Hot and humid, possibly sunny too. Or so they say. It was nice yesterday, but I was crippled up with back pain so I mainly stayed in.
This is getting ridiculous. I sit in my chair too long, my leg muscles contract, and that pulls stuff out of alignment. The problem then ‘zig zags’ up my back to my neck. This from observation and talking with the doc today. Upshot is, move around more, and get serious about stretching. So now stretching is going to nibble at my day too. On the plus side, time spent stretching should cut down the time spent hurting, and should keep me from being non-productive.
I did get a couple of small things done despite being nauseous all day.
Today I am supposed to drop off auction items. That is top of the list. It’s also the last day of school for the kids, and they will not want to sit around waiting for a pickup, which is understandable. That kills my momentum and afternoon however. That’s life though.
Kids and wife are playing with the new Switch game device. Hard to call it a console, when you can take it with you and use the built in screen, but also hard to call it a handheld, when you put it in the cradle and connect to your big screen tv and pull off the controllers so you can sit on the couch. Games are about the biggest entertainment market. IIRC they are bigger than movies, tv, and music combined. Dollar per hour, I think that games are usually really good value for your entertainment buck too.
One example of how big gaming really is, I keep running into bands and songs on youtube where the comments are full of “I came here from XXXXXX game and really like this music, anyone else?” and the chorus of similar comments is overwhelming. You Want It Darker, by Leonard Cohen was my latest example, and it featured in about 3 video games, and at least two TV shows. The comments from the gamers outnumbered the TV viewers dramatically. LOTS of music featured in video games, and the players notice and seek it out. The world is changed wrt media.
Of course the world is always changing, but the PACE of the change is accelerating, and I think the change is happening faster than people can internalize. It’s not just tech either, but almost every aspect of our lives. This plays into my theory that we are living through one of the periods where everything changes.
A lot of people aren’t gonna LIKE all those changes. Which just adds to the general disorder and upheaval coming. And it is coming. It’s already started.
Keep stacking needful things.
nick
775F and 91%RH at 630. I’m stiff and sore, and tired. Sky looks like it might still be clear though and that’s a blessing.
n
” I even installed a matching math coprocesser.”:
–I think I mentioned that I found one of those new in box at Goodwill, and sold it on ebay for ~$100 or more. I can’t remember exactly how much, but it was crazy for hardware that old.
That isn’t unusual if someone needs a specific part to keep an old system going.
The Weird Stuff Warehouse did not close due to lack of business. Google wouldn”t renew the lease, and the owners called it a day.
The comments from the gamers outnumbered the TV viewers dramatically. LOTS of music featured in video games, and the players notice and seek it out. The world is changed wrt media.
Games and anime/manga have become more popular since kids are still home and will be until Labor Day at a minimum
Because they carry a range of popular products, the big Japanese bookstore down near the Austin Ranch 99 Market gets away with adhering to the “no cash” orthodoxy that various entities tried to establish at the start of the pandemic.
For the most part, the attempt failed. Next pandemic. Wokeness dies hard in Austin, however.
If your kids do get into anime, you will want to pay attention to the content and the inevitable attendance at convention panels.
Not much has changed in the source material on the Japan side. If anything it is slightly tamer than when I was a kid. However, the dubbing and distribution in the US is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few media players who have a social agenda … and staff psychologists.
Pay attention to anything from Funimation — Sony — or Crunchyroll — “Discovery-Warner” or whatever they end up being called after the inevitable buyout.
Unbelievably, Disney is rumored for Discovery-Warner.
Since 1960 Federal spending has been 15-23% of GDP. Call it 20%.Thttps://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYONGDA188S?force_isolation=true
USDebtClock.org has government spending as 45% of GDP this year!
USDebtClock.org has government spending as 45% of GDP this year!
–which is going to make a huge difference this time around.
and not in a way that is good for us.
n
There are a lot of things in this article that might give a careful reader pause, like the constant appeals to authority typical of medical quackery scams, but if any of the facts listed are true, there is definitely stuff there that is worth a second look.
ESPECIALLY in light of what we all suspected but now see confirmed — their goals are not our goals.
n
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/i-dont-know-bigger-story-world-right-now-ivermectin-nytimes-best-selling-author
USDebtClock.org has government spending as 45% of GDP this year!
–which is going to make a huge difference this time around.
and not in a way that is good for us.
I don’t believe for a second that the eviction moratorium will go away on June 30. Count on a lot of Federal printing press money getting involved to pay back rents before the moratorium lifts. Landlord haircuts are a given.
The moratorium came up last night on the local Faux News. Austin only has $10 million to spend on housing assistance before June 30.
There are a lot of things in this article that might give a careful reader pause, like the constant appeals to authority typical of medical quackery scams, but if any of the facts listed are true, there is definitely stuff there that is worth a second look.
