Wed. Sept. 21, 2022 – hard at work or hardly working?

By on September 21st, 2022 in culture, decline and fall, personal

Hot as summer yesterday.  Probably hot again today.  Humid too.   The sun was searing my brain.  REALLY hoped Fall was here.   Oh well, guess we’ll wait a bit longer.

Did pickups in the afternoon, and some family stuff in the evening.   Hit the Costco for a few things in between.  It was eerie.   530pm and the place was a ghost town.   Hamburger was more than HEB, as was chicken.  I bought chicken anyway because I like the packaging.   Bought some steaks too, as they were reasonable, looked good, and I hadn’t seen any ribeye in a while.  They had the shelf stable bread back in stock.   Coffee prices were low, or on sale, which is odd considering some of the things going on in the world.  Maybe coffee isn’t a ‘core’ expenditure and its price will fall as people cut back.  Most people I know would describe it as ‘core’ but maybe they move down scale to cheaper brands.

There were only 3 pallets of rice.   There used to be 6.   Pancake mix is up from $6 to $6.89.  But canadian maple syrup is cheaper than last year.  That has to be an exchange rate thing.  The store removed another set of cold cases.  This was a smaller open front, for organic drinks and salads, near the meat section.  Guess they are still remodeling and cutting back.  Something else caught my eye and I just figured out why.   They moved the bottled and sparkling water from next to the frozen fish, to an interior aisle.   They put beer in the aisle where the water used to be.   What caught my eye was the space.  The beer was all under the warehouse rack, and so was the water.   In the old days, the water was stocked on 6 foot high pallets in front of the pallet racking.   There is a whole lot less water on display, maybe half as much.

All this adds up to reduced SKUs, reduced inventory, and a much more open store.

Supply issues are just getting started friends.

Buy it while you can, and stack it high.

n

87 Comments and discussion on "Wed. Sept. 21, 2022 – hard at work or hardly working?"

  1. Nick Flandrey says:

    72F this morning, and the air is saturated.  Time to feed some kids.

    n

  2. Greg Norton says:

    Heard an anti- betto radio ad today.   They pronounced “beto” to rhyme with “pedo” and kept saying he was “too dangerous” to run the state.   I think they inadvertently give him too much credit with the “too dangerous” bit.

    Abbott has been a really wishy-washy Governor on every subject except abortion, and a lot of vested interests want to keep him in place to allow the continued practice of swimming naked.

    In Austin, we’re getting Robert Francis-associated PAC ads attacking Abbott going to a fund raiser the night after the Uvalde shooting, saying that the Governor needed to be “the father of Texas”.

    Everything from the Dems in the race seems targeted at suburban women with Daddy issues.

    The Republicans really just have to make sure the lights stay on.

  3. Greg Norton says:

    UT has an away game this weekend so the Texas Tribune, faux newspaper of record for the city, scheduled a “Festival” for downtown, whatever that means.

    My guess? Drinking, for one – this is Austin – and I’m sure Robert Francis will be in town. Maybe even Shot Girl again.

  4. brad says:

    Everything from the Dems in the race seems targeted at suburban women with Daddy issues.

    Most people seem to be pretty simple-minded. Appeal to them in some way emotionally, and they’ll skip the hard thinking.

    Take shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as an example. On reddit, this has often hit the front page. Either the liberals genuinely do not understand the point, or they refuse to admit it. 50 Migrants, and – after a couple of photo ops – they get shipped off to the National Guard. That those 50 migrants represent the tiniest drop in the bucket, that they were meant to demonstrate – in a very small way – the problems faced by border states?

    Nah. Feel-good photo op, ship them off out of sight. Done. Red states bad.

  5. ITGuy1998 says:

    Got bigger problems.  I may be having a heart bypass in October / November.  Am getting evaluated now.  Next test on Oct 4.

    Man, you’ve had enough heart issue to cover 3 or 4 people… At least you are on top of it. Hope it’s not needed.

  6. Greg Norton says:

    Got bigger problems.  I may be having a heart bypass in October / November.  Am getting evaluated now.  Next test on Oct 4.

    Oh, cr*’p! I didn’t see this at the end of the day yesterday. Sorry.

    Don’t see the new “Clerks” movie until after you are recovered.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    The problem for The Mouse right now is that DeSantis isn’t returning Ceapek’s phone calls about a deal until after the election.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-esg-activist-investor-vivek-ramaswamy-presses-for-changes-at-apple-and-disney-11663684474

  8. Greg Norton says:

    Take shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard as an example. On reddit, this has often hit the front page. Either the liberals genuinely do not understand the point, or they refuse to admit it. 50 Migrants, and – after a couple of photo ops – they get shipped off to the National Guard. That those 50 migrants represent the tiniest drop in the bucket, that they were meant to demonstrate – in a very small way – the problems faced by border states?

    Nah. Feel-good photo op, ship them off out of sight. Done. Red states bad.

    Gut instinct with the Martha’s Vineyard stunt is that the Miami Venezuelan elite expats are (were?) up to something and hijacked DeSantis’ political stunt for their personal gain. Of course, this is strictly speculation.

    Qualification for the statement: I have a *lot* of experience with the Venezuelan elite professional class from my days at GTE, when the national phone company was a customer, certainly more experience than either of the regular trolls here.

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  9. Ray Thompson says:

    UT has an away game this weekend

    So does the other UT. A home game. Against Florida. Sold out. Checkerboard the stands in orange and white.

    The stadium has new, well new last year, LED stadium lights. Nice lights, even lighting, good color rendition. During night games they flash the lights orange and white when a score is made. Alabama did it in their stadium flashing red and white. UT was not going to be outdone by Alabama. Really annoying and in my opinion childish. Most sports antics are childish. I guess that makes it fun.

