Cool and damp, but precip should be limited. Yesterday was nice, cool, but damp, with periods of blue sky and sunshine. At least at my house. We did get a bit of rain but very little.
I got a bunch of little things done after a slow start, mostly outside in the yard, because it was a really nice day when it wasn’t raining or grey.
Still, not super productive.
Today I’m hoping to get to my secondary and load up a bunch of auction stuff. Forecast shows no rain for two or three days, so I can load the truck and make a delivery. If I can’t load up, I’ll stage it by the door and work on throwing stuff out. Or I’ll stay home and work on the garage and driveway. Either thing is a good thing, and I’ve got plenty to load up here as well.
I feel the need to do some inventory, at least by getting stuff in the same place so I can see how big the stack is. Then I can add to the stacks as needed. On the plus side, a lot of what I bought in March a year ago is stuff I’d be buying now, so other than being a year older, I’ve already got that base level of new stuff.
More is better when things start feeling this weird. I read through the last couple of weeks of my posts and I’m using the word ‘weird’ a lot. It’s appropriate though, and you’ll probably hear it a lot more in the coming weeks.
Someone used to say “When the going get’s weird, the weird turn pro.” I’ve been thinking that phrase often, although I can’t bend it to apply, it feels like it’s about 80% of a truth. We’re getting to pro level weird, or will be soon.
So stack it up. Learn about it. Think of two ways to do all the things. Make sure you have the stuff for alternatives. Get out and take a good look around, note the changes from the last time you really looked. Do it again later. Rinse and repeat. Keep your grocery receipts and compare them from month to month, week to week. Note what you see and act on it. There will be national and international events but the most important are going to be local, and it’s your local response that will have the biggest impact on you and your family. Consider that the conflict has already started, sides are already chosen, people already have mental plans. Act accordingly.
Head on a swivel…
n
It is 50 F at my house at 720 am this morning. Everything is wet so we hit the dew point. Amazingly cold for late April.
“became aware of unauthorized access to certain of our information technology systems hosted by a third party cloud provider”
–keep your data on your computers. Or pay the price.
At the last job, heading into the Fall, the newly-hired Senior develoers got bored trying to learn and do the actual work of our group, and, wanting to build Hot Skillz, pitched to management the concept of putting the product build environments on “The Cloud” rather than in VMs on developer laptops.
Management, desiring Hot Skillz on their own resumes, went along with the concept, creating a potential exposure in an attempt to join the cool kids.
Build environments in “The Cloud” offer the potential to view source code for products to anyone with the right credentials, with modifications to code possible if the decision makers were really trying to be cool.
Just being able to view product source online would be bad for a place like Ubiquiti.
Joint U.S.-China Scientist Team Creates Human-Monkey Hybrid Embryo
https://legalinsurrection.com/2021/04/joint-u-s-china-scientist-team-creates-human-monkey-hybrid-embryo/
“He maintained that the study, published in the journal Cell, had met the current ethical and legal guidelines.”
The Chinese will be absolutely constrained by “ethical and legal guidelines”.
Not just no, but f*ck no.
The Chinese will be absolutely constrained by “ethical and legal guidelines”.
Not just no, but f*ck no.
Please. The announcement about embryos means the Chinese really have live births taking place somewhere.
Human cloning has probably been happening for a while over there.
heroism and idiocy:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/04/bobcat_attack_in_north_carolina_demonstrates_the_value_of_a_good_husband.html
“Please. The announcement about embryos means the Chinese really have live births taking place somewhere.”
I have no doubt.
Next will be staffing factories, and then buying iPhones.
American Scientist: “Hey, where will we get some human cells?”
Chinese Scientist: “We have some donated by volunteers.”
American Scientist: “We’re good to go then.”
American Bioethicist: “The monkey’s didn’t give informed consent.”
More closures are coming unless the student loan forgiveness happens.
The real point of forgiveness is to eliminate the job market-driven caps on tuition. Nationalizing student loans under Obamacare wasn’t enough for the trustees at a lot of these schools
https://hyperallergic.com/638166/mills-college-closes-after-169-years/
Ah, 58F and 62%RH at 930 this am…
Woke up dreaming about buckets of all things. Useful tool, your bucket.
n
who knew that a question like “what is the difference between “bucket” and “pail” could lead to verbal fisticuffs? The Stackexchange thread gets downright nasty.
