BB's Uncensored Daily News Brief 02-13-25

 BB's Uncensored Daily News Brief 02-13-25

Use a search engine to investigate each headline.

-Hegseth Announces No New Aid for Ukraine.
-Study of 2.3 Million Find That Covid “Vaccines” Destroy the Immune System.
-Senate Confirms Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.
-RFK Jr Clears Final Hurdle Before Final Senate Confirmation Vote.
-Anna Paulina Luna to Lead House Investigation Into JFK Assassination, Jeffrey Epstein, and UFOs.
-Trump Nominating Sean Cairncross as National Cyber Director.
-Trump says Putin agreed to Ukraine war talks 'immediately'.
-DOGE is calling for an investigation into Elizabeth Warren’s multi-million dollar net worth! .
-The federal judge who had temporarily blocked President Trump and Elon Musk’s plan reversed course Tuesday.
-President Trump signs Executive Order MANDATING federal agencies to work with Elon Musk’s DOGE..
-Attorney general: US sues New York officials over immigration enforcement.
-Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for “large scale social deception”. .
-Microsoft Drops USAID-Funded NewsGuard After Ted Cruz Starts Digging.
-Whoopi Goldberg is now making fun of Elon’s kid’s name as the audience laughs.
-Mysterious Fog with ‘Chemical Smell’ Envelops Florida, Residents Fall Ill..
-Biden Immigration Policy Was a Boon for Catholic Charities, Which Raked in Billions in Grant Money
-We Give Social Security to People 150 Years Old.
-Exposed USAID Is a “Criminal Organization”
-Pritzker Family Has 64 NGOs (non-governmental organization) Sucking In Millions of Taxpayer Money.
-Democrat Rep Garcia: “The American Public Wants Us to Bring ACTUAL WEAPONS to This Bar Fight!.
-Pam Bondi Has Filed Charges Against NY, Kathy Hochul, Letitia James and Mark Schroder.
-Elon Musk Calls for Full Dismantling of US State Media and Its Propaganda Empire.
-Shock Claim: Hunter Biden Was Running the White House!.
-LA Prioritizes Gender Identity and Pronoun Training for City Employees After Catastrophic Wildfires.
-Florida Appeals Court Blisters Pulitzer Board and Rules in Favor of Trump in Defamation Lawsuit.
-Planned Parenthood in panic mode over DOGE oversite.
-More Than 160 Unexploded WWII Bombs Discovered Under U.K. Children’s Playground.
-Fighter Jet Crashes Into Southern California Harbor — 2 Pilots Ejected.
-Jet Owned by Mötley Crüe’s Vince Neil Involved in Fatal Plane Crash at Scottsdale Airport in Arizona.
-Trump Says He Will Undo Traitor Joe’s Environmental Policy.
-DHS Chief Noem ‘Clawed Back’ $59 Million FEMA Allocated to House Illegal Aliens in NYC Hotels.
-8 Venezuelan Nationals With Ties to Vicious Gang Charged in Sex Trafficking of Illegal Aliens at Tennessee Motels.
-Perverted Massachusetts Drag Queens Hijack a City Council Meeting Demanding the Town Become a Tranny Sanctuary.
-Joe’s White House Was Involved in the Trump Classified Documents Case “From the Start”.
-California Spending $9.5 Billion on Healthcare for Illegal Aliens This Year.
-Elon Musk Unveils Insane Federal Government Retirement System That’s Literally in a Cave.
-5 States Sue John Deere Over the Right to Repair Equipment.
-President Trump Announces New Intelligence Advisory Board With Devin Nunes as Chair.
-Trump Appoints Ric Grenell to Clean Up the “Woke Incubator” Kennedy Center.
-FBI Leaker Caught Tipping Off Venezuelan Gang Ahead of ICE Raids.
-AP Blocked from White House Event After Refusing “Gulf of America” Name Change.
-Pam Bondi Personally Removes Large Framed Photos of Biden, Harris, Garland from Wall in Justice Department.
-Maine to Continue Allowing Trans Athletes to Compete In Women's Sports Despite Trump Order.
-Chevron Slashing Up to 20% of Its Workforce In Major Revamp of Company.
-Trump Fires USAID Top Watchdog Following Billions Wasted on Educating al Qaeda Terrorist and Drag Shows.
-Trump Could Claw Back $4.3 Billion in Unspent High-Speed Rail Funds from California.
-China Claims It Can Detect U.S. Stealth Aircraft from 1,240 Miles Away.
-Hegseth Calls NATO Membership for Ukraine Unrealistic.
-Boeing to Lay Off 400 Employees Related to NASA’s Artemis Program.
-Idiot Entertainer Cardi B Claims Trump Ruined Her $3,000 Shoes at the Super Bowl, Deported Her Uncle.
-Disney Ends Two DEI Programs Amid Growing Investor Backlash.
-Stephen A. Smith Says Serena Williams’ Husband Should Divorce Her After Super Bowl 'Crip Walk' Stunt.
-Serena Williams Defends Taylor Swift From Those Mean Super Bowl Fans: “Don’t Listen to Those Boos!”.
-Glamour Mag Melts Down Over Taylor Swift Super Bowl Boos.
-Chiefs Player Complains About “Touchy Calls” From Refs During the Super Bowl.
-Eagles' Lineman Landon Dickerson Chugs Beer While Hooked Up To IV Bag in Epic Super Bowl Celebration.

