73F and saturated. Had some spotty rain yesterday, but I managed to avoid most of whatever fell on Houston. I’m hoping to do the same today.
Another week gone in an eyeblink.
I got the pop up tasks (mostly) done at my rent house. There are a couple of little things they need, but at least the dishwasher is in, and so are the tenants.
I got nothing done in the garden, and nothing further on the gennie or the solar. I got a little bit further on my office clean up, but there are still piles of stuff everywhere in the house.
Ugg. I better get some of this stuff finished…. There is so much else to do too.
Please tell me you guys have done some prepping this week!
n
NOTE- for any new visitors, welcome! The way this place works is the daily post by me is usually just an ‘opener’ to open the door this morning, and kickstart the conversation that mostly happens in the comments. Please feel free to join in or ask a question, let us know you’re here. There is a ton of info here in past posts and comment discussion about prepping, science, computers, radio, work in various high tech industries, and politics. Look around, search, or ask if you can’t find something. NO abuse [of other participants] is allowed and we don’t know you well enough for kidding yet…. Politicians and prog scumbags are a different story, fire away.
No abuse? What was that about Miles_Teg, SteveF, and Sheep then? (I Kid! I Kid!)
48º and sunny on the north coast right now. Actually chilly enough that I won’t stand around outside in shorts this morning.
Garden is done for the year – just need to pull out the plants and get ready for the spring. We learned a bit, and will be bigger & better next year.
“We learned a bit, and will be bigger & better next year.”
— that is the crucial thing! The learning curve is steeper than you think….
n
Regarding medical supplies–
you don’t have enough.
Based on my past history, you all know I pick up medical supplies whenever I see them. I realized wound care will eat up a TON of supplies, and most people just think in terms of first aid.
Just changing the bandage on my elbow is using a roll of kerlix a day, and one roll of vet wrap every two days. It’s not that the wound is draining or bloody, it’s the sweat from the heat and working. Changing the bandage is a comfort thing. Post SHTF, you are gonna be even dirtier, sweatier, and working harder than I am.
Pile it higher!
n
Fall break is next week. I’ve been prepping for vacation. We are heading to central Florida. Going to spend 3 days at Universal, then head over to the cape for several days. Kennedy Space Center will be one day. The wife and I have been several times, but this will be my son’s first trip (who is a space geek and wants to be an Aeronautical Engineer.) Some if it will be anti-climatic, as we do have the Space and Rocket Center local to us.
WRT to programming: I was not categorized as a “programmer”; however, it was requested at various times that I do such. Here is the book which I used:
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Basic-Applications-Unleashed-McFedries/dp/0672310465?tag=ttgnet-20
I also was down there for several days about two decades ago. I was supporting Delta II Launch Vehicle prelaunch preparations.
Here’s an official training video about fentanyl for first responders- looks like it won’t kill you from a touch after all.
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/video-gallery/video-library/fentanyl-real-deal
n
Dr. Bob labeled this place “unsocial media”. Which is why many of us are here. Don’t be mean, but you don’t have to be PC either.
The Washinton comPost says “Senators, vote no on Kavanaugh.” No bias there. People wonder why the MSM is labeled fake. We are also supposed to do what Hollyweird celibriturds say.
Going to spend 3 days at Universal, then head over to the cape for several days. Kennedy Space Center will be one day. The wife and I have been several times, but this will be my son’s first trip (who is a space geek and wants to be an Aeronautical Engineer.)
Hit Kennedy when they open if you want to see everything.
Don’t forget about the Shuttle Launch Experience in the back, connected to the Atlantis display. The Atlantis display was new when we went last. The shuttle smelled … odd.
My kids had a good time at Gatorland if you find yourself with extra time to kill.
And the dumbos all talk about Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas. How do they ignore the total fraud of the accusations against the Duke University LaCrosse Team players? Do they not remember that the non-raped accuser is now in prison being convicted of stabbing a man.
Hey, RocketMan,
I’m trying to figure out which is more efficient in terms of Joules: the RadarRange or an induction cooktop.
Posit, if you will, 1 liter of dihydrogen monoxide. Both the RadarRange and the induction cooker draw 1250 watts and we’ll assume the passive heat loss for both are the same.
Qué sabes?
Is it just my imagination running away with me?
Or have the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize become more and more unpronounceable?
And less relevant.
N
I am guessing you have not seen a list of student names from inner city schools.
