What You Expect And What You Get Are Not Always The Same Thing

I've been plotting for weeks to turn my not-currently-in-use Raspberry Pi 4B into a voice assistant machine using something called Mycroft, in a device-specific format called Picroft.

The essential remaining hardware bit (a cheap Chinese USB mic) arrived the other day, so this morning I burned the Picroft disk image to a USB card, set up the Pi, plugged in the mic and a speaker, booted the thing up ...

... and discovered, while searching for the meaning of strange error messages online, that the Mycroft/Picroft projects are apparently dead and have been for some time.

Oddly, none of that showed up during my original research into implementing the thing.

Not the end of the world. There are apparently newer, better, similar projects. Maybe I'll get one selected and set up next week so I can tell you about something that worked instead of about something that failed.

My main interest in Mycroft/Picroft was that my information wouldn't be going to Amazon for its proprietary business use (including potential forwarding to government agencies), as it does with Alexa. I'm not sure that the available alternatives will preserve any privacy (they seem to be hooking into Large Language Model AI stuff), but I doubt they'll be any worse as far as all that goes.

Wordle 1400 Hint

Hint: Where you look to see if you've got new email.

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First Letter: I

Wordle 1399 Hint

Hint: Music to mourn to.

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First Letter: D

Wordle 1398 Hint

Hint: You probably did this a little while after the last time you sat down.

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First Letter: S

Donald Moynihan Says It Like It's A Bad Thing

This, that is:

If Musk and DOGE truly cared about closing the deficit or tax fairness, they would increase the modernization investments at the IRS. But their revealed preference is for a tax system that does not trouble the wealthy unduly, and makes taxation more voluntary, a tip jar for public services.

There are two morally justifiable ways to get paid for providing "public services":

• Voluntary contracts for those services; or
• A tip jar.

Demanding the money and threatening to harm those who don't cough up isn't "tax fairness." It's just extortion.

If politicians spend more money than they've already extorted from you on the promise to extort even more from you later, that doesn't make you a criminal, it just highlights their criminality.

As for the supposed "public services," the premise Moynihan is operating from -- that nobody will pay for them except under threat of force -- reveals their true value.

Jealous Much?

I can't say I'm a huge Katy Perry fan -- I don't find her music much more compelling than Taylor Swift's, which is a pretty low bar from my vantage point (that probably has a lot more to do with my age and life as lived in relation to music than it does with the talent or work ethic of either of those two).

But all the whining and grumbling and hostile mockery of the lady for going to space kinda pisses me off. 

I mean, if you're too dumb to want to go to space, I get it.

But she didn't harm you in any way.

All she did was something you probably don't have the guts to do -- climb into a can on top of an explosive mix of 13,000 pounds of kerosene and 100,000 pounds of hydrogen peroxide and let someone light that candle under you, flinging you 62 miles into the air.

Get over yourselves.

Wordle 1397 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is about right versus wrong.

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First Letter: M

One Thing I've Noticed About Writer's Block ...

... is that it tends to coincide with Tamara traveling. She's out of town this week.

That always throws my schedule out of whack, in part because particular "beats" of my day -- morning coffee talk, evening how was your day stuff, etc. -- go missing, in part because I pick up some household duties that aren't normally mine, etc.

Re-thinking the post title, it's not so much "writer's block" as "writer's uncertainty." I don't always run e.g. my Garrison Center columns past her eyes before publishing for help catching typos or other problems, but I always know I can do that, even if it means calling her at work and telling her to read an email with a column's text in it.

When "work" is a thousand miles away and mostly consists of meetings she can't take a quick break from, I can't do that. So I worry, which makes writing go more slowly and has me hitting "publish" on stuff without that safety blanket.

Wordle 1396 Hint

Hint: Pale gray, like the burnt part of charcoal.

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First Letter: A

Wordle 1395 Hint

Hint: You might find today's Wordle on top of a hill, or on top of a bird's head.

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First Letter: C

Wordle 1394 Hint

Hint: You seem to think today's Wordle is some kind of joke.

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First Letter: L

Wordle 1393 Hint

Hint: This medical job title might have any of several words before (e.g. "registered") or after (e.g. "practitioner") it.

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First Letter: N

A Possible Trade War Silver Lining?

Don't get me wrong: I'm not going to be like one of those idiots who tries to convince you that war is good for an economy because so much stuff gets destroyed that there's lots of money to be made rebuilding it. 

War is bad.

Trade war is a perverse form of war  -- one in which regimes purposely harm "their own people" with tariffs and other trade restrictions, making "their own people" poorer in hopes of also harming their opponent regimes. There's nothing morally right, practically beneficial, or non-pea-brained about it.

BUT!

Even the worst ideas usually have at least some silver linings.

The one I'm thinking of in this case is: Smuggling.

If tariffs are high enough and/or restrictions are onerous enough, smuggling can be good business. Higher tariffs mean that you can charge higher prices and still under-sell the "legal" market. Tougher restrictions mean you can sell goods people want but can't get on the "legal" market.

If consumers have to pay $1.00 for "legally imported" widgets of a reasonably popular kind, but can get "smuggled" widgets of that kind for 99 cents, there's going to be a market for "smuggled" widgets. Likewise, if they can't get those "legally imported" widgets at all, there will be a market for "smuggled" widgets.

I'm an odd duck in that I'd rather pay $1.01 for a "smuggled" widget than $1.00 for a "legally imported" widget on principle, because I'd rather give smugglers additional profit than give the government a rake-off.

Most people aren't like me ... but most people are trying to get by, which means that the longer this trade war crap goes on and the worse it gets, the bigger the gray/black market will become. Probably not good enough to make the tariff/trade war crap economically "worth it" by completely collapsing the regime, but at least a nice partial offset to the regime's fuckery.

Wordle 1392 Hint

Hint: A pre-gunpowder projectile.

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First Letter: A

A Hypothesis

I'm as guilty as anyone of just automatically putting down Trump's idiotic trade/tariff policy moves to stupidity.

While there's a possibility that he's an asset of a foreign adversary regime whose goal is to crater the US economy for that adversary regime's benefit, it seems like a very low-probability thing.

When I woke up this morning thinking about his latest flip-flop on tariffs, a third possibility suddenly occurred to me -- one that seems much more likely than the "foreign asset" idea and at least close to as likely as him just being a fucking idiot.

Hypothesis:

Trump has proxies buying, selling, shorting, etc. stocks and bonds based on inside knowledge of what he's about to do next, knocking down millions (at least) every time he "changes his mind."

That would track well with his scam artist history.

But also with his apparent idiocy, for which there's more immediately available evidence.

Update: Within hours of my musing, an anti-Trump US Senator is "demanding answers from the White House and Office of Government Ethics about whether anyone in the Trump family or administration profited off of this tariff chaos through insider trading."

Wordle 1391 Hint

Hint: A charger, but not for batteries.

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First Letter: T

A Garden, Again

It's been a couple of years since I tried to have a garden, but this morning I ordered some seeds and tilled some ground.

Of the various things I've grown in north Florida, most have either failed completely or proven to be a lot more trouble than they're worth. So I'm keeping it minimal and simple and going with two things that definitely come out well (cucumbers because Tamara likes them in salad, green onions because I use them in a number of ways), one thing that I think will do OK (romaine, because Liam and I are partial to caesar salads ... but I don't recall trying it before), and maybe one other thing that I've had at least some success with (small "cherry" tomatoes that are useful in a number of ways).

I've ordered the seeds for the first three and will try to get to a local garden center for tomato seedlings shortly.

I should probably be more ambitious, because I expect food prices to skyrocket and food abilities to become limited over the next year, initially because of Trump's idiot tariffs and then as harvest times hit because of Trump's idiot immigrant abduction program.

Will Donald Trump Still Be President One Year From Now?

If I was betting, I'd bet against.

He's about to turn 79, he visibly touts an unhealthy diet and lifestyle, and his dementia (that malady seems to have secondary health implications) seems to be worsening.

He's also pissing off a lot of powerful people who, depending on which faction they're part of, may not always get to choose who becomes president, but who are pretty good at deciding who doesn't get to remain president, and not necessarily just at election time.

Wordle 1390 Hint

Hint: Borlaug's work with it won him the Nobel Peace Prize.

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First Letter: W

Wordle 1389 Hint

Hint: Extra, as in tire or rib.

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First Letter: S

Wordle 1388 Hint

Hint: A popular nut (or the Baxters' maid).

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First Letter: H

Why I Just Don't Bother With "Protests" Anymore

I'm pretty sure the last one I attended -- and that as a writer/observer, not really a participant -- was when Richard Spencer spoke at the University of Florida in October of 2017.

I used to be a regular at anti-war protests, Libertarian Party inclusion protests outside the rigged presidential/vice-presidential "debates," etc.

But eventually I decided two things:

1. Nobody cares about protests these days. No matter how many warm bodies you put on the ground waving signs, yelling slogans, etc., you're not changing any minds. To the extent that people notice at all, mostly via mass media, the collective response varies from yawns to outrage at any rioting/property damage that might coincide with your event (whether you intended that to happen or not); and
2. Any "message" that does successfully get "sent" will inevitably be a very mixed and muddled one. I can't count the number of times during the run-up to the Iraq invasion when some speaker would try to hijack the thing. "This isn't just about the war, it's about single-payer healthcare." "This isn't just about the war, it's about police violence." "This isn't just about the war, it's about unionizing workplaces." Every time I marched against the war, my presence there was used to support other causes that I might actually oppose or at least just not care about, and even if I did care about them the hijacking reduced whatever power the main message might convey.

And keep in mind that unless the protest is on a college campus and you happen to be a student with free time (or who doesn't care about missing classes), attending a protest can be a considerable investment in terms of time (with possible financial implications) and risk (of, for example, arrest) that has to be planned for.

Back when I believed protests could make a difference, in a direction I supported, sure, OK, I'd make it a point to be present.

Once I stopped believing that, the only incentives became:

1. Hanging out with friends who reliably show up for that kind of thing, and
2. Getting material to write something about.

Those aren't terrible incentives, but there are usually other methods of enjoying them.

My impression of the "Hands Off" protests this weekend is that things I agree with ("hands off immigrants," for example) would be largely overshadowed by things I don't agree with ("hands off the government spending that subsidizes my personal preferences," for example -- one I ran into circa the 2010 "Tea Party" rallies where the "don't touch my Medicare/Social Security benefits!" crowd was at least as loud as any "limited government" message).

So ... nah, didn't bother.

I won't say "never again," but it will take more than that to get me to give up a good part of my day, arrange travel/parking, risk getting or contrive to get arrested, etc.

Wordle 1387 Hint

Hint: A big country house (or a Mexican revolutionary).

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First Letter: V

Wordle 1386 Hint

Hint: Bubbly (like the top of a just-poured pint of beer).

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First Letter: F

I Guess It Had To Happen Sooner Or Later ...

Ben Shapiro is finally right about something!

Italica Bulldog 150 Acceleration

It isn't, and won't likely ever be, an especially fast bike. But I'm not unhappy with the acceleration as measured by the Dragger app (not an affiliate link) since the variator upgrade (I didn't have the app, or attempt to measure acceleration:

• 0-40 miles per hour, 8.59 seconds
• Quarter mile, 22.68 seconds (only a couple of seconds slower than my 1978 Chevy Chevette!)

I don't have a 0-60 measurement because I only hit 56 miles per hour. That took 24.59 seconds.

Wordle 1385 Hint

Hint: They're tiny crustaceans, but collectively they weigh hundreds of millions of tons.

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First Letter: K

Not Even A Good Try

"I command you to maintain an arbitrary distance, mentioned nowhere in traffic laws, between your vehicle and mine! And by the way, it's not my job to keep my shit in my vehicle so that my shit doesn't damage your vehicle!"

Wordle 1384 Hint

Hint: How one makes money from sheep (without slaughtering them first).

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First Letter: S

The Jury May Still Be Out ...

... but, beyond reasonable doubt, Donald Trump is either a fucking idiot of never before seen proportions or a knowing, intentional domestic enemy of the American people. Those are really the only two plausible conclusions consistent with this insanity.

Wordle 1383 Hint

Hint: A "dirty" word or words, whether in the form of general profanity or wishing ill upon another.

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First Letter: C

One Of My Favorite Times Of Day To Ride A Motorcycle ...

... is the period between dawn and just after sunrise. That's usually the least windy and least rainy time of day. There's enough light to see, but the sun isn't in your eyes and the glare of headlights isn't as noxious.

In some places, it's also a fairly low-traffic time of day ... but not in my area. Lots of commuters are starting to filter into Gainesville from Archer, Levy County, etc. and there may also be school buses making frequent stops.

So while my ride out to Archer this morning to drop something at the post office was "full speed ahead," the ride back from Archer involved multiple slow-downs, lines at the only traffic light along the way that held people through two cycles instead of one, etc. But both directions made for nice, relaxing, enjoyable rides.

According to Fuelly, the Italica Bulldog 150 got 67.9 miles per gallon on its last tank of gas. Interesting, because the main usage on that tank consisted of a full-speed 40+ mile trip out past Bronson and back. I think the variator modification to get RPMs down at top speed may have changed the mileage equation from "better in town, worse in the country" to the other way around.

Thanks For Asking! -- 04/01/25

It's April Fooling Around Time! Ask me anything in comments, I'll answer in (or linked from) comments.

Yes, you can create multiple Disqus accounts to ask really stupid questions, but please, for everyone's sake try to be at least as interesting as Roy D. Mercer.

Wordle 1382 Hint

Hint: A good watch -- mechanical, not digital! -- contains at least 17 of today's Wordle.

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First Letter: J

I Just Don't Get It (NFL Version #1208)

There's a lot of speculation over whether quarterback Aaron Rodgers will play next year for the Steelers, or for the Vikings, or for some other team, or retire.

The question I don't see being asked is why any NFL team would be interested in signing Rodgers.

The four reasons/roles for Rodgers, none of which really make any sense:

1. As a starting QB? He was in decline before he left the Packers for the Jets, and he was a disaster for the (admittedly already disastrous) Jets.
2. As a backup QB? Why would you spend big money on an old and busted Rodgers when you could sign any number of less old, less busted, less expensive quarterbacks -- or just draft a quality player right out of college and have your starter mentor/train him up in the team's system?
3. As a mentor for a young starter? He'd be a very expensive mentor, and he's the last gasp of a previous, pre-Mahomes school of quarterbacking.
4. As some kind of marketing/branding coup to increase ticket sales / TV audience interest? That's back to starting QB territory (nobody buys a ticket or watches a game because of the backups/bench/mentors), and even the fairly strong love/hate people harbor for Rodgers would quickly turn to boredom after a few terrible games or yet another early-season injury.

Rodgers should have retired when he left the Packers.  Now it's just getting silly.

Wordle 1381 Hint

Hint: Shake, shake, shake it.

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First Letter: B

Kalaallisut ilinniarnissara eqqarsaatigaara ...

... as I'm starting to think there may be a market for that particular language skill soon.

Just sayin'.

Does The Thought Count?

Well, I meant to get at least one non-Wordle blog post up yesterday. Instead I got behind on a bunch of things, after a short morning trip to pick up my new eye-glasses turned into a previously un-planned multi-hour family outing full of other things, and had to decide what to sacrifice.

I was determined not to completely give up the 100-mile motorcycle ride I had in mind, but I did cut it down to about 50 miles. Probably for the best, since I forgot to map out gas stations in the extremely rural area I was riding through to make sure I didn't run out somewhere 20 miles from the nearest one, etc. The bike performed well, and the new kevlar belt should be well broken in by now.

One disappointment: The new bar-end mirrors I installed also tend to get grabbed by wind and pushed out of position. Not nearly as badly as the previous ones, but some. I'm thinking that working some wax into the ball joints they swivel on may fix that.

Now that the average high temperature in the Gainesville area is back up past 70 degrees and the average low doesn't get below 50, I'm seeing a lot more motorcycles on the road. For some reason people seem to prefer cars when it's 30 degrees out.

Wordle 1380 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle is multi-purpose -- it can refer to a minimum, a maximum, or a fixed share of something.

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First Letter: Q

Wordle 1379 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle makes me feel like I should apologize.

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First Letter: S

I'm Only Trying To Be Helpful ...

Universities around the country seem to be somewhat confused as to how to respond to ICE raids and other federal immigration actions involving their campuses.

I guess it probably is a little complicated when it comes trying to address various people -- campus police, faculty, staff, students -- so I set my mind to coming up with a uniform/model directive for university presidents to issue, such that there aren't all kinds of various instructions, orders, advisories, etc. floating around and confusing everyone. Here it is:

AIM CENTER MASS

Wordle 1378 Hint

Hint: The King James Version of the Bible has 31,102 of these. Blowin' in the Wind only has three.

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First Letter: V

I Guess a Pokemon Go Tourist Craze Would Help Boost Turkey's Economy ...

 

Wordle 1377 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle might be used as a suffix to "spread" or as a prefix to "rock."

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First Letter: S

It Would Really Have Tied The Bike Together ...

... if it had been wide enough. But it wasn't.

I bought this seat cover on the cheap at Temu. I took a chance on it because it cost $4-5 (not worth looking up at the moment), and I needed $4-5 more in my cart to get "free" shipping. It was obviously an iffy proposition since it was advertised as a "dirt bike" seat cover, and dirt bikes tend to have narrower seats than Honda Navis and clones thereof (like the Italica Bulldog).

Technically, I could still use it, but there would be a strip on each side of the seat where the cover wasn't wide enough to stretch around the seat to the stapling points inside the frame. At least slightly visible, and also an invitation to getting snagged.

Anyway, this is it just draped unfastened over the seat to give you an idea of what it would have looked like. Maybe I'll find one like it that does fit at some point.

A Good Piece on the "Normalization" Myth ...

... from Jeff Charles at Chasing Liberty. Well worth your time, as it's backed with data, etc.

My take is simpler, but I don't think it's any more, or any less, applicable.

You know the spiel: If Drug X is legalized, its use will magically come to be considered "normal" and people who wouldn't otherwise use it will start using it. If that drug happens to be marijuana, its "normalized" use will become a "gateway" to use of other, still not "normalized," drugs.

That's all a bunch of horseshit, and the horseshit starts with the very concept of "normalization."

To "normalize" something is to make it "normal." There are several definitions of "normal," but I go with the one I suspect most people automatically think of from among the selections at Merriam-Webster: "[C]onforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern : characterized by that which is considered usual, typical, or routine."

Throughout known human history (and that point keeps getting pushed further and further back by e.g. archeological discoveries), people have used drugs. They've used drugs to relieve pain, they've used drugs to alleviate the symptoms of illness, they've used drugs to alter their own moods and mental states, etc.

That's how it always has been. That's how it is now. Absent a number of genetic mutations that cause drugs to stop achieving those results, that's how it's always going to be. It's usual. It's typical. It's routine. It's normal.

If Drug X is legalized, might its use increase relative to its use when it was illegal? Some people who were afraid to act normally might decide to start acting normally. Others might reconsider their normal drug preferences and e.g. move some or all of their entirely normal consumption from entirely normal booze to entirely normal cannabis or entirely normal acetaminophen to entirely normal morphine or whatever.

The war on drugs, unfortunately, is entirely normal -- it's just another manifestation of the human desire to order other humans around. Just because something is normal (usual, typical, or routine), that doesn't mean it's good.

"Signalgate": Three Possibilities

A bit of self-promotional inline backgrounding on what is (of course!) quickly becoming referred to as "Signalgate."

As you may notice, in that Garrison Center column, I throw in a lot of "thought to be" and "allegedly" stuff, because while the consensus theory of what happened is plausible, it's not the only obvious possibility. I can think of three:

1. That consensus theory: National security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, to a Signal chat involving himself, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and others, regarding "sensitive national security matters," namely plans for US military strikes on Yemen.
2. Waltz intentionally added Goldberg for some administration or personal purpose -- maybe to leak the plans to a journalist who would almost certainly wait until after the fact to publicize them and make the administration look simultaneously thoughtful and decisive, maybe to make one or more of the participants look good or bad, whatever.
3. Someone other than Waltz (maybe even Goldberg) nefariously added Goldberg to the chat in hopes of frustrating the plans or making Waltz, or one or more of the other participants, look incompetent or evil.

I tend to discount possibility #3, since it seems more technically challenging because it implies "hacking" or something similar.

But possibility #2 isn't some kind of far-out hypothesis. Administrations intentionally leak stuff all the time.

Wordle 1376 Hint

Hint: Today's Wordle doesn't have a twist, but it does take a turn (like one kind of macaroni).

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First Letter: E

Even Really Bad People Shouldn't Be Charged With Imaginary Crimes

Justin Eichorn seems to be a bad person, who (among other bad things) wants to do (and may have done) creepy and illegal things with minors.

But in order for him to be charged with "attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution," those charging him should have to produce an actual minor that he actually attempted to coerce/entice.

They didn't:

He was snared by cops in Bloomington on March 17 after allegedly thinking he was meeting up with a 17-year-old girl he was messaging, which turned out to be an undercover officer.

"Sting operations" are lazy substitutes for real police work.

If we're going to allow tax-funded police to exist at all, their job should be to investigate actual crimes after discovering probable cause to believe those actual crimes have actually been committed, not e.g. wander around with bags of oregano or powdered sugar trying to get someone to "attempt to buy drugs," or put adult officers in chat rooms trying to get someone to "solicit sex with a minor," or whatever.

There are plenty of real crimes, real perpetrators, and real victims out there. Eichorn might be one of the perpetrators, but the adult cop cosplaying as jailbait instead of investigating crimes isn't one of them.

Wordle 1375 Hint

Hint: Where you might find a book or an elf.

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First Letter: S

Minor Motorcycle Situations Corrected

The new mirrors arrived yesterday, so I changed out the old hand grips for the new, mounted the mirrors, and took a quick test ride.

The prior hand grips weren't defective per se, but I made a mistake in the way I put them on, and also had to cut a tiny sliver off one of the throttle side end to keep the throttle from sticking.

