Wordle 680 Hint

Hint: Havana has four famous ones; in St. Louis, Missouri there's Kiener.

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First Letter: P

Amazfit Band 5 at ~Six Months

About six months ago, I gave up on the el cheapo discount store "fitness trackers" and purchased (not an affiliate link) the Amazfit Band 5. Here's my early "quick and dirty" review.

Thoughts after about six months:

1. I dodged a bullet by going with the Amazfit rather than the Amazon Halo. Amazon announced earlier this week that it's shutting the whole Halo operation down, refunding hardware purchases and cutting off the associated proprietary services at the end of July.
2. I never got the Amazfit Band 5 to properly interact with Amazon's Alexa service in the way I thought it was supposed to -- that is, let me say the word "Alexa" into the band and/or press the "Alexa" selection on the band and be able to query Alexa. But I think that I was just misunderstanding what it was supposed to do. The band does pass on alerts and reminders that I've set up using Alexa, which is nice.
3. Another nice feature of the band is that it interacts well with my phone. If my phone rings, my wrist vibrates, which is nice when the phone is silenced, or in another room where I might not hear it. It also displays incoming text messages, as well as alerts for the apps I tell it to do so with.
4. Items (2) and (3) are things I've come to not like living without. Any future fitness band I buy will need to offer them. One cool feature that I hadn't used until last week was Strava inter-operability. When I get ready to take a bike ride, I can just tell the watch, which will keep track of my distance, average speed, etc., pause the recording when I stop and re-start it when I get moving again (very nice for trips to the nearest convenience store!), and put the ride data into the Strava app when the ride ends.
5. I can't recall having any functionality problems with the band at all. It's still holding a charge for a week or more and charging up in an hour or so. The app gives me what seems to be good data on my sleep patterns, and its pulse rate and pulse oxygen readings seem to be reasonably correct when I bother to use the band to check them.
6. The only thing I didn't really like about the Amazfit Band 5 was the silicone band it came in. But no biggie -- there are aftermarket cloth and metal bands. The cheap pair of cloth bands I bought aren't the best (one of the two broke after a month or so); I may spend a little more money on something nicer next time.

I expect that when the Amazfit Band 5 goes, I'll return to the Amazfit brand for a replacement. They offer a band (the 7) with a slightly larger screen and claiming even longer battery life, as well as a line of "smart watches" that are bigger and offer some or all of the same health/fitness monitor functions.

I'd say I'm a fairly satisfied customer.

My Only Major Complaint with ChromeOS Flex, Solved (But Not By Me)

When I first got the ATOPNUC Mini PC, I was disappointed that ChromeOS Flex didn't support its CPU yet, and went with Lubuntu as the closest thing I could easily find to "make this thing into a $100, 8Gb Chromebox" (actual Chromeboxes with 8Gb of RAM were going for ~$400 at the time).

A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded the latest build of ChromeOS to a thumb drive and found that it finally supported my CPU. Everything seemed to work fine ... except that it didn't detect my Ethernet connection and insisted on using wifi. Not a huge big major deal, but if I can use a wired connection, I prefer to use a wired connection. I wasn't yet ready to pull the trigger on going back to ChromeOS full-time.

Forward to this week, when I did something -- I'm still not sure what -- that slightly pranged my Lubuntu install, and decided to do a "clean" install of Lubuntu (getting rid of the regular Ubuntu install that was taking up half my hard drive but that I never used, in the process). The "clean" install had all of the minor problems that the previous one had (not properly detecting my audio output devices being a big one), and I had forgotten what my fixes for those problems were. So hey, why not install ChromeOS Flex, too, just to use as a stopgap while I figured those problems out?

At which point I managed to install ChromeOS Flex to the SD card where I kept a bunch of work files, rather than to my hard drive.

And then I had to make a difficult choice:

ChromeOS Flex doesn't offer to let you partition your hard drive. It's either use the whole drive, or don't install ChromeOS Flex. So I'd have to give up Lubuntu, or at least see if it would install again after ChromeOS Flex in a way that allowed me to resize the single partition into two and do dual boot.

I decided to go for it. And it was great, except for the same single  problem: No Ethernet, just wifi.

