Sun. Aug. 28, 2022 – Meatspace baby. Get out and do something with people…

In the heat and humidity if necessary, but get out in the world around you.   In Houston, of course, we got both kinds of weather, hot AND humid…  Some parts of town got downpours yesterday including where I was.  I didn’t notice from the hotel ballroom, but some of the other attendees mentioned it.   Biblical was a word used…  Couldn’t tell a few hours later when I left for home.   At home the only evidence was that the koi pond was full to the brim.    It was 77F in the morning, and barely 80F when I went to bed.  Fall is definitely here.

Time to start thinking about the fall garden.   The summer one hasn’t really done much, although I have a couple of squash plants still alive, they’ve only just set flowers.   The collards are ok, but nothing else really grew.  Oh well, I’ve said it before, I stack cans because my thumbs are not green.

Had another fun, but long day on the show floor.   Chatted with lots of people.   I’m not selling the big pieces I wanted to sell, and the smalls aren’t gonna send the kids to college, but I’m grossing a couple of bucks, and might make a little money.   It’s more about being with fellow enthusiasts though.   The selling is just a framework for the get together.   It’s more than a little bit like the joke about the two antique dealers stranded on a desert island— one is having a “going out of business” sale, and the other is buying inventory…..  but it’s a great way to see people from all over.

And it’s a nice break from normal routine.

So I’m back there today, really hoping to move a couple of items, with a couple of bins of new smalls, because even though it’s the last day, I just got them un-buried from the stack, and I’d like to set an example of continuing to sell to the last minute.

Even in my hobbies I’ve stacked it up!

Better though to stack up some necessities.   And vital to have some links to humans and a community.

nick

 

77 Comments and discussion on "Sun. Aug. 28, 2022 – Meatspace baby. Get out and do something with people…"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    77F this am.

    @jenny, I can almost smell it from here!  OMG.     Elephant dung was about the  worst I’ve ever smelled.  We went to the circus when I was a kid, and the shirt I wore smelled like elephants for a week after.   Gah!  And I wasn’t rolling in it!

    I’m headed to my breakfast, then the show, then load out.   

    Talk amongst yourselves and don’t burn the place down.   Firefighters are standing by.

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    People are expecting more crazy to go on so they are buying safety items.  And with rapidly rising prices on basic items such as food, shelter, and fuels, they have a lot less disposable cash money.

    People aren’t buying mask stupidity on a mass scale again.

    I’ve received multiple emails reminding me that passes and hotel rooms are still available for the anime show in San Antonio next weekend.

    Masks required? Vaccination cards or test results mandatory for entry? No thanks.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    So I’m back there today, really hoping to move a couple of items, with a couple of bins of new smalls, because even though it’s the last day, I just got them un-buried from the stack, and I’d like to set an example of continuing to sell to the last minute.

    Belton has a ham show at the end of the month. We may go up to take a look because Linux and hams usually go together, and an amateur radio show in Orlando is where I first saw Knoppix demonstrated.

    These days, a lot of embedded hardware is flowing from Chyyyna, and I’d like a dual LAN embedded card for science experiments.

    The show floor looks really small, however.

    OTOH, Schoepf’s in Belton is decent BBQ.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    I hope DeSantis security detail is first rate. The “Little Elf” is still serious Deep State. Of course, being a former JAG lawyer, DeSantis probably has connections too. Republicans — he needs to be vetted in a primary before repeating the Shrub mistake of 24 years ago.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8BX6yNIZlk

    Not looking deeper, I’d say he was in The Villages.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Enjoy the show tomorrow, whatever happens. At $4 billion/launch it is only happening once.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2022/08/27/nasas-artemis-1-mission-what-you-should-know-about-sls-orion.html

  6. lynn says:

    76 F in the west side of Fort Bend County this morning.   Took the varmints outside and the septic tank hose is running.  That’s right, the septic tank sprinklers are not working now.  One of them is broken and the guy tried to find the pipe with a shovel last Wednesday.  He got knee deep and quit for the area to dry out.  Maybe next Wednesday.  So we just have a hose with chlorinated poop water pumping out in the back yard for now instead of the four gentrified sprinklers that everyone here pretends is just for watering. 

