Fri. Feb. 3, 2023 – 02032023 – silly old bear…

By on February 3rd, 2023 in culture, decline and fall, personal, radio

Well it’s cold and wet again.  Supposed to clear up and warm up a bit later, but we’re starting in the same place.  Misty drizzle most of yesterday, although the overcast was brighter.   Seemed plenty cold to me, maybe mid 40s…

I ended up spending the day indoors, clearing out room for the Girl Scout cookies.   In the process I did some other cleaning, some auction stuff, and some ebay.   The single biggest thing was getting 20 or more pounds of lego into 1 pound bags.  That’s not all the lego I have, it’s just the lego that was in the foyer.   I’ll drop it at the auctioneer’s when I pick up a couple of lots.   I won some books about maintaining some things…

I also won another telescope.   Bloody hell.   It’s a 10 inch dob, and is the LAST scope I’m buying this year.   Pinky swear.   It was cheap without a mounting base.   The base often shows up in the auctions as they ship the stupid thing in two boxes and the shippers can’t keep track of both.  Worst case, I’ll slap a base together from plywood.   I’m not in a hurry though, so I’ll let the universe have a few weeks to solve my problem.   There weren’t any on ebay yesterday, which is a bit of a surprise.   I’ve seen them for months as I watched other lots go by.   This time, my lowball bid of $175 won.   With tax and fees, I’ll be around $220.  That leaves a lot of room to buy a base or make one.   It should let us both look at the sky together, and that should be more fun than swapping off.

Some of my day got eaten by the scanner and what was going on at a Houston school.   It was a bit harrowing to just listen without knowing where they were or what exactly they were facing.  Details are in yesterday’s comments.   Especially coming on the heals of me reading the Uvalde report, it was gratifying that they seemed to be aware, motivated, and in command, and got the guy out of the school without issues.   Hopefully they’ll do an AAR and learn from the event.   And hopefully the school will figure their security situation so an armed man can’t run in and hide from cops.  FFS.

Having the scanner on and running all the time in the office has clued me into a number of breaking news type stories, as well as ordinary law enforcement activity in the city and my neighborhood.   Knowing what goes on around you is valuable.  Knowing what’s normal, let’s you key into when something is not.   Takes practice, like anything.

Today I’ve got stuff to pick up.   No plan to go to the BOL this weekend, but that could change.  If not, there is still a huge list here, and it just keeps getting longer.    Clear weather will certainly help.

Work your list, always be improving your situation, and stack the things!

nick

73 Comments and discussion on "Fri. Feb. 3, 2023 – 02032023 – silly old bear…"

  1. Denis says:

    Congratulations and well wear on your very own telescope, Nick. RBT would surely approve. Enjoy, and let us know how you get on with it. I was in a remote area in Scotland last week, free of light pollution, and the starscape was absolutely awesome, even just with the naked eye and some ordinary binoculars. A telescope (and knowing how to use it…) would have been great to have.

    When I was in school, the school had a refracting telescope in a case and with a tripod, and I was allowed to borrow it for a week. Unfortunately, neither the physics teacher nor I knew anything about using one, so I spent a lot of time that week looking at the moon, which was feasible in teach-myself mode. Many years later, I could have used RBT’s wonderful Guide to Astronomical Wonders https://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Guide-Astronomical-Wonders-Observer/dp/0596526857?tag=ttgnet-20  Today, I suppose there are a hundred websites and twice as many apps for beginning astronomers, or I would probably just come here and ask for advice – there is an expert here for anything and everything. Perhaps I should treat myself and get a ‘scope for the BOL, which is rural enough to make some observing possible…

    Anyhow, thanks for this place, and thanks to all who make it possible, who make it happen and who take part. 

  2. brad says:

    On the subject of Google, I wonder: have they stopped investing in their core products?

    • The Google Maps photos of our area are around four years old. A lot changes in four years. You can suggest updates, which I did a year or so ago, but nothing has changed.
    • I visited a company yesterday, and wanted to see what their building looks like in Street View. No dice, because those photos are ten years old, and the company didn’t exist in 2013.

    It seems strange that they haven’t updated more frequently…

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    39F and raining.   Same dreary wet cold as yesterday. 

    Getting ready for school..

    n

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    Bias, what bias?
     

