08:51 – Eclipse Day. We’re staying indoors this afternoon to hide from the eclipse. We wouldn’t want to go blind or get an eclipse burn or something. We’ll probably burn offerings to Apollo, Ra, and the FSM.
I’ve heard from several readers who live in rural areas that are in the path of totality. The common thread is that every motel room and rental cabin in the area is booked, gas stations are out of gas, supermarkets and convenience stores are out of everything, and so on. That’s what happens when the population of an area doubles or triples overnight. We haven’t seen any influx that I’m aware of, but we’re 150 miles or so outside the path of totality.
It was 64.5F (18C) when I took Colin out at 0635, partly cloudy. Colin appears to have recovered from his womiting problem. Barbara is off to the gym this morning. We have more science kit stuff to do when she returns.
We’re both pretty happy with the LTS food storage areas downstairs. It’s not perfect yet, but it’s a lot better than it was. At some point, we’ll install bracket shelving on one wall that’s now freed up in the food room itself, along with more shelving in the guest bedroom closet, but otherwise we’re good to go.
Our TV viewing is shifting increasingly to British Commonwealth series, and that’s saying something. Our TV viewing has always had that in the majority, but now it’s nearly exclusive. Right now, for example, we’ve just finished watching all four available seasons of the Australian series, A Place to Call Home, are in series seven of the British Dalziel & Pascoe, about three-quarters of the way through the British series, The Village, most of the way through series three of the British series, Grantchester (with the delightful Morven Christie, who looks like Helen Baxendale‘s daughter), about 40% of the way through the New Zealand series, Brokenwood Mysteries, and about halfway through the British series, Countryfile Diaries (with the delightful Keeley Donovan). In the on-deck circle, we have Harlots.
Those rural areas are getting a preview of the Golden Horde, only without all the desperation and zombies. There will be lessons to learn.
(Lot of EMngt teams are deployed and learning lessons as we speak.)
And this, from an AAS and NASA, in print-
“Looking directly at the Sun is safe during the brief total phase of a solar eclipse
(“totality”), when the Moon entirely blocks the Sun’s bright face. At all other times
you must follow the safety advice that appears throughout this document. The Sun
Funnel will be useless during totality; it is suitable only during the partial phases.”
Which only makes sense.
[what a mess of formatting]
n
We’re WAY outside the eclipse path up here and it’s a sunny day with blue skies and very breezy.
Mainly cleanup ops, yard stuff, etc., today and a Selectboard meeting tonight which will cover issues directly affecting several of us in the ‘hood. I’m attending, along with my neighbors accordingly. We hope to nip insanity in the bud.
“The Last Ship” finally returned this weekend. The fourth season couldn’t air until the producers were sure that Captain Dr. McSteamy would finish the fifth season which will air next Summer.
The production team of “The Last Ship” still does decent action on a basic cable budget. There are inaccuracies to live with, but no worse than other network shows.
“Those rural areas are getting a preview of the Golden Horde, only without all the desperation and zombies.”
Oh, I suspect there’ll be some desperation and maybe a zombie or two. There may be lessons to be learned, but as always almost no one will be paying attention. A tiny percentage of people learn from others’ mistakes, a small percentage from their own mistakes, but the vast, vast majority don’t learn, period.
I think a lot of what we watch on TV has a non-obvious lesson to be learned. Just recently, we’ve watched series that portrayed wars, refugees, plagues, etc. in times ranging from Classical to Modern. I think Barbara is absorbing by osmosis the lesson that such suffering is the normal state of affairs, that we’ve been living in a happy time, and that it CAN happen here.
Eclipse Day. We’re staying indoors this afternoon to hide from the eclipse. We wouldn’t want to go blind or get an eclipse burn or something.
Peak Amazon means that a lot of people are going to suffer serious injury today using viewing devices sold through the site which Walmart would never get away with stocking on their store shelves. Bezos gets his money either way, whether or not the “safety” glasses actually work.
“The production team of “The Last Ship” still does decent action on a basic cable budget. There are inaccuracies to live with, but no worse than other network shows.”
We bagged it after two or three episodes. Barbara did watch Jericho with me. I still think it’s the only PA TV series that is close enough to the likely reality to be worth watching. I don’t want Barbara watching something that’s ridiculous on the face of it, simply because I don’t want her to believe that a preparedness mindset is ridiculous.
68°F here on the pro-crimmigrant coast. Going to take dog for daily walk while still daylight.
Now, a second collision, with a second batch of dead, between a USN ship and a freighter of dubious origin. And they want us to ride in driverless cars?
Over and out for now.
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”
― Ian Fleming
“almost no one will be paying attention.” — but WE will, right??
n
Peter sums this up well:
http://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2017/08/that-crowd-may-not-show-popular-support.html
“he left-wing, progressive element in US politics tends to adopt cause after cause, but that basically the same leaders and the same organizers reappear in each new group”
“That’s not the only interesting point. Another angle is the number of so-called “rent-a-mob” protesters who show up at such incidents. They aren’t there because of moral or ethical or political conviction; they’re there because they’re being paid to be present.”
n
“…that we’ve been living in a happy time, and that it CAN happen here.”
I believe that we of this generation have been living in one of history’s anomalies, a brief window of unprecedented prosperity, liberty and peace, and that it is fast fading, maybe never to be seen again. A lot of things came together over the past several centuries to bring this about, but we also have a lot to answer for, including a nearly continuous series of wars.
It sure as heck can happen here and probably in new and more unprecedented ways; I know I keep harping on this but gee whiz, the third biggest country in the world, the richest country by far, and with tens of millions of its citizen-subjects in possession of half a billion to a billion guns? And the current generations living lives of ease and entitlement and feeling no particular compunction about crapping all over it and calling for its destruction.
There is zero excuse for the solid-core antifa commies; they’ve had a century of communism in actual practice to study and they wanna try again, however many more corpses get stacked up. The musloids are just gonna do what they’re gonna do; it’s a billion-strong swarm of slavery-and-death cult adherents, and they continue their own Long March across the planet. Then we have our own government, which seems to be in the business of warring all over the same planet while crushing what’s left of liberty, prosperity and peace at home.
Three major enemies to face in our declining years; what a drag.
Now, a second collision, with a second batch of dead, between a USN ship and a freighter of dubious origin. And they want us to ride in driverless cars?
Another Arleigh Burke destroyer exposed to radiation at Fukushima is involved in a collision requiring an extensive overhaul?!?
Things that make you say “hmmm”…
“Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action”
We’re at ‘coincidence’ level now. The USS Fitzgerald still hasn’t returned to the US.
Here ya go, OFD. All yours. I don’t think anyone else wants such an egregious retard.
WRT USN ship collisions, this is actually the forth (4th) one this year, the first two the gooberment managed to keep out of the MSM.
As with the other three (3), I am sure we will not be told that the required qualified personnel were not on the Bridge and the CCC (Combat Control Center). Might have been a little too much “muff diving” going on.
I am proud to have served BEFORE political correctness totally ruined the finest military that ever was. Let’s get back to breaking things and killing people.
I admired the heck out of John-Paul. Benedict I respected for his office. He was a place-holder, doing no damage. The current Pope bothers me.
No, I’m not Catholic, but I have 3 children and a wife who are, so I wind up seeing this stuff front & center rather often. Explaining to the kinder that the head of the church is a man, subject to failings, as we all are, is presenting an ever-changing set of failings. I have the advantage of being right when I talk to them going for me.
WRT breaking things & killing people: That’s what the military is supposed to do. Peace Corps exists for all that other stuff. Or is that Piece Core?
” All yours. I don’t think anyone else wants such an egregious retard.”
“The current Pope bothers me.”
Hey, he bothers a lot of us out here, esp. us traditionalists and/or Latin Rite people. I consider him an anti-pope and I believe that Benedict is still the Pope. Popes just can’t resign/retire and become a Pope Emeritus or a co-Pope. Utter balderdash. There are some who believe that Francis could be the forerunner, sorta like John the Baptist, of the anti-Christ. I don’t go quite that far. Yet.
“I am proud to have served BEFORE political correctness totally ruined the finest military that ever was. Let’s get back to breaking things and killing people.”
Ditto to the first sentence. As for the second, I don’t think we’ve ever had many solid and moral justifications for doing that in the last couple of centuries. At least not by the Church’s “just war” strictures. And of course the Church violated those a number of times after Augustine and Aquinas and others put them together.
In case anyone’s interested:
” Just War doctrine gives certain conditions for the legitimate exercise of force, all of which must be met:
“1. the damage inflicted by the aggressor on the nation or community of nations must be lasting, grave, and certain;
2. all other means of putting an end to it must have been shown to be impractical or ineffective;
3. there must be serious prospects of success;
4. the use of arms must not produce evils and disorders graver than the evil to be eliminated. The power of modern means of destruction weighs very heavily in evaluating this condition”
From the Catechism.
Does that mean the US shouldn’t have responded to Pearl Harbor?
Talking about the anti-Christ, here is the ultimate fate of Babylon on the Tiber…
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation%2017
“… here is the ultimate fate of Babylon on the Tiber…”
That cribbed from a Jack Chick comic strip? Or a 19th-C Thomas Nast cartoon?
“Does that mean the US shouldn’t have responded to Pearl Harbor?”
Read the just war rules again. Things should never have got that far; our masters and overlords, with the help of British intelligence, deliberately provoked the Japanese into attacking our military forces in Hawaii. Pharaoh Roosevelt II and Churchill got what they wanted. We paid them back in spades four years later.
