I stopped by this morning to unlock the door and turn on the lights, but I can’t stay long. I’m on the road for a couple of days. No, I am not at the beach as are Arlo and Janis in the above oldie from 2010. I wish! However, speaking of leisure, et al, I have not forgotten our discussion about the work status of our friends. In fact, I have enjoyed thinking about it and look forward to sharing my thoughts with you. That’s why I’m not going to rush into it now. In a day or two, I’ll have more time to spend on the subject. See you then! And please, try not to break anything.
157 responses to “She Buys Sea Shells…”
Three for the evening from a long time ago:
I spend only half of my life worried that I might be an idiot; I spend the other half convinced of it.
One of our main goals in life should be to earn the respect of those who are worthy of our own respect.
Government and businesses only claim that they want students to become critical thinkers; as soon as someone shows even a faint semblance of it, he is crucified.
Congratulate your brother on the Sopwith Camel Lora. Is it s real one or a replica which I guess is still real one?
Jackie, here’s more info on the plane: http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51230
Looks like the same kind of enthusiasm as boat building or restoring old steam engines! 🙂
Yes, Robert is my brother. He and his partner built it. I think it is 3/4 replica, but it may be a full size one. It has 2 seats, so they can take folks for rides or train someone to fly similar planes. It has been a while since it flew, what with life happening. It is really really cool. One day he hopes to have a place where pilots can fly to- strip, hangars, maybe cabins, maybe have WWI era parties. In the meantime he has the plane, volunteers at Golden Age of Aviation Museum in PA with all their events ( the summer calendar is PACKED) and has a part-time crop dusting job in Delaware. He’s a little busy. 🙂 But flying, so happy. Hoped some of you would enjoy the video. The camera seems a little focused on the instrument panel- maybe because last time it was flown the engine blew and he wanted to know when/details if it happened again. So far, no problems. 🙂
….Rick, it does.
Ya’know, it’s hard to be the oldest when ur takn’ care of you and your sisters’ dad….just sa’in.
Llee, so glad you posted…now to go back and rewatch ’cause it WAS so focused on that…
…thanks !!
Everyone has fallen into a dark hole. We are OK, ate pizza and listened to Michele entertain us with newspaper accounts from turn of the century about younger brother of second owner of historic home we are looking at.
He kept having motorcycle wrecks, injuring passengers, pedestrians, car drivers, while his older brother kept having car wrecks and we think the younger one may have been driving in some wrecks. Off to WWI and we wonder if he will get assigned as a bike driver?
I spent the evening with my wife, and a couple of hundred other film fanatics watching a great old movie:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051003/
Like a lot of other great movies that are loved today, the “Spirit of St. Louis” was made at the wrong time for its audience.
Maybe a motorcycle courier?
http://cdn1.bikebandit-images.com/blog/images/2015/history-of-military-motorcycles-6.jpg
TruckerRon:
I don’t think that I have asked this before. If I have and have forgotten, chalk it up to too much to do, not enough time to do it all, and information overload.
Have you driven past the information gathering facility near Provo? I have read that it is gigantic.
That’s neat.
Old Faithful is about to erupt.
https://www.nps.gov/features/yell/webcam/oldFaithfulStreaming.html
This wkend’s TIP BlogSpot is insightful. Peace,
http://thatispriceless.blogspot.com/
These five bulls were emerging from the nearby watering hole when I first looked last hr. Should have posted then. They were much closer to the cam [it zooms and moves], and I was quite happy to be a thousand or so miles away, rather than on site. Every bit as dangerous as African buffalo. They are in or at the edge of a prairie dog town.
http://explore.org/live-cams/player/plains-bison-grasslands-national-park-cam-1
Minn. Orch. in the BHS Aud. Wed evening. My kind of classics this time.
Peace,
Mark, that is exactly what I was thinking when I visualized Carl going to war, courier duty. We all thought his drivers license should be suspended with so many motorcycle accidents or the young ladies of Quincy should stop getting onto the back of his bike.
The newspaper carried all the wreck news stories. He never was injured, just pedestrians, passengers and car drivers.
Here’s one for Jackie, since she is doing the house-shopping thing:
http://www.gocomics.com/herman/2017/05/09
This may be Saturday, but everyday is Punday: https://scontent-dft4-3.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18446595_1714812815202467_336945067697204463_n.jpg?oh=4ff1d2d802d5701e26fec77cd8322567&oe=59774EEB
Rick, I haven’t really seen it from the road. If I were in a big rig I might be able to see more than the top edges of the buildings… that’s all because it’s pretty well hidden behind a hill that runs alongside the state highway (aka Redwood Rd). The guys in this article got a good look from above, though:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865605919/Blimp-flying-over-NSA-building-in-apparent-protest-forced-to-land.html
Most of us weren’t too concerned about the purpose of the facility when it was being built (before Snowden’s activities) as much as we were about the amount of water it was to use. From a local paper, since I can’t do a second URL:
Water is essential to help cool the facility and computing components for the center, a massive digital storage hub for the NSA and other intelligence agencies.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineer plans called for the center to use 1.7 million gallons a day. Bluffdale City Council minutes indicate that figure was later reduced to 1.2 million gallons a day.
