Tues. Feb. 28, 2023 – ah February, I hardly knew ya…

Another warm, damp day, but hoping for a bit of sun.   No pre-assigned tasks to break up my day, so I should be able to get stuff done.  If it doesn’t rain.

Did less than I’d hoped yesterday.    There were bills to pay and paperwork to update, as well as the vet visit.   Poor doggie has a very sore backside from his shot, and spent the day whimpering and looking at me.   The LOOKING, and the little pathetic yips are very hard to resist, so I spent some time on the floor comforting him, until his girl got home and took over.

I had to get on the phone and wait for about half an hour for the ability to pay for insurance with a check… reading the numbers to a human.  Gah.   Did the same with the gas bill at the BOL, but that at least took a credit card.   Three sets of humans I didn’t expect to talk with and it felt like the 80s all over again.

I did receive my new driver’s license.   Shiny.   Lots of new security features.   Texas went RealID some time ago, despite very real misgivings and a public anti- stance, but this new card has even more anti-counterfeiting features than the old.   Got my FCC renewal a couple of days ago, so just waiting for the CHL (or LTC as it’s now known) to come  through.  Need to do my passport too, but that isn’t a priority.

Did some cleanup prep for pulling together my hamfest stuff.   Made a bunch of lists and started remembering where everything was, and WHAT everything was.   I’m pretty sure I will order a uhaul trailer today so I can take all the extra stuff I want to unload.

One thing about finally having a BOL is that it collapses some uncertainty states and solidifies some of the needs and wants.   I don’t just need a tower, I need legs for the tower I have…  A lot of just collecting potentially useful things is solidifying into WHICH useful things will be useful at this particular BOL, and not some hypothetical BOL.

And some of my “enthusiasms” have passed.   Which means stuff I stacked in the throws of that “enthusiasm” are now surplus to needs.

I should be able to take a whole bunch of stuff to the swapmeet.   Whether it will sell, depends on whether people still have money and the desire to spend it on ham stuff.    I’m going to price pretty aggressively to encourage them to buy.  That is really all I can do.

So take a look at your stacks.   See if the stuff is still fit for mission.   See if the mission still needs doing.   And adjust.  Stack what you need NOW, instead of what you thought you needed a year ago.

 

nick

80 Comments and discussion on "Tues. Feb. 28, 2023 – ah February, I hardly knew ya…"

  1. SteveF says:

    It is sad when the automakers are scrambling for that last iota of mpg. The added life cycle cost is very high.

    cf my recent complaint about the “high efficiency” refrigerator/freezers, in which $30 in annual electricity savings come with an annual $50 expense in replacement parts, and that’s with me doing the work; including a service call that $30 savings would cost several hundred dollars.

    I haven’t looked into the numbers behind getting that extra 1MPG in cars, but would be surprised if the extra parts don’t cost more than the savings. Don’t forget to include the pollution from the mining and the manufacturing process; those are hardly ever accounted for, probably because they take place in someone else’s back yard.

    Note also the “do as I say, not as I do” of the EPA and other federal agencies. I can’t find the articles now but over the past several years we’ve seen reports of federal agencies, notably including the EPA, buying fleets of large SUVs for in-city use. If the regulations they’re pushing on the peons actually mattered, they’d be driving tiny electric cars in town.

    On that note, maybe twenty years ago the NYS DOT bought a bunch of propane-powered (I think) cars which employees were supposed to use when driving to meetings. They were terrible: unreliable, range not enough to go from Albany to Utica without a refill. Still, give DOT a bit of credit for not just talking the talk. (Not much credit, though. The propane cars were for the ordinary paper pushers and mid-level managers. The top managers drove chauffeured big cars or even flew between cities because their time was “so valuable”.)

  2. PaultheManc says:

    @JimB

    Don’t forget the engine complexity needed to get ever-so-slightly more mpg. I started watching the “I Do Cars“ YT channel about a year ago. The guy tears down scrap engines to sell parts, and is quite entertaining for us car geeks. The complexity of some of those engines is astounding. Way beyond any semblance of return on investment.

    I purchased a hybrid Honda Jazz (Fit) last year, in part because of the transmission.  The hybrid design, which is common I believe to all their models (e.g. CRV) is very impressive.  There is no gearbox, simply two electric motors, drive and generator, plus an automatic clutch which can engage the IC engine if the system believes that will provide optimum efficiency.  The ICE is an Atkinson cycle so operates in the most efficient rpm range.  The driving experience is seemless, it is hard to know at any point where the power is coming from (although you can have the vehicle tell you). The Jazz design is optimised for urban traffic and is very effective – at highway speeds it is similar in efficiency to a straight ICE and manual gearbox.

