Open Thread

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

I’m under attack by alien virus from heck. I know, I know. I WAS going to write a post, but breakfast exhausted me.
So consider this an open thread. Have fun.

213 thoughts on “Open Thread”

      2. Because if you do, Fluffy Will Have Opinions.

        (And he won’t make BBQ. Dragons make the BEST BBQ.)

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      2. I thought that was The Gods of the Copybook Headings. Which is, of course, also the official one.

        As I pass through my incarnations in every age and race,
        I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
        Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
        And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

        We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn
        That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:
        But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,
        So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

        We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,
        Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,
        But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come
        That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

        With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,
        They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;
        They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;
        So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

        When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.
        They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.
        But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,
        And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “Stick to the Devil you know.”

        On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
        (Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
        Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
        And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

        In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,
        By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;
        But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,
        And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “If you don’t work you die.”

        Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew,
        And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true
        That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four–
        And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

        As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man
        There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.
        That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
        And the burnt Fool’s bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;

        And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
        When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
        As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
        The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

        Liked by 2 people

      3. We don’t start the fire.

        We just bring the Graham crackers, Hersey’s chocolate, marshmallows, and pointy sticks, for melty chocolate goodiness.

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  3. But but… This is a post!!!!! [Crazy Grin]

    As for that Alien Virus, we need to find out where it came from so we can destroy that place.

    IE “Nuke It From Orbit!”

    Liked by 2 people

    1. It’s the only way to be sure. And Sure was once the name of an aerosol antiperspirant. which was made with Aluminum Chlorhydrate (Al₂ClH₉O₇) and for a while in 2022, carcinogenic propellant Benzene. If all of these formulae are properly analyzed, decoded and arranged, they provide the following number: 42 Which should solve the entire question, if there was a question- which is debatable because “There IS no spoon!“,

      PS SARAH best wishes, prayers and healing thoughts to you!!!

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    1. I saw a post elsewhere that Newsome’s visit to Davos was intended to be a two-part maneuver to position him for a presidential run in 2028. Him showing up to raise his profile was the expected part of that.

      The other part was supposed to be a dog pile. According to the poster, every year there’s a designated dog pile target, and this year it was apparently Trump. It was hoped that Newsome could use the Trump dog pile to springboard himself toward the White House.

      Except Trump decided to visit Davos himself. And he’s skilled and charismatic enough to upset a dog pile when he’s present in person. Which he was. So the dog pile didn’t work as expected. And that blocked Newsome.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Dave keeps disappointing. Alright, the LACK of an Event at Davos does. I’m easy… it could be uranium OR plutonium. Heck, some “upstart” with Neptunium would do – and be mighty interesting.

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      2. And yet, there is a Neverending conga line of “right wing” concern trolls saying “Trump is increasingly Demented”.

        Since he is -very- effective at disrupting the (POOP)heads of the world, count me in for riding this particular Crazy Train.

        All the way to 2029.

        Sure, disruption is messy. So? Whoever told you that the preservation of Liberty and the USA woukd be neat and tidy, and without disruption,

        Lied.

        Whizzed in your ear and said it was raining lemonade.

        The check will clear and they promise they won’t (censored, but IYKYK)

        All this trollbot noise tells me he is over the proper target and getting major hits with spectacular secondary effects.

        Keep on keeping on.

        Liked by 3 people

    2. The opposition may be -exploiting- impotent rage, but there is definite purpose. Covering up that steaming pile of insanely-massive corruption in Minneapolis is a big part of it. That crapshow may be three quarters of the Donk finance system.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I doubt it’s that high a percentage, especially when you factor in how much is baked into the Left Coast.

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      1. Whoops, already did that. Yesterday was a LONG day (2+ hour to, 2+ drive from, and a few hours of waiting/eye exams, etc.) The drive back was SO much no-fun, even with sunglasses, even driving AWAY from the sun.

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  6. Naomi Wolf remains, for the most part, a California liberal (not quite leftist), but she had the, “knock you over and stomp on yous,” and suggested hibiscus tea, plus extra vitamin C, fwiw.

    We’ve avoided the crud so far, but I’m having what’s probably industrial-strength reflux and I don’t want to go on acid blockers for the rest of my life.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You might try apple cider vinegar or a spoon of mustard. Apparently, sometimes not extra acid so much as not enough acid to signal to the appropriate aperatures it is time to close. Hence, acid reflux.

      Worked wonders for me. And no drugs involved.

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      1. Just how do you do it? I’ve read similar online (not the mustard, though).

        I thought I might be getting a handle on it but it jumped recently and I’m getting worried.

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          1. Thanks to you and Susan. Naturally, a lot of trigger foods are favorites, but certainly worth looking into.

            I drink lemon-ginger tea from Twinings which definitely seems to help. A friend with a herb/spice business offers an “acid reflux tisane,” containing rooibos, catnip, spearmint, barberry root, pau d’arco bark and lemon peel. It seems to work better than Twinings, but the pau d’arco bark worries me because my brief bit of internet research mentioned it may cause liver damage. I may ask her if they can formulate a variety without the bark.

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        2. I think you’re supposed to drink it.

          They do make HCl tablets for exactly this purpose, which are a good deal more pleasant than drinking vinegar.

          I got a bottle from my chiropractor and they fix occasional problems quite well. I haven’t had any chronic problems, so I couldn’t tell you how well they work for those. Probably best to take them with your food.

          If you’d like, once I’m home I can get you a brand name to search for.

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            1. The one my chiro carries is Biotics Research Hydro-Zyme dietary supplement.

              Contains Vit B6 (as pyroxodine hydrochloride) 2mg, Betaine Hydrochloride 150 mg, Glutamic Acid (as L-Glutamic Acid hydrochloride) 50mg, Ammonium Chloride 35 mg, Pancreatin 4X (porcine) 10 mg, and Pepsin (1:10,000) (whatever that means) 10 mg.

