Yep, Definitely the Equinox

Today, and the exact moment is 10:46 EDT.  Can't you just feel it?  Nah, me neither, but there it is.

No picture here, but APOD usually has something interesting up on these astronomically interesting dates.

A Look at the Science Behind 'Project Hail Mary'

By no coincidence at all, it's this week's topic at Big Picture Science podcast.  Go & download & listen.

I'd put in an image, but just click through and you'll get all the image I'd put here.

Really looking forward to this movie.

Tent Trauma(s)

As mentioned previously, Friday evening at the Santos Fat Tire Fest had an intense storm that resulted in a wet tent interior.  I'd more or less shrugged and mentally planned on a new tent – it's 25 years old after all, and I'd just Nikwaxed it a couple of years ago and had only used it once in the meantime, and here it was leaking again.  Then two things happened.

First up, while taking the tent down, I noticed a trash line on the outside of the fly.  A little closer examination (see inset) and it appeared that the source of the wet tent was rising rather than falling water.

Even so, I was still open to buying a new tent.  Twenty five years is a good run for any piece of camping gear.  Straight-up replacement, incoming!  Then I went looking for a shiny new Eureka Apex 2XT or something comparable and... wait, Eureka's gone?  Whisky Tango?  I mean, they're one of those great companies that... No, gone, just gone.  More on this in a minute.

So I set the tent up in the back yard and hit it with a hose, and you know what?  Pretty damn watertight.  Oh, I've got the older straight-zipper rainfly model, that zipper's always leaked a little, but it's clear that the water problem wasn't the tent's fault, it's where I pitched it (and that astonishing deluge).  The tent was already up and wetted down for testing, so I just gave it another coating of Nikwax and called it a day.

Now back to the demise of Eureka Tents.  Reading between the lines on what happened, it seems that their 2023 Q3 revenues were way down compared to Q3 2022, and so as an underperforming division of Johnson Outdoor products, it had to go.  Never mind that everybody and his brother had taken up car camping during the covid-19 scare and that of course sales of durable items like tents would be down for a few years after a big boost like what happened in 2020-2022, and that this whole cycle was completely foreseeable and could have been ridden out.  Nope, burn down Yet Another great brand, move on.  For what it's worth, the same thing is happening all over the bike industry as well, and I'm sure it's happening with many other "pandemic safe" outdoor equipment manufacturers as well.  Freekin' bean counters.  For a fairly gentle take on what was going on inside Johnson Outdoors, read this short article about Eureka's demise.

Now, as for the rest of Johnson Outdoor's lines, Wikipedia has the complete brand roll; that makes for a handy no-buy list.  I just have no patience for bean counters anymore.

Anyway, I've still got several good tents – a 9x9 funhouse, the 2XT discussed here, and a dinky 1-man Spitfire, and no good reason now to replace any of them.  Good, because I just had to replace a water heater and my mountain bike shoes.  Things were stacking up a little around here.

Damp Camp

Happy 'They Tried to Preserve the Republic' Day

And you might also note that doing it this way really didn't work out in the long run.

ps: One more Caesar gag over at Foxtrot today.

A Brief Rant on Electric Mountain Bikes

As promised earlier this week, here it is, but first the tldr: not for me, perhaps for thee, but only for good reason.  Even so, there's a very good reason to test ride one, so read on.

Last Saturday after finishing the 50 mile Epic (see yesterday's post), a mechanic from Tallahassee, another rider, and I were discussing e-bikes.  The other rider had just finished the Epic also, but additionally had just wrapped up chemotherapy the previous week.  Now that's a legit use for an e-bike.  A couple of tents over in the campsite there was a guy who'd had heart surgery in October, and he'd ridden the half-Epic as well on an e-bike.  Yep, legit.  A friend here in town has trashed-out knees from a lifetime in motion, and he too rides an e-bike.  Totally legit.  What's more, I can see other valid uses as well, such as a pro working on handling skills while giving the legs a rest day, as part of a structured training schedule.  I'm sure the list goes on.

