Tues. Mar. 18, 2025 – got thru a drunken holiday without even noticing…

By on March 18th, 2025 in culture, decline and fall

Cool and clear, warming later. Did I mention it was in the 40s yesterday morning? It did get to the high 70s, low 80s by late afternoon though. Kid thought it was a bit chilly at the bus stop. Beautiful, drive with the windows down, day. I’m hoping for another…

Did my site visit. Solved one issue, which was configuration in the control software, but the other issue was a dead TV. TCL with a few years on it, just not turning on anymore. We installed them knowing they were probably crep, and we got extended warranties, which we used many times. They were incredibly cheap and looked great for the money. They fail pretty much on schedule though in a rough environment. Indoors, climate controlled? They would probably last twice as long. I went by Costco to see about replacements.

The direct replacement, which is bigger, is only $239. It’s a Roku tv, full of spyware and data gathering, which subsidizes the cost of the hardware. The equivalent Sony was $499, and it’s a googleTV loaded with google’s spyware and monitizing software. We keep them off the network and don’t use the “smart TV” features. My client’s kids will occasionally defeat that by joining the wifi and using the built in apps to access their own streaming accounts. I take them back off when I find them connected.

There is some indication that they are never really off the net, but I do what I can to minimize the number of piggies feeding at the trough. If you are really concerned, you install Planar control room monitors that don’t have any smart features. They are a lot more expensive, but are built to run 24/7 for years and not spy on you. I’ve got a Planar 55″ 4K that I’m thinking of putting at the BOL. It’s a tank. Other manufacturers also make monitors for commercial use that are big and high resolutions.

In any case, I’ll be replacing the dead TV later this week or early next week.

After my site visit, I did a couple of pickups. Notable items were birthday gifts for the kids, and a cellular boost antenna for the cellular repeater at the BOL. I would like to get a couple more dB of signal going into the repeater.

Today I’ve got some kid school volunteer stuff to get organized, and a couple of pickups, and maybe the normal Tuesday/Thursday kid taxi stuff. Maybe not as D2 is feeling poorly. Two of the chaperones from her trip tested sick, one for flu, one for covid. Dunno which she has, or if it’s something else, but she’s coughing and snotty. On the other hand, D1 is mostly done with that, and W1 is starting to feel better. Sleep is a universal cure. I’m hoping to miss it entirely. REALLY hoping.

I thought I’d have some time this week to get caught up, but instead I got my client’s issue, and kid volunteering issues… oh well. No rest for the wicked.

Stacking is easy. If you can’t do anything else, do some of that.

nick

54 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Mar. 18, 2025 – got thru a drunken holiday without even noticing…"

  1. brad says:

    I am really enjoying teaching at the trade school. Not least, because most students are pretty motivated – more so than college students, which I did not expect.

    Most.

    You still get the unpleasant parts. I had four students miss the first exam of the current course. My suspicion was that they (at least a couple of them) expect to get solutions from the other students. After all, it was a practical exam, where students create web pages to a specification, and then upload their solutions. Meaning that they have solutions to share.

    So I scheduled a repeat exam today, with the explicit note that it is a different exam. Surprise, surprise, one of the students who missed the first exam has suddenly become ill. He asked if he could take the repeat exam next week instead.

    Why, of course he can! I won’t bother telling him that it will yet again be a different exam. Extra work for me, but I really detest people who want to cheat their way through life.

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  2. Denis says:

    Best wishes to D2 for a speedy recovery, Nick.

    My messing with satellite stuff yesterday has prompted W1 to give me the additional task of finding a new TV for her, on top of fixing whatever is causing the reception problem.

    The physical coax cables look ok to visual inspection, though one of them is giving no usable signal at all, and the other is giving occasional fishies.

    My satellite stuff is at the BOL, so I went to the local MediaMarkt to get some bits, only to discover that they no longer sell satellite stuff at all. The guy says everyone  just streams content over IP these days. I suppose satellite is now a niche market, and the big stores don’t do niche, they want to move lots of boxes.

    However, a bit of sleuthing around the shelves turned up a 24-inch 240V/12V no-frills flatscreen TV with an integrated satellite jack. As it was the last, and the display model withal, I got it out the door for 47 bucks. Beats lugging a 55-incher up and down the stairs just for test purposes.

