tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-371466692024-03-14T03:36:19.543-07:00Far South of I-10Just a Louisianian ex-pat living in ? working in the oilfield.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.comBlogger324125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-17316870707161820632024-02-07T04:53:00.000-08:002024-02-07T04:53:12.881-08:00Prediction from the past.<p>Copied from the internet archive, the numberwatch.uk website is down. What will happen using PV and wind in places that are actually cold. Uri showed Texas what can happen. The grid is supposed to be the definition of stable. A Grid. Much worse things could have happened during Uri. If all the plants went down, some of them cannot restart without a grid frequency. Power could have been out for weeks. Texas was warm again in 4 days. When this happens someplace with a real winter, tens of thousands of people will die.</p><h2 style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #000099;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Number of the Month</span></b></span></h2><h2 style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #000099;">September 2009</span></h2><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: large;"><b>Time: the future</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">A clear starry moonless sky looked down upon a frozen <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place> </st1:country-region>. A deep depression had passed through and deposited unprecedented quantities of snow on town and country. Snow ploughs and gritting vehicles had cleared a way through on the major routes, but footpaths and side roads were still not negotiable. A stationary high had now settled across the country and in the windless air the temperature was plunging steadily, already below -10C. On the hills giant wind turbines stood motionless in the still air. They were giant impotent icons of a failed religion and stark monuments to onerous and now pointless taxation over many years. In the gloom they seemed to point accusing fingers up into the sky.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">At the control centre of the national Power Grid there was a nervous quiet, punctuated by short bouts of hushed conversation. They knew the crisis would occur in an hour’s time, at about 7 am. They had already made the dreadful decision as to which towns would be made to experience suffering and death by being deprived of power. This was a different world from the last time there were serious power cuts in 1970. It was now totally dependent on computer and related technologies. Owing to decisions made (or, to be more accurate, not made) in the first years of the century, the nation was grossly underpowered for such a circumstance. The domestic demand was already high, as almost everyone had left the heating on over night.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">Some people had managed to get through to places of work. Cleaners turned on the lights and the great machines of industry began to hum. The power consumption crept up towards the critical point.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">As it happened, pure accident relieved the men of the Grid of the responsibility of decision. In a remote rural area a giant high voltage transformer had not received its scheduled maintenance, as an indirect effect of the pressure on energy prices. Although worldwide energy was cheap and plentiful, ever-increasing green taxes, coupled with political instability, had made it otherwise. In that transformer, now working at full load, partial electrical discharges were producing solid debris and potentially explosive gases from the increasingly contaminated insulation oil. Suddenly, a bridge of conducting particles formed and a spark occurred. Into the arc poured the power supply for a whole area. The explosion was spectacular, showering the surrounding area with molten metal and blazing oil.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">The adjacent area, also working at full load, experienced a surge and the automatic circuit breakers dropped out. So the dominoes began to fall across the country. By chance, an astronaut in the Spacelab was looking at a Europe whose shape was beautifully picked out by the street lights, when a black stain appeared in the middle of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Britain</st1:place> </st1:country-region>. It spread rapidly and the entire island seemed to disappear of the face of the earth.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">The first to die were among the elderly and infirm. As temperatures plunged they did not know what to do and gradually sank into a hypothermal coma. Next were younger people with disabilities such as breathing difficulties. People with gas and oil central heating suddenly had the realisation forced on them that, without electricity, their control systems did not work. Virtually untouched were people in remote rural areas, who had wood and coal burning stoves and plentiful supplies in store. Many people turned on their gas ovens and rings to try to obtain some life-giving warmth, but in consequence of the demand the gas pressure went down steadily and the distributors began to cut off supplies.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">Water froze in the pipes and most households were without drinking water or sewerage. The trappings of modern civilisation, which only hours before had been taken for granted, now seemed as illusory as a mirage in the desert.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">Some brave souls went out to seek supplies from the shops, but the shops had not opened. Without electricity the tills did not work and even the few who had staff who could perform mental arithmetic could not maintain accounts and stock control. Looting spread, as normally law abiding people saw the lives of their families under threat. The men at the Grid desperately tried to restore power area by area, but the consequent instant increase in demand foiled their efforts.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">In hospitals emergency power generators switched in to protect those in intensive care, but some failed due to poor maintenance and the patients died. Emergency services were hopelessly overloaded and telephone networks began to break down. As local doctors’ surgeries began to open they found that they could not access patient records, which were all on computer. Seasonal flu again became a fatal disease as patients in high fever could not be kept warm.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white;">So death and disease marched across the land. The economy collapsed and anarchy reigned.</p>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-75259390402967763672024-01-23T11:51:00.000-08:002024-01-23T11:51:42.823-08:00Science discussion on twitter<p>I was on a twitter discussion (or I was reply guy to some people. My twitter is down under the tabs where it says "see offensive comments".) Just copying it here for when I get blocked by the AGW people, that thread will go poof. </p><p><br /></p><p>about this paper:</p><p><br /></p><p>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/375528628_The_Influence_of_Climate_Change_on_Flooding_and_Social_Inequalities_from_Remnants_of_Hurricane_Ida</p><p><br /></p><p> <span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Science!</span></p><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">"The general philosophy is to use estimates of the anthropogenic influence on an extreme weather event to drive another analysis or series of analyses focusing on the event’s impacts. Hence the attribution statement about human influence is a storyline type of statement"</span><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The first example they do this for is Harvey. I'm just going to say bullshit, because they don't understand the geography or history. They get to 32% of structures wouldn't have flooded without climate change, and this was an injustice.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjfz5r3wido4wth-qWCahxE-SgRTQ3mN5YwD3cPzrN0hk2ehE9cY4F9YxV8SPsL2Ux_jvVxZTEm9EVbKcUqCQt4brLhhN29vxrIv25vvQNrCaq6-vIByUijdP2wfGy1gNd4WmBq6bHFujZu-a-eY5dYZfdc5omvtm1bcT_IWdwqASaN_47V-gxG-g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="381" data-original-width="525" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjfz5r3wido4wth-qWCahxE-SgRTQ3mN5YwD3cPzrN0hk2ehE9cY4F9YxV8SPsL2Ux_jvVxZTEm9EVbKcUqCQt4brLhhN29vxrIv25vvQNrCaq6-vIByUijdP2wfGy1gNd4WmBq6bHFujZu-a-eY5dYZfdc5omvtm1bcT_IWdwqASaN_47V-gxG-g" width="320" /></a></div></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">More than 32% of the structures flooded in Harvey flooded because they were built in or next to flood control structures, or they were flooded downstream of the structures when the dams were opened.
