75F and damp. Got a couple of sprinkles yesterday but no real rain and no T storms. Forecast for today had the system looking pretty much the same, so maybe we’ll get the same… or not. One site is calling for ‘heavy intense rains’ later in the day.
Had a nice lunch yesterday and talked preparedness with some new guys. (the lunch attendees come and go depending on whim and what part of town the lunch is in) Hams are generally a pretty prepped bunch. Meatspace!
My pickups today are more personal than for resale, hopefully advancing one of my security projects.
Plans for tomorrow include getting some stuff ready to sell at my non-prepping hobby meeting over the weekend.
I’ve noticed a lot of juvenile squirrels in the neighborhood. I haven’t done a count or anything, but there seems to be more of them than usual. I have no idea if that’s significant.
Anyway, breakfast ain’t gonna make itself…
n
Lots of scripts on the site, but worth looking at the video of a clash in Seattle between antifa and proud boys.
https://katu.com/news/local/large-fight-erupts-between-two-groups-in-ne-portland-woman-appears-knocked-unconscious
n
added- “don’t be there”
added- “don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin'”
added- “don’t be there”
added- “don’t start nothin’, won’t be nothin’”
In Portland, the Mayor just lets it happen.
8th and Couch is not a back alley. The rolling homeless shelter known as light rail has major N/S routes through that area, and Powell’s is right up the street. The Police knew.
Gotta wonder if one of the Antifas is the idiot husband of my wife’s former associate. We supported that jerk’s antics for way too long.
We were in San Bernardino Tuesday and visited a battered Women’s shelter. Basically an open barracks style setup. Pretty sad, but at least the women and their kids have a place to recover. Driving around on appointments, we got to see even more of the shirthole(-r) that is San Bernadoo. Homeless everywhere. Seedy characters on the corners. They should do one of those poop-charts they did for San Francisco for comparison. The place is one of the worst cities in the FUSA.
The place is one of the worst cities in the FUSA.
We do the express lane upgrades on 91. My co-workers who went in December said it was pretty grim.
I have not had the “pleasure”, but, as I’ve written before, much of the I-5 corridor is dystopia between the (draw) bridge over the Columbia and Downtown Seattle.
The irony is that many of these places are phenomenally beautiful in terms of natural scenery.
I will be heading to Portland OR the latter part of June this year. Flying in to head south to my 50 year class reunion in Rogue River. I will be leaving Portland as soon as possible after landing and head for the coast. Have three days planned on the coast with no more than 2.5 hour trip between lodging.
Rental cars in Portland are expensive due to supply and demand and taxes to support airport construction. I got a discount through Expedia which made it better. I considered flying into Medford but that was more expensive and flights are limited. Spokane was considered but added too much to the drive.
Will rent a dune buggy or two on the coast and have a little fun on the sand dunes. Will bring my high performance kite and do some kite flying on the beach, Newport I think, where they fly a lot of kites.
Then on to RR for the reunion and the Rooster Crow event. Three days of events for the class reunion. Out of 66 graduating about 16 are dead or in jail. Of the remaining 60 about 40 will be attending.
From there it is on to Eugene for a night to visit a friend from long in the past. May take a side trip to Mt. Hood. Then on to The Dalles for a day to visit the first place I lived in Oregon. Then back to Portland through the Columbia River gorge and a stop at Multnomah Falls before ending the night staying at a Hyatt at the airport due to an early morning flight.
This will be my last trip to the area. Nothing left to return for as everyone is either dead or move elsewhere. At one point I wanted to return to RR but not anymore. From some of the stuff I see on the news I really don’t want to live there as there are better places close to where I now live.
I will be heading to Portland OR the latter part of June this year. Flying in to head south to my 50 year class reunion in Rogue River. I will be leaving Portland as soon as possible after landing and head for the coast. Have three days planned on the coast with no more than 2.5 hour trip between lodging.
Newport is one of the few things we miss. The vibe is definitely different from that point on the coast south to Coos Bay.
