Currently 30F and damp. Weather station says coldest temp overnight was 30F, just below freezing for the countries that never put a man on the moon…..
I’m glad I left my trees covered and warmed.
Of COURSE the school is sending the 4th graders to Austin by bus today. Nothing makes more sense than a day trip when the roads are sure to be messed up. They couldn’t predict the weather, but I’m still not happy. I wasn’t aware of the trip, or I would have chaperoned or followed along like some other parents. I’m REALLY uncomfortable with this.
The signs of the coming collapse are all around. Dominoes are starting to fall financially. Civil society is breaking down. Time to get serious…
n
Here is an online guide to the US Constitution. It’s from a conservative org, so don’t expect any justification for emanations or penumbras….
https://www.heritage.org/constitution/#!/
n
Hah! Pikers! 28º and sunny in the land of the rising wind.
We can delay or head off the collapse. It will require work and will, and nobody will thank us for it. But it can be done.
Eldest asked for Pancakes this morning, just as I was finishing the cornbread. None of the kinder like the cornbread, so I did a little different – melted butter instead of vegetable oil in the mix. I like it a lot. Creamier texture and taste, and it explicitly doesn’t taste like vegetable oil. Yum.
So I grabbed a different recipe for pancakes because I don’t have buttermilk, and I ran into the same problem I have nearly every time – it tastes bitter. Just a hint, but if you’re looking for an off taste, you can find it. I think it’s the baking powder (or soda), and I’m thinking there HAS to be a way to avoid that taste. Some way. I’m open to suggestions. (And no, tears don’t make it better.)
WTF??
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6388633/Indonesian-teenagers-boiling-sanitary-pads-high-officials-warn.html
The finish is at the end of the race.
What bothers me is the “used” part of the formula. Ewww. Just no.
That trend will soon spread the US and sanitary pads will now be sold behind the counter. ID will be required. States will create a database to record purchases. The information will shared among states. A member of congress will create a task force to investigate. There will be congressional hearings. Fact finding trips will be required with many congress critters heading to Indonesia for a week. Sanitary napkin makers will be sued. A lawyer will file a class action lawsuit giving him/her $20M and the product users $0.29 off their next purchase. Eventually the products will stop being produced. Women will be forced to used cloth rags until a new formulation is created.
Yep. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. When you don’t have money to get the “good stuff” you take what you can get.
JimL, yes, it’s the baking powder that makes the pancakes bitter. If you don’t have buttermilk, try a bit of lemon juice to counter it. Lemon juice plus milk or cream is a standard substitute for buttermilk; you can look up the proportions.
Ray, you’re all, like, cynical n stuff. I approve!
Lemon. Whoda thunk it? I’ve been using lemon juice in my biscuits for a while – I like the flavor. I’ll try it. Many thanks.
“Houston records earliest snow, faces a second freezing night”
https://spacecityweather.com/houston-records-earliest-snow-faces-a-second-freezing-night/
“This is quite an early cold spell for Houston. The trace of sleet and snow recorded at Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday broke the record for earliest observed snow at the site, previously set on Nov. 23, 1979. Houston’s Hobby Airport also recorded its earliest trace of freezing precipitation. And although this morning’s freeze for parts of Houston did not set any records, this first freeze has come three to four weeks earlier than normal.”
We are all going to die.
Did I ever mention the time I found a used panty liner in my washing, stuck to the back of one of my shirts? Didn’t know I could have got high on it. Damn.
@JimL said:
Everyone should have a can, or dozen, of dried buttermilk. Here is an Amazon link to my preferred brand, but buy it at your grocery store, it’s cheaper there.
https://www.amazon.com/Saco-Powdered-Buttermilk-12-ounce-Multi-Pack/dp/B0083JNRZA/?tag=ttgnet-20
Reason #16 for not owning a swimming pool.
The freeze alert on the swimming pool / spa triggers at 37 F. It triggers high because the freaking air temperature sensor is at the pool system and picks up the motor heat, giving a false high temperature. But I digress. The freeze alert system alternates between the pool and the spa, closing and opening valves as necessary.
The wife shook me away at 730 am and said the pool overflowed onto the decking and the spa is empty of water. There is air in it though. And leaves. I always know there is a problem when she calls me sweetie. And I read until 145am last night.
So, the valve that directs the water return from the pool or spa is stuck in the pool position. It is a motorized valve, expensive. I will find out how expensive when the repair dude shows up.
Sigh. If the new used house that we eventually purchase has a pool, I am going to fill it in. Actually that is a complicated procedure requiring removal of the gunite shell. And expensive.
Pool == Expensive. That is all you need to know. Plus dumping a couple of thousand gallons of water on the decking at $5/1000 gallons is expensive also. Plus the $10/1000 gallon sewage charge for those makeup gallons also.
“Climate contrarian uncovers scientific error, upends major ocean warming study”
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/environment/sd-me-climate-study-error-20181113-story.html
Yeah, pull the other leg, it has a bell on it. There is no human caused global warming. And the measurement of the world seas temperatures is problematic on a good day, much less on the bad days.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
“This is quite an early cold spell for Houston. The trace of sleet and snow recorded at Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday broke the record for earliest observed snow at the site, previously set on Nov. 23, 1979. Houston’s Hobby Airport also recorded its earliest trace of freezing precipitation. And although this morning’s freeze for parts of Houston did not set any records, this first freeze has come three to four weeks earlier than normal.”
We are all going to die.
Who is going to trust a report from a facility named after a Republican President, especially a Bush family member?
Maybe they’ll accept the stat from Hobby airport since he was a Democrat … but they’ll be suspicious since he was a *Texas* Governor.
Don’t laugh — my wife has seen more than a few snowflakes through since the election, crying and looking for antidepressants.
Give them handfuls with your blessing….
n
Just tell them that Beto is going to ride XXXX run again.
JimL ” I think it’s the baking powder (or soda), and I’m thinking there HAS to be a way to avoid that taste.” Sourdough, most recipes add a touch of baking soda but I don’t notice that – it does require deciding the night before to make them.
Just tell them that Beto is going to ride XXXX run again.
I would be surprised if we hear much from Robert Francis after January, at least not before the VP speculation starts ahead of the DNC convention in 18 months. Stretch Pelosi won’t want her spotlight stolen, and serious 2020 candidates will start hitting Iowa in case the Clintstones decide not to try again.
The Hillary body double is tanned, rested, and ready, but that candidacy will be a bigger disaster for the Dems than last time. Not that BJ and frau ever care.
Dilbert: “Complaining About Ted, part II”
https://dilbert.com/strip/2018-11-14
Yup, I’ve seen this before. I may have even done it myself, just once. Ok, maybe twice. OK, not in the last 24 hours.
“PG&E Plunges After Draining Credit Facilities Amid Fire Costs”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pg-e-plunges-draining-credit-144537343.html
“California authorities are investigating PG&E equipment as a possible cause of the Camp fire, the deadliest blaze in state history, burning about 150 miles (240 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco. It has killed at least 48 people, destroyed 130,000 acres and wiped out the town of Paradise.”
““The utility could be subject to significant liability in excess of insurance coverage,” PG&E said in its filing Tuesday.”
Looks like another bankruptcy to me.
The Hillary body double is tanned, rested, and ready, but that candidacy will be a bigger disaster for the Dems than last time. Not that BJ and frau ever care.
I just threw up in my mouth. What did I do to you for that image ?
And BJ and Frau are coming to the local six thousand seat theater in December in the blue wave community known as Fort Bend County. Get your tickets now !
https://www1.ticketmaster.com/an-evening-with-the-clintons-sugar-land-texas-12-04-2018/event/3A00552B848D270F
“US plans new limits on heavy-duty truck emissions”
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2018/11/us-plans-new-limits-on-heavy-duty-truck-emissions
And this is why electric heavy duty trucks will be very popular. Emission controls on large diesels are high maintenance and require DEF (post exhaust treatment fluid).
My employer just recently (last year) leased two new tractors for customer pickup/delivery. Each is in the shop at least once every two months for problems related to the DEF system.
Were to buy a newer pickup, the DEF delete (still legal) is the path I would follow. Even better is to buy one prior to DEF. DEF sucks.
Reminds me of the ethnic discrimination that we have here:
1. All the pool guys are European Americans.
2. All the lawnmower guys are Latin Americans.
Now, Gov. Moonbeam is leaving without fixing it.
So…can someone explain to me the “sparking” problem with power lines? I’ve never seen a power line emit sparks. The ones in residential areas should be low voltage, so no sparks even if a tree brushes them, and anyway, a dry tree would be an insulator. High voltage wires would spark over to a tree, but the trees should have been cleared back to prevent any contact, even in a storm.
So…WTF? Is this just a hunt for a scapegoat with deep pockets?
yup
And BJ and Frau are coming to the local six thousand seat theater in December in the blue wave community known as Fort Bend County. Get your tickets now !
