Smokin

True, but insurance companies can't control federal, state, and city lands which are grossly mismanaged making them not just fire prone, but a ticking time bomb. Every time I walk through the forest near my house I marvel that the big one hasn't hit yet. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for forest management nation-wide. Also, I read that California prohibited insurance companies from dropping policies in areas that were affected by the fire (obviously only affecting future renewals not current policies), which might decrease their leverage for change. How anyone can think it is ok for the government to force commerce that was declined for non-discriminatory and purely reasonable business reasons is absurd. A second order effect of that might be the increase of privatization of fire fighting, which would be a rather funny thing to happen in CA. The rich people and their insurance policies already do it so it might start cropping up in the upper middle class. Net result would be the average families continue to get screwed even worse, which is par for the course in liberal states.

WSJ has a good article this morning talking about exactly the infrastructure stuff you mentioned. A utility company was widening a fire road and fire-proofing the electrical lines. They got a $2M fine and a cease and desist order in addition to the rehabilitation they were forced to do because they damaged some plants.

Sealed warrants, along with the ATF, are bull. The only possible justifications are organized crime and terrorism where any information can be used by the bad guys to stop the bleeding. But, even then it is borderline un-American like civil forfeiture and the like. I recant my defense of Liberty Safes.

Saw a picture of houses that were burned right next to the beach. Does no one have a water pump? I'm betting salt water puts out fires as well as fresh, just tough on the pump. The FEMA thing is a bit tough. On one hand, clearly this is a disaster and it is at least partially caused by government mismanagement and poor preparation. On the other hand, why am I paying to rebuild someone's house that burned down? If my house and only my house burned to the ground, would FEMA show up and give me a check? Don't think so. Why is it any different because it is a bunch of houses? FEMA should absolutely show up and hand out food, water, help with temp shelters, etc, but I don't agree with handing out money or the Federal govt handing out money.

ATF is setting itself up to be next after Dept of non-Education for cost savings under the next administration.

The other thing to consider is basically fireproofing the closet or whatever your safe is in. I originally considered adding three layers of fire rated drywall (which is basically what gives the safe a fire rating) on all the sides, which might allow the contents to survive a real fire. My current plan is to basically line a room in the basement with fire drywall and then cinder blocks. Big problem to solve is how to protect the ceiling... I actually did do the safe within a safe, put a "fireproof" document safe inside the "fireproof" gun safe thinking that the documents might actually survive. Until I didn't have space in the gun safe. Did the feds have a warrant for the Liberty event? While I'm against a backdoor code even existing for something like a gun safe, if they had a warrant then they were going to get into the safe one way or another. Just saved some time, money, and destroying the safe.

Impressive. Looks like it said 45 on the door as it opened, so probably 45 min at 1200. Also impressive as it's my understanding that most fire rated gun safes like that won't really survive a house fire. The temp and duration of the rating is usually well under what most stick built houses will burn. I'm getting ready to build a fire-proof walk in gun safe room and was going to sell my safe, but am now thinking of putting it in the corner as a double protection.

Disclaimer, I'm not a computer nerd, so I'm sure many people here will be able to amplify/correct this: Yes, https encrypts your data between your browser and the server. Which is why when I'm at home, I don't use the VPN. However, when you're on a network you don't trust, which should basically be any that isn't yours, there is a pretty high amount of traffic and peripheral information that is visible to anyone that knows how to look for it. Think of the https as you sending a message in code over the radio with both the sender and the recipient named in the clear. Anyone with a radio can hear that you are talking to site X, W, and Z. The VPN takes that same coded message, but now encrypts it a second time and all anyone can see is that you're sending data to site Y. The VPN (site Y) in turn talks to X,W, and Z, but the person monitoring the network can't see that. Its just another layer of protection and protecting information that isn't protected with https.

https://www.pcmag.com/news/the-feds-have-some-advice-for-highly-targeted-individuals-dont-use-a-vpn I don't think that you and I are currently the people being targeted. The concern is the VPN itself gets hacked and then everything you're sending gets intercepted when you think it is GTG. Not a problem for us, at least not for a little while yet. Also, may be just the free or lower end VPNs, so could be defeated/mitigated by using a quality subscription. Kinda like a home break in or mugging, random people like us just need to make it difficult enough for a bad actor to chose another target. A national politician or celebrity needs a totally different level of protection. I strongly agree with using a VPN for the things you said and I use one myself 100% of the time I'm not on my home internet. Will be interesting to see if that holds true in the long run. I think it will for the higher end subscription ones like Nord. When traveling, I think you'd be borderline crazy to not use a VPN for a hotel wifi. And you would think that just using cell data is fine, until someone makes a fake cell tower and intercepts data that way, which is happening.

On the parts website to make sure it matches. Lesson learned, skip the VIN on any parts search. My guess is Carfax or someone like them buys the data from the parts website to increase their own database, so when you search for a new bumper, the assumption is there was an accident that necessitated a new bumper. A poor assumption as it could have been bad factory paint, or maybe I just wanted a new bumper. But by the time I realized it, it was too late to challenge the data, assuming there even is a way to challenge the data. VPN wouldn't help with that as no one relevant to this has access to any of my internet data (at least that we know of....). I use a VPN anytime I'm not at home, to include my phone. There was an interesting recommendation from some cyber think tank recommending high profile individuals to actually not use VPNs so obviously they're not a magic bullet. Luckily I'm pretty much the opposite of high profile.