Until I booted up the machine this morning, that is. The latest update supports Ethernet.

Yay.

I may still look into adding Lubuntu. Or not.

Wordle 679 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is beautiful both in nature and on the flag of Lebanon. It's also used to make everything from cat litter to special closets.

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First Letter: C

A Chromebox, Whether I Wanted One or Not

I started having computer problems yesterday, and my, isn't it odd how having computer problems seem to often coincide with not feeling well (some kind of body/stomach flu, I think)? I worked through them (although I didn't get a column written), then this morning (yes, still sick) decided that maybe I should just do a clean install of Lubuntu, and while I was at it get rid of regular Ubuntu and install ChromeOS Flex.

During the course of which I managed to make Lubuntu not work very well (different problems than yesterday) and erase the SD card I keep important work files on ... so they'd be safe, of course.

Anyway, I eventually ended up with ChromeOS and nothing else. Which is kind of full circle given than my original intention with this machine was to see if I could do that.

Back to reconstructing important files, and hopefully getting back on track for tomorrow work-wise.

Wordle 678 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is more approximate than exact, date-wise.

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First Letter: C

Wordle 677 Hint

Hint: It can be formal or informal -- and it's a science, not a suit of clothes.

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First Letter: L

Prepare for the USD Price of Bitcoin to Increase!

Last night, a spring end poked through my 10-year-old mattress and jabbed me right in the ass. Well, a quick Bing search does say the average life of a mattress is 7-10 years -- I guess I can't complain about how long it took.

So this morning, I liquidated $170 USD worth of Bitcoin for an Amazon gift card via BitRefill.com (affiliate link! If you spend more than $50 worth of crypto there, we each get $5 worth of Bitcoin!) and ordered a mattress-in-a-box with one-day shipping.

My record on this is pretty much 100%: If I part with any significant amount of Bitcoin, the price shoots up by 50% or more within a couple of weeks. So if you've been thinking about buying BTC, now is probably a good time. You're welcome.

Wordle 676 Hint

Hint: A major city and the area surrounding it, or the subway system serving such a city/area.

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First Letter: M

My Current Bike Goals ...

... which I am, so far, meeting:

1. Complete one or two three-mile rides per day. I know from experience that once three miles isn't a problem at all, 30 miles isn't a big problem.
2. Maintain an average speed of at least 10 miles per hour. That's not an excessive speed for a single-speed bike, and getting into a 10-mph rhythm is nice for trip time estimates. If I decide to go somewhere 20 miles away, allow myself at least two hours, and so forth.

By next week, I expect to make it one or two five-mile rides per day, with a couple of rest days per week.

And really, other than actual trips for good reason (I have a meeting downtown, I want a burger from some specific place, etc.), those are my only goals. If I'm doing five to ten miles per day, I should be building muscle, lowering blood sugar, and shedding fat. And either having fun (most likely) or at least not reducing my existing fun.

Wordle 675 Hint

Hint: That guy makes me laugh -- he's a real card.

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First Letter: J

Wordle 674 Hint

Hint: You can say that again. Or, rather, I'm saying it again in one-word form.

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First Letter: D

Wow, It Only Took One Day ...

... for me to start having a previously familiar problem that it's good to have.

The ride home with the new bike yesterday was eight miles. Which isn't really very far, but it's been a long time since I've been in a situation where I couldn't just engage an electric motor when things started wanting more muscle than I wanted to put out.

This morning, I just went out for about two miles, and will likely do so again this evening. I'm determined not to overdo it and either blow my knees or just burn out. I don't plan on doing more than ten miles a day or so on average, or even ten miles in a given day unless I have a place I need to go and cycling there makes sense.

But anyway, a few minute ago I suddenly felt woozy and, yep, my blood glucose was at 65. Had to grab something sugary, quick, to keep it from falling into dangerous territory.

When I'm cycling regularly, I'm just ... no longer diabetic. My blood sugar may run a little high in the morning if I ate right before to going to bed (something I've been getting better at remembering not to do) or a little low in the early afternoon if I miss breakfast or whatever, but most of the day it's within normal parameters.