  7. drwilliams says:

    @Jenny

    Have you ever watched the BBC comedy “Good Neighbors”?

  8. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    re: Monkees

    An American success story who went to #1 with their first single with an undercover anti-war song, “Last Train to Clarksville”.

    They definitely belong on the Top 10 list, although I can’t find the chart position of the theme song. Rhino put out three discs of unreleased songs in the early 90’s that showcased the amazing depth of outside song-writing talent that they could tap.

    They gave Jimi Hendrix his first spot on an American tour. One can only imagine the scene…

  9. Greg Norton says:

    Have you ever watched the BBC comedy “Good Neighbors”?

    Felicity Kendal! I never saw the series, but “The Young Ones” referenced it all the time.

    BTW – Those of you in the UK do realize that “The Young Ones” was brutal satire. It wasn’t meant to provide a blueprint for how to live and vote. All of the leads made out quite well in Thatcher’s Britain, particularly Adrian Edmonson.

    I’ve often wondered over the last 40 years since filming wrapped on the series.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    An American success story who went to #1 with their first single with an undercover anti-war song, “Last Train to Clarksville”.

    My wife’s nephew was just transferred to Fort Campbell and bought a house in … Clarksville!

    Yeah, I know, Bobby Hart denies the reference being deliberate, but, c’mon. I’m buying that about as much as I believe that Fogerty wrote “Fortunate Son” about “Shrub” Bush and not Gore.

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  11. EdH says:

    I can’t actually find any Vegas odds on Artemis…

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  12. Greg Norton says:

    I can’t actually find any Vegas odds on Artemis…

    Too many jobs in too many Congressional districts are at stake. Plus Boeing’s reputation.

    Some of you are more in the know than I am so correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t that the same tank/booster configuration that went all splody in Challenger?

  13. Geoff Powell says:

    @greg:

    wasn’t that the same tank/booster configuration that went all splody in Challenger?

    The tankage is new. The boosters are lengthened, uprated, shuttle boosters. All shuttle technology, including the RS-25 engines on the first stage. Which are designed to be reusable, but will be expended with each launch. But they already exist.

    And despite all that, $20Bn in development costs and $4Bn per launch. That’s a very large pork barrel.

    G.

  14. EdH says:

    I believe the Solid Rocket Boosters are actual recycled Shuttle boosters, but 5 segments rather than four.  

    Artemis is a step backwards, they will not be recovered after flight.

    https://everydayastronaut.com/artemis-i-sls-block-1/

  15. ITGuy1998 says:

    I know at one point, mid 2000’s, NASA engineers came out to the Space and Rocket Center to study the Saturn V F-1 engines. I think a lot of knowledge had to be relearned. 

  16. drwilliams says:

    for clarity:

    The BBC comedy was titled “The Good Life” (wiki entry titled thus) and retitled as “Good Neighbors” for release in North America.

    Four short seasons of only 7 episodes each, plus a couple of specials. Available on BritBox. 

    Probably due to the short seasons, the writing in Episodes 3 and 4 is arguably the strongest, although the writing team of Bob Larbey and John Esmonde had multiple later successful shows. If you’re unfamiliar and want an episode to try, Season 3’s finale “The Last Posh Frock” is one of the best.

    The actors playing the four main characters all went on to their own shows. Felicity Kendall in “Solo” was probably the least successful, with Penelope Keith having the most immediate success with “To the Manor Born” (also recommended).

  17. Greg Norton says:

    And despite all that, $20Bn in development costs and $4Bn per launch. That’s a very large pork barrel.

    That’s not counting the costs of removing all of the infrastructure and disassembling the launch towers when the project is cancelled. However, that is going to happen mostly at Kennedy so I’m sure more pork is coming to placate other members of Congress.

