Probably hot and humid, although if we’re lucky we’ll get a little less of each. Yesterday started cool but ramped up to over 105F in the sun at my house… that is pretty hot. It was less in the shade, but still, pretty hot.
Did my pickups. Had to get D1 from school. She stayed after for some math tutoring and the bus situation for late buses isn’t great. That cut my day short. I did get stuff into appropriate bins and I have an appointment to drop off those bins at my auctioneer today. I have to load up a few at my storage unit too.
I did a small amount of additional cleanup of my patio pantry shelves. Another box of instant oatmeal, and two more big round cardboard canisters of regular oatmeal went in the trash. There will be some more spoilage when I get the shelves fully cleaned. I’m sure there is another ugly surprise in the garage shelves too, when I get to them.
There was some discussion of Best By dates and stored food longevity over at Borepatch’s blog. I made a comments about some of my successes and losses. This week we ate ham I froze a year and a half ago, Knorr pasta in a ‘sorta’ foil pouch from 6 years ago was fine, and 5 yo cake mix tastes great. IDK when the crumbled bacon is from, nor the butter. It lives in the freezer until needed, and I’ve got a lot of it to rotate through. I’ve let some stuff draw down a bit, and I’ll be fixing that in the next couple of weeks. I already am ahead of replenishment on several items once again. Still, balancing is needed.
Other stuff needs to be looked at and rotated or refreshed too. Gasoline is my biggest question mark and I need to spend the time to go through all the cans and check on their condition. I’m pretty sure I will need to siphon the gas off the top and leave the water behind in several cans. Getting the dual fuel kit for my Honda inverter gennie would take some of that pressure off, but it’s one more thing to do.
Oh and I’ll be doing plumbing today. Got the shower part too late in the day to do the repair last night. Hey, it did get here in one day, just too late in the day on that one day…
Gotta get a bunch of work done so I don’t feel bad about doing my normal monthly non-prepping hobby meeting tomorrow. My biggest observance for 9-11 is living my life NORMALLY for that day. And remembering the dead. But trying for normal.
Keep working on your stacks. Might want some extra buckets. There’s a plastic shortage headed our way. And buckets are crazy useful.
Stack all the things!
nick
–how many of the “underbanked ” and “unbanked” will be audited vs the tattered remains of the middle class?
F him. if this goes live, I’ll write a script to make one dollar deposits and withdrawals every minute of every day, and I’ll post it everywhere I can.
IIRC, PayPal already reports accounts to the IRS which have more than x transactions per year, where x is … 200?
The change happened at some point in the last decade.
Another Brady comeback with 1:24 on the clock.
Yuks, 31 – Dallas 29
Looked like most of last season, both good and bad. Plus, credit to Dak Prescott for outplaying Brady.
Whoever owns the Antonio Brown off-field rehab this year (still Gisele?), had him ready to go last night.
Just play. Keep court appearances limited to civil cases, not criminal. He’ll get a huge payday at the end of this season with someone.
Hopefully, Texas and Florida (maybe some other States) will sue Biden and take this to SCOTUS.
We got an email from LA USD that all in-person service providers have to be fully vaccinated by Sep 30 or your contract is cancelled. No definite way to provide proof was given, so I guess a valid vax card. We knew this was coming, so we are all fully vax’d. That is the reason why we got jabbed early. I forget, how many spaces are on that card for the non-stop quarterly boosters that are coming. The variants will have to be named like storms there are going to be so many.
Hopefully, Texas and Florida (maybe some other States) will sue Biden and take this to SCOTUS.
DeSantis was in … New Port Richey, FL ? … yesterday, but the cameras found him for a comment. More is probably coming once he is back in Tallahassee today.
Abbott didn’t comment until after DeSantis, but there will be hell to pay if Texas doesn’t push back as hard if not harder than Florida Man.
Forget the midterms. 2024 is being fought right now.
70F and 80%RH this am. Nice and cool, but it won’t stay there.
Hey look, tulips!
— yeah, it’s different this time. Riiiiiight.
n
This reporter makes the same factual error just about everyone makes about “Risky Business” — Tom Cruise doesn’t wear the RayBans in the living room dance sequence.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/rayban-stories-facebook-review-11631193687
More creepiness from Facecrack.
Subbing again today, and several times this month. Between the wife and I we will sub 18 days in this month.