    Bodies of three missing Michigan rappers are found in Detroit apartment building after they disappeared 11 days ago following a cancelled gig at a night club

    • Armani Kelly, 28, Dante Wicker, 31 and Montoya Givens, 31, were found dead 
    • Their bodies were discovered at a vacant apartment in Highland Park 
    • The three went missing on January 21 after their performance was canceled  

    Kelly had previously spent eight years in prison for armed robbery, which is where he met the other two missing men

    Kelly, who goes by the stage name Marley Whoop, was set to perform just his second ever show

    Rapper??  No.  One show doesn’t make you a “rapper”.   “ Convicted armed robber and two confederates from prison go missing in Detroit- feared killed by other freed felons” would be a more accurate headline.

    n

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Something like ChatGPT requires a lot more computational power to answer a query. Training is a huge investment, and not easy to continually update. It will probably quickly become a niche product, but I don’t see it scaling well to general search.

    GPUs. If I had to guess, uncertainty about demand for AI hardware capability is the reason Apple hasn’t committed fully to going with their own Apple Silicon in their highest end machines.

    It won’t be as simple as leaving a few PCI-X slots on the board, but Apple probably wanted to eliminate those completely.

    Google *and* Apple caught off guard. Things can still happen fast in this business.

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    Auctions lately are full of coins, cards, and ammo.   People are selling their collections.  I don’t see that as a positive for the economy.

    n

  7. CowboyStu says:

    From Lynn:

    You know, I am wondering why the trolls want to shut this place down so bad.  Does that mean that they win ?  If so, keeping this place going is an affront to the trolls.  Excellent !

    From me: I’ve been here for twenty years, keep it going!

  8. Greg Norton says:

    Don’t worry. Tommy Boy’s cousin — literally — is on the job.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/03/ford-ceo-jim-farley-frustrated-after-bad-earnings.html

    Yes, the same family.

    When we are all living in vans down by the river, they will be Ford EV vans. The batteries will be kaput, but we’ll have plenty of storage space in the “frunks”.

    The other famous cousin, the hockey player Tripp Tracy, is the black sheep of the family — he famously drives a G Wagon, the gold standard of German grocery getters. To make amends, he claims to have a Bronco on order.

    https://fordauthority.com/2020/10/new-ford-ceo-jim-farley-has-more-than-one-famous-relative/

  9. MrAtoz says:

    I’m sure you’ve read about the Chinese spy balloon now floating over the FUSA. I’m not sure what is more scary: that it is spying on us or the FUSA let it get here. plugs should put a round through the bag and let it come down. The Chinese claim it is “civilian balloon, ass-hoe”.

    /tinfoilhat

    It’s probably spraying COVID20 everywhere it goes.

    /tinfoil hat

  10. Jenny says:

    My aunt arrives late tomorrow from New Zealand. Their flight lands at DFW tomorrow morning, then on to Seattle. 
    The Misery Map on the Flight Aware website shows a lot of consternation in DFW, though the Seattle bound flights seem to be doing better than the rest from DFW. 

    Crossing fingers. its 13 hours from AKL to DFW, that’s kinda rough. 

  11. MrAtoz says:

    Those crazy Amish:

    Viral video shows two boys beating a 9-year-old girl on a school bus in Homestead, Fla. on Feb. 1.

    Being filmed, nobody gives a shite. School says they can’t do anything about it. Yes, those kids are animals and a direct reflection of their upbringing.

  12. Greg Norton says:

    The Misery Map on the Flight Aware website shows a lot of consternation in DFW, though the Seattle bound flights seem to be doing better than the rest from DFW. 

    Texas is once again a train wreck this week due to an ice storm which wouldn’t move the needle in Alaska, but things are starting to get back to normal in Austin today provided the power isn’t out.

    If the US airline partner is American, they will find a plane to fly out of DFW.

    Otherwise, the DFW complex doesn’t lack for hotels, and light rail is available if they want to see the mostly empty Downtown on a typical Saturday.

    If I’m wrong about DFW hotel rooms, we stay at the Fort Worth Eastchase La Quinta frequently without incident, free hot breakfast with a WalMart and Sam’s club just across the street. We’ve never bothered to look for anywhere else since the hotel is centrally located.

  13. Greg Norton says:

    @Jenny – Tell your aunt that Billy Bob’s Fort Worth has bull riding at 8:30 and 9:30 tomorrow night! 🙂

    They don’t have mechanical bulls at Billy Bob’s.

