09:21 – It was 64.3F (18C) when I took Colin out at 0715 this morning, sunny and calm. The cows are back in the field along our back property line. Until six months or so ago, there were always Black Angus cows in that field, anything from half a dozen to three or four dozen at a time. They often clustered right along the back fence. Then last autumn they disappeared from that field. About the only time we saw them was every few weeks in a field up along the ridge line several hundred yards to our west.
When I took Colin out this morning, he did his usual. Trotted down to the bushes along the road, sniffed them thoroughly, and peed on them. But this morning, he spent hardly any time doing that and then headed toward the back fence at a fast trot. When I walked around the side of the house to see what he was up to, I saw him down by the fence with half a dozen cows watching him. They got used to him pretty quickly after we moved in, and vice versa. They don’t pay much attention to him, and he ignores them unless they get too close to his fence. Then he does his stalk/pounce/ferocious growl routine and they quickly scatter. This morning, everybody ignored each other.
I noticed that one of our hand sanitizer bottles was getting low, so I checked Walmart, Amazon, and Costco to see what they carried. Walmart had Purell, Barbara’s preferred brand, at a good price, so I went ahead and ordered a case of twelve 12-ounce dispenser bottles and a 2-liter dispenser bottle, which I’ll actually use to refill the smaller bottles.
We keep bottles of hand sanitizer in each bathroom and the kitchen, as well as the small dispensers Barbara keeps in her purse and her car, so we go through a good bit of it. It’s effective against most pathogenic bacteria and some but not all pathogenic viruses. It kills enveloped viruses (those with a lipid envelope surrounding the virus) but isn’t nearly as effective against non-enveloped viruses.
The key determinant of effectiveness is the percentage of alcohol, either ethanol or isopropanol, that the sanitizer contains. The optimum is about 65% to 85% ABV. Any less than 65% and the sanitizer becomes much less effective, and more than 85% is actually counter-productive. Most of the name brands are 70% ABV, but the generics and house brands are often less. The CVS generic, for example, is IIRC 63%, and I’ve seen no-name stuff that contains 45% or less alcohol.
With this new order, we’re up to maybe 8 liters, give or take. One squirt is typically 2.5 mL, which is plenty. At that rate, we have enough on hand now for maybe 3,200 applications. That’s enough for the four of us for probably a year if I extend it with the 91% IPA that I keep a couple gallons of on hand.
I just checked my hand sanitizer refill, Germ-X brand is 63.3% according to the bottle, though the % of what isn’t defined, volume or weight. I think it was a 99-cent store item.
Generally I keep a small squirt bottle in the car and use it anytime I touch anything used by other members of the public – gas pump handle, shopping cart, door handle, money…
Yep. Lack of hand sanitation is one of the biggest factors in the much higher rates of infectious disease in third-world countries, probably bigger than contaminated food or water.
And I’ve seen pretty horrifying statistics about just how few Americans wash their hands or use hand sanitizer after using the toilet. Makes you hesitate to shake hands or touch something other random people have touched.
Makes you hesitate to shake hands or touch something other random people have touched.
Insert Mr. SteveF joke here.
Of course, the flip side is that the increased rates of asthma are probably due to kids; environment being too clean when growing up. If you don’t challenge the immune system, it gets weak and flabby.
Having a doctor for a dad meant that we washed up very well after the bathroom and before meals. Even had occasional checks for dirt under the nails. Of course, we were in a suburb that was only partially filled out when we moved in and we played on construction sites and in woods and fields. It was not uncommon for my mom to make us strip down to underwear before we were allowed in the house. If it was really bad we had to be hosed off before stripping down.
I usually gotta pee by the time I get down to my weekly vets group meetings and I’ve noticed that maybe 1/4 of the guys using that bathroom don’t wash their mitts afterward. The building is shared by a good dozen or so organizations and the VA is just one chunk of it.
