Nice to see Palladium Books still around I recently just found my collection of TMNT and Heros Unlimited stuff from high school. I wonder if they jumped on the D&D bandwagon of rule changes every few years so people have to buy all new stuff or if I bought some newer books my existing stuff would still be compatible.
Sounds like you had the problem I had last year with tomatoes. I need to get bigger tomato cages as they grew up, out, and back down the cages I have and then started growing up the corn stalks. They were probably close to 8 feet long when the first hard frost hit and did them in.
I see honey at the store and it is like colored glass while the filtered honey I get from a relative is some what cloudy and the unfiltered stuff is almost opaque. I got introduced to unprocessed unfiltered honey in college from a guy who's parents mailed him the stuff from their family farm in Africa. It was interesting as there was a more robust flavor and more variety from jar to jar.
As far as finding local products at the grocery store it seems Minnesota is kind of weird. The major grocery stores don't seem to carry much (I am not talking the high end or boutique ones) yet I will find locally produced things at places like Menards (a regional chain of home improvement stores) or Fleet Farm (a regional chain like tractor supply company). When I saw honey at Fleet Farm it came in 2 varieties filtered and unfiltered both packaged in 1 quart mason jars. It listed the apiary that produced it which was located up in the Brainerd lakes region. From what I remember it didn't seem outrageously expensive (I think it was in the $10-$12 range for a quart) but then I haven't bought honey in years as one of my relatives keeps bees as a hobby in retirement and every year sends me about a gallon (4 1 quart mason jars) of honey at Christmas.
You don't know how cheap family farmers can be. The farmer I buy beef from has another plot (440 acres) where here grows field corn and he always keeps a couple of years worth of seed on hand in case of crop failure. He isn't subjected to the fluctuation in price that other farmers are when purchasing seed and doesn't have to pay for the privilege of having someone else store seed for him (the price difference for what he gets for his crop and what other pay at the elevator for seed) since he has space on his cattle farm for that.
You know a pellet rifle to dispatch the critters does wonders. Especially rabbits since they don't like the smell of blood plus you get to eat some free range garden fed rabbit.
Also what kind of soil do you have were you need to apply $20 worth of Miracle Grow to get anything to grow at all. Have you looked into getting a soil PH test done to see if you have soil that is too acidic or too alkali and then taking corrective measures. I would assume that your soil is too alkali if it is having nutrient retention problems and elemental sulfur will resolve that but it takes a few years to be effective so in the mean time a quick cheap solution is to dump a few gallons of cheap vinegar on the soil a little while before you plant. If your soil is too acidic (which may be the problem with repeated applications of miracle grow) mix in some ash from a fire pit, barbecue, fireplace, or bonfire. If it is not that your soil may need to have some iron added to it as that also can have an impact on nutrient uptake. I also compost a bunch of stuff in the fall after the first frost and till it into the soil, old fish parts, coffee grounds, barbecue ash, leaves, grass clippings (last mowing of the year when I cut it short so I don't have to deal with the thatch that would otherwise form), etc to keep the soil full of nutrients. Also I don't have to toss that stuff in the trash to get it hauled off to the dump so there is another bonus for the environment.
After I corrected my soil I have had bumper crops out of my tiny garden (15'x20') where from 4 tomato plants and 4 pepper plants, and some fresh herbs I can make several gallons of chile, have plenty of dried crushed peppers for the year, and make a couple gallons of tomato sauce. That doesn't include the one yellow squash and one zucchini that each produce a grocery bag full the giant heads of broccoli and cauliflower I get (seriously even cut in half they feed a family of 4), or the sweet corn that basically becomes several meals in it's self as we have so much of it.
I wonder the same but I would doubt that there is a law against it. It seems more likely that the companies making products without GMO ingredients feel that making that change to packaging won't bring in enough additional business to justify the redesign. I noticed a label on one brand of bread a while back stating that it contains no HFC (High Fructose Corn syrup) and wondered if it was a case "Asbestos Free" until I looked at the other breads and wondered why all the others have HFC as an ingredient.
Except that it would seem that the local Catholic schools will actually teach evolution as it isn't against church doctrine. I may not fully understand some of the beliefs of Catholics but at least they seem to try to create a coherent belief structure. It seems more like the fundamentalist born again Christians are the problem in this case
This gives me an idea of some perverse strangeness, I need to create a patent for the automated regular delivery of items that will then schedule automated regular delivery of other items. Damn now I can't as I have publicly disclosed my patent idea.
