Distractions

The Book of Cannabis is well worth the read. What an amazing plant. Some takeaways:

Cannabis is an excellent pioneer plant for disturbed or barren ground. It thrives in maximum sunshine, photosynthesis never resting (other plants get enough sun and rest).

It is a good environmental remediator, easily extracting heavy metals from the soil. (Just don't burn that). As plants go, it is an opportunistic generalist (like us)

Studies have shown that smoking low percentage THC is better for people than high. It is probably best to wait for the brain is developed before partaking (too late for me).

The ingredient THC is only one of thousands of cannabinoids, and a variant THCD(?) or something, is the most powerful psychoactive component found in the plant. There are terpenes as well, aromatics. These are all filtered out for vaping, losing a lot of character. (You can tell I'm a flower enthusiast). 

The future of weed seems to fork between quality grown hemp with terrior (like wine), and concentrated product. Hashish you can get to about 30%, but chemists have ways to get liquids up to 100% and can also make synthetic cannabinoids.(Some very bad for the brain).

Humans are good at distilling things, poppies to heroin, coca leaves to crack, uranium ore to plutonium. It is a simultaneous blessing and curse. I myself am rooting for low THC grandpa weed, organically grown. You can still function and have a conversation on that stuff.

Speaking of which, I played with the computer to make molds. I won't show pics of the whole process, but basically I came up with forms I could make plaster molds from. Multiple parts.

I used Tinkercad, which is a children's program, making it perfect for me. 

I wanted the molds for the plaster out of silicone rubber as it gives great fidelity and separates clean. I had to make multiple negative forms to get the silicone rubber molds.

I 3 D printed the forms to cast the silicone rubber in, and realized a design flaw. No draft provided to remove the rubber. It was stuck in there.

My solution to this design flaw:

There you go. Doing it the old fashioned way with clay dams against the object would have taken less time, but it was a good problem solving and visual challenge. I'm sure I'll find some use for it.

It is too bad you can't 3 D print silicone rubber, because you could make cute squishies and stuff.

The Speed of Light

Antenna TV, a broadcast station, runs Johnny Carson reruns at 10pm. being an old guy I watch. Lately they've been doing 1988 episodes, the end of the Reagan era. You could easily substitute Trump for Reagan and all the jokes about corruption and senile in office still work.

There were a lot of jokes about the end of the world. That might just be USA kooks always want the end times since it didnt work out so keep trying to coax Jesus here.

I was reading some guy on the free market. He was describing a Newtonian market where everyone finds out at once, versus an Einstein market where information travels at the speed of light.

The speed of light is the fastest you can go, but it is still painfully slow. 

Human technology can do speed of light with lasers and radar, but still most communication goes through fiber. Fiber is nearly as fast as light, which on our cute little dust drop, is perfect. 

Satellites? If you don't have geostationary property, your satellites are doomed eventually. They will fall from the sky or fly away, below or above GSO.respectively. And they clutter the sky. Too much slop.

Forget about wormholes or warp drive, the only way we get to the stars is to figure how to locally make the speed of light faster, and that might involve the speed of dark, which can go as fast as it wants.

So that's what I think about lately. Mostly on walks.

 

Puppy Sitting

I foolishly agreed to babysit bro Chris' dogs while they were gone for the week.

Monday evening, a big storm came through and power went out. Power came back on Wednesday afternoon. Big straight line winds with trees knocked down everywhere. Most of the east part of town had no power. Most of the neighbor's houses had generators. Chris does not have a generator. I told him to get one.

For me it was a camp out, indoors. I'd charge my phone by driving around to get food. Fortunately I did not buy much in the way of groceries, because I had to toss their fridge contents out.

Still a weird and not so fun week. The dogs were fine, a bit needy. I know I was mean old uncle john who wouldn't let them do anything. But I pampered them with treats.

That storm. It was predicted to be a whopper and did not disappoint. EF0 and EF1 tornadoes in Chicago's south suburbs and straight line winds in the 70-80s when I watched on the porch. Illinois has had 250 tornados this year. Tornado Alley has moved east, and infrastructure in the new allley is not up to the task. 

There must be an American tradition that if Mother Nature puts on a show, some got to go out there to watch it. I am one of those fools.

Keep in mind, the United States of America has the worst weather in the world. The worst, not some of the worst, but THE WORST. That makes me kind of proud

Oh, one highlight. I took a cruise up to Michigan to score some weed. Much better quality than Illinois weed and a third cheaper. The border between Indiana and Michigan is riddled with dispensaries. I went to one in New Buffalo. I got an Oz., and a goodie bag as a first time customer.

King Of Budz

Anyway, if my brother asks me to puppy sit again, I will say no.