2021 Year-End Wrap-Up & Greatest Hits

Well, 2021 turned out to be interesting, perhaps too much so, but interesting nonetheless.  For this year's wrap-up, let's run through the best-of for each month, then follow with the Greatest Hits section.

OK, on to the best-of for 2021:

• January: Winter Field Day!  
• February: Day hiking in Tate's Hell
• March: All about the 1973 Mohs Safarikar  No, I didn't win the auction.
• April: More hiking & radio in Tate's Hell
• May: Back on the St. Marks Rail Trail  It's been 30 years.
• June: Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir's latest book.
• July: Summary of Bell's Theorem  (not mine, just a link)  Not much posting in July.
• August: NPR's Sci-Fi & Fantasy poll: call (from June) and results
• September: Fractals, Aesthetics, and Sanity
• October: Coffeeneuring returns for 2021!  Spans a couple of months centered on October.
• November: a new term, "grant blight" defined
• December: Tetra-Neutron, maybe.  Probably.

Bonus Honorable Mention:

• August: FL Man wrecks bike, flips into water, grabbed by gator  Wasn't me.  This time.

Strangely this year, I don't have any "You Must Read This!" book recommendation.  Project Hail Mary (linked above) comes close, but no cigar.  Maybe next year.

On to the Greatest Hits section.  These Hits need not be from 2021, they're just the top posts from any year that got the most traffic this year.  That in and of itself is sort of interesting.  From the #1 most read over the last 12 months, working down a ways:

• Programming a Yaesu FTM-7250D radio, May 2019
• Shortwave Antennas: Vertical or Horizontal?, October 2020
• Quick & Dirty Guide to Getting a Ham License, December 2017
• Programming a Yaesu FT-60 using ChiRP, July 2017
• Programming a Yaesu FT-70 by hand, June 2020
• Silca Tattico Mini-Pump Review, February 2019

Mostly a lot of how-to-ham reference posts.  One more image, and then let's close it out for the year:

TS Mindy in September: Not that awful, but it was a direct hit.

Book Mention: Exhalation by Ted Chiang

 Ted Chiang, the author behind the short story that would ultimately be adapted into the 2016 movie Arrival, is back with another book of short stories, and as you might expect, it's really good.  If there's a central theme to this collection, it is that it takes various ideas seriously and explores how they would play out in the real world.  Non-contradictory time travel, robots who don't know that they're robots, offloaded human memories, Fermi's paradox, young-Earth creationism, and communication between time-lines in a many-worlds universe – these ideas and their implications get a thorough exploration through fiction.

The stories each develop slowly and naturally, and flow forth from the mind of the author at an appropriately leisurely pace.  This might be off-putting to some readers, but fortunately there is a chapter of story notes at the end of the book.  For many (myself included), these notes were helpful in getting oriented into each story; others may wish to save the notes for reading after completing the collection.

Finally, I have to compare this book to a caffeine source.  If something like Weir's Project Hail Mary is like a cup of strong black coffee, then Chiang's Exhalation is more like a subtle cup of fine tea.  Each should be enjoyed on its own terms.  Don't expect slam-bang space action in this collection; rather, expect a slow contemplation of ideas in the most human of ways.

Christmas Comet!!!

Nice pic at APOD today:

Merry Christmas!  All I got today.

Mac Monterey Upgrade Blues

Apple's at it again, randomly overwriting and breaking stuff with their latest sidegrade.  Two things to watch out for if you want to keep your gfortran compiler working.

1. Before you upgrade, make a copy of your .zshrc file.  The upgrade seems to do a search-and-destroy on the file in your home directory, so that all the cool custom stuff you may have added goes bye-bye.
2. Whatever was in your /private/etc/zprofile gets overwritten too.  Let it, the new zprofile seems to have some new stuff.  But then come back and add that scrap of code from the end of this post to the file to get your linker to work right.
3. Also, don't forget to upgrade the Xcode toolkit.  Still free from the Apple store, but you've got to go and get it.  Don't forget to restart terminal.

On the whole, not as bad as last June's fiasco, but it was still a little bit of puzzling around.  "It just works"?  Well, somewhat.  Admittedly, running a fortran compiler on a Mac is really getting down into the weeds.  Anyway, it's nowhere near as bad as that company that once proclaimed "don't be evil."

Metaverse Described for the People Who Prefer IRL

Here's a short (2:50), informative video over at the BBC describing what this is about.

Since the 1980's I've seen these things come and I've seen these things go.  However, this time I think it might stick.  The concepts have been floating around for decades, the hardware seems finally up to the task, the basics behind the software have been there for a while, but most of all there's finally a business driver behind it now.  Integration of all the parts seems to be happening very quickly.  We shall see, and likely fairly soon.

BTW, Ted Chiang's novella The Lifecycle of Software Objects, addresses some of the unexpected twists that partially existing in a shared interactive virtual world can take.  It's in his 2019 collection Exhalation, which I highly recommend.  I'll write something up about it just as soon as I finish the last third.

The Clash's 20 Greatest Guitar Moments

Short & sweet: https://guitar.com/guides/essential-guide/the-clash-greatest-guitar-moments/

Even if you don't listen to more than a clip of each song, it's still a treat.  And an education.

When Paleontologists go Oystering

A short article over at Atlas Obscura describes how paleontologists are digging into oyster bars in Apalachicola Bay to get some baselines on what a normal, healthy bay once looked like.  It's a convoluted tale and it's still developing, so I won't try to summarize further than saying that it's a sub- 5 minute read.

