Hot and humid, but maybe we’ll get a little break from the really bad stuff. That would be nice.
Yesterday after running my errands, I spend a couple of hours in the garage. It was drizzling, and much cooler than it has been. I got the freezers lined up so all the doors open fully. I moved some drawers over 3 inches to make room for another cabinet. Moved some extension cords and powerstrips around. I’m about 80% back to normal in the garage now. Well, the new normal with the rearrangements. Normal in the sense that stuff is in there, and I can get to it.
Finished my laundry and restocked the kitchen and baths. House is a shambles. My wife’s been busy with work and then started getting our tax stuff in order for our accountant. Kids have been slacking off on chores while we’ve both been otherwise occupied. Add me redoing the garage, and my wife redoing daughter 1’s bedroom and you’ve got a mess.
I’m hoping that we don’t have any more rain today so I can get a load down to my auctioneer. I have to use the pickup, and the stuff can’t get wet, so I need the rain to hold off. Tuesday or Wednesday, I’m already supposed to get a different load to my other auctioneer, so I don’t want to push any of the deliveries. (Each auctioneer has typical stuff they sell, so I’m matching stuff to seller, hoping to get better buyers and higher prices.)
I need to get rid of the stuff that won’t help us, and make room for more things that will.
‘Cuz I’m seeing escalation everywhere I look. And that isn’t going to end well.
So keep stacking whatever you’re short on. Practice some shooting skills this week, or learn some comm skills. Clean your guns. Organize the freezer and the pantry shelves. Change batteries in devices. Buy a sturdy pair of boots and some work gloves. Go through your webbing and make sure you don’t need to sew anything. So much to do. So little time in the day.
nick
Nice vehicle for somebody under 6 foot. But nobody who just defaulted on a mortgage is going to buy a $42K vehicle.
Just ask the Ford and Dodge dealers how they move the big trucks.
Anything goes when the Fed buys the paper.
Among the many situations in my wife’s practice of medicine which I’ve indirectly subsidized over the years out of my own paychecks is her MA in Florida. Despite generous raises which came out of our household’s bottom line with the goal of providing financial stability, the girl ended up $30k in trouble in credit cards and filed bankruptcy. Less than six months into bankruptcy, Ally let the same individual drive the second most expensive model Hyundai sells off the dealer lot — loaded SUV, $50k.
The upside of the VA is I don’t subsidize the practice of medicine anymore. To recap, my “it” moment in Vantucky was the realization that I subsidized the antics of kindredcocktails.com out of my grad school TA paychecks. The editor is a pro alcoholic in the Hunter Thompson sense of the word — when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.
He’s probably also ANTIFA these days.
Never thought of that option when the need arises for a small coin cell. Most of my needs for coin cells have been for key fobs for vehicles and my HP-27S calculator.
I worked with a guy that was always in financial trouble. Multiple calls each week, several on payday, from companies to which he owed money. A couple of them were successful in garnishing part of his paycheck as they had secured loans. He filed for bankruptcy about a year after I arrived. Wiped out tens of thousands in unsecured debt. He had three mortgages on his house which by law cannot be discharged.
He was then able to easily get new credit cards and personal loans from some of the organizations that specialize in losers. Got new loans on the house, a couple of them. Apparently people such as himself are now considered better risks because they cannot file for bankruptcy but once every 10 years. During that time the companies can continue to pursue the debt.
Almost to the day of the 10 year anniversary of his last bankruptcy he filed again. Again wiping out tens of thousands in debt. New credit cards and loans were again on the table without any real issues. Interest rates were sky high due to the companies he was using but he did not care. He just paid what he felt like and did not care that interest and late fees were accumulating. He knew that he would eventually never pay the debt.
What amazed me is he made more than I did. He had no kids, just a loser of a wife that apparently spent like crazy. He was also guilty of wasting a lot of money by spending on anything his wife wanted. She was a recluse with multiple imaginary diseases and real mental problems.
He was making about $95K a year. About a year after I left he was terminated, something that should have happened 10 years sooner. I suspect he probably lost his house and one, or both, of his two vehicles.
He was making about $95K a year. About a year after I left he was terminated, something that should have happened 10 years sooner. I suspect he probably lost his house and one, or both, of his two vehicles.
The vehicles? Leased if I had to guess. If not, lenders are loathe to take back an BMW or Mercedes (guessing). A Lexus or a nice F150 would be different.
As for the house, it depends on how much was owed and the patience of the banks. The banks can’t foreclose as long as the negotiated payments under the agreed Bankruptcy Court plan get made, and even if the payments stop, I’ve seen situations where the banks just look the other way as long as maintenance on the house was maintained and comparables didn’t collapse in the area, especially with the military credit unions.
The *only* time I saw banks move to aggressively foreclose on homeowners who were on a Bankruptcy Court plan was after I collapsed comparables in my FL neighborhood 10 years ago. Within a month of my closing, six of the eighteen homes were on the market, owners forced into some combination of short sale or foreclosure by their banks, including two under protection of the Bankruptcy Court.
One bankrupt household’s home got sold out from under them immediately — despite Bat Guano’s infirm 90-something year-old mother being rolled into court to testify her guarantee of continued payment — but the other, a multiple military credit union deal which let a retired medic borrow $1 million on two houses on $70k of annual household income, took a decade and multiple lawsuits to unwind, the house just selling within the last few months.
Which reminds me — yes, the military credit unions are backed by the NCUA, but they aren’t special in any way if they go Tango Uniform. You might want a backup if your money is in one, especially Pentagon Federal. In Tampa, PenFed was often second mortgage on the crazy paper written by the local base’s long-time credit union, Grow Financial, frequently under pressure from the local commands, particularly SpecOps, which bought GrowFi’s HQ building for their current facility at MacDill.
Things that make you say, hmmm…
Nope, purchased. Loans on both vehicles.
Last I heard he was working at Lowe’s perhaps making enough to keep the house. He started SS at 62 so lost 25% of the maximum at age 65. He would get that because of his salary over the last 15 years. His wife gets half that amount. About 50% total of what he made working.
He was in massive debt at his original salary. I cannot imagine the situation now.
The only good thing about those two getting married is that it kept two other lives from getting messed up.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8562571/Hundreds-unattended-teenagers-destructive-rampage-Memphis-mini-golf-center.html
nice short video
Stay away from crowds.
n
I’ve watched several videos of BLM/Antifa scum shining hi-power lasers at the police. SWAT should deploy hidden snipers and take the laser wielders out. I’ve seen lasers like that, and they are powerful. They can blind you in a fraction of a second. I think green color is almost universally over 100mW.
The main problem with the chinese green lasers is that they don’t adequately filter out IR, and you don’t blink from IR. So they can damage your eyes and you won’t even know it even if the green is within safe ranges.
n
Snipers are not a bad idea, MrAtoz, but claymores and fuel-air explosives get the job done quicker.
Come to think of it, doesn’t the Air Force still have a few MOABs just sitting around? Dropping one on Portland wouldn’t do any harm, or not more harm than letting the peaceful protesters continue to burn, loot, and murder.
The main problem with the chinese green lasers is that they don’t adequately filter out IR, and you don’t blink from IR. So they can damage your eyes and you won’t even know it even if the green is within safe ranges.
I brought back something from Florida at the beginning of the month, a permanent-seeming after image in one eye, which I’m having checked out tomorrow. I hope it is just aging/sun exposure and not someone playing with a laser.
How pricey are the green lasers? How hard to get?
I hate to think kids have the lasers to play with. If so, Amazon needs to put a lid on the overseas sellers peddling God-knows-what.
Come to think of it, doesn’t the Air Force still have a few MOABs just sitting around? Dropping one on Portland wouldn’t do any harm, or not more harm than letting the peaceful protesters continue to burn, loot, and murder.
There is a MOAB casing on display outside the museum entrance at Eglin. It actually isn’t as big as you would think, but I imagine it is bulky filled with explosives.
Google “100mw laser pointer” and any number of sites come up. About $20 for a *quality* Chinese LP. Styropyro on Youtube looks at some of them. It’s easy to get a cheap 1000mw LP which is a weapon.
Is there eye protection that will block damaging laser pointers?
Safety goggles exist to protect against different color lasers. When I looked a minute ago I didn’t see any that were suitable for police or military use — they were all for labs and shops.
Nick, not sure how often you check your e-mail.
Wanted to let you know I sent you one.
@barbara!, I only check once or twice a day, and sometimes that’s one morning, and the next late night…. checking now.
WRT lasers, google or ebay for blue lasers. You don’t even need to have the beam hit your eye, even the reflection from a white surface can cause color bleaching in your eye and permanent loss of color vision in only a few minutes.
Look at instructables for DIY projects involving bluray lasers… or build your own lightsabers that use the laser from a common projector…
n
I agree that our snipers need some more “in-the-field” experience. Justice needs to be swift and tough. Maybe then the Cretans will get the message. Then again probably not, they just become undeserving martyrs. Again we have not learned from history.
Stop tolerating the intolerant. And no, that is not an oxymoron.
Reference: The Paradox of Tolerance
Among the many situations in my wife’s practice of medicine which I’ve indirectly subsidized over the years out of my own paychecks is her MA in Florida. Despite generous raises which came out of our household’s bottom line with the goal of providing financial stability, the girl ended up $30k in trouble in credit cards and filed bankruptcy. Less than six months into bankruptcy, Ally let the same individual drive the second most expensive model Hyundai sells off the dealer lot — loaded SUV, $50k.
MA is her mother ? What a nightmare !
Last I heard he was working at Lowe’s perhaps making enough to keep the house. He started SS at 62 so lost 25% of the maximum at age 65. He would get that because of his salary over the last 15 years. His wife gets half that amount. About 50% total of what he made working.
He was in massive debt at his original salary. I cannot imagine the situation now.
The only good thing about those two getting married is that it kept two other lives from getting messed up.
I’ll bet that half of the people in the USA are just like this. Any financial event is a total disaster for them.
I’ve watched several videos of BLM/Antifa scum shining hi-power lasers at the police. SWAT should deploy hidden snipers and take the laser wielders out. I’ve seen lasers like that, and they are powerful. They can blind you in a fraction of a second. I think green color is almost universally over 100mW.
My son was telling me that we had a problem with communist rioters in the USA back in the 1880s. The army was deployed, about 3,000 people were arrested and charged with treason, judged by military tribunals, and shot by firing squad within a week.
ADD: Don’t be standing around watching the riots. You might get picked up also.
Schlock Mercenary has shut down for a while after 20 years.
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/
and
https://www.schlockmercenary.com/blog/done-at-least-for-a-while/
I could tell that he was burning out. Was still ok but I was considering dropping it out of my daily view.
Never thought of that option when the need arises for a small coin cell. Most of my needs for coin cells have been for key fobs for vehicles and my HP-27S calculator.
I consider computers, key fobs, and watches to be semi-critical applications. At least, I don’t want the aggravation of a short lived battery. For those, I use name brand lithium coin cells. They are getting expensive at retail, so next time I will do a quantity mail order buy. When I visited my aunt, I noticed she was not wearing her watch, so I bought a new battery. Cost something like $8 at a nearby store. Yecch!
I have used a variety of cheap lithium coin cells. Some are good, some not. No way to tell upfront in my experience. I have an old notebook computer that requires major disassembly to replace its CMOS coin cell. Never replaced it, but the computer is retired. I would definitely use the best I could find in it. One good thing about lithium coin cells is that they rarely leak.
