Cosplay Chicks

A lot of cosplay chicks sell posters on Storenvy:

• Linda Le (Vampy)
• Abby Dark-Star
• Ani-Mia
• Kelly Jean
• Amie Lynn [currently down]

What can I say, I'm a sucker for boobs.  Apparently cosplaying has become a lucrative business for women with...assets.

Random

Topics from last week's breakfast:
Trombe wall - for passive solar heating
SIPs - a pre-fab sandwich of OSB around a rigid foam core
Militec - weapon lube; apparently several products are called Militec...

リンクアップ

The wife had sent me a link to this shop LINK UP that seems to have some pretty cool stuff.

Olde Tyme Skillz

Via someone's post on Facebook, two schools in the upper Midwest that teach skills some would consider obsolete: North House Folk School (in Grand Marais, MN) and Driftless Folk School (in Viroqua, WI).  Very intriguing.

Lanterns

I've been ogling the oil lanterns in Garrett Wade for prep purposes.  However, GW seems to charge a large markup, at least on certain items.  So I looked to see if I could find a better deal.  Apparently the GW lanterns are made by Feuerhand, which I found on the W.T. Kirkman site.  They actually aren't much cheaper (the same in quantities of 3 or more), but Kirkman offers replacement parts also.  Lehman's also sells the Feuerhand lanterns for the same price as Kirkman.

Kirkman sells Dietz lanterns, which are made in China.  The price difference against the German lanterns is noticeable.  In any case, the #2000 model has a grill attachment that can be used to boil water.  That looks like a useful feature.

As a result of looking for other sources for the Dietz #2000, I found Survival Resources, which has a lot of cool gear.

USB Charging Basics

Somewhere I came upon a link to Maxim IC's page on USB battery charging.  Pretty interesting info, albeit containing sections specific to Maxim's hardware.

More Bitcoin Info

The Genesis Block's dashboard shows the difficulty level increase.

btcinvest.net has a profitability calculator that takes into account USD/BTC appreciation.  Of course this is immaterial, since in the case where appreciation matters, buy and hold would be a superior investment method.

The Bitcoin wiki has a list of mining pools.  Eligius looks like the one to pick since it doesn't have any fees.

Chronys

Market research.

• Shooting Chrony F1 Master [Midway]
• Competition Electronics ProChrono Digital [Midway]
• MagnetoSpeed V1 [Midway]
• CED Millenium 2 [Midway]
• PACT Model 1 XP [Midway]

The Big Government Religion

Response to a FB post, which I shan't link to here....

This might've been addressed in the prior 462 comments, but my understanding is that LDS hasn't allowed polygamy for a long time; it's just the "fundies" (fundamentalists) who won't drop it.

Religion prescribes a moral code, and people can't seem to stop applying it to others. Kind of like how many Christians still judge others even though that's supposedly reserved for the man upstairs. ("Let he who is without sin cast the first stone" and all that.) This is also why libertarians are so few, because not many people can keep their opinions in their respective pockets; and why we have Big Government: to force the majority's judgments on everyone else. Personally, I believe that Big Government is worse for the human condition than even religion, although I'm not sure I'd get many who agree with me on that. We're conditioned now to condemn old-time religion and worship the capricious god of majority rule.

Smash!! I'm an agnostic of sorts, myself, but sometimes atheists and hardcore anti-religion people really piss me off.