Yeah, so, OMWC is about to experience a bitter lesson in dating when you’re ancient. Let us all hope she is wearing fresh Depends.
Yes, there are no birthdays today. Nobody was born on this date.
Shall we peruse the links?
So old Vlad decided he hadn’t pissed off his own people enough.
Never change, Italy. The epitome of political dysfunction amongst some really good food.
Tunisian street vendors are not impressed.
That “thud” was my head hitting the desk.
Thank gawd this National Tragedy has been averted.
Postal Service…monitoring social media…
Okay, I need to leave myself some links for this evening.
Here’s a reenactment of OMWCs first music lesson.
Solar works great at night.
But enough about the US politicians — what’s the Russian situation?
Ugh… couldn’t get through the article. Sounded like they found the wokest Russian they could who believed Ukraine could do no wrong, and all the Russians were deplorables… what a shock he didn’t want to be drafted.
I’m sure if Vlad had more DIE(B) or what not he’d sign right up.
Just the flip side of all those people who think Russia can do no wrong and all those Ukrainians at the Maidan were deplorables.
No argument there — I wouldn’t want to suffer through an interview with them either. 😉
I knew that from the source.
RUFKM??? Not so much a case of “mission creep” as of “mission stampede.”
Just get my damn mail delivered before dark the way Ben intended. 😒
Why do you need mail?
I’m admittedly old school and pay some of the household bills via snail mail. Also, with many online vendors, “free shipping” means UPEx or FedS hands the package off to the Postal Service once it gets to your city, guaranteeing at least another day in transit. SOOOO grateful UPS was apparently headed our way anyway yesterday and did NOT hand off our Duluth Trading order to the USPS as originally planned. Got it a day earlier that way!
Stop paying for stamps!
Better to steal them?
Srsly, would it be better to use the same boring flag stamps all the time?
Don’t most or all banks offer electronic bill pay at this point?
Is that any better? Anyway, landlord doesn’t.
I think it is.
I still have paper checks, but almost never use them. Mostly just used to pay my local FFL/gunbroker hookup.
Yeah, landlord is the only reason I have stamps.
I have the Bugs & Friends ones.
Yeah – my CU employer has such a service I don’t use. I pay lots of bills online – there are just a handful of household bills that get paid from a different checking account for which I don’t have a debit card. And I guess I enjoy the ritual of writing a couple of checks each payday.
Excellent choice, rhywun. ⚾️ 🏀 ✂️ 🎹 🥕
UGH… Here in Alfred, the Post Office is some sort of hub where all of the delivery services meet and switch parcels with one another. Also, the ease with which Amazon purchases were returned in NYC versus Alfred is astounding. Sending back an $8 baseball cap is going to necessitate and hour and a half round trip in the car rather than handing the item to the first UPS driver I see.
We had to spy on them. They could have interrupted mail service.
This sort of thing makes me furious. In Queens, we would often not get mail delivered if it was raining or snowing. THOSE ARE THE FIRST TWO THINGS IN THEIR OWN DAMN MOTTO! But they have the chutzpah to play cybercop? Isn’t this the domain of the NSA and the Five Eyes nation’s intel services? Are MI-5, GIGN, and GSG 9 going to capture and rendition Mr. Zip to an Eastern European black site in retaliation?
The NSA isn’t supposed to monitor US persons without a nexus to a foreign threat. It is also not supposed to use an external organization to do what it is not allowed to. At the same time the FBI isn’t supposed to be a corrupt arm of the Democratic Party.
There must be a corollary to power and abuse like the bit about if you aren’t cheating you’re not trying to win.
If half of vehicles in the western United States are electric, the team estimates it would take over 5.4 gigawatts of energy storage—equivalent to five large nuclear power reactors—to charge the cars. However, if people charged their electric cars at work instead of home, the electric demand is expected to go down to 4.2 gigawatts.
Of course, passing your electricity costs onto your employer will results in either lower wages or higher prices of products to compensate.
Or as the left calls it, PRYSE GOWJING!
I’m sure PG&E will use this study as an excuse to jack up rates across the board because “the previous off-peak lower rates were a disincentive to climate friendly practices”. All they want is a fig leaf.
::tries to figure out how it would somehow take less energy to charge the same number of cars at a different location and a different time of day….borrow from the three, carry the one…::
Math class is hard!/Barbie
It’s about storage for solar energy.
Of course, nobody has ever mentioned that problem before.
The article says it takes less power, with no mention of source, to charge during the day, without saying why.
I’d guess they’re arguing that the necessary baseline capacity would be lower if people charged during the day. (Or at least, some charge during the day and some at night.)
Of course, they switch terms in the next sentence, but that’s the issue. Those wonderful solar panels just don’t work quite as well at night.
And we have a winner. The whole solar thing is a Rube Goldberg machine. It doesn’t work as needed so all these little workarounds are created, and will need to be subsidized. Power creation has always been cheaper in the off hours, so large buildings create a work around: Ice storage, to keep a supply of cold water during the peak heat hours that is created during off-peak cost hours. Now, if solar comes in, all of that energy/cost savings, which cannot be translated into energy storage, is useless.
Bunch of fucking idiots are on the PUC at this point.
Electrons have more energy when they are warm?
Technically, isn’t heat a form of energy?
So where’s that “extra” 1.2 gigawatts going? How does it magically vanish?
Somebody is doing some very creative accounting in their “estimates.”
Into the flux capacitor — Doc Brown only does his time jumps at night until he gets the flying circuits, and we’re way behind schedule on that. They just rounded down from the 1.21 gigawatts he actually uses.
It’s all so fucking stupid and predictable.
This completely turns everything we have been told on its head. Demand for electricity is low at night, so charging at night stabilizes the grid, making demand flatter around the clock.
These guys seem to think we have a 100% solar and wind grid.
California thinks they have a 25% solar and wind grid.
https://www.energy.ca.gov/data-reports/energy-almanac/california-electricity-data/2021-total-system-electric-generation
What they do have is 50% natural gas, which is easy to dial up and down with demand.
It seems like their big problem is that they gutted their base load generation capability. Coal is gone. And nuclear is well less than 10%.
No wonder they think everything should happen in the daytime. If solar and wind are to become dominant, they will have an incredibly unbalanced and unstable power grid.
Newsom and company are doing a great job screwing this state. Every time I read an article like this I’m one step closer to leaving.
“Where are you gonna go?”
Send him a postcard, drop him a line, Chafed.
“Yours Sincerely,
Wasting Away”
Ah, to be young again! /fondly remembers being 64.
I still have that to look forward to…but sooner than I care to admit. 😕
If the USPS is monitoring the Internet on behalf of other parts of FedGov — one can only assume it is because they were already monitoring the mail and this was a “natural extension of their monitoring”. Otherwise there’d be no reason to start with USPS (and isn’t the NSA doing this for years already?).
Mail Covers?
First-class mail (contents, at least) is supposed to enjoy specific 4A protection. Oh, I crack myself up. 🤣
“If the USPS is monitoring the Internet on behalf of other parts of FedGov…”
Aye, there’s the rub. The USPS is no longer an actual FedGov agency, but a chimera which is neither fully government nor fully private. USPS postal inspectors retain federal policing powers. That puts them in an ideal position to do the dirty work which actual FedGov agencies can’t. I’m not sure if they are subject to FOIA, for example.
Ya’ll remember Comstock (way back before the internet)?
Heh. Am not old enough, but point taken.
Does activating reservists and calling up former military really count as conscription? I thought that was just another word for the draft i.e. forcing civilians with zero military into military service.
This may surprise you but what their government is saying and what they are doing isn’t the same thing. For example, there are numerous reports of men arrested at protests being given conscription notices.
Russia already has conscription of required 1 year of active service. Dunno how long, if any, those conscripts are held in their reserves, but it sounds like they’re recalling at least some former conscripts.
They are. As I understand it, many of them had two weeks of training and mustered out after several months. I very much doubt they are combat ready.
Giorgia Meloni, a 45-year-old who has campaigned under the slogan of “God, country and family” and against “woke ideology”, is likely to become Italy’s first female prime minister if her post-fascist Brothers of Italy party wins the general election on Sunday.
They’ve got post-fascist over in Europe, semi-fascist here in the USA… if you ask me, it looks like just a half-fasct attempt to smear non-progressives as a threat to the republic.
It looks like that because that’s what it is.
Post-fascist means they’re no longer fascist.
I thought it meant they used bundles of fence posts instead of sticks.
Chesterton’s fence posts?
Next step is metafascists
You sound like a demi-fascist.
His stick bundles are thicc? Oh… hold on, that’s a demi-rose-fascist.
It is. Let’s also give credit to crappy reporting.
“”Yes to natural families, no to the LGBT lobby! Yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology! Yes to the culture of life, no to the abyss of death!” a wild-eyed Meloni cried in a speech in June.”
Yeah, she sounds horrible. Literally worse than Hitler.
Yeah… no idea if there are parts of her movement that actually swing totalitarian (as pendulum swings tend to veer that way because the radicals are the ones who step up first and all), but she, DeSantis, some of the other European pols sound more like the rumblings of a building backlash that they’d be much better served paying attention to than trying to crush.
