Hot and humid, but maybe no rain today. Small blob of “T Storms and rain possible” but a lot of “clear” on the forecast map too. I’m leaning toward “clear”. It was plenty hot yesterday, getting well into the 90s.
I did manage to get a few things done. I got the fan unstuck in the new garage fridge. The freezer was super cold, but the fridge wasn’t. The fan turned out to be stuck and the passage between them was blocked with ice. Cleared all that out and it’s cooling the fridge normally again. So now I can put that in place in the garage.
It will give me a nice platform for the live animal cage trap. To get the possum that is moving from my garage to the house attic, through the soffits and the breezeway roof. I’ve definitely got one in the attic, and one in the garage, but IDK if they are one in the same. I think I blocked the path between the garage and house, but I could be wrong. Or there might be another path. We’ll see what the attic trap does in the next day or so.
And I’ve got a big armadillo in my back yard. Dog went nuts last night, and we went out to pull him off the possum, but it turned out to be an armadillo instead. Dillo was trying to burrow under my house slab. Dog was trying to eat what he could see. Dang thing moved FAST when it had the chance to run away… then it got trapped trying to dig under the woodpile by the fence. Like a toddler or an ostrich, if it’s head is safe, it doesn’t care about the rest and it just kept trying to burrow. Crazy good digger too. Not much of a climber. I think it’s only the second time I’ve seen a live one, and the first time I’ve seen one that close or that long. Not really happy to have him in the yard.
Cats, rats, dogs, squirrels, coons, and now ‘dillos. Oy.
Today if there isn’t a security incident at school, I’ll be continuing my cleanup and organizing, while knocking off a small project here or there as I can. I’ve got pickups I can do if I get the chance.
And if not, there are always things to do here.
Stack something. Do something.
nick
Texans voted last November to give the districts the state surplus in order to keep the real estate market afloat.
What? You actually expected some measure of respect in return for giving up the money to fill the soupbowls?
Right now, the ISDs are preparing the budget cuts which will convince voters to vote for income tax in November 2027.
Apparently, in the mean time, Round Rock ISD has another bond issue on the ballot this November.
I would like to see all levels of government prohibited from borrowing money.
The little town we moved to a few years back was one of the few with zero debt. They have since started a huge infrastructure project that has put them seriously into debt. The thing is: they should have saved up over the past decades, because everyone knew about the infrastructure project, it just wasn’t clear when it would become unavoidable.
Anyway, the town council promises to have the debt paid back in 4-5 years. However, they keep spending money on “nice to have” stuff. No, we didn’t need a new pond next to the town park, like, not at all. No, we didn’t need to repave the parking areas, at least, not for another couple of years. No, the school playground doesn’t need redone – y’all just redid it 4-5 years ago. IMHO, they should stop all discretionary spending until they have paid back the debt. I’ve been quiet in the town meeting so far, but I have decided to raise a serious fuss the next time they propose some unnecessary project.
The federal government here is only allowed to run a deficit “in case of emergency”. They ran a huge deficit during Covid, and were unable to stop through last year. This year, they are finally – likely under threat of legal action – doing some serious cost cutting, because they’ve run out of excuses. Of course, sending money to random 3rd world countries is still in the budget, as is a stupid amount for housing illegal immigrants, as is the free $billion given to the EU (frankly, extortion).
Actually, I would allow “emergency” deficit spending, but only after confiscating, say, 50% of the assets of all politicians who vote for it. That way, it would need to be a genuine emergency.
Alan says:
16 September 2024 at 03:10 (Edit) (Spam) (Trash) (Delete)
Still no clarification that I have seen as to who exactly fired shots.
Hmm…
– yes, and how many missed? Did they shoot without having a target?
—————————–
brad says:
16 September 2024 at 03:54 (Edit) (Spam) (Trash) (Delete)
Some dweeb wants attention, or just wants to watch the general freak-out. Probably. Almost certainly.
Well, actually, sometimes they do. The freak-out cycle works, because sometimes the dweeb actually is a violent nutcase.
—- Rarely, very rarely. They make statements just before, when they have already started to act, and sometimes their statements IN RETROSPECT make sense that way. Rare to announce an actual threat the day before though.
– no consolation that I think about the threat EVERY SINGLE DAY, and every time she’s separated from us, or goes to a school event. And that we don’t have any real info in this case, just reporting of CYA responses to stuff that might not even be aimed at us.
– no consolation that I consider the biggest threat to be interpersonal violence from another student, incidental involvement in a gang fight or conflict, and attention from traffickers or kidnapping. I put all of those higher than school shooting.
IMHO that’s a serious argument for a private school.
– yeah, everyone including my wife seems to think I’m kidding some how when I say that there are only about 6 white kids in her class. The district tweeks the numbers when they want to by counting hispanic as white, or because some of the hispanics report as white.
The local Christian high school is about 80% white. And $27K a year minimum. Some reports are $37K. There are also only about 100 kids in each grade, so not a lot of openings.
