MacGyver

That’s right. Those are totally different animals.

I though I’d post this here just to put a stake in the sand, because this may turn out to be one of the most important charts we’ll see this year: What you’re basically looking at on this chart is unrealized losses in the hundreds of billions. Mortgage backed securities (remember the other time in recent memory where you heard/learned this term) are trading way lower. The underlying cause is essentially that mortgages closed in 2020 and 2021 are now basically trading at 65 cents on the dollar. It turns out that interest rates go up, too. And, a lot of our venture backed business models simply don’t work when money isn’t free. There are a few “bloggers” who have been talking about this. A lot of people read their newsletters. You probably saw Thursday that a a few venture capitalists told their portfolio companies to move their money from one of these banks and caused a bank run that wound up collapsing the 18th largest bank in the country - Silicon Valley Bank. Panics are a funny thing - and I think there’s a non-zero chance of seeing some much larger collapses this week. Ought to be an awfully interesting week. I hope I’m wrong.

I’m a squash casserole fan - I’ll eat about any variant. This is about the best one I’ve had - it’s not runny at all and is really good: https://gardenandgun.com/recipe/squash-casserole/ Its earned its place at our Thanksgiving table.

Jiffy has a place in the Southern lexicon at least as much as Martha White or White Lily. It’s not my idea of “cornbread” - but it’s great as a muffin. I like mixing up a couple of boxes and cooking it in a loaf pan. Then I like to slice it, butter it up, and then toast it up in a skillet.

1/2 cup unsalted butter melted or bacon grease 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup yellow cornmeal or polenta 1 tablespoon sugar (optional - doesn’t make it sweet) 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 1/2 cup buttermilk 2 large eggs This is for your big cast iron. Half it and use a smaller 6” cast iron. Buttermilk is the key ingredient. If I’m being particular- use King Arthur all purpose flour and the best cornmeal you can find. Pro tip - stick your cast iron in the oven and melt your butter in the cast iron. Pour the rest of your batter over it once hot. Don’t mix it. You’ll get a great crust that way. Made this the other evening along with a big pot of red beans and rice for several homeless guys. Several mentioned that it was the best meal they’d had all season. There is joy in good simplicity.

I've used the ones above in size medium and size large. I don't notice a huge difference. I take them off if I'm getting something out of my pocket - but other than that I'm usually able to leave them on. If I'm writing/marking - it's probably with a construction pencil - and I use one that clips on my pocket or tool belt and can simple be dropped down into the holder. While I'm here - let me go ahead and make a pitch for the greatest construction pencil ever... https://www.amazon.com/Pica-Dry-Longlife-Automatic-Pencil-3030/dp/B002X7Y90U @peejmanif you've not used one of these - you should get one - the whole design of the thing just brings a smile to any engineer's face.

I don’t know that you’ll totally get away from that. I‘d love to have a nice pair of leather gloves with all kinds of character like you see in the old western movies. But there’s a reason you only see those in the movies - because they’re not real. If we’re using gloves to protect our hands - then they’re a consumable item and we should think of them like that. So then it’s down to balancing “how do I consume these less frequently at a reasonable price point.“ The gloves I posted above meet that criteria for me. They’re super comfortable, and it doesn’t make me viscerally angry to have to replace them. I can’t even count how many mechanic type gloves I’ve worn out over the years after less than a day of use. Paying 25 or 30 bucks for a “heavy duty” pair just makes you mad when they wear out. I keep two types of gloves around. The ones I posted above, and a $20 box of nitrile gloves that I use when I just want to keep my hands clean.

These “HydraHyde” gloves by Wells Lamont are on the shelf at Lowe’s and have become my favorite over the last several years. Whatever they treat them with really seems to toughen the leather up while still staying soft. https://www.lowes.com/pd/Wells-Lamont-HydraHyde-Large-Mens-Leather-Multipurpose-Gloves/1000380323 I don’t use gloves on a daily basis - but I’d call myself a heavy weekly user. I just bought my third pair in maybe 6 years - the second pair is still fine. I wore the first pair out. They’re typically around $15 so they won’t break the bank

Those old Weaver K4s are about as good a workhorse scope as you'll find

That’s a ridiculous deal.

