Wordle 650 Hint

Hint: There's no "L" in today's Wordle, but if you added one in the right place, you'd have brothers with a sleepy date.

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First Letter: E

Wordle 649 Hint

Hint: Enough with the loafing! You know you really knead to solve today's Wordle!

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First Letter: B

I Used to Love Traveling ...

... and, specifically, driving to distant places.

I stopped driving nearly 20 years ago, but am thinking about taking it back up, because Tamara doesn't much care for long road trips if she has to do all of it.

Flying lost its thrill for me long ago. Back in the day (1980s and after), you had plenty of leg room, your seat tilted back, and actually getting to and on the fucking plane involved throwing your bag on a conveyor belt for an X-ray, not running a gauntlet of uniformed creeps who like to grope people and are allowed to do so at will. Now there's that gauntlet, and the plane is usually about as physically comfortable as a jam-packed Greyhound bus. I do still enjoy looking out the window, but that's about all.

I'd like to get back to traveling for pure pleasure a little more (and we're driving to Atlanta in may to see Dead and Company in concert). The only "real leisure" trip of multi-day length I've taken in about forever (call it 25 years) was in 2021 when reader GregL took mercy on me and treated me to PorcFest. Everything else has been "going to funerals," "visiting family because I know funerals are coming soon," and Libertarian Party business stuff (conventions, national committee meetings, platform committee meetings, etc.).

Not that I didn't work any recreation into those things. I had plenty of good times.  But I'm really, really, really hoping to talk Tamara into picking a place to go for at least a long weekend, maybe even a week, and actually saying "my work output during this time frame will not amount to even one joule" and sticking to that. New Orleans is a possibility. Or maybe a beach town here in Florida. Or, maybe, I can talk her into going to Arizona and looking at lots in Golden Valley (she's resistant to the idea of desert retirement).

So anyway, I'm traveling tomorrow through Sunday, for a kinda sorta "funeral" -- the interment of my brother's ashes in Racine, Wisconsin.

There will be good times. I love my sister-in-law to death, and we've already planned a meal at a local Thai place that serves volcano chicken (mostly a metro Milwaukee thing that I can't find down here). I might go do the not-quite-polar-bear-club thing in Lake Michigan because that's how I roll. And so on and so forth.

But it will be somewhat stressful, and I will be doing as much work as I can while it's going on. I expect I'll miss at least one, maybe two, Garrison Center columns, but my co-worker Joel Schlosberg might be filling one of those slots. That whole thing isn't so much a time management problem, or a "travel computer rig" problem, as it is a "getting the solitude to think an op-ed through" problem. Maybe I'll get that worked out.

Right now, I'm on a brief "how about a blog post?" break from getting as much content pre-scheduled for Rational Review News Digest as I can, since a non-trivial part of my usual workday schedule tomorrow will be spent on planes and such. And I'm hoping to get to bed by 8pm at the very latest, because RRND's email edition will be coming out at 2am instead of 6-8am tomorrow morning, and I'll want to get some other work done before heading to the airport pre-dawn. That and lecture the remaining family on e.g. feeding of pets and so forth so they don't all starve in my absence.

If you don't see anything here at the blog (other than the daily Wordle hint, which I will do my damnedest to find the five minutes to get done), you'll know why. Have a great weekend.

Grinds My Gears: Infinite Scroll Fails

I'm not sure when "infinite scroll" became an option in Wordpress, but it was quite some time ago.

I'm continually running into Wordpress web sites that have infinite scroll enabled ... but still have a bunch of important links at the bottom of the page in a footer space.

In order to use those links you have to scroll down until they're visible, then CLICK ON ONE AS FAST AS YOU CAN and hope you're quick enough to get a click in before a bunch more content finishes loading. Usual result:

Please, if you're going to use infinite scroll on your site, for the love of God move those links from the footer to a sidebar or something.

Wordle 648 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle makes me feel surrounded and under threat of attack.

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First Letter: B

My Only Complaint ...

... about today's pulmonary consult was that I had to worry about prospective bad news for three months before the very busy people who do this stuff had an available slot open to run some tests and tell me "wow, you have really great lung function for a 40-year smoker" and "this is probably not a huge deal as long as you cut out the smoking."

I plan to start Chantix on Monday, as soon as I return from a "likely to smoke quite a bit" trip.

Wordle 647 Hint

 Hint: Quit messing around! Solve today's Wordle as quickly as possible!

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First Letter: H

Wordle 646 Hint

Hint: If Wordle usually drives you crazy, today's will make you absolutely batsh*t.

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First Letter: G

Wordle 645 Hint

 Hint: Best to get even complicated knots loose this way, unless they really are Gordian-level complex.

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First Letter: U

News Flash (Pun Intended) for Parents of Sixth-Graders

Your kids have all seen penises.

Hell, about half your kids have penises.

If this represents your education concerns,  your parenting priorities are out of whack in a big, big way.

Dumb? Maybe. Unprecedented? No.

Over the last year or two, I've seen various stories on future proposed "internal combustion engine bans" in e.g. the European Union and California.

