kengr

A party for time travellers

Fri, 29 May 2026 18:18:36 GMT

... is being held today at CalTech.

They have a reasonable method opf proving you are a time traveller. They will be having a limited number of unique (but identical to each other) items produced at some point in the future.

If you can produce one, obviously you've been to the future.

Also acceptable are items that are obviously from the future (ie we can't make them yet).

My money says that there will be no time travellers because this is one of those places where you *know* the time cops will have a stake out.

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Old skills

Sun, 24 May 2026 02:55:28 GMT

I recently decided to clean up some files. Specifically some video files. A long time ago, I'd been converting some files from their existing formats (which didn't play correctly on some devices) to .mp4 files.

Thing is, I'd converted a bunch but hadn't gotten around playing the converted version to check that the new versions worked.

So I have an unknown number of supposedly fixed files, and the same number of ol.d files that need to be replaced.

But since I'd been converting files from several different directories, pairing things up is more than a bit complicated The one thing I *do* know is that the new versions have the same name as the old versions, but with .mp4 added to the old file name.

So "all" I have to do is get a listing of *all* the files on the disk in question (almost 4 TB) and look for files with almost the same name. No problem at all, right?

( Read more... )

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World building

Sat, 18 Apr 2026 21:17:54 GMT

I've come up with an interesting idea for a world. Earth-like, but older.

The world has had an "interesting" history. Civilizations have risen and fallen many time. There have been numerous apocalyptic event, technological, magical and environmental.

The current inhabitants are (mostly) human, but not entirely. All intelligent creatures and numerous non-intelligent ones have an "extra organ. Let's call the neelps. It acts as a sort of filter. It removes various toxins, magic, and radioactive substances.

Sometimes, due to exposure to unusual exposure levels or other circumstances the neelps changes. It "ignites". It quits merely filtering things, but it starts "processing" them to produce power. The body uses this power in various ways. The "victim" starts expressing unusual abilties or bodily traits.

In short, ignition is much the same as an "origin event" in fiction.

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Spell component

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 07:48:37 GMT

"I think I've found a way to protect our clothes from vermin damage. There a spell that looks promising in this old grimoire."

The thief perked up. He'd been fond of that cloak of invisibility, Now it was a joke with all the huge holes in it.

"Still working on the translation. Looks like I'll need body parts from some sort of insect. Probably a giant one so we don't have collect huge numbers of them."

The combat types exchanged looks. "Giant insects again?"

The mage kept on muttering half to himself. "Hmmm, Winged insects... Ok, some sort of Lepidoptra... nocturnal.... dull colored wings... so not butterflies."

He pored carefully over the text squiting.

"Ok, need the,,, gonads? of the male ones." More muttering. "Oh, of course, the testes!"

The bard stared at him. "You. Want. Us. To Gather. Giant. Moth Balls."

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Hits way too close to home

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 23:31:37 GMT

https://youtube.com/shorts/0bm3pVN9S8o?si=Mevh-AXK5pU_s0Vm

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Interesting idea for SF

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 23:08:51 GMT

You know that some asteroids are just loose collections of gravel and dust, right?

Well, it occurred to me that some times (accidentally or on purpose) they may have collected around a core of something. Say an alien artifact or an alien ship.

So, here you are mining this gravel bank, and your scoop hits something solid....

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Zen Marines

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 15:14:22 GMT

The Zen Marines Marching Chant (to the tune of "Sound Off!"):
Na-am Yo Ho Renkge Kyo
Om Mani Padmi Hum
Na-am Yo Ho Renkge Kyo
Om Mani Padmi Hum
Sound off! One Two
Sound off! Three Four
Bring it on down
Ha-re-krish na
Har-Re-KRISH_NAH!

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communications

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 23:55:23 GMT

Yesterday's post got me thinking about various forms of communication from science fiction.

The "paired devices", non-interceptable is not uncommon and usually tied to quantum entanglement or the like.

Another one I've seen plays games with "phase velocity". This is a concept from waveguides where the phase velocity (speed at which changes of phase move thru the guide) is higher than the "group velocity".

This results inn a system where you can't communicate across a link until a signal from you has reached them. Once that happens, you can (in fictional theory) send messages to them FTL. They have to send a signal back to be able to send the other way.

