We thought of taking the winter cover off of the boat and using just a tarp for the next few weeks. That allows us to move it to the local boat shop for some maintenance and a few repairs. Of course it's going to be some time before the lake will be open for boating as it's still covered shore to shore with ice.
The garage has been cleaned up and things rearranged including restacking the last of the firewood to one side, draining the last of the gas from the snowblower's gas tank and moving it to the rear of the garage, storing the snowshovels and roof rake away, moving the lawnmower towards the front of the garage, storing the now empty sand buckets, and sweeping out last of the water, mud, dirt, and other detritus.
It's a good start.
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Best quote from an Instapundit post:“You know what promotes violence? Leftist social-justice-war ideology.”
Indeed.
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This is a step in the right direction.The Air Force general who warned that anyone speaking favorably of the A-10 Warthog could be considered to have committed treason has been removed from office.
That some of the Air Force brass would like to see the A-10 removed from service has created a divisive atmosphere, in particular with those who see the move as disastrous.
As I have written many times, the A-10 is the most successful and deadliest close air support aircraft in history. Ask any Army or Marine combat veteran about the A-10 and you'll get an earful about how effective it is. No other aircraft in the US arsenal has the capabilities of the A-10 or the survivability in a hostile combat environment. That the Air Force wants to do away with it has a lot of ground pounders spitting mad, knowing its retirement could mean more of them will die without the air support only it can provide.
If the Air Force doesn't want it, then perhaps they should give it to the Army or the Marines, or both, and the Key West Agreement be damned. You don't retire the most effective weapons platform ever seen without having and equally or more effective one to replace it. While the Air Force has been pushing the F-35 as a replacement, anyone paying attention knows it wouldn't survive under the conditions the A-10 brushes off with impunity, nor will it have the capabilities of the A-10.
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I don't think I've read anything as ignorant as this, ever.As one who has had extensive air travel experience, I can tell you
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Some folks never learn what history teaches, making the same mistakes over and over.Here's one fellow from Scotland who thinks all energy production should be nationalized.
Apparently he isn't old enough to remember when energy (electricity, natural gas, petrol) in Great Britain was nationalized (pre-Thatcher) and the costs of energy were high and the reliability of the energy supplies were questionable. But he wants to go back to those days thought he doesn't realize it...or he does and sees it as a feature and not a bug. In either case he's not going to get his way because no one wants to go back to the bad old days.
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SpaceX is going to make another attempt with its reusable Falcon 9R first stage and perform a soft touchdown on an unmanned landing platform in the Atlantic Ocean.Let's hope that this time they put in enough hydraulic fluid to run the stabilizing fins.
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It appears Earth's magnetic field may be heading for a reversal of polarity sooner than geophysicists had originally projected.We'd best start making preparations soon because we may have only 2,000 years before the magnetic poles flip.
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David Starr reminds us again that computer models are not science, something that must be reiterated on a regular basis.The warmists keep using the oft cited and thoroughly discredited climate models as the basis for their claims that we're all going to die unless we “DO SOMETHING!” right now. That 'something' is always draconian in nature and requires the sacrifice by everyone...except them, of course.
As I have stated more than once, I use computer models in my work and as good as they are, they aren't perfect. While using a small number of well understood parameters to model electronic circuit performance, the computer models merely give me a close approximation of how the circuit will perform. It isn't perfect because there are some parameters that cannot be modeled because we don't know what they are, such as stray capacitances or inductances, mutual couplings between adjacent elements, etc. It is only once I build the circuit and test it that I will know how it will actually perform.
Now picture a climate model that uses thousands of parameters, many of which are not well understood, and ignore thousands more of which there is little or no understanding. Compare what the model says to actual data, then ignore the fact that the data doesn't even come close to matching the model, but use the model results to 'predict' what will happen 100 or 200 years from now. That's not science. It's a fortuneteller using a computerized crystal ball, one with a buggy and defective program, to tell you what your still unborn great grandchildren will do for a living even though it couldn't tell you what your children are doing at the moment.
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Assistant Village Idiot is looking to collect data about liberals for a study.First, let's hear from him about what's driving him to do these studies.
It is easy enough to find critical analysis on conservative websites of why liberals act the way they do. Some articles are simply wrong. Some seem to attempt that mind-reading of others' motives I so heartily dislike. Then there are some which are extremely negative, so that any liberal reading it would be deeply offended for himself and for his friends, and reject out of hand – and yet contain considerable truth. I can read some of those splenetic screeds yet still say I know people like that. I know people just like that. Even more, I can read the writings and observe the behaviors of a great many public liberals and see these worst characteristics covered by only the thinnest disguises. In that latter group, this is the majority. How do smart folks fall for this?AVI wants comments, but no theories. He'll create his own hypothesis when he has enough input.
Yet most of the liberals I know are darn nice people. I can see the enabling of evil in what they think and what they say, and sometimes a type of evil peeks out from them as well. But that would hardly be untrue of conservatives or libertarians also, would it? Enabling evil and evil peeking out are the human condition.
Be aware that he won't be doing this just for liberals, but conservatives will also be the subject of a follow-on study.
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So Hillary is going to announce her run for the Democrat nomination for President.Big deal.
She has too much blood on her hands and a disregard for the law, something she has amply displayed over the past 20 years or so, to be President. People seem to die around her because of her actions/in-actions. Vince Foster was merely the first (that we know about).
Frankly, I think she's just too damn lazy to be president, much like the present occupant of the Oval Office. She likes the perks but isn't willing to do the work required to earn them. Certainly her record as Secretary of State and as a Senator shows that.
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I'm sorry, but you have to waste 4 billion gallons of much needed water to save these 29 fish.No, not 29 species of fish, but 29 actual fish.
This amply illustrates the insanity that is federal government bureaucracy and its negative effect on a parched California. Four billion gallons is a lot of water. If they need to make sure those 29 fish make it to the Pacific, wouldn't it be more prudent and cheaper to catch them, put them in a tank on a truck, and release them further downstream closer to the Pacific Ocean than waste all of that water to get them there? Then again, common sense is not something any government bureaucracy possesses in any amount.
At least the director of the South San Joaquin Irrigation District has some sense, telling the unidentified federal agency “no” and retaining legal counsel to head off any legal actions. As the director stated, “This water is better used on human interests, like agriculture and homes.”