Hot and humid, chance of thunderstorms. Got the tiniest bit of rain late in the day yesterday, after a nice, slightly cooler day with a lot of overcast. Since it was under 100F I did some work at my storage unit. Still got soaked to the skin with sweat.
Spent the rest of the day doing small things, like getting my tire repaired, taking daughter the younger to the library. She had a book on hold that came in and was fairly vibrating with NEED to have it. She’d mostly finished it by bedtime. It was my first time in our local branch library, and it was full of weirdos. Yeah kid, I’m not sending you there alone. Another fallen institution. I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours alone at our local library when I was a kid. Now it’s full of homeless and degenerates.
Wife let the kids stay up late, until midnight, so not rising at the buttcrack of dawn this A.M. to get the car loaded. We had a talk and I may stay behind and then join them for the weekend. That will get me two more good working days that I really need. Between the truck maintenance and the auction clearing out and setting up, I’m falling further behind every day. If I keep posting throughout the day, I’m probably at home.
On a different note, scrap prices are back up. I took some of what I was throwing out to the scrapyard and got 60c/pound for dirty aluminum, and 67c/lb for stainless steel. Even regular steel brought 6c. $15 of the $53 was triple my money by selling off the cr@p that came with a lot of shelving I won last week. Go me. The columbians who bought out the previous owner have managed to clear out almost all the scrap that had piled up on the grounds and in the building. It’s quite amazing. I guess prices got to the point where they were motivated to move it all.
Now I need to keep moving and get more stuff out and sold or scrapped.
Maybe there is still some time left before the shooting starts. I was shocked to read Slow Joe’s comments on the eviction moratorium. He swore to uphold the Constitution, not look for ways around it. If we needed any confirmation that rule of law was dead, his statements about that put the final nail in the coffin. I know the guy isn’t a genius, and his ‘well spoken’ President often lamented that the Constitution got in the way of what he wanted to do, but to come out and say plainly that you know what you are doing doesn’t pass muster, but the length of time it takes the courts to address it will make it moot, so you’re gonna do it anyway, is just freaking nuts.
ANYTHING is possible under color of law now. ANYTHING. The Curmudgeon in charge over at https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/ has some observations that are worth a consideration.
Irrational people are breaking things. They complain that the “other” is a terrorist, or a disease vector, or “bad for the earth”, or racist, or whatever. There’s a purpose to that. They’re working themselves up into evil actions. Once a person believes “others” must be “corrected” (by force if necessary) they can enjoy a righteous frenzy. Make no mistake, they will enjoy it. They seek to unload their hate and bloodlust. They want to experience the ecstasy of hurting “the other”; their society, their fellow citizens, friends, family, and neighbors. Most people would rather destroy than create. It’s the nature of man. It’s only civilization which keeps it at bay. So, they destroy civilization too. When the smoke clears and time passes, if they’re still standing, they’ll try to remember some version of events that makes them blameless, or even heroes. A few will repent, but it will mean nothing to the ashes under their feet.
This isn’t new. This has happened before. There are countless examples of whole societies losing their damn mind, working up to a religious fervor, and running amok…
Go and read it.
Then stack some more of everything. Keep in mind that money in the bank isn’t. The people that turned in Anne Frank were following the law and the people hiding her were breaking it. And no one cares about you as much as you do. Plan accordingly.
nick
“They’re working themselves up into evil actions.”
Been there for a long time. Now the quantity ramps up.
One of my partners tried to get me to do this a decade ago. And he was serious. I refused, I know too well what can go wrong in PCs / computers. And Fort Bend County is famous for putting a programmer in jail for 18 months for putting a termination date in his software about 20 years ago. When Fort Bend County did not pay the annual fee, he did not give them a new copy of the software and they charged him with cyber terrorism. Took him 18 months for his lawyer to get a Habeas Corpus to the Texas Supreme Court. No bail since he was a terrorist.
The last job had a government entity customer who only paid their bills shortly before the lawsuit trials would start. The company would have to go through all the expense of court filings and trial prep, which the entity figured would get too expensive after a while.
With the salespeople, it was always about the prestige of having the name on the customer list. The bigger the name, typically, the more horrific the contract. One particular bridge authority on the West Coast — think the most famous bridge west of the Mississippi — even wanted us to maintain their previous vendor’s messed up Java code from 20 years ago, written as someone’s Hot Skillz back then, as a “backup”.
