One year ago today: March 19, 2021, Miami can really suck.
Five years ago today: March 19, 2017, my flowers don’t grow.
Nine years ago today: March 19, 2013, new scooter motor.
Random years ago today: March 19, 2008, I found Wally’s Folly.
The gig is again postponed, so I’m going to Miami soon. Let’s take a look at the employment want ads for this area. Electricians, painters, bodyshop, welders, drivers, installers, pool techs, diesel mechanic, irrigation, carpenter, roofing, auto mechanic, and HVAC. Sorry, Tyler & Brandon, nothing for C+ coders, computer whiz kids, or top-knot influencers. The slowdown of work on the silo, much as I know it thrills everyone, is winding down. Top story this morning is I found my missing measuring cup. What? Yep, it’s the one because I know the paint is chipped on the ½ cup line. What on earth was it doing behind the silo?
Russia is toying with banning companies who stopped operating over Biden-led war sanctions. Proof again that everything woke turns to shit. These mostly service businesses must have thought they could play politics. As Putin put it, this plunged their citizens into uncertainly, so companies that don’t recommence by May 1 get a ten-year ban. Good, I hope that blasts a few of them back where they belong so real companies can take their places.
Some electric school buses are cheaper to run than diesel—to the user. Fact is, they cost a fortune. They are not cheaper because they are cleaner, or better, or anything, the fact is they are subsidized with your tax dollars whether or not you asked for them. How about Firefox. I have never downloaded an “upgrade”, so who was smarter? That “unique identifier” of every upgrade turns out does not apply to the software, but your computer. Actually, that one got past me, but I sensed something amiss when Firefox started plugging upgrades within minutes of when I installed the browser.
So England is looking at a Solar Power Station. This old idea is different in that they have earmarked $11 billion for the project. The way it works is exactly like a radio antenna. The radio waves are electromagnet and induce a current in the wire as they pass. The space version would concentrate those waves into a beam aimed at a big antenna on the ground. Let’s get down to some stats. This method is not efficient. Think of that “50,000 Watt” radio station. Twenty miles away it can barely put a milliwatt into your antenna. Of course, the space station equipment would be considerably larger.
The collector/transmitter is planned to be a mile across and the antenna laid out on the ground would be five miles in diameter. Oddly, because of “land usage issues”, England wants to put the antenna out at sea. They don’t seen to know in the long run, the sea is the most powerful engine of destruction to go up against. That doesn’t matter to fanatics, you don’t have to believe in climate change to have it shoved down your throat.
For a fee of $97 million dollars, some lawyers have got an award to Illinois folks for the Facebook invasion of their privacy. I say it is their own fault, they signed up after being warned. (This I know because I published 12 warnings in the weeks after Facebook arrived.) But, at least we now have a price tag on the Illinois value of personal privacy. It’s a piddling $397 per user. Hell, if Facebook had known that, they could have bought the simpletons off for $20 and/or a pizza coupon.
Next, big media has been caught covering up the Hunter laptop issue, knowing it would have killed Biden’s chances in 2020. They admit it now knowing they’ve been exposed, it’s a liberal thing.
More on the SLS, the uber-rocket at NASA. Did you know the main rocket is just and extended shuttle fuel tank? Look at it sometime. Anyway, I wondered why they would ditch the rocket engines, and I got half an answer. They do it to lighten the weight so there is enough power to get on a Moon trajectory. But, they would mean the second stage rockets, which by the time they burn, they would be too high and fast to jettison, they would burn up on re-entry. So I still don’t know. But at $4.1 billion per launch, this rocket is not mechanical, it is political.
If I’ve got you interested, let’s delve a bit deeper. It’s a race again, the Chinese have copied the American Moon gear down to the last bolt and rivet. While Americans still argue if there is water on the Moon, the Chinese said their equivalent of “Phooey” and brought some back. Shortly thereafter, NASA released the last of the Moon samples, held in secret for 50 years. The Chinese rockets took samples from the Moon’s polar regions, which spectrographs show to be mineral rich compared to the equatorial American rocks. Also, the polar regions have less day/night temperature swings, making them the most habitable surface areas.
Another delay is NASA funding requires them to use the same contractors as the Shuttle. The longer they take, the more the make. Years ago I questioned the wisdom of the US launching on Soviet rockets. Now the war, and America is stuck. They’ve got Elon Musk and he’s a bit of a weirdo loose cannon shifty unpredictable sort of character.
Wait, I think I figured it out. The four Shuttle engines are under the main booster and they used up that huge tank of fuel very fast. So fast, that the strap-on rockets are still burning. That’s when they ditch the engines. I think. The alternative is Elon Musk and his Falcon, which would bring the launch cost down to $10 million, or 1/410th the cost. True, the Falcon isn’t a heavy lifter, but you could launch 410 of them for the same price.
Aroma tester at work (coffee).
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Back in the yard, it’s got more raking this week than in five years. Plus, I repaired my work shoes. Having trouble finding comfy shoes, I tend keep what is worn in, so you’ll see me working in former dress shoes, like these. I learned enough to make these repairs and I have a lucky defect. When I walk, I wear out an identical mirror image on both heels. For a quick repair, I just swap the last layer of heel material, in fact, you can take a look here is the result of just ten minutes easy work. The heels are reversed and there is a small rubber patch on the soles, I think they were for traction, but I use old bicycle tubing.
As for siding the house, I’m pricing imitation stone siding. The front of the house would be done last, once I gain experience, but the dimension mean I would need 7 panels for each foot of height. I’d likely go for two feet so the place has a solid look. Each layer would cost $350 so the total of $700 is within reach. That would make it around $700 in materials because I would not bother with the north side of the building. There is no footing around the exterior, so I’d have to come up with something on that.
Karaoke, I earned my spot tonight and I was out there. The crowd was, what’s the word, fat? Everybody there was fat. Oozing fat. So I sketched out the underground electric for the silo. On the way home in the dark, what do I see? Somebody has curbsided around 12 rolls of shiny building material. I peered into the dark and saw the word “insulation”, so I was back with the van in five minutes to load the stuff. I’ll let you know what we got in the daylight tomorrow. Whatever it is, it is 16” o.c. (On Center).
Then, I score a half-sack of Yueng-Ling and walk into the kitchen. Whew, something is off. I don’t keep garbage inside, but we’ve all had this happen. Everything is taken out, everything is clean, but we get the whiff. I hope it’s not a dead critter in the walls. Half a Yueng-Ling later, we are in trouble, the aroma is coming from the bathroom somewhere. Cash was always frenetic and growling in that direction. Repeated checks found nothing, but now I think he was on to something. Maybe some animal under the house?
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