Damp and cool. Possibly sunny, possibly rainy. Possibly both. Although not necessarily in the same place. Weather. Witchdoctors have better prediction skills.
Got some of my stuff done. It was overcast and damp most of the afternoon and evening. I put up a few more decorations but got side tracked looking for one. I hate not being able to find stuff. I was thinking it was in a bin, but after talking through the problem with my passing neighbor, I realized it was in a bucket. And after looking around, I believe I might have taken the bucket to my secondary thinking it was food.
Oh well. Plans. I got ’em. Just don’t get to do them.
Today I’m headed back to my client’s house. I’ve got a buddy joining me to hang the TVs and projector that I don’t like to do alone. If I have time I’ll poke at the networking some more. Otherwise, it’s a short day so I can pick up D2. Maybe we’ll put up some more Christmas decorations together.
————————————————————————
There are some people in the blogosphere that see glimmers of hope for sensible and freedom loving people. I think it doesn’t matter. There is too much momentum built up and this will need to play out. Some small push back here and there isn’t going to ‘right the ship of state.’ The thieves are still in control of government and culture. And the world is bigger than America. Lots of indications that the rest of the world is still going authoritarian and jackboot.
All that will mean even more violence, even more disruption, even more extremism. It’ll be a good time to hunker down for a while, pull in, and save what you can. Put the ‘conserve’ in ‘conservative.’
And stack it. Stack it high and deep. (and don’t forget the rat poison.)
nick
Brad, re your snowblower, if you think you'll be using it for years (because it works, you like it, and you think the motor and impeller will last) you might want to pick up spare batteries now despite the cost. There's a chance they'll be hard to find in a couple of years because they've been redesigned. I don't know it for sure, of course, but I can't help but notice that belts and filters other consumbles for durable consumer goods are hard to find after five years or so.
Which was exactly why it was targetted for the Somali invasion during the Obuttsuck years.
More than that. The genius planners seem to think that all of the existing wind farms and all of the newly-built wind farms will last at least until 2050. Evidence suggests that this will not be the case.
73F and 94%RH this am. That's 'warm' and damp. Yuck. Any movement outdoors starts the sweating.
n
@SteveF: You definitely have a point. And it would be nice to have a second, fully-charged set ready. Hmmm…
Apropos of nothing: I marvel at animals. The dog want to go play frisbee in the snow. Before we go out, I have to put shoes on. And glove. And a jacket. He just goes out, barefoot, dressed like always. Doesn't matter that's it's way below freezing.
Humans are such wimps. My wife is convinced that our wimpiness is what drives human inventiveness and civilization.
How about a new 3.6GW nuclear plant every month? More realistic, and they actually do last for decades…
@JimB: Your comments are well taken.
The system is basically a standard broadcast system, in fact, much simpler. I am only using an ATEM 1 rather than ATEM 2 with super source used by most TV stations. There are four cameras, two downstream keyers for lower thirds, upstream keyers used with Chromakey to overlay text. Graphics computer is pre-programmed with the operator only required to go to the next step in the program at the correct time.
Future plans called for a new video card with 5 SDI outputs to allow different displays on different sanctuary displays. Only two would be used. The complication was the use of new software, Pro Presenter. Easy to operate when program, difficult to program properly. A significant learning curve. My replacement that is leaving tried Pro Presenter and found out quickly that the volunteers are not capable of operating the software.
He works with people that have chosen TV production as career choice and thus are more motivated. Dealing with church volunteers in an entirely different scenario. Technical ability is generally not their strong suite.
Exactly. A year before I retired I was constantly pushing to find someone that could take over my role. I needed backup, badly. I needed to take Sunday's off. I needed someone that could solve problems. That "proverbial bus" could arrive anytime. My pleas were acknowledged, but ignored I think.
In that I will disagree. There are people who operate much more complicated systems. The problem is finding someone that will do the job for low compensation. People with the skill set want a full time position with benefits. There is not enough to be done to justify a full time position.
There are generally multiple people involved. Many of the steps are automated. A single button push mutes multiple microphones, unmutes others. Lights are the same way. Simple button pushes where the lights are controlled by pre-recorded macros. Light controllers and sound boards have become sophisticated computer systems
There is also a director calling out commands to the various people telling the next step, getting it prepped, then issuing the command to others to make it happen.
I took a tour of QVC. There is one person at the console. That person controls the camera switching and also the camera movements as all the cameras are remote controlled. The person only sits at the console for two hours a day as the job is so stressful and demanding. That takes a special kind of person.
Tin foil underwear as my wife says I sit on my brain and talk out of my ass. Personally, I think it sounds more like snoring.
I went to that link and it seems targeted towards people and organizations that use Amazon Web Services. Transcripts of phone calls and other contacts. I found nothing that allowed me to find what Amazon collected from my Echo Dot.
Two organizations that make a lot of money off data, Amazon and Google., my data, other's data. Neither can be fully trusted. When caught they just go "Oops, it was a configuration error". Facebook pulls the same crap although their revenue is ad-driven based on data from other sites.
30 years in a marine environment. Does Tony Blair know something about materials science that we don't?
I would settle for a 1.21 gigawatt reactor in my backyard. And a DeLorean.
QVC in St. Petersburg, the former Home Shopping Network?
The original crews probably learned the trade at the Vision Cable of Pinellas monthly public access studio "how to" classes.
It was in Pennsylvania. I don't remember the name of the town. This was in about 2008. Interesting tour seeing the sets and getting to watch a live broadcast. Hosts are basically speaking to a camera and nothing else. Lots of background operation with information from others displaying on screens only the host can see. Information on number sold, comments from others. Slick operation. Huge directors switching console.