              So, not quite what I thought it was. But it does help with reflux problems.

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      2. We use honegar. Mix half and half honey with vinegar, then dilute in water.

        My mother had horrendous gird for 30 years. Her throat was like hamburger. Antacids never helped. Sipping this throughout the day settled the problem right down.

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        2. I have learned a Simple Truth:

          Anyone aiming “mean words” at me… is a Fargin’ Idiot, if not a full-on Demonically Possessed critter. Don’rt care how much Bible they can quote – guess who/what can quote it forwards and backwards?

          Liked by 1 person

    2. Whatever. They can have Star Trek at this point. They’ve already ruined.

      We’re better off keeping them from ruining something else, which they’ll do while we distracted fighting over the pile of manure they plopped out.

      Liked by 1 person

        2. I have not. If I got the money to do indie films I have two targets: Firelord by Parke Godwin, letting me make the second good King Arthur movie and War for the Oaks by Emma Bull to get decent urban fantasy.

          Liked by 1 person

  8. For those who haven’t heard…

    A conservative managed to get himself(?) onto the Signal chat groups that are being used to coordinate the anti-ICE activities in Minnesota. And when I say coordinate, I mean *everything*. Got a suspected government vehicle, and want a sympathetic government employee to run the tags? Post it in the Signal groups. Need logistical support? Post it in Signal. Need reporters you can trust? Signal. And on, and on. Everything is being coordinated through Signal.

    And the person at the top of at least some of the Signal groups is the state’s Lt. Governor. A state representative has also been IDed as another person helping to run things. Many other people in the government or in the press have also been identified as being part of the Signal groups.

    In short, if there was any doubt before that this was all being coordinated, the cold hard digital proof has been revealed

    Liked by 3 people

    3. If that account by the LT governor is not an elaborate false flag.

      Yeah, I know, I am being stupid.

      But, the medium to longer term consequences are probably going to involve trying to prove allegations in court.

      And, I have not had all the key actors locked up for thirty days for psychiatric observation, so even if I were competent to judge mental health, I kinda can’t tell who is simply insane.

      I’m amazed and appalled at how stupid this seems to be. I should not be, because last year I was warned early that Tim Walz had serious defects. But, still, I want to believe that people were not just surprised and trying to manage what they were told to do in very very stupid ways.

      But, it looks like Walz should have been confined for his own safety last year, and that we are not looking at an extremely sudden cognitive decline.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I wonder how the criminal Somali “migrants” feel about their bought-and-paid-for municipalities and state being hijacked for this insurrection. I imagine the graft will dry up even faster with rioting in the streets.

        Might be some wedges to be driven in there…

        Liked by 1 person

        1. The loot from revolution calks to the souls of pirates and plunderers.

          Look at Somalia. Tell me the fruit of that sithole, unassimilated to our ways, won’t join the destruction with glee.

          The assimilated ones know. They have mostly fled.

          Liked by 1 person

    4. See this on X (via link chain from Insty to PJM) by a retired Green Beret Chief Warrant Officer, and thus an expert in insurgency and counter insurgency, explaining how this is not any sort of grassroots protest, but a funded and organized insurgency in it’s early stages:

      https://x.com/schwalm5132/status/2015470661490057540

      As I understand it one of the most powerful strategic weapons in countering the Iraq insurgency was extensive data analysis to follow and interdict the money flows, and I believe there are a lot of folks with that experience who outlasted the Autopen in Federal service who know how to do that exact thing.

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      1. That’s what datarepublican has been doing. Of course, the best evidence in the world does you no good if your court system has been coopted so the crooks are released.

        Liked by 2 people

        1. If we get to arresting the insurgents, even if it’s known to be in a catch-and-release jurisdiction, we need to make sure those retina-scan gizmos they used to build the big ID database in Iraq get issued widely to the arrest units. They have to be sitting in military warehouses somewhere, next to the Ark of the Covenant crate, even given the military’s well deserved aversion to all things counterinsurgency at this point.

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          1. Arizona v. United States, 567 U.S. 387 (2012)

            Basically Federal law preempts state actions under Federal immigration laws. Not sure how this could run opposite to what Barry got in this case. The judge here seems aware that she’s on very shaky ground if she does what Minnesota is asking and kicks Federal ICE enforcement out of Minnesota (!) – from teh linked Signal article:

            Menendez, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, repeatedly questioned whether she has the right to block the surge.

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            1. Judges, and all other government officials, do not have ‘rights’ when acting on behalf of the government. They have limited authority delegated to them to do their jobs. The ultimate source of that authority is We The People. If they exceed their authority, if they abuse it, they should be punished and their authority rescinded.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. Charitably I don’t have the hearing transcript, so this word choice could be a case of teh stoopids by the jskool reporter.

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        3. We beat the racist (POOP)heads of the 1960s. The Klukkers became a joke.

          If they were -effective-, they would stay -quiet-. “Who, me?”

          Time to hose out the marxoid monkey house.

          Add a little blue dye, mist spray, and watch the winter mob mostly fold. The blue makes subsequent prosecuting easy.

          And in a pinch, full blast is a hoot.

          Liked by 2 people

    5. I have been telling folks for years this is active Communist insurrection. And now they control enough states for the puck to drop.

      Trump, bless him, and his merry band of supporters, is exposing the (POOP)birds and their financing.

      Billions of fraud and “NGOs”. You and I were financing this evil. Now it’s getting stopped.

      I hope the man doesn’t flinch. His Jacksonian moment is due real soon, and this marxoid cancer won’t be excised by a shrub or a proglite.

      He might not have the “smooth” of an Eisenhower or a Washington, but Federal troops get deployed, and soon, or we conceed Communist takover of a fifth of the USA, fracture, and watch the rest of the world burn.

      Meanwhile, get more fit, network, grow your wealth, and spend time “sharpening the saw”. Because we are going to win this one..

      It’s their last stand. Theirs, not ours. Let us ensure, this time, that it indeed -is- the last stand of the Marxoids.

      It’s going to get real interesting, real soon. Popcorn?

      Liked by 1 person

      2. and What A Coincidence!!!

        The Current Revolution (!!!) overlaps a discovery of major fraud, with the apparent active ignorance, if not outtright protection, of state and local government. As if maybe the Donks don’t want meddlesome Feds upsetting the Gravy Train.

        What An Amazing Coincidence !!!!

        Liked by 1 person

    6. Cam Higby has now partially walked-back the claim of involvement by the MN Lt. Governor. From the sound of things, he thinks that a particular account (named “Flan”) is her, but isn’t completely certain.

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    1. Possibly related.

      https://twitchy.com/samj/2026/01/26/eric-schwam-mn-n2424358

      I spent years training partner forces to dismantle exactly this kind of apparatus. Now pieces of it are standing up in American cities, enabled by elements of local government and civil society. That should keep every thinking American awake at night.

      Not because I want escalation. But because history shows these things don’t de-escalate on their own once the infrastructure exists and the cadre believe they’re winning the information war.

      Liked by 3 people

      1. Further down:

        The most sobering part? It’s domestic. Funded, trained (somewhere), and directed by people who live in the same country they’re trying to paralyze law enforcement in. When your own citizens build and operate this level of parallel intelligence and rapid-response network against federal officers—complete with doxxing, vehicle pursuits, and harassment that’s already turned lethal—you’re no longer dealing with civil disobedience.

        Can we just pull the bandage now and have at it? One side has decided it will destroy the country to win. It would be nice if the other side didn’t just let them.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. As noted in the CW4’s X post, they know how to address and dismantle this stuff. They just need recognition that it’s not actually wine moms and college kids at highest levels so they can dive into these structures, within existing law, and snap the money and organizational connections that are making it happen.

          Liked by 1 person

        2. The art is not destroying the country to “save” it.

          For example, the moment the Feds declare an insurrection, several hostile foreign powers will recognize it, and start demanding all sorts of limits on resisting it, Lawfare on steroids.

          Keeping it a criminal matter prevents that. Also denies pride in that notional “Revolution”

          it also reduces the final body count. Remember the last one? The forbidden war? Yeah, no. Not again.

          Liked by 1 person

    2. I hope so but a lifetime of failure theater by the GOP doesn’t have me optimistic. I figure he’ll administer the requisite stern talking to and nothing will change.

      I worry Trump is finally becoming a Republican instead of what he was.

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        1. I deny all accusations, on behalf of all Dans, Daniels, Dannys, and suchlike forenames in perpetuity! We are all innocent of any such malice or carrying of diseases, virii, bacterium, or other malefactions. Any scurrilous slander is henceforth to be dismissed without prejudice, but with something chocolate, because tasty that’s why.

          Liked by 2 people

            1. Lies and slander, all of them! To be Dan is to be virtuous and without doubt unvirified by nasty virii. We Dans have been maligned, but we stand tall! Even if we’re small, which I was about forty-fifty years ago now.

              Liked by 1 person

      2. Well, I’m on day 3 and improving . . . that is to say, I can now take a breath while coughing. So hang in there. We’ve got to be healthy enough to watch Trump & company do something about a real insurrection.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. I’m hoping that sending Homan there will help politicos save face (not that I really care a whit), and “Do the right thing”(TM — NOT). It will also allow some stealth elint on the clowns mentioned above. There’s a perfectly nasty short story called April Fool by JL Curtis that is apt. It comes close to describing what’s been going on up there. We need consequences!

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  13. I read an interesting article a few days back about making advanced computer chips. I bet no few of you had no idea that the electrical properties of elements with more than one isotope add a random element to electrical conduction and magnetic properties. As the conducting paths of computer chips get narrower it creates problems with noise and widens signals. It’s even worse with trying to create quantum devices. The solution? Pure materials of one isotope. As you may guess they are fantastically expensive. That’s enough of a teaser to make you look up more about it if you are interested.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Also see — from yesteryear, back when the latest Tom Clancy novels were ‘hot’ — the idea and actuality of making synthetic diamonds out of purified carbon-12. The natural stuff has about 1% carbon-13, which is enough to impair their (amazingly high, though direction-dependent) thermal conductivity, as compared to the pure stuff.

      This was(/is?) relevant mostly as super heat sinks for assorted components like high-power electronics (which can also be made from semiconducting diamond) and (IIRC?) laser stuff or something… see one of Clancy’s books on that, one I never read.

      The smaller electronics get, the more fiddly and fidgety they get. Even metallic wires fall prey to something callled ‘electromigration’ where the current actually moves the atoms around. ‘Small is beautiful’ may still be mostly true, but small can also be big, big trouble, and bigger the smaller.

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      1. Yeah, for me this stuff verges in between ‘oh, it is more funky, how cool’ and ‘I hate this stuff, and myself for trying to understand’.

        This idea of using particle accelerator tech to pipe x-rays around a semiconductor fab is really cool.

        Validating those designs, and improving the process yield, could well be immensely painful.

        If the AI money does not evaporate, there is gonna be production yield improvement work across a lot of chips with the older EUV technology.

        I can’t tell if I would hate doing that work, or not. And EUV work on GaN/??? HEMT should be relatively straight-forward, and able to be based on some relatively mature research.

        I know that I nope out when it comes to some of the quantum stuff. Sure, it is merely a bunch of bets on physical models, and the information exists to do those shrewdly. I haven’t spent years on that stuff already, and it is just outside of my comfort zone, I think.

