Tues. Aug. 9, 2022 – and the beat goes on

By on August 9th, 2022 in lakehouse, march to war, personal

Hot and humid.   But are we finally getting past summer?  Nope.   Houston hot and swamp humid.  It even got to 101F in the shade before I left the BOL.

I slept late, was half crippled when I did get up, and did plumbing and cleanup for the rest of the day.   Then headed home, with one stop for an auction pickup- for kitty litter for my emergency toilet.  I hope the 40 pound box lasts the rest of my life.  I had a box here in Houston, but I’m building up  our preps up north too.  Hence the need for more litter.  The clumping kind makes handling the plastic bag lining the bucket easier, and less likely to be messy.

Got an estimate for the first phase of the electrical work.  Seems reasonable, and if he can stick to the schedule we talked about last week, I may have a celebratory slap up next week when it’s all in.  Fingers crossed, because if that happens on time, then the septic can go in on time, and that would be all three majors on the calendar…

Today will be more of the usual… some pickups, some driving, some kidstuff, some home stuff.  Or maybe 3 of 4.

Or maybe just 2 out of three ain’t bad.

Stack it up.

 

n

133 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Aug. 9, 2022 – and the beat goes on"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    I’m watching the interwebs explode over the FBI raid of Trump’s estate. On the one hand, I assume they wouldn’t raid a former president without being absolutely certain that their warrant is solid. On the other hand, this is serious political theater, and the timing (shortly before elections) is unlikely to be coincidence.

    On the gripping hand, I find it hard to believe this is about 15 boxes of missing documents. That makes no sense, for lots of reasons. Bet: they’re looking for something else entirely, and the boxes of documents are subtle (and successful) misdirection.

    Harassment. Possible fishing expedition. Some boxes of documents may have accidentally been left around in a closet, but securing that property adequately is a huge problem if you look at it on a map. Trump would not store something sensitive there long term.

    For the nitpickers, I’ve driven by the site several times.

    Another possibility is the old Palm Beach money who have never liked Trump living there even part time are ratcheting up their decades-long fight with the former President. They may have called in a favor knowing that Trump was out of town.

  2. ITGuy1998 says:

    Re: old hardware for DOS. I have an older P4 motherboard, which still has a floppy and IDE drive controller. Last year, I put it in a case and installed DOS 6.22. I used a 500GB IDE drive (it was a new drive – we had a couple at work that sat on the shelf for YEARS) and made a 2GB partition. It installed without issues and booted fine. I was going to make a game machine, but the motivation left for that. Anyways, using an old laptop would be almost as good, though if you don’t have a floppy for it it could be challenging.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    We learned late yesterday that CVS in Texas won’t fill Ivermectin because they are choosing to follow CDC guidelines.

    Herr Little Doktor spoke The Science.

    Big smile!

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    Wonder what CVS’s policy on ‘morning after’ birth control is.   Didn’t they fight to force pharmacists to dispense it with a valid prescription?

    n

  5. Nick Flandrey says:

    83F and moist with blue sky and sun… Gonna be hot today.   Hooray.

    Lot of actors I grew up watching have passed on lately.  Add Olivia Newton John and Roger Mosley to the list.

    n

  6. EdH says:

    Re: Ancient laptop.

    I fiddled with it a bit last night. It is a HP dv8380us ”Entertainment”laptop.  Totally high end for its time, 17” screen, tv tuner, external ports galore, dvd r/w with lightscribe, massive docking station with wireless keyboard and  mouse, 2x160GB drives.

    It was upgraded at some point to Vista. 

    If I overwrite with Linux the drivers for most if the fancy stuff will not work, in my experience. 

    Sadly my friend texted that her father doesn’t remember the password, and since he’s concerned about info on the drives (student grades from a decade or more ago mostly, he was a college professor) I will have to overwrite. 

    I vaguely remember hearing that one could duplicate and reinstall the OS by bypassing login and going to the install partition, but probably not worth the hassle.

  7. mediumwave says:

    @Nick: A couple of suggestions in re the ongoing troll infestation: 

    First, please don’t delete comments. Your exchange with Ed yesterday was almost incomprehensible because most or all the offending comments had been deleted. We’re all adults here, we’ve familiar with offensive language and can deal with it, and we can consider the source of the comment while judging it.

    Second, it appears that we’ve lost @lynn forever. Although I didn’t see the comment that drove him away before it was deleted, I’ve been told that it involved some sort of “joke” regarding his daughter. Please repost that comment so that we may all see the depths to which the troll has stooped and react accordingly. 

  8. Alan says:

    Good morning, question for the hive, is CC insurance worth having, and if so, any recommendations as to which company is a good choice? 

  9. Alan says:

    @RickH, just wondering if you ever got my message from your Mutiny Bay site? Don’t seem to recall seeing a reply. 

  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    @mediumwave   

    him away before it was deleted, I’ve been told that it involved some sort of “joke” regarding his daughter. Please repost that comment so that we may all see the depths to which the troll has stooped and react accordingly. 

    –  nope.  Sorry but there is no need to see that, or to have it here.   It wasn’t a joke.  Nor were his comments about peoples’ wives, health, jobs, or kids.   Trust me that his comments that originally got deleted weren’t trivial.

    Ed is NaN to a 90% certainty based on style and themes.   He was making up references to comments or exaggerating, or misrepresenting.      

    If someone vomits on the floor, do you need to see the vomit or can I clean it up?   We don’t need to count the chunks or critique the chef’s choices  do we?   I’ve got better things to do than argue with trolls or give them a platform to abuse me and my friends.  They want to do that, they should take their own advice and write their own blog.

    My exchange with Ed started in good faith, but he ended up going down the same path as nan.   I left it up only because it’s a classic example of trolling  techniques.

    DrWilliams comment about a turd in the pool yesterday was ‘on point’ as the kids say.

    n

    added- unlike someone like Larry Correia, I don’t see troll bashing as a sport.  I’m not interested in having 30-50% of a days comments devoted to in group fighting, grammar nazis, gotcha point scoring or name calling.   That is not what we have here, and not the direction for the future.    That IS the direction nan would go.

  11. Nick Flandrey says:

    Alan, CC= concealed carry?   I have Texas Law Shield.   Their arguments are compelling.   I’ve never had to use them so I don’t know if they can back it up…

    IIRC Pecancorner or Jenny had some experience with Massoud EDIT should have been “Mas Ayoob” and the group he’s affiliated with, ?https://armedcitizensnetwork.org/ ?

    The argument is that if you have a gun related use of force incident, you need a lawyer who specializes in the appropriate law, not a standard defense lawyer whose experience is mostly with criminals and crimes.

    n

  12. mediumwave says:

    –  nope.  Sorry but there is no need to see that, or to have it here.   It wasn’t a joke.  Nor were his comments about peoples’ wives, health, jobs, or kids.   Trust me that his comments that originally got deleted weren’t trivial.

    Fair enough. In truth, I am OK with not seeing the original comment. My purpose was to ensure that the rest of the commentariat was aware of the nature of the troll’s offense.

  13. Nick Flandrey says:

    @EdH, the process to bypass the  password is very simple.

    https://www.wikihow.com/Bypass-Windows-7-Password 

    should set you in the right direction.   I’ve found that install media must match the version on the drive exactly, which makes it less useful.  REPAIR media works like  a champ.    Bootable linux versions used to be easy to use but the distro maintainers made some changes so now you have to understand linux a bit better and change permissions on files in order to make the needed changes to the windows drive.

    Don’t forget to try the administrator:admin pair if you can select which account to try logging into.  Lots of pcs shipped with that left as default.

    n

  14. lpdbw says:

    re: CC insurance

    I use Lawshield but when I shopped the plans a couple years ago, there were tradeoffs between them.

    I finally decided that any plan was better than no plan.

    Remember, in general pulling the trigger costs about $200,000.   Can be less if you live in red America and manage to shoot someone caught on video attacking you.  Can be a lot more if you have a Soros-funded prosecutor in a blue city or state anxious to curtail self-defense by white people, or you make the tiniest mistake during the encounter.  You don’t get a free pass like the police do.