The list is like a rogues gallery.
N
I’ve decided that for most of the inner city names, first try should be a straight phonetic reading.
Well, my Daughter has backed off her radical plan to change careers. She did take my advice, provided by @mediumwave, to try Java. She said she learned how to draw a circle. I think she is just in need of some new brain stimulus.
Just got a text from my Daughter, she got a”market adjustment” pay raise of 24-cents per hour. She said, “oh well, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.”
Yesterday, Thu 8/4 (in the Wed. 8/3 post) @brad said:
Our Daughter is 33. She is not expecting us to pay for any more education or support. She has two-years income saved and “liquid” with another two-years in 401Ks and more in deferred comp. She has taken Mom and Dad’s savings plan to heart.
We had to bring her back down to reality. She has a serious auto-immune condition that requires over $5,000.00/month in drugs. She has to be working with a good medical plan and she reluctantly admits it.
To refresh everyone’s memory she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Gonzaga University. She has a degree in International Studies, specialized in Asian Studies and she speaks, reads, and writes Chinese (Mandarin and at least 6 dialects), Japanese (several dialects), Tagalog (several dialects), and Spanish (classic European and all the variations on this side of the pond). But then her body decided to attack her during her final quarter. It is a miracle that she didn’t die and was able to keep up her work. She is still pissed that it caused her to lose her Suma Cum Laude. BTW, back then at Gonzaga, there were no Suma and Magna Cum Laude for each “school”, just one each for each graduating class. That changed the next year as Gonzaga embarked on its road to “equality, diversity, and political correctness.”
That’s enough for now, @Dad is getting wordy.
Peace and get more medical supplies (remember the Vet Supply section of home/farm/ranch stores is a good reasonably priced source).
Yes. That’s been known for quite a while. Very few drugs, especially in powder, can penetrate the skin quickly. The guy that had the supposed overdose from brushing it off his vest probably had a panic attack.
The wife and I have been several times, but this will be my son’s first trip (who is a space geek and wants to be an Aeronautical Engineer.
This place is west of Disney and possesses one of the best vintage aircraft collections in the world. They drift in and out of regular museum operation (sadly, it seems they are closed this month), but if their calendar indicates that the museum is open anytime you are in Orlando, it is a must-see for airplane nerds.
http://www.fantasyofflight.com
The really unique aspect of the collection is that everything flies or is in the process of being restored to flying condition.
Well, it’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison. The microwave is good for steaming and some reheating of food. It won’t brown food. An induction cooktop is much better for most forms of cooking since it will brown the food, making meats and the like much tastier. The article below says that in rank of efficiency it is:
– microwave
– induction
– electric
– gas
However, that’s just efficiency at the stove – for systemic efficiency you would need to calculate the losses in generating the electricity and in delivering the gas. The article points out that technique can greatly effect efficiency – cover a pot of water and it heats twice as fast.
https://home.howstuffworks.com/gas-vs-electric-cooking1.htm
Bwah Ha Ha ha!
Jiame Inyokrotch
To refresh everyone’s memory she graduated Magna Cum Laude from Gonzaga University. She has a degree in International Studies, specialized in Asian Studies and she speaks, reads, and writes Chinese (Mandarin and at least 6 dialects), Japanese (several dialects), Tagalog (several dialects), and Spanish (classic European and all the variations on this side of the pond).
Since your daughter already has an undergrad diploma, if she ever talks about a tech career again, have her look at one of the online certificate programs at UW Professional Development. I took the three semester C++ program through them, but they offer .Net and Java.
Blah blah, blah.
That’s very impactful information, thank you ech.
BTW, please do not confuse affect with effect. A reminder brought to you by the ghost of OFD.
Thanks, ech, for filling in for me.
In our house, it was never a trade off in an engineering context. We bought the house that looked best to her. The kitchen had only AC, no carbon quatro hydrogen. So it had grill cooking. Then she chose induction, I guess, for update.
Outdoors, I chose a Weber CH4 BBQ.
Oh-oh, don’t tell gov moonbeam that I don’t use solar BBQ.
And now the clown show can move to the next phase. I’ve been driving around, so I’m listening to Commie radio (Pacifica) and their coverage of the vote was interesting. WAY one sided, but at least they aired the opposition speeches.
n
Dr switched me to a new more powerful antibiotic, since I’m seeing swelling, redness, and increased heat around my wound.
