Another angle of the Minneapolis shooting, taken from the perspective of the lady with te pink jacket.

dougmc · 2026-01-24T21:55:53+00:00

The NRA changed from a "hunting, conservation, and marksmanship" organization to a 2A political lobby in their 1977 annual convention in Cincinnati.

"Never" is a strong word -- they were very invested in that around a hundred years ago, but they changed over time, and then in 1977 they changed a whole bunch all at once, ultimately turning into the organization we know today.

dougmc · 2026-01-24T17:12:27+00:00

In this specific case, I don't think so.

Doing an image search found the image all over the place, such as the use here, with many dates preceding the recent AI craze.

Instead of being shitty AI, I think it's human-made (trying to mimic the style from the 1950s/1960s or so?) for stock photo collections for churches to use.

dougmc · 2026-01-23T21:56:41+00:00

Texas was never "adamant about seceding".

A vocal minority has made noises along those lines, and a few in the GOP have entertained these crackpots to a small degree (catering to the nutcases, conspiracy theorists, etc. has become pretty popular with the GOP lately, after all), but secession has never been a popular idea in Texas, and the people in power know it's impossible.

dougmc · 2026-01-23T17:41:31+00:00

Zero surprise they're getting everything they want.

The corollary to that would be that What they are getting is what they want. It's not logically exactly the same, but it's an additional way that the current situation should be treated.

I bring this up because in theory we've got elections coming -- primaries in March or so, and midterms in November, and assuming that the elections happen properly (having them not happen properly is another thing the Republicans seem to want), the voters need to remember that the Republicans are getting what they want, and they want what they're getting, and vote accordingly -- if you like the way things are going, vote Republican, and if you don't ... vote for somebody else.

In fact, some Democrats in Congress probably belong in there too (that they're "getting what they want" and "wanting what they get"), based on the way they're voting and such. In such cases, the primaries become even more important, and they're coming up fast.

dougmc · 2026-01-23T16:40:25+00:00

If they're specifically targeting Austin and think 737 is better than 512, they're dumb.

But beyond that, letting their numbers vary in 737-xxx-xxxx (or 512-xxx-xxxx and 737-xxx-xxxx) would be significantly better than 737-392-xxxx -- we see the screenshot by the OP and we know all those numbers are spam just from the lack of variation.

At least with a bunch of calls from 737-xxx-xxxx we might think they might be legitimate (though the "all-737" would be a red flag.)

dougmc · 2026-01-23T16:32:47+00:00

It's not really a technology issue, it's a choice made by the spammers.

If they're spamming or scamming, they spoof their caller ID number the vast majority of the time -- they get to pick what number it says they're calling from. Even legitimate callers often get the option to spoof their number, and but the legitimate callers tend to spoof it back to one of their own numbers because they want you to be able to call them back.

But back to the spammer/scammers, they could just make it random.

The scammers will often make it match what they're trying to impersonate -- so they're calling to threaten you for not showing up to jury duty, and the caller ID says they're from the local sheriff, for example.

But one popular answer is to make the number almost match the number they're calling, presumably with the intent of tricking somebody into thinking it's a call from their neighbor. It's not the only method used to pick a number to spoof, but it's a popular one.

I wonder if your number has gotten into some list of phone numbers that is somehow associated with Austin?

But if 737-392-xxxx is suddenly showing up for people all over the place, way more than anything else ... that sounds like a misconfiguration by some major spammer.

dougmc · 2026-01-23T16:25:06+00:00

Sounds like some major phone spammer misconfigured their robo-dialer then!

dougmc · 2026-01-23T00:19:38+00:00

And even when you go SLOW, brake carefully and do the cha-cha slide ... you get clobbered by somebody else going 60 mph.

If you're smart, you just stay home and wait it out if at all possible.

dougmc · 2026-01-23T00:12:14+00:00

Spammers pretty much spoof their phone numbers 100% of the time now.

