Cold again, clear, sunny, but cold. 36F when I went to bed, and not expected to freeze, but that is ‘see your breath’ weather for sure. I know, some of you are laughing right now. I’VE got the clothes and accessories for it, but a lot of people don’t. Not that I care all that much about them, they can prep too. It gets cold often enough here that a wind proof shell and a couple of layers should be in everyone’s closet.
I spent most of yesterday working at my desk trying to find money in shoeboxes. Not literal cash money, but stuff to send to auction. Found a bunch too. I checked a couple of spot prices on ebay and I don’t think I’ll get as much as I first thought, unless the auction brings better than ebay prices, but you never know.
Today the plan is to head out to my client’s house and clean up some outstanding issues before the programmer comes back down Wednesday or Thursday. It won’t be a super early start for me, as I have to make a pickup on the way, and I’d like to move some stuff to storage before I head out. We’ll see about that.
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Speaking of moving stuff around, one of the things I did in the beginning of the wuflu response was to bring a bunch of long term disaster items home from storage. When it looked like movement restrictions might be put into effect, I brought home a bunch of storage bins and buckets that made up my “ebola” stacks. By that I mean the panic buy (over the course of months, so not really ‘panicky’, just hurried) of bulk and long term storage items that I stacked up in case ebola got loose over here. I suddenly wanted to be able to stay home for 45-90 days without leaving the house for anything so I massively increased the amount of bulk food I had stacked. Of course that was in 2014, so that food was between 5 and 6 years old.
Most of it had just been put into black bins, with the lids on, and literally stacked. They were stored in a ‘cool dark place’, but I didn’t stabilize them or repack them. All of the bulk food was edible. The wheat flour has an ‘old’ flavor, but it’s edible with no ill effects. It would work fine in pasta, tortillas, or sourdough bread. The rice had no noticeable changes. Nothing was heavily infested with bugs. The canned veg were all fine. Canned tomato paste, not so much. UHT milk? Ugg. You might have been ok eating it, it wasn’t bloated, but it turns to something like tapioca pretty soon after it’s expiration date. Canned meat was all fine too (kirkland chicken mostly.)
Compare and contrast with my storage at home, in my garage. I had much higher ‘breakage’ in the heat and humidity. Cans rusted, and were covered with rat urine. Boxed goods that weren’t in a bag inside the box got stale. Some of the ready to eat meals changed consistency. They didn’t swell, so they probably wouldn’t kill you, but I tossed them. Flavoring packets got hard and stuck together, and often had an ‘old’ smell or taste. In general, if it had fats or dairy in it, it didn’t fare as well, although it all outlasted the ‘best by’ date by a large margin.
We’re still eating peanut butter, katsup, Miracle Whip, and hot sauce from the ebola stacks. The ketchup is a darker color but tastes the same. Miracle Whip too, darker but tastes fine. Mustard isn’t as bright yellow. Peanut butter separated from the oil despite me flipping the jars whenever I noticed. That’s easy to fix with a butter knife and some ‘butter churning’ action when you open the jar. Nutella separates too, but into more than just oil and nuts. It will mix right back though.
Peanut oil lasts a long time past ‘best by’ if it’s in the dark. It’s my go to fat.
I did move all the ebola bulk from bins to buckets over the summer. When I put it in buckets, I used “hot hands” chemical hand and foot warmers to act as oxygen absorbers. When they worked, the buckets dented in a little bit. If I had ‘cool and dry’ here at the house, I probably would have left them in the bins and original packaging, but I put a lot of it under my covered patio, up against the house, and I figured I needed to give the buckets the best possible chance of staying good.
Now that I’ve mentally transitioned to living like this as ‘normal’, and prepping for whatever is coming next, it’s time to move a lot of the bulk back to offsite storage. I’ll move the newest stuff there and keep the old ebola stacks close by.
One last observation- with a lot of stuff, I left it in the original packaging even though it went into a bucket. I could fit more if I dumped it in, but having some additional separation makes sense if the bucket is breached or you have a bug problem, then it’s not automatically contaminating the entire bucket contents. Three bags of pasta might still be sealed, while the fourth got eaten before you noticed the problem. I’ve also made a few buckets with different stuff in them, like one bag sugar, two bags flour, some yeast packets, a carton of salt, and a bag of cornmeal. Might be a pint or two of peanut oil in there too. I didn’t worry too much about the ratios. Water and any of that in any proportion would work fine in a real disaster. People are a lot less picky when they’re hungry.
———————————————————————————-
Anyone else made the transition from “we’re living in a pandemic, I’m using my preps” to “this is what life looks like now, time to get ready for what’s next”?