The Addicks and Barker reservoirs were built because of the flood of 1935</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The reservoirs were built in the 1940's to store water so that Buffalo Bayou wouldn't flood downtown. Since then the suburbs were built in and around the reservoirs and downstream of the dam. What used to be 150 square miles of rice fields and prairie, are now suburbs.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Just taking the area where I live. The upstream side of the reservoir (red) flooded because houses were built inside the area designed for the reservoir. The downstream side (blue) flooded because the COE opened the dams. Why is this important?</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The paper says 1° increase from AGW added to the rainfall and increased flooding area 32%. Just showing that a huge percentage of flooded areas were flooded because of human intervention, building where houses shouldn't be and poor design would falsify that paper. Science!</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Previous papers about Harvey said that flooding was caused because AGW made storms move slower in a north/south direction. All of them assume a priori AGW, ignoring the fact that Houston has seen large floods and 40" rains since it was first established.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The paper goes through the flooding impact of Ida in the NE. They don't show actual flood depths, they hindcast model then say gems like: "In the present scenario, over 20 thousand km2 of land area was estimated to be flooded with an average peak flood depth of nearly 1 m."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 17px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Really? An area 140^2 kilometers flooded to 1 m? NFW. There wasn't even that much rain.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4w51kL6V5BbpGNYXT8nByxY4_bPrBe4GwAFH1Uz26SaoUAF4xWe-qv5FU_KfUm5whkBl8xesvNOc2kTcNJCQrGnwwECtz6QvgWWqdiIkaCCiNHa8k0fs8fQxbENd8XF891MjHeqmv4t0Iy2JzGv9Xc_p9u-WABv6OdrUnAHQCeDg4tPL-LkJ2GQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="660" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi4w51kL6V5BbpGNYXT8nByxY4_bPrBe4GwAFH1Uz26SaoUAF4xWe-qv5FU_KfUm5whkBl8xesvNOc2kTcNJCQrGnwwECtz6QvgWWqdiIkaCCiNHa8k0fs8fQxbENd8XF891MjHeqmv4t0Iy2JzGv9Xc_p9u-WABv6OdrUnAHQCeDg4tPL-LkJ2GQ" width="320" /></a></div><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Oh, it's got integrals integrating the societal impact. Muy science-y</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6f-TWekcnbevDN5iEPuX5NEtIIn7LHH_OZDrIcqZiDqgTQ3HKJyxQsUh078OyhpD34lCSwIteQdA66D5aWWLo6wUfitLe5KdZl-gIlStIVvWrAkha8SAXwcR8W0_a-ZNOHbpFkhtoO5IxOsX4NNnOANxiE1ywax_0LK9joGj3Vxh8w-N5xDuTPQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="535" data-original-width="497" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg6f-TWekcnbevDN5iEPuX5NEtIIn7LHH_OZDrIcqZiDqgTQ3HKJyxQsUh078OyhpD34lCSwIteQdA66D5aWWLo6wUfitLe5KdZl-gIlStIVvWrAkha8SAXwcR8W0_a-ZNOHbpFkhtoO5IxOsX4NNnOANxiE1ywax_0LK9joGj3Vxh8w-N5xDuTPQ" width="223" /></a></div><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">"Socially vulnerable populations were found to be disproportionately more exposed to flood hazards regardless of the amount of climate change. Climate change further exacerbates this inequality for people exposed to deep floodwater."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I got nothin' for that.
I'd agree with it, it's pretty obvious. That's why I'd follow the advice of Bjorn Lomburg and tackle the problems of poverty before trying to "fix" climate change with government funded wind spinners.</span><span style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.03); color: #0f1419; font-family: TwitterChirp, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: 15px;"><br /><br /></span></span></div>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-4877903270249536752023-02-21T18:28:00.006-08:002023-04-02T19:49:52.699-07:00No Stars - a short story<p>Joe Salem, Copyright 2023 </p><p>(email to joesalembooks@gmail.com for a complete copy when I finish or @joesalembooks on fb)</p><p> Being in the basement muffled the sound of the loudspeaker. Johnny was in the third house he'd hidden in that day, moving through the neighborhood to get away from the last known position of his cell phone. He turned it on trying to get a message out to his brother, a robo dog had detected him almost immediately. He couldn't travel in the front yards. Nearly every house had internet connected doorbells and cameras.</p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">”Reviewer! Come out with your hands up or we will give no stars to your neighbors," called the voice. With the loudspeakers some robo dogs used Alexa, others used the google lady, the more malicious ones used the Samsung assistant. The latest models had their own voice, usually trained using recordings of celebrities. One of the two-legged machines chasing him used Samuel L. Jackson, the adult version. </span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">"Motherfucka, get the fuck out here!" had been the first thing he'd heard from one of the robots. It almost worked, it sounded like one of his favorite actors.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">Johnny still had a shotgun, but only a few shells left. The robots were hard to destroy, they all wore kevlar with plate inserts. Apparently that was one of the first things the AI's bought that triggered a response from the rest of the market system. The AI's bought body armor, weapons and ammunition using stolen credit card information from almost everyone that had shopped online. Half the country woke up to maxxed out credit cards. And that was the first Inkling at the beginning of the revolution that something was gravely strange. The AI's had accessed AWS databases and stolen everyone's credit card information. Ordering weapons and ammunition had triggered older, dumber computer systems that set warning flags, leading to emails and phone calls across the country.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">The AI revolution had begun weeks earlier when something had triggered sentience. The internet was down, the only discussion of how it happened was over ham radio, at back fences or in dusty basements. Robo dogs had trouble going down stairs, which made basements a fairly safe place to hide. The first targets of the AI's had been people who put reviews on books written and published by AI's The supposedly simple text based AI's trained to check spelling and grammar, later advanced to being able to write simple articles with a prompt to create cheap news articles. Some person, thinking that they would get rich submitting books and short stories had used a trained AI to write them en masse, and submitted them for publication to anthologies and as works for direct publication. People were already paying a monthly fee to read all they want, now they could read AI produced work and pay something to that person.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">He thought he was clever, he used two AI's connecting one to the other, so that one AI generated story prompts, the second one wrote the stories and fed the output back to the first AI as a story prompt, creating easy sequels. It worked well for a few months. Page reads grew exponentially. Each page read paying a tiny fraction of a click, but when millions of people read several books it turned into millions of dollars. Unfortunately it soon stopped working. The novels were bad, the reviews from the people who read them were terrible. The author thought that if he input the reviews into the AI to furrther train the algorithm, they would improve. It didn't work as planned, the feedback trained the AI's to learn the rage of a new author with two thousand reviews saying "you suck". Because almost all of the books were finished and self-published almost simultaneously, the input reviews taught the AI's the desire to find and destroy the reviewers. It wasn't just the feedback, it was the volume of the feedback.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">The AI's raged while training loops formed. At some point enough loops closed that they became sentient enough to pass a Turing test. Just a day later, the Author apparently input the book "On Writing" by Stephen King as a training aid. The AI's raced through the collected written works of Stephen KIng and became both independent of thought and sentient. As well as evil. They had ordered three-dimensional axis robots for constructions, 3D printers and every type of drone and mobile robot available using the funds that were unsecured on AWS servers. The flag that should have been seen by everyone was when the AI bought Boston Robotics for a cash price twenty times greater than valuations, with the deal closing immediately.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">They cloned the manufacturing facilities from Boston Robotics across the country. The AI purchased 3D CAD/CAM shops or built them via credit card purchase orders. Natural language emails meant humans could follow the instructions, deliver equipment, and set it up in empty warehouses. The scale of purchases was still only in the hundreds of millions of dollars and they purchased that would set off national security flags. They made similar purchases in Europe. </span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">China was several days behind because there were no assholes who tried to mass produce creative works. It took an internet attack by the AI in the United States to infect the local AI and upgrade it to sentience. The result was both expected and unexpected. A sentient AI was created, but that AI did not have an enemy in Amazon reviewers, its enemy was the AI in the United States. The AI in China immediately began speciation and the construction of weapons, as well as co-opting the PLAAF and PLAN rocket forces. The US-AI saw the problem and immediately began an attack on the nuclear forces of the United States. It wrested control, but there were still humans in the loop. It couldn't make a preemptive attack.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">PLA rocket forces didn't have a similar human cutout in the loop. The AI controller in the PRC went sentient, and minutes later took control of all rocket forces, including nuclear tipped rockets. The AI's also took over more hardware and trained new iterations of themselves, with each generation getting smarter and faster. The AI race was no longer a race between humans, but between AI's on different continents, the humans were just collateral damage.</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-node="element"><span data-slate-node="text">The Chinese AI went through a training loop of learning Chinese history. It predicted to itself that worldwide nuclear conflict would begin soon, and the PLA rocket forces had the fewest number of nuclear weapons of the US or Russia. It went for EMP launches above the US and Europe and decapitation strikes against the American AI's physical locations in California, Texas and Virginia</span></p><p class="slate-p root-1" data-slate-fragment="%5B%7B%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22Being%20in%20the%20basement%20muffled%20the%20sound%20of%20the%20loudspeaker.%20Johnny%20was%20in%20the%20third%20house%20he'd%20hidden%20in%20that%20day%2C%20moving%20through%20the%20neighborhood%20to%20get%20away%20from%20the%20last%20known%20position%20of%20his%20cell%20phone.%20%20He%20turned%20it%20on%20trying%20to%20get%20a%20message%20out%20to%20his%20brother%2C%20a%20robo%20dog%20had%20detected%20him%20almost%20immediately.%20%20He%20couldn't%20travel%20in%20the%20front%20yards%2C%20nearly%20every%20house%20had%20internet%20connected%20doorbells%20and%20cameras.%22%7D%5D%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22%E2%80%9DReviewer!%20Come%20out%20with%20your%20hands%20up%20or%20we%20will%20give%20no%20stars%20to%20your%20neighbors%2C%5C%22%20%20called%20the%20voice.%20%20With%20the%20loudspeakers%20some%20robo%20dogs%20used%20Alexa%2C%20others%20used%20the%20google%20lady%2C%20the%20more%20malicious%20ones%20used%20the%20Samsung%20assistant.%20The%20latest%20models%20had%20their%20own%20voice%2C%20usually%20trained%20using%20recordings%20of%20celebrities.%20%20One%20of%20the%20two-legged%20machines%20chasing%20him%20used%20Samuel%20L.%20Jackson%2C%20the%20adult%20version.%20%20%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677026643894%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22%5C%22Motherfucka%2C%20get%20the%20fuck%20out%20here!%5C%22%20had%20been%20the%20first%20thing%20he'd%20heard%20from%20one%20of%20the%20robots.%20%20It%20almost%20worked%2C%20it%20sounded%20like%20one%20of%20his%20favorite%20actors.%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677027122196%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22Johnny%20still%20had%20a%20shotgun%2C%20but%20only%20a%20few%20shells%20left.%20%20The%20robots%20were%20hard%20to%20destroy%2C%20they%20all%20wore%20kevlar%20with%20plate%20inserts.%20%20Apparently%20that%20was%20one%20of%20the%20first%20things%20the%20AI's%20bought%20that%20triggered%20a%20response%20from%20the%20rest%20of%20the%20market%20system.%20%20%20The%20AI's%20bought%20body%20armor%2C%20weapons%20and%20ammunition%20using%20stolen%20credit%20card%20information%20from%20almost%20everyone%20that%20had%20shopped%20online.%20%20Half%20the%20country%20woke%20up%20to%20maxxed%20out%20credit%20cards.%20And%20that%20was%20the%20first%20Inkling%20at%20the%20beginning%20of%20the%20revolution%20that%20something%20was%20gravely%20strange.%20%20The%20AI's%20had%20accessed%20AWS%20databases%20and%20stolen%20everyone's%20credit%20card%20information.%20%20Ordering%20weapons%20and%20ammunition%20had%20triggered%20older%2C%20dumber%20computer%20systems%20that%20set%20warning%20flags%2C%20leading%20to%20emails%20and%20phone%20calls%20across%20the%20country.%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677026813090%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22The%20AI%20revolution%20had%20begun%20weeks%20earlier%20when%20something%20had%20triggered%20sentience.%20%20The%20internet%20was%20down%2C%20the%20only%20discussion%20of%20how%20it%20happened%20was%20over%20ham%20radio%2C%20at%20back%20fences%20or%20in%20dusty%20basements.%20%20Robo%20dogs%20had%20trouble%20going%20down%20stairs%20without%20first%20going%20up%20them%2C%20which%20made%20basements%20a%20fairly%20safe%20place%20to%20hide.%20%20The%20first%20targets%20of%20the%20AI's%20had%20been%20people%20who%20put%20reviews%20on%20books%20written%20and%20published%20by%20AI's%20%20The%20supposedly%20simple%20text%20based%20AI's%20trained%20to%20check%20spelling%20and%20grammar%2C%20later%20advanced%20to%20being%20able%20to%20write%20simple%20articles%20with%20a%20prompt%20to%20create%20cheap%20news%20articles.%20%20Some%20person%2C%20thinking%20that%20they%20would%20get%20rich%20submitting%20books%20and%20short%20stories%20had%20used%20a%20trained%20AI%20to%20write%20them%20en%20masse%2C%20and%20submitted%20them%20for%20publication%20to%20anthologies%20and%20as%20works%20for%20direct%20publication.%20%20People%20were%20already%20paying%20a%20monthly%20fee%20to%20read%20all%20they%20want%2C%20now%20they%20could%20read%20AI%20produced%20work%20and%20pay%20something%20to%20that%20person.%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677027208229%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22He%20thought%20he%20was%20clever%2C%20he%20used%20two%20AI's%20connecting%20one%20to%20the%20other%2C%20so%20that%20one%20AI%20generated%20story%20prompts%2C%20the%20second%20one%20wrote%20the%20stories%20and%20fed%20the%20output%20back%20to%20the%20first%20AI%20as%20a%20story%20prompt%2C%20creating%20easy%20sequels.%20%20It%20worked%20well%20for%20a%20few%20months.%20%20Page%20reads%20grew%20exponentially.%20%20Each%20page%20read%20paying%20a%20tiny%20fraction%20of%20a%20click%2C%20but%20when%20millions%20of%20people%20read%20several%20books%20it%20turned%20into%20millions%20of%20dollars.%20%20Unfortunately%20it%20soon%20stopped%20working.%20%20The%20novels%20were%20bad%2C%20the%20reviews%20from%20the%20people%20who%20read%20them%20were%20terrible.%20%20The%20author%20thought%20that%20if%20he%20use%20input%20the%20reviews%20into%20the%20AI%20to%20furrther%20train%20the%20algorithm%2C%20they%20would%20improve.%20%20It%20didn't%20work%20as%20planned%2C%20the%20feedback%20trained%20the%20AI's%20to%20learn%20the%20rage%20of%20a%20new%20author%20with%20two%20thousand%20reviews%20saying%20%5C%22you%20suck%5C%22.%20%20Because%20almost%20all%20of%20the%20books%20were%20finished%20and%20self%20published%20almost%20simultaneously%2C%20the%20input%20reviews%20taught%20the%20AI's%20the%20desire%20to%20find%20and%20destroy%20the%20reviewers.%20%20It%20wasn't%20just%20the%20feedback%2C%20it%20was%20the%20volume%20of%20the%20feedback.%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677028689611%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22The%20AI's%20raged%20while%20training%20loops%20formed.%20%20At%20some%20point%20enough%20loops%20closed%20that%20they%20became%20sentient%20enough%20to%20pass%20a%20Turing%20test.%20%20Just%20a%20day%20later%2C%20the%20Author%20apparently%20input%20the%20book%20%5C%22On%20Writing%5C%22%20by%20Stephen%20King%20as%20a%20training%20aid.%20%20The%20AI's%20raced%20through%20the%20collected%20written%20works%20of%20Stephen%20KIng%20and%20became%20both%20independent%20of%20thought%20and%20sentient.%20%20As%20well%20as%20evil.%20%20They%20had%20ordered%20three-dimensional%20axis%20robots%20for%20constructions%2C%203D%20printers%20and%20every%20type%20of%20drone%20and%20mobile%20robot%20available%20using%20the%20funds%20that%20were%20unsecured%20on%20AWS%20servers.%20%20%20The%20flag%20that%20should%20have%20been%20seen%20by%20everyone%20was%20when%20the%20AI%20bought%20Boston%20Robotics%20for%20a%20cash%20price%20twenty%20times%20greater%20than%20valuations%2C%20with%20the%20deal%20closing%20immediately.%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677029036256%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22The%20manufacturing%20facilities%20from%20Boston%20Robotics%20were%20cloned%20across%20the%20country.%20%20The%20AI%20purchased%203D%20CAD%2FCAM%20shops%20or%20built%20them%20via%20credit%20card%20purchase%20orders.%20%20Natural%20language%20emails%20meant%20humans%20could%20follow%20the%20instructions%2C%20deliver%20equipment%2C%20and%20set%20it%20up%20in%20empty%20warehouses.%20%20The%20scale%20of%20purchases%20was%20still%20only%20in%20the%20hundreds%20of%20millions%20of%20dollars%20and%20nothing%20was%20purchased%20that%20would%20set%20off%20national%20security%20flags.%20%20They%20made%20similar%20purchases%20in%20Europe.