Forecast says clear, my gut says- intermittent rain, with cooler temps.
Yesterday we got spotty rain off and on all day. I didn’t let that stop me from working in the gardens and yard. Cut up some branches for the woodpile. Took down a branch to let more light into the back yard, in the late afternoon. Two of my beds don’t get much direct sun before noon, so I need as late in the day as I can get.
I reseeded where something had dug up my seeds. And this time, I put metal mesh (hardware cloth) over the top of where the seeds are. That should keep the squirrels out of it until the plants have a chance to sprout. I also reseeded the radishes and turnips in the ‘window boxes’ on the fence, and I went ahead and planted a few corn kernels. I’ll see how they do and if the squirrels eat them.
If the weather’s good today, I’ll try to do some work on the sprinklers, and maybe get the rope saw out and do some pruning on the live oak in the front yard. Maybe.
I did get some small cleanup done in the driveway, which the wife took as an anniversary gift 🙂 I sold and delivered a pallet jack to my buddy, and put some stuff out for heavy trash.
I feel like I got a bunch done, even with a fairly late start to the day. I hope today goes as well.
Dinner was live Maine lobsters, flown in as a gift from my in-laws. I had to cook it, but it was a nice dinner. I used the pot from my propane turkey fryer, and I should have used the gas ring too. It took forever to heat the water on my electric range, and my timing was thrown off by the time it took to get it back to a boil after the lobsters went in. Tasted good, but they were a tiny bit overcooked. A bit of steak from the freezer made the ‘turf’ part of our ‘surf n turf’. Boiled potatoes and steamed asparagus rounded out the meal. Damn strange slow motion disaster.
I broke my own isolation twice this week, both times for money. Not JUST money, but money was involved. I hope it doesn’t bite me in the @ss.
Stay in, stay safe.
nick
We made a run to Sam’s Club yesterday, hoping to snag more of their brand pasta since it has been back in stock lately. No luck. *Every* palette gone, holes left deliberately by the management to avoid the questions. Canned corn and green beans too, which had been getting stocked at normal levels up until this weekend. Pork really limited. The media may well get the food shortage they’ve been pushing, but, as with Clear Channel’s Texas “gas shortage” of a few years back, they’ll have to live it too.
(To be fair, the San Antonio Clear Channel station has been more careful with their opinions about the current situation than post-Harvey.)
Mask kabuki in full force by City of Austin order. The “Lets go rustle some cattle” look isn’t going to protect the uninfected wearer. It may be of marginal use to limit the particles emanating from the infected. If I have to play along with this stupidity, I might as well get out my circa-late 80s Don Post Darth Vader helmet/mask; at least my eyes would be covered.
Don’t forget the Bill Gates New World Condom ™.
“The weird fascination with vaccines is something that is uniquely Gates. He’s also into composting toilet design, but that isn’t something the American public is clamoring for right now.”
Don’t forget the Bill Gates New World Condom ™.
Eugenics. Of course. And the truck-sized reactor design. Gates is Hank Scorpio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V12ZAZ4Jn8Q
Quick trip to Home Depot yesterday afternoon for a curbside pickup of an online order of a new patio sunshade.
Entire front of store had a long line of people waiting to get in. Canopies all the way down, maybe fourty. It was a hot day 90F. Where did they get all those?
We pulled into a numbered pickup slot and called. Maybe 10 minutes.
Pretty painless. Need to hang it today.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Coolaroo-Camel-Corded-Light-Filtering-Fade-Resistant-Fabric-Exterior-Roller-Shade-120-in-W-x-72-in-L-458430/307707909
We saw “Ferrari v Ford” last night. Real cars. Lee Iacocca wasn’t rebooted as a woman. The law still permits films like that to be made these days?
(The filmmakers had more respect for Iacocca than Ford itself does these days, but I’ve noticed that the Mustang label is starting to be deemphasized in the Mach-E marketing. One can only hope.)
Recommended even if you aren’t into cars.
Fox made some nice Oscar flicks the last few years before Disney bought them. Hopefully, whats left of the studio and the library lands someplace like Apple who will be hands off.
Entire front of store had a long line of people waiting to get in. Canopies all the way down, maybe fourty. It was a hot day 90F. Where did they get all those?