    NASA Administrator Bill Nelson was the Senior Senator from Florida until the voters got tired of his schtick and booted him four years ago. Still, the state has the spending momentum and a huge amount of hardware to scrap.

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  18. EdH says:

    I know at one point, mid 2000’s, NASA engineers came out to the Space and Rocket Center to study the Saturn V F-1 engines. I think a lot of knowledge had to be relearned. 

    NASA came out to the local county park, Apollo Park, and took the Apollo capsule that gave the park its name. The little enclosure there is still empty, it was never returned.

    Article here says it was the Smithsonian, it went to Downey:

    http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-030612a.html

  19. drwilliams says:

    @ITGuy1998

    I know at one point, mid 2000’s, NASA engineers came out to the Space and Rocket Center to study the Saturn V F-1 engines. I think a lot of knowledge had to be relearned. 

    JEP had strong opinions on NASA’s treatment of the Saturn V. Anyone in the organization that tried to keep anything alive would have been bucking a career-ending stampede to Shuttle! Likewise the contractors and subs would have little institutional memory.

    The 50-Year Black Anniversary of man’s last step on the moon is coming up December 19.

    I remember dad setting up the Polaroid to take photos of the tv during the first moon landing. Unfortunately that was with the original Land chemistry, and if those photos are in a box somewhere they are hopelessly degraded. The SX-70 chemistry a few years later had much better longevity.

    Anyone who believes that NASA will stay on schedule for any return with the current economic climate can pull my finger.

  20. drwilliams says:

    On August 12,the Post breathlessly reported that, even though it had never been done before, the tossing of Melania’s under-lovelies at Mar-a-Lago by 30 FBI agents must have been totally legit because according to “people familiar with the investigation,” “experts in classified information,” and “former senior intelligence officials,” Trump had nuclear documents.

    Reporters Devlin Barrett, Josh Dawsey, Perry Stein, and Shane Harris reported explicitly that “classified documents relating to nuclear weapons were among the items FBI agents sought.”

    https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2022/08/27/that-mushroom-cloud-you-see-is-another-trump-media-narrative-exploding-before-your-eyes-n1624712

    I wonder what, exactly, passes the bar for “reckless and malicious”?

  21. drwilliams says:

    Trudeau’s construction budget includes gas chambers for more efficient euthanazia:

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/08/canadas-euthanasia-polices-under-scrutiny-as-reports-surface-of-euthanizing-a-man-for-hearing-loss/

    Crematoria will probably get priority over home heating for the elderly. “It takes less fuel to burn a pensioner than it does to keep him warm for the winter. It’s a matter of efficiency.”

  22. Alan says:

    >> Get out and do something with people… 

    90 F, 44 % RH. 

    Off to meet some folks at the range, which will reduce some stacks a bit, so will see about that on the way home. 

  23. paul says:

    Crematoria will probably get priority over home heating for the elderly.

    It’s Canada.  Ice floes for Grandma and Grandpa are cheaper.

    Think of the polar bears.  They have to eat, too. 

    The whole youth in asia stuff is pretty creepy.

  24. drwilliams says:

    It’s Canada.  Ice floes for Grandma and Grandpa are cheaper.

    Think of the polar bears.  They have to eat, too. 

    That would make sense but it will never happen. The global warming zealots are too invested in “endangered declining population” polar bears. Can you imagine the population explosion if the bears started getting shipments of FMMRE’s*?

    Frozen Monkey Meats Ready to Eat

  25. Ray Thompson says:

    Frozen Monkey Meats Ready to Eat

    Frozen Politician Meats Ready to Eat.

    Fixed it for you. More fat and pork for the bears.

  26. Lynn says:

    Well, I am back to bingeing “24” now that I am caught up on “Resident Alien” when not watching Houston Astros games.  

    The wife has watched every single one of the current Star Trek, Star Wars, Marve, and other non-dark space opera shows that she likes.  She is now bingeing “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” on Netflix in Korean with English subtitles.  She is fascinated by the autistic lawyer in an Asian culture.

