Hot and humid. Slightly less hot, but still. 80F to start the day is hot. An actual hot wind before the distant storm is hot. And I expect more of the same today. Maybe with the added joy of a thunderstorm. We did get a spatter of moisture from the sky late afternoon yesterday, but nothing that stuck. And we saw distant lightning with strong winds while watching the marching band last night, but it never got to us. I’d just as soon avoid rain for another day.
It avoided us yesterday and I was able to get several more bins to the auctioneer. A flip top bin full of lego weighs quite a lot, enough that it’s hard to lift chest high anyway… and I’ve still got at least one more to go. So far no really valuable lego, but you never know. Auctioneer takes a look through before listing, and sometimes sorts some of the mini-figs out for their own lot. C3PO is worth finding if you might have him. There are several versions but they are all expensive for lego.
Today I’ve got a Dr appointment in the morning, then more auction stuff in the afternoon. I’ll be doing a couple of pickups on Saturday. I won a metal cabinet and a 100 gallon rainwater storage barrel, both about an hour north of me. I was hoping to get them on the way to the BOL, but we’ll see how that shakes out. Meanwhile, I’ve got an item or two here in town, and a few more bins ready to drop off. Prices are still low, and it’s beginning to look like a real slowdown. Dang. Nothing like waiting too long… although realistically, it’s happening when it’s happening, and I wasn’t able to bring loads to my local guy before now. One seller thinks it just might be people are over-extended from back to school spending and it will recover soon. I hope she’s right.
BTW, metal cabinet will stay here for my pantry. The cans in dispenser racks, and some other stuff was out on shelves and I’ve decided it needs to be enclosed. The stuff in plastic bins and tubs on the shelves has been fine, protected from the elements and the rats, but I want to do what I’ve been doing at the BOL and put the rest in metal cabinets. It still won’t be “cool”, but it will be “dark” and protected from more stuff, including prying eyes. At my secondary location, I’ve hung bedsheets with magnets to cover the metal shelves and contents. The more obscured the preps are from casual observation, the better I’m feeling.
Keep it secret. Keep it safe. And keep stacking it!
nick
Hola mi amigos…
Working on getting everyone moving, and not having a ton of success… me included. Coffee is helping.
n
RICO?
They transferred and hid the perpetrators. Threatened the victims and witnesses. Knowingly violated disclosure laws.
Some of the Harry Potter Lego minifigs are highly sought after. “Fluffy” and Dementors are two which immediately spring to mind.
We have multiple bins of Lego which need to be sorted through before downsizing. My son was part of the last generation to actually play with the toys before they became arbitrage fodder, and all of the sets are in pieces in the bins, probably complete.
D2 is not interested in selling off her Lego which she built these are all bins full of Lego that I got at the Goodwill bins. Some are vintage but most are modern sets. It’s interesting to see the difference in colors over the years and the amount of custom pieces included in a set.
N
That’s on my Kindle, currently #7 of the nonfiction. It’ll be a while before I get to it; I just started Plutarch’s Lives, which is 600K words, and am reading Sean Carroll’s From Eternity to Here, a book on physics and cosmology which is well written but not fast reading. I’m also reading a novel for when my brain is full from the nonfiction.
I’d started to read Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and Darwin’s Origin of Species. Stopped reading each because they’re interesting from a historical perspective but the material is better covered in more modern books and I don’t have the free time to be reading something that long simply from mild interest. (That is, economics topics will be better covered in a modern book so long as you choose an author who describes things as they actually work, not one who focuses on how he thinks it should be.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12515249/Elon-Musk-biographer-Walter-Isaacson-claims-billionaire-sold-Starlink-equipment-military-created-special-Starshield-Ukraine-conflict-getting-head-geofencing.html
– a lot of he said she said in support of selling books, but a couple of interesting nuggets.
n
I read one of the Darwin books, and enjoyed parts of it. Anyone who thinks mankind is significantly different than we were should read something older than a magazine once in a while. Those guys were smart.
n
Smarter than today’s Americans and Western Europeans, on average, thanks to the easy living and removal of harsh Darwinian selection which the industrial revolution, antibiotics, and improved sanitation enabled, worsened by differential breeding rates of the different strata of intelligence.
Hard men create good times.
Good times create weak men.
Weak men create bad times.
Bad times create hard men.
That’s the basic summary of “The Fourth Turning” , which claims that societies run through somewhat-predictable patterns.
