Stumbling On History

07:40 Friday, 25 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 65.41°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 347

It's hard thinking up these titles.

With Mitzi being gone, I've mostly been just watching Perry Mason re-runs on Prime. It's a kind of self-care, after a day of chaos under the Mad Orange King. It's familiar, and comforting and I never get tired at laughing at District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Lt. Tragg boasting that Perry's client doesn't stand a chance. And I crush on Della Street, Perry's confidential secretary/work wife.

I check out the episode guide at IMDB to look at the careers of all the guest stars, some of whom appeared on the show early in their careers. But, I digress.

Last night I watched Season 3, Episode 23, "The Case of the Slandered Submarine." It was one of the better episodes, some of which are surprisingly good. In this episode, Perry defends a sailor accused of murder at a general court martial.

In one of the scenes, filmed at a naval station, presumably Long Beach, there are a number of ships in the background. One of them was DD-723, so I had to look that up. USS WALKE, commissioned on 21 January, 1944. Wikipedia has a pretty good account of its service history, which was pretty remarkable.

The ship served in combat in WW II, Korea and Viet Nam. She supported the landings at Normandy on D-Day, and later transited to the Pacific for the remainder of her career. She was struck by a kamikaze in WWII, which fatally wounded the CO, CDR George Fleming Davis, earning him a Congressional Medal of Honor. She was later repaired and continued to serve in combat, including at Okinawa, where my father served in his mighty LCS (L)(3)-103, "Dragon Lady." (That album is very disorganized, so the captions written on the backs of photos don't align with the correct images. I need to fix that someday.)

Surprising how much history may be almost hidden in the background of a TV show.

(One interesting thing was the flag on the wall during the court martial, it only had 48 stars!)

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Morning Ride

06:22 Friday, 25 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 66.45°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 0mph
Words: 520

I walked 1.9 miles last night, which was overkill as far as closing my move ring and probably a little unwise, considering how my left achilles felt this morning. I figured I'd try riding my bike early this morning instead of walking this evening.

The bike ride turned out to be pretty good therapy for the achilles. It'll tighten up as I sit here at the desk, but when I got off the bike there was tolerable discomfort. I don't think I could do a long walk on it without aggravating it, but I can get around the house without limping.

You may recall that I converted my Priority Classic to an e-bike with the Swytch conversion kit. When I ride in the morning, I don't leave it off but it's set at the level of least assistance. I get a decent workout in less time (and somewhat less exposure to risk from inattentive drivers).

I rode Wednesday morning, since I didn't have a workout with the trainer that day. I left at 05:31 on Wednesday and 05:33 this morning. On Wednesday, I was treated to the rising crescent moon above Venus, often framed by royal palms on the property. This morning was even better, with a reddish sliver of a crescent moon below Venus, and closer to it. Couldn't see it as often, because it was lower in the sky, but that framed it better when I could see it. It is something of a treat, and I will miss that.

I ride in the road early in the morning, because the sprinklers are on at various points along the ride. It's "reclaimed water," from Jacksonville's sewage treatment plants. They have signs everywhere telling you not to drink it, but they're happy to aerosolize it and let you breathe it when you're biking or running. I won't miss that either, not that I'll be doing a lot of biking in New York. (I think we'll bike on dedicated trails, but that won't be a daily thing.)

Speaking of reclaimed water, Florida lawns and everything foolish about this state. JEA, Jacksonville's public utility, doesn't make enough reclaimed water to irrigate all the lawns in this enormous planned development, Nocatee. They're making a significant effort to ration it. Last year, people would try to run their sprinklers and there wasn't enough pressure to get the heads to pop up. And the fancy grass we have here in our Del Webb development requires more water than the utility wants to permit us to use. (Homeowners have slightly more drought tolerant "St. Augustine grass." It gets killed by chinch bugs, fungus, cutting it too short, over-watering, under-watering, too much fertilizer, not enough fertilizer. Other than that, it's "virtually maintenance-free!")

Florida. So foolish and so frustrating. A solution is to switch over to xeriscape using native plants. But no, "Our property values," they wail! I will emphatically not miss the manifestly foolish thinking that dominates this state. Maybe it's the heat?

Could it be the heat? Whatever it is, it's contagious because nearly everyone exhibits the same symptoms.

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Working Out

15:23 Thursday, 24 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 79.68°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 71% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 639

I like working out.

I don't like packing.

With each, at intervals, and by turns, I'm exhausted; but I feel as though I've at least accomplished something.

For now, they both seem to share the same characteristic of appearing interminable.

Working out doesn't raise troubling questions. Packing does.

Why do I have all this crap? Maybe I need a hurricane to liberate me from it all.

What is it about the way that I'm living my life that I'm accumulating all this stuff? (Standby, Amazon just dropped off another book. And Home Depot should be by soon with a couple of tools.)

Working out is, well, not troubling. Disappointing, maybe. I did three sets of crossed-leg Romanian dead lifts (RDLs) today. My first. An RDL is, I'm told, a back-strengthening exercise, that also stretches the hamstrings. My hamstrings are pretty, what? Loose? I can pretty much touch my palms to the floor if I can get over my spare tire.

But my lower back definitely needs strengthening. I saw a video that pointed out how unsupported that portion of the spine is, and, wow. That was something of an epiphany.

When we were gardening, I was bending over a lot, and so my ginormous head is out there like a lead weight at the end of a long lever, pinned at my pelvis. And the only thing managing that load at the end of that moment-arm were the muscles in my lower back, which would immediately start spasming.

Anyway, I like doing RDLs, though I'd never done the crossed-leg kind. You put one leg over the other and then do the lift. Hah! It wasn't the weight that was challenging, it was keeping my balance!

I tried to "focus on my center," which helped maybe a little. So then I recalled yoga and used my eyes to focus on a point, which had to drift down as I lowered, and up as I raised, the weight. Much better.

I like working out. I feel myself getting stronger. I'm still not necessarily where I ought to be, but I'm definitely stronger than I was and I'm having fewer problems with my back and shoulders. Carrying a camera on a sling isn't uncomfortable now.

My left achilles tendon is still screwed up, and I wish it would improve faster. It is improving, but slowly.

I don't like packing, but I'm making progress. I have to get nearly all of my crap packed up and put away before this Wednesday, when the realtor is coming by with a photographer. Pretty sure I'll make it.

I pulled a box I didn't recognize off a shelf in the bedroom closet and it was a Sony 8mm digital camcorder from the early 2000s. I used it to record "home movies."

I tried to watch some of the tapes that were stored with it, and it seems as though I don't know how to work the machine, or something is wrong with the tapes. I think the playback speed isn't the same as the speed they were recorded at. There was a promotional tape from Sony, lauding Mavica disk cameras, and that played back fine. I think I have a pdf of the manual in here somewhere. I'm tempted to box it all up and ship it to my daughter who likes playing with old media. Her roommate does some stuff with old camcorders. Maybe they could figure it out.

Then there's the wooden file box from back when I had a Field Notes subscription. Is that still a thing? It's filled with empty notebooks. Awesome. Should just give it away, but I won't. Something I probably never would have purchased but for the internet.

Anyway, plenty more crap where that came from, and I guess I better get back to it.

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The Vibe

08:54 Thursday, 24 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 71.19°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 98% Wind: 3mph
Words: 363

So I'm eating my breakfast, scrolling my RSS feed, and I come across this from Cory Doctorow.

It's gotta be a wave in the air. A frequency my subconscious is tuned into.

Or something.

The point is, we do a pretty good job of teaching kids about what is "fair," (as we have some innate sense of fairness wired into us at birth somehow). We teach kids that "cheating" is wrong. This is "embodied" knowledge, we genuinely "feel" it, so it's easy to arouse. Simple, even.

"All fraud bad! Kill it with fire!"

But maybe you'll burn the whole house down?

It's easy to arouse people with simple assertions about complex problems because we've never been taught anything about complexity and how it is inherent in any system of non-trivial sophistication. Ignorance of complexity makes people uncomfortable. It makes people who do know about complexity sound like "élitists" and nobody likes them.

Because our education system was made for the world that existed in the 19th century. And though we've learned a lot in the intervening century or two, we haven't decided that it was important to teach it to our kids.

To be "fair," system dynamics, chaos theory and complexity have only been around for about 75 years. And the fact that they haven't permeated the larger consciousness as being subjects that are important to at least have some grasp of the fundamentals is a symptom of our overall failure to regard our complex, advanced technological civilization through the lens of system dynamics and complexity.

That's being done sporadically, here and there, now that the "poly-crisis" is manifesting itself. But it's not considered foundational to how we frame the challenges we face in the world.

Our institutions are also burdened with a 19th century view of the world. Deterministic. Newtonian. Just turn the valves, add a little more steam, everything will be fine.

"Drill, baby, drill!"

We cling to notions of "individual liberty," but what does that even mean in an attention economy where "the algorithm" seizes our attention and never lets it go?

Puts me in mind of The Wreck of the Old 97.

Never metaphor I didn't like.

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"...an educated man."

05:29 Thursday, 24 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 66.83°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 0mph
Words: 720

One of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies. So many great lines.

What is an "educated man" (person)?

Well, that's too much for blog post, so let's just give up in despair and save us all a bunch of time, shall we?

But, before we quit, maybe a couple of points.

"Literacy," deals with the ability to read and write, which neatly blankets a whole raft of complicated cognitive capacities.

"Numeracy," seems to be a more recent term that deals with some level of understanding and facility and with mathematics. There are some who believe we suffer from a plague of innumeracy, suggesting that the ability to add, subtract, multiply and divide isn't barely enough to succeed in the world.

Then there's science and history, and maybe "civics."

Finally, maybe there's art and health and practical skills, vocational skills.

To be clear, I'm thinking more about education at the secondary school level.

There's a cliché in military planning that we, "always plan to fight the last war."

Well, we educate to succeed in the last world. And we're several worlds behind in our curricula.

Systems dynamics, or, if you prefer, ecology ought to be taught as a foundational subject at the secondary school level. Students need to understand that the world they inhabit is highly interconnected, that "unlimited growth" is a fantasy we treat as an axiomatic foundation of our economy, and that phenomena in the world exhibit complexity, or, "sensitive dependence on initial conditions."

They should understand the concept of overshoot, when a system has reached an unsustainable state and will cease to operate within the initial parameters that defined the intended inputs and outputs of the system. Which is to say, it will cease to operate.

Our civilization is presently in overshoot, and it is in the opening stages of collapse. It's likely that we will never have the opportunity to teach our children how to succeed in the next world, but this is just a blog post. Don't fret.

We should have also been educating our students about themselves. How to understand the emotional landscape of their interior space. Now, this is fraught for a lot of reasons. But I think we've been educating generations of students who grow up to be parents who don't have a clue about how to navigate their interior landscape, and what the emotional and psychological muscles are that they should exercise to be able to successfully traverse the terrain.

And so we have bullying, school shootings, teen suicides, corporate exploitation, child molestation, drug abuse, and depression, just to mention some of the worst effects of this degree of ignorance in this brutal, exploitative society. Not that "home schooled" kids are any better prepared; but it's understandable that some parents would wish to protect their children from the crucible that is "high school."

Despite the woeful inadequacy of our education system, many students leave with the misapprehension that they've been equipped to go out and succeed in this world, which is at least two centuries ahead of the world for which they've been "educated." And it's going to be confusing and painful when "success" seems impossible, and perhaps many blame themselves.

The nature of ignorance is that we don't know what we don't know, and if our goal was to mislead our children, well, mission accomplished. We have instilled a kind of ignorance that is really a form of deception.

At high school graduations, the commencement speech should be that it was all just a cruel trick. That their real education begins now. They should be warned that nothing they've been "taught" will prepare them for what the world will do to them, and that they are, for all intents and purposes, on their own now.

And just what the hell is "success"? Is it meeting the demands and expectations of others? Is it satisfying some misunderstood ambition? Is it following a narrative arc set out in popular culture?

"Successful" people, people who can thrive in this brutal, competitive, cruel environment, well, are they "wise"?

Are they "humane"?

We are so fucked.

Comedy is tragedy plus time. It's too bad we'll all be dead, but I'm sure we'd all get a big laugh out of this!

Anticipatory humor is in order I guess.

We ought to be grieving already.

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Gore Gets It

08:54 Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 72.75°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 53

I'd like to see the whole speech. I'll look for it.

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Fools

07:16 Wednesday, 23 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 63.25°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 419

Trump, "tools for thought," "personal knowledge management," and other forms of self-flattery and self-deception are much on my mind of late. And I have more pressing things to attend to.

"Knowledge" and "intelligence," are not the same thing as "wisdom." You can be smart, and know a lot of stuff and still be a fool.

Wisdom is knowledge in a human space. It is nothing to know a "fact," without knowing something about how that fact relates to humanity.

If you do not orient your "knowledge" in a human context, in a humane context, it can lead you astray, make you a fool.

"Knowledge is power." Maybe not so much.

"When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail."

You can acquire knowledge externally.

Wisdom only comes from within.

"Applicants for wisdom, do what I have done. Inquire within." — Heraclitus

You have to have a "theory of mind," and that demands empathy, compassion. These are like muscles, they must be exercised, they must be developed. You're born with them, but if you neglect them, they wither.

If you become habituated to an interior state of constant arousal, by watching Fox News or scrolling social media, you will never become wise.

"Silence, healing." — Heraclitus

You must know your own mind. How it flatters and deceives you. How ambition and desire lead you astray, as they serve the craving, fearful inner voice that tries to fill the void with endless chatter.

To see faint stars in the night sky, we must use a form of seeing called "averted vision." This is because the center of our retina is the least sensitive part of the eye, although it is center of our field of view. It's the same with seeing within. We have a blind spot. Pay attention to the negative space.

Be still.

Never pass by the opportunity to say, "No."

We have a culture of celebrity. We're all stars in our own reality show. Not "all," but so many "public figures" are little more than attention-seeking peacocks. Attention is rewarded. It's harvested through screens. They're not "influencers," they're attention vampires.

We flatter ourselves with our skills at making notes, linking them. Tending our "digital gardens." Constructing our elaborate Zettelkästen and showing them off. Our spreadsheets. Our models. The "graph."

Why are we where we are today?

Because we're fools. Unwise. Self-deceiving. Ambitious. Inhumane. Greedy. Grasping. Empty, hollow, fearful figures haunting a digital landscape of illusion and deception.

Show's over, folks.

Go home.

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Attention Economy

15:31 Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 80.04°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 69% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 246

I guess if you make your living as a professional talking head on "mainstream media," then "willful ignorance" is a job prerequisite.

I mean, how "mainstream" is the truth?

You have to stick with solid, empty (the "duality of bullshit") platitudes so as to sound "reasonable." Otherwise you don't get invited back!

Mainstream media, hell, all media, isn't about "the truth." It's about selling ads! It's not about informing citizens, it's about keeping them in front of the screens.

These guys, these Nuremberg defendants, they hated being put on trial. I'm sure they weren't too happy about facing the death penalty, but they were genuinely, emotionally distressed that they were being portrayed as criminals. It hurt their feelings.

Self-deception, willful ignorance, so they could be in a place of "power," or status.

They all viewed themselves as honorable men, as patriots.

They were monsters.

The banality of evil is that monsters don't look like monsters.

They look like you and me.

But when you know they're a monster, you don't "talk to them." You don't have dinner with them!

It's hilarious how some of these Nuremberg guys were throwing each other under the bus.

"If he knew he was a monster, he should have killed him!"

"Shot him and taken the consequences."

How many people will die in Africa because USAID was shut down on a whim? Is that murder?

Is it monstrous?

If you work for them, you deserve everything that happens to you.

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Willful Ignorance

14:53 Tuesday, 22 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 80.49°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 425

Kottke linked to Larry David's piece in The NY Times, mocking Bill Maher's dinner with Trump. (Follow the link and you can read the piece as a shared article.)

I don't watch Bill Maher, I find him insufferable. I don't find his humor particularly funny, his voice is grating and his whole schtick as the sole voice of reason is bullshit. Bill Maher is a product, and the person is constantly promoting the product. New rule: Nobody watch Bill Maher.

Did I just "cancel" him?

I wish.

Anyway, the piece came up in this CNN roundtable thing, which I can't name because I don't watch CNN enough to know what the show is. I know that smart-ass Jennings guy is the regular Trump apologist, but that's about it. Anyway, this dipshit, Dan Abrams, who I gather is a professional talking-head, makes the comment that, "When you start bringin' in Hitler, you know you've lost the argument."

Bullshit.

Bullshit.

Bullshit.

Maybe, just maybe, if you "start bringin' in Hitler," it's possible that we might actually learn something from history.

I'm reading Nuremberg Diary, by G.M. Gilbert, and it's fascinating to read the words of these monsters, who don't view themselves as monsters, and see how much they blame their fate, and the fate of Germany on Hitler. Their most consistent complaint was that he lied. He deceived them.

Right. That's bullshit too. I mean, sure, Hitler lied. But they all knew he was lying.

And they all lied too.

It's just bullshit. If ever there were a moment when we should jettison Godwin's Law, it's now.

Because maybe there are some valuable lessons to be learned from history about a pathological liar autocrat who surrounded himself with yes-men who were serving their own ambitions before any other consideration.

Marco Rubio outsources concentration camps to El Salvador, because I guess the optics aren't great if they're on U.S. soil? What happened to "America first!" Why can't we have those concentration camps in America, giving Americans jobs! Where's the love for the prison-industrial complex?

(Oh, wait. Just realized. We need the deportations! Well, the Germans did that too.)

An enormous measure of Donald Trump's success is due to the willful ignorance of dipshits like Dan Abrams. Maher humanizing Donald Trump serves Donald Trump, nothing else.

It doesn't "elevate the discourse." It doesn't inform or enlighten anyone to the nature of his character, which is proudly on display every single day.

These fuckers.

They know nothing. They're fools.

"Evil comes step by step."

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Cloudy

05:50 Monday, 21 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 68.5°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 185

Hazy.

Blurry moon, so no moon this morning.

Anyway, if it's Monday, there's another embarrassing Mad Orange King story. Pete Hegseth, talking head Secretary of Defense, kept his wife, brother and personal lawyer in the loop on ongoing operations over Signal from his personal phone. Awesome. Still "clean on OPSEC," are we?

The Mad Orange King is incapable of embarrassment. He has a thin skin and is easily offended, but he lacks the capacity to be embarrassed.