  27. paul says:

    Stopped by Harbor Freight today.  It was on the way.  I bought an eight pound sledge hammer.  Fiberglass handle in bright yellow.  Looks pretty decent to me.  $27 with tax.  The twelve pounder was a few bucks more and ya, maybe a few years ago when I had an eight-pack belly.   No idea what Lowes or Home Depot want.  I didn’t want to spend the time wandering around like Moses in the desert to find sledge hammers in either store. 

    The Walmart is getting weird.  Weirder.  Most of the side parking lot is tagged for whatever they call it… the order on-line and sit on your fat bottom while a peon loads your groceries.  The most I have /ever/ seen is three cars waiting.  It was four slots, then ten and now at least twenty.

    The beer and wine aisle has been reconfigured.  Also now with a  few 30″ monitors ala the make-up aisle.  No pong noises yet. 

    The entry is different.  I’m pretty sure it was a nappy low pile carpet.  It’s now some kind of rubbery looking stuff.  Might be fun on a rainy day…  

    No Greeter.   No Checker of Receipts at the door. 

    Oh well.  They have a lot of self-checks, the dude showed up quickly to approve my beer.  He seemed to know what he was doing, too.  I usually manage to shop when the not bright and slow moving chick is running that job.

    Then to Tractor Supply.  Cat food is up.  Dog food (Diamond Lamb and Rice) is up.  Dog cookies are up.  About $305 out the door.  But I’m set until the end of November perhaps mid December. 

    I was asked if I wanted some help loading.  Uh, no.  Thanks for the offer.  I’m not on Medicare until October. Grin. 

    I need to get a drug plan “just in case”.  I suppose.   I’m resistant to looking for some reason.  Maybe I should ask the pre-wreck me what’s the problem. 

     Looks like it might rain.  I’m not holding my breath.

    Dang it.  I forgot to buy Parmesan cheese! 

    Added: That’s eight 44# bags of cat food and two 40# bags of dog food. I’m nicely sore in the shoulders. Feels good, actually.

  28. Lynn says:

    The Walmart is getting weird.  Weirder.  Most of the side parking lot is tagged for whatever they call it… the order on-line and sit on your fat bottom while a peon loads your groceries.  The most I have /ever/ seen is three cars waiting.  It was four slots, then ten and now at least twenty.

    I totally agree.  Seems to be a big waste of premium parking space.

  29. Lynn says:

    Added: That’s eight 44# bags of cat food and two 40# bags of dog food. I’m nicely sore in the shoulders. Feels good, actually.

    That is a lot of cat food.  Are you feeding cat food to the emu ?

  30. Alan says:

    >> So we just have a hose with chlorinated poop water pumping out in the back yard for now instead of the four gentrified sprinklers that everyone here pretends is just for watering. 

    City sewers FTW. 

  31. Lynn says:

    Where is our poop emoji ?

  32. Rick H says:

    There will be no pooping on this site.

    Get your own site if you want to poop.

    🙂 

  33. paul says:

    The emu gets Sheep and Goat Feed.  About half the price of cat food. 

    The cats?  Uh.  There are a lot.  I’m down from the 26 I counted last April to 16.  Toms gonna Tom.  Nine kittens that I know of. 

    I like watching their antics.  Some are friendly enough to pick up and pet.  Some are “just pat me on the back”. Some are “don’t touch me even if I am rubbing on your leg” but they all know who put food in the pan.  They get along with each other and with the dogs. 

    I dunno.  Beats watching TV all day. 

    Buying  cat food vs buying some channel on the Roku.  Easy choice for me.

  34. Greg Norton says:

    The wife has watched every single one of the current Star Trek, Star Wars, Marve, and other non-dark space opera shows that she likes.  She is now bingeing “Extraordinary Attorney Woo” on Netflix in Korean with English subtitles.  She is fascinated by the autistic lawyer in an Asian culture.

