Cool, dreary, and possible rain today. Yesterday almost made it to drizzle, but not quite. As I drove around I might have almost seen some sun, and the occasional bit of moisture seemed to hit the windshield, but neither ever really developed into anything. Today is forecast to actually possibly maybe rain. Gah.
As noted above, I spent part of the day driving around doing auction stuff. Dropped off some stuff. Picked up some stuff. Still have stuff to pickup from this week, but that’ll have to wait ’til Friday.
Because today I’m headed to my remaining client’s house to do some service work. There are a couple of TVs with image issues that need to be replaced, and one bit of control system service that has been on the list for a long time that I hope to get to this visit. We still have a list of unfinished projects and some upgrades left to do, but hey, everyone has budget constraints. And other constraints like not wanting to be in attics when it’s 140F in there…
I’ll take a look at the network stuff, and cameras, and run updates against all of it, if I don’t run into issues with the TVs. I need to be home to get D1 from school, so that puts a limit on my work day. Which is good and bad. I usually end up with a long day at my client’s as there is stuff I can do, and I like to meet with him to go over the current and upcoming work, when he gets home from work. Unless he’s working from home today, I will have to leave before then. We’ve got a long history, and a lot of trust, so it won’t be an issue, but it’s always good to get some face to face time for relationship management. Relationships matter. Especially when you are alone in someone’s home for days at a time.
Trust and trustworthiness are vitally important in all areas of your life, particularly when ‘the chips are down’. Strive to build both in your life. That is something you can stack, that doesn’t usually cost money…
For all the rest, spend what you have to, and stack.
nick
Texas sold its soul to The Death Star in exchange for fiber. Randal the Rat (former CEO) and John Stankey (current CEO – I’m not having fun with the name) were content to let the state marinate in the glory of bonded DSL that is Uverse until the politicians met the terms.
Pricing largely depends on whether cable modem service or competing fiber services are available.
I don’t subscribe to The Death Star’s fiber service, but it would be $80/month for 1 G up/down at my house.
I’m on a very special “Do Not Call” list as a grumpy ex-employee. I doubt I could easily get Death Star fiber installed at this point.
It looks like we are in one of those oscillating weather patterns with weeks significantly above seasonal average followed by weeks below.
How can they justify prices like that?
– it’s a business plan, not consumer. There is a legacy difference where they assume consumers are using only a fraction of their available bandwidth, and not constantly, but that a business uses the full capability that they provision, 24/7. The business plan is supposed to more accurately reflect the true cost of the provisioned service, while the consumer plans assume fractional and intermittent use.
The consumer plan is the pricing that is crazy low, not the business plan being crazy high. That’s the history and assumption anyway.
There are also differences in how much bandwidth is actually guaranteed, what services you can run on it, ie web or email hosting, and whether or not you get a fixed IP address.
My client pays something similar for his business fiber to the home, has a fixed IP, and it was provisioned thru ATT business services.
Also consumer rates are subsidized by their spying… cough…. data aggregating which they sell. ATT fiber at my house makes it VERY difficult to opt out of their tracking, you must use their DNS at the router level, they can and do intercept any “not found” requests and show you an ad page when you get one (without opting out). As far as I know, they aren’t doing the same level of spying on business customers.
n
That’s just nasty. An ISP should be nothing but a dumb pipe…
Dreary, middle 60s and light misty drizzle.
Distant thunder and lightning, with a chance of hail. Joy.
n
#STH#S%$N%{@!@$# Just lost a very long comment. Not a server error; my internet connection dropped just before I clicked submit. My own stupid fault for not copying the content before clicking, as I usually do.
The salient point was that if you have livestock, you’re tied to them. Some gear, like a powered coop door, can help, but they need to be cared for daily. Nick’s refrain of “meatspace!” might help, too, if you have reliable and capable neighbors.
(I don’t have reliable and capable neighbors. My one neighbor would surely be willing to check on my birds daily, but he’s lost three flocks of chickens and one of ducks because he wasn’t careful enough about protecting them from predators. I’m not sure as I want him helping.)
