78F and raining here in Houston. Gentle rain so far.
This day is the anniversary of the Colonies declaring their independence from Britain. It marks the beginning of the armed rebellion. By the very nature of our founding we are different.
I’ve got nothing particularly profound to add, but to note that the list of grievances that justify the rebellion looks awfully familiar.
Be safe today, and everyday, but exercise your freedom. Don’t give up, don’t settle.
nick
Because I don’t have an easy way to link to it,See the link at the bottom for the source of this cut and pasting list of ‘awareness’ tips for anyone attending a public or large private event. Stole it wholesale from 360 Tactical Training in Houston:No matter, what size or location of party you attend for the 4th of July, we want you to have a safe and enjoyable holiday.
Here are a few tips to help keep you safe at large events:
Safety begins with good planning and knowing ahead of time what is going on around you. Research the event and find out the details.
* How many people are expected to attend?
* Is there an available map of the venue? Look for exit points, restrooms, medical areas, and other key locations.
* What are event policies?
* Check the news and social media to find reviews of the event and to find out if any threats have been made against the event.
Once you arrive, scan the area and stay aware of your surroundings.
* Take note of emergency exits, restrooms and alternate evacuation routes.
* Familiarize yourself with the venue layout. Pay attention to medical tents, first aid locations, or police call boxes.
* Be prepared for inclement weather or an emergency, locate alternate shelter in case of dangerous conditions.
* Keep an eye on the crowd. If you notice an abnormal increase in the number of people pouring into an area, or if you notice something suspiscous. It’s probably a good time to make your exit, and alert local law enforcement.
* Have a meetup plan, everyone in your group should have an area to head to when trouble starts.
* Choose a meeting spot for your family, in case anyone gets separated from the group or communications go down during the event.
* Have a contact outside the event that can be used to coordinate planning should something go wrong.
Good advice at any time.
n
https://360tacticaltrainingclasses.cmail19.com/t/ViewEmail/j/A940CF57F1989C1C2540EF23F30FEDED/24B088E7FA28E16244D0DD5392A9C75A
WRT Nick’s comments above: My daughter lives on a short cul-de-sac with 6 houses. We will have block party with a taco truck. I’ll Lyft from home and back as I will have some PBRs, they are cans of Red, White and Blue. No Deutsch or Mexican beer for me.
WRT this comment of yesterday:
Well, here is my reasoning of why they are not held back (they being the underprivileged and impoverished that cannot successfully pass the tests): They cannot have a substantial number of those in the eighth grade, or any grade, be 5 – 7 years older than the successful ones. However, the bureaucRATS and politicians that run the school systems cannot admit to the reality.
Something I wrote a few years ago.
@RickH, thanks for posting a blast from the past on Jerry’s Chaos Manner site.
There is way too much wisdom and common sense in that post. Too bad it seems to be beyond the comprehension of way too many people.
My glimmer of hope is that The Revolution was brought about with the support of less than 20% of the population of the colonies.
I am ready and waiting for the shot to be heard around the world.
Edit/Add: A worthy Independence Day link:
https://thefederalistpapers.org/opinion/is-this-the-best-independence-day-sign-ever
One inch of rain, my hind foot. The weather liars strike again. We are working on inch 3 or 4.
@lynn, steady but not furious rainfall since about 9am, currently 4.14 inches since midnight. No thunder or lightning but a definite rain out at the pool today. Some speculation that this afternoon will be clear. I haven’t actually looked at any radar but the wife did, and predicts more of the same for days.
@cowboyslim, I know it’s not your brand, but this should be interesting. For everyone else, this is a good reminder of something we take for granted, both as a wealthy society, as a culture of abundance, and has some implications for a TEOTWAWKI event, or even long term grid down. This is a vanishing art….
https://youtu.be/ieKYK6HPJok
Iron Ranger boots Red Wing 8111/ Disassembling and remaking Red Wing 8111
oh, and a fair amount of encrypted traffic on the special ops/ swat talkgroup this morning.
n
Dilbert: “Reducing Headcount”
http://dilbert.com/strip/2018-07-04”
Jerry Pournelle (2007): If the ACLU and their cronies have their way, it will be stricken from our history
Facebook (2018): Hold my beer.
Just scanned thru the linked article but I object to “silly”. Used repeatedly to describe the behaviour. I think “sinister” might be a better description.
n
Just scanned thru the linked article but I object to “silly”. Used repeatedly to describe the behaviour. I think “sinister” might be a better description.
This article, right ?
https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/03/facebook-algorithm-flags-removes-declara
What do you expect from the SJWs at Facebook ?
They believe that we can be a utopia. At any cost.
@Nick: It is my brand, been wearing Red Wing, Irish Setters, for over 50 years. Currently, I have the 8″ tall, insulated ones. Wear them mostly at night when camping up in the High Sierras, about 70 miles NE of dkreck, Kennedy Meadows.
https://www.facebook.com/KennedyMeadowsGeneralStore/
I’ll be up there for Cowboy Day, Sat., August 11. Wonderful BBQ steak or chicken breast dinner and cowboy band live music (no hip-hop).
http://cowboyfestival.org/performers/the-messick-family/
Great video!
Oh yeah, born in St. Paul, been to the town!
Wow, parts of Houston got eight inches of rain this morning from just a plain old thunderstorm. We only got four inches so far.
https://spacecityweather.com/070418-rain-ending-street-flooding-continues-in-houston/
Some funny tweets from the “Second Civil War” here .
So far 5.53″ according to my weather station.
Seems to be a lull in the rain though.
n
Vigilant folks prevent a bad situation:
One pistol at a Pasco parade attracts the attention of 6 officers
Are these ‘urban’ youths?
In other news, the weather liars were right, and it cleared up this afternoon, late. Currently 77F sunny, wet and humid. NOT going to the pool. Too late, too little to do.
Nice to get the kids in bed early tonight (that’s the plan anyway.)
And if anyone is interested, following the guidance in the Joy of Cooking, and ‘barding’ my turkey with pork fat, and bacon strips resulted in a juicy, delicious bird. Following the cooking time exactly probably helped too. Even the breast was tender and moist. Dinner tonight was open face sammies with brown turkey gravy from a mix, served over homemade bread, with ligonberry jam (IKEA) instead of cranberry. Yummy!
n
Social note, I signed up for a bunch of newsletters as a prerequisite for entry in a number of weekly and monthly drawings to win free gubs and various other preps. The newsletters are almost without fail complete crap. It is interesting to see what kind of market these scammers and schlock merchants think they have in people who sign up to win free gubs.
This one is typical:
That’s just the first few inches. If you go to the link, with scripting off, you can read the “transcript” of the video presentation they’re sharing only with you and people like you… it goes on for pages, making claims in the same style without ever telling you what it is he “discovered”. You have to send $69 to find that out… but wait! Today only, you can get the secret for $49!
In other offerings, you can learn the ‘one bizarre trick’ to do something, or the ‘suppressed natural cure’ for something else, or which herb to put in your socks to cure nail fungus….
Interesting that that is the market of people who want free gubs…..
n
Looks like a total scam, fraud to me. Can this device be described by the second law of thermodynamics as rational?
AFAIK, all the current solar energy devices are frauds; consequently, any newer ones claimed to be more effective, must be frauds squared.
Or, when will AlGore and Maduro come up with the fifth law of thermodynamics.
What do you expect from the SJWs at Facebook ?
They believe that we can be a utopia. At any cost.
It isn’t just Facebook. The problem is that most of us have retirement plans which are invested in that vision through FANG stocks and mortgage paper in Seattle, San Francisco, and whichever housing market Amazon warps with HQ2.
AFAIK, all the current solar energy devices are frauds; consequently, any newer ones claimed to be more effective, must be frauds squared.
Hey Slim, when you guys in Kalifornia get up to 30 cents/kwh, be sure to let the rest of us USAians know how good and cheap solar power is.
Solar power does have its place. Just as long as you can afford 100% backup in gas turbines or, snicker, battery backups. I am still waiting on that first 1.0 GW battery, that will be a monster. The switchgear on it alone will be tremendous. Whereas, there are literally hundreds of fossil fuel and nuclear power plants above 1.0 GW across the fruited plains.
