Fine Art Tuesday

 

I went looking for "Fine Art" for orchards and couldn't find anything I liked, so I went with this video.

"Pruning" is a metaphor for removing those parts of our lives (and organizations) that are holding us back. Enterprises grow into lots of ventures, some of which are productive and others which sap resources and compete with the more productive ventures. Those "vampire" ventures need to be pruned out periodically.

For example, do you watch college basketball because it is a habit and you have ALWAYS watch March Madness? Maybe that is a "branch" that is stealing time from more productive pursuits...like taking walks with your sweetheart or sharpening and oiling your tools.

The way Jim approaches his task is sound. The tree is basically healthy. He looks the tree over to get a "feel" for it, then he picks a direction of attack. He cuts his way into the center of the tree.

I am not pruning as aggressively as Jim pruned, but pruning fruit trees is a "fine art", not a science

Then he systematically works his way around the tree cutting large limbs that do not conform to basic principles. Cutting large limbs removes significant amount of "wood" quickly and efficiently. As the structure becomes leaner, what the frame ought to be becomes clearer.

I think many of us planted a few fruit trees on our property just-in-case. This might be a good time to look them over and open them up...if only to the point where we can reach up into them and pick the fruit.

Link to First Year Followup video

An unpublished comment: Preaching to the Choir

Name of commenter withheld by request. Minor tweaks were made to grammar and punctuation.

 

I have responded to numerous home invasions during my decades-long career as a police officer in ---name redacted big city---.

 

All of them were drug related.

 

Many of them gained entry with false police or federal agent hats, jackets etc.

 

Some of them forced entry when entry wasn't granted.

 

In every case  it went badly for the " victims'' after the home invaders gained entry.

 

At minimum someone was beaten until the stuff was given up, sometimes they emptied the house. Fear and pain of themselves or others got compliance.

 

Until you have taken sheets off zip tied and beaten people who have fresh human waste in their clothing and smelled the fear on them it's all just reading.

 

If what we think is coming, comes, we all need to harden our thinking.

 

If you are a hunter you know what I mean, you have to notice every change, every person who doesn't belong, you have to see what is different so you don't become the hunted.

I and a partner were staged behind trees or walls numerous times aiming shotguns at the front door of a bank while a robbery was in-progress while customers passed us and walked in the front doors.

 

How do you fix that level of obliviousness?

 

You can have the best locks in the world but if you and the wife and kids don't use them every time, then they are worthless.

 

If you don't see the people doing surveillance on your home, watching you come and go, or following you away from an ATM or a high-end store, later you will tell the cops, "I didn't see anything till he was just there." and you will be lying to yourself. You saw them but it didn't register because you were too lazy and too self-absorbed to notice.

 

There are some people who just shouldn't be around, notice them. Get out of your bubble when you are in public!

 

I wish I didn't have to say this part, but if things really get spicy the cops and the courts are not your friend. They will bankrupt you and destroy your life. I have sat in too many courtrooms to kid you about that.

 

Joe's question back to the writer of this comment: "How would you be able to differentiate between real-cops and pretenders who want to invade your house"

 

You can hardly believe the adrenaline dump on both sides of the door.

In later years I did stationary and rolling surveillance, often followed by forced entry.

 

You have no idea what is waiting inside and they have no idea if it's really cops or rip-offs.

I won't open the door for either. I am not committing crime so I must believe it's a criminal rip-off team.

 

On a forced entry we were geared up, pumped up and expecting trouble it's a recipe for disaster either way.

To answer your question if they are in full uniform and I can see marked units, we can talk. And we can talk while the door is closed.

 

Joe notes: You can ask the "cops" to turn on the light-bar of their unit. You can see that even if the curtains are closed, but you better know the strobe colors and pattern of local and state cops.

 

If not and they are only knocking, then call 911, if dispatch doesn't show officers at your address, request them now.

During forced entry there is no time to differentiate.

A picture is worth a thousand words

 

Source

A few things are noticeable about this screen grab of what passes for a ghetto in southwestern Communist China.

One is that China appears to be going all-in on heat-pumps. Not only do heat-pumps have the potential to produce more "heat" than the electricity used to run them, they can be reversed and used as air-conditioners. That is, they can pump heat OUT of rooms.

Another thing is that even though there are bars on the windows, even the second story ones (meaning rampant crime), the heat-pumps are completely exposed and vulnerable to theft.

And yet nobody has stolen them!

The fact that they are still there (as they are throughout this video) tells you that the heat-pumps belong to the government and that theft/destruction of government property in China is a slam-dunk, no appeals death penalty.

I used to drink coffee with a guy named Bob Crist. He did some consulting work in Communist China. He said that every six months they would broom out the prisons and have executions at the local sports stadium. Men were walked out in a line. A party of dignitaries walked behind them. An announcer read the crime, the name, the name of the head of his family and neighborhood of the criminal, the crime he had committed and the sentence. After that, one of the officials would execute the criminal with a shot at the base of his skull. One of the party would retrieve the spent-brass which was mailed to the family of the criminal along with an invoice for the cost of the round.

The bodies of the dead criminals were dragged away and then another line of criminals was be walked out to the middle of the auditorium.

And so on, and so on and so on.

I assume that some of those criminals were "scrap dealers" who bought copper parts that looked like they came from heat-pumps. No point in stealing something if you cannot sell it and/or the fence will turn you in to save his own hide.

Diaper donations

I happen to have a source of information who volunteers at a local charity whose mission is to support mothers.

If you feel inclined to donate to that kind of charity, diapers in sizes 4, 5 and 6 are typically in lowest supply.

That is partially due to the number of diapers in a typical package. For example, at the $55 price point you can purchase:

• 186 Size 2 Huggies Little Snugglers (12-18 pounds)
• 150 Size 4 (23-37 pounds)
• 108 Size 6 (+35 pounds) 

 

Another factor is that children's growth-rate slows as they age and they will be wearing size 4 and 5 diapers for more months than the smaller sizes. According to the CDC growth charts, a 50th percentile boy will hit 12 pounds at two months and 18 pounds at six months. That means that (on-paper) they can fit into Size 2 for four months.

That same 50th percentile boy will hit 23 pounds at twelve months and 32 pounds at thirty-six months which is twenty-four months or SIX TIMES LONGER than they would be wearing Size 2 diapers. Consequently, the number of Size 4 diapers is six times greater than for Size 2...and the packages hold 20% fewer.

Another high-demand item are wet-wipes. People who donate don't think about them. The up-side is that they are compact and take up far less room than packages of diapers. "Flushable" wet-wipes are preferred but any disposable wet-wipes are better than no wet-wipes.

USAID Business-Model Explained

 USAID explained. Graphic. Not for children.

A joke

Michigan does not trust her citizens to get rabies vaccinations for our animals. So we are required to go to a vet and pay fees and for the vaccine so we can get a receipt that we can present to the government to buy a license so we don't get fined hundreds of dollars.

So, I was standing in line at a local "low cost vet clinic" to get the mandatory shot (for the dog) and I heard a joke.

Did you hear about that liberal "furry" from the lower-48 who went to Alaska to get his graduate degree?

He came back with a Husky girlfriend. 

Not a joke

Keep your head on a swivel.

Horrible behaviors are not just being tolerated, they are being applauded.

If you are standing on the "X", move.

If you have business in the "X", find other dentists, eye doctors and other suppliers.

Leave the children at home if you have to go anywhere near the "X". That includes "first-ring suburbs" as well as the actual "X".

Preaching to the Choir

I am taking a few minutes to write down my "philosophy" on making a home physically secure.

Background

Every layer acts like a filter; some unwanted threats will slip through while some desired contacts will be repulsed.

This is similar to a quality-inspection system in a factory. Important characteristics are inspected at several stages because...because some defective material will slip through even the best inspection stage.

Taking a page from quality-inspection, having multiple "layers" is a good plan and so is having effective layers.

The calculation for the amount of defects that slips through is 100% - (100% minus catch-rate)^(number of inspection layers). So four "layers" that are 80% effective has a calculated effectiveness of 1.0 - (1.0-0.8)^4 or an effectiveness of 99.8%. In a similar way, four sequential filters with 60% effectiveness have a combined effectiveness of 97.4% or almost 13 times more "leakers". 

At this point, some of you who have been paying attention are likely to point out, "Hey, that is fundamentally wrong. The first filter removes the lazy and stupid. Later filters will never be as effective."

I have no argument with that observation. Which leads to the next observation: The filters must be complimentary. That is, they filter on different attributes.

Concrete examples (not a complete list)

Filter 1.0: Don't be the house that "stands out". Don't be a $500k house in a neighborhood of $200k properties. Don't have vehicles that are twice as expensive as the typical neighbor. Don't be the first house in the neighborhood to have the snow melt off of you garage roof. Don't flaunt expensive toys. Keep your garage door down and don't put political signs in your yard.

Filter 1.1: Drugs, Cash and Handguns are the lightning rods that attract the wrong kind of attention. Felons cannot legally own firearms and yet guns are keystone to the image many felons desire. Unlike a flat-screen TV, a "hot" handgun can be fenced at 100% MSRP. This is where you must be an attentive parent. Sometimes a kid will post pictures or write things on social media that makes your home a target.

Filter 1.1.1: Breakdown all boxes before putting them out for the trash-man. Remove or obscure logos or take broken down cardboard to recycling.

Filter 2.0: Set the stage. Great doors. Great locks. Good windows. Keep "inside" inside and "outside" outside. Sorry if you love sliding, glass doors...but they don't cut the mustard.

Filter 2.1: A barking dog calls attention to the person with ill intentions. Those kinds of people hate attention.

Filter 2.2: Don't allow your landscaping to shelter vermin. Vermin hate light. They hate visibility and attention. Motion activated lights are a good move. Removing tall shrubs that assailants and people plotting to break into your house is a good move.

Filter 3.0: According to Fer-FAL, the easiest way for a motivated goblin to breach your home defenses is to wait until you come home after a long day at work and then bum-rush you through the door you  just unlocked. You are tired. You are hungry. You are hyper-focusing. Be mentally prepared to drive around your block if anything looks "goofy". Two hinky-looking dudes loafing near your house? Maybe call the spousal unit and kids and call an audible that you are going to meet at Vito's for an early dinner.

Cheap-and-easy

Cheap-and-easy, that's how I roll. 

Most of these steps are passive or don't require much effort.

I don't consider myself an expert on gadgets and bang-sticks for home security but will take a stab at a blog-post if there is interest on the subject.

"Instagram Engineering"

 

The explanation for this structure is that it is intended to be a flood-mitigation dam

"Instagram Engineering" refers to flimsy stage-props whose only value is as photo-backdrops. Generally, those photos (and any text packed around them) are intended to manipulate opinions in the most economical way.

It should not come as a surprise that people use technology to try and manipulate opinions.

It should not come as a surprise that sometimes they succeed. 

So why am I surprised?

Deep in my gut, I KNOW that this "solution" was motivated by somebody who wants to develop (and then sell) property in the flood-prone area. In their mind, all they have to do is convince the Zoning Commission (populated by HOA Karens) that they mitigated flooding and can now cover all of that yucky mud and untidy brush with gingerbread cottages and antique shops.

Source of photo is HERE. Caution: The comments are beyond brutal and relentless.