Your HP calculator uses three 357 silver oxide cells. For applications where 357 silver oxide cells will fit, and if the item is low drain (Not sure the limit, but anything with only an LCD display is almost certainly low drain,) the 357 is preferable to the alkaline A76, LR44, and similar. Those can leak near end of life, and they will not last as long as the 357. I have two HP-12C calculators, and both have their original 357 cells; one is over 30 years old. I inspect the cells every year or two, and they are still clean. I can’t speak for new 357 cells, but they are probably still as good as the older ones. Silver oxide cells can be hard to find, and might be phased out soon.
That HP-27S is an algebraic calculator! Must be rare. Might want to look up its value. HP usually has good information. I found this, and there appears to be more:
https://www.hpmuseum.org/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/hpmuseum/archv015.cgi?read=88791
If your calculator is a treasure to you, definitely keep it in quality silver oxide cells. If not, there might be a lot of people who want it. And, don’t forget you might be able to get a cell phone app that emulates it. I have one for the HP-12C that is an exact replica; another allows writing programs in an improved interface.
I rarely use a calculator any more. Started with the HP-35, and have always had an HP calculator. TI calcs are good, too, and probably lots of others. For more complex calculations, it is hard to beat a spreadsheet.
Swan Eaters: Ivan opened the demon realm portal again !
https://www.gocomics.com/swan-eaters/2020/07/27
Well, that was predictable.
About 10 of us in my MS ORSA at Mines bought these. They had them at the school bookstore. We could program simple algorithms in to solve some ORSA problems. Neat.
Good advice on batteries. Thanks, JimB.
Barbara, good to see ya.
MA is her mother ? What a nightmare !
MA = Medical Assistant.
She was still a nightmare who got my wife sued once among other antics.
I don’t miss that office in Florida. As I’ve said before, I’m B*tchy Doctor’s Wife these days, and I would have zero tolerance for the same behavior from those people now.
I rarely use a calculator any more. Started with the HP-35, and have always had an HP calculator. TI calcs are good, too, and probably lots of others. For more complex calculations, it is hard to beat a spreadsheet.
I use just cheap pieces of junk calculators when needful at the office and home now. I have used the same Casio SL-300SV at the office for 30+ years now. It just works for when I want to add 2 + 2. Anything more sophisticated, I use Windows Calc or then jump to Excel.
https://www.casio.com/products/calculators/basic/sl-300sv
“Would you like a side of glitter with that burger?
Thanks to COVID-19, Houston is home to Texas’ first drive-thru strip club.”
https://www.chron.com/local/article/Would-you-like-a-side-of-glitter-with-that-burger-15423217.php
What the heck ? I don’t go to strip clubs and I’m sure not going to drive through one.
“More Marlins test positive for COVID-19, Monday’s game cancelled”
https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/More-Marlins-test-positive-COVID-19-game-postponed-15436493.php?cmpid=trend
“At least 13 Miami Marlins players and coaches have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past two days, forcing the cancellation of Monday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles.”
I am guessing that they all went to the same strip club ?
See, Lynn, that’s why you go to a drive-through strip club/burger joint.
That HP-27S is an algebraic calculator! Must be rare. Might want to look up its value. HP usually has good information.
HP has forgotten about calculators for the most part, a trend which started early in the “Cover Girl Carly” CEO era and continued through Meg Whitman’s regime.
(Wasn’t Mark Hurd in that mix somewhere. I don’t keep up.)
The current HP flagship scientific, the HP Prime, is best used in algebraic mode, but an RPN mode is grudgingly provided for the die hards.
I have a Prime in my work bag because my HP 50G and 48GX became too valuable to carry back and forth to the office every day, and I can’t do complex math without RPN. I really don’t have time to learn the Prime’s full power, but it has some very interesting features.
I also have a couple of Swiss Micros RPN calculators, but their build quality is way off as of late. I can’t recommend them, especially after a really unpleasant experience with the last model I ordered from there.