Yeah, if I had a youtube channel, and a fake id, I’d order the thing just to find out what the scam was and mock it on youtube. About the only thing I can think of is a magnet on your power meter to make it run backwards (illegal), or some sort of additive to “reenergize” your worn out old batteries. Neither of which actually works or does what they claim.
Free energy is always a scam.
n
Regarding the 1.0 GW battery, funny you should mention that…
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/california-utility-looks-to-add-gigawatt-hours-of-battery-storage-before-2020/
Swimming pool sized vats of sulfuric acid, car sized lead honeycomb plates…….
n
Regarding the 1.0 GW battery, funny you should mention that…
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/07/california-utility-looks-to-add-gigawatt-hours-of-battery-storage-before-2020/
Tesla’s project is also huge. It would deliver 730MWh of energy, but Tesla’s contract with PG&E suggests the utility could opt to increase the size of the battery to 1.1GWh.
That facility might, might be able to deliver 400 MW at peak. The need is for a facility to provide 1 GW at peak and 4 GWH total energy. California needs about 20 of these 1 GW peak facilities. So does Texas. Otherwise, one can just put in three gas turbines next to a natural gas pipeline and have it up and running in less than a year. And, in case of really bad weather, the gas turbines can run 24×7 as long as they have fuel.
BTW, I am seeing lots of complaints about the cost of residential electric power jumping 40% in Texas in the last six months. That is because TXU / Luminant / Vistra retired 4.2 GW of coal power plants last January. Now, the peaking power in Texas is rolling a gas turbine instead of ramping up the coal units. Big difference in peaking power costs.
The residential power contracts have jumped from 8 cents/kwh to 13 cents/kwh. I don’t see the price going down much in the fall either.
Swimming pool sized vats of sulfuric acid, car sized lead honeycomb plates…….
Dry batteries man, dry. Think of millions of D cells in huge air conditioned racks. You’ve got to air condition those lithium ion batteries when the stored power in them goes above 50%. Otherwise they get hot and meltdown.
BTW, Tesla is claiming 4,000 cycles on those battery power plants. I wonder what they are calling a “cycle” and how much the battery charge can drop before it is declared bad, 70% ?, 50% ?
@Lynn
they do serve a very good purpose. The one they installed last year in South Australia helps a lot with stabilizing the network when, for instance, the wind farms quickly go off-grid because of storms…
I personally do not like wind farms but don’t mind solar. By themselves, those sources of generated electricity are a big headache but if they are combined with good batteries and perhaps gas powered generators they will in the end probably be the solution to a lot of energy supply problems.
I like water solutions best though.
I personally do not like wind farms but don’t mind solar. By themselves, those sources of generated electricity are a big headache but if they are combined with good batteries and perhaps gas powered generators they will in the end probably be the solution to a lot of energy supply problems.
Here is why solar is not the greatest solution for power generation, the Duck Curve.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve
If you have to have a gas turbine backing up every megawatt of solar power, then solar power is not a good solution. Especially if you have to start all of those gas turbines every day at 5 pm. That is not an economic system.
Back when I was in charge of all power plant maintenance at TXU, we had to rebuild the gas turbine combustion pots every 4,000 hours of operation due to heat related cracks. I used to assign each hot start on a gas turbine as equivalent to four hours of operation. Cold starts were equivalent to 16 ? 20 ? hours of operation. Of course, today’s gas turbines use ceramic combustion pots instead of metal so they are much more resistant to heat.
I am not arguing the case for solar. I just prefer it to wind.
Having said that, you have to bear in mind that the grid is slowly but surely changing. There is an increasing amount of domestic solar with most of it providing the excess to the grid and the energy companies are factoring that into the equation because, if they don’t, government will ensure that they do sooner or later.
As mentioned, I prefer hydro or nuclear (not mentioned…) as base and even coal because the latter is plentiful and cheap (at least in Oz) but you won’t stop solar and you have to factor it in the overall energy plan…
Locally we have a stored-energy solution that’s hydro. At night they pump water to the top of a tall hill (big reservoir). During peak demand, they let the water go through the turbines and generate electricity. That’s the kind of battery we’ve been using for centuries, and it makes a good bit of sense.