A VPN client used to be against the terms of service for residential broadband.
It may still be a violation but with selective enforcement.
Guaranteed uptime will be a huge difference.
Death Star Fiber and Death Star legacy copper/DSL are two different providers.
Some of the houses in my neighborhood have wiring and infrastructure from three different phone providers and up to six different sources for TV.
Fortunately, I’ve only had two phone providers and three TV systems at my house.
Normally, I can manage the internal wiring rearrangement myself, but the siding subcontracting morons who worked on our place over the last month had third world standards and I now have another soured contractor relationship because I insisted that all of the coax remain exposed. The job was nearly done when I raised the issue of having the wires pulled out of the walls.
Yeah, they pulled the wires, but I have a cr*p siding job at one corner of the house where they just sawed into the boards rather than doing it right with new siding.
This. Heck, it’s a problem with our dog. He’s honestly a bit crazy – and I mean that medically. He’s scared of too much, sometimes completely unexpectedly. For example, a hand moving towards him can set him off, even if it’s to pet him or hand him a treat. When he’s scared, he snaps. Not meaning to bite, just to warn, but he has still nailed a couple of people (including two dog trainers who didn’t believe us).
He used to sleep on the bed, but you make a sudden movement in your sleep, and: snarl, growl, snap. Great way to wake up in the middle of the night. So now he sleeps in his crate.
Which means: there aren’t many people we would trust to take care of him.
We’ve talked about re-homing him, but: who would take him, with this problem? Really, that’s just an indirect way of putting him down. Which just doesn’t seem right – he’s healthy, smart, playful, a lot of fun. Just…freaky.
I currently have three ISPs: Frontier DSL, T-Mobile 5G, and a WISP. Not sure about T-Mobile, but the other two let me select DNS servers. I have also used my own routers, with the ISP’s routing turned off. The T-Mobile is just used as an experiment for TV streaming, but is currently turned off because it has low bandwidth issues during peak times. Don’t know if I will keep it.
Two are as close to a dumb pipe as I can get. I wonder what Frontier fiber will provide, IF it ever gets to me. Currently a year away.
My copper based landline currently has voice service down, but DSL is fine. It is always something. They were supposed to have fixed it on Monday, but nothing happened.
OTOH, we have light road traffic, even during rush minute.
brad, our experience with cats and dogs has been just fine. Most were strays that adopted us, and were grateful to have a home.
The last was a feral cat we agreed to take from a neighbor to save from going to almost certain death at the pound. We were a little reluctant about that, but he only took two weeks to tame, and spent 16 wonderful years with us. Never had a better pet. Goes to show.
We are sadly petless, but looks as if we will stay that way due to other commitments. It is nice to visit friends’ pets.
Frontier is bankrupt. The company became telecom’s dumping ground, mostly legacy GTE postage stamp-sized territories.
Ever since my first posting here about the “$20 Reebok” fascination among my generation, I get at least one email a week from Reebok, specifically advertising the Classic line.
One just arrived a few minutes ago.
The sneakers aren’t priced at $20, but the price tags aren’t $100+ like they were 40 years ago.
High-speed internet options have changed a lot around here in 20 years. We went from Cox (cable provider) being the only high-speed Internet, to CenturyLink (local phone company that has morphed from Ma Bell to US West to Qwest to CenturyLink over the decades) offering up lame DSL then eventually fiber. Now, we also have Allo fiber and Great Plains Communications fiber. Not too bad for our semi-rural suburb.
I know that all too well, but they bought CA, TX, and FL, and have Bidden bux for rural areas like mine. They are busy installing infrastructure, and their ratings are decent, with low prices. That potential is better than any previous incumbent at my site. Frontier is also easier to work with than any of the previous incumbents. Maybe that is a sign of how bad things are.