If you like the daily briefs, buy me a cup of coffee. https://buymeacoffee.com/baytownbert
As an added bonus, the song of the day: Fresh Blood - EEls https://youtu.be/EKkM3tV657k?si=UmylahqGAd0oHkY0

BB's Uncensored Daily News Brief 02-12-25

 BB's Uncensored Daily News Brief 02-12-25

Use a search engine to investigate each headline.
-Deer Park pipeline explosion investigation reveals no safety violations.
-Military Drops Recruiting Efforts at Prestigious Black Engineering Awards Event.
-Hegseth Signs Memo Reversing Renaming of Fort Bragg from Fort Liberty.
-Justice Department wasted $128 million a year on ineffective legal aid for illegal immigrants.
-Disney Drops Two DEI Programs as Investor Backlash Grows.
-PBS Caves to Trump: ‘We Have Closed Our DEI Office’.
-U.K. Willing to Roll Back Tech Censorship to Avoid Trump Trade War.
-Judge Denies CBS Motion to Dismiss Trump ’60 Minutes’ Lawsuit as He Demands $10 Billion More.
-Chelsea Handler Compares Melania Trump to a Prostitute at Critics Choice Awards.
-Iran Stages Mock Trump Arrest to Celebrate Islamic Regime’s Birthday.
-Oscar-Winning Canadian Singer Buffy Sainte-Marie Stripped of Honors After Allegedly Lying About Indigenous Heritage.
-Colombia’s Gustavo Petro Asks Entire Cabinet to Resign After Trainwreck 6-Hour Meeting.
-World Athletics Moves to Cheek Swabs to Determine Female Eligibility.
-Trump signs executive order to continue downsizing federal workforce.
-Marc Fogel lands in Washington D.C. nearly four years after being detained in Russia.
-Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins pledged to preserve veterans benefits and not "balance the budgets on the backs of veterans.".
-Texas Senate panel votes to cut property taxes for homeowners.
Thousands of Secret JFK Assassination Files Discovered by Trump’s FBI.
-Anna Paulina Luna Investigating Second Shooter of JFK .
-Chinese Spy Balloon That Traversed U.S. Airspace Was Packed With American Tech.
-Zelensky Says Europe Will Not Be Able to Keep Ukraine Safe Without America.
-Zelensky Offers a Land Swap With Putin to End the War.
-There Are at Least 15 Active NIH Grants Paying for Tranny Animal Experiments.
-Glenn Beck Bombshell! Jeffrey Epstein Client List to Be Released in 10 Days!.
-DOGE Is Investigating Feds Whose Net Worths Have Suspiciously Exploded into Millions of Dollars.
-President of El Salvador: MS-13 Participates in “Satanic Child Sacrifice Rituals”.
-House Task Force Seeks to Declassify the Covid Origins Documents, Epstein List, JFK Files, and Other “Government Secrets”.
-Trump Signs New Executive Order: For Every Federal Employee That’s Hired, Four Others Needs to Be Fired or Quit.
-Judge Smacks Down CBS, Clears Trump’s $20 Billion Lawsuit to Move Forward.
-FEMA Fires 4 Employees Who Sent NYC Illegal Alien Money Last Week Despite President Trump’s Executive Order .
-Under Biden, American Universities Raked in Nearly $1 Billion From Mystery Offshore Donors, Including China.
-DOGE Is Taking a Chainsaw to the Failed Education Department.
-Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) “I don’t swear in public very well, but we have to f*** Trump,”.
-ICE Continues to Make Major Arrests in Texas, Including Cartel and Gang Members.
-Black Tennessee Preacher Calls for Violence Against Musk.
-U.S. Gov Paid $2.4M to Soros-Backed Censorship Giant.
-Study Finds that USAID Funneled Millions to Fund “Designated Terrorists”.
-Democrat Representative Kweisi Mfume Calls for Violence Against Trump and Musk: We Need a “Street Fight!”.
-Elon Musk Considers Ron Paul to Audit The Federal Reserve.
-Pentagon Ramps Up Surveillance Flights Near U.S.–Mexico Border.
-Border Czar Tom Homan Rebukes Pope Francis: ‘Leave Border Enforcement to Us’.
-DOGE Eliminates over $100M in DEI Funding at Department of Education.
-King of Jordan Tells Trump He Will Take In 2,000 Sick Gaza Children
*If you like the daily briefs, buy me a cup of coffee. https://buymeacoffee.com/baytownbert
As and added bonus, the song of the day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDXyikQl3vI