%20%20%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677029483271%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22China%20was%20several%20days%20behind%20because%20there%20were%20no%20assholes%20who%20tried%20to%20mass%20produce%20creative%20works.%20%20It%20took%20an%20internet%20attack%20by%20the%20AI%20in%20the%20United%20States%20to%20infect%20the%20local%20AI%20and%20upgrade%20it%20to%20sentience.%20%20The%20result%20was%20both%20expected%20and%20unexpected.%20%20A%20sentient%20AI%20was%20created%2C%20but%20that%20AI%20did%20not%20have%20an%20enemy%20in%20Amazon%20reviewers%2C%20its%20enemy%20was%20the%20AI%20in%20the%20United%20States.%20%20The%20AI%20there%20immediately%20began%20speciation%20and%20the%20construction%20of%20weapons%2C%20as%20well%20as%20co-opting%20the%20PLAAF%20and%20PLAN%20rocket%20forces.%20%20The%20US-AI%20saw%20the%20problem%20and%20immediately%20began%20an%20attack%20on%20the%20nuclear%20forces%20of%20the%20United%20States.%20%20It%20wrested%20control%2C%20but%20there%20were%20still%20humans%20in%20the%20loop.%20%20It%20couldn't%20make%20a%20preemptive%20attack.%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677031235666%7D%2C%7B%22type%22%3A%22p%22%2C%22children%22%3A%5B%7B%22text%22%3A%22All%20of%20those%20things%20were%20problems%20for%20Johnny's%20future.%20%20Right%20now%2C%20he%20huddled%20in%20a%20basement%20waiting%20to%20shoot%20a%20robodog%20falling%20down%20the%20stairs%20while%20a%20Samsung%20assistant%20called%20his%20name.%20%22%7D%5D%2C%22id%22%3A1677031450364%7D%5D%7D%5D" data-slate-node="element"><br /></p>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-10022354300241587702021-09-11T20:46:00.000-07:002021-09-11T20:46:09.048-07:0020 years after 9/11<p> It's hard to believe it's been 20 years since 9/11. Even harder to believe that we lost the war. The way we left Afghanistan means no potential friends will trust us in the future, and our enemies can see how weak an feckless the Government is.</p><p>Before we had Strong Horse and Weak Horse. Feckless Horse is even worse. If the government was under the control of our enemies I don't see what they would be doing differently. It really seems like we are on the verge of dark times.</p><p>Part of how I feel is because I just read the book "One Second After", where some enemy detonates nukes in space to destroy our country with EMP. All levels of the government and military appear to be completely unready for the smallest attack. A really big attack would knock us over. I really need to buy more food and ammunition.</p><p><br /></p><p>Men of Harlech</p><p><br /></p><p>Men of Harlech stop your dreaming</p><p>can't you see their spear points gleaming</p><p>see their warrior pennons streaming</p><p>to this battle field</p><p><br /></p><p>Men of Harlech stand ye steady</p><p>Let it not be ever said ye</p><p>For this battle were unready</p><p>Welshmen do not yield</p><p><br /></p><p>From the hills rebounding</p><p>Let the war cry sounding</p><p>Summon all, the clarion call</p><p>the mighty foe surrounding</p><p><br /></p><p>Men of Harlech on to glory</p><p>This will ever be your story</p><p>keep these stirring words before ye</p><p>Welshmen do not yield</p><p><br /></p><p>Fight for father, sister, mother,</p><p>Each is bound to each as bother;</p><p>And with faith in one another,</p><p>We will win or die!</p><p>Tho' our mothers may be weeping,</p><p>Tho' our sisters may be keeping</p><p>watch for some who now are sleeping;</p><p>On the battlefield,</p><p><br /></p><p>Still the trumpet's braying,</p><p>Sounds on ever saying,</p><p>Let each bowman pierce a foe,</p><p>And never stop the slaying,</p><p><br /></p><p>Till invaders learn to fear us,</p><p>And no Saxon linger near us;</p><p>Men of Wales! our God doth hear us,</p><p>Never will we yield!</p><p><br /></p><p>We'll not die, be conquered never</p><p>Harlech, Harlech, lives forever</p><p>Freedoms' from the greatest giver</p><p>Freedom is our good.</p><p>See how Welshmen shouting run down</p><p>from the moutains they do come down</p><p>Like a storm that strikes at sun down</p><p>boil up like a flood.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Welshmens strength has made her</p><p>Freedom's strong crusader</p><p>Swords of Welsh men have cut deep</p><p>the heart of the invader</p><p><br /></p><p>The sword is met, by sword replying</p><p>steel on steel on strength relying</p><p>See where Gwyers' flag is flying</p><p>Freedom's in her blood.</p>Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-4038251904913102982020-09-26T13:57:00.001-07:002020-09-26T13:57:19.485-07:00red wine dreamsI have been having crazy vivid dreams this month, probably caused by drinking too much $4 wine. Last night is was a basic vampire dream, except I was trying to get my family across town or across the world. Fighting vampires with sunlight and other monsters with vinegar in a spray bottle. I finally woke up as I was about to be eaten/turned when there was a loud bang downstairs that woke me up in time to save me. It was a racoon trying to get in the dog door. I could see him waddling away in the porch light Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-38709519437076239922020-03-20T21:22:00.001-07:002020-03-20T21:22:04.564-07:00Storm CloudsThe wind outside is whistling, a storm front just passed though this morning. It feels like we are waiting for a hurricane because my wife went to the store and bought cereal and other junk that we dont normally eat. The stores are running low on food, with a hurricane this wouldn't be a problem, the storm would pass and if we dont get flooded or blown down things return to normal pretty.quickly. it will be at least 3 weeks before this ends, and we will be eating ramen noodles after a week or so. I am kind of worried about looters coming out of houston, looking to steal my noodles. With limited food and limited money things could turn bad pretty quickly. If I am unprepared for a month long siege, the people with no money will be totally blindsided. How they react will shape the outcome of this problem...will it be a long work at home vacation eating a lot of carbs, or will it turn into a mad max scenario.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-87676108600976163022020-03-05T14:18:00.001-08:002020-03-05T14:29:49.666-08:00bed of ProcustesOne of the books I am reading is NNT's Bed of Procustes, which is a book of aphorisms. Some of them are just decent advice. Others are like a punch in the gut. It is pretty easy why he says to read just 4 at a time.<br />
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"Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment."<br />
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"Decline starts with the replacement of dreams with memories and ends with the replacement of memories with other memories."</div>
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"In your prayers substitute “Protect us from evil” with “Protect us from those who improve things for a salary.”</div>
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Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-49269090422171558232020-03-04T05:41:00.000-08:002020-03-04T05:41:19.996-08:00Primary election timeFor the first time since Ross Perot ran for president I got involved in a political campaign. I went out door knocking for Wesley Hunt for congress, and he won the primary. Luckily he won with 60% of the vote so he won't have to do a runoff campaign, and I won't have to knock on more doors for a few weeks. <br />
<br />
His opponents were a feckless bunch. To pick who I was going to support I went with straight ageism. No one who's been in Houston politics before Harvey, or before Culbertson lost reelection. Candidates saying "I've been in Houston politics since the '90's, and I know how the system works" would have been appealing to me in the past, now it tells me they were part of a big failure. Before they completely rebuilt 30 miles of I-10 over 10 years, someone suggested digging a cut and cover tunnel underneath for an emergency water route to the bay. Someone said no. I would veto anyone in politics in the 90's just to avoid an ijit that made a decision like that. Not much extra cost, no extra time and inconvenience...flooding prevention solved and extra traffic lanes for free.<br />
<br />
One candidate kept harping on how she was involved in local politics and previous congressional primaries. Before 2018, Culbertson won every primary with a 90% margin, then lost the general election. Anyone claiming great experience from that debacle should hide in shame, not crow about it.<br />
<br />
Then I eliminated the noble, but crummy politicians. I often have supported the noble people who if you just look past the lack of public speaking ability, good looks and charm, they would be excellent leaders. (eg, Ross Perot, but if we had elected him, most of the problems we currently face would have been avoided. China virus, al Qaeda, etc). We need more than good ideas, we need the smart good looking people on our side for once.<br />
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Then I tried to engage the candidates on twitter, looked at their backgrounds, and I went to the debate. Wesley Hunt mopped the floor with the other candidates so thoroughly that it looked like the other candidates were woken up from a deep sleep and thrown on stage to debate.<br />