Started out sunny w/blue skies today but it’s clouding up and we’ll supposedly have clouds and rain tomorrow. 70 currently, with the other ‘Nam vet across the street working a backpack insecticide operation; thought about mentioning Dow chemical products but canceled that idea. His wife is mowing the lawn; seems like we just got over a blizzard and he’d come over to plow the end of our driveway for us. I noticed yesterday I probably gotta mow ours now, too.
Princess badgering us for $ again for next month’s rent; told her that we hadn’t been paid yet and that her mom is probably sleeping in at GG’s house today. So she was gonna call down there anyway and wake her up to badger her. Previously she’s characterized my explaining our temporary lack of funds as “refusing” to give her any. And previously it’s only been MY SS and MY VA disability checks that have paid for getting her car on the road AND her rent, but she seems to think that Mommy pays for everything and I’m just an old slacker piece of chit hanging around the house.
Well, back to household scut work, mowing the lawn, and driving down to pick up Mommy in beeyooteeful Shelburne Bay.
Took me two years to notice this… but a young woman who boarded at my house in Canberra didn’t was her hands after going to the loo: I’d hear the toilet flush and two seconds later the bathroom door would open. Made me wary of eating food she’d prepared.
Her food handling was pretty poor too: She’d leave frozen meat out at room temperature from breakfast ’till dinner then heat and eat it. Once she cooked two steaks, ate one and left the other for two days at room temperature, reheated it and ate it. I couldn’t believe it.
Dave, just say NO!
“Makes you hesitate to shake hands or touch something other random people have touched.
Insert Mr. SteveF joke here.”
I hear SteveF *always* washes his various appendages before his intimate encounters with sheep – the sheep insist on it…
I’m no germophobe. When I was growing up, kids played in mud and mothers didn’t worry much about germs. In a typical environment, there just aren’t any pathogens in sufficient numbers to overwhelm an ordinary immune system. The exception to that is the toilet, which is contaminated by coliform bacteria and other pathogens in huge numbers. Fecal contamination of food and water has probably killed more people than any other cause. And our mothers knew all of that by instinct or osmosis, which is why they didn’t worry about us eating mud pies but insisted we wash our hands after using the bathroom.
“Dave, just say NO!”
I’ve been saying “NO” for nearly twenty years but I’m outnumbered up here, Mr. Greg. Also handicapped by not being a blood relation. Stepson was not 1/100th the PITA that Princess has been most of those years. I don’t even remember having a cross word with him in all that time.
Wife not happy with Princess today, either, though, but that will pass. She’s gonna stay down there another day to help GG with garden and shopping stuff. Fine by me, as I’m still grunting away at scut work here and may even try mowing the lawn, although it looks like rain any minute.
Believe it or not Richard Dreyfuss has a brain. This is worth a read and a watch (I watched it live and was left as speechless as Tucker Carlson).
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/04/29/see-the-astonishing-reason-actor-richard-dreyfuss-left-tucker-carlson-absolutely-speechless/
IMHO, even an true Anarchist should be able to see that the Bill of Rights and Constitution set the boundaries of government. Just like the 10 Commandments set the boundaries of life.
Once again I was front row for a major car crash. SUV hit by little sedan in intersection, SUV continues on, hits curb, does complete rollover. Both vehicles totaled. All occupants alert and mobile, no fire, no spilled gas. Lots of oil from the suv. EMS and fire onscene w/in a couple of minutes.
No major injuries in a crash that would have sent folks to the hospital or killed someone a couple of decades ago. Keep that in mind when you bitch about car prices that all that mandatory safety equipment and design makes it possible to walk away from what would have killed you when cars were $3000.
Also note that a side impact ‘nudged’ the SUV out of the lane, and it flipped over when it hit the curb. Doesn’t take as much as you think to re-direct a heavy vehicle that’s already moving.
I pointed out to the wife that THIS is why I carry my bag and extinguishers. This sort of thing happens to me all the time. She’s a bit stunned, as she’s never had it happen in front of her before. Good lesson for the kids about how fast and unavoidable and violent it can be.
Could have been a lot worse for everyone involved.
nick
“that was intense!”
“Life of a RepoMan’s ALWAYS intense….”
“Believe it or not Richard Dreyfuss has a brain.”
Well, he’s right, of course, but it’s too late for that chit now. The skool systems are gummint brainwashing camps and the commies have been running that show for decades and turning out politically illiterate numbskulls. They sure know all the PC bullshit but not the important stuff. We’ve lost three generations of kids, pretty much. Don’t believe me? Take a look around.
“…the Bill of Rights and Constitution set the boundaries of government. Just like the 10 Commandments set the boundaries of life.”
Birdcage liner now. The bastards just do whatever they want. And we don’t care. So long as the juice stays on, and the cold beers and pizzas arrive on schedule with the tee-vee and innernet entertainment. To try and re-educate the majority with ideas dating from 250 years ago would be a massive and impossible undertaking now.
“Once again I was front row for a major car crash…”
Note to self: when in the greater Houston metro area, avoid Mr. Nick Flandrey at all costs.
““Life of a RepoMan’s ALWAYS intense….””
The great character actor, Tracey Walter, who got a “Saturn Award” for that gig.
This is small beer compard to the above, but my 4WD was sideswiped on Friday while I was having lunch nearby. Driver’s side mirror, front wheel and tyre mangled, driver’s side door and the panel over the front wheel all damaged. I can open the door to get in. Just.
At least the guy who hit me left a note with his contact details.
At least the guy who hit me left a note with his contact details.
Good for him. Offer to let him pay out of his own pocket with no insurance companies involved. May save his rates, and yours. Surprising that when you are in a not-at-fault collision your insurance company can now consider you a risk because your “are vulnerable”. Have a couple of those in a year and you may get dropped.
I think of it more as a way for insurance companies to jack up rates and gouge everyone.
Yah, I encountered that maybe 15 years ago. My car was hit several times in a year, each time parked properly on the street or in a lot. Obviously I’m a risky driver.
Yep. Scum.
What he said.
There’s good reason to believe that janitors save more lives than doctors, though the “research” showing this is of good quality. I think it would be trivially easy to show that plumbers (and the engineers who build and operate the public water and sewer systems) have saved more lives than janitors and doctors combined.
Not that I’m going to rat you out or anything, but you’ve got to start being more discreet about these things. One of these days someone’s gonna crunch the right set of numbers and notice the astonishing coincidence of you being present at a large number of car crashes, fires, and other “accidents”.
Fred declares the end of Christianity (and that he’s not Christian, which really surprised me).
https://fredoneverything.org/the-place-of-christianity-in-history-a-view-from-without/
Yeah, I read Fred’s column earlier.
“The Old Testament in particular is ugly and immoral and its magical events I suspect are too much for the modern mind.”
The OT is still party of the daily and Sunday readings in the Catholic and other mainstream Christian churches, all pretty much on the same page. But I’ve noticed over the decades that by far the greatest attention is paid to the NT, and is what the Church tells newcomers to read first, thoroughly.
I tend to disagree with Fred on its demise, but it’s certainly taken a beating here in the Western Christian nations over the last century. And there are over a billion Roman Catholics alone. Trials and tribulations never cease, but the Church keeps on regardless, and regardless of who is Pope, which, in my view, currently, is Benedict.
Roughly the same number of musloid heretics, and not a religion at all but a political warfare cult of slavery, perversion, torture and murder. The West is most definitely at war with it, but fighting blindly, stupidly and way too slowly and inefficiently.
Judaism? 14 million worldwide? Draw your own conclusions.
Yeah, I disagree with Fred about how it’s on the way out. Numbers are increasing, if anything, and particularly in the southern hemisphere. I figure it will last as long as human civilization does.
FoE: Now the Koreans and Chinese begin to do the same. Muslims characteristically have done almost nothing.
lol! Watch yer back, Fred!
If nothing else, I loathe the bastards for inventing algebra.
Supposedly.
Oh wait—“The roots of algebra can be traced to the ancient Babylonians,[8] who developed an advanced arithmetical system with which they were able to do calculations in an algorithmic fashion…”
Babylonians!
OK, now I hate them.
Algorithms are not algebra, but meh….
Home again. Hit a couple of sales this weekend in between child birthday parties.
Not much prepping stuff.
Watered the garden. stuff is growing.
Put some more food on the shelf.
Sold very little stuff. My sales have cratered. Part if it is I’m not listing new stuff due to sickness, travel, etc. Now I need to get back on the stick.
Need to put a trauma bag together for the wife’s car. CLEARLY I should have something more there for when I’m riding in it…. (I usually move my bag to her car if we’re going anywhere but this am was only a 20 minute drive and I didn’t even think about it.)
Need to refresh all the medical bags. The non-Bandaid bandaids I stocked a lot of the kits with no longer stick to skin. I’m gonna stick with Bandaid brand from now on. The flexible fabric sticks well.
Need to finish a few more altoids tin “everyday survival” tins and stash them around. I’ve got 6 ready except for bandaids. Time to get finished.
Need to get any remaining garden work done.
Need to get the antennas connected to the coax I ran a couple weeks ago.
Need to get one more camera up.
Projects are piling up, as is normal maintenance work around the house.
Summer is just around the corner, things are sportier than last year, stuff is coming to a head.
Pile it up, build those skills and relationships.
nick
Obviously I’m a risky driver.
As the insurance company is also insuring your vehicle (if I drive your car and I have no insurance and get into an accident your insurance pays), your car is obviously an attractive nuisance and is causing those problems. You know, like a group of trailers attract tornadoes*. Thus you should be held liable for purchasing a worthless hunk of metal that is causing nothing but problems.
*Firm believer after a tornado in Oak Ridge about 25 years ago. Tornado was traveling down Union Valley Road following the high voltage power lines that fed the Y12 plant. Across the road from my building there was group of trailers. Tornado diverted it’s path, took out the trailers, got back to the power lines and continued on it’s journey. Fortunate part was it minimized the damage to my company’s building which only got slightly warped.
Well, an algorithm is just a set of rules to manipulate a system of, let’s say, mathmatical sysmblos. So that’s the basic definition of algebra.
“Fred declares the end of Christianity (and that he’s not Christian, which really surprised me).”
10-4, let me add this comment:
I read that link and I really disagree with his contention that Christianty, particularly Protestantism, promulgated scientific achievements and progress.
YUUUP, I read the book below and agree with it 100% which provides the history of how the churches fought science. Their problem was that science proved that their religous beliefs were pure nonsense. For example, at the time of that book, the church was still maintaining that the creation date of the earth and mankind was 3996 BC. What total rubbish and gibberish!
https://www.amazon.com/History-Warfare-Science-Theology-Christendom/dp/B000BWL0T2/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1493512487&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=history+of+warfare+between+science+and+christianity
Well, to be fair, at the same time or even later, science was saying flies came from meat, ducklings from weeds, etc, etc…..
One has not been universally true and the other universally wrong.
n
”’ Surprising that when you are in a not-at-fault collision your insurance company can now consider you a risk because your “are vulnerable”.
Yah, I encountered that maybe 15 years ago. My car was hit several times in a year, each time parked properly on the street or in a lot. Obviously I’m a risky driver. ”’
Yep. Same here for a time frame (fortunately some time ago)… I had several wrecks,
sitting still at redlights, asleep at a distance from my vehicle… or rear-ended whilst exceeding the speed limit. Actually at fault (actually not), or not, or blamed, or not, it always costs me!
I don’t pay much attention to Fred, he’s a source of amusement to me. If he predicted the victory of Christianity and the end of atheism I still wouldn’t pay him much attention.
