YouTube is Huge

Why David Gilmour Won’t Be On My Channel
Rick Beato

I only noticed this guy recently. I've watched a couple of his short videos and some of them are entertaining. If you are a musician or a music nerd you might enjoy him. But the first part of this video is about the reach of various video media and I liked that. The thing you need to remember is that although the numbers he quotes sound ginormous, there are a zillion people on the planet and half of them have access to the internet. Divide ginormous by a zillion and you start to get numbers you can deal with. Rick Beato is famous enough that he has his own Wikipedia page.

Before They Are Hanged - Novel by Joe Abercombie

Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercombie
Review by Dave de Burgh

Goodreads: Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercombie, Book 2 of The First Law

Excellent. I read book 1 of the series, The Blade Itself earlier this year. Note: author's name is spelled Abercombie, not Ambercombie.

Intel 4004 Microprocessor

Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands
STYX

Borepatch posted about a guy who got Linux to run a 4004 microprocessor. My response to this foolishness is the above tune. But then SiGraybeard wonders if the 4004 can actually do anything useful, which got me to wondering. I mean, the stupidest microcontroller I ever dealt with was Intel's 8051 and comparing it to a 4004 is like comparing a Cadillac to a kid's tricycle. So what was it used for? Somebody asked this question on Quora and got a boatload of answers. I liked these:

Intel 4004 was the first commercially available microprocessor. This 4-bit microchip was released in 1971 and was mainly designed by Federico Faggin and Masatoshi Shima. It was designed for use in calculators, automated teller machines and cash machines. - Odysseus Hoang

Basically Intel realised they were having to reinvent the wheel for every calculator manufacturer that came along with a different specification for a new device.
They decided it would be better to create a processor with a fixed set of instructions, with the new functionality to be provided by the code burnt into ROM. Future changes can be accommodated by changing the code in the ROM, not a total redesign of the chip. - John Stephenson

WW2 - The war that keeps on giving

B-24 being loaded with bombs in preparation for raid on Germany in 1943

Stu gives us a run down on the evacuation of part of a nearby village in preparation for an attempt to deal with a newly discovered WW2 era bomb.

Seems I've heard other stories about this sort of thing, which got me to wondering just how often it happens, so I asked Google, and the first page of results gives us of nine incidents (9!) so far this year. The war ended 80 years ago and we (all us peasants) are still paying for it. You might think we would learn something, but I doubt it. The blowhards continue to spew lies and the great mass of people (who run on emotion instead of reason) will continue to believe their bullshit.

Germany: Authorities disposing of unexploded WWII ...
26 Sep 2024 | 08:49 PM UTC. Germany: Authorities ... Authorities conducting WWII bomb disposal ... Authorities are disposing of an unexploded WWII bomb on Susanne-Ihsen-Strasse in Kaiserslautern late Sept.

Germany: Authorities to dispose of unexploded WWII ...
Authorities to conduct WWII bomb disposal operation in Paderborn, Germany, Sept. ... 25 Sep 2024 | ... Germany: Authorities disposing of unexploded WWII ordnance in Kaiserslautern late Sept. 26 · 26 Sep 2024 | 09:33 AM UTC.

Evacuation is due in Bielefeld after discovery of World War ...
Sep 12, 2024 — Germany: Large explosion rocks venue in Cologne city centre. September 16, 2024. An explosion has occurred in the centre of the German city of ...

WWII bomb to be detonated next to Tesla's plant in Germany
Jun 27, 2024 — O) , opens new tab factory in Gruenheide, just outside Berlin, will be detonated in a controlled manner this weekend, according to local media.

WWII bomb at Frankfurt Airport detonated safely
Jun 7, 2024 — A phosphorus bomb dating back to the Second World War was found by construction workers on the airport's grounds, according to police.

Residents return home after WW2 bomb explosion
Aug 20, 2024 — Residents have been returning home after a 500kg wartime German bomb was destroyed.

