Author: Simon

You have seen the micro components on the latest electronic devices. They are hard to see with the naked eye let alone hand solder them. It is more like watch making than making electronics. I discuss my adventures in hand soldering and end with a William Blake quote at Solder Wicki. And no. That is…

The above is kind of a jumble. But it is only a two minute jumble. You can catch the high (low?) points of the economic numbers about half way through.

Libertarian Radley Balko likes a carbon tax. A carbon tax is a “Good Idea” (those are sarcasm quotes for the uninitiated) until the government decides you are polluting the earth by breathing. Energy is life. Tax it to death.

I was introduced to Flanders and Swann when I became an engineer at WFMT in 1962 while going to school. They were a Midnight Special favorite.

Pat Buchanan thinks that with all the craziness in the world that democracy is a bad idea. Well I never liked democracy much either. I always preferred Liberty. Not much in vogue these days. Everybody wants power and control. There will be a war to decide the issue. Islam thinks it has superior numbers, and…

The government is soliciting. The only kind of fusion project that fills the requirements is a Polywell Fusion reactor. Hot damn.

I’m designing up a storm and working to create another computer revolution. If you have been missing me the feeling is mutual. But The Work Comes First.

Well this is totally weird. According to Lew Rockwell, Paul’s former chief of staff, agents first questioned the pilot’s credentials, then insisted the passengers and plane be searched for explosives. TSA agents did not cite any specific threat, but insinuated the Paul family was a threat to Mitt Romney, claiming the nominee “might be nearby.”…

“I deplore brutality”, he said. “It’s not efficient. On the other hand, prolonged mistreatment, short of physical violence, gives rise, when skillfully applied, to anxiety and a feeling of special guilt. A few rules or rather guiding principles are to be borne in mind. The subject must not realize the mistreatment is a deliberate attack…

I just saw this engine at an electronics magazine site. Not the magazine that hosts my blog. But good is good. Note that JP8 is more or less diesel fuel. And check of the size of that 5KW generator. And 2HP per pound? That is very good. I’d like to see one running with a…

Spengler has a new post up at Asia Times on the new government in Egypt. The policy of the new government is starvation. Egypt spends roughly US$25 billion a year on fuel, and the present subsidy of 95.5 Egyptian pounds is a life-and-death matter for the Egyptian poor. According to the Wall Street Journal on…

Pure misinformation. One of the strongest drugs known to man. And once tolerance develops you can never get enough.

I was discussing how America was assisting one drug cartel in Mexico in its war against the other major Mexican cartel. Commenter John Thomas, who is well aware that about 70% of female heroin users were sexually abused in childhood, had this to say about that (emph added): I can understand how many would not…

The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of Conservatives is to prevent mistakes from being corrected. Even when the revolutionist might himself repent of his revolution, the traditionalist is already defending it as part of his tradition. Thus we…

Opium use in Nantucket 1792. Do anyone know of any scholarly discussion of the following statement by Crevecoeur on women’s use of opium in Nantucket (from Letters from an American Farmer of 1782)or, for that matter, on drugs generally in early America? === Stone, ed., Letters, p. 160: “A singular custom prevails here among the…

Opium growing in Manchuria? Japanese involvement? The Wiki has it. The opium poppy was grown to obtain opium. In November 1932 the Mitsui Zaibatsu conglomerate held a state monopoly for poppy farming with the “declared intention” of reducing its heavy local use. Fixed cultivation areas were set up in Jehol and northwest Kirin. For 1934-35,…

Running the drug money laundry is very profitable. Laundering drug money through HSBC is as imprtant a job in the international drug trafficking industry as being a coca grower, or even a Cartel Honcho. And its got more perks. As we witnessed three years ago when Wachovia Bank admitted to laundering a stupefying $378 billion…

Well isn’t this interesting? The bloody Drug War in Mexico is not about stopping the flow of drugs. It is about determining who controls the flows. In cahoots with the US government. The more information uncovered throughout the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious, the more incriminating and controversial it becomes. According to some recent…

  Shut up and listen. All the rest is commentary. If you prefer the kinder gentler version in fewer words: Be quiet. Listen.

Macabre hilarity.