Cooler up here, but still muggy. No idea what the forecast calls for, except generally hot and humid. The edge of the T-storm zone in the national forecast moved and so Houston and the BOL are not near it anymore, at least for a day or two. Still summertime though and that means hot and humid.
Yesterday was eaten by ducks. I put some details in the comments. Fallen limbs, messed up lock cylinders, stuff to do that didn’t get done… and then finally driving to the BOL.
Today will be clearing a space for the pool table, unloading it from my truck, and looking at the irrigation pump. And any other small thing that pops up. There are lots of things to choose from.
Always be working to improve your position. That means in your social networks too, and I don’t mean social media. Get out and talk to some people today. Reinforce some of the shared bonds.
And stack. You’ll need both.
nick
I see that his fellow Dems are shocked and calling on Menendez to resign. I hope he refuses. Make them prove it this time. And who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to sing.
-snort- Slacker.
Menendez was always a weird/creepy deal in New Jersey. He failed twice to gain enough support to win the office on his own so Corzine appointed him to the Senate seat after moving up to the Governor’s Mansion in 2006, partially as political payback and partially out of fear that the Republicans could win NJ that fall despite the “blue wave” which put Pelosi in the Speaker’s chair and the Dems in charge of the Senate.
There were ethics problems which were glossed over back then IIRC, but I don’t see the information searching quickly.
I may have mentioned this before, not sure. Anyhow, first week of the semester, so back in the office 3 days/week. Over the summer, they re-organized the whole office area to use a “flexible” model. Fancy new screens (but I had two screens before, now just one). All the desks squashed into half the floor space, so no extra table – instead, they bought five sofas to put in the other half of the room. Which I cannot imagine anyone actually using, because that’s not why we go into the office.
No one seems to know whose bright idea this was. Only one person I’ve talked to was consulted, and he told them it wasn’t a good idea. Being a long-standing prof, I just sent an email up the line, including the big boss, pointing out that we teach requirements engineering and management. Such a shame that no one at the school can actually do those things.
Big boss is back from vacation on Monday. I wonder what her response will be…
I have this book on order from AbeBooks. Sounds like it might be a good start!
https://www.amazon.com/How-Plan-Crusade-Religious-Middle/dp/1681778955/ref=sr_1_1?crid=MBIDQ0IALWWG&keywords=1681778955&qid=1695476767&sprefix=1681778955%2Caps%2C490&sr=8-1&tag=ttgnet-20
83F this morning and overcast at the BOL. Must have gotten some rain this week as the grass isn’t dead and the irrigation pump wasn’t running. OTOH, it’s only been 4-5 days.
Wife is up and doing work. Little projects. All on the list though so that’s ok.
I’ve got bacon cooking and my coffee is cooling to drinkable…… so I’m off to start my day.
n
@brad, maybe the couches are there to make the work from home crowd more comfortable?? Maybe you’ll have “work in your pajamas day” …
n
If it was the US, I’d guess the couches are for grad students to sleep on, but I don’t think Europe uses as much PhD candidate slave labor as the schools here.
Since student loans were nationalized and states have increasingly used lottery money to subsidize tuition at the public universities through “scholarships”, a lot of capital spending has taken place on college campuses (campii?) across the country. Maybe the European schools are trying to “Keep up with the Jonses”.
A colleague thinks our management just heard about the trends from 20 years ago, where you try to make the office more homey. Maybe foosball tables are next.
Societal Collapse is Underway and Museums Can be Unlikely Heroes, Suggests Expert
Available soon on the ‘Zon:
https://www.amazon.com/Museums-Societal-Collapse-Robert-Janes/dp/1032382244/ref=sr_1_1?crid=A4FI8XPGK1DW&keywords=9781032382241&qid=1695484285&sprefix=9781032382241%2Caps%2C511&sr=8-1&tag=ttgnet-20
The blurb immediately brings to mind the museum in Niven and Pournelle’s Moties series.
Pretty sure the book itself will be practically useless.
Except that a lot of museum directors are woke stasi. They hide aspects of the past which do not reflect today’s received truth and they mislabel or misrepresent much of the rest.
I think that art, culture, and history museums are a lost cause, now and after the collapse. Science museums are probably a somewhat safe for preserving today for tomorrow: the demonstration of wave interference in the children’s science museum will show something that post-collapse society can learn from, and who cares if the placard claims that a black woman discovered the effect in 1923.