  10. Greg Norton says:

    So does the other UT. A home game. Against Florida. Sold out. Checkerboard the stands in orange and white.

    Florida didn’t look all that sharp against my alma matter last Saturday, playing in Tampa at Raymond James which, as anyone familiar with the state knows, is practically a home field for Gators.

    South Florida was once the fastest developing program in the state … until the coach took a freshman quarterback to Tallahassee and forgot that he was supposed to lose to Saint Bobby. That was pretty much the end of the coach and the program, at least for a while.

  11. lynn says:

    Alan, I have used various wire nuts since I was a kid in the 1950s. Never had a failure.

    I have had a wire nut fail.  It broke while I was twisting it.  I pulled it off and found that the wire nut did not have a metal insert.  Since then, I always make sure that the wire nut has a metal insert before I use it.  

    I found out that box of wire nuts were metal insert less.   I threw them away and bought another box.  Now I find that real small wire nuts are metal insert less.  Not good.

  12. lynn says:

    Got bigger problems.  I may be having a heart bypass in October / November.  Am getting evaluated now.  Next test on Oct 4.

    Man, you’ve had enough heart issue to cover 3 or 4 people… At least you are on top of it. Hope it’s not needed.

    Just about all my cousins older than me have a zipper chest.  One of my girl cousins had open heart surgery when she was 3 days old.  And when she was 11 years old.  She had a quarter size hole in her heart.  

    I just don’t want to join the zipper chest club but my Dad is a member and my younger brother is joining soon.  I refused to take a Stent four years ago right after my ablation surgery and am going to pay for it.

  13. Ed says:

    https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/09/21/new-york-sues-donald-trump-company-and-family-members-over-widespread-fraud-claims-seeks-at-least-250-million-in-penalties.html

    If you thought the flood of emails begging and pleading for donations to the supposed billionaire were bad before, just wait…

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  14. drwilliams says:

    Wash your hands before you go back to the fry line. 

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  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    My dad had a valve replaced, more than once, and some other issues.   3 open heart surgeries iirc.

    Spleen removed.   Kidney stones removed both sides.   his torso was COVERED in zipper scars.

    n

  16. Lynn says:

    Abbott has been a really wishy-washy Governor on every subject except abortion, and a lot of vested interests want to keep him in place to allow the continued practice of swimming naked.

    We like wishy-washy governors in Texas !  Just look who we had besides Abbott: Rick Perry, George W. Bush, and Bill Clements. 

    We did not like Mark White and Ma Richards.  They were activists and forced crap on us so they were one termers.  

    BTW, Texas has only been a Republican state since the late 1990s.  We came late to the party.

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  17. Lynn says:

    Everything from the Dems in the race seems targeted at suburban women with Daddy issues.

    Families with absentee dads are tough places to grow up.  The boys are not sure what it means to be a man and the girls are mad at everyone.

  18. Lynn says:

    “Can AI stop rare eagles flying into wind turbines in Germany?”

       https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/20/germany-hopes-ai-can-stop-rare-eagles-flying-into-wind-turbines

    “Cameras on turbines being trained to recognise lesser spotted eagles, which are endangered in country”

    Neat idea !

  19. NaNed says:

    I am NaNed. I am an idiot.

  20. Lynn says:

    “Gore Says Climate Crisis Is Like ‘Hike Through Book of Revelation’”

         https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gore-says-weather-crisis-hike-230127232.html

    I thought he was dead !

    I like one comment, “I don’t think he understands the book of Revelation.”. Most of the book of Revelation is probably about the forthcoming destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. The Romans sieged Jerusalem for almost a year around AD 70 with the Jews and the Christians fighting them off together. Then the Romans killed or enslaved every man, woman, and child in the city. Then they tore the walls apart and melted the rocks of the Temple for the inlaid gold.

  21. Greg Norton says:

    We did not like Mark White and Ma Richards.  They were activists and forced crap on us so they were one termers.  

    The Republicans are still chasing “Ma” Richards’ ghost around Austin.

  22. Lynn says:

    “Solar power constituted half of all global capacity additions last year, followed by wind: BloombergNEF”

        https://www.utilitydive.com/news/solar-coal-wind-global-capacity-bnef-report/632316/

    “At 182 GW, solar power facilities accounted for half of all global capacity additions last year, with wind additions making up a quarter of new capacity and fossil-fuel additions contributing 14%, BloombergNEF said in a report released Wednesday.”

    “However, coal-fired power production jumped an unprecedented 8.5% in 2021 to a record 9,600 TWh, helping increase global power sector carbon dioxide emissions by 7% from the year before, the research firm said in its Power Transition Trends report.”

    You know, those coal power plants in the USA are mostly 50 years old or so.  Don’t all those solar power panels decay at 2% per year and have to be replaced after ten years ?

  23. Lynn says:

    “Starlink Speeds Drop Significantly in the US Amid Congestion Woes”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-speeds-drop-significantly-in-the-us-amid-congestion-woes

    “Median download speeds for Starlink users in the US reached only 62.53Mbps during the second quarter, a significant decrease from 90.55Mbps in Q1, according to Ookla.”

    I guess that SpaceX needs to get those version 2 Starlink satellites going up to solve the congestion issue.  At 2,750 lbs each, reputedly he needs Starship to get them up there.

        https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-starlink-v2-satellites-spotted-starbase/

  24. Lynn says:

    “Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich: C/C++ should be deprecated”

        https://devclass.com/2022/09/20/microsoft-azure-cto-on-c-c/

    ““It’s time to halt starting any new projects in C/C++ and use Rust for those scenarios where a non-GC language is required. For the sake of security and reliability, the industry should declare those languages as deprecated,” he said on Twitter, expressing a personal opinion rather than a fresh Microsoft policy.”

