Five years. Time both flies and drags…
Raise a glass to Absent Friends. Rest in peace Bob, your memory and the work you did lives on.
nick
Fri. Jan. 20, 2023 – Absent friends…
68 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Jan. 20, 2023 – Absent friends…"
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54F this am with 58%RH and some wind. Looks clear though.
Did get some productive work done yesterday. Changed out the faucet and drain on the second sink in the bathroom. That was the main goal and got it done. Now to diagnose the shower mixer issues…
Did some auction stuff. Got more to do.
Went and met some new people and saw a show. Didn’t hate it. Wife loves the music in JCS, having worked on the show a couple of different times during her early career. I’m kinda ‘meh’ about the music, but do acknowledge the genius of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Online reviews are more clever than honest, and the choreography is “cutting edge” which means “hip hop” and “street” inspired. At least there was no twerking and I didn’t feel like they stole 2 hours of my life. https://houston.broadway.com/shows/jesus-christ-superstar-2/#single-detail-photos
Got more stuff to do today including some pickups.
Making progress toward the goal.
n
(made shredded hash browns for breakfast. Best by 2014, and still good.)
When I visit the Anderson country courthouse to see the VA service officer, I have to leave my Swiss knife in the car or have it taken at the checkpoint and given back when I leave. Along with a stern talking down by the security goons. I guess their feeling of superiority is the only perk of the job.
The dangerous weapon in question is the smallest Swiss army knife, a 1.5-inch blade, and a fingernail cleaner. On my keyring. I could do more harm with the truck key than that knife.
At least there was no mask theatre.
Masks are still required on the trains in Germany. Supposed to end on February 1 this year. I certainly hope so and remains so by the time June arrives. One of the train trips I need is seven hours. No way I want to wear a mask for that long of a time.
Too many absent friends. I guess it is a side effect of getting older, so it beats the alternative. But not by much.
So stay up with your health and do some of what the Dr. tells you!
Inflation is over and the economy is growing!!111!!111 Best President evah has the best economy evah!
Yeah, except that now google is laying off 12k workers. That makes about what? 50K tech workers at 4 big firms? They have all made statements about the hard times ahead too.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/i-have-difficult-news-share-google-ceo-tells-employees-12000-jobs-will-be-cut
They get some pretty generous severance that will ease their “transition” but that’s a lot of good paying jobs to remove from the economy.
n
Crypto looking more and more like a long term scam…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11656725/Crypto-giant-Genesis-files-bankruptcy-suffering-losses-wake-FTX-collapse.html
Quick scan of the article looks like there was a whole ecosystem of firms basically writing each other checks, with everyone counting the checks as profit, while bringing in new money (to meet old obligations – except they can’t meet them even with that.)
Nuts.
n
Isn’t that like breaking the lamp, then putting it back together so the former lamp now resembles a bookend. Then claiming to have repurposed the lamp into a more effective device? But the bulb is only half as bright and electrocutes the user.
Yeah I’ve lost two of those to checkpoints, and they don’t give them back. Last time I did that at a hockey game and realized it my son-in-law took it an slipped it in a large planter out side the gates. We forgot to retrieve it when we left nut went back two days later and it was right there. I just quit carrying it even if it was useful.
Yeah Brandon! Brag about that if you can remember.
I lost one to TSA. I had a gate pass to meet one of our exchange students at the gate. Forgot about my keys and the little knife on the keyring. TSA wanted to confiscate the knife. I said OK. I then took the knife off the keyring, wedged the blade in a slot on the table, broke the blade and handed the two pieces to the TSA agent. He tossed the knife in the trash. I am certain he really wanted to keep the knife, but not after it was broken.
