Cool, overcast, possible rain later.
Well, Thanksgiving Day has come and gone. We here at Casa de Nick have enjoyed another feast, with most of the traditional foods we are used to having. We missed having friends and family over, but it did make for a more calm and relaxing day.
I actually managed to get some other stuff done too. I went through a bunch of stuff and filled a couple of bins for my local auction. I have more to go through, and the ebay bin will need to be listed, but it looks like progress… And I repaired an item that should sell for hundreds of bucks on ebay.
My wife continued painting in the kitchen in addition to preparing some really good food. If I wasn’t going to my rent house to do plumbing repairs today, I’d be in the attic getting the range hood installed. I guess that will wait until Saturday.
I’ve never been interested in “Friday of Color” sales. I can often find better pricing, or similar pricing but on better versions of the items and avoid the stampedes. I did look at a few of the cyber- offers. An ammunition reseller had Pelican cases marked down. That was it. They didn’t even have any ammo for sale. Some other places online had weirdo import guns, and small manufactures I’ve never seen before, but no big names. A few, very few, had name brand models, at high prices. Selection and quantity were very limited.
Fry’s offers were about where MicroCenter is normally. MicroCenter was competitive with Costco. Costco expanded the tech they have for sale dramatically. As an aside, a decade after leaving the field of large format, high resolution CURVED displays, the new hotness is curved monitors on desks. I guess once you’ve sold everyone two monitors, and with 3D still a bust, curved looks like a growth space. After a decade of putting in curved displays, we determined that they are essentially single user devices. They work poorly for large groups unless the display is HUGE and the intent is awe, rather than work. Large curved TVs had the same issues we saw with our much larger systems and didn’t fly off the shelves. Desktop users might be the actual sweet spot for wide curved displays. As long as you don’t need two…or three.*
It will be interesting to see if the shoppers ignore social distancing and masks in the rush to get cheap crap, like the holiday travelers did.
I’m not one to panic, but I do take the wuflu seriously. It didn’t kill us like it killed chinese, but I’ll put some of that down to unknown factors, and some down to masks and distancing. It’s hard to catch something if you aren’t around anyone who has it. The number of people traveling this week pretty much ensures that we will see a large spike in cases, on top of the current increases, just in time for Christmas travel, which will either not happen if things are REALLY bad, or will put the nail in the coffin of containment and mitigation. You can argue severity, transmissibility, lethality, and the legality and effectiveness of the actions taken by political figures, but you can’t argue the ACTUALITY that the disease exists, is spread person to person, and makes some percentage very sick, and kills a smaller percentage of those. With very large numbers exposed, we WILL see large numbers of sick, and larger numbers of both very sick, and lethally sick people than we have been seeing.
That will cause a number of responses, both social and political. I can’t predict which way it will go. I expect political ‘leaders’ to try more, harder. If you are in an area with already repressive government – I think you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Those of us in less restrictive areas are going to see increasing restrictions. Or despite everything we’ll lose control and it will sweep through like a wildfire, in which case you’ll stay isolated voluntarily.
Either case or anything in between can be made better on an individual level by avoiding people. Get ready to increase your personal protective behaviors. This isn’t going to be a time to be out shopping or ‘living your best life’. Get that stuff out of the way NOW, right now, before the wave hits. And stack it high, because a surging hospitalization rate is actually likely to be only ONE of our worries as the next month or two plays out.
I know it’s doom and gloom. But we ARE living with social unrest (rioting/insurrection), a global pandemic, and an uncertain election and transfer of power, which could turn into full on fighting in the streets. France fell in 2 weeks to the Germans. Just last month, suddenly Armenia and Azerbaijan were lobbing mortars and bombs into each other’s cities. Venezuela fell to failed state in less than two years. It can happen very quickly. Be ready to live with it and through it.
Keep stacking. Be thankful for every day without those issues.
nick
It can be a pain. But security is fairly high on Apple’s list and is welcome from the attempts that have been made by nefarious people to access my account. At one point a couple of years ago it was necessary to visit an Apple store to have my wife’s account restored/reset.
Is it overkill? Depends on the individual. I had an individual attempt to buy $10K of Apple products using my Apple ID which is tied to my Apple Credit card. I would have had the money restored and Apple would be out the money.
Currently in Atlanta, Smyrna actually, traveled for Thanksgiving. Spousal unit along with corresponding friend unit will venture out today. No door buster madness. Heading out about 10:00. Myself and my friend will make a journey to MicroCenter as I am looking to build another PC. Or may just buy one put together.
That’s something that has always annoyed me about the Republican party. I am conservative on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues. But I am not religious. IMHO the whole abortion argument is a religious question – and has zero place in political discussion. Be for it, be against it, but it is not the government’s job either way.
On top of that, realistically, abortion will never, ever be seriously restricted again. It’s over, it ended with Roe-vs-Wade, and that is not going to be overturned. No one wants teenage girls dying from back-alley abortions.
The fact that the Republicans waste so much political capital on abortion is just idiotic.
On top of that, realistically, abortion will never, ever be restricted again. It’s over, it ended with Roe-vs-Wade, and that is not going to be overturned. No one wants teenage girls dying from back-alley abortions.
The fact that the Republicans waste so much political capital on abortion is just idiotic.
Beyond the issue itself, Texas Republicans are still obsessed with the only Dem that beat them in the last 30 years, Ann Richards, who left office in 1995 and died in 2006.
Richards daughter ran Planned Parenthood (chain of abortion clinics in the US) until last year, and she’s often mentioned as a candidate for Governor.
There’s a quote I can’t remember well enough to find, something like, “The actions of any large organization may best be explained by imagining that they were planned by a cabal of its enemies.” I’m pretty sure I saw it written by either Pournelle or Heinlein, though I don’t know if it originated with either.