Ivermectin is readily available if you really want it. Busedonide is even more common and an over the counter med in the form of Rhinocort spray.
The moment the FDA says a cheap, common drug may be effective against Covid, that drug won’t be so cheap or common anymore. In the case of Ivermectin, arbitrage making the drug less available could be a bigger public health crisis than Covid since it is used to treat scabies and head lice in humans and heartworms in animals.
BTW – don’t kid yourself. There is huge profit in generic drugs. When your pharmacist suggests the generic alternative, realize that he is given a financial incentive to do so, especially at the large drug and grocery chains. If your doctor prescribes the brand, there is a reason. The SPIFFs to doctors beyond an occasional pen or sticky pad were outlawed before Obamacare.
My Publix pharmacist sister put wood flooring throughout her house in Florida and drove a new car every couple of years thanks to SPIFF checks.
@nick; have you tried your inversion table yet?
“@nick; have you tried your inversion table yet? ”
–short answer is no. Still in the box on the patio. I have no idea where I’d put it, and I’ve been hurting so I haven’t wanted to work on it. WHich I know is short sighted.
I just spent most of an hour stretching low back, hips, and azz. Hole E Cow, how did I let myself get this tight and stiff? I finally got a bunch of movement in my low back and feel an inch taller. It won’t last long, but maybe I’ll do it again this afternoon. The whole time I was laying there slowly stretching, I was imagining hanging on the table…
n
@Nick
Jerry Pournelle used to swear by the 5 Tibetans for stretching
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17551/fountain-of-youth-5-tibetan-exercises-you-should-be-doing-every-day.html
My wife had an upper back and neck injury. She was given a traction device that looked like it came from the Inquisition, but she said it didn’t help. We bought an inversion device, and she said it also didn’t help. I had figured as much, but would have tried anything.
I don’t have any back issues, although my lower back can get a little sore from bad posture and sometimes overexertion. I tried that inversion contraption, and it did nothing for me.
What does work for me is to simply lay on a carpeted floor and elevate my knees while tilting my pelvis to straighten my lower back. Five minutes of that works. Also, I stand and bend forward as if to touch my toes, concentrating on bending the lower back. A couple minutes of that sometimes helps.
My father was a draftsman who bent over horizontal plates most of his career. It was grueling, but he had the best back of anyone I knew. He could bend over a car engine for hours without getting tired. I guess he was doing isometric exercises.
I’ve seen articles and ads for spine devices you lay on. They have them on Big River, but I have no idea if it helps. Here’s one:
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Spineworx-SW10-Spine-Worx-Realignment-Device/dp/B000F8UBG0/ref=sr_1_5?crid=7QIN7GUA9FPV&dchild=1&keywords=spine+alignment+device&qid=1622134260&sprefix=spine+alignment%2Caps%2C181&sr=8-5%5C%22%3ESpine-Worx&tag=ttgnet-20 Back Realignment Device
Maybe worth a shot.
“Quick note about the vaccines”
https://gunfreezone.net/quick-note-about-the-vaccines/
“The public address system at my local Wally World was announcing that anybody who wanted to get the free Kung Flu vaccination, to go over the pharmacy. No lines and no waiting times.”
“No idea how many responded (I was on my way out on the other side) but I found it funny that we went from OMFG-DEATH-IS-UPON-US! to “Attention K-Mart Shoppers…””
“In the meantime at the other side of the world:
Melbourne lockdown: Fears over outbreak sparks restrictions – BBC News
Australia’s second most populous state Victoria will enter a seven-day lockdown to counter a fast-spreading outbreak in its capital, Melbourne.”
Yup, we are swimming in the vaccines right now. The big 3,000 car parking lot vaccine distribution center for anyone who drives up in our county has been dismantled.
And, of course, html tags didn’t work from the Text tab of the editor.
I’ve seen articles and ads for spine devices you lay on. They have them on Big River, but I have no idea if it helps.
Thanks, but my wife’s problem was fifty years (really? Wow!) ago, and she got over it. Long story, later injuries, etc.
We were just babies when we were married, something like -8 years old.:-) I wish.
Cool, I just had a supposed C++ guru who goes by Mr. Spooky, tell me that I need to go back to school and learn how to write software because I did not take the courses he thinks are necessary to write software.
Oh yeah, accreditation is coming to the software industry sooner or later. I hope later.
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Yup, we are swimming in the vaccines right now. The big 3,000 car parking lot vaccine distribution center for anyone who drives up in our county has been dismantled.
Sarcasm? Serious question. I don’t always follow the nooz. It depresses me. I like my own little happy world.
