Funny how a novel written over 200 years ago still captures our imagination. Everyone knows the story. A new version of the movie comes out every few years it seems. I suppose the story of the monster that we create and can’t control (can we really control any of our creations?) is a story that will never get old. An old review from the London Review of Books.

Versatile Monster

We recently moved to Placitas, NM. Everything is great, except due to the location of our house we have some trouble getting local Over The Air (OTA) TV channels. We don’t have cable TV and our service (Sling) doesn’t offer local channels for our area. With a $5 antenna we could could get a few channels, and depending on where I moved the antenna we could get just about everything. But never all at the same time.

I bought a slightly larger antenna for $15 and it was better. Still could only get 3 or 4 of the 5 networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox). A friend sent me an old two tuner HDHomeRun box he had sitting around (thanks Ross!) thinking maybe it would have a better tuner and pull in more channels. It is a very cool piece of hardware but it wasn’t an improvement over the Samsung TV tuner.

As a last ditch effort I decided to see if a bigger antenna would help. Found one for $20 at Walmart. I should add I was trying to avoid going outside, mounting something on the roof, run it a wire and drilling holes in the walls. We were so close with a simple indoor antenna.

The bigger antenna was the answer. Had to put it on the far wall away from the TV, because that’s where it worked, facing the broadcast antennas. Didn’t want to run a wire over to the TV so I plugged it into the HDHomeRun box, got a cheap wireless TPLink Ethernet adapter and plugged it into the network.

The app for the HDHomeRun on Apple TV is great. Added it to my Plex server and can watch live TV from there too. Now we can watch and record local TV from any TV, phone, pad or computer in the house. Think we’re done here.

From El Pais (Spain):

Revolution in medicine: A molecule produced by gut bacteria causes atherosclerosis, responsible for millions of deaths

TL;DR:  get panels and a battery and don’t connect it to the grid. From American Prospect.

There’s a Far Cheaper Way to Do Rooftop Solar

Wanted a soft serve ice cream. There is a Baskin Robbins near by but I figured I would Google to be sure. Great! Drove over and the kids behind the counter looked at me like they had never heard of soft serve ice cream. It was half Dunkin and half BR so maybe that was the problem. Was really in the mood for a soft serve. Had a doughnut instead.

From the latest laws at the federal and local level, this may end up being a high water point for Texas. Entrenched oil and gas interests seem to be eliminating this clean, cheap source of energy for the state. Imagine killing off a growing modern business at the behest of a dying legacy business. From PV Magazine.

Solar and wind generated 40.2% of the ERCOT grid’s electricity this year through June. When coal plants shut down for unexpected maintenance, solar and wind stepped in, providing about 50% of generation during peak summer demand in the highest electricity consuming state in the union.

Solar, wind and storage reliably power Texas grid during unexpected coal shutdown

Every 30 minutes or so a football field sized piece of land disappears in Louisiana due to coastal erosion. This has been going on for decades, much reported but mostly ignored. Much of this is due to the direct effects of the oil industry (digging ship channels which kill off wetlands) and indirect effects of the oil industry (ocean rise and more severe weather from climate change). There was some relief, ironically from a major oil spill settlement. So what will happen to that money now.

Louisiana cancels $3B repair coastal restoration funded by Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement

Since there are huge factories cranking out solar panels this isn’t a surprise. In case anyone missed it, “renewable” means that solar panel manufactured last year keeps putting out electricity next year and the year after that. So it’s cumulative; a ball rolling down a hill. Today it’s the equivalent of more than one new traditional power plant per day.

What worries me is the US reversal on renewables. It will mean we are stuck with expensive (and dirty) energy. If there was ever a recipe for countries falling behind, it is expensive energy.  From Futurism.

The Amount of Electricity Generated From Solar Is Suddenly Unbelievable

Grok, the X / Twitter chatBot went full Nazi after an update. The article discusses it but basically you only get out what you put in. Additionally, these chatBots just want to keep you talking since many bill by the minute. So they are trained to say things that will keep you on the line. Either way, not a tool I would be comfortable using nor a toy I would be interested in playing with.

How exactly did Grok go full ‘MechaHitler?’