Thunder woke me at 7am. Rain got me out of bed at 730. I went out and made sure everything was under cover. It’s been 2 weeks since we had any real rain. Sprinklers were running. Shut those off too.
I was up late and counting on the extra hour of sleep this morning. I’m going to try again.
n
There’s a quote I can’t remember well enough to find, something like, “The actions of any large organization may best be explained by imagining that they were planned by a cabal of its enemies.” I’m pretty sure I saw it written by either Pournelle or Heinlein, though I don’t know if it originated with either.
The Dems in Texas are learning to win statewide. It will happen sooner or later.
Sort of a corollary to Pournelle’s Iron Law?
Big organizations do seem to utterly lose track of what their actual constituents want, often because they’re busy pursuing big bucks in the form of government graft. On the Swiss side of things, the Red Cross is a classic example: They rake in $billions each year, but the amount that ultimately makes it to their stated goals is probably rather small. They are too big to do much directly, so they mostly issue contracts to other NGOs. Those NGOs take their bureaucratic slice before issuing subcontracts to further NGOs. And those also take a slice, before… I’d really like to see end-to-end numbers: how much money finally comes out the bottom. The Red Cross would fight that tooth-and-nail.
Beyond that, it is something that people are passion about, very opinionated, and gets people riled up.
I think abortion is wrong unless it is to save the life of the female. Then it becomes a decision between the patient’s doctor and the patient. I may have an opinion but I have no right to be involved in the decision. Abortion for convenience is asinine and selfish. But again, my opinion, I have no say in what others choose.
I believe abortion is not something that can or should be legislated. People make their own decisions and if it does not affect me, then it is none of my business. If abortion is outlawed, that is all it will do, be outlawed. People will still get abortions, in back alleys, sleazy offices, by untrained cretins. People will die or be severely maimed for life. Prohibition did not work, legislating abortion will not work. The government should not be making such laws.
I suspect the number would be in the low teens, perhaps even single digit percentages. I have never been a fan of such organizations, especially United Way. When I was in the USAF the AF made a big deal out of contributing to United Way. Even made it so a deduction could be made on the pay check. I steadfastly refused to contribute. I was brought into the colonel’s office on more than one occasion wanting to know why I did not participate. My primary comment was that my pay records and financial records should not be visible to others. Where and how I choose to donate is none of his, or the USAF’s business.
But apparently this stuff was reported up the chain of command. Somehow the commanders knew if there was 100% participation and if not, who did not contribute. I would generally lie and tell them I contributed privately, with a check, as I did not want payroll deduction. Thus keeping my finances private.
One time when I was being grilled over non-participation I asked the colonel how much he donated. He angrily fired back that it was none of my business using rather colorful words. I then responded, “exactly, my donations are none of your business, sir”. That did not go over well and is something I never tried again. Who knew that painting curbs yellow with a paint brush for a week in the hot Virginia sun could be so unpleasant. Lying seemed to be the best option.
Re: The United Way. Dad worked for a big chemical company. They always had a big United Way drive every year, in conjunction with the city. I remember him telling me that there was extreme pressure to contribute by payroll deduction. He was not one to bow to idiotic demands, but even he contributed. The alternative was likely career suicide.
I suspect the number would be in the low teens, perhaps even single digit percentages. I have never been a fan of such organizations, especially United Way. When I was in the USAF the AF made a big deal out of contributing to United Way. Even made it so a deduction could be made on the pay check. I steadfastly refused to contribute. I was brought into the colonel’s office on more than one occasion wanting to know why I did not participate. My primary comment was that my pay records and financial records should not be visible to others. Where and how I choose to donate is none of his, or the USAF’s business.
The United Way was a racket. Supporting the “charity” was part of the Colonel’s politicking to become General.
We no longer support the Red Cross. They have made disasters into a business, and the same with blood.
Their attitude is offensive to the people on the ground managing just fine locally. And they spend most of their money on fundraising and salaries. Not as bad as the Biden foundation, but not good either.
n
Re: The United Way. Dad worked for a big chemical company. They always had a big United Way drive every year, in conjunction with the city. I remember him telling me that there was extreme pressure to contribute by payroll deduction. He was not one to bow to idiotic demands, but even he contributed. The alternative was likely career suicide.
United Way was a big deal at GTE in Tampa, but I never contributed. I don’t know if it was career suicide. My friends who toed the line at the company haven’t seemed to enjoy more “success” than I have, but they may view it differently. Regardless of what it might be truly worth, I’m the only one of our training class holding a Verizon pension, and I cashed out of my options at the equivalent of VZ sitting at 70.
At one point in the late 90s, a huge scandal blew up over how the organization spent less than half of the amount contributed on the actual causes, and the United Way supporters’ moral high ground was gone. After that, pressure to contribute disappeared in most large organizations, including GTE.
The blowback was so severe in Tampa that Outback Steakhouse’s catered event pavilion, a building leased from the Shriners and home of all of those “Man of the Year” dinners, blew huge holes in the company’s balance sheet on a regular basis until the company let the lease expire within the last decade.
While getting my Masters (paid for by the Army), the head of the Math Dept. approached me and wanted me to stay and get a Ph.D. in Maths. He said the Dept. of Army had already approved and he would be my mentor. I though about it for a couple of days and declined. Getting a Ph.D. rabbit holes you as an ORSA for the remainder of your time in the military. No more flying or real leadership positions. Plus, what would I do with a Ph.D. in Maths other than walk around with a sign around my neck “I’m smarter than you” ‘cause that’s what most non STEM sheeple think when you are degreed in Maths.
I forget the name of the program the Army pushed. You’d select from a bunch of charities on a list, write a check, or, what was really wanted “a monthly allotment deducted from your pay for a year.” Screw that. An officer was selected each year in your unit to go around and pester you for a donation. Fortunately, aviation units have a lot of Warrant Officers who got stuck with that particular “shitty little detail.” I wrote a check for a couple of years and then just stopped and made donations to whatever local charity I thought needed it based on where I was assigned.
Yeah, I remember that as well. I didn’t understand why a government organization should be explicitly supporting a chosen non-government organization. It reeks – that’s some unofficial back-scratching going on, where some general officer or SES got a cushy position after retirement.
Yeah, there were unit numbers, although maybe my organization apparently didn’t take it all that seriously. At least, I was never called on the carpet for not participating. Maybe it was better, being an occifer?
There were a lot of good things in the military, but the intentional failure to think was not one of them. Just because a higher officer says “contribute” doesn’t make that command legal, or even desirable. And said higher officer should know that well enough to not issue the command.
Of course, this kind of attitude does have its price: my immediate supervisor (a GS-14, not even military) did not like my attitude and did his best to torpedoe my career. In the end, after a confrontation in front of the unit commander, it went the other way: he never supervised anyone again.
I’m with the late Justice Scalia on abortion: “the Constitution is silent on abortion.” It should be left to the States to do what they want. I don’t want millions of tax dollars going to “Planned Parenthood” who’s only mission is abortion. Through the years, nobody I know who got an abortion ever had a problem getting a safe one. Usually travel involved. If you can’t afford that, don’t get pregnant. I’m not talking about rape.
@rick and lynn, from yesterday and penn counting of absentee ballots…
as usual there is more to the story.
https://www.electionreturns.pa.gov/
compared to
https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/politics/decision-2020/pennsylvania-mail-in-ballot-requests-hit-2-8-million-including-700000-gop-voters/2567670/
The results suggest that about 100k Republican’s chose not to vote for Trump after going to the trouble of getting a ballot. And that half the no party votes went for Biden and half didn’t vote. Or some combination of these things. No indication of how many as a percentage are normally returned either. Is it normal for half the no party voters to not bother? and 1/7th of Rs? While every single D pallot was returned, and cross party or independents too? Or T got NO independents, and lost a big percentage of Rs? The allegations are of not counting votes, switching votes, and stuffing votes. I could see any of those scenarios in the reported results.
There is still plenty of room for chicanery in those numbers. Neither side does themselves proud by just tossing a factoid on the table.
The articles are also a month and a half apart in time, so NONE of the numbers should match exactly.
n
Also not mentioned, how many were actually SENT. The first article only talks about requested. There are also complaints that people never received their ballots.
Ol Remus’ advice to avoid crowds is good advice at any time….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8992605/America-braces-Black-Friday-Retailers-pin-hopes-shopping-bonanza.html
Doesn’t look like social distancing to me, but I haven’t seen any reports of fights or shootings yet.
n
Assassination IS back on the table this year…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/head-irans-nuclear-weapons-project-assassinated
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8993605/Iranian-nuclear-scientist-assassinated-near-Tehran-reports-Iran-claim.html
—he’s wrong about that. Assassination is normally an attempt to AVOID a full out war.
n
I sort of think the ship has sailed when it comes to social distancing and mask mandates (whether you ever agreed with them or not). Especially, given that the current numbers are what they are and the fact that this week and the next several weeks is one informal gathering after another for people. By the time you can walk into CVS or Walgreens and ask for a vaccine you and most of the country will have already had it. At this point, it’s pretty safe to say we’re all going to get it or have gotten it. There’s little avoiding that now short of being one of those shut-ins that has a panic attack every time the doorbell rings.
I sort of think the ship has sailed when it comes to social distancing and mask mandates (whether you ever agreed with them or not). Especially, given that the current numbers are what they are and the fact that this week and the next several weeks is one informal gathering after another for people.
Lots of people have obligatory visits with family this year with the goal of getting a piece of the estate when the oldsters pass.
Another variation on FOMO.
PSA still has some carry pistols in stock, and a couple of shottys
https://palmettostatearmory.com/daily-deals-new.html?stock_filter=Show+Only+In+Stock
Prices on pistols seem to be very good.
n
AR500 has good prices on body armor
https://www.ar500armor.com/level-3-plus-lw-alsc-curved-bogo.html
it does take a while to get your order, it’s not something you can have in a week if you decide you need it.
n
grab a gun has very ordinary rifles at eye watering prices, but they have them. Think they’ll be any cheaper under a Biden administration?
https://grabagun.com/sale.html
n
If masks worked to stop the spread back in the Spring, why are we still told to wear them?
If masks didn’t work to stop the spread back in the Spring, why are we still told to wear them?
If Americans won’t wear the masks when told to, why are we still told to wear them?
Hint: It has nothing to do with science.
Really? The next president?
https://althouse.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-lord-is-my-teleprompter-and-my.html
Let the nightmare/healing begin.
Johns Hopkins study finds no statistical increase in US death rate since the covid-19 pandemic. We are not seeing hundreds of thousands of EXTRA deaths.
According to study, “in contrast to most people’s assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming. In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States.”
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/11/27/johns-hopkins-study-saying-covid-19-has-relatively-no-effect-on-deaths-in-u-s-deleted-after-publication-n1178930
The study found that the most common causes of death such as heart disease and flu declined in 2020 in proportion to the increase in covid-19 deaths. The natural assumption is that these natural causes are being misidentified as covid-19.
My daughter in law, a nurse at a local hospital, has seen several instances of patients who died of natural caused with a clean covid test being labeled as covid positive by the morgue.
There’s a reason we use statistics to look at data.
And in the case of voting patterns, statistics have been used for years to examine those patterns and question the results when the patterns are unlikely.
In the case of our 2020 presidential election, it is not necessary to make a legal case. What is necessary is to show the public and the state legislatures that there is ample evidence that the outcome was manipulated, and for those legislatures to have the backbone to act.