Thirty years? Where did you get that, Greg? That might be the maximum lifespan of the blades before the salt air eats them, but the service lifetime of a commercial wind turbine is usually given as 20-25 years. And that's not with 100% use, as there's maintenance downtime and things just breaking or failing. Probably 20 years is optimistic on the ocean.
We have several rows of turbines in the mountains around here. One row of seven in southern Vermont, which I pass several times every winter, has never had more than two spinning even on breezy days. I was to guess, I'd guess that five of them have seized bearings or something and haven't been fixed because they don't bring in enough money to be worth it. Others, in the Massachusetts Berkshires and elsewhere, are similar.
Never forget that the sports writers lean left too. As a group, they've wanted Antonio Brown not only fired but humiliated for over a year.
I'm guessing the Yucs keep him on the payroll to finish out the season and get another ring, enhancing his value in free agency. In another year this jab hysteria is going to look like the ultimate stupidity.
Like when Brown is in Miami next year.
https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/12/06/ravens-steelers-nfl-week-13-fmia-peter-king
A danger to the Yucs story cred building towards the Super Bowl? Nah.
King also digs deep for an angle on last week’s shooting, and I don’t remember a column from him mentioning New Orleans without the word Katrina in 16 years.
Funny — no metion of Gronkowski proving he’s back to form yesterday.
@Nick
Glad others do that stuff, too.
Off-shore wind farms.
Great location to keep energy generating assets safe. Wouldn’t take more than two Iranians and a rowboat.
TVA installed 8 or 9 wind turbines on a mountain close to where I live. Made a big production out of the installation, made certain news crews were on hand, live reporting and all that fluff. The town where I live made TVA post a huge bond in case the transport of the blades caused any damage to the roads. That was also on the news.
Fast forward 10 years. Hardly a day goes by where any windmill is actually spinning. Even on high wind days in the dead of summer. If any are working it is usually only two, at tops three. I have no idea why. As has been stated, I suspect the machine is broken and TVA cannot afford to fix the machine. The repair cost does not justify the limited power production.
As has been stated many times, the cost of the machines, the significant maintenance cost, end of service costs, etc. the machines are simply not cost effective, by several factors. They are nothing more than "feel good" items for public opinion.
The ultimate solution is small nuclear reactors. Passive safety systems. Passive cooling systems. Common design that can be quickly and (relatively) cheaply manufactured. Underground if necessary so out of sight. Generally little operator supervision other than monitoring.
Solar is not enough, wind is not enough, storage is not enough. There are more risks in massive battery banks than in the newest reactor designs.
There's a not-quite-a-joke asking if your electric car is still environmentally friendly after the battery catches fire. The same goes for the whole-house battery burning the house down.
Drive south along I69 in Texas, from Corpus Christi to the border, and you'll see dozens of idle Siemens windmills, including one which looks like it was struck by lightning, sitting in the middle of productive farmland. The word "boondoggle" immediately springs to mind.
I imagine that some massve concrete pour is underneath each windmill. How much crop land does each one of those pads consume in what I assume is a very permanent way?
It goes much beyond the loss of crop land. I have been in an area of Germany where wind turbines are very common. Germany pays the farmer to put up the turbine, the farmer owns the turbine and sells the power to the German electric grid. These nice scenic views of the country are spoiled by the massive white towers and the blades. The greenies never talk about the decimation of the scenic views. Every one of those greenies would be massively upset if the view from their kitchen window consisted of wind turbines. NIMBYs, everyone of them.
I seem to recall that when one of the early offshore wind farms was decommissioned, at about 25 years of operation, it was established that it ran at an overall average of 4% of nameplate capacity.
In other words, at a net loss.
A farm near where I grew up has been turned over to solar panels, still being installed even as we speak. Fifteen or twenty acres, it looks like from the road, which used to grow corn and will no longer. This is the mountains in upstate NY, not exactly a prime spot for sun. This solar farm joins ten acres a mile away which was turned over to solar panels some years ago.
No problem, Ed. They're looking to make it up in volume.
When I traveled to Ely NV to operate the steam locomotive I flew into Las Vegas, closest airport. On the drive to Ely I saw a massive solar farm with mirrors reflecting the sun onto collector at the top of tall tower. It was extremely bright at the top of the tower.
My first reaction is that the bright spot must be an awesome sight at night but very distracting for freeway drivers.
If the newly built windmills are supposed to last until 2050, that's 30 years.
Legacy QVC.
HSN was a pretty primitive operation at first, based in several facilities in Clearwater, FL, not far from where I grew up. I can drive you to the first studio, but you would never believe me that is where the company started. MAC Papers runs a sales office there now.
"Tootie" was developed by the Precision Systems Inc. subsidiary in the early 1990s, during the period when most of the local DoD contractors were shedding most of the staff and developer talent was inexpensive … and desperate.
I have friends who still tell stories about working there, PSI rolling in the cots and cutting the number of meals to boost productivity at times.
Sure, you aren't going to see the Windmills in places like Pine Island Sound in Florida or off the coast of Nantucket.
It's not just a governmental thing. It's all bureaucracies. The canonical example used to be the March of Dimes. Originally formed to raise money to find a polio vaccine, they pivoted to birth defects after that was developed. They had a fundraising apparatus in place and all that infrastructure built, so why dismantle it?
@Greg Norton
700 tons for the current generation, IIRC.
>> You can download and listen to your recorded conversations from Amazon at:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/download-recordings.html/a/em/p?tag=ttgnet-20
That would be only what Amazon will *admit* to recording.