Reviving my lost Trackables.

 Reviving my lost Trackables.
BaytownBert 3-15-24

Over the last 20 years, I’ve purchased and in many cases released somewhere short of 150 Trackables (travel bugs). Believe it or not, I still record them at events or when I find them in a cache and feel compelled to move them along. I treat them like hot potatoes, as I don’t own them and am eager to place them. This can be a challenge in itself, as there are now many very small containers.

Recently I decided to see what state they are in and to my shock; I saw I had less than 10 that were still in circulation. What started this is the sad fact that these days I rarely get notified one of them has moved. I decided to recall them and create proxy tags. Seeing this is an arduous task, I compounded the project by evaluating what was on each trackable page and modifying and standardizing them to better represent what I want to present. After all, just like you, I sent many of these out in my Geocaching infancy.

First, I needed dog tags and I got them from Amazon. To keep from posting a long URL, I’ll leave a brief description (Ferraycle Blank Dog Tags Aluminum Tags). I got 100 for .22 each, which is far cheaper than buying new trackables. I then printed out a short description, the trackable code, and the word Proxy on 3 lines and printed them.

Each dog tag came in a small baggie and I used boxing tape to attach the small rectangle of paper on each dog tag. Now all I needed was a small enough hitchhiker to go inside the baggy to make an easy-to-place (MW5E61) trackable. Seeing I oversee the Baytown GeoTour (GT7A), I have a generous supply of wooden “nickels” coins and they easily fit inside the baggie. I then taped the baggie shut and Walla!, I have a cool proxy!
 
I am a slow-mo long-time cacher not interested in padding my find count, so I will take a few of these with me every time I go caching and drop them off, maybe under an LPC or any place they will fit(!). This is why my hitchhiker has to be very small. You may want to contact your tourism department to get a small token of some kind that will work.
I guess the biggest challenge to doing this is the amount of computer time it took to compile all of this info and for many, find a suitable hitchhiker, but if you are not jaded over the whole missing trackable issue, it is a way to relaunch your trackables and contribute to the game.

