Ternaugh

Flood control has greatly improved in Clark County since I first moved here in 1982. A bunch of retention basins have been constructed (mainly on the west side--water flows from west to east on its way to Lake Mead). Drainage projects have improved the situation in many places, like the Charleston Underpass, which hasn't flooded since 2009.

Mount Charleston received 7.87 inches of rain over two days. flooding damaged some of the pipes for their water system, so they are on a boil notice for drinking water. Lee Canyon and Kyle Canyon received 8" of rain between Friday and Sunday night. The road to Kyle Canyon is washed out. Red Rock Canyon had 3.23 inches at the visitor's station between Friday and Sunday night. Summerlin West (which is near Red Rock Canyon) had between an inch and an inch and a half. Some parts of the Southwest part of the Vegas Valley received between 1 and two inches. My part of town (east side) might have received about a half-inch of rain over the weekend. Henderson received between .31" and .39" at the Raiders training center over the weekend. There's a large homeless population that lives in the drainage system; teams went in beforehand to evacuate them. The Flamingo Wash has been routed under Caesars Palace and the Las Vegas Strip, and it continues through the Linq parking garage (the video below is the system working as intended; this is what happened before the flood channel was constructed.

Good Omens: I agree with Logan's take, and I'll note that the season's short enough (6 episodes of 1 hour each) that it can be binged very quickly. (Amazon Prime Video) Vibes: Jeff Goldblum and Cyndi Lauper play psychics who are roped into a plot to find Incan gold. It plays like a watered-down version of Romancing the Stone, with mystical elements. (Amazon Prime Video) Airplane!: Classic comedy spoofing the Airport movies, always a fun watch. (Max) Once you assume that it's not supposed to be an accurate version of the novels*, Foundation on Apple TV+ is actually quite watchable. Episodes in the second season drop on Fridays. *Which were generally tagged with "unfilmable" anyway.

Baa'd to the Bone

There's a pulse in the new-born sun; A beat in the heat of noon; There's a song as the day grows long, And a tempo in the tides of the moon. It's all around us and it's everywhere, And it's deeper than royal blue. And it feels so real you can feel the feeling! And that's the majesty of rock! The fantasy of roll! The ticking of the clock, The wailing of the soul! The prisoner in the dock, The digger in the hole, We're in this together, and ever In the shade of a jungle glade, Or the rush of the crushing street, On the plain, on the foamy main, You can never escape from the beat. It's in the mud and it's in your blood And it's conquest is complete. And all that you can to is just surrender To the majesty of rock! The pageantry of roll! The crowing of the cock, The running of the foal! The shepherd with his flock, The miner with his coal, We're in this together, and ever When we die, do we haunt the sky? Do we lurk in the murk of the seas? What then? are we born again? Just to sit asking questions like these? I know, for I told me so, And I'm sure each of you quite agrees: The more it stays the same, the less it changes! And that's the majesty of rock! The mystery of roll! The darning of the sock, The scoring of the goal! The farmer takes a wife, The barber takes a pole, We're in this together, and ever

Minimum wage! HYAH!

From working retail many years ago, Visa and MasterCard were around 3%, Discover Card was around 4%, and Amex charge cards were around 6-7%. The average numbers I'm seeing on the web now is 1-3%. Rewards cards also usually cost more to process, because the banks raise their interchange fees to pay for the benefits.

I believe it would be around 500 small saucers.

Twisted Metal: TV series based upon the video games, it follows John Doe (Anthony Mackie), a "milkman" who performs pickups and deliveries in a world devastated 20 years ago by a massive cyber-attack. It's generally enjoyable, and the 10 episodes run fairly quickly. There is a set-up for a season 2, which appears to be based more on the tournaments of the games, though given the state of the writers' and actors' strikes, no word yet on if or when that might happen. (Peacock) The Portable Door: Fantasy movie about two paid interns who are hired at a mysterious London company. Overall, I liked it. (Amazon Prime Video)

The album, 13th Star by Fish. This is a 2023 Remix Deluxe edition, which includes 3 CDs and a Blu-Ray disc. On that, there's a making of video, interviews with the folks who worked on the album, and a full concert video from 2008. It also has a Dolby Atmos/TrueHD mix of the album, along with AC3 stereo/5.1 mixes. The Dolby Atmos version is deftly mixed, and favors musicality over special effects.

A sailor plays with kittens discovered in an equipment room at U.S. Naval Air Station Squantum in Massachusetts in 1942. The caption is from "The forgotten history of cats in the navy", it's behind a paywall, but for those with a National Geographic subscription: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/cats-ships-navy-history

Good to know in case one needs to make change.

If has been fairly common on music streamers to have songs show up that are attributed to an artist, but have no real ties. Amazon music has a song right now in the Genesis listing that's obviously there for accidental clicks.

Starship Trooper by Yes

The Super Mario Bros. Movie: This one was a movie night at a friend's work. I liked this one, even though (or perhaps because) it's not really a deep storyline. It's generally fun, and the music's good. I'll probably watch it again soon on Peacock. I've been keeping up with My Adventures with Superman, an animated series on Max. So far, it's been light and fun.

They Checked Out Pride Books in Protest. It Backfired. Unlocked article from the NYT.

Arthur C. Clarke

And not based on Flashpoint.

Batman Begins: First of the three Batman films directed by Christopher Nolan. This is the 4K version, and the film looks and sounds great. (UHD Blu-ray) Real Genius: The story of a bunch of college students who are working on a laser project, which turns out to actually be for a covert weapons platform. This is the 4K version of the film, and it's definitely worth a watch. (UHD Blu-ray)

It would be novel for me if he was. I'm usually put in the back row for group photos.

I park my car in my driveway, where it's exposed to direct sunlight for a good portion of the day. The only thing on the car that's sun damaged is the license plate, because Nevada tried to move away from metal license plates for a few years. It's a non-embossed piece of plastic. The coating has darkened and cracked from 9 years of sun damage, and the numbers have faded dramatically. In theory, NV DMV is supposed to send out replacement plates automatically after 8 years, but we'll have to wait and see if that happens when I get my tags (should be in the mail any day now). The plastic used for the headlight and tail light lenses is more likely to cloud from sun damage, and there's a bit of that in the headlights. Now, it is possible to melt car parts from concentrated sunlight, usually reflected off of something. Several years back, the Vdara Hotel became known for its "death beam", where the concave, mirrored windows would focus beams of light that would scorch people and things on their pool deck. The same architect was also responsible for 20 Fenchurch in London, which melted a Jaguar around 2013. I'm in the bottom of the Vegas Valley, which means that our temperatures are usually a couple of degrees higher than the city of Las Vegas. Right now, it's 112°F in my ZIP code, 110°F in downtown Las Vegas, and 105°F in the Summerlin area (where I work). Summerlin's about 1500 feet higher up than me*, and it will sometimes get snow in the winter. *Average trip to work is 40MPG, average trip from work is 70MPG (for the first six miles or so, it can coast at about 75 MPH if I don't check my speed).