Looks like the last 100 white people in Philly are all addicts.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11655809/Philadelphias-Kensington-neighborhood-looks-like-scene-WALKING-DEAD.html
n
Followup on the 6 yo shooter…
Something so wrong with him a parent needed to attend school with him daily. Yet on the day, no parent was with him.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11655265/Boy-6-shot-grade-teacher-acute-disability.html
Kids with severe disabilities and emotional issues are not benefiting from “mainstreaming” or whatever they call it now. And the rest of the kids suffer.
n
When there is this much money to be made, the truth can’t exist.
n
Affirmative action TSA goon at Hobby confiscated my paracord bracelet (with teeny-tiny ferro rod and ¼ inch striker, compass, and whistle), because of the striker. I smiled and told him it was never a problem before (I’ve flown with it probably 20 times). He said most people didn’t know what it was, but he was into bushcraft stuff, implying he was oh-so-much smarter than the others.
I told him to just throw it away, but I’m pretty sure it’s on his backpack now, instead of mine.
Speaking of AA, I was amused at the St. Louis airport by the paucity of white faces in all positions, including TSA and ticket counter workers. My black shuttle driver spent 5 minutes trying to understand the ebonics radio voice of his dispatcher. All of which was heard by his vanload full of passengers.
I haven’t heard details about who may have been grandfathered in under the old rules, but Microsoft effectively nuked the accrued vacation balances of their workforce by shifting to an “unlimited” vacation policy one week before the layoff announcement.
Did the story mention Al selling his basic cable network, Current, to Al Jazeera for $100 million?
Current itself wasn’t as valuable as the carriage contracts Gore accumulated through his influence.
100%. I have seen some of these kids as I have been involved in the school for many years. Totally and completely disruptive. The teacher spends the majority of their time dealing with the student. Now the district has to pay for a person to be with the student the entire day. Changing their diaper, trying to keep the student quiet, wiping slobber and snot off their face, keep them from being violent. A thankless job that should be the job of the parent.
The parents think their child is doing so much better. How? Being around kids that ignore the individual, despise the individual for disrupting the class and making learning harder for them? These same parents demand a private vehicle to pick up their child and bring them to school and return home. The district has to comply providing a special bus. That should be the job of the parent.
Until the child is an adult the responsibility for the care of the child belongs with the parent. Not the rest of the taxpayers.
The needs of the one does not outweigh the needs of the many.
The child will get a diploma for meeting the state requirements. Which in most cases for severe disability is simply showing up half of the time. I have no problem with the awarding of the diploma. The child did the best they could do which may be more than many high school students that are not disabled.
Students that are mildly challenged are treated well by the high school and students. One student who showed up for basketball practice each day was given a special treat. One of the starters for the team gave up his position as starter to give to the challenged student. The opposing team then let the student score a basket, pretending to defend the basket. The look of joy, and the leaps of happiness, made it worthwhile. The local news program ran a story on the event.
I posted here some years back, the TSA confiscated my venerable P38 Can Opener. I’d flown numerous times with it with no problem. Some guy didn’t recognize it and claimed it was a “curved weapon.” I asked a supervisor to come over to look. He didn’t look at it and just said you can’t have it on the plane. As Mr. Ray stated, I could do more damage with my car keys that are perfectly fine. The TSA was created to give goblins and goons jobs and badges.
Current itself wasn’t as valuable as the carriage contracts Gore accumulated through his influence.
– like the railroad whose right of ways were worth more than the rail business, leading to the birth of Qwest communications. The interwebs run on fiber rings buried alongside RR tracks…
n
Or, in Austin, MOPAC, Missouri-Pacific Railroad, the only right of way available for a freeway along the west side of town once the city started growing.
One of the problems with the Americans with Disabilities Act is that it does not define what reasonable is. It should have been defined. We can quibble, but let’s use 100% as a starting point.
If the average student costs $10,000 a year to teach, then the total additional cost should be less than $10,000. Doesn’t that sound more than reasonable?
I know that many mainstreamed children are costing a lot more than that now.
I thought the airlines rules now allowed smaller pocket knives? Or is that only outside the US? I haven’t flown for several years, so I may be misinformed.