So I got talked into a test ride on Sunday.  Showed up with my driver's license and a credit card (no charge, just as hostages to ensure return of the bike), one of the mechanics tuned it to my parameters, and said "Go!" so I went.  And I must say, it was a pleasant experience.  Rode a mile out on the Cowbone Trail, a mass of small-to-moderate limestone rocks, over which its 47 pounds performed beautifully.  Paused briefly at the bottom of the long slope to chat with a friend, then pointed it upward on the Dr. Ruth Trail; not a bad path, but with a few easy technical climbs.

And that's when it occurred to me why e-bikes have such allure.  At the top of each climb, I felt great!  It's a feeling I remember, from some time ago.  That's the real question e-bikes present:

If someone offered you a pill that would instantly make you 30 years younger and 20 pounds lighter, would you accept it?

And at what price?

(read on – answers below!)

I turned the bike in at the Specialized tent, said my thanks, and went back to camp for my pedals-only bike, and went on for another eight or so miles before calling it day.  Still a little tired from Saturday's 50, yes, and I didn't want to push it and injure something before the drive back on Monday.

Returning to camp after the ride, I talked with a couple from North Carolina who were packing out.  The husband had bought an e-bike a couple of years ago to supplement his regular bike and said that choosing it for a ride was akin to opening the refrigerator and choosing the healthy keto drink or the chocolate milk.  It's chocolate milk every time baby, and after a year, that new 20 pounds around the middle showed.  So he's back to his bike, and getting the weight back off.

Anyway, that's the real value of taking an e-bike for a test ride.  It showed me that I really do need to lose that 20 pounds and how much better life could be if I will do it.  (Sorry, can't do anything about the 30 years.  Or the lung damage.)  That bike held up a magic mirror and said "This is what you can get back, if you'll just get to it" and for that I am most grateful to the folks at the Specialized tent.

If you've read this far, I'm guessing you're thinking "Nice, but exactly how much would that magic pill cost?  Asking for a friend."  $15,649.99  S-Works Turbo Levo R; click through and show some proper bike lust.  I have to hand it to the Specialized reps, they hooked me up with the best damn ride they had.

Santos Fat Tire Fest 2026

Put on once again by OMBA.  And a good time was had by all, despite the watchword being 'moist.'  That, by the way, is somewhere between the dry-ish 'damp' and full on 'wet.'  Here it is day-by-day, with a stack of pictures randomly inserted.  As usual, click to embiggen.

• 
  Thursday: Uneventful drive.  The new Kuat u-bar worked great with the old Saris trunk rack to haul the Anthem.  (this will make future trips to Munson sooo much easier)  Set up camp, rode a little (maybe 8 miles), chowed at Fat Tiki, then met up at the trailhead for a 6pm ride.  Which seems to have been canceled, since it was on some of the earlier schedule sheets but not on the later ones.  That's OK!  Five us rode it anyway, maybe another 8 miles.  We'd just returned to the trailhead when there was a roaring sound in the trees – "What's that?" – RAIN!  As I was rolling back into camp, one of my neighbors was busy zipping up my tent's fly doors.  Good dude.
• Friday: Shopping around the trailhead (got some art and a couple of tee shirts), had a wagu burger, rode about 10 miles.  Showered and went to supper when a Deluge & Major Storm hit.  It was one of those where you're wincing at the lightning and waiting for the tornados to hit, the latter of which fortunately never happened.  Mopped out the tent, fetched the spare bag (my backpacking quilt), and slept snugly if a little wetly.  I wish I could tell you more about the Friday night band, but I was asleep before their third song.  More on the tent situation in a future post.
• 
  Saturday: The Epic Ride, 50 miles with plenty of sag support.  I have to hand it to the OMBA folks, this was even better than in previous years (which were pretty darned good).  Some of the re-routes took us through technical places early in the ride, with the easy stuff saved for after Mile 45, which was much appreciated.  Ran into several friends from previous years at the sag stops, who I'd somehow missed back in camp.  Don't forget to swap cards at the turn-around, if you want to get a finisher's medal!  After the finish, talked a long while with Nixon from Epic Bikes in Tallahassee, along with a guy who'd ridden with him on an e-bike, which was totally legit since he'd just finished chemo the previous week.  Got talked into a Sunday e-bike test ride.  Ate two plates of barbecue and slaw, and again I wish I could tell you about  Saturday night's band, but I was asleep before they began, in my moist little tent.
• I've got to throw in one more comment about the riders in this year's Epic.  They were great!  Everybody was really riding, be it on analog or e-bikes.  (In past years, I've seen a few throttle hot-wired e-bikes, but no such this year.)  After the Epic, one rider was talking about how he had an un-pluggable flat on a tubeless tire, and another rider just chucked a spare tube over as he rode past.  Stuff like that happened on a regular basis.  Finally, hats off to the guy who rode the entire 50 miles on a single-speed gravel bike.  That's real biking tenacity.
• 
  Sunday: Wait, wait, wait, lunch (Fat Tiki again), wait, hand over DL & credit card to trail-test an e-bike (stay tuned later in the week for thoughts on that), rode a mile in and decided it wasn't for me, rode back out, turned it in.  Then rode my real bike for another six careful miles – had to drive the next day, after all.  Chit-chat around the campground as folks were packing out, then I called a friend who couldn't make it to Santos this year.  Noticed that my eleven year old Sidi bike shoes were peeling loose at the front.  New shoes and a new tent coming up?  Expensive trip.
• Monday: Pack out.  Uneventful drive home.  Was it worth it to stay the extra day?  Not really, especially given the moist tent and clothes.  Although, I did get to test ride that e-bike...  That, and it was nice having one recovery day between a 50 miler and having to sit in a car for four and a half hours.  Did get to stop by the Taste of Dixie diner in Cross City, that's always a treat.
• One final comment: No crashes this year.  Still, I rode with shin & knee guards, because you never know when your number's up.

And that's it for this year's Santos FTF.  Planning on next year already.  Also, will update and add links to the posts on e-bikes and this year's tent trauma after those posts are up.

About that Cyberpunk Dystopia You Ordered

Oh, it's here alright, but as the old saw goes, it's just not evenly distributed.  Here's a long-ish essay on the matter [tldr below], with respect to a semi-functional AI on-the-fly cheatsheet generator, cluely (no, I won't link that), and the culture that brought it into existence.

Personally, I am tired of seeing these "hyper-agentic" boy-childs thrashing about for a few years, leaving Chesterton's fence ajar at every turn, before finally burning out and departing stage left for Bora Bora and an early death at the hands of their local coke dealers.  This is what, three generations? of them I've seen come and go.  Anyway, it's sort of amusing to watch one more cycle of crash and burn.  Just don't take my cash with you via some sort of taxation for a national need.

Meanwhile, using century-old shortwave technology, Iran is either waking sleeper cells worldwide or pulling a head-fake freak-out by broadcasting seemingly random strings of numbers.  Also, they're making the Straits of Hormuz unusable via some pretty nasty quarter-century old tech about which I have absolutely no comment.

Anyway, here's the tldr you were promised.  It's AI-generated of course.  What, you didn't expect me to read through and summarize all of that lit-school rambling, did you?  But you probably ought to read the entire thing when you get a chance, if only for the amusing parts about what Scott Alexander is up to these days.

Sam Kriss's essay "Child's Play" in the March 2026 issue of Harper's Magazine is a sharp, satirical critique of Silicon Valley's latest wave of AI startups and their young founders, focusing on Cluely—a glitchy, controversial AI interface tool co-founded by Chungin “Roy” Lee (a Columbia dropout who gained fame by cheating on job interviews with AI and posting the videos online). Kriss portrays Roy and similar "highly agentic" figures—like teenage founder Eric Zhu with his absurd ventures—as emblematic of a shift in tech culture, where relentless action, hustle, and "agency" (a bulldozer-like drive to dominate and leverage AI) now trump traditional intelligence, creativity, or expertise, since AI itself handles thinking and problem-solving.

The piece weaves observations of San Francisco's surreal atmosphere—homeless people chanting, bizarre viral ads, Waymo cars, fratty startup offices stocked with protein bars and toys—with anecdotes about Cluely's hype-driven rise (including a blind-date ad using AI scripts), rationalist influencers like Scott Alexander warning of AI's risks or absurdities, and opportunistic grifters. Kriss argues this heralds a dystopian bifurcation: a small overclass of hyper-agentic individuals using AI for unchecked power and wealth, while most people become a "permanent underclass" rendered obsolete and mindless. The tone blends dark humor at the absurdity (e.g., sperm-racing apps) with foreboding about eroded human thought, purpose, relationships, and creativity in an AI-saturated, capitalism-fueled void, where even the founders seem driven by childish hungers for control rather than meaningful innovation.