Ah yes, the Brits. You know their royal family are major players in illicit drugs?
“You know their royal family are major players in illicit drugs?”
url?
I’ll start worrying about the royals when we’ve figured out just how deep our own government is involved; CIA spooks have had dirty mitts since the 1950s with regard to narcotics trafficking.
Eclipse Day. We’re staying indoors this afternoon to hide from the eclipse. We wouldn’t want to go blind or get an eclipse burn or something. We’ll probably burn offerings to Apollo, Ra, and the FSM.
We are suppose to have an eclipse of 66% of the evil day star here in the Land of Sugar.
You forgot the BLM from your burnt offerings.
Those rural areas are getting a preview of the Golden Horde, only without all the desperation and zombies. There will be lessons to learn.
I have found most people in rural areas to be kind and very patient. But with hordes, who knows ?
Of course, the invaders are not MZBs, mutant zombie bikers. This time.
It was 64.5F (18C) when I took Colin out at 0635, partly cloudy.
Ok, I am envious of your temperatures. The wife’s lymphedema fired up this morning. We went for our normal two mile walk at 9pm last night when the temperature had dropped to 86 F with a dew point of 76 F. The first mile was not bad but it was an absolutely miserable second mile. You know, pulling 40 lbs of dog in her sag wagon for a mile is not all that it is cracked up to be. And I don’t let the wife pull the dog, only walk her. I can hardly wait until our dew points drop back in the 60s in October.
Of course, the invaders are not MZBs, mutant zombie bikers. This time.
Wasn’t that a Troma movie?
Doh. My bad. The movie’s proper title is “Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town”. Jamie Rose post “Falcon Crest”, but before she hit the “Columbo” guest star phase of her career.
It very seldom gets up to 86F here, even at the hottest part of the afternoon, and never in the evening. We’re generally about 10F cooler up here, summer and winter, than they are down in the Triad. That’s why Vanderbilt spent a billion dollars or two (in current dollars) building Biltmore Estate. Nice house. It makes most of the non-Royal manor houses in Europe and the UK look small and shabby.
Of course, the invaders are not MZBs, mutant zombie bikers. This time.
Wasn’t that a Troma movie?
I first saw the MZB term in the most excellent “Lights Out” EMP book:
https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-David-Crawford/dp/0615427359/
Highly recommended. And it is set in Texas (double bonus for me).
Burnt offerings is usually meat, so I’m guessing BLM is Bacon, Liver, and Mutton.
Just War. I had forgotten all about that. (Baptist upbringing in a Catholic high school.)
Desert Storm – Seems Bush 41 did a lot of twisting to make it look like a Just War. I thought so at the time, but I didn’t see that it was any of our business to help out the Kuwaiti royal family. Jerry Pournelle intimated that “we” goaded Saddam into thinking it would be okay. We then turned on him.
I don’t see that any of our foreign adventures since then have been Just by any stretch.
Joe Haldeman may have been onto something.
We have survived the Eclipse of 2017, about 98% totality here. We seem to have been the only prepared ones in our general area, glad we had bought extra glasses for the good neighbors that stopped by. We had an impromptu “eclipse party”, Gatorade all around. About as exciting as watching paint dry and grass grow.
Barbara, Colin, and I are still cowering in the house. It’s starting to get noticeably dimmer outside.
And, I’m sure by total coincidence, Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart just came up on random shuffle play.
What eclipse?
Of course, the invaders are not
MZBsMZSs, mutant zombiebikersstrippers. This time.FIFY.
Burnt offerings is usually meat, so I’m guessing BLM is Bacon, Liver, and Mutton.
Bacon, Liver, and Mystery meat. From my childhood, Mystery meat is usually Special K.
Eclipse report from Olympic Peninsula, near Hood Canal bridge…
Failed: couldn’t find the glasses I got a month ago. Marine layer with just a fuzzy sun visible. Did appear to get slightly darker (about 92% here, according to the maps). Looking through phone camera didn’t show any detail; too fuzzy.
Did notice a 4 degree drop on my weather station.
And, 15 minutes after the eclipse ended here, the marine layer cleared, the sky is blue, the sun is bright.
Of course.
Oh well. I’ll try again next time. The kids in CA and UT did get to use the glasses I sent them, so I guess not a ‘family fail’.
Here in Memphis we had pop-up heavy showers directly before, and in the path of, the eclipse. I suppose the sudden cooling of the very hot & humid air under the shadow would be the cause. By the time we got back to work from lunch, the car park was filled with people out to see the event. Largest occlusion for our area was at 1:22 pm. I didn’t look directly but used the trees to create a camera obscura showing the cresecent on the ground. When I was a kid, we had used a pinhole in a bit of cardboard to project the image on a peice of paper.
