$5 Million Doesn't Buy What It Used To Buy

George Soros regrets backing Obama.  From 12/31/15 The Hill:

George Soros, a billionaire Democratic donor, told a close Hillary Clinton ally that he regretted voting for President Obama over her in the 2008 Democratic primary, according to an email released Thursday by the State Department.

Center for American Progress President Neera Tanden said in a May 2012 email to Clinton that Soros made the admission to her during a dinner. ...

An August 2012 article in The New Yorker said Soros gave $5 million to help elect Obama in 2008, and that he later felt snubbed by the president.

"Confidants say that, although he still supports Obama, Soros has been disappointed by him, both politically and personally," the article said. "When Soros wanted to meet with Obama in Washington to discuss global economic problems, Obama’s staff failed to respond."

"Eventually, they arranged not a White House interview but, rather, a low-profile, private meeting in New York, when the President was in town for other business. Soros found this back-door treatment confounding," the article said.

A Soros confident told The New Yorker: "They pissed on him... He didn’t want a f-cking thing! He didn’t want a state dinner, or a White House party—he just wanted to be taken seriously.”

Remember the joke about the man who offers a woman in a bar a million dollars?  The punch line is, "We've already established what you are.  We're just haggling over the price now."

A Consensus Exists on Global Warming

From Feb. 13, 2013 Forbes:

It is becoming clear that not only do many scientists dispute the asserted global warming crisis, but these skeptical scientists may indeed form a scientific consensus.

Don’t look now, but maybe a scientific consensus exists concerning global warming after all. Only 36 percent of geoscientists and engineers believe that humans are creating a global warming crisis, according to a survey reported in the peer-reviewed Organization Studies. By contrast, a strong majority of the 1,077 respondents believe that nature is the primary cause of recent global warming and/or that future global warming will not be a very serious problem.

The survey results show geoscientists (also known as earth scientists) and engineers hold similar views as meteorologists. Two recent surveys of meteorologists (summarized here and here) revealed similar skepticism of alarmist global warming claims.

Hate Crime Against Mosque By Who Else?

No, not one of those knuckle-dragging Tea Part Southern Baptist sorts.  From 12/30/15 NBC News:

The suspect in a "suspicious" fire at a Houston mosque is an adherent who attended services there, officials said Wednesday.

Gary Nathaniel Moore, 37, of Houston, was arrested Wednesday morning for the Christmas Day blaze, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told NBC News.

Moore told investigators he had attended the mosque for five years, coming five times a day to pray, reported The Houston Chronicle. MJ Khan, president of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston, confirmed at a press conference Wednesday afternoon that Moore did attend prayer services there, but added, "I wouldn't call him a regular."

Restoring My ThinkPad

Northwind Computers managed to defeat Microsoft and get Windows 7 Professional running on my new 1TB hard disk.  Now I am restoring my last image file (which is a year old (I should make images  more often).  The next step is restore all my personal files from the other backup non my external drive.  Then I get to reinstall probably thousands of Windows 7 updates, the various applications I installed over the last year (putting all the install programs from Downloads into a special folder) and reapply the Lenovo docking station drivers which have always had a less than friendly relationship with Windows 7 updates.  I will be busy for many hours, I fear.  On the other hand, I have a fresh install of Windows 7 with much of the debris that normally accumulates not there; 500 GB more storage in case I decide to Linux dual boot it; and I now have no excuse for failing to make a fresh system image.

This is embarrassing; my backup script has been carefully backing up everything in My Documents, but not the other library directories.  Most wasn't terribly important, but I will do better next time.

Lessons learned: record all your Thunderbird settings port, password xmit method, etc. Last time I did this I backed up all my files and settings with Mozbackup.  Every installer from Downloads should be copied to a backup folder, along with any license codes in your inbox.

Getting there: hostrocket.com helped me unravel the Thunderbird settings.  Now I just need to find the right driver for my Lenovo USB 3.0 Dock.  Ity seems to be harder than it should be.  Not sure where I found it on Lenovo's web site, but the installer is called hlud04ww.exe and everything is working.  Office 2013 is installed; just Corel VideoStudio remains.

Corel is a company I am beginning to dislike: Only the current version is supported, and the download that installs X6 appears to be an upgrade only from X5 which of course went away when the hard disk crashed.  There's always a reason you need to buy the latest version.Actually, I was running the wrong installer.  I found the right one, but it needs a serial number from a section of their website that is currently 404.