This has some fun limitations, such as it being essentially useless except between "fixed" stations. and it taking a long time to set up any sort of network.

If you have FTL *travel*, then you can cheat and place relay station at some convenient distance apart and send signals to start links between *them*. Speeds things up a lot but requires a lot more infrastructure.

There's also the question of *how* much faster than light your signals travel.

Next one is a weirdie. Dirac radio,

With normal EM communications, a signal travels thru space like a ripple across a pond. The ripples spread at the speed of light.

With Dirac radio, the signals act like raising or lowering the level of the pond uniformly. So they are instantaneous. Of course there are a *few* problems. Like where does the energy come from? And what happens if several transmitters are operating at the same time. These are pretty much handwaved away.

Obviously *everyone with a receiver gets the signal at the same time, and it's not directional.

James Blich who was the first aothor to use it, came up with some other interesting effects. :-)

And then there are the "simple" ideas where the signal (of whatever sort) just travels FTL (buut not at infinite speed) and drops off with distance. And can have direction finding.

Can't think of any others at the moment.

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"science" problem

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 08:23:45 GMT

Ok, I'm trying to solve a few problems with a hypothetical communications device. It's undetectable, nothing but the paired device (they are made in pairs cannot made hooked up other than as pairs). Think of the paired part as a small chips, like a SIM card.

There is no way to determine the distance or direction of one unit from another. Not even a time lag.

So, given this, is there any way you can think of to determine where you are with such a device. I mean, you could use some *external signal like GPs, but that's essentially cheating. I'm trying to figure out something that dooesn't rely on other devices. Closest I can come is using it as a reliable clock and doing celestial navigation tricks. Which is both cumbersome and kinda noticable.

Just as a side note, while uyou can use paired chips for a completely secure link, and like build comm units to have slots for multiple chips, more common units just have a chip paired with one at a switching facility that hooks you up different users.

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it's been 40 years

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 02:08:05 GMT

Space Shuttle Challenger lost
1986-01-28 1638 UTC

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dead bodies

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 02:00:21 GMT

Anyone have any idea how long it'd take dead body to skeltonize in temperate forest/brush? Assume some place like Spokane, or between Portland and Mt Hood.

Clothing something like military BDUs (except tougher) and in thick brush so nothing larger than a fox can get at it.

I'm looking for something like a year, several years, longer.

A semi related thought has to do with someone in Full MOPP gear. Died from some internal cause (say heatstroke) so the gear is intact. I'm pretty sure the result eventually be human soup with bones. Not something *I* would want to have to deal with... ewww.

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horrible ideas

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 22:54:08 GMT

Saw yet another link for a "glitter bomb" vid and I got to thinking. Glitter gets *everywhere* and is notorious for being next to impossible to completely remove. So I got a couple ideas.

Using glitter as a "carrier" for a curse or spell effect.

"Rainbow goo" (as opposed to "gray goo") scenario: self-replicating glitter

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It's been 53 years

Sun, 14 Dec 2025 21:14:41 GMT

Dec 14, 1972. At 2:54 pm PST, the last humans departed from the lunar surface.

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World-building

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 06:53:05 GMT

I have this image of groups of people (tribes?) on an Earth-like world, but with *hugely* longer days.

They are always on the move, though they can stay maybe a week or so to hunt or harvest before they have to move on.

Probably two sets. The Sunrise people who are always advancing near the sunrise line and the Sunset people who are always heading towards the sunset.

This is going to require that there be a more or less continuous band of land around the planet at their latitude(s).

I'm not sure how bad mid-night and mid-day would be but almost certainly not easily survivable.

My current guestimate is that the day would be around 3 earth-years long.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Resources?

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Wierd products

Sun, 16 Nov 2025 21:38:43 GMT

So today's Oglaf had a "header" graphic about vagina polish. Silly yes?

Anyway fayanora and I were joking around and I remembered a fake ad video from years back, It was essentially a Bedazzler for your crotch. I thought the names "Clitter" and on a whim, I googled it.

