The snow started falling late Saturday morning, very light and at time almost unnoticeable. It picked up in the late afternoon, though it didn't fall nearly as heavily as it had on Thursday.
This makes me feel less guilty about not having finished snowblowing The Manse's driveway and parking area Saturday. It meant I had to go out first thing this morning and take care of it, making sure I got all of the snow off the paved areas and cutting a path out back to the propane tank and the stairway for the main deck.
At least this snowfall wasn't as 'mushy' as the snow that fell early Friday morning, meaning it was easier to move.
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A co-worker has been discussing 'cutting the cord', dropping the video from his cable subscription and depending instead upon streaming from Netflix, Hulu+, and other streaming sites. He's watched the video portion of his cable bill climb steadily even as the offerings on his programming tier became narrower. Like many of us, he's been paying for channels he doesn't watch and will never watch and feels like he's being ripped off.I did remind him that programming tiers weren't set up by the cable company per se, but by the content providers themselves. With video producing shrinking profit margins for cable companies (now around 2% for many cable MSOs), is it any wonder they have been putting more focus on what are called Over The Top (OTT) services like Video On Demand (VOD) and TV Anywhere (allows you to watch TV on any of your devices, whether live or from your DVR). It's also why they've also been pushing better Internet connectivity since the profit margins on Internet services are huge compared to video programming.
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The Swedes know socialism doesn't work and are abandoning it, seeing it for what it is: a government run protection racket designed to inflict as much economic damage as possible.The Swedish economy has been booming since the government has slashed taxes, rolled back social programs, redesigned pension systems, and basically removed many of the overreaching regulations that were stifling the economy.
Perhaps the folks in Washington should take note, since they seem to be so fond of the “Swedish model” of socialism.
(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Cap'n Teach shows us what the real cause of the drought that has been plaguing California: NIMBY and BANANA watermelon environmentalists, along with help from the TOTUS.(NIMBY = Not In My Back Yard; BANANA = Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anyone; TOTUS = you know who.)
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Also by way of Cap'n Teach comes this story about assigning responsibility for the numerous accidents in North Carolina due to black ice. In this case I have to agree with North Carolina authorities: It's the drivers, stupid![Wake Count, NC DOT engineer Britt] McCurry said officials felt they were prepared to handle black ice on area roads Friday morning, adding that drivers were warned of the dangers.This goes back to what I wrote about winter driving yesterday, mainly inertia and the coefficient of friction. You ignore both at your own peril.
“They were advised by the governor as well as DOT to maintain their speed, watching where they’re going and what they’re doing, and from what I understand, several of them didn’t,” he said. “I think we did everything we could.”
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Obama claims that average wages haven't risen during 'his' economic recovery efforts. He's right. However his reasoning as to why are grossly in error. But one of those commenting upon his speech has the right of it:President Obama, if you have worked as hard as you can and done everything you can to raise the standard of living of Americans and the present economy is a result (After spending trillions of borrowed dollars), with deference to your position as president, YOU SUCK AT YOUR JOB. May I suggest that you stop your Keynesian economics rush to bankruptcy and try something that worked to create millions of good jobs following the Carter caused malaise of the late 70s. It also worked for Kennedy. Lower taxes, stop with your job destroying and nonsensical regulation and allow more drilling on federal lands including offshore drilling. Oh, and while you are at it, APPROVE THE KEYSTONE PIPELINE. You can thank me later.To take a quote from one of my earlier posts in regards to Obama, "If this is what you call helping us, then just stop helping us!"
Indeed.
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One of my favorite New Hampshire bloggers has suffered yet another computer failure, this time her 1.5 year old desktop machine.She wonders if it's karma. Personally I think it's an old gypsy curse out on her computer because sometime, somewhere she pissed off an old gypsy.
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Some of you out there that regularly read this blog might remember that we suffered a lightning strike last June that took out a number of the electronic products in The Manse, the three most obvious being the cable modem, the wireless router attached to the cable modem, and the A/V Surround receiver in the living room. There was also damage to a light switch in one of the upstairs bedrooms as well.As time has passed, the extent of the damage caused by the lightning strike has continued to make itself felt as more appliances and other electrical equipment have failed.
Our old analog TV in the guest room was apparently damaged, something we didn't know about until recently. The coffee maker in the kitchen has unminded itself, losing the set time and occasionally shutting itself off entirely, meaning we can no longer set the timer to start the coffee at 6AM and it won't always keep the coffee hot once it's brewed. Our washing machine has also been showing symptoms of damage, with the wash or rinse water temperatures not being what we set them for when running a load, such as getting a rinse with hot water rather than cold or warm water. (Investigation has showed me the controller in the washing machine is commanding the hot water rinse despite the settings shown on the machine.) Our CO monitor alarm also quit on us, giving a error message that translated to a controller fault.
That's one thing about lightning strikes: the damage they cause may not manifest itself until months later, something I've talked to our insurance company about. They've acknowledged that such a scenario is quite common when dealing with lightning strikes.
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So the workers in a Tennessee Volkswagen plant voted down joining the UAW despite the company being in the bag for the union. Yet the UAW sees the 'No' vote as somehow being caused by “outside interference”.Really?
The UAW spent a lot of time and money trying to convince the VW workers to join the union, yet they said “Thanks, but no thanks!”
Could it be that the VW workers are smarter than their Chrysler, Ford, and GM brethren and decided it would work against them in the long run to join an organization which is more like an organized crime gang than a representative of the workers?
Unions had a reason for being in the past, but many of the things they fought for are now codified in law. Now it seems that unions exist only for collecting dues from workers and supporting political candidates (Democrats) many of the rank and file wouldn't support on their own.