Meta Data Matters

by | Apr 22, 2022 | Open Post | 230 comments

We all know the NSA collects meta data on US citizens.  This has been pooh poohed by much of the media, and Obama,  as unimportant.  However, meta data is incredibly useful to determining social networks. This means that if you know one individual, you can find the rest.  For example, this old blog post by Kieran Healy on Paul Revere demonstrates that if the British had known Paul Revere’s meta data, they would have been able to identify the rest of the “rebels”.  If the British crown had had meta data, they could have destroyed the nascent US rebellion before it became a new nation.

Bruce Schneier has also written extensively on the uses of meta data.  He views using meta data as putting the entire population under surveillance.

What do you know about meta data?

About The Author

Tulip

Tulip

She is mythical.

230 Comments

  1. juris imprudent

    I know that we have no privacy interest in it, thanks to the Supreme Court and it’s third-party doctrine. I also know that even if the govt wasn’t exploiting it, the big tech companies would be; this revelation courtesy of Snowden.

    • Count Potato

      Just assume at any given moment some asshole in a trench coat is trying to crawl up your ass with a microscope.

      • R.J.

        How… how dod you know?
        *Hides microscope *

      • Ownbestenemy

        Always curious why my butthole get itchy. Makes complete sense now!

      • R.J.

        <==points to picture
        Aliens Probing Uranus for the future!

  2. Ownbestenemy

    Like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Individually the data is worthless and indecipherable but slowly you piece together that picture, even a few pieces, and you can start to extrapolate the whole finished puzzle.

    Add in Juris’ 3rd party data and boom…you got the whole world in your hands.

  3. Ownbestenemy

    On another note…tried my hand at homemade pot pies. Dough was easy enough but I probably overworked it a bit. I need to buy a new skillet or proper pot cause what I have is either too small or too big. So I used an old pie tin we have.

    Next batch of cured pork belly is resting in the fridge waiting to hit the smoke. This one will be interesting. Kinda a “spiced bacon.

    Also starting another batch of corned beef with one of the halves of brisket flat I just broke down.

    This hobby however is expensive now

    • Ownbestenemy

      Huh not bad so far.

      https://ibb.co/5TV8jsQ

      Really thin crust though

      • R.J.

        That looks good!

      • Fourscore

        I could go for a piece of pie, even if I’ve already had my dinner.

        You done good, OBE

    • Count Potato

      Aren’t pot pies generally made with pastry crust?

      • Ownbestenemy

        Yeah but I have flower, butter, salr and water so I made my own. Since I worked the dough too much, you melt too much of the butter and it becomes less…flaky

      • Ownbestenemy

        Flour, salt….I need to eat.

      • pistoffnick

        butter? Butter? BUTTER?

        Bear fat or pig fat (lard) or GTFO! Also, I’ve heard that a little vodka helps the crust (and the baker) be flakier. *a drop for thee, a dram for me, hiccup*

      • Ownbestenemy

        I should have used the beef tallow I just stored but butter was easier to work with.

      • pistoffnick

        butter was easier to work with.

        Queues “Last Tango in Paris”

      • Ted S.

        The butter wouldn’t melt so I put it in the pie.

      • Count Potato

        Now, I know some people talk about using vodka, which isn’t entirely stupid, but you could drink it instead!

        What I do is use both oil and butter. Put the oil and water in the fridge, and the flour is the freezer. Keep everything cold. Butter (unless you are using baker’s butter) is about 20% water. Oil has 0% water. So work the oil and flour together. No water, no gluten extraction, so you can’t overwork it. Take a shot of vodka. Then chop up the butter and flour together with a pastry knife. Then using a spray bottle filled with cold water, spritz the water little by little, until it’s just enough the dough holds together. You should still see yellow “flakes” of butter. Then make a ball, wrap it plastic wrap, and then put it in the fridge (so the butter doesn’t melt) for 20 minutes to let the starch hydrolyze. Works every time.

      • DEG

        Interesting.

        I’ve made pie crust with booze before. I took some pie recipes from BeerAdvocate and tried them. One used whiskey in the crust, the other bourbon. Beer was in the filling.

      • Mustang

        Just one shot? That doesn’t seem like nearly enough.

      • Count Potato

        You can do another shot after it’s done. Incentives matter.

      • DEG

        Yes, though my grandmother made hers with regular pie crust.

        OBE, looks delicious.

