Exhibit A, with special thanks to Mythbusters:
Bomb Range Engineer #1: We need to blow some stuff up.
Bomb Range Engineer #2: I have no idea what we're doing.
Bomb Range Engineer #1: Anything could happen. It's probably dangerous.
Bomb Range Engineer #2: Very dangerous. Let's do it out in the middle of nowhere.
Bomb Range Engineer #1: Yes.
Bomb Range Engineer #2: We're smart!
Bomb Range Engineer #1: Yep!
Sometime later...
Developer #1: We need to buy some cheap land and get people to build houses there.
Developer #2: Hey, look way out here. Nothing around but something called a "Bomb Range", and a good road leads there!
Developer #1: Sounds like it might be dangerous?
Developer #2: Naw, they have smart engineers. They will do things safely.
Developer #1: Let's get building!
Developer #2: We're rich.
Developer #1: Yep!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Sunday, November 13, 2011
About that E pluribus unum thing...
It wasn't exactly a surprise, but Congress recently "re-affirmed" our national motto, "In God We Trust."
It wasn't always this way, as the above link and this one points out.
It's pretty clear that what our "new" motto actually re-affirms is:
a) we don't trust ourselves or our own intelligence and goodness,
b) we don't give a crap about citizens that differ from the majority,
c) in fact instead of "uniting" anyone we are deliberately divisive,
d) we obviously completely misunderstand the constitution, which while written by very religious men STILL contained wording deliberately constructed to prevent the government support of any particular god or religion,
e) we give a clear signal to every religious nutjob around the world that we ARE waging a crusade against them, i.e, if well-armed men screaming "In Allah we Trust" landed on OUR shores I'm pretty sure we'd take it personally...
It's worth noting that nothing about "e pluribus unum" says you shouldn't put faith in God. It graciously says those that do and do not will ALL stand firm, together, for our common good. What's wrong with that?
Why can't we just be united for our own good, strong against enemies, foreign and domestic?
Any gods most likely want no part of it.
It wasn't always this way, as the above link and this one points out.
It's pretty clear that what our "new" motto actually re-affirms is:
a) we don't trust ourselves or our own intelligence and goodness,
b) we don't give a crap about citizens that differ from the majority,
c) in fact instead of "uniting" anyone we are deliberately divisive,
d) we obviously completely misunderstand the constitution, which while written by very religious men STILL contained wording deliberately constructed to prevent the government support of any particular god or religion,
e) we give a clear signal to every religious nutjob around the world that we ARE waging a crusade against them, i.e, if well-armed men screaming "In Allah we Trust" landed on OUR shores I'm pretty sure we'd take it personally...
It's worth noting that nothing about "e pluribus unum" says you shouldn't put faith in God. It graciously says those that do and do not will ALL stand firm, together, for our common good. What's wrong with that?
Why can't we just be united for our own good, strong against enemies, foreign and domestic?
Any gods most likely want no part of it.
Monday, July 11, 2011
The lifespan of technology
I have a BMW K75. Many reading this probably don't know
what an interesting motorcycle this. The model I have was built in
1992, yet has computer controlled port fuel injection and independent
front and rear ABS. The motor sits on it's side, longitudinally, and
has three cylinders. The rear wheel is a mono-lever, single shock
shaft drive. While none of those are by themselves groundbreaking,
finding them all on a motorcycle from this era is rare. In fact, even
by 2011 standards, all those features are quite uncommon to find on
the same machine.
So, the bike came to me in 2002 when I bought it used from a guy in
NOVA. Almost everything on the machine worked in top
form, but I got a "steal", probably a few thousand under blue book,
because the ABS computer was dead and a replacement cost well over
$1000. But I gambled, bought the machine, and within a month I'd
found a BMW moto graveyard part for $250 and suddenly had a fully
functional ABS system, and pretty much flawless moto.
So imagine my sadness when about a month ago, the ABS computer croaked again. Nine years later, with this bike now being nearly 20 years old, the used part market was barren. The few used ABS brains I saw were in the $450-600 range. New ones now list for $1600, if you find someone that has any in stock. Turns out, this part is the Achilles heel of the BMW ABS systems from this generation, and they are tough to get. I had probably been lucky even in 2002 to get one as cheaply as I did.
Trying to keep the story short, I found a japanese guy mentioned in an
older BMW moto list serve as being able to repair the ABS computers,
and a few modified googles later located him online. Of course I was
concerned he might be offline (or worse) due to the tsunami, but
luckily that was not the case.
This initial email was sent June 5, and he wrote me back within 24
hours. He lives in a more southern part of the country (sort of near
Hiroshima) and said he still did such repairs, just send it over!
I used one of the fixed-rate USPS international boxes and off it went
to Japan.