Re tech layoffs, the uproar is silly. Microsoft, for exame, increased their headcount last year by 40k. So dropping 10k this year still makes for a net increase of 30k. Pretty sure the numbers are similar at the other companies.
If anything, this is a coordinated psychological ploy to try and regain the upper hand in hiring. Employees were feeling their oats and getting uppity.
Most tech workers in the US have not returned to the office even on a part time basis, and the situation needs to be brought under control fairly quickly or Corporate America will have to start shedding real estate in a big way.
The TSA rules are vague: “In general, you are prohibited from traveling with sharp objects in your carry-on baggage; please pack these items in your checked baggage.” This allows them to ban anything they want. Like my military style can opener. You’d think I was Freddie Kruger when they took it. It’s smaller than your pinky and only mm thick.
So dropping 10k this year still makes for a net increase of 30k
– it’s still 10k losing their jobs right now, and the big four aren’t hiring, they’re cutting, so how long before they get new ones? And how many other employers will be cutting or freezing new hires during the next month, following their example?
GM used to lay off 300 workers and the entire country would groan. 50K hit the unemployment line, from just 4 companies in one month and it’s no big deal?
I think it’s the tip of the iceburg, start of the rolling snowball. Plus you gotta figure that those cut were mostly deadwood, so what’s the chance of someone picking them up right away?
n
Ugg,started raining.
So much for clear.
n
https://www.headphonesty.com/2021/02/best-hearing-protection-shooting/
The best hearing protection is any hearing protection. When I shot the pig at my office two years ago, I did not have any hearing protection in the truck. I shot her twice as the .44 bounced off her skull the first time. My ears rang for 24 hours.
BTW, since I found out that my office neighbor’s wife got mauled by feral pigs last year, I now carry my favorite 7 shot .357 in my right hand when entering or leaving the office building at dusk or after. It is a comfort. If I could carry a machine gun, I would. There are usually 30+ pigs at a time. Or 10 coyotes to a pack.
I finally got the photocell for the warehouse four 150 watt LED floodlights fixed yesterday. The original electrician put in a 150 watt photocell and then ghosted me when it burned up. The new electrician put in a 1,000 watt photocell so we are good. The size is for the relay.
Have an appointment next Wednesday for a plumber to come out and give me a quote on replacing my water pressure regulator. The first one I called, whom I’ve used before, now charges a $60 fee to give an estimate. Screw that. Called another. I told them if the price was reasonable I’d have them do the work the same day. We shall see. I can do the work, I just don’t want to. Some things are better off farming out.
Amazon raised the price of my chocolate almonds back to $10.43 for the subscription price. I caught it as I was just notified of my next subscription delivery. The price is not in the main e-mail, you have to click to find it. I wonder how many people never check the price after subscribing? The subscription is cancelled.
You are not anonymous. From a news article:
Investigation was about child ****, but indicates that one’s web browsing is not anonymous, even with the ‘private’ mode of a browser. The article seems to indicate access to ISP logs. No details if the initial investigation into the IP address was under a proper search warrant.
Speaking of such things…I was trying out the free Proton Mail level a month ago. I liked it, so I purchased a premium account to get their VPN service and extra emails, secure storage. It’s my new VPN now. Even though they say “log-less”, you are under their cloud, so anything can happen. The VPN works great with barely a speed drop using G-Fiber.
“Texas may see snow, hazardous winter storm in coming week”
https://www.chron.com/weather/article/texas-winter-storm-houston-17730646.php?IPID=Chron-HP-Latest-News
“An incoming storm may bring snow next week, though Houston will likely only see thunderstorms”
At least it is not forecast to drop below 32.02 F around here in the Houston area.
Dilbert: Humans Are Meat
https://dilbert.com/strip/2023-01-20
Oh my, definitely a red flag.
Feral pigs in Texas are a plot device in the latest Stephenson book. The book is meh, but, as usual Stephenson‘s research is first rate.