    “Lower Decks” has a new season starting, and unlike the other new “Star Trek” shows, the writers know and love the old series, from the original Kirk/Spock stories through “Enterprise”.

    Occasionally they drop something cool, and “Lower Decks” is teasing a “Deep Space Nine” update episode.

    The writers pick for “Most important person in Starfleet history”, slipped in at the end of one episode on the sly, seems silly at first and then, when you’ve thought about it for a while, it makes perfect sense.

    Oh, and don’t forget “What We Left Behind”, the DS9 documentary streaming free on YouTube. As long as you ignore the agenda of Ira Stephen Behr and revisionist history he spews about one character in particular, it is interesting The remastered HD footage from “Favor The Bold” is possibly the only HD “Deep Space Nine” you will ever see.

    Who knows. Maybe Paramount will spend some of that “Top Gun” money.

  35. paul says:

    💩

    There ya go.

    & #128169;

    Remove the space after the &.

  36. mediumwave says:

    Oop-poop-a-doop.

  37. Lynn says:

    “There simply is no constitutional or precedential argument for restricting enumerated civil rights for adults on the basis of age, no matter how hard policymakers and activists try to dream them up.”

    https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2022/08/26/federal-judge-on-2nd-amendment-age-limits-civil-rights-apply-to-all-american-adults-n492417

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws ?  I have long thought that these were unconstitutional.

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  38. paul says:

    I see plenty of commercials for stuff I think I would like to watch.  But I’m not staying up that late.  I’m usually done by 9pm.  I go to bed and listen to music for a while.

    The dogs get my sleepy self out of bed about 6am.  It varies, I get to sleep late on cloudy days.

  39. Rick H says:

    Huh. Didn’t try that one. The googles failed me.

    I retract my previous statement.

    Oh 💩 !

  40. Lynn says:

    “Still Going On” By Divemedic 

        https://areaocho.com/still-going-on/

    “More than a year and a half later, the FBI is still arresting people for J6. At least 45 more arrests were made in Florida this week.”

    “The FBI claims that they are now analyzing social media pictures to see if people in the J6 photos are wearing the same clothes in social media posts.”

    Not good.

  41. drwilliams says:

    @paul

    The Walmart is getting weird.

    Any sign of Spandex poisoning?

  42. paul says:

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws ?

    That would be cool.  Do tobacco also.

    I mean, if you’re old enough to get married or vote or join the Army or sign student loan papers, you are old enough to go and get drunk while chain smoking cigarettes.

    Adult is adult.  Can you cause a pregnancy?  Can you be pregnant?  You are an adult.  That you are also a moron, well, life is interesting.  

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  43. paul says:

    Any sign of Spandex poisoning?

    Not here. 

  44. Lynn says:

    “The British Energy Horror Story”

        https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/08/28/the-british-energy-horror-story/

    There is probably gonna be a tough time this winter in the old countries.  The first world may not be the first world anymore next summer.

  45. drwilliams says:

    I had H&I on this morning to catch a couple episodes of Superman, and when it rolled off into Walker, Texas Ranger it took me a few minutes to realize I was watching the broadcast version of the pilot. Fun to see Trivette as he was originally portrayed, with a bit more of an edge. Did we ever see his abs again? 

    Since I had never viewed the first half of Season 1, I left it on.

    Episode 5 features Bruce McGill as a corrupt bounty hunter named Boone Waxwell. I noted the name right away, but it wasn’t until he claims “My friends call me Boo” that I knew for sure that it was an homage to JDM’s swampy bad boy in “Bright Orange for the Shroud”. IMDB notes the name, but has no backstory.

  46. Greg Norton says:

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws ?  I have long thought that these were unconstitutional.

    The states were free to not raise the drinking age to 21. Of course, if they did so, they would have faced the loss of their respective share of the Federal highway funding.

  47. Ed says:

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws ?  I have long thought that these were unconstitutional.

    Why? There’s no explicit constituonal right to drink.

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  48. Ray Thompson says:

    “The FBI claims that they are now analyzing social media pictures to see if people in the J6 photos are wearing the same clothes in social media posts.”

