It’s supposed to be in the low 60s and partly cloudy today. And we might have that. Some places. And for a while. It’s just as likely to be warmer and colder, rainier and drier. Yesterday certainly was.
Spent the morning getting caught up with online stuff, and doing my normal at home morning stuff, mainly auctions. Had to take the kid to a “not a date” with some other kids. On my way home I dropped the Expedition at the repair place. I’m overdue for an inspection and won’t pass with a ‘check engine’ light, so there needs to be some diagnostic work and probably some part swapping before I have a chance of passing. It’s probably emissions related too. I should hear something from him today. Even a truck that is 6 years old is too new to work on without a ton of specialized tools and knowledge. All the mileage and eco cr@p grafted on to meet arbitrary standards does not increase simplicity or reliability. Or economy in the economic sense.
In the mean time, I’ll drive the Ranger for my errands today. I’ve got pickups, a trash run, and possibly a drop off to do. As vehicles become more computer than machine, Pournelle’s observation that to keep n computers running takes n+1 computers, starts to apply.* I’m fortunate to have the choice of vehicle, like I have the choice of tool for the job.
One of the errands will be hitting the grocery store for some stuff for Thanksgiving dinner. If we had to we could go with what we have in stock, but some things are time savers- like the refrigerated pie crust. And some things it’s nice to have fresh versions, like fresh apples instead of canned filling. In any case, I’ll be shopping this afternoon. I wonder what inventory is going to look like. I know prices will be higher than last year.
Which brings me back to my broken record. We’re living in the beginning of a serious decline. It might be the 70s, to be followed by the 80s rebirth and exuberance, or it could be the 20s-30s and the misery that only ended after the war ended. But even that was followed by the 50s and the explosion of our industrial might. Point being that things are going to get worse before they get better. They might get a LOT worse. But there are steps you can take to ease the passage to the good times that will follow.
It’s not impossible, or even particularly hard. You just need more of all the stuff you won’t be able to afford or even get at any price, to carry you through. You need a way to continue bringing in money/valuable stuff, so that you can get some of whatever is available. The harder part is being in the right place, and surrounded by the right people. But I’m pretty sure we can all identify what places NOT to be, and what people to avoid.
Make your plans and work the plan. Be flexible, and open to opportunity. There will be a great many of them as things undergo tremendous change. Don’t hold on to the wrong stuff or the wrong ideas for too long either. Now more than ever be aware of fighting the last battle, and not what is actually happening. With planning, foresight, flexibility, and luck we can get through this, and even thrive.
Keep your head on a swivel, and keep stacking.
nick
*I haven’t missed the joke in his statement, it’s just that there is often truth in jest.
Best thing that happened to me in the military was breaking my back. That got me medical care, zero cost prescriptions, and more money each month than retirement would have provided. I was also able to get DV plates, no more registration fees and free parking in city owned locations such as not needing to feed meters and city parking garages. Which does not work if there is no attendant.
The big downside was dealing with the VA, like a massive game of Survivor. Outwit, Outplay, Outlast.
Off to Atlanta this morning. Leaving by 08:00 so I get through that mess on I-24 in Chattanooga. Home on Friday as I need to attend a football game. Semi-finals for the school. A significant accomplishment.
When I hit 65, I went to a Social Security seminar. The presenter was, of course, there to sell supplementary insurance for Medicare. He said Medicare + Tricare For Life was the best deal out there. MrsAtoz did her 20, so she gets the same deal. TFL is your supplement, and is free.
It’s hard to believe I retired 24 years ago. Thank you, goobermint teat, for all that sweet goobermint cash. I can easily live on my pension + SS, so I’m voting for whoever backs those in the election.
The VA can be used on a space-available basis for us lifers.
Get your own OBD-II scanner, even a cheap Acton will work, before the next Check Engine light event.
An Expedition will have no shortage of sources online to explain the codes the scanner displays.
Ford is now the most recalled vehicle manufacturer for several years running, and Tommy Boy hasn’t made any progress on correcting the situation.
What is your disability rating? The rules are getting tougher as the demand increases.
