No patch for incompetence... Excellent piece on the reason we keep hearing about security lapses in government information technology.
I've said this many times before, but I'm going to do it again: I cannot fathom why anyone would actually believe that the federal government can do a good job at anything – anything at all. There's not a single good example of a large government program that's well run. There are a nearly infinite number of examples of government programs run poorly and/or corruptly. Why would anyone expect, for instance, Obamacare to be any different? Of course it's a disaster – that's what the federal government is actually good at!
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Hypocritical Hillary...
Hypocritical Hillary... Hillary Clinton, like most Democrats, supports raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and indexing it to inflation. Sometimes she also seems to support the so-called “living wage” for all – meaning that everyone be guaranteed a (roughly) $30,000 per year income no matter what job they have, or don't have.
What do you suppose Hillary Clinton pays the interns who help in her campaign? If you guessed zippity-doo-dah, you'd be right!
What do you suppose Hillary Clinton pays the interns who help in her campaign? If you guessed zippity-doo-dah, you'd be right!
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Debbie keeps getting a little better every day. Today we had a milestone: she was able to dress herself after washing up and shampooing her hair. Also, she thinks she may be ready to try the walker in a few days. That will be a big milestone, because then she'll be able to get around (the first floor, at least) on her own. In a few minutes Bruce and June N. will be coming over to visit her. They are the couple who helped us find this house, and they've become friends. They live just a few miles south of us, in Avon.
This morning the dogs and I took our usual walk, and we ran into the crews moving and starting up the irrigation for the day. We also passed one of the tractor/baler machines that have been baling up all these fields of alfalfa. It appears to have just stopped in the middle of its work, probably when the driver knocked off for the day. There are several common sizes of hay bales used around here, and this baler makes the biggest ones. These are very highly compressed, much more so than the small bales I'm familiar with. Each of these bales weighs around two tons. No throwing them around! You have to have a fairly large tractor with special hay forks to move these suckers around. The farmers like them because they are so highly compressed; it makes the hay stacks more compact.
After our walk, I helped my neighbor Tim D. move his irrigation string, and then he volunteered to help me put the finishing touches on the ground leveled out yesterday with the giant loader. Tim drove all kinds of machines that moved earth for almost 40 years, when he worked for LeGrand Johnson's paving division. He's an expert. All he had to work with was an old Massey-Ferguson tractor (he's named it “Betsy” and a simple blade. With those tools, he turned yesterday's rough work into a piece of finished work. That's him at right. He's doing me a huge favor, but I could tell that he was having a lot of fun. The big grin was a giveaway :) Afterwards he and I had a big glass of limeade while he visited with Debbie.
I did a bit of the finishing work with the loader on my tractor. I knocked down a couple of sharp corners, and flattened out a ridge. To get ready for this work, I had to take my backhoe off. That's always a tricky thing to do. It requires futzing around with the hydraulics to get the backhoe positioned perfectly to take the load off the two pins that hold it in place. It usually takes me about a half hour, but today I did it in just 20 minutes. I'm thinking that maybe I should just spend a day practicing this until I actually get good at it :)
Now I'm hot and tired, and looking forward to a nice visit with Bruce and June!
I did a bit of the finishing work with the loader on my tractor. I knocked down a couple of sharp corners, and flattened out a ridge. To get ready for this work, I had to take my backhoe off. That's always a tricky thing to do. It requires futzing around with the hydraulics to get the backhoe positioned perfectly to take the load off the two pins that hold it in place. It usually takes me about a half hour, but today I did it in just 20 minutes. I'm thinking that maybe I should just spend a day practicing this until I actually get good at it :)
Now I'm hot and tired, and looking forward to a nice visit with Bruce and June!
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Lots of happenings today!
Debbie is progressing incrementally, looking and feeling a bit better every day. She's still essentially bedridden, though, and she's going a little stir crazy because of it. It's been almost three weeks since her fall, and since she's been imprisoned in her (nice, comfortable, full-service included) bed.
Last night, one of her friends from southern California (Marsha Y.) stopped by for a great visit. She stayed for several hours of conversations and reminiscences. We stayed up way past our bedtime!
