Tech Stuff: New Firestick 4K, TV Helpers

By William Teach October 22, 2021 – 6:00 pm

I’ve had my regular Firestick for quite some time now, but, when it comes to certain broadcasts, I’ve been using my uber-smart Hisense TV for more and more. For some programming, especially TV shows from IMDB, I get these little stutters, and then have to restart and restart because the audio gets out of sync with the video. This will also happen with stuff from Amazon, Tubi, Peacock, and others. The NHL app would be a mess, with lots of buffering, even though I have a cable running straight from the modem to the Firestick. I do not have these issues with the TV itself.

And the ESPN app, which I have for the NHL package (the NHL moved the broadcasts to ESPN from NHL.tv in the US, and it’s less expensive), while it loads quick, still buffers. Further, you can’t switch from what you are watching on the Android TV to a video input and back, because the app from the TV will close. So, if I wanted to switch back and forth between the Devils game and the Dodgers game (I did), that would not work. But, will work between the Firestick, using the ESPN app, and the cable box. So, was time for a new Firestick.

I purchased the 4K, which was on sale for $34.99, down from regular price of $49.99. I couldn’t see the value of the 4K Ultra, mostly just getting a 1.8mhz processor vs 1.7 in the 4K (other firesticks run around 1.5. My old one may have been a 1.3), for $54. Nor the Cube, which is a 1.9, but, does have 16gb of memory, vs 8 in other Firesticks, for the sale price of $95. The speed and memory is nice, but, not that nice, and I have zero need of another Alexa device, since I have a Dot in the living room. The remote is nice, as it now can turn the TV on and off, plus control the volume. The Hisense remote can also control the Firestick.

Nice thing is it has Dolby Vision, so, it attempts to upscale the video, much like a Bluray attempts to upscale regular DVDs, even when there is no DV (few programs use it). Stuff with HDR10+ will switch to that, which I’m noticing in the picture settings for the TV. The TV will do this, as well. Those are video codecs, haven’t tried something with Dolby Atmos for audio yet, there’s no more than 10, probably less, shows/movies on Amazon that have that. Netflix is reportedly about the same. I’ll leave it up to you to see what those mean.

Interestingly, I did notice that stuff that claims to be 4K is not really 4k. I picked 47 Meters Down Uncaged to check 4k on the Firestick, and was wondering why it was 1920×1080, not 3840×2160, which is the resolution for 4k. Sure, it looked better, especially with HDR10+, but, not 4k like, say, The Expanse and the 2006 The Omen, among others.

How do you tell? Many TVs will have an “info” button which will let you see. Switching between inputs will often pop up a message on a TV (for instance, you’ll notice most ESPN is in 720p, not 1080). Some, like Hisense, require you to go into the Help menu, or About, and look for something like Signal Information.

If this matters to you. It’s information I like to know, because that’s the techie in me. Heck, I sat there comparing Pirates of the Caribbean 2 between the Bluray and regular DVD. Yes, it makes a big difference.

Also, I’ve had my JVC receiver since the late 80’s, with Bose 301 speakers. Friends, my mom, also ask why I don’t replace it. Why would I? I don’t use it that much, and, it works. But, the TV, like so many, doesn’t have an RCA output. It does have a 3.5mm headphone jack, but, that sounds not good, overly bassy. Since I use HDMI ARC to run audio from TV to soundbar, I have a free Optical cable output. I ran that to a Mosou Digital converter, can convert either optical or coaxial cable to RCA. Now I get great sound from receiver, can use Bluray as a DVD player (one of the people who’ve done work on my AC in the attic to my CD player). Problem solved. I try to avoid using the stereo with horror movies with lots of screaming, at least while my neighbor is at home.

More: was playing around, and I could have sworn I was getting 4k on the Firestick, but, anyhow, went into some settings, and you are supposed to change some video settings to get 4K. It would be nice if the setup or instructions would tell you. Hit this link for it. Only difference is the 4k Firesticks can do 12 bit color setting, might as well save that.

