It was 44 degrees and breezy when I took Colin out at 7:30.
Yesterday was another long day at the hospital. When I arrived at 10 I was told his stomach tube procedure had been moved to 1pm. It was 2 when they finally took him down and 5:20 when he was finally back in the room. The doctor did not allow the NG tube from his nose to be removed until this morning rounds. He still has a lot of congestion in his lungs.
Wednesday November 29, 2017
51 Comments and discussion on "Wednesday November 29, 2017"
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Two steps forward, one step back is still progress. It is still incredulous to me that about four weeks ago everything seemed mostly normal. Then wham, everything falls apart, quickly.
I see where Mat Lauer was fired from NBC for inappropriate sexual behavior. Must have been significant. Why people in those positions commit such atrocities is beyond my comprehension. I have no sympathy for people that commit such acts against another human.
I am also concerned that some employees may start using this against a boss with whom they want to get even. There is very little recourse for the person charged as the companies are so sensitive to any repercussions and legal issues that termination immediately will be the result. I believe that most of the cases are true I cannot help but wonder if some are just cases of getting even.
What is certain is that the climate in this country regarding sexual harassment has changed dramatically over the last few months.
At one time years ago while working at the credit union I had a complaint filed against me for sexual harassment. All that I said to the women was “You look good in that dress”. Boom, I was called on the carpet. Apparently what I should have said was “that dress looks good” or said nothing at all. After that incident I have never again complemented any female on her clothes, appearance, hair, shoes, anything. I don’t even open doors for females as I got chewed out one time for doing so.
It is a shame it has come to this. Both genders (there may be more than one gender today) are responsible. People using their positions of power to get others to things that are not right. People using their gender to advance their career then using the situation as revenge for not getting what they wanted. Sexual harassment has become the new weapon of choice.
It’s a mania and it will burn people and institutions down before it burns out. Remember the satanist mania of the 80’s? McMartin daycare anyone?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria
If you have the stomach for it, read the case summaries. In almost every case, the charges were dropped or overturned. The other was a plea to avoid life. Many of the accused spent 10 years or more either under suspicion or actually imprisoned. Prison is not kind to child molesters.
This thing has a momentum of its own with all the usual attention whores yelling “me too” drowning out the legit cases.
When someone manages to be the voice of sanity, she gets run out of town on a rail.
Some bad guys are going to get what has long been coming to them, but a whole bunch more will get destroyed over nothing.
n
Barbara, everything in a hospital takes longer and happens later than they say. Be glad, because the people who get quick attention are the ones who are sickest… if Bob is awake and functioning, maybe you can bring Colin to see him, call him a therapy dog. I’m sure that would improve both of their spirits… (unless Colin would see a weakened Bob as time to assert his leadership of the pack)
Today is cool in the low 60s with heavy fog this am. Fog is starting to clear out, but the kids thought it was neat. We get variation in temps but not so much variation in weather and the kids are getting old enough to notice the weather.
n
One thing you might not think about with my lifestyle of buying at auction/thrift/estate/yard sales, is the opsec aspects.
No computerized search of credit card or loyalty card purchases will ever reveal WHAT I’ve been buying. For instance, I bought a lot of “security equipment” from a local hospital. It was a real mixed bag, with some radio parts, some tactical gear, and some other bits and pieces. I’ve sold some of the radio gear already, doubling my money, with more to go. But the big score was the tac gear. I got a nice chest rig, battle belt, and 3 retention holsters (over $600 worth if new) for free. And there is no record of the purchase to flag.
Other purchases included night vision, other tac gear, ammo, reloading supplies, medical and lab supplies, “survivalist gear”- ie. CAMPING gear, radios, optics, and other stuff that could be either a red flag or potentially confiscated or outlawed.
Of course, I’ve sold all that stuff on, as I know the .gov will take excellent care of me in the event of a disaster….
n
Of course, I’ve sold all that stuff on
Hmmm, I thought a lot of that “stuff” was lost in the bottom of a deep river.
Some bad guys are going to get what has long been coming to them
And I hope they get smacked hard. No excuse for such behavior.
a whole bunch more will get destroyed over nothing
I agree. I suspect that some of these female actresses knew exactly what they were doing and were doing so to advance their career. Now they are seeking retaliation.
Unfortunately a lot of mediocre actresses got parts because of their actions. It is indeed unfortunate that such were sometimes necessary to get a choice part in a movie. Regardless, furthering your own career by making poor choices is the accusers fault as much as the other person that committed the offense.