Desktop users might be the actual sweet spot for wide curved displays. As long as you don’t need two…or three.
The bases on the curved displays at Costco look like junk. I’ll bet a lot of those are back after Christmas.
If I had to guess, the curved displays were priority for this year to take advantage of the new Flight Simulator.
I haven’t been in Fry’s in a year. They have stock?!? Is the knockoff cologne table bigger or smaller than last year?
The John Hopkins site retracted that story, and explained why on their site. https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
See this site for data analysis: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/excess-mortality-raw-death-count?tab=chart&stackMode=absolute®ion=World .
Went to MicroCenter to get a Samsung 2TB SSD for $199.00, plus tax which is about half what TN would have charged. Five year warranty. Also spied a 4TB on the shelf for $419.00 but passed.
Saw a large curved monitor, huge, really wide. $1700.00. Nope, not for me. Lot of people walking out with smaller monitors, 32″ variety, some curved, most were flat.
Lot of people in the store, line was long to check out but only took 15 minutes. Limited number people and a person outside restricting the number of people that can enter.
Stock was a lot better than it was back in August. Many missing items in August were in full stock. Of course the door buster stuff was gone which did not matter to me. I just wanted the SSD. This will eliminate the last of my spinning platters in my computer. My boot drive is SSD, now my data drive will become SSD.
Wizard of Id: Black Friday Shoppers
https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2020/11/27
Heh.
Stopped at Walgreens over lunch and they actually have a sign on their door that says, “We do not have the COVID-19 vaccine at this time.” lol
Over The Hedge: Pooting in the Hot Tub
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2020/11/27
OK, that’s just nasty.
Not surprising. The article puts everything into percentages, which is not the point. You cannot refute an increase in total deaths, when you first normalize everything to 100%. The surprising thing is that the article was ever published.
okay now…
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2020/11/breaking-news-pennsylvania-house-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BayouRenaissanceMan+(Bayou+Renaissance+Man)
okay now…
Pennsylvania by itself won’t mean much beyond a symbolic blow to “Scranton Joe”. Even Georgia and Pennsylvania switching would leave the Dems with 270.
Sigh, I have been moderated again. I cannot count to four anymore.
Hi Sam, you can access http://www.homechemlab.com at the internet wayback machine. Here is the apparent last archival before the domain expired.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150217060022/http://www.homechemlab.com/
Hi Nick, I apologize for being out of context. I don’t know where else to ask this question and I feel you might know the answer.
I’m very interested in purchasing Robert’s book, The Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments.
I’m aware the support site for this book, http://www.homechemlab.com, is no longer online. In his posts from 2008, Mr. Thompson talks about working on a teacher’s guide and additional labs which were offered on this support site.
I messaged Ben Siciliano of thehomescientist.com. He told me the support site has been down for a number of years now and the answer guides for the book are no longer available.
I know it’s a long shot, but is there a way to purchase the teacher’s guide and 30 additional labs that Mr. Thompson offered on http://www.homechemlab.com?
Thank you for your time and happy Thanksgiving to all.
Hi Sam, you can access http://www.homechemlab.com at the internet wayback machine. Here is the apparent last archival before the domain expired.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150217060022/http://www.homechemlab.com/
okay now…
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2020/11/breaking-news-pennsylvania-house-and.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+BayouRenaissanceMan+(Bayou+Renaissance+Man)
I give note to the comment by Aesop:
“Aesop said…
Talk is cheap.
Call me when they muster the backbone to actually do something.”
“This is why the Left loves Cuomo and hates Trump, Cuomo is an actual tyrannical dictator”
https://gunfreezone.net/this-is-why-the-left-loves-cuomo-and-hates-trump-cuomo-is-an-actual-tyrannical-dictator/
“New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is downplaying the significance of a Supreme Court decision blocking him enforcing stringent attendance limits on religious institutions in Covid hot spots.”
“First things first, Chief Justice Roberts is a stain on the court.”
“If Cuomo tries to get around this ruling, as I suspect that he wants to, I want Trump to send federal marshalls to perp walk his ass out of the Governor’s Mansion in shackles for violating a SCOTUS order.”
“Bonus points if they Tazer Cuomo.”
Heh.
And 100X points if they grab Nuisance too.
I messaged Ben Siciliano of thehomescientist.com. He told me the support site has been down for a number of years now and the answer guides for the book are no longer available.
Was Ben Siciliano the person who bought out the domain and kit business after Bob passed?
That’s serious mismanagement considering the time frame.
“15 Best Science Fiction Anthologies” by Dan Livingston
https://best-sci-fi-books.com/15-best-science-fiction-anthologies/
I cannot remember if I am 1 for 15 or zero for 15. If I read “Dangerous Visions” by Harlan Ellison then I lost the book in The Great Flood of 1989.
“New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is downplaying the significance of a Supreme Court decision blocking him enforcing stringent attendance limits on religious institutions in Covid hot spots.”
IIRC, New York had a potential situation where the Hacidic community was “in your face” with the various levels of government regarding a planned 4000-5000 person wedding in the heart of their neighborhood in Brooklyn — a “super spreader” event on steroids.
Ben is indeed the owner of the Home Scientist domain/kit business, having been chosen by Barbara after RBT’s passing.
IIRC, the Home Scientist Forum area was disabled before RBT’s passing at his request. There wasn’t much action there, and there was a problem with spam cluttering up the place.
Ben’s been really busy since COVID-19 started. Many orders for home science kits as people went to home learning. He’s been really swamped with orders.
Ben has all of the content that was active when RBT was running The Home Scientist. He can be reached via the contact page at https://www.thehomescientist.com . He is usually responsive to questions.