My wife’s nephew has a fantasy about getting out and becoming a tech manager with his J school degree, but the problem for him is that the tech companies are generally tight fisted with benefits, especially at startups, so he’s looking into a disability rating for his exposure to the radar on whatever air artillery equipment he manages so he can qualify for at least partial VA care.
Without a disability rating, his coverage from the VA will be extremely limited.
The nephew has the idea that my wife will help him out and navigate around the rules preventing the nepotism problem if he manages to get into the VA system. Yeah, that isn’t happening.
A Captain in the Army with rental real estate and an Austin house purchased with nothing down (apparently) is a grown up making big people decisions. There are big people consequences.
Well, it seems that I commenced my fifty-first circuit around the sun yesterday. I am pleased, and relieved, to have made it to the point of being “half-dead”, as a small relative recently put it. Glad too that those of you who are still circumnavigating with me are still there, and here.
@Denis: Congrats. Or commiserations, whichever you like
Zero. In VA parlance, I’m in Group F, i.e., a retired officer with a nice income and no service-related issues. I’m (and MrsAtoz) registered in the VA program. I can request an ambulance take me to the Fort Sam ER. They have to treat me, but not admit me, but probably would if it is serious. We can go to any military pharmacy and get prescriptions filled for free if needed.
The VA is one of my biggest pet peeves. It should apply to all Vets, no matter their status. But it doesn’t because of Congressional pork projects involvement and general fuckery.
As I said to my sister on her last birthday: Happy One Day Closer to the Grave Day
The generals and the Secretary of the Army could request more money for the VA and Congress could put it in the budget … but they’ve all decided that hundreds of millions for transgender awareness and other IED programs is a better use of the money.
It looks like the ORT system at one of the plazas on the Illinois Tollway missed our rental as we drove to OScare from The Wisconsin Dells.
I was surprised by the first plaza, but I was aware of the others so I played the lane straddle game which tended to be the downfall of the competitors’ ORT systems when I worked at the tolling company.
Looks like that problem still exists.
I still got clipped for eight bucks so don’t cry for the State of Illinois.
Charging the account for the tolls took up to the 10 day window time limit before the bill went to the rental company so my guess is that reading the plates had to be done manually somewhere overseas.
When I get out of bed and the furnace is running, I’m pretty sure it will be cold out. And today isn’t an exception. 48F, but it is clear with sunshine. Hasn’t warmed up significantly in the better part of an hour though.
My ovo-porko breakfast is finished. I’ve been drinking coffee every morning since the early 90s and that first sip STILL makes me pause and say “man that’s good”. I better get another can for the stacks.
All this talk of failing drives makes me nervous. I have a number of things that I should have been doing but put off…
Maybe I should get my day started.
n
“those people’s faces”
Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot…
n
Um, you mean, SOUP?
– I weep for the younger generation.
n
We got snow last night and it’s still on the ground though I don’t think it ever got below freezing. It wasn’t really supposed to snow; rain or maybe sleet was expected but we weren’t supposed to have anything that stuck. I guess the temperature dropped a critical degree or two.
100% cloud cover, but that understates the case. Very thick clouds so it’s certainly daytime but the furthest thing possible from a bright, sunny day. The snow is softening but not melting that I can see.
The chickens stuck their heads out of the coop as soon as I opened the door and then basically froze in confusion. “What’s this white stuff?” The coop/cage has a roofed area covering about 20sq ft, which is enough for them to mill around and not have to step in the snow, but it’s more crowded than they’re used to and they’re not happy about it. A few are flying up to the roof, which is free of snow, so I imagine they’ll survive the trauma. And the coop has the heat light if it’s needed.
Rooster’s been limping for a little while, hesitating to touch one foot to the ground. I caught him and daughter looked at and poked and gently squeezed the presumably sore foot and leg. Can’t find any problems. I thought there might be a splinter or something but we can’t find anything. -shrug- He’ll live or he won’t. If he doesn’t, we’ll probably eat him. SteveF, motivational veterinarian. Ask me about how I treat human patients!
