Words & Axes

Logger - cutting down big tree with axe - tips.
Buckin' Billy Ray Smith

The video is a little long, but I really enjoyed it. Of course, I am partial to axes myself. Or axes. Or axes. Look how many Billy has.

JMSmith got me started with a post about The Uses of Garlic.

He references Acorns for the culture war by Curtis Yarvin, who opens with this:

There is an ancient Lithuanian proverb about a village whose central square was long shaded by a great oak tree. Late one Saturday night, a madman went mad with an axe and cut down the tree.

That night, as was his wont, the wise man of the village was deeply in his cups. When, on Sunday afternoon he painfully arose and looked out his window over the plaza, he exclaimed to see the great oak cut down—then exclaimed again to see the villagers, with rope and crane and shovel, replanting the tree.

They had dug the stump out to a pit, where they were planting the hacked-off trunk. Of course the oak’s leaves were already starting to wither. Still in his pajamas, quite careless of his pounding head and the sun’s savage glare, the wise man rushed down the stairs and into the square. He began to gather acorns and bury them in little holes. Everyone thought the wise man, too, had gone mad. Didn’t he want the tree back? What was he, a squirrel?

Curtis uses some terms I was unfamiliar with:

• Kayfabe - In professional wrestling, kayfabe (/ˈkeɪfeɪb/) is the portrayal of staged events within the industry as "real" or "true", specifically the portrayal of competition, rivalries, and relationships between participants as being genuine and not staged. The term kayfabe has evolved to also become a code word of sorts for maintaining this "reality" within the direct or indirect presence of the general public.
• Shoot - A shoot in professional wrestling is any unplanned, unscripted, or real-life occurrence within a wrestling event. It is a carny term shortened from "straight shooting", which originally referred to a gun in a carnival target shooting game that did not have its sights misaligned. Terminology such as this reflects the professional wrestling industry's roots in traveling carnivals. The term has come to mean a legit attack or fight in professional wrestling, and its meaning has broadened to include unscripted events in general. The opposite of a shoot is a work or kayfabe.

I don't know that the culture war can be won. My best hope right now is that the lunatic left will self-immolate within a few years. I am only afraid that will result in the pendulum swinging too far the other way and we end up with The Man In The High Castle.

Saturday

After months of delaying, I finally started taking care of some little projects, projects that can hardly be said to matter in the grand scheme of things, but projects I've wanted to tackle and this week I finally did.

Epoxied Ax Handle

I glued my broken ax handle with epoxy. No, I do not suppose this will fix it, but I plan on putting an eight inch long screw down the axis of the handle. Will it hold? Will it hold for more than a dozen strokes? We shall see. I bought this ax years ago. There were some logs lying at the bottom of the hill in the backyard, on the verge of being in the swamp. It might be nice if they are cut up, but that area turns to mush in the winter, so it's not like it's going to make any difference. Still, it would be nice if they were cut up. I could do it with an ax. It would be slow going, but I'm not in any hurry, and I could use the exercise. So I bought an ax and chopped. I don't know how much I did, it was years ago, but I was a middle aged suburban home owner, I wasn't a 20 something lumberjack going at it ten hours a day. And the ax broke. Nuisance. Bought a replacement handle (back then you could buy them at Home Depot), fitted it up and went back to my sporadic chopping. And then it broke again.

I drove around with it in the trunk of my car for years. Eventually I remembered it while I was in the ACE Hardware store in St. Johns and I checked and they had a handle so I bought it. $8 I think. Turns out it was for a double bitted ax, not a single bit like mine, and it wasn't going to work. I still have it. Let me know if you need it, maybe I could ship it to you, though the shipping would probably be more that the original cost. But with inflation the way it is, that still might be a bargain compared to how much a new ax handle would cost, if you could find one.

Earlier this year we took out the plum tree in John's backyard in St, Johns. We have any number of power saws at our beck and call, but the boys wanted to use axes. Shit, I've got an ax, but it's busted, so we went to Home Depot to see if they had an ax handle. They didn't. They did have new axes with plastic handles for $35 and since we were on a mission from God, we didn't quibble, we bought it and carried on.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I've still got this broken ax. I've got a new handle, but it won't work. There is an ACE Hardware not too far from here, but I don't relish calling them, even less driving over there. I guess I feel like I should just be able to go over there, they will have what I need and I can buy it and go on. That's the way it used to work, I didn't need to call ahead, I was confident that the store would have what I wanted. But then I was dealing with stuff that everyone dealt with, so of course they had what I needed. Now is 20 years and times have changed. You want an ax handle? It's kind of niche item. I did drive to the store once and it didn't work out so well, so I don't want a repeat. Logic does not apply here, feel me?

