Sun. July 9, 2023 – got some catching up to do

By on July 9th, 2023 in culture, decline and fall

So it’ll be hot, and humid because Houston and summer… but I’ll complain anyway because that’s what people do, complain about the weather. And it’s hot and humid…

Did my non-prepping hobby yesterday. Mostly the meeting was planning for our upcoming convention. I’m volunteering so I stayed late too. Got home and crashed out. I’m still tired and worn out. I didn’t do too badly about staying hydrated over the last three weeks, but I did do an enormous amount of work and that took a bigger toll than I thought it did. I’m not as young as I was.

Indeed, none of us are. I can still push on through, but I think I’ll be paying for it for a while.

And for most of 3 weeks, I let other things go. That’s what the ‘catching up’ is about. I’ve got shopping, cleaning, maintenance and yard work, and general life stuff to do that I just put off. I don’t have long to do it as I’m probably headed back to the BOL this week with D1 as D2 has a week long Girl Scout camp. Summer is rapidly going to be winding down before we know it.

And on top of all the other stuff, my rent house tenants have finally found a home of their own, and will be moving out at the end of the month. So I’ll have a round of fix it up and clean it up to go through there as we look for new renters.

It’s a good life if you don’t weaken…

Stacks help. I don’t actually HAVE to go to the store. But I’d rather not run down current stacks any more than I have. As the kids have grown, their tastes have changed, and what I stack has changed too. There is a bit of lag, or ‘overhang’ though. We have a lot more peanut butter and Nutella than we really need… and not as many feminine hygiene products.

Keep an eye on what you’re stacking, make sure it’s still appropriate. Then stack it up.

nick

53 Comments and discussion on "Sun. July 9, 2023 – got some catching up to do"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    Not yet playing near me:

    https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/director-sean-mullin-on-yogi-berra-and-it-aint-over-he-was-criminally-overlooked-his-entire-life.html

    If you have Alamo Drafthouse in your town, check their showtimes. I swear I remember seeing that they have money involved in the project.

    Alamo as a corporate entity supported the agenda on the pandemic and was the first to “get woke go broke”. Anything they had in the production pipeline is just now getting daylight as the Bankruptcy driven reorg continues.

    The granddaughter providing the narration was key to getting the Prog money and mainstream exposure. Billy Crystal and Bob Costas interviews were probably another price the director accepted to get the film made.

  2. Greg Norton says:

    And on top of all the other stuff, my rent house tenants have finally found a home of their own, and will be moving out at the end of the month. So I’ll have a round of fix it up and clean it up to go through there as we look for new renters.

    The wife’s nephew is continuing to look at doing rental houses funded on borrowed money and military housing allowance.

    He may get lucky with the first house based on what I saw of the town yesterday, but the economy here is totally dependent on that big DoD money. And being lucky once is dangerous, especially if Austin is the next gamble.

  3. Craig says:

    For Paul,

    To get a better rate on your savings, go take a look at TreasuryDirect.gov

    I have been buying 4-week Treasury Bills.  The rates are good right now.  If you wish, you can have them roll over when they mature.  You have access to your savings every four weeks.  There are longer maturities if you wish, or you could stash a little at different maturities.  I have two staggered so one matures every two weeks.

    https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_bill_rates&field_tdr_date_value_month=202307

  4. Bob Sprowl says:

    Craig:  Thanks for the link.

    How do you purchase Treasury Bills?  Are the proceeds taxable by either the Feds or states?

  5. dcp says:

     How do you purchase Treasury Bills?

    https://www.treasurydirect.gov/marketable-securities/

    Are the proceeds taxable by either the Feds or states?

    Feds:  yes

    State & local:  I think not, but worth researching and verifying.

  6. lynn says:

    78 F on the West side of the Brazos River.  Also 100 % humidity.

    Wasn’t it Davy Crockett who said if he owned Texas, he would rent out Texas and live in Hell ?

    We have guests and everyone is getting ready for church.  The septic sprinklers are running …

  7. dcp says:

    No.  That quote is attributed to Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan.

  8. Ray Thompson says:

    The mother of one of the students from the high school, the student being a softball player so I know the family, is having a double lung transplant this morning. Started at 7:00 AM and will take 10 hours. I cannot imagine how difficult the recovery will be from such a procedure. I also have much sympathy for the family who lost a loved one that will allow another person to live. Prayers for all parties involved.

