The Core

Why some clouds vanish during a solar eclipse...

https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/30/world/clouds-vanish-solar-eclipse-scn/index.html

Lindsey Stirling has long been one of my favorites.

https://youtu.be/4MCjU-Du3eI?si=a6dzSF7L-jeOVKn0

> numbers approach

I've just joined an online dating group on facebook called "The Burned Haystack Dating Method" and it's actually giving me some hope. It teaches you how to use the apps to find what you want.

The apps are designed to keep you swiping and swiping and interacting with them, not to actually find someone. So, instead of "swiping left" which will, after some time, feed you the same people you've seen in the past only to have to swipe left again to get them out of the list, you have to BLOCK that person so you never see them again.

Soon, you will get to a point where there is nobody in the queue to look at. But then, there are always new people joining every day.

The theory is, in order to find a needle in a haystack, you have to burn the haystack down, because the needle won't burn.

I hope so much the app developers don't disallow blocking people because weeding through the BS is exhausting. 

The person who started the Burned Haystack method is an English professor and goes into Rhetorical Analysis. What the words actually MEAN when people say them and what kind of behaviors you can infer from them. Much of what we say is subconscious.

Here's a link:  https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5EAbbIuHgE/

I wonder if this isn't something that is used for actual crash tests before the automobile is crashed for real.

It's much cheaper to design something and test in the lab.

As someone who has shoveled countless grain bins, this is such a safety innovation. Dad was asked to test this when it was in development.

To understand how a grain bin works, there is a hole in the floor in the center of the circular bin that goes to a tube under the floor. This tube under the floor has an auger to carry the grain out of the bin.

First, you let gravity do the work and the grain flows from the top to the center. But then a pit develops in the middle of the bin with grain high on the the walls.

To get this wall of grain from the walls to the center of the bin, you use a sweep auger:  an auger that pivots around a knob in the center of the bin and is open on the length of one full side. Let me say that again:  imagine an auger without the outer metal tube. There is a "safety bar on one side so you can shove it into the grain with your foot. (God help you if you happen to fall into the auger.)

Now, to propel the auger around the bin on the center knob, there is an electric wheel on the wall side of the auger.

Now, if the bin is empty, the completely open auger will go around and around with the wheel pivoting the auger on the center peg. It moves pretty fast because the wheel is designed to be stuck in grain most of the time and not get traction, so when it gets traction, it will let rip around the bin.

Now, imagine you're scooping grain into the open edge of the auger and you get to the end of the pile. The auger suddenly goes around and around the center peg and you'd better RUN FAST for the opening, or your legs will get cut off at the calves.

Yes. It is terrifying. I believe the only reason I made the track team as a sprinter in high school is due to the fact that I'd imagine an auger behind me at the starting blocks.

Now, there are actually safety stops so the auger will get to one part of the bin and stop (while still spinning the auger.)

This is to say nothing of the fact that usually when you're emptying the bin, it is in the summer and it is REALLY HOT and you're doing decently hard physical labor scooping grain.

And the dust that the auger sticks to your drenched-with-sweat body. (And wheat dust is itchy.)

Having this little robot will save lives just from heat stroke alone. Not to mention keeping people away from an open sided auger.

Reading a thing today about United HealthCare who was recently down due to Ransomware.
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-pharmacy-outage-triggered-by-ransomware-unit-unitedhealth-sources-say-2024-02-26/

Someone hacks the system and shuts things down. Then, they contact the company saying "Pay us and we will give your system back?"

How often do the ransomers actually keep their promise after getting the money?
Or do the ransomers just take the money and leave?
Are they ever caught and brought through the legal system?
And is there insurance to pay the ransom?
And if they do pay the ransom, doesn't it just make ransomers ransom more?

I'm changing careers yet again to sell Medicare. One of the insurance companies I'm working with is United Healthcare.

So, went to the training site, found a link where it said "Click here for local trainings."

And I shit you not, the link downloaded an excel sheet. Are you fucking kidding me? In 2023? Sorry RC.

I've made a trail in my pasture that I walk with my dogs. It's nice. One of these days I might run it.