Hot and humid. No surprises there. It did rain in various parts of town yesterday. I got hit with quick showers in a couple of different places while I was out and about. I’m thinking more of the same today.
I really didn’t get as much done as I needed to yesterday. I fell down a rabbit hole looking for more info on catching crawdads/crayfish/mudbugs and learned a lot. I’ll make a couple of cheap traps and see if I get anything next time I head up to the lake. I also watched a few foraging videos that were focused on Texas. I did get some pickups done, and got a couple of things in auctions yesterday evening, that I’ll pick up today or tomorrow.
Besides auction stuff, I’ve got an appointment with the dentist today, along with the rest of the family. Gotta get the fangs polished… and keep the tradition alive. I’m hoping I don’t have any issues, but I’ve had some sensitive teeth lately. Might have some imaging done this visit to be sure there isn’t a problem lurking.
The propane conversion kit for the Honda gennie is supposed to arrive today too. Along with getting that installed, I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do here, including my non-prepping hobby meeting on Saturday, so I probably won’t go to the BOL this weekend. Making that decision early helps me plan out stuff I won’t get done later. 🙂
I also didn’t get my Costco run in yet, although I did get gas. Costco 87 octane was $4.09. All the other stations were advertising $4.29, .39, and even .49. And while that is a nice discount from last week, I’d still prefer $2/gal.
Speaking of Costco and groceries, I took a little time this last trip to the BOL and stopped at the HEB grocery nearest to the house. It was small, kinda unkempt, but had about the same selection as my neighborhood store, albeit fewer of everything. Prices were the same too, as far as I could tell. What was different, they had a lot more hispanic food on the “normal” shelves (ie, not just in the “ethnic” aisle) and more #10 cans on the shelves. There were even a few things my store doesn’t carry that looked interesting. The meat cooler was horrible though. Very limited choices, and very low quality meat. There is a specialist butcher shop in town, and one on the way, so there are other places to get meat, but it’s looking like a trend, at least at HEB. Smaller cuts, and lower quality, with drastically reduced selection.
We are definitely well into the “if you see it, you need to buy it” phase of the decline. Buy it and stack it up. You may not see it again for a while.
nick
Talking of out of control Federal Agencies:
Why is the IRS Armed to the Teeth?
I always knew taxation was armed robbery.
I had some of the same thoughts about this:
The story about a 10 yr old pregnant girl who had to go from Ohio to IN for an abortion gives me serious pause for a number of reasons. There are many red flags.I’m going to detail them here.
Exactly, no criminal investigation of extreme child abuse. If this is true, I’m sure somebody knows the rapist. Why aren’t they talking? Maybe it’s a famous, political plagiarist.
6000 isn’t surprising if there were, as reported, a few superspreader rave events in Europe which were key to the current outbreak.
The hookers-n-steaks ho-down -er- “medical conference” thrown by Biogen in Boston in early 2020 to promote their Alzheimers drug boondoggle was widely thought to have been the key event for as many as 500,000 infections of Covid by this time last year.
The Wuxu Flu is a lot more contagious/easier to get, even for the jabbed. Masks are even more kabuki with Monkey Pox.
Common sense says to stay out of the bathhouses if you are worried about Monkey Pox.
re having to go from Ohio to Indiana for an abortion: I bet it is fake news. Or a fake report. As the twitter thread notes, the timing and the sudden media placement are too convenient.
Ahh, yes. The “I can’t be bothered to drive to the corner store for some condoms or to see a doctor about getting on birth control, but I can drive to another state for a medical procedure” crowd.
Two words for Brittney Greiner:
Stacy Keach
Moral of story: don’t take ya Mary-G to Russia. Also, don’t tout your gayness.
Both of those things being illegal in Russia… but she has all the woke ‘get out of jail’ cards. Too bad for her that Russia don’t play.
n
88F and 71%RH with the sun out and blue sky.
Grumpy children who stayed up late playing video games and watching movies are grumpy.
Coffee is in order, for me at least.
n
Already 100 F on my backyard thermometer before 11 am. Gonna be a hot one. Maybe we will get one of those thunder boomers that I keep seeing in the distance.
Grumpy children who stayed up late playing video games and watching movies are grumpy.
Coffee is in order, for me at least.
I am grumpy too this morning. And I don’t get coffee until I get a shower and drag my lazy butt into the office.
Now I am going to make scrambled eggs for the wife, the dog, and me. The wife is helping the daughter this morning.
>> Grumpy children who stayed up late playing video games and watching movies are grumpy.
Coffee is in order, for me at least.
Never too early to get kids hooked on coffee 🙂
>> Two words for Brittney Greiner:
Stacy Keach
Five words from her today after the prosecution rested its case: “Your Honor, I plead guilty.”
No word yet as to her sentence.
ADDED: “I packed my bag in a hurry and forgot that the vape pens were in there.”
I’ve been drinking coffee almost every day since I turned ten, and I never got addicted.