The mistake was that I used WD-40 to get them to slide on ... and even after the WD-40 dried, the grips would twist a little under any pressure. This time, I did it the right way -- borrowed my daughter's hairspray. When that stuff is wet it helps the grips slide on. When it dries, it acts like a glue. No more slippage.

The mirrors are very nice -- ball joints instead of just a notched swingy-thing for adjustment (at highway speed, the left mirror would buckle out of position with the old pair), a blue tint, and a little gold accent that doesn't quite match the bike but works.

Wordle 1374 Hint

Hint: If you want to get today's Wordle right, don't be obtuse.

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First Letter: A

Wordle 1373 Hint

Hint: The least loquacious dwarf.

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First Letter: D

Wordle 1372 Hint

 Hint: Don't be in a hurry to get to the solution today's Wordle -- take your time. Walk, don't run.

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First Letter: A

Wordle 1371 Hint

Hint: Trouble solving today's Wordle? What you need is a little push.

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First Letter: N

Motorcycle Stuff, Here and On The Way

Yesterday, I received three items from Temu:

• Some cheap ($3.29) black and yellow handgrips, to replace the cheap black and yellow handgrips I recently bought and used. I had to cut holes in the ends of the previous pair to accommodate my bar-end mirrors. The new pair already has holes in the ends, with caps to put in if you're not sticking mirrors there.
• A new custom-embroidered cloth keychain ($4.03), black with the bike's name (Olivia D) in yellow letters, to replace the previous custom-engraved cloth keychain, which is black and has a catchy move line ("But Did You Die?") on it in red letters. As you can tell from various photos, I've really leaned into the black and yellow theme. I'll use the old keychain for something else, I'm sure.
• A silverish "bubble shield" visor ($7.82) to go on my retro open-face motorcycle helmet. I bought that helmet at a thrift store about the time I got the motorcycle, because I thought the motorcycle was going to arrive before my full-face helmet did and wanted to have something more robust than the half-helmet I've had since I got the old 50cc scooter. As it happened, the full-face helmet arrived before the bike. I recently decided to paint the old helmet gold (over its original scratched-up black) and get a bubble shield for that '70s look.

On the way from Temu: 

• A black and yellow seat cover ($6.73). I had another cheap seat cover that didn't fit very well and was just plain black, and I had to get my order over $20 for "free" shipping, so I decided to try this one. The other $14.14 in the order is
• A 9.5 gallon hard-shell locking trunk that can be bolted to the top of the rear rack for trips. It's black -- with yellow reflective strips! My last "luggage required" trip went well, but in addition to the saddlebags, I had a backpack cargo-netted to the top of the rear rack and while it was probably fairly secure, it didn't really feel very secure to me. The trunk may be big enough to not even need the saddle bags for some trips. If I decide I want to keep it mounted on the bike all the time, I can even put my helmet in it instead of lugging the helmet around every store I go into. But I doubt I'll want the trunk on all the time.

One the way from Amazon:

I removed the Kemimoto bar-end mirrors ($26.99) from my Amazon Wish List and bought (using some left-over gift card credit) a $14.99 pair of Refitial mirrors (not an affiliate link). Not just cheaper, but exactly what I was looking for. Instead of little clicky adjusters like the el cheapo Temu mirrors and the Kemimoto mirrors (which I could only hope would be of higher quality and less likely to come out of position in a headwind), these adjust with two ball joints. They're black with a little gold stripe (close enough to yellow!).

The mirrors should arrive in a day or two, so I'll replace the hand grips and mirrors at the same time.

Don't know if I mentioned it before, but the bike recorded its first GPS-verified 60 mile per hour speed a day or two ago. I think I may have hit 60 once or twice before the new variator setup, but I never had my GPS speedo app running to prove it. I've put about 50 miles on it since the variator mod; the mechanic told me to give it 100 miles for the belt to stretch, etc. before considering the results "final" (they should get better), so I may end up with another mile or two top speed.

One thing I regret not checking prior to the mod is initial acceleration. Anecdotally, my recollection is that before the mod, I got to about 30 miles per hour while covering the distance between my driveway and a curve about an eighth of a mile down the road. Now I'm able to hit 40. I wasn't worried about takeoff acceleration when I decided to get the mod, but it's kind of a nice peppy feel to have more of it.

FYI, I discoved I can share the Fuelly profile for the Bulldog. So if you're interested in things like gas mileage, service records, etc., here it is. I may just put that link in the sidebar!

