Kilo Seven

https://paizo.com/community/blog/v5748dyo6shbg?Achievement-Points-and-Free- RPG-Day mentions how PfS players can enable buying some boons by exchanging Achievement Points. Here's the cost (in GP) of each available item as of 2022-06-15 & a brief summary. 325 aeon stone (clear spindle) nourishment 230 aeon stone (gold nodule) language 30K aeon stone (lavender & green ellipsoid) 2200 aeon stone (lavender ellipsoid) read aura 9750 aeon stone (orange prism) +2 checks ANOR 1900 aeon stone (pink rhomboid) 15tHP 350 aeon stone (tourmaline sphere) cast heal 240 bloodletting kukri +1 Crit, persistent bleed 030 brooch of shielding absorb magic missile 980 cape of the mountebank +2 deception 056 channel protection amulet +5 resist harm 235 chime of opening +13 thievery to open 10x 230 clandestine cloak +1 Stealth, Deception 2700 dancing rune self flying melee wpn 670 dragonslayer’s shield +2 Will v dragons 5625 elven chain +2AC no check penalty 1250 floating s...

Oregon is shutting down its controversial child welfare AI in June | Engadget

Storage batteries near the grid nexus of an old coal plant. Sounds like a wizard idea, wot? Well, Oregon's largest public futility just brought 30MW of battery onto the grid, near our old coal power site, adjacent to wind and solar, and bills it as the 'nation's largest'. Yawn. The Portland Metro (excluding Clark County WA just across the Columbia River since, well, Washington has their own nuclear power plant ) uses 22,648,283 megawatt-hours of electricity yearly, according the per-county stats at http://findenergy.com/or/ - that means this 30 megawatt battery complex can keep the area's lights on for, how long after dark? 30 Megawatts divided by 43 Megawatts a minute (22,648,283/(365.24*24*60)) = not very long at all (41 seconds, maybe).. And, wind fails , too. For a long time .  But didn't I just mention the mighty Columbia River and its extensive hydropower system ? Well, our power hungry neighbor to the south is running dry ... and they have ...

This cartoon illustrates well the "Some A**hole" theory of restraint when applied to psychotic murderers.  In Journalism school, it was called Social Media Responsibility Theory , and used in World War Two instead of direct censorship.  Dean Ing's Soft Targets ( Worldcat Library Link  so you can place an Inter-Library Loan request) expounds on the theory far better than I can. 

How to Find Cheap Flights: Kiwi, Skyscanner, Kayak, Google (gizmodo.com)

Is your doc on the take from Big Pharma? Check here :

My personal domain's used only for email right now, but this article's extremely useful for all domain owners: https://jvns.ca/blog/2022/05/10/pages-that-didn-t-make-it-into--how-dns-works-/

AK, CO, NH, NJ, NM, OR, VT believe women have an unrestricted right to choose what happens to their bodies. Seven states . One of Oregon's solutions to the abortion dilemma is providing tele-health appointments to out-of-state and rural residents seeking a medical abortion, which can be administered with a pill. While it may be illegal to mail this medication to people living in states where abortion becomes banned, Udall said that anyone with an Oregon address can receive the pill in the mail. The address can be temporary . Does Plan B Expire - How to Get Emergency Contraception (cosmopolitan.com) Don't bring your phone to Planned Parenthood if you don't live in one of those seven states. Why? It can track you. https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7vzjb/location-data-abortion-clinics-safegraph-planned-parenthood Since Google search data can be subpoenaed, consider using DuckDuckGo, or better yet a VPN plus a European search provider instead of Google. In April, following t...

PUTIN'S CREW Sung to the tune of https://youtu.be/cPr5gaVMkZc Oh, the Moskva was flagship of our fleet. -- How I wish I was in Sevastopol! -- She'd sailed since 1979, Under different names with changing times. (Chorus)    God damn them all!  We were told,                   We'd just show up and the Ukes would fold.                   They would never fight, but I'll tell you,                    I'm a broken wreck after what I've been through:                   The last of Vladimir Putin's crew. The Russian navy scoured its ranks  -- how I wish I was in Sevastopol! -- For a good five hundred sailors who Would make enough for ...

America's Best Hospitals ratings from Healthgrades lists four Metro PDX area hospitals in the top 100 hospitals (or better). Patients treated in them have a 25% or better lower chance of dying. https://healthgrades.com/right-care/patient-advocate/what-makes-a-hospital-one-of-americas-best Providence St Vincent 2021 Best 50 Hospitals, 100 Best Cardiac Care https://healthgrades.com/hospital-directory/oregon-or-portland/providence-st-vincent-medical-center-hgst6339e6a6380004 Kaiser Sunnyside 2019-2021 Best 100 Hospitals, 100 Best Pulmonary Care, 50 Best Cardiac Surgery. 2020-2021 100 Best Cardiac Care https://healthgrades.com/hospital-directory/oregon-or-portland/kaiser-sunnyside-medical-center-hgst0839e6a6380091 Portland Providence 2019-2021 100 Best Hospitals & Critical Care Excellence. 2021 Gen. Surgery & Joint Repl. Excellence Award. https://healthgrades.com/hospital-directory/oregon-or-portland/providence-portland-medical-center-hgst8639e6a6380061 Legacy Salmon Creek 2020...

Nine WiFi Routers Used by Millions Were Vulnerable to 226 Flaws

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/how-to-fix-write-protection-errors-on-a-usb-stick/

Not only does Oregon have the least number of hospital beds per capita, now we find Portland's running too lean on housing . The infatuation with 'Just In Time' in supply chains hurts us , just like it hurt the UK .

Sell China short. Why? Read this: "Large organisations have their own oligarchic logic, and the bigger they are, the worse it gets. As (China's) Supreme Leader, Xi can't know everything. He has to rely on reports from underlings, and every underling has his (its almost always "his") agenda, which is not necessarily aligned with the national interest. And at the scale of the Chinese state, even the best-motivated of Xi's underlings are also having to rely on summary reports from underlings to know what is going on in their area. One big effect of this is that the Supreme Leader is often the last person to hear bad news. At every level the problems get hidden, because nobody wants to go to the boss and say "this problem is getting away from me: help!". This is why so many big company projects "suddenly" go off the rails: all the problems were there and known to the people on the ground, but the VIPs were living in blissful ignorance until t...

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/13/opsec-soup-to-nuts/#secured

https://www.kff.org/medicare/issue-brief/medigap-enrollment-and-consumer-protections-vary-across-states/

SimpliSafe? Simply Bad. A support call completely disabled their alarm system. I originally called support for a sensor failure; four calls later, the alarm system is completely disabled.  The first agent had a very bad connection, with squealing and flanging badly distorting the call when it didn't drop out completely. She insisted there was nothing wrong with her phone line (don't they know that each side of an IP-mediated phone line is independent of the other?) and also repeatedly referred to system components and models of the control panel I did not have. She put me in a mode of the system which completely keeps the system from working. After 19 minutes of bad support, I hung up and dialed back. The second agent put me on hold for 17 minutes, and when I asked for a supervisor, hung up on me. The third agent told me it was impossible to speak to a supervisor, and hung up on me after only 99 seconds.  Now, I am again awaiting for a supervisor; waiting over an hour and a ha...

Healthgrades.com has released its 2022 Best Hospitals ratings. When it comes to surgery, pick the hospital first, then pick the surgeon, because hospitals limit who can practice surgery in their facility. St Vincent had the most Top 100 series ratings; each highly rated hospital will get its own comment below. There are two "A" level trauma centers in the Portland Metro; Legacy Emanuel, and OHSU. Kaiser Permanente Westside won:     Gastrointestinal Care Excellence Award™ (2022, 2020) 2875 NW Stucki Ave, Hillsboro, OR 97124 Kaiser Sunnyside won:     America's 50 Best Cardiac Surgery™ (2022, 2021, 2020)     America's 100 Best Cardiac Care™ (2022, 2021, 2020)     Pulmonary Care Excellence Award™ (2022, 2021, 2020) 10180 SE Sunnyside Rd, Clackamas, OR 97015 Legacy Emanuel won:     Pulmonary Care Excellence Award™ (2022) 2801 N Gantenbein Ave, Portland, OR 97227 OHSU Hospital won:     Cranial Neuro...

Stuck out nowhere after a breakdown? Is your cellphone battery low?  1. Text your friends. Texting uses little power, and often connects even if the signal's too weak to talk.  2. Tell them where you are, what's wrong, and what you're going to do (stay vs walk).  3. Staying is almost always safer. Your car keeps you dry and warmer, and protects you against getting run over. Search and rescue experts find live people in cars, dead people in the wilderness.  4. Send a text to 911. Some 911 call centers take text messages .  5. Change the phone's voicemail, if you can, to a message with your approximate location, the time, the date, your situation (lost, out of gas, car broken down, injured, etc) and any special instructions such as you are staying with the car, you are walking toward a town, etc. Even if your cell phone stops, voicemail still works, so people calling hear your message and know where to find you or where to send help. Before this happens:...

Do you have one of these wifi routers, adapters, or devices? If so, it's open as a barn door to hackers; your PCs, smartphones, and other devices are hackable, as are your bank and web accounts. If your ISP provided one of them, insist they replace it with one not on this list ! Why? Read https://www.zdnet.com/article/realtek-hardware-bugs-expose-dozens-of-brands-to-supply-chain-cyber-attack/ A-Link Europe Ltd: A-Link WNAP WNAP(b) ARRIS Group, Inc: VAP4402_CALA Airlive Corp.: WN-250R, WN-350R Abocom System Inc: Wireless Routerd AIgital: Wifi Range Extenders Amped Wireless: AP20000G Askey: AP5100W ASUSTek Computer: RT-Nxx models, WL330-NUL; Wireless WPS Routers RT-N10E, RT-N10LX, RT-N12E, RT-N12LX BEST ONE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.: AP-BNC-800 Beeline: Smart Box v1 Belkin: F9K1015; AC1200DB Wireless Router F9K1113 v4 and F9K1123; AC750 Wireless Router F9K1116; N300WRX, N600DB Buffalo: WEX-1166DHP2, WEX-1166DHPS, WEX-300HPS, WEX-733DHPS, WMR-433, WSR-1166DHP3, WSR-1166DHP...

Mostly free, only two chapters paywalled: THE PREMONITION, A Pandemic Story It's important for you to read this book. Really important. Every chapter has multiple amazing insights like... 'when you closed schools and put social distance between kids, the flu-like disease fell off a cliff. (The model defined “social distance” not as zero contact but as a 60 percent reduction in kids’ social interaction.) “I said, ‘Holy shit!’ ” said Carter. “Nothing big happens until you close the schools. It’s not like anything else. It’s like a phase change. It’s nonlinear. It’s like when water temperature goes from thirty-three to thirty-two. When it goes from thirty-four to thirty-three, it’s no big deal; one degree colder and it turns to ice.”'... “I couldn’t design a system better for transmitting disease than our school system,” he said after his visit. “There is nowhere, anywhere, as socially dense as school classrooms, school hallways, school buses... " - “They reall...

I was led to a post of someone who set up the worst possible case for arming teachers .  Fortunately, there are commonsense alternatives. In the FEMA course on defending v. Active Cowards I took in Oregon's oldest synagogue ( NEVER AGAIN! ) I was taught to Lock the door between me and the Coward If the place I am at does not care enough to have solid core doors, barricade the doorway, and get out of sight Only after 1) and 2) do I try any active defense. 1. can be accomplished absolutely with a bent or welded piece of lightweight aluminum made in shop class as an exercise by high school students, notched to drop over the door handle on the inside so the Coward cannot see it is in place. If there's no shop class, well, it can be bought commercially: The Device # 2 , if installed 34" to 48" over the floor, would comply with fire code, so teachers in a wheelchair could easily use it (and, no, I have no connection to the manufacturer). Door blocks are also...

Tired of your cable bill? 500 channels, and nothing you want to watch?  When my  $80/mo.  cable TV obligation ended, I had it turned off.  Internet costs $45/mo. from my phone company, is easily 12x faster at downloading and definitely more reliable. I could even do without that and use my phone as a WiFi hotspot, if need be. Here's my solution's details: 1. Call your cable TV provider and find when your contract is up, and put that date in your calendar.google.com or other calendar system. 2. Where to put the antenna? Find where your TV stations are . Then, look at your windows, and see which window is best to use. You want the window that's closest to a right-angle line, or perpendicular to, the line between you and the TV station. 3. Today, make an antenna. Measure the distance from your TV to a window, measuring from the TV to the ceiling then along the wall to the window, and add 10' in case you need to move the TV. Buy, or scroung...