The coast is good for about a week in Summer. I overheard one of the owners of Norma’s Seaside explain the reality of living out there full time to a clueless tourist couple she waited on in the restaurant one slow Labor Day afternoon.
The diner owner’s advice about full time residency could be summed up in one word: Don’t.
I have been to Newport back in 1999. Rented some dune buggies for son, his friend and myself. Had a really good time. Will do it again, this time with the spousal unit. Also stopped on the beach where they were flying kites, big ones. As in the kites needed an anchor in the sand to keep from flying away. Some people had kites hand held that were being dragged down the beach unless they had help.
I have a high performance kite, but not like the stuff that was being flown on the beach. My kite is steerable, provides a significant tug that will pull a person off balance. Lot of fun in a good wind such as can be found at the beach.
In 1999 we also stopped at the aquarium in Newport. There was an octopus, big one, in a tank that was outside. An employee was there with the creature. I asked if I could touch the octopus and he said yes. Amazingly soft. What was remarkable was the animal strung three or four tentacles up my arm. I never felt threatened but got a sense of curiosity from the animal as if it was trying to figure out who I was.
We also took another jet boat ride on the Rogue River. Lot of fun. Will not do it again as once you have done the jet boats on the Niagara River others pale in comparison. Besides the Rogue River has been destroyed by a large dam that was built well upstream from Rogue River. And a couple of irrigation dams, Savage Rapids for example, have been removed causing changes in the river that are not the best. Destroyed a large recreational area. All for the Salmon of course which seemed to do just fine when I was living in the area.
Oregon used to be a nice place to live. But has now been taken over by liberals who want everything their way and any dissenting options are to be discouraged. Property taxes are high, much higher than when I lived in southern Oregon. Rules in place to stop land division and housing tracts are making it difficult, if not impossible, for families to inherit property. The taxes alone make selling almost the only option. And the buyer must have a lot of money to purchase that much land.
Several new taxing proposals, including charging drivers by the mile, making interstates (paid for with federal public funds) now toll roads, trying to tax text messages, land grabs by the BLM, charges for grazing on public land, etc. The place has turned into a liberals paradise.
When I lived there in the 1960’s people living there complained about people from California moving into the area and ruining the place. The people were complaining that it was not like that when they moved from California. So basically it was OK for them to move in to the area, but not for others. Fifty years later that mindset has not changed. The same problem exists, OK for them to relocate, not for others.
I don’t even think I would be welcome back. Moot point as I won’t ever move back.
“First Family”
http://time.com/longform/pete-buttigieg-2020/
“Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s Unlikely, Untested, Unprecedented Presidential Campaign”
Pass me the brain bleach please.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Over The Hedge: humans evolving
https://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2019/05/02
Yes.
Sort of reminds me of Hillary, the Early Years.
Redline: The Many Human Errors that brought Down the Boeing 737 MAX
https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/2/18518176/boeing-737-max-crash-problems-human-error-mcas-faa
I do not think that the 737 MAX will fly again. If it was a national defense plane, sure, they are used to those risks. Instead, it is a cattle car. And the cattle must safely get to their delivery place.
The engines are fine, in fact a work of wonders. The airframe is fine. The problem is that the engines are too far forward and make the plane unstable in boundary conditions. And commercial pilots have issues in boundary conditions. In fact, just about all pilots have issues in boundary conditions.
I think that Boeing should revive the 757 and mount the new engines on it. That would be a safe combination. The costs will be horrid, probably in the tens of billions of dollars to replace all of the 737 MAX planes with 757 ECO planes.
A story:
https://westernrifleshooters.wordpress.com/2013/08/26/bracken-alas-brave-new-babylon/
What I found odd in that story are the stated maximum operational speeds. A max speed of 390 MPH seems quite low as most commercial planes operate at much higher speeds as I have been able to confirm on GPS. In fact I believe the cruising speed is somewhere around 580 MPH. In fact the article talks about one crash exceeding the plane’s max speed when it reached 400 MPH.