>> Ahh, yes. The “I can’t be bothered to drive to the corner store for some condoms or to see a doctor about getting on birth control, but I can drive to another state for a medical procedure” crowd.
All in the timing…”Wait, what? You don’t have a condom?”…”Don’t worry, I’ll stop in time!”
>> I’ve been drinking coffee almost every day since I turned ten, and I never got addicted.
I see what you’re doing there…
I don’t see this turning out worth a shrit
https://www.foxnews.com/world/crowded-list-candidates-mix-succeed-boris-johnson-with-obvious-heir-apparent
As Mr. Nick said, your race card privileges don’t matter in Russia. That is the only reason plugs gives a hoot. Black female lesbian. Now Rev. Sharpless is crowing about “eyes gonna make a pastor visit.” Good luck. He could end up in prison for shooting his mouth off.
Putin has a good negotiating chip because she is apparently a moron.
Can you imagine the ransom note from Putin: We have Sharpton. Pay us $10,000,000 or we’ll give him back.
“Elon Musk secretly fathered twins with company exec last year, report says”
https://www.chron.com/business/article/Musk-Fathered-Children-With-Neuralink-Employee-17289659.php
Bro is a very busy guy.
RIP James Caan. Fantastic in Brian’s Song.
“Realm of the Tri-planets (Perry Rhodan #31)” by K. H. Scheer, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Realm-Tri-planets-Perry-Rhodan-31/dp/4141660140?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number thirty-one of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1973 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #103, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 39 of the German Pamphlets. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Die_Welt_der_drei_Planeten
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over ten years since then and the New Power has flourished with millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania.
Perry Rhodan uses his new Springer built space warship, a cylinder 2,500 foot long by 600 foot wide that he named the Ganymede, to fulfill his long term promise to take Khrest and Thora back to the planet Arkon. It has been thirteen long years since Khrest and Thora left Arkon, searching for the planet of eternal life. But Arkon is not the place that it once was. And somebody else is running Arkon, that somebody is a huge computer.
Perry’s new spaceship has been captured and towed to Arkon by tractor beams and locked down to a spaceport field. Thora meets with some of her relatives who help Rhodan to escape by joining an Arkonide fleet in a brand new 5,000 foot diameter spherical warship. Perry and his men steal the new spaceship, liberate the Ganymede, and escape the Arkon system with the computer brain minions desperately searching for them. And Perry has learned the secret of the Arkon system, there are actually three planets of Arkon, a residential planet, a business planet, and a war materials planet upon which the new computer brain is on.
One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1973. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr’s saying “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future” comes to mind.
Two observations:
1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 5 out of 5 stars (3 reviews)
“Oil Traders in Panic After Russia Order to Halt CPC Terminal”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-traders-panic-russia-order-121118852.html
“(Bloomberg) — A Russian court order to halt oil loadings from a port in the Black Sea has unnerved European crude traders already reeling from the tightest regional market in years, sending prices for competing barrels spiraling.”
Any disruption to the global crude oil markets will cause the prices to spike. WTI is back up to $102.98/bbl.
RIP James Caan. Fantastic in Brian’s Song.
He was also great as Sonny in “The Godfather” which I watched again recently on Paramount (CBS). Shot over 100 times on the New Jersey turnpike.
https://www.tmz.com/2022/07/07/james-caan-dead-dies-godfather/
I just can’t get the visual out of my head of Kathy Bates hobbling him with a sledgehammer in Misery.
I’ve half joked for years that systemd was Linux trying to be Windows, and then I saw this today.
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Systemd-Creator-Microsoft
A huge hack of systemd is half of what I believe will be required to move Windows onto a Linux kernel.
The other half is a true Wayland Compositor. IIRC, IBM/Red Hat owns Wayland.
Yup, I still think that Windows is going to be rebased on Linux. Or FreeBSD like Apple did.
“Intel starts construction at New Albany semiconductor campus”
https://finance.yahoo.com/m/bda40d09-faaf-3263-8a5e-83ced01e9636/intel-starts-construction-at.html
“Intel Corp. began early construction work at its $20 billion New Albany semiconductor complex Friday. Construction is slated to occur Mondays-Saturdays on the site for about three years, with operations coming online in 2025, according to an update shared by a task force consisting of the Licking County Port Authority, Grow Licking County and the Licking County Chamber of Commerce. The complex will occupy about 900 acres of land in New Albany and is expected bring tens of thousands of jobs to the area, including construction jobs and roles at ancillary businesses.”
$20 billion investment in Ohio. Wow.
“8 Hot Applications of Solar Thermal Power” by Mark Crawford
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/8-hot-applications-of-solar-thermal-power
“When we think about solar power, most of us think of photovoltaic solar technology, which converts sunlight directly into electricity using panels made of semiconductor cells. However, a popular alternative to photovoltaic systems that can be just as effective is solar thermal systems, including concentrated solar power (CSP). These systems capture heat from sunlight and then directs the heat to various operations or applications.”