    I suspect that the elderly receiver which was connected to both coax cables had a senior moment and overpowered their sector of the octo LNB on the dish. Other inputs from the same LNB are fine. As that LNB is also 13 years old, I have a new one on the way. Will then test the setup without the old receiver in the loop.

    W1 wants a new Samsung TV that will also work for wireless streaming from her iPhone. 55 or 65 inch, as larger would be overpowering in her cosy TV room. I want the new TV to have two F inputs for coax cable direct from the satellite dish, so I can do away with the old receiver. Any suggestions?

  3. Denis says:

    Only a wee bit late for Paddy’s day yesterday…

    Saint Patrick was a gentleman.

  4. Nick Flandrey says:

    @denis, I think you’ll be lucky to get a single coax connector…    I like samsung products in general.   I’ve got several and at my client’s house, we had all samsung for a decade.  A couple are still going strong at my house…

    I don’t do the screen sharing thing, but I understand most tvs will do it for samsung or apple.   I tried it with a samsung phone  and a samsung TV at my sibling’s house a couple of years ago and never got it  working.   I’m sure it is better now.

    ————

    coffee is brewing.   females are stirring.   time to make some noise.

    n

  5. Greg Norton says:

    The direct replacement, which is bigger, is only $239. It’s a Roku tv, full of spyware and data gathering, which subsidizes the cost of the hardware. The equivalent Sony was $499, and it’s a googleTV loaded with google’s spyware and monitizing software. We keep them off the network and don’t use the “smart TV” features. My client’s kids will occasionally defeat that by joining the wifi and using the built in apps to access their own streaming accounts. I take them back off when I find them connected.

    In the era of 5G on “unlicensed” spectrum, with a 2.4 GHz transceiver connected to power, it doesn’t really matter what happens to the WiFi connection.

    Not putting the set on WiFi restricts the bandwidth.

  6. Nick Flandrey says:

    58F and clear with the smell of water on the air.   

    D2 staying home from school today.  Wife’s covid test was negative so she’s at the office.   Party time!

    n

  7. Nick Flandrey says:

    BTW, according to my business partner, the latest trend in home automation/whole house AV is a move away from centralized everything.

    Now the most common setup is to have a TV in the room, send the audio back to a distribution system, and then back into the room for a 5.1 or more speaker system.    Instead of customized touch panels, or apps, the client uses the TV remote to access all their accounts thru apps on the TV.    

    There is significantly less hardware and installer effort involved with this model.  It totally relies on the TV and apps though, and giving up any hope of controlling information bleed.

    n

  8. Greg Norton says:

    There is significantly less hardware and installer effort involved with this model.  It totally relies on the TV and apps though, and giving up any hope of controlling information bleed.
     

    The set manufacturers can sell access to the audio stream at the OS level for audience statistics gathering by companies like Samba.

    Samba ratings are based on what is output through the set at any given moment.

    I‘m sure Samba has competitors. Plus the TV manufacturer gets patents to weaponize related to the plug in architecture.

  9. MrAtoz says:

    Watch Miller decimate CNN:

    Deportation Debate: Stephen Miller Schools CNN’s Kasie Hunt on the Alien Enemies Act

    tRump has got the right people in the right spots this time. Miller says the judges order was illegal and dangerous. Courts can’t interfere with POTUS authority on Executive orders under War Powers. Brilliant and hopefully judges WILL keep trying and be exposed as corrupt Deep State hacks.

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  10. MrAtoz says:

    I watched Miller on a Jake The Fake Tapper clip. CNN keeps pushing “undocumented” immigrants where Miller uses the correct illegal alien term. I hope tRump has an EO stating the correct terminology and takes a dump on any LSM agency that doesn’t use the right term.

  11. EdH says:

    Dragon Crew-9 return and splashdown just before 6pm EST.

    Hopefully it all goes well.

  12. EdH says:

    There is significantly less hardware and installer effort involved with this model.  It totally relies on the TV and apps though, and giving up any hope of controlling information bleed.

    I wish you were wrong.

    Roku is apparently exploring  ways to intercept streams and insert their own customers commercials at will.

    Nothing will be left unmonitored and un-monetized.

    Wait until Amazon starts inserting an ad into “your” ebook every four or five pages, like Tumblr….

