Bad Bunny's Performance

 It was widely claimed that he was going to wear a dress.  I asked Grok:

The idea that Bad Bunny was going to wear a dress during his Super Bowl halftime show (at Super Bowl LX on February 8, 2026) originated as a rumor circulating online in late January 2026, shortly after his selection as the headliner was confirmed.

Reports from outlets like Radar Online (cited in various articles) claimed anonymous sources close to his team—including a stylist and a "pal"—said he planned to wear a dress as a bold statement honoring queer/LGBTQ+ icons from Puerto Rico or drag culture, with quotes like "He is 100 percent going to wear a dress. A political thunderbolt disguised as couture" and "The dress is already being sewn." This fueled speculation and backlash, particularly among conservative circles on social media, where it sparked boycott calls and tied into broader culture-war complaints about the performance.

The rumor gained traction through viral posts on platforms like X (formerly Twitter), including amplified claims that Bad Bunny himself said things like "I'm wearing the dress, if that bothers you… don’t watch." Some posts shared fabricated or satirical images (e.g., AI-generated ones from accounts like Qbanguy on Facebook showing him in a dress in provocative scenarios, later debunked by Snopes)....

The rumor appears to have stemmed from Bad Bunny's well-documented history of gender-fluid fashion (e.g., wearing skirts, dresses, or non-traditional outfits in videos, red carpets, and performances), combined with speculation about a provocative halftime statement amid his cultural significance as the first primarily Spanish-language headliner. It spread rapidly in politically polarized online spaces but was never confirmed by Bad Bunny or his team.

That this reported rumor was amplified by conservatives is no surprise. (I mean what would you expect the Colin Kaepernick league to do except offend their audience?) But where did Radar Online get this rumor? Many possible explanations:

 1. Someone with Bad Bunny floated this as a way to get publicity. (There is no such thing as bad publicity; people are talking about you.) Someone misunderstand an overheard conversation and filled it in based on previous clothing choices. "How will you be dressed?"

2. Someone just made it up. Reporters do that, especially when chasing the Almighty Clicks.

This is Becoming a Pattern

The correlation of mental illness and mass murder goes back centuries. 2/11/26 Sunday Guardian reports the recent school massacre murder was by someone born male but dressing as female.  (The article has a picture reminding you that men pretending to be women are profoundly ineffective.)

It has been clear for some time that while the Professional Caring Classes deny it, these people are mentally ill. Amplifying this are the legacy media and antisocial media. Transgender are now a disproportionate part of mass murderers.  Encouraging confused people to take hormones for the opposite sex seems like a recipe for confused or overwrought emotions. 

Insomnia

From Berlin Diary, January 9. 1940 quoting an officer of the American Embassy in Moscow concerning the invasion of Finland:

"Harry says everyone in Moscow, from Stslin down, thought the Red Arny would be in Helsinki a week after the attack started "

Putin's fantasy of s high-speed special military operation is not the first Russian delusion. 

Good News! Pakistani Rape Gangs Do Not Discriminate

2/6/26 Sun has a sickening account of a Pakistani raoe gang where the victim was daughter, granddaughter, and sister of the rapists starting at 6. (All were just sentenced.) Mom got quite upset when she blew the whistle at school.  I am not going to quote anything.  It is too disgusting. 

Removing CFC Dust From the Air

My wife is not happy at the CFC dust that milling and turning CFC puts into the air. (I wear a respirator.)  This stuff goes everywhere, leaving a fine coat on everything.  She wants me to stop machining it for that reason.  If I had a completely separate shop instead of the garage, this would less of an issue.  (Next house will either have a separate building or i will have one built.)

I suspect that someone sort of ionic air filter would pull this stuff out of the air and either leave on an anode or drop it in a neat little pile.  Shops that work will this stuff must have a fix.

UPDATE: I asked Grok. It suggested the Jostart KL306 which uses carbon fiber tips to produce ions to clump carbon fiber dust together immediately around the tool. These came in a 3 pack. I will try one at the mill to see if it works well.  If it does, one for the lathe, drill press, and sander.

UPDATE: My wife read the hazard description for CFC and it is now permanently banned.  I will sell the remaining pieces on eBay.

I Have Not Rolled the 5" Refractor Out in Some Time

It has the advantage that you do not a ladder to get to the eyepiece and it is a spectacular apochromat. But once I was outside, I discovered the focuser would not move.  Not even a little.

Cold weather froze grease? Cold tightened a close tolerance too much? Were the screws that hold the rear plate to the focuser axle too tight?

No, simpler than that but only after I brought in back inside, removed it from the mount and started disassembly. Thus is a rock and pinion focuser and the rack along the tube had gone beyond the pinion.  I needed to gently pull the focuser tube out far enough for rack and pinion to mate.  I think i will epoxy a piece of plastic at the last slot in the rack that will prevent him from going too far in again.

Turning Workpieces That Are Too Short for Chuck

I am about to make handles for turning the slow motion handles. I made a couple of these a while back but they were not attractive being sort of a Greek cross made from 1/2" CFC.

My plan was to cut two 1" circles with a .25" hole in the center where the D-shaft. While clearing around the mill, I found a 1" (actually. 951") diameter CFC piece that fell out when cutting a 1.25" hole. Perhaps, I could reuse this piece? 

So I mounted it in the lathe and drilled a .25" hole through the center. 

But there was some crud on one end that needed turning off.  But the jaws were not deep enough to hold a 1/2" thick workpiece with the end exposed.  So I dug through my screws and scraps and made this up.

The white acetal locks in the jaws.  A 1/4-20 screw passed through it, locked by a nut, and then the workpiece, locked in place by another nut. Now the workpiece was entirely outside the jaws where I could turn the exterior.