“In a CSP system, mirrors reflect a larger swathe of sunlight to a small patch, which is heated in proportion to the amount of solar energy and the area receiving that energy. Collectors may absorb the heat and transfer it to a fluid such as air, water, oil, or molten salt which is then sent to the areas to be heated. In larger systems, the heat from the fluid can create steam, which drives a generator to create electricity.”
The only problem is that the sun does go down at the end of the day. Then you have to shut down your process or supplement with natural gas, etc.
How dare you get our hopes up…
“New England grid capacity likely to rise over 100% by 2042 amid heating, transportation electrification: ISO”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-england-grid-capacity-iso-report-electrification/626725/
“The electrification of heating and transportation end uses is expected to more than double the capacity of the New England electric grid over the next two decades, the region’s grid operator said Tuesday in its 2022 Regional Electricity Outlook.”
Most of the new electric grid generation additions are going to be intermittent. That should be exciting to manage.
“Apple Preps ‘Lockdown Mode’ to Fend Off Targeted Spyware Attacks”
https://www.pcmag.com/news/apple-preps-lockdown-mode-to-fend-off-targeted-spyware-attacks
“The security feature is coming to Apple operating systems this fall.”
We may all need this in the future.
“Parking Lot Power” by Jean Thilmany
https://www.asme.org/topics-resources/content/parking-lot-power
“Researchers at Western University in Ontario found that the average five-acre lot at a Walmart Supercenter in the United States held enough photovoltaic potential for about 100 electric vehicle charging stations.”
““And if Wal-Mart went all in, their U.S. fleet could deploy over 11 gigawatts, which is, about 11 large power plants,” said Joshua Pearce, the John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation at Western University’s Thompson Centre for Engineering & Innovation, who led the study.”
“To get there, the retailer could erect solar canopies across the parking lots at its 3,751 U.S. supercenters.”
I have to admit that this makes a lot of sense.
I think Thief is one of James Caan’s underrated pictures.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxnaf9a_BWM
The scorched earth policy is awesome.
n
I have to admit that this makes a lot of sense.
– that’s a lot of slave labor to build panels and a lot of child labor mining the lithium.
n
Lynn, one almost thinks you like “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber. Have you ever recommended that before? 🙂 /sarc.
Truth be told, I like that series, although the first book was bay far the best.
Boris Johnson Resigns As Prime Minister Amid Flurry Of Cabinet Resignations
– huh. What was it they didn’t like?
n
I assume that question is rhetorical.
Windows laptops can be locked down fairly effectively, but the C suites always want exceptions for themselves, which is how a lot of corporate security breaches start.
The new place took away our limited access to admin rights which is a huge pain in the butt for me since I like to run Cygwin and now have no way to keep it updated outside of a request made to the director level for a window of access.
WSL is a resource pig and overrated as a useful tool for Linux developers. The Wayland compositor used to run Linux GUI programs is a huge hack which Windows displays using Remote Desktop.
There will be no contractions in this movie.
I ordered an 8oz container of bay leaves from Big River yesterday. It’s coming from Ohio and they say it will be here tomorrow, Friday.
That’s crazy.
The new a/c unit? I don’t know. It was suppose to be here tomorrow but it seems to have missed the truck and Home Depot now says “the 11th”. It’s coming from Georgia. But the UPS site says it’s on the way. It’ll get here when it gets here. I’m not sure it’s actually coming via UPS.
So, it this going to be delivered by UPS or some bubba with a van? Hopefully they deliver to the house and not do a FedEx and drop it off at the gate.
Grump grump grump and get off of my lawn.
The power burbled at the house, but stayed on. My daughter lives ¾ mile away and their power is out. Yikes!
My Apple “garden” is ready.
Probably his arrogance, serial disregard for UK law, and cronyism. That’s what put me off him.
And it should be remembered that this will not automatically trigger a General Election. Our system provides that the Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party (or coalition), so whoever rises to the top of (currently) the Conservative Party leadership becomes our Prime Minister.
This is one reason, among many, that I could not vote Labour while Jeremy Corbyn was the leader of that party. He’s an unregenerate Communist.
G.
I smell plugs all over this:
Will YOU need a face mask to go to a national park? Yellowstone becomes fourth to bring back the mandate for ticket offices, cafes and restaurants … as new variant fuels rise in cases in 36 states
Masks haven’t worked. Don’t claim “wah, too few people have the clot-shot”.
I saw three people at HEB wearing masks today. All ill fitting cloth masks.
Regarding walmart and solar…
that calls for 18,755 ACRES of solar panel. If they are 2ftx4ft panels, that’s ~817M square feet, so 100M panels.
Yeah right.
In gigawatts, it would be (very roughly) 1/10 of annual world solar panel production.