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  9. ech says:

    Wasn’t it Davy Crockett who said if he owned Texas, he would rent out Texas and live in Hell ?

    After losing a congressional election in TN, he said “You may all go to hell and I will go to Texas.”

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  10. Nick Flandrey says:

    There are many things to recommend Texas, but the weather isn’t one of them.   Of course most places have some sort of weather issues.    San Diego is the only place I’ve ever lived that had great weather.   The BEST weather in the whole US as far as I can tell.   And even then people would bitch about the foggy mornings.

    Back woke me up this am, so I’m putting the coffee on.

    It looks kinda overcast out there today.  I’m sure it’s humid, and going to get hotter.

    n

  11. brad says:

    San Diego is the only place I’ve ever lived that had great weather.

    Meh, boring. Give me real seasons. Hot, dry summers, snowy winters – that’s good weather. Ohio was kind of a horrible parody of that: summers were hot, but humid; winters were cold, but little or no snow. Living north of Boston, near the New Hampshire border – that was nice. Or where we are now.

    Speaking of which, it’s nearing 90F today and tomorrow, which is crazy warm for here, at our altitude…

  12. Alan says:

    >> I also have much sympathy for the family who lost a loved one that will allow another person to live.

    If you’re an organ donor, make sure your wishes are known. Some states include the information on your DL. 

  13. Ray Thompson says:

    I am an organ donor, indicated on my license. Take what they want, burn the rest, toss the ashes in the river. Although at my age there is probably not much they would want. Of course I don’t know how much stuff they can harvest from old bodies. Certainly more than of which I am aware.

  14. Alan says:

    >> San Diego is the only place I’ve ever lived that had great weather.   The BEST weather in the whole US as far as I can tell.

    BEST until the ‘big one’ drops it into the Pacific…hopefully their blue electoral votes go under as well. 

  15. drwilliams says:

    Getting my weekly Sunday morning hour with national treasure Lynda Carter, I was reminded that the Sara Connor Chronicles starts this evening on H and I. 

  16. SteveF says:

    If you’re an organ donor, you drop loot when you die.

  17. lpdbw says:

    Brain Death

    Modern corporate doctors are ghouls who want to cut, experiment, and prescribe, but never actually heal.

    Change my mind.

  18. dkreck says:

    Most of the California coast from SLO county south is more than pleasant most of the year. Will make exception for LA county but only because of crowding not weather. Orange county on down is also crowded but many spots worth it and very mild winters. Mexico used to be but crime is too great. I won’t even think of Baja for a visit, not even the resorts.

    BEST until the ‘big one’ drops it into the Pacific…hopefully their blue electoral votes go under as well. 

    Well even Orange county has flipped. Of course I’m just a redneck from Bakersfield

  19. Ken Mitchell says:

    hopefully their blue electoral votes go under as well. 

    This is Cacafornia, where the dead ALWAYS vote Democrat. Which is how, and why, Orange County flipped;  ballot harvesting is legal there now. Every nursing home votes 100% Dem, because the actual residents never see a ballot. 

  20. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, 99F in the shade.   So I cut the grass.   It’s been a month, so it was too long for the mower.   Weedwhacked the whole back yard.   I’ll give it a day or two then mow to even everything out.   Cooled down, took a shower, cut my hair.   I’m not going back outside today if I can help it.

    There’s plenty on my list inside, where it’s air conditioned.

    n

  21. Craig says:

    Purchasing Treasury Bills

    Set up an account and link it to your bank account.  I have mine linked to my credit union checking account.  You select the length you desire (4-week for example) and the amount you wish to purchase.  On the issue date a withdrawal will be taken from your account minus the interest.  

    For example: I purchased a 4-week Treasury Bill in the amount of $5,000 with an auction date of 5/11/2023.  The issue date date was 5/16/2023 and on that date $4,978.20 was withdrawn from my account.  On 6/13/2023 the $5,000 was deposited into my account.  The interest I earned was the $21.80 difference.  At the end of the year I print out a Form 1099 for my US Income Tax.

    https://www.treasurydirect.gov/marketable-securities/treasury-bills/

  22. paul says:

    Thanks Craig. 

    This looks easier than driving into Austin to the bank and pays more.

  23. paul says:

    Big River delivered a package at about 3:30PM.  Depending on the t-meter, it’s 107F or 101F. It’s a beautiful sunny day.  Just no breeze.

    I asked if he’d like a bottle of water, it’s in the fridge and it’s cold.  I think I made his day. 

  24. SteveF says:

    If I’m sitting on the front porch (computer, for my day job) or am working up front (cars, trees, lawn; always something) when a delivery is made, I’ll usually ask if he needs to use the bathroom. Usually the offer is declined but sometimes there’s a “Really? Thanks! I thought I was going to die before my next break.” On hot days I’ll also offer chilled water but they always have a water container in the truck … which most likely contributes to needing a bathroom.

  25. Alan says:

    >> If you’re an organ donor, make sure your wishes are known. 

    And donate a pint of blood if you’re able.

  26. Ray Thompson says:

    And donate a pint of blood if you’re able.

    I donate a pint of blood about every 4 months. I have been doing that for the last 40 years. Let’s see, that works out to about 15 gallons of blood. Sometimes I have donated more frequently when the blood bank contacts me because they are short of O+. I have small scars on my left and right arm where the needle has punctured.

    Over the years the number, and types of questions that get asked has grown. Transplants, tattoos, sexual habits, foreign visits (especially England) are all on the list. Brain tissue transplants (who knew?). Prison time (I guess for possible anal visits). Visits with prostitutes. Medical conditions of which I have never heard and can hardly pronounce. Drugs in the same category as being hardly able to pronounce. Contact with people with certain conditions (as if the people will tell me).

    The next donation I will get grilled because of my recent trip to Europe. Non of the countries are on the list that I am aware except maybe the Czech Republic.

    The blood gets rigorously tested. Along with the donated pint the vampires pull off a couple of small bags and a couple of vials of the red fluid.

  27. paul says:

    I’ve asked the ladies if they need to a trip to the bathroom.  

    I’ve told the guys to just get out of sight of the house and you can whip it out to water the grass.  That usually gets a laugh.  Like they are not doing that already….  

  28. SteveF says:

    Friends Without Benefits: at Daily Pundit or Cold Fury

  29. SteveF says:

    I stopped donating blood to the Red Cross more than twenty years ago. There were repeated paperwork screwups which resulted in thousands of units needing to be destroyed each time. And, a week after each incident being reported in the local paper (tells you how long ago it was, that the printed newspaper was a useful way to find out what was happening), I’d get a call begging me to go in and donate because of the critical shortage. Well, gee, if you retards could keep your records straight, maybe there wouldn’t be a critical shortage.

    I continued to donate blood through a local hospital which sent a van around to some larger workplaces. Stopped that, and scratched out the organ donor checkbox on my driver’s license, after I learned about the economics model of the organ and blood trade in the US. Bottom line, a lot of bottom lines look really good because of guilting people in donating. Everyone in the process benefits, whether a nurse being paid to draw blood, a surgeon being paid to put an organ into someone, an organization being paid for the organ or blood which they pulled out of a donor, or a patient receiving blood or an organ to keep him alive.

    Everyone benefits except the donor or his heirs.

    I’d be willing to donate my organs on death if some fair market value would be added to my estate for my heirs to then fight over. That payment is not legal in the US. (Unless federal law changed in the last couple years without my noticing.) Why should everyone except my heirs benefit from me no longer needing my heart and liver? (Both in excellent condition, by the way.) Screw that. Refuse to prop up the crooked system.

  30. Ken Mitchell says:

    paul says:

    I asked if he’d like a bottle of water, it’s in the fridge and it’s cold.  I think I made his day. 

    Each morning, I put a small styrofoam chest with ice blocks and a few water bottles by the front door with a sign saying “Cold Water – Help Yourself”.  We’ve told the Amazon, UPS and FedEx drivers that if they’re in the area, stop by and grab one even if you’re not making a delivery.  And when it’s really hot, I’ll put frozen water bottles in the mailbox for the mailman to take. 

  31. paul says:
    I’d be willing to donate my organs on death if some fair market value would be added to my estate for my heirs to then fight over. 

    And that right there is why I stopped the organ donor thing on my driver’s license. 

    Edit to add….

    You know that you can buy a thing at the auto parts store. And install the part yourself. Take the car to a shop, they buy the same part and charge you double.

    So, if my parts are worth $x amount, my heirs should be paid.

  32. Lynn says:

    “Milloy in the WSJ, Beware the Heat Hype: The Misleading Madness of ‘Mean Global Temperatures’”

       https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/07/09/milloy-in-the-wsj-beware-the-heat-hype-the-misleading-madness-of-mean-global-temperatures/

    “Anyone who follows the climate debate closely, would have heard the recent announcement that July 3 and 4 were allegedly the ‘hottest days ever’. This claim, it seems, is as solid as quicksand, built on a shaky foundation of guesswork and political objectives.”