Elk

Coming back from the gym this evening, my wife narrowly avoided taking an elk as it crossed state highway 55.  What a magnificent animal!  Fish & Game needs to attach reflective panels to them, though.

Good News and Annoying News

My 1TB drive replacement for the ThinkPad arrived today, looking like a punch line of a joke about packaging.  A Priority Mail small flat rate box, inside a Priority Mail envelope, inside a Manila envelope.

Installation of the disc was almost trivial.  The BIOS sees it, and it passes diagnostics.

The bad news is that like all things Microsoft, system image restore is nothing like promised.  There are zilloions of web pages telling you solutions that don't work, including installin from the Windows 7 install DVD (which I have).

UPDATE: This page  suggests boot must be legacy only.  Solved nothing.

UPDATE 2: This tells how to use DISKPART, the Windows 7 version of FDISK (for those of you old enough to remember it).  I am trying this.  Nope.

Finally gave up, took it to Northwind.  They have seen this problem before where Windows 7 will not install from DVD or recovery CD.  $85, but at least it gets me operational again.

Milling Time Calculations

The program that I wrote for generating gCode to excavate material: I added some code to figure out how long it would take.  For every operation I know how many inches the mill is moving and the feed rate.  Knowing when to return to the mill is a great advantage.  So I tested it last night.  Th program computed 23 minutes to do the operations.  t actually took more like 26 minutes.  My guess is that while LinuxCNC lets me set feed rates as high as 100 in/min, the Sherline mill may not actually move that fast, making the calculations bogus.  I guess today I will measure to see what the actual maximum speed is.  Actual max speed is 20 in/min.

WiFi Range Extenders

I need your experiences.  The Linux notebook that I use to control the mill is in the garage because the parallel port has to be on a short cable.  Unfortunately, it seems to be beyond WiFi range from my office.  About 120 feet, with washer, dryer, furnace and other metal objects in the way.  (When these are not line of sight, still no WiFi, so distance probably the issue.)  There are WiFi range extenders made that might be the solution.  Put the extender in the laundry room immediately adjacent to the garage.

TP-LINK Av500 Powerline Wi-Fi Range Extender on order.  I have lots of outlets available through workshop and house.

Is This A Laugh Or Cry Event?

From 11/29/15 Politico:

Amid a vicious winter storm on Monday that forced some presidential campaigns to cancel their scheduled stops in Iowa, only Martin O'Malley decided to press on.

And one man at his last event, the only person to show up, in fact, "was glad to see me," the former Maryland governor said. But he still would not commit to caucus for O'Malley.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/martin-omalley-iowa-event-217193#ixzz3vf9nlJUb

Amusing Business Name

My wife noticed a tow truck with the business name WTF Towing and Salvage.  I've seen more than a few occasions where the appropriate response to an accident or tow need was WTF?

FTP Clients

I have long been spoiled by IPSwitch's WS_FTP graphical interface FTP client program.  Because both my PC and my wife's PC are down while awaiting new disk drives, I had to download it again. Unfortunately it is no longer free except during a 30 day trial, and it is not dirt-cheap, either.  But FileZilla remains free.  It is a little different from WS_FTP but not enough to drive me off.

Another Reminder Where Abandoning Bronze Age Religions Takes You

From 12/28/15 Ars Technica:

A highly antibiotic-resistant variety of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the germ behind gonorrhea, is quickly spreading and may soon become unbeatable, according to Sally Davies, chief medical officer of England, and Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Keith Ridge....

In the US, gonorrhea is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections reported, causing an estimated 820,000 cases each year. In England, gonorrhea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection reported, causing around 35,000 cases each year.

Slightly More Subtle Than Painting Jude On Shop Windows

From The Oregonian:

The Oregon bakery owners who ignited a national controversy by refusing to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple on Monday quietly paid a state-ordered $135,000 damages award and then some.

But the effect is the same: to drive people out of business based on religion.

Why Feminists Don't Much Care About ISIS

From Reuiters:

Islamic State theologians have issued an extremely detailed ruling on when "owners" of women enslaved by the extremist group can have sex with them, in an apparent bid to curb what they called violations in the treatment of captured females....


Among the religious rulings are bans on a father and son having sex with the same female slave; and the owner of a mother and daughter having sex with both. Joint owners of a female captive are similarly enjoined from intercourse because she is viewed as "part of a joint ownership."