My kids are up at the local college, enjoying the show with the glasses the Boy Scouts got for them. The astronomy department is having a blast with new students and kids from the area all showing up.
I stepped out & watched with a pinhole card & piece of paper. Good detail and a lot of fun to look through. Noticeably darker, but not much cooler. 81 degrees – too hot.
(Just for Mr. Nick – that’s “hot” around here.)
DH, ever heard about Lyndon LaRouche? He’s outed Her Majesty and Phil many times.
Family on the otherside of the fence is having an Eclipse Party, and using a welder’s mask to view the eclipse. Being an evil old fart, I shows them the old ‘pinhole camera’ trick with a business car pierced by a brad nail, and focused on a sheet of copier paper.
Oh c’mon, Miles; LaRouche? Seriously? He’s even crazier than I am! He’s had a thing about the royals for AGES!
Not saying it would surprise me that a royal or royals was involved in narcotics trafficking, but I don’t see where they’d need the money. They must be worth mega-billions by now. At the top, anyway. Some of that wealth dates back to the Tudor regime.
Welcome to hell Younes…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-22/barcelona-attack-suspect-younes-abouyaaqoub-shot-dead/8829238
DH, you spout conspiracy theories just as much as LaRouche. You’re peas in a pod.
I went outside while The Death of the Sun God was going on. Didn’t notice it happening. We were supposed to get about 70% blockage, which is noticeable if you pay attention, but we also had a lot of patchy clouds, so the moon thingy and the cloud thingies kind of blurred together. I didn’t think to check exactly when TDotSG was scheduled, so I don’t know which dimming of shadows was The Big One.
Welcome to hell Younes…
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-22/barcelona-attack-suspect-younes-abouyaaqoub-shot-dead/8829238
I hope that he gets his 72 virgins. A bunch of ugly ass virgin guys, that is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBvfiCdk-jc
Eclipse was total for a couple of minutes where I went to view. Rockwood TN. Many people in the Walmart parking lot. Glasses I bought 3 months ago worked well. My second eclipse. Still an awesome experience. No zombies appeared.
No zombies appeared.
No vampires appeared.
FTFY.
Bezos gets his money either way, whether or not the “safety” glasses actually work.
Amazon sent a warning email and gave refunds for those of us that bought counterfeit products. I expect them to eat a fair amount of it if they can’t reverse the payments to the vendors. Got some glasses at a local grocer here in Lincoln, NE where we came to watch. There were high clouds, but we got a good look at Baily’s beads at the start and end of the totality. Saw some detail in the corona and some solar prominences through my telescope.
The link below has a photo of totality, through my 200 mm lens and a post-totality shot via my telescope (A Celestron 900mm Newtonian my wife gave me years ago), showing some of the sunspots. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B-ntzB7FwUXPbTdXSm44bWxWSXM Camera was a Nikon D3000, the telescope shots were on manual and my guessing at exposure times by looking at the histogram.
My pinhole camera didn’t work today. I tested it the other day and it seemed to work. The light outside was “odd”. Just a few fluffy clouds for decoration but dim. Temperature was affected. The high was 86F and in the last 45 minutes it has gone to 93F.
I’m happy to say my dogs were not blinded from looking at the sun or eaten by zombie vampires.
I changed the oil in the van today. Ok, Mr. Idiot at the oil change place, I have a question. Why was the filter leaking? And why did I need to whack the wrench with a hammer to get the plug loose?
Nice pictures Mr. ech.
No no no, that doesn’t fit the narrative.
His real name was John Walters, and he was from Charlottesville. He was driven to desperation by nazis and other Trump supporters.
There ya go, one genuine narrative which passes the hate speech and fake news filters that the big internet companies are putting in place.
Because of nazis and other Trump supporters, if I were to guess.
There’s a reason I do my own oil changes, too, that reason rhyming with “dishonesty and incompetence”. Aside from the troubles I’ve had from the bozos, I saw a coworker’s car be destroyed because of a bad oil change. Three-month-old car, first change. They drained the oil from the engine and the turbo, then replaced oil in only the turbo (IIRC; it’s been years). He left the dealership and made it less than a mile before the engine developed issues. And then they had the nerve to tell him it wasn’t their fault and the car was like that when he drove it there.
I’m in a small town. Getting a McDonald’s/gas station almost 20 years ago was a “big deal”. Then we got a new HEB (to replace the old dump HEB) and OMG a Whattaburger! !!!
There’s a locally owned oil change place. I went once in a while because who wants to crawl in the mud when it’s cold?
Ok, a ’78 Volare wagon with a faded Earl Schribe paint job, I don’t expect much extra other than clean the windshield. Shaking out floor mats and getting near with a vacuum cleaner is gravy.