    I also recommend reading Andrew Branca’s “Law of Self-defense” and Mas Ayoob’s writings on the subject.

    And even though he’s an annoying [expletive], John Correia has one saying you should take to heart.  “The question to ask isn’t CAN I shoot.  It’s MUST I shoot.”  The written law in Texas is that you CAN shoot to protect (some) property, but do you really want to get arrested, sent to jail, pay a bunch of lawyers, risk long-term incarceration over replaceable “stuff”?

  15. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    Greg N:  Don’t disregard the possibility – perhaps even the likelihood – that the FBI isn’t so much seizing anything as PLANTING it. 

  16. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    EdH: Once upon a time, I had a Windows password remover that would remove the LOCAL password for a Windows machine. I even sent a copy to Jerry Pournelle when he’d lost the password on one of his machines after the brain cancer/radiation incident. 

    Want me to see if I can find it again? It worked well on Win7, but not on Win10. 

  17. Brad says:

    Don’t disregard the possibility – perhaps even the likelihood – that the FBI isn’t so much seizing anything as PLANTING it. 

    While I wouldn’t rule the idea out, I assume Trump has competent staff, who will have accompanied the agents, and possibly filmed them.

    I still don’t believe it’s about old documents. I hope someone will publish the warrant. 

  18. Greg Norton says:

    Greg N:  Don’t disregard the possibility – perhaps even the likelihood – that the FBI isn’t so much seizing anything as PLANTING it. 

    That’s going too far even for the current politicized FBI.

  19. CowboyStu says:

    For EdH:

     Yes, WRT to the Dwight Yoakum, Buck Owens song about walking the streets of your hometown, I did that.  Logged intp the motel across the street from Buck Owens Crystal Palace and walked across the street to it and had a great time there.

    In 1994 my wife was tired of her Nissan station wagon.  I saw this video, and then bought her a 1995 Grand Cherokee.  Video reminded me of a place where we go camping on the other side of the Sierras, Kennedy Meadows.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4UcM0ErcNk

    I call it Bakersville nowadays.

     

  20. drwilliams says:

    Biden White House is claiming they didn’t know until they saw it on Twitter.

    I’d like to have Garland respond to that under oath. Make it very awkward to pull out that signed authorization later.

    ADDED
    An make sure they get Jill under oath, too.

  21. EdH says:

    @Nick & Co:  Re: Ancient laptop

    Things are pretty well locked down, the F10 “safe mode” just boots into the standard windows user account, as does “dos prompt”. No Administrator prompt that I can find, tried the basic Wiki stuff.

    Ah well.  I would guess users can not install things either, whoever set it up originally was reasonably competent. 

    As long as theres a linux that can access the sound card and run dosbox it’s not a big deal I guess.

    I have my devuan install around somewhere.

    But, I just realized, I need 32bit. So maybe that CentOS that someone mentioned.

  22. Alan says:

    >> While I wouldn’t rule the idea out, I assume Trump has competent staff, who will have accompanied the agents, and possibly filmed them.

    If there were really legitimate US Classified documents there, I’m not sure what that says about the competency of Trump’s staff. They could have easily secured them in a safe deposit vault in a Beverly Hills strip mall. This whole thing sounds like something contrived by the MSM and/or the Dumbos ahead of the November midterms. 

  23. drwilliams says:

    “That’s going too far even for the current politicized FBI.”

    Review Peter and Lisa’s texts and reconsider.

    It’s not the current FBI . It’s the current FBI as the festering pustule of thirty years of unaccountability since Ruby Ridge, and a succession of Democratic hatchetmen in the AG seat. Garland is a worthy successor to Reno and Holder.

  24. CowboyStu says:

    Well, the current FBI did some of that in west side of LA earlier this year.  Went into a storefront business, not a bank branch, that rented safe deposit type lock boxes.  Broke in some and confiscated money.  Nobody was convinced that they had sufficient probable cause to justify warrants.  Justification was that if a box had a large amount of currency, then is must be a result of illegal drug handling.  Although some boxes did contain such drugs.

  25. Jenny says:

    @Greg

    won’t fill Ivermectin

    We had that experience in October 2021. we had a bold friend attempting to fill it. One pharmacist refused to full and threw the prescription in the trash. Bold friend waited until pharmacist walked away and talked the clerk into fishing the prescription out and returning it. i don’t remember how many places friend had to go to find a willing pharmacy. It was difficult. Persistence and  calm firm insistence seemed to be the key. I think the second or third Walgreens attempted filled it. That same Walgreens refused the refill. 

    We also found that individual pharmacists would fill in spite of corporate  giving a push not too. It was infuriatingly random. 

  26. paul says:

    Catching up this morning was weird.  It seems huge swaths of the conversation vanished.

    Best I can tell, Lynn said F it and left.  Why?  Seems NaN was being extra turdish.  Yeah, it’s a word.  And someone going by “Ed” seems to be NaN’s retarded little brother. 

    Score one for NaNcy boy.  What ruined your day girlfriend?  Had a spazz and smeared lipstick across your face?

    How about growing up?  Or fake it. 

    Oh.   Don’t bother going off on me.  I’m not going to play. 

  27. paul says:

    I bought my Ivermectin supply on-line.  The local feed store would get a supply and sell it all the same day.
     

    Tractor Supply had the stuff when I bought dog food a few weeks ago.  I didn’t note the price.

    I have the 1% injectable.  No, you do not inject it.  You use a syringe to measure a dose, remove the needle and squirt the stuff onto a spoon for you or on the dog’s feed.

    https://www.barnhardt.biz/  

  28. EdH says:

    Catching up this morning was weird.  It seems huge swaths of the conversation vanished.

    Best I can tell, Lynn said F it and left.

    Yeah, same here. Still trying to process losing @MrAtoZ and now @lynn to a troll.

  29. EdH says:

    Re: Ancient Laptop.

    I talked to the previous owner and was able to get into the user accounts with some suggestions as to likely passwords, after a number of trials.

    Things are pretty clean, possibly professionally wiped, nothing evident in Documents, Downloads, Pictures, Trash, etc.

    Drive space seems lower than it should be.  Ancient, 2013, version of AVG running, Acrobat 9, etc.

    But on boot only 730MB of ram being used, of the 2GB.  it is easy to forget what pigs modern os’es are…

  30. paul says:

    It’s a beautiful day today.  Clear blue skies that would put baby eyes to shame and fluffy white clouds.  Ok, it’s 98F and the humidity is high enough that smearing deodorant under your arms is a waste of deodorant.   It’s better than being 40F.  I can feel my toes and fingers and my ears don’t hurt.

    I suppose the waistband of my shorts smell nice.  Not going to check.

    The dogs?  Out the door, check the cat food pan, look around and right back in.  🙂 

  31. Geoff Powell says:

    @paul: @EdH:

    Catching up this morning was weird.  It seems huge swaths of the conversation vanished.

    I missed quite a bit, as well. From what I did see, our resident troll appeared to have posted something inexcusable about @Lynn and his family, and that proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I suspect something similar about @MrAtoZ. This saddens me – our joint discourse will be the poorer for their absence.

    As far as HeWhoShallNotBeNamed is concerned, @Nick appears to be reasonably convinced that ”Ed” is a pseudo for the troll. I will admit that there is a resemblance. Nick also has access to more info than I do, so I will bow to his superior knowledge.

    It seems to me that HWSNBN is either one of those who is so convinced that he is right, that he cannot conceive of anyone disagreeing with him, and hence is driven to unacceptable (to us) language, or he’s a sociopath. Or both, of course, the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. In either case, such outpourings are unacceptable to me.

    Maybe I was cowardly to keep my head below the parapet until now, but that’s how I feel.

    Turning to more pleasant topics, the Met Office, here in UK, has issued a 4-day amber alert for heat, country-wide, predicting 35C (95F) temperatures until the weekend, and my waterco is saying “hosepipe bans are coming”. Temperature in the study here is 27C (80F) and 44% humidity. Somewhere outside (possibly Heathrow Airport) it’s 22C (72F).

    SWMBO and D3 are away for 2 weeks, starting Saturday.

