#2
this happens with chickens pre processing. They give them a shit ton of water before going to the plant. Don't get behind a chicken truck while they are still alive, you will literally see a shit show.
Posted by: chris ||
02/02/2026 0:35 Comments ||
Top||
#3
We quit buying meat at Wally World years ago.
When they got caught injecting water the 1st time.
#6
Sam's is a couple of hours away but when in Tyler for necessary medical we stop and stock up - meat and produce quality is generally better than local.
[Hot Air] LIGONIER, Pennsylvania -- All that remained of Ruthie's Diner on Jan. 21 was charred, ice-encased rubble -- the aftermath of firefighters' desperate efforts to extinguish the blaze that ultimately consumed the modest eatery, which for more than 70 years had served locals and the travelers, anglers and hunters heading east along the Lincoln Highway.
Several locals pulled into the parking lot and simply stared, at a loss for words as they watched a community mainstay reduced to charred ruins, thin smoke still rising from the ashes.
Ruthie's was the kind of place where everyone felt familiar, whether you'd been in last week, last month or only when hunting and fishing season came around.
It was where my parents took me, and where I later took my children and grandchildren. For anyone who walked through those doors, it felt like home: comforting, unpretentious and powerful in its simplicity.
It was the kind of place that served chicken-fried steak smothered in gravy, their version of peas and carrots succotash, and a pile of french fries unlike any other. Outside of the mile-high pies, it was the french fries that everyone loved.
Originally known as Burnsy's Diner in the 1950s and '60s, it was so rooted in the community that it even sponsored its own bowling team in the Ligonier Valley league and was famous for staying open 24 hours a day.
Every time I went, I met not just locals but hunters and anglers on their way to cabins, Pittsburgh families headed for the Flight 93 National Memorial or Idlewild, and neighbors gathering after Sunday services at one of the many churches that dot this Westmoreland County village.
[Avid Outdoorsman] Nobody likes talking about money in hunting because it sounds like whining. But if you’ve been at this long enough, you’ve watched the same pattern play out: license costs creep up, application fees stack, access gets carved up into smaller parcels, and the "cheap" lease your buddy had turns into a bidding war. Even when the license itself doesn’t explode, everything around it does—gas, ammo, optics, range time, processing, and especially land. Some states are trying to fund access and habitat by shifting more of the bill to nonresidents, which is its own debate, but it’s also a tell: pressure is real. Here are 15 states where residents are feeling the squeeze the hardest right now, usually because the cost of hunting isn’t just a tag anymore—it’s an entire lifestyle line item.
Texas
Texas is the definition of "the tag isn’t the expensive part." Plenty of residents can still buy a license and hunt, but access is where your wallet gets emptied. Land prices staying high makes leases more valuable, and when land is expensive, owners squeeze every possible revenue stream out of it. Texas land pricing has remained elevated, with median per-acre pricing still climbing into mid-2024 depending on region, and that tends to ripple straight into lease expectations and "pay-to-play" setups. If you’re a resident without family land, you’re either driving farther for public, getting creative with small parcels, or paying more every season for the same kind of access you used to get with a handshake. A lot of guys aren’t quitting hunting—they’re just hunting less, traveling less, and picking one species or one weekend because the total tab keeps rising.
Georgia
Georgia’s a perfect example of “quiet priced out” because deer hunting is still popular, but lease culture keeps tightening. University of Georgia extension materials have cited average deer hunting lease values around the mid-teens per acre in recent years, with wide ranges depending on the tract and region. That adds up fast when a club lease jumps a few bucks per acre and suddenly every member’s dues bump up. What makes it worse is parcelization—more land chopped into smaller tracts means more owners, more “no hunting,” and more demand for the remaining huntable blocks. For a resident who doesn’t already have a lease, the barrier to entry can feel like joining a country club, not a weekend hobby.
#1
No longer a hobby, it's a business. The days of knocking on the farmer's door and asking permission to go back in the woods to hunt squirrel are pretty much over.