I feel that a lot of people, women and men (and whatever is in between) will start using the current climate as a way to get even with someone when they feel they are slighted. If I were a boss in this climate I would make absolutely certain that I was never alone in an office with someone of the opposite gender when that person is getting reprimanded. In fact, I would consider never being alone at any time with a person of the opposite gender. Too much risk as one wrong word and a career could be ruined.
So what’s next. People like Pelosi, Oprah and Cankles are so damn ugly no one would harass them thus I expect a discrimination lawsuit because they weren’t harassed.
I don’t comment on appearance to someone’s face unless they are immediate family. Times have changed. Stuff I and others did 30 years ago would get me sacked now.
I am going to transgender so that I can accuse members of both sexes of abusing me in a sexual context.
CowtrannySlim
@Slim
We’re all looking forward to that Annie Oakley outfit.
Stuff I and others did 30 years ago would get me sacked now
Yeh, I did some stuff, mostly comments such as jokes, etc., never anything involving physical contact, that today would spell the end of my career. Am I proud of what I did? Not really. Am I ashamed of what I did? Not in the least. I did not further anyone’s career or damage anyone’s career.
I don’t comment on appearance to someone’s face
I don’t comment on anyone’s appearance to the individual or anyone else. Well, with the exception of Cankles, Pelosi, or any other clueless cretin of a politician who has set themselves up as better than us mere mortals. Actors and actresses are open game as they proceed to think that anything they have to say is worth the electrons to transmit their crap.
We’re all looking forward to that Annie Oakley outfit.
Oooohhh, now I am getting excited.
Subbing again today. No students in this class until 11:10 but I have to be here at 8:15 as if there were students to get paid for the full day.
All the computer systems the staff use are running W7 Enterprise. At least it is 64 bit. Network booting. Probably too costly to convert to W10 and the learning curve may be steep for some of the teachers. There may also be the issue of some software the teachers use. Especially the electronic blackboards (which I have never seen used). This particular class, the technology class (I am her favorite sub), has software on her desktop that views all the systems in the room and can be taken over at any time by the teacher.
I am here for today and the next two days. Teacher is at a conference. Normally her class would be a half day sub but she put the time into the system as a full day. Which is fine by me. Having an empty classroom is not too bad, just a little boring.
It is surprising in the technology class that the students have not learned keyboard shortcuts such copy, paste, cut, underline, bold, italics, save, print; how to select text or items using the keyboard, how to navigate using the tab key, and keyboard shortcuts to get to the menus.
” how to navigate using the tab key, and keyboard shortcuts to get to the menus.”
Goes back to text based OSs, and only we old dinosaurs remember. ‘Cuz the mouse and GUIs would make us more productive. or something.
and remember the basic differences between windows and mac– cut and paste vs click and drag… If your whole paradigm is graphical and you are manipulating graphics, you use the mouse. If your paradigm is text, with graphical representations of TEXT and numerical objects, you keep your hands on the keyboard. thus the widespread differences in deployment of macs into the visual arts, and pc into paper shuffling business use.
The best GUIs are ‘discoverable’ by looking at them, textual keyboard shortcuts are not. (Lot of good thinking around UI design and ‘discoverability’ by some of the leading lights online.) Of course MS violated discoverability with the ribbon interface and ‘customized menus’ which HID the things you were most likely to need to find by discovery when you finally needed them.
so glad to not be involved in corporate work anymore.
n
Speaking of software, WTF?????
“Apple is reportedly working to fix what has been called a ‘huge’ and ‘unbelievable’ security issue in the latest version of its Mac operating system.
The flaw could means anyone can log in to a computer running MacOS High Sierra without a password via system preferences, using the root user account.
Apple has advised its customers who may be affected to set a password for the device’s root user, which should stop people exploiting the vulnerability.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5127949/Password-glitch-MacOS-High-Sierra-discovered.html
Apple’s vaunted ‘security’ doesn’t force admins to set a ROOT PASSWORD?
n
and this —
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5127855/Gunman-opens-fire-Reno-high-rise.html
n
added- not even headline news
Goes back to text based OSs, and only we old dinosaurs remember. ‘Cuz the mouse and GUIs would make us more productive. or something.
The classes here are technology classes that are teaching the use of Word and Excel. Being able to use the keyboard makes creating documents with the applications much faster. Moving your hand from the mouse, to the keyboard, back to the mouse, then back to the key to format some text is much slower than using the keyboard.
Of course MS violated discoverability with the ribbon interface and ‘customized menus
I did not like the ribbon when I encountered the ribbon the first time. But after using the ribbon for some time it does seem to make sense. My initial dislike was because of inertia having learned where everything was by memory. Having to relearn was annoying.