And there is a lot of typical internet arguing “I’ve never heard/seen/done/ that so it doesn’t exist/you’re wrong/…. appeals to authority “five minutes with google gets you…” and credentialism “I’m a native english speaker with a degree in English and a minor in writing”… and one of my favorites, the repeated assertion. Just keep repeating the same thing until your opponent gives up.
n
Next will be staffing factories, and then buying iPhones.
Chuck Heston … paging Chuck Heston … please pick up the nearest white courtesy phone.
Religious discrimination? The real issue is “work from home”.
The Work From Home Mommy (and plenty of Daddies as of late) Mafia (TM) will be even harder to reign in now, after Covid, since the pandemic made so many employees Made Men/Women in the racket.
Unfortunately, Ramsey is an easy target regardless of whether he is right. Unless the employee is a hardcore geek with the right hobbies, pro-level video editing is one of those tasks that isn’t going to get done easily at home without a serious capital investment by the employer.
https://religionnews.com/2021/04/15/former-employee-sues-dave-ramseys-company-for-alleged-religious-discrimination-cult-like-atmosphere/
@Nick: W RT to arguements over here, https://forums.geocaching.com/GC/index.php?/forum/11-gps/, regarding GPSr devices and ambient air pressures vs. altitude, I earned the informal equivalent of a Master’s Degree in Sociology majoring in human behaviour.
The less they know results in them assessing there unkown as less. Specifically, the maximum IQ is 200 and those with an IQ of 100 are lacking 100. In reality those with 100 think that they are lacking 80 instead of 100 and those with IQ of 80 think that they lacking 60 instead of 120.
Outside of that, they would never agree with me.
Oh yeah, you can check me out over there as: Team CowboyPapa.
Looks like that guy’s only hope is to prove he was lied to during the recruitment and hiring process. Otherwise, no one has a right to a job. AT WILL works both ways.
OSHA has only recently posted any guidance (may or may not be rules, I didn’t care enough to read the article, only the headline) so if the employer didn’t break any rules, well… even if an employer does break OSHA rules, that doesn’t give the employee any additional rights.
n
Looks like that guy’s only hope is to prove he was lied to during the recruitment and hiring process. Otherwise, no one has a right to a job. AT WILL works both ways.
Many things are possible with the right jury, but finding one will be tough in … Nashville (?).
When I listened to the show regularly, I’d hear Ramsey talk at least once a week about things he viewed harmful in the workplace and grounds for firing, particularly gossip and sex between unmarried people. His views on just about everything are very well known.
Not just his thoughts on them but that they apply to employees and in the workplace.
n
Forgot to mention one thing in my previous post WRT stupid people arguing: the human ego effect. Yes, due to ego, everyone thinks that they are smarter than the really are. Or, looking in rather than out, the dumber that one is, the more one underestimates his stupidity.
Not just his thoughts on them but that they apply to employees and in the workplace.
Economics in general. One of the keys to Ramsey’s success with church groups buying into the FPU programs and providing the venues is that participants are required to maintain tithe during most steps even if they are paying it out of their job “delivering pizzas”.
@Lynn — Your cousin lives near Dallas, right?
Authorities said they used 32,000 gallons of water to extinguish the flames because the vehicle’s batteries kept reigniting. At one point, Herman said, deputies had to call Tesla to ask them how to put out the fire in the battery.
https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/04/18/2-men-dead-after-fiery-tesla-crash-in-spring-officials-say/
One of my EMS orgs has written about the dangers of EV fires extensively. I’ve linked to them fairly recently.
About all you can do is cool the battery pack until it falls below the ignition temp. But if it has damage and gets hot again, it will enter thermal runaway and re-ignite, sometimes days later.
n
Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!
Same here. I start with asking local friends and neighbors for recommendations.
Reminds me of my days riding the Staten Island Ferry. The crew was determined to keep on schedule and there were these big motorized glass sliding doors that closed off the terminal from the gangways to the boats. You could count on those doors closing on schedule regardless of people running full speed across the terminal trying to beat the doors slamming shut, with rare exceptions made by the mostly male deckhands for their, ahem, friends. Worst was late on a weekday night when the boats ran only hourly.