Yeah, those aren't going anywhere. Most of the farmland around the windmills in Texas seems to be cotton, but that has to be rotated out with other crops to avoid depleting the soil.
If you look at satellite imagery of Tampa, between Busch Gardens and my alma matter, you will see exposed chunks of the runway which used to be part of an Army air training base located there during WWII. The runway remnants were a lot more obvious in Google Earth 20 years ago, but they have since been buried under all of the development which has taken place in the area.
The runways are still there, just hidden. And a runway is just a couple yards deep of reinforced concrete IIRC.
>> Drive south along I69 in Texas, from Corpus Christi to the border, and you'll see dozens of idle Siemens windmills, including one which looks like it was struck by lightning, sitting in the middle of productive farmland. The word "boondoggle" immediately springs to mind.
As does the vision of prime steaks, single malt scotch, Dominus cabernet, lovely ladies and plain brown envelopes.
Being something over 46 degrees north, which isn't all that much farther north than NY, I can attest to this. This year, we will have reliable statistics for the Winter (we didn't last year, because a sensor was cocked up). Just the effect from the lower sun and the shorter days: our production drops by 60% as compared to summer. Add to that the fact that there are a lot more cloudy days in Winter, plus snow cover on the solar cells for a few days after a snowfall. Today, thanks to snow cover, we generated 10wh (not 10kwh, but 10 wh).
Geezum. Do the climate fanatics account for that, when figuring how much CO2 a wind farm saves?
Yes, and from there drive down I15 to Daggett, another one there. I did the performance analysis on its steam cycle 45 years ago. Total fraud which was shut down after seveal years. Check Wikipedia.
Hahahahaha. Good one.
No, they don't. A writeup about a single turbine in northern Minnesota (which I read because it was close to me) included "carbon costs" of the blades, the generator, and the tower, but did not include amortized cost of the factory which made the blades, transportation from factory to site (which is not trivial), the concrete, or the transmission lines from the windmill to the high-capacity power grid. It also did not include disposal costs of the blades. Not surprisingly, given all that, the windmill was a strong net positive both in money and dread carbon.
"Humans are such wimps. My wife is convinced that our wimpiness is what drives human inventiveness and civilization."
Plus our lack of a prehensile tail so that we could easily hang from trees or scratch ourselves unobtrusively.
Your wife is a smart lady. I agree with her.
More than that. The genius planners seem to think that all of the existing wind farms and all of the newly-built wind farms will last at least until 2050. Evidence suggests that this will not be the case.
All of the wind mills have gear boxes converting those 300 rpms to 1800 rpms for the generator. Six to one gearboxes transmitting 2,000 to 15,000 hp are high technology with very high tensile metals and severe lubrication requirements (frequent oil changes especially in high temperature situations). We kept entire spare sets of all our gearboxes at TXU since we managed to trash them all the time. I doubt the wind turbine people are keeping many gearbox sets in stock, especially since they probably need to be replaced every five to ten years due to wear. Plus bearings, etc, for those huge blades.
A farm near where I grew up has been turned over to solar panels, still being installed even as we speak. Fifteen or twenty acres, it looks like from the road, which used to grow corn and will no longer. This is the mountains in upstate NY, not exactly a prime spot for sun. This solar farm joins ten acres a mile away which was turned over to solar panels some years ago.
The solar panels are good for about an acre per MW. Many farms in the 150 acre to 300 acre size are being turned into solar farms here in Texas. The going lease rate to the farmers for the land is $1,250 / acre / year. That is actually better than most cash crops and you do not need to till, fertilize, bug spray, harvest, etc.
Being something over 46 degrees north, which isn't all that much farther north than NY, I can attest to this. This year, we will have reliable statistics for the Winter (we didn't last year, because a sensor was cocked up). Just the effect from the lower sun and the shorter days: our production drops by 60% as compared to summer. Add to that the fact that there are a lot more cloudy days in Winter, plus snow cover on the solar cells for a few days after a snowfall. Today, thanks to snow cover, we generated 10wh (not 10kwh, but 10 wh).
You were suppose to get out there with your broom and brush off the snow !
So who supplies the power you need when your solar cannot, the grid ? Not good, intermittent power for the hard times is very expensive. Costs of dollars per kwh are not unusual when the annual capacity factor drops below ten percent, especially when one considers the capital cost over the life of the equipment.
Drive south along I69 in Texas, from Corpus Christi to the border, and you'll see dozens of idle Siemens windmills, including one which looks like it was struck by lightning, sitting in the middle of productive farmland. The word "boondoggle" immediately springs to mind.
Gearbox failure. Very hot with a fuel source, the lubricating oil. Produces a very hot smoky fire that can last up to six hours being fed by the electric oil feed pump from the oil reservoir.
Ours had both AC and DC (battery) oil pumps. We watched one burn for six hours one beautiful spring day as we could not get to the DC oil pump controls due to the fire. There was 8,000+ gallons of lubricating oil in the tank. Smoked up south Dallas (TX) something fierce. All the news helicopters thought it was totally cool. We had a stay indoors alert for over a million people until the next day.
I have a question about anti-vaxxers that claim religous exemptions to mandated vaccinations. What part of which document do they quote?
For example, if someone says that I should not own a firearm, I would quote the second ammendment of tbe USA Constitution. Likewise, would an anti-vaxxer refer to verse John 3:16 in the King James Version of the New Testament or other verse?
@Ray – whenever you wrote about the church broadcast system, it was very complex. Complex to install, understand, and operate. And maybe even to view.
