Pergelator

Determination

2012-02-11T09:15:00.000-08:00

California Bob reports:

I was driving down to 48th Ave this morning when this story came over the radio: "Car in surf at Ocean Beach." So I threw the Quest in low, screeched a U-turn and gunned it down there. Yep, car bobbing around in the surf.
To get to the surf from the parking lot, you have to go down a flight on concrete stairs and
cross a good hundred yards of loose sandy beach. This took some determination.
A great start to the day!
http://www.kron4.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=3051

Post Hip Obscurity

2012-02-11T09:13:00.000-08:00

Whadda story! B-17 Flying Fortress survives mid-air collision during raid on Germany during WWII. From Scott.

B-Line by Lamb

2012-02-11T04:00:00.000-08:00

I am not quite sure about the tune, but this video is just about the weirdest thing I have ever seen.

The Death Instinct by Jed Rubenfeld

2012-02-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

Great book! It's got everything you want in a story: a pretty girl, a manly hero, violence, love, mayhem, intrigue, conspiracies, science and history. Jed (the author) has taken a historical event (the bombing of Wall Street in 1920) and woven a wonderfully complex tale around it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was on it's way to being made into a movie with Ben Affleck as the stoic Dr. Younger. I don't know if stoic is really the right word here, but Ben is who pops into my mind when I picture some of the scenes. Collette, the slim, young, pretty, brave and intelligent woman, is a key character. Funny how often that seems to be the case. How often do you run into a story that revolves around a fat, old, ugly, cowardly, stupid man? If you do run across such a story, that character is probably used as a bad example, not someone to be emulated.

Music Takes Me Up by Alice Russell

2012-02-10T04:00:00.000-08:00

The bouncing vegetables are a feeble accompaniment to the tune.

Caminante by Bang Data

2012-02-09T04:00:00.000-08:00

There isn't much to this video. Mostly it's just the same static image, but occasionally some snapshots of the highway or vistas show up. But we don't care, because the tune is really good, even if it is in Spanish. According to my Spanish expert this song is something of an existential lament, i.e. "these are the problems of the world and what are we going to do".

I found a couple other tunes by these guys that I like pretty well. One has a pretty entertaining video to go along with it, but it's too rap-ish.. I'm ambivalent about the other. It's in English, has a useless video and it's a little too grim for my taste.

Can't you hear me knocking by The Rolling Stones

2012-02-08T04:00:00.000-08:00

In every bunch, there is always one sluggard who doesn't fit in. No video for this tune. The Stones are not as bad as ZZ Top, who relentlessly kill all of their tunes on YouTube. Here we have a choice of poor quality recordings of live shows, or good audio, but no video.

Vindaloo by Fat Les

2012-02-07T04:00:00.000-08:00

This isn't much of a tune, it's more of a rabble rouser, which it does very well. It was written for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, which is like the Super Bowl of soccer. Vindaloo is some kind of curry dish. Maybe it means something to Brits, I have no idea what it is. The video is a parody of Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve, which is pretty good tune itself.

Mexico-USA border

2012-02-06T21:52:00.000-08:00

Tijuana is on the right, San Diego on the left. Via Burro Hall.

Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads

2012-02-06T04:00:00.000-08:00

David does a good job of playing the guy who has no idea what has happened to him.

I Want Candy by Bow Wow Wow

2012-02-05T04:00:00.000-08:00

1982, and what's with those haircuts? Kids those days, I tell you what.

I am a Man of Constant Sorrow by the Soggy Bottom Boys

2012-02-04T04:00:00.000-08:00

O Brother Where Art Thou? is a great movie, and this is a great tune.. I found a couple of good versions on YouTube. This one suffers from being interrupted by a racist loudmouth. However, it more than makes up for it with the scene of said loudmouth being run out of town on a rail. I really liked the part where the men come clomping into the hall on the double carrying the rail. Just what the heck is this frieght train charging down the aisle?

This other one plays the song straight through. It has a couple of bonus bits: George (Clooney) saying Cottonmillia*, and then stumbling over the word accompanist, and the old blind guy humming / squealing to himself while the boys are singing.

IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) page

*well, that's what it sounded like to me.

Where does Tungsten come from, Daddy?

2012-02-03T15:55:00.000-08:00

This video is a little long (almost ten minutes) and, if you aren't in the tungsten business, rather boring, until you find out that the people who made this video just sold this mine for thirty times what they paid for it three years ago. That's kind of impressive. Of course, there are plenty of old, tapped out mines that aren't worth a plug nickel, and if you paid $1 for it and then sold it for $30, well, $30 is thirty times what you paid for it. Somehow I don't think that is the case here.
Could it be that they were able to model the ore deposits in this mine, and then use their computer models to convince someone of it's worth? Could be that no one knew until they came in and performed a careful, analytical assessment.
From a story on the Metal-Pages blog.