The United Nations and human rights groups have accused the Islamic State of the systematic abduction and rape of thousands of women and girls as young as 12, especially members of the Yazidi minority in northern Iraq. Many have been given to fighters as a reward or sold as sex slaves.

Far from trying to conceal the practice, Islamic State has boasted about it and established a department of "war spoils" to manage slavery. Reuters reported on the existence of the department on Monday.


The fatwa starts with a question: "Some of the brothers have committed violations in the matter of the treatment of the female slaves. These violations are not permitted by Sharia law because these rules have not been dealt with in ages. Are there any warnings pertaining to this matter?"

It then lists 15 injunctions, which in some instances go into explicit detail. For example:

"If the owner of a female captive, who has a daughter suitable for intercourse, has sexual relations with the latter, he is not permitted to have intercourse with her mother and she is permanently off limits to him. Should he have intercourse with her mother then he is not permitted to have intercourse with her daughter and she is to be off limits to him."

There was a time when this sort of behavior would have had feminists demanding war.

The 12/29/15 Mirror includes this item:

It is not permissible for the owner of a female captive to have intercourse with her until after she has had menstrual cycle and becomes clean.

Remember: Trump Can't Win

I am generally skeptical of WND, but this poll they are reporting on might well be right:

Because a new poll, which still has Trump leading the race, shows 40 percent of blacks are lining up behind Trump, as are 45 percent of Hispanics, and even nearly 19 percent of Asians.

Blacks and Hispanics, in fact, even support Trump at a higher level than whites.

Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/12/minorities-line-up-behind-donald-trump/#KBdyS4UgOjkOwkTz.99

How could this be?  After all the overheated rhetoric about illegal aliens?  Remember that many Hispanics were born here and are competing for the same underpaid jobs as illegals (ditto for black voters) or came here legally and resent queue-jumpers.

Everytime I get ready to put the extended vertical column on Millie...

Another order comes in that either requires or can use Millie, so I keep putting off the upgrade.

The Beatles now available on amazon prime for free

I started listening to their last album Let It Be.  I am surprised at how many tracks are just filler.  "Get Back", "The Long and Winding Road", and of course the title tune are very interesting even today, but "Dig a Pony" with the verb penetra ton used in a way that tells me why it go no airplay back then.

The x-axis may go to infinity in a math classroom...

But not in the real world. I was trying to machine a 10 inch long piece of acetal yesterday, and I could not figure out why the Mill was getting confused about where X=0.  The answer was pretty simple: I was reaching the end of the actual x axis travel, and while the controller kept incrementing X, there was no actual movement. So when it started to go back to X=0, it was actually starting at X=9.

This is an experiment

I have not had good luck with the voice recognition features of this smartphone, so I'm experimenting with using the headphone and microphone that plugs into the earphone jack. It seems to work a lot better than just talking into the phone. I have only had to correct one word manually.

ThinkPad Problem Hard Disk Failure

I was pretty sure the ThinkPad ' problem was the hard disk, but it was worth $42.50 to have Northwind Computers verify that.  They could have replaced it for ne but they just order the disk from Amazon, and they were frank it would be cheaper to do it myself.  So I just I ordered Western Digital 1tb Drive for $72 ; 7mm height 6Gb/sec xfer speed; 8 GB cache.  An SSD drive was tempting but 500gb in this format factor is still $$$.

How Did I Miss This?

Clark County, Nevada (Las Vegas) has long required registration of handguns: the biggest black mark on Nevada's generally pro-gun status.  But this reports:

Signed late Monday was a Senate bill approved by House members last week 25-17 that will expand castle doctrine to include occupied vehicles, as well as scrap Clark County’s outdated “blue card” registration scheme and other reforms.

Yet Another Reason To Increase Spam Blocking At The ISP Level Not At Your Email Application

Thunderbird on the Lenovo sends a lot of stuff to junk, but now that I am reloading my email on the antique, it takes forever because of the spam.  I used to think the EU's rules about requiring affirmative permission to email someone were excessive but not now.

Lenovo ThinkPad Dead

Will not even get to the BIOS.  I am a bit reluctant to buy another Lenovo because of this, but I have a very cool multidisplay docking station for the Lenovo.  Groan.

Fortunately, my antique HP laptop is in the process of installing hundreds of Windows 7 upgrades right now, so that I will be able to resume work.