It IS sad. Public libraries have become the internet cafes of the lowest classes. I suspect security is the primary reason they have all taken most of the books off the shelves, to the extent one can see all the way through to the back wall, so there’s no place to hide among the stacks. That’s the state of things in each of the 3 libraries I’ve visited over the past couple of years. We used to sit in the floor in a little-used stack and read. Not wise or even possible now.
Our local library offers ebook “borrowing”, and apparently that is pretty popular, so at least they are trying to keep true to their old mission. And their magazine/newspaper subscriptions get a lot of activity. Otherwise, they sell the books they clear out, and any donated to them. Our county seat is a college town that doesn’t have a second hand bookstore, so the library is now the closest thing.
The Curmudgeon in charge over at https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/ has some observations that are worth a consideration.:
(Emphasis added.)
Apropos the emphasized sentences above (I’ve bleeped out some of the “naughtier” words):
Getting Tired:
Preach it, brother!
First fois gras, then high-end gaming PCs, now bacon, soon ICE cars…and people want to live there why?
Bill from the hospital submitted to the VA. Hospital submitted $40K in charges, VA gave them $10.6K in payment. Some of the stuff billed is extraordinary. Pharmacy for probably a dozen pills, $1,500.00. Medical and surgical supplies, $25K, operating room $10K. A person without insurance would be bankrupted by a simple procedure.
Anyway, if the hospital is not happy with the payment then they will have to argue with the VA. I am not on the hook for any copays or deductible.
And spin it pSaki stands there and defends this by saying that several legal scholars support the
puppet’sPresident’s position.…California…
First fois gras, then high-end gaming PCs, now bacon, soon ICE cars…and people want to live there why?
Parts of the state are very beautiful with unparalleled weather and access to outdoor activities, but a lot of the planet looks at the wealth creation opportunities.
The Mainland Chinese dream is a rapidly-appreciating ghost house in Palo Alto and the kids studying CS at Stanford, preferably graduate level, before moving on to their own startups.
Pricy recalls for some EVs…
GM’s Chevy Bolt recall comes with a huge price tag.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/business/gm-chevrolet-bolt-recall-expensive/index.htm
Btw, son #1 pulled the trigger on the VW ID4. He takes delivery this weekend. Interested to take it for a drive. And not only does he get the $7500 federal tax credit, he also gets a state tax credit for the full cost of the installation of a new 240v circuit for the rapid charger.
I’ve mentioned that we’re seriously interested in the ID.4 as soon as the AWD version is out. I’d be interested in hearing your/his thoughts on the car…
We have one of those small town libraries that is about the size of a large living room. It’s quite cozy and charming. Though, change is on the way. Our latest annexation doubled the population and tripled the land area of the city.
You ever watch those YouTube videos of guys with small forges at home that melt scrap into metal bars? I find them oddly satisfying to watch (and not because of the ASMR angle that is all the rage these days – I just like to watch metal melt).
Here’s a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHRJZtdQ8FA
There’s a lot of small business that can’t “fire” their slow pay clients because it’s usually their biggest clients and they can’t afford to lose them as a customer. I knew a lady that did accounts receivable for a company that manufactured aircraft ground equipment. United was their biggest customer and it took them almost a year to pay an invoice, but they couldn’t tell United to piss off because United was like 70% of their revenue at the time. United knows that and so paying those bills is at the bottom of their “who gets paid first” list.
When I was USAF we had what were basically DOD IOUs to give to places. For example, if we flew into a civilian airport instead of a military airport and so had to pay for parking, ramp services, and fuel we would give them that IOU. Understandably, some places refused to accept them as it took way too long to get paid. So, one of the officers would just charge like $50K to their government AmEx card for fuel and services.
This is sort of a known problem and apparently affects enough people that it is somewhat ignored by credit issuers. I can remember when I was buying my first home the mortgage loan officer was going through her standard set of questions and asked if there were any outstanding/unpaid debts in collection (presumably looking for ones that weren’t showing on the credit report yet but would be showing before closing) and then said, “Except for medical debt. We can usually work around or ignore those.”
I assume it would work with my iPad. Just like MS Office Online. Or any device with an appropriate browser.
