Latest Dreck...
eBay POCSAG HAMNET DAPNET Pager Battery
It took some tooth pulling, but I finally identified the battery used in the POCSAG pagers you can get on eBay from China. They don’t come with the battery because of shipping hassles. It’s an 802040 LiPo cell, 3.7v 600-700mAh. There’s plenty of them on Amazon. Update: Wait til the pager comes in. The seller may be freaking clueless, and it just takes regular old AAA batteries.
Ten For Survival – What Do You Know?
Presented by NBC in 1958, “Ten For Survival” was a ten episode series about man and the atomic age. This rarely-seen episode “What Do You Know?”, hosted by Chet Huntley, examined public perception of the survive-ability of nuclear war. Two “average citizens” give opinions concerning various Civil Defense questions, and Huntley cites various surveys of public opinion, that are then rebutted (or affirmed) by an expert named Dr. Dreyer. The vice president of the organization that conducted the survey, Mr. Alberto Castelli, also participates in the program. Below are the survey questions asked in this episode of “Ten For Survival.” Before watching the video, I’d appreciate you completing the survey so I can compare your answers today to those given in 1958.
FireFox Green Bars On Video
If you are getting green bars on video using FireFox this is the solution. I’ve found too many old sites with instruction on turning off hardware acceleration in Flash, but no one uses Flash any more. Duh. The reason you’re getting green bars on your videos in FireFox is your video card is old. You’ll need to change a setting in FireFox to disable a specific Direct 3D setting. 1. In a new tab, type “about:config” in your URL bar. 2. You will get a screen saying “This might void your warranty (like FireFox has a warranty, lol). Click the “I accept the risk” button. 3. In the search bar, type: “media.windows-media-foundation.allow-d3d11-dxva” 4. When the line appears on the screen, double click the line to change the setting
PDS Tornado Watch: The Particularly Dangerous Situation That Wasn’t
On April 26, 2016 the Storm Prediction Center issued a PDS Tornado Watch that included a large portion of the North Texas area. This is a special kind of watch issued only in a Particularly Dangerous Situation. That is to say when computer models are predicting the possibility of extraordinarily severe weather events, including strong, long-lived tornadoes, very large damaging hail and destructive winds. The Storm Prediction Center and the National Weather Service do not use this phrase lightly. Although on this particular day things did not exactly line up as the computer models had predicted, if they had, it would have been disastrous for everyone affected. There were indeed a few tornadoes that had hit in the area. And for anyone affected by these storms, the predictions
EMP 102: Details Missing From Discussions On EMP
EMP or Electromagnetic Pulse seems to be a pretty hot topic among disaster preparedness enthusiasts these days. For those who don’t know, EMP happens when a powerful electrical disturbance in the upper atmosphere races towards ground (more precisely, THE ground), causing massive power surges in electrical lines and devices, effectively burning them all out. The cause of this disturbance can be either natural or man-made. A natural EMP would likely come from the sun in the form of a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME). The Earth’s magnetic field will block most of the event, but some energy does occasionally get through to cause a widespread Electromagnetic Pulse. The last major CME event was the Solar storm of 1859, which burned out many telegraph stations in North America and Europe.
Why Is LFTR So Important?
Why is the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) so important? A question no one ever has to ask me, but I feel the need to tell everyone the answer in great detail every time I’m engaged in conversation. Last night, a very dear friend of mine suggested I should list the answers to that very question in my blog. So here we go. I think most people have some societal or political issue they feel very strongly about. There are a lot of different problems in the world. Everything from pollution, to war and even to the very water we rely on for our very survival. For every one of these issues and problems, I see how LFTR can solve it. Directly, or indirectly. I really don’t think
Free Cell Phone Service Redux
It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my adventures in Free Cell Phone Service. Some things have changed recently, so I thought I should post an update. For some time I have been relying on a combination of Google Voice and Spare Phone over a WIFI connection to make and receive phone calls. Unfortunately, the author of Spare Phone has updated the app, rendering it completely useless if you install the update. Until now, I’ve been using an older version, not allowing it to update, which has been working. Google has recently integrated Google Voice into Google Hangouts. I thought I’d give it a shot and I was pleasantly surprised. Call quality using Hangouts is far superior to that of Spare Phone. No more echo, no more
Thorium, LFTR And The New Economic Arms Race
As I’ve written before, I believe Thorium (specifically the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) is the future of energy production. A cheap, clean, abundant and safe form of nuclear power discovered decades ago, but largely ignored for economic and military reasons. It’s a disruptive technology that would displace petroleum as energy king, and it’s impossible to make nuclear weapons from. I just read a news article today that scares the ever-loving shit out of me. Chinese going for broke on thorium nuclear power, and good luck to them The nuclear race is on. China is upping the ante dramatically on thorium nuclear energy. Scientists in Shanghai have been told to accelerate plans (sorry for the pun) to build the first fully-functioning thorium reactor within ten years, instead of 25
A Nuclear Power Wake Up Call In California
A recent post from The Breakthrough Institute, posted on Facebook by Energy From Thorium, has me so pissed I can’t help but laugh my ass off. After shuttering the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station this past June, the state of California delivered an extra 18 million tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, in addition to the loss of 1,500 jobs and $50 million in revenue. A recent NPR report on California’s rising emissions mistakenly argued that the closure of the aging SONGS was still the right decision. The issue with the reactor’s steam generators was only present when they were run at a higher output – meaning that we could reduce the output to around 70% and still deliver over 13 billion kWhrs of low-carbon electricity each
Living With Free Cell Phone Service On Android – Upgrade
Here’s a little update on my life with free cell phone service using an Android phone. I finally got tired of the poor performance using my old LG Optimus S and decided it was time for an upgrade. I searched on Craigslist and found a guy selling a Samsung Galaxy S2 (Sprint Epic 4G Touch) for $150. I looked up the specs online and decided this was the cell phone for me. So, I bought it. Within 5 minutes of buying the phone, and while sitting in my truck outside of a local IHOP, I had my free cell phone service set back up. For those that have missed my previous posts, free cell phone service is as easy as setting up a purchasing Spare Phone from the
Founding Fathers Gave Individuals The Right To Bear Arms
By Charley Reese of The Orlando Sentinel June 22, 1989 We saw in Beijing what James Madison and other American revolutionaries hoped to prevent ever happening in the United States – unarmed civilians being shot down by their own country’s standing army. There is a concerted move today to weaken or in effect do away with the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right of individual Americans to keep and bear arms. We should oppose it strenuously. Shyster lawyers and propagandists will tell you that the Second Amendment was intended only to provide arms for the National Guard and Army Reserve. That’s stuff and nonsense. Neither of those existed at the time and both, unlike the militia, are today federal organizations. Besides, the historical record is crystal clear that
Free Cell Phone Service On Android – Update
It’s been 6 months since I made the switch to free WIFI cell phone service using my Android phone. As I’ve mentioned in my previous article, I use a combination of Google Voice and Spare Phone to grant me free cell phone service. I thought since my previous article got so much attention, I would update everyone on what it’s like living with free cell phone service. For one thing, I do not in any way miss spending nearly $100 a month to Sprint for the privilege of using their network. I was never much of a fan of talking or texting while driving anyway. As long as I’m near a WIFI connection, I can use my free cell phone service as much as I like without paying a dime