Hot and humid. Still. And again. No rain in the forecast for the next three days at least. So no relief. It’s been a bit of a dry spell… but no one is saying ‘drought’ that I’ve heard. Hmmm.
Spent the day doing pickups and auction stuff. Sorting and going through stuff to take to my auctioneer. The first lots sold last night, so I should see some results soon. There is always some surprise good seller, and something that didn’t do what you expected. Doubt I’ll have another $400 book though.
Today I’ll be doing more auction stuff, and household stuff. I’ve got one pickup north, and one south. Couldn’t be helped. I can’t delay the northern one long enough to catch it on my way up to the BOL, as I have my non-prepping hobby meeting Saturday morning. I’ll be headed up after that.
Later tonight I’ll be taking a bit of time for myself. It’s the five year anniversary of my dad’s death. It feels like both yesterday and a lifetime ago. Still think of him all the time. He’d have loved the heat at the BOL and sitting on the dock with a cigar. The kids have only vague memories of him, despite seeing him a few days before he died. They were just too young, and that saddens me. I never knew any grandfathers on my mom’s side, and my dad’s father was sick in bed and died when I was 10. I remember him being sick, and having yellow fingernails from smoking all the time. And that’s it. My kids have their maternal grandparents, who they see regularly and facetime with once a week. They are doing well. My mom is doing well too, and that is great. I just can’t help wishing my dad had made it a few more years so the kids would have memories.
Well, it is what it is, there’s no changing the past (although you can change the stories you tell about it). You can change the future though, by making your own. Make every effort to ensure that you HAVE a future.
Stack what you can.
nick
We’re helping throw a party for the local neighborhood tomorrow, about 15 people, and my wife volunteered to handle all of the cooking. So she’s a bit stressed just now. I’ll be heading out shortly to clean up the garden, since the weather will be good and we’ll be outside. As Nick would say “meat space”.
Some folk who live here (but only two who are actually from here), some who just have a vacation apartment. Swiss, naturalized Swiss from various places, a few Germans who are resident here. Mostly 50+ folk, I suppose because that’s the crowd we move in nowadays…
@Nick
“Well, it is what it is, there’s no changing the past (although you can change the stories you tell about it). You can change the future though, by making your own. Make every effort to ensure that you HAVE a future.”
Twenty-five years for me. Doesn’t happen so often any more, and not such a gut punch when it does, but once in a while I think I need to pick up the phone and call dad.
It is the natural order of things and jshows that the ones that raised us did something right.
Take care, Nick.
Another exhibit for the Museum of the Absurd and Asinine.
Tommy Boy should have paid more attention to the vehicles in his development pipeline. Ford is #1 in recalls again this year.
The local news stations are navel gazing about the grass fire which spread to a building at an apartment complex in Cedar Park, smack dab in the middle of the commuting route for a lot of Indians who work at Dell and HPE. Something is coming…
Which reminds me – the last time I flew, at the beginning of July, the millimeter wave body scanners had disappeared at Austin airport, replaced by equipment which looks like more traditional metal detectors.
Things that make you say “Hmmm…”
I wonder whose soup bowl those body scanners filled and how they fell out of favor with the Reich.
When I build the Museum, the body scanners will be at the entrance of the Shrub Bush wing, with videos of crotch gropings running on a continuous loop.
My mother left a copy of the poem “Death is Nothing At All” in her papers. It was a huge help at the time, and very appropriate. Worth a read, if you aren’t familiar with it.
The last time I saw my father alive was in 1973. Parents were divorced and he had remarried. I stopped to visit on my way from Hawaii to Colorado. He preferred to spend time with his friends and basically left me on my own. I left the second morning of the visit and never looked back. I did attend his funeral sometime in 2015 (I think). He never met my wife and never saw his grandson (my son).
My Comcast (Xfinity) account was locked out this morning. It took almost an hour on the phone to get it resolved and the password reset. Talking to a person where English is not their primary language is not easy. That seems to be the norm with Comcast, support is overseas and there is no English speaking test involved. It would have taken less than 30 minutes had I not had to have the person repeat multiple times and asked her to speak slower. Even then I only got about half of the words she was saying.