I smell another bailout since plugsy McSpongeBrain is really Obola 2.0
Hey, just like Social Security!
We always had a goobermint credit card when we choppered around the FUSA (off the rez).
Little pieces of the execrable *Infrastructure* bill are starting to come out. Why is monitoring of cryptocurrency in there? The goobermint must be very afraid of losing control. There also might be some kind of amnesty in there.
HI, Walt:
Several Disney employees arrested in undercover child predator sting, Sheriff Grady Judd says
Look at the ages and ethnicities of these freaks. That shoots the Old White Guy myth in the foot.
Haven’t left yet. Still might not.
87F and sunny.
n
Your tax dollars at work:
Army gives Pfizer $3.5B contract to make 500 million COVID vaccine doses
For distribution around the World. I wonder what other countries are chipping in. I want my tax dollars back!
GM’s Chevy Bolt recall comes with a huge price tag.
I smell another bailout since plugsy McSpongeBrain is really Obola 2.0
“Cash for Clunkers” 2.0 is coming.
They want to take beater pickups off the road in favor of the Cybertruck, but Tony is running late.
Look at the ages and ethnicities of these freaks. That shoots the Old White Guy myth in the foot.
The local Disney employees are really surprising simply because the Polk Sheriff’s child predator stings are practically monthly events and the operation doesn’t vary much.
Stucco shack. Davenport (usually). They might as well have a neon sign on the roof. “Sting Operation”.
Of course, the really sick would still roll the dice.
(emphasis added)
Why is anything in that bill other than it benefits the constituents of one of our Congress-critters?!
I still wonder if people will take to the odd design of the Tony Truck.
And what’s happening with the Mustang EV? There was a lot of splash pre its intro but now really don’t hear much about it.
Ask the average Joe to name three EV manufacturers and most would get stuck after Tesla.
You know you f_cked up when you walk in the door, there’s a film crew, and Chris Hansen tells you to, “have a seat.”
Ask the average Joe to name three EV manufacturers and most would get stuck after Tesla.
In the all-EV future, the average Joe is going to be driving something barely above the category of “motorized skateboard”, made by a company in China that doesn’t even have a US office yet.
The reality is still about 10 years off so most people aren’t paying attention.
Due process is not an issue outside of trials. Asking for his resignation is a political matter, as would an impeachment of him. Most of the “violations of the law” that were called out were violations of workplace law (harassment, hostile environment, etc.) that don’t have criminal aspects and the civil aspects are against the employer, not the actors. Now, there were some allegations of groping that could be turned into criminal complaints for sexual assault if the victims want to file a complaint.
He needs to resign or he will be impeached and removed.
You know you f_cked up when you walk in the door, there’s a film crew, and Chris Hansen tells you to, “have a seat.”
It isn’t quite that obvious, but the stings always seem to set up out in stucco shack neighborhoods outside the western entrance to the Disney property where the dominant theme is “Failed Tenbagger Dream”.
Fort Bend County is famous for putting a programmer in jail for 18 months for putting a termination date in his software about 20 years ago. When Fort Bend County did not pay the annual fee, he did not give them a new copy of the software and they charged him with cyber terrorism.
Um…say what? If he had a license agreement that stated the software was only leased, then he should have been good. OTOH, if software they purchased stopped working, he had a problem.
Of course, either way it should have been a civil matter. Seems like their treatment of him deserved a juicy lawsuit in return. What happened in the end?
No idea. One would hope that he sued them big time for false imprisonment. I just remember the Channel 2 ? 13 ? newscast where he apologized to the judge for making them beat him. This happened well over two decades ago so my memory is bad. Shoot, I have trouble remembering yesterday.
I have been watching them share the crack all around the world today. It is disheartening. This is how my employees and I feed our families. Of course, the crackers claim that they would never buy our software anyway as it is too expensive.
Your software is specialized – that excuse doesn’t hold much water. They’re likely selling it. For peanuts, but selling it.
Here my release from last week.
https://downloadly.net/2020/15/5326/03/design-ii/17/?#/5326-winsim-d-212140084605.html
Please note that the website is in Iran.
I do note that that they gave my software a 4.3 out of 5 stars with 279 votes. Of course, that is probably faked also.