It's the United States Senate, specifically the Republican members of the Senate, who have embarrassed themselves and all of the United States.

Imagine casting a vote that pretty much tells the world that you are a dumbass! I guess "fool," would be more polite.

To their credit, it kind of took longer than I expected for Hegseth to implode. But it was an absolute certainty that he was going to fuck up massively. The only question was whether or not he was going to get anyone killed in the process.

And I just watched the 60 Minutes story on bird flu, because I'm not depressed enough or something.

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Standing Up

14:46 Sunday, 20 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 80.85°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 56% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 156

"No, the generals simply fell down on the job!" Schacht insisted. "If just a dozen energetic men had stuck together and didn't get cold feet when it came to a showdown. That is all that it would have taken to stop Hitler.— And millions of lives would have been saved! But, when it came to a showdown, the generals clicked their heels; von Neurath here merely resigned — I don't mean to get personal, understand, but there were very few people who were willing to see it through to a final showdown."

Hjalmar Schaft, Reichsbank President and pre-war Minister of Economics to Franz von Papen at Nuremberg Prison, April 25, 1946 as recorded in Nuremberg Diary by G.M. Gilbert

A similar claim is made regarding Britain and France standing up to Hitler over Czechoslovakia 1938, or even earlier in 1936 if they opposed German militarization of the Rhineland with force.

"Evil comes step by step."

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This Morning's Moon 4-20-25

06:33 Sunday, 20 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 62.47°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 23

Not my morning. Exported the wrong image the first time. Try again. Also had to fix a bunch of years in the titles.

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80 Years On

18:00 Saturday, 19 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 77.81°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 5.01mph
Words: 65

"Auschwitz did not fall from the sky. It comes step by step. Evil comes step by step. And therefore, you shouldn't be indifferent."

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Lesson In Constitutional Law

14:53 Saturday, 19 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 82.04°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 63

I don't know that Wilkinson necessarily salvages Trump v. US, but it certainly puts a bright line around its deficiencies.

I do agree that it may have had a salutary effect on those members of the Supreme Court who retain at least some sense of responsibility for upholding the rule of law, and the primacy of the Constitution in the actions of government.

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April 1946

11:32 Saturday, 19 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 78.96°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 5

Fascinating.

Don't miss this part.

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Photo of Hans Frank On Trial April 19, 1946

11:27 Saturday, 19 April 2025
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Words: 2

Good Friday.

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Reptilian

09:22 Saturday, 19 April 2025

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Words: 386

It's intriguing to read Gilbert's account of his interactions with the Nuremberg defendants. Frank is interesting because he appears conscious of at least some of his guilt.

Many of them blame Hitler.

But Hitler only gave them permission to do what was already in their moral capacity to do. "Orders" are only words. Their "force" comes from some cognitive structure, erected by the individual, in the mind of the receiver. They blame the "propaganda." Hoess, the commandant of Auschwitz, just accepted what Himmler told him about why they must exterminate the Jews.

Hoess:

"That was the picture I had in my head, so, when Himmler called me to him, I just accepted it as the realization of something I had already accepted — not only I, but everybody. I took it so much for granted that even though this order, which would move the strongest and coldest nature — and at that moment this crass order to exterminate thousands of people (I did not know then how many) — even though it did frighten me momentarily — it fitted in with all that had been preached to me for years. The problem itself, the extermination of Jewry, was not new — but only that I was to be the one to carry it out, frightened me at first. But after getting the clear direct order and even an explanation with it — there was nothing left but to carry it out."

Nuremberg Diary, G.M. Gilbert

Propaganda is the raw material an individual uses to fashion the cognitive structure in their mind to make their thoughts and actions congruent with their feelings. Desire is also a feeling.

We reason backward from our feelings.

I think of Pam Bondi when I read Frank, as Bondi is an attorney, as Frank was.

They know better. For now, it suits them to do as Trump tells them. They love the trappings of their offices. They love their proximity to power. They love the spotlight of attention. They love the authority to order people about.

They're drunk.

The hangover is coming; and they will regret it for the rest of their lives.

The "walk of shame" will go on to their graves.

For Frank, it was a short walk. He was hanged on October 16, 1946.

Not that I expect Trump's lackeys to be hanged.

Yet.

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Frank: April 19, 1946

09:18 Saturday, 19 April 2025
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Words: 122

"Do you know what was the last straw in making me decide that I had to expiate my guilt? A few days ago I read a notice in the newspaper that Dr. Jacoby, a Jewish lawyer in Munich, who was one of my father's best friends, had been exterminated in Auschwitz. Then, when Hoess testified how he exterminated 2½ million Jews, I realized that he was the man who had coldly exterminated my father's best friend-a fine, upright, kindly, old man-and millions of innocent people like him, and I had done nothing to stop it! True, I didn't kill him myself, but the things I said and the things Rosenberg said made those things possible!"

Nuremberg Diary, G.M. Gilbert

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This Morning's Moon 4-19-25

06:36 Saturday, 19 April 2025

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Words: 7

Overslept, but still got up in time.

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Frank's Confession

16:02 Friday, 18 April 2025
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Words: 126

April 18, 1946

MORNING SESSION: Frank told how he passed the bar exams in 1926, became legal advisor to Hitler and the Nazi Party, a member of the Reichstag in 1930, President of the German Academy of Law in 1933, Governor-General of Poland in 1939. Then came the decisive question: "Did you ever participate in the destruction of Jews?" Frank took a deep breath and answered: "I say yes… We have fought against Jewry; we have fought against them for years; and we have allowed ourselves to make utterances, and my own diary has become a witness against me in this connection - utterances which are terrible ... A thousand years will pass and this guilt of Germany will not be erased."

Nuremberg Diary, G.M. Gilbert

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Prove You're Alive

12:19 Friday, 18 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 79.41°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 61% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 221

Just got this text from a neighbor, who is a lifelong Republican, a retired executive and not a crank, but think of it what you will:

A friend in California just texted me they found out yesterday her husband has been declared dead and is being removed from Social Security Going to cost them roughly $10,000 and one to two years of their lives. SS gave no explanation and demanded proof he was alive and putting him on the phone was not enough. Wanted them to wait six weeks for appointment to prove he’s alive. Now they have to provide his work history which luckily they have a printed copy of his work papers. Their credit and Medicare are gone for now. They reached out to Paul Ruiz their representative. This all occurred recently since DOEG! They are from California, life long Dems and somewhat outspoken critics of all that’s going on.

I don't know if I could lay hands on my work history, or even my tax returns going back through my civilian employment.

If this is true, is it a mere "clerical error"? Is it a result of an AI hallucination? Is it just fucking with people in Blue states?

I hope they go to the press.

We are through the looking glass. They can do this to anyone.

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If There Was Any Remaining Doubt

10:57 Friday, 18 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 77.38°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 35

America is now a police state. What is being done to supposed "illegals" is intended to cow and intimidate genuine citizens. ICE are the secret police.

I don't know how we pull back from this.

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Maverick Update

05:57 Friday, 18 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 59.34°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 1384

I've had the Maverick for just over a month now, and I haven't quite hit 1,000 miles on the odometer yet, but I've had it long enough to form some impressions.

For those just tuning in, we've been a one-car couple for at least 7 years now. I'm retired, and while Mitzi worked full-time, I could walk to just about anyplace I needed to go when we were living in the condo. When we moved to Nocatee, I could bike or golf-cart my way to most places.

But now we're moving to rural New York and if one of us had the car, the other would be kind of stuck. And we hope to begin something of a "farm-lite" lifestyle, grow some food, maybe raise some chickens, having something to haul stuff that's easy to load and unload suggested that a pickup truck might be a good choice.

I wanted something small, easy to get in and out of, and Ford had recently introduced the Maverick, a low-cost, fuel-efficient small pickup for people who don't need a big truck. (I could say unkind things about people who buy those huge trucks, but I'm trying to do better. Plus, my youngest brother is one, and he's a good guy.)

I also didn't want to spend a ton of money, since this late-life adventure promises to be somewhat capital intensive in the first few years anyway.

Used Mavericks had held their value well on the resale market, and while I could save a few thousand over a new vehicle at retail, the used ones were going for near their original sale price with less warranty coverage. So I decided to buy a 2024 XL hybrid, the base model. I only wanted one option, a part of the Ford CoPilot driver-assist package that offered rear crossing traffic warning. Parking lots scare me. That feature also came with the blindspot warning system, which gives you an indicator in the sideview mirror if there is traffic in an adjacent lane. It also has lane-following assist, which wasn't terribly important to me, but it all came as a package.

I should clarify here that the hybrid power train is optional equipment. When it debuted, the hybrid engine was the base configuration, but when Ford couldn't build them fast enough, they made the 4-cylinder turbo the base engine and added $1500 to the price of the hybrid. Ouch.

There was a delivery freeze on the 2024 Maverick issued in September last year, due to a glitch with the backup camera. The video would freeze and might show the rear of the truck was clear when there was something behind it. So there was a lot of inventory on the lot. I put a $500 deposit down in January in anticipation of a camera fix, and finally took delivery on the 12th of March.

The price off the lot was just over $30K, with over $3000 of that being all the administrative crap they tack on. I did get a $500 veteran price incentive. I put an additional $8K down and financed the balance. My car payment is $500 a month for 48 months. Affordable for us.

So far, I've been very pleased it. I'm past the age where I get enamored with cars. I don't need it to express some aspect of my identity. But as an expensive artifact, I do want to take care of it and, hopefully, enjoy using it. I spent some money adding mud flaps, rubber floor mats, a rubber mat for the bed, a plastic cover for the tailgate, a roll-up soft tonneau cover, and a bug/stone shield for the hood. It adds up.

It's important to bear in mind that this truck was designed and manufactured to be a low-cost vehicle, and it shows. Hard plastics that scratch easily in the interior. The dash buzzes from time to time, depending on speed, road surface, interior temperature, etc. The infotainment system is kludged together, though the 2025 models get a Ford Sync4 system, which is supposedly on par with other Ford products.

That said, they also added some nifty features that weren't expensive to implement. The cab has stowage everywhere, the most impressive being beneath the rear seat. The 12v battery is also back there in the hybrid, but there's still plenty of storage and I've got it filled with a bunch stuff this old Boy Scout ("Be prepared.") likes to have handy. You do you, just sayin' there's a lot of space under that rear seat.

There's less space behind it, but the seat back folds forward, and I've got a folding sun shield back there, and a gardener's kneel-pad in case I have to change a tire. You could put some other thin stuff back there if you wanted. The jack is back there as well.

It rides well. While it's a truck, it's a unibody design, so it's lower to the ground than a body-on-frame truck. Easier to get in and out of, for sure, but it doesn't give you the elevated driver's position a traditional truck would. I think the RAV4 has a higher view than the Mav.

Seats are comfortable, but nothing fancy. Rear seat room is adequate for short drives to the lake or the state park. I wouldn't want to sit back there for a road trip.

The bed is short, I think it's about four and a half feet. But it's bigger than the cargo area in the RAV4, and you don't have a roof to contend with. You can handle larger loads with the tailgate either all the way down, or in a mid-position designed to make the top of the tailgate at the same height as the fenders in the bed, so sheet material like plywood or drywall can lie flat and level (albeit still sticking out over the tailgate).

We used the truck to buy a bunch of sod at Home Depot. There is an astonishing amount of sand in Florida sod, and it goes everywhere and sticks to everything. I think most of it is out now.

I'm still learning how the thing works. There's a recent thread at the Maverick Truck Club online forum that is a collection of gripes, but it's also where I learned that the drive "mode" isn't persistent. You have to select "Eco" every time! The RAV4 is in Eco mode all the time, and I never have to think about it. I assumed the Mav was the same way, but apparently, it's not. I'll need to add this to the pre-flight checklist.

Nevertheless, the gas mileage has been impressive. I've taken it to the pump twice since delivery. I don't let the tank get below half. The first fill-up worked out to 43.6 mpg, and the second was 39.6 mpg. It's rated at 37 mpg combined, and I've been doing city and highway driving. I'll have to pay attention to the Eco mode and see what the next fill-up shows. Ford says the engine doesn't get its best efficiency until it's been "broken in," at about 4K miles. A recent video on YouTube seems to support that, although the testing was decidedly unscientific.

Ideally, I'd like either a fully electric Maverick, or a plug-in hybrid. But for what it is, it's impressive. It's the Prius of pickups. The Maverick has had a troubled history with recalls, and if you frequent the forum, you'll find people who obsess over its perceived flaws, and there are many. I think the best value is found in the base model. The luxury upgrades are all being bolted onto a vehicle designed and manufactured to be "low cost," and it'll show. And that thread I linked to will document many of its shortcomings, but people still seem to love it.

So far, no regrets here; but it's still early days. I think Ford found a market that was aching for a vehicle like this, but it seems like they're doing their best to price it out of that market. I'd say the best value today is in a new 2024 XL, and there should still be plenty of inventory on the lot.

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This Morning's Moon 4-18-25

05:40 Friday, 18 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 59.9°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 0mph
Words: 3

Because of course.

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Minute by Minute

06:44 Thursday, 17 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.24°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 492

I keep getting sucked into closely following the latest developments in the ongoing crisis that is the Trump presidency. There's no value in it, indeed, it's depressing. I sent $100 to VoteVets and hoped that helped... something.

Anyway, spoke to Mitzi last night and I guess I missed a memo or something. Apparently we are going to do something similar to what we did last September and get a trailer to deliver some of our stuff after the house closes. That changes the situation pretty significantly.

So what I need to do now is identify those things that I might need/want in the interim between June and whenever the house closes. That's pretty squishy, because we might get lucky and get a contract before our "desired" sell-by date in the first week in July. (Saves us from having to file NY state income tax, as we'd be Florida residents for more than half the year.) We've decided that if we get a buyer who wants to close before that, we'll take it, assuming it's an offer we can accept. Uncertainty being what it is today, "A bird in the hand," and so on. We may take it on the chin come tax time; but better that than something happening between contract and closing that squelches the deal.

In any event, it definitely means I don't need to take two trips in the truck. And it also means I'll be flying back here in June, peak thunderstorm season. Just need to book a flight that gets me out of whatever hub, probably Atlanta, before noon.

In other news, still getting accustomed to the OM-3. My left achilles tendon is still bothering me. It's improving somewhat, so I'm trying to walk on it more. I did almost two miles last night and it's barking at me this morning. But it gives me a chance to take the OM-3 out. I put the 40-150/f2.8 on it with the MC20 2x teleconverter, which gives me a 300mm/f5.6 at max zoom. Shot a few bluebirds, but they were soft and I'm not sure why. I know the lens is tack-sharp.

But the more interesting thing, to me, is that that combination weighs three pounds on the sling, and I had no discomfort between my shoulders carrying the rig, which was not formerly the case. That discomfort is what prompted me to carry the lighter OM-5 in lieu of the OM-1. I attribute this to the strength training I've been doing. It also occurred to me just this morning that I haven't been experiencing the shoulder pain I normally get when I sleep on my right side.

So I guess the takeaway is, if you're getting old, get in the gym! Even if working out with weights was never a thing for you before.

Whelp, guess I better get going on doing something.

The beat, it goes on.

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This Morning's Moon 4-17-25

05:39 Thursday, 17 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 54°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 4

And so it goes...

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Passing the Time

13:18 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 74.32°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 33% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 864

Blood was successfully drawn, after an administrative interrogation I hadn't anticipated. Not the check-in clerk's fault, and I suppose it exists to reduce Baptist Health's error rate; but it's irritating to be asked question after question, and present three documents just to receive service for a program you're already enrolled in.

How much do they expect things to change for retirees on Medicare? Don't answer that. After DOGE gets through, we may not have Medicare anymore.

Stopped by Publix on the way home, bought bananas and since Ithaca Black Bean Hummus was still on sale, I bought another tub of that. (So good.) Then came home and tried to re-orient myself to the rest of my day.

I decided it was time to start really clearing out the office. So I removed a funky galvanized pipe shelf unit the realtor suggested we take down, and the wall mounted 32" TCL TV, which hasn't seen any use since I removed the Nintendo consoles.

I found a box that was big enough to take the TV mounting bracket, and also the pipes for the shelf. The shelves themselves I put in front of the TV Screen (two were enough to cover the whole screen, so the third was just in the middle) and wrapped the whole thing in that polyester cling-wrap stuff. I'll probably add some additional packing protection, but it's good for now.

Pro-tip: Pipe insulation is a fantastic material for protecting things you're packing. Not especially cheap, but it's not expensive and it's reusable for a variety of purpose.

Now I've got a bunch of holes to spackle and some paint to apply. I haven't looked out in the garage to see what kind of condition the standby container of spackle is in. We don't use it very often. Then there's a can nearly six-year old paint I need to stir and hope for the best.

Tomorrow I'll either mow the lawn or tackle the spackle, and try and get the rest of my stuff out of the office, sorted into "north" and "south" piles.

I've got some stuff in the bedroom. Clothes, mostly. A nightstand that is mostly a junk drawer. The closet also has all my camera bags, an assortment of backpacks, waist packs, slings and suitcases. One backpack is configured as a kind of go-bag. Same drill - north and south.

The big challenge is the garage. Fortunately, it's air conditioned, although dim. If the weather is nice I can leave the door open and welcome the additional light. I've got one of those giant Husky rolling tool cabinet/workbenches, and I'm pretty ambivalent about it.

As a workbench it's fairly useless, but you can raise it and there's some storage beneath the top. If you're careful, you could mount a vise on it. I have a chunk of birch plywood that I insert beneath the bench top and crank it down to hold it. That allows me to sit and be closer to the work.

The drawers are nice, and it can hold a lot of stuff. ("Stuff abhors a vacuum, so it accumulates to fill the available space.") I think I paid over $1K for the thing. I want to sell it, Mitzi thinks we should keep it. If we keep it, it's going into storage and then we'll have to move it. The thing weighs several hundred pounds, but it's on wheels. If I sold it, I'd worry about how the buyer would get it out of here without hurting themselves. It came bolted onto a pallet and it was a pain in the ass to get it off the pallet and the wheels bolted to it.

Anyway, tools, north and south too. Probably mentioned that already. But I figure if I can get all the north stuff boxed up and stashed in the garage, I'll have a pretty good idea if I can make it in one trip. I'm pretty sure the answer is no.

The bikes are probably staying here. We don't have a bike rack, and they occupy a great deal of volume for so little weight. We live in the hills, so I don't think we're going to be missing biking, though the Swytch motor on mine might make it feasible.

It just occurred to me this morning that Mitzi has said we're taking the fridge with us, it's not conveying like everything else. And she's said that in the context that it'll fit in the little house, as if it's going to make the trip north with us. I think we need to kind of resolve that.

Anyway, getting pretty close now. I will not miss Florida. I may feel differently about it in the winter, but this is an awful place in most other respects. I think folks who would otherwise object make certain accommodations in return for no state income tax and warm winters. Florida has been two states for quite some time now, one for the privileged and the other ignored. Except Florida's government is now targeting the marginalized among the ignored. Performative cruelty is accepted here. Expected, even.

No. I will not miss it.

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Not Long After

07:59 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.88°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 3mph
Words: 77

Does raise some interesting questions about maintaining a vegetable garden.

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Yesterday Morning's Guests

07:56 Wednesday, 16 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.88°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 3mph
Words: 73

Let's see if this works.

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This Morning's Moon 4-16-25

06:06 Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 58.39°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 64% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 121

I've only found one local protest for Saturday and it's at a local outdoor shopping mall. Limited space, so everyone will be spread out along the grassy areas between the sidewalk and the street. The group that's organizing it is unfamiliar to me, so I'm not sure if I'm going to participate.

Leaving shortly to get blood drawn for my checkup next week, so I'm just killing time. They open at 7.

Checked the cameras at Winterfell yesterday afternoon. The one looking out the window recorded two deer in the front yard, and later two sprinting across the lawn while a third one stood near the road. Also recorded a pretty intense thunderstorm the night before.

Anyway, the beat goes on...

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The Grumpy Old Man's Guide to Epistemology

14:23 Tuesday, 15 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 82.54°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 53% Wind: 16.11mph
Words: 438

Beware, better, be aware of "unknown unknowns," i.e. the vast majority of the universe.

The nature of ignorance is that we don't know what we don't know. Which ought to suggest a certain degree of humility or circumspection in making assertions. Not that I ever let that stop me.

Knowledge is a commodity. Wisdom is a scarce resource.

Embodied knowledge is the necessary precursor to wisdom. Embodied knowledge is often called "experience," but that's just a source of embodied knowledge. It's not the only one. It is an important one though.

Experience is action+attention in the field of time. Attention is a finite resource; so is time, but we all have the same amount of time. So pay attention to your attention. You get to choose.

There are shortcuts to knowledge. "Read a book!"

There are no shortcuts to wisdom.

Not all knowledge leads to wisdom. The domain of wisdom is life itself. Knowledge may be confined to minuscule niches that are endlessly contested or fought over, consuming time and attention, seldom leading to wisdom, save for the obvious. (Figure it out.)

Knowledge can be valuable, but it's often perishable.

"Know it alls" are annoying. Especially to those of us who know everything.

Mastery is not the same thing as wisdom. Different domains. Mastery may be valuable or rewarding; but it will not make you wise.

Wisdom demands introspection, which can be unfamiliar or uncomfortable territory, and sometimes leads to dark and twisty places. It often helps to have a guide (therapist).

The "inner voice" is an unreliable narrator.

"When the student is ready, the teacher appears."

Everything you have may be taken from you, even knowledge. Don't let it become too precious. You are not what you know, unless you know yourself.

Wisdom is a higher perspective, not higher perception. Get a change of scenery every now and then.

Insight can be a ray of light, or a flash of light. Where it comes from, who can say? But pay attention. Suddenly you may see something in a whole new way.

Know that we are all in this together, and none of us is getting out of here alive. All we ever really have are moments to live, and each other.

(Is it wise to fret about verb agreement in the construction, "None of us is getting out of here alive"? That is left as an exercise for the student.)

Feelings pass.

Let them.

It's later than you think.

Aspire to be kind.

As ever, I'm an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. You are strongly encouraged to do your own thinking.

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This Morning's Moon 4-15-25

05:17 Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 61.83°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 144

On this 113th anniversary of the sinking of the TITANIC. The night of the catastrophe, the moon was a waning crescent, only 5.8% illuminated.

The National Geographic program on Hulu about the "digital twin" of TITANIC was interesting, but a bit tedious. The three "experts" were a waste of time, and their lines were awful. So many, "This is the first time we're seeing..." And so on.

But the stories of the events that night, and the rather minimal damage that eventually sank the ship were interesting.

The story of the TITANIC will endure for as long as we have some kind of recorded history. (May only be oral at this rate.) It captures the entire human comedy. ("Comedy" being tragedy+time.) Remarkable achievements, hubris, error, courage, cowardice, disaster.

Feels like we're living through it right now, on dry land.

"Everything Trump touches dies."

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Gettin' a New Crown

17:23 Monday, 14 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 84.42°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 37% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 63

The one that keeps coming off is over twenty years old. Did an x-ray to make sure the tooth was stable. Go back in a week to get a new crown.

Which, OBTW, may have something to do with why I'm cranky. Didn't get my afternoon nap!

Anyway.

The beat goes on...

(The beat that can be counted is not the beat.)

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Personal Knowledge Management

17:19 Monday, 14 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 84.49°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 37% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 43

Just came in. Doesn't have a graph, but it does have an index, by God!

F=ma and you can't push a rope. Everything else is derived. But this elaborates on that a bit. Saves some head-scratchin'.

(Glad I started strength training.)

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Better Start Searching for an Alien Space Cloud

09:39 Monday, 14 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 65.95°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 26

Alert all Blue Blaze Irregulars in the tri-state area. Prep the jet car for city driving.

(IYKYK)

"No matter where you go, there you are."

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Secret Chimp

09:21 Monday, 14 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 64.6°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 1051

Anyone remember, Lancelot Link: Secret Chimp? I suppose that gives some people the sads, being an example of humans exploiting animals for their own trivial amusement. I get it. Kinda disappoints me too. Chimps belong in the forest doing chimp things, not on television making humans laugh.

We shall not speak of Trunk Monkey. ("Don't platform them, Rogers!")

Anyway, when I think of "link" my word-association network summons Lance and Mata Hairi before The Legend of Zelda, or Ted Nelson, or that Cerf guy. I'm a boomer, what can I say?

Well, Ted predates the Baby Boom, but Lance was on TV before I knew anything about computers, other than they can become sentient and kill humans (2001: A Space Odyssey and Colossus: The Forbin Project.)

All of which is an oblique avenue paved with non sequiturs to get to the point of this post: What's up with "links"?

Since we didn't have a theme for last week's Tinderbox meetup, and I'd been thinking about links recently, I posed the question in the meetup. I learned a lot about Tinderbox, but I'm still kind of ruminating on links and linking.

It seems like we use the word in different contexts, one of which is an interactive feature of the user interface, most often used as form of navigation or movement through a document. The other is as a kind of descriptive relationship between two notes or nodes, which may have a visual expression in a particular view of the relevant notes or nodes. This seems to be most valuable to people who prefer an expansive, two-dimensional layout of notes or nodes.

So one meaning of "link" is as a hypertext facility, indeed, the defining characteristic of what a "hypertext" is. I think. Many smart people have written about this stuff, and I haven't read much of it.

The other meaning is as a shared semantic element of two or more notes or nodes. This "shared semantic element" is probably best described as a "relationship." Something that connects them. Blinding glimpse of the obvious, no?

It is this other meaning that kind of intrigues me.

I believe Google's search "algorithm" assigned some meaning to the number of links to a particular web site as indicative of its value or authority. I believe technorati, if anyone remembers that, did something similar; essentially ranking weblogs by the number of other blogs linking to a particular blog. The idea seeming to be that those with the highest ranking had the highest value. (Because why would people link to them if they weren't offering something of value?)

I suppose that has some superficial merit, but it always seemed like bullshit to me. To some degree, the very act of assigning some other characteristic (or "attribute") to a web site ("node") on the basis how many "inbound" links it has seemed sketchy, because promoting that (in search results or in the technorati "Top 100") had the effect of adding even more inbound links for, well, reasons. Mostly stupid.

So that's kind of the WWW view of links and their value. They're not just for "navigation," (Netscape Navigator), their existence implies some extra intrinsic meaning which can be discerned by "the algorithm," or, as we used to call it, "counting."

Bullshit.

Maybe it's more sophisticated now, what with "search engine optimization" out there trying to proliferate links, and bots doing the same thing. Maybe they just don't "count" anymore. I think technorati is dead, I haven't checked, because I hated it when it existed, and it would only depress me to learn it was still a thing. Pretty sure it's not, social media ate it, like they did nearly everything else.

But then there's, "the graph." That's where "links" are "edges." (Pretty "edgy," right? Sooo edgy.) And that's where something called "graph theory" tries to discern meaning from the combinations and constellations of nodes and edges. That's the kind of shit going on when they "target" you with ads, or propaganda. "You may also like..." Because people with your particular array of edges likes these nodes over here, that you aren't currently linked with. ("Never end a sentence with a preposition, Rogers.")

But where does that fit in with PKM, personal knowledge management, not to be confused with the "old and busted" personal information management. Because "knowledge" is so much more valuable than mere "information."

Pfffft! I spit on your information! I am a serious person! You are a mere dilettante. Do not waste my time! I'm pursuing knowledge! It's all here in the graph! Can't you see it? Don't you sense its power? Are you not in awe of my hand-curated, PKM graph! (Don't get me started on zettelkasten.)