I figure to move everything to the patio under the deck in the next day or two. It’s just a nuisance of timing because I have a car to fix (broken brake line which is, as might be expected, not cooperating in coming off so a replacement can be put on, plus the dealership ordered the wrong part), and family-members-who-aren’t-me yelling at each other and spreading drama all over, and a seemingly endless list of other things that need to be taken care of. I imagine that most everyone reading this fully understands that last point.
Announcer: “Sam Altman, you just got your job back as Open AI CEO. What are you going to do next?”
Sam: “What do you think? We’re going to buy Disney World!”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/altman-return-openai-ceo-taylor-061242680.html
Crazy Bob’s “Everything Must Go” fire sale does not include the parks … yet.
Wait until after this weekend when “Wish” flops.
Yes, dealing with the VA is a game of patience, frustration, anger and a general feeling of contempt. If I was an illegal immigrant I would get better benefits and better service from the government. That is wrong.
I sort-of prepped the old pellet stove yesterday: oiled bearings, removed dust and old decayed pellets from the hopper, added new, checked the flue, auger, and air handling motors. Need to clean the back passages, but it’s a dirty job, it can wait until company is gone.
It hit 28F last night. Kicked it on to ‘low’ at 2:30am when it felt cold during an old man’s excursion to the bathroom, and the ”great room” was a toasty 66F at sunrise, the mbr a pleasant 61F.
– doomers, yes, in outlook. But it would be hard to put a positive spin on the facts.
Although I have trouble taking anyone seriously who thinks that Americans built up their savings during covid lockdowns, and are only just using up the last of it. This is directly contradicted by the massive money handout that was “needed” to keep the economy afloat when everything was shut down. And that was some magic money. It let consumers buy massive amounts of stuff online, pay down their credit cards, build their savings, finance new vehicles, and stay out of the workforce. Like globull warming, is there anything a couple of thousand dollars CAN’T do??? [for the sarcasm impaired, that money has been variously spent a dozen times over according to the .gov and the pundits, for all of the thinks I listed off the top of my head, and more. Fantasists, every one of them.]
n
I picked up a copy of The Aeronaut’s Windlass from the library, since the sequel is out and I had forgotten most of the first books plot and personae.
For example: talking cats.
Been reading a chapter here & there as time and T-day preps allow, a different mode from my usual entire-book-in-a-sitting thing.
Enjoyable, I am retired, no rush.
@lynn: Some light reading for you:
https://www.iso.org/standard/82170.html
Finished “A World Lit only by Fire” today. Reading it a few pages at a time in the smallest room took a while. Not profound, but definitely filled in some of the worst history of t he Church for this “good little Catholic boy” who went to a Catholic high school with actual nuns teaching… the author seems to hate the Church, or maybe he only hates the degraded parody of holiness that the Church had become. He’s almost gleeful in his tone when describing the degradation and debauchery.
I do see a lot of parallels between that time and today, and the results aren’t good if today follows the same path. Massive upheaval is the result, with a paradigm change that really couldn’t be appreciated for a couple of hundred years. We are still feeling the effects today.
n
If you or someone else could use some new “Dad Joke” material, might I recommend both of these newly-published books? Paperback only – at a reduced price (about $1.00 off regular price).
“A Compendium of Dad Jokes” : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNLX4FTD?tag=ttgnet-20
“Another Compendium of Dad Jokes”: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CNLYJW42?tag=ttgnet-20
And the previously published “A Compendium of Physics Jokes” : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09MYQ5C2T?tag=ttgnet-20 (paperback, ebook, hardbound).
All will help fund my extravagant holiday gifts to close relatives, so it’s all for a good cause.
Walkin’ ’round money.
Put a reservation down on a Jesus Truck and buy gaming consoles, both for arbitrage.
Sadly I spent all my money on a cool SteveF T-shirt from Cafe Press.
I don’t believe my wife’s nephew should collect VA benefits unless he sees some time in a combat theater or is genuinely disabled in some way. He believes he can leave the service and become a PHB pushing truly knowledgeable people around because that has essentially been his Army experience except with a couple of pieces of real estate going into his “portfolio” (his word) courtesy of the off-base housing allowance and an extended paid vacation in Munich during Covid.
Put a reservation down on a Jesus Truck and buy gaming consoles, both for arbitrage.
I would not touch the Jesus truck or any other total electric vehicle with a ten foot pole. The total electric vehicles are rolling disasters in my opinion. I suspect that they will all have precipitous drops in value due to battery worries.
We are heading to tough times. Spend your capital wisely.
On my way home I dropped the Expedition at the repair place. I’m overdue for an inspection and won’t pass with a ‘check engine’ light, so there needs to be some diagnostic work and probably some part swapping before I have a chance of passing. It’s probably emissions related too. I should hear something from him today. Even a truck that is 6 years old is too new to work on without a ton of specialized tools and knowledge. All the mileage and eco cr@p grafted on to meet arbitrary standards does not increase simplicity or reliability. Or economy in the economic sense.
I drove my 2008 Highlander yesterday to get lunch. No problems other than the usual forever warmup. It has 160K miles on it.
I filled it up with gasoline for the holidays. On a whim, I looked for the insurance card. I could not find the new insurance card, only the card that expired last May. UH OH. I sent an email to my agent but I suspect they took the week off.
Fill up your vehicles today. We are way overdue for an event in the USA. Probably will not happen but …
I keep all of my vehicles at least half filled at home and not less than ¼ on trips, usually filling them at the end of the day so a local power problem won’t leave me struck in place.
Retired AF here, no disability, so I’m on Medicare and Tricare for life. I agree VA should be for those injured while serving. Training can be dangerous. My son-in-law was shot while training with Delta Force in a shooting house. No one did anything wrong – “stuff happens”.
Getting the VA to assess an injury is like taking a 10-foot pole up yer arse. Ridiculously hard, and when the trannies start getting dropped, look out. My late BIL spent a decade getting the VA to give disability. He was injured on a sub and had all his records: the VA didn’t believe he was actually on the sub for the injury. He tracked down the sub Captain, who wrote a letter certifying BIL was on the sub. The VA is worse than an insurance company when a claim is made.
One of our local kids is 90% disabled Marine after only a couple years of service. Kid can barely drink legally. Went over a barrier with a full load out, landed wrong, and broke a bunch of stuff in his neck and back. He’s walking around, but facing a bunch of surgeries. And yep, during training.
Just got the quote for the Expy work, $1300+ tax. Oil change, new rotors and pads in front, rotate tires, fuel system work, sensor replacement, and something else I can’t remember. First money I’m spending on it since I bought it. Something with teeth was eating the air filter… should have it done Friday. Then I can drive it for a while to reset the counters for the engine light issue, and get inspected. Then registration… This is why we prep, so that we can cope with unexpected issues (although I’ve been warning my wife that something was up and we’d be spending some money on it, for some time.)
n
If you haven’t done the timing belt, get it replaced along with the water pump ASAP.
Are the spark plugs original? If so those need to be replaced as well.
On the 4 cyl Camry platform plugs are an easy DIY, but 6 cyl will require removal of the intake manifold to get at the back three so you will want to take it somewhere unless you are up for a challenge.
Get Denso Iridium plugs.
Soy based plastics are tasty to the local varmints. Honda sells a capsaicin-laced tape you can put over specific favorite locations they are chewing. Ask the mechanic for the old filter box so you have an idea where to put tape.
Lynn sez:
I had figured that you would have good backups. So when that drive finally stops permanently, it won’t be TOO much of a hassle getting it back.
Yeah. I have the backup processes send me completion emails too so I can watch the various backup drives and make sure that they do not overflow. I use 8 TB drives at the moment and our LAN is 4 TB. But, I do not delete missing files on the backup drives so the backup grows over time. I have to reformat the backup drives every year or so.
I parked my 2009 Camry in the driveway when I moved here 9 years ago. Looked at the cabin filter shortly thereafter. Found lots of nesting material (pine needles and moss) sitting on top of the filter. Local chipmunks had been stuffing it down the fresh air intake. No other damage to wiring, etc.
A bottle of “Critter Ridder” (available at Walmart and Home Depot and Amazon) fixed that issue. It’s a capsaicin spray – I just sprayed it inside the engine compartment every other month. No issues since then.
Safe spray for around animals. I didn’t notice the odor, but the local wildlife around here (including the deer) don’t like it.