I took a walk with the dogs in the cool morning, up the farm road on the hill to the east of our house. In the past few days these fields have dramatically changed in appearance – the three foot tall alfalfa has all been mowed, raked, dried, baled, and removed. Now there's 4" stubble remaining, and the irrigation is going full blast (see at right). When we got to the top of the hill, we could see 19 strings of wheel lines (like those in the photograph) going – and some of those strings were close to a mile long.
As we were walking back into our driveway, a gigantic loader drove by us, very slowly. It was one that our neighbor Tim D. had arranged for us, to do some terraforming down on the southeast part of our property. This is the same general area where the Mormon horde helped us clean up a few weeks ago. There was a part there, roughly an acre in extent, that was so weirdly sloped that there was no way I could mow it. The loader was there to sculpt that weirdness into something more attractive, and more maintainable.
The loader operator, a genial fellow named Alan L., talked with me for about a half hour about exactly what I wanted to accomplish. Then he (very politely) told me to get the hell out of his way and let him get the job done. Three hours later, he'd finished – and had created something considerably better than I'd hoped for. I wish I'd been smart enough to take a “before” photo, but alas, I wasn't. However, you can see clearly here that we how have an eminently usable piece of ground here! I'm going to plant some grass here for now, but later in the bottom, flat part we're going to plant something that will make an attractive roadside display. That's going to take some research on our part, to find something that will do well here without any irrigation (this is one of the few awkward spots on our place to irrigate). I did have one bizarre thought later, though – it just might be feasible to put a solar powered drip system in that sourced its water in the canal just 20' away. Another thing to research :)
That was plenty of excitement for one day, but it got even better. Around 1 pm, I got a call from a trucker – he had a load for me. I was expecting my air compressor (which I've been trying to buy since January!), so I got my tractor going and met him by the road, expecting to be unloading 650 pounds of air compressor. Instead, he had a much smaller pallet. I had to get the bill of lading out to see what it was – and it was the PTO powered pressure washer that I ordered back in March. It finally came in! Woo hoo! I took it into the shed and started to unpack it, and my phone rang again – another trucker with a load – and this time it was the air compressor. Double woo hoo!
So I spent the next two hours unpacking and inspecting the two shipments. The pressure washer is a particularly impressive piece of machinery. It's a pile of parts and a bag of bolts right now, though the pump is fully assembled. The pump is Italian, and I'd have guessed that even if I didn't already know – there's a certain style to Italian machinery that one rarely sees in machinery made anywhere else. This is a purely functional, industrial piece of kit – but some engineers spent time making it beautiful anyway.
The air compressor was remarkable for a completely different reason: it was not a kit! I was shocked – for once, a piece of equipment I ordered came fully assembled. Wow! However, the air compressor more than makes up for that by the complexity of its installation. I have to connect it to both 240 V and 120 V, plus an air intake (to clean outside air), the compressed air output, and two separate water drains (one for the tank, the other for the air dryer). Another project :)
The word is starting to get out around town that Debbie is injured again. This evening, one of the members of the Relief Society for the ward we live in stopped by to check on us. As with all their visits, she just wanted to make sure we got any help we needed. She looked disappointed that we really didn't need any :) She chatted with Debbie for a while, very friendly and neighborly. She's good friends with Michelle H., the woman who cleans our house. Small towns are nice that way. When she left, she left Debbie wearing a smile and feeling very good indeed about the area we retired to.
We love living here!
Debbie is progressing incrementally, looking and feeling a bit better every day. She's still essentially bedridden, though, and she's going a little stir crazy because of it. It's been almost three weeks since her fall, and since she's been imprisoned in her (nice, comfortable, full-service included) bed.
Last night, one of her friends from southern California (Marsha Y.) stopped by for a great visit. She stayed for several hours of conversations and reminiscences. We stayed up way past our bedtime!
As we were walking back into our driveway, a gigantic loader drove by us, very slowly. It was one that our neighbor Tim D. had arranged for us, to do some terraforming down on the southeast part of our property. This is the same general area where the Mormon horde helped us clean up a few weeks ago. There was a part there, roughly an acre in extent, that was so weirdly sloped that there was no way I could mow it. The loader was there to sculpt that weirdness into something more attractive, and more maintainable.