    What if someone with their back to the camera, was wearing the same clothes as I have been seen wearing? Is that enough to charge me with a crime? Seems like a slippery slope. A 💩 situation for certain.

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws?

    I was allowed to drink, legally, at the age of 18 when I entered the military. As long as I was on a military base. That is federal property and state laws do not apply. In fact, the first time I got wasted. The second was in the Philippines and I was barely 21. I was also allowed, legally, to kill people in Vietnam. The more the better. Strange world.

    When I was first in the service there was no tax on cigarettes and smoking was encouraged. During basic training if a person smoked they got more breaks from training. I tried to pick up the habit as I was stashed in a room with two others who smoked a lot. Eventually I realized the error of my thinking and abandoned the habit after three weeks. I was also able to change rooms and was now in a room with three other people, none of whom smoked.

    There was also no state tax on alcohol sold on base. Made for a good black market. Buy on base, sell off base for about 25% profit per bottle. The military would get suspicious if a person was buying a lot of alcohol and the penalties for selling off base were quite severe. Court martial and dishonorable discharge were the norm when caught. Thus it was not a real common practice. What happened the most is someone off-base, friends with a soldier, would have a party. The soldier was given the money to buy all the alcohol and that was legal as there was no resale.

    The military has since changed their stance on smoking and drinking. Cigarettes are now taxed the same as buying off-base. Same with alcohol, full state taxes. Military realized they were fostering a real problem with smoking and alcoholism among the troops. Taxing slowed the sales and made friends with the state coffers.

  49. Ray Thompson says:

    Why? There’s no explicit constituonal [sic] right to drink.

    There is no constitutional right to do many things, yet people do. The drinking and smoking laws are determined by the states, not the federal government. Although many states are “encouraged” by extortion by the federal government, which is really wrong in my opinion.

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  50. CowboyStu says:

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws ?  I have long thought that these were unconstitutional.

    How about 18 to 20 year old voting?

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  51. Lynn says:

    I wonder if a federal judge will use this to kill the 18 to 20 year old alcohol laws ?  I have long thought that these were unconstitutional.

    How about 18 to 20 year old voting?

    Is there anywhere that 18 to 20 year olds are limited in voting ?

    It is a stretch, but the 18th and 21st Amendments can be pushed into a right to drink by a clever lawyer.

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  52. drwilliams says:

    Raises a good question. 

    If a party had control of the U.S. Senate and House, and either the Presidency or a veto-proof majority, why couldn’t they pass a law to make Washington, DC dry?

  53. CowboyStu says:

    If a party had control of the U.S. Senate and House, and either the Presidency or a veto-proof majority, why couldn’t they pass a law to make Washington, DC dry?

    10-4, like they can make it “dry” of fentanyl.

  54. Greg Norton says:

    If a party had control of the U.S. Senate and House, and either the Presidency or a veto-proof majority, why couldn’t they pass a law to make Washington, DC dry?

    The last Veto/Fillibuster-proof majority in the Senate, starting in January 2009, included Ted Kennedy until he assumed room temperature in August. Uncle Ted was well known to imbibe on occasion.

    Another definite “no” vote would have been Kennedy’s frequent wingman, CT Senator Chris Dodd.

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  55. Nick Flandrey says:

    Why? There’s no explicit constituonal right to drink.

    the Constitution does not grant rights, it recognizes pre-existing rights and limits what FedGov can do.   I’d bet somewhere around 90% of what FedGov does has no basis in the Constitution.   The Founders wanted a limited government.  It has been growing ever since.

    n

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  56. Nick Flandrey says:

    Home.   Tired.   Standing on concrete, even with some carpet, is painful after a few hours.   Keeping my energy up while interacting with all those people is tiring.   Getting up early and going to bed late didn’t help.

    I ended up making some money.   Sold 2 of the three things I most wanted to sell.   Making the money was secondary for me, getting out and among friends was primary, just getting rid of a couple of larger items was tertiary.

