Wed. July 19, 2023 – home sweet home

Where it is hot and humid. Because Texas. Hoping we don’t cross 100F again, but not betting against it. It was certainly that hot at the BOL yesterday.

Did some stuff before heading home, details are in yesterday’s comments. Mostly little short tasks that weren’t critical. It was too hot to do much.

Today I’ve got to get caught up here at home, make arrangements for a pickup in San Antonio, and get rid of all the trash and debris I brought home with me. It would also be nice to take a load to my auctioneer… but I’m not counting on that.

And I need to take a look at the current auctions. There is still stuff I need for the BOL and even some things for home.

I may even break down a buy some stuff directly, mainly sprinkler stuff. I need pipe, connectors, and sprinkler heads. I’ll give the auctions a chance, and even cruise ‘the bins’ once before paying retail though.

There is always something needed, and something missing. And usually something that needs replacing or updating. So get to it, stack some things.

nick

73 Comments and discussion on "Wed. July 19, 2023 – home sweet home"

  1. Greg Norton says:

    When you’re driving across country, did you ever see a perfectly straight stretch of freeway, 4-5 miles long, that seemed wider than it needed to be? There are hundreds of such places, and the concrete is thick enough to accommodate a BUFF. In the event of nuclear war, fuel trucks and ordnance trucks will be dispatched to some of those places, enough to refuel and rearm a B-52 that makes it back, to perform a second strike. 

    Anymore, that’s valuable toll lane real estate which the states are selling off to private interests.

    All roads will eventually tolled. It isn’t a question of technology but, rather, the stupidity in the management at the system integrators like where I used to work.

    Up in Temple, at the intersection of what will eventually be I-14 and I-35, the Feds and state have staged pieces of a much larger overpass beneath the freeway going back at least as long as we’ve been here, almost a decade. My guess is that the stockpile is about 60 days of non-stop construction away from being an eastbound-to-southbound ramp to accomodate M1 tanks out of Fort Hood, which will allow them to run at full speed where the right infrastructure doesn’t currently exist.

    My friends who drove M1s in the Gulf War know the tanks can go 60 MPH with the governors turned off, but it is hard on the machinery without the right roads. Fortunately, the Saudis planned ahead.

  2. Ray Thompson says:

    There are hundreds of such places, and the concrete is thick enough to accommodate a BUFF. In the event of nuclear war, fuel trucks and ordnance trucks will be dispatched to some of those places

    That is a myth. The foundation of the road would never support the weight of a B-52, or any other large plane. The runway surface at commercial airports ranges in thickness between 10 inches and 48 inches, depending on the plane load, especially in the landing zones. Freeway surfaces would barely make 10 inches in the thickest spots. The surface load on those tires is immense, especially with the impact of landing.

    Then you have the issues of signs, mileage markers, trees, even the width of a two-lane freeway is barely wide enough to accommodate such a large aircraft, making the margin of error for landing really slim. Once the plane has landed there is not enough space to service the aircraft. Added in the issue of cross winds without a choice of runway and landing direction operational use of the interstates is basically impossible.

    Smaller fighter aircraft could use the interstate. If the situation has risen to the point that the US is using fighter aircraft over their own soil, there are many more pressing concerns. Smaller, private and regional airports would be a much better option.

    Smaller planes have used interstates for emergency landings. The use by a heavy plane such as a B-52 would be nothing but a crash landing destroying the interstate and the plane. A use once, then throw everything away scenario. An empty corn field would be a better option.

  3. SteveF says:

    Yeah, at some point you have a right to defend your property with lethal force.

    Not in NYS, you don’t. A downstate judge (a federal judge for the Southern District of New York, IIRC) even found that you have a duty to retreat from your own home rather than use force to defend yourself. In fact, you have a duty to retreat even if that would mean leaving your children at an intruder’s mercy.

    I haven’t heard about this finding being reversed.

    This state has been turned into a turd bucket. If some of my coffin-dodging kin would just get on with it, I’d be able to get my departure plans in order. Alternatively, if Kim Jung-Un would just get on with nuking NYC and environs, I’m sure everyone would greatly appreciate it.

  4. Greg Norton says:

    “About 126,000 total were released, indicating an infection rate of 1 in 50 migrant children.”

    What are these people thinking ?

    Selective enforcement of the laws covering Tuberculosis which, in most cases, require proven cases to remain at home until cleared by a test.

    Unlike Covid, centures of public health practice are not ignored with regard to TB, but, most of the time, law enforcement has better things to do than check on quarantine orders.

  5. dkreck says:

    In local news

    Million $ zero emission bus destroyed

    https://bakersfield.pressreader.com/article/281556590306702

    safe indeed

  6. Greg Norton says:

    safe indeed

    As Dr. Pournelle was fond of saying, “Hydrogen wants to be free.”

  7. SteveF says:

    zero emission outsourced emissions bus

    Edited for honesty.

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    89F in the driveway, still in the shade. 

