Fri. July 27,2018 – weekend coming

By on July 27th, 2018 in Random Stuff

Hmmm, weather station says 108F, it has to be stuck. I guess I’ll be climbing up and replacing batteries…

[edit- sun came up and the station started reporting again. Currently 86F. When I took the trash cans down to the street it felt like about 74F. Still gonna be hot today.]

It feels way to early to be thinking about back to school, but we are. The hurricane season has barely started, it’s hot as hades, and yet…

So what did you all do to prep for the coming civil war/economic collapse/bad diagnosis/personal injury/job loss?

I got some random stuff this week and last. Some medical stuff. Some camping stuff. I refilled all the propane tanks. I haven’t increased gasoline storage yet, but will. I need to start the little gennie too.

I’ve let my food stores dwindle with the rat problems. Still have a bunch, but not a year by any means. Venesuala comes to mind. Slow worsening, then much quicker, now worse every day.

I should order a charge controller and big battery for the new solar panel. That I can do without spending a lot of time, but I do need to make decisions about which one, and how big…

Yes, I’ve become complacent. That is not a good thing. All the threats are still there, and there are new ones as well.

Better get crackin’

n

62 Comments and discussion on "Fri. July 27,2018 – weekend coming"

  1. jim~ says:

    ” if you haven’t grown up by the time you are 50, you don’t have to. Enjoy life. ”

    As Auntie Mame said it so well, “Live! Live! Live!”

    I wonder how OFD is doing? The bastard made me read through the entire Catholic catechism, despite the fact that I went to a Jesuit boarding school and was a staunch atheist the whole time.

    Another benefit of that boarding school was exposing me to Muslim culture prior to the Iranian revolution in 1979. That, plus my years in southern India, which, by the by, had never been conquered by the Mongol hordes, taught me that different peoples from different religions can get along just fine if they observe manners, the unwritten laws of society.

    RBT would spinning in his grave if he heard me say this, but Muslims know how to get along better than so called pious “Christians”. They tend to take care of each other because “that’s what you do.”

    And if I do not sound inflammatory enough with the preceding, I happen to think arranged marriages are good thing! If you can breed dogs for certain characteristics, why not Homo sapiens?

  2. DadCooks says:

    @Nick, what brand/model of weather station do you have?

    AcuRite products are experiencing higher than usual failure rates. I follow their forum and the user community has been pissed with the decrease in quality and lack of support responsiveness.

    My 3-year old AcuRite 5-in-1 Pro+ has been eating batteries and is now totally tits-up. AcuRite has said they will send me a replacement, but it has been almost 4-months now and they say they are having “supplier problems” so I’ll just have to wait.

    I have Oregon Scientific (more than 10-years old), Honeywell (about 8-years old), and LaCrosse (about 4-years old) weather stations. These old ones are working great.

    Yes, weather station overkill.

  3. DadCooks says:

    @jim said:
    RBT would spinning in his grave if he heard me say this, but Muslims know how to get along better than so called pious “Christians”. They tend to take care of each other because “that’s what you do.”

    I agree, to some extent (include the “dog thing” too). I would also say that the same applies to Mormons (a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Those so-called pious “Christians” do not consider the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a “Christian” church/religion.

    I bet this would really get OFD going.

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    Hah, discovered my neighbor at the rent house is a ‘religious nutter’. We started out just talking religion, but it soon became an attempt to convert me. I like talking, but do not like the conversion attempt. Why nutter? It’s a ‘store front’ non-denom church, founded as outreach to bums, doesn’t consider Catholics to be Christians, thinks there hasn’t been a legit pope in centuries, believes in the “end time prophesies”, and a variety of other sketchy and heretical things…. (says the lapsed Catholic.) FWIW, for centuries there was only one Christian church, the Catholic Church. Everyone else was heretics. Or so people will argue.

    Too much to do today to start THAT discussion,but I do miss OFD, and RBT is sorely missed.

    n

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    WRT weather stations, it’s the Accurite that Costco had on sale a couple of years ago. See them everywhere. I think the solar panel that keeps the battery going wears out. Plus, at 100+ F, the batteries don’t last.

    n

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Some interesting stuff in my mail today.

    FEMA 2017 Hurricane season AAR

    Natural gas pipeline map (note that zoom level is limited and LOTS of stuff isn’t shown, and what’s shown is obfuscated on some levels)

    I haven’t read the AAR yet, but it should be of interest….

    n

  7. Miles_Teg says:

    ‘ …Muslims know how to get along better than so called pious “Christians”.’

    Tell that to the umpteen muslim victims of muslim suicide bombers and the humanitarian Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

  8. dkreck says:

    I’m not going to try to defend ‘pious christians’ but to suggest mooslims have any tolerance for others is not what we see happening around us.

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’m scanning through the FEMA report and it’s uncharacteristicly frank. Worth the read.

    If they will actually execute on any of the identified issues is another question, but they (along with the other emergency response entities) are coming around to the “immediate responder” idea that it’s the people at the incident who need to be trained and empowered* to respond.

    n

    *I hate that word and idea, as it suggests that an individuals power to act is bestowed from outside of them. Unfortunately, after decades of cultural programming, it is required.

  10. JimL says:

    I think, perhaps, we’re missing the bigger picture. We’re seeing the nuts and crazies in the Moslem community. The average Moslem, like the average Christian, just wants to get along.

    On the other hand, the average Christian will loudly and vocally denounce the nuts. We don’t see that in the Moslem community. That may be because they fear being beheaded or stoned by the nuts. Drop iPods & Levis on ’em.

  11. DadCooks says:

    @Miles_Teg said:
    “Tell that to the umpteen muslim victims of muslim suicide bombers and the humanitarian Al-Qaeda and ISIS.”

    Those are not Muslims, they are at best moslEms (capital “E” for evil).

    I have worked with a couple of Real Muslims for many years (Engineers from Bangladesh). They are the first to admit that the religion has been co-opted by the evil radicals. However, they feel that they are between the proverbial rock and a hard place as their “peace” teachings forbid them from destroying the mooslem infidels. Proselytizing is also not encouraged.

    IMHO, proselytizing is actually a corrupting influence in any religion. It establishes an absolute “I am better than you” mindset.

    For that matter, there is too much proselytizing going on regarding “gender” and politics.

    I leave with a phrase I repeat often, think about it, carefully:
    “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is Heaven” (ref: Matthew 5:16 KJV)

  12. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, finally after 100 days, we get a tiny little bit of news from Nicaragua:

    Hooded paramilitary force stalk the streets of Nicaragua killing and kidnapping hundreds of protestors as anti-government demonstrations reach 100-day mark

    Nicaragua has been in turmoil since April amid protests against ‘authoritarian’ President Daniel Ortega
    Demonstrators are demanding fresh elections to take place before the end of Ortega’s term in 2021
    President has cracked down on dissent using masked paramilitaries, leaving an estimated 448 people dead
    Previously non-violent activists are now talking of arming themselves, raising fears of a civil war

    “Nicaragua was seen as a rare oasis of stability amid one of the most violent regions on earth before the protest broke out, but now looks set to go the same way as neighbors Honduras and El Salvador”

    Waht what what????? I thought the US was the most violent, with all those guns committing violence??????

    Nicaragua, Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil?, who else??

  13. hcombs says:

    When I asked my Muslim (Pakistani) neighbor in the UK what he thought about the growing Islamic terrorism (circa 1995) he responded that it was a corruption of the prophets teaching. I then asked if he would do anything like that (terrorism?) He paused and said “Only if my Imam ordered us to.” This fellow was a nice guy, good neighbor, we spoke often over the garden fence, but he admitted he would kill me and my family if asked to by his religious authority, nothing personal you understand.