  3. Nick Flandrey says:

    67F and saturated.

    Kids have a practice test for the big state test coming up.   Today I think it’s science and math… 

    Just means two less days for learning.    On the other hand, there needs to be objective criterion for evaluation and the Texas STAAR provides some of that.

    n

  4. Greg Norton says:

    Stick shifts? You are forgetting twin clutch transmissions. Probably not an option on the more pedestrian cars, but they can work quite well for sports-minded cars. They usually offer both automatic and manual override operation with paddle shifters. I have never driven one, but would like to give one a try. Don’t think I would like it.

    Ford faced Bankruptcy over the fallout from the dual clutch transmissions in the last generation of Focus/Fiesta. Only some very favorable time limits from the court on the claim window prevented what would have been a total wipeout of the company in the forced buyback.

  5. Greg Norton says:

    Note also the “do as I say, not as I do” of the EPA and other federal agencies. I can’t find the articles now but over the past several years we’ve seen reports of federal agencies, notably including the EPA, buying fleets of large SUVs for in-city use. If the regulations they’re pushing on the peons actually mattered, they’d be driving tiny electric cars in town.

    Suburbans and the other large Chevy trucks which did not get the 10 speed transmission which has been a disaster for GM.

    Vehicles like Mayor Pete’s daily ride to work. 

  6. Greg Norton says:

    I did receive my new driver’s license.   Shiny.   Lots of new security features.   Texas went RealID some time ago, despite very real misgivings and a public anti- stance, but this new card has even more anti-counterfeiting features than the old.   Got my FCC renewal a couple of days ago, so just waiting for the CHL (or LTC as it’s now known) to come  through.  Need to do my passport too, but that isn’t a priority.

    My guess is that the Real ID fluoresces when hit with RF like a toll tag.

    Southbound on I69 about midway between Corpus Cristi and Brownsville is an experimental automated Border Patrol outpost with multiple cameras and antennas aimed at oncoming traffic. They’re gathering RF from tags/IDs and possibly counting vehicle occupants if that tech has advanced sufficiently to … you know … work!

    It didn’t four years ago.

  7. Greg Norton says:

    I should be able to take a whole bunch of stuff to the swapmeet.   Whether it will sell, depends on whether people still have money and the desire to spend it on ham stuff.    I’m going to price pretty aggressively to encourage them to buy.  That is really all I can do.

    The swapmeet is the same weekend as the opening of Sherwood Forest Faire out in McDade, which isn’t that far away by Texas distance standards. Is that intentional?

    I would imagine that the audiences overlap. The pinhead at the top of the Faire’s web page was one of our “Senior” hires at the tolling company after he was canned from NI near the beginning of the pandemic. 

  8. Nick Flandrey says:

    First weekend in March overlaps with a lot of things.    There is at least one other that I’d like to do annually.

    D2 and W1 are doing back packing camp that weekend, D1 will be doing her best imitation of a cave troll.

    Dang, it was sunny and clear at the bus stop, but cloudy to the south.  Now the cloudy had moved in.

    n

  9. Nick Flandrey says:

    Battlespace prep.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11798339/Artificial-low-calorie-sweetener-raise-heart-attack-stroke-risk.html 

    Catchy headline, artificial sweeteners cause strokes…  but=

    independent experts warned the researchers used an amount of sweetener that is – at least in the UK and Europe – ‘unrealistic’.

    Gunter Kuhnle, professor of nutrition and food science at the University of Reading, said: ‘The sweetener concentration they used was ten-fold higher than the permitted amount in drinks, and the single dose they use was more than most of us would eat during an entire day.

    ‘These results suggest a potentially adverse effect of erythritol when consumed a amounts above what is generally consumed in Britain or the EU – and this is one of the reason why regulators set limits for the use of food additives in sweeteners: to protect the public and ensure intake is in a safe range.’

    – oh yeah, and then this one from the same page…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11798919/Women-children-early-20s-risk-heart-attack-stroke-study-claims.html 

    Warning to women who have children in their early 20s – you might be more at risk of a heart attack or stroke, study claims

    • Giving birth young, among other factors, can raise stroke and heart attack risk

    – ‘cuz women in their early 20s haven’t ever traditionally had kids /sarc……  and they haven’t been dropping dead from strokes for the last 10000 years.  And they don’t mention WHEN these supposed strokes happen, leaving the casual reader with the idea that it’s normal and common for young mothers to have strokes and heart issues.