        For chips at high frequencies, the wires carrying signals through the packaging wind up being a fairly skilled engineering task.

        There are a thousand and one little pieces of microelectronics that are now potential technologies in research and development. It is very cool to just hear about them.

        But, sometimes the work of doing that development sounds painful and confusing.

        But, I am definitely the sort of idiot who tries to understand the whole at the same time that I study a little piece.

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      2. The Reader remembers when diamond heat sinks and substrates for III-V semiconductor power amps such as Gallium Nitride (GaN) were all the rage at DARPA. He had pointy haired VPs at his Great Big Defense Contractor moaning that the world was ending because our competitor was ‘ahead’. The Reader shook his head and smiled. Turned out that DARPA ‘discovered’ what some of us already knew. The buffer layer needed to lattice match GaN to diamond had so much thermal resistance that the diamond didn’t provide any benefit. The one useful thing that came out of the DARPA program was a set of much better techniques for precisely measuring the thermal resistance of materials.

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      3. Quantum tunneling was a thing already at the geometries the company I worked at around 2010 was designing in, and that was an FPGA place so emphatically not bleeding edge. Electrons magically migrating from this circuit here over through solid theoretically nonconducting matter to that circuit over there is of course just plain crazy talk, so it fits perfectly in quantum mechanics.

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        1. Like Schrodinger’s IndyCat, where depending on the particle, he’s either curled up asleep or has disassembled the microwave and is trying to hot wire the magnetron into the hair dryer.

          Liked by 2 people

          1. Ah, a flux capacitor.

            Erm, uh, at least that’s what… I read, yeah, read it on Reddit! I’m totally not a time traveler. That would be crazy. I mean, 1.21 gigawatts at PG&E electric rates would be cost prohibitive even in this era, let alone in the future… Um, so I would imagine.

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              1. He’s still alive because I’ve been too sick to get really mad. His latest shenanigans include chewing the bottom of a FLOUR bag and eating through that. AND figuring out how to to open the cat-proof (ah!) gate to our bedroom.

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    2. Hmm.

      I actually can’t tell whether or not I had no idea about that.

      I’ve spent some time reading up on electromagnetic properties of materials, and still am pretty sure I have no idea what is going on.

      So the basic first order/linear exponential solutions to maxwell’s equations seem to directly lead to a complex permittivity, a complex permeability, and conductivity that I can’t tell if it is ever complex, or what that would mean. There are obviously the usual additions for anisotropic properties in different directions, etc.

      I have hit the point where I am not actually sure that permittivity exists. Okay, the scholarship says it does, but the scholarship says a lot of things.

      Anyway, I explicitly do not understand the electrical or magnetic properties of semiconductors, especially not the fancier and more elaborate models. I knew that they got funkier than I really followed.

      I am very unsurprised to hear that isotope might matter in some cases. But, I have no idea if my previous exposure included any hint of that. Certainly, none that I was aware of.

      Anyway, very cool. Thank you.

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                  1. Who needs puns when there’s gobbledygook?

                    The longitudinal threads in a loom running from the weaver’s beam over the back rest through the eyes of the healds and dents of the reed, over the front rest to the cloth roller, are termed warp threads. The interlacement between the warp and the weft takes place to the fell of the cloth, and the piece between the fell of the cloth and the cloth roller is termed “cloth or fabric”

                    Egads!

                    ‘Warp threads’ ought to be discussions of space ship drives.

                    Liked by 1 person

  15. Heck is not the name I have heard before for the chinese province with that one laboratory.

    (I know, figure of speech, and maybe it is not a bioweapon.)

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  16. Nothing to do with anything, but here’s a picture from yesterday’s immoderate weather. Northern Virginia didn’t get creamed nearly as badly as locations further north, but we did get some snow and ice. Anyway, I kind of liked how the perspective played out on this one:

    Liked by 3 people

  17. Four inches of snow are melting into the ground. The might hunter, Jase T. Cat, stalks birds through the window. Alas, the birds do not acknowledge his ferocity and prowess, instead gorging themselves on free birdseed.

    The past is not so far away as it seems.

    Liked by 4 people

  19. Anyway, in 2019 I was reading an American written take on Xianxia.

    I have spent the past few years reading Murim novels in webtoon format.

    Murim is a somewhat wider Korean version of the Chinese xianxia and wuxia genres.

    Basically, Wuxia inventions and actual Chinese history, folklore and martial arts magical thinking seems to have been mined to form a standard low power martial arts cultivation setting for such stories set on ‘our’ Earth.

    The Buddism of the Shaolin temple at Mount Song, and the Taoism of the Wudang mountains are associated with various Chinese martial traditions.

    Mount Hua is a real place that exists, but the mount hua sect seems to have been an invention of wuxia novels, from what I can tell. It feels like there are quite a few murim novels involving some dude who is ‘a genius’ at the mount hua sect, due to fairly genre standard cheats. I would say easily two dozen that I am aware of that use the standard list of sects, are not mount hua oriented, and which do mention mount hua.

    I have revisited the web novel I was reading in 2019 (I can see my comments), and one of today’s chapters mentioned mount hua. I did not know about mount hua then, and do now.

    My instinct always tells me that I should write stuff that I read a bunch of. Lately, I’ve been concerned that I might be unstable enough that a really focused fiction writing mindset might be pretty bad for me. I dunno.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Unsolicited log feline shenanigans, part 3aIV.c:

    The snowpocalypse has come to the wee little town of Speck, Appalachia. The fu zi residents of the Lane plantation and repair shop met this event with varying enthusiasms.

    “Make it stahp, nao! Window cold, wants made of warm! Hooman make warmness!” His orangeness the fuzzmonster disapproves of all things snow, cold, and wetness with all the furry fury of a thousand suns. He sits on the computer, in his pine box, soaking up the warmness when I’m not sitting down.

    Nastycat is still crazycat. Went out into the snow to fight the snowflakes. Did a full 360 flip trying to catch one, landed in a drift and sprang right back out demanding to come in. How dare the cold get wet on him! This situation was intolerable. Also, cold sticks don’t fight fair. No fair! Referees must make this match a tie, not a loss!

    Othercat on the other paw, lurves teh snowpocalypse. Chonker monstercat, his hugeness the floofy, goes out to dive bomb every drift and shake every tree. He climbs up the Christmas tree pine in the front lot, looking for evidence of squirrels, springs off onto the porch roof (a feat of agility for such a massive kitteh as he), finds out the metal roof is slick, and slides right back off into the deep drift by the porch where all the snow slides off. Then goes and does it again, because “wheee!”

    Neighborcat is watchful. Even with the blanket of white, the property must be protected. Rent must be paid in the blood of verminous villains, squirrely agents provocateurs (those what stir up the mice and rats and voles to infiltrate, to attempt to divide the attentions of the protectors of this land), birbs that dive bomb and threaten from above, and all other unsanctioned souls that dare. Few are they that chance the unbroken white during the grip of this bitter cold, but for those desperate souls what do there can be no forgiveness. An interloper and invader shall not live to tell the tale.

    Inside the domicile, where chicken dinners are nommed with all the grace and dignity of drunken Vikings, the fireplace burns steadily through the woodpile. Despite central heat and air, there’s always been something nice about a good fire going, and the fu zi foursome appreciate it.

    Nightly zoomies commence at eight pm sharp, with the tag game between Othercat and Doofus taking top spot. Occasionally Nastycat and Neighborcat join in, making it a free for all across the whole of the upstairs and through the library. I had to install door springs so that Othercat’s weight wouldn’t slam a doorknob through the plaster, as he threatened to do when he was a bit smaller. Thus when they bounce off doors, the doors spring right back.

    Naastycat managed to do a three count bounce from door to door to door without ever hitting the floor today on his way back from the upstairs bedroom. Made of dumpster fuzz and stubborn springs, that cat. Doofus has gotten more in the swing of things with encouragement from the fuzzy brothers from different mothers. The orange streak is still the slowest of the four, but that’s mostly because Neighborcat is a bioengineered murder machine in kitteh form, Othercat is a freak among fuzzmonsters, and Nastycat has no setting between snooze with the pink dino, fight the sticks, and ZOOM.

    By and all accounts, the zoomies of late have been successful in wearing down the supercharged energy batteries of the fu zi crew. Life in the frozen landscape of Speck shuffles on with its winter clothes on. Scrape the driveways, lay the salt, scrape the windows, and keep on truckin’. The mad rush of folks for milk and eggs died down yesterday. Fewer cars on the road, mostly four wheel drives and folks what know what snow is and ain’t scared of it.

    The train goes by late in the night, shakes the windows and keeps on rolling through. It hardly bothers the locals, used to such things for a long time now. A few of the newer residents complain, but that’s just foolishness. Power plant needs that coal. You like heated homes, don’t you? Lights and internet? That’s where the electricity comes from.

    In any case, they’ll settle in or they’ll move on. No great shakes either way. Things will abide, frost or sun, rain or dark. There’ll still be work to be done. Still be fathers teaching sons, mothers leading daughters in the way women do, animals to be fed at early before the sun rises and things to be fixed at all hours of the day. Be like the fu zi and worry naught about what might be. What is, that’s what matters. Today. Now. The work in front of us, the finished job when its done, and the feeling of satisfaction that comes with the completion. Throw yourself into the challenge like Othercat into the snow drift. Take care of your needs like Doofus washing his fur that he got chicken juice on. Sleep the sleep of the just like Neighborcat lightly dozing between hunts. And do what you like with no fear of criticism like Nastycat and his beloved pink dino. The opinions of others rarely matters as much as you think. Confidence and competence, like Neighborcat and his prideful hunts, are always in need.

    Liked by 5 people

  21. Since this is an open thread let me just say I don’t care that another liberal has given himself a Darwin award via ICE agents again. I think if anyone deals with leftists long enough they lose whatever native tolerance and live-and-let-live attitude they have and just want to start shoving them all out of helicopters. And since I live in a state where these probably even worse Democrat-illegal alien fraud going on than in Minnesota they’ll probably start rioting and throwing tantrums here to distract from that too. Fun.

    Like

    1. Darwin Award, FA-FO, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I have zero fucks left to give for the lot of them.

      I think the agents should be authorized to make generous use of their billy clubs against any idiot that gets physical with them. Maybe some bruises and broken bones would get the point across.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. I dont think its a coincidence Pretti got shot just as the public started to see the Good attempt at martydom fall apart. Also, I just found a person who observes liberals on Reddit and screenshots them and it is ABSOLUTELY hilarious. They’re all talking about how their going to buy guns and fight ICE and all of Trumps evil fascists. These are the same people who accused Proud Boys and the like of delusions of grandeur when they talked about upcoming Civil War. These poor lefties barely have delusions of adequacy.

        Liked by 2 people

          1. I am not sure what to make of, “protester bites finger (joint) off agent,” and, “protestor loses bits of hand trying to throw back grenade.” That’s next-level irony. Or something.

            Liked by 1 person

        3. His ex-wife was interviewed and said that he was part of the 2020 riots, as well.

          Something like “he was so passionate, and would go out and scream at the cops all day, but I never knew him to be even a little confrontational in real life.”

          Liked by 1 person

          1. “… in real life.”

            Says it all, really. It’s just a game to so many of these protestors, and they’re shocked when it is suddenly revealed to have been Real All Along, with permanent consequences. See also “Why did you have real bullets?”