  13. EdH says:

    A beautiful clear day here in the high desert, a bit of snow on the mountains from yesterday’s front.

    Back & hip have mostly recovered from overdoing it 10 days ago, right knee is still iffy but functional.  

    So, which pre-spring chore to tackle first? The whiteboard in the back bedroom/office has 65 items on it, there are many more items that aren’t…

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  14. dkreck says:

    Magic Money Computer

    https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/03/i-want-one.html

    Musk: “One would think – they’re not … I mean they’re not totally wrong, but they’re probably off by five percent or 10 percent in some cases. So, I call it ‘Magic Money Computer’: any computer that can make money out of thin air. That’s magic money.”

    Cruz: “So how does that work?”

    Musk: “It just issues payments.”

    Cruz: “And you said there’s something like 11 of these computers at Treasury that are sending out trillions in payments?”

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  15. lynn says:

    “Elon Musk’s Suggestion Box” Column March 6, 2025 by Ann Coulter

        https://anncoulter.com/2025/03/06/elon-musks-suggestion-box/

    “I’m getting a little impatient waiting for Elon Musk to get to the two behemoths of government waste, fraud and abuse, so I’m dropping these in the suggestion box: Please hurry up and zero-out the CIA and TSA.”

    “To give the devil his due, the CIA is finally on the cusp of determining whether the Ayatollah Khomeini poses a threat, and what posture the U.S. should take toward the shah. The agency expects to have a report on the president’s desk by the end of the week.”

    “The CIA’s most successful mission was against its own country, meddling in the 2020 presidential campaign by publicizing that not-at-all-political letter, organized by CIA acting director Michael Morell and signed by “51 intelligence officers,” warning Americans that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation.””

    Preach on, Sister !

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  16. lynn says:

    Dragon Crew-9 return and splashdown just before 6pm EST.

    Hopefully it all goes well.

    So far, SpaceX does not seem to be afflicted with the 1 in 99 failure rate that the Space Shuttle program experienced.  Let us pray that their good luck continues.

  17. drwilliams says:

    The warrants we determined to be wet signatures contain significant variations between the signatures. Some warrants spell out the President’s entire first name “Joseph.” Others have only a diagonal line to indicate the letter “J.” Other wet signed warrants have significant variations in the President’s middle initial “R” and “B” in the last name “Biden.” At the time of publication of this Memorandum, the variations of the wet signatures are so severe, that it is unclear whether the same person signed all of the warrants. We are continuing to investigate this issue. 

    https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/03/18/bidens-autopen-scandal-just-got-a-whole-lot-worse-n4938022

    I’d call forgery of Biden’s signature treason and go for the death penalty.

    Step One: Interview every one of the recipients and ask if they provided payment or quid pro quo.

    If Hunter Biden is found to be one of the signers and that forged document is after his pardon was “signed”? I’d call that leverage. Let’s see if Jilly wants to spill her guts to save the p.o.s.

  18. lynn says:

    Roku is apparently exploring  ways to intercept streams and insert their own customers commercials at will.

    Nothing will be left unmonitored and un-monetized.

    No, no, no !  We use the 4K Rokus and do not attach the TVs to the intertubes.

    I just bought a 55 inch 4K LG at Sams Club the other day to replace the 2008 Sony Plasma 46 inch in the living room.  It wanted to be connected to the intertubes real bad.  It kept on talking to me in a human voice.  I said “BEGONE DEMON” many times and it finally aquiessed and started showing my Roku feed.

  19. Greg Norton says:

    So far, SpaceX does not seem to be afflicted with the 1 in 99 failure rate that the Space Shuttle program experienced.  Let us pray that their good luck continues.

    Dragon is a very simple reentry concept.

    Feynman was protecting Sally Ride in the Rogers Commission final report. 1 in 99 was a made up number.

  20. Alan says:

    >>Watch Miller decimate CNN:

    Deportation Debate: Stephen Miller Schools CNN’s Kasie Hunt on the Alien Enemies Act

    >>”Stephen Miller has spent the last 4 years researching exactly how this would go down…He’s been sitting at his desk, reading 18th century laws and forgotten Supreme Court cases until 2am under the light of a lone burning candle.CNN anchors are not prepared for this.”