Lynn posted a review of post-apocalyptic books. I have to disagree with “Lights Out.”
I’m partial to this author Don Shift, who meets my high bar for verisimilitude. The EMP stories are very realistic and as horrifying (or more) than “One Second After.” I really enjoyed the nuclear war stories; only the out-of-print “Pulling Through” by Dean Ing that Commander Zero talked about was better. I’ve never read any more realistic “nuke stories.”
I’ve also been poking through a new non-fiction prepper book “Suburban Defense.” Like riot control for civilians. It’s a very refreshing change from the typical books put out by special forces guys.
I also have to give a shout-out to “After the Bomb” and “Earth Abides” for end of the world stuff. Old favorites of mine. Angery American is vastly over-rated and Franklin Horton is better. Mark Goodwin is great too, but atheist’s may not like the Christian perspective in his writing.
https://www.amazon.com/Don-Shift/e/B07V3DJ8FW?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share&tag=ttgnet-20
https://www.amazon.com/Franklin-Horton/e/B00JTXX6BE?ref=dbs_m_mng_rwt_byln&tag=ttgnet-20
https://www.amazon.com/Mark-Goodwin/e/B00I8PL51M?ref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share&tag=ttgnet-20
Wild, a two story house around the corner and down the way from me sold for $172/ft2 in five days. I paid $136/ft2 for my one story house two years ago.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/10410-reading-rd-richmond-tx-77469/11600198?lid=6283257
Same age as my house, 1998, but with lots of amenities like a covered pool and an air conditioned 500 ??? ft2 mancave. The mancave looks like an converted two car garage. And 2.0 acres instead of my 1.2 acres.
Pools are a total pain in the rump. Very high maintenance. Must be cleaned weekly. But I want one for one swim a year. As long as somebody else pays for it.
I just asked somebody to build a 600+ ft2 mancave for me at the back of my house. They flat turned me down before we talked any details at all. They are too busy.
Ok, working today and tomorrow, prob joining family Fri night.
So I better get to it.
n
Truck at mechanic’s. Unloaded some ebay stuff. Headed to fun store for chat, then on to secondary…
n
Busy at the fun store. I’ll hang out to provide another armed set of eyes.
N
Dilbert: Lanyards And Hugs
https://dilbert.com/strip/2021-08-05
I’m with Alice, I’ll take three of the don’t hug me lanyards. I don’t even like shaking hands at church anymore since I shook a hundred hands at an engineering conference in Feb 2020 and got the Covid.
I’m with Alice, I’ll take three of the don’t hug me lanyards. I don’t even like shaking hands at church anymore since I shook a hundred hands at an engineering conference in Feb 2020 and got the Covid.
I have a Buc-ee’s lanyard when I’m working in an office. I’m not sure what that communicates.
The last number I saw on the Biogen Feb 2020 sales conference in Boston was 600,000 cases of Wuxu Flu worldwide resulting from that weekend.
Hookers and steaks FOMO. Lots of folks from China.
When I bought the truck, the odo showed almost 240,000. It shows 138,000 now because guess where the body computer is? And no body computer, no brake lights other than the center light. No turn signals. No power locks. Or interior lights. Pretty much just low beam headlights so you can get home at night. $200 on eBay fixed the problem.
The previous owner had the engine replaced with a short block. New A-arms or what ever they are called on the front suspension. New shocks all around. New tires, set of four from Discount Tire for a mere $760. Drives and rides like a new truck. Not like a ’96 Stratus but darn close.
Then the heater core started to leak. That was the straw that killed the camel. She tried to trade it in for the Honda pick-up and getting a $1000 felt like an insult. She offered it to me for the $1000. Sure, needs paint but I don’t care about the clear coat flaking off in places.
I put it in the shop for the heater core because it seemed easier than trying to figure how to roll the dash down. Heater core and a replacement air flap motor was almost a grand.
The the a/c went out. Ok, now drop the dash again for that part… and the air flap motor again. Almost another grand.