Four more physical therapy sessions as that is all that is allowed by the VA. Everything is hard limits regardless of the case. Getting beyond those limits requires a lot off phone calls and clinic visits. Four more is fine with me. I am not seeing any improvement from the sessions. Knee can bend backwards at 130 degrees where 120 is the target. Still cannot straighten completely without assistance, muscles still weak. Found out today that full recovery can take 12 to 18 months. Currently the knee “pops” a lot and that is normal until full recovery.
Yes, this procedure sucks.
Hey Ray, this was the ‘total knee’ where they put a metal pad on the end of the thigh bone and a metal fixture on the top of the shin bone, and a plastic pad in between?
n
Flying off to Denver this afternoon. Bakersfield and Denver, two oily places so at least there are direct flights. Spend a couple of days with family then driving home through Utah and Nevada. Four days with a little sightseeing included. Been a long time since I did long drives like that. 4-5 hours each day. At least a break from the heat here until Las Vegas.
Yes, it was. They also put a plastic (or metal) piece under the knee cap. Brutal procedure. I watched a video before I had the operation and that my friends, was a mistake.
What did surprise was the tourniquet applied to the upper thigh to stop blood flow during the procedure and minimize bleeding. That left bruises and the muscle was very sore for several days.
I did have a nerve block immediately in the thigh before the procedure which helped with post operative pain.
My neighbor is building a separate garage and workshop for himself. Went today to pick up some wood for the roof. The building material place had two palettes ready, one of which was the wrong stuff. Annoying, but they found almost enough material as individual boards they collected off the sales floor, and the rest we can pick up later.
It’s funny, how people react. I tend to be calm, because the people you’re talking to are (a) probably not the ones who screwed up, and (b) definitely are the people whom you need to help you. My neighbor is a great guy, but has a temper. He would have gone off on the people, if I hadn’t stepped in and taken over the conversation. Different strokes for different folks, I suppose, but I don’t see what good yelling is going to do.
My experience is that best-by dates are incredibly conservative. First, companies don’t want to risk problems. Second, for anything people are likely to store, I’m sure they figure they’d rather sell you unnecessary replacements.
There have now been several articles about medicines. Most medicines are fine over decades, but the use-by dates are still usually only a year or two in the future. One I particularly remember looked at (iirc) pain killers bought in the 1960s. They tested at something like 90% of their original strength, some 50 years later.
It would be really nice to have an idea how long you can really store stuff, and what is truly unstable, but I doubt we’ll ever get that info. It would require too much effort, and might cut into profit margins.
Our school has decided to require vaccination certificates as of October 15th. On the one hand, that’s annoying as hell, because it’s a month after classes begin. So we’ll start under one set of rules, and change mid-stream to a completely different set. Not fun.
On the other hand, as I understand it, if people are vaccinated, then masks will no longer be required. I’m…rather intense as a teacher. Let’s just say that people don’t fall asleep in my lectures, and my fitness tracker thinks I’m doing some sort of sport. Lecturing a couple of hours behind a mask is hard work – it sure would be nice, if that requirement really does go away.
I don’t know exactly what they have you doing, but from the physical therapy I’ve been through, you can probably continue the important stuff on your own. From what I’ve heard from acquaintances with knee replacements, it can take a year or two of exercises to regain full flexibility and stability. Keep at it!
This is how cash makes a comeback and the crypto privacy coins take off.
Of course there’s a war on cash, which is fought publicly to prevent money laundering but with a non-discussed secondary goal of being able to un-bank undesirables.
With a privacy coin wallet on your phone, and maybe a vpn for an extra layer, you can pay anyone with no record. Hence the government efforts to break Monero – their control fails if people can *gasp* pay anyone anytime without being tracked.
One that made me chuckle years ago was a tweet on one 9/11 anniversary or another that simply said, “This is my obligatory 9/11 tweet. #neverforget #unitedwestand” lol
RBT talked about this back in 2017 and referenced this article: https://www.propublica.org/article/the-myth-of-drug-expiration-dates
That’s always been my opinion on PT. Mostly, you (or your insurance or the taxpayers) are paying someone to watch you stretch and exercise. Seems silly. Go a couple of times so you know how to do them correctly and then they can be done entirely on your own. Now, some people struggle with compliance and actually doing them, so perhaps going to PT regularly helps ensure they’re actually doing them. Also, for some extreme cases (e.g. spinal and brain injuries where people have to teach themselves to walk again) it’s very beneficial. However, for most people under most circumstances going to an actually physical therapist is just silly after the first couple of appointments.