Weirdly, the antique is now shutting down until I move to another outlet.  Water through the wall damaged the electrical?

Fortunately everything is backed up to two external hard drives so this is more annoyance than catastrophe.

Very odd.  I plugged the Lenovo into a different outlet and why it still isn't working, at least the BIOS sort of starts.  Not enough battery? After an hour plugged into a known good outlet the Lenovo can at least run BIOS diagnostics.  But there is no hard disk diagnostic:  hard disk not responding?

Curiously, my wife's Toshiba Portege is making bad hard drive noises and refusing to boot.  Ever wondered what different hard disk noises mean?  See here.  At least I know what this is: just order a replacement hard drive, maybe SSD to boost performance.

Glad Shall Not Be Questioned Is Paying Attention

Shall Not Be Questioned points to this important news item:

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — In a Dec. 10 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that a gun exported by a Serbian manufacturer to a Florida-based company was involved in the Nov. 13 Paris attacks. In fact, the gun in question was not involved in the attacks and has been in Mexican government custody since March of this year, according to U.S. authorities.

The AP report was based on information from the Serbian gun manufacturer Zastava, which cited to AP an advisory from the Serbian Interior Ministry. The advisory quoted Interpol authorities as saying a gun manufactured by Zastava with a particular serial number was used in Paris. The AP story should have made clear that the connection between a Zastava gun with that serial number and the Paris attacks was based only on this advisory.

Zastava said it exported a gun with that serial number to Delray Beach, Florida-based Century Arms in 2013. According to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the gun was received by Century and eventually sent to a federal firearms licensee in the United States and purchased by an individual in February 2014. In March of this year it was recovered at a crime scene in Mexico and is still in the custody of Mexican officials, ATF said.

A New Business Opportunity

From here:

The Islamic State's religious scholars have ruled that taking the organs of non-Muslims is permissible under Islamic law to save the life of a Muslim, because killing apostates to eat their flesh has previously been allowed.

The revelation comes in a January 2015 document that was capured by U.S. special forces in Syria in May and obtained by Reuters.

The news agency posted a U.S. government translation of the document attributed to the Islamic State's research and fatwa committee.

"Allah almighty knows what's best and knows what's right and what is wrong and there is evidence from texts and Islamic principles and laws supporting the notion that transplanting organs from an apostate's body into a Muslim body in order to save the latter's life or replace a damaged organ with it is permissible," the document reads....

The Islamic State scholars argue that "If the jurists had permitted, when necessary, the consumption of human flesh as a means counter to death or harm, then it is even more appropriate to transplant of organs from the apostate to the Muslim to save the life of the latter. This is especially true because it was ruled that the apostate's life and organs are not protected. On the contrary, the apostate's life and organs don't have to be respected and can be taken with impunity."

 I recall an episode of Sliders where one of the evil alternative Earth races develop a taste for human eyes.

Even in Boise, Careful How You Answer the Door

From 12/24/15 KTVB:

According to the Ada County Sheriff's Office, the victim answered his door to find Schmidt standing on his doorstep. The victim said the other man pulled out a razor and slashed him across the neck before getting away in a car.

The victim told investigators he had never seen his attacker before.

The sheriff's office said Schmidt had targeted the man after talking to another person they both knew. It's not clear what prompted the attack.

Schmidt had been out of prison for just two weeks before the assault happened.

Two weeks?  Slow learner.

Organizing Rampage

Obama's claim to fame before Illinois legislature was being a community organizer.  How much harder is that than organizing my workshop or office closet? I started by organizing my collection of machine screw, bolts, andc taps, and discovered that I have all sorts of odd sizes that I will never use like 8-32 x 1.5" socket head machine screws.  Ebay them?  Maybe.

My wife then went on an organizing rampage in my office closet, trying to figure out where to put hundreds of law review article reprints.  Why do they send so many to authors?  Should we give them away at cocktail parties or for Halloween?  Also, I have all sorts of antique and obsolete cables (1BaseT Ethernet), and a couple of keyboard, mouse, VGA switchers, which I don't need.  (If you need a 2 or 4 port switcher, let me know before they go to St. Vincent de Paul.)

