2019's Greatest Hits

Continuing the tradition, here's the top post (or series) from each month.  On with the show!

New Year's Resolve  Mostly achieved these goals too, but then the bar was pretty low.
Gear Review: Osprey 22 Daypack  This is a great piece of gear that, again, is about "get outside."
Tuxachanie Trail Series:  Tuckered  Navigation  Water  All the Rest  
Ham Camp  Operated solar-powered QRO for two days on a ten pound system.
A Visit to the Chalmette Battlefield  Where America first definitively kicked international butt.
Five Lessons from Apollo  Short and sweet, with a link to the extended version.
Dwarf Cypress Forest  No dwarves, just a bunch of short trees.  No elves or ents either.
DIY Hiking/Backpacking/MTB First Aid Kit  Lightweight and practical.
The Baytles Play the Bird  You know all the tunes.  It was a fun evening with old friends.
Coffeneuring 2019  (multipart) Challenge accepted, goal accomplished.
Oysters in Trouble in MS, AL  Don't let this happen to your river.
Lessons from Ham Camp #19  A wet, challenging weekend, and also a lot of fun.

Let's add a few honorable mentions while we're at it:
More New Antenna  Taking up the New Year's Resolve of "get outside," this gear helped.
The book on software development, or How Not to Program Like Gerald Ford is Still President.
Yaesu FTM-7250D Quick Start Programming  A completely different sort of programming. 
Osprey Synchro 5 Hydration Pack Review  Biggest single innovation in hydropacks since the 90's.

Note that eleven of these sixteen items involve getting outside in some form.  Overall, it looks like one of the main initial goals was met, and with some enthusiasm.  Lots of other things were posted over the year, so have a look around.

Well, on to 2020 and to all the fresh new adventures the new year will bring.  But first, the Pic of the Year:

Not as cold as it looks.  Originally posted on 12/8/19.

Mention, and There It Is

Last week in noting a new science podcast, "Short Wave," at NPR, I wrote (link):

Somehow and ironically, they have yet to do an episode on shortwave!

Of course, on that very day they posted exactly that.  Here's the link; it's just a bump over ten minutes' listen.

Followup on Easy Digi & Trail-Ready QRP Radio

A couple of years ago I'd posted a short bit on a lightweight interface and using it with the FT-817nd radio.  Since then, I've used it a handful of times both on the trail and at home.  The long-term verdict is that while it works, it is generally much easier to haul the extra three pounds of laptop.  (I know, I know: 3 lbs more pack weight is a steep price.  Hear me out on this.)  For anything contest-like, such as Winter Field Day, the laptop is overwhelmingly superior.  The narrow 300 Hz filter doesn't play particularly well with the iPhone, it's easier to get into a comfortable operating position with the laptop, and most importantly, the controls are way better with the SignalLink and fldigi software on an actual computer.  A decent table to operate from is much more needed with the iPhone/Easy Digi gear, which is kind of at odds of operating light in the backcountry.  Also, the iPhone has to come out of its Otter box so that the chubby interface plug can get to the port.  Finally, because the Easy Digi box feeds in as an audio signal and not through the digital port, a bunch of voice-mode menu items (VOX, SSB mic gain, etc.) have to be changed, then changed back if you're going to do actual voice.  It's a pain.

Reflecting on all this, using this lightweight PSK-31 interface is an even bigger handicap than working QRP in the first place.  Then you have to work QRP.  These things stack up, and the odds of making contacts dwindle quickly.

Having said all that, it is just plain cool operating PSK-31 digital mode off of an iPhone, and shaving three pounds off the pack is always a really good thing.  Additionally, it's a serviceable backup if the laptop ever goes tango utah.  The price was right too.  I'm glad to have this in my bag of tricks, limited as it is.  In the course of keeping in practice with it this weekend, I've made a handful of contacts to MI, MD, PA, etc., so it does work.

Last year's WFD setup.  Note the SignalLink box next to tent.

Misting rain outside here in coastal MS.  Not much else to do today.

Quick Movie Review: Tolkien (2019)

It's... it's almost OK.  It's beautifully made and well-acted, those are its strengths.  The rest mostly tells a patchwork story of a young man caught between a rock and a hard place and the trenches of WWI, who somehow makes his way into academia despite the bad odds.  Now, exactly how close this all is to the real-life Tolkien I can't quite say, but the basic outline is correct.