    –not judging the research.   Judging the presentation .

    n

  10. Greg Norton says:

    Catchy headline, artificial sweeteners cause strokes…  but=

    Trump has a well known fondness for Diet Coke, but it was Clinton who arranged to have the taps installed in the White House.

  11. Ray Thompson says:

    Catchy headline, artificial sweeteners cause strokes…  but=

    Anything, in sufficiently large quantity, will cause problems, even death. Water, consumed in huge amounts, will cause a person to die, effectively drowning in their own fluids. I could eat 28.5 cans of green beans and probably die.

    On the opposite end of the scale, not consuming anything will surely cause death.

  12. brad says:

    Cast members suffering PTSD? Like all such illnesses/disabilities, the term is hugely overused. Real PTSD is not just having unpleasant memories or associations.

    Somehow, I’ve run across a lot of “on the spectrum”, “ADHD¨, etc. lately. They’ve extended these terms so much that basically the entire human race falls into one category or another. Everybody is “special” now…

  13. Greg Norton says:

    Somehow, I’ve run across a lot of “on the spectrum”, “ADHD¨, etc. lately. They’ve extended these terms so much that basically the entire human race falls into one category or another. Everybody is “special” now…

    In Europe? I thought diagnosed ADHD was fairly unique to the US.

    Texas is really bad, particularly Austin. When my wife was in private practice, she claimed that the amount of Adderall she wrote under pressure from clinic management here was easily an order of magnitude higher than in WA State or Florida.

  14. Nick Flandrey says:

    Well, sabre blue pepper spray will discourage an aggressive dog but won’t shut it down…

    Fortunately the dog was actually friendly, but big and active and inquisitive.    Sabre Blue tastes awful, btw.

    Was sitting at my pc and heard a commotion.  Looked at the vid for my front yard and my neighbor and her dog were having some trouble with a strange dog corralling them.  Enter me and some pepper spray.   He backed off, but still kept running up to sniff and meet and greet.  

      No collar, big puppy, trained to a leash and sits on command.   One of our local animal charities is going to pick him up if the Faceborg post doesn’t bring his owners around.  Really a sweet boy, but very ‘in your face.’

    n

  15. Greg Norton says:

    Cast members suffering PTSD? Like all such illnesses/disabilities, the term is hugely overused. Real PTSD is not just having unpleasant memories or associations.

    Completion bond cash settlement cash.

  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    Actually there doesn’t appear to be a completion bond for Rust.    There is insurance, and they’ve already made payouts….

    n

  17. MrAtoz says:

    Need some feedback:

    Now that I’m flying more regularly, I haven’t had to show my boarding pass at the TSA checkpoint for about a year. Just my ID. I have the Texas Real ID, milspec retired, passport card/book, but just use my Real ID.

    Anybody else have recent flying experience where you have to show your boarding pass? Does TSA link in to the airlines to make sure you have a scheduled flight? Can anybody go through with just an ID?

  18. Nick Flandrey says:

    They’re linked for United anyway.   You need both to pass the checkpoint, and to board.

    n

  19. lynn says:

    How long can a car with auto stop start maintain the AC or heat on battery?

    About one minute for my 2019 F150 with a new AGM battery.

  20. Greg Norton says:

    Anybody else have recent flying experience where you have to show your boarding pass? Does TSA link in to the airlines to make sure you have a scheduled flight? Can anybody go through with just an ID?

    Multiple airports have sought and obtained permission to loosen the rules about a boarding pass being necessary to go through the TSA checkpoint to the gate areas. The more business the concession vendors have, the more the airport can goose the rent.

    I know Tampa has been experimenting with a “shopping and dining” pass at the behest of the politically-connected Columbia Restaurant group who run multiple concessions at the airsides, but I thought that paper still had to be presented at the checkpoints along with ID.

  21. drwilliams says:

    Andy Ogles (R, TN):

    “a local news outlet obtained a copy of his college transcripts.”

    The response to this should have been “I’ll be happy to discuss this after you show me what you have and the source of your information comes forward and explains how they came to be in purported possession of my college transcript.”

  22. mediumwave says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11802533/Teen-knocked-teacher-arrested-THREE-times-battery-charged-adult.html 

    not his first time attacking someone.