I have said it before, and I will say it again: someday a great many people are going to die because of the stupidity of these Arctic and Antarctic excursions.
https://gcaptain.com/expedition-cruise-ship-pulled-free-in-greenland/
https://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2023/09/45000-gallons-of-water-to-put-out-one.html
Well Lynn, you’re not even close on your water use.
On a level 3 charger
It takes a lot of water because they are cooling down the battery, which is in thermal runaway.
For fire you must have, fuel, oxygen and heat. The fuel and o2 are part of the battery so they must remove the heat. No easy task as it turns out.
N
How practical would it be to have an emergency cooldown system over or near the battery, something which would automatically dump a mixture to make a severe endothermic reaction or possibly a substance with a high phase change energy? I know enough theoretical chemistry to think of a system to halt a runaway when it starts, but not enough practical chemistry to know if it would work.
I don’t much care about the cost of such a system to the consumer. EV pushers cause a risk to dwellings, other cars, fire crews, and other humans, all the while praising their own virtue. It’s time for them to stop externalizing the costs that they impose.
You so funny.
When developers build big new subdivisions, they are often required to also provide infrastructure like water plants, septic treatment, and roads and schools. After the development is complete, those things are then maintained via the tax base, but municipalities recognize the initial construction needs to be included as part of the overall development.
For any EV owner, they should minimially pay for:
And I’m sure I missed some stuff.
And I’m sure I missed some stuff.
– the current one is road use taxes. Most places in the US pay for roads with tax on fuel. EV users use the roads, but don’t pay the tax for gas… say the advocates.
Since all taxation is theft, I am not suggesting that adding taxes is a good idea. There should be a mechanism to allocate costs to the users though.
n
Did not realize “Stranger in Paradise” is from the musical “Kismet”. I had “Not Since Ninevah” stuck in my head so I’ve been listening to the whole album. “Was I Wazir” is another earworm for me, but I’d forgotten about “Baubles Bangles and Beads”. And “Zubbediya/Samiris’ dance” set my pulse racing as a young man, not so much the music as the young ladies dancing to it.
n
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12519159/shot-head-parking-Brooklyn-Home-Depot-dies.html
I guess ‘aspiring model’ is the female version of ‘aspiring rapper’…
WTF is it with people, she couldn’t be “teacher’s aide” killed.
n
Walk to the next room: “why am I here?” Or, heck, click on a program to open it. It opens. “What did I want to do here?” More and more…
I read an explanation that we have “episodic” memory. You’re in room A, and make a decision. The act of entering room B is a transition that starts a new episode, deleting the irrelevant stuff from before. Unfortunately including the reasons behind your decision to go to room B in the first place.
Just like a computer, we have an interrupt stack. When you are young, that interrupt stack is huge. When you are 60+, you are lucky if it can hold three items (personal observation).
I continue to slowly work my way thru “A World Lit Only by Fire” and I continue to see parallels to today. Not sure who will be our Martin Luther, or what will arise but something must. Unless we enter a new dark age.
n
Go read the history of Charlemagne. He unified Europe using the sword and then tried to stop the Dark Ages but then the Vikings (the Danes) happened. The Vikings slowly bled Europe to death and caused the Dark Ages to last another 500+ years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne
I see a lot of Vikings now attacking us. From within and without.
Speaking of Vikings:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/09/this-made-me-laugh.html
It made me laugh too.
“GOA has secured a temporary restraining order against the New Mexico governor’s unconstitutional edict banning citizens from carrying firearms in public.”
“This is a win for all gun owners in New Mexico and sends a clear message to all anti-gun states that the Second Amendment shall not be infringed.”
https://www.gunowners.org/
“Robots Read News about Paul Krugman”
https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/16iroq6/robots_read_news_about_paul_krugman/
Street people gotta eat too.
ADDED: I had to delete it. It was a premium post.
Basically, the robots reported that Krugman went on CNN and stated that the economy has never been better. Later, when Krugman left CNN, the street people mirderd him and and barbecued him over an open fire. CNN then reported that Krugman transitioned from a living person to street turds.
“Hunter Biden INDICTED on three felony charges for lying about being on drugs when he bought a gun”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12519595/Hunter-Biden-INDICTED-lying-drugs-bought-gun.html
I’ll believe it when I see him in a Supermax. Shoot, even Big Spring Federal Penitentiary.