Customization works well for the people at church. Their most common tasks are grouped into a group by themselves. Makes it easier for people to find the commands they use the most. Yes, there is duplication between real ribbon groups and the custom group. So what.
Apple’s vaunted ‘security’ doesn’t force admins to set a ROOT PASSWORD?
With all the security that you have to set up when you first activate an iPad or iPhone this omission by Apple is surprising. I can only guess that Apple thought it was too complicated for users, such users that will lock themselves out of a system. Having an easy way into the system allowed the user credentials to be reset. Whether that is wise or not depends on the individual. I have had to recover a user’s credentials on a MAC and it required access to the OS software disc. With discs generally no longer provided another method was needed for access. I would think there would be a better solution.
so glad to not be involved in corporate work anymore.
Being retired for about 14 months now I can say that I really miss the work. I really enjoyed what I did and the challenges that were solved. What I do not miss is the job. There is a marked difference between the work and the job.
I still need something to do and thus substitute at the school when needed. The massive sum of $60.00 per day is offered. I keep reminding myself it is not about the money but the adventure. Some kids really like me as a sub, others really hate (those with discipline issues).
Each teacher has their preferred sub. I am at the top of about six teachers where they contact me directly if they need a sub.
“Moving your hand from the mouse, to the keyboard, back to the mouse, then back to the key to format some text is much slower than using the keyboard.”
yup, and it’s slower for most graphical things too if you are a pro. I watched my buddy, a longtime mac user with serious publishing and photo manipulation chops, at work. He uses keyboard shortcuts for everything he can. And he is so fast you can’t follow what he’s doing just by watching.
I use ctrl-A, ctrl-c before hitting post on any comment over a couple of paragraphs, just in case…. and it’s saved me a couple of times.
n
I gave up a long time ago trying to teach users shortcuts. Best example is the TAB key for moving between fields when doing data entry via forms. SO much faster. Of course this goes back to ancient times and keypunching. We moved away from that with interactive terminals and the use of Return/Enter (ask how many time I confuse users by saying Return. Of course that’s the way it was once labeled. And what’s a typewriter?)
I’ll have to check my Mac for the root hack. I saw that on DM.
I’ve used keyboard shortcuts for decades on Macs. You can print a sheet that has every shortcut, or, most menu items list the shortcut. Many Mac users (MrsAtoz) just won’t learn the shortcuts.
James Woods posted yesterday he was playing Poker at the Bellagio here in Vegas, A guy came in and robbed the cashier cage 10 feet from him. I don’t think they caught the dude yet. Pretty bold.
Fortune favors the bold.
AP reporting that Garrison Keillor fired from Minnesota public radio. Not so quiet a week in Lake Wobegon.
Apple’s vaunted ‘security’ doesn’t force admins to set a ROOT PASSWORD?
Disposable laptops with security to match.
“… Mat Lauer was fired … Garrison Keillor fired …”
What’s left unsaid is that this gives their former employers the opportunity to replace them with younger, cheaper “talent”.
replace them with younger, cheaper “talent”
As MeatLoaf said; two out of three ain’t bad.
What’s left unsaid is that this gives their former employers the opportunity to replace them with younger, cheaper “talent”.
NPR already replaced Keillor with younger, cheaper talent.
Who is next at PBS? Master Craftsman Norm Abram?
AP reporting that Garrison Keillor fired from Minnesota public radio. Not so quiet a week in Lake Wobegon.
Some one posted:
Lake-Woke-Be-Gone lol.
On the Apple “root” hack. Every time I’ve set up a Mac, I’ve always set the root. I use root as my account rather than setting up a separate account. I couldn’t log in to System Prefs with the hack since I already set up the account. I now remember always doing this because why wouldn’t I. I think Apple pushes don’t use admin as your account, keep it for admin use only and set up a separate account. I’ve always used admin as my account. No virii or trojans on any of our Macs. Probably more because Windows has the market share.
I always set up a root / admin account with a password known only to me (for home use), and then set up the primary user account. Usually the primary user does NOT get admin privileges. Keeps the wife & kids from doing bad things to my PCs (or my Mac).
It’s been a while since I’ve done Mac, so I can’t really comment on the current situation. But D’oh! That really was stupid.
Standard for *NIX systems, of which OS-X is one.
That’s one of the things I don’t like with Ubuntu derivatives. These distributions are aimed at home users so they make things convenient rather than safe by default. You can set up a separate Admin account and then a Joe User account you’ll usually use, but in order to do that you have to know that you can and should; you won’t be prompted to do it when setting up the system.