So I have, including purchase, a 20 year old truck that I’ve dropped almost $4000 on. It’s been to Mom’s house in Edinburg to clear out whatever Jerry left there (he rented the place for a while, just pay the utilities is all) and then to very near Galveston to drop off his stuff to his ex-wife and back to Burnet. Heck, I had the oil changed when it got back from the tour of Texas and I’m still not to 3000 miles on the change. A few trips to Austin, north side, not even south of 183/Research or east of I-35 and around town. Grocery store, feed store, packages from the Post Office. One trip to Fort Worth last Thanksgiving and that’s when the radiator hose started leaking and after that was fixed, boom! Check Engine light on cylinder #2. A waiting time bomb exploded.
Shop #1 wanted $7600 or so for a new engine. No mention of cost to fix the a/c leak.
Went to the Dodge dealer, needs an engine. Tried one more place and “we don’t do head gaskets because until you get in there you don’t know if it’s just a gasket or a cracked block”. Which makes sense.
I could do this. It’s just a machine. Should be as easy as fixing a film-strip projector or a record player. Can’t be much more difficult than a water pump on a ’75 Cordoba’s 360 engine. Or a water pump on a ’78 Volare slant six. Alternators are easy and don’t count.
Then the transmission can say Adios and I don’t want to price that job.
Well, I don’t think so. Looking under the hood, I can barely touch the valve covers while standing on a milk crate. Never mind I can’t see the back end of the covers. I don’t have the equipment or actual working knowledge of how to pull the engine.
A decent used truck would work but I’d just have a newer used truck. Used car prices are nuts. For the $4000 difference I’ll go with new and be the first to fart in the driver’s seat.
My “perfect car” would be a ’78 Volare wagon, slant six, two barrel, made into an El Camino of sorts behind the back seat. I’m cool with re-building the carb once in awhile and adjusting the valves so a nickle on edge will stand on the air cleaner is easy. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with the ’81 Imperial and the “quirky” Hydraulic Support Plate”.
I’m with Alice, I’ll take three of the don’t hug me lanyards. I don’t even like shaking hands at church anymore since I shook a hundred hands at an engineering conference in Feb 2020 and got the Covid.
I have a Buc-ee’s lanyard when I’m working in an office. I’m not sure what that communicates.
That you like buck-toothed and furry things ?
Just got the mud (98%) washed off the truck at our Buccees carwash. Sure is nice to sit in the truck and watch the machines work for $12.
“‘A Variant Worse Than Delta’: Fauci Dials Fear To 11 As Emerging ‘Lambda’ Strain Appears More Resistant To Vaccine”
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/variant-worse-delta-fauci-dials-fear-11-emerging-lambda-strain-appears-more-resistant
Whats this about an Omega Variant ?
“Tenant Stampede Results In Largest-Ever Surge In Rents”
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/apartment-rents-get-even-crazier-tenants-flood-market-amid-soaring-occupancy
Best comment:
“Buddy at work has his life savings invested in a couple of rental properties. Tells a story of being stuck with one of these deadbeats that doesn’t have to pay rent. One day he comes to work and says that his deadbeat just up and moved out in the middle of the night.
Well, it turns out that the deadbeat has never been seen or heard from since and now the cops suspect my buddy may have buried him out in the desert. Not only that, the cops are looking at us coworkers because they think he had help. I am “shocked” that someone would do such a thing in this Third World country we live in.”
“Shoot, shovel, shut up” isn’t only for coyotes.
“700,000 lines of code, 20 years, and one developer: How Dwarf Fortress is built”
https://stackoverflow.blog/2021/07/28/700000-lines-of-code-20-years-and-one-developer-how-dwarf-fortress-is-built/
“Dwarf Fortress is one of those oddball passion projects that’s broken into Internet consciousness. It’s a free game where you play either an adventurer or a fortress full of dwarves in a randomly generated fantasy world. The simulation runs deep, with new games creating multiple civilizations with histories, mythologies, and artifacts. I reached out to him to see how he’s managed a single, growing codebase over 15+ years, the perils of pathing, and debugging dead cats. Our conversation below has been edited for clarity.”
Sounds weird and wild.
“Ted Cruz is trying to fast track a new highway that will rival Interstate 10”
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/Houston-Ted-Cruz-I-14-congress-infrastructure-bill-16363823.php?IPID=Chron-HP-CP-Spotlight
“Texas Sen. Ted Cruz really wants another highway slicing through Texas.
The junior Republican worked with Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on an amendment that would make the future Interstate 14 a high-priority project within the INVEST In America Act, an infrastructure bill making its way through Congress.
