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phdhorn

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Everything posted by phdhorn

  1. I worked up this little arrangement for this past Easter, but I'd like to offer it here as a small tribute to Jake. As the father of a UT senior who's Sam's age, who's now just beginning his own epic adult journey through life, I mourn for the tragic loss of potential, and a life cut short. I can only hope those around him can find solace in the memories of his short but impactful life. Be Thou My Vision (Irish hymn tune): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vI892vQKSzdiLLKgyXUMLzy9uahm7lMy/view?usp=drivesdk
  2. Shoulda figured this would happen... fucking women drivers...
  3. Yup. The development the first reliable, commercially-released vaccine took over 20 years and in all that time there were a few millions of human trials, never mind what other countries (who, imagine this, were secretive about their experimentation) did. Salk's (commercially released 1955) vaccine "only" had about 3 years of organized testing on humans, but it also followed 20+ years of other research. And in his vaccine, there were large number of people who died, I think in the six figures (largely due to a lab screwing up the serum). Sabin's (1961) ended up being the baseline which has lasted in an only-slightly modified form up to the present day. Of course it's ludicrous to in almost any way compare modern vaccine development to these early achievements - medicine was comparatively primitive back then, and all that time and millions of inoculations were needed to get to a reasonable solution. And, it's important to understand that the entire science of vaccines now has advanced such that what seems safe "only" after 10-15 years of development is becoming obsolete - clinical trials etc. are beginning to rapidly speed up the time to a fraction of the original polio window. Nevertheless the polio vaccine was a remarkable achievement - yeah, it killed a lot more people on the way, but given the knowledge at the time, it was about the best one could hope for. Today however it would be almost criminally reckless to use those methods. All that said and done, there's still risk and this vaccine was developed more quickly than would be the ideal - and there are risks. I wouldn't want to do most vaccines at this speed, but at least it's nice to know they can at times pull it off if they have to, so it seems.
  4. Sorry, that was me. The guy parked over the line and took up two spaces. I simply won't stand for that, not Academy or anywhere.
  5. I understand he gave up the chance to pretty much play football at smaller schools for Texas, where he knew he'd probably not play as a preferred walk on, just to be with his brother and to be a Longhorn. Unimaginable tragedy.
  6. Oh, and at age 29, she's had... wait for it... 2 kids. Very un-Duggar like...
  7. More shit on Ma and Pa Duggar... shit does flow downhill. Jill's husband, Derick Dillard, says that the parents were really the only ones that got any money from the show, and after Josh was caught diddling, found a way to rebrand the show (Jill and Jessa: Counting On) and retain the sole monetary rights. And they bullied some of their kids to continue to do the show to make money for the parents. Point is that they like that cool Christian cash coming in and didn't want to give it up: https://www.today.com/today/amp/tdna217427 I kind of like Jill, she's very cute and seems to have a well-adjusted head on her shoulders. Hopefully she can get some relief and move on with her life. She's not exactly close to the parents anymore.
  8. Some backbuilding but the front is SE of Austin. Storms wont get any farther N/NW of where they are now.
  9. I was thinking more the bolded. However in today's world the answer is probably "hell yes!"
  10. Yeah, kinda died out as expected w/loss of sun/heat. One more possibility later tonight with the front, a line (if any), probably thin with a pocket or two of brief TS's; many won't get squat. Not really a significant rain I think, just some wetness to accompany the front. Then tomorrow nice and cool.
  11. Yup, we got a popup from SAT that's tracking toward W. Hays and W. Travis. Hopefully it'll weaken as the daytime heat dissipates. I would think the hail event will end soon. Hopefully.