And if each panel used 10 pounds of aluminum in the frame and support, and 10 pounds of copper for wire to collection points….
a Billion pounds of aluminum, and a billion pounds of copper…. half the annual copper production of the US… (unless I lost a decimal somewhere. that’s a sh!tton of copper and aluminum, never mind concrete for the poles to hold the whole thing up.)
n
Oh, and 11 gigawatts, at 50c/watt is $5.5G or $5.5B to recharge 375K cars. $15k USD per car. ‘Course the cost goes down with every additional charging, but DAY-um. 10 cars a day, per slot, and 200 days sunny enough, only take a decade to break even…. assuming no maintenance or cost to install beyond the cost of the panels….
Sung to the tune of He Ain’t Heavy…
He ain’t Amish…
He’s a WHITEY!
Family of imprisoned Paul Whelan says they are ‘astonished’ Biden called the wife of Brittney Griner but not them while he remains detained in Russia
Plus he’s a Veteran.
I assume that question is rhetorical.
– nope, haven’t kept up with UK politics.
and the article only had vague handwaving about ‘moving forward’ etc.
n
They should limit charging time to 30minutes. LOL.
No, just no. From bad to worse. Get Grant Gustin from the TV show and reshoot the movie.
‘He’d be perfect’: Fans call for Elliot Page to be cast as The Flash amid claims Ezra Miller will be dropped from the role for future DC projects after grooming allegations
Miller is just bad news. He also sucked in the last movies.
“Elon Musk secretly fathered twins with company exec last year, report says”
He can afford the child support.
For lack of a better word, I’m having fun with the grandfather clock.
I have an atomic clock (yeah I know, not really atomic, self sets from Colorado or wherever) on my desk.
I wind the clock on Sunday. I set the clock at 7:30 or 8:30 AM on Monday. Just push the hand enough to make the movement click and start the half hour chime. It “clicks” and then /almost/ two seconds before the chimes start.
I’m not in front of the clock to hear the click… but for the last week I hear the chimes start about six seconds after the 7:30 or 8:30 AM times. Every morning. The cool part is that the delay varies during the day. At 3 PM for example, it’s 20 seconds slow. 15 slow at 1 PM. The quarter hour and the ¾ hour chimes vary.
It’s mechanical. I built the clock, ok, the case, from a kit, in 1989. Of course it’s not perfect and it has some wear.
It’s a bit slow now but will speed up when Winter comes. If I kept the house at a constant temperature I think I could make it exact. But 78 F on a/c and 70 F on heat (67 at night) along with nice weather where we open the house, I’m cool.
Climate crisis, is there anything it can’t do?
https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00082708.html
-it’s making africans sell their daughters into slavery now. ‘Course they been doing that for millennia…
n
Re: Erecting solar panels over Walmart parking lots:
IF solar panels were in infinite supply and free, then yes, it might make sense. It would even reduce the “Urban Heat Island” effect of that area of asphalt that would no longer be heating up in the sun. However, solar panels DO have a cost, and they do require other materials to make, so I’m not sure it would be cost effective.
I’m watching The Terminal List on Amazon. It’s not as good as Reacher, but S01 is over. I’ll continue to enjoy it with a glass of The Glenlivet 15.
Covered parking at Walmart would be nice. Shade. Up-keep, I wonder about that what with fools hitting the support structure.
I would cover the roof of the store first. Make gaps for the a/c units but shade the rest…. and drop the a/c bill.
But that’s here in my part of Texas. How y’all deal with the snow up north isn’t in my knowledge base. (see? I can talk computers too!)
@paul, that is pretty cool. Most higher end grandfathers have a temperature compensating pendulum, rods made of two different materials arranged so the expansion and contraction cancel out, they usually look like a wide array of shiny thin rods, and the weight is in the shape of a lyre… sometimes there is a short lever mechanism at the top of the pendulum mounting that compensates. If you have that type it might just need to be cleaned and lubed.
If you only have a wooden rod, or a single metal rod, you can replace it with a carbon fiber tube or rod. Carbon fiber has a very small negative expansion, really tiny… so it would get rid of most of your temperature related variation.
The whirring before the strike is the mechanism getting ready to strike. Depending on the design it moves the strike count lever and the strike count mechanism into place to count the strikes.
Mechanical clocks are cool.
n
Tom Cavanagh. Fans of the TV show would go crazy.
I guarantee a bunch of reshoots already happened after “Spiderman” like all of the other Hollywood productions last Fall. Warner probably would have cancelled the movie by now if they didn’t have the Michael Keaton as Batman footage which is the only reason anyone is going to go see that flick.
Absolutely.
My pendulum has many rods. Only the center rod matters. It’s suppose to be temperature neutral. But hey, German movement and German weather vs Texas weather.
They act like 90 F is “we gonna die” and here it’s “I’m gonna get in the shade at 100 F”.
For what this clock kit cost I certainly hope it qualifies as “high end”.
No lever, just a knurled nut under the pendulum bob.