Unless the speed mentioned in the article is somehow related to max speeds at certain altitudes due to increased wind resistance (drag) on the airframe as the air is denser at lower altitudes.
I think the 737 MAX will survive. Some adjustments in software. An additional sensor. More simulator training. Perhaps even a new air worthiness certification. Or maybe an (expensive) adjustment in some of the control surfaces and wings to account for the engine placement. Boeing has way too much money to lose scrapping those planes and starting over. If the plane iscrapped, Boeing will be also become a former shell of what once was a really good company. For that the blame would be on the pencil pushers who only saw dollar signs.
Several new taxing proposals, including charging drivers by the mile, making interstates (paid for with federal public funds) now toll roads, trying to tax text messages, land grabs by the BLM, charges for grazing on public land, etc. The place has turned into a liberals paradise.
The toll technology is extremely advanced and costs are relatively low now that humans have been removed from the plazas. My bosses expect usage to go parabolic soon, and that’s before the really cool/scary tech that’s in the works.
Oregon won’t be the only one tolling Interstates. I’m currently working on a project in one state which is replacing the HOV lanes on a freeway with tolled express lanes. It is all public record, but no one pays attention … until their planet is demolished for a hyperspace bypass.
Atlanta sort of did the same thing. Atlanta built an entire set of lines, bi-directional depending on the time of day, that avoid the interstate for several miles. From north of Atlanta to the I-285/I-75 is the one that I have seen. The fare is based on volume, from $0.10 a mile to who knows. Only fixed cost is from midnight to 05:00 where the max is $0.50. Only people with a toll transponder can use the lanes (except emergency, police and state vehicles).
I remember when Austin consisted of I-35, a mess. The state added the elevated lanes. Now both lower and upper lanes are a mess. San Antonio tried an elevated section with very limited access on I-35 through downtown. Same issue now. Georgia is attempting to limit access by charging more during peak times to discourage use during high volume. If there is high volume on the toll section, traffic is stopped on the non-toll interstate. For many cost will not discourage use and just line the city’s pockets.
I dislike Orlando Florida toll roads with a passion. They are designed that you can easily get trapped into an on-ramp without realizing it is a toll road. You have no choice but to pay the toll. Even going just to the next exit is expensive. This happened to me twice while in Orlando. It is a way to grab money from tourists, people that are unaware of the “fish” trap.
Redline: The Many Human Errors that brought Down the Boeing 737 MAX
What I found odd in that story are the stated maximum operational speeds. A max speed of 390 MPH seems quite low as most commercial planes operate at much higher speeds as I have been able to confirm on GPS. In fact I believe the cruising speed is somewhere around 580 MPH. In fact the article talks about one crash exceeding the plane’s max speed when it reached 400 MPH.
Airplanes have a rated airspeed versus altitude. In the case of the Ethiopian 737 MAX, the pilot had the engines running at takeoff power level until the plane crashed. That forced the nose of the plane up and the MCAS system tried to force the nose down using the elevator. Not good. So that crash is both computer and pilot error.
I just had a thought on the 737 MAX. Make all of the fat people sit up front. That would counteract the nose being forced up by the engines.
If the plane iscrapped, Boeing will be also become a former shell of what once was a really good company. For that the blame would be on the pencil pushers who only saw dollar signs.
Reputedly, no one in the Boeing board of directors nor the CEO is a pilot. That speaks volumes to me about their culture.
Boeing has way too much money to lose scrapping those planes and starting over.
That is not the FAA’s problem. The FAA was created for safety. Period.
I remember when Austin consisted of I-35, a mess. The state added the elevated lanes. Now both lower and upper lanes are a mess.
Heading south on I-35, exit before the Upper Deck. The entire thing is a cluster* without lube. Not St. Johns, a couple of exits later. 42nd? I forget, I just go by habit. Make a hard right and get on Guadalupe or go a few more blocks and catch Lamar.