Four days later, he wrote that he had the ABS. (How this is possible for $14 I don't understand, but it's good). He claimed to have quickly
found a loose thru-hole connection on the circuit board that was
causing the failure. He repaired this, took the computer for a test
spin in his K100, and reported all to be well. He asked for 14,500
yen and said he'd send it back when he got the $$.
That was about $180US the day I paypal-ed it over, and he wrote back a day later that he'd shipped it.
It arrived this morning, ten days after I originally shipped it, and is already installed (and working fine) back in my K75. He says he tested "everything" on it and if anything goes bad within a year, he fixes it again for shipping only.
Anyway, like I said, probably only interesting to a few people. But I
thought it was cool. And also rare - how many high-tech things, as
they age, must be discarded simply because no one knows how to fix
them? Even a simple problem, such as this thru-hole connection
breaking, or a bad cap, or a million other little repairable things
can go wrong...but "it isn't worth it" to fix them. I'm smiling
because my bike is fixed, I saved a bunch of $$, but mostly because I
know there's someone out there that still cares to understand and fix
things instead of just junking them.
On top of it all, it was possible to do all this in less than two
weeks? It's easy to think about tsunami's and nuclear meltdowns being
on the other side of the planet. How does that effect me? Well, the
other side of the planet is, really, right around the corner.
what an interesting motorcycle this. The model I have was built in
1992, yet has computer controlled port fuel injection and independent
front and rear ABS. The motor sits on it's side, longitudinally, and
has three cylinders. The rear wheel is a mono-lever, single shock
shaft drive. While none of those are by themselves groundbreaking,
finding them all on a motorcycle from this era is rare. In fact, even
by 2011 standards, all those features are quite uncommon to find on
the same machine.
So, the bike came to me in 2002 when I bought it used from a guy in
NOVA. Almost everything on the machine worked in top
form, but I got a "steal", probably a few thousand under blue book,
because the ABS computer was dead and a replacement cost well over
$1000. But I gambled, bought the machine, and within a month I'd
found a BMW moto graveyard part for $250 and suddenly had a fully
functional ABS system, and pretty much flawless moto.
So imagine my sadness when about a month ago, the ABS computer croaked again. Nine years later, with this bike now being nearly 20 years old, the used part market was barren. The few used ABS brains I saw were in the $450-600 range. New ones now list for $1600, if you find someone that has any in stock. Turns out, this part is the Achilles heel of the BMW ABS systems from this generation, and they are tough to get. I had probably been lucky even in 2002 to get one as cheaply as I did.
Trying to keep the story short, I found a japanese guy mentioned in an
older BMW moto list serve as being able to repair the ABS computers,
and a few modified googles later located him online. Of course I was
concerned he might be offline (or worse) due to the tsunami, but
luckily that was not the case.
This initial email was sent June 5, and he wrote me back within 24
hours. He lives in a more southern part of the country (sort of near
Hiroshima) and said he still did such repairs, just send it over!
I used one of the fixed-rate USPS international boxes and off it went
to Japan.
Four days later, he wrote that he had the ABS. (How this is possible for $14 I don't understand, but it's good). He claimed to have quickly
found a loose thru-hole connection on the circuit board that was
causing the failure. He repaired this, took the computer for a test
spin in his K100, and reported all to be well. He asked for 14,500
yen and said he'd send it back when he got the $$.
That was about $180US the day I paypal-ed it over, and he wrote back a day later that he'd shipped it.
It arrived this morning, ten days after I originally shipped it, and is already installed (and working fine) back in my K75. He says he tested "everything" on it and if anything goes bad within a year, he fixes it again for shipping only.
Anyway, like I said, probably only interesting to a few people. But I
thought it was cool. And also rare - how many high-tech things, as
they age, must be discarded simply because no one knows how to fix
them? Even a simple problem, such as this thru-hole connection
breaking, or a bad cap, or a million other little repairable things
can go wrong...but "it isn't worth it" to fix them. I'm smiling
because my bike is fixed, I saved a bunch of $$, but mostly because I
know there's someone out there that still cares to understand and fix
things instead of just junking them.
On top of it all, it was possible to do all this in less than two
weeks? It's easy to think about tsunami's and nuclear meltdowns being
on the other side of the planet. How does that effect me? Well, the
other side of the planet is, really, right around the corner.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
The Rapture...
It is interesting that May 22nd, my wedding anniversary, is the day after the Rapture. So it has pretty much been hijacked by loony Rapture doofuses. To them I offer this quote, nearly as old as the bible upon which they base their predictions...
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
—Marcus Aurelius
Seeya tomorrow.
“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”
—Marcus Aurelius
Seeya tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A random quote from Libya
One of our F-15's just crashed over Libya, supposedly due to mechanical failure. According to the linked article, the locals watched it go down and (like any good locals should) rubber-necked their way on over to the crash site. This quote sums up a lot:
"We saw one pilot who landed far away, and then we saw a helicopter which came and took him away ... We tried to talk to him and he tried to talk to us, but we couldn't understand each other."
