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This is the end of my Presidency. I’m fucked.

This isn't a report, it's a steamy novel!

You all can make a big thing out of this if you want. To me, it's nothing out of the ordinary, just another day at the office in Washington D.C.

Here's the perfect visualization

And here's a preemptive SHHH! for anybody that complains about the source

Chants like "Lock Her Up" look childish.

Political candidates need to learn and evolve.

Act more like adults.

Instead of each candidate promising, if elected, to lock up their opponent, they need to start labeling their opponents as terrorists and their campaign organizations as terrorist organizations. Then promise to use the full force of government against these terrorists.

'Biggest' UK tulip grower stockpiles bulbs over Brexit

The UK's biggest outdoor commercial tulip grower has said it has been stockpiling bulbs as uncertainty over Brexit continues.

Belmont Nurseries, near King's Lynn, said the future of the UK's relationship with the European Union (EU) was a cause of major concern.

"We're very much UK based, but we do also sell to Europe," nursery director Mark Eves said.

Tulip futures.

Over in lizardloop's journal I made mention of a snafu at my work place, regarding arc flash protection. https://soylentnews.org/~lizardloop/journal/4161

Allow me to emphasize first, that I am NOT an electrician. I don't have the in depth training, nor do I have decades of experience in the field. However, I do a lot of electrical work inside the plant. For those who wonder how that can be - in theory, I work under the supervision of a qualified electrician. However, I've never met this mysterious electrician. Long story short, there are loopholes in the law, which my (and most other companies) take advantage of.

So, what is arc flash? In the most simple terms, when an electrical circuit is shorted out, you can expect electrical energy to be converted into thermal energy, and it usually happens explosively. There are formulas to determine how much energy you might expect to be converted. The results are given as calories per square cm. For the most part, 110V probably won't do more than cause a sunburn-like burn within about a foot, 220V likewise, and most of our 480 is equivalent to a bad sunburn within 18 inches. That is, most of our electrical work involves circuitry whose energy can be protected against by wearing rubber gloves, leather gloves, and long sleeve fire resistant shirt, and a faceshield and safety glasses. We all wear jeans, and electrical hazard rated boots. So, we have always been protected from arc flash, at the levels at which we most commonly work, or at least I have been.

In recent years, the industry has been working out new procedures, regulations, and standards for arc flash safety. Those who care to, can read the standards online:
https://www.ishn.com/articles/107825-nfpa-70e-2018-standard-for-electrical-safety-requirements
  https://arcflashamerica.com/nfpa-70e-2018-arc-flash-regulations

You will probably notice immediately the "2018" portion of the site addresses, as well as on the page in your browser. These standards went into effect just last year.

The company demands that we comply with the standards - BUT - we have a supposed safety officer who doesn't seem to understand diddly squat.

I need to stipulate that they hired an outside contractor to come into the plant, examine, and calculate the calorie rating of every single box, cabinet, receptacle in the plant. Few are rated higher than 8 calories. The protective clothing I have already described meets safety requirements for these low energy situations. Initially, the only thing we learned was that SOME of our boxes were higher energy than we thought, so we had to wear the coverall costume that the company supplies when we work on them.

Then, another edict - everyone MUST be dressed in 100% cotton. Blends of cotton were no longer permitted. No problem for me, because the Navy trained me for fire fighting, and I do not buy synthetic or synthetic blend clothing. The elastic in my underwear is the only synthetic in my clothing. Some of the other guys had to make changes, especially those who made use of the uniform service. Those uniforms are mostly nylon and rayon.

Next edict? Well, now we MUST wear arc flash rated clothing, while working on ANYTHING, or put the heavy-ass, hot costume on. Makes sense, don't it?

Go online, and start looking for AF rated clothing. Carhartts are my preference. I can buy a shirt and pants for about $70 bucks, and have been doing so for years. But, they aren't AF rated. Go to Carhartt site, and look for FR and AR rated clothing, you'll find shirts for $110, and jeans with an "AF rated button and closure" for $70. If you look, you will find two styles for a little less, but both are being phased out, with common sizes already out of stock. So - $180 for a shirt and pants.

https://www.carhartt.com/products/carhartt-men-big-tall-pants/Flame-Resistant-Relaxed-Fit-Utility-Jean-FRB004
https://www.carhartt.com/products/carhartt-flame-resistant-men-shirts/Flame-Resistant-Work-DryLightweight-Twill-Shirt-FRS003

(I've just clicked my own links again, and prices have dropped in the past couple of weeks - so I'll still complain about pricing, but it's not quite so bad. Maybe prices will continue to drop as production ramps up?)

Funny thing is, those AR rated items are 88% cotton and 12% nylon. "high tenacity" nylon? * It's nylon - it will melt before the cotton decides to burn.

What lizardloop was complaining about specifically in his journal entry, was idiot management people ticking off boxes, to cover their asses. And, this is what I'm seeing here. A new standard has been created, less for safety purposes, than to make sure everyone in the industry can cover their asses. The standard is lower than my own personal standard - but my standard won't meet the new industry standard unless it is certified. My standard is certified by no one, other than myself.

At my own corporate level - the safety people don't understand a DAMNED THING, other than they have to comply with a standard that they never heard of until this year. They are scrambling, to find clothing to meet the standard. And, they are coming up high dollar. Those who might be interested can do their own searches, and find work clothes that meet the standard, and cost two, three, even five times as much as these Carhartts.

