One year ago today: July 14, 2022, that’s $1,475 today.
Five years ago today: July 14, 2018, what a luxury.
Nine years ago today: July 14, 2014, second from the right.
Random years ago today: July 14, 2008, the lack of pedestrians.
Terror grips the gamers of America as SEGA workers form a union. US industry claims an order “cancel” button is too confusing for consumers. Stable Doodle (no link) is sending shivers to the sketching community. I’m having an early coffee, and this morning had me looking at the latest in digital modular telescopes. Huh? Yep, the next generation of telescopes is likely to be built up from small lenses like the one shown here, about a meter in diameter.
And this morning’s face-palm goes to the journalist who thinks the Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane was a “nazi” aircraft. History is plainly not on the journalism school cirriculum. But the booby prize is the couple who divorced after 52 years with the house in the wife’s name. They did it to shield the wife from $300,000 in the husband’s medical bills. But then they blabbed about it. Bad move. The insurance companies have six years to declare any such thing a sham deal if it was done to shield assets. I got twenty bucks that couple used to say they had “nothing to hide”.
You may be wondering what is really behind the Hollywood actors and writers strike. It’ A.I. so the rule remains, Follow The Money. There are two big issues for the strikers. One is the extremely low quality of Hollywood writing makes them a prime target for A.I., which is already able to emulate the intelligence of 16-year-olds. The other is about extras, those people who become professional “back-street crossers” in so many movies. They are also called background actors and extras. A.I. can fake their likenesses, which is as insulting as it sounds. In both cases, the movie industry sought to bypass existing agreements with both groups.
The Reb knows the management people involved and adds there is an additional problem with streaming royalties. Another wrench is California is about to pass a law that all homeopathic practitioners must be vaccinated and natural cures must be by prescription only. Such laws are dependent on two factors. One, to see if enough people voluntarily comply. Two, other states watching to see if it results in more tax revenue. Either situation can cause problems everywhere.
The most conspicuous failure was COVID, where the people who complied seem to have believed they could compel others. Instead, they’ve become pariahs and few people believe the government stat that 2/3rds of Americans are jabbed. It’s simply got to be less than half and is probably actually around a third. Sadly for the D-party, that third are the lowest IQ class that cosntitutes most of their electorate.
All this chasing means I was not outside this morning except for chores. And the new phone kept breaking up on the Reb, including after I went outside. I’ll check with the shop to see if this is a system problem, which they will quickly blame on Dish, the new owner of Boost. Dish are bloodthirsty liars who never keep a promise. It’s the work ethic spawned by the Internet. The motto of Internet companies should be “plausible deniability”.
Map of castles in France.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
A mild late afternoon by Florida standards, and I was in the shed. Here is a nice panel of the dashcam mounting work in process. This is experimental and may not even function, but its rating is because this work of art was created using the original robot club tool set. That tap and die, shown dated 2003. The two largest thread cutters (the “die” part, I think) are damaged beyond repair but the 1/4" size shown here is by far the most common used around here.
Having forgot it is Friday, we have a slight budget for the evening. The only place nice enough that has neither millennial rap or clientele mostly in their 70s is the old club in Bartow. I will work in the shed until the mosquitoes attack and decide. I got other items done that qualify as part of my goal to accomplish something every day. That would include a holder for the pinball relay while I decide what I can make with it.
Later, the hillbilly showed up, swearing he did not steal that saw. Of course, he’s had time to rehearse a story. What’s he doing out of jail? A weekend work pass, and he’s mowing the lawn over at the neighbors. I declared a truce because nobody actually saw him take the saw. He’s landed his hands on a guitar, which is so important, I won’t ask questions. None are missing here, is what I’m saying. I was busy joining the uprights on these hexagons, which proved a headache. The brad pins won’t hold them and even the slightest clamping throw them off square.
The radio can’t lie fast enough. Trump is trouncing the entire field of candidates. What American doesn’t know all the others are potential traitors or turncoats who will join the Establishment the moment they get in. That means a four-year grab-what-you-can spree with the complete endorsement of the Deep State and their strong-arm agencies. The French are burning their head of state in effigy as hordes of sub-Saharan Africans chant in the street they are only there for the red passport and the free welfare.
The Left, caught between declining viewership and weak candidates, decided to let Tucker host the Republican Presidential debates. Problem, the increased number of viewers have tuned in hoping to watch Tucker make fools of them. First to fall was Pence, the traitor who certified the 2020 election saying he did not have the authority to call it rigged. Recent polls show as few as 30,000 people would vote for him. Well, Tucker got him to say that America’s problem was “not his concern” as he was running for President. Ha, not no more. True, his statement was taken out of context—but when put into context it is even scarier.
Trump is boycotting the debates which are known to channelize the topics toward talking points rather than address the country’s problems. Wise. DeSantis and the other so-called Republicans are likely shitting their pants now realizing they may have to think rather than steer back to their rehearsed agendas. And what was that hurled object that hit Pence in the head? Remember how we said before long these people would not be able to walk down the street. Moments later, here is the video. It was a girl who beaned him, let the agencies try to arrest her.
India has successfully launched a Moon mission. Their Prime Minister and host all praised the launch teams ingenuity while failing to mention the rocket, the boosters, the six-wheel rover and the entire electronics and navigation system were near exact copies of American innovations. Touchdown is in six days.
ADDENDUM
Robotics. Who recalls that Arduino lock-picking gadget we reviewed here a few years back? My search for a knowledgeable 3D person may have let us to one of the developers, or if not, a sincere devotee to such workings. And, he lives only 55 miles from here, though that is still beyond commuting distance at these gas prices. The good news is he has a grip on the slicing and blending needed to work the machine. If you remember, it was this design phase that road-blocked me. I even had unusual (for me) trouble reading the procedures, but not the concept.
You scan an object and electronically slice it into layers. These become a coding system you feed into the 3D controller and it (slowly) prints up a plastic copy. He responded to an ad for a collaborator and has kept replying to all e-mails. Time to dig out my old Arduino sketches and remind myself I actually once got pretty far into it.
Tentatively known as Agent K, he has already got me looking into the Sonoff. It’s a WiFi controlled 5VDC relay that serves the same function as the Arduino ATM clone chip I wanted so long when the supplier went kaput. More as I learn it.
I’ve frozen but not deleted my account on Mastodon.world over censorship. Somebody takes all humor the wrong way. It is evident all my posts were humor from day one. I admit some of my stuff can be taken more than one way, but it takes a dry and wretched personality to apply that to me. Such people never understand why they end up in a friendless station where nobody will give them the time of day and the kids come around maybe twice a year.
