@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

rationaldoge

@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io

Retired public radio producer, newsroom and audio systems developer. UW-Madison Journalism '78. Opera fanatic. Train buff. Prairie enthusiast. Slowest cyclist in Minneapolis. KFØNOK.

Avatar: a drawing from the patent for "The Game of Cootie," a dice game invented in Minnesota.

Header: mural "The Deathtrap of the Ages," by Charles R. Knight, depicting La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Its use here inspired by Frederick P. Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man-Month."

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

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"GREENFIELD — A small town about 60 miles southwest of the Des Moines metro has been hit by what meteorologists called a dangerous tornado, killing multiple residents and injuring at least a dozen others.

"The heart of Greenfield is almost completely flattened. What’s left of homes are piles of rubble. Trees are stripped of their bark, while some are uprooted. Dozens of emergency vehicles line streets that are no longer walkable. Power lines are down."
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2024/05/21/greenfield-iowa-tornado-weather-damage-after-severe-storms/73793436007/

ai6yr, to random
@ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org avatar

Maybe everyone is waiting until the last possible moment to bid on owning the entire contents of their local Red Lobster, to be removed off premises by EOD tomorrow, LOL. Still only $3516.00 for the San Diego location's contents. https://bid.restaurantequipment.bid/Public/Auction/AuctionItemDetail?AuctionId=%2fKoYA1j74%2fd45J4SRlQW0g%3d%3d&pageNumber=pf6Q%2bhJtdeleDd9FfYpy9w%3d%3d&pageSize=O5OaPaZE1XrTjGtTQItkaw%3d%3d&showFilter=iBcS%2b4ptjknZQtCojbueqQ%3d%3d&sortColumn=C9SY4KX74WJIILYqur0bmw%3d%3d&AuctionItemId=Z2zRQq1PXgF4PX0W5ApbJw%3d%3d

rationaldoge,
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

@HopelessDemigod @ai6yr Former General Mills unit.

"As Red Lobster locations close across the country, including more than a dozen in Florida, memories of unlimited Cheddar Bay Biscuits and Ultimate Feasts are popping up online and what the seafood restaurant chain meant to diners over the years."
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/entertainment/2024/05/15/red-lobster-restaurants-closed-florida-endless-shrimp-cheddar-bay/73689609007/

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Didn't we have to learn what these "G" values meant, for our amateur radio exam? Why, yes we did. Sounds interesting.

"At least five earth-directed coronal mass ejections (CMEs) were observed and expected to arrive as early as midday Friday, May 10, 2024, and persist through Sunday, May 12, 2024. This is an unusual event."

WHAT: Large Sunspot Groups and Flares Lead to First G4 Watch Since 2005
https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/news/swpc-issues-its-first-g4-watch-2005

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Thermal energy storage in the news.

These giant batteries store energy, but not as electricity
https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/thermal-storage-explainer-1.7163743

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

'The roughly five-mile-long Mackinac Bridge, which connects Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas, has offered an assistance program to nervous drivers since the 1980s. Partly to blame for those nerves: high winds, which can prompt advisories and closures — and cause the bridge to move.

'At all hours, any day of the week, drivers can make a request for a bridge staffer to drive their car across the “Mighty Mac.”'
https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2024/03/27/bridge-fears-baltimore-collapse/

geerlingguy, to random
@geerlingguy@mastodon.social avatar

Talking Hot Dog gives new meaning to 'Ham radio' https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/talking-hot-dog-gives-new-meaning-ham-radio

rationaldoge,
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

@geerlingguy In the earliest days of my radio career I accompanied a consulting engineer to the tower of the thousand-watt daytimer where I had a summer announcing job. I rested my fingers on a rung of the tower and smelled hot-dog. I wasn't grounded so, no sparks: I came away with only minor burns and a valuable lesson. This video brought back that memory.

Edent, to random
@Edent@mastodon.social avatar

Is anyone at going to run a "Learn How To Solder For Idiots" session?

Because I am an idiot and I would like to solder (and unsolder) some things.

rationaldoge,
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

@Edent I find soldering difficult; never turns out like it does on YouTube videos where people just hold leads together and tack them. My circuit board soldering is sub-par; never seems to flow right regardless of flux, etc, and I worry about solder bridges I can't see. I've watched a lot of instructive videos. I think it's an art that takes a lot of practice.

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"The trees just stand around, as is their wont. The drizzle plays them. What instruments are they? Mostly woodwinds, maybe oboes, some flutier, and then dark, dark trees, like kettle drums, like patches of life."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/14/anne-lamott-aging-life-friends-vision/

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Swedish dishcloths in the news.

"Swedish dishcloths have taken off in the US not only because they’ve been marketed as an affordable, eco-friendly alternative to paper towels, but also because they’re pretty."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/mar/12/what-is-swedish-dishcloth-reusable-paper-towel-better-environment

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"Alpine Meadows recorded a wind gust of 184 mph at 9:15 p.m., at an elevation of over 8,600 feet, according to preliminary measurements. Wind gusts reached 157 mph around 4:15 p.m. at 8,700 feet at Palisades Tahoe, and by 6:45 p.m. they had climbed back to 144 mph — and then 190 mph by 10:15pm."
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/tahoe-blizzard-conditions-ski-snow-roads-18698476.php

rationaldoge, to Minnesota
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Gopher it: expects $3.7 billion budget surplus.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/02/29/minnesota-posts-37-billion-budget-surplus

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

'The internet is filling up with "zombie content" designed to game algorithms and scam humans.