In Florida, a popular underground event is the Hog n Dog Rodeo, where a wild hog and a pit bull go at each other in a ring until one is dead.
The dog is never a lock to win, but a few survive quite a while on the “circuit”.
The only predator making a dent in wild hog numbers is the python, but I doubt Texas wants to import those.
The python eats anything if they get big enough.
“Report: Google Developing AirTag-Like Smart Tracker”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-google-developing-airtag-like-smart-tracker
“Codenamed ‘Grogu,’ the device is reportedly in development by the Nest team.”
Yup, Google dropped that “don’t be evil” thing a long time ago.
My wife took our 35 year old daughter to the ER yesterday and they transfused a pint of whole blood into her. She is feeling better today and her heart palpitations have stopped.
But, the ER ran a Covid PCR test on her and she tested positive for Covid. So that is probably going to delay the surgery again.
“Microsoft to stop selling Windows 10 licenses by the end of January”
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-to-stop-selling-windows-10-licenses-by-the-end-of-january/
“If you’re looking to buy a Windows 10 license online, you might want to hurry up — by the end of this month, Microsoft will officially stop offering Windows 10 licenses on its website.”
I bought six licenses to Windows 10 Pro x64 for $200 each from Microsoft. I am still running a few Windows 7 Pro x64 machines in my shop.
“Poszar Was Right: Saudis Confirm Non-Dollar Oil Trade Plans In Davos”
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/poszar-was-right-saudis-admit-non-dollar-oil-trade-plans-davos
“Earlier this month, former NY Fed repo guru Zoltan Pozsar wrote one of his most important reports of 2022, in which he described how Putin could unleash hell on the Western financial system by demanding that instead of dollars, Russian oil exporters are paid in gold, effectively pegging oil to gold and launching Petrogold.”
“Then, China’s President Xi visit with Saudi and GCC leaders marked the birth of the petroyuan and a leap in China’s growing encumbrance of OPEC+’s oil and gas reserves: that’s because with the China-GCC Summit, “China can now claim to have built a ‘special relationship’ not only with the ‘+’ sign in OPEC+ (Russia), but with Iran and all of OPEC+.””
Them are fighting words. I know people who claim we took out Saddam because he started selling oil for non US Dollars.
No warrant is necessary for to/from addresses on an IP packet. That is considered a “maintenance” record, data used to ensure the proper operation of the carrier in the course of its day to day operations, and that information is usually obtained with a phone call.
If a carrier wants to be difficult, a court order is more than sufficient.
Packet classification is tougher without introspection into the content, which is protected by a warrant, but a lot of ISPs have IDS which flag suspicious packet headers and send the data up to an analyst for review. To do it on the cheap, a 32 core Threadripper CPU with 32 GB RAM is more than enough to look at traffic in both directions on a 10 Gbps line with open source solutions like Security Onion.
Analysis at the same speed using lower resource numbers in terms of core/memory are possible, but that’s when I’m into the NDA from the previous job, where potential customers always wanted to make the best possible use of their 128 and 256 core systems.
All will kneel before DeSantis … and the Baby Yoda, whose proper name is Grogu.
“US Judge Orders Boeing In Texas Court Next Week On 737 Max Fraud Conspiracy Charge”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-judge-orders-boeing-texas-court-next-week-737-max-fraud-conspiracy-charge
“A federal judge ruled Boeing must appear in a Texas courthouse next week to be arraigned on federal criminal charges in the deaths of the 346 people killed in two Max plane crashes in 2018 and 2019.”
Hmmm.
Five years? Doesn’t not seem that long.
Happy Anniversary to my parents. And right on schedule, here I am!
@paul:
In my case, jsut over 4 years since my cancer surgery. And my latest (telephonic) consultation with my oncologist confirmed that the latest CT scan shows there’s no sign of a relapse. One more year with no evidence and they’ll discharge me.
But before that, I have a colonoscopy coming, probably within months. And another CT scan around July.
Note: I have no problem with any of this. Nor am I paying for it. NHS ftw!
