Tues. Aug. 24, 2021 – ‘nsert ‘itle ‘ear

Yep, it got hot yesterday. And it’s going to get hot here today. Despite that, this summer has been cooler than the last two at least. We’re getting down below 80F most nights, and barely over 100F most days. The tomatoes are still producing fruit. They generally stop from the heat at the beginning of summer. Part of the country is unusually hot, but not us.

I spent the heat of the day indoors yesterday. I was not feeling well, so I took an extra hour nap in the morning, and then did some light auction stuff. Sold a cable on ebay so dug around trying unsuccessfully to find it. I have more elsewhere, so that will be my mission for today. I did find some other stuff for the auction that I’d forgotten about.

My work day was short because on Monday I pick up youngest from school and we have about 2 hours scheduled with just the two of us. We tried to complete the bookcase project from last week, but the vinyl I was hoping to wrap it in didn’t stick. So we pivoted to where it would go in her room which quickly turned into ‘where will it fit?’ That led to us measuring everything and building a rough 3d model in Sketchup so that we could move things around and try out arrangements. It didn’t take long before she was driving the mouse, at least for the ‘arrangement’ part.

Sketchup is a great tool. It’s easy to get good results, especially for ‘sketch’ or approximate drawings. You can be precise, but it excels at fast and close enough. It took less time than a scale drawing on grid paper and cutouts of the furniture, and has the advantage of 3D and perspective. Plus, we can refine the models as we like, and now we have it in the computer as a starting point for next time. My hope is that this gentle introduction will encourage her to explore further. I’m using the 2014 version. They want me to upgrade, but it works fine for me.

Plan for today is a lot of driving around. I still have things to drop off and things to pick up. One for my hobby, one needful thing, a couple of prepping things, and the rest is for the household. My wife even asked me to get a couple of things for her. She’s still working from home, no test result yet. Still doesn’t feel great. I’m incentivized to get out of the house and stay out. Yes, I’ll be wearing a good mask.

It will be a good time to ‘take the temper of the clans’ so to speak. I’ll see first hand what people are thinking of Afghanistan and SloJoe&ThaHo. (funny, I left the “h” out of Afganistan, and spellcheck offered me the correct spelling and “Satanism”.) I’m betting anger and a bit of resignation. If no one is talking, I’ll assume they are getting ready for something serious.

This ‘get the jab or lose your job’ business will get out of hand pretty quickly. We’re already pretty close. TPTB don’t seem to have learned anything from the movies of their youth, or Guido the Killer Pimp.*

Move physical security up a notch or two. Strengthen your defenses, physical and mental. Buckle in. Stack it up while you can.

nick

96 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Aug. 24, 2021 – ‘nsert ‘itle ‘ear"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    76F and 96%RH at 6am.
    n

  2. Nick Flandrey says:

    Got the 500 error and had no pasted text.

    n

  3. brad says:

    I was just browsing Boot Barn online. I have a shirt I really like, that cost $21 a year ago. The same shirt is still available, now for $36. Jeans that cost $31 are now $46.

    That’s 50% inflation in one year.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    ADD: The anti-streetlight sentiment is the people that want to pretend that they live far out in the country. Night time is really dark around here with no streetlights. But in reality, we live a couple of blocks from Rosenberg, Texas who may annex us some day. As of five years ago, our subdivision was totally encircled by new subdivisions with sidewalks and streetlights. But the large lots are very nice. And the cost of putting in sidewalks would be incredibly expensive as we would have to put in drainage piping instead of the ditches we now have.

    Streetlights often mean a mandatory HOA or, God help you, CDD.

    New covenants in an established neighborhood bring out the control freaks.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    This ‘get the jab or lose your job’ business will get out of hand pretty quickly. We’re already pretty close. TPTB don’t seem to have learned anything from the movies of their youth, or Guido the Killer Pimp.*

    Most people do not remember the movies of their youth clearly. For instance, contrary to popular belief, Tom Cruise did not deliver that line:

    “I’ve got a trig midterm tomorrow and I’m being chased by Guido the Killer Pimp.”

    As with all of the best quotes in “Risky Business”, it was Curtis Armstrong,

    “Risky Business” was Armstrong’s first flick!

  6. Greg Norton says:

    I was just browsing Boot Barn online. I have a shirt I really like, that cost $21 a year ago. The same shirt is still available, now for $36. Jeans that cost $31 are now $46.

    “Back to School” shopping runs until the end of the month in the US, with different states holding “sales tax free” weekends. Prices are high to take advantage. Check in a month.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    This ‘get the jab or lose your job’ business will get out of hand pretty quickly.

    We have the “all hands” meeting at the new job on the Thursday after Labor Day.

    The old job will probably force all of the junior- and mid-level employees — who actually do the work — to get the shot to avoid problems traveling to the blue states where most of the install jobs were slated for this year.

    If I hadn’t been canned, I would have wanted to see our Wally’s vaccination card before contemplating the jab. Despite being born in upstate New York, Wally had the stereotype 60 year-old Fort Worth DoD contractor accent, and something tells me he would be exempt from the vaccination if not the travel.

    Think “Slingblade” via David Letterman’s spin on the accent. “I sure do like them french fried taters …”

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    Samsung South Africa has now announced that they would be remotely blocking all TVs looted from shops during this period. They will do this using a security feature known as Television Block Function which is found in all modern Samsung Television sets. The block will be activated on all Television sets looted from their warehouses in Durban last month.

    TV block is Samsung’s remote security feature which detects Samsung TVs that have been activated illegally and not by their rightful owners. The feature allows Samsung to remotely disable all functions on the affected Television set rendering it useless. Essentially it turns your stolen smart TV into nothing more than a heap of plastic with a screen.

    A major weakness of the feature is that it only comes into effect when the culprit device connects to the internet.

    –kids, just say no to internet connected spy devices.

    n

  9. Alan says:

    Back when I lived in Boston, there was one intersection where they took down the stop signs and declared it to be a roundabout. However, the intersection was so small that all they could do was paint a circle in the middle of the intersection. So it was really just a place for people to play “chicken”, as they drove through from all directions without slowing down.

    From my various trips to Boston most drivers there don’t need a specific excuse to play “chicken”.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    –kids, just say no to internet connected spy devices.

    Try to find a TV that doesn’t have the “smart” features.

    All of the high end Samsung TVs should be ATSC 3.0 at this point so even the “dumbest” set will have pretty advanced capability to target the viewer with specific advertising. Disabling the TVs would probably be a nit even if the owners didn’t configure for WiFi.