    From what I’ve seen of other ‘dismantlings of the LSM, it’s apparent that there was a very well coordinated, and successful, effort to not repeat the ills of T45. It’s not like this is the first time Casey has blindly stepped into the bear trap either. 

  21. Lynn says:

    “Tilman Fertitta parks luxurious mega-yacht near Washington D.C.”

       https://www.chron.com/news/article/tilman-fertitta-yacht-20223670.php

    Nice boat.  I bet that boat has a crew of 25 ??? running it.

    Probably carries about 30,000 gallons of diesel (SWAG).

  22. Lynn says:

    “Japan Issues Alert as Vaccinated Child Deaths Surge”

        https://slaynews.com/news/japan-issues-alert-as-vaccinated-child-deaths-surge/

    “Leading experts in Japan have issued a global alert to call for an urgent reassessment of worldwide vaccination programs after linking a recent surge in child deaths to “vaccines.””

    “A bombshell new study published in the Springer Nature peer-reviewed journal Discover Medicine raises the alarm over the issue after connecting several child deaths to “vaccinations.””

    “However, it wasn’t only mRNA injections that were linked to the deaths as the study found that multiple children died suddenly after receiving standard childhood schedule vaccines.”

    Japan does not have many children, their children to mother ratio has dropped to 1.2.  They will pay huge attention to this.  Something is going on with vaccines.

    Hat tip to:

       https://thelibertydaily.com/

  23. MrAtoz says:

    I’d call forgery of Biden’s signature treason and go for the death penalty.

    The new PLT mantra will be “well, the signatures look different because of plugs’ progressive dementia” all while calling him sharp as a tack.

  24. Lynn says:

    W1 wants a new Samsung TV that will also work for wireless streaming from her iPhone. 55 or 65 inch, as larger would be overpowering in her cosy TV room. I want the new TV to have two F inputs for coax cable direct from the satellite dish, so I can do away with the old receiver. Any suggestions?

    Our new LG has ONE (1) coax input for an RF antenna.

       https://www.samsclub.com/p/lg-55-class-ut7550-aub-series-led-4k-uhd-webos-23-smart-thinq-ai-tv-55ut7550au/P990336234?xid=plp_product_2

  25. MrAtoz says:

    “However, it wasn’t only mRNA injections that were linked to the deaths as the study found that multiple children died suddenly after receiving standard childhood schedule vaccines.”

    Maybe not stick a newborn with so many “vaccines” at once. You couldn’t wait a couple months between them.

  26. Lynn says:

    So, which pre-spring chore to tackle first? The whiteboard in the back bedroom/office has 65 items on it, there are many more items that aren’t…

    ROTFLMAO.

    My invisible whiteboard has about a 1,000 items on it.  All I have to do is ask her.

    I got three items done this morning. None were on her list.

    Now I am exhausted for work.

  27. Lynn says:

    BTW, according to my business partner, the latest trend in home automation/whole house AV is a move away from centralized everything.

    Now the most common setup is to have a TV in the room, send the audio back to a distribution system, and then back into the room for a 5.1 or more speaker system.    Instead of customized touch panels, or apps, the client uses the TV remote to access all their accounts thru apps on the TV.    

    There is significantly less hardware and installer effort involved with this model.  It totally relies on the TV and apps though, and giving up any hope of controlling information bleed.

    My Dad does this.  He has serious issues with the audio and video getting out of sync.

    He has a separate audio processor and a audio booster.  One of them will also crash randomly since he has so many feeds.

  28. MrAtoz says:

    Old School Marm Says Wut:

    Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issues historic slapdown to Trump over deportation of ‘monster’ migrants

    Where was Roberts when SCOTUS members were threatened? He has also fallen for tRump’s trolling trap. He can’t win against tRump, but has just exposed himself as a ORANGE MAN BAD liberal jerk. For those who didn’t already know. Really, he’s going to fall on his sword over Judge Lurch’s unConstitutional and ridiculous order tRump called him on.

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  29. MrAtoz says:

    Oof. Newt for the win:

    Justice Deferred: John Roberts’ Weak Response to Activist Judges Has Conservative X in an UPROAR

    Best comment: “Remember who gave us ACA.”

