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labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
@labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
200 followers 310 following 3.6K posts
Develops medical laboratory software. Emphasis on medical billing. Former Treasury VP (risk mgmt stuff) at ridiculously global bank, gave that up when I figured out they ignored risk management.
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labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Reading another old history of the US in the Smithsonian's archives. This one goes into great detail regarding the early explorers and conquistadores, and portrays them as kidnappers, enslavers, and just plain murderers.
This passage about Jacques Cartier is typical:
Cartier ascended a steep hill that stood hard by the stream ; he named it Mont Royal and it is so called now. As he looked about him, his dream of a Northwest Passage faded away; forest-clad mountains and an impetuous river greeted his eyes! Returning to Quebec, he wintered in its neighborhood and twenty-five of his men perished from scurvy. All the Frenchmen might have died had not the Indians told them of a marvelous medicine. As a requital for this saving draught, Cartier kidnaped the friendly Indian chief and carried him to France, where he speedily died.
December 15, 2025 at 1:06 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Bullish on the market for FOMC. 10 day realized vol shows a real collapse in movement, while the VIX has stayed up and the markets have meandered aimlessly. All of which means lots of caution going in, which is a good sign.
Graph of 10 day realized vol so far this month, showing a sharp decline.
December 10, 2025 at 3:30 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Basis is 16.88, 15 was close enough to 10% for gov't work.
Call side I looked at the tic tac toe chart and could clearly see 18 as upside resistance, so that's where I sold. So far so good. (see chart below)
Plan is to step it higher each month. So 19 calls get sold next month, if the plan works.
P&F chart of RIVN, with resistance showing at 18, where there's some volume and it's bumped its head against it a couple of times.
December 8, 2025 at 1:31 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
As true in 1898 as it is today: Americans learn their geography from war.
Also, note the sudden rise of complete experts on Asiatic strategy & commerce.
The McCulloch was sent post-haste to Hong-Kong to cable the news to Washington, where it w^as received early on the morning of May 6. The public had known little of Dewey's movements or instructions, and the suddenness and unexpected character of the news greatly heightened the enthusiasm with which it was received. The eyes of the nation were at once turned to the Orient, and people who had to search closely on their maps in order to find the Philippine Islands were soon discussing glibly the commercial and strategic importance of the group.
December 6, 2025 at 11:34 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
But there's more. There is a suspicion, founded in the fact nothing was taken from the Blauvelt home, that they were in on the British operation. Which leads to this final bit:
Lastly, we must recognize that there is a dark side to the Blauvelt narrative. In 1776, Cornelius D. Blauvelt was listed as a First Lieutenant in the Bergen Militia.20 Yet he was neither attacked nor taken prisoner on the night in question. An important part of the Blauvelt narrative tries to explain why "not a single cents worth of property" was plundered from Cornelius' house, despite the fact that American officers were found quartered there. The initial encounter between Mr. Blauvelt and General Grey almost sounds like an exchange of passwords: according to the narrative, when the British forced entry into his home and asked who he was, Lieutenant Blauvelt "coolly replied 'I am a man for my country and will fight for it till I die.' [General] Grey said he also was a man for his country and complimented Mr. Blauvelt for his patriotism." One wonders who it was that subsequently attempted to murder Cornelius D. Blauvelt - but the answer to this and to other questions have gone to the grave with the participants. Ironically, Captain Abraham Blauvelt of the First Regiment of Orange County Militia, who was surrounded by British troopers later that night and bayoneted, was Cornelius' older brother. His younger brother, Theunis, a Loyalist, was commissioned Captain in the Third New Jersey Volunteers and joined the Tory exodus to Nova Scotia at the war's end.