Remember, we’re considered a desert state…
TruckerRon, the stated purpose for that server-farm monstrosity is a debate in itself. The computing power and archive of information on that scale could serve two masters with time left for coffee. I don’t have enough reliable knowledge to say for certain. I do have enough imagination to worry.
But I am always curious how numbers and definitions are used to persuade. Humans, animals, and plants consume water by taking out of the water cycle for an extended period of time, or returning it unusable until percolating through to groundwater.
I wonder what portion of the 5 swimming-pools a day is diverted temporarily, heated, hopefully allowed to cool and simply returned to the environment? Or is the scale so massive that this number is literally the loss portion of a volume one-hundred times larger?
A different concern is raised if the source is from wells sunk into aquifers diverting to surface run-off.
None of that changes the ‘situation on the ground’. I just like to understand the meaning behind the numbers before having an opinion. Water taken, horribly bad. Water borrowed maybe OK?
Morphy, I’ve wondered the same thing and have looked both within the major local papers’ websites and elsewhere, but I’ve found no articles stating just where the “used” water goes. There is still plenty of farmland downhill from there so the water should be allowed to cool a bit then flow into the local rivers where there are water co-ops to put it to use in the fields.
The only articles I could find regarding water & “server farms” tried to persuade the reader that in terms of acre-feet very little water is being used in California… but none of the articles I’ve found make it clear whether it’s culinary water being used, which would really make a difference in its effects on the local communities.
TruckerRon, yeah it’s that headline level of reporting that keeps us so well informed. Sorry, I know sarcasm isn’t useful; it’s just so easy.
Even true investigative reporting can be spun the way an editor may prefer. But at least it gives information to sink your teeth in and find answers. It is my biggest frustration with news. Not that it is slanted one way or the other, that has become the expectation; but the utter lack of real information to base my own opinion on. [or on which to base…]
Generally, every drop of water I drink was very likely very dirty at some time in the past. But through natural percolation or industrial treatment it becomes potable. Specific to this matter, I do not see what would keep a given volume recirculating endlessly. Or if refreshing is necessary, then treatment back to an acceptable condition before releasing should work.
But if it is allowed to evaporate and fall on Nebraska, or rendered unusable for agriculture, that is not acceptable to the local interest. And that still doesn’t start to address the relocation/reallocation of resources if it is well-sourced from deep aquifers. Or the question of magnitude: is this number total ‘used’ and retained, or portion ‘lost’ and not available.
I like news that answers questions, I already woke up this morning with too many of my own. I’m glad you did not take this as questioning your post. Sharing concerns without answers falls under: ‘A burden shared is a burden lessened’ — someone better than me, from long ago.
TruckerRon, I had a chance to look at Wikipedia’s article on the installation at Camp Williams. It quotes the larger value and references Andrew Adams on behalf of KSL: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=25978926&nid=148 — Adams, Andrew (July 12, 2013). “New Utah NSA center requires 1.7M gallons of water daily to operate”. Retrieved 2013-07-25. [still active today]
One third of recovered water for Bluffdale city landscaping shows some level of planned intent. Even if to my eye it reads as a bit of lip-service to hand-waving after the fact. Move along, nothing to see here. Basically worded to minimize any lingering concerns. May be similar to what you were alluding to above.
TruckerRon and Morphy, just FYI: http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2016/07/12/heres-how-much-water-all-us-data-centers-consume/
The NSA is not the only user of water for cooling purposes at data centers, nor the only ones monitoring electronic communication.
I like squirrels a lot. I do. But one chewed its way into my small plastic storage shed to get to sunflower seeds, and I’m not thinking kind thoughts right now. (The seeds sre normally stored in a large, plastic, mouse-resistant container with a lid, but this last bag was larger than usual and they didn’t all fit. Of course, we thought seeds in a bag in a shed for a few days would be safe. Silly us!) Oh well…it was an old shed and would have needed to be replaced soon anyway…and it was a momma squirrel on the day before Mother’s Day…
Mark, they were actually latecomers, having concentrated on other avenues of foreign intelligence. But I think they’ve shown when they put their collective mind to it, they can outclass Google/alphabet, Apple, medical, insurance, and the grocery conglomerates combined. The sheer size in terms of data held at a single location (capacity, not yet collected) I thought was unprecedented. May be wrong.
But the topic was specific to the impact on a desert community, not all communities. And the logic of locating such a thirsty endeavor in so dry a location. I recognize silicon electronics work best in a dry environment. But the locals have a right to feel a bit put out.