  12. Obviously you're dredging up the racist peanut thing again.
  13. Attached, unavailable Melinda: Unattached, no-words-can-describe-it rich Melinda:
  14. Guess the tracking chip in his covid vaccine worked a little too well.
  15. No enhanced for ATX. Very slight chance for a heat-driven storm around dinner time, but the radar is blank and there's a cap in the atmosphere that's probably going to limit anything here - watch more N/NE. We're in a marginal area, which means that the likelihood and extent of any strong storms is very small. There is a second, better chance of a line of rain, maybe a small but strong storm or two coming in overnight with the cool front. These shouldn't be severe, or if so just small, isloated ones, again mostly N an E of us. I'd put rain about 30% today and about 50% overnight, but not guaranteed.
  16. I'm sorry, but I don't think equipping every homeless person with a backhoe is going to work.
  17. So here is my simplistic but not too unicorns and butterflies solution: - Set up what amounts to a detention or deportation center ("halfway house" type thing) - comfortable but by no means an apartment. - Contract and buy a shitton of cheap(er) land 15-20 miles outside of downtown. - Get strong but cheap construction to erect a giant shed-like structure that can hold a couple thousand (or multiple smaller structures) along with infrastructure (plumbing, etc., maybe a community shower/sink/cooking area or 2 or 10). - Purchase bulk equipment like cots, blankets, etc. and very cheap separators or whatever (although not necessary). A/C and big central heat would far too much to provide, but certainly things can be made comfortable enough and if the weather extremes are severe, well, that's a relatively rare contingency to be worked through. Possibly some good insulation would greatly reduce heat in the summer (I have some foam stuff that is on the hottest side of my house and that stuff is amazing!! Certainly a reasonable price could be negotiated for stuff like this. - Purchase some rudimentary climate control (fans for summer, possibly a few large heating units for winter). - Work with organizations (tax writeoffs, etc.) to send medical and educational resources (i.e. have classes, training, etc.) at classrooms. - Work with local employers to establish bottom of the barrel employment if possible - even if not able to self-sustain, it's work for a resume). - Fund a rotating staff to watch/provide security/administrate/instruct and mentor.. part of this team are employment specialists who can partner with organizations in town to hire halfway type help (cleaning, Mickie D's, whatever). The goal of a place like this is to purposely set up a humane but not permanent place to shelter and get basic needs met. In this type of place a homeless person who really wants to get out will demonstrate at least some initiative (even with some guidance at first if needed); they would be edified but also meant to know that the goal is to get out of here. Meantime they'll be as comfortable as can be until they get a leg up. People who snark or are bad shits can get evicted and thrown into a vehicle that will provide a bus ticket and drop them off (or jail, which I know is too overcrowded as it is, so that one will take some working out). There would also be medical issues for a lot of them (drug rehab, psych help) but if you get as far as these ideas, you're at least halfway to solving that problem). Rather than focus on getting these folks nice comfy homes without working on their habits (which take on average about 28 days to change permanently), which will lead to failure.. focus on the ascension out of borderline living and getting the skills to re-emerge as a productive person. Yes there is some naivete to this and I'm sure a lot of problems would pop up. But it's gotta be better than spending gabillions to buy old places where residents don't want them, throwing them into a place 50 at a time and spreading out the ability and $ to help. Don't take this too literally, but we don't have 25 little trash dumps in Austin, we have one huge landfill in TravCo where our shit is taken and dumped (but to some degree cultivated). Quit trying to jump 5 steps with these folks to get them as "gee, just one of the neighbors". Provide them shelter and hygene, a little training, then they can go look for their own residence when they have a little push up. Security would be easier if APD could come to one location (reducing exponentially the amt. of manpower needed). And centralizing this type of center would bring resources much more easily to them, rather than have to scatter out. With maybe 3-4K of people in question it's a lot, but it's finite. This is what I would propose, even through what I'm sure would be a lot of problems. But it's a start. And for the amount of $ already wasted on this by our Idiot 8 or 9 (giving credit to a few councilmembers like Tovo who seems to have her head on relatively straight), it seems like a better idea at least to me. The End.
  18. I thought 1" is like 4" in in super-senior years.
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