The specific justification, of course, is "fighting climate change" by moving from fossil fuels to electric vehicles. And there are lots of problems with that justification including whether "climate change" is a "problem" to be "solved," how the electricity is to be generated (if you're burning fossil fuels to generate the electricity, you're not reducing the emissions, you're just concentrating them in fewer locations), etc.

Naturally, there's a lot of outrage over e.g. my sacred God-given right to lay down long streaks of rubber at stoplights in my 1974 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with 455 motor and 4-barrel carburetor (if I still had that car, and I wish I did -- 12 mpg on the highway, 8 in town).

For some reason, when I saw such a story this morning, a question popped to mind:

When did horses/buggies get (effectively, with some exceptions) banned from American roads?

The answer, basically, is that it happened over a time frame between 1920 and 1939.

"At the turn of the nineteenth century, there were 21 million horses in the U.S. and only about 4,000 automobiles."

By 1915, though, car had overtaken horse as a transport method.

And by 1935, buggy makers were only turning out about 3,000 units per year.

Horses and carriages got increasingly just ... in the way. They were slowing down other traffic. And of course, horses shit wherever they happen to be. To read a lot of period fiction from the last 25 years or so, one might be given to believe that major city streets in the late 19th century were pretty much just swamps of horse shit mixed with sawdust spread periodically over the horse shit to reduce the horse shit odor and to help pedestrians and carriage wheels not slip and slide on the horse shit.

So, naturally, "there ought to be a law!"

Whether I agree with it or not (I don't -- the market will make it effectively happen anyway at some point), I can offer a couple of reasons other than "climate change" for a ban on internal combustion engines from the roads.

1. Air pollution effects not related to climate change per se. That is, smog and its attendant local air quality effects. In any urb of any significant size, if you're walking down the street you are breathing car exhaust. Whatever effect they might or might now have on climate change in the aggregate, it seems reasonable to move them from 300 million exhaust pipes right up in people's faces to fewer, and more remote, power plant smokestacks.
2. Noise pollution. Those 300 million motor vehicles are loud, and the loudness is dispersed, again, across every city and town. A power plant is probably noisy, too, but it's also probably a mile from the nearest homes and more miles from the nearest concentrations of homes/businesses. I happen to like traffic noise, because once we moved off the farm, I grew up about 100 yards from an interstate highway exit. For years, I had trouble going to sleep unless there was a bunch of road noise all night long. But I can see why it gets on people's nerves.

Which is all to say that there are specific respects in which the internal combustion engine versus the electric motor is not unlike the horse shitting all over the road versus the much cleaner internal combustion engine.

Wordle 644 Hint

Hint: If you're one of these, Democrats accuse Republicans of suppressing you, and Republicans accuse Democrats of creating you from thin air.

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First Letter: V

Of Course They Want to Do This to Encryption, Too

I've noticed references to "TSA locks" before, but hadn't ever looked into them. Some quick skinny:

They were "developed by a group called Travel Sentry. All of their locks have a number on them ranging from TSA001 to TSA008 to let the airport security authorities know which tool to use to open them."

It's not just TSA: "Travel Sentry lock systems are not only used in the US or Canada, but are used across 650 airports in 44 countries and the airport security authorities are all able to open and close your luggage without causing damage to it."

Here's the howler: "A TSA lock is as safe as any other lock. The only difference is that it can be opened by authorities without causing damage to the luggage."

Well, no.

It can be opened by anyone with one of eight master keys, copies of which are in the possession of government employees at 650 airports in 44 countries, and every thief who's too lazy or incompetent or in a hurry to just pick them (yes, you can buy them at Amazon -- not an affiliate link), but who for whatever reason doesn't want to damage the luggage he's stealing from.

Wordle 643 Hint

Hint: Filling in today's Wordle is much easier than filling the spaces between your lovely new floor tiles, for which you'll need some of this.

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First Letter: G

Don't Mind the Gap

I'm going back a few months to grab a story, but I'm just doing that because it was one of the first links that came up on a search. Insider, August 29, 2022:

The US has provided Ukraine with so much weaponry to fend off Russia's unprovoked [sic] invasion that Pentagon stockpiles for some munitions are "uncomfortably low," defense officials told The Wall Street Journal. Lower levels of 155mm ammunition, which can be fired from US-made M777 Howitzers, have some officials especially concerned, the Journal reported on Monday.

 

I haven't seen any change in that refrain.

I also see no particular reason to believe that refrain, especially when I see some people use it as the basis for a claim that Russia has and/or can produce effectively unlimited amounts of ammo with no sweat, and the US/EU/NATO countries can't.

