MORNING
Here’s an inspired way to make gears I discovered in my scholarly travels. Can you see what the guy did there? Look closely and you’ll spot it is nothing more than a wooden hub carefully machined to be covered by the tread. Have you figured out what the tread [material] is? Ordinary automobile timing chain. Brilliant! With another strip facing outward, you’ve got instant tank treads. I have not yet checked into the price of these belts, but I suspect they are expensive.
The [Honda motorcycle] cable occupied the entire morning and the tire will take up most of tomorrow’s. This reminded me of my old days of auto repair when sometimes you had to take a day off work to get something fixed. Remember that? Unless you had two cars, you’d regularly get trapped like that.
The good news is actual repair work on all my two-wheel vehicles combined works out to less than two major car repairs since 2009. I’ve had to wait out the odd rainstorm, but that is nothing compared to car problems. Parking has been a breeze and I know where all the free spots are around town now. I even have one directly in front of the main post office that is rather ingenious. Downside: if I get the Honda 400, it won’t fit into many of those spaces.
One reason for examining the tank treads above was another million-dollar idea. At the club last evening I was sketching out something that does not appear to have been automated. It would also be an ideal task for a robot. You’ve seen the guys laboriously sweeping tiny segments of the beach with a metal detector? I devised a grid system where a tankette style robot could meticulously scan a grid 60 x 30 yards using GPS or a simple surveyor's chain. It would faithfully crisscross the sand endlessly in a series of patterns, dropping a marker (and possibly) beeping when it gets a return.
[Author's note, there are very few naturally sandy beaches in Florida.]
One would monitor this activity from the comfort of a nearby balcony, deck chair, or tiki bar. I even sketched a rocker assembly that sifted the sand into coarse and fine. It would be driven by something I can do—pedal a bicycle. The cam that shakes the operation is remarkably similar to a large wooden gear, fancy that. The siftings would be re-examined by another metal detector, but the overall labor savings is enormous.
The odds? Well, it is a useful robot that could be built for far less than the $20,000 other hobbyists are reporting. In fact, made of wood, I scribbled out it could probably be done for $800. As recently as September 2013, a family found $300,000 in treasure. Not all the wrecks along the Florida coast have been accounted for, but at least some of them must have made it to the beach. And while my approach is that of systematic robotic applications, you would-be Mel Fisher types had best concoct your own cover stories.
Why? Because Florida and the US in general is not friendly toward treasure hunters. I personally feel this causes most treasure to simply not be reported, and who can blame them? Under law, the state, who does nothing to help, takes possession of the entire treasure, scooping 20% of it for museum display. And you can bet your tush they take the best 20%, then tax the snot out of you on the remainder. Don’t we just love the rationale of people who support such laws? The supporters of the common good, even if the commoners do not contribute a thing?
Yes, I’ve already considered the waterproof version that floats from pontoons described December 17, 2014. No, there are no designs to actually build this system, but it will be brought up during the next robot club brainstorming session. Did I mention the suitcase full of mapping instruments from my navigation studies make excellent gear designing tools?
Reminder: ideas are a dime a dozen. The above is not a promise such a machine would ever be built.
NOON
The new clutch cable doesn’t work. Back to the drawing board. How much do you know about rivets? Watch this video of aircraft assembly. I was trying to locate an old video of this Brit who demonstrated how to rivet thin sheets to wood without the rivet going all the way through the panel. That is, he used an ordinary pop rivet to fasten a sheet of plastic to the surface of a sheet of wood. You think I can remember how he managed that?
So, now enter a professionally managed database that logs every important detail. Who do we know who can set that stuff up blindfolded? I was prompted to do it for two reasons. One, since the baby was born, Anyu is often there alone and two, I noticed a proliferation of Ontario plates. If I can pin it down, guess who gets towed first? I wonder if it is true the tow trucks indulge in a little kickback if you send them the business.
And I will pin it down. Sure, I make mistakes, but in 30 years I have never made a mistake designing a database. While I could not do much there is a certain security in the bakery when I’m present, so I tend to keep an eye on the place. It was a little baby girl on Xmas eve, I believe the name translates as “Marie-Carole”. As we all know, I was never that small.
I’m home now because one of my new prescriptions leaves me [physically] listless sometimes. (I got used to it eventually.) Hence I followed up on my sketch of the beach robot. I was unaware these metal detectors can run up to $2600. I would not modify such an expensive tool, rather design a sensor that read its display. Except for the metal axles and gears, I have all the lumber needed to build the tankette. There is still no intention to proceed, but it would finally be a worthwhile task for an Arduino.
The programming is child’s play, as I would use torsion bars or bogies rather than a trans-axle arrangement. I delved further into other guidance arrangements and if it came to cheap, I could have the robot follow a piece of taught string. I also looked at several centrifugal sifting techniques and at using the wind to operate the chosen mechanism. I would be equally okay using the system or selling it to somebody else. Yes, I've already thought of ground penetrating radar, but who has that kind of money?