But when I first start cycling regularly, the effect is far more pronounced and I'll get wild drops down into the 70-ish range (I think this is the first time I've seen it as low as 65) and need to sugar up a little. I assume that's because muscles I hadn't been using much suddenly find themselves under a lot of strain and start burning glucose like crazy to rebuild every time I tear them down. And from what I've read, doing that regularly also results in newly built cells being less insulin-resistant than the ones they're replacing.

Wordle 673 Hint

Hint: A prelude to traditional male urination (unless you're wearing e.g. Levi's 501s).

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First Letter: U

Bike

 

It's a Purefix single speed with flip-flop hub (set to freewheel). 54cm frame. $250 new, $125 used from a guy who refurbished it very nicely.

I'm used to a 57cm, but I think I may actually like the 54cm better. I'm right on the height borderline between those two frame sizes being ideal, but I think once I adjust the seat height, etc. I'll find this more comfy.

It's also the far side from the direction I intended to go on tires. I preferred moving up from the 25mm on my last non-electric bike to 32mm, so that I could have Schrader valves instead of Presta. But this one is rocking 23mm Continental Dura-Skins. Pretty nice tires, with some wear left in them and new tubes. Other than the valve thing, I actually like nice narrow tires.

As you can see, I brought my lock, small bag (with pump, wrenches, etc.), and water bottle/bottle holder with me when I went to look at the bike, then mounted them before riding it eight miles home (I grabbed this photo during a water stop).

I can rob a cargo rack from another old bike frame, but I am going to need some stuff. I've added it to my Amazon Wish List in case anyone wants to help out before I get to all of it. In order of urgency:

1. Presta to Schrader valve adapters. That way I can use a normal air pump (including a gas station hose) to air up the tires.
2. Spare tubes, because sooner or later I will have a flat, and the only spare tubes I have right now are for the 26" Nakto.
3. A front frame bag with phone pouch on top. I have a handlebar phone holder, but frankly those aren't very stable. And between this thing and the little triangle bag, I won't need to use the rear cargo rack/pannier bag(s) very often.
4. Screw those little hand pumps that used to be the only resort when changing a flat in the middle of nowhere. Now you can get a USB rechargeable tiny compressor/pump to do the work for you. One of those "see how great capitalism is? We get Quarter Pounders with Cheese!" guys needs to do an essay on that.

Eight miles really isn't very far, but it wore me out. Electric has made me lazy. Guess it's time to fix that.

Update: See the strike-outs above. All three of the rear cargo racks I have require somewhere to attach to the frame in front of the rear tire (in addition to on either side of that wheel), and the bike has no pre-drilled holes for such attachments. That's not really a show-stopper of any kind. Between my small triangular tool bag and the little phone bag I removed from the wish list and ordered myself, that covers probably 90% of trips I'd be making. For the others, I'll either eventually buy a rack that works, or just use a backpack.

Wordle 672 Hint

Hint: Don't expect today's Wordle to buy you lunch. It doesn't have a penny to its name.

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First Letter: B

Oh, No, They're On To Me!

From a letter to the editor published in Wednesday's edition of the Oxford, Mississipi Eagle:

Apparently, Thomas Knapp ... associates with a group of Americans that distrusts anything associated with or funded by the government.

 

Note to Various Internet Sellers

Dear people who constantly send me links to sites peddling various supplements that are supposed to increase my lifespan, cure what ails me, etc.:

If you ever sent me a link to a site that told me what it was selling, how much it cost, and why I should buy it without first requiring me to watch a 45-minute video that consists of 43 minutes of low-information hype with two minutes of useful information at the end, and that I can't skip to the important part of, you might actually end up selling me something instead of having me bop off elsewhere to look into what little is revealed at the beginning and maybe buy it ... from someone else.

Have a nice weekend.

Wordle 671 Hint

Hint: It's a boat! It's a search engine! It's a palindrome!

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First Letter: K

OK, I'm Starting to Think Bike Specs Again

I thought I had the "power cuts out" thing on the Nakto e-bike whipped. It performed perfectly on a three-mile ride yesterday. Then, today, it suddenly lost power near the end of another one. Just for an instant -- as soon as I let go of the throttle for a few seconds then twisted it again, I was back in business -- but since I apparently didn't fix whatever the problem was in yesterday's "check all connections, tighten everything," I'm probably looking at something I 1) can't fix myself and 2) wouldn't like the price of having fixed at a bike shop.

