This Morning's Walk

16:46 Friday, 31 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 81.99°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 47% Wind: 17.27mph
Words: 145

Figured I'd better close out January with an image.

It was warm this morning, 60°F, so I went out for a walk shortly before sunrise, hoping I'd see something interesting.

There's little light at that hour, so birds were pretty much out of the question. The sky wasn't super-interesting. Figured I'd try to make something out of nothing.

So this is at 200mm focal length (400mm equivalent), which narrows the angle of view and compresses everything along the axis of the shot. Ideally, I'd rather not have the extra trunks in there, but beggars can't be choosers. There was only a little bit of that golden cloud in the distance, so I made the best of it.

We had our personal trainer session today at noon, and my Activity ring is closing in on 1000 calories for the day. I feel it too.

Still a Few Bugs In the System

10:57 Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 72.07°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 400

I created an Agent in the Groundhog Day Tinderbox file, which contains 1880 notes and 701,894 words, and it summoned five posts published on January 31st, the earliest from 2005 and the most recent from 2007, all before the iPhone.

I've tried to export the contents of the Agent as an html page, and I'm having some hiccups. I'm a little tired of futzing with it, but I'll get back to it eventually.

Many of the links in those posts don't work anymore. One that did was this one from January 30, 2006. Doc's responses in the comments appear to have vanished (or been deleted). One that didn't was at the AV Club, but I was able to find the same piece at a new URL by using their search function. It's very much worth a read. From January 25, 2006:

But that has been extended to the idea that authoritarian is better than authority. Because authoritarian means there's only one authority, and that authority has got to be the President, has got to be the government, and has got to be his allies. What the right-wing in the United States tries to do is undermine the press. They call the press "liberal," they call the press "biased," not necessarily because it is or because they have problems with the facts of the left—or even because of the bias for the left, because it's hard not to be biased in some way, everyone is always going to enter their editorial opinion—but because a press that has validity is a press that has authority. And as soon as there's any authority to what the press says, you question the authority of the government—it's like the existence of another authority. So that's another part of truthiness. Truthiness is "What I say is right, and [nothing] anyone else says could possibly be true." It's not only that I feel it to be true, but that I feel it to be true. There's not only an emotional quality, but there's a selfish quality.

"Read the whole thing..." (RTWT) as the cool kids used to day back in the day.

I'll see if I can get that export thing working. One thing that's clear is that I've been writing about the same stuff for about twenty years. ("Writing." Hah! What a joke. "Ranting fecklessly into the void," is more like it.)

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On This Day

08:40 Friday, 31 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.25°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 209

I'm playing with something that may or may not be useful/interesting. (Who am I kidding? It's neither useful nor interesting to anyone other than I (me?))

At the sidebar, I've deleted the micro.blog link since I'm no longer really maintaining that site. (And that's no shade on micro.blog, I think it's a fine service. I just don't need it anymore since I'm not syndicating my "content" to a Mastodon instance.)

In its place, I've created an Agent in Tinderbox that will look at today's date and gather any posts from that day in years past. That'll be published as a page, and it'll change each day. Some days it may even be blank. I just went through all the Januarys that I've posted going back to 2013 and I didn't post anything in January in a couple of them.

Similarly, during the years when I was active on Facebook and Twitter, there's less here in the marmot.

I've been playing with the Groundhog Day Tinderbox file, and I may create an On This Day in Groundhog Day page, which feels easier than re-publishing all of Groundhog Day here in nice-marmot.

Though that's kind of on the horizon too.

Now let's see if it worked.

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Tonight's Sky

18:24 Thursday, 30 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 61.63°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 45

Grabbed my other black XZ-1 to step outside and capture this. Probably doesn't do it justice. My white XZ-1 gave up the ghost last week. I have one more spare, a "Titanium" version, still boxed. My original black XZ-1 is at Winterfell.

Like Panasonic, "Just slightly ahead of my time"

18:15 Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 62.29°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 77% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 180

(Panasonic's 70s slogan used the plural possessive pronoun, "our.")

Giving too much attention to my iPhone, I happened upon this interview with Nick Carr in The Atlantic. (Apple News+ link. Apologies.)

Imagine my delight when I read this:

When you speed up the exchange of messages and information beyond a certain point, you actually overwhelm the mind’s ability to make sense of it all in a deep way. To keep up with the flow, people have to sacrifice emotional and intellectual depth. We become reactive and impulsive, and that ends up triggering misunderstanding and animosity and, in general, misanthropy.

Spot on, I'd say.

That said, I recognize that much, if not all, of my online consumption is problematic. I haven't figured out how to solve that yet, but "the first step" and all that...

(I'd write a longer post, but dinner is ready. I'd already outlined much of it in my head. But dinner, dishes and then TV. Maybe tomorrow. Plus, I want to post a pic I just took because the sunset, well, the sky anyway, demanded my attention.)

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Test Sat

09:55 Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.63°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 42

Okay, that all worked. I see at least one other thing I need to clean up. It's not affecting production, but it's a vestigial attribute I created when I was trying another approach and it may lead to confusion in my dotage.

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Test Drive

09:51 Thursday, 30 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 61.63°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 31

Took this yesterday morning since I was a few minutes early for my blood donation and they wouldn't let me on the bus until precisely 0800.

Let's see if this works.

Further Investigation

09:20 Thursday, 30 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.13°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 518

The preceding test was unsatisfactory.

What I've been doing is kind of tightening up the marmot's, well, "structure" for lack of a better term.

At the outset of the marmot, posting a photo was largely a manually-intensive affair, mitigated somewhat by copy-and-paste.

Much of that has since been automated, and I've learned a great deal about Tinderbox in the process.

In my earlier efforts, I'd intended to use an export template to fashion all of the html involved in displaying an image in a post. For reasons I don't recall (I didn't make notes to my "future self."), I struggled with getting the export template for a photo post to work correctly. My work-around was to include the html to display an image in the $Text attribute of a photo prototype note, which note is created by an AppleScript that asks for input from me, does some work in the Photos app and exports the image, then creates a new post (a note) in Tinderbox using a photo prototype note.

Every note created with a prototype, inherits the characteristics of that prototype. You can include html code in the $Text attribute of a note, and it will render as html at time of export. But having html code in the body of your post's text is an unattractive sort of kludge, given all the other facilities Tinderbox affords in templates.

So this morning, in lieu of blaming the Orange One for the tragic aircraft collision over the Potomac (Of course he's not to blame, but since he blamed Biden for essentially everything, I think we all owe him the same treatment.) I looked for something else to occupy my time and attention, and this is what it landed on.

I'm delighted to say that I was able to sort out the export template rather quickly, for blog posts in general. The result is visible in the preceding post. Where I seem to be struggling somewhat...

Oh! Light bulb goes off...

Figured it out. Tinderbox is case-sensitive, and I was testing against a lower-case spelling of a prototype name, when it included an upper-case letter in the name. Oldest mistake in the book.

So I guess I'll do another photo post and see if I've fixed it.

But I guess I should tell you what wasn't working...

If you're reading this in an RSS feed reader (And why aren't you?), you might recognize the problem. The photo of the buzzard didn't appear in the RSS feed, whereas before, they always would.

I had to add an export condition in the newsitem_rss template, to include the image URL if the post descended from a p_Photo prototype. (Note the uppercase "P".) The previous version of the newsitem_rss template only included the $Text of the post, which wasn't a problem before since the image html was embedded in the text. I needed to tell the template to create that html from the relevant attributes if it was a photo post, i.e. had the prototype p_Photo.

Anyway, now to test it.

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Black Vulture Test

09:12 Thursday, 30 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 54.84°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 97% Wind: 5.03mph
Words: 11

Doing some modifications on the marmot. This is a test post.

Breaking Ties

10:09 Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 59.74°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 158

Just sent emails to the St Johns Riverkeeper, the Matanzas Riverkeeper and our local Public Radio station, WJCT, cancelling my recurring donations. That'll keep another $240 in my wallet each month.

These are all valuable organizations doing important work in the public interest, and naturally they're focused on Florida. We will no longer be Florida residents. This was genuinely difficult, and I've been putting it off all month. I've met many of the people who work at these organizations, and I know how much they rely on public support.

As we get to know our surroundings in New York, I'll be contributing to similar organizations there.

I would encourage anyone to look into non-profits or other organizations doing work that you think is important, and to make some effort to support them financially. The chaos agent presently in office has made such support more important than ever, which has made my actions this morning even more difficult.

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On the Bright Side

07:10 Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.33°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 71

At some point in the accelerating collapse of our civilization, the remnants of humanity will lack the necessary resource surpluses and time to develop intensely-felt opinions that compel them to endlessly seek their validation and to ruthlessly and brutally defend them, because they have "principles!"

It'll be a shame what happens to oral hygiene and dentistry, but you have to take the bad with the good.

The beat goes on...

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Isotropic

14:10 Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 71.1°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 56% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 382

I asked the iOS version for some clarification on what "isotropic" means in the context of a single molecule: "Is re-radiation of IR energy from a single CO2 molecule “isotropic,” and what does that mean in the context of a single molecule of CO2?"

Here's the response, it makes sense to me.

===========

The term "isotropic" in the context of radiation means that the radiation is emitted equally in all directions. When applied to the re-radiation of IR energy from a single CO₂ molecule, it implies that the molecule emits photons uniformly in all spatial directions.

1. Detailed Explanation:

1. **Isotropic Emission**:

- For a single CO₂ molecule, the re-radiation of absorbed IR energy is theoretically isotropic. This means that the probability of emitting a photon is the same in all directions. There is no preferred direction for the emission.

2. **Quantum Mechanical Perspective**:

- From a quantum mechanical standpoint, the emission of photons by an excited molecule is governed by the dipole radiation pattern. For a single molecule, this pattern is spherical, indicating isotropic emission.

3. **Practical Considerations**:

- In a real-world scenario, the presence of other molecules and the overall structure of the atmosphere can influence the directionality of emitted radiation. However, for an isolated single CO₂ molecule, the emission is isotropic.

4. **Implications for the Greenhouse Effect**:

- The isotropic nature of re-radiation means that when a CO₂ molecule emits a photon, it can do so in any direction, including back toward the Earth's surface or out into space. This isotropic emission is crucial for the greenhouse effect, as it ensures that a significant portion of the re-radiated energy is directed back toward the Earth, contributing to warming.

5. **Ensemble of Molecules**:

- While a single molecule emits isotropically, the collective behavior of many CO₂ molecules in the atmosphere can lead to more complex radiation patterns. The overall effect is a net transfer of energy that influences the Earth's energy balance.

1. Summary:

In the context of a single CO₂ molecule, isotropic re-radiation means that the molecule emits IR energy uniformly in all directions. This isotropic emission is a fundamental aspect of how CO₂ and other greenhouse gases contribute to the greenhouse effect by ensuring that a portion of the re-radiated energy is directed back toward the Earth's surface.

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Hello, I Must Be Going

14:03 Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.72°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 406

It's the absorption and re-radiation of IR energy that makes CO2 a "greenhouse gas." I asked the iOS version of R1: "Is IR energy absorbed in a CO2 molecule re-emitted as a single photon, or some number of photons, depending on the amount of energy absorbed?"

Here's the reply:

When a CO₂ molecule absorbs infrared (IR) energy, the re-emission of that energy depends on the specific quantum mechanical processes involved. Here's a detailed explanation:

1. **Absorption and Excitation**:

- When a CO₂ molecule absorbs IR radiation, it typically excites a vibrational mode of the molecule. The energy absorbed corresponds to the difference between specific quantized energy levels of the molecule.

2. **Re-emission Process**:

- The excited CO₂ molecule can return to its ground state by emitting one or more photons. The nature of this emission depends on the energy levels involved and the selection rules governing the transitions.

3. **Single Photon Emission**:

- In many cases, the molecule will emit a single photon with energy equal to the difference between the excited state and the ground state. This is the most straightforward process and is governed by the principle of energy conservation.

4. **Multiple Photon Emission**:

- In some cases, the molecule may undergo a cascade of transitions through intermediate energy levels, emitting multiple photons in the process. Each photon emitted in such a cascade will have less energy than the originally absorbed photon, corresponding to the energy differences between the intermediate states.

5. **Energy Conservation**:

- The total energy of the emitted photons must equal the energy of the absorbed photon. This is a fundamental principle of quantum mechanics and ensures that energy is conserved in the process.

6. **Collisional De-excitation**:

- In the atmosphere, CO₂ molecules can also lose energy through collisions with other molecules (like N₂ or O₂) rather than emitting photons. This process, known as collisional de-excitation, transfers the energy to kinetic energy of the surrounding gas molecules, contributing to the warming of the atmosphere.

In summary, the IR energy absorbed by a CO₂ molecule can be re-emitted as a single photon or multiple photons, depending on the specific energy levels and transitions involved. The key point is that the total energy of the emitted photons (if any) will always equal the energy of the absorbed photon, ensuring energy conservation. Additionally, some of the absorbed energy may be transferred to other molecules through collisions rather than being re-emitted as photons.

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R1 14b in Ollama

13:31 Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.63°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 1368

Same question as on iOS: "What causes CO2 to re-radiate IR radiation that it absorbs in the atmosphere?"

The difference in answers seems to show that the web-based version isn't "showing its work," or "reasoning." I don't know if there's a way I might have configured the model running under Ollama to skip showing its reasoning and just offer the answer. The answers are similar, but not identical. The long answer here does suggest additional lines of inquiry, though not necessarily within this R1 model itself.

I'm satisfied that the answer is probably mostly correct, which is to say that it doesn't contradict anything I'd read before. I'm troubled by the first part of Answer 3, "The absorbed energy leads to an equilibrium between incoming absorption and outgoing emission." I think it's poorly worded. What it is suggesting to me, is that absorbing IR energy leads to a temporary disequilibrium in the sense that other molecules of CO2 or other atmospheric gases are in a lower energy state (temperature), which ultimately permits that absorbed energy to be re-emitted to restore the local region to a state closer to equilibrium, increasing entropy.