The only way the EV kabuki continues past the debacle of the Jesus Truck debut is forcing the issue at gun point via some combination of taxation and regulation which makes regular cars and trucks just as expensive and inconvenient.
>> the scroll wheel on my mouse worked when I left home, but doesn’t work now
You young whippersnappers with your fancy mice…real men don’t need no wheelies on their mice!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/155782624118?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=cAYCeZpRSWC&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=DCkZFUbhTp-&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
>> About usage of letters, isn’t one “l” in the last name enough?
Don’t start with middle names/initials.
I remember a guy that worked in an adjoining IT department who would proclaim to anyone that would listen that he only had a middle initial and as such protested that any company documents that put a period after his middle initial were wrong and the HR system needed to be fixed, Then there was the mononymous lady that got hired. I heard it got a bit messy until they figured out how to get her into the system.
Um, you mean, SOUP?
– I weep for the younger generation.
n
Bone Broth is not soup. It is nasty powdered water. I got some on Bayou Man’s recommendation but I ate one bowl and cannot get myself to do it again. Unless, I hit 260 lbs and then I will grit my teeth, hold my nose, and try to use it to drop weight.
“Gavin Newsom and the California State Legislature, please come to the white cortesy phone”,
“I repeat, Gavin Newsom and his fellow oligarchs and communist thugs please come to the white courtesy phone ”.
@lynn: Some light reading for you:
https://www.iso.org/standard/82170.html
Gag me with a spoon, fork, knife, and what ever else I can cram in there.
These documents are written by the language lawyers and not fit for the common man.
capsaicin vs. rodents:
I lived a long time where we had black squirrels. They would eat everything I put out for the songbirds. I tried the “hot peppers in the bird feed” trick, but they loved it even more. Spraying the freshly carved pumpkins with capsaicin would make it into jerk pumpkin, apparently. At least we never had to deal with “melted pumpkins” when we lived there – all evidence of the pumpkins would be gone long before that.
And, yes, I eventually got the “Squirrel Buster” feeders. They have worked for me.
The only way the EV kabuki continues past the debacle of the Jesus Truck debut is forcing the issue at gun point via some combination of taxation and regulation which makes regular cars and trucks just as expensive and inconvenient.
SCOTUS has really screwed the next election up with dropping the federal mandates on abortion. There are evidently a number of single issue voters out there that are going to vote for Biden no matter what to get this fixed by packing the court.
But, there are also a number of voters who are very unhappy about the government spending and inflation, especially the spending on electric crap.
I am betting that the amount of fraud in the coming 2024 election will make your head swim.
Now it looks like SCOTUS is going to go after the federal marriage mandate. That should get the pink hat wearers good and riled up.
My 2013 Highlander has about 145K miles on it. At 130K miles I was supposed to have the coolant changed, brake fluid changed, and transmission fluid changed. When I went in for the 140K oil changed I was advised those were missed by the service advisor.
An expected $100.00 oil change and service, 1 hour at most, turned into a 6 hour stay at the dealership and a bill of $1,700.00. I trust the dealer and have for many years. They have never led me astray and have in fact stepped up the plate in a couple of cases when they made a mistake. I trust them more than I would other dealers and third party repair places. Worth the extra cost to me.
My 2008 Avalon (really liked that vehicle for traveling) required new plugs at some point. Apparently the plugs are very difficult to reach on that V6 engine. I had to drop the car off in the evening so the mechanic could change the plugs the next morning. Where the plugs are the mechanics will burn themselves on a hot engine. I think each plug was $20.00 just for the part.
I do regular vehicle maintenance on all my vehicles when the maintenance is due. Lessons learned on the farm that maintenance is critical to allow a machine to live a useful life. My uncle was not so good at that. He used recycle oil (Engine Chief) or something like that in the tractor motors. Those engines are not high compression, high speed, but the engines do work hard. Cheap arsed oil was not their friend.
As I said yesterday, too many vowels.
My hero is Clark, of Lewis & Clark, who was spelling’s free spirit:
“One researcher discovered that Clark spelled the word Sioux “no less than twenty-seven different ways.” Little can be promised in the way of consistency, for no rule can stand against Clark’s inimitable style.”