I built the current site for him, based on the original site, with some updated content. I’ve been trying to get him to convert the site to a more ecommerce-based site, with easier order tracking, etc., but he has been too busy with orders to do that yet.
Too busy fighting alligators to drain the swamp. I imagine a number of us know a bit about that.
@Lynn
15 science fiction anthologies is simply too short a list.
Agree with:
1. Ellison, Dangerous Visions
3. Bova, SFHoF vol IIa (include the other volumes)
6. Card’s Masterpieces
10. Hartnell, Ascent of Wonder
15. Sterling, Mirrorshades
missing are
Healy and McComas, Adventures in Time and Space
Conklin, A Treasury of Science Fiction
Silverberg, Mirror of Infinity
Greenberg, My Favorite Science Fiction Story
Conklin and Asimov, 50 Short Science Fiction Tales
Sargent, Women of Wonder
Moskowitz, Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction and Seekers of Tomorrow
Missing also are:
Nebula and Hugo Award anthologies covering multiple years
single author collections
topical anthologies (time travel, war, alternate history, etc)
(with the exception of current politically correct themes)
At least everyone thinks Roberts is a dick.
Ben’s been really busy since COVID-19 started. Many orders for home science kits as people went to home learning. He’s been really swamped with orders.
My apologies to Ben. I got the impression that the kit business had gone under.
Everyone needs to wait until 2020 closes and the total death count is done, certified, whatever. Then look at any statistical difference.
Death by COVID is over counted.
Too busy fighting alligators to drain the swamp. I imagine a number of us know a bit about that.
Yup, sooner or later you have to figure out how to walk on the alligators.
I have no doubt that some number of people died this year who would otherwise have died next year or the year after. We need to wait several years and then plot monthly and aggregate death numbers.
It’s not a good for people to die early, but there’s a big difference between an old woman in a nursing home dying at 84 rather than at 85 and a man in his prime working years dying 40 years early.
If you’re cold-blooded about it, you could even argue about whether it’s a bad thing for old people to die early. It’s no secret that old people tend to be sickly. Old, sickly people tend to need a lot of expensive medical and nursing home care. Old, sickly people are past their productive years. Much of the medical and nursing home costs are picked up by the states. It’s no secret that New York, Pennsylvania, and California have serious budget problems. It’s no secret that orders from the governors and health departments of New York, Pennsylvania, and California resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of old people in nursing homes. Not to lay accusations, but it’s mighty convenient that the deaths of old, sickly people reduce the states’ financial burden.
The school of Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel (bro of Rahm) says you “walk into the disintegration chamber” at 75. Points for the reference.
Logan’s Run albeit, much younger, ST:TOS over population episode, Our Man/ In Like Flint lost his whizbang lighter to one.
This one. Two planets at war, but only using a computer simulation that dictated who died. Proceed to the nearest disintegration chamber, please.
Enter Doug Ross. He put together a remarkably clear infographic that, in nine slides, breaks down the different allegations and the core facts supporting them. In his email sharing the infographic, Doug generously tells people to “feel free to copy, share, whatever.”
copy here:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/11/_help_is_on_the_way_for_understanding_sidney_powells_georgia_complaint.html
Three comments:
1) The existence of code that has no purpose in a secure voting system other than to facilitate false inputs is prima facie evidence of intent to commit fraud.
2) The existence of a Dominion device to mark ballots using realistic marks (i.e., looks like it was done by humans ) is well-documented. Ostensibly the technology was created for the use of handicapped individuals.
If the technology can vary the appearance of the marks randomly, shape analysis of the marks on those stacks of allegedly pristine ballots is not going to help. But unless those machines are a hell of a lot more sophisticated than I suspect, the ink is not going to vary. Take 1000 legitimate ballots and run SEM on the ink to get a baseline, then run 1000 of the suspect ballots. Run some Dominion-marked ballots for comparison.
3)Trucks allegedly delivering ballots in the dead of night should not be difficult to trace back to origin using traffic cams.
1) The existence of code that has no purpose in a secure voting system other than to facilitate false inputs is prima facie evidence of intent to commit fraud.
Unit testing code. At the last job, we had Boost unit test binaries, generally linked separately from the binaries deployed to the field, but it was useful to have certain hidden config values available to simplify simulation of bad input.
And, no, we didn’t have “black box” QA on production binaries. I doubt the manager hired for that job even knew what that meant. Limited experience at a small consulting company in San Antonio, TAMU Corpus degree. “The island school”.
I’ll bet a lot of the US managers at Dominion were equally clueless.
That was one of my earliest “conspiracy” theories, lol. Oh, the other one was to gauge the response so in the event of another bioweapon ‘they’ would know how to strike more effectively.
@Geoff
All these years I’ve been pronouncing Ealing (as in Ealing Studios, makers of those funny old Alec Guinness movies) as Ailing. Watching a bit of BBC fluff just now I heard it pronounced as Eeling. Help! Which is correct?
The John Hopkins site retracted that story,
Everyone needs to wait until 2020 closes and the total death count is done, certified, whatever. Then look at any statistical difference.
Death by COVID is over counted.
There is no question that the death rate has increased over the last couple of years.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm
To me, Covid has definitely caused some people to die earlier than normal. But the methods used to supposedly forestall more deaths are expensive and causing more deaths on their own (suicide, drugs, etc).
They commit fraud like they always have, only turned up to 11. In the past, the public was willing to believe the narrative, and the candidates were always politicians. Politicians learned how to ‘go along to get along’ – while Trump has nothing to lose and everything to gain. He’s certainly not looking for the corporate speaking circuit to pad his bank account.
