I Have Resumed Cutting Carbon Fiber Composite

Wayne provided enough information for me to believe that I have a solution to the 1 revolution/day clock drive.  I ordered the stepper motor and the controller because they were not expensive.  If I can get a 30 revs/day output,  I will order the expensive part, the 30:1 gearbox.

I am cutting 1" x 1" squares out of .5" thick carbon fiber plate.  These will be the dust caps for the axis housings.   One cut and sanded, I will put four holes in which I will epoxy 6-32 threaded inserts for the 6-32 stainless steel hex socket screws, so that I can assemble and disassemble as needed.

Food Calorie Measurement

I use a program called Samsung Health to enter my calories each day, to try and keep in a healthy range.  But how do you calculate the calories in a Big Mac?  I remember reading about a bomb calorimeter many years ago where you literally burn the food, and measure temperature change in the surrounding water.  When I Google for calorimeter,  it appears this still the method used.

This seems suspect to me.  Not every part of a Big Mac (or even a carrot) will be converted to calories in your body.  Otherwise,  the fiber that passes through you would not do so.

Learning Machining

A while back, one of you asked me for some help getting back into machining after some years out of the hobby.  I responded to that request a few weeks late, at least partly because I was doing a declaration for a Rhode Island case.  I have lost the email.  Are you still seeking help?  I am glad to help.  Others helped me at the start and I am happy to pay it forward. 

Interesting Decision

U.S. v. DeFrance (9th Cir. 2024).  The defendant was convicted in 2013 of "partner or family member assault (PFMA) under Montana Code Annotated section 45-5-206(1)(a)."  He was charged in 2018 for possession of a firearm.  DeFrance argued that because the Montana statute includes emotional abuse, such a conviction does not necessarily include the use or threat of physical violence "therefore, a conviction under this statute does not qualify as a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” for purposes of § 922(g)(9)."

The appeals court concluded that:

Taken together, these authorities show that a person can violate section 45-5-206(1)(a) through any form of communication that inflicts bodily injury in the form of emotional anguish. The infliction of emotional anguish does not require the use of physical force as that term is defined by federal law. See Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133, 138 (2010) (holding that physical force “refers to force exerted by and through concrete bodies—distinguishing physical force from, for example, intellectual force or emotional force”). 5 We recognize that the Supreme Court held in Castleman that a “misdemeanor crime of domestic violence” requires only the force necessary to commit common law battery, and that this is significantly less force than Johnson required for the violent felony standard at issue in Castro. See 572 U.S. at 163. Nevertheless, we are bound by our precedent in Castro, which observed that Montana’s PFMA statute “explicitly defines [bodily injury] more broadly than the generic definition.”

While DeFrance does not seem like the kind of person that I would like to marry anyone that I know, it seems that the government failed and did not even attempt to prove that DeFrance used or threatened physical violence.  The right decision, but I wonder why Montana did not argue for as "as applied" approach.

In any case, the historical evidence does not support the constitutionality of § 922(g)(9).  Assault or battery was never treated as a disarming offense in the Framing Era or immediately before the ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Still a Tragedy, But a Different Kind

1/3/25 NPR:

"A highly decorated Army soldier who died in an explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck at the Trump hotel in Las Vegas left a note saying it was stunt to serve as "wakeup call" for the country's ills, investigators said Friday.

"Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Green Beret from Colorado Springs, Colorado, also wrote in the note that he needed to "cleanse my mind" of the lives lost of people he knew and "the burden of the lives I took."

"Livelsberger apparently harbored no ill will toward President-elect Donald Trump, Clark County sheriff's officials said.

"Although this incident is more public and more sensational than usual, it ultimately appears to be a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues," FBI Special Agent In Charge Spencer Evans said at a news conference."

This explains why a Green Beret set off a bomb in a containment vessel that caused no deaths.  I suspect the collapse of his marriage took him over the edge into suicide.  One soldier committing suicide over PTSD would have been a couple lines in a local paper.  This was worldwide news.

War is brutal.  A girlfriend's father had a serious drinking problem.   One evening,  he explained that his job during World War 2 was sniper: killing people hundreds of yards a way who were no threat to him.  That has to be twisting to anyone who grew up in a society that says that killing others, even in self-defense,  is an evil best avoided. 

