My Shop

Is currently a low-budget version of the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark: lots of boxes in need of opening. Machine tools, hand tools, a collection of fasteners to make most hardware stores feel inadequate, telescopes, mounts, telescope accessories, amateur telescope making parts.

I suspect the previous owners never used it except as storage for the solar pool cover.  I bug bombed it a couple days go. That there are no fresh spiderweb tells me that no one survived and no one got in. Spiders are amazingly fast at rebuilding here. My daughter removes them in room corners one day and finds replacements in  couple of days.

I have vacuumed up the webs, spider eggs sacs, sawdust, and dirt. I started wiping all the interior window frames this evening with Simple Green. Once this is done, I will wipe all horizontal surfaces; move boxes out of the way and mop the floor with Simple Green.

Not Quite At "Forensic Astrologer" Level

 9/6/26 New York Post:

Advancements in AI may soon allow humans to talk with animals, but some groups claim the research could be violating the animals’ right to privacy.

Machine learning models are paving the way to catalogue and even mimic the sounds animals make to communicate with each other, with researchers touting the technology as a way to better understand the world of animals.

But “one risk that is currently not taken into account in research ethics is the concern that we might be violating the privacy of animals by collecting data on their vocalizations and movements,” according to researchers in an article published in Springer Nature.

AI can make mistakes. Imagine those mistakes:

Don't eat me.

I love becoming one with your body.

Faster, faster, more stirrups.

From the cloned mammoth: "We want a land acknowledgment."

Apparently the Trump DOJ Investigated and Found This Was Bogus

Supposedly a smart thermostat in a Georgia precinct was relaying voting data to a server in China. If Trump's DOJ had not already examined this and found it unfounded, I would be worried.  But the comment from a Georgia voters that he was going to vote by thermostat next time gave me a laugh.

Okay, Without Checking the Link or Date...

Guess what governor proposed this bill to give a second chance to first time drug offenders?

Yes, Gov. Ronald Reagan.

Disarming Victims Again

 9/4/26 Reason:

Houses of worship are often targeted by people with murder on their minds. That's especially true of synagogues, which were disproportionately attacked even before October 7 and have since been on the receiving end of the "antizionist" reframing of hatred of Jews. But in Montgomery County, Maryland, officials recently renewed efforts to forbid the carrying of firearms within 100 yards of "places of public assembly," including churches and synagogues. Now, some security volunteers are defying the intrusive law as they await the outcome of courtroom pushback against the restrictions.

Of course,  we have a long tradition of not only allowing but actively requiring people be armed at church to protect against attacks, such as these extracted from here:

Georgia

1770: "An act for the better security of the inhabitants by obliging the male white persons to carry fire arms to places of public worship."  From Allen D. Candler, comp., The Colonial Records of the State of Georgia (Atlanta, Ga.: Chas. P. Byrd, 1910), 19(part 1):137-140, this law required all white male inhabitants to carry either a long gun or a pair of pistols to church (p. 138), and required "That the church warden or church wardens of each respective parish, and the deacons, elders or select men... to examine all such male persons" to make sure that they were armed. (pp. 138-39)

Massachusetts Bay

1636/7: At Nathaniel B. Shurtleff, Records of the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England (Boston: William White, 1853) 1:190, Because of the danger of Indian attack, and because much of the population was neglecting to carry guns, every person above eighteen years of age (except magistrates and elders of the churches) were ordered to "come to the publike assemblies with their muskets, or other peeces fit for servise, furnished with match, powder, & bullets, upon paine of 12d. for every default".  And no person shall travel above one mile from his dwelling house, except in places wheare other houses are neare together, without some armes, upon paine of 12d. for every default"."

New Haven

1646: From Charles J. Hoadly, ed., Records Of The Colony And Plantation Of New Haven, From 1638 To 1649 (Hartford, Conn.: Case, Tiffany, 1857), 201-202.  This statute requiring "every male from 16 to 60 yeares of age" to have a gun, provided by either himself or his master, was also enforced.  At pages 486-487 we have records of fines imposed in 1649 on several men "for not bringing ther armes to the meeting [church] on day when it was their turne" and failure to bring slowmatch (for matchlock guns), bullets, flints, and other accessories.  That same year (on page 501) we have the legislature hearing a request from a William Paine "that he might be freed from bringing his armes [on] the Lord's day and lecture dayes, because he lives farr of and hath three small children, and his wife is lame and cannot help to bring the children."