  30. Lynn says:

    So far, SpaceX does not seem to be afflicted with the 1 in 99 failure rate that the Space Shuttle program experienced.  Let us pray that their good luck continues.

    Dragon is a very simple reentry concept.

    Feynman was protecting Sally Ride in the Rogers Commission final report. 1 in 99 was a made up number.

    I read an engineering paper in the 1990s ??? that claimed to be the origin of that number back in the 1980s after the Challenger disaster.  I am not sure if they presented the logic and the math in the paper.

  31. MrAtoz says:

    Another one:

    DOGE’s bitter blow after massive USAID shuttering is rejected as ‘unconstitutional’ by Obama-appointed judge

    We know what Roberts would say. BTW, the judge is a PLT moron. He can’t stop a RIF by the President. “a duly appointed officer…” tRump appointed one as is his purview as the Executive. It only takes one person to make an agency. Where has this judge been since Jan 20th when this started, awaiting money from another slush fund?

    Also, DM, “bitter blow”, who writes that drivel.

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  32. Greg Norton says:

    I read an engineering paper in the 1990s ??? that claimed to be the origin of that number back in the 1980s after the Challenger disaster.  I am not sure if they presented the logic and the math in the paper.
     

    Feynman’s second autobiography covers his involvement with Challenger. I remember the number being in there as part of the hand waving.

    He never admitted to covering for Sally Ride, using his reputation to shield her from scrutiny when she was his source for the O rings flaw.

    After Ride passed, General Kutyna broke the secret. He set up Feynman with Ride, but details are still skant.

    Feynman was relentless in getting to the truth about most things, but he was a ladies man.

  33. Lynn says:

    The direct replacement, which is bigger, is only $239. It’s a Roku tv, full of spyware and data gathering, which subsidizes the cost of the hardware. The equivalent Sony was $499, and it’s a googleTV loaded with google’s spyware and monitizing software. We keep them off the network and don’t use the “smart TV” features. My client’s kids will occasionally defeat that by joining the wifi and using the built in apps to access their own streaming accounts. I take them back off when I find them connected.

    In the era of 5G on “unlicensed” spectrum, with a 2.4 GHz transceiver connected to power, it doesn’t really matter what happens to the WiFi connection.

    Not putting the set on WiFi restricts the bandwidth.

    Please explain the “Not putting the set on WiFi restricts the bandwidth.“.  I do not understand the restriction and where it is.

    I have all of my TVs not connected to the intertubes.  All of my TVs have a Roku box supplying their feed.  All of my Rokus are connected directly to the cable box Ethernet hub or to the Ethernet over power line boxes.

  34. Ken Mitchell says:

    When our son was born 40 years ago, my wife (the nurse) refused more than one vaccination per week. He turned out pretty well. 

    My wife wanted a new television to replace our 15 year old 50″ plasma screen.  We bought a new 65″ Sony Bravia. So far, so good, and a GREAT picture.  I did the “Basic TV” installation rather than selecting Google TV or Android TV, and so far, she has seen no indication that anything is listening to her, other than my own self. 

  35. Lynn says:

    Another one:

    DOGE’s bitter blow after massive USAID shuttering is rejected as ‘unconstitutional’ by Obama-appointed judge

    We know what Roberts would say. BTW, the judge is a PLT moron. He can’t stop a RIF by the President. “a duly appointed officer…” tRump appointed one as is his purview as the Executive. It only takes one person to make an agency. Where has this judge been since Jan 20th when this started, awaiting money from another slush fund?

    Also, DM, “bitter blow”, who writes that drivel.

    There is a massive battle coming between the Presidency and the Judiciary.   SCOTUS needs to stop this right now or it will get physical.  Trump will be arresting federal judges in a short period of time.  Just like Lincoln arrested the Civil War protestors, mainly newspaper editors throughout the Union.

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  36. Lynn says:

    “Roku rolls out test of start-up ads, upsetting viewers”

       https://thestreamable.com/roku-start-up-ads

    “Over the weekend, many Roku customers began to notice an ad that plays automatically when starting up the device.”

    Uh oh.

  37. Lynn says:

    “Babylon Bee Slays”

       https://areaocho.com/babylon-bee-slays/

    Federal Judge Orders Astronauts Be Returned To Space Station

    ““I will not stand by while Donald Trump abuses his power like a dictator,” said Judge Earl Flanders in his ruling. “Trump has no authority to pick up these astronauts, and I can say that because I’m a federal judge, and no one is allowed to argue with me, and everyone has to do what I say.”

  38. Lynn says:

    “PLAN”

        https://areaocho.com/plan-2/

    “The Chinese, on the other hand, are a much more credible threat. PLAN (the Chinese Navy) is large, modern, and growing. Six modern, recent nuclear submarines. The diesel submarines that can’t do well in the open ocean work quite well in the shallow waters of the China sea, and PLAN has 45 of them.”

    “They have 46 new destroyers, 44 frigates, and 3 carriers with more under construction.”

    “Contrast that with the US Navy. We have :

    • 11 carriers (8 of them are more than 25 years old)
    • 9 amphibious assault ships (aka baby carriers, and half of them are more than 25 years old),
    • 9 cruisers (all of them are more than 30 years old),
    • 75 destroyers (a third of them are older than 25 years), and
    • 51 submarines (half of them are more than 25 years old, but all are nuclear).”

    “Also keep in mind that we have to monitor 2 oceans. PLAN only has to cover one. Our Navy still has a decided advantage, but the Chinese are building a lot of ships, and the US isn’t.”

    Oh my, we, the USA, are in decline. Significantly and noticeably in decline.

    And China is in the middle of taking Africa.

  39. drwilliams says:

    Dear Chief Justice Roberts, Do Your Job

    20 million illegals in the country. Sure, most of the are fine folks who just want to make beds, cut the grass, and get paid in cash by the rich PLT’s in the big houses, so they can wire it south to prop up the corrupt governments of the countries that they love so much they left them. They need to self-deport before things get ugly and a kick in the backside passes for due process.

    Because a lot of them are not fine folks. FJB, the lying, thieving, decaying meat puppet selected by Obama and the new world order puppetmasters conspired with his party to flood the country with what they thought would be the Democrat voters that would put them in an eternal majority, and they welcomed the thugs to swell the ranks of their home-grown terrorists–not enough rich kids to staff Antifa. Problem is they have no control, so all they got was unfocused violence in the form of drug dealing, rape, and murder, and full employment for NGO’s and immigration lawyers paid with stolen taxpayer funds.

    I have very little hope that Roberts has a clue. As Trump opens can after industrial sized can of worms and shows the taxpayers how they have been had for years, the resentment is going to build. Sooner of later a horrific outrage committed by an illegal alien facilitated and protected by liberal conspirators including is going to spark a response that may find one of those tipping points that the PLTs have been cryin’ wolf about for years.

    So, yeah, Johnny–do your freaking job before it’s too late and the future textbooks id you as the Chamberlain of the 21st century.

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  40. drwilliams says:

    1 in 99 was a made up number.”

    We had one test shuttle and five operational shuttles. We lost 2 of 5. 

  41. drwilliams says:

    Hunter Biden Whistleblowers Get Promoted by Trump After Biden-Era Retaliation

    https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/03/18/hunter-biden-whistleblowers-get-promoted-by-trump-after-biden-era-retaliation-n3800888

    Have we shiite-canned all the retaliators yet, or just sent them to teach Mexico how to audit drug cartels or some other safe job?

  42. EdH says:

    Beautiful splashdown of Dragon Crew.

  43. Lynn says:

    1 in 99 was a made up number.”

    We had one test shuttle and five operational shuttles. We lost 2 of 5. 

    The five operational shuttles made 135 flights.  Two of the flights were failures.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle

  44. Lynn says:

    “Disney+ rolls out around-the-clock ‘Simpsons’ streaming channel”

        https://thestreamable.com/disney-plus-continuous-streaming-channel-simpsons

    “The channel is free to watch for all subscribers on the ad-free Premium plan of the service.”

    Just say no.

  45. drwilliams says:

    Null and void: Autopen misstep means arrests are now on the table

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/03/null_and_void_autopen_misstep_means_arrests_are_now_on_the_table.html

    I’ve read a number of articles, but they all seem to be missing a basic point: What validates a signature on a document?

