Yeah, Google/Blogger's Crapped the Bed

OK, I'm out for a while.  Will drop back by in a few weeks, and if this thing's still half-ass working, it's off to another blogging platform.

Update 8/8: 

Had a few minutes to play with the new interface.  It's... not good, marginally functional.  Change fonts?  Randomly it seems.  Certainly couldn't get it stick in a test post.  FWIW, I'm using Firefox on an old Mac at the moment.

 

Q: How do you know when a software company has run out of ideas?

A: When it stops improving products and starts producing pointless interface changes.

Here's some related content for your weekend contemplations: How Software Companies Die, by Orson Scott "Ender's Game" Card.

An Interesting Possible Path to Fusion

I'll just post the links to an IEEE article, along with two article links to Phys Rev C, and say that this looks promising.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/energy/nuclear/nuclear-fusiontokamak-not-included
https://journals.aps.org/prc/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.044610

https://journals.aps.org/prc/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevC.101.044609

While this method does employ lattice confinement and electron screening techniques to nudge nuclei closer to one another before giving a final kick of energy via electron beam, this is emphatically not cold fusion.  Also, publishing in Phys Rev C first before going public gives it an air of general respectability.

ps, Saturday 8/8: Edited this post for clean-up.  It looks like Google/Blogger has backed off of some of their plans for a Brave New Interface, at least to the point where things are useable again.

Interesting Junk Mail Today

Just a nice full-color card in today's junk mail, from an unusual source: a plasma center in the next major town west of here.  It looks like a saturate-the-area mass mailing, with splashy graphics and a can't-miss offer: bring this card in to their newly opened office and get $100 on your first visit.

This is about double the usual amount (according to Business Insider anyway), and only for the first visit, so what gives?  Looking at the company's web site: COVID-19 convalescent plasma.  There we go.

Now that junk mail makes sense.  Blood plasma's got to come from somewhere, so they might as well put a collection center near a hot spot, then pay double-rate for the first visit to draw more people in for screening.  And face it, many people who are recovering from COVID could probably use a few extra bucks right now.  Win all around.

It's an interesting advertising campaign.  Strange times we're living in.

Dragon on the Way Back

Splashdown (how long since we've used that term – 45 years!) slated for just after 2:45 EDT in the Gulf of Mexico.

There seems to be some confusion in the press as to where in the Gulf the capsule will splash down. According to NPR it's off Panama City, but according to the BBC it's off Pensacola.  Draw your own conclusions.

ps, somewhat later in the day:  Nailed it!  Would it be too NASA retro-futuristic to say that this splashdown went A-OK?  Because, as you can see, it did.

Yes, this is what the future looks like, and it is good.

Season's Greetings

Didn't specify which season, but you can probably guess from this graphic.

Will have something constructive to say over the weekend.

Who's Next?

First a friend over Biloxi way retires back in February.  Then I hear that Eddie Stubbs is retiring (tomorrow! so don't forget his final broadcast -- starts at 7 CDT, runs to midnight on 650 kHz AM).  Then one of the ladies from the bank branch I generally use.  In fact, they're closing the whole branch, so that's also a retirement of sorts.  Last week a friend touched base to ask about some paperwork related to his impending retirement.  And now.... LawDog retired back in April!

Seems to be going around.  Wonder who else is lining up?

Olivia 8/250 = Old Entish

The Olivia in question here is a digital text radio mode, not a person.  Oh it works, but oh is it slow.  Still, picked up a couple of contacts yesterday afternoon on 30m, out as far as Bakersfield CA.  It does work, and work very well.  But it is slow enough that whatever you say should be worth saying.  Full Wikipedia write-up here.  Whatever mode it takes, it is good to have some traffic on 30m again.

All that hoom-hom-ing can be heard clear across the country.  I think the Ents are onto something.