Answer 4 contradicts the answer in from the iOS version. " - CO2 molecules re-emit IR radiation in all directions. Some of this radiation is directed back into space, while some is radiated downward towards the Earth's surface. The balance between these emissions determines whether the net effect is warming or cooling of the atmosphere."

The iOS version seems clearer: " - The energy is re-radiated as IR radiation in all directions. This process is isotropic, meaning the radiation is emitted equally in all directions, including back toward the Earth's surface and out into space."

I'm not clear exactly on either. If the IR energy is emitted from one CO2 molecule in an excited state as a single IR photon (i.e. a "particle"), then, that one IR photon has a direction, and it may be toward or away from earth. But if the energy is radiated as some number of photons (depending on the energy state), and the process is isotropic, then perhaps it just means all photons emitted have an equal likelihood of being emitted in any direction, and some go toward earth and some go toward space.

Anyway, here's the answer from the "lobotomized" model. I've asked the iOS model for clarification and I'll post that next.

===========

>>> What causes CO2 to re-radiate IR radiation that it absorbs in the atmosphere?

Alright, so I'm trying to understand why CO2 re-emits infrared (IR) radiation after absorbing it. I know that greenhouse gases like CO2 play a crucial role in trapping heat in the atmosphere, but the specifics of how they do this are a bit fuzzy for me.

First, I need to recall what happens when the sun shines on the Earth. The sun emits a wide range of electromagnetic radiation, including visible light and infrared radiation.

When this sunlight reaches the Earth's surface, some of it is absorbed by the ground or other surfaces. This absorption causes the molecules on the surface to heat up, and these heated molecules then emit infrared radiation as they return to lower energy states.

Now, greenhouse gases like CO2 in the atmosphere interact with this emitted infrared radiation. I think it has something to do with how the molecular bonds in CO2 vibrate when they absorb IR radiation. The bonds between carbon and oxygen atoms must be able to stretch or bend at frequencies that match the wavelengths of the incoming IR radiation.

But why does CO2 re-emit this radiation? Is it because after absorbing the energy, the molecules eventually lose it by emitting photons again? Maybe it's related to the thermal equilibrium process—molecules absorb energy until they reach a higher temperature, and then they release energy to return to lower states. But I'm not entirely sure about the exact mechanism.

I also wonder if there are other factors that influence how CO2 re-emits IR radiation. For example, does the concentration of CO2 in different parts of the atmosphere affect this process? Or is it more dependent on molecular properties like mass and bond strength?

Additionally, I recall something about greenhouse gases selectively absorbing certain wavelengths of IR radiation. Does this selection affect how they re-emit the energy they've absorbed? Maybe CO2 molecules emit radiation at specific wavelengths based on their vibrational modes.

I'm also curious about the direction in which CO2 re-emits the IR radiation. Do these emitted photons go back into space, or are they directed downward towards the Earth's surface? I think this might influence whether the net effect is cooling or warming of the atmosphere.

Furthermore, I wonder how the presence of other greenhouse gases like water vapor or methane affects the way CO2 re-emits IR radiation. Is there any interaction between these gases that influences their combined impact on the climate?

Overall, I need to break down the process step by step: absorption of IR by CO2 molecules, the molecular mechanisms behind energy storage, and the subsequent re-emission of IR radiation back into the atmosphere or space.

Maybe it's helpful to think about this in terms of quantum mechanics—how electrons in the molecules transition between energy levels when absorbing photons, and then how they return to lower levels by emitting new photons. This could explain why CO2 specifically is good at trapping heat.

I should also consider the concept of thermalization, where absorbed energy leads to increased molecular motion until equilibrium is reached, prompting the re-emission of radiation. Perhaps this process determines the overall efficiency of CO2 in trapping heat and contributing to global warming.

In summary, understanding why CO2 re-radiates IR after absorption involves looking at molecular vibrations, energy transitions, and the broader atmospheric dynamics that govern how these emissions contribute to Earth's climate.

• Understanding Why CO2 Re-Radiates Infrared (IR) Radiation After Absorption**

1. **Absorption of IR Radiation**:

- When CO2 molecules in the atmosphere encounter infrared radiation, their molecular bonds (specifically the C=O bonds) absorb this energy. This absorption occurs because the vibrational frequencies of these bonds match certain wavelengths of IR radiation.

2. **Energy Storage and Molecular Motion**:

- Upon absorbing IR energy, the CO2 molecules increase their internal energy. This results in increased molecular motion, such as vibrations and rotations, within the molecule.

3. **Thermal Equilibrium Process**:

- The absorbed energy leads to an equilibrium between incoming absorption and outgoing emission. As the molecules reach a higher temperature due to absorption, they eventually release energy by emitting photons (IR radiation) as they return to lower energy states.

4. **Direction of Re-emitted Radiation**:

- CO2 molecules re-emit IR radiation in all directions. Some of this radiation is directed back into space, while some is radiated downward towards the Earth's surface. The balance between these emissions determines whether the net effect is warming or cooling of the atmosphere.

5. **Quantum Mechanical Perspective**:

- From a quantum mechanics standpoint, electrons within CO2 molecules transition between energy levels when absorbing photons (IR radiation). These transitions are specific to the vibrational modes of the molecular bonds. As the molecules return to lower energy states, they emit new photons at these specific wavelengths.

6. **Effect of Molecular Vibrations**:

- The unique vibrational modes of CO2 contribute to its selective absorption and re-emission of IR radiation. This selectivity determines how effectively CO2 traps heat in the atmosphere.

7. **Interaction with Other Greenhouse Gases**:

- The presence of other greenhouse gases like water vapor and methane can influence the overall energy balance in the atmosphere. While CO2 primarily interacts with specific wavelengths, the combined effect of all greenhouse gases complicates the climate system's behavior.

8. **Thermalization and Climate Impact**:

- Thermalization refers to the process by which absorbed energy is distributed among molecules until equilibrium is reached. This process affects how efficiently CO2 traps heat, contributing to global warming by trapping IR radiation that would otherwise escape into space.

In conclusion, CO2 re-emits IR radiation after absorption due to molecular vibrations and energy transitions, influenced by quantum mechanical principles and atmospheric dynamics. This process plays a significant role in trapping heat and affecting Earth's climate.

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R1 On iOS

13:29 Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.63°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 328

I installed the R1 app on my iPhone 16 and asked it, "What causes CO2 to re-radiate IR radiation that it absorbs in the atmosphere?"

The reply was nearly instantaneous:

CO₂ re-radiates infrared (IR) energy it has absorbed in the atmosphere due to its molecular properties and the principles of quantum mechanics. Here's a detailed explanation:

1. **Absorption of IR Energy**:

- CO₂ molecules have vibrational modes that can be excited by specific wavelengths of infrared radiation. When IR energy from the Earth's surface or the Sun matches these wavelengths, CO₂ molecules absorb the energy, causing their bonds to vibrate more vigorously.

2. **Excitation and Relaxation**:

- After absorbing IR energy, CO₂ molecules are in an excited state. According to quantum mechanics, these molecules cannot remain in this high-energy state indefinitely. They eventually return to a lower energy state by releasing the absorbed energy.

3. **Re-radiation**:

- The energy is re-radiated as IR radiation in all directions. This process is isotropic, meaning the radiation is emitted equally in all directions, including back toward the Earth's surface and out into space.

4. **Greenhouse Effect**:

- The re-radiation of IR energy by CO₂ and other greenhouse gases contributes to the greenhouse effect. Some of the re-radiated energy is directed back toward the Earth's surface, warming it. This process helps maintain the Earth's temperature at a level suitable for life.

5. **Thermal Equilibrium**:

- The Earth's climate system seeks thermal equilibrium, where the energy absorbed from the Sun is balanced by the energy radiated back into space. CO₂ and other greenhouse gases play a crucial role in this balance by trapping and re-radiating IR energy, thus influencing the Earth's temperature.

In summary, CO₂ re-radiates IR energy due to its ability to absorb specific wavelengths of IR radiation, become excited, and then release that energy as it returns to a lower energy state. This re-radiation process is fundamental to the greenhouse effect and the Earth's energy balance.

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Keeps Me Busy

13:24 Monday, 27 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 70.61°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 57% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 98

To the best of my knowledge, this is the only app that has ever indicated all cores running. I asked R1, "What causes CO2 to re-radiate IR radiation that it absorbs in the atmosphere?"

It spent a long time doing the little cursor animation. I went ahead and asked the online version from the iOS app and got an answer instantly. It took over 10 minutes to generate this answer, but I wasn't timing it. I'm going from the time of the screenshot and the time I heard the fans spin down.

I'll post the answers separately.

Chatting With R1 About Greenhouse Gases

13:00 Monday, 27 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 70.59°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 1610

Even though there are better/"more important" things I ought to be doing, and since at least portions of the world seem to be losing their mind over R1, I download Ollama and installed the 14b R1 model on my iMac, unsure if it would run.

It does. Everything takes place in the Terminal. It responds slowly, like watching a 300bps modem text stream, if you're old enough to remember what that was like.

It doesn't just give you an answer, it walks through it's "reasoning," which I'm uncertain about at the moment. I haven't tried to do any deeper dives, and it doesn't seem to remember from one answer to the next.

If I do this very often going forward, I should probably find a way to display this in the text so it stands out.

Anyway, here are two questions I asked about CO2 and H2O as greenhouse gases. I'm reasonably certain the answers are correct. But just like AI, I'm an authority and I make all this shit up. You should do your own reasoning. Disclaimer concluded, here it is:

>>> Why is CO2 considered a "greenhouse gas"?

Okay, so I'm trying to figure out why CO2 is called a greenhouse gas. I know that greenhouse gases are important because they trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to global warming, but I'm not exactly sure how CO2 specifically does this.

First, I remember learning about the greenhouse effect. It's like when the Earth's atmosphere traps some of the Sun's heat, preventing it from all escaping back into space, which keeps our planet warm. Without greenhouse gases, the Earth would be a lot colder and probably uninhabitable.

Now, CO2 is one of these greenhouse gases along with others like methane and water vapor. But why is that? I think it has something to do with how molecules absorb and emit infrared radiation. So, when the Sun's light reaches Earth, some of it is absorbed by the ground and converted into heat. This heat then tries to escape back into space as infrared radiation.

CO2 molecules in the atmosphere must interact with this infrared radiation somehow. I'm guessing that CO2 has a structure that allows it to absorb certain wavelengths of infrared. Carbon dioxide is made up of one carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms, right? The bonds between C and O might vibrate at frequencies that match the wavelengths of the infrared radiation being emitted by the Earth.

When this happens, the CO2 molecules trap the heat because they absorb it and then re-emit it in different directions. This trapping effect leads to a warming of the atmosphere. So, more CO2 means more absorption and emission of infrared, which results in a stronger greenhouse effect and higher global temperatures.

But wait, why isn't nitrogen or oxygen considered a greenhouse gas if their molecules are also absorbing? Oh, right! Nitrogen (N2) and oxygen (O2) have very strong bonds that don't vibrate at the same frequencies as the infrared radiation. So they don't absorb much of it, making them not effective greenhouse gases.

So, CO2's ability to absorb specific infrared wavelengths makes it a key player in trapping heat. This is why increasing levels of CO2 due to human activities like burning fossil fuels are causing global temperatures to rise and leading to climate change.

I think I've got the basic idea: CO2 traps heat by absorbing infrared radiation that would otherwise escape into space, contributing to the greenhouse effect and global warming.

CO2 is considered a greenhouse gas because it effectively absorbs and re-emits infrared radiation. This process traps heat in the atmosphere, leading to the greenhouse effect.

Here's a breakdown:

1. **Greenhouse Effect**: The natural trapping of heat by greenhouse gases like CO2 keeps Earth warm. Without them, our planet would be much colder.

2. **Absorption of Infrared Radiation**: CO2 molecules (CO₂) have bonds that vibrate at frequencies matching certain infrared wavelengths. This allows them to absorb heat energy emitted by the Earth after it absorbs sunlight.

3. **Heat Trapping**: Once CO2 absorbs this heat, it re-emits the radiation in various directions. Some of this radiation heads back towards space, while some is directed back towards the Earth's surface or higher into the atmosphere, trapping heat and raising temperatures.

4. **Comparison with Other Gases**: Unlike nitrogen (N₂) and oxygen (O₂), which don't absorb significant infrared due to their bond structures, CO2's molecular structure enables it to trap heat effectively.

5. **Impact of Increased CO2 Levels**: Human activities, such as burning fossil fuels, have increased atmospheric CO2 levels, amplifying the greenhouse effect and contributing to global warming and climate change.

In summary, CO2's unique ability to absorb infrared radiation makes it a key greenhouse gas, playing a significant role in regulating Earth's temperature.

>>> How does CO2 compare with H2O as a greenhouse gas?

Alright, so I'm trying to understand how carbon dioxide (CO2) compares to water vapor (H2O) when it comes to being a greenhouse gas. I know both are considered greenhouse gases, but I've heard that CO2 is often discussed more in the context of climate change. But why? Is it because CO2 has a stronger effect on the greenhouse effect?

First, I need to understand what makes a substance a greenhouse gas. From what I remember, greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere by absorbing and re-emitting infrared radiation. So, when the sun shines on the Earth, some of that energy is absorbed by the ground and then radiated back as infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases like CO2 and H2O absorb this infrared radiation and prevent it from escaping into space, thereby warming the planet.

But how do CO2 and H2O compare in their abilities to trap heat? I think it might have to do with their molecular structures and how they interact with infrared radiation. Water vapor is a molecule made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom, while carbon dioxide consists of one carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms.

I recall that water vapor has a larger impact on the greenhouse effect because it's more abundant in the atmosphere compared to CO2. But even though there's more water vapor,

I've heard that CO2 is more effective at trapping heat per molecule. So, despite being less concentrated, CO2 plays a significant role in global warming.

Another thing to consider is how these gases respond to temperature changes. Water vapor concentration in the atmosphere depends on temperature—when it's warmer, there's more

water vapor. This means that as the Earth gets hotter due to increased CO2 levels, more water vapor is released into the atmosphere, which further enhances the greenhouse effect. It's like a feedback loop.

On the other hand, CO2 concentrations are more stable in the long term and aren't directly dependent on temperature like water vapor. This makes CO2 a primary driver of climate change because its effects last much longer without being as easily reversible.

I also think about the different wavelengths of infrared radiation each gas absorbs. CO2 has strong absorption bands that don't overlap with water vapor, which means they trap heat in different parts of the spectrum. This complementary effect can lead to a more significant overall trapping of heat compared to either gas alone.

But I'm not entirely sure how much each contributes compared to the other. I know that water vapor accounts for about 60% of the greenhouse effect, while CO2 is around 25%.

However, since water vapor concentrations adjust quickly with temperature, its contribution remains somewhat balanced, whereas CO2 accumulates over time and leads to a more persistent warming effect.

So, in summary, both CO2 and H2O are important greenhouse gases, but CO2 has a longer-lasting impact because it doesn't depend on atmospheric conditions like water vapor does.

Its ability to trap heat over extended periods makes it a critical factor in driving global climate change.

• Comparison of CO2 and H2O as Greenhouse Gases**

1. **Greenhouse Gas Definition**: Both CO2 and H2O are greenhouse gases that absorb and re-emit infrared radiation, contributing to the Earth's temperature regulation.

2. **Molecular Structure and Function**:

- **CO2**: Consists of one carbon atom bonded to two oxygen atoms. It has strong absorption bands in the infrared spectrum, trapping heat effectively.

- **H2O**: Made up of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Water vapor absorbs a broad range of infrared wavelengths.

3. **Concentration and Abundance**:

- **Water Vapor (H2O)**: More abundant in the atmosphere compared to CO2. It plays a significant role in the greenhouse effect due to its higher concentration.

- **Carbon Dioxide (CO2)**: Less concentrated than water vapor but more effective at trapping heat per molecule.

4. **Impact on Climate**:

- **Water Vapor**: Its concentration is highly dependent on temperature, leading to a feedback loop where warmer temperatures increase water vapor release, enhancing the greenhouse effect.

- **Carbon Dioxide**: Has a longer-lasting impact as its concentrations remain stable and accumulate over time, driving persistent global warming.

5. **Infrared Absorption**:

- **CO2**: Strong absorption bands that complement those of H2O, leading to a more significant trapping of heat in different parts of the spectrum.

- **H2O**: Absorbs a broad range of infrared wavelengths, contributing to the overall greenhouse effect.

6. **Contribution to Greenhouse Effect**:

- **Water Vapor**: Accounts for about 60% of the greenhouse effect but is more responsive to temperature changes.

- **Carbon Dioxide**: Contributes around 25% and has a more persistent warming effect due to its stability and accumulation.

In conclusion, while water vapor has a larger immediate impact on the greenhouse effect due to its higher concentration, carbon dioxide's longer-lasting effects make it a primary driver of climate change.

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Little Blue

12:56 Monday, 27 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 70.59°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 58% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 53

The sun was out today, and I took a little walk this morning. This little blue heron flew up and perched on the fence just as I got to the back gate, and was kind enough to remain and pose a bit for me. The OM-5 with the 12-200mm super-zoom.

"5 Physics Equations Everyone Should Know"

06:55 Sunday, 26 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.75°F Pressure: 1031hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 0mph
Words: 1187

I spotted this in Apple News+, but here's the web link. It's a no-value-added, kind of click-bait title for a low-value-added small attention sump. This would be one of those occasions when I'd welcome Apple "intelligence" to summarize the article so I could paste that in here so you wouldn't have to read it. What sucked me in were the click-bait keywords "everyone" and "should," paired with a topic I'm generally interested in, "physics." So, shame on me.

Anyway, in lieu of summarizing the article, here are the five equations the author believes "everyone should know."

Newton's Second Law

The wave equation

Maxwell's equation(s)

Schrödinger’s Equation

Einstein's Mass-Energy Equivalence

The article opens with:

All the tech we rely on, from cars to smartphones, was engineered using physics. You don’t need to know the science to use these things. But a well-rounded human should understand at least some of the key concepts—along with some music, art, history, and economics.

Really? No math? No biology? No ecology? Chemistry?

As I mentioned, it's a low-value, throw away piece of click-bait.

If there were five physics equations "everyone should know," I wouldn't pick these.

Here are my choices:

The first one, Newton's Second, is fine. F=ma (And you can't push a rope.) can get you pretty far in life.

For the second one, I'd pick the kinetic energy equation. KE=½mv^2.

Why is that important? That little exponential there. That "velocity squared" term. If there's one thing I wish everyone understood, it would be the mathematical concept of exponentials, because they pretty much define our experience of "reality," often to our surprise and regret.

In the case of kinetic energy, that's the amount of work that can be done by a body in motion, where by "work," I mean "damage."

So you buy your kid an e-bike. Before, they could peddle along at maybe 10 or 12 miles per hour. With their e-bike, they may be peddling along at two or three times that speed. Because of the exponential velocity term, when they inevitably crash their bodies will experience four to nine times as much damage and injury. How many parents have an intuitive understanding of that?

Likewise when you choose to drive your car at 45mph in a 30mph zone. If you glance at your phone and hit a light pole, or a kid, you're not going to do 50% more damage. You're going to do over 200% more damage! (225%, to be "exact.") How many drivers have an intuitive understanding of that?

The third one I'd choose is electrical, but not Maxwell's equations. P=VI, that is, power equals volts times amperage, usually measured in Watts. This can come in handy sometimes if you have a device that labels its power requirements in terms of volts and amps, you can figure out how much power it uses. If you have a clamp-on ammeter, you can measure current and determine power. (The meter might even tell you.)

I think people "should" have a general understanding of how much "power" or energy they're using. If you asked people, which uses more energy in a month, your house or your car? How many would have any idea? (The ones who have electric cars probably do. And it depends on the size of your house. A mansion versus an apartment, or an "average" house.)

For the fourth one, I kind of went back and forth between the Law of Mechanical Advantage, and the drag equation. I think the law of mechanical advantage is something most people kind of get or remember. They may have been introduced to simple machines in science class. But that'll be an important one to know when "the machine stops," and we're going to be relying on muscles for power.

But I'm going to settle on the drag equation, because it's another exponential that people don't appreciate.

D = 0.5 * Cd * A * ρ * V^2

where:

- D is the drag force,

- Cd is the drag coefficient (which varies depending on the shape of the object),

- A is the cross-sectional area of the object,

- ρ is the density of the fluid (air, in this case),

- V is the velocity of the object relative to the fluid.

Looks complicated, but don't worry about anything but our old friend v-squared there at the end.

When you're driving at a constant (highway) speed, the engine is delivering power to the wheels to overcome two forces, rolling resistance and aerodynamic drag. Drag varies as the square of the velocity (speed). So 80mph is 14% faster than 70mph. How much more drag is there at 80mph than at 70mph? It's not 14% more... It's 14%-squared more! 1.14^2=1.3. That's 30% more drag at 80mph than at 70mph, regardless of anything else you care to change, like the drag coefficient or the cross-sectional area of the vehicle.

So, if your fuel economy is 30mpg at 70mph, it's going to be 21mpg at 80mph! Your fuel economy doesn't vary linearly with your driving speed. It varies exponentially, once you get up to highway speeds. I don't think people appreciate that, even if they care about their fuel economy (or battery range).

ICE have a speed at which they're most efficient. Generally, this is lower than even legal highway speeds. So you're starting out with less thermodynamic efficiency at highway speeds, while simultaneously demanding exponentially more power. It's a double-whammy on fuel economy. At very low speeds, rolling resistance may a greater contributor to forces resisting the car's motion.

Finally, to slow down an ICE vehicle (not a hybrid with regenerative braking), you're converting motion (kinetic energy) into heat (thermal energy). I don't think many people appreciate this either. Some of that heat you extracted from your fuel, you must convert back into heat with your brakes.

Chemical energy=>heat energy=>kinetic energy=>heat energy. (If you're slowing down without using the brakes, you're relying on air resistance which is essentially transferring kinetic energy from the vehicle to the air, warming it. Regenerative braking captures some of that energy and stores it in a battery in a hybrid.)

The point is, if you care about fuel economy or energy efficiency, don't speed.

Finally, the last physics equation everyone should know is the Second Law of Thermodynamics:

S'-S>=0.

Entropy.

That is, "Things tend to go to shit. Inevitably."

Much of our lives, and the activity of our civilization is serving as Maxwell's little demons, trying to create, preserve or restore order. Rowing against the tide. The less effort we put into keeping things in order, the sooner they go to shit.

As we are witnessing.

I always have a little trepidation posting these kind of posts where there's math. It's been a long time since I've had to do this sort of thing "for real." It's possible I've screwed something up here, though I don't think so. Anyway, as always, I'm an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking.

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Busting the "Myth" Myth

09:38 Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 40.23°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 53% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 186

Turning our attention away from people behaving badly, what's the deal with headline writers these days?

A new view, or take, on a present state of affairs bubbles to the surface and becomes something of a dominant, or at least accepted idea.

Wait six months (Probably less, in this age of intense competition for attention.) and watch for all the headlines announcing that the idea was a myth all along.

A new rule of thumb that I have for choosing what to read is to exclude anything with the word "myth" in the headline.

It's a lame shortcut. Just a lazy plea for attention.

They probably have metrics on which "keywords" drive the most clicks, and "myth" is probably up there. I suspect one of the present uses of AI, or one that will be employed soon, is to write headlines for articles that will generate the most "engagement."

We're all being trained and conditioned and surveilled.

Maybe the answer is to abandon the internet entirely. Buy a mimeograph machine and mail out newsletters and 'zines like they did in the olden days.

Who's with me?!

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On Cameras

08:29 Friday, 24 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 33.93°F Pressure: 1027hPa Humidity: 64% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 316

One of the virtues of having a rather inconspicuous blog is that when you feel that anxiety that you may not be exhibiting sufficient allyship (Spell check insists this is not a word. It's probably right.), you can relax because nobody reads your blog anyway, and you don't have comments enabled and people are too lazy (busy?) to email because they don't get the reward of seeing their scolding ("scalding"?) recriminations instantly posted on your site.

(For tips on how to do that properly, please refer to this handy guide. H/T Jack.)

Anyway, (I promised myself I wasn't going to comment on the current chaos. I failed. Also, "Jesus loves you. Everyone else thinks you're an asshole.") given the rather fraught nature of browsing the social dimensions of the interwebs these days, pointing out "safe content" may be something of a public service.

With that thought in mind, may I direct your attention to this latest video from motor-mouth Mark McMahon, Australian vlogger/photographer, wherein he shares his recent experiences shooting the the old Fuji X30 digicam? Content Warning: There is a brief "political" moment, which is worth seeing. And there is also a reaction to a comment/criticism from a viewer. This is a longer video than I would normally recommend, but it's entertaining and there are some interesting images.

I took the shot above with a Fuji X20, nearly identical to the X30 except it had an optical viewfinder instead of the evf in the X30, and it lacked a tilting screen. They shared, I think, an identical ⅔" X-Trans sensor, and the same sharp, bright zoom. I did not enjoy shooting with this camera, so I sold it. But it made nice images. This is a JPEG SOOC from two and a half years ago. The subject is my daughter, Caitie, "hanging out" with her dad.

Be careful out there.

Solo

05:52 Friday, 24 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 32.81°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 511

I think the present streaming model of long-form narrative series kind of sucks. I get that people have other things to do in their lives, so it's probably impossible to commit to a four-year-long saga (Which is what? 30 to 40 hours of screen-time?) that probably takes a year and a half to make, if you tried to do it in one go. (Though how much of that time is actors and crews and sets, and how much is post-production CGI, I don't know.)

But if it's a worthwhile story, I get emotionally engaged with the characters; and to fuck with my feelings, er, I mean, to keep me engaged, they always end the "season" on a cliffhanger!

Anyway, all of that is preamble to saying that I'm really enjoying Silo. Not so much the story itself, but the characters and the performances. I give the story a C+, but it's a great scaffold for some marvelous performances.

Steve Zahn's Solo was, I thought, amazing. Rebecca Ferguson is also outstanding, but Zahn was a brilliant casting choice.

Anyway, now I'm disappointed that I have to wait for who knows how long to find out what happens, and if we'll ever see Solo again. And I loved how they handled that in the story.

The show is just filled with fascinating characters and very talented actors and I care about all of them. Which is pretty unusual for a TV show.

I think the Slow Horses model has a lot going for it, where at least a complete story is told in one "season," (that word feels meaningless now) with enough loose ends to offer some interesting through-lines for the next "season." I've been re-watching Slow Horses, just because, again, it's a remarkable cast of characters and a tremendous cast.

I watched the first two episodes of Prime Target last night and I was like, "Meh."

I mean, in the opening scene, I just knew there was going to be an explosion. I thought it was going to be a bombing, later revealed to be a gas explosion - which nobody smelled. It uncovered an underground, what, building? Chamber?

That nobody found when they were putting in, oh, say, gas lines? They don't have plumbing in Iraq?

Not a great way to draw me in.

And the title of the show is just too cliché. Like a network TV series, not a premium effort on a premiere streaming service.

We'll see how it goes, but the whole thing brought to mind that Erik Larson cartoon with the bear in the woods hiding behind the tree with two hunters visible in the background. The caption is the bear, "Why are they after me? Why do they want to kill me? Must think.. Must think!"

I probably got that wrong, but I hope you get the idea. Whenever there's a story where mysterious or shadowy forces are pursuing an unknowing target with lethal intent, I always think of that cartoon. Pretty much destroyed the whole genre for me.

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Investments in Social Capital

07:09 Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 34.21°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 248

There was a major fire in Ovid, NY the night before last. One of the businesses that were lost was the Big M Supermarket.

We had shopped there many, many times when we stayed on Cayuga Lake. It was unlike any "modern" grocery store. We had a Big M in Canastota, NY when I was growing up. Many of my high school classmates had jobs there. It was called Cerio's Big M. The same vibe at this place.

Ovid is a charming little village, and it's not some upscale, gentrified hipster enclave. It's just regular people. It's not especially close to Burdett, where we're moving to, but I still feel some kind of connection to the place. Partly because of the name, partly because of the many times we went there for groceries.

Above the store were a bunch of apartments, one is where the fire started. Some kind of charging device I guess. I thought it might have been a space heater, given the frigid temperatures. Anyway, no one was killed or injured, so that's a good thing.

I sent some money to the Catholic Charities of the Finger Lakes. Not because I'm feeling especially Catholic, just because they were mentioned as one of the organizations accepting donations. And I'm pretty confident they'll get it where it'll do the most good.

We're all in this together. Everything we have can be taken from us. All we ever really have is each other.

Try not to forget that.

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A Man on the Inside

07:04 Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 34.21°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 65

I finished bingeing this show last night. We'd started it back in December, but only watched the first two episodes. I watched the remaining six last night.

From time to time, it felt a bit too "on the nose," for its Boomer audience, but why wouldn't it? It's well done. Warm and funny. A worthwhile diversion from all the nonsense going on in the world.

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Born to Create?

06:15 Thursday, 23 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 34.95°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 84

Maybe so. But conditioned to consume.

After yesterday's GAS post, this dropped on the OM YouTube channel. Now to go do the frame-by-frame analysis. The front-mounted "creative" dial is from the PEN-F. As I suspected, this is its successor.

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Our Tools Shape Us

21:46 Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 35.92°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 759

The first part of that is, "We shape our tools, then..."

Jack pointed to this piece, which I found worthwhile. I'll return to it in a moment, but Kottke pointed to this academic paper, which seems like a kind of formal analysis or examination of an idea that I've often referred to before as "social hygiene."

Attention is a finite resource, and it behooves one to pay attention to what one is paying attention to. Which is hard, because attention is mostly guided by habit. So, mindfulness.

Anyway, back to "seeing the software."

All media influence how we think, socialize, work, and participate in society. Language mediates our experience of the other. The clock, first analog then digital, mediates our experience of time. The book mediates our experience of knowledge and narrative. The car mediates our experience of geography. Project management software mediates our experience of our work(load). Zoom mediates our experience of meeting.

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

Glib. Trite, perhaps. But it's true.

But I loved her reference to the car, because it doesn't just mediate our experience of geography. It mediates our social experience on the road as well.

Put someone alone in a car, and they become much like someone alone behind a keyboard on the interwebs.

People are great. Drivers are assholes.

Same thing with social media.

We lose something when we're essentially isolated in an artificial environment, whether that's the freeway on the commute home, or in "cyberspace," (or in an online first-person-shooter). We lose sight of the people we're interacting with. We think we're alone, because all the physical cues indicate that we are. There's no other person here! There's just that asshole in the other car, or in that other post.

"That bastard cut me off!" Yes. He deliberately intended to offend you because he feels that his trip home is more urgent than yours.

Behind the wheel, behind the keyboard, we feel like the center of the universe and everyone else must conform to our expectations or experience the wrath of a jealous and angry god! (I could have typed that in all caps to drive home the point, but I think you get it.)

You see a lot of that going around these days. Road rage. Rage on social media.

We're not with the people we're angry at, there are no social cues or inhibitions that might mediate that interaction in other ways.

And shit gets stupid, really fast. People start shooting live rounds at each other, real and virtual.

It's seriously fucked up.

Do you see your software?

No. You don't. Nor do you see yourself. Nor do you see the person you're angry at.

How could you? You're the center of the universe.

You just have this feeling.

That bullshit I pointed to yesterday is still going on. You'd think lives were at stake. It's just bullshit, and people are making themselves ill and they don't even know it. They're making others ill. They think that interior experience they're having is some righteous energy that's flowing outward from them illuminating the darkness and burning all the evil that lies before them. Kill it with fire!

It's sickness. It is seriously fucked up.

Social media will make you sick. Just like a diet of highly processed food.

We have not evolved to handle the kinds of ersatz "social" interactions mediated by "social media."

And the facility and rapidity that one can engage with social media posts encourages all the worst behaviors in our repertoire.

Look, if you can't quit social media, then learn to pay attention to your feelings.

Because feelings pass!

Everyone has feelings. They're all valid in the moment. But they pass. And you are not required by morality, or honor, or anything else to act on a feeling. You're certainly free to, but you'll probably wish you hadn't.

If you're still so inclined, after the feeling has passed, then you can examine it. What were you feeling? What were you believing? Was that true? How do you know? If it was, what can you do about it? If it wasn't?

Then let it go.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to get off social media. Any platform that encourages easy, short posts in the heat of the moment. That offers instant "engagement" with likes or replies. Get away from that!

It will fuck you up.

Figure it out, people.

Because it's making a shitty situation so much worse.

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Toll Phishing

11:23 Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 34°F Pressure: 1030hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 93

I follow a news service that covers the Finger Lakes and I noticed an article about the NY State Thruway Authority warning of phishing attempts from fake E-Z Pass accounts.

Which came in handy, because I just received one for Florida! We have an auto-load SunPass in the RAV4, so I know there are no outstanding tolls, and the car is registered in Mitzi's name, so they wouldn't be texting me anyway, even if, as I expect they do not, they texted people to collect tolls.

Stay sharp out there, folks.

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Power Glitch

10:31 Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 32.95°F Pressure: 1030hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 731

Well, it's cold in Florida, which is weird. I guess FPL's grid is irritable. We had two momentary power interruptions this morning and we're kind of in an unfavorable configuration here.

Powerwalls are at 20% capacity because there hasn't been any frickin' sun in the "Sunshine State" since a couple of days ago. They remain at 20% to provide backup power in the event of an outage. And our 7KW array is making about 500 watts because of this shitty weather.

It's hard to know how long the power was out, it was "momentary," though I don't know if that means seconds or a fraction of a second. Mitzi's and my iMacs both powered off. Previously, we've had interruptions where one or both machines would stay up. The heat pump was running, and that remained on. The glitch was enough to knock the fiberoptic connection offline, which wasn't immediately apparent.

The Tesla app kept showing power coming from the grid, but when the heat pump went off the power consumption didn't go down. The app usually updates within seconds of a load change. I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Is the power out, or is my system having a problem? In hindsight, it wasn't connected to the internet, so it couldn't update.

Eventually, the Tesla app updated, apparently the fiberoptic connection restored itself, and said an outage was underway and to reduce power consumption immediately because only 20% capacity remained. I turned the thermostat down to 66 and the heat pump shut off. I turned off the mini-split in the garage as well. That showed up immediately in the app. The array was making 500W and the house was using that much, so we were self-sufficient for the moment.

The app reported we had 3 hours of power at that rate of consumption. That seemed low, because it implies only 1.5kWh from the batteries at 20%. It should be about 4kWh at least, figuring ~2%/yr battery degradation, (5 years old now) minus a little extra because you can't run the batteries to exhaustion, they reserve some power to run themselves. But maybe it was using an average that included the heat pump running? I don't know how "smart" it is.

Then we had another hit. The led lights in my office flashed high, they're normally dimmed. This glitch took the router offline again, and I had to go in and reset it. I could see lights on in the neighbor's house, so now I'm worried that we've lost our grid connection. I went out and checked the meter and it's doing its thing.

I think the Tesla app just hadn't updated because we were offline, but it added to the confusion. After checking the meter, I checked the Tesla app and it was reporting we were drawing power from the grid.

One lesson here is to first verify internet connectivity before relying on information from the Tesla app. That will at least tell me if the app has current data. I think I can download today's data and it'll tell me how long the grid was down. Haven't done that yet, because it just occurred to me.

I'm still happy with the system. I suspect that had the heat pump not been running, both computers would have remained online. I think with the heat pump running, they saw enough of a voltage drop when the batteries took over to turn themselves off.

A little later, the local neighborhood know-it-all was posting on Facebook about two power interruptions and to prepare for an imminent outage, so that confirmed what we had, imperfectly, observed. Mitzi is on Facebook, I'm not.

All in all, it was a good drill.

Update: So I downloaded the data, and it's not granular enough to say for sure what happened. It only records at 5 minute intervals. There was only one five minute interval where we were drawing no power from the grid, and there wasn't enough solar to meet demand so we were drawing exclusively from the batteries.

Solar production is up though, making between 1 and 1.7 kW now and as long as the house loads are lower than production, it's charging the batteries. I don't expect we'll get much above 20% though, because the batteries will discharge to reduce grid demand whenever they're above 20%, which is normal.

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Bramble On

10:11 Wednesday, 22 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 32.56°F Pressure: 1030hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 203

Some discussion of "bramble" as a subject in photography.

I did a search in Photos for "bramble" and came up empty on the iMac (no Apple "intelligence"). My M3 14" MBP is running a beta of Sequoia 15.3 and is equipped to handle Apple "intelligence." I searched for bramble in Photos on that machine and got nonsense results.

Yesterday, someone in the m43 forum at DPReview started a thread featuring "noire" photos. I searched for "noire" in Photos on the iMac with zero results. Hello? Isn't an intel Mac supposed to have "machine learning"? Is "noire" not a thing a photo app should "know" about? Well, I figured I'd try searching on "b&w." Only images I'd explicitly tagged b&w came up. Searching on "monochrome" worked better, I suspect because that term is in the exif, even if Photos doesn't make that visible to the user, because why would they? That's so Aperture, you fucking élitist! (Kind of élitist to add the accent over the e too, come to think of it.) Anyway, don't get me started.

This came up though it's in fucking color.

And the photo filename is gobbledySQLgoop, probably because the library got rebuilt. Oy!

Anyway, bramble.

Or something.

Fix Or Repair Daily

07:52 Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 32.9°F Pressure: 1029hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 302

There's a Ford dealer that has a YouTube channel that does weekly updates on Mondays. "Maverick Monday, " I think? Anyway, I've been following it for some time, hoping to hear about the rear camera recall hold.

For those just tuning in, the feds ordered Ford to stop delivery of 2024 Maverick pickups until they fixed a rear-camera freezing issue. So a lot of folks that had ordered Mavericks, couldn't take delivery. It's a popular vehicle and most folks waited months to get theirs, only to find out that they'd have to wait months more. The hold went into effect in late September, I believe. A lot of people walked away from their deals.

So there's a lot of 2024 inventory sitting on the lots, while the 2025s are beginning to appear in some numbers.

I put a $500 deposit on a 2024 XL (lowest trim level) and I'm waiting for the fix to be issued so I can buy it.

Well, on Monday I guess Ford held a call with its dealers and said that the fix they thought would be ready for this week, didn't work. And they did not offer a projected date. Previous guidance was Q1, with end of January being the likely timeframe.

Not a huge problem for me. If I don't go blowing a lot of money on new cameras, I won't have to finance as much if it doesn't get fixed until March or April. I would like to have it long enough to wring it out before we head to New York.

Camera issues aside, the Maverick remains a very popular vehicle. I haven't owned a car in years, and I've never owned a truck. Kinda looking forward to it. So I was a bit disappointed the fix didn't work.

The beat goes on...

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GAS

07:29 Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 33.64°F Pressure: 1027hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 523

The only camera gear I've purchased recently was a used mZuiko 12-200mm super-zoom. It's right on the ragged edge of being too big for the OM-5. The 14-150 is a much better fit, but I like the extra 50mm (100mm equivalent) reach.

OMDS released the OM1 Mk2 some time ago, over a year by now? I haven't priced one lately, but I think they were around $2.2K, a bit rich for me. I think I'd enjoy the computational graduated ND filter and other improvements, but it wasn't a compelling reason to upgrade.

Well the rumor mill is grinding our attention, suggesting that OMDS plans to release an OM-3 camera, based on a retro-style OG OM-4 film body. Low resolution images, and OMDS marketing teasers suggest it'll have the "creative" switch on the front of the body where the shutter timer would have been on the film camera.

This suggests it's a successor to the PEN-F, which had a similar feature.

The PEN-F was the only Olympus PEN (rangefinder-style) with a built-in evf. It was an expensive camera and apparently didn't sell in large numbers. It has retained more value on the used market than any other Olympus digital camera. I have one. There are things I like about it, and there are things I don't care for. It's not the most comfortable PEN to hold, for one thing. (That'd be the E-PL7, though 5,6,9 and 10 are about the same. The E-PL8 had a single little vertical bar for a grip. It was more style than function so it's not in the list.)

The distinguishing feature of this new body will be the decidedly flat front of the body, with a faux-pentaprism hump for the evf. (No built-in grip.) I'm sure it'll look gorgeous.

Then I'll be somewhat in a pickle.

I'm sure it'll be expensive. It'll be incredibly cool.

And I'll want it.

But then I'll have to ask myself whether that money might be better spent on a used or refurbished OM-1 Mk2?

I can resist one new(ish) (to me anyway) out there in the marketplace.

But two?

Sigh.

I am so glad I bought an E-M1X. I bought mine new after the price had come down by about 50% or more. Not long ago, you could get them nearly new, with only hundreds of shutter activations for not very much money. Haven't seen any of those around lately. But that was a camera I wasn't sure I'd really enjoy using. It's far bigger than any other m43 body. But, I love it.

I like the OM-1. It's a remarkable camera, and between the E-M1 Mk3 and the OM-1, I'd pick the OM-1 every time. But around here, when I'm just shooting the moon or birds in the backyard, I'm grabbing the E-M1X because it handles the 100-400mm zoom so well, and it just feels so good in the hand.

Anyway, I expect there's a new camera in my future relatively soon. Not that I need one.

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Mourning In America

07:26 Wednesday, 22 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 33.64°F Pressure: 1027hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 32

We have entered a new "Golden Age."

As in "golden shower."

Getting pissed on by rich people.

Winning!

If you sleep sixteen hours a day, four years is only one year. Right?

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Wherein I Complain Fecklessly About Apple Photos

16:46 Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 41.72°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 78% Wind: 18.41mph
Words: 536

This is what the internet was made for!

I long for the days when Apple was "beleaguered." The days of, "It just works."

Those days are long gone, almost certain never to return.

I have a large Photos library. Despite many efforts at ruthlessly culling it, I lack the necessary ruthlessness, time and attention to make a serious dent. I have over 112,000 images in my Photos library.

The other day, Photos on my iMac seemed to get confused, as it does from time to time. Since my library is so large, it resides on an external Samsung SSD, a 4TB T7 Shield. (As an aside, let me complain about the flimsy connection afforded by the USB-C cable. The drive rests on a shelf on the iMac's stand. If I turn the iMac slightly to reconnect a USB cable, the drive cable will disconnect itself. I'd rather it just pull the damn drive off the shelf, it's wearing a rubber for protection! But no, it unceremoniously disconnects itself, because the mechanical connection for that USB-C connector is more aspirational than mechanical. I have two 4TB T7s and they're identical in this regard.)

Anyway, I rebuilt the library as I have many times before. I worry this just introduces more errors, but what can you do? Once it rebuilds, it has to phone home to iCloud and sync with it. Thrice today, this has proceeded and then stopped at roughly 53K images remaining. It says it's still syncing, but Activity Monitor suggests it's doing nothing.

The first two times today, I couldn't get the library to download the images from my phone that had already sync'ed to iCloud from a few days ago. I'm relieved that, as of this writing at least, that has resolved itself.

I endure my life in the Apple ecosystem, because, as inadequate as it may be, I have at least some knowledge of how things work. Or are supposed to work anyway. I have no wish to learn a whole new system and feel even less empowered to manage my own digital affairs.

Something I learned today, that I wasn't aware of before, if that's not being redundant, (It's definitely being redundant. Sue me.) is that since my system library resides on an external drive it's ineligible to be indexed by Spotlight. I don't know if this is some sort of disadvantage, because I can still search within the app. I guess it just means Photos won't provide results to Spotlight searches. I don't know how I feel about that, since I don't use Spotlight terribly often.

In happier news, Topaz has made Photo AI a first-class citizen in Photos extensions. I can round-trip an image from Photos to Photo AI and back without resorting to any export/import gymnastics, which became required when Topaz took their eye off the ball with Denoise AI and Sharpen AI. My early experience with Photo AI is that it does a good job in denoising an image, and that's mainly what I use it for. It always suggests that I upscale my 12MP images, but screw that!

Anyway, life in the twilight of our advanced technological civilization.

The beat goes on...

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Further to the Foregoing...

14:29 Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 44.13°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 17.27mph
Words: 146

Re: Social media is toxic in any quantity/format. It doesn't matter what your opinion is. It's exhausting. And people do stupid shit.

See: This. (RTWT, or "Read the whole thing" as the cool kids used to say way back in the day.)

Hat-tip to Jack.

And, yes, it was a fascist (Nazi) salute.

And it doesn't matter, because you'll never convince the folks who don't wish to believe it was.

See also: Climate change. Smoking causes cancer. Social media is toxic in any quantity. Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Etc., etc., etc. ad infinitum.

(To a close approximation, approximately half the population has below average intelligence. If intelligence means anything.)

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

All we have are moments to live. We're all in this together. Nobody gets out of here alive.

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Social Capital

11:04 Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.56°F Pressure: 1027hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 19.57mph
Words: 572

A corollary to "shit happens," is "people do stupid shit."

And we are all people.

Kottke pointed to a nice thread over at one of those social media platforms that I nevertheless believe are thoroughly toxic and unsafe for anyone. It's a worthwhile perspective. Probably could have been shared in a blog post instead of a series of, whatever those chunks of text are called. But I digress.

Back in April 2022 I wrote this post as I was struggling with what to think about people on the right. "The only way to win is not to play the game."

We are all, to one degree or another, trapped in "the game." Maybe it's a simulation. Who knows?

The thing is, things are almost certainly going to get worse. Wherever we are in this moment in this complex, non-linear dynamic system, it doesn't appear as though "things" are going to get any better soon. Maybe some people feel better, for now, because a certain cast of characters is seemingly in charge of events. That doesn't mean that they will objectively get better.

Our civilization, this system of abstractions that we rely on to keep 8 billion people alive on this twirling rock in space, is being challenged by stresses in multiple dimensions. The cast of characters now in charge doesn't seem especially capable, or prepared, to deal with those stresses to preserve and maintain this enormous system of abstractions that's keeping us all alive.

To be fair, I'm not sure any cast of characters would be up to the task; but I think things would be, well, less bad.

There's a lot of talk about "resilience" in response to the climate emergency. Our physical infrastructure was built for a climate that no longer exists. Our climate system is operating far outside the parameters that existed when it was built, so it should come as no surprise that it is inadequate.

Building new infrastructure takes time, and a lot of money, even as we continue to drive the climate system beyond even the current extreme parameters.

The most immediate gains in resilience will come from investments in social capital. Those can be accomplished without massive investment from government, though that could certainly help.

I'm not kidding about a Category Six shit-storm, and the need to seek urgent shelter. "Urgent" is kind of relative. We're leaving Florida "urgently," but that's still not going to happen for a few months, and likely won't be final from a property standpoint for some months after that. But in terms of relocating, it's pretty "urgent."

If you can't relocate, then you need to fortify your present situation. One of the ways you can do that is to make investments in social capital. Get to know your neighbors. Be kind. Be helpful. Doesn't cost any money, just some time and attention. Patience and grace. Compassion.

Things that haven't necessarily been strengthened by participating in "social media."

It's harder when we're all trapped in a zero-sum, us versus them paradigm. So focus on the local, and don't give too much attention to what's going on elsewhere. You have far more ability to effect change within your immediate surroundings than you do ranting into the void on X, or wherever.

Because we're all in this together, no matter what. We're going to need each other.

And none of us is getting out of here alive.

Just a thought.

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It Was a Fascist Salute

06:49 Tuesday, 21 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 44.29°F Pressure: 1027hPa Humidity: 83% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 336

Hashtag: Stupid&FutileGestures

One of the more consistent features of blogging and social media, which, in my recollection, began in the aftermath of 9/11, is for everyone to express their opinions on matters of the day as though they were solons. I was one of them, but so was everyone else. Guys like the "Instapundit" and Stephen Den Beste (I may have spelled that incorrectly.) became early Iraq War "influencers."

I was anti-war, and had long and tedious arguments with some of my regular readers, back when I had readers. It was stupid.

Shit happens. Shit is an emergent property of complex, non-linear social systems. It's inherently chaotic. You think you understand what the boundaries of the phase-space are, and the system teaches you otherwise.

It doesn't matter what your opinion is. It's not going to change anything. You can argue with people in the comments sections of blog posts, or YouTube videos, or in threads on X, or wherever, it's not going to change anything.

There's some perverse "reward" in the attention one receives from the people who disagree with you, and there's the more conventional reward of validation from those who do. Arguing, it seems, is its own reward, and many people are addicted to it.

But it's also exhausting. I think it was that neo-fascist Robert A. Heinlein who observed how much "wisdom resembles simply being too tired." I'm too tired to argue anymore. In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is a woke cuck.

For some time now, I wonder how much of what I post is about trying to show how smart I am. (See "Shit is an emergent property of complex, non-linear social systems," above.) Maybe I'm just trying to be entertaining.

I don't even know.

But I do know this: That was a fascist salute.

I also know it doesn't matter what I know.

Do what you can to protect yourselves. This is a Category Six shit-storm. Seek shelter.

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Incroyable

08:32 Monday, 20 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 33.76°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 75% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 347

There's a social dimension to Apple's News+ puzzles, where you can compare scores with friends. My brother shows up from time to time, and last night I noticed he had played Quartiles. The board stays "live" for 24 hours until you complete it, or you have the game reveal all the words. Sometimes I just give up and reveal all the words, but most of the time I leave it live in case I want to come back to it. New boards appear at 0400, my time. So that's what I'm doing as I'm lying in bed debating the merits of getting out of it.

I digress...

Well, Mark was a couple of points ahead of me, so I had to look for some more words! We'd both found all the Quartiles, but I had five words left and he had four. I found a couple of them and got ahead of him. I texted him a screenshot of my score. He immediately texted me back with a higher score.

I failed to recognize that some of the most recent words you've found are displayed at the top of the screen and I gave him a word.

It went back and forth like this until we were down to one word. I gave up and watched Perry Mason (TOS). Just before Perry solved the case, Mark texted me with the game winning screen. He'd found all the words. I congratulated him.

This morning I played as I nearly always do, right after I woke up. Perhaps it was the competition, but for my first time ever I found all the words. I texted him the result at 0558.

"Mark has notifications silenced," was the only reply.

So for today's game, I'm ranked 36 (It was 35, I'm not sure what's up with that.) out of 22,478 players. If you tap on the disclosure arrow next to "Current" in the Global rankings, you can get your cumulative ranking ("Previous") and I'm 1,442 out of 112,553 players. I'm in the "Top 1%".

So I got that goin' for me...

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Last Act

08:20 Sunday, 19 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.06°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 96% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 661

I didn't mention it here, but last week Mitzi announced to me that she'd abandoned the idea of a log home. I didn't even have to say anything! I was relieved.

Instead, she wants a hybrid timber framed house. So we've been watching a lot of videos about those.

I'm onboard, but I'm worried about price.

The lot we own is on a hill, so it has an elevation that permits a "walk-out" (Why "out"?) basement. That was a feature of one of the places we rented when we stayed near Cayuga Lake. That also facilitates having a deck on the first floor, above the walk-out basement entrance. (Exit?) I'll want a covered deck, so we can sit outside when it rains. We don't have the kind of view that the place near Cayuga lake did. You could see a vast part of the lake. But we'll gain a bit of elevation just from building on a grade slightly higher than the existing place, and having a deck seemingly above grade adds a psychological/perceptual dimension that is, well, uplifting.

It also aligns with the view we'd like to enjoy, and puts the long axis of the roof on an east-west orientation so we can put solar panels on the south side. Mitzi's mentioned that she may prefer ground-mounted solar. I need to look into that. I can see some advantages, but it does take up some space. More investigation is necessary.

An interesting discussion has been about finishes. We've been conditioned to believe that ceramic or porcelain tile is an upscale flooring choice. To us, it's a cleaning burden and a safety hazard. We'll be exploring other choices.

Similarly with the bathroom. Again, tile seems to be the upscale go-to. When I did my condo, I wanted no glass in the shower, because I hate squeegeeing (Is that a word?) glass after a shower. I went with large tiles, walk-in, no door, ¾ height wall. I thought it was relatively easy to clean with less grout. But Mitzi thinks we'll go with synthetic surrounds. All one surface, no grout, easy to clean. I have no objection. It's not like the bathroom is a focal point, and after we're gone, whoever gets the place can rip it out and put in whatever they want. I want non-slip, easy to clean and walk-in/walk-out. Maybe step over a threshold. Lots of grab bars.

Size and finish are two variables you can control in designing (and pricing) a home. We know we want single-floor living. I looked at what it costs to put in an elevator. Forget it.

So we'll need the usual, one bedroom, full bath, kitchen, dining, great-room, and laundry at least on the first floor. Maybe add the offices. Going vertical is cheaper than horizontal, so a second floor is good for a second bedroom a bath and a loft.

The basement will house mechanical. The well input, water treatment, hot water, HVAC. Maybe put the breaker panel in the laundry on the first floor so I'm not going up and down stairs if the lights go out? Build in battery-powered emergency lighting? Battery storage also in the basement.

If we're constrained, maybe the offices go in the basement. Since it's walk-out, maybe we can ride scooters from the first floor, down the hill to the basement and into the office when that time comes.

Garage is another cost. We have an existing detached one-car garage. Maybe we just need a covered parking area? Keep them out of the sun, snow and rain, get in and out under cover.

Anyway, something to think about. I'm sure we won't be able to afford everything we want, but I think we can build something that suits our needs and is a more personal, welcoming home than the place we have now.

And it beats thinking about the news.

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Dystopia

07:31 Saturday, 18 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 54.55°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 78

When I saw what were purported to be the Orange One and his henchman's official portraits on The Late Show, I thought it must have been a gag.

Nope.

Henchman's looks like it was made with generative AI, while the Orange One's looks like his mug shot photoshopped into something intended to be chilling.

And it worked.

It'll be hanging in every federal office in the country. Straight out of a dystopian SF novel.

What the actual fuck?

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Shrinkage!

18:01 Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 55.2°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 71% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 118

So with the cold weather, I guess we won't have to look forward to Sean Spicer explaining the size of the Orange One's "crowd" because it was cold.

I know Spicer won't be the Press Secretary, but I can't help thinking of him as George Costanza.

"There was shrinkage!"

"Turtled on ya?"

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Countless Reasons

14:28 Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.54°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 48% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 166

I gather the vast right-wing conspiracy has some plan for the Supreme Court to overturn all state gun control laws in the near future. Gosh, that sounds great.

But check out this report from a local news outlet. Take a look at that graph? I wonder what happened in 2008 that precipitated that sudden skyrocketing?

Oh, I remember... Obama, America's first Black president was going to take all our guns.

Oh, and the drop there in 2024? As the article makes clear, Floridians no longer need a concealed-carry permit.

What they should have done at Jax Today was show the crime rate in each county. Now, that's a double-edged sword, because the firearm fetishists would claim that low crime rates were because of high gun ownership rates. I would maintain that they are incredibly safe counties to begin with, and the only reason people feel the need to own guns is because they watch Fox News.

So looking forward to leaving this insanity.

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Kevin Drum On the NY Times

14:16 Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 61.41°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 48% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 53

I stopped subscribing years ago. That decision has been affirmed again and again.

And again.