Disposal crews remove WWII bombs found in German town ...
Apr 4, 2024 — Specialists defused two American World War II-era bombs Thursday near a decommissioned train station outside the Bavarian city of Amberg.

Huge unexploded WWII bomb discovered in Germany
Apr 4, 2024 — The discovery of the half-tonne device in Cologne's Rhine River during construction led to shipping closures and evacuations.

UXO-related incidents in Germany and Austria over ...
A WWII bomb exploded at a construction site near a West German town, killing a man and injuring eight others. The explosion occurred after a digger accidentally ...

Middle Class

US Social Trust
Scale along left hand edge goes from 25 at the bottom to 60% at the top.

I sometimes wonder how the West got so far ahead of the rest of the world. This story offers an explanation:

How Easy Is It To Become Middle Class Now? by Charles Hughes Smith

If we want social / economic renewal, we have to make it straightforward for anyone willing to adopt the values and habits of "thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work" to climb the ladder to middle class security

How easy is it to climb the social mobility ladder into the middle class? It's a key question because the middle class is the ultimate source of social stability, innovation and democracy.

To answer this question, we must start with the rise of the middle class in Europe and the market economy which enabled that rise.

This article explores the specific cultural adaptations which set the stage for Europe's adoption of a market economy as the primary social-economic force, supplanting family and feudal ties.

When did Europe pull ahead? And why?

The author notes that Northern European economic expansion began in the 1300s, before the Protestant Reformation, the discovery of the Americas and before the printing press--all factors others have identified as key to Europe's rise to dominance.

He identifies the assimilation by Catholic Europe of two Northern European cultural traits--individualism and the ban on cousin marriages, which led to social trust extending beyond the immediate family-- as critical preconditions for the acceptance of a market economy.

He then adds a third condition: the suppression / elimination of violent males from the social order via harsh secular and religious punishment of evil-doers. Murder rates declined as the most violent were executed or imprisoned in large numbers.

Here are some key excerpts from the article:

"Those three causes--individualism, impersonal sociality, and a pacified environment--allowed the market economy to grow beyond its former limits.

'The Market' could thus spread farther and farther beyond the marketplace, replacing older forms of exchange and ultimately replacing kinship as the main organizing principle of society.

The English as a whole became more and more middle-class in their mindset: 'Thrift, prudence, negotiation, and hard work were becoming values for communities that previously had been spendthrift, impulsive, violent, and leisure loving.'

The Western world thus embarked on a trajectory of sustained economic growth. This is in contrast to what we see in other times and places, where economic growth tended to stall after a while and give way to stagnation or even contraction.

Western Christianity (which assimilated pagan characteristics of northern Europe) enabled 'the peace, order, and stability that allowed the middle class to expand and become dominant.'"

He goes on to talk about how things have changed recently and why.

Why Arabs Lose Wars

Detailed Analysis: Why Arabs Lose Wars?
Magical History

The value of this video is found in the audio. The video is just a sequence of very short clips of military scenes. They don't seem to have anything to do with the audio. 

I kind of suspected that Arab culture is as paranoid and self-serving as described, so it's nice to have someone reinforce my beliefs.

Will they ever change? I dunno, the Soviet Union went on for a long time before they finally collapsed due to lack of money. The Arabian oil states don't show any sign of running out of oil anytime soon, but there are several Arab states that don't have any oil to speak of. What's propping them up?

P. S. An older post about Shame, Guilt and Arab Culture.

Mesh Goggles

Improve Mesh Chainsaw Goggles with a Sharpie
Ravenglade Axe Co

Mesh googles. Who'd a thunk it? Okay I guess for wood working. If a wood chip is small enough to get through the mesh, their mass is so little they are unlikely to do any damage. Shoot if they are that small they probably won't even get to your goggles. Probably fall to the ground or get blown away. No so good for working with metal or stone. Still, pretty good trick painting the mesh black.

New Samsung Galaxy Phone

Samsung Galaxy A03s
Showing both back and front

My phone died last week. I thought it was the battery so I bought a new one from Amazon for ten bucks. Then it really died. So I ordered a refurbished phone from Tracphone. I think it cost me $40. What a joyful experience.

USB Connectors
Click to embiggenate

Unlike Amazon they want $5 for overnight shipping but me being a cheapskate I told myself I can live for three days without my phone. Showed up yesterday and it needs to be activated and charged. Charging is going to take a while so let's get that started. Old charging cable doesn't work. New charging cable uses USB-c connectors on both ends. Root through my box of USB cables and they are all the old style, no new ones. Do I have anything that uses this new style connector? Hmm, how about the DOSS speaker? Ah ha! It does! Plug it in and it starts charging. Cool. Took like 12 hours to fully charge it up, but at least it works.

USB cable with C connector on one end and an A connector on the other

Check with my wife, she has all kinds of new fangled do-dads, does she have an extra cable? She does, but not of the correct flavor, so off to Amazon. I find a cable for $5. There goes the $5 I saved on shipping. I'm not going to get fast charging, but that's okay. I turn my phone off when I go to bed and plug in the charger cable, and since I'm not on my phone all friggin' day long like some people are, I should be fine.

Now for the activation. What fun. I dial up the website on my computer and click on Activate and it wants to send me a text message. That's not going to work, my old phone is dead as a doornail. No other option but the chat line, so I spend 10 or 15 minutes chatting (send a line, go play solitaire while waiting for a response, repeat) and eventually he tells me I have to find another phone and call some number. Borrow my wife's phone and call and I get a robocop who offers me options, none of which are helpful. So I start asking for an operator.

What word do you use to refer to a human? Real person? Operator? My wife says I should use 'representative', but I persisted in using 'operator' and eventually the robocop connected me to a real person. Makes me wonder how many words the robocop is able to recognize, or maybe it just gives up after a certain number of failed repetitions.

Anyway, I get connected to a real person who seems to have a handle on English, not perfect, but workable and we're going through the rigamarole of me proving I am me and he asks me for my phone's email. This flummoxed me. My phone is dead, and my phone doesn't have an email address, it has a phone number. What is he talking about? Eventually I realized he was asking about the email address connected to my Tracfone account. He sent me an email and I was able to confirm my existence and he turned on my phone.

Now we have to make sure my new phone works, so he asks me to make a phone call. That's a problem because I don't know anybody's phone numbers. So off to Google Contacts on my computer and look up some numbers, but all I get is voice mail. Everybody's busy. A couple minutes later somebody calls back, wants to know why I'm bothering them while they are at work. Tell him I'm testing my new phone. So I can make and receive phone calls. At least to one person.

Now the operator / representative / real person wants to know if I can get data. That means either audio or video, so let's pull up YouTube. Of course, everything on this phone is slightly different. It's got all the same stuff, but it's all in new places and everything works slightly differently, but eventually I get there and I've got a video playing so I think we're good.

My main uses for my phone are phone calls, text messages, and Google Maps, and those all seem to work. Since I have started using a smartphone I have found a couple other things that are useful:

• YouTube Music
• Bluetooth
• Voice to text
• Wifi

YouTube Music is not something you just use, seems you have to install the program (app in newspeak). Wandered around for a while looking for it but eventually found it and it and we're good. I haven't tried Bluetooth or Wifi yet. I'll get to it.

Voice to text works, though there is a new feature that evidently allows you to send voice recordings via the text messaging system. Some people thrive on noise, I ain't one of 'em. To get to Voice to text you have to tap on the OTHER microphone icon. It works, but when I say 'question mark' it puts in the the words 'question mark' in the message. My old phone but the question mark symbol (?). Bah, double bah and humbug. Now I gotta figure out how to change that.