I see a blanket pardon coming soon for Hunter. And one for his dad too. That won’t stop the impeachment though, Mitt Romney will do that.
And I’m sure I missed some stuff.
– the current one is road use taxes. Most places in the US pay for roads with tax on fuel. EV users use the roads, but don’t pay the tax for gas… say the advocates.
Since all taxation is theft, I am not suggesting that adding taxes is a good idea. There should be a mechanism to allocate costs to the users though.
Texas just enacted a $400 initial road tax for EVs plus a annual $200 road tax for EVs.
https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/21/texas-new-law-electric-vehicle-fee/
Yeah, it will be interesting to see if he even spends a day in the local jail.
And Crude Oil for October has just gone over $90 per US barrel.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CL%3DF?p=CL%3DF
On our way back to $100.
“Google is cutting hundreds of jobs in its recruiting organization”
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/13/google-is-cutting-hundreds-of-jobs-in-its-recruiting-organization.html
Google is still laying off people.
Hat tip to:
https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/industry-pulse-aws-shuts-down-ec2
Hunter will not even see a second of time in a courthouse. Spongie’s (or is that Spongey’s) lawyers are on it like a fly on a street turd along with the White House lawyers which are taxpayer funded. Even if convicted, the pardon will be immediately issued. Ain’t no Biden ever going to suffer for any crime.
That will never succeed. If it does by chance move forward it will be after Spongey is out of office, at which time he can plead mentally incompetent. He is already there, being held up by his handlers.
My ancient macbook pro, 2012, is showing signs of memory loss and dementia.
Could be age in general – ps and/or other components, or the newer Crucial RAM & SSD from a few years ago.
I have an 2019 intel mini ready to take its place, and the m2 mini ready to replace that. I was going to clone it over, but not with this kind of failure. I need to find a decent sized external drive from the stacks. I was in CostCo just yesterday, could have gotten it then.
The recruiter who placed me at the tolling company is still on Google’s payroll. I’ll believe that they are serious when I see that the bimbo has a new job.
“Infographic: Seas Continue Their Rise”
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/infographic-seas-continue-their-rise
Sigh, I have investigated this reputed sea rise before. They do not take land subsidence into account since they do not have a way of accurately measuring it. So the reported value of sea rise is worthless.
And from my own woke ASME society too.
“Starlink Is Popular, But Is It Making Enough Money to Stay Afloat?”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/starlink-is-popular-but-is-it-making-enough-money-to-stay-afloat
“Although Starlink raked in $1.4 billion in revenue last year, that’s far behind early projections SpaceX made for the service back in 2015.”
Uh oh. I feel a massive price increase coming.
Or even gets finger printed, as Trump was.
Bidenomics for the win.
So long as you measure them at carefully selected locations.
The MUSIC is adapted from Alexander Borodin, especially the “Polovtsian Dances”. The lyrics were adapted by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis. I’ve loved that musical for the last 50 years.
“Upgrade: A Novel” by Blake Crouch
https://www.amazon.com/Upgrade-Novel-Blake-Crouch/dp/0593157524?tag=ttgnet-20/
A standalone science fiction novel, no sequel or prequel. I read the well printed and well bound trade paperback published by Ballantine Books in 2023 that I bought new from Amazon.
Logan Ramsay is a field agent for the GPA, the American Gene Protection Agency. Son of the infamous Miriam Ramsay whose gene manipulations of the rice crops in China killed 200 million people through starvation, gene manipulations are now outlawed across the entire planet. Logan is a geneticist and worked with his mother when she invented the easy to use and build Scythe, the gene editing toolset. His mother committed suicide several years back after the effects of The Great Starvation.
On a mission to shut down a dark gene lab, Logan is attacked with an ice bomb. After the bomb goes off, he runs a fever for the next few days and notices that he is changing. Logan has been upgraded.
Would you be willing to be upgraded if the failure rate of 15% would turn you into a gibbering idiot ?
The author has a website at:
https://blakecrouch.com/
Steven Spielberg has bought the movie rights to this book and the author is writing the screenplay.
https://www.inverse.com/entertainment/blake-crouch-upgrade-interview
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.2 out of 5 stars (10,526 reviews)
Put the charging apparatus inside a large metal box with an open end for the vehicle to enter/exit. Above the box, place a hopper full of sand, enough to fill the box completely. In the event of an emergency, a mechanical mechanism releases the sand, completely burying the EV, within 15-20 seconds.