So now I have this great idea to try and fix it. Will it work? I think it might, for a bit anyway. It's an experiment in any case. The part that bothers me is that I broke the handle. I'm, not a lumberjack swinging an ax all day long. I'm just puttering about in my back yard. What the heck? Are ax handles that fragile? Was replacing them a daily occurrence with people who were really using them? Or was I just not in the swing of things? Inquiring minds want to know,

All this talk about axes reminds me that my dad had a double bitted ax. He bought some land in Renton (south of Seattle) and we would go out there occasionally and he would hack away at the brush. I'm not sure what the point was (I was pretty little), but now I wonder if it wasn't just a chance to get away from the corporate bullshit that was going on at Boeing.

Chopping through logs

We can't let this topic go without mentioning the scoutmaster who gave us a lesson on how to use a hatchet to cut through a six inch log. You strike one blow at 45 degrees, then move the log's diameter along the trunk and strike another blow, 45 degrees the other way, back towards your first blow. If you are lucky that will knock loose a chip. Stop and pull it off. No sense cutting through stuff that isn't holding the log together. Now you repeat this two more times, each time rotating your angle of attack 45 degrees around the axis of the log. It was a great lesson, and I used that wisdom whenever I have used an ax, but it's basically useless. The only reason I have ever swung an ax was for entertainment purposes.

Bent & Broken Spade Connectors

Okay, enough about axes. On to air conditioners. John bought a cheap room air conditioner. It worked fine for a while, but then it got dropped while it was being moved and it quit working. We figured it couldn't be too badly broken, there was no damage to the case. Some electrical component got jarred and just needs to be reconnected. Today I opened it up and found that the power cord connections had gotten ripped away from the switch. Shoot, this should be an easy fix, just slide the connectors back over the tabs protruding from the switch. Except. One of the tabs has been broken off. Okay, fine, order a new switch. Look on the web and the only thing I find is a used on for $60. I don't think so. Take the switch apart. Looks like we can drill a hole and use a screw to connect the power line to the switch. Just need to find the right electrical connector bits.

Since I am on a role I decided to tackle the drill bit packaging problem. I went a little crazy and bought too many drill bits a while back, so I decided to break up the smaller package and distribute them to my friends. It cost me almost nothing and if they use drill bits like I do, it should make them very happy. I've been stewing on how to package them for weeks. Small envelopes would have worked, but then I would have to buy envelopes, and they come in packages of a thousand. I don't need a thousand. I need five. I finally decided to use masking tape to tape them to a sheet of cardboard. Masking tape is cheap, cardboard is free. The only expense will be the postage which shouldn't be too much since the envelopes only weigh a couple of ounces.

The 3 Languages of Politics

3 Axes

The 3 Languages Of Politics by Arnold Kling explains why nobody can agree on nuttin'.

An excerpt:

The Three Axes

– Progressives will communicate along the oppressor-oppressed axis. “My heroes are people who have stood up for the underpriviliged. The people I cannot stand are the people who are indifferent to the oppression of women, minorities and the poor”

– A conservative will communicate along the civilization-barbarism axis. “My heroes are people who have stood up for Western values. The people I cannot stand are the people who are indifferent to the assault on moral virtues and traditions that are the foundation for our civilization”

– A libertarian will communicate along the liberty coercion axis. “My heroes are the people who have stood up for individual rights. The people I cannot stand are the people who are indifferent to the government taking away people’s ability to make their own decision”

Conservatives who complain about their treatment on college campuses, including having conservative speakers “disinvited” from college events or shouted down when they do appear. Conservatives might label this treatment as “oppression”. But progressives would never agree to categorizing conservatives as belonging to an oppressed class

Whenever we communicate about issues, we tend to fall back in one of the 3 axis. By doing so, we engage in tribalism.

The three axes are orthogonal. You can be at any one point on one axis and still be able to slide along the other two to any value you choose.

Via IAman

 

Jargon

Unless it’s destined to be a sculpture, a model without color will always be just a flat, lifeless collection of polygons and vertices.

Newsletter from Sketchup, Google's 3D drawing program, this morning notes that it has "a great set of UV mapping tools". UV Mapping? What's that? UV normally means Ultra-Violet light, which was what the cutting edge of microchip fabrication was using last week. Are we using Sketchup to design masks for wafer fabs now? Not quite.

UV mapping is the 3D modeling process of projecting a 2D image to a 3D model's surface. The letters "U" and "V" denote the axes of the 2D texture because "X", "Y" and "Z" are already used to denote the axes of the 3D object in model space. - Wikipedia

Three Swedish Jets

Saab 37 Viggen, Saab 35 Draken, Saab JAS 39 Gripen

The Saab 37 Viggen was built from 1970 to 1990. It was the first canard design produced in quantity. The Viggen was also the most advanced fighter jet in Europe until the introduction of the Panavia Tornado into operational service in 1981.