“NOAA may reclassify ‘100-year storm’ definition because Houston storms have been so bad”
http://www.chron.com/news/politics/houston/article/Federal-rainfall-study-shows-dramatic-growth-in-12386006.php?ipid=hpctp
“Preliminary results released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association analysis of decades-worth of data show that across the county the “100-year storm” — or a storm that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year — has risen by three to five inches in Harris County since the last study was conducted in 2001.”
“The final data will come out in May 2018, following a peer-review process.”
Massive changes coming for new buildings in the Houston metroplex area. Massive. If they change new buildings and retention ponds to the 500 year flood plain, the cost of new structures may go up significantly.
“Unwanted World (The EMP Survivor Series) (Volume 4)” by Chris Pike
https://www.amazon.com/Unwanted-World-EMP-Survivor-4/dp/1974059243/
Book number four in a five book apocalyptic EMP series. I read the excellent POD (print on demand) trade paperback. The fifth book will be published sometime in 2018 as the author has said that she is already working on it.
We go back to the beginning of the EMP event with a pair of DEA agents working the southern border of Texas. BTW, this book is entirely set in Texas which appeals to me.
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars (98 reviews)
For Miles_Teg, “A super-fast history of supercomputers: From the CDC 6600 to the Sunway TaihuLight”
https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/a-super-fast-history-of-supercomputers-from-the-cdc-6600-to-the-sunway-taihulight-1711.html
I had the privilege of porting our software to the CDC 7600s back in the middle 1970s. Fast machines and I loved the 60 bit words.
INTEGER HAIL (3)
DATA HAIL / 10HALL HAIL S, 10HEYMOUR CRA, 10HY ! /
Love the Fortran! Still use it from time to time. I never used the CDC, mostly DEC PDP-10 and PDP-20 (36-bit words).
ALL HAIL SEYMOUR CRAY !
Whatever’s happened to OFD?
Let’s hope his physical therapist isn’t keeping his laptop tantalizingly out of reach in an attempt to get him to walk just a few more steps…. 🙂
OFD probably started to fall, Brunhilde the Physical Terrorist tried to catch him, lotsa hands went where they weren’t meant to, and now both are in jail for sexual harassment.
Hey, who was it who mentioned getting a new O2 generator from Medicare practically every year? I want to pass on that tip to my aging auntie. Lol, she’s 80-something and we trade emails sometimes 3 or 4 times a day. Crazy as a loon, and has always had trouble with her lungs. A million years ago they had to cut through her ribs to get to one and she fought like hell to get the piece of rib they removed. She probably still has it on her mantlepiece…
But it *is* hard to teach an old dog new tricks, like the keyboard shortcuts. Alt+Tab and Ctrl+Tab are a couple of my favorites. I’m a geezer still using Win7, do they work in Win10?
When it comes to sex offenses (whether it’s on the more minor side like Sexual Harassment or in the extreme like Rape) the accused is guilty until proven innocent. Even if exonerated he will always be suspected as a guilty person who got away with it. If you’re accused then you’re fucked. Your reputation and career and quite possibly your family are permanently destroyed by the mere accusation. I concur that the majority of these accusations are probably true, but that doesn’t mean presumption of innocence and due process shouldn’t apply.
Don’t even get me started on the wildly sexist and unfair sentencing that happens with sex crimes perpetrated by men versus those perpetrated by women.
In the US, all crimes have lighter penalties for women than for men. That’s not how the law is written, but it’s how it’s carried out.
“….the accused is guilty until proven innocent. ”
I hear the reverse of this “..should be presumed innocent until proven guilty”. This is totally wrong. A jury is not given a form with two options, which are: “innocent” or “guilty”.
The form is: “not guilty” or “guilty”.
Consequently, the admonition should be: “…presumed innocent until judged not guilty or guilty”.
Outside of that, I am not a lawyer or legal gibberisher. In reality, I am an expert in English grammar and lexicology.
And the pervs continue to fall…..
n
“N.Korea says “breakthrough” puts U.S. mainland within range of nuclear weapons”
http://news.trust.org/item/20171128192754-trq9s
“North Korea said the new missile reached an altitude of about 4,475 km (2,780 miles) – more than 10 times the height of the International Space Station – and flew 950 km (590 miles) during its 53-minute flight.”
I would like to see this guy fall. I note that no one is stating how big the payload of his ICBM is. A couple of thousand pounds would make me extremely nervous about an EMP over the USA.
Hat tip to:
http://drudgereport.com/
Boy, that’s old fashioned Fortran. We could take shortcuts like…
INTEGER HAIL (3)
DATA HAIL *ALL HAIL SEYMOUR CRAY !*
I loved Fortran, but not as much as Pascal. It’s just over 40 years since I started learning Pascal, on a CDC 6400 running Scope 3.4.
