Sat. Apr. 23, 2022 – sleeping, then working, then cooking, then hiding

By on April 23rd, 2022 in Random Stuff

Clear and warm, maybe hot.  Yesterday turned into a gorgeous day.   Just a fine spring day.  It is getting to be summer already here and I don’t know how many more cool-ish days we’ll get.

Did a couple of pickups, BOL stuff, minor stuff.  Then went to Costco.   The short report is that they had meat, and it was reasonably priced, especially pork products.  I bought a bunch.   What they didn’t have was normal chicken.  Only organic, and $6/pound.  Nope.  Didn’t get any.   The fish cooler had everything spread out, with each package “tiled” in a single layer to fill the open top cooler.  And by everything I mean mostly salmon.   They had just a couple other seafood items.  I was able to get most of the other stuff on my list.  It was  a big bill.  Meat, school lunch snacks, and OTC supplements.  $50 in TP.  Wine for  the  missus….

Today’s plan is to sleep in a bit, do more work around the house.  Then I need to start cooking for D2 and her guests.   Then after dinner, I’ll be hiding out from 4 screaming 10yo girls.   Dental work without anesthesia might be less painful…  but, these are the good old days, so I’ll find what joy I can.

Stack up the memories too.

n

83 Comments and discussion on "Sat. Apr. 23, 2022 – sleeping, then working, then cooking, then hiding"

  1. Clayton W. says:

    Our President, flying 5,000 miles in a jumbo jet on Earth Day, says this:

    I THINK I understand what the speechwriter is trying to say.  The industrialized countries all went through a period that the over-utilized their natural resources to build up the infrastructure.  As those investments paid off and lifted the GDP, they were able to reverse some of the damage done while continuing to improve the economy.

    Biden proposes bankrolling the 3rd world past the over-utilization phase, lifting them to industrialized status without the cost to the environment.

    BUT (there is always a but)

    An industrialized economy requires a high trust society.  Changing from Tribe and Family trust is HARD work.  Much of the world has not done it and the places that had it are falling back.  Handing them money will NOT generate a high trust society, especially when much of it will be stolen.  See Africa.   🙁

    People handed a thing will not appreciate it as much as a people that have worked, fought, and sacrificed for it.  We see this over and over.  

  2. MrAtoz says:

    Testing1, Testing2, Testing3…

    Looks like it’s converting your < and > to &lt; and &gt; and that’s breaking your HTML. Try submitting the comment first and then going in afterwards and editing-in the <sub>2</sub> manually.

    Let’s see if it works, Mr. Chad. I noticed copy/paste changed your subs, so let me see if I can fix it:

    LN2

  3. MrAtoz says:

    We’ll, you were right, Mr. Chad. Once again Apple makes something a PITA with Safari.

  4. MrAtoz says:

    The decision follows a two-volume, 600-page environmental impact statement that includes public comments evaluating alternatives for building and operating a gas-cooled microreactor that could produce 1 to 5 megawatts of power.”

    Something has to power battlefield lasers until Mr. Fusion  arrives. I hear it is only 20-30 years away.

  5. MrAtoz says:

    From January 2023 to November 2024 I am going to buttonhole everyone who will listen to me: I will vote for conservative candidates in the election if they have shown that they can lead us forward. If not, I will vote a straight Democrat ticket then and forevermore.

    I’ve already implemented my own term limit solution. Anybody I vote for gets two terms. After two terms, I vote for the challenger or different party.  Every voting system should have the selection “EFF NO!”  at the bottom of each candidate list.

  6. Pecancorner says:

    I’ve already implemented my own term limit solution. Anybody I vote for gets two terms. After two terms, I vote for the challenger or different party.   

    This is what I started doing several years ago, except I have not voted for the different party – YET.     Hardly anyone is trustworthy enough to give them a permanent seat.  It is unserious to “call for term limits” but still vote for incumbents. 

  7. paul says:

    Walking to p/u the Subaru, I spotted a large shiny tank by the sidewalk. When I got there, it was a cylinder of LN2 with a hose going into a box on a pole that read “ATT Underground Cable”. Any idea what the LN2 is used for?

    To pressurize the cable and push water out. 

  8. ITGuy1998 says:

    Then I need to start cooking for D2 and her guests.   Then after dinner, I’ll be hiding out from 4 screaming 10yo girls.   Dental work without anesthesia might be less painful…  but, these are the good old days, so I’ll find what joy I can.
     

    Embrace the chaos, it will be gone before you know it. 

  9. ITGuy1998 says:

    even though parkhopper is suspended (was?).

    Park hopping is back, though you can only hop after 2 P.M., and it can be limited based on crowd levels. Our trip there this June will be our last. My wife has the battle plan laid out, so I’m not worried about hitting the stuff we want. The only negative is for the first time we didn’t get a breakfast reservation at Tusker House in AK.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    The cancelling of Bill Murray has begun. I wonder why now?

    “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” didn’t suck.

    “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” and “Spiderman: No Way Home” scared the h*ll out of Hollywood. The films actually made their fans happy. Imagine.

    Lost in the shuffle of the political mess in Florida are the rumors that Disney is frantically reshooting pieces of the new “Dr. Strange” flick, which was supposed to be their Jesus movie for 2022. Disney is still a *movie* studio, right?

    Whatever happened there, now the hope is that “Lightyear” will work. If not, expect Baby Yoda on “Obi Wan”.

    Over at Paramount, “Picard” was obviously reshot to minimize Whoopi where they could, among other changes, and Universal allowed “The Northman” out the door this weekend with an all-white cast, no reshoots with Beyonce as a Viking.

  11. ITGuy1998 says:

    Picard season 2 is just a mess. We just finished episode 6. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch the rest.

