Finishing up the Japanese-style cleaver mounting…
Stderr
All the unbuffered error messages
Finishing up the Japanese-style cleaver mounting…
Lao Tze versus Brian Williams
I’ve always loved knives and swords – since as long as I can remember. When I was a kid I wanted to forge samurai swords. It wasn’t until much, much later that I learned that some things are outside of your scope, unless you grow up in the right time and place (in which case, being a sword-smith is probably “meh” to you…)
The availability of modern tools and a better understanding of metallurgy has made it much easier to do laminated blades – though contrary to the legend of Bill Moran figuring out how to do “damascus” all over again – the process was never lost. (And there are multiple processes that go under the same name.) Anyhow, nowadays there are some really great, affordable, pieces made using powdered steels and CNC cutters – it’s possible to get what would be a legendary blade for under $100.
The other day I mentioned a steam-powered rope-braiding machine. And I got a lovely email from one of The Commentariat, with a link to a very cool Japanese rope-braiding artist who does amazing work. I immediately shared that link with all my rope-kinky friends, who are now all variously happy and envious.
What is going on here? These two pictures were taken the same day, at more or less the same time. The only difference is that the second one was shot with a single light, and the first was shot with all the room lights on.
There was some discussion on bread, recently, which got me to thinking about…. Popovers!
Popovers are legendarily difficult to make. It is a false legend, put out by people who want you to not have popovers. Once you know how to make them, you can have them any time and you can impress your friends and be the envy of your enemies. Or, if you don’t have any friends, you can get some, lured in with the smell of cooking popovers.
It’s a wonderful animated version of Noam Chomsky’s thesis from “Manufacturing Consent”[amazon] narrated by Amy Goodman. It’s all compressed down to 5 minutes, which is pretty impressive.
A friend (thank you, Jim!) introduced me to the music in the tank.
If Prince was not some kind of funk asymptote, there never will be:
I haven’t taken my bathrobe off all day, though I did get dressed. Eventually. Because I cannot see my driveway at all (it blurs into the corn field when there’s enough snow) trying to go out would be foolhardy. Which means: I spent most of the day writing and reading.