School’s out so summer must be here!
77F with 80%RH, and hopefully clear.
Swim meet tonight, so rain would postpone that and we want the season to start and END on time.
I think I can confirm that eBay’s algorithm is biased toward frequent listers. I get more sales, even from my back (stale) catalog, when I list frequently. Even if I’m just listing and selling <$20 items. We're in one of those periods where none of my big items are selling, so I decided to list a bunch of cheaper stuff. Money is money, and hopefully the increased sales velocity will result in my bigger items moving too. Kids are home, so my morning routine is out o whack. We'll see how the daddy adapts! n
Guess I should have at least skimmed the news.
Ebola has more deaths
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-5798451/Five-new-Ebola-cases-DR-Congo-authorities.html
“Pregnant woman is among five people shot at a football game in Dallas and undergoes an emergency C-section to save her baby” — neighborhood “athletes” have a pickup game that ends in shooting…. “No descriptions of the two suspects were immediately available.” But the pictures tell the tale.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5802877/Five-people-shot-including-pregnant-woman-Dallas.html
More volcanic eruption!–
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5801495/Guatemala-volcano-blankets-nearby-villages-ash.html
Europe finally waking up?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5801211/Italy-Europes-refugee-camp-new-deputy-PM-Salvini.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5803005/French-police-destroy-two-migrant-camps-set-Paris-canals.html
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-03/war-erupts-between-italys-government-and-soros-you-profited-death-hundreds-people
Quite a busy day!
n
Here in my northern flyover state all of the pools used for swim meets are indoor pools. So, swim meets never get rained out. Actually, I think all of our regulation sized pools are indoor pools. The outdoor pools are mostly seasonal family recreation pools and only opened from Memorial Day until the first day of school (used to be Labor Day, but the kids all start school mid-August now and the municipal pools become a ghost towns after that on top of the fact that all of their teen lifeguards go back to school).
If you want to swim year round, you need indoor pool, or for a personal pool, heated water.
We have some clubs with indoor pools, but our team doesn’t compete with any of them.
We used to only be ‘officially’ open, with lifeguards, until Labor day. But we’ve been extending the season by having lifeguards on weekends until the weather changes. It’s hard to get teen lifeguards after school starts back up.
I don’t know what our municipal pools do. Even though we have one nearby, we prefer the shaded calm membership pool….
n
Europe finally waking up?
Maybe Eastern Europe, but it is probably too late for most of Western Europe.
Italy has nothing to lose at this point. They’re headed in Greece’s direction, but the cost of the default will be much higher, especially to Germany.
At some point, passing the same $20 from hand to hand, and signing up to guarantee each others’ loans is going to stop working.
After all, if Italy is broke, how can they legitimately guarantee anyone’s loans? Every loan they are a guarantor on should be called… and that would be the end.
n
And can someone explain how a nazi collaborator, with no money, becomes a billionaire? and why headlines describe him as a “US Billionaire”?
scumbag.
n
because this seems SO legit– “His famous bet against the British pound in 1992 generated more than $1 billion in profits in 24 hours ”
or “The fund earned a 3,365% return since inception, compared to 47% for the Standard and Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) index during the same period.” , not even managed by him.
No, nothing at all strange about that.
People do it all the time, and they do it year after year after year……….. people like Hillarity Clinton anyway.
62º and cloudy now, as it was when I rode into work this morning. After a week of scorching 80º+, this is a nice change.
Worked my butt off on Saturday and had a mixed bag. Morning race went as smooth as it could. Evening race went teats up before it even started. That’s the way it goes sometimes. I’m fixing to sell off all my high-end equipment and settle for the little events. They’re more fun and better for my soul.
We’ll see.
Maybe some day us serfs will recognize that the Emperor has no clothes.
Was listening on and off, between periods of fitful sleep) to the second half of Coast to Coast AM as George sNoory and Bill Salus talk about Biblical Prophecy. I don’t know how credible Salus is but the discussion was hitting close to home. Of course there were a couple of really whack-a-do callers.
I mention this because today’s discussion here is starting with a couple of prophetic points. Italy, more specifically Rome, where the Anti-Christ will come from, in some form/manner, and George Soros.
Yesterday I mentioned the water rationing that is getting ridiculous in Californication and it got me to thinking (yes, I do think sometimes) and then the Coast to Coast AM piece. We may be thinking preparedness in the wrong way, and I’m not talking about us all shedding our clothes, letting our hair and beard grow, and walking around in a sheet and sandals and preaching “repent the end of the world is near”. It’s priorities and who is doing what, and to whom (BOHICA).
Can we really become self sufficient/reliant? The truth is no. So how are we going to prepare? How do we gather like minded folks with all the skills so that we can have a place of self sufficiency/reliance? Those folks in the wilds of Idaho and Alaska are really not doing it. And the gooberment and oligarchs are not going to allow any group to gather and create essentially a new self sufficient/reliant “country”.
Is this our fate? Again? And Again…
I don’t have a solution to get out of this “wash, rinse, repeat” cycle. We certainly have not learned our lessons. It is too easy to abdicate our responsibilities and “let George do it” (ironic, isn’t it, Soros). The human race is lazy and has nowhere near the self-preservation drive of the creatures supposedly below us on the evolutionary ladder.
I don’t have much time left. I do not worry for myself, I know where I am headed. It is my children who do not seem to grasp our dire fate that really doesn’t have to be if the hard, very hard, decisions are made.
How many times do we have to accept someone’s repentance only to allow them to go and defile the world again? I am not The Creator and I do not buy that “turn the other cheek” BS.
Thank you reading my Epistle. With true thoughts and prayers for OFD (aka Dave Hardy). Peace be with you Brother.
How do we gather like minded folks with all the skills so that we can have a place of self sufficiency/reliance? Those folks in the wilds of Idaho and Alaska are really not doing it. And the gooberment and oligarchs are not going to allow any group to gather and create essentially a new self sufficient/reliant “country”.
Try finding a place where local law enforcement isn’t dependent on pension promises from politicians for retirement.
Taking a break.
68F and cloudy at 6:30. I poured 5 inches out of the rain gauge. That’s all it holds. Then it started raining and that gave another 1/4 inch.
We had more than 5.25 inches last night. My driveway is pretty well trashed. Where Jim filled in the so-called creek to make a road, his dam survived but needs work. It has three 3ft culverts and the water still went over the top.
Out back, where I had him dig a ditch across the road with the backhoe, I now have a 6 ft wide ditch. about 6 ft deep. The road went across a dam. That tank was only good for raising mosquitoes. Now it can fill to just 2 ft in the deep part… the sooner it silts in, the better.
Back to work. I’m not looking forward to the crick coming to my neck.
And… the sun just appeared. I think it’s time to park the tractor for the day.
I haven’t read the ruling yet, but I am somewhat familiar with the Colorado baker.
While the ruling is in the bakers favor, which is good, it does not clearly rule that ones rights stop when they interfere with the rights of another. The baker basically ‘won’ (nobody ‘won’ honestly) because the lower courts were biased jerks.
Here’s an important bit of the ruling:
“‘The commission’s hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion,’ Kennedy wrote.”
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-baker-who-denied-same-sex-couple-a-wedding-cake/
Here’s an important bit of the ruling:
“‘The commission’s hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion,’ Kennedy wrote.”
The ruling came too late for the Portland baker who did the same thing in 2013. IIRC she is now out of business.
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/court-rules-against-oregon-bakers-who-refused-make-gay-wedding-n833321
“Leaked photo reveals ‘mass trial’ of immigrants in Texas”
https://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/texas-border-mass-trial-immigration-illegal-photo-12952189.php
I have no problem with this.
Yesterday I mentioned the water rationing that is getting ridiculous in Californication and it got me to thinking (yes, I do think sometimes) and then the Coast to Coast AM piece. We may be thinking preparedness in the wrong way, and I’m not talking about us all shedding our clothes, letting our hair and beard grow, and walking around in a sheet and sandals and preaching “repent the end of the world is near”. It’s priorities and who is doing what, and to whom (BOHICA).
I do not understand why Kalifornia does not install many seawater to fresh water plants ? The cost is reputedly down to $6 per 10o0 gallons using the newest membrane technologies. Shoot, I am paying $4 per 1000 gallons here in Sugar Land.
Oh wait, they are probably only charging $2 per 1000 gallons and giving away half of the fresh water to the “needy”. If people want fresh water, they will have to pay for it. Instead, they are taking the typical liberal approach of rationing everything, therefore driving the prices up.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – No Good Deed”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-no-good-deed/
Great picture of Pelosi !
I do not understand why Kalifornia does not install many seawater to fresh water plants ? The cost is reputedly down to $6 per 10o0 gallons using the newest membrane technologies. Shoot, I am paying $4 per 1000 gallons here in Sugar Land.
Reverse osmosis requires a lot of electricity. CA’s grid is severly constrained, which Enron exploited to their advantage back in 2000-01.
Tampa built a desal plant more than a decade ago on a site near power plants right on the bay. *Coal fired* power plants.
They can divert water from the 46% of Bay Area residents who say they don’t want to live there anymore…
“The secret to stopping the robot apocalypse? Popcorn butter.”
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611295/humans-are-still-crucial-to-amazons-fulfillment-process/
“For example, when some popcorn butter accidentally fell off a pod in a fulfillment center, it got squished, creating a big buttery mess in the middle of the floor. The curious robots didn’t know how to handle the situation but wanted to go check it out. “The robots were driving through it, and they’d slip and get an encoder error,” says Brady.”
Ok, that is creepy. And the video is weird too.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
Ok, that is creepy. And the video is weird too.
Killing time a few weeks ago, avoiding the Chinese relation visiting my wife, I stopped at the Amazon bookstore here in Austin. It was sterile and creepy, stocked with fewer titles than I see at the typical airport bookstore.
The staff doubled the “creep” factor.
I miss pre-Amazon Borders. Yes, we spent money there beyond the coffee shop. Once Barnes & Noble goes, that will be it for bookstores except for independents and airports.
I used to spend a lot of time in the 1980s in B.Dalton, Waldenbooks, and Read All About It. Those were the smaller mall bookstores and I would basically have my mom let me hang out in there while she shopped the mall. I could entertain myself for an hour or two pretty easily (which is surprising considering they’re about a 1/10 the size of the average Borders or B&N).
I used to spend a lot of time in the 1980s in B.Dalton, Waldenbooks, and Read All About It. Those were the smaller mall bookstores and I would basically have my mom let me hang out in there while she shopped the mall. I could entertain myself for an hour or two pretty easily (which is surprising considering they’re about a 1/10 the size of the average Borders or B&N).
I used to hang out for hours in BookStop, a discount supersized bookstore chain here in Texas, in a strip center near my house in the 1980s. Their claim to fame was 10% off the list price of any book in the store. Then they got purchased by B&N in 1989 and the discount went away rather quickly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookstop_(company)
I used to spend a lot of time in the 1980s in B.Dalton, Waldenbooks, and Read All About It. Those were the smaller mall bookstores and I would basically have my mom let me hang out in there while she shopped the mall. I could entertain myself for an hour or two pretty easily (which is surprising considering they’re about a 1/10 the size of the average Borders or B&N).
A B. Dalton was a densely packed store back when Dayton-Hudson owned them prior to 1986.
Mall bookstores are definitely extinct. Waldenbooks went away with the demise of Borders, and Barnes & Noble shut down B. Dalton as they expanded their big box stores following the purchase of the Book Stop concept.
That reminds me — I miss Book Stop more than Borders. Tampa had two of the stores before Barnes & Noble bought the chain while it was still small.
Is Half Priced Books still around? They had a location near 183 and Burnet Rd.
I can’t find sh1t since 183 was double decked.
Considering that Reading, wRiting, and aRithmatic are really no longer taught in the Pubic Skools (and don’t think for a moment that STEM or STEAM or really doing any better) it is no wonder that books stores are almost extinct.
As a kid I spent many enjoyable hours in various bookstores and a side benefit was I met a few cool chicks.
When the Kids were in Portland OR last weekend they went to Powells, floor after floor of every book you could ever imagine. In fact they enjoyed it so much they revised their schedule and went back 2 times. They came home with 8 big bags loaded with books. My Daughter likes classics printed on fine paper and bound in leather. She found several sets she had been wanting and was even more pleased that the prices were very reasonable.
Just finished helping the Wife with 2 hours of work in the flower garden. Even though the temperature is in the 80s there is a nice cool breeze so I did not work up too much of a sweat.
When I was a kid Mom liked to take us to the main library on Government St. in Mobile. For hours…. it had a/c, too. They had the “kids section” that was interesting to me for about 20 minutes …. ever.
Is Half Priced Books still around? They had a location near 183 and Burnet Rd.
There are several HPBs here in Houston. I’ve got one about four miles away from the house. Sometimes I enjoy them but they tend to be real hit and miss on their inventory.
https://www.hpb.com/
Mall bookstores are definitely extinct.
Malls are definitely extinct.
Fixed that for you.
Is Half Priced Books still around?
Yep. I sold them 30 boxes of books two months ago. It included most of my science fiction and fantasy, about half my history books and most of my space and science books.
The latest Windows 10 upgrade is giving me fits.
I’m having two different problems. The first is connecting to the internet. My internet provider, Windstream, blames my problems on this update. I frequently cannot connect for 6 to 80 hours. I have two computers a Lenovo Thinkpad and a home built desktop. All connections use Ethernet directly from the Windstream provided modem.
The laptop is connecting today. The desktop cannot. I get a DNS address not assigned error and then network not found. The specific error message on the screen currently is “DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NETWORK_NOT_FOUND”.
The second Windows 10 problem is the file attributes of my Documents directory has changed to “Read Only”. I believe this in response to Ransomware attacks. I changed the Attribute but when I open a file and made a small change, I could not save it. I’ve added Office to the approved apps list with no success.
I have my data backed up and a several month old full system back up. I suppose I can try to restore the system and then attempt to block Windows 10 upgrades.
The Windstream problem will be resolved when I switch to Charter either next month or if a get the promised job when I return from a temporary job in the Andrews AFB area in the Fall .
The laptop is connecting today. The desktop cannot. I get a DNS address not assigned error and then network not found. The specific error message on the screen currently is “DNS_PROBE_FINISHED_NETWORK_NOT_FOUND”.
You are not alone. There many people complaining. Here is a very heavily advertising laden fix. Hint: ignore the download this fix software advertising.
https://windowsreport.com/dns-issues-windows-10/
In short, set your DNS providers to be 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
“Citing Anthem Protests, President Trump Has Disinvited Eagles to White House”
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/sports/csn/eagles/Citing_anthem_protests__President_Trump_has_disinvited_Eagles_to_White_House-484533401.html
I am going to pass on the NFL this year also. I am enjoying the Houston Astros very much though.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
Home from swim meet number one. Got another Thurs, and then Monday, then all away meets. Long night for the kids, longer night for some of the parents.
In the breeze, once the sun went down it was tolerable. Without the breeze, back in the corner where all our little ones were staged, stifling. I’m def bringing the fan and the portacool down for the next meet.
Now to slam some gatorade and get a shower and bed.
n
WRT books, I always look at the goodwill. I’ve got an independent thrift/charity shop here too that has an awesome wall o books. The three best goodwills and that one shop combined are really good. I buy mostly kindle books because they are easier to read if my eyes are tired, but I buy hardbacks from favorite authors if I see them, and even paperbacks if they are scifi classics or one of my favs. Just got a boxed set of Zelazny’s Amber series at the Goodwill outlet. They had a whole bin of vintage scifi.
I used to love hanging out at bookstores, and had my grandma take me to the mall store on more than one birthday buying trip as a kid. I was a SciFi book club member too. I loved the technical book store in LA, and there was a pretty good one in Houston too. The LA Technical Books in Hollyweird is probably gone, and I’m pretty sure the store in Houston is too. For a while there was a pretty good technical bookstore in San Diego, near the Fry’s store. My favorite independent is still going strong in SD- Mysterious Galaxy. I spent many thousands there on signed firsts….. they focus on SF, mystery, and horror. No general fiction. I’m pretty sure someone on staff has read every book they sell. Very good at recommendations once they know what you like.
I haven’t even been inside a bookstore in years, which is a real shame considering how much joy I used to get from it.
nick
Set the above and rebooted. No change, ie, still no internet access.
I shop in the 2nd and Charles chain of second hand book stores. There is one near me, Fayetteville, NC, and several more along routes I travel – Augusta and Birmingham. I think the Birmingham one is the best of these.
@Robert: set DNS to 1.1.1.1 and 1.0.0.1 (faster than the 8’s). Then restart. Then do a IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS at the command prompt to clear your DNS cache.
I haven’t even been inside a bookstore in years, which is a real shame considering how much joy I used to get from it.
Dude, have your girls ever been to a B&N ? Or the public library ?
You may not be able to get them to leave. Or, for less than $100. I still take my daughter, now 31, and she usually hits me up for $50 of writing and anime books.
Then do a IPCONFIG /FLUSHDNS at the command prompt to clear your DNS cache.
Does the DNS cache persist over a reboot ? If so, that is nasty.
Our eldest loves to go to the bookstore. Her brother & sister are just now getting into books and we expect to get them many as they age.
I (personally) prefer kindle because of instant gratification and easy access. I still love all my paper books, but I can’t take them all on the bus, to work, to the store, or everywhere else I like to whip it out.
My girls love the library. We go to one in the “Villages” which are all the tiny, unincorporated cities inside Houston. They mostly have names with “village” in them. No bums sleeping in the stacks, or bathing in the restroom like Houston libraries.
n
My only son, now almost 14, loved to go to the bookstore. We spent many hours there. When it was just him and I (wife was at work), we would head to Barnes and Noble, grab a cookie and chocolate milk, play with the train set, and browse the books.
Re: the DNS issues. Take a step back for a minute. I wouldn’t rule out a windows update causing the issues, but when the problem is more than one device, I also look at what’s common. An easy thing to do is reset your cable modem. Also reset your router (if it’s separate.)
What is your dns server that’s assigned by DHCP – the router? If it is, log in to the router and see if you can see what DNS servers it is assigned. From there, see if you can ping the DNS servers. If you can’t ping those, see if you can ping the other’s suggested above, such as 8.8.8.8 or 1.1.1.1. If you can’t ping THOSE, then you have a routing issue. See if you can ping you modem’s ip. Then see if you can ping your modem’s gateway. If you can ping the gateway and nothing else beyond that, give this info to your ISP. It’s their issue. If you can’t ping the modem’s gateway, it may be a modem issue, or it may be an ISP issue. Still helpful for them to know. This all assumes you talk to someone in support that actually knows how to troubleshoot a routed network.
When the Kids were in Portland OR last weekend they went to Powells, floor after floor of every book you could ever imagine. In fact they enjoyed it so much they revised their schedule and went back 2 times.
Powells is one of the last great independents left. They also have tech books in a separate store, not as extensive of a selection as they used to have, but that’s a common theme anymore.
One of Amazon’s first victims was, ironically, Elliott Bay, Seattle’s Powell’s equivalent and home of the inspiration for Cafe Nervosa, the coffee shop on “Frasier”.
today I realized (again) that this continues a good site, 1.1.1.1 never thought about that
cheers and thanks
ps Orthograpic doesnt run, no problem