    “As Steve Milloy astutely highlights in his recent Wall Street Journal article, “Hottest Days Ever? Don’t Believe It,” the recorded average global temperature of 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit for these dates was derived from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. As Milloy notes, this system “relies on a mix of satellite temperature data and computer-model guesstimation to calculate estimates of temperature.””

    “The issue of precision (or rather, the lack thereof) in temperature data is another issue Milloy brings to the fore. An alarming 96% of U.S. temperature stations reportedly produce corrupted data, and about 92% of them have a margin of error of nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit. So, next time you hear about a 1-degree rise in global temperatures, remember that the margin of error itself exceeds the supposed increase!”

    So, the new “hottest temperature ever” is a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess).

  33. SteveF says:

    So, the new “hottest temperature ever” is a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess).

    Nonsense.

    Science + Politics = Politics

    “Hottest temperature ever” is a PWAG.

  34. Nick Flandrey says:

    I haven’t ever been able to donate blood.   When I tried, I was rejected for allergies, iirc.  Might have been for OTC drug use, which was related to bad allergies.

    I’m an organ donor because it does save lives (no matter that someone else is profiting), and I always figured I’d go out stupidly, so maybe that would make up for it… haven’t reconsidered that position despite life changes.  Maybe I should.

    Been just vegging out, not working.   Brain needs some time to chill, I guess.

    n

  35. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    “So, the new “hottest temperature ever” is a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess).”

    @SteveF

    So, the new “hottest temperature ever” is a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess).

    Nonsense.

    Science + Politics = Politics

    “Hottest temperature ever” is a PWAG.

    Easier to save the acronyms and call it what it is: scam

  36. Alan says:

    Just proving himself again as just another slimy politician…

    On Friday, NBC News reported that DeSantis had apparently deceived the public about his June 5 decision to send Florida emergency support personnel to assist with a building collapse in Davenport, Iowa. 

    Once positioned by Republican strategists as the GOP’s most effective Trump alternative, the DeSantis campaign is revealing a candidate who has more in common with Mitt Romney than Ronald Reagan.

    At the time, DeSantis used the tragedy to frame himself as a governor willing to take decisive action to help struggling states. In reality, DeSantis’ team had known for nearly 10 hours that Iowa officials no longer needed Florida’s help. That inconvenient truth didn’t stop DeSantis from taking credit for his nonexistent emergency response — and billing Florida taxpayers nearly $500,000 to send three unneeded specialists to Davenport.

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  37. drwilliams says:

    The winner of Miss Netherlands 2023 is a man

    https://hotair.com/karen-townsend/2023/07/09/the-winner-of-miss-netherlands-2023-is-a-man-n563401

    “You look like a 12-year old Dutch Girl”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI2GVcjXXI8

    language warning: Canadian English

  38. drwilliams says:

    @Alan

    from the second link:

    Parker said by email that she was unsure of the exact time the phone call canceling the mission went out, but she said it was made “early that morning.”

    In his email on June 5, Sanchez, the Miami official, said two people from Florida had left the state before they got word that the mission had been canceled. 

    “I have 2 of my guys already flying out there,” he wrote. “We are in agreement that they will arrive and get in touch with the [point of contact] over there to find out if they have any immediate needs. At that point, if there is nothing else, we will coordinate to bring them back.”

    He said a third official “won’t be flying out.”

    DeSantis communications director Jeremy Redfern said “you are wrong” when he was asked whether DeSantis or his staff knew the mission had been canceled when DeSantis sent his tweet.

    Not sure where you were quoting from, but the second link’s first two paragraphs present a fundamentally dishonest account that is contradicted later in the same article, as excerpted above.

    Iowa Governor Reynolds specifically asked for help from Wisconsin and Florida. At the time three people were missing–the assistance requests were cancelled when the people were found to have died (first mysterious omission from MSNBC regardng timeline for Wisconsin request).

    Wisconsin sent two people. It’s not clear from the article when they left (second mysterious omission from MSNBC regardng timeline for Wisconsin request),

    Florida had two people in the air when the cancellation was received, and stopped a third person from traveling. 

    Both Wisconsin and Florida were willing and did in fact start people to Iowa, but then things changed and the mission was canceled. 