Anyone really use their stacks? (besides TP and PPEs)
Think about what you’ve got stacked, and stack some more…
nick
38F and 83%RH this am. D2 knocked a glass over getting out of bed and dumped a quart of water onto the hardwood floor. Spent 20 minutes cleaning that up. Joy. Now to get the rest moving…
n
Good morning! The deluge here has paused, but more precipitation is on the way, and it's likely to come down as snow tonight or tomorrow. Time to fill up the vehicle windscreen-washer bottles with only-slightly diluted winter washer liquid. Neat, it is good down to -50C, but diluted 2:1 is still fine for down to -30C, which is not likely here at the moment. I'll also run some glycerin over the car door rubbers, and leave the snow shovel and brush near the garage door.
Lunch today will be Braeburn or Boskop (sour/cooking) apple fritters, with leftover breakfast pancake batter from a couple of days back. The batter was made with flour from the Coronavirus-is-coming stash from February 2020, which we are still drawing down and/or replacing. No particular storage, just left in the original packaging in a plastic crate on the floor of the cool spare bedroom. The flour still tastes and works fine, though the dried yeast might be getting a bit long in the tooth. I should probably have frozen it, but neglected to at the time. Now where is that ground cinnamon?
Hurray, we are invited for "choucroute" for dinner – one of my favourite winter comfort foods: "fresh" fermented sauerkraut, mashed potato and a variety of pork meats, usually sausage, cured belly and some kind of cooked ham. Probably washed down with pils tonight, though in Alsace or the Rhineland, it would be accompanied with white wine. I might break out a bottle of the good Gewürtztraminer as a gift for the hosts and for dessert… For "choucroute royale", one adds Champagne to the sauerkraut when heating it. Decadent!
https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-make-choucroute-garnie-alsatian-sauerkraut-pork
That sounds tasty! And like good company.
n
I've let my canned meat stacks dwindle. I probably had 50 cans of chicken (half Costco and half others) and probably that much tuna at one point. Now I'm down to about 20 cans of chicken and almost no tuna. Those 2 things make up my lunch most days, so rotation isn't an issue.
It's funny, but when you look at that much food in the pantry, it looks like a lot. When you type it out and do a little math, it's really almost nothing. I'm beginning to rectify the situation. I picked up a pack of canned chicken and pack of tuna at Costco yesterday while I was there for dog food. I'll get back to my weekly habit of adding extra to my basket when I'm getting lunch ingredients at Walmart.
What replaces the Escorts in the grand EV future?
The Focus is already dead or dying, and the dealers are not going to deliver the Mavericks at $20k for a while … if ever.
A whole lot of pain is coming.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/all-new-cars-sold-eu-be-fitted-data-recording-black-box
If it is instituted there, it will be on the cars sold here. And lots of people will want access.
n
Well, no luck on the lottery. Did not even match a Powerball number for the $4.00. In fact, with all my numbers, 60 of them, I only matched 5 of the drawn numbers, unfortunately not in the same set. No one won the big jackpot. So I may throw away another $20.00 for 10 series of numbers and play again. Chances of winning are effectively zero, but absolute zero with no ticket.
Ford started installing tattle systems in all of their vehicles several years ago. 2020 model year. They offer a discounted policy underwritten by Nationwide, but they will work with the other carriers eventually.
https://www.ford.com/ford-insure/
Flo was providing a tattle dongle for any OBD-II vehicle which involved a “discount” for safe driving, but that went away after several fires caused by the port never having been designed for continuous service. Of course, she will be back and bring her friends the Gecko and the Emu with her.
IIRC Progressive has a tiny fraction of the customers that the others have, and spends a crazy amount to get each customer. Given that, they must be high cost, no matter what they say. Or they're skimming only the best drivers.
n
IIRC, GM started data preservation as early as 1989 on select models. There was little fanfare. In a couple years some other carmakers joined, again quietly.
By approx 2015, a high percentage of models sold in the US had this "feature." Disabling it is not practical. There are a few state laws addressing who owns and has access to the data after a collision. The car owner usually has no rights.
Monitoring for insurance purposes is different. Allstate has already contacted me offering discounts in exchange for violating my privacy. I haven't looked into this, but one method uses my phone. Another uses the OBDII port. A third addresses a device for cars with no OBDII port. How long before this will be effectively forced?
–sweet jebus. What a waste. Found here. Might as well throw the $30 in the trash.
It's a wannabe list for gear whores, like xray specs in the back of magazines.
GLASS BREAKER. WIRE SAW. Jeez.
FFS a quality multitool costs $30 by itself and that is more useful than most of that crap.
If I had NOTHING else, paracord boot laces, multitool, lifestraw, and MONEY would get me home. And even then, how do I keep my boots on to walk home if I'm using my laces? And what am I using the paracord for?