    My car is in dock, because of a persistent current drain from the battery. They tell me it’s the broadcast radio, which doesn’t turn off with the ignition. This would normally not be a problem, most radios plug in (DIN E ftw!) but this is not a standard radio. They currently think it can’t be removed, because it’s integrated with the dash, but they will try. Replacement radios are like hen’s teeth. This may be a “For the want of a nail..” situation, and I may have to scrap the car. If so, I won’t replace it – I can borrow SWMBO’s Peugeot at need.

    G.

  32. paul says:

    I have a Toshiba Tecra 9000 that I really liked.  It had a nubbin between the G and H keys that I forget the official name of to use as a mouse.  The rude name?  Oh, teenage boy stupid jokes live forever.  Win98Se.  I use to use it on the SeaRay to play music via an earphone jack to cassette gizmo.

    I managed to get it tethered to my Cingular slab phone a couple of times.  Out in the middle of Lake Travis.  Beer was involved.  Because “boat”.  I managed to d/l my e-mail a few times at speeds than made an ancient 9600 modem in a Compaq 386 Suitcase computer look fast.  Hey, it worked!   Wait, that’s wrong.  I never got the stupid expensive modem in that Compaq to connect much faster than 300 baud. 

    Tosh started to act weird.  Age or it’s like 100F+ in the shade in the cabin of the boat.  Both, I reckon.  I figured how to make a CD of .mp3 files and started using a $40 portable CD player.

    The SeaRay is gone.  It was a lot of fun.  Someone got a couple of spots of skin cancer and that’s it for using the boat.  Well, yeah, I agree.

    I have a couple of HP (I think) laptops running Win7.  Total dogs.  Even with a fresh install, jeebus, open Control Panel sometime today.  Some kind of AMD CPUs. 

    That old Tosh still runs rings around either.  

  33. paul says:

    Drive space seems lower than it should be.

    Temp files?  Browser cache?  Recycle Bin? 

  34. EdH says:

    @Geoff: Yes, it is sad.  I’m not faulting anyone but the troll, btw, everyone else was acting in good faith.

    That’s quite the heatwave for the UK.  We are used to it in the desert, but without reliable a/c it is horrible.

    I visited Britain, Scotland and Ireland in about summer of 2001. Mild drizzles and overcast judging from photographs, though I mentally recall it as being quite pleasant.  I do recall it raining when I walked the wall around Chester, but pleasantly warm. 

    p.s. Perhaps you can you add a little inline switch for the radio power line? Seems a pity to trade a whole car in for that.

    I had something similar in an ancient Datsun 710 in college, the battery would drain overnight due to a short somewhere in the dash, and that was my fix. Originally I would connect/disconnect the battery, then when that became annoying (days) I started pulling the offending fuse, and when *that* became annoying (weeks) I cut the dash power line and spliced in in long piece of wire with a manual switch screwed to the dash.

    As soon as I graduated I bought a new(ish) car and gave the fastback to my brother, who wrecked it…

  35. Geoff Powell says:

    I’ve just installed Brave on my mobile phone. So far, it works, and it blocks ads.

    But it’s unacceptably chatty. It just sent me a notification, “See how many ads and trackers I’ve blocked in the last 3 hours”. I don’t need to know that, so I blocked notifications from Brave.

    G.

  36. Geoff Powell says:

    @EdH:

    That’s quite the heatwave for the UK.

    Yes, it is. As I said the last time we got a heat warning (only weeks ago) we’re not used to this. But I suspect we will have to live with it.

    And they’re predicting next year’s energy bills will average £4,200 per annum, up by a factor of more than two. Even without air conditioning, which, as I’ve said before, is uncommon here.

    G.

  37. Geoff Powell says:

    @EdH:

    I visited Britain, Scotland and Ireland

    You repeated yourself – Scotland is part of Britain (but may not be for much longer). And was that Northern Ireland, or the Republic?

    The radio appears to be an integral part of the dash, which won’t work properly if the radio is not present, or unpowered. Maybe your inline switch would work, I dunno. I have a bootleg copy of the service manual (which is a computer application, and not comprehensive) so maybe I should look it up.

    G.

  38. EdH says:

    @paul:  Yeah, never been a HP laptop fan, had 2 and both died before their time because of mobo failures.  

    This is a Core2, T2400, and I would just take it to eWaste if someone didn’t have plans for it. Dos educational games…

  39. paul says:

    Can’t you pull the fuse for the radio?  Or splice in a switch to the power supply?  Then again, England and Lighting by Lucas.  I’m joking!  

    My Nissan Frontier turns everything off with the ignition key.  Oh, you want to charge your phone while in the grocery store?  Nope.

  40. EdH says:

    @Geoff:  Heh, yeah, sorry about the mixup re:Britain. 

    I visited Dublin, mostly, which my Irish relatives claimed wasnt really Ireland. Only place on the trip where I felt like I was back in Los Angeles…a kind of hurried mean vibe that I didn’t feel even in busy London.

  41. Ed says:

    It seems huge swaths of the conversation vanished.

    That’s what I saw yesterday, and this trend of deleting comments makes it impossible to understand anything in context. 
     

    And someone going by “Ed” seems to be NaN’s retarded little brother. 

    Rick, Nick: Allowing this to stay up is really just beyond the pale. 

  42. Alan says:

    >> Well, the current FBI did some of that in west side of LA earlier this year.

    In a strip mall no less… 

    (above) “They could have easily secured them in a safe deposit vault in a Beverly Hills strip mall.”

  43. Alan says:

    >> We learned late yesterday that CVS in Texas won’t fill Ivermectin because they are choosing to follow CDC guidelines.

    And CVS  no longer sells cigarettes. 

  44. paul says:

    You repeated yourself – Scotland is part of Britain

    Yes.  We know that.  So is England.  And Wales.  United Kingdom and all that.

    Confuses me.  Anyway.  From over here, Scotland is sorta like Texas. 

  45. Geoff Powell says:

    @paul:

    Can’t you pull the fuse for the radio?

    Not easily, I’m physically not as flexible as I was, and it may be that the dash won’t work properly if the radio isn’t powered.

    But the car is 20 years old, and it’s getting a bit decrepit, especially cosmetically. I only do about a thousand miles a year, since I retired, and fixed costs to run a car in UK (for me, at least) run to about £1,000 a year, so £1 per mile. I had thought about giving up the car before, since, as I said, I can use the wife’s Peugeot at need. This may be the thing that forces me to do it.

    And scrapping a car because the radio won’t switch off and flattens the battery is crazy. Reminds me of the MicroSoft engineer again…

    G.

  46. paul says:

    Yeah, the flexible thing matters.  Mostly though, I can’t see once I wiggle my way to get under the dash.

    But.  20 year old car?  Sounds like a fun project for a 20 something guy.

  47. Geoff Powell says:

    @paul:

     From over here, Scotland is sorta like Texas. 

    Yes, Britain is sort of a Union of countries. By conquest, for Wales and Northern Ireland, and marriage for Scotland.

    Of course, Southern Ireland used to be part of Britain, until the Irish Nationalists got stroppy just after World War One. Partition happened in 1922, leaving the 6 counties of Northern Ireland (with a Protestant majority population) as part of Britain, while the other 26 counties left to become Catholic Eire.

    G.

  48. Geoff Powell says:

    @paul:

    But.  20 year old car?  Sounds like a fun project for a 20 something guy.

    True. But it’s worth within epsilon of zero, and there’d be the hassle of advertising it, and showing it, even with an “as seen” label, and then collecting the money… I can’t be *rsed. My plan was always to run the car until it broke, terminally. This may be that terminal breakage.

    G.

  49. paul says:

    Rick, Nick: Allowing this to stay up is really just beyond the pale. 

    Perhaps.  You write like NaN.  What variances there are are “drunk or stoned” or “constipated”.  Perhaps it’s more like “before dinner” and “after dinner with a few shots of whisky”.

    I don’t have access to the server logs.  I assume the software records the IP address of commenters.   If it doesn’t, why not?

    How to detect a VPN is beyond my skill.