Well, if you can’t get maize, just eat something else…. wonder who else said something similar, and how that ended for her?
https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00082671.html
– keep in mind the idea of ‘human osmotic pressure’ or that people, despite Sam Kenison’s routine, do in fact “go where the food is.” And governments that don’t provide food, don’t last.
The problem is serious enough that the government REMOVED tariffs and taxes to reduce the price…
https://allafrica.com/stories/202206290580.html
–my guess is the hoarders will just hold on til the price rises again. IF there are actually hoarders.
See also–
https://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00082297.html
They are looking to their neighbors to make up shortfalls at the moment. AND complaining that the dollar denominated imports are too expensive, so they must be getting some. Anyone want to bet on whether US grains will be sold or given to them, without regard for need here at home?
The weakest are always affected first. It will spread and it will impact us.
n
@paul, as you know the nut just changes the length of the pendulum to get it in time… but the rods should be arranged so that more than just the center one has an effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gridiron_pendulum
Many clocks have a pendulum styled to look like a gridiron pendulum, that don’t actually change length. This was a cost saving feature.
n
“Scientists Have Created Living Skin For Robots”
https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/living-skin-robots.html
Oh no.
I’ll never buy another Apple laptop if they extend the walled garden to Mac OS without a way to turn it off.
I would cover the roof of the store first.
there was a company that did this, with some sort of financial play, or tax play, or outright scam involved. They would pay you to put solar on your roof (commercial only) and then some magic happened.
Don’t know if they are still around.
n
Lynn, one almost thinks you like “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber. Have you ever recommended that before? /sarc.
Truth be told, I like that series, although the first book was bay far the best.
Many, many times. “Mutineer’s Moon” is my favorite book and series of all time.
David Weber announced on facecrack that he now has a plot for the fourth book in the Dahak series. But he has committed to writing so many books that he cannot add anything new at this time. He will be 70 this year and is releasing a new book with coauthors every quarter, seven books in the last two years.
And David Weber has a plot for the fifth book of “The Empire of Man” also.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BEQP3K6
It was probably the hush money that was running him broke.
@paul;
That’s a compensated pendulum. It should have near-zero temperature coefficient, as yours seems to. All the rods are active, their lengths are carefully chosen to ensure the pendulum length is invariant under temperature.
That’s the rating nut. It adjusts the rate of the clock, by varying the length of the pendulum. It actually adjusts the height of the bob, the big weight at the end. Often you will find that one turn clockwise (shorter) will speed up the clock by 1 minute a week. Similarly, one turn anticlockwise will slow down the clock by a minute a week. This is not necessarily the case, you should experiment to find out how many turns/minute your pendulum needs.
I currently have 5 mechanical clocks, all family heirlooms, the youngest of which is 50 years old if it’s a day. One of them, an Ansonia from about 1880-ish, is with my tame clock repairer, to have its mainspring replaced. the others are all hanging on walls, and ticking gently. I should adjust their rates.
G.
After giving the dogs their afternoon cookie, I looked at the clock.
It has 13 rods. They look to be steel and brass. No signs of rust or tarnish after all the years. They seem to be bolted together (the word escapes me) at the top and bottom and in the middle. So, one big unit. The adjusting nut for the bob is on one rod. My mistake for thinking the middle rod is the only one that matters.
Yes! “Rating nut”. Nice term. My clock’s paperwork says 1 and ½ turn is about a minute a day.
I’m down to “a hair” adjustment. I’m good with 30 seconds slow over two weeks. When the weather cools and I’m wearing sweatpants I’ll see if the clock speeds up.
@paul:
only at top and bottom. The central “fixing” only stops the rods vibrating. The compensation wouldn’t work otherwise.
I goofed. I should have said 1 turn= 1 minute per day fast or slow.
G.
@paul:
Here‘s a description of how temperature compensation is done in your clock.
G.
I have the grandfather clock.
I have a “school house regulator” clock. It’s not chiming, I need to clean it again. It clicks but something is stuck.
I have an old mantle clock I bought on eBay. Bim-bam chimes. Really crappy packaging for shipment….. but I glued it back together with a few nails and refinished the case. Looks nice. Not glossy ala 1940’s Bette Davis movie. The movement ran fine while sitting on popsicle sticks in the china cabinet. In the case, I dunno. I took it to a clock shop in Austin and the jerk there stuck a screwdriver in the balance wheel and said see how it wiggles it’s worn out. Oh, we can replace the movement with an electronic unit for $280. Yeah, pass. I just dropped almost seven grand for new windows on the house. I need to pull the movement and re-lube it. It keeps time but stalls at 5 to the hour…. and not every hour. It will run for most of a day and stall. I missed a lube spot.
Projects? I got them.
Earlier this week in a South Texas beach town, I saw a well dressed Asian tourist wearing a full respirator in CVS. I think he was shopping for shaving cream.
I assume everyone sporting a mask is a Robert Francis voter, Good Germans wearing the party regalia hoping for a return to ze old days, ja.
Big Smile!