—————————————-
Looking at a couple of other articles on the site, it's some sort of click farm, with poorly written filler articles, maybe even scraped from elsewhere.
n
added— my comments are after each list item
It's discounts now but someday will become rate increases then fines and then taxes.
Meaning that he's not the owner. He simply has to pay for everything and take responsibility for someone else's property if anything happens.
—making survival stuff ("gears") from BINDER CLIPS. Oh jeez.
yeah, make a needle with "any sharp tool"…
The whole site is like that.
n
added— and they solicit articles with this nugget “We pay a very competitive rate, especially for a side gig that you can do from the comfort of your own home and at your leisure! Because of this, we are looking for the best writers in this space.”
which tells me they pay peanuts.
n
Progressive gets by from not paying much in the case of claim, or not paying at all because of that tiny 5 point type exclusion on page 93 of the policy only available by download. They also charge different rates based on how a client pays or gets coverage. The biggest issue is the paying of claims. Progressive adjusters find any way possible to not pay a claim. $2,000.00 sound system in the stolen vehicle, nope, only paying $25.00 for the factory radio. Oh, the driver's seat shows wear, $1,000.00 off the claim. Claimant had a laptop in the car that was stolen, no dice unless a photograph of the laptop in the car can be presented. What would cost $20K to replace a person is lucky if Progressive pays more than $9K.
There are better insurance companies and in every case where I have quoted rates from several insurance companies, Progressive was generally close to the most expensive or very close. Advertising works and attracts the suckers.
Flo hoses the customer on claims, particularly through the company's network of "preferred" body shops.
I speak from experience. Never again, Flo.
Plus, that’s one mean old woman when it comes to her workforce. The hit for punching in late is so severe that I would regularly see 4-5 cars zip through the very red left turn arrow entering the Progressive complex outside Tampa getting close to 5:00 PM, when the second shift started in the building.
I feel like every insurer does that now. You can usually get the work done anywhere, they just make it easier to get it done at their partner body shops. I ignore their suggestions and when the adjuster/claims specialist tells me it may take a day or two longer as they don't trust the estimates from non-partner shops and have to verify it I just reply, "That's fine." Hell, even if their partner shop was a place I was okay with using I'd use a different shop just to spite them. I'm evil like that.
You gotta love Drudge's front page:
USA MILLION CASES IN DAY
In red, bold no less. The highest of any country tracked by Johns Hopkins. No easy table of the rest of the globe. I wonder what China's rate is? Oh, yeah, lying commie bastards.
It's obvious that masking and clot-shots aren't going to stop this. Let it run. Of those million, how many with/for COVID? How many deaths? Nothing is clear. Triple clotted and masked get it just like us peons. Can you imagine working somewhere where you have to get tested every day? No thank you.
"Five Recently Completed SFF Series" by James Nicoll
https://www.tor.com/2022/01/04/five-recently-completed-sff-series/
I have read seven of the most excellent nine book series, James S. A. Corey’s The Expanse. One wonder's what that two headed Siamese twin will write next.
I have read all three books of Scalzi's excellent Collapsing Empire series. It was great until the shocking ending, which I did not like. But, that is the author's prerogative.
USAA prefers Caliber Collision, and the last time one of the carrier's customers hit me, Caliber never told me that they received the $600 check for the repair after simply doing the initial evaluation for the claim.
I only found out where the money went after three months, when I called USAA to check the status of the incident.
I don’t have any opinion of Caliber, one way or another, but in this situation, I will get another shop to do the work.
Sigh. Creeping age and dropping words. I cannot even stand up straight today since I pulled my back yesterday throwing trash in my six cubic yard dumpster (filled it up too !). I shake to think of what comes next.
Anyone else made the transition from “we’re living in a pandemic, I’m using my preps” to “this is what life looks like now, time to get ready for what’s next”?
Anyone really use their stacks? (besides TP and PPEs)
Think about what you’ve got stacked, and stack some more…
I pulled some canned chicken (expired in 2017 through 2019 of course) out of the offsite storage last week. I plan on eating it as soup supplements soon.
I've got many (for they are Legion) Augusan #10 cans stashed in closets around the house. I am tempted to open one of the soups and try it out. I have opened one of the powdered eggs and the dried onions. Those are best for the grid down days as they are horrible.
And I have another 70 foot tree down at the back of my office property due to the high winds on Saturday. That is another $350 to the tree grinder since his grinding machine can grind the two foot trunk.
@Lynn: that's a lot of wood – surely it has a value? Or is the tree grinder making the rest of his price by selling mulch?
What replaces the Escorts in the grand EV future?
The Focus is already dead or dying, and the dealers are not going to deliver the Mavericks at $20k for a while … if ever.
A whole lot of pain is coming.
The replacement for the Escort / Focus is a Nissan Leaf. When that wears out prematurely, then an electric skateboard.