I’m convinced by what I’ve seen presented and what the democrat reaction has NOT been to believe there is a need to investigate. (I believe they did it, but it remains to be proved, and it should be proved because that’s the way we do things.) We don’t just deny and make assertions that it’s impossible, like certain democrats have done. People cheat. The bigger the prize the bigger the cheat. They have since the dawn of time. It’s evidence of a serious disconnect from reality to assert that there was NO cheating, couldn’t be cheating, because ‘reasons’ when every single contest known to man has been subjected to cheating.
Just take a step back and consider that a 47 year politician, with NO accomplishments, who played second fiddle to black jexus, got more votes than anyone ever. More than Reagan. More than Barack. He didn’t even campaign. Then consider Trump. Spontaneous MASSIVE rallies. People spending their own money on hats, flags- lots of flags, billboards, banners, even paint. The big auction by me has Trump coins in every auction and they sell for a dollar a piece in lots of 50 and 100. No way did he lose 1/7 of his base in Penn.
Also consider that no one is contesting or disputing HIS votes. The only dispute is if ALL of his were counted. HE got more votes than Barack. LEGIT, counted, undisputed votes.
The results and the irregularities stink like week old fish.
n
(and remember, he took wuflu seriously at the beginning, banning travel, getting the money released for CDC to set up monitoring. AND he’s the one who has been downplaying the seriousness vs the other players once some real numbers had come in. )
Just finished the latest episode of The Mandalorian. Disney is doing a really good job with this series. No spoilers, but the guest star tonight was really well done – would have been easy to botch it. As for the name dropped at the end…I actually let out a little woo hoo. Hopefully they do that character justice. Exciting possibilities!
@Greg
Testing code is a legitimate function.
Enabling false inputs is not a legitimate function in a secure voting system.
Unit testing code, strictly defined, should not be in the deployed units. Tests of hardware functionality should certainly be there, but just as certainly should not be able to affect vote totals without setting a flag.
Secure voting machines — secure cryptographically and physically, secure from tampering by dishonest poll counters or by anyone else — were designed decades ago. (I know because I participated in conversations concerning features and especially potential vulnerabilities. I didn’t directly contribute to any of the designs but my comments and questions may have done some good.) Hardware designs and software were released for analysis, comment, and audit. To the best of my knowledge, no state in the US uses any of the “open source” voting systems. The most charitable interpretation is that the politicians and bureaucrats who selected each state’s systems were ignorant of the security advantages of open-source systems. (The more probable explanations include steering big buckets of taxpayer money to companies which provided
kickbackscontributions and steering future votes to themselves.)Back from my errands.
Replaced what I could plumbing-wise at my rent house, but discovered another problem that I just don’t want to mess with. I’ll be meeting a plumber over there on Tues. I guess.
Went by my secondary location, grabbed some stuff for auction, and moved stuff to a storage unit. Then came home and ate LEFTOVERS. So good. And a big piece of pie. I’ll be paying for all that sugar tomorrow, but SO GOOD.
Very little coughing today, no sore throat, just feeling a bit off. Neck and shoulders one big tight cramp though.
Still drizzling.
n
Just finished the latest episode of The Mandalorian. Disney is doing a really good job with this series. No spoilers, but the guest star tonight was really well done – would have been easy to botch it. As for the name dropped at the end…I actually let out a little woo hoo. Hopefully they do that character justice. Exciting possibilities!
I don’t watch every episode, but I pulled the show just to see the big guest star. I wasn’t disappointed.
The bonus was Michael Biehn. I’m going to drop the spoiler because I didn’t catch it at first until the right camera angle caught my eye. Hicks!
Very little coughing today, no sore throat, just feeling a bit off. Neck and shoulders one big tight cramp though.
The test results didn’t come back yet?
I finally managed to get a replacement for our whole system AC filter. The old filter was nearly three years old. Allergy-related cough/congestion is way down at our house in the last few days since the swap out.
@Greg
Obsolete/unobtainable filter size?
Obsolete/unobtainable filter size?
Trane PerfectFit 21x27x5. Both the Trane OEM expanding media and the Honeywell full box replacement were unobtainium until recently.
I could have opted to use the standard filters at the intakes, but one is really hard to reach, in the ceiling of our master bedroom, and the dust level is a lot lower with the whole house filter.
The 25 year old upstairs system is easy — one filter, one intake, simple to reach/replace.
@Greg: you mean like these?
Trane PerfectFit 21x27x5. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Trane+PerfectFit+21x27x5&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&tag=ttgnet-20
“Johns Hopkins Study Mysteriously Disappears after it Revealed, In Spite of COVID, No More Deaths in 2020 Than In Prior Years”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/11/johns-hopkins-study-mysteriously-disappears-shows-spite-covid-no-deaths-2020-prior-years/
“…When Briand looked at the 2020 data during that seasonal period, COVID-19-related deaths exceeded deaths from heart diseases. This was highly unusual since heart disease has always prevailed as the leading cause of deaths. However, when taking a closer look at the death numbers, she noted something strange. As Briand compared the number of deaths per cause during that period in 2020 to 2018, she noticed that instead of the expected drastic increase across all causes, there was a significant decrease in deaths due to heart disease. Even more surprising, as seen in the graph below, this sudden decline in deaths is observed for all other causes.”
So, deaths from heart attacks are significantly down in 2020 ?
Yeah right, pull the other leg, it has a bell on it. If anything, deaths from heart attacks should be increasing since the baby boomers (1946 – 1964) have entered their critical health years.
@greg- got my test results back a couple of days ago, negative.. put it in a comment here.
I changed my filters at home, 1″ 3m pleated, max allergy something or other. It helps, but not the whole answer. I change them every month, even though they are supposed to be good for 3 months.
When we have it all replaced, I’d like electrostatic as well as the pleated. Maybe even UV too. And I’d really like a size that the stores stock. Or 24x24x2. I’ve got literal cases of those. Some day I’ll make a downdraft sanding table….
n
@Greg: you mean like these?