    Kids stayed up playing Zelda so the house is quiet.

    Mmmm coffee and quiet.

    Getting caught up on mail, email, auctions, and recreational web reading.   

    Things are not getting better.   Things are getting worse.  Society and social cohesion continue to degrade.   I’m with Peter, long past the point where smart/prudent people should be getting away from big cities.

    WRT shooting people, it’ll come.   Texans have the right to defend property.  Most people don’t have any legal protection.  But as our Constable pointed out, if you shoot someone for stealing your flower pots, you’ll be judged by a jury of HIS peers.

    Stores will abandon the areas WROL.   The  thieves and cartels will move in, set up bodegas, sales in empty parking lots, etc.   Import the third world, live in third world conditions.

    Start practicing to live in those conditions.  I’ve posted several times about how.

    n

  9. SteveF says:

    re defense of self, others, or property, if you kill everyone, most of your problems go away.

    Sooner or later, most people come to accept The Wisdom of Steve. You might as well make it sooner.

  10. Lynn says:

    In local news

    Million $ zero emission bus destroyed

    https://bakersfield.pressreader.com/article/281556590306702

    safe indeed

    Welcome to the future.  Constant hydrogen fires.

  11. Lynn says:

    WRT shooting people, it’ll come.   Texans have the right to defend property.  Most people don’t have any legal protection.  But as our Constable pointed out, if you shoot someone for stealing your flower pots, you’ll be judged by a jury of HIS peers.

    My best friend and brother-in-law was murdered here in Houston in April 1982.  Three months after I married his sister.  He was the cook over at the Pizza Hut on south Post Oak at Fondren.  He cashed his $65 paycheck in the till and put the $65 in his pocket.  Two amish guys fresh in from Detroit just a week earlier followed him out and then ran his car off the road with their car. They shot him in the back with a .357.  He was still alive but bled out right after the cops got there.  One of the guys was still there trying  to start his car when the cops got there, he did not know about the clutch being depressed to start the car.  

    The Fort Bend County DA called it a drug deal gone bad since my BIL had pot in his car and plea bargained the guys to 18 months in jail.  The ADA later got fired for stealing money from the crime victims fund.  About two years ago, the new democrat majority here in Fort Bend County made that same ADA a district judge without an election.  Then the ADA committed suicide after the local newspaper revealed that he was fired from being an ADA.

    Anything goes wrong or weird, shoot and shoot to kill.  I will worry about the jury later.  The scum will shoot you for the fun of it.  My BIL told the cops that the two guys shot him because he gave them the $65 and his car and was walking away.

    Wow.  41 years later and I still get upset.  I miss him terribly, he was closer to me than my own brothers.  So he smoked pot, who cares.

    12
  12. Alan says:

    Posted on the wrong day…DeSantis’ recent interview with CNN…

    https://www.ttgnet.com/journal/2023/07/17/mon-july-17-2023-new-week-same-work/#comment-263706

  13. Alan says:

    Hearing regarding when to start Trump’s ‘documents’ case federal trial…

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/18/trump-criminal-case-judge-hears-bid-to-delay-trial.html

    • Judge Aileen Cannon appeared skeptical to Donald Trump’s push to delay his federal criminal trial beyond the election of November 2024.
    • The judge, whom Trump appointed when he was president, also didn’t appear sympathetic to the special counsel’s desire to start the trial in December.

    I presume either side will appeal if they are not happy with the judge’s ruling.

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    1
  14. Lynn says:

    WRT shooting people, it’ll come.   Texans have the right to defend property.  Most people don’t have any legal protection.  But as our Constable pointed out, if you shoot someone for stealing your flower pots, you’ll be judged by a jury of HIS peers.

    He may have stolen his peers flower pots too, think about that.

    Is Texas really the only state where you have the right to defend property ?  That is unreal.

    Of course there is the Joe Horn controversy where he defended the neighbor’s property over in Pasadena.  I have no idea how much he spent defending himself.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Horn_shooting_controversy

  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    I believe that where Joe Horn went wrong is by running his mouth …   anything you are justified doing for yourself in Texas, you are justified doing for someone else, if you have reason to believe that person would have wanted you to.

    Horn said something like “I’m gonna go over there and kill that SOB” iirc.

    n

  16. Alan says:

    >> Sooner or later, most people come to accept The Wisdom of Steve. You might as well make it sooner.

    And don’t forget to send him a dollar.

  17. Greg Norton says:

    I presume either side will appeal if they are not happy with the judge’s ruling.

    I remember reading that the judge already did Trump a huge favor by moving the venue to her alternative courtroom in Fort Pierce/Martin County. Chances are very good that Trial Science will be able to pick a more reasonable jury than would otherwise be available at the main courthouse in Miami.

    Martin County is still very rural.

  18. Lynn says:

    Horn said something like “I’m gonna go over there and kill that SOB” iirc.

    He also told the guys to drop and they did not.  They, according to him, said “we are going to come back tomorrow old man and take care of you”.   That made any response justified to me.  And to his neighbors too, they nobilled him.

