Hotter than I expected. And far more humid than I’d like. That was yesterday, and today is likely to be the same. Yuck. Sun was INTENSE.
Did my pickups on the way up. Forgot one big item that I’ll have to go back for on Monday. Brainfart. Just forgot to load it.
Did some small things when I got up here. Mostly unloaded the truck. Pulled romex to the master bath. Had just exactly enough. It’s actually tighter than I’d really like, but it reaches. Not going to make the connection yet, but it’s in. I can close up the wall in the bath, and my wife can paint.
Sky last night was big and black. You could actually see the milky way. I haven’t seen the milky way in decades. Wife decided she wants a decent beginner telescope for her birthday. Recommendations are welcome. Size and cost will be considerations. She will probably not be doing any traditional astronomy, like logging objects. She just wants to look at cool things. I’m not even sure that’s possible without a big ‘scope. I guess I’m about to learn some things.
We’ll see what I get done today. I’ll probably continue breaking concrete and moving it and dirt around. So much concrete. So much dirt.
Had dinner from the freezer up here. I need to stock some bags of frozen veg. Then we’ll be able to just come up and make normal meals without thinking about it ahead of time.
Always more to stack… get busy!
nick
72 F in the western side of Fort Bend County and very foggy. 200 years ago last week, in 1822 a group of people built a cabin in the bend of the Brazos River for food storage and minor protection from the Indians. Now we have over 800,000 people living in this county alone.
Reputedly, my German great great grandfather bought 4,000 or 8,000 acres in the next county, Wharton County, from one of the land grants just 15 years later in 1837. Right before the Civil War.
Concrete is awesome until you have to break it out and dispose of it. It is a good landfill if you have a place needing fill. And machinery to dig it up and move it.
I really want my own excavator but the wife says NO. I am not even allowed to rent one. Of course she says that about the boom lift too and I have rented one of those five times now. I will be renting one of those again in Nov.
Bought a new Epson Ecotank printer at Costco. $279.00. Those tanks hold a lot of ink which should reduce the printing costs. Epson is making money on the printers, not the ink. My Canon printer was $50.00 at HSN.COM. Nice printer but a supply of ink, 5 cartridges, is getting costly. Almost $90.00 for a set. I figure the Epson tanks hold 30 times, or more, ink than the Canon cartridges. I will keep the Canon printer as it can print on printable DVDs, something I need every so often.
The Epson printer is wireless and connected without issue. Printer was detected by Windows and easily added. MacBook found the printer quite easily and also set up the scanning with no drivers to install. Surface Pro found the printer and set it up without needing to install any external drivers.
I could have gone one model up and got wired and wireless networking, self-feeding scanner, and more speed. We don’t scan enough to warrant self-feeding, wired connection would not be used as that restricts the location.
The tanks fill easily. Upend the bottle into the fill port. Each bottle and port is keyed so that one cannot be put in the wrong location. No mess, no fuss. Nicely implemented.
We bought my son a basic Orion years ago when he expressed interest in having a telescope during our sentence -er- tenure in WA State. Sadly, we bought it, used it a couple of times, and then got busy with other things. I think he still has the scope around. It was “good enough” to see cool things on the moon and a someone blurry view of Mars.
Orion has Dobsons at the next price level up. We were flat broke at the time so we didn’t go that far.
A common Boy/Girl Scout project for high school age is building a Dobson, including grinding the mirror.
“the 2020 election was stolen”
Lot’s of evidence. Most of it “pooh-poohed”, which is not in any way equivalent to debunking.
Take this, for example:
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/09/retaining_election_records_from_the_2020_election.html
This one simple metric strongly indicates that there were about 900,000 votes cast in these states in excess of the number of voters.
This does not prove fraud, but it does prove that there are irregularities that need explaining.
Without a thorough investigation producing strong evidence that such non-random results were the result of innocent events, it is not unreasonable to reach the conclusion that the cause is, in fact, fraud.
79F with 82%RH this sunny am. Guess the cool spell was just a spell after all.