Let me bump this so that @TGO David sees it.

Tennessee has one of the best bream fisheries in the world - and I think it's really under appreciated - out at Reelfoot Lake. It's the only place I've ever seen a competitive bluegill tournament. Great panfishing at large - and some giant crappie if you hit it right.

They’re all similar. I’d put the KME sort of in between a Lansky set and the Wicked Edge. I like the easily adjustable nature of the KME. I also think it’s a good value. If you’re planning on doing it professionally, the Wicked Edge (and a bunch of other stuff) might be for you. For the average consumer, the KME is more than adequate.

Don’t forget a good strop. With a modern steel like M4 - you really shouldn’t have to sharpen it berg often. Regular stropping will keep it popping sharp with minimal effort. I like StropMan (now StropBros) strops. But there’s nothing fancy about a strop. You can make your own with some wood and a piece of leather.

Don’t let M4 scare you. A Spyderco tri-angle sharp maker will sharpen everything you’ll ever need to sharpen - and do it well. If you want a little bit of an upgrade that will really let you take your edge to any level of finish you desire, a KME Precision set will let you do that without risking screwing up a nice knife. I have some really nice stones - but use the two above for pretty much everything in my life but axes and chainsaw blades.

Since 2014 - public access to the Death Master File has been limited. But, like was mentioned above - a trip down to your local SSA office is certainly the first step on the path to getting it addressed. Hopefully it was someone miskeying your SSN when you applied for a card. You could probably check for yourself by trying to pull your credit report at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action.

In Korea, they allowed balloons and trains in addition to airplanes. I’d like to see one of those planes.

Despite being an air-to-air kill, the pilot will not get a balloon sticker to put on the side of his plane.

As reported in several outlets - it looks like one of the officers seen snapping pictures did in fact share it with others via text including a “female acquaintance.” From The Commercial Appeal: Of course her phone will be subject to discovery. If those texts shows prior history and that he was targeting Nichols to get revenge on her that will be devastating to the defense. If I was the prosecutor, I’d absolutely argue taking his charges to first degree murder.

The monitoring company should generally call the home owner regardless of the “grace period” on setting off the alarm. They should also be able to tell what sensor was tripped setting off the alarm. Personally, I’d turn it off - if unsure of the source wait for a call and see what was triggered - If still unsure wait for the police to show up - then investigate alongside them. That’s what you pay them for.

One of the officers was seen snapping a picture with his phone in the video. If that picture is in fact on his ex’s phone who worked at FedEx alongside Nichols - we’ll see that as evidence as they upgrade the charge.

Defense is certainly a defined benefit of a union membership. There’s also certainly an exception for cases that have fraud or intent - but in practice they’re still going to mount a defense.

They’re funded by the police union.

We used to have a training officer on here. He told me something one time that’s stuck with me for a lot of years. He said that on any given force there is about 10% of the population that will always do the right thing regardless of personal cost. These officers are rare - and we want more of them. On any given force there is a smaller percentage - about 5% that will do the wrong thing and abuse their power any time they can get away with it. They’re a poison and we clearly want fewer of them. Neither of those groups are actually the problem though. It’s the other 85%. What’s their behavior like? They’re going to mimic whoever they happen to be with. If they happen to be with one of the “bad apples” they’re more likely than not going to go along and maybe join in. That’s where the phrase “bad apples” gets its meaning. Put a bad apple in a barrel full of good apples and the gas it gives off will quickly spoil the rest. Same for officers. We can’t just focus on the bad ones and pretend like that’s good enough. Because if they’ve been there long enough - they’ve literally spoiled the whole department. incidentally we have data on this. In any given organization of 100 people it takes two people to ruin the whole culture. That toxicity is never fun - but it’s one thing when it’s Brenda in accounting. Your job sucks and maybe you should polish up your resume. But when it’s a police department it’s literally a life or death problem.

Good. And, notice how quickly they’re trying to separate themselves from all of this. I’m glad they’re disbanding it - but that doesn’t excuse it. And, there needs to be a thorough inquiry into the training, tactics, and decision making process before this can be resolved. If you don’t learn from it - you’re going to repeat it.