Yeah, I can’t take any of the reporting on such folks from the MSM seriously.
NO BACKLASH to the glorious march of progress! Kulaks and wreckers must be crushed.
Don’t worry. The EU Overlords have promised to punish Italy if the voters vote the wrong way.
“Wild-eyed”. “Cried”.
Journalisming!
It is actually a nice day. 20 and sunny. Light breeze. The cormorants are flying about.
Steak of the day. I do not have a gun to add to the photo.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/1Khk5DJYMxAkPdKg6
https://photos.app.goo.gl/EoUgqB2zZJfc8YUq5
The lake today
https://photos.app.goo.gl/pmmot13SbQ4VcVCXA
Purty!
Huge ass cherry tomato plant
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zRozAq2SE4cENHni6
I think Count Potato has the huge ass post already.
It’s true. See below.
The hot summer was bad for tomatoes and now few are left… But the chilli peppera thrived probably most productive year
https://photos.app.goo.gl/rGfMsuP769CUCQbr8
https://photos.app.goo.gl/b3K7jbM4r9eWRDT89
::lights Sean signal::
*Benny Hill salute*
Steaks looking good.
⬅
Dry aged grass fed romanian beef for a reasonable price in these inflated times of 8.5 us dollars per us pound
Sale prices on the porterhouses today is $11.99/lb. Not a great price, but not bad. It’s still a good excuse to buy up some porterhouses.
The local raised beef prices were silly last time I went by their store.
Looks great Pie. Nice sear marks.
It set to be a fine day enjoy.
Wonderful!
I mean, do you want a gun? We probably have some spares, if you’re really in a pinch…
Can you send it by ups?
thicc?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11244901/Demi-Rose-flaunts-eye-popping-curves-gold-blue-lace-corset-sizzing-snaps.html
I see we are back to the half rose, full ass.
Nope. Killer curves.
‘orning ‘ordle — not chumptown, but nothing like blowing two 50/50 guesses. Warmup round was nothing to write home about either.
Daily Duotrigordle #206
Guesses: 36/37
Time: 06:07.70
https://duotrigordle.com/
Daily Quordle 243
4️⃣7️⃣
6️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
Daily Quordle 243
8️⃣6️⃣
7️⃣2️⃣
Lucky guess on lower right, then reverted to normal.
Daily Quordle 243
5️⃣9️⃣
8️⃣🟥
Astoundingly bad. Burned a bunch of guesses on LL after getting three on the first seed word. Stubbornness is dumb.
Daily Quordle 243
4️⃣7️⃣
6️⃣8️⃣
quordle.com
Meh.
Daily Duotrigordle #206
Guesses: X/37
Time: 03:56.04
Daily Quordle 243
8️⃣7️⃣
6️⃣9️⃣
just ugly all around.
I continue to be impressed with your dtg times. My best is 5:32
In this case the speed resulted in failure. I use four seed words so I only have one miss left unless one of the seed words is one of the answers.
Bah.
Daily Quordle 243
8️⃣3️⃣
5️⃣9️⃣
quordle.com
Daily Quordle 243
5️⃣4️⃣
9️⃣6️⃣
Lower left had 4 options, took three tries to get it.
Good mornin peeps.
Hi Sean!
What’s on the menu today?
Left overs. Maybe take out for dinner.
But porterhouses are on sale today, so tomorrow is gonna be good!
😀
Sweet!
I’ve got a hankerin’ for tri-tip. Possibly trout if the fish gods cooperate.
I use off the shelf spices for tri-tip. My favorites are Suzy Q’s and Cattlemen’s grill.
I’ll get some. I usually make a Santa Maria style rub.
BBQ of the gods, the way it is supposed to be done!
Suzy Q > Cattlemens, but I like them both and like to have some variety.
Santa Maria rub is awesome on a tri tip. I make a version with ground coffee that rocks the house.
So has the Ukrainian war bogged down again? Since I am no longer seeing articles about the advances I am assuming its stopped.
Well small moves here and there does not mean it is not bogged down
I think Ukraine is working to consolidate its gains. Russia is incapable of counter attacking. Expect Ukraine to go back on the offensive when they can.
“Retired liberal Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer says Roe v. Wade draft leaker STILL hasn’t been found, despite huge probe aimed at uncovering their identity”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11245223/Retired-liberal-Supreme-Court-Justice-Breyer-says-Roe-v-Wade-draft-leaker-found.html
So it was Breyer?
I’m still holding on to the possibility that one of the justices had a paper copy of the draft that they took out of the SCOTUS building and accidentally left at a restaurant or something. The justices are old; old people like paper.
