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Risk/Reward

Look at what the Socialist wing (soon to be mainstream) of the Democrat party has to say about investing:

In a way he is right, but not in the way he thinks. Landlords do not have a Constitutional right to a 12% return. They have a Constitutional right to property. The lend that property out to people for a fee. They might turn a profit, or they might have a nightmare tenant who does $50,000 in damage to a $250,000 rental property. They might have a tenant who refuses to pay and needs to be evicted. COVID proved that the government could simply refuse to allow you to control that property by preventing you from evicting someone who isn’t paying.

Every time you tie money into an investment, there are costs, including the cost of those who default, repairs, taxes, insurance, fees, and more. At the end of the day, some investments are riskier than others. That risk has to be compensated for. Putting money in a CD or a government bond is generally low risk, and therefore represents the lowest return. One year t-bill rates are at 4% right now. That means if an investment is higher risk than a t-bill and isn’t paying more than that, you are better off with lower risk for the same return. Even savings accounts and CDs are at 4.1% or thereabouts.

For 2025, ETFs in the stock market returned about 19%. Rental property is actually a higher risk than is a stock market ETF like SPY (17.72%) or QQQ (20.77%) but is not as profitable, especially when you are in a socialist location like Mamdani’s NYC. That’s why I got out of the rental market earlier this year and put the profits in the market.

Compare the returns for 2026 to date:

  • My portfolio: 7.26%
  • S&P500: 8.94%
  • NASDAQ: 8.35%
  • DOW: 6.13%
  • Gold and Silver Index: -20.10%

The annual return on my rental was an average of 10.66%. That isn’t very large when you consider market returns over a similar time frame. In fact, the same amount of money invested in the market would average about 10.8%. Renting is a lot of risk and work for not much better of a return.

By Divemedic, ago

Still Wrong

A month and a half ago, I ordered a door from Lowes. The store subs out doors, and the door maker asked me by text what hand I wanted the door cut for. A couple of weeks later, the door arrived, and it was the wrong door. I took it back.

The door maker contacted me to ask why, and I told him I wanted a right hand door, but received a left handed one.

I had some things going on, including having to take a trip to Maine, so I waited a month to reorder the door. Again, the maker of the door contacted me. I told him that this time, I wanted to make sure we were on the same page. I sent him a picture of the fucking door I was replacing. I also said “I want the door that, when you are facing the door and it swings towards you, the hinges are on your left. I want a right handed door” Here was the picture of the door I sent them:

The door came today, and it is still the wrong cut. Here is the door I got:

I am now having to take a second trip to Lowes in order to return this door because those retards can’t cut a fucking door even when you send them a picture of the door.

By Divemedic, ago

MANPAD Alert

A MANPAD alert was issued at LaGuardia airport last night. Listen to ATC traffic:

Here is what the FAA has to say about them:

10-2-13. MANPADS ALERT

When a threat or attack from Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) is determined to be real, notify and advise aircraft as follows:

  1. Do not withhold landing clearance. To the extent possible, issue information on MANPADS threats, confirmed attacks, or post-event activities in time for it to be useful to the pilot. The pilot or parent company will determine the pilot’s actions.
  2. MANPADS information will be disseminated via the ATIS and/or controller‐to‐pilot transmissions.
  3. Disseminate via controller‐to‐pilot transmission until the appropriate MANPADS information is broadcast via the ATIS and pilots indicate they have received the appropriate ATIS code. MANPADS information will include nature and location of threat or incident, whether reported or observed and by whom, time (if known), and when transmitting to an individual aircraft, a request for pilot’s intentions.PHRASEOLOGY-ATTENTION (aircraft identification), MANPADS ALERT. EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION. MANPADS THREAT/ATTACK/POST-EVENT ACTIVITY OBSERVED/ REPORTED BY (reporting agency) (location) AT (time, if known). (When transmitting to an individual aircraft) SAY INTENTIONS.EXAMPLE-“Attention Jet Blue Four Seventeen, MANPADS alert. Exercise extreme caution. MANPADS threat reported by TSA, LaGuardia vicinity. Say intentions.”
    “Attention all aircraft, MANPADS alert. Exercise extreme caution. MANPADS post‐event activity observed by tower south of airport at two‐one‐zero‐zero Zulu.”
  4. Report MANPADS threat/attack/post–event activity via the ATIS and/or controller‐to‐pilot transmissions until notified otherwise by the Domestic Events Network (DEN) Air Traffic Security Coordinator (ATSC).REFERENCE-FAA Order JO 7110.65, Para 2-9-3, Content.
    FAA Order JO 7210.3, Para 2-1-10, Handling MANPADS Incidents.
    FAA Order JO 7610.4, Para 3-1-3, Responsibilities.
By Divemedic, ago