December 6, 2025 at 7:48 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
The aftermath is what my point is. The Tories wanted the Blauvelts dead and were disappointed they weren't killed, and so tried to do it themselves, apparently:
It is conjectured that Grey's troops were led to the house by two notorious tories named Peter Ackerman and Peter Bogert. Circumstances occurred after the disaster which tended to the formation of this suspicion but no positive proof could be found. River Vale or Old Tappan was perhaps more infected by these wretched traitors to the American cause than any other place in Bergen County, and their hostility to those who rallied round the standard of Washington was even more intense than that displayed by the regular soldiers in the pay of Great Britain. They were enraged that Mr. Blauvelt escaped the death they had prepared for him when they acted as guides for Grey's bayonet butchers. On many subsequent occasions Mr. Blauvelt had to leave home and sleep in some other place during the darkness of the night to escape the knife of the prowling assassin. One night while he was in bed in his own house a loud knocking on his front door awoke him. A young man who was paying his address to his servant opened the door and had no sooner done so than a pistol was clapped upon his breast and a man in a mask demanded "Are you the master of the house?" The terrified swain with great presence of mind replied that Mr. Blauvelt had not been home since morning, and the would be murderer and his masked accomplices departed muttering curses on their ill luck. The troops who committed the outrage in the barn were some time afterwards captured by a body of American soldiers and they were all either shot or put to the sword. When they cried for quarter they were met with jeers and shouts of "Remember Old Tappan."
December 6, 2025 at 7:48 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Eh, don't care. Been here for a long time, not anticipating much time left. It'd be cool to be one of the ones turned into this or radioactive dust.
Sun's not winking out for another billion years, multi-cellular life will survive, some new intelligent species will pop up, the Earth will abide.
One person's opinion: I think not being turned into irradiated paste is good.
December 5, 2025 at 11:02 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
From a Barrons.com story accessed via my TOS account (I don't deliberately pay Murdoch for anything, but I know via sheer osmosis he gets some bux from me anyway).
The capacity of the average American investor for swallowing utter bs from Musk is unlimited, really.
TSLA will likely rally into EOY.
Tesla could use something to boost sales. Through November, Tesla sold 17,358 vehicles in Germany , down 48% year over year. From January through October, the latest data available, Tesla had sold 117,000 cars in European Union countries, down 39% compared with the same period of 2024. Globally, Tesla sales were down about 6% in the first three quarters of 2025, putting Tesla on track for its second annual sales decline. Tesla stock has held up despite falling car sales. Coming into Friday trading, shares were up 13% this year and up 23% over the past 12 months. Shares have had a strong start to December, up almost 6% for the month. Investors are far more focused on Tesla's AI opportunities these days, including robo-taxis and humanoid robots. The reason isn't hard to understand. Take Deutsche Bank analyst Edison Yu . He rates Tesla stock Buy and has a $470 price target for the stock; $148 of that target comes from robo-taxis, and $111 comes from robots. That's more than the $175 he attributes to the base car business.
December 5, 2025 at 9:34 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
It was noted here once that the Republicans admitted a bunch of sparsely populated western states in the late 1800's with the intent of wielding disproportionate power in the Senate.
This very quickly bit them when it came to the question of watering down the gold standard with western silver:
In the Senate, Voorhees, chairman of the finance committee, formerly an advocate of free silver, reported a bill for repeal, with, however, the pledge of the Democratic platform in favor of bimetallism tacked on as an amendment.1 Only a few of the silver senators followed Voorhees' example in support of the administration. The Senate took its time for leisurely deliberation, and entered upon another long debate, in which the silver question in all its aspects, historical and theoretical, was threshed over at wearisome length. Senator Jones, of Nevada, made a speech which filled a hundred pages of the Congressional Record. Seven states interested in silver-mining, with only one-sixtieth of the population of the country, had about one-sixth of the total vote of the Senate. Senators from these states, when denounced as obstructionists, acknowledged the charge and declared that so grave a situation demanded exceptional methods of opposition
December 5, 2025 at 9:05 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Diane Keaton's estate is on the market for 26 million. Mere bag o shells.
www.reddit.com/r/zillowgone...
It has this for when you want to gently interrogate someone:
A single chair in a circular room with lots of words on the wall and a big ass light over it. Just a perfectly normal thing to find in a perfectly normal house.
December 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Dang. Doesn't get any more random than this.
Chart with standard deviation bands for today's trading in the stock market, showing no trend at all, just up & down & up & down....
December 4, 2025 at 9:44 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Watching the temp drop like a rock on my outside thermometer. What never ceases to amaze is how off the reported temps are from what I measure.
Here, you see a narrow range from 33 to 35. Meantime, mine is registering 30, down from 34 at 5:30 PM.
We're in a valley, cold air sinks.
Northern NJ temps, non a range from 33 to 35.
December 4, 2025 at 12:28 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
The election of 2028 is likely going to be something like the election of 1892 when it comes to the tariff. More than likely the Dem candidate will have to say something like what Cleveland said in 1892, as those who benefit from tariff protection will be against rolling them back indiscriminately.
Republican protection was a fraud, a robbery of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few: "We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic party that the federal government has no constitutional power to impose and collect tariff duties, except for the purposes of revenue only." 2 The Democrats, however, were hardly prepared to go before the country on so radical a platform. Cleveland, in his letter of acceptance, while opposing the theory that revenue laws should be passed for the purpose of granting discriminating governmental aid to private ventures, stated that no exterminating war would be waged against any American interest. "We believe," said he, " that the advantages of freer raw material should be accorded to our manufacturers, and we contemplate a fair and careful distribution of necessary tariff burdens rather than the precipitation of free trade."
December 3, 2025 at 11:21 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
...continued
cost three cents extra; the duties on oranges and lemons were trebled. The duty on tin-plate, which was raised from one to two and a half cents a pound, was made an excuse for an immediate raising of the prices of all canned goods.1 Buyers were besought by striking placards displayed in the windows of shops to purchase before the McKinley prices went into effect. Republican discussion as to prices was contradictory. According to the older and traditional argument, manufacturers behind the bulwarks of protection were enabled to introduce improvements and processes which lowered the cost of production, and ultimately led to lower prices. Beginning with the campaign of 1888, a new position was taken: prices might be too low. Said McKinley, " I do not prize the word cheap. It is not a word of hope ; it is not a word of comfort ; it is not a word of cheer ; it is not a word of inspiration! It is the badge of poverty; it is the signal of distress.
December 1, 2025 at 1:20 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
This sounds familiar.
Continued in the next one.
The tariff had hardly passed before the prices of retail commodities were generally raised, partly because of necessary readjustments in trade, partly from the increased cost of production, and partly because of a concerted scheme on the part of merchants and tradesmen to secure an exceptional temporary profit. So general were the advances in price, and so loudly were they advertised, that Republicans were immediately put upon the defence. Democratic speakers enlarged upon the new burdens placed upon the laboring man: his coal, his wife's and children's dresses, blankets, carpets, table and kitchen ware were dearer; fresh fish, formerly free, were made to pay a cent a pound; every cabbage...
December 1, 2025 at 1:20 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
As I think I've noted before, one thing I've found out from reading this antique history of the US is that the GOP has always been the pro-tariff party. And here, under Republican President Harrison, is the first instance of the Congress ceding to the President a power to impose tariffs:
Reciprocity prevailed, although the Aldrich amendment which incorporated it into the bill differed slightly from the proposition made by Blaine.2 Instead of permitting the president to reduce duties if reciprocal privileges were granted, the executive was authorized to impose discriminating duties in case reciprocity was withheld. In this way it was urged immediate advantage of free sugar would be secured.3 Such constitutional lawyers on the Republican side as Evarts, Edmunds, and Hoar questioned the constitutionality of placing large discretionary powers of taxation in the hands of the executive; but this position was overridden by a majority of the party.4 It was argued that the exercise of an optional power in executing the law did not convert the executive into a law-maker.
December 1, 2025 at 12:53 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Me rn:
Fainting woman on a couch being attended by a man and three other women.
November 23, 2025 at 2:09 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Effect of the opening of the Suez Canal on the dream of opening a canal through Central America. Meantime the guy who did the Suez wanted to make the Sahara an inland sea. Yikes.
Remembrance of the depredations committed in the Pacific by Confederate cruisers because the federal navy could not readily pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific gradually died out as the war time receded ; and the project of a canal across the American isthmus faded again from public thought. The opening of the Suez Canal, November 17, 1869, not only aroused fresh interest in inter-oceanic canals but affected America by opening a direct way between the Mediterranean and the Pacific coast without making the Cape of Good Hope passage. A canal across the American isthmus would prolong this route to the Atlantic and place a girdle of transportation about the globe. Rumor said that Ferdinand de Lesseps, promoter and builder of the Suez Canal, intended turning his attention next to making a vast inland sea of the Sahara Desert, and at the same time proposed attacking the American canal problem.