When we built our house in 1977, the incumbent was Contel, and they were very good, although they weren’t expanding much in our area. GTE took our area, and things went downhill. They didn’t do much maintenance, and it showed. Verizon took over. They had lots of $$, and promised fiber to the home, but never delivered. Service was lackluster, although I was able to get DSL to our site, which sure beat a modem. That took some doing, and handshakes. It has been workable.
Meanwhile, CATV and its reasonably fast Internet, came within one block of us, and will “never” be extended because of “rules.” Even so, it is Mediacom, and they have a middling-to-bad reputation. I have worked with them on a commercial site I supported, and almost dumped them, but they cleaned up our installation, which was simple but bureaucratic. It took some real arm-twisting. They would be my last resort if they ever become available. I think cable is dying.
I wish Frontier the best, and have to count on them. At least I have alternatives. A friend got Starlink, but dropped it because of… dropouts. Not quite ready here. Data over fixed 5G looks promising, but T-Mobile is the only company with unlimited data and decent prices. That said, there are backhaul limited, and suffer from congestion at peak times. If they enhance their service, they will be the best until fiber arrives. I hope I live that long.
Same for a paved street to my house, but that is another story…
Supposedly the area around my BOL is getting fiber to the home as part of the new rural electrification drive. There is grant money earmarked.
I’ll believe it when I can light it up. I expect years to pass before it gets to my little neighborhood of 150 lots. Half don’t have houses, and half of those are probably just ‘weekenders’. There isn’t any incentive to provide the service, even with grant money.
A better bet was to try for a grant to get the fiber extended to our fire station as part of a Homeland Security or FEMA program. Once it was in the neighborhood, it would be a lot easier to convince a carrier to light it up and extend to each house.
At one point, there was a ‘fixed wireless’ provider that served the area, but they went broke. We’re too far and too old for DSL. So our choices are Hughesnet, another satellite provider, starlink, or a cell service. And the cell service is 4G LTE at BEST, with boosters.
Homes in the area sell for $500k to 800k if they’ve been updated in any way, there just aren’t enough of them close together.
n
I’m betting he meant “fair game” for sexual objectification, not violence or criticism. There’s nothing to criticize unless he means “make fun of”.
n
Time to lock and load one 30-round magazine:
Shocking moment TikToker tells illegal immigrants how to ‘invade’ American homes and invoke squatter’s rights as provocative video is viewed almost 4million times
Someone can squat in your summer home, and you have to “legally” start eviction procedures? Eff, no! Hire the four Indian guys with baseball bats.
I have had livestock and pets, and they do tie you down. Dogs, goats, sheep, and donkeys, mainly. The peacocks, not so much, since I was actually hoping for predators to eat them… But you can’t just hop on a plane and go away for 2 weeks on a whim.
Now that I’m looking for a BOL, I was seriously considering a chicken coop for the eggs. And maybe some meat, but I am untrained on harvesting it, and not really fond of chicken meat anyway. But it’s very efficient and conveniently sized.
But the BOL will mostly be a weekend place until the SHTF. So the best I can do is a little weekend gardening and plan on beginning my flock of hens after the SHTF. Which is not a great plan, but I suppose better than nothing.
On of my first ‘adult’ jobs was for a construction company that specialized in gentrification of run down properties in Chicago.
They used fire as a motivator. Since they were going to gut the building anyway, they weren’t too concerned about damage, and that attitude apparently came across, strongly.
One guy was telling a story about how “they poured out of the windows like roaches when the lights came one” once the fire was lit. This is the way the real world works. Think about that the next time you read about a homeless squatter starting a fire in an abandoned building…
n
My AT&T story follows.
The year is 1985. I’m working for a bank which is part of a five state network, all using high-speed leased lines. I believe they were 1200 baud. We had many offices linked in the network, and a network department with a very sophisticated network monitor (for the time). We leased lines from a variety of vendors, including Western Union and AT&T.
It was a regular occurence that a line would go down, and our monitor would let us know. The monitor would also let us know, I’m told, exactly where the disconnect happened. That is, did it drop or hang up inside the bank? At the switching office? At a distant switching office? At the termination? And so forth.