So who is the pain coming to ? The people who lose their cheap cars or the ones taking them away ? People will not be storming Ford's doors.
@Lynn: that's a lot of wood – surely it has a value? Or is the tree grinder making the rest of his price by selling mulch?
The wood is termite and ant infested. Those Cypress trees are fairly soft inside and the ants just hollow them out. I would not keep it in my backyard. Nor would I use the mulch, they will crawl into your house.
A Leaf is twice the cost of the last model year of the Focus with 1/3 of the range. It isn't really an adequate replacement.
Unless trends change, personal car ownership is going away for a big chunk of the population in the next 20 years so that 10% (maybe) can live life at Ludicrous speed.
My in-laws tag me a hater for seeing the Tesla Supercharger station in Centralia, WA as eventually being the site of an ugly event, but I note that they don’t drive north of Portland in their Model X when the temps dip below 40 in the I-5 corridor at Thanksgiving.
They certainly don’t want to spend 30-40 minutes sitting in that town.
A Leaf is twice the cost of the last model year of the Focus with 1/3 of the range. It isn't really an adequate replacement.
Unless trends change, personal car ownership is going away for a big chunk of the population in the next 20 years so that 10% (maybe) can live life at Ludicrous speed.
A couple of years ago, a used Leaf dropped 50% in value the first two years as people realized the battery was only good for 100 miles if you did not use the heater or air conditioning. Using the a/c cost you 30 ??? miles and using the heater cost you 50 ??? miles. The new Leafs have a slightly larger battery but I doubt that it is good for many more miles. I am not sure what the newer used Leafs are going for now.
People are not going to be happy about cars and fuel getting so expensive. I see a second burning of Washington DC in the future.
"Elon Musk’s Starlink Internet Dishes Are Attracting Cats"
https://futurism.com/the-byte/starlink-dishes-cats
“"Starlink works great until the cats find out that the dish gives off a little heat on cold days,” Twitter user Aaron Taylor tweeted on New Year’s Eve."”
Oh no !
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
Tesla claims to have 100% recycling set up for their batteries.
Tesla claims to have 100%
recyclingdumping set up for their batteries.Fixed it. And you know who will pay.
No they don't belong in some kit, they belong on one's person. I'd be ashamed of myself if I drowned in a flash flood or suffocated because someone left me stuck in the back seat with electronic locks.
Few years back, I bought every driver in the family a ResQme for their key ring. Probably time to do it again. We also have hammer types in the console of our own cars, but we ride with others too.
"Cleaning up the Linux kernel's 'Dependency Hell': This developer is proposing 2,200 commit changes"
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cleaning-up-the-linux-kernels-dependency-hell-this-developer-is-proposing-2200-commit-changes/
You have got to be kidding me. And Linux is now 27.8 million lines of C code ??? Wow !
Good reminder to check your preps in your vehicles…
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cars-far-can-see-drivers-stranded-hours-95-virginia-winter-storm-rcna10840
The Linux Kernel is monolithic, but a lot of modules are involved.
Memory requirements have been drifting upward, however. I use a 4 GB laptop on the road which is just enough for browsing/email and fiddling around with small bits of code. My bare-minimum home server is 8 GB, up from 4 GB. Both run Fedora 35.
Fedora introduced zRam, an in-memory compression swap scheme which does an okay job, but if I have serious work to do — like compiling Android — I boot one of the specialty Linux installs on my primary desktop with 16 GB RAM.
Ten years ago, 16 GB of RAM cost me $400 for that machine. IIRC a 16 GB stick for the last build was $60 from Crucial.
Fredericksburg. I guess the FredEx (Fredericksburg Express/Extension) reversible toll lanes aren't open yet. That was going to be my project at the previous previous job if I hadn't been canned.
VADOT wasn't allowing semis — source of today’s problems — on the reversible lanes when I worked on the projects.
UPDATE: Yup, the FredEx is behind schedule. Paywalled, but the headline has the relevant info.
https://fredericksburg.com/news/local/express-lanes-extension-behind-schedule/article_278c8e6d-41d6-5804-86f3-fa57d26e6d5f.html
UPDATE 2: Soil problems? Okay.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2021/12/20/virginia-express-lanes-fredericksburg-delayed/
Look at the Daily New Cases graph versus the Daily Deaths graph on the koof update. They are tremendously out of whack. The Daily Deaths should be trending up now also, it has been a long enough lag time.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
>> A couple of years ago, a used Leaf dropped 50% in value the first two years as people realized the battery was only good for 100 miles if you did not use the heater or air conditioning. Using the a/c cost you 30 ??? miles and using the heater cost you 50 ??? miles.