      • db

        Not my family’s old German pot pies. They are more like dumpling dough.

    • rhywun

      This hobby however is expensive now

      The sentence of 2022.

      • Count Potato

        Who could have guessed shutting down businesses and printing trillions of dollars was a bad idea?

    • Ted S.

      Shouldn’t you have made the pot pies on 4/20?

      • Fourscore

        He could have made them for 4X20, wouldn’t have been complaining about the crust

  4. The Late P Brooks

    What do you know about meta data?

    Nichts.

    • pistoffnick

      Switching your VPN host periodically could help mask the scent trail you leave behind, as could using Tor (though I’ve read several people who believe the NSA has cracked Tor). I’m certain that refusing to thread your comments helps obfuscate things ;^)

      Perhaps playing a boring ass, gray man?

      • Count Potato

        You don’t want to use Tor without a VPN.

        “Perhaps playing a boring ass, gray man?”

        The best way is to move to Algeria, and become a homosexual.

      • pistoffnick

        gray, not gay, CP

        /deliberately obtuse

      • Fourscore

        If you haven’t got anything to hide….

      • MikeS

        /every Glib’s eye starts twitching

      • pistoffnick

        Fourscore, errybody got sumptin to hide.

      • pistoffnick

        This little light of mine
        I’m gonna let it shine…

  5. Count Potato

    “For example, this old blog post by Kieran Healy on Paul Revere demonstrates that if the British had known Paul Revere’s meta data, they would have been able to identify the rest of the “rebels”.”

    I posted about that somewhere a long time ago — probably soon after that was posted.

    I also commented about it yesterday, that I don’t posts embedding YouTube.

    Go install uBlock Origin and see how reading this page connects to a bunch of different sites.

    • Count Potato

      “that I don’t posts embedding YouTube”

      Um, that I don’t like that posts here embed YouTube.

    • Ownbestenemy

      Eagle Eye wasn’t fiction

  6. DEG

    This has been pooh poohed by much of the media, and Obama, as unimportant.

    I remember that. I remember folks saying “Metadata isn’t data.”

    I just laughed at them.

  7. Ownbestenemy

    Fallout 4 with Horizon overhaul mod and a simcity simulator mod is pretty fun. Horizon makes the game more survival and sim settlements adds some depth to the base building.

    • Hyperion

      Interesting. That is one of my fav games of all times. But I still do not find the building feature in Fallout 4 overly exciting.

  8. R C Dean

    What I know about metadata is that about 8 – 9 years ago, the plaintiffs bar were convinced that the metadata in our electronic medical record would prove we were falsifying/altering medical records (spoiler: we weren’t), so they subpoenaed it relentlessly. An EMR is essentially a gargantuan relational database, so it throws off craptons of metadata. We gave them assloads of metadata, they bitched it was a steaming pile of meaningless gibberish, we said “hey, you wanted metadata, you got metadata”, and nothing else happened. After a couple of years, they quit asking for it.

  9. Hyperion

    Data is racist. I have my own reality, thank you, and that data does not exist in my reality!

  10. Hyperion

    And metadata is twice as racist and doubles down on white supremacy.

    Anyway, my client also says it does not work. They want to force naming conventions on uploaded documents. So we told them, let’s use metadata, we’re going to give you some dropdowns and they can select parts of that naming convention from that… and they said no, let’s just type some text above the upload field and tell them what they should so. I’m like, WTF?, that won’t work, maybe some of the time, but you cannot just let people type shit in when you want a standard. People are really really fucking dumb about data.

    • rhywun

      Make sure they’re Excel documents and you let them format the data types for each column however the hell they want to.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Fuck… why is this quantity suddenly a date?

      • Gustave Lytton

        Oh, sorry. I thought you were referring to Excel’s penchant for autoformatting the data unless explicitly selecting a type.

      • rhywun

        I’m referring to just one of many quirks that make Excel absolute shit for exchanging data and of course that is why every business partner wants to use it.

      • Hyperion

        And you are absolutely right, that is not what it is for. It’s strength is as a computationl tool for personal, like budgets, to scientific purposes doing advanced computations.

      • Hyperion

        I pretty much avoid Excel except when necessary. That’s what happens when you are used to working with much more powerful database tools. If a client tells me, I need a quick report of this and I only need it this one time. I’ll do a DB query and dump that into Excel, format it and email it to them. If I had a dollar for every time I have done that…

      • Hyperion

        They can do that, but anything they do will not be considered a reliable source of information. They’re on their own, we have databases for reporting. If their spreadsheets do not match that, that’s their problem.

      • rhywun

        My company is in a position to demand our partners give us the data the way we want it and I’m pushing *really* hard to make sure we don’t take Excel.

        I’ve been on the other side of that situation and it’s not that big a deal, people. Text files – use them, love them.

      • Hyperion

        If they want consistent data for everyone, they have to use DB reporting. Early on in my career I was in a situation where in every meeting, all the managers would sit around arguing over why no one elses spreadsheet matched their spreadsheet which was abolutely the right one, and I just told them that is not going to work and implemented SQL reporting for them and that was the end of that.

      • Hyperion

        Funny that you said that rhywun, we were having a deveoper staff meeting this morning and apparently we have this guy who is working on a project and he’s went rogue and instead of asking us to come up with a solution for his project, he’s going to use a ‘spreadsheet’, so we got a good laugh out of that. He’s a security guy and knows jackshit about development.

        Reminds me when a ‘visionary’ CompSci prof of mine once told me that in the future, IT central reporting will no longer be necessary because everyone will desingn their own reports. It will be cut and past, everything will be cut and paste! AI even more intelligent than Alexa! Yeah, sure, people who have no idea about how queries and data reporting works are just going to do that. Well that never happened except in some very very minor ways and of course no one still believes faery tales like that.

      • Count Potato

        Excel and Incel: assuming something is a date.

      • MikeS

        OK, that was funny.

      • pistoffnick

        Solid guffaw from me!

        /no sex in over 3 years

  11. trshmnstr the terrible

    What do you know about meta data?

    Enough that privacy is a major concern of mine. The amazing stuff that my engineers can glean from meta data is simultaneously awe inspiring and terrifying.

    • Hyperion

      Well, if you aren’t doing anything wrong…

    • R.J.

      Agreed. At this point I believe that anything I say, look up or do is witnessed somewhere.

      • Hyperion

        I absolutely assume that. I don’t think VPNs work at all, you know the guv has back doors into everyting, a complete technocracy is their ultimate goal, they all sit around fapping all day about being Super China. It’s a wonder they have any energy left to do more evil, but power and corruption are a hell of a drug combo.

    • Hyperion

      We should all live in glass houses, because no one will throw stones… I mean everyone will be living in rubble piles of broken glass.

  12. Gustave Lytton

    What do you know about meta data?

    Meta has a lot of data centers?

    • Hyperion

      The Zuckerborg knows a lot about beta data.

  13. pistoffnick

    I find “Our Flag Means Death” hilariously funny. Think current day memes and woke-ness applied to 18th century pirates

    There ARE diamonds out there, but you have to dig through the muck to find them.

    • Count Potato

      I peed in a horse once.

      • Hyperion

        I ain’t asking no questions, moving on here…

      • Hyperion

        There ain’t never a time that ain’t a good time for some Skynyrd.

      • pistoffnick

        Nice! very 80’s

      • rhywun

        One of fave bands from that era. Enjoy this time warp – the audience totally makes it worth it.

      • pistoffnick

        I peed in a horse once.

        Now THAT is feckin kinky.

        *I ain’t judging. I mean who hasn’t looked at the south end of a north facing horse and wondered…*

      • Hyperion

        Not sure how it came to that, I liked Demi Rose better than, well all horses.

  14. cavalier973

    Anyone ever look at Anonymous Conservative’s site? He’s all about stuff like this.

  15. Mustang

    Damn. I was going to submit my most recent response to my organization’s DEI training, then I went back and looked at my last submission in 2020. It covered almost exactly the same thing and I never did get the guts to stand in front of any of the forums with my objections. Nothing has changed.

    *pounds beer*

    • rhywun

      I think my company has already given up on that shit. There was a splashy “diversity VP” hire a year or so ago and they try to sprinkle that nonsense through some of the more corporate-y communications but that’s about it. No “training”, no requirements around it whatsoever thank heavens.

      • Hyperion

        You need diversity training. We ain’t making no fucking money and this can go on forever. Not it can’t.

  16. cavalier973

    Paul Revere’s go-to password was 2fbiC#

    • Hyperion

      There were no Bic lighters to flick when Paul Revere was around. Stop making shit up.

      • cavalier973

        No FBI, either; that was started by Franklin Pierce. Also, people at that time were still using C++ to program.