(Paranthetically, my wife has found for me a few that are slightly less expensive than Carhartts, but I long ago rejected them for quality reasons. One top selling point for my Carhartts are seven belt loops, as opposed to five on most work jeans. I positively HATE to see men with their asses hanging out of their jeans, so I want those extra belt loops that actually keep my pants up over my ass, no matter what position I am working in. Dickies are out.)

So, I'm pretty pissed, both at the industry, and at my own employers. I wear out clothing pretty regularly, and between them, they have roughly doubled the cost of that clothing. And, this clothing will make me no safer than I have always been.

Bean counters and box tickers make life miserable for all of us.

* A couple searches reveals that "high tenacity" has nothing to do with the melting point of the nylon yarn, but the strength of that yarn. Nylon becomes "sticky" at temperatures as low as 200 degrees F, while cotton will not combust until it reaches 500 F. So, a cotton/nylon blend, subjected to an arc flash, is going to have some nylon trying to melt, then sticking to the cotton fibers surrounding it. That will leave behind a patch of fabrid that is stiff, and will crackle when flexed. One can only hope that none of the nylon threads will stick to the flesh beneath it. Note that this is a "flash" situation. A sustained heat source WILL melt the nylon, and that nylon WILL stick to the flesh beneath it.

P30 Pro Teardown Proves Huawei's Flash Catch-up

Content from page 2 (pages 3-9 are images):

Periscope camera
Of all the units inside the P30 Pro, however, the biggest news is the periscope. Huawei placed a CMOS image sensor vertically and put a mirror angled at 45 degrees at the back to increase the optical path. This is the first time a 10x zoom – without any loss in quality -- has gone inside an actual smartphone, according to Elisabeth. He noted that at Mobile World Congress in 2018, Oppo showed a prototype 5X zoom, but never launched an actual product.

Asked who put together a module for the periscope camera, Elisabeth said that System Plus believes Sunny Optical Technology in China did it by using IP from Corephotonics in Israel.

Changes in RF partners?
One additional System Plus discovery was that Skyworks no longer seems to be Huawei’s main RF supplier. P30 Pro uses Qorvo’s mid/high-band front-end module (QM77031). Skyworks now supplies only a low-band front-end module (SKY78191). Previously Skyworks provided three separate front-end modules to meet the needs of three different bands.

In the following pages, we will share the teardown done by System Plus, revealing who got design wins for which slots.

[Darth Vader voice]: Sissterrr... If you won't turn to the dark side, perhaps she will...

Voice votes are abused to pass some of the most corrupt legislation and prevent holding our senators electorally accountable for voting for corrupt legislation.

Congress is passing a ban on the IRS developing a software tool for taxes via voice vote. How can we kick these buffoons out of office if we don't know who they are?

https://m.slashdot.org/story/354380

We need to call for an immediate constitutional ban on these so called voice votes. The democratic system doesn't work when we cannot hold our representatives accountable for their votes.

Here is my proposed amendment:

No law shall be passed by congress or the several states except upon publically recorded votes whereby the text voted upon and the votes of each senator or representative is publically recorded, and the record of such votes shall be freely inspectable and copyable by the public.

You can call it the "Recorded Vote Amendment".

She showed her age, but that didn't stop me lusting after her. I walked around and around her, admiring her front end, admiring her rear end, and everything in between.

Old dude walks up, and asks, "You like what you see?" I ask, "What year is she?" "'77." That surprised me - she actually looked to be older than my '68 was.

So, 1977 Malibu Classic station wagon, 350 with a 750 carb, and a 350 Turbo 4 speed behind it. Something I've never seen before, were the fin windows in the BACK of the car. I've looked for images on the internet to link to here, and haven't found any back seat fin windows yet. OH! https://www.imcdb.org/i575959.jpg I'm pretty sure those are fin windows, at the rear of the back seat windows. Nice. What's missing in that image, is the chrome air scoop, that directs air from the roof of the car, down over the back window. It helped to keep dust from collecting on it. '68 Caprice image shows the air scoop nicely - http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTIwMFgxNjAw/z/8OQAAOSwdvpWDdQx/$_1.JPG?set_id=880000500F

All the while the old dude was telling me the specs on his '77, I was comparing it to my '68. I had a 327, with the (in)famous "3 speed slip slide" transmission, and a highway rearend. Nice pic here - http://smclassiccars.com/chevrolet/242061-1968-impala-station-wagon-6-passenger-chevy-chevrolet-patina-hot-rod.html

Most people look at these wagons, and think they are just ugly family cars. I looked at them, and saw beautiful working cars, adventure cars, and yes, even sport cars. Wagons usually had the same, or very similar, power trains as the sedan models they were built with. And, wagons usually only weighed a little more than the sedans. You could find some that were underpowered, but for the most part, they were more than adequately powered. In the case of the '68 Impala with the 327, it could run with the motorhead's hotrods. Couldn't beat them in the quarter, but given a longer run, it would pull alongside them. Somewhere around 1 mile, the Impala would smoke them all, because they all topped out starting around 70 mph, up to maybe 95 mph.

I said "adventure" cars? Two, three, four guys could easily toss camping, fishing, hunting gear in the back, and head out to the far horizons. Or, one guy could throw most of his possessions in there, and leave to never return.

Sedans are always cool, but wagons are even cooler. Does anyone here know how many GIRLS you can pack into a station wagon? A boatload, literally!

How many of you have fond memories of those old station wagons? Yesterday's equivalent of the SUV.

There may be a cure...

We have to do like A Clockwork Orange. Only now we make everybody watch C-SPAN. Make them look at what they reelect, 24/7 until they get the hint, or they puke, and make them watch more until they puke and puke and puke, and make them watch more, just to be sure.