And now the clown show can move to the next phase. I’ve been driving around, so I’m listening to Commie radio (Pacifica) and their coverage of the vote was interesting. WAY one sided, but at least they aired the opposition speeches.
Of course Murkowski had to grind her axe some more.
Her father lost the primary to Sarah Palin more than a decade ago.
No, what you want is a creative, and I’m sure I need not say malicious, misreading.
Gonorrhea Jackson, where are you? Suckass T’Killer? Queen LaTwinkletoes?
WRT to programming: I was not categorized as a “programmer”; however, it was requested at various times that I do such. Here is the book which I used:
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Basic-Applications-Unleashed-McFedries/dp/0672310465?tag=ttgnet-20
I have simply amazed over the years how useful spreadsheets are for programming engineering applications. I am in the middle of making another tie-in to Excel for our software at customer and prospect demand.
Is it just my imagination running away with me?
Or have the recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize become more and more unpronounceable?
I am going to get blasted for this but here it goes. Western first world societies have more access to birth control and are very good at using it. So much so that western first world societies are dying out due to the lack of the 3.0 kids in each family.
Here’s an official training video about fentanyl for first responders- looks like it won’t kill you from a touch after all.
I had fentanyl in my heart surgery anesthesia in August. I woke up during the middle of the surgery.
We had to bring her back down to reality. She has a serious auto-immune condition that requires over $5,000.00/month in drugs. She has to be working with a good medical plan and she reluctantly admits it.
The harsh realities of life suck. I am glad that she was able to finish her education and work full time despite her illness. In fact, I am simultaneously jealous and happy for her.
My daughter’s life essentially stopped at 17 (she is now 31) and we cannot get moved off that point due to her Lyme disease. The good Lord has blessed us enough that we have enough funds to let her live with us and take care of her. Probably costs us $2,000/month. Of course, the wife would throw me out in a heartbeat if needful. She has already lost one daughter, she will not lose another.
BTW, congrats on having a great relationship with your daughter. The fact that she feels safe to text you about her market raise is neat ! I tend to gloss over such small items but they are quite important in the long run.
“A.F. Branco Cartoon – Holey Testimony!”
“The FBI investigation revealed that Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony is still full of holes. Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2018.”
https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-holey-testimony/
I have no idea how this guy is that creative but as usual, he nails the situation.
“What Is Wi-Fi 6? New Wi-Fi Names Explained”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/364222/what-is-wi-fi-6
“The Wi-Fi Alliance is renaming its Wi-Fi versions. Here’s why 802.11n, ac, and ax are becoming Wi-Fi 4, 5, and 6 and what you’ll see on routers and devices going forward.”
Shoot, I cannot get wifi to work from one end of my house to the other end.
Shoot, I cannot get wifi to work from one end of my house to the other end.
Power line and MOCA adapters have been better as of late.
I get 20-30 Mbps out of my power line adapters (500 Mbps rated) and 60-70 Mbps out of the MOCA connection to my home office from the cable modem location.
Shoot, I cannot get wifi to work from one end of my house to the other end.
Power line and MOCA adapters have been better as of late.
I get 20-30 Mbps out of my power line adapters (500 Mbps rated) and 60-70 Mbps out of the MOCA connection to my home office from the cable modem location.
I use a set of four or five 100 mbps power line adapters. They work quite well. But the AT&T DSL line wifi does not reach back to the game room from the study. I plan to move the AT&T DSL line modem to the master closet where it comes into the house but I have not gotten around to it. That will be a more central location in the house.
Ah, MOCA is coax. I cannot use that in my house, the DirecTV is using the coax to talk with the antenna on the garage roof.
http://www.mocainyourhouse.com/
Regarding coax and DirecTv: at the current house, the outside coax cable box has separate runs to each coax outlet in the house. The Wave broadband guy did a fox-hound thing to find the right cable. So did the DirecTV guy.
The run to the den is used by DirecTV, which connects to the TV there. The TV in the master bedrooms is connected to DirectTV via their wireless slave box.
The run from the outside box to the living room is used for the internet cable modem. Wave Broadband connects to that run, and the cable modem is connected at the other end. Then the wireless router (802.11a/c, or WiFi-5) is connected to the cable modem.
My house is not large (about 2100 sqft, two story) so the wireless signal reaches all the important parts. The wireless router is next to the gas log fireplace, so there is some metal shielding on the fireplace that interferes with the signal somewhat, but not enough to hamper signal strength to other parts of the house.