There hasn’t been any additional communication from the district or the school.
—————————–
I’ve got soft armor inserts that would work in her book bag. I’ve been saying for years that the next thing TPTB will ban is personal body armor. Better to get it now than later. I don’t think it will improve her mood to give her a panel and then send her to school. If I believed it was a real threat, I wouldn’t send her.
n
We hit Cracker Barrel last night for the first time in several months and noticed significant changes from our last visit.
– Menu item price increases of ~ 30% with much smaller portions.
– Paring down of the menu.
– Roaming waitress selling pre-packaged take home meals.
– Lots more cr*pola in the gift shop, including Christmas (!) displays next to Halloween and NCAA football.
White Hispanic. Thank you Benny Crump.
Increasingly, Asians are referred to as White Adjacent.
Racial lines are very blurry. Spanish people are obviously white Europeans. The mixing with native tribes created what people call today “hispanic”. So they are some percent white and some percent native. Similarly American blacks are generally a mix of African and European. For me, and I think for many people, these blurry lines are the reason to object to any sort of official racial tracking, preferences, affirmative action, or whatever. Treat each individual as an individual.
In which context: I am shocked that Kamala got away with segregating her supporters by race and gender. If almost anyone else had done that, they would be pilloried.
I am shocked that Kamala got away with segregating her supporters by race and gender.
– that right there is the hypocrisy of the left. While everyone else is bending over backwards to say it’s culture not race that is the root of the problems, they jump right in and go with the ‘even one drop’ argument… and say it’s skin color and ancestry that are important. And a vagina.
n
Ok, now the threatened school says “we investigated and there was no credible threat”. And D1’s Principal just sent email saying the same.
Increased PD presence for a few days…
n
“I don’t think it will improve her mood to give her a panel and then send her to school”
make the change when the threat level is way down. Like putting a first aid kit and a flashlight in the car, it’s too late when you need it.
Say what? And have them miss out on special treatment, schooling preference, lowered standards, “free” money, racial lottery lawsuits? (/sarcasm)
Silly you. When skin color can be used as an advantage then racism will continue to flourish. Ben Crump makes a living being a racist and flaming the racial fires.
That happened last week at our local school. Multiple, unsubstantiated threats at several schools in the area. Nothing that the police would share with anyone as that “would tarnish the investigation”. Merely posting a copy of something that someone else copied involving a school shooting in another state was considered a threat. At the football game on Friday there were several officers in full SWAT gear and every police officer in the town, and a couple of county deputies were at the game.
One of the pieces of info I need to make informed choices, but don’t have, is the normal amount of threats.
——–
I had time to look at the stuff that prompted the kid’s meltdown.
The instagram account is a female with ~250 followers, and is private. I can’t read the name on the original “threat” that she screenshotted, but it’s a picture of guns, about $2K – $4k worth, and a list of names, that are all schools in the Dallas area. There is a lot of common name reuse in Texas. Common to Texas history anyway. The only area of the state that has schools with those names in the same place is the greater DFW area.
SO the original threat wasn’t even our area.
Turns out though that there were a bunch of smaller, lost in the noise threats that have now been shared by parents and other schools in the district as they deny any current threat. Stuff like a “warning” scrawled on a school bathroom wall.
n
I sent my 3 boys to parochial schools. Two of them all the way through high school.
It was the consensus of the other dads that we were happy when our boys graduated, because full-time tuition at the local state college was actually cheaper than the tuition at the high school.
While the Catholic high school was better than the public school, I would still call it inadequate compared to my own public school education a generation earlier.
Our 5 daughters all had K-5,6 parochial school education. I would do that all over again. They are all literate, read a lot, and can actually use math to do stuff. My high school education was so superior to today’s HS education it is laughable.
Is it 10:00am PDT yet? I need my Apple dopamine hit.
Your knot the only 1 hus skuling wuz better.
Tim has another event today?
My iPhone 11 is 4yo, and while mostly still solid shows an occasional disinclination to charge.
You know, age aside, really I’m only interested in the new iPhone camera.
The question is the base model camera or the pro with optical zoom is the better deal?
I will probably wait a few months and see what people think.
I suspect that the AI will be unnecessary for me, and annoyingly intrusive.
For fan’s of Niven & Pournelle’s “Footfall” Scott Lowther has an article about, and a picture of the original Orion battleship:
https://unwantedblog.com/orion-battleship-found-at-last/
He compares it to the CAD drawings he has made for open source descriptions, and that are reproduced everywhere.
Public schools in the late 60’s / early 70’s? I have nothing good to say. I do believe the schools are even worse today, but that doesn’t make the “good old days” actually good.
First grade? The teacher hated boys. I thought I should give answers when she asked the class for them. Nope. I remember her yelling at me and swinging me around, off the ground by one arm, for daring to speak up and not be a girl.