BJ isn’t going to let Robert Francis within 100 miles of that theater.
Brad, your questions reveal a pattern of racism and misogyny that should shame you. And you probably deny the truth of Anthropogenic Global
WarmingCoolingClimateChangeDisruption (which is real!!! And we’re all gonna dieeeeeee!!!!!).Reminds me to get the spark plugs in my Jeep replaced with new ones in case I have to evacuate.
High voltage wires would spark over to a tree, but the trees should have been cleared back to prevent any contact, even in a storm.
Ahem. Kalifornia does not clear trees and high brush away from power lines. That would be disturbing mother Earth (the goddess Gaia).
My ebay buyer who waited 3 weeks to ask me where his shipment was got back to me….
and LO, he got it after all.
I really don’t like foreign buyers who use freight forwarders to ship out of the US. I can understand, but if you aren’t aware of them using the forwarder, you can get screwed.
Remember the trouble I had with the chinese buyer? All done when I discovered he was in china and I had delivered the item to a forwarder.
Well, my freight company told me that the destination address was a repack and forward shipper that they’ve delivered to many times. When the buyer asked “where’s my pallet of stuff?” I was armed with the info I needed.
All I had to do was show proof of delivery and quote the ebay policy, and suddenly “Oh yes, we did receive it in Austin……”
The problem with the pack and ship forwarders is that the buyer pretends to ebay that they never got the shipment. Ebay charges the seller, too bad for you!, and the seller is stuck UNLESS they know the destination address was in fact NOT the buyer but a forwarder. It’s shady. At least ebay is clear on this, once the package gets to the forwarder, it’s not the seller’s problem.
n
And BJ and Frau are coming to the local six thousand seat theater in December in the blue wave community known as Fort Bend County. Get your tickets now !
BJ isn’t going to let Robert Francis within 100 miles of that theater.
Huh ? Frau is German for wife XXXX married woman.
Or am I missing something ???
It was 21F this morning. While the dogs were out to water the grass and barking at whatever, I’m pretty sure I saw some snow floating along. This is January and February weather.
I’m ready for some global warming, ok?
Frau is German for wife = Hitlery.
Some good pickups in the last couple of weeks….
Nice pair of vintage “Jason” 7×50 binos, goodwill, $10. Nice clear glass.
Cookbooks, one on wild game, one vintage one about “kettle” pot meals over an open fire. $2.50 each. [fireside cooks and black kettle recipes, the hunter’s cookbook]
walkie talkie style weather radio, NIB, $4.
n
Amazon is getting into the OTA (over the air) DVR (digital video recorder) business, “Amazon Fire TV Recast”:
https://www.pcmag.com/review/364931/amazon-fire-tv-recast
“The Fire TV Recast is available in two versions: a two-tuner model for $229.99 and a four-tuner model for $279.99. The two-tuner Recast has a 500GB hard drive that can record 75 hours of high-definition content, and the four-tuner Recast has a 1TB hard drive with a 150-hour capacity. Of course, if you primarily record SD channels, you’ll have many more hours available. Amazon plans to enable external storage through the USB port in the back of the Recast, but that feature has not been enabled yet.”
Does not sound any cheaper than a Tivo. Except that most Tivos do require a monthly subscription fee.
Yes, and they no longer have controlled burns to eliminate excess fuel as it makes too much CO2 and other air pollutants. It is much better to have burned house CO2 than burned brush and tree CO2.
Thanks to all for your suggestions.
Anyway, the FINAL LIST of Americana fillums and fun stuff for a guy I’ve only met over the Internet and his almost teenage daughter are……..
jim~
(what started this off was his stage production of a play called _Man from Earth_ which I recognized as a revision of theme used in a Star Trek episode almost thirty (forty?) years old by the SAME author)
In no particular order, though I’d start with _Snow White_ and _Mirror, Mirror_ for his (almost teenage) daughter’s sake,
Romeo And Juliet.1968
Wizard of Oz.1939
Gaslight.1944
Forbidden Planet.1956
Snow White.1937
African Queen.1951
Casablanca.1942
Clue.1985
Prosperos Books.1991
Mirror Mirror.2012
Cold Skin.2017
His Girl Friday.1940
Bixby — Star Trek
What started it off:
Bixby — Star Trek — Requiem for Methuselah
an early draft of what became _Man from Earth_
Shakespeare
***
Romeo And Juliet.1968
Forbidden Planet.1956
Prosperos Books.1991
***
Classic
***
Gaslight.1944
Casablanca.1942
African Queen.1951
His Girl Friday.1940
Classic and Cool
***
Snow White (1937)
Mirror Mirror.2012
Wizard of Oz.1939
Kids and Adults (or becoming adults)
***
Wizard of Oz.1939
Mirror Mirror.2012
Snow White.1937
Romeo And Juliet.1968
Plain Stupid Fun
***
Clue.1985
A current favorite because of the cinematography
***
Cold Skin.2017
Yes, and they no longer have controlled burns to eliminate excess fuel as it makes too much CO2 and other air pollutants. It is much better to have burned house CO2 than burned brush and tree CO2.