If it was in-house or at the terminal end, we’d reset the equipment and usually fix it, since it wasn’t the line that was the issue.
If it was anything else, it was the carrier’s problem, and we’d give them a call.
For everyone but AT&T, the dialog was like this: “We’re having a problem with line XYZ.”
“Oh, ok. Let’s test it out. Oh, I see. We’ll reset it. Does it work now?”
“Yes.”
“Great! Talk to you later.”
But for AT&T, it went like this:
“We’re having a problem with line XYZ”
“That’s impossible. AT&T has 100% uptime guaranteed. The problem must be with your equipment. But just to be sure, we’ll test the line. Ok, no problem found. Reset your equipment.”
Oddly enough, when they “tested” their line, it was just like the reset the other vendors did. But the liars at AT&T could pretend it was a cusstomer problem, and they could claim 100% uptime.
and to this day they still act like this. Just last December I encountered this same attitude from them Right before the Christmas weekend. Had to have a crew come in on Saturday to make up for lost work. Becomes a real issue when the phones and the internet are on the same fiber.
I just noticed my typo, and I like it. “cusstomer”.
Yeah, I don’t get that at all. Just today I was reading an article about some woman in New York, whose mother passed away. In the course of things, she left her mother’s house unattended for a few weeks. Squatters moved in. When they were away, she put in a sturdy front door and changed the locks. She – the owner – was arrested for “unlawful eviction”.
If I could catch the squatters out for a few hours, I could imagine tossing all their stuff into the nearest dumpster, and moving in myself. Have a few large friends over to visit for the day, or for a few days. Be prepared to call the police about the violent criminals trying to break into the house. Might be wise to have a gun or three for home defense.
On second thought, that may be more of a SteveF solution.
I’m sure there is some fine print. When I commuted by train in Scotland, ScotRail claimed something like “97% punctuality”. In the course of a year, with my weekly commute, I arrived on time…I think it was twice. Turns out the punctuality claim had some fine print: “barring circumstances beyond our control”. Which was apparently just about everything…
I was at GTE when the Contel people came in as part of the merger. I thought most of them were useless and arrogant.
A lot of institutional knowledge disappeared, however, when most of that group early retired when rates hit a relative peak in the mid 90s.
Call the police? What part of “shut up” don’t you understand?
When I was a teen, a small group of local scumbags came into our house. My mom and I told them to get the hell out while my brother called the police. No police came and the scumbags didn’t leave, so after a while I got out one of my swords, really just a dagger with pretensions, and ran them out of the house. Then the police showed up … because the scumbags had called to complain about being threatened with a weapon.
The lesson: Kill everyone. Dispose of the bodies or just walk away, as appropriate. Say nothing.
In scab training for customer service roles we were told to never admit an error, especially with regard to billing.
According to friends who worked in that department, about a third of GTE bills were wrong in the late 90s. Just giving the credits was cheaper than fixing the code, even when COBOL skills were still available and being trained at GTE Data Services.
A lot of it comes down to definitions. “Punctual” might mean “Not more than 30 minutes late”. Plus, of course the “barring circumstances” escape clause.
Re: house squatters – several articles about a guy that helps.
In memory of RBT, it’s 58℉ and sunny in Sparta, North Carolina. 🙂
This is a strike year at the Death Star so don’t expect the usual mediocre service until August or so, when the contracts get signed.
The company broke the union in the 2009 negotiations, but 15 years is a very long time.
Plus, there is always the rumor that California will get dumped on Frontier once the ink is dry on the new contract, but that has been the rumor for more than a decade.
The squatter story – The problem is “squatters’ rights” laws that are exclusive the NYC. Even the rest of New York state are more reasonable, and in the rest of the country, there are very LIMITED “squatters rights”. This story pertains to New York CITY.
Frontier DSL is down here. Frontier Fiber is down at my brothers, 15 miles away.
Oddly Verizon cellular has dropped to one bar as well. I would expect people to jump on it when their Internet goes down, and for latency to go way up, but I’m not sure why the signal strength would drop.