Putting Homeless Advocates on the Spot

Recently, the problem of a homeless encampment became so severe that even the center-left Boise city government forced them to move.  Many objected to the rules that many of the private Christian shelters have: no drugs, no drinking (some of the parents would rather continue drinking and using meth even with their kids living in freezing weather in tents).  An amusing letter to the Idaho Statesman tells a couple solutions:

Unfortunately, Boise needs an immediate solution this winter for the homeless who do not wish exposure to the seemingly unreasonable rules and “religious agenda” in existing homeless shelters. The solution is obvious: Boise’s homeless advocates, such as Leo Morales, Barbara Kemp, Howard Belodoff and Kayla Moore, should open their hearts and their homes to the free-spirited homeless who will not accept faith-based shelters’ rules.

Each homeless advocate can take one or more of these needy folks into their homes this winter, or at least let the homeless pitch a tent in their backyards and use the advocate’s shower, bathroom and kitchen for their basic needs. This will also help demonstrate to heartless right-wingers that Boise’s homeless advocates are not hypocrites whose charity is limited to spending the taxpayers’ money.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/article51639245.html#storylink=cpy

Another Advantage of New Sharp Taps

This should be obvious, but along with cutting threads more easily a new sharp tap has another advantage when you are using a drill press to tap threads.  I use a drill press rather than a T-handle because you get nice 90 degree threads that way.  Sharper tap means it takes less clamping force in the chuck to hold the tap in place, because there is less force coming back from the tap being so sharp.

When My Wife Gets Bored

She plows the private road and driveways of our neighbors and the old highway, which the county no longer maintains.  What it looks like from the inside:

Here's the second pass on the old highway which kicks up more snow on the windshield:

And from outside:

Need Some Laughs?

Dave Barry's year in review, some excerpts:

In Paris, two million people march in a solidarity rally following the horrific terrorist attack on the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Eyebrows are raised when not a single top U.S. official attends, but several days later, Secretary of State John Kerry arrives in France with James Taylor, who — this really happened — performs the song You’ve Got a Friend. This bold action strikes fear into the hearts of terrorists, who realize that Secretary Kerry is fully capable, if necessary, of unleashing Barry Manilow....

NBC suspends Nightly News anchor Brian Williams after an investigation reveals inaccuracies in his account of being in a military helicopter under fire in Iraq. “Mr. Williams did not actually come under fire,” states the network. “Also technically he wasn’t in a helicopter in Iraq; it was a Volvo station wagon on the New Jersey Turnpike. But there was a lot of traffic.” A contrite Williams blames the lapse on post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from killing Osama bin Laden.

Abroad, Greece, under intense pressure to meet its debt obligations, gives Germany two of its three remaining goats....

In the year’s biggest literary story, representatives of 88-year-old Harper Lee, denying allegations that they’re seeking to cash in on the beloved author’s literary fame, announce plans to publish what they claim is her recently discovered second book, Fifty Shades of a Mockingbird....

In finance news, shares on European financial markets plummet when German authorities announce that one of the Greek goats is actually a highly modified squirrel.

Speaking of unnatural: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the sale of genetically modified potatoes and apples, noting that they “offer many nutritional benefits” and are “completely safe” provided that consumers “do not anger them.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article51119880.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article51119880.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article51119880.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/dave-barry/article51119880.html#storylink=cpy

Obama Vs. His Evil Predecessor

The Blaze reports why Bush never left town for vacation until after Christmas (unlike Obama):

After a few years, curiosity finally got to the former Washington Times reporter and he asked a low-level administration official why.

“I still remember what she said,” Curl wrote. “’So all of us can be with our families on Christmas.’”

“Who was ‘us’? Hundreds and hundreds of people, that’s who. Sure, the reporters who covered the president, but also dozens and dozens on his staff, 100 Secret Service agents, maybe more, and all of those city cops required whenever the president’s on the move in D.C.,” Curl added in his column.

So... Is Trump Already President?

From 12/23/15 Washington Post:

The Department of Homeland Security has begun preparing for a series of raids that would target for deportation hundreds of families who have flocked to the United States since the start of last year, according to people familiar with the operation.

The nationwide campaign, to be carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as soon as early January, would be the first large-scale effort to deport families who have fled violence in Central America, those familiar with the plan said. More than 100,000 families with both adults and children have made the journey across the southwest border since last year, though this migration has largely been overshadowed by a related surge of unaccompanied minors.

Hundreds of families?  Immigration Security theater.

Why Can't We Have Socialized Health Care Like Britain?