You are charmingly hopeful. I’ll gladly wager it was one of the clerks.
“Universal Orlando has settled a race discrimination lawsuit over claims a character from Despicable Me made a white power ‘OK’ symbol on two occasions, while stood behind six year-old black girl and five year-old Hispanic girl.
The lawsuits were brought by Tiffiney and Richard Zinger and Geisy Moreno and Joel Rodriguez over encounters with the character Gru, who was played by a different Universal worker during each of the two controversial encounters.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11245077/Universal-settles-race-discrimination-lawsuit-claims-Despicable-character-OK-symbol.html
OFFS!!
If they keep this shit up someone is going to do something real about the white supremacy shortage.
Why would you settle? I would countersue and name the lawyer as well, for frivolousness.
That article spends a tremendous amount of time explaining that the OK sign is indeed a white power symbol, including a graphic. They even mention the ADL and 4chan, without mentioning that 4chan was overtly trolling these hate speech groups with a fake white power symbol.
Hell. Hand basket.
“Despicable” indeed.
“Tommy Lee relists his sprawling Calabasas mansion for third time at $4.6M… $1.25M less than he paid more than a decade ago”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-11245003/Tommy-Lee-relists-sprawling-Calabasas-mansion-time-4-6M.html
That piano is weird.
Anyway, for that money I’d want my neighbors much farther away.
Fugly.
And the cost of disinfecting the place would be prohibitive.
Good morning, Spud. And thanks for pinch-hitting.
That “thud” was my head hitting the desk.
Porch railing for me, but yes. This was amusing:
Whoops.
Care to wager on that?
Wait… You are thinking California is going to blink in this game of chicken?
No, I think they will implode.
Cannibalism is not out of the question.
As a resident, I think we’ll get some of both.
Reality will force them to.
None of their pie-in-sky dreams are going to come true.
Why-come you stupid engineers don’t create our reality???
I keep hoping against all reality that the north state will separate and form the State of Jefferson as that’s where I want to move to in a decade. All of the latest enviro insanity from CARB is set to be implemented in about a decade. I keep wondering when reality will intrude here, but so far it shows only signs of getting worse.
I see the same thing. I don’t think this state will change until the problem is too obvious for the dumbest voter to ignore.
“Colombia’s president has declared that ‘the war on drugs has failed’ – using his first address to the United Nations General Assembly to suggest sweeping changes to the nation’s drug laws that could end in the legalization of cocaine.
Gustavo Petro, a former guerrilla fighter and the first left-wing president of the Latin American nation, was inaugurated as president last month. He campaigned on a pledge to unite the deeply divided country, promising to fight against inequality and climate change, and achieve peace with leftist rebels and crime gangs.
Colombia is the world’s largest producer of cocaine, accounting for 64 percent of all of the drug in 2019, according to the latest UN report. It is the source of more than 90 percent of the drug seized in the United States, and is home to the largest Drug Enforcement Administration office overseas.
The war on drugs, launched by Richard Nixon in 1971 and massively ramped up under Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, has cost the United States over a trillion dollars, and yet has failed to reduce drug use: U.S. overdose deaths rose by 15 percent last year.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11243963/Will-Colombia-legalize-cocaine-Nations-president-declares-War-Drugs-lost.html
The U.S. government under Reagan was importing so much cocaine they had to invent crack. Meanwhile, Nancy was stumbling around high on pills.
…and is home to the largest Drug Enforcement Administration office overseas.
Where does U.S. jurisdiction not reach?
Failed to reduce drug use?
I dont know about causality, but I am fairly sure drug use is way, way down from the 70s, even with legalization.
Citing a 1 year increase in overdoses as “failed to reduce drug use” is kinda weak. And the overdoses are reportedly due to fentanyl being sprinkled everywhere. Full legalization would fix that problem immediately.
“I am fairly sure drug use is way, way down from the 70s, even with legalization.”
Based on what?
Well I know my own certainly is!
Anecdotally… I was the only kid in my graduating class who did not smoke pot. Small school, but still. My first concerts were 79 ish. Rush and VanHalen. They didn’t need smoke machines back then, because literally everyone was toking up. They would just pass the joint down the line.
Data wise, it has been widely reported that drug use among teens has been steadily falling since the early 80s.
Actually, this
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4629476/
Says that it peaked in the 70s and has been up and down since, but never again near 70s levels.
It also seems to track the anti-drug messaging pretty well. So don’t tell anyone about that.
The CIA isn’t gonna like that. Colombia is due for a color revolution I’d say.