So, I think I'm in the market for a new bike. Or, rather, a used bike. I saw some stuff on Craigslist -- all from the same guy, near me, apparently he fixes them up and sells them, in the $150-$200 range -- that fits into my general desired specification:

• Single speed. That one is probably the closest to non-negotiable. I live in a relatively flat area. I don't need 21 gears for zipping up and down hills. And I don't want the additional complexity of cassettes, derailleurs, and associated cables and levers. The simpler the bike, the less to go wrong and the easier to work with when something does go wrong.
• Caliper brakes. Same reasoning. I don't dislike e.g. hydraulic disc brakes, but I'm comfortable adjusting and replacing pads on good old-fashioned caliper brakes. Less to go wrong. Easier to fix. I don't like coaster brakes (the ones that engage when you pedal backward) because they offer less control and are more of a pain to replace when they wear out than caliper brake pads.
• 700c. The current e-bike is 26". A 700c felt awfully damn tall the first time I rode one, but once I got used to it I found I preferred it.
• 57cm frame. I might be OK with a 54cm. I'm right on the recommended height borderline between those two. But I've had two 57cm frame bikes and liked them both.
• Not unduly narrow tires. The only thing I disliked about my old Critical Harper was that the narrow 25mm rims fit tubes with a Presta valve, rather than the normal Schrader (the kind of valve on your car tires, the kind of valve every gas station air hose fits). I'm pretty sure I need to get up to at least 30mm if I want to rock Schraders. Otherwise I'll either have to rely on a pump I carry with me, or buy some valve adapters (my past experience with those is that they're hit and miss). I might be talked into a bike with narrow Presta-valve rims/tubes, but if I can avoid it I want to.
• Electric? If the guy has something fitting the above specs and the price is right, maybe. If not, I might consider buying a conversion kit. BUT ...

My weight loss has plateaued. Instead of ballooning back and forth between 220 and 250 pounds, I balloon back and forth between 210 and 220. I think getting back on a bike might let me get down below 200. And I think if I get below 200, I may not blow my knees out every few months when I get so into the cycling that I'm doing 100-150 miles per week.

I've already talked with the spouse about reining me in if I seem to be cycling too much. But I think it's time to start cycling more with my legs and less with a throttle.

As for the above specs, everything else is easy. If the bike I want doesn't have a rack, I can pull one off another old frame. If the bike I want doesn't have integrated lights, I already have a cool USB-rechargeable rear light and a holder for a small flashlight for up front. I think I may buy one of those little bags that fits on the top rack to hold my phone instead of using my current handlebar holder. I may replace my pannier bags, as they've been used hard and are probably on the verge of throwing a zipper or getting a rip. I've got a bell or two I can mount for signaling. I've got locks.

If I can just get a single-speed 700c/57cm with caliper brakes at a reasonable price, I'm golden. And I may do that as early as this weekend.

No, It Doesn't.

 WaPo letter to the editor headline:

The Constitution demands the debt be paid. Period.

The letter, from one Maurice F. Baggiano, claims:

As long as public debts are authorized by law, they may not be questioned and must be paid. That’s the import of Section 4 of the 14th Amendment.

The 14th Amendment does indeed say that "[t]he validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned."

It says nothing whatsoever even hinting at the idea that said debts must be paid, though.

Millions of Americans, and probably billions of people around the world, default on debts every year without "questioning the validity" of those debts. Delinquent mortgages get foreclosed on. Cars get repossessed. Subscriptions get canceled and sent to collection agencies, all with no one ever asserting that the debts weren't valid.

The US government itself, as Alex J Pollock notes at The Hill, has defaulted on its debt no fewer than four times, three of them since the ratification of the 14th Amendment.

Furthermore, there is no requirement, as Baggiano implies, that Congress must pay on existing debt by raising the "debt ceiling" and borrowing even more money. It could just cut spending on other things to leave revenue remaining for debt service.

Wordle 670 Hint

Hint: Think dinner. Or tectonics.