            Liked by 1 person

            1. LARPing as a Revolutionary, versus prepping as one since childhood.

              “There’s a storm coming…”

              Like

    1. Purple Hair chick saves the world? Been done before. TV show called “UFO”.

      “Interceptors, immediate launch.”

      Like

  24. Considering that the insurrection specifically chose to attack a church, it should be possible to direct their attention to another church….

    And this time to have an armed congregation meet them with gunfire.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. No doubt the Threat forces chose a “gun free” church, or at least one that was ambivalent about them.

      One of my regular Cowboy matches shares range space with a -large- security group from a local church. Anyone joining the “security” team has to attend monthly mandatory training. Those folks train for headshots, and understand taking a knee to fire upwards to minimize hitting bystanders.

      Yes, feel free to assume they have a retired Tier-1 coach.

      Anyone hitting -that- house of worship better not bother making Monday plans.

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  27. keep an eye on China. Things are very “interesting” there. Rumors of a coup, shooting, troops in the palace. Of course, everything one reads from there is a lie — WSJ especially — but their official communique is talking limited, but 5 of 6 of th top command are out. Don’t sound limited to me. The fact that they’ve admitted to anything is telling. Interesting, very dangerous, but interesting.

    I’m down with a nasty cold myself but the steady decline in the delivery of public services has NJ Transit closed because of the weather, which was a squib here in NJ but somehow closed all the NJ Transit system down, sigh. Number one son counts on the train.

    That steady decline in the delivery of public services is the most alarming thing coming out of this DEI BS. Competence is a rare commodity whee before it really wasn’t.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. Totally normal.

      (There’s of course the less sarcastic joke is that I am totes a historian, and so focused on the past that I left off the ‘for dynastic succession’. Though, I think that maybe some of the dynasties did get execution happy without really losing control.)

      The timing of several events that may be mostly uncoupled is still interesting. (Maduro, Iran, China, some of the Russian tanker intercepts, Somalian daycare, and the anti-ICE stuffs. There’s the assumption that Walz et al. are pretty stupid, and that the ICE stuff is a reaction to Somalian daycare. )

      I think Walz is stupid.

      I think the Somalian daycare stuff coming out, and then, feels liek random chance that was not really anyone’s plan.

      I have not actually checked, but it feels like the delay from ‘daycare daycare daycare’ to ICE fits deployment of a prepared capability, not spinning up from scratch. (I don’t buy spontaneous. )

      Still the ‘nation state, or domestic’ question for some of these organization hypotheticals.

      If these PLAN positions had any real duties and real accomplishments and function, then rotating five of six is either a serious cost to a stable viable regime, or a stable viable regime might do it if it were entirely confident it had no need to expand, or to defend. Or perhaps the PLAN is purely ceremonial. Lots of world militaries are actually fairly ceremonial.

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    2. I just finally got around to canceling my WSJ subscription. Hadn’t really been reading it, but used it for reviews and editorials. They honked me off years ago by deciding the Best of the Web crew (which had become a group of regulars bouncing off one another) needed “moderation.” It’s seriously annoying to be asked, ” Are you sure you want to say this?”

      Like

    3. Saw a suggestion the CCP uses the Journal to launder official propaganda.

      Other suggestions were Xi realized the generals were both corrupt and lying to him about military readiness over Taiwan and threw a fit. Or that the generals told him the truth about the difficulties of invading Taiwan. Either way, the replacements are probably nervous.

      Like

    1. I know I’m getting old when the second thing I notice is the <strike>poor</strike> non-existent trigger discipline.

      (And yes, the first: The Bra! De Bra!)

      Like

      1. I noticed the trigger discipline, but, basically, wasn’t sure which option would be canonical for Miss Croft.

        (I have also been modded for a comment on this post today. )

        Like

        1. Found a video titled “Evolution of Tomb Raider Games 1996-2023”. Not every video clip showed her holding guns (they were often holstered while she was dodging traps, for example). But in every clip where her guns were in her hands, her index fingers were on the triggers. In some cases, reasonably so as she was either taking aim at an enemy she intended to shoot imminently, or actively shooting at them. But in some clips I could see her unholster her guns, then with fingers already in trigger, take aim and shoot. Not proper trigger discipline at all, Miss Croft.

          So the cosplayer is accurately modeling the character.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. At some point it became possible to emulate modern trigger safety culture in shooter games.

            I’m not sure how many of the people who make shooter games were interested in doing so.

            (I’m reasonably sure that even here, there are people who can tell me exactly about games that have taken the time to do it correctly.)

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      2. As far as I can tell from looking up still images and the occasional short video clip, the cosplayer is perfectly reflecting the character. Lara Croft had two options with her guns: they were either holstered, or they were in her hands with her fingers on the triggers. I have found lots of pictures, both concept art and in-game graphics, of her holding two guns with both index fingers on the trigger. I have not found a single picture that shows her exercising proper trigger discipline.

        Well, sometimes she’s quite clearly aiming at something/someone she is about to shoot, so in that case finger on trigger is proper discipline. But in, for example, the cover art for Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, one gun is clearly being aimed at something off-screen and it’s potentially reasonable for her finger to be on the trigger. The other gun, however, is pointed at the sky, yet her finger is on its trigger too.

        The closest image I found to proper trigger discipline is one where she looks like she’s almost exercising proper discipline: her finger is straight and not making contact with the trigger. But if you look closely, it’s unmistakably inside the trigger guard, not outside the trigger guard, so she’s still in danger of a negligent discharge if her hand gets bumped the wrong way. Sorry, Lara, you don’t get points for that one.

        But I don’t blame the cosplayer for the bad trigger discipline. She’s accurately modeling the character she’s portraying.

        Also, that is the most brilliant use of a cardboard box in any cosplay I’ve seen yet. :-)

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  30. I think it might not be strict apples and apples to talk about deaths ascribed to ICE, and not covered, 2009 -2024.