    D2 was a great helper and charmed everyone she interacted with.

    Now I’ve got stuff to put away, organize, clean up, etc.   Immediately though, I need to get some food on the table.

    n

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  57. Ed says:

    the Constitution does not grant rights, it recognizes pre-existing rights and limits what FedGov can do

    As Ray pointed out, the States have the power to set their drinking ages. They are free to do so because the Constitution “limits what FedGov can do” by preventing the federal government from stopping the States from setting their drinking ages. Since that sounds like an awkward double negative, let me clarify: the States can set their drinking ages as they reasonably want to because the Constitution does not empower the federal government to stop them from doing so.

    The Founders wanted a limited government.  It has been growing ever since.

    You’re changing the subject. I simply noted that there is no explicit recognition of a right to drink in the Constitution, making the situation for 21+ drinking laws different from the situation for 21+ gun ownership. The size of the government is irrelevant to what we were talking about. 

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  58. drwilliams says:

    Here in America, we haven’t done much of anything, but I suggest we could at least remove some of the disincentives to having kids. One surprising (but not really) disincentive to having more kids is found in car-seat laws. According to a recent study, they only save a few kids’ lives but cause many parents to forego a third kid (which requires a bigger car): “We estimate that these laws prevented only 57 car crash fatalities of children nationwide in 2017. Simultaneously, they led to a permanent reduction of approximately 8,000 births in the same year, and 145,000 fewer births since 1980, with 90% of this decline being since 2000.”

    The future belongs to the people who show up, as they say. It seems doubtful that will be the greenies.

    https://nypost.com/2022/08/26/a-new-devil-of-a-problem-for-planet-earth-vanishing-humans/

  59. Rick H says:

    To possibly increase your paranoia – here’s a USB cable that is actually a device that will hack your device: https://www.theverge.com/23321517/omg-elite-cable-hacker-tool-review-defcon . It looks like a normal cable. But it’s not:

    It’s a cable that looks identical to the other cables you already have,” explains MG, the cable’s creator. “But inside each cable, I put an implant that’s got a web server, USB communications, and Wi-Fi access. So it plugs in, powers up, and you can connect to it.”

    The story includes an xray of the cable end that contains the electronics. Clever people, them hackers.

    The scary thing about the O.MG cable is that it’s extremely covert. Holding the cable in my hand, there was really nothing to make me suspicious. If someone had offered it as a phone charger, I wouldn’t have had a second thought. With a choice of connections from Lightning, USB-A, and USB-C, it can be adapted for almost any target device including Windows, macOS, iPhone, and Android, so it’s suitable for many different environments.

  60. Rick H says:

    …and then there’s the “Rubber Ducky”, which looks like a USB drive: https://www.theverge.com/23308394/usb-rubber-ducky-review-hack5-defcon-duckyscript 

    Comes with it’s own programming language that allows it to do nefarious things.

  61. drwilliams says:

    web server, USB communications, and Wi-Fi access

    Just the thing for planting files on your boss’s computer at work. Set up a hidden partition on the hard drive, drop some files in every day or so for a month, then toss in a cranky virus that results in a call to IT. 

  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    We’ve said for a long time that if you have physical access to a device, you can own it.  This cable takes it a bit further, but is it much different from spying thru the wifi access point, video recording the screen, or keystroke logging?   

    Connecting USB sticks or random CDs has been a bad idea for a long time, but is mitigated by not allowing autorun.  

    There will be some defense against this.

    People still click on links in email, and visit dodgy sites, while installing apps from unknown developers….

    n

    (and MS does most of what the hacker could do thru their normal spying and the update process.  the last big widespread infection was because someone subverted the update process for some sort of firewall or web appliance, wasn’t it?)

  63. drwilliams says:

    EarthRoamer LTi on Jay Leno’s Garage

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG-kVnVwFoo

    h/t to Weasel’s Sunday Gub Thread at AoSHQ

    Carbon fiber is nice, but how much to upgrade to Kevlar?

  64. Nick Flandrey says:

    I’m extra tired and sore, so I’m off …

    n

  65. Lynn says:

    Raises a good question. 

    If a party had control of the U.S. Senate and House, and either the Presidency or a veto-proof majority, why couldn’t they pass a law to make Washington, DC dry?

    Have you ever been to DC ?  Every other building is a bar.

  66. Lynn says:

    You know, the under bridge dweller is really messing with my echo chamber.

  67. Alan says:

    >> I totally agree.  Seems to be a big waste of premium parking space.

    Hey, Paul Pelosi needs somewhere to park, right? 

  68. Lynn says:

    Had quite some fun this weekend.  I bought a new Barcalounger power recliner (big and tall Blair blue leather model designed for 300 lbs, $1,720 plus tax, $2,800 list price) last week.  Got it Thursday on large freight truck, it weighs 151 lbs. 

    Unboxed it, sat in it, the left arm promptly broke.  Emailed the Amazon third party seller and they sent a furniture technician at 7am Saturday morning from Humble, TX.  The furniture tech took the underskirt off on the left arm and promptly said something was wrong.  He then decided that a piece of the wood frame was missing.  He then tried putting on three L metal brackets but those did not help.  He then emailed the third party seller that the recliner needed to be replaced as the next stage was a full disassembly.  Hopefully they will agree on Monday, otherwise I will get Amazon involved.

    I gave the tech a $40 tip for his honest work and 100 mile round trip (the seller paid him for 45 minutes).   Then I went back to bed.

    Chinesium.  It is not just bad capacitors, rotten steel, and cheap plastic crap.  They cannot get even expensive stuff right.

  69. Alan says:

    >> I can’t actually find any Vegas odds on Artemis… 

    One of my sons is in the sportsbook industry and hears about most of the unusual prop bets, so far nothing on the Artemis. 

  70. Lynn says:

    Sun. Aug. 28, 2022 – Meatspace baby. Get out and do something with people…

    The wife and I went to church today.  Does that count ?  First service had about 400 people in it.  Then Bible Class had about 50 – 60 people in it with 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s age ranges.  A lot of people that I have been going to church with for 33 years now (1989).

    Our preacher is retiring in a year and a half.  He is the only preacher our church has had since it was formed in 1986.  Replacing him is not going to be easy but there is a huge search committee starting to look.

  71. Alan says:

    >> Adult is adult.  Can you cause a pregnancy?  Can you be pregnant?  You are an adult.  That you are also a moron, well, life is interesting.  

    You sure that you want to go down that slippery slope? So if a 14 year old male consentually impregnates an 18 year old female then he’s an adult in the eyes of the law? 

  72. Alan says:

    >> Standing on concrete, even with some carpet, is painful after a few hours.

    @nick, no anti-fatigue mat? 

  73. JimB says:

    I used to know machine shop guys. Most stood on squishy mats, but some just wore shoes with soft heels and soles. I wear soft shoes, and I can’t tell whether I am standing on concrete, wood, or marshmallows.

    I remember walking two or three miles as a kid, and shoes with sturdy leather heels made my heels sore. Rubber heels or sneakers were heaven. I was particularly fond of Keds. When Hush Puppies came out, they were cheaper and better. Wolverine made shoe uppers from pigskin, with durable soft one piece bottoms. They were reasonably water resistant, and very durable. A friend orders their work shoes, and loves ‘em. Not cheap. Maybe I will switch next time. I haven’t had a comfy hard toe strong sole shoe in a long time. My current ones are light, but stiff.

    BTW, I was taught that boots do not have laces. If it has laces, it is a shoe, no matter how high. The exception is loafers, my favorite shoe.

  74. Ray Thompson says:

    So if a 14 year old male consentually impregnates an 18 year old female then he’s an adult in the eyes of the law?

    Well at least he is one happy dude.

  75. drwilliams says:

    moved to Monday

  76. drwilliams says:

    moved to Monday

Comments are closed.