Warmish, and clear. Yesterday started with a lot of overcast, and very wet, but turned into another beautiful day. Today is forecast to be the same. It’s definitely time to get the garden going.
Bit of a mixed bag yesterday as far as getting stuff done. I was able to get the plumbing parts I need, and should be able to get the tub back together today. They even had the transition fitting to attach to the lead pipe sewer connection. Good thing the HD managers are allowed to pick some items to stock for their local market. We have lead sewer pipes coming up through our slabs, and it’s been long enough that they are falling. Probably not something you needed to stock 20 years ago.
I also got the Ranger smogged and inspected, so I can remedy my registration issues. Expy too. Maybe I’ll do both at the same time. I have some maintenance due on the Ranger too, that I’ll have to find time for. Won’t be this week or next.
I wasn’t able to do my auction drop off, so that gets pushed to today. I have one pickup on the south side of town, and one near me that I forgot to do last week. Then I’m loading for my trip to the BOL. Still not sure if I’m going up today or tomorrow, but today would be better. Turns out I need to cut the grass there, which means doing some service work on the mower first… and pitching in on my neighbor’s garden plot. I might try to get something planted in my own plot too. Then the irrigation needs to be sorted out, with the broken line fixed, and the sprinklers re-installed…
It’s fractal. The closer you look at a task, the more tasks there are to do.
And when I get back, I’ll spend the next week getting ready for the Hamfest, and getting my hobby website up. Whoohooo. Fun times.
Better to be busy than bored I guess. Meatspace. It takes more work than a hermit’s life, but it’s worth it.
Stack some facetime with people. Start on your garden.
n
Lynn, for your sinuses. I repost from 2016…
Clear and sunny this morning with very moderate temps.
Sorting thru some more stuff to send to auction, separating some stuff to send to the BOL, since I’m doing both this weekend…
n
I second that. The whole family uses the Ninja. We also have the Ninja Outdoor Smoker. I’ve only made ribs in it, but will try a brisket soon.
I have the Dreo Chefmaker air fryer just for steaks, but I’ve made steaks in the Ninja.
On sinuses:
I use the device Jerry P. used. A pump that oscillates salt water through your nose. It is still “cedar fever” season around me in SA, so I use the pump regularly.
My dumpster weight delta was 2.14 tons. I still have some stuff to sort and dump. Geez.
So, how’s that trucker boycott of NYC going? 😜
– so for 17 years walmart has been using some other criteria to justify keeping Chicago stores open. And now they’ve stopped. Wonder what it was? And I wonder how a for profit business gets away with abusing their shareholders that way.
n
if that’s true, why was verizon affected?
edit- “There were reports that other networks were affected, but this is thought to have been the result of failed attempts to place calls to AT&T numbers. ”
My wife says some people she knows canceled appointments yesterday, because they couldn’t get to them without turn by turn directions from their phone. This despite the fact they’d been to the location before.
If what I’m seeing in my military and defense trade magazines is any indication, the first thing we’ll lose is GPS if the world war goes hot…
Got maps?
n
I don’t think Verizon was affected as much as people using Verizon could not contact people on AT&T. That lack of connection was blamed on Verizon.
I suspect, and I am guessing, is that some routing table was incorrectly created, or installed. Routing tables propagate through the network quickly. That error in routing may have made some larger nodes unable to be connected except by someone on site and thus it took some time to correct the routing tables.
To affect that many nodes is a software error and not a hardware error.
Well, going by what I see on YouTube; haven’t been to NYC myself lately and don’t plan to go.
There are several videos (often pieced together from X/Twitter and Tiktok) of independent truckers saying that they’re being offered an extra $2K to bring a load in, which is about double the previous rate. Other videos showing store shelves with a lot of gaps, though I don’t know as I’d give them much weight because they’re more easily misrepresented: are the empty shelves at the end of the day before they’re refilled? Are they from four years ago when idiot governors locked down the country? The trucker videos are definitely current, with truckers saying things like “I don’t care how much they offer, I’m not going in to NYC until the Trump verdict is reversed” and such.
