People growing marijuana indoors use 1 percent of the U.S. electricity supply, and they create 17 million metric tons of carbon dioxide every year (not counting the smoke exhaled) according to a report by Evan Mills, an energy analyst at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.I am not quite sure that I believe this. Either a big chunk of Humboldt County is growing pot, or the amount of electricity to run those Gro-Lites is just beyond belief! Perhaps we need to build nuclear power plants to keep the potheads happy.
After medical pot use was made legal in California in 1996, Mills says, per-person residential electricity use in Humboldt County jumped 50 percent compared to other parts of the state.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Yet Another Reason To Keep Pot Illegal!
Global warming. My first reaction when I saw the headline was to snicker loudly:
Hard To Believe This Could Happen
A Yale student died of "asphyxia due to neck compression" when a lathe she was operating grabbed her hair. (And probably one of the prettiest operators of a lathe in recent history.) The lathe that I have is not very powerful--and I do not have long hair. It is a sobering reminder that when operating any power machinery, you darn well better be careful. No loose clothing. No loose jewelry. Have your hair short, in a bun, or otherwise somewhere that it can't get in spinning machinery. One of my sisters, when quite young, had an unfortunate accident with a mixer and one of her braids--but a mixer is nothing like a powerful lathe.
Gray Hair: The Enemy of Employment
I have always thought that there was something a bit vain about worrying about gray hair--but it is becoming increasingly apparent that being "old" (you know, more than 40) is a major problem for software engineers looking for a job. For the next time that I start worrying about this, any suggestions on products that work well, especially on a beard? I cannot imagine using such a product on a regular basis, but once through the interview process, I know that my performance is quite sufficient to overcome the prejudices against being ancient, and I can then go back to being myself.
I somewhat resent having to play games like this, but it could be worse, I suppose. There was a time, only a few decades ago, when some Americans had to use skin lighteners for the same reason.
I somewhat resent having to play games like this, but it could be worse, I suppose. There was a time, only a few decades ago, when some Americans had to use skin lighteners for the same reason.
Leveling The Drill Press
I keep getting more and more focused on precision--even with tools like a drill press, which are not necessarily terribly precise. I can at least aim for more precision, however.
The latest effort is to get the drill press exactly level to the floor. During some of my manufacturing processes, I use a bubble level to make sure that parts are exactly square to the drill bit or tap. Of course, this assumes that the drill press table is square to the drill press spindle, and that both of these are square to the floor. I knew that my garage floor is not exactly level, but I learned to compensate for the difference--which direction from exactly level the bubble in the level should be.
The base of the drill press has four 7/16" holes intended for mounting it to bolts in the floor, or to a plate that contains such bolts. I do not have anything to mount those holes to, so I tapped those holes for 1/2"-13 bolts. Then I verified that the drill press table was exactly square to the spindle, not by trusting the degree marker on the table, but by putting a square to the table and a long drill bit in the chuck. Then I put 1/2"-13 bolts in those tapped holes, and turned them until the bubble level on the drill press table was exactly centered.
I doubt that this makes a huge difference--but it means that instead of being off as much as a degree or two when I drill and tap a hole, I suspect that am now off by half a degree or less.
The latest effort is to get the drill press exactly level to the floor. During some of my manufacturing processes, I use a bubble level to make sure that parts are exactly square to the drill bit or tap. Of course, this assumes that the drill press table is square to the drill press spindle, and that both of these are square to the floor. I knew that my garage floor is not exactly level, but I learned to compensate for the difference--which direction from exactly level the bubble in the level should be.
The base of the drill press has four 7/16" holes intended for mounting it to bolts in the floor, or to a plate that contains such bolts. I do not have anything to mount those holes to, so I tapped those holes for 1/2"-13 bolts. Then I verified that the drill press table was exactly square to the spindle, not by trusting the degree marker on the table, but by putting a square to the table and a long drill bit in the chuck. Then I put 1/2"-13 bolts in those tapped holes, and turned them until the bubble level on the drill press table was exactly centered.
I doubt that this makes a huge difference--but it means that instead of being off as much as a degree or two when I drill and tap a hole, I suspect that am now off by half a degree or less.
No, It Still Makes Sense To Make House Payments
I mentioned a couple of days ago that I was not getting any tax advantage anymore from my house mortgage interest, because I pay so little interest, and it might be time to pay it off. But it turns out that the amount of interest that I pay is so little that I only have to earn about 3% interest net taxes on my savings to make the mortgage a wash. That is not at all difficult to do. Even my PayPal account pays 3% interest, and tying the money up in a 30 year Treasury will give more then 4.5% at the moment--so it comes out, after taxes, at better than 3%.
I'm Glad The Europeans Have Very Strict Gun Control Laws...
It prevents things like this from happening. From the April 9, 2011 Daily Mail:
A gunman opened fire with an automatic weapon at a crowded shopping mall outside Amsterdam on Saturday, leaving at least six people dead and wounding 11 others, Dutch officials said.Actually, all that strict gun control does is guarantee that no victims are going to return fire.
The attacker was among the dead after fatally shooting himself at the Ridderhof mall in Alphen aan den Rijn, Mayor Bas Eenhoorn said. The suburb is less than 15 miles (25 kilometers) southwest of Amsterdam.
Four of the wounded were in critical condition, five were in serious condition and at least two others were slightly wounded, Eenhoorn said.
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