The junkyards around here are starting to bury crashed EVs in structures similar to what I just described until the fire danger has passed and the cells depleted.
Other Senate Republicans are squishy enough. “For the good of the country.”
Romney will keep quiet under orders from the Elders on the off chance he could end up measuring for drapes at One Observatory Circle, with Kamala taking the top office under a cloud of her own.
Or Mittens could just ask Chasten Buttigieg for the numbers.
Sounds similar to the plot for Gordon Dickson’s 1970’s era R-Master book.
Sounds similar to the plot for Gordon Dickson’s 1970’s era R-Master book.
It does. But that was a drug, not gene editing.
https://www.amazon.com/R-Master-Gordon-R-Dickson/dp/B0006C990O?tag=ttgnet-20/
I reread his “Wolf and Iron” recently. Awesome book. I need to reread the Dorsai books.
Go watch “The Fabelmans” before getting too excited about Spielberg’s name on a project these days.
Judd Hirsch is terrific, but the rest of the film is weak … and weird.
Spielberg burned The Mouse turning in the “Westside Story” remake without English subtitles. He’ll have to bring something real mainstream to a studio to get money, even at Universal.
We had almost an inch of rain last night. It would come and go, kept waking me up. No signs of run-off. It’s thundering to the south, maybe we’ll get more rain tonight.
I wonder how much rain the trees can collect through their leaves. Like, being outside with your mouth open…. sort of.
It dribbled about a tenth of an inch July 6th. About that much again a month ago. It’s dry here.
It’s pretty humid today. But it’s not 107. 85f is fine. The cats are not panting, so there’s that.
North Austin got a couple of inches just yesterday afternoon and early evening. Strictly anectdotal, but that’s how much water was in the bottom of my trash can when I dumped it around 9 PM.
Later, we got a lot of wet from a thunderstorm, but I have no idea exactly how much. An inch easy.
Water restrictions were lifted this week in my neighborhood even before the rain arrived yesterday.
“And Crude Oil for October has just gone over $90 per US barrel.”
I’d guess less than 10% of the heating oil customers in the NE U.S. have their winter needs delivered or under contract. Maybe Biden can roll out a subsidized electric baseboard heating program.
Study after study shows cold is 10x as lethal as heat, and it’s the moderate cold that kills. You know, the kind that you get in a house where old folks can’t pay the heating bill, even after closing off some rooms, so the blankets come out and the thermostat gets lowered.
It’s all part of the plan to save social security by shortening the retirement time.
Meanwhile the welfare cases get their heat paid for, run the temp at 78, and open a window if they get too warm.
There’s a new EV firefighting device that rolls under a vehicle and deploys a 600psi hydraulic ram that drives a vertical spike up into the battery compartment. Hollow and connected to water so they can dump it where it’s needed.
Yeehaw.
Upright and breathing, not on fire.
Careening towards winter.
Worn out and little energy though I cannot explain why.
Last of the rabbits are in the freezer with the exception of our breeders. Gave up on building a pole barn, spirit was willing but pocketbook and energy and time were not. Went with a 12×20 Shelter Logic fabric shelter that has a 43 psf snow rating and 80 mph wind rating. Not as good as a wooden structure, an improvement over what we had. Compromise.
Trusses are scheduled for repair in October. That stress is likely the source of my energy / focus failures this summer. Praying hard we don’t get snow until the repair is complete.
Got an unexpected package from China in the mail today. Address was correct, recipient hasn’t ever lived here (advantage of being the second owners and knowing the name of previous inhabitants). Did not open it. Declaration for says its shoes, lightly patting the ePacket USPS envelope reveals the general form of a size 8 flip flops.
I do believe the package is for a “brushing” scam. I marked it to indicate no one by that name and “refused”.
My young dog earned her BCAT title, and was over 18 mph average on her last Fast CAT run. That’s pretty zippy for a corgi.
Same old same old otherwise. No time or energy to do more than the essentials at the moment, and winter is breathing down my neck. Trying to get the yard tucked in for winter and finish reconfiguring the rabbitry for ease of work when the snow flies.