Poking around on the net (using MY COMPUTER, I don't use my phone for anything except the bare essentials) I found this page:

Voice-to-text service selection

Bigger versions of the last two screens:

Changed to Google Voice Typing and now I can insert punctuation by naming the character.

Still haven't tried the camera.

My neighbor tried to eat my cat

So I paged him

FBI

Are there two or maybe even three FBIs? On one hand we get all this noise from Congress about an FBI that can't seem to find crucial pieces of evidence, on the other hand we have an FBI engaging in lawfare against conservatives and on the third hard we have them arresting the mayor of NYC on corruption charges. Are there factions within the FBI: one full of incompetent nitwits, one full of coniving political scumbags and another one that is still trying to do their job? Or maybe it's divided into layers. The higher up the ladder you go, the more incompetent and corrupt you become, so the lowest layer is still doing good work. If the highest levels are rotten, can you trust the lower layers?

Graffiti

US embassy in Moscow sports RT logo

This is just the best. 

US embassy in Moscow sports RT logo

The facade of the US embassy in Moscow was lit up with a defiant message from RT on Thursday evening, as the Russian broadcaster informed the Americans that it is “not going away.”

The projected message reads “we’re not going away” in both English and Russian, with RT’s logo displayed underneath.

The diplomatic prank came after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on RT and its parent companies earlier this month, accusing the network of being “engaged in covert influence activities… and functioning as a de facto arm of [Russian] intelligence.” The US Justice Department also filed criminal charges against two people it claimed worked for RT, accusing them of financing video content that sowed “discord and division” in the US.

In the weeks since the sanctions were announced, RT’s accounts were banned by Meta – which owns Facebook and Instagram – and TikTok.

I wonder how long before this blog gets sanctioned. Hopefully I'm too small to notice.

 

Home Missile

Beach House Missile

Everybody should have one.

Diamonds

Diamond making process
ThatwasDope

I did a post about making diamonds a while back so when this one showed up I had to post it. Looking over my blog I was surprised by the number of posts tagged with Diamonds.

More Computers

ASUS 27” 1080P Video Conference Monitor

Bought a cheap computer off of E-Bay ($60) and a used monitor off of Amazon ($70). The monitor supposedly had some blemishes but I did not find any. I intend to load Linux on the computer but right now it has Windows 10 and it works so I'm using it.

Dell Optiplex 790 USFF Quad Core i5 Windows 10

The first problem I have is that every time I adjust the volume it beeps at me. Because Windows has settings for everything I thought surely there is a way to disable this annoying beeping, and there may be, but in all of my searching I have not found it. Oh, there are dedicated followers of fashion who have solutions, but disabling all system sounds or downloading code is not something I want to do to solve this stupid problem. The one workaround I found that seems to work is to use the scroll wheel on the mouse. That will change the volume and it won't beep. Death to Windows.

The next problem I ran into is I open Files and I see some files I want to delete, but I can't. WTF? I can't because this is Quick Access which is somehow special. Effing Windows.

Third problem, and this one is not just a Windows problem, is I open an image and I see that I don't want or need it, so I want to delete it, but I can't. I have to close the image, go back to Files, locate the problem child and now I can delete it. Locating the file is not a problem if there are only a few files in the directory, but if you have zillions of images, and you've been stepping through them for a while, locating the problem child can be annoying. 

I have this problem with Google Drive as well. Over there I deal with this by renaming the file to Delete Me. Now I don't have to worry about where it is stored. If it shows up in the current list of files, great, but if it is buried somewhere else, it's still okay. If it ever shows up in a directory listing I can just delete it without bothering to look at it. Could be a problem if someone else had access to my computer, but no one in my family has shown any interest in what's on my computer, so I'm not too worried. Of course, you always need to be on the lookout for North Korean agents. They are constantly breaking into my house in the middle of the night and moving my shit around. Dad burn commies.

This morning I'm sitting at my computer playing silly computer games and I hear this noise. It sounds like someone running a vacuum cleaner upstairs or maybe a leaf blower outside or a fan or something. Finish my game and look around trying to identify the sound and I realize it's coming from my new computer - the cooling fan is running to beat the band. What the heck is going on? What program is running that using so much processing power that it requires maximum cooling? All I have running is the Microsoft Edge browser with four tabs open, one for each of my silly games. What is going on? Well, let's close the browser and see what happens. The fan and the noise stop. Weird, man.

Am I a Racist?

Handwaving Freakoutery looks at the Matt Walsh movie, The Washington Post's reaction to it, then and now, and culture war in general.

African Game of Thrones

Another fine article from Russia. Suck it, White House pansies.

King Misuzulu KwaZwelithini (R) and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa (L) attend the coronation ceremony of South Africa's new Zulu king in Durban, South Africa on October 29, 2022. ©  Presidency of South Africa/Getty Images

African Game of Thrones: How will the new Zulu king deal with rebellious relatives? by Kubendran Chetty

The death of South Africa’s Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, three years ago triggered a bitter family feud over succession – one that has found its way to the country’s courts and remains unresolved.

The Zulu nation is the largest ethnic group in the country with an estimated 15 million Zulu-speaking people, predominantly in the KwaZulu-Natal region, whose monarchy stretches back to the 16th century. They are synonymous with resisting British colonialism and oppression in the early 1800s, and the Zulu king is arguably the most influential traditional leader in South Africa.

King Zwelithini’s son, Misuzulu KwaZwelithini, was recognized as his successor and assumed a powerful position that controls vast resources and political power. However, his seat on the throne is being challenged by his uncle, Prince Mbonisi Ka Bhekuzulu, and his half-brother, Prince Simakade Zulu, who is the eldest son of the late king, but was born out of wedlock, and a list of aunts and uncles who have contested the legitimacy of his rule through the country’s courts. At the same time, other family members are firmly behind Misuzulu’s right to the throne.

The lasting conflict between relatives ensures the African ‘Game of Thrones’-like drama has played out in public view, embarrassingly exposing the bitter divisions in the royal family and putting on display the fractious relationships that now exist between those who support the king and those who are firmly against him.

It goes on for a bit about the various pretenders and their legal machinations, but this introduction is just great. Nice change of pace from the horror stories that we usually hear about Africa.

Chinese Mustang

Taiwan Makes American Trucks Great Again! Tour of Sheet Metal and Replacement Parts Factories
Classic Truck Performance

Funny how we don't get any videos from big manufacturers, or at least we don't get any that have any real content. From the big guys all we get is self-serving pablum, but maybe that's all their intended audience wants. No one really wants to know how the sausage is made, do they? Well sausage makers do and evidently there are a heck of a lot of sausage makers out there.

According to Google, there are less than a million machinists and mechanics in the USA, but that's only the guys who are so employed. There's a zillion others tinkering in their workshops and garages, and a bunch who work on machinery. I'm guessing there are maybe 20 million people who are mechanically competent. There must be, someone is buying all this sheet metal.

Populism

Winston Marshall argues that populism is not a threat democracy, but rather is democracy itself 6/6
OxfordUnion

May 2024. Transcript available on YouTube.

Terry Davis & the Temple OS

Terry Davis: Rises to Throne
Terry Davis

Terry Davis (1969-2018) created Temple OS, a biblically themed computer operating system. A very smart guy, in the 1990s he developed some mental problems and we see where that led him. Lately I've been thinking I should have written my own OS instead of fighting all the problems that come with existing ones, but given Terry's story, maybe it's good that I didn't.

Via St. John

Capstan Drive

High precision speed reducer using rope
Aaed Musa

Very cool.

Hoovie buys 1959 Plymouth Fury

I bought a bargain Mopar that everybody has forgotten about. 1959 Plymouth Fury with a dark past?
Hoovies Garage

Ah, the 50s, when the population of the USA was half what it is now, real men drove real Detroit iron and finding a place to park on the street in downtown was still possible. Have cars improved? Well, yes, in many ways, but they have also gotten much worse in all the important ways. Sad, very sad.