    But.  “Beyond the pale”.  Oh dear.  Bless your heart. 

    You and your retard alter ego  has, as far as I can tell, run off one of my mostest (that’s another word) favorite folks here.

    Beyond the pale?

    Yeah.  print this comment double sided and fold it that sheet of paper up about 16 times and drizzle it with oil and shove it where the Sun doesn’t shine.

    Oh.  Bless your heart.

  50. EdH says:

    From over here, Scotland is sorta like Texas. 

    I have the urge to make a joke, but things are tense enough around here…

  51. EdH says:

      Re: Ancient laptop.

    Storage issue…probably isn’t.  Now that I have access to the control panel I can see that we have two Seagate 120 GB drives, not two 160 GB drives as the Google suggests.

    It turned itself off in the middle of stuff, but that could be old batteries.

  52. drwilliams says:

    Drizzle with oil?

    Nah. 

    Dry and sideways. 

  53. paul says:

    I have the urge to make a joke, but things are tense enough around here…

    It’s hot enough here that being a dude wearing a skirt seems to have a lot of positives. 

    Oh.  Do the Scots have Winter weight and Summer weight kilts?   Honest question. 

  54. Geoff Powell says:

    @paul:

    Do the Scots have Winter weight and Summer weight kilts?

    I don’t know. It would be sensible. One of my work colleagues, before I retired, was a Scot, and he attended the work Christmas party one year in full regalia – coat, sporran, kilt, knee socks. I was told that a kilt is actually about 9 feet of heavy wool material, which would be good in winter. Not so good in summer.

    Incidentally, my paternal grandmother was a McKay, so I’m entitled to wear that tartan. I don’t, I consider myself Welsh, not Scottish, but I could.

    G.

  55. paul says:

    I have the urge to make a joke,

    Go for it.  Texas is a crazy place.  All y’all up around New York have NO idea. 

    We have in one state at least six states if you go by the way it is in Yankee land.  We have counties in Texas bigger than other states. 

    From here, it’s an hour to San Antonio.  To the air port.  100 miles.  From here, it’s about 4 hours to DFW.  (I haven’t been in a while.) To the edge of DFW, not to anywhere you want to get to like taking 635 and looping around to Plano.  That’s another hour minimum.

    Going to Houston?  Oh hell no.

    Going to Austin?  There’s a horror show.  Downtown Austin is, by the maps, 60 miles away.  It’s like a three hour drive now.

  56. paul says:

    Incidentally, my paternal grandmother was a McKay, so I’m entitled to wear that tartan. I don’t, I consider myself Welsh, not Scottish, but I could.

    See?  Y’all talk trash about Texas.  And then ….   🙂  I’m just rolling on the floor here.

    Because l “I’m Welsh but I could be Scottish”. That just baffles me. The whole thing.

    It’s like saying “I’m from Lubbock” and living in Houston.

  57. drwilliams says:

    And someone going by “Ed” seems to be NaN’s retarded little brother. 

    Shard of a broken mind. Type you see around the bus station toilet tying to hide a crust of bread. 

  58. drwilliams says:

    Judge Who Repped Epstein Cronies Reportedly Signed Off On Trump Raid

    https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-who-repped-epstein-cronies-reportedly-signed-off-on-trump-raid

    and it gets better…

  59. drwilliams says:

    @paul

    It’s like saying “I’m from Lubbock” and living in Houston.

    It’s the discontinuity of geography and consanguinity

  60. CowboyStu says:

    @EdH:  

    My paternal grandfather immigrated legally from Scotland, make the joke and I will enjoy it.  Also, when employed in an environment where wearing dress shirts and neckties was appropriate, I had a half dozen of Scottish Tartan ties.

    Oh yeah, I have two CDs of The Scottish Fiddle Orchestra

  61. paul says:

    It’s the discontinuity of geography and consanguinity

    Bingo.

  62. Ed says:

    Huh. Did you notice that the article leaves out that the judge was appointed by Trump? 

  63. drwilliams says:

    Ezra Miller charged with felony burglary days after Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Zaslav praises ‘Flash’ movie

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/08/ezra-miller-charged-with-felony-burglary-days-after-warner-bros-discovery-ceo-zaslav-praises-flash-movie.html

    Groomer-pedo-chair-throwing-burglar. This might be another shard…

    One guess where she/it would want to do time.

  64. JimB says:

    @Geoff, I’ve been using Brave for about three years. Just installed it on two computers and an Android phone. It is very straightforward to turn off the nattering. Other configurations are equally easy. It is one of my best fuss-free browsers. Do give it a chance.

    My second choice is Chrome, which uses the same codebase, but needs some plug-ins. Both seem fast on my 3 Mb connection. Cheers!

  65. paul says:

    Ok.

    I get where the deleting comment thing comes from.  Keep it all happy and omg, no one is allowed to say nigger anymore.  I get that.  Totally.  It’s wrong. 

    You gotta let everyone babble their bullshit.  I mean, that’s why we are here, right?  Babble all of our bullshit just the way we want to say it, just self edit the cuss words because of children and women..

    Right?

    So. Deleting comments and comments treads is wrong.

    NaN and his retarded brother?  Whatever.  Ignore the morons.

    Just let the conversation flow.  We can ignore the morons or we can get all pissed off an validate the morons bullshit.

    I’m for “don’t delete shit” and if someone is a total pain in the ass, block them .  Block them by user name or IP address.

    Let the river of conversation flow. 

  66. drwilliams says:

    Ace settles one line of speculation:

    Let me talk about the qualifications clause of the Constitution. It specifies that a president must be at least 35 years old and a natural born citizen and a resident of the United States for 14 years.

    The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that this constitutes the exclusive qualifications for eligibility to run for president. There is no requirement that he have a clean criminal record, for example.

    And it doesn’t matter if a federal law claims that someone would be disqualified from office. The Constitution doesn’t recognize that, and the Constitution trumps a mere law.

  67. Geoff Powell says:

    @jimb:

    Yes, I’ve been using Brave on my laptop for several months, at your suggestion, I think. What was new was the Android phone version. And you’re right, the chattiness is easy to sort. Just turn off notifications for Brave. I don’t need to know how many trackers and ads you’ve stopped. I know it’s a lot, and that’s enough.

    Other browsers on Android are a lot more difficult to configure for no ads or tracking. Brave is, “Install and go”.

    G.

  68. drwilliams says:

    LOL. Shards aren’t very bright. Presidents do not appoint judge magistrates.

    Or is it magistrate judges? No matter–presidents don’t appoint either. 

    Doc 42

    Nano and Head Friends 0

  69. Ed says:

    Oh, you’re right. Sorry about that. I was thinking of the FBI Director.

  70. Greg Norton says:

    LOL. Shards aren’t very bright. Presidents do not appoint judge magistrates.

    The appointments are also subject to review and renewal every eight years. In Reinhart’s case, in 2026.

  71. drwilliams says:

    Found a spelling error in the NIOSH Pocket Guide.

    They don’t spell-check their docs?

  72. drwilliams says:

    I was thinking of the FBI Director.

    Get a room.

  73. drwilliams says:

    One day after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago, agents confronted U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and seized his cell phone while the congressman was at an airport with his family. Three FBI agents approached Perry, handed over a warrant for his cell phone, and then seized the mobile device — apparently without previously trying to contact his attorney. 

    Rep Perry introduced articles of impeachment against Garland after the attempt to portray parents questioning school boards as “domestic terrorists”.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/08/09/fbi-seizes-phone-of-gop-congressman-tied-to-trump-n2611518

    I’m designing a new political prison for Democrats somewhere in North Dakota. Uninsulated concrete block, no central heating (carbon! alas!) no AC (freon! alas!) but small cast iron stoves where the inmates can burn personally gathered faggots and dried buffalo droppings. Japanese-style no speaking allowed, but rather than solitary for violations they build 50-ft stone towers with a penitent’s platform at the top. Vegan diet, of course.