There’s a lot of banking alternatives these days. One that’s growing in popularity is people having their paychecks deposited directly to a credit card. They can take cash out with the card, pay for things, etc. Because it’s a credit card and not a bank deposit account none of the banking regulations apply.
Bicycle machine first to loosen the joint, then stretch the hamstrings, then step up on a 10″ block 30 times, then a rubber band behind the knee and stretch backwards 30 times, then stand from a sitting position 30 times, then knee bends 30 times, then weight on the ankle and leg lifts from the knee 30 times, then lay on my stomach, strap to the foot over the back and pull has hard as possible 5 times holding for 20 seconds, then sit up leaning back strap on the foot and pull the leg in as far as possible.
Odd that I see other people with knee replacement doing different exercises, some with electrodes to stimulate the leg muscles.
One person in therapy had the procedure done five weeks ago and is still in a wheelchair. Another person about six weeks ago and they are still using a walker. I never used a wheelchair and abandoned the walker after one week, the cane after another week. I walked slow, with a limp but with no assistive aids.
I have heard the same thing from others, including my two brothers whom had knees replaced.
going to an actually physical therapist is just silly after the first couple of appointments.
–the therapist will push you past your point of pain… which is necessary to progress. Most people will have the normal reaction to pain, which is to stop doing whatever caused it.
I found that I did about 70% of the routine for a while after my knees were cleaned up. Once I got to the point where I could do all normal activity without thought, trepidation, or effort, I stopped.
n
With a privacy coin wallet on your phone, and maybe a vpn for an extra layer, you can pay anyone with no record. Hence the government efforts to break Monero – their control fails if people can *gasp* pay anyone anytime without being tracked.
If you believe that the government doesn’t have access to the contents of your phone.
4th of July week, I got my first look at the Border Patrol checkpoint set up on I69 NB about 100 miles north of the border inside Texas. We were just waived through after a sniff of the dog, but it was within their jurisdiction to ask for our phones as well as take the car apart.
Border Patrol can operate the checkpoints anywhere within 200 miles of a border or the coast, which covers, IIRC, about 90% of the population.
None of my therapy actually causes any pain other than the normal joint pain, and that is more of a discomfort. Most of my therapy seems to be stretching the muscles, tendons and ligaments.
I can certainly tell each morning that the knee got stiff over night. I do a few stretches to get things working again. Getting up if feels like there is something attached to my leg, like weights or something bulky. Odd sensation. The right side of the knee, the exterior portion opposite the thigh side is numb. I have a sensation of pressure, but not of touching. That I have been told is permanent as the procedure requires cutting a nerve.
There is scar tissue under the incision. That requires massaging to try and reduce the amount of scarring. The actual incision scar is not too bad. A couple of really noticeable spots. One just because. One where I split open the incision, lot of blood which I was able to quickly stop and doctor applied some steri-strips. That left a mark that will never go away.
My biggest complaint is the discomfort at night makes it difficult to sleep. Difficult to get comfortable. Lot of movement in bed to find a point of least discomfort. Pain medicine the doctor prescribed does nothing. Only thing I have had that is effective is Oxycodone which I really want to avoid. It worked but I felt odd in the morning and by afternoon would be shaking from withdrawal. Powerful stuff but it has downsides.
Quoted for truth.
If you act as if the contents of your phone are secure, you are a fool.
@ray, have you tried sleeping in a recliner?
n
Never going to happen. I have trouble napping in a recliner. I sleep on my side or my stomach. Sleeping on my back has never really been an option. I generally change position three or four times a night. Regardless, leg/knee still have discomfort while in a recliner.
The 2021 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
I had to do that once, for a couple of weeks. Even though I often sleep on my back, being unable to do anything else gets really annoying. I sure was glad when I could lie flat again…
–clear case of normalcy bias, and inertia. ROL is dead.
n
Can’t afford to eat? Quit eating meat.