    Hulking 6’6″ boy, 17, who ‘viciously beat his teaching aide unconscious’ is held on $1 MILLION bond, will be charged as an adult and faces up to 30 years in prison – after being arrested THREE times for battery in 2019

    Boy? Boy? Racists!

    At least they didn’t call him a child.

  23. EdH says:

    Green is a religion. I don’t mind them wearing hair shirts or being flagellants – but they shouldn’t impose their nonsense on the rest of us:

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/apple-iphones-clean-energy-charging-causes-stir-social-media-battery-charging-times-shaming

  24. Greg Norton says:

    Andy Ogles (R, TN):

    “a local news outlet obtained a copy of his college transcripts.”

    The response to this should have been “I’ll be happy to discuss this after you show me what you have and the source of your information comes forward and explains how they came to be in purported possession of my college transcript.”

    Lots of places would have the transcript if he ever submitted it as part of a background check or employment application. Major and graduation date is even easier to find.

    The media is really picking nits if they’re going to fuss about International Relations vs. Liberal Studies, the two majors in question. I’ve lost track of how many people I’ve encountered in my career who fudge BA degree backgrounds to make people believe they’re holding CS or Engineering paper.

  25. MrAtoz says:

    It looks like SCOTUS will shoot down plugs’ student loan boondoggle. If Roberts is on board, it is dead. I can’t wait to see how the ProgLibTurd Justices justify it.

  26. MrAtoz says:

    On the Apple power thingy:

    If they would have defaulted it to off, no big deal. My was on, but now off. That’s shitty defaulting to the Greta Turdberg setting. Not even telling their users. Sheesh what I’ll put up with to keep my seat on Elysium.

  27. MrAtoz says:

    LOL the PLT Justices are arguing it’s an emergency use, and, those poor students are suffering.

    Pay your loans you deadbeats. Stop getting tatts, ciggies, booze, drugs, abortions etc.

    6
    1
  28. CowboyStu says:

    I can’t find the articles now but over the past several years we’ve seen reports of federal agencies, notably including the EPA, buying fleets of large SUVs for in-city use. 

    Yeah, and plugs and camela flying all over the world in AF1 and AF2 putting out tons of CO2 instead of AA and UA with 200 other passengers.

  29. RickH says:

    Regarding Automatic Stop Start (from yesterday): I have that ‘feature ’ on my 2019 Highlander. 

    If the engine stops, and AC is on, the engine will restart automatically if the AC calls for the compressor to be on. Message on display says “Stop/Start cancelled by climate control” or similar. 

    There’s a button the dash (lower left) that will disable the Automatic Stop Start for the current driving ‘session’.  If you turn off the vehicle then restart the engine, the button has to be disabled again. 

    Minor inconvenience. I have learned not to press too hard on the brake when at a stop sign. Or I hit the disabling button.

  30. drwilliams says:

    @Greg

    “Lots of places would have the transcript if he ever submitted it as part of a background check or employment application.”

    Sure. But most of them would have a policy in place regarding information submitted for employment purposes, including retention, and there are probably state and even federal laws that could apply. Not to mention the p.r. damage and possible cause for civil action. 

    Most colleges being the liberal crapholes that they are, it’s more likely that it came from someone at the college with access. The follow-up would be for Mr . Ogles to demand an investigation into what records show concerning recent access to his transcripts. 

  31. Ray Thompson says:

    Pay your loans you deadbeats. Stop getting tatts, ciggies, booze, drugs, abortions etc.

    And the latest iPhone and Apple Watch.

    instead of AA and UA with 200 other passengers.

    The security and resulting inconvenience to the rest of the passengers would be a small disaster. Displacement of passengers, delays of other flights, etc. 1st class would be emptied except for spongey and his minions.

    What I have a problem with is a “fact finding trip”. Oh, no way. All the facts they need could be obtained on Zoom. The trips are nothing but boondoggles, really expensive boondoggles.

  32. nick flandrey says:

    He only ever beats me when he’s been drinking, and then it doesn’t hurt so much….

    Sound familiar?  

    Nothing should do what you wouldn’t do, in your name, without being able to kill it.   If it’s going to be customizable, then it should be so for everyone.

    n

  33. nick flandrey says:

    Daylight execution on the streets of St Louis.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/02/st-louis-horror-homeless-man-executed-on-city-street-in-broad-daylight-video/ 

    Don’t watch the video is you mind seeing someone killed in front of you.

    n

  34. drwilliams says:

    dirty little secrets,

    dirty little lies…

    https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2023/02/28/boom-sonic-or-otherwise-23-dead-whales-along-the-east-coast-since-dec-n533812

    Keep reading until you get to the part with the numbers on “incidental take”. That’s the same category the rotary bird harvesters use. 

