May 9, 2025

Yesteryear
One year ago today: May 9, 2024, coffee & ice cream . . .
Five years ago today: May 9, 2020, some plumbing.
Nine years ago today: May 9, 2016, synthetic gold.
Random years ago today: May 9, 2010, my hammer turns 15.

           I’m wide awake now. Last evening I made sandwiches and left the pickle jar on the counter. This morning I went to put it in the fridge and grabbed on for a snack. Now, I’ve never had a sour garlic pickle for breakfast before, but I’m wide, wide awake. Let me check to see that nobody has been assassinated. California gasoline expected to hit $8.44 per gallon by 2026. I cannot get mobile again so I’m watching “Interstellar” in sections. Great special effects for the era, I still get a lot out of these old movies. Now that I have the time, sadly that is. I’ve got some feedback on the heavier-duty box design featured y’day. Guess what everybody is getting for Xmas this year?

           Here’s a failed video of the battery experiment. The camera is too slow (one frame per minute) to capture the even slower changes. I was still able to get enough information to conclude that I spent $500 on a battery that really sucks. Previous to this test, it was always plugged into the van, so it kept a sort of 20% power reserve and could top itself off when the van was running. I will test this [battery] with a fan, which is really what I need it for.
           As for the CD player, you get eight hours, every time it stops to change disks, the startup takes 5 hours of the “time left” meter. It will climb if left alone. When I researched this unit, it was the cheapest that would run two small fans or one big fan overnight in camper mode. I will test that soon before deciding. But really, a CD player does not draw all that much power. This test failed also because the player shut itself off I was not there and I did not want it on autoplay as it is too finicky to take back out of that more.

           Here’s something. The first batch of 1,000 Boer farmers from South Africa begin arriving in the US today. I posted they should be given the land taken from the Chinese and be allowed a free hand to operate the farms as they see fit, with unlimited credit for machinery. Do it now, blacks who can’t find Orania on a map are chanting for its destruction. I’ve now complete 50 full LOP calculations, including the GP (Sun) shown here. I still make mistakes but they get noticed. I do not draw the map plots yet because I’m too busy and I do not have any sextant readings. The best I could do is draw the lines of position from Tampa which is N28°33’ by W81°44’.
           The news from England shows our old hero, Nigel Farage is clobbering the opposition. He’s the guy who pushed through Brexit and he could be the next leader. For the record, he won his first election by just six votes. Like the 100-year old two-party system in America, England has long been a juggling match between two equally reprehensible parties. This blog has always considered Trump to be his own party and this same spirit of populism now has what seems the same inertia in England. Trump’s MAGA and Farage’s Reform are anathema to the Establishment.

           Further testing with the wooden box in focus the last could days show that any for sale have to be glued and clamped, and use more staples. Nails will not hold and screws are too expensive even without the need to drill pilot holes. We also have several ideas worth looking at. Here’s a view showing that even tiny amounts of tools and parts now get their own boxes around here. Kosmos 482 will hit Earth tomorrow, some say Sunday. The tracking suggests in the ocean south of Australia, but because it is an uncontrolled descent, the odds of hitting a human are one in a billion. I’ll lock up my sheds early just to be one the safe side.
           And my hopes for life out there are slammed again. Further info on the dimethyl sulfide detected out on an exo-planet show it may be digital noise. The spectral line may be no more than a harmonic of simpler particles. Oh, well, at least I’m on the lookout. Back on Earth, at least we now have a Pope who has been to Wal*Mart.

           Twelve hours later, I have not moved. Me, coffee, a little bass playing, and this movie, “Interstellar”. I have seen bits of it. Not enough to lose interest and there are no serious scientific principles being violated. I’ve enjoyed the movie so far, though they could have make a much finer pick for that mousey leading lady. Later, the movie degenerated into a soap opera.

Picture of the day.
110-million year old ant fossil.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.