From 12/24/15 Express:

THE influx of migrants as well as obese and older mothers are being blamed for Britain’s maternity unit crisis, which sees half of units so stretched they are having to turn away women in LABOUR.

Shocking figures released today reveal expectant mums had to travel up to 50 miles, often in their own cars or a taxi, to have their babies at an alternative hospital while some maternity units have been closed to new births for up to two days.

The statistics, released under the Freedom of Information Act, show 45 of the 93 NHS maternity units surveyed closed their doors at least once in 2015. Women were turned away on at least 575 occasions, compared with 461 in 2014....

The Royal College of Midwives has previously warned the rise in older mothers and the obese is putting extra strain on maternity units as these people tend to have more complicated labours involving caesareans and other interventions that require dedicated attention from staff.The number of women giving birth in their forties has increased by 78 per cent in the past 10 years.

Migrants are adding to the vast pressure maternity units are already under - more than 695,000 babies were born in England in 2014 - by starting families after arriving in the UK.

 

Millie Paying For Itself Today

I had a couple orders come in.  For one, I needed to trim a piece of acetal to 1.15" x 1.00".  I could do this with my planer, but cleanup is messy and it requires my full attention.  Instead I just set up the program to trim a 9" long piece of acetal and worked on other parts of the order.

The other order I had two of the acetal pieces cut; the third piece I cut from a piece of stock just barely long enough.  Not quite.  So I ended up with an irregular piece that Millie is now making 1" thick and parallel while I watch TV.

Alternatives to Guns For Suicide

The gun confisication extremists are again counting suicides in the incredible gun death toll to scare people, arguing that without guns, the 2/3 of gun deaths that are suicides would not happen, because guns are so much more certain.  From Gary Kleck's book Point Blank table 6.2 is a list of suicide methods and how often they are fatal:

 

method	fatality %
shooting	84.7
hanging	80.0
CO exhaust	77.0
drowning	75.0
jumping/impact	42.3
poisoning	14.5
non-CO gases	13.4
drugs	11.8
cutting/stabbing	4.9

  As you can see ropes are readily available as is car exhaust.

Some Perspective on Crime Rates

Shocking Admission From Washington Post

From 12/22/15 WASHINGTON POST.  Gun deaths are not evely distributed by race or category:

Of course no mention the black murders are almost entirely by blacks.

Also amazing to see this admitted:

About 41 percent of white households own guns, compared to just 19 percent of black households, according to a 2014 Pew survey. 

If guns increase risk of death, it must only be through suicide.

Discouraging Spam

{Spam?} Funeral - Home - Options- Search Burial And Cremation Services

House Maintenance: You Don't Think Of It, But It Doesn't Care

Yesterday, while a Winter Storm Warning was in effect, I heard water dripping somewhere nearby.  It was dripping onto the windowsill in my office.

On the inside, my wife and I could see cracks in the wallboard around the window frame, and feel cold air blowing in.  As a temporary measure, we caulked the cracks.  Today, I looked at the outside.

 

You can see the gaps above the window frame where rain and wind have been entering.  We spent thr briefly non-raining afternoon recaulking the outside of the most obvious offenders, and we'lll do all the rest when we some days above freezing.

If you haven't checking the sealing around your window frames in the last year or two, do it.

Fun With IRS

I mentioned a couple months back that I had received a surprise refund from IRS for 2014, and a warning about identity theft.  Today, I received a bill from them for that same amount plusd interest and a small penalty.  I spent an hour on hold with IRS and had it explained.

Someone ()other than me) filed a tax return using my Social Security Number seeking a refund of the no health insurance tax.  They knew it was fraud, but they sent me the refund.  Now they want the money back.  And yes, they expect me to pay the penalty and interest (about $10) as well, since I should have known I was not due a refund.

"What happened to the idea who filed a fraudulent tax return?"  They have no idea.  He's probably on Air Force One, I am guessing.

Fascism Is Coming

Reading the comments by the gun control fascists at the Washington Post and the Atlantic websites convinces me that Obama and friends won't settle for anything less than a police state, with door-to-door kicking in of doors to search for guns, while ignoring meth labs, child porn, and IED factories.  The left is in full-on police state thinking.  Disagree with them and you are intent on mass murder.

Taking Away Incentives To Behave

From 12/21/15 Reuters:

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday he would seek to pardon thousands of people convicted of nonviolent crimes as teenagers in an attempt to remove a major obstacle to securing employment, housing and education.