Much to my surprise an actual product came up.

https://www.fizzinbathbombs.com/products/adults-clittercapsules
warning, while not explictly adult, probably NSFW in many places.

Basically capsules of shimmery "glitter" lube to be inserted before sex. Definitely a WTF moment.

Frankly the best use I could think of was as a special effect for an R-rated horror movie involving some sort of alien VD...

"Yup son, you got the Rigellian crotch rot. Looks like we'll have to amputate"

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the SNAP trap

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 20:57:04 GMT

The recent court decisions forcing Trump to pay for SNAP benefits have implications that I'm not sure most people recognize.

In particular his "request" that the courts tell him where to get the money.

This is actually a *major* red flag. He wants the courts to spell it out so he can use their logic to mess with other funds that h's been holding back (illegally!) and redirect money to things he wants.

So that "innocent request" is apt to become a *major* problem if the courts don't treat it like the trap it is.

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Little Red Riding Hood vs the male gaze

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 06:23:03 GMT

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The limits of stability

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 01:51:19 GMT

Thanks top the 100+ temps a couple months ago, I learned that there are limits to the stability of "shelf stable" milk.

The room I was storing them in wasn't air conditioned and the cartons that were in there have curdled. They still taste and smell ok, but but they look like very thin cream of wheat.

Still work (mostly) for cooking, and cereal, just very very odd.

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Rank Puns

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 01:27:10 GMT

Private Parts
Seaman Stanes
Corporal Punishment
Cadet Branch
Major Burns
Major Crime
Major Disaster
Major Pain
Colonel Panic
General Disaster
Marshall Law

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1959 Nero Wolfe pilot

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 09:23:39 GMT

Stumbled across this on youtube.

Shatner works fairly well as Archie, doesn't he?

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Interesting take on "advanced" human civilization

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 12:30:29 GMT

( Read more... )

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Yesterday was not fun

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 03:15:42 GMT

I bought a swivel chair a few years back. The arms broke early on. But it was still usable. Months back, one of the 5 legs broke. It was still usable, just required a bit of care.

Yesterday, when I moved it, the broken leg wound up at the back. A while later I went over backwards. Hit my head on something on the way down. No serious damage but I wound up on my left side. And between the furniture and stuff around me and the very much unpadded carpet I had great difficulty getting back up. After at least 15 minutes, I managed to contort myself to roll onto my hands and knees. My knees were *not* happy. On that flo0r my weight *hurt*.

But once I was on my hands and knees, I was able to grab onto things and stand up.

I deliberately turned the chair so the leg stub was in the front (I'd sat that way many times with no problems. About an hour later, it tipped forward and slid me onto the floor.

Again I was on my left side on the floor. Managed to finally get up still took at least 10 minutes.

Ugh. More sore knees and a few more scrapes.

The chair is now sitting in the hall waiting for fayanorato help me haul it down to the dumpster. And I've order a new chair, this one is rated for 700 pounds (the old one was rated for 450). It'll be her in a week or so.

I also now have my cane next to my desk because with it I should be able to lever myself upright a lot more easily.

Months with no problems and then I got dumped twice in one day. Still sore in places.

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Tesla valves

Sun, 17 Aug 2025 18:16:44 GMT

I came across a reference to a Tesla valve today. Far from the first time. But this time it clicked with a old memory.

Back in the late 60s, my mom bought a tabletop fountain. I got curious and took it apart to look at the pump (I put everything back together just fine). It was rather odd. a donut shaped magnet with some wire coils and a copper tube thru it.

The only moving part was a steel tube that fitted inside the pipe and had oddly shaped plastic pieces on its ends. When AC power was applied, the tube moved up and down in the pipe at 60 Hz.

At the time, I couldn't figured out how it pumped the water. Now, I realized that the tube was a Tesla valve. Ingenious design as there was nothing to break during any reasonable service life.

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Apple weirdness

Sun, 10 Aug 2025 09:32:43 GMT

Got a couple bags of apples a few weeks back. Recently I've noticed that the seeds are sprouting inside the apples.

I've never seen this before. The apples are otherwise fine.

WTF?

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Stonewall

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 06:37:02 GMT

Police raid Stonewall Inn, 01:20 am EDT, June 28, 1969

Never forget

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