Jesus.

Cynical bastard, aren't I?

("We mock what we do not understand.")

The world runs on bullshit. I thought I might have been missing something in terms of "linking," because all those shiny PKM apps had their graphs and all their nodes and edges. I strongly suspect that most of this is just a fad.

I think boxes and arrows (maps) serve a purpose. They can help place ideas in a different context that may make them more accessible. John Snow and cholera. Probably never would have spotted those wells in a table! But I suspect that that particular insight was accessible in that context because it was part of an actual map!

Likewise with systems dynamics, flows, sources and sinks. Process diagrams, where disparate elements come together in an ordered sequence of some kind and feedbacks emerge.

Six degrees of Kevin Bacon is kind of interesting, or, rather, was kind of interesting. But what is the larger meaning? That everything is connected?

No shit. But once you're three degrees removed, what's the point? Unless you're a conspiracy theorist.

Information. Knowledge. Wisdom.

Much of this is performative. We live in an age of social media where we're all the stars of our own reality show. We have a "personal brand." We need to attract attention, so we flock to where the attention seems to be right now.

Is that wise?

Thales.

Know thyself.

Stick that in your graph and smoke it!

Today's rant sponsored by Bitter Old Man. Remember, if it's not better, get bitter!

That's my brand and I'm stickin' to it.

Carry on.

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This Is Pretty Cool

06:55 Monday, 14 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 53.44°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 0mph
Words: 14

Watching the video is encouraging and inspiring. Not a bad way to start Monday.

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This Morning's Moon 4-14-25

06:06 Monday, 14 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 53.96°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 0mph
Words: 53

Tried this shot with the OM-3. Very quick on the compositing of the handheld hi-res shot. Handling of the 100-400mm zoom with the MC20 teleconverter mounted is a bit more challenging. Did some just handheld, this one with my elbows on the hood of the Mav.

The beat goes on...

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Further to the Foregoing

13:36 Sunday, 13 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 74.21°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 31% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 14

Here's a much cleaner pdf copy of Tom Erickson's paper from the dude himself.

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Thomas Erickson, Not Don Norman

10:54 Sunday, 13 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 68.94°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 42% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 655

Last month I posted about working on Captain's Log as an "everything bucket." I'd mentioned a paper that I really enjoyed and thought I'd kept a pdf somewhere, but I wasn't able to find it and I couldn't find it online again.

Well, that was because it was by Thomas Erickson, not Don Norman, both of Apple's former Advanced Technology Group. Which is how I found the paper again, and it's available here.

The paper was published in 1996, not long before I began using WebArranger as a kind of "everything bucket." We had only switched to the Mac in 1995, with the Performa 6200cd. By the time I was using WebArranger, I think we were using a PowerMac 6500, which would have been only a couple of years later. Up until 1995, we'd been using a version of the Apple II, ending up with a IIgs with an external HD. Most of our "productivity" work was done in AppleWorks, the 8-bit version, which was pretty sophisticated as a mature piece of software.

Apple had a version of Hypercard for the IIgs, but it was slow and likely not very usable for something as elaborate as what Erickson described in his paper.

All of which is to say that this period of "personal computing," was very exciting to this, then, 30-something who was still enamored with digital computers and the power of software to "change everything." We were going from rather simple word processing (outlining was available in AW with add-ons), spreadsheets and flat-file databases to very sophisticated outliner/database applications with internet connectivity all in a, still relatively new, "graphical user interface."

I still enjoy reading Erickson's paper today:

It is interesting to note that I do not use Proteus in the way I originally thought I would. The motivation behind transforming Proteus from a stack of quotations into a full-featured electronic notebook was the vision of being able to make notes for a paper, and link the notes to the relevant quotations. However, after finishing the work of programming Proteus, I quickly abandoned this use. I found that jumping to the quotations caused a disruptive context shift, and that the functionality provided by HyperCard text fields was insufficient. What I really wanted (and soon switched to) was an outliner into which I could copy my quotations, and where I could interleave them with notes and writing fragments. In general, I do not use Proteus to author structured documents.

Sounds a lot like Tinderbox, though the paper pre-dates Tinderbox and Erickson doesn't mention what he did use.

But much of the rest of what he describes about Proteus resembles what I'm trying to accomplish with Captain's Log. Right now, I'm especially interested in implementing his "Table of Contents" feature.

Each "month" is a note that serves as a container for that month's log entries. The $Text attribute (field) of that note is blank, as, at this time, the note only serves as a container.

It should be possible, through action code, to add the title and first line of each entry as a line in $Text as each entry is made. What also needs to be automated is turning that line into a link to its source note.

Most entries consist of little more than the title and a single line that either describes the purpose the link recorded in the $DisplayedAttributes, or slightly expands on the recorded action mentioned in the title. So the $Text of the Month container would be a simple way to scan to look for an entry as it would be more "information dense" than the outline display which only offers the $Name of the individual entries.

It's an entertaining diversion from the relentlessly depressing stream of current events, sourced from the unrestrained id of a narcissistic sociopath who happens to hold the highest office in the land.

Beats screaming into a pillow.

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Maverick at Dusk

09:08 Sunday, 13 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 59.43°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 20

Goofing off here, mainly posting to update the Archives page, which I noticed hadn't been updated since February.

Carry on...

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It's a Coup

11:19 Saturday, 12 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 64.31°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 5.99mph
Words: 41

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We're All Preppers Now

06:44 Friday, 11 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 60.71°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 95

Some of us just don't know it yet.

Anyway, cool article in Wired about Forth as a post-apocalyptic programming language. The link in the article that supposedly points to his web page, instead redirects to a forum in French. The actual link is this one.

(I signed up for the forum. I can read some French, and the translate function in Safari seems pretty decent. It makes for some glitches in the UI, but it mostly works. And maybe I'll brush up on my French. The forum seems to be about resilience and prep'ing.)

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Tips On Fighting (Protests)

13:59 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 74.16°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 69

If you're like me, and unaccustomed to exercising our civil liberties, it may be helpful to review a few tips from those with more experience.

At this point in the effort, I'm definitely not there to put my body on the line. I just want to be part of the message. I'm angry, but I'm not stupid.

Hopefully we can begin to get a message across through numbers alone.

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One, two, three, what are we fighting for?

10:03 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.9°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 170

Further to the foregoing, you may be wondering why or what you'll be fighting if flight isn't an option.

As bad as things are, they can always be worse.

You're fighting against worse.

You want to be able to stage a tactical retreat, you don't want to become part of a rout.

So you've got to fight them. Push back. Buy time. Preserve as much as you can.

Make plans.

Fight them, and be preparing to go someplace where you want to be.

Maybe it's right where you are, but seeing the place in a whole new light. Maybe you're not abandoning the place so much as the dream. Either way, things have to change, and you're going to want to be able to manage and control as much of that change as possible.

So fight. They're not invincible.

Fight them.

And, just so it's clear, that means "peaceful protest." Don't hurt anyone. Don't give them an excuse to hurt you, not that they'll need one when they choose to.

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Water

09:48 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.86°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 136

We got the results of our water tests for Winterfell. Not cheap at $405, but worth it. We'll only have to do the bacteriological tests annually, though I'll probably run the full suite again before we do the water treatment install in whatever new house we get to build, based on what we learn in the small house.

Hardness isn't terrible. It's less than 120, which is within the "moderate" range. Iron is a little high at .207ppm. Could be handled by a water softener, probably not ideal. I'll probably put an iron removal system ahead of the water softener.

The good news is that we could survive on it without treatment, though with periodic testing.

A secure supply of fresh water might be worth something someday.

Unless someone comes in and pumps out the aquifer.

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I Can Relate

09:36 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 69.94°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 84% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 172

Long read, but kinda worth it. In a, "You're not alone," sort of way.

It's later than we think, but it's still early days. This is the apocalypse, though you may not be persuaded just yet. It's not just the Mad Orange King, but that's a part of it. The cracks are visible everywhere, if you care to look.

And I understand why you might not want to look. It's overwhelming. It's the tempo. If things were happening faster, though they're really happening at what formerly would have been unimaginably fast, you'd know you were in trouble, and you'd be looking for someplace to run.

But kids. Bills. School. Parents.

Paralysis.

Fight or flight?

You're gonna have to fight.

But make plans.

Figure out where you want to be. And if you can't be where you want to be, figure out who you can count on where you are. Build that network. Invest in that social capital.

We're all in this together and none of us is getting out of here alive.

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Powerwall Update

07:38 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 64.56°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 751

I got the Net Zero app connected to the Powerwalls, and it was able to read what they report to Tesla. Based on the internal data, remaining capacity is above 93%, which is slightly better than the 2% annual degradation anticipated for normal operation. We're coming up on the fifth anniversary of commissioning, so we'd nominally expect 90% remaining capacity.

This seems like pretty good news, although why shouldn't it be performing as warranted or better? "Get used to disappointment," should probably be my motto.

I think we're doing somewhat better than expected because we put the mini-split in the garage, which prevents the extreme heat in the summer time. I put a temperature sensor in the garage in the first year and there were days where temps would get well over 100°F.

We also only discharge to 20% capacity, retaining that for whole-home backup in the event of a grid outage. Fully charging and discharging would also accelerate degradation to some degree.

