Legacy Wiring

On 2019-11-082024-05-12 By JohnIn projectsLeave a comment

Gosh, I can’t imagine why it may not have been working when I simply unscrewed the incandescent bulb to put in an LED.

Now that’s some ancient tech! Varnished cloth insulators were phased out back in the 1960s a few years after this house was built.

Looking more closely at it in some proper light, I’m rather astonished that it was even capable of sustaining voltage sufficient for the 60w incandescent bulb that was in it.

Yeah, I know, it’s a rental. Don’t care. Going to fix it. It’s part of my pay-it-forward policy of leaving a place in a better condition than when I arrive — in this case, I’ll replace every bulb with far more efficient LEDs.

How many?

Well…

Upstairs

26 incandescent bulbs around 60w.
A few first-gen CFLs. Heh, remember those things? When they were cold?! Outside?!?

Basement

Nine ancient ballast-driven, 4-bulb, fluorescent fixtures (yep, 36 bulbs). A few of the fixtures have failing and failed ballasts.
Another eight BR30 (60- to 120-watts) flood lights.

Outside

Oh, we’re not done yet — nine incandescent BR30 and BR40 flood lights between 60 and 120-watts.
The bulb that was in that fixture itself.
And a few of those flood fixtures are broken (unusable).

Total wattage? Honestly I don’t know. Didn’t keep track of exactly what wattage each bulb was. But with more than a few lights on, I don’t even want to think about what the previous tenants’ electric bills would’ve been.

It’s Not One Event

On 2019-11-042024-05-12 By JohnIn scienceLeave a comment

It’s several.

One of the key details that seems to be ignored — much like several other modern concepts of cognitive dissonance, denial, dismissiveness, etc — is that even from the evidence we have collected thus far that we can readily review now, there wasn’t a single impact event marking the end of the Younger Dryas timeframe.

Was there an impact? Information does indeed seem to indicate there was.

Not one impact.

If you examine the GISP2 ice core data, yes, it most clearly indicates a sharp increase in temperature. But consider that data and the trends within a larger context.

Recall that it does point to a time period of cooling that was referred to as “the little ice age”. It’s recent — within the last 700 years or so.

Now look back a bit further.

Here’s the Younger Dryas period:

Red mark indicates the point at which the sharp increase at the end of the Younger Dryas period began.

Now let’s look at the older time frame. In particular, consider the sharp changes in temperature.

There are, quite clearly, several sharp changes. The “Little Ice Age” was identifiable by a very small change that was very close to the current global temperature. But if you consider that the captured data quite clearly indicates extreme, sharp changes. Ignore the typical fluctuations. Look at the exceptional values — I’ve circled them to help identify them.

Those are significant changes between 16,000 and the acknowledged impact at the end of the YD period 11,500 years ago.

Don’t look for the one crater at the end of the YD. You won’t find “the smoking gun”.

Look for several.

Wood Stain…

On 2019-10-312024-05-12 By JohnIn projectsLeave a comment

…they really should put some sort of a warning on this stuff. Like, that it’s permanent or something.

Also, here’s part of something that I cobbled together with some spare 3/4” plywood.

Part of it.

Two parts.

More to come.

Wrong Way / Right Way

On 2019-10-302024-05-12 By JohnIn projectsLeave a comment

Had to pick up a super-inexpensive hand-truck to move. Then I discovered shortly after using it for a few minutes, the axle pin on one side was gone and on the other side, well…

Here’s what we like to refer to, affectionately, as, “The wrong way”.

I imagine the clerk’s thoughts were something along the lines of, “Why would this pin have a kink right in the middle of it?! I’ll just straighten it out…”

The right way to use one: