Some Give All

In the annals of bathroom remodels, some dog toys give all.

Our Carport Took A Trip on Mother Nature's Rocket Ship

So the carport I set up a few years ago - borrowed from Isaac - because I was tired of tripping over it in the garage and I needed more space for either workspace or to store crap, took a backflip over our fence today, thanks to some rather strong winds we've had over the last few days.

We had wind gusts of 75 mph on Thursday, and Liam and I had to go out to the carport that night to batten down the hatches.

This map is showing a gust of 58 mph for today, which I doubt was the biggest wind we had today.

The mess damaged our fence, breaking one of the fence upright and snapping an old post I kept from the old fence but clearly should have replaced. So now I get to do that this summer.

Low-Stakes Fakery. or is it?

Stumbled across this on the Facebooks this morning:

Sure, sure. The Idaho Potato Museum does exist. Its is indeed in Blackfoot.

However . . .

Most of what's in this photo is fake.

First of all, I don't believe this actual intersection exists, at least not in a location that would have this serious amount of directional signage on it.

Then there's the signage . . .

Blackfoot doesn't have a directional arrow.

US Highway 39 is in the east, specifically Alabama-Tennessee-Kentucky.

Nowhere in the national or state highway code are there red signs indicating states on highways.

Oh, and while there is a Highway 39 in the area, it's a state highway with a very distinct shield:

So this is clearly fake, for clicks. And that's annoying. Low-stakes annoying, yes, but annoying nonetheless. If people accept this kind of low-stakes fakery, how much fakery are we willing to accept?

This kind of fakery?

This one's a little better, but still obviously fakes. The incorrect shield for the state highway really stands out, as does the fake "TOURISM" sign and the wonderfully inconsistent, I guess that's supposed to indicate something about I-15 there? I'm not sure.

The real signage, for those interested:

They didn't steal his photo, but they did steal his text.

These kinds of things aren't hard to verify. But why verify, I can hear you screaming. The museum is real. Blackfoot exists. This is low-stakes.

Yes, it is low stakes. But they ratchet things up, you know. Accept l0w-stakes fakery and pretty soon you're swallowing something fake that's got a lot more import to it.

So beware.

Intelligence or Noise?

So this is interesting. In an attempt to understand the patterns in language in order to determine if signals from space contained intelligence or were the result of some natural phenomenon, linguists developed a model that, at the time, generated actual words using patterns detected deeper and deeper in generating - manually - letter combinations based on examination of what letter came next in real words..

This led, of course, to large language models, the root of today's artificial intelligence, and the booby traps therein.

So even if a signal is detected that passes the test of language vs. noise, it could still be noise.

CANCER TOILET!

California really wants me to know that some component of the new toilet I bought and installed last week may cause cancer or reproductive harm.

Don't care. Still gotta poop, man.

A Facebook friend made a dangerous wish:

Verdict: Duh . . .

You'll remember, loyal reader, that a week or so ago I embarked on a journey to read a book written by Albert Einstein meant to help the layman understand general and special relativity.

The verdict is in: Duh . . . 

I tried. I really tried.

Some of the concepts I recognized, such as relative motion over great, great distances making the speed of light "speed up" or "slow down" based on the perspective of the observer. I also recognized the idea that gravity bends light, and a few other things as well.

But when the book contains things that look like this, well . . . 

I'm certain if I really buckled down and studied I could get Ds in algebra all over again.

I'm such an Einstein.

Dark Sky at Night, Drivers Run Red Light

 

The Idaho Falls Astronomical Society* is pushing a petition to convince the city of Idaho Falls to adopt a local Dark Sky ordinance, with the aim of reducing light pollution in the area.

While I enjoy looking at the stars and other night phenomena myself, I'm not quite sure I can support this.

First of all - and maybe they look at this as a first step - it's not just Idaho Falls, but also Ammon, Iona, and Bonneville County they should be addressing, as there's plenty of light pollution to go around.

Addressing the issue on a county level makes more logistical sense, but I get the feeling they're either looking for the city to test the waters for a dark sky ordinance, or just aren't thinking big enough.

Also: This winter we visited Arizona, including Scottsdale, which has a dark sky ordinance. If it's truly being enforced there, I've got to say as a tourist I wasn't impressed.

The city is dark, natch. Meaning at night it's hard to see street signs, especially off the beaten path. We had to rely heavily on GPS navigation without the aid of many visual cues to get around. Combine this with what appears to be Scottsdale drivers' relaxed attitudes toward red traffic lights, the dark sky situation makes it interesting for visitors.

I also don't recall the night sky being any more visible there, though to be honest I was paying a lot more attention to the road since I couldn't see anything.

My experience is anecdotal, of course.

So I'll watch the local effort with interest, if not with much hope.

*Correction: The astronomical society is promoting the effort being pushed by the Southeast Idaho Dark Sky Alliance.

Curse You, Tiny Toilet!

Two of our toilets have been bad and have to be punished.

The story: The toilet in the kids' bathroom has been running for the last few weeks. I tried a new flapper, a new valve, but nothing was really working.

As I tinkered with it today I noticed a more serious problem: The toilet was leaking via the bolts that hold the tank to the bowl.

So I thought I'd be clever and replace it with the toilet from the basement bathroom I'm remodeling. Of course that toilet was also leaking from the bolts, probably because the seal dried out from disuse.

So we went to Home Depot, bought a new Kohler, and installed it. We're on a leak check for the next 24 hours, but I'm hopeful that problem is fixed. Now I just have to buy a new toilet for the basement.

The Sock

Allow me to introduce The Sock.

It arrived sometime in the recent past under mysterious circumstances. I say mysterious because no one who lives here will claim The Sock as their own. Yet it still shows up in the laundry and after everyone has claimed their clean clothes, The Sock remains on the table, abandoned and forlorn, until someone gets tired of seeing it and deposits it in someone else's bedroom, only for it to resurface again in the laundry a few days later.

So if you need a sock, let me know and I'll happily mail The Sock to you. You'll have to pay postage to get it back if it shows up again in our laundry, though.

Blame "Captain" Kook

If I had a nickel for every story told in our house with this ending, I wouldn't have to work anymore.

Funny thing, though. I have it in my head that it was "Captain Kook's" treasure. That's how I always say it. But I guess that's mandela effect.

Work today was . . . weird. My boss was gone, and other co-workers were at an all-day training session, so it was oddly quiet in our little corner of the world.

It was nice. The quiet is something I miss the most from working from home. Aside from the occasional trip to take the dogs outside, work from home was pretty quiet. No interruptions. No forced small talk in the hallways or restrooms (by the sinks, never by the urinals).