09:42 – I see there was more rioting and looting in Seattle. Not surprising, considering that it’s one of the more “progressive” (i.e., suicidal) cities in the country. After the DA in Baltimore filed felony criminal charges against six cops on evidence barely adequate for misdemeanor civil charges, I’m surprised the Seattle cops bothered to respond at all. We’re at the point now where an awful lot of big-city cops are retiring if they’re eligible and looking elsewhere if they’re not. If they keep handcuffing their cops, sometimes literally, those big cities are toast.
We need to return to the old arrangement: the cops leave middle-class people alone and spend their time beating and shooting underclass people. Whatever it takes to keep them in their own areas and away from normal people. In return the middle-class people make sure the cops aren’t prosecuted for doing what it takes to keep the scum in their place. That’s how it’s been for more than a century, and that’s how it needs to be again. Of course, that’s not going to happen, which is why the big cities are toast, with the medium cities not far behind.
More science kit stuff today.
Not quite sure I agree there. Especially given the endemic problems of police knowing how to fabricate or cover up evidence, and having hours of unmonitored time in which to do it.
Since we don’t know what the evidence is, perhaps it is a bit early to decide on what weight it should be given. Unless, of course, one has had access to the autopsy report and the statements given by the officers and others, plus the personnel files of the officers, and the purported crime scene, the interior of the van.
It should be noted that 5 of the officers are African-American, and one is a female.
As far as Seattle goes, perhaps the rioters needed a way to get dry, or it was sunny and they needed a reason to go outdoors. Doesn’t take much to excite Seattleans.
“… the big cities are toast, with the medium cities not far behind.”
That model of society is just not sustainable any longer; too many factors, only one of them being underclass rioting, serve to make this so.
At best, a slow but painful decline into slag heap wastelands; but mass die-offs are eminently possible. Temporary cheap oil, massive printing of fiat currency, and battalions of airborne and infantry will not save them in the end.
The charges against the six cops in Baltimore was a gimme. Somebody is gonna have to swing for that guy; will this appease the mobs? Probably not; we’re sure gonna find out this summer, nationwide, probably. The bubble-headed beach blondes on the evening nooz will be ecstatic, what with this and the various boots-on-the-ground wars in the Middle East so we can bring them Murkan-style Democracy and Diversity and the golden arches.
I had a good but not great forage at the various sales yesterday.
Came home with stuff to resell, treats for the kiddies, and some preps.
Got another colman stove, this one in unused condition, for $6. Got another exact match for the solar panel I found last week. They apparently are an accessory for VW cars. So now I have 2 small solar panels (12″x14″) for recharging 12v batteries, for a grand total of $13. Got a shotgun shell reloading setup. Press, dies, etc. I need to do some research to see if it’s complete but for $12 I couldn’t say no. Got a box of 3 CB mobiles with mics and antennas for $5. At least 1 works as is, one might just need cleaning, and one will need a little more work. I buy them whenever I can get them cheap. The ones I don’t keep, I sell at the hamfest.
I believe CB will make a HUGE comeback when everyone realizes they have an old radio sitting on a shelf in the garage. I know hams scoff, but you can get out to 100 miles, certainly covering your local area. The gear is cheap, plentiful, and easy to use. Yes, it became a cesspit, and yes there is a whole culture of (technically) criminal users– look up freebanders if you want. However, post SHTF, it won’t be full of truckers looking for prostitutes anymore. I think everyone should have a good mobile cb rig in their preps. They fill an area-wide comms gap between FRS/GMRS and ham.
Colman and Igloo coolers were everywhere and were cheap, but I passed as I have several. If you don’t have a couple of coolers standing by, you should get some. Buy them used. A little bleach and scrubbing will clean up even the nastiest, and you don’t need the latches and hinges to be in great condition. Think about getting one of those water coolers road crews use. They are very convenient for treated water dispensing in your makeshift kitchen, as they have the spigot at the bottom. I have a couple and they work well to hold 8-15 gallons. They are cheaper and sturdier than aquatainers when purchased used. You won’t want to use them for long term storage, but filling the bathtub, and a couple of coolers before the storm is simple prudence.
I’ve been working on my electronics repair skills. I’ve got a couple of LCD tvs that have failed power supply boards. They are common, and commonly fail in the same way. Simple recapping is usually enough, but in this case after recapping, I need to replace a transistor and zener diode as well. Instead of going to Mouser, I looked at some of the boards I’ve been saving as spare parts. I found an equivalent SMD transistor and zener on the board from an old UPS. So far I’ve harvested the parts. I will swap out the transistor and zener tonight. Hopefully that will solve the problem. If not, I’ll bite the bullet and order replacement boards.
