Thur. May 26, 2022 – stuff to do around the house

By on May 26th, 2022 in decline and fall, personal

Humid, maybe clear, maybe rain.   We got some rain yesterday, but then it cleared up into a beautiful day, and stayed reasonably cool.   So much for either weather prediction.

I did my errands, picked up a bunch of stuff for the BOL, and a little bit of stuff for the house.  Didn’t win a whole lot of stuff in the auctions yesterday, so I don’t have much to get today.   I do have to get all the stuff I’m bringing north with me so I can knock out the projects over the weekend.   And I need to get a couple of things finished here before I leave.

So that is the plan for today.  Work.

 

The elementary school had a nice ceremony for the 5th graders who will be in middle school next year.  100 kids and families in the gym, only about 4 masks in the whole place, and they were on kids.   Our kids have been back at school full time for a year.  The teachers aren’t dropping dead.   The students aren’t dropping dead.  We had a small surge in cases, but not bad outcomes, but we’re at lows again.  You can have the economy open.  You can have gatherings.   You don’t need to be masked everywhere.

There are people still wearing masks.  I still wear a surgical mask at the Goodwill outlet store, and I wear gloves too.   I’ll KEEP doing it, because people are gross there.   Way nastier than any other random group outside of a halfway house.  I see people in other stores wearing masks, mostly properly, and a large percentage in N95s.    No one looks askance.   At this point, in Houston, it’s do what you want.  I am concerned by the larger trend of ‘servers’ or service people in masks while everyone else goes without.   It’s a new caste system, and it’s un-American.

 

That said, I’m replenishing stocks of PPEs used up during the last two years.   There will be more bad stuff unleashed in the next few years.   Better to have the stuff and not need it…etc.

Stack some more things.   Lots more.

 

n

 

 

104 Comments and discussion on "Thur. May 26, 2022 – stuff to do around the house"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

     59F this morning, and damp.  It was 64F when I went to bed.   I would like to believe we’ll  have a cool sunny day, and a nice clear weekend with moderate temps, but that would be better than I deserve…

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    So, why does an Apple mouse have one button?

    because the xerox parc mouse did?   Or because the xerox parc mouse had more than one?

    No one uses the right button. Well, not much, anyway. Plus, manufacturing costs.

    Jobs and Wozniak both worked at HP.

  3. ITGuy1998 says:

    I’m replenishing stocks of PPEs

    I ordered a couple 10 packs of 3m N95 masks from Amazon the other day for $11.99 a pack. Cheap enough to just put on the shelf in case they are needed.

  4. Pecancorner says:

    So, a huge failure of courage, leadership and failure to follow doctrine.

    Texas cops are accused of IGNORING woman’s frantic pleas to storm elementary school as 19 children were being shot dead inside – with dad of one victim saying: ‘They didn’t do a darn thing until it was far too late’

    • Jacinto Cazares’s daughter Jacklyn was among the 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde shot dead Tuesday by Salvador Ramos, 18
    • Cazares wants answers as to why the first 911 call came at 11:32am, and yet Ramos was not shot dead until 1pm
    • One man who lives opposite the school said that a woman was yelling at the police: ‘Go in there!’ – but they did not 
    • The school had armed security, yet Ramos was still able to get in: multiple officers were shot by Ramos, who was wearing body armor without plates
    • The city of Uvalde is 80 miles west of San Antonio and the same distance from the border with Mexico: Border Agents were among those who responded
    • Texas’s director of the department of public safety said: ‘Obviously, this is situation we failed in the sense that we didn’t prevent this mass attack’ 
    • He added: ‘But I can tell you those officers that arrived on the scene and put their lives in danger — they saved other kids. They kept him pinned down’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10855093/Furious-father-Texas-school-shooting-victim-slams-police-failing-stop-gunman-HOUR.html 

    Lockdowns are truly the cause of a lot of this.  I’ve never understood why Americans seem to think adhoc imprisonment of all the innocent people is  an ok tactic for police to use.  If the schools weren’t locked down, the children WOULD run away.   

    Imprisoning students in public schools – or Americans in shopping malls or restaurants –  is not saving any lives. There’s nothing but theory behind it.   It’s purely a military police tactic designed to help the police, not to save the innocent.   

    As for the police, after Orlando, I asked our local law enforcement about the practice of hanging out outside to wait for the shooting to stop, and they swore  that in Texas they are trained to immediately go in.  Obviously, in Uvalde they didn’t get the memo. 

  5. Greg Norton says:

    I see people in other stores wearing masks, mostly properly, and a large percentage in N95s.    No one looks askance. 

    Around here, it is Indian and Chinese Number One Sons, who already viewed Americans as disgusting pre-pandemic.

    The Good Germans have mostly put away their armbands in favor of statement apparel like Trevor Noah concert tour t-shirts.

    Big Smile!

  6. Greg Norton says:

    @Lynn – Do the f2c maintainers have a Github repository?

  7. Pecancorner says:

    Is there a need for cursive writing when everyone has a smartphone / tablet / laptop?

    Fair question.  The screens have evolved to allow people to write on them.   Study after study shows that people remember better when they take handwritten notes.        There is a future need for speedy cursive handwriting and reading that goes beyond merely being able to access historical documents. 

    Memory training is recognized as an essential part of education in a traditional society – even or especially in a pre-literate one. One could make a case that a lack of rote memory training is one of the most profound failures of modern public schools.   The tech world is desirous of creating a post-literate world, and someone will ask  why there’s a need for human memory when the computer will do it for us.    

    Except it won’t. The computer will remember the details entered into it, but it is useless to us if we don’t know it exists.  

  8. drwilliams says:

    The Xerox PARC  developed a 3-button mouse. $300 and MTBF less than two weeks. The Apple mouse desin guideline were $15 and no failures for two years. They nailed it. 

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Fair question.  The screens have evolved to allow people to write on them.   Study after study shows that people remember better when they take handwritten notes.        There is a future need for speedy cursive handwriting and reading that goes beyond merely being able to access historical documents. 

