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[LFC]

After Microsoft got skewered for their Y2K22 bug we have this from Honda that also sounds like they made the rookie error of not understanding the variable type they selected.

As a number of Honda and Acura owners have noted on these forums, their clocks read correctly until what appeared to have been the first time update of 2022. Then, their navigation systems turned into time machines, leaving them behind as they went back to 2002.

I asked Honda about the cause of the issue and received this back:

American Honda is aware of a potential concern related to the clock display on certain older Acura and Honda models equipped with navigation systems. We are currently investigating this issue to determine possible countermeasures and have no additional details to share at this time.

This.

Drive Accord forum user Jacalar went into the navigation system’s diagnostic menu on Sunday and discovered that the GPS date was set to May 19, 2002, or exactly 1024 weeks in the past.

Global Positioning Systems measure time from an epoch, or a specific starting point used to calculate time. The date is broadcasted including a number representing the week, coded in 10 binary digits. These digits count from 0 to 1023 then roll over on week 1024. GPS weeks first started on January 6, 1980 before first zeroing out on midnight August 21, 1999. It happened again April 6, 2019. The next happens in 2038.
[snip]
This isn’t the first time that Honda and Acura owners have experienced this issue. On August 16, 2017, Hondas and Acuras with navigation systems from model years 1999 through 2004 had their clocks reset to 0:00 and their calendars roll back to January 1, 1998. It then happened again on January 1, 2021 to many owners. In all cases, the time lost adds up to 1024 weeks.

After the experiences my company had with contractors from India, who wrote incredibly bad code which showed a poor grasp of even the basics of software development, I always wonder how many of these really awful and avoidable errors come from a third party a company hired for cheap. I'm wondering the same right now for my repeatedly failing and poorly implemented control panel in my Subaru.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 6, 2022 22:06:56 GMT LFC said:

After the experiences my company had with contractors from India, who wrote incredibly bad code which showed a poor grasp of even the basics of software development, I always wonder how many of these really awful and avoidable errors come from a third party a company hired for cheap. I'm wondering the same right now for my repeatedly failing and poorly implemented control panel in my Subaru.

Going for the cheap is always going to cost more in time and money and aggravation, yet no one is willing to admit that.  Short term vision prevails.  

[andydp]

January 10:  the day dawns.  Cleaned/scraped ice (yes ice) layer from driveway last evening.  Glad I did because... we had a lake effect show shower last hour.  Snow over ice = ortho visit.  

1100 After shoveling report:  I'm so freaking glad I scraped the ice off last night !! All I had to do today was push the snow to either side and I was done.  Took a bit to get the ice off the car but warming it up helps make it easier.

Meanwhile: Schools delayed, newspaper delayed.  

Conclusion:  not going anywhere until it gets to 30 then I clean off the driveway, in anticipation of the below zero temps tomorrow morning.

Its a living.

Happy hour at 1600.

[andydp]

Winter humor:

www.facebook.com/787590151/videos/243589094575470/

A complete time waster:

www.thequarter.org/Media/VikingName.php

(I'm Hundi Shieldsmasher)

[Bact PhD]

Jan 10, 2022 16:12:08 GMT andydp said:

A complete time waster:

www.thequarter.org/Media/VikingName.php

(I'm Hundi Shieldsmasher)

LOL!

Allow me to introduce myself as Elina Shadowsbane (would actually have been Elina Bjornsdottir, but this is the 21st century!). I would know which end of a sword to hold, but that would be the extent of my Viking-ness.

[LFC]

An efficient rocket ended up extending the life of the recently launched Webb telescope by using less fuel.

There were two stunningly good pieces of news about the James Webb Space Telescope this past weekend. One was widely reported—that after an intricate, two-week process, the telescope completed its deployment without any difficulties. The next steps toward science operations are more conventional.

The other piece of news, less well-covered but still important, emerged during a news conference on Saturday. NASA's Mission Systems Engineer for the Webb telescope, Mike Menzel, said the agency had completed its analysis of how much "extra" fuel remained on board the telescope. Roughly speaking, Menzel said, Webb has enough propellant on board for 20 years of life.

This is twice the conservative pre-launch estimate for Webb's lifetime of a decade, and it largely comes down to the performance of the European Ariane 5 rocket that launched Webb on a precise trajectory on Christmas Day.

Prior to launch, the telescope was fueled with 240 liters of hydrazine fuel and dinitrogen tetroxide oxidizer. Some of this fuel was needed for course adjustments along the journey to the point in space, about 1.5 million km from Earth, where Webb will conduct science observations. The remainder will be used at Webb's final orbit around the L2 Lagrange point for station-keeping and to maintain its orbit.

So every kilogram of fuel saved on Webb's journey to the Lagrange point could be used to extend its life there. Because ten years seemed like a fairly short operational period for such an expensive and capable space telescope, NASA had already been contemplating a costly and risky robotic refueling mission. But now that should not be necessary, as Webb has at least two decades of life.

A lot of this comes down to the performance of the venerable Ariane 5 rocket. NASA and the European Space Agency reached an agreement more than a decade ago by which Europe would use its reliable Ariane 5 rocket to lift the telescope into space, and in exchange, European scientists would get time to use the telescope.

[AnBr]

From Joe Haldeman (author of The Forever War)

[goldenvalley]

Jan 16, 2022 0:09:19 GMT AnBr said:

From Joe Haldeman (author of The Forever War)

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I don't remember being taught that particular order of adjectives, but "green great dragons" just sounds wrong...unless there is species called "great dragons" that are found in different colors.

[LFC]

SpaceX's Starlink satellites are messing with astronomers.

SpaceX's Starlink Internet service will require a dense constellation of satellites to provide consistent, low-latency connectivity. The system already has over 1,500 satellites in orbit and has received approval to operate 12,000 of them. And that has astronomers worried. Although SpaceX has taken steps to reduce the impact of its hardware, there's no way to completely eliminate the tracks the satellites leave across ground-based observations.

How bad is the problem? A team of astronomers has used archival images from a survey telescope to look for Starlink tracks over the past two years. Over that time, the number of images affected rose by a factor of 35, and the researchers estimate that by the time the planned Starlink constellation is complete, pretty much every image from their hardware will have at least one track in it.

I suspect the only solution to this will be to apply photo processing software to the images to remove the satellite tracks. The trick is doing this without losing any data or adding any side effect data.

[LFC]

I ... I ... can't ... even.

If you're rich and famous, getting into romantic relationships with people has its pitfalls. Getting married, for example, can have a whole litany of financial implications, especially if you don't sign a prenuptial agreement. If you happen to have children with someone, then there's a whole mess of child support payments you're going to have to figure out. It's for this reason that an Instagram model is reportedly suing Drake.

According to various reports online, an Instagram model and Drake hit it off on the social media platform and started DM'ing one another. They eventually met up at a party and later went back to Drizzy's hotel room to spend the night. The rapper was very clear about ensuring that their encounter was a consensual one.

Drake went into the bathroom to put on a condom prior to the two getting intimate, and when they were done, the "Hotline Bling" artist then went to the bathroom to dispose of the prophylactic.

This is where things start to take a turn for the weird. The model reportedly used the bathroom after Drake and then proceeded to pour the contents of the condom into her genitals.

She immediately experienced a burning sensation and started to scream, causing Drake to run to the bathroom to see what was going on. He then told the model that he poured hot sauce from a packet into the rubber to try and kill the sperm, should the model try to get pregnant from the artist.

MTO News states that the Instagram model in question is now reportedly trying to sue Drake for "booby-trapping" the condom, and she even posted pictures of her inflamed nether regions on Twitter as proof.

First, it's important to mention that this story is more than likely a rumor. Drake hasn't commented on the "Tabasco fiasco."

[snip]

Whether or not the rumor is true, Twitter has been having a field day.

Ya' think?

[LFC]

"Accidentally?" Wait, let me rephrase that. "ACCI-F***ING-DENTALLY???!!!" Oh, yeah. And there are pictures. I didn't post them below. You're welcome.