Also remember back in the 20th century when you could take your car onto the ferry. That ended on 9/11/2001 and will never return. Score one for the terrorists.
I expect an “I told you so moment” coming so for convenience I’ve bookmarked this very prescient post from last night by @nick…read it if you missed it yesterday…
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2021/04/17/sat-april-17-2021-rain-could-be/#comment-206912
Shoot it repeatedly to break down the internal structure and release the energy more quickly. It’ll burn hotter but not as long and it won’t keep reigniting.
Now, before you go and try this, please note that I was just throwing out one of my “bad advice that sounds almost plausible” suggestions … but as I think about it I’m not sure if it’s actually not that bad of an idea.
Another day another mass shooting by a cop. (Former cop)
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/multiple-people-dead-active-shooter-loose-austin-texas
Bet the media drops this like a hot potato once the see the suspects photo
And now we have Maxine Waters stirring up BLM into shooting more cops.
You’d think there’d be a law against this sort of thing.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/get-more-confrontational-maxine-waters-crosses-state-lines-incite-blm-protesters
@Alan
Car ferries were always on my bucket list when I traveled. The three most memorable were Dover to Calais—hovercraft one way and traditional back, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan on the USS Badger (see the wki entry for the awesome history).
The Concorde was on my list, too, but The timing didn’t work out.
@Alan
Car ferries were always on my bucket list when I traveled. The three most memorable were Dover to Calais—hovercraft one way and traditional back, and Manitowoc, Wisconsin to Ludington, Michigan on the USS Badger (see the wki entry for the awesome history).
The Concorde was on my list, too, but The timing didn’t work out.
I took two very large ferries back in the early 1990s. Middle of Denmark to Copenhagen which is now a 30+ mile bridge. The ferry was 10 or 12 levels with 4 of those levels being trains. The ferry also ran at 30+ mph.
Then from Copenhagen south into the former east Germany, another 30+ mph ferry. Got off the ferry, left the town, and promptly ran into a huge traffic jam because the autobahn was only two lanes for over a 100 miles.
I would like to put the SpaceX Ballistic into my bucket list but they will have to get that safety factor up to the Southwest 737 running between Dallas and Houston every 20 minutes for the last 50 years.
Seaplanes were always on my Must Try list. Finally got to try one between St Thomas and Virgin Gorda in the 90s. Lots of fun.
Dilbert: Online Therapy
https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-04-18
Get a new therapist right now.
BC: Only A Temp
https://www.gocomics.com/bc/2021/04/18
Oh my goodness !
How about a truckload of dirt. That should keep it from flaming. 🙂
The Dunning-Kruger Effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Pearls Before Swine: Dream Big or Go Home
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2021/04/16
I am Pig.
deputies had to call Tesla to ask them how to put out the fire in the battery.
Shoot it repeatedly to break down the internal structure and release the energy more quickly. It’ll burn hotter but not as long and it won’t keep reigniting.
Now, before you go and try this, please note that I was just throwing out one of my “bad advice that sounds almost plausible” suggestions … but as I think about it I’m not sure if it’s actually not that bad of an idea.
“The Dawn Of The E-Vehicle Battery Environmental Disaster …Discarded Even Sooner Than Expected”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/17/the-dawn-of-the-e-vehicle-battery-environmental-disaster-discarded-even-sooner-than-expected/
“It’s all beginning to dawn on the greens: the looming environmental disaster of e-vehicle batteries.
When it comes to lithium-ion e-vehicles and the environmentalist greens and profiteers:
They know it’s a disaster.
We know it’s a disaster.
They know that we know that they know it’s a disaster.
But they still pretend it isn’t.*”
“It’s all beginning to dawn on the greens”
Very doubtful.
It’s being reported by accident investigators that there was no one in the driver’s seat of the Tesla S that caught fire in Houston. They should be able to get the electro-narc report from Tesla, then they can decide what claim to file against the insurance of the guy that should have been driving. If insurance rates skyrocket it would be a start.
Pasty-face liar still getting $7500 per car subsidy for the buyers?
HOME. A little over 3K miles of driving. Tired of driving. Worst roads were in Louisiana, second was on I-59 in Alabama but at least Alabama is in the process of removing and replacing the road surface. Louisiana, officials don’t care. No traffic snarls, moved along at a good clip, about 5 over the limit most of the way. Spent the night in Pearl Mississippi just outside of Jackson. That was about the halfway point. Did I mention I was HOME.
I’m guessing either a hung jury (11-1 for guilty of manslaughter) or guilty of manslaughter.
@drwilliams; why “idiocy”?
breaking news:
Another carjacker shot in the Twin Cities, apparently not fatally.
No race announced.
Stay tuned for more rioting.
@Alan
“@drwilliams; why “idiocy”? “
Watch the jogger in the video.
How about the foam cannons they have at airports? Quite a mess to clean up though.
“Wild West Pimp Style”
https://gunfreezone.net/wild-west-pimp-style/
“Representative Ann Johnson (D) voicing her bigoted opposition to Constitutional Carry in Texas.
Scratch a Liberal and find a racist underneath.”
There are a lot of talented youtubers out there.
And dumbrocrats …
Went to the cinema for the first time in over a year.
Now that the wife is in a full time care facility I can take a few minutes to myself once in a while. After almost 4 weeks straight in two different hospitals and multiple leg surgeries, there was no way I could care for her at home so my insurance company helped arrange a rehab hospital nearby (45 min away). Takes a huge load off me knowing she’s in good hands and I don’t have to sleep in hospital recliners anymore.
Years ago in SF checked off riding in a helicopter, specifically a Bell 47. Unique experience taking off and you look down through the bubble and see the ground shrink away. Learning how to fly one will probably remain unchecked.
@Harold; thanks for the update. Thoughts and prayers for her recovery, and glad you can catch a breath.
@Nick
Have you seen any article that tries to explain what happens when a lithium ion automotive pack is breached?
Looks to me like there’s a good chance of two different combustion pathways, depending. In one case decomposition generates oxygen, which makes it tough to smother out, and the thermal runaway temperature of the reactions is less than 150F.
@Alan
Foam would’t do it. Dirt won’t do it if the chemical reaction produces enough oxygen. A very large carbon dioxide or Halotron I extinguisher extinguisher might do it if it were large enough
@Alan
Wasn’t a Bell 47 used in the Highway Patrol tv series?
Pasty-face liar still getting $7500 per car subsidy for the buyers?
No more Federal tax credits, but California and other states may still offer something.
All of Tesla’s current profits originate from selling carbon credits to other manufacturers. Actually producing cars is a money-losing operation.
“EIA: U.S. CO2 Emissions Declined 11% in 2020 – No Change in Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/16/eia-u-s-co2-emissions-declined-11-in-2020-no-change-in-rising-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide/
“Climate change action proponents regularly tell us we have to reduce our carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to prevent “climate change”, even to the point of curtailing industry, travel, and food consumption. Fortunately, a real-world test of just those very things happened in 2020 due to the COVID-19 related lockdowns.”
“This big CO2 emission reduction experiment from traditional fossil fuel energy sources so often demanded from climate change alarmists resulted from the global economy being essentially crippled for months, and yet did not matter at all in the grand scheme of global carbon dioxide concentrations, said to be the “control knob” for climate change. Even with that reduction, combined with a 17% upwards shift towards wind and solar, the Earth’s atmosphere didn’t notice – global atmospheric CO2 concentrations continued upwards, unabated in 2020.”
Atmospheric – Oceanic chemistry is incredibly difficult to understand and to model. Pressure and inversion layers make it even more complicated.
Living in Marin County (on the north side of the GG Bridge) in the 60s, we took both the Big Passenger helicopter and the Hovercraft to get to SFO airport on occasion. Both were fun and equally VERY noisy.
In Hong Kong in 2000 we took the jet hydrofoil to Macau and back for a long weekend. Noisy but very smooth once it got up on the foils.
I would like to put the SpaceX Ballistic into my bucket list but they will have to get that safety factor up to the Southwest 737 running between Dallas and Houston every 20 minutes for the last 50 years.
