One year ago today: February 18, 2019, “feat” your eyes.
Five years ago today: February 18, 2015, this Biden dipstick.
Nine years ago today: February 18, 2011, semi-famous.
Random years ago today: February 18, 2012, 36 payments.
Top feature this morning is the picture of the matching set of pressure cookers. They are brand new, the patina is from being stored outdoors. When I get more than a certain number of inquiries, I’ll usually publish what is asked for. I suppose these are for when you do a lot of home canning. They are quite thick metal. Now on to some blog-affecting news.
Most people just want to know if you can post stuff, is it anonymous, and is it free? Anyway, this outfit is back in focus because the content (the words and pictures you enter) and design (the way the words and pictures look on a screen) are in a similar relationship to the HTML and CSS booklet I’m reviewing. If the scripts are roughly the same, I may download the WordPress software so I can hack away without going on-line.
Ye olde “you’re-supposed-to-know” nonsense doesn’t work on me. And we’re much too smart over here to do what most “power users” do, which is jump in unawares and find out later why it hurts so much. Here is an example of a typical brain-fart review that tells the newcomer nothing. Note the circular language and directionless jargon.
WordPress is a content-management system that originated as a blogging tool. It runs on PHP and a MySQL database. Design elements are packaged as “themes”; since content and design are separate, one need only install a new theme to get a whole new design without affecting the content. Functionality is extended by “plugins” of which there are tens of thousands, some incredibly useful, some not so much.
All my testing is done on a separate computer that stores no files more than a week. The system is a clean XP install on a computer that has never been on-line. The communications files are deleted and all ports have been sealed shut with crazy glue. It’s a precaution that has proven wise on countless occasions and I always have a system that works. As you may have guessed, I am being influenced to use some of my computer knowledge to produce a website that does not owe allegiance to any existing entity or contain any borrowed content. I’ve only agreed to take a look, but it would profoundly change the way this blog is presented. And how I would love to tell Google to kiss my AOL.
It is a sad day as the Boy Scout organization files for bankruptcy. Its structure and role has become watered down over the past few decades and now they face hundreds of abuse lawsuits. It’s the insanity of the American system that instead of suing the persons who commit the crime, you sue the organization they work for. Think Catholic Church. But the problem I have with the scouts is that I did not know anybody worked for them and I didn’t think they had any debt over which to declare bankruptcy.
Nor did I care for their recent admittance of “children who identify as girls”. Freedom in America does not mean a license to go around offending people, or worse, dictating the reactions of the offended (which seems to be what the activists are really after). Society has been self-correcting for 11,500 years. To hear some people you’d think all these “oppressed minority” problems suddenly arose in the 1970s. If you want acceptance, you change your own behavior, not that of the majority—no matter how “wrong” they may appear to be. I cannot ignore the contention that every instance of bias, prejudice, intolerance, discrimination, racism, and bigotry, has, if one looks deeply enough, a sad but solid basis in fact. This is not to be confused with unfairness, which is a different animal.
Brit dog biscuit factory.
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I scrubbed the door, it hasn’t been cleaned in twenty years. Boss Hogg kept cutting out. I won’t listen on-line because they want me, in addition to listening to the radio commercials, to turn off my ad blocker. No can do, Boss. I listened to Johnny Cash radio instead. That’s how I know Folsom Prison was originally released as a B-side. The radio says more troubles found with the Boeing 737. Debris is the fuel tanks, but funny thing, they are avoiding telling us what sort of debris. The media will shove microphones into unwilling people’s faces because “the people have a right to know”, but collectively won’t talk when they don’t want to.
Actually, I know the problem over at Boeing. I toured their plant, I think it was in the late 80s. That’s when they started dumbing down their workforce. Instead of hiring skilled labor and paying them adequately, they changed the manufacturing floor to a zombie zone. Quality control went from the workers to the supervisors. This created a gap where the people responsible for safety knew dick about building airplanes. They were paying $8 per hour tops at a time I was making three times that. The company was sold out as far as I am concerned the day they contracted out some parts overseas. The last thing foreigners give is shit about is the safety of Americans who have money to fly around in airplanes.
Here is a view of the partially cleaned brass plate on one of the big motors. The only on-line data is from vintage and historical sites. There are plenty of advertisements with a hitch. They cease in 1944. I will try to get you some real details on these motors tomorrow. They look in operating condition but I fear finding any kind of manuals for them is not going to be easy. The company, Kimble Electric, was known for variable speed single phase custom built motors. I ran the pictures past the Reb and she confirms they are the type used on carnival rides.
ADDENDUM
As if I didn’t have enough going on, we are taking a closer look at Forex, the foreign exchange market. An acquaintance is claiming to be making 10 or 12% per month. Is that gross or net? Don’t know yet. If it’s gross, it isn’t that much. If it is net, I need some proof. Lots of it. I know this market and it is risky and volatile. The company, Forex, claims to have software and experience to give their trades the edge. Once again, my take is that all they have is system and any system works better than none. This is not pyramid or Ponzi, but the ads are annoying because they are Amway-like. The exchange market is mercantile, a term I use in the narrow sense to mean that every gain is somebody else’s loss.
What I’m looking for is not related to the currencies, but the operations of trading as a business. That is where the vulnerabilities exist. It’s the market that is mercantile, not the people. The most obvious weakness is that the people doing the trading do not actually own the commodity being traded. That means emotional factors guide most of their decision, although they would deny it. I’m about to give you my five top business assets as they would be brought to bear on this venture, if it’s a go.
1. Above and beyond all, I can wait out the competition. They have to make money to survive, and I was once in that boat. Sooner or later, most them will have to make a bad move.
2. I can afford losses. Not one cent of my capital is taken from necessities or from what I require to thrive. It also means I don’t necessarily have to sell at a loss, but don’t read too much into that.
3. Greed, that highly under-rated factor, is understood and controlled at my end. It is those with unbridled greed that slip up, and I know precisely what to watch for.
4. My accounting system is airtight. I’ve seen many an enterprise fail because the owners scoffed at the idea of budgeting and keeping daily records. If I must say so myself, I’m a bit of an expert in that field.
5. I do not operate on credit. Every person who utilizes credit has to make certain sub-optimal decisions. They operate on deadlines and usually a monthly cycle. That’s a pattern I can spot in the dark. (I have enough investment capital to not have to use or risk leveraging to make money at 10%.)
Nothing is going to happen unless certain other conditions are met, but I’ll let you know if I find out anything blogworthy.