I’ve been meaning to move the wireless router to a location higher up – it’s in the bottom cupboard of the builtin cupboards (lower level) and book shelf area (upper area). But that will require drilling through the tile top of the lower cabinets, and I haven’t been able to find the round-tuit that will enable that project. I think if I moved the wireless router to a higher location (about 4 feet from floor level), I’d get a better signal throughout the house. But the project has a very low priority, and is further affected (not effected) by procrastination.
Not sure that WiFi-6 will help with signal strength. I think that it is mostly better compression of data, so that more data can be squeezed into the same size packets. But moving the wifi router a bit higher – and away from the metal shielding of the fireplace insert – would probably help the signal strength.
I had a MS Word template type with key placeholders. Worked simulation numbers from mainframes into Excel and then back and forth from Access. Then final Excel quantities to the placeholders in Word templates. Final Word docs signed and sent to CCAFS launch team. Data included liquids propellant quantities to load. It really obviated human error in processing mainframe results to final documents.
Well, I just got affirmation that we can operate without our sales person. My office manager checked on a prospect and got them to sign a one year contract for usage of our software.
Meanwhile, I will start on the arduous task of hiring another sales person. Did I mention I hate hiring people ? Did I mention I hate supervising people ? And I am trying to fix a horrible nasty bug in our builtin fortran compiler and interpreter in our software for a customer in Norway.
I realized wound care will eat up a TON of supplies,
How true. After treating my wifes VRE infection for most of a year, resulting from a triple bypass, I know how much you go through each week.
Recently saw a woman advertise Wound Care supplies for free on our Neighborhood site. Her mother had died leaving a months worth of sterile gauze and bandages unused. We snapped them up and have vacuum sealed them in bags for storage. If you don’t need them, I guarantee someone you know will.
Power line and MOCA adapters have been better as of late.
I use ONLY powerline adapters as I don’t want to leak WiFi signals / access to the neighborhood. Yes, I am paranoid. It comes with the profession. I find I can’t get more than 20 mbps out of the 500 mbps rated units but I put that down to a very noisy AC circuit. I have found a couple of dimmable lamps that put so much noise on the line the signal was almost useless and had to remove them. Be very careful of what you put on your AC if you run EOP.
My house is not large (about 2100 sqft, two story)
LOL … When we lived outside the US we moved from a 1800 sqft ranch in rural Oklahoma to a 900 sqft terrace house in Essex London suburbs. Then to a 900 sqft flat in Discovery Bay Hong Kong, and finally to a 1200 sqft 3 bedroom home in Auckland NZ. These were larger than average homes fro the location and made us upper middle class. Middle class Americans live in amazing luxury compared to most of the world. Our poor live better than most middle class do in the UK and EU. We are a hugely blessed nation and most of us don’t even understand how good we have it.
We now have a two story, 2500 sqft home in Mississippi with more room than we need now our kids are gone. I do wish we had more storage. But I will be retiring inside a year and we will be moving on and renting this place out.
No indication of ethnicity:
https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/10/04/grab-and-go-theft-on-the-rise-at-uc-davis-campus/
With that one exception, looks like non-fake news to me.
Regarding first aid supplies: you can often find good stuff at your local Dollar Tree-type store.
I get their antibiotic cream and fabric bandaids for my supplies. Plus the gauze rolls, anti-itch creme, etc. Same strengths as retail brands, perhaps smaller sizes, but cheaper overall, I believe. Don’t buy their vitamins, etc, but other health supplies are good for go bags, due to small size. Name brand toothbrushes, toothpaste, anti-stink pit wipes, etc.
The fabric bandages work well – they stay stuck on, but will fray a couple of threads at the end of the day. Not a big deal, IMHO. And the price appeals to my cheapness.
Some of those type supplies are ‘good enough’. Plus the dollar candy. And office supplies.
If the electricity is generated by fossil fuel, this list is backwards. You convert the gas directly to heat at your stove instead of combustion – steam – electric generation – distribution – back to heat…
If you are talking electric, resistance heaters (old style electric “burners”) are 100% efficient. Sure, not all this heat makes it to your pan but I have to think it beats microwave and induction by a large margin.
And I am trying to fix a horrible nasty bug in our builtin fortran compiler and interpreter in our software for a customer in Norway.