If you haven’t done the timing belt, get it replaced along with the water pump ASAP.
Are the spark plugs original? If so those need to be replaced as well.
On the 4 cyl Camry platform plugs are an easy DIY, but 6 cyl will require removal of the intake manifold to get at the back three so you will want to take it somewhere unless you are up for a challenge.
Get Denso Iridium plugs.
The plugs are just fine, it starts very well. I am sure that the timing belt was changed by the previous owner as claimed. I did have the water pump and a/c evaporator changed, that was a quick $4,000.
“BREAKING: Explosion Reported, Vehicle Was Entering US from Canada at Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls”
https://rumble.com/v3x9r5e-breaking-explosion-reported-vehicle-was-entering-us-from-canada-at-rainbow-.html
And so it starts.
and
https://pjmedia.com/paula-bolyard/2023/11/22/breaking-explosion-reported-at-us-canada-rainbow-bridge-border-crossing-n4924154
“Moment vehicle on Rainbow Bridge flies through the air before exploding at US immigration checkpoint as FBI terrorism task force searches ‘luggage’ found inside: Two vehicle occupants killed”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12781031/Explosion-Rainbow-Bridge-Niagara-Falls-Governor-closes-FOUR-international-border-crossings-Canada.html
Airborne ? Really ?
Meh. The Dominion machines were always going to go for Biden. The abortion ruling has no effect on thaht.
Packing the Court is just a carrot. The Dems aren’t actually going to do it.
If they were going to do it, they had the opportunity between Jan. 2021 and the beginning of this year. The abortion decision was telegraphed well in advance, and only a simple majority vote was required in the House and Senate.
Filibuster? Please. Cowards. They won’t eliminate that either.
“Bone Broth” sounds like a foo-foo name for the “stock” you can make by simmering turkey bones along with the skin and kneecaps and the neck and whatever else in in that package of mysteries.
When we cook a turkey we put a bunch of carrots and celery and garlic inside with half of a big onion. The turkey is rubbed down with butter and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Then wrapped in foil, about 5 or 6 layers. Into a roasting pan and into the oven. The oven is set to turn on at 1AM and off at 4AM. Temp is set to 450F. Come about 10AM it’s cool enough to handle. You know if it’s right if the ribcage lifts out in one piece. Get a big bowl for meat. A stock pot for all of the rest.
I add an onion, some garlic, more carrots and celery (just to use them), maybe an apple if there is one on the the counter looking poorly. Plenty of salt and pepper. Low simmer all day. Taste after it’s had time for the neck and mystery parts to have had time to cook. More salt? Almost always. Simmer some more. Turn it off before going to bed and move the back burner. No need to tempt the beagle. Don’t take the lid off…. it’s sterile in there.
Turn the heat on and simmer some more the next day. Dip out the remaining bones and then strain out the silt. Bones to the freezer until trash day. Silt to the chickens if you have any, otherwise into a bag to be frozen until trash day. The broth goes back on simmer. Season to taste. Then tip the lid to let the steam out and cook it down about halfway. About the time you get to halfway, it’s time for bed. Back onto the back burner for the night.
Simmer more, tweak the flavor. Turn it off and let it cool enough to handle, not enough for the fat to rise. Then ladle into four cup zip-lock (or brand of your choice) plastic “disposable” tubs and into the fridge overnight. Then into the freezer. Vac seal your frozen bricks of broth that have about a quarter inch of turkey fat on top and stash in the deep freezer.
Come January use a brick of broth to make Tony Rama’s Baked Potato Soup. Good eats.
Totally cool view of the Starship taking off last Saturday:
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1726425687299358872
Look at all of the 33 ? rocket motors on the Booster. That is a beast !
Moment vehicle on Rainbow Bridge flies through the air before exploding at US immigration checkpoint as FBI terrorism task force searches ‘luggage’ found inside: Two vehicle occupants killed”
Hmmm.
Tremblor switch engaged?
Deadman switch let go too soon?
Some IED countermeasures at border?
They tried to use that weirdly sensitive crystal explosive recipe (that RBT suggested was planted by the authorities) from the Anarchists Cookbook?