  74. Rick H says:

    A couple of facts for those that might not be WordPress geeks:

    • Your IP address is stored with your comment. It is only available to admins.
    • An IP address is not necessarily accurate. You can (with some effort) fake an IP address. Or use a proxy service, which results in different IP addresses for the same person when they connect (re-connect) via the proxy.
    • The user/email fields are not validated, other than making sure they are formatted as text and email. That’s because we allow for anonymous access and commenting. 
    • There is ability to require registration before commenting. But I don’t plan on that – too much overhead.
    • There are ways to block proxy connections, but the free ways are not perfect and sometimes non-proxy users get caught with those techniques.
    • There is ability to require moderation of all comments before they are publicly visible. Also too much overhead.
    • Removal of comments should be generally avoided, IMHO. (There might be valid exceptions.) Offensive comments should just be ignored. Again, IMHO.
  75. Nick Flandrey says:

    With a solely veg based diet, people will be shouting out for the isolation the towers give…

    🙂

    n

  76. Nick Flandrey says:

    Home from my errands.   

    WRT some comments up thread.

    It wasn’t large swaths of conversation, it was a few posts.   I deleted all the rest afterwards.   Total of 200 posts from the agitator and sh!tstirrer, vs Lynn’s 23K comments adding to the sum of human knowledge and the feeling of conviviality here.     Or MrAtoz with ~9K at a minimum.

    That’s the problem with “inside baseball” talk, it leaves most of the readers wondering what the heII is going on.

    “Yeah, same here. Still trying to process losing @MrAtoZ and now @lynn to a troll.”

    “I have the urge to make a joke, but things are tense enough around here…”

    – this is why he’s gone, among other things.   His behavior is unacceptable to me.

    “I’m for “don’t delete shit” and if someone is a total pain in the ass, block them .  Block them by user name or IP address.”

    – there are things that Rick is doing that make it harder, but despite the problem with trolls, wordpress and the internet in general make it very hard to do so.   Deleting his nonsense after the fact is what happens when the other stuff doesn’t work.

    Anyone want to go to a full and actual registration system for commenting?  Like google or discus?    I’m not interested in moderating and approving every comment.  I’m not really interested in changing anything or my habits because one @sshole has no manners and is unwilling to abide by the social norms here.

    n

  77. drwilliams says:

    Detail on Sandy Berger’s theft and destruction of documents from the National Archives, and how the FBI prevented the 9/11 Commission from finding out about it until it was too late:

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/08/and_berger_got_a_50k_fine_for_stealing_classified_intel.html

    And note the assist from the NYT in misleading the public.

  78. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    Paul says:

    Temp files?  Browser cache?  Recycle Bin? 

    For Win7, I’d guess either %temp%  or c:\users\<username>\appdata\local\temp.  Or look at the Properties of each folder as you look at the directory tree, and find the hoggish one. Once upon a time, I used to have a utility that would list the directories in order of size, but I think that was several computers ago.

  79. Nick Flandrey says:

    @Kenneth, I like and use WinDirStat.   it gives a graphic representation of file sizes and color codes by type.   That was the tool that let me clear HALF the capacity of my household windows box of failed update attempts that were just stored and re-stored.

    n

  80. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    Anyone want to go to a full and actual registration system for commenting?  Like google or discus?    I’m not interested in moderating and approving every comment.  I’m not really interested in changing anything or my habits because one @sshole has no manners and is unwilling to abide by the social norms here.

    Bob had my email and contact information. 

    You and Rick and any other admins have my email from submitting comments. 

    I don’t have a problem with  registration. 

    But if Nano registers, I want a copy. I’d like to take him to lunch.

    [last line redacted–D]

  81. Kenneth C Mitchell says:

    Nick writes:

    @Kenneth, I like and use WinDirStat.  

    I believe that was the very thing, thank you.  I’ll reinstall that on my current machines.

  82. JimB says:

    CowboyStu says: 5 August 2022 at 13:25

    @ JimB & EdH (mainly):

    Sunday, on the way back after his weekend at Mammoth Lakes, my SIL picked up a carton of beer at the Indian Wells Brewery.  I’ll be going to his house Sunday (On Uber) and we will have a few.  Several years ago, I could order a case from up there at a local mega beer and wine store and then pick it up after delivery to that store. Unfortunately, that was stopped and now we have to pick it up in Indian Wells on the way back.

    My daughter, SIL and grandchildren live near here:  https://www.opnewport.com/ (3100 Irvine Avenue, Newport Beach, CA)

    Catching up after a few days away. Rick Lovett’s Indian Wells Brewing Company makes lots of different beers and sodas. I hadn’t seen his FB page

    https://www.facebook.com/IndianWellsBrewingCompany/

    until just now. I also haven’t been to the brewery since he added the gift shop and new bar. We are able to buy some of his products in local stores, so don’t make the drive there. I also remember some of his beers being available in Costco many years ago, but no more.

    By now you have had your family visit. Hope it was fun.

  83. JimB says:

    Not completely caught up… Seems I missed some bad drama. This is difficult.

    The place does not seem the same, and I will miss those missing. If I could say anything, please come back. Don’t let stupid stuff keep you away. I can’t see what has been removed, but sticks and stones. Please reconsider. Contributing benefits the contributor as well as the community.

    While I am at it, there are a few others missing. I hope they are OK, but it has been so long that I fear the inevitable. The best to all.

  84. EdH says:

    @Nick: I hope you aren’t conflating me with the other NaN/Ed, that’s not me. 

     I’ve been around since asking Bob some computer repair questions. Started using EdH as there was another (non-NaN) Ed posting for a while and it got a bit confusing. 

  85. Ed says:

    I realize that, despite following for years (from the OFD days and before), I’ve only recently spoken up. That’s because recent things here made me finally want to comment, but that’s beside the point, I guess. I say do whatever, but be consistent about it. It’s weird seeing some posts deleted and not others. The n-word doesnt belong here IMO, nor does the r-word. But it’s your (plural, I guess? Rick and Nick) blog. 

    I stand by my suggestion that you scale back the doom and gloom and MAGA junk. In the old days, there was a spotlight on positive news (scientific advancement, etc). The world doesn’t need another blog devoted to the wonders of horse dewormer. 

  86. EdH says:

    @JimB: I’m going to try to get out to near Indian Wells for meteors soon and will visit .  They (the meteors) won’t be an awesome show , there will be a fairly large waning moon interfering, but what the heck. There are a number of planets up and I’ll bring a scope  

    In other sad news, as I recall Nick reached out to some former contributors not long ago, and at least one replied with a rude, almost vicious, diatribe about people here. I felt bad just reading it.  Maybe my skins too thin, I come here for my mild nerdiness and humor fix daily… 

    Ah well. 
     

    3
    1
  87. Ed says:

    In other sad news, as I recall Nick reached out to some former contributors not long ago, and at least one replied with a rude, almost vicious, diatribe about people here

    That reaction is similar to what made me speak up. It’s similar to how RBT’s friends (Mary and someone?) told him that they didn’t want to speak to him for a while. As I recall, the doom and gloom was just too much. 
     

    Honestly, sometimes there’s a vibe that some commenters WANT to be a part of a violent conflict. Maybe it’s to feel vindicated for spending all that money on guns, maybe it’s because they fetishize gun culture, maybe it’s because they just want to be Rambo. Whatever it is, I think it’s far from what the mainstream reader thinks about. 

  88. Nick Flandrey says:

    @ed, 90% or more of the value and content here comes from commentors.   

    What’s stopping you?  No one has ever been chased out of here for bringing up good news.   

    But your examples of good news included the successful application of mRNA vaccines, and that is FAR from established, and you’ll have a hard time convincing the people who post about that topic otherwise.   You are welcome to politely make your case..

    On more than two occasions that I can recall I’ve practically BEGGED someone to counter my conclusions, but crickets.    So doom and gloom it is.   JimB has gently chided me on more than one occasion, and I’ve taken that to heart with a bit of fun playing with it… at least I hope it comes across that way.

    I’ve mentioned stargazing pretty much every time I visit my BOL, but no additional comments ensue.  The meteor shower got a few comments, as did the Webb photos.    All I can conclude from that is that there isn’t much interest in astronomy at the moment among the thousands who visit here.   Ditto for shortwave listening, although I know there are hams here.   HOWEVER, I am trying to keep to the daily journal format Bob used, and that is part of my daily life.   So is prepping.   Since I believe it’s the most important thing you can be doing right now, I’d be a hypocrite for NOT talking about it.

    As far as “MAGA junk” if I was in a bad mood, I’d respond more forcefully, but WTH are you talking about?  I’ve been AT BEST a moderate Trump supporter, based on what he professed to believe, and without regard for his personal life.  You’re gonna have to do better than just tossing that out.

    Finally, if you don’t want to be tarred with the NaN brush, don’t act the way he acts.  Like implying I’m some sort of usurper…  we’ve been over that before.

    n

  89. Greg Norton says:

    How to detect a VPN is beyond my skill.

    Take a numeric IP address and run it through whois on Mac or Linux. Cygwin provides a port of the tool on Windows.

    Take the information returned by whois and do a search on the owner/organization information. Just a little digging will usually reveal if it is a VPN provider.

    3
    1
  90. Nick Flandrey says:

    Honestly, sometimes there’s a vibe that some commenters WANT to be a part of a violent conflict. Maybe it’s to feel vindicated for spending all that money on guns, maybe it’s because they fetishize gun culture, maybe it’s because they just want to be Rambo. Whatever it is, I think it’s far from what the mainstream reader thinks about. 

    sorry, can’t let that pass.  Discussion of guns here is MINIMAL and the first statement needs quotes to back it up or a retraction.   You must be thinking of some other place.

    n

    1
    1
  91. Ed says:

    On more than two occasions that I can recall I’ve practically BEGGED someone to counter my conclusions

    My point was that it was RBT himself who offered the good news himself. He didn’t require commenters to submit it. 
     

    But anyway, I accept your challenge. I will try to rebut the doom and gloom you post, my schedule permitting. 
     

    Maybe it’s time to drop the “bit of fun” and get serious, given that you taken up RBT’s microphone?

  92. Ed says:

    By the way, it was vaccinated Joe Biden who oversaw the execution of a high level Al-Qaeda leader while sick with Covid. When DJT had Covid, he was near death at Walter Reed. Something tells me the vaccines are not a conspiracy.

  93. Ed says:

    sorry, can’t let that pass.  Discussion of guns here is MINIMAL and the first statement needs quotes to back it up or a retraction

    How many times have commenters posted “keep your powder dry”? Or referred to “Three Percenters”? I’m sorry, I’m not taking your bait. I’m concerned about comments here. “Gubs” that are “lost in a river”? Give me a break. 

  94. Greg Norton says:

    But your examples of good news included the successful application of mRNA vaccines, and that is FAR from established, and you’ll have a hard time convincing the people who post about that topic otherwise.   You are welcome to politely make your case..

    The discussion evolves here. Go back eighteen months or so and the majority of the comments were pro-mRNA vaccination.

  95. EdH says:

    @Nick & Kenneth M:  WinDirStat sounds like a good tool.  One account on the machine is wiped of personal data, the other not so much, and I freely admit that I have no wish to spend hours looking for space consuming ancient Vista perf and setup files…

    1
    1
  96. Ed says:

    Sorry, Greg. I’ve been here long enough to know I should disregard anything you say. Every single comment has either a persona, political or a business bias. Sorry, not my cup of tea, and not something I’ll give the time of day. 

  97. Nick Flandrey says:

    given that you taken up RBT’s microphone?

    jebus H, that was over 4 years ago and at his personal invitation.   get over it or get lost.

    n

  98. Nick Flandrey says:

    Ed, you are stirring the shit.   If you aren’t Nan you are picking up his nonsense.   

    Cut it out.   

    n

    5
    1
  99. EdH says:

    @Nick & Admins:  Since Nick asked specifically my two cents is that registering users is probably the way to go.

     I don’t LIKE the idea, but the world is what it is.

    Cloudy Nights requires registration for example. It has wonderful admins and is worth it:
    https://www.cloudynights.com

    dosbox requires registration. I’ve only lurked but the admins seem kind of jerks, TBH:
    https://dosbox.com

    In addition maybe a way to block seeing content from certain users?

  100. Ed says:

    I don’t believe that challenging basic assumptions is the same as “stirring the shit” as you put it. So, I stand by what I (and others) have said:  try to avoid the constant doom and gloom, appreciate the good news when it comes, and be critical of supposed “news sources” quoted here. Just because they make you feel good doesn’t mean they are correct. 

  101. Nick Flandrey says:

    How many times have commenters posted “keep your powder dry”?

    – ok, I’ll answer, because your implication is foul.    SEVEN TIMES in four years since I’ve been in charge, and 3 were as part of one user’s sign off, one quoted him, two were another user, and one was me.   

    search results for that phrase have it occurring in 25 additional posts when Bob was still with us.

    If anything, the use has decreased since I took over, so your point is invalid EVEN IF that phrase was somehow nefarious.

    And “mentioning 3 percenters”?  now we can’t discuss the news?   

    Your problems are your own.

    n

  102. drwilliams says:

    By the way, it was vaccinated Joe Biden who oversaw the execution of a high level Al-Qaeda leader while sick with Covid. When DJT had Covid, he was near death at Walter Reed. Something tells me the vaccines are not a conspiracy.

    Joe Biden, vaccinated or unvaccinated, needs his wife’s assistance when his clothes get snarled. Watch the video of him forgetting that he shook Chuck Schume’s hand–five seconds after doing so. He couldn’t oversee the changing of his own diaper.

    Trump tested positive on Friday, spend the weekend at Walter Reed, and was back on the job Monday. No “near death” to it, and characterizing it as such is dishonest.

    As to the vaccines being a conspiracy, yes, they were and are. Compare and contrast how they were sold to a frightened public with their actual performance. And note that the Biden administration is being sued by two states and eminent physicians for colluding with social media to violate freedom of speech.

    @Nick, Ed/Nano is not “stirring the shit”, he/sheit is the shit*. Pull the plug.

    *apologies to honest feces everywhere

  103. drwilliams says:

    “Keep Your Powder Dry” 

    is short for “Trust in God and keep your powder dry”

    It’s also a Lana Turner movie title, FFS.

    I’d have to check to see if it’s on the FBI’s new list of subversive symbols and sayings, along with the Easter Bunny and “banana bana fo fana”

  104. drwilliams says:

    re: astronomy

    I have some interest in astronomy. Still have my first telescope. I did a paper on the chemistry of silver plating telescope mirrors prior to the development of vacuum deposition of aluminum. I reviewed Bob’s Astronomy book after he sent me a review copy. 

    My visits to historical observatories include Greenwich and Palomar. I recommend “The Glass Giant of Palomar” to any student of science, but the technology of glass in particular.

    I’m not currently doing any amateur observing. The Webb photos are published as pseudo-color images fit for the Sunday supplements. Sciencey, without any real science. ooh-aah. Scroll to last week and you’ll see the link to the sausage photo I posted. The credence that it got online tells you everything you need to know about the capability of  the general public to discuss astronomy.

  105. drwilliams says:

    be critical of supposed “news sources” quoted here

    Like the source of Trump “near death” with kungflu?

  106. Nick Flandrey says:

    Not to mention that the virus trump got was significantly different than the cold that is going around now.   This one is killing few, and very few are even hospitalized.

    n

  107. Rick H says:

    WRT checking IPs for proxy, yes, that can be done. But not in a timely manner; it would really slow down the submission process of comments.

    There are APIs that will check for proxy, but the ones that I have looked at have a cost involved. And they are not always effective.

    Besides, a determined person can change their IP. And others might share that IP, so there would be inadvertent blocking of valid users. 

    I haven’t found a good way to block all proxy users. The one that is in place now works most of the time, but there are ways around it. 

    And since we allow commenters to put any name/email in the comment form, blocking names/emails is also not effective.

    I just wish everyone would play nice. Back and forth discussion is OK. Opposing viewpoints is OK. Personal attacks against another commenter are not OK.  No reason for that. You can think whatever you want of someone else. But publicly commenting those negative opinions is not conducive to the discussion area here.