Trane PerfectFit 21x27x5. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Trane+PerfectFit+21x27x5&ref=nb_sb_noss_2&tag=ttgnet-20
Yes. Earlier this year, the supplies were really limited and shipping was high from the vendors that did have any. I even looked at Big River, something I am generally loathe to do unless I can’t get the item elsewhere.
@greg- got my test results back a couple of days ago, negative.. put it in a comment here.
Sorry. I’ve been working again since the 16th so I didn’t catch it.
I would have been surprised if you caught it. My wife has only seen one case where the patient contracted the Wuxu Flu and couldn’t explain where they got the bug .. at least not to her.
One recent patient ended up in the hospital on a vent, but he recovered. Definitely not random, however. The guy decided to say “F it” and hit the clubs in Corpus Cristi for Halloween.
Well, sooprise!
When we have it all replaced, I’d like electrostatic as well as the pleated. Maybe even UV too. And I’d really like a size that the stores stock. Or 24x24x2. I’ve got literal cases of those. Some day I’ll make a downdraft sanding table….
We have the box in place for electrostatic, but I didn’t want the expense right away.
Yeah. Everybody knows that those special filter sizes do such a better job.
I have a filter in my unit that is slightly undersized in one dimension. Made an adapter for it. In the past I’ve taken oversized filters and cut them down. It’s more of a pain to cut the frame off the end, reattach and seal the edge, but after you do it once, it gets quicker.
Saw an installation in Texas a few years ago where they had a straight section on one side of the filter housing and just shortened it and put in another filter housing that used a more standard size.
@greg, without the fever, I didn’t really think I had it either. But we were supposed to drive to FL to see mom, and I wanted a test to be sure.
—————
I don’t want to sound callous, and I’m probably going to so maybe I shouldn’t miss this chance to shut up. Of course not.
The article is typical Snyder, doom porn, but hey, economic crash and pandemic right?
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/we-havent-seen-much-suffering-thanksgiving-great-depression
The article is mostly about food insecurity. NO ONE needs to be food insecure. I’ve laid out strategies, RBT did, thousands of preppers online have laid out strategies to build up to a year of food on hand. Then there is this guy.
–mortgage they couldn’t afford on one income. Two cars financed. Little savings, lots of credit. Mistake after mistake, choice after choice.
Folks, this is why we prep. Job loss, sick partner, death in the family. Those are the everyday disasters that being prepped for a zombie apocalypse will get you through.
Don’t get caught short in 2021.
n
I don’t want to sound callous, and I’m probably going to so maybe I shouldn’t miss this chance to shut up. Of course not.
The article is typical Snyder, doom porn, but hey, economic crash and pandemic right?
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/we-havent-seen-much-suffering-thanksgiving-great-depression
The article is mostly about food insecurity. NO ONE needs to be food insecure. I’ve laid out strategies, RBT did, thousands of preppers online have laid out strategies to build up to a year of food on hand. Then there is this guy.
Maybe Trump should let Biden be the prez. The next four years may be interesting
After all, my son says that we will call it The Greater Depression ™.
No allergies in our household, so I just have a thin foam sheet to keep any airborne fluff off the heating elements. “Furnace filters” originally prevented dust particles from being burned and producing unpleasant odors.
When AC became popular, the filter protected the evaporator from clogging with dust. About the same time, filters were improved to actually remove fine particulates, and the disposable filter arrived. Before that, washable metal mesh filters were common.
Big commercial systems used electrostatic precipitators (with high voltage power supplies,) steam injection, or water mist chambers to clean the air. Some of these were very good, but could use a lot of energy or require too much maintenance, and so fell out of favor.
Humidification is almost always a high maitenance operation, especially if the water has minerals. We humidify all year, but not enough in winter for that reason. I want to improve that.
Plenty of humidity here, I certainly don’t need to add some. Phoenix in the late 80s was another story. I got to be so sensitive to it, I could feel the moisture coming off a cold glass of water on the back of my hand from a couple of feet away.
Very little I miss about Tempe, but the sharp flinty air and the sudden moist coldness as I rode my Ninja thru a valley or irrigated field, the smell of mesquite, the purple and brown and red subtle beauty of the desert… those I miss.
n
Lost power half hour ago. Utility outage tracker shows our whole neighborhood out and another hour until power is restored.
It would be nice too have the whole house gennie come on…. But I never got the guy out. Every time i had a plan, we got a hurricane warning and they all got busy.
If it was daytime I’d get the little one going. As it is, I’m going to sleep.
N
@jim:
There may be some controversy on this, even here in UK, but I’ve always used the latter pronunciation, “eeling”. I’m from South Wales, by way of London, and my accent is pretty mainstream. On the other hand, Auntie has an entire department that rules on pronunciations, mostly oversea, but they can get called in for UK stuff, too.
If by “fluff” you mean general programming, all bets are off . Regional accents are all the rage these days – not too extreme, though. Broad Glaswegian, Scouse or Geordie are mostly still beyond the pale. From a newsreader, it’s pretty much pukka. The “BBC accent” is still a thing, and more-or-less a reference.
G.
Geoff
pukka. I surrender, my english is more or less, i survive (without a credit card) in english environments, but pukka overwhelmed me.
SteveF
Secure voting machines, is unobtanium, why? nobody can assure that software is perfect, as with crypto, time and technology wins. Even you could tamper with mains supply and voting machines are not TEMPEST
@greg, without the fever, I didn’t really think I had it either. But we were supposed to drive to FL to see mom, and I wanted a test to be sure.
Definitely be cautious with an older person.
It wasn’t the lack of fever that made me doubt Wuxu as much as your abundance of caution since March. If you get it, I’m in serious trouble since we are out a bit more on a regular basis.
We did go to Florida in July, but we stayed in a non-tourist area.