I am currently out of town, and sometimes out in public. Some CA businesses have taken down their mask signs, but most people are still wearing masks and more. I sometimes “forget,” but I usually cover up out of courtesy. I haven’t been confronted, but if I were, I have thought of saying I’ve had the Miraculous Trump VaccineTM. Probably would land me in the hoosegow.
Cool, I just had a supposed C++ guru who goes by Mr. Spooky, tell me that I need to go back to school and learn how to write software because I did not take the courses he thinks are necessary to write software.
You might have asked him if his business is as big as yours. :-p
Apologies. Directed to Mr. Nick.
I have failed you, Mr. Rick. Perhaps you could add a clown icon to the submit button.
“The public address system at my local Wally World was announcing that anybody who wanted to get the free Kung Flu vaccination, to go over the pharmacy. No lines and no waiting times.”
Yup, we are swimming in the vaccines right now. The big 3,000 car parking lot vaccine distribution center for anyone who drives up in our county has been dismantled.
Once the Moderna or Pfizer shots come out of the deep freeze, they must get used or thrown away.
Texas reached the point about a month ago where the getting the shots no longer required proof of state residency. Around Austin, we are seeing more than a few reverse “medical tourism” from Mexico where people drive up for vaccinations.
Perhaps you could add a clown icon to the submit button.
I NEED that!
Cool, I just had a supposed C++ guru who goes by Mr. Spooky, tell me that I need to go back to school and learn how to write software because I did not take the courses he thinks are necessary to write software.
Oh yeah, accreditation is coming to the software industry sooner or later. I hope later.
I’m always suspicious of anyone who claims to be a C++ “guru”. I doubt even Stroustrup knows everything that’s in the C++20 standard.
Now I’m curious about what classes “Mr. Spooky” believes to be necessary. ACM watered down the CS program accreditation to the point that an undergrad diploma without the right electives isn’t worth much these days.
Maybe Algorithms with “CLRS” as a text would be useful to understand some of whats going on behind the scenes with library abstractions such as sorting and priority queues, but I can’t think of much else required in a current US undergrad cirriculum that greatly enhance your ability to write code.
Crypto and Compilers are electives anymore, and many schools have dropped Compilers because it is considered “too hard” even though, it is in truth, a practical application of everything which should be learned in a CS cirriculum.
I could, but suspect it might get over-used here.
Well, at least here in the SE corner of WA State, nuclear power may not be dead. Recently a timeline was released for a new “modular” nuclear power plant, and today a second was announced. But, of course, the regulations being what they are, it may be a decade or two before any power is produced.
NuScale (of Portland, OR) will make both reactors. The plants will be “modular” and generate 77MW each. NuScale’s website is rather flashy and full of glam and promises with no actual plants at this time. We will see if they are for real or just “investor bait.”
Yup, we are swimming in the vaccines right now. The big 3,000 car parking lot vaccine distribution center for anyone who drives up in our county has been dismantled.
Sarcasm? Serious question. I don’t always follow the nooz. It depresses me. I like my own little happy world.
I am currently out of town, and sometimes out in public. Some CA businesses have taken down their mask signs, but most people are still wearing masks and more. I sometimes “forget,” but I usually cover up out of courtesy. I haven’t been confronted, but if I were, I have thought of saying I’ve had the Miraculous Trump VaccineTM. Probably would land me in the hoosegow.
Yes, all of the pharmacies are now giving out the vaccines in Texas. Plus over half of the state has been vaccinated once and over a third of the state has been vaccinated twice. Shoot, we may be approaching half of the state has been vaccinated twice now.
Well, at least here in the SE corner of WA State, nuclear power may not be dead. Recently a timeline was released for a new “modular” nuclear power plant, and today a second was announced. But, of course, the regulations being what they are, it may be a decade or two before any power is produced.
NuScale (of Portland, OR) will make both reactors. The plants will be “modular” and generate 77MW each. NuScale’s website is rather flashy and full of glam and promises with no actual plants at this time. We will see if they are for real or just “investor bait.”
I believe that 77 MW is the entire thermal energy of the reactor. Given that the nuclear reactors generate low level energy, usually only 25% is usable for electricity. But all 77 MW would be available for district heating such as in Alaska or Minnesota.
Nuscale has been around for quite a while now, maybe a decade. I hope that they can can get the modular reactor business going. Toshiba in Japan has been pushing the modular reactor business also.
NuScale (of Portland, OR) will make both reactors. The plants will be “modular” and generate 77MW each. NuScale’s website is rather flashy and full of glam and promises with no actual plants at this time. We will see if they are for real or just “investor bait.”
How much money does the State of Oregon have invested in NuScale?
I lived in Vancouver, WA during the go-go days of SolarWorld across the river. I had one of their guys, husband of one of my wife’s nurses, get a little too “in your face” with me about what the state and company gave him to relocate from Arizona to run their line based on dubious qualifications so I’ll admit to a little schadenfreude watching it melt down from afar over the last decade.