    And I am not appreciative of disparaging comments about public figures, either. They also have no place here, IMHO.

    I sometimes think that there needs to be a new place for discussions. The old “Daynotes” forums come to mind. I’ve considered setting up such a site. But like all sites, getting traffic to  a new site like that might be difficult.

  108. Alan says:

    >> “banana bana fo fana”

    Wonderama, Sonny Fox… simpler times… 

  109. drwilliams says:

    re: chemistry

    Bob’s daily blog contained a lot of commentary about the development of the chemistry kits for homeschooling. I think I mentioned more than a year ago that Bob made a comment about a certain piece of lab equipment, and I offered to send him one. I did send him some miscellaneous equipment, but nothing major.

    Are there legions of lurkers out there who are yearning for more chemistry in the blog? I make a comment from time to time, but the responses don’t indicate a lot of interest. My experience is different than Bob’s, but maybe I should range wider and see if something clicks. 

    Hands up if you miss chemistry.

    let’s see: Maybe more on concrete coatings? More on concrete itself? When I mentioned pozzolans at least one person went to the dictionary. How about understanding ettringite? Alkali-silicate reactivity? Pretty important if you’re looking to source aggregate from your own property. 

    Chlorine and swimming pools? Get a good test kit, use it frequently, and take the recommendations of a good pool store. How do you find a good pool store? Ask them what you need, and if they don’t tell you 1) use personal protective equipment, and 2) pre-dilute chemicals before adding, move on to the next one. Anyone interested in learning break-point chlorination theory can sign up for the course. 

    Sodium silicate would be a great topic. The stuff should be cheap at the pharmacy, but they don’t carry chemicals much anymore. Egg preserver, fire retardant for wood, concrete coating (see? two birds, there), protector of water pipes. Most of you reading this have it over your heads right now and don’t know it.

    Brewing chemistry is fun. Any homebrewers out there (I have a side bet on responses to that question) ? Got hops in your legacy seed collection? How about alcohol distillation? (How is it that Henry Ford designed the Model T engine to run on farm alcohol, but any time a boat engine packs it it it’s because the boat owner put alcohol fuel in it?) Can you fuel a car with grain alcohol?

  110. drwilliams says:

    Anyone see the news on the big scandal in audiophile land?

    Seems one of the primary purveyors of vinyl ‘from the original master tapes” has been using a process that includes digitization. 

    And they got busted.

    uh-oh.

    Back in the day I did some study on stereo. Flirted with quad. Was up until breakfast taking notes on speaker design from a guy who seriously knew his stuff. Bought good sleeves for the vinyl, used a DiscWasher and a Zerostat, tracked my arm at 1.0 grams. Wasted a lot of tme fiddling when I should have worked more so I could buy more actual music.

    I saw a really sweet setup earlier this year. Awesome speakers isolated on 100-lb slabs of marble. Bi-amped. Anechoic foam on the walls. Pity me, for I an aged and have lost my highs.

    If you know the Beatles White Album, get a copy of Phish, The White Album Live.

  111. EdH says:

    Re: Astronomy.

    I‘m just getting back into it, after decades away And hesitate to say much.

    I can’t find constellations I once knew, taught by my father the sailor, but it is fun re-learning. 
     

    Lesser light sensitivity, near sightedness and astigmatism make even binoculars tough. But that’s all somewhat fixable  

    Televue “Dioptrx“ lenses are beginning to appeal to me  for the astigmatism.

    Celestron’s sky align is nice, but feels like cheating. 

    Modern glass has truly amazing properties, and coatings to increase light transmission and reduce reflections. 
     

    I really am curious about digital imaging, but those guys I see doing it in the field  remind me of the poker players in Reno, grim and intense, not actually having fun.  Probably better suited for winters, looking at the screen remotely in a warm room 🙂

    —-

    The thought of Nick sitting on the dock with a daughter or two, fireflies dancing, looking at the sky is a nice one. 
     

    Enjoy and avoid AOGAS if you can (Acute Onset Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

  112. JimM says:

    >”My belief is that you need to stop deleting posts simply because one person makes them, start enforcing your comment guidelines rigidly and against EVERYONE, …”

    Nick >”I will do what I feel best serves the needs of the site. I’m not neutral, and am under no obligation to be, or to tolerate behavior I don’t like, as I’ve said many times.”

    My take is that we are not all equal here. People who provide popular content on a frequent basis are allowed more leeway. That is just the way it is. Those who want that same privilege have to earn it. Attacking people who post here is not a way to do that. It isn’t that this is an ideal system, it is that this is what it takes to enjoy the useful commentary from the current group of regulars.

  113. drwilliams says:

    An essay* worth reading:

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/09/numbers-tricky-tricky-numbers-part-2/

    I call your attention to the part concerning the difference between extensive and intensive properties of matter. 

    *In Part 1 Kip cautioned that it was “not an essay, but a short dissertation”. Absent the caution in Part 2, I’ll go with essay.

    —————————————–

    This essay caused me to pick up a line of thought that I had started some time ago regarding measurements. Recalling Godwin’s Law and the fallacy of the infinite number of monkeys, I formulated: 

    The Non-Heisenberg Real Uncertainty Principle: There is a finite probability that when the box is opened there is no cat.

    Which is a way of saying that the cat has a different purpose than the observer and does not care what you are trying to observe.

    (note: I suspect others have made similar observations)

    A few years ago research purported to show that 78% of reddit threads mentioned Hitler or Nazis. When I read that my first thought was “But it’s going to approach 100% now”

    Which is a way of saying that behavior changes when the observed knows what is being measured. (Sorry, I should have an attribution for this–paper from the 30’s, perhaps?)

    So in the specific case of Kip’s series linked above, we make intensive measurements. For example, I read the comments and find that Karl Popper is mentioned in comment 4, and assign a Popper Number of 4, which I then normalize over the number of comments made in the interval over which comment numbers decay and reach a running average of 36.78% (1/e) of the maximum.

    Similarly, other metrics are created.

    But none of the metrics is disclosed discretely, only as a computational result of unspecified origin called Boogedy.

    So the first essay gets a Boogedy Number. So does the second. So do other essays.

    We continue this process across many commented essays on many websites, and take the results and analyze the dickens out of them. Can we expect to find patterns more than random chance? If we do, are there predictive powers in those patterns?

    If we expand the idea across all endeavors of man, computing Boogedy-like Numbers, will we reach the predictive certainty that Asimov’s Harry Seldon called psychohistory?

    Can the set of Boogedy-like numbers be collapsed by Gödelization to get the one final answer? Is it really 42? Is it the same for every expression of the multi-verse? Does recursion clarify?

    Does the existence of Dog inevitably imply Cat?

    ADDED:
    I’m reminded of the Stross series about The Laundry, in which making certain computations is not a good idea at all.

  114. JimM says:

    >”Hands up if you miss chemistry.”

    I would like more chemistry, even if it is very simple. I’ve been experimenting with using boric acid as ant poison. The results have been mixed/indeterminate so far. I believe I have saturated or nearly saturated levels of boric acid (about one teaspoon per half cup of water), and enough sugar to attract droves of ants. After several days the ants quit coming, but a few days later we have an ant problem again, and the process repeats. It may be that there are several colonies, and the ones I kill off are being replaced. I experimented with making protein based poison using pureed chicken. That was almost entirely a failure. I tried again with gelatin plus sugar, and that was mediocre. I suspect that the gelatin was not attractive. Maybe soaking some meat scraps would work. That ants definitely are attracted to the slightest hint of meat that we failed to clean up.

  115. drwilliams says:

    OK, last batch of cookies is finally out of the oven.

    Good Night, John Boy.

  116. JimM says:

    >”Can the set of Boogedy-like numbers be collapsed by Gödelization to get the one final answer?”

    This reminds me of David Mermin’s campaign to get a superfluidity phenomenon to be named “boojums”.

  117. drwilliams says:

    @JimM

    If the concentration is too high, the ants die before they get the baited food back to the nest. I haven’t mixed any for years, but memory is something like one part in twenty of food or so. The colony won’t die until the baited food gets back to the queen.

    The other hint is to walk the bait stations back toward the nest. When you have a good formula, there should be many round trips by the worker ants. Find where they come in and put the bait there. Trace it outside if you can, and bait them outside (as weather permits)

  118. lynn says:

    ADDED:
    I’m reminded of the Stross series about The Laundry, in which making certain computations is not a good idea at all.

    You had to mention SF in order to lure me back.  “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke 

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

  119. lynn says:

    Lot of actors I grew up watching have passed on lately.  Add Olivia Newton John and Roger Mosley to the list.

    We just talked about breast cancer.  Olivia Newton John fought breast cancer but it did her in eventually.  “Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, but it went into remission and it came back in 2013. It went back into remission but surfaced again in 2017.” I loved her sweet sweet voice.

        https://www.tmz.com/2022/08/08/olivia-newton-john-dead-dies/

  120. lynn says:

    would like more chemistry, even if it is very simple. I’ve been experimenting with using boric acid as ant poison. The results have been mixed/indeterminate so far. I believe I have saturated or nearly saturated levels of boric acid (about one teaspoon per half cup of water), and enough sugar to attract droves of ants. After several days the ants quit coming, but a few days later we have an ant problem again, and the process repeats. It may be that there are several colonies, and the ones I kill off are being replaced. I experimented with making protein based poison using pureed chicken. That was almost entirely a failure. I tried again with gelatin plus sugar, and that was mediocre. I suspect that the gelatin was not attractive. Maybe soaking some meat scraps would work. That ants definitely are attracted to the slightest hint of meat that we failed to clean up.

    I use Amdro on my home 1.2 acres.  Nothing else kills them over the long run.  I take a jug of Amdro out and walk the property, sprinkling vast quantities of Amdro around any mound.  

        https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000QDEQ7E?tag=ttgnet-20/

  121. Jenny says:

    @drwilliams

    Brewing chemistry is fun. Any homebrewers out there

    I make pretty terrible mead. I used to make a decent apricot liquor (Cheater style from store bought vodka). I am going to delve into hard cider. 
     

    My cheese making skills are better than my brewing skills. My feta is better than store ought. My bouchin is very tasty. 
     

    Spent last week in Northern California taking care of family stuff. Stayed near Occidental not far from Bodega. The night sky. there was virtually no light pollution. The night sky was simply glorious. If it were me running that AirBnB I would have a telescope or binoculars for visitors. 
     

    @lynn I’m relieved to see you poke your nose up. I learn a lot from you and value your comments. 

  122. lynn says:

    given that you taken up RBT’s microphone?

    – jebus H, that was over 4 years ago and at his personal invitation.   get over it or get lost.

    n

    John Scalzi even wrote a book on malleting people on his block.  “The Mallet of Loving Correction”.  He and I got into an argument on his blog about something stupid and he malloted me, he does not hesitate if he finds you boring.

        https://www.amazon.com/Mallet-Loving-Correction-John-Scalzi-ebook/dp/B00F633XHI?tag=ttgnet-20/

    The prequel is “Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded: A Decade of Whatever, 1998-2008”

       https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003H4VYUQ?tag=ttgnet-20/

    He writes so conservative and yet is so liberal.

  123. lynn says:

    @lynn I’m relieved to see you poke your nose up. I learn a lot from you and value your comments. 

    Thank you.  Nick, Greg, and others talked me off the ledge.  I just cannot stay away, I really enjoy the community of regulars.  The trolls, not so much.

    But I need to guard myself and stop being so open seeing as five people emailed me.

  124. Nick Flandrey says:

    ((((((((((((lynn)))))))))))))))

    Fell asleep in the chair.  Headed to bed.

    JimM – sees the practical truth.  Although I remind everyone that I’ve banned one person.  The same and only person I’ve ever deleted.   This isn’t a problem of not enough, or not the right rules, it’s a people problem.  Some people gots a problem.  

    n

    (should trigger him- maybe he’ll suggest I can’t write, or need a dictionary again.)

  125. Nick Flandrey says:

    @drwilliams, I found your sharing  about concrete to be very useful.   Practical, alternative, and home based uses of chemistry would be of interest to me too.   Homeowners in the late 1800s and early 1900s used a lot of raw chemicals to accomplish stuff around the house.   That sort of thing interests me a lot.

    n

  126. Jenny says:

    I brought home fifty pounds of Gravenstein apples, two flats of peaches, half flat of strawberries. Four ears of corn. Some figs and tomatoes from a friends garden. Saltwater taffy from Candy and Kites. 

    We are starved for really good fruit up here. We have been joyfully distributing the fruit to friends. Tomorrow I’ll process the peaches we haven’t eaten as they’re already turning. I’ll start cooking the apples as well. They’ll last a bit longer than the peaches but not nearly as long as commercial apples. 
     

    I went riding while I was there. My horse guy is from Brazil, had a good conversation. The horse ‘tested’ me to check if I knew what I was doing. My muscles are flabby from lack of riding since the early 1990’s but I hadn’t forgotten much. I agreed not to chuck the horses mouth, the horse agreed not to scrape me off on a fence or tree. Good ride.

    While there I had an assortment of boxes to ship back. I used Orange Mailer and a Paperang printer. Cool tech. got a cheap bathroom scale. Took care of all the packing and labeling at the storage unit. Saved a lot of time and aggravation. 
     

    Visited lots of old haunts. It has been nearly thirty years since I moved away, with visits every few years. Vastly different. Even the river has changed. But odd things the same. The family from whom I bought a horse in 1983 ( ? ) still owns the same property though i didn’t see any horses. I understand what John Steinbeck was writing in “Travels with Charlie” better today than the first time I read it as a teen. Time shifts perspective certainly. 
     

    High percentage of masked individuals. Nobody looked askance at my lack of a mask. Signage discriminatory to unvaccinated, with no apparent awareness of the irony, posted in most store windows. I spent most of my time in the outdoors – river, coast, my childhood hills. Spent as little time with people as I could.

    San Francisco was horrible. It stank of urine, was dirtiest I can remember, and had many suffering people camped and lingering on sidewalks. It was heart breaking and nauseating.

    Visited with elderly friends battling cancer. I expect that was the last time I’ll see them.

    Being human is hard.

  127. Nick Flandrey says:

    I expect that was the last time I’ll see them. 

    – – knowing is easier than not knowing until after.   Friday is the anniversary of my dad’s death, just days after I’d seen him last.   Miss him most days, still.

    n

  128. Norman says:

    I’m a long time lurker here and generally find the conversations enlightening (absent the trolls 🙂 ), By training I’m a physicist, by inclination I’m a historian & boardgamer and by necessity I thrash around in the morass of IT to earn a crust.

    I’m fascinated by the breadth of knowledge/experience here, the oddest questions often draw an informative reply. Like Geoff I’m in the UK and our current temperatures are ones I’d expect to see on cooking instructions not a weather forecast.

    By way of contributing a bit;
    Browsers for Android phones, I mostly use Kiwi with HTTPS Everywhere & Ublock Origin extensions which seems to work pretty well, I occasionally use Vivaldi as it’s synced with my desktop at home.

    I’ve recently resurrected and old I5 desktop and a couple of cheapo laptops by  installing Linux Mint, I’ve been impressed, stuff just works and my mum (83 still with all her marbles) has no problems using one of the laptops. I configured it to do unattended updates so she almost never needs to reboot it.

    Finally, if anyone would like a couple of recipes for mead (Dry & Sweet) that I’ve had success with I’m happy to share.

  129. MrK says:

    Welcome back MrLynn…  🙂

    Plus I hope MrAtoz finds his way back also…  

  130. Norman Yarvin says:

    Chemistry… you want useful chemistry?

    Here you go:

    https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?p=6481

  131. ITGuy1998 says:

    @lynn I’m relieved to see you poke your nose up. I learn a lot from you and value your comments.

    Agreed. I didn’t even realize what I didn’t know about power and fuel until I started reading his comments. I still don’t know anything, but I still enjoy reading about it.

  132. Nick Flandrey says:

     Hey Bunnie is still around??  Cool

    n

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