It did exactly the same thing about a month ago during a windstorm.
Current estimate is up to 8 hours for service restoration.
they are not exactly a “5 nines” kind of company.
Two nines, maybe.
The wind has been a bit brisk today. Blew the run’s door open despite the latch. When the door was open, most everything on the ground was blown to the downwind end. The birds were huddling as best they could in a “wind shadow”, not enjoying it. Of course, they could have gone into the cage under the coop, which is strong and has cardboard on the upwind side, but I guess they didn’t think of that. I piled a bunch of bricks on the leeward side to keep the door shut, which is working for now.
I had them out for about an hour earlier in the afternoon. They came out of the run during a brief lull, but the wind caught them as they were walking to their favorite sunning/scratching spot at the front of the house. They looked like little puffballs with their feathers poofed out. It’s seasonably chilly, right around freezing for the afternoon, with a steady 15mph wind, with gusts up to maybe 30. I sat in my van and worked most of the time, keeping an eye on them and noting how the wind rocked the 4500-pound vehicle. It about an hour they decided that enough was enough and headed home without hardly any encouragement. (Meaning that they headed toward their run but as they went around the east side of the house, the wind was mostly blocked and they thought maybe they’d just stand around for a bit.)
re Stranger Things season 4, IIRC someone here said that it was pretty good. I started to watch it and the first five minutes were not encouraging. Does it get better? Am I misremembering the opinion of the season? Could it be that someone pranked me? (“Hey, if I had to watch that monumental pile of crap, I’m not going to be the only one suffering!”)
My policy of grocery shopping on an empty stomach may, just may, have led me astray last night. At Aldi I got a ham and some sausages and some tater tots and such, mostly for the teens though I’ll eat them too. At Sam’s Club I got a chuck roll (a subprimal cut at about 20#; butchers will cut this down into a chuck eye, denver steaks, and what-not) and 10# of bacon and about ten pounds of chicken bites. That’s just the stuff that needs to be cooled. There was a lot more. Mostly it’s no problem; put it on the shelves and don’t sweat it. But I don’t have freezer space for all of the meat. The only saving grace is that the temperature dropped so I can leave things in the garage before I open the package.
As usual, I’m asking myself, how did Anthropogenic Global Warming cause me to do this?
Most broadband is not “5 nines”, even DSL over the old copper line.
Fiber and cable modem service? Fuggedaboutit.
That’s crazy talk. Geez. That’s exactly what we have, for about $70/month. In our little town of 400 souls.
How can they justify prices like that?
You are in town. I am not in town. Very simple to understand.
Also, way different levels of service. Their only offer to me is a business service line which some guarantees of service. You are on a residential line which has no guarantees whatsoever.
Bro pays $50/mo for fiber, I pay $130 for copper. >:((
“AOC Picks A Fight With Ted Cruz Over RICO Comments”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-picks-a-fight-with-ted-cruz-over-rico-comments
“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sparred with Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) over her recent comment claiming that RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) was in itself “not a crime.””
“Ocasio-Cortez made the initial statement during a Wednesday hearing before the House Oversight Committee regarding the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. She was attempting to argue the witness — former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski — into a corner by challenging him to name what specific crimes under the RICO umbrella he believed had been committed.”
AOC does not have a brain.
I can never decide if later seasons of Stranger Things are legitimately not as good or if the gap between seasons is so great that people lose interest. Everyone was on a Stranger Things high back in 2016/2017 and loving it, then there was that 2-year gap between seasons 2 and 3 and the ridiculous 3-year gap between seasons 3 and 4 and people were just like, “Meh, I’m over this.” Especially, when they’re only 8-episode seasons.
“Firing of Ohtani’s interpreter highlights how sports betting is still illegal in California”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/firing-ohtanis-interpreter-highlights-sports-210956710.html
“SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The firing of Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter by the Los Angeles Dodgers over allegations of illegal gambling and theft has highlighted an issue many outside of California don’t realize: Sports betting is still against the law in the nation’s most populous state.”