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    In low trust, tribal cultures, anyone ‘outgroup’ isn’t really human. So, yeah, you get to die.

    n

  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    Scanner has the cops working prostitution…

    Guy in a hummer is “one of the pimps we’re trying to identify”….

    n

  16. hcombs says:

    In low trust, tribal cultures, anyone ‘outgroup’ isn’t really human. So, yeah, you get to die.

    Sounds like the current Democratic party … join or DIE

  17. JimL says:

    Compare & contrast that with my upbringing. If the pastor at my church had asked me to kill my neighbor, old George would have been in the pokey, on his way to the nuthouse. Because there is no way a good Baptist is going to kill his neighbor on the word of a guy behind a pulpit. There is no earthly authority that can demand that in the name of God.

    Okay – Jim Jones comes to mind. But those are nutters. That’s not mainstream American Christianity. Those things DO happen, occasionally, and are exceptions to the norm.

    @hcombs’ statement kind of bothers me. Is that common amongst all of them? Or is that one particular group of Moslems? If most Mosques foster the same kind of devotion, we have a problem. NO earthly authority should warrant that kind of devotion.

  18. JimB says:

    @DadCooks: +1!

    Wow, this place is serious today, so, now for the sillier stuff.

    “…windshield wiper fluid all in one convenient location.”
    I live in the Mojave desert. What is this stuff called windshield wiper fluid? What are windshield wipers? Haven’t used ’em for many years.

    OK, a little more seriously, the relative humidity has returned to normal single digits (at the high temperature) in the past couple of days, after about three weeks of double to even triple normal. We even had a little rain several days ago, yuck. Right now, the dew point is about 32F, and the wet bulb is in the 60s: I can breathe easier.

    Oh, and… When (if?) I grow up, I want to be… “Young!”

  19. ech says:

    Those so-called pious “Christians” do not consider the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a “Christian” church/religion.

    It isn’t. They are a Christian heresy and don’t adhere to the basics that all the Christian denominations accept (Nicene Creed, for one). Does that make them a “bad” religion? Not to me. Their basic precepts are in line with classical liberal principles.

  20. CowboySlim says:

    I live in the Mojave desert. What is this stuff called windshield wiper fluid? What are windshield wipers? Haven’t used ’em for many years.

    10-4, I never used them driving from Victorville to Ridgecrest or Kelso to Cima.

  21. JimB says:

    @CowboySlim, Ridgecrest!!! How did you figure out where I hang my hat?

  22. Miles_Teg says:

    I’m not usually one to praise Jerry Coyne but he ofters surveys conducted by the Pew organisation that shows how intollerant moslems of all types are.

    I knew a couple of moslems well in Canberra. One was a truly liberal moslem woman, the other was intellegent and thoughtful moslem man but he still wanted to drive Israel into the sea.

  23. RickH says:

    I’ve got one of those ‘Costco Acurite’ weather stations about 3 years ago. Had initial problems with the console/display not syncing to the computer. They sent me a replacement, which has worked out fine. And they didn’t want the dead one, so now I have two.

    Works fine; Weather Underground station is here: https://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KWAPORTL19#history .

    I don’t use the computer software that came with it though. Used the original 3rd party software on the computer, which is much better supported., from Valley Information Systems: https://www.valleyinfosys.com/visreader.html .

  24. Greg Norton says:

    Demonstrators are demanding fresh elections to take place before the end of Ortega’s term in 2021

    I’m old enough to remember that the left in this country created the mess with Daniel Ortega. Ortega and his family were regularly feted by Progs in Hollywood and Washington in the early 80s, just to stick it to Reagan.

    “Lou Grant” was still a top 10 show in 1982 when Procter & Gamble pulled sponsorship over Ed Asner’s Central America/Ortega activism and CBS abruptly cancelled the series.

  25. ITguy1998 says:

    I’m assuming this in reference to some rap video they are trying to emulate.

    Disturbing. Not because they are doing it, but rather that they are surviving it.

  26. Nick Flandrey says:

    Saudi Arabia banned it, people have their DOG doing it.

