TL;DR: Our dance card (and “the pattern”) is full today. Part 1 here is SATTP (short and to the point) with Part 2Housing in a few minutes. Focus around here is squeezing amps from solar… The Future is Ure’s Dow futures were down a bit more than 100 early. S&P was down about 15, too. … Read More
Great to see the “signs and portents” lining up. And with a nod to Andy, indeed the world is right on schedule. Like one of those childhood puzzles, where you had to slide boards with holes in them so a marble could drop through, we have arrived where holes are aligning now and the “through-drop” is … Read More
Ham Radio Note First: This is Day 2 of Summer Field Day – one of the two times a year when ham radio types take to the field and pretend the balloons have gone up or thh world, in some other way, have gone over the edge into the gridless abyss. Field Day rules are … Read More
Brace for 2026: a world where money’s just paper, and survival hinges on food, water, and grit. Oh, sure, the prelims are already underway, But remember this is all foretalk before foreshock. Later, as Iran-Israel clashes, Putin’s rage, and Ukraine’s nuclear risks collide with solar flares and fentanyl-laced groceries, global harvests could plummet 30%, starving … Read More
With our Presidents Day activities (getting a scalar prototype out the door this week_) most of today will be devoted to work in Ure’s Old Man Lab. I don’t talk about it much – people’s eyes tend to glaze over, but it’s a very well-appointed place to hang out and do work on the fringe-stuff … Read More
You’ll remember that in the 1980s, I was senior VP of a regional Caribbean jet airline? We had a saying back then – and worth remembering today – that “Crashes come in Two’s and Three’s.” (Mostly threes.) That matters because of a tragic accident in the skies over D.C. early today: American air plane collides … Read More
Legal Scholars will have their hands full: As a final insult to America on his way out the door, Biden pardons Fauci, Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 committee | AP News. We aren’t sure this is legal because crimes have not been charged. So we put the question to A.I. Yes, a president … Read More
I am, as you might have guessed, not your typical “cranky old man in the woods.” Most old men in the woods don’t have a bunny for a honey, go shooting on their range regularly, surround themselves with wireless PTZ solar webcams, play at high speed Morse on the ham radio, or cobble up new … Read More
With our house guest due here in about 12 hours, we are going through the last-minute detailing of this, that, and the other thing. Elaine keeps getting sidetracked with the feral cats and there are all these nifty “Buy Now!” emails – making it hard to get things really done. Tool Slut or Check Slut? … Read More
I suppose Fall Gardening is still on some people’s minds. The Frozen North isn’t – at least yet. And the Southern states are not all atwitter about ice storms. But, give it time. At our place, I have made a simple decision this year NOT to fire up the greenhouse heater system (Chinese diesel 8 … Read More
There are six topics to go over in lieu of a project report this week. More insight into why Urban will become paywalled, idiocy of Daylight, ER Roulette, D’Lynn’s “Thinking Sandwich”, radiation monitoring plans, and one other topic (or I just can’t count). Daylight Time Stupidity Ask people with serious sight impairment what they think … Read More
This is (kind of) a How-To on Hydroponics. You remember my mentioning that I’m building “workstations” for senior living, right? How cool it would be if you could have everything right at hand to make indoor growing a treat instead of a chore? But water indoors is problematic. So this is also about Designing and … Read More
HDNBW with a side of Fatal Distractions? This is a dandy time to discuss the value of broad perspectives and the importance of generalization skills. Because for most of us, the coming couple of weeks will bring the culmination of many long-chain event sequences that none of us will have any influence over. So best … Read More