Oregon’s Solyndra. Though, to be fair, SolarWorld USA actually produced something even if it was hideously overpriced.
“Biden Unveils $6 Trillion Budget That Will Raise Federal Spending To Highest Post-WW2 Level”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-unveils-6-trillion-budget-will-raise-federal-spending-highest-post-ww2-level
“According to the NYT, the increase in federal spending, which follows both the COVID stimulus and Biden’s “Build Back Better” infrastructure plans, will be driven by “Biden’s two-part agenda to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure and substantially expand the social safety net, contained in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, along with other planned increases in discretionary spending.””
“With Biden expected to raise taxes and increase spending on tax enforcement, the annual deficits in Biden’s budget projections wouldn’t start to wane until the 2030s. Meanwhile, Biden’s “ambitions to wield government power to help more Americans attain the comforts of a middle-class life and to lift U.S. industry to better compete globally in an economy the administration believes will be dominated by a race to reduce energy emissions and combat climate change.””
“Under Mr. Biden’s proposal, the federal budget deficit would hit $1.8 trillion in 2022, even as the economy rebounds from the pandemic recession to grow at what the administration predicts would be its fastest annual pace since the early 1980s. It would recede slightly in the following years before growing again to nearly $1.6 trillion by 2031.”
Wow. Wow. Wow.
Somebody has to go first as I think there are a lot of jurisdictions thinking about modular reactors but want to be able to point someplace and say – “look it works just like they said…” and so shut-up the nay-sayers.
Perhaps it identifies as a 3GWt reactor?
IIRC the modular reactors need 3% higher level of enrichment than conventional reactors. It was a while ago but they only ‘burn’ 3% of the fuel, so the fuel coming out was usable in a conventional reactor. Which also only burned about 3% of the fuel. So the SMR uses it from 18% to 15%, then the conventional reactor could use it from 15% to 12%.
Or we could, maybe, recycle the fuel. Then just deal with the low level stuff. Le sigh.
Somebody has to go first as I think there are a lot of jurisdictions thinking about modular reactors but want to be able to point someplace and say – “look it works just like they said…” and so shut-up the nay-sayers.
Bill Gates has his own modular reactor startup. Even before Gates reputation flew away to Pedo Island, “The Simpsons” did a brutal satire of Gates, his interest in nuclear power, Microsoft, and Redmond in what is arguably their best episode ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V12ZAZ4Jn8Q
“The Simpsons” was way ahead of its time with that script, but the legend is that all of Albert Brooks lines as Gates’ stand in Hank Scorpio were improvised.
Anytime I hear “modular reactor” I think of Bill Gates … then Hank Scorpio.
There are several provinces in Canada looking at SMRs and they have signed a memorandum of understanding with ARC. They are also looking at burning used fuel in a reactor from Moltex. A MOU is a step in the right direction. I await actual construction.
https://news.ontario.ca/en/statement/61131/small-nuclear-reactor-study-released-alberta-signs-smr-mou
“He went down fast from a single stab with a knife”
https://gunfreezone.net/he-went-down-fast-from-a-single-stab-with-a-knife/
“Why shoot the guy with the knife?
Count how many seconds he has to wish he would have–”
Yup, probably nailed the aorta.
Do not let a person with a knife get close to you.
Or we could, maybe, recycle the fuel. Then just deal with the low level stuff. Le sigh.
There are several provinces in Canada looking at SMRs and they have signed a memorandum of understanding with ARC. They are also looking at burning used fuel in a reactor from Moltex. A MOU is a step in the right direction. I await actual construction.
https://news.ontario.ca/en/statement/61131/small-nuclear-reactor-study-released-alberta-signs-smr-mou
Yeah, it was my understanding that most if not all of the SMRs were using used fuel.
Just got my COVID shot, waiting to see if I live. If I don’t make it I want you to know that I buried all the gold at … aaarrfggghhhh ….
All modern reactor designs are welcome. Let’s start pushing against the regulations. New Clear Energy! (A bit lame, someone please come up with something better.)
Many older designs need to be close to a body of water for cooling, even if they use cooling towers. Not good in dry areas. I wonder if there are good designs that can operate well without water?
All modern reactor designs are welcome. Let’s start pushing against the regulations. New Clear Energy! (A bit lame, someone please come up with something better.)
Many older designs need to be close to a body of water for cooling, even if they use cooling towers. Not good in dry areas. I wonder if there are good designs that can operate well without water?