    We haven’t reached peak stupidity, but with all these “challenges” on youtube and social media, we’re probably close…..

    n

  27. Greg Norton says:

    We haven’t reached peak stupidity, but with all these “challenges” on youtube and social media, we’re probably close…..

    Really close.

    When you are in Austin, stop downtown and watch the scooter-riding manchildren at lunchtime. I believe the scooter company, Bird, is the startup with the fastest 0 – $1 billion valuation climb in history.

  28. JimL says:

    Handy little rule of thumb: If it’s trending on social media, you probably don’t want to do it. If it’s a “challenge”, you should probably run the other way. If it’s making the news, you don’t want to be around.

    “Crazy Years” indeed.

  29. lynn says:

    Sigh, I should have listened to my dad when he told me to buy some Amazon stock a decade ago

    Too expensive now unless you have real money to throw at it. The real question is, what is the next Amazon?

    I am thinking about buying some F. Their new plugin electric F-150 and other vehicles coming out next year might just set the truck world on fire. I know that I am interested and the stock is depressed right now.
    https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/F?p=F&.tsrc=fin-srch-v1

    ADD: I bought some F today in my IRA. I am thinking about selling most of my Netflix now as I have ridden it up from $67 and they still are not making a profit.

  30. lynn says:

    Those so-called pious “Christians” do not consider the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be a “Christian” church/religion.

    It isn’t. They are a Christian heresy and don’t adhere to the basics that all the Christian denominations accept (Nicene Creed, for one). Does that make them a “bad” religion? Not to me. Their basic precepts are in line with classical liberal principles.

    Our preacher has preached the Nicene Creed several times and, I agree with it. I guess that and the fact that I attend church most Sundays, except when I am fishing or ill, makes me a pious Christian.

    ADD: And I am barely happy with the Pope nowadays. He is all about climate change and what not.

  31. lynn says:

    “A.F. Branco Cartoon – To Russia with Love”
    https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-to-russia-with-love/

    “The Media and the Democrats continue with the narrative that Trump is “Putin’s puppet” although he’s been tougher on Putin than any previous President. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.”

    Man, Branco is on a roll.

  32. Greg Norton says:

    I am thinking about buying some F. Their new plugin electric F-150 and other vehicles coming out next year might just set the truck world on fire. I know that I am interested and the stock is depressed right now.

    Auto financing will be one of the next bubbles to pop, and oil prices are always a wild card.

    Ford didn’t get a GM/Chrysler-style bailout, but they borrowed a lot of money at below-market rates from the government to make it through the Great Recession. I don’t see Congress going for another TARP without a change in the White House and/or veto-proof Dem supermajorities in both houses.

  33. lynn says:

    Ford didn’t get a GM/Chrysler-style bailout, but they borrowed a lot of money at below-market rates from the government to make it through the Great Recession.

    IIRC, F borrowed $12 billion from the feddies. And, IIRC, the feddies were going to forgive that debt if F produced plugin electric vehicles. F already sells two plugin cars and three new plug vehicles are coming out in 2019: F-150, Explorer, and an SUV. IIRC.

  34. jim~ says:

    I suspect the percentage of Christians who bomb abortion clinics is about the same as the percentage of Muslims who wear suicide vests.

    @hcombs
    This fellow was a nice guy, good neighbor, we spoke often over the garden fence, but he admitted he would kill me and my family if asked to by his religious authority, nothing personal you understand.

    That is indeed troubling. But again, I suspect it’s a case of zealotry, and can be found among many religious orders.

  35. lynn says:

    When I asked my Muslim (Pakistani) neighbor in the UK what he thought about the growing Islamic terrorism (circa 1995) he responded that it was a corruption of the prophets teaching. I then asked if he would do anything like that (terrorism?) He paused and said “Only if my Imam ordered us to.” This fellow was a nice guy, good neighbor, we spoke often over the garden fence, but he admitted he would kill me and my family if asked to by his religious authority, nothing personal you understand.

    I can guarantee you that I would not murder my neighbors if asked to by any religious authority. And I would denounce any person asking me to do so.

