44F and 80%RH with sunny skies.
More work for me to do outside today.
Got some work done yesterday, but not enough. Really nice day until evening when the temps went down. Still, the campfire was nice and the food tasted good.
My fire pit turned to oxides of iron, and crumbled, so my wife put it out on heavy trash day. I thought I could apply a couple more patches or layers of mesh to various areas, but she was done. Unfortunately, Santa didn’t bring a new one, yet anyway. I do have a wide and shallow ceramic ‘basket’ that works great for a table top fire ring. A couple inches of sand from the strategic sand reserve (kids’ play area) and some tinder (last year’s Christmas tree needles) and some pecan twigs and branches from the yard, and we soon had a nice bed of coals. For light I hung a colman lantern on the shepards crook that is meant to hang baskets of flowers, which worked great. Freezer hotdogs, freezer hot dog buns, and s’more fixin’s from the cupboard, and we were living large đ
In world news, the yellow vests are still at it in France. If you aren’t seeing at least some coverage, with links to twitter feeds from people on scene, you need to adjust your media mix. In the videos I watched, rioters were pulling cops to the ground and putting the boot in. (Kicking them while on the ground) They are also forming skirmish lines and storming each other’s positions. It’s the 9th week and doesn’t seem to be fading out. Even if the government isn’t telling the whole story, you don’t call out 80K cops for no reason. The protest are spreading throughout Europe, with varying degrees of attention and success, but don’t count on it dying. Also, don’t count on the cops putting up with being beaten much longer. Things are getting sporty over there.
I could say more about our more local politics, but I can’t be bothered to get the links right, so all I’ll say is, you’ve got to be tone deaf, more powerful than an evil warlord, or so arrogant that you can’t conceive that you don’t automatically do the right thing and people worship you for it, to vacation in the Caribbean while complaining that people are being hurt by the shutdown.
Stack it high people….
n
I could say more about our more local politics, but I canât be bothered to get the links right, so all Iâll say is, youâve got to be tone deaf, more powerful than an evil warlord, or so arrogant that you canât conceive that you donât automatically do the right thing and people worship you for it, to vacation in the Caribbean while complaining that people are being hurt by the shutdown.
Where did Stretch Pelosi take the Speaker’s jet?
the death of scientific advancement– pc culture
“DNA pioneer James Watson, 90, is stripped of the last of his honorary titles after doubling down on his ‘reprehensible’ views that genes cause a difference between black people and white people on IQ tests
James Watson shared 1962 Nobel Prize for discovering DNA was double helix
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, in New York, stripped Mr Watson, 90, of titles
Scientist said genes cause a difference between blacks and whites on IQ tests”
“In the film, Watson said his views about intelligence and race had not changed since 2007, when he told a magazine that he was ‘inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa’ because ‘all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – where all the testing says not really.’
In the 2007 interview, Watson said that while he hopes everyone is equal, ‘people who have to deal with black employees find this is not true.'”
n
$350 HATS for middle school kids. WTF?
“School asks parents of rich kids NOT to let them wear $350 Moncler beanies because students ‘lose them and can’t focus on their studies'”
“âIt has consumed a great deal of our time trying to locate these missing hats, and it has been disruptive to the studentsâ focus and time as well.â”
And why didn’t the administrators just tell the kids “too bad, so sad”? I’m guessing daddy’s money and their delicate ‘feelings’.
n
Cleansing fire! $350 hats ffs.
$350 HATS for middle school kids. WTF?
âSchool asks parents of rich kids NOT to let them wear $350 Moncler beanies
Probably knock offs which compounds the stupid. The one in the photo looks fake.
Chipping away at some little things. I like to have a mental list of short duration tasks I can fit in when I’ve got a few minutes. It’s very helpful if you also have all the tools and the materials in one place, which can be a ‘little task’ all in itself. I think of it as “staging” the work.
Installed a big SD card in my new 4K cameras, config’d them for recording, and turned that on. It’ll be backup for my NVR software, as those two cams cover most of the front of the house and property. Task was broken down into – a few minutes to buy the cards (2 pack at costco, during normal trip), install the cards, then after running kid1 to a Girl Scout function doing the config work.
Finally got my truck remote working again. One of the buttons fell out some time ago. I recently found that you can buy the shells at the auto parts store, and move your old circuit board to the new shell. The new shell has the buttons. So I did. Had to find a working battery though, so that made it a multi part “little task.”
I’ve got lots of those sort of little time fillers queued up. It feels good to get them done, even if they are pretty trivial.
back to work in the garage…
n
In world news, the yellow vests are still at it in France. If you arenât seeing at least some coverage, with links to twitter feeds from people on scene, you need to adjust your media mix. In the videos I watched, rioters were pulling cops to the ground and putting the boot in. (Kicking them while on the ground) They are also forming skirmish lines and storming each otherâs positions. Itâs the 9th week and doesnât seem to be fading out. Even if the government isnât telling the whole story, you donât call out 80K cops for no reason. The protest are spreading throughout Europe, with varying degrees of attention and success, but donât count on it dying. Also, donât count on the cops putting up with being beaten much longer. Things are getting sporty over there.
Weekend protests are nothing new to France, specifically Paris. Cars on the streets are frequently used as night lights. However, anything serious is handled by the military. When they come in, they do not pull their punches. And at that point, it becomes brother against brother. Most people call that a civil war.
BTW, you do bring up a good point about the gendarmes. They may switch sides and join the protestors. If so, you can kiss off the entire government. And the EU.
It’ll be interesting to see if TPTB try to retain cops by offering special perks. The cops had to pay the green tax too, and their sympathies may lie with the common folk.
France is running an experiment and we can learn from it.
–do the cops flip to support the people, or do the beatings and abuse harden them against the protesters?
–will TPTB use special treatment to retain or incentivize the cops? Will it work?
–will the attacks become personal and focused- ie night raids by either side, attacks at home or on family
–what will be the response to that?
–will it intensify, or will a low level guerrilla war become the norm? Fading away doesn’t seem likely ATM.
They could give us some useful insights into our own coming troubles.
n
They could give us some useful insights into our own coming troubles.
Troubles. Please. The camps will have WiFi and cable, including all HBO channels, east and west coast.
From my furloughed IRS agent friend:
“Day 22 of Government Shutdown: Was I ever actually employed? Was it all a fever dream? I can’t remember anymore…”
those camps already exist, they just look like public housing complexes and cheap apartment blocks….
The occupants will be reversed….
n
Some more little tasks, on the way to a big one.
I need to get my food back on the shelves in the garage, and out of bins under tarps in the driveway. The temperature swings are causing condensation inside the bins, which leads to mold, and lost food if it’s in cardboard. I spent some time today going thru the shelves that I thought were just cleaning supplies, and cans. Found an empty case of chicken broth. With holes in each carton. Why would I have stored that behind all the ziplok bags and soap?
I’ve been using the clorox scrub wipes to wipe down all the containers and scrub the shelves. I’ve got an old vacuum that I only use for rat poop, and that got a workout. I haven’t seen any fresh signs of rats in the garage for a while, but then tonight I saw one running down the top rail of the fence in the driveway, headed out behind the garage.
While clearing shelves, I found some house wash I forgot about, which is exactly what I needed after looking closely at the house. Putting up the lights really made it hard to overlook where green and black mildew were growing on the house. SO, I washed the front of the house with bleach soap.
I was helped along because I had the hose out anyway…. because one of the small tasks… well, FWIW, Toilet Duck works great at getting brown greasy rat yuck off of white wire shelving. One of the things I found on the other shelves was a nibbled open bottle of Toilet Duck… so rather than trash it, I used it and a REALLY long handled brush to clean up the wire shelves that have been sitting out, covered in rat yuck, since I discovered them months ago. It’s also a great cleaner for the black staining on the driveway đ Which makes sense since it’s basically bleach, a gelling agent, and soap.