I also noted that some programs take longer to flip into 4k. The aforementioned 47 Meters did flip into 4K after about 20 seconds.

Read: Tech Stuff: New Firestick 4K, TV Helpers »

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Climate Crisis (scam) Is Damaging US Military Readiness Or Something

By William Teach October 22, 2021 – 3:00 pm

See, now, I was going to go with this laugh-riot

After Manchin nixes clean energy budget provision, youth climate change activists go on hunger strike in front of White House

Five young activists began a hunger strike in front of the White House on Wednesday in a last-ditch effort to preserve the most important measures to combat climate change in President Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure investment proposal.

The protest arose in response to recent news that Democrats are reluctantly scrapping a plan that would have set a national standard for utilities transitioning to clean energy sources, in order to win the support of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat from a coal- and gas-heavy state whose vote is key to passing the budget bill in the evenly divided Senate.

What’s the over/under on their mom or dad dropping them off in a fossil fueled vehicle? I say, let the little buggers practice what they preach. Start with taking away their smartphones, Internet, and sweets like cookies and cakes.

But, I ran across this insane bit of cult moonbattery

Climate Change Is Damaging Troop Readiness, Pentagon Official Says

Climate change is already affecting the combat readiness of the U.S. military and providing opportunities for China to exploit, the Pentagon’s No. 2 official said on Friday.

“Climate change and extreme weather events caused by climate change affect everything from the number of days we can be flying in the air and training” to the ability to use military installations as sea levels rise or drought sets in, Kathleen Hicks, the deputy defense secretary, said in an interview with host Joe Mathieu on Bloomberg Radio’s “Sound On” program.

Climate change could affect the military’s fuel lines and even the ability of its planes to “loiter in the air,” she said.

Hicks’ commented after the Pentagon published a new climate risk analysis, which warned of “worsening implications” for U.S. national security, including the danger that China will try to take advantage of climate hazards in the Indo-Pacific region.

Sherman Potter Bull Cookies

This actually looks more like the Let’s Go Brandon admin is blaming ‘climate change’ to deflect from how Democrats are destroying the US military, turning it into an effeminate SJW virtue signaling organization, which empowers China, which is ramping up their own military. We never used to have to worry about the military preparedness, eh? One which has fought in hot and cold areas and periods.

Hicks said that in areas such as the Arctic, “we’re starting to see much more competition from Russia and China in and around strategic minerals and strategic reserves and resources.” She said there was a need to protect scientific missions in these areas and to manage potential “conflicts and miscalculations” with China and Russia.

It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with Democrats being weak on nation defense, could it? That Russia and China see Biden, with his dementia and bad policies (see Afghanistan), as weak, during his short time in the White House and his 8 years as VP, could it?

Victor David Hansen is asking what happened to our military. He makes some interesting points, but, misses something integral that I’ve mentioned before. Progressive have very long term plans of control. Early on in the 1900’s they went after education. Then government bureaucracies. The news and entertainment sectors. Unions. Over time things like the sports figures (who rarely practice what they preach). Lawyer and medical guilds, though, again, few practice what they preach. AARP. During the late 60’s into 70’s they wanted to eliminate the FBI, CIA, and military. That was not going to happen. So, they infiltrated, changing the organizations from the inside. That’s how we end up with the military letting in transgenders, who are a danger to themselves and the people are them, as they have a much higher level of self harm, depression, and suicide. That the military worries more about ‘climate change’ than protecting the U.S. Lowering training standards. You name it.

Read: Climate Crisis (scam) Is Damaging US Military Readiness Or Something »

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 22, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is a big sports team which uses lots of energy and fossil fuels, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Sultan Knish, with a post on Kellogg’s going Woke.

Read: If All You See… »

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COVID Today: Boosters And Supply Chain

By William Teach October 22, 2021 – 10:30 am

Despite what you might think from posts, I’m very much pro-vaccine. I’m anti-mandate. I got the vaccine the minute I was eligible to protect myself. And I will get the booster to continue protecting myself, so, this is good news, as I’d like something different from Pfizer if possible

Pick any vaccine: CDC OKs COVID boosters – even mixing and matching – beginning as soon as Friday

Americans are now free to get a free booster dose of all three COVID-19 vaccines, and can even choose to mix and match their vaccines, after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on new recommendations Thursday night.

