One year ago today: November 7, 2024, R.I.P. little Sammy.
Five years ago today: November 7, 2020, the bin is tradition.
Nine years ago today: November 7, 2016, the President begs.
Random years ago today: November 7, 2012, acute accuracy.
This morning, French toast and coffee found me reading about that guy in Argentina who completely redesigned the steam locomotive. Trivia, 91% of the cost of operating these machines was boiler maintenance. His unit is a rebuild, shown here. I thought, due to climate concerns, it would be easy to find data on this, but I was wrong. It has almost half again the horsepower and uses four pistons. But are they internal or external? Nobody is talking.
I mentioned breakfast, so here is the menu for theButtermilk Kitchen in Atlanta. Billing itself as a mom & pop, it is actually a new franchise from whatever state ME is. The joint is so highly rated, I’m thinking. It isn’t really in Atlanta, rather just off that exit northeast of town, the first place you can turn around after the screwed up lanes of the Atlanta freeway force you into the wrong turn.
Some of my saved links have gone dead, alas one was the original “Forbidden Planet”, a movie from 1956 I have never seen. It’s reputation as creating all the breakthroughs copied by “Star Wars”, has me intrigued. This includes the all electronic music, which the musician’s union refused to be allowed listed as music or something, and the first portrayal of the only robot of the time, Robbie. And I have no link.
Tradition and rules say I must record any conditions that change or are service affecting, and sadly, I have one. My inability to see objects dead ahead unless they are at least twice out of arm’s distance now happens whenever possible. I can’t use those slots meant for holding envelopes and this morning wasted twenty minutes searching for a letter that must go out. I had slipped it into a space beside my table lamp. It was maybe 18” from my gaze and I did not find it until I wound up standing beside it. This does not have to happen very often to become serious around here.
After nearly two hours on hold, I got through to the government office. Cancel my planned trip, I cannot easily work around their requirements. And the office is swamped, that is, cannot help if they wanted to. This means some quick plans need to be made fast. There was a $495 discrepancy in the account, in this case a deposit to the wrong bank. And I need new tires.
Nor have I let laser reseach lapse. I see there are deep discounts for most any units that have recently been displaced by a newer model. There was a Creality Falcon 2 for $700, which is a thousand dollars off. The Creality designs have one super feature I like, the ability to run of cards, that is, no computer. The most unusual view was meant to be a cleaning feature, but if I’m not mistaken, the laser restored a used copper penny to very high standards, including removing some surface wear. Coin collectors, heads up!
Another amusing topic was videos showing complete doll house laser designs. It cuts the house, the appliances, and the furniture. So many I won’t link, just go look for yourself. Also see model ships and trains, but the laser can’t manage curved surfaces so the dollhouse was most impressive. Yes, the roofs had etched shingles. Billy, I did not say I invented them, only that I when I thought of them I had no prior knowledge they existed.
Next, a demo of a 60W laser etching some initials on a metal hammer. This is neat, I got out my hammer and tried it. Nope, not worth a shit. There’s a quarter under the lens now, hang on and we’ll see. No difference. 10W is not, it would seem, enough for metal.
Dinner detective murder mystery.
Remember to use BACK ARROW to return to blog.
I took a drive around the east of the county, stopping at Crystal Springs, the mystery college. This is the college attended by the CDC guy, who has not answered his phone. The campus is on a dead-end side road north of the highway to Lake Wales. This photo is an accurate depiction of what I found. This should be the middle of a semester, but the place was deserted. If you squint, the reflection in the windows shows an empty parking lot.
This two-hour drive-around was a break since I have a new back pain. Fleeting, but new and I felt like driving go digest the news of the day. I am about to give up a 44 year legacy quite against my will. But this is no longer the America I knew. More than half the population has no concept of what a free and safe country this used to be. Not wanting another crime audiobook, I chose one about some guy who runs away to Paris. I don’t like it already, but it sure is a change.
