Nonsense. Like the weather. Cold again, but I’m hoping to sleep through it today. Warming to just jacket and long pants weather later in the day. Yesterday was moderately ‘wintery’ once the sun came up. Today should continue the warming trend. I did have a half inch of ice in the bin in the bed of the truck, and it was still there at 4pm, despite the warming.
Did my pickups. Did my kid stuff. Made crock pot brisket for dinner. I don’t like repeating the same thing so soon, but since I didn’t smoke it while at the BOL, it really needed to be cooked soon. And it was delicious.
Let the kid drive from school to my last pickup of the day. She still managed to not complete a right turn into a parking lot. Lots more time behind the wheel under different conditions is what is needed. My wife thinks she’s farther along than she really is and let her drive home from the BOL. I’ll try to find time today to set up a course and do some more work with her. If not today, then tomorrow. The trouble is finding someplace without people. Even at 4 am people are everywhere…
Everyone with kids goes through this, and it isn’t nerve wracking per se, but it’s a bit nervous making to realize how little actual skill and practice she has, or will have, when the state says it’s ok to turn her loose. And to realize her cohort, the ones that want to drive anyway, are in similar circumstances. Being near that high school when it lets out is probably the most dangerous part of my driving day. And that’s saying something because what I see every day during the couple of hours I spend crossing the city is stunning.
The influx of illegals hasn’t helped the tendency of Houstonians to abandon the rules of the road during weather disasters. It always takes a while for people to get back to normal after the disaster free for all, and the longer the disaster, the longer before the rules apply to everyone. Add 100K third worlders, who think traffic laws are for suckers, and it is getting noticeably worse. Enshitification is real and progressing.
Today I’ve got a couple of pickups in the same area that I’ll get. Then I’m doing home stuff. If the weather isn’t brutal, I might do some work on the truck. Otherwise, it’s indoor stuff for me. There is plenty of that to be done in any case.
And there are definitely stacks to tend to. Which I’ll get back to after spending some more time working to improve my situation.
nick
We didn’t go inside the center, only a quick trip to see the memoriabilia at the Murray Brothers.
That was disappointing enough. If you are a fan, visit the Florida restaurant in St. Augustine is a must-see, but Chicago/Rosemont is meh.
Awuful public art isn’t usually somone’s cousin or spouse. It is about the old women who make the decision getting their strange on with the “artist”, typically an off-white male.
What used to be the NationsBank building in Tampa has multiple bad pieces in addition to the building looking like the shaft of an uncircumsed male sex organ, but after the questionably legal takeover of Florida’s largest home-grown bank, NationsBank abandoned the eyesores and moved into Barnett Plaza, where, after more questionable acquisitions and mergers, Bank of America remains ensconced still.
Too big to fail!
In Texas, I’ve bee admonished not to make jokes about Furries within earshot of those acting out their “spirit animal”. In particular, no jokes in and around easy driving distance of College Station. Apparently, A&M alumni are into the scene on a large scale, and some are extremely wealthy, powerful.
Before you make any Robert Francis/Furry jokes, he went to Columbia undergrad.
To be fair, Murray Brothers Caddyshack opened during the pandemic, and, when we went there in 2023, the region was just starting to recover from lockdowns and Mayor Beetlejuice’s reign of idiocy in Chicago which voters had just put to an abrupt end in March. Not that the replacement is any better.
The Fall tourist season there was promising, probably for the first time since 2019, but then student loans resumed accruing interest in November and payments were once again due. $90 Billion/year right out of the US economy.
You could see the effect of that everywhere.
The Geico Gecko’s annual dose of simple homespun wisdom (formerly – ? – ghostwritten by Carol Loomis of Fortune) is here!
https://berkshirehathaway.com/2024ar/2024ar.pdf
I guess I know what I’m doing this morning. Well, in addition to a Sev. 1 ticket holding up validation of an important product because the actual lead on the project is incapable of reading code and log files with understanding.