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2021/09/just-cut-out-protein-then-your-food.html
“As Soon as OSHA Issues This Rule We Will Sue, We Will Win” – Charlie Kirk Announces TPUSA Will Sue as Soon as OSHA Issues Biden’s Vaccine Mandates
–clear case of normalcy bias, and inertia. ROL is dead.
From what I observed at the last job, OSHA doesn’t have the manpower to investigate/enforce their existing rules without a lot of help from internal whistleblowers and state-level counterparts.
I’m willing to bet that enforcement will be highly selective, with places like Hobby Lobby and Dave Ramsey’s company getting the Hut Hut Hut treatment while CNN cameras roll.
No court response is possible until OSHA releases the final rules, however. I’d be surprised if that happened before the beginning of November, after the VA Governor election.
Yah, finding ways to reduce portions and stretch expensive meats have been part of the wise parents’ toolkit for… probably ever. Since grocery stores and city living, it took on new elements. The old WW rationing led to some mighty creative recipes.
My husband’s Dr prescribed him “liver and more red meat” after blood tests recently, so we will have liver once or twice a week. One pound of chicken livers is $0.89. They are delicous fried, even without expensive bacon wrapped around them. They are so rich that a pound will feed four to six people. Fry some potatoes to go with them. Maybe make gravy if you feel like it. That is a meal I grew up on. There are lots of other ways to use them too: in Dirty Rice (along with gizzards), to make a sort of Pate for sandwiches…
One pound of beef liver, nicely trimmed and packaged individually, is $2.29, and will satisfy four people. Paul’s favorite is good ol’ liver and onions. I also like it slow simmered with lots of herbs (Fines Herbs), onion and garlic.
I buy two turkeys each year when they go on sale for 25 cents to 40 cents a pound, roast them, then can them. They taste like fresh-roasted. Could as easily be vaccuum packed and frozen. If we could not afford much beef or pork, I’d put up 4 of them.
Like Nick, when nice beef goes on sale or is “reduced for quick sale”, I buy a bunch for the freezer. A great way to help poor people who are responsible enough to think ahead would be to provide them with a small chest freezer to enable them to buy meats on sale.
I hadn’t thought of that. To make sure I’m understanding, you can take cooked turkey (or other meat), slice it up, vacuum seal, freeze it, and it stores just fine?
I had a free day when I was out at White Sands, so I took a trip to the monument. There was a Boarder Patrol checkpoint on the way there. I never found out why they had a checkpoint so far inland.
I am trying to find out how insulin degrades. Does it just lose potency as it ages, or does it become dangerous as well? It’s hard to get a stockpile. I renew the scrip as soon as possible, and that helps a little. I am taking my sons used pens and keeping them, as he never uses all of one in a month. I’m putting them back in the fridge. They will only ever see the light of day if there is a true emergency – all pharmacies are closed and no hope of getting insulin. It may help him survive a brief emergency. Not quite a Lucifer’s Hammer situation, but something along the lines of a 6 month disruption in the supply chain. I seriously hope he never has to resort to this prep…
@IT guy, insulin dependence is a tough one to prep for, but google it and there are people who have explored the options. You definitely want a small thermoelectric battery powered fridge. I’d add solar and a charge controller and battery too, but you can run it off the car battery as long as you have gas to keep the charge up.
You can also check out the resources here
https://griddownmed.blog/2015/02/07/homemade-insulin-part-i/
Particularly the comment below, as it looks like the project stalled out.
n
yes, hardcore. So is shooting someone in the face, but people have no problem talking about that…
Thanks Nick – and the fridge is on my buy list for this month. I’ll get another one for him to take to college with him next year as well.
I had a free day when I was out at White Sands, so I took a trip to the monument. There was a Boarder Patrol checkpoint on the way there. I never found out why they had a checkpoint so far inland.
White Sands? Definitely. Most of I-10.
In Texas, I69/US77, just north of Armstrong. NB is the typical checkpoint with officers/dogs, but SB is what I’m guessing is a prototype for an unmanned checkpoint, with what looks like the same arrangement of cameras we tried at the last job to feed a vehicle occupant counting system along with OCR plate cameras and various types of RF antennas aimed at the road.
Maybe Border Patrol actually has an occupant counting system that works, but I doubt it.
Insulin will probably retain its potency in the freezer, but not the fridge or room temp. At least that’s the case with a couple of other hormones (peptide) I’m familiar with. I take one and the other was prescribed by my veterinarian a long time back for my ferrets.