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First Letter: P

No, That's Not What SCOTUS is "Weighing"

I've seen similar headlines elsewhere, but the notion is especially egregious coming from Reason:

Supreme Court Weighs Whether Postal Service Can Force Christian Employee To Work on Sundays

That's not at all in question, and never has been.

The Postal Service does not have powers of conscription, and this case is proof. The plaintiff quit his job rather than work on Sundays. Which he was entirely free to do.

The Postal Service gave him a choice between doing the job, or not doing the job. He chose to not do the job.

There are no "religious freedom" implications involved in this case. "Religious freedom" is about you believing what you want to believe and doing what you want to do, not about everyone else being legally required to rearrange their lives and schedules every time you stomp your foot and assert demands supposedly made by your invisible sky friend.

Wordle 669 Hint

Hint: Disney turned the novel character "Friend Hare" into a differently named film character who does this. And Chumbawumba wrote a song about doing this.

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First Letter: T

Hmmm ... Finally Here?

When I got the ATOPNUC Mini PC, my hope was to basically create a fast 8Gb Chromebox for $100 or so instead of the $400 or so minimum I was seeing. My hopes hung on ChromeOS Flex ... but I couldn't get it to work with the ATOPNUC's CPU.

But things move on, and the latest download of Flex seems to work. As in, I am writing this post from a ChromeOS Flex desktop, running on a USB drive plugged into the ATOPNUC!

I'm going to keep it on live USB for the moment, but I may end up installing it on the partition that's currently hosting regular Ubuntu (I always work in Lubuntu on the second partition anyway, so I won't miss the other version).

It's a little early -- that is, problems may pop up -- but I'm going to go there anyway:

My Voice Made For Text Does Radio

Today at noon central.  The show? In different places I seem to see it called "Cultural Baggage" or "Moral High Ground with The Reverend Dean." Either way, I'll be talking war on drugs and such with Dean Becker, and I think that one of the places you can catch it, if you're interested, is on KPFT 90.1 FM in Houston (live stream here).

Wordle 668 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is a real dog -- and not the kind of dog I'd pal around with or count on to catch a rabbit.

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First Letter: H

The Good News, the Other Good News, and the Bad News

I'm pretty sure I mentioned recently that I suspected my electric bicycle's battery was about to give up the ghost. For that reason, I've barely been riding it while I tried to decide between:

1. Spending $300+ on a new battery;
2. Buying a better electric bicycle instead of nursing this one along; or
3. Buying a new non-electric bicycle and trying to keep myself from getting so into it (100-150 miles per week) that I blow my knees out every few months.

The good news is that I don't think it's the battery. I've had occasion to ride it several times in the past few days. I'm not getting a dead battery. What I'm getting is a sporadic cut-out of power either to or from the motor, and then things are fine a few seconds later.

The other good news is that this is most likely just a loose or corroded connection. I plan to make time later today to look every connection over, tighten everything up, etc., and see if that's the fix.

The bad news is that if it's not just a loose or corroded connection, then I would probably either need a new motor or a new wiring harness, neither of which I've priced or expect I'd really want to try to install myself. Which would reduce my options from the list above to either #2 or #3.

I'm inclined toward option #2, and this time instead of buying a "cargo" bike (i.e. a glorified "beach cruiser"), I'd buy a "road"/"commuter" bike that's light enough to enjoyably use in non-electric mode.

Update, Wednesday: Yesterday, I went over the bike, making sure everything was tight, jiggling what wire connections I could reach to make sure connectors weren't loose, etc. Then I rode the bike about three miles. No motor cut-outs. So maybe it was just something of that sort. If the battery power indicator is any, um, indication, though, I doubt the battery will be lasting as long per charge as it used to. I may go out and ride it dead later today to see about that.

Wordle 667 Hint

Hint: I wouldn't say today's Wordle stinks, but if you're paying attention you can smell it.

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First Letter: W

Wordle 666 Hint

Hint: I no longer live in Missouri, but I once _____ there.

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First Letter: D

Wordle 665 Hint

Hint: No thrill of victory this morning -- it took me five tries to solve today's Wordle! Which turned out to be the other side of said thrill: The feeling that goes with defeat, at least according to Jim McKay.

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First Letter: A

Wordle 664 Hint

Hint: Stop that man! He stole my wallet!

