9/15/2013

Thoughts On A Sunday

Though it's still astronomical Summer, summer weather has become scarce despite a brief return to the 90's this past week. We'll be seeing days in the upper 60's/lower 70's over the next few days with a dip into the upper 50's along the way. It looks like I'll have to break out my fall jacket for that day. Outdoor work is going to become more important over the next three weeks as it's become time to clear way the summer growth of unwanted brush. I plan to attack the sumac with loppers and the chain saw as it spreads very quickly if it isn't attended to. (It is, after all, a weed. It's just a very big weed.)

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I finished up the last of some much needed electrical work on Saturday with the replacement of a defective light switch. I cannot remember the last time I've had to replace a light switch, at least not a defective light switch in a modern home. (I've replaced others when there's been a need to turn a single into a two-way or three-way arrangement, or when renovating a much older home by replacing old two-button on-off switches with modern toggle switches, but that's it.) What I found interesting is that the defective switch went to a single light over the sink and that light didn't draw very much current as it was a CFL flood light.

With the new light switch also comes a new light in the fixture over the sink, in this case an LED flood light. Not there was anything wrong with the CFL it replaced, but I hated having to wait a couple of minutes for it to come up to full brightness when I needed it immediately. It is a light that is used for only a few minutes at a time a couple of times a day. A CFL wasn't really cutting it in that application, so out came the now 8-year old CFL and in went the new LED.

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Though the Obama Administration is trumpeting its success in the negotiations with Russia on Syria's chemical weapons, it has nothing to be proud of. All these negotiations have show is how ineffectual America has become under Obama. Neither Bush 43, Bush 41, or Reagan would have needed to do so. (I can't offer an opinion on Clinton as there was little he needed to do in that regard.) They would have assembled a willing coalition under the auspices of the UN to deal with the issue. But Obama blundered, getting it exactly wrong while at the same time sending the wrong message to everyone, including the American people. You know it's gotten bad when even I agreed with some of points brought up in Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed piece.

“Smart” diplomacy has turned out to be not-so-smart after all. But that's what you get when you have a self-important inexperienced amateur/perpetual campaigner in the White House.

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I have always been of the opinion that speed limits on stretches of numerous Interstate and state highways have been artificially low for a long time. This was certainly true of the much-detested and universally ignored 55 MPH National Maximum Speed Limit. Once the NMSL was repealed, many states boosted their speed limits to more reasonable levels, but in many cases they were not returned to those that existed before the NMSL became the bane of motorists everywhere.

Here in New Hampshire the speed limit on the Interstates was 70MPH, but were reset to only 65MPH after the NMSL was gone. That was too slow and it has been pretty much ignored as most folks still drive 70 or 75. At least the legislature has corrected part of that error by raising the speed limit on portions on one Interstate to 70MPH, though an attempt was made to do that on all of the Interstates.

What it all comes down to is that people will drive at the speed at which they feel comfortable regardless of the posted limit. There certainly is enough evidence of this.

The argument can be made that if the speed limits are raised to 70MPH, that people will start driving 80MPH, but there is little evidence to back this up. The folks that will drive 80 are already doing so and a change in the speed limit won't change that at all.

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Bogie answers the question “How much wood can Bogie chuck...?”

Considering it's supposed to be a bitterly cold winter I have to wonder if it will be enough. We plan on using at least 4 cords to heat The Manse this coming winter.

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David Starr is upset over the increasing size of his cable bill, seeing it rise another $7 dollars. The problem is that the video side of his bill – the traditional 'cable' bill – tends to fluctuate as the content providers change what they charge the cable companies to carry their programming.

The Internet side tends to stay stable, price-wise as it isn't subject to the whims of content providers. It might also explain why the number of video subscribers on cable and satellite systems has flattened, if not decreased. These days the data services are far more profitable than the video services and more video content is becoming available all the time at a fraction of the cost of traditional video services.

Is it any wonder more people are 'cutting the cord' when it comes to TV?

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Here's yet another reason not to attack Syria: A US led attack on Syria would release lethal quantities of CO2.

Yeah. Right.

The warmists have got to get a grip on reality.

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Now a heart-rending story, one that caught me a bit off-guard when I read it.

It appears a newborn elephant calf was trampled by his mother shortly after its birth in a Chinese zoo. At first it was thought to be an accident but once the calf was treated and put back into the same compound with its mother she tried to kill her calf again. Zookeepers drove off the mother and again rescued the calf, who is now being cared for by the zoo staff. It appears the calf cried for over 5 hours after its mother tied to kill it.

I don't know why this story bothered me so much, but it did.

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What happens when the state cannot or will not protect its citizens from the predations of criminals? The citizens take up arms and defend themselves.

That's what's been happening in Mexico as the government has all but given up trying to battle the drug cartels in some parts of the country. So citizens have formed militias and have gone to war against the cartels and are winning.

This should be an object lesson for the Obama Administration as we've already seen where it the federal government has stopped enforcing its own laws and left American citizens virtually undefended in states that border Mexico and tried to block the state governments from doing so as well.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee,where fall weather has been making itself known, winter preparations continue apace, and where we're throwing another blanket on the bed.