I catch the Babylon Bee now and again, and they’ve come up with some really hysterical stuff. When I saw this video, however, I just cringed.
Can I use my safeword to avoid listening to the new drivel? Ouch. The fact that the BB had to put commentary at the bottom was… terrifying.
I’m writing this while I pant heavily, sitting in my chair at my desk. I’ve just finished cleaning bunny cages and exercising, and I’m dripping with sweat despite it being a mere 58*F in my room. I’m exhausted and aching. I am not fit.
I’ve seen this topic touched on a few times in the prepping world, but not really in a practical manner. Fitness is something that doesn’t really exist in the “Rule of Threes” or in common prepping documents. It does matter, though. So much so, that I feel it belongs under “three minutes without air” because right now, I’m panting. I mentioned that.
I get practical exercise every summer. I spent the weekends (2 to 3 overnights) living in a tent and cooking over a fire with cast iron. I’ve had some of our (very fit) fighters carry my cast iron pots to the table for me at the end of a long day, and they’re always astonished at the weight that I “seemingly easily” lug around all day. And it’s that weekly practice (or daily really) that makes it possible for my fat ass to haul this stuff over and around camp.
Our bodies were made to keep us alive under horrendous circumstances. The whole “fight or flight” thing is part of our basic human wiring. This means that our metabolism likes to find sugar, salt, and fat. We crave it! When you’re a Scotsman in the highlands above Edinburgh, dodging the English invaders, it makes sense. You need to find those things that will keep your body working. When you’re sitting at a desk typing emails all day, not so much. It works against us. We want to sit and do the things that stimulate our brains, but unlike even 20 years ago, pretty much everything that stimulates our brains is right here at our fingertips (with Doordash being a thing, doubly so).
It behooves each of us to get up off our duffs five to seven times a week, and move around. I don’t mean doing the dishes (though do those too). I mean exercise of the hot, sweaty, uncomfortable kind. If you’re very out of shape, going for a 20 minute walk five times a week will improve pretty much everything: mind, body, and spirit. Lifting weights for a similar amount of time will do the same thing. Ditto with using a ski machine, swimming, playing a physical game like tennis or soccer, going roller skating or ice skating, and running bases with your kids.
If you can’t do any of those things, chair exercises exist. That’s where I started, so don’t be embarrassed. You have to start somewhere, and no one needs to know. But you need to do it. This is a NEED, not a want or a desire. If you can’t pick up and go because of your lack of fitness, then the problem is 100% you. Please note, people with physical disabilities and such, who simply *cannot* do it, are exempt from this shaming. If you can’t, you can’t, and I get that. But if you can and you just don’t want to, that’s on you.
I really do get it. I don’t like getting sweaty except in one way. I don’t like it when my body aches. I don’t like being on a treadmill or bike machine. It’s boring and stupid and I hate it. But I need to do it, because if I don’t, I won’t be carrying even a half load in my pack, never mind a full load. If I can’t carry a full load, there’s not a whole lot of point in my bugging out, because I won’t get far.
So… what are you doing to make yourself more able, more fit, and more in shape?
There are two important Second Amendment cases being discussed by the Supreme Court today. Snope and Ocean State Tactical
The questions presented are assault weapon bans and large capacity magazine bans. Both made up terms.
This is not the limit of what the opinion might cover.
This evening I’ll be checking for miscellaneous orders by the Supreme Court. I don’t expect anything. Later tonight or early tomorrow, I’ll see a video by Mark Smith telling me why I should panic.
Monday morning I’ll see the orders list issued by the Supreme Court. I expect to see the these cases granted cert. If not, I’ll find an update that evening on the dockets telling me they have been relisted.
My match suggests we have until about February 15 to have the grant in hand before I start to worry.
It is a joyous week. The wins keep happening. The left is melting down in so many ways.
The Democrats are delaying the confirmation of some of Trump’s cabinet picks. Just game playing. It means we are delayed a week before Pam Bondi(sp?) is confirmed.
I come from a place of “leave me alone. Get off my Lawn”. The left seems to come from the place of “I’m in pain, you should hurt more.”
I’m sick of it. Ally is sick of it.
Given any opportunity, they will hurt you.
The big one is Elon’s “My heart goes out to you.” gesture. The left decided it was a NAZI salute. If you argue that it isn’t, then you are stupid.
In Ally’s case, when that didn’t work, they told her that a dead friend would be rolling over in his grave over her not believing that Elon is an evil NAZI.