Interesting, and I wish them all the best.

"Tetra-Neutron"? Sure, why not.

Article here, with actual links to the actual paper.  Go & read (it's short), come back for commentary.

OK, got all that?  It does seem likely that this group has managed to make atoms (and I use that term very loosely here) of neutronium.  That and an equal amount of carbon-10 as a by-product, which is pretty cool all by itself, by smacking two lithium-7 nuclei together.  I'd like to see a confirming experiment though.  It ought to be pretty easy to do with a time-of-flight chamber, a fat E-dE diode detector, and some elementary kinematic deconvolution.  Interesting stuff.

Not actual size.

So, what was that in last Thursday's pic?

It was a very strange Soviet sort-of airplane.  Video here.  Wikipedia article here.  And a little more here.

The Single Sentence Sci-Fi Challenge

Prodded by this post, here's my attempt.

With my cut from the Miami run in hand – a supposedly untraceable combination of cash, crypto, and lint – I hit the return-to-hanger control on the ekranoplan and stepped into the apartment to finish the black sapote I'd picked up at the turn-around point.

Eh, it doesn't have to be good, it just has to sound good.  Now it's your turn.

Happy First Day of Not Hurricane Season

 

Some Season's Greetings that everyone can get onboard with.

Coffeeneuring Stop #8: Dwarf Cypress Boardwalk in Tate's Hell Swamp

OK, so last year's last last documented coffeeneuring ride was through a hurricane disaster area.  The only way to top that this year was to take a trip into Hell – specifically, Tate's Hell Swamp – all for a cup of coffee.  Onward to the details and pictures.

1. where: Dwarf Cypress boardwalk in Tate's Hell Swamp, just east of Eastpoint FL

2. date: 11/29/21

3. what: Honduran dark roast, brewed in a French press and brought in a thermos

4. notes: Mid-50's clear late fall weather.  The gravel roads were dry without being dusty.  After months of around-town riding, it felt great to get out on open roads and spin.

5. distance: 15 total miles: 6 out, 9 back on a slightly different route

Let's have the pictures, with a few short notes at the bottom.  Click to embiggen, if so inclined.

This way to coffee.

Even here, a divine light still shines on the gravel bike.  Note the boardwalk in the background.

Out on the boardwalk, up in the treetops.  The trees are about 15' high.

Note how much higher the pine trees in the background are.

Even the ditches are pretty out here.

If the locale seems familiar, it's been blogged several times before: July 2019 (look at all that green!), January 2021, and March 2021.  It's always a good place to visit, whether via bike or car.

And that concludes The 2021 Coffeeneuring Challenge, themed c+1.  What will 2022 bring?  Stay tuned, we'll find out.

Coffeeneuring Stop #7: Cafe con Leche

Hey #7 already, and somehow this year has gone really easily and well.  The biggest problem has been that I'm too darned close to the coffee shops here in downtown, so I have to swing by to pick up my sister to get the required ≥ 2.0 miles in!  Anyway, here it goes:

1. where: Cafe con Leche, Water Street, Apalachicola FL

2. date: 11/24/21

3. what: black eye, with an arepa for lunch; the Big Sis had the house special latte

4. cool, after-the-cold-front weather; as with most of these rides, the gear of choice is the gravel bike

5. 2.0 (whew!) miles round-trip

OK, this picture of the bikes, me, and coffee is really bad, so I'll just keep it small and tuck it in above.  The new pedals did very well with street shoes.

Well, we're not done yet.  The theme for this year is "c+1" so c+1 (or c++?) is what we're gonna do.  Stay tuned for more caffeinated action.

Don't Try This One at Home, Kids

All about OOK neutron modulation, at Hackaday.

Shortwave Listening Post Basics

An article on "things you need to enhance your shortwave listening, especially with portable gear" was published at The SWLing Post this past week.  Along with many useful suggestions and additions in the comments, it's worth your 15 minute read.

All I got for today.

Big ol' Lunar Eclipse Tonight

Here's a decent article, complete with times, what to expect, etc.  I won't rehash any points; if you're interested, just go read it.  I probably won't be up for it either, but then you never know.  I expect that APOD will have some amazing pictures over the next few days.  In the meantime... you have been notified.

This reminds me, satsumas are back in season.

Grind On

Addendum to Saturday's Coffeeneuring Stop #6 – the new pedals are now on the gravel bike.  I'd had an ancient set of Gen 1 Mallets on this bike, but they gave up the ghost last spring.  In the interim I'd been running a spare set of Eggbeaters, but they kind of crimped the bike's style.  Here the pedals need to (1) be no-compromise clip-ins, (2) ride OK with normal shoes for those casual spins to friends' houses – or a to a nearby coffee shop, and (3) take an off-kilter stomp without complaint when I fumble a clip-in and Mr. F-250 is bearing down.  The naked Eggbeaters were light and had #1 down pat, but they failed badly on Items #2 & #3.  Much better now, and on this afternoon's test ride they checked out 100%.

In other upgrades from the earlier version, the pins are much better than the old stamped-steel front and back screw-on plates, and the spindle end caps are now compatible with Crank Bros' grease injection fitting.  Small, incremental changes to be sure, but the new pedals are noticeably better.

It's a good coffeeneuring trip when you stumble upon the pedals you'd been looking at for six months.  Grind on.  More specifically, dark grind on, because I'm sipping a cup of smooth Honduran right now.

Hm, maybe 2020 wasn't so bad...

I mean, when 2021 features an actual plague of scorpions in Egypt, maybe we've got trouble.  Here's the article:

3 dead, hundreds injured after storms rouse scorpions in Egypt over at NPR.

Oh, and it seems the local snakes are riled up too.  Not the 2021 I ordered, would not recommend.

Coffeeneuring Stop #6: Blue Mountain Bakery

A simple cruiser ride from my brother's beach cottage for mid-morning coffee, snacks, and bike parts.  More on the bike parts below.

1. where: Blue Mountain Bakery, Santa Rosa Beach FL

2. date: 11/13/21

3. what: their basic brew-of-the-day, tasted sort of Columbian.  Black.  Oatmeal cookie on the side.

4. details: A sky-blue sky with a tailwind going, all along the bike path paralleling C-30, looking at back-of-the-dunes beach views, a bunch of packed-in but very nice cottages, interspersed with the occasional cluster of restaurants, bait shops, and -of course- coffee shops.

5. 8.2 miles round-trip.

Well this is something that's never happened, I rode a crank off a bike!  In fact, so did my brother.  We each wallowed out a pedal spindle screw-in point on a crank.  I think it had more to do with the cheapo cruiser bikes – no, wait, bicycle shaped objects (BSOs) – that the rental company staged at my brother's beach cottage rather than actual feats of strength, but nonetheless it did happen.  Weirdest thing, it's like the aluminum threads on the crank turned into cheddar cheese or some such.  Fortunately, next door to the coffee shop there was a bike store, so repairs were made while we got coffee.  (convenient)  Also, I found some new pedals for the gravel bike that I'd been looking for (that's what's in my left hand in the pic), so double bingo.  I'll throw in a gratuitous mention of Big Daddy's Bike Shop here, the people there are genuinely nice folks who got us back on the road in short order.

All in all, a successful if somewhat unusual coffeeneuring trip.  Also, we conclusively demonstrated that BSOs are no match at all for the likes of over-caffeinated gravel/tri/mountain bikers.

Green Flash

Over at today's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

These things are always cool on the rare occasion you see them.  It's really nice to see a zoomed-in and slowed-down video recording of one though.  If you've never seen one... well, here it is.  That, and you need to spend more time on the water where you can get a good view of the western horizon.

Coffeeneuring Stop #5: Seafood Landing Park

A nice stop at the last park/boat launch at the western edge of town.

1. where: Seafood Landing Park, Hwy 98 Apalachicola FL

2. date: 11/9/21

3. what: home-brewed dark roast; nothing special, just dark

4. details: Beautiful, clear 65F weather.  Interesting views from the well-maintained park dock.  Watched a porpoise hunting fish in the nearby shallows.

5. 7.9 miles round-trip.  Instead of the direct route down Hwy 98 (2.5 miles), I took the back way through Ave D to 17th Street, up 25th Street, up Gibson Road, then to Pal Rivers Road.  Back was much the same, with a shortcut down Ave M back into downtown.

Above: Bike, dock, coffee.

Side: Porpoise!

As always, click to embiggen.  (Why oh why did blogger have to "improve" their editing interface?)

Term of the Day: Grant Blight

You know that street repair project that should be done by local government, but languishes for years waiting for a chunk of Federal grant money?  Grant blight.

You know that weird out-of-the-way park for which some politician grubbed up grant funding, just so he could cut the ribbon and show up in the local paper?  You know, the park nobody uses now, has fallen into disrepair (what, maintenance funding?  pshaw), and now has become both an eyesore and an attractive nuisance?  Grant blight.

You know those municipal piers that are the centerpieces of local waterfront parks?  The ones that get roughed up every few years by hurricanes?  Cities and counties used to take care of them, and they got fixed pdq, usually in the winter following hurricane season.  Now they often sit for years, waiting for FEMA money to roll in.  Yep, grant blight.

Yes, I know well the reality of funding small projects these days: the Federal government vacuums up dollars from citizens by the truckload and then oh so graciously passes some back to local governments by the handful.  What, should local governments refuse these returned crumbs?  Probably not.  Still, the situation stinks.  Leaving the money local would get these projects completed faster, and at a tenth the cost.  But I present no solutions here, and seek only to define a new phrase.

Grant blight.  It's a shorthand way to describe what we see all over America these days.

Coffeeneuring Stop #4: Chestnut Street End/Bayfront

Every coastal town has these awkward little streets that run through neighborhoods and... just dead end into the local major body of water.  It's public land, the street in theory runs all the way to the high tide line, and there's frequently some kind of overlook (even if it's overlooking marsh, or rip-rap, or *STOP* barrier...).  At the same time, they're generally in neighborhoods and there are neighbors nearby.  Such is the case here, where a thin screen of brush separates a bayfront yard from the end of Chestnut Street, out on the west edge of town.  Looks like a place for a quiet up of coffee to me.

1. where: tail end of Chestnut Street, Apalachicola FL

2. date: 11/8/21

3. what: home-brewed Costa Rica, from beans bought from the coffee guy, the same guy in the farmers' market in Stop #1.  Brewed dark, strong, & black.  Thermos, cup, & bike shown in detail at right.

4. details: wonderfully clear early November day, about 65F.  CX bike.