I remember 6th grade math. A friend and I were just bored out of our skulls. The teacher had zero interest in giving us more or harder work, so we quietly passed notes to each other. Unacceptable, she put us on opposite sides of a tall cabinet. So we tossed notes over the cabinet. The class wasn’t even that big, and certainly no disruptive kids (aside from us). She could have made an effort to engage us, but either couldn’t be bothered or was simply incompetent.
Thankfully, my parents put me into a private school for grades 8-12. What a relief! Teachers who held degrees in their subjects, and generally did not have teaching degrees. Who made their courses challenging, and were pleased if you showed interest and wanted to do extra stuff.
I live near a major municipality where the greens are in power. I work in the municipality. They have a policy of promoting low emissions from vehicles. They have indicated that my perfectly serviceable current petrol (gasoline) engine Japanese car will be forbidden from driving there as of some time in 2029.
I have checked the relevant rules. There is an exemption for vehicles with “agricultural” registration plates. I therefore fully intend to drive to work by tractor. I have commenced negotiations with the current owner of a nice 1950s petrol/kerosene model that I will enjoy owning and driving around town. If I were more mischievous, I would get a stinky diesel tractor.
*
On threats to/in schools… I am shocked and saddened that this is a “thing”, but perhaps I ought not to be shocked.
I was professionally involved in the past with contingency planning for major adverse events, including acts of terrorism and amok incidents. The first thing I always told people is that such events are exceedingly rare, and the chances of being directly touched by one are vanishingly small. Crossing the road outside one’s house, falling out of bed, or driving in a car are probably more dangerous, in terms of the likelihood of harm occurring. Unfortunately, the news and social media blow the minuscule real prevalence of such incidents out of all proportion, which mostly contributes only to fear, but not to preparedness and to knowing what to do. In the run-up to the presidential elections in the US, I would expect that hype only to intensify.
The best advice I can give, and it is worth what you pay for it, is to wait until D is calmer and not panicking – if necessary give her a day or two away from school to allow her to become calm. Then, and only then, explain to her the true non-prevalence of such events, and ALSO explain that the best and real way not to be afraid of dramatic, but unlikely, incidents, is to have prepared for them in your mind ahead of time, to know how to react, and what to do.*
The late Col. Cooper explained this aspect of mindset much better than I can.
https://youtu.be/odXGT8hNa3w?feature=shared&t=172
Having a plan, a strategy and skills helps take away or prevent the “this can’t be happening” state of shock, when and if something awful does happen, replacing it with “I know what to do, I can handle this”. It does not guarantee that a given individual will favour one of the three “f”-reflexes (flee, freeze, fight) over the others, but it puts the “non-freezers” ahead of the game.
Nick, you already know about plans, strategies and skills. See if you can pass them on in a reassuring, empowering way.
* What to do? I would advocate “run, hide, tell, fight”. Others differ.
My dear late parents scrimped and saved their whole working lives to send their children to the best private schools they could afford. It was the best possible investment in our future, and I wish I could thank them more for it.
I had teachers just like you describe, real educators, not spewers of rote learning or daycare gaolers. I am frequently surprised by how much more and better I learned in school than other intelligent people of comparable age whom I meet as adults. The main thing I learned was possibly how to learn effectively and critically, which is really the basis for mastery of anything.
Personally, I would go with the Pro model. Beyond the camera there are other improvements. Pro-motion (sounds like hooker talk) and always on display on the pro. The phone is also larger which for some is a down vote. I like the better camera, a lot, but my needs are more than average phone user. I also think I would rather have it, and not need it, rather need it and not have it. Since you keep your phone so long the price difference is pennies a month.
I was fortunate to having attended a small school with a couple of teachers that really care. Late ‘60’s for high school. There were six of us that wanted the advanced math class. There was no time slot available for the class. The teacher offered to come to school an hour early to teach us the class before that actual start of school. All six of attended and were grateful. Although I have never used the match I learned (and have forgotten) at any time in my life. What it taught me was critical thinking skills, and that was extremely valuable, I think.
Tractors have registration plates? Ours did not. We did have farm plates on our pick-em-up truck. If you can register a truck as agricultural, do that rather than a tractor. In case of rain.
Do the updates. If you have a Mac you can connect to. your iPhone and do all your iPhone stuff from the Mac screen. iPhone needs IOS 18, Mac needs Sequoia (version 15). It works quite well. Although I have not tried taking a phone call with iPhone mirroring as any phone calls come through on the Mac anyway.
The notes stuff is really slick. I tried a couple of calculations, nothing complicated as I don’t remember any of the stuff, and it worked. I may get rid of my other notes app as the Apple app has gotten quite useful. All kinds of stuff, pictures, links, documents, etc., can now be stuffed in a note.
The password works well and integrates nicely in the Apple world. What is lacks is the ability to store beyond passwords like Bitwarden. I will keep my Bitwarden for now. If, or when, Apple adds other items such as passports, driver’s license, scanned documents, it might be the end of the world for other password managers. As the password app is now it is still good enough for people that just need help with managing passwords.