In any event, I remain pleased with the performance of the system. We're net carbon negative (we produce more power than we consume overall); we're around 85% self-sufficient in terms of the system meeting all of our power requirements at all times. FPL is our backup for days with insufficient sunlight.

To get the remaining 15% of self-sufficiency, the system would probably cost 50% more, though how that would be apportioned between array and battery storage is something that would require some calculation. So I think our installer, A1A Solar, nailed the sweet spot in terms of cost benefit.

As it is configured today, in the event of an extended grid outage, we'd closely manage our consumption, which we don't do at all in day-to-day operations. I expect there would be some days when we might not have air conditioning, but we could keep the refrigerator running and lights on.

Whoever buys this place has a couple of options regarding how to operate the system. As we operate it, we try to minimize our carbon emissions, so power goes to home loads and to the batteries first. Once the batteries are fully charged, then we export power to the grid and receive a credit for it with FPL. When the sun goes down, we're running on stored solar energy. Overall, 85% of our electricity consumption is carbon-free. The 15% of utility power that we consume is offset by the excess power we exported to the grid. So the power we're receiving from FPL does come from fossil fueled power plants, but we've kind of made up for that by sending our excess solar to the grid (our neighbors, mostly) so the power they consume at that moment is carbon-free.

Net-metering also means that we don't pay FPL for the 15% of power we get from the utility. That cost is offset by the value of the power we exported. Utilities are fighting to get rid of net-metering, which makes solar installations a viable financial proposition for many homeowners.

Our buyers may choose to operate the system in that way, retaining the battery storage as whole-home backup in the event of a grid outage. They'd receive all of their power from the utility, but essentially get it for free (plus the $26/month grid connection fee). The battery life would be extended in that situation, as it would only discharge/recharge during grid outages, which are relatively infrequent... today.

In any event, I'm happy that we did this, and I'm grateful for the experience. The situation is somewhat complicated today by Florida's insurance environment, where insurers are requiring many homeowners to replace their roofs long before their notional useful lifespan. The cost of roof replacement with a mounted array is naturally going to be higher, and with insurance companies arbitrarily reducing the useful life of a rooftop, the time to amortize the installation cost of an array is reduced as well.

I don't know if there will be some regulatory relief forthcoming from the legislature, but I'm not optimistic. Florida's insurance market is a mess, though it's largely one of its own making.

We'll confront a different set of circumstances at Winterfell, particularly with regard to seasonal variation in solar availability, and higher energy demand during the times of lowest solar availability. But it'll be an interesting problem to grapple with, assuming it hasn't been made financially out of reach by a senseless trade war with China.

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Speaking of The Residence

07:34 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 64.4°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 83

I stayed up last night to finish watching the last three episodes of The Residence. It seems funny/quirky murder mysteries are something of a thing these days. (Only Murders In the Building, for example.)

If you haven't watched it yet, no spoilers except to say I think you'll enjoy it.

I have to believe that the script and production were all completed well before the recurring catastrophe that is the reign of the Orange King, but some of it seems eerily prescient.

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Get a Grip!

07:26 Thursday, 10 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 64.4°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 139

While enjoying The Residence on Netflix last night, and also enjoying a square of 85% cacao Lindt dark chocolate (i.e. not something sticky), my back molar crown lifted off again. There's never any audible or detectable break, it just kind of floats into my mouth and the first indication is my tongue. Thankfully, I wasn't vigorously chewing anything.

I have a number of these crowns, and, so far anyway, none have exhibited this problem. And this particular crown was trouble-free for many years.

I don't know what's going on, but it seems confined to this tooth/crown interface. Office opens at 8 and I'll be calling again. I love my dentist, he's been my dentist for close to 30 years.

Maybe the third time is the charm?

As problems go, I'm grateful this isn't a big one.

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"Minimalist" - The Scare Quotes Approach

16:26 Wednesday, 9 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 72.45°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 61% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 306

Beautiful day today. Cool, sunny, breezy. Windows open, interior CO2 levels down. Something to enjoy and be thankful.

I finished getting my office cleaned out before the realtor arrived today to take a video for her appraiser. It's not a marketing video, just to let him have eyes on the place.

I confess, I do find the rather spare appearance to be somewhat appealing. Maybe it's just the novelty.

I've been out in the garage, rummaging around my "stuff" and rearranging things that were in boxes that weren't taped shut yet, and totes and tool boxes. What can stay in storage for eighteen months or more? (Remove the batteries!) What do I really need up there?

There are two constraints, but they're not in tension, they align to really limit what we can bring with us. One is the size of the house, and the other is what we can carry in the Mav and the Rav, since we're not renting a U-Haul or anything like that.

As it is, we could bolt for the place today with only the clothes on our backs (and our phones) and we'd be fine. The place is furnished, we have clothes there, wifi, cooking utensils, pots, pans and so on. So I'm looking at high-value items, like my remaining cameras and lenses. Some, more specialized, tools.

Irreplaceable items, like the lockbox with Dad's letters to his mom during the war. Photos. Paperwork and records.

So I've got to kind of figure that out, see what fits in the truck. I suppose I could make two trips in the truck, but I don't think I want to that.

Eighteen months from now, or thereabouts, we can shove everything into moving van and I guess welcome all of our crap back into our lives! Something to look forward to?

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Living in Thunderdome

16:05 Wednesday, 9 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 73.24°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 60% Wind: 7mph
Words: 42

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Escape to New York

08:09 Tuesday, 8 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.17°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 753

A bit of word play from one of my favorite movies from back in the day.

We've been working out the logistics of this move as we go along, so it's been kind of fuzzy. As we get closer though, decisions have to be made and things get a bit clearer.

Mitzi was unable to find climate-controlled storage near Winterfell, so we've decided to leave most of our stuff in storage here. That means that it will largely be inaccessible until we've built a new house and that remains an uncertainty, but is unlikely to happen in less than 18 months.

Apart from the furniture, because we do have to furnish the new house, this raises a question about how much do we actually need this "stuff," if it's going to be essentially "gone" for a year and a half?

This is an uncomfortable question, and one I'm reluctant to grapple with. ("...one with which I'm reluctant to grapple"?) My Canon 100 Pro printer, for one thing. It's a large format printer that I seldom use to print large images. I've done so recently, just to make sure I remember how to do it. But it's "large" and space is at a premium in the house.

Conceptually, I'm going to repurpose the shed next to the garage as my "office." It's just slightly larger than my present office, and a bit more conveniently laid out. (It's a rectangle. The office has a corner cut off for the door.) That project will probably take a few months, because I'll be figuring this out as I go along and nothing ever goes as quickly as you think it should. But by this coming fall, I should have it ready to receive everything that was formerly in this space.

So maybe a fall road trip to collect the printer, my books and game consoles? I suppose I'll have to.

I try to imagine a different scenario to see how it influences what I choose to bring along immediately. Since I'm a boomer who grew up reading post-apocalyptic science fiction (Alas Babylon, Lucifer's Hammer, Farnham's Freehold), what if we know a catastrophic event is going to hit here, and we have a limited amount of time and carriage to make it to Winterfell. What do I bring?

What am I going to regret I didn't bring, if I never get to see it again?

I've been wrestling with books, but mostly consoling myself that there's always ebooks, if we have the internet.

Escbach usually goes with me everywhere, except I discovered to my horror that I've already packed it, back when we were thinking it was going to be coming with us to be stored in New York. Well, problem "solved," I guess. I just bought the one linked at the beginning of the sentence.

Tools are another issue. I brought most of my Makita cordless tools to Wintefell back in September, and took advantage of a sales tax holiday here in Florida, and my 10% veteran discount to buy new ones for this place. Certainly all the batteries will go north with me. But all of my electronic test equipment is here, and I'd probably regret it if I don't have it there, and can't get to it. But that was packed earlier, under the assumption it was traveling north for storage. I'll need to go to the unit and rifle through that box and figure out what's staying and what's coming with me.

This workbench/desk solution isn't going to make the trip. I'll have Mitzi put it up on Facebook Marketplace for about half what I paid for it. Should go quickly. I'm going up in mid-May and I'll buy the one with just one drawer for Winterfell, so it can be used comfortably as a desk in the house. I had Mitzi measure the distance between the sliding glass door and the nearest window and it's 55", while the bench/desk is 52". I'll get a 4K external monitor we can share.

Meanwhile, I still have a lot of books to pack here. These are the ones I struggle with the most. If they were lost, it wouldn't be terrible. So, while I don't mind that they won't be accessible for some time, they do take up space and weight for storage and shipping, so why do I bother?

Well, because I love books, I guess. And we suffer for the people and things we love.

The beat goes on...

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Back to the Future!

05:58 Sunday, 6 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 69.66°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 543

Tinderbox Backstage is a kind of "members-only" (you have to buy an access pass) forum for discussing beta releases of Tinderbox. A lot of feature requests get handled there, where by "handled," I mean that many are implemented, but all are discussed or debated.

One of the periodically recurring discussions is the seeming "complexity" of Tinderbox, and the wish to see it made more approachable for the novice user.

I'm not sure where this desire comes from. I suspect it's the casual, drive-by critique from the unmotivated that they "tried Tinderbox, but it's too hard," or something to that effect. Occasionally there is a complaint or lament in the public forum, but there's such an abundance of help readily available that anyone genuinely wishing to get over a particular conceptual hurdle is quickly aided in doing so.