      • R.J.

        Wait… we aren’t using C++ anymore?

      • cavalier973

        Now we use Python, because TPTB are injecting our meta data with snake venom, which is how our computers get COVID19.

      • Hyperion

        C# bro

    • Ted S.

      I thought it was “Cherokee People”.

      • Hyperion

        The Cherokee Tribe is good people, the best tribe. You know how I know? Because every single fucking person I have known or known about for the past 50 fucking years who suddenly decided that they have Ingun heritage, has picked that very Tribe. How did that happen?

      • PudPaisley

        Well, the Cherokee People, Cherokee Tribe, are so proud to live and so proud to die. Who wouldn’t want to identify with that?

      • Hyperion

        I figured they just had some really cool beads and incense and drumming and hair or something… or mabye their women had the best tits…

      • PudPaisley

        I wonder if SugarFree wrote the commercial.

      • MikeS

        Ha! That had to be Chong talking at the end, right?

      • PudPaisley

        Yeah. It’s from a South Park episode with Cheech and Chong.

      • The Last American Hero

        No shit. For a bunch of people that were nearly wiped out during the trail of tears they multiplied like fucking tribbles.

      • R.J.

        Kickapoos rule. Cherokees drool.

      • cavalier973

        He had a theater in Branson.

        In any case, the Chickasaw had an interesting origin myth (according to folklorist Paul R. Coppock). They supposedly came from Texas (I think). They had a magic stick that leaned in the direction they should migrate. It kept leaning eastward, leading them out of Texas, through Arkansas, through Mississippi, and into Alabama. In Alabama, the tribe met some misfortune, and the stick suddenly changed its mind and leaned to the west, leading the tribe back to Mississippi.

        The City of Memphis, TN was built on Chickasaw Land; “built on a bluff” in more than one way, because the land promoters were selling lots in hopes that the US FedGov would eventually annex it. The original founders were John Overton, James Winchester, Andrew Jackson, and some other guy, but Jackson bailed out to run for President.

        The other major tribe in the region (a little further south) was the Choctaw. Supposedly, my great-great grandmother was Choctaw, but other family lore says she was Cherokee.

      • cavalier973

        A Cherotaw?

        A Chockakee?

  17. Count Potato

    “BREAKING: Photos leak exposing MAGA Rep. Madison Cawthorn partying while dressed in skimpy lingerie and hoop earrings while drinking with women — Cawthorn previously claimed that he refused to attend Republican cocaine orgies. RT IF YOU THINK THAT HE MUST RESIGN!”

    https://twitter.com/OccupyDemocrats/status/1517613792464572416

    No.

    • MikeS

      Good grief.

      ?

    • rhywun

      hawt

      Also… wut?

      • R.J.

        Yeah. The harder your moral panic the freakier you are in the bedroom. That rule has stood for 100 years or more.

    • Mustang

      I was in a fraternity once too. Social media was a thing but it was still the early days…

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ??

    • Zwak,The Baddest Johnny on the Apple Cart

      That is some shit photochop.

      • rhywun

        I’m not seeing the “persecution of trans and gender non-conforming Americans”.

        There’s some trans kid in FL today who just wants to wear a bow tie, but they can’t because people like Cawthorn are making their lives hell.

        Sure, Jan.

      • cavalier973

        Not loving is hating

      • MikeS

        And liking is not enough.

  18. Hyperion

    I have to apologize for all my type-os. It’s this keyboard. I have a new keyboard, it’s a Steel Series mechanical keyboard. I love it, the key configuration and spacing, and the newly designed next gen keys, it is incredibly fast. I mean at 62, I can type faster on this thing that I could on any other keyboard even when I was in my 30s. But it seems to be causing me a lot of type-os. It’s frustrating. I guess since on Glibs THERE IS NO EDIT BUTTON, I have to proofread eveything until I get total used to this.

    • MikeS

      I can type faster on this thing that I could on any other keyboard even when I was in my 30s. But it seems to be causing me a lot of type-os.

      Are you really typing faster than ever before if you’re making more typos than every before?

      • rhywun

        more typos than every before

        *snort*

      • Hyperion

        lol

      • MikeS

        ?

      • Hyperion

        Yes. It’s the key spacing because they are farther apart. It sort of reminds me of like playing guitar riffs. Seriously, but I am going so fast that little errors happen and I don’t see them. I only see them after I post it and then I cannot edit. So no problem at work because I can edit as many times as I like before posting.