Please

By Divemedic, ago

64 Years

This is the 64th anniversasry of Starfish Prime, the largest nuclear weapon discharged space. It was 900 miles fro Honolulu, yet the EMP effects knocked out about 300 streetlights, burglar alarms, and a telephone company microwave link. The EMP damage to the microwave link shut down telephone calls from Kauai to the other Hawaiian Islands.[

By Divemedic, ago

Tax and Spend

A recent post looked at the out of control spending of Cape Canaveral. Both parties are busy screaming about how the proposed elimination of homestead property taxes are going to cause police, fire, and schools to be shut down.

That’s a lie.

The problem isn’t police, fire, and schools, although I think we spend too much on those services. Cities and counties are busy spending money like a 16 year old who just found his dad’s credit cards. I want to give another example: Orlando.

In 2015, the city of Orlando has a population of 270,000 and a budget of $1.1 billion. That’s bad enough at $4,200 per resident, but let’s fast forward to 2025. In the year 2025, Orlando’s population had increased by 22% to 330,000, but the budget had increased by 63% to $1.8 billion, or $5,300 per resident.

The median household income in Orlando is $72,336. Median individual income is $43,312. The median property tax bill in Orlando is $3,413, or about 5% of annual household income. Too high.

This is the out of control spending that needs to be brought under control. For years, we have asked cities to control spending, but they have told us there is no room for cuts. Well, I am going to do my best to get this passed and force cities to make the cuts they should have made years ago.

The time of people who vote for a living stealing money from people who work for a living is going to come to an end in Florida if I have anything to say about it.

By Divemedic, ago

Amazon

This is the time of year that my Amazon Prime membership comes up for renewal. I’ve been buying from Amazon since 2003. That was back when Amazon only sold books. In fact, I didn’t buy anything BUT books from them until 2005. That was also the year they started offering Prime. Back then, the only benefit to Prime was free two day shipping.

Fast forward to today, and Prime gets you different benefits. The largest thing I have noticed from Amazon lately is how their shipping sucks. I place A LOT of orders with Amazon, I would say that I buy more things from Amazon than I do in brick and mortar stores. In the past 30 days, I have placed 35 orders through them. It’s been so convenient, until recently.

It seems as though something has recently changed there. At least once a week, an order gets lost or arrives late. I will frequently order things with a promised delivery, and it won’t arrive for two weeks, if it arrives at all.

I don’t know what’s going on over there.

By Divemedic, ago

I Tried to Warn You

Many on the left (and even some on the right) have been complaining about the cost of housing.

Six years ago, I began warning people when our supposed small government oriented Republican governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order prohibiting evictions, and continued that order several times through October of that year, effectively depriving property owners of their property without compensation. It wasn’t just Florida, many states did the same, some of them for up to two years. This resulted in huge losses to many landlords.

On top of that, landlords were told they couldn’t perform credit checks because racism. This also put upward pressure on rent prices.

Landlords have to be compensated for the increased risk of their investments. That’s how investing works- the higher the risk, the more the investment must yield or else no one will want to make the investment.

Then the Biden administration imported millions of illegal immigrants that increased housing demand. Even more pressure on housing prices.

Inflation isn’t the only thing that affects prices. Stop voting for retarded socialist policies.

By Divemedic, ago

Why I’m Not Libertarian, pt 27

This is where the Libertarian Party is now.

If you don’t support rioting to protect illegal immigrants, you’re a tyrant, according to the Libertarian Party.

