Haven’t done one of these in a while…
Back in the day, this is how we let everybody know we’d gotten the ‘job’ done!
Used to piss off certain COs, but what the heck, our maintainers loved it!
It was always a team effort, and without the maintenance support we had, we could not have succeeded as often as we did!
Fond memories!!!
Looks like we’re going to get more weather tonight!
This is a ‘classic’ dryline fire up, albeit starting a little early. But at least last night it was in the ‘right’ place and not slopping back and forth like last weekend. I’ve included the doppler radar overlays the orange box is mesocyclonic activity, blue diamond is hail, green circle is rain/cell and red triangles are tornadic activity or debris.
As of 2000, we were lucky, as we ‘watched’ the storms build north and east of us, but my guess is it was going to get ugly to the east and further up in the plains states!
Off a rose or three…apparently!
Electric vehicles are becoming an unprofitable boondoggle for multiple motor companies. It turns out that woke virtue signaling is not the wisest business strategy.
There are, no doubt, multiple factors that feed into the drop in electric vehicle (EV) sales for companies including Ford, Tesla, and Mercedes-Benz. I would, however, mention one: EVs are too expensive and too unreliable for most Americans to purchase. They are a pricey and impractical choice. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if EV sales continue to drop for companies with EVs in America and Europe for the foreseeable future.
Full article, HERE from PJ Media.
And the Gaza protests are not being well received in certain schools… HERE
Much less at UGA… HERE
It seems that many are getting quickly fed up with it, and universities are taking steps including dismissing participants, cancelling scholarships, kicking them out of dorms, etc. GOOD!!!
Well, another Foolzcon is in the books… 50 of 65 invited made it…
Some of the folks who were there! Pic courtesy of Cedar!
But it DID get a bit exciting last night…
Tornados (2 reported), hail, lightning, and RAIN (OMG RAIN) for over 6 hours! We got 5 inches of rain!!!
So needless to say, folks were glued to their phones/weather radar sites. Thankfully, where we were stayed safe, and mostly dry, but getting home was ‘interesting’!
Going up 287, I hydroplaned 4 or 5 times going under 50 MPH, and there was flooding!
Back in the day, some of the airlines used to let folks listen to the pilot’s audio for free…
An often asked question was why are we ‘here’ talking to somebody else over ‘there’ or behind us?
Welp…
This is a fairly good map of the ‘centers’ that pilots talk to for inflight routing, updates, altitude changes, weather warnings, etc.
So yes, you can be over Biloxi, and still talking to Houston center. Or flying from Chicago to LA and talke to Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake and finally Los Angeles centers in that order. OR you could divert north for weather and never talk to Denver at all.
The other question often heard on the translant or transpac flights is why are we talking to Jacksonville or Oakland and we’re still over water?
There is this ‘thing’ called the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Picture below, and if you compare the two, the areas over water track pretty closely with the ADIZ map.
EVERY aircraft that enters the ADIZ from overseas is required to contact the appropriate center prior to entry. If they don’t, there are USAF fighters on 24/7/365 alert to launch and come ‘talk’ to the airplane…
And yes, we used to occasionally be tasked to go ‘bust’ the ADIZ to give the Air Force practice… sigh…
For the next few days, I’ll be at Foolzcon, so light to no posts, probably until Monday. Enjoy the weekend, and go read the folks on the sidebar!!!
By crook…
The war on guns continues with this administration!
This morning, a briefing will be held by the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) for “the Hill” regarding their interim rule regarding the “pause” on the issuance of new government licenses for firearms, related components and ammunition for “nongovernmental end users.”
The Outdoor Wire has learned the Commerce Department plans to make that “pause” on the issuance of new export licenses for firearms, related components and ammunition permanent.
That announcement, we’ve learned, could come as soon as tomorrow and “most definitely” by the first of next week.
More than a few United States Senators are already less than thrilled at what they call yet another example of Biden administration bureaucratic overreach, but there’s little they can do at this point.
If Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo presses forward with the change and Congress can’t reverse it, the costs to the gun industry could be as much as $238 million in annual revenues.
Full article HERE from Shooting News.
What is the true potential? IMHO, it’s running a lot of small operators who make custom stuff out of business, along with specialty manufacturers of parts/equipment. This will also impact foreign sales of ammunition as the BIS will be determining ‘who’ is government and who is not on the end user (receiving end).
From a Town Hall article, yesterday…
There have always been radicals on college campuses – tenure exists to protect professors from being fired for doing pretty much anything, from espousing the virtues of violence against the United States in the name of “justice,” to screwing a new co-ed every semester. It’s the key to what is happening now on campus with the attacks on Jews and anyone else who isn’t a terrorist sympathizer, and it’s what is going to get people killed. Democrats just hope the people killed are on “their side,” as they are more than willing to sacrifice a few young people for the “greater good.”
Full article, HERE.
Kinda mirrors my post from yesterday…
Nuff said.
When people start dying in this current set of protests???