I wrap and freeze turkey breast every year, then thaw it and cube it for turkey a la king or other recipes. You’ll want to pull the skin off, as it’s edible but not tasty after thawing.
I’ve never thin-sliced the turkey and then used it in sandwiches, so I couldn’t tell you how good it is for that.
Unless we’re having guests for the holidays, I just bake turkey legs. None of us like the breast, and turkey never goes on sale at HEB near me.
n
@SteveF – why not cube the turkey before you freeze it? Wouldn’t that be a bit faster in prep/cooking time?
We enjoy those frozen turkey breasts roasts. Makes a nice dinner with some smashed potatoes and gravy. Also easy to cook – does not require thawing before cooking. Since there are just the two of us, don’t need a big turkey and all that work to enjoy a nice turkey dinner – and turkey sandwiches for a few days.
Come to think of it, thyroid, either levothyroxine, or especially desiccated, degrades pretty quickly at room temp, too.
Yep, it is delicious. the roasted breast slices nicely even after being frozen for months, so long as it is vacuum packed and in our big freezer. For canning, we find the texture of home-canned roasted turkey is far superior to any commercial canned.
We used to buy those too, before I started canning. The frozen turkey breasts make a very nice meal, and no hassle to thaw or prepare.
Really? Even levothyroxine in pill form?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9977981/Florida-deputies-attacked-traffic-stop-suspect-shot-killed.html
–well worth watching the video. At one point, like in so many of the gun fights I watch, the deputy accidentally ejects his magazine. He ends up looking for it and puts it back in the gun.
And the other deputy seems to get a mag dump into the criminal.
n
Everything I’ve read says you can’t freeze insulin. This was confirmed by my son’s endocrinologist.
Interesting attitude. I’m guessing it hasn’t occurred to him that the same attitude might be found in people fed up with the police enforcing illegal orders and unjust laws against the people.
My husband’s Dr prescribed him “liver and more red meat” after blood tests recently, so we will have liver once or twice a week. One pound of chicken livers is $0.89. They are delicous fried, even without expensive bacon wrapped around them. They are so rich that a pound will feed four to six people. Fry some potatoes to go with them. Maybe make gravy if you feel like it. That is a meal I grew up on. There are lots of other ways to use them too: in Dirty Rice (along with gizzards), to make a sort of Pate for sandwiches…
That is much cheaper than my daughter’s iron infusions at $2,100 each of which she had two last year and four this year so far. Insurance paid $2,000 of each bill though.
And much faster, each of the infusions takes four hours in a cancer center. The advantage there is that the nurses are used to dealing with people with collapsed veins, etc. They now start out with a warm blanket for her arm to get the veins expanded as much as possible.
I’ve been fighting off a sinus infection all week. My GP is out on vacation this week so I went to the Urgent Care in Sugar Land yesterday. After finding out there were 31 people in line ahead of me at 2pm, I took a 130pm appointment today. I showed up and they saw me very quickly even though the waiting room was full. Lots of people hoping to get seen but they were just stacked up as they are the only Urgent Care left in Sugar Land (a wealthy community of 130,000 people) after last year’s pandemic boondoggle.
I saw the nurse practitioner and she confirmed the sinus infection. She wanted me to take a Covid test before any prescription just to make sure since so many of the symptoms are the same except I am not running a fever. Plus I have a cardiologist appt on Monday and they asked me to make sure that I do not have the Koof (ghetto for covid). So I took their $50 fifteen minute test “Sofia SARS Antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay (FIA)” test and it was negative after her assistant stuck two ten inch cotton swabs up my nostrils to the back of my skull. She claims 97% accuracy.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=The%20Koof
BTW, the Urgent Care had 7 or 8 women working there. No men that I saw. Interesting.
Yep. Can’t find the paper now, but try to keep it under 80° F — 30° C, IIRC.
So who are you going to trust? 🙂
Good to know, thanks!
“Armed robber shot in face by armed victim in Texas just days after permitless carry begins”
https://www.foxnews.com/us/armed-robber-shot-face-armed-victim-texas
“The victim was on his way to a Shell station. The suspect in the case was dropped off by a driver around the same time, and approached the victim by lifting his shirt to expose a gun and demanded he fork over any valuables.”
