100 Hand-Picked Graphic Novels

100 hand-picked graphic novels, all briefly described over at NPR.  Out of the whole bunch I haven't read more than a half-dozen.  Will have to work on that, starting with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

Coffee Wins Again

Coffee Drinking and Mortality in 10 European Countries: A Multinational Cohort Study (abstract)

The punch line: 
"Conclusion: Coffee drinking was associated with reduced risk for death from various causes.  This relationship did not vary with country."

Yay!  But before you celebrate with a quad espresso, be sure to read Publish and Perish.

Success on the BSL Downtown Beachfront

Some pictures from this morning's bike ride, at the new(ish) downtown harbor.  It's an un-stitched series of panorama shots, rotating to the right, so kind of let your eyes roll through things and let your mind stitch the overall scene back together.

The interesting part is that ten years ago this was a desolate patch of hurricane-demolished beach bluff.  The comeback is remarkable.  Some of the success is due to the city, state, and federal aid poured into restoring the bluff and the roads, but the real success story is that it's now a thriving commercial and entertainment district.  The secret is simple: for all of the easy car access, it's all walkable too.  Step off your boat and your bank, shopping, arts district, restaurant, bar, and live entertainment are all right there.  Amazing how well this works out.  If you want to understand the driving principles behind this, there's no better place than the book Suburban Nation.  (hint: that's the Big Idea hidden in this post)

Also, lest you think this is some boring post devoid of true outside activity, here's a shot from atop the Bay bridge shown in the second and third pictures above:

It's pretty good around here when it's not pounding down rain.

SSTV: It's there, still working out the fiddly parts.

Following up last month's discussion of slow-scan TV, the problem all along has been getting the Linux-based software to key the radio.  Or, more specifically, to trip the internal VOX on the SignaLink interface box.  Everything seemed to be functioning correctly, but no joy.  I could describe a month's worth of spare time menu-flipping, but it was both pointless and tedious.  (Side Hint: the Options>Configuration>CAT panel doesn't have anything to do with SignaLink VOX keying, so just leave it alone.  That was one very large dead end.)  Moving on to Yet Another Rainy Day in Coastal MS, after some more tedious and pointless menu flipping, I decided to consult the SignaLink web site to see if there were any internal adjustments on the interface for VOX level.  Nope.  But reading the troubleshooting guide Yet Again yielded a nugget: "If the PWR indicator still won't turn ON, then try changing the USB cables, USB ports, or using a different computer."  

Swapping two USB plugs was the easiest of the three options; tried, and it worked.  Now why would two adjacent built-in USB ports on a laptop be so different?  No idea.  But that, dear readers, is all that it took.  

Made one test transmission at 5 watts on 80 meters, the RF equivalent of whispering in a padded room while a thunderstorm rages outside.  (Which in fact was happening down the beach about five miles away.)  That seems to have gone well.  Still working out the awful image editor and file management in the SSTV software, but the main problem is solved.  Got to have the image editor to insert call signs, etc., and it has to be easy and convenient to use; still not quit there on that one.

Overall, it would've been better to just go with the iPhone, Black Cat's CQ SSTV software, and an Easy Digi interface – all of which I still may do, since with an iPhone the computer and camera are already nicely integrated, and it'd work better in the field while camping.  But it is good to have the SignaLink for digital text modes using FLDIGI, which worked well from the get-go.  For that reason alone, the SignaLink interface box was worth it.

Victory, but at a price.  And there're still some mop-up with the image editor.  I'm sure another rainy day will come around soon.  But for now, the sun is shining and the CX bike calls.

Wrap it up, I'll take it.

Two for the Road

Two travel-ish web sites I frequent are Atlas Obscura and Messy Nessy.  While there are plenty of non-travel articles at each, what attracts me is the content pertaining to offbeat travel to offbeat places.  In particular, MN has their Don't be a Tourist odd destinations section, while AO has Unusual Trips, which is exactly what it sounds like.  But like I said, there's plenty of other stuff there too.

Go have a look around.

Obligatory Cut-and-Paste Graphics

ps: Was going to go road biking along the seawall, but a quick check outside showed heavy lightning-bearing clouds with "DARWIN AWARD" inscribed upon them.  So much for that idea.  Think I'll do bills instead.

pps: A listing of the top ten most educated Darwin Award winners here.  Embarrassing, and I have no desire to make it eleven.  Especially not while wearing lycra with a block of styrofoam strapped to my head.

Placeholder.

Placeholder of a day.  Mowed grass, did laundry, picked up a few electrical bits from the auto parts store.  Tried to find a particularly weird special event ham station, but the 20m band was deader'n a duck.  Generally recovered from the week.  Read The Week.  Drank coffee.

Not every day can be slam-bang action.  More to come soon.