The executive action stems from Cuomo's broader "Raise the Age Campaign," an effort to change New York law that requires 16- and 17-year-old criminal defendants to be tried as adults.
New York is one of only two states, along with North Carolina, that prosecutes all 16-year-olds as adults.

ADVERTISING

 

Cuomo said he would invite anyone who was convicted of a nonviolent felony or misdemeanor at age 16 or 17 to apply for pardons, as long as they have remained crime-free for 10 years.

 A lot of people prohibited from gun ownership will now able to buy guns.  And one more reason you don't need to worry about crimes you commit as a minor.

Another Mass Murder Attempt: No Gun

From 12/21/15 ABC News:

A 24-year-old woman, believed to be from the Oregon area, was the woman who drove a car on a sidewalk and through a crowd on the Las Vegas Strip Sunday, killing one and injuring over 30 others, officials said today. 

Lakeisha Holloway is in custody and facing one count of murder with the use of a deadly weapon, the district attorney's office said. She may face additional charges including multiple counts of attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon, child abuse and neglect and leaving the scene of an accident. 

Officials say they have ruled out terrorism as a possible motive. However, they do believe the incident was "an intentional act," based upon the car's movements. The suspect went up on the sidewalk "two, maybe three times," according to police. 

The sheriff said she was very stoic and didn’t appear to be "distressed" from her actions.

If Someone Gets Shot: It's NRA's Fault

From 12/21/15 Associated Press:

BALTIMORE (AP) — A 17-year-old student who authorities say was stabbed by another teen in a Baltimore high school classroom has died.

Baltimore police spokesman T.J. Smith said in a statement that the student died Sunday night, nearly a month after the Nov. 24 stabbing at Renaissance Academy High School.

Lt. Jarron Jackson, another police spokesman, identified the slain student as Ananias Jolley.

Seventeen-year-old Donte Crawford is charged as an adult with attempted murder in the attack. Smith says investigators are working with the State's Attorney's Office to file additional charges.

Whose fault is this?  What Republican caused this?  The inventor of steel?

Slow Learnner

From Dec. 21, 2015 Washington Post:

President Obama accused Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in an interview aired Monday of "exploiting" anger and fear over economic insecurities among working class men to propel his presidential campaign.

In an interview with NPR, the president said that structural changes to the American economy through technology and the 2008 financial crisis have meant stagnant wages for some sectors, especially blue-collar workers.

Gee, I wonder if Obama's policies might be a factor.

Right To Keep Bears

A neighbor is a game warden.  Someone shot a bear in his chicken coop.  One of the cubs was orphaned.  So he is going to a cub rehab center near McCall.

Shooting In A Mall

 From 12/19/15 Chicago Tribune:

Witnesses told police that several young men were involved in a dispute in the heart of the crowded mall where two major wings intersect. One pulled out a handgun and fired at least one shot, although DeSpain said it could have been multiple shots. A 19-year-old man involved in the initial dispute was struck in the leg. He was taken to the hospital with a non-life-threatening injury. A worker at a mall kiosk was hit in the pant leg by a bullet ricochet but was not injured, DeSpain said.

My guess is it is a Black Lives Don't Matter To Other Blacks problem.  I doubt Obama will say a word.

Figuring Out Cut Depth & Speed

If you try to cut too deep or too fast, the mill vibrates too vigorously too trust.  Tired of figuring combinations by trial and error, I did some experiments.  It appears that when cutting 6061 aluminum with a .5 end mill, the inches/minute x depth of cut has to be less than .02 to work well.  Actually .15 is a bit better.

UPDATE: Black Delrin (which is some sort of reinforced acetal) can easily handle 2.50 as the product.

New Paper Up

New Paper.

 Abstract: As part of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports system, the FBI gathers and reports both civilian and police officer justifiable homicide statistics.  The methods by which these numbers are gathered makes them gross undercounts of the actual legal, defensive homicides by citizens.  Furthermore, comparing the civilian justifiable homicide numbers to criminal homicides for public policy cost/benefit analysis understates the crime reducing effects of civilian gun ownership.

Because Violence Policy Center is misrepresenting the FBI's justifiable homicide numbers.

Everyone Complains About Cafeteria Food

But Oberlin College's social justice warriors are reaching new levels. From 12/18/15 New York Post:

Students at an ultra-liberal Ohio college are in an uproar over the fried chicken, sushi and Vietnamese sandwiches served in the school cafeterias, complaining the dishes are “insensitive” and “culturally inappropriate.”