The Times may have been "the paper of record," once upon a time; but now it's just another competitor in an attention economy, and the only thing they seem to feel they have a responsibility to is themselves.

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Gym Rat

14:00 Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 60.66°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 51% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 292

Just got back from a workout with our personal trainer. Stop me if you've heard this before:

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now.

Same thing with going to the gym. I mean, it can't work miracles. I'm still fat and flabby, but boy do I feel better!

I loved running. It was meditative in a way. It got the day off to a great start. I wish I could run again, but I've got a bout of achilles tendonitis going on in my left foot right now for God only knows why. Once I get walking, it recedes into the background; but come home and sit for five minutes and, ow! Anyway, it is what it is.

But going to the gym and lifting weights and using the machines, even using rubber bands, it keeps my heart rate up. It's as good as running, I think, at least for me in my current condition. And when I'm done, I feel spent, I feel a bit weak, but I feel alive. Woo-hoo! Not ten years younger, but maybe five?

Mitzi's going up to Winterfell in March to work on countertop, sink and cabinet installations and she's going to sign us up for a gym membership while she's there, so we can roll right into it when we get there in June. Taking a break is a risky proposition.

It really helps to have a trainer. Keeps me from finding ways to slack off, keeps the variety up and makes it interesting. Gives you feedback on your form. So we'll be looking for another one of those too up there.

Anyway, "Feeling good, Billy-Ray!" and so forth.

The beat goes on...

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She's Moody

05:58 Friday, 17 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 41.94°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 5.01mph
Words: 75

Wish I could give you some insight into Florida's new senator. She's been AG for about six years now. Culture warrior. Carries water for Governor Dumbass. Hasn't made much of an impression apart from the usual Florida Republican lack of empathy and inclination toward cruelty and performative bullshit. Makes Marco look like a statesman and a humanitarian.

She'll probably get elected too.

Every day, there are more reasons to look forward to leaving this state.

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This Morning's Moon 1-17-24

05:50 Friday, 17 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 41.94°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 63% Wind: 5.01mph
Words: 130

Watched the SpaceX Starship test yesterday. Pretty cool Super-Heavy booster landing, but wow, what happened to Starship, or "'Ship," as the cool kids call it?

Capturing that booster is just amazing. But I can't imagine anyone is going to tolerate launching those things with any kind of frequency greater than monthly, if that. Were those flocks of migratory birds I saw flying through the frame after recovery? Are they nesting there? Yeesh.

It's an astonishing technological achievement. I just don't see how it's compatible with any habitat on earth. They're sure as hell not going to be able to launch those things from KSC on the regular.

But what do I know? King Elon will issue a royal decree and it'll be game on! We're all going to Mars!

Strikes and Gutters

07:28 Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 44.13°F Pressure: 1029hPa Humidity: 64% Wind: 5.75mph
Words: 140

Jack worries he's lost interest in photography.

I'd say not to worry. I've been kind of going through a dry spell myself. Partly it's lack of inspiration. I'm not enamored of my visual surroundings. There's little of interest, apart from the birds.

I took a bunch of pics in New York, but none of them were especially "creative." Most of them were just capturing personal memories. (Snow!) I wasn't thinking about the camera and how to use it to "make" a photograph. A couple of shots, maybe. And I wasn't especially happy with the results.

And it's been cold lately. (Relative term.) When it warms up a little, I'll toddle on back into the preserve and look for something that captures my attention.

I think you just need a change of scenery, Jack. Or a change of perspective. It'll happen.

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Test Copy Link With Highlight

06:28 Wednesday, 15 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 43.57°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 80

Let's give this a try again...

Ok, that worked. It's not Wikipedia. Maybe I should try it there again...

Dad took a slow boat to war...

That works too. Perhaps because it's not a heading? Let's try that...

Aha! It will not create a link to a highlight if the highlighted text is a heading.

It will link to this text...

But not to the heading above.

Investigation concluded. Now I need a PopClip action for Copy Link With Highlight.

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This Mourning Dove

06:01 Wednesday, 15 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 44.04°F Pressure: 1028hPa Humidity: 67% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 6

Also shot yesterday afternoon. JPEG SOOC.

Disappointed by Apple

15:55 Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.12°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 55% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 94

So I double-checked how to use Copy Link to Highlight, which does appear in my version of Safari on MacOS 15.2, and I'm not "holding it wrong."

When I paste what is copied to the clipboard into any other app, all I get is the basic URL.

I don't know if it's a conflict with some extension, or a clipboard manager or what, but it doesn't work.

This is kind of the opposite of "surprise and delight." Well, more like "surprise and piss off."

Nice feature, I just don't get to use it.

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Times Change

15:47 Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 58.84°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 54% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 111

I'm old enough to remember when drinking and womanizing meant you didn't get to be Secretary of Defense.

(Also discovering that I apparently don't know how to use "Copy link with highlight in Safari".)

Update: I guess I ought to catch up on my recent U.S. history. While I knew Tower was rejected for character defects, I didn't realize, or remember, that that's what gave Dick Cheney the job. Oy.

Also just learned that Tower served in a similar class of ship that my dad served in, the LCS(L3).

And he died in a plane crash just north of here near Brunswick Georgia at the age of 66.

Wild.

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Twofer

15:43 Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 59.16°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 52% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 21

Around the same time, a snowy egret perched on the remaining trunk of a broken tree.

So you get two today!

This Afternoon's Bird 1-14-24

15:36 Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 59.16°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 52% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 117

Kevin Drum often posts a Lunchtime Photo. It's way past lunch here, but when I was in the kitchen, I spotted a white spot on a limb in the swamp. I've since learned that means it's probably a kingfisher. Again, I'm really too far away to get a great shot, but it's still nice to document the variety of birds I can see from my back window.

I edited this one from the RAW in Photos. I'm usually happy with jpegs, but I wanted to see if I could tease out a better result from the RAW file. I did, though it wouldn't be visible in the size posted on the marmot. Still, you deserve the best.

This Morning's Bird 1-14-24

08:35 Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 42.76°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 115

Yesterday was cloudy and rainy all day. I wanted to get a shot of the Wolf Moon with Mars in close proximity last night, but it was solidly overcast. It was better this morning and I got a few shots, but nothing remarkable.

While I was making breakfast, however, I spotted this guy back in the preserve. So I collected the E-M1X and took several images. This was about the best. Cropped in Photos to 3:2, added some definition and sharpening and denoised in Topaz PhotoAI. (ISO 6400. Noise wasn't offensive, but I'm playing with PhotoAI.) Oh, this is an anhinga. They've been perching back there a lot for the last few weeks.

Culling Continues

07:30 Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 41.79°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 250

I went to cancel ancestry.com yesterday. It's $25 a month and I've been paying it seemingly forever. But I hesitated.

I think I'm going to just make an annual payment. Mom is still alive, and she's interested in her family history. She asks me about it from time to time. I don't want to tell her, "I cancelled that." I'm sure she'd be ok with it, but part of me thinks she'd be a little disappointed too. So I'll try to save a couple bucks and just pay for a year or six months or whatever the big chunk is and forget about it until it comes due again.

The non-profits make it really hard to cancel. I'll have to call my local public radio and television station. That's going to kind of hurt, because I do value the work they do. But I've been paying them $100 a month for quite some time, so maybe I've done "enough" for now.

Likewise with the St Johns Riverkeeper and the Matanzas Riverkeeper, $100 and $40 a month, respectively. They're fingers in the dike, but they're still worthwhile.

When we get to New York, I'll be supporting public media and environmental groups up there as I find them.

There are a couple of other annual subscriptions that sneak up on me. IFTT, which I never use.

Feels like decoupling. There was a moment, not so long ago, when I believed in Florida and wanted to fight for it.

Not anymore.

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PSA

06:28 Tuesday, 14 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 43.09°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 444

Got a reply from Manton on how to cancel my subscription to micro.blog. This is a screenshot of about a vertical quarter of the page in Safari on a 27" iMac. See that white-on-white "View Subscriptions" button? You click that button to go to the billing page.

There's a cancel button on that page. It's one of two buttons on that page, one of which is to "Upgrade" to yearly billing. Right next to that button, there's a button that says "Cancel."

Hmmmm...

Two buttons adjacent to each other. The one on the left performs an action. The one on the right says "Cancel." Where I have I seen that before?

Well boys and girls, that's the button you click to cancel your subscription!

Somehow I could find a way to cancel all the other subscriptions I mentioned yesterday. Couldn't find this one.

Should I feel stupid? Don't answer that question. I feel frustrated.

Why not "View Billing?"

"Billing" is money. So is "Subscription." But when you're on what is essentially a "social media" page, and "subscribing" is an ordinary feature akin to "following," perhaps it didn't leap out to me as the billing page. Why isn't "Cancel" a first-class citizen on the "Account" page? As in "Cancel my account." Why is the UI to cancel your subscription kind of ambiguous? Why isn't "How do I cancel my account on the FAQ page?

Don't answer those questions either. I know why.

Micro.blog is a fine service.

This part of it isn't up to the standards of all the rest.

If you want to get off "social media" micro.blog is kind of an intermediate stage. You can maintain a presence on things like X, Bluesky, Threads or Mastodon, without having to live in their apps, or view the products of any algorithmic timelines.

I think anyone staying on social media just to keep up with friends would be better served doing so on micro.blog, than scrolling the native social media apps; and $5 a month is a fair price for a much healthier way of doing that.

I used micro.blog as a link to Mastodon, and then I found that the Mastodon experience was not that much different from the X experience. "Social media" is toxic, I don't care how it's moderated, federated, calculated or masticated. It shouldn't be so easy to share every little fleeting thought or emotion that crosses your distracted, outraged mind. That's not mindfulness. Meditation is about letting thoughts go. Not chasing the rabbit. Not seeking constant validation. Not feeding the monster.

Feelings pass.

As will my frustration.

And my micro.blog account.

Florida Times-Union Cancelled

14:19 Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 49.17°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 5

Another $11.33 in the bank!

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Tampa Bay Times Cancelled

14:14 Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 49.23°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 17

Another $19 a month not going out the door. Might get up to a car payment yet!

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Kindle Unlimited Cancelled

13:48 Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 48.81°F Pressure: 1021hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 36

Another $11.99 a month staying in my bank account. A bunch of books I thought I bought are going to disappear too. Guess I'll have to decide which ones I want to keep and buy them.

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Tributary Cancelled

13:42 Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 48.78°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 41

Another $9.00 a month. Timely, as I just received an email this morning, just as I was searching for my account information, that the founding editor, and the reason why I subscribed to begin with, has resigned.

There are no coincidences...

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Patreon Made It Easy

13:37 Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 48.78°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 16

Patreon made it easy to cancel subscriptions. Only $11 a month, but it all adds up.

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Cancellation

13:31 Monday, 13 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 48.78°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 65

A reminder that I'm cancelling my micro.blog account. If you're subscribed to the RSS feed from that service and want to keep up with the marmot, you should subscribe from nice-marmot.net.

A little bit of friction here, because micro.blog doesn't make it easy to figure out how to cancel your account. As soon as I figure that out, it'll be cancelled.

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Smart Cookie

07:07 Sunday, 12 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 32.52°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 64

Watching Jimmy Carter's state funeral, Mitzi and I wondered where Michelle Obama was. Then I noticed that spouses were seated to the left of the elected official. Official protocol, I guess. Doug was to the left of Kamala.

That would have put Michelle right next to the Orange One.

I could imagine hearing the "Oh, hell no!" all the way from Hawaii.

Mad respect.

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Welcome Return

06:19 Sunday, 12 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 32.72°F Pressure: 1019hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 410

Got a note this morning about the Listen to the Quiet video from one of our original cohort of bloggers, Loren Webster. Back in the day, about 25 years ago, a number of us found each other on the web through blogging. Not many are still blogging, some only intermittently. But I have warm memories of all of them.

Loren had a health issue, but he's back now. He's 83 and he inspires me, a comparative youth at 67, with his blogging, hiking, photography, reading and writing. I was surprised and delighted to hear from him, and felt a pang of guilt for not having checked in on him.

I commend Loren to your attention because he is an inspiration.

And I'm glad he's still online and sharing it.

Here's kind of the thing... I was lying in bed this morning, awake since 0400. Did the Quartiles puzzle. I never totally complete them, but I usually get down to four words remaining, sometimes fewer, and I'm usually in the top 10% of players. I use this as a kind of gauge of my mental acuity.

When I finished, I thought about getting up. I scrolled through Apple News and felt frustrated. So many pleading and misleading headlines, trying to capture my attention. I thought about getting up and meditating.

"Nothing changes until you change." This thought actually crossed my mind.

I wrestled with it. Frustrated and disappointed with myself, I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

Mitzi got up to go to the bathroom, and I decided to get up and see if I could see the moon.

I could, reddish, near full and low on the horizon. Or what passes for a horizon in this rabbit warren of high-value hovels. Took two shots, neither worth saving. Checked my RSS feed, then checked my mail and discovered Loren's note.

I'm not sure why I wasn't getting his recent updates in NNW, but I've re-subscribed. And the link in my blogroll is broken somehow, so I need to fix that. Perhaps something changed.

Anyway, here's Loren blogging about meditating and beginning an exploration of taoism. Sharing.

We live in a responsive universe and we must pay attention for clues. The best way to pay attention is to be still.

Listen to the quiet.

I'm looking forward to leaving Florida, but I still need to make some changes.

Because...

"No matter where you go... There you are."

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State Funeral

19:14 Saturday, 11 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 43.45°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 76% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 205

From time to time, Mitzi will go into the living room and turn the TV on to watch something that I have little interest in seeing with her. But every now and then, I'll hear something that piques my curiosity and I'll join her.

I didn't think I had any interest in watching Jimmy Carter's state funeral.

I was wrong about that.

It was equal parts inspiring and moving, and, as a bonus, a ritual public humiliation of the Orange One, whether he was aware of it or not. I loved the arrangement of Eternal Father, I don't think I've ever heard it performed that way. Amazing Grace was also, well, amazing.

And it was humbling to me, too. If you listen to nothing else, listen to his grandson Jason's eulogy. They were all worthwhile, but Jason's was the best. Biden's was diminished by his difficulty with speech, but it was worthwhile as well.

I don't think I could ever live up to Jimmy Carter's example. But I'm glad he's given us all something to shoot for. A humble man who lived a truly remarkable life.

And major props to the flag bearers of the honor guard in that wind and cold. Made me proud.

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Listen to the Quiet

13:38 Saturday, 11 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.45°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 14.97mph
Words: 74

These embedded videos never work in my browser, so I don't know why I do this. Maybe they work for you?

Anyway, 5 minutes out of your life isn't too much to ask.

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2024 Power Stats

12:51 Saturday, 11 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.85°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 262

We used about 9.6MWh of electricity last year (house + RAV4 Prime). That's down 300kWh (3%) from 2023 45% of that (4.4MWh) came from solar directly (down 2% from 2023). 36% (3.5MWh) came from the Powerwalls (down 3%). 19% (1.7MWh) came from the grid. That's worse than last year when we imported 14% of our electricity from the grid.

We imported 1.7MWh of electricity from FPL. 3% of that (54.8kWh) went to charging the Powerwalls during Storm Watch events, later consumed by the house. We exported 2.7MWh of power to the grid when the Powerwalls were fully charged and we weren't consuming all that we were producing.

We exported more power than we imported, 1MWh to the grid. So we remain a net zero-carbon energy producer.

We were 81% self-sufficient last year. This is with the Powerwalls configured to maintain 20% of their capacity as a whole-house UPS in the event of a power outage.

It's unlikely that discharging the Powerwalls to 5% would significantly alter that, since it's unknowable if that extra capacity would be available when it was needed. That is, there are days in the spring and fall when we don't deplete the batteries to the 20% level anyway. It would offer some improvement, especially in August last year, which was, by far, our highest demand month. We used 1.3MWh in August, higher than in any other month by far. But it would also hasten the degradation of the storage capacity of the Powerwalls.

I remain more than satisfied with the configuration and performance of our system.

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Social

12:36 Saturday, 11 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 46.76°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 220

Chris ODonnell, discerning consumer of online content (He reads the marmot.), posted something very interesting today.

Apple has all the pieces in place for a very low barrier to entry social networking stack. Contacts, Messages, Journal and iCloud.

Add a feature to Journal to make entries "public" (Kind of like Flickr, right?), do a notification to your contacts who "subscribe" to your journal through Messages, et voila! A "social network."

The marmot is little more than a public journal. It's the only blog on earth that really cares about what Dave Rogers thinks. I don't post everything here, but I do rely on it as kind of a journal of the experience of my life. Why anyone else should be interested in that is perhaps a mystery, or just a dimension of human nature.

I wouldn't migrate from what I'm doing now to Apple's stack, but if you add RSS to public Journal entries, you could get subscribers that aren't necessarily "contacts" and as long as you could export your content to plain text (or html, or XML, or JSON), it wouldn't necessarily be like being trapped in a hamster cage.

Maybe they do that already. I don't even know.

Interesting post though. No algorithm. No monetization. Apple probably won't do it, but man, all the pieces are right there.

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Maintenance

11:20 Saturday, 11 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 47.97°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 456

When I went to upload the preceding post, I noticed that the photo was in the 2024 Images folder and subsequently noticed that the two preceding Moon images were as well.

I'd automated nearly all of the "infrastructure" pieces of maintaining the marmot, but I seemed to recall I may have hard-coded parts of the photo export functionality.

I found the relevant bits of export code in the photo post template, along with some hard-coded paths in the photo post prototype. It was pretty easy to replace those with the right action or export code from Tinderbox. It seems I've actually begun to absorb some of this, though it really amounted to little more than copying and pasting code from elsewhere in the document.

What was more challenging was why the Images were being exported to the 2024 Images folder in the first place.

It turns out that I had two Automator Export Photo applications. One on the desktop and one in the Applications folder. The AppleScript was calling the one in the Applications folder, which had the path to the Images folder hard-coded. I'd stepped through the version on the desktop, and it was creating the path using a shell script, and it was working properly. I thought that was the only one I had, since I think I was relying on it for the MBP as well. (Desktop is in iCloud.) I need to check the MBP now too.

So I deleted the Automator Export Photo app in Applications, and moved the one from the Desktop into Applications. Ran the script again for this post and all was well.

There was a lot of screwing around in between all that, trying to figure out what was going on, but that's the gist of it.

Also got a call from Caitie in the middle of it all. She's doing well, though she's frustrated with a lot of things. I will say it's a tremendous learning experience for her, and she seems to be drawing the right lessons. She's a smart young woman, and I'm very proud of her, even as I worry about her.

She loves her dog, though it makes me worry even more because having a dog, especially one as stubborn and not especially bright as a French Bulldog, complicates everything in a disaster situation. She told me there's an effort to collect all discovered pet remains and have them delivered to an organization that will scan any chips in order to notify owners. I never would have thought of that, but it kind of shows how many ways there are to be of service.

Hard to believe the morning is almost shot. I need to go take a walk.

Just a Pawn

07:11 Saturday, 11 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 57.07°F Pressure: 1010hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 408

Caitie is doing well. She and a friend were out running around LA yesterday, delivering treats to first responders, supplies for displaced pets and hair care products to her clients who'd lost their homes or were otherwise displaced. (She's a stylist.)

I was feeling unmoored. There are things I ought to be doing, but can't seem to summon the necessary motivation. There are rumors of a new camera body from OM Digital Systems (the former camera division of Olympus). Visiting the DP Review micro four-thirds forum was the depressing exercise it always is. But it did "inspire" me grab the old Oly E-PM1 and stick the 35mm/f3.5 macro lens on it and wander around the house.

No flash, and it's not a particularly bright lens and the camera's IBIS is broken, so this wasn't "bad" at ISO 1600, 1/80s. (35mm is 70mm in 35mm "equivalent" focal length.)

When you turn on the "Info" widget in Photos, it places a little icon over each of the pieces. I thought clicking on it would identify the piece. Nope, just does an image search and the results are stupid.

The future is going to suck.

Our friends and former neighbors who also bought property in the Finger Lakes plan to build a log cabin there, and this has put the idea in Mitzi's head. I've watched some videos on YouTube, and I'm quite certain I don't want a log cabin. Hopefully that idea will pass. Log cabins require maintenance, and carpenter bees love them, which means woodpeckers love them. Nope. Not for me. Hardie Plank. But, "Happy wife, happy life." I suppose we can pay people to maintain it for us every year for the rest of our lives.

I guess I'm just struggling to find my footing in a universe of stupidity. (Not the log cabin idea. That's not "stupid," just not ideal.) A convicted felon being President of the United States is stupid. And, though some may say I'm tarring with too broad a brush, everything around him is stupid. An ever-expanding nexus of world-class stupidity that threatens to overtake us all.

What the actual fuck?!

Got sucked into a rabbit whole on YouTube, which contains a seemingly bottomless video chronicle of human stupidity. I don't recommend anyone do the same. It's not healthy.

Not everything needs to be uploaded to YouTube.

Anyway, "Every picture tells a story, don't it?"

Just a pawn.

The Zen Diary

16:09 Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.97°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 3mph
Words: 97

I saw this on a flight last year. I remember the movie, I don't remember where we were going. We flew to Syracuse in September, so maybe it was then.

Anyway, I loved it, and I've been looking for it ever since. Still not available to stream or purchase as far as I can tell.

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Doing OK

11:28 Friday, 10 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 57.83°F Pressure: 1020hPa Humidity: 62% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 139

Texted with Caitie yesterday and learned she was back in her apartment after the evacuation order was lifted. Couldn't get her to respond much, other than to say she was ok and that the preceding two days had been traumatizing.

I don't think she was being hyperbolic. She had a glimpse of the apocalypse and that probably affects anyone. A friend's parents lost their home in the fire. There is concern that the destruction of housing will place upward pressure on already sky-high rents in LA. I think Caitie's place is rent regulated to some extent.

I pinged her this morning, but haven't heard back from her yet.

There's an insurance crisis in our future.

Not to worry though. We've elected some brilliant leaders who will get on top of that and bring it to a satisfactory resolution.

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Last Night's Moon 1-8-24

07:31 Thursday, 9 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 31.89°F Pressure: 1024hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 567

Off to a slow start this morning as I was up rather late last night.

Caitie was in the evacuation zone for the Hollywood fire. I'd made her a go-bag when she moved out there five years ago, expecting she might need to use it in the event of an earthquake. I didn't expect her to need it for a wildfire. Her neighborhood is pretty "urban," at least as LA goes. But I guess stuff can still catch fire.

She called me and asked me what she should do. I had difficulty figuring out whether or not she was actually in the evacuation zone, being unfamiliar with the street names and the maps the TV stations were showing omitted most of them. Her neighbors were leaving, and she was getting invitations from friends to come to their places, but traffic was going to be a problem since she didn't have much gas in the car.

She got an alert on her phone, which made it pretty clear that she was in the evacuation zone so she started packing and I left her to it and told her to text me when she got someplace safe.

It was only a matter of an hour or so between the fire breaking out and the evacuation being ordered.

I recalled that she's on my FindMy list, so I was able to watch her as she travelled. She headed due south on side roads and she moved pretty steadily. It still amazes me that I can follow her progress like that. I could even watch her driving around, seemingly aimlessly, apparently looking for a place to park. She's south of West Adams street now, so hopefully that'll be safe enough.

I read Kevin Drum's blog, and Heather Cox Richardson's, so I'm exposed to more political news than I would seek on my own.

The amount of bullshit coming from social media, specifically X and the Orange One's vanity project, is astonishing. Social media of the hyper-interactive kind with tens of thousands or millions of "followers" is a disease. Believing bullshit and conspiracy theories is one of the symptoms.

9/11 and the subsequent elective wars demonstrated the futility of the internet to prevent a catastrophe by means of "reasoned discourse." Technology magnifies the best and worst aspects of human nature, but it's the worst ones that get us into trouble. It expands what we do in space, and compresses it in time (it can also do the reverse, but it's mostly the first thing).

I've been "ranting into the void to no discernible effect" for more than twenty years now. Iraq, climate change, Trump, fascism in America, social media, ubiquitous surveillance. Nothing matters.

In the country of the blind, the one-eyed man is a woke cuck.

There are some reasonable, rational people who believe that they're immune to the illnesses spawned by swimming in the sewage of social media. They're not.

But I no longer have any illusions that I can save anyone.

All I can do is look after myself and try to protect the ones I love, and many of them are addicted to it as well.

Everything is about to get worse.

Consider this an evacuation order.

We're headed for the hills in New York. You should probably figure out where you want to be as this plays out to its tragic and inevitable conclusion.

Last Night's Moon 1-7-24

06:16 Wednesday, 8 January 2025

Current Wx: Temp: 34.32°F Pressure: 1025hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 118

Tried to shoot this the night before last, but I couldn't get a handheld hi-res shot. Not enough features in the frame to align, I suppose.

Watched a YouTube video from a while back about using an app called Lynkeos to stack frames from a video and supposedly it achieves a better result. Downloaded the app, may give it a try. Supposedly pretty slow and processor intensive. This doesn't require much from the iMac, just cropping, some noise reduction, a little sharpening and some definition. Whole thing is done in minute or two.

The heavy lifting is done in-camera, and that takes probably less than a minute on the E-M1X. Quicker on the OM-1.

Ultra-Processed

15:07 Tuesday, 7 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 47.46°F Pressure: 1022hPa Humidity: 66% Wind: 14.97mph
Words: 94

There's a lawsuit against the manufacturers of ultra-processed foods.

Cool.

Someday, there'll be a lawsuit against Meta, X, and Bluesky for "ultra-processed social media."

Social media is like breakfast cereal.

It's (relatively) cheap, tastes great, easy to obtain, easy to prepare, easy to eat almost anywhere, and absolutely horrible for you.

We didn't evolve to consume hundreds of calories of sugar every day. Likewise with thousands of empty social interactions ("engagement").

If social media, including mastodon, is like breakfast cereal, blogs are like oatmeal.

Eat your oatmeal. Don't add too much sugar.

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Small Pond

12:17 Tuesday, 7 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 43.07°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 74% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 306

Just got back from one of our training sessions. I really wasn't "feeling it" this morning, which affirms, once again, the value of at least the dollar commitment, and having a partner to train with and be accountable to.

As I expected, I do feel better mentally and emotionally. Physically, I'm wiped; but I don't feel so down.

Ran into a woman from Long Island at the gym. We chatted a bit and I mentioned we were moving to New York this year. She said she hated it here. I had to move on to the next station, so I wasn't able to discover exactly what she hated about it here, though there are a plethora of potential reasons.

Thinking about life in New York occupies some of my time. One thing I think I'm looking forward to is the opportunity to do more volunteer work. Here, in this retirement community, there is no shortage of people ready, willing and able to volunteer for things. And many, if not most, of these retirees are educated, experienced, motivated and accustomed to positions of responsibility or authority.

Put a bunch of people like that on a committee and watch what happens.

Especially if you have to produce a deliverable, and there's nobody really in charge (and everyone thinks they should be in charge).

Recipe for frustration.

The condo association was a worthwhile volunteer opportunity, mostly because very few people wanted to help at all. And there was enough to do that you could divide responsibilities between people based on their interests or strengths.

I suspect that rural life may be somewhat similar, though I don't know. I'm pretty confident there'll be opportunities to contribute meaningfully, without bumping up against frustrating conflicts.

There's a lot to do between now and then, though. But it's something to look forward to.

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PSA

10:20 Tuesday, 7 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 37.65°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 65% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 184

Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

I think it's an illusion, or delusion, that "social media" is a "good." It amplifies our worst impulses, exploits our weaknesses, and wastes our time and our attention. I don't think there's any amount of moderation that can make it a "good."

Twitter is toxic, so tech-triumphalists create mastodon. The business model is irresistible, so Meta creates Threads and a Twitter guy creates Bluesky. And it's all the same thing.

