Month: June 2023

CIA Experiments and the Unabomber

Steven Guccione

Ted Kazinski, a.k.a. the Unabomber passed away today. In my news feed I saw an article from a source I didn’t recognize that claimed that as a Harvard undergraduate Kazinski was subjected to a three year long phycological experiment that may have been run by the CIA. Seems far fetched, but googling confirms it across several reputable sources from years ago. From Psychology Today in 2012:

Harvard’s Experiment on the Unabomber, Class of ’62

Pond Cleaning

Steven Guccione

We have a small pond in the back. Nothing too big, maybe 75 gallons. For years it had a single koi. Once or twice a year I would move the koi into a bucket, drain the pond and give it a full cleaning. A dirty job and one of my least favorites. Mr Koi got so big I couldn’t put him safely into a bucket and I would use a siphon to clean the pond as best as I could, which usually wasn’t very good. Eventually Mr Koi disappeared (we suspect a raccoon) and I put a goldfish and a few minnows in his place, thinking it was just temporary.

That was quite a few years ago. My struggle turned to making a cover to keep the critters out, and the water quality has since been embarrassingly bad. I was looking on Amazon this week and found this pump / filter / UV sterilizer that got rave reviews. I had experimented with a few other pumps and filters, but none seems to do much. I figured I could plug it in every now and then to keep thimgs clean.

It arrived yesterday. Much bigger and heavier than I expected. I was thinking something for aquarium use, maybe the size of a brick. It is maybe 3x or 4x bigger than I expected. But maybe it will do the job. I just dropped it in the pond and plugged it in. Quiet and the flow is brisk but not overwhelming in the small pond. Will post some “before and after” photos if it works out.

Update: was going to post photos of progress over a few days. Probably not necessary. In just a few hours the water has gone from pea soup to crystal clear. Pulling out some green stuff by hand, stirring up the bottom a bit. Will let it run over night. Hope the filter cleans up easily. Even if I have to do this every few weeks it is a ‘win’.

What if We’re Thinking About Inflation All Wrong?

Steven Guccione

A good read from the New Yorker on inflation. The general idea is that price controls, long a fixture in wartime, might be the solution to post-pandemic inflation. It completely contradicts conventional wisdom of raising interest rates and increasing unemployment. Lots of data to show raising interest rates is the wrong solution to the current situation.

What if We’re Thinking About Inflation All Wrong?

Robot Mower Update

Steven Guccione

I re-asembled the Landroid, having swapped the rusty old “lifted” sensor magnet for a new neodymium magnets I found on Amazon. They were too small by half, but two gave the exact 12mm x 12mm x 3mm size. These new magnets were significantly stronger, but figured it was worth a try. I saw three possibilities. It could with work just like the old magnet, or not work at all (never giving a lifted error) or it would work too well, always giving a lifted error, making the mower inoperable. I figured I has a 2 out of 3 chance. But I lost. After the mower was re-assembled, it was stuck with a “lifted up” error that wouldn’t clear. I cleaned up the old rusty magnet, replaced it, and it works, and seems to be doing better, so far not giving any errors.

Having a functional mower makes me less interested in hacking in a Raspberry Pi. But only a little less. I might switch focus and make a new boundary wire. I was going to try and build a circuit to drive a boundary wire at 70 Hz or so. Thought about using an audio circuit or even a small amplifier and “pretend” the wire loop is a speaker. There are also all sorts of modules out there like this $9 Sine wave generator that would probably work well. A little fancier and maybe worth it is this $26 signal generator. Not sure how strong the output is for driving the loop. I supose there is an amplifier module out there that would do the job if I needed more oomph. Might buy the nicer signal generator and play around with a small loop and see if I can keep my mower corralled. Then I could start making zones in other parts of the yard.