“Betting on sports has exploded in the United States since the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for states to legalize it. Thirty-eight states now allow betting on sports, and ads promoting bookmakers DraftKings and FanDuel are seemingly everywhere.”
“Sportsbooks salivate at the thought of gaining access to California’s 39 million residents, but the industry’s efforts thus far have failed.”
I have been wondering how online betting was made legal here in Texas. We don’t even allow the Native Americans in Texas to have casinos, people have to drive to Oklahoma or Louisiana.
“Justice Department files antitrust suit against Apple”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/justice-department-files-antitrust-suit-against-apple-145514025.html
“The US Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple (AAPL), alleging that the maker of the iPhone illegally maintains its dominance over the smartphone market by boxing out competing apps and devices.”
“Apple “has maintained its power not because of its superiority, but because of its unlawful exclusionary behavior,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference Thursday.”
“Apple said it would fight the lawsuit, which it said “threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets. If successful, it would hinder our ability to create the kind of technology people expect from Apple.””
Here we go again.
re Stranger Things season 4, IIRC someone here said that it was pretty good. I started to watch it and the first five minutes were not encouraging. Does it get better? Am I misremembering the opinion of the season? Could it be that someone pranked me? (“Hey, if I had to watch that monumental pile of crap, I’m not going to be the only one suffering!”)
Season 1 and Season 2 of Stranger Things were awesome. Then the kids got older and the story telling got darker. Season 3 is pretty good and Season 4 is … ok.
I hated it when Sean Astin was killed in S2. Apparently he requested a very bloody death and got one.
Facebook and Google want root access on the iPhone.
Dilbert Reborn on March 20, 2024: Robot Bigotry
https://www.reddit.com/r/dilbert/comments/1bjq20e/dilbert_reborn_march_20th_2024_posted_for_free_on/
Heh !
Rafael Edward is vulnerable and many people still want to get their strange on with The Squad.
“Vernor Vinge, father of the tech singularity, has died at age 79”
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2024/03/vernor-vinge-father-of-the-tech-singularity-has-died-at-age-79/
RIP. I always thought his “Peace War” novels were his best works. And his “Rainbows End” book was neat.
There is a real Cyberdyne, a Japanese company involved with AI in Japan.
And if you think Reese is going to materialize from the future and save us, he was killed by Woke in Season Two of “The Mandalorian”.
That was a cool scene, but I don’t agree with the symbolism about who is the future face of sci fi. Stuntman #12 inside the Mando suit?
“An interesting analysis of the US Army’s helicopter plans”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/03/an-interesting-analysis-of-us-armys.html
Everything is turning up drones.
“Has your personal data been exposed?”
https://www.malwarebytes.com/digital-footprint
“Get a free personal exposure report to your inbox. For best results, enter the email you use most often for your online accounts and subscriptions.”
They figured me out fairly well from my corporate email address.
VERY strange indeed!
Re Personal Information exposed…
Just got a report from Google One that my information was found on the “Dark Web”. Told me of the type of info found, and from where and when. Interesting report.
For instance it showed that my SSN, date of birth, phone number, passwords, user names, etc were exposed. It shows redacted info (with asterisks for part of the data). So, for a password, you can see if there is a possibility that one of your current passwords might be exposed. (Yes, I know all about strong passwords, password managers, not clicking on links, phishing, etc.)
Similar info can be found from the “Have I Been P0wned” site (https://haveibeenpwned.com/ ), but that site only checks for emails. The Google One report is a bit more extensive. Was interesting to see.
Yes, lets hand personal data to the company with the mailing address in Downtown Clearwater, Florida, a couple of blocks from Tom Cruise’s penthouse condo.
Nothing to worry about there.
Yes, I’ve noticed that the green pedos have started to move on from Frau Greta – insert sound of V8 engine grinding to a halt for the last time in a “Cash For Clunkers” termination procedure – in favor of the younger-looking Xiye Bastida.