YAKOVLEV Yak-18T

YAKOVLEV Yak-18T (N8018T) over New York Harbor

This is not your run-of-the-mill small airplane:

The Yakovlev Yak-18T is a four- or five-seat fully aerobatic utility aircraft developed by Yakovlev. Introduced to train Aeroflot pilots, it has gained some popularity as a sportplane both inside and outside the former USSR. It is powered by a 360-400 hp Vedeneyev M14P radial engine, and is designed for stresses of +6.48/-3.24 g.

Introduced in 1967, Yakolev built 700 of them.

Do-It-Yourself Self Driving Car

Okay, it's not really a self-driving system, it's an 'advanced driver assistance system'. I dunno, I kinda think they are just useful enough to be dangerous. If they do a good job of driving the car you are very likely to be lulled into complacency and then when something unexpected happens, are you going to be alert enough to react? Seems to me the only way to maintain constant alertness is to do your own driving.

Computers can be very reliable, certainly more reliable than people. But a system for driving a car needs to be able to avoid, or at last cope with, impending disasters. The question for most people is: are these systems going to better than a good driver? Being better than an average driver might be good enough for insurance companies, but everyone who thinks they are better than average (which is everyone) is going to want a system that is statistically better than good.

There are some poor drivers out there, and there are some people who don't like driving and for them these fancy gee-gaws might be useful. Can't imagine that anyone would not like driving. I mean, isn't that what makes us Americans?

Whatever: here's the read.me file from github:

openpilot

openpilot is an operating system for robotics.
Currently, it upgrades the driver assistance system in 275+ supported cars.

Docs · Roadmap · Contribute · Community · Try it on a comma 3X

Quick start: bash <(curl -fsSL openpilot.comma.ai)

    

To start using openpilot in a car

To use openpilot in a car, you need four things:

1. Supported Device: a comma 3/3X, available at comma.ai/shop.
2. Software: The setup procedure for the comma 3/3X allows users to enter a URL for custom software. Use the URL openpilot.comma.ai to install the release version.
3. Supported Car: Ensure that you have one of the 275+ supported cars.
4. Car Harness: You will also need a car harness to connect your comma 3/3X to your car.

We have detailed instructions for how to install the harness and device in a car. Note that it's possible to run openpilot on other hardware, although it's not plug-and-play.

To start developing openpilot

openpilot is developed by comma and by users like you. We welcome both pull requests and issues on GitHub.

• Join the community Discord
• Check out the contributing docs
• Check out the openpilot tools
• Read about the development workflow
• Code documentation lives at https://docs.comma.ai
• Information about running openpilot lives on the community wiki

Want to get paid to work on openpilot? comma is hiring and offers lots of bounties for external contributors.

Safety and Testing

• openpilot observes ISO26262 guidelines, see SAFETY.md for more details.
• openpilot has software-in-the-loop tests that run on every commit.
• The code enforcing the safety model lives in panda and is written in C, see code rigor for more details.
• panda has software-in-the-loop safety tests.
• Internally, we have a hardware-in-the-loop Jenkins test suite that builds and unit tests the various processes.
• panda has additional hardware-in-the-loop tests.
• We run the latest openpilot in a testing closet containing 10 comma devices continuously replaying routes.

Licensing

openpilot is released under the MIT license. Some parts of the software are released under other licenses as specified.

Any user of this software shall indemnify and hold harmless Comma.ai, Inc. and its directors, officers, employees, agents, stockholders, affiliates, subcontractors and customers from and against all allegations, claims, actions, suits, demands, damages, liabilities, obligations, losses, settlements, judgments, costs and expenses (including without limitation attorneys’ fees and costs) which arise out of, relate to or result from any use of this software by user.

