45F and wet. After such a nice sunny warm day yesterday. Yuck.
It took 4 tries to start typing in this “block” using the new editor. Don’t know what made it finally work, but the last thing I tried was changing the font size.
No blinking insert cursor. No layout marks or text. Just a blank white page. I can see where the mac fanbois would like it. Or the UI people at MS who made the tiles interface, where you can’t tell when one window starts and another ends because they’ve eliminated all the visual cues. There will probably be a metric ton of posts about posting around the world…. how meta.
The year is winding to an end. Nice that I don’t think russia will be doing a ‘hurry up’ invasion in order to have a fait accompli before the inauguration, like I did a couple years ago…. but there are plenty of things going around.
New Jersey, for example, wants to start a civil war. We’ll see. My bet is more boiled frog.
Anyway. Lots to do today, so I’ll be out of the house. Talk amongst yourselves…
n
Seriously. That Gutenberg editor sucks dead bunnies. Classic Editor Plugin is where it’s at. (Yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition. Call it “artistic license” and leave it at that.)
43º and cloudy this morning. A cow orker asked me about walking at lunch today. Given that I’ve been encouraging him for about a year, I’ll give up a half-hour of my run to walk with him. Movement, outside, away from the stresses of the 9-5 is always a good idea.
Best kind of orker in the world is the cow kind.
What lovely people….
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/12/ouch-dhs-obliterates-fakenews-cnn-on-their-bizarre-segment-on-captured-terrorists-at-the-us-mexico-border/
”
We are happy to provide the facts — but you never reached out. In fact, DHS prevented 3,755 known or suspected terrorists from traveling to or entering the U.S. in FY 17. That’s in addition to 17,526 criminals, 1,019 gang members, and 3,028 special interest aliens. #FactsFirst https://t.co/4naI8XOg9x
— Tyler Q. Houlton (@SpoxDHS) December 12, 2018″
That’s just the ones they CAUGHT…
n
And you worry about ending a sentence with a preposition. Unless there truly is a cow orker, Lord of the Rings creature sort of thing. But what do I know?
I once had a very strict but humorous English teacher, who said with a twinkle in his eye, “Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.” I remember him so well that I just checked my use of commas. Hope he has his Harley in Heaven.
@Brad re: Brexit
What will happen? Truth is, no one knows!
As our legislation stands, UK leaves EU on March 29. To change this requires legislation, which is proposed by the Executive and must be approved by the legislature (House of Commons). This includes the option to revoke Article 50 (remain in the EU). The options & complexities around Executive & Legislature decisions compounded by internal Conservative Party divisions are too numerous to guess.
I would go headlong for ‘No Deal’, walk away, with a side offer to the EU of some money to soften the transition. But I am not at the driving wheei!
Clear as mud! As they say here!
@Nick , et.al. – Yes, the Gutenberg editor is non-trivial to get used to, according to reports and my understanding of it’s features.
So, I just installed the “Classic Editor” plugin for you. (I’m going to install it on Barbara’s site in a few minutes.) By default, it will be enabled for you (and other post-creators).
There are some googles about how to use the Gutenberg editor. Not interested in them, though. YMMV.
Chatted briefly this AM with an English professor at a local community college. When he asked how I was, I responded: “I’m doing well”, and telling him that I am not saying “I’m great!” He laughed.
Oh yeah, and a professional radio/TV weather babbler: “…..the storms had went.”
For all ‘tracker conspiracy theorists’ – University of WA has developed a small tracking device that fits on the backs of bumblebees. See https://komonews.com/news/local/uw-designs-backpack-for-bees-to-help-local-farmers .
If they are that small, how hard would it be to adapt to tossing one at a person for tracking?
If they are that small, how hard would it be to adapt to tossing one at a person for tracking?
The bee travels within a defined radius bombarded with tracking signals at close range and, at night, remains inside a specific volume of a few cubic feet, allowing (my guess) the low baud rate data upload to function while a backscatter array recharges the mobile data gathering device.