    Of course, there is the fun of seeing how bad it can get…

  12. Ray Thompson says:

    More work on the replacement basement ceiling. Have finished wiring the lights except for the one over the sink. That is going to take some creative snaking of wire. I have an electrician friend that I may ask for help. Having the right snaking tools makes all the difference. Plus experience from clever methods of which I am unaware.

    For the main ceiling I installed five flat LED lights. Placed them all on a dimmer. The lights have entrance and exit holes and a three hold Wago push-in connectors which allows the wiring to be daisy chained. One circuit to all the lights basically just strung together. I really like the lights. Nice even pattern, dimmable, five color settings. The dimmer control is a touch sensitive to set the light level. $28.00 a light with my Lowe’s veteran discount. The lights are on a 1′ cord coming out of the control box so there is some latitude for movement when the ceiling is installed.

    Next item is to replace the rigid steel ductwork that feeds the basement with flex duct. That will allow some movement of the placement of the vents when the ceiling is installed. I am paying to have that done as I also need new vents and really don’t have the tools or experience to make it properly accomplished. I will use the same chap that has worked on my HVAC system for 30 years.

    The ceiling will be the final remodel item. That will be professionally installed. Again, having the right tools and knowledge will make all the difference. We will be going with 2′ square tiles.

    And last will be to have Stanley Steemer come in and professionally clean the carpets. Many years of exchange students, some of them slobs (like most teenagers), have probably left some crud in the carpet. Time to get all that crud out while all the furniture is removed. We have used SS many times before and have been satisfied with the results.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    Picard season 2 is just a mess. We just finished episode 6. I’m not sure if I’m going to watch the rest.

    Episodes 7 and 8 have pacing problems and seem cut up. Some scenes also look like they were recently reshot, with Jeri Ryan in particular looking more aged than in earlier episodes.

    Bits and pieces of the episodes are worth the time. You will finally learn something about the relationship between Q and Guinan’s species after 30 years — Whoopi Lite is decent opposite John DeLancie in what looks like yet another reshoot — and Scott Pilgrim’s drummer turns in some quality scenes as a proto Borg Queen.

    If that last one is a spoiler, we haven’t been watching the same show.

  14. Pecancorner says:

    The ceiling will be the final remodel item. That will be professionally installed. Again, having the right tools and knowledge will make all the difference. We will be going with 2′ square tiles.

    And last will be to have Stanley Steemer come in and professionally clean the carpets.

    I’ve grown to consider home maintenance one of the most critical of “preps” for a prepper as well as for normal people.  It may be second only to food and physical/mental health.  The thing about it is that living in a well maintained home is important to the psyche. Even if the power is out, having nice surroundings gives comfort, and would keep one from looking at unfinished chores and wishing one had done them when supplies and manpower and money were still available.   

    In my youth and briefly in young adulthood, I sometimes lived in poorly maintained places littered with unfinished projects, and it wears on the spirit without you realizing it.  Even clutter, overcrowding, and poverty don’t  have as depressing an effect as half-finished work in a home.    I got another small taste of it after our fire in 2021… when I finished my treatments, I moved back home before the ceiling had been replaced.  The house was solid and I’d done all the cleanup, so it was “liveable” but it was not comfortable.   It caused me to hark back to those long ago days when sheetrock sagged and I just had to live with it. 

    Friends and family had offered to come help finish the work and do the painting, so shortly after my return, I took them up on the offers and called them to schedule their visits.  I’ll appreciate them forever.  It lifted me and made our home homey again. 

    With our current situation, I look more and more to getting things fixed FAST as soon as the need arises in order to not fall into that thing where I’ve looked at it so long that I no longer see it. In today’s world, shortages and inflation could mean that delay renders the materials unobtainable, and thus the project undoable.

     And given my innate propensity to get bored or distracted and not finish things, I now make myself complete any project before I move on to another. I wish I had learned to do that in my twenties! LOL!  

  15. Ray Thompson says:

    I sometimes lived in poorly maintained places littered with unfinished projects

    I grew up on a farm. There were always unfinished projects. I never liked it. My uncle was also one to take shortcuts, something that I loathe. It may work for a while but would eventually come back to bite in the buttocks.

    The part of the basement I am working on is basically an apartment. Full kitchen, living area, bathroom (shower only) and a bedroom. We used it for exchange students and when friends from Atlanta would come for a visit. We did rent the area to some friends while their house was being built. So taking my time, not rushing the changes, is not something that I visually see.

    I do like the lights enough that I am going to replace the lights in my basement office with the same LED lights. I will eliminate four fluorescent light fixtures, the 2’x4′ variety. All that was available at the time that ceiling was installed. When that is accomplished that will be the final elimination of all non-LED lights from the house. Everything will have been converted to LED. I can probably run all the LED lights on what it would have taken to run six 100 watt light bulbs years ago. I had converted a lot to CFL but was never happy with those lights. They didn’t last. Also CFL was not an option for the security lights when it was cold. Took too long to come to full brightness. LED is instant full bright.

    I am also able to run 14/2 wire instead of 12/2 wire which is saving some cost. Copper wiring has gotten expensive. 14/2 is easier to move, terminate, more flexible. All six basement lights probably don’t draw more than 1 amp through the copper.

    Next major project of which I will not do is a complete rebuild of the chimney and replace the roof. I suspect I am looking at north of $40K to have it all done. Next year is a complete resurfacing of the pool. Probably another $10K. Second big repair cost as a three years ago we had the pool rim replaced as it was cracking badly.

    Speaking of pools, I bought a bucket of chlorine tablets. Half the size of last year and twice as much as last year. Close to a 400% increase in the cost of chlorine tablets.

  16. Greg Norton says:

    Park hopping is back, though you can only hop after 2 P.M., and it can be limited based on crowd levels.

    Gotta let mom and dad get happy in Germany at the end of a long day.