I think it’s time for me to add a hot air rework station to my desk. Anyone got a recommendation for a decent hobbyist level one? Included desoldering vacuum and a good soldering iron would be perfect, in other words, a nice all in one solution? I’m hoping for <$300… this is something I would use about once a month on one project or another.
Well, I better get busy in the garden. We haven't gotten the thunderstorms that were predicted, so I've got work to do.
nick
A couple of graduating seniors wanted some senior pictures. The following is a sample of my favorites. Of course their were the typical cap and gown pictures but those, while important to the family, are rather boring.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Various
The link must be exactly as shown. Something else for you to waste time.
Nice job, per usual, Mr. Ray.
I guess it’s just about that time of year again, eh? Graduations, senior proms, going off to college, etc.
Here ya go, kidz:
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou see’st the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west;
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the deathbed whereon it must expire,
Consumed with that which it was nourished by.
This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.”
Near as I can tell, the cops in Baltimore did not tie the 25 year old man down when they threw him in the back of the van. I am not sure what their requirements are but it sounds like the idiot was throwing himself around.
Also, near as I can tell, Obola and his cronies are trying to blame Baltimore on the Republicans for not spending more federal dollars there. IMHO, the feddies should be ashamed of how much federal taxes they are stealing from the good citizens of Baltimore.
Nice photos, Ray. From a casual look, apparently you used off-camera flash in most of them, sometimes at a large angle. This is a good example of how simple lighting with good angles can really make a picture. Comments?
Off camera flash was indeed used. I rarely use on camera flash.
I never have to use a flash when taking pictures. My own radiant brilliance perfectly illuminates every object. I’m awesome that way.
The only flash I have anything to do with is when I’m trying to impress the ladies. Yep, me and my trusty old raincoat have been through some times together.
@nick
I never thought to find another one who has burned hands with solder flux here.
From Salon today; Prog bozos drool over Bernie Sanders:
“Bernie Sanders really matters: He doesn’t have to win to build a progressive movement.”
“Stop thinking about winners, losers and the dumb horse race. Let’s build at the grass roots and debate what matters.”
Yeah, that’s right; hem and haw and diddle and daddle with arcane socialist theory debates, like the libertarians do with economics and finance, ad nauseum, ad infinitum. To the utter indifference of the vast prole hordes and their rulers here. While you’re “building at the grass roots,” Leviathan will roll on over you with his steel-toed jackboots, laughing.
“I never thought to find another one who has burned hands with solder flux here.”
I worked as a wave solder machine operator at two different high-tech manufacturers down in MA back in ancient times; yes, I remember drops of 500-degree solder splashing on me, as I fabricated PC boards on assembly lines for both fire suppression systems and the old Data General pizza box computers. I also remember slipping a couple of times on that degreaser solvent that came in a 55-gallon drum next to the machine; it was slicker than glare ice. A fat old Brazilian Portuguese woman caught my hand one time as I was about to do a somersault on it and probably saved me some broken bones and/or a fractured skull. I took her cute little daughter out to the beach in return but naturally the older brother came along as a chaperone. Oh well.
It should be noted that 5 of the officers are African-American, and one is a female.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/02/us/freddie-gray-autopsy-report-given-to-baltimore-prosecutors.html
“The officers who were arrested, three white and three black, include a lieutenant with 17 years on the force, several near-rookies and a woman who had just been promoted to sergeant.”
Sounds like they got all their demographic bases covered…0h wait—is one of them gay? Hispanic? And there should be two more women. And only one black officer. No Asian?
But hey, let’s not be too picky; so long as the mobs quiet down for a while…did they clear this with Reverends Sharpless and Jackwagon yet?
@ayjblog,
Not just burns from the flux! While desoldering, the sucker iron slipped and got my thumb as well. Only callus so no pain or swelling, but it sure stinks!
There is something about the smell of rosin core solder that is soothing to me. And the acrid smell of late 70’s electronics, particularly from Radio Shack, takes me right back in time. Scent is a powerful trigger, and I’ve got some good memories involving that solder gun…..
nick
Maybe we all were younger, I hate all of you with access to Radio Shack on such times, we dont have it here.
Fixing anything from AN URC 32 to 718U and 1943 gonios working in the 70s, just working and going to college.
good times indeed, real things, no C++ garbage, Microsoft AD and SOX 404 paperwork
The shooters at the art exhibit tonight in Garland screwed up, as this tweet said:
Daniel Foster, @DanFosterType
The would-be terrorists in Garland fell for one of the classic blunders: Never assume that you’ve outgunned an art show in Texas.
Yeah, that was pretty funny. Of all things to attack. They locked the attendees inside and now they’re all singing the unsingable national anthem.
They better stick to art shows and magazine offices in Europe or Kalifornia.
Holy cow, just was going to bed and saw the headline on Gateway Pundit. TV news here is useless. One more nail in the coffin when I get better coverage of events from UK Daily Mail and GP mainly posting tweets and retweets.
If there was ever a gathering outside a donut shop that was more likely to have a heavily armed contingent, I can’t think of one. FAIL.
Hope the cop is ok though.
nick
I’m another one-time solder jock. Never was much good at repairing electronics, though, despite an EE degree.
I still solder, though, most recently last night. Raise your hand if you have seen electrical cables sheathed in lead. That’s what I found when I needed to move a cable last night to make way for some insulation. It’s not even anything special – just the power to a outside light mounted over a stairway. I needed to shift it just a bit, which meant I needed to lengthen it by adding a segment. No way to replace it (which would be the right answer), because it’s screwed to the house structure and disappears into a ceiling. What I’m not sure of: I wonder if the lead sheathing is attached to ground? If so, I’ll need to connect the (now separated) sheathing on the two halves.
I don’t think I’ve seen them jacketed in lead, but I have seen main feeder (400A service lines for a building) so old they were insulated with gutta percha. They were labelled with manilla tags, written in India ink. It was in a basement vault in New Orleans. I’ve seen wiring installed by T.A. Edison himself (or at least personally overseen) at the Hotel Del Coronado. I missed seeing salt water dimmers by only a week or two. They were probably the last working salt water dimmers in the world….
I love seeing the old switchgear. Black lacquer panels, brass knife switches and instruments, bakelite indicators and meters. Not what you would call safe by any means, but gorgeous to look at. Old motors and dynamos, cast iron flywheels, leather belt driven equipment, all gorgeous, and some of it still in daily use, buried in vaults and basements throughout the US.
nick
“Black lacquer panels, brass knife switches and instruments, bakelite indicators and meters.”
Sounds just like the “Frankenstein’s distribution board” setup that was in my 1960s-vintage house. I replaced it all with modern German circuit breakers in a spiffy cabinet and a peak/off-peak meter, but the old gear certainly had character…
ETA: on prepping – I have decided I need to add a generator-power input to my distribution board. We heat and cook with propane from an underground tank (2500 litres), so a dual diesel/propane-fuelled generator setup is on the cards. I just have to figure out how to hook it in and set it up so it kicks in automagically if the power goes out.
Now that Belgium is set to close down its nuclear power stations, brownouts and powercuts are becoming distinctly likely. We even got official information to that effect from the electricity regulatory authority.
“I just have to figure out how to hook it in and set it up so it kicks in automagically if the power goes out.”
In the US what you need is called an “Automatic Transfer Switch.”
“Now that Belgium is set to close down its nuclear power stations, brownouts and powercuts are becoming distinctly likely. We even got official information to that effect from the electricity regulatory authority.”
And so begins the slow decline….
Here we are looking at having all the coal plants shut down for bogus environmental reasons.
If you accept the premise that “behind every unit of economic growth, there is a unit of energy,” all this anti-power generation sentiment should be infuriating for anyone with a long term outlook. But then, the greens would LOVE to see a reduction of population as the first world can no longer expand or even sustain itself and we decline into third world conditions.
The real kicker is, as we use up the readily accessible energy and raw materials, we will miss our chance to make the leap to space-based resource exploitation, which would continue to sustain us. Perhaps that’s the real reason for the Fermi paradox, you get one shot at the universe, while you have the resources to get there. After that, you can only decline as you use up the cheap materials.
nick
One of our former houses was built in the mid-20s. Much of the original wiring was in place (but not energized) when we moved there in the late 80s. It was knob and tube wiring.
The house I grew up in* is about a century and a half old now. I don’t know when electricity was put in, but the house had the ceramic insulators in the basement holding bare copper wire an inch from the joists, then swapping for insulated wire when it went up into the walls. Similar in the attic, but all of the wire was insulated, and ran, mostly unstapled, around the edges. And we kids played up in the attic and no one gave it a thought. My brother and I rewired the house with modern, to-code parts in the 1990s. I don’t know about him, but as I looked carefully at what the house had been running on for decades, I retroactively had the bejesus scared out of me.
* To the extent I grew up at all. There are those who’d deny it, but I think they’re just jealous of my awesomeness.
A lot of electricians will tell you that K and T is safer than romex.
Not when the overhead joists in the basement are a couple inches over my head and the uninsulated wires are just about at the top of my head. Not when decades-old, ratty wires are flopping around loose where children are playing.
As a general thing, with the wires covered over, I could believe that heavy copper cores and four inches of separation are much safer than thin copper or thick aluminum cores separated by a quarter inch of plastic.
