No Racial Overtones

Three black kids punch out a white kid on a school bus.  You have seen the surveillance camera video on Fox TV.   Talking heads are discussing it this morning.  One talking head says "No racial overtones".   Yeah Right.

Tales of the Toaster

It was a GE toaster that came into my family in the early 1950's.  It was a two slice toaster, replacing a one slice Toastmaster.  There were three of us children (me and two siblings) and a two slice toaster meant that two kids got a hot crisp slice of toast and only one kid had to wait for the second batch.  Breakfast became more eating and less waiting on the toaster.  Progress.
  In time, trusty GE went to my Grandmother in Montreal, replacing an antique toast incinerator, the real old fashioned kind that did not pop up.  It kept Grandmother from incinerating her toast until her death in 1962.  Then it came back to us, and from that day to this it toasted bread and English muffins at the Mittersill chalet.  All three of my children grew up doing ski morning breakfast with toast from the now elderly GE. 
   Last week, trusty antique toaster stopped working.  I should have just pitched it, after 60 years it didn't owe me anything, but it had been around long enough for me, and my children to become sentimental about it.  An appliance of love. 
   So, can it be fixed? The failure was straight forward, one of the heating elements had gone dark, resulting in three sided toast, three sides browned and one side white.  And it stopped popping up.  They built toasters right back then, it disassembled with nothing more than a Phillips screw driver and a couple of nut drivers.  Shop vac dealt with pounds and pounds of ancient toast crumbs. The failure was obvious to the eye,  the nichrome heater wire had burned in two on the dark heating element.
    Repair.  I used a piece of tiny brass tubing to make a butt splice.  Buffed the nichrome wire bright with a Dremel tool, slipped the brass butt splice on,  and crimped it with a pair of Vicegrip pliers.  Reassembled toaster, and lo and behold, it heated up.  Popped up too.  I  inserted a couple of pieces of test Italian bread and it toasted them nice and golden brown and popped them up automatically.
  We will see how long the butt splice continues to conduct electricity.

I buy my acetone by the quart

TV News is reporting a movement to limit sales of nail polish remover in drug stores.  The stuff will be put behind the counter and customers will have to sign for it. Like Suda Fed.   The excuse given is that nail polish contains acetone, useful in making crystal meth.
  Wow.  Nail polish remover comes in ounce bottles, and has glycerin and perfumes added to make it a little nicer on the hands.  How much crystal meth can be made with a couple of ounces of nail polish remover?
  I buy my acetone by the quart in the paint department of Wallymart, Home Despot, Lowes, or Franconia Hardware.  It will debond super glue, (useful in the case of accidental spills) take off lacquer, remove grease, thin lacquer, clean brushes, weld plastic, lots of things.  The quart can sits in my shop, next to the paint thinner, the denatured alcohol, the lacquer thinner, the methyl ethyl ketone, and the charcoal lighter. 
   May I better stock up in case the Feds take it off the hardware store shelves?
   Making the world safe for crystal meth heads, one bottle at a time.

NH Supremes get one thing right

The NH Supreme Court just ruled that "loaded gun" means a gun with ammunition inside it.  Good thinking. And a stand in favor of proper meaning of the language, as opposed to lawyer meaning.  The Manchester police stopped Oriol Dor and searched his car.  They found a pistol in the glove compartment, along with a charged magazine for that pistol.  The pistol's magazine well was empty and so was the chamber.
   Despite this Dor was charged with concealed carry of a loaded gun without a license.  In court the prosecutor argued that ammunition within a few inches of the gun made it a "loaded gun". 
   Dor had to appeal to the state supreme court before he could get justice on a clear cut law violation by police and prosecutors.  I'm glad he had the money for the lawyers. 

Words of the Weasel Part 31

"Sexual Assault" .  Is that newspeak meaning rape?  And is it becoming popular because the TV newsies find " rape" too crude a word to pass their lips?  This morning's Meet the Press had a lot of bloviating about "Sexual Assault in the Military". Do they really mean rape?
   Or is it some lesser offenses against women?  Mayor Filner stuff?  forced kissing? Has it gone down to the level of provocative pinups and crude language in the work place? 
 

Is Russia Friend or Foe ?

This week's stupid question on Meet the Press.  Anyone with an IQ above room temperature knows that the answer is "Neither".  Friends are countries like Britain or Canada, or Australia.  The Russians aren't in that league and probably never will be.  They don't speak our language, they are still "unhappy" about being demoted from world superpower to ordinary country,  and they are still working out internal differences with Chechens and Uzbeks and others in ways that we find appalling. 
   Back in the cold war, they were foes.  But the cold war has been over for twenty years, and there is no sign that the Russians want to start it up again.  They have some serious policy differences with us over things like which side to back in Syria, NATO expansion, Georgia and some others.  Their leader has sized up Obama as a large slow target and has enjoyed some zingers such as the Snowden affair.
   But that doesn't make 'em foes.  Unfriendly perhaps, but foe means the other side in a real war.  I see no signs that the Russians want to have a real war with America. 

The Economist, Dispensing bad advice for 100 years

The Economist has been printing "news" for a long time.  Apparently age does not bring wisdom.  Donald Kagan ("On the Origins of War") quotes the 1910 Economist thus:  "the German fleet which has struck such panic is largely imaginary, and the supposed danger is  entirely due to the fact that the [British] Admiralty invented the Dreadnought and fostered the impression that this type of ship superseded all others."
  This is writing a mere six years before the climactic show down between the Royal Navy and the Imperial High Seas Fleet at Jutland.  Had the Germans had a bit more combat luck they might have sunk the Royal Navy that afternoon.  They came close enough for the Kaiser to claim a great victory for German arms.  Real victory would have put the High Seas Fleet in the Atlantic, breaking the British blockade of Germany and sinking Allied merchantmen bound for England.  Which would have won the war for Germany in a matter of weeks. 
   Dreadnought was a break thru design, so effective that after her launch all battleships were described as "Dreadnoughts" or "Pre dreadnoughts".  She had new technology steam turbine engines that made her the faster ship afloat.  No enemy vessel could get away from Dreadnought if she wished to fight, and no enemy vessel could catch her should she decide to flee.  Her big guns were all the same caliber, which improves the the chances of a hit when gunnery is a matter of firing a salvo and watching for the splashes.  Dreadnought's gunnery officer did not have to sort out splashes from various sizes of guns to correct his aim.  He knew that all Dreadnought's splashes were from the 12 inch main battery, and aiming corrections would bring the 12 inch fire onto the target. 
   Dreadnought was launched in 1905, five years before the Economist's rant quoted above.  She fought in Jellicoe's battle line at Jutland in 1916.