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    Don’t connect them. My client has 15, none connected to the internet.

    n

  12. MrAtoz says:

    The truth, and, nothing but the truth:

    I served in Afghanistan as a US Marine, twice. Here’s the truth in two sentences

    Not that anything will change with the deep state chicken hawks in DC.

  13. MrAtoz says:

    He says it like I’ve always said: Any ally of the US gets our support with “kill, crush, destroy and eat dead babies” then we leave. We should have done that in the two Gulf Wars, but no, let’s turn them into ‘Murka. Didn’t work. Never will in the Sand and Suck.

  14. MrAtoz says:

    Who knew Australia would be the country to watch for hints into what’s to come:

    QR codes mandatory in offices, retail stores and ride shares from today

    Why not tattoo the QR onto Hew-Mons and get it over with.

    2
    1
  15. Greg Norton says:

    Don’t connect them. My client has 15, none connected to the internet. 

    With ATSC 3.0, the targeted ads and other interactive features will arrive as part of the broadcast stream.

    Never make any assumptions about the Internet access status of any device with a built-in 2.4 GHz transceiver, especially if the sets have Alexa capability.

    If your client has a microcell for better wireless phone coverage, just assume the newer sets are online and “phoning home”.

  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    No broadcast TV either. As soon as they get fiber, no Directv.

    n

  17. Greg Norton says:

    Who knew Australia would be the country to watch for hints into what’s to come:

    Fortunately, the contractor cabal servicing the Federal and state governments is filled with quota hires too stupid to quickly deliver something on the scale of a national vaccination database accessed with QR codes.

    Even Microsoft couldn’t control security on the system a lot of states utilized to quickly build appointment systems for the jabs. I saw stories about a big leak in the last few days.

  18. Nick Flandrey says:

    WTF is wrong with ATL?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9920063/More-23-000-Atlanta-area-school-students-staff-quarantined.html

    How is that even possible?

    We’ve got 32K students in our district, iirc. Current dashboard, during the unprecedented increase in cases among “young people”, says we have 36 staff and 200 kids with confirmed cases. Even if every case took out 10 more for quarantine, that’s still an order of magnitude less than Atlanta.

    n

  19. Greg Norton says:

    WTF is wrong with ATL?

    Fulton County? Is that a rhetorical question or are you genuinely not aware of who is in charge there?

     

  20. Chad says:

    RE: Inflation

    Do a quick google of the increase in ocean freight charges in the last year. Last figure I saw said a 600% increase. We don’t make much of anything here anymore (and a lot of what we do make here is just assembled from imported components) and it all comes from Asia and it certainly doesn’t come by truck or rail.

  21. Nick Flandrey says:

    Massive Microsoft Power Apps data breach exposes personal details of 38 million people: American Airlines and NYC schools data including social security numbers and vaccination status among information leaked

    Microsoft’s Power Apps have been breached, according to Wired
    The personal data of 38 million people has been exposed
    Data includes COVID vaccination status, social security and phone numbers
    Affected companies include American Airlines, Ford, and NYC public schools
    It was unclear how the breach happened and who was responsible
    Researchers from security firm UpGuard found that the data was public
    They do not believe any of the 38m people have been directly impacted so far

    –unsecured by default. Makes it easier for the non-professional developers to get something hacked together quickly though. F-ing cloud computing.

    n

  22. Nick Flandrey says:

    “Is that a rhetorical question or are you genuinely not aware of who is in charge there?”

    –I just assume the sort of incompetent, promoted on quota people who typically live in the ATL area. The same ones caught cheating on the assessment tests. The descendants of the sort of people who turned the breadbasket of africa into the center of poverty and starvation it is now….

    But I don’t have any specific knowledge.

    50 miles south of atlanta is pretty rural by my recollection, Conyers?

    n

  23. Nick Flandrey says:

    That australian tv press conference had one very odd thing. She said “if you are sick with symptoms, don’t go to the Dr.” paraphrased. She didn’t say where people should go instead, did she? Or did I miss something with the accent? Are people supposed to just sit at home and die? Wait until they are so sick that they need emergency interventions, and then die?

    n

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    In Oz

    “The police are watching and so is the community. These are events that are being reported to police by local community members,” Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said.

    “They know they are doing the wrong thing and they’re saying to police we don’t want it in our community, go and look at it, go and investigate it, shut them down and fine them if they’re doing the wrong thing.”

    –today it’s meeting for church services. Tomorrow? Whatever the new badthink is. Does australia not have the phrase “Snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches?”

    n

    https://9now.nine.com.au/a-current-affair/coronavirus-sydney-update-church-spreads-antilockdown-messages-online/788f8960-45d2-43d4-b480-13de994faf1d

  25. Greg Norton says:

    “The police are watching and so is the community. These are events that are being reported to police by local community members,” Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said.

    –today it’s meeting for church services. Tomorrow? Whatever the new badthink is. Does australia not have the phrase “Snitches get stitches and wind up in ditches?”

    In Florida, “community members” would mean Muslims, particularly around Tampa with the local media frightened of CAIR and even moderates directed by their religion to convert the infidels or extract tribute. A non-believers’ service would have a huge bullseye for the burqa-clad Church Ladies.

    All religions have Church Ladies, even agnostics and atheists.

    Australia is paying the price for importing the third world.

  26. dkreck says:

    Try to find a TV that doesn’t have the “smart” features.

    Good Luck. Last week I looked for a replacement tv for MIL bedroom. Needed to be 32″. Selection is limited ’cause I guess everyone needs a 70″ tv now. 32″ ‘dumb’ tv is damn rare now. Prices are up too. Settled for a 32″ Toshiba Fire TV at $175. Figured it didn’t matter as she uses a Fire tablet as a reader and has Prime.

  27. Clayton W. says:

    WTF is wrong with ATL?

    That isn’t the number of people that have confirmed cases. It’s people that have been exposed. They never do define what exposed means. I’m guessing that if a person in a classroom comes down with COVID, the entire class is quarantined.

    Just like they do for every other communicable disease with similar infection and hospitalization rates for that age group. Flu, Measles, Cold, Pink-eye, etc. /sarc

    (Though if I were perfectly honest they probably SHOULD do that for Measles. It’s crazy infectious)

  28. SteveF says:

    Last December, a family member of one of the school district’s bus drivers came down with the Chinese Crud. This resulted in the entire school system being shut for two weeks: the driver was in contact with his family member, and all of the other drivers were in contact with that driver, and most students were in contact with at least one of the drivers, and the rest of the students and all faculty and staff were in contact with the bused students.

    That’s what happens when the teachers and administrators get paid no matter what.

  29. JimB says:

    That’s what happens when the teachers and administrators get paid no matter what.