Viggen has two major meanings in Swedish. The first meaning translates as "thunderbolt". Traditionally the word refers to prehistoric stone axes found in the ground during the viking age. The scandinavian people of this period thought that these axes had been sent down to earth by the lightning strikes of the god Thor when he hunted giants with his war hammer Mjölnir. The second meaning refers to "vigg", the Swedish word for the tufted duck. This is in reference to its canard configuration as "canard" is French for duck.

The Saab 35 Draken (Dragon) was manufactured between 1955 and 1974. It was the first fully supersonic aircraft to be deployed in Western Europe and the first aircraft to do the Cobra maneuver.

Production of the Saab JAS 39 Gripen (Griffin) started in 1987 and is ongoing. The aircraft has a top speed of Mach 2.0.

Text paraphrased from Wikipedia articles.

Via daily timewaster

The English Girl by Daniel Silva

The English Girl by Daniel Silva

I like Daniel Silva's books, well, I liked both of the ones I've read. I finished this one in two days. It's not a great book, but it's pretty good. It is not totally smooth, the ride is a little rough, but there weren't any of those giant potholes that cause me to curse in disgust. For instance, I started reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson a few months back and things were going along swimmingly until I got about half way through the book and the President of the United States shows up and we (by which I mean the characters in the story) start having some kind of bullshit discussion. I had to put the book aside it was so repulsive. Given Neal's skill as a writer, I presume that is the effect he was trying to achieve. It's just that in my case it worked too well. I still want to finish that book, but it is going to take some determination to wade through this section, which I am hoping is short. If it goes on for too much longer I will be forced to toss it on the reject pile. Anyway, enough about Seveneves, let's get back to The English Girl.

It's an espionage thriller that takes place in Europe (France and England) and Moscow. Did you know that Corsica is part of France? I'm not sure I did. We've got some tradecraft, some politics and some travelogue. We get some history of some of the characters and there is a certain amount of violence, which is part and parcel of the espionage business. The tradecraft might be the most interesting part. Not all of it makes perfect sense, but you can see how a lot of it would work, especially given the resources on hand. The political slant is pro-West. Iran gets a special mention as a villain, even though we never go there. Russia is the big villain in this story. I wish I had a clearer picture of that situation.

In the book and in reality, Russia is trying to claw it's way back to being a global superpower, and they aren't above throwing their weight around, but not I'm sure attacking Europe would buy them anything but grief. But then, who know's what Putin is thinking? The West has a 200 year lead on the rest of world in learning how to run a democracy. Faulting Asia for being ruled by tyrants is akin to criticizing cave men for using stone axes. Asia is going to continue producing horror stories for a long time to come. Maybe in a hundred years they might come around to democracy. But by then we might have fallen under the spell of a despot.

10 Short Videos #6251

10 Short Videos #6251

1. Petrol Engine Timing Gear Fitting - oil pump drive gears
2. Align honing this Dart block for one of our 1600hp shelf stock builds 😈
3. The ultimate 1950 Studebaker sleeper? 👀✈️
4. MY BLOOD PRESSURE IS PERFECT  - Bendin with Bendon
5. 31 axes on 5 stations?! - Super complicated CNC machine
6. How good was Pete Maravich
7. This race looks very beautiful when seen from above - How do they steer? Thai longboats
8. Protecting Factory Hands From Serious Daily Strain - knot tying machine
9. Getting Older Doesn't Mean You're Smarter
10. my pride and joy - LEGO toothless

Vikings: Valhalla

Vikings: Valhalla | Official Trailer | Netflix
Netflix
Historical drama set in England with a bunch of historical characters including Leif Erikson and Æthelred the Unready. It starts with:

The St. Brice's Day massacre was the killing of Danes on the 13th of November 1002, ordered by King Æthelred the Unready of England in response to frequent Danish raids. - Wikipedia

I remember hearing about Leif Erikson when I was in school about a zillion years ago, and Æthelred the Unready, that's a name that sticks in the memory. 

His epithet does not derive from the modern word "unready", but rather from the Old English unræd meaning "poorly advised"; it is a pun on his name, which means "well advised". - Wikipedia

Danes had been living in England for a long time. The English noblemen advised the King to exterminate them. Not everyone thought this was a good idea as they suspected this would enrage the Vikings and they would want revenge and that's just what happened. That's my quick guess as to the origin of his nickname.

This show is like a follow on to The Last Kingdom which starts in 877, and we've still got Normans, Saxons and Danes hacking on each other with swords and axes.

The production values are pretty good, meaning the clothing, weapons, boats and buildings all seem reasonable for the period. They do slip in a number of women and brown people into roles where you might not expect them, but who knows? This is hundreds of years after the Romans left and slavery is still a thing. Some people seem to get bent out of shape over this kind of thing, but it doesn't bother me. Sometimes having a black person in a drama really throws some light on the situation, like when we had a black person playing Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton.

Real historical characters from the show:

We even have some dates for some of them. The names in blue are links to Wikipedia which prove (prove) that they really, truly existed.  

Google spreadsheet here