AFTERNOON
Argh, I can’t shake this ennui, but I did find that video of the guy who compiled a bunch of country songs together to prove they were the same licks, just reshuffled. Like reading a Patterson or Clancy novel. They just signpost the chapters in a different order. Anyway, here is the sound bite and a good indication of why I don’t play a lot of modern country. I spotted the change in 1996-97 that country had been “computerized”. Like new rock, it’s become a stringing together of musical clichés. The mentality seems to be, if it worked in 1980 . . .
That’s not strictly accurate, but so what? Anything beats Miami-Dade. I am not averse to a fixer-upper, either. I have all the tools and plenty of help. But dollar for dollar, give me a manufactured home. I’m not setting up a homestead and would like to spend my cash on fun things. Mortgages are not fun.
But I can tell you who deserves a medal. Priscella Holley, the Alabama school principal that has each student bring a can of food to hurl at any intruders. That lady has a brain. Gunman or not, nobody is going unscathed when a room of angry teens start beaning him with the beans. Dang, and I just threw out all my canned Monsanto. Drat, some of that Franken-food could probably have done some external damage as well.
Or how about that Dominican Republic police force that had a ton of cocaine go missing on them? It’s a good thing they don’t investigate this kind of thing in the states. Yes, I was reading the newspaper. Amazon has hired Woody Allen? For a TV series? Yes folks, it is time to thin the herd.
EVENING
On a lark, I peeked at my old on-line dating site. All of the women I contacted (seven total) are still running the same ads, most of them two years after I first looked (I didn’t join right away). Due to the restriction on education, it takes a little longer to interpret their ads. You see, I did not find out until later that the site accepted women who, in fact, did NOT have a degree, but only expressed interest in meeting a man who did. Hence I was often confused by ads from "professional" women who plainly had no idea what they were talking about. Was I the one who knew nothing of the fields where they claimed expertise? These women all suffered badly from one huge universal character flaw: they never, ever, offered to do anything first.
I’m the opposite. I don’t do any of those things when I’m dating. It’s after we are an item that you’ll find the dinners and movies. Even explaining it to these women does no good, meaning it quickly boils down to money. They want to see how many hoops you will jump before you mutate into the couch potato like the rest. Maybe not exactly, but talk about your inkling.
On top of all that, I’m predisposed against women who never show any gumption. They stereotypically make up for this lack of vivacity by indulging in needless drama. Every older lady I tried to date in my time, well, after I finally booted them out, it took many moons to put out all the fires they had started. Once you’ve dated even one gal with a flair for adventure, putting up with the others becomes tedious. Maybe older women actually think when you walk in after 8 hours in the jungle, you want to have that discussion on birth control or the direction of her personal life.
Here’s a statistic for you. In 2008, the rate of new business startups fell below the rate of business failures. It's a difficult situation to imagine unless you think of it as the business birth rate has fallen below the death rate. The net population of businesses has been falling for the first time in American history, and has been so for a full cycle. Put another way, the party is over, America.
There have been momentary declines before but nothing on this scale. Main reasons for lack of startups? Lack of money and over-regulation. The majority of mainstream media insists things are fine and bouncing back. And how about that theory that the reason older women love shopping is to have control again, to be doted on like when they were young and pretty. Has merit.
One more thing. Land O Lakes butter is off my diet upon finding out they use Monsanto products. I now think Monsanto reps should be banned from public office. Conflict of interest.
ADDENDUM
I must remind a few that I cannot, as a rule, answer specific questions here in this blog. My comments above about treasure hunting don’t mean I am an expert. Only that my viewpoint is consistent with keeping as much of what you do as private as you can. If you find your El Dorado, keep your mouth shut about it. And have a plausible alibi. I’d pretend I had a winning streak at the casino. Strangers don’t expect a share of gambling proceeds. Not so with treasure.
As a matter of fact, yes I am touchy about the “common good”. The reason is experience. When you first meet such people, you are lulled by their cozy words about how undertakings like treasure hunting are just another form of prospecting. They use rational like “after all, the findings are on public land”. But that’s just a first impression. After a short bit, the ulterior motive rears up.
These people, like tax collectors, are filthy greedy and plain lazy to start with. They are indoctrinated with a rotten philosophy and want their finger in every pie, no matter how undeserving they are. There is no disguising their lack of personal accomplishment. What they are really after is a share of the other person’s hard work or good luck. This situation can only be enforced by standing squadrons of bureaucrats. The losers are those who want laws in place whereby any progress by others is enforcedly divided. And that, folks, is the worst brand of selfishness. For the record, the second worst brand is those who believe taxation should be based on the other person’s “perceived ability to pay”. But I’m not here to talk about Canada.
A recent example of such backward thinking is mortgage bailouts. Common sense tells us those who borrow more than they can repay should fall flat on their faces. It’s what they deserve, having proven they do not learn lessons any other way. Those who borrow a half-million dollars for a house so they can play big shot are not deserving of any sympathy. Yet every second pronouncement out of DC has to do with “sympathetic borrower scenarios”. In other words, rewarding the irresponsible. In other-other words, buying votes.
Last Laugh
Rush hour in Gotham City?
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