I inspected a 70 MW air cooled steam condenser a few decades ago in Sweetwater, Texas. It had 24 forty foot diameter cooling fans. 12 fans were variable speed and 12 fans were constant speed. It was running two inches of mercury absolute pressure in July, we were amazed. Of course, that was clean and new. Kinda looked like this except bigger, way bigger. The fans were under the heat exchangers in induced draft position, about 20 ft off the ground.
https://www.paharpur.com/products/dry-cooling/air-cooled-steam-condensers/
“Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90%”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/26/airships-for-city-hops-could-cut-flyings-co2-emissions-by-90
“Bedford-based blimp maker unveils short-haul routes such as Liverpool-Belfast that it hopes to serve by 2025”
I just don’t know if this is practical.
It’s funny you guys are talking the cooling towers on nuclear reactors today. Last night I got wondering why they always seem to be shaped with concave sides. Is it something about the airflow? Some cheap construction technique? Inquiring minds want to know!
I got my first Pfizer shot today, too. You’d think I’d get a lollipop, but noooo. Cheap bastards.
They were outlawed quite a while ago. About all they can do is come by the office with donuts for the staff, the occasional invite to a dinner to hear a speaker, or sponsor coffee and donuts or lunch at a CME meeting. When the freebies went away, it appeared that the drug companies shifted from well-trained men as the reps to good looking young ladies right out of college.
I went for J&J, less trouble. That said, it was walk in at the County fairgrounds. There were chairs for 200 people available, but a grand total of five or six injectees while I was there. Very quick.
WRT safe defense against knife toting attackers there’s a standardized distance, 21 feet as I recall, where shooting is considered in self defense. I think the rail in a courtroom is a similar distance from a judge to the defendant and crowd. A bit longer? A talkative judge mentioned that once in a very slow trial where I was in the jury.
They were outlawed quite a while ago. About all they can do is come by the office with donuts for the staff, the occasional invite to a dinner to hear a speaker, or sponsor coffee and donuts or lunch at a CME meeting. When the freebies went away, it appeared that the drug companies shifted from well-trained men as the reps to good looking young ladies right out of college.
We did the occasional dinner in the old days since the cost to the rep for us to eat and drink Diet Coke was roughly what my wife would earn in an hour, fair compensation to hear the pitch, but we skipped most of the other freebies.
Things got really bad before the Feds lowered the boom. When the Disney Indy track quickly failed as an Indy event and they turned it into the Richard Petty Driving Experience, the reps would rent the attraction for a Saturday morning presentation followed by each of the doctors receiving the opportunity to experience a few laps with a driver.
That one really crossed our ethical line.
Update: The center of this map has what’s left of the Disney race track.
https://goo.gl/maps/rbLEQbKS9bQZk6WV7
Well, the Empire State Building already has the infrastructure in place…
To put things in perspective, that is for 15 confirmed cases. This is the fourth lockdown for the city and 3 other states have barred Victorians from entering their state. Things are tightly controlled around here.
I just don’t know if this is practical.
It isn’t and never was. 🙁
“Bedford-based blimp maker unveils short-haul routes such as Liverpool-Belfast that it hopes to serve by 2025”
I just don’t know if this is practical.
I thought Helium was in short supply.
We saw a rerun on one of the PBS side channels over the weekend about the Hindenberg disaster. Hydrogen-fueled burning of aluminum. It is amazing that anything was left of the frame.
As Dr. Pournelle used to say, “Hydrogen wants to be free.”
By time you get through the local version of TSA, meh.
Cooling towers… I’ve thought the shape was for the venturi effect. Like sucking gasoline through a car-potato. Shrug.
Knife attackers? 21 feet sounds about right.
PS, thank you for the Edit function. 🙂
Re: Hindenburg – there’s a new Nova episode with “new” footage from abeam the fire and crash:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/hindenburg-the-new-evidence/
Haven’t seen it yet, just the trailer, but could be interesting.
The 21 foot rule is called the Tueller drill after they guy who proved the knifeman could stab you before you could shoot him.
Mythbusters did a great episode on it.
n
WRT The Simpsons and Bill Gates, I thought you meant this ep
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H27rfr59RiE
Just a minute long and at least three memorable lines.
n
“Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90%”
Well, the Empire State Building already has the infrastructure in place…
And that infrastructure is 100 years old now. I think I will wait for the ground landing.
That spine stretcher thing looks intersting, but how does it know how long my torso is? I don’t see any adjustments.
I spent about an hour stretching over a foam roller, and moving up and down my spine and it helped a lot. I’ve let my pelvic girdle get so freaking tight it’s a wonder I can walk. I don’t even get that ‘stretchy’ feeling, I just get a hard stop and
painstrong sensation.I was able to get out and see both auction houses, and hit the Goodwill and a pickup then come home and cut the grass in the back yard.
All the girls are at the movies tonight. Girl Scouts rented a theatre for their event so I’m home alone.