My used 2018 Leaf cost me $20K. Battery still shows 'full bars' (no degradation) and still fully charges to its stated 149 mile range. It's our 'around town' car so I expect to have it for a while. And yes, the heat and A/C cuts into the range but for us, not really an issue. For the couple months when its chilly in the morning it has heated seats and heated steering wheel which use much less juice than running the heater. I looked at the new ones but right off the bat I wouldn't benefit from most of the Federal tax credit (has to be taken all in one year, no carry-over) so used was a better deal for us. Plus we got the top trim level plus the 'all options' package at a decent discount. Did cost a few hundred to have it shipped from Cali, used Leafs here at the time totalled one 2014 in rough condition, plenty there though.
Glass breaker:
I got my license at 16 and have been driving for 50 years. I've never had one or used one or seen somebody use one.
Are there *any* stats of someone saving themself or someone else using one? There are news stories about breaking a car window to rescue a dog or kid. Did they use a glass breaker or just a milt-tool butt. I've seen something in a movie, but that's it. I had a guy working for me in the military, a civilian, who wouldn't wear a seatbelt because he was afraid he would drown if he drove off a bridge or something. I look at glass breakers the same way. Fear.
And in Florida, test only "if you have a reason"…
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/588075-florida-surgeon-general-blasts-testing-psychology-around-covid-19
Re milk products: Couple weeks ago I opened a several-year-expired can of Sweetened Condensed Milk, and it was very dark but would have been useable in a pinch (I threw it away because I was making candy for gifts and had new cans on hand) … so the sugar content helped protect it somewhat from spoilage. It was certainly in better shape than old evaporated milk or table cream or powdered milk.
I haven't bought any dry pasta except egg noodles & boxed mac&cheese, in two years. Today I discovered we've finally used up all our elbow macaroni & down to one bag of shells. Still have other dry pastas but am surprised because I thought we used more spaghetti-type than elbows.
A friend who cans asked me a while back how to estimate how much food we have on hand. They are like us: just two older people who don't eat like we once did. So it got me thinking, and I realized my rule of thumb for "survival" when I look at our pantry is a quart per day of meat and of vegetable for the two of us (ie a pint jar of meat and a pint of veg or beans per person (I don't store dry beans)). On top of that, of course, we have our dry stores of rice, barley, oatmeal, lentils, peas, flour, pasta, and crackers. And sugar. And a full freezer. But that helps me keep a sort of total in my head.
It has been proven multiple times that power windows and door locks will work when a vehicle is completely submerged. There is not enough voltage for water to be a conducting path to short out the system. The tough part is waiting until the vehicle fills with water before attempting to lower the windows or open the door. As for someone stuffing you in the back seat and locking all the doors, well, if they want you dead there are better methods.
If you're worried about being trapped in a car, a seat belt cutter makes some sense as the releases can jam. I agree with the consensus above about the glass breakers: not needed.
I'll also join the consensus in expressing some skepticism. Probably there are weasel words in their claim, exploiting a difference of opinion on what "100% recycling" of the batteries means.
What do you think, lots of false positives in the tests or just flat out lying about the numbers?
"Peril on Ice Planet (Perry Rhodan, No. 23)" by Kurt Mahr, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Peril-Ice-Planet-Kurt-Mahr/dp/B0006W852M/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
Book number twenty-three of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1973 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #101, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 30 of the German Pamphlets. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Tifflor,_der_Partisan
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over ten years since then and the New Power has flourished with millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania.
If I am ever marooned on an ice planet with an average temperature of -150 F, I want an Arkenide robot with four arms, one of which is a disintegration ray and another is a thermo beamer. Cadet Julian Tifflor, the other two cadets, and the two young lady students escaped the heavily damaged 200 foot spherical space ship in a light destroyer. They crashed on the Snowman ice world. After extracting the robot from the destroyer, they and the robot build a small cave for hiding from the Spring patrol crafts. They are soon joined by Pucky who teleports in and then the cadets with Pucky go to the large Springer space ship and destroy it before returning to Snowman.
One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1973. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr's saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future" comes to mind.
Two observations:
1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome "Mutineer's Moon" Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856/br?tag=ttgnet-20 />
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (2 reviews)
Cool. Everyone has their thing. I think having a little lightweight fob on a key ring is a better safety precaution than building a storm shelter. A punch just gives a little better odds "just in case".
Modern auto glass cannot be kicked out, or in most cases cannot be broken by a female or child without a sharp point. People with a weapon could shoot it out, but I don't carry. Modern electronic locks short out and most require the fob at hand to work.
Flood data for Texas is consistent, we lead the nation in flash floods and in flood deaths year after year. This website's info is about 10 years old, but the past 10 years haven't improved – it's always this way in Texas.