At the same time, CDC recommended boosters for certain people who got Moderna vaccine and all 15 million Americans who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Clinics, doctors and pharmacies can begin giving boosters as soon as Friday.

“The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States are safe – as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given. And, they are all highly effective in reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalization, and death” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC’s director, said in a statement.

Pfizer seems low at 88.8% effectiveness, so, perhaps a Moderna, if they have it in my area. I’m going to check with Wake County next week, see what’s possible. Lest people go “I thought all it would take was the 1 or 2 shots required, depending on vaccine? No? It doesn’t work?”, many vaccines require more than 1 to 2 shots. Smallpox is like 5 shots over a period of time, and then you are virtually 100% safe.

Get the vaccine because it protects you.

Oh, then there’s

Biden’s vaccine mandate has cargo giants in a pre-holiday panic

A trade group for air cargo giants like UPS and FedEx is sounding the alarm over an impending Dec. 8 vaccine deadline imposed by President Joe Biden, complaining it threatens to wreak havoc at the busiest time of the year — and add yet another kink to the supply chain.

“We have significant concerns with the employer mandates announced on Sept. 9, 2021, and the ability of industry members to implement the required employee vaccinations by Dec. 8, 2021,” Stephen Alterman, president of the Cargo Airline Association, wrote in a letter sent the Biden administration and obtained by POLITICO.

The letter, sent to the Office of Management and Budget , asks the administration to postpone the deadline until “the first half of 2022.” At issue is the requirement by the Biden administration that federal workers be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8. Unlike private businesses, companies that act as federal contractors cannot opt out by instead submitting their workforces to frequent Covid testing.

So, great, Let’s Go Brandon is going to make the supply chain issues even worse. It also goes to show that the federal government is way, way, way to involved in the economy and the workforce.

Read: COVID Today: Boosters And Supply Chain »

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Warmists Scaremonger Over A Flooded DC, People Wonder Why This Would Be Bad

By William Teach October 22, 2021 – 8:26 am

The cult is at it again with their un-scientific photoshops

From the cult screed

The Lincoln Memorial, on an island surrounded by churning Potomac waters; Nationals Park, a bathtub surrounded by mid-rise office buildings flooded by the Anacostia River; the Pentagon, accessible by boat, with State Route 110 and the George Washington Memorial Parkway underwater.

These are images of the possible climate-change-induced future in D.C., if the world continues on its current trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions.

The decision that we’re all making right now is which trajectory we’re going to take,” says Andrew Pershing, director of climate science with the nonprofit Climate Central. The group published a peer-reviewed research paper documenting the longterm threat that sea-level rise poses to the world’s coastal cities. As part of the project, the group generated images of at-risk cities around the globe, with projections of future sea-level rise, depending on emissions trajectories. (snip)

D.C. doesn’t face the same sort of risk from sea-level rise as cities closer to the ocean, but the District’s two rivers, the Potomac and the Anacostia, are both tidal within the city limits, meaning they are directly influenced by the ocean’s tides and level.

OK, so this is from the same silly project I mentioned last week, which is still silly and unscientific, but, DCist is attempting to scare the citizens in D.C. and the surrounding areas. The article included the Pentago

The Pentagon is 24 meters above sea level, which is 78 feet. This is not science. You can check the topographic map yourself.

This didn’t get the response they thought, with ones like

  • Can we get all of DC submerged? Because I’m all for that.
  • Promise?
  • See there is good news about Washington DC
  • …I’m rooting for climate change now.
  • I mean…..I’m cool with this.
  • I won’t stop burning tires until I see Nancy Pelosi dog-paddling to the Capitol building

Well, that would be difficult, since the Capitol Building is 141 feet above sea level, plus height of building to submerge. The White House is 75 feet plus HOB. IRS Building just a little lower than the White House. DC is 419 feet at its highest. This is all just cultish pseudoscience with some doomsday thrown in.