  14. nick flandrey says:

    How Netflix will crack down on password sharing: Streaming giant accidentally shares key details before hastily deleting them – here’s everything you need to know

    • Netflix has revealed how it will police ‘password sharing’ from next month
    • Devices that log in outside of the account holder’s home will need to be verified
    • This could be by having to log in at their home Wi-Fi network every 31 days 

    transitioning from being an ‘internet business’ to being a real business.   It’s no longer just about building awareness and number of eyeballs, now it’s about harvesting the money from those eyeballs.

    Most of the whining is from people freeloading off a former roommate or partner.  Some is from people sharing with distant relatives.   

    I don’t have much sympathy for the whiners.   If it is valuable to you, pay for it.   If not, then don’t.

  15. Greg Norton says:

    Most of the whining is from people freeloading off a former roommate or partner.  Some is from people sharing with distant relatives.   

    Netflix built an audience for the streaming service based on password sharing.

    It wasn’t as big a deal ten years ago when most of their content was sourced elsewhere on the cheap, but now they have production costs to cover. Plus AWS is getting pricey, one of the reasons that my division where I currently work is making money as companies start to consider alternatives to The Cloud.

    Amazon must be sticking it to Netflix at this point. Big River has its own production blunders to cover.

    Cough … Rings of Power … cough.

    Amazon just signed a contract with “Fleabag” for a Lara Croft “Tomb Raider” series. I wonder how many of those scripts were from the gender-swapped Indiana Jones series Disney had planned with Waller-Bridge before the fans found out about the scheme and forced a reshoot of the upcoming movie’s ending, which was originally supposed to kill the male Indiana Jones in the past.

  16. EdH says:

    @Nick: Congratulations on the new telescope OTA! 

    The Dobsonian base can be easy to build, up to as fancy as your time, skills and money allow.

    Or there are alternatives, such as an equatorial “pipe” mount:

    https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/582383-show-us-your-pipe-mount/page-2

  17. nick flandrey says:

    @EdH, thanks for that link.   More types of bases than I imagined.   I guess that they are adjustable so you can easily track an object while only moving the ‘scope in one direction?  That was one of the difficult things as a rank beginner.  You finally get the object in the scope, and then you have to constantly nudge it in two directions to keep the thing visible.

    n

  18. nick flandrey says:

    Um, ladies, you REALLY REALLY REALLY don’t want to go down this road…..

    Should brain dead women be kept alive and used as SURROGATES? Expert floats idea of organ donor-style arrangement so women can agree to letting their body be used to give childless couples a chance at having a baby 

     

    Dr Anna Smajdor, an associate professor in philosophy at the University of Oslo, suggested that brain dead women could be used as surrogates.

    I’m already uncomfortable with the idea of surrogates when they are fully conscious and aware, and able to make choices.   I look at the Big-Ass-ian clan and wonder why they chose surrogates instead of having babies during their careers (which are based on appearance.)

    It smacks of baby farming.

    n

  19. RickH says:

    Space Wars?

    According to a recent filing with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC), True Anomaly is now gearing up for its first orbital mission. In October, True Anomaly hopes to launch two Jackal “orbital pursuit” spacecraft aboard a SpaceX rocket to low earth orbit. The Jackals will not house guns, warheads, or laser blasters, but they will be capable of rendezvous proximity operations (RPO)—the ability to maneuver close to other satellites and train a battery of sensors upon them. This could reveal their rivals’ surveillance and weapons systems or help intercept communications.

    In their first mission, dubbed Demo-1, the Jackals will merely spy on each other, using thrusters, radar, and multi-spectral cameras to approach within a few hundred meters. If that goes well, Rogers envisages deploying thousands of autonomous spacecraft in service of the US military, controlled by a team of human operators and AI “to pursue adversaries wherever they fly, and to provide the tools of accountability.”

    The full article is  here

  20. mediumwave says:

    It smacks of baby farming.

    Or worse: 

    The government spies soon learn the hive has progressed to using sexual “stumps,” both male and female — “the stump of a human body from about the waist to the knees”[1] — as a method of harvesting “wild” genes or maintaining certain breeding lines when the individuals are no longer trustworthy members of the hive.

  21. Lynn says:

    After having heavy grey cloudy skies all week, there is a huge ball of fire in the sky.  Could it be that this thing in the sky is gonna melt all the ice in Texas ?

    And I see that the Solar power plants in Texas are back to making 10,000 MW.   So, Solar is almost worthless when the sky is cloudy.  That sucks.  Now that the demand is dropping rapidly and ERCOT is taking plants offline, the solar power plants make power like it is going out of style.  Undependable crap.  There are not enough batteries in the world to store this power and everyone knows it. And don’t get me started on hydrogen storage. 

     https://www.ercot.com/

  22. SteveF says:

    It smacks of baby farming.

    Where there’s baby farming, there will be baby harvesting.

    And what better way to overcome the chronic shortage of organs needed for babies and small children who need transplants?

    What could possibly go wrong?

  23. Lynn says:

    According to a recent filing with the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC), True Anomaly is now gearing up for its first orbital mission. In October, True Anomaly hopes to launch two Jackal “orbital pursuit” spacecraft aboard a SpaceX rocket to low earth orbit. The Jackals will not house guns, warheads, or laser blasters, but they will be capable of rendezvous proximity operations (RPO)—the ability to maneuver close to other satellites and train a battery of sensors upon them. This could reveal their rivals’ surveillance and weapons systems or help intercept communications.

    Hey, I’ve watched Space Cowboys several times.  I’ll bet that somebody has nuclear weapons in orbit.  Shoot, I would not be surprised if we had nuclear weapons in orbit.

  24. Greg Norton says:

    I’m already uncomfortable with the idea of surrogates when they are fully conscious and aware, and able to make choices.   I look at the Big-Ass-ian clan and wonder why they chose surrogates instead of having babies during their careers (which are based on appearance.)

    Appearance and the late patriarch of the clan being OJ’s “bag man”.

  25. Lynn says:

    Those crazy Amish:

    Viral video shows two boys beating a 9-year-old girl on a school bus in Homestead, Fla. on Feb. 1.

    Being filmed, nobody gives a shite. School says they can’t do anything about it. Yes, those kids are animals and a direct reflection of their upbringing.

    Why is always Amish in these videos ?

  26. Lynn says:

    I’m sure you’ve read about the Chinese spy balloon now floating over the FUSA. I’m not sure what is more scary: that it is spying on us or the FUSA let it get here. plugs should put a round through the bag and let it come down. The Chinese claim it is “civilian balloon, ass-hoe”.

    /tinfoilhat

    It’s probably spraying COVID20 everywhere it goes.

    /tinfoil hat

    We look weak when we cannot shoot it down.  And there are more coming.

       https://nypost.com/2023/02/03/pentagon-wont-rule-out-shootdown-of-maneuverable-china-spy-balloon/

  27. Alan says:

    >> The other famous cousin, the hockey player Tripp Tracy, is the black sheep of the family — he famously drives a G Wagon, the gold standard of German grocery getters. To make amends, he claims to have a Bronco on order.

    https://fordauthority.com/2020/10/new-ford-ceo-jim-farley-has-more-than-one-famous-relative/

    “I’m crazy about the new Bronco. I’m going to try and get a four-door. I’m all-in on Ford. I’m just waiting for the maestro to tell me what to do.”

    Just wait til he sees the ADM on that Bronco.

  28. EdH says:

    On the subject of Google, I wonder: have they stopped investing in their core products?

    • The Google Maps photos of our area are around four years old. A lot changes in four years. You can suggest updates, which I did a year or so ago, but nothing has changed.

    Yes, They seem to be the corporate equivalent of a short sighted millionaire miser…

    In my experience, for maps, Bing Maps seems the most updated, at least for the USA.  

    Google’s map of my neighborhood predates my move of 5+ years ago, Bing‘s appear to be from summer of 2022.

  29. Alan says:

    >> We look weak when we cannot shoot it down.  And there are more coming.

       https://nypost.com/2023/02/03/pentagon-wont-rule-out-shootdown-of-maneuverable-china-spy-balloon/

    Looks like we’ll need immediate supplemental funding for the Pentagon. SecTreas needs to spin up those presses.

    So according to reporting on Fox News, Plugs the puppeteers knew this thing was headed our way for at least a month.

    Also, in a similar situation in the (recent??) past with the balloon somewhere over Canada, supposedly the Canadian Air Force put 1,000 rounds of 20mm cannon fire into the balloon with no apparent effect. Good thing the PRC skipped the Hindenburg design.

    And I wonder if this thing has a self-destruct capability to prevent us from being able to grab it and analyze its technologies?

    Things will get awfully SNAFUed if our relationships with the PRC start to turn ‘frosty.’ Sorry, no chips, no Bronco for you.

    And Blinken has cancelled his trip to the PRC…’not the best time to go considering these developments.