THIS IS ALPHA QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. THIS IS NOT A PRODUCT. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMPLYING WITH LOCAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS. NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.

User Data and comma Account

By default, openpilot uploads the driving data to our servers. You can also access your data through comma connect. We use your data to train better models and improve openpilot for everyone.

openpilot is open source software: the user is free to disable data collection if they wish to do so.

openpilot logs the road-facing cameras, CAN, GPS, IMU, magnetometer, thermal sensors, crashes, and operating system logs. The driver-facing camera is only logged if you explicitly opt-in in settings. The microphone is not recorded.

By using openpilot, you agree to our Privacy Policy. You understand that use of this software or its related services will generate certain types of user data, which may be logged and stored at the sole discretion of comma. By accepting this agreement, you grant an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right to comma for the use of this data.

Via Detroit Steve

Citroen Xantia Activa

The Sleeper That Cornered Faster Than A Ferrari - Citroen Xantia Activa
Number 27

Bose (yeah, the loudspeaker people) made an active suspension system some time ago. It worked great, but it took enough power to run it that your mileage was reduced by a couple MPG.

Gossip

In Black Sails, season 1, episode 2, pirate Captain Flint pays a visit to Richard Guthrie, the pirate's fence and face to the legitimate business world. Royal Navy Captain Hume shows up unannounced and we have this bit of dialog:

Servant: Captain Hume of His Majesty's Ship the Scarborough.

Richard: Captain Hume. You've caught me at business. I must ask you to return another day.

Hume: My apologies, Mr. Guthrie. May I ask what sort of business? 

Richard: I'm sorry?

Hume: I asked what sort of business you're conducting with these men.

Richard: Sugar merchants from the colonies with business I'd just as soon conclude without interruption. So please, if you'll excuse us.

Hume: Tell me something, Mr. Guthrie. Do you have gossip here?

Richard: Gossip?

Hume: I've often wondered if it can survive in so remote a location. You see, gossip is what holds civilization together. It reinforces shame. And without shame, well, the world is a very dangerous place.

Don't think I've ever heard gossip described in a positive light. People do thrive on it, some more than others. If you are running a political campaign you need to take it into account. Probably why I'm not out on the campaign trail. I avoid gossip so I expect most people find me anti-social, and they're right.

Oh yeah, the scene? It turns into a melee when Hume attempts to arrest Richard.

P. S. I started looking for this scene on Netflix, but then I wondered if maybe a transcript was available and there is. Shoot, there are mutiple websites that have transcripts for shows. I'll be durned.

Black Sails - Netflix Series

Black Sails First Trailer
IGN

We started watching this series the other night. It looks promising. We've got some familiar names like Silver and Flint, convincing looking sailing ships (they might even be real), bloody piratical violence, horny women, and shabby looking pirate towns. Flint is obsessed with a Spanish treasure galleon that should be enroute to Spain, but where is it? Supposedly there is a schedule with a list of dates and locations, but how accurate / useful could such a schedule be? I mean, they are sailing ships, they are totally at the mercy of wind and weather. It isn't unusual to be becalmed for days or even weeks in the doldrums. But hey, somebody wrote the schedule down and somebody hid it and somebody else found it and Flint would move heaven and earth to find it if that would help. It won't. I expect it will fall into his lap any - minute - now.

Real Reality

Nico's Epiphany
Drew Talbert

Drew must have made a zillion of these Bistro Buddy videos. This one is exceptional.

Cirrus SR-20

Cirrus SR-20 (VH-QOL) & his big buddy

This photo was taken at Shellharbour Australia, which is about 50 miles south of Sydney. Cirrus built 1,800 SR-20s 1999. 

Star Trek

Star Trek Flags

The Penguin

The Penguin | Official Trailer | Max
Max

New series just started. Next episode comes out in, I dunno, two weeks maybe. Anyway, it's pretty good. The makeup department's transformation of Colin Ferrill makes him unrecognizable. If they hadn't told me who it was I wouldn't have recognized him. Might be why they have him introducing this trailer.