@paul:
The mantel clock sounds like the drive power is marginal, if it sometimes stalls at 5 minutes to the hour, because that’s the time when the strike arms itself, thus putting a little more load on the going train. If it’s of significant age, and the wheel arbours don’t run in jewels, the holes in the plates may be worn egg-shaped. My Gustav Becker Vienna Regulator suffered from that problem, a good horologist can re-bush the holes and set all to rights.
That’s “Westminster Chimes” – bing, bong, bing, bong. Named for how Big Ben in London strikes.
Your clock repairer in Austin is a butcher.
G.
RIP James Caan.
AKA “Jonathan, JOHNathan, JOHNATHAN…”
@paul, your mantle clock sounds like it might have something stuck in one of the teeth on one of the wheels, or one wheel can have a sloppy worn pivot hole, that causes the teeth to get misaligned and bind every so often.
If the balance wheel is wobbling all over, the pivot hole is likely just worn. A re-pivot bushing should take a few minutes once the movement is out and disassembled. The removal, dis- and re- assembly, and the cleaning you might as well have done at the time are what costs the money. In the bad old days you might use a hole closing punch to reduce the size of the pivot hole, but that’s considered poor practice these days.
When you are cleaning the old oil, and re-lubing, look for worn pivot holes.
n
added- and yes, stay away from the guy in Austin.
The mantel clock sounds like the drive power is marginal, if it sometimes stalls at 5 minutes to the hour, because that’s the time when the strike arms itself, thus putting a little more load on the going train.
–yes, this too, and maybe it’s the strike count lever slightly misaligned, catching on the edge of a notch. That’s a simple fix.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiZCkSo62ms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzcL9Ok4ZY4
(I didn’t watch the vids, but by the description they should show the part we’re talking about.)
n
Rather than have Walmart install solar panels, let’s require colleges with defaulted student loans to install them on campus, co-locating with the departments that have the most defaults. After the electricity pays for the installation it can pay for the default.
What? You claim that PoliSci Depts would become silicon ghettos? What an unexpected result.
Both of you make sense. But the movement ran perfectly while setting on popcicle sticks in the china cabinet. For three months.
I think sitting in the china cabinet versus in the clock case, there’s a change of angle. And perhaps it took a couple more months for some kind of grease booger to stop things up.
I’m going to go with dirt in the drive train or an un-oiled spot.
Black women are signing a petition demanding special treatment for Brittney Griner.
Are they claiming she is stupid and can’t understand what the U.S. State Department and her professional association explained to her:
DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT TAKING DRUGS TO RUSSIA.
We were on vacation somewhere and the local Walmart had a couple of rows of solar panels in the parking lot. You could park underneath them. I swear i thought it was in Flagstaff, AZ, but google maps doesn’t show them in the imagery. It could be old imagery, though we were there in 2019. Southern CA is the other obvious choice. Now it’s going to bother me until I figure it out. Or forget. Again.
@paul:
My tame clock repairer, who is very good, charged me £400 to dismantle, clean, re-bush 4 pivot holes, file the arbour pivots parallel, and reassemble the Gustav Becker clock. It still needs some work – the strike isn’t what it should be – but he’s a very busy man, so I don’t like to hand him too many tasks at once. But I will get the strike fixed – this year, next year, sometime, never… provided it is given to me to survive long enough.
And then my late mother-in-law’s little Franco-German clock needs the weight cords untangled (I think) – it only goes for 4 days, even though it’s an 8 day mechanism.
G.
@Lynn
60 Minutes had a good segment on robots at Boston Dynamics. Worth tracking down.
Rumors are that Musk’s team has concluded that Twitter’s figures on bots are not verifiable, and that they have stopped discussions of financing.
That’s Twitter for $10, Alex.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2021/04/19/walmart-adds-6-5-mw-of-rooftop-and-canopy-parking-solar-to-california-stores/
So, I’m not crazy. I just need to figure out exactly where in CA I saw them.
@drwilliams:
And maybe hold back on the LGBT, as well.
On drugs, it seems that she “forgot” to take the cannabis vape pen out of her hand-luggage. Darwin Award candidate.
I mind a time that a number of British aircraft enthusiasts got locked up in Greece, because they had airband radio receivers and were photographing military aircraft. All of which are tolerated here in UK, but not some other places. I don’t carry my amateur rigs, and especially the scanner, outside UK. I have no desire to be thrown in a foreign chokey.
G.
Victorville California Walmart has the solar panels in the parking lot. I have been there and seen the panels. Generally the parking slots are always full.
https://www.google.com/maps/@34.4650407,-117.3531115,325m/data=!3m1!1e3
After we moved to Austin, I took a stopped cuckoo clock to Time Masters in Avery Ranch, and, after describing the problem, the tech very honestly opened up the case to show me where the chain had been caught in the mechanism when we packed the clock in a box. No charge.
Of course, that was nearly eight years ago. The store may have changed hands since then.