I’ve got a pile of HP and TI calculators waiting to go on ebay. Some very specific models, some more general. Mix of current (TI) and vintage… If anyone’s got a fav they’re looking for, let me know and I’ll dig thru the bin.
n
Yes, it is. One of the few, if not the only one HP made. I bought it because of the programmability. I had some calculations that I used quite often regarding computer storage and timing. Some of these were iterative solutions and the calculator worked quite well. I have owned the calculator for 33 years. I also have the leather case for the calculator.
That is what I used. I tried the LR44 cells one time and they pretty much sucked. I needed to get something quick to get the calculator working before the batteries died and I lost the carefully hand crafted programs.
I don’t use it at all anymore. Phone calculator does everything I need. I no longer need the iterative solutions or the programs anymore. I may consider selling the device.
Sort of like FLASHLIGHTS. I have several cheap flashlights scattered around the house and in the vehicles. Vehicle lights are generally purchased from Costco, multi-packs. Not much more than the cost of the batteries. The house lights are basically throw away when the batteries die as the batteries cost more than a new light. Light quality sucks, but works for find something dropped or removing a sliver.
On my personal carry I have a Fenix light, high quality, bright, rechargeable. That I also have a SureFire that my son gave me for Christmas on my desk. I have some older lights stashed in my desk with the batteries removed. I still maintain it is OK to have cheap flashlights stashed, like cheap reading glasses. But at least one FLASHLIGHT must be of outstanding quality, reliable, bright and able to be gotten to fairly quickly. Fully charged with relatively fresh batteries.
I used the Construction Master for years in my work, mostly to convert from metric to standard, but also for the trig and circle functions. The ability to do math in fractional inches, same as my measuring tape, was invaluable for preventing screwups.
Calculated Industries has a wide variety of special purpose calculators.
I did get (and still use) the CM app for my phone, but I really like the positive feel of button presses when I’m doing a bunch of math. I think I have 3 now.
My normal “everyday” calculator, that I have on my desk, in the toolbox in the garage, in my briefcase, is a version of the TI 30 or 35 scientific calculator. I learned to use it in HS and college science classes and I’m still comfortable with it. Mostly I just add receipts on it though. I had a simple calculator on my desk here at home that had extra digits and was geared toward simple calcs involving large sums of money. It eventually died or disappeared. Funny.
n
I’ve got a pile of HP and TI calculators waiting to go on ebay. Some very specific models, some more general. Mix of current (TI) and vintage… If anyone’s got a fav they’re looking for, let me know and I’ll dig thru the bin.
Old HP is very desirable, and I consider them fair game for EBay Gold.
An HP 28S in nice shape is something I lost which I’ve been meaning to replace. If you have one that passes the self test (manuals should be online) and the battery door is not cracked, I would make a fair offer based on current prices on EBay. The advantage for me is that I know the source.
Spend the time to research before listing anything HP, especially something that predates Carly Fiorina and made in the US in Corvallis and/or Vancouver, WA. Go back 30 years, when HP was really serious about calculators, and the entire operation was vertically oriented, including fabbing the chips themselves, buying silicon directly from a Monsanto (now Shin Etsu) facility in Vancouver.
“‘We Warned Them’: Dallas Police Chief Had Nearly 700 Protesters Taken Into Custody For Blocking Highway”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/we-warned-them-dallas-police-chief-had-nearly-700-protesters-taken-into-custody-for-blocking-highway
“Last month, Dallas Police Chief Renee Hall had nearly 700 individuals taken into custody and hit with at-large arrest charges after they blocked a major highway in the city.”
“After blocking the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, 647 protesters were put in zip-tie handcuffs.”
Don’t come to Texas and try to mess us up. I am ready to bring out the kangaroo courts and the firing squads.
My normal in HS and college was a sliderule. I still have it.
My normal in HS and college was a sliderule. I still have it.
Ditto! (Yeah, I’m old! )
@Ray and @Nick, FLASHLIGHTS and CALCULATORS and SLIDE RULES!
Agree with you on lights (don’t have to put that in all caps, but I thought the new term deserved that.) I have lots of old and low cost, even giveaway, lights. Some even work. I really should cull those that don’t work, but, another thing to do… As for high quality lights, I like mine, each one bought for some purpose, and then repurposed when I found out their real characteristics. Like ’em all. I really would like a high power compact searchlight: something north of, say, 5k lumens, with a large aperture for long distance. Those are just now becoming reasonably priced (<$100 or so.) Just a couple years ago, they had to be built from a modded light. I don't need any more projects. Besides, a more powerful light needs to be at least two, and preferably four times as powerful as the existing one to be really worthwhile. We have come a long way since using auto sealed beam spot lights for searchlights. Many EDC lights now outperform those.
As for calculators, I remember Nick mentioning the Construction Masters. No idea those existed. Along those lines, I have a "Casio Fx-191 Scientific Calculator & Electronic Scale", which is a combination drafting scale and calculator like nothing else. I bought it out of curiosity, and have never used it. I always liked drafting, but nowadays… Picture here:
https://www.rskey.org/fx191
Another interesting calculator is the Casio Melody 80, a gift I have had since 1979. It has a clock with two alarms, stopwatch, and countdown timer. Also, it can calculate dates, a feature I used to use all the time. I have never had another calculator that could do that.
Finally, I was visiting somewhere and had to use someone else's calculator. The only one available was an account's ten key calculator. What a strange beast. I wanted to learn them, so I bought a light powered TI-5020 full size calculator a while later. This was when they became cheap, and I probably paid about fifteen dollars. I quickly learned that I didn't need the Constant and Sigma functions, but the full size keyboard was very nice. I eventually wore out a few of the keys, but still have it.
Slide rules? Don't we all have a few? Of course.
Don’t come to Texas and try to mess us up. I am ready to bring out the kangaroo courts and the firing squads.
Not necessary. A week on a roadside trash pickup crew in Texas summer would get the message across. And don’t skimp on the beverages — get Gatorade to sponsor the crews, complete with bright green vests. We want the humiliation and heat to work on fully conscious, well hydrated minds.
Do you think any of the ANTIFA snowflakes actually work?
I noticed that Seattle backtracked this weekend after a judge ordered a stay on the city’s new law banning most non-lethal crowd control methods. The Seattle PD had even sent out letters to the business community on Friday, telling them, essentially, to quote Freddy Krueger, “Help yourself, f—-rs.”
I guess the cops can always blame the judge. Thank God someone isn’t worried about “foolish” political choices by voters, but Seattle would have learned a valuable lesson this weekend.
“Dark Matter: A Novel” by Blake Crouch
https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Novel-Blake-Crouch/dp/1101904240/?tag=ttgnet-20
A standalone science fiction book with no prequel or sequel. I read the well formatted and bound trade paperback.
A man is kidnapped, stripped, drugged, and thrown into a dark place. When he wakes up, a group of people welcome him home and celebrate his return. He has never met any of them before.
The author builds a disastrous scenario around a physicist who built an inter-dimensional traveling device. This subject has been visited in the Star Trek and Stargate tv shows in an interesting manner. It has also been used in the books “Outland” by Dennis Taylor,
https://www.amazon.com/Outland-Dennis-Taylor/dp/1680681486/?tag=ttgnet-20
“Wild Side” by Steven Gould,
https://www.amazon.com/Wildside-Steven-Gould/dp/0812523989/?tag=ttgnet-20
and “Conquistador” by S. M. Stirling,
https://www.amazon.com/Conquistador-S-M-Stirling/dp/0451459334/?tag=ttgnet-20
all with much more positive results.
My rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars (5,773 reviews)
I made myself learn a 10 key adding machine. It was much easier to use than a little handheld calculator.
Plenty of fun to see folks giving me weird looks. Add with right hand and write with left.
I still have mine, haven’t used it lately because I have the monthly bills down to two credit cards. The electric bills direct-draft, the phones, Roku, and the ISP hit credit cards. Just two bills a month to pay. Clicky-click on the bank’s phone app. Sure beats writing almost 40 checks a month plus stamps.