    Wow ! Bold.

  25. JimM says:

    >”I have had a wire nut fail.”

    I had one fail recently. I reinstalled our wall oven, which we had been using with a temporary installation in terms of the cabinet work. I think the house wiring for it is 10 gauge. I used the right size wire nuts, but I had to make the connections while reaching up and into the cabinet, so it was a little awkward and I couldn’t get a good look at what I was doing. The connection passed the pull test. After a few uses in which it seemed like the oven was not getting up to temperature as quick as it used to. Then one day there was a loud pop, and the breaker tripped. It turned out that the a wire had gotten between the internal metal sleeve and the plastic insulation of the wire nut. The insulation was kind of medium soft, not hard plastic, but not very flexible, either, so it surprising but not unbelievable that this could happen. The connection was poor, so it generated heat and eventually the wire melted through the insulation, melted into the insulation of another wire nut, and shorted out. Fortunately, it was only annoying and alarming.

  26. Ray Thompson says:

    I thought he was dead !

    So did he.

  27. Rick H says:

    Red Skelton used to say “Every morning, I wake up and open my eyes. If I don’t smell candles and roses, I get up.”

  28. JimM says:

    Still working out the kinks:
    https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/shelter-in-place-advisory-lifted-in-monterey-county-after-fire-at-tesla-bat/

    MOSS LANDING — Monterey County officials announced that the shelter-in-place advisory and all road closures for the Moss Landing fire incident were lifted Tuesday evening.

    “While the fire is considered fully controlled, smoke may still occur in the area for several days,” the county media release stated.

    Highway 1 had been closed in both directions early Tuesday after a fire was detected at the PG&E Elkhorn Battery Storage facility.

  29. Greg Norton says:

    “Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich: C/C++ should be deprecated”

    ““It’s time to halt starting any new projects in C/C++ and use Rust for those scenarios where a non-GC language is required. For the sake of security and reliability, the industry should declare those languages as deprecated,” he said on Twitter, expressing a personal opinion rather than a fresh Microsoft policy.”

    Hot Skillz!

    As if Microsoft code isn’t bloated enough.

    Gonna need a bigger boat -er- architecture.

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  30. Ray Thompson says:

    This shingles vaccination is really uncomfortable. My arm is quite sore and I am feeling quite off. Spending more than normal amount of time sleeping.

    Friday, halftime of the homecoming game, is my induction in the local sports hall of fame. I have seen the list of inductees. I am the only person that did not play sports for the high school. I would like to know who nominated me. The decision to include me was unanimous by the committee members I have been told by the committee members.

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  31. Ray Thompson says:

    It’s time to halt starting any new projects in C/C++ and use Rust for those scenarios where a non-GC language is required

    Lot of cryptic terms and constructs to learn along with funky characters and with some strange behavior. Give me COBOL where it takes 340 lines of code to display “Hello World”.  If the alphabet was good enough for COBOL, it’s good enough for me. No need for funky characters or even lower case. Now where is my MS-BASIC floppy?

  32. nick flandrey says:

    I guess it’s not ‘just me’ with my constant doom and gloom on the economy…..

    Fed Chairman Jerome Powell warns it will be ‘very challenging’ to tame inflation without steep job losses across the US economy after hiking interest rates to 3.25% – the highest level since 2008

    • Fed Chair Jerome Powell admitted on Wednesday that achieving a soft landing will be ‘very challenging’ 
    • Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its policy rate 0.75 points to 3.25%, the highest since 2008
    • US central bank also projected rates will hit 4.4% this year and 4.6% in 2023 – higher than expected
    • Fed is attempting to cool down the economy to battle soaring inflation
    • Higher rates mean costlier borrowing, including mortgages and business loans
    • But by tamping down the economy, the Fed raises the risk of triggering job losses
    • Fed Chair Powell warned earlier this month that Americans will be in for ‘some pain’ as rates rise 

    and I note that 3.25 is still crazy low in historic terms.   LOTS of room to move up…

    The Argentinian national bank this week raised interest rates to 75% in a desperate bid to tamp down on the country’s still-spiraling consumer inflation rate.

    The Banco de la Nación Argentina hiked the rates after national data indicated a year-over-year inflation rate of just under 80%, a crushing spike that has desperately squeezed consumers in the South American country. 

    The bank told Bloomberg that its board of directors “intends to reduce the level of short-term debt held by the central bank next year,” the outlet reported.

    There’s more at the link.

    For some context, the first ten results on this page… look at the dates of the articles and how fast the changes happen.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/search-content?qTitle=argentina 

    n

  33. nick flandrey says:

    without steep job losses across the US economy  

    – and how will .gov feed and house all those people who lose their jobs?   By printing money, which will lead to more inflation, which will justify more increases, which will put more people out of work, and kill the housing boom deader than personal responsibility.

    n

    added- and what will the people dependent on .gov for their lives do when elections come around?

  34. nick flandrey says:

    From the article…

    Economists are increasingly projecting a ‘hard landing’ marked by a sharp increase in unemployment, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell admitted on Wednesday that achieving a soft landing will be ‘very challenging’. 

    ‘We have always understood that restoring price stability, while achieving a relatively modest…increase in unemployment would be very challenging,’ he said. ‘No one knows whether this process will lead to a recession, or if so, how significant that recession would be.’ 