I keep meaning to take our Burger King store clock from the early 70s up there to see if they can suggest a replacement quartz movement. My mother had the clock in a garage in Florida for 30 years, and the original battery mechanism corroded apart even without a cell in place.
Reminds me of a Johnny Cash song:
“Don’t take your guns to town son, leave your guns at home Bill ….”
I highly suspect there will be a way to turn it off. If I were to guess, the walled garden would be something that would have to be actively activated and not on by default. Too many things that people use would be broken by the walled garden. People that don’t realize the security risks, the harvesting of data, the invasion of privacy, the corrupt nature of advertising, the tracking of what a person does online.
It’s incredible to me that anyone who’s actually been online would pay for online advertising. No one sees that sh!te. Even if you see it, when was the last time you clicked on anything?
n
Yes, the Walmart in my neighborhood has them in the parking lot also,
https://www.walmart.com/store/2636-huntington-beach-ca?cn=Tracking_local_pack_1
There are US states with restrictions on scanner use or possession in a vehicle, because crims would use them back in the day. Almost all of them have exemptions for licensed hams.
Another example of penalizing the law abiding for the actions of criminals.
In my discussions with people in law enforcement about the stuff I hear on my scanner, they can’t come up with a single example of crims they’ve caught using scanners. Of course it could be that the smart crims don’t get caught. There is so much low hanging fruit that they don’t bother with the smart guys.
n
Because they are so suppressed and not understood. Black, queer, female does not deserve special treatment. Using race, gender, sexual orientation as an excuse for special treatment is racist. Of course they don’t see it that way. Griner knew what she was doing, got caught, so suck it up butt ugly buttercup. Do the crime, pay the time. I have no sympathy for her actions. Had I done the same I would be basically on my own. Griner should get no special consideration.
Ever notice in any story about a black person being killed how the parents and other relatives describe the individual that would give anyone the shirt off their back? How he/she/shim was such a good kid with lots of potential. Yeh, right. A thug has no potential, got caught, paid the price. Their life was going nowhere. They would steal the shirt off someone’s back, not give them the shirt off the thug’s back. Generally from a welfare family, living in the hood, family on welfare, 13 different fathers, but lots of expensive braids, nails, and maybe a few gold teeth. Looking to use their child’s death as a lottery ticket behind that racist pile of crap lawyer Ben Crump.
And the roof of the store.
Even Costco has panels on their roof. But nothing in the parking lot.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Costco+Wholesale/@33.7326926,-117.9974626,164m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dd26698924a3ad:0xb272580d8dfd7464!8m2!3d33.7331124!4d-117.9964181
Oh-oh Ray, NaN might be belittling you.
On purpose? Must have been a few years ago. But damn touch screens and little itsy-bitsy “X” boxes mean I occasionally activate one of those stupid, useless, annoying ads.
Regarding walmart and solar…
that calls for 18,755 ACRES of solar panel. If they are 2ftx4ft panels, that’s ~817M square feet, so 100M panels.
Yeah right.
In gigawatts, it would be (very roughly) 1/10 of annual world solar panel production.
And if each panel used 10 pounds of aluminum in the frame and support, and 10 pounds of copper for wire to collection points….
a Billion pounds of aluminum, and a billion pounds of copper…. half the annual copper production of the US… (unless I lost a decimal somewhere. that’s a sh!tton of copper and aluminum, never mind concrete for the poles to hold the whole thing up.)
n
Oh, and 11 gigawatts, at 50c/watt is $5.5G or $5.5B to recharge 375K cars. $15k USD per car. ‘Course the cost goes down with every additional charging, but DAY-um. 10 cars a day, per slot, and 200 days sunny enough, only take a decade to break even…. assuming no maintenance or cost to install beyond the cost of the panels….
BTW, there is 20,000 MW of solar panels being installed in Texas this year and the next two years.
There has been about 4,000 MW of solar installed in Texas so far this year (330 MW in Fort Bend County alone).
Solar is being installed all across the USA in huge quantities right now. Mostly Chinese panels coming out of Vietnam and India to escape the 25% tariff. Of course, Biden just exempted solar panels from the 25% tariff.
The farmers are getting $1,250/acre/year to get a solar farm installed. The installed size is 1 MW/acre so a 100 MW solar farm is 100 acres. $1,250/acre/year is much better than $300/acre/year for cows or cotton. One of my friends is kicking himself for selling his 300 acre farm at Ganado, TX about ten years ago. He sold it for $5,000/acre. The new owner is putting in a 300 MW solar farm.
100 acres. $1,250/acre/year is much better than $300/acre/year for cows or cotton. One of my friends is kicking himself for selling his 300 acre farm at Ganado, TX about ten years ago. He sold it for $5,000/acre. The new owner is putting in a 300 MW solar farm.
Tell me more. Who is paying that? Who is paying for the panels? Can you please point me to sources?
I have an 80 acre farm in Southern Illinois I’m selling, but if I could convert it to $80,000/year income I’d probably keep it.