The system we use at our church (and is similar throughout many LDS congregations), is simple.
– OBS software (broadcast control)
– One or two cameras on tripods: one near the pulpit, one at the side or rear of the room. USB webcam types, with long cables running along the floor near the walls. No operators, all go into a USB hub.
– Sound via a .35mm headphone jack connected to the church sound system (already available in most buildings at the 'clerk' desk on the right side of the podium – a standard building design)
– Output from the laptop computer running OSB via wired CAT6 system to the building switch/firewall, optionally via the building wi-fi network.
– Broadcast via Zoom (webcast setting, no interaction).
You could set up alternate viewing monitors with smart TVs that have the Zoom app installed.
Simple system, simple to set up and operate by one person sitting at the notebook computer running OSB. No camera operators – they all are fixed locations.
Works just fine. Not fancy. Just works.
I didn't get to see the text of the exemption filed by one of my guys. He told me he based his objection on the vaccine being developed with aborted fetal stem cells. I know of at least one other in our company that used this (and succeeded). There have been a fair number of exemptions granted to the mandate in our company. I have another guy who got one based on medical conditions. He got covid last month and had to be hospitalized. His doc advises against getting it for a for months.
It was complex to install with a couple hundred connections and maybe close to 100 cables. Documentation exists that maps each connection and each cable is labeled on each end of the where the other end goes. A dozen convertors because broadcast video runs a 59.94 frames per second, computers at 60 frames per second and the TV monitors requiring 60 frames per second. Minor upgrades over time with most of those making it easier. The entire system is well documented.
Relative to many churches ours is complex. Relative to a couple of other churches I know, ours is simple. I know a few churches running a full ATEM 2 video switcher with super source. That is basically two switchers combined. One church runs an ATEM 4 (four switchers) with eight cameras and three graphic systems. That is a whole new level of complexity.
We want on-screen graphics for scriptures, sermon notes. We want lower thirds graphics for identification and peoples names. We want constant on-screen logo because we broadcast and stream. We need to have outputs to the screens that do not contain lower thirds but require the on-screen graphics. We need to feed the balcony confidence monitors a separate image for pastor and choir reference the on-screen graphics without any image.
Operation complex, depends. I find it not so difficult. I think that comes from my computer experience. The other issue is people panic when something is not right or they make a mistake. Usually the panic makes it worse. That is the hardest thing to teach people that were helping me is not to panic. I also find that many people in such a situation are unwilling to think on their own and require step-by-step instructions. Broadcasts sometimes don't work that way and the need exists to react to different situations.
Our leadership, and the members, want a professional looking broadcast. They like camera motion. We have a pastor that is a hiker, moves a lot. We have many different focus points during the broadcast. A simple setup, with unmanned cameras would look very bad or not work.
I watch other local church broadcasts and I cringe. I also look at local TV stations and cringe at their on-site recordings and some of the stuff they do in the studio. Maybe I have been doing this broadcast stuff too long.
Wouldn't the number of connections be equal to twice the number of cables? /quibble
No, because some of the connections are left open. The converters in particular will have multiple inputs and multiple outputs, connections. I count such points without any cables as a connection. The router itself has 80 connections but only about 50 of them are actually used.
Hagar The Horrible: To Be Lunch Or Not To Be Lunch
https://comicskingdom.com/hagar-the-horrible/2021-12-06
Yes, he is very sure of himself.
https://youtu.be/i5IcnXjoF-M
BBC News in 1989, you only need the first couple of minutes. IIRC the news presenter can hear everything from the gallery.
700 tons for the current generation, IIRC.
And concrete is a CO2 generating material.
I wonder how much concrete the new 700+ foot tall 13+ MW wind mills need ?
The wind speed goes up 10 mph for each 20 foot off the ground IIRC.
>> You can download and listen to your recorded conversations from Amazon at:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/connect/latest/adminguide/download-recordings.html
That would be only what Amazon will *admit* to recording.
California requires that you, the consumer, be able to download and listen to any and all recordings inside your house. There is suppose to be an easy way to get them. One couple reported that there was 70,000 recordings of them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/05/06/alexa-has-been-eavesdropping-you-this-whole-time/
The runways are still there, just hidden. And a runway is just a couple yards deep of reinforced concrete IIRC.
Plus three foot of aggregate (gravel, sand, and lime) base material which is the Federal Interstate standard.
Some insights into the world of prosecutorial misconduct…
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/04/opinion/prosecutor-misconduct-new-york-doj.html
@lynn:
And those are only recorded after the "wake word".
Allegedly.
Big River, the Chocolate Factory, FaceCrack et al know far too much about us already. Which is why I refuse to have any "smart" devices in my house.
G.
"U.S. Department of Justice sues Texas over new political maps"
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/06/department-of-justice-texas-political-maps/
"Texas lawmakers illegally discriminated against voters of color by drawing new political districts that give white voters more political power despite rapid growth of Hispanic and Black populations, the department claims in its lawsuit."
I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
"Texas cities weren’t ready for a massive winter storm in February. Has that changed?"
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/12/06/texas-cities-winter-storm/
"Cities have made some preparations in case of another severe winter storm. But keeping the lights and water on is far from guaranteed."
No. Changes like this require several years. And billions of dollars. And the state of Texas has decided that it is not willing to pay for the changes so the power and natural gas industry must. And they are not going to pay for it either, especially since they do not have the money. The markets will not pay for any changes unless the demand is there. And the demand is not there until the middle of the severe winter storm.