    I hated going to the parks with other families on day trips when we lived in Florida. My wife and I don’t drink, and dinner at either Germany or, sometimes, Japan were on the other adults’ minds from the time we boarded the tram in the parking lot in the morning.

    Better Teppanyaki is available outside EPCOT for a lot less money, even on property at Benihana.

    I used to prefer the Kobe in the strip mall that includes Hooters, but that may have changed.

  17. EdH says:

    The problem with term limits is that it moves power from individual politicians to their parties. 

    Bad as any given person may be now, their party, an opaque and unaccountable “borg”, capturable by something like the Clinton cabal, is probably worse.

    My proposed “solution” is that a certain proportion of seats (say 10%) are randomly given to some “joe in the street”, every year. Senators, congressmen would get replaced by a person who serves out the term of the person they replaced.

    Suddenly there is an influx of people, beholden to no one, not having (as a group) a psychopathic need for power and attention. 

    Fresh blood, fresh eyes, a hint of honesty. 

    It would probably take a constitutional amendment, since the current process is enshrined in that document, 

  18. SteveF says:

    In the end, Florida voters will decide the fate of DeSantis and the Legislature this fall. Anyone else’s opinion doesn’t really matter. 

    What about Dominion’s?

    My uncle was also one to take shortcuts, something that I loathe. It may work for a while but would eventually come back to bite in the buttocks.

    Agreed in principle, but when there’s more that needs work than can be done with the hours or money, three good-enough-for-now shortcut jobs are better than one job done properly and two not done at all.

  19. Pecancorner says:

    My uncle was also one to take shortcuts, something that I loathe. It may work for a while but would eventually come back to bite in the buttocks.

    Agreed in principle, but when there’s more that needs work than can be done with the hours or money, three good-enough-for-now shortcut jobs are better than one job done properly and two not done at all.

    I don’t object to shortcuts for this exact reason.  A completed shortcut is light years better than postponed or unfinished. Even if you never get back to do it right, at least it works and looks good in the interim.

  20. MrAtoz says:

    Some scenes also look like they were recently reshot, with Jeri Ryan in particular looking more aged than in earlier episodes.

    The outdoor scenes tend to show age. Since Ryan wears her shirts open you can compare her décolletage to her face makeup. The makeup didn’t look right in the Sun.

    2
    1
  21. Greg Norton says:

    In the end, Florida voters will decide the fate of DeSantis and the Legislature this fall. Anyone else’s opinion doesn’t really matter. 

    What about Dominion’s?

    That scheme didn’t work in FL in 2020. Trump won the state and Rick Scott replaced Bill Nelson in the other FL Senate seat.

    Even in Dade County, a Dem stronhold, former Clinton cabinet member and University of Miami President Donna Shalala lost what the Dems thought was a lifetime appointment to a Congressional seat, and not by a very close margin.

    Four years ago, Benny Crump crony and rumored (since proven) meth-head Andrew Gillum came within 32,000 votes of beating DeSantis, but that was largely because the Republican was an unknown about whom the establishment GOP was not happy having as a candidate.

  22. Nick Flandrey says:

    breakfast reservation at Tusker House in AK.

    DINNER reservations at Tusker House are even better, and I liked the breakfast a lot.     Jiko at Wilderness Lodge is also an underappreciated and really good restaurant.   You used to have to have some sort of show reservation to get dinner at Tusker, but I don’t know if that is still true.

    “all white cast”

    –and the SJW and whiners are already shouting about white supremacists “co opting” the movie for their own satisfaction.

    White supremacists hijack The Northman: Blockbuster starring Nicole Kidman features Nordic lore popular with alt-right groups who hail its ‘all-white cast and pure masculinity’

    • White supremacists have claimed ownership of Hollywood’s The Northman 
    • Blockbuster features all-star cast including Nicole Kidman and Anya Taylor-Joy
    • Film also has an ‘all-white cast and pure macho stereotypes’ of Viking culture
    • One 4Chan user posted: ‘Robert Eggers. He is restoring pride in our people with his great films. The Northman is going to be epic… Hail Odin.’ 

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10743827/White-supremacists-claim-ownership-Hollywood-blockbuster-Northman.html 

    and from the “no shite Sherlock” files….

    Every country in the world will now want nuclear weapons because Putin has shown if you have a nuke, nobody will aid your enemies, former White House adviser claims

    –although once again, baby duck, I think Kaddaffi and Libya showed that for anyone with eyes to see.

    n

  23. ITGuy1998 says:

     Breakfast at Tusker house is good,  but that is always the secondary reason for it, for us. Get the earliest reservation, and you are in the park and finished with breakfast before the park opens. You can advance to the inside rope and wait for park opening. From there, we went straight to the safari, and walked right on with no wait. Then immediately to ride Everest a couple times with no to little waiting. Our last trip was while Pandora was still under construction, so this plan is obsolete, especially with the complete cluster fast pass and genie+ system currently in place.

  24. Greg Norton says:

     Breakfast at Tusker house is good,  but that is always the secondary reason for it, for us. Get the earliest reservation, and you are in the park and finished with breakfast before the park opens. You can advance to the inside rope and wait for park opening. From there, we went straight to the safari, and walked right on with no wait. Then immediately to ride Everest a couple times with no to little waiting. Our last trip was while Pandora was still under construction, so this plan is obsolete, especially with the complete cluster fast pass and genie+ system currently in place.

    Part of the Genie overhaul is the new Extra Magic morning hours which now apply at all parks rather than just one per day under the old system, with the goal being full lines at rope drop to provide the incentive for the day visitors and locals grandfathered in to the AP system to pay the upcharge for virtual queue spots.

    The longer the studio flounders, the more The Mouse will depend on the parks and Baby Yoda for revenue.

  25. Ray Thompson says:

    three good-enough-for-now shortcut jobs are better than one job done properly and two not done at all

    Problem with that is that soon there are six jobs needing redone along with three new jobs. When you have spent 3 hours running up and down a road, in a neighbor’s field, because some shoddy fence repair three months back it gets irritating very quickly. Yeh, that overhead electrical wire to the barn that should have been buried, hit half a dozen times with equipment requiring the line to be repaired. That plumbing hack that now requires extensive repairs because the hack caused more problems. That flat tire in 12″ of mud ½ mile from the equipment yard when it is now 15f because the prior leak was not repaired when it was warmer is not fun. That mower blade that was not properly riveted because going to parts shed for a proper rivet would have taken 10 extra minutes and now the blade is jammed in the sickle bar requiring the difficult removal of half a dozen cutting teeth. In my experience shortcuts will cost in the long run.

  26. paul says:

    Film also has an ‘all-white cast and pure macho stereotypes’ of Viking culture

    The chance of any Sub-Sarahan folks being in the area of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden when the original Viking cruises occurred is about zero times zero and carry the one.   Less likely than Henry the 8th marrying a not-white Anne Boleyn and her birthing Elizabeth I.

    I’m waiting for a movie about the Pilgrims where Pocahontas is discovered to be an enslaved African Princess.  Or how about a movie about Lewis and Clark where Sacajawea  is an enslaved African Queen?

    Oh!  Get Whoopie for Sacajawea.  She can wear her Guinon hat, just add a fringe of feathers.

    I’d watch that, I liked her in “The Color Purple”. 

    Hollywood, I claim copyright and expect royalties for my idea.  (yeah, right.) 

    They would make a movie where Catherine the Great is cast with a black woman, never mind she was a princess in Prussia.  Which is about as white as white can be.   But that won’t happen.   “Russia Russia Russia is evil” saves us.  🙂 

    I’m tired of the stupidity. 

  27. Lynn says:

    Testing1, Testing2, Testing3…

    Looks like it’s converting your < and > to &lt; and &gt; and that’s breaking your HTML. Try submitting the comment first and then going in afterwards and editing-in the <sub>2</sub> manually.

    Let’s see if it works, Mr. Chad. I noticed copy/paste changed your subs, so let me see if I can fix it:

    LN2

    I miss the good old days when computers were big huge machines filling a dedicated room and upper case ASCII was good enough for us.

  28. SteveF says:

    We can end the foolishness of non-white casting in white historical movies by killing every non-white on the planet. Not only would it end that aspect of the culture wars, it would reduce the world’s human population, cut down on pollution, and totally eliminate race-based wealth disparity. #FollowMeForMoreWorldSavingTips

  29. SteveF says:

    upper case ASCII was good enough for us.

    You had ASCII? Why, in my day we had to make do with Hollerith cards. And we had to carry them uphill both directions. And we were grateful!

  30. RickH says:

    Rick’s Law, applies to driving and projects:

    “Shortcuts aren’t.”

  31. paul says:

    I have no interest in going to Disney World. Never have and they were building it when I lived in Mobile.  I went to Disney Land when I was a kid and it was fun.  I have a couple of E tickets somewhere.  Knott’s Berry Farm was interesting, too.

    It’s interesting how y’all work the various park-to-park tricks and where to eat and stay.  Keep telling the stories.

    Me?  I just want to go to South Padre and drive up to the Mansfield Cut.  With stops to sit in the sun and drink beer.  Get the grill set up for lunch and char some hotdogs bought at the Blue Marlin grocery store.  Fly a kite or two.  And then back to the Motel Six.  Yeah, not “classy” like renting a condo but the beds are decent and the showers are good.  Then again, who stays in the room?

  32. Lynn says:

    More work on the replacement basement ceiling. Have finished wiring the lights except for the one over the sink. That is going to take some creative snaking of wire. I have an electrician friend that I may ask for help. Having the right snaking tools makes all the difference. Plus experience from clever methods of which I am unaware.

    Skilled craftsmen is a very real thing.  It really does take 10,000 hours for the average craftsman to get good at their job.  This why I try to hire somebody who knows what the heck they are doing now.  I know quite a bit about engineering but I do not know the tricks.  And there are hundreds of tricks for each skill: electrician, basketball, digging a ditch, a refinery, etc.

  33. Nick Flandrey says:

    Cheap motels are full of the long term homeless and recently made homeless families.   They are host to prostitution and trafficking and drug use parties…  not my idea of safe or fun.

    Motel 6 has either stopped advertising or changed where they do it because I haven’t seen anything in a couple of years.   Granted, COVID, but still.

    Even Comfort Inn and Budget Inn are getting to be way too downmarket for me and they used to be a decent choice in places with few other choices.

    E tickets still bring collector money,   very few people left the park with an E ticket left.

    n

  34. Nick Flandrey says:

    Huh, just read elsewhere that there are 1.8M over the road truckers, the 14th largest US occupation, and 1M people living full time in RVs in the US, either by choice or necessity.

    That’s a lot of vanlife.

    n

  35. Nick Flandrey says:

    Want to see why western culture is in decline?

    Read the article about Northman movie.    The first ¾ of the article is about mass murderers and the “alt-right”.   

    Then after briefly mentioning what the movie is about, they list what’s wrong with it…

    And the film also appears to conform to a criteria created by white-nationalist site Stormfront contributor Yggdrasil in 2001. 

    His list of what makes ‘content users could watch repeatedly’ included ‘positive portrayal of whites in defense against the depredations of liberalism, crime, and attack by alien races’, ‘positive portrayal of heterosexual relationships and sex, marriage, procreation and child rearing’ and ‘portrayals of white males as intelligent, sensitive and strong – in positive leadership roles and or romantic leads’.