I took the ’81 Imperial in. While I’m waiting they are working on a Mercedes. Mercedes was vacuumed front and back and all windows washed. The guy paid his $18 bill and left. A 1981 Imperial is not a piece of dung. They changed the oil and didn’t even pretend to vacuum the inside or shake floor mats. Much less clean the windshield.
While I was paying my $18 bill, I asked why the Mercedes was almost washed and my windshield was not even waved at with a squeegee. Just curious. Is the owner a friend or some kind of big shot in town? All I got was a blank look.
I told them I never coming back and I’m telling everyone I know why. More blank looks.
While I was paying my $18 bill, I asked why the Mercedes was almost washed and my windshield was not even waved at with a squeegee. Just curious. Is the owner a friend or some kind of big shot in town? All I got was a blank look.
Until you rolled in, the place was probably slow and nobody wanted to get sent home early.
Another possibility is that the staff used cleaning the car thoroughly to get a good look at the gadgets, particularly the anti-theft systems, on that model Mercedes.
No vampires appeared
Well there were the blood sucking welfare leaches in the Walmart parking lot. Does that count?
There was a car before the Mercedes. One woman in the office and I saw just one guy actually working. No cars after me.
It was an older Mercedes. Older than my Imperial. Maybe the kid just had a boner for Mercedes.
I had patchy clouds here with spots of rain. Still managed to use the cereal box as a camera obscura. Not good enough focus to discern the occlusion.
There were minutes at a time that the sun peeked out and I was able to get one blurry camera phone photo, thru 2 @ #6 welding filters and the back window tint. I got an awesome sharp clear view thru a #6 and #12 together, but the camera wouldn’t focus.
Spent about 2 hours taking with a LMI in the lot. It was his #12. I searched but couldn’t find mine, and the batteries were dead in my electronic welding hood.
Great afternoon conversation.
Glad we didn’t get the kids– they’d have been bored to tears.
Hit a couple of thrifts and got a food saver for $12 in great condition, couple of good books, and some housewares. I’m NOT building a TEOTWAWKI library or I’d have picked up the 12 pound manual of surgery and the big honking medical dictionary, and the 7 volume dvd set of Anatomy Exposed. I’ll leave them for the next guy. The multi-volume Diseases of the Chest was a bit too specific in any case.
n
I passed up several other good preps, as I was already covered. Getting to the point where I’m buying backups for the backups. Or passing.
Spent about 2 hours taking with a LMI in the lot.
LMI = Legal Monkey Interpreter ?
It was an older Mercedes. Older than my Imperial.
Probably the kid’s mom or dad. Or the mayor.
Probably the kid’s mom or dad. Or the mayor.
Or parole officer.
Lynn, one of our mining companies took a bath on shale oil in Ark and Tex. You know much more about this?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-22/bhp-profit-surges-on-commodity-rebound/8829918
My friend at bhp retired before all the mess. Sells commercial real estate now.
n
Well, the Great Sky Man was angry, but we sacrificed some virgins and It was appeased. (The virgins weren’t useful for anything else.)
Meanwhile, I’ve acquired semi-gainful employment in a Corporate America setting. Alas, this means that they’re slaves to Microsoft, and that I’ve got to learn IE and Outlook. It seems that 90% of what they do is based on a browser, but I can probably fuddle my way through until I figure it out. However, if anyone out there has a decent reference for how to learn Outlook on my own time, and (pray to the FSM) without a copy running here at the compound, I’d be very appreciative. I would suggest throwing the carcasses of whomever bowed down to MS on the same bonfire used to sacrifice the above mentioned virgins, but it’s not practical at the moment.
LMI = Lunatic with Marginal Intelligence?
LMI = Loose-Moraled Ingenue?
Lynn, one of our mining companies took a bath on shale oil in Ark and Tex. You know much more about this?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-22/bhp-profit-surges-on-commodity-rebound/8829918
Sure. The shale oil projects (there are many in Texas, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Utah, etc, etc, etc) have been wildly successful. As a result, the price of crude oil over the last ten years has tumbled from $140/barrel to $48/barrel due to oversupply. Most of the shale oil projects are under water at $65/barrel. I am hearing that 50% of the crude oil wells and 70% of the natural gas wells in the USA are shut in (not producing) due to low prices.
There have been over 100 oil companies file bankruptcy in the last two years. There are 100+ oil companies in various stages of filing bankruptcy in the next 12 months. There are many layoffs to come in the USA, maybe as many as (SWAG ALERT !!!) 500,000 people. Half of these layoffs will be in the Houston area.
https://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/28/oil-bankruptcies-100-down-maybe-100-more-to-go.html
The last Outlook I’ve used was Outlook 98. I really liked it. I changed to Thunderbird just because t-bird saves mail in plain text. Outlook and .pst files, er, no, I had that crash on me once and lost a couple of weeks of mail.
I’m happy with Thunderbird 2.0.
Oh, in Outlook, crtl-a to select all. Ctrl-d to delete…. all. I hear that an empty Inbox is a happy Inbox.
So, this morning I mentioned that Camping World told its Trump-supporting customers to take their business elsewhere.
Mark Martin (apparently a NASCAR bigshot) took their advice and took his $150k order elsewhere.
Meanwhile, I’ve acquired semi-gainful employment in a Corporate America setting.
Congrats !
Half of these layoffs will be in the Houston area.
Back in the Spring, ne of the biggest knuckleheads among our CS department’s undergrads conned Exxon sufficiently to get a lucrative job in Katy. I consider his continued employment there to be a bad sign for the industry in general.
@pcb_duffer, WRT learning Outlook:
For ten bucks a pop one or more of these will probably do the job for you pretty fast, or as fast as you wanna go; I’ve taken courses with them before and they’ve been pretty good; make sure it’s an English-as-first-language person, though.
https://www.udemy.com/courses/search/?q=outlook%202016&src=sac&kw=Outlook
Back in the Spring, ne of the biggest knuckleheads among our CS department’s undergrads conned Exxon sufficiently to get a lucrative job in Katy. I consider his continued employment there to be a bad sign for the industry in general.
Exxon is one of the best run companies in the world. Their management in the 1950s to 1980s came right out of Patton’s WWII third division supply logistics, a very well run group that enabled him to advance with supplies. They are buying assets out of bankruptcies right now. They are well capitalized and have the ability to borrow money at the lowest costs if needful.
I have been trying to get our software into Exxon for over 20 years now. I am working an angle that might get our big toe in the water. I don’t expect to get many seats but something is always better than nothing. BTW, they have 1,000+ seats of my competitors software.
So if something unfortunate were to happen to your competitor…
I have been trying to get our software into Exxon for over 20 years now. I am working an angle that might get our big toe in the water. I don’t expect to get many seats but something is always better than nothing. BTW, they have 1,000+ seats of my competitors software.
“Knucklehead” is a mobile developer on paper. I’m guessing he’s low hanging fruit for headcount reductions next year.
I have been trying to get our software into Exxon for over 20 years now. I am working an angle that might get our big toe in the water. I don’t expect to get many seats but something is always better than nothing. BTW, they have 1,000+ seats of my competitors software.
Hookers and steaks involved? If they’re public, look at the marketing costs as a percentage of sales. Anything close to 50% is a bad sign for a software company IMHO (cough … Salesforce … cough).
When I worked for Big Co ™ we did a bunch of projects with exxon. They are a bit of a bully boy when they want something. And they don’t let you use their name for publicity. We did a bunch of customization for them. And then, when I left Big Co(tm) they went to our competitor for everything. My mgmt at Big Co(tm) didn’t expect that 😛 thought I was just a guy. Nope. I was the reason they still had the acct. Their folks have a lot of leeway to make personal connections and can be loyal. Also FWIW, lot’s of LDS church members (who are generally good hardworking straight arrow folks).
n
My son and I were in Stayton, Oregon, which is right in the center of the path of totality. It’s about ten miles east of Salem, Oregon and a little over an hour drive from Portland in normal traffic. We drove down yesterday. Traffic was light with minimal delays. We camped in a friend’s back yard. The two minutes of totality was impressive.It took about three hours to drive home. Not as bad as I expected. It was worth the trouble.
Rick in Portland
Another conspiracy theory for Miles_Teg from me and Lyndon LaRouche:
https://www.allenbwest.com/2017/08/20/heres-real-meaning-behind-steve-bannons-departureand-youre-not-gonna-like/
They’ve purged any possibly genuine conservatives and now we’re back to fucking neocon assholes and Obummer leftovers, probably active agents for Obummer and the Clinton Crime Family. Anything from here on out that works out for us Normals is probably gravy; we got about all we’re gonna get by now.
Still gives us time to get our ducks lined up, though. A word to the wise…
More conspiracy theory…
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2017/08/20/the-revolution-betrayed/
“WRT USN ship collisions, this is actually the forth (4th) one this year, the first two the gooberment managed to keep out of the MSM.”
I had been hearing about four collisions all day (on CNBC) but to follow up with some details I had to go into deep underground sources…
US Navy warship accidents: There have been 4 this year – CNNPolitics
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/navy-ships-accidents/index.html
Previous Collisions Involving U.S. Navy Vessels – The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/…/navy-collisions-history-mccain-fitzgerald.html
Two U.S. Navy Ships Collide – ABC News
abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96506
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/navy-ships-crashing-readiness/index.html
Eclipse report–success! Viewed from Ravenna NE (pop. 1360). Watched from one of two ball fields with a moderate crowd including at least one astrophotographer using a Celestron of some sort. Glasses worked as advertised. Totality of about 2′ 30″ between bands of high clouds.
The astro- let us and others view through his scope with good quality. Moderate size corona, Bailey’s Beads, the works. BBQ food and good people.
Staying in Midway City OK tonight and on to Austin TX environs later having visited Yellowstone earlier driving CA, NV, ID, WY, SD, NE, KS, OK. More detailed trip report later as writing from a phone sux.
.mg
WRT the ship collisions; IIRC, all of them were with ships out of the Yokosuka navy yard in Japan. Kinda strange, doncha think? I’ll ring up my pal Lyndon on this ASAP.
“More detailed trip report later as writing from a phone sux.”
Mike, can ya give us a summary when ya get a chance, esp. WRT any prep/EDC precautions you may have taken on this Anabasis through the Murkan West?
Was it here that I saw some implication that ship problems were related to Fukushima?
Radiation damage to software or hardware?
Or, I guess more likely, some risky thumb drives being passed around?
Certainly not my area of fake expertise, Navy or Windows, but I’d like to hear some informed opinions.
Again, IIRC, several top officers and a top enlisted scum were disciplined and careers permanently bollixed in at least one of the earlier incidents.
Neither Navy or Windows are my areas of fake expertise, either; we finally did get a Navy guy in our vets group, though. He was in crypto and had pretty near the highest clearances, detailed to NSA. He’s a bit effed up, though, having also served as a kid in ‘Nam and then a few other shit-holes. Newly remarried, and seems to be on the ball, mostly, with a sense of humor, which we all appreciate more than the average person.
Anyone hear anything recently about military personnel at Gitmo getting bombarded, possibly, with sound waves of some kind? i.e., weaponized sound? Causing severe headaches, etc. Or do I gotta phone up my pal Lyndon again?
Cuban embassy acoustic stuff. Hurt US & Canadian folk…
About two weeks ago.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/09/politics/us-cuba-acoustic-attack-embassy/index.html
You guys really don’t read basic MSM and make up your own minds, do you?
Have to wait for some third or fourth level blogger to interpret the news for you?
Seriously, MSM sucks, bad, but nobody else has, like, reporters and such out there looking around, duh.
Totally imagined, I’m sure, but I had the idea that some broken down old Cuban infrastructure emitted a horrible noise that was deafening or ultrasonic and nasty.
There’s a factory near here that makes a brutal noise, not always, but all too often.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Fleet_Activities_Yokosuka
“You guys really don’t read basic MSM and make up your own minds, do you?
Have to wait for some third or fourth level blogger to interpret the news for you?”
The only “basic” MSM chit I read is the local rag from up the road, in the “city,” but I ignore any of the roughly 50% of its articles cribbed from the WAPO. Also the commie rag from down in Burlap for the comics and to recoil in disgust from all their perverted likes and dislikes and ads proclaiming the wonderfulness of same.
CNN used to be OK, like thirty years ago. It’s just another commie mouthpiece now for the regime. Why bother paying any attention to these assholes? They lie to us nonstop and editorialize nonstop. As for their “reporters,” I’d just as soon dump almost all of them from helicopters over the north Atlantic in the dead of winter, too.
WRT to “third or fourth level blogger” people, there are a handful I’ve been reading for years now that I pretty much trust to tell me what’s going on, at least WRT the subjects and issues of interest to me. One of them runs this blog.
And I occasionally catch a bit of nooz garbage by way of accidentally hearing it on VPR when we’re streaming the classical station, usually Lakshmee Zing or somebody, pontificating on whatever current events they deem worthy of our enlightened attention.
The rest is via the scanners and shortwave. The latter mainly so I know when The Rapture is about to happen. And the former to catch up on the usual stuff the local cops are dealing with, pretty much the same as what I dealt with thirty years ago, a lot like that “Cops” show on the tee-vee, I’m guessing.
When I worked for Big Co ™ we did a bunch of projects with exxon.
What did you do for Big Co ™ ?
They are a bit of a bully boy when they want something.
Aren’t they all ? The we bring good things people owe me $28K. They bought one of my customers. I invoiced them last September. They refused the invoice saying that we needed a PO. They refused to issue a PO. I have hired a collection agency who is going to take 1/3rd upon collection. They have gotten a PO but do not have funds yet. Sigh.
I figure I’m smart enough to read or watch three or ten “major” MSM sources and then figure out for myself what’s real and valid. [OK, maybe I need to get off the couch.]
Local “papers” are of course all on the same, uh, page, all over the state.
Local TV is pretty lame, small-time. Local info is much thinner since the police radios were encrypted, note…
But I skim this local stuff, of course. Try to get a little meatspace observations, too,
of course.
Our honored host is not known for making shit up, so that was not my point, of course, but there are plenty of those “basement” people who just spin the news (from MSM, via Drudge, via tabloids, in that order, at best).
OFD:
The Cuba noise pollution story should teach you a lesson.
