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  • The Hose Bibb Flat Washer Conspiracy (000 15/32″ or 11mm)

    This is going to sound crazy, but I think there’s a conspiracy  by plumbers to frustrate DIY plumbing repair efforts.  My mom had a hose bibb that was leaking, so I went to fix it. What a nightmare.

  • Should Prisoners Have the Vote?

    Bernie got into a bit of controversy over his position, that prisoners should have the vote. He called it a fundamental aspect of democracy. It’s also the policy in two states, Vermont and Maine. Personally, I’m not 100% comfortable with having prisoners vote, but so many arguments come out about how prisoners lose their rights,…

  • On Andrew Yang’s So-Called Human Centered Capitalism

    I enjoy reading about alternative currencies (and laughing at them, for the most part) so Yang’s “Human Centered Capitalism” was an eye opener – a presidential candidate pushing an alternative digital currency for social good works. Well, here’s a rebuttal from the Wrench in the Gears blog, “Social capital” scrip? Fin-tech experiments with new forms…

  • Copyright, “Copyleft”, Creative Commons, Public Domain, Anti-Copyright

    Recently, I got asked a few things about copyright, by a friend, and I guess copyright was a bone of contention. Others in an organization with her