I can’t decide if I should clean house or play a game, or watch a movie of my own.
n
Haircuts? More like scalped – a lot of landlords gonna suffer undeservedly.
A few new features tied to Microsoft Account and Bing. The price feature could be useful for me given that I am lazy. Hopefully it is country based…
Scratch that. It is only for 9 retailers and does not even include the Microsoft Store. Maybe it will extend in the future. What happened to eat your own dog food?!
(Edit is Great.[*2]). 🙂
bing doesn’t even do a good job of indexing microsoft . com. Google gets much better results when I have a problem to look up.
n
It seems we over-bought just a wee bit of the vaccines. Dr Wolensky and her CDC crew think some sound bites on the talking head MSM will convince the doubters to line up. Probably NOT.
In honor of RBT it should be “wild women and parties.”
WRT The Simpsons and Bill Gates, I thought you meant this ep
…
Just a minute long and at least three memorable lines.
No. The proper name of the episode is “You Only Move Twice”, going way back to the early days of the series.
The satire is more subtle and brutal, skewering Microsoft, Redmond, Gates, and his tech competitors. 1996. Gates was king back then, and the Internet was not all that the industry cared about.
Plus a couple of shots at the Denver Broncos. 🙂
I found this one interesting:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/05/eternally-five-years-away-no-batteries-are-improving-under-your-nose/
And they are now recruiting for 2 new editors. Hopefully one will cover MS stuff. Ever since Peter went away it is just Android, Linux and advocacy. News headers, Space and the odd article (like this one) still keep making me visit them.
I didn’t think I could fit in any wild women and a party in just the evening… I’ll have wait for sleep away camp in July I guess.
n
found a MS hump back keyboard at the goodwill. I was surprised that they still sell well on ebay. I guess if you liked it, you REALLY like it.
n
fwiw, this coolermaster keyboard I’m using came from the goodwill with a pepsi spilled over the left half. A bit of cleaning, and it works great. I’m getting used to the feel and I’m faster and more accurate than I was with the chiclet dell. The lack of a number pad works better on my desk, but I am finding that I used the number pad much more often than I thought. I have a separate one somewhere that I guess I could add.
Re: Hindenburg – there’s a new Nova episode with “new” footage from abeam the fire and crash
Maybe that’s what we saw. Our PBS station is second tier, university-connected so things tend to show up later.
You mean The Bill Gates Special ™?
found a MS hump back keyboard at the goodwill. I was surprised that they still sell well on ebay. I guess if you liked it, you REALLY like it.
PS/2 (round) plug? Yeah, those are getting rare and in demand by gamers for “n-key” rollover.
Plus the new Microsoft hump back keyboards are garbage.
Austin has a ComputerWorks Goodwill on 183, but, from what I understand, the prices are not great.
Austin also has a big picker culture who know their tech castoffs. A few years ago, someone found the original Commodore 64C molds in the dumpster of a plastics facility here, and they’re selling new cases in all kinds of colors. That sparked a lot of imaginations.
@Nick
Here is the Simpson episode you need:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOK4J1kTEvc
“Bedford-based blimp maker unveils short-haul routes such as Liverpool-Belfast that it hopes to serve by 2025”
I just don’t know if this is practical.
I thought Helium was in short supply.
We saw a rerun on one of the PBS side channels over the weekend about the Hindenberg disaster. Hydrogen-fueled burning of aluminum. It is amazing that anything was left of the frame.
As Dr. Pournelle used to say, “Hydrogen wants to be free.”
Nah, we have plenty of helium in the USA. Outside, not so much.
But the big helium – natural gas fields in Kansas and Oklahoma are only making up half of what we use. So we have 50 years or so at the latest usage rate. But we are now putting helium in the big spinning hard drives starting at about half of the 8 TB. I have no idea how much helium is being used by those big drives.
HotAir posted an excerpt from a Yahoo News hatchet job:
How distrust of Trump muddled the lab-leak debate
Philip Elliott May 27, 2021 4:20 PM ET
https://hotair.com/headlines/2021/05/27/how-distrust-of-trump-muddled-the-lab-leak-debate-n392926
original is here:
https://news.yahoo.com/distrust-donald-trump-muddled-covid-193749940.html
The gist of it is that it’s Trump’s fault for bringing up the Wuhan lying ChiCom noface coronavirus lab leak origin, causing people to disbelieve it.
I laughed when I read this:
“The most telling slice of that “honest and trustworthy” metric is Trump’s decline among fellow Republicans. At the start of his presidency, 81% of Republicans described Trump that way. By June of 2020, the figure had fallen nine percentage points. The fact that a staggering 3-in-10 Republicans didn’t see him as an honest conveyor of fact speaks volumes to just how little credibility Trump had. (It will shock no one that 91% of Democrats said they did not see Trump as an “honest and trustworthy” figure.) ”
It took nearly four years of coordinated effort by the mainstream media to change the opinions of Republicans by 9%? What an amazing group! 72% real conservatives, 9% brain washed, and 19% Rino’s.
Should ask MSNBC and CNN how they feel about that deal.
I saw an interesting Biden meme with a list of his notable truth-deficient episodes. Don’t have it to hand and it was incomplete, but should include:
lied about his gradepoint
lied about his law school rank
lied about scholarships
lied about his wife’s death to raise funds
multiple plagiarist
lied about being arrested with Nelson Mandela
lied about not knowing about Hunter’s business deals
lied about caging children at the border
and on, and on, and on…
So one has to wonder, what percentage of Democrat voters consider Joe Biden “honest and trustworthy”?
Thousands of deadbeats withholding rent because they cannot be evicted.
Is there also a moratorium on reporting deadbeats? If there’s not, none of these people will ever be able to rent from a landlord with a lick of common sense. Maybe that list had better find a home on the dark web before the Dims make it unlawful to report that particular truth.
Regarding the Hindenburg – I just finished watching the PBS show (link below) – quite interesting.
Spoiler alert – they were able to figure out and duplicate the probable sequence of events that caused the disaster. Interesting show.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/video/hindenburg-the-new-evidence
Thousands of deadbeats withholding rent because they cannot be evicted.
Is there also a moratorium on reporting deadbeats? If there’s not, none of these people will ever be able to rent from a landlord with a lick of common sense. Maybe that list had better find a home on the dark web before the Dims make it unlawful to report that particular truth.
As far as I know, only in the blue states. All of our properties are rented. My wife raised the rent on her two Garland, Texas houses in January. One tenant refused to pay the new rate so she evicted him. He left by the end of his lease. And the tenants were not white.
“Rush Limbaugh’s Radio Show to Be Taken Over by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rush-limbaughs-radio-show-to-be-taken-over-by-clay-travis-and-buck-sexton-11622127616
“Duo’s program to begin airing in the coveted weekday time slot on June 21 in hundreds of markets”
Meh. They are not Rush. I miss Rush, as many do, I feel that he was a personal friend even though I never met him in person.
Hat tip to (yes, I look occasionally):
http://drudgereport.com/
WTI hit a 52 week high today.
“WTI hit a 52 week high today. ”
–you could also say, the value of the dollar fell to new lows against real stuff like oil.
n
“Less yacking and more cracking” — words to live by.
n
“Duo’s program to begin airing in the coveted weekday time slot on June 21 in hundreds of markets”
Meh. They are not Rush. I miss Rush, as many do, I feel that he was a personal friend even though I never met him in person.
PR piece. The timeslot is splintering across multiple shows. “EIB” was a unique contract.
I saw a really interesting interview a few years ago where Dr. Dean Edell looked back on his career and confirmed that he was once offered half of EIB when Rush went national.
There hasn’t been ad revenue sufficient to develop a 600 station show in a single timeslot for over a decade, possibly longer.
I’ll bet Ted O’Baxter takes another shot at the time slot.
WTI hit a 52 week high today.
WTI is gonna be $100 by Labor Day. The prognosticators said Memorial Day but that did not happen.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CL%3DF?p=CL%3DF
Don’t forget, predicting is hard. Especially about the future.
There is a worldwide oil shortage of one million barrels of crude oil per day. Until that is resolved, the price will be increasing. OPEC is concerned. And Iran is coming back online but reputedly sold their output to China so it does not count.
https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2021/05/novak-global-oil-deficit-seen-at-1-mmbpd
BTW, the USA peaked at 12 million bpd in 2019. Crude oil production is dropping rapidly, about a million bpd per year.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/PET_CRD_CRPDN_ADC_MBBLPD_A.htm
“Duo’s program to begin airing in the coveted weekday time slot on June 21 in hundreds of markets”
Meh. They are not Rush. I miss Rush, as many do, I feel that he was a personal friend even though I never met him in person.
PR piece. The timeslot is splintering across multiple shows. “EIB” was a unique contract.
I saw a really interesting interview a few years ago where Dr. Dean Edell looked back on his career and confirmed that he was once offered half of EIB when Rush went national.
There hasn’t been ad revenue sufficient to develop a 600 station show in a single timeslot for over a decade, possibly longer.
I’ll bet Ted O’Baxter takes another shot at the time slot.
Ted O’Baxter (Bill O’Reilly for the uninformed) is not a radio guy. Too many uh’s. And he is 71. Good luck getting advertisers.