I just don't think it's good for human beings to be able to interact with one another in this way. I don't think there's any technological way to make it good, safe or healthy. For anyone, kids or adults alike.

There is no evolutionary antecedent that prepares us for this level of interactivity, 24/7 with thousands of people, nearly all of whom are perfect strangers.

Anyway, I'm glad I got off Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and mastodon. You can quit. It's difficult at first, and inconvenient always, but I can unequivocally state that my life is better without them.

I think yours would be too.

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Dark Ages

09:42 Tuesday, 7 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 36.07°F Pressure: 1023hPa Humidity: 73% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 159

Today would have been my dad's 97th birthday. As a family, his birthday officially marked the end of the "holiday season." At the Naval Academy, the interval between Christmas break and "spring break," was informally known as the "dark ages." Miserable weather, little in the way of "fun" activities.

Feels kind of that way now. The Orange One's second inaugural feels ominous. The "winter of our discontent" feels appropriate. The extreme winter weather isn't helping.

Anyway, still have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. No sense dwelling on it.

As part of my financial review, I'll be canceling my subscription to micro.blog. For those of you who may be subscribed to that feed, you may wish to subscribe to this one. I originally subscribed to micro.blog as a way of automatically posting from the marmot to mastodon. Since I'm not participating in that anymore, there's little reason to maintain a micro.blog presence.

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Looking Glass

09:15 Sunday, 5 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 51.8°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 70% Wind: 0mph
Words: 380

We had company yesterday and this morning. Mitzi's sister and brother-in-law stayed with us on their way to Port Canaveral to board a Carnival cruise. They've recently become "cruisers," and Mitzi's sister-in-law in California has organized a family cruise in March for all of Mitzi's siblings and their spouses. We won't be going.

Robin, the organizer, has been fairly persistent in trying to change our minds to get us to come along. Last night, Dave, Mitzi's brother-in-law, wanted to understand why I objected to cruising.

I'd never really interrogated my feelings about it. I have a pretty negative view of the whole business model, visceral even. But in last night's discussion, I think I came to a clearer realization of why I want to have nothing to do with it.

I think I said something like, "I have too much respect for the ocean to treat it that way."

And that wasn't strictly an "environmental" comment, it comes from my experience at sea.

I told David, "To me, the sea is almost like church. It'd be like drinking and partying and gambling in a church." Those may not have been my exact words, but I did draw the analogy with a church.

People used to speak of the "fear of God," of the "glory of God," of "awe and majesty."

Well, God is the sea.

I don't begrudge people having a good time, even on those floating resort casinos. But they don't know what they're fucking around with. They don't respect it.

I won't have anything to do with it. I've been to sea, and I've seen it. I have experienced it.

And I respect it.

I'm not afraid to go to sea. I'll go to sea in a heartbeat if there's some reason for it. Cruising ain't it.

I love the ocean. Love it too much to treat it like some accessory to a good time. Too much to be a party to exploiting it that way. And I know how insignificant we are in its presence.

Anyway, thought that was appropriate on a Sunday.

Thinking about a title for this post brought this to mind. I was a 15 year old male adolescent, probably the target demographic for a tune like this.

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Make All Preparations for Getting Underway

06:37 Saturday, 4 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 42.89°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 48% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 692

Mitzi's been packing up and getting rid of "stuff" to declutter the house in preparation for putting it on the market. I continue to be amazed at the speed and energy she puts into a project once she's embraced it. It's dizzying.

For my part, I've been trying to empty this enormous desk, and may have developed a fetish for Ridgid Pro Gear 2.0 storage boxes in the process. (Cue George Carlin's "A Place for My Stuff.")

It's astonishing how much crap this desk holds. I bought two 10-compartment organizer boxes with the transparent lids, two of the three-drawer boxes, and a small box.

Not enough. Plus, it's heavy. Tried to figure out the most inexpensive way to get the wheeled dolly, plus some more boxes. Ended up getting the large tool box, and another small tool box, separately, which was cheaper than the combo offering.

I love those boxes. I bought a few to move some "essential" tools to New York back in September. Bought another small box while we were up there. I now have enough to make a YouTube video, showing off my "collection."

They're not "perfect." The interior dimensions are irregular due to the "structure" of the of the molds, which aids their rigidity. (Not a fan of the "Ridgid" name. Why not just "Rigid"? So confusing.) But they're damn near perfect; and they're strong enough to hold all my stuff and get stacked without risking any of the contents being crushed.

The desk is basically empty now. The top is still clobbered, awaiting resolution of the fate of the iMac. We have guests this weekend, so I plan to resolve the issue next week. Probably going to sell it, then regret it later.

Once that's done, Mitzi found some organization that will supposedly come and collect it and put it to some productive use. I'm skeptical, but we'll see. Anyway, it'll get out of here and I'm going to replace it with something like this adjustable height workbench. (I'm not a Home Depot affiliate, I just get a 10% discount for being a veteran.) I'll have enough room to keep the //c off the floor, and I'll probably bring the //e in from the garage. I can use the 14" MBP from the recliner and a lap desk. The work bench will also give me some more floor space in here.

From there, I'll bring some or all of the Ridgid boxes in and begin a more thorough review and reorganization of their contents, with the goal of getting rid of a least a third of it, so I can re-purpose them for camera equipment. I'm somewhat concerned about resin out-gassing, potentially depositing a film of some kind on optical surfaces. I don't know if that's something to genuinely worry about, but when I opened these boxes for the first time there was a strong chemical odor. Maybe some more "research" is in order.

We have a couple of large plastic "totes" in the garage that are our "hurricane boxes." I want to go through their contents and get rid of most of it. Some of them are ordinary cleaning or hygiene consumables that can simply be placed into service. There's a first aid kit (barely worth the name) that can go in the truck when I get it. Anyway, the point is that we no longer need a "hurricane box," that contains supplies we would take to a public shelter. And we do need the box for other "stuff."

I'm going through my credit card statements and identifying all the monthly charges that relate to Florida. Non-profits, newspapers, etc. I pay all my credit cards off each month, so it's not a debt problem. It's just that I'm going to have a car payment soon and moving expenses, so I'm unentangling myself from Florida and its miserable future. A quick review showed about $275/mo in savings. I think it's going to require phone calls to some of these organizations.

Once we get oriented in New York, I'll resume supporting local news and environmental groups.

As always, the beat goes on...

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Total Recall

07:15 Thursday, 2 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 42.67°F Pressure: 1026hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 828

I thought it was odd that there were so many unsold Mavericks on the lot at my local Ford dealer, while used ones were going for very high prices. And, as it turns out, I should have been able to understand it, as I'd seen a video from a few weeks ago that actually explained the situation. I just wasn't really paying attention. It made sense after he explained it.

The backup camera recall is a "do not deliver" order. It's a safety issue such that, from a liability standpoint, the manufacturer cannot turn the cars over to buyers, knowing that they have this defect. Apparently, they just have to inform the owners who've already taken delivery. And it affects all model years from 22-24, for vehicles that don't have the Sync 3 system, which uses a different camera/infotainment system.

So the ones on the lot were trucks that were ordered by buyers who have moved on to another vehicle (and manufacturer?).

That's good news for me, as someone who isn't in a hurry to get into a vehicle, but looking for a decent value proposition.

I called the dealership yesterday to see if they were open, before I really knew about this issue. They were open, but once a salesperson has you on the phone, you're not getting off until they've tried to hook you.

Which was fine. I wanted to see if the truck I was interested in was still available, because it was still showing on the web site. That's when I learned about the delivery hold. The truck I wanted, a nice blue color, was not "available."

Technically, dealers can sell the cars, they just can't deliver them, and since a fix hasn't been identified yet, they can't promise when they'll be delivered, which is problematic for any number of reasons. So what this dealer is doing, is taking a deposit to hold the vehicle for the potential buyer, and to move them to a point in the queue related to when the deposit was placed. That is, vehicles with deposits will get the software updates first, then unsold vehicles.

Kind of makes you wonder about customers who already own one? But yeah, they'd have to be informed and schedule a service call, so they probably will work their inventory immediately.

Someone had placed a $500 deposit on the blue one the day before.

Well, they were open, and they only had black and white hybrids with Co-Pilot 360, but I wanted to look one over in person anyway, so Mitzi and I went there to check them out.

As it happens, 2024 may be something of a sweet spot in terms of the value proposition in model evolution. While the hybrid drivetrain was no longer standard, and therefore increased the base price by $1500, there are features that are standard on the 2024 base XL which weren't standard on previous models, if I recall correctly, mainly cruise control.

I wasn't worried about cruise control, I don't often drive with it and since this package won't have adaptive cruise control, I'll probably use it even less. But it is nice to have when there's little traffic, which is probably more often the case in New York than in Florida, at least in my experience.

Also, features of the Co-Pilot 360 system changed between model years, wherein the blind spot warning system and the reverse crossing traffic warnings are removed in 2025, which were the two main features I was interested in. The blind spot warning system also gives you power mirrors, so that's another cost savings for Ford.

Finally, the 2025 models are priced higher.

So, all-in-all, I decided I liked the black truck, and put a $500 deposit on one. They promised to give me $500 off sticker for being a veteran. We'll see if that holds come contract time.

Ford is only promising "Q1" for the recall resolution, so anytime between today and the end of March. Since there's plenty of pressure on Ford to resolve the issue, I'm guessing it'll be sooner rather than later, but I'm in no hurry.

Buying a car is still a scuzzy experience. To listen to the sales rep, they're not making any money. There's a $900 "documentation fee," which is bullshit. Our sales rep quoted an enormous $675 for tags and title and said "that's what Florida charges." I can't find that figure anywhere. What I have found is that the dealer can charge a "processing fee," though that has to be disclosed in the sales contract. I haven't signed a sales contract yet, so I'll be looking for that.

At the end of the day, I wanted to spend no more than $30K for this truck, and I will have missed that mark by $443. We'll see what I can do when he calls me and says the truck is ready to be sold.

The deposit is refundable.

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Infrastructure Week

06:26 Wednesday, 1 January 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 55.58°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 71% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 918

Happy New Year!

To usher in the new year, I seem to have contracted some upper-respiratory crud. Blech.

I'm happy to note that the Tinderbox files that I have open all the time both rolled over to the new year successfully. But now I need to set up an automation to create a new 2025 Images folder for the marmot. I could put a test in the Photos export automation to look for a folder named for the current year, and if it doesn't exist, create one. But it only happens once a year, so why do all that work every time I want to post an image?

This is the year we escape Florida. To that end, Mitzi has secured the use of a small temporary storage facility where we'll stash stuff ("clutter") as we begin the process of making the house presentable for prospective buyers later this spring.

To that end, she also took a bunch of stuff to Goodwill. I threw in a bunch of radios I accumulated on my "radio kick." Do not be misled, I still have lots of radios. I plan to take over the shed next to the garage and finish it inside to make it my "radio shack." Put a couple of solar panels on the roof and a big battery inside. It'll be my office, or hideout, or getaway until we decide on where we're going to live full-time.

She also sold her kayak and accessories yesterday. Guy took it home strapped to the roof of his Toyota Camry, lying on some bathroom rugs with the rubberized bottoms so the kayak wouldn't slide around. It's a lot easier putting a kayak on top of a Camry than a RAV4.

As a couple living in a rural setting, relying on one vehicle will be less practical than it is here in this "planned community," where they planned to not make it walkable; but you can take a golf cart or a bike to damn near anyplace you need to go. So I'm looking at owning a car for the first time in more than a decade.

Not a car, exactly. I'm going to lean-in on the "rural" thing and buy a truck. Trying to be a savvy consumer, I "did my research," and decided that the Ford Maverick hybrid is the one I want. I originally toyed with the idea of an F-150, but they're just too big, too heavy, use too much gas and cost too much, even used.

The Maverick is so popular, high-mileage used ones are going for nearly the original sticker price. So I'm going to buy a new one. Base model, the XL, 2024, with the Ford Co-Pilot 360 package, and that mainly for the rear crossing sensors for backing out of parking places. When I park, I try to look for a spot that I can pull through (no curbstone), so I can pull out rather than back out. There are a few at a local dealer, I'll see if I can get one. Mavericks. Not parking spots.

I know the Maverick has been the subject of many recalls, and one issue remains unresolved at the moment - the backup camera will freeze and you'll be looking at a still image rather than live video if you rely on it to, you know, back up. So don't rely on it. But people genuinely seem to love it, and it seems to regularly exceed its EPA mileage ratings. I won't be a commuter, mostly around-town (or country) driving, so it should be economical to operate.

When family comes to visit (realistically, we're probably only talking her daughter and son-in-law from DC and their son), we'll be able to throw a couple of inflatable kayaks, PFDs, a cooler and some picnic supplies in the bed, and all be able to fit in the cab to go to a park by the lake. That would not all fit in the back of the RAV4, and the lower bed of the Maverick is more accessible than the bed of a conventional body-on-frame pickup, and way more accessible than the roof of the RAV4.

And I foresee making semi-frequent trips out near Albany to visit Mom or my siblings, so the highway mileage being pretty decent is a plus as well.

We're probably going to be living in the large "tiny house" for at least a year, maybe more, so our expenses will be significantly reduced, New York taxes notwithstanding. I'll try to pay down the car loan as fast as I can. If I kick off some time in the next several years, my youngest daughter will get the Maverick if she wants it. Each of my two older kids got a car at some point in their lives. Melissa got hers the earliest, as a teen, a VW bug, 1974 I think. I gave my son and his wife my Outlander Sport when Mitzi moved in with me at the condo. They're still driving it as their second car.

Almost hate to say it, but I'm kind of excited about owning my own car again. I love the RAV4 Prime, but it's Mitzi's car; and there are some things that we do that'll be easier with an open truck bed, even one as short as the Maverick's.

Anyway, new year, new adventure. Almost makes gettin' out of bed in the morning worthwhile.

The beat goes on...

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