One of the reasons I have an obsessive hatred of IBM is the tricks they got up to in the Sixties and Seventies to put CDC out of business.
OFD is still alive and not in jail yet.
One setback after another here; badly blistered feet, right side arm shoulder weakness (partially torn rotator?), left side ditto and still, despite epidural injection, resumed weakness of legs/knees trying to stand up, after progress made last week, and most recently, two days and nights badly constipated with vicious cramps every ten minutes throughout and no sleep. And more stenosis in my neck (C3-6 area).
Very discouraging, and someone must have noticed because a PhD shrink came to talk with me today. Got through today’s PT and OT and recovered a bit of ground but still having random cramps, though not nearly as frequently or quite as painfully.
Looks like RBT and me are in for the long haul.
I second Mr. Nick’s characterization of the recent sex cases as reminiscent of the slew of child abuse and alleged satanism of previous decades, also of the 1692-93 Salem capers.
Probably some genuine rotten apples and a bunch more ruined.
Been checking on RBT’s status daily but not much time to read anything else.
Pax vobiscum, fratres…
Thanks for checking in Dave, keep working at it. You deserve to get better.
Sucks now but will improve.
n
Battery stuff. No UPS devices are involved.
We have a side x side from Tractor Supply. Think golf cart with knobby tires, high ground clearance, and a dump bed. It’s fun to drive and will actually go where I’m saying no effing way I’m going that way. Well, someone needs to be able to call 911.
The battery just went out. Acting like a bad cell. Ok, pull the seat, pull the “storage pan” under the seat and the battery is “right there”. What the heck. It’s just a riding lawnmower battery. I don’t have to buy a battery!
Why? I replaced the mower’s battery in March. Then we acquired a cow and calf. To go with the Longhorn. I have mowed /once/ this year.
Ok, rider has a Tractor Supply battery made by Exide. Looks like it is sealed. Not sealed…. it has that icky stuff on top that looks like what ya get on the floor when the stupid cat pees out of the box.
I pried the caps off and each cell needed a couple of tablespoons of water. Huh. One mowing of the yard and a summer spent boiling away in the morning sun. Today I checked the battery on the gate opener. Because it was the mower’s battery but I stole it from the mower when I installed the new gate opener. Again, a couple of tablespoons of water for each cell.
Not sure what the moral is here. I’m leaning towards not buying batteries from Tractor Supply anymore. Just for the acid slopping out. They do have the best price for the size of battery but I’ll shop O’Reilly’s next time. It might be a few bucks more for Maintenance Free but I think that is worth it.
Oh… and UPS batteries? The two I bought at the feedstore are a perfect fit. Yes, I know the electronics go bad. But I’m crazy, perhaps. My UPS units are plugged into Trip-lite surge suppressors.
Hmmph. That’s boring. Try to have a more entertaining tale the next time you check in.
So your go kart uses a battery which runs on cat piss.
The moral is that cats are awesome. Just when I thought they couldn’t get any more awesome, we find that their piss is an electrolyte.
-gasp-! Tell the health food people about this! They’re pushing product after product designed to keep your electrolytes in balance, so now we can get them to sell cat piss tablets to the gullible. All natural!
Hang in there, Mr. OFD. There are still plenty of Commies and Libturds to take down.
Some people have way too much time on their hands!
Too much time and too little sense….
n
I needed a couple of 12V batteries for a powered wheelchair. They were expensive at the local auto parts store ($130!), Walmart had them for $71 each, so ordered them on-line . This was a year ago.
I ordered them online because I didn’t have to pay a ‘core charge’. Shipping was free. YMMV.
A battery to power my CPAP machine when camping or flying is around $700. Geez.
The form is: “not guilty” or “guilty”.
Interestingly, in Scotland, the jury can give one of three verdicts: guilty, not guilty, or “not proven”. The latter indicates that neither side could really prove their case – it counts as effectively as “not guilty”, but basically means “we know you did it, but we can’t prove it”.
Interestingly, it started the other way around. It was originally “proven” or “not proven”. It’s the “not guilty” that’s new, and originally was basically jury nullification – yes, the crime happened, no, we’re not convicting. That meaning, sadly, has been lost.
@Miles_Teg – we use a jump pack with a 120v outlet to power cpap while camping. Uses about 60-70% of charge for one night and of course you need to charge during the day. Machine actually runs on 12v with an external transformer and a 12v cord is available. It would probably run longer on the 12v outlet and you could run directly off a vehicle. Little too much for flying.