    1. POTUS signs a bill in the Oval Office in front of the cameras (still and video) using a number of pens that he then gives out to the people attending. Seems pretty definite.
    2. POTUS personally signs an order without witnesses. Is personal signature enough to validate?
    3. Somewhere in the WH there is a drawer full of POTUS photos with aan autopen “signature”. Take one to the Antiques Roadshow and they tell you “it’s an autopen signature, not a real one”, and hence worth a few cents.
    4. POTUS tells someone on his staff to use the autopen to sign a bunch of documents, and then goes to take a nap. Is there a log describing what the documents are, averring that he read them and ordered them signed? Is that log signed and dated and witnessed? Does that make the signatures legal?
    5. POTUS is out of the office and an official document needs to be signed. Bush 43 had a procedure that the lawyers signed. Trump 47 apparently has one also. Did Biden? 
    6. POTUS names is “signed” on legal documents by an autopen. There is no record of when or how, and in some cases the dates show that he was not in the office. 

    While answering the above questions, include an alternate form substituting “Joe Schmoe” for “POTUS” and making similar substitutions for White House and Oval Office. 

    Note that:

    1. If you sign a paper check and send it to pay a bill, you have a signature card on file at the bank.
    2. If you sign a withdrawal slip, the bank teller checks your ID.
    3. If you sign a legal document it’s likely that it has to be notarized.
    4. Many legal documents, such as wills, require witnesses.
    5. If you submit a legal document to the court, the submission usually involves signatures and you get an official receipt.

    Is there any legal principle or law that can be cited to justify needing less validation of POTUS signature than is required of Mr. Schmoe?

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  46. Lynn says:

    “SpaceX’s Starlink Turns to Trump for Aid on Trade Barriers, China Competition”

       https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacexs-starlink-turns-to-trump-for-aid-on-trade-barriers-china-competition

    “SpaceX notes it’s facing a critical moment in the satellite internet market, citing the threat of Chinese competitors expanding across the globe.”

    ““This is a critical moment in the global race to provide satellite internet service, with increasing pressure from China’s state-backed operators trying to overtake US companies in low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite technology,” the company wrote in the letter, which Reuters first spotted.”

    “The main Chinese rival is the Qianfan “Thousand Sails” satellite constellation, which is already trying to expand in over 30 countries. In contrast, Starlink is already in over 125 markets. But in some countries, the company “must pay foreign governments for access to spectrum, import duties on Starlink equipment, and other regulatory fees that substantially increase the cost of operating in these countries—artificially,” SpaceX wrote.”

    I wonder how long it will until we have the first radio satellites colliding in LEO ?

  47. Lynn says:

    I have very little hope that Roberts has a clue. As Trump opens can after industrial sized can of worms and shows the taxpayers how they have been had for years, the resentment is going to build. Sooner of later a horrific outrage committed by an illegal alien facilitated and protected by liberal conspirators including is going to spark a response that may find one of those tipping points that the PLTs have been cryin’ wolf about for years.

    So, yeah, Johnny–do your freaking job before it’s too late and the future textbooks id you as the Chamberlain of the 21st century.

    John Roberts seems to not understand that he is at the middle of the problem. He needs to stop each and every lower court that is going nuts at the moment.  Should he not do so, he will force the Executive (Trump) and maybe the Legislative (Congress) to react.  The reaction will neither be pleasant or reasonable to Roberts.  Others will be unhappy or joyful also.  

    John Roberts can stop this judicial overreach.  He is choosing not to do so at this time.  The Executive is being put under untenable pressure by the lower courts.  Therefore John Roberts will be blamed by history.

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  48. drwilliams says:

    1 in 99 was a made up number.”

    We had one test shuttle and five operational shuttles. We lost 2 of 5. 

    The five operational shuttles made 135 flights.  Two of the flights were failures.

    You could also say that 1 out of 135 launches were failures, and 1 out of 135 returns were failures.

    I will never forget standing in a group of people who were extremely proud of having a tiny, tiny part of one subsystem on the STS and seeing the Challenger blow up in real time. We were part of Stage 2, so it was immediately obvious to me that there could be no involvement, and I said so. Nobody actually puked.

    I will never forget the second explosion. We learned nothing, and it was obvious that NASA had not and could never reform. (I had no tiny amount of skin in that game, but I did know someone who had cutting-edge knowledge of carbon-carbon composites. 