After bit of zig and zag you can get on Congress and go way south… Manchacha aka ManShack for the Yankees, at least. It might take an extra 20 minutes but you are at least moving.
I-35 and Mopac are not the only roads in town. Lamar and Congress pretty much stretch the entire town. Burnet Road is good from 45th up to a bit past 183. I don’t know about east of I-35…. I was just a dumb white boy with a 3-speed bicycle but with enough sense to avoid “the other part of town”.
Fun facts about public transportation: Don’t depend on it. It’s SLOW. If you get off of work at midnight, you are walking home.
I had a crappy roachy apartment on Research Blvd. AKA 183. About a block from Ohlen Road. The nearest bus stop was quite a walk. And then a long time to get down to 6th and Lamar. Sometimes two hours. Plus walking 6 more blocks to work. On my bike? 45 minutes from home to work.
Sure, if it’s raining, pack dry clothes in a trash sack.
I kinda miss being 25.
I dislike Orlando Florida toll roads with a passion. They are designed that you can easily get trapped into an on-ramp without realizing it is a toll road. You have no choice but to pay the toll. Even going just to the next exit is expensive. This happened to me twice while in Orlando. It is a way to grab money from tourists, people that are unaware of the “fish” trap.
Trap? Like the gas stations closet to OIA — the only gas stations allowed to “gouge” under Florida’s anti-gouging law. Of course, they always have gas after hurricanes …
As for the toll roads, that company is the competition. Don’t worry — for a good chunk of last year, FL couldn’t bill for the tolls because the system was so screwed up. Happy times for us!
I know some of the people in the long, painful history of SunPass, the FL EZPass equivalent. One person in particular who is in and out of FL tolling system jobs was kept as “low hanging fruit” in our group at GTE, ready to sacrifice to the layoff monster in a heartbeat.
Trap? Like the gas stations closet to OIA — the only gas stations allowed to “gouge” under Florida’s anti-gouging law. Of course, they always have gas after hurricanes …
I am ok with gouging if they have gasoline …
The free market is always the best long term solution. Except when it is not.
“Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew dead at 74”
https://pagesix.com/2019/05/02/chewbecca-actor-peter-mayhew-dead-at-74/
Great actor.
“Chewbacca actor Peter Mayhew dead at 74”
Great actor.
His replacement in the furry suit is identical.
Both actors played the role in “The Force Awakens”, but you can’t tell who is who.
Safe assumption is that seated closeups were Mayhew. And Chewie’s reaction to [name omitted]’s death since he’s leaning into the railing if you look closely.
JJ Abrams is a class act even if the films don’t always work.
I just got notified by my electricity provider that they forgot to notify me that my 8 cents/kwh electricity plan expired April 14, 2019. They offered me 12.3 cents/kwh for 12 months or 11.2 cents/kwh for 24 months.
So I chose to move to Energy Ogre and try them out. They find the best plan for you automatically and charge you a flat $10/month. I have had several people recommend them in my neighborhood so I thought that I would try them out since they do not have a cancellation fee.
https://www.energyogre.com/
I forgot to mention that when we went out for lunch yesterday to Rudy’s BBQ, there were five Teslas filling up at the 12 pump ? terminal ? electron spigot ? station there in the Rudy’s BBQ parking lot. We were amazed as the most that we had even seen before was three Teslas. I have no idea what this means.
I forgot to mention that when we went out for lunch yesterday to Rudy’s BBQ, there were five Teslas filling up at the 12 pump ? terminal ? electron spigot ? station there in the Rudy’s BBQ parking lot. We were amazed as the most that we had even seen before was three Teslas. I have no idea what this means.
There is a lot of money sloshing around where you live.
I believe it is charging station, and the commercial installations are usually “Superchargers” which cannot be installed at home without a complete rewiring of your electrical service. The Rudy’s near us has Superchargers.