A man and his partner’s attempt at a treatment for erectile dysfunction went disastrously wrong, according to his doctors. In a recent case report, they detail how his partner accidentally shot insulation foam into the man’s penis and bladder while a straw connected to the spray had been inserted into his urethra. Afterward, he began to urinate blood. Though doctors were able to remove the hardened foam eventually, the man will require further procedures to repair his urethra.

The unfortunate tale was published in the November issue of Urology Case Reports, though it only seems to have garnered media attention this week. According to the report, the 45-year-old man had been inserting various objects into his urethra for some time as an aid for erectile dysfunction. During one such occasion, he and his partner had decided to use a straw attached to a can of weatherproofing spray, when the partner “inadvertently pressed the button deploying the foam.” The foam then shot through his entire urethra, even filling up his bladder. The man waited three weeks before seeking medical attention at an emergency room, during which time he increasingly had difficulty urinating and urinating blood when he did.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 18, 2022 22:08:16 GMT LFC said:

"Accidentally?" Wait, let me rephrase that. "ACCI-F***ING-DENTALLY???!!!" Oh, yeah. And there are pictures. I didn't post them below. You're welcome.

A man and his partner’s attempt at a treatment for erectile dysfunction went disastrously wrong, according to his doctors. In a recent case report, they detail how his partner accidentally shot insulation foam into the man’s penis and bladder while a straw connected to the spray had been inserted into his urethra. Afterward, he began to urinate blood. Though doctors were able to remove the hardened foam eventually, the man will require further procedures to repair his urethra.

The unfortunate tale was published in the November issue of Urology Case Reports, though it only seems to have garnered media attention this week. According to the report, the 45-year-old man had been inserting various objects into his urethra for some time as an aid for erectile dysfunction. During one such occasion, he and his partner had decided to use a straw attached to a can of weatherproofing spray, when the partner “inadvertently pressed the button deploying the foam.” The foam then shot through his entire urethra, even filling up his bladder. The man waited three weeks before seeking medical attention at an emergency room, during which time he increasingly had difficulty urinating and urinating blood when he did.

Why would anyone have sex with a guy who's so cheap that he tries a DIY ED treatment?

[andydp]

Jan 19, 2022 3:02:29 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jan 18, 2022 22:08:16 GMT LFC said:

"Accidentally?" Wait, let me rephrase that. "ACCI-F***ING-DENTALLY???!!!" Oh, yeah. And there are pictures. I didn't post them below. You're welcome.

Why would anyone have sex with a guy who's so cheap that he tries a DIY ED treatment?

Have you heard the disclaimers for the medicine that will treat your "bent carrot" ? (Peyrones-disease-therapy.com) Basically, if you do something wrong it could cause PERMANENT "damage".

[LFC]

Jan 19, 2022 3:02:29 GMT goldenvalley said:

Why would anyone have sex with a guy who's so cheap that he tries a DIY ED treatment?

The partner was the one administering it so they sound like two peas in a spray foam insulated pod.

[LFC]

We covered gas and oil drilling related seismic activity in Oklahoma on the old TRS. Now Texass is becoming more unstable. Wait, I mean the land under the feet of people ruled by an already unstable state government is becoming more and more unstable.

It’s been a big winter for earthquakes in West Texas. A string of small tremors rocked Midland County on December 15 and 16, followed a week later by a magnitude-4.5 quake, the second-strongest to hit the region in the last decade. Then a magnitude-4.2 quake shook the town of Stanton and another series of small earthquakes hit nearby Reeves County.

That’s an unsettling pattern for a state that, until recently, wasn’t an earthquake state at all. Before 2008, Texans experienced just one or two perceptible earthquakes a year. But Texas now sees hundreds of yearly earthquakes of at least magnitude 2.5, the minimum humans can feel, and thousands of smaller ones.

The reason why is disconcerting: Seismologists say that one of the state’s biggest industries is upsetting a delicate balance deep underground. They blame the oil and gas business — and particularly a technique called wastewater injection — for waking up ancient fault lines, turning a historically stable region into a shaky one, and opening the door to larger earthquakes that Texas might not be ready for.

