A Crummy Commercial

I guess that CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is now also a vehicle show ?  I saw this IEEE Spectrum article on a motorcycle with a solid state battery: isn't a battery more electric than electronic ?  :) https://spectrum.ieee.org/ces-2026-solid-state-batteries Verge is that company that makes a motorcycle with a hubless drive rear wheel - like something from Tron, mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2024/07/this-is-really-cool.html I didn't know they were in Estonia - about the only "tech" company I ever heard of from that region was Minox of Riga in Latvia.  Minox was famous for their "spy" cameras.  But apparently Verge of Estonia has beaten the bigs to a production solid state vehicle battery.  These batteries are close to the ideal: quick re-charge, long life, safe with the highest capacity.  Although not cheap at about $35,000 for the 370 mile range version of the motorcycle.   Previous mention of the only time I ever went to CES: https:...

Not sure why but I remembered the name: Wendell Urth - a character who assists the police in four Science Fiction mystery stories by Isaac Asimov: The Singing Bell , page 98 https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v008n01_1955-01 Perhaps the inspiration for a singing bell might have been a burnt out vacuum tube or even a burnt out light bulb with filament particles ?  But it took Asimov's imagination to make something like that an ethereal sound maker. The Talking Stone , page 108 https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v009n04_1955-10 Asimov was an expert in biochemistry.  So maybe it was natural that he kicked around the idea of alternative life forms based on silicon rather than carbon ? The Dying Night , page 3 https://archive.org/details/Fantasy_Science_Fiction_v011n01_1956-07_MadMaxAU The rapid disappearance of actual silver based photographic film has been amazing - it'd be hard to try to make a video of this story considering that people aren...

It's getting to be tax season again so I pulled out my Canon printing calculator: Canon P1-DH III It calculates OK but there is something wrong with the printer: All the numbers and symbols on a line are printed in the rightmost column !  I suppose it's a mechanical fault of some kind - I dread ripping into the calculator to try and fix it though. If this is due to  entropy all I can say is: bad timing universe, bad timing. Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm

Packers 27, Bears 31 Amazing shot of Watson fumbling into the endzone by Evan Siegle Packers photographer the only term worse than cinematic applied to football is operatic ! I guess this loss was to be expected since the Pack had lost the last 4 games.  This game was like a double Jekyll and Hyde but the two teams were out of phase.  The first half the Packers did almost no wrong, no punts, one missed field goal.  But in the second half the Packers punted quite a few times, scored one touchdown but missed the extra point and later missed a field goal.  The Bears started fairly strong in the 1st half but only had the single field goal.  But the Bears stormed back in the 2nd half and scored 25 points in the 4th quarter. The Pack just couldn't finish this season.  Maybe this just wasn't our year with the injuries to several starters.  Next year might be the last chance for this group, already they will lose players in 2026, possibly coaches ?  ...

Troubled efforts at backing up this blog to the Archive.org Wayback machine have been mentioned before: https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2025/12/the-gap.html   But yesterday Archive.org and the Wayback seem to have registered all my efforts at backup of this blog ?: the backups for the end of 2025 are there ! However I also tried a backup of the kit pages and got this: haven't seen this error before When the wayback was tried this morning I got this: same errors ? One step forward, one step back, doing the wayback dance ? Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm  

While reading the book: Bomb Shelter: Love, Time and Other Explosives by Mary Laura Philpott, she mentions this poem: the poem the mention of the poem by author Philpott source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43118/for-the-anniversary-of- And now in turn that idea has been planted in my brain as well !  But luckily with my always unreliable memory it will probably flee.  Hopefully no fine days will be darkened by the thought that this might be the same calendar day that I finally die. But I guess that's the idea of art, specifically poetry/song to make an indelible impression on the brain.  So now I've been infected with a concept but time will only tell if it takes hold. The Cathedral by Rodin was also mentioned in the book: source:  https://rodinmuseum.org/collection/object/103413 Of course I associate Rodin with The Thinker , which then leads to Dobie Gillis : 360p, sorry video quality mavens At the start of each show, Dobie would speak directly to the a...

At one time 7 Up contained lithium ?: BTW lithiated is a real word even if the spell checkers don't like it source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGTkk7gqA4Q the semi-obligatory Wiki link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_Up The Prof has never lied to me yet ! My first reaction is to shake my head at those wacky folks back in the 20th century.  But considering the current dystopian environment which seems to be a blend of 1984 AND Brave New World  who am I to shake my head ?  We get the authoritarianism of 1984 blended with the novelty obsession of Brave New World .  And since lies are now presented as truth, who knows what to believe as far as health recommendations - let the marketplace decide, no need for those nasty regulations by actual scientists.  So as far as beverages, I'll stick with distilled water - no nutrients but no poisons either ! Best Regards, Chuck, WB9KZY http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm