Big Stick Physics

Big apartment building fire in Hong Kong

November 30, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

NY Post: First images from inside fire-ravaged Hong Kong high rise as death toll rises to 146

A big fire at an apartment building in Hong Kong won’t get much coverage in the US, but it seemed strange to me because everything is built of concrete in Hong Kong. Apparently it was the scaffolding.

Ten years ago, I took this photo of construction at the Hong Kong university where we worked. Bamboo poles are lashed together. On top of the scaffold, a blue tarp is spread for workers to walk around on. They step on the bamboo poles to not fall through the cracks.

No more pennies are being minted, and nobody cares.

November 30, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

No More Cents- A Fond Farewell to the Penny

Thus, on November 12, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia held a small ceremony where the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the last penny that would be released into circulation.

Pennies have been a losing deal for twenty years. Nobody seems to care that they are gone. Maybe I am just in a bubble.

Hemp-based CBD oil makes dogs less aggressive.

November 29, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

UPI: Study: Long-term use of CBD supplements lowers aggression in dogs

Dogs given food supplements containing hemp-derived cannabidiol, or CBD, over a span of several years show reduced levels of aggression, according to a veterinary study published Friday.

Sparky supports all food supplements. He doesn’t care what’s inside. Marijuana, beef byproducts, pulverized raccoons, it’s all good.

Sparky could be a reverse Cylon.

November 29, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

Sparky hasn’t gotten a derogatory nickname in a while, so I’m calling him a ‘red belly’. Or maybe enhance his last insulting nickname. He can be a ‘red belly skunk pig’.

That’s better. Reminiscent of Biden calling some random guy, a “dog faced pony soldier”.

In Kanji, Sparky’s Japanese code name is written like this.

Practice writing those characters.

Dash Cam project

November 28, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

It feels reckless to drill holes and change wires on a new truck, but I’m going to keep doing it.

In the thirteen years that I had my last truck, I modified it to add desirable features. My new truck doesn’t have those features, but it does display a bunch of cryptic symbols as it does stuff that I am already doing. Stuff like steering and watching what other cars are doing.

Sparky has no gratitude this Thanksgiving.

November 27, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

I don’t blame him, Sparky lives in the moment.

I made a batch of cocktail meatballs yesterday. Since it’s Thanksgiving, I gave Sparky a meatball this morning after his morning toilet. He isn’t even done licking the juice off of his snout, when he is wondering what I’ve done for him lately.

NPR should spare us the pink nightmare

November 27, 2025 / Richard Nestoff / 0 Comments

For decades, every Thanksgiving, one of NPR’s founding mothers, Susan Stamberg, would give her “Mama Stamberg’s Cranberry Relish” recipe. It wasn’t interesting, but like a batty aunt telling a boring story about the time her husband wore bowling shoes to Christmas mass, she retells the story every year. Everybody feigns interest, and nobody complains, because it’s your batty aunt, and she’s earned the privilege

Two things have changed since last year.