    The content also has to show ‘particularly intense portrayals of white female beauty, in non-degrading roles’, while themes such as homosexuality and racial mixing would detract from the film.

    The front page pictures and captions also list these problematic elements…

    -macho aggression

    -fair haired loyal women

    -committed mothers

    which means they venerate the opposites

    -male passivity and weakness

    -promiscuous and treacherous brown women

    -disloyal apathetic mothers

    Yeah.   Cleansing fire.  STAT.

    n

    Add- I don’t recall any outrage over the purely fictional, ode to black supremacism  and celebration of (completely fake) black achievement in Wakanda…

  36. Nick Flandrey says:

    Note the “internet is forever” bit too…

    “Stormfront contributor Yggdrasil in 2001. “

    Someone’s almost 20 yo comment.   Musta struck home…

    n

  37. lynn says:

    Over The Hedge: Twinkie-O-Clock

       https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2022/04/23

    Oh my.

  38. MrAtoz says:

    Add- I don’t recall any outrage over the purely fictional, ode to black supremacism  and celebration of (completely fake) black achievement in Wakanda…

    Let us not forget Kwanzaa!

  39. Greg Norton says:

    Add- I don’t recall any outrage over the purely fictional, ode to black supremacism  and celebration of (completely fake) black achievement in Wakanda…

    “Black Panther” is the best movie ever made, and don’t you forget it.

    “The Northman” needs to be pushed out of theaters at the end of the two week run lest word of mouth still has people buying tickets when “Doctor Strange 2” hits the big screens with all of its wokeness and reshoots on April 6.

    The flick can’t be around long enough to treaten “Black Panther 2” in the fan favorite voting at the Oscars next year. God forbid we get a repeat of this year’s “Army of The Dead” surprise win.

    I wonder how much the DM story cost Disney.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    God forbid we get a repeat of this year’s “Army of The Dead” surprise win.

    BTW, “Army of the Dead” isn’t a great flick, but it tries to do something interesting if you pay attention.

    And, again, people liked it. Can’t have that.

    Be sure to follow up with “Army of Thieves”, a prequel and arguably a better film.

  41. Nick Flandrey says:

    got the “can’t find server” error, then the Internal server error with my internet is forever post.

    n

  42. lynn says:

    “A String of Fires Destroys Food Processing Facilities Across America”

       https://www.visiontimes.com/2022/04/21/fires-destroy-food-processing-centers.html

    “A curious string of fires and plane crashes over the last month have destroyed the facilities of at least five major food processors across four different states, exacerbating an escalating inflation and supply chain crisis that is quickly becoming chronic. ”

    And now the number is five. 

  43. ech says:

    From January 2023 to November 2024 I am going to buttonhole everyone who will listen to me: I will vote for conservative candidates in the election if they have shown that they can lead us forward. If not, I will vote a straight Democrat ticket then and forevermore.

    Well, that’s one way to give the liberals what they want. 

    Look, if you live in a purple district/state, the best you can expect is a right of center candidate to get elected. It’s as true for the Democrats (Manchin, Sinema, and (now that he’s seen the polling) Kelly) getting a left of center candidate elected in a purple state. Put a Ted Cruz clone up against Sinema and she wins. Put an AOC clone against Collins and Collins wins. Politics is the art of the possible, and right now the US is center right on most things. And the leftists in the Democratic party are doing all they can to make sure the Republicans take back the House and (possibly) the Senate. But getting the Senate to a filibuster- or veto-proof state is off the table for at least this and probably the next election cycle. 

  44. Ray Thompson says:

    Even Comfort Inn and Budget Inn are getting to be way too downmarket for me and they used to be a decent choice in places with few other choices.

    I no longer stay in any hotel where the rooms have exterior entrances. The time to be cheap has long passed. There tends to be less noise as drunks seem to be obnoxious and loud about 2:00 AM in the cheaper facilities.

  45. RickH says:

    Even Comfort Inn and Budget Inn are getting to be way too downmarket for me and they used to be a decent choice in places with few other choices.

    I think it depends on the area. I’ve stayed at newer hotels (Choice, etc) that were just fine. They were in nicer areas, and were newer (not brand new). Indoor entrances, free breakfasts, clean rooms, etc. 

  46. SteveF says:

    “Stormfront contributor Yggdrasil in 2001. “

    Someone’s almost 20 yo comment.

    Current year: 2022

    Simple arithmetic: 2022-2001=21

    “almost 20 yo”… -scratch head-

    Ah, I got it: You meant “almost 20(base 11) yo comment”.

  47. EdH says:

    You had ASCII? Why, in my day we had to make do with Hollerith cards.

    You had Hollerith cards? Why, in my day we just toggled the one’s and zero’s in from the front panel!

  48. Pecancorner says:

    Only 10 new cases of COVID this week in our little county  

    Eight of them are people who’ve been vaccinated. 

  49. RickH says:

    Only 10 new cases of COVID this week in our little county  

    Eight of them are people who’ve been vaccinated. 

    Vaccination doesn’t prevent the disease. Not any kind of vaccination for any type of disease. 

    It makes the symptoms less severe, and reduces (significantly) the chances of hospitalization.

    (Of course, IANAD … but SWMBO and I got our first booster this week. Very minor muscle soreness in the arm; no other issues for either of us here.)

  50. Ray Thompson says:

    You had Hollerith cards? Why, in my day we just toggled the one’s and zero’s in from the front panel!

    You had switches? Why, in my day I just moved patch cords from one connection to another.

    Fortunately that was only for 3 weeks on temporary assignment in the USAF.

  51. Nick Flandrey says:

    Vaccination doesn’t prevent the disease. Not any kind of vaccination for any type of disease. 

    that statement has a false second half.   No one gets a little bit of smallpox, nor a little bit of polio.  That’s revisionism or what is now called ‘gaslighting’.

