The Title Sounds Like Parody

Unfortunately,  the link takes you to Springer, a publisher of scholarly journals:

"Loving the Brine Shrimp: Exploring Queer Feminist Blue Posthumanities to Reimagine the ‘America’s Dead Sea’"

The abstract is worse.

Gun Laws Only Apply to the "Little People"

 12/1/24 Reuters:

WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Sunday he had pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, a reversal after pledging to stay out of legal proceedings against the younger Biden who pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.

"Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department's decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted," the president said in a statement. [emphasis added]

Yes, because unfairly and selectively never happens at DOJ.  If Hunter had been black, he would have been prosecuted for a false statement on a 4473.

Next Machining Project

What is that?  It is one of the knows from the Frigidaire stove top.  They are made of plastic and are not very durable.  When a child turns it beyond the range of the valve it controls the half round hole breaks.  Unfortunately,  Frigidaire does not offer a metal form of this know probably to make sure some overly exuberant child does not break the valve.  Still, it is frustrating to pay for these not very durable plastic knows.

I am going to start with a piece of 2.25" aluminum rod and turn it on the lsthe to the dimensions of the top and stem parts, then machine the half round hole that goes over the valve.  This has involved measuring dimensions,  and calculating the chord that makes up the half round side.  And no, it is a perfect semicircle.   The flat side is a bit more than 98 degrees of arc.  This will involve cutting a straight line for the flat side of the hole, than a counterclockwise motion to the other end of the chord, repeated down for 2.107 inches.  I had to order a 3" overall length .125" carbide endmill.  This will be a very slow .01" depth cut.  Yes, that involve a lot of patience. 

My plan is to make one, verify functionality,  then replace the other four.  Once I have the code for milling the half round hole, the rest will be pretty quick.

A Sign Your New Co-worker is a Robot

There are bolts in the toilet. 

I Saw My First Starlink Constellation Last Night

Really impressive. 

The Delusions of Elites

I am reading David Jahet's The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction,  and Houdini in the Spirit World.  It presents a disturbing picture of  Spiritualism, the belief that we could communicate with the dead in the optimistically named Summerland through seances became generally accepted.   It was not just the Edwardian equivalent of blue-haired cat ladies, but many respectable opinion makers such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Newspapers gave some credence to these claims as well.

Once an idea becomes respectable,  it can sway people who might otherwise have more sense.  The parallels to the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) religion should be obvious.  Spiritualism was a replacement for a Christian belief in an afterlife and was thus only slightly out of step with acceptable beliefs.  This parallels how AGW is only slightly out of step with actual science.

Several years back, I wrote a rebuttal of Pamela Haag's The Gunning of America.  At one point in the book, the author, a Yale Ph.D., seems to have accepted that along with frauds, there were "'white' mediums," actual communicators with the Spirit World who Sarah Winchester used to communicate with her late husband and child.  She went on to describe the values of the Spiritualists as not far removed from the average reader of the New York Times!  I would like to consider that an insult but Haag is certainly more in tune with that class than I am.

Nice Property Tax Bill!

I was expecting a pretty hefty property tax bill once we were past the amount paid in closing costs.  Instead, we received a yearly property tax bill of $526.  This was so low that I called the assessor's office and they confirmed this was the entire bill for the year.

Efficient small government.