The Future of Geocaching?

 

The Future of Geocaching?
BaytownBert (Bert Marshall) 1-23-24

I am no expert on the game for starters, regardless of how I am perceived, but I have been playing it off and on going back to 2003. Back when I started, it was a wild adventure game of unknown containers, cryptic tips, tricky GPS devices and sketchy coordinates, and descriptions that often told a story. It was a danged challenge to find one and quite often, you would burn a gallon of gas between caches.

Each ‘cacher’ had a signature way of hiding caches and in the case of one aaronbarbee, you were fairly certain to get injured trying to sign the log (GC25N1B). There were no children that I remember and the game was dominated by computer geeks, math nerds, rocket scientists, geologists, lab techs and school teachers. I was a chemical Plant worker and a computer dude and was attracted to the technical side of the game.

My mentor was Sam Morrow, one of the three founders of the educational Texas Geocaching Association, which I informally joined in 2004. Sam was the lab superintendent at the Plant where we worked and my first few caches were around the San Jacinto monument. It was very common back in those days to be questioned by police and most veterans had numerous encounters. Before I go further, let me establish this is strictly an opinion piece and not intended to malign anyone. Geocaching is just a game and is fun however you play it and I am fine with that.

By 2010 there were a lot more caches, but nothing like there is now. I met my second mentor at the ten year anniversary of Geocaching – Houston Control. Larry Houston hosted an event at the Baytown Nature Center (GC25FVH ) and to me he was a rock god. HC owned a lot of very interesting and challenging caches and still hides them that way in 2024 (GCAJFM0 ). My brother tjbustem and I were in awe of him as he had maybe 200 caches under his belt and I, maybe half that. These were earned one at a time, often on solo expeditions and this was common. Back in the day, finding five or ten in a week was a successful achievement.

I decided I would try an astounding a thousand caches a year and some years I made it, but most I did not. Now mind you, numbers were important, but not my motivating factor. A few years passed and all of a sudden I started noticing some people were bumping their numbers up a thousand in a few days. I couldn’t believe it. How in the world? Before I knew it there came the proliferation of low-quality hides. These were caches that required no skill or effort or apparently forethought and the introduction of cell phone GPS capability further diluted the quality of the game. Now any casual interested person with a phone began hiding caches that more often than not registered a negative number on quality. They soon lost interest and their containers needed maintenance only to be archived by the reviewer after a few months.

Events at one time were real gatherings with lots of attendees and everyone walked away feeling like they had witnessed something and learned from it. Now, again more times than not, they are meets and eats (BYO$). Trackables fell in value to veterans and (FMK5BM) are viewed as extra baggage and there are so many, most of us don’t even grab one or record it.

Souvenirs were big deals and were cherished, but took the same inflationary path to the point veterans basically ignore them. IMO Groundspeak has fomented this tactic to feed instant gratification and should cease this practise. The same goes with Cash in Trash Out (CITO) at cache locations. I’ve personally observed litter all over a cache area after veteran cachers had just visited it.

What has happened to our game and how do we correct it on an individual basis?  Do we simply say times have changed and let it go the route of Munzee’s where you can hit the 28^th level in four hours? Let’s get the game back into the woods and out from under lamp posts.

I suggest archiving low quality hides, placed mainly to boost numbers (which mean nothing now). If a person has umpteen thousands of finds, what does it actually mean? Fourteen bazillion of them were LPC’s or ET Highway 1/10 of a mile power trail hides most likely or were group finds where one person jumped out of a van while everyone yelled, “Sign my name!”. To me this is silly and forsakes what we all started the game to do. The game has hybridized into a joke in many ways, making veterans look like a Banana Republic general with 650 medals on their uniform.

Let’s put the adventure back into the game. Do a little homework and locate a cool place to hunt or find one. Along the way, stage an event worth attending and do it in a park. Try to mentor newbies and teach them how much fun the game can be. Like I said, times have changed and no one is impressed with how many caches we’ve found, so why not step back, take a deep breath and start over fresh? Become a mentor.