    And for those who remember the tile drama after every mission, I saw the improved ceramic tile in 1980. The demo bounced it off a concrete floor. It was never implemented. It wasn’t just the computers that were 20-30 year old technology–it was the whole thing, and that was pretty much the paradigm for the organization.

  49. Lynn says:

    “SHOWDOWN: DOJ AGAIN Refuses to Give Judge Boasberg Sensitive Information on National Security Related to Deportation Flights”

        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/03/showdown-doj-again-refuses-give-judge-boasberg-sensitive/

    “As White House advisor Stephen Miller pointed out on CNN, the Supreme Court previously ruled that any Alien Enemy Act removals by a US President are not subject to judicial review.”

    “However, crazed Obama Judge Boasberg over the weekend ordered the Trump Administration to turn around planes that were deporting dangerous Tren de Aragua Venezuelan gang members.”

    “Later Sunday, the Trump DOJ provided an update to Boasberg’s order and said the criminal aliens were outside of US territory when the order came down.”

    “The judge demanded to know:
    1) How many planes departed US on Saturday carrying anyone based on Proclamation;
    2) How many people in each category;
    3) What foreign country/countries did they landed;
    4) Time took off & wear; time you contend left US air space; what time landed in each country; what time transferred into that countries custody”

    That judge has crazy eyes.

  50. Greg Norton says:
    1. If you sign a paper check and send it to pay a bill, you have a signature card on file at the bank.
    2. If you sign a withdrawal slip, the bank teller checks your ID.
    3. If you sign a legal document it’s likely that it has to be notarized.
    4. Many legal documents, such as wills, require witnesses.
    5. If you submit a legal document to the court, the submission usually involves signatures and you get an official receipt.

    One of my Colonel Bat Guano neighbors in Florida had leveraged a household income of $70k a year into “ownership” of over $1 million in real estate. When the SHTF in 2009-10, the guy managed to avoid foreclosure on the house across from mine for nearly a decade because his lawyer successfully argued that the bank owning the paper on the property could not produce the actual paper my neighbor signed with live ink.

    This wasn’t uncommon in FL in the late 00s. The courts have a procedure to deal with the situation where the original paper goes missing, but the process is lengthy.

    And, yes, the bank was eventually able to foreclose.

  51. Lynn says:

    John Roberts seems to not understand that he is at the middle of the problem. He needs to stop each and every lower court that is going nuts at the moment.  Should he not do so, he will force the Executive (Trump) and maybe the Legislative (Congress) to react.  The reaction will neither be pleasant or reasonable to Roberts.  Others will be unhappy or joyful also.  

    John Roberts can stop this judicial overreach.  He is choosing not to do so at this time.  The Executive is being put under untenable pressure by the lower courts.  Therefore John Roberts will be blamed by history.

    BTW, Trump (the Executive) has the ultimate in Constitutional Power, the power of the Pardon.  Trump can pardon anyone that a crazy judge tries to imprison.

    Like I said, this will end up with Trump arresting federal judges and sending them to Guantanamo.

    6
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  52. MrAtoz says:

    That judge has crazy eyes.

    Judge Lurch has no right to any of this information. He’s making up laws as he goes to get tRump. Yes, he is a power-crazy PLT. This is gonna be better than Wrestlemania. The President can deport any illegal alien at will.  Alan Dershowitz did a podcast on this. His opinion is tRump doesn’t need the War Powers act to deport any illegal alien. Just do it as part of the Executive’s powers. The President can pull any visa or green card at anytime for anything.

    At this point tRump loses nothing by ignoring lower courts challenging his Executive powers. Force SCOTUS to act.

  53. Denis says:

    … she has seen no indication that anything is listening to her, other than my own self.

    Many wives complain that their husbands don’t listen to them.

    I am proud to say I have never heard my wife say that!

    Looking on the Samsung site for TVs. Not apparent how to get technical specifications for the umpteen models. I think I will try their “chat” function tomorrow. If I am fortunate, it will not be an AI bot and will speak English… fingers crossed.

    Note to self. Do not drink coffee at 6pm. It is now after 2am and you are still wide awake. Grrr.

    Note to others. Look up Alondra de la Parra conducting the WDR symphony orchestra in Ravel’s Bolero on YouTube. Amazing.

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