    Vaccines are touted SPECIFICALLY to prevent the disease being vaccinated against.  Only after the failure of the wuflu vax did the definition or expectation change. 

    n

    added- if you have a PRINTED reference, published prior to 2020, and want to send a photo, I’m open to being convinced otherwise.

    8
    2
  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    :You had PATCHCORDS?   we just wrote algorithms on paper and stepped thru them in our heads!

    n

    I remember the SWsomething computer in Practical Electronics?  or Hobby Electronics? in the early 80s, late 70s, with its switches and pilot lights.

  53. dcp says:

    Rick’s Law, applies to driving and projects:

    “Shortcuts aren’t.”

    “Short cuts make long delays.” —  Peregrin “Pippin” Took.

  54. Nick Flandrey says:

    @steve, I lost a year  or so in my sense of time with the lockdown Groundhog Day effect.   In my head it’s 2020, and I have to think about it when I type 2022 every night…

    n

    Or, yeah, it’s what you said!

  55. lpdbw says:

    You had Hollerith cards? Why, in my day we just toggled the one’s and zero’s in from the front panel!

    BTDT.  Early PDP-11.  Had to enter the boot address and hit the go button.

    When I moved up to the PDP-11/70, we had the DECWriter console option.  No more toggle switches. Boot sequence was “70,17765000G” if you wanted to boot to the first disk drive.  Last time I typed that sequence was 1984 and I still remember.

    At one time I had the most important ASCII characters memorized and could read them in an octal or hex dump.  One of those skills assembler programmers picked up along the way.  

    Back in 2011 I had to write a database extract from a SQL Server DB (Epic’s database) to an external vendor, and translate ASCII to EBCDIC.  Fortunately, SSIS can do that for you if you can figure out the pointy-clicky stuff.

    Fun times.

  56. RickH says:

    I did a quick search on vaccine effectiveness, looking for pre-2019 articles. Here’s one example: This is information published before 2018. Quick excerpt (my emphasis):

    Vaccines are designed to generate an immune response that will protect the vaccinated individual during future exposures to the disease. Individual immune systems, however, are different enough that in some cases, a person’s immune system will not generate an adequate response. As a result, he or she will not be effectively protected after immunization.

    That said, the effectiveness of most vaccines is high. After receiving the second dose of the MMR vaccine (measles, mumps and rubella) or the standalone measles vaccine, 99.7% of vaccinated individuals are immune to measles. The inactivated polio vaccine offers 99% effectiveness after three doses. The varicella (chickenpox) vaccine is between 85% and 90% effective in preventing all varicella infections, but 100% effective in preventing moderate and severe chicken pox.

    https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/top-20-questions-about-vaccination 

    That article is dated Jan 2018. Sources cited are from 2018 and earlier.

    I’d bet one could find similar information via the “WayBack” site if one has doubts that the article is actually from 2018, and not updated since then.

  57. Ray Thompson says:

    I remember the SWsomething computer in Practical Electronics?

    South West Technical Products. Headquartered in San Antonio. I bought several of their electronic kits but never the computer. Used a Motorola 6800 and a SS-50 buss. I drooled over their system and could actually touch one when I went to their office. Alas, the system was just too expensive for my meager Air Force income.

  58. drwilliams says:

    In my day computer programmers either used columns 73-80 or tried to make do with a diagonal line drawn across a box of cards with a felt tip. Those who did neither were lucky or had the painful experience of resequencing a dropped program deck.

    If you had long projects you had the deck duplicated so it read reliably. The card printer was separate and optional. A very few could read the unprinted punch cards. Not I. 

    I saw one senior programmer riffle a deck and pick out a problem card in someone else’s unprinted deck. He wasn’t showing off.

    IBM thought the 3×32 column card  (same height but half the length) for the System 3 was going to revolutionize the industry. It certainly would have saved some backaches, but magnetic storage rolled right over it. 

  59. ITGuy1998 says:

    Bob would shut this place down immediately if he saw what it has become. 
     

    Why do you come here then?

    7
    2
  60. ITGuy1998 says:

    My only exposure to punch cards was in 8th grade when our computer class teacher showed them to us. We had Apple II’s back then…maybe IIe? I don’t remember.

  61. RickH says:

    It looks like RBT would be pro-vaccine, see his comment from 22 Oct 2017 (https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2017/10/22/sunday-22-october-2017/ )

    I’ve mentioned Patriot Nurse before. I’ve mentioned some of my reservations about her, including the fact that she’s an anti-vaxxer and proponent of various other woo-woo medical practices. 

    That’s the only mention about vaccines that I can find on a quick search of the site prior to 2018.

  62. Greg Norton says:

    I remember the SWsomething computer in Practical Electronics?  or Hobby Electronics? in the early 80s, late 70s, with its switches and pilot lights.

    MITS Altair was the most famous example. According to The Legend of BillG, Boy Genius, the MITS on the cover of … Popular Electronics … ? … convinced the young “Trey” (William Gates III) to drop out of Harvard since he felt he was wasting his time while the computer revolution was rolling forward.

    The first Micro-Soft product was BASIC for the Altair depending on which version of The Legend you have encountered. I’ve heard an unsubstantiated story that Gates/Allen partnered on tabulating treadle presses for WSDOT back when they were at the prep school, and that code was the first product of the partnership.

  63. Greg Norton says:

    I’ve heard an unsubstantiated story that Gates/Allen partnered on tabulating treadle presses for WSDOT back when they were at the prep school, and that code was the first product of the partnership.

    BTW, at the risk of being accused of another screed, I dealt with treadles at the previous previous job as a mechanism to calculate vehicle speed, and I hate the technology. Fortunately, induction loops and treadles are fading from use for tolling if for no other reason than the experts in designing and deploying the systems are dying off.