Here's a link with recent info, which continues to reflect that above. From 2010-2020, Texas had 222 flood deaths. The closest second was Missouri with 66. In 2021, of 146 US flood fatalities, 69 were driving. Only one was boating.
https://www.weather.gov/arx/usflood
I know anecdotes aren't data, but each death is almost exactly like this one in the Star-Telegram: a car gets swept into water. The occupants can't break a window. Rescuers can't break a window. Car fills with water and occupants drown.
What do you think, lots of false positives in the tests or just flat out lying about the numbers?
I think that many of the positives have the flu or another corona / cold virus instead of the koof.
I also think that many of the deaths are WITH koof, not because OF koof. The koof virus just hastened many deaths due to comorbidities. Just about everyone in their 50s and above already has a comorbidity (mine is heart and weight) and the koof certainly has the power to push people over the edge.
It was, and it was! I am comfortably satiated, had some rather nice Alsatian pinot noir wine, and plenty of good conversation. Also got an invitation to go shooting, which is nice! Now off to bed…
Here's an ABC Houston report comparing the different tools for emergency window breaks:
https://abc13.com/how-to-escape-flooded-car-flooding-rescue-tools/4601736/
Ten years ago, 16 GB of RAM cost me $400 for that machine. IIRC a 16 GB stick for the last build was $60 from Crucial.
Reminds me that the folks I was working with at the time were using TRS-80 Model 1s and moved from cassette to single-sided 180K 5 1/4" floppy drives, at $500.00 each.
And that is useful how, exactly? When you know it's going to be in the glove box.
Perhaps push into the seat enough to allow enough slack for the seatbelt buckle to release. Or just don't use the seatbelts.
Ya'll want to talk prices? What does CAT 5 for now?
500 ft of Cat5e is at Home Depot for about what I paid for Cat5 20 years ago when I ran network cable to several places in my house in Florida through the attic.
Routers, switches, and patch cables are a *lot* less expensive. However, router quality has obviously taken a hit.
Whoa, I can now get my awesome chewable Kirkland Vitamin C tablets from Big River ! I don't have to go over to Costco and pay $55 since I let my membership drop several years ago after I bought four jugs of the 500 count vitamins. I tried the chewable vitamin C from HEB but they are like chewing solidified paste.
https://www.amazon.com/Kirkland-Vitamin-Orange-Chewable-Tablets/dp/B00C1RGR1Q//p?tag=ttgnet-20
A number of models clip to the seat belt. If you can move your arms at all you should be able to get to where you clipped it near your chest or wherever.
Sure, if the car is upright and level.
Why not duct tape a seatbelt cutter and glass breaker below each window? Just to be sure. Tape a couple along the roof, too.
I saw an ad for a stainless steel "survival" tool bracelet the other day. 10 links with removable spacers in between. Link had cutouts to act as a wrenches, and the sides had nubs with screw, hex, stardriver heads, and other functions.
On sale for a mere $59. But 4 and get them for $55 each.
Not posting the link, sorry.
"Why not duct tape a seatbelt cutter and glass breaker below each window? Just to be sure. Tape a couple along the roof, too."
Those spaces are already taken by the Uzi and the Bushmaster.
I keep a plasma cutter, 40kW of solar panels and a roll of #9 wire in the trunk so I can make machetes out of body panels in the afternoon and wire the remnants together for the evening cage match.
@Lynn
That would have rounded to $0.04/Count in my senior consumer math class back at the consolidated high school.
In Houston anyway, a lot of the vehicle drowning deaths happen because someone is driving at speed, when they hit water much deeper than they thought, if they even saw it (like at night). The car STOPS. Like hitting a wall. Air bags, big bang on the head, very disorienting, especially at night. Sometimes they're not even conscious.
FWIW, I don't have the hammer smasher or the spring loaded center punch, but I have my knife clipped into my pocket at all times… and it will break a window fine. If that fails, I've got a seat belt cutter with a breaker point clipped to my sun visor (Boker in the pickup.)
I have a gerber seat belt cutter, with the breaker point clipped on my truck trauma bag. I put a piece of blue masking tape over the cutter to keep it safe.
I tested both on some old seatbelt and they are SCARY. They work best with the belt under at least some tension, so it's worth practicing if you can.
In my Expy, I have a bag with a throw line in it, and two self inflating personal flotation devices. They are RIGHT ON TOP of all the other gear. I don't expect to go into the water, but I do expect I might come across someone else, and I intend to survive any attempt to help.
We have a lot of people go in the water. Just a couple years ago, when we had the afternoon storm, there was a car a block from my house, drove in foot deep water across the Kroger parking lot, right down into 8 feet of water in the detention pond next to the lot. I bet that was more excitement than they really needed in their lives.
n
That only runs to the middle of December.