Trump’s attorney got Wade’s cell phone records.
Both Wade and Willis swore there was no relationship until late 2022.
Records show 2000 voice calls, 12,000 texts, 35 times Wade’s phone was at Willis’ neighborhood for and extended period, and at least 2 overnights
If the court accepts an alternate explanation, law enforcement use of cell phones records and charges of perjury will be a thing of the past in GA.
I think it more likely this case is history and so are their law licenses
https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/23/phone-records-appear-to-contradict-key-element-of-fani-willis-testimony/?pnespid=v7s2BSlEO64W3uuQtiilDZPVvBixRcV3Pezk0fo4qUNmlX.CrUWbHqPByCyLFoi.Sx3HCpaH
2021 records
And the truckers can cr*p in the other hand and see which fills up faster. I don’t like NYC and hope the city goes bankrupt, as long as they get no federal funds for their lunacy. New York City is a disgusting town that reeks of urine and piles of human feces in the corners of alley’s. The people are rude, the atmosphere sucks, and it is expensive.
The legal system in NYC will never back down. Too many egos in play.
Nah. They can take a load into Pennsylvania instead of into NYC.
The US has a shortage of tens of thousands of truck drivers, maybe over a hundred thousand. (I don’t believe the upper or lower estimates, so just say “tens of thousands”.) Truckers with a clean record can walk into a job and a company with a 20% staffing shortage probably won’t turn away someone who says up front that he won’t go into NYC.
Independents with their own rigs have loads available pretty much anywhere, going pretty much anywhere.
I don’t know what it’s like to become an independent owner-operator these days, if they don’t already have a rig. Banks might have some kind of purity test before giving a loan.
Touring in the entertainment industry I used to have a lot of interaction with OTR truckers. Not much anymore. It was not an easy way to make a living as an independent. Rates were low, gas was high, and if you had living expenses, they ate most of your profit.
Even in that environment, there was always a shortage of guys who could pass a p!ss test.
Illinois had a scandal where they were giving CDLs to immigrants that couldn’t pass the requirements to fill the shortage.
If the boycott turns into something real, fedgov will get involved because trucking is federally regulated. I’m sure it will be heavy handed and ineffective, and end up exacerbating the problem it was meant to solve.
n
Like I mentioned the other day…
I could start here: Joker 2 – The Musical
Wait and it will be delivered…NOT…
ChatGPT ‘off the rails’ as AI starts ‘threatening users’ who worry chatbot is ‘sentient’
>> Brad says:
20 February 2024 at 02:11
Here, you can directly recycle metal, glass, PET, cardboard and paper. There is special handling for electronics. Garden waste is also separate. Everything else is incinerated, with metal recovery from the ash and slack.
The recycling is pretty effective, because there is a hefty charge for waste disposal. It must be in labelled garbage bags, and they cost anywhere from $0.20 to $0.40 per gallon capacity.
@Brad,
Do people surreptitiously sneak their household trash into public trash bins? Or are things too civilized there?
I find boycotts increasingly ineffective. Every once in a while one breaks the norm and has some limited success, but for the most part they fizzle out. I blame it mostly on boycott fatigue. Every time you turn around some group is calling for a boycott of this or that. It all just becomes an eye-rolling new norm.
Truckers boycotting NYC en masse? That was never going to happen. Sure, speculation it might happen (in whole or part) maybe drove up transportation costs for a week or two, but that’s probably going to be the extend of it. I was sitting next to a cantankerous retired trucker in the local Legion bar a few weeks ago and he was pissing and moaning about “all the damn Arabs” driving trucks now. If fewer and fewer stereotypical “good ole boys” are driving trucks these days then the political leanings of the trucking industry may not always be what everyone has assumed them to be. If Cliff and Hank don’t want to drive that load to NYC then that’s okay because Muhammad, Sanjay, Jose, and Maddie will. Also, I would imagine for a decent chunk of those guys, regular runs into NYC to the same businesses from the same distributors is their bread and butter and they’re not going to jeopardize those contracts.