Not just insurance companies. Gotta watch out anytime you put a VIN in ANY system. Had a driving lesson for my kid go badly and hit a tree going slow enough that the bumper broke, but that was it. Found a new bumper online and replaced it myself. A few years later, went to sell and Carfax showed it as an accident. Crazy and a bit scary that they could pull info on something like that. It was at our house, so no one besides my family and my google search/credit cards knew anything happened but Carfax found it.

I think it is hilarious that zero of the top 4 seed teams won a single game during the playoffs. Almost as funny as zero legacy SEC teams making the semi-finals. I'm waiting for the argument that the Georgia - ND results were only because of the delay and that the three loss Georgia is really better than ND or Ohio State, so they should continue on in the semis and bump out one of those teams because.... SEC.

That's assuming that it was an intended landing. No gear and no flaps would be a very strange intended landing. Might have been a go around with too fast of a flap retraction that settled back down to the runway. Or, if it was a bird strike that caused problems for both engines. Pilots that hadn't practiced engine out landings since they flew a -172 probably are not going nail the landing.

I wouldn't worry about Korean Air, that's the Korean equivalent of a legacy compared to the Jeju, which is the Korean equivalent of Spirit. I'm sure the investigation will have some pilot error to fault, but the biggest issue seems to be the concrete barrier in the infield. Virtually zero chance of an international upgrade. Even guys that spend tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on an airline in a year only get a couple passes a year to upgrade international.

That may explain the 3x Zyns, but hardly covers the other items BQzip's mom put there...

Talked with a JAG that absolutely hated prosecuting drug test results. Basically said the best you can hope for is for the individual to be discharged since you can never prove intent unless they confess. And that's assuming that everyone in the custody chain and the lab did their job and paperwork correctly.

Flight time is also critical. When I was an Lt in the fighter squadron, we laughed when we were briefed that the North Korean pilots were flying 80-100 hours a year. "How can they do anything besides takeoff and land?" Fast forward 17 years and I found myself averaging 80-100 hours a year my last couple years in the AF and it wasn't because I was avoiding flying. There just were not enough sorties to give experienced guys much more than the vastly reduced RAP numbers. Extra flights above RAP were prioritized (properly) to the young guys. In the second half of my career I saw guys that were actively spinning up for WIC make airmanship mistakes/poor decisions that I'm sure wouldn't have been made by a similar aged dude 15 years earlier. The 2007 average flight lead probably had more sorties than the 2022 line IP. You can't replace time in the air.

Russia was very quick to provide the bird strike explanation, which instantly makes me question it. The video of the plane hitting the ground in that nose low and slow right roll makes it look like either the pilots were not capable of controlling the airplane, meaning both pilots were incapacitated or the plane was not responding to control inputs. That would be one heck of a bird strike to cause that.

The House just passed the bill with more than the 2/3rd vote, so if there is a shutdown, then it is 100% on the Dems. They pulled the debt ceiling increase/removal, which was the worst part. Still spending way too much, but only the bill is 10% of the original length, which is progress. I would still rather have seen the shutdown and a massive spending cut as the requirement to open the government back up. We're spending money we don't have like a SNACKO who put everything on black in Vegas and is now borrowing money trying to double up to catch up.

It also could go the other way. The silencer he used was apparently 3D printed. If I can buy a 3D printer and make a gun and a silencer, why regulate them at all? Clearly the laws regulating silencers were made completely irrelevant by a printer anyone can buy on Amazon.

It would be a good way to test our physical and political capability to respond.

I didn't say anything about "feelings", so strange to bring it up and even stranger to put it in quotes as if I said it. Thoughts and feelings are very different and far too many people confuse the two. I don't put any trust in rumors, especially rumors from DC from 'someone closer to the issue' (apparently I only get to "feel", while they get to "think"). Assuming the rumors are true, which is a monumental assumption, needing to learn and people not liking her are no problem. Likeability is not a qualification for a cabinet position. Needing to learn sounds like an insider critique of someone that isn't an insider. Washington, and thus our country, would be better off with fewer insiders. Unprepared is a different matter, but I think (not feel) that it would be far easier to walk in prepared for a meeting with the President on a specific subject than to walk into a firing squad that can ask anything they want.

Based on the fact that she was a Democrat and is now a Republican, she is likely fairly centrist unless she had a massive swing in her beliefs or is a slimy politician (redundant?) that saw an advantage by switching sides and went full tilt right. Saying that she is a D wearing R's clothing is not very enlightening considering how far many Rs (like Trump) are from historical core conservative principles. I'm starting to think that all it takes to be an R in Washington these days is to adopt the D's platform from 10 years ago.

Leupold's Deltapoint Micro looks awesome, but currently only available for Glock and SW M&P. Only $250 with their military discount. I really hope they expand the line to Springfields. Most of the additional bulk for the sight is at the back of the slide rather than on top.

Interesting... everyone knows that blue tape means blanks meant to confuse the enemy