The links below show me I am not alone in never getting a response from the 'customer service' department of Affinity.  The original phone number and website in the original manual were disconnected! I had to web search to find their new site, not that has done me any good. Have been trying to speak to someone there for over a month, numerous emails and phone messages have been ignored. Think twice about buying anything from Woot! (as they sell no-support junk equipment), and definitely never, never, buy anything from Affinity! http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5605756 http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5607984 http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5650803 http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5618953 http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5625184 http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5650803 http://www.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=6133547

Converting PayPal to Gift Cards lets you monetize the PayPal balance, even if your merchant of choice does not accept PayPal:  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pay-paypal-balance-sites-dont-accept/ Need to find your Win8 Product Key? Look no further:  http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/four-places-find-windows-8-product-key/ Niftier icons for Linux can be freely downloaded using the tips at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/9-beautiful-alternatives-default-linux-icons/

Updated 22 April 2014 with new items 9-11, enhanced item 1. On April 8, 2014, Microsoft issued  their last update to Windows XP . They will update the Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus for another year, but a) traditional viruses are no longer the majority of security and malware problems, and b) Microsoft has been explicit that Microsoft Security Essentials was a minimal anti-virus system, anyway, and formally recommends getting a better anti-virus . I do recommend migrating to Win7 or Win 8.1 Upgrade 1 if your finances and hardware will permit. A free utility from Microsoft downloadable from  http://www.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/xp/transfer-your-data.aspx  makes it easy to move your data to the new Windows, and  http://www.laplink.com/  (not free, around $80) does that  and  lets you move compatible Windows XP programs, as well as data.  But, what to do, especially if your system is not powerful enough to run Windows 7 or Windows...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2048120/benchmarks-dont-lie-ssd-upgrades-deliver-huge-performance-gains.html

http://qz.com/120748/these-airlines-offer-more-legroom-for-free-on-domestic-us-flights/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2042552/review-libreoffice-4-liberates-you-from-microsoft-office.html http://www.libreoffice.org/  

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/european-technology/ok-so-stick-with-windows-xp-but-how-big-a-risk-do-you-run/1627  explains the risks of staying with XP when, a year from now. Microsoft stops support it with security fixes. 

http://www.flashdrive-repair.com   seems to have some useful stuff.

So Google announced the impending death of Google Reader . What else will they jettison to shave another tenth of a percent of profit? Now is the time to find a replacement for every Google based service (including this one) because they're loyal to the dollar, not to the customer.

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/11/ff-mat-honan-password-hacker/all/ is a very scary story in hacking.

http://www.techno360.in/speed-up-your-pc-with-oo-clevercache-7-pro-for-free/

If the system won’t start, you can still view log files. However, this depends on the type of installation and how far the installation got. If it was a clean installation, you should boot to the Windows 7 DVD; select Repair your computer, then access the System Recovery Options menu, and select the Command Prompt. If it was an upgrade that didn’t get far, and if Windows Vista/XP/2000 was previously installed on an NTFS drive, you can boot to the System Recovery Options in Vista, or the Recovery Console from a Windows XP or 2000 CD and view the log files from there.  If you cannot start the clean installation or upgrade, check the following:   • Processor speed and memory size: Verify that your computer meets the minimum requirements for Windows 7.  Make sure you are installing the correct type (32-bit or 64-bit) and version of Windows 7.   • Windows type and version: Make sure you are installing the correct type (32-bit or 64-bit) and version of Windows...

When you complete the clean installation or upgrade, verify that your installation has gone smoothly by testing it. For example, attempt to navigate through Windows, access administrative functions, connect to the Internet, and so on.  If you have confirmed that Windows is working normally, update the system. Install the latest service pack and additional updates as necessary. It is possible that the service pack was included on your installation media, but if not, download it and install it before going any further. Then, download any other updates that are necessary utilizing the Windows Update feature. Installations usually go smoothly, but not always. If an installation fails for any reason, or if the installation completed but Windows doesn’t seem to be behaving properly, consider reviewing the log files to find out more about the problem and why it occurred. The following table refers to variable directory called %WINDIR%. By default, the name of this fo...