Read to buy your flying car ? Pre-order now:
https://www.askafly.com/
“That $5,000 — held in an escrow account and fully refundable, by
the way — gets you one share of the company’s stock, admittance to
status update meetings every three to six months, and a place at the
head of the line for a planned 1,500 limited-edition models of the
Aska, each costing a whopping $789,000.”
That $5,000 — held in an escrow account and fully refundable, by
the way — gets you one share of the company’s stock, admittance to
status update meetings every three to six months, and a place at the
head of the line for a planned 1,500 limited-edition models of the
Aska, each costing a whopping $789,000.
Where do I sign up!
Nooo. Street legal? With unguarded blades? Never. Letting ordinary peeps fly? Never.
Sorry, this has been a dream for a long time, and probably will be forever.
Except… I saw a flying car on Woodward Avenue near Detroit in the 1960s. Dunno if it was a one-off or what. Just did a quick search, but couldn’t find it.
Long, thoughtful read:
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/suffering-a-sea-change
There is an established theoretical relationship between bonds and equities which provides a framework for the future performance of financial assets. It would be a mistake to ignore it, ahead of the forthcoming rise in global interest rates.
Price inflation is roaring, and so far, central banks are in denial. But it is increasingly difficult to see how monetary policy planners can extend the suppression of interest rates for much longer. There can only be one outcome: markets, that is to say prices determined by non-state actors, will force central banks to capitulate on interest rates in the summer.
Hardly noticed, China is deliberately putting the brakes on its economy, which will cause an inflationary dollar to collapse, unless the US defends it by putting up interest rates. Deliberate? Almost certainly, as part of its strategy, China is taking the financial war with the US into the foreign exchanges.
Bond yields will rise, with the US Treasury 10-year bond leaving a 2% yield far behind. Equity markets will sense the danger, and it might turn out that the month of May marks a peak in financial asset values — following cryptocurrencies into substantial bear markets.
Darn! too late!
I just got my $5,000 refunded from the failed Limited Edition Lensman DeLameter and put it into the Limited Edition Hannibal Fortune Laser Pistol and Extensible Sword Combo
“In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made or manufactured from our apps,” Facebook said in a statement on its website Wednesday.”
This is the first reference I’ve seen to the manufacture of a pandemic virus from Facebook apps. Sounds really off the wall, but I’d like to see what Trump thinks before I form an opinion.
Show me a politician that never lies and I’ll show you a UFO…wait, that’s not how this works…
Except… I saw a flying car on Woodward Avenue near Detroit in the 1960s. Dunno if it was a one-off or what. Just did a quick search, but couldn’t find it.
Maybe this one?
Flying cars, jet packs, and fusion energy… always about 20 years off….
Keeping the mass in the air, as well as accelerating and decelerating it (like ground vehicles do) takes a lot more energy than we can easily pack into the vehicle. We’ll need new energy storage or use before we get flying vehicles anywhere near as ubiquitous as cars. Remember too the amount of maintenance and inspection, and certification it takes to keep something ready to fly and to keep it in the air, once it gets up there. That level of attention to detail isn’t common.
Much as I think I would enjoy flying, I know I don’t have the personality to do it safely for any length of time. The machine would have to make up for my deficiencies and we don’t have that yet either.
n
Maybe this one?
Nope. It looked a little like a smaller version of a Cessna Skymaster without the front engine. The wings folded around the rear prop and acted as a guard. Not practical, because it did not drive any wheels. Imagine walking behind in the prop wash.
That is called autopilot…
The Mayoral run off election got certified amidst much hand wringing and lefty nastiness. We’ve got a conservative at the helm as of July 1st, assuming he’s doesn’t get hit by a Mack truck or some other accident.
He is in for a difficult first year. I sincerely pray he has the intestinal fortitude for it. I expect a slew of frivolous complaints and recall efforts throughout his tour.
In 2022 we elect four new assembly members. If we flip the seats to conservative we might have a chance of slowing Anchorage’s descent into madness.
I have a phone / screening interview for the DBA I job tomorrow afternoon. I no longer interview well, and have always hated talking on the phone. Hope I don’t tank it -grimace-
Hope I don’t tank it -grimace-
Hope you do great.
My first helicopter instructor said if he had enough bananas, he could teach a monkey to fly. There is hope for you, Mr. Nick.
That drone looking thing will not fly unless there is a radical change in battery chemistry. Who wants a flying Tesla you have to recharge for two hours every 20 minutes of flight.
“he could teach a monkey to fly”
–I have no doubt I could learn, and I probably used to have the spatial awareness and coordination to even do it passably well. It’s the other stuff, that it takes to do it SAFELY that I’m not suited for. Planning a route. Checking the weather. Staying awake… Doing the pre- and post- flight inspections EVERY TIME. Being conscientious with the maintenance and inspections… all the boring and absolutely necessary stuff.
Planes are not cars, where you can just jump in an go.
n