    Fix: no work, no pay. Even better, if your job is shut down, report to the nearest CCC camp. Get your shovel, plant trees for the shutdown duration. Each day of work earns a food ration chit. If you do well, you get a fraction of your regular pay.

    OK, it might have worked in the 1930s, but not now. People are so soft they would drop from a little real work.

    I probably will regret posting this. Gives TPTB ideas.

  30. SteveF says:

    People are so soft they would drop from a little real work.

    … And nothing of value was lost.

  31. Nick Flandrey says:

    So curiously, the story about Aussies forcing school kids into an arena for vaccination was everywhere and now it’s really hard to find. Even with ddg.

    It is happening, although ‘forced’ is strong. And parents are not being allowed in. And despite the big arena, they’re only doing 3000/day.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-09/monday-am-briefing/100360092

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/aug/09/hsc-students-frustrated-with-last-minute-changes-to-mass-covid-19-vaccination-system

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/australia-vaccinates-thousands-of-high-school-students-to-stop-delta-11629288000

    linked here for my own purposes.

    n

  32. MrAtoz says:

    So curiously, the story about Aussies forcing school kids into an arena for vaccination was everywhere and now it’s really hard to find. Even with ddg.

    It is happening, although ‘forced’ is strong. And parents are not being allowed in. And despite the big arena, they’re only doing 3000/day.

    The definition of draconian. “That didn’t work – BAM! Kick it up a notch!” Soon the whole country will be locked down. Machine-gun towers on the coast. Pointed inward. The sheeple can fight back with pitchforks and shotguns. If you are lucky enough to be permitted one.

    2
    2
  33. Alan says:

    “Back to School” shopping runs until the end of the month in the US, with different states holding “sales tax free” weekends. Prices are high to take advantage. Check in a month.

    So is this what Uncle Joe means when he tells us that the inflation is “transitory”? 😉

  34. Nick Flandrey says:

    @dkreck, there are a lot of that size at Costco, and the smart features (ie spying) subsidize the cost, so they are cheap.

    I’m seeing a lot of 32-42 sized tvs in the estate auctions. A lot of them are vizio, a notorious spy, but some are sony and toshiba. you might have to go with used at that size.

    Another possibility is computer monitors paired with the tv box, as almost all new monitors use HDMI now. That would have been the only small impediment in the past. Microcenter has several under $250. They’ve also got RCA and westinghouse TVs with no mention of smarts.

    n

  35. Alan says:

    So now twice in the last two weeks our Costco has been out of stock on several items that are on sale in their monthly flyer that comes in the mail. First time I really recall seeing this – happening to anyone else here?

  36. SteveF says:

    Machine-gun towers on the coast. Pointed inward.

    And force the truck drivers to work at gunpoint? I guess that might work but I can’t help but think it would cause something else to break. The garbage collectors stopping work? The power company workers?

    3
    1
  37. Greg Norton says:

    Another possibility is computer monitors paired with the tv box, as almost all new monitors use HDMI now. That would have been the only small impediment in the past. Microcenter has several under $250. They’ve also got RCA and westinghouse TVs with no mention of smarts.

    As much as speakers are an afterthought in a lot of LED TVs, computer monitors are even worse … if they have speakers. Plus, the monitors do not have built-in remote capability in most cases, and controls are typically inconvenient.

  38. lynn says:

    Are they anti-streetlights too?

    Here, at least, it seems that the “Greatest Generation” had a streetlight fetish. Every road gets lit up like an airport runway. Elderly neighbors still brag about getting the streetlights installed. What for? Newsflash: cars have headlights.

    Pedestrians benefit, but there aren’t that many pedestrians, and even then, the lights could be tied to motion sensors.

    I’d like to be able to see the stars at night. Even in our little town, the light pollution means that you only see the brightest.

    If it is a really dark night, such as when the moon is down, we turn off our flashlights and look at the multitude of stars. It is wild to think about our ancestors roaming Texas without flashlights, only using low light torches. And then a train usually comes by with all of its fury and noise.

  39. Nick Flandrey says:

    Use the remote from the streaming box, set the monitor to sleep on no signal. Soundbar and sub, and they will have a remote.

    It’s a bit awkward, or “lumpy” but can be done without any smart features at all on the display. The other box is a likely spy too.

    n

  40. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, I updated all three aspects of my nvr, the nvr software, the dotnet implementation, and the ffmpg and additional dependencies part.

    I’m still getting video decoding defects from three of the cams that worked fine under windows but haven’t worked fine under linux. They were early H.264 so it might be their fault. I was hoping that would clear up.

    I’ll have to wait and see if the main nvr stops dying every 22 hours.

    n

  41. lynn says:

    “Oil majors launch employee COVID-19 vaccination mandates”
    https://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/news/2021/08/oil-majors-launch-employee-covid-19-vaccination-mandates

    “Oil producer Hess also said it will require workers at its U.S. Gulf of Mexico operations to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 1. In a statement, the company pointed to the “highly infectious nature” of the Delta variant and rising number of COVID-19 cases in the United States.”

    Wow, I had not even thought about working on an oil well platform in the Gulf of Mexico right now. Those are very tight places for your two week, three week, or four week shift.

  42. lynn says:

    Got the 500 error and had no pasted text.

    n

    I just got the 500 error about a half dozen times. I reduced the size of my posting until it worked.

  43. Alan says:

    @dkreck, there are a lot of that size at Costco, and the smart features (ie spying) subsidize the cost, so they are cheap.

    I’m seeing a lot of 32-42 sized tvs in the estate auctions. A lot of them are vizio, a notorious spy, but some are sony and toshiba. you might have to go with used at that size.

    Another possibility is computer monitors paired with the tv box, as almost all new monitors use HDMI now. That would have been the only small impediment in the past. Microcenter has several under $250. They’ve also got RCA and westinghouse TVs with no mention of smarts.

    When I was looking for a 32″ TV a few months ago our Costco had only one 32″ which had a lot of poor reviews. It was not even with the rest of the ‘JumboTron-sized’ sets which seems to be their focus. I did see some ‘dumb’ sets on Amazon that were NOS from 2018/2019 but only from 3rd party sellers and I’d be reluctant to buy a TV that wasn’t sold directly by Amazon. Wound up with a smart LG that was on sale at Best Buy which so far is not connected to the internet.

  44. lynn says:

    No broadcast TV either. As soon as they get fiber, no Directv.

    n

    But then the TVs will be connected to the intertubes.

  45. MrAtoz says:

    plugs crumbles to the Tolly-Bon, will meet the 31 Aug deadline to get out. I wonder how many ‘Murcans were evacuated vs Afghanis?

  46. lynn says:

    Speaking of streetlights, our HOA board just decided to put streetlights at two of our five subdivision entrances. I just figured that one had to know where one was going in the middle of the night, otherwise you would miss our main entrance as the main road is 50 mph. Shoot, the main road does not even slow down from 50 mph for our two junior high schools and senior high school across from our subdivision. Except, during school hours the speed limit is 35 mph.

  47. Ray Thompson says:

    I gave the church my letter of resignation today, effective September 30. I am burned out, too much dumped on my plate, working almost full time on part time pay. I have also been telling the administration they need someone that can take over for me, that understands the broadcast system, the connections, and how it all works. It has mostly fallen on deaf ears. I gave them a chance, now I have to do what I need to do.

    With the knee issues, the wife’s health problems, it is time to start putting myself first. I retired for a reason and that reason certainly did not include spending 40 hours a week at the church.

    The church currently has no one that can take over my position. October 1 it will not be my problem.

    15
  48. SteveF says:

    I have also been telling the administration they need someone that can take over for me, that understands… how it all works. It has mostly fallen on deaf ears. I gave them a chance, now I have to do what I need to do.

    I feel your pain.

    You’ve probably already thought of this, but decide before Sep 30 whether you’ll help the replacement a bit, help as needed for a hefty fee, or cut ties completely.

  49. MrAtoz says:

    With the knee issues, the wife’s health problems, it is time to start putting myself first. I retired for a reason and that reason certainly did not include spending 40 hours a week at the church.

    +1,000,000

  50. Ray Thompson says:

    decide before Sep 30 whether you’ll help the replacement a bit, help as needed for a hefty fee, or cut ties completely

    Ties will be completely cut. No going back, even for hefty fees.

    I also got magically put in charge of replacing the aging PBX phone system with VOIP phones from AT&. I have been dealing with those issues for a month. Church leadership wants all kinds of features, which the system supposedly supports. My stance has been to get the phones working, current POTS numbers transferred, then worry about getting fancy. Doing too much at once will just lead to lots of confusion. But that also goes away come September 30.

    The biggest issue facing the church is doing the broadcast. The system is fairly complicated and flexible. Getting everything correct requires some knowledge beyond just pushing buttons. I have left before for a single Sunday and the broadcast sucks. Graphics screwed up, no lower thirds, static camera angles while the switcher spends times talking with his friends whom are not supposed to be in the studio.

    There is a lot of effort in setting up the picture-in-picture for some graphics, chroma-key for other graphics, setting the boundaries for text on the graphics computer, all the stuff must match. It requires knowledge of the program used for graphics and of the switcher settings. To date no one has stepped up to the plate to help, to get me some relief. I have informed the church for the last six months they need someone to take over. I may not be here for reasons beyond my control, as in sudden demise.

    Yesterday some things happened that tipped the bucket. I thought about it last night and decided it was time. I don’t need the $1K a month that I get paid. It was time to drop the hammer. I have been ignored too long, gave the church more than enough warning, so decided it was time to act and get my retired life back.

    I hope they do well but I don’t think it is going to happen. Too many pieces that no one wanted to learn, didn’t care to learn, or just lackadaisical attitude on the part of church leadership.

    10
  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    @ray, I’m sorry to hear that. But when it stops being rewarding then it’s time to leave. I’ve been in so many rooms where the driving force left and the room just slowly falls apart, it makes one wonder if TPTB for the org really ever valued it. Very sucky. In the end you have to just be contented that you did what you could and did a good job of it. Most people I know from a lifetime in technical event production do it for their own internal reasons anyway, because if you can’t pat yourself on the back, you’ll get damn few pats.

    I was thinking about you and your wife not 10 minutes ago, hoping she’s doing well.

    n

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    Wife is meeting with D1’s drama teacher later this afternoon about doing lighting for their production this year. I’m the lighting designer, my wife’s artistic work was in sound, but she’s been selling lighting for almost 2 decades now and the school district is a big customer.

    I just know we’re about to be sucked in. Especially since wife volunteered that I was a set carpenter in Hollywood… no lighting for me, just sawdust and noise.

    n

  53. Greg Norton says:

    Speaking of streetlights, our HOA board just decided to put streetlights at two of our five subdivision entrances. I just figured that one had to know where one was going in the middle of the night, otherwise you would miss our main entrance as the main road is 50 mph. Shoot, the main road does not even slow down from 50 mph for our two junior high schools and senior high school across from our subdivision. Except, during school hours the speed limit is 35 mph. 

    Just be careful about the monthly/annual assessment tied to the lights and try to avoid becoming a CDD to pay for the lights. Open that door, and there is no limit as to what the control freaks will want next in pursuit of a tenbagger dream.

  54. SteveF says:

    I hope they do well but I don’t think it is going to happen. Too many pieces that no one wanted to learn, didn’t care to learn, or just lackadaisical attitude on the part of … leadership.

    Again, I feel your pain. I don’t hold (many) hard feelings for my current employer but when I leave they’re going to have some serious problems keeping the reports going out. They’ve had a year and a half of warning that I don’t want to be doing this, so they can deal with the problems once I’m not taking care of it.

    Especially since wife volunteered that I was a set carpenter in Hollywood… no lighting for me, just sawdust and noise.

    You know, you’d love to help, but with your back hurting the way it is, you just can’t do it today.

    I’ve been in so many rooms where the driving force left and the room just slowly falls apart, it makes one wonder if TPTB for the org really ever valued it.

    On several jobs or contracts I was “that guy” who did almost all of the productive work. And had more work dumped on me because no one else could do it or do it right, or got passed over for a promotion in favor of the guy who played on the company softball team, or got the contract cut because of a dispute between the client and the contracting company which employed me. And I think in every case the project fell apart almost immediately, and the finger pointing began, and in many cases it was determined to be my fault — obviously, because the problems didn’t appear until I left. I’ll note that I’m conscientious about documenting what I’m doing. If the other devs don’t want to read the notes, that’s not my problem.

  55. lynn says:

    Speaking of streetlights, our HOA board just decided to put streetlights at two of our five subdivision entrances. I just figured that one had to know where one was going in the middle of the night, otherwise you would miss our main entrance as the main road is 50 mph. Shoot, the main road does not even slow down from 50 mph for our two junior high schools and senior high school across from our subdivision. Except, during school hours the speed limit is 35 mph.

    Just be careful about the monthly/annual assessment tied to the lights and try to avoid becoming a CDD to pay for the lights. Open that door, and there is no limit as to what the control freaks will want next in pursuit of a tenbagger dream.

    What is a CDD ?