So I used a couple of different cleaners I found in the storage shelves to clean the driveway, house, and some wire shelves.
Another small task, I mounted an IR flood light I got super cheap on ebay. I had tried the cheap ebay china one, which worked ok for the money, but wasn’t all that good. While looking for something else, I found a pro version, normally over $400, listed for auction starting at $50. I won! Finally had time to mount it. IT ROCKS. It lights up a nice 20x20ft area of the front yard.
I’m going to move the other small IR emitter to the driveway and look for rats.
Small successes, and a couple of things that needed doing but weren’t scheduled got done. (washed the wife’s vehicle too, while I had the hose and brush out)
Beautiful day today, great to be outside.
n
@Nick: Have you considered acquiring an outside cat?
There are several ‘neighborhood’ cats that frequent my yard… all they do is rile up the dog and pee on the garage door…. I don’t think one that was “mine” would be any different.
Plus, I worry with three females in the house about the virus they carry. Makes women crazy, and might trigger schizophrenia in males.
n
And since we need some computer content, here is a rabbit hole to fall down.
This guy builds a 386 to play vintage games. LOTS of memories here, autoexec.bat files, interrupts, DMA settings, installing cards, oh my…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw8moAQ1wTA
I forgot half that stuff.
n
Plus, I worry with three females in the house about the virus they carry. Makes women crazy, and might trigger schizophrenia in males.
Ah, yes; I’d forgotten about Crazy Cat Lady Syndrome. đ
Plus, I worry with three females in the house about the virus they carry. Makes women crazy, and might trigger schizophrenia in males.
We’ve got an eight year old 14 lb Siamese male (who is missing his pal Lady). The wife says that I am paranoid with all of the food, water, and guns everywhere. Oh wait, you said schizo.
Yellow vests – even here, where we are France’s next door neighbor, they have fallen off the news cycle. Weird.
Stripping James Watson of his award? That’s just pathetic, not least because the guy is too old to effectively defend himself. Of course, posting this view publically gets you called a racist, and worse.
– – – – –
My little mystery with DHL continues. We sent a package from Germany to the UK on Friday. On Saturday, it was delivered to our return address in Germany.
I picked the package up today and took it back to the DHL. The woman at the counter said that any returned package should have a pink sticker stating that it is being returned, and why. There was no pink sticker, just the original shipping label. So we have two theories:
– Her theory: Stupid people at the package center don’t know what “United Kingdom” means. She wrote “England” on the package, and sent it on its way again.
– My theory: If DHL cannot deliver a package, they either destroy it or auction the contents and keep the proceeds. If you want it returned to you, you pay extra, which we did. This results in a line beneath the package bar code that says (in German) “return to sender”. I think the package center is reading that additional service as an instruction, and doing exactly what it says.
Anyway, the package is on its way again – it will be interesting to see if it gets delivered this time. Whatever happens, it is certain that DHL couldn’t find its ass with both hands.
And yet, the situation is escalation, with rifles and ammo being issued to the police–
INSERTED
“French riot police are now using semi-automatic weapons with live ammunition against Yellow Vest protestors as Macron’s law and order crisis spirals
Officers were filmed brandishing weapons by Arc de Triomphe in Paris today”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6584521/Bear-mascot-battered-ground-Yellow-Vest-rally.html
because cops were being beaten, which video I watched with mine own eyes… link to the twitter after breakfast….. unless that got memory holed too.
ADDED- and I can’t find the link to the twitter video of the beating. searching on “paris riots” “paris protest beating” or “paris protest kicking” gets surprisingly FEW hits…. but it couldn’t be that search results were being manipulated…
n
What a nice, well run facility.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6587253/Center-comatose-woman-baby-probed-2016.html
There is some suggestion from the article that this facility may be politically connected, and thus subject to less oversight, and the apparent overbilling.
Someone should literally hang for this.
n
[not the first time, won’t be the last, cv. Kill Bill the movie, and Bedlam the asylum, still someone should hang.]