China

is it so different?
Nanjec
"The biggest natively spoken language on the entire planet." (40 second mark)
We have watched several Chinese historical fantasy dramas on Netflix, half a dozen this year. The clothes and sets are fabulous, and there are long scenes where we have fancy people just standing around and talking. The talk is mostly in consequential, but every so often someone drops a hint and, if you are paying attention, you will start to pick up on the evil plot the bad guys are making. But they all end the same way, happily, the guy gets the girl, the villains are foiled, and all is right with the world.

We watch these shows in Chinese and read the subtitles. Even after all this exposure, spoken Chinese to me is still incomprehensible, so the I found the above video to be enlightening.

 
Inside Chongqing’s Massive Hot Pot Industry
saintcavish
I don't much care about Hot Pot (an interactive, communal dining style where diners cook raw, bite-sized ingredients right at the table in a pot of simmering soup or stock), but first minute and a half he gives an overview of the town of Chongqing, and I found that interesting.

 

Changqing is in the middle of China


Chongqing is a big place. This map is about 500 miles wide.

There's a lot going on in China and my knowledge of the place is decidedly lacking. I have a pretty good understanding of the history of Western Civilization, but my understanding of the history of Asia is pretty poor. To that I end I looked up the section on Chinese history at Powell's City of Books today. Powell's, if you don't know, is big place, it's three story building and covers a whole city block. They've got a zillion books, but surprisingly, the section on Chinese history was only two books cases, and one case was devoted entirely to Communist China, i.e. the People's Republic of China (PRC), not be confused with the Republic of China (ROC - Taiwan).

Anyway, I picked up a copy of Smoke and Ashes: Opium's Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh. Don't know when I'll get around to reading it. I'm only halfway through the copy of A Quantum Mythology that I picked up in Las Vegas two months ago.

I've also encountered a few short videos about China, collected in a playlist here.

Intel

Agentic AI Concept – AI Generated

Talking to my lawn man the other day and he tells me about the Hillsboro Herald, a local news site / blog, so I go take a look and I find some curious stuff, like this story about the local politcal fight over data centers, and this story about Intel:

The Call Intel Couldn’t Give — Why Wall Street Misread the Fab 28 Panic

Sum dood has been collecting financial data about Intel for a few years and is feeding it an AI program, presumably to predict the future so he can make good bets in the stock market. It's kind of a long and complicated story about AI and finance. I'm not really interested, but you might be. 

10 Short Videos #6308

10 Short Videos #6308

1. Bunny came back for a rematch ! - dogs racing quarter horse
2. My new Halloween costume🎃| 2026
3. This Bird Can Fly Again
4. (Adrenaline / Drift Focus): SIDEWAYS AT MAXIMUM LEAN ANGLE! Kawasaki Ninja H2R Slow Motion Drift
5. I used to dream of this - Flying cars
6. Smallest Fighter, Biggest Weapon - Crab & jellyfish
7. 卷 4️⃣同行先天打工聖體人 - Volume 4️⃣ Fellow Travelers with Innate Working Spirits
8. Do you think he liked his present - highland cow
9. Cobra Picks a Fight With the WRONG Cow! 🐍🐄
10. Check out the latest creation from Kindig-It designs named “Shark Bite”

Funnies

1964 Plymouth Barracuda

1964 Plymouth Barracuda

1964 Plymouth Barracuda Interior

273 V8 Small Block Engine

Base price of the Barracuda in 1964 was $2,512. According to Wikipedia, that is equivalent to $26,000 in today's money. According to the Pergelator (me), that $2500 is equivalent to $250,000 in today's money, which means cars cost only about one-fifth of what they cost 60 years ago. This is what modern manufacturing has brought us - material goods that are vastly cheaper in terms of real value than they used to be. What this also means is there is a whole lot more profit to be made from making and selling things, which might explain the proliferation of very wealthy people.

CPAP

Disassembled Philipps Respironics CPAP Machine

I have been using a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine for about ten years. I was having a terrible time sleeping, went to a sleep clinic, did an overnight sleep study and I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. So my airway would collapse, I would stop breathing which set off an internal alarm and I would wake up momentarily and resume breathing. This was happening over and over every night, which kind of explains why I wasn't feeling rested in the morning.

Doc prescribed a CPAP machine and it made a heck of a difference. I'd wake up in the morning feeling rested. It was a god send. I've been using it every since.

I went back for a check up maybe a year later (maybe more) and doc prescribed a new machine. The one I had had been running for eight hours a night which is like 3,000 hours a year. Ok, no sweat off my brow, insurance paid for it all. The new machine was smaller and started automatically, so I used it.

About a month ago it started acting up. Wouldn't start reliably and sometimes it would just stop. Coaxing it didn't help, so I pulled out the old one and started using it and it's been working fine.

Being mindful of the old dictum that "two is one and one is none", I thought I would see if I could get the new one fixed. Turns out you can't, not without going through the doctor. The CPAP people have got  this market sewn up tight, they have the power of the Federal government behind them and the only way you can get one is through your doctor. Quite a racket. Did find that CPAP machines only have a service life of five years, after that they won't even try to repair them. Since mine is ten years old there was no point in even trying to get it repaired.

New machines cost around a thousand dollars, and at least one place has a tame doctor that will prescribe one for you.

Looking for information, I came across some posts on reddit talking about building your own. It should be a fairly simple matter. All you need is a small blower and a way to calibrate the pressure. I think mine is set to around 4 cm of water, with is like 1/20th of a PSI, which isn't very much, and maybe that's all you need. You could get fancy and monitor the pressure and adjust the blower speed on the fly, but you would want some kind of fail safe. You don't want it to start blasting higher pressure air into your lungs. You might wake up before that did any damage, or would you? Not something you want to mess with.

There's also the problem of how you measure pressure that low. There must be a way, after all Philipps does it.

Anyway after I got done poking around on the internet I decided to try taking my new machine apart. The only tricky part was the tiny screw holding the exhaust port on. It was too small for any of my regular Torx drivers, but fortunately one of the bits in my set of security bits was small enough. Three more normal screws and then it was just a matter of bending the locking tabs enough to release the components and now we have the results at the top of this post.

I put it back together and it seems to be as happy as it was before I took it apart. With luck it appreciated my poking around and will go back to working properly. With luck the old one will last for another ten years.

And even if it doesn't, I sleep just fine curled up on my side in my recliner.

P. S. Siemens (which makes Respironics machines) has completely pulled out of the U. S. market after someone complained about the foam they were using to muffle the sound of the fan. I suspect a U. S. company was stirring the pot and Siemens decided they didn't need the headache and just quit.

10 Short Videos #6307

10 Short Videos #6307

1. It's way easier to get a driving licence in some countries compared to others
2. Funniest moments of life 13 - Africans
3. When you have to show your talent to win her over - dancing bird
4. The Ripper 2.0 - Making heavy cuts with a lathe
5. just another day in the rut in Pennsylvania - bucks butting heads
6. My Thunderbolt 1000AT Test - Manual Activation - 10/6/26 - Air raid siren
7. Lasern is mei Lem! - Laser cutting is my life!
8. You need to spend five minutes with someone to realize they're an idiot | Ricky Mokel
9. Bluetooth ratchet chain EZ Binders - read the comments
10. This 2,000HP Yacht is on EVERY millionaire's wishlist... 🤯 - read the comments