    We are out in the county, no city services. So our HOA contracts for trash and recycling pickup. And they contract for our Emergency Services from the city of Rosenberg. We pay an annual fee of around $1,100/year. And they handle our two parks and our two lakes (actually water retention ponds). No common swimming pools to guzzle gazillions of dollars thank goodness.
    https://www.ciaservices.com/cia-community-index.php?id=403

  56. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well centerpoint got out here pretty quickly once I got a human on the phone. Their automated tools are broken. Supervisor scheduled a work crew to install a new drop. He says they’ll do it all hot, and there shouldn’t be any interruption to our service. I feel like if they want to turn it off for 10 minutes thats fine with me.

    Their email updater says they’ll be done by 4:30.

    I did have to clear some stuff out of the way so they can get to the weatherhead and the pole. I cut a couple of branches off a tree too that needed to be cut anyway. Now I just get to watch for them and stay out of the way. Not much work on my plan today.

    It’s 102F in the sun and I believe it. Soaked thru in minutes.

    n

  57. lynn says:

    “Demand for SpaceX’s Starlink Satellite Internet Pushes Wait Times to 2023”
    https://www.pcmag.com/news/demand-for-spacexs-starlink-satellite-internet-pushes-wait-times-to-2023

    “In many places, SpaceX’s satellite broadband network won’t arrive until next year. But according to the Starlink website, one town in northern Virginia may not be getting the service until 2023 or later.”

    “PCMag also encountered that fulfillment date when attempting to pre-order from a random address based in Round Hill, Virginia, which has a population of 674. “Starlink is currently at capacity in your area, so your order may not be fulfilled until 2023 or later,” the page reads. ”

    I am not surprised. Starlink is a huge infrastructure. And they have to work out the density issues.

  58. lynn says:

    “World’s Biggest Wind Turbine Can Power 20,000 Houses Every Year”
    https://interestingengineering.com/worlds-biggest-wind-turbine-can-power-20000-houses-every-year

    “Guangdong, China-based Mingyang Smart Energy Group has unveiled a 16 MegaWatt (MW) wind turbine. With 10 Gigawatts of wind-based power production, already under its belt, the company has invested its experience in building a bigger version of its wind turbines that are already available in 5.5 MW, 6.45 MW, 7.25 MW, 8.3 MW to 11 MW configurations.
    The 16MW turbine is named MySE 16.0-242 and has a 793 feet (242 m) diameter. Each of its blades is 387 feet (118 m) long and the turbine sweeps an area of approximately 500,000 square feet (46,000 square meters). As compared to its predecessor, the 11 MW, mySE 11.0, the MySE16’s rotor diameter has increased only 19 percent. However, the company claims, its power output has increased by 45 percent.”

    Wow, that sucker is huge.

    I hope that they put heaters in the blades to keep them from freezing up.

  59. Greg Norton says:

    What is a CDD ?

    Community Development District. Under Florida law, it is an HOA on steroids, with the power to issue bonds, build specific public works like a city, and collect association fees as part of property taxes.

    CDDs have their place, but the control freaks abused the legal structure over the last 20 years. They used to be fairly rare until the real estate bubble.

    We used to joke in Florida that a “retirement community” really just needed some paved roads, a Post Office, and a Publix. Then the developers actually started building communities like that.

  60. ayjblog says:

    Good luck Ray! I learnt a lot with your errands on audio and video, really, but, as usual, there are few people who recognizes the effort, it seems that they think is magic, not work.

     

  61. lynn says:

    “Port of Tallinn to design green H2 hub in Estonia”
    https://gulfenergyinfo.com/h2tech/news/2021/082021/port-of-tallinn-to-design-green-h2-hub-in-estonia

    “Port of Tallinn has unveiled its plan to design the hub of the Baltic Sea green infrastructure in Estonia together with the partners, which would contribute to Estonia’s climate neutrality goals. It is also looking for the best ways to convert ferries to hydrogen fuel and to provide hydrogen refueling capacity in the Old Harbor for cruise ships.”

    I will pass on ferries and cruise ships powered by hydrogen.

    I cannot believe how quickly these people are moving to “green” hydrogen as a fuel. Our long term experience with hydrogen is not good.

  62. Geoff Powell says:

    My yearly commitment, for the May Day celebration, has been in abeyance for the last 2 years, because of the CoViDpocalypse. I’m still fit enough to do it, despite the cancer-in-remission, but it’s entirely foreseeable that there will come a year when I can’t. And there’s no-one who wants to take it over. I tried to recruit Jenny (d3 in @Nick’s terminology), but she’s not enthused.

    It’s only a 1 afternoon-a-year commitment, not like @Ray’s,  but even so…

    G.

     

  63. ~jim says:

    My yearly commitment, for the May Day celebration

    Does it involve dressing up like Margaret Thatcher and handing out cartons of milk to school children at playgrounds?

    Inquiring minds want to know!

  64. Brad says:

    @Ray: $1100/month? Churches are notorious for underpaying, because “for god”. Just like the after-church lunch crowd are famously lousy tippers.

    Good decision.

  65. Greg Norton says:

    @Ray: $1100/month? Churches are notorious for underpaying, because “for god”. Just like the after-church lunch crowd are famously lousy tippers.

    I’ve posted before about having to fire the first minister who was supposed to preside at my wedding, Ken Boehm, who later went on to be the famed “racetrack ministry” chaplain at Churchill Downs. The Right Reverend felt he wasn’t being paid enough for a non-member wedding so he attempted to shake me down for $500 worth of additional counseling sessions, rolling the dice that I wouldn’t can his a** six weeks before my wedding.

    He came up snake eyes on that one.

    I think the best quote that sums up the situation comes from Michael Nesmith, who earned yet another one of his great fortunes (there are four by my count) suing PBS over proceeds from “The Civil War” on home video — “It’s like catching your grandmother stealing your stereo. You’re glad to get your stereo back, but you’re sad to find out that Grandma’s a thief.”

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  66. Alan says:

    He says they’ll do it all hot, and there shouldn’t be any interruption to our service.

    And they do it so easily.

  67. Ray Thompson says:

    @Ray: $1100/month?

    It was good money when I started 17 years ago. Just Sunday morning broadcast, Sunday evening tape for the archives. Also maintained the computer network which had very few issues. Over time it morphed into more and more effort. Special events streamed, weddings streamed, funerals streamed. More graphics responsibilities, more complicated system, etc.

    No acknowledgement when it worked well, complaints when something went wrong. Song leader changes verses so I get wrong on the screens, my fault. People complaining about backgrounds, can’t read the text (they shouldn’t be driving if they can’t read). Getting enough people to run cameras, do the switching, etc.

    Finally decided my sanity, my time, is mine. I don’t need the money.

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  68. Alan says:

    Finally decided my sanity, my time, is mine. I don’t need the money.