The downside is that it's overly choppy, cutting between trenches and schoolboy incidents, then back to graduate studies, back to the trenches, to to-be wife Edith, etc.  And somehow, the magic and humor is missing.  That's the real tragedy here.  It's not exactly joyless, but the funny-smart side of Tolkien remains largely unexplored, leaving only a few instances of schoolboy antics.

Also, there's a sort of ham-handedness to the proceedings.  "Oh that's where he got the idea for the Dead Marshes," or the devoted enlisted man "Sam" (real? a semi-true story? figment of a hack script writer's mind?), those sorts of things.  The approach cheapens the revelation of Tolkien's formative experiences into mere fan-service box-checking.

In summary, this film occupies a sort of uncanny valley: not really deep enough for the people who enjoyed the book The Road to Middle Earth, but a the same time, not entertaining enough for the people who wouldn't read that book.  So who's left?  Um, people who'll take a flyer on Netflix, I suppose.  Anyway I did enjoy the scenery along the way.

Two Stars out of Four.  Just save your time and read The Road to Middle Earth instead.  This movie is not a complete waste of time, it's kind of barely enjoyable, but don't go out of your way to see it.

Science Round-Up

In yet another year-end round-up article, this one outdoes the rest, because it goes for the entire decade:

The 10 Biggest Science Stories of the Decade at Live Science

There may be a few others worth mentioning, but those sound about right.  It's a short, non-technical read.  You can click through without fear.

More later, as this damp winter weekend progresses.

Atlas Obscura 2019 Round-Up

Their Favorite Places of 2019.  Have a look, some of this has me almost ready to dust off the passport.

In a similar vein, watch for a year-end wrap-up here in the next couple of days.

Once Again..

The Christmas Comet returns!

Just a few more days left in the year...  let's see what they bring.

A Nice Little Science Podcast

And fairly new too, it's Short Wave over at NPR.  Ten minute (-ish) episodes, ready for the downloads.  From the blurb:

New discoveries, everyday mysteries, and the science behind the headlines – all in about 10 minutes, every weekday.  It's science for everyone, using a lot of creativity and a little humor.

Somehow and ironically, they have yet to do an episode on shortwave!  Maybe that'll be rectified in the new year.  Anyway, worth a listen.

Music Review: OCMS Live at the Ryman

Hm, mentioned this album back in October, ordered it immediately, and have played it at least once a week ever since.  It's pure Old Crow Medicine Show playing at the mother church of country music, so you know it's got to be good.  All of the songs are old familiars, but more than that, it's a gathering of friends.  The very first voice you hear is music historian and long-time WSM DJ Eddie Stubbs introducing the band, along with guest singer Margo Price chiming in, followed by the band, with a hearty welcome.

The songs, once again, are old favorites, but they have a new upbeat twist on them.  Even the songs of grief, like "Take 'em Away" and "Methamphetamine," have a an upbeat shine.  It's more that they're helping people celebrate beating hard times than playing the blues over them.  From anyone else this would be, well, not quite right.  From OCMS at the Ryman, it's time to celebrate.  If they do this with the downbeat numbers, the upbeat ones are even more jump-up-and-sing numbers.  And of course "Wagon Wheel" is the next-to-last, done as a sing-along.  The only problem, if it can be called that, is that the music ends too soon.  A follow-up Volume II would be most welcome, i.e., shut up and take my money already.

However... if you haven't heard OCMS before, it may be all too much.  It may be better start out with their studio albums, or even "Best of."  This is high-test music played with high energy between friends, and a more gentle introduction may be needed.  That's frequently the case with live albums, and this is one of the more amped-up examples.  Exercise good judgement and due caution.

Here, watch the promo trailer, you'll see what this is about: over a hundred years of traditions rolled up with modern energy into one slick package.

Lessons from Ham Camp #19

Last weekend the MS Coast Amateur Radio Association held another of our camp-outs, this time at the Big Biloxi area off of Hwy 49, just north of Gulfport.  Good stuff... but there was some rain, some heavy fog, a whole lot of damp, and then the sun came out – just in time for the drive home!  This was somewhat challenging in a tent, but it was still a lot of fun.

