I shouldn’t have fed Sparky after midnight.
Author: Richard Nestoff (Page 1 of 46)
Secret Service Report: Averting School Violence
After the school shooting at Appalachee High School in Georgia, the discussion proceeds as it does after every school shooting. Both sides make their predictable political arguments, and it isn’t clear that anyone really cares. The corporate media encourages a therapeutic response, without providing much actual information. The Secret Service studies these things, but their reports aren’t mentioned much.
Youtube: Humanoid robots belong in the trash
I didn’t think there would be any reason for a second post about Youtube physicist, Angela Collier, but the universe is insisting upon it. Since I watched several of her videos yesterday, the algorithm suggested another one today.
This video is different because it’s more of a pop culture physics rant, then a physics video. Angela mentions that’s it’s not a typical video, but she wanted to get her thoughts out about the impracticality of humanoid robots in movies and TV shows. I’ve thought the same thing, so watched it and found it more engaging.
That isn’t why the universe is encouraging me to post.
WE: Immigration in Springfield Ohio
This article is like the rest of the news reports that are presented if “Haitian immigrants Springfield Ohio” is Googled. All the articles emphasize that Haitians are not eating cats and dogs, or killing geese and ducks. The residents are being pressured into making enthusiastic statements about the Haitian immigrants or get accused of being a racist.
Nobody asks about life in Springfield.
Youtube presented me with this video explaining that physicists have only 5 jokes. Angela Collier’s Youtube page says that she is a physicist and I could see that she is cute, so right up my alley.
SpaceNews: China interested in lava tubes.
China, and anyone interested in a Moon base, should be interested in lava tubes. If NASA does wake up, it’s likely to roll over and go back to sleep. Fortunately, Elon Musk needs a Moon base to get to Mars.
The movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey, got a lot right. The surface of the Moon is an obnoxious place to live. The surface temperature goes from about -200o F to 200o F. Gamma rays bombard the surface, but cosmic rays are a bigger problem. Cosmic rays hitting the Earth produce the Northern Lights as their energy dissipates in the atmosphere and are deflected by our magnetic field. Those subatomic particles moving at nearly the speed of light, are not easily screened
Sparky was being very patient as I worked on the bridge wall. Well, that’s what I thought.
When we built the stacked-bag wall yesterday, we hosed it down, but not so much that the paper bags fell apart. Every morning and evening, I will hose down the wall, with the hope that more of the concrete will get wet enough to cure. At some point, it will rain, and we will see what happens.
I like to bring Sparky along for outdoor projects. He keeps the rabbits and coyotes away so I don’t have to worry. I do have to watch that he doesn’t wander too far, but this time, for the 45 minutes it took for me to water the rocks, he sat patiently.
I hopped on the quad and started up the hill, but Sparky didn’t follow along. He’s pretty good about following the quad if he isn’t working on his own project.
I went back to check on him. See the problem?
It’s a mystery how he can get his leash stuck so easily.
Sparky was perturbed after being stuck for so long. There is disappointment in those eyes. I think Sparky bears some responsibility for not giving some indication that he was stuck, and I told him so. He remembered that he doesn’t speak English, so was unpersuaded.
College Fix: Ohio State’s new intellectual diversity director
Legal scholar Lee Strang is now at Ohio State University to lead the Salmon P. Chase Center for Civics, Culture and Society. It is one of five new “intellectual diversity” centers at public Ohio universities that are in the works. They will work to promote “civic thought and leadership,” according to Strang, a former University of Toledo professor.
Intellectual diversity is important to get all sides of an issue. This sounds like a good move, but we’ll see what this center actually accomplishes.
It’s been five days since the Appalagee High School shooting, and the details are starting to come out. A few items are notable.
Bri Jones, 14, was in second period Wednesday when Colt Gray left the classroom, Jones said. “We didn’t notice he left,” Jones said, adding that he was “always quiet.” But Gray came back and knocked on the door, Jones said. Bri said she peeked out the door before she opened it because that’s what her mom taught her to do. “As I was looking at the door, he was pulling his gun out, and then I froze up, like I froze up and I said ‘no’ to myself,” she said. The teacher asked for the door to be opened, Bri said, “because she didn’t know he had a gun because she was at her desk.” As she went to open the door, “I was like, ‘No, he has a gun,’” Jones said.
Everyone in that classroom owes their lives to Bri Jones. Generally, 14 year-olds are awfully dumb. Bri should get a statue or t-shirt or something.
There is a project I’ve been dreading for three or four years. The land bridge over the creek has been eroding, and there are too many options for a solution. Also, there is a chance that the culvert pipes are too small, and would need to be replaced.