Read: Warmists Scaremonger Over A Flooded DC, People Wonder Why This Would Be Bad »

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Let’s Go Brandon: Biden Wants Unvaccinated Police Officers Fired

By William Teach October 22, 2021 – 8:12 am

What a great idea, make the cops at war with cities, and even states, over vaccination mandates include the White House in that war. This might play well with the police haters in the Democratic Party, but, not so well with the regular citizens who want police around in case something bad happens to them

Biden says police officers, first responders should be fired for refusing jab

President Biden on Thursday said police officers and first responders who refuse the COVID-19 vaccine should stay home and be fired.

Speaking during a presidential CNN town hall, moderator Anderson Cooper noted that as many as one in three emergency responders in some major cities are refusing to comply with city vaccine mandates.

“I’m wondering where you stand on that,” Cooper said. “Should police officers, first responders be mandated to get vaccines? And if not, should they be mandated to stay at home, let go?”

“Yes and yes,” Biden replied, going on to suggest that he implemented his controversial vaccine mandate only as a last resort.

Yes, during the totally scripted “town hall” in a friendly atmosphere where Joe can get short, easy answers. Might police officers decide that if he wants them and their brothers and sisters in blue fired that there’s no need to provide protection for Joe when he comes to town? That their time would better be spent protecting citizens?

Biden went on to say that those who oppose vaccine mandates are attempting to make vaccines “a political issue.”

The president also scoffed at those who oppose vaccine mandates on the basis of “freedom.”

“I have the freedom to kill you with my COVID,” Biden said, mocking what he sees as the attitude of mandate opponents. “No, I mean, come on, freedom.”

Freedom is pretty much what Democrats hate. They like government force. This kind of talk actually harms the push for vaccination, as it says that the vaccine really doesn’t protect individuals from getting COVID, that it doesn’t work unless everyone else gets it. Or is forced to get it. Because it’s so good that booster shots are now recommended. And they want kids, the safest group, to be forced to be vaccinated.

In Chicago, seemingly the ground center for the fight, we see

A group of dozens of Chicago firefighters and water department workers are asking a federal judge for a temporary restraining order against Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s vaccine mandate, the latest salvo in a battle over city rules.

And their police?

With thousands of Chicago police officers at odds with the city’s new COVID-19 vaccine mandates, officials in the neighboring state of Indiana are trying to recruit disgruntled cops, some of whom are being punished for not complying.

As of Oct. 15, all of Chicago Police Department’s roughly 12,000 officers are required to share their vaccination status, outlets report, and those who aren’t vaccinated must get tested for COVID-19 twice weekly.

“Hey Chicago police officers, we’re hiring!” an Indiana State Police spokesman said in a tweet on Thursday. “No vaccine mandate … lower taxes, great schools, welcoming communities.”

How many will leave? Better working conditions that the crazy and crime ridden city of Chicago, right? So far, 21 officers have been placed on leave. This will come to a head by the end of the month/end of November in Chicago, along with New York City, Philadelphia, and so many cities. How many officers will leave/retire?

Read: Let’s Go Brandon: Biden Wants Unvaccinated Police Officers Fired »

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Climate Changed Killed Off The Mammoth, Which Is Bad News For Humans Or Something

By William Teach October 21, 2021 – 3:00 pm

They’re rock bottom certain that a warming world may might possibly we feel killed off the Mammoths

Climate Change Wiped Out the Mammoth, New DNA Study Shows
A decade-long study of environmental DNA indicates that glacial melt may have doomed the hairy animals.

Does the study say it or not? Because that “may” is rather iffy

Humans are very rarely the good guys in extinction narratives, given our proclivity for pushing species to the brink of extinction, and often over it. But we’re almost certainly absolved of guilt in the case of the woolly mammoth, according to an international team of scientists who spent the past 10 years sifting through traces of mammoth urine, feces, and skin cells in the ground to figure out what truly caused the species’ extinction.

“The most recent Ice Age—called the Pleistocene—ended 12,000 years ago when the glaciers began to melt and the roaming range of the herds of mammoths decreased,” Yucheng Wang, a geogeneticist at the University of Cambridge and lead author of a new paper of the team’s results, said in a St. John’s College press release.

“We zoomed into the intricate detail of the environmental DNA and mapped out the population spread of these mammals and show how it becomes smaller and smaller and their genetic diversity gets smaller and smaller too, which made it even harder for them to survive,” Wang added.

Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were a charismatic species of mammoth, hairy cousins of elephants that are not to be confused with the contemporaneous mastodon. Though a holdout population of mammoths survived on Russia’s Wrangel Island until about 4,000 years ago, around the same time Stonehenge was nearing completion, all other mammoths were long gone by then.

How much did the end of the glacial age contribute to the extinction of the Mammoth?  Especially when there were several subspecies scattered around the Northern Hemisphere? Maybe most, maybe some. The big question here is “what caused the end of the last glacial age and a warming world?” Because, really, that’s where Gizmodo and the study is going with this

“The change happened so quickly that they could not adapt and evolve to survive,” said Eske Willerslev, a geogeneticist at the University of Cambridge and co-author of the paper, in the same release. “This is a stark lesson from history and shows how unpredictable climate change is—once something is lost, there is no going back.”

Aaaaand, this is meant to imply that a tiny increase in the globe’s temperature since the Little Ice Age ended in 1850 means utter doom, and this is your fault.

Inaction on climate change imperils millions of lives, doctors say

Climate change is set to become the “defining narrative of human health,” a top medical journal warned Wednesday – triggering food shortages, deadly disasters and disease outbreaks that would dwarf the toll of the coronavirus. But aggressive efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions from human activities could avert millions of unnecessary deaths, according to the analysis from more than 100 doctors and health experts.

In its annual “Countdown on health and climate change,” the Lancet provides a sobering assessment of the dangers posed by a warming planet. More than a dozen measures of humanity’s exposure to health-threatening weather extremes have climbed since last year’s report.

This is the same organization which came up with utter bullshit statistical study on civilian deaths in Iraq from the 2003 war. Anyhow, when are the doctors going to give up their luxury vehicles and homes and go carbon neutral?

Read: Climate Changed Killed Off The Mammoth, Which Is Bad News For Humans Or Something »

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If All You See…

By William Teach October 21, 2021 – 1:00 pm

…is an horrible plastic traffic cone used on horrible streets made for fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is The Right Scoop, with a post on a DC Comics artist quitting and blasting over leftism and ruining characters.

Read: If All You See… »

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Washington Post: You Spoiled Americans Need To Stop Complaining About Supply Shortages

By William Teach October 21, 2021 – 11:01 am

Does the Washington Post and opinion writer Micheline Maynard think this really helps their case in protecting Let’s Go Brandon? Especially when those in the news media really didn’t suffer much through COVID

Opinion: Don’t rant about short-staffed stores and supply chain woes

Across the country, Americans’ expectations of speedy service and easy access to consumer products have been crushed like a Styrofoam container in a trash compactor. Time for some new, more realistic expectations.

Fast food is less fast. A huge flotilla of container ships is stuck offshore in California, waiting to unload. Shelves normally stocked with Halloween candy this time of year are empty, as I saw the other day at a Target here in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The issue has become so troublesome — with alarming economic and political ramifications — that the White House is stepping in, urging unions, port operators and big consumer-goods companies to work around the clock (if they aren’t already) to unclog supply pipelines.

American consumers, their expectations pampered and catered to for decades, are not accustomed to inconvenience.

How dare you pampered consumers expect things to appear to be getting back to normal!! Yes, most foresaw there would be problems, and there are problems around the world. We did expect that they would start getting better, not worse, because demand is not above.

