Someone needs to do induce a clanker to do a Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters big band cover of Last Christmas. Including a Benny Goodman clarinet solo.
Reminds me a little of a comic strip that appeared many years ago in the European Command area of operations. I couldn’t find an adequate link for it, but “Tactical Santa” appeared at years end to dispense awards and decorations for soldiers who’d been hardcore over the preceding twelve months.
Amazing how little effort it took to tweak 10 meter equipment to run at 27 MHz.
My cousin was using SSB to talk to a neighbor. (Both with general tags) I have no idea why he thought using the linear amp at 1kW was a good idea, but the neighbor’s receiver didn’t appreciate the signal.
Yes, that sure looks like a ham shack I would like. All I have is one Collins radio (and it isn’t in that photo, it’s a previous generation).
Re climate change: years ago I found a file at NOAA, “paleoclimate data”, specifically a reconstruction of temperatures, at intervals of a couple of years, between 50k years ago and 1920. It shows the last ice age very nicely. But my main interest in it is that it shows in the years since then (the past 12k years or so) significant temperature swings. And in particular, it’s clear that right now we’re not even in a particularly warm period (it’s cooler than the average of the past 8000 years). You want global warming? Talk to Leif Eriksson (ca. 1000 AD). Warmer still? Talk to Julius Caesar. Also: the supposed reference point for so-called “pre-industrial climate” is 1850, which very conveniently is within a fraction of a degree of the coldest time in 8000 years. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
The National Climate Research Center (NCRS) “corrected” the temperature records for the United States in 2011, dropping everything a few degrees so that the 1930s were no longer the warmest temps in the 20th Century. The official reason was to clean up the data and bring them in line with how temperatures were measured after 1950 or so (white box on legs, over grass). Note that this was at the same time as the National Weather Service (NWS) offices were failing to meet their own temperature recording requirements (the thermometer on the asphalt roof, next to the exhaust for the AC unit, was one example), so a lot of people had some doubts about the motive.
What I’ve been told is that it’s not the absolute temperature of the Earth that causes severe weather events, but the rate of change. It’s certainly plausible that human activity (and our sheer numbers) has caused that rate to increase. (This does NOT mean that I support the Left’s proposed remedies.)
Based on the data I’ve seen and used (limited set, so not entirely useful for global-scale extrapolation), the rate of change has been minimal since the 1940s. At least regionally, the weather pattern shift after the Little Ice Age ended in the late 1940s.
Macro-scale patterns do change, and parts of the Great Plains and High Plains seem to be shifting to drier winters and cooler, wetter summers, BUT some of that is short-term thanks to the undersea volcano a few years back. We’re still not as dry in summer as the 1850s, which is the driest on record thus far for the southern Great Plains and upper Rio Grande Valley (records to the 1700s).
One problem with temperatures is that urban heat islands are also where most of the temperature sensors are. Even my rather small city affects the local storm tracks and temperature patterns, and has since the 1970s. Something like Phoenix, or the NYC metro, or other locals? More so, even allowing for the cushioning effects of large bodies of water (NYC, Houston, Hamburg, Singapore). If you remove the major urban reporting stations from the temperature record, there has been almost no change up or down since the 1940s. Arctic sea ice is still the same as in the 1940s in terms of total expanse, although specific areas covered can shift from year to year. [runs for door, chased by soapbox]
Yes, the issue of urban heat islands is what sent me looking for old climate data years ago, which is when I tripped over the data I mentioned. You can find that by searching for “GISP2”. There is a bunch of other data like it, from polar ice at both ends of the earth, and I would like to explore that further at some point.
The rate of change thing is not a real thing either, as far as I can tell. And besides, that’s a case of grasping at straws; even if it were so, what does it matter?
Looking at the graph I made of the GISP2 data (8000 BC to now), by eyeball it doesn’t look like the current rise is unusually fast. A quick & dirty attempt to plot dy/dx says that the current rise is typical, with the fastest shown at over 3x the current rate.
When you’re distracted, got writers block, the words won’t make sentences (or even seances), when the characters are being snitty and giving you the silent treatment, when the Real World Wants A Word when you’re trying to freaking write, when there’s eleventy billion other stories screaming they want attention, too, when the cat in your lap is making the horking hairball noise right in the middle of maybe starting to write…
But the freaking pen has got your back. Yes, you can fvcking do this, writer.
According To Hoyt 
Being familiar with the synthesizer in question, he absolutely did not use every button.
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You mean it could have been WORSE?
I worked in a retail job a few Christmas seasons ago. Did you know that there are at least 4 covers of that implosion, and all are unlistenable?
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yeah, he really didnt use the ring mod.
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Good. I hate ring mod. It just feels lazy to me.
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but the ‘sting’ in the Dr. Who theme depends on it…
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Some techniques have rare uses.
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(in case you’re wondering, same synthesizer)
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I’m not fond of, “Wonderful Christmas Time,” but I’ll take it over, “Last Christmas,” any day.
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Someone needs to do induce a clanker to do a Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters big band cover of Last Christmas. Including a Benny Goodman clarinet solo.
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They don’t let you do covers of existing songs, not even those out of copyright, much less those in copyright.
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I think the maker of the Brown meme should keep an eye out for a letter from Dewey Sue & Howe.
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LOL. Dan thought he had.
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Another fine crop, ripe for the picking … ;-)
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Did someone come up with “Tactical Santa” after listening to Weird Al Yankovic? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSRyE3vVpnE
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Reminds me a little of a comic strip that appeared many years ago in the European Command area of operations. I couldn’t find an adequate link for it, but “Tactical Santa” appeared at years end to dispense awards and decorations for soldiers who’d been hardcore over the preceding twelve months.
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ahhh, the memories…
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G
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bittersweet but real
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Need more coffee. ☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕☕
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Definitely. Only on second cup. 🍵
Okay. Lets see if WP will let me get comments now.
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SFBS!
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The EU water closet transformation is on point, le n’est plus ultra; it perfectly depicts making it all worse to no advantage.
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My sister, who walked down the aisle at her wedding accompanied by the triumphal march from the end of Star Wars, likes that traditional portrait.
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And I do enjoy that room full of Collins radio equipment – used to work on those for the National Guard.
Nothing like running 1kw out on the local CB users.
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Amazing how little effort it took to tweak 10 meter equipment to run at 27 MHz.
My cousin was using SSB to talk to a neighbor. (Both with general tags) I have no idea why he thought using the linear amp at 1kW was a good idea, but the neighbor’s receiver didn’t appreciate the signal.
RCPete, who uses 30W on js8call.
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Yes, that sure looks like a ham shack I would like. All I have is one Collins radio (and it isn’t in that photo, it’s a previous generation).
Re climate change: years ago I found a file at NOAA, “paleoclimate data”, specifically a reconstruction of temperatures, at intervals of a couple of years, between 50k years ago and 1920. It shows the last ice age very nicely. But my main interest in it is that it shows in the years since then (the past 12k years or so) significant temperature swings. And in particular, it’s clear that right now we’re not even in a particularly warm period (it’s cooler than the average of the past 8000 years). You want global warming? Talk to Leif Eriksson (ca. 1000 AD). Warmer still? Talk to Julius Caesar. Also: the supposed reference point for so-called “pre-industrial climate” is 1850, which very conveniently is within a fraction of a degree of the coldest time in 8000 years. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
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I recognized the KWM-2As immediately, and went poking around. One site called them ‘the B-52 of HF transceivers’.
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The one I dream about is the big amplifier on the left (sitting on the floor).
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The 30-L1; also a couple 30-S1 linears up over the desk
A fan site: https://collinsradio.org/cca-collins-historical-archives/the-equipment-of-collins-radio/the-grey-boxes/30l-1/
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The National Climate Research Center (NCRS) “corrected” the temperature records for the United States in 2011, dropping everything a few degrees so that the 1930s were no longer the warmest temps in the 20th Century. The official reason was to clean up the data and bring them in line with how temperatures were measured after 1950 or so (white box on legs, over grass). Note that this was at the same time as the National Weather Service (NWS) offices were failing to meet their own temperature recording requirements (the thermometer on the asphalt roof, next to the exhaust for the AC unit, was one example), so a lot of people had some doubts about the motive.
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In almost every instance, I have decided to default to “the result was the motive” until a preponderance of the evidence says otherwise.
I do not remember the last time such preponderance presented itself.
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What I’ve been told is that it’s not the absolute temperature of the Earth that causes severe weather events, but the rate of change. It’s certainly plausible that human activity (and our sheer numbers) has caused that rate to increase. (This does NOT mean that I support the Left’s proposed remedies.)
LikeLike
Based on the data I’ve seen and used (limited set, so not entirely useful for global-scale extrapolation), the rate of change has been minimal since the 1940s. At least regionally, the weather pattern shift after the Little Ice Age ended in the late 1940s.
Macro-scale patterns do change, and parts of the Great Plains and High Plains seem to be shifting to drier winters and cooler, wetter summers, BUT some of that is short-term thanks to the undersea volcano a few years back. We’re still not as dry in summer as the 1850s, which is the driest on record thus far for the southern Great Plains and upper Rio Grande Valley (records to the 1700s).
One problem with temperatures is that urban heat islands are also where most of the temperature sensors are. Even my rather small city affects the local storm tracks and temperature patterns, and has since the 1970s. Something like Phoenix, or the NYC metro, or other locals? More so, even allowing for the cushioning effects of large bodies of water (NYC, Houston, Hamburg, Singapore). If you remove the major urban reporting stations from the temperature record, there has been almost no change up or down since the 1940s. Arctic sea ice is still the same as in the 1940s in terms of total expanse, although specific areas covered can shift from year to year. [runs for door, chased by soapbox]
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Yeah, I had a long draft, covering a different point.
This topic is one of the intersections of history and of both thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.
It can bear a lot of fruit where potential ambiguity is concerned.
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Yes, the issue of urban heat islands is what sent me looking for old climate data years ago, which is when I tripped over the data I mentioned. You can find that by searching for “GISP2”. There is a bunch of other data like it, from polar ice at both ends of the earth, and I would like to explore that further at some point.
The rate of change thing is not a real thing either, as far as I can tell. And besides, that’s a case of grasping at straws; even if it were so, what does it matter?
Looking at the graph I made of the GISP2 data (8000 BC to now), by eyeball it doesn’t look like the current rise is unusually fast. A quick & dirty attempt to plot dy/dx says that the current rise is typical, with the fastest shown at over 3x the current rate.
LikeLike
When you’re distracted, got writers block, the words won’t make sentences (or even seances), when the characters are being snitty and giving you the silent treatment, when the Real World Wants A Word when you’re trying to freaking write, when there’s eleventy billion other stories screaming they want attention, too, when the cat in your lap is making the horking hairball noise right in the middle of maybe starting to write…
But the freaking pen has got your back. Yes, you can fvcking do this, writer.
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This explains Sowell’s observation on bottom meme:
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2025/12/11/JNEUROSCI.1465-25.2025
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Re: (Sir) Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”
It’s Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony compared to John Lennon’s “So This Is Christmas.”
I said what I said.
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