    ‘In addition, the chances of a soft landing are likely to diminish to the extent that policy needs to be more restrictive, or restrictive for longer,’ he added.

    Soaring prices have been putting the squeeze on American families and businesses and are already a political liability for President Joe Biden, as he faces midterm congressional elections in early November. 

    But a sharp contraction of the world’s largest economy would be an even more damaging blow to Biden, to the Fed’s credibility and the world at large. 

    The US economy has been flashing warning signs for some time, including six straight months of contraction in the first half of the year, meeting one informal definition of a recession — but Biden denies a recession has begun.

    – MORE than meeting the FORMAL definition of a recession, before the newspeak gaslighters went to work.

    n

    added= emphasis added

  35. nick flandrey says:

    BTW, 102F in the sun at my house.

    n

  36. Rick H says:

    BTW, 102F in the sun at my house.

    BTW, 67F in the sun at my house.

  37. nick flandrey says:

    @rickh, you get sun?!!?

    n

  38. EdH says:
    • Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its policy rate 0.75 points to 3.25%, the highest since 2008

    Well, 2008 was a whole  14 years ago!

    The Fed is pouring water on the flames, while the Biden Administration is pouring gasoline.

  39. Rick H says:

    @rickh, you get sun?!!?

    Yep …. just about every day. It’s not as cloudy here west of Seattle as people think.  Right now, solid blue skies, with a bit of upper-level smoke from a couple of forest fires on the other sides of the Cascades (east of Seattle). 

    And I live in a ‘rain shadow’ from the Olympic mountain range to my SW. Storm tracks are usually from the SW, and the rain falls on the SW side of the mountains, resulting in less rain (if any) on my side of the mountains.  The rain radar image often shows us in a clear hole with rain all around us.

    We get the occasional ‘norther’ with cold weather from the Frasier Valley (in Canada, eh) some winters. The coldest one was a couple winters ago – had 15″ of snow in my front yard. That was unusual, we might get one snow in my area with 1-2″. First time I had to use the snow shovel I brought from UT when I moved.

    Although we do get rain here – it’s why things are so green – any storms are usually short. And a heat wave is anything higher than 80F. 

  40. nick flandrey says:

    What makes this angry out of touch “celebrity” Megan whatever think she knows what she’s talking about?

    (pop culture and celebrity misdeeds ahead..)

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11235815/MEGHAN-MCCAIN-men-like-Adam-Levine-realise-pigs-social-media-age.html 

    Tattooed singer in a “rock” band and b list famous guy wants to hook up with women.   Shocker, I know.  And he’s already married…  Shocker, I know.

    But here’s a mega-millionaire, pop superstar firing off saucy Instagram posts like a horny teenager who just got an iPhone.

    Did he forget that he co-hosts one of the most popular shows on television, NBC’s ‘The Voice’ and enjoys a plumb spot in American pop culture?

    –um, no, that’s why he thought they might be into it. 

    Plus, nearly every aspiring Instagram influencer/model/actress/singer/fill-in-the blank in America is looking for a risqué text chain with a A-list celebrity to help launch their OnlyFans page into the stratosphere.

    Hey Adam — it’s not like you’re Frank Sinatra or JFK meeting a mistress for a secret liaison. That was bad then and it is bad now. But it’s not the 1950’s anymore.

    –have men suddenly stopped wanting to bang everything that moves?  Is it fluoride in the water?  (nice dig at females on social media too, implying that they all want to become online porn stars)

    Today’s men can’t get it through their heads that they don’t have this control over women anymore. It’s not the male-dominated society of yesteryear.

    But apparently technology advances faster than men’s reptilian brains evolve.

    –Wow Megan, thanks for outing yourself as a misandrist…  which part of the posted texts contains anything that looks like music boy “trying to control women”?

    – I wonder what would happen if a male columnist made some remarks about clueless females not understanding modern technology, or how social media works.   Ah, right, xx chromosome privileges. 

    If it weren’t for double standards, they wouldn’t have any at all….

    n

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  41. Ed says:

    http://www.wlns.com/news/student-dies-after-getting-into-wrong-car/amp/
     

    Why stop, think, and try to understand a situation? It’s so much easier to just shoot people. 

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  42. nick flandrey says:

    Or maybe don’t drunkenly try to force your way into someone else’s vehicle or home?

    1am, out with friends, took an uber… sounds like underage drinking to me. 

    n

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  43. nick flandrey says:

    It’s so much easier to just shoot people. 

    and thanks ed for letting us know you are either a sociopath, or you think gun owners are, depending on your ability to use sarcasm effectively.

    n

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  44. Ed says:

    1am, out with friends, took an uber… sounds like underage drinking to me. 

    Sounds like it to me, too, which is why I wonder why the problem couldn’t have been solved with a simple “wrong car, bud”

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  45. Ed says:

    or home

    Nice bit of misdirection, since that wasn’t the issue. 

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  46. Greg Norton says:

    http://www.wlns.com/news/student-dies-after-getting-into-wrong-car/amp/

    Cr*p reporting by a Michigan-based newsroom from a wire story about an incident in Tampa.

    Now for some proper reporting:

    https://www.fox13news.com/news/ut-student-shot-killed-getting-into-wrong-car-identified-as-new-yorker

    1000 block of W. Arch, intersection of Monroe. Ah, the Garden District of Tampa. The Tampa Housing Authority projects dominated the neighborhood until about 20 years ago, and there is a permanent colony of urban outdoorsmen living under the freeway overpass up the street *which I’ve seen first hand*.

    University of Tampa. Dumba** rich kid student.

    No charges.

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  47. Ed says:

    Dumba** rich kid student.
     

    And that merits a death sentence?

    On second thought, maybe don’t answer that. I’ve seen what you have to say about wealthy people who live in the suburbs. 
     

    P.S., “no true Scotsman”

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  48. Greg Norton says:

    P.S., “no true Scotsman”

    The spin and omission from the Michigan newsroom makes me think the editor was probably giddy about having a “Florida Man” story to warm the hearts of the local audience during a slow weekend.

    If the article was right off the wire verbatim, Nexstar needs to fire some reporters in Tampa. Their friggin’ news room is right across the river while the Fox 13 building is a few miles away, close to the airport.

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  49. Greg Norton says:

    1000 block of W. Arch, intersection of Monroe

    Munro. Apologies.

    I wondered why that intersection sounded familiar until I zoomed out on the map. Right out the back door of Tampa’s more mainstream PBS station.

    Tampa Trivia: The Rock’s father used to wrestle in that building.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IscaYcBPt0

    If you’re gonna pick on Red State Hillbillies With Gubs (TM), find another city. I grew up there.

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  50. Ed says:

    find another city. I grew up there.

    No, thanks. And, my condolences. 

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  51. Greg Norton says:

    P.S., “no true Scotsman”

    You act as if being in violation of these academic theories bothers me.

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  52. nick flandrey says:

    And that merits a death sentence?  

    forcing your way into someone else’s vehicle does.   It’s normally called ‘carjacking’ when the darker skinned people do it.   

    White kids from NY, maybe someone racist wouldn’t assume them to be an immediate threat, you know, ‘cuz they’re just white kids, but ordinarily when someone forces themselves into a place where they are not supposed to be, it’s considered a threat.

    And when I added “homes” is wasn’t a misdirection attempt, it was because most of the stories of drunken fools forcing their way into somewhere and getting shot for their trouble, involve ‘homes’ not ‘cars’.   And fwiw, in most jurisdictions, a person’s vehicle is considered an extension of their home and they have the same right to defend it as their home.

    n

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  53. Ed says:

    forcing your way into someone else’s vehicle does.

    And here we see the depravity  of the fringe far right, which is happy to equate “misunderstanding” with “lethal threat” so they can play Rambo. May God have mercy on your soul. 
     

    it was because most of the stories of drunken fools forcing their way into somewhere and getting shot for their trouble, involve ‘homes’ not ‘cars’.

    Not this story. Hence, misdirection. NEXT!

    And fwiw, in most jurisdictions, a person’s vehicle is considered an extension of their home and they have the same right to defend it as their home.

    This is the part where I ask you to prove the blather you spewing. It is quickly followed by you not doing so but, instead, changing the subject. You know, just like our recent discussion about pharmacys’ obligations, which you ran away from. 

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  54. Jenny says:

    We started replacing the downstairs bath surround months ago. Progress has been stuttered and slow. 
    At lunch I insulated and started hanging the vapor barrier. Progress. Infinitesimal. But progress. 
     

    Tonight’s goal is have husband work on finishing bath vapor barrier (he’s tall and can reach more easily, without balancing on the tub edge). I’ll switch gears to the last two or three exterior lights that need replacement. Or maybe I’ll clean the chicken coop and begin winterizing. Depends on rain. 
     

    I need to rack my hard cider and bottle it. If the weather is really wretched I’ll do that. I also ordered another barn door kit, $36 for a 6’ that I’ve used before. I have an idea for closing the deck stairs to our dogs that’ll be less aggravating than the baby gate.  
     

    My sister is hospitalized with advanced cirrhosis. She’s known about it for some time, declined treatment. Host of mental stuff and substance abuse things going on. I can understand where a lot of it comes from. There but for the grace of God go I. Family history of alcoholism combined with being the black sheep. Tough combo. I don’t have many feelings about it one way or other. We tormented each other growing up and have never been close. As adults we were cordial and rarely spoke. I’ve seen her a handful of times in the last twenty years. That’s ok. I hope that her end, if this is it, proceeds with calm and dignity. 

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  55. CowboyStu says:

    P.S., “no true Scotsman”

    Well, fortunately I am.

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  56. Lynn says:

    Tampa Trivia: The Rock’s father used to wrestle in that building.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IscaYcBPt0

    Wow, that looked real.

    The wife’s grandfather in Abilene used to professional wrestle back in the 1920s.  About 6 or 8 guys would drive town to town in west Texas and do a show or three on the weekends.  He showed us how to fake wrestle but if you screwed up, somebody got hurt.

  57. Lynn says:

    Mr. Ed, I wish you were civilized.

    2
    1
  58. Lynn says:

    “Another former Putin ally dies after ‘falling down several flights of stairs’ as eight cronies are mysteriously killed”

        https://www.the-sun.com/news/6269942/former-putin-ally-dies-falling-down-stairs-russia-ukraine/

    I am sure am glad that I am not a friend or ally of Putin.

    Hat tip to:

       https://www.drudgereport.com/

  59. Alan says:

    >> Everything from the Dems in the race seems targeted at suburban women with Daddy issue

    And they need to be reminded that, yes, dagnabbit, the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, Mister Joseph Biden, is draining the SPR just to keep their GGGs rolling! 

  60. Greg Norton says:

    Wow, that looked real.

    The wife’s grandfather in Abilene used to professional wrestle back in the 1920s.  About 6 or 8 guys would drive town to town in west Texas and do a show or three on the weekends.  He showed us how to fake wrestle but if you screwed up, somebody got hurt.

    “Championship Wrestling From Florida” with Gordon Solee.