  30. Greg Norton says:

    Just wait til he sees the ADM on that Bronco.

    Probably purchased using Ford “A” plan from his brother. ADM isn’t happening, and you see the real factory invoice, with the wholesale cost, not the one the dealer puts on the window.

    My guess is that the wife drives the G Wagon now.

    I bought my 1993 Ford Probe on the “A” plan. $17,500 MSRP. $13,000 wholesale. It was the least reliable car I’ve ever owned, but I couldn’t touch a Celica for that price at the time.

    When I traded the car at eight years and 90,000 miles, the paint and trim looked at least 20 years old. Plus, it was built at Flat Rock, which produces rattle traps.

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    1
  31. Alan says:

    Press ‘gaggle’ this morning…questions being shouted…

    Reporter: “Mr. President, do you take any of the blame for inflation?”

    Plugs: “NO.

  32. Alan says:

    >> I also won another telescope.   Bloody hell.   It’s a 10 inch dob, and is the LAST scope I’m buying this year.   Pinky swear.   It was cheap without a mounting base.   The base often shows up in the auctions as they ship the stupid thing in two boxes and the shippers can’t keep track of both.  Worst case, I’ll slap a base together from plywood.   I’m not in a hurry though, so I’ll let the universe have a few weeks to solve my problem.   There weren’t any on ebay yesterday, which is a bit of a surprise.   I’ve seen them for months as I watched other lots go by.   This time, my lowball bid of $175 won.   With tax and fees, I’ll be around $220.  That leaves a lot of room to buy a base or make one.   It should let us both look at the sky together, and that should be more fun than swapping off.

    @nick, consider a motorized base?

  33. Alan says:

    >> The Google Maps photos of our area are around four years old. A lot changes in four years. You can suggest updates, which I did a year or so ago, but nothing has changed.

    @brad, don’t take it personally…on the other hand, maybe time to reconsider your brand of deodorant??

    https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/maps-platform/9-things-know-about-googles-maps-data-beyond-map

  34. Alan says:

    >> Something like ChatGPT requires a lot more computational power to answer a query. Training is a huge investment, and not easy to continually update. It will probably quickly become a niche product, but I don’t see it scaling well to general search.

  35. RickH says:

    Re Google’s “ChatAI” program – just saw this here

    Everybody panic! Next week Google is hosting what can only be described as an “emergency” event. According to an invite sent to The Verge, the event will revolve around “using the power of AI to reimagine how people search for, explore and interact with information, making it more natural and intuitive than ever before to find what you need”—in other words, Google’s going to fire up its photocopier and stick OpenAI’s ChatGPT onto the platen. The 40-minute event will, of course, be live on YouTube on February 8.

  36. EdH says:

    @Nick:  Heh, yes, the constant nudging of a dobsonian is a hassle, and it gets worse the higher the power you use. Somewhat ameliorated by wide-angle (expensive) eye pieces.

    But it’s pretty much the trade-off for a very simple mount.

    If one axis points at Polaris you only need a one directional nudge…or motor…or star tracker/guider. 

    As with cameras, the best scope is the one you actually use, so a hassle factor is bad.

  37. SteveF says:

    I don’t see why amateur astronomers don’t do their observations from the Moon. It spins only about 1/29 as fast as Earth does, so the nuisance of keeping the scope aligned is much reduced. Plus, if they go to the far side, all of that annoying light pollution and atmospheric distortion goes away. Why wouldn’t they go to the moon for their hobby?

  38. Lynn says:

    “When You Should Ban Someone From Your Convention” by Michael Z. Williamson

        https://www.michaelzwilliamson.com/cms/index.php/22-writing/516-462

    “Here’s the scenario.  You’re running an event, and on TWITter or Fecesbook, someone calls out a guest and states, “I wouldn’t feel safe with this person at the con!””

    “You must immediately ban this person from the convention.”

    “No, not the guest. The person making the public scene.””

    Here, here !

    12
  39. Lynn says:

    A woman is trying to get Larry Correia disinvited as Guest of Honor from MarsCon for his “tone”.

       https://monsterhunternation.com/2023/02/02/my-response-to-the-official-complaint-at-marscon-about-my-tone/

    Hey MarsCon,”

    “This is my Official Response to the Official Complaint filed by Madison Matricula Roberts about how I’m a terrible mean bad person for responding to the angry mob (of about half a dozen people) who think I have no business being invited as the Guest of Honor at your event. I’ll leave the original complaint from Madison in italics. My responses will be in bold.