"More Police Officers Have Been Shot and Killed This Year Than Any Other Year"
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/police-officers-shot-killed-year-year/
Not good, not good. At some point the officers will start shooting any perceived assailant early.
Big River, the Chocolate Factory, FaceCrack et al know far too much about us already. Which is why I refuse to have any "smart" devices in my house.
Me too. My parents have them all over their house in case Mom falls and Dad is not there. She can yell 911 and Alexa will call for help.
BTW, who is "The Chocolate Factory" ?
It seems they don't want it enough to pay what it takes to get it, though.
"The FTC is suing to block Nvidia’s $40 billion purchase of Arm"
https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/2/22814633/nvidia-arm-purchase-semiconductor-ftc-40-billion-lawsuit-block-deal
"The FTC says the deal would ‘stifle competing next-generation technologies’"
Yup.
@mark w:
AFAIK, the on screen presenters normally don't get open talkback in their earpieces. They normally, with certain honourable exceptions (cough* Frank Bough*cough) get switched talkback, where someone in the gallery has to push a button to communicate.
I mind a programme I was actually involved in transmitting. This was an edition of "Nationwide", an early evening current affairs show, rather than a "news" bulletin, per se. Similar content, though.
Anyway, I was sitting in a telecine channel – one of two involved that day, rather than the usual three. Plus two VT machines. On this particular day, the film running order said, for me in TK8, "Opening titles", followed by "M25", an item about the construction of the London Orbital Motorway of that name. This dates it to about 1980. The programme went to air at 17:55, and I happen to know that the 5 minute item went into the dubbing theatre, to have its sound mixed, at 17:45.
At 17:53, the talkback opens up, "TK8, good evening". Bzzt. (As a telecine or VT operator, you were addressed by your machine number, and your only voice was a buzzer – one buzz for yes, two buzzes for no) "Got any film?" bzzt. bzzt.
Director queries TK9, VT21 and VT22, in turn, in similar vein. They were complete, but it's a bit late to rewrite the running order, so the director sets up a standby title sequence – it's 1 min 15 sec, and it's complex.
At 17:54 (one minute to air) "TK8. Got any film?" bzzt. bzzt. "Right. Standby titles. TJ ("telejector" slide) instead of film, and music from audio tape."
30 seconds later, assistant film editor (nice girl named Adrienne) runs into TK8, with my film reel – pictures and sepmag sound. To do that, she had to run down 3 flights of perforated metal fire escape stairs, in a skirt and high heels.
But, even so, it's 30 seconds to air. You cannot load a Rank Cintel 16mm twin-lens, twin-claw, flying spot telecine, and the associated Westrex sepmag bay, including locking up the selsyn synchroniser, and running down to the start mark, 8 seconds before picture, in 22 seconds.
15 seconds into the show, I'm running – from a point 5 seconds too far from pictures, so my run-up to first frame is about 12 seconds. I cannot fast-forward, Cintel telecines of this vintage cannot run at other than 25 frames/sec, forwards or backwards.
Which means I'll be 35 or more seconds late on cue for "M25". But the standby titles give me time to get through the genuine titles, the first item on my reel.
The titles end, the presenter, Sue Lawley, starts her scripted intro to "M25" – that's 30 seconds or so of words, which she has to stretch to about a minute. And she's doing the latter part of that with the PA in the gallery literally screaming my film leader count, "!2…11…10…9…" into her earpiece. And that count is not seconds, it's 35mm feet, each of 16 frames, so about 2/3 second between numbers.
Sue finished a perfectly coherent ad-lib bang on the zero, and the director must have leaned back and said, "TK8" in vast relief.
The rest of the show was an anticlimax. Afterwards, I put my film on the out shelf, and headed for the bar. When I got there, I was hailed by the Chief Film Editor, who I knew from having maintained the dubbing theatre that he used, and who would have been told by Adrienne that I'd been in TK8, "What're you drinking?"
Happy days.
G.
p.s. sorry about the wall of text.
The "Darth Vader" house in Houston just reputedly sold for around $4 million.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/3201-university-blvd-houston-tx-77005_gallery/3015541
MJ Hegar ("Doors") and her employer didn't receive the Congressional seat in Williamson County as expected.
Until RISC V emerges in at least one major vendor's cell phone, ARM should remain independent.
Geoff, great story. From various youtube videos I've watched of behind the scenes bbc, I'm guessing you were in the basement VT area at TC? I probably watched that edition of Nationwide.
IIRC in the bbc news video I linked above, they state that the newsreader gets open talkbalk. Perhaps only on the news shows? I admire the skill needed to conduct interviews live on air with a second conversation going on in your ear.
Frank Bough lol
"The Hot Gate (Troy Rising)" by John Ringo
https://www.amazon.com/Hot-Gate-Troy-Rising/dp/1451638183/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
Book number three of a three book military science fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Baen Books in 2012, this is the third printing from 2017. I first read this book in 2012 so this is a reread. I bought new MMPBs of the series for this reading since my original books are carefully packed away in the garage.
John Ringo borrowed Howard Taylor's online comic Schlockverse to base this story series on. In fact, Howard Taylor even wrote a forward in the first book. The book is a story of how Schlock Mercenary could have started but is not the official story as there is none.
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/
One day, an alien starship appears in the Solar System dragging a ten kilometer wide stargate. The aliens place the stargate in the Sol-Earth L2 Lagrange point and then give the stunned Earthers a user's manual. They then leave through the stargate. The second set of aliens shows up with a trading ship. The third set of aliens, the Horvath, show up with a military cruiser and demand tribute after dropping rocks on three Earth cities.