Big rent-all chains. We rent canopies for customer events, and 24 hour notice never seems to be a problem.
When we drove by the Home Depot parking lot yesterday, the place looked like Christmas season at the malls 20 years ago. Austin enforces Mask Kabuki, but it didn’t look like a lot of distancing was being practiced otherwise. No one was waiting outside. Rent-a-cop dressed like APD was enforcing the mask order.
People are bored and over the lockdown orders.
Eugenics
Laugh, carp or sneer all you want but William Shockley had it right about 60-70 years ago. Of course how many people actually listened to what he said? Reminds me of _The Bell Curve_.
Just mentioning the BC gets you called a raycisss! Facts don’t matter if you are a ProgLibTurd.
Laugh, carp or sneer all you want but William Shockley had it right about 60-70 years ago. Of course how many people actually listened to what he said? Reminds me of _The Bell Curve_.
The “Traitorous 8” listened. Arguably, we have Intel because Shockley was a tool in general.
Texas non-compete laws prevented “Silicon Valley” from happening in Dallas out of TI.
Is there a significant difference in US death rate 2019 vs 2020 (so far)?
Windows was stolen from Apple and Steve Jobs.
Who stole it from Xerox PARC.
Yes.
If I have to play along with this stupidity, I might as well get out my circa-late 80s Don Post Darth Vader helmet/mask; at least my eyes would be covered.
You would not be the first.
https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/04/15/no-santa-bane-or-darth-vader-military-mask-advice-gets-humorous.html
No argument, but isn’t it a little surprising nothing has taken hold and replaced windowing environments? There have been attempts, mostly forgotten.
Slightly off topic, but I remember how our former host used to think up things computers could do, but the industry didn’t care to implement. There is sooo much. And most of us don’t want to dedicate our lives to creating them.
Thinking about user interfaces, I really like the ability to alter things to suit my desires. To me, that is the biggest innovation in the last 20 or 30 years. For instance, I really like keyboard commands, and the ability to assign them to F-keys or Ctrl-? etc. shortcuts. Makes me happy. There is nuch more.
I find rowing through menus tedious. My wife, OTOH, only uses menus everywhere she can. Fine.
Thinking about user interfaces, I really like the ability to alter things to suit my desires. To me, that is the biggest innovation in the last 20 or 30 years. For instance, I really like keyboard commands, and the ability to assign them to F-keys or Ctrl-? etc. shortcuts. Makes me happy. There is nuch more.
I find rowing through menus tedious. My wife, OTOH, only uses menus everywhere she can. Fine.
I cannot remember very many keyboard shortcuts. I wrote software on Unix boxes for several years and VI ruined me. Excel gripes at me every time I press Ctrl-C. I just want to hurt it.
I use menus extensively. I hate the MS Office ribbon menu with a passion. I like the old non-changing menus in Office 2003 and earlier. And every freaking software package out there has differing pulldown menus.
“#EarthDay at 50: None Of The Eco-Doomsday Predictions Have Come True”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/22/earthday-at-50-none-of-the-eco-doomsday-predictions-have-come-true/
“From predicting ecological collapse and the end of civilization to warnings that the world is running out of oil, all environmental doomsday predictions of the first Earth Day in 1970 have turned out to be flat out wrong.”
In the Old Testament, God said to stone all prophets whose predictions came out to be false. Instead, we celebrate them and shower them with more money.
Not to worry, Lynn. The science, models, data, honest reporting, and political policies around the Chinese Flu are much more reliable. You have to trust them!
I just heard another sycophantic interview with Michael Mann — didn’t hear it until a few days ago though it was recorded around a year ago. The interviewer was a physicist who’s interviewed a number of other scientists and generally asks a number of probing questions to shed light on the more difficult parts of the scientist’s area of expertise. Not this time. He completely ignored the more problematic aspects of Mann’s research and findings and legal difficulties, aside from sympathising about how much time and attention Mann had to waste on the lawsuits. Not a breath of skepticism about Mann’s refusal to release his data and models. Not a breath of skepticism about the reality of anthropogenic global warming. No discussion of the problems involved in using proxies for temperature or CO2 tens of thousands of years ago. Nope, just an 80-minute tongue bath.
