One year ago today: December 24, 2021, National Cold Day?
Five years ago today: December 24, 2017, freeze-dried, huh?
Nine years ago today: December 24, 2013, of men & geese.
Random years ago today: December 24, 1981, today, 35 is young.
That’s interesting. You know those round wooden beehives that had conical roofs, the ones used in the old Ukraine? It is almost impossible to find a picture of them on-line that is not copyrighted and for sale. There’s your indication I’m cooped up in the house, regretting that I did not replace that third space heater a year ago. Here’s my outdoor thermometer, showing 31°F. It was 28°F earlier but I voted against going out there to get you a photo. There’s limits to my customer service. The city is at a standstill, I’m raiding my emergency stocks for food. I could go downtown, it’s not like there are any shortages except my will to go outside again this morning. Too bad my sheds are cooled, not heated.
Burning barrels. At then bucks, I’ll drive the 40 miles each way for them. The local suppliers are too unreliable, always out or don’t answer the phone. These are advertised in Odessa, where I don’t think I’ve ever stopped. That would be a nice project for today, as the van has two heaters that just honk.
We have a problem with the Caltier Fund. That’s problem number two after the delay in funds transfer. There are further issues with the web page, but we allow they are still working on it. The snag today was a survey that had to be completed before we were allowed to access our account. We are not in the habit of divulging to anonymous on-line persons our motives or intentions, much less any hint of what our income happens to be. When we signed up, we made some declarations that we knew what we were doing and it should be left at that.
Caltier is living in some pre-Internet pre-database pre-ID theft fantasy world. It’s as much the survey as the fact it had to be completed to allow access. It also raises the option that if you simply complete the survey to get past it, Caltier could hold you to task for some of the answers—and that was never part of the deal. I sent them a reply that we charge a fee for such surveys and they agree to pay it by continuing to survey. Now we shall see.
Yes, this is a photo of yet another flying car concept. This one’s from Israel where nobody gets good driving points. Slated as a “major milestone”, this age-old concept promises to move traffic congestion into three dimensions. It is all electric, maxes out at 100 mph, and the price tag is $150,000. How long before James Bond gets one? The world moves on from bad drivers to bad pilots. And Intel has come up with a two-chip video graphic plan. The influence of gaming has left them second place with these devices, so now they’ve designed a way for two chips to work the display. No specs available yet.
Allison Spitfire engine (Merlin).
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Have you heard of the Coolidge Effect? It’s a term from the 1950s (humorous enough that I’ll let you look it up yourself) that has come to mean the way men find a new women more sexually attractive than one they’ve already had sex with. And here you thought it was just you, only joking. I never doubted that was the case until I met the right gal, but not because of some elusive notion. It was because with most women, the novelty wears off once their makeup washes off, so to speak.
This is a scene from a movie I saw as a teen. “In The Heat of the Night”, it’s a classic but my aversion to watching the same movie twice never waned until my 50s when I ran out of good movies. And this is good, the acting is excellent and powerful for the time. There’s a few concepts not consistent with the facts but it’s still first-rate today. My conclusion is back then they hired actors based on talent, not by credentials.
And I admit I’m biased on that count. I never said I could win any music contests, but put me next to an academy graduate and you will instantly tell who’s soul is in it. There’s other differences, like their attitude that a band cannot survive two strong personalities. That’s bull donkey from the type who only think they have it. Truly strong types have no problem with other egos, I find many of them amusing.
After all these years, I found out why a meridian angle was once called local hour angle. All six books I’ve read didn’t say or did say they didn’t know. Turns out because of confusion whether the units (degrees and minutes) mean an angle or a distance. So somebody decided to call it by hours and minutes, then use a table to translate, which introduces another chance for error. It never caught on except now so many books still use the term. There is a need for somebody to write a navigation book not from the point of view of the experienced teacher nor toward the goal of navigation. Got that, neither from nor toward navigation, but concerning only what is going on—any why. Tell you what, I’m inside all day so go to the addendum and I’ll give an example of the teach method.
To this day, I laugh how often foreigners cannot innovate or create without copying US technology. Today’s idiocy was the use of an Arduino microcontroller to display Islamic prayer times. Think about that for a moment. Now think about the purpose of computers, one of which is to free humans from mundane and repetitive tasks. Worse yet, whoever comes up with these ideas is missing an important point. Next with the Arduino is a review of the to projects for 2022. Once again, candy dispensers, water sensors, and a robot kit.
These are all gadget-like, where I’d rather see things where the Arduino improves a process or adds a dimension. These projects are all ends in themselves and nothing new. Here’s an idea I have, totally unlike anything I’ve seen before (as opposed to me saying it is original, but it probably is). Think of a flat table around a foot square. Under the table is a square grid of 100 electromagnets. These magnets are controlled by the Arduino. On the top of the table are a series of colored steel marbles. I would have to decide once a marble is moved, is it held there by magnetism or gravity and a small dent.
You can imagine the device. A marble could be made to “move” across the board. The marbles could be made to move a step at a time. A variation would be using one magnet to move each marble to a position that forms part of a picture. And so on. Make it to math. Play a game. I’ve not had much time to ponder this one. But notice, it is not an adaptation of some other process, but a new process whose utility is yet to be determined. This is different from the games that use a magnetic ball. Those are simple grids that use a non-programmable reed switch.
ADDENDUM
Navigation in baby steps. The first thing I’d remind the student is 5th grade trig, that the internal angles of a triangle add up to 180°. If one of those three angles is 90°, it means the other two must add up to another 90°. Keeping this in mind will save you a lot of grief. But what is the second most important concept? Every book tells you different and then proceeds to fling all kinds of unfamiliar terms at you. I give you only one. Meridian. Until you get this concept, don’t move a muscle.
Imagine you are standing looking directly south. Now imagine a line that goes from the south point on the horizon, up to a point directly over your head. It’s a curved straight line, but now continue it to the north pole, then around the south pole and back to the starting point. That line is your meridian. Turn left or right and your meridian moves, so stay still and concern yourself only with the one that faces exactly south. Focus on this meridian and your navigation lessons will become easier.
Nobody can have the same meridian as you because you can’t both be in exactly the same place. Get this right in your head, it WILL be on the exam. That’s it. The sum of the angles and the meridian. All else derives from that.
