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atomheartbevo

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by atomheartbevo

  1. Given how much Beijing dances around not providing the kind of hardware that would put them on the sanctions list, as well as being careful with their trade and banking with Russia, I don't really buy it. Plus, China wants a weakened Russia, both militarily and economically.
  2. Europe is our largest and richest trading partner. It would destroy our economy for many years to come if we were to openly side with the Russian military. There would also be a fuckload of Americans who would lose their shit over such a scenario. They may toe the line on us betraying Ukraine, but that's as far as they'll go. France stuck with us in Afghanistan for over a decade. I have no problem with the French.
  3. Like watching (in Dallas I might add) when Jon Dough went balls-deep on Dana Lynn in Debbie Does Dallas IV - the cheers from the audience really made an impression. Now that I'm older and a dad with a middle-school-aged son, I'm constantly looking at Alamo's website for movies I loved to show him on the big screen instead of at home - in the past year or so, we've done the first three Indiana Jones movies, Goonies, and I'm keeping an eye out on the 1980s Star Trek films (maybe not V).
  4. It's about to get crazier - they are planning to sell buildings that are currently in use by various federal agencies. Musk is hell-bent on disposing federal properties and he and his merry band of 19 and 20-somethings don't know what the fuck they are doing and buildings get listed for disposal only to be pulled back because it turns out they are in use. https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/trump-admin-may-sell-j-j-pickle-federal-building-austin-buildings-used-by-veterans-affairs-treasury/
  5. Musk and DOGE are going to cut 70,000 jobs from the Veterans Administration.
  6. WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING POSTING MY WIFI PASSWORD WHAT THE HELL MAN Oh wait, that’s Leon’s kid, never mind.
  7. Since we are going retro…new Suikoden game, mobile only, looks gorgeous.
  8. The reasons being cited - "national security" - they make no sense. It's to your benefit to buy out the other guy (Canada) at cheap prices and use up their supply, and then you are left with plenty of wood in your own backyard. If we log a shitload of our own stuff now, down the road when it's expensive, we'll be buying from Canada at prices they set. Real reason? You can see who gave who money last year in the CR thread.
  9. The good news is you probably would only do it once, because you're kinda dead.
  10. The guided tours have already closed. They stopped the self-guided tours then opened up a few slots after people flipped out, but according to others, they are trying to be optimistic and don't have the manpower to keep things open for even the self-guided tours to go down. A lot of chatter that there is a struggle over closing off the caverns. Carlsbad Caverns Timed Entry Reservation, Carlsbad Caverns National Park Tours - Recreation.gov
  11. I know you want it confined to CR, but they are literally going to wreck our national forests. It's fucking news. Everybody, regardless of political persuasion, should be fucking pissed about this and about them shutting down or restricting the national parks.
  12. It's outside of Richmond, Virginia
  13. And the Department of State Health Services is headed up by somebody who is actually knowledgeable in this stuff: Dr. Shuford worked in Austin, Texas, as an infectious disease physician in private practice prior to joining Texas Department of State Health Services in 2017. Before becoming Commissioner, Dr. Shuford served DSHS as the Chief State Epidemiologist. Dr. Shuford graduated from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. She completed an internal medicine residency at Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas, where she served as chief resident. She completed an infectious disease fellowship at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and earned her Master of Public Health degree from Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Shuford serves on the faculty of the DSHS Preventive Medicine and Public Health Residency Program. She is a member of Travis County Medical Society, Texas Medical Association, and Infectious Disease Society of America.
  14. Yep, fully on display in the Lego store in Austin, saw it last weekend, pretty sweet. America is about to get our own Lego factory, but it won't be online for another year or two, so it's Mexico, China, and Europe imports for now. I know a Lego store manager in the Houston area who mentioned that they were trying to build up a stock in case this stuff goes through, and I would assume a lot of retailers are trying to do that, but they only have so much room to store stuff, and they also don't want to spend a lot on stuff that may not sell for a few months.
  15. State is getting really fucking serious about vaccines now that a kid has died. And we all know that the 158 confirmed cases is way below what is probably the actual number. Texas measles outbreak: 158 cases as of Monday, state health commissioner talks vaccine concerns The measles outbreak continues to spread in Texas as the state’s Commissioner of the Department of State Health Services spoke to a committee of lawmakers about the growing distrust of vaccines and the agency’s attempts to fight the virus. The case count is now up to 158 people, according to the latest numbers reported by Dr. Jennifer Shuford, the DSHS Commissioner. She presented those numbers to the Texas House Committee on Public Health as the state faces a measles outbreak it has not seen in 30 years. “Measles is highly contagious,” Dr. Shuford explained. “It’s probably the most contagious virus that we know of.” She said school-age children between the ages of 5 and 17 are the most impacted group followed by children under the age of four. One school-aged child died and 20 people have been hospitalized, due to this outbreak, according to Dr. Shuford. A majority of the confirmed cases are located in Gaines County and spreading to the surrounding counties in the South Plains and Panhandle region. Dr. Shuford said the state set up two specimen collection sites in the most impacted area to help increase the speed of testing for the virus. Most of the testing is being done at a lab in Austin, but DSHS is working with El Paso, Tarrant, and Bexar counties to boost their measles testing capacity at their public health labs. The state has also set up vaccine sites that operate 7-days a week. “We just want to have vaccine available for whichever providers can give those vaccines, especially in that outbreak community,” Dr. Shuford said. If someone is exposed to the virus the state is trying to get that person a vaccine within 72 hours of exposure. It may prevent that person from being sick or make their symptoms less severe. If the state misses that 72-hour window it is also providing immunoglobulin injections, which is a treatment that puts antibodies in the body to strengthen the immune system. The agency is also looking at pediatric hospital bed capacity. Part of that is communicating with hospitals around the states to get a look at the available hospital beds, including pediatric ICU beds in the state. Most of the infected people are being hospitalized in Lubbock, and the state is making sure there are beds available in case Lubbock becomes overwhelmed. Dr. Shuford reported the state expects the cases to keep growing because of the lack of measles vaccination rates in Texas. The state says the best defense against measles is the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine which has been in use in the United States for more than 50 years. “We are concerned about our MMR coverage across our state, knowing that it’s lower than some other places across the United States, and that this particular region has lower vaccination rates,” Dr. Shuford said. State Rep. John Bucy III, D-Austin asked the commissioner why vaccination rates are so low in some areas of Texas. “What’s going on, especially if we’ve eliminated this disease in 2000,” Bucy asked. “There has been just some decreased interest or distrust in vaccines, and that’s caused a decrease in vaccination rates,” Dr. Shuford explained. It is part of a growing debate in the country about whether people should vaccinate. The question of whether or not someone should vaccinate themselves has become a political talking point. “If someone chooses not to get the vaccine, not because of health reasons, but they choose not to get it living in a denser population or community, they’re not just impacting their own safety. They could be impacting the safety of their neighbors and their communities, correct,” Bucy asked. “They’re allowing it to be able to spread to other people,” Dr. Shuford responded.