Disappointing, and it’s making me reconsider whether to bother listening to any more of the interviewer’s podcasts. It’s something like Whosis’s Law regarding newspapers: I know more than a little about this topic and I saw nothing but dishonesty. What makes me think it’ll be any different when I’m listening to an episode about which I know almost nothing?
Exactly. That’s why I like keyboard shortcuts. I used to move between systems a bit, and taking a few minutes to create my preferred shortcuts helped. I also do the occasional drawing, and like right click context menus, right next to where I am working. My hand is already on the mouse anyway.
Many folks should watch a video of Doug Englebart using his three button mouse and five (?) Key chord keyboard under his other hand. Looks good to me.
I have used graphics tablets, too, but not enough to feel comfortable. I think using a touchscreen, a stylus, and good drawing software would be fun. Sadly, I don’t have a need.
Not to worry, Lynn. The science, models, data, honest reporting, and political policies around the Chinese Flu are much more reliable. You have to trust them!
Oh, the models that they used to persuade Trump that there was going to be 2.2 million deaths in the USA from SARS-COV-2 ?
And then they predicted 200,000 deaths. And then they predicted 60,000 deaths. And now they predict 80,000 deaths. All they had to do was wait for 75% of the deaths to occur before the model got close.
And now they are predicting a second wave in the fall of 200,000 deaths in the USA. Wait, I’ve heard this story before.
President Trump must be going nuts. He placed his faith in experts. And the experts screwed him. And they screwed the USA. 30 milli0n people have lost their jobs. Maybe another 30 million will lose their jobs by the end of the year. Over a million businesses have died. Maybe another million businesses will die by the end of the year.
People have stopped paying their credit cards bills. They have stopped paying their rent. They have stopped paying their mortgages. They have stopped paying their vehicle payments. The financial institutions will start dying soon.
The economic damage will be horrible by the time of the federal election in November. Will the populace be so easily fooled ?
It’s something like Whosis’s Law regarding newspapers: I know more than a little about this topic and I saw nothing but dishonesty.
The Gell-Mann Effect?
Yep, Gell-Mann effect was what I couldn’t remember. Thanks.
(And it’s either sheer coincidence or The Universe Telling Us Something that Mann is also the name of the “scientist” whose fawning interview led to the question. Probably the latter. As the Center of the Universe (and you can’t prove otherwise), I’m constantly getting Messages from the universe. Mostly I just ignore them because I’m a lazy guy and can’t be bothered.)
People have stopped paying their credit cards bills. They have stopped paying their rent. They have stopped paying their mortgages. They have stopped paying their vehicle payments. The financial institutions will start dying soon.
People weren’t making car payments before the virus. Since New Years, I saw stories starting to creep out about how dealers’ finance departments were starting to quietly encourage repossession of the current vehicle as part of the financing structure.
When I was motivated to replace the Camry back in February, the local Ford dealer had 30 2019 Mustangs on the lot with Internet pricing of $18,900 for stick. Automatics were $20k.
The economic damage will be horrible by the time of the federal election in November. Will the populace be so easily fooled ?
Plugs won’t win, regardless of running mate, but I don’t think they’re going to stick with him. Otherwise, that Larry King clip never would have leaked.
I smell Bubba Clinton’s work.
If Biden stays on the top of the ticket, the cabal has more power than anyone previously imagined. My generation of Dem political operatives cut their teeth taking out guys like Gary Hart and Biden *33 years ago*.
I still remember John Chancellor’s look of glee on his face the night he announced that they caught Gary Hart. Times have changed. Chancellor was old school — Dem or Republican, it didn’t matter.
“Virginia Governor raises cost of energy… when Virginians can least afford it”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/23/virginia-governor-raises-cost-of-energy-when-virginians-can-least-afford-it/
“If there ever was a time not to enact policies that would cost families, it would be in the midst of an economy-killing global pandemic.”
“With coronavirus rampaging throughout Virginia, effectively closing the commonwealth’s economy and pushing 306,000 people out of work in three weeks, Gov. Ralph Northam has picked a terrible time to sign into law a group of regressive “clean energy” policies that will harm the roughly 870,000 Virginians who live in poverty by increasing their energy costs.”