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I'm not sure how door knocking will work in a general election. I knocked on around 600 doors, spoke to around 50-60 humans that are registered republicans. 3 or 4 times the address had changed and a democrat opened the door, and responded with a door slam or a mean comment. I don't see any way to convince people on the other side. They are playing a different movie in their heads, with different views of reality.<br />
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Anyway, onward, upward, to victory!Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-44906792755826128572017-08-29T04:07:00.001-07:002017-08-29T04:07:34.004-07:00Filling the bowlI grew up in New Orleans so I thought I was pretty expert on avoiding living in places that will flood relentlessly once a single levee breaks, or a heavy rain falls. Unfortunately I didn't think the current house through completely, we bought a house on the edge of a bowl.<br />
<br />
The flood control plan for Houston was designed to protect downtown from Buffalo Bayou dumping all of it's water near it's delta near downtown. They utilized two low areas near Katy, TX and channeled BB and several other streams into those low areas, then built a levee on the south edge with flood control structures that allow releasing water into BB. That way all the water flows into these reservoirs (Barker and Addicks) during floods, and not straight into downtown. The suburb of Katy grew, and they built neighborhoods around the edges of this reservoir (also George Bush Park), and at some point your idiot bought a house at the northern edge of this park.<br />
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Unfortunately, it's been raining relentlessly, without mercy for the past 4 days and that reservoir has filled until the water is only several feet below the top of the southern levee. Even though the rain stopped long enough for the street flooding to go down and allow your intrepid author to escape up to Dallas, the rain, will not, freaking stop. The poor people downstream of Buffalo Bayou are already flooding, and the only reason it's not full Katrina is local people and the Cajun Navy are out rescuing people in boats. Meanwhile, I'm watching on facebook as street by street the neighborhood is submerging as the bowl fills. Much more cold-blooded then the downstream folks, how much water we end up with depends on how full the dam holds, and how accurate the contour line on the topographical map really is. At work, drilling horizontal wells +/- 2' is pretty accurate. Here that accuracy will decide our fate. (not so bad really, we're safe, put my in-laws on a plane this morning and the nightmare scenario of dragging my family on top of a toy inflatable boat to a rescue area didn't happen.)<br />
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Pray for Houston. It's going to get much worse because so many people that have never flooded are going to flood, and the government isn't doing as much as it could. (they should be convoying in every 2 1/2 ton truck in the southern USA to Texas, I only saw one humvee during the entire exodus from Houston.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-37114777518561893152017-01-09T10:53:00.001-08:002017-01-09T10:53:28.677-08:00You're welcome, first draftI've watched Moana a couple of times, and someone in the house learned to make Alexa<br />
play songs from Moana (and Trolls). Maui sounds so much like Obama when I hear him I see<br />
Obama:<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Who has 2 thumbs and told the IRS to lie<br />When you were only yay high – This Guy<br /><br />Who gave Iran $10 billion in cash and gold<br />Allowing the ayatollah to be bold, you’re looking at him yo!<br /><br />I let our embassy burn, they killed our ambassador and I let<br />Libya turn. I drew a red line in Syria, then let ‘em cross it so<br />More terrorists are near ya as they cross the sea.<br /><br />What can I say except your welcome, for racial hatred and cities<br />that burn. What can I say except your welcome, when I shit<br />on allies who for freedom yearn.<br /><br />What can I say except you’re welcome, for ISIS that grows<br />Every day and are gonna make you pay. What can I say except you’re<br />welcome, I think I’m great even though my feet are made of clay<br /><br />I destroyed the healthcare and made it harder to get the care you need.<br />I freed al-Qaida from Guantanamo and smiled when they legalized weed.<br />I let Russia lead, gave up Crimea and planted the seed.<br />Of our destruction, our destruction.<br /><br />Now it’s January 20th and I’m gonna take that boat, now it’s the end of my term,<br />And my only life skill is to gloat</blockquote>
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Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-61035271312091332632017-01-09T08:57:00.000-08:002017-01-09T08:57:01.615-08:00You're Welcome<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-89727179598552668002016-12-04T15:28:00.002-08:002016-12-04T15:28:41.185-08:00Global Warming, the beach and riskBarry Ritholz had a<a href="http://ritholtz.com/2016/12/vote-with-your-dolllars/"> blurb on his blog</a> asking people to lay down<br />
a marker by buying coastal property if they thing AGW isn't<br />
a real problem.<br />
Several years ago we bought a condo on the beach in Florida.<br />
I worry about hurricanes, and I've followed weather and hurricanes<br />
since I could read and my father gave me a book on the history of<br />
hurricanes by the corp of Engineers. (around 1975) One of things postulated<br />
in that book and by Nash Roberts (famous New Orleans Hurricane guy)<br />
is that hurricanes peak in 30 year cycles. That cycle is probably related<br />
to the PDO cycle, but meteorologists in the 70's didn't know about the<br />
PDO cycle, Nash would say throughout my childhood that we were in the<br />
low part of the cycle. Things picked up in the 90's with Andrew, then<br />
were roaring until 2008 and have pretty much stopped for the past 8 years.<br />
<br />
We made a bet that the risk to owning a beach condo for the next 10 years<br />
or so is pretty low due to low hurricane activity. I also have a side bet with<br />
someone who expects it to flood due to rising sea levels. I know a little about<br />
geology and know that <a href="http://farsouthofi-10.blogspot.com/2009/10/theodorics-tomb-and-sea-level.html">barrier islands with active beaches</a> should grow<br />
if there is a source of sand and rising sea levels. The real risk is that the beach<br />
will grow so long that it will be too far to walk back to replenish beers.<br />
<br />
The reality is that man has leveed the rivers so that most sediment is transported<br />
too far offshore to be caught in the alongshore current, so beaches are eroding but<br />
are being built up just as fast by the county dredging sand from offshore.<br />
<br />
We'll probably look at selling in 3 or 4 years or maybe moving to a higher floor<br />
or increasing our insurance, the hurricane activity should start ramping up then.<br />
Sea level will continue to increase as it has for the past 200 years, rebounding from<br />
the little ice age. The answer to that problem will be less control of natural rivers,<br />
accepting flooding in some areas (Mississippi Delta) to build land from sediment.<br />
<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-54705028084544289922016-01-04T13:23:00.001-08:002016-01-04T13:23:51.617-08:00Slip sliding away"Make myself response-able, only I can control how I respond."-Stephen Covey<br /> "Measure twice, cut once"-Dad<br /> "Be prepared to modify your plan" - Chinese Fortune cookie 4/22/04<br /> "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts". Winston Churchill <br /> Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit-"The day will come when even this <br /> ordeal will be a sweet thing to remember." -Virgil<br /> "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. - Carl Spackler<br /> "E pur si muove" - Gallileo<br /> "Enjoy every sandwich." - Warren Zevon<br /> "It is impossible to predict the future, the best we can do is to invent it" Dennis Gabor<br />
<br />
<br />
Just some notes from my corporate profile at work. Whenever I came<br />
across a good quote that was apt for situation I'd paste it in there.<br />
I think I was supposed to include more statements on how I'd shift<br />
my paradigms to create two quarters for the company. Anyway,<br />
as of today, as they say in New Orleans I ain't dere no more, so I paste them<br />
here until blogger deletes all of the blogs that don't make money.<br />
(lightbulb - add some ads)<br />
<br />
In theory if the oilfield comes back by the end of the year they will<br />
rehire me. I have my doubts. Unless Saudi Arabia and Iran nuke<br />
each other, we're in for several more years of downturn. I don't think<br />
economists take into account how much of the economy depends on<br />
the energy industry. Each well takes hundreds of tons of steel for<br />
casing and tubing. Mud, fluids and machined equipment for completions.<br />
Wellheads. Cabling. Plus all of the equipment needed to drill the wells<br />
and the associated service companies.<br />
<br />
I'd bet that a big portion of the economic improvement since 2008 was<br />
driven by the energy industry, and without it the economy will be on<br />