    This is apparently the same woman who got John Ringo disinvited from the ConCarolinas and was later proven to be a false accusation via video. The Con chair apologized publicly to John Ringo and and in writing.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    “No, not the guest. The person making the public scene.””

    Here, here !

    We saw Gina Carano post-cancellation at the Dallas Fan Expo last year. There were absolutely zero problems on site because, as the daughter of former Cowboys backup QB Glenn Carano, any trouble makers would have been severly beaten by security and the cops after the crowd got done. However, from what I understand, the Orlando appearance prior to Dallas also went smoothly.

    It looks like The Mouse, who cancelled Carano, is headed to Tallahassee on Monday for The Great Kneeling before DeSantis.

    https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/politics/special-session-desantis-disney-reedy-creek-district-monday/67-46ffb2e1-6b7e-4674-85a0-b3ceabe52e44

  41. Lynn says:

    BTW, these “woke” people falsely attacking people like Larry Correia and and John Ringo is the same type of troll who is attacking us here.  All these people exist for is to tear other people down.  Good people who mostly do not know how to defend themselves against a troll who will use any lie to rip things apart.

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  42. MrAtoz says:

    Gotta love Larry Correia. And, keep hammering the troll.

  43. paul says:

    The high yesterday was all of 30f or maybe 33f.  Depends on which thermometer and which side of the house. Anyway, there’s a bit over a quarter inch in the rain gauge this morning.  Now that everything has melted.

    So about a quarter inch of ice on the trees.  Pretty cool 15 inch long icicles hanging from the pump house and the EDC.  

    The power went out.  Why now when things start thawing is a mystery.  Ok, off at 1PM.  I crawled around and turned the UPSs off.  Just for the noise.  Suppose to be back on about 4PM.  Yeah, that didn’t happen.

    I went out to get the generator.  To run some lights and the freaking pellet stove.  Turned the gas on and no spark. Nothing.  It’s dripping gasoline like crazy too.  Heck, it worked a few months ago.  Started on the third pull, too.

    By now it’s getting pretty dark and I can’t feel my fingers.  Because it’s 27f.  Forget about looking in the feedshed for fuel line in the dark. 

    I finally found the Coleman propane lantern.  Need more mantles . . . it makes a lot of light and a lot of heat.  Crank that sucker up and it’s like a 500 watt halogen bulb.

    So we had light.  And a peanut butter sandwich for supper.   I went to bed about 8 because I was cold.  Penny jumped up and cuddled on my legs 10 minutes later.  🙂  Which is unusual for Her Highness. 

    The power came on about 10:30.  Hasn’t bobbled since.

    I need to do a few things. 

    Order more mantles.  Store the lantern on top of the beer fridge and not in the far back corner of the little tin shed. Fix the fuel lines on the generator.  Test to see if I can move the generator with the hand truck because while I once could pick it up and put it in the garden trailer, well, that was several years ago.  Adjust the pellet bin lid on the pellet stove tighter, it was leaking smoke into the house. 

    And get another generator.  Not another Champion thing.  Honda?  Maybe go big and get a PTO generator.  Enough to run the heat pump would be nice although perhaps extravagant .  No need to run the electric range or water heater.  We have two tractors, so. 

    And it’s supper time according to Buddy the Beagle. 

  44. SteveF says:

    Store the lantern on top of the beer fridge and not in the far back corner of the little tin shed.

    If you can, put up a cupboard with closing doors, not in the way of ordinary use of the shed but easy to get to when you’re fumbling in the dark and cold. Put the lantern, fuel, a flashlight, and batteries in the cupboard and then close the door.

  45. paul says:

    Oh.  When it dropped to about 55f in the house the smoke detector in the dining room started chirping.  I teetered myself up on a chair and took it down.  Pulled the battery and went back to bed.

    I replaced the battery this morning.  A Ray-O-Vac.  Installed June 2018.  Just wow. 

  46. EdH says:

    Adjust the pellet bin lid on the pellet stove tighter, it was leaking smoke into the house. 

    ?? Huh. What model is that? 

    My old Whitman Advantage (insert) bin is on the house air side of things, not in the exhaust stream at all. I thought they were all like that.

  47. SteveF says:

    I have some dating advice for women. Take it for what it’s worth.

    At Daily Pundit or at Cold Fury.

  48. SteveF says:

    I missed a couple items: in the cupboard with the lantern, include some extra mantles and a box of matches. A funnel if needed.