Hmm. Basically the global warming idjits want to control CO2 in the atmosphere. So, they want to regulate fire. But they do not want to allowed controlled burns of brush and trees. Hmm. Something is wrong here.
Good list jim~
We watched “Matinee” with John Goodman the other night. On LaserDisc. I like the movie every time I watch it. It’s kind of corny.
TWO TONS!!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6387607/Iran-executes-Sultan-Coins-convicted-hoarding.html
Um, that’s a lotta coins. And of course now the mullahs have them. Funny how that works.
n
added- $70 million, USD give or take. WTF did homeboy get that kinda do re mi?
“But somebody should have done something!”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6389617/Paradise-residents-blame-officials-mayor-chaotic-wildfire-evacuation-rising-death-toll.html
n
“Feds Collect Record Taxes in October; Still Run $100B Deficit”
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/feds-collect-record-taxes-october-still-run-100b-deficit
“(CNSNews.com) – The federal government collected record total tax revenues of $252,692,000,000 in October, the first month of fiscal 2019, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released Tuesday.”
“Despite the record tax collections, the government still ran a deficit of $100,491,000,000 for the month—because it spent $353,183,000,000.”
There is a very cool graphic of income versus expenses. I did not know that Social Security was the top federal outlay now:
Social Security: $84 billion
Defense: $69 billion
Medicare: $53 billion
Health (medicaid): $44 billion
Interest: $32 billion
Income security (SSI): $32 billion
Yup, we be on that train to the financial apocalypse in 2028. And ain’t nothing stopping us now cause we ain’t watching our speed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_x2m6i4KFqg
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Never going to happen. PG&E can pass the losses on to the rate payers. If PG&E is found liable and punished by a multi-billion dollar award, people in CA will see significant jumps in their rates.
Same sort of thing happened here when TVA had that massive ash spill. Which affected the waterway I used for boating. Anyway, TVA was fined millions of dollars. No big deal as TVA just raised the rates charged to the power buyers. Who really got punished? Not anyone at TVA, only the rate payers, who had no say in the ash storage or how it was operated. PG&E will operate the same.
A couple hundred thousand volts on the big lines, 750K+ on the big lines, all it takes is a strong wind to narrow the air gap, a piece of debris in the air to further narrow the gap and you can get a significant spark. I have seen a spark on a 200KV line and it was impressive. The breakers tripped shutting down the line and then reset a few seconds later and all was back to normal.
If you call 13.4KV low voltage. Not I. I have seen a spark when a squirrel crossed a couple of contacts, POW, no squirrel, or just fir floating down, and a blown fuse. Trees can, and do, spark across power lines if the trees are close to another grounding source or one of the other phases of power (three phase or two phase). Too much resistance for the tree to ground but not for a close by path to ground.
And on another note. Good news. The new broadcast cameras have arrived at the church. $17K each with lens. Have been waiting on the camera backs as those are needed to use the existing cables for data and power (expensive stuff). New HD signal will be carried separately on coax as the existing cable does have enough bandwidth for HD.
New backs will also power the 5 inch color LCD monitors for the camera operators. We need three new lens adapters for the focus control and a cable adapter for the zoom controls. Those have all arrived.
New studio equipment is here with new LCD monitors, level indicators, and camera level indicator. Also have the new camera controllers.
Ten days from today I will strip the racks of all the existing equipment marking the four signal cables and removing all the other cables. Power cables will also be removed leaving an almost bare rack. I will then sand all the exposed surfaces on the rack to roughen the paint coating. The mask what I don’t want painted, use drop clothes to protect the rest, bring in a couple of fans to get fresh air into the room, then paint all the racks flat black. Wait a couple of hours and apply a second coat.
Then Monday following the installation crew will arrive and mount all the new equipment in the rack. New cables will be installed and arranged to make the rack wiring look nice. Network cables will be run to all the new devices. Should be easy as the network cable is daisy chained. All settings and operation of the equipment is done by signals over Ethernet cabling. Using software on a computer it is possible to control all the equipment.