Definitely going home today, as I arranged to pickup the item I forgot at 9am Monday. Guess I’ll be driving back to meet with the foundation guy when he’s ready.
Time to make some waffles!
n
Annnnddd. fwiw, my email from Home Depot suggests that they are buying overheard (spy) data from someone.
There is a lag of a few days. I never searched for garbage disposals, or for vinyl floor, but I have had conversations about both. Both have been the subject of emails from HD.
If it’s because I mentioned them online, then something is spying on that too.
n
This place is definitely getting data mined by someone. I’ve noticed a trend where something will come up in the postings and I’ll get an email from Amazon a few days later. Now I’ll probably receive emails about EcoTank printers.
Scam of the weekend is Newegg third party sellers. I wasn’t paying attention ordering a new hard drive for my primary desktop, and the drive ended up shipped by a third party seller from God-knows-where as a “gift” from Amazon, to be delivered by their Logistics.
Refusing delivery will simply get a balance put on my Amazon account. A return is $14 shipping plus $3 restock on a $50 drive. My guess is that someone is monetizing stolen Amazon gift cards using Newegg.
Newegg can’t even verify delivery of the item since the seller did not properly register their Amazon account with the marketplace’s third party system.
I asked NewEgg for a return label and a waiver of the restock fee since the package will remain unopened. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll get Amex involved. The seller is an Asian name with a return address at a cr*phole apartment in Rancho Cucamonga.
We’re being occupied and mined financially by operators large and small, a 21st century colony.
Sounds like drwilliams falls into the category of “those unschooled in the mechanics of elections”:
https://www.propublica.org/article/voter-ref-foundation
Pro Publica, founded by Golden West execs with a board dominated by big Dem donors and lefty academics.
Next!
WRT inks for home computers, I am very happy with the inks I buy for my Canon printer:
https://www.inkfarm.com/index2.epl?&referer=QQ9ADWORDS2&source=adwords&campaign=inkfarm&adgroup=inkfarm&keyword=inkfarm&utm_content=sPDy27Ho2|pcrid|324578809823|pkw|inkfarm|pmt|e&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Inkfarm&utm_term=inkfarm&gclid=CjwKCAjwg5uZBhATEiwAhhRLHjxHDmRxYEYB1WD8HAb_DvY5aFmPieSDJOLVw-ecIL_5-BU6APyv9hoC-jcQAvD_BwE
Yes, WRT to Ed wanting “Actual Facts”, I know of only one case of election stealing confirmed by such. It was the Florida State Supreme Court mandating a stop of the attempted steal by Alan Morton Dershowitz as he testified before them desiring a recount of the votes when Al Gore ran for president.
I am Ed. I am an idiot.
Just for you, Greg.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem
Put up a link to a thinly-veiled opinion piece by a lefty group and I’ll state the facts about the source.
And, again, I don’t care about being accused of “an homenim” attacks. This isn’t the faculty lounge of the English department in a third rate state liberal arts school in the boonies of a God-forsaken blue state. Your sources have credibility issues.
I’m not going to take a puff on my pipe, pick the lint off of my cut-rate tweeds, and say, “Well played Old Bean” if that’s what you want.
And nothing at all about the substance, per usual. Next!
Why can’t the election officials provide counts on the rolls of the day of the election? Oh wait, they don’t want to provide those numbers. That would seem to me to be a really significant snapshot in time of the database to maintain in case of election problems. Saying the rolls are fluid, hah, give me a break. That is just dodging the issue.
The voting rolls in TN are not that fluid. People that have died four years in the past still show on the voting rolls. I know. Because one of those people is just before my name in the voting rolls. Last time I voted he was still on the rolls, eligible to vote. For all I know, he did vote, even being dead. I suspect many other states voting rolls are the same and dead people are not immediately removed. Nor are people who relocate to other counties.
I had trouble voting because someone signed the election roles on my name. Had to use a provisional ballot. I don’t even know if the ballot was counted as the difference in the winning margin must be less than the number of provisional ballots cast. I don’t think that happened even at the local level.