  16. Seriously, my kid had been saving up for an expensive Lego set, I loaned him the last little bit to get it ordered now, because that shit's made in Mexico, and I know how the store (and Amazon) inventories work. They aren't keeping warehouses full of this stuff sitting around.
  17. Waymo and Uber are offering driverless taxi rides in Austin. Will Leon use the power of DOGE and his control over the state and federal government to shut it down? https://www.kxan.com/traffic/transportation/waymo-uber-officially-roll-out-driverless-rides-in-austin/
  18. One other thing, I'd like to know why they are holding off on the Kerch Bridge. They clearly have the range and the ability to fuck with traffic on it. Yes, it has plenty of air defenses, but that makes it even more attractive in a way, since those AD can't be easily replaced, and if Russia is paranoid about the bridge, just a single attempt will make them take AD from elsewhere, leaving even more gaps.
  19. I say we give Musk as much Ketamine as he wants.
  20. No surprise. Carlsbad Caverns is closing down the caverns this month. Shitload of other parks have reduced levels of visitors and probably headed towards zero for the summer. The irony is that if this were a national security issue, we'd continue importing like crazy, and preserve our forests so that when the imports dry up/become too expensive, we are sitting on a huge chunk of untouched timber. Instead, we are going to help some executives hit their quarterly numbers and if our forests get fucked up, down the road Canada will bend us over.
  21. I hate the costs, but we have these on our calendar for this year. Snow White later this month (it's a maybe, my daughter isn't into the classics that much) Minecraft movie in April Pink Floyd at Pompeii concert in April on IMAX Last Tom Cruise Mission Impossible in May, preferably on IMAX Elio (Pixar) in June (this is a maybe, my kids are busy in June) How to Train Your Dragon in June (this is a maybe, my kids are busy in June) F1 if it's IMAX (it's a maybe, I like Pitt and like the concept) Superman in July Fantastic Four in July Tron in October (if it's IMAX) (I'll do this one solo if I have to) Wicked 2 in November. (Probably my wife and daughter, but not me and son) Zootopia in November Avatar in December (if it's IMAX) Ones in red are pretty much going to happen.
  22. Or just bring them in from HEB like everybody else. I'm sorry my kid's $1.25 box of Hot Tamales or Junior Mints is not as pricey as the theater's $5.50 box of Hot Tamales or Junior Mints, but if the theater dies because I won't pay $5 for a smaller box of candy than I can get for $1.25 at HEB...
  23. I think there's maybe two things going on in the short term: They aren't producing replacement equipment in the numbers they need (especially vehicles), hence the donkeys and golf carts. It's possible the sanctions combined with manufacturing equipment/factories breaking down from heavy use are doing a number on them. BUT it could be that they were never really able to ramp up production in the first place because they didn't have to, given that nobody was going to invade them, and they had thousands of vehicles sitting around doing nothing. A whole shitload of their military vehicles saw their production lines end years ago (even decades ago). There's no way they kept the equipment around to start those lines up again. That stuff would have been sold off for scrap, with the thought that they wouldn't need to mess with older equipment. And we know that if they have 10,000 armored vehicles in storage, a whole shitload of them were cannibalized for the black market, and many of the remaining ones would have become parts queens to keep the active-duty stuff going - no problem with this as long as they didn't' get into a war that wrecked their active-duty stuff. They don't have the means (fuel, ammo) to sustain anything heavy these days, at least across multiple areas. They may have refineries running full-tilt in Asia, but they may not be able to really get it into the last 20-30 miles of the war zones, which again is helped by donkeys and golf carts. Fuel tankers and cargo trucks make for huge and slow targets for Ukrainian drones. We've seen Ukrainian drones and missiles hitting ammo stockpiles - 10% of ammo in an area here, another 5% or 10% of ammo in an area over there, and next thing you know Russian commanders are fighting over who gets the remaining ammo. There may also be a manpower shortage going on. Tying into @B00M's comments about manpower - we are three years into a three-week military operation. Feels like they've had enough time to call up a lot more men and get them in the field. It could also be that the drone situation now seems to be heavily favoring Ukraine, which could tie into #2 above (and could be the cause of #1).
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