  19. CowboyStu says:

    WRT the H2 bus blowing up:  I have as Dwight Yoakum” sings, “Walked The Streets of Bakersfield”. 

    But, I will never walk them again.

  20. Lynn says:

    “Fran Drescher on Bob Iger: He Says “We’re Unrealistic When He’s Making $78,000 a Day””

        https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/bernie-sanders-fran-drescher-actors-strike-sag-1235538911/

    “In an interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders, the SAG-AFTRA president said of the Disney chief: “He stuck his foot in it so bad that you notice none of the other CEOs are opening their mouths.””

    I would like to make $29 million per year.  I suspect just about everyone in the USA would.

  21. SteveF says:

    I would like to make $29 million per year.  I suspect just about everyone in the USA would.

    Let’s see if Bidenflation goes full Weimar. $29M might be minimum wage by this time next year.

  22. Lynn says:

    “Gigglesnort!!! – ticked off edition”

        https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/07/gigglesnort-ticked-off-edition.html

    Oh my goodness, never had a tick there.

  23. Lynn says:

    I would like to make $29 million per year.  I suspect just about everyone in the USA would.

    Let’s see if Bidenflation goes full Weimar. $29M might be minimum wage by this time next year.

    2029 is looking very favorable for the year the Dollar goes south in a hurry.

  24. Lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: Changing a Light Bulb

        https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/07/19

    How in the world did Pig talk Grace into that ?

    Just yesterday, Pig got an expiration date from Sarah:

       https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/07/18

  25. Lynn says:

    “Microsoft 365 Copilot: Coming to Office apps near you for $30 per user per month”

        https://www.directionsonmicrosoft.com/blog/2023-07-18/microsoft-365-copilot-coming-office-apps-near-you-30-user-month

    Clippy is back !  And this time he is smarter !

  26. Greg Norton says:

    “In an interview with Sen. Bernie Sanders, the SAG-AFTRA president said of the Disney chief: “He stuck his foot in it so bad that you notice none of the other CEOs are opening their mouths.””

    I would like to make $29 million per year.  I suspect just about everyone in the USA would.

    The Nanny vs. The Weatherman.

    Iger ran Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm into the ground for $29 Million/year.

  27. Lynn says:

    “Watch Every Tesla Model Ford A Deep River In England”

       https://insideevs.com/news/676393/tesla-rufford-ford-water-crossing/

    “A river crossing in Nottinghamshire has become somewhat of a car-gazing spot.”

    Oh my.

  28. SteveF says:

    Iger ran Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm into the ground for $29 Million/year.

    Don’t forget to give Kathleen Kennedy credit for her efforts in this accomplishment.

    Ray, Nick, and some others down thataway might be able to make and use something like this: https://gab.com/causticbob/posts/110721006924348686

  29. Ken Mitchell says:

    I told my wife about the hydrogen-powered bus in Bakersfield, and she said “It exploded, right?”  I asked, “Why did you say that?”

    Her reply was “D’oh! Hindenburg, right? Did nobody learn ANYTHING?”  

    One of the reasons I married her 42 years ago is that she has always been smarter than I am.

  30. MrAtoz says:

    “Fran Drescher on Bob Iger: He Says “We’re Unrealistic When He’s Making $78,000 a Day””

    Ever hear of a free market, Fran? Oh, wait, known commie. Just like Bernie.

  31. paul says:
    Ray, Nick, and some others down thataway might be able to make and use something like this

    Yeah.  No.  By time you get it sealed up enough to keep out the exhaust fumes…. and the extra weight on the mower making it slower, nope.  If the neighbors have a problem that I haven’t mowed here, a mile from the paved road, they are welcome to mow.  With their machinery.  I’ll supply the gasoline.

  32. Greg Norton says:

    “A river crossing in Nottinghamshire has become somewhat of a car-gazing spot.”

    Oh my.

    “Who’s the U-Boat commander?”

    Tony’s own customers are his worst enemy.

  33. Lynn says:

    Ray, Nick, and some others down thataway might be able to make and use something like this: https://gab.com/causticbob/posts/110721006924348686

    One of my neighbors has an air conditioned deer stand with a generator.  I don’t have enough guts to ask him if the deer like the generator noise.

  34. Ken Mitchell says:

    Lynn says:

    One of my neighbors has an air conditioned deer stand with a generator.  I don’t have enough guts to ask him if the deer like the generator noise.

    Deer react to CHANGES, not constant noises. The welfare deer who come by every afternoon to eat my corn aren’t bothered by my air conditioners. 

  35. Lynn says:

    “Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, 2)” by Martha Wells
    https://www.amazon.com/Artificial-Condition-Murderbot-Martha-Wells/dp/1250186927?tag=ttgnet-20/

    Book number two of a seven book series of science fiction novellas and novels. I reread the well printed and well bound hardcover novella published by Tor in 2018 that I bought new from Amazon. The first novella in the series, “All Systems Red”, won the 2018 Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus awards. The series won the 2021 Hugo for Best Series. I have all six books in the series and have ordered the seventh book which is to be released in November 2023.

    Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and severely modified human head. There is a human brain in there but it is controlled by the AIs embedded in its genderless torso. There are lungs, there is a blood mixture with a synthetic, there is human skin over the entire body, there is a face, there is hair on the head and eyebrows. Everything else is machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched with electricity as there is no stomach or intestines. But, there are arteries and veins to keep the skin and brain alive. All of the major arteries and veins have clamps to stop bleeding in case of damage. There is a MedSystem computer with an AI, a HubUnit computer with an AI, and a governor module that can force the SecUnit to follow orders using pain sensors in the brain. It has a energy gun in each arm and several cameras, all directly wired to the brain. The SecUnit can sustain severe damage to everything but the head and still survive.

    Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as episodes of “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon” and “Lineages of the Sun”. Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface with humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it sees fit to do so. 

    Murderbot is on the run from its new owner and has been called a rogue SecUnit by the news feeds. It has been hitching rides with AI Bot Cargo and Transport spaceships by sharing it’s 35,000 hours of downloaded media. It hitched a ride with an AI ship carrying cargo named ART that had an incredibly powerful AI. At first, the AI was hostile and then turned into a friend, helping Murderbot to disguise itself by modifying its body structure and helped Murderbot take a dangerous security job at the moon where it reputedly killed 57 miners.

    Quotes from the book:
    1. “Sometimes people do things to you that you can’t do anything about. You just have to survive it and go on.”
    2. “So they made us smarter. The anxiety and depression were side effects.”

    Warning: There is violence in the book. Murderbot also has a occasional potty mouth. Books one through four are a series of novellas, not regular length books. There is a short story “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” between books four and five. Book five is a regular length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is a full length novel due out in November 2023. You can buy collections of the first four hardbacks or all six currently available hardbacks. 
    https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/

    The author has a website at:
    https://www.marthawells.com/

    My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
    Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (22,992 reviews)

  36. CowboyStu says:

    Yes, when the Hindenburg blew up they switched the anti-gravity fluid from H2 to He.  But remember neither of those was a fuel.

    However, remember that they say those buses are sending out clean emissions.  Yes, just like the Tesla cars where the electricity comes from local power plants where they burn CH4 and send C02 up.  The H2 for these buses is made from CH4 (steam reforming) and that also send CO2 up.

    Outside of that the proponents are eitther liars or too stupid to know chemistry and thermodynamics.

    Lynn?

  37. Nick Flandrey says:

    THe first skid steer they sent me was fully enclosed and air conditioned.   The second one was not.    If you aren’t climbing in and out, the ac makes a long hard day a little bit easier. 

    n

    BTW, they took it because it was promised to a guy who uses a skid steer to mow a property every few weeks.   With a skid steer, the mower is in front.   Imagine that without an enclosed cab…

  38. SteveF says:

    With a skid steer, the mower is in front.   Imagine that without an enclosed cab…

    Eh, no problem. Wear a full-head gas mask and nothing else. When you’re done, hose yourself off when you hose off the skid steer. Boom, mission accomplished.

  39. Greg Norton says:

    Ever hear of a free market, Fran? Oh, wait, known commie. Just like Bernie.

    I kid about “The Nanny”, but she is much smarter than Bernie, with more complicated political views.

    Drescher has been advocating for Hollywood to lift the vaccine mandates for a while, believing the jabs to be a personal choice.

    The horror!

  40. Lynn says:

    Yes, when the Hindenburg blew up they switched the anti-gravity fluid from H2 to He.  But remember neither of those was a fuel.

    However, remember that they say those buses are sending out clean emissions.  Yes, just like the Tesla cars where the electricity comes from local power plants where they burn CH4 and send C02 up.  The H2 for these buses is made from CH4 (steam reforming) and that also send CO2 up.

    Outside of that the proponents are eitther liars or too stupid to know chemistry and thermodynamics.

    That Green H2 is made from LOTS and LOTS of electricity from unicorn farts and the electrolysis of water.  I have no idea what they do with O2.

    There are about nine different types of hydrogen now.  Funny, they all have the same composition, H2.  Green Hydrogen, black hydrogen, etc, etc, etc.

        https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/hydrogen-colour-spectrum

    BTW, there is a federal subsidy of $3.00 per kg of hydrogen when you make it from unicorn farts (clean electricity) and electrolysis of water. That came in the Inflation Reduction Act which has ballooned to a cost of $1.2 trillion.

  41. SteveF says:

    but she is much smarter than Bernie

    Damning with faint praise there…

  42. Alan says:

    >> Nothing is under the table. The Gecko is open that he will apply for grants from the Federal Government under the Inflation Reduction Act to build charging stations at all of the Pilot/Flying-J locations.

    The charging standard supported really doesn’t matter to him. 