Cruz proposed the amendment Tuesday, and senators approved it immediately.
If built, I-14 will run east to west connecting Augusta, Georgia, to El Paso, Texas. The highway will take a route parallel to Interstate 10 roughly along U.S. 190 through Jasper, Huntsville, College Station and Killeen.
Part of the interstate exists west of Austin already, but lawmakers want the entirety of the route completed.”
I approve of this ! I-10 from Baton Rouge to Beaumont to Houston to San Antonio to Fort Stockton is a freaking mess and we need to bypass the entire monster. Getting half of the 4,000 ??? 5,000 ??? trucks running from Jacksonville to Los Angeles and back every day over to I-14 would be awesome.
Here is the proposed route for I-10 from Augusta, Georgia to El Paso, Texas.
https://twitter.com/bluestein/status/1422683005148143619
Is that a Chuck Heston reference?
Whats this about an Omega Variant ?
Is that a Chuck Heston reference?
Heh ! Fauci is starting to remind me of the chief vampire who would stand outside Heston’s house in “The Omega Man” every night and scream at him.
I approve of this ! I-10 from Baton Rouge to Beaumont to Houston to San Antonio to Fort Stockton is a freaking mess and we need to bypass the entire monster. Getting half of the 4,000 ??? 5,000 ??? trucks running from Jacksonville to Los Angeles and back every day over to I-14 would be awesome.
The last time we went out to the VA complex in Temple, I noticed that 190 was undergoing widening heading east to College Station, but they were taking their time about it.
There are still a lot of bitter people out that way, in places like Rogers, who remember the Trans Texas Corridor, and the boss at CGI talked about how the incorporated cities between Georgetown and Belton are strongly anti-growth to the point that Jarrell reincorporated just 20 years ago to fight development.
I’ll believe I-14 is happening when they complete the interchange at I-35. The beams for the remaining ramps have been sitting in front of the bingo hall in Belton at least as long as we’ve lived in Texas.
We’re heading up that way on Saturday for a comic book show at the Bell County Expo Center. I’ll bet the weeds are still growing between the beams.
I feel for you.
Years ago (the oughts?) someone gifted me an entire boxed set of pirated software from Iran. Every high end package you can name – AutoCad, ProE, Rhino3D, Office, Oracle, etc, etc. About 30 DVDs.
I never used any of it, quite aside from the moral qualms it seemed more than likely to be infested with malware and I was a NASA contractor at the time.
A friend did borrow the Adobe disk – they already had a licensed and paid for version of the then current high end graphics s/w (CS6?) that kept hanging, they said the pirated version of the same suite worked better!
this is sweet:
Glenn Kessler’s hit-piece-in-progress on Christopher Rufo blew up in his face
JOHN SEXTON Aug 05, 2021 9:25 PM ET
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/08/05/glenn-kesslers-hit-piece-in-progress-on-christopher-rufo-blew-up-in-his-face-n407013
The video of Dr. KB giving the blow-by-blow is popcorn worthy.
“Biden announce regulations designed to phase out the internal combustion engine (And where was Tesla?)”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/08/05/biden-announce-regulations-designed-to-phase-out-the-internal-combustion-engine-and-where-was-tesla-n406955
“The tailpipe emissions regulations enacted by the Obama administration in 2012 required that passenger vehicles sold by automakers achieve an average of roughly 51 miles per gallon by 2025. Mr. Trump loosened the standard in 2020 to about 44 miles per gallon by 2026.
Administration officials said the new Biden standard would be 52 miles per gallon by 2026, calling it “the most stringent federal greenhouse gas standards in U.S. history.””
“The Biden administration then plans another set of tougher emissions regulations for vehicles produced beyond 2026. It is those rules that Mr. Biden hopes will essentially propel automakers to phase out the internal combustion engine. Since that second set of rules could be technically complex and legally ambitious, administration officials decided to first quickly reinstate the Obama regulations to cut some emissions while federal staff members take on the challenge of crafting the future rule.”
Not gonna happen. We have hit peak lithium. And peak cobalt. And the LFP batteries are heavy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery
The ultra capacitor batteries have to be fixed to be usable. And if you think that the lithium batteries get hot, you ain’t seen nothing until an ultra capacitor battery fully discharges in 0.1 seconds next to you.