Pukka: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/pukka
What @dcp said. Particularly adjective meaning 1.
@ayjblog:
You have nothing to apologise for. Pukka is one of those English colloquialisms that will likely be obscure to anyone but a native English speaker, and not a few of those, as well. Your English is far better than my command of your native language, which I deduce is (possibly) Latin American Spanish, from previous hints in your posts.
G.
Lost power half hour ago. Utility outage tracker shows our whole neighborhood out and another hour until power is restored.
Lots of electricity used for heating where you live?
Cold holiday weekends are always accompanied by rolling blackouts in Florida. Everyone wants to live this old Publix commercial. Shorts for Christmas are a God-given right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTD96WhhC9w
There may be some controversy on this, even here in UK, but I’ve always used the latter pronunciation, “eeling”. I’m from South Wales, by way of London, and my accent is pretty mainstream. On the other hand, Auntie has an entire department that rules on pronunciations, mostly oversea, but they can get called in for UK stuff, too.
I swear Svengoolie says it as “eeling”.
@greg:
Not further north they aren’t. Anyone with even a smidgeon of common sense wraps up warm for a British Christmas. And as for Scandinavia… Brrrh.
Although I have to say that “common sense” is sometimes anything but common.
G.
That’s my metric, too. It’s not a problem for me not to be able to bust on someone for their (lack of) English skills. I can always find something else to bust on them about.
True, but not terribly important. The goal was not to make a voting machine which was 100% secure against all threats known and unknown until the end of the universe. The purpose was to make an auditable machine which was secure enough and which would show all of the changes and all of the admin accesses. The goal was an electronic voting machine which would not allow tampering and cheating to be hidden.
Ha! Where I live now (near Albany, NY) gets colder in Winter than anyplace in England* and I grew up in the mountains north of here which I think average colder than anyplace on the Scottish mainland. And one fine morning in Minnesota I walked to work at just above -30F, with a wind, which is colder than ever recorded in Britain. (No, I didn’t wear shorts. I was going to work, meaning I needed to wear long pants, annoying though it was.)
Somewhere or other I read the idea that Americans’ toughness and creativity in the 1800s came from the weather and terrain challenges we had to overcome. We don’t have the coldest temperatures in the world, nor the hottest, nor the least rainfall, nor the most forbidding mountains, but for sheer, varied godawfulness the continental United States can’t be beat. I never did figure out whether that notion was meant seriously or jokingly.
* I think. I couldn’t find a chart of “coldest average Winter temperature by English county” or anything similar. All I could do was spot-check the temperature charts for a handful of cities.
“Shorts for Christmas are a God-given right.”
Not further north they aren’t. Anyone with even a smidgeon of common sense wraps up warm for a British Christmas. And as for Scandinavia… Brrrh.
Florida. It is the payback for lower paychecks and all the “A Florida Man” jokes.
@stevef:
We have the advantage of being at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, which keeps the UK warmer than it should be, going by latitude alone.
“-30F in Minnesota”. Inland, I think, with no nearby ocean to moderate temperatures. In that regard, even without the Gulf Stream, we’re better off – nowhere is more than about 100 miles from a coast.
G.
I can see the current Supreme Court moving the lines on the “trimester” system that Roe v. Wade introduced with increases in medical knowledge as the reason.
There was hand wringing by the left that putting Barrett on the court would lead to an overturn of Obergefell, the contraceptive ruling, and allowing states to ban SSM. Not gonna happen. Untangling all the marriages that resulted from that law would be a legal nightmare. The Supremes rarely, rarely upend something that big and only when public opinion is trending in their way, i.e. Brown overturning “separate but equal”. It also discounts the speeches Barrett has given over the years that address how a judge has to handle conflicts between the law and religious beliefs. (TL;DR, the law wins.)
Correct. Pretty close to dead-center in the middle of North America. Upwind of the Great Lakes, meaning there wasn’t all that much snow* but cold enough that whatever snow came, stayed. Elevation was about 1300′, which didn’t help with the chill. And basically flat, so there wasn’t anything to stop the wind.**
* Usually. The one Winter I was there saw unusually heavy snowfall. Fear my power!
** The Great Plains, covering the central strip of the US and Canada, are nice and flat. Nice and windy. Nice and tornado-y. While I lived in Minnesota, a tornado pretty well flattened the city ten miles south of me. Fun times! Including destroying the grocery store I usually went to. Not fun times! I had a couple spare bedrooms so I offered to take in some refugees, but as it happens Minnesota has a very good system in place for dealing with tornado destruction, on account of them happening so often, and my rooms weren’t needed.
Aw, SteveF, just another example of your good-heartedness.
…or was there a deeper plan?
Power just went out where I live in SA. North of airport. Came back on for 10 secs. CPS already robocalled me to let know. Nice.
Oh, yeah, ‘net still up. Have the modem and router on UPS. And Arlo camera system. CPS is predicting 2 hours. UPS won’t last that long.
Mr. Nick is sleeping in.
Mr. Nick is sleeping in.
Or trying to get power restored? 😉
Trying to get my post up after sleeping in….
n
well I thought it was posted but my fault
Steve F and Geoff both you are very polite, thanks, and yes, latinamerica south, Argentina
back to business
no, I understand good enough, since I said before I was a PHB, so, always 2 of 3 (cheaper better etc) but when you need the answers the same night, you MUST be sure it is correct and not tampered, so, the only way is manual count, otherwise you build an statistic, better or worser, but an statistic. Thats why, I presume, Germany doesnt allow electronic machines.
Strange, England catched up indian words, US, spanish (in the form of mexican words). I think Latin had suffered the same phenomena from Goths etc. I dont know, Spanish, as Spain was the first global empire, had or have malayan tagalo aztec and some african words inside, and, of course, viceversa.
Too mcuh for Sunday