If an existing password app is owned, and can export the passwords as a CSV file, the Apple passwords app can import those password. If notes, drivers license, etc. are stored in the existing password app, those do not get exported into the new Apple passwords app.
IMHO that’s a serious argument for a private school.
Or move the kids to the BOL school.
Kids in expensive private schools tend to feel entitled and such.
I went to a private school in Houston called Northwest Academy at TC Jester and 610 for 10th and 11th grades. I think that it merged with Houston Christian Academy now and is out on Beltway 8.
IMHO that’s a serious argument for a private school.
Or home school. My wife home schooled our son for 10th – 12th grades and our daughter for 6th – 9th grades. Our son was hanging with kids we did not like in Fort Bend ISD so we pulled him out. Our son got into TAMU after scoring 1,300+ on the SAT.
Thanks, Ray!
Road-legal tractors have and require registration plates here. They have a letter prefix that distinguishes them from non-agricultural registered vehicles.
Unfortunately, a pickup truck won’t get an agricultural-vehicle registration, though perhaps something like an agricultural side-by-side might be eligible. I would have to check. Fortunately, our BOL includes a parcel of agricultural land, so I can show a “need” for registering an agricultural vehicle.
The other advantage of my intended 1950s tractor is that it would also qualify as an “historical” vehicle (one over 40 years old and of aesthetic, collectible or technical value), which brings certain exemptions from the annual road-worthiness (and emissions) tests, which are both expensive and geared at forcing people to buy EVs. I am not entirely sure how the characteristics historical and agricultural articulate with one another, but I can find out.
I kind of just like the greeting-finger element of driving a tractor, although you might be right about the rain…
>> it’s like Wild Kingdom around here…
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/environment/article/la-porte-pipeline-gas-fire-spencer-highway-19768571.php
Any of our TX folks affected?
LSM – the assassination attempt – it’s Google’s fault, you can see the golf course on Google Maps.
And supposedly subsequent to the Butler attempt, FJB told the SS Acting Director to increase protection levels for OHBM and The Kamel to match what Biden has. According to the PB County Sherriff however, at least in terms of the golf course, that has not been put in place. Makes you go hmm…
I think there was a major screw-up with the SS at the golf course, and it was likely unavoidable.
They put a competent man on the detail, and didn’t inform him in advance he needed to slack off. So he actually did his job, saw a threat, and used suppressing fire, which alarmed the assassin and alerted the other agents they needed to protect Trump.
I said unavoidable, because when you conspire to do an assassanation, like the deep state is doing, you don’t want the circle of conspirators to include everybody, so you get friction. People working at cross purposes.
They went to all the trouble of grooming their puppet, training him and arming him, and giving him targeting info AT THE LAST MINUTE. Trump hadn’t planned that round of golf in advance, and it wasn’t on his schedule. Someone on the inside told the assassin where to be.
I think the same thing happened in Butler. That’s why the local cops got the first shot off, and the SS sniper had to finally kill the puppet. They were content to let him shoot as long as necessary to eliminate the Orange One but once the locals got a shot off, they were forced to act.
The Florida guy might have an accident in jail. And, of course, one wonders if he was the actual rifleman, or just a last-minute substitute patsy.
If the shooter is being held in Martin or Palm Beach County jails he’s not going to have an accident.
The Sheriffs in Florida answer to DeSantis and, ultimately, voters every four years.
The Martin County Sheriff already openly shared an opinion that a conspiracy is at work.
I was a bad boy this week and reread “Memories of Iron” by: becuzitswrong while I was suppose to be working on the 64 bit version of my software. Taylor Hebert triggers with the dying memories and personality of Tony Stark as he lays dying on an alternate Earth that was consumed by the Silver Surfer and the Celestial. Taylor proceeds to build all kinds of neat stuff for her world along with many variations on the Iron Man suit for herself. 295,394 words.
I may sneak in a rereading of “Life’s Ending, Life’s Beginning” by: becuzitswrong. 180,265 words. In an alternate reality, Buffy and Zander’s blowing up the school library to kill the snakely Mayor goes horribly wrong and all of the scoobies die. So the Powers have Buffy join the US Air Force and then the Stargate Program.
Unfortunately, the author of these awesome fanfics passed away in 2016 and there will be no more chapters.
Sigh. I forgot to put in the URLs on Saturday.
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10230499/1/Memories-of-Iron
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7283085/1/Life-s-Ending-Life-s-Beginning
Thankfully, my parents put me into a private school for grades 8-12. What a relief! Teachers who held degrees in their subjects, and generally did not have teaching degrees. Who made their courses challenging, and were pleased if you showed interest and wanted to do extra stuff.
My parents put me into Northwest Academy for 10th and 11th grades while we lived in Houston. The school was good but they were not college prep ready. I went to Dulles High School in Fort Bend ISD for 12th grade when we moved to Sugar Land in 1977. I wanted to take Calculus at Dulles HS to get me ready for the TAMU engineering requirements but Dulles HS had the prerequisite of trigonometry for the Calculus course. So I ran over to Rice University and took trigonometry in the summer of 1977.