As in the UK and Germany, if you don't actually own the land, you're out of luck. It's now become a rich man's game. Hunting on private land in Georgia requires written permission or proof of lease or hunt club membership. Written permission can be as restrictive as identification of the specific hunt dates, location, tree stand or blind.
State hunting areas are still an option. Be sure to check the rules and weapons specifics and hours of each area, check-in/out stations, number of hunters allowed. These rules oftentimes vary. Many of these public areas are over-hunted, but if you're just looking for a quiet day in the stand, you're probably good-to-go.
In Georgia a lease, if one can be found, can have an annual fee of as much as $2500. Lists of lease memberships and vacancies are seldom made public and the reporting of lease income for tax purposes is oftentimes left undone.
The future of hunting in the US appears to be on a parallel that of the South Africa game farm. Guided hunting and approved individual harvesting will become the norm.
#3
In Texas hog "hunting" is very much a business, although it less hunting and more pest removal at this point. It doesn't help that the feral pigs are fairly smart, have a very good sense of smell and are fast over short distances. A blog by one hunter stated that even with a semi-auto rifle, a hunter is lucky to get 2 shots off before the hogs scatter and run.
[Daily Signal] A new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows that, absent immigration, America’s population will begin to shrink by 2030. As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, this projection underscores a hard truth: the collapse of marriage and family life represents the gravest threat to our great nation’s future.
That is why The Heritage Foundation has released the first in a series of special reports on "Saving America by Saving the Family." The central argument is straightforward. Our country cannot afford to continue ignoring our declining marriage and birth rates, as lawmakers on both the left and the right have done for decades.
The discussion ranges from eliminating all marriage penalties embedded in welfare programs to new tax credits for married families, to offering public honors to couples for every decade they remain married.
These proposals reflect a blend of longstanding conservative priorities and new ideas, all animated by a shared belief: that strong American families were at the heart of the nation in 1776 and remain essential to its future. They are not offered as a final word, but as the beginning of a long-overdue national conversation about how to halt America’s demographic and social collapse.
Unfortunately, there are those—on both the radical Left and the libertarian right—who are rigidly and ideologically opposed to our key ideas for supporting married families.
Critics on the left argue that opposition to abortion and support for married parents who prefer to provide home childcare (usually through the mother) amount to a patriarchal assault on women’s "autonomy" and "reproductive freedom."
Meanwhile, critics on the libertarian Right contend that government has no business trying to incentivize decisions related to family structure.
#3
Actually the non-repro is on the Left. Natural selection. Those on the Right are still at replacement levels. In 1970 we had 250M, today we have 340M. Somehow we muddled through with fewer people. Just quit subsidizing birthing factories in the urban environments.
#4
Everyone reading rantburg is too old to contribute.
Posted by: Angel of Death ||
02/02/2026 10:55 Comments ||
Top||
#5
We keep kids in school too long. We send kids to college who would don't belong there and graduate way too many with worthless degrees. We need more manufacturing jobs that pay well without requiring phony college degrees. How can people start a family if they have no income until they're in the mid-thirties?
Posted by: Bill Crolulet2910 ||
02/02/2026 11:14 Comments ||
Top||
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited
[Regnum] An active region on the Sun is rapidly growing, which could increase solar flares and their impact on Earth in the near future. This was reported on February 1 by the press service of the Solar Research Laboratory at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to experts, all the activity is currently concentrated in one spot: a sunspot is rapidly expanding and accumulating energy. When this energy builds up, the Sun "relieves" the tension with solar flares. The main question, the scientists note, is when this area will stop growing. If this doesn't happen by tomorrow, February 2, solar flares could begin to affect Earth in the afternoon.
If the active region continues to grow through the end of the week, potential consequences could also affect space technology, including rocket launch plans. However, experts are not providing a precise forecast: the reasons for the surge in activity are related to processes occurring deep beneath the Sun's surface, which are currently inaccessible to direct observation.
Earlier, on February 1, a powerful solar flare of the highest X-class was recorded. The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported that the peak of activity occurred during the daytime, and after the flare, signs of an ejection of solar material appeared. So far, the direct impact on Earth is estimated to be minimal, as the active region was located away from the Sun-Earth line.
That morning, scientists noted a sharp increase in solar activity and a series of strong M-level flares, which precede the most powerful X-class events.
More from regnum.ru A high-class solar flare was recorded on the Sun.
A highly powerful X-class solar flare occurred on the Sun. This was reported on February 1 by the press service of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory at the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
According to scientists, the outbreak reached magnitude X1.04, peaking at 3:33 PM Moscow time. Experts note a high probability of further major outbreaks in the near future.
Following the event, signs of a coronal mass ejection were detected. The potential impact on Earth is currently assessed as minimal, as the active region is located away from the Sun-Earth line. Only extremely powerful events could cause ejections to strike the planet from this angle.
The Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences clarified that the active region will enter the zone of direct impact on Earth between February 3 and 7.
The laboratory previously reported a sharp increase in solar activity. On the morning of February 1, several strong M-level flares, which precede X-class events, were recorded. Meanwhile, at the end of January, the Sun was in a phase of declining activity, and specialists expected a period of calm.
On January 24, the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported a very large double explosion on the far side of the Sun. Scientists emphasized that it was impossible to determine its cause. The laboratory clarified that due to the lack of satellites on the far side of the star, they could only speculate about what exactly happened.
Even more from regnum.ru A sharp increase in solar activity and strong flares have been recorded on the Sun.
A sharp surge in solar activity occurred: several strong M-level flares were recorded this morning, which precede the most powerful X-class events. This was reported on February 1 by the press service of the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Scientists registered the flares in the early morning hours Moscow time. This was unexpected, as the Sun had previously been in a phase of noticeable decline in activity, and experts had expected a period of calm.
At the end of January, solar activity declined sharply: the number of sunspots decreased, X-ray fluxes weakened, and the overall activity index approached its minimum values. However, the situation changed the day before—the rate of flares increased severalfold.
The laboratory does not rule out the possibility that solar activity may increase even further in the next 24 hours. While no impact on Earth has been detected, specialists are continuing to monitor the solar activity.
On January 24, the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported a very large double explosion on the far side of the Sun. Scientists emphasized that it was impossible to determine its cause. The laboratory clarified that due to the lack of satellites on the far side, they could only speculate about what happened.
#7
Bah, Warming cultists tell us the sun has no effect on earth. Yet they all decline my offer to stake them out to bake in the sun and enjoy the ants.
#8
Everyone has heard of the Carrington Event, right?
Excerpt: The solar flare [Carrington Event] caused fires as the enhanced electric current flowing through telegraph wires ignited recording tape at telegraph stations.
#9
Yes, I monitor the sun daily because it affects the data from the offshore rigs I'm monitoring. The current sunspot is a bit worrisome, 20 flares including 3 X. I think it's 4463.
The Ghulam system, rooted in pre-20th-century Pashtun practices like bacha bazi, involved boys as sexual servants; Taliban bans on such abuses in 2021 were short-lived, with critics linking the code to broader human rights regressions since their 2021 return to power.
⚡️Regime and allied militias fully retake all strategic locations in East and West Telemt (📍North Gonder Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia) by January 31st afternoon, reclaiming Shintama Mountain, Maybere, Minchara, and Maygimere from TPLF.
— Amhara War Updates | የአማራ ጦርነት ወቅታዊ መረጃ (@AmharaWarUpdate) February 1, 2026
Text:
⚡️Regime and allied militias fully retake all strategic locations in East and West Telemt (📍North Gonder Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia) by January 31st afternoon, reclaiming Shintama Mountain, Maybere, Minchara, and Maygimere from TPLF.