  36. DadCooks says:

    The newest trend in vehicles is “subscribing”. The lease/finance/purchase methods are so yesterday. Pick out your car or truck, pay a monthly subscription fee (that includes all maintenance, repairs, and wearable items like tires). Almost all the domestic and foreign manufacturers are trying it from small local/regional trials to all out (Volvo and Mercedes come to mind as the current all-in companies).

    So if you are betting in the Stock Market watch who the movers are in the subscription model.

  37. CowboySlim says:

    @CowboySlim, Ridgecrest!!! How did you figure out where I hang my hat?

    Stayed in motel in Ridgecrest when 4 wheeling near Trona Pinnacles and going to Death Valley. Went to saloon with live music.

    We used to camp and fool around at a placer mine along the tracks about 3 – 5 miles NE of where the RR tracks cross the 395 about 4 miles north of Johannesburg. Tracks go from Garlock to Searles.

    Had a couple of beers in the Randsburg one Sat. night about 40 years ago. Drive past on the annual camping trip up to Kennedy Meadows. SIL’s mother now lives in Kernville and we need to go visit her and SIL wants to buzz through Randsburg on way up.

    Got in the habit of ordering Mojave Gold and Mojave Red from nearby Indian Wells Brewery in Inyokern.

    Remember a movie filmed in Red Mountain and it was Andy Griffith, I think, and he was like on a hunting trip to kill a human. In front of what used to be the Owl Garage.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTy-iCiFlDs

    Going here tonight for some PBR, on tap, and live music:
    https://www.facebook.com/MothersTavern/
    http://www.roadkillkings.com/
    https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=roadkill%20kings&ref=eyJzaWQiOiIwLjkwNDk2NTE0MDgxNjc4OTYiLCJxcyI6IkpUVkNKVEl5Y205aFpHdHBiR3dsTWpCcmFXNW5jeVV5TWlVMVJBIiwiZ3YiOiJiZWUwOWY5M2ZhNzMyY2ZhNTlhMWNiNmQ5ZjQ1MGQzODkyNDI0ZTQ5IiwiZW50X2lkcyI6W10sImJzaWQiOiI2Y2MxMDhkMDg2NDI1ZTMxNjM1YmQ3YWQyMzkzOGM4OSIsInByZWxvYWRlZF9lbnRpdHlfaWRzIjpudWxsLCJwcmVsb2FkZWRfZW50aXR5X3R5cGUiOm51bGwsInJlZiI6ImJyX3RmIiwiY3NpZCI6bnVsbCwiaGlnaF9jb25maWRlbmNlX2FyZ3VtZW50IjpudWxsfQ

    Oh well, I’ll leave now before the links overwhelm.

  38. lynn says:

    “My Impeccable Instincts on Display Again”
    https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/07/24/my-impeccable-instincts-on-display-again/

    “Now, here is my impeccable instinct. There’s a story in Barron’s today: “The Nightmare of Fleeing High-Tax States.” I moved to New York in July of 1988 and I lived and worked there for 10 years. In 1997 I renounced citizenship in the state of New York and fled to the no-state-income-tax state of Florida, where I have lived since.”
    https://www.barrons.com/articles/the-nightmare-of-fleeing-high-tax-states-1532374830

    “At the time I sent letters to the New York tax authorities every year telling them I had moved, showing them photocopies of my Florida driver’s license, memberships in various organizations and clubs, hoping to be up front and honest with them, that I no longer lived there and was not going to be filing tax returns anymore.”

    “Well, all that did was put a bull’s-eye on my back and I then was audited by New York state for 12 consecutive years. Some audits would include three tax years, so it wasn’t 12 audits, but the audits did include 12 tax years. And every audit began with the premise that I was lying, that I actually still lived in New York because I had an apartment there and that I was just trying to get out of paying New York taxes.”

    I sure am glad that my forebears four and five generations back moved to Texas. They moved here from Kansas, Missouri, Germany, and Belgium via Illinois in the late 1800s through early 1900s.

  39. Greg Norton says:

    I sure am glad that my forebears four and five generations back moved to Texas. They moved here from Kansas, Missouri, Germany, and Belgium via Illinois in the late 1800s through early 1900s.

    The property tax situation in FL is better for people in Limbaugh’s income bracket. The insurance mess in FL balances things out with TX for us mere mortals.

  40. SteveF says:

    They are a Christian heresy and don’t adhere to the basics that all the Christian denominations accept (Nicene Creed, for one).

    Bah. There is nothing inherently truthful about the Nicene creed. It was the imposed result of power politics, cult of personality, and outright economic and military force.

    Back around 300CE there was a huge variety of beliefs under the umbrella of Christianity, more than the typical Christian of today would ever believe flourished. Some sects died out through lack of believers, some because the areas containing the believers were overrun by a conquering tribe or army, some merged, and some were murdered by competing sects. Not one was inherently and uniquely right, according to what’s written in the Christian bible — to the extent that a written bible was relied upon at that time; note that some of the books in today’s various accepted bibles hadn’t been written yet and quite a few books were considered canon but which did not go into today’s bibles.

  41. JimB says:

    @CowboySlim, hadn’t seen the movie. Pretty good. Couldn’t get to the Facebook links, not public, I guess.

    You mentioned Mojave Red and Gold. Yup, folks in these parts all know Rick Lovett and his brewery. I think the Indian Wells Lodge, right next to the brewery, still has a sampler of four beers. Or, just go to the brewery: anyone there will give you the tour. Takes about a minute. If Rick is there, it might take a little longer.

    Ridgecrest is the smallest town I have ever lived in. Love it, especially the weather. I grew up in the Midwest, and lived briefly in Florida. Not for me. Like the dessicated desert. I used to tell RBT that sssnakes are some of my best friends, and that if I ever visited him, I wanted to pet George and Martha. Funny, he never responded.

  42. Nick Flandrey says:

    Took 750 pounds of scrap metal to the recycler today, took about that much plastic to the dump. So about 3/4 ton out of the drive way. I’ll have to fill up the space with something else now.

    200# of aluminum plate, 300# of transformers, couple hundred of wire and extension cord…

    The plate paid the best at .42$ scrap prices are back down.

    now off to movie night…

    n

  43. Jenny says:

    Laminate install is done. Looks pretty good. I haven’t laid laminate before – usually husband tackles it.

    I’m glad dad taught me to use his power tools when I was a kid. Today’s tools included a chop saw and table saw.

    Lots left to do.

  44. lynn says:

    Laminate install is done. Looks pretty good. I haven’t laid laminate before – usually husband tackles it.

    I’m glad dad taught me to use his power tools when I was a kid. Today’s tools included a chop saw and table saw.

    Congrats ! And I learned a new term today, chop saw.

    When I installed laminate in a octagonal dining room, I used a mitering table and a circular saw. The octagonal corners all took more than one attempt. Measure ten times and get four answers…

  45. lynn says:

    Today, I am converting hp to hp metric. I did not have a clue that they were not the same but our software does. 1 hp = 1.0138696654 hp metric.
    http://www.kylesconverter.com/power/horsepower-to-metric-horsepower

    You know, I really don’t care that hp and hp metric are not the same.

    And in some places we use hp metric and other places we use hpmetric. Consistent, we are not !

    ADD: My favorite dimensional units are still the barleycorn. No, we did not add it to our software. But we wanted to. It really came down to the length difference between old barleycorn (dry) and new barleycorn (wet).
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barleycorn_(unit)

  46. pcb_duffer says:

    [snip] Because there is no way a good Baptist is going to kill his neighbor on the word of a guy behind a pulpit. There is no earthly authority that can demand that in the name of God. [snip]

    Most of the Klansmen I’ve encountered in my life (and there have been far too many of them) would be all to happy to kill on the orders of their preachers. And yet > 95% of them are mainstream Protestants. I would argue that one cannot be a Christian without accepting the primacy of the verse “I give you a new Commandment: Love one another.” but the average Klansman will tell you that it doesn’t count because Negroes aren’t really human.
    IMHO the problem with all religious nutbags is that they tend to view Other People as others first, and people second. A few weeks ago I had a woman tell me that she wouldn’t consider getting involved with me, but that she would pray for me, because my religious leanings, such as they are, are incorrect.