I wasn't trying to be rude, I just found humor in the combination of your comment and sig. When I lived in France that was how I chose what channel to watch for the weather report in the morning. I also tend to consume news from different sources as each tends to have their own bias, I get most of mine over the radio so I listen to right wing, left wing, NPR, and BBC world service. There are some real shrill individuals on the left and right wing stations that I can't stand but luckily enough I can usually switch to another station to a better personality. I don't watch much TV and don't have cable so the eye candy on the various news channels is lost on me.
I never said that it had to be a perfect solution. There are plenty of instances where electric vehicles are great and probably for most people they could get by with one now. My beef was with the current premium that those vehicles carry over their internal combustion counterparts. I was just using my wife as an example of one who is perfect for one while I sit at the other end of the spectrum where it would be almost useless. The problem with my family acquiring one now is that we really can't afford a new vehicle especially when we have vehicles are are perfectly functional and paid off. When it is time to replace her vehicle (when it becomes unreliable) then electric car here we come. I have looked at other vehicles to replace my daily driver, especially when gas spiked but the problem is that the trade in value for a vehicle with a quarter million miles on it but other wise mechanically perfect vehicle is basically nill and then you end up with with a car payment. Insurance and license fees are cheap and those would go up on a new vehicle. Also even though I drive a big car it gets relativity good mileage in stop in go rush hour traffic which further makes purchasing a more fuel efficient vehicle for me hard to justify economically. Rational behind this is that I would basically have to have no fuel costs over the course of the vehicle loan to make up for the car payment, increase insurance, and increased license fees. This assumes a 48 or 60 month loan (never looked at a 72 month one) but after that span of time I would have a vehicle with between 120,000 and 170,000 miles on it and I would be driving a small econo box instead of a nice large rear wheel drive sports sedan.
And there in lies the issue. I think electric cars are great little toys at the moment and there are areas where they are a great alternative to the ones powered by internal combustion engines but the added cost needs to come down a lot for there to be a large uptake of them in the places where they do well. My wife and I have looked into getting an electric vehicle to replace her car when it is time as she drive about 5 miles a day. With the abuse that her current car gets from this type of driving an electric vehicle would be ideal as currently her car never really reaches full operating temperature. As such it has all sorts of strange issue that need to be kept up on in addition to her inattentiveness to fluid levels. For her an electric vehicle is ideal and would probably be cheaper in the long run. For me currently there isn't one that would reliably meet my needs yet as I drive 64 miles a day getting to and from work and things like the cold would make the range a real limit even including the 100 mile range on the leaf in close to ideal circumstances.
It wouldn't surprise me if local museums or libraries in your area offer some introductory programming courses. I know in my area I see them from time to time and the cost is usually in the $100-$200 range. Also have you checked to see if there were any community education courses offered through the school district over the summer as again in my area they seem to have tons of these and send out a booklet with the listings a few times a year.
Most of the environmentalists I've known were just interesting in their own smug sense of self-righteousness.
I have relatives like that. The grief I get from them because I drive older vehicles that are kept in proper running order while they drive new vehicles replaced every couple of year but are of the environmentally friendly type. They also frown upon hunting while at the same time preaching about the necessity to only eat meat that is organic, free range, fair trade, locally produced, etc. The disconnect they have is rather shocking at times.
Well in my world there are an infinite number of primes but not an uncountable infinite number of primes. Though even there 2^n-1 isn't always prime even when n is also a prime.
How about not have your pants around your thighs with your undies hanging, hat all off to one side, all while talking like fifty cent. I was most shocked by the black culture that frowns upon a successful black person who wears business attire. When I was out in Portland, OR I was walking back to the apartment building with a bunch of my coworkers that we were all in and we were waiting at a light. A few thug looking black individuals pulled up in the Escalade with spinners and base pumping and yelled to one of the guys in our group calling him a traitor to his race, uncle tom, oreo, etc. After they sped off I asked him if he got that a lot to which he replied yes but it didn't bother him as he will eventually be rich and they will eventually be dead. Or for a better example how about not trying to intimidate someone by threatening to beat the shit out of them and take their stuff while in a mall while they are trying to take a piss. One of those ass holes got a swift kick to the head after I threw him to the ground while the other ran off. The one that got thrown started by giving me a shove as I wasn't intimidated.