Tampa to Atlanta every hour, departing from the “Spanx” gate, C37, at Tampa International Airport.
Airtran used to run that route until Southwest bought them, and the last Airtran scheduled flight number was that hop.
Airside C has sane TSA and the best food in the airport.
Dilbert: Online Therapy
https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-04-18
Get a new therapist right now.
The therapist looks like my manager at the last job. I strongly suspect he smoked weed all day “working” from home so he’s unlikely to be out spreading any pathogens.
Speaking of weed smoking …
https://www.thewrap.com/matthew-mcconaughey-texas-governor-race-double-digit-lead-greg-abbott/
Me, too. 1974, Oakland to SFO, where we caught PanAm 2 to Haneda airport in Japan, thence to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Karachi.
Fond memories.
As mentioned above, the Dunning-Kruger effect. But mathematical analysis of their data shows their conclusions don’t hold up. (A not uncommon occurrence in social sciences.)
I took it from DFW to Dulles once, on a Braniff flight. It’s seated 4 across, seats a tiny bit wider than coach, better leg room. There were almost as many flight attendants as passengers. (IIRC, there were 10 passengers maybe.) I had to get to Dulles on a Sunday and it was the only flight available. It was a British Airways plane that was leased overnight to Braniff. It would fly into Dulles from London, get a new number put on the tail, fly to DFW in the evening, spend the night, leave in the AM for Dulles, get the old number put on, fly to London.
We flew at 40k feet at Mach 0.99 most of the way.
Later that year I flew from an airport in Honduras to a small island off the coast on a DC-3.
I think the Dunning-Kruger effect’s definition should be expanded to include the fact that it’s common for whoever in an argument quotes the Dunning-Kruger to assume it doesn’t apply to them (i.e. to assume because they know the meaning of the Dunning-Kruger effect that they’re automatically not the dumbest person in the room).
There seems to be some correlation between people pointing out fallacies and being arrogant enough to assume they are never guilty of them. As if simply knowing the definition forever excludes them.
Probably the sexiest airliner ever made. If I won the lottery I’d get a multi-engine pilot’s license and and DC-3 to go with it.
Probably the sexiest airliner ever made. If I won the lottery I’d get a multi-engine pilot’s license and and DC-3 to go with it.
Short Sunderland. I’ve seen this one in the air at the museum in Florida, and I think theirs is the only one that still flies.
https://www.fantasyofflight.com/collection/aircraft/currently-not-showing-in-museum/wwii/1944-short-sunderland/
WRT the EV battery packs, if they mentioned the science, it blew right by me. The upshot for the fire service is you have to keep them cool. If they are damaged, they get hot, if they get hot, they catch on fire. There is some sort of metaphorical ‘big red switch’ but if the pack is damaged, it doesn’t work.
The biggest hazard for the FD other than EV thermal runaway is cutting into an airbag charge while pealing the vehicle away from victims.
—————————————–
FWIW, I will be very happy to have my predictions NOT come to pass. But… here I am using my global pandemic preps, and I thought that was a long shot. I think economic collapse/CWII/the coming unpleasantness/ is almost a certainty, with the only question being which combination, and what timeline. So, yeah, get some preps going. And then get some more.
—————————————-
Another shooting, I’d link but just go to https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html and read down the page. FFS people, calm the hell down.
–and for us, PREP like your life depends on it. Carry, all the time. NOT just when you have a bad feeling or go certain places. Harden your house, work, vehicle. PAY ATTENTION. Back down, turn around, run away, live for another day.
n
mall shooter identified.
–surprising absolutely no one.
n
Now that is strange. I was sure I posted links to some EMS articles about EV fires, but I c’nah find them.
I did end up rereading several days, this fairly recent one was a good day for comments and meeting new people
https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2021/02/18/thur-feb-18-2021-losing-track-of-the-days/
I think I should be creating more specific tags and using them. Maybe a ‘cold snap of ’21’ tag… or more generally an AAR, After Action Report tag. Yes, I will do that.
Wife and kids are watching one of the Godzilla movies. They have been working their way thru the Marvel universe movies, and I’ve been doing other things. I have no interest at all in them. It’s a lot less ‘thump-y’ than most of what they’ve been watching. Very little subwoofer action.
n
Careful what you wish for… The standstill view from the cockpit is nerve wracking itself. You are up way high and the nose points to the sky. Start moving and you most likely just get to see the end of the airfield strip (why use a modern airport…). Until the beast, which is really heavy and only has two engines, gets enough speed so you can lift the tail wheelie you really are not certain how much you have gone off-centre. Trikes pointing up are not fun on the tarmac. In the air it is also heavy and sloooow to react. The wings give it a lot of stability though.
In the US, maybe; elsewhere, there most probably are several still around doing hard work.
Deep water survival training for the US Navy, San Diego, CA. Boarded an LCT (a small-ish ship) with a 30-foot tower over the stern. On the way out, we got to set off smoke flares and fire aerial flares. Once we were out about 2 miles from shore, everybody put on parachute harnesses and one by one, we climbed the tower and jumped into the VERY COLD Pacific ocean. The ship is still moving, and we were still in our parachute harnesses, being dragged through the water. It’s called a “Nantucket Sleigh Ride”. The goal was to get OUT of the parachute harness. Did that.
The ship kept going, so we inflated our one-man liferafts and bobbed around for a while; then another ship comes by and collects the liferafts, and occasionally drops off a large 20-man raft. The goal there is to get into the raft from the water. We practiced using our signal mirrors to signal to a rescue helicopter. So we bail out of the raft and swim 100 yards, and then they lowered a “horse collar” sling, and we’re each winched up into the helicopter. It was a long and tiring day, but we all survived. It was fun, except for the cold water, but I wouldn’t have wanted to do it again.
@drwilliams; yup, I believe the episode was called “Desert Chopper”.
BTW, if you get MeTV, you should be able to see Highway Patrol at 4 AM (Mon – Sat).
Now if only Jeff B. had some to sell…with Prime Delivery.
And speaking of Prime, more members, and more video content, for AWS to subsidize…
Maybe it’s not a surprise, but Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) saw a lot of new Prime members sign up in 2020. CEO Jeff Bezos said the company now has over 200 million Prime members worldwide in his 2020 letter to shareholders. That’s up about 50 million in the 15 months since management last shared a milestone in January of last year. What’s more, it took Amazon about 21 months to go from 100 million to 150 million, so adoption clearly accelerated during the pandemic.
To be sure, Amazon’s stepped up its content investments for 2020. The company’s 10-K filing revealed $11 billion in video and content expenses, up from $7.8 billion in 2019. Part of that comes from increased premium video-on-demand, but it mostly reflects Amazon’s increased investment in content for Prime Video.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/04/17/amazon-prime-adoption-accelerated-in-2020/
It’s like these cretins all lived in lock-down states, got jabbed and decided to emerge from their basements.
Being somewhat out of the US news loop: Are there actually more shootings happening, or are they just being reported?
In the random bits of US news I do trip across, it looks like lots of blacks burning and rioting. I assume the Floyd trial is driving this? I also see that Maxine Waters is encouraging the violence. Is there anything that could be more counterproductive? What is the end-game supposed to be? More to the point: why does her local political machine tolerate her? Surely they could find someone who actually has two neurons to rub together? Waters is as dumb as a bag of hammers.
@brad, it’s a really good question if it’s reporting or actual shootings. Probably overall they are way up, but that is including normal gang violence in the big blue cities. Hey Jackass (website) has documented the increase in Chicago, and there is a documented increase in NYC.
IIRC from my training, there is an active shooter, or multiple victim shooting every 4 or 5 days normally, but they don’t get coverage nationally. And there are problems with how it’s all defined as we briefly saw even here a few days ago. It does feel like there are more currently, but that could also be driven by a copy cat effect. They cluster in time because people see it happening and it frees them to act too.
Cop shootings and cops being shot always get reported, at least initially, and I see them in my EMgmt newsletters too. They are definitely up. Most cops that are killed or injured on the job die in traffic accidents or from poor health, not shootings. It’s actually a very safe job from that standpoint.
WRT dumb politicians, well, you could say the puppetmasters want it that way. I don’t think ‘the people’ have actually had a choice in the matter in a long time, much longer than I first assumed. Especially if you consider structural issues like who even gets on the ticket.
n