You watch The Godfather and you might be led to believe that gangsters are really just honest, hard working guys trying to catch the American Dream. They get a little violent sometimes, but sometimes a little violence is called for. Okay, sometimes there is a lot of violence, but usually there is a reason.

This show is full of sleazeballs who would cheat their own mother. Well, all except for Oswald, he loves his mom. And he takes this black kid under his wing. Still periodically threatens to gut him like a fish if he fucks up, but he hasn't done it yet. So maybe he really is human, or maybe they are just showing us his weak points. All in all a pretty great show.

Other notable characters:

• Sofia Falcone / The Hangman: Carmine's daughter and a psychopathic serial killer who is a former inmate of Arkham Asylum. - This one promises to be a big problem.
• Francis Cobb: Oz's mother who suffers from early-onset dementia.
• Salvatore Maroni: A mob boss and drug trafficker whose operation ended following a historic drug bust, in which Carmine was the informant.
• Eve Karlo: A prostitute and Oz's mistress. - Defromed and ugly as the Penguin is, he still has a girlfriend.
• Alberto Falcone: Carmine's son and Sofia's younger brother, who struggles with drug and alcohol addiction. - Oswald has already dealt with him in the first episode.
• Carmine - the recently deceased head of the Falcone crime family.

More English versus Metric

New Tool Day!
AvE

I enjoy the way this guy mangles the English language. He's great.

Then I realized not everyone might be familiar with hooking up the PTO on a farm tractor. This guy shows you how it's done on a modern machine.

How to connect a Drive Shaft to the tractor PTO Shaft
Quality Implement

On older equipment there is no locking ring - there is a hole through the connector that you need to line up with the shaft and then insert a pin. Even when the weather is nice it's a pain-in-the-wazoo. Out in the mud and rain it can be annoying. In those conditions a pokemon could be a big help.

Cessna 182Q Skylane

Cessna 182Q Skylane

Cessna has built over 20,000 Skylanes since they began building them in 1956. There have been 23 models identified by the trailing letter. The Q model came out in 1977, which is almost 50 years ago. Most float plane photos I come across are from Alaska. This one is from Massachusetts.

Nuclear AI

Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant

Computers are taking over the world. Well, not actually. Computers are stupid and are completely lacking in motivation. But people are smart, at least some of them. Unfortunately, some of them are crazy, and some of them are highly motivated to do something. Mix those three together and you get things like the AI (Artificial Intelligence) craze. I'm not sure that AI is going to bring us any great benefits. The one thing I can see it being used for is answering the phones at medical and medical insurance offices. This is big time sink for everyone involved. Nobody cares about the callers (clients / patients / victims), but the expense of hiring staff to answer the phones, that cuts into the bottom line. Never mind that the legions of women employed in these roles will be out of a job, it was horribly job that nobody ever wanted to do in the first place, right?

Besides entertainment and replacing phone drones, I'm not sure that AI will be good for. I suppose someone might use it to discover / invent something that could have a wide ranging effect. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm pretty sure that advertising is what's paying for all the big data centers. Oh, there are some private enterprises that make use of them, but what they spend on them is a cost they want to minimize. If you are using them for advertising there is no end to the demand.

Anyway, I thought this was interesting:

Microsoft AI Needs So Much Power It's Restarting Site of US Nuclear Meltdown

The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania will invest $1.6 billion to revive it, agreeing to sell all the output to Microsoft Corp. as the tech titan seeks carbon-free electricity for data centers to power the artificial intelligence boom.

Constellation Energy Corp., the biggest US operator of reactors, expects Three Mile Island to go back into service in 2028, according to a statement Friday. While one of the site’s two units permanently closed almost a half-century ago after the worst US nuclear accident, Constellation is planning to reopen the other reactor, which shut in 2019 because it couldn’t compete economically.

Via Zerohedge