Install a foosball table and that involves a maintenance budget. Ignore the maintenance costs and the tables are generally useless within a year, after the first figure gets broken by an overzealous player “ripping” the handle along their arm to maximize the speed of the ball.
The Museum of Science and Industry in Tampa brought in a director from a failed museum to deliberately run the place into the ground, in order to justify a move to a swankier location downtown in Bill Gates’ Water Street Development.
Of course, this was pre Pedo Island revelations about BillG.
Most of the building and exhibits are currently dark, as is the IMAX dome screen.
Too many of the “tech” museums, won’t call it “science,” are focused on AGW scam and “too many people are destroying mother ghia.”
Chicago has a great one, named Science and INDUSTRY… but the old exhibits are poorly maintained and the new stuff is multi-culti-weeping indian carp.
n
I’ve been to the Chicago museum. Relatively recently, 2019.
Everything was in decent shape then, but I can’t imagine that lasted once the pandemic began.
The big problem for that facility is the neighborhood. That severely limits the operating hours.
Wasn’t it called the Museum of Science and Industry. I recall being taken there in the 50s.
Didn’t plan any invasions this month.
We got the opportunity to go to the sendoff for my former USMC son’s second trip to Iraq with 1,500+ friends (Marines, Navy Corpsmen, etc). He did not inform us to go to the first sendoff to Iraq and we did not know that we could have just shown up. By the second time, we were in the know.
Anyway, we spent about three days on the 29 Palms Marine Corps Base in the Mojave Desert. We got to see their preparations with the stuff they did not send out. Each platoon had a half shipping container (10 foot long by eight foot by eight foot) that they had sent out a month before with their heavy weapons, tents, bunk beds, building materials, etc on a dedicated ship from San Diego to Kuwait. Plus tanks, armored vehicles, 7 ton trucks, Humvees, etc. They only shipped half of their stuff to Iraq, the other half stayed back at 29 Palms in the same size shipping containers.
BTW, if you driving down a road in a Marine Corps base at the posted speed of 25 mph and an Abrams Tank comes thundering up behind you, give way. They do not follow the speed limit and they do not like to use the brakes. My Ford Expedition was large but still considered a crunchy by the tanks.
“Second Place, Again”
https://areaocho.com/second-place-again/
“Gaige Grosskreutz was one of the three men justifiably shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha in 2020 was struck down in the middle of the street in a hit and run. The driver has been arrested, and it turns out that he wasn’t targeting Grosskreutz. The hit and run was due to the fact that the driver had a suspended license.”
Karma sucks.
We may see this scum in Biden’s new 20,000 strong brownshirt agency, the climate patrol.
“Henry Repeating Arms Big Boy Revolver”
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/henry-big-boy-revolver/480175
You know, I might not have enough .357 pistols.
The Abrams will do 60 MPH with the speed governor removed.
The first delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine will take place next week. My friends who drove those don’t believe for a second that Ukrainians are going to be manning the tanks for at least another 3-4 months.
The brownshirt agency will be full of BA grads from “good” schools with significant student loan balances, lured by the possibility of having their loans forgiven in X years of civil service under the new forgiveness boondoggle programs proposed by Corn Pop.
Never mind that the 10 year forgiveness boondoggle doesn’t work for most of the participants.
The Abrams will do 60 MPH with the speed governor removed.
Yeah, but when the main gun is sitting on top of your Expedition roof and there is nothing but tank in your rearview mirror, you just want to get out of the way. The tank was about five feet behind me when I turned off the “road”. I put “road” in quotes since those tank metal tracks chewed up the road something fierce when the driver gunned it after I turned off and it started slinging pieces of road all over the place while accelerating. They were obviously late to a party.
The brownshirt agency will be full of BA grads from “good” schools with significant student loan balances, lured by the possibility of having their loans forgiven in X years of civil service under the new forgiveness boondoggle programs proposed by Corn Pop.
The leadership ranks of the new Climate Corps will be filled first with Antifa street warriors. They know who they are.
That’s ok. Most of the participants won’t be working, either. Not putting in the hours and not producing anything of value when they are “working”.
New tires – Costco or Discount Tire?
