Craig Sawyers

Oh damn. Raquel. RIP.

That is seriously fucking weird.

In Feb. 1964, Sgt. Buddy Dresner of the Miami Police Department provided security to the Beatles while they were in town to do Sullivan. They hit it off, and Buddy invited them to have dinner at his home.

I always wondered why Russia would sabotage their own pipelines, particularly when the sale of gas to Europe (particularly Germany) was funding the war in Ukraine. A third party always looked more likely.

The news gets worse and worse for Turkey and Syria. Another aftershock hit a number of hours ago. Rescue workers are having problems because roads are out. The airport is so full with rescue workers that incoming aid relief are having to wait in the planes on the tarmac until the airport is clear enough. There are those still alive and knocking on pipes from below the rubble waiting for rescue to arrive and relatives digging with bare hands. Made even worse by truly awful weather conditions My heart goes out to Syria too - war torn, and only one open border crossing with Turkey. RIP the thousands who have died. https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/07/turkey-earthquake-syria-in-turkiye-2023-live-updates-latest-news-map-magnitude-7-8-scale-quake-tremor-death-toll-gaziantep-kahramanmaras

I'm not sure if anyone mentioned that earliier - but my all time hero of groundbreaking scifi, Greg Bear died at age 71 after heart surgery, in November. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/29/greg-bear-obituary RIP Greg Bear

They are truly a truly superb couple, who seem to have a permanent ball of a life together. I've always though Toyah Willcox was super hot. Looking truly spectacular at 64.

TWO Krenov style planes, one with a Hock blade? Well the Veritas shoulder plane is nice, as is the Kunz spokeshave. But the Krenov style planes are lovely. Lucky you! $15 wouldn't even come close to buying the Hock blade!

Norma Jean on the beach, aged 20. Kodachrome.

Even if you eliminate those causes, you can be plagued with RF and other breakthrough into wiring, scope probes etc. I chased my tail with this in attempting to make sensitive measurements to an active crossover containing a whole bunch of opamps. There was what looked like oscillation in the high tens of kHz. I was using a compact Tektronix oscilloscope. After well over an hour, I turned the scope on its its edge instead of on its feet. The "oscillation" disappeared. It was interference from the oscilloscope switched mode supply. When making high sensitivity measurements I have to turn the heating off - the microprocessor based controller shoves out a whole bunch of interference (Honewell). And the LED ceiling lights - similar garbage from the rubbish SMPS's. There is a guy who installed LED lights in his radio shack - and got a massive level of garbage into his gear. He ended up making a linear supply for the lights, which sorted the problem. This and the next page http://www.chavfreezone.me.uk/2018/LED-Driver-QRM.html

Or even Elvis's plane journey to eat one of these 8,000 calorie monsters https://www.messynessychic.com/2015/09/15/elvis-presleys-legendary-midnight-sandwich-run-on-his-private-jet/

Clearly does not have cats. Mine would be inside those through the reflex ports having a great time.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday!! Have a great day!

Oh crap. Another legend. Saw him and Graham Nash in Birmingham (UK) some years ago At one stage Nash said to Crosby "Play nicely, or you'll have to play with Neil and then you'll go deaf!" Actually Neil Young was second choice. They approached Steve Winwood - but he turned them down because of recording and gig commitments. So the band was almost Crosby, Stills, Nash and Winwood, RIP David Crosby.

Happy birthday on the big six-oh! Have a totally spiffing day....

Sudden cardiac arrest is a complete bitch - it can take a fit looking individual out in short order with no warning. Happened to the Principal Investigator, George Fraser, for the space mission I was involved with. Slim, fit, almost a non-drinker. Killed him at home aged 58. Almost ten years ago https://le.ac.uk/bepicolombo/meet-the-team/professor-george-fraser RIP Lisa Marie. Like George, far far too early.

The problem I faced when making my bench (the classic Klausz design) was - you need a bench to build a bench. A real chicken and egg thing. Had to get a free engineer's bench to build the bench on. Built the top out of quarter sawn beech with a sapele underframe. Absolutely solid, zero racking no matter what I'm doing. Mind you, your workshop is much much bigger than my converted garage - seriously jealous!

How do you guys keep weight off? Everything looks absolutely delicious, but I know for a certain fact that I would end up barrel shaped if I put those dishes away frequently!

Bloody hell. Block! He did a section on Top Gear a few years ago, showing what you could do with one of his more outrageous cars. But to go from a snowmobile accident is in the same ironical class as Yuri Gagarin dying in a plane crash (aged 34). RIP Ken Block. Driving legend.

Happy belated!

Belated because it is Boxing Day here - but a truly Happy and peaceful Christmas to all.