Here's why:

• Prior to World War 2, the US practice was for war materiel industries to pop up, or existing industries to repurpose, when there was a war -- then shut down or go back to previous purpose when the war ended. While there was some of that after World War 2, in effect the US has remained on mostly a wartime industrial footing ever since.
• The US armed forces, and the military-industrial complex, always whine that the US is dangerously low on stuff, and they're always lying. That's done on both a routine basis ("boost spending or our guys will be pointing their fingers and saying "bang bang" by next week"), and in discrete campaigns (see, for example, the "missile gap" and the "bomber gap").
• Production/manufacturing isn't entirely fungible -- I can't just flip a switch and cause an aspirin factory to start turning out 7.62x39 ammo -- but a lot of manufacturing can be repurposed over short time frames. Factory floor space is factory floor space. Conveyor belts are conveyor belts. Lathes and presses, etc. can be reconfigured to produce different things, and their operators don't need much retraining to produce Item B instead of Item A. If the US wants ammo, there are companies which can, and will, switch to producing ammo.
• In terms of industrial capacity, let's look at GDP. Of the top 10 countries by GDP, Russia ranks ninth. Of the other nine, six are NATO members, including the US, which alone has a GDP nearly 12 times that of Russia. In terms of industrial output in particular, Russia doesn't even make the top 10. But five NATO member states do. And, btw, Japan is on the top 10 in both lists.

Do the US/EU/NATO countries currently have more ammo and/or the ability to manufacture more ammo, than Russia? Maybe, maybe not.

Do the US/EU/NATO countries have the ability to produce more ammo that Russia over anything resembling the long term? Absolutely. A lot more, with a much smaller diversion from other things as a percentage of their economies.

Whichever side you prefer would win this war -- if you have any preference at all -- the simple fact is that the Russians had a short window to do so. Getting bogged down in an "attrition" scenario versus "the West" slammed that window shut, because warm bodies are no longer the paramount criterion of attrition. Logistics -- making stuff and getting it to the battlefield -- is.

A Travel Rig Daydream

The latest iteration of my travel computing rig is pretty much complete:

• Chromebook
• Travel monitor
• Ergonomic mouse w/mousepad
• Compact (but supposedly, and really mostly, "full-size") keyboard
• SD card with my "used frequently" files/templates
• Assorted cables, etc.

Workable.

But I was just daydreaming about an ideal travel rig in light of current technology.

By "current technology," I mostly mean that a lot of things (quick email checks, for example) can now be done on my Android smart phone, so there's not really any need to break out the laptop while e.g. sitting at an airport waiting to get on the plane. And at least at the moment, most flights don't seem to offer Internet access (let alone at no silly surcharge), so I don't need the laptop in flight either. I'm really carrying the computer gear to set up on a desk or table at my destination, not to try to use while in transit.

Also by "current technology," I mean that projectors which can be connected to a computer keep getting more compact.

So, my "ideal travel" rig could be:

• My actual desktop PC (approximate dimensions: 4.5"x5.5"x1.75")
• One or two "mini projectors" (dimensions of one candidate: 5.51"x3.78"x2.13")*
• Mouse, mousepad, keyboard, SD card, cables, etc.

The asterisk on the projectors reflects my incomplete research on whether I can use software, and either dual input ports or an HDMI switch, to do "split screen" and run two monitor outputs through one projector.

So: Get where I'm going, find a desk or table with a blank wall behind it, set up, and my "monitors" are just projected on the wall.

I haven't measured my Chromebook and travel monitor carefully, but I suspect the rig described above (even if it requires two projectors) would take up less space, probably weigh less, and let me have "full-size monitors" instead of a small travel monitor screen and even smaller Chromebook screen. Hell, I might even set up that way at home and retire my two 19" Insignia television "monitors."

Have any of you tried anything like this? If so, what are your impressions of how well it works.

Plausible Explanations

Per Insider:

The Manhattan 'hush-money' grand jury, after being told by prosecutors not to come in on Wednesday, is not 'likely' to meet Thursday either, law enforcement sources told Insider. ... Wednesday's pause in the grand jury's activity -- especially if the panel indeed takes the rest of this week off -- will likely delay the process into next week.

What explains this?

According to Donald Trump, it has to do with testimony heard Monday: "[prosecutor Alvin Bragg] is having a hard time with the Grand Jury, especially after the powerful testimony against him by Felon Cohen's highly respected former lawyer."

I can think of at least three more likely reasons:

1. Perhaps there have been threats against the grand jury or the venue in which it meets;
2. Perhaps Bragg is playing the news cycle, wanting a Friday indictment so that there's not a lot of time for any other event to come along and compete for prominence on the weekend news shows and in the Sunday papers; or
3. Perhaps Bragg wants (or has been asked by law enforcement) to keep the exact timing of the indictment a surprise until the last moment to reduce MAGA World's ability to plan rio ... er, "protests" ... around the announcement.

Personally, I think the third explanation is the most likely explanation.

Keep in mind: Bragg announcing (or leaking claims) that the grand jury won't be meeting is not the same thing as intending for the grand jury to not meet. If he's at the point of taking an indictment vote, there may be unmarked police cars out picking up grand jury members right now and taking them to some alternate venue to hold the vote and get indictments in hand before the press/public/Trump/MAGA World know it's happening.

Wordle 642 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle isn't very exciting. In fact, it's the opposite -- rather sober and sedate.