           This is the traditional late date for the peach tree to sprout leaves and we got nothing. I note there is a change of color on the newer tiny branchlets that appear time to time, but the tree is just not thriving. It was expertly tended to and correctly fertilized 90 days ago. This early morning picture shows it stark against the scooter fence. Hope remains as it has fooled me before. I really like that tree.

           Ah, yes, we do have some news. Trump has made politics a part of everybody’s life. He has signed Project Homecoming. First, an attractive voluntary deportation package including free departure flights with or without documentation, cash money, and the right to re-enter legally. Second, enforcement of the alien registration act, I forget what it’s called. Third, full-scale roundup of the rest, including an extra 10,000 man force deputized to root out the rest. That’s enough to surround whole neighborhoods and snag every last one—who will never be allowed back.

           This has vast implications, the top of which is Trump is no longer afraid of the Democrat reaction. It will get worse for them, as the $150 billion per year saved on welfare, schools, hospitals, housing, and food stamps will be out of the clutches of USAID. The Democrats are sorely hurting from lack of money, their constant attacks quickly run out of steam. Again, the important matter here is Trump has called their bluff.
           Later, the first group of Boer (Afrikaan) have arrived in the US. They are White, Christian, and most speak English. Watch the Democrats turn violently anti-immigration overnight. There are around 50,000 White farmers, plus their families that could be eligible. If they are relocated here the results will devastate the Trump haters. It would be like establishing new Amish colonies in places like California which regularly “wins” elections by 1%.
           I have advocated that all South African Whites who want it be given US citizenship. It would give the Mandela bunch their cherished land reform, and they could become the next Zimbabwe. If 4.5 million Afrikaans came here, it would spell the extinction of the libtards as a serious movement in this country.

           Let’s go over just one of those implications. If all the illegals are kicked off social security, that would leave some 50 million Americans receiving that pension. Changing nothing else, Trump could crank all of them up to the max of around $3,800 per month. I’ve mentioned this before, but never saw a clear path to it until now. I repeat, it would ensure there would never be another Democrat government in this century.
           For now, the nation holds its breath on these deportations. That’s another whammy for the Left, if they cannot get alien votes, they lose in every arena. What’s more some of their die-hard states are purging dead people off the voting rolls. Since it is now apparent the Democrats may never have won a fair election, this is going to zap them in the arse something fierce.

           A.I. is in the news again, having scored 136 on standard IQ tests. However, the results were dependent on the questions being presented very clearly. Such scores drive home the fact that the average IQ of 100 means half the people in the room don’t meet human levels of intelligence. A.I. acts better with a skilled human, emphasizing it is still a tool. A pity it has been mainly focused on conversation. That will change. Another article bemoans that A.I. has made half the degrees earned by GenX are already obsolete.
           Do I see an outcome not predicted? Yes. As the competition for jobs increases, two consequences emerge. First, rates of pay will shift away from “talking careers” toward “doing careers”, you can fill in the blanks. Second, generally more qualified people will be taking jobs where standards have fallen too low over the past thirty years. Society will benefit when people with university degrees (such as myself) are forced into jobs that are presently performed by total morons. That one, you’ll have to figure out by osmosis.
Oh, I know that somebody will scream what happens to all the morons? Answer, same as since time began. They will find work that pays a little less than the cost of a machine to replace them. This isn’t some new concept, it has been in place since time began.

ADDENDUM
           Something I don’t get. I understand the Richter and decibel scales. What I don’t understand is why they don’t use a scale ordinary people can understand. And no handing us that crap that the scale is too sketchy to define further. If men can rate women from 1 – 10, we can tell it when one sound is twice as loud as the other.
           Mexico sues Google for saying “Gulf of America” on maps. Pelosi has declared Trump “ethically unfit” to run the country, but nobody listened to her. According to $iteprice, this blog is worth $100. Texas wins a billion-dollar case against Google for invasion of privacy, but the average Texan will never see a penny of it.

Last Laugh