Time to lock and load one 30-round magazine:
Shocking moment TikToker tells illegal immigrants how to ‘invade’ American homes and invoke squatter’s rights as provocative video is viewed almost 4million times
Someone can squat in your summer home, and you have to “legally” start eviction procedures? Eff, no! Hire the four Indian guys with baseball bats.
Or Clear the house with a .357 magnum. I usually Clear the office when I am going into the empty building and the alarm should be on.
I see a coming conflict between the citizens of the USA and many of the 35 million illegals. They want what the citizens have and do not see a need to do that legally. After all, they already broke the law by coming here without permission or overstaying a visa.
“About those calls for a ceasefire in Gaza…”
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/03/about-those-calls-for-ceasefire-in-gaza.html
“Whatever remains of Hamas in Gaza is mostly holed up in tunnels and in the southernmost city of Rafah, fat with food and weapons while the Arab residents of Gaza — we’re assured by the most trustworthy propaganda outlets — are either starved or slaughtered by genocidal Israeli soldiers.”
“But the ruin in the Gaza Strip is very real, and a World War II-style reminder of why it’s a bad idea to start wars with more powerful opponents. And yet a new poll shows that support for Hamas — and for murdering Jews — remains as strong as ever in what’s left of Gaza.”
I do not see Israel backing down at all.
@Nick
re:marinated pork loin
Picked up a couple more today for the freezer. Noticed the brand is Smithfield, not Hormel as I stated earlier.
There are several flavors with weights near 27 ounces, better than the 24 noted previously.
They are evidently adjusting some weighs downward. Galic and Herb showed two different package weights: one nearly 24 ounces, the other just under 20 ounces–about 17% less.
I can report that they reheat well, and look forward to a sandwich for lunch tomorrow.
“The Army—Yes, the Army—Is Sailing a Fleet to Build a Port Off Gaza”
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a60190821/the-armyyes-the-armyis-sailing-a-fleet-to-build-a-port-off-gaza/
“A fleet of Army ships from the 7th Transportation Brigade will establish a pier off the coast of Gaza, allowing ships to send food, medical supplies, and other aid to civilians living in the embattled area. As unusual as it sounds, the U.S. Army has ships and mariners prepared to facilitate the flow of equipment and supplies from ships to shore. The capability is meant to allow U.S. tanks and armored vehicles to come ashore where there are no ports.”
“The distance from Virginia to Gaza is approximately 6,000 miles, and the Army ships are not exactly fast, with a maximum average speed of about 12 knots. It will take about 25 days for the flotilla to reach Gaza.”
Your tax dollars at work.
https://mxmnews.com/article/5144df0c-ebca-4c8d-ab99-4708d5142eed?federal-judge-orders-fbi-to-release-manifesto-of-nashville-christian-school-trans-shooter
It was noted elsewhere that the victim’s families had joined one lawsuit in an effort to keep the documents secret.
If the FBI drags their feet, the judge should order Wray to appear with every FBI employee that’s been involved in the
investigationcover-up and every file entry, report, phone log, or other record where the case was a topic. and be prepared to discuss how much time has been spentinvestigatingcovering up in a case where the shooter is dead.Venezuelans are not Cubans.
Stanford Professor Behind California’s New Equity-Focused Math Curriculum Accused of Bogus Citations
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/03/21/stanford-professor-behind-californias-new-equity-focused-math-curriculum-accused-of-bogus-citations-n3785175
Our educational system is sick in many ways, and one of the longest-standing infections is directing truckloads of tax dollars to warehousing–not education as our public schools understood it for more than 100 years–the hopelessly retarded, violent, and otherwise unable to benefit.
Intelligence has more than one facet, but it’s convenient to discuss it in terms of the standard distribution of the bell curve. The reality is that people too far to the left of average have severely constrained abilities, yet we spend precious resources on training mundane tasks like shoe-tying as “education” when the “students” lose everything they have been taught over the weekend and have to start over on Monday.
Holding some eighth-graders back from learning in the perverted hope that it will level the playing field for the rest is foolish and criminal. It is not possible to legislate ability.
What is possible is to challenge the Democrat/union machine that holds public schools –particularly in the large cities–in a death-grip for political power, not to educate. Until we make the changes necessary to return public education to learning, making good citizens responsible for their own conduct and success, and sort out and promote the right-hand side of the bell curve that becomes our doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, philosophers, writers, and entrepreneurs, we are doomed to be less than we could be.
Only in New York CITY, where they have some bizarre “squatters rights” laws. Most of the rest of the country, they takes their chances on your good nature. But I’d recommend entering such a place with a gun handy; a lot of the squatters don’t wish to be evicted or arrested, and they’re sometimes prone to violence.
Only in New York CITY, where they have some bizarre “squatters rights” laws. Most of the rest of the country, they takes their chances on your good nature. But I’d recommend entering such a place with a gun handy; a lot of the squatters don’t wish to be evicted or arrested, and they’re sometimes prone to violence.
Depends on whether your state has a Castle Doctrine or the exact opposite, a duty to retreat.
Currently in Coeur d’Alene for a couple of nights. Have no idea what we will do or where we will go. We do have to be in Richland Washington on Sunday morning, then travel to Spokane, spend the night, then catch the flight home on Monday.
As noted before, the wife and I escorted our friend, the mother of a girl that is having, or rather had, shoulder surgery. The mother wanted to go to help but was apprehensive about flying and traveling. The wife and I went along and then went to my brother’s place.
My family is close and my relationship with my brother is no exception. We have no issues with each other so overall it was a good visit. The maximum time I wanted to stay was three days but it morphed into four days.
My brother’s wife was vaccinated and still caught Covid. It really borked her brain. My brother and his wife both stated that the wife got really weird and started doing significantly strange things. Whether that was from the vaccine or from Covid no one knows, or if they do, have not told my brother. I suspect the vaccine and Covid just made it worse.
My brother’s wife mental state got so bad she had to be admitted to a hospital and later to a mental facility. During that time she fell in love with someone else and wanted to divorce my brother. His response was that he would kill himself if she tried to divorce. Some experimental medicine was tried on the wife and it apparently worked and straightened things out. Her mental state is now normal from what I can tell from the short visit.
I was fairly stunned when I was told the story.
Anyway, I had stayed as long as I could tolerate at my brother’s house. The bed was not comfortable and sleeping was not really good. The brother tends to go off on his own tangents at times with some of his pursuits. It is also difficult to understand him as he tends to mumble. Between my hearing issues, the mumbling, and the wife’s talking, I only heard about half of what he said.
He would drive an hour just to get a special milkshake from some place that was 45 miles from his house. On the trip he took us to McCall, breakfast was not until 11:00 because he wanted us to try a restaurant he liked. Yeh, the breakfast was good, the quantities were enormous. But I was really getting hungry.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/21/the-polar-vortex-is-spinning-backwards/
Why am I not surprised that the MSM doesn’t have the headline:
Polar vortex reversal causes unprecedented high ozone levels
Update: Yes, We Have No Anthropocene!
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/03/20/update-yes-we-have-no-anthropocene/
Any use of the term should be met with a firm objection that it is a political construct, not a scientific label based on objective data.
That would be true even if the activist trash had the votes.
@Ray Thompson
I know some folks in Coeur d’Alene. If you give me some parameters I can ask for recommendations: shopping, restaurants, sightseeing?
Sightseeing. We are taking the lake boat trip.
Ya know, I really like civilization. Hot running water. Flush toilets. Showers. Pain meds and antibiotics. Reasonable personal safety. Exotic foods imported cheaply. Spices anyone can afford. A hugely varied diet. Entertainment and education that was unthinkable 100 years ago, available to anyone for pennies.
Only the most ignorant savages would want to end that.
n
No, thanks. Unsubscribing later is often nearly impossible.
Nope. Nor should they, at this point.