    I keep paper notebooks. It is a habit developed in several work environments where Patent issues came up from time to time.

    The current job makes getting one Patent a year an important review issue at the pay grade immediately above mine. Modified stack-and-rank, but no one in the bottom 10% is fired … for now.

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    My kids are learning cursive.   Calligraphy too.

    To not be able to read something as common as cursive writing is a form of illiteracy.   And it will be a class signifier in the future.

    n

    8
    1
  11. Ray Thompson says:

    No one uses the right button.

    I do, a significant amount. The mouse for my MacBook, the Apple mouse, does not have any buttons, just tap zones. scrolling detection, etc. It also has a place where I can tap and get the effect of a right mouse button. The Apple mouse has an on/off switch and recharges with a lightning cable.

  12. MrAtoz says:

    I do, a significant amount.

    So do I, except on the Apple Magic Trackpad. Two finger tap is a right click. I have some software to try out that enables gestures on the TP (LOL). I also use three-finger drag a lot.

  13. Nick Flandrey says:

    I use the right button constantly.  Double click to highlight a word or phrase, right click, select search on google….     I use it for copy and paste hundreds of times a day some days. Reload page even more often.

    I use the center button scroll wheel all the time too.

    n

  14. SteveF says:

    No one uses the right button.

    … wut?

    No one uses the right button unless  they need pop-up menus. And gamers, who want about eight buttons, but that’s a special case.

    Indian and Chinese …, who already viewed Americans as disgusting pre-pandemic.

    It’s pretty well mutual. Certainly in terms of personal hygiene. There’s also concern about basic levels of honesty regarding Indians and Chinese, though to be fair that concern applies to people from most of the non-northwestern-European world.

    The current job makes getting one Patent a year an important review issue 

    Two of my ideas have had patents applied for, one granted for an idea on laying out electrical components and one software thing which I don’t know the status of. Neither was applied for in my name. Rather, the paperwork for the electronics patent was altered between my desk and the patent office to remove my name and put in the company owner’s. I informed the USPTO about the fraud but nothing happened. The software idea was filed for after I was fired from the company (for not working 60 hours in a row to fix someone else’s repeated mistakes) and I learned of it only because a friend still with the company let me know.

    re the correlation between hand-writing notes and remembering them, I find that this works for me. Typed notes work but not as well. Straight transcription of a meeting or lecture is about useless when it comes to learning the material or remembering it for a test, though of course it can be useful for other reasons. However, I’m in my late 50s and learned to take notes by hand. Youngsters who routinely used computers or tablets in school since they were 7 might have different results.

    10
  15. CowboyStu says:

    And Cowboy Slim – ixnay on the olls-tra

    My most humble and deepest apologies!

  16. MrAtoz says:

    However, I’m in my late 50s and learned to take notes by hand.

    Ditto. To make up for it in the digital age, I have my iPad Pro on a slanted stand and use it for hand written notes, journalling, etc. I use Apple Notes mostly. I have other note taking apps, but I’m “hopefully” waiting for Apple Notes to get better and incorporate some top note taking apps stuff. Notes easily syncs to all my Apple hardware through iCloud. Others, not so much.

    I normally try to print, but when rushed I automatically switch to cursive. My cursive is readable since schools taught it early on after learning printing. 60’s on.

  17. MrAtoz says:

    In Junior High, almost all boys took shop. I did. The first semester was drafting where you learned how to properly letter. Then on to machine use in the shop. I made a foot stool my Mom used for years. A real shop with table saws, planers, drill presses, etc. All the big boy tools.

  18. Nick Flandrey says:

    I still print in single stroke gothic most of the time.

    Professional advice from one of my college profs wrt my drafting- work on my lettering.   The guy who writes the checks may not understand the drawing, but he can look at and read the lettering…

    n

  19. MrAtoz says:

    RIP Ray Liotta. Only 67. I turn 67 next month.

  20. JimB says:

    I still take some notes by hand, but I transcribe important ones to the computer for storage and easy retrieval. I love the ability to edit and search, and sorely miss it when using written notes. Editing helps me remember what I need remembering.

    At various work sites, I had to use a company notebook, and it was their property. That included evidence for lawsuits and patent background. Thankfully, I never had to testify in court, but I knew some who did, and their reactions varied a lot. One said he was merely asked to read from his notes, and was expressly forbidden to mention conclusions that were not already in the notes. Another said he had to do both, and it was scary because he was afraid to have his testimony twisted to an end he didn’t intend. Of course, that is what a good lawyer does routinely. No lies, mind you, but careful emphasis on some of the relevant facts. The opposing lawyer is supposed to counter this.

  21. JimB says:

    I have used just about every kind of pointing device, including a touchpad before they were made popular in notebooks. I use the right button, or its equivalent, all the time. I have to keep reminding my wife to do that.

    That said, I use the keyboard shortcuts for as much as possible, because I find it easier to remember, and because it is quicker. I find menus tend to hide things, and I can’t remember where they are from version to version. In Windows software, at least, many keyboard shortcuts have stayed the same for decades.

    Back in the 1980s, I read that every computer user should learn some of Lotus 123 and WordStar, mainly for the keyboard commands. Many of them were replicated in other software, and I found that to be true. I got pretty good at that. Then I tried Word Perfect, because there were some people who loved it. I found its UI (keyboard commands) to be “different.” It was hard for me to learn, and then I made mistakes when I returned to regular apps. I quickly gave up on it. Later, I knew someone who taught Word Perfect, and was surprised that she agreed. That was after Word Perfect had declined from prominence, and after it had come out with a Windows version, which most of the WP faithful hated.

    And don’t forget Alt-Tab, one of the greatest inventions of all time.

  22. Nick Flandrey says:

    ctrl p is very useful and very quick.

    n

  23. CowboyStu says:

    WRT trolls, about 20 years ago, RBT appointed me to act as a Super Administer on both this an the Technical Forum  with the authority to delete inappropiate posts and banish trolls.