In his travels on a Glatun tramp freighter, Tyler Vernon manages to find an Earth product, maple syrup, that allows the Glatun to achieve a good ten minute drunk, a first for them. He wraps up the rights to all of the maple syrup in the USA and builds a solar array for mining asteroids with the proceeds. He convinces the Glatum to run the Horvath out of the Solar System. He uses the solar array to build Troy, a stationary hollow 2.2 trillion ton fort of nickel, almost 10 kilometers in diameter with 1.5 kilometer walls, to guard against further incursions by the Horvath.
Tyler Vernon has added an Orion drive (nuclear bombs against a large plate) to the Troy. The next time that the Rangora attacked through the stargate, the Troy followed them back through the stargate and destroyed or took all the ships and space docks prisoner. Even with the defeats, the Rangora and Horvath still want to take over the Sol System.
This is military scifi of the best order. There are good space aliens, bad space aliens, space ships of all types and sizes, ray guns, artificial intelligences, body modifications, etc… The Universe is a dangerous place and John Ringo aims to prove it by his story-telling.
BTW, in this story, the Solar System is becoming an armed camp of … space junk ? Every time they go for a shuttle drive, they’ve got to be careful to avoid the crap left from the previous invasion / conquer attempts by the Bad Boys of Outer Space ™. Sounds like real life to me.
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (639 reviews)
@mark w:
Nope. I was a telecine man, so my work area was the 1st and 2nd floors of South Hall, behind the lifts, not the VT area under the fountain (which was drained during all my years at TC, because leaks)
Or else a separate area at Lime Grove (where this story is based – Nationwide came from Studio E at LG)
G.
@mark w:
Yes, Frank was under a cloud, due to questionable personal habits, in his later years at Auntie. Doesn't detract from his ability to speak coherently to camera, while simultaneously shunting gallery chatter to storage, and recycling it at suitable moments. This was of particular use on "Grandstand", which he anchored for years, and which also came from Studio E.
G.
California requires that you, the consumer, be able to download and listen to any and all recordings inside your house.
–don't need to do ANY recordings to do keyword monitoring. You don't even need to log the keywords, just log a tally. Plenty of ways around any requirement.
Look at Vizio. They list ad and keyword revenue in their annual report.
The four sony Bravia TVs I hung this morning were all "Google TVs" and had FOUR categories of things they listened to or tracked, for me to check mark. I left ALL the permissions blank (no permission). It's why I don't connect them to the network. TWO mics on the front of the Sonys. They DO tell you about them in the setup, and there was an option to physically switch them off on the big 65".
Beautiful tvs. But sony bit the poison fruit too. You expect it from a low baller like TCL, not so much from Sony.
FWIW, I don't know of any pure monitors that do it, nor any projectors.
n
@markw:
To nail down the geography of Television Centre, look at recent episodes of "Top Gear", not ones recorded at Dunsfold. The links, recorded before an audience, are set up inside the ring at TC. The VT area was under the paving around the statue of Ariel. Main Reception is out-of-shot to the right, behind the camera is an open gap, which allows access to the ring.
South Hall is the all-glazed area in the left background, and Main Telecine was behind the lifts here – 2 people lifts, and a freight lift.
Around the outside of the ring, which was full of offices, there were 8 Studios – TC8 to the right, progressing anti-clockwise around the circumference to TC1 on the left.
I write in the past tense, because, AFAIK, no production happens at TC any more – except the afore-mentioned “Top Gear”, and I left Auntie at the end of 1989.
G.
Geoff, I'm familiar with the general layout having grown up watching various programs from various parts of TC. I've never been there. I understand it's apartments now. From what I remember reading, the south entrance still exists along with a couple of the studios. Your TC area may be someone's apartment now.
Have you seen this? https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5096378,-0.2262268,2a,75y,214.46h,76.14t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5K1VCxfbEJsumNmWyVgR4g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
@Geoff, Great Wall of Text! I really enjoyed it.
We never had such chaos in live news during my time at WXYZ-TV Detroit, one of the five ABC owned stations in 1964-65. That’s probably because we didn’t attempt the kind of up-to-the-minute reporting. Our on-scene reporting was still done on film, which required more advance preparation and logistics. We were just getting remote live video capability, but it was just after I left.
We did have one massive live extravaganza, the unlimited hydroplane races on the Detroit river on Independence Day weekend. About every other year they were the Gold Cup races, a big deal. That had something like thirteen cameras (maybe the most of any local station in the day,) and they were on two sides of the river as well as on a boat. All this was brought together in a single trailer studio. The director was a crazy man, who went berserk at the start and probably collapsed at the end. We tolerated him because he actually managed to do everything mostly right, but it was no picnic. Of course, none of this drama ever showed to the public. For me, it was very good money, and I wouldn’t have missed it. My job was setup, maintenance during, and teardown. I was way too junior to be trusted running camera or audio on such an important show, and I agreed. Some engineers were brought in from New York for that weekend.
The only thing that came close was baseball, football, and basketball, but we didn’t have those franchises. They were permanent setups, and game after game meant they were pretty routine. Still a lot of work I would have been happy to do.
I really do emphasize how well tempered we were. Everything was well staffed with good people, great equipment, and lots of pride in the work. The best place I ever worked. I considered making it a career after I was out of school for five years, but didn’t. Glad I didn’t, because it would have kept me in a part of the country I didn’t like. I made the right decision. Sometimes right decisions are not the easiest, but I had fun while it lasted.