    What’s unknown is if he’s still planing to control the Texas electricity market and eventually make another pass at owning Oncor and, thus, effectively, ERCOT.

    Ruth’s Chris? Buffett?

    Gorat’s in Omaha. T-bone with onion rings (drained twice) and a Cherry Coke. The Billionare’s Blue Plate.

    I wouldn’t expect Warren to show up in person…he seems more the Swanson TV dinner kind of guy.

  43. Greg Norton says:

    but she is much smarter than Bernie

    Damning with faint praise there…

    Drescher is very smart.

  44. Alan says:

    >> Nothing is under the table. The Gecko is open that he will apply for grants from the Federal Government under the Inflation Reduction Act to build charging stations at all of the Pilot/Flying-J locations.

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/06/27/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-driving-forward-on-convenient-reliable-made-in-america-national-network-of-electric-vehicle-chargers/

    • The United States is on track to install a network of 1.2 million public chargers by 2030, keeping up with rapidly growing demand for EVs.
    • Of the 1.2 million charging ports, about 1 million are expected to be Level 2 charging, providing convenient, low-cost charging to meet a variety of daily needs, with the remaining charging ports being DC fast chargers that are critical to driver confidence and longer distance travel.
    • Building out this public charging network will require between $31 and $55 billion of cumulative public and private capital investment and will help unlock hundreds of billions of dollars of consumer savings from reduced fuel and maintenance costs.

    So, the intent is to have 200K Level 3 (fast) charging ports by 2030. In comparison, there are ~150K gas stations in the US, each having from one to ‘n’ pumps. Wasn’t able to find a good estimate for ‘n’, but for purpose of discussion let’s assume eight, which gives us 1.2 MM gas pumps. That’s 17 percent of the current ‘stop, fill-up and go’ capacity. Most of the intended public charging capacity is assumed (I guess) to be at offices, shopping centers, restaurants, etc.

    Good thing we’ll be lowering our expectations.

  45. Greg Norton says:

    I wouldn’t expect Warren to show up in person…he seems more the Swanson TV dinner kind of guy.

    No, Gorat’s is his favorite. It usually gets a mention in the annual shareholder letter in the section about the annual meeting.

    https://goratsomaha.com/

    I had plans to stop on my second drive west in 2010, but I got lost in Missouri and had to try to make up time crossing the river at Nebraska City and driving to Lincoln.

    Lincoln was a parking lot on a Monday afternoon. I should have gone for the steak lunch.

    If I’m Cannonballing, I’m living on Chicken McNuggets and $1 Diet Cokes.

    The McDonalds in Little Rock where I stopped on the last trip was really sad. Heck, Little Rock was sad.

  46. Greg Norton says:

    So, the intent is to have 200K Level 3 (fast) charging ports by 2030. In comparison, there are ~150K gas stations in the US, each having from one to ‘n’ pumps. Wasn’t able to find a good estimate for ‘n’, but for purpose of discussion let’s assume eight, which gives us 1.2 MM gas pumps. That’s 17 percent of the current ‘stop, fill-up and go’ capacity. Most of the intended public charging capacity is assumed (I guess) to be at offices, shopping centers, restaurants, etc.

    Lost in the equation is the time factor. Even a big F150 tank is 5-10 minutes to fill where a standard EV “fast” charge is an hour.

    I wish I had taken a picture of the future at the Love’s in Three Rivers, Texas the first night of Spring Break this year. All of the hipsters heading to SxSW from Corpus Christi or points South in EVs had to stop in Three Rivers or endure range anxiety, and the Tonymobiles were lined up three deep for each charging station at 8 PM.

    That meant the last EV in each line was not leaving before 11 PM.

  47. Lynn says:

    If I’m Cannonballing, I’m living on Chicken McNuggets

    Ewww.  At least get your nuggets from Chik-fil-A.

  48. Lynn says:

    Lost in the equation is the time factor. Even a big F150 tank is 5-10 minutes to fill where a standard EV “fast” charge is an hour.

    I put 20 gallons in my F-150 this afternoon in 5 minutes.  103 freaking F.

    My cousin’s 2019 Tesla 3 can get 80% charge on his supersized battery (310 miles) in 15 minutes at a Tesla Supercharger.  And that is from zero.

  49. Ray Thompson says:

    Heck, Little Rock was sad.

    Heck, Arkansas is sad. 

    3
    1
  50. Lynn says:

    “Why NATO was Obsessed with Ukraine and is Now in a Panic”

          https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/07/why-nato-was-obsessed-ukraine-is-now-panic/

    “To answer the question in my title you need only look at two numbers — 1) Ukraine’s rank in terms of natural resources and 2) the size of Ukraine’s Army in February 2022. Since the end of World War II the West has viewed Ukraine as a critical piece on the global chess board for attacking and defeating Russia. The joint CIA/MI-6 effort to destabilize the Soviet Union, which started in 1947 with the provision of funds, weapons and training to Stefan Bandera’s organization, was crushed by the Soviets by 1952. It was shortly after that, following the death of Stalin in 1953, that Khrushchev gifted Crimea to Ukraine (1954). Was it a reward for Ukrainian assistance in wiping out the CIA-backed OUN uprising?”