“The first of these policies, the Virginia Clean Economy Act, establishes a renewable energy mandate forcing state utilities to produce 14 percent of their electricity generated from “renewable” sources in 2021, gradually increasing the mandate to 100 percent by 2050.”
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
What would be involved in breaking the electric grids into smaller pieces? Let the idiots in the idiot — er, “enlightened” — states thrive or fail with their wind power and unicorn farts and not
parasitizesully themselves with the dirty nasty coal and nuclear electricity from the benighted states.What would be involved in breaking the electric grids into smaller pieces? Let the idiots in the idiot — er, “enlightened” — states thrive or fail with their wind power and unicorn farts and not parasitize sully themselves with the dirty nasty coal and nuclear electricity from the benighted states.
There are three electrical grids in the USA. East, West, and Texas. Breaking up any of those will cost big bucks and cut reliability. Some states do not even have any power generation in them anymore (Maine Yankee, etc).
@SteveF :
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_power_transmission_grid (including maps).
Understood. It wasn’t an entirely serious question, but wasn’t entirely rhetorical or humorous, either.
Looking at this map, it looks like Virginia has a bunch of solar and biomass and wind and hydro stations. They should be fine decommissioning all of their fossil fuel and nuke plants and cutting the lines between them and other states. Heck, just to be generous, we’ll let them put DC on their private grid. And if, perchance, the capacity of their clean systems is too low or the cost is too high, at least they won’t be in the cold and dark because they’ll be glowing with Greta-blessed virtue.
Never let a good crisis go to waste.
The KKKlansman. Or, if you prefer, “Coonman”, his nickname in med school.
When the subject of the state of VA came up at work on Friday, I horrified the young’n’s with whom I work by encouraging them to Google Governor Ralph Northam, in particular his med school yearbook picture.
You could hear the gasps over the speakerphone from some.
The State of VA has been extremely interested in our LPR capapbility as of late. We’re capturing thousands of vehicle plate pair images every 12 hours, heading into and out of DC depending on time of day.
@Greg Norton
Speaking of maps … I’d be interested in seeing a map of where you have your License Plate Reader systems installed and running.
But I suspect that such a map, if it exists, is proprietary. Maybe a map with just dot’s for cities that are using your systems, rather than the LPR’s actual locations (although that would be interesting also).
“Continued CO2 Emissions Will Impair Cognition”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/04/24/continued-co2-emissions-will-impair-cognition/
“As the 21st century progresses, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations will cause urban and indoor levels of the gas to increase, and that may significantly reduce our basic decision-making ability and complex strategic thinking, according to a new CU Boulder-led study. By the end of the century, people could be exposed to indoor CO2 levels up to 1400 parts per million—more than three times today’s outdoor levels and well beyond what humans have ever experienced.”
What a load of claptrap !
Your tax dollars at work.
First comment is excellent, “Submarines average 3-4 thousand ppm and can run over 10,000 ppm. If one loses half ones complex strategic thinking at 1,500 ppm, where does that leave the submariners?”
unicorn farts
Lol, sorry to interrupt but that’s a keeper!
[snip] God said to stone all prophets whose predictions came out to be false. [snip]
I’d like to start with the idealogues who’ve spent the last ~ 90 years and a nearly infinite amount of money trying, and failing, to cure poverty by spending money.
A video in this link says they served 2500 meals that week.
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/national-guard-deployed-nations-food-banks-ensure-stability-during-unprecedented-times
Our ISD (school district) Child Nutrition Services staff have served over 112,000 meals over the past four weeks. That’s 28 000 per week. And we do this EVERY FREAKING WEEK. Just for a point of comparison. I think we shouldn’t be serving even 1% of those meals.
n
Speaking of maps … I’d be interested in seeing a map of where you have your License Plate Reader systems installed and running.
But I suspect that such a map, if it exists, is proprietary. Maybe a map with just dot’s for cities that are using your systems, rather than the LPR’s actual locations (although that would be interesting also).
My specific project is in DC and real high profile/pressure, the part of the freeway right next to the future Amazon HQ2, separating the site from the Pentagon. No secret there. I think the state even has a web site about progress/closures for the construction. The rest are generally lower profile and concentrated in Texas.