You heard about it two weeks later, as some sort of confused fifth level conspiracy thing, when it was top of the headlines on assorted MSM (with little follow-up, except that Canadians had hearing loss too). Story faded away, since it was pretty much a mystery, but it was there and presented rationally…
Lynn, does your software have a time bomb in it?
Who has the best software? You or your competitor? Who’s cheaper?
@spook, I noticed when I routinely followed several higher level but MSM (ie Bloomberg, FT etc,) that they would often report the truth, as a bald statement with no context or follow up. This lets them go back later and claim they provided ‘coverage.’ These types of articles were usually short, at the bottom of the page, and in Bloomie’s case, more times than not contradicted the headline. If fact MOST of Bloomies articles contradicted the headline or finally gave the truth behind the headline by the time you got to the end paragraphs.
In CNN’s case, they would often run stuff in the scroller at the bottom that they NEVER even mentioned verbally. Run it once, and gone. Since CNN has admitted publicly to lying, and covering up for criminals, and distorting the news in attempts to shape culture and society (statements and policy from Ted T, and Christiana Amanpor in particular, and Wolf and Bernie from Gulf War I) I no longer spend any time watching them, unless I’m critiquing their coverage of a live event. The last time I watched them to try to get some news, they were better than 90% editorial, 9% fluff and entertainment/sports, and 1% actual news.
I used to watch BBC because they would send actual cameramen (mostly combat vets) into the action, but with the rise of islamic terrorism, they lost their collective minds. Suddenly every presenter was islamic, and the head of the BBC got censured for his purposeful slanting of reporting. Plus, BBC has this technique (copied by NPR to a lesser extent) of making people feel informed by running stories about minor events in far away lands, usually focused on an individual or two, while completely ignoring the major events throughout the world.
One source that was consistently ahead of everyone else by 3 to 6 months was ZeroHedge. Now, I understand the ownership has changed a couple of times and the quality has been degraded. The amount of ‘doom porn’ has increased somewhat, with the financial coverage decreasing (or so it feels to me without a statistical analysis.) ADDED- and since I simplified my financial situation, and stepped back from the markets, I don’t read or care about the financial reporting anymore, except as an indicator for when the collapse is coming.
UK Daily News has tons of tabloid crap, but until their US readership exploded, could be counted on to ignore whatever pressure the local MSM was under. I think they get away with real reporting because people consider them a tabloid. Even though their headlines are often ridiculous and 19yo interns seem to be writing most of the stories, they do two things I especially like. One, they report honestly on defensive gun use (despite having a general anti-gun bias) and two, they ALWAYS follow up with the disposition of stories (ie. two years later they run a story about the trial and conviction of someone who was featured earlier.)
Since I’m now much more focused on raising my family, I’ve got much less interest in spending my own time filtering thru the daily flood of distraction, and ZERO interest in the editorial blabbing in the mass ‘news’ outlets.
If something is actually important, it sticks around for a couple of days and actually makes it to a site or discussion that is not all ‘breaking news.’ By not constantly scanning all the distraction and KNOWN disinformation, my personal news stream is smoothed out, and all the little spikes get averaged down or ignored until they are bigger spikes. That lets me spend my attention on the stuff that is more important.
That said, I do still link to ‘news’ as it’s happening or has just happened, when it catches my eye.
TL:DR – I watched them, judged them, found them wanting, stopped watching. I believe more important stuff will stick around and be brought to my attention in a couple of places IF it’s important enough to be noticed.
nick
I read the Winston newspaper every morning, and check MSM sites like FoxNews periodically. If they report an event, I’m reasonably comfortable assuming that SOMETHING happened. I just ignore their skewed editorializing on it, masquerading as “news”. And, of course, much of what really happens isn’t reported at all.
I remember RAH commenting probably 30 years ago that he and Ginny had actually been present at a lot of events that made the news, and that not once did the news media report what had actually happened as he watched it with his own eyes.
“I remember RAH commenting probably 30 years ago that he and Ginny had actually been present at a lot of events that made the news, and that not once did the news media report what had actually happened as he watched it with his own eyes.”
Yep, but as I remember it, he was referring specifically to “Time” of “Time-Life” but the point is valid. Personally, although it will be anathema here, I scan the headlines of Google News with a number of trigger phrases that interest me and a large salt block for their WaPo “Top Headlines”.
Oh, it is useful to know what the rest of the population is being exposed to. However, for me, my blood pressure stays lower if I don’t much.
n
Well before then. The man’s been dead for almost thirty years.
IIRC, the “I was there and that’s not what happened” appeared in Expanded Universe, his collection of short stories and essays, first written around 1965 and then revised in 1980. I don’t know if the comment was from 1965 or 1980; I’d check my copy, but it seems to have disappeared. (One of the perils of teaching my kids to like much the same fiction that I do.)