Plymouth

1658: On William Brigham, ed., The Compact with the Charter and Laws of the Colony of New Plymouth" (Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, 1836) 115, is an order that 1/4 of the militia "carry theire armes" to church every Sunday, defined as "some serviceable peece and sword and three charges of powder and bullets" or be fined "2 shillings and six pence...."

1675: On page 176 is an order by the legislature, "That during the time of publicke danger every one that comes to the meeting on the Lords day bring his Armes with him and furnished with att least six charges of powder and shott untill further order shall be given" with a two shilling fine for failure to do so.

1681: On pages 192 and 193 is an order, "That every souldieer in this Jurisdiction that beares armes be with all convenient speed furnished with a compleat sword or cutlas."  Also, the statute of 1658 requiring 1/4 of the militia to bring their guns to church every Sunday was updated to require "six charges of powder same shott" from "beginning of Aprill to the end of October yearly...."  It would appear that Plymouth did not fear Indian attack in winter.

Rhode Island

1639: from John Russell Bartlett, ed., Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England (Providence, R.I.: A. Crawford Greene and Brother, 1856), 1:94: "It is ordered, that noe man shall go two miles from the Towne unarmed, eyther with Gunn or Sword; and that none shall come to any public Meeting without his weapon."  There was a fine of five shillings for failing to be armed in either circumstance.****  This is a city ordinance, not a colony statute.

1643: from Bartlett, Records of the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in New England 1:79-80, reiterated an earlier order "for every man to have so much powder, and so many bullets, and so the forwarning is to stand still in force; and also that every man do come armed unto the meeting upon every sixth day" with orders for militia officers to go to "to every inhabitant [in Portsmouth and] see whether every one of them has powder" and bullets.

South Carolina

 1743: from David J. McCord, ed., The Statutes at Large of South Carolina: Edited Under Authority of the Legislature(Columbia, S.C.: A. S. Johnston, 1840), 7:417, 418, 419;  7:417-419 require everyone to bring their guns to church.

Virginia

1619: Lyon G. Tyler,  ed., Narratives of Early Virginia, 1606-1625 (New York, 1907), 273 required everyone to attend church on the Sabbath, "and all suche as beare armes shall bring their pieces, swords, pouder and shotte."  Those failing to bring their guns were subject to a three shilling fine.

Fresh Scalps!

 U.S. v. Aleman-Lozanociting Vazquez-Ramirez, 163 F.4th at 719 (Bumatay, J., concurring) (quoting Clayton E. Cramer, Colonial Firearm Regulation, 16 J. on Firearms & Pub. Pol'y 1, 23 (2004) upholding bans on illegal aliens possessing arms.

U.S. v. Vasquez-Ramirez, 163 F.4th 706, 720, 721 (9th Cir. 2026)(Bumtay, J., concurring) upholding bans on illegal aliens possessing arms.

I am still thrilled to get my work cited. There are few pleasures in life; I take 'em where I can get them.

Chris Miller Chip War

Not Chip Wars, a different book 

I am almost done reading it. This remains a fascinating and very readable book. Many aspects of this are not new to me, for obvious reasons. Many of the fine technical details, such as how photolithography was invented, were news to me. (I remember seeing a book in the Computer Literacy bookstore in Silicon Valley, at the center of the nerd universe) about how to do your own photolithography at home.

Trump Administration gets high marks for taking seriously Chinese efforts to dominate chip industry for both economic and military reasons. 

Because the book was published in 2025, the more recent stuff does not appear such as how AI is raising the importance of chips. Also, Trump’s successful wooing of TSMC into building a fab in Arizona was just as this book was going to press.

UPDATE: I am in the last chapter and the TSMC fab in Arizona appears as well as discussion of AI's impact.