    Good choice @Ray, stress like that is not good for anyone’s health.

    Plus, now more time for FLASHLIGHTS. Pour this gentleman a cold one on the house.

  69. ech says:

    Re: Sue Bird

    I noticed that in the Olympics medal ceremony, Sue Bird stood at attention, hand over heart, and sang along to The Star Spangled Banner. Most of her (basketball) team mates just stood.

  70. lynn says:

    It is 100 F outside. ERCOT is hanging in there with no problems.
    http://www.ercot.com/mp

    ERCOT is probably going to hit 73,000 MW today. The alltime peak is 74,820 MW set in August 2019. If they could have served the demand, ERCOT would have set a new peak of around 80,000 MW last Feb 15.

  71. Geoff Powell says:

    @jim:

    Does it involve dressing up like Margaret Thatcher and handing out cartons of milk to school children at playgrounds?

    You’re joking, I hope. But in all seriousness, this is a parade and traditional maypole dancing event, originally for the children of a local housing estate. Held on the 2nd Saturday in May, every year since 1905, except when events said otherwise – both World Wars, and now CoViD.

    My job, for the last 20+ years, has been to provide sound reinforcement – amplify the electronic piano for the dancing music, and mics for the MC and May Queen. I’ve got it down to a fine art now, takes about 6 hours, once a year. But no-one wants to step up to the plate.

    G.

     

  72. Chad says:

    Finally decided my sanity, my time, is mine. I don’t need the money.

    I always like this quote (I’m sure that are many variations of it), “The greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Because when you give your time you are giving a portion of your life that you will never get back.” It really makes you think twice about the crap (and people) you spend time on.

  73. MrAtoz says:

    Ho, hum. Another inane speech where plugs turns his back and walks out taking no questions. Why even bother? He must have an Adderall pump under his jacket.

  74. lynn says:

    Wow, we just got notified that the two street intersection a house away from me is going to converted into a roundabout in the next year. In fact, our subdivision is going to get three roundabouts.

    For the right amount of traffic, roundabouts are a good solution. That said, I hope there’s enough space in the intersections for them to actually block people from driving straight through!

    I drove the 5 ? 7 ? 9 ? lane Arc de Triomphe roundabout in Paris, France back in 2009. I will never do that again. It was freaking crazy. Single land roundabouts are cool. Multiple lane roundabouts are crazy.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arc_de_Triomphe

  75. JimB says:

    I drove in Italy and Spain, on city streets, country two lane highways, and the equivalent of our Interstates. Went through a few roundabouts, whee! They are OK… over there. Not here, with the typical poor quality driving and lack of lane discipline.

    I liked Italy, but I am sorta Italian genetically. Spain was almost as good, with more urban traffic. Italians DRIVE! they are very attentive, and don’t ever seem distracted. They are more courteous. Yes! Just don’t be indecisive; get out of the way. Go! Wave! Honk a salute!

    Sadly, according to some YT videos I have seen, EU countries are not what they used to be, and some of that is reflected in driving.

  76. Marcelo says:

    I have explained before the strategy used by Australia at the time that Delta started and I remember saying back then that Delta was a different scenario altogether compared with the Alpha strain.

    The initial objective was to have zero cases in the community to avoid spreading the disease. The measures put in place to achieve that were are up to the states with the federal government in charge of procurement and distribution of vaccines.

    With only one locally produced vaccine and minimal other vaccines procured initially, the vaccination program was well behind other countries since the beginning. The locally produced vaccine is AstraZeneca and the procured vaccine in very limited quantities is Pfizer. Given the risk of blood clots, Pfizer was reserved for medical people and under 60s. The press hammered the risks of blood clots and that led to low vaccination levels.

    The measures put in place by the states included testing, self-isolation, quarantining and lockdowns. With alpha there was a learning and implementation phase and when all processes were ironed out, the strategy just worked. With a peek of up to 700 daily infected people in one state, all states managed to stop any and all transmissions in the community in the main cities back to zero. No significant spread out of capital cities. Some states implemented more draconian measures than others. NSW was the most pragmatic and tried to balance the economic impact of the measures put in place in order to achieve the desired results.

    The end result of that phase was that cases were only being detected in people coming into the country who have a 14 day quarantining and testing period to minimize the possibility of spreading the disease throughout the community. The objectives had been met in a relatively short period of time with a peak of about 700 daily cases and a handful of deaths a day on a per state basis with States that did not even get one case.

    Delta is different, as everybody should know by now. It spreads much easier than alpha. The first state to get hit was NSW and it did not implement a different strategy at the start of it spreading. Transmission was much faster than before. With the scaremongering by the press about blood clots with AstraZeneca and limited Pfizer available for limited use cases, the vaccination rates were extremely low compounding the problem.

    Tougher measures were put in place in time as well as higher fines for flaunting the rules. The spread was really fast in those areas with a lot of non-compliance and very low vaccination levels. The disease managed to slip out of Sydney into regional towns nevertheless because there are always people willing to do the wrong thing. This did never happen with alpha. A new measure of locking down harder certain areas within Sydney was introduced as well as locking down Sydney from the rest of NSW. Other states have locked out NSW but that has been the case all along every time there have been cases there.

    Blood clot deaths continue to be the exception and lockdown is a pain. The consequence is that vaccination levels are now very high. The laggards had been the lockdown areas but in the last few says even those areas are vaccinating. We managed to procure extra Pfizers and now those are being allocated also to high school students.

    It seems that NSW is peaking at 800 cases a day with less of a handful of deaths per day. The strategy seems to be working now with delta.

    The future objective has now changed because the circumstances have changed and is achievable in a relatively short period of time. The objective now is to have about 70% or 80% of the population vaccinated and to live with the spread. It will minimise deaths and not bring down the economy in the states and stop the bleed of federal funds that are paying people who can’t work because they are mandated to be in self-isolation to prevent spreading the disease.

    In my view, this has been and is a pragmatic approach to prevent the tens and houndreds of thousands of deaths that are happening elsewhere surrendering freedoms for limited periods of time as demonstrated by alpha. I am all for it.

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  77. JimB says:

    I drove the 5 ? 7 ? 9 ? lane Arc de Triomphe roundabout in Paris…

    Ahh, the French! I never drove there, but have been in cars driven to and from hotels and such. Kinda toned-down Italians: subtle, hard to read. I would be very careful there.

    Most French natives I have met as a tourist were very courteous. A reserved smile and compliment can do wonders. Our two peoples go way back.

  78. nick flandrey says:

    Electrical got replaced without issues, although they did do something at the pole transformer too.