        You think that 60 year old guys just become Joe Biden? I am definitely not slowed down, yet, either in thinking or typing. In hard physical activity yes of course.

        Get one of these keyboards and you will see what I am talking about. If it’s worth it to you, it’s a gaming keyboard.

      • MikeS

        I’m not lame, I don’t game.

      • Hyperion

        You’re lame if you do not game /says gamer

      • Hyperion

        You see what I am saying, they did not used to make keyboards like they make musical instruments with precision and speeed in mind. They do now and it works.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It took me 2-3 weeks before I adjusted to my ergodox. Now regular keyboards are both less pleasant and much slower.

      • Hyperion

        It’s been about a month, and I’m still getting the type-o issue, but it’s starting to slow down, this thing is a speed machine though. I now hate non-mechanical keyboards, they don’t even make that clicky noise I love.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Split and mechanical were the winners for me. I also like that I can flash the firmware in 30 seconds and add another layer completely configured to my specifications. Oh, and it’s adjusted to exactly the right angle where my wrists are in a natural position. I went into the office the other day and had to type on the laptop keyboard… I was like “what is this shit?”

      • R.J.

        Look, I type on an ancient iPhone screen most times. My typos are legend now. Try harder to make funny typos and people will penis about it.

      • Hyperion

        Well, RJ, typing on a phone type-os do not need excuses, it sucks unless you are a 15 year old Asian girl with tiny nimble fingers.

      • cavalier973

        That reminds me; if your surname is Enis, don’t give your children names that start with the letter “p”.

    • Mustang

      I would also like to apologize to my keyboard for typos.

      *sideyes empty beer cans*

      Is the Zoom thing still going cause I wasn’t able to sign in.

      • db

        same here

      • db

        I got in just now. They are there

      • R.J.

        I really thought about it tonight. Had several vodka martinis. I stink at in person stuff.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I’m about to go grab a couple beers and hop on. Come on in! The water is nice!

      • Hyperion

        Well, wifey is asleep on the sofa and so it’s time for that vid you posted last night, something about vampire commies…

      • Mojeaux

        Tulip is hosting tonight so the normal link (Neph’s) won’t work.

      • Tulip

        Sorry mustang. We’re here.

      • R.J.

        Is there a different link?

      • db

        same link as posted in the earlier thread

  19. Mustang

    My radio just tuned into Stick Figure. Some righteous reggae music. Think I’m being told to chill out. It’s Friday yo.

  20. cavalier973

    Here’s some
    Mozart
    for the NSA meta data collectors.

    • Hyperion

      Holy … WTF…

    • MikeS

      Thank you so, so much for that.

      • Mojeaux

        I loved that movie.

        Do not like his music.

      • MikeS

        Bitch, bitch, bitch…

        ??

      • Mojeaux

        ?

  21. Hyperion

    My wife is asleep on the sofa. Oh noes, I spot the bourbon…

    • Brochettaward

      Drinking to hide your shame over lying to her about how much you lurvs the cock isn’t going to help matters any.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, you caught me again, Broketard. I can only hope she doesn’t catch me too.

      • Brochettaward

        I mean, I’m sure she already knows. A love of cock that great can’t be hidden.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, I mean all of her strapons are probably a clue.

  22. Mustang

    It’s an open post and I’m drinking so here’s my dumbass thoughts about whatever is going on anymore.

    Swiss, and all the other founders, I love this site. It’s pretty damn cool. I was looking back at my last submission in 2020 and miss a lot of the posters. Derpetologist, HM, dbleagle (that dude was a badass), and a whole lot of others. I don’t really know what happened to them but I can guess. If they feel anything like me, there’s just so much crap being flung against the wall that it gets tiring and sometimes I just want to walk away. It’s not even about the site, it’s just the feeling of the world. People are just walking away. Some of it is for the better, some of it is not. One thing I see as a potential issue is that we aren’t writers. There’s something in there about incentives, and when you publish something like Reason and get paid for content, people will produce content. Just to be clear, I’m not suggesting we do that. I just get a sense of stagnation and exhaustion from the founders and it’s understandable. The type of investigative journalism required to create a continuous supply of articles is emotionally exhausting for the writers. People turn it into careers. That’s one thing that makes this site so remarkable…you all have managed all of this through an entirely voluntary effort. Have you considered switching to a Substack?