 

BB's (Parody) News Buster News Exclusive

BB's News Buster News Exclusive: 12-4-23

A giggling vice president and multi-millionaire (base salary $157K) committed our hard-earned tax dollars of $3 billion to a UN Green fund designed to fight undefined climate change in countries who love donations. “Today, I am also proud to announce a new $3 billion pledge to the Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries invest in resilience, clean energy and nature-based solutions,” Harris said during a speech at the U.N. climate summit in Dubai".

She then clarified this action with words of transparency and illumination: "Weather is caused by weather.” (Dramatic pause) “Everyone knows this." (Giggling) "Whether we know the weather is causing weather is open to debate by certain elements of radicalized America is insignificant because weather is real whether they admit it or not."

No word yet on what she plans to do for America or whether the Big Guy gets 10%.

BB's (Parody) News Buster News Exclusive

 

Am I intelligent enough to sift the facts

 

Total knee replacement

 

In case you are planning a TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT here is my update. I got excellent care at the Houston VA:

Info updated as my mind clears. Okay, surgery Monday morning at 0730, up and walking same day. 3 rehab sessions Tuesday & Wednesday which they told me went very well. Went home Wednesday afternoon at 4pm (1600).

Background: I have exercised for the last 50 years and blew through the rehab in record time according to them. They had never seen anyone walk the entire second floor the day of the surgery and me not knowing I was doing anything out of the ordinary asked if they wanted me to do it twice. I've had a three time a week regimen of doing 30 squats, 3 sets (and other leg exercises + walking & cycling) and this amplified how quickly I (anyone) will recover.

Next, the entire leg is sore and that is being controlled by various meds, but the real winner here is an IV Nerve block. I feel no real pain from the knee and folks usually lay in the hospital for 3-4 days after surgery day and they take it out with 3 possible scenarios. A: It begins to hurt at a level Tylenol and oxycodone will handle it. B: It doesn't really hurt. C: it hurts like h#ll. The third one is what happened to one of my brothers.

Seeing they let me out on day 2, they refilled the IV block and I will remove it after a total of 5 days and he said the possibility of pain based on my recovery will be minimal.

I will do it again if it affects the other leg.

The only bad thing I can report is they put me in a room with a 75 year old soldier who rambled on constantly about how he had done more astounding things in 3 years as an E-4 than Chuck Norris until I finally had enough and called security to move me to another room. He got so agitated he came to the end of the bed acting in a hostile manner (which was no actual threat to me)! His story had more holes than a screen door and I can only take so much.

We got a care package of candy and surprisingly they had the old candy cigarettes - called candy sticks. It looks like a joint and I shared one with the solder in my new room and both of us laughed over them.

My advice is do as many squats as you can leading up to surgery and walk a lot.

Upgrading Geocache Containers 101

Geocaching Primer: Cache Owners: Upgrading Geocache Containers 101

 How many times have you gone out caching with a full swag bag and a handful of trackables only to find nothing but micros, nanos, bison tubes, and DNA caches? Too many? Me too. Rightly call me a grumpy old searcher if you like, but I am at the point where it is time to do something about it. How you ask? Well, by writing primers, teaching Geocaching 101 events (PCP8AB), and setting an example by hiding larger containers; that’s how.

 At the risk of sounding preachy, aren’t you also weary of how little thought has been put into not only the container, but the location of so many caches these days? Every time I see the description on a cache page that reads, “This corner was just screaming for a cache, so I put one out!” I cringe. Arriving at the precious location I read it is a muggle-heavy micro in a bush, with no hint and possibly shaky coords. What? Again? The pharmacy parking lot is crowded with cars and now I find myself on my hands and knees in front of some car’s grill and the first thing I see is empty soda/pop bottles and McD’s wrappers that are aged to nutty perfection. My thought is always, “Are no cachers doing CITO these days” as the container has been published for six months with forty-nine recent finds and many are veterans.