“The victim, however, was also armed and pulled out his weapon and shot the suspect in the face. The suspect is in the hospital and in police custody.”
Now if the victim had been trained properly, he would have known to put two in the chest and one in the head only if the suspect did not go down. I know this because the Senior Range Instructor stood one inch behind my left ear and screamed “HEAD SHOT” to us after putting two in the chest of the target. Nevertheless, the victim did a great job here.
And I can claim to be the rightful king of Scotland. Doesn’t make it so.
Not impressed, hard to miss the back of the skull with that long a swab
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9977981/Florida-deputies-attacked-traffic-stop-suspect-shot-killed.html
–well worth watching the video. At one point, like in so many of the gun fights I watch, the deputy accidentally ejects his magazine. He ends up looking for it and puts it back in the gun.
And the other deputy seems to get a mag dump into the criminal.
Ivey said of his death: ‘For those out there who might be foolish enough to ask why we shot him so many times, that answer is simple – because evil can never be dead enough.’
n
Those Amish !
And doesn’t Florida have a three strikes law ? Why wasn’t this guy with 40 arrests already in jail ?
https://www.valcarcellaw.com/practice-areas/criminal-defense/florida-three-strikes-law/
BTW, the Urgent Care had 7 or 8 women working there. No men that I saw. Interesting.
What percentage were Subcontinent?
BTW, the Urgent Care had 7 or 8 women working there. No men that I saw. Interesting.
What percentage were Subcontinent?
None. White and Black. Maybe one or two Hispanic.
Yes, thank you both. I’ll stow our extra levothyroxin in the fridge. And will continue keeping the insulin in the fridge – the “best by” dates on both kinds seem to run two years out from when we fill the prescription. I am grateful that they make us buy 5 pens of Lantus at a time, because that helps assure a good supply. I am trying to refill as early as the insurance will allow, to eventually work up to a year’s supply.
I also have a year’s worth of the needles (shortest we can get) and tester strips on hand, along with an extra little tester machine of Paul’s favorite kind. We also have three other tester machines plus strips of brands we hated. The Easy Touch will work on a teensy pinhead drop of blood, and you don’t have to hold it at a precise angle either. We pay for them ourselves from Amazon, because our pharmacy doesn’t carry the brand and it’s worth it to us to have what we prefer.
“Houston faces a Stage 2 flood alert beginning Sunday evening”
https://spacecityweather.com/houston-faces-a-stage-2-flood-alert-beginning-sunday-evening/
Wow, seems a little early …
We are suppose to get an half inch to an inch of rain each day of next week here in the sticks.
https://www.wunderground.com/forecast/us/tx/richmond?cm_ven=localwx_10day
Interesting. The containment of Alpha would most likely not have worked if testing costs that much. Both testing and vaccination in Oz are free of charge. Testing is key for tracing locations and spread.
And I can claim to be the rightful king of Scotland. Doesn’t make it so.
King MacSteve the First. Probably would earn a nickname, like “Black Steve” or “Steve the Impaler”
“I took their $50 fifteen minute test “Sofia SARS Antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay (FIA)” test and it was negative after her assistant stuck two ten inch cotton swabs up my nostrils to the back of my skull. She claims 97% accuracy.”
Interesting. The containment of Alpha would most likely not have worked if testing costs that much. Both testing and vaccination in Oz are free of charge. Testing is key for tracing locations and spread.
Initially, the testing costs were much higher, but the governments ate the expense.
The PCR test is only certified through the end of the year.
“Cryoburn (Vorkosigan Saga)” by Lois McMaster Bujold
https://www.amazon.com/Cryoburn-Vorkosigan-Saga-McMaster-Bujold/dp/1451637500/?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number seventeen (in chronological order) of an eighteen book space opera series. However, some people call this a military science fiction series. There are several other books and short stories in the Vorkosigan Universe. This series won the Hugo and Nebula awards for best series in 2017. Also, several of the individual books in the series have either won awards or been nominated for awards. This book was nominated for the 2011 Locus awards for best novel. This is my second reading of this book. I reread the well printed and well bound new MMPB published by Baen in 2011 that I just rebought on Amazon (the second printing !). I have rebought the rest of the books in the series in MMPB.