'It's becoming a place where bots talk to bots, and search engines crawl a lonely expanse of pages written by artificial intelligence (AI).'
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-02-28/twitter-x-fighting-bot-problem-as-ai-spam-floods-the-internet/103498070

rationaldoge, to Minneapolis
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Too many hobbies, aided and abetted by the curators at Hennepin County Central Library, .

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Uff da.

"Walmart said the deal will give its Walmart Connect advertising division new ways to reach customers through in-home media."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/02/20/walmart-vizio/

rationaldoge, to Minnesota
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

The laser loon motif is quite popular in . READ.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2024/02/13/laser-loon-lives-on-through-new-st-paul-library-cards

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"The 404 team DIYs as much as possible. They pay for hosting through Ghost and set up litigation insurance, for example, but everyone makes their own art for stories instead of paying for agency photos. (The reporters are also the merch models). Everyone works from home, so they don’t have an office and don’t plan on getting one anytime soon. The team communicates through a free Slack channel. Koebler mails out merchandise from his garage in Los Angeles."
https://www.niemanlab.org/2024/02/six-months-in-journalist-owned-tech-publication-404-media-is-profitable/

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"Minnesota has seen virtually no safe conditions for snowmobile trail riding, and little for cross-country skiing, for the first time in decades. This year’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon was scrubbed entirely. Officials at the American Birkebeiner Nordic ski race in Hayward, Wisconsin, are mulling if that event may have to be canceled due to virtually no snow on the ground in that area."
https://www.duluthnewstribune.com/news/local/non-winters-unsafe-ice-scrubs-annual-isle-royale-wolf-moose-survey

rationaldoge, to hamradio
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

mentor: 'Don't overthink it. Throw a wire in a tree!'

Antenna book: 'The tree acts as a parasitic element if the antenna is closer than 0.2 λ to the trunk of the tree with the effect diminishing quickly at larger distances. Loss through a group of trees depends on foliage and tree density so there is a summer/winter variation. Trees also affect propagation as the top of the forest canopy may act to guide waves along the foliage "surface."'

My tendency to overstudy inhibits my action.

rationaldoge, to hamradio
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"Everything you need to pass your Extra Class exam!" Goal accomplished.

Thanks to:

• Hennepin County Library for lending me this awesome license manual for weeks at no charge.
• Practice tests on the ARRL's excellent online Exam Review for Ham Radio.
• Online videos too numerous to mention.
• The VEs at SEMARC in Cottage Grove, Twin Cities.

What a wild, wonderful set of arcane topics offering a glimpse into the workings of Nature. Very interesting, if you like this kinda thing.

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"It is in some measure to be attributed to the defects of our system of education, that scientific knowledge scarcely exists amongst the higher classes of society. The discussions in the Houses of Lords or of Commons, which arise on the occurrence of any subjects connected with science, sufficiently prove this fact, which, if I had consulted the extremely limited nature of my personal experience, I should, perhaps, have doubted."
—Charles Babbage, 1830
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1216/pg1216-images.html

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"An off-duty pilot who was in a jump seat in the cockpit of an Alaska Airlines flight on Sunday was charged with more than 80 counts of attempted murder after he tried to cut fuel to the engines, prompting the plane to divert to Portland, Ore., the authorities said."
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/us/alaska-airlines-flight-diverted.html

rationaldoge, to woodworking
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

Spotted this nice desk at the art museum the other day. If I were better at making drawers* I would attempt to build one of these. I think you can still purchase one of these from the Stickley furniture company of Manlius NY.

I was sad I had forgotten my tape measure but today I find that the dimensions are right there on the Mia website!

At the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

https://collections.artsmia.org/art/45651/desk-craftsman-workshops-of-gustav-stickley

*I have never made a drawer in my life

rationaldoge, to random
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

"Thanks, Europe. Couldn't have done it without EU"

https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/12/apple_announces_iphone_15_lineup/

bryanhansel, to Minnesota
@bryanhansel@mstdn.social avatar

I live in Grand Marais. While these types of awards help drive the tourism business, they make it hard to live here. With the overtourism we have now, I avoid downtown during the busy season. Town becomes a location for tourists not those who live here.

"America's Best Small Lake Town Is ... An unexpected arts enclave, tiny Grand Marais, Minnesota, bursts with galleries, local shops and restaurants, and lake-filled getaways galore."

https://www.travelandleisure.com/guide-to-grand-marais-minnesota-7642197

rationaldoge,
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

@bryanhansel I was afraid of that. I'd get pretty tired of the tourists if I lived there.

I would dress like Red Green every time I go up there and park my Subaru well out of sight.

Nice article, though. Glad to see they included Joynes Ben Franklin in that rundown of local attractions.

bryanhansel, to cycling
@bryanhansel@mstdn.social avatar

Today I rode and hiked the Minnesota Low-High-Low Challenge. That's starting in the Grand Marais harbor (dipping the bike's wheel in Lake Superior), riding to the Eagle Mountain parking lot, and then hiking to the top of Eagle Mountain. After summiting, the route returns to the harbor.

I've wanted to do this for years. It was so fun! I can't believe that I've lived near this route for 20 years and only now did it.

I love payoff season!

Also, I love my new bike!

rationaldoge,
@rationaldoge@hachyderm.io avatar

@bryanhansel Hey, that's great Bryan. I remember your describing this route and it sounds like heckuvan accomplishment. Lowest to highest points in Minnesota. I hope I have at least one more Eagle Mountain visit in my travels. I love it up there.

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