  24. lynn says:

    So, why does an Apple mouse have one button?

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/creation-myth

    I have never understood why Zerox did not patent the computer mouse, multiple windows, pull down menus, etc.

  25. Alan says:

    >> I ordered a couple 10 packs of 3m N95 masks from Amazon the other day for $11.99 a pack. Cheap enough to just put on the shelf in case they are needed.

    Are you comfortable that they’re not counterfeit at that price? I’ve gotten most of my N95s at HD at ~$22 for a ten pack. 

  26. MrAtoz says:

    WRT trolls, about 20 years ago, RBT appointed me to act as a Super Administer on both this an the Technical Forum  with the authority to delete inappropiate posts and banish trolls.

    Avengers Assemble!

    5
    1
  27. lynn says:

    xkcd: Voyager Wires

         https://xkcd.com/2624/

    That would be a LOT of wire.  And 18 gauge probably would have snapped on takeoff.   Thank goodness for wireless communications.

    Explained at:

        https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2624:_Voyager_Wires

  28. Alan says:

    >> Those studies are poorly reproducible

    You should know by now that most of the stuff here is just made up. 

  29. lynn says:

    So, why does an Apple mouse have one button?

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/creation-myth

    I have never understood why Zerox did not patent the computer mouse, multiple windows, pull down menus, etc.

    I read the article, now I understand.  Zerox was full of MBAs, the ultimate killers of just about any business.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    I have never understood why Zerox did not patent the computer mouse, multiple windows, pull down menus, etc.

    The mouse concept came from SRI. GUI concepts had lots of origins, including SRI.

    Xerox’s biggest IP protection failure was Ethernet, completely developed in the building. VLSI could also be argued, but IBM bungled that one earlier than PARC.

    Xerox didn’t even recognize the value of the precursors to Postscript, closer to their core business and also developed at PARC.

  31. lynn says:

    F google.   They changed something this week.  Until now I could stay logged in as nick all the places I’m nick, and as someone else all the places I’m someone else, like youtube vs my calendar.  Now I can only be one at a time. 

    Weasels 

    n

    Google is making big changes on their login code this weekend.  Something about obsoleting OAUTH and making OATH2 their standard.  I am worried that they are going to screw everything up on my Windows 7 PCs in my shop.  We run half Windows 10 x64 Pro, half Windows 7 x64 Pro.   A couple of our development tools do not work on Windows 10 x64 Pro.

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

  32. lynn says:

    @nick

    from “good use”….

    -laughing- I was gloriously spell wrecked and didn’t catch it. Though the corgis perk up at the concept of manure goodies. Fine snackin’s

    Dogs are disgusting.  All of my dogs love snacking in the cat litter box.  Then they come slobber all over you.

  33. lynn says:

    “Anti-gun Left using TX tragedy to cower pro-gun Republicans”

        https://www.gunowners.org/na05252022/

    “We must discuss real solutions to preventing this type of evil from striking again, for example, by arming willing teachers—which is a solution supported by 81% of police. No school that has armed teachers or staff has ever experienced a mass shooting.”

  34. ITGuy1998 says:

    Are you comfortable that they’re not counterfeit at that price? I’ve gotten most of my N95s at HD at ~$22 for a ten pack. 

    Never can tell. Sold and fulfilled by Amazon, which isn’t a guarantee, but better than a third party. When they arrive I’ll post an update.

  35. Alan says:

    >> Lockdowns are truly the cause of a lot of this.  I’ve never understood why Americans seem to think adhoc imprisonment of all the innocent people is  an ok tactic for police to use.  If the schools weren’t locked down, the children WOULD run away.   

    Imprisoning students in public schools – or Americans in shopping malls or restaurants –  is not saving any lives. There’s nothing but theory behind it.   It’s purely a military police tactic designed to help the police, not to save the innocent.   

    In schools they’re trying to isolate the kids from the threat, behind either a thick solid wood or steel door that deadbolts from the inside and has only a small bullet resistant window. The problem is what happened in Uvalde – the shooter gets into a classroom before the lockdown and then has the advantage of the barricading. To counter this, all classroom doors need to be locked at all times. With regard to running away, it can fill the hallways with potential targets.

    In a mall, the “Run, Hide, Fight” protocol could make more sense.

  36. lynn says:

    So, why does an Apple mouse have one button?

    – because the xerox parc mouse did?   Or because the xerox parc mouse had more than one?

    No one uses the right button. Well, not much, anyway. Plus, manufacturing costs.

    Jobs and Wozniak both worked at HP.

    I use the right mouse button to go backwards all the time.

  37. Nick Flandrey says:

    The newer mantra is “avoid” “deny” “defend” which is subtly different, not as powerful a mnemonic, but when taught and explained makes more sense.

    Hiding only works if the attacker doesn’t know you are hiding there, as the kids in the band room discovered previously.   

    As far as running providing targets, as I’ve taught my kids, you run away from the threat and towards safety.    I’ll go out on a limb, because it’s what I’ve taught my own kids, it’s ALWAYS better to run and NOT BE THERE.   If something happens at their school and they can, they are to get outside and run for the fence, away from the school.

    The most f’d up part of the training most people get is the de-emphasis of the “fight” component for liability reasons.   You can fight back effectively.   You don’t have to be a sheep to the slaughter.  There is at least on really good youtube aimed at college kids, and Best Defense did a show about it that had basic and effective responses.

    Not second guessing the teachers, but better to die charging the murderer, than to die trying to shield the kids with your own body.

    When the murderer is facing you with gun in hand, you are already dead.   Nothing you can do can make it worse than being dead.  better to try something.

    n

  38. Alan says:

    >> I have never understood why Zerox did not patent the computer mouse, multiple windows, pull down menus, etc.

    @lynn, Xerox is the copier company, Zerex is anti-freeze and Zerox is an Adam Ant song. So…off the lawn.

  39. Nick Flandrey says:

    all classroom doors need to be locked at all times.

    teachers HATE being locked in with students.   Remember that schools are gun free zones because the teachers were afraid of the kids.   It’s not a rule of nature that schools be gun free, it’s the result of policy decisions decades ago when discipline was removed from schools, and a certain culture started running wild.   It was students shooting teachers that prompted the law.

    n

  40. Nick Flandrey says:

    Not to mention the peoples’ right to free association and assembly.

    n

  41. Nick Flandrey says:

    Did I mention that it’s now 99F in the sun?  Humidity is down to 31%RH.

    n

  42. lynn says:

    @Lynn – Do the f2c maintainers have a Github repository?

    Looks like the answer is no.  But there are several other people with f2c repositories.

        https://github.com/juanjosegarciaripoll/f2c/blob/master/scripts/f77.in

  43. lynn says:

    So, why does an Apple mouse have one button?

    – because the xerox parc mouse did?   Or because the xerox parc mouse had more than one?

    No one uses the right button. Well, not much, anyway. Plus, manufacturing costs.

    Jobs and Wozniak both worked at HP.

    I use the right mouse button to go backwards all the time.

    And I use the right mouse button in my diagrammatic software to popup a menu for the user to do things like copy, cut, paste, properties dialog, etc.  Very important.

        https://www.winsim.com/media/refinery.png

  44. Alan says:

    >> True. Feelings are all that matter here, not facts.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyBcHUe4WeQ

  45. Alan says:

    >> teachers HATE being locked in with students.

    Unless the (substitute) teacher is Ray.

  46. lynn says:

    “Boeing’s Starliner Completes ISS Mission and Safely Returns to Earth”

         https://www.pcmag.com/news/boeings-starliner-is-finally-in-orbit-heading-to-iss

    “NASA now has two US commercial vehicles to transport astronauts into space.”

    The last flight of the Starliner ?

  47. lynn says:

    @Lynn – Do the f2c maintainers have a Github repository?

    Looks like the answer is no.  But there are several other people with f2c repositories.

        https://github.com/juanjosegarciaripoll/f2c/blob/master/scripts/f77.in

    The Netlib maintainer replied to my email last night at 1 am.  He does not know of anyone who has added support for Fortran Structures either.

  48. ITGuy1998 says:

    True. Feelings are all that matter here, not facts. 
     

    Condemning feelings with a feeling. Seems about right.  

    4
    1
  49. Pecancorner says:

    The newer mantra is “avoid” “deny” “defend” which is subtly different, not as powerful a mnemonic, but when taught and explained makes more sense.

    Hiding only works if the attacker doesn’t know you are hiding there, as the kids in the band room discovered previously.  

    As far as running providing targets, as I’ve taught my kids, you run away from the threat and towards safety.    I’ll go out on a limb, because it’s what I’ve taught my own kids, it’s ALWAYS better to run and NOT BE THERE.   If something happens at their school and they can, they are to get outside and run for the fence, away from the school.

    The most f’d up part of the training most people get is the de-emphasis of the “fight” component for liability reasons.   You can fight back effectively.   You don’t have to be a sheep to the slaughter.  There is at least on really good youtube aimed at college kids, and Best Defense did a show about it that had basic and effective responses.

    Not second guessing the teachers, but better to die charging the murderer, than to die trying to shield the kids with your own body.

    When the murderer is facing you with gun in hand, you are already dead.   Nothing you can do can make it worse than being dead.  better to try something.

    —–

    – teachers HATE being locked in with students.   Remember that schools are gun free zones because the teachers were afraid of the kids.   It’s not a rule of nature that schools be gun free, it’s the result of policy decisions decades ago when discipline was removed from schools, and a certain culture started running wild.   It was students shooting teachers that prompted the law.

    Not to mention the peoples’ right to free association and assembly.

    As usual, Nick understands the heart of the matter.     

  50. Ray Thompson says:

    We must discuss real solutions to preventing this type of evil from striking again, for example, by arming willing teachers

    I still think that is a bad idea. Pointing a gun at someone and killing them is not easy. In fact it is extremely difficult without a lot of training and continuing training. There would probably be significant collateral damage. And that would have people up in arms, subject the school to significant lawsuits, and destroy the life of teacher.

    behind either a thick solid wood or steel door that deadbolts from the inside and has only a small bullet resistant window

    At the school system I work all the doors are locked from the inside. The doors must remain locked through class. In an emergency situation blinds are put down over the windows, students sitting on the floor away from the interior wall, lights out, no talking, the door is never opened for anyone for any reason. Only someone with a key is allowed to open the door.

    Unless the (substitute) teacher is Ray.

    They only hate me when I take their cell phones. Most think I am OK as I don’t tolerate crap from the students. They also know if they ask I will generally let them use their cell phones if the reason is valid.

    If something happens at their school and they can, they are to get outside and run for the fence, away from the school.

    In the school I am in that would be a bad idea. They are safer in a locked classroom. Steel door, small window, cinder block walls. Students are isolated. The only time the student should run is if they are not in the classroom and cannot get into a classroom.

    The school I am in is being replaced, sometime in 2023. The prior elementary school is being remodeled for high school use. That school only has interior entrances. To gain access an individual would have to go through the main entrance and that door is locked and only released by the receptionist. To get further another door must be released.

    I am certain that security will be increased when the remodel is completed.

    4
    1
  51. Brad says:

    Hard to sort facts from fiction, but it sure sounds like the police failed to do their duty. If they really left the shooter alone with his targets for 40 minutes, they should all be used for live target practice.

    Re cursive: dying and dead. Everyone I know prints, including people my age (60+). Cursive is not actually faster, and it’s a lot harder to read. If speed counts, I type on a computer.

  52. Greg Norton says:

    “Boeing’s Starliner Completes ISS Mission and Safely Returns to Earth”

    The last flight of the Starliner ?

    No. Boeing has a contract, and they will want to demonstrate the capability of the vehicle to carry people safely.

  53. Pecancorner says:

    No one should ever teach “learned helplessness”.  Hiding or going into a place one can’t escape from is deadly.