When LBJ was elected there were many people on the rolls, who were dead, that voted. The order of the names matched the order of the graves in a local cemetery. This was many years ago when computers were not widely used and many of the rolls were manually kept. And LBJ was probably one of the most crooked presidents in history. At least based on the federal money that was used to improve his private residence in the name of “security”. Who knew a fully equipped theatre was needed for security?
Was there election fraud in 2020? Most certainly. Were there election issues from mistakes in 2020? Most certainly. Was that enough to sway the election in 2020? I don’t think so.
The kids are visiting today. No driveway announcer. Trudge up the driveway and get through the cedar branches to the transmitter. Four CR123 cells.
I didn’t scratch myself on a branch!
Just for grins I Fluked the old cells. 2.7 and 2.7 and 2.8 and .15 volts. Not bad at all for “expected battery life of just over a year” as I bought the system in October 2017.
Was there election fraud in 2020? Of course there was. Even ignoring the stopping of vote counting and re-starting at 3 AM, never mind covering the windows where counting was happening. That there was the flood that as I recall turned out to be a toilet overflowing.
The entire “No! No Re-counting! No Audits! Trust Us!” from the Dems is pretty much all I need to know they cheated.
So, apparently 57 heads of state are attending the Queen’s funeral. That many security details would be chaos, so the UK is providing security, and shuttle busses for the politicians.
Unfortunately, they granted an exception to the US, so Biden will travel in the presidential tank. I wish they had had the guts to say “no, your President is not more important than anyone else.”
Yep. Either follows the rules or don’t attend, your choice. Put the bozo in his place. I doubt Spongey has ridden a bus in the last 40 years. I doubt Spongey can even drive.
Biden is famous for having ridden Amtrak home when he was in the Senate.
Plus as much as he tries to portray himself as “Scranton Joe”, just plain folk, Biden’s father was a well heeled Chevy dealer who gave his son a Corvette for … law school (?) … graduation, a vehicle which he still owns.
Spend an afternoon in a Florida DMV and you’ll quickly understand how it is that Biden still has a license even in his cognitive-impared state. Old Claude Pepper was instrumental in driving changes to Florida law which mean some retirees who move to the state at 65 don’t face as much as a vision test until they are nearly 80.
Deleware probably isn’t much different.
Well, some, more than others, certainly thought they were.
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/05/trump-nato-shove
Gee, if only a highly partisan, highly motivated group spent months scrutinizing the process. That would surely turn up “the truth” that there was massive fraud.
Oh, wait. That happened, and the outcome probably wasn’t what you expected.
I am Ed. I am still an idiot.
My deepest and most humble condolences.
>> Annnnddd. fwiw, my email from Home Depot suggests that they are buying overheard (spy) data from someone.
I’ve given up being surprised by this behavior. Even extensive whistle-blowing revelations disappear with the next news cycle. The days, if there really were any, of the ‘tech giants’ doing no evil are over. It would be an interesting experiment if Elon went through with buying Twitter and open-sourced and its entire code base. We’re all screwed.
@brad:
You expected anything else out of our Merkin lapdog government? I didn’t. And don’t.
G.
@Alan:
Were there ever such days? Particularly once marketroids and beancounters realised how much could be done with customer data? All it needs is a lack of conscience.
G.
The interesting code at Twitter is the app. If Musk turns that loose, everyone will have a user experience comparable to what made Twitter over the last decade.
Oh, wait. That happened, and the outcome probably wasn’t what you expected.
Ah yes, NBC News, the guys who stuck a cherry bomb in the gas tank of a vehicle when the gas tank would not explode for them. That inspires me to trust them forever. Not.
Basic School for Self-Professed Idiots:
Michigan: 280,605 is not equal to 74,000
Not in any known universe or earthly non-trollian system of numbers
Currently Registered Michigan voters: 8,170,729
Handwaving, again, is not debunking.
The reasonable question is to ask why, out of all the 50 states, does Michigan show a statistical anomaly amounting to 3.5% of registered voters?
More ad hominen nonsense. I shouldn’t feed it, but, how about six other reports?
https://www.azmirror.com/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-finds-biden-won-by-more-votes-and-no-evidence-of-fraud/
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arizona-republicans-release-findings-widely-panned-election-audit-2021-09-24/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/regulation/cybersecurity/588703-cyber-ninjas-shutting-down-after-judges-fines-arizona-audit-company/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.voanews.com/amp/arizona-county-says-cyber-ninjas-election-review-shows-biden-win/6243843.html
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/09/24/arizona-audit-cost-trump-supporters-nearly-6-million-only-to-assert-biden-won-by-even-more/amp/
https://www.google.com/amp/s/news.yahoo.com/amphtml/maricopa-county-draft-cyber-ninjas-041918195.html
I really should remind you, Ed–because I should and I also enjoy it–that you stamped your foot and ran away from the conversation last night.
So before you start posting meaningless links again, why don’t you scrolllllll back and answer the questions you couldn’t last night?
My favorite Democrat/troll/puddinhead non-debunking of evidence is still claiming that all those ballot harvesters were wearing exam gloves because it was cold.
As an explanation that one is 10/10 in favor of absolute desperation.
Now Biden’s are in England and Pelosi in Armenia. Did they take multi-hundred seat airliners with no vacancies or the bureaucrat type, 90% empty) to spew CO2 over the Atlantic?
My name is Ed,
From this conversation I did fled.
With you people I don’t want to affiliate,
But, I am still an idiot.
Come on, with both know how this is going to go. I’m going to ask for evidence that anyone has actually made that claim, you aren’t going to provide any but, instead, will change the subject, this post will get 20-some down votes, and I will still end the day being correct. Maybe we can skip the middle steps this time.
“Cost Of the Green Energy Transition: Who You Gonna Believe, Some Research Assistants from Oxford or Your Lyin’ Eyes?”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/09/18/cost-of-the-green-energy-transition-who-you-gonna-believe-some-research-assistants-from-oxford-or-your-lyin-eyes/
“Anyone with a pair of eyes can see what has happened. They thought they could get rid of fossil fuels just by building lots of wind turbines and solar panels, which don’t work most of the time. Then they suppressed fossil fuel production, because that is the virtuous thing to do. Somehow they lost track of the fact that they needed full backup for the wind and sun, and have no alternative to the suppressed fossil fuels. With supply of fossil fuels intentionally and artificially constrained, prices spiked.”
“And they have not even yet gotten to 50% of electricity, or 15% of final energy consumption, from wind/sun on an annualized basis.”
The only way that they can get rid of fossil fuels is by reducing the quality of life significantly for the general population. No home heating, no powered transportation, no home air conditioning, etc.
Isn’t that the goal of the top-level politicians?
They live like kings lording over us serfs who scratch the dirt for left over kernels of grain. They will continue in their massive vehicles. They will continue in their private jets. They will continue in the climate-controlled mansions behind walls (which are not effective on the border). They will continue their gourmet meals prepared and served by serfs just hoping to afford a can of beans. They will continue with their armed entourages while denying the serfs weapons that could be used for hunting.
No links Ed, just my general opinion which from my perspective is always correct.
Ed, if you are so damned smart why are you not solving world problems? You know, something useful. If you get so irritated at this place, why do you hang around? None of us are impressed. None of us would give you half a Snickers bar if you were starving. It seems your time would be better spent elsewhere. Or are you hiding behind a false facade when you are really a very unhappy, worthless, human being?
That’s the point.
I like it when things are predictable.
I don’t typically link to crime scenes, and in this case, whoever wrote it cut their head off with Occam’s Razor
The only attempt to steal election by recount by democrats was stopped by the one with actual fact that the Florida State Supreme Court mandated stoppage of the recount.
My comment about Ed choosing to stay here is that some feel that bad attention is better than no attention.
If they were wearing gloves. like deli gloves, I would lean towards “paper rash”..