I’ve taken to reading the short AI results for many of my technical searches.
This works well. Occasionally, it is a little off, but the summary is often good. And the links to the articles that it is summarizing are right there.
The other night, I asked it, “how far is 1ms at the speed of light?” It gave me an answer that was off by 3 powers of 10.
Because I had come to “trust” most of its answers and the numbers felt right, I didn’t bother to verify the match.
This lead me to telling the story of the picosecond but calling it a nanosecond.
Trust, but verify.
What is the best thing you’ve seen since Trump took office, again?
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
This is the section of the 14th Amendment which says that the children of former slaves and former slaves are citizens of the United States.
This needed to be done because before the slaves being freed, they were not citizens. The defeated southern states were investigating how to disenfranchise former slaves.
It was ratified on July 9, 1868.
When evaluating a modern regulation, when the Constitutions plain text covers an individual’s conduct, the Constitution presumptively protects that conduct.
In this case, “Is the child of an illegal alien born in the United States a United States citizen?”
The plain text of the Constitution clearly covers the individual’s conduct, becoming or acting as a US Citizen.
Since the plain text covers the conduct, the government must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of regulation.
This is fairly simple. You are a US Citizen if your mother or father is a US Citizen. You are a US Citizen if your mother or father is a lawful permanent resident when you are born.
Being whelped on US grounds does not make you a citizen.
Is this interpretation consistent with giving former slaves citizenship?
Yes. Former slaves were naturalized (I Believe). So they were citizens.
Their children were born to citizens or lawful permanent residents.
We know what it meant in 1898. In March of that year, the Supreme Court issued their opinion in —United States V. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898). This is barely 30 years from the ratification of the Amendment.
Wong Kim Ark was the child of Chinese parents. Those parents were NOT naturalized and were subjects of the Emperor of China.
When Wong Kim was 17 years old, he took a trip to China. He returned with no issues. He claimed to be a US Citizen.
In 1894, four years later, he took another trip to China. This time, when he returned, he was not allowed to disembark. Instead, he was detained.
The District Court for the Northern District of California found that Wong Kim Ark was a US citizen by virtue of his birth and had him released. The government appealed to the Supreme Court.
This is preciously the question the new EO brings forth.
That’s old time speak for “plain text” and “historical tradition of regulation”.
So a child must be born not only within the country, but within the “ligeance” of the country. If they are born of an occupying entity, then they are citizens of the occupying entity, not the country within which they are born.
When everything is said, the Supreme Court in 1898 found that if you were born of parents that were here legally, you were an American citizen.
Not really, the issues are that of an invading force, or people that are here illegally. Do they have the same birth right as a child born of people here legally?
There is a strong argument to be made that illegal aliens do not gift their whelp with American citizenship merely by pushing them out while on US soil.
It is clear that if they were members of an invading army, their children would not be American citizens.
Mr. Wong Kim Ark was a person who claimed to be a US Citizen by birth. When the state refused him entrance to the United States, he was able to file a case arguing that he was a citizen and should be granted internee.
The state argued against him.
This means that Wong Kim had standing. The case was about him.
Now consider the current situation. Jose sneaks across the border with his wife Maria. Maria got knocked up by somebody, either north or south of the border, it doesn’t matter.
Maria and Jose show up at the hospital emergency room, where they are given “free” health care because they have no intention of paying for it.
Maria whelps Jose Jr.
Jose and Maria are handed a birth certificate for Junior. They are told they are the proud parents of an American Citizen.
You’re in the next bed and you hear that another illegal has their anchor baby.
You file suit claiming that the Fourteenth Amendment doesn’t grant citizenship to foreign invaders.
The case is dismissed. You have no standing.
This is correct.
Who has standing?
The child, the parents, and the state.
If the state isn’t challenging the granting of citizenship and the parents are not, and the child isn’t, then there is no suit.
The EO says that if you are not here legally, whelping a child here doesn’t grant that child citizenship.
If Jose wants Junior to be a citizen, he needs to file suit. The state can now argue against birthright for invaders.
If Jose loses, he better stop. If he appeals, then the circuit court will hear the case. And the state will again argue invaders don’t get to make citizens.
If the loser of that case appeals again, it will be before the Supreme Court.
At which point we will have our second opinion on birthright citizenship being granted by the 14th. It might not turn out the way that the left thinks it should.