Then for the Tuesday night net (see What We Do on 2m, from a couple of years back) it was my turn to run things, so for the tech topic I threw out the question: What did you learn at Ham Camp #19?  Briefly, here are some replies:

• Waterproof your tent!  Well duh.  But I'm very glad I did this two years ago.
• The current solar/ionospheric conditions stink on ice!  Some of us made contacts, some none.
• The Yaesu FT-857D has a built-in speech processor!  With all those menus, who knew?  Works great!
• No solar power!  With weather like that, those of us who put out panels were averaging about 5 watts.
• A W3EDP-mini antenna, only 21' tall, tunes great on 80m & 160m if you have a 30'+ counterpoise/ground wire at the tuner.  Made some contacts on 80m too, but 160m was sparse.
• End-fed antennas, of any design, rock!  Especially for camping.  Easy up, easy contacts, easy down.

There were also a many other minor successes along the way:

• Using chirp, got one of the other ham's FT-857D programmed up for the local repeaters and the common set of  VHF/UHF simplex channels.  Short work!  BTW, if you want some how-to notes, here's a previous post covering it.
• Another ham hooked up a local UHF-to-VHF repeater, so that the other campers could easily reach the Biloxi VHF repeater from a UHF handheld.
• Lots of new battery testing, even though there was barely any solar to feed it.  We were all averaging a horrendous 2 amp-hours per contact, but there was still plenty of power to go around.
• A crystal radio (this one) sort of worked, but at 20 miles from a bunch of coffee pot stations, there really wasn't enough power coming in to get the earpiece output up above campground noise.  Next time, will bring a high-impedence amplified speaker.  Even so, it was kinda cool.
• The food was outstanding.  Straight-from-Chicago hot dogs, grilled beef and asparagus roll-ups, grilled shrimp, and (of course and as always) Spam and egg breakfasts.  Remember kids, if you go off and forget the butter at home, fry the Spam first and you'll have plenty of grease to float the eggs.

And that's about it.  Still packing things back down, but should have that all sorted this weekend.  A good time was had by all, and there was some relatively painless learning involved; those are all that matters.  Oh yeah, no injuries, not even tiny RF burns.  That matters too.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Yeah, we're here already.  Have a solargraph animation, courtesy of NASA APOD.

A Little History on Little St. George Island

Article over at The Times.  I won't recount the whole thing, but only comment that the map in Fig. 1 is fascinating, and the guy in Fig. 3 taught me how to throw a castnet.  Does that make me really damn old?

Click through, it's a short read.  Or just click through and look at that map.

An Interesting Podcast from the BBC

In Our Time – a deep dive into various deep topics, always of interest.  For example, here's one on... coffee.  All good stuff, so far.

File it under 'radio.'  That is all for today.

The Far Side Website is Up

It looks like it's an online repository of Gary Larson's cartoons, with the occasional new one thrown in to keep things fresh.  Here's his intro letter explaining how things went down, including problems with people ripping off his work.

On one hand, I don't blame Larson.  On the other hand, Randal Munroe of xkcd fame has taken a much more web-centric approach, namely, use as you wish, unmodified, and give a credit link back to his site.  Either one is fine by me, and though I prefer Munroe's approach, Larson's work is his own to do with as he pleases.  I'm just glad to have him back, and online.

Anyway, 

The Far Side

is back.

OCMS on VOA

It's a couple of years old, but this stuff never gets old.  Half-hour long, so set aside the time to watch.

Had to email the link to this clip out to somebody who needed to hear it, so it's today's post.  More, much more, local action later in the week.

Green Light & Pain

Could Migraine Pain Relief Be Found in the Color Green?  Today, at NPR.

You mean like this and this?  Yes, I think we've definitively established experimentally that biking under a green canopy makes many pains and problems melt away.

BTW, click through on those links – they're just to old blog posts here at the 'swamp – and embiggen to enjoy a little slice of the woods while you're at work.  Those couple of pics turned out OK.