5. 3.0 miles round-trip.  Dropped off the thermos at home, then went for another 12 miles of gravel.

This week features bayside stops, but next week we'll (hopefully) make it to the two actual coffee shops in town.  In the meantime, here's a panoramic pic covering about 180 degrees and showing the Bay.

That's the panoramic view and sun flare messing with your perspective, and not too much caffeine doing it to your optic nerve.  Note thermos bungied horizontally to the rear rack.  It's a chainsaw hauler!  It's a VHF antenna mount!  And now, it's a caffeine containment unit attachment point.

Meanwhile, over at The Argyle Sweater...

 Today's comic:

You should go over there right now (link) and bookmark TAS for your daily viewing.

As for me, I'll be out on the mean streets (as opposed to the mode or median streets) sometime after lunch today.

Arborist Throw Lines & Antennas

 Yesterday's outing was once again to the High Bluff Trail (previous outings here) to tune up old and test out new gear for the winter hiking season.  Long story short, I brought the QRP radio and made one HF contact and two SARNET-FL repeater contacts.  Nothing to write home about, but it was fun.  However this was the debut of a real game-changer:

Tuner, plastic bags, and one-earbud not included.

Even though I was only putting a line up about 25' to use an end-fed rigged as an inverted-V, that was the easiest 25' throw I've ever done.  First time out of the box and never used before, it took me only two tries to put the line exactly where I wanted it.  Then I practiced on a ~40' limb and, while the results were decidedly more mixed, limbs up to the 50' range seem now within reach.  The difference between working with the 21' "mini" W3EDP antenna and the 43' "medium" W3EDP is like night and day.  Putting the line up 85' for the full-on version is forever beyond my reach however.  That's OK, I'll continue to use it horizontally for 80 & 160m NVIS work.  In the meantime though, getting the mini up will be a snap and getting the medium up to full stretch is possible.  (Going to need to practice a little more though for that medium 43' one.)

Onward to the links & recommendations part.  Here's where I got mine: throw line & weight and throw line bag.  (huh, Bartlett Supply doesn't seem to have the bags in stock, so the second link is to the manufacturer)  The cheap slick poly throwline seems plenty serviceable, probably no need to go to higher-dollar stuff; 100' is plenty of length, probably all you'd want to manage.  A 12 oz. throw weight is also plenty.  I probably couldn't zip anything heaver to the heights I need.  Other useful stuff from the QRPer blog: how to pack a throw bag, and a field antenna's best friend.  You can dig around for "how to throw" yourself videos at youtube, they abound.

Anyway, yeah, get a decent throwline rig.  It's a game-changer, and way more portable than an air-driven PVC spud gun.

The Upside-Down Seasons

 Backpacking season just started!  So why all the heavy maintenance over at Section Hiker?

Ah, life in the Deep South.  Fall is when it's actually pleasant to open the windows and venture outside again.

Sync Detectors, Amplitude Modulation, and You

 There was a big article back in September on the subject of sync detectors an how they can take the "crunchiness" out of long-range signals.  <link>  There are some pretty impressive demo sound clips included.

TLDR: "Selective fading" effectively scrolls a notch filter over a signal.  When the notch happens to hit the carrier frequency, the carrier level drops and overall it's the same as an over-modulated signal – hence the crunchy sound.  A sync detector substitutes in a full-powered carrier, so the crunches never happen.  Also if your radio's sync has a USB/LSB option, you can use it to put a little more distance between what you're tuning in and some adjacent station's signal splatter.

Since reading this, I've been using the sync detector on my PL-660 more and more.  It's especially effective for medium wave AM stations out towards west, where the longer propagation paths frequently exhibit selective fading.  I've been using sync for years to eliminate spatter from adjacent stations, but for cleaning up WOAI (1200 KHz, San Antonio), that article was a real eye-opener.

Coffeeneuring Stop #3: Lafayette Park

 Today's Sunday outing was to a Coffee Shop Without Walls, namely Lafayette Park overlooking Apalachicola Bay.

1. where: Lafayette Park, Apalachicola FL

2. date: 10/31/21

3. what: Lucky Goat "Goat Tracks", home brewed by The Big Sis, brought along in a thermos

4. details: a perfect October day in the low 70's.  CX bike for me, Big Sis rode her stylin' Schwinn (which badly needs a new rear hub, but that that's a topic for another time)

5. distance: 2.2 miles round-trip.  (It's a very small town!)

Coffee and conversation overlooking the Bay on a beautiful afternoon.  Can it get better?  Maybe, we'll see on the rest of the 2021 Coffeeneuring rides.

Smells Like Halloween

 Heh.

Coffeeneuring Stop #2: Early Birds Mobile Coffee

 Onward and upward with this years Coffeeneuring Challenge!  Details:

1. where: Early Birds, across 10th Street from The Pig, Apalachicola FL

2. date: 10/27/21

3. what: basic big honkin' latte

4. details: another nice October day, in the low 70's.  CX bike

5. 1.0 miles there, continued with another 12 miles of gravel, shells, & mud in the alleyways

It's a new place, all my neighbors are recommending it, so I had to try it.  Everything I'd hoped it would be.  Then I was off on a jet-fueled tour of the mean alleyways of Apalachicola, followed by tacos and a nap.

Meh.

 It ain't over yet (see what was still in store this time last year), but... meh.  For the moment.

Radio Hiking Season Begins

 Oh, we've had a few cool days, but the real bug suppression won't start until later this week.  In the meantime, here are two from QRPer.com.

Anatomy of a Field Radio Kit Part 1: Basic components and Advantages of going QRP

Anatomy of a Field Radio Kit Part 2: Kit Types, Preparedness, and the Golden Rules

Time to dust off and recharge everything after this just-passed summer's estivation.  Also, probably wouldn't hurt to sit a the desk with the FT-817nd plugged into a dummy load and just practice for an evening.  Also, I really need to re-program the PSK-31 frequencies – it's changed for 17m.  Lots to do.

I may even have some Real Trail Action Pictures to show by this time next week.  In any case, here's a blast from the winter just past:

Overholt vs. Overholt

 I'd been seeing this slightly upscale version of Old Overholt for a while now, and finally had the chance to do a single-blind tasting of it vs. The Original.  It has a noticeably more rich flavor that sips better and will hold up to mixes better too.  Original is good, but at only about $8 a bottle more, Old Overholt Bonded is more than worth the small step-up in price.  Here, read what somebody who knows what he's talking about has to say.  Also, stop by the maker's web site and see what they have to tell about the original and the bonded versions.

Coffeeneuring Stop #1: Scipio Creek Farmer's Market

 Let's get this year's coffeeneuring adventures started in style with a trip to the local farmer's market.  Details:

1. where: coffee guy at Farmer's Market at Scipio Creek commercial marina, Apalachicola FL

2. date: 10/23/21

3. what: Ethiopian "Bold and Bright, Notes of Blueberry, Strawberry, and Peach"

4. details: nice clear late October day, about 75F.  CX bike

5. 2.0 miles round-trip (and I had to take a slightly indirect route)

Bought tomatoes and a few other odds and ends while there.  We're kind of between seasons here, with the summer produce mostly done but the winter harvest still ahead.  Just the usual Saturday ride to the market, but now with Official Coffeeneuring Documentation.

As a side note, Apalachicola is so small that sometimes a circuitous route is required to get the minimum 2 total miles in.  It's an excuse to dawdle, talk with neighbors, and check out the riverfront.

Coffee guy is facing away in the chair on the left side.  Coffee cup is just left of the water shut-off valve.  Coffee is inside the cyclist/photographer.  Note the snazzy Coffeeneuring 2018 patch on the daypack.

Mark Your Calendar: 5000th Grand Ole Opry Next Saturday

 I mean, if you go in for good music and such.  October 30th.  Details here.  Looks like quite a line-up.

Sure, you can stream it off the net if you have to, but really, you want to pull it out of the ether and listen for real.  Dust off your AM radio, set it to 650 KHz, and point it in the general direction of Nashville.

A DIY (maybe) Solar Photovoltaic Panel

 George Cove seems to have stumbled into a workable PV panel circa 1905.  Sure, the efficiency stinks compared with modern stuff – about 5% vs. modern SOTA around 20% – but if you can crank these out for an order of magnitude lower price using a simple, relatively environmentally benign manufacturing process, who cares?  What's more, we now have a decent theoretical understanding of how this fortuitous accident works, and so can probably tweak it to much higher efficiencies.

Well I'm no solid state physicist, so I'll just refer you to the article at Low<––Tech Magazine.  Also of note, that site runs off a used laptop and is powered by a tiny panel and a none-too-new battery, so you might have to wait until the Sun comes back up in Spain.  Yes, they practice what they preach at Low<––Tech.

Fall Arrives Today

 With a dry cool front blowing in and a forecast low for tonight of 54F, here is a little more good news:

Wrap it up, I'll take it.

In which Ritchie wins the internet for 10/13/21.

 In the comment section over at a completely unrelated thread (ok, so he blew that part):

On the Shatner flight – opportunity lost.  While they were aloft, everyone on the ground should have put on lizard suits.

Beyond hearty agreement, I can add nothing to this.

ps: Oh wait, maybe I can.  Link to Wikipedia article on ST:TOS episode "Arena"

After Midnight: 1966 &1972

The 1966 Demo Version

The 1972 Studio Version

It's interesting to hear the original, but on the whole I vastly prefer the 1972 version.

Compare and contrast with Eric Clapton's 1970 cover version.

OK, I understand why Clapton did the amped-up 1970 cover now.  After growing up on the 1972 version, all the others just sound weird and over-caffeinated.

Happy Frodo-Gets-Stabbed Day

 You know, on Weathertop.  Details here at Sweating to Mordor.  As an aside, it's an interesting resource.

Only noticed this after lunch, when I finished the Nth (for some value of N ≥ 10) re-reading of Return of the King.

Note to self: Stay away from strange figures clothed in black this evening.  For that matter, in general.

Coffeeneuring 2021 Announcement Posted

 Link here.  If you're new to the concept of coffeeneuring, I'll leave it to you read up at that link.  There's a minor rule change for 2021 to simplify documentation.  You'll no longer need a blog, Strava account, etc., though blogging etc. is still encouraged (and will be done here as in past years).

The fun begins – huh! – week after next on Monday the 18th.  Got to get that new rear derailleur installed.

Bad News for Fusion Research

 As it turns out, the term "breakeven" as used when selling experimental fusion reactor projects really isn't what one might term "real-world breakeven."  Not even close.  Details in this 12 minute video at Backreaction.

*sigh*  This is not good, both as a practical matter, as well as in terms of academic honesty.

Just when you thought it was safe to get back on the bike...

 ... Coffeeneuring returns for 2021!  Begins October 18th.  Initial announcement here.  More details to come as things develop.

Past years: 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

Yeah, I'm pretty stoked.

Passage Into Fall

 It's a funny thing.  When I started a late afternoon nap on Wednesday it was still summer, astronomically and weather-wise, but when I woke the moment of equinox (3:20pm) had passed and the rains of the first real cool front had just ended.  So I fell asleep in summer, woke up in fall.  It's a nice feeling, I heartily recommend it.

It's definitely feeling  fall-ish  these days since.  Yesterday was a good day for a hike on the High Bluff Trail.

A lunchtime break.  No contacts, I mostly listened to the local weather.  "Recover"?  Yeah, from August.

For all the nice weather, it is good to remember that summer events aren't quite over yet.

Not bad, but still a tad colorful for my tastes.

Fall Equinox Today

As usual, NASA's Astronomy Pic of the Day has something enlightening to show. 

On a somewhat correlated note, the first real cool front of fall moves through the area today.  I'm ready.

More on Fractals, Aesthetics, and Sanity

 This crossed my desk via The Dangerous History Podcast (topic: emergent vs. imposed order) this morning: Why Fractals Are So Soothing at The Atlantic.  The article links to this paper in Nature, Fractal analysis of Pollock's drip paintings (1999).  Here's a bonus article in Smithsonian by the author of that paper, Fractal Patterns in Nature and Art are Aesthetically Pleasing and Stress-Reducing.

Both of these are worth your time, and both are mercifully short.  (In fact, I didn't know that The Atlantic ever published articles that didn't devour at least an hour of my free time.)  Anyway, this is just a continuation of the topic previously discussed here at the blog: This is Your Brain on Broken Fractals, Modern Architecture, WWI-Induced PTSD, and Other Ongoing Problems, and finally the excellent blog The Genetics of Design.

A little too colorful for my taste.

 Nothing in particular pointed at my corner of the Gulf coast, nothing particularly developed, but that has been known to change.  Put a big stamp saying "let's wait and see" across this one, then... wait and see.

2021 Ig Nobel Prizes Announced

 Article at the BBC, with a complete listing toward the bottom.  Enjoy.

Don't try this one at home, kids.  But if you do, invite me.

All the cool kids are posting something about 9/11 today, it being the 20th anniversary and not-so-coincidentally the year we got out via a badly botched withdrawal.  But I can't, not now not ever.  8/29 and 9/10 will always loom larger in my mind.  I know this isn't so for most people, but then most people don't blog here.

Well that came out of nowhere.

 It never got that bad – I've seen far worse thunderstorms – but TS Mindy came as a bit of a surprise.

So They Say

 https://www.thefarside.com/2021/09/02/2

One of my favorite Far Sides ever.  It's weird, gritty, nerdy, and cliche-busting all at once.

Distracted Lately

 I've been highly distracted lately by hurricane season and a handful of other items.  I'll be around, sporadically.

Is it October with a nice cool front yet?

Even More Horrifying

 But fortunately it's all narrated.  Enjoy.

This is Horrifying

 

Huh.  Always wondered what made those sounds in movies.  You can read more about the waterphone at wikipedia.

NPR's Sci-Fi & Fantasy "Best in Last Decade" Poll Results

 I'd noted the call a couple of months ago, and now here are the results.

No huge surprises, but quite a number of the books and even authors I'd never heard of.  As expected, the authors of the books behind several of the past decade's big movies made the list: Andy "The Martian" Weir, Ted "Arrival" Chiang, and Jeff "Annihilation" Vandermeer were all there.  After that, there are plenty of surprises to unwrap.  Enjoy.

Thought for Today

 The Stockdale Paradox, linked to Wikipedia.

Apply to the current situation as you see fit.

I have no idea.

 Evidently, neither do the various hurricane modelers.  I guess someone between Panama and Greenland had better start boarding up.

Pfft, I've made worse model predictions.  At least they got the right ocean basin.

Perseids this Week

 Read up on how to watch at Bad Astronomy.  I have nothing to add, beyond this one from APOD:

If it's a good multimeter...

 ... then it must be a Fluke.           *rimshot*

I've had a little Fluke 101 basic multimeter for about five years.  It worked well, and was the pride and joy of my electronics toolbox.  You can watch Adam "Mythbusters" Savage rant about how wonderful the 101 is here.  It's amusing.  Paid for itself many times over, say in diagnosing a dead dryer circuit.  (FWIW, when the electrician asked "How do you know the circuit is dead?" I held out the yellow Fluke and he just said "Oh, OK, right."  It's kind of like shibboleet.)  The last time I used it was in March.  

So far, so good.  Then I needed the 101 last week, and much to my dismay the batteries had leaked (never trust a Duracell), converting the nearby plastics to something resembling cheddar cheese.  Tried fresh batts, wiggled the contacts in their cheesy-mounts, no power, no dice.

I ended up chucking it and replacing with a slight upgrade to the Fluke 107.  It does everything the 101 does, plus one more trick, it adds an ammeter (you know, to measure Amperes).  That last function is key to tracking down the problems behind mysteriously dead car batteries, something that's occasionally called for in this household.  It also about doubles the price of the meter, so it may or may not be worth it to you.  I briefly considered going to the pro-level Fluke 117, but didn't want to double the price yet again.

Oddly enough, the 107 does not come with any sort of manual.  Oh, there's a quarter-inch thick safety manual in a dozen different languages, but if you need a safety manual for something that runs on 2 AAA batts, sorry, you probably don't need to be doing anything with a multimeter.  Here's a miserable little video that walks through the functions (thumpety music?  really?  why no narration?).  The rest is pretty obvious.  ps: here is the missing manual in pdf

So yeah, Fluke 107 is good, though for many the 101 will be enough.  Just remember to take the batteries out before tucking it away for any length of time.

It's a Good Sunset

 Further comment unneeded.

11 foot anaconda escapes; caught by Florida Woman

 Sure, why not.  Link to a local newspaper.  Be sure to watch the video of the capture.

Otherworldly

 The results from the latest iPhone photo contest are in and they are truly otherworldly.  Have a look over at NPR.

Florida Man wrecks MTB, flips into water, grabbed by alligator

 Details at CNN.

Why do I find this to be a fairly normal turn of events?  BTW, I managed to wreck on a gravel ride yesterday while dodging a snake, maybe there's a connection.  Nothing worse than a skinned elbow and a few bike scuffs, FL Wildlife & Fisheries was not contacted.  And the snake slithered away unharmed.

A Pretty Decent Summary of Bell's Theorem

 Over at Quanta Magazine: How Bell's Theorem Proved 'Spooky Action at a Distance' is Real

All I got this week.

I'll Take It

 

Apart from fireworks, too much feasting, a couple of mediocre fishing trips, and a little bit of biking around town, there's just not a lot going on.  Welcome to high summer.  Good time to get some reading in, maybe practice some arborist line-chucking in the cooler(?) evenings.

Book Recommendation: Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary

 No spoilers here, read on with impunity.

Like The Martian, this is another astronaut-up-the-creek-whittles-own-paddle story.  The stakes this time are higher, much higher, and then they unexpectedly double.  The protagonist, interestingly named Dr. Grace (heh), isn't quite the square-jawed astrohero of The Martian, but he rises to the occasion – just as soon as he can remember his name.

Other things to note, without spoiling anyone's read... The whole book has some very somber undertones that were not there in Weir's two earlier novels, the above-mentioned The Martian and elsewhere-reviewed Artemis.  Still, it has the same comfortable nerdy wisecracks we've come to expect, and it's a fast and fun read.  "OK, how's he going to get out of this new fix now?" is the question of every chapter, and the payoffs all along the way keep things moving.  Some parts are downright misanthropic.  Namely, Grace's last academic paper is a giant glowing screw-you to colleagues in his former and future field.  That's just unprofessional and petty, even if we are largely in sympathy with Grace given the situation.  When this is followed by Grace's ultimate situation (no spoilers!), you can feel the warm glow of animosity that simmers throughout the book.  This slight flaw makes for a more interesting character, not the cheap perfection that Grace could have been in the hands of a less capable author.  Ultimately though, Grace re-finds his real calling in the last pages.  Finally, there are two big items that are never explained, but are merely science-y MacGuffins – I promised no spoilers, but this will get close; hang in there – a fully miraculous material and the coating on the central mystery of the book.  I don't quite buy either one, but I was having such a good time reading that it didn't matter all that much.

(Grrr, why can Blogger put images where they should be?  Miserable new interface, *grumble*)

Eh, if you enjoyed The Martian you'll enjoy this one too.  Finally, rumor has it that there's a movie in the works.  Ought to be good.

Mixed Feelings

 From today's xkcd:

Independence Day.... it's almost here.  First I really ought to move the cryopump out of the foyer, then work things from there.  Maybe put it over by the pile of bike parts.

NPR's Sci-Fi & Fantasy Poll

 The question is straightforward: What are the best sci-fi and fantasy books you've read that were published in the last decade?  You can nominate up to five or as few as one.  The info you enter is simple: name, your local NPR station, book name, author.  Here's the link.

They did a similar poll ten years ago, however it was "of all time" not "of the past decade."  (results here)  OK, LOTR won that one hands-down, no surprise there.  This time the results should be more interesting with the focus on more recent work.  I'm always looking for new, good stuff.

FWIW, I nominated Star's Reach and The Martian; you can read my thoughts on them at the links.  Some others I considered but did not included are the Area X trilogy (Annihilation, etc.), Weir's second book Artemis, and the hard sci-fi anthology Carbide Tipped Pens.  I haven't finished Weir's third book Project Hail Mary, but I'm making good progress.

Predictions: Because the article mentions "our panel of expert judges will take your nominations and use them to curate a final list of 50 titles" [emphasis added], we can expect a fair number of little-known books – likely for good reason – that reflect NPR's values.  And that's OK too, their poll, their rules.  Another prediction I'll hazard is that several widely read books that were made into movies will be on the list: the above-mentioned The Martian and Annihilation, as well as Ted Chiang's Stories of your Life and Others, which was heavily adapted into 2016's movie Arrival.  Finally, I will flat-out predict that of the 50 books there should be some interesting stuff.

No "expect the list on or around" date in the article, but I'll keep an eye out for it.  Might have to buy another bookshelf.

Solstice Already?

 Yep, looks like.  Image from NASA/APOD, and you can see what The Old Farmer has to say here.

No sun here today however, with the remnants of TS Claudette raining out upon us.  But this is a good thing, we really need the rain here.

