Funnies

10 Short Videos #6056

10 Short Videos #6056

Owls Make No Sound When They Fly

Absurd King Fu Cat

This packaging system creates the perfect package using 3D scanning!

Compressed Unboxing Final Boss

This freeway has 26 lanes — and traffic is worse than ever

One of the Narrowest Ship Passages on Earth

Trams without Wires!

The Ancient Technique Behind Massive Clay Forms

People think fiber internet is a new technology, but TAT-8 has been running the internet since 1988.

This Feels Like A Fever Dream 

Fireplace Thermostat

Emerson Low Voltage Mechanical Thermostat

There is a gas fireplace in the basement. It keeps the room as warm as you like. The fireplace is at one end of the big room and there is a thermostat at the other end of the room. I could never get the original thermostat to behave like I wanted, too large a temperature swing maybe. It's been a long time, so I don't rightly remember what the problem was. In any case I bought a new thermostat and it was satisfactory until it quit. Seems the old thermostat used a mercury switch and the new thermostat had mechanical contacts. The new thermostat is supposed to be used with a 12 volt control circuit, but the gas valve in the fireplace runs off the millivolt current supplied by the thermopile. It's like 600 millivolts which is less than one volt.

I don't know whether it was dust or corrosion on the contacts in the thermostat, but I cleaned them up and they worked for awhile, but then it quit again. Obviously I need a better solution. So then I got the idea of using wall-wart to supply voltage to a relay to trigger the gas valve.

Car Relay 12V SPST

12 volt relay designed for use in a car ought to do the trick, but none of the old wall-warts I had lying around produced 12 volts. I even tried using a USB plug, but it didn't have enough oomph either. 

12 Volt Transformer Power Supply

Finally resorted to buying this LED power supply. 3 amps is overkill for what I'm doing, but it works a charm.

On Off Rocker Switch

After the thermostat quit, I resorted to using the switch attached to the gas valve. Awkward being as it is behind the lower grill and down around ground level, but it worked. Until it didn't. Time for a new switch. 

AVARBUVO Lever Wire Connectors

Don't want to wear out the new switch, so I resorted to connecting the two wires together with a splice connector. Once again that worked for a while until the it didn't. Connector is only supposed to connected and then left alone. It is not designed to be used as a switch. That's okay, I've got a bunch of these connectors, I can just throw out the old one and put in a new one.

Of course, using a connector to turn the fireplace on and off is silly, especially since I have all the parts I need to implement my relay scheme. Today the boss is on a tear and something must be done about all the valuable stuff I have collected in my dungeon. Fine, okay, I'll hook up the relay. After stalling for ten months it only took me 15 minutes to hook it up and so far it's working.

Date	Item	Amount
Oct 15, 2021	Thermostat	33.81
Mar 13, 2025	Relay	7.95
Mar 13, 2025	Connectors	8.99
Dec 22, 2025	Switch	15.99
Dec 25, 2025	Power Supply	9.96
	Total	$76.70

I sacrificed an old extension cord to feed 120VAC to the power supply.

Funnies

10 Short Videos #6055

10 Short Videos #6055

Crazy racing MotoGP

Hilarious 🤣🤣 and TRUE! ADHD COOKING!!

11 years of experience in 60 seconds

Endgame: White chess has 3 pawns and black chess has 6 pawns, but white can be promoted to become a minister first

High speed rear bumper detachment method

THE FLASH

This Machine Lifts ENTIRE SHIPS!

Smooth skills

A miraculous escape

Senam tranpolin indonesia

Ukraine War

The 80th Air Assault Brigade captured a T-90M Proryv tank in the Kursk region

The Geopolitics has a summary:

Four years after Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the war has settled into something more troubling – a grinding conflict that continues to destroy lives and livelihood, and test the limits of international law. The early drama of invasion has given way to sufferings and anxieties, and there is hardly any substantive move toward peace.

The front line stretches for roughly 1,200 kilometres. Russia today controls about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, but its gains since 2022 have been slow and costly. Estimates suggest that up to 1.8 million soldiers on both sides have been killed, wounded or gone missing. Civilian losses remain severe. The UN has documented nearly 15,000 civilian deaths and more than 40,000 injuries, while warning the true number is higher.

Thanks, Obama.

Always Remember Us This Way Remix

Always Remember Us This Way
Aspinal - Topic

Just popped in my head this morning. Used Google song search to track it down. I could remember it perfectly in my head but I could not sing it for shit. Google was still able to sort it out. Weird.