Trumpeteer Alert:

    “Surely the party pros know that a nomination wrenched from the hands of Donald Trump would be worthless but they don’t care. The ruling elite that has dominated the party would rather have globalist Hillary Clinton than the uncontrollable nationalist Donald Trump. The idea of a president not beholden to the ruling elite is more than they can stand.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/01/how-the-gop-insiders-plan-to-steal-the-nod-from-trump/

    As I have said, they’ll deliberately lose to Cankles in order to deny Trump. But Cankles could get really sick and/or dead and/or indicted. What then? Romney or Cruz vs. Sanders? Or what if she doesn’t get sick or dead or indicted before she gets into the White House? Who will be the VP pick? Could be interesting.

  46. pcb_duffer says:

    [snip] I had a coworker who put a biohazard sticker on his carryon. [snip]

    Or a laptop that booted to a character based os with a prompt that said “Please wait, now arming …”

    Back in college, a buddy got hold of a bunch of biohazard labelled garbage bags. So he filled them with various inert oozing refuse and dragged them down the street. 🙂

  47. OFD says:

    “So he filled them with various inert oozing refuse and dragged them down the street.”

    So the bags were filled with the heads of lawyers, politicians, banksters, etc.? Good job!

    “Or a laptop that booted to a character based os with a prompt that said “Please wait, now arming …”

    Imagine the hijinks and jollity at the TSA airline kiosks when they pull that out of yer bag and tell ya to boot it up…

  48. JimL says:

    Thanks for the tips, guys. Just booked a trip to visit MrAtoz’s AO and thinking about the trip. I HATE flying. No Hi-jinks for me. I’m a pragmatist – when in Rome and all that.

    For some reason, if someone gets singled out for extra screening, I’m the guy. That bothers me for two reasons. The first is that it’s the TSA, an organization that violates the 4th amendment every day. The second is that they’re not doing ANY GOOD AT ALL. I’d be much happier turning it back to the airports, where the airlines pay for it for their own good and the constitutional objections evaporate.

  49. JimL says:

    Bob, thanks for the info about the seeds. Looking forward even more to the prepping book.

  50. Ray Thompson says:

    The first is that it’s the TSA, an organization that violates the 4th amendment every day

    I did have one good experience with the TSA. This was at the Chattanooga airport (found a cheap fare to Austin TX) which is about 90 minutes from my house.

    I had my camera case with a couple of cameras, two flashes, three lenses, lots of batteries and chargers, and other stuff that I needed. The TSA agent wanted to manually inspect the case which is fairly normal. There was no one else in line. The TSA agent obviously had an interest in photography and started asking me about the stuff. He was truly interested based on his questions as they showed he knew something about photography. Anyway, I was taking the stuff out of the case to show him, letting him handle the equipment, take a couple of pictures, changing lenses to show him the difference. We spent about 20 minutes going over stuff. He was actually human and I enjoyed showing him the stuff. He was very careful with the equipment. Other inspections involve the goons yanking the stuff out and just dropping it back on the case for me to put back in the case.

    Not all of them are jerks. May have had something to do with a very small airport and they don’t get the masses of traveling idiots like you have in Atlanta.

  51. JimL says:

    Almost all are nice people. I don’t object to the people. At my local airport, they are always nice to me. I object to the federal government getting involved. They shouldn’t. There is no constitutional basis that withstands scrutiny. (That matters to me.)

    When they worked for the airports, the jerks got fired. When they worked for the airports, they had EVERY RIGHT to ensure the travelers were safe and inspect baggage. When they worked for the airports, there were incentives to balance safety with the passengers’ happiness.

    Ah – I’m just ranting now. I’ll quit before I get worked up.

  52. SteveF says:

    So long as you complain about it but keep flying, your complaints about TSA mean nothing.

  53. brad says:

    I assume y’all have see the letter from the Republican neocons, trying to trash Trump? Whatever you may think of Trump as a candidate, this letter is just astounding. It would seem that the political insiders just can’t accept that they don’t get to pick the candidate. “Hey, Jeb, it’s your turn” Voters: “Nope, not gonna happen”. So, like spoiled children, the insiders would rather break their toy than share it with anyone else – their toy, in this case, being the 2016 Repub primary.

    Are they so isolated from reality. Are they really going to try to put Romney up – at this late date – as a serious candidate? We’re past “Three Stooges” territory and well into Monty Python.