🔵 On January 30th, a six-hour battle erupted between ENDF and TPLF forces in Minchara and Maybere Kebeles (East Telemt). During the fighting, TPLF forces advanced and temporarily seized a strategic mountain despite repeated drone reconnaissance in the area.
🔴 During their advance in Minchara, TPLF forces executed four unarmed farmers, accusing them of refusing to assist in evacuating wounded TPLF fighters.
🔵 Fighting in Degebray Kebele continued for five consecutive days, extending into January 31st. During this period, TPLF forces reportedly captured a significant number of ENDF personnel and consolidated control over Shintama Mountain, a key high-ground position.
The 'Long game'
[Breitbart] Saturday on FNC’s “Ingraham Angle,” Breitbart News senior contributor and author of The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon Peter Schweizer discussed birth tourism
Schweizer said, “What happened, really beginning in 2011 and continuing to this day, the Chinese Communist Party has run articles…explaining to the Chinese elite that, hey, the American 14th Amendment says if your child is born in the United States, fly there, and your child can be a U.S. citizen. So this massive industry has evolved, primarily in California, also in China, where people in China will pay $60,000 or so. They will fly to the United States, … they will lie on their visa application. That’s where these criminal charges come into place. They say we’re not going to have a child. We’re just here as tourists. They give birth here. … The problem is, Rachel, that when they turn 18, that child will be a U.S. citizen, even though they grew up in Communist China. It’s a massive, massive industry.”
#1
Hong Kong had the same birth tourism problem due to birthright citizenship. Commie moms would come across the border, have a baby at a Hong Kong hostipal and since they're now related to a Hong Kong resident they're eligible to move there and especially get subsidized housing. Hong Kong has a reputation for hypercapitalism but it really has a ton of poor people and back during Mao's time it built shitloads of apartment buildings for the poor so they wouldn't revolt and join China. It's forgotten today but the British did not rule Hong Kong kindly. They harshly repressed dissent, read the riot act and then opened fire on protesters, all the usual British responses. Why do you think like half the world, including us, celebrates their independence from the British? They were royal pricks and looted countries clean and let the population starve to death. Exporting potatoes from Ireland during the potato famine is probably the best-known incident but there were many, many more.
[FoxBusiness] Linwei Ding was convicted on 7 counts of economic espionage and 7 counts of theft of trade secrets
A federal jury found a former Google engineer guilty of stealing artificial intelligence (AI) trade secrets and spying for Chinese tech companies, ending a high-profile Silicon Valley trial.
As detailed in court documents obtained by FOX Business, Linwei Ding, also known as Leon Ding, was convicted Thursday on all counts after an 11-day trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Prosecutors alleged Ding secretly stole proprietary AI-related data from Google while working with companies linked to the People’s Republic of China.
Ding, 38, was hired by Google in 2019 as a software engineer working on the company’s supercomputing data centers that are involved in training and deploying advanced AI models.
The jury found him guilty on seven counts of theft of trade secrets and seven counts of economic espionage, concluding that he stole confidential AI technology while employed at Google.
The stolen information involved Google’s proprietary hardware and software systems used to power AI workloads, including custom chips and networking technology.
Federal prosecutors said Ding began copying sensitive internal Google documents in May 2022 and transferred files to personal cloud accounts while disguising the activity to avoid security systems.
The government said Ding transferred more than 1,000 unique files totaling roughly 14,000 pages, with 105 documents forming the core of the criminal case.
Defense attorneys said Ding never sold or used the information and argued Google failed to adequately protect the documents.
"We respect the jury’s verdict, but we are obviously disappointed," Ding’s attorney, Grant Fondo of Goodwin Procter, said after the decision was announced.
Ding was indicted in March 2024 and a superseding indictment filed Feb. 4, 2025, expanded the charges.
Prosecutors alleged Ding secretly affiliated with two China-based technology firms, including serving as chief technology officer for one and founding another while on Google’s payroll.
The indictment also accused Ding of misleading investors by claiming he could replicate Google’s AI supercomputing technology.