That’s more accurate even though most of the world views the native-born US population’s tendencies toward politeness and law-abiding as weaknesses.
Recently, I’ve heard stories about middle-age ethnic Chinese immigrant women around Texas getting physically violent in crowds without provocation, favoring an elbow to the rib cage to work out … something.
Some kind of weird trend?
I asked my wife if it was something cultural, but she was clueless.
Strictly annecdotal for now, but the colonization continues.
Coffee is brewing. I’m vertical.
Wife got up early to drop eldest at school, so she can be a “volunteer” at a charity for the day. LOVE how the school’s need to teach volunteerism ends up obligating me and my resources. D2’s day at the food bank will cost me about an hour and a half of my life and $30 at IRS mileage rates. Plus tolls.
——–
Grey and cool, didn’t look at the thermometer when I started the coffee though. That sort of mentally taxing activity is for AFTER coffee…
n
BOMBSHELL Study: COVID Shots Cripple Immune System — Possibly Permanently
https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2025/02/22/bombshell-study-covid-mrna-shots-cripple-immune-system-possibly-permanently-n4937227
All of the medical professionals involved in this evil need to be stripped of their medical credentials, convicted as felons and forever denied the rights of citizens, beggared with all property going into victims funds, and then conspicuously and permanently branded for easy identification.
Hannity should be spit on so frequently that he drowns.
Asteroid Threat? X-Prize It
https://www.laughingwolf.net/2025/02/19/asteroid-threat-x-prize-it/
Four questions:
1) What is the effect of a “city killer” asteroid beyond the city?
2) Do we have to “nudge” it in advance of certainty, or can we accurately predict the time and point of impact sufficiently far ahead of time that we can wait?
3) Can we agree that a “nudge” that changes the point of impact to a different point of impact results in activation of the “full embargo” of the nudger, if not a full-on active destruction.
4) If the computed point of impact is a state supporter of terrorism or genocide, can we bill them for intervention and then harvest their organs when they don’t pay?
41F on this grey day. Foodstuffs from chicken, cow, pig, and some bean broth have improved my outlook, so it’s time to get the day started…
n
Cutie Pie has always been establishment safe.
A winnowing is taking place in radio away from the right, The San Antonio afternoon drive host, Joe Pags, lost his flagship station when I Heart Radio cancelled his show two days after the election.
Ironically, Pags was a replacement host for Hannity and may still be in the rotation,
I used some tall traffic cones to teach my Twins how to angle and parallel park in the high school parking lot after hours. They are Millennials and don’t particularly enjoy driving. However, I still have them drive me to the grocery store since I usually pay for their snacks.
I’m currently in Las Vegas to celebrate my 34th wedding anniversary* and to take care of our dogs while Mrs. Atoz and the crew are on gigs in Georgia, Colorado, Missouri, and California. D5 is staying in San Antonio to continue packing for our move and to watch the house during the Polar Vortex.
*For our anniversary, we’ll have a special dinner at a fancy restaurant followed by BINGO! until we can’t stay awake.
until we can’t stay awake.
– so about 9:30?
n
Heh. That’s mostly true for me. MrsAtoz is 70 and can still stay up 2 days straight. She needs a couple of days to recoup from that, but, geez, can she go.
On Bozo’s removing “download and transfer via USB” from Kindle:
Calibre now supports transfer of the kfx (virtual?) format books from Kindle 2024 devices. I have never used this feature, but have installed the “Input KFX” plugin in Calibre. I just pre-purchased the next book in a series I like coming out Mar 4 or so. I will use that to see if I can import from my Oasis to Calibre, remove DRM, and output to epub, then report back if it worked. If not, I will be on the High Seas looking for a copy for my Calibre library.
Anybody up to speed on downloading ebooks from Apple Books, Kobo, etc and getting them into Calibre? I haven’t researched this yet, but if possible, I’ll buy ebooks from them instead of Amazon. I hope this all backfires on Bozo’s and Kindle loses business.