    Everyone said when you had kids things would change. I’m a pretty stoic guy so I thought “well yeah, that makes sense, but I got this.” I don’t got this. I mean, I do, I can weather anything, but I was not prepared for the depth of emotion that came with kids. My beautiful little girl is about a year and a half now and running, climbing, talking, and interacting. It’s beautiful, but also not fun sometimes. Having been at the receiving end of small arms fire, rockets, and potentially ICBMs (I was in Japan when NK launched missiles over Japan), I am constantly fighting demons where I see her face mutilated from conflict. I see her body broken under a pile of rubble. I imagine her gasping from a chemical attack. I know I’m not alone with those demons here and there are people here who have witnessed so much worse, but I was not prepared for those visions. The sheer hatred for the people clamoring for war is almost overwhelming. I don’t care who started what, I just want it to fucking stop. When people talk about “the greatest generation” I feel like maybe I’ve seen a glimpse of what they witnessed with bombed out cities, the broken children they must have witnessed. I also understand the “for the children!” impulse but have an allergic reaction to more nanny state bullshit that comes with it.

    The things that we talk about daily are unbelievably complex. I have enjoyed the stoic posts because they explore the depth of human emotion. There are a few libertarian types who would say that human beings will do what is rational for them, but the fact is that we are governed by emotions. Those of us who claim not to be might want to really consider their thoughts. I came to a libertarian mindset because I realized the damage humans can cause with their emotions and decided that the best way to limit that collateral damage was to decrease the power people had over each other with government. I don’t believe in altruistic rationality. People will destroy each other without a defined check on power.

    I came to the conclusion that working within small communities would be the best way to provide that check on power, where individuals know each other and can act in the immediate best interest of each other, which also happens to be the best individual interest. This overarching government shit is for the birds. Global government is utterly insane. We don’t even talk to our neighbors anymore, why the fuck does anyone think a global government is a good idea?

    Anyways, I need another beer. Wish I could smoke something. Can’t do that yet. Happy Friday. Drink more because tomorrow might be nuclear hellfire.

    • Brochettaward

      dbleagle stills posts.

      • Mustang

        Shows how much I pay attention.

      • Hyperion

        Just don’t pay attention to Brokeard, he’s totally obessed with your penis…

      • MikeS

        I think it would be fair to say he doesn’t post as much as he used to.

      • dbleagle

        Not as much posting mainly because my new job doesn’t permit me to post anything during work hours (I can lurk though). Except for weekends I am hours behind any discussion. I still interact with the night owls.

        This site is my one entry into anything resembling a social media and you ‘all are incredibly in keeping me sane.

    • kinnath

      Happy Friday. Hug your daughter.

    • cavalier973

      This may seem out of left field, but if you decide to home school your daughter, I recommend “Life of Fred” for math. It starts at preschool and goes to college level.

      You would probably want some additional resources (Khan academy, or something like that) to round out the subject, but Life of Fred would be a pretty good core.

      • Ted S.

        Is Fred a drag queen pimp?

    • kinnath

      If it’s any consolation, I raised my kids in the 70s and 80s with 10% inflation and 10% unemployment in the middle of the cold war and the arms race. So, yeah the world can be a scary place. Focus on the small stuff and enjoy your kids while they are young.

    • creech

      For all the adulation they get, the “greatest generation” is who mired us in Vietnam. If they saw so much shit and dying in WWII, why did they not stay the hell out of ‘Nam?

  23. Hyperion

    Switching gears.

    But if anyone remains around and is not in your ‘All I wanna do is Zooma Zooma and a Boom Boom’ meeting where the climax is Broketard falling face down on the floor…

    I didn’t do well in my first hydroponics experiment, which was mostly lettuce. So I started with a small unit and I had some maters and peppers and lettuce in there and it got overcrowded and I moved the maters and peppers out into a much bigger unit and those are doing well despite some issues, the maters are full of flowers and lush foliage.

    Anyway, the lettuce. I think I did 2 things wrong. I did not install a fan for airflow right away. Never make that mistake. And I left the lights too low. The combo of these mistakes resulted in my cutting all of this and starting over. I stil have some of the good leaves in my fridge and had a nice salad from it today, but now I have started again and am waiting for them to germinate. I do not have a seperate seed germation unit and I think that is one of my next steps, so that I do not waste space on seeds that do not germinate or too many germinate in the same hole.