40 Years Ago: London Called

Article at the BBC.  I think I'm on my third copy of the album.  It gets played a lot, things just seem to happen when it's on the machine.  A bunch of 6D integrals and lab reports got ground out to this sound, and it's still inspiring good physics on a daily basis.

If you feel compelled to rush out and find a copy, be sure to get one with the bonus disc The Vanilla Tapes.  They're the working drafts of most of songs on the album plus a few extra tracks, they give an understanding of the path to the finished result.

That is all for today.

Owl Feathers

We have a pair of barred owls who patrol the neighborhood, keeping the local rodents at bay and making suitably spooky noises.  They're good to have around and a lot of fun to listen to on a dark night.  A couple of months ago, I noticed that one had dropped a feather in the yard, and the question of legality of taking it inside came up.

So, off to the interwebs to look... and ugh, that Federal Register business is overwhelmingly complete, to the point that in less than half an hour of reading you're not make heads or tails of it.  Fortunately, some time ago a reporter summarized it in this article.

Short answer: Generally, wild bird feathers are illegal to own, so don't.  The legal reasoning is somewhat contorted, but it comes down to owls and most other birds are illegal to hunt, it is also illegal to traffic in their parts, it's impossible to sort out a "found" feather from a "killed for" feather, so practically it's only possible to enforce by a blanket rule making ownership illegal.  Pick it up and examine?  Nobody's going to kick in your door for that, but don't take it inside.

Huh.  Learn something new around here every day.  Wish I'd thought to snap a picture of it.  Untouched and still on the grass, of course.

Winter Colors

Just a snapshot from this morning's bike ride over the Bay Bridge, looking south toward the railroad bridge and open Gulf.  The clouds look pretty heavy in the pic, but in reality it was just a gray day with no rain in sight.  As always, click to embiggen.

Here, have one more of that heavy sky:

All I got for today.  But aren't those two pics enough?

ps: With those winter grays and pale blues, it looks like the weather should be cold, perhaps even icy.  But no, it was in the high 60's.  Even so, with the damp air here that can chill you right to the bone.

Season's Greetings

A little late, dated from last Saturday, but it's still a welcome holiday message from the National Hurricane Service:

And with that, to all, all a good night!

Crystal Radio Follow-Up

On the heels of Sunday's note on a CR kit build and last week's copper penny CR, here's an article about of the other end of things, a Zinc Negative Resistance CW Transmitter over at the wonderfully named and yet sadly neglected http://sparkbangbuzz.com  This involves construction of the closest thing to a DIY transistor any of us are likely to see, so it's worth a look just for that alone.

sparkbangbuzz reads like a cross between a grimoire from a medieval alchemist's shop and a selection of tech reports from ACME Development Laboratories, but there is some heavy scientific lifting going on there.  Lots to investigate in the coming years.

Now even the FBI is warning about your smart TV's security

Article at TechCrunch.  Read and take warning.

AAAaaaaa........

New work on general relativity yields insights into what's going on inside an even horizon.  Article at Quanta.

Crystal Radio Build

OK, let's get this part out of the way first: I am a complete sell-out, and officially now have no ham geek cred.  That's right, I built a crystal radio from a kit.  But let me say why: I needed an easy win about now, and didn't want to start my experimentations with a flail.  Besides, I was all fired up after last week's post about Minimalist Radio.  When I went looking around for parts (and I did, I swears it!), it was just about as cheap to buy a kit.  So... off to the races.

With that out of the way, the kit is the Picard radio from Borden Radio Company, by way of retailer MTC Radio at this link.  Here's the Bordan product page, scroll down to the right kit.  Then scroll down to the next kit, a ready-to-rock foxhole radio featuring a razor blade detector, all screwed to a scrap piece of pine board.  So Borden's got some geek cred for selling these, and getting them out to aspiring radio geeks.  Also, as I found out later, Borden's got a respectable line of hard-to-get parts for the next DIY go-round, up to and including WWII vintage razor blades, all at a very cool URL: http://www.xtalman.com

So now for the two big questions: How well does it work?  Um, it gets the in-town 5,000 watt WMEJ, about 3 miles away, all too well during the day, and doesn't have enough selectivity to hear anything else.  In the evening, when they turn their power down to I dunno, maybe 250 watts or so, it is possible to pick up 50,000 watt WWL from nearly 50 miles away (they were talking about – surprise! – sports).  So, for something so incredibly simple, it's a complete success.