    Made one pickup.  Was too late for the other.  Went by my secondary.   Found the cable I sold and shipped it.  12$ profit on that, woohoo!  Yeah, not much but they were steady sellers when I first put them up.  I’ve sold a pallet load.   Only two left.

    It is only now down to 92F and it’s still 63%RH.

    n

     

  79. nick flandrey says:

    With a lack of vaccine, Australia didn’t have much choice but to try the hard lockdown and contact tracing.  Doesn’t make it look any less draconian.  Army in the streets and arrests for walking alone…  just sayin’.

    Any real world plan must include plans for non-compliance.   People are people.  You can’t get 100% compliance in CULTS, nor prisons, nor armies and they have way more control over their members.  Any plan that only works if there is 100% compliance is doomed from the beginning.

    For that matter any plan that relies on people doing the right thing is doomed.  Even if the plan is ‘shoot the offenders in the face and leave them for the buzzards’ you won’t get full compliance.

    I do wonder what the end state is.  Under what conditions do we get to declare we won, and relax the restrictions?  I don’t think they’ll ever be removed, no matter what.  Even Aussie policy makers don’t think they’ll get to herd immunity and FINALLY recognize that it’s not “immunity” it’s just that it dies out in any one ‘herd’.  As soon as someone from outside brings it in, you have outbreaks again.  (my tabs all closed during one of the power outages so I can’t link but I found it at the bottom of an article linked from abcnews)

    n

  80. Marcelo says:

    I did also explain the need for the army in the streets. Only in Sydney and only in the few areas that have the harshest lockdown conditions and mainly because of non-compliance and low levels of vaccination. We do not have National Guards. Police should be policing. They can devote some resources to this but it is has been a long time and the area is large.

    So, the army is not doing army things, they are doing policing. There has been zero bad reaction to this activity specifically, that I can recall, either in the community or in the press.

    There has been much more pushback for the closedowns but that is understandable.

    I agree with you on herd immunity. There will be no such thing with the disease. Maybe with a particular strain. That was never an objective for us.

    I think this may be something like the flu and, in time, most humans will evolve enough immunity to make this disease be treated as that one. A few mentions of how bad it is this year, get vaccinated if you are at high risk and life just goes on.

     

  81. lynn says:

    My 85 year friend is out of the hospital and doing well at home.

    I think that the vaccines will not keep you from getting the covid but, they will keep you from getting a bad case in most cases. In fact, I suspect that most people don’t even know that they have the covid.

    BTW, Aesop says that all three covid vaccines in the USA with made with fetal tissue. I have a hard time believing this. Or is this general knowledge ?
    http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2021/08/blow-that-out-your-satanists.html

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  82. Greg Norton says:

    I do wonder what the end state is. Under what conditions do we get to declare we won, and relax the restrictions?

    When therapeutics emerge. One will eventually.

    Florida is running an interesting experiment both in political and scientific terms.

     

  83. lynn says:

    BTW, Aesop says that all three covid vaccines in the USA with made with fetal tissue. I have a hard time believing this. Or is this general knowledge ?
    http://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2021/08/blow-that-out-your-satanists.html

    “VERIFY: Yes, Johnson & Johnson used aborted fetal cell lines in its creation of the COVID-19 vaccine”
    https://www.khou.com/article/news/verify/johnson-and-johnson-aborted-fetal-cells-verify/285-6d4fe5ba-3763-4d4e-ba32-294f3fa39020

    “Johnson & Johnson issued a statement to the VERIFY team saying, in part, “There is no fetal tissue in our Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. Our COVID-19 vaccine is an inactivated/non-infective adenovirus vector (similar to a cold virus), which codes for the coronavirus “spike” (s) protein. We are able to manufacture hundreds of millions of doses using our engineered cell-line system that enables the rapid production of new viral vaccines to combat many of the most dangerous infectious diseases.”
    So where do the aborted fetal cells come in? Dr. Adalja explains they were used to produce the adenovirus vector.”

    OK, I don’t like that.

    ADD: My daughter is looking for the J&J covid vaccine, it has suddenly gotten hard to find around here. I am not going to tell her that about the fetal stuff, she would freak out. She has already been told by her Infectious Disease (Lyme) Doctor not to get the Pfizer or Moderna since some of the Lyme patients have had bad reactions to them. I want her to get a vaccine.

  84. Alan says:

    I drove the 5 ? 7 ? 9 ? lane Arc de Triomphe roundabout in Paris, France back in 2009. I will never do that again. It was freaking crazy. Single land roundabouts are cool. Multiple lane roundabouts are crazy.

    Reminds me of the ‘oval-about’ that surrounds the Soldiers and Sailors Arch at Grand Army Plaza. Six main streets intersect the oval.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soldiers%27_and_Sailors%27_Arch

  85. nick flandrey says:

    Yeah, that’s the kind of lawyerly answer we were getting about other stuff, with the [surprisingly] honest followup. You are only supposed to quote and remember the first phrase….

    It’s not MADE of fetal cells, it’s made from a tool we made from fetal cells…

    n

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  86. Marcelo says:

    With respect to draconian, how about a state that does not allow entry of citizens from another state that has had just one case of covid. Gentlemen, I present to you the one state in Oz that is still hanging on to the objective of zero cases: WA.

    That, to me, is nuts.

  87. drwilliams says:

    Kevin D. Williamson on the fentanyl-exposed twitching deputy hoax:
    “It is a mistake to take police or prosecutors at their word in any matter…”
    https://www.nationalreview.com/the-tuesday/print-the-legend/

  88. lynn says:

    “6-3: Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Texas — Biden Regime Must Reinstitute President Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy”
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/08/24/supreme-court-rules-in-favor-of-texas-biden-administration-must-reinstitute-remain-in-mexico-policy/

    Hat tip to:
    https://thelibertydaily.com/

    Also:
    https://www.scotusblog.com/2021/08/court-wont-block-order-requiring-reinstatement-of-remain-in-mexico-policy/

    This is big, very big. SCOTUS actually voted to allow the lower court to force the administration to reinstate the “Remain In Mexico” policy. I know it was probably a phone conference call but they did vote.

    I thought in 2018 that the Trump “Remain In Mexico” was one of the smartest things his administration enacted. I think that it is even smarter now.

  89. Greg Norton says:

    ADD: My daughter is looking for the J&J covid vaccine, it has suddenly gotten hard to find around here. I am not going to tell her that about the fetal stuff, she would freak out. She has already been told by her Infectious Disease (Lyme) Doctor not to get the Pfizer or Moderna since some of the Lyme patients have had bad reactions to them. I want her to get a vaccine.

    Try HEB.

    The stores around me had J&J when I checked last week in case work wants us all vaccinated.