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First Letter: T

Wordle 663 Hint

Hint: Think diamonds, not cake.

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First Letter: C

Wordle 662 Hint

Hint: You could use today's Wordle in your laundry, or to kill ants.

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First Letter: B

Wordle 661 Hint

Hint: I'm not sure I should give you a Wordle hint today. The idea of doing so gives me a feeling of moral uneasiness.

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First Letter: Q

I Disagree ...

... with Jamie Lee Curtis. Not necessarily over the idea that "We are human beings. We are not AI ..." (and yes, I realize I'm taking the quote way out of its intended context) but over whether we could necessarily know that, and whether the two are even mutually exclusive.

If we live in a simulated (including "deity"-created) reality, then we are by definition "artificial" from our creator's or creators' frame(s) of reference, and at least some of us may be "intelligent" (it's possible, maybe even likely, that many of us are procedurally generated / procedurally operating NPCs with no "free will," independently exercised evaluative capacity, or other "intelligence" aspects).

And we do not, and probably cannot, know whether we live in a simulated/created reality.

Wordle 660 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle isn't over.

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First Letter: U

Wordle 659 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle isn't a word, it's an acronym -- closely related to FUBAR, but neither as extreme nor as unusual.

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First Letter: S

If I Ran Disney ...

... I'd have a press release ready for launch on the day after DeSantis announces his 2024 presidential campaign, along the following lines:

Robert Iger, chairman and CEO of the Walt Disney company, announced this morning that the will close its Walt Disney World theme park and all related enterprises for the 2024 season "or until the political environment in Florida improves," hinting at the possibility of relocating the parks to the Charlotte, North Carolina area.

"We apologize to our Florida employees, and people around the world who love Disney's parks, hotels, and entertainment activities. We hope they'll consider visiting Disneyland in California next year," Iger said. "We also sympathize with the people of Florida who seem to appreciate our presence in the state, and to the many other businesses whose profitability relies on the millions of travelers we bring to the state each year."

"We do not, however," Iger continued, "apologize to certain politicians who don't seem to fully appreciate the $780 million in direct tax revenue they collect from Disney, and the billions more in tourist-related tax revenue indirectly powered by Disney's presence, enough to refrain from using our company as a punching bag when they see political advancement in doing so.

"Your move, Ron."

Wordle 658 Hint

Hint: Please don't jump! Step back from today's Wordle! And if you do not want to see my Wordle hints again, I would understand.

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First Letter: L

Wordle 657 Hint

Hint: A set of points as specified by a formula, or a magazine magazine covering the science fiction and fantasy genres. 

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First Letter: L

Wordle 656 Hint

Hint: My doctor is always after me to eat vegetables that are 1) green and 2) today's Wordle. 

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First Letter: L

Next on the Password Manager Audition List is ...

Bitwarden.

I've been fairly happy with NordPass, which I've been using for at least a couple of months. But it does have its defects.

The main defect, which didn't really bug me until last weekend, is that it requires an app install on the machine.

Which, on my Linux desktop, was really only a matter of allocating disk space (I'm a computer minimalist and hate having anything on my hard drive that's not well and truly necessary).

But when I travel, I use a Chromebook. And there is no Chromebook app. Which meant the only way to use NordPass was to open their site in my browser and access my "vault" via the web instead of just clicking on the little NordPass icon in a username/password form and getting the information auto-filled.

Bitwarden has desktop apps ... but I just tried their Chrome extension without having ever opened or logged in using the desktop app that I installed even as I was signing up for an account, and everything worked fine. So that should be the case with the Chromebook as well.

Also, if I want more than the basics, Bitwarden's premium version is only ten bucks a year. I'm going to give it a few days, and if I don't run into any problems, I'll probably go that way.

Gummint Paperwork Update

As reported at Ballot Access News and Independent Political Report, the Forward Party is now "ballot-qualified" in Florida.

So I just updated my Florida voter registration from "No Party Affiliation" to "Forward Party."

I'm still far from sure that the Forward Party can accomplish the good things it's after (like ranked choice voting and non-gerrymandered districting) without getting distracted by shiny authoritarian power bauble issues. But having decided to take my shot with them, I want to be registered to vote in ... or perhaps even run in! ... their primaries, etc.