The data from the UK, available at the link below are pretty good. The TL;DR is that admissions for COVID (as opposed to "with COVID") fall into two groups:
– vaccinated, even with comorbidities, generally need a couple of days of IV fluid and some O2
– unvaccinated range from same as vaccinated, but make up most of the ICU cases
Also, people with COPD have a tough time with COVID infections, it can tip them over into needing ICU care, which is no surprise.
https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2022/01/04/omicron-post-12/#comment-16935
Federal judge to DoD: You can't punish SEALs who claim religious exemption on vaccine mandate
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/01/04/federal-judge-to-dod-you-cant-punish-seals-who-claim-religious-exemption-on-vaccine-mandate-n439206
I'd be willing to entertain arguments as to how that is not a conspiracy to deny constitutional rights.
The next Republican-appointed Sec Navy needs to bring this bunch up on charges, even if he has to call some of them out of retirement to do it.
Texas keeps death stats current. The state hasn't seen an corresponding uptick in fatalities despite record new case count numbers.
https://www.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/45e18cba105c478697c76acbbf86a6bc
Regardless, you won’t see a change in response from DC in the immediate short term. Biden’s poll numbers sank even lower this afternoon, and everyone is in a holding pattern until the Supreme Court rules on Monday about the legality of the private employer mandate.
Just asked my client if we were getting crushed like the states that were featured in the news package we were watching…. NO.
Simple no.
I can't belief the reporting, literally can't believe it. The states CAN'T be that different. It has to be spin. There were a lot of spin words used in the reporting.
n
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes found guilty
https://www.axios.com/theranos-elizabeth-holmes-verdict-df20ad3f-95bd-400c-bf42-a379ade65c2c.html
Well, Judge, we'd like to retry Lizzie after Mr. Balwani has rolled over and offered to testify in a futile attempt to save his own backside.
How low can he go?
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/04/biden-disapproval-rating-high-voters-blame-him-on-economy-cnbc-poll.html
That only runs to the middle of December.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
Nope, look again. Goes through Jan 4 (hover over the individual spikes) which probably is no good. I'll believe that the Dec 31 number is undercounted also. But there is NO upward trend at all. None trend up whatsoever.
Fear is the only way they have to win the news cycle before Monday's Supreme Court decision.
Biden's approval is at 44%.
The White House might as well “put a lid” on the rest of the year if the Supreme Court strikes down the mandates.
Is “put a lid” the right term?
The Zon has a seat belt cutter/window breaker tool in a case that slips onto your window visor (about $25 for a two-pack).
https://amzn.to/3f7G7Ep
And a smaller clip-on version (3 pack for about $20). https://amzn.to/3EVmkCg .
I have one similar to this in my cars (2 pack for about $9) https://amzn.to/31uj6bs ) . Buried in the center console. The visor clip-on ones are probably a better choice and might be more accessible.
Also, people with COPD have a tough time with COVID infections, it can tip them over into needing ICU care, which is no surprise.
https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2022/01/04/omicron-post-12/#comment-16935
Every person that I have met with COPD is having a tough time just breathing. Add a pulmonary illness (cold, flu, koof) to that and you are talking a big disaster.
At least now they don't have to lug around a 40 lb oxygen bottle. The new bottles only weigh half or a quarter of that (somebody here knows a lot more than me about that).
The Zon has a seat belt cutter/window breaker tool in a case that slips onto your window visor (about $25 for a two-pack).
https://amzn.to/3f7G7Ep
I have one in the company car from Big River that plugs into the car cigarette lighter and has two USB ports.
https://www.amazon.com/Ztylus-Stinger-Emergency-Multifunctional-Cigarette/dp/B01NBNAJXP//p?tag=ttgnet-20
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10369279/Democratic-Senator-Tim-Kaine-FINALLY-gets-Capitol-26-5-HOURS-starting-trip.html
This is why I have a mixed case of Mountain House in the truck. Well, that sort of thing, and when I got trapped at the kids' school by high water a couple of years ago.
n
"KFC to launch plant-based fried chicken made with Beyond Meat nationwide"
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/04/kfc-to-launch-meatless-fried-chicken-made-with-beyond-meat-nationwide.html
I am not sure that the Colonel would approve.
@Nick
"This is why I have a mixed case of Mountain House in the truck."
Makes you smarter than at least one senator. Doesn't mean much, considering it's the one with the Antifa thug for a son.
>> Tesla claims to have 100% recycling set up for their batteries.
I'll also join the consensus in expressing some skepticism. Probably there are weasel words in their claim, exploiting a difference of opinion on what "100% recycling" of the batteries means.
It means whatever Tony says it means.
I'm assuming that there is also water carried in the truck for re-hydration. Unless the Mountain House is 'ready to eat'.
Although some beef jerky sticks would be enough for a short-term (24-48 hour?) calamity, I'd guess.
It means he'll ship 100% of them off to be recycled. Whatever happens after they leave the US doesn't matter.
I can't imagine the fires, ships full of his 'splody batteries…
n
Wahoo the wind is still blowing Wasilla and Palmer Alaska into oblivion.
I saw pictures of the Fred Meyers grocery store in Palmer with its roof missing and piles in the ceiling burst – massive sheets of ice coat the building. Surreal. I don’t know if the Safeway or Three Bears groceries were similarly affected. Palmer and Wasilla folks tend to be made of sterner stuff than Anchorage folks (relocated dustbowl farmers and rednecks) so I would hazard a guess that most of the affected folks are well prepped.
There may be pics at this site, they limit you to just a couple it’s free before you hit the paywall.
https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/mat-su/2022/01/03/in-pictures-windstorm-batters-palmer-and-wasilla/
I rotated a WD 8 TB external USB drive to permanent archive storage on Monday and replaced it with a WD 12 TB external USB drive. I reformatted the new drive and wrote my backup files to it (robocopy.exe, etc). I then started the backup and left. I figured that I would be babysitting this all week. Instead, I came in at noon today and the backup drive was fully written with the entire LAN contents, 3.2 TB.
Wow, I finally have a stable LAN again. It has taken me years to get here.
What is the urban legend about KFC? They shortened the name to initials to hide the fact that it isn't really chicken?
I will eat Boca burgers, but the imitation chicken patties taste … off.
The Impossible Whopper tastes like a Whopper, probably using the same IFF magic as the meat Whopper, but you still get that hint of Boca-like soy.
>> It means he'll ship 100% of them off to be recycled. Whatever happens after they leave the US doesn't matter.
Chevy will soon have on its hands 141,000 battery packs (assuming every owner responds) from its Chevy Bolt battery replacement recall. A quick search didn't turn up any definitive statement from GM as to what they plan to do with them.
Chevy will make it the dealers' problem.
Lots of those cars probably went out the door way above sticker when they were new and hip.
>> It means he'll ship 100% of them off to be recycled. Whatever happens after they leave the US doesn't matter.
Chevy will soon have on its hands 141,000 battery packs (assuming every owner responds) from its Chevy Bolt battery replacement recall. A quick search didn't turn up any definitive statement from GM as to what they plan to do with them.
Lake Superior is fairly deep. Just sayin’.
I was randomly reading a teacher's forum the other day. Apparently, during Corona, teachers were not allowed to fail any child for any reason. Teachers in grades 3-4 were complaining about the number of kids in their classes who don't know what sounds letters make. Of course, it isn't (only) the schools' fault – the parents are the problem. Ok, it's not just the parents – it's the entire subculture that doesn't care about education.
Which is, of course, the same subculture likely to start an "ugly event". Because WTF do you do with these people? Any serious, long term solution would be shot down by the progressives, who think that good intentions will magically turn the members of the subculture into productive citizens.
I cannot imagine a more urgent problem than fixing the education system, but that requires kicking the progressive ideology to the curb. Separate students by their results and abilities, ignoring race and socioeconomic status. Teach each group of students to the limit of their abilities. The absolutely recalcitrant must be removed from the normal schools, and placed into military-style boarding schools (which once did exist for exactly that purpose).
Sadly, the progressives are too entrenched, and are too blind to the consequences of their good intentions.
Unexpected, but excellent news. She played all the sympathy notes: attractive, blond mother claiming sexual abuse. And it didn't work, kudos to the jury. Now I want to see the sentencing. Also, the civil suits for damages by patients.
Switzerland keeps pretty detailed stats, and they are updated daily. WIth the omicron variant, we're seeing large case numbers, but at most 1/3 of the previous per-case hospitalization rate. So there is a slight uptick in hospitalization, but nothing dramatic.
Of course, this is the expected result for a new virus: mutate to survive, spread, and not kill the host. Covid has mutated to be more like colds and the flu – highly contagious, but no longer unusually dangerous.
Y'all know I am pro-vax. I also wear a mask in shops and public transport. However, 2022 is definitely the year for governments to stop the special measures. Covid should now be treated the same as the flu: offer annual shots for those of us who want them, and otherwise let life go back to normal.
The one societal change I hope will remain long-term, something that Japan has had for ages: People should wear masks in crowded public spaces, especially if they think they may be sick. There's no reason for people to share their cold/flu/covid with everyone around them.
@brad:
Probably won't happen, and certainly not in the US. There's too much "but.. muh freedumbs" there. Elsewhere there's a lot of "it won't happen to me", not to mention FOMO.
I confess to some "it won't happen" in my own case. In UK, we have mandatory masking on public transport, and, since Omicron, mandatory masks in shops.
G.