The reason the account was blocked was due to multiple attempts to gain access to the account. I had a very complicated password that could never be arrived at by guessing. Fourteen characters of gibberish and random characters. Apparently the person (or BOT) trying to get in tried enough times that Comcast flagged the account. I again have a very complicated password. I may change it to 20 characters. Something like Trv6!#4DF!acSzVU$@r7 or maybe 128 characters like Cu32E8RKkWSoKgz3GsN@Xt!V6VdL*DNK@9wR5#jpo#z#C&PpK$zyU!7iJiS5YeUVvgonL#yS!Tv*G2ci2E$79BKyme*dGZ$hFwkxUfgbiHABuQ4r4Yy7t#Z7qiH^K96!
They are blaming the Maui fires on climate change. Everything that happens, every natural disaster, is now being blamed on climate change. The severe weather we had Monday in Knoxville is being blamed on climate change. There is no other reason even considered. Of course a tornado was confirmed in the area as that opens the doors for the state and city to get federal money.
Of course the local TV stations are absolutely giddy with the event. With on-site reporters, team reporting, finding clueless people to interview. My advice is to at least find people with all their front teeth before interviewing. Getting the cigarette out of the interviewee’s mouth and a t-shirt with sleeves would also help.
Well, apparently the email thing-a-mahoochy was worse than I thought. I got an email from Xfinity at the primary email address for the account (which I rarely check) and apparently the password on the account had been changed. It happened about 10:45 last night.
That means that someone was able to get my password, which was 14 characters and fairly complicated, numbers, letters, and special characters. Then they were able to reset the password. The password is unique to Xfinity and is not used on any other sites. I seriously doubt the password had been guessed. Something they did triggered Xfinity to block the email account.
I suspect that rather than guessing the password is that someone used Xfinity’s password reset process and was able to reset the password. That requires a text message to another email account to reset the password. How they got around that I do not know.
I did use a piece of software recently, recommended and vetted by the Askwoody.com site, such people being quite cautious on security. Perhaps that software was able to grab the email password somehow. I don’t use untrusted software, nor go to nefarious sites. I do use a password manager and perhaps that site got compromised. Passwords on that site are encrypted so I doubt that was the source.
Ray, your password should be a string of characters which would never naturally occur, something like “Joe Biden is a credit to the species”.
I could never type that phrase without passing out.
Not sure I’d try that. Younger son, years ago with his first iPhone, used a 20-digit mathematical password. Entering it tended to crash the phone…
Social engineering seems a more likely culprit. I’ll bet there’s a way to persuade their tech support to reset the password.
Well, of course they are. Everything is climate change. Polar bears were dying out due to climate change. Of course, it turns out that the population is just fine, so that’s somehow a problem and also due to climate change. There is nothing it can’t do… /s
A few years ago I was setting up accounts for some coworkers and asked what user names they wanted. (Internal development system, not using the company’s authentication system, might as well use something less inconvenient than the standard user names.) One guy didn’t care what I used so I proposed Princess.Glittertwinkle. Everyone, including him, loved it but he didn’t think he’d be able to type that name because he’d start laughing and make too many typos.
Hey, now! I’ve worked hard to develop my toxic misogynistic White male supremacy and I don’t appreciate the lack of appreciation for my efforts to ruin the world.
Oh, and I voted for Trump in 2020*. How else can I be offensive today?
* No so much “for Trump” as “against Biden”.
MMmmmm bacon. every pig tastes different, isn’t that a bit amazing?
I note this without any judgement…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-12396355/A-new-force-nature-Scientists-close-fifth-force-discover-mysterious-subatomic-particle-disobeying-laws-physics.html
I’ve maintained for a long time that we DON”T know all there is to know, and if aliens showed up tomorrow with antigrav and FTL travel, we’d figure out where we went wrong.