Music Videos

2012-02-03T09:49:00.000-08:00

Last month I came across a treasure trove of music videos on YouTube, a bunch of songs I had never heard before that I really liked. This along with my resolve to try and make something out of Pergelator, led me to posting one every day. Even if I don't have anything to say, anybody who stops by will at least see that I'm still alive and still posting.

But I don't know if I will be able to keep this up, at least not without falling into the classic rock rathole. I swear, poking around on YouTube looking for something I enjoy is a first order time sink. I must have screened a thousand videos for every one I've posted. I was sure there was an unending supply of great tunes out there, now I'm not so sure. There is definitely an unending supply of dreck*.

Of the 42 videos I have posted so far this year 29 were music. Of those 29 music videos:

12 were of the band playing
8 were full on theatrical productions
5 were montages of video clips
3 were videos that used the tune as the soundtrack
1 just had a single still image

It's great when I find a video that is like a miniature movie and has a song that I like. There are a few of them out there, fewer than there are good movies. I wonder if they ever make any money off of these.

Most of the songs were old. Some were more recent. The original dates of the tunes breaks down like this:

3 are from before 1970
3 are from the 1970's
4 are from the 1980's
1 is from the 1990's
7 are from 2000 through 2009 (the naughts?)
11 are more recent

Well, eleven newish ones, that's better than I expected.

In any case, maybe by posting these tunes I can help spread a little joy. The world can certainly use more joy. If you have a tune you like, send me the link, or leave a comment.

Spreadsheet with all the gory details here.
YouTube playlist for January tunes here.

* Yes, I know, there is no accounting for taste. One man's dreck is another man's ambrosia, and vice-versa. Me, I don't like the new style pop and rap tunes, and I especially don't like those with the EXTREMELY LOUD POUNDING BASS. Maybe it's designed to drive old people away, kind of the inverse of the mosquito buzz used in Britain to drive away kids from stores patronized by proper folks. Whether or not that's true, it certainly has that effect on me.

Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles

2012-02-03T04:00:00.000-08:00

I think I have posted this one before. Those hip moves out to be illegal. From 1986.

Electrical Contacts

2012-02-02T20:37:00.000-08:00

The fluorescent light in the closet failed last week. I replaced the bulbs with some spares I had, but it didn't help. Ballast is probably shot, so I go to the store and pick up a new one. The ballast is like $23, while a new fixture is only $30. Hardly seems worth it to futz with the ballast, just buy a new fixture and save myself a lot of grief. However. The new fixture requires the new, smaller T-8 bulbs, which will probably add $10 to this project. But if I do that, how am I ever going to use up these extra T-12 bulbs? Then there is the problem of getting rid of the old fixture. Space in the trash can is at a premium. Sure, the sheet steel frame can be recycled, but that big plastic lens will have to go in the trash. So there are certain advantages to fixing the old one.

Back home I open up the fixture and see the wires. I take a look at the new fixture and it has all the wires in the world. I was thinking I was going to have to cut, strip and splice the old wires to the new wires, but now I realize that if I can just unclip the old wires from the sockets, I will be able to just plug the new wires in and save myself a lot of grief. Except. The sockets are designed for one-time use only. There is no slot to release the wires. Bah, humbug. Go to bed.

New day, sunny day, I'll try it again. I take the fixture down and pop the sockets loose from the frame. I find that I can pull out the staple in the back that is holding the insulating panel on. When I do that, the whole thing falls apart and wires fall out. Put the clips back in, put the cover back on and secure it with the staple, which actually holds. That surprised me. Put the whole thing back together along with the new ballast, and presto! We have light!

The thing that got my attention was the contacts in the sockets. They are just little strips of brass, maybe a quarter of an inch wide and about as thick as a sheet of paper. When a wire is inserted in the socket, the end of the strip scrapes along the surface of the wire, and since it is at an angle, it locks it in place. The contact area between the strip and the wire is tiny, certainly no more than a few thousandths of an inch in either direction. Meanwhile the wires are like 60 thousandths of an inch. The wire has to be that thick in order to carry the load without overheating. But here we have a choke point that should provide considerable resistance to the current. It should overheat, melt the plastic, short out, start a fire and burn the house down. But it doesn't. This is standard wiring practice all over the house, all over all houses. Something funny going on here.

The only thing I can think of is that since the resistance of a wire is dependent on the material (and its' inherent resistivity), its' length and width, then these connections don't overheat and fail because they are very short, on the order of infinitesimal. Still, there is a limit to how much current you can push through that tiny little contact patch before it does overheat. It would be interesting to experiment with conductor size and contact point shape to see how much current they could carry. For instance, would two wires with carefully squared off ends and one tiny contact point between them be able to carry more current than a wire whose ends were tapered like a sharpened pencil?