I think both are fine. I have two units, the originals were both Carriers. I replaced one last year and one this year and went with Carrier again for both. The originals lasted 13-14 years, so a good life. I did several repairs myself. I went with Carrier again because it is easy to get parts.
I own two 10 year old Carriers at my house, a 3 ton and a 4 ton. I own a 21 year old 3.5 ton Trane, a 2 yr old Ruud 4 ton heatpump, a 21 year old Ruud 2 ton, and a unknown dead spilt at the office in 3 buildings.
In Texas, I’ve bee admonished not to make jokes about Furries within earshot of those acting out their “spirit animal”. In particular, no jokes in and around easy driving distance of College Station. Apparently, A&M alumni are into the scene on a large scale, and some are extremely wealthy, powerful.
I’ve never heard of this but lots of things happen at TAMU that I have no clue of.
“Red Lightning (A Thunder and Lightning Novel)” by John Varley
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Lightning-Thunder-Novel/dp/0441014887?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a four book space opera series. I reread the well printed and well bound MMPB book published by Ace in 2006 that I bought used on Amazon since most of my books are boxed in the garage. In fact, I have read this book at least four to six times now. I have two copies of the rest of the books in the series.
I am a big fan of the Heinlein books, especially the juveniles. This book is extremely inspired by the Heinlein juveniles but it is not a juvenile. Somewhere of a cross between the juveniles and “Stranger in a Strange Land” and “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress”. One note is that all of the characters in the book use names from Heinlein’s books. The book is dedicated to the memory of Don and Mary Stilwell, and to Jim, John, Jane, Joe, Janice, and Jerry.
The book is extreme hard science except for the squeezer technology that Jubal Broussard invents. Everything in the book is doable with today’s science and engineering, and will be done, if someone invents a cheap spaceship drive that can boost thousands of tons at one gravity from Earth to anywhere in the Solar System. Or, Alpha Centauri or anywhere else in the 5 to 20 light years away distance.
The book starts off with a space ship hitting the Earth at 0.999999 of light speed in the Atlantic off the coast of Florida. Millions dead with the 300 foot tsunami that washed over Florida and Caribbean. Then Jubal Broussard, the inventor of the Squeezer and in a virtual prison on the Falkland Islands, turns up missing. Jubal Broussard is the only person who can build a squeezer bubble generator and powerful people are trying to get control of him.
My review from the distant past: “Book number two of a four book space opera series. This is my second or third reread of this book, the sequel to one of my top ten all time favorite books. BTW, I would characterize this book as young adult SF but not juvenile SF. Generation starships need to have safety systems that do not allow them to hit the Earth if they get turned around. Just sayin’. I need a
squeezer generator !”
The author has a blog but has not posted there recently.
https://varley.net/
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (353 reviews)
Lynn
I watched another YT video on the Bozo’s Boocalypse. The guy mentioned Amazon has surreptitiously added to the “Click Here” button to puchase the disclaimer “By placing your order, you’re purchasing a license to the content and you agree to the …”. I checked and that is true. That used to be in the terms of use clause and you had to dig it out. Now they are saying “you don’t own an ebook, we do, so suck it.”
Man, I hope this really backfires. I’m definitely trying to import kfx from Kindle to Calibre via cable.
Trump Ends Deportation Protections for 500,000 Haitian Nationals
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/saraharnold/2025/02/22/trump-cancels-deportation-protections-for-half-a-million-haitian-nationals-n2652648
Somalis next.
” White House claims authority over FERC, other independent agencies”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/white-house-ferc-independent-agencies-executive-order/740310/
“Agencies must submit proposed regulations for White House review and agency policy must align with presidential priorities, according to an executive order.”
Apparently several federal agencies are telling the President that he has no power over them. This will not go well for the federal agencies.
There is no such thing as a independent federal agency according to the USA Constitution.
Over The Hedge: Surveillance
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2025/02/22
Oh yeah, it is fun to watch the animals in the middle of the night.