“Biden safety agency pushes tech that could remotely control the speed of your car”
https://www.bizpacreview.com/2023/11/22/biden-safety-agency-pushes-tech-that-could-remotely-control-the-speed-of-your-car-1414577/
“President Joe Biden’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is pushing for regulations mandating technology that automatically lowers the speed of all new cars, according to a recent press release.”
“The technology, known as “intelligent speed assistance” (ISA), tracks vehicle locations and matches them with the corresponding speed limits, according to the press release. At the very least, the NTSB is advocating for ISA systems that issue warnings to speeding drivers, but the technology can also make it increasingly challenging or impossible to go over the speed limit.”
What could go wrong ?
@SteveF
Shouldn’t that be One Year Closer?
Also, there’s this: https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/border-patrol-thwarts-coordinated-4-vehicle-border-rush-hodgdon-maine
There’s a lot going on.
Almost forgot: https://metro.co.uk/2023/11/22/eating-red-meat-dairy-reduces-cancer-risk-scientists-discover-19862991/
If you read the article, at the end it reminds us that someday Science! might find similar compounds in plants. Because Science! can’t admit meat might be good for you.
Lunch at Taco Bell, lighting farts.
>> “Memes that made me laugh 186”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/11/memes-that-made-me-laugh-186.html
Now that is an Art teacher !
Forget the hallways, how about these?
https://bbs.boingboing.net/t/painting-freaky-illusions-on-the-road-as-virtual-speed-bumps/151475
The BMW X5 we had in Wisconsin would not allow cruise control to be set for any speed higher than the speed limit. The vehicle tracked speed limit using a built-in map system.
If you wanted to set a speed above the posted limit for the road, you had to first press Set and then raise the number using the rocker control, which was not intuitive.
ANTI didn’t come from the Anarchist Cookbook. At least, it wasn’t in the edition I owned many years ago.
The recipe which was extremely dangerous in that book was good old Nitro made with a seriously unstable exothermic process which, according to rumor, originated with the BATF.
Probably just me conflating different things.
They couldn’t have hoped for much, coming the wrong way at high speed. Maybe they decided to abort and the handler pushed the button…
n
ANTI came from “The Poor Man’s James Bond” by Kurt Saxon.
An infamous incident on the old Letterman NBC program was Saxon blowing off several fingers making ANTI during rehearsal prior to a scheduled appearance on the show that evening.
>> Deion Sanders thinks Mount Rushmore is in Los Angeles before the confused Colorado head coach has to be corrected by reporters
Gotta cut him some slack…they do look almost identical…right?! Plus he was probably wearing sunglasses…
Real bone broth is made in a slow cooker (24 hours). You want to get all the marrow, some bone, and cartilage to dissolve. Or buy some high-priced stuff if you want good BB.
Bone broth made from a powder sucks.
>> Moment vehicle on Rainbow Bridge flies through the air before exploding at US immigration checkpoint as FBI terrorism task force searches ‘luggage’ found inside: Two vehicle occupants killed”
According to CNN, (only network not talking about the hostage swap,) the occupants were a husband and wife who were coming from a casino after their original plans (attending a KISS concert) were canceled. Car purported to be a $300K Bentley.
>> If you or someone else could use some new “Dad Joke” material, might I recommend both of these newly-published books? Paperback only – at a reduced price (about $1.00 off regular price).
@RickH, just picked up the two “Dad” books…always on the lookout for fresh material.
Coach Prime came crashing back to Earth in a hurry.
Still, he trashed TCU’s season and taught the NCAA about the possibilities of the transfer portal.
Texas State’s use of the portal has been far more effective in a traditional program style.
“Taylor Varga” by mp3.1415player
https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/taylor-varga-worm-luna-varga.32119/
“Taylor Varga” is a fan fiction fantasy story inspired by “Luna Varga”, a four episode 1990s Japanese Anima which can be seen around the internet if you try hard. Here is the trailer for Luna Varga:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sgY-i1JSJs
“Taylor Varga” is also inspired by “Worm”, a online fantasy web serial that I have bounced off a couple of times, that was completed in 2013. I may try again some day. They say that a working understanding of Worm is needful to understand the story line but I managed without it. I just did not like the desperation of Taylor in that story.
https://parahumans.wordpress.com/
Taylor Varga is 307 chapters, 1.9 million words, started in 2016, and is not finished in 2022. Or, is it finished ? No one really knows. The author says not but has not published any new chapters in over a year.