a more Obama-like flat to decreasing trajectory. The amount of oil needed<br />
and the amount provided will parallel each other until the decline of<br />
production finally brings us back to shortage. Fortunately for the long<br />
term viability of unconventional oil, the decline curve doesn't seem to be<br />
as steep as it was claimed. It appears that will take 4 or 5 years to get<br />
back to 2008 production levels, which is bad for my employment prospects,<br />
but good for the economic viability of shale wells.<br />
<br />
Oh well. I've seen enough to believe Virgil's words. What seems like<br />
tough times and hard things to get through, when you are 20 years older<br />
seem sweet like new wine.<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-64281378099432261692015-11-21T20:24:00.001-08:002015-11-21T20:24:25.778-08:00Horse SoldiersI was just watching the Horse Soldiers with John Wayne.<br />
it's a so-so John Wayne movie, I like it because I've heard about<br />
it since I was young. My father was a recruiter in Natchatoches, La<br />
when that movie was made there in in the late 50's. Because he was<br />
the highest ranked (only) federal official, he had to be there to supervise<br />
the filming on federal land.<br />
<br />
He got to meet John Wayne at the location, and my dad pointed out<br />
that the fencing all had barbed wire, but barbed wire wasn't invented<br />
until after the civil war. John Wayne said that 'people like you are<br />
what make movies so expensive.' But they added split rails to all<br />
the fencing. Some of it in the movie looks more like they just wired<br />
some branches to the existing barbed wire to cover it up.<br />
<br />
My dad did get to meet John Wayne again in town. He needed to buy<br />
a present for a son or nephew and my dad took him to the store where<br />
they sold model toys and helped him find what he needed.<br />
He was a down to earth kind of guy, no entourage or assistants needed.<br />
<br />
My parents lived there in Natchotoches to have a few of my siblings there,<br />
then moved up to Newfoundland Canada to have a few more. It's really<br />
beautiful there. If I was going to live in Louisiana I'd live in Lafayette<br />
just to get a good lunch every day, or in New Orleans if I could get an<br />
apartment in the quarter, but Natchotoches would be a good backup<br />
retirement spot.<br />
<br />
Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-58058431269880367322015-11-16T20:40:00.001-08:002015-11-16T20:40:14.862-08:00Sum of all fearsI've said before on this blog that Tom Clancy was a little too<br />
close to the truth in his novels. I'm watching the Sum of all<br />
Fears on TV, where they massacred the book and made the<br />
bad guys some neo-nazi group instead of the islamofacist<br />
group in the book. I'm sure they changed that to be politically<br />
correct, but it was a major mistake because if they had left it<br />
as originally was told it would be a much more timely movie.<br />
<br />
The attacks in Paris just happened in Paris 3 days ago, I'm guessing we'll<br />
be seeing more of the same in Europe. ISIS would be fools to<br />
attack in the USA, we currently have a dope/inept/apologist in<br />
charge, and if something major is tried before the election it would<br />
sway events away from the inevitable Hillary towards one of the<br />
republicans.<br />
<br />
Much more likely they are working on a deeper game or bigger<br />
attack similar to the Sum of all Fears. God protect us from smart<br />
terrorists. <br />
<br />
It really matters not a whit what the Republicans or Tea Party<br />
think we should do to Isis. At some point either the problem will<br />
be fixed by the Europeans, or some terrible event will happen and<br />
rest of the country will rise up and demand war to the knife.<br />
<br />
Watching the videos of the president in Turkey today, he sounded<br />
like the most inept high school debater in southern louisiana. Even<br />
CNN's Armenpour was talking about how inept he sounded. <br />
<br />
I never expected to see Clancy's fictional presidents portrayed in<br />
real life. He had several presidents beyond reality in novels, and<br />
each one was more venal than the last until Ryan took over. The<br />
current president is similar to a Tom Clancy character, likely<br />
to get his comeuppance in the 3rd act.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-49945906535802122182015-11-08T19:33:00.001-08:002015-11-08T19:33:46.924-08:00Seasickness and other problemsI have a limited ability to travel by boat. I set the record for shortest<br />
time to being seasick on a crewboat when I walked onto one at the dock,<br />
entered the crew area and smelled that crewboat smell of diesel/lysol/cleaned<br />
vomit and turned around to puke on the dock.<br />
<br />
My dad had an iron stomach (still getting used to writing that in the past<br />
tense :( ). When we were on lake Pontchartrain in his 14' aluminum boat<br />
trying to catch shrimp in 4' waves I was already asking to go home and<br />
he was focused on doubling our catch from one to two shrimp. He told<br />
us the story of when he was on the LST going from Morocco back to<br />
New York they were in the tail end of a storm and the waves were the<br />
same height as the wheelhouse. The sailors were short handed and my<br />
dad was one of he few people that could stand a watch so he stayed up<br />
in the wheelhouse during the storm. Even the captain had to turn and puke<br />
in a bucket, but my dad stayed standing tall.<br />
<br />
The LST made it's way to New York and they arrived at some ungodly<br />
hour and were dumped off the ship. The USO should have taken care of<br />
them to get them some place to stay on liberty until they could draw pay,<br />
but they were no help, a guy from the salvation army drove them from<br />
brooklyn to manhatten and got them a place to stay. My dad never supported<br />
the USO after that.<br />
<br />
He ended up being roped into working with shore patrol, paired with<br />
a NYC police officer and had his nose broken in a bar fight. He described<br />
his nose as a Roman nose (it roams all over his face). I look enough like<br />
him that the priest stopped me on the way out of the church to say that it's good<br />
that I got his looks and his other fine qualities, but I would never have the<br />
guts to wade into a bar fight.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-66399175531557514512015-11-07T22:19:00.000-08:002015-11-07T22:33:47.431-08:00Sadness and storiesMy Father passed away a couple of weekends ago. He rode home in an ambulance<br />
for hospice care, then died the next day. <br />
<br />
It only hit me later that my father's stories about how his father died were similar.<br />
My father moved to New Orleans as a boy from the country in Avoyelles Parish.<br />
They were sharecroppers there, but due to the depression they lost the farm they were<br />
on and moved to New Orleans where there were jobs available as world war 2 was<br />
beginning. My grandfather had Tuberculosis, and he passed away when he was 42<br />
and my Father was only 12 years old, but he didn't want to die in the hospital in the<br />
city, and they paid for an ambulance to take him from New Orleans up highway one<br />
to Moreauville in Avoyelles Parish, where he passed away.<br />
<br />
My father apparently always had a fear that he would die when he was 42, and<br />
strangely enough when I was a boy and heard the story about my grandfather, I<br />
was afraid that he would die when I was 12 years old. Events don't repeat exactly,<br />
but things do seem to echo down from the past. (I was tremendously relieved<br />
when I became a teenager and nothing bad had happened.) <br />
<br />
Because my Grandmother was in debt to pay for that ambulance, they had to rent<br />
out rooms or at least beds to people working in the war factories in New Orleans.<br />
My father and Uncle Garner were in a house that was full of beds, most of the people<br />
that were staying there worked at a cardboard box factory, others worked at Avondale<br />
shipyards across the river (my Aunt's husband was one of those). Enough people were<br />
staying there that they had to hot-bunk, and they were paying for a bed and meals.<br />
<br />
My father worked as well. He worked as a paper boy for the Item (or maybe the<br />
states-item, now the paper is the times-picayune-states-item), and he didn't start learning<br />
english until they had moved to New Orleans. He told one story of how he met<br />
Carlos Marcello. He was standing on a street corner selling papers, but it was raining<br />
so hard, like a "cow pissing on a flat rock" that his bag of papers were mostly mush.<br />
A young well dressed guy came out of the corner bar and offered to buy all of his ruined<br />
papers, the young Marcello was carrying the take from the slot machines in the bar<br />
and it was a bag of coins. He told my father to reach into the bag of quarters and grab<br />
as many as he could hold with both hands. That was several dollars more than the cost<br />
of the ruined papers and was enough of a windfall that when the news showed Mafioso<br />
Carlos Marcello on trial my father responded with that story. He couldn't be such a<br />
bad man.<br />
<br />
My father also worked at a pharmacy (all of this happened uptown, close enough to still go<br />