Even the control surface, that bad boy with all the buttons, and transition controls, communicates with the switcher over Ethernet. A program is also installed on a PC that mimics the control surface and allows control of the switcher.
Sunday, Dec 2, will be our first broadcast in HD and we will back to four fully functioning cameras. It has taken a year, about $85K but the project is finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
I am using a local company, about two miles away, to get the equipment and do the installation. Thus any problems should be easily resolved. When done the church will have the most up-to-date and complete TV studio of any church in the area.
Does not sound any cheaper than a Tivo. Except that most Tivos do require a monthly subscription fee.
TiVo has a lifetime subscription. The last time I checked it was $199. I’ve kept mine since 2000, and they occasionally offer very good upgrade deals which I’ve taken advantage of for one swap of hardware.
With Amazon’s DVR, the dollar price of the monthly subscription might be $0, but the true cost is the company having knowledge of your TV viewing habits down to the millisecond. Also, I’m not sure about the new device, but TiVo does look the other way for hobbyists to download broadcast recordings from the recorder.
A long standing project of mine is a private Roku channel to download TiVo recordings and stream them to other TVs in the house. I’ll get around to finishing it … one day.
@Ray,
I’m gonna suggest using satin black, and using mini rollers rather than spraying. Rustoleum has most colors in cans as well as aerosol spray, esp. their “Hardhat” pro formulas.
Flat black looks horrible on large flat surfaces, and your existing racks and equipment are probably not flat. Most have a textured finish, or are baked on, which satin is a decent match for.
The overspray will get everywhere, people will complain/ freak their sh!t about the odor of the VOCs, and some people might actually have a sensitivity (I do.)
If you use foam or very low nap rollers, especially the little “trim roller” kind, you can get a very nice result. The paint takes a couple of extra days to fully harden, but you can work around it if careful. Fully hardened, it is really tough.
n
added- it’s faster than spraying too, and won’t need multiple coats, less masking too.
(you might want to spray the mounting rails so the screw holes don’t get filled, but I’d roll the rest.)
I am not painting large flat surfaces, only the rails that hold the equipment. Small surfaces with indents would be difficult with a brush or roller as most the edges are less than 1.5 inches. The large side panels are already a dark gray color. The tables for the control surface and small sound mixer are white and will remain that color. The back of the rack is open and not have any covers.
Ah, somehow I read that as repainting the whole rack, not just the rails.
n
@greg, since we dropped cable, I intend to add OTA recording to whichever of our tivos support it. I’ve got a series 4? in the bedroom that I stopped using for youtube when I got Kodi running, that has an antenna hookup. I don’t think the Bolt in the living room does OTA, since they just started advertising that capability on a new model. The kids use that box extensively for netflix, and we haven’t used it to watch cable in a year…. so no hurry to pull it out and check for antenna connections.
n
TiVo has a lifetime subscription. The last time I checked it was $199. I’ve kept mine since 2000, and they occasionally offer very good upgrade deals which I’ve taken advantage of for one swap of hardware.
Looks like the Tivo lifetime subscription plan is now $250. Or $7/month or $70/year.
https://www.tivo.com/products/ota-detail
We are still on DirecTV. I am getting more and more tired of their fees. But I will need to get my AMC (Walking Dead), Syfy (Z-Nation/Van Helsing), HGTV (wife watches these), and other channels.
Sling at $45/month would probably do it for you. I subscribe for Sportsball season in September, then drop it in January. Works great.
Best thing I ever did was tell TWC and DirecTV where to put their boxes.
So, the valve that directs the water return from the pool or spa is stuck in the pool position. It is a motorized valve, expensive. I will find out how expensive when the repair dude shows up.
$400 including labor. That includes a new $40 o-ring for the main pump which was leaking.
Did I mention that swimming pools are expensive ?
Understandable as I was I failed to be specific in my initial post about the painting.
The new equipment is a dark gray (or is it grey) and would not look so good mounted on tan vertical rails. The vendor of the equipment is going to use this facility as an example of what they can do for a church. My church will have the most up-to-date and complete studio in the area (I think I already said that) and will be used as an example. Making the racks look good is a no-brainer.
The vendor of the equipment is going to use this facility as an example of what they can do for a church.
Painting problem solved. Let the vendor do the “needed” make pretty painting.
We are still on DirecTV.