I wasn't speaking to if it was a good idea or not just the technical aspects of trying to take down a helicopter using a hunting rifle. I would appear that most of the people who believe that it is easy to take out a helicopter with a hunting rifle are also those who seem to believe that they would stand a chance against a professional military in open warfare. Even guerrilla fighting is something that those type of people believe is easy and don't really understand what would be involved.
Well there is a case to be made that we as civilians do have a right to those types of weapons the US government even argued that we do. The US vs Miller case is a rather strange one when you get into the details but the US government did win and the Supreme Court basically ruled that the second amendment protects the rights of individuals to own weapons appropriate for a militia. So based off of that it is technically legal for individuals to own such things as shoulder fired rocket launchers, all machine guns (M2, M249, RPK, PKM), assault rifles (M4, M16, M14, AKM, AK-47, AK74), sub machine guns, grenades, etc. as these are all appropriate for use by a militia.
Problem is the well placed part. It is easier to place the shot when the helicopter is stationary but then it is probably shooting at you or will be shortly. If it is moving you had better be really fucking good at gauging speed and distance because you will need to account for a large amount of drop and lead the thing. To put this in perspective at 400 meters there is probably going to be about 2/3 to 1 meter of drop (rough estimate but good enough) for your bullet. Also at those distances wind starts to play an important role. I have been able to consistently make shots at that distance against pop cans but that was on a day perfect for long distance shooting, hot, high humidity, low barometric pressure, no wind using low drag bullets fired from a Russian ex sniper rifle with a good scope. Toss in some wind and questionable consistency bullets (non match grade) and best of luck having consistent shots.
Your story sounds similar to my previous bosses except he was the one immigrating here legally and was married to a US citizen. It is a sad state when doing things the illegal makes becoming legal easier than doing it right from the fucking start.
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Nice to see Palladium Books still around I recently just found my collection of TMNT and Heros Unlimited stuff from high school. I wonder if they jumped on the D&D bandwagon of rule changes every few years so people have to buy all new stuff or if I bought some newer books my existing stuff would still be compatible.
Obligitory XKCD. But this does start to open up the world of such things.
Sounds like you had the problem I had last year with tomatoes. I need to get bigger tomato cages as they grew up, out, and back down the cages I have and then started growing up the corn stalks. They were probably close to 8 feet long when the first hard frost hit and did them in.
I see honey at the store and it is like colored glass while the filtered honey I get from a relative is some what cloudy and the unfiltered stuff is almost opaque. I got introduced to unprocessed unfiltered honey in college from a guy who's parents mailed him the stuff from their family farm in Africa. It was interesting as there was a more robust flavor and more variety from jar to jar.
As far as finding local products at the grocery store it seems Minnesota is kind of weird. The major grocery stores don't seem to carry much (I am not talking the high end or boutique ones) yet I will find locally produced things at places like Menards (a regional chain of home improvement stores) or Fleet Farm (a regional chain like tractor supply company). When I saw honey at Fleet Farm it came in 2 varieties filtered and unfiltered both packaged in 1 quart mason jars. It listed the apiary that produced it which was located up in the Brainerd lakes region. From what I remember it didn't seem outrageously expensive (I think it was in the $10-$12 range for a quart) but then I haven't bought honey in years as one of my relatives keeps bees as a hobby in retirement and every year sends me about a gallon (4 1 quart mason jars) of honey at Christmas.
Try honey on some fresh home made out of the oven corn bread. It is one of the best things I have ever ate.
You don't know how cheap family farmers can be. The farmer I buy beef from has another plot (440 acres) where here grows field corn and he always keeps a couple of years worth of seed on hand in case of crop failure. He isn't subjected to the fluctuation in price that other farmers are when purchasing seed and doesn't have to pay for the privilege of having someone else store seed for him (the price difference for what he gets for his crop and what other pay at the elevator for seed) since he has space on his cattle farm for that.
You know a pellet rifle to dispatch the critters does wonders. Especially rabbits since they don't like the smell of blood plus you get to eat some free range garden fed rabbit.