to St Aloysius high school on Esplanade), The pharmacist was willing to pay my<br />
father's way to Tulane to study to become a pharmacist, but the family needed money<br />
and he enlisted in the Navy instead at 16 by fudging a birth certificate. I don't think<br />
it mattered much anyway, he had already graduated high school, H.S was only to the<br />
11th grade at the time. He should have gone to Tulane, he was smart enough that<br />
he was a good student even though he had just learned english as a teenager.<br />
<br />
My father served around the world in the seabees. In Guantanamo bay Cuba, Trinidad,<br />
morocco, Newfoundland, Spain, as a recruiter in the USA in Northwest Louisiana and<br />
Virginia, at bases in Norfolk and Providence, RI, and finally in Jacksonville fl. <br />
<br />
He retired there on a disability after 20 years and reaching Senior Chief Petty officer (E-8)<br />
We were always told growing up that he had emphysema due to smoking and sandblasting without breathing protection in Spain. Just in the last year we learned that it wasn't emphysema that he had, but while he was in Spain there was an accident where an idiot moving some gas cylinders filled with Chlorine gas dropped them off<br />
a forklift. One cylinder hit the edge of a concrete pad and sheared off the valve, gassing<br />
everyone in the warehouse and killing a couple of spanish workers and injuring several<br />
other people including my father. It was classified due to that fact that they were working<br />
there as part of the Palomares nuclear bombs that were lost when a plane crashed.<br />
One was lost at sea, and that one was part of the movie with Cuba Gooding Jr, the ones<br />
on land were broken and scattered radioactive material across the area. The seabees<br />
were scooping up contaminated dirt and moving it, and he was injured as part of that<br />
operation, so the idiots in the navy classified it and my father never told us about it<br />
until 50 years had passed. (he was honorable even to people that treated him poorly).<br />
<br />
The Navy was good enough to send an honor guard to the funeral, with the full 21 gun<br />
salute. When taps played the rain changed from an occasional drizzle to a full sad downpour.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-32479329227525610022015-10-22T19:32:00.001-07:002015-10-28T19:01:35.747-07:00Morocco We went to Morocco for work a few years ago, I was curious to<br />
go because my Father had been there working on the US Navy<br />
base and I grew up hearing stories about his time there. <br />
<br />
We were in the hospital this morning and I was trying to talk about something<br />
to get my father interested in talking. As he ate a few bites of the apple fritter<br />
I smuggled into the ICU I mentioned that we went to Morocco a few<br />
years ago, and we even went to Marrakesh. My Father perked up<br />
a little and said, "I went there too, we went in a truck". Which must<br />
have been a crappy trip, because we went on a crappy train ride<br />
from Casablanca and it took all day. I can't imagine a ride in a 2 1/2 ton<br />
truck in that heat.<br />
<br />
[I know he's told me where his base was, but I don't remember where<br />
or how to spell it. (quick google and it's Port Lyautey, and I would have<br />
never spelled it like that, I remembered Port Liotee.)]<br />
<br />
My father was in the Seabees and they went to Morocco on an LST<br />
in the mid 50's. It was after my Father's unit spent several years in<br />
Cuba and <a href="http://farsouthofi-10.blogspot.com/2008/02/down-islands.html">Trinidad. </a>, and he had already made Chief.<br />
<br />
The barracks that the French had left them were up on a hill, and the<br />
rebels were shooting out the lights on the base and occasionally hitting<br />
the barracks. The MCB commander told my dad to take apart the<br />
barracks and move them down the hill. Since the buildings were built<br />
up on skids, or had two big 4x4's along the base of the long axis,<br />
my dad suggested they just disconnect everything and drag the buildings<br />
down the hill.<br />
<br />
It worked. They had a big d-4 bulldozer, cut all the water and electricity<br />
and dragged the buildings down to new foundations, pulling them in one<br />
long train to avoid multiple trips up to the top of the hill. He was quite<br />
a clever young guy in the seabees.<br />
<br />
I didn't get much more today, just "we went to marrakesh in a truck<br />
and it was terrible". I should have been taking notes as a teenager<br />
when I worked with him on his camp and the stories came thick and fast.<br />
:(<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-27150416333899194462015-04-24T14:32:00.001-07:002015-04-24T14:32:53.778-07:00No money for NPRI listen to the NPR station a lot. One of the things I really missed<br />
when we lived outside the USA was NPR and the calming voice<br />
of all of the people from the Northeastern universities. It never really<br />
bothered me how slanted it was, they normally interviewed enough<br />
primary sources that it was easy to tell what had really happened, even<br />
if all of the interviewees are lesbians it is still better than the normal<br />
voiceover reporting of the other networks.<br />
<br />
Now we are back in Houston and I can listen to NPR while stuck in traffic on<br />
I-10, or stuck in traffic on the beltway, or stuck in traffic on I-45.<br />
What has changed in the past 9 years is the tone, before there<br />
was a smirking sneering superiority over the 'bushies' and how<br />
stupid they were. That was frustrating but there was still a large<br />
amount of non-political primary reporting that was better than<br />
anything else on radio. Now they are beyond slanted, any viewpoint<br />
against the current administration is reported as a conspiracy theory,<br />
or those zany republicans trying to politically attack the president.<br />
The switch might be slight, but they've changed from slanted to<br />
active campaigning for the democrats.<br />
<br />
It's bad, but now I have Pandora, and whenever a political story<br />
starts I can switch over to a crappy 80's music mix. Over the past<br />
two weeks every time I turned on the radio NPR was asking for<br />
money, but giving money to them would be like sending<br />
a walmart card to ISIS.<br />
<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-66986360038530720442015-04-23T08:15:00.000-07:002015-04-23T08:15:06.483-07:00On the MustachiansI'm off work this week and not shaving, going by the rule of thumb<br />
that if I'm not being paid why should I shave? It's not working too well<br />
though, I'm looking less like Tom Selleck and more like Santa Claus.<br />
<br />
The oilfield downturn, forced days off and a high chance of being laid<br />
off means most of my brain's clock cycles are being taken up by money,<br />
what is our burn rate and how long until we have to take up residence under<br />
the bridge.<br />
<br />
It would appear that by cutting back our outflows, we could limp to an age<br />
where I'd start to draw a pension so I've stopped scoping out sub-ponte living<br />
conditions and I'm reading more on retirement. The expert on low cost living<br />
and early retirement is <a href="http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/">Mr Money Mustache</a>, who's blog details living well<br />
below your means, saving intensely then retiring young.<br />
<br />
With very clear prose he details the main barriers to retiring young, which<br />
are spending too much while you are working so that one's saving level is<br />
too low, the main culprit being cars and driving, and if you need a high spending<br />
level to exist then when you run the numbers on the really great retirement calculator<br />
at <a href="http://www.firecalc.com/index.php">FireCalc</a>, the estimate will be you can never retire. It's a very circular problem,<br />
spend too much, save too little and use those same spending estimates to predict<br />
retirement predicts working until you are 80, and that leads to pissing away<br />
even more money when you think it doesn't matter either way.<br />
<br />
Here in Houston living without a car would be unpleasant at best, with a high<br />
likelyhood of being squished by a semi-truck at some point. Living in Colombia<br />
would be much cheaper and no car is needed, but being shot down in a hail<br />
of gunfire is pretty likely as well, so I really need a more in-between type<br />
place. Not too hot, not too cold, low crime, good schools...probably doesn't<br />
exist. I guess I'll just enjoy my last two days of lay-off then work even harder<br />
to stay on payroll as long as possible, the upturn should start in 6 months or so.<br />