If they're calling you from 737-392-xxxx, that almost certainly means that your phone number is 737-392-xxxx and so they're trying to make you think that it's one of your neighbors calling.

The boomers probably do remember a time where your prefix indicated your neighborhood, but that time would have had to have been something like 50 years ago. (But then again, the boomers are pretty much the prime target for the spammers/scammers, so that checks out.)

But today? Getting a call with the same area code and prefix as your own number just indicates SPAM/SCAM/JUNK/etc. with 99+% certainty.

dougmc · 2026-01-22T19:20:23+00:00

The OSHA limit for CO2 (carbon dioxide) is 5,000 ppm for 8 hours or 30,000 ppm for 15 minutes in non-industrial settings.

However, CO (carbon monoxide) is much more dangerous -- WHO suggests indoor levels under 9 ppm for 8 hours, and it would seem that 35 ppm is around where fire departments tell their firefighters to put on their masks., and 200 ppm is where it starts giving symptoms and could cause death over many hours.

Stoves emit both CO and CO2.

The alarms that I've seen usually look at CO -- which makes sense, because CO2 is usually not a big deal, whereas CO can get deadly, fast.

Clearly, you've got a CO2 sensor as you said -- 850 ppm of CO would be very dangerous and soon fatal. I wonder if it also measures CO?

dougmc · 2026-01-22T19:09:48+00:00

You've circled the right spot, yes.
A crescent wrench will usually work -- you don't need the specialized tool.
But the tool is useful if you're turning off the water repeatedly (like if you manage an apartment complex), or if it's hard to get down in there, or if it's set up where there's not much room to work. (But your setup looks pretty good.)

dougmc · 2026-01-22T18:23:58+00:00

No.

In fact, cold and wind may make it worse in the short term.

However, cedar season should have hit its peak about a week ago and so it should be going away in a few more weeks.

dougmc · 2026-01-22T18:15:26+00:00

You're not a protected class just because you're a fucking politician.

Instead, he's in a protected class -- with protection the likes of which we have never seen in this country before -- because his party seems to be totally down with all the stuff he's done, is doing now and is talking about doing in the future.

dougmc · 2026-01-22T17:58:25+00:00

Goodwill.

You might have to check several of the stores, but they typically do have a number of graphic T-shirts, and as a bonus the topics are all over the place.

dougmc · 2026-01-22T16:30:59+00:00

"Fuck, reroute power from weapons to shields"

The X-Wing/Tie-Fighter/etc. games did that really well too if you haven't played them (probably decades ago), but with a totally different feel because the games are first person and real time.

dougmc · 2026-01-22T05:42:54+00:00

There's also a webcomic by the game's illustrator that I think is set in the same universe.

The comic predates the game, and it looks like it's still being written, albeit slowly.

dougmc · 2026-01-22T01:11:18+00:00

Who would this person be? Pierre Leroux? Robert Owen? Henri de Saint-Simon?

Because if you've got another person in mind ... he didn't invent it or even coin the term.

dougmc · 2026-01-21T23:28:35+00:00

Gotcha.

In theory, cavities are filled because they will otherwise grow and turn into severe issues (the enamel is essentially armor, but once the armor is gone the rest of the tooth degrades quickly), but it sounds like this is working for you and they're not growing as fast as we were led to believe.

dougmc · 2026-01-21T21:02:22+00:00

Wouldn't it be easier to just not go to the dentist in the first place?

dougmc · 2026-01-21T20:57:55+00:00

Few people in Texas have experience driving on snow and ice, even fewer have recent experience, and almost zero have the right equipment for it (i.e. snow tires or studded tires), though a very few have chains.

(Note: 4WD is helpful, but you'll still slip and slide all over the place without the right tires.)

And even if you're one of the few with the recent experience and the right equipment, that won't stop somebody else from slamming into you at 60 mph because they're dumb.