  35. Alan says:

    >> All aboard!!! Gravy train leaving the station…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11800781/Alec-Baldwin-sued-three-Rust-crew-members-suffer-anxiety-PTSD-blast-injuries.html 

    And, of course, the lawyers are the ones driving train. 

  36. EdH says:

    It would seem that Scott Adams would have a pretty good “Cyber Squatting” case with the WIPO:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

  37. SteveF says:

    Good luck to anyone wanting to see my transcripts.

    I got  my BS transcript when I applied to the MS or PhD program, and found that it wasn’t my transcript. Correct name, correct major, correct graduation year. Basically nothing else was correct. Different electives, some wrong grades on the required courses, GPA way off. Obviously something went wrong when they scanned in the old paper records.

    MS transcript was unavailable, nor was I able to get a duplicate of the diploma after I lost the original. Again, a screwup in digitizing paper records. When I requested the transcript, they hadn’t scanned that year yet or some such, but if I gave them a week or two they could pull the paper from the storeroom and get it to me. Except that they couldn’t. I don’t recall the excuse, but it’s gone. (Not that losing the diploma was much of a loss. It was an ordinary 8 ½ x 11 sheet of paper with the college name, my name, and “Master of Science” as the degree. Don’t recall if it even had the graduation month/year. I could have gotten a degree in nuclear engineering or  neuropsychology and the diploma would have been the same. Class act, people.)

    My law school transcript may be available but that doesn’t matter because I didn’t graduate. GPA put me in the top quarter of the class, IIRC, but a solid half of my year were ideologically-driven idiots, so that’s hardly anything to brag about.

  38. RickH says:

    It would seem that Scott Adams would have a pretty good “Cyber Squatting” case with the WIPO:

    If you are referencing the dilbert(dot)com domain, WHOIS records show Scott Adams as the registrant, so he would appear to be the domain owner. Site working; shows current day comic.

    The ‘net’ and ‘org’ domains seem to be owned by someone else (data is private). Going to those sites gives you a ‘site not found’ type of message. 

  39. Greg Norton says:

    LOL the PLT Justices are arguing it’s an emergency use, and, those poor students are suffering.

    Pay your loans you deadbeats. Stop getting tatts, ciggies, booze, drugs, abortions etc.

    The Federal student loan program already has the Borrower Defense mechanism, but it is a very intimidating and time consuming option. Plus a mass use of that mechanism would damage the reputation of a lot of the so-called elite institutions.

    It appears that Amy Comey-Barrett is wavering. Yeah, Touchdown Jesus wouldn’t be happy with a bunch of Borrower Defense claims filed against him, and she still sits in the Payola seat.

    The vote will happen behind a literal closed door as soon as arguments are done, and opinion writing assignments will get handed out by the Old School Marm.

  40. nick flandrey says:

    WTH are these people doing?   My kids have been back in  school for 2 years without getting wuflu.   I’ve been to disneyworld, a large family wedding (flying both ways),  restaurants, a musical, and any store I’ve wanted to go in.   I am in goodwill every other day for an hour at least, driving all over town, talking to people, in their offices, etc.

    Savannah Guthrie DISAPPEARS from the Today show mid-broadcast after testing positive for COVID for a THIRD time – as co-host Hoda Kotb remains off the air for the seventh day in a row

    • Savannah disappeared without an explanation about 30 minutes into the show
    • Sheinelle Jones later revealed the 51-year-old had tested positive for COVID
    • Hoda, 58, has not yet publicly addressed her absence but has continued to post on social media while she has been off the air  

    n

  41. SteveF says:

    What kind of monsters would name their daughter Shinola? Monsters, I tell you!

  42. Ray Thompson says:

    WTH are these people doing?

    Extending the myth, the media sponsored event. If a person is going to report on something serious, at least get involved. They probably seek out someone with Covid and French kiss.

  43. Alan says:

    >> And, of course, the lawyers are the ones driving train.

    Speaking of lawyers, are we gonna run out? 