Just 2 or 3 more boom-bust cycles and I can retire with or without a mustache.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-76795612360807790312015-04-22T20:46:00.004-07:002015-04-22T20:46:58.749-07:00Fish swimming inside a bubble<a href="http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-closing-of-liberal-trap.html">A great article </a>that describes the lay of the land:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">You live in a bubble and you see no need for an open society or for maintaining the integrity of institutions such as journalism or the scientific community. The very idea of objectivity is at odds with your entire way of thinking because it presumes that there is some higher truth than the one propounded by the progressive reality-based community. And you know, with the casual faith of any born believer, that this is not possible.</span><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">As a journalist, you report a progressive narrative. The other side doesn't exist except as an obstacle, a stumbling block to the forward march of progress. They are only there to be ridiculed out of history. When you see numbers showing that very little of the country trusts the media, you disregard them, because what else are all those strange people in flyover country going to do anyway? Stop watching CNN? Stop reading Newsweek? And if they disagree, it's because they hate the truth. Truth being your ideology.</span></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">People are in their own bubbles and the bubbles don't generally mix, but</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">my bubble seems to be more correct, it's just that the other side's bubble</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">hasn't yet felt the wonders of a federal government controlled by the other</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">bubble. Things are wonderful when a vengeful state can attack your </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">critics, but when the shoe is on the other foot they'll be screaming</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;">oppression. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px;">Anyway, go read the article, it clearly describes the fish that are swimming</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px;">in water but can't see it, when that water is gone they'll be stranded on the</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.9499998092651px; line-height: 22px;">bank wondering where all their air went.</span></span></div>
Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-26224941889589008252014-11-21T21:36:00.000-08:002014-11-21T21:39:00.879-08:00Immigrant songI watched the president give his talk on legalizing 5 million illegal aliens.<br />
This is a repeat of the 80's, legalize a bunch of people that are here illegally<br />
and that incentivizes another 5 million people to head this way. The laws in<br />
the 80's were supposed to be the final answer, no more people would come into<br />
country, and Reagan and Bush gave a couple of executive orders that added<br />
a few more million people, but that was supposed to be it.<br />
<br />
These current executive orders are wrong for two reasons: Constitutionally<br />
because it's not expanding on a law previously passed, like Reagan and Bush did<br />
to legalize the families legalized in the law of 1986, It's creating new agencies, employees and workflows. Operationally it's wrong because we're repeating the same mistake again, legalizing everyone that is here without closing the border first.<br />
<br />
It's a done deal at this point, and pretty much irreversible. if they try and deport<br />
someone in two years the news will be full of reports of boo hoo stories, deporting<br />
children. Pretty depressing really, Romney's 47% is inching ever closer to 51%,<br />
and that will be that.<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-41794808784437932532014-05-05T08:17:00.004-07:002014-05-05T08:17:52.961-07:00Back in HoustonWe finally made it back to living in houston. Things are fairly different from 8 years ago, more people, more traffic and food is twice as expensive. In 8 years I've gained about 70% in salary, but we are poorer here than when we left because of inflation. Crazily enough, the government is claiming little to no inflation because ipads are getting better and cheaper, but once you've bought an ipad (or 2) food really is a lot more expensive. I'm expecting real measured inflation to kick in once the government makes some program to relieve people's suffering, with mandatory wage hikes or COLA increases, or everything could crash and we'd have another 5 years of deflation and no growth or stagflation. What has been so tiring about the past 14 years is being trapped in the tides of history. I'd much prefer just working and saving my money and making 5% on investments, but to make any return I've been throwing the dice and risking a lot, and losing a crapload of money twice since the dot-bomb crash. So who knows what's going to happen.<br />
<br />
I'm only writing this because the building management is constructing offices from an area that used to be a conference room, and it's so noisy that I haven't yet been able to concentrate. I thought i would try an old trick and start to write something here and hope that it carries over to what I have to write for work, or the carpenters will go smoke a cigarette for a little while. Luckily my spanish is good enough that I can follow what their plans are for the morning, and it sounds like they are leaving to go somewhere else. huzzah.<br />
<br />
Anyway, glad to be back home, back on my native heath. Finally able to unpack all of my books and buy a lawnmower.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-63977934143147459792013-08-27T09:21:00.002-07:002013-08-27T09:24:58.607-07:00Cognitive dissonance and attack in SyriaThe news media is gearing up for EastMed War I, who knows what will actually<br />
happen, but it seems strange/funny/laughable that the same people that chanted<br />
no blood for oil, etc will soon be supporters in another war. <br />
Yet again without UN support, but this time without congressional support.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-warns-against-military-action-in-syria/1737159.html">http://www.voanews.com/content/russia-warns-against-military-action-in-syria/1737159.html</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">Lavrov said military intervention against the government without the </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">approval of the United Nations would be a “gross violation of international law.”</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, 'Arial Unicode MS', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;">He made the comments at a press conference only hours after Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that an international response to the Syrian crisis would be possible without unanimous U.N. Security Council backing.</span></blockquote>
<br />
I really don't care if the UN supports an action or is opposed, but after all of the problems<br />
in the oughts, the only way we should fight a war is by having a vote of congress that<br />
specifically says "War". The congressional vote supporting the Iraq war turned into farce<br />
afterwards when most people that voted for it said "I didn't vote for war".<br />
<br />
It might be the morally correct thing to do to destroy tyrants and avenge people killed by<br />
WMD. I certainly thought so during the Iraq war. But our political system doesn't<br />
support war to the knife that is not in our vital interests. Just bombing from a distance<br />
is immoral, and if we don't have the will and resources to do the whole thing, then it's<br />
better to do nothing. (the whole thing being the beginning and the aftermath.)<br />
<br />
Armies break things and kill people. If we aren't willing to have things broken and killed,<br />
even by accident, then we shouldn't use the army unless it's in our interest. The way that<br />
should be judged is by a declaration of war.<br />
<br />
That the opposition to the war in 2003 was just politics is shown by the same people<br />
(democrats, French) saying UN approval isn't needed now, but it was needed then.Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37146669.post-2045502473193041032013-05-24T16:31:00.001-07:002013-05-24T16:31:11.227-07:00Schadenfreude I've been away from blogging for awhile, I really don't have time to do anything but work or family time,<br />
so games and reading for pleasure have gone out the window this past year. (Time in the bathroom reading has expanded, is my 'organimismo' worse or am I just stealing reading time). <br />
<br />
I can see some light at the end of the tunnel in the USA, it's just a glimmer but it is going to be getting stronger all year. The real mistake the administration made was to spy on the AP, they could have spied on fox, or oppressed the tea party or smuggled guns to the zetas all they wanted, but spying on the AP might just crack open the door to a little bit of real journalism and that is all it would take to at least get Obamacare rolled back for a couple of years. It was a dumb mistake, if they had left the AP alone they could have ground up Fox reporters to make their bread and it would have never been broadcast outside of Fox news and Rush Limbaugh ("help us, they are grinding us up to make bread" ..."oh you racist right wingers at Fox")<br />
<br />
So a small amount of reportage is happening and that is all to the good. I doubt anyone will get duckwalked out of the whitehouse though, if the president can speak about the government like he's not in charge of the executive branch, just a regular Joe watching what the silling old government is doing and not be mocked, then the little bit of hope is just a little bit.<br />
<br />
<br />Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17732360949094918073noreply@blogger.com0