Time for new tires for the LEAF. Fhe Michelins I’m looking for are at the same sale price at both dealers but Costco is including Road Hazard Warranty for free. At DT, it’s an additional $168.
Everyone seems to be very satisfied with DT, but are they worth $168 more?
I have not bought tires from Costco but for $168 plus tax, I’d try them.
but are they worth $168 more?I would double-check the ratings on the sidewall, not just the model name, to be sure they are the exact same item. I have seen the same performance tires offered in H and V speed ratings at different outlets, both selling them as the same model tire. I personally have had good experiences with Costco in general, but that may be worth checking.
Re: Menendez
I know folks in NJ on both sides of the “enforcement” line. Both sides have called him crooked for years and years.
New tires – Costco or Discount Tire?
Time for new tires for the LEAF. Fhe Michelins I’m looking for are at the same sale price at both dealers but Costco is including Road Hazard Warranty for free. At DT, it’s an additional $168.
Everyone seems to be very satisfied with DT, but are they worth $168 more?
Are they the exact same tire with the exact same same tread depth ?
I replaced my first set of crappy factory Michelins on my 2019 F-150 4×4 with the exact same Michelin tire at Sams Club at 18K miles. I then replaced those crappy tires at 32K with the Michelin Defenders with the ¾ inch tread at Sams Club since I had a screw in the sidewall (unfixable). I had to order the Michelin Defenders and wait three days for them.
@Nick
Use to love the display of the human body slices.
@Lynn
I’d like to see a 4′ vs 6″ comparison measuring velocity with both 38 +P and 357 .
“Judge is right to rebuke Biden’s anti-oil obsession”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/judge-is-right-to-rebuke-bidens-anti-oil-obsession
“Thursday night, the Biden administration lost yet another court battle in its ongoing jihad against domestic fossil-fuel production. Thank goodness. The legally and economically unwarranted jihad is bad for American jobs and living costs. It should end.”
“The administration was trying to put severe restrictions on a lease sale involving millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico. Not only had the lease sale already been approved before earlier Biden attempts to hobble it, but Congress, as part of the (misnamed) Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, specifically directed that the planned sale be reinstated.”
Biden is trying very hard to shut down the number one portion of the economy in the USA, the fossil fuels. The number of people working in the industry has dropped from 15 million to 11 or 10 million in the last several years. All I can figure is that Biden wants to drop that number to zero.
Costco has had supply issues with tires in our area for a while. I wasn’t able to get tires for my wife’s car a couple years ago. The Lexus dealer had them, and for the same price. When I need two tires for the rear of my car, once again Costco was on backorder. I went with Discount Tire. No issues, and they were the same price as Costco.
My son’s Tacoma needed tires before he went back to school. 15″ wheels, so hard to find something. Costco had nothing. I ended up at Firestone, which is where I got them last time.
The tire center was the main reason I was keeping my Costco membership. I let it lapse and joined Sam’s. It helped that I go the Sam’s membership for half price with a coupon. I’ll keep Sam’s until my son is out of school. Tuscaloosa has a Sam’s, but no Costco.
I’d like to see a 4′ vs 6″ comparison measuring velocity with both 38 +P and 357 .
My 2.5 inch barrel GP100 7 shot is incredibly accurate at 15 yards. That is all that counts for me.
https://ruger.com/products/gp100/specSheets/1774.html
“10 Reasons Windows Is Going in the Wrong Direction”
https://www.pcmag.com/opinions/windows-is-going-in-the-wrong-direction
“Microsoft has made a lot of bad changes to Windows. As a fan of the OS, I want the company to do better for everyone’s sake.”
Asked and answered, just not with that particular make of handgun.
First with 2″ vs. 4″ including velocity and penetration.
Also with a variety of barrel lengths, velocity only.
First few times I saw Chris Baker videos, he annoyed me with his hipster vibe (Get off my lawn!) but he grew on me, and I’m jealous of his access to firearms and ammunition.
Ten Examples Where Experts Were Wrong
By Steve Templeton
https://brownstone.org/articles/ten-examples-where-experts-were-wrong/
The author limits his examination to transmissible disease, but that is only one of a list
Pull Back the Curtain on False Federal NarrativesBy Deane Waldman, M.D.
the summary of false narratives:
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/09/pull_back_the_curtain_on_false_federal_narratives.html
Indeed, these are not merely false narratives but lies weaponized for the express purpose of asserting government control in furtherance of leftist/progressive/communist goals of total control and political domination in defiance of the safeguards of the U.S. Constitution.