    And to be blunt, especially girls need to learn to always escape first into the outdoors and to actively fight to escape, regardless of how well armed an assailant or kidnapper or rapist is.   

    Many years ago, the “problem” was attackers dragging women into a car, or coming into private offices or small businesses, and taking people into back rooms at gunpoint.   We learned then to refuse.  To fight.  To not go into the back. To start screaming “FIRE!” even with a gun in our face.   People who had our interests at heart told us, correctly, that most criminals would run away if they encountered resistance.  And if they didn’t, like Nick posted above,  at the very least we’d be a moving target with a chance to live, not  to die cringing with our backs turned.  

    Never underestimate children – for their own safety and life competence, they need to always, from earliest ages, be taught that they should run away and/or fight back against anyone trying to harm them.     That comes naturally to children, and they can do it if their instincts for escape and self defense are not “taught” out of them. 

    That scrappiness is what keeps people alive in any survival situation, whether stranded in the wilderness or kidnapped or facing a shooter; whether we are 4 years old or 40 or 80. 

    The Active Shooter training I took several years back was aimed at hospital employees, so he focused on how to fight back without weapons or strength.  He taught – and had us practice – several useful techniques that would if nothing else hold his attention on one whilst the others ganged up and took him down or escaped themselves. 

    The most surprising thing I noticed in the training was how docile many other people there were.  Few  would take the position near the front ,  many were more embarrassed to pretend and hesitated. One thing most would do, however, was follow the leader, so when one of us did move, they would act too. 

      The most important element to doing so is to ACT.  Not to wait. Not to hesitate. Not to wait for someone else. To take charge and take the initiative. 

    “Once you start moving, you aren’t afraid anymore.”

    ~ Chris Norman, Britisher who, even though unarmed, helped subdue an armed Islamic terrorist aboard a French train.

  54. ITGuy1998 says:

    The N95 masks just arrived. 3M box, the masks look correct and have all the required markings. No Chinese English or misspellings. 

    Added: They were boxes of 20, not 10. The boxes were in less than new shape. Almost as if they were stored for a while and moved around several times. I’m guessing Amazon is unloading their hoarded stockpile…

  55. RickH says:

    Hard to sort facts from fiction,

    This report says that the Uvalde school had security and lockdown protocols. https://abcnews.go.com/US/security-measures-uvalde-school-district-place/story?id=84966706 . Doesn’t describe the status of those protocols before/during the shooting.

    Note that the protocol says that ‘all doors must be locked’.  It appears that the shooter entered through an unlocked back door.

    Took a quick Google Street View of the school today. It appears that there are blocks of classrooms without outside main entrances under a covered walkway, and another exterior door opposite the  main classroom entry door.  This is a common configuration on older, rural schools. In fact, the plan looks very similar to the elementary school that I attended (way back in the early 1960’s): exterior open hallways, a main entrance on the hallway side, and an exterior entrance opposite. Full windows on the walkway side.

    The Street View shows an chain link fence around the school property. I couldn’t tell if the fence had entry points on the perimeter. But I suspect it does.

  56. Geoff Powell says:

    @MrAtoz:

    the law suits are going to fly.

    There will be some, including parents (quite justifiably), who would sue even if there had been implemented security protocols.

    From this side of the pond, the FUSA appears over-litigious. And it’s spreading over here.

    G.

    5
    1
  57. lynn says:

    “The Unburnable Book: Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpsMsAMY4eM

    Wow.  Still not going to read it.

    2
    1
  58. Alan says:

    >> >> The N95 masks just arrived. 3M box, the masks look correct and have all the required markings. No Chinese English or misspellings.  

    Link please. Thanks. 

  59. lynn says:

    Hard to sort facts from fiction, but it sure sounds like the police failed to do their duty. If they really left the shooter alone with his targets for 40 minutes, they should all be used for live target practice.

    I was just listening to Sean Hannity’s radio show.  The guest host (sounds like the America Coast to Coast guy) said the the cops rushed in 4 minutes after the shooter started shooting.  But apparently he shot several of them and they think they shot him.  So the cops all ran back out and called the SWAT team.  The SWAT team went in an hour later and killed the shooter.  They think that the shooter did not shoot any more kids or teachers after the first rush.

    The guest host said that the school did not have a security officer and that the teacher door to the parking lot was unlocked.

  60. Alan says:

    >> I still think that is a bad idea. Pointing a gun at someone and killing them is not easy. In fact it is extremely difficult without a lot of training and continuing training. There would probably be significant collateral damage. And that would have people up in arms, subject the school to significant lawsuits, and destroy the life of teacher.

    I don’t know…sure, shooting and killing someone isn’t easy, but I would think not shooting them and then knowing that more 10 year-olds died isn’t so easy either. If you choose to “carry” you should be properly trained and prepared to use your weapon in the appropriate circumstances.

  61. lynn says:

    We must discuss real solutions to preventing this type of evil from striking again, for example, by arming willing teachers

    I still think that is a bad idea. Pointing a gun at someone and killing them is not easy. In fact it is extremely difficult without a lot of training and continuing training. There would probably be significant collateral damage. And that would have people up in arms, subject the school to significant lawsuits, and destroy the life of teacher.

    Would just the knowledge that some of the teachers have guns stop the crazies from entering a school with a gun and shooting people ?

    Apparently most if not all of the murdered children and teachers were in one classroom in Uvalde.  

    And yes, pointing a gun at someone and killing them is not easy.  In fact, apparently half of the police officers who get shot is with their own service weapon by a suspect who has taken the weapon away from the officer.

    My former USMC son was a FOB (forward operating base) guard in Iraq when he was not not doing other stuff.  They had 40 Marines and 40 Iraqi soldiers in his FOB.  One day, one of the Iraqi soldiers went crazy and shot my sons’s buddy, killing him.  My son was standing ten feet away, pulled his M9 pistol, and shot the Iraqi soldier ten times (full magazine).  Two other Marines ran up and shot the Iraqi soldier also, taking him down .  It took my son years to get over that and I am fairly sure that he still has PTSD from the incident.