And junior programmer helped me fix the bug ! If he leaves for G then it will get much tougher around here. But I cannot afford to pay him what he is worth.
“Cartoonist Who Smeared Me in 1995 Does It to Kavanaugh” by Rush Limbaugh
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2018/10/02/cartoonist-who-smeared-me-in-1995-does-it-to-kavanaugh/
“In the speech bubble in the cartoon, Kavanaugh’s daughter says, “Dear God, forgive my angry, lying, alcoholic father for sexually assaulting Dr. Ford.””
Shameful, just shameful !
Whatever happened to the rule that you did not attack people’s kids in politics ?
Holy moly.
I haven’t received any bills yet, but I have been following my medical claims as they show up on my health insurance web site.
My stress induced medical emergency while caring for mom in California is getting close to $15,000 in charges. My best guess is that my share will meet or exceed my out of pocket maximum for the year, $3,000. $225 of the charges is for 10 tablets of Ondansetron to control nausea. I found that pretty egregious. $2,500 is the ambulance in the dead of the night. $8,000-ish in CT scan and voodoo interpretation.
That doesn’t include the follow up I have scheduled with a gastrointologist later this month.
I was in agony at the time, and knowing it was going to be $3,000 for my share wouldn’t have stopped me going to the hospital, but damn son.
There won’t be a next time of me caring for mom. It’s not my right to stop her from being an alcoholic. As a family we’ve lined up appropriate resources if she decides she wants to change. We have safety nets in place for her dog to ensure the dog isn’t a victim of her behavior.
Harsh? Or the ultimate respect of her Free Will?
I am a little pissed this is costing my family so much money, though.
I was in agony at the time, and knowing it was going to be $3,000 for my share wouldn’t have stopped me going to the hospital, but damn son.
Good to hear that you are doing better. Good luck on the gastronomical problem. Mine were caused by heart drugs and have stayed around for the count.
We, the people with private health insurance, are in the middle between Medicare, Medicaid, and the people walking into the ER demanding free treatment. We are carrying the heavy load, the unpaid costs of the other three groups. And it is going to get worse.
I don’t know how to fix this. I thought Medicare for all ™ was going to fix health costs but I was wrong. My back of the envelope calculations say that the 1.45% employee tax and the 1.45% employer tax on salary would need to rise to 9% EACH to fund Medicare for All. That is not a solution, it is a disaster.
On your Mom, not harsh. Only the alcoholic can fix themselves.
I don’t know the solution either, Lynn. Other than allow people to fail. Allow people to die. It’s harsh. But so is demanding everyone else cover your own costs.
Life is risky. People die. Not much you can do about that and all of our efforts to create a risk free environment, to put the value of life so high and fear death so much, creates an enormous burden on everyone. I do not believe for a moment the credo of ‘if it saves just one child’. That remains such a huge lie that ignores the reality of oppression that comes as a direct result of being so risk averse.
Medicare / Medicaid. I looked up the maximum allowed charge for Ondansetron on Medicare / Medicaid. Less than a buck a tablet. Whoof. Hence the >$22 per tablet for private insurance. The real cost is somewhere in between, but someone (private insurance, which than passes the costs to us) somewhere has to pay the missing dollars.
Thanks for the affirmation on alcoholism. I’m at peace with her dying at this point. I hope she doesn’t suffer.
Yes, Jenny, it is possible for the survivors to be in peace. My father went at age 51 about 58 years ago for the same malady. Myself and my three sisters wish that it did not happen that way, but it did not negatively affect us in the decades since.
I received a letter from my health insurance that my monthly bill is going to just about double.
Er, no. It’s not. I haven’t used it at all. I’m not going to pay double for the same amount of nothing.
I was told today that I’m going to hell. Went to Schlotky’s for lunch. The guy at the register was either very new and they don’t train at all or he was operating at 130% of his capacity. I’m going with the max capacity theory.
As we went to get our drinks, I said, well, at least he doesn’t have drool running down his chin. Sat down, looked at the receipt. Er, we ordered 2 medium sandwiches. Not one small and one medium. [sigh] So, paid the extra buck /and/ paid for the bag of chips he didn’t charge…
There was another guy sort of wandering around pretending to re-fill the napkin dispensers.
Now I’m going to hell. I said “what? Goodwill isn’t hiring?”.
Not that I’ve seen more than four employees at the Goodwill in the next parking lot. Dirty store full of stuff that doesn’t sell at garage sales.