    Central Florida TV Legend. Solee and the local horror host, Dr. Paul Bearer. The original – not the wrestler or the furniture store owner the station currently tries to pass off as the legitimate heir to the legend.

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

    The show continued until the day Dr. Paul died. His widow gave the suit to a fan about 20 years ago, and it was still in the dry cleaning bag, ready for filming new material that weekend.

    Busch Gardens Tampa has the hearse. They restored it to showroom condition and keep it maintained for Halloween events and parades..

    Dr. Paul is how I learned about Tom Lehrer.

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

  61. Nick Flandrey says:

    @ed

    And this is where I say “watch your tone or get banned.”  Because it takes 0.62 seconds to do your own homework to see the truth.

    About 1,850,000 results (0.62 seconds) 

    The castle doctrine in Texas presumes that using force is reasonable and justified when another person: unlawfully and with force enters or attempts to enter your habitation, vehicle, or work-place; or.

    Florida

    776.013 Home protection; use or threatened use of deadly force; presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm.—

    (1) A person who is in a dwelling or residence in which the person has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten to use:

    (a) Nondeadly force against another when and to the extent that the person reasonably believes that such conduct is necessary to defend himself or herself or another against the other’s imminent use of unlawful force; or

    (b) Deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

    (2) A person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another when using or threatening to use defensive force that is intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm to another if:

    (a) The person against whom the defensive force was used or threatened was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering, or had unlawfully and forcibly entered, a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or if that person had removed or was attempting to remove another against that person’s will from the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle; and

    Tennesee

    About 1,020,000 results (0.57 seconds) 

    The Castle Doctrine designates a person’s home as a place in which that individual has certain protections and immunities permitting him or her to legally use force to defend themselves against an intruder. This bill recognizes court action which has upheld extension of the Castle Doctrine to a person’s automobile.Jul 27, 2015

    Addressing gun laws in Tennessee – Columbia Daily Herald

    Even wikipedia has relevant information

    A castle doctrine, also known as a castle law or a defense of habitation law, is a legal doctrine that designates a person’s abode or any legally occupied place (for example, a vehicle or home) as a place in which that person has protections and immunities permitting one, in certain circumstances, to use force (up to and including deadly force) to defend oneself against an intruder, free from legal prosecution for the consequences of the force used.[1] The term is most commonly used in the United States, though many other countries invoke comparable principles in their laws.

    Unlike Ed, I’ve actually had classes in use of force, the laws of concealed carry, and self defense.  

    But ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse’ as they say, so Ed better get some education or shut up about things he knows nothing about.  The internet isn’t just for gay midget porn and cat pictures Ed.

    In either case, watch your tone.

    n

  62. Greg Norton says:

    Lot of cryptic terms and constructs to learn along with funky characters and with some strange behavior. Give me COBOL where it takes 340 lines of code to display “Hello World”.  If the alphabet was good enough for COBOL, it’s good enough for me. No need for funky characters or even lower case. Now where is my MS-BASIC floppy?

    Tcl. That’s probably more dead. Pop open a terminal window on the Apple Silicon MacBook and type “tclsh” at the prompt. It is bad enough Apple was stuck on 8.5.

    Type “exit” to leave the interpreter.

    I don’t think they can get away with the deprecation. I schooled the DevOps geek at the last job about Expect when I pulled off in 6 lines what he couldn’t do in 200 lines hooking tmux with Python. He admitted that he didn’t want to climb the Tcl syntax learning curve.

    Rust isn’t going anywhere until a real compiler exists. Until they get away from LLVM, it is just syntactic sugar for C++. I thought Gnu had a project going for a real compiler.

    Meanwhile, I’m stringing C together tonight. Libcurl and libjson-c.

    @Lynn — You don’t want to see the function prototype I’m working on right now. One parameter is a complex function pointer.

  63. Nick Flandrey says:

    @jenny, I am sorry to hear about your sister’s health issues, and your relationship.   Something similar happened with one of my cousins, although she was a generally happy and easy to get along with person.   We’re pretty sure there was a lot of weird sex and possible abuse in her past and that leaves marks no matter what happens after.

    I hope you both find peace.

    n

  64. drwilliams says:

    “ran away”

    Our favorite PLT is an ace at it.

  65. Lynn says:

    Rust isn’t going anywhere until a real compiler exists. Until they get away from LLVM, it is just syntactic sugar for C++. I thought Gnu had a project going for a real compiler.

    Meanwhile, I’m stringing C together tonight. Libcurl and libjson-c.

    @Lynn — You don’t want to see the function prototype I’m working on right now. One parameter is a complex function pointer.

    I gave up on trying to run Fable on my Windows 10 box.  Too much setup stuff was horked with the Python.  I am no good with Hot Skilz.

    I am now working on F2C.  I added support for a .cpp output file instead of just the .c file, converting the F90 cycle command to the C continue, and converting the F90 exit command to the C break.  Now I am adding support for the logical*8 data type, complementary to the integer*8 data type for memory alignment, both resolve to the C long long integer.

  66. Alan says:

    Just a thought…what if comments that accumulated a certain number of down votes…say, umm, maybe, uhh, 25, automatically got deleted, maybe after an hour? Just thinking aloud… 

    >> Ed says:

    21 September 2022 at 19:21

    find another city. I grew up there.

    No, thanks. And, my condolences. 

    [thumbs up] 2

    [thumbs down] 25

    4
    1
  67. Rick H says:

    I decided to make a large print version of my “The Forgotten Winchester” book. It’s a classic Western, and the major audience for that genre is over 40 (about). The story was already written and formatted properly, so it wouldn’t too hard to just make the font bigger and adjust the cover for a thicker book.