    The problem is that they also watch the ports, if I understand correctly.

    So whenever someone wants to ship in slaves without paying full duty, and whenever the feds open up an intermodal container full of half dead humans, some of the survivors may die in federal custody without the feds doing anything but try to keep them alive.

    You might propose that we should just make intermodal containers that can keep a bunch of trafficked humans alive. The problem is that doing a really good job of that would tend to compromise the smuggling.

    Liked by 2 people

      1. It’s a genie wish. Thousands of years ago, a man asked a djinn to make sure his name was remembered. The djinn told him to build a room for his records and correspondence. And thousands of years later, the spirit of Ea-Nasir is looking around our society in baffled confusion…

        Like

      1. I’m an anomoly. Texas Gulf Coast. Iced tea. Black. No sugar. About a gallon per day. Three pint glasses in the freezer, used in rotation.

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  34. (Friends don’t let friends play with post-human medical technology, materials sciences, and body suits! Thinking of a friend of mine while writing this.)

    By the time I made it to the medical bay, Ryan was walking around and moving his hands. “Hey, Adam,” he asked, looking at me. “I thought you were going to…well, fix things.”

    “I’m allowed some drama,” I replied with a big smile. “In fact, you did check off big drama on your intake paperwork. I can pull it up if you’d like…”

    “No, no,” he nodded, “I remember that. But…,” and here he waggled his beer gut under the hospital gown, “I thought I’d look better than this.”

    I thought about this for a moment, lips pursed, and looking up at the ceiling. “There’s an explanation if you’re ready for it,” I replied, looking back at him, gently queuing ATHENA to bring me a prop. “Ready?”

    “Sure,” he said, walking towards one of the chairs to sit down. I sent a command to the medical override still in the back of his neck and he froze. “What the fuck?” he asked, trying to move his feet or legs or anything from the hips down.

    “You’ve still got your medical override in your neck,” I shrugged. “Need you standing for this,” and sent commands to turn him around and make him brace for impact as I walked over to the doorway. One of the drones had brought a loaded MP-5 from the armory and I cheerfully picked it up, slung it over my shoulder, and turned around. “Okay, first things first. New organs-pretty much everything is new, including your brain. You have a standard cortical stack, so there’s a stored backup of your memories and there might be some integration issues…”

    “Feels a little weird now,” he agreed. “Old memories seem kind of slick, insubstantial.”

    “That’s mostly because the bandwidth is so limited. Think about the difference between Super 8 and high-def video in that respect. More information you have stored and can review later if you want and once you have some practice…more ability to see things. Ruins most Vegas magician stage shows, I promise.” I walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed two cups along the way. “Some water?”

    “No, I’m good,” Ryan replied calmly, looking warily at the MP-5 over my shoulder. “But why do you have a machine gun…”

    “Sub-machine gun,” I interrupted gently. “Pistol-caliber cartridges, designed for close-in firefights, that kind of thing. It’s not just how my brain works now, I always wanted to be clear about things but my brain could never catch up with my mouth before. Back on subject,” and I filled up a glass of water and took a long sip before setting the cup down. “Okay, new organs. We’re talking about high performance but not ultra performance. Think…high-end Toyota versus a Lamborghini or Ferrari. Got a lot of bang for the buck and great capability, but you’re not going to have to be in the shop every couple of weeks because a kidney-you’ve got two again, you’re welcome-blew out on you and we’ve got to order parts from Italy. And they’re on a six month backorder unless we pay a lot extra.

    “But after this…you were about three hundred and twenty pounds before we got started. Now, if we just fixed everything, you’d be two-forty, two-fifty. A lot thinner and muscular, which everybody would notice. I mean…you’ve been in the tank about six weeks and you normally don’t get that kind of body without a lot of drugs. Many of them illegal,” I took the MP-5 off my shoulder and re-arranged the sling so it could be combat slung, the pistol grip in easy reach of my right hand under my armpit. “Which is why,” I chuckled, raised the MP-5 to port arms in my right hand, finger clearly off the trigger, and did a H&K slap of the charging handle with my left, “I have this.

    “The Unity has what they call a soft suit, a form of environmental suit that is…well, think large-scale automata to keep you alive in hostile environments. Not quite nanomachines, but there are some involved. The base form of these is a black suit that wouldn’t look out of place in a superhero movie, complete with the auto-deploying helmet. It’s not a combat suit or powered armor, but against most low-level threats,” and I tapped the MP-5’s receiver with my fingers, “you should be fine. Proof against pistol-caliber bullets, resistant to rifle-caliber bullets, some low-velocity shrapnel. Don’t stand still too long in a firefight that involves grenades, heavy weapons, or high-tech weapons, that kind of thing.

    “What you’re wearing is…well, I’m trying to think of a neat name to call it, but you’re wearing a fat suit. It’s a concealed soft suit that looks like your body before you got in the tank, weight and all. Which is why I have this,” and waggled the MP-5’s muzzle around at the ceiling. “Last chance to get past that ‘big drama’ note on your chart. Range is hot, weapons live. In three, two…”

    “Wait a minute, what are you going to…,” Ryan tried to ask, but I paused just long enough to interrupt him.

    “One,” and I dropped the MP-5 down into a good hip-shot position, stock resting firmly under my arm and both hands on the weapon as I ripped a thirty-round magazine right into Ryan’s chest and belly. Thankfully, he protected his face with his arms, so I didn’t hit his head or arms when the bolt locked back on an empty magazine. I smoothly removed the magazine, checked the chamber, and put everything on a table nearby. “You’re fine. Go ahead and take a look,” I said in a normal conversational voice and waited.