That was plenty of excitement for one day, but it got even better. Around 1 pm, I got a call from a trucker – he had a load for me. I was expecting my air compressor (which I've been trying to buy since January!), so I got my tractor going and met him by the road, expecting to be unloading 650 pounds of air compressor. Instead, he had a much smaller pallet. I had to get the bill of lading out to see what it was – and it was the PTO powered pressure washer that I ordered back in March. It finally came in! Woo hoo! I took it into the shed and started to unpack it, and my phone rang again – another trucker with a load – and this time it was the air compressor. Double woo hoo!
So I spent the next two hours unpacking and inspecting the two shipments. The pressure washer is a particularly impressive piece of machinery. It's a pile of parts and a bag of bolts right now, though the pump is fully assembled. The pump is Italian, and I'd have guessed that even if I didn't already know – there's a certain style to Italian machinery that one rarely sees in machinery made anywhere else. This is a purely functional, industrial piece of kit – but some engineers spent time making it beautiful anyway.
The air compressor was remarkable for a completely different reason: it was not a kit! I was shocked – for once, a piece of equipment I ordered came fully assembled. Wow! However, the air compressor more than makes up for that by the complexity of its installation. I have to connect it to both 240 V and 120 V, plus an air intake (to clean outside air), the compressed air output, and two separate water drains (one for the tank, the other for the air dryer). Another project :)
The word is starting to get out around town that Debbie is injured again. This evening, one of the members of the Relief Society for the ward we live in stopped by to check on us. As with all their visits, she just wanted to make sure we got any help we needed. She looked disappointed that we really didn't need any :) She chatted with Debbie for a while, very friendly and neighborly. She's good friends with Michelle H., the woman who cleans our house. Small towns are nice that way. When she left, she left Debbie wearing a smile and feeling very good indeed about the area we retired to.
We love living here!
Climate alarmists converging on reality...
Are you still depending on major media for your news?
Are you still depending on major media for your news? By that, I mean outlets like the New York Times, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, or Fox News. Here's an excellent example illustrating why your trust is most seriously misplaced. There are some slightly better outlets: the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, etc. But the difference is more like that between Coke and Pepsi, not Yugo and Mercedes. In my own experience, bloggers and independent journalists (like Michael Totten, or Michael Yon) are far more reliable and insightful sources.
Before you start condemning the major media, you should reflect upon why they are so bad. The reason is simple. The kind of “news” they're spewing is manifestly what consumers want. It's what draws the viewers and readers. It's not their fault that we're (collectively) a bunch of moronic thrill seekers. It's ours...
Before you start condemning the major media, you should reflect upon why they are so bad. The reason is simple. The kind of “news” they're spewing is manifestly what consumers want. It's what draws the viewers and readers. It's not their fault that we're (collectively) a bunch of moronic thrill seekers. It's ours...
Why are the Baltic states nervous about Russia?
Why are the Baltic states nervous about Russia? Here's why...
Cheaper batteries...
Cheaper batteries ... through better manufacturing. Fascinating story about the startup 24M...
This is the real promise of manufacturing by 3D printers...
3D printing has a place with prototyping and very low volume manufacturing, but for anything needed in quantities above a few dozen, conventional manufacturing techniques are inherently less expensive. That doesn't look likely to change anytime in the foreseeable future. But ... 3D printing does let you make some things that you couldn't practicably make by any other means...
Solid-state drives to reach price parity with hard disks next year?
Solid-state drives to reach price parity with hard disks next year? So says this fellow, and quite a few others. My favorite sentence in the article:
“If you were told that a BMW and a golf-cart were the same price, which would you buy?”I'm already buying the BMW (only), even though it still costs a bit more. I haven't purchased a hard disk in about four years...
Making a Celtic stone axe...
It's box turtle time...
Monday, June 22, 2015
Progress in Paradise...