    Asbestos 

    Roundup

    Talcum Powder 

    Lead Pipes

    Camp Lejeune 

    Rust

    and now East Palestine 
     

  44. Lynn says:

    “Will the media finally apologize for getting the COVID lab leak theory wrong?”

         https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/fairness-justice/will-the-media-finally-apologize-for-getting-the-covid-lab-leak-theory-wrong

    “The mainstream news media suffered yet another major blow on Sunday. A bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed the Energy Department concluded that COVID-19 more than likely emerged from a Chinese laboratory and not from nature. The agency’s change of position is based on “new intelligence” that it shared with the White House and key members of Congress, according to the report, and brings the department in line with the FBI, which declared its belief that COVID-19 emerged from a lab leak in 2021, though for different reasons.”

    No, mainstream media will not apologize to the scum of the USA.

    4
    1
  45. Lynn says:

    Regarding Automatic Stop Start (from yesterday): I have that ‘feature ’ on my 2019 Highlander. 

    If the engine stops, and AC is on, the engine will restart automatically if the AC calls for the compressor to be on. Message on display says “Stop/Start cancelled by climate control” or similar. 

    There’s a button the dash (lower left) that will disable the Automatic Stop Start for the current driving ‘session’.  If you turn off the vehicle then restart the engine, the button has to be disabled again. 

    Minor inconvenience. I have learned not to press too hard on the brake when at a stop sign. Or I hit the disabling button.

    My 2019 F-150 works the same way.  Change an A/C setting while it is operating the accessories and it will start the engine.  Or turn the steering wheel a millimeter.  Or let off on the brake pressure.  And my on/off button works for the duration of that driving session, turn off the engine and it forgets the on/off button position.  I hear people are wiring them to off.

  46. RickH says:

    The Energy Department was not the first government agency to favor the lab leak theory. It now joins the FBI, which has backed that thesis, with moderate confidence, since 2021.

    But there is considerable division within the U.S. intelligence community — which officially comprises almost 20 different agencies— over the matter.

    Four other agencies, according to the Journal’s reporting, continue to assert that the most likely genesis of COVID-19 was natural — that is, that the virus first arose in animals and later made the jump to humans.

    The position of other intelligence agencies on the matter remains either unknown or undecided. According to the Journal’s Sunday report, the CIA is among those that are undecided.

    Via here. Emphasis added. Similar reports from other sources.

  47. Lynn says:

    Freefall: Sam Is Nice To Rover17

        http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff3900/fc03871.htm

    You know, some days Sam is a very nice squid.  Other days, …

    Of course, when Rover17 wakes up with a stuffed bear strapped to him, he may get confused.

  48. Ken Mitchell says:

    Lynn:

    You know, some days Sam is a very nice squid.  Other days, …

    Sam Starfall is a “sqid”.

  49. paul says:
    WTH are these people doing?  

    My first guess would be using public restrooms and not washing their hands before digging in their nose or stuffing a McNugget down their craw.

    Second guess is that they are liars.

    I suspect it’s a bit of both.

    While working at HEB I saw plenty of times where some dude is in a stall and making the paint peel, finish his biz, flush and walk out. Hand washing? No. Yeah, using the paper towels you dried your hands on to pull the restroom door open is a good idea.

    I was Cash Controller and I’d have to wash my hands before taking a leak. Money is dirty. Never got sick.

  50. Lynn says:

    “CSotD: Dancing on Dilbert’s Grave”

       https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/02/27/csotd-dancing-on-dilberts-grave/

    “Yesterday’s F Minus (AMS) is clearly coincidental, given that it was not only written and drawn but printed and sitting in newspaper mailrooms well before Scott Adams immolated himself last week.”

    “But it’s a good summary of the story nonetheless, given the number of people rushing to proclaim that they never liked the sumbitch or his stupid comic strip, now that he’s been dropped by nearly all the newspapers that carried him, as well as his syndicate, which should be the coup de grace for Dilbert.”

    “Technically, BTW, he could self-syndicate the strip, and given the response of some rightwing sources, he’d likely find a few willing clients, either because they agreed with his vision, or because they wanted to own the libs or both.”

    “But my guess is that he’s ready to move on.”

    BTW, CSotD stands for Celebrity Site Of The Day.

  51. drwilliams says:

    “I was ________and I’d have to wash my hands before taking a leak.”

    Describes Real Men doing Real Jobs.

  52. Greg Norton says:

    “But my guess is that he’s ready to move on.”

    Go take a look at the name of the current CEO of AT&T and consider that he was part of the legacy PacBell management that inspired “Dilbert” during the glory days of the strip.

    The PHB’s won.