Yeah, GTFO my lawn while you're at it, but stay tuned because I have a rant about e-bikes queued up for later this week.

Looks Like Project Hail Mary is a Go

The Critical Drinker approves.  Youtube, 7 minutes.

Back from Santos Fat Tire Fest

... and much, much more to say, but later in the week.  It rained, hard, several times and I have a living room full of now dried-out gear left to stow.  But, to tease upcoming topics (and so I don't forget either...): Tents!  e-bikes!  Uninjured!  The State of Mountain Biking!

Oh, and here's a pic from – where else? – the ACME trail.  Click to embiggen.  See y'all later in the week.

Martin F. Jue Documentary – Coming Soon

Here's a short article over at Dan Romanchik's place about the in-production Martin F. Jue documentary, with links to the filmmaker's page, which has a film trailer.  Go read & watch.

What a remarkable man.  I've used many of his company's radio-related product over the years, and commented on them here at the blog.  Here they are, pre-searched.

Contemplating a Resilient but Lower Gain Antenna

Referring back to Sunday's post, the new Carrabelle repeater antenna is expected to have about 4 dB less gain than the old one.  That's a lot.  But how much of a real difference in range will this make?  Consult the Egli model.  In it, range drops as the fourth root of gain (remember to convert from dB to magnitude), so 4 dB down corresponds to about a 21% drop in range, all else being equal (which it never is, but you have to start somewhere).  Here's a map of repeater-to-vehicle range predictions for the two antennas:

Not great, but not a deal-breaker either.  That's engineering trade-offs for you.  If this one is unacceptable, upgrade your vehicle's antenna.  Going from a 1 dBi shorty used in the above modeling to a 5/8ths wave antenna will get you nearly all of this range back.

Elijah Craig Toasted Rye – meh

I mean, it's a perfectly good rye, and its value is in the subtle notes.  But if you're looking for subtle notes, why are you drinking rye whisky?  Probably one best saved for bourbon drinkers with discerning palates who want to occasionally try something a little different.

I'll save the rest of the bottle for when oak pollen stuffy nose season is over, but frankly it's more clutter in the cabinet than it's worth.  If you want the Better option, go with Old Overholt Bonded (especially if you're mixing with say, sour mix); for the Best option and neat sipping, go with the High West.

And That Was The Month That Was

February's gone?  Already?  A busy month of many time-eaters.  But here are some highlights of life lately:

• Picked out a new antenna for the Carrabelle repeater that was zapped by lightning two weeks ago.  This one, an all-aluminum j-pole-ish thing.  It checks three of the main boxes (lightning resistant, not too heavy or big to go on the existing mount, and good wind survival – reportedly 153+ mph), while losing some of the gain we formerly had – about 4 dB's worth.  All engineering is a compromise, and the lower gain is something we'll have to live with.
• Dealt with some loose-and-flapping questions about a proposed antenna tower at the new-still-in-planning Franklin County EOC.  Messy.
• Wrapped up construction and testing of the "PRC-26" backpack radio.  This was one of those projects that fought back, first with minor but time-wasting construction details on its antenna, and then with a radio that wouldn't program via computer but required hand programming.  In the end though, it all came together and it works.
• Two bizarre flat tires on the gravel bike, one a thorn, the other a big ol' square-cut tack.
• And for the tubeless mtb, I got How To Use Dynaplug Tire Plugger sorted out too.  So weirdly simple.
• Federal. Taxes. Done.
• State. Taxes.... undone, but help is lined up, so should be done Real Soon Now.
• Two visits from two brothers that both got rescheduled twice.  I mean, what're you gonna do but roll with that?
• New brake pads all 'round on the Mustang, and in time before the rotors took a beating.
• Oh yeah, a new war, and this one looks.... concerning.
• And finally something good today – Holly Williams (yes, THE Holly Williams) in a short concert, within walking distance of home!  Her song Waiting on June seemed to suddenly put some dust in the air in the venue..

I'm taking a little time off over the next week or so.  Will post pics of any worthwhile adventures.  Not even going to try to tag this post, it's so scattershot and mostly ephemeral.

ps: Saw this a day later on Monday the  2nd.  Somehow  fits the overall theme here.