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan on the planet Kibou-daini, investigating the planet wide industry of freezing people for diseases, accidents, or just plain getting old. The cryogenics industry is trying to spread into the Barrayar Empire, specifically the planet Komarr. But as usual, all is not what it seems.
BTW, at the end of the novel is a sad note of 100 words. Do not miss it.
Vorkosigan Saga (Chronological) by Lois McMaster Bujold
https://www.goodreads.com/series/98254-vorkosigan-saga-chronological
1. Dreamweaver’s Dilemma
2. Falling Free
3. Shards of Honor
4. Barrayar
5. The Warrior’s Apprentice
6. The Borders of Infinity (The Mountains of Mourning, etc)
7. The Vor Game
8. Cetaganda
9. Ethan Of Athos
10. Brothers in Arms
11. Mirror Dance
12. Memory
13. Komarr
14. A Civil Campaign
15. Diplomatic Immunity
16. Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
17. CryoBurn
18. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (616 reviews)
“Has a Cyberstalker Taken Over Your Life? Here’s How to Get It Back”
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/has-a-cyberstalker-taken-over-your-life-heres-how-to-get-it-back
“Someone gained complete control over your computers and smartphones and now they’re making your digital life a nightmare. When a stalker gets their hooks in that deep, escape is difficult, but we can help.”
Wow !
“I took their $50 fifteen minute test “Sofia SARS Antigen Fluorescent Immunoassay (FIA)” test and it was negative after her assistant stuck two ten inch cotton swabs up my nostrils to the back of my skull. She claims 97% accuracy.”
Interesting. The containment of Alpha would most likely not have worked if testing costs that much. Both testing and vaccination in Oz are free of charge. Testing is key for tracing locations and spread.
Initially, the testing costs were much higher, but the governments ate the expense.
The PCR test is only certified through the end of the year.
Reputedly, all of the chemicals for the PCR tests were made by post-docs at the CDC. Some batches were real good, some batches were not.
I cannot remember where I read that, if it was here, I apologize.
And I can claim to be the rightful king of Scotland. Doesn’t make it so.
King MacSteve the First. Probably would earn a nickname, like “Black Steve” or “Steve the Impaler”
The most famous of history makers were all a single name with a describer such as “SteveF the First”. “SteveF the Impaler” works well also.
“Biggest takeaway from pandemic lockdowns for Microsoft? Teams stopped talking to each other”
https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/09/microsoft_crossteam_conversations/
“Using data gathered from circa 61,000 Microsoft employees in the US between December 2019 to June 2020, the study shows that company-wide remote work caused the collaboration network to become more static and siloed: people were less likely to communicate with those outside their immediate business teams compared with when they spent time in the office.”
I am not surprised. Developing software is hard. Doing so in a remote box is even harder.
“Biggest takeaway from pandemic lockdowns for Microsoft? Teams stopped talking to each other”
I am not surprised. Developing software is hard. Doing so in a remote box is even harder.
Microsoft Teams makes it easier for HR departments to monitor all employee communications and pull transcripts to use in firing people. All voice conversations are transcribed whether or not users turn on the captioning. Big brother is watching so employees use phones since even a company cell phone carries some expectation of privacy where Teams does not. Even a company email exchange carries more right to privacy than Teams.
Slack has fallen out of favor because the company considers the conversations to be their property. When the price is free …
Zoom does not have transcription or their own cloud network for storage of mass quantities of data like Microsoft does with Azure.
@Lynn
from the cyberstalker article:
“In the modern world, data lives in the cloud. ”
Only idiots expect that anything in the cloud is private. Apple has already given the ChiComs the keys, along with office space in their building in China. The minute VeggieBiden’s puppeteers decide to make him issue the demand, Tim Cook and the rest will be putting their pink behinds in the air.
Not having a cloud account will get you flagged. Get a cloud account. Take a million photos of scenery, side views of cars (sans plates), interesting bricks, rocks, peoples shoes. Strip the metadata. Shuffle them in random order. Upload them a few thousand at a time with file creation dates the day of the upload. Go in on an irregular basis and delete a few or a bunch. Give the file sniffers something to do.
ADDED: Taking a million photos takes too long. Faster to code a few photoslop filters. A “french window” with 100 panes and mullions of varying widths to make edge-matching difficult shouldn’t be too hard.