I found the story totally interesting after a crazy start of a fifteen year girl, Taylor Hebert, being tormented to death by three maniac girls. Taylor is rescued and merged with Varga, an impossibly old five hundred foot tall dinosaur who casts magic spells right, left, and sideways. Taylor has the changer ability to manifest as little or as much of Varga as she wants to, the minimum being a reptile tail that she hides using magic. The result is a double helping of snark with two sides of snark also.
Note that Taylor’s Earth is incredibly different from our Earth. Three very large beings called Endbringers are constantly attacking the various populations of Earth, killing many people, and destroying cities. Also of note is that fact that many of the citizens of Earth have been triggered into becoming “capes”, super humans with various powers, that fit in several superhero or supervillain groups.
Also note that Sufficient Velocity is the fourth and final place where Taylor Varga was written. The story apparently started at Space Battles,
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/taylor-varga-worm-luna-varga.398991/
and then moved to An Archive Of Our Own:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/7830346/chapters/17874580
and Fan Fiction:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12404721/1/Taylor-Varga
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
@EdH
You know what Clark said to his critics…
>> Moment vehicle on Rainbow Bridge flies through the air before exploding at US immigration checkpoint as FBI terrorism task force searches ‘luggage’ found inside: Two vehicle occupants killed”
According to CNN, (only network not talking about the hostage swap,) the occupants were a husband and wife who were coming from a casino after their original plans (attending a KISS concert) were canceled. Car purported to be a $300K Bentley.
That absolutely makes no sense whatsoever.
@Lynn
and this makes sense?
November 22, 2023
Revisionist Thanksgiving histories and the left’s fraudulent “science”
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/11/revisionist_thanksgiving_histories_and_the_lefts_fraudulent_science.html
We do need a “racial reckoning”, wherein we kick crap like her out of our country.
Beavers and Wolves: A Follow-up
Guest Essay by Kip Hansen — 23 November 2023
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/11/22/beavers-and-wolves-a-follow-up/
Exactly my thought as I read the article, and a diametric counterpoint to the previous post discussing the vomitous iblathering of the “social science writer”.
There’s a reason they designed college campuses to keep that crap away from real science. We need a Real Men Cult of Thermo to chase them back to their academic ghetto, and some serious sanctions on any architect or HVAC engineer that works on that side of campus. They know so much about science, let them design their own buildings.
>> “President Joe Biden’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is pushing for regulations mandating technology that automatically lowers the speed of all new cars, according to a recent press release.”
“The technology, known as “intelligent speed assistance” (ISA), tracks vehicle locations and matches them with the corresponding speed limits, according to the press release. At the very least, the NTSB is advocating for ISA systems that issue warnings to speeding drivers, but the technology can also make it increasingly challenging or impossible to go over the speed limit.”
What could go wrong ?
Not much when all we have to ride around on are skateboards. Longboards for the portly folks.
Maybe he took Bentley ‘Flying Spur’ name too literally…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12781829/niagara-bridge-usa-canada-terrorism-explosion-gambling.html
@Lynn
and this makes sense?
Sure, it is fantasy. It is escapism and I need some escape right now.
“USS Thomas Hudner Downs Multiple Drones Launched from Yemen”
https://news.usni.org/2023/11/22/uss-thomas-hudner-downs-multiple-drones-launched-from-yemen
“USS Thomas Hudner (DDG-116) shot down multiple one-way attack drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, U.S. Central Command announced on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, Wednesday night.”
“This is the second time Thomas Hudner shot down drones launched from Yemen in two weeks. The guided-missile destroyer also shot down a drone in the Red Sea on Nov. 15, USNI News previously reported.”
“Thomas Hudner shot down the drone while on patrol in the Red Sea. No injuries or damage were reported. CENTCOM did not provide additional details.”
Unreal.
Sujata Gupta is a fine Irish name.
Colonization is well under way.