Second big question: How well did it come together, both structurally and aesthetically?  Not bad, in a pre-WWI sort of way.  Take a look:

Design dates to the mid-point of the interval between Now and the War of 1812.

The two alligator clips attach to ground (black) and a random wire receive antenna (red).  The entire build was easy, if a little english had to occasionally be applied to various parts to make them fit.  The key thing during construction is patience: to wind a nice tight coil with all 75 wraps, to use the recommended clear spray on the coil after wrapping (it keeps things glued in place), and to wait a couple of days for the clear spray to completely dry.  The rest is a snap, requiring only steady hands and a few basic tools.

Speaking of winding the coil, yes, this kit requires that you wind the coil, and that you wind it neatly. So even though it is a kit, it does require some skill and patience to build.  Mostly the latter though.  I guess that does restore at least some geek cred.

Back to its performance, it's not bad, but I can't wait to take it on an upcoming camp-out.  Up in Desoto NF, at the location we've chosen, there are several mid-watt stations at 15 to 20 mile distances, and of course WWL off over the horizon.  It's going to be interesting to see how it does when there's nothing in the immediate neighborhood, swamping all other signals.

Enough already.  You can read more about crystal radios at Wikipedia.  It was fun to build, fun to test, and now it goes back into its box until the campout.  Again, when it picked up WWL out of New Orleans, that was enough to declare it a success.

A Small Luxury

I'd been wanting one of these for a while.  It's just a clock.  Well, really more like two clocks in one:

The nice thing is that it auto-sets using a radio time signal from WWVB, which makes it literally the most nearly perfect thing in the entire house.  After that, the other features are dual local and Zulu time displays; a backlight bar across the top to momentarily turn that on; and a nine-and-a-half minute countdown timer that does exactly one thing, namely, remind a long-winded ham operator to call out station ID in slightly less than the legally required ten minute interval.  Like the backlight, it works at the press of a button and does its job without fuss or complicated user interface.  Seconds are included in the display as well, a small but handy feature when setting another clock against this one.  One more thing worth mentioning is that the display is usefully large.  The main numbers are slightly over 1" high, easy to read across a long desk or even across a small room.

The clock was a snap to set up.  Insert two AA batts, switch on the time signal receive, push-button cycle around the two clocks to their respective time zones, and give it five minutes to sync to WWVB.  And that's it!  I've had coffee pots with electronics that were more complicated to operate.  Hats off to MFJ for getting the UI right on this one: simple, to the point, and only what the job calls for.

Note the lack of extraneous, complicating functions.  No alarms (beyond the one-button fixed timer), USB jacks, Bluetooth interfaces, etc.  When it comes to devices such as this one, less is more. Other small electronic manufacturers would do well to follow MFJ's lead here on UI design.

Reviews over at eHam are mixed.  The chief complaint is that it eats AA batts and sometimes has trouble syncing with WWVB.  The first is a non-issue because with rechargeable batts it's no expense, and for whatever reason this clock synced right up with WWVB.  In sum, neither problem applies here, buy YMMV.

Manufactured by MFJ (feature tour and third party review videos at the link; worth watching of you're considering buying), and you can get it at a slightly discounted price from MTC Radio.  Five out of five stars, highly recommended! 

A Little Opening on 2 meters Yesterday

Got into the Port St. Joe (FL) repeater with no trouble at all, then heard a station in Largo on 146.52 MHz (the 2m common calling channel).  It was a little statickey, but perfectly readable.  430 miles, straight across the Gulf.  No, this is not reliable comms by any means – VHF station-to-station limits out around 10 or 20 miles under usual conditions, due to the curvature of the Earth – but it was something out of the ordinary and a lot of fun.

These things happen in the calm, clear weather a day or two after a cold front passes.

Thoughts for a Black Friday

Yesterday was a wonderful Thanksgiving Day Feast: the traditional grilled steaks and vegetables, washed down with bourbon, chased by too much pumpkin pie and whipped cream, with a cup of chicory coffee some time later.  Now as for all today's Black Friday ruckus, just remember:

Yes, you may have seen this one before.  It most definitely still applies.

Oysters in Trouble in MS, AL

Excess runoff-laden water from the Mississippi River has completely messed up the coastal waters to the east.  This is what happens when you turn a major river into a concrete lined ditch and keep pushing for 1930s farming policies upstream.  Article at NPR.

Don't let this happen to your river.

Movie Review: Ford vs. Ferrari

This is a very good movie, with no aspirations of greatness.  Look, it's about GUYS with CARS and MONEY who set out to win a race, and to do it against all odds.  The only big idea in evidence here is that when asked these guys said "Hell yeah we can do this.  Now get out of our way.  And keep the money coming."  Then they worked hard to make it happen.  Beyond that, it's all broad brush strokes, bright colors, and loud engines.  No subtlety, no subtexts, no sideways commentary about the '60s.  In some ways the story and presentation could be called "cartoonish," but only in the best possible sense of the word.

Likewise, the acting and cinematography are top-notch.  As is the writing; there's not a clunker line in the entire movie.  There's just enough tension between the characters to make them all pop out in 3-D, while maintaining their core traits.  For all the simplicity of the story line and the overwhelming personalities of the characters, it works, it's believable.  The whole thing is a professional effort.  It's also a lot of fun to watch.

Three-plus out of Four Stars.  Go see it in a good theater, with a good LOUD sound system.

Is it a bad thing when a movie merely aspires to goodness, not greatness, and then solidly hits the mark?  In a way, does that make it great after all?

Mars Sample Return Mission Shaping Up

Article over at Science.  In a nutshell, the plan is for a series of rover, lander/launcher, and orbiter missions throughout the 2020's (all unmanned of course) to bring soil and rock particle samples back to Earth in 2031.  While I'm glad to see that we're getting on with this, there are a lot of moving parts to the plan and it's going to take every bit of expertise we've built up over the last 45 years of Mars missions to pull it off.  Anyway, the article's a short and informative read.

About My Take on Cursive Too

From Wednesday's The Argyle Sweater:

Heh.

Minimalist Radio

A very cool little crystal radio, with a unique "crystal" over at The SWLing Post: 
https://swling.com/blog/2019/11/am-radio-from-a-hand-wound-coil-and-an-oxidized-british-penny/

The fact that it was tuned to a station playing The Clash's London Calling when he got it to work just makes this video all the sweeter.

I really need to build another one of these again fairly soon.  However... I will continue to enjoy my triple-conversion superhet with its plethora of digital filters for the time being.

Link-Through to Review of Osprey Tempest 20 Daypack

Following up on last winter's review of the Osprey Talon 22 daypack here at the 'swamp, Section Hiker has put together an even more in-depth review of the women-specific version, the Tempest 20.

Two different points of view, but with very similar observations, and much the same conclusion: Highly Recommended!

Is the Sunspot and Ionosphere Situation Improving?

Maybe.  Word 'round the repeater on last night's tech session was unanimously cautiously positive.  There is some DX coming in, and 80m NVIS last night from FL was booming.  The FT8 crowd is starting to pick up a few more contacts, so... maybe?  Anyway, here's a graphic prediction from last summer (reference link):

While this is five months old, we're so close to the bottom of the cycle that the slope is nearly flat and five months doesn't make much of a difference on a graph like this one.  What is interesting is the long-range prediction out to 2030: great improvements starting in two years, but an overall 'meh' peak.

So yeah, maybe things are picking up, starting about now.

A Good Friend is in a Bad Way

After a GREAT day on the Bethel Trails, the friend I was riding with sent the following:

I have to worry about the guy.  Riding a hardtail after age 50 is a true hardship.

Coffeeneuring Stop #7: Cat Island Coffeehouse

Just one of those perfect weather days, perfect for a casual road ride and a cup of coffee.

1. where: Cat Island Coffeehouse, Pass Christian MS
2. when: 11/16/19
3. what: a "Mississippi Mud," essentially hot chocolate with a shot of espresso; a chocolate brownie
4. ride details: beautiful low-60's afternoon; just an easy spin over the bridge (pics below); CX bike
5. mileage: 16.6 miles round-trip

  

  

Top Left: view from the end of my street.  The point of land across the Bay toward the left is the destination.  Top Right: The Goodies.  Bottom Left: Pass Christian harbor.  Bottom Right: the road home.  Click any to embiggen.