    Two days later, I finished it. Most of the first day was trying to get the new cover to ‘fit’ the KDP (Kindle Desktop Publishing on Amazon) book area. Even though you get a template (13 x 9, roughly, for a 6 x 9 book) for the cover. And you carefully get the cover to be that size. But after uploading, cover preview would only show about ¼ of the cover. 

    I got that figured out the second day (today). Then change the format. Since it was done in Word, just change the font size of the Heading 1 and Normal styles to be larger.  Add/adjust forced page breaks so that chapters start on the right-facing (odd numbered) page. Upload and preview. And notice page break errors after it was processed.

    I finally figured out the process after many iterations of the process, and the cover and interior are now properly formatted. But I spent about 12 hours doing it.

    Waiting for final approval from KDP to get it available on the site. Should happen by tomorrow. Some minor work to get the additional categories needed (you ca only specify two categories when you create a book, but you can ask Zon for up to 10 categories), and to associate the large print book with the current book page. 

  68. Rick H says:

    Just a thought…what if comments that accumulated a certain number of down votes…say, umm, maybe, uhh, 25, automatically got deleted, maybe after an hour? Just thinking aloud… 

    Once again, easily said, hard to do.  Especially since the plugin that does the up/down votes is written by someone else, and I’d have to figure out how to integrate code to do that.

    This place does have my plugin that adds quick links (for admin viewers only) to remove a comment that is spam (or to move it to the trash, or to delete it forever). Thinking of an addition to that to provide additional blocking of a user that abuses commenting here. 

    Recall that the up/down voting here was added in response to the commenters here asking for it. (Perhaps “be careful what you ask for” is appropriate?)

  69. EdH says:

    Until they get away from LLVM, it is just syntactic sugar for C++.

    I saw that comment a while back and thought “hmmm”. 

    Don’t most interpreters and compilers create some sort of intermediate code, before assembler and binary?

    Is C++ a worse choice?

    I am actually curious, not being combative.

    I’ve read a couple books on compilers in interpreters in the past, the distant past, but as I recall the intermediate code was just something the authors created for the text.

  70. Ed says:

    Thinking of an addition to that to provide additional blocking of a user that abuses commenting here. 
     

    drwilliams? I don’t blame you. 
     

    No, but seriously, do what you need to do to keep the echos chambered.

    25
  71. Alan says:

    >> Give me COBOL where it takes 340 lines of code to display “Hello World”.  If the alphabet was good enough for COBOL, it’s good enough for me. No need for funky characters or even lower case.

    BASIC was good, got me interested in computers back in high school. Some IBM 370 Assembler was an interesting detour but COBOL was what really got me hooked, especially when we twisted it to do things it really wasn’t quite intended to do. Many comments, both pro and con, about my excess comments, precise indentation, consistent variable names, etc. Happily the pros outweighed the cons. Was as interesting career. 

  72. Greg Norton says:

    My sister is hospitalized with advanced cirrhosis. She’s known about it for some time, declined treatment. Host of mental stuff and substance abuse things going on. I can understand where a lot of it comes from. There but for the grace of God go I.

    Sorry to hear that, @Jenny.

    There are a lot of paths I could have gone down but didn’t. Who knows why.

  73. ITGuy1998 says:

    I‘ve learned with projects, especially home renovation projects, to do something on the project every day. That keeps me on track and forces me to keep on track when motivation falters. I’ll finish up my son‘s bathroom tomorrow. 
     

    Next on the list is to empty his bedroom, paint, and have the carpets cleaned. 
     

    Then on to painting the stairway to the bonus room. That will be interesting. Luckily I have scaffolding, so I should be able to reach everything.

    Oh, and I’ll have to paint the kitchen at the same time too. That will have everything in the house repainted in the last couple years. Time to move!

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    Time to move!  

    –I know you are joking but so many people do just that!   I don’t understand why they’d fix the place up and then not live there.   Same with cars, get it detailed just before the trade in.   I know they expect to get more money, but why not do it earlier and enjoy the fresh paint and clean interior for a bit?

    (I’m guilty btw.  I’ve been looking around and a lot of stuff here needs paint and cleaning.)

    n

  75. Alan says:

    Spend those dollars now, before they’re worth even less…

    Ford is almost ready to take new F-150 Lightning orders — with a $7,000 price hike

    An F-150 Lightning XLT with no extra options will start at nearly $60K now

    Nearly nine months after it stopped taking reservations, Ford is ready to reopen the order banks for the F-150 Lightning. But buyers beware: the price for the electric truck has gone up by around $7,000 across all trim levels.

    Ford is citing “significant material cost increases and other factors” as the primary reason for raising the price. Indeed, the F-150 Lightning is only the latest electric vehicle to see its price go up as a result of supply chain constraints, inflation, and greater demand for batteries and other components.

    Ford said it will honor the original manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP) for all current order holders. But anyone plunking down the $100 deposit starting Thursday, when reservations reopen, will have to pay the newly adjusted price.

    Here’s a breakdown of the new prices:

    • Pro; old price: $39,974; new price: $46,974
    • XLT; old price: $52,974; new price: $59,474
    • XLT High; old price $62,474 (est.); new price: $68,474
    • XLT High / Extended Range; old price: $73,974; new price: $80,974
    • Lariat; old price: $67,074; new price: $74,474
    • Lariat Extended Range; old price: $77,074; new price: $85,974
    • Platinum Extended Range; old price: $92,669; new price: $96,874
  76. Alan says:

    >> Got bigger problems.  I may or may not be having a heart bypass in October / November.  Am getting evaluated now.  Next test on Oct 4.

    FIFY – hoping for the latter!