I am about to embark upon something on Facebook and possibly other social media. I am going to start posting up every second Monday, asking people what rights they have lost in the previous two weeks. I am going to make this a relatively serious question, because frankly, if someone actually *does* have their rights restricted, I want to know about it. Whether it’s gun rights, freedom of speech and/or religion, or whatever, we should be on top of that. More than that, though, I want it to be a *polite* reminder to my friends and acquaintances that they haven’t actually lost any rights.
I am including the first draft of the message below. I’m posting it here, because I’d like your feedback! Note, this is meant to be a reminder yes, and some people may see it as snark, but I’m trying to make this serious and real, as well. I want it to resonate with people, and maybe make them feel just a little bit uncomfortable. This is for *the person*, not “someone they know” or “that random group over there.” I may choose (but haven’t yet decided whether) to allow folks to include close friends in their reports (defined as “someone you know personally, face to face, have hugged, laughed, and cried with”).
The message:
Dear friends, family, acquaintances, followers…
There are a lot of people feeling vulnerable and concerned right now. I understand your feelings. I want to understand better, during Trump’s first (and possibly subsequent) year as President, what rights are being infringed upon by either Trump or the government (at any level). This question is put out there for YOU, the person reading it. It is not there for other people. I don’t want you to speak for other people (though I heartily encourage you to let other people know about my little experiment, and invite them to join in!). I want to know what YOU are losing or having infringed.
This is a serious question on my part. I currently have a “research set” of one: me. That’s not enough. I need to hear what other people are experiencing, first hand. But I also need you to understand, I will research this stuff. I WANT to research this stuff. If a claim is made, and it doesn’t match reality, I will explain why and provide any related information I have access to. My hope is that this will encourage conversation, logical thought, and mental and emotional organization on my own part, and the part of others. I have other folks who are very interested in rights that have been infringed upon, and I will pass along information to those others who may have the ability to enact changes or challenges.
As an example, I firmly believe (and have quite a bit of paperwork and research to back me up) that banning TikTok was and is an infringement of my First Amendment rights. While it affects other people, I am touting it as something that hurt/damaged/impinged upon ME individually. I lost MY right to speak freely on an app of my choice.
So I ask you, what rights of yours have been infringed upon since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025?
Alright, what do you think? I realize many of you may believe it’s pointless, and you might be right. But it was questions like this that caused ME to change my mind on things. I owe it to other people that I love to ask again and again for them to apply logic, even when it’s painful.
I’m behind enemy lines, and I don’t like it. SIGH
So as a member of the renaissance faire community, a lot of my acquaintances and many of my friends are to the Left. Since I’m selling my goods to them, I have a reason to keep politics out of my social media, and out of my business. I’m a firm believer that no one should do political stuff at their business… you’re there to sell stuff, not stump for your favorite politician. Do that on your own time. But I digress.
I can’t just “be Right.” This puts me in a very uncomfortable spot. I suppose it’s useful for Vine, because I can bring information over here and let you know what’s being said off to the Left of social media, but I still don’t like it. This morning, it was everyone talking about how “the gays” will need to go back into the closet, and “I’m not going back into a closet!” Felicia, I don’t believe anyone told you to go into a closet, and Trump isn’t anti-gay, and has NEVER been anti-gay. But whatever.
There’s this need to lump sexual orientation (gay, lesbian, and bisexual) in with gender orientation (girl, boy, undefined). It’s how we ended up with LGBTQIA+++ instead of the original LGBT. Many of the gay folk and the “I changed gender because I had to, and I’ve stayed under the damn radar and WANT TO CONTINUE staying under the radar” crowd are pissed as hell with the TQIA+++ folks, because they’ve ruined a lot of stuff that the older people have worked damn hard for.
So when Trump said his bit about the government recognizing only two genders, male and female, I knew what he was talking about. His executive order on the topic, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism…, is very explicit. Forms, specifically government forms, will list biological sex. I can see that there may be some issues going forward, with long-standing people who changed their gender (not sex) many years ago and have been living discreetly and happily as the gender they’ve chosen, are suddenly being forced to change all their paperwork. It may be that the order will be understood to ignore those few people who sincerely make the transition. I like to think so. But nothing in the order says people can’t choose to be whoever and whatever they are. It just says that for government and federal forms (which include medical ones) and for single-sex spaces like changing rooms and bathrooms, biological sex will be more important. Again, this may be a problem for a few people who are well integrated into society in their new gender… I suspect no one is upset about a biological male who looks like, acts like, walks like, and sits to pee like a woman using a woman’s bathroom. We’re upset about bearded individuals with intact male genitalia hanging out, changing with our teen girls.