Getting gfortran to Work on a Mac

 Everything was good with my grotty old copy of gfortran -- great even -- until Apple changed the default shell from bash to zshell sometime last winter in the OS 11.4 Big Sur upgrade.  It took a while to get things going again recently.  What follows are both notes to self, and perhaps a rescue line to the truly perplexed.  Here we go.

1. Just get the new compiler.  GitHub is a dandy place but there are others.  It comes in the usual dmg format, so it unpacks and installs and all that automagically.
2. Likewise, get the latest Xcode developer kit from Apple.  It's free, but it's also > 10 GB so it might take a while to download.
3. Here's the fun part, getting the linker to work.  There's a little scrap of code to paste at the bottom of /private/etc/zprofile at this link.  (also, pasted in at the bottom of this post) You're going to have to reset the protections on that file before you can edit it though, via the incantation: sudo chmod 664   You will be asked for the system password.  Be sure to change it back via sudo chmod 444 when done, or some bad magic might leak in.
4. One more step (also found at the above link), type xcode-select --install into the command line window.  Then go fishing, while a couple more GB of stuff gets downloaded from from the Apple servers.  (Only caught hardheads, bleh.  Still it was better than sitting around worrying about the slow download rate.)
5. Re-start the terminal program before you can expect anything to work.
6. Test it with a "hello world" sort of program.  When it's all working, drink a lot of rye whisky and read something fun like Andy Weir's latest.

OK, that was a mean day's work.  Here's that little scrap of path setup code, in case the above link ever goes away.  OK, I'm done, time to get back to work with a functioning compiler.  Yes, it's 8:30 on a Friday night.

if [ -z "${LIBRARY_PATH}" ]; then
    export LIBRARY_PATH="/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib"
else
    export LIBRARY_PATH="$LIBRARY_PATH:/Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX.sdk/usr/lib"
fi

To Vax or Not to Vax?

 Over at Handwaving Freakoutery: The Vaccine Might Kill You and That's Fine

All I can add is (1) RTWT, (2) pretty much my take on it also, and (3) I went with the treatment group too.

Key quote: "Safe is a terrible word, and 'is the vaccine safe?' is the wrong question to ask. Walking across the street isn't safe.  Bicycling isn't safe."

Yes, I can vouch for that last part.  Woo, look at the time.  Got to get rolling before the day heats up.  More.

Winter Field Day 2021 Results

 They're posted here.  The main WFD pages aren't updated, but the key results page is.

Eh, it was fun, as I'd earlier reported.  Rained out, didn't camp, just operated for a few hours while the weather held off, and still my score still came out in the top half.  And I'm already looking forward to WFD 2022.

Weekend after next is summer/regular/plain-old Field Day.  Might go, might not: I'm watching the weather on this one.  WFD is a much better camping option here in the Deep South.

How We Roll

 Oh yeah, I'd be jello in a wheelchair without one.  Earlier commentary on the topic here.

In which Dixie Finishes the Florida Trail

 Over at you-know where, the final episode.  Forty solid minutes of north Florida weirdness with a side order of yellow flies and ticks.  This is what you get when you skirt along the northern edge of a place named Tate's Hell Swamp in early springtime.

Yow.  It seems like it was all they could do to get from Sopchoppy to Defuniak without getting eaten alive.  Note to self: If I ever get the urge to do the FT, start NLT 31 January, and try to launch even earlier.  If any delays push completion into April, bail.

Yes, I've mentioned this series before, here, when they started the video series late April.  It seems that they began the through-hike in mid-late February, after recovering from covid.

ps: from today's Far Side.  Note the lack of yellow flies.

Something to Do

I started playing with the search bar on Atlas Obscura yesterday, and it's a pretty remarkable tool.  While by no means does it give a comprehensive listing of local sights, it does uncover – as the site's name would imply – some fairly obscure and interesting places for a day trip.

Take for example Bude, MS.  I've blasted through there on the way to the Clear Springs mountain bike trails for decades.  It's small, but in seconds the search function dug up about 15 interesting nearby places.  None of these were mountain bike trails, admittedly, but sometimes that is a plus.  It's not comprehensive, it's just unusual.

If you're looking for a day trip, Atlas Obscura's search bar is a pretty good place to start.  If you're just daydreaming, the random location button is pretty nice too.

Here, have some related music.

Expand Into What?

 The simplest, most concise non-technical explanation I've ever heard for the statement "the universe is expanding."  It addresses frequently asked questions in an understandable manner, without the all too common handwaving.  Here, go watch, it's only ten minutes.

Whenever a scientist, in any field, makes an honest effort to understand and answer questions that genuinely baffle people, science advances.

Wrong, and Yet Not Wrong

 From today's SMBC:

Be sure to visit the original (link at top, but hell, here it is again) for the mouse-over and big-red-button text.

Journey to the St. Marks Light

What to say, it's a historic lighthouse.  You can read about its history here, and you can read about the story it inspired here.  Nice weather, and quite a few people out on their road bikes.  Despite the narrowness of the road, traffic is generally slow and well under control.  Also, several interesting hiking trails run through there, including a section of the Florida Trail and a short out-and-back to the ruins of Port Leon.  Might get over there again before too long.  Here, have some pics:

As always, click to embiggen.  Well, so much for the lighthouse, too bad we couldn't locate the tower.  At least we didn't run into any moaning, shape-shifting horrors.