10-4, I also have an HP-15C that I checked out as company property, as one would check out a book from the company library, 35 years ago. It became a retirement present in 2007 when I retired as that loan company property office had been disbanded and all the clerks gone, no way to turn it back in.
Don’t come to Texas and try to mess us up. I am ready to bring out the kangaroo courts and the firing squads.
Not necessary. A week on a roadside trash pickup crew in Texas summer would get the message across. And don’t skimp on the beverages — get Gatorade to sponsor the crews, complete with bright green vests. We want the humiliation and heat to work on fully conscious, well hydrated minds.
You are too kind. These are insurgents. Rush Limbaugh made the point that the same rioters have been in Portland and Seattle since the 1999 WTO protests.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Seattle_WTO_protests
I have seen recently where some sports programs, especially high schools that don’t get endorsements, are recommending Pedialyte instead of sports drinks. Supposed to be much better at replacing fluids and electrolytes without the high sugar content.
Indeed. The one that I have in my pocket will outperform most handheld D-Cell light of 10 years ago except for the very largest. It is brighter, has a better beam, and can keep your hand warm on cold nights. Only disadvantage is that I cannot thump someone across the head like the old 6-D cell flashlights. At one time there was a 7 cell version. Probably really heavy to carry.
Only disadvantage is that I cannot thump someone across the head like the old 6-D cell flashlights. At one time there was a 7 cell version. Probably really heavy to carry.
Sounds like a heavy version of OFD’s extensible baton that he talked about extensively.
“Starlink Satellites Ruin NEOWISE Comet Photo”
https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/313200-starlink-satellites-ruin-neowise-comet-photo
Uh oh.
You are too kind. These are insurgents. Rush Limbaugh made the point that the same rioters have been in Portland and Seattle since the 1999 WTO protests.
Oh, sure. The trust fund snots get revved up every May 1. When I worked Downtown in the Bank of America building in 2013, they suggested that we leave the building by 4 PM, shift change at Starbucks, when the riots were arranged to start.
Started with an HP45, followed by an HP21. Used an HP65 magnetic strip programmable–remember letting programs run all night to get convergence. My favorite HP was the 11C–like the size and horizontal format, and the battery life of the LCD display.
The dangers of green lasers without IR filters were discussed in MIT Technology Review back in 2010. If they are still importing and selling them, it sounds like an opportunity for a class action suit. I would guess 90% are sold through The River and The Bay, and if they could trace a few purchases by protesters it could be a short walk to the courthouse.
Given the publicity, I’m surprised the CPSC… oh, yeah…2010…never mind.
I have 3 blind spots in my left eye from getting hit with a sparkle from a 40W argon green laser when I was working in Vegas. BIG MOTHER, almost 8 ft long, 60Amp 208V 3phz, and 8 gal/min cool water to keep it from failing dramatically. Just a little reflection off of something the laser tech had in his hand or his watch band, 3 dead spots as quick as that.
Your brain edits them out and you don’t even notice after a while. Hurt when it happened. Never did get medical attention or file any sort of a claim. Had the loss evaluated much later while I was in for another issue.
There is something hard to believe, even seeing it, that just light can hurt you. But it does.
n
MrAtoz or anyone else with military experience abroad: Does my description of UN troops here sound about right? It feels right to me, but it’s been decades and I’m not sure of my memories, and also I have a headache* and may be surlier even than my norm.
* Insufficient caffeine, I suspect, a sorry state of affairs.
Forgot to mention:
The MIT article referenced a teardown that showed that the green laser didn’t even have a place for an IR filter. No need to pull the handle hard to flush that one.
My exposure to “UN Troops” occurred in Germany and Korea during major war-games. They were only there due to tensions between countries. They could be reliably found around the coffee and donuts. I never had to deal directly with them. Thank God.
I didn’t have to “deal with” the UN forces, but I saw them in action, where “action” might not be the appropriate word.