Zlinedavid

Damn, called that one. 10% in a day is good, right?

I’ll have to snap some pics tomorrow, but I never appreciated how hard it is to grow grass. And no, not kind. We moved into a new house in December, and the builder had the great idea to seed/straw the yard in friggin November. And our lot has a pretty good slope to it. Yep, you can imagine how that turned out. So far this spring, I’ve installed downspouts on all the gutters that make their way into about 150’ of French drains, brought in 30 cubic yards of fill dirt to go halfway level things out, tilled the entire yard and put down new seed. Oh and at the wife’s behest, planted a bunch of flowers and $&!&. Because apparently that stuff is important. 🤣

COVID can live for up to 3 days on plastic or stainless steel surfaces, and there’s generally no shortage of either on a cruise ship. Edit: in terms of vaccine efficacy, I was fully expecting the COVID vaccines to be about as effective as a below average year for flu vaccines: 70% ish. But, the vaccine also lowers the severity of the symptoms.

RIP If you run in to CC and Mile in the heavenly equivalent to Nick’s, tell them we said hello.

F22’s inlet ducts are more horizontal has and a slightly taller, narrower canopy. F35’s inlet ducts are more vertically oriented.

Heard rumblings about Workhorse (WKSE) or WWE (WWE) entering the Reddit picture. If you’re a more traditional investor, KemPharm (KMPH) is a biotech on the rise. Good pipeline of drugs either soon to be entering the market and in development, and very cash heavy. Will be added in the next revision of the Russell 2000.

*yawn* Damn, that's the last time I mix Benadryl and Wild Turkey. Is it February yet....holy hell....April? What'd I miss? Anything going on?

Actually.....this is a trick question. There's two: Plunkett and Phil Simms. Edit: Scratch that. Simms has a Super Bowl MVP, not a league MVP.

*Ed McMahon voice* You are correct, sir!

Variances in direction of the water flow and sea levels, plus a less consistent flow. Tides are back and forth, back and forth very, very quickly. For generation, one consistent direction is needed to generate power. IE: Windmills. They can spin either direction, but to make consistent power, they need to be spinning in one direction for a duration. Not to mention the tide levels vary. Even if there was some kind of device that could harness the tide's energy, there would also need to be something that would allow it to move to remain with the tide's level as it comes in and out. That's going to make it difficult to retrieve the power and distribute it, even if it could be generated.

I knew Jagr had to be in there. Dude was Methusela on skates. Now, here's statistical proof as to just how unbelievable Gretzky was: - Gretzky is almost 1000 points ahead of Jagr, while having played about 300 fewer games in his career. - Gretzky has more assists than Jagr has combined goals and assists.

The US is jumping into the floating solar game. There are floating solar arrays online in New Jersey, California and Texas, and around September/October of last year that Duke announced they were contracted to build another large floating solar array in North Carolina on a lake located on the grounds of Fort Bragg.

Reopened December 20th. Was only surface level damage. Bridge traffic is annoying enough, that made it miserable.

Issue with nukes is the costs are so high to build due to the engineering requirements that they can be hard to operate profitably. Not sure if anyone keeps up with Ohio news, but that's what's at the core of the corruption behind House Bill 6. Certain generators can't operate their nuke plants profitably because power prices are relatively low at the moment and their sunk costs are so high.

I've been wanting hydrogen fuel cells to take over battery power for automotive use for 15 years now.

The coal factor is becoming less and less relevant. At least in the Midwest, the vast majority of coal plants are reaching their end of life and a lot of major generators are opting to simply retire them vs overhaul and bring them up to new EPA standards. Some will be converted to natural gas. Gas has its drawbacks on the mining side, but burns significantly cleaner and requires about 1/3 of the personnel to run a gas fired plant. What's the future? One option is battery storage. Yes, industrial scale batteries aren't eco friendly to mine either, but their projected life is significantly longer than the ones used in cars. And their impact could be much more significant. Instead of windmills dotting the landscape in Illinois/Indiana, massive wind/solar farms could be built in west Texas and east New Mexico, provided there was battery and transmission infrastructure to move the stored power. Think of them as the equivalent to natural gas tanks. With the right infrastructure, cleanly generated energy could be moved to wherever it is needed, with only small "on demand" gas plants needed to provide during high demand times.

Also a big Hyundai/Kia fan. I put a combined 375K on a 2007 and a 2011 Santa Fe. No major issues with either one. I wound up selling the 2011 for parts when the flywheel broke, and gave the 2007 to a guy for helping me move recently. I like the look of the Telluride/Palisade, but I finally relented and bought a "truck". I haul quite a bit of lumber/mulch/etc and got tired of folding seats and having to clean the interior out so much. The only thing that kept me from buying a truck earlier is fuel. I've got a 40 mile round trip commute (or had anyway) and don't want to pay for gas on a V8 for that amount of driving. Plus, I don't tow anything. So, I bought a 2019 Honda Ridgeline....hence the parentheses in "truck". It's basically a Pilot with the back cargo roof cut off. But, it's the only midsize pickup that can lay a 4x8 sheet of plywood flat, and gets about 23mpg. Is it going to win any off-road competitions? Nope. But, it does exactly what I need it to do. Also, if you ever get the chance, the Honda Pre-owned Certified Plus warranty is fantastic. I bought the truck with 9000 miles on it, and it came with a factory 5 year, 75K mile bumper to bumper warranty and 100K power train warranty. That's actually better than Honda's new car warranty.

But....but....think of all the money saved! (Just ignore that stack of new tools in the garage that cost twice as much as the original item)

Chalk one up for the red, white and blue and the cream and crimson today. Since just after Thanksgiving, my dad had been dealing with some abnormal (but not extreme) stomach pain. Being a Vietnam vet, his primary care is through the VA. After some preliminary tests at his local clinic, they recommended him to the VA in Indianapolis, with an attending oncologist from IU Health supervising his case. Over the past two days, he underwent a battery of tests. The outcome, not great, but could be much worse. A relatively small mass was found at the head of his pancreas, but it had not spread to where it was intertwined into the lobules of the pancreas. Liver, gall bladder, small intestine and lymph nodes were all clear. Preliminary prognosis: extremely good. Likely treatable with chemo only.

Heres to hoping 300-400 of those are 5* recruits.

I bet that guy thought Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown stole his nickname.

Similar here. Dad was a USAF hydraulic tech and owned his own auto repair shop for 30+ years. I went a different way career wise, but I still do most of my own vehicle and home repairs.

Also, nothing wrong with doing both. My day job is sitting behind a computer. That said, I'm also not a half bad trim carpenter/cabinet maker, can do anything non-electronic on a car that doesn't require an engine hoist and can do basic electrical and plumbing.

Our "home defender" is a snub nosed 38. My wife isn't exactly a gun enthusiast, but in the times she's used it, it was enough for her to handle.

If memory serves, Facebook's IPO hit an initial surge, but finished the day below the IPO price.