Costco warrantee isn’t worth anything. I had a road hazard issue but they could not get a matching tire. They wanted to put on a single of off-brand tire rather another Michelin. I found the tire and had it mounted elsewhere; they only gave me $140 credit vice a replacement cost of $260. The wear was 20%. F’em.
13 Baltimore schools have zero students pass math proficiency exam
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2023/09/23/13-baltimore-schools-have-zero-students-pass-math-proficiency-exam-n580097
If someone objectively looked for systemic racism in the United States, they would quickly identify public education in large cities which has been under the multi-generational control of Democrats and their creation the teachers unions as the biggest example. It is not surprising. The Democrats were the party of racism in the post civil war South that created the Ku Klux Klan, and later the progressives that embraced Margaret Sanger. P.T. Barnum would not be surprised and neither would the young lad who spoke the truth about the regent in the buff.
If the U.S. Department of Justice was anything but a farce fully invested in hiding the evidence of Democrat malfeasance and insuring unequal justice for the enemies of the party, they would have long since rewritten the playbook to wrest public education away from those intent on not educating the public, just as they did access to voting in the the 1950’s and 60’s. The irony is that voting is what gave rise to the grifter class–the Sharptons and Obamas and Kendis–who have grown wealthy on sowing and harvesting racial distrust.
Mathematics is colorblind. 1 + 1 = 2 is not conditioned on race. There is a limited window of time in which to teach children mathematics, reading, language, shared values and socialization. When that window closes it cannot be reopened in any meaningful way, and what is left is the ashes of lost opportunity. The Democrat scam has and continues to be to convince the educationally repressed that the taste of those ashes was not forced on them by by Democrats, and to foster the resentment of the unfairness that must be the result of racial discrimination.
Microsoft inherited the Atom/Electron technology when they bought Github. That is serious bloatware, tut the development and cross-platform deployment are easy.
VSCode is the most popular example of Microsoft’s push into making everything a web app. I hate VSCode, but the young’n’s and visa holding developers are obsessed with it where I currently work.
I bought one set of tyres from Costco and I’m sure they didn’t last as long as Discount Tire tyres. One got a puncture and I had to make an appointment to get it fixed, 4 days later. For the next set I went back to DT.
I never trust tire dealers because they will often grab what is in the back room, regardless of what they promised. I order mine, and get exactly what I order. I do my own mounting, but you can take tires to shops for a fee. Tire Buyer has these arrangements, but I have never used them except to buy a few tires. My last tire order was from the Zon, a first for me. Tire Rack has a good reputation. I have also ordered tires from. Walmart. Most times I get free shipping to my front door. Much happier not dealing with dealers. Call me crazy.
Sam’s vs. Costco
https://www.concealedcarry.com/firearms-ownership/what-is-costcos-gun-policy/
As a pragmatist, I don’t mind having Costco as an alternative so that I can bleed them on their loss leaders or use them to suit my convenience. Nonetheless I don’t find that it makes sense to stop by more than 2-3 times per year, even though they are somewhat closer than Sams.
I checked Sam’s today and the 28-bottle case of Sam Adams Octoberfest is back in stock. That’s the one that I use each year as the yardstick for the other brewers. The beer is acceptable, and the price point is decent compared to most. (Historically I’ve found the Octoberfest* produced by Hacker-Pschorr, Great Lakes, and one of the local small (not micro) breweries to be a bit better, but at 9.99/6 or 16.99/12 on sale vs. the 24.99/28 that I saw today, I’ll take a firm hold on the nickel even though it’s not a big budget difference)
The Sam’s Club credit card gives 5% back on gas purchases anywhere, which is offered for immediate use twice a month during checkout.
The local Sam’s has an excellent, helpful staff. The checkout wait is minimal–even during the perfectly predictable rush times like today at 10AM I rarely wait more than a minute.
*If I had my preference, the Octoberfest beer style would be the older dunkel, which fell out of favor to Märzen in the 60’s.
I replaced the first set of tires on my 2014 F-150, factory supplied, at 80K+ miles. Michelin from the factory, replaced with Michelin. I have now put 40K miles on those tires.