The state is finally trying to change that. In December, the Texas Railroad Commission — the state agency that regulates oil and gas operations and no longer has anything to do with railroads — suspended wastewater injection at 33 sites across a region where more than half a million people live. This is a notable turnaround for the Railroad Commission, which until recently did not acknowledge a link between oil and gas operations and earthquakes, and might be a sign of just how serious the earthquakes have gotten.

I'm sure this is just coincidence.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 21, 2022 18:44:14 GMT LFC said:

We covered gas and oil drilling related seismic activity in Oklahoma on the old TRS. Now Texass is becoming more unstable. Wait, I mean the land under the feet of people ruled by an already unstable state government is becoming more and more unstable.

Just like Arkansas and Oklahoma...

[pnwguy]

It's just proof that The Rapture is imminent. Be ready.

[andydp]

Trying to fund a weekend at Shamus':

Dead man brought to post office by friends trying to collect his pension


Two men reportedly brought a third man, who was dead, to an Irish post office with hopes of collecting that stiff’s pension payment.

Their plan, like their pal, died.

The Independent reports that the bizarre scene played out Friday morning as the pair dragged the dead man into the Carlow town facility and tried to prop him up, which immediately raised the concern of postal workers. A witness whose daughter saw the deceased being brought to the office said he “looked unwell as his feet were dragging the ground.”


www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/dead-man-brought-to-post-office-by-friends-trying-to-collect-his-pension/ar-AAT1c8l?ocid=sf

[LFC]

This article is a few years old but I had never heard of this approach to explaining consciousness.

Could Consciousness All Come Down to the Way Things Vibrate?

All things in our universe are constantly in motion, vibrating. Even objects that appear to be stationary are in fact vibrating, oscillating, resonating, at various frequencies. Resonance is a type of motion, characterized by oscillation between two states. And ultimately all matter is just vibrations of various underlying fields. As such, at every scale, all of nature vibrates.

Something interesting happens when different vibrating things come together: They will often start, after a little while, to vibrate together at the same frequency. They “sync up,” sometimes in ways that can seem mysterious. This is described as the phenomenon of spontaneous self-organization.

Mathematician Steven Strogatz provides various examples from physics, biology, chemistry and neuroscience to illustrate “sync” – his term for resonance – in his 2003 book “Sync: How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life,” including:

• When fireflies of certain species come together in large gatherings, they start flashing in sync, in ways that can still seem a little mystifying.

• Lasers are produced when photons of the same power and frequency sync up.

• The moon’s rotation is exactly synced with its orbit around the Earth such that we always see the same face.

Examining resonance leads to potentially deep insights about the nature of consciousness and about the universe more generally.

Our resonance theory builds upon the work of Fries and many others, with a broader approach that can help to explain not only human and mammalian consciousness, but also consciousness more broadly.

Based on the observed behavior of the entities that surround us, from electrons to atoms to molecules, to bacteria to mice, bats, rats, and on, we suggest that all things may be viewed as at least a little conscious. This sounds strange at first blush, but “panpsychism” – the view that all matter has some associated consciousness – is an increasingly accepted position with respect to the nature of consciousness.

[LFC]

As I read the comments from some of these "men" all I could think was, "Good GOD, you are SUCH a [expletive that is also slang for 'cat'].

Meat alternatives are suddenly everywhere, from burger joints to supermarket shelves to restaurant-grade food.

One problem? For men, in particular, there is often a visceral attachment to slaughter-derived meat. This could pose a stumbling block for an industry worth an estimated $A9.4 billion globally in 2020 and seeing significant growth, with grocery sales in Australia up by 46% in 2020.

Our new research is based on interviews with 36 men who recently went to vegan restaurants in Sydney and tried a plant-based burger. We found none of these men, who usually eat animal meat four to five times a week or more, were likely to include plant-based alternatives in their diets permanently.

But why? That’s the interesting part. Many of our interviewees made a strong link between animal meat and their own masculinity. “I don’t want to end up with my friends laughing at me over a plant-based burger,” one said. Another told us plant-based burgers were “ruining [his] reputation as a man”. A third said he felt guilty choosing plant-based burgers: “I was feeling I was sacrificing my manhood, my masculinity. It’s even worse when you are kind of forced to do it as everyone around is doing it. There is no other option.”

[goldenvalley]

Jan 28, 2022 21:47:47 GMT LFC said:

As I read the comments from some of these "men" all I could think was, "Good GOD, you are SUCH a [expletive that is also slang for 'cat'].

Meat alternatives are suddenly everywhere, from burger joints to supermarket shelves to restaurant-grade food.

One problem? For men, in particular, there is often a visceral attachment to slaughter-derived meat. This could pose a stumbling block for an industry worth an estimated $A9.4 billion globally in 2020 and seeing significant growth, with grocery sales in Australia up by 46% in 2020.

Our new research is based on interviews with 36 men who recently went to vegan restaurants in Sydney and tried a plant-based burger. We found none of these men, who usually eat animal meat four to five times a week or more, were likely to include plant-based alternatives in their diets permanently.

But why? That’s the interesting part. Many of our interviewees made a strong link between animal meat and their own masculinity. “I don’t want to end up with my friends laughing at me over a plant-based burger,” one said. Another told us plant-based burgers were “ruining [his] reputation as a man”. A third said he felt guilty choosing plant-based burgers: “I was feeling I was sacrificing my manhood, my masculinity. It’s even worse when you are kind of forced to do it as everyone around is doing it. There is no other option.”

If they were real men they'd slaughter the cow themselves and eat it raw.  Contracting it out to the cattle and butchering industry and then eating cooked meat is for wusses.    

[LFC]

Jan 28, 2022 22:57:20 GMT goldenvalley said:

If they were real men they'd slaughter the cow themselves and eat it raw.  Contracting it out to the cattle and butchering industry and then eating cooked meat is for wusses.    

As Denis Leary said...

I love to smoke. I love to smoke and I love to eat red meat. I love to eat raw fucking red meat. Nothing I like better than sucking down a hot steaming cheese burger and a butt at the same time. I love to smoke. I love to eat red meat. I'll only eat red meat that comes from cows who smoke, okay!? Special cows they grow in Virginia with voice boxes in their necks. "Moo!"

I tried eating vegetarian. I feel like a wimp going into a restaurant. "What do you want to eat sir? Broccoli?" Broccoli's a side dish, folks. Always was, always will be, okay? When they ask me what I want, I say, "What do you think I want!? This is America. I want a bowl of raw red meat right now. Forget about that. Bring me a live cow over to the table. I'll carve off what I want and ride the rest home!"

[andydp]

Feb 3:  that *&%^^& Pennsylvania RAT has said we'll get six more weeks of winter.  (Do the math) Today's forecast:

Rain, snow, ice: "trifecta forecast of joy" edition. Depending on how and where the front tracks, we may get all snow, a combo of snow and sleet, or snow and ice.

It all depends on where the storm tracks.  We're close to the 12" line or close to the 6" line.  All I can say if Jim Cantore shows up, we're in for it.

Our stand by generator is all set.  All we worry about if the power goes out, is the moron that hit the pole didn't hit the pole with cable TV on it

[goldenvalley]

Feb 3, 2022 18:50:14 GMT andydp said:

Feb 3:  that *&%^^& Pennsylvania RAT has said we'll get six more weeks of winter.  (Do the math) Today's forecast:

Rain, snow, ice: "trifecta forecast of joy" edition. Depending on how and where the front tracks, we may get all snow, a combo of snow and sleet, or snow and ice.

It all depends on where the storm tracks.  We're close to the 12" line or close to the 6" line.  All I can say if Jim Cantore shows up, we're in for it.

Our stand by generator is all set.  All we worry about if the power goes out, is the moron that hit the pole didn't hit the pole with cable TV on it

Yikes.  I heard from my old stomping grounds in Central Illinois that they got a lovely layer of freezing rain before the snow started to fall and it's pretty heavy snow.  

[LFC]

Feb 3, 2022 18:50:14 GMT andydp said:

Feb 3:  that *&%^^& Pennsylvania RAT has said we'll get six more weeks of winter.

Yeah, I always thought the prediction of 6 more weeks of winter, basically until mid-March, was pretty much a given. Of course he is just, as you say, a rat.