Order & Glory

2012-02-02T19:44:00.000-08:00

I read something earlier this week about a speech someone gave to Congress. I don't think it was the state of the union. It may have been the Republican response to the President's speech. No matter. In any case, the speech started out talking about starting a war with Iran, which was greeted with thunderous applause. The speaker talked about something else, which was greeted with enthusiastic applause, and then another topic with was met with polite applause, and lastly he talked about some domestic issue, which was greeted with deafening silence.

I think the problem we have here is people want a purpose, and not some make-everybody-feel-better and we will-all-get-along purpose, some kind of glorious purpose, full of smoke and thunder. War suits that desire to a T.

War is irrational, war with Iran makes no sense, but by gawd, we can get stirred up about it! Smash those rag-heads! They want a fight, we'll give 'em a fight by gum!

Providing medical care for the poor just doesn't generate that kind enthusiasm.

I can think of three projects that might be able to generate some enthusiasm, maybe enough to distract the hot-heads from starting another war.

Putting the space program in gear with the aim of exploring the asteroid belt for rare-on-earth metallic ores. Step one is establish a regular rocket launch schedule. Once a week maybe, loaded or not, off it goes.
Start rebuilding our cities to eliminate traffic congestion. This would be massive and would require a design that wouldn't get clogged, which could be a bit of a trick.
Start building nuclear power plants. This one has a lot of politics to overcome, but if done right could be a real boon.

The French Song by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts

2012-02-02T04:00:00.000-08:00

I really like Joan Jett even though she is out on the fringe, orientation wise. She's a doll*, she rocks, her band has a very cool name, and this video is not a bad piece of theater.

*At least she was a doll when this song came out in 1983. Geez, that's almost 30 years ago. We were all supposed to die before we got old, and old was anyone over 30.

Planet Claire by The B-52s

2012-02-01T04:00:00.000-08:00

I noticed a couple of videos using this song. This one is notable for the sustained notes produced by the redheaded Kate Pierson. They are just a little spooky. I don't think I've heard anyone produce similar sounds, except maybe by using a synthesizer. The lead singer's manner used to be kind of wacko, but I don't think it's aged well. He seems just plain gruff now. The tune is from 1979, this video was recorded in 2009. The other video is only available on YouTube. The video for that one is an amazing montage of old science fiction scenes. But it doesn't have the ethereal notes Kate is producing for this one. Thanks to Dustbury.

The B-52s are one weird band. Their sound is almost discordant, and what's with the name of the band? Why would you choose the plane famous for laying waste to Vietnam for the name of your band? Yes, I know, Wikipedia says the name of the band comes from a hairstyle, but where does the name of the hairstyle come from? Tell me that, Bucky.

Snow Capped Versus Snow Covered

2012-01-31T16:20:00.000-08:00

We've had a bit of rain, enough to double the snow pack on Mt. Hood. Caught sight of it today and realized that it was all white. Usually you can see rocky sections, or you can't see it at all, so this is a little unusual. It is 65 miles away.

White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane

2012-01-31T04:00:00.000-08:00

What kind of name is Grace Slick? I dunno, but she shore sings purty. From 1967.

Nobody Loves Me But My Mother by BB King

2012-01-30T04:00:00.000-08:00

What a sad, sad song. No wonder they call it the blues.

Word for the Day

2012-01-29T13:37:00.000-08:00

Perspectival, as in

"Technologies of surveillance and control all aim to achieve a perspectival advantage over some adversary, but the vast quantities of data produced by these devices threaten to overload the system, thus defeating the original goal." - Roger D. Hodge in Borderworld in this month's Popular Science.

You're kidding, right? Perspectival isn't a real word, is it? Um, well, maybe so, maybe no. Methinks Mr. Hodge has spent too much time in the halls of American bureaucracy. But that's just a nit. The story is more than a little scary.

The American-Mexican border situation is a fiasco. I think we have gotten to this state because of our success. If we weren't so successful, people wouldn't have the time or energy to spend on being insane (see Hilly Holbrook in The Help). OK, they would, but they wouldn't find as many people who have nothing better to do than listen to them, which is how we got our current drug laws. If we weren't so successful, we wouldn't have so much weight to throw around, screwing around with how other countries run themselves. I am convinced that the history of pervasive corruption in Mexico is entirely due to American businesses, in cahoots with the American government, meddling in Mexican affairs. OK, the American public is guilty as well, but only because of passive neglect, not active involvement.

Bumper Sticker for the Day

2012-01-29T13:05:00.001-08:00

Pot Metal

2012-01-29T12:44:00.000-08:00

This was drawer pull from one of our dressers. One end had broken off and I had saved it so that I would have something to show the guys at the furniture store when I went to get a replacement. I picked it up today, it slipped out of my hand and fell three or four feet to the floor, and this was the result. No wonder "pot metal", aka die cast zinc, has such a bad reputation.