Monthly Archives: July 2017

Democratic Legitimacy and the lessons of an illegitimate, incompetent, and incapable presidency

Posted on 22 July, 2017 by rurikia

It’s been 6 months since Mr. Trump ursuped the office of the US presidency following one of the most bizarre election cycles in US history. Even before the foreign involvement elements of the election which are currently monopolizing press coverage, … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Goodbye to Berlin

Posted on 15 July, 2017 by rurikia

Goodbye to Berlin Isherwood, Christopher Vintage, 1998 ed, of 1939 original Per the author’s introduction, this collection of loosely connected sketches featuring a first person narrative from a character sharing his name, his background, and many of his experiences is … Continue reading →

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Book Review: Black Wings Has My Angel

Posted on 15 July, 2017 by rurikia

Black Wings Has My Angel Chaze, Elliott New York Review Books, 2016 ed of 1953 original Basically a pulp fiction novella with a bit more depth, this is a good period piece of mid-1950’s America. The story revolves around an … Continue reading →

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Through the Camera: The Flower Eater

Posted on 9 July, 2017 by rurikia

I was wondering why my purple lantana had noticeably less flowers on it than the yellow one next to it… And then I caught the chuckwalla in the act of selectively munching down the purple flowers.

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The Busy Skies

Posted on 8 July, 2017 by rurikia

Several weeks ago I purchased a device called a SDR Dongle to try and catch the signals coming from my wireless temperature transmitters and import them into a computer application    . I quickly found an easier means of doing that … Continue reading →

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Shop Projects: Building a better swamp cooler control

Posted on 8 July, 2017 by rurikia

When I moved into the house the swamp cooler had a very basic control. It was a dial switch with several of the pre-printed markings scraped off and left with the settings “Off” “Fan” and “Cool”. That was pretty much … Continue reading →

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Swamp Cooler 101

Posted on 7 July, 2017 by rurikia

I’ve received a few questions about the process by which a swamp cooler takes hot air and water and creates cooler air rather than warmer water. The key process involved is evaporation, and a way to quantify this is through … Continue reading →

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Shop Projects: Cleaning the Swamp Cooler Spray Bar

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by rurikia

As the summer heated up I began to notice that my swamp cooler wasn’t cooling as well as I recalled it doing last year.  Everything was in good shape mechanically and electrically and water seemed to be flowing when commanded, … Continue reading →

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Through the Camera: Binders

Posted on 4 July, 2017 by rurikia
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