So far, it is this kid in Algeria with a French mother who died. I don’t have the time-line yet but it is while the colony was still French. The book is instantly anti-European, so I want to see where this goes. Already the French were the hated invaders who “killed for reasons unknown to mankind” while totally ignoring that Moors invaded Spain a thousand years earlier. It’s already a peek into the strange mentality of that part of the world. I suspect the guy is a native Algerian who can pass for French, but that’s a secret for a few chapters.
The European perspective on some things has always seemed juvenile to me, how they half-imitate Americans without perceiving the quaintness. For example, the telephone is about as American an invention as it gets, yet the French have an entire set of protocols that are directly comparable to how American children regard the phone--before they grow up and learn it is not a voodoo talking box. Or the outdated lingo in their language. Who says “boner” any more? The book has another bad habit I’ve also heard on their radio stations. That’s when relating a conversation, they will present the entire sentence before indicating who is speaking until the end. I’ve had to rewind several times already.
In the news, the food stamps remain cut off and America revels in the squeals of the welfare class. Don’t worry, the children are always fed, there is no such thing as starvation in America. That Democrat video of the 350 lb mama crying was a dumb move. For most taxpayers, the welfare game is over. Back in the 1980s, I used denigrate people like my guitar player who faked an injury and went on disability at age 21. But what really made me angry was that he never used the free life to amount to anything. He would go on these 30-hour drinking binges. And I have said before, if I knew then how the world would end up like today, I would have got myself on government welfare long ago. But, I would have done something with my time, don’t forget that huge difference here.
And what is this bullsh about tracking down descendents of people who bought slaves two hundred years ago. Shouldn’t you be tracking down the tribes who sold them? Have you seen the J6 pipe bomber suspect? I will not post such a picture here, the dike with a pipe. An ex-cop CIA/FBI DEI hire. Too freaky for words.
The old club in Bartow is having that “80’s Night”, I went for a look. I did not even stay for one. More shigga-booga and not one familiar face in the crowd I’d estimate at around sixty, including the standees outside who often bring their own. TMOR, this is very illegal in Florida but the law is rarely enforced. There were three good looking women, all blondes, but nothing like the place was before COVID. They were each part of larger groups of all-women, which if they are looking for men, is unequivocally the wrong thing to do. I did notice a change of staff.
That’s important because the local labor pool is so tiny and that club has become feast or famine. Handing over the cash cow days to strangers from out of town hasn’t been the best track record for that place. And it was the salt mine crowd, not the themed party they advertised. Noisy, boisterous, that element of unhappy people happy on payday. I had been told Karen was going to be there, but she wasn’t.
ADDENDUM
I read the Rubio article about Equatorial Guinea having the lowest IQ rating on the planet, at 62. My instinct tells me that low IQ is not some artificial measurement applied on people who don't like it, but an indicator of deeper problems. Why? Because it explains away the false impression that with enough patience and training, such people can be raised. That has never happened. There are a few outliers, but their first duty it to get the hell out. In my own upbringing I have witnessed the awful waste of resources on people who will never rise beyond their own daily physiological urges. They survive mainly because they outbreed any other class.
Experience shows that while IQ can never be raised, it can definitely be lowered. I propose there is a double reason for this, and it is emotional. As IQ drops, it is readily replaced by an “investment” in wrong (but highly self-protective) behavior of which there are abundant supplies to draw on. Once IQ is dropped, it cannot be restored to any former level without the individual abandoning the often considerable mileage he’s now acquired being wrong. (The herd mentality effect.) And it is doubtful anyone would argue that it is far easier to be wrong than neutral or right. Have you ever met anyone with an IQ below 90? They are insufferable and it is entirely a social affliction at that point. I wonder what such people must dream about.
Here’s a link to an excellent definition of the situation, but again it describes behavior as a consequence or as external reactions. I say the brain and behavior are one and the same, inseparable. I found this article excellent at describing the behaviors. Ha, like treating feedback as criticism and how the simple dislike learning in general.
