December 23, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: December 23, 2021, it’s always coffee season.
Five years ago today: December 23, 2017, $10k walking money.
Nine years ago today: December 23, 2013, my last triple-snap.
Random years ago today: December 23, 2008, grunting noises.

           There’s rumors that 60% of Americans believe this weekend will be the darkest, coldest, most historical storm ever. Phooey, there are not that many Democrats. Every year, it’s this thing called “winter” but that doesn’t stop morons. I got into town this morning and have enough coffee to get over the scrunch, which should hit here later tonight. The van monitor said it was 65°F overnight, expect that to drop to 45°F until Sunday. That’s hardly climate change. My plans are stay home, read, drink coffee. Ambition can wait for warmer times and even fewer tree limbs.

           Here’s my next look at reflective paint. This is not money holograms, but the speckles on junk mail. It’s a different technology, probably different altogether, as this one is not built to last. You are looking at something maybe one person in 100 million bothered to examine, if that. Why little dots of identical size layered up? Technology has left most people behind on this count.

           While Halloween is my fiscal year, the expenses are a calendar year. I can tell you now the impact of inflation has been close to 20% for the things that ordinary people buy. You can’t fudge taxes and gasoline, plus today I saw a dozen eggs prices at $10. Before Biden, it was 95 cents. Like most, I think we are headed for something, but the left has succeeded with Balkanization. I’ll fight for America but not for some welfare case to get free massages and a military that wears skirts on parade. Where is that unifying leader? The ones I would have picked all disappeared, at least from any media coverage. There are interesting videos on-line showing “patriot” training camps but you know, if it comes to that I don’t think the bad guys have the stomach for a real fight.

           My plan for Xmas is staying home, right here, no change. The explanation for my small circle of friends is simple. I know about 300 people total, but they are widespread and have their own interests. I plan for a two or three person funeral, maybe four if anyone wants to take a 3,000 mile plane trip just to be here. Xmas is not a big holiday for me, I visit more often on randon days. The Reb asked and you know, nothing would be different just because it is holiday. We never have had a boring day in each other’s company. That’s good enough for me.

           Did you get a load of the video with those bozos trying the Ukrainian flag drop in the Slovak parliament. Water in the face and a mask ripped off before they had the wisdom to call it off. How stupid are these people? For openers, they were holding the flag upside down. I view the situation with the Ukraine the same as Europe has always been. European domination of the world is based on the fact that they have never had a common ruler. Each segment is continually striving for hegemony, which has never worked more than temporarily.
           Marlboro, the brand I used to smoke, are now $11 a pack. This long study day brought to you by cold weather right out of Canada. Who recalls the two experiments I did, one with decade counters, and another with wooden gears. Each was built to operate at one tenth the speed of the previous. This was purely my curiosity. Now I find out this is a common undertaking. With gears, it is known as an infinity machines. The standard is 12 gears of 1/50th the speed, I think. You can look at a gear in this interactive animation. (Oops, that link won’t work right but it’s worth a peek anyway.)
           These gizmos quickly slow to hours, then weeks, with the final gear moving one notch in 346 quintillion years, many times older than the Universe by some calculations. And the former honcho of Twitter is being arrested for possession of child porn. Apparently it was a mountainous collection. Just try to find an ordinary chart of the coldest temperatures in Central Florida. Such headlines are used as click bait these days.

Picture of the day.
Orrery gearwork.
(Inner planet model requires 2,430 gear teeth.)
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           With electric prices nearly doubling, I took another look at wood stoves. Those small units they call 5kW could be a popular item in no time. They cost around $1,000 each for the nice ones, it’s amusing they are called “multifuel” as if you can’t burn wood in a coal stove. Except in England, where they’d have to sell for half that price or granny will freeze her stockings off. Myself, I know the technology, having been raised with wood heat (not as long ago as you think), though my house does not have enough room for such an appliance. Here’s one version of a rocket stove that caught my eye. You cook over the “chimney”. I like it because somebody has a clue about the way wood burns.

           Ooh, here she comes. The cabin windows rattled and the walls shuddered at 7:16PM. I can already feel the temperature falling, let me check the outdoor. Yep, from 66°F down to 50°F in minutes and she’s still dropping. This is it until Monday, boys, because the only true news that comes out of Tampa is bad news. I would have thought the EPA would take greater interest in exterior stove design. The challenge there is that you have to duct the heat into the building and that never seems to work well. Then you get an electric fan and the power goes out so you get a generator and pretty soon you are financially back to where you started.

           Some researches have found a fossil mammal leg in the stomach of a fossil reptile. Apparently this is news but I never doubted for a second that it had happened. Everybody has to eat, right? Well, mostly, you see, the Trump tax returns that the Democrats fought so hard for show he left office poorer than he went in. They, of course, cannot understand how such a thing is possible. McDonald’s has finally fielded a fully automatic “robot” restaurant. It’s about half the size of a regular outlet and the food is ordered and served via robot. Yep, these people don’t learn to read or write and think they can vote themselves $15 an hour get a wake-up call.

           The much-touted vertical farms of Europe are in Dutch, ha-ha. These farms rely on electric light since the plants don’t much like the shade. And the cost of the juice rose from 25% to 40% of costs when they did not listen to Trump. Remember the Robot Club quick look at RFID back some ten years ago. The key issue was vulnerability. Sure enough, have you heard of Flipper Zero? It’s a hand-held gadget that can defeat most known RFID locks. It can read, copy, and re-transmit codes and protocols. Around $200 on eBay, $300 at Wal*Mart. It works equally well recording infrared signals and has no problem emulating the keyboard you just used to check your balance.

           Nature.com outputs a study that professors are 25 time more likely to have a parent with a Ph.D. than other academics. This supports my theory that intelligence is no hereditary, but having smart parents provides an infrastructure where the mediocre can follow the Peter Principle. It defies odds to think that these people are 25 times more intelligent or plentiful than others and the caliber of graduates since the 1980s shows they are not filling any traditional roles such as shaping the next generation of thinkers. If you ask me, it is the sad democratization of the for-profit school system. There just happen to be a majority of rich parents who are themselves a product of that arrangement.
           And last, since I’m all coffeed-out, we take a look at laser cutters, wood, of course. They are neat to watch, but honestly, the pieces that they produce don’t look nice. The limit of how deep the cuts can be made don’t work well for rounded pieces the output all looks boxy. The joints are all the same design and it just seems there is a step missing to make the final product “smoother”. This model ship does not come close to the fine work done by hand.

Last Laugh