The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion
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Ed wrote: "That is a useful feature of Chrome. It is telling you that it has seen that username/password in a database of stolen passwords. You should change your password. (The data may not have been stolen ..."Thanks Ed! So if I am only getting this notification on GR, do you think others are safe? Like, maybe wordpress ect...
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Ed wrote: "Nothing is completely safe, but you can't worry about everything! (Or can you?)"lol, I think my besetting electronic sin is that I worry too little. I have reset GR, I will try and pay attention to see if any others are trying to get my attention.
Ed wrote: "Nothing is completely safe, but you can't worry about everything! (Or can you?)"You have not met my sister in law.....
Papaphilly wrote: "Ed wrote: "Nothing is completely safe, but you can't worry about everything! (Or can you?)"You have not met my sister in law....."
or my wife...
;)
Finally, 2020 has been weird in a good way. We got more hay from the second cutting than the first - 196 bales this time compared to 160. Usually the second cutting is less, often a lot less. We put up another 66 bales tonight & I'm really glad I had the hay elevator to do it. A new neighbor stopped in to lend a hand, so it went fast & easy.
It's great to hear some good news for a change!
My daughter's high school basketball team won their sectionals championship in late February (that's a big deal here in California where there are something like 1400 high schools and we play in the largest section). Other than that, this year has been complete trash.
I just learned that the number of students in my grandson's class, he's in Grade 4, is going from 15 to 27 because they have to collapse some classes because so many opted for virtual classes. 🤬
While Bella was cutting my hair yesterday, we saw a hummingbird eating off the flowers on the front porch. I haven't seen one in over a week & was thinking of putting away the feeders. We've gotten down close to freezing a couple of nights now, even had frost 2 mornings, so I wasn't expecting to see one.
I just watched "Noble House" (1988) starring Piers Brosnan as Ian Dunross. It was really well done, a mini series of 3 two hour movies. Even at that length they had to cut some stuff that was in the book, but they did a good job & retained all the important threads & flavor.Clavell's Asian Saga starts with Shōgun which is set in the late 17th century, I think. It was also a mini series in 1980 starring Richard Chamberlain. The next book Tai-Pan is set in the mid 19th century. It was made into a movie in 1986, just 2 hours, so pretty slim. Much of Noble House is based on it, although it's set a century later.
There are 2 other books in between. Gai-Jin comes right after Tai-Pan chronologically, although I think it was the last published. I like it the least. King Rat is about life in a Japanese POW camp. It was a really good movie (1965) & the shortest of all the books. Most of them are bricks.
The last book chronologically is James Clavell's Whirlwind. It takes place in Iran & is about the time of the hostage crisis. I've never read it. It's thicker than any of the others save for perhaps Shogun & the subject doesn't interest me. It's the only one that isn't set in the Far East & I don't think most liked it as well.
If you're looking for some good movies to watch or books to read, I highly recommend them. John Lee narrates some of the audio books & he's fantastic.
I read Shogun after the mini-series way back when- it is a long book!
No more hummingbirds since that last sighting. Now it's cold & wet with a freeze being likely tomorrow night, so I cleaned & bleached the feeders. They're put away until next April. We had enough rain & warm days that the hay field greened up nicely. I had to build a second gate about 16" tall to go across the 6' opening into the grooming area. For over a decade, just the 4' tall gate was fine, but Tango injured his back & had to be rested. He's a young Thoroughbred & is bored, so he's taken to reaching into that area over the gate & playing with whatever he can sink his teeth into. We don't have enough room to move everything out of his way & it wasn't too bad until he got ahold of the hose to the vacuum. He tore it off & that's just to expensive. Sigh. He reminds me of a bored 5 year old kid.