@Lynn
“We desperately need a new constitutional amendment with a right to privacy. Of course, these swamp rats are blowing up everything given to us by the tenth amendment. If only SCOTUS would do their job. After all, the Roe V. Wade SCOTUS found a right to privacy in the USA Constitution.”
The famous invisible object that created the penumbra.
The only way we get that into the constitution is to have a new constitution.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2021/09/universal-vaccines-nope.php
An unusually high number compared to the other groups–might be a fluke.
“But why isn’t there also an accommodation for people who’ve had COVID and can prove it via an antibody test?”
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/09/10/desantis-on-bidens-new-vaccine-mandate-what-about-people-with-natural-immunity-n415096
Tears the ass right out of the “science” argument.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/09/desperate_dems_disgracing_themselves_in_afghanistan_fiasco_coverup_efforts.html
The best quote in the article:
“Ask Jimmy Carter what a bunch of American hostages can do to a presidency.”
“But why isn’t there also an accommodation for people who’ve had COVID and can prove it via an antibody test?”
Tears the ass right out of the “science” argument.
Doesn’t matter. Florida’s new weekly case numbers have turned the corner, down 1/3 from the peak last month, and the media hates DeSantis.
Plus, OSHA hasn’t written the rules yet.
2024 is being fought now.
@Greg Norton
“Doesn’t matter.”
Disagree. It fundamentally changes the basis for litigation and makes it very likely that a court will issue a restraining order based on the likelihood that lack of an exception based on sound science will invalidate mandatory vaccination on constitutional grounds.
It ain’t all about Florida, and it ain’t all about 2024.
[…trying to work around a 500 error…]
[…ignore…]
Don’t live in northern Idaho if you plan to get really sick . . .
Of course, in a military field hospital they just called it triage.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/08/idaho-crisis-standards-of-care-covid-coronavirus
As @Greg has said, now that ‘summer is over’ the C-suites will roll out their vaxx plans and worry about the court fights later. Hey, at least you still get to pick right or left arm.
Drudge is running a picture of somebody jumping off one of the twin towers on his main page:
https://drudgereport.com/
Will the Amish take over America? 😀
Disagree. It fundamentally changes the basis for litigation and makes it very likely that a court will issue a restraining order based on the likelihood that lack of an exception based on sound science will invalidate mandatory vaccination on constitutional grounds.
As @Greg has said, now that ‘summer is over’ the C-suites will roll out their vaxx plans and worry about the court fights later. Hey, at least you still get to pick right or left arm.
I remember taking the polio in a sugar cube and the smallpox with an air gun ??? in 5th grade at Lake Jackson Elementary in 1970. I do not remember being asked if I wanted to get the vaccines. I am fairly sure that both were mandatory. They had the entire 5th grade lined up in the parking lot which I am fairly sure would be pooh-poohed nowadays.
Keeping in mind, those were dreaded diseases that went thru the schools like the reaper’s scythe…
If we had an ebola outbreak in Houston, I’ll be looking for the shot.
n
“Joe Biden Announces Civil War”
https://babylonbee.com/news/joe-biden-announces-civil-war
“U.S.—In a stirring address to the country today, Biden has announced a new Civil War.
“Look, folks—here’s the deal. For real this time. No joke. The words on the screen I’m supposed to read are saying that we’re gonna force millions of people to get vaccinated against their will. Gotta do it folks,” said Biden as he read off the teleprompter. “To enforce this, we’re just gonna have ourselves a little Civil War. It’s been a while since we had one of those. Let’s just fight it out until all the unvaccinated people are dead or we’re all dead which will stop the spread of COVID. Win-win, folks.”
Biden assured the American people they will lose the upcoming Civil War as they don’t have any F-15’s or nukes. Any unvaccinated Americans who survive will be sent to special camps where they will learn the importance of getting vaccinated.”
Some days the Bee gets closer to the truth than they meant to be.
Disagree. It fundamentally changes the basis for litigation and makes it very likely that a court will issue a restraining order based on the likelihood that lack of an exception based on sound science will invalidate mandatory vaccination on constitutional grounds.
It ain’t all about Florida, and it ain’t all about 2024.
I should have been more clear that it doesn’t matter *to the media* since they hate DeSantis and know he is probably safe for reelection, allowing focus to shift to issues relevant to 2024.