Trump Indictment: The "Problem" That Isn't One

An example of the claim I'm seeing:

Alvin Bragg alleges that Donald Trump defrauded voters into electing him president on November 8, 2016.

Alvin Bragg also alleges that the first crime Donald Trump committed occurred on February 14, 2017.

Are you seeing the problem here?

The implication being that an action taken after the election couldn't have affected the outcome of the election.

That implication is bullshit.

The first crime alleged in the indictment was the attempt to cover up an "underlying crime" (hiding a presidential campaign contribution by falsely labeling it in company records) that occurred earlier.

That "underlying crime" is not something Bragg can prosecute, because it's a federal offense. He's prosecuting under New York's laws on recording/reporting business transactions. And the transactions he's prosecuting occurred after the election.

Just to be clear:

• I don't think it should be against the law for scumbags to pay hush money to cover up their scumbag behavior.
• I don't think the law should require politicians to report their contributions at all (the voters might want to avoid politicians who don't disclose where their money comes from, but that's a different story).

But the timeline here isn't a "problem."

Accuracy in Media (Designations), Twitter Edition

Per Forbes:

Twitter added a warning to NPR’s Twitter account on Tuesday, declaring it as “state-affiliated media,” a label that’s typically been reserved for foreign media outlets that represent the official views of the government, like Russia’s RT and China’s Xinhua.

I've been doing this for years at Rational Review News Digest.

Of course, supporters of NPR (and PBS) whine that they're not "state media" because they supposedly have "editorial independence." But all government funding comes with strings attached. If you take the money, you accept the strings, and are de facto state media. If they don't want that designation, they should become genuinely "public" and operate entirely on reader/listener/viewer donations.

I Have No Fear of Flying, But ...

... it's just not much fun anymore.

My first flight was in 1985, when I flew from Little Rock, Arkansas to San Diego, California for boot camp.

Over the following decade, I flew on everything from helicopters (including one mild crash) to puddle-jumpers to C-130s to 747s, and mostly enjoyed it. The commercial flights had smoking sections until near the end of that period. The seats had reasonable leg room. On domestic flights that weren't really short, you got a meal. Not a great meal, usually, but not bad, either. Pretty enjoyable way to travel.

These days, flying is like riding on a very crowded/cramped Greyhound bus, after submitting to the indignity of the TSA gauntlet.

Yes, the flight attendants are usually cheerful, polite, and helpful, and sometimes there's a complimentary beverage/peanut deal. But instead of an enjoyable break from driving, it's just a faster way to get from Point A to Point B, and not a very convenient or enjoyable one.

I guess I need to get rich enough to buy myself one of them there Gulfstreams.

Wordle 655 Hint

Hint: If the Incredible Hulk recorded an album, it would be this kind of hit. 

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First Letter: S

Wordle 654 Hint

Hint: A math term, or a way of reacting on Twitter. 

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New to Wordle? Here are some thoughts on how I go about solving each day's puzzle.

First Letter: R

I Finally Tried It On My Phone

Backgammon Galaxy, that is (that's a link to the "app" version -- their "straight" web version is here).

I don't recommend it. It's not the site's fault. A phone screen is just too damn small to fit a backgammon board onto and expect people's fat fingers to do a very good job of playing. I'd say an 8" tablet is the bare minimum to be able to comfortably play.

I'm really preferring that "app" version in general now, even though it still has some wrinkles that need to be worked out (the "chat" feature basically just has a few stock phrases one can click on, for example). Not on phone, but on desktop.

Matching up with people to play is easier. Instead of responding to a public invite or putting one up, you just choose to play a rating game, a "coin" game (you get 400 free "coins" every 12 hours and can bet on the outcomes of single games with no effect on rating), or "play a friend" by sharing a link.

If you choose a coin or rating game, it just matches you up with someone and off you go. For rating games, you can choose the match lengths (3, 5, or 7 games) and types (casual, normal, or speed), and once again it just matches you with an opponent.

The play is pretty smooth. It has the same bug as the web version, though, where it periodically just starts spewing very unlikely multiple doubles on the dice rolls.