However, I missed that the Calculus course at Dulles HS also required a course called Elementary Analysis. So I did not get to take Calculus in the fall of 1977 and started Calculus at TAMU in the summer of 1978 without a good High School course to get me prepped. I was very pissed off when I tried to sign up for Calculus at Dulles HS.
So, one has to watch the prerequisites no matter what school you go to. Ultimately, the responsibility all rests on the students shoulders.
The other advantage of my intended 1950s tractor is that it would also qualify as an “historical” vehicle (one over 40 years old and of aesthetic, collectible or technical value), which brings certain exemptions from the annual road-worthiness (and emissions) tests, which are both expensive and geared at forcing people to buy EVs. I am not entirely sure how the characteristics historical and agricultural articulate with one another, but I can find out.
Does it have the wide spread front axle or the very narrow front axle ? My grandfather had one of the narrow front axles in the 1970s and 1980s that he bought cheap. I regarded it as a death machine on his hilly 138 acre farm.
https://www.reddit.com/r/tractors/comments/1d8j81o/why_did_narrow_front_tricycle_tractors_get_phased/
>> it’s like Wild Kingdom around here…
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/environment/article/la-porte-pipeline-gas-fire-spencer-highway-19768571.php
Any of our TX folks affected?
Nope, La Porte is about 25 miles away from my home which is outside the third ring, The Grand Parkway.
The Houston metropolitan area is HUGE. Over 100 miles (165 km) wide and over 80 miles (135 km) north – south (all SWAG). Approaching eight million people in population. Nine counties covering 8,000 square miles. Hundreds of cities.
Any of our TX folks affected?
– I was down on that side of town and saw the smoke, then when I got on the [very tall] transition ramp from the Beltway to I 45, I saw the flame. The size was mind boggling. I first thought with flames that high that someone was flaring off waste gas. Then I realized the size of the flame. Holy Cr@p.
I drove by two other fires on my way home from there too. HFD was busy today.
n
I saw the pipeline fire around 2pm, so it had been burning for 4 hours at that point.
n
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/breaking-live-aerial-footage-captures-massive-explosion-chemical/
“Obama-appointed Judge: Short-barreled Rifles Not Protected by Second Amendment”
https://thenewamerican.com/us/obama-appointed-judge-short-barreled-rifles-not-protected-by-second-amendment/
“In his ruling in United States v. Chan, Derrick Kahala Watson, Obama-appointed U.S. district judge for the District of Hawaii, claimed earlier this month that since the short-barreled rifle fitted with a switch that turned it into an automatic firearm possessed by Christopher Chan is not in common use in the United States today, the Second Amendment doesn’t apply.”
“During a welfare check in 2022, police found a bag in the trunk of Chan’s vehicle containing a short-barreled rifle fitted with a conversion switch. For that, he was charged with both possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle and possession of a machine gun. Both are violations under the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA).”
“Chan filed a complaint that his Second Amendment rights were being violated. He claimed that 1) short-barreled rifles are “arms” within the plain text of the Second Amendment; and 2) Hawaii cannot provide a Founding-era analogue (as required under Bruen) that is “relevantly similar” to the provisions of the NFA regulating them.”
I would say that the NFA of 1934 is not protected by the Second Amendment.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Prerequisites. We don’t need no stinkin’ prerequisites.
One week-long project in my CAD class during undergrad required a knowledge of 7400 logic chips so the department set Digital Logic as a prerequisite.
Not wanting to wait another year to take Digital Logic then CAD, I blew off the department’s request for everyone without the prerequisite to withdraw. When the specific project came up, I cookbooked the fundamental circuit out of a Digital Logic text at the library with proper citation and moved on to the next assignment.
I got an A in the class.
I’m lucky I didn’t go to MIT who check prereqs if the putz in this video is to be believed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPyuH4qXLZ0
The putz being Charles Leiserson, the ‘L’ in “CLRS”, the shorthand title CS academics use to refer to the MIT Press “Algorithms” text, the gold standard.
I sucked at Calculus, even with all of the prereqs in high school.
The Jeep’s battery is taking a charge from the battery minder. That 1 amp motorcycle charger has been handy over the years.
I have not found the missing Club. I can’t imagine it being tossed in the trash. It must be on a shelf in the feed shed and I’m just blind. It’s probably in the corner with my three sets of center punches leaning against the 16mm projector. Yes. Three sets. The packaging is always flimsy and hanging on the pegboard is a lost cause. So where do I put them? On the floor RIGHT NEXT to the missing set. Repeat six years later.
The last few times I’ve used the Club is just a deterrent for a casual walking by thief.. I don’t bother locking it. If “they” really want to steal my car, just pretend to be a tow truck driver and no one will pay attention.