#5
Where was Mr. Ding born? Is he an American citizen, a naturalized American citizen, an H1B worker from China, an illegal alien? The article doesn't say but inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/02/2026 12:26 Comments ||
Top||
[RedState] BLUF: But incentives matter, too, and that's part of the ongoing rollout of SNAP reforms pushed by President Trump. Some of those reforms just went into effect on Sunday.
New work requirements are expanding across more states Sunday for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, the nation’s largest federal assistance program.
Starting today, adults between the ages of 18 and 64 without dependent children must work, participate in employment and training programs, or volunteer at least 80 hours per month to be eligible to receive SNAP benefits. Those who do not meet the requirement can receive benefits for only three months within a three-year period.
The new requirements expand work rules to additional groups that were previously exempt, including adults ages 55 to 64 and parents with children ages 14 or older. The law also eliminates prior exemptions for veterans, homeless people and individuals ages 18 to 24 who were in foster care when they turned 18, according to federal guidance.
The changes stem from provisions included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last summer.
In other words, there is a new incentive here: If you're able to work, then one way or another, you're going to. That's a good thing. Some of these people doubtless have skills that can be put to good use. If not, well, there is always litter along the roadways and highways that needs to be picked up, and ditches that need to be dug.
52.1% of these have NEVER married and have lived their lives off the US Taxpayer and various "Bedmates" from day 1.
Native American 29.6%
Black American 27.1%
Hispanic 26.8%
White 18.5%
Asian 14.1%
How about requiring the mother to identify possible sperm donators for DNA testing?
Once identified, have the donor, instead of Taxpayers pay for child support.
I suppose a chain gang is out. ;-) But street sweeping and garbage collection along with basic literacy, numeracy, and handyman and life skills would not go amiss for making them more employable. Send each one home with a basic tool kit and a full set of basic interview clothes at the end of nine months — they’d be employable as repairmen for public housing, cooks in fast food restaurants, and warehouse employees, or offer the option to stay in the program longer and get a GED.
#6
@5 That would require them to be motivated and work hard. Given the below I kind of understand why they don't.
From AI
'To live comfortably as a single person in CT, an annual income of over $105,000 is needed, while basic survival (a "living wage") for a single adult is estimated at approximately $43,680-$52,581 annually ($20.92-$25.28 per hour). Families of four require significantly more, often exceeding $290,000 for a comfortable lifestyle' and CT isn't the most expensive state to live in.
[Jewish Telegraph Agency] Spooked by the deal finalized last week to sell part of TikTok to a U.S. investor group, some users have sought alternatives to the wildly popular social media platform.
Many are turning to UpScrolled, an app founded last year by a Palestinian tech entrepreneur who has promoted it as an alternative to mainstream social media outlets that he claims have silenced pro-Palestinian voices.
UpScrolled has surged to become the most-downloaded social media platform in Apple’s app store — and it has also been flooded with antisemitic and anti-Israel content, including expressions of gratitude that it permits such material.
[BBC] It sounds like something from a science fiction movie, but Stephen Eisele is confident that one day his company will open a data centre on the Moon.
"The way we see it is that by putting the data centre in space, you're really offering unparalleled security," says the president of Lonestar Data Holdings.
Last month, the Florida-based firm claimed to have successfully tested a tiny data centre the size of a hardback book that hitched a ride to the Moon on the Athena Lunar Lander from US space exploration firm Intuitive Machines. This, in turn, had been launched by a rocket from Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Data centres are the vast warehouses that house stacks of computers that store and process data used by websites, companies and governments.
Lonestar says that putting them on the Moon will offer customers secure, reliable data processing, while taking advantage of unlimited solar energy to power them.
And while space-based data centres may sound far-fetched, it's an idea that's really starting to take off.
Part of the reason is rocketing demand and the difficulty of finding suitable sites on Earth.
The ever-expanding use of artificial intelligence (AI) computing has seen a massive increase in the amount of data that needs to be stored and processed around the world.
