Gin

The Gin Craze
J. Draper

18th century would be the 1700's. Things like this make me wonder about people.

Electricity

VEVOR Hot Water Dispenser

A month or three ago we started decompressing the basement and expanding back into the main floor of the house. We had a remodeling project going on last year and while that was going on we were living in the basement. Usually I have place to myself, but we were both living in there for the duration of the remodeling project. Plus we had all the furniture. It was a little congested. My workbench suffered the most. Anyway, things are getting back to normal and I thought I would move the coffee maker and the hot pot onto a table in the big room. That worked okay until somebody tried to print something using the laser printer that was plugged into the same outlet and a breaker tripped. Laser printers draw 15 amps! Who knew? Certainly not me. Actually it was a bad arrangement overall. The coffee maker and the hot pot each draw about 15 amps. The coffee maker and the laser printer probably only draw that much for a few seconds, so you could probably get away with running both of them on the same circuit as the odds would be low that they would both want big power at the same time. You might even get away with it until you have completely forgotten about this whole power arbitrage thing. So, to keep the peace among my minions I moved the coffee maker back into the work room and the hot pot into the kitchen. The coffee maker displaced the battery chargers, so they got sent out to the big room.

There are still some problems with the current arrangement. The laser printer is still on the same circuit as the air fryer oven, but we seldom use it. I guess there was a time when we were using it regularly, but it's been months since it's been turned on. The hot pot died and has been replaced by an always hot pot. I suspect it is on the same circuit as the microwave but no problems. So far.

Then the new hot pot died. No, wait, it's working. No it's not, it quit again. What gives? The outlet is bogus. Maybe the prongs on the new plug are thinner, or something with fat prongs was in here before. In any case it's not a solid connection. So I replaced the outlet, 77 cents from Home Depot, and all is well. Except, while I was trying to sort out how many circuits I had, I discovered that the outlet under the sink is busted - no power at all. So now, since I'm getting all electricicated, I am going investigate. 

Did ROMEX Cable Change Again? (NM-B Update)
Backyard Maine

I found the problem in the switch box. Presumably the outlet under the sink is for the disposal that was never installed because we only use the basement for drinking beer, nothing serious like actual food. The switch is for the never-installed disposal. What I found in the switch box was three Romex cables. One would be power and one would go to the outlet box. The third? Well, hell, every electrical box in the world seems to have two or three extra Romex cables that often have nothing to do with whatever the box is for. But the wires in this one aren't connected to anything, they are just taped over.

Check the hot lead and it's got 15 volts. Check taped leads, and whoa! This one is hot! Talked to Jack at lunch today and he suspects that the 15 volts was induced by running next to a live wire. 15 volts, but no oomph behind it. So I decided to just tape it off and leave it. 

Electricians earn their money. Stuffing those wires back into the box takes some oomph, and trying to contort myself so I could reinstall the outlet under the sink was a struggle.

Screw The New York Times

The Daily Wire informs us that The New York Times is spewing bullshit again. This time they pissed off the Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu.

“Anonymous sources briefed the New York Times that Israel will be prepared to end the war before all of its objectives are achieved,” Netanyahu fired back. “I do not know who these anonymous sources are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: This will not happen. The war will end once Israel achieves all of its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas and the release of all of our hostages. The Government directed the IDF to achieve these war objectives and the IDF has all the means to achieve them. We will not capitulate to the winds of defeatism, neither in the New York Times nor anywhere else. We are inspired by the spirit of victory.”

Hamas are lying, thieving terrorists and deserve to be destroyed. Anyone who is talking about a cease-fire or peace with Hamas is a fellow traveler and deserves the same fate as Hamas.

East Portland News

Portland far east side
Map shows Hazelwood (where IAman lives) in upper right, Lents, which seems to be a 'hot' spot, is at lower left. Highway 213 is 82nd Avenue. I-84 comes in at the top left and connects with I-205 that runs north to the airport and south to Clackamas.

IAman's pursuit of cheap rent prompted him to move to Portland's far east side and it's been an adventure ever since. He sent me a link to East Portland News and the stories they tell do not portray a happy place. Poking around there I found this:

How we got here: Hundreds of Weeks of Shootings

Why, and when, did the East Portland News ‘Week Shooting Reports’ begin? Here’s a brief history:

GVRT unit disbanded, shootings spike

It started back on June 9, 2020, the fateful date that Portland’s Police Commissioner – Mayor Ted Wheeler – announced the disbanding of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Gun Violence Reduction Team (GVRT). The number of shooting incidents in outer East Portland spiked the next day and nearly tripled in a month – and continued to steadily increase, racking up an astounding 892 incidents that year, with more than half of them in outer East Portland.

I don't particularly care for Portland, it is predominately a bunch of deep blue old ladies who don't mind paying outrageous taxes as long as they are 'saving the children' or some similar bullshit. All my kids live there, and it's where my wife would prefer to live. I guess it's where all the social excitement is. I used to gravitate to that but then I got old. We go there sometimes to visit.

 

Standard Numbers

English Measurements

Cassini 20th Anniversary

Cassini and Saturn

 

Twenty years ago today and a billion miles from here, the Cassini spacecraft came to the end of its seven-year interplanetary journey and flawlessly glided into orbit around the planet Saturn. Flying over Saturn's rings at a swift 25 kilometers per second, we finally arrived. It was momentous! - Carolyn Proco

 

Approach and Departure Views of Phoebe, June 2004

Several other photos at the link.