G.
“REVIEW: 2022 Ford Bronco Everglades Edition” Written by Jerry Reynolds
https://www.carpro.com/vehicle-reviews/review-2022-ford-bronco-everglades-edition
“The Everglades comes with a 2.3-liter EcoBoost, mated to a 10-speed shiftable automatic. Together they put out 300-horses and 325-pound feet of torque. ”
Nice ! $56K, wow.
🙁
“Junk Scientist Al Gore Goes on Unhinged Rant on Climate Change at WEF – Claims “Oceans are Boiling “Creating Atmospheric Rivers and the Rain Bombs” (VIDEO)”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/01/junk-scientist-al-gore-goes-unhinged-rant-climate-change-wef-claims-oceans-boiling-creating-rain-bombs-video/
“In January 2006, Al Gore pushed the theory that “within the next ten years, the world will reach a point of no return” and “a true planetary emergency” due to global warming.”
“Of course, this turned out to be nothing more than a lunatic conspiracy.”
“At least 8 Dire Predictions from Al Gore’s movie never occurred – not even close.”
We are all going to die.
Doesn’t matter. That movie was an extended MacBook Pro commercial.
Watch it again keeping in mind that Al sits on the board of Apple.
That’s one of the reasons that I do all of the car, yard, and house work that I can, myself. I could, in theory, ghost myself, but I’d always be in dope-smacking range of myself if I tried to pull such a classless trick on myself.
There are lots of things I’d rather not do, but “if you want it done right…”
I didn’t realize that anyone other than toddlers didn’t realize that ‘private’ mode, isn’t. It cuts down on cookie proliferation and lifespan. Usually. Doesn’t do anything else.
How is the spam filtering, MrAtoz? Spam is the only reason I’m still using GMail. I tried a couple other providers, free or paid, a couple years ago, and was inundated within a few weeks or a month of creating the accounts.
Lynn said:
They didn’t drop it. They just changed the punctuation to “Don’t! Be Evil.”
Doesn’t matter. That movie was an extended MacBook Pro commercial.
Watch it again keeping in mind that Al sits on the board of Apple.
I never watched “An Inconvenient Truth”. I viewed it as total fake news and passed on it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Inconvenient_Truth
Son#1 had to watch it four times one year in high school, for English class, Science, History, and Health, IIRC.
Public school teachers love movie time. A two-hour movie will easily take up all class time for a week, what with attendance and fiddly-farting around. Then assign a paper, which can be written at least partly in class and that kills another week without having to do much.
“Illinois Passed a Sweeping Ban on High-Powered Guns. Now Come the Lawsuits.”
https://dnyuz.com/2023/01/20/illinois-passed-a-sweeping-ban-on-high-powered-guns-now-come-the-lawsuits/
“CHICAGO — When Illinois legislators passed a far-reaching ban last week on selling certain high-powered guns and high-capacity magazines, the Democrats who run the state celebrated it as a lifesaving law that would help prevent mass violence. But on Friday, in the law’s first judicial test, a state judge in Effingham County temporarily blocked it from being enforced against hundreds of people and several gun dealers who sued.”
You can pass all the laws you want but the federal judges will follow SCOTUS and invalidate them immediately.
Where does the engine come from? Spain or Ohio?
The Mustang had a problem with the 2.3 L EcoBoost Spanish engines going splody.
Either way, that vehicle is too big for a 4-cylinder engine.
SCOTUS needs to get off their fat backsides.
Glass is raised to absent friend Robert Bruce Thompson.
Thanks for leaving this place under the care and watchful eyes of Nick, Rick, and Barbara.
To RBT, Dr. Pournelle, and OFD.
I’m sure OFD would have reposted this the other day so I will do the honors.
Eventually all life imitates “Star Trek” art.
https://www.barnhardt.biz/2023/01/17/and-now-a-very-special-message-from-security-chief-constable-odo/
>> The dangerous weapon in question is the smallest Swiss army knife, a 1.5-inch blade, and a fingernail cleaner. On my keyring. I could do more harm with the truck key than that knife.