My back of the envelope calculations say that the 1.45% employee tax and the 1.45% employer tax on salary would need to rise to 9% EACH to fund Medicare for All. That is not a solution, it is a disaster.
Yeah, and that “employee” and “employer” tax propaganda is a farce. At your back of envelope 9% each, well, that’s really (round it up a bit) a 20% tax on my pay.
Actually, the way the medical stuff seems to be heading, 20% is on the low side.
Work 5 days, get paid for 4 days. Actually, work 5 days and get paid a bit more than half because of the other taxes.
Yeah, and that “employee” and “employer” tax propaganda is a farce. At your back of envelope 9% each, well, that’s really (round it up a bit) a 20% tax on my pay.
Actually, the way the medical stuff seems to be heading, 20% is on the low side.
Do you trust gooberment to collect $3 trillion in medicare taxes and spend 100% of those funds on medical costs for the nation ?
Thanks for the affirmation on alcoholism. I’m at peace with her dying at this point. I hope she doesn’t suffer.
Nobody is getting out of here alive. My mom is 77 and has stage 4 endometrial cancer. She has been in remission for 18 months now. She has been told that there is a high probability of it coming back in the next 5 to 6 years. But she is just trying to enjoy life and follow my 80 year old Dad wherever he journeys on to. They are in Halifax right now. They just got back from Iceland two weeks ago where they had a great time even with the incredibly high prices.
@jenny, I’m sorry to hear you had a problem, and I hope you have a full recovery. I did notice and think it was weird that you never finished your update on your trip.
I’m very familiar with a loved one making that same choice. My dad’s issues were not helped by his continued drinking. My grandmother drank and smoked until her last day, as did my great-grandmother on the same side. One lung and half a stomach wasn’t enough to get her off the gin. At this stage in their lives it seems very unlikely that they’d change, although my dad did seriously reduce for a long time, under threat of being shunned.
It’s one of the reasons I stopped when I did, and haven’t restarted. I see the end state, and wish to avoid it if possible.
You can only control your own actions, and (to some extent) your REactions to others. At the end of the day, other people make their choices. I’m really saddened that my dad didn’t want to live forever and see my kids grow up, and I don’t really know his reasons, but I accept that he made a choice. I don’t LIKE it, but it’s not up to me to like it, or approve.
n
(and I did grab about 2 bushels of wound care supplies from the house and brought them here….)
Well, for the nation and the illegal immigrants. I have the feeling that the hospitals with emergency rooms don’t even bother with spending 55¢ for a USPS stamp to send them a bill after delivering a bona-fide USA citizen.
Do you trust gooberment to collect $3 trillion in medicare taxes and spend 100% of those funds on medical costs for the nation ?
I do! For about as long as I can hold my breath. 🙂
And then they”ll spend half a trillion and come begging for more money.
One real world meta indicator I see for the rise of healthcare as a portion of our overall economy, is that several of our local networks keep buying/leasing failed or empty retail and putting in clinics. Both the ER and UC I went to are in the same strip mall. Harris County Health has taken over several local strip developments, and one former grocery store. I see it everywhere.
With an aging population, the rise in obesity and diabetes, and all the “extra” people to take care of, it makes sense to have more locations. I think more jobs and money flowed into the local economy when those buildings were filled with retail though.
n
Our local Goodwill stores are clean, usually well stocked and provisioned with workers, and brightly lit. Often they are in new or new-ish commercial developments.
It happens that they are in one of their periodic price increase phases here. Every so often a new manager sees the resellers making money and raises the prices to retail… and people stop buying. Eventually they lower the prices back down and the merch flows again.
n
My local Goodwill has so many things on the ceiling that look like cameras that I wonder how they paid for them.
The last time I went, with a friend, he found a new Longhorns t-shirt. Never washed. For $2.
I look at the DVDs and most are junk titles. The furniture, oh, hell, even when I was 22 and broke and had no furniture other than a coffee table and a table for the TV, I wouldn’t have touched this stuff.
The dishwashers for $20 “as is” look interesting. But I’m quite sure they are at Goodwill because it’s easier than taking the dead machine to the dump… or dropping on the side of the road.
Lots of glass ware. Sad to look at. Much looks to me like Ma and Pa have died and the kids dumped the kitchen and china cabinet off at Goodwill.
[snip] I am guessing you have not seen a list of student names from inner city schools. [snip]
I haven’t noticed a random smattering of punctuation in the Nobel winners’ list; they don’t be from the hood.