@Nick
Gas taxes charge the users of the roads to pay for the roads–in theory. In practice there are problems:
Some of that money is siphoned off to pay for other things: bike lanes, trails, public transportation, etc. Bike lanes are a multi-level scam as they take portions of roads paid for by motor vehicles–increasing the congestion for the latter–give them over to unlicensed vehicles that pay no taxes. To top it off, those unlicensed vehicles are largely ridden by scofflaws who do not obey traffic signals and change lanes haphazardly, making them unpredictable and increasing the complexity of the traffic flow with no real benefit.
State DOT’s are dominated by city interests, so both federal and state money is funneled to urban projects and green weinie b.s., shortchanging rural projects and non-urban highways.
There is no incentive to fix these problems because the preferred fix is to make all licensed vehicles trackable on a second-by-second basis. You do trust the government with your every move and know that they would not abuse that information, sell it, fail to keep it safe from hackers, or resist disclosing it to every leftist with a cause?
Did you squeeze in time for “Good Omens”?
My wife was kinda disturbed by the last scene between Aziraphale and Crowley. She thinks it should remain implied between the two of them.
Every time I am feeling too busy, I should go back and read one of your posts. Seriously, thanks for the update. Good you and yours are doing well.
18 mph on such short corgi legs must be quite an achievement. We had two collie mixes, and I loved to watch the one that looked a little like a border collie run. Sure was graceful.
I don’t envy winter where you are. The term pole barn was new to me a few years ago. I wonder if there are small operations that mill trees for large beams. As you said, any sturdy shelter beats the cold and wind. Of course, the frame is only part of the expense. You need to close it up.
Maybe tax on road tires… with fines if you don’t replace them in a timely manner… or get rid of all the taxation period.
———-
we got some rain last night, around 2am. Put me to sleep so IDK how much we got. Was mostly dry at 7am for the bus. Later it rained some more, but must have been pretty light. OF COURSE it started again just as I started pulling stuff out of storage for my auction dropoff. So that got delayed. I did manage to take a couple of flip top bins. One was “emergency” presents, for when the kid says “Hey, XYZ’s birthday party is tomorrow and I need to go to the store to get a present…” They’ve all been outgrown though. I guess the Lego is timeless, but the subject of the kits was childish. The other was some toys from my siblings when mom cleaned out the house, and some of my random knickknacks.
———–
Dr didn’t find any issues, but did schedule an additional test, imaging for calcium which is a surrogate for arterial plaque. Family history says “better be sure”.
———
Spent far too long re-keying the locks at the rent house. Some were worn out, some were cantankerous. I ended up replacing 2 doors worth and moving one set to the garage door. Fortunately the knob/locksets were on sale, 75% off and both packages had the same keys. Like fate or something. I have one lock cylinder to take to the real locksmith. I don’t have any idea how to re-key the style of cylinder for the storm/security door.
Locks and keys are interesting, and a good way to save money by DIYing the servicing. I’ve got a key cutting machine, but haven’t every used it. I can usually just swap stuff around, and match existing keys. I’ve collected a bunch of keys over the years. It’s a rare lock I can’t find a key for…
——
I’d love to see Hunter in the dock, but I ain’t holding my breath.
n
5G service wholesale must be getting expensive.
“Experts fear electric vehicle race leaves power grid in the dust”
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/experts-fear-electric-vehicle-race-leaves-power-grid-dust
“Typically, power consumption reduces at night, allowing transformers to cool down, but with more people charging EVs at home in the evening, their 30- to 40-year life expectancy could be reduced to just three years.”
Well, that is not good.
Taxing tires would be cumbersome, especially for collector cars, which aren’t driven many miles. This thing about replacing tires at six years might be a good idea for radials, because they tend to fail by separation, but there are still some cars that use bias ply tires, which do not fail by separation: no outer plies to separate. I have seen bias ply tires that are over 50 years old and still serviceable. Best to get rid of ALL taxation; starve the beast. Riiight, won’t happen.
I have done my own house and auto locks for a long time. I can cut a key with a file. I am not as fast, but can do it better than some machines. I recently replaced our house locks with the latest generation Kwikset changeable locks, called SmartKey. I am impressed with these. Please note that earlier generations and some still available in big box stores are probably not very secure. The latest version available from some mail order suppliers is. They are good enough for most residential applications. You might not want this type for a rent house, because it is too easily changed by a tenant. When I rented, a couple of ice ages ago, I always changed my locks, or added a good quality drop bolt lock where permitted. That might not be allowed now.
Just a quick thanks to MrLynn for his book reviews.
Always interesting and reminds me to keep my library updated..
Cheers.