@Chad
See my earlier comments on inelasticity.
The members of the Co-Dominium all buy services from each other, particularly fiber links from the local legacy landline provider.
This is a strike year at AT&T so strange things will be afoot until … August … ?
I think AT&T Legacy – where Internet, long distance, and what is left of Labs – started contract negotiations along with some territories this week, including District 9, CA company, the real problem child.
Verizon isn’t up until 2026, but the union broke them with a strike in 2016 whereas AT&T broke the union in 2009. Still, Verizon has been shedding territories to Frontier as of late, and they’ll need a reminder about who is boss while AT&T trains secretaries and software developers to climb telephone poles.
I think the truckers in Canada had the elenent of surprise on their side. There is probably language in contracts now.
How many independent trucks have their rigs financed by banks with HQ’s in NYC?
How many of the trailer supplying companies have their loans financed in NYC?
What percentage of dispatching companies & aggregators have their business loans tied to a bank in NY?
And how many of these, however inclined, are willing to risk everything to fight the system that just ruled against Trump?
SMS text messages, location data, and information about the source and destination of a call on a cell network are considered maintenance records important to maintain the integrity of the system and do not require a warrant.
We need to watch NYC and see what happens. We’re all speculating on what’s happening and what’s going to happen.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see the federal government make some action, but it’s not clear what legal remedies they have against truckers who refuse to drive in. And their extra-legal remedies are likely to backfire catastrophically. … But that’s just more speculation.
PANYNJ records all of the plates driving into Manhattan thanks to the ORT systems installed on every bridge and tunnel, provided by my former employer. That database could be easily mined for a list of who stopped showing up on a regular basis this week.
I was fired after blowing up over our Wally’s incompetence ahead of one important test of the system’s new plate reading camera tech. The tech worked, but Wally didn’t.
Re NYC Truck Strike – a non-event, according to the latest news reports I have read.
And if there are truckers not going to NYC, it’s more about toll rates than a result of the ruling against Trump in the NY case. Certainly not a widespread thing.
Ho-hum.
>> Thinking of OFD today. One of my pals got a diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome this morning. He had the flu recently, and put his limb weakness down to that
IIRC G-B, as well as ALS, are listed as possible side effects from cosmetic Botox injections in the small print at the bottom of their current TV commercials.
You gotta really be vain to get injected with that cr@p.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13113999/Rust-armorer-Hannah-Gutierrez-Reed-trial-begins.html
Pretty damning evidence if I was on that jury.
BTW, unsurprisingly, the pink hair and t-shirt have been replaced with brunette locks and a business suit.
OsmAnd from FDroid caches entire states and provides search by street address.
I‘m not sure if it is appropriate for someone that helpless however. The program is not a dopamine hit like Waze or Apple Maps.
Every cm of street south of Central Park in Manhattan will be tolled within the next decade. Tolling the bridges and tunnels with ORT systems were the first step of a long term plan.
Why yes. A goodly selection in both cars, a good quality compass as well. No sextant though.
Trial Science, just like on “Bull”.
It is real. I took a “Sosh” class from one of the pioneers in the field during undergrad. Wow, 38 years ago this Fall. Time flies.
BTW, I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that Michael Weatherly showed up on “NCIS” this week as part of the program’s memorial episode to David McCallum.
Weatherly is cancelled due to antics on the set of “Bull”, but he is a favorite of the Redstone family who still own CBS … for now.
Plus, Weatherly can do a scary good David McCallum imitation.
“Canadian Doctors Admit Covid “Vaccine” Left Woman Paralyzed, Offer to Euthanize Her to Make Up For It”
https://thelibertydaily.com/canadian-doctors-admit-covid-vaccine-left-woman-paralyzed/
Are you kidding me !
