Blackening Aluminum

That lens cell needs to have no reflections.  Flat black paint is one solution but I wanted to not change the dimensions.  Hence using blackening compounds that promise they are non-dimensional.  In this case, Birchwood-Casey Aluminum Black. This is really for fixing scratches on your AR15  but dunking the cell in it and leaving it there for an hour seemed to be adequate. 

The label warns that it is corrosive.   I did not feel any effects but watching the aluminum bubble in it tells me that there is some acidic reaction under way.

The next step is going to a friend with a retaining ring wrench to put the ring at the back of the lens.

Another Advantage of Mill Collet Over Endmill Holder

An endmill holder drops the end of the mill an inch below the quill compared to a collet that slides inside the quill.  I am almost never short of space in Z but it is still nice.

The Goal of the Welfare State Seems to Have Been Misplaced

 2/7/26 New York Post:

In October, federal agents arrested Cody Holmes, the 31-year-old former CFO of Shangri-La Industries, a downtown Los Angeles-based developer who was supposed to be providing housing for homeless people in Southern California. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California, a Trump appointee, charged him with mail fraud.

Holmes, who pleaded not guilty, is accused of embezzling more than $2 million in taxpayer funds slated for homeless housing construction to host extravagant parties; a $46,000-per-month Beverly Hills mansion; private jet travel; leases of exotic cars; high-end handbags totaling $128,000; a $35,000 diamond watch; and 20 VIP passes for the 2023 Coachella Music and Arts Festival.

Meanwhile, Shangri-La Industries executives showered Newsom and Los Angeles County Democrats with political donations as they were applying for some $100 million in state contracts that the CFO later allegedly looted to fund his and his ex-girlfriend’s lavish lifestyle.

Even after federal prosecutors exposed the massive fraud, Newsom and L.A. Democrats haven’t severed ties with the embattled developer and have kept political donations from the firm’s executives. Newsom has also allowed the construction firm to continue to tout his endorsement on its social media.

I support the government providing some level of assistance for those in need of basic shelter, food, medical care, and clothing.  This need not be overly generous; we can meet basic needs without making the system dangerously attractive for those too lazy to work. Advocates of the welfare state should be concerned about widespread fraud of the system so that people too lazy to get real jobs abuse the system in this way. Every penny that ends up leasing a Ferrari is a lot of food and shelter that should be going to the needy, not the greedy.

Remember When Bodycams Needed to be Mandatory for Police?

 2/7/26 Politico:

A push to put body cameras on all ICE agents has Democrats running headlong into a new problem: fear that the technology will provide another avenue for mass surveillance of protesters.

Congressional Democratic leaders have made universal use of body cameras one of their prime demands for imposing accountability on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, especially after federal agents fatally shot two American citizens in Minneapolis. But after an outcry from privacy advocates that surveillance tools will allow ICE agents to identify and track protesters, Democrats are also calling for restrictions on how the body cameras can be used.

Lawmakers and legal observers have accused ICE of leveraging a variety of cameras to surveil protesters, feeding pictures into license plate readers and facial recognition systems. Democrats now worry that the body cameras they’re demanding could be used for similar purposes.

It could not be because bodycams have repeatedly showed police responding appropriately to really messed up people, could it? 

This Guy Thinks He is So Clever

 A New York University bioethicist at the World Economic Forum argues for infecting people with a disease to make them give up red meat (to save Mother Earth from a fever) because they will get sick from eating it. Do you wonder why may Americans throw themselves into the camp that regards academia as an evil to be barely tolerated? This guy is not typical, but he is not alone.

Always Look At Your Collection of Tools First

I had some Sherline collets that hold a 1/8" shank endmill but I could not figure the drawbar that pulls it up into the mill.  So I thought I needed the 8mm WW collet drawbar and adapter. It arrived and was clearly the wrong part, intended to grab collets with external threads.

So i dug through my collection of drawbars for which I have never figured out a purpose and found one that pulls the collet into position and locks it down good and tight. Collets are also supposed to provide better concentricity than end mill holders. I am sure far better than the drill chuck i was using for the 3/16" endmill.  I have collets for 1/8", 3/16", and 1/4" shanks. 

Is Traditional Hollywood Dead?

 A couple examples of AI-created videos:

I was never able to raise the money to make my script The Laws of Men into a movie:

I wonder if I might try to do this with AI.