    Honestly, I’m surprised that Adams didn’t pack it in after AT&T broke the union with Steve Jobs help in 2009. The PHBs have been wreaking havoc on the customers, employees, and stockholders of the company ever since.

  53. Lynn says:

    “Hinkley Point C’s first nuclear reactor arrives on site”

        https://www.newcivilengineer.com/latest/hinkley-point-cs-first-nuclear-reactor-arrives-on-site-27-02-2023/?

    “The first new nuclear reactor for a British power station for more than 30 years has arrived at Hinkley Point C in Somerset.”

    Cool.  And that is a big hunk of steel.

  54. ITGuy1998 says:

    Anybody else have recent flying experience where you have to show your boarding pass?

    We flew to NY in January and to LA in February – HSV, LGA, and SNA. We didn’t have to show boarding pass at security at any of them, just ID.

    I have a Star ID, but I generally just use my CAC.

  55. Greg Norton says:

    Most colleges being the liberal crapholes that they are, it’s more likely that it came from someone at the college with access. The follow-up would be for Mr . Ogles to demand an investigation into what records show concerning recent access to his transcripts. 

    An investigation wouldn’t yield anything.

    Plus, you assume that the leak came from Dem sources. Ogles made a run at a Senate seat before, and Blackburn is 70 this year.

  56. Greg Norton says:

    In a Just World

    It looks like “Everything Everywhere All At Once” will sweep the Oscars, which is about as good as we will get right now.

    Unless SeaOrg has something in the works for “Top Gun: Maverick”.

    “Cocaine Bear” nuked Disney’s planned box office for “Ant Man 3”. The Mouse has to hope the next “Guardians of the Galaxy” flick works or that 60 PE on the stock price is going to be a problem.

    People are hyper sensitive about the F-word as of late, especially coming from kids as in the red band “Cocaine Bear” trailer.

  57. Lynn says:

    “The establishment’s erasure of JK Rowling and other pulp fiction rebels is just the start”

        https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/faith-freedom-self-reliance/the-establishments-erasure-of-jk-rowling-and-other-pulp-fiction-rebels-is-just-the-start

    “Last year, Esquire magazine published a list of “The 50 Best Fantasy Books if All Time.” Harry Potter wasn’t on the list. Instead, sitting at the top was The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, a work of fantasy with analogs to the real-life history of slavery on Earth that won the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel.”

       https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/g39385874/best-fantasy-books/

    I have not read a single book on this list.  The list is invalid.

    I read the first Narnia book only.  The book in that list is the third book. 

    Space Opera is my first love.  And shoot, they did not even include another favorite fantasy book of mine, “Among Others” by Jo Walton that legitimately won both the Hugo and Nebula awards. 
       https://www.amazon.com/Among-Others-Jo-Walton/dp/1250237769?tag=ttgnet-20/

    For those who do not know, Jo Walton is one of the leading Heinlein apologists.

       https://www.tor.com/2009/06/14/the-worst-book-i-love-robert-heinleins-friday/

  58. Lynn says:

    “Hacker Breached LastPass by Installing Keylogger on Employee’s Home Computer”

        https://www.pcmag.com/news/hacker-breached-lastpass-by-installing-keylogger-on-employees-home-computer

    “The hacker also exploited a vulnerability in a ‘third-party media software package’ to help launch malware on the employee’s computer.””

    Sigh.  This is the time that the one time key is very important.

  59. Greg Norton says:

    “Hacker Breached LastPass by Installing Keylogger on Employee’s Home Computer”

    I never trusted LastPass or similar services.

    LastPass stands out because the Chinese relation who bounces around Valley C-suites was involved in some way as an advisor or investor.

    That guy went into the real estate business last year as … CPO? … at one of the franchise operations.

    I have a bad feeling about TeamViewer, but I’ve never followed up on my suspicions. It is another crypto thing I’d rather not prove. I have several like that.

    Sounds like the employee was surfing pr0n on a work machine.

  60. SteveF says:

    I don’t give my passwords to anyone, protoplasmic or cybernetic. They stay under my control, mostly in my brain and in some cases in a file in my physical and cryptographic control.

  61. drwilliams says:

    An investigation wouldn’t yield anything.

    Plus, you assume that the leak came from Dem sources. Ogles made a run at a Senate seat before, and Blackburn is 70 this year.

    Probably true. Tennessee is pretty backward, and somebody sneaking a paper file to the photocopier would get away clean.