OK. Remember when we were kids? We had ABC and NBC and CBS. And maybe not all three. Then PBS came along. And then Color TV. On 15″ CRTs that went to the shop every couple of months.
I’m pretty much in the group of “gonna watch what is on” right now. DVR, VCR, time shifting? Nah. I’ve taped lots and lot of stuff…. and never watch ANY of it.
Over the air, main channels are HD. Sub channels are in fuzzy-d. All good and more stuff to watch than we have time.
I’m pretty much in the group of “gonna watch what is on” right now. DVR, VCR, time shifting? Nah. I’ve taped lots and lot of stuff…. and never watch ANY of it.
We time shift all the time on the DirecTV DVR. The wife and daughter also watch Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime extensively. I hate watching anything real time now since you have to watch the commercials. I am addicted to several worthless tv shows that I binge watch occasionally. For instance, last weekend I watched several episodes of The Expanse, Van Helsing, and Z-Nation from the syfy channel.
When we were still watching tv, we never watched ANYTHING live. I generally didn’t know when a show was on, or what channel. We never watch any commercials with Tivo and ’30secondskip’. Occasionally, an in-law comes over and wants to watch sportsball, and I badger him into pausing thru the first few commercials so we can skip thru the next few. Don’t know what he’ll do this Tgiving, as we don’t have cable anymore and I haven’t gotten around to putting up the antenna…..
n
added- in the interest of marital harmony, I just checked my TiVO Bolt. It says cable/ant on the coax input. I guess it might work after all…
OK, the final vote of Cruz to O’Rourke is 50.9% to 48.3%. There is a great graphic of the red versus blue counties in Texas at:
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/texas-senate
That was close, very close. Ted (Rafael) Cruz won 57% of the vote in his 2012 election.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Senate_election_in_Texas,_2012
I predict that Robert Francis is going to go after John Cornyn, our senior senator in 2020. I give Robert Francis a 50/50 chance of winning with the continued Californification of Texas.
That is, if Robert Francis does not go after Trump in 2020.
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/celebs-react-ted-cruz-defeating-beto-orourke-texas-senate-race-now-he-can-run-for-president
I cut the cord at our house two months ago (condo gets basic cable with HOA). I torrent my TV shows since peeps are kind enough to upload them with commercials cut out.
That is, if Robert Francis does not go after Trump in 2020.
The Clintons will drop a dime on Robert Francis fairly soon, similar to how they kept Plugs MacKenzie Biden out of it in 2016.
I’m not buying this story about Stretch Pelosi being done, but one can dream.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pelosi-challenges-unhappy-dems-block-her-bid-speaker-175012347–politics.html
Stretch will decide who gets to vote against her. Those cards will go to very select members, and none of the freshmen should plan on getting a pass.
I feelz for ya guys on TV. We just marked 40 years in the house we built, which is good, but TV is not so good. Our valley gets some of the Los Angeles and other city channels OTA but translated. However, since the system went digital, they shut down repeaters on one hill and put everything on a hill from which we are shadowed, so no OTA any more. We had already gone DirecTV, and did like it, but the recent equipment changes, especially DVRs, have much worse usability than years ago. Still tolerable, especially considering we have no other practical choice without broadband. The only broadband we could get isn’t even broadband, and is over satellite, so data caps. We watch almost everything delayed, so at our convenience. DVRs are wonderful for viewer choice.
Some day, maybe Google will come to our valley with PTP wireless real-fast Internet, and then we will move into the 21st century. I’m not holding my breath, having seen two or three attempts at better service botched by malice or incompetence. Another possibility is our local cable company, which does have “up to” 100 Mb Internet, but will not extend to me. Same for fiber. Our neighborhood has 2.5 acre minimum lot sizes, so density is too low to attract providers. So… I am stuck in the slooow lane, maybe forever.
Elon will probably service quite a lot of people in your situation with small sats at low orbit. And probably at very reasonable rates.
I hope so, but Microsoft tried and failed about 20 years ago. I also like the Airborne Wireless concept.
JimB, any chance you can get line of sight to someone outside the area that can get high speed? You could make a deal and add a high speed wireless link between you. Ubiquiti has very good and affordable solutions.
n
I’ve considered that, but only as a last resort. As Marcelo says, something better is coming… real soon.
I hope so, but Microsoft tried and failed about 20 years ago. I also like the Airborne Wireless concept.
IIRC, one of the intelligence services absorbed the Teledesic tech for their own uses.
fedgov essentially bought iridium out of bankruptcy so they’d be able to continue using it. . .
n