    I’ve used the easy-access box or cupboard trick to good effect… when I lived by myself or just myself and my small child. Doesn’t work when I have a wife in the house. Make of that what you will.

    (If what you make of it is that I’m lousy at picking wives, I’d say you’re bang on the money.)

    10
  49. Greg Norton says:

    It looks like 43 more “developers” are going to be hitting the streets soon here in town.

    https://www.axios.com/2023/02/03/youtube-contractors-strike-return-office-google

  50. Lynn says:

    I finally found the Coleman propane lantern.  Need more mantles . . . it makes a lot of light and a lot of heat.  Crank that sucker up and it’s like a 500 watt halogen bulb.

    I had forgotten how much heat those Coleman lanterns can provide.  Dad had the white gas variety.  They worked like a champ until they ran out of fuel.

  51. nick flandrey says:

    I love coleman lanterns.   I like the hiss, I like the smell, I like the light.   We used them extensively when I was a kid and we went camping, so there is that.   I use the propane ones now, but have a collection of gas and dual fuel hanging in the garage.     If I have a case for it, I include long matches, a refueling funnel, and mantles.   I add a sparker to most of the lanterns too.

    LED lantern won’t give you any heat…

    Home from my pickups.   One of my favorite auctioneers is giving up.   He’s got one more left then done.   Can’t get enough good stuff at the right price to make a living at it.    There is a TON of competition for product with all the new sellers getting into the business.   They are willing to pay more, either thru ignorance or because their other costs are lower than usual (ie. working out of their home.)   In the reselling game, you make your money when you buy.  You HAVE to get it cheap enough, because you don’t control the price that it will sell at.

    That 10″ dob is BIG.   The box is a good 5 feet long and almost 14 or 16″ square.

    The little one I also picked up today will make a spotter scope on the big one!

    I guess I should feed the family.  I’m surprised they haven’t eaten the couch.

    n

  52. nick flandrey says:

    As Paul Harvey used to say “and now for the rest of the story…”

    Two men have been arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of six people in California family home on January 16. The arrests were announced Friday by the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office, as the suspects were named as 25-year-old Noah David Beard and 35-year-old Angel ‘Nanu’ Uriarte. Sheriff Mike Boudreaux has said that both men arrested are members of the Nortenos gang, while two of the Parraz family who were killed were members of their rival Surenos gang.

    — mmmmmmm…..  loves me some of that vibrant diversity, than God they’re vigorously out breeding us.

    n

  53. Alan says:

    Exclusive video clip from this morning of Plug’s top minds at the Pentagon soon after the initial balloon sighting…

  54. drwilliams says:

    whoops

    posted this on yesterday’s thread and noticed too late:

    and now for a feel-good piece about a Biden:

    https://ace.mu.nu/archives/403003.php#403003

    Best laugh I’ve had all week.

    It’s actually kind of eerie that the fictional Stepford was in Connecticut. 

    Jill just seems to fit into that family by design.

  55. Greg Norton says:

    @Jenny – If your aunt gets stuck in Dallas tomorrow, she might want to pass on a trip to the zoo.

    https://nypost.com/2023/02/03/dallas-zoo-monkey-kidnapping-suspect-davion-irvin-arrested/

  56. Lynn says:

    Ah, the troll speaketh and I hammereth.

    8
    2
  57. Lynn says:

    “Jury finds Elon Musk did not defraud Tesla investors with infamous ‘funding secured’ claim”

        https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/elon-musk-funding-secured-trial-verdict-rcna68634

    “Musk was facing a lawsuit from Tesla shareholders saying his tweets may have cost them billions of dollars as part of his desire to take Tesla private.”

    I am not sure if Musk lied or told the truth but I agree with the jury.  The stock market is a casino, not a sure thing.

    Hat tip to:
    https://www.drudgereport.com/

    6
    1
  58. Lynn says:

    Lynn, have you read much Kipling?

    Not in 50+ years.  Why ?

    His Mowgli book was the gateway for me into the Edgar Rice Burroughs Tarzan books. Which led to the Mars books. Which led to the …

    I had a complete set of ERB Tarzan and Mars books in MMPB. All lost in the Great Flood of 1989.

  59. Lynn says:

    “EU Analyst: The End of the Internet Is Near”

        https://thenewstack.io/eu-analyst-the-end-of-the-internet-is-near/

    “Fracturing DNS! Incompatible Internet Protocols! Filters and walled gardens galore! The internet is being torn asunder by meddling governments and greedy corporations, a EU researcher warns.”