But people on the Left have grabbed onto that and are in a froth. I am not.
Correction(s):
I made the mistake of trusting Google’s AI answer.
Speed of light:
| Time | Distance |
|---|---|
| 1s | 299,792,458m |
| 0.001s(1ms) | 299,792.458m |
| 0.000001s(1us) | 299.792m |
| 0.000000001s(1ns) | 0.2997m (299.7mm) |
| 0.000000000001s(1ps) | 0.0002997m (0.2997mm) |
Sorry for that. A pepper grain is the size of a picosecond. A nanosecond is around 11.7 inches, which makes much more sense.
My mentor, Mike, had so much to teach me. Coming from University, I knew I was the best programmer on campus and better than anybody I had met.
That changed the day I met Mike. After being introduced to him, I went to my boss and said something like, “That is the most arrogant man I’ve ever met.”
Greg replied, “He’s earned it.”
When I had an opportunity to work with him, I found that yes, he was that good.
He was the first person to stretch my abilities in computer science. I will forever be thankful to him for that.
He had the privilege of meeting Admiral Grace. He was one of the many that were handed her “packet of Nanoseconds”.
This was Grace’s way of getting across to people just how fast computers were running.
In 1 ms, light will travel 299.79 meters. This is a reasonable rifle shot.
In 1 us, light will travel 0.2998 meters (299.8mm), or about 1.2 inches.
In 1 ns, light will travel 0.2998 mm. This is about the size of a single grain of ground pepper.
My Cray X-MP/48 had a memory bank cycle time of 38ns. This means that light would be able to travel about 10mm or a little less than 0.5 inches.
My memory said that we had a 85ns wait time from accessing memory to having loaded that word into a register.
Your PC likely runs faster than that X/MP. It surely has more memory.
As stated above, my world was baby sitting a Cray Super Computer. We worked in nanoseconds. We were trying to optimize code to shave a few nanoseconds out of a loop.
Saving grains of pepper.
When I purchased some study lights for doing photoshoots, I didn’t buy the fancy radio controllers. Instead, I bought “slave” style lights.
With the slave style, you could tell your study light to fire when it detected the flash of another strobe.
Before I purchased these study lights, I went to Mike with concern. I had done the math.
From the moment my flash fired, a long sequence of things had to take place. The light had to travel from my strobe to the detector on the study light. There was a delay while the photoreceptor energized and “fired”. There was still more time as that signal propagated through the circuitry, and finally that light would fire.
My studio lights would be at different distances, we couldn’t even predict the sequence that they would fire.
According to my simple calculations, we could be talking as much as 2ms from the time my light fired until the last study light fired.
Mike pulled me back to the ground. My shutter speed would be set to 1/60 of a second. That is 16.6ms. If the study lights fired anytime while the shutter was open, I would get a good photo.
I was so focused on my reference frame, nanoseconds, I lost sight of the real-world application that was running in 10s of milliseconds.
Here is the magic of GPS. It works by knowing the time and then calculating the distance to different satellites.
The more accurate the clock, the more accurate the location.
Communicating that time to an external device is where it gets interesting. The definition of NMEA tells use exactly when the second mark occurs during the transmission of the NMEA message.
Most GPS units default to transmitting at 9600 baud. Which for us is the same as 9600 bits/second. Each 8 bit byte sent requires start and stop bits. My rule of thumb is 10 bits per byte.
This means that it takes around 83ms to transmit one 80 character NMEA sentence from the GPS to the computer.
The instant when the second starts aligns with the edge of a signal of one of the characters in that sentence.
Now my issue was that I thought that the GPS unit had time that was “wrong” it was offset from the real world.
This is not the case. The real reason for the delay is in the time it takes to process the sentence. That should be fixed to the computer, not to the GPS unit.
Which brings us to PPS, or Pulse Per Second. This is a signal that indicates the start of a second. Depending on the GPS unit, this can be at ns accuracy. Even cheap units will get you sub us accuracy.
The processing time to handle the pulse is much lower than to handle a full NMEA sentence.
A PPS can be treated as the “real” time, without fear of being too far away from reality.
A couple of grains of pepper.
As of 1100 Tuesday, we have heard that cert was NOT denied in Snope nor in Ocean State Tactical.
This means that when the dockets are updated later today, we are likely to see them Distributed for Conference of 1/24/2025.
This is as expected. NEXT Monday is when I become concerned, if the cases are relisted.