A More Accurate Multiplier
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/09/17/a-more-accurate-multiplier/
There was some discussion the other day about infrared radiation and the greenhouse effect. Willis does a good job of explaining it about as clearly as possible.
Paging Warren Sapp. Warren Sapp, please pick up the Raymond James Stadium courtesy phone.
https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/buccaneers-vs-saints-tom-brady-stats-and-highlights-nfl-week-2-game
In non-political Sunday news, via the Marginal Revolution blog, a link to Art Garfunkel’s reading over the years:
https://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html
Impressive.
Ad hominen. Ad hominen. Ad hominen.
Marcia. Marcia. Marcia.
Astronomy Club outreach last night here in the high desert, at a local city park.
Seeing was bad, some smoke haze from fires throughout the state, and, some club members said, a stream of high altitude moist air. Only the brighter stars were visible.
I brought the old (1985?) non-computerized Celestron C8 SCT out; the guys who manhandle the 11” and 12” fully computerized goto mounts for this have my respect (and a little bit of envy).
I felt a bit bad for people looking through the scope, ”Swimmingly” and “scintillating” are swear words for amateur astronomers, btw, but a couple of guys had objects tracking near the zenith (the Dumbbell Nebula for one) and that was a better view.
None the less the star-walk docent, Jeremy, did his best, using a laser pointer to pick out brighter constellations and planets for his audience, and gave a nice insight into various things.
For example, Jupiter with it’s 12 year period was used to mark the year for the Chinese Zodiacal Calendar.
Anyway, as usual, groused at first about going but ended up glad I went.
Garfunkel has had a lot more time on his hands than Paul Simon over the last 30 years.
OTOH, I took a stack of albums into the used record store while downtown last weekend, intending just to see what I could get for what is otherwise a polycarbonate disposal problem, and anything Paul Simon from “Songs of the Capeman” on is worth $0 second hand.
Probably. But fame isn’t for everyone.
I can’t recall if I have any vinyl left, haven’t owned a turntable in
yearsdecades. Might be a few at the bottom of some boxes, just for associated memories.>”Lot’s of evidence [of election fraud’. Most of it “pooh-poohed”, which is not in any way equivalent to debunking.”
>”The entire “No! No Re-counting! No Audits! Trust Us!” from the Dems is pretty much all I need to know they cheated.”
What is most necessary is to conduct elections in a such a way that about 99% of citizens are confident that 99% of the votes were cast and counted correctly. Beyond that, it is necessary that the federal government’s power be cut back such that it does not have much control over people’s day to day lives. Democracy is dangerous, in that people get the idea that winning an election should mean that they get to rule extensively. They use the phrase “majority rule” as though winning an election should allow them to oppress the losers. That is how democracy fails.
Got a link?
I have no desire to impress you, nor do I have any concern as to whether you are impressed.
“I have no desire to impress you, nor do I have any concern as to whether you are impressed. ”
That’s very fortunate.
Because asking for a link for something that is searchable in a couple keystrokes strongly indicates that the “Tyro” beginner’s badge is still far beyond your grasp.
Home without incident.
n
historic fact:
SPR:
Capacity 714 million barrels
Actual reserve when FJB took over: 630 million barrels
Cost to top off under Trump’s proposal rejected by Chuck Schumer: (714-630)*10^6 * $24 = $2.02 billion
Cost to buy 84 million bbls at $80/bbl = $6.72 billion
Basis #47 for impeachment of Chuck Schumer in Jan 2023: $6.72-2.02 = $4.70 billion
Current reserve after FJB releases to partially counter FJB oil price inflation: 430 million barrels
Releases by FJB to buy votes: 630 – 430 = 200 million barrels
Cost to replace oil sold by FJB to buy votes: 200*10^6 * $80 = $16 billion (#89 on the impeach FJB list)
Total cost of Democrat mismanagement of SPR* $20.7 billion
Small potatoes compared with their rape of the budget and the inflationary consequences.