  54. brad says:

    @Miles: Almost forgot: I wanted to congratulate the Aussies on building that fence along the entire length of their border with Slovenia.

  55. MrAtoz says:

    lol Fox is showing Mittens praising Trump in 2012. Now he is going to say he is a phony? Does he really think the Redumblicans will nominate him instead? They’ll get Mittens to pick away at Trump, and then nominate Rubio.

    I liked Romney as a person, now I think he’s a dick. Bashing Trump just for another try at the Presidency.

    And the dude who set up Cankles server is granted immunity by a Federal Judge. A Grand Jury has been called. Cankles may stroke out before she’s nominated. Hopefully Debbie “I know nothing” Schultz goes with her.

  56. Miles_Teg says:

    Never heard of any of those people.

    Oh yeah, Norwegian girls are a bit sklitish about bathing with guys. Obviously she didn’t go to Oberlin in the early Seventies… 🙂

    http://www.thelocal.no/20160113/norway-wont-change-militarys-nude-bathing-policy?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=thelocal

  57. nick says:

    I don’t think I’ve linked to this before.

    Brief article about dealing with CME or HEMP events, and the power grid.

    http://www.evaluationengineering.com/2015/09/24/coping-with-extreme-solar-storms/

    TL:DR

    The issue is real, CME more likely than HEMP, process of requiring action on protecting the grid is political and favors doing nothing, some states are taking steps, notably TX

    nick

  58. SteveF says:

    Yes, hemp is likely to lead to the end of the world. The US congress outlawed hemp a century ago, but foolishly made it legal again a couple years ago and now we’re all gonna die.

  59. OFD says:

    “…process of requiring action on protecting the grid is political and favors doing nothing…”

    To me this is total insanity; EVERYTHING depends on the Grid now, WTF? Forget our iPads and smartypants phones and tee-vee; the armed forces and police depend on it! The operation of the almighty State depends on it! What are they thinking???

  60. OFD says:

    “The answer is to disconnect and localize…”

    As the IRA said back in the day about missing their assassination attempts on Margaret Thatcher: ‘we only have to be lucky once; she has to be lucky all the time.’

    Mr. dreck and Bruce Schneier are right; start building your local networks and storage and secure them properly and meanwhile be disconnecting from the vast WWW and IoT stuff. For really secure applications, pull a server or whatever machine off the net completely and lock it in a secure facility with whatever storage needed. Access via the usual physical security parameters. The gummint, as with firearms nomenclature, doesn’t really know WTF it’s doing or where this whole ‘innernet tubes thang’ is going; it’s left their hands. A ‘confederacy of dunces,’ basically, leavened by occasional and random evil and malice.

  61. Lynn says:

    For really secure applications, pull a server or whatever machine off the net completely and lock it in a secure facility with whatever storage needed.

    No freaking way that I would do this for an email server. I outsourced our email to Google several years ago and have never regretted it. Keeping an email server up is a thankless task nowadays with all of the continuous attacks. I keep on wondering when Google is going to go proactive on seeking out attackers.

    And, never put anything in your email that you would not mind seeing on the front page of the Houston Chronicle tomorrow. One way or another, the NSA is going to read your email.

  62. dkreck says:

    @Lynn – I keep on wondering when Google is going to go proactive on seeking out attackers.

    Oh, so that’s what the drones are for. Maybe the high altitude balloons too.

  63. RickH says:

    I was wondering. Who knows more about (most) people? The NSA or Facebook?

  64. OFD says:

    “Who knows more about (most) people? The NSA or Facebook?”

    Probably FaceCrack, with the Google Empire coming up second. The NSA has to narrow its focus to genuine perceived threats, but their technology is racing ahead beyond that capability now. And I’d assume the NSA also has full access to anything on FaceCrack and Google, anyway; the only supposed bone of contention right now is between the Feebies and Apple over, supposedly, one phone.

    And the RBT WordPress blog is moving right up the charts now, too.

  65. brad says:

    Actually, any kind of server. That said, I use AWS for our stuff (everything but email), and I haven’t had any real problems with security. Your AWS and server login credentials are under continuous attack, but it’s easy to set security rules to limit login to certain IP address ranges.

    AWS just recently announced their own email service (you could always run your own server, but now they have it as a pre-packaged service). I’ll be trying that in the next month or two, to see what it’s like.

  66. Lynn says:

    Can you compile C++ code under AWS yet for server utilities? I have a couple of databases and calculation options on my web server that I wrote myself.

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