One thing that has changed to make me like it less:

When the "app" version debuted, rating games were based entirely on outcome. You either won and gained rating points, or lost and lost rating points, without reference to an "error algorithm" that supposedly adjusts for "luck" by robbing you of your gain if you win the game but are deemed to have made more "errors" than your opponent.

Unfortunately, they've implemented the "error algorithm," but at least they've done so in a half-assed way: You still gain or lose rating points with a win or loss, regardless. But if the winning player supposedly makes fewer "errors" than the losing player, the winner gets, and the loser loses, more points.

Relatively Painless

Among the things that I needed to see to on my weekend trip to Wisconsin for my brother's interment was: How to get a couple of guns home.

One is a family heirloom: My dad's Iver Johnson .410 shotgun. I'm not sure how old it is, but I'll be researching that. I know that it's old enough that when he acquired it in the early 1950s, the stock was rotten. One of my uncles hand-carved a new one from a walnut stump. I have a childhood memory -- presumably early 1970s -- of him taking it somewhere to get the metal reblued.

The other is a Henry lever-action .22. It was my brother's "fun gun" for plinking or whatever, and my daughter is buying it from Mike's widow.

After looking over our options, we decided to just check the guns as baggage for our flight home.

Which meant buying a case meeting all the gummint specifications. Fortunately I found one that would hold both firearms (and my brother's Ka-Bar Marine combat knife) nicely for about $30 on sale at a local farm-type store.

The real problem was the locks. TSA or whoever requires at least three -- one in the middle and one at each end. I bought a regular padlock for the middle and two smaller ones for the ends. Then it turned out that the small ones were too small. So on Sunday morning I ordered two larger ones for delivery from Walgreens via Instacart rather than have to go running out to stores on a travel day. But they were out of the ones I ordered, the prospective replacements looked like they might not be big enough, and I canceled. We stopped at Target on the way to the airport and I bought two that were plenty big, so that I wouldn't have to run out to the car, then run back to trade them in.

We left very early for the airport, because I didn't want to get jammed up if they were troublesome to check in.

They weren't. The ladies at the American Airlines desk had us all taken care of in about three minutes, two minutes of which was me getting the locks off and on. At the other end of the trip, Tamara had to sign for the case.

I see that while I was out of town, Florida's legislature passed the bill doing away with permit requirements for concealed carry. But I guess I won't be carrying either of those concealed.

Wordle 653 Hint

Hint: If we divide all life into two large groups, this group includes oaks and daisies but not ocelots or ducks. 

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First Letter: F

How the "Travel Rig" Worked Out

TL;DR: About as good as one could expect it to.

Long version:

A lot of things go into working on a desktop instead of a laptop while traveling, No matter how good your rig is, desk/chair ergonomics are unlikely to match up to well to one's everyday home office setup. If you're used to dual 19" or larger monitors, that's going to be a problem to carry around. Etc.

The little "tablet stand" I bought is a winner. Since my Chromebook can be folded completely in half to effectively be a table (it's a touch-screen model), putting it on the stand raises the screen and stops the built-in keyboard/trackpad from taking up real estate and pushing the screens further from my eyes.

The little "full-size" keyboard ... meh. While the QWERTY part is reasonably close to "full-size, it's also those annoying little "chiclet" keys. And while I don't really miss the number pad, I hadn't realized how much I depend on page up/down keys. Not sure what I'm going to do about that in the future. It isn't terrible, but it's a least a mild inconvenience that's annoying and probably added 15 minutes to my work over three days.

I still like the idea of using tiny projectors to give me larger monitor size on a wall behind whatever desk/table I end up at, but I'm not sure that's practical.

I think the REAL solution is to do a lot less work when traveling. But I don't like that idea much. From a work perspective, I'll be glad to be back at my normal desk tomorrow.

Wordle 652 Hint

Hint: Different varieties of today's Wordle might be kept on a farm, in a pond, or in a financial portfolio.

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First Letter: S

Wordle 651 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is several things, including a way of walking and a type of song.

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First Letter: M

Thanks For Asking! -- 04/01/23

Yep, it's monthly AMA time! Ask me anything (yes, anything) in the comment thread below this post, and I'll answer (in the comments, or linked to from the comments). In addition to questions feel free to share any delicious rumors you've heard lately.