———
No one here should be surprised by this, but Joe Sixpack might get a bit angry…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12394405/Eight-10-hospitals-pharmacists-rationing-drugs-delaying-care-crippling-medicine-shortages-including-cancer.html
————–
And what looks like desperation tactics by the NM prosecutors office…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12394565/Rust-armorer-Hannah-Gutierrez-Reed-pleads-not-guilty-involuntary-manslaughter-evidence-tampering-trial-set.html
Note that the evidence tampering is related to drugs, nothing to do with the prop gun, and relies on a confidential informant.
n
Or the Xfinity clods that wrote the software sent the wrong email. It maybe should have been an email stating the account was locked from too many sign on attempts. I had to jump through too many hoops to prove it was me and the people that can reset the password are only available 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM EST. The email was sent after that support section was closed.
I call the scholarship award that I provide to the school the “Purple Ping Pong Ball Scholarship”. Why? I really don’t want my name associated with the award. I am not seeking anonymity, I just don’t want to make the award about me or my family. Purple is one of the school colors. I also provide a small trophy with a purple ping pong ball on the top.
I thought it came naturally.
Garland appoints David Weiss to cover up Hunter Biden’s crimes.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/prosecutor-hunter-biden-case-granted-special-counsel-status/story?id=102197024
Everything is being blamed on climate change so that Biden can declare a national emergency and resume extraordinaru
extraordinary powers.
Editor awol again
My former partner at the Death Star works for Comcast now, doing something related to their web interface.
He’s a weed head who moved to the Denver Metro. I’m guessing that he imbibes every night.
The local Faux News has been servicing the agenda covering the fires in depth this week.
Sunday talk show guests have already been booked.
@lynn’s not too busy, let’s see if he can model this in his software…
Our software can model just about anything about thermodynamics. But, Lynn is incredibly busy. Maintenance (user issues) and the 64 bit port are eating my lunch.
I loosely say that I spend 60% of my time on user issues. Lately it is approaching 100%. People are using our software in increasingly unforeseen ways. Which, usually generates unexpected behavior.
“ClimateTV – LIVE at 1PM ET: Climate Emergency Declaration? Here Come Climate Lockdowns”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/08/11/climatetv-live-at-1pm-et-climate-emergency-declaration-here-come-climate-lockdowns/
“President Joe Biden and the UN are likely to declare an “official” global climate emergency next week. All the signs are there. The chatter, and the behind the scenes maneuvering. The UN’s website now has a climate emergency page. Biden the other day stopped short, but when the new temperature numbers are issued on August 15 by NOAA, that may be all the justification Biden needs. The “melting in Antarctica and the supposed subsequent sea level rise” will be another, and Lahaina in Maui burning to the ground will be cited as yet another.”
“If Biden declares a climate emergency, will climate lockdowns follow? History suggests “yes.” In a plausible scenario, we could see gas rationing, restrictions on electricity use, and limits on air travel. Enjoy steaks? Well, you can forget those. But what is the truth about Antarctica ice and Maui fires?”
I just don’t see anyone besides a few useful idiots caring.
I don’t see anyone obeying either. I am not sure how they would enforce a climate lockdown or ration electricity. Many of the States will tell the feddies to pound sand.
People would run out to panic buy gasoline the moment any hint of an announcement was forthcoming.
I view the 2017 “gas shortage” created by Clear Channel in Central Texas as a dress rehearsal.
50x normal sales volume for the period on Labor Day Weekend 2017. Blind friggin’ panic. It took weeks for the local market to recover.
Interestingly, just outside the range of the big San Antonio talk station, in Temple/Belton, gas was plentiful. I don’t think they will be that lucky in a national “shortage”.
“Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1)” by Patricia Briggs
https://www.amazon.com/Moon-Called-Mercy-Thompson-Book/dp/0441013813?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number one of a thirteen book fantasy series. The author has written several other books in the universe also. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Ace in 2006 that I bought new on Amazon recently. I have read this book several times, it is one of my six star books. I am reading book number thirteen in the series now, I have read all of the other books in the series including “The Omega and Alpha Series”.
Wow, this book jumps into a very complicated universe. Coyote shapeshifter, werewolves, vampires, fae, and several other mythical creatures. Mercy Thompson is a coyote shapeshifter, a magical creature that violates the law of constant mass. She grew up in a werewolf town in Montana and is a loner. But life forces her to take a part in the life of the local werewolf pack alpha who lives next to her in the Tri-cities.