We had one charging station in our old building downtown, and the last time daytime highs didn’t rise above 40 in Austin in January, the Tesla owners in the office were frantically texting each other to arrange for “top off” charges just so they could make it home that evening.
That morning, one hipster said to me in the elevator, “Man can you believe one charging station for 10 people in the building?”
(I assume he meant EV owners.)
I responded, “I own a gas car, and I have to park four blocks away. I know how I’m getting home tonight, however.”
Crickets chirping.
You drive in the right hand lane. Suddenly the lane is right turn only and you cannot get over to the next lane. The turn only lane takes onto a toll road. Only option is to get off the next exit and pay the toll. Then find a way back without using the toll road.
Or the places that look like an off ramp to the highway. Only it is the toll plaza and not well marked unless a person is familiar with the area. You get a bill in the mail with a not-so-convenient service charge.
Or the toll booths when you exit a toll road that are not manned with only a toll machine. Of course not being familiar with the area pocket change is lacking to pay the toll. Only option is to go through. A few weeks later a bill arrives in the mail for the toll and a penalty for attempting to avoid paying the toll.
Lesson learned. Always carry $20.00 in quarters when driving around (or to/from) Orlando. And hope the unmanned toll booth actually works and is not jammed from foreign coins.
Good for those with local knowledge. For those unfamiliar with the area the options are few. Wandering on unknown streets is not really a good idea on a trip. The traffic and the delays becomes the best option. GPS helps if it has the capability to reroute from traffic information.
No it is not. Boeing needs to fix the mess with the planes. And they will. Tossing several billion dollars of airframes on the scrap heap is not going to happen.
I did the grand circle of Austin today, and most of it is under construction, just finishing construction, or scheduled to be torn up for construction. I came in from the south on 71 to whatever, highway of the capitol, around the west side to 183 again, then I 35, then back to 183 south on the east side to 71 and then on to I 10 and home…. Traffic was eerily light throughout. I had to look and confirm that the construction crews were on the job to be sure I hadn’t missed the “Left Behind” moment.
After my pickups, I hit the State Surplus store, but didn’t buy any knives or magazines. I did pick up a Milwaukee screwdriver and an apple wall wart. I hit one Goodwill (Clocktower) for several nice scores. Then I hit the “bins” at the Goodwill Outlet. I bought 135 pounds of stuff. I’ll go thru it tomorrow to see how I did, but as an example, the vintage Sherwood tuner should be good for ~$120 or more by itself. The ignorant third worlders who tear thru the bins looking for clothes (or whatever they spend all day trying to buy) miss LOTS of nice things. So do the tattooed hipsters looking for resale items.
I could have had my fill of rubbermaid Roughneck bins with lids ($3 each), or brita pitcher filters (~1), or even k-cup coffee makers. I did buy one that was super clean. I also got a 6 gallon water jug, a camp lantern that I’d never seen the design before, the sherwood amp, an Ionic Breeze, and a vornado fan, a bin of various power supplies, leveling blocks for a trailer, some small tech items, and a bunch of other stuff. Watched a guy cutting something off an item and stealing it too. F’ing scumbags, nothing in there is more than $1.49/pound.
Did sell one item this week, but had to refund another that turned out to not be working. Online auction is going well. Hope I start moving some of the ebay stuff soon.
n
We’re currently getting rain, with some thunder and lightning. I had patchy areas of misty drizzle on my drive home, but most of the day west of Houston was really nice and sunny.
n
That is not the FAA’s problem.
No it is not. Boeing needs to fix the mess with the planes. And they will. Tossing several billion dollars of airframes on the scrap heap is not going to happen.
There is another solution. Put the old engines on the 737 MAX airframes in their proper place. That will work just fine. They will just use 6.4% more fuel (the new engines save 6% of the fuel usage of the old engines). The airlines will be … unhappy.
one of the things I picked up is the complete set of James Burke’s Connections I on dvd. I can’t decide if I want to keep it or sell it. It brings good money on ebay… but it is a great series too.
n
There is another solution. Put the old engines on the 737 MAX airframes in their proper place. That will work just fine. They will just use 6.4% more fuel (the new engines save 6% of the fuel usage of the old engines). The airlines will be … unhappy.
