Categories
essays

Uhtceare is real

I started this blog with the title taken from very old English, as you can see in the header and About page. I seriously considered naming it ‘uhtceare,’ another old word meaning ‘to wake before dawn and not be able to sleep because you’re worrying about something.’ Today, a modern update from ScienceAlert:

The thoughts are often distressing and punitive. Strikingly, these concerns vaporize in the daylight, proving that the 3am thinking was completely irrational and unproductive.

https://www.sciencealert.com/why-do-we-wake-up-at-3am-and-dwell-on-our-fears-a-psychologist-explains

It’s a good read, with solid reasoning. I like this bit:

The truth is, our mind isn’t really looking for a solution at 3am. We might think we are problem solving by mentally working over issues at this hour, but this isn’t really problem solving; it’s problem solving’s evil twin – worry.

Categories
Covid-19 essays recommendations Uncategorized

The Invisible Plague. Images matter. | by James Heathers | Sep, 2021 | Medium

I gravitate towards aggregated measurements. I use words like ‘gravitate’ and ‘aggregated’ when I do it. Sometimes the complaining has been loud, and then someone writes about me in the newspapers…
— Read on jamesheathers.medium.com/the-invisible-plague-c092ab1f7771

Categories
recommendations

Ditch network solutions

Found this via Hacker News, a screen by screen takedown of all the dark patterns used by Network Solutions.

https://www.coywolf.news/webmaster/network-solutions-dark-patterns-domain-registration-transfers/

Personally, I’ve had phfactor.net since the late 1990s, started back when they were the only game in town, and they’ve frog-boiled me out of a lot of money. Today, I finished the transfer to CloudFlare and urge you to consider a move yourself if you’re still with Network Solutions. Doesn’t need to be Cloudflare, there are plenty of others, but for $8 a year I get caching, DDOS protection plus domain registration and less bullshit in my inbox.

That’s worth sharing.

Postscript – this blog post details how to use your EdgeRouter to update CloudFlare’s dynamic DNS. Nice! That saves me the second no-longer-free DNS service that I used to use from Dyn.com.

Dyn got bought by Oracle, and needless to say I’m not ready to give my credit card to them. I like the simplicity of having Cloudflare do registrar, dns and caching.

Categories
Covid-19 Politics

Three grim notes

But ultimately, some unknown percentage of those 80 million still unvaccinated will dig in and continue refusing vaccinations, even if they have to risk unemployment and other penalties. Some surveys indicate that the defiance is deep-seated, so we should expect a sizable number of marginalized, unvaccinated, unemployed, and profoundly angry Americans. These are the groups who might gravitate to leading or taking part in political violence, as we got a taste of with anti-lockdown protests last year.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-latest-covid-surge-is-just-the-start-of-a-new-nightmare?source=us-news&via=rss

But why would they do that? Let’s turn the microphone to LGM:

The whole key to understanding the anti-vax pro-horse dewormer mentality is that it’s not just this one thing for these people. Admitting that they’ve been wrong about this isn’t like admitting you were wrong about thinking that Willie Mays hit 700 home runs or that Detroit is the capital of Michigan. To admit you were wrong about this thing in particular would be to pull on a thread that could unravel your entire social and political identity. For those in the right wing bubble/base, admitting error on this point basically requires a literal conversion experience. It would be like a former Christian fundamentalist coming to the view that the Bible isn’t actually the inerrant word of God. In other words, that’s not just some random fact, but THE fact, that holds every other part of the person’s world view together.

https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2021/09/the-herman-cain-freedom-award

One last, less grim but much more difficult question: How much risk are we willing, as a people, to accept? Who bears that risk?

Will Americans accept the deaths of tens of thousands of people, as they do with the flu, if it means life returning to normal? Can the public tolerate an even higher death toll — akin to the drug overdose crisis, which killed an estimated 94,000 people in 2020 — if that’s what it takes to truly end social distancing and other precautions?

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22651046/covid-19-delta-vaccines-social-distancing-masking-lockdowns

I highly recommend all three essays. I’ve had them swirling around in my head for a few days now.

Categories
recommendations reviews Watches Wrist shots

Scurfa Treasure Seeker

It’s as good as hoped. Wish it was 38 instead of 41mm but still a delight.

They’ve been intermittently sold out but this isn’t a limited edition so you can eventually get one.

Delightful timekeeping on mine so far – better than chronometer spec, under 2 seconds per day or better. Astonishingly good!

https://www.scurfawatches.com/product/treasure-seeker-white-dial/

Categories
essays Politics

A nice bit of psychological insight into vaccine and mask resistance

Via the reliably-excellent ‘No more mister nice blog’:

If conservatives can’t be protected without being bound, they’d rather not be protected at all.

Steve M

That is, of course, his corollary to Wilhoit’s definition of conservatism:

There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

Frank Wilhoit

Read the whole thing. It’s excellent.

Categories
essays recommendations

Fascinating read about debutantes

I had a grandmother who was an East-coast debutante. This read by AHP places them as a societal solution and resists further simplification. Highly recommended read!

Categories
Food Random recommendations

Pistachios and cashews are gangster

Imagine yourself a sea captain, sailing from port to port with cargos of food. Which ones are a risk?

So a cargo of pistachios seems harmless, doesn’t it? It’s totally not – they can suffocate you, set themselves on fire in two different ways and might, for bonus hazard points, explode.

Cashews? They’re covered in toxic irritant irushiol, which has to be burned off before they’re safe for consumption. That’s why you’ll never see cashews in-shell.

I learned both of these and more at the latest issue of The Whippet, which I recommend to you. S/he finds interesting stuff.

Categories
Watches

More Scurfa awesomeness

My most-read post on the site is the well-named “You should buy a Scurfa dive watch.” Today, they released the long-anticipated ‘Treasure Seeker’ line for sale, and at 368UKP (~510USD) it’s one hell of a deal!

It’s more upscale than my DI-500, with mechanical 9015 movement, included bracelet & strap, ceramic bezel and much fancier dial. For all of that, the price is incredible.

They have black, dark blue, bright blue, orange, yellow and white dial versions, all with attention to contrast and legibility. For example, the white dial version has black-edged hands and markers – nice!

The bright blue is called ‘Hydra Hat’ after a piece of dive equipment, and it’s lovely. And tempting. The black dial is the only one sporting a few color highlights, which is the only complaint I can muster.

I think the other colors would also have benefited from a bit of color pop here and there. Ahh well.

Nice saturated orange.

Me? I just ordered the white dial. I think it’ll be versatile, legible and a delight to own, and Scurfa seem to hold value very well in case the 41mm / 165g is too large or heavy for me.

By way of comparison, I’ve been debating the new Seiko SNE569:

38mm, sapphire, solar quartz movement, unknown bezel (aluminum or possibly plastic, definitely not ceramic.) MSRP is around 550USD, with eBay price of $450. The bracelet has folded end links, and that plus the cheaper bezel are my main annoyances. Great watch, so-so value.

Scurfa – the watches and the values both continue to impress me. Can’t wait for mine to get here!

Categories
Uncategorized

How its made

Found via http://toolsandtoys.net/editorials/sunday-evening-link-list-august-1st-2021/ , the MadeHow site is an encyclopedia of, well, how it’s made.

And ‘it’ seems quite comprehensive. I read a bit and was impressed. No videos, alas, and no animated GIFs either, but good diagrams and no ads. Worth a bookmark.