November 21, 2025 at 9:11 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
This'll date me.
Cover of Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road album.
November 17, 2025 at 2:14 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Back to reading that antique history of the US, and after that vile Reconstruction volume it's nice to get back into old controversies about things long past, like the gold standard vs "free silver" vs greenbacks (advocates of the two latter being the same, mostly):
As many as thirteen bills were introduced into Congress in a single day in October, 1877, postponing the day set for resuming hard-money payments in the United States, but all failed to pass. During the following year a bill to repeal entirely the original resumption bill passed the House amid cries of "repudiation" from those who opposed payment of national obligations in paper. " The greenback is the most powerful enemy our country has ever encountered, slavery alone excepted," said Chittenden, a representative from New York.1 "It is not money ; it is a device. " "I hold in my hands, ' ' retorted Davis, of North Carolina, " a ten-dollar bill issued in 1869. When issued it was worth $7.50. It is now worth $9.30, and yet is only a 'dirty rag,' a stain worth nothing in eyes prejudiced by gold."
November 16, 2025 at 10:30 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
The corrupt bargain that brought Hayes to power in 1876.
Sympathetically described, of course. Reconstruction was over, Jim Crow, lynchings, Tulsa, were all in the future.
"Peace".
I never thought they celebrated massacring the blacks. Figured they covered it up.
Nope, they straight up applauded.
Though the Wormley agreement was not generally known when Hayes was inaugurated, the substance of it was in the thoughts of many men. Generalized, this famous bargain meant: Let the reforming Republicans direct the national government and the southern whites may rule the negroes. Such were the terms on which the new administration took up its task. They precisely and consciously reversed the principles of reconstruction as followed tmder Grant, and hence they ended an era. Grant in 1868 had cried peace, but in his time, with the radicals and carpet-baggers in the saddle, there was no peace; with Hayes peace came.
November 10, 2025 at 6:10 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Actual chapter heading. Dept of Shit You Can't Make Up.
First paragraph, also shown, is quite something too.
It goes on to talk approvingly of white savagery towards black office holders and voters. Truly unbelievable.
THE elections of 1874 were full of promise for the afflicted white people of the South. It was manifest from the result that other issues than the wrongs of the negro and the sinfulness of the rebels had assumed, temporarily at least, the controlling position in the minds of the northern voters. The solid practical fact of a Democratic House of Representatives in the next Congress was naturally the salient feature of the new situation ; but scarcely less satisfactory was the evidence of a growing volume of sympathy on the part of the most thoughtful classes in the North for the corresponding classes of the South.
November 10, 2025 at 3:46 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Still reading this tripe, and the hoops this POS goes through to cover up white savagery is quite something. The below is illustrative. A massacre of blacks (he can barely cover up that fact) is reason for finding that US troops needed to leave the South so whites could finish off the blacks.
Most disastrous was the affair at Colfax, Grant Parish, in April, 1873, where in a pitched battle several white men and more than fifty negroes were killed.^ The troops of the United States were admittedly all that kept the whites from sweeping Kellogg and his black supporters into oblivion. Such was the situation which, even more glaringly than the conditions in South Carolina, displayed to the people of the North the reductio ad absurdum of reconstruction through negro suffrage and a regime of carpet-baggers.
November 10, 2025 at 12:12 AM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
As you can see on this map, cold air is sweeping down from Canada through the Midwest, and will eventually make it to me over on the east coast. But you can actually see the Rockies here, and how the cold air gets funneled away from the mountains.
Temperature map of the US showing cold air sweeping through the Plains, but not the Rockies. You can clearly see the Rockies blocking the cold air from affecting the far western US.
November 9, 2025 at 9:27 PM
labsoftwaredev.bsky.social
Jeebus, this is just straight up Nazi shit.
This man was made president of the American Historical Association ***after*** writing this racist diatribe.
AND he made PhD's of a bunch of "historians" too.
To the emancipated race all the astounding changes of the recent wonder years had come through other sources, and the vague but intoxicating delights of political privilege must, they felt, be enjoyed under the same auspices that had brought them freedom, schools, and the unlimited indulgence of those weird emotions which they called religion.
November 9, 2025 at 3:31 AM