I have a similar “knife” on my keychain and several years ago we were in D.C. and the wife wanted to go into the Library of Congress. As usual, that meant the ‘empty your pockets’ routine at which point my ‘deadly weapon’ was a no go, and the Feds weren’t providing any check your weapon service. Since we were traveling around downtown via the subway there was no take it back to the car option. After standing outside for a few minutes and noticing that pedestrian traffic was light, the knife got hidden in one of the 9/11 planters that encircle every building there and was retrieved unharmed a couple of hours later when we left. All of course probably videotaped for posterity by some TLA agency.
>> So stay up with your health and do some of what the Dr. tells you!
First you need to go to the doctor. And yes, someone here knows that I mean them.
If you’ve got deep pockets or are in a hurry, Mountain House has #10 cans of protein on sale until the 31st.
https://mountainhouse.com/collections/freeze-dried-meats
Pretty significant discounts off their list prices, and the meats can be hard to find at retail.
n
HOWEVER– amazon has them in stock and cheaper with prime shipping….
“Feds seize almost $700 million of FTX assets in Sam Bankman-Fried criminal case”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/20/feds-seize-almost-700-million-of-sam-bankman-frieds-assets-in-cash-and-equity.html
“The 55 million-plus Robinhood shares are at the heart of a contentious multi-party battle between Caribbean litigants, representatives of bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi, Bankman-Fried himself, and FTX’s bankruptcy leadership.”
“Federal prosecutors have alleged that the Robinhood shares were purchased using allegedly stolen customer funds. In May, Bankman-Fried revealed that he’d purchased a 7.6% stake in Robinhood and said at the time “we think it is an attractive investment.” The stock closed Friday at $9.52, valuing the recovered shares at over $526 million.”
Normally, I do not approve of seizing assets but in this case, I applaud the feddies action. These shares were obviously bought with fraudulently stolen money.
Hat tip to:
https://www.drudgereport.com/
You know, I don’t think that SBF is going to make it to trial. I think that somebody that he stole money from is going to kill him. Or, have him killed.
https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/01/20/security-incident-at-sbfs-house-car-rammed-into-barricades/
I called that a couple weeks ago, Lynn: Sam Bankman-Fried did not kill himself.
If it is ASSUMED that the classified documents were in the White House VP office
THEN MOVED TO
A government transition office near the White House (for about 6 months, roughly Jan 2017 to June 2017)
THEN MOVED TO
a temporary facility in the nation’s capital (for about 7 months, roughly June 2017 to Feb 2012)
THEN MOVED TO
Penn Biden Center (formal opening Feb 2018)
“Discovery” in Nov 2022 was roughly 57 months after the last move in Jan/Feb 2018 into an unsecured location at Penn Biden Center.
Multiple violations of the law with each move, and although the statue of limitations is almost certainly 10 years, and not the 5 that was being cited as possibly letting the Big Guy off the hook by the commie apologists, that move to the Biden Center for Laundering Chinese Bribes is within the 60 months that consitute 5 years most places.
And then there’s this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11656255/Hunter-spoke-father-urging-hire-aide-helped-pack-VP-files.html
What’s the next chapter? Denial from Ms. Chung that she’s a lying no-face Chinese Communist agent and hardly knows Fang Fang, and only slept with her and/or Hunter a few times?
SteveF says:
I strongly suspect that Sam Bankrupt-Fraud will WISH that he had killed himself, because the lenders won’t be NEARLY as gentle as Hillary was.
Or the killers will want everyone to think that.
JunkThe Furthest Thing From A Scientist You Could Imagine Al Gore Goes on Unhinged RantFIFY
The best the Gorehole could do in his only science class—Intro to Earth Science—was a “D”.
Thanks for the reminder Nick.
5 years .. Glass raised.
Thoughts of MrOFD as well.