@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

shuttersparks

@shuttersparks@qoto.org

So. Cal. engineer (hardware/software, retired, he/him), born at 313 ppm, musician, chef, now living in West Virginia. KW2P ham radio (the original social network), father of three, grandfather, astronomy, solar dynamics, photography, writing, birding, birdwatching, eBird, fountain pens, cats and dog, reader of banned books, Chairman of the Charcuterie Board, Whisk Manager, Compuserve refugee, founder of The Church of The Unwarranted Assumption. Crypto is short for cryptography. Blog: shuttersparks.net

#HamRadio
#Morse
#MorseCode
#Birding
#BirdWatching
#eBird
#wv
#WestVirginia
#food
#cooking
#astronomy
#physics
#engineering
#photography
#FountainPens

"To hold a pen is to be at war." --Voltaire

"I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous amount of fumes and everything." --Donald Trump

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

Sherifazuhur, to egypt
@Sherifazuhur@sfba.social avatar

From #Egypt to #Syria, ‘water cancer’ ( ورد النيل ) chokes waterways @egypt @syria

https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/from-egypt-to-syria-water-cancer-chokes-waterways/

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@Sherifazuhur @egypt @syria Oh, man. I know this plant from when I lived in Guatemala. It's very bad.

GayDeceiver, to random
@GayDeceiver@mstdn.social avatar

He must be spitting mad. People of color and women are showing everyone what foolish weak man he is.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@GayDeceiver We already know that. The problem is that Trump is polling higher than Biden and that's unlikely to change. His followers were prepared for a guilty verdict and it doesn't bother them a bit.

Here in West Virginia it's all in for Trump. After the verdict I listened to a woman say the whole thing is ridiculous because every man cheats on his wife. (I plan to speak with her and point out that the case is not about him cheating on his wife.)

RickiTarr, to random
@RickiTarr@beige.party avatar

Maybe I try to look for the sunny side of the street too often, but this is just funny to me. Many of the January 6th Insurrectionists now have felony records, and can no longer own a firearm. THEY TOOK AWAY THEIR OWN GUNS! LOL

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@ang6666 @RickiTarr Right. It doesn't. And in red-states, small towns, for Jan 6 convictions, they'll look the other way. Selective enforcement is real once you get out of the big cities.

br00t4c, to space
@br00t4c@mastodon.social avatar

NASA finds more issues with Boeing's Starliner, but crew launch set for June 1

#delay #nasa

https://arstechnica.com/?p=2027053

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@br00t4c I have a bad feeling about this.

EricKHoward, to random
@EricKHoward@mastodon.social avatar

Steve Bannon Issues Warning to Donald Trump's Enemies—'We Want You to Fear'
https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bannon-warning-donald-trump-enemies-fear-1903830

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@EricKHoward Oh, Steve. The best I can do is laugh.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@EricKHoward @BikeyBike Yes, followers that are just him.

knittingknots2, to random
@knittingknots2@mstdn.social avatar

Texas doctor who said nine-year-olds can safely give birth appointed to maternal mortality committee | Texas | The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/23/texas-anti-abortion-activist

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@knittingknots2 You can't make this stuff up. Fiction has to be believable at some level. Reality has no such limitation.

hanse_mina, to Ukraine
@hanse_mina@mastodon.social avatar

Inside the White House, a Debate Over Letting Shoot Weapons Into

After a sobering trip to , Secretary of State Antony J. is urging the president to lift restrictions on how Ukraine can use American arms.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/us/politics/white-house-ukraine-weapons-russia.html

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@kavo3 @hanse_mina Not for the Russians.

I understand the Ukrainians are very good at gathering intelligence on enemy troop movements. They presumably have F-16s now and know how to use them. An F-16 can carry four Mk84 bombs. Being anywhere near one of those takes the fight right out of you. It's a relatively inexpensive munition and we have thousands of them. Turn them loose.

Leaves a 50 foot crater. Kill radius is 1000 feet. Quite unforgettable. Observe the shockwave.
https://youtu.be/oiZTGHU3KkU?feature=shared

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Seems this design has been around for a while.

rightardia, to random
@rightardia@mastodon.social avatar

Trump’s Social Media Company Posts Massive Loss

The company reported less than $1 million in income and nearly $328 million in losses.

https://politicalwire.com/2024/05/20/trumps-social-media-company-posts-massive-loss/

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@rightardia Remember, this is the guy who failed at the casino business.

There are only two ways to fail in the casino business: 1) fail to attract enough customers, 2) embezzle the lifeblood out of the business.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Currently 61F in my corner of L.A. Big time heat could begin at any time and go on for months, but for now, I'll take the cool.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@lauren Heat finally hit here today. It's been cold since October so I'm not complaining.