    Ah, just another guy walking around with a board on his front and back sides declaring that the “end is nigh”.

    6
    1
  60. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    I had a complete set of ERB Tarzan and Mars books in MMPB.

    A shame Ace never completed publishing Tarzan and Carter:

    “Roy Krenkel was a key factor in the 1960s revival of my grandfather’s writings.  
    Krenkel’s illustrations forever secured his position as  
    one of the all-time great Edgar Rice Burroughs illustrators.” 
    – Danton Burroughs

    https://www.erbzine.com/mag33/3330.html

    Krenkel was followed at Ace by Frazetta, 

    then Powers illustrating Ballantine’s first Tarzan series:

    http://www.richardmpowers.com/ballantine-tarzan-series

    followed by Abbett 

    and the highly collectible black cover series by Adams and Vallejo, 

    https://catspawdynamics.com/tarzan-covers-by-neal-adams/

    I’d guess you had the black ones?

  61. Ken Mitchell says:

    Lynn: All the Burroughs Mars books are in the public domain and free as Kindle books.  I haven’t checked, but the Tarzan books probably are as well.

    CCP Spy Balloon; it’s a maneuverable balloon. Not that it is propelled, but it can ascend and descent to take advantage of favorable winds. NORAD needs to order the CCP to land the balloon, intact, or have every Chinese airliner shut down by denying them landing and overflight permissions. With our woke military, nobody above the O6 rank would have the balls to do that, especially not Mr. Senile Boy.  

  62. Ken Mitchell says:

    Musk’s “Funding secured” tweet;  Musk wasn’t facing lawsuits from Tesla SHAREHOLDERS; Musk was jerking the chains of SPECULATORS, especially SHORTS. People who were selling stock that they didn’t own, hoping to make a killing on the falling price. The people who were affected did not, at the time, own any (or much) Tesla stock.

  63. Ken Mitchell says:

    Breaking news: An explosion in the sky over Billings, MT may have been the Air Farce shooting down the ChiCom balloon.

    https://pjmedia.com/columns/paula-bolyard/2023/02/03/breaking-explosion-reported-in-skies-over-montana-video-n1667806

  64. nick flandrey says:

    So now we’re in a shooting war with China over our own soil?   Pretty much no one has done that since what?  1812?

    n

  65. Lynn says:

    I had a complete set of ERB Tarzan and Mars books in MMPB.

    A shame Ace never completed publishing Tarzan and Carter:

    I had all the white cover ERB MMPB books that Ballantine published.  About 40 or 50 books total, I do not remember.  I lost well over 2,000 books in The Great Flood of 1989.  One inch of water in the house, one foot of water in the garage at 5am in the morning.  Guess where my books were ?  Yup, in the garage in a wardrobe moving book.  The books sucked water up three feet into the box.  

        https://www.amazon.com/Tarzan-Apes-Edgar-Rice-Burroughs/dp/0345027019?tag=ttgnet-20/

  66. Alan says:

    So now a second balloon has been spotted traversing Latin America. Would someone have seen it if the first one hadn’t been spotted?

    (We know they’re both from China. If you look with a big enough telescope, say a 10 inch Dob, you can see the sewn on tag that says “Hecho en China.”)

    Good night all…and don’t forget to wrap those iPhones in tinfoil.

    https://youtu.be/nzVfCLz9Fd8

  67. Jenny says:

    @lynn

    Kipling is amongst my favorite writers. He is particularly delicious read aloud. 

  68. Lynn says:

    “You Get NOTHING” by Sarah A. Hoyt

       https://accordingtohoyt.com/2023/02/03/you-get-nothing/

    “The problem with the struggles of our day: minimum wage; universal health; the perfect family; the perfect marriage; the perfect career is that people have forgotten that nothing is always an option.”

    Sarah gets it.  This is why the USA is going to have a financial apocalypse or a civil war in the next 5 to 15 years.

  69. Lynn says:

    @lynn

    Kipling is amongst my favorite writers. He is particularly delicious read aloud. 

    I responded to one of the trolls before I realized it was a troll.  And a really nasty one too, masqueraded itself as Greg.

  70. Greg Norton says:

    Kipling is amongst my favorite writers. He is particularly delicious read aloud. 

    I responded to one of the trolls before I realized it was a troll.  And a really nasty one too, masqueraded itself as Greg.

    Ever.

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