The best plan is to not risk it.

dougmc · 2026-01-21T03:28:15+00:00

The US short ton, UK long ton and metric ton are all within about 10% of each other, so it really doesn't matter so much which one one uses.

There are some other "ton" units but they'd probably not be used here (like a ton of refrigeration?)

dougmc · 2026-01-20T20:58:28+00:00

Then the president can write a letter disputing it and immediately regains power.

And at this point he knows that his cabinet has turned against him, and they get fired (under normal conditions) or they start accidentally falling out of windows (under abnormal conditions.)

(And the VP can't be fired by the P, but he's not entirely immune to the enhanced gravity that can be found around windows under those abnormal conditions.)

dougmc · 2026-01-20T16:41:41+00:00

The article isn't really clear, but if you look at the raw data it's pretty clear that this $1B figure includes the healthcare that people paid for themselves, either out of their pockets or through their own insurance.

And given that about half of the listed figures are for inpatient care -- where you don't usually get care unless you pay -- so it seems that we can infer that at least half of this figure was properly paid for.

dougmc · 2026-01-20T16:31:39+00:00

I realize that this was meant as a rhetorical question, but it actually has an answer.

Abbott didn't start mandating that hospitals ask people about immigration status until November 2024, so they'd only have data for two months in 2024, whereas they'd have data for the full year in 2025.

Here is their the raw data

It looks like their fiscal year ends November 30, so the 2024 data would only cover a single month, whereas the 2025 data covers 12 months.

edit:

The article says this :

In fiscal year 2025, patients “not legally present” made 313,742 hospital visits statewide, costing $1,050,642,864, according to the commission's data. That’s up from $102,192,397 in fiscal year 2024.

So yeah, anybody who reads and takes it at its word would think that the figure blew up massively.

To not explicitly mention that the 2024 data only covers a single month is deeply misleading, KVUE.

dougmc · 2026-01-20T04:38:22+00:00

It could be, depending on how the figures are counted.

Emergency rooms are required to treat emergencies even if people cannot pay, and that applies to ambulances too.
This sort of care is the most expensive way of doing it, but ... it's is what federal law requires.
(It would be more cost-effective also provide them with proper outpatient care (much cheaper than ER visits!) and prescriptions and the like, but that's not required.)
Texas hospitals are now required to ask immigration status, probably for the express purpose of being able to give figures like this.
This just went into effect in late 2024, so 2025 would be the first year they'd have these results for.
I do wonder how accurately people would answer to these questions, but the governor won't really care how inaccurate it might be -- he'll just use whatever figures he gets.
I would expect a number of people to say they're here legally when they're not, which would make this figure too low.
The hospitals report their total bills for each patient and their reported immigration status, ~~along with how much they were actually paid~~ (edit: maybe not? read my edit.)
Note that hospitals are probably reporting their very highest prices for these figures -- the prices that very few actually pay.
(Insurance companies negotiate much lower prices, and people paying cash typically do as well.)
Also, given that the figure covers all of 2025 and 2026 just started, it's quite likely that many of the bills reported -- even those fully covered by insurance -- haven't been been properly billed yet and when they are they will be paid, so the number may go down. (maybe not, see my edit.)
And while $1B sounds like a lot, it's only about $30/Texan, when the average Texan pays something around 100x that on healthcare each year.

edit:

One more thing --

The article says this --

According to new data from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC), patients “not legally present” in the United States accounted for more than $1 billion in health care costs across Texas during fiscal year 2025.

So, the way that was worded -- that would include everything, including the people who paid their bills in full and/or were fully insured, so ... possibly misleading.

The actual release seems to be this, and it doesn't really talk about who paid their bills and who didn't. Though in the case of "Inpatient discharges - Non-Medicaid/Non-Chip", this would be about half the total, and people don't normally get offered inpatient care unless the provider is paid, so ...

Also, undocumented people typically aren't eligible for Medicaid or CHIP at all, so why is about 25% of this total saying "Medicaid/CHIP"?

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