It's gorgeous out & dry enough so I took the tractor & chainsaw out into the woods to do some clean up. I filled in a couple of sink holes, pushed some dead trees over that were ready to fall on the fence line, & such chores. It's been a productive morning so far. Besides, I paid off the house on Friday, so I'm kind of walking on air. I guess most of you have a mortgage or paid yours off, so you have an idea of the feeling. Yeehaw! :)
We paid off our mortgage a few years ago-it is a great feeling!
I am less than a year from being done with mine. I can hardly wait.
Tropical Storm Eta visited us. Twice. Monday: Rain rain rain, windy. Schools closed. Banks closed. No trash pickup.
Tuesday: Normal weather
Wednesday: School make up day - but they had to send the kids home early. Very stormy. Lots of heavy rain. Gusts 50 MPH. Some localized flooding from rain and tidal surge.
This morning: Calm. Not raining. Lots of leaves, branches, and fronds on the ground.
This is the latest we've had a tropical storm here that I can remember. Hurricane Wilma hit us just before Halloween in 2005. There were Greek letter named storms that year too, but not here.
That's miserable, Buck. My wife & I were just talking about how it looked like a pinball bouncing around the Gulf. Hope it stays away from you after this.
As usual, the animals are keeping life interesting. A week or two ago, the neighbors' chickens crossed the road & were searching the garden next to my front porch for treats. The dogs & I didn't see them at first as we headed out to get the mail. Then Pip did see them & I spent the next 10 minutes chasing him & them around. Luckily his mouth is small so he just pulled a lot of feathers.A few days ago, a miniature pony stud wandered up & challenged Tango to a fight. He was about 30" tall while Tango is a big Thoroughbred retired from the track & is well over 5' tall. Thankfully the fence was solid. The people across & just down the road had a herd of them. They belonged to the son who sold them all after his parents died & he sold the farm. He said he couldn't catch this wily little beast, though. My daughter managed it & we had to put up with the little bugger for most of the day.
Two nights ago, a skunk came by & Pip got sprayed. I wish he would learn, but he's a terrier so has no brains when something invades his territory. The skunk got away & Pip got a bath at 1am in the morning.
I've been avoiding taking the dogs out until about 7:30am when it's good & light out just because of skunks. A couple of years ago Lily loped around the shop & got a face full of skunk spray. She does avoid them, but this one surprised her. She was miserable & I had to hose out her eyes & mouth.
Our lights have been flickering once in a while. Occasionally the battery backups would kick in. Last Monday it got really bad, bright dim bright dim. I called the power company. They arrived quickly. Put a test device where the meter goes. The problem isn't on the power company's side of the meter, he says. You've got a bad neutral. Call an electrician. Next day, the electricians couldn't find a problem. Tightened screws on breakers. Replaced the wires from the meter to breaker box. Said they were convinced the problem was on the power side of the meter. Advised that we call the power company and have them check it again if it persisted, this time with a monitor. Fine for the rest of the day, but that evening it was up to its tricks again. Blew a breaker. Killed a surge protector. Twice. Different circuits.
Called the power company the next morning, Wednesday. Checks out just fine, they said, no problem on our side. But they had to call somebody else to install a monitor. He came the next day. Service line and connections look good, he said, Passed the test just fine, just like twice before. 120v with 2v or 3v variance under test load. Anything within 5v is within standard tolerance. Will check monitor on Monday.
When the bug zapper fried with a loud ZAP, I unplugged it, hoping maybe it was the cause of the trouble. But no; it continued. Lights brightening and dimming, battery back-ups beeping. Peggy said it was like living in the movie Poltergeist. Several more tripped breakers. A total of 5 ruined surge protectors. One room running off a long extension cord because we didn't want to plug anything into to a wall socket in there, its breakers had tripped so many times.
A different guy came on Monday, (today) and removed the monitor and did another load test. Looks good, he said. I'll just check the graph on the monitor on the computer in my truck. Holy mackerel, he said. You've been getting 70v surges. No wonder you've been having problems. We'll get a crew out here to fix it this afternoon.
Turns out our next door neighbor was having similar issues. The problem was at the transformer on the pole. They replaced all the neutral connections. Said they may need to replace the transformer.