  62. SteveF says:

    Condemning feelings with a feeling.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgfEiqltwgs

    (naughty words warning)

    Cursive is not actually faster, and it’s a lot harder to read.

    Cursive was invented for quill pens and then wooden or metal nib pens dipped in ink. With their technological replacement almost a century and a half ago, cursive writing serves no practical purpose.

    >> teachers HATE being locked in with students.

    Unless the (substitute) teacher is Ray.

    “I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me.”

    Hiding or going into a place one can’t escape from is deadly.

    Very strongly agree.

    No one should ever teach “learned helplessness”.

    Even more strongly agree.

    But you’ll only be disappointed if you expect government schools to teach self-reliance and self-determination.

  63. SteveF says:

    Feelings are all that matter here, not facts.

    OK, groomer.

  64. ITGuy1998 says:

    >> >> The N95 masks just arrived. 3M box, the masks look correct and have all the required markings. No Chinese English or misspellings.  

    Link please. Thanks.

    Sorry, I should have done that at the start. 

    https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07574ZLS1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1&tag=ttgnet-20

  65. lynn says:

    Wow, it is 97 F here in the wilds of Fort Bend County.  The dew point is only 56 F though which is incredibly low for us.  That won’t last very long, we will be back up in our normal high 70s or middle 80s dew point very soon.

  66. ITGuy1998 says:

    https://safeguard.3m.com/Guest#/Validation

    Here’s a link to validate 3M masks. 

  67. Rick H says:

    @ITGuy1998

    The reviews for that Zon mask item are mixed.  Other review complained about the straps breaking/pulling off. 

    One review says that you should check the code on the box: 

    There is a security code on the box and you can enter it on their web site and verify it.

  68. drwilliams says:

    This fraud alert contains useful information and a link to a 3m website that can be used to verify certain products labeled with a security code:

    https://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/1960842O/3m-8210-9205-9210-counterfeit-communication-letter.pdf

  69. MrAtoz says:

    But you’ll only be disappointed if you expect government schools to teach self-reliance and self-determination.

    Maybe plugs can implement a “Tranny Teaches Shootin’” hour in the library. Tie it to Federal funding like they do everything. Don’t have a Tranny, don’t get any funding.

  70. CowboyStu says:

    Correction:  “Super Administrator”.

  71. JimB says:

    Re text entry speed, dictation is fastest of all, but requires training and lots of practice. I did some, and liked it, but never got very good. I don’t have much need anymore, but would like to revisit and build skill.

  72. lynn says:

    I just released version 16.14 of our software.  It is a good release.  Maybe I can get serious about version 17.00 now.

  73. Greg Norton says:

    The reviews for that Zon mask item are mixed.  Other review complained about the straps breaking/pulling off. 

    We had a stash of “real” N95 masks at the start of the pandemic. The straps were pathetic on those.

    The masks are meant for people doing painting and drywall, worn for a day or two and then discarded.

  74. Ray Thompson says:

    I would think not shooting them and then knowing that more 10 year-olds died isn’t so easy either

    I can’t disagree on that. I have just seen stories of cops, supposedly trained, firing 22 rounds and only one hitting the suspect. Two other people were wounded that were merely bystanders and sued the crap out of the city.

    I have had training in using deadly weapons and shooting someone. It is not easy when the adrenaline is pumping. And those were merely dummies (might have been democrats) for targets. Of course I was being yelled at the entire time and threatened with bodily harm. There was also distracting noise, strobe lights, and other manner of distraction.

    I just don’t think a teacher, with minimal training, would be able to effectively take down someone. I can easily visualize the teacher turning their head, closing their eyes, and pulling the trigger, hoping. That will not work.

    Just my $0.02. With inflation, $0.01.

    4
    1
  75. Pecancorner says:

    Re text entry speed, dictation is fastest of all, but requires training and lots of practice. I did some, and liked it, but never got very good. I don’t have much need anymore, but would like to revisit and build skill.

    I worked for an attorney and his wife. She was the fastest, most accurate typist I’ve ever known.  He was a brilliant man, and had everything in his head.    She’d put a sheet of paper into her IBM Selectric, and he would stand behind her pacing back and forth, talking all the time.  He only paused when she came to the end of the page and needed to put new paper in, then both would pick up where they left off.  

    At the end of the document, he’d stop talking, she would pull the sheet out of the typewriter,  he would sign it, and it was ready to go. No proofreading or corrections needed.  

    They were a heck of a team.  Just amazing to watch, like it is with anyone who is truly a master at whatever their job is. 

  76. lynn says:

    Wow, a couple more of the new solar power plants in Texas must have come online.  The solar power plants hit 9,540 MW at 4pm today.

        http://www.ercot.com

    If I remember correctly, about 10,000 MW of solar is coming online this year in Texas, up to around 15,000 MW.  Of course, a lot of that power has to be replaced at 8pm in the summer when the solar power plants fade away with the sun.  Spin up those gas turbines !

  77. Greg Norton says:

    They were a heck of a team.  Just amazing to watch, like it is with anyone who is truly a master at whatever their job is. 

    Now they run a Cinnabon in Omaha.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kehNSi3jYh4

  78. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    lynn says:

    “The Unburnable Book: Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE”

    Wow.  Still not going to read it.

    I read it back when it was new. Dreck writing, implausible plot,  terrible story. DO NOT EVER read “The Handmaid’s Tale”.  That would be a few hours of your life that could never be reclaimed.

  79. SteveF says:

    DO NOT EVER read “The Handmaid’s Tale”.

    I read maybe the first 1000 words. Probably should have stopped reading after the first 100.

    Concur with “do not ever read”.

  80. Nick Flandrey says:

    Pointing a gun at someone and killing them is not easy. In fact it is extremely difficult without a lot of training and continuing training.

    I had this discussion with our late host.   It is demonstrably not true, and is a shibboleth repeated based on Colonel Cooper’s execrable book.    