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Why is there a gun? O.o

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@TruthSandwich Or when the surgeon in the operating room says "oops".

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@TruthSandwich Exactly.

taniel, to random
@taniel@journa.host avatar

Jaw-dropper in Montana: the AP is reporting that the Republican attorney general admitted on recording that he recruited a challenger in the primary so he could raise more money and skirt campaign finance rules. https://apnews.com/article/montana-attorney-general-campaign-finance-primary-opponent-54b427bb9f71d51adadcf76ca244c8c6

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@taniel Well, as a Republican strategist in Washington once said, if we didn't cheat we'd never win anything.

It's tough being the minority party and they're tired of it.

lauren, to random
@lauren@mastodon.laurenweinstein.org avatar

Tomorrow on my usual Monday evening national network radio tech segment, I'll be briefly discussing concerns about declining search quality of Google Search and problematic issues related to Google's new "AI Overviews" on search results.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@lauren Good topic. I became acutely aware of the declining quality in 2018 so the decline has been underway for a while.

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

Idle question of the day: who is the original nitwit that thought uppercase I (i) and lowercase l (L) should be the same symbol?

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@TruthSandwich That too.

HamonWry, to random
@HamonWry@mastodon.world avatar

BREAKING: Trump accepts NRA endorsement.

In unrelated news, Trump is also taking credit for abortion bans as he talks about protecting life.

With more than 40,000 gun related deaths each year, the irony seems to be lost on Trump.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@HamonWry The concept of irony is beyond Trump's intellect, so yeah.

kilroy_was_here, to amateurradio
@kilroy_was_here@dobbs.town avatar

BUY a logbook!?!? Are you crazy?

If somebody wants the file let me know. I set this up so I can either staple on the side, as done here, or punch holes in the top for a binder.

I took a lot of the layout from this old RSGB logbook: https://archive.org/details/g4apj-logbook-2

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@kilroy_was_here Back in the last century I used official ARRL spiral bound logbooks.

HCBunny, to random
@HCBunny@mstdn.party avatar

Not now, Chad, I'm making a ham joke on The Internet.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@HCBunny As in ham radio?

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

This happened to me today while reading negative reviews of a flip-phone on Amazon today. Let's just say quite a few people from the smartphone era have no idea how a non-smart-phone works. smh

shuttersparks, to random
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

https://apnews.com/article/east-palestine-whistleblower-train-derailment-norfolk-southern-e6ed8d0b526069a628120de843eeee2f

Whistleblower questions delays and mistakes in way EPA used sensor plane after fiery Ohio derailment

atomicpoet, to random
@atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org avatar

You know what I miss about VHS?

Not needing to use subtitles to understand what people are saying. I’m watching a VHS movie right now, and one of the characters whispered and I could hear him clearly.

I miss good audio mixes in movies.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@atomicpoet Another "secret" I figured out around 1970 (now obsolete info I suppose) back in the days of analog TV (FM audio), the audio quality in headphones was superb. You can hear every detail. But most people listened to the cheap built-in speaker, not realizing how great the audio was.

karlauerbach, to random
@karlauerbach@sfba.social avatar

I just (re)watched the old movie Spartacus.

I remember when it was filmed. We often had to drive from Studio City (where my grandparents lived) to Hollywood - past the Universal back lot. I remember the big Spartacus sign on the hillside and the Roman temple at the top of the hill. When I watched tonight I noticed that that temple is present in many scenes in the movie.

shuttersparks,
@shuttersparks@qoto.org avatar

@karlauerbach Haha, yup, same background here. I grew up thinking it was normal to recognize the streets and settings in most TV shows and movies.

I know what you're talking about very well, plus my family was a Hollywood family. Finding a movie star in the living room chatting with my father was not unusual and I thought nothing of it -- Susan Hayward, John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, etc. I thought nothing of it. I went to school with their kids and child stars like Bill Mumy. Growing up in Hollywood is inconceivable to people in the rest of the country.

My high school was the scene for a movie, too. I don't remember the name of it. Something about a mad bomber. My house was the set for Charles Durning's film "Stand Alone". My kids got a big kick out of it. It was the first time they saw how movies are made. An episode of I Dream of Jeannie was also shot there. Our house I grew up in overlooked the 20th Century lot, dominated by the set for My Fair Lady. My friends and I used to dumpster dive behind Desilu and retrieve discarded film from the cutting room floor from the original Trek series. Haha. We had boxes full of it and I wonder what it would be worth today.

It's fun to grow up like that but it's weird as an adult to realize that everyone else has a completely different idea of movies and what they see on TV. It's impossible to relate.

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