What's on your mind today?

[Icarus]

What a coincidence!  My own dear wife is a motor mouth at times.  Those times sometimes coincide with certain times when I want to hear the sound of silence. I have a defense mechanism that I use when appropriate.....I surreptitiously shut off my hearing aids.

[Dark Lightning]

My wife expects replies. Free-association about her needle and the thread and how she had selected it out of the other colors and was using it on this needlepoint project and her search for all the correct colors of thread and how the pieces she's sewing on weren't quite right and she had to cut out more pieces of different colors and then cut them differently so that the project had a more three-dimensional look...

[hermes2015]

My wife expects replies. Free-association about her needle and the thread and how she had selected it out of the other colors and was using it on this needlepoint project and her search for all the correct colors of thread and how the pieces she's sewing on weren't quite right and she had to cut out more pieces of different colors and then cut them differently so that the project had a more three-dimensional look...

That sounds fascinating to me. But then I am the queer one here.

[Tank]

My wife expects replies. Free-association about her needle and the thread and how she had selected it out of the other colors and was using it on this needlepoint project and her search for all the correct colors of thread and how the pieces she's sewing on weren't quite right and she had to cut out more pieces of different colors and then cut them differently so that the project had a more three-dimensional look...

[The Magic Pudding..]

Wednesday is to be a hot 34C day then some days of a mere 20C and rain.
It has been very dry, so a good time to clean the gutters.
To bed early, no beer, listen to Melvyn talking about Midsummer's Night Dream to get to sleep a couple of times.
Awake at 6am, dither for a bit but on the roof by 7.
It's a bit wet and slippery.
Stupid blower battery is flat, it was supposed to be charged.
Put blower down and it starts to slide, it'll stop, it didn't, it accelerated.
I'll look at it later.
Broom, I've got my fine new bargain broom with me.
Hmm, works well, bit wobbly.
Remove something and insert screw.
What screw?  I don't have a screw.
Does OK for a while but some leaves are sticky bastards.
Off damned leaf, off I say
and the broom head falls off the roof.
Off the roof, affix a screw, one battery flat, one OK, scrounge another.
Back to the ROOF!
Too slippery to walk around the edge blowing.
Sitting crossed legged and shuffling along is OK, except for one particularly slippery bit that I did last.
Yay!  The gutters are cleared, the roof swept/blown and I'm not dead! 

[Dark Lightning]

My wife expects replies. Free-association about her needle and the thread and how she had selected it out of the other colors and was using it on this needlepoint project and her search for all the correct colors of thread and how the pieces she's sewing on weren't quite right and she had to cut out more pieces of different colors and then cut them differently so that the project had a more three-dimensional look...

That sounds fascinating to me. But then I am the queer one here.

I'll point out that this quote is but a minute or so of an hour(s) long monolog about her sewing project...however long it may take one to utter those words.

[Dark Lightning]

Wednesday is to be a hot 34C day then some days of a mere 20C and rain.
It has been very dry, so a good time to clean the gutters.
To bed early, no beer, listen to Melvyn talking about Midsummer's Night Dream to get to sleep a couple of times.
Awake at 6am, dither for a bit but on the roof by 7.
It's a bit wet and slippery.
Stupid blower battery is flat, it was supposed to be charged.
Put blower down and it starts to slide, it'll stop, it didn't, it accelerated.
I'll look at it later.
Broom, I've got my fine new bargain broom with me.
Hmm, works well, bit wobbly.
Remove something and insert screw.
What screw?  I don't have a screw.
Does OK for a while but some leaves are sticky bastards.
Off damned leaf, off I say
and the broom head falls off the roof.
Off the roof, affix a screw, one battery flat, one OK, scrounge another.
Back to the ROOF!
Too slippery to walk around the edge blowing.
Sitting crossed legged and shuffling along is OK, except for one particularly slippery bit that I did last.
Yay!  The gutters are cleared, the roof swept/blown and I'm not dead! 

I know this feeling well. I have an attachment for the hose which is long enough to put in the gutter, and has a crook in it. Just hold it in the gutter and run the water in. If the leaves are really bad, I have to start close to the downspout and rinse the gutter in stages. I see where there are "covers"- basically expanded metal- that will keep the leaves out. But in our dry climate, which is stupid windy, the gutters can actually accumulate a fine silt which doesn't readily rinse out when the heavy rains come.

[Dark Lightning]

After the above posts, I have a gripe. Our neighbor who is afflicted with Parkinson's had a fall a few weeks ago. He's still in a care facility (and may eventually die there).   Anyway, he had a water leak which caused considerable damage. A life-long friend of his who has power of attorney has been handling his affairs. According to this friend, the construction company making the repairs took advantage of him to the tune of about $7k.    I feel like calling our attorneys and asking what a potential remedy might be. They probably won't be much help, as they aren't his attorneys. It chaps my hide to see where people take advantage of the elderly and rip them off. When he dies, I don't know where his "fortune" goes, as he is a life-long bachelor. It's going to be tough to recover the stolen money, in any case. I know the names of the contractors involved. The least I can do is pound them into paste on YELP, I guess. 

[Tank]

There may be some recourse in the form of fraud. The contractor may also by susceptible to social media pressure. There is nothing stopping you contacting the contractor and asking them if a 'story I have heard about your company' is true. It will flag up to them that they are not invulnerable. Make them aware that you are aware and then tell your friends to do the same.
 

[Asmodean]

A good, suitably-scathing review on a platform they monitor can do the job of several billable attorney hours for "nothing."

I recommend keeping it on point and avoiding making your biases too obvious. Steer away from anything that would make you sound bitter or vindictive or from telling people what to do (Such as, "This is a total scam! NEVER do business with them!") make a factual review, give a score based on those facts and, if they monitor the platform, they may react.

I have gotten somewhere this way with a car mechanic and a fiber supplier (Though it was a brand workshop and a major telecom actor, so their respective "corporate" called me to address my concerns)

[Dark Lightning]

Thanks, guys. I'll chat with the friend before I do anything.

[The Magic Pudding..]

NASA Can't open the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample 

Have they consulted Ginormica?

[billy rubin]

how many nasa scientists does it take to open an asteroid canister?

one more than they have

[Dark Lightning]

Got a link, Pud? I'm not seeing reports of problems.

[Recusant]

Hat-tip to The Magic Pudding..

I hope you don't mind too much me sticking my oar in. 




In this instance, the headline editor has failed to completely misstate the facts. 

The most recent blog post for the mission says that two of the fasteners on the main sample container are proving reluctant. There is a glovebox (sealed to keep the sample uncontaminated by Earth atmosphere) in which all of the work is being done, and the "current tools approved for use in the OSIRIS-REx glovebox" have proven insufficient so far.

There's a Space.com article, though I think it mostly just restates what's in the NASA blog:

"NASA can't open its OSIRIS-REx asteroid capsule yet, but the outside alone holds more than enough samples" | Space.com