The Moderna Koof vaccine causes a lesion on the spine in some people ? Really ?
We are living in Hell.
Lynn, for your sinuses. I repost from 2016…
I have a full blown sinus infection today. I took a Koof test, it was negative. I got in the shower for 30 minutes as hot as I could stand it as advised by my old GP who retired three years ago.
This is about my 50th or 100th sinus infection. Somedays, living in a swamp is not good for you no matter what the ogre says.
I am going to urgent care in a little while to see if I can get a z-pack.
My dumpster weight delta was 2.14 tons. I still have some stuff to sort and dump. Geez.
I have a six cubic yard dumpster at the office and one of my tenants has a eight cubic yard dumpsters. Both are full for each of their twice weekly servicings. And my 5,300 ft2 office building is full of junk. So is the 3,750 ft2 three story office warehouse.
What is the source of all that stuff? Gardening service waste? Construction materials? Household garbage?
Seems a bit excessive.
Landscaping and office trash. The landscaping with three crews is 90% of it. Plus my neighbors throw stuff in my dumpsters all the time.
No sextant though.
I picked one up at an estate sale. NO idea how to use it. I’ve got books on air, water, and land navigation… not a pressing need.
Truck is loaded. I hit the point where it would take the same time to leave and sit in traffic, or spend some more time at home. Leaving soon though.
Traffic is MEGA messed up today due to rodeo activities. I spent about an extra 2 hours in traffic running my errands. No fun.
Couple more computer things and I’m out…
n
Subpoena.
https://apnews.com/article/cellphones-fani-willis-romantic-relationship-trump-defense-598e8e55eafff34ba17c2267d55a24cb
Depending on who made it, the sextant could be EBay gold. An Astra IIIB is quite desireable even if it is fine Chinesium.
A plastic sextant from Davis is not worth much but can be a good educational tool.
If you want to keep it for yourself and learn, “Celestial Navigation for the Yachtsman” is a very good introduction to The Practice.
(That’s what they call it, hence the capitals.)
Beyond that, a cult favorite among the sailing crowd in Florida is a video William F. Buckley did at the height of his career, cashing in on the then-new home video fad when VHS started expanding out of pr0n in the 80s.
Everyone I know who has seen the tape says that it is worth the time and that Buckley was serious.
“Plus my neighbors throw stuff in my dumpsters all the time.”
I’d install 3-deep video cameras and put up a fence with a pedestrian gate and a vehicle gate with signs specifying the charge for use of your dumpsters.
I would send monthly bills.
I’d issue parking passes and put up signs requiring them if not parked in “Visitor”.
Then I would choose a time to shut the vehicle gate with a trespasser inside. They can exit via the pedestrian gate.
I’d flip a coin to see if I put the forklift forks through the driver’s side door and flipped the vehicle into the dumpster and called for pickup.
“A leading scientific journal faces humiliation after it published a completely fake paper, purportedly written by Chinese researchers, which contained AI generated images of a rat with a penis bigger than its own body.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/02/23/a-retraction-so-hilarious-that-i-cant-put-the-title-in-the-title/
Prudent university librarians will be putting that issue under lock and key before the eBay scavengers get there.
Google Gemini AI seems to have some credibility problems.
Ya think?
It’s kind of like having the Mafia buy Encyclopedia Britannica and put Fauci and AOC in charge.
“This is a dangerously stupid idea and the fact that Democrats are toying with it as if it were just another policy trial balloon should worry everyone.”
https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2024/02/23/are-democrats-toying-with-the-idea-of-not-certifying-a-trump-win-n3783506
Dangerously stupid like having a mentally incompetent president?
Dangerously stupid like opening the southern border to millions of invaders?
Dangerously stupid like adding trillions of dollars to the national debt every year?
Dangerously stupid like destroying trust in the medical establishment that took over a hundred years to build?
Florida Man Friday
https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2024/02/23/florida-man-friday-n4926703
In an amazing string of coincidences it was found that every one of these genius curve raisers was a registered Democrat and Biden voter.
The Dems might win the House Majority back but the House vote for President would be one vote per state delegation, and control of the state delegations is firmly with the Republicans.
The Senate would decide the VP, however, one vote per Senator, and, absent a Jesus candidate, the Dems face the possiblity of losing the Senate this year.
Trump’s best bet to discourage that possibility would be to run with someone the Dems wouldn’t want to face serving as VP with Biden’s brain continuing to deteriorate. DeSantis would be the obvious choice, but that is a problem in the Electoral College vote from Florida should the election proceed under the … normal … is that a good word? … procedure.
Maybe “vanilla” … Corn Pop loves his ice cream.
Florida will go Republican even with a Jesus Candidate on the Dem side and Rick Scott (RINO-FL) running for reelection. The Democrats are done in that state for a very long time.
The Covid reaction ignored centuries of established public health practice which is enforced by laws reacting to outbreaks of treatable but highly contagious diseses, some of which even have real vaccines.
Yeah, TB. Trump tho.
Rumors in the networking community say, similar to what Ray guessed, that some routers got overwhelmed with too many routes.
All the big networks run something called “route reflectors”, which provide routing info to other routers. It’s possible an external routing peer sent bad routes that wiped out AT&T’s routing, or just overwhelmed the RRs in some way.
We may actually get to know what happened since E911 went down and there will be an investigation. It’s also possible they will use “security” as an excuse to not reveal the problem.
“UAW Strike At Ford Truck Plant Averted”
https://www.carpro.com/blog/uaw-strike-at-ford-plant-averted
“In an Automotive News story from last week, the publication noted that Ford CEO Jim Farley stated “last fall’s national strike at Kentucky Truck as a “watershed” moment in which the company realized its formerly strong relationship with the union had changed. He said the company “has to think carefully about its footprint” as it transitions to electric vehicles.”
Yup, looks like Ford is going to start moving its plants to Mexico where the UAW has no power.
“AAA: How Well Do Automatic Emergency Braking Systems Work?”
https://www.carpro.com/blog/aaa-how-well-do-automatic-emergency-braking-systems-work
Oh my !
Nick Flandrey says:
I used to teach that stuff at the USAF joint service USAF/USN Navigator School at Mather AFB. CA. Although we used a periscopic aircraft sextant, not a handheld nautical sextant. But the math is mostly the same.
Made it safely to the BOL. It’s a bit cloudy here, it was clear in Houston. And it’s chilly. Not going to let that stop me from a fire and some radio though.
Gotta get dinner first, then walk the dog.
n
“Scholars release official ranking of US presidents. See where Biden and Trump fall”
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article285691301.html
“Topping the list was Abraham Lincoln, followed by Franklin Roosevelt and George Washington — all three of whom generally rank among the best American leaders. Biden was placed 14th just ahead of Woodrow Wilson, putting him in the top third of all U.S. presidents. Trump, on the other hand, received the poorest possible marks, coming in dead last after James Buchanan, who presided over a polarized nation in the years leading up to the Civil War.”
“Barack Obama, for instance, rose nine places — from 16th to seventh place — since the initial survey was conducted in 2015. Similarly, Ulysses Grant surged in the rankings from 26th to 17th place. Meanwhile, Andrew Jackson fell from ninth place to 21st, while Calvin Coolidge dropped from 27th to 34th.”
You know, if you have a typo in the title (missing a period), your credibility is not high with me.
Rating FJB with Woody Wilson is not much of an endorsement. Wilson got us the FED, the 16th, 17th Amendments and into WW1. The 18th Amendment passed Congress on his watch.
I think those 154 worthies should take out loans for a gender studies major. Couldn’t screw their heads on any worse.
The Herald. McClatchy is more left wing than even Pinch’s brood currently running The New York Times.
All of the surviving Florida papers are left leaning or, in the case of The (St. Petersburg) Times, parent company of Politifact, openly advancing the agenda.
“Day by Day Armageddon: Beyond Exile (Book 2)” by J. L. Bourne
https://www.amazon.com/dp/143917752X?tag=ttgnet-20
Book number two of a four book zombie dark fantasy series. I read the well printed and and well bound trade paperback published by Pocket Books in 2010 that I bought new from Amazon. I have bought the other two books in the series and will be reading them soon.
Awesome, a zombie book set in Texas. Starts in San Antonio and then meanders around the place looking for a safe place with zero undead, not happening.
If at all possible, things are darker, way darker. Our hero meets up with several others along his journey and puts them into a safe place. Well, he thought it was safe place. Nothing is safe from a half million zombie herd.
I liked it ! Almost as good as John Ringo’s “Under A Graveyard Sky”.
The author has a website at:
http://www.JLBourne.com
My rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars (1,149 reviews)
Lynn
“Adrian Tchaikovsky Will No Longer Cite His 2023 Hugo”
“Adrian Tchaikovsky has announced on his website that due to the revelation of major problems with 2023 Hugo administration he will no longer acknowledge the Best Series Hugo presented to Children of Time.”
https://file770.com/adrian-tchaikovsky-will-no-longer-cite-his-2023-hugo/
This keeps on getting worse and worse. And yes, some of the involved were instrumental in the Sad Puppies demise.
There have been no good Hugo awards since 2012, “Among Others” by Jo Walton.
Dead calm tonight. A bit of overcast and some mist, so not good viewing. Full moon, if that is your thing, was cutting thru the haze….
shortwave was pretty good. Tuned around the dial a bit, then let the fire die out.
Bed time now.
n
Huh, some dogs barking, so my dog wants to bark… freaking pack animals.
n
We had the full moon and light falling snow. Pretty. No wolves howling (yet). We do have wolves.
https://thefederalist.com/2024/02/23/raffensperger-claims-georgias-voter-rolls-are-cleanest-in-the-country-heres-why-thats-bunk/
Elementary statistical tools do not detect voter fraud, but certainly point to where the ducks are walking and talking.
Lynn, good luck with the medics and your sinuses. My GP knows my sinus history, and I know and usually, but not always, can detect the signs of infection, so she prescribes cefuroxime that I keep in reserve, to hit an infection on the head as soon as I notice it.
If Russia were to detonate a nuke in orbit, they would indeed take out a lot of satellites, including GPS. However, this would include their own satellites aw well as those of India and China – two countries on which Russia is very dependent.
I used to think Putin was a smart guy. His behavior over the last few years casts some doubt on that.
You see some of that, but the public bins have deliberately small openings: you can toss in individual items, but you can’t squash a whole trash bag in. The worst thing that happens, are people who toss trash in the forest, but that is pretty rare. Mostly, the Swiss are ridiculously civilized.
You know what bugs me about this kind of thing? The fallibility (and malleability) of human memory. People’s memories have changed, especially given the pressure in a situation like this. What they say on the witness stand now may have little to do with what actually happened.
The fundamental problem is how slowly the justice system moves. A trial needs to happen promptly, not months and years after the fact.
Landscaping trash sounds like it ought to be mostly biodegradable stuff: trimmings, branches, etc.. Isn’t their some sort of (less expensive) disposal for stuff like that, for example, going to a composting site?
@brad:
Here in UK, we get fortnightly collection of rubbish, alternating with fortnightly collection of recyclables, i.e. there’s one collection a week.
The rubbish is sent to landfill.
Food waste is collected separately, every week.
All of that is included in our council tax (sort-of equivalent to American property tax, I think)
We also get a for-pay garden waste collection, again a separate truck, fortnightly. That’s optional, and costs £90 a year, or £66 for senior citizens, among whom both W and I are numbered. That’s per houshold, per year. And it is sent for composting.
G.