Speaking generally, if you see any toll road/bridge/tunnel without people in the booths, assume some kind of LPR is in use, either automated or done with overseas labor, especially new systems. *Big* cameras — looks like a camera — are usually a sign of automated reading. The states are keenly interested in maximizing revenue while minimizing labor right now, even cheap labor, and not everyone gets a toll tag. I don’t have one.
If your concern is WA State, most of those systems are new, installed in the last 5-6 years, since my wife and I left the state. Safe assumption.
Which, in my opinion, is what the goal of this entire event is designed to accomplish. The economy was doing very well under Trump. The democrats and liberals found that hard to swallow. Thus destroy the one thing in such a way they could blame it on Trump. Impeachment did not work. So on to plan “B”. Plan “C” is probably being hatched as I type.
Our ISD (school district) Child Nutrition Services staff have served over 112,000 meals over the past four weeks. That’s 28 000 per week. And we do this EVERY FREAKING WEEK. Just for a point of comparison. I think we shouldn’t be serving even 1% of those meals.
The food would probably be thrown away otherwise right now.
Our ISD cancelled the rest of the school year last week.
Plan “C” is probably being hatched as I type.
Plan “C” — run Barack as VP.
I’ve heard this theorized ever since 2016 because the 22nd Amendment doesn’t prohibit him from running, only being elected.
The Electoral College meets, the votes from the states opting for Biden/Obama get thrown out, and the Presidential election gets decided by the House for whoever they want because Trump doesn’t have 270. Of course, the Senate gets the VP pick, but they can be pressured into choosing a RINO like Mittens.
The Court declines to get involved interpreting the mess because Roberts doesn’t believe in correcting voters’ choices no matter how poorly thought out.
Pleasant dreams everyone.
WEEKEND UPDATE
Kim Jong Un is still alive
I do. “The Toll Roads” of Orange County was acquired by FasTrak, stepping backward in technology. Under The Toll Roads, we enjoyed efficient tolling, using only LPRs. It was great, a sign of free enterprise.
Now, under FasTrak, RFID stickers are required for account holders. I strongly dislike another mark defacing my car. I still have two 6×12″ license plates, which used to be sufficient. I cringe at the privacy implications of the RFID sticker.
I have considered dropping my account, and using the guest provisions, but there are limits to how often I can use that. Lately, that is no problem.
Meanwhile, there don’t seem to be any plans to remove the LPRs. How else can they accomodate visitors?
WEEKEND UPDATE
Kim Jong Un is still alive
Video with today’s newspaper or did not happen.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/26/asia/kim-jong-un-north-korea-health-intl/index.html
Meanwhile, there don’t seem to be any plans to remove the LPRs. How else can they accomodate visitors?
All of the tollways that I see / use in Texas have LPRs in addition to their TXTag readers. Or at least what I think is a LPR. I am by no means an expert.
Plan “C” is probably being hatched as I type.
Plan “C” — run Barack as VP.
Plan “C” – limited nuclear exchange ICBM with Russia supposedly initiated by Trump when he had the USAF shoot down a Russian Bomber flying over the Bering Straits
“Meanwhile, there don’t seem to be any plans to remove the LPRs. How else can they accomodate visitors?”
All of the tollways that I see / use in Texas have LPRs in addition to their TXTag readers. Or at least what I think is a LPR. I am by no means an expert.
Dunno. Houston is the competition. Their tech is awful in general.
Plan C involves a bullet and a patsy. That’s why he’s still paying his own security guys to be there. (Or at least he was, haven’t seen anything recently.)
I’d like to remind everyone that the STOCK MARKET was doing great, but the economy was not, and was bound to crash eventually. This is a convenient excuse and there are plenty of sound bites where DJT is arguing against closing everything down and arguing for reopening. Can’t weaponize the shutdown against him, as he has insisted that the Governors be the ones who shut down. They can try, but he’s inoculated.
n
Now, under FasTrak, RFID stickers are required for account holders. I strongly dislike another mark defacing my car. I still have two 6×12″ license plates, which used to be sufficient. I cringe at the privacy implications of the RFID sticker.
The stickers are an evolving CA standard. I think the plan is that you’ll be able to go anywhere in the state with one account.