    Is your dad a Vet? The VA has J&J stashed for their vaccination program covering families of vulnerable veterans.

    Has your son activated his VA benefits? I wouldn’t call him “vulnerable”, but I think your daughter would qualify for the program through him.

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  90. Greg Norton says:

    I thought in 2018 that the Trump “Remain In Mexico” was one of the smartest things his administration enacted. I think that it is even smarter now.

    I posted the other day that I saw the current “catch and release” policy in action at Whataburger on South Padre Island the weekend of the 4th. Catholic Charities was obviously stashing immigrants in the Motel 6 there and giving them fast food gift cards to use to eat.

    I didn’t see any immigrants at the grocery store on the island when we stopped several times to restock on water that week.

    SPI municipal water leaves a *lot* to be desired. I didn’t mind the taste when brushing my teeth — a bit like lawn mower clippings — but my wife wasn’t having any part of it.

    That reminds me — The Real Life Tony Stark (TM) continued his crazy spitballing to deflect the bad press out of his companies this week. Anyone familiar with the terrain knows why a tunnel under the shipping channel between SPI and Boca Chica would be a huge problem.

    But, hey, minor detail. Tony is a “big picture” guy.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/elon-musk-proposal-a-tunnel-from-south-padre-island-to-boca-chica-beach/ar-AANE8fo

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  91. Greg Norton says:

    This is big, very big. SCOTUS actually voted to allow the lower court to force the administration to reinstate the “Remain In Mexico” policy. I know it was probably a phone conference call but they did vote. 

    The Justice covering Texas takes the call and decides whether the case can wait until the Fall. Obviously, that Justice decided it couldn’t wait.

    Clarence Thomas covers Florida, Alabama, and Georgia unless things have changed. I don’t know who covers Texas.

    The Justice covering Louisiana has a call about the rent moratorium in light of Kavanaugh’s vote with the majority since, at the time, the moratorium only had a month left before expiration.

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  92. Alan says:

    Clarence Thomas covers Florida, Alabama, and Georgia unless things have changed. I don’t know who covers Texas.

    It’s Alito.

    https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/circuitAssignments.aspx

  93. lynn says:

    That reminds me — The Real Life Tony Stark (TM) continued his crazy spitballing to deflect the bad press out of his companies this week. Anyone familiar with the terrain knows why a tunnel under the shipping channel between SPI and Boca Chica would be a huge problem.

    But, hey, minor detail. Tony is a “big picture” guy.

    There used to be a two lane tunnel from Baytown to La Porte.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baytown_Tunnel

    “The Baytown Tunnel or Baytown – La Porte Tunnel was a two-lane underwater motor-vehicle tunnel connecting Baytown and La Porte, two suburbs of Houston, Texas. Completed in 1953,[1] it traveled northeast-southwest underneath the Houston Ship Channel and had a length of 4,110 feet (1,250 m).[2] It was closed to vehicular traffic in 1995 with the opening of the Fred Hartman Bridge, and subsequently demolished beginning in 1997 in order for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to deepen the channel in 1998.[3]”

    The tunnel consisted of pre-fab sections that were sunk in place, bolted together, and the water was pumped out. The tunnel just laid on the ocean floor. We used to take it occasionally when we lived in Baytown for the summers when Dad was working for Shell and run down to Galveston for an afternoon. It was weird thinking that there was 40 feet of water over your head as you drove through the tunnel. If a ship had hit the tunnel while a thousand cars were in it, thousands of people would have died.

    Pictures:
    http://www.texasfreeway.com/Houston/historic/photos/images/baytown_tunnel_4110ft_opened1953_1970photo.jpg
    http://www.texasfreeway.com/Houston/historic/photos/images/baytown_tunnel_inside_april_1964.jpg

  94. lynn says:

    ADD: My daughter is looking for the J&J covid vaccine, it has suddenly gotten hard to find around here. I am not going to tell her that about the fetal stuff, she would freak out. She has already been told by her Infectious Disease (Lyme) Doctor not to get the Pfizer or Moderna since some of the Lyme patients have had bad reactions to them. I want her to get a vaccine.

    Try HEB.

    The stores around me had J&J when I checked last week in case work wants us all vaccinated.

    Is your dad a Vet? The VA has J&J stashed for their vaccination program covering families of vulnerable veterans.

    Has your son activated his VA benefits? I wouldn’t call him “vulnerable”, but I think your daughter would qualify for the program through him.

    My father-in-law was a disabled vet. He has been gone 11 months so those benefits are long gone.

    My son is an anti-vaxxer. He think any of the covid vaccines will kill his sister since she has no immune system. So he is not going to take his sister to the VA.

    ADD: The wife took the daughter to our HEB yesterday. No J&J even though their website said they had it. The pharmacist was looking all through their fridges for it.

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  95. brad says:

    Avoiding Smart TVs

    I know I’m late to the comment thread, but:

    For years now we’ve used a projector (but a monitor would work as well), with an HDMI connection. For audio, depending on your needs, you can get a splitter that will take the audio signal out of HDMI and give you normal audio plugs.

    Think flexibly: if you’re using a monitor on the wall, for example, put the TV box and audio equipment just underneath it on the same wall. If you’re using a projector, everything goes on the back wall, by the projector, and you will have to run a cable to the speakers under the projection surface. Run it along the baseboard where it’s hardly noticeable.

    No acknowledgement when it worked well, complaints when something went wrong.

    That’s pretty much the definition of any sort of technical support 🙂

    Seriously, find a company that (a) has almost no IT problems and (b) realizes that this is due to the efforts of their IT people. I’ve seen that combination maybe once or twice in my career. Usually, the lack of problems leads to the C-suite figuring that their IT department can be downsized or outsourced. With the inevitable consequences.

    Under what conditions do we get to declare we won

    Corona isn’t quite as good as climate change, which the politicians have been milking for decades. But they’ll milk it as long as they can. Once given new powers, politicians really don’t want to give them up.

    Aesop says that all three covid vaccines in the USA with made with fetal tissue

    For a professional, Aesop seems to buy into an awful lot of nonsense.

    It is certain than none of the vaccines contain any sort of human tissue. Human cells may be involved in producing the virus for J&J: Take a stem cell, get it to produce cells, use the cells to produce viruses. Where that stem cell originally came from – does that really matter?

    Regardless, this is certainly is not the case for mRNA vaccines, since they don’t even involve an actual virus.

     

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  96. brad says:

    In fairness, I think I found the source of Aesops claim:

    Early in the development of mRNA vaccine technology, fetal cells were used for “proof of concept” (to demonstrate how a cell could take up mRNA and produce the SARS-CoV-2 spike).

    So fetal tissue was used during the initial research, but is not part of the production process.

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