    If Gates/Allen were successfully tabulating vehicle speed for WSDOT from treadles, that is an accomplishment.

  64. ITGuy1998 says:

    I’ll ask again. Why do you come here NaN?

  65. drwilliams says:

    For your reading consideration:

    “Even in its best moments,” Horowitz recalls, “the western left disparaged the threat from the communist enemy as a paranoid fantasy of the Cold War right.”

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/david_horowitz_american_prophet.html

    David Horowitz,  Hating Whitey: And Other Progressive Causes, 1998

    Among other things, this book refutes the largely successful rewriting of history by the leftists of the 60’s, as aided and abetted by PBS and the other media agents of the left. Fast-forward 20 years and the same thing is happening, although on a shorter time scale and with the help of much more powerful leftist corporations spawned by the internet.

    If 80% of blacks are not poor, how can racism be the explanation for the failure of 20% to avail themselves of the advantages that are open to the 80%?

    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/hierarchy-oppression-david-horowitz/

    David Horowitz,  The Enemy Within: How a Totalitarian Movement is Destroying America, 2021

    WRT the latter quote, how can racism be the explanation for the failure of 20% when that group is overwhelmingly concentrated in cities that have been run by liberal/progressive/Democrat machines for generations? The 20% are not only part of the coalition that runs the cities, they are part of a group that concentrates in cities and should wield political power to effect a minority utopia.

    https://www.indexmundi.com/facts/united-states/quick-facts/cities/rank/black-population-percentage

    Is racism added to the water by an evil scientist or perhaps piped in and blown over the city in a nightly fine mist?

    Two other books on my table are:

    Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success, 2008

    Malcolm Gladwell, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, 2013

    If you haven’t read Gladwell, I would urge you to do so. If you only know him as the author of the wildly popular Blink and The Tipping Point, I would urge you to continue with the above, as both offer valuable insights and seem to contain elements that build on a common foundation relevant to our times.

    (His collection of New Yorker columns What the Dog Saw and other Adventures, 2009, is also recommended, particularly for foodies that might appreciate stories about ketchup, mustard, the quantitative explanation for why Ragu has 35 flavors, and a nice story about Ron Popeil)

  66. RickH says:

    Why do you come here?

    I believe that RBT would be happy to see all participation here, even if someone didn’t agree with him. This seems like a place to share opinions and information.  It may not be the opinion and information that we agree with, and it may not be ‘gently expressed’, but the appeal of this place (for me) is the wide variety of information – and even opinions – that I read here.

    So, I’m in favor of anyone taking the time to comment. I may not agree with their views, and I might think some views are way out in left field (or maybe that would be ‘way out in right field’), but the discussion is almost always interesting.

  67. ITGuy1998 says:

    Why do you come here?

    I believe that RBT would be happy to see all participation here, even if someone didn’t agree with him. This seems like a place to share opinions and information.  It may not be the opinion and information that we agree with, and it may not be ‘gently expressed’, but the appeal of this place (for me) is the wide variety of information – and even opinions – that I read here.

    So, I’m in favor of anyone taking the time to comment. I may not agree with their views, and I might think some views are way out in left field (or maybe that would be ‘way out in right field’), but the discussion is almost always interesting.
     

    I’m waiting for NaN to respond. 
     

    No issues with discussion or disagreements. This place has always been civil, which is what makes it a rarity on the net. NaN has not been civil, and I’m asking why.

  68. drwilliams says:

    DRIVE YOUR ENEMIES BEFORE YOU! TAKE THE TALLY OF THEIR SLAIN AND THE LAMENTATION OF THEIR WOMEN!

    And, yes, salt the earth.

    When that is done, we can have a discussion about ‘principles.’

    https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/04/23/principles-are-a-grand-thing-a-guest-post-by-john-ringo/

  69. lynn says:

    “Principles Are A Grand Thing – A Guest Post – by John Ringo”

         https://accordingtohoyt.com/2022/04/23/principles-are-a-grand-thing-a-guest-post-by-john-ringo/

    “This was pulled from a long twitter thread on the subject of the PRINCIPLES! Crowd and their insistence that DeSantis shouldn’t have lead a charge against Disney, ‘Don’t call them groomers! That’s naughty!’ because PRINCIPLES!

    And I’m going to use Dien Bien Phu as an example.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu

    Yup.  I have no idea how to get the conservatives out of the firing range of the liberals guns without going civil war.

  70. ITGuy1998 says:

    No, it has not, as I have demonstrated before. Folks here hold themselves in a bizarrely high esteem. 
     

    I ask again. If this place bothers you so much, why come here? 

  71. drwilliams says:

    @NaNo

    Would you be happier if we helped you find a publisher for your life’s work determination of the residual flavors of coprolites? 

  72. lynn says:

    They would make a movie where Catherine the Great is cast with a black woman, never mind she was a princess in Prussia.  Which is about as white as white can be.   But that won’t happen.   “Russia Russia Russia is evil” saves us.   

    I’m tired of the stupidity. 

    I would not even limit Hollyweird to casting a woman as Catherine the Great.  I would not be surprised to see them use some guy like Jussie Smollett.

  73. Nick Flandrey says:

    @rick, 

    Individual immune systems, however, are different enough that in some cases, a person’s immune system will not generate an adequate response. As a result, he or she will not be effectively protected after immunization.

    -the quote pretty clearly says that a vax -which is expected to be fully effective at preventing the disease it was developed for – does not work for a VERY SMALL percentage of people due to their unique biology.   That is very different from the idea that a vax simply reduces the severity of a disease, and that 80% of sick people, at any given time, will still get the disease despite the “vaccine”. 

    They should not be calling the current  shots “vaccines”.    They do not do what drugs called vaccines have always done.

    n

    added- edited word order for clarity

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    @ NaN, as I recall on the subject of incivility, you found two lines to quote from the comments of the same day, from 4 years ago.  Hardly proof of an ongoing issue.