Also what kind of soil do you have were you need to apply $20 worth of Miracle Grow to get anything to grow at all. Have you looked into getting a soil PH test done to see if you have soil that is too acidic or too alkali and then taking corrective measures. I would assume that your soil is too alkali if it is having nutrient retention problems and elemental sulfur will resolve that but it takes a few years to be effective so in the mean time a quick cheap solution is to dump a few gallons of cheap vinegar on the soil a little while before you plant. If your soil is too acidic (which may be the problem with repeated applications of miracle grow) mix in some ash from a fire pit, barbecue, fireplace, or bonfire. If it is not that your soil may need to have some iron added to it as that also can have an impact on nutrient uptake. I also compost a bunch of stuff in the fall after the first frost and till it into the soil, old fish parts, coffee grounds, barbecue ash, leaves, grass clippings (last mowing of the year when I cut it short so I don't have to deal with the thatch that would otherwise form), etc to keep the soil full of nutrients. Also I don't have to toss that stuff in the trash to get it hauled off to the dump so there is another bonus for the environment.
After I corrected my soil I have had bumper crops out of my tiny garden (15'x20') where from 4 tomato plants and 4 pepper plants, and some fresh herbs I can make several gallons of chile, have plenty of dried crushed peppers for the year, and make a couple gallons of tomato sauce. That doesn't include the one yellow squash and one zucchini that each produce a grocery bag full the giant heads of broccoli and cauliflower I get (seriously even cut in half they feed a family of 4), or the sweet corn that basically becomes several meals in it's self as we have so much of it.
I wonder the same but I would doubt that there is a law against it. It seems more likely that the companies making products without GMO ingredients feel that making that change to packaging won't bring in enough additional business to justify the redesign. I noticed a label on one brand of bread a while back stating that it contains no HFC (High Fructose Corn syrup) and wondered if it was a case "Asbestos Free" until I looked at the other breads and wondered why all the others have HFC as an ingredient.
Except that it would seem that the local Catholic schools will actually teach evolution as it isn't against church doctrine. I may not fully understand some of the beliefs of Catholics but at least they seem to try to create a coherent belief structure. It seems more like the fundamentalist born again Christians are the problem in this case
This one is on a computer.
This gives me an idea of some perverse strangeness, I need to create a patent for the automated regular delivery of items that will then schedule automated regular delivery of other items. Damn now I can't as I have publicly disclosed my patent idea.
I wasn't trying to be rude, I just found humor in the combination of your comment and sig. When I lived in France that was how I chose what channel to watch for the weather report in the morning. I also tend to consume news from different sources as each tends to have their own bias, I get most of mine over the radio so I listen to right wing, left wing, NPR, and BBC world service. There are some real shrill individuals on the left and right wing stations that I can't stand but luckily enough I can usually switch to another station to a better personality. I don't watch much TV and don't have cable so the eye candy on the various news channels is lost on me.
I never said that it had to be a perfect solution. There are plenty of instances where electric vehicles are great and probably for most people they could get by with one now. My beef was with the current premium that those vehicles carry over their internal combustion counterparts. I was just using my wife as an example of one who is perfect for one while I sit at the other end of the spectrum where it would be almost useless. The problem with my family acquiring one now is that we really can't afford a new vehicle especially when we have vehicles are are perfectly functional and paid off. When it is time to replace her vehicle (when it becomes unreliable) then electric car here we come. I have looked at other vehicles to replace my daily driver, especially when gas spiked but the problem is that the trade in value for a vehicle with a quarter million miles on it but other wise mechanically perfect vehicle is basically nill and then you end up with with a car payment. Insurance and license fees are cheap and those would go up on a new vehicle. Also even though I drive a big car it gets relativity good mileage in stop in go rush hour traffic which further makes purchasing a more fuel efficient vehicle for me hard to justify economically. Rational behind this is that I would basically have to have no fuel costs over the course of the vehicle loan to make up for the car payment, increase insurance, and increased license fees. This assumes a 48 or 60 month loan (never looked at a 72 month one) but after that span of time I would have a vehicle with between 120,000 and 170,000 miles on it and I would be driving a small econo box instead of a nice large rear wheel drive sports sedan.
And your sig is very apropos.
And there in lies the issue. I think electric cars are great little toys at the moment and there are areas where they are a great alternative to the ones powered by internal combustion engines but the added cost needs to come down a lot for there to be a large uptake of them in the places where they do well. My wife and I have looked into getting an electric vehicle to replace her car when it is time as she drive about 5 miles a day. With the abuse that her current car gets from this type of driving an electric vehicle would be ideal as currently her car never really reaches full operating temperature. As such it has all sorts of strange issue that need to be kept up on in addition to her inattentiveness to fluid levels. For her an electric vehicle is ideal and would probably be cheaper in the long run. For me currently there isn't one that would reliably meet my needs yet as I drive 64 miles a day getting to and from work and things like the cold would make the range a real limit even including the 100 mile range on the leaf in close to ideal circumstances.
It wouldn't surprise me if local museums or libraries in your area offer some introductory programming courses. I know in my area I see them from time to time and the cost is usually in the $100-$200 range. Also have you checked to see if there were any community education courses offered through the school district over the summer as again in my area they seem to have tons of these and send out a booklet with the listings a few times a year.
Most of the environmentalists I've known were just interesting in their own smug sense of self-righteousness.
I have relatives like that. The grief I get from them because I drive older vehicles that are kept in proper running order while they drive new vehicles replaced every couple of year but are of the environmentally friendly type. They also frown upon hunting while at the same time preaching about the necessity to only eat meat that is organic, free range, fair trade, locally produced, etc. The disconnect they have is rather shocking at times.
Well in my world there are an infinite number of primes but not an uncountable infinite number of primes. Though even there 2^n-1 isn't always prime even when n is also a prime.
Social science is a misnomer, at least while the quality of their 'science' is at this level.
Hence the usual distinction between the social sciences and the hard sciences.
Well fuck my youngest is screwed then. Everyone will think he is some sort of French epic hero.
How about not have your pants around your thighs with your undies hanging, hat all off to one side, all while talking like fifty cent. I was most shocked by the black culture that frowns upon a successful black person who wears business attire. When I was out in Portland, OR I was walking back to the apartment building with a bunch of my coworkers that we were all in and we were waiting at a light. A few thug looking black individuals pulled up in the Escalade with spinners and base pumping and yelled to one of the guys in our group calling him a traitor to his race, uncle tom, oreo, etc. After they sped off I asked him if he got that a lot to which he replied yes but it didn't bother him as he will eventually be rich and they will eventually be dead. Or for a better example how about not trying to intimidate someone by threatening to beat the shit out of them and take their stuff while in a mall while they are trying to take a piss. One of those ass holes got a swift kick to the head after I threw him to the ground while the other ran off. The one that got thrown started by giving me a shove as I wasn't intimidated.
I wasn't speaking to if it was a good idea or not just the technical aspects of trying to take down a helicopter using a hunting rifle. I would appear that most of the people who believe that it is easy to take out a helicopter with a hunting rifle are also those who seem to believe that they would stand a chance against a professional military in open warfare. Even guerrilla fighting is something that those type of people believe is easy and don't really understand what would be involved.
Well there is a case to be made that we as civilians do have a right to those types of weapons the US government even argued that we do. The US vs Miller case is a rather strange one when you get into the details but the US government did win and the Supreme Court basically ruled that the second amendment protects the rights of individuals to own weapons appropriate for a militia. So based off of that it is technically legal for individuals to own such things as shoulder fired rocket launchers, all machine guns (M2, M249, RPK, PKM), assault rifles (M4, M16, M14, AKM, AK-47, AK74), sub machine guns, grenades, etc. as these are all appropriate for use by a militia.
Problem is the well placed part. It is easier to place the shot when the helicopter is stationary but then it is probably shooting at you or will be shortly. If it is moving you had better be really fucking good at gauging speed and distance because you will need to account for a large amount of drop and lead the thing. To put this in perspective at 400 meters there is probably going to be about 2/3 to 1 meter of drop (rough estimate but good enough) for your bullet. Also at those distances wind starts to play an important role. I have been able to consistently make shots at that distance against pop cans but that was on a day perfect for long distance shooting, hot, high humidity, low barometric pressure, no wind using low drag bullets fired from a Russian ex sniper rifle with a good scope. Toss in some wind and questionable consistency bullets (non match grade) and best of luck having consistent shots.
Your story sounds similar to my previous bosses except he was the one immigrating here legally and was married to a US citizen. It is a sad state when doing things the illegal makes becoming legal easier than doing it right from the fucking start.