  47. lynn says:

    I got some random stuff this week and last. Some medical stuff. Some camping stuff. I refilled all the propane tanks. I haven’t increased gasoline storage yet, but will. I need to start the little gennie too.

    I guess that it is time to buy one of those little quiet Hondas for the house and store about ten gallons of gas for it.

    But for the bugout site, I need about 7 kw to start and run the well pump. And a commiserate amount of gasoline. And a place to store all that since it will grow feet and walk off immediately. The well house would be a bad place since there are sparks in there due to the well pump relay contacts.

  48. lynn says:

    I should order a charge controller and big battery for the new solar panel. That I can do without spending a lot of time, but I do need to make decisions about which one, and how big…

    How many and how big (generation size) are the solar panels that you bought ?

    I wonder if I could run my well pump off a single Tesla Powerwall since it is 7kW peak / 5kW continuous. But the suckers are $5,900 each and weigh 276 lbs. Cheaper to buy a 7kw gasoline generator.
    https://www.tesla.com/powerwall

  49. Nick Flandrey says:

    It’s a kyocera panel, about 2ft x 4ft, and I don’t remember the model number. It came with a charge controller, that I think is the reason it was retired. The panel put out almost 20v in the full sun, so I know the panel is good. It also came with a sine wave 300w converter. All in I paid $32 so I’ve got some room to replace the controller 🙂

    n

  50. Nick Flandrey says:

    “I suspect the percentage of Christians who bomb abortion clinics is about the same as the percentage of Muslims who wear suicide vests.”

    Nope, not even close.

    “At least 11 people have been killed in attacks on abortion clinics in the United States since 1993.”

    No need to detail the muslim murders during the same time….

    Christians outnumber muslims too, by over half a billion so we’d expect to see thousands of dead if this were the case.

    Abortion clinic bombing was essentially one guy, and he got caught.

    n

  51. brad says:

    “I wonder how OFD is doing?”

    Me too. On the last postcard I sent, I added a request for someone to please post an update here. The hospital has volunteers who read the mail to people like OFD, but hoping for that kind of “extra”, well, no luck so far… If anyone is ever travelling in that area, or knows someone who is, please drop in at the hospital and find out!

    – – – – –

    Jim writes: “I happen to think arranged marriages are good thing! If you can breed dogs for certain characteristics, why not Homo sapiens?”

    You know, in principle I don’t disagree. We could certainly better the species by intent. Experiments with insects have shown, for example, that it is easy to triple the lifespan in just a few generations. But this requires draconian, long-term planning. And leads immediately to the killer question: who gets to decide who pairs up to have children? That’s a lot of power to entrust to anyone or anything. I can maybe see the Chinese heading in this direction – it would be an all-too-easy extension of their new social scoring system. But what happens when it turns out that various political high-muckety-mucks have undesireable genes? Are they capable of that level of objectivity? I somehow doubt it…

    – – – – –

    “Measure ten times and get four answers…”

    Story of my life, when doing DIY work. Especially when it comes to weird angles. I generally just avoid doing finishing work in the “living areas” of the house, because I’m not exact enough. Painting and such ok, but my carpentry is best left in the basement…

    – – – – –

    Amazon stock, don’t remind me. Back in the run-up to the 2000/2001 bubble bursting, I had amassed quite a nice portfolio of tech stocks. But I got greedy, bought too much on margin, lost all of the gains and had to sell everything. Including quite a lot of Amazon stock. I still regularly kick myself for stupidity. I’ve since left investing to my wife, who is a lot less impatient and more conservative.