And got to give credit to the bike that got me there:

The CX bike in all its glory.  I swear, that thing is more handy than duct tape and vice-grips put together.

Oh it was just too pretty a day, so here's one more picture from the bridge:

Dig that sun flare!  There's some UV in the air.

And with that, the official portion of The 2019 Coffeeneuring Challenge is in the bag.  But there's no stopping this train, who know where it might go: #8, #9, ... or more?  Tomorrow and next weekend will tell.

The "Why" of Mountain Biking Well Explained

Over at Dirt Rag.  Read the whole thing.  

That is all for this Friday evening.

3x Charmed

Yesterday morning, the shower, heater, and wifi router all broke.  These things travel in threes.

Fortunately, the shower was patchable enough to get through to the weekend, the heater was only a rattled-out circuit breaker on the outside compressor unit, and the wifi... well, we got 13 years out of the old Apple unit, it was past going and beginning to be a security problem as well.  Nothing a two hundred dollar bill couldn't fix.

Bah.  I'm going to glower into my after-supper coffee now, and contemplate the good fortune that none of these items went truly sideways.  Expect more content later.

ps: theme music from Robert the Greater and Big Bob
- Stop Breaking Down
- Everything is Broken

"Why Shortwave?" Explained

Without mentioning radio once, here it is: The Beauty of Degraded Media:

Well, damn, the video won't embed, so here's the link.

That is all for today.  Too many things broke in the last 24 hours – fortunately none particularly expensive – and I am tired.

Kilroy Is There

Article about a bit of retro-grafitti carved into the WWII Memorial, over at Atlas Obscura.  Most appropriate.

All I've got.  Hope you had a good Veteran's Day, hope you thanked a veteran.

Coffeeneuring Stop #6: Cafe Con Leche

More-or-less repeating last year's set of stops (hey, small towns, not that many shops), it was back to Cafe Con Leche just after Seafood Festival weekend.  Had lunch and of course coffee with Sis and a friend.  I biked, they drove.  Nice day out on the porch overlooking Water Street.  On to the details:
1. where: Cafe Con Leche, Apalachicola FL
2. when: 11/4/19
3. what: coffee, black; no frills
4. ride details: pleasantly cool day that warmed up to low 70's; had to dodge some Festival clean-up traffic along the way.  Rode the '89 Karakoram
5. mileage: 2.2 miles round-trip

The picture is overlooking Water Street and Ward's Seafood.  Cup is balanced on the saddle.  The pic from last year's visit had a view from the same spot, but angled more down-river.  Look at those clouds!  The weather was rapidly clearing.

FCC Considering All-Digital on AM Broadcast Band

About time.  Article at Radio World, hat-tip to The SWLing Post.

Discussed five years ago here, with a closing statement "five to ten years."

Now That is Scary

The second part of this comic actually happened to me this week: PhD Comics.

Winged it with a handful of printer paper, nothing else to do with it.  Nobody attacked, so I guess it went OK.

The Fright Last Night

https://babylonbee.com/news/ron-paul-scaring-neighborhood-children-by-jumping-out-and-telling-them-about-the-national-debt

That is all... for the moment.

Halloween Post: Zombie Planets!

From a series of NASA/JPL posters:

You can find the rest over at CNN.  Happy Halloween y'all.

Favorite MTB Accessories

There's a new series of articles at the Dirt Rag site where they ask prominent bikers "What's your favorite MTB accessory?"  So far, three articles up:

• a spork – she's a bikepacker
• tubeless tire plug kit – completely makes sense, and it's good to see Innovations is still innovating
• a dropper post – good for technical riding

Me?  Easy: a hydration pack with a liter or two of cargo space (here's my current one).  In addition to water, these can haul all kinds of useful things down the trail: hand saws; and, on a related note, first aid kit; mini pump, lunch, dig-dig tool & TP, etc.  Pfft, I've even biked with a complete shortwave station, just to prove it could be done.

So what's your favorite bike accessory?  And what's the most unusual thing you've carried in a hydration pack?