 I check the D/T rating and it is a solid 1.5/1.5. After 20 minutes I leave and feel like I’ve been cache-whipped. Checking the past logs I see someone with 18 finds praising the CO for hiding the smallest thing they’ve ever seen that will hold a log. 18 finds? I shake my head and wonder if I will be back. The newbie swears it is an “evil hide”, but I think it is a “stupid, needle in a haystack” hide as I post yet another bush DNF.

 The only upside was the full sack of trash I picked up, as is my commitment to giving back to the community. I carry a large container behind the seat of my Jeep and a roll of trash bags and don’t feel bad about preaching CITO every chance I get. CITO is the only beneficial thing we do for the community and so many veterans appear to forget this, as evidenced by the many trash strewn cache locations I witness. Preachy, or dead accurate?

 The solution is twofold. Replace your existing tiny containers with the largest container possible to facilitate trackables and swag.  You may have to actually get creative so muggles don’t spot it, but cachers can make quicker work of logging it and find the experience far superior to looking for a nano forgettable container.

 I want to fool muggles, but unless I am deliberately trying to make it difficult, I want cachers to find my hide. Give good hints. Cachers who don’t want hints, won’t read it anyway, but a family with kids and us old folks will appreciate it. Reserve evil hides for unique containers folks won’t recognize rather than a nano glued to the bottom of a pebble in a rock pile by a gas station. Come on! That is not evil folks; it is mean and most of us groan when we witness it.

 Second, archive that old LPC or micro that everyone has found (and has few, if any favorite points) and place a new, better, and larger container. Do the homework and make it something cool and awesome and folks will come and maybe give up that precious favorite point. 

 Our landscape here in the Houston area is littered with tiny insignificant hides and aren’t worth remembering for any reason except to get a point. Some of the CO’s aren’t active or simply don't do maintenance on their caches and in my opinion simply need to archive their broken hides. Open the area back up for new better containers and let’s give this game a makeover. If you hide caches, protect your user name by doing prompt maintenance. The last thing you want to hear is your name dragged through the mud. As usual, YMMV. Happy caching!

 Bert Marshall (BaytownBert)

Texas Geocaching Association 2018 Hall of Fame inductee

Using Google Earth measurement tools for geocaches.

 BB's Primer: Using Google Earth to accurately hide caches. Here is a graphic showing the actual location of caches in Jenkins Park in Baytown. I use this method to lay out an area to get the maximum allowable caches. Note: You cannot use Google Earth Geocache Viewer to determine where the actual cache is located.

Note: Shut off the optional Geocaching Google Earth Viewer, because it is inaccurate other than showing a cache is nearby.

Copy the coordinates from the GC page and using GE, place a pin where the actual location is and rename it with the GC number. After all the caches are located and tagged, use the ruler or circle tool at the top of the page to measure in excess of 528 feet to determine if there is room for another cache.
This method will allow you to check your real coordinates when you hide a cache if you can identify the location with an aerial view and allow you to hide more caches in, say, a cemetery or a park. Why hide one when you can hide 2 or more?

On another note, you should make it a habit to check your coords on GE to be sure the cache is where you say it is.

Google Earth Pro's drawing tools do not include an easy way to draw accurate circles. But, the ruler/measuring tool does let you measure circular areas and save them as KML, so you can do the following to draw a circle:

Open measuring tool (ruler icon on toolbar, or Tools menu > Ruler)

In Ruler window, select the "Circle" tab

Select the units you want to measure the radius in (eg: feet)

Click (click, don't drag) on the map at the center point of your circle (Park-Cemetery)

Move your mouse until the circle radius is the distance you want (eg: 540 feet to be safe)

Click the map again to complete the circle

In the Ruler window, click the "Save" button

In the "New Path" window which appears, give it a name and click "Ok" button

Find your circle in the Places panel!

Here is an example of Jenkins Park with existing caches. The pale green dots are the only place a new geocache can be placed. 

Baytown, Texas - Baytown Geotour GT7A