  77. Alan says:

    >> Most sports antics are childish and usually very well-funded, especially when it’s football.

    Fixed.

  78. Alan says:

    >> I have had a wire nut fail.  It broke while I was twisting it.  I pulled it off and found that the wire nut did not have a metal insert.  Since then, I always make sure that the wire nut has a metal insert before I use it.  

    I found out that box of wire nuts were metal insert less.   I threw them away and bought another box.  Now I find that real small wire nuts are metal insert less.  Not good.

    Usually related to the higher (i.e. thinner) gauge wiring on the associated device (e.g. ceiling fans, light fixtures).

  79. Alan says:

    >> Red Skelton used to say “Every morning, I wake up and open my eyes. If I don’t smell candles and roses, I get up.”

    And Yogi used to say “Always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise they won’t come to yours.”

  80. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    It’s been two weeks since the last update on my shop.

    Most of my effort has been on the wall. Lowes has delivered 19 pallets of blocks.  I’ve picked up the drainpipe and socks, received the filter fabric from Amazon, and the first truck load of gravel for use behind the wall was delivered.

    My little backhoe had the boom hydraulic cylinder fail.  It had two cylinders that were leaking – the right outrigger and the boom claw.  The Perkins diesel engine started leaking oil, but we haven’t been able to pin down where.  The boom cylinder apparently can’t repaired so I’m waiting on a replacement. I received the claw cylinder, but both cylinders require different diameter pins, so I had to get bushings to complete the repair. 

    My neighbor that installed the septic system used his full-sized backhoe to move 90% of the dirt for me. (His hoe has a 3-foot-wide claw – mine’s only 14 inch – it was like I been using a teaspoon and he had a shovel.)  He did more in two and a half hours than I did in ten days.

    I’ve got about 24 first row blocks down in the corner.  I took several tries at figuring out how to make the 30-degree turn.  Making the wall follow the uneven slope has been fun also.  I’ve got a transit (on loan from the septic guy), and 12 inch and a 78-inch levels, as each stone must be located perfectly (left to right, up and down, with no tilt) to the others.  Each step to follow the slope has to be solidly in place. Luckily there has been no rain with none predicted for at least ten more days.

    Spectrum offered me 15 TV channels for $27 a month.  I only watch sports.  (The TV isn’t plugged in from the end of basketball until the start of college football.)  Turns out that the total is $64 a month 15 channels $27, local channels $21, modem $10, taxes $6 plus $49 to install the line to the modem and $49 to modify my service – they provide my internet connection.  They didn’t show for the installation as scheduled.  When he got here, he didn’t have the tools to install the cable; he only “connects” modems and solves line problems.  They are scheduled to do the install tomorrow at 4:00 pm. My experience with being the last appointment for the day is poor. 

  81. drwilliams says:

    Ken Burns’ America and the Holocaust finished the third of three episodes tonight in a fury of leftist polemic. As several reviewers have noted, it’s obvious that Trump broke Ken burns.

    Every episode is worth watching for the interviews.

    The first episode is well worth watching if only for the eye-popping film documenting the German American Bund in the 1930’s. What public school graduate under 50 has any clue that such not only existed, flying the Nazi flag alongside the American flag, but that the head of the organization openly styled himself as “the American Führer”?

    And similarly, the political landscape of post-Depression America is opaque to the generations of public school graduates who are not even able to identify the three branches of government, so why should they even notice that Burns does little to explain the history of the isolationist movement or credit the poverty of the Depression as part of the reason to limit the immigration of the world’s destitute?

    Burns moves quickly from Eisenhower’s efforts to ensure that the horrors of the extermination camps be indelibly stamped in history through a few minutes of the fifties, the Eichmann trial of 1961, to LBJ’s fatuous mis-framing of the 1965 Immigration Act, to a full-blown shark-jump when he characterizes Jan 6 as an event similar to the Holocaust.

    Inexplicably but no doubt purposefully, Burns is oblivious to the continued presence of anti-semitism in the world, in particular among the leaders of the black and muslim communities, leftist hacks, and worst, among the ignorant students that populate college campuses today.

  82. Greg Norton says:

    Ken Burns’ America and the Holocaust finished the third of three episodes tonight in a fury of leftist polemic. As several reviewers have noted, it’s obvious that Trump broke Ken burns.

    Every episode is worth watching for the interviews.

    Watching Ken Burns is always about the interviews. People are willing to sit for him since “The Civil War” made Shelby Foote extremely wealthy.

    Burns has been “broke” for a long time. I’d say the 1994 election, but one of the three great Mike Nesmith fortunes came from suing the cr*p out of PBS, WGBH, and Burns over the proceeds from the VHS release of “The Civil War”.

  83. Nick Flandrey says:

    Caught and released another possum.   I think this one was bigger.   They are awfully calm about being in the trap.

    n

  84. EdH says:

    They are awfully calm about being in the trap.

    Reminds me of that deadbeat diner in one of the Dirty Harry movies, pretending to have a heart attack to get out of a restaurant bill – and to get a fun ambulance ride.

  85. Greg Norton says:

    Don’t most interpreters and compilers create some sort of intermediate code, before assembler and binary?

    Is C++ a worse choice?

    LLVM’s IR interpreter and back end are written in and optimized for C/C++, stringing together bits of compiled C++ code which call into C++/STL-based runtimes. C++ will generally be the limit in terms of performance and, definitely, size.

    It may be a personal thing, but it bugs me that languages are headed into this dead end. I don’t see any way out short term beyond dynamic optimization like Facecrack is trying with their PHP-based Hack language and LLVM interpreter.

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