In this particular case, aside from the bare wires, I didn’t mention above the broken ceramic insulators. I didn’t mention the loosely-twisted “junctions” from bare to insulated wire, with scorched wood where the wires touched it. And I especially didn’t mention the old fuse box, with the presumably shorted-out half bypassed with a few inches of new-ish heavy wire, carefully concealed behind the box. I didn’t mention especially that last one because it still gives me the willies, 25 years later.
Our house isn’t quite that old, but it has some funny stuff. The main fuse panel is a solid piece of marble, lovely to look at. You couldn’t pay me to work on it, though. It’s a good meter high, and installed in a closet so that you can only get at the wires in the back from the top and the bottom. It’s mounted about 20cm from the wall in the back, so you have to basically crawl under it and reach up into a rat’s nest of fraying cloth insulation.
By now, we’ve replaced most of the wiring in the house – it was mostly in conduits. There are just a couple of exceptions, like that lead-sheathed thing. Probably installed later, anyway screwed to the house structure so there’s no way to replace it, except the parts you can see. The insulation on the conductors is some kind of plastic-like material. Maybe it’s the gutta percha someone mentioned? No idea what that looks like, but it could be. All the other old wiring in the house was cloth-insulated.
I worked in Downtown Seattle briefly in Spring 2013.
The (now) traditional May Day riots are not underclass events. When I asked which areas to avoid commuting to/from work that day, my management’s response was, “Just try to be out of downtown by 4 – 5 PM. The events don’t really get going until everyone gets home from work.”
Don’t get me wrong — Seattle has a serious underclass problem like any big city, and I consider the I-5 corridor between Portland and Downtown Seattle to be a dystopia right out of a Gibson or Stephenson novel. However, the annual riots on the first of May are more political statements than expressions of unhappiness with economic conditions.
“However, the annual riots on the first of May are more political statements than expressions of unhappiness with economic conditions.”
If they’re not destroying property and assaulting other people then they’re not really riots, per se. Unruly demonstrations, perhaps.
We don’t see many riots here in Vermont.
For some odd reason.
Yep, that’s the key point that the media seems not to understand. Demonstrating/protesting is our Constitutional right. When that devolves into looting/shooting/burning, it’s no longer acceptable, and should be met with lethal force.
Speaking of lethal force, we’re watching the final season of Sons of Anarchy, because Barbara wanted to. My opinion is that it was a good show in season one, but started going downhill in season two, and hasn’t been worth watching after the first couple of seasons. Season 7 has a massacre in just about every episode, with close-range shootouts with automatic weapons. And I keep commenting to Barbara that if it were me I’d have a couple of snipers back 400 yards or so, with scoped .270/.308-class rifles. But then what do I know?
I’ve found that I’ve lost my taste for movies and tv shows that glorify violent criminals and that celebrate stupidity. That blocks out about 90% of mainstream viewing.
All the crime shows that wallow in every sordid detail, holding each one up to be polished and examined; all the drug, gangster, mob movies with extreme closeups of blood spattering, wounds opening, and loving slow motion ballet of bullets; all the prank shows, jackass type movies, and most sitcoms that denigrate men; they all repel me.
I’m not saying don’t watch them, or don’t make them. But I won’t. Not anymore. I really, really don’t need to put more vile shit into my head. Anything that evokes strong emotional response will have an effect on the human watching. I don’t want that sort of re-programming of my mind and emotions anymore. It’s the same reason I won’t watch or read horror. There is enough of it in real life, that we don’t need to refine it and inject it into ourselves voluntarily.
nick
That’s why I keep watching Heartland over and over and over. Well, that and the fact that I love Amber Marshall. It’s peaceful.
And the Wonderfalls, warehouse 13, the writer/detective show with Nathon Filon (which focuses on relationships, not the crime itself, and never the criminal-at least for the seasons I watched.)
I tend to watch ‘how to’ shows, and the few reality shows that focus on work and building things. And Shooting USA is a nice half hour every week.
nick
“…if it were me I’d have a couple of snipers back 400 yards or so, with scoped .270/.308-class rifles.”
Yup. Not rocket science. Triangulated snipers.
We’ve had cable tee-vee now for months and other than me giving the Sportsman Channel a try, and previously the NFL games, we haven’t watched it at all. Even with the Roku attached and streaming availability from the computer upstairs, plus Netflix. I have a bunch of how-to DVDs here, plus the complete BBC Shakespeare, complete PBS Sherlock Holmes (with the late Jeremy Brett), complete X-files plus the movies, and a slew of movies, yet haven’t had the time for many months even to watch any of that stuff.
I’ve watched a few things on Netflix via the Windows 8.1 machine at night, usually one or two episodes of some historical fiction series, which I’m kind of a sucker for, but that’s it. Right now it’s “The Borgias.”