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First Letter: S

Two Things That Are True

1. Donald Trump is a crook; and
2. The attempts to prosecute him are politically motivated.

Wordle 641 Hint

Hint: A quilt, if you're British or trying to sound fancy.

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First Letter: D

So I Did a Twitter Poll ...

... with the following results:

Of course, Twitter polls aren't reflective of large general populations. They're reflective of 1) the followers of the person posting the poll (and, via retweet, those followers' followers, etc.) who are 2) paying attention and 3) give a damn about the subject.

So it's unsurprising that the responses are at least a little reflective of my own sentiments, expressed in the poll thread: "I might consider Exotic qualified for my 'f*ck all y'all vote' if there's nobody else I like on my ballot. Under no circumstances will I ever vote for Weld for anything again, or for Smith even once."

Button, Button, Who's Got The Button? Or, Those Chips Will Fall Where They May Anyway

Leonard Read:

If there were a button on this rostrum, the pressing of which would release all wage and price controls instantaneously, I would put my finger on it and push!

Murray N. Rothbard:

The genuine Libertarian, then, is, in all senses of the word, an "abolitionist;" he would, if he could, abolish instantaneously all invasions of liberty, whether it be, in the original coining of the term, slavery, or whether it be the manifold other instances of State oppression. He would, in the words of another libertarian in a similar connection, "blister my thumb pushing that button!"

Donald J. Boudreaux:

My confidence in free markets is so high, and my faith (for faith is required) in government is so low, that my presumption is that nearly all government interventions into the economy are, on net, unjustified and harmful. This presumption fuels my instinct that these interventions should be eliminated pronto. But I’m also sufficiently influenced by the works of Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, Lord Acton, and F.A. Hayek to understand that large, sudden changes to an economy or society can be dangerously disruptive, even when such changes involve reversing policies that should never have existed in the first place. So even if I had the power to eliminate all government interventions that I believe are harmful, I would not press a button to eliminate all of them.

Me:

Yes, I'd press the button.

Well, there is no button, but we're playing "what if?" here.

The argument that "large, sudden changes to an economy or society can be dangerously disruptive, even when such changes involve reversing policies that should never have existed in the first place" is flawed.

It's flawed because "large, sudden changes" are going to occur anyway, and they're going to be just as disruptive when they inevitably occur on their own as they would be if they occurred because I pressed that imaginary button.

Every "instance of State oppression" -- and every state -- comes crashing down sooner or later. Always with various disruptive consequences, some of them negative for some people, and almost never in anything resembling an orderly, considered manner.

Button or no button, the chips will fall where they may, so the hypothetical button is really just a (reasonable) purity test for those who claim they oppose the state.

Why is that purity test reasonable? Because it tells us who to trust (or not trust) when it comes to cleaning up after the Great Falling of the Chips.

Wordle 640 Hint

Hint: Rare, medium, well or even raw is just a matter of personal preference, but almost no one likes their steak this way.

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First Letter: T

Wordle 639 Hint

Hint: If you're an amputee or Michael Jackson, you might wear just one.

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First Letter: G

Wordle 638 Hint

Hint: Solving today's Wordle implies a deeply held belief system, probably codified into very particular points.

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First Letter: C

The People Have Spoken!

Part of my Microsoft Rewards "daily set" -- three little things I do that take a minute or so and knock down about $10 a month in Amazon gift cards for me -- is a daily poll.

It's pretty obvious to me that most people who answer the poll pay no attention to it whatsoever. The first choice almost always gets at least 60-70% support, no matter how perverse it is. A typical result would look like this:

Q: Are you alive?

No -- 71%

Yes -- 29%

But this morning the difference was stark enough to be probably impart some information:

Q: What's the acceptable sandwich term?

Grilled cheese -- 92%

Toasted cheese -- 8%

Which tells me that ~8% of respondents automatically choose the second answer, no matter how perverse.

WTF is this "toasted cheese" nonsense? I don't ever remember hearing it until the last couple of years. Is it some weird regionalism that only recently crept out of its home area?

It's "grilled cheese," dammit, and anyone who claims otherwise should be imprisoned without charge, trial, or appeal, and with nothing but grilled cheese sandwiches to eat, until they confess their sin, repudiate their vocabulary offenses, and start using the correct nomenclature.

Wordle 637 Hint

Hint: Many wealthy people have this kind of vehicle. Lately fewer wealthy Russian people have this kind of vehicle.

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First Letter: Y

Wordle 636 Hint

 Hint: I'm not hesitant or afraid to clue you in on today's Wordle in no uncertain terms. But my mouth is.

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First Letter: M

Creative Solutions to Price Increases

According to my Amazon history, my first pair of Thai fisherman pants (or at least the earliest purchase reflected in my order history without messing around) cost $8.70 back in 2017.

My most recently purchased pair of Thai fisherman pants cost $16.95 a couple of months ago, and I bought those on sale.

Looking at prices today, the colors/sizes/brands I've tended to prefer are in the $23-$25 range.