So far so good. If only they had taken a closer look last Monday. I'm guessing the electrician's bill will be somewhere between $500 and $1000. I wonder if I can get the power company to reimburse me for that, and the bug zapper. I've ordered two new surge protectors. Whew! Thank goodness it's fixed.
I was really worried we were going to have to rewire the whole house. Our house is old with two-prong plugs. The wiring has cloth insulation and no ground wires. I don't think it would have been cheap or easy.
Happy Thanksgiving.
That's awful, Buck. I hope your fridge & all are OK. Energy efficient appliances can be touchy about such things. I've run into knob & tube wiring when remodeling houses & it's a mess to replace. It's also scary to suddenly find, too. One time I found a hot wire in a bathroom wall I was tearing out with a crowbar. How I missed touching it is a mystery, but I'm glad I did!
Buck wrote: "I was really worried we were going to have to rewire the whole house. The wiring has cloth insulation and no ground wires...."I had this situation and rewired my whole house... it's not safe...
Buck wrote: "I was really worried we were going to have to rewire the whole house. Our house is old with two-prong plugs. The wiring has cloth insulation and no ground wires. I don't think it would have been cheap or easy...."You should really do this. The wring is old if it is two prong plugs.
Papaphilly wrote: "You should really do this. The wring is old if it is two prong plugs."It's a good idea, as is replacing a fuse box with circuit breakers, but it's really expensive in time, hassle, & mess. I probably wouldn't do it unless I had problems. The insulation usually has asbestos in it which doubles the cost & hassle if all the proper forms are followed. Old walls are scary places, too. I've found some stuffed with homemade insulation made of wadded newspapers. Why such places didn't burn down was a wonder, but they usually didn't so we always replaced what we had to & left the rest.
Most 120v house receptacles don't really need a separate third wire. Receptacles can be replaced with the 3 prong type with a stub wire hooking the ground to the neutral.
The most common issue I've seen with it is when the metal water or radiator pipes are cut out of the system. They're usually the ground for the system, so it can cause some really weird problems when they stop working fully. Adding a separate ground &/or neutral isn't as tough as replacing all the wiring since there's no need to keep them on discrete circuits, but they should all be run to a common ground rod.
I found out about a common ground the hard way when a printer kept dying at a bar. The network switch & power for it were on 2 different circuits that came from different circuit breaker boxes at opposite ends of the building. Each used a different ground rod & the difference between them was almost 30 volts. The printer would work for a few weeks & then die. I was surprised it worked at all & didn't frizzle as soon as we plugged it in.
Jim wrote: "Old walls are scary places, too...."I had a lot of help from a former professional electrician. He really had a great time at my house, pulling the weardest things out of my walls, supposed to be 'insulation'. But then again, the only one serious problem I ever had with the power was caused by professionals at our neighbours' house, which power supply is connected with ours. Afterwards we found out they made a mistake there. We got shocks at several places for weeks. It was pure luck that none of us was electrified for in one corner there was a little metal box with 220V on it. Of course they denied it was their fault all the time untill they really couldn't look away no more. Never said sorry.
Shared utilities suck. My daughter's first house was half a duplex & the neighbor issues were always a problem.
Jim wrote: "The most common issue I've seen with it is when the metal water or radiator pipes are cut out of the system. They're usually the ground for the system"Oh, in the US that too... in the USSR in multi-appartment buildings it was a shortcut many used (illegally). My dad worked with a guy, who was killed by such system just because he touched radiator it the wrong moment
Interesting & sad, Oleksandr. I saw a lot of those problems since the original galvanized & copper metal water pipes were being replaced by PVC & CPVC starting in the 70s. Never heard of anyone dying, but definitely shocks & flickering lights.
It is funny the unintended consequences when things are changed and not thought out.
A lot of it is just ignorance & that's not a put down. Plumbers just didn't realize what electricians had done in most cases. Even when they did, they'd sometimes miss a few.