  52. Jim Lang says:

    Abortion clinic bombing was essentially one guy, and he got caught.

    Further, if the nutbag DID go to a mainstream church, I doubt very much that the rest of the congregation would support his actions.

    KKK? While they may call themselves “Christian”, I don’t know any Christians that support them.

    The key is this: Does the group or its leaders support or oppose the nuts?

  53. Miles_Teg says:

    Mormons aren’t Christians… They just aren’t. Nor are Jehovah’s Wittnesses or Christadelphians.

    I’ve never met a Mormon I didn’t like, but that doesn’t make them Christian.

  54. SteveF says:

    They just aren’t.

    -nod- Proof by repeated assertion. One of the most effective forms are argument.

  55. Nick Flandrey says:

    isn’t the definition of a modern christian one who accepts the personal intervention of J-C in their life, whether or not the Nicean creed is involved? Most sects seem to accept a yes answer to “have you accepted JC as your personal lord and saviour” to be sufficient.

    In that case, Mormons are certainly christian, if heretics (in the eyes of the original church.)

    It’s acknowledging the sacrifice of JC, and his reality as the son of god, and the necessity of his intervention that defines christianity… otherwise you might as well be jewish.

    n

  56. SteveF says:

    By that standard, most Catholics and I think all Orthodox are not Christian, a claim that a number of American evangelicals do in fact make.

  57. DadCooks says:

    WRT who is and who isn’t a Christian:
    IMHO, if your “religion” (be it organized, disorganized, or just you) uses/is based on the New Testament (no matter what version or translation) then you are a “somewhat” Christian, to some extent.

    I’ll carry my opinion further such that your “religion” (be it organized, disorganized, or just you) must also use/teach the Old Testament to be a True Christian, IMHO. All others who deny the teachings/lessons of the Old Testament are just acting out of convenience. Sure, much of the Old Testament was made moot by the New Testament, but to know where you are going you must know where you have been.

    A True Christian must accept that they are not the only ones who are going to Heaven/Paradise/Promised Land/Shangri-La/et al.

    To go to the most basic though, if you believe in and practice the Ten Commandments you are saved and will go to are going to Heaven/Paradise/Promised Land/Shangri-La/et al.

    To say that Jesus is the only way is really not true.

  58. Miles_Teg says:

    Anyone who denies the divinity of Christ isn’t a Christian. There *are* standards.

    Moslems aren’t Christians, nor are atheists.

    Creationists aaren’t scientists, no matter their pretentions.

  59. lynn says:

    A True Christian must accept that they are not the only ones who are going to Heaven/Paradise/Promised Land/Shangri-La/et al.

    Hey, now wait just a minute ! I was told growing up that only the Church of Christ Christians were going to church. In fact, somebody even made a joke about it:

    A Christian man passes away and goes to the Heaven gates. St. Peter meets him and offers to give him a tour. They wander around the place and people are laughing, praying, singing, etc. Then they get near the back and Peter, “Shh, we have to be quiet back here.”. The man asks “why ?”. Peter replies “This is where the Church of Christ people are at. They think that they are by themselves here.”.

  60. lynn says:

    IMHO, if your “religion” (be it organized, disorganized, or just you) uses/is based on the New Testament (no matter what version or translation) then you are a “somewhat” Christian, to some extent.

    Uh, we Church of Christers are coming in under the disorganized path there. And I like it that way. In fact, we are so disorganized that several of the other Churches of Christ sent us a letter a decade or so ago and asked us to change our name when we added a worship service with instrumental music. We ignored them and they all gave up after a few years. Now several of them have added instrumental worship services also. BTW, my church is the largest Church of Christ in the Houston area with 2,600 members so it is hard to ignore us.

  61. MarkD says:

    Regarding leaving NY: I didn’t write, filed my last state tax return as a partial year resident, registered my car here and returned the NY plates.

    Thus far I’ve had no problems. Maybe the difference is that I don’t own anything in NY anymore, or that KY has a state income tax.

Comments are closed.