    You are kidding me, this is about money ?

    Crap, I forgot the rule, it is always about money.

  51. Lynn says:

    Well, I am back to building a 64 bit version of our calculation engine.  And it is going to be the end of the 2023 at the earliest.  Replacing the 32 bit Fortran and C++ compiler that we have been using for the calculation engine since 1993 is not going well.  I am back on the Intel Fortran compiler / Microsoft C++ compiler combination for the 4th attempt since 2002.  At least this time the compiler and linker do not crash on me.

    I was trying a conversion of the Fortran code to C++ for a while but it is taking too long.  Maybe the end of 2024 at the best but it is the way we will go in the long run.  So I am back to beating the Intel Fortran compiler into submission.

    There are only two 64 bit Fortran compilers available in the Windows world now as the others failed when Intel released their Fortran compiler for free in 2022.  C++ is in ascendancy while Fortran is in descendancy.  It is the way of the world.

  52. Lynn says:

    And Visual C++ 2019 is having a hissy fit over these two lines of code:

      static const size_t size_t_max = std::numeric_limits<size_t>::max();
      static const ssize_t ssize_t_max = std::numeric_limits<ssize_t>::max();

    Sigh, the crazy never ends.

  53. mediumwave says:

    The United States is on track to install a network of 1.2 million public chargers by 2030, keeping up with rapidly growing demand for EVs.

    Pay no attention to the current glut of unsold EVs in dealers’ lots.

  54. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    helped Murderbot take a dangerous security job at the moon where it reputedly killed 57 miners.

    revise to:

    helped Murderbot take a dangerous security job at the moon where it had previously been accused of killing 57 miners.

    First version is ambiguous.

    and

    I put 20 gallons in my F-150 this afternoon in 5 minutes.  103 freaking F.

    My cousin’s 2019 Tesla 3 can get 80% charge on his supersized battery (310 miles) in 15 minutes at a Tesla Supercharger.  And that is from zero.

    The difference is that he shortens the life of his battery pack when doing so, but your F150 does not care.

  55. drwilliams says:

    Hydrogen aka H2(g):

    colorless and odorless

    wide flammability limits: 4% to 94% (in air)

    explosive range: 18 to 59% (in air)

    easy to ignite: about 1/5 the energy of natural gas

    burns with an invisible flame (emits no visible light)

    https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/513855main_ASK_41s_explosive.pdf

    I have run industrial processes using hydrogen. The safety protocols are rigorous. It collects in pockets at the ceiling, where ever it can be trapped. It also exfiltrates through tiny holes, working it’s way up in the building. 

    Many alloys in processing equipment develop a condition known as hydrogen embrittlement that severely reduces service life.

  56. Greg Norton says:

    And Visual C++ 2019 is having a hissy fit over these two lines of code:

      static const size_t size_t_max = std::numeric_limits<size_t>::max();
      static const ssize_t ssize_t_max = std::numeric_limits<ssize_t>::max();

    Clang and gcc are fine with those on Linux with the #includes:

    #include <cstddef>

    #include <limits>

    #include <sys/types.h>

    The last one was necessary for ssize_t. I didn’t even know that was a standard type.

  57. Greg Norton says:

    If I’m Cannonballing, I’m living on Chicken McNuggets

    Ewww.  At least get your nuggets from Chik-fil-A.

    Closed on Sundays. Plus McDonalds has the best syrup ratio for Diet Coke.

    Buc-ee’s is similar, but The Beaver has been cutting back on Coke products lately.

  58. Greg Norton says:

    There are only two 64 bit Fortran compilers available in the Windows world now as the others failed when Intel released their Fortran compiler for free in 2022.  C++ is in ascendancy while Fortran is in descendancy.  It is the way of the world.

    Nvidia and the Department of Energy were working on a new LLVM front end Fortran compiler a decade ago. Who knows what happened there.

    The beefy GPUs Nvidia ships to enable ChatBots have got to be attracting some attention in the nuclear simulation community.

    At some point, I need to crack the CUDA book I’ve had in the stash for a dozen years.

  59. Nick Flandrey says:

    Over 100F here today in the shade.  Yikes.

    n

  60. Nick Flandrey says:

    Can’t do structural welding in the rain or on wet steel because of the hydrogen embrittlement, according to the welders on the job I did with structural welding…

    We WILL transition to some other energy source.   We do it every time one runs out.   Wood to coal.   Whale oil to oil from the ground.  

    I don’t think it will be hydrogen, or a “renewable”.   Hydrogen wants to be free.   Renewables have their downfall right in their name, “renew” because the harvesting mechanism will end and must be renewed – see wind turbines and solar panels for the example. 

    We might have seen the replacement, but maybe not yet.