As I've mentioned, I really love Thai fisherman pants. I wear them pretty much every day, and pretty much everywhere, unless I've got a good reason not to (e.g. I'm doing something really outdoorsy which calls for jeans or shorts, or I'm going to some more formal function). In the pants category, they constitute most of my wardrobe.

But I'm looking at alternatives. One of which arrived over the weekend:

Yeah, it was $22.99 (on Amazon -- not an affiliate link). But unlike Thai fisherman pants, I don't have to also buy a shirt. And in cool weather I can layer it over older Thai fisherman pants and shirts that maybe don't look so snazzy anymore, and get more wear out of them.

It's quite comfortable.

But I'm not sure I should wear it while traveling. It looks like the kind of thing that might get me "randomly selected for additional screening" at airports.

Wordle 635 Hint

Hint: Apples, the hard way.

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First Letter: C

Time to Work on My Travel Rig Again ...

When I travel, I work (I'm traveling at the end of March).

Which means I need:

• A computer (got my Chromebook, check)
• Two monitors (Chromebook screen and USB travel monitor, check)
• My frequently used work files (I don't like trusting them to the cloud, but now I've got SD card readers in my desktop and laptop and keep those files on a card, check)
• A mouse (I use one of those ergonomic mice ever since the De Quervain's tendinosis incident, check); and

A keyboard.

Using laptop keyboards annoys me, less because they're small than because 1) there's usually a touchpad at the bottom, making normal hand position uncomfortable, and 2) I like to sit back from my screens some and using a laptop keyboard makes me lean in.

So, I usually end up just taking a standard USB keyboard with me and plugging it into the Chromebook. 

But those are just a bit too bulky to fit in my "personal item"/carry-on when I fly, meaning the thing goes in checked baggage. So if my bag gets lost or I want to work while at the airport after checking it, I have to use the laptop keyboard.

I was thinking about this morning, and went to have a look at Amazon. Where I found (not an affiliate link):

"Full Size and Ultra Slim." Which, since it doesn't have the number pad (which I do use, but can live without as needed, I think), etc. of a regular keyboard, should, be short enough and thin enough to fit in my carry-on.

And I happened to have enough "rewards" sats stacked up at BitRefill.com (affiliate link -- if you spend $50, we each get $5 worth of BTC) to cover the $9.99 + tax price.

So I guess I'll see whether that works out, or whether I have to borrow or buy a "real" keyboard at the far end of the trip.

Preemptive Violation Notice

Per proposed Florida Senate Bill 1718:

a person who knowingly and willfully commits any of the following offenses commits a felony of the third degree .... Conceals, harbors, or shields from detection, or attempts to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection, in any place within this state, including any temporary or permanent structure or through any means of transportation, an individual whom the person knows, or reasonably should know, has entered the United States in violation of law [sic] and has not been inspected by the Federal Government since his or her unlawful [sic] entry ...

Of course, per the the Supreme Law of the Land, the US Constitution (Article I, Section 9; Article V; Amendment 10), it is literally impossible "to enter the United States in violation of law."

But assuming otherwise, as claimed by anti-America, anti-freedom agitators like Florida Senator Blaise Ingoglia, for the sake of argument:

I hereby declare that, effective upon passage/signature of this bill into Florida law, I offer (that is, I am attempting) to do my best to conceal, harbor, or shield from detection any "illegal alien" who asks me for such assistance.

Someone is Offering Trump Supporters ... Well, Basically the Same Deal They've Been Getting the Whole Time

The usual deal: Anything they get from Trump isn't worth much, and costs them several times what it's actually worth.

The latest take on the usual deal:

President [sic] Trump On Legal Currency!

Actual $2 Bill With Trump's Portrait & Signature!

Value as "legal tender": $2.00

Price: $29.95 (for one -- but you can get ten for only $17.99 each!)

Yes, really (not an affiliate link).

Another Time/Causality WTF Hypothesis

In line with this previous one, and inspired by Scott Alexander's artificial intelligence musings like this one.

Perhaps the AI humankind is developing "now" is the god that's going to create humankind and the reality we're living in ... "later."

Wordle 634 Hint

Hint: The players on a Quidditch team might do this by winning a series of matches, or to clean up the locker room afterward.

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First Letter: S

Wordle 633 Hint

Hint: Sorry for being so rude and mean to you this morning. Guess I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something.

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First Letter: S

You're Welcome!

If you're holding Bitcoin, I mean.

On Saturday morning, it was worth about $20k USD.

I spent a considerable percentage of my Bitcoin holdings -- about $1,100 worth at that price -- on plane tickets.

In the 48 hours or so since, it's gained about 20% in USD value.

Which is pretty much what always happens when I spend Bitcoin.

Because, Not Despite

CNBC headline this morning: "First Republic drops 70%, leads decline in bank stocks despite government’s backstop of SVB."

Well, no: Bank stops are dropping because Silicon Valley Bank is getting a bailout, because the bailout has already spread to a second bank (Signature Bank), and because investors are likely assuming (and likely wisely so) two things:

1. More banks are going to be lining up for bailouts; and
2. At least some of those banks will go under before they can get on, or just won't even be offered a nipple on, the bailout udder.

Oddly, I had (and indulged) a sudden urge to re-watch The Big Short last week. Good movie. I guess we can expect a reboot soon.

Wordle 632 Hint

Hint: If you have trouble solving today's Wordle, it's not my fault, it's yours.

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First Letter: B

Wordle 631 Hint

Hint: The beginning, assuming reincarnation isn't a thing.

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First Letter: B

I Didn't Add This To My Amazon Wish List ...

 ... but I wish I'd had it when I saw what air fares have done in the last three years. It's a $2,278 fainting couch (not an affiliate link):

That's only about twice as much as it's costing Tamara and myself to fly to Milwaukee and back for the interment of my brother's ashes.

The up side, if there is one, is that it wasn't really any more expensive to fly right out of Gainesville than it would have been to have to drive a couple of hours each way to St. Pete, Orlando, or Jacksonville to use one of the "budget" airlines ... none of which fly into Milwaukee these days, apparently, so we'd have had to fly into Chicago or Appleton, rent a car, and drive for a couple hours as well.

How did I pay for it? Well, I parted with a good chunk of my HODLed cryptocurrency and bought American Airlines gift cards from BitRefill (affiliate link -- if you spend $50 through them, you and I each get $5 in BTC) to cover most of it.

I wish I'd done that a few days ago before Bitcoin's price took a (presumably temporary) shit, but I had technical issues (read: Wife agonizing indecisively over timetables, etc.) to work through first.

Not an emergency or anything, but if anyone wants to hit the "Help a Brother Out" section in the right sidebar, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Wordle 630 Hint

Hint: If today's Wordle was a fad diet, its core food would be spam.

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First Letter: E

How Is It Possible That I've Never Heard About This Before?

It had me at "[t]he resulting brew is generally much stronger than Western drip/filter coffee, and often stronger than espresso."

I've added a rig and a bag of the kind of coffee used to my Amazon wish list -- but unless they disappear from it quickly because someone loves me that much, I'll probably end up going to a local Indian market this weekend looking for a good deal.

Wordle 629 Hint

Hint: "Hey, anyone seen Bacchus?" "Yeah, he's over in the corner wearing a lamp shade as a hat. Why?" "We're getting ready for the Beer Pong Olympics and want him on our team."

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First Letter: R

Wordle 628 Hint

Hint: Here? There? Precisely what location are we talking about?

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First Letter: W

Probably True. And Probably Bi-Directional.

George Will at WaPo:

[T]he worse wokeness becomes, the better. Wokeness is being shrunk by the solvent of the laughter it provokes.

That seems to be the case. In my experience, most "normal" people just roll their eyes and dismiss the woke-est woketards when hit with some weird demand vis a vis language or whatever.

But just as good, in my experience, most "normal" people just roll their eyes and dismiss the EVERYTHING I DON'T LIKE IS "WOKE" AND MUST BE BANNED TO PROTECT OUR PRECIOUS BODILY FLUIDS crowd too.

Of course, there is at least some danger that one of these two factions could really and truly seize power and have to be put down by whatever means necessary.

But I think it's more likely that they'll both go down in history, in a very minor way, and as the silly fad cults they are.

Wordle 627 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is kingly -- and makes me think of movie theaters.

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First Letter: R

Wordle 626 Hint

Hint: An informal game played with a basketball, or what Lou Reed was looking for in Harlem.

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First Letter: H

I'm Picking Up [After Not-]Good Vibrations

I like to listen to my Amazon Echo/Alexa products.

When I'm listening to Alexa read a book, I usually set the volume to 7 during the day, 5 at night (it's a 1-10 volume scale).

When I'm listening to Alexa play music, the volume is almost always set to 10.

Which, when I'm wearing my bluetooth sleep mask headphones, presents no problems.

But since I discarded the Echo Show in favor of my old 4th Generation Echo Dot, the latter device has behaved in a way it didn't before.

It vibrates, and visibly moves. If I'm not paying attention, it moves right off the bedside table and onto the floor.

I did change bedside tables about the same time I switched from the Dot to the show. Maybe the finish on the new one is just too slick or something.

So, I've ordered this (not an affiliate link).

It's a wall mount. If cord length considerations, etc. work out well, I'll mount the Dot more or less centered a couple of feet above where my head usually ends up on the bed at night.

I'd already been considering it, because I think the sound might be nicer coming from that location, and because it should be easier to find the device in the dark and wearing a sleep mask if I want, for some reason, to use the volume buttons manually. The "vibrating off the bedside table onto the floor, waking me up with a conceivably device-damaging thunk" factor tipped the balance.

Yeah, I know, First World problems. But  waking up and being able to just say "Alexa, play Pet Sounds" instead of having to find, purchase, and manually engage the vinyl album, cassette tape, or CD? Who could live without that now that it's become a possibility?

Not Quite Nothing New Under the Sun

Adrienne LaFrance's piece in The Atlantic is titled "The New Anarchy." Pull quote:

The form of extremism we face is a new phase of domestic terror, one characterized by radicalized individuals with shape-shifting ideologies willing to kill their political enemies.

But then LaFrance directly references a previous iteration of exactly that: "Propaganda of the deed." For some reason she attributes the idea to one of its later advocates, Luigi Galleani.

She doesn't reference later improvements to that doctrine, such as Amoss's "leaderless resistance" ideas.

And she only references social media with respect to the fact that "conspiracy theories now spread instantly and globally," rather than addressing how it facilitates both open and predisposition-coded calls to action, making it easier to informally coordinate leaderless resistance, or to inspire propaganda of the deed.

The social media aspect is really the only new thing here. "Radicalized individuals with shape-shifting political ideologies willing to kill their political enemies" have been around forever, and their tactical approach has been evolving for at least a century and a half.

Wordle 625 Hint

Hint: It's not always the case, but this morning I have more Wordle skill in my little finger than you have in your whole body.

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First Letter: P

Wordle 624 Hint

Hint: Don't try to eat today's Wordle. It's pure poison.

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First Letter: T

What I'm "Reading" at the Moment

The quotes around "reading" are because really I'm just having my Echo Dot read to me at bedtime.

And also because I'm not really "reading" the thing so much as Bertrand Russell's introduction to the thing, the thing being Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (that's a non-affiliate link to the free Standard Ebooks edition -- here's a non-affiliate link to the Amazon Kindle version of the Chiron Academic Press "Original Authoritative Edition" that I'm actually "reading").

The thing -- or, rather, Russell's introduction to the thing, since I'm usually asleep before that ends and the work proper begins -- is ... ambitious. I understand that Wittgenstein later recanted his view that it "had resolved all philosophical problems."

Hopefully I'll eventually get familiar enough with it to have some thoughts on where he's right (if at all) and where he's wrong (if at all).

Over the last few years I've done quite a bit of this Kindle/Alexa bedtime "reading," and I've found that it makes actual reading easier later on. A book handled this way feels familiar rather than strange, so it becomes easier to spend time with its parts instead of trying to sprint/ram my way through the thing from beginning to end.

It does bug the hell out of me that so many important books are so expensive in Kindle format even though they've been around forever. I'd like to give Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, which I read in dead-tree format on library loan maybe 25 years ago, the Kindle/Alexa treatment, but the cheapest Kindle editions are $8.49!

Wordle 623 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle refers to something moving generally in a particular direction, but is often conflated with "fad."

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First Letter: T

A Request for Advance Pledges ...

Here's why:

If a blogger posts to a blog about an elected [Florida] state officer and receives, or will receive, compensation for that post, the blogger must register with the appropriate office, as identified in paragraph (1)(f), within 5 days after the first post by the blogger which mentions an elected state officer.

They don't have to be large pledges. A dollar will do just fine.

State senator Jason Brodeur, and any legislator who votes for this bill, governor who signs this bill, or bureaucrat who attempts to enforce this bill can

KISS. MY. ASS.

I will write about whoever and whatever I damn well please here at KN@PPSTER without asking for permission from, or considering myself obligated to report my activities to, any government entity.

But in order to openly, explicitly, and indisputably put myself in violation of this proposed law, I'll have to be compensated, or at least have it on record that I can expect to be compensated.

So, please, help me out with that in comments, e.g. "if this proposal is signed into law, I will pay you $1 to publish a post about [insert name of elected Florida politician here]."

Wordle 622 Hint

Hint: If I practice my powerlifting technique in someone else's house without permission, I'm doing today's Wordle twice over.

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First Letter: S

59 Things I Didn't Learn Today (and You Can Too!)

Among the people who read KN@PPSTER, I get the feeling most are fairly privacy-conscious and reluctant to share personal/private/medical information unless absolutely necessary.

If you resemble that remark, this post is probably not for you.

A few years ago, I signed up for a large study called All Of Us (not an affiliate link -- I get nothing out of pointing you at it except the knowledge that I pointed you at something you might find interesting/useful).

I gave them a DNA sample (I forget whether it was blood or saliva), but I don't think you have to do that to participate.

Because I gave them a DNA sample, I've received various reports from them over time, including something that looks a lot like a simplified Ancestry.com or 23andMe "DNA Ancestry" report, a report on how specific genes I carry may affect the way my body absorbs particular medications, and an analysis of 59 genes associated with particular health conditions (that last one returned no "bad" results; I may have genetic predispositions for this or that, but none of the 59 predispositions they checked for).

They do things other than taking DNA samples. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they surveyed study participants on their experiences/actions.

It's all pretty cool IMO, but it's something you'll be interested in or won't be interested in now that you know about it.

One of Those WTF Ideas

So I was thinking about the subject of time as I drifted off to sleep last night, probably because of a recent discussion I had with someone concerning the idea of "before" the Big Bang.

If Stephen Hawking is (like others he explained and built on) right, there was no "before" the Big Bang, because the Big Bang created the space-time continuum.