    Ryan lowered his arms, shuddered, and looked down at where I had shot him. I”d put quite a few rounds in a perfect heart-shot position and tore most of the dressing gown away there. He tapped at that part, wondering why there wasn’t blood, and took a good long look at it. Everywhere I had hit, you could tell because his skin wasn’t skin anymore, or at least not nut-brown General American Hispanic.

    Instead, it was a flat, light-absorbing black that radiated outwards in jagged shards that faded into the general skin color. Most of where I had hit him was this hunk of solid black that had tiny tessellation grains visible, starting to fade back into its normal skin color. “Like I said, pistol-caliber proof,” I shrugged. “Give me a second, and…,” I stepped up and checked his body. “This is going to feel a little weird, so it’s ‘band-aid rip’ time. Ready, steady, go…,” and his skin started to separate away, opening up like a perverse orchid to reveal his real skin under it. The gown tried to stay together, but tore apart in a few moments. “Medical override is released…now,” and I held my arm out for him to catch.

    He staggered out naked from the suit and caught my arm, steadied himself, and turned around to look. “That was weird,” he remarked, then looked back and the skin was just standing there. “That’s…fuck…weird…”

    “Yep,” I shrugged. “One fat skin suit. Nerve bypass, so you can feel everything normally, and it’ll bleed if you cut it and don’t activate the defensive measures. And it’ll be ‘your’ blood unless you specify otherwise. Same thing for fingerprints-yours or blank. Blood tests will show whatever you want. And barring a full autopsy or somebody getting access to a Purpose detection rig of some kind, you won’t show up on any scanners as out of the ordinary.”

    I walked behind the suit and tapped just below the shoulders. “Added six manip field generators, in addition to the two in your shoulders. So you can fling bowling balls around at five hundred, six hundred meters a second without twitching. Or climb up buildings and even fly if you’re careful. Catch bullets, too-and there is a software package for that so you don’t have to think about it. Just remember that basic thermodynamics isn’t your friend and that kind of energy moving around means heat and lots of it. Has to go somewhere and that’s why you have about a gallon or so of water in the suit. Water is an easy-to-use way to disperse heat.”

    Liked by 1 person

  35. Watching a European flat out tell others of his kind they cannot defend themselves without the United States is hilarious. I think this after they threatened to activate NATO-ya know the thing we pay for-against us.

    Liked by 1 person

  36. As a medical oncologist 40 years ago, one had a limited armamentarium and pretty poor chances of cure of anything that a surgeon could not cure.  The few curable diseases required rather toxic and dangerous treatments that themselves might cause another cancer even in cured patients.  Most published research involved variations of palliative treatments that might extend life for a year or two at best.  The use of adjuvant therapy – treatment after surgery when risk for recurrence was high in an attempt to prevent recurrence – was a major portion of most oncologists practice though benefit often was measured in 10-15% of those receiving it.  One could choose to make money off those desperate while painting glorious pictures of potential success, or eek out a living offering what seemed to offer the best result for the least physical and financial toxicity while being gently honest about options and results.

    To be honest, the success ratio of cured to not cured has improved a fair amount but still remains quite low.  Two year and five year survival has been replaced in some areas by ten or more year survival rates when touting treatments.  The number of potential treatments has risen astronomically. The money to be made is a bit less if you follow the latter approach noted above and more for the former.  All this while the quality of published medical research has dropped dramatically and most medical journals could be honestly renamed The Journal or Irreproducible Results.

    What I find particularly disheartening is that politics and government have followed a similar devolution. 

    Like

    1. When I was a girl, the line was that you were never ever ever cured of cancer. It was only in remission.

      When I was in my teens, that slowly faded out.

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      3. I’ve always heard that once you have cancer, then die of something else while the cancer is in remission, it is proof your cancer was cured.

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    2. This brings up a question I have been pondering since we started getting inundated by radio ads for a pediatric cancer-fighting organization: What would a non-medical oncologist be? Someone who is strictly working on the research side and having no interaction with patients at all? Or is it an offering from the department of redundancy department like using a PIN number on an ATM machine?

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      1. Sigh. medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology three traditional branches of cancer treatment; medical oncology started with a few drugs in the arsenal – nitrogen mustard, vincristine, etc. the first immunotherapy fell under the umbrella of medical oncology-using BCG vaccination. Medical Oncology now so broad there are subclasses of expertise.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. So ‘medical’ oncology now speaks to the use of medicines to treat cancers, as opposed to surgery or radiation. In my ignorance I lumped those all under the umbrella you mentioned. Thank you for clarifying.

          Liked by 2 people

    3. I should have clarified that I am talking adult oncology. Pediatric Oncology nowadays has at least 80% cure rate. It’s still a battle to fix the 20%. St Jude’s has been gold standard but really most pediatric cancer centers are great. As opposed to only 20% or so of adults treated on research protocols, most all kids are. So advances better in kids.

      Liked by 2 people

    1. If you’re referring to the photo in the post, she looks similar to AI-generated characters I’ve seen in thumbnails of “Music to study by” videos. If you’re referring to something else, the reference went over my head.

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  38. Folks, if not already doing so, time to start carrying. Every day, every where. Don’t leave home without it. When the SHTF -this- time, it will get spicy fast. You wont have time to run home and gear up. Be not afraid. Be aware and alert.

    And be amused and happy. The enemy has no counter to that.

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  39. Off-Topic (of the general discussion).

    I’m attempting to read a John Bailey (via KU).

    I’m saying “attempting” because the first book has the “Scooby-Doo problem”.

    In the first book (The Phantom Atlas), we follow the two characters as they hunt ghosts.

    It’s basically a collection of shorts where the characters show up and discover that the ghosts are created by smugglers.

    No music, no comical chases, no real danger and no real mystery.

    And of course, the locals never check to see if the ghosts are real.

    The book is set after the sinking of the Titanic and prior to the start of WW1.

    I keep wondering “when does the fun start”?

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