As a result, the need for data centres has shot up too, with annual demand set to rise between 19% and 22% by 2030, according to global management consultants McKinsey.
New facilities are springing up all the time - but it's getting hard to find places to put them. Data centres are large and sprawling, and use enormous amounts of power and water for cooling.
And increasingly local people don't want them built nearby.
Putting data centres in space – either in orbit around Earth, or on the Moon - the theory goes, means they can't do quite so much harm. There's more-or-less unlimited energy available from the sun, for example, and no neighbours to complain about the environmental impacts.
Not only that, space-based data centres could specialise in services for spacecraft and other space facilities, with space-to-space data transfers quicker than from the ground.
Last summer, a European Commission-funded feasibility study into orbiting data centres published its results.
The Ascend report by carried out by Thales Alenia Space - a joint venture between French and Italian aerospace groups Thales and Leonardo - published its results.
It determined that deploying data centres in space "could transform the European digital landscape", and be "more eco-friendly".
Thales Alenia Space envisages building a constellation of 13 satellites measuring a combined 200m-by-80m, and with a total data processing power of around 10 megawatts (MW). That's equivalent to a current medium-sized, ground-based data centre, with some 5,000 servers.
Based on technologies that already exist or are under development, the satellites would be assembled in orbit.
Damien Dumestier, Ascend project architect at Thales Alenia Space, says that for space-based data centres to be more environmentally friendly than existing ground-based ones it will be necessary to make the rocket launchers 10 times less emissive over their lifecycles. He says this looks possible.
"But in order to cover the new technology's developments and the production capacity ramp-up to benefit from scale, we have to consider larger system capacity, around 200MW, meaning 200 of our envisaged large space infrastructures and 200 launches," he says.
"The main question is when an adapted launcher will be ready. Depending on the investment and decisions to be taken, this could be done for 2030 or 2035, meaning commercial viability before 2037."
However, despite this optimism from firms aiming to develop the technology, Dr Domenico Vicinanza, associate professor of intelligent systems and data science at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, says there are numerous big hurdles before space-based data centres can be a viable proposition.
"Even with the contribution and advancements of companies like SpaceX, launching hardware into orbit remains extremely expensive," he says. "Each kilogram sent into space costs thousands of dollars.
"Space-based data centres would require not only the data equipment but also the infrastructure to protect, power, and cool them. All of which add up in weight and complexity."
Cooling the equipment will be a particular problem, because conventional cooling systems don't work well without gravity.
Meanwhile, space weather can damage electronics, while the ever-increasing quantity of space debris puts the physical hardware at risk.
Dr Vicinanza adds: "And fixing problems in orbit is far from straightforward. Even with robotics and automation, there are limits to what can be repaired remotely.
"A big hardware failure might necessitate a costly human mission, potentially making downtime stretch for weeks or months."
#3
...energy? really? All they gave us is wind and solar farms, not to mention the Great Climate Scam. A lot of government science grants are just more "Learing Center" black holes.
[BBC] From helping you to focus more to improving sports performance, some scientists believe "depositing" sleep for later use can bring a range of benefits.
It's the weekend. The perfect opportunity to switch off the alarm and spend an extra hour or so in bed. For those of us able to enjoy this luxury, sleeping in to catch up on lost rest from earlier in the week is a common tactic. But are we thinking about this the wrong way around? Might it be better to "bank" extra hours of slumber ahead of a busy period to help to counteract the effects of sleepless nights?
Sleep banking – where you snooze for longer over multiple nights ahead of a period where your sleep is likely to be restricted – could well be an effective tactic, according to some researchers. They say it helps the brain to stockpile crucial resources for later deployment, improving alertness and cognitive performance when sleep deprivation hits.
The idea is growing in popularity among wellness enthusiasts on TikTok, who extol sleep banking before long-haul travel or big work events to improve mental performance, or act as a "safety net" before a busy period. So does it really work?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