Which got me thinking about the simulation hypothesis. If we live in a simulated reality, it's by no means obvious that our space-time continuum is, or acts like, whatever "higher" reality our simulation is running in. Which raises questions of how time might work in other simulations or "higher" realities, including vis a vis causality and its attendant relationships.

At which point a story element popped into my mind. Since I never get this stuff written in fictional form, I'll just throw it out there (with apologies to anyone who might have come up with it, and maybe even novelized it, outside my attention span).

The protagonist learns that he lives in a simulated reality, presumably through contact with its "higher"
 reality or an adjacent simulation.

But he eventually learns that there isn't, or at least may not be, any "higher" or "previous" involved.

In point of fact, the relationship of Reality A to Reality B might be that someone in Reality A, which was created by someone in reality B, creates Reality B ... not one "before" or "after" the other, but because time and causality and such work completely differently in various realities, up to and including some primordial reality which may or may not exist (and which may have been created by one of its descendant realities).

Maybe I'm just babbling, but it's been ... well, days ... since I've indulged in any particularly psychoactive substances, and much longer than that since I've had any really strong ones.

Also, it does seem like a pretty complicated thing to work into a plot.

Not Really Especially Helpful

Quite often, I get notifications via Amazon's Alexa app -- to my phone and to my household Echo Dot speakers -- that "the National Weather Service has issued a ..."

The most frequent one is a friendly morning "the National Weather Service has issued a dense fog advisory for Archer [the Florida town nearest me], in effect from [time] to [time]." We get lots of fog here of a morning.

I also get such advisories for thunderstorm and tornado watches/warnings, high winds, etc.

This morning, I got one I've not gotten before:

"The National Weather Service has issued a Special Weather Statement for Archer."

That's it. That's all.

Per Wikipedia, "there are no set criteria for special weather statements ... [they] may be issued by the NWS for hazards that have not yet reached warning or advisory status or that do not have a specific code of their own, such as widespread funnel clouds. They are also occasionally used to clear counties from severe weather watches. Occasionally, special weather statements appear as heat advisories. ... Special Weather Statements may also be issued for possible fire weather conditions, such as an enhanced risk."

So "the National Weather Service has issued a Special Weather Statement for Archer" could mean, well, pretty much anything.

I wonder if someone at NWS forgot to input full data into whatever gizmo spreads the word, or if something is amiss in the Alexa system.

Wordle 621 Hint

 Hint: The sky's position relative to the ground.

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First Letter: A

Ransomware Scams on the Cheap!

I've received a few of these emails, over time, to admin addresses of sites I run.

SUBJECT: Your Website Has Been Hacked

BODY:

Your Site Has Been Hacked

PLEASE FORWARD THiS EMAiL TO SOMEONE iN YOUR COMPANY WHO iS ALLOWED TO MAKE iMPORTANT DECiSiONS!

We have hacked your website rationalreview.com and extracted your databases.

How did this happen?

Our team has found a vulnerability within your site that we were able to exploit. After finding the vulnerability we were able to get your database credentials and extract your entire database and move the information to an offshore server.

What does this mean?

We will systematically go through a series of steps of totally damaging your reputation. First your database will be leaked or sold to the highest bidder which they will use with whatever their intentions are. Next if there are e-mails found they will be e-mailed that their information has been sold or leaked and your site rationalreview.com was at fault thusly damaging your reputation and having angry customers/associates with whatever angry customers/associates do. Lastly any links that you have indexed in the search engines will be de-indexed based off of blackhat techniques that we used in the past to de-index our targets.

How do i stop this?

We are willing to refrain from going through with these actions for a small fee. The amount:  $3500 (0.15 BTC)

[payment method demand details redacted -- KN@PPSTER]

What if i don’t pay?

if you decide not to pay, we will start the attack at the indicated date and uphold it until you do, there’s no counter measure to this, you will only end up wasting more money trying to find a solution. We will completely destroy your reputation amongst google and your customers.

This is not a hoax, do not reply to this email, don’t try to reason or negotiate, we will not read any replies. Once you have paid we will stop what we were doing and you will never hear from us again!

Pretty cool, huh? You don't actually have to create or purchase any ransomware, or hack any sites. You just have to find someone stupid enough to believe that you've hacked his or her site but haven't done anything to it yet that would constitute proof of said hacking.

Are there any such people? Presumably so, since I've received emails like this before and probably wouldn't be continuing to receive them if someone wasn't making money by spamming the threat.

The specified BTC payment address shows a zero balance and no activity, but I suppose there could be a script for the spam that creates new addresses on the fly for each individual email.

Wordle 620 Hint

 Hint: Think Rocky's best friend and Teddy's second political party.

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First Letter: M

Thanks For Asking! -- 03/01/23

Wow ... I just completely missed a month! Sorry about that. My brother's death in late January discombobulated me for some time and left me running on defective auto-pilot in some respects.

But Thanks For Asking! is back. Ask me anything -- yes, anything -- in the comments below this post, and I'll answer somewhere (in the comments, in a blog post linked from the comments, maybe on a podcast, who knows)?