Gastronomically correct students at Oberlin College — alma mater of Lena Dunham — are filling the school newspaper with complaints and demanding meetings with campus dining officials and even the college president.

General Tso’s chicken was made with steamed chicken instead of fried — which is not authentically Chinese, and simply “weird,” one student bellyached in the Oberlin Review.

Others were up in arms over banh mi Vietnamese sandwiches served with coleslaw instead of pickled vegetables, and on ciabatta bread, rather than the traditional French baguette.

“It was ridiculous,” gripes Diep Nguyen, a freshman who is a Vietnam native.

Worse, the sushi rice was undercooked in a way that was, according to one student, “disrespectful” of her culture. Tomoyo Joshi, a junior from Japan, was highly offended by this flagrant violation of her rice. “I f people not from that heritage take food, modify it and serve it as ‘authentic,’ it is appropriative,” she said.

Appropriative is term used now when you try to adopt something of another culture.  I thought that was a sign of respect for other cultures.

President Obama Doing Reality TV Show

Unfortunately it isn't called Oval Office or Commander-in-Chief.  From 12/17/15 Los Angeles Times:

WASHINGTON — He helped make tea from catkins, ate a salmon prechewed by a bear, and discussed why people would drink their own urine.

On Thursday night, President Obama appeared in an episode of the survivalist reality show “Running Wild With Bear Grylls,” part of an effort by the White House to highlight the perils of climate change. While trekking in the Alaskan wild, the president and Mr. Grylls, one of reality television’s biggest stars, bemoan the rapid retreat of a vast glacier.

I n notice comments are disabled on that story.   One guess why.

Third Muslim Taken Into Custody For San Bernadino Islamic Terrorism

From 12/17/15 Los Angeles Times:

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Enrique Marquez, who supplied the assault rifles used to kill 14 people in a massacre in San Bernardino, Calif., this month, was arrested Thursday and charged with crimes including conspiring to support terrorists. Court papers show that he and one of the attackers had steeped themselves for years in radical and violent Islamist propaganda, including the teachings of the extremist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and bomb-making techniques from an Al Qaeda magazine.

Mr. Marquez, 24, has told investigators that he and an attacker, his longtime friend and neighbor, Syed Rizwan Farook, had been discussing radical Islam since 2007. They made plans in 2011 and 2012 to launch deadly attacks on the college they had attended and on a busy California freeway.

Mr. Marquez bought not only the guns used in the San Bernardino shooting but also the smokeless powder that Mr. Farook used to build pipe bombs, according to documents filed in Federal District Court here on Thursday.

In addition to the terrorism charge, he faces a count of lying on gun purchase forms to conceal that he was really buying them for Mr. Farook, and one of defrauding the immigration system by entering into a sham marriage with a Russian immigrant.

I called it on the sham marriage.

Don't Know Where Instapundit Found It

But it describes this season.

From this guy.

Database Developer, local Tea Party leader, doing charity work in Uganda whenever possible, wife from Taiwan, adult son

The Ecofrauds Are Getting Worse

Peter Woods of NAS writes:

I am pasting below a copy of an email that I’ve sent to many members of the National Academy of Sciences. I’ve also sent a version of it to the board members of the AAAS.  And I have posted it to the National Association of Scholars website here.

It explains itself pretty clearly, but it will help to give a little background.  We were drawn into this by James Enstrom, a former UCLA senior scientist and a National Association of Scholars member. We championed his case when he was fired for blowing the whistle on a major fraud at the California Air Resources Board (CARB). CARB had issued research findings (and ultimately regulations) based on a study that Enstrom demonstrated was fraudulent.  The main author of the study had a mail order Ph.D.—as it happens, the address of the phony degree-granting institution is on Madison Avenue two blocks from my office.  There was other mischief too, involving several of Enstrom’s colleagues who had seats at CARB.

Enstrom sought to publish some account of this in Science under the editorship of Marcia McNutt.  He didn’t get anywhere. But he did end up making the acquaintance of other scientists who had similar experiences with McNutt. McNutt is now the only candidate to be president of the National Academy of Sciences.  Enstrom hoped that if he could draw attention to her record of bolting the door against scientific dissent from establishment positions, the members of the Academy might have second thoughts.