Re: phasing out the internal combustion engine …
Maybe it’s time for “Mr. Fusion” engines … here’s an article from 2015 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carmendrahl/2015/10/21/the-science-of-back-to-the-future-wheres-my-mr-fusion/?sh=4deb31274764 .
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9866193/Apple-scan-U-S-phones-images-child-abuse.html
They are looking at every message, and every image. Wow.
n
–tell me again how it could never happen here…
n
Well, another milestone of banana republics has been reached. They’re going to issue medals to all the cops that were there on Jan 6. Think Bidden is far enough gone to wear a BS medal or even a uniform? If not now, when?
n
Phone cell site location data, facial recognition, and a snitch.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9864089/FBI-use-phone-tracking-facial-recognition-arrest-man-dressed-George-Washington-Jan-6.html
n
Re: phasing out the internal combustion engine …
Maybe it’s time for “Mr. Fusion” engines … here’s an article from 2015 https://www.forbes.com/sites/carmendrahl/2015/10/21/the-science-of-back-to-the-future-wheres-my-mr-fusion/?sh=4deb31274764 .
Theoretically, fusing elements lighter than iron releases nuclear energy. If a clever physicist could overcome the engineering problems, a machine like Mr. Fusion could physically make energy by fusing banana or beer which mostly consists of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen. (It would even work for a beer can made of aluminum!). This is the process that happens in the core of large stars which is the birthplace of all the heavy elements in the universe.
Yeah, the engineering problems are millions of pounds of pressure and millions of Kelvin degrees. Gonna need some special unobtanium wall material for that Mr. Fusion, much less the laser generators smaller than ten tons.
Venezuela will slash six zeroes off its inflation-battered currency the bolivar to make it easier to use, the central bank said Thursday.
‘All monetary amounts expressed in national currency will be divided by one million,’ the bank of President Nicolas Maduro’s beleaguered leftist government said.
Maduro’s socialism has bankrupted a once prosperous oil-rich nation. Crumbling infrastructure, lack of water and healthcare has forced 5 million people to emigrate.
The twin effects of the pandemic and failed oil industry mean Venezuela is enduring its fourth year of hyperinflation and its eighth year of recession.
Back in May the government tripled the minimum monthly wage but the new amount was still not even enough to buy a kilo of meat.
–tell me again how it could never happen here…
n
We need to knock a zero off our currency right now. After a while, people hit a psychological barrier on paying what they feel is too much for stuff. That is why stocks have splits.
Lynn posted a review of post-apocalyptic books. I have to disagree with “Lights Out.”
I’m partial to this author Don Shift, who meets my high bar for verisimilitude. The EMP stories are very realistic and as horrifying (or more) than “One Second After.” I really enjoyed the nuclear war stories; only the out-of-print “Pulling Through” by Dean Ing that Commander Zero talked about was better. I’ve never read any more realistic “nuke stories.”
Sorry you did not like “Lights Out”. I really liked the book since it is an EMP book, set in south Texas, and coined the term MZBs. MZBs are Mutant Zombie Bikers, a catch-all term for just about any nasty out there causing trouble. The book also clued me into the old adage that there is safety in numbers as the MZBs attacks people in isolated homes.
https://www.amazon.com/Lights-Out-David-Crawford/dp/0615427359/?tag=ttgnet-20
I have put “Limited Exchange: A Story of Two Families Surviving Nuclear War” by Don Shift into my Big River cart. I will try it out.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0892BBC2P/?tag=ttgnet-20
And you’re surprised why?
And you’re surprised why?
–surprised by the use they are putting it to and WHAT they are looking for. Knew they were mining for re-sellable info, marketable info. Didn’t know they were looking for illegal content. and there are lots of deplorable things out there, why don’t they also look for them? How ’bout expressing support for the sitting President, Mr Trump? or more recently, for Kyle, or Ashlee? Why stop at child exploitation when there are SO MANY good deeds to be done?
It’s the very definition of ‘slippery slope.’
n
https://survivalblog.com/
Rawles site is down. Has been for a while. Hope it’s back up in the morning.
n
@rick, we’ve got good backup of the site, right?
I’ve got a bare wordpress install at flandrey.com if I did it right. I guess it’s probably time to announce that, and if this site is ever down for more than an hour, check there.
n