Almost all music tours are carrying the equivalent of a tv production studio these days. It used to take up a huge amount of space onstage, but a lot of it is in computers these days. Control surfaces are much smaller too.
Lighting is adding back physical buttons and sliders, audio is getting rid of them, and I don't have a feel for what the vidiots are doing for control but lighting is doing a lot of video control once things are nailed down.
My background training is in live theater and live event production. The video part used to be ancillary to the rest, now video content drives the show, and if it doesn't look good on a smartphone, the LD has not done his job. Fortunately smartphone cameras keep getting better, and colors an brightness levels look pretty good to both eye and camera now.
Used to be you had to look thru the camera (or at a monitor) to have any idea at all how something would look to the tv audience. Cams are so good that you can kinda sorta just light by eye if you have enough experience to mentally adjust. The studio lighting class I took after years of lighting theater was a literal eye opener.
n
Have you seen this? https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5096378,-0.2262268,2a,75y,214.46h,76.14t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s5K1VCxfbEJsumNmWyVgR4g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
I enjoy looking at maps. Didn’t know Google showed interiors. Recursed up to the locale map, and saw some familiar sights from our one trip to London, but we didn’t get to Television Centre.
hah, I had 4 nigerian scam spams in my mailbox. been a while.
n
Jussie Smollett took the stand today in his own defense.
Testifies his face is very important. He looks like a black Cary Grant…
Lotsa competition today, so it only got a 5 on the ChuckleMeter.
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2021/12/06/jussie-smollett-takes-the-stand-after-defense-attorney-claims-judge-lunged-at-her-n433535
The former Nickelodeon studios in Orlando have the capability to store the lighting configuration for automatic reconfiguration when the production teams come back a year later to make another season of a particular show..We took a tour and got a demonstration on the set of "Clarissa Explains It All" not long after the facility opened.
Yeah, that was a long time ago. I imagine the systems are more advanced now.
The former studios are urbex favorites. Even though new tenants have been through since Viacom pulled production from Universal following the NBC merger, the Nickelodeon artwork still appears in the hallways.
@mark w:
Yes, that's South Hall, at 2nd Floor level. Main Telecine entrance was behind the lift block. Pity you can't get behind the lifts.
Most of the machines at this level – 9 of them, a mixture of 5no 35mm twin lens, and 3no 16mm twin lens, with 1no 16mm polygon, were used for live-to-air transmission in my day. The First Floor had a varying number of machines, which mostly did studio insert work, and transfers to VT.
And all machines were watched by someone who adjusted the colour on-the-fly – a process we called TARIFing. The acronym was officially expanded as "Television Apparatus for the Rectification of Indifferent Film", but unofficially it was "Tony's Apparatus…" after the designer.
The adjustments were made with a pair of joysticks – 3-axis ones, Master Lift (Pedestal) and differential Gamma on the right stick, and Master and differential Gain on the left stick. There was no differential lift (it was not found useful) and master gamma was variously a switch (0.4/0.3) or a true potentiometer (allowing gamma of about 0.25 to 0.8 to be set), depending on which machine you were controlling.
We telecine operators were all capable of TARIFing, to some degree (engineers in the Television Service were all tested for normal colour vision (an Ishihara test) upon recruitment) but more senior staff did a lot more of it.
G.
@Lynn
Just to be clear:
When cement is produced, limestone is heated to high temperature generating carbon dioxide:
CaCO3 –>CaO +CO2
Thus the production of cement is a very CO2 producing process, even though the CO2 itself was absorbed from the atmosphere millions of years ago.
The chemistry is complex, but the easy way to think of it is that when the cement is used to make concrete, the process begins to reverse–slowly–and the concrete absorbs CO2.
The cement in concrete absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, which is a large part of the reason that old concrete keeps getting tougher over a period of years. The reaction proceeds very slowly through the cross-section of the pour, increasing density and hardness, and can be tracked easily by testing the surface pH of core samples.
Note that this process absorbed enough CO2 during the Biosphere II experiment that the internal atmosphere balance crashed, crops died, and they had to pump CO2 into the sealed dome.
There are "green" concrete processes that add CO2 to accelerate the cure of precast. Not economically viable, but helps the rich turn their money over.
Today: "Unemployment Rate Among Cuomo Brothers Has Risen To 100%" –Babylon Bee
Tomorrow: Working on the Incarceration Rate.
Sam's run today since we were busy all weekend and I'm temporarily unemployed.
All name brand TP and paper towels gone. Member's Choice only, limited to 1 of each.
Chicken thighs and drumsticks $0.99/lb. Sirloins $7.99/lb, down from $9.99 a few weeks ago.
*Lots* of Members Mark jars/cans of various types of nuts in the snack area, at least at our store.
Sam's run today since we were busy all weekend and I'm temporarily unemployed.
All name brand TP and paper towels gone. Member's Choice only, limited to 1 of each.
Chicken thighs and drumsticks $0.99/lb. Sirloins $7.99/lb, down from $9.99 a few weeks ago.
*Lots* of Members Mark jars/cans of various types of nuts in the snack area, at least at our store.
I got a Bounty paper towels and a Charmin Blue at my Sam's Club Saturday. Lots and lots of paper towels (many brands) but very little Charmin Blue (there was 5 or 6 left after me).
The rest of SC was full of stuff but I did not buy any food other than Clementines (Cuties).