I’ll do my own research, but I’d appreciate a leg up.
Some former corn and cow farms up at the southern edge of the Adirondacks are being converted to solar farms. I see them when I drive up to the family house. At a guess one is about 30 acres so far. I can’t see enough of the others to make a guess. The panels on that one seem to be facing westward. To deal with the air conditioning peaks in the Summer? Seems questionable, but no more questionable than siting them in northern foothills which are covered by snow four or five months per year.
100 acres. $1,250/acre/year is much better than $300/acre/year for cows or cotton. One of my friends is kicking himself for selling his 300 acre farm at Ganado, TX about ten years ago. He sold it for $5,000/acre. The new owner is putting in a 300 MW solar farm.
Tell me more. Who is paying that? Who is paying for the panels? Can you please point me to sources?
I have an 80 acre farm in Southern Illinois I’m selling, but if I could convert it to $80,000/year income I’d probably keep it.
I’ll do my own research, but I’d appreciate a leg up.
My solar farm info is from my 79 year friend who owns two farms in Hungerford, TX and Spanish Camp, TX. He claims that is the going rate here in south Texas where we have 200+ sunny days per year. The number of sunny days in southern Illinois is 100+ per year ??? My great grandfather hated southern Illinois and moved to Texas around 1912 because of his arthritis at age 35 and the Illinois weather. That is going to cut the farmer land rental rate.
The owner of the solar farm buys and installs the solar panels, wiring, inverters, fencing, etc. I do not know who is paying for the transformer and the switching yard. The farmer just collects his rent and cannot run cattle or plant crops under the solar panels.
There are significant federal tax rebates and operating tax credits with solar farms. The owner of the solar farm collects these. Rumor has it that the number one solar farm and windmill owner in the USA is Goldman Sachs.
@Lynn
Ok. That’s 2022 dollars. What does it cost in 2022 dollars/acre to remove a wind farm?
I recall going to a swimming pool show 25 years ago and being regaled about the advantages of fiberglass over the top of plaster pools.
“30 year warranty!” they said.
Me: “So how long you been in business?”
“Mumble mumble”
“Speak up, I can’t hear you.”
“Four years.”
Fast forward to now and I observe that fiberglass has not taken away the plaster market.
Is there any residential solar company that has been in business for as long as they are claiming for their product lifetime?
Anyone ever seen a Chinese CFL or LED product that wasn’t 50% dead after less than half of the supposed life?
The only way I would entertain a “solar farm” proposal was if a state-regulated electric utility of long-standing was involved. Then I would compose a list of ten questions, give it to them, and tell them that I will read their contract to the point where any of those questions is answered in the negative, at which point I walk.
As good a place as any to make an observation: “Solar farms” change the local albedo. Make them big enough, or cluster them, and you have the potential to change local air circulation patterns and microclimate. Anyone doing modeling on this? Neighbor installs a “solar farm”, creates a small artificial blocking high, and suddenly your pasture that supported 100 head of cattle is not getting enough rain? What happens when you mix solar and wind turbines? Can solar reduce wind turbine output?
Nano
Hows your homework coming along?
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/maryland-governor-loosens-concealed-carry-law-spurs-demand-gun-permits
– thank you Donald Trump.
n
>> Oh, and 11 gigawatts, at 50c/watt is $5.5G or $5.5B to recharge 375K cars. $15k USD per car. ‘Course the cost goes down with every additional charging, but DAY-um. 10 cars a day, per slot, and 200 days sunny enough, only take a decade to break even…. assuming no maintenance or cost to install beyond the cost of the panels….
They should limit charging time to 30minutes. LOL.
How much charge could be generated in 30 minutes from the ~160 ft2 of PV cells that would cover each car?
>> Mechanical clocks are cool.
I just go with “Alexa, what time is it?”
My Dad did though build a grandfather clock from a kit give or take 25 years ago. Still in NYFC and not likely to make its way out here to the desert.
How much charge could be generated in 30 minutes from the ~160 ft2 of PV cells that would cover each car?
You know, I am surprised that they do not cover the EV cars themselves with solar cells. Just seems like a natural thing.
>> Even if you see it, when was the last time you clicked on anything?
On purpose? Must have been a few years ago. But damn touch screens and little itsy-bitsy “X” boxes mean I occasionally activate one of those stupid, useless, annoying ads.
My older son has (had?) a few Android apps deployed and I used to open them a few times a day and click on the in-app ads.
Even more annoying though is when you inadvertently click something and the back arrow takes you back to the top of the article rather than where you were up to.
>> You know, I am surprised that they do not cover the EV cars themselves with solar cells. Just seems like a natural thing.
It’s out there, but not yet with any significant additional capacity.
I may not be going to sleep tonight. The wife bought some Hydrox cookies with coffee beans in the filling.
Watch Mr Carlsons Lab on youtube. He’s very soothing.
n
OK25, groomer25.