I found the left over metal window screen I was looking for a couple of months ago.
I still have a Club stashed under my passenger seat with the key on my keyring.
I just realized that my keyring includes a key for a suitcase which I no longer own and another key for what I assume is my old desk at the tolling company.
To borrow the old joke from Stephen Wright: I didn’t lose my job. I know where it is. Its just that when I go there, some new guy is doing the job.
In my case, Roger, a Fancy Lad from Cornell.
Wait. Roger couldn’t handle the job. He either quit or was fired himself.
Of course Roger, Fancy Lad with family money, instead of finding new employment has spent the last two years on a “Career break” according to his LinkedIn page.
Don’t let them give you any of that flank steak nonsense, Roger. Make sure that they give you the London Broil.
I have the key for the Club in the armrest console. Same for the key for the locking hitch pin.
A locking hitch pin? Yeah. A friend was going to a SWB training school and his 6 month old Dodge truck was stolen. The thieves used the truck to steal Jet Skis from various boat dealers. Because easy, they are on trailers, hitch and go. He did get his truck back, undamaged, after a couple of months. Getting the pot smell out took another year.
Just a tidbit of info: https://quotulatiousness.ca/blog/2024/09/16/qotd-the-origins-of-marmite/
Photo of the gas pipeline fire on Twitter.
https://x.com/rawsalerts/status/1835767576007180427
Prerequisites. We don’t need no stinkin’ prerequisites.
One week-long project in my CAD class during undergrad required a knowledge of 7400 logic chips so the department set Digital Logic as a prerequisite.
Not wanting to wait another year to take Digital Logic then CAD, I blew off the department’s request for everyone without the prerequisite to withdraw. When the specific project came up, I cookbooked the fundamental circuit out of a Digital Logic text at the library with proper citation and moved on to the next assignment.
I am so old that my CAD classes were just D (engineering drafting).
“And, right on cue, gold hits another all time high”
https://www.schiffsovereign.com/trends/and-right-on-cue-gold-hits-another-all-time-high-151422/
“Gold just hit yet another all-time high. But what’s strange is that, if you look at gold’s supply and demand fundamentals, the price should almost be falling. Not rising.”
“We’ve already suggested that gold could easily go much higher… especially if Kamala wins. I think that’s easily a $10,000 gold price, which would suggest only a small percentage of US dollar foreign reserves invested in gold.”
“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future” (Neils Bohr).
“”Air forces have ceased to be dominant…””
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/09/air-forces-have-ceased-to-be-dominant.html
“”…when it comes to influencing the war on the ground”. That’s the conclusion of Strategy Page when it comes to modern drone warfare. The lengthy article draws other inferences that may surprise you. Here’s an excerpt.”
“Quantity has a quality all of its own” (Joseph Stalin).
“AFLAC Goose”
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZt6aLaT2-cbgGv1-FlKJJS9SR-Z3KBkX7XLXoNmQHvnxq-g0Ukg_5PkedP-Vp4mw4nbqTsKS0_Jgr5xdMIpeCQhjF4b-xhyphenhyphenV0pixMkv8d3r8-sTquZRvzsuBX73UNqMfINd8IRibkynQMAlfS-ZoujqFR0VNCQ51dc7qIrG0gcQS3Ri-ikhttlwZYIw/s600/Meme%20-%20AAAAFLAAAC.png
Heh !
Hat tip to:
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2024/09/memes-that-made-me-laugh-227.html
“ERCOT accelerates initiative to streamline energy procurement and dispatch”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ercot-Real-Time-cooptimization-rtc-puc-battery-storage-vpp/727061/
“The RTC project launched in 2019 at the direction of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, with batteries added into the implementation plan at a later date as capacity was brought online. The commission has been working to integrate more energy storage into the market; about 9.5 GW of batteries were anticipated to be online in ERCOT this fall.”
“Batteries have helped to keep the state’s electric grid stable during extreme heat, and by 2035, the ERCOT system could utilize about 20 GW, according to Aurora Energy Research.”
These massive battery systems are changing everything in the ERCOT electrical supply system. Basically, they are buying power for $20 /MWH at nighttime usually and reselling it for $50+ / MWH during the peak of the day.
They harvested the 30+ acre cotton field behind my house (northeast side) last Friday. I figured that the excess cotton would be everywhere now but, the prevailing wind has been from the south all weekend so the people across the railroad tracks are getting the free cotton.
And it is 97 F outside at 530pm. The 7pm 1.5 mile walk is going to be toasty today.
I got another decision letter from the VA regarding my request to increase my rating and the application for TDIU. It was not denied. But the judge is requiring a new examination by a clinician that is a much more thorough examination than what I had. The VA examinations keep addressing the lower back when the issue is clearly documented of my lower neck, upper spine. The VA judge has also ruled that both claims must be decided together as the issues are intertwined. Whatever that means in VA jargon.
The only good news that my appeal being sent back to the review board judge was quickly processed and was not placed at the bottom of the queue. I wonder if my contacting my congress critter had something to do with that. My spider sense says the congress critter did nothing.
How long will it take to get an examination scheduled? Who knows? It could be weeks, months or even years. The VA is very good at stalling decisions hoping the veteran dies before a decision needs to be rendered. I fully expect nothing less from this VA.
Now if I self-identified as a Haitian refugee………
becuzitswrong has some other fun stuff (mostly unfinished) at: https://www.tthfanfic.org/AuthorStories-7859/becuzitswrong.htm
“New Windows IPv6 Zero-Click Vulnerability”
https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2024/08/new-windows-ipv6-zero-click-vulnerability.html
“The press is reporting a critical Windows vulnerability affecting IPv6.”
“Details are being withheld at the moment. Microsoft strongly recommends patching now.”
My office WAN multiplexer just blocks all IPv6 for now. So far that is ok.
becuzitswrong has some other fun stuff (mostly unfinished) at: https://www.tthfanfic.org/AuthorStories-7859/becuzitswrong.htm
Dude, you rock ! I have not seen that list.
Apparently becuzitswrong passed away of a heart attack in his early 40s while mowing his aunt’s yard in 2016. Sad, very sad.
@Lynn
What was taught in “Elementary Analysis”?
My college gave students options if they had high school calculus. You could jump ahead one or two classes, and if you passed you got credit for the classes you skipped. My high school math teacher had a doctorate–I passed.
I tested out of drafting. Tested out of a few other things, too. Started third year as a senior. Only useful for getting priority in classes that had limited seats.
@Greg Norton
Classic.
Recommend Zelazny’s “Doorways in the Sand” to anyone who hasn’t read it at all, or hasn’t read it since the late ‘70’s. The main character has a free ride at college until he gets a degree, and through careful planning has been a full-time student for years without satisfying any degree program.
I still had paper drafting. “CAD” was a couple of primitive software packages, one to simulate electronic circuits and the other to handle logic circuit design.
I played “Rocky’s Boots” as a kid so the lack of the Digital Logic prereq wasn’t a problem.
I believe the gag behind “Rocky’s Boots” is that “Rocky” was Steve Wozniak’s cover name when he finished his BSEE at Berkeley years after founding Apple.
Wozniak is the Mozart of 7400 series logic.
What was taught in “Elementary Analysis”?
Wow, that was in Spring of 1978. I don’t remember the class at all but I suspect that it was trigonometric proofs and other such fun things.
Dulles HS taught trigonometry in the Fall and EA in the Spring. So I had a free period in the Fall since I took trigonometry at Rice in the summer. I used it to write my own chess program on the Univac 1108 that I never finished. Dulles HS had a terminal and free computer time.
Math Skills
Probably math involving imaginary numbers, e^i*x, and polar/cartesian coordinate conversion. That was the content of my Algebra III class after Trig during my senior year of high school.
@Lynn
The typical progression is Trigonometry → Analytic Geometry, but there is no reason that the two could not be concurrent, as the trig prereq for AG should be satisfied by the trig content of the earlier algebra-trig and the first weeks of trig.
In high school you could have started calc in fall, taken analytic geometry at the same time, and not had a problem.
I taught a lot of calc and often thought about streamlining math from algebra up. There’s a lot of what I might now term “junk DNA” in the sequence that is of little practical use to non-math majors (and precious little to most of them). I could sideline that into a parallel special topics sequence, bolster the probability and statistics of the main sequence, and still shorten the chronological length.
Too little, too late, though. If the purpose is practical applications of mathematics it’s useless to faff about with differential equations that have no analytic solution when you can just use a program that gets a numerical solution with no effective limitations.
@Greg Norton
with a dash of spherical coordinates.
Somewhere in the mix you get the wonders of matrices.
@mediumwave
Electronic calculators have pretty much destroyed mastery of mathematics. I’d draw the curve flatter, with a few discontinuities dropping to the baseline.
We’ve gone from interpolating values to getting them to as many digits as the display will render, damn the significance.
One of my favorite parts of Feynman’s bio was trading math tricks with Hans Bethe.
Mathematica and Wolfram Language. A free license accompanies every Raspberry Pi.
Calculators have regressed IMHO. An HP Prime is a nice tool, but it has a mess of an interface on firmware which is now developed totally outside of HP under license.
I only carry a Prime in my work bag because I can easily replace the calculator if something happens to the bag.
Even my TI-84+ “Python” is EBay gold.
Math stuff. I’m not what I would call “good”. I suck with times tables but I can add like a fiend. 8×8? Nah, but I can do two 8’s is 16 and 16+16= 32, that’s four 8’s, and 32+32 = 64. Perhaps a bit slow but I get there.
I can float a budget in my head and it all works. I can run a cash register and my till is to the penny.
Math class has always sucked. But for one class. 9th grade Algebra. Mrs. Watson made it all click together and interesting. She slid us into doing calculus and trig. Never used the words that would scare anyone, it was all just Algebra. Just a different kind. Hey, use the tables in the back of the book. It was a fun class.