    Most likely came from Dem sources, because colleges are lib crapholes and so are newsrooms. Getting access to records they shouldn’t have is a well-worn page in the DNC playbook, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it trickled down to the sticks. OTOH, pulling the string hard might find it attached to something other than a Dem, which would make the Top Ten Unlikliest Events of 2023 and all the ProgLibTurds could write sermons about making assumptions.

  62. drwilliams says:

    To preach credentialism you’d better know how to spell “privilege”

    https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1630439580791971842

    Pretty sure that PH&D doesn’t come from Middle Tennessee State, or he’d at least know how to spell “y’all”.

    2
    1
  63. Greg Norton says:

    Another one of the Chinese relations works in security at T-Mobile.

    https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/02/hackers-claim-they-breached-t-mobile-more-than-100-times-in-2022/

    And, no. Not once. They found my employment situation on the West Coast to be very entertaining.

    That’s ok. I’m not shy about dishing up the payback.

  64. Ray Thompson says:

    he’d at least know how to spell “y’all”

    he’d at least know how to spell “ya’ll”

    Fixed it for you. According to the local dialect.

  65. drwilliams says:

    Fixed it for you. According to the local dialect.

    Thanks, Ray.

  66. drwilliams says:

    Incumbent Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot out after third-place showing:

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2023/02/28/chicago-mayor-lori-lightfoot-has-been-defeated-n2620082

    Meaningless change. 

  67. drwilliams says:

    Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tail,

    The tail of a cat named Finn:

    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/gentle-giant-cat-is-so-big-measuring-4-feet-like-a-dog/

  68. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

     I just took a first look at my Taxes.  The only surprise was that my Social Security income was untaxed when I did their worksheet.  This totally unexpected.  

    Did anybody else have this happen?  I wonder what rule/law changed that I missed.  Or did I screw this up…

  69. Lynn says:

    Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tail,

    The tail of a cat named Finn:

    https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/gentle-giant-cat-is-so-big-measuring-4-feet-like-a-dog/

    We have a 15 lb Siamese male named Remy LeBeau.  We have a huge litter box with high walls for him and we had to cover it because he threw the litter (and other stuff) out.  I cannot imagine the litter box for that huge cat.

  70. Lynn says:

    he’d at least know how to spell “y’all”

    he’d at least know how to spell “ya’ll”

    Fixed it for you. According to the local dialect.

    “There’s only one correct way to spell it, y’all.”

        https://www.southernliving.com/culture/yall-or-ya-ll

  71. Lynn says:

    For that remote office worker who has everything, “Stageek Mouse Jiggler, Mechanical 100% Undetectable by IT,Mouse Mover with On/Off Switch, Simulates Mouse Movement and Prevents Computer from Going into Sleep, No Software Needed, Plug &Play”

          https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VHBQQVG?tag=ttgnet-20

  72. nick flandrey says:

    Many a time I’ve been locked out of computers and networks I don’t have log in on because I waited just THAT MUCH too long to touch the mouse.    And it usually happened right in the middle of my test suite, while I was on a ladder.  

    I used to have a USB stick mouse jiggler.   I’ve still got one on my amazon wish list, but it’s been out of stock for years.

    n

    What did I miss about transcripts?

  73. Lynn says:

    What did I miss about transcripts?

    Andy Ogles (R, TN):

    “a local news outlet obtained a copy of his college transcripts.”

    The response to this should have been “I’ll be happy to discuss this after you show me what you have and the source of your information comes forward and explains how they came to be in purported possession of my college transcript.”

    https://www.newsweek.com/read-andrew-ogles-college-transcripts-confirm-lies-resume-1784176

  74. Ray Thompson says:

    “There’s only one correct way to spell it, y’all.”

    People in this area cannot differentiate between “except” and “accept”, “sale” and “sell”, “your” and “you’re”, “than” and “then”, “break” and “brake”. You seriously expect them to spell “y’all” correctly? Some even spell it “yawl”.

  75. Greg Norton says:

    Andy Ogles (R, TN):

    “a local news outlet obtained a copy of his college transcripts.”

    The response to this should have been “I’ll be happy to discuss this after you show me what you have and the source of your information comes forward and explains how they came to be in purported possession of my college transcript.”

    https://www.newsweek.com/read-andrew-ogles-college-transcripts-confirm-lies-resume-1784176

    HireRight probably had the transcript, all rights to privacy on that signed away.

    God only knows what is in my file at that place after the former Chipotle and WalMart store managers running HR at the tolling company got done making additions.

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