I would LIKE to see Tesla’s batteries work out. Giant car batteries are not a good solution. Batteries that have to be chilled to work are not good solutions. Batteries that can be left alone, untended for hours, days, or weeks are good solutions. Not that they will, but it should be _possible_ to do so.
So long as people believe it can be done and are willing to work for it, I’m willing to let them and encourage them. THAT’s what makes us great – people willing to take a chance on something they believe in. (That I doubt that it will work does not enter into the conversation.)
WRT electricity prices:
Depending on your electric supplier you may or may not see this line item on your bill. The gooberment added a “requirement” that all electrical utilities with rates below a certain level must add a surcharge to make their rates “fair” with the high priced states. Also in that “requirement” is a charge that goes to subsidize the electric bills for those who live in Section 8 Housing.
After all, it’s only fair.
I pay $0.0718/kWh with a “just to make it fair tax” of about 18% added on plus another 8+% city tax. BTW, when we moved here 38-years ago the rate was less than $0.02/kWh (and no taxes) and was only billed every 2-months because it was not economical to bill monthly
Depending on your electric supplier you may or may not see this line item on your bill. The gooberment added a “requirement” that all electrical utilities with rates below a certain level must add a surcharge to make their rates “fair” with the high priced states. Also in that “requirement” is a charge that goes to subsidize the electric bills for those who live in Section 8 Housing.
Leave now. It will get much worse. If you subsidize poverty then you will get more.
The gooberment added a “requirement” that all electrical utilities with rates below a certain level must add a surcharge to make their rates “fair” with the high priced states.
Wait, are you talking about the federal government or your Washington state government here ?
I’ve seen no such charge in the two electric bills in the state of Texas that I pay each month.
Wait, are you talking about the federal government or your Washington state government here ?
I am talking federal gooberment. We are a Public Utility District (PUD) that has to be totally open with all of its customers. There is no such thing as a closed or “executive” board meeting with the exception of employee actions and even then the reports afterward are quite candid. Quite revealing when I first started going to their monthly meetings 38-years ago. We get to see all the federal crap coming down the line and the nonsense of the enviroweenies. If you do not have a true Public Utility District (there are very few true PUDs) there is a lot of fine print and finagling that is going on behind the publics’ back and it is very difficult to get access to the real story. Electric rates are very complicated and have very little to do with the actual cost of producing electricity.
I am talking federal gooberment. We are a Public Utility District (PUD) that has to be totally open with all of its customers. There is no such thing as a closed or “executive” board meeting with the exception of employee actions and even then the reports afterward are quite candid. Quite revealing when I first started going to their monthly meetings 38-years ago. We get to see all the federal crap coming down the line and the nonsense of the enviroweenies. If you do not have a true Public Utility District (there are very few true PUDs) there is a lot of fine print and finagling that is going on behind the publics’ back and it is very difficult to get access to the real story. Electric rates are very complicated and have very little to do with the actual cost of producing electricity.
Well that is not good. Every time the goverment(s) interfere with free markets, the distortions end up causing many problems. I give you wind power, solar power, etc, etc, etc.
About 80% of Texas is not subject to FERC. We have an interconnected grid called ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. When I worked at TXU in the 1980s, we had two million electric meters and we generated or bought power to service those meters. Now there are ten ??? twelve ??? million meters in ERCOT and ERCOT dispatches generators to produce power to service those meters on a mixture of economics and reliability. But ERCOT does not bill the meters, ERCOT bills the entity who is contracted to those meters. ERCOT bills them every 15 minutes.
http://www.ercot.org/
It is almost a pure free market. Everyone bids for the right to generate power the next 15 minutes. The cheapest bidders win except when a certain amount of power cannot be exceeded in a region due to transmission line limitations.
A week or two ago I was thinking I’d like to hear some drum line music, but the only thing I could think of was the awful movie of that title. Two links brought me to this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz5EtpSx87g
which has plenty of recommendations next to it too…..
n
The girls look like they were having fun (very pleasing to the eye too). The guys were trying to be too studly. It would have been better outside, too much echo in the auditorium.