Progress in Paradise... Maybe the title today should be “pooped in Paradise” instead :) Bright and early this morning, the Fellowship of the Mustard Pullers gathered again in our field. Tim D., myself, and Maria S. and her kids Nicolas, Abby, and Sarah all attacked the remaining quarter acre or so of mustard. And we emerged victorious! About three hours after we started, there wasn't a mustard plant anywhere to be seen on the 7.5 acres of alfalfa that Tim D. is running (that's on a combination of 5 acres of his land, and 2.5 acres of ours). The kids were being paid by Tim, by the hour, and they were eagerly pursuing their mustard-derived riches. However, when we temporarily ran of mustardly things to do (because we were waiting for Tim to return from dumping a load of mustard so we could load him up with another), they spontaneously started moving some irrigation pipe from the field to its storage location. Such initiative involving physical labor is not something I'd ever expect a kid in California to do, but here it's pretty much the norm. When the kids know help is needed (and they know it with Tim), they're on the lookout for things they can do to help. It's almost enough to give me hope for the future, except that I've met all too many of the California-style kids.
After all that work (the last half or so in the hot sun), I'm not feeling too energetic today :)
After all that work (the last half or so in the hot sun), I'm not feeling too energetic today :)
I want to be like this guy when I grow up!
Utah street names...
Utah street names... One of the things that took some getting used to here is the street names. Well, really, the lack of street names! Very few streets here actually have names at all. Instead, they're numbered in a uniform system, and sometimes have an additional highway name.
For instance, our property here is bordered by two roads, each running north/south. On the east side of our property, the road is mainly known by it's highway name: State 165. That road is also known as “200 West”, which means it's 2 blocks west of Main Street in Paradise. Every town has a Main Street and a Center Street, laid out at 90° to each other (forming a cross). Their intersection is the zero/zero point of a coordinate system that names all other roads in that town. The road on the west side of our property is “400 West” – which is, of course, 4 blocks west of Main Street in Paradise.
While all this was confusing at first, now that we've figured it out we're finding it to be very convenient. If someone gives us an address, we immediately know where it is. We don't need a map. There are only a dozen or so towns in all of Cache Valley, and we've learned where all of them are. If someone gives us an address like, say, “435 N 500 E, Providence” – then we know exactly where that is and how to get there without needing a map at all. Good trick!
There's a more detailed explanation of the system here...
For instance, our property here is bordered by two roads, each running north/south. On the east side of our property, the road is mainly known by it's highway name: State 165. That road is also known as “200 West”, which means it's 2 blocks west of Main Street in Paradise. Every town has a Main Street and a Center Street, laid out at 90° to each other (forming a cross). Their intersection is the zero/zero point of a coordinate system that names all other roads in that town. The road on the west side of our property is “400 West” – which is, of course, 4 blocks west of Main Street in Paradise.
While all this was confusing at first, now that we've figured it out we're finding it to be very convenient. If someone gives us an address, we immediately know where it is. We don't need a map. There are only a dozen or so towns in all of Cache Valley, and we've learned where all of them are. If someone gives us an address like, say, “435 N 500 E, Providence” – then we know exactly where that is and how to get there without needing a map at all. Good trick!
There's a more detailed explanation of the system here...
A peek into the horrors of the progressive mind...
“I cannot imagine the horror that could’ve occurred if people were sitting around with concealed weapons, this thing started and you had a full-scale gunfight. You might not even have three survivors.”So his take is that had the victims been able to defend themselves, more people would have died. That's such an utterly stupid analysis that I am at a loss for words. My pistol-packing mama wasn't, though: she thinks Mr. Shrum is “missing a few wires up there”. Quite possibly!
It seems rather obvious to me that if even one person inside that church had had a gun, the results would have been different – and fewer people would have died, Mr. Shrum's moronic views notwithstanding. In order for that to have happened, though, South Carolina would have to change it's laws. It's currently illegal there for citizens with concealed carry permits to take a gun into a church. Obviously that didn't stop Roof – but it would (and did!) stop ordinary citizens from defending themselves. I won't be a bit surprised if the police discover that one of the reasons Roof targeted a church is that it's a gun-free zone – so he knew that nobody would be defending themselves there...
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