They're baa-aack. Power company back up on the pole tonight. After two good days we started having the same problem again. They replaced neutral and hot connectors at the transformer. I sure hope they got it right this time. Our water pipes are copper. Iron waste pipes, under concrete slab, had to be replaced last January. Ouch. Neighbors in similar aged houses having similar problems. It would be better if our house at least had some architectural appeal.
I do too, Buck. Good luck!I was very happy to give up galvanized & copper pipes for PVC & CPVC. Galvanized was a PITA to work - no give & lots of time spent threading it with specialty tools. Besides, it got rusty inside in a decade or two. I remember having to run the water for almost a minute each time I used the bathroom tap at my grandparents & Grandpa was always removing the showerhead to clean out the scale.
Copper wasn't much more forgiving & trying to solder joints under sinks & in other tight places was tough & somewhat dangerous using a torch. I was especially happy when I could get a self-igniting torch & no longer had to keep one burning all the time. It was rough after they outlawed lead, though. The antimony & tin solder had a much smaller heat range. Also, the water was so acidic one place we lived in MD that cheap type M copper often developed pin hole leaks in a decade.
Today, I have PEX pipe throughout my house & Shark Bites to connect the pieces. They're expensive but so easy to use even between different sorts of pipe. I fixed a burst copper pipe at my neighbors' by putting in a piece of PEX in place of the copper. Took just a minute & the flex allowed me to fit it perfectly without breaking further into the wall to remove hangers. Lovely!!!
Happy Thanksgiving, all. It will be pretty much a normal day for us. The kids are coming over for dinner tonight rather than on Saturday & I shouldn't get any calls from work (unlike other vacation days) but otherwise nothing different. What are your plans?
Happy Thanksgiving to all that celebrate. May it be both wonderful and safe.
We had our first snow yesterday. It was a cold, rainy day at first. It was 36 degrees when I got up & that was the high of the day. It stayed pretty steady until late afternoon when the temp started to fall & by dark (6pm) it was snowing steadily. We got less than an inch accumulation, thankfully. It's 27 out now so it's probably an icy mess outside.
Jim wrote: "We had our first snow yesterday."We had it today (half across the globe), but it was quite small, so streets remained almost clean
We've got snow too, but not our first one of the season.
And here in Australia we had our first big heat wave of the summer :) Snow sounds so exotic after the temperatures of yesterday.
Deborah wrote: "And here in Australia we had our first big heat wave of the summer :) Snow sounds so exotic after the temperatures of yesterday.""Down in the land down under..." Love the video of that old song!
D, you're in the subtropics, right? I looked up your town once, on the Gold Coast? Looked nice!
We need never fear snow here in coastal Calif, either. In fact, the temps barely change from winter to summer -- as they are pretty much the same as the ocean temps. Which is to say, pretty chilly for my taste. A "heat wave" here is 2 days in a row with the temp above 70F. Whatever that is in Celsius.... Pretty place, when the winds don't blow too fierce:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/2905046...
Peter wrote: "Deborah wrote: "And here in Australia we had our first big heat wave of the summer :) Snow sounds so exotic after the temperatures of yesterday.""Down in the land down under..." Love the video of..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfR9i...
Yup, thats a great song, I still enjoy it! 70F is a nice mild 21C but we are meant to get up to 27C today. We will really feel it in a month or two when it is in he 30's.
Still, I like the summer weather better than the winter anyway and I'm off to work in aircon today in any case :)
Nice coastal photo - it looks so cool and temperate.
Deborah wrote: "Nice coastal photo - it looks so cool and temperate. "Thanks, and it is. Except when the wind blows, which is pretty much EVERY DAY in our Spring. That's when you figure out why the pioneers planted their windbreak trees first -- even before building the house, sometimes. Often Blue Gum eucalyptus, which does really well. Until they get over-mature, and you get a dry summer. 'Gasoline trees'! Well, I guess you guys saw some of that this year, in NSW & further west?