1. Depending on the size, could be the state or the region.
2. We cannot yet determine its exact size or orbit. We can’t even say that it will hit the Earth or not, so any prediction of the impact point is impossible.
3. Nope. With this much lead time, ANY “nudge” would likely cause a clean miss.
4. Can’t predict that closely.
Just have to turn up the suck then, so the object is drawn directly to the target…
n
https://acecomments.mu.nu/?post=413701
I suspect Andrew Jackson would appreciate DFD, and would know how to make trouble-free Palestinians.
Also features an X-post by John Ringo sorting out the different wings of the parties:
“Anything absolutely new is terrifying. And Jacksonianism is pretty scary. When we get mad, we don’t think in terms of ‘negotiated settlements.'”
LOL! Fracking Winning:
Elon Musk reveals the dire consequence if federal employees don’t respond to email asking ‘what they got done’
I don’t know if this will work, but the PLT heads are exploding from this edict from King Musk. I bet plenty of civil servants are relaxing in their jammies at home and check their Federal email once a week. When they see that at the 11th Hour, the tears will be flowing.
And, it looks like the woke commie Pope is not long for this Earth.
No Mr Atoz, is peronist
btw, I read with amusement the comments about ciber on gas plants. Time to reckon. Everyone says, we dont need cause our systems are isolated, control panels of turbines call manufactures, backdoors for maintenance from home are always (who wish to go 50 miles to check somenting?)
No one board wants to spend money changing PDP11 running RSX and buying spare parts on ebay.
time to swim naked ended
TeamViewer is usually at the center of infrastructure hacks here in the US.
“Peter Ridd: “The Greenhouse effect is bigger than you think – so don’t worry about it too much””
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/22/peter-ridd-the-greenhouse-effect-is-bigger-than-you-think-so-dont-worry-about-it-too-much/
“The greenhouse effect should already be cooking the world – but something keeps it tame.”
“The surface temperature would be at least 20C hotter than it is, if Greenhouse Gas was the only forcing which matters.”
“Regular readers of WUWT might already know the secret sauce which keeps the Earth’s surface survivable, but even if you already know the answer, Ridd has a gift for explaining context and complexity, so the video is still well worth watching.”
THIS ! The real effects of the greenhouse effect have yet be determined. Equating the planet Earth as a whole to a simple greenhouse is so naive as to be idiotic. We engineers put a mass and energy balance around any process that we want to model. Modeling the Earth is non-trivial and the models to date are not even close as exhibited by the presenter.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/02/22/trump-cuts-u-s-scientists-loose-from-ipcc-report-climate-juggernaut-takes-a-hit/
Step 2 in throttling $30 billion (IIRC) per year of pseudo-science.
Next steps:
Eliminate positions at NASA and NOAA.
Eliminate grants to universities.
Audit grants to universities and freeze funds wherever contractual requirements for archiving data and methods have not been met in current or past grants. Where papers based on those grants were published without the journal requirements for archiving data and methods being met, submit a corrigendum to the journals admitting the violation and establishing a timeline for correction which will either be met or the paper in question will be withdrawn.
Assign a team of auditors to investigate the accuracy of the NASA/GISS U.S. historical temperature records, account for all alterations to the data, identify and mark biased station data that did not meet siting or other requirements, and create a permanent public record based on historical readings without alterations.
Where alterations are found to have been made without a valid scientific basis, dismiss all people involved, revoke their pensions and recommend investigation by the DOJ with prosecution where appropriate.
If the Senate thermostat that was manipulated to defeat the air conditioning for James Hansen’s 1988 testimony still exists, remove it and create an exhibit in the Smithsonian identifying it as one of the wellsprings of the Global Warming Scam.
Went to see a musical at the high school that is recruiting D2. It was really good. Great production, great job on the kids’ part. I’ve been to professional theater that wasn’t as good. It helps that they rent a college theater, and that they are a private school with college level tuition…
Money won’t substitute for talent but it attracts it.
n