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Monday Links
Happy Memorial Day! We’re going to start off with several Reason articles.
First, the face of teachers’ unions during the COVID pandemic only taught for three years, but is expected to get a full pension. I’m of the opinion that if you’re working for the union, the union should be dealing with your benefits.
Next are a couple items on the reshuffling of the political parties. I’ll let the headlines speak for themselves. The left-right spectrum is mostly meaningless and the rise of right-wing progressivism. Just as the labor market is in flux, the political market is similarly in flux. Fun times.
Finally, an article from The Volokh Conspiracy discussing a recent Florida Supreme Court decision that loading and openly carrying a gun on your property is not criminal use of deadly force. Although, if you’re having to face multiple attackers on your property, it may be more prudent to have your weapon already loaded. Or get behind cover to load and wait for the police.
In the vein of self-defense, we have an article from The Hill about a “prank robbery” going horribly wrong when the pranksters came across an armed civilian. And this kind of outcome won’t slow down these kinds of pranks. Because the dumb fucks think it won’t happen to them.
Now for our light items.
I think this is probably vapor-ware, but this Extreme Tech article depicts a “laptop” with six monitors, dual AMD Epyc “Genoa” 96-core CPUs, and 24 DIMM slots for up to 6TB of DDR5 memory. And it weighs 55 lbs. Um, yeah. There’s part of me that wants one in a kind of morbid fascination way.
Finally, we have a Variety article on Weird Al. Because Weird Al.
Friday Quote – Greg Lukianoff
Learning how to give and take criticism without being hurt is an essential life skill. When serious thinkers respect someone, they are willing to engage them in a thoughtful argument.
I’m Not Much Of a Wine Guy
Last weekend, The Wife and I took my mom to a local winery for a tasting. As the post title states, I generally don’t do wine, but I figured I could at least try some and enjoy the food.
We went to the Bunker Hill Vineyard. We each got six samples of wines we chose from their menu. I know I’m not big on dry wines, so I chose mine from their medium dry wines. Mom chose hers. The Wife chose hers. We traded. Some we liked. Some we didn’t like as much. Here’s what came home with us: Black Tea Wine, Black Coffee Wine, Strawberry Wine, Spiced Apple Wine, Sparkling Cucumber Wine.
What also came home with us was a jar of Apple Butter and Key Lime Marmalade.
If you happen to be in the West Central Florida area, I highly recommend you swing by. It’s good stuff and a fun time was had by all.
Monday Links
Well, this week’s links will probably be all over the map.
First, let’s start with an AP article on Disney scrapping a billion dollar project because of DeSantis fighting with them. Y’know, I hear a lot of gunnies decrying when certain states use their power to compel companies to do gun-prohibitionist things. Or when they chase companies out of states with ridiculous regulations. Shoe. Other foot.
Speaking of Disney, this article from Techradar, states that when Disney merges their Disney+ and Hulu services, they will probably shrink the available library. One of the tech podcasts I listen to was commenting that the Streaming War is over, and now the Great Streaming Consolidations will begin with the survivors. Guess I should watch the Willow television show before it disappears.
It’s not Monday Links without Reason articles.
First is Reason’s take on the Durham report. When a report like this makes a stalwart like National Review’s Andy McCarty think hard on if the FBI is salvageable in its current state, then it’s a damning report. IMHO, it’s high time to, at the very least, split the FBI’s intelligence role off of its law enforcement role.
Second – can Uvalde’s authorities not do things to prove how incompetent and authoritarian they are? From the article: “Adam Martinez’s youngest son was at Robb Elementary on the day of the shooting—though thankfully he was physically unharmed—and, like many other parents, he became a vocal critic of the police department. However, in retaliation for his criticism, the school district banned him from school property—and school board meetings—for two years.“
A couple of other headlines that grabbed my interest.
From Insider, a Michigan teen used a slingshot to stop the kidnapping his sister. The suspect was apprehended with wounds consistent with being hit by a slingshot.
From CNET, a new company is going to be offering free 55-inch televisions. The catch? It has another screen to just for ads. Maybe other stuff too.
Finally, a light item.
Friday Quote – Harriet Tubman
I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if could not have one, I would have the other.
Hurricane Learnings
Last weekend, The Wife and I trekked up to Tampa to take in a program at the Straz. One of the local weathermen, Denis Phillips was giving a presentation on his time as a meteorologist and things to keep in mind as we go into the upcoming season. He’s a local celebrity for a bunch of reasons, but the two biggest reasons was he was the first to predict Charlie’s swing to Punta Gorda in 2004, and his Rule #7:
Stop freaking out… until I tell you to freak out. We’re fine
It’s that kind of levelheadedness that makes him trusted by wide swathes of the Tampa Bay viewing area for storms. This includes The Wife – which was why we went to the presentation. It was very entertaining with many hilarious anecdotes.
For myself and my own preparations, there were three major takeaways:
- The warming of the Gulf is going to make storms intensify quicker. As in storms going from Cat 1 to Cat 4 in 36 hours.
- If a storm looks like it is possibly aiming for the panhandle or the west coast of Florida, the five day forecasts are worthless. For those kinds of storms, landfall won’t be determined until 36 hours out.
- Which leads to the third point – that if there’s a storm that looks like it may go to the west coast of Florida, then the entire west coast should consider themselves as a likely target and take appropriate action. If it looks like we need to evac, we need to evac ASAP. Waiting until those 36 hours out, we may not be able to evac due to the sheer number of people that has moved to the area.
I am taking this into account as I make my plans.
Here’s a good checklist that was shared during the meeting.
May Anime Recommendations
I have a trio of anime that I’m watching/watched that I really enjoyed.
This is a concept I’ve played with, and Gate’s execution is awesome:
This one came out a couple of years ago, but I’ve been enjoying it so far:
This one is just a cute rom-com: