MaxRedline

One Born Every Minute

This device magnifies your phone to a mini TV size.

Yes, well - ₹ 219.00 for a Fresnel screen seems a bit steep. You can make your own for far less cash.

Scams are ubiquitous these days, and Amazon peddles them too.

It can be a nasty world out there.

 

We Only Have 12 Years!

WORLD—Climate experts have solemnly warned that we only have twelve years left until they change the dates on global warming again.

“If we don’t take action, then in 12 years we will have to explain why the world hasn’t ended and come up with a new number,” one UN scientist warned. “This is a very serious threat, and we urge everyone to hand control of the economy to the government immediately before we have no more time left to change the timeline again.”

I've been watching this moving target for 40 years or so and it's always just out of reach. It's a lot like the slot machines at a casino – the red 7’s are only off by one line, but one more pull and they will fall into place.

In the 1970s, they tried to scare you to death over "global cooling". When that failed, they switched it to "global warming". That didn't exactly take off, either. So today they're going with climate change. Anything to keep the grant money flowing.

They'll have to revert to global warming or global cooling in the coming years.

 

 

 

Creeping Into The Crib

Not content with harvesting tons of data about you, Google is now teaming up with a diaper manufacturer to harvest data on your newborn:

Pampers has announced that it will be releasing a new Lumi smart diaper which was created in collaboration with Logitech and Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences) – a research company devoted to the study of life sciences which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet. The smart diaper can be used to start tracking babies’ personal information shortly after they’re born and the companies behind Lumi say that aggregate data collected by the diaper will be used to “improve the product”.

Yep, that's always the explanation - "product improvement". Hey, wouldn't a "smart diaper" be great? I don't have a "smart" thermostat or any of the other stuff they keep pushing. In the words of Aretha: Thank you, I'll do it myself".

The Lumi smart diaper will be released later this year.

Such comfort!

Orwell almost called it right - except that Big Brother is corporate.

 

 

Lime & Bird Are Mad

First came the scooter floods, now comes the repo man:

The multibillion-dollar dockless scooter industry is going after a repossessor and a bike shop owner who have 10,000 scooters languishing in a tow yard. John Heinkel, a professional repo man with a full head of graying hair and a small and scrappy build, hoists a Lime scooter on its back wheel, setting off the alarm underneath the scooter’s brake.

Dan Borelli, his business partner, says that towing scooters is no different than writing parking tickets. “We aren’t just grabbing scooters off the street and throwing them in a yard,” Borelli insists. “We write a parking ticket for every single one we have.”

Together, the two men run an operation called ScootScoop. They say that they have impounded thousands of dockless e-scooters around San Diego on behalf of business owners and landlords who are fed up with the deluge of dockless two-wheelers.

First came the lawsuits. Heinkel and Borelli are accused in a lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in late March of improperly impounding Bird’s scooters and then ransoming them back to the $2 billion company. Lime filed a nearly identical suit soon after.

But it's not as though these guys just impound scooters willy-nilly; they're hired by business owners to keep entrances and driveways clear - because many of the scooter riders simply don't care where they leave the rigs when they're done with their rides. In that sense, there's very little difference between scooter impoundment and the local 7-11, where signs are posted warning that vehicles are subject to towing. After all, parking there is for customers only.

As one hotel manager said in reference to the scooter riders: “It’s the people,” he says. “They don’t care. I mean, they just don’t care where they leave them.”

Not far away, a restaurant owner in Mission Beach tells me that she hired ScootScoop after riders started leaving scooters in front of a wheelchair lift that she built for her disabled customers, blocking access. And a federal lawsuit that a disability rights group filed against Bird, Lime, Razor, and the City of San Diego in January says that scooters are being left in front of wheelchair ramps, curbs, and crosswalks. The plaintiffs in the lawsuit say the scooters are a menace.

It's nice to see that some actions are being taken to address these issues. But more scooters are on the way:

Spin, the dockless scooter company acquired by Ford Motor Company last year, announced on Thursday that it will deploy 15,000 scooters in eight cities. Starting in August, Spin plans to deploy thousands of new scooters on the streets of Portland; Los Angeles; Denver; Washington, DC; Kansas City; Memphis; and Minneapolis, with more cities to follow.

I can hardly wait - throwing them into the Willamette River seems to have become sort of a Portland pastime. Earlier this month, 60 of them were removed from the river over a two-day operation.