I won't waste bandwidth analyzing it other than to say that it speaks to a lot more than the situation right in front of them...
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Cycling Law
Just my humble opinion, but let me vent about the law and bicycles.
The rules are seldom made with the best interest of bicyclists (or pedestrians) in mind. Roads, intersections, and signals are seldom made with the best interest of bicyclists in mind. All that is fine - bicyclists are decidedly the minority users of the roads, intersections, and signals. But when I come to any interaction with the above and have to decide what is best for everyone, or what is legal...I go with what is best. If I have to choose between what is safe, or what is legal, I choose safe. This is typically called "civil disobedience" and is embraced in this country as a real solution to social issues, most especially for minority users. The fundamentals of this are 1) do no harm to others, and 2) take the punishment if you have to. It's called the moral high ground :)
Bicycles are not cars - it is retarded to think the same set of laws is reasonable for both. If I'm passing anything at 40+ mph, 3 feet is a good safe distance. However, do you need 3 feet to safely get around something on your bike? I doubt it. Most cars "roll" through stop signs, but their relative reduction in speed from 25+ mph down to 2-3 mph appears to be a stop, even feels like a stop to most drivers. But does a bike need to reduce it's speed 10x (let alone actually stop) to see that an intersection is clear? Very seldom. Those are just a couple examples of the greater point: Pedestrians are not cars. Bicyclists are not cars. We share some space, and the better we get along the safer for all. But the current legal method of throwing us all into the same can of laws and saying "you're equal" is total BS at every level, and when laws are BS, push back and try to improve things.
And I really believe things ARE improving - bike lanes as part of new construction, 3-foot passing zones etc. are now part of our legal vocab. But just because the local copper nicked you this time doesn't mean you did anything "wrong." Part of civil disobedience is making
police and lawmakers aware that there are poorly written, or even bad, laws on a topic. Then we as an organized group work with the system to make things better.
If you get busted, don't get mad but instead explain your position to the officer involved. You probably still get the ticket, but maybe over time the logic of your and others actions will take hold in their mind. By being respectful of the law at the same time as explaining where the law could use some buffing-up you will at least have his attention. Ask the officer to chalk it up as reasonable and calculated "disobedient" behavior, not impatience or recklessness or disregard for authority, and you might make a difference for the next person. That is how it works, and is the foundation of the "acting locally" slogan so many of us embrace.
Anyway, keep up the good political work and - and remember to stay safe.
The rules are seldom made with the best interest of bicyclists (or pedestrians) in mind. Roads, intersections, and signals are seldom made with the best interest of bicyclists in mind. All that is fine - bicyclists are decidedly the minority users of the roads, intersections, and signals. But when I come to any interaction with the above and have to decide what is best for everyone, or what is legal...I go with what is best. If I have to choose between what is safe, or what is legal, I choose safe. This is typically called "civil disobedience" and is embraced in this country as a real solution to social issues, most especially for minority users. The fundamentals of this are 1) do no harm to others, and 2) take the punishment if you have to. It's called the moral high ground :)
Bicycles are not cars - it is retarded to think the same set of laws is reasonable for both. If I'm passing anything at 40+ mph, 3 feet is a good safe distance. However, do you need 3 feet to safely get around something on your bike? I doubt it. Most cars "roll" through stop signs, but their relative reduction in speed from 25+ mph down to 2-3 mph appears to be a stop, even feels like a stop to most drivers. But does a bike need to reduce it's speed 10x (let alone actually stop) to see that an intersection is clear? Very seldom. Those are just a couple examples of the greater point: Pedestrians are not cars. Bicyclists are not cars. We share some space, and the better we get along the safer for all. But the current legal method of throwing us all into the same can of laws and saying "you're equal" is total BS at every level, and when laws are BS, push back and try to improve things.
And I really believe things ARE improving - bike lanes as part of new construction, 3-foot passing zones etc. are now part of our legal vocab. But just because the local copper nicked you this time doesn't mean you did anything "wrong." Part of civil disobedience is making
police and lawmakers aware that there are poorly written, or even bad, laws on a topic. Then we as an organized group work with the system to make things better.
If you get busted, don't get mad but instead explain your position to the officer involved. You probably still get the ticket, but maybe over time the logic of your and others actions will take hold in their mind. By being respectful of the law at the same time as explaining where the law could use some buffing-up you will at least have his attention. Ask the officer to chalk it up as reasonable and calculated "disobedient" behavior, not impatience or recklessness or disregard for authority, and you might make a difference for the next person. That is how it works, and is the foundation of the "acting locally" slogan so many of us embrace.
Anyway, keep up the good political work and - and remember to stay safe.
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