I saw someone say on social media that this is liberal America’s Charlottesville event, and it’s that and worse. Yes, there are Nazis involved, sort of. They may not don swastikas, but the hordes of anti-Israel activists that have turned Columbia University into a warzone ooze with the same hatred for Jews that permeated Germany circa 1939. What goes around comes around, and what’s happening in Columbia and nationwide on our college campuses is the left’s own “Charlottesville,” albeit on a national scale.
Nazis wanted to annihilate the Jewish people from the continent of Europe first, along with other “undesirables.” The pro-Hamas crowd lusts to see the destruction of Israel. They share the same intent, and both groups weren’t so subtle about it.
Full article, HERE from Town Hall.
Is this the Kristallnacht of this generation? This week is the celebration of Passover for those practicing Jewish friends and Jews world-wide. And they have to put up with THIS crap this week?
It is disgraceful, plain and simple. Why are these protests allowed to continue? Where is the police? The National Guard? Bueller???
A friend sent me this last night.
"Never forget the 7th of October. That will happen not one more time, not five more times, not 10…100…1000…10,000…The 7th of October is going to be every day for you."
Protestors screamed this at two Jewish @Columbia students right outside campus gates tonight. pic.twitter.com/VYp0tFudGj
— Jonas Du (@jonasydu) April 19, 2024
Note that the police stand around and do nothing… even allowing one protestor to walk within feet of the two girls with his face hidden, and they didn’t even think about blocking him.
Anybody want to bet NYPD was told to keep hands off the protestors?
It’s not ‘just’ happening in NYC, but all over the country at the left leaning colleges/universities. Sooner or later, they will try or WILL kill one of the students, probably a young female who cannot protect herself.
What happens then???
What happens if they pick on the ‘wrong’ person? In the wrong town/state? If the dad or brother ‘decides’ to do something?
When does it become ‘open season’ on the protestors? And which way will the police jump then?
I will be the first to say I have no good answers, but I think I would be looking at shutting these protests down sooner rather than later…
Your thoughts?
Is getting ridiculous in Commiefornia…
Now it’s railroad engines!!!
The Biden administration could allow California to implement a rule designed to push green locomotives, but a growing list of stakeholders are warning that the regulation would severely impact the state’s economy and the national rail industry.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could soon determine whether it will allow the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to move forward with a state regulation that would ban the use of locomotives that are more than 23 years past their manufacturing date unless they run using zero-emissions technology, according to Progressive Railroading.
Full article, HERE from the Daily Caller. And HERE is the source article from Progressive Railroading.
Soooo, first it was semi-trucks, and now stuff sits on the piers at San Pedro, Long Beach, and LA because the ‘little guys’ are out of business because they can’t afford new trucks.
And now they’re going after railroads? Estimates of a half BILLION dollars for minimal upgrades will, IMHO, cause railroads to stop serving California (if they have any sense). And then how will cargo move to/from the ports? FM???
I know Pepsi has ‘invested’ in some Tesla semis strictly for use in California, but who is going to foot the bill for the railroads? I can’t see any railroad spending that much for something that is only required in that state.
It will be interesting to see what the EPA does with this one…
I don’t come up with most of them, I just pass them along on recycled electrons…
HOW TO START A FIGHT
One year, I decided to buy my mother-in-law a cemetery plot as a Christmas gift…
The next year, I didn’t buy her a gift.
When she asked me why, I replied, “Well, you still haven’t used the gift I bought you last year!”
And that’s how the fight started…..
________________________________
My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed.
I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have Sex?’
‘No,’ she answered. I then said,
‘Is that your final answer?’
She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, ‘Yes.’
So I said, “Then I’d like to phone a friend.”
And that’s when the fight started…
________________________________
I took my wife to a restaurant.
The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.
“I’ll have the rump steak, rare, please.”
He said, “Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?”
“Nah, she can order for herself.”
And that’s when the fight started…..
_______________________________
My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.
I asked her, “Do you know him?”
“Yes”, she sighed,
“He’s my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn’t been sober since.”
“My God!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”
And then the fight started…
________________________________
When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting to me that
I should get it fixed. But, somehow I always had something else to take
care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer… always something more
important to me. Finally she thought of a clever way to make her point.
When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily
snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a
short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when
I came out again I handed her a toothbrush. I said, “When you finish
cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.”
The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.
______________________________
My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
She asked, “What’s on TV?”
I said, “Dust.”
And then the fight started…
________________________________
Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped
quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded
to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50mph, so I
pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the
weather would be bad all day. I went back into the house, quietly undressed,
and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife’s back; now with a
different anticipation, and whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.”
My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my stupid husband
is out fishing in that?”
And that’s how the fight started…
_______________________________
My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
She said, “I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.”
I bought her a bathroom scale.
And then the fight started……
______________________________
After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security.
The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to verify my age.
I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’.
So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me’ and she processed my Social Security application.
When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office. She said, ‘You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too.’
And then the fight started…
________________________________
My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
“I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.’
I replied, “Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.”
And then the fight started…
And I wonder how long it will be before we ‘see’ this at our doors…
I just want a bunk by the stove…