Here is my 2006 review “Kind of a mix between Anita Blake (by Laurell K. Hamilton) and Bitten (by Kelley Amstrong). Just draws you in and you’ll say just one more chapter until the book is done. Good story with great character development.”
My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars (13,731 reviews)
“Today in leftover Covid madness: Reason one zillion The New York Times won’t be rehiring me”
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/today-in-leftover-covid-madness-reason
“Unbelievable but true, they still require proof of Covid vaccinations for new employees. Also, stupidity from Rutgers University and Outward Bound!”
Unreal.
“IEA: World oil demand scaling to record highs”
https://www.ogj.com/general-interest/economics-markets/article/14297646/iea-world-oil-demand-scaling-to-record-highs
“World oil demand is increasing to record highs, boosted by robust summer air travel, increased utilization of oil in power generation, and surging Chinese petrochemical activity, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said its August Oil Market Report.”
Not gonna drop either. Energy is a serious force multiplier and allows people to make things like metals and travel places without taking months or years.
Plus wonderful, wonderful air conditioning on this 102 F day.
“Russia launches Luna-25 moon lander, its 1st lunar probe in 47 years”
https://www.space.com/russia-luna-25-moon-mission-launch-success
“Luna-25 will kick off a new and ambitious Russian moon program, if all goes according to plan.”
One wonders if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.
The lawn sprinkler system was $10,600. We put in 2,200 feet of pipe, 40 spray nozzles, and 50 spray rotors. And a 12 station sprinkler controller with all 12 stations in use. The entire system covers about 3/4 of an acre.
I had them add a water pipe system back to my garage and back to the front of the house using 620 feet of 1.5 inch pipe. I am going to put a water filtration system in my garage for our nasty water.
Make that 106 F now. We just popped up from 102 F. I am packing my truck for a trip to south Texas, dadgum hot out there.
I wonder if I need to call The White House and get permission for the trip first ? I am probably going to drive about 300 miles over the weekend.
Opsec, but how far south?
Any side trips to Boca Chica?
>> Garland appoints David Weiss to cover up Hunter Biden’s crimes.
And the “line” from the WH. is that the Biden krewe knew nothing in advance.
Shocked I am… NOT!
https://youtu.be/34ag4nkSh7Q
>> “Russia launches Luna-25 moon lander, its 1st lunar probe in 47 years”
Did they buy their carbon offsets from Boca Chica?
The fronts that were passing through California cleared last night, so I went out with the new binoculars, the image stabilized Canon 12×36 IS III.
They are pretty amazing. They are almost the smallest aperture binoculars I own (I do own a 32mm pair of Kowa’s) but the stabilization makes it a whole new ball game. You can hold steady on an object at 12x for as long as you like, and it makes star hopping to find objects a breeze.
No buyer’s remorse. These and the small 80mm ED refractor are just delights to use. I may end up getting rid of a lot of the other gear.
And maybe get some even bigger IS binoculars … though I just paid the bills for last months excesses … ouch, not right away.
Astronomy Club meeting is tonight.
>> I am not sure how they would enforce a climate lockdown or ration electricity. Many of the States will tell the feddies to pound sand.
Rolling blackouts…welcome to third-world living.
>> People would run out to panic buy gasoline the moment any hint of an announcement was forthcoming.
I keep our LEAF topped off (85%) with electrons every night.
The radio station learned a hard lesson about follow on effects of creating a “gas shortage”, not the least of which being that a lot of their employees and vendors simply didn’t show up at the appointed times to provide necessary goods and services … like keeping the bathrooms clean in the building.
Clear Channel is very careful to NOT create panic again anytime a storm is brewing in the Atlantic or Gulf, and I never heard another Gas Buddy commercial on the station once the contract was up the next year.
No one should feel immune from the fallout of Biden doing something stupid like rationing gasoline or even dropping hints about doing so. The economy is way too complex to absorb a hit like that on a nationwide scale. Things would get ugly fast.
I would phrase it as, the economy is way too fragile to absorb a hit.