So You Can Feel Superior the Next Time Your Leftist Friends Sneer That America is Not Europe

1/3/25 Euronews:

"Mississippi, the poorest state in the United States, is close to surpassing Europe's largest economy Germany's GDP per capita. Euronews Business compares US states with European countries.

"The poorest US state's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is higher than that of Europe's top five economies, except for Germany. However, Mississippi competes closely with Germany, with a difference of just €1,500."

Of course, Purchasing Power Parity comparison changes the equation slightly:

"Applying this rate to Q3 2024, the GDP per capita in PPP could be approximately $60,714, though variations in definitions might affect the calculation. In this scenario, Mississippi's GDP per capita in PPP would be likely to fall slightly below the EU average but remain higher than Spain's."

When Mississippi compares favorably to the EU average....

Blame NRA

1/2/25 CNN:

"Podgorica, MontenegroReuters — 

A man shot dead 12 people in a rampage in a small town in Montenegro before dying from self-inflicted injuries early on Thursday, authorities said, in one of the tiny Balkan nation’s worst mass killings....

"Police said Martinovic had been drinking heavily and had a history of illegal weapons possession. After an altercation with patrons in the restaurant he went home, took a weapon, returned to the restaurant and started shooting, police said....

"Despite strict gun laws, the Western Balkans, composed of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia, remain awash with weapons. Most are from the wars in the 1990s, but some date back even to World War One."

Definitely Winter

Coincidence?

1/2/25 Denver channel 7:

"DENVER — The Colorado Springs resident suspected of detonating a Tesla Cybertruck in front of a Las Vegas hotel and the Texas man accused of driving a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans served at the same military base, sources told Denver7 Investigates."

Both were clearly terrorist attacks. The Biden Administration was concerned about domestic extremists at Fort Bragg (or whatever name it has now), but I think they worried about neo-Nazis or MAGAtts, not Muslim sympathizers 

The Cybertruck successfully contained the bomb.  Babylon Bee reports that the National Association of Terrorist Car Bombers have awarded it worst ranked.

How Greedy American Universities Saved Indian Literature

12/30/24 BBC report about American universities starting in the 1950s bought vast numbers of books in India, leading to a situation where Indian scholars have to come to America to research their own past.   While the body of the article sort of judges the universities poorly, the end of the article quotes an Indian scholar:

""The books are safe, valued, accessible and used. I've visited libraries, archives and institutions in every part of India and the story in our country is universally dismal. Here they were lost or destroyed or neglected or very often made inaccessible."

Was That Cybertruck Explosion a Battery Failure?

I am guessing it was a terrorist attack.  1/1/25 BBC:

"Police are investigating after a Tesla Cybertruck filled with fuel canisters and firework mortars exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada."

A Documentary Tracing the History of Holocaust Denial

 Really interesting.  I find it fascinating how many of the early Holocaust deniers were Communists or leftwing World War I revisionist historians.  I would have inserted it but YouTube is perhaps hiding it, because the AI cannot distinguish thoughtful criticism from Holocaust deniers.

I was pleased to see him call the evil idiots by their formal name: National Socialists.  Also, clips of Reagan and Trump condemnig the deniers.

Pedals

 The only major ergonomic criticism that I had of Jaguar XF is that the gas and brake pedals were in some weird positioning that if I had my foot somewhere confortable for the gas, the brade pedal was hard to hit without repositioning my heel.  I suspect that this may have been an artifact of the desire to allow heel and toe shifting on maual versions.  None of my other cars have inflicted these unpleasant demands on my heel.  The Cadillac has an absolutely lovely set of pedal positions.  The more I drive this car, the more I love it.

Time to Ban "Assault Vehicles"

1/1/25 NOLA:

"At least ten people were killed and 35 were injured after a man barreled his vehicle down Bourbon Street in New Orleans during the early morning hours of New Year's Day.

'The FBI is investigating the mass casualty attack as a potential "act of terrorism," and Mayor LaToya Cantrell and New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick have called the incident an intentional attack."

Symbolic Links

 I moved all my Pictures from drive D to drive C, with a symbolic link from D to C. 508GB now free on drive D.  Videos and Music next.