    And for Rick et al. the question posed should possibly have had the implied part boldly stated.. “Why do you come here then, and disparage the site and the people here?”

    I stand by my statement.   The second half of Rick’s comment is revisionism and false.

    n

  75. lynn says:

    We can end the foolishness of non-white casting in white historical movies by killing every non-white on the planet. Not only would it end that aspect of the culture wars, it would reduce the world’s human population, cut down on pollution, and totally eliminate race-based wealth disparity. #FollowMeForMoreWorldSavingTips

    The Draka books that I am reading right now have the Earth population peaking at 2 billion in 1942 in the Draka books.  100 years later (and three books), the Drakas had reduced the population of the Earth to a half billion and turned much of the planet into vast nature preserves.  After they defeated the United States alliance.  The first book was published in 1988.  All of the non free peoples were genetically modified to be smaller and pheromonally sensitive to the free peoples.  The free peoples are descendants of the English, Dutch, Icelandic, and German people.
       “Marching Through Georgia (Draka Novels, 1)” by S. M. Stirling 
       https://www.amazon.com/Marching-Through-Georgia-Draka-Novels/dp/0671654071?tag=ttgnet-20/

  76. lynn says:

    “Increased Plant Productivity: The First Key Benefit of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment”

        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/04/23/increased-plant-productivity-the-first-key-benefit-of-atmospheric-co2-enrichment/

    “Based on the numerous experiments listed there, I can tell you that, typically, a 300-ppm increase in the air’s CO2 content … will raise the productivity of most herbaceous plants by about one-third, which stimulation is generally manifested by an increase in the number of branches and tillers, more and thicker leaves, more extensive root systems, and more flowers and fruit.”

  77. lynn says:

    You had Hollerith cards? Why, in my day we just toggled the one’s and zero’s in from the front panel!

    I watched our computer guy boot our CDC 6600 from the front panel toggle switches several times back in the early 1980s out in west Texas.  He had the entire boot sequence memorized and could do it in less than five minutes.  Otherwise he would use a paper tape on the operator teletype console and the capability to punch a new paper tape was broken.

  78. lynn says:

    I remember the SWsomething computer in Practical Electronics?  or Hobby Electronics? in the early 80s, late 70s, with its switches and pilot lights.

    Altair 8080 ???

       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800

  79. lynn says:

    My only exposure to punch cards was in 8th grade when our computer class teacher showed them to us. We had Apple II’s back then…maybe IIe? I don’t remember.

    Get off my yard !

  80. Nick Flandrey says:

    SWTP, Ray nailed it up thread.

    South West Technical Products. Headquartered in San Antonio. I bought several of their electronic kits but never the computer. Used a Motorola 6800 and a SS-50 buss.

    later there was the S-100 bus.    I wanted one, didn’t even know why.  Wasn’t clear on the whole concept but I knew I wanted one.

    n

  81. Rolf Grunsky says:

    The MITS Altair had the front panel but the South West Technical Products computers did not have a front panel (I think, my memory is hazy on this). As I remember, all the South West computers used the Motorola (6800 family) processors. I really wanted to get a 6809 system but couldn’t afford it at the time. I ended up with a Prolog Z80 system. I still have it, you could cook on the static memory card!

  82. Jenny says:

    I recall as a child violently resisting vaccination. Whatever, I was little and didn’t know better. The argument made as I writhed about in uncooperative splendor, always, was that the vaccine would prevent me from getting the disease. 
     

    That idea, preventing the occurrence  of the disease, is how vaccines were explained even beyond my bratty childhood. 
     

    I distinctly recall during covid when the definition of vaccines was explicitly revised to the current standard of reducing impact. 
     

    So I’m not sure what is wrong with Nick’s assertion.  I find NaN’s assertion tha RBT would have shut the place down odd. I’ve been reading the site since ~2000, I can imagine RBT doing lots of things but flipping the Monopoly board isn’t one of them.
     

    Nicks recollection matches my own. Vaccines were to prevent disease. Until Covid. And now they’re to minimize impact. 
     

    I too am curious why NaN comes around. I don’t particularly care, other viewpoints are interesting. But NaN, on those occasions when NaN comments, appears to be to complain that we are what we are. Not understanding the point of it. We’re mostly old and set in our ways. Does NaN hope to change our minds about stuff? Or poking the bear for fun?

    Or is it just entertaining to troll?

    -shrug- not sure it matters much. 
     

    Today was busy. Warm, high 40’s. Restacked a lot of salvage lumber, Refrained for the 11th week running from buying a guitar I don’t need but after which I lust. Bead show with daughter. Bred two of the rabbits. A little house cleaning. Used the leaf blower to tidy the driveway.

    Cleaned the rabbitry. dealt with poop, raked the dirt floor. Refilled the water barrel. Since it was warm and I was already dirty I rinsed the poo chutes. A disagreeable job but necessary. I split the older juvenile rabbits into buck / doe groups earlier. One of the bucks was humperdincking his siblings so I placed him with a doe. He went to work immediately and the doe cooperated. My primary buck got  agitated at the interloper in with his girl. Glad to see him perk up as he’s been recovering from a respiratory something or other. 
     

    I have been counting the weeks to slaughter for  buns from does bred today. Fall. Though it’s only April I need to plan for shorter days and hostile temperatures. I need to keep all my does pregnant to put away some meat. From breeding to table is 4-5 months depending on weather conditions and desired slaughter size.

    Rhubarb is peeking out of the ground, but it’ll be end of May before danger of frost is past. I’m overdue to get my potatoes started in pots. Better hurry up.

    Longer daylight hours kept us up and working past nine. Refreshing adult beverage then bed. 

Comments are closed.