Every business process which can be cost-optimized, has been. That means almost no inventory on hand, relying instead on just in time delivery for businesses which need materials or “zero inventory stores” for merchants. It means cutting payroll costs to the bone, which results in experienced “headcount” being replaced by partially-trained newbies if it’ll save a dollar per hour, as well as reducing staff to the point that there is little ability to handle surprise outages. Maintenance is deferred in order to keep the facilities earning a profit or to push the maintenance cost into the next fiscal year. Redundancy is eliminated, sometimes deliberately in the name of efficiency and sometimes because of competition driving out all but the most efficient. Essential steps in the supply or manufacturing chain are outsourced, often to hostile nations.
Infrastructure is much the same, with roads and the electrical grid and the water and sewer systems being used well above design limits and maintenance deferred, resulting in collapses. (Sometimes literal collapses when a bridge’s inspections and maintenance were put off too long or performed poorly.) Almost no systems have duplicates and few have any meaningful spare capacity which can take over in case of a failure.
Human capital is crippled by an education system which not only does not teach useful skills or civic virtues but actively works against those goals. Motivation to work – to add to the physical and social wealth of the nation – is undermined by any number of payouts for not working. Several demographic segments despise other segments and will not work for their common good. Between these, the number of people both willing and able to produce value and to keep systems running is lower now than it has been in half a century despite the increased population.
Put it all together and we could see a cascade failure resulting from one well-placed hit.
@SteveF
“I would phrase it as, the
economysociety is way too fragile to absorb a hit.”It has been deliberately and systematically weakened by our enemies who realized after WWII that the cost of defeating us in a conventional or nuclear war were far too high. Better to use the most corruptible parts of the two political parties to destroy the country from within over several generations.
And they did, and here we are.
Yes, “society”. My comment started out discussing only economic matters, then grew and I meant to but forgot to change the first line.
There’s probably a way to blame this on either anthropogenic global warming or Trump.
Caller: Hellos, is this the Governor’s Office? I’ make speaks to Chief of Staff.
CoS: This is. May I help you?
Caller: Yes, I am Carlos, come to your fine state with family after your Democrat Party opened borders wide for us. Thank you very much.
CoS: I was just walking out the door with the governor. Please get to the point.
Caller: Yes. Thank you. Your state has right to shelter but the shelter they full. I see from the news that you and governor leaving state for big meeting in Washingtone and will be gone for four days.
CoS: Yes, so?
Caller: You are flying, so not using cars to the weekend. Please to leave your keys for governor limo and police escorts and your personal car with guard for Carlos to pick up..
CoS: WTF are you talking about?
Caller: Me and my family and other families that come to America and your state have right to shelter. Shelter is full. We okay with that, can live in cars for a while. Better than what we left. We use cars for little, then give back. Promise like promise show up to judge someday.
CoS: That’s ridiculous!
Caller: No, is our rights by your law. You leave keys for us, we have shelter.
CoS: [sputtering]
Caller: Hold on, Maria want to talk.
Maria: Yes, thank you. Jus wondering, how many rooms in governor mansion not being used this weekend? We have lot’s friends very cited about new rights. Want to enjoy them muchly.
CoS: [squawking]
Maria: Yes, and Jesus see your daughter on news in school making with computer. Jesus think he could like that too. We haz rights to education now, too? Where your kid go school?
CoS: [incoherent]
Opsec, but how far south?
Any side trips to Boca Chica?
Port Lavaca and Victoria. No where near Boca Chica. They are getting ready to launch another Starship, the security must be going up.
Big fire earlier near my neighborhood. Passed near there around 6pm, didn’t see smoke but the helo that was hovering in place caught my attention. They usually orbit.
I think they just let it burn, after all, it’s over 104F and no point in risking lives.
n
https://www.khou.com/article/news/local/warehouse-fire-spring-branch/285-e2dba593-d90c-4a91-a4a3-b91b2246e5c8
The main road must be kept open as much as possible since the beach is a state park. Other than the Border Patrol, security checkpoints are non-existent.
The county posts closure announcements here.
https://www.cameroncountytx.gov/spacex/
A Starship without a booster was on what was left of the pad at the beginning of July.
Another one.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12397915/Ecuadorian-congressional-candidate-Estefany-Puente-grazed-bullet-ONE-DAY-presidential-candidate-Fernando-Villavicencio-murdered.html
[music playing] Coming to America…
n
>> It has been deliberately and systematically weakened by our enemies who realized after WWII that the cost of defeating us in a conventional or nuclear war were far too high. Better to use the most corruptible parts of the two political parties to destroy the country from within over several generations.
And they did, and here we are.
So what’s their next move? Stop shipping us iPhones?
Rolling blackouts…welcome to third-world living.
I have a whole house generator and I am not afraid to use it.
Ship more iPhones. The more TikTok users, the better.
Pournelle’s Cultural Weapons of Mass destruction.
The touchpad tech originated in China to deal with the written language. Apple set out initially to make Mike Okuda’s PADD from “Star Trek: The Next Generation”, not a phone.
lynn says:
Ditto – but my dedicated 250 gal propane tank will only keep the generator running for about 3.5 days. In a longer grid-down situation, I’m going to need to shut down the generator manually and only run it for a couple of hours in each 12 hour period – to keep the freezers frozen. And in a serious grid-down period, I can’t expect regular deliveries of propane, and I couldn’t afford to, anyway.
Of course, since I bought my generator a little over 2 years ago, I’ve consumed about 2% of my tank of propane; one 10 minute outage, and one 5 minute outage, and testing it every other week for about 5 minutes. We didn’t even lose power during the Feb ‘21 freeze, I think because we’re only a block away from a fire station.
@lynn, stock up on the maintenance and consumables. Most standby gennies need service after less than 20 hrs of run time.
@greg, I still have my newton. And all the accessories. Used to carry it when I toured with an artist, could do faxes, send my contract and expense reports, all kinds of neat things. All those pieces added up to a small notebook and I switched to that at some point. Been on notebooks/laptops/big pcs ever since.
n
>>I have a whole house generator and I am not afraid to use it.
And what it takes to protect it.
What the what?? My comment went to moderation…
n
HEY EVERYONE.
The site is very slow at the moment, and it looks like EVERYONE’S comments are going to moderation… including mine…
I’ve pinged Rick, and I’m sure he’ll have it straightened out asap.
n
Looking into it. New comment 1032pm PDT.
Thanks Rick.
n
Current theory is Akismet (comment spam checker) is having server problems. Error message on that settings screen that access to their servers is blocked. Plugin disabled for now; will investigate further.
Don’t think we’ll see any comment spam because it is disabled, though. I have other protections in place.
Will be monitoring tonight, more investigation tomorrow. Need to finish watching “Charter” – new Netflix movie with Gal Gadot. Sort of ‘Mission Impossible’-ish. Lots of action.
…part two …
It’s possible that Dreamhost (hosting place here) is doing some blocking of Akismet access. I’m not seeing similar problems on other sites that use it.
Or it could be fixed.
Will leave it disabled overnight, and check things tomorrow morning.
I know at least some of you with stationary generators don’t have them underground. Do you at least have them surrounded with something that will stop a .30 cal rifle bullet?
Did you mean “Heart of Stone”?
I get back from Cancun and read this:
LMFAO! Mr. SteveF must be fun in an office environment. I bet there were multiple voodoo dolls on his desk every day. Good thing working from home is a thing.
So, on passwords, before I left for Cancun, I was watching some YT videos on “passkeys” which use Private/Public keys instead of passwords. I ordered some Yubico Keys to play with on the hardware side. And, I’m googling which sites I have password accounts on, that support passkey servers, to try out.
I’ve already instigated 2FA on sites that support it. I use 1Password and it has a built-in “authenticator” that works well on sites that support authenticators. I prefer that over text/email PINs. Surprisingly, my retired milspec pays site works well with authenticators.
I’m sure the goobermint is already in cahoots with financial institutions to install backdoors through passkey’d accounts. When we get goobermint digital currency/crypto rammed down our throats, it is game over, man, game over.