publius @publius@mastodon.sdf.org

#introductions (1/2)

Unashamed space colonist & atomic energy enthusiast. Getting ourselves out of tight spots using technology is pretty much what we humans DO. Appeared in the 2012 documentary “Lunarcy!” & still occasionally get contacted by people who have seen it recently on CBC. Low-key supervillain, looking to build a better world that will be worth conquering. Not a typography nerd, but enjoy using LaTeX.

#thestarsareours
#lunacityorbust
#atomicpowertothepeople

I apparently need a new mainboard for a Thinkpad X220, or else a whole new laptop. It’s running in “limp–home” mode right now (one core / one thread), but Heaven knows how long that will last. Whatever the underlying problem is, when running Memtest in multi–thread mode, the cores become desynchronized during Block Move, & the whole thing locks up solid.

“Bulgogi” & “bibimbap” : Korean foods, or frog onomatopoeia?

As a result of searching for timepieces with tuning–fork–based escapements, I purchased this supremely tacky wall clock for the princely sum of ONE YEN. Naturally the total cost to get it into my hands will be a great deal higher!

By 1919, it should have been bleedingly obvious to any competent, sane observer that warfare among industrial states was a catastrophe of such dimensions as to endanger civilization itself. And yet, the world order which emerged from Versailles was more authoritarian & militaristic than that of former days.

When was the last time you decalcified your faucet aerators?

Well?

DO IT NOW!

I can scarcely believe it’s been something like 20 years since I last had a pocketwatch to carry. How ever did I do without one?

Over Munich today can be seen an advertising Zeppelin, advertising Zeppelin products.

Technic civilization endows Man with vast powers. Our challenge, then, is to use those powers wisely. Many who say this seem to mean by it “as little as possible”, but I will settle for nothing less than “along lines of excellence”.

(“Technic civilization” may be defined as that phase of culture in which the understanding of Nature gained through the empirical sciences is systematically applied to the business of human living.)

My unedited recording of the first four chapters of «The Blind Spot», which Sam Moskowitz reprints in «Under the Moons of Mars», occupies 50 minutes (including flubs & pauses, but not tea breaks). If he is correct in giving the length of this excerpt as 10 000 words, then my reading rate is more than 3 words per second, which seems a bit high.

My insistence that I am NOT a steampunk fashion victim is constantly being undermined by my choices. Having purchased (for a dollar) a “Benrus Technipower” electrically–driven balance–wheel watch, I am now investigating means of attaching it to my hatband.

Unquiet item of the day :
This appears to be a Hello Kitty pocketwatch for nurses, with markings for measuring pulse rate.
https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/363201794

I'm a bit disappointed that nobody apparently tuned in last night to see me read a book, hold a serious conversation with a plushie, & drink Mexican restroom cleaner. But you can still watch the recording for two weeks!
https://www.twitch.tv/publiuslector/videos
#hearnowthewords

@gemlog
Somebody had reversed the wires on the A & K terminals. Redrawing the circuit doesn’t satisfy me that this should make any difference, but with it corrected, the phone still rings, & now goes off-hook when the hookswitch is lifted ― at least with a jumper wire across C & F. I haven’t tried this with a real handset, as the connector is still busted. A grain-of-wheat incandescent with wire leads would have been better, but that bin isn’t accessible at this hour.

Greetings Mastodonians!
If you’re stuck for something interesting to do Sunday afternoon, you could do worse than to watch me read a classic science fiction novel : this time around, AUF ZWEI PLANETEN by Kurd Lasswitz (in English translation).
22h UTC
https://www.twitch.tv/publiuslector
#hearnowthewords

The States of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey, & the Isle of Man are not part of the United Kingdom. As such, if Westminster has snarled things up sufficiently, they may find themselves on their own in the EU, possibly calling upon the Royal Mint to supply them with Queen’s-head Euro coins.

From the very beginnings of the United States comes down the cry, “millions for defence but not one cent for tribute!” Now, however, it is our own President demanding tribute.
We used to think it made America great that we had the longest land borders in the world without fortifications ― not because we could not build them, but because we chose not to. Not once cent for walls! Not one cent for camps! Not once cent to make America small!

The romantic ideal of the Nation has long since outworn whatever value it once had. If we continue in the pretense that human nature is divided by arbitrary lines on maps, by mother tongue, or other such nonessentials, how can we face the challenge of the stars?