 

Ted Vs. Ted

In a new letter, the prominent Texas Republican seeks a federal racketeering investigation into Portland's anti-fascist movement — and Mayor Ted Wheeler's "apparent sympathy" to the black-cloaked cadre.

"You are surely aware that Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler has staunchly refused to deploy and support local law enforcement to restore order and prevent Antifa robberies and armed assaults," Cruz wrote in a Tuesday, July 23 letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

"It is no mystery why," the three-page letter continues. "Antifa's violence is aimed to silence dissent from authoritarian left-wing views. Mayor Wheeler apparently agrees with those views."

It's about time that Portland's do-nothing mayor caught some heat over the ongoing nonsense that he facilitates. Naturally, Wheeler's not talking; he lost the earlier round back in June when he squabbled with Cruz on Twitter after the June 29 brawl drew national attention, denying that he ordered police to stand down at the protest and saying the investigation money could be better spent on "infrastructure, affordable housing [or] mental health services."

That's Wheeler for you: forget law enforcement; that kind of money could be better spent on (insert latest frou-frou here).

And the denial notwithstanding, he did order the cops to stand down - which is largely why PPD has some 124 vacancies now.

 

Oregon Drivers Beware

Portland - and Oregon's so-called "leaders" hate you. We're not talking mere disagreement here; they really hate you.

The City Council approved the appointment of an advisory group to help the Portland Bureau of Transportation develop a plan to charge motorists to drive on some streets and bridges to reduce congestion and greenhouse gas emissions on Wednesday, July 10.

Why have a "Bureau of Transportation" if they need an "advisory group" of car-haters? The purpose of the "advisory group" is supposedly to discourage driving. But the real purpose is to add more taxes in order to force modification of your behavior to conform to what these really fart smellers have decided must be done in order to Save The Planet™. The plan is to simply raid your wallet even more, rather than to achieve anything that might even remotely impact the global climates. But it makes them feel righteous, which is all that matters.

Of course, the fleets of government vehicles would be exempt. What a surprise!

As for the state itself:

State government is once again supplying just what residents have come to expect from state programs devised to make Oregon green: failure.

Might be time for government (Democratics) to just leave people alone, for a change.

 

More Enabling

PORTLAND, Ore — Two trucks, sidled with generators and water tanks, will start popping up in various locations around the Portland metro area by early next week. They’re big, blue, and they're bringing access to the bare necessities: laundry and shower facilities for the area’s homeless population.

The laundry truck comes with four washing machines and four dryers, along with two barber chairs and a dog washing sink.

If we could get people to quit providing "services" to the parasites, we'd have far fewer of them.

As it is, Portland has become a Mecca for parasites from all over the country.

Which reminds me: I need to buy more flea and tick spray.

 

We Have To Pay over $70 A Month - And the Rate Just Went Up

And now we know why:

The city of Hillsboro is partnering with Metro, the regional government, on a pilot project aimed at cleaning up the city's streets. Hillsboro and Metro have joined forces on a new trash-collection program that provides free garbage pickup for homeless people in the Hillsboro area.

No responsibilities; more "free stuff". And some people wonder why the bums keep gravitating to the areas around here....

They don't mention whether or not used needles can be included with the "free" garbage pickups.

 

Another Toothless Bill

The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that aims to combat the illegal robocalls torturing Americans .

Though the measure wouldn’t eliminate all unwanted calls, it would give regulators more tools to go after scammers. It would also push phone companies to adopt new technology to combat fake phone numbers popping up on caller ID.

Nothing changes.

There may be a brief hiccup or two, but your phone will be ringing constantly, just like always.

 

PetSmart V. PETA

Pet superstore PetSmart has filed a lawsuit against PETA, claiming a former employee who illegally filmed internal operations was being paid by and acting with orders from the animal-rights group that aims to fully eradicate pet ownership. PetSmart had already filed a lawsuit against the employee, Jenna Jordan, for lying on her job application and proceeding to transmit secretly recorded audio and video to PETA. The newly filed lawsuit, however, names both Jordan and PETA as the defendants.

The lawsuit alleges that Jordan was on the receiving end of both "funding and logistical support" from PETA while she was employed by PetSmart. It says Jordan lied on her job application by omitting her employment with PETA, as well as the fact that she had previously been fired by a zoo for secretly collecting information on its operations for PETA.

PeTA hates zoos, wildlife parks, dog owners, cat owners, dairy farmers, and many more.

It must be awful to have no life.