My kids have been glued to the live action “One Piece” on Netflix all weekend.
It isn’t my thing, but if you are a Netflix stock holder or anime/manga fan, you should be happy.
The program definitely isn’t woke, and the girls and boys play nice together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ades3pQbeh8
Hecho en … South Africa!
Hollywood is so screwed.
My new iPhone I ordered was in Nashville. Today FEDEX sent the package to Memphis, the opposite direction. Sunday it travel the correct direction to Knoxville. I don’t know if it flew, or was/will be driven. The USB-C cable I ordered from Apple, left Mount Juliet, close to Nashville, yesterday and arrived at my local UPS place this morning and at my house at 9:30 AM.
Flew. Everything Express goes to Memphis, even if the package goes across town.
At least, that’s the way it used to work. The scheme was legendary for earning founder Fred Smith a ‘C’ on the original paper in grad school, but it worked well in the real world.
Steve Jobs was an early fan and collaborator with Smith on infrastructure for Apple.
Apple and Fedex go back a long way.
Got into the 90s today. Not much wind either. Pretty unpleasant when the sun came out. Spent most of the day cleaning the garage trying to make room for the pool table. Lot of trash we haven’t dealt with until now.
Some stuff that has been misplaced for a while.
Working slowly, but making progress.
n
https://insiderpaper.com/pope-urges-europe-against-treating-migrants-as-invaders/
Well. Fran, I hope it’s ok with you if I come over and borrow a few things from the Vatican–I have some wall space that could use a lift.
Yeah, I doubt it.
I hope someone in Italy takes a page out of Abbott’s book and buses a few loads of recent arrivals into the courtyard. Wouldn’t be fair to ‘scriminate based on religion, now would it?
https://hotair.com/headlines/2023/09/23/ibram-x-kendis-race-hustle-deserves-to-fail-n580161
If the tax-deductible donations were not used for qualifying purposes, then the tax deductions need to be denied to the donors and the people who benefited from those funds need to be incurring gift taxes.
Worked on the shop’s office. Had partially emptied boxes everywhere and almost nothing was where it should be. Modified a cardboard box to make a spacer the go behind a bunch of small pamphlets and books; now they are easy to see and reach.
Took four hours shifting things around but the desk is usable, and the clutter is gone. Need to setup a different computer. The old laptop is really slow and its not the 1gigabit ethernet Wi-Fi. I may half to build a new system – which wouldn’t upset me, I like doing that.
Researched and ordered a set of T-clamps for one of my drill presses. This has been a need; yesterday I couldn’t get a hole drilled as I couldn’t kludge a clamp that looked OK to me.
Q: What’s the difference between a camper and a homeless person?
A: The camper spends thousands of dollars to live like a homeless person. The homeless person has thousands of dollars spent on him to live like a homeless person.
I hadn’t heard about this program before y’all mentioned it. Now that affirmative action is illegal, they’re finding another way to package it: “communities disproportionately impacted by the changing climate”. Did you know that global warming impacts gang activity? Sorry, my cynicism is showing.
On the somewhat serious side: if they actually could get 20k urban males out of the cities and get them used to working for a living, it would be a positive. Unfortunately, that would require said urban males to actually sign up, which they won’t. So the racial distribution is likely to be largely hispanic, which probably isn’t their unspoken target group.
Nah, that would be too many of the really wrong group. Anyway, if (big “if”) they really have to do physical labor, well, maybe being a Starbucks barista is better after all…
There are so many problems with US public education. The single biggest problem is not separating students into groups by academic ability. With the impossibly disruptive students removed entirely and sent to a military-style boarding school. Prediction: get rid of the disruptive students, and good teachers will stay in the profession, leading to a cascade of other positive effects.
We cannot take in all of Africa. Europe desperately needs to close the borders. Boatload of immigrants arrives in Italian waters? Turn their boat around. Trying to get to Europe illegally must be so dangerous and so unlikely to succeed that the people decide to stay home.
The current crop of politicians don’t understand why the far right is rising. The far right includes some seriously unpleasant characters, all too reminiscent of what set off WWII. However, the *reason* the far right is on the rise is because they are the only politicians serious about restricting immigration.
Dear current politicians: Please figure this out, and change your policies before things get really unpleasant…