    • cavalier973

      How much lettuce is produced when done correctly?

      • Hyperion

        We have to do the math. There is the cut and come again method or there is the harvest once, I think maybe 35 days depending on variety. I’m a novice so cannot answer.

    • cavalier973

      I bought some plantain’ taters and strawberries, and made the tax deductions go out and bury them.

      I don’t expect to get much; it was more of an experiment. I fear that food inflation is about to explode.

  24. Hyperion

    I’m making some chicken dumpling soup. I do it pretty well and will stop mem from drinking more bourbon, I think, which is totally bad, I think.

  25. Hyperion

    Talking about Injuns, guys. And I am totally inclusive of you with a vagina here. I know, we just talked about now Cherokeess are the best injuns and everyone loves them. But… I gotta suprise for you.

    You know about the Seminoles? You think those guys are an ancient tribe who were here when the Spanish arrived? No, they did not exist. They are actually a newer tribe than any other Europeans who arrived here. They were comprised, founded in the 19th cenury of mostly Creek Indians fleeing the US government in AL and GA and escaped black American slaves, who fled to FL and formed their own nation in a land that had been abandoned beause there were no people living there! Because Spanish livestock borne diseases wiped out almost the entire population of the Peninsula. /Things that you shoud know, but probably do not

    • Brochettaward

      What’s really impressive is Hyperion learned all of this in between sessions servicing men down at his local glory hole.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, it is, I do that sometimes.

    • cavalier973

      Also, American Indians learned “scalping” from Europeans. Dang white people.

  26. Festus

    Had a conference call with a recruiter this afternoon. Basically Amway has taken over custodial duties at Canada Post. It’s no longer about goods and services, it’s about recruitment. “For a small buy-in blah blah blah”! Fuck that shit! She offered me easier contracts but I said no. A hard no. Why do scammers always fuck up a good, steady thing?

    • cavalier973

      Amway now cleans floors and takes out the trash, but it’s a pyramid scheme.

      • Festus

        You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about so I’ll let this one slide.

  27. cavalier973

    Getting back to the OP, where is all this meta data that is being collected stored?

    • Mustang

      The beauty of it is that it’s stored everywhere. Check out the Pegasus program.

  28. cavalier973

    At my last job, one day the boss was doing an evaluation. We were out in the country, and I had to take a leak. He commented that he was wary of being caught on camera put up by people to watch deer. I am sure that stuff like that goes into the meta data soup.

    “At 16:30, target 1 relieved himself at the back of his truck on county road 32. He was observed on camera owned by resident 56 at [address redacted].”

    • MikeS

      “It is small”

  29. cavalier973

    Yeah, normal stuff I do now may not get me in trouble, but with looney snotnoggins in gubmint making up the rules as they go, normal stuff turns into hate crimes right quick.

    • R.J.

      Apparently you can vengeance poop in someone’s bed and stay married. Use the Johnny Depp precedent.

      • MikeS

        It was the dog!

        #AmandaTurd

      • R.J.

        #LikelyStory

  30. one true athena

    That was a pretty amusing article, even if it was talking about something serious. Thanks for linking it Tulip. Just think of what they can do with that sort of analysis on Google mobility data.

    On a cheerier note, we went to the high school’s art show tonight, since the kiddo is in AP Art class, so gets a special display with the other AP kids. There’s some talent out there. Even if the kids’ ‘statements’ are all full of the most pretentious bs you can imagine. Take your average ‘art critic’ and add ‘overdramatic teenager’ and a splash of ‘woke’ and my god, it was hilariously bad.

    • dbleagle

      I too “excelled” at art. In 7th grade we were assigned to make a bust of ourselves. Most of the class went “free spirit” and hippie dippy. I ripped off my likeness from a bust of Marcus Aurelius using a flour and glue concoction. It was hideous on so many levels. The art teacher was disturbed and the homeroom teacher picked my creation out right away. He basically asked me “WTF?”.

      • Festus

        “Proto-Glib”

    • one true athena

      just to show off – I have this pic easy to upload so here’s his trilogy from two years ago: Past, Present and Future (obviously inspired by Palos Verdes Peninsula for those familiar here in LA).

      https://imgur.com/a/5Sv3lmM

  31. Festus

    Cavalier can go fuck xerself.

    • Brochettaward

      I’m going to bed. Don’t get drunk and trash the place while I’m asleep, Festus. This is where we First.

      • Festus

        So long as you name him after me, all will be well…

    • Festus

      The Amway model is where you buy the supplies from the company up-front and then try to entice others to buy them from you. MLM. Your labor is spectral. It’s the product that they are selling. It’s a scam and I do apologize to Cavalier. This is important and life altering so bear with me for a spell.

  32. Gender Traitor

    Can’t tell if anyone’s here at the moment, but…good morning, lurkers!

    At long last, I am out on my back patio, AKA Tranquility Base, listening to birds sing and watching the sun rise over the houses on the next street over. This is my happy place.

    • UnCivilServant

      Good morning, GT.

      I just got up. Being 7am here, I’m conflicted. It does mean I’m on a reasonable schedule for the weekdays, but I still just want to sleep in

      • Gender Traitor

        I still tend to wake up early on weekends, but on Saturday, I allow myself the luxury of an afternoon nap. I try not to do so on Sunday afternoons for fear of being unable to get to sleep Sunday night.

        Other than being conflicted about being awake, how are you?

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m trying to decide what to do with today – whether to be productive or to waste it all.

        Being productive includes writing though.

      • Gender Traitor

        How about a little of each?

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, If I don’t decide soon, I’ll end up spending it all just sitting here indecisively.

      • Gender Traitor

        I’ll just mention here casually that I’ve finished the novel I was reading, so I’m casting about for what to read next…

      • UnCivilServant

        All I’ve got left are incomplete fragments and the old stuff that’s just awful.

      • Gender Traitor

        Understand. Maybe I’ll take this opportunity to read some nonfiction. I’ll see if the library has some early European history.

      • R.J.

        I’m up too. 6:30 here. Have to weather proof a new tent and run an electric line to a backyard fountain today. Also possibly write, although I am caught up through this week on posts, for once.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, R.J.! Sounds like a busy day in store.

      • UnCivilServant

        Of the things I’m writing, only two are posts (Blood on the Bricks, and Slaves of Baranga). I’m also working on Prince of the North Tower, and On Unknown Shores. I really need to finish writing the latter and finish reviewing edits to the former.

        But, I’ve decided to go out for breakfast, which will at minimum burn an hour.

      • Sean

        I need to get my ass to the range this weekend.

        Pew pew pew.

      • Ted S.

        I’ve been out of bed for over an hour.

      • UnCivilServant

        You poor bastard. Go get some sleep.

      • Ted S.

        I work 6-2:30, so on weekdays I’m out of bed by 4:30.

        I was one of the first to get moved over to the new digs yesterday, and since there were just a few of us, it was blissfully quiet. The rest of the people and the concomitant drama will be on our side of the office on Monday.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, Ted’S! Have you taken your doggie for a walk? (I’m sorry, but I’ve forgotten his name.)

      • Ted S.

        I took Sonny for a walk after dinner. We wound up behind a group of three mountain bikers that had stopped for whatever reason, which gets the dog *very* curious for whatever reason.

        Weather’s nice here, so I’ll get him out for another walk either mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Sonny basically won’t let me go for a walk by myself.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Mornin’, Ted. Up pretty early meself. Morning is the best time.

    • Sean

      Mornin y’all.

      • Gender Traitor

        Good morning, Sean! What’s going on the grill today?

      • Sean

        Dunno. Still finishing left over beef from the week.

        Tomorrow will be strip steaks though.

  33. Ghostpatzer

    Mornin’, GT and UCS.

    I am sitting on a park bench (no bad intent) by the Saddle River, smoking a bowl and watching/ listening to the boidies. My happy place!

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, ‘patzie! That sounds delightful! I forgot to mention that I have a nice, hot mug of chai latte.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Nice! French roast here.

      • R.J.

        Gas station style coffee here, black and bitter as my heart.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Try the gas station sushi, it’s the shit!

      • R.J.

        In Hawaii they had those crazy spam sushi sandwiches. Wild looking.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It will be the shit(s) at least

      • Ted S.

        Black coffee for me because I’m too damn cheap/poor to buy the fancy mixed coffee drinks.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Perfect!

      • Ted S.

        That better be Squeeze.

  34. Scruffy Nerfherder

    Morning all, headed to breakfast for my weekly omelet and espresso

    • Gender Traitor

      Good morning, Scruffy! I do love me an omelet, but I need my espresso drowned in lots of milk.