The term is peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Rioting, blocking others from traveling, committing violent acts and arson, are not peaceable or a petition.

I just can’t be a libertarian. I like classical liberal or perhaps Lockean liberal better.

By Divemedic, ago

No Longer Paying

I am so tired of people telling me and asking me how AI is going to replace all of us in our jobs. These AI models get so much stuff wrong that I find myself arguing with the stupid computer. Here is a great example:

I was researching water flows for the drains in my rear concrete deck. Grok insisted that this narrow channel of 2 inches deep by 1.5 inches wide can move 240 gallons per minute of rainwater. We went back and forth repeatedly, so I used the formula for calculating water flow through a fire hose to explain my point. Here was what it said:

Why the Formula Doesn’t Fit Your Deco Drain

  • Your drain operates under gravity/open channel flow, not high pressure.
  • The “pressure” (head) is extremely low — usually just 0.1 to 0.5 inches of water depth over the slot or in the channel (a tiny fraction of a psi).
  • Water enters gradually along the full 24 ft length, and the channel flows partially full with a free surface (not pressurized pipe flow).
  • The end opening is the outlet, but flow is limited by the entire channel’s hydraulics, slope, and roughness — not a single orifice under tank pressure.

If you plugged tiny head values into the 29.7 formula, you’d get very low flow numbers, which is why it feels wrong compared to manufacturer-style ratings.

Bottom Line

Your intuition is good that the small channel limits things, and these narrow deco drains are not high-capacity systems. 100–150 GPM is a reasonable practical maximum for a well-installed 24 ft run — enough for normal pool deck runoff in most rains, but it can pond in heavy downpours or if clogged/poorly sloped.

The 29.7 formula overestimates or underestimates dramatically here because the conditions are completely different.

So I replied with: I still think 150 gallons per minute is far too high. A firehose is flowing those numbers, but the stream is under much more pressure and is moving much faster. I think you are incorrect here in insisting that this drain is moving as much water as a fire hose.

So this is the answer I got:

I appreciate you pushing back — you’re right, and I was too optimistic in my earlier estimates.

The firehose comparison highlights a key point: a firehose at 250 GPM is shooting a fast, pressurized jet (often 50+ psi). Your Deco Drain moves water slowly under gravity with almost no pressure (just inches of water head), through a narrow channel. That makes high numbers unrealistic.

Better Data on Narrow Deck Drains Like Deck-O-Drain

Deck-O-Drain (and similar PVC linear drains) has an internal channel roughly 1.5–1.75″ wide by ~2–2.5″ deep. Real manufacturer and product data for comparable narrow systems shows:

  • Typical capacity: 4–10 GPM per linear foot at good slope (¼” per foot), depending on the exact model.
  • For 24 feet: Roughly 100–180 GPM theoretical max under ideal lab conditions, but real-world practical capacity is lower — often 60–120 GPM total before ponding starts.

Many similar slim drains rate even lower:

  • 1.25″ channel examples: ~4.2 GPM per foot → ~100 GPM for 24 ft.
  • Stegmeier Frontier-style: Up to ~9.6 GPM/ft in some tests.
  • Other 2″ class deck drains: Often max out in the 15–30 GPM range for short sections, scaling modestly with length.

The outlet pipe (usually 1.5″ PVC) frequently bottlenecks first at around 40–70 GPM under gravity.

It’s still wrong. There is a maximum amount of water that can move through a narrow channel, and making the channel longer doesn’t increase that. A mile long Deco drain isn’t going to move 52,000 gallons per minute. AI is nowhere near being ready to take any job that requires applying logic.

We went back and forth before the system began agreeing with everything I said. AI isn’t ready for this. This is why I no longer pay for AI access.

In case you are wondering, the nozzle formula is:

Flow equals 29.7 times the square of the diameter times the square root of the pressure.

Q (GPM) ≈ 29.7 × d² × √P, where d is the diameter in inches and P is nozzle pressure in psi.

This is a formula that I know well from my firefighting days. That’s why flows of 200+ gallons per minute were seeming far too high.

By Divemedic, ago