“Projects are piling up, as is normal maintenance work around the house.”
What are these “projects” that you speak of? Normal maintenance around here kicks my ass lately; can’t keep up with it.
“One has not been universally true and the other universally wrong.”
There it is. But it’s easy to cherry-pick stuff from one or the other and then generalize that the Other is all wrong. The history of science is not one of all wunnerful advances and laurels and neither is Church history aglow with holiness and saintliness.
“White’s conflict thesis has been widely disputed among contemporary historians of science.[35][36][37] The warfare depiction remains a popular view among critics of religion and the general public.[38]”
I could say that science brought us the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and eugenics theories that lead to the forced sterilization of Americans and others less than a century ago, backed by the Supreme Court and fought by some Christian groups.
Brushbeater has posted a PDF of Fiedler’s NVIS Handbook. “An absolute must-have for your tech collection, this Handbook is generally regarded as one of the best of its kind.”
https://brushbeater.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/1996-fiedler-near-vertical-incidence-skywave-communication-book-worldradio-books-2.pdf
Seems it might be useful hereabouts….
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-29/furious-bank-run-leaves-canadas-largest-alternative-mortgage-lender-verge-collapse
1 and 1/2 BILLION dollars in deposits, in a month or so…..
n
[snip] And I’ve seen pretty horrifying statistics about just how few Americans wash their hands or use hand sanitizer after using the toilet. [snip]
Alas, even true in the restaurant industry. If the health inspectors see an employee not wash using proper procedure, they can & will cite the restaurant. The other n-4 hours per year, the management has to watch the employees like a hawk, and other things have priority.
[snip] SUV continues on, hits curb, does complete rollover. [snip]
SUVs are infamous for their relatively high center of gravity, which make rollovers more likely. A few years ago Consumer Reports came out & said “Don’t buy AutoX, it’s too dammed likely to capsize.”
[snip] My car was hit several times in a year, each time parked properly on the street or in a lot. [snip]
A know of a cop here whose patrol car was totaled while parked legally in the street in front of his house. Not once, not twice, three times a charm; the Sheriff’s insurance made him park it in the driveway or the yard.
[snip] If nothing else, I loathe the bastards for inventing algebra. [snip]
What’s wrong with algebra, and by extension all other forms of math? I kind of like the notion of “The answer is X, and that’s not subject to how it makes you feel!”
” I kind of like the notion of “The answer is X, and that’s not subject to how it makes you feel!””
Oh sure, me, too, but “X” and all the rest of math is still a human bean construct. (unless it’s all part of His plan…). It does not exist in and of itself independently but is a convenient way for us to describe things. Another civilization on another planet may not use “X” at all.
“Seems it might be useful hereabouts….”
Thanks for the link; I’d seen it earlier but forgot about it. Yeah, it’s that decrepitude and senility kicking in again.
“I could say that science brought us the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and eugenics theories…”
And they can say that the Church brought us the horrible and evil Crusades and the Inquisition, etc., etc. No matter that what we’ve been taught about those periods is just a tad short of the truth in many respects.
We can go round and round all day in that vein but it serves no useful purpose. I believe the Church welcomed science far more often than recoiled in fear from it, and that science would not be where it is today without the Church. As that vile Fred Reed points out. Repeatedly. And he’s not the only one, far from it.
In shortwave, there is currently a program on 5.085mhz about different types of radio and the different bands and services.
They are broadcasting from Lebanon TN. It’s a repeat of a previous show, but loaded with good info.
Currently coming in pretty strong, with some fading and noise, but listenable.
SW with interesting programming in English. Rare indeed.
nick
And brushbeater put up this article about HF and why you might want an HF station and practice using it
https://brushbeater.wordpress.com/2016/12/12/your-first-hf-station/?wref=tp
n
Brushbeater and the other radio guy, Signal 3, have chit-tons of useful info on radio stuff. They’re also both combat vets with the creds for relevant service in wartime scenarios.