Speaking of mail, here in romania we do not have the thing where delivery people leave packages outside the door, delivery is made only if you are home and in person. Obviously whenever you are not home during a given day, if only for an hour, that is when the package comes. So the best thing is a company which has something called easybox lockers at various locations where the package is delivered you get a qr code by email, go whenever you want and pick the package. I have some 5 minute walk from home. Also you can return at the easybox. Though delivery workers probably dont like it because unlike in person no tip for them
No one tips delivery people here, unless it’s restaurant food.
I have a relative who is very concerned that they are adequately hydrated.
A series of left-leaning celebrities, including Instagram star Chiara Ferragni, have sounded the alarm over Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and its allies, Matteo Salvini’s anti-immigrant League and Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia.
Pierpaolo Piccioli, creative director at fashion house Valentino, was on Thursday the latest to urge voters to defend rights won in the shadow of the Vatican.
It sounds like the Italians need an international force of election
observersadjusters to fortify DEMOCRACY!Otherwise the wrong peoples’ votes will be counted.
I’m glad to see their celebrities have as much clout as ours.
Brothers of Italy has roots in a neo-fascist movement formed to carry on the legacy of dictator Benito Mussolini.
Now do the “roots” of our home grown Democrats.
“There are entire regions where… the gynaecologists are all conscientious objectors” who can opt out of performing the operation, Bonino said — referring in particular to the Marche region in central Italy, which is governed by Brothers of Italy.
Some consciences are more equal than others.
This is so cool.
120 yr old clip of the Wuppertal Suspension Railway in Germany, 1902.
Still in use!
That is amazing.
PSA: Warehouse 13 marathon on Comet today. Yes, you can watch live from their website.
MONORAIL!
Holy shit, that’s cool, Tundra.
Those spindly little spider legs, holding it up just fine.
I loved the supports bolted to the buildings!
Scroll down to the pics of an ELEPHANT falling out of one of the cars.
Good and hard
Biden said McCarthy’s plan also failed to address important voter issues such as abortion access, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare. And he accused Republicans of “fiscal recklessness” and said the party “blew up the deficit” under Trump.
“I think we’re really at an inflection point. It occurs every three, four or five generations,” Biden said. “It’s that consequential. You now have 46 days to chose and the path offered by Democrats is contrasted with the one offered by the MAGA Republicans.”
I notice “freedom” is not an option. The Republicans blew up the budget, and you came in and pulverized the rubble to a fine powder.
I think I must concur about the inflection point thing. If the Democrats are not slapped down,there will be no saving the America of my youth.
And the Democratic complaints about when the Republicans blew up the budget was they didn’t use enough explosives.
Not to mention the administration of which he was part blowing up the budget. And their budget keeps on giving. Thanks Obama(care)!
Scroll down to the pics of an ELEPHANT falling out of one of the cars.
I saw that. Musta been a helluva splash.
Did he jump? Or was he pushed?
Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, House Democrats’ campaigns chief for the 2022 cycle, mocked the Gingrich-influenced GOP plan, saying “McCarthy’s heating up leftovers.”
“It’s hard to make a commitment to America when a bunch of your members should be committed,” Maloney said.
Haha, good one.
Just keep pretending you speak for a vast majority of Americans who believe objective reality is is nothing but white man tricknology.
You cannot humiliate someone incapable of feeling shame
South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol was captured on a hot mic reportedly disparaging American lawmakers as “idiots” shortly after he met with US President Joe Biden in New York.
“It would be so humiliating for Biden if these idiots don’t pass it in Congress,” Yoon was heard telling aides in a now-viral clip, according to a translation by The Washington Post.
Yoon and Biden met Wednesday at the Global Fund’s Seventh Replenishment Conference in New York City.
More like cretins than idiots.
This week has been a very good week. Massage, haircut, visit with a new therapist, Ikea, Wendy’s (the one by my house burned down and is taking forever to be rebuilt), and today, I’ve gotten a bit of work done and my office cleaned. And I cross stitched. I am going to top that off with a movie with my husband. Yes, this qualifies as excitement for me/us. We are boring people and we LIKE it that way.
👍🏼👍🏼 Sounds good! Speaking of fast food, there’s some sort of new fast food place going in down the road from us – right next door to the nearest-but-not-very-satisfactory Wendy’s. The new place is going in on the former site of a small office building that was badly damaged in the ’19 Mem Day tornado. The architecture looks hauntingly familiar, but I can’t quite place which chain it’s likely to be. Would be in favor of a Tim Horton’s or even Chick-Fil-A (the latter unlikely due to small lot.)
That’s what passes for excitement in our ‘hood. 😏
Wish I had fun like that.