Get the toll tag in the gardener’s name. When I worked for the Death Star, the well off households got the copper line phone service in the maid’s name to qualify for the subsidized rate. That’s the flaw with the argument from the carriers that wealthy residents don’t have copper phone line service anymore — they do, but it isn’t profitable for Frontier or AT&T to provide it at $15/mo.
I have no special insight about gardeners getting toll tags in CA, just extrapolating from my experience at the phone company.
I’d like to remind everyone that the STOCK MARKET was doing great, but the economy was not, and was bound to crash eventually. This is a convenient excuse and there are plenty of sound bites where DJT is arguing against closing everything down and arguing for reopening. Can’t weaponize the shutdown against him, as he has insisted that the Governors be the ones who shut down. They can try, but he’s inoculated.
Half of the country across all of the states would have immediately ignored the shutdown if it had come from the White House just because it was Trump, no matter if it made sense or not.
Your lack of faith in technology is apparent. You would trust video nowadays?
I’d like to remind everyone that the STOCK MARKET was doing great, but the economy was not, and was bound to crash eventually. This is a convenient excuse and there are plenty of sound bites where DJT is arguing against closing everything down and arguing for reopening. Can’t weaponize the shutdown against him, as he has insisted that the Governors be the ones who shut down. They can try, but he’s inoculated.
Well, the oil patch was heading in the ditch as of the beginning of 2019, over a year ago. And that is 10% of the employment of the country. The rest of the employment base of the USA looked pretty good to me though.
Your lack of faith in technology is apparent. You would trust video nowadays?
I would definitively not trust a photo. And I doubt I would trust a video. But that would tell me that they are at least trying. Issuing just a statement is suspicious.
I don’t like tension in the Norks. We’ve still got 35,000 US soldiers in the southern portion of South Korea. In fact, one of my cousins runs over there every three months to help soldiers in the deployed army battalions deal with legal issues at home. Mostly to delay their legal problems and inform the judge that they are deployed. He spend three weeks there each time. He is kind of a paralegal and a sergeant.
I think almost all of CA now, but I only use two toll roads, so doesn’t matter to me.
As for the gardener, that wouldn’t work because the sticker owner is cross checked with the registered owner. Besides, we don’t need a gardener because we are in a desert and the landscaping takes care of itself. 😛
Added, I would think ALL unmanned toll collection points would require LPRs. How else could they accomodate guests?
Mebbe I am just old fashioned, but those emojis don’t have the character of emoticons. Or, just maybe I spent waaay too much time on a VT-100.
Added, I would think ALL unmanned toll collection points would require LPRs. How else could they accomodate guests?
They got me last October when I bought the new F-150. I ran the tollway three times and they sent me a demand letter with pictures of my vehicle for $10. I gladly paid it. I don’t know if they used an LPR or just manually read the license plate in the picture.
They got me last October when I bought the new F-150. I ran the tollway three times and they sent me a demand letter with pictures of my vehicle for $10. I gladly paid it. I don’t know if they used an LPR or just manually read the license plate in the picture.
Houston? Probably guys (and girls) in a room in the Phillipines.
Even that labor is getting expensive.
Florida pulled this crap on me. Exited one of their extortion roads and the booth was not manned. I had no quarters to toss in the basket. Just went through, lights flashed, bells rang, a disco show. Later on I went through another unmanned booth. This time I had quarters. I tossed in the three required quarters. Light did not turn green. I tossed in three more. Still no light. So I went on through. Another disco show. Entering Orlando I got caught missing a toll lane because a couple of cretins would not let me change lanes to get into the payment lane.
About 10 days later I got a letter in the mail for the tolls, a penalty, and a service charge. I called the number, told them about paying twice for the one toll booth and it not working. They removed that charge and as a favor removed the penalties and service charge. I sent them a check for $4.00.
Lesson learned. Always carry abundant quarters when traveling in Florida. On one trip I set the GPS to avoid the connector from I-75 to Orlando, that huge money maker for Florida that snags all the tourists. At least the booths are staffed. Anyway, avoiding that road caused an extra two hours of driving, lots of reds lights through small towns, traffic congestion, etc. I decided the $4.00 to use the road (each way) was worth it. And Florida knows this and will never change.