Meanwhile Airbus will crank up A220 production in Mobile, where they already produce four of their equivalent to the 737 MAX every month.
Facebook may be evil, but they do hire some clever folks. We could actually use C++ scripting where I work.
http://llvm.org/devmtg/2019-04/slides/TechTalk-Guo-Zhou-Handling_all_Facebook_requests_with_JITed_C++_code.pdf
There is another solution. Put the old engines on the 737 MAX airframes in their proper place. That will work just fine. They will just use 6.4% more fuel (the new engines save 6% of the fuel usage of the old engines). The airlines will be … unhappy.
Meanwhile Airbus will crank up A220 production in Mobile, where they already produce four of their equivalent to the 737 MAX every month.
I would watch Southwest. They own over 1,000 737s including about 34 or 35 of the 737 MAX. If Boeing cannot get a solution soon then Southwest may be forced into making a tough decision. They sold all of their 717s so they could go back to a uniform 737 fleet. And they have a lot of 737 MAX planes on order. The pencil pushers at Boeing at probably sweating right now.
I am wrong, Southwest owns 695 of the 737s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boeing_737_operators
I would watch Southwest. They own over 1,000 737s including about 34 or 35 of the 737 MAX. If Boeing cannot get a solution soon then Southwest may be forced into making a tough decision. They sold all of their 717s so they could go back to a uniform 737 fleet. And they have a lot of 737 MAX planes on order. The pencil pushers at Boeing at probably sweating right now.
They could order A220s. Delta did. Delta will also need a real 757 replacement which Boeing was hoping that the 737Max could provide at least as a stopgap until the 797 flies. Bzzt.
I liked the Airtran 717 fleet. Death Star Telephone travel was AirTran the entire time I worked there.
The last scheduled Airtran flight was the Tampa to Atlanta hop. I knew that flight well.
“no one in the Boeing board of directors nor the CEO is a pilot”
No surprise. Once companies exceed a certain size, the pencil-pushers take over, and management no longer has (or feels like it ought to have) any direct connection to the products they make. Boeing management could decide to make toasters next year, and it would matter very little to the spreadsheets.
– – – – –
I have very fond memories of Austin. I left just before (or maybe in the early stages of) the big tech immigration wave, in 1992. I sold my house on Pinecrest for just over $100k. I see that houses on that street are now nearly half-a-million. Geez…it was a nice little house, but it wasn’t that nice…
Anyway, having been back to visit a couple of times since, no thanks. Too many people, too much traffic, and definitely too many refugees from California, i.e., SJWs looking to create the next liberal paradise. Still, it was a good place to live at the time.
– – – – –
“Watched a guy cutting something off an item and stealing it too. F’ing scumbags, nothing in there is more than $1.49/pound.”
When I moved from Austin, I had a giant yard sale, basically selling off everything I owned, since I was moving abroad. I was totally swamped – and I know some tag switching and theft happened. Scumbags exist. On the positive side, me alone with a swarm of people – the vast, vast majority were honest and patient. That’s what you have to keep in mind. In fact, it’s so normal that we can get irritated at the few exceptions.
Try living in other places less subject to Western civilization, and suddenly one really begins to appreciate having civilized behavior as the norm…
Yep, that’s the difference between high trust and low trust societies. Still, grown man, old even, stealing something coin sized when it would cost pennies….
n
Fought that issue when wife and cleaned out the aunt’s place. Some were even attempting to steal and got caught. Typical response “Oh, I that that was free.” Uh nope, there is still a price tag attached. Some stuff I negotiated, other stuff I held firm. Advertised start was 8:00 AM, people showed up at 6:30 who we promptly turned away until 8:00 AM. Lots of grumbles from that.