    That is, if we don’t go back to burning stuff for light and heat with cheap and widespread electricity a fading memory.

    n

  61. Greg Norton says:

    The difference is that he shortens the life of his battery pack when doing so, but your F150 does not care.

    The F150 Lightning owners manual recommends not using fast charging with the truck. Dunno about Tesla.

    I’m guessing nitpicking that point will be how Tommy Boy eventually gets around the warranty claims on the batteries. Even when charging at home, the system requires a network connection to activate the charger and send telemetry to Dearborn.

  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    @rick, did something in the post editor change?   It doesn’t change a series of [dash] characters to a rule (line across the page) like it used to.  

    Subtle, but something I used all the time.  And now it changed.

    Like google maps “send directions to your phone” option.  For some reason, it no longer lists “send text to xxx-xxx-xxxx” for me as an option anymore.  Change for no reason bugs me.  Or maybe I changed something unknowingly.  Gah.  

    n

  63. Lynn says:

    One of my neighbors has an air conditioned deer stand with a generator.  I don’t have enough guts to ask him if the deer like the generator noise.

    Deer react to CHANGES, not constant noises. The welfare deer who come by every afternoon to eat my corn aren’t bothered by my air conditioners. 

    I wonder if the deer react when he slides a gun barrel out through one of the gun ports.

  64. Lynn says:

    I believe that where Joe Horn went wrong is by running his mouth …   anything you are justified doing for yourself in Texas, you are justified doing for someone else, if you have reason to believe that person would have wanted you to.

    Horn said something like “I’m gonna go over there and kill that SOB” iirc.

    And of course, we used to have the old special law in Texas, “he deserved killing”.

  65. Lynn says:

    helped Murderbot take a dangerous security job at the moon where it reputedly killed 57 miners.

    revise to:

    helped Murderbot take a dangerous security job at the moon where it had previously been accused of killing 57 miners.

    First version is ambiguous.

    Yup.  I am a codejock, not a copy writer !

    Whatever you do, don’t read the five technical manuals and release notes that I mostly wrote in my voluminous spare time. At least other people came along and fixed a lot of the disasters.

         https://www.winsim.com/doco.html

  66. Lynn says:

    I put 20 gallons in my F-150 this afternoon in 5 minutes.  103 freaking F.

    My cousin’s 2019 Tesla 3 can get 80% charge on his supersized battery (310 miles) in 15 minutes at a Tesla Supercharger.  And that is from zero.

    The difference is that he shortens the life of his battery pack when doing so, but your F150 does not care.

    Yeah, he usually charges at the company garage 230 volt 50 amp charger for free.  Or at his house with his own 230 volt 50 amp charger in his garage. He has about 60K miles on his Tesla 3 and loves it, especially ludicrous mode with zero to 60 mph in less than three seconds. The ultimate hot rod.

  67. Lynn says:

    I have run industrial processes using hydrogen. The safety protocols are rigorous. It collects in pockets at the ceiling, where ever it can be trapped. It also exfiltrates through tiny holes, working it’s way up in the building. 

    Many alloys in processing equipment develop a condition known as hydrogen embrittlement that severely reduces service life.

    Me too.  I inspected a hydrogen fire at one of our plants for my boss and senior VP back in 1988 or so.  It was actually a two stage fire that was caused by the low pressure steam turbine shucking a 18 inch blade. The resulting vibration caused the generator hydrogen seals to fail quickly so 3,000 ft3 of hydrogen at 65 psig vented to the atmosphere and caught fire.  Before the fire went out, the DC lube oil pump came on and the broken seal oil pipe sprayed lube oil on the fire for six hours before the 1,000 deep cycle batteries run out of power.  I came back and told my boss that we were going to exceed our $30 million insurance deductible and then some.  Plus the unit was going to be down for six months to a year.  I was right, we spent $38 million fixing it.  That is back when a million dollars was real money.

    The biggest power plant in Texas, the Parish Power Plant (4,200 MW) just down the road from my office, had a nasty hydrogen fire two years ago. Unit 7 came back in a few months but unit 8 is still down and that 700 MW is very much missed right now.

    Hydrogen just wants to be free !

  68. Lynn says:

    And Visual C++ 2019 is having a hissy fit over these two lines of code:

      static const size_t size_t_max = std::numeric_limits<size_t>::max();
      static const ssize_t ssize_t_max = std::numeric_limits<ssize_t>::max();

    Clang and gcc are fine with those on Linux with the #includes:

    #include <cstddef>

    #include <limits>

    #include <sys/types.h>

    The last one was necessary for ssize_t. I didn’t even know that was a standard type.

    Here is the total freaking template file:

    #ifndef FEM_SIZE_T_HPP 
    #define FEM_SIZE_T_HPP 

    #include <limits> 
    #include <cstddef> 

    namespace fem { 

      typedef std::size_t size_t; 
      typedef std::ptrdiff_t ssize_t; 

      static const size_t size_t_max = std::numeric_limits<size_t>::max(); 
      static const ssize_t ssize_t_max = std::numeric_limits<ssize_t>::max(); 

      template <typename T> 
      struct array_of_2 
      { 
        T elems[2]; 

        array_of_2() {} 

        array_of_2(T const& i, T const& j) { elems[0] = i; elems[1] = j; } 
      }; 

      typedef array_of_2<size_t> size_t_2; 
      typedef array_of_2<ssize_t> ssize_t_2; 

    } // namespace fem 

    #endif // GUARD

    I can fix the problem by replacing the std::numeric_limits<size_t>::max(); with UINT_MAX.  But, that is a cheat.

    And one of the language lawyers on usenet said it is not the code, it is me.  It compiles just fine on his VS 2019.

  69. Lynn says:

    There are only two 64 bit Fortran compilers available in the Windows world now as the others failed when Intel released their Fortran compiler for free in 2022.  C++ is in ascendancy while Fortran is in descendancy.  It is the way of the world.

    Nvidia and the Department of Energy were working on a new LLVM front end Fortran compiler a decade ago. Who knows what happened there.

    It is … buggy.  Intel says that it is still worse than their Fortran compiler.  The Intel Fortran compiler was previously owned by Compaq and written by DEC.  It has special stuff all over it.  It was a very forgiving compiler on our DEC Vax VMS (the refrigerator).

  70. Ken Mitchell says:

    Lynn said:

    I wonder if the deer react when he slides a gun barrel out through one of the gun ports.

    Deer are spooked by sudden noises or sudden movement. If the barrel doesn’t scrape too loudly or move too obviously, I suspect that they wouldn’t notice.  But if your friend is a successful hunter, then they obviously didn’t notice. 

  71. Lynn says:

    The beefy GPUs Nvidia ships to enable ChatBots have got to be attracting some attention in the nuclear simulation community.

    The nuclear simulation community is very concerned about the Fortran language and wants to move to C++.

    “The Skills Gap For Fortran Looms Large In HPC” by Timothy Prickett Morgan 

    https://www.nextplatform.com/2023/05/02/the-skills-gap-for-fortran-looms-large-in-hpc/ 

    “A better question might be: What is going to happen to Fortran, and that is precisely the one that has been posed in a report put together by two researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, which has quite a few Fortran applications that are used as part of the US Department of Energy’s stewardship of the nuclear weapons stockpile for the United States. (We covered the hardware issues relating to managing that stockpile a few weeks ago, and now we are coincidentally talking about separate but related software issues.) The researchers who have formalized and quantified the growing concerns that many in the HPC community have talked about privately concerning Fortran are Galen Shipman, a computer scientist, and Timothy Randles, the computational systems and software environment program manager for the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program of the DOE, which funds the big supercomputer projects at the major nuke labs, which also includes Sandia National Laboratories and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.” 

    “The report they put together, called An Evaluation Of Risks Associated With Relying On Fortran For Mission Critical Codes For The Next 15 Years, can be downloaded here. It is an interesting report, particularly in that Shipman and Randles included comments from reviewers that offered contrarian views to the ones that they held, just to give a sense that this assessment for Fortran is not necessarily universal. But from our reading, it sure looks like everyone in the HPC community that has Fortran codes has some concerns at the very least.” 

    https://permalink.lanl.gov/object/tr?what=info:lanl-repo/lareport/LA-UR-23-23992

    HPC = High Performance Computing.  They have been using vector processors on refrigerant cooled Cray supercomputers for a long time.

  72. Lynn says:

    Can’t do structural welding in the rain or on wet steel because of the hydrogen embrittlement, according to the welders on the job I did with structural welding…

    We WILL transition to some other energy source.   We do it every time one runs out.   Wood to coal.   Whale oil to oil from the ground.  

    I don’t think it will be hydrogen, or a “renewable”.   Hydrogen wants to be free.   Renewables have their downfall right in their name, “renew” because the harvesting mechanism will end and must be renewed – see wind turbines and solar panels for the example. 

    We might have seen the replacement, but maybe not yet.

    That is, if we don’t go back to burning stuff for light and heat with cheap and widespread electricity a fading memory.

    I did not know that about structural welding.  That did not stop us, being steam power plants.  Everything was wet when we welded on it.  Of course, the heat from the welding dried it off quickly.  Our welders used 480 volt, 3 phase power that they knocked down to 40 ? volts at a 1,000 amps.  They looked like the Sun …

    My grandmother grew up in dry sharecropper cabin with her five brothers and sisters just 25 miles away from my house.  No electricity.  It was her job every morning to collect the coal oil lamps and clean the soot from the glass chimneys.  I sure do hope that we do not go back to that.

    I take after her daddy. He like to stay up nights and read. He spoke, read, and wrote five languages. He and my greatgrandmother emigrated from Belgium to the USA in 1903 or so. Legally.

  73. Alan says:

    >> “Watch Every Tesla Model Ford A Deep River In England”

    Ahh, “ford,” not “Ford,” got it. 

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