Like Lynn, Ireally enjoyed the Ringo "Troy Rising" series. Re-read them a couple of times. Not "literature" but good fun,
I think of them as the "Maple syrup wars" books.
n
Like Lynn, Ireally enjoyed the Ringo "Troy Rising" series. Re-read them a couple of times. Not "literature" but good fun,
I think of them as the "Maple syrup wars" books.
n
When I first read the Troy Rising series, I rated them 4 out of 5 stars each. I changed that rating for each book to 5 out of 5 stars. First, any book that I reread, and finish, I jump to five stars. Second, the trilogy is simply amazing on a 2nd reading. The detail and story line development are awesome and just plain enjoyable. I mean, why not build a 2.2 trillion ton fort with mile thick walls in space ?
And yes, I do have about twenty 6 star books. I am reading one of those right now.
What the heck is “literature” ?
I picked up a mystery a couple weeks ago. Back cover made it sound interesting. Read ten pages and closed it. Night before last I opened it to a random midway page. Closed it again.
One star. Author doesn't deserve a mention that might be interpreted as a search hit.
Don't have any uneven tables. Books are terrible fire starters. It's going out somehow, just not sure how.
"What the heck is “literature” ?"
Get the reading lists from your local university English department. Those most likely ain't.
I've used a working definition for some time: Must be works of authors that authors I read and respect have recommended:
William Shakespeare. Mark Twain. Charles Dickens. John Stuart Mills. Adam Smith. John Locke. Ernest Hemingway. Dashiell Hammett. Charles Schultz. James Herriott. Lennon and McCartney.
drwilliams, jails can always use books to keep the inmates occupied. If this is a truly wretched book and you also think that prisoners need to be punished more harshly, donate it to a local jail.
Not joking about the first part, actually. Paperbacks, both fiction and non-, are always welcome.
AT&T is claiming that they can put a 100 mbps 5G wireless router at my business for $225/month with no contract. Has anyone gotten a consistent performance out of 5G ? "AT&T starts offering 5G fixed wireless for business customers"
https://www.fiercewireless.com/operators/at-t-starts-offering-5g-fixed-wireless-for-business-customers
Tomorrow will be the 80 year anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
@SteveF
Great suggestion.
As it so happens, I once worked in a historical building (built ca 1890) that is now a jail.
"What the heck is “literature” ?"
Get the reading lists from your local university English department. Those most likely ain't.
I've used a working definition for some time: Must be works of authors that authors I read and respect have recommended:
William Shakespeare. Mark Twain. Charles Dickens. John Stuart Mills. Adam Smith. John Locke. Ernest Hemingway. Dashiell Hammett. Charles Schultz. James Herriott. Lennon and McCartney.
Meh.
There is a John Locke in "Lost".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke_(Lost)
Lennon and McCartney wrote great poems. Not aware of any Literature they wrote.
I tried to read “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” once. Gave up somewhere in it. Loved “Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer”.
@Lynn
Lennon and McCartney are simply metaphors for the existentialist handwringing that populates most modern lists. "I am the walrus" is a superior formulation and elegantly compact, although "Koo-koo ka choo" is a bit wordy and unnecessary.
Heinlein would have tossed this shiite as too nutty for The Crazy Years:
These universities are paying for menstrual products in men's bathrooms
The trend is also prominent among Ivy League universities. [OF COURSE!]
Cornell began supplying menstrual products to all bathrooms in 2020. To show gender neutrality, these baskets were originally labeled “mxnstrual” products.
However, the program now recognizes that the “men” in menstrual is not indicative of gender and will be changing the labels.
https://campusreform.org/article?id=18529
Ivy League. Went from requiring Latin and Greek to mimeographing quarter million dollar degrees in turd-sifting.
https://www.etymonline.com/word/menstruation
Of course, how could they not pay for the products in men's bathrooms too.
It would be too niggardly.
>> Sam's run today
Was in Costco on Friday and it wasn't 'three weeks til Christmas' crowded, actually not really 'average Friday' crowded. One other thing that stood out was very few people in line with the big flat carts piled up.
Some reason people are not buying as much?
They did though have plenty of Charmin Blue.
@drwilliams,
given the lack of pulchritude, it's harder to discriminate visually these days. We are entering stygian times.
n
And now to sleep, perchance to dream…
n
@drwilliams,
given the lack of pulchritude, it's harder to discriminate visually these days. We are entering stygian times.
n
We've been there since 2008. Probably before that. Maybe since Social Security was created in 1935 according to some people. Maybe since the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913 according to Ron Paul.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
NOT in chair!!
"Taking Viagra cuts the risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 69% and it could be prescribed to beat dementia, study suggests"
https://www.the-sun.com/health/4216281/viagra-cuts-risk-alzheimers-prescribed-beat-dementia/
"Scientists claim the love drug may help boost brain health and cut levels of toxic proteins that trigger dementia."
"Experts analysed data on 7.2 million U.S. adults and found regular users had a 69 per cent lower chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s over the next six years."
Would you ?
More of my female relatives have had dementia than my male relatives. Should women be taking Viagra also ?
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Menstruate -> Womenstruate -> Wopersonstruate -> Woperdaughterstruate
Dementia -> … -> Deperdaughtertia
We can fix the language, if we only try. /s
@MrAtoz
Induction cooker was a great idea I hadn't considered. When you mentioned it I asked Google which was more efficient, a microwave or induction cooker. It cited this article in which some guy came up with the same experiment I would have. Guess what? Induction cooker wins!
http://insideenergy.org/2016/02/23/boiling-water-ieq/
@Geoff
Why a "two pen'orth" when a ha'penny will do?
Can't believe I've never seen _Shameless _ before. I'm watching it now and the beauty of writing wore off after the second season, but I'm giving a shot at the third.
~jim
To sleep, perchance to rub, aye! there's the dream.