[snip] $225 of the charges is for 10 tablets of Ondansetron to control nausea. I found that pretty egregious. $2,500 is the ambulance in the dead of the night. [snip]
Excepting, of course, that the amount charged will NOT be the amount collected. A couple of stories from a lady I’m trying to get close to, and who happens to be a Medicare CSR. 1) The ~ $65,000 air ambulance bill that Medicare knocked down to $4800. By the time you pay the flight crew, the mechanics, the fuel, and amortize the bird, they lost money on the flight. 2) The chiropractor who bills $70 for a 3-4 section back manipulation. Medicare says that service is worth ~$38, and of course pays 80% of that amount. Very little of that $38 is left once the DC pays the rent, the staff, the utilities, the liability insurance, and on and on.
[snip] $225 of the charges is for 10 tablets of Ondansetron to control nausea. I found that pretty egregious. $2,500 is the ambulance in the dead of the night. [snip]
Excepting, of course, that the amount charged will NOT be the amount collected. A couple of stories from a lady I’m trying to get close to, and who happens to be a Medicare CSR. 1) The ~ $65,000 air ambulance bill that Medicare knocked down to $4800. By the time you pay the flight crew, the mechanics, the fuel, and amortize the bird, they lost money on the flight. 2) The chiropractor who bills $70 for a 3-4 section back manipulation. Medicare says that service is worth ~$38, and of course pays 80% of that amount. Very little of that $38 is left once the DC pays the rent, the staff, the utilities, the liability insurance, and on and on.
Medicare and Medicaid are designed to be subsidized by private health insurance. The medical industry might could stand that if it weren’t for all of the free walkins to the ER.
Hmmm, that almost makes sense *if* one ignores the *passive heat loss”. I’ll experiment, but I’m pretty sure the microwave will boil 2 cups of water faster in a glass jar than the cooktop element on my stove drawing the same 1250 watts, all things being equal.
If you have never seen an induction cooker in action, they are really, really cool. Even at 1250 watts, which is pretty much the maximum I can draw from my early 1960s apartment. I no longer have one to play with because of all the *safety features’ incorporated in American versions, but in India they can boil a cup of water drawing maybe 2000/2500 watts in less than a minute.
Off to the lab. I’ll let you know.
“If you are talking electric, resistance heaters (old style electric “burners”) are 100% efficient. Sure, not all this heat makes it to your pan but I have to think it beats microwave and induction by a large margin. ”
Due to my wife’s allergies we had to give up the gas stove and replaced it with an induction top. I quickly grew to love it, the response was every bit as good as it had been with gas and even easier to control. I expected our electric bill to go up but it did not, probably due to time of day saving practices elsewhere that were already under way to take full advantage of our solar panels (our true-up for the last year we were there was $0.93). Very sad that we could bring neither the panels or the stove with us in our move.
Hah! Good one. After what they did to Social (in)Security? It will be nothing but IOUs in a month. THAT will become UOUs, which will become UOOthers.
I don’t trust them any farther than I can throw Chris Christie.
[snip] Medicare and Medicaid are designed to be subsidized by private health insurance. The medical industry might could stand that if it weren’t for all of the free walkins to the ER. [snip]
Absolutely correct, but the private insurance carriers also don’t pay the sticker price on any bill. Those numbers are merely the fictional opening bid in a reverse auction.
Do you trust gooberment to collect $3 trillion in medicare taxes and spend 100% of those funds on medical costs for the nation ?
Bahahaha. In WA State, my wife generated something close to $2 million top line revenue for her clinic. With all the fingers in the pie, at the end of the month, her take home, to do the hands on work, was a mid-single digit percentage of that. Figure another single digit percentage for the nurse’s salary and supplies, and about 10% of the $2 million actually paid for patient care, call it $200k.
The percentages in Texas are a little better, but not much.
Figure $3 trillion will net you about $300 billion in actual health care in the current arrangement of rackets, about $1000 for each American. The dollar figure isn’t terrible since that’s a couple of hours of time of a skilled surgeon or cancer doctor making $1 million a year, but the net as a percentage makes me wonder if simply handing medicine to the mafia to run wouldn’t be a better deal. Fewer sociopaths in the mob compared to government … and healthcare management.
The only good argument for single payer, in my mind, is that you get rid of a whole bunch of middle men. ‘Course they are now unemployed. Millions of them.