Back in my day, the radio gear didn’t seem to me much different from what the WWII guys had been carrying; heavy and awkward, which sucked if you had to scramble real fast. I didn’t have anything to do with that back then; my war gear was the M60 and hauling that chit around, extra barrels, ammo, gloves, etc., etc. In the aircraft it was easier, but also hairier.
I gotta re-org this damn office again and sort out the radio gear; I have the Uniden scanner on all the time but I probably gotta play around more with antenna hookups for the TecSun shortwave.
Yep, some reorg and new antennas on the project list………..
along with all the other stuff…
n
and now , perchance to dream….
n
Sleep? There are more bingo sessions to play!
I’ve forgotten all the radios I used in the Army. But they were all milspec, TS, encrypted and pretty much useless to civvies. Except survival radios, but very limited.
I only played bingo once in my life, and that was in some officers hotel in Krung Thep (Bangkok) long ago, hanging out with couple of Army guys. Rather than get blitzed in the local bars and hook up with questionable females, we decided to try it out for fun, and we actually had a ball. The officers’ wives showed us how to play it. Went to the wee hours and no harm done to anyone, least of all ourselves.
“590® Shockwave – This 12GA offers legendary Mossberg pump-action reliability in a compact 14” barreled package.”
https://www.mossberg.com/category/series/590-shockwave/
From http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/prep-week-282/ , “The adapter to use the Aquila mini-shotshells is only $15 at Amazon, so it would go from 5 standard rounds to about 9 mini’s.”
https://www.aguilaammo.com/shotshell/
Good night ! Think of the recoil.
The wife checked her father’s Experian account today. Two more idiot banks issued “him” credit cards. I guess they ignored the “fraud alert” on his credit account. She got both sets of the new cards canceled today. This is crazy.
[snip] Another civilization on another planet may not use “X” at all. [snip]
Dollars to donuts they’ll use math to describe the world, just like we do. Base 10 system, probably not, and their Calculus won’t use Leibniz’ notation. But electrons have a negative charge everywhere in the universe, assuming we’ve got that building block correct.
It’s 10pm PST and I declare myself the “last man posting” on last Sunday’s thread.
They’ll use octal.
A little late to the party, but my niece’s car was totaled in her driveway – 20′ from the road – while she was in Tennessee. 4 states away. SOB drove through a couple of yards, hit 2 trees, t-boned her car, and drove off. They never did catch him.
Her insurance paid. She’s parking between the houses now.
Personally – 4 accidents. Rear-ended twice at stoplights. Rear-ended once at a stop sign behind 4 other cars. Once I was drunk. In my friend’s house. Truck was parked at the curb. In no case was my vehicle moving. Not at fault in any way. But I couldn’t change insurance companies for 7 years.
Once I was drunk. In my friend’s house. Truck was parked at the curb. In no case was my vehicle moving. Not at fault in any way. But I couldn’t change insurance companies for 7 years.
Did you get a DUI ?
Nope. I was at the friend’s house to drink. Guest room & all. I was a purposeful youth.
But I couldn’t change insurance companies for 7 years.
Sorry, I don’t understand why you could not change insurance companies for 7 years ?
I was unlucky. The accidents were close enough together that they were in my claims history (3 year look-back), but spread out enough that I was stuck for the 7 years. That I was not driving was irrelevant. That it happened to me was all it was.
It’s PA law that says they can. I an even understand it. It’s what actuaries get paid for. But it still stunk.
Now I’m an old fart and my rates are as low as they’re going to get. And I drive a MUCH bigger truck now. Large, solid bumpers.
I was unlucky. The accidents were close enough together that they were in my claims history (3 year look-back), but spread out enough that I was stuck for the 7 years. That I was not driving was irrelevant. That it happened to me was all it was.
Gotcha and that sucks. If your property was damaged by someone else, your ability to insure your property should not be a function of that.