The Spanish/Mexican settlers used Monterey cypress, from a little further north. Also makes a good windbreak, but not so fast-growing. Longer-lived, though. The Blue Gums start to fail at around the century mark, I think.
If memory serves, the first eucalyptus were imported just around the Gold Rush times (mid-19th century). There were quite a few hopeful Aussie miners who tried their luck. I can't think of any who made much of a mark in mining here.
Peter wrote: "Deborah wrote: "Nice coastal photo - it looks so cool and temperate. "Thanks, and it is. Except when the wind blows, which is pretty much EVERY DAY in our Spring. That's when you figure out why t..."
Yes, except we call them turpentine trees I think, not sure which ones you call 'gasoline' but there are so many species, and they all burn so hot.
Did you hear the story of all the Eucalypts that were planted in USA under the assumption that they were resistant to ship worm? That was a fascinating story.
Deborah wrote: Did you hear the story of all the Eucalypts that were planted in USA under the assumption that they were resistant to ship worm?Nope. But a there was a boom in planting eucalypts for an anticipated timber-shortage around the turn of the 20th century. Turned out the ones planted didn't make good lumber. Some of the old plantings are still around.
I take it they don't make good pier-pilings either?
Peter wrote: "Deborah wrote: Did you hear the story of all the Eucalypts that were planted in USA under the assumption that they were resistant to ship worm?Nope. But a there was a boom in planting eucalypts f..."
Well, there was this one species of Eucalypt in South Australia that was great for ship building because it was resistant to shipworm so they planted heaps of them in the USA. Then, when they harvested them it turned out that it was actually the high silica soil in SA that made them resistant to shipworm, not the species at all. A story from my uni days that always makes me laugh...
Deborah wrote: "...one species of Eucalypt in South Australia that was great for ship building because it was resistant to shipworm so they planted heaps of them in the USA. Then, when they harvested them it turned out that it was actually the high silica soil in SA that made them resistant to shipworm, not the species at all. Huh. It was likely blue gum, Eucalyptus globulus. And now I see there are a bunch of those: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_gum
The story I heard/read was that the gum-growers hoped to market the timber for RR ties, big market then. Except they twisted and rotted easily. RRs wouldn't buy them after that. So much for that idea!
Pretty trees, good windbreaks, and I love the Vicks smell! But they sure do burn hot, as you say. This article has some photos of Calf trees: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyp... What ssp was imported to here, I have no idea.
There's a local auction site that I'm finding increasingly depressing. They have estate sales & I usually look at the ones that mention tools. While I've seen some really cool & unusual ones, I've only purchased a couple. For instance, I got a tenon cutter that fits a hand brace, something I've wanted for quite a while. Not only can it be used on really long brace pieces, but it's faster & more accurate than doing each individually on the lathe. It was cheap, too.The depressing part is seeing how closely the shops, tools, & materials of these dead people resemble my own! The latest one was a model train enthusiast & his drill press was a different brand, but was the same size & set up almost identically to mine on a rolling cart. He had a lot of the same government surplus metal storage drawers filled with the same junk as I have, too. As a whole, his shop seems to be almost identical to mine.
I'm cleaning out my shop, which had become an unusable junk room. Filling trash bins. Unburying an old Craftsman lathe I haven't used in 30 years. Finding old tools, odd wrenches and such, an electric plug wall plate still in its cellophane, $.29 from Handy City.
The Evolution of Science Fiction
Books mentioned in this topic
A History of the English Speaking Peoples, 4 Vols (other topics)Charmian Kittredge London: Trailblazer, Author, Adventurer (other topics)
A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? (other topics)
Bleak House (other topics)
A Night in the Lonesome October (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Winston Churchill (other topics)Roger Zelazny (other topics)
Felix Salten (other topics)
Sam Kean (other topics)
Chuck Tingle (other topics)
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