Customers’ persistent whine, “Why don’t they just hire more people?,” sounds feeble in this era of the Great Resignation, especially in industries, such as food service, with reputations for being tough places to work.

Rather than living constantly on the verge of throwing a fit, and risking taking it out on overwhelmed servers, struggling shop owners or late-arriving delivery people, we’d do ourselves a favor by consciously lowering expectations.

Yes, it would be too much to expect to be able to get my cheese bagels or white fish at the supermarket when I go in to get them, and they are out at least half the time. As The Right Scoop notes

Notice how the author doesn’t put any blame on Biden for this, instead casting the Biden White House in the role of simply trying to solve the problem and telling Americans that they’re the ones who need to adjust their spoiled expectations.

And highlights a tweet from Joe Concha, where he writes “This absolutely would have been published if the same crisis occurred under the previous administration, right? Silly, greedy citizens. Your expectations are too high.” Yes, how would this be portrayed in the press if Trump were still president? Yeah, we all know they would be Blaming him, blasting him, demanding to know what he is going to do. Back to the WP

The other day I found myself carrying home a loaf of bread in my bare hands because the bakery had run out of bags. Back when we didn’t know how good we had it — circa 2019 — I might have been annoyed by the inconvenience. Now I was just glad the bakery was still in business.

Yes, because it totally makes sense that we can’t get bags to put bread in. I can understand the cars, TVs, laptops, big ticket items and such. Bags? We just didn’t know how good we had it!

American consumers might have been spoiled, but generations of them have also dealt with shortages of some kind — gasoline in the 1970s, food rationing in the 1940s, housing in the 1920s when cities such as Detroit were booming. Now it’s our turn to make adjustments.

Bread bags are luxuries now.

Read: Washington Post: You Spoiled Americans Need To Stop Complaining About Supply Shortages »

Posted in Democrats, Economy, Unhinged Tools | 5 Comments | Trackback URL

Sunrise Movement Cancels Protest Rally Appearance Over Inclusion Of Jews

By William Teach October 21, 2021 – 9:07 am

Funny how they keep telling us that Democrats don’t hate Jews, they just have a problem with Israel, but, keep proving they hate and won’t tolerate Jews. If Islamist groups wanted to march with Sunrise I’d bet there would be no problem.

Climate Activist Org Cancels Appearance at DC Statehood Rally over Jewish Groups’ Participation

The Washington, D.C., chapter of climate-activist organization Sunrise movement canceled its speaking appearance at a rally for D.C. statehood and federal voting legislation over Zionist Jewish groups’ participation in the event.

Sunrise DC cited the Jewish Council on Public Affairs, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism as groups that support Zionism and the State of Israel in its withdrawal letter.

“Given our commitment to racial justice, self-governance, and indigenous sovereignty, we oppose Zionism and any state that enforces its ideology,” the statement read.

The organization then accused Israel, which it called a “colonial project,” of illegally occupying Palestine and engaging in “violent oppressive tactics that go against the values we advocate for as a hub.” Sunrise DC then claimed that Israel treats minorities such as Palestinians and black and brown Jewish-Israelis as second-class citizens as well as disenfranchises them from civil society and government.

“We also believe that the fight for statehood and sovereignty are incompatible with Zionism and the political erasure of Palestinians that the ideology calls for,” the statement added.

You can no longer see the tweet from Sunrise DC, as they made their twitter feed protected. Shocker, eh? Others caught, saved it, and posted photos of it, though

They won’t say a bad word about Syria, Egypt, Afghanistan, China, Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela or Iran, among others. Nor a bad word about Palestinians launching suicide attacks against Israeli civilians. But, Israel? Yeah, because they hate Jews.

Of course they won’t, because so many Democrats hate Jews. AOC, Tlaib, Omar, and so many more. But, remember, this is all about science and getting everyone to demand Government do something about ‘climate change’.

Read: Sunrise Movement Cancels Protest Rally Appearance Over Inclusion Of Jews »

Posted in Democrats, Global Warming, Israel | 2 Comments | Trackback URL
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