Normally, I’d have a series of great photos of the repair work on the scooter. Lots of guys are interested in mechanical repairs, but not me. You can have it. But these were nice and they are gone. Canon, my digital camera, is generally better than the competition but it has a nasty, stinking mode called “LIVE” that it can throw itself into when you try to cancel some of the more insipid default settings. I was not on the lookout, what with being cramped up under a scooter belly with the routine Florida rain squall spitting down my neck and the crack of my shorts.
First, the bolts have double nuts. I have no idea why so many mechanics won’t use this system. And the nuts are thread locked to 500 degrees. There’s something else mechanics don’t like, but on this and a moment’s thought, I have a very good idea why not. And can you see my custom designed oil intercooler? That’s the scoop-looking thing behind the fan port. One of the lost pictures showed this before it was painted, looking an awful lot like it was cut from an aluminum soda can.
Call me stimpy. I made it to the bakery and home again, barely. I had planned on going out, Friday or not, but not in this condition. My foot’s okay in that it doesn’t hurt by itself any more, but II can’t put any weight on it. Or any pressure either, like a sock or a shoe. And my big toe is half again normal size, no, I am NOT going to show a picture of that. At least not a close-up. You’ve all seen a swollen toe before so quit asking. And the ankle parts that healed went through a period of numbness first. Sort of to let me know to slow down.
[Author's note 2016-03-21: the following refers to the movie "Zulu", or is it "Zulu Dawn", anyway, the movie that portrays the "heroic" British stand at the mountain called Isandlwana. The Brits had no business being there and got themselves slaughtered. The movie attempts to portray the English as victims, but in fact it was their own incompetence to blame. They claimed to be bringing "civilization" to the area when in fact, their own history contains more beheadings, torture, slavery, bigamy, and ruthless oppression of their neighbors.
The movie blames almost anything but the British. There was an eclipse, the ammunition was not distributed right, the Zulus were too many, and follows the same pattern the English use to explain all their defeats. Shortly after, this battle was followed by the Boer War. This time the English faced a European enemy who could fight back. They won the Boer War by among other things, inventing the concentration camp. And it was the Brits who attacked in overwhelming numbers who got mowed down. Deja vu?]
Home means reading and today I looked up the forensic study of Isandlwana, the battle where the Zulus wiped out a British battalion. I’ve always felt the Brits glossed that over and now I’m convinced of it. Rumor was they were outnumbered 12:1. But ballistics shows that while it took the Zulus 13 minutes to cover the ground once they got within range, the Brits should have been able to kill all 20,000 in 6 minutes. The story of the ammunition shortage is disproved, as the pull tabs from the ammo boxes are found right at the front line.
What’s new is I did not know there was an eclipse that day. In my life, I’ve seen one total eclipse and even during totality I could see to the horizon. It never got so dark you could not see. But one source points out the British rifles used back powder, which left a lot of smoke in front of the barrel. The same source says the British were spread out too thin and their rifles could jam. Put those together and even I could get through the line somewhere. It’s just a theory that makes sense to me.
Take a look at the ball-bearing drum box. I still haven’t the cash for a Beat Buddy, the foot operated drum box from the Miami inventor. That's the device that I hope puts all bastards who have conspired to hold anything that works right off the market for 30+ years. You know who you are, BOSS, Alesis, Roland, Akai, Zoom, and Korg. You are guilty of collusion of the worst kind to dump your third rate junk on the market. I’d rather have the ball bearings on stage because unlike your products, this one is easy to use and it obviously works.
On the electronics battlefront, is there a way for cars in a “convoy” to communicate with each other without using radio or anything that the cops can intercept? It seems there is. They drill or install a number of near-infrared LEDs onto the rear bumper or disguised inside the tail lights. I’ve got a box of them somewhere and they are invisible except in the darkest dark. You simply voice-modulate them and place a receiver behind the grill of the car behind. It won’t remain so forever, but to date the system has proven 100% uncrackable since the range is limited to a couple of car lengths.
However, the system can be installed to work two ways on slightly different frequencies. It is intended for communication with an escort vehicle. Even those like me who have never smuggled a thing in our lives can laugh at that suggestion. Trivia: if you do a survey that includes asking people for their first name, 27% of them will be “David”. What was I doing looking at electronics like that? Prices, I was checking prices. And these imported chips and parts are becoming too expensive. There is one good thing about increasing import prices. At some point it becomes profitable to build things in America again. Only this time, we’ll used robots and delivery drones. Some of us have learned the lessons.
On A.I., artificial intelligence, there is something I’d like to add. When I described it as small rules for behavior rather than masses of code for every conceivable situation, I was thinking of a form of intelligence that is very human. That is called "apprenticeship". If you put large numbers of the stupid and uneducated together in one place, say Canada, their daily cycles of self-serving short-range selfish behavior will do the rest. In bulk, this constitutes a raw form of intelligent functionality at the subsistence level--the group will quickly adapt to a set of "rules" that minimize physical and mental effort. It is more complicated to describe than to just do it.
Take one of countless examples. They have no lives, so they stick their noses into everybody else’s business. This is a valid situation for a set of rigid but not totally inflexible artificial intelligence guidelines. When you get enough people of the small-minded type, it forces everybody to act the same through unspoken fear of malicious gossip, ostracism, or banishment. Thus, without any conscious individual effort to do good or right, their haphazard avoidance of criticism begins to move their society in a single direction. And you get the outward semblance of intelligence without having any actual intellect present. No brainpower necessary.
ADDENDUM
Last, the news flash says there are "a lot of questions" concerning the shooting death of a Mexican by the US border patrol. Really? Questions like what? He was walking along a border road throwing stones, or [he was] nearby [other] people who were throwing stones. At men with guns. Duh. It’s not like he was looking for a job or like the area was a teen drop-in center. Others have been shot in the same area for the same reason, but that only tells us that certain Mexicans can be extremely slow learners. No, I can’t say there are any questions at all. Tell you what. Let me be more than fair and see if I can’t cook up at least one question, just to say I had a question.
Thrump. Thrump. Nope. I can't think of a single question.
But then, I’m not out to sell newspapers.
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