Anyway, the developer, Mark Bernstein, is very accommodating to reasonable requests, and is quite open to suggestions for improving the UI, so the discussion is lively and ongoing. I made a long post waxing rhapsodic about the old classic Mac app, WebArranger, and pointed to a description of it at an old web site, ATPO (About this Particular Outliner.) Mostly that one of its criticisms was it was too complex.

This prompted me to see what I could do to kind of get the app up and running again. I have some familiarity with running an Apple II emulator, but don't recall trying to get a Mac emulator up and running on, well, a Mac.

Enter SheepShaver, and so long to yesterday afternoon. I was also pleasantly surprised that WebArranger is preserved online as well.

I got an emulated PowerMac 6500 (Apple retired the "Performa" branding with this model) up and running Mac OS 8.1. This was the second Mac we owned after the Performa 6200cd.

As an exercise, it was moderately entertaining, mostly insofar as it wasn't terribly frustrating. I originally set out to install Mac OS 9.0.4, but couldn't get the image to boot the emulated computer. Switching to 8.1 worked fine. I don't recall exactly what the differences were between 8.1 and 9 (8.5 was somewhere in the middle as I recall), other than "My voice is my password," speech recognition if you wanted some kind of user log-in.

Anyway, it's up and running. I haven't gotten around to playing with WebArranger yet, though it is installed, because this 14" screen and my 67 year old eyeballs don't play well together on this emulated PowerMac.

Pixelated text looks great on an emulated Apple II! It's part of the experience. And at 80 columns by 40 rows, it's also easy to read. Any significant effort on the emulator is probably going to await a larger display.

The idea isn't to relive the past. Rather it's to revisit the past to inform the future. That is to say, what did I find so remarkable about WebArranger that I might be able to replicate today in Tinderbox? Perhaps nothing. Maybe it's just nostalgia, and foggy memories. But we'll see. I may try to AirPlay the SheepShaver window over to my 32" TV and see if that's any better. I can't get very close to it, but it may be enough.

Sucks getting old.

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Hands Off

16:23 Saturday, 5 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 82.96°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 253

I figured I had to go stand up for democracy, stand up against the lawlessness and gangsterism that's overtaking our country.

So I went to the Hands Off event in St Augustine this morning. I wasn't sure how many people would show up, this is a very red county, but the highest concentration of Democrats and sane people live near St Augustine. I would estimate the crowd size to be around 2,000 people. I have no idea how accurate that may be, but I counted a group of 100 and got a sense of how large that was, then kind of looked around the field to see how many groups there were about that size.

I didn't see any media at the event.

There were a lot of horns honking as cars drove by, which wasn't unusual. What was kind of unusual was the absence of counter-protesters or drive-by abuse.

I got there pretty early, 8:30 for a 10:00 a.m. event, so I walked around and just did some sightseeing. A pod of dolphins was swimming near the Bridge of Lions, got a few shots of those, though they're rather unremarkable.

I didn't stay for the whole event, I didn't see anyone I knew and I wasn't waving a sign or anything. When I do this again, I'll bring a chair, a water bottle and maybe some snacks.

Will this make any difference? I don't know. But I know doing nothing will accomplish nothing. Maybe showing up matters.

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Last Night's Moon 4-4-24

05:25 Saturday, 5 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 65.71°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 0mph
Words: 57

It's probably going to be directly overhead tonight when I'm locking up for the night, so this is probably the last one until the morning moon series. Hopefully, I'll be shooting those on the OM-3, see if I can wrangle the 100-400mm zoom with the MC20 2x teleconverter on that small body without a grip.

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We Could've Had the Nice Black Woman

08:03 Friday, 4 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.56°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 56

Instead, we got Master-Blaster.

Feels like my theme song for today at least.

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Last Night's Moon 4-3-24

05:47 Friday, 4 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 70.59°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 13

Stuck my head out the door last night and gave it a shot.

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Last Night From the iPhone

12:04 Thursday, 3 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 81.41°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 50

I had my phone in my pocket when I stepped outside last night. It was the first camera I reached for, but I think you can tell why I wasn't thrilled with the result.

But you might also be able to see why I thought it was worth a shot.

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The Boss

11:39 Thursday, 3 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 81.37°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 49

Pro-ordered Tracks 2 for delivery at Winterfell. CD boxed set. May have to make sure I still have a CD player. (Just kidding. Blu-Ray player can play CDs. Can't they? And I do have an external USB DVD-R drive so I can "rip-mix-play.)" (IYKYK))

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Oh Em Three

10:26 Thursday, 3 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 78.94°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 83% Wind: 16.11mph
Words: 75

OMG, I bought the OM-3!

I've been craving it since it was released. I'm rationalizing pulling the trigger now because of the possibility of a price increase due to the Trump tax, er, tariffs.

I'll sell some gear when I get to New York. Might even get better prices for them if there's an overall increase in camera prices.

Should get here Monday, but B&H is saying there may be some weather delays.

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Triangulate

09:35 Thursday, 3 April 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 77.16°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 139

Went to lock the front door last night before turning in and caught a glimpse of the moon through the glass. Stepped outside to look at it, because why wouldn't you?

Saw it framed in this asterism (technically not an asterism, as the left vertex is Jupiter) and figured I should try to shoot it.

I wasn't that motivated, so I grabbed what was handy, in this case the OM-5 with the 45mm/f1.8 prime mounted. Tough to get the exposure right with the moon being illuminated by the sun, even (or especially) as a waxing crescent, only 25% illuminated (making it the first quarter).

Anyway, checking this morning, that's Jupiter as mentioned, Elnath above, and Al Kab to the right. Also faintly visible are 14, 16 and 19 Aur in a row near the upper right corner.

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Dan Caine's Confirmation Hearing

06:48 Thursday, 3 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 72.63°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 554

I spent much of Tuesday watching Cory Booker on the floor of the Senate. Being retired sometimes gives one the time to watch history as it is being made. I didn't watch Dan Caine's confirmation hearing.

In between packing boxes, and then trying to find things I may have already packed, I'm also reading an actual book I haven't packed yet, Nuremberg Diary, by G.M. Gilbert. (No link because the act of linking today is a form of signification and therefore freighted with unintended "meaning." I trust you can search the internet.) Gilbert was the prison psychologist at Nuremberg before and during the trials. Reading the back cover, I learned he first published The Psychology of Dictatorship, and now I'll have to search for that book.

I just opened to a random page, then decided to look at the entries for the month of April 1946, during the trial and six months before the executions that resulted.

Speaking with Jodl, the weekend of April 6-7:

“The killing of the 50 escaped prisoners and the plot against Giraud seem to disturb the military men more than the whole murder program that exterminated millions of Jews and other ideological opponents," I commented.

"Yes, of course-that concerns our honor vitally. We had nothing to do with the other thing. It will be shown conclusively that we had nothing to do with that."

He went on to explain how Hitler had disrupted the entire basis of the officers' code of honor and fair play in war which had been handed down through the centuries. Hitler brought with him a new radical capricious will which did not fit into their world — the world of von Hindenburg, von Neurath, etc. Even Goering understood the old officers' code and frequently had his way with the Führer on such matters.

"How do you explain, then, that Goering still maintains his pose of loyalty to the Führer?" I asked.

Jodi smiled. "Well, in his case, of course, he is in it so deep, as one of the leaders who brought the Party to power and loudly proclaimed his loyalty to the Führer for 20 years, he might just as well stick it through ... But the rest of the old officers' set were opposed to Nazism from the very beginning. We only played along because he was legally chosen Reich Chancellor. But it is funny, in the last two or three years of the war, Goering simply disappeared from time to time, going hunting, living his soft life in his various castles, collecting his art treasures- he just couldn’t be depended on for anything."

"We only played along because he was legally chosen Reich Chancellor."

"Honor" and "code" only have meaning insofar as the men and women who espouse them are willing to sacrifice their careers, or their lives, for them.

"Hitler had disrupted the entire basis of the officers' code of honor and fair play."

Might the same be said of Trump?

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff isn't a combatant commander.

When Trump invokes the the Insurrection Act, it will not be the CJCS who orders American soldiers to shoot American citizens, it will be the commander of NORTHCOM, under orders from former Fox News host, and now SECDEF, Pete Hegseth.

Jodl was hanged for "playing along."

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Cory Booker

14:44 Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 84.33°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 69% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 23

I've been watching his live stream on YouTube. He's been on for over 19 hours. He's been on fire many times. Powerful performance.

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Letter to Rutherford

08:28 Tuesday, 1 April 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.27°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 3mph
Words: 179

Here's the note I sent to my Representative this morning:

I took an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." I served this country for 22 years on active duty in the United States Navy.

It is impossible for me to express the depth of my revulsion for what is taking place in our country under the leadership of a criminal gangster you call "president."

People are being denied due process rights, fundamentally guaranteed to them under the Constitution. And you remain silent.

You are a hollow man. Cowardly. Morally bankrupt. Faithless. Dishonorable.

You hide in your "safe spaces," protected by your staff of enablers.

But what you are doing is visible in plain sight. Your cowardice is manifest.

You're a disgrace to your office, your oath and your country. I'm ashamed of you.

But know that the stain you are making on your immortal soul is indelible, and the shame you are bringing on yourself and your family name will be everlasting.

David M. Rogers

CDR,USN(Ret)

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