    Civilization and western culture is the process of suppressing man’s natural tendency to kill anyone who p!sses him off.    Cooper’s book has been widely discredited.  If anything, it only applies to men from a certain class and time period, and particular culture  and only when killing in cold blood.    The counter examples are in the nightly news from any big blue city…

    I just don’t think a teacher, with minimal training, would be able to effectively take down someone. I can easily visualize the teacher turning their head, closing their eyes, and pulling the trigger, hoping.

    People with little or no training successfully defend themselves with a gun EVERY DAY.   Kids manage to do it.    **

    There are plenty of stories of cops, particularly in NYFC shooting more bystanders than perps, and there are reasons for that.*    One is that cops have very little training actually shooting.   It was a big deal when HPD’s Chief insisted that every cop re-qualify with his service weapon every year.  It’s expensive in ammo, and time, so  most departments don’t do it.  Further, cops are not by and large ‘gun guys’.   Many if not most don’t shoot for fun, or on their own time.  Before wuflu, almost everyone I knew in town shot far more than most cops, myself included.  The bare minimum standard for getting a LTC in Texas is more shooting than most cops do in a year.

    *NYFC has such a problem with accidental discharges that they mandate a REALLY RIDICULOUSLY STRONG trigger spring, which makes the pull very hard, and leads to inaccurate shooting.

    **almost every day there is a news article about a homeowner  shooting intruders.  There are many stories of kids doing it too.  Several blogs feature them because successful defensive gun use doesn’t get the coverage it deserves.  

    But I digress.

    Utah has had armed teachers for years without issues.   Other states do as well.   Texas has the School Marshal program and many districts take advantage of it.  There are ALREADY armed teachers and other staffers in schools.  Keep in mind it’s not MANDATORY, and the people that are attracted to the programs are self selected for taking it seriously and wanting to excel. 

    It frustrated me to no end that in the parking lot I was trusted to defend the kids under my care, but not once I entered the building.   Even then, I had plans to secure my classroom and what to use if I had to go hunting.  FFS, there’s a fire extinguisher every 50 ft or less in most school buildings.   No one can breath that sh!t.   

    The doctrine and paradigm changes with every event, the bad guys evolve too, but the current doctrine is that you do anything you can to interrupt the movie the guy has playing in his head.  They will pause or vapor lock entirely when things don’t go like they plan.  In the past, most of them self-terminated at the first sign of resistance or appearance of authority.  That is evolving, with more surrendering, or fighting until stopped.  That just emphasizes the need to be able to stop them.

    Pecancorner has it right, and people like Kathy at Cornered Cat put it bluntly.   NEVER let them take you to a ‘secondary location.’   The only reason they want to do that is so they can do something to you there that they don’t want to do where you are.  Her whole entire site is worth reading, btw.

    It’s a big subject and takes some time and effort.   For a while, I was about as current and well informed as it’s possible for a part time ordinary person with a life to be.   I’ve fallen behind and need to catch up.

    n

  81. Pecancorner says:

    They were a heck of a team.  Just amazing to watch, like it is with anyone who is truly a master at whatever their job is. 

    Now they run a Cinnabon in Omaha.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kehNSi3jYh4

    I guess you’ll have to ‘splain it to me, because I don’t get it.  🙂

  82. Nick Flandrey says:

    I agree, Handmaid’s Tale is cr@p.

    n

  83. drwilliams says:

    modern litrachuar = crap (95%CI)

  84. mediumwave says:

    It is demonstrably not true, and is a shibboleth repeated based on Colonel Cooper’s execrable book.    

    This book?

    https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Personal-Defense-Jeff-Cooper-ebook/dp/B08GPCLQTV/ref=sr_1_3?crid=N0E6ILBLBE3J&keywords=Colonel+Cooper%E2%80%99s&qid=1653615302&s=books&sprefix=colonel+cooper+s+%2Cstripbooks%2C77&sr=1-3&tag=ttgnet-20

    Why is it execrable? (Just curious.)

  85. Greg Norton says:

    I guess you’ll have to ‘splain it to me, because I don’t get it.  

    “Better Call Saul”. 

    The first 5-10 minutes of every season – except the current one – feature flash forwards to the title character’s life in the present day as a Cinnabon manager, hiding from the criminals he once defended in court.

    The crazy thing is that “Gene” is a very good Cinnabon manager, with the producers bringing in trainers from the company to the set to teach the actors the fundamentals of operating one of the stores and actually making the rolls.

    Great TV. We don’t even watch the rest of the show.

    2
    1
  86. drwilliams says:

    mug shots of perpetrators of mass shootings in 2021:

    https://mass-shootings.info/index.php

    Name, city, status, and carnage appear when moused over.

    Be interesting to ask each how they identify themselves with respect to gender/sexual orientation/race/ethnicity and list their social media habits, label each photo, and then put up poster-sized prints of each around each forum where “we must act now ” is being debated.

    I’m going to hazard a guess based on superficial appearance that females and PPocs (Pink Persons of Color) are vastly under-represented.

    The sample is small, so it would be possible to test each crime against proposed legislation and get some kind of estimate as to whether such legislation would have made any difference.

  87. drwilliams says:

    Combination of Fentanyl-Laced Pills and Social Media Proving Toxic to American Teens

    In one incident, 500,000 fentanyl pills were found during an Arizona traffic stop.

    Posted by Leslie Eastman  Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 11:00am

    The new data documents that estimated overdose deaths from opioids increased to 75,673 in the 12-month period ending in April 2021, up from 56,064 the year before.

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/05/combination-of-fentanyl-laced-pills-and-social-media-proving-toxic-to-american-teens/

    Almost 1500 a week, and many of them kids.

    Fentanyl is manufactured in China and India and usually smuggled in through Mexico.

    We could close that border and save lives, but it would shut off the flow of potential future Democrat voters that will hopefully keep the thieving geriatric multi-millionaire PPoc’s in control until they retire behind their high walls and hired security, so, non-starter.

  88. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ah F me, GROSSMAN, not Cooper.   The book is “On Killing”.

    Perpetuates a myth which is damaging to people who actually have killed and don’t feel all that bad about it.  

    I had Cooper on my mind.   Cooper is fine.

    n

    added the Colonel part should have been the clue for me. I got that right.

  89. drwilliams says:

    Ms. Gomez, a farm supervisor, said that she was one of numerous parents who began encouraging–first politely, and then with more urgency–police and other law enforcement to enter the school. After a few minutes, she said, federal marshals approached her and put her in handcuffs, telling her she was being arrested for intervening in an active investigation.

    Ms. Gomez convinced local Uvalde police officers whom she knew to persuade the marshals to set her free. Around her, the scene was frantic. She said she saw a father tackled and thrown to the ground by police and a third pepper-sprayed. Once freed from her cuffs, Ms. Gomez made her distance from the crowd, jumped the school fence, and ran inside to grab her two children. She sprinted out of the school with them.

    After the confrontation ended with Ramos dead, school buses began to arrive to transport students from the school, according to Ms. Gomez. She said she saw police use a Taser on a local father who approached the bus to collect his child.

    https://archive.ph/Y4k8P

    (quoted from the Wall Street Journal)

    I hope Hollywood is taking notes and collecting video from Texas so they can quit writing propaganda and portray the Feds accurately in the future.

  90. lynn says:

    lynn says:

    “The Unburnable Book: Margaret Atwood’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE”

    Wow.  Still not going to read it.

    I read it back when it was new. Dreck writing, implausible plot,  terrible story. DO NOT EVER read “The Handmaid’s Tale”.  That would be a few hours of your life that could never be reclaimed.

    But her “Oryx and Crake” series is pretty good.  It is about the coming genetic modification of everything, including humans. The pigs with human brain DNA bothered me the most. I have been treed by a hundred javelinas while hunting, I would hate to mess with them if they actually had intelligence. I shot one of the javelinas with my .308, the rest of them did not care. A hundred javelinas and five rounds in my gun is a very bad match. I now carry a pistol when hunting also.

        https://www.amazon.com/Crake-MaddAddam-Trilogy-Margaret-Atwood/dp/0385721676?tag=ttgnet-20/

  91. lynn says:

    “Ford Beats Tesla to the Punch With First Electric F-150 Delivery”

        https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-26/ford-f-150-lightning-first-sale-goes-to-would-be-tesla-cybertruck-buyer

    “A rural Michigan resident who also had a Cybertruck on order ends up with Lightning No. 1.”

    Tesla is still trying to get their electric 18 wheeler tractors out the door.  Those have got four 250 khw batteries, good for 500 miles reputedly.  That is eight times the batteries that they put in a Tesla 3 or S with the max battery option.  Apparently Tesla is driving several of their electric 18 wheelers between Nevada (battery plant) and California (car assembly) every day, working the bugs out.

    Hat tip to:
    https://www.drudgereport.com/

  92. SteveF says:

    I’m not surprised by SteveF’s inability to understand a simple critique, given that he either failed out of or dropped out of law school.

    OK, groomer.

    And it was neither. I learned what I had needed in law school, did not intend to become a lawyer, and left with an A average.

    10
  93. Nick Flandrey says:

    The problem with typing notes instead of writing them by hand, is that our generation of typists were taught to essentially just let the words flow thru to your hands…    you could copy a whole page without actually READING or comprehending it, as it went from your eyes to your hands.  Or with the husband and wife story, from her ears to her hands.

    Writing manually seems to engage the brain in the material in a different way.   It may be generational and training/experience based, but it’s a real difference for me.

     n

  94. Alan says:

    >> “A rural Michigan resident who also had a Cybertruck on order ends up with Lightning No. 1.”

    Tony didn’t want to be first. 

    Hat tip to: @Greg 

  95. Alan says:

    I agree with @nick re writing vs typing and I have stacks of notebooks to show for it. All written in ‘print’ and all in upper case with big and small letters. Been writing that way since high school. Did learn early on that less is more, easier to find the one important item you’re looking for. 

  96. Alan says:

    >> And it was neither. I learned what I had needed in law school, did not intend to become a lawyer, and left with an A average. 

    Just an “A” average?! 

    Get off my lawn. 

  97. Jenny says:

    @nick

    Its been awhile since I read Grossmans work. I attended a lecture by him some 15 years ago. I’ve gone to a couple of Ayoobs classes and attended a class with Kathy from Cornered Cat. Once upon a time there was more time and brain for such pursuits.

    My recollection of the Grossman material and his lecture was he supported his assertions and built up his arguments logically. He gave the impression 15+ years ago of a humble knowledgeable individual trying to articulate and understand root causes of the shootings. I recall him speaking on the video game hypothesis but recall he wove in other threads as well. I think he drew a connection between ant-depressants/ similar to shooter similarities. I may be misremembering. 
     

    My memory has been damaged by the car wreck some years ago, and I havent read his work recently. My experience and impression of his reliability differs from yours. Not a bad thing, enough to prompt me to go looking when I’ve got some time. Not this week.

  98. Jenny says:

    The Cornered Cat stuff was great, BTW, and the live practice was invaluable. Ayoobs classes were sobering. 

  99. Nick Flandrey says:

    @jenny, thanks for the differing perspective.    

    I find the basis of his argument, men have to be taught to kill, ludicrous in the face of overwhelming real world evidence, especially as it relates to interpersonal violence and defensive gun use.   But it may have merit in the limited military context he initially had.  And for white men from modern agrarian western cultures.

  100. Jenny says:

    @nick

    I’ll definitely put his books back on my TBR pile. My life has been comparatively sheltered from deliberate violence, and I don’t know what I don’t know.  I heard his message subtly different – not that we have to be taught to kill but that we get more practice mock killing with the aid of violent video games. That meshed with what I d learned about behavior – what we practice we improve on. So I could be experiencing some bias that shaped what I understood him to say. 
     

    all good at any rate. I appreciate different perspectives.

Comments are closed.