Wordle 1370 Hint

Hint: The way you keep your Thanksgiving turkey from drying out.

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First Letter: B

Yes, I Am Still A No Particular Orderist

I really don't care much about "efficiency" in government, because government (by which I mean political government, not all group decision-making) is bad and I prefer inefficient badness to efficient badness.

What I want to see is the elimination of government (by which I mean political government, not voluntary group decision-making), or at the very least reductions in its size, scope, and power.

As a Rothbardianish no particular orderist, I am, on principle, not worried about the sequence in which reductions take place.

That doesn't mean I wouldn't have preferences if I was put in charge of a sequential/piecemeal, rather than simultaneous/across the board set of such reductions. In that case, I'd probably schedule de-funding the DoD's budget for aircraft carriers and the Border Patrol's operations budget before, say, eliminating taxpayer-provided school lunches and interstate highway maintenance.

The problem with such preferences is that in the environment of political government, none of those things end up getting eliminated because each has a supporting lobby that's willing to let the other supporting lobbies keep their pet projects as long as it gets to keep its pet project. So we get a ratchet effect, with everything always moving in the same direction.

If DOGE et al. manage to actually reduce the size, scope, and power (not to mention financial cost) of government, rather than just nixing a few of the less adroit special interest demands in favor of lavishing more love on other special interest demands, I'll be glad.

Personally, I think the best way to go about it would be for Congress to just announce that every federal department is going to take a 10% budget haircut next year, with further across the board cuts in subsequent years. But I don't expect that to happen any more than I expect DOGE et al. to really accomplish much.

Wordle 1369 Hint

Hint: One tiny particle of fire.

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First Letter: S

Wordle 1368 Hint

Hint: Primitive forms include the clepsydra and hourglass; today you might wind one up or just tell Alexa to set one.

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First Letter: T

Well, If That's How It's Going To Be ...

Per Axios:

President Trump claimed Monday that former President Biden's preemptive pardons to members of the House Jan. 6 select committee and others are "VOID" and "VACANT" because they were "done by Autopen."

Remember all those COVID "stimulus" checks that Trump was all hot and bothered to have his signature on?

You don't think he actually signed them, do you?

So I guess the next steps are:

1. The Department of the Treasury declares those checks void and demands return of the funds; and
2. The Department of Justice charges Trump under 18 US Code § 472.

Wordle 1367 Hint

Hint: A cowboy's cattle-capturing tool.

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First Letter: L

Wordle 1366 Hint

Hint: An object of philately.

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First Letter: S

Updated Motorcycle RPM Benchmarks

Pre-mod on the Italica Bulldog 150:

• Takeoff from a standing start at about 3,500 RPM
• 35 miles per hour at about 6,000 RPM
• 45 miles per hour at about 7,500 RPM
• 55 miles per hour at somewhere between 8,500 and 9,000 RPM

After the variator/clutch spring/belt upgrade:

• I forgot to look at takeoff RPMs. I may come back and update that measurement later
  
• 35 miles per hour, unchanged -- about 6,000 RPM
  
• 45 miles per hour, dramatic improvement -- about 6,500 RPM
  
• 55 miles per hour, fantastic -- about 7,000 RPM

I managed a top speed of 58 miles per hour on the nice, flat, straight road near my house. That's in line with my previous experience, although I think I have hit 60 miles per hour under perfect conditions before. Anecdotally, I think I've got faster early acceleration as well.

The mechanic told me to expect some changes, probably for the better, after the next 100 miles or so (and cautioned me to take that 100 miles in increments of no more than 25 miles or so). The kevlar belt takes longer to stretch to its final length/tautness than a regular rubber belt. If the changes aren't for the better, I can take it back for a little bit of adjustment tuning at no extra charge.

I'm incredibly happy with the performace gain here. For practical purposes, a 55mph top speed is just fine, and not the engine isn't working nearly as hard to maintain that speed.

Update: A picture of the bike rocking its $7.xx "underglow" lights. They're color and flash adjustable, and I'm using a yellow "breathe" pulse. When I get "real" underglow I expect a different look, but either way a little more visible to the traffic around me at night.

Wordle 1365 Hint

Hint: This kind of spoon is used for serving, not eating.

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First Letter: L

The Bike Is Home!

And I think the mechanic understated what he was able to achieve. He said he was only able to get the RPMs down by about 500 at full throttle, but it looked more like 1,000ish to me. He thought he got another 3 miles or so per hour top speed out of it, too. I can't speak to that because it's breezy out and even a mild wind makes a big difference.

He also saved various variator weights and springs he'd tried in a box for me in case we need to mess with the tuning. My job is to put 100 miles or so on it so that the belt gets its full stretch, etc. Which I may try to get done tomorrow.

Today, Maybe

The Italica Bulldog 150 is still at the shop.

But I'm not worried.

The first delay was a simple and understandable mistake -- there are two varieties of the Polini variator kit, and the mechanic ordered variant A, which doesn't fit, instead of variant B, which does.

Yesterday, variant B arrived ... but the results, through various tuning options (springs and weights) either produced no discernible change or negative discernible change, e.g. the RPMs come down but the bike doesn't make the power to get above 45mph. It turns out that in the fine print, that kit is intended for use on a vehicle with a 13-inch wheel. The wheel on the Bulldog is a 12-inch wheel.

So, a couple of things are happening today. One is that another mechanic is going to have a look at things. The other is that a different variator kit will be arriving. It may be done this afternoon.

Why am I not worried? Because this mechanic is dedicated to making the bike do what I'm wanting it to do, rather than just throwing some parts in and calling it "done." I'd hoped to do a 100-mile ride today, but no I'd rather do it tomorrow on a bike that's right than today on a bike that isn't.

Wordle 1364 Hint

Hint: A part, but not all, of the action or the pie.

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First Letter: P

At That Price Point, Even I Might Buy One. Maybe.

According to NDTV Auto, Simple Energy just launched the Simple OneS electric scooter at a price of 139,999 rupees, which a web converter tells me is about $1,600 US.

"Indian Driving Conditions" range: 112 miles. Basically the same range as a full tank of gas on a combustion engine scooter.

Top speed: 65 miles per hour.

And that's the budget version of their flagship Simple One, which has a longer range (150 miles).

Looking at electric scooters available in the US, I see:

The BMW C Evolution. Shorter range (99 miles), higher top speed (80mph) ... and a price tag about ten times as high. And ...

The CSC Wiz. Only about $2,500, but a top speed of only 43.5 mph and a range of less than 50 miles.

If Simple Energy could get this thing into the US market at less than $3k retail, I think they'd have a winner. It would make a great little bike for commutes of, say, 50 miles daily, or for longer overnight trips (to places with electricity for recharging). Its top speed could handle country highway and urbanish freeway jaunts (I suspect it's too light, and consumes too much power at extended top speed, for long freeway trips).

At this point, I feel pretty committed to the motorcycle, rather than scooter, platform style, although I'd make an exception for something like the Suzuki Burgman 650. But I'd at least be tempted. The US market segment I'm thinking of for the Simple OneS is "college or work commuter, in a relatively warm region, who lives within 50 miles of venue."

Wordle 1363 Hint

Hint: I haven't caught today's Wordle yet, but I'm in pursuit!

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First Letter: C

A Motorcycle Update, Because Reasons

Yesterday, I washed/polished/sprayed protectant on the bike, and also equipped it with some small, removable USB-rechargeable lights that I hope will work as "underglow" of a sort (I'm eventually planning to put real "underglow" on it, but thought it was worth spending $7 to try some things). Unfortunately, I didn't get a night-time photo last night or I would post it here. Maybe later.

Definitely not tonight, though, because right now the bike is in the shop for its variator/clutch/belt upgrade. That was supposed to happen today and I dropped the bike off this morning ... but the guy inadvertently ordered the wrong version of the variator. He's having the correct version over-nighted, so it should be ready tomorrow afternoon.

I take that kind of news as a good sign -- some mechanics would have just not mentioned it and improvised an inferior work-around instead of spending the time to do it right, but I've always been treated right, and highly recommend, Campus Scooters.

Wordle 1362 Hint

Hint: The national fruit of India (and the subject of a strange Maoist cult in China).

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First Letter: M

Trump Just Fixed Canada's Severe Housing Shortage!

By letting Canadians live rent-free in his head.

Wordle 1361 Hint

Hint: If today's Wordle has you thinking about trains, you're on the right one.

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First Letter: T

"Abducted." The Word They're Looking For is "Abducted."

Not "arrested."

Not "detained."

"Abducted."

A federal judge has ordered the criminals who abducted Mahmoud Khalil not to spirit him out of the country, at least for now. Maybe they'll obey ... but, well, they're criminals, so maybe not.

This shit probably isn't going to stop until substantial numbers of ICE thugs start reporting to work afraid enough to consider not reporting to work anymore.

Wordle 1360 Hint

 Hint: The impulse to act maliciously toward another (or the malicious action itself).

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First Letter: S