Today: The Internet Turns 50

Fifty years ago today, the first information was passed on what would eventually grow into today's internet.  Article at Fast Company.

That is all.  Back to your regular web surfing.

Red Bull Rampage at Dirt Rag

Article and video here: https://dirtragmag.com/articles/red-bull-rampage-brandon-semenuks-winning-run

Woo.  Makes my palms sweat just watching that.

I'm going to take a moment to remind all my family and friends that this kind of "mountain biking" has about as much to do with my woods-riding as tight-rope walking has to do with me going for a trail hike.

Anyway, it's an impressive performance.  Not really my cup of coffee though.

Coffeneuring Stop #5: Bethel Bike Trails

A simple coffee break in the middle of a mountain bike ride.  The details:
1. where: Bethel Bike Trails in Desoto N.F., north of Biloxi MS.  Specifically, on the Couch Trail where it turns to follow Tuxachanie Creek.
2. date: 10/27/19
3. what: black Community Columbian, fresh brewed & hauled in a thermos
4. ride details: a beautiful, cool, slightly cloudy late-October morning for a MTB ride
5. mileage: 2.1 (trailhead-creek-&-back); 24 total for the day.

Met up at the trailhead with a friend from work at 8, rode S. Bethel, N. Pine Lizard, Couch, Bailout, and S. Pine Lizard.  Swapped out pack at the truck – hydration to caffeination – for a quick side-track back on Couch Trail again, but just to where it meets Tuxachanie Creek.  We polished off two mugs each by the creek, then pedaled back to the trailhead to re-swap out pack, then were off for caffeine-fueled runs through Briar Patch, Badlands, Bailout, then back to the trailhead again via S. Pine Lizard.  A full morning's ride!

  

Quasi-panoramic view.  Brown water in the creek, brown water in the mug.  The downed log on the right made a good coffee bench.  Dig that Coffeneuring 2018 patch on the pack.

Coffeeneuring Stop #4: Buttercup Cafe

An easy stop for lunch and coffee.  The particulars:
1. where: The Buttercup on Second Street, Bay St. Louis MS
2. date: 10/26/19
3. what: plain ol' black coffee, 3x refills over the course of lunch
4. details: cooling weather just after a cold front cleared through; 69F and cloudy; CX bike (head tube and handlebars can be seen through the porch railing)
5. distance: 4.6 miles round-trip

It's a nice, damp fall day here on the Coast with the weather cooling quickly in the wake of a cold front merged with the remnants of just-barely-rates tropical storm Olga.  A good day for coffee(!), a reuben, sliced grilled tomatoes, and cinnamon roll bread pudding.  That last is about to put me down for a nap, worth every carbo-gram of the thing.

With #4 in the bag, we're over the half-way mark.  The next three coffee stops are charted out, subject to the whims of weather and social visits of course.  Should be an easy spin from here to completion of the 2019 Coffeeneuring Challenge.

T.S. Nestor and the Popham Building

Tropical Storm Nestor slung past the Apalachicola area last weekend, and while there wasn't a lot of damage, the results do give some food for thought on how a proposed project should proceed.  Here are three articles from The Times covering the issue:

• Nestor a Washout – Scroll around on the carousel for a pic of the Popham building, barely above water. It's the one with the bridge in the background.  That was only a tropical storm.
• City Moves Forward with Popham Application – The Monday before the storm, the City decided to go ahead and request $600,000 from the State to begin restoration.
• What Became of Popham's "Oyster Factory" – Some deeper background in an article from last May.

I'm not saying what to do here.  My mind is not made up, nor do I (yet) vote there, nor have I heard all sides of the issue.  However, I do know that the Popham building is very low, has flooded repeatedly, and has been a commercial flail-about for at least the last 40 years.  Sometimes, it is time to stop pouring good money after bad and just let go.  On the other hand, the building is extremely picturesque, still might be put to good use (if anybody can figure that part out), and is right there at the eastern gateway to the town.  Sometimes, it is time to go to the mat to save a historic building.

Anyway, food for thought.
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Edit, sometime much later: Those carousel pictures tend to go away, so here's the pic of the Popham from the first linked article:

Better wear your hip boots if you're doing business in the Popham.