    This Tweet from DeSantis account was later in the day (8:04PM), but it was still accurate:

    At the request of Iowa, I’ve directed FLSERT and FDOT

    to deploy personnel to assist in the ongoing recovery in Davenport following the recent building collapse. We are proud to help the people of Iowa.

    although it could have been updated to reflect the cancellation. Why do I suspect that the message was drafted and in the queue for the p.r. person to post sometime before that? In any case 

    “DeSantis communications director Jeremy Redfern said “you are wrong” when he was asked whether DeSantis or his staff knew the mission had been canceled when DeSantis sent his tweet.”

    and there is absolutely nothing the NBC has dredged up to contradict that denial.

    As far as costs:

    Original cost estimates for the mission were $300,000, a number that jumped to $472,431 by June 4.

    Two days later, John Kohnke, an official in the office of Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, emailed emergency management officials that reimbursement cost estimates would again have to be adjusted, because the mission was “cut short and/or canceled.”

    Parker said Iowa does not yet have a request from Florida for the reimbursement of any costs. Collins said Thursday afternoon that Florida would “request reimbursements.”

    So presumably the original cost revised estimates included travel expenses and boots on the ground time. Adjustment for “cut short and/or canceled.” would seem to imply revision considerably downward, yet NBC chose to round the original number upward. Sooprize.

    The events in this “story” took place in less than 24 hours. I will wager a nickel (or five pre-1982 copper rich cents) that NBC spent 10x more time and manpower trying to spin this as a hit piece,

    My Rating for NBC: 10 each steaming meadow muffins, 5 each from Iowa and 5 each from Florida.

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  39. Greg Norton says:

    This looks easier than driving into Austin to the bank and pays more.

    Texell Credit Union gives decent CD rates and they offer an option to open an account online.

    They have a branch near Cedar Park and another on 29 not far from the Inner Space Cavern tourist trap in Georgetown.

    Except for I Bonds, Treasuries haven’t kept pace with inflation in a decade. Their advantage as liquidity instruments is negated by the FDIC effectively nationalizing the banks by pledging to backstop all deposits after Silicon Valley Bank melted down.

    Warren Buffett keeps a $100 Billion or so worth of Treasuries, but that’s a political investment and buys him a lot of favors.

    Cough … Keystone Pipeline … cough.

  40. Greg Norton says:

    Just proving himself again as just another slimy politician…

    DeSantis’ Kenny Boys need to be discovered now. Instead, the national media are obsessed with portraying him as Trump Lite again now that the Reedy Creek legal mess turned out to be just another symptom of much bigger problems at The Mouse House.

    The Florida media is still pining for the meth head and his race pimp puppet master. Florida Camelot.

  41. Greg Norton says:

    I continued to donate blood through a local hospital which sent a van around to some larger workplaces. Stopped that, and scratched out the organ donor checkbox on my driver’s license, after I learned about the economics model of the organ and blood trade in the US. Bottom line, a lot of bottom lines look really good because of guilting people in donating. Everyone in the process benefits, whether a nurse being paid to draw blood, a surgeon being paid to put an organ into someone, an organization being paid for the organ or blood which they pulled out of a donor, or a patient receiving blood or an organ to keep him alive.

    The organ transplant harvesting group in Tampa has one of the choicest pieces of real estate in the city for their offices and lab facilities. I’ve never checked the organ donor box on my drivers license.

  42. Greg Norton says:

    Survived the flight up to Nashville yesterday and the “Cannonball Run”-pace trip return trip today.

    @Ray – I had to stop for gas and find something to eat in Little Rock. Everything you say about Tennessee goes triple for Arkansas.

    Even Buc-ee’s doesn’t bother.

    Which reminds me – Buc-ee’s management seems to have their undies in a bunch about this place. 

    https://www.abbottstravelcenter.com/

    Driving down through Dallas today, I noticed that the billboard for the Abbott Travel Center is surrounded by three Buc-ee’s billboards, and yet another of the Beaver’s stores is under construction in Hillsboro, just 60 miles from the big Temple Buc-ee’s.

    Abbott accepts trucks pulling into the lot, but I don’t see that as a competitive advantage. Is someone big behind what seems like a prototype?

    Central Texas has a lot of similar stores, and Buc-ees is usally much cooler in their approach to alternatives.

  43. Alan says:

    >> And when it’s really hot, I’ll put frozen water bottles in the mailbox for the mailman to take. 

    Which is a federal crime…hmm…”Hey Hunter, would you please drop off this glassine packet in the mailbox on your way out.”

  44. Alan says:

    >> So, the new “hottest temperature ever” is a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess).

    “Hottest temperature ever” is a PWAG.

    Which in no way should be confused with a PAWG

  45. Alan says:

    >> I’m an organ donor because it does save lives (no matter that someone else is profiting)

    My position as well…though I’ll never know for sure what happens.

  46. Greg Norton says:

    Other travel notes:

    I took a suitcase of old DVDs and CDs to McKay’s, went through the selling process, and I walked out of the store with just a used copy of “Bachelor Party”. Best Tom Hanks movie ever.

    I’m not missing much by not having basic cable. Does History Channel run  anything besides “Skinwalker Ranch”?

    GPS in the Bellevue section of Nashville was blacked out this morning. Maybe the “Skinwalker Ranch” group should head down to Tennessee to investigate.

    Publix is quickly assimilating Tennessee. I didn’t see alternatives in Nashville, and I know from the trip last year that they dominate Chattanooga. No Guava pastries at Tennessee Publix stores, however.

    I like Publix, but, geesh. Florida went full Borg a decade ago. Resistance is futile. 

  47. Alan says:

    >> I’m an organ donor because it does save lives (no matter that someone else is profiting)

    For living kidney donors, the altruistic donor chain is an interesting concept.

  48. Alan says:

    >> Does History Channel run  anything besides “Skinwalker Ranch”?

    One of the wife’s favorites: American Pickers.

  49. Alan says:

    >> I like Publix, but, geesh. Florida went full Borg a decade ago. Resistance is futile. 

    I remember ours in Tampa was always clean and organized. The employee (owners) happier than ‘a camel on Wednesday.’

  50. Lynn says:

    “More Information”

        https://areaocho.com/more-information/

    “As an addendum to my earlier post on the number of firearms in the US:”

    “In 1997, the National Institute of Justice estimated that there were 200 million guns in private hands. (pdf not stored on this website alert)

    “From The Trace, which is hardly a right wing source:”

    According to historical ATF data, more than 465 million firearms have been produced for the U.S. market since 1899. This figure includes imports from foreign gunmakers but excludes exports by domestic gunmakers. 

    “So the ATF thinks that 265 million firearms have been manufactured and imported since 1945? I don’t think that those numbers are accurate at all. The ATF claims that from 2013 to 2021, there were only 100 million guns introduced into the US market. We KNOW that there were 250 million NICS checks performed in that same time period. Are we to believe that the same 44 million gun owners went to a gun store and sold every gun in the nation 3 times over? That math just doesn’t add up.”

    “No one has any idea how many firearms are in the US, but I am certain that however many there are, there are far more of them than the government and press think there are.”

    And gun confiscations are the recipe for a civil war in the USA.

  51. Alan says:

    One of many to come…only the lawyers will win…

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/sarah-silverman-sues-meta-openai-233507963.html

    Comedian Sarah Silverman and two authors have filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Meta Platforms and OpenAI for allegedly using their content without permission to train artificial intelligence language models.

    The proposed class action lawsuits filed by Silverman, Richard Kadrey and Christopher Golden in San Francisco federal court Friday allege Facebook parent company Meta and ChatGPT maker OpenAI used copyrighted material to train chat bots.

    The lawsuits underscore the legal risks developers of chat bots face when using troves of copyrighted material to create apps that deliver realistic responses to user prompts.

    Silverman, Kadrey and Golden allege Meta and OpenAI used their books without authorization to develop their so-called large language models, which their makers pitch as powerful tools for automating tasks by replicating human conversation.

  52. Greg Norton says:

    >> Does History Channel run  anything besides “Skinwalker Ranch”?

    One of the wife’s favorites: American Pickers.

    We went to Antiques Archeology in Nashville last year.

    I didn’t know if the show was still on the air. I remember several controversies running simultaneously at the time, when I pulled up information about the location on the Internet.

    If you are a fan, the store is good for about an hour or so. At least, it was at the time. Maybe they expanded.

    The place closes early, and most of the other stores/restaurants aren’t open past 5 PM … except the moonshine distillery tasting room.

    No tourist area is complete in Tennessee without a moonshine distillery. I was surprised this weekend that there are towns in the state without one.

    I spent Saturday daylight hours in Clarksville and Saturday night/Sunday morning in Bellevue/Nashville — no distillery. And, Ray, most people had all of their teeth.

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