*The SPR reserves decreased by about 40 million barrels while Trump was in office, and the Dems refused to replace it at $24/bbl. Under FJB the Dems put 30-35 million barrels oil in the SPR at $45/barrel, getting about half a much oil for the tax dollar compared to Trump’s proposal.
Researchers Say It’ll Be Impossible to Control a Super-Intelligent AI
The closest model in mythology is probably a high-level demon, generally thought to lie so persuasively that the only viable strategy is not to talk to them at all.
Super-intelligent AI? I wonder if our troll is even capable of passing the Turing test.
@Ed: Please provide proof that you are an actual human being and not some glorified chat bot.
Notice how the Dems haven’t done anything about restoring the SALT deduction as promised.
I mostly do naked-eye astronomy myself, but I’ve had an Astroscan for 35 years. It is simple, robust, and easily portable. On a good night I can see the rings of Saturn, or the Galilean moons of Jupiter and the stripes on Jupiter itself. or I can wander around the Moon. I have often admired others’ fancy telescopes and set-ups, especially the astrophotography rigs, but I’ve never had the resources to pursue anything like that myself.
My suggestion to you and your wife is to have a read through some of the articles at Sky&Telescope such as:
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/how-to-choose-a-telescope/
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/choosing-astronomy-equipment/hobby-killers-what-telescopes-not-to-buy/
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/stargazing-basics/how-to-start-right-in-astronomy/
https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-equipment/choosing-astronomy-equipment/telescopes/types-of-telescopes/
@Lynn
The majority of Democrats are stupid. Factoid today was that half of adults in the U.S. cannot name the three branches of government. That’s a direct consequence of PLT’s running the public educational system for going on three generations. Do you think homeschooled kids can name the three branches of government? Scares the PLT’s spitless.
But the “intelligentsia” of the PLT is not stupid–they are evil. Ironically, their evil may run aground on another evil with the same roots: Putin.
Putin’s bumbling war with Ukraine is going to have two consequences that upset the PLT timetable. The first is that cutting Russian energy supplies to Europe is going to kill people this winter. Even WaPo and the NYT are going to find it impossible to ignore. Be fun to see how they try to blame it on Trump.
The second is that the Ukraine harvest is not only going to be severely curtailed, the likelihood of that source bouncing back soon is diminishing every day. Add in the tripling or more of natural gas based fertilizer costs and the example of Sri Lanka when synthetic fertilizer is not used. Stir.
Energy and food shortages together may make enough of an impression that people will realize that they’ve been flat-out lied to.
@dcp, thanks I”ve shared the links with her…
n
Speaking of astronomy
https://thesilicongraybeard.blogspot.com/2022/09/james-webbs-first-exoplanet-photo.html
n
And some disaster news
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11225581/Terrifying-moment-BRIDGE-swept-away-Puerto-Rico-Hurricane-Fiona-brings-flooding.html
n
Amateur Astronomy is such a broad field now that it’s hard to make recommendations. Visual, imaging, EAA, etc.
The gear is amazing, but kind of overwhelming.
I have a number of scopes, but have been enjoying (good but not gold plated) binoculars the most this summer.
Club outreach programs, where you can look through others equipment and ask questions can be wonderful.
In many ways this is a golden era, you dont have to spend big $$ for a lot of fun.
p.s. Feel free to ask me anything.
Nick and dcp: I also have an Edmund AstroScan telescope, and I’m very unimpressed. Perhaps it just needs to be calibrated, or adjusted, or repaired or something, but the focus is sloppy and the results disappointing. I turn the focus knob a little, and nothing happens, and a little more and it JUMPS way past where I need it to be. And turning it back it jumps again. It’s OK for looking at the Moon, but not for anything further out.
Not recommended.
Huh, compare and contrast this article with any from six years ago…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11225189/Ivanka-Trump-wows-bikini-Miami-spending-family-time-kids-Jared-Kushner.html
Took them a while to notice that she looks nice. I guess they were too used to praising Michele and her ‘interesting’ outfits.
n