And it ignores both the Iron Law, and the fact that demand for a free benefit is infinite, which means rationing would be put in place. Then you hire back all the middle men to administer that program……
Or follow about 90% of Karl Denninger’s extensive recommendations and prosecute price fixing, cartel behavior, collusion, and anti-trust while moving to as free market as practical with fixed and transparent pricing, true competition for patients, and patient responsibility for payment.
A lot of the current excesses are caused because of lack of pricing transparency and the fact that the consumer of the service isn’t the one funding it.
n
And junior programmer helped me fix the bug ! If he leaves for G then it will get much tougher around here. But I cannot afford to pay him what he is worth.
We interviewed someone from Houston within the last few months (it is all a blur). Management wanted to hire him, but the guy wanted what they considered to be an “absurd” amount of money.
Dunno what that means. I essentially make what I did at AT&T 10 years ago in Tampa, but the bosses at the current git made a big, noisy show of hiring me at the “junior” level, probably to avoid upsetting the existing employees.
I did learn in the interview that Exxon (where the candidate worked) is outsourcing a *lot* of programmer jobs, and not just in IT-type work. High end engineering positions too.
The only good argument for single payer, in my mind, is that you get rid of a whole bunch of middle men. ‘Course they are now unemployed. Millions of them.
Single payer doesn’t eliminate the middle men inside the hospitals and physician groups. The $2 million figure I cited was what the clinic in WA state billed and received from the insurance companies. Roughly $1.8 million disappeared into the middlemen inside the provider organization.
If you have never seen an induction cooker in action, they are really, really cool.
I have a Duxtop and “As Seen On TV” and yes they boil aqua fast. Even better, I use it with my pressure cooker for precise control of heat. I have a Fagor.
@gn – I know you have firsthand knowledge of mds earnings but I have worked for many over the years, I still have several client mds and dds. I don’t seem to see a lack of earnings. Most have $1m homes and $100-200k cars. I actually don’t have a problem with it as I’m paid for my time at reasonable rates. Maybe California is higher than most but the central valley is no Beverly Hills.
Not hard to have a million dollar home in Cali….
Harder here in TX, but depends on the neighborhood. For the most part, they LOOK like million dollar homes!
One thing I’ve learned from working with rich people, their obligations increase along with income. Even the people I work for who are VERY laid back and casual will have things like an extra $30K assessment from their HOA to cover mowing, or business events for a couple hundred people at their home a couple of times a year.
They also tend to provide jobs for a bunch of people. Leaving off the builders and artisans that provide their homes/property/create stuff like wrought iron gates/or other durable (capital) improvements, just my one client has Me, a maid service, an HVAC company (to change filters), an appliance repair guy (to maintain the expensive kitchen stuff, lawn guys (big crew), a pool guy, mosquito control, generator guy, a security company, and the normal services like dry cleaning, auto repair (on multiple vehicles), etc. Poor people don’t drive the economy, rich people do!
n
@gn – I know you have firsthand knowledge of mds earnings but I have worked for many over the years, I still have several client mds and dds. I don’t seem to see a lack of earnings. Most have $1m homes and $100-200k cars. I actually don’t have a problem with it as I’m paid for my time at reasonable rates. Maybe California is higher than most but the central valley is no Beverly Hills.
DDS is a whole other world than MD. The government is generally not involved (for now), and dental care is not considered a “right”. In addition, a “bad” dental situation is a couple of orders of magnitude less than a “bad” medical situation — thousands as opposed to hundreds of thousands.
Also homes and cars are a bad basis for comparison in the last 10 years. Come to Texas — it seems like everybody has a $50,000 truck thanks to 3% 84 month car loans. That doesn’t mean everyone can afford one.
Boomer doctors have done well regardless of specialty since most of their peak earning years predated the current Doh-bamacare stupidity, and if they had student loans, the payments were manageable. If a Boomer doctor is not living well, chances are he couldn’t keep his Clinton-esque narcissism under control (not uncommon).
X-er and younger doctors in pediatrics and family practice have generally not done well, especially in rural or semi-rural areas. I’ve lived it for 18 years. Student loan debt, tightening insurance company payouts, and bloated bureaucracies even in small group practices have made some specialties middle class at best.
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The article I cited was based on how much of the heat generated by the source makes it to the pan. Gas is less efficient because of losses to the air and the stove mass.