The game is pretty much over if you’re worried about being tracked by government or a major corporation. Most people carry their phones with them 24/7, keeping them charged, and the majority of consumer grade models don’t even have removable batteries anymore. Your phone isn’t off when it is “off” as long as it has power.
I sometimes leave the house on weekends without my phone, but the privacy notice in my new car’s owners manual informs me that the vehicle uploads telemetry information to Toyota 24/7 without me being involved.
And you think that is not done already?
Think again. Naivety is the new norm.
If you are carrying any cellphone, yes even the “burners”, you are being tracked. Not to mention all the cameras out in public now. And don’t forget the big eyes in space, they just found a previously unknown colony of penguins (https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2018/12/14/nasa-tracks-penguin-poop-from-space-smell-an-explanation-coming/#4ab760316922). Do you think that NASA is just looking for poop?
You can try and hide behind VPNs, but that just puts a flag on you anymore.
Think you can go dark? Again, you just create a sign that something/someone needs to be surveilled.
So I embrace my totally public life. You cannot avoid the Google and the Alexa. (Grammarly doesn’t like me to use “the Google”)
You can try and hide behind VPNs, but that just puts a flag on you anymore.
An SSL VPN is not secure from a major state-level adversary, and the big IPSec vendors water down the crypto in order to be allowed to operate in certain geographic locations.
Of course your phone is tracked. If someone calls you, should one message be sent to your nearest tower, or out through thousands of towers across the land?
I looked in the freezers and there is no ham to be found. I’m not in the mood to pay $3/pound for a ham. The HEB in Marble Falls is new and seems to have moved up-market. Last year the old store had Hill Country Fare spiral cut hams for $1.70/pound. I bought one and it was just like the $3/pound HEB spiral cut hams except for the pretty Mylar wrapping.
We just had a turkey. It was one sandwich short of enough. I had my taste buds all set, too.
I have five or six briskets. Why not have a brisket for Christmas?
It’s easy cooking. On the Trager long enough for a smoke ring then wrapped and into the oven for a few more hours.
Why do I have six briskets? I happened on a sale at Wal-Mart Easter before last. 99 cents a pound. I would have bought more but I didn’t have room in the freezer. 🙂
The satellites that NASA launches have relatively low resolution, in the 10s of meters. Not suitable for surveillance of individuals. Hubble could, in theory, see objects on the Earth with about 1 foot resolution, again not good enough to track people. Plus, Hubble’s imager is not suited for taking downward looking images – it’s too light sensitive and it can’t be slewed fast enough to remove the blur from orbital motion. (USGS actually has responsibility for LANDSAT, which is what tracked the penguin poop.)
HEB has Prime grade Ribeye roast on sale this week for $10/pound which is a great price.
Costco ham is the best quality for the money, $2/lb spiral sliced.
Turkey never went on sale.
n
Don’t get too excited. Roberts will rewrite it … again … this time with Kavanaugh’s help.
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/12/14/texas-federal-judge-obama-health-care-law-unconstitutional/
Obamacare: Even if this court decision stands (as it should), who trusts Congress to come up with a sensible solution? Even Trump said that coverage for pre-existing conditions is a must. No real insurance can accept people with pre-existing conditions so whatever solution emerges is not any sort of insurance.
If pre-existing conditions are part of the package, y’all just as well go single payer. Then let a proper private insurance industry emerge for anyone who wants better coverage. That’s essentially what the UK has. In particular, the private insurance market is reasonably priced and provides good service. Whoever can’t afford the money for private insurance (or can’t get it, due to pre-existing conditions) pays with time, by waiting in line at the NHS.
It’s not an ideal system by any means, but it’s really not bad. The biggest complaint comes from the progressives, who don’t like the reality that some people can pay money and get better (or, at least, faster) care. But that’s always going to be reality, so one just as well take advantage of it…
Sort of like paying extra for the fast passes at amusement parks.
Which Universal allows, but Disney doesn’t. So universal has short to no lines, while Disney still has a wait for Fastpass return, even though they limit them in various ways.
n