I made an A+ in that class. Moved to Texas and never had another math class. Kind of wish we had stayed in Mobile but it wasn’t my call.
I just had the dogs out for bedtime potty. The sky is clear but still to bright for stars and there’s a big Moon up there. If it’s not officially a full moon right now, it will be at about 4AM.
It was round, even. Not a hint of egg shaped. 🙂
In high school you could have started calc in fall, taken analytic geometry at the same time, and not had a problem.
I tried to do that but the school administration was rigid about the EA prerequisite. We had 6,500 students in Dulles HS and it was sheer pandemonium. Senior privilege was only two people to a locker, all other grades were three to a locker.
@Greg Norton
I still favor my RPN HP11C and it’s shirt pocket form factor.
The 15C Collector’s Edition (same form factor) re-issued last year is available on eBay at the $120 list price. Seems the early hoarders bet wrong. More bells and whistles but very similar functionality.
Seems to be a lot of the TI-84+ “Python” on eBay at $90 per. Are there variants other than color?
@Lynn
still sux after all these years
EPIC: Entrepreneur Humiliates FBI When They Come to Intimidate Him—’Can See the Shame on Their Faces’
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2024/09/16/epic-entrepreneur-humiliates-fbi-when-they-come-to-intimidate-him-can-see-the-shame-on-their-faces-n2179406
We’ve seen this kind of behavior before under Biden/Harris/Merrick/Wray.
https://redstate.com/sister-toldjah/2024/09/16/ohio-newspaper-ripped-to-shreds-after-dramatic-escalation-of-trump-asked-for-it-blame-game-n2179392
Wonder how they would react if a rapist claimed that their daughters “asked for it” by dressing that way?
Got a call from my client that he needed some help, and when I couldn’t solve the issue remotely, I jumped in the truck and headed over. Ended up in the attic pulling fiber.
I’m really glad it was at least 10 deg F cooler in Hockley (rural NW of Houston) than in town. Still sweated to the skin in 10 minutes of attic work.
And don’t have connectivity from xfinity yet. Their tech couldn’t get the fiber endpoint configured.
It’s 1/10 the cost of ATT fiber, and 10x the speed. On paper anyway.
I’ll probably spend tomorrow there too.
———–
It’s a BIG round moon in the sky. Very pretty.
n
BTW, now each school in the district has sent out emails about how the threats were not credible, remind your kids that hoax threats are a felony, and if you see something, say something.
I really don’t trust them.
n
The last “Collector’s Edition” had a bug in the math routines which upset the faithful.
HP never copyrighted the ROMs from the original Saturn line so more accurate recreations are available from Swiss Micros on their web site.
It’s been a long and “fun” filled day so I’m calling it an early night.
n
There is the TI-84+ and the TI-84+ “Python”. The Python version became EBay gold for a while, but TI has started to solve the supply problem if you don’t mind the more outrageous colors.
I saw one in pink at Target a few weeks ago during the “back to school” promotion.
The Moon will be completely FULL at 9:34PM tomorrow. We know this because the Moon will be SO directly opposite the Sun in the sky that there is a penumbral-to-partial lunar eclipse. A tiny sliver of the Moon will be darkened for a few minutes, but the whole thing will be less bright than you’d think a full moon should be.
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/LEplot/LEplot2001/LE2024Sep18P.pdf
>> The only good news that my appeal being sent back to the review board judge was quickly processed and was not placed at the bottom of the queue. I wonder if my contacting my congress critter had something to do with that. My spider sense says the congress critter did nothing.
How much was in the plain manilla envelope that wound up in the critter’s pocket?
Sourced from Hannity – the area outside the fence between the 5th and 6th greens is a regular haunt for paparazzi looking for pics of Trump with his various golf partners. He is also reporting that that specific area (outside the fence) had in fact “just” been swept and reported as clear.
At one of the press conferences, the PBC Sherriff again clearly stated that since Trump is not (yet) the sitting President, the SS coverage plan was not containing the entire grounds. Rather it was more localized to a moving perimeter around the former POTUS. So much for FJB’s claim that Trump has coverage identical to that of the current POTUS (beach patrol – party) and VPOTUS.
Lots to make you go hmm…
I’m not a fan of home schooling. It is really difficult to get it right. Your wife home schooled your son for his last three years of high school? Is she a chemistry teacher, and a physics teacher, and a calculus teacher, and a…
You get the idea. Unless the home-schooling parents are part of a serious co-op, with a solid collection of experts, I cannot see how the parents can provide the quality of education a kid ought to have. At least, not above elementary school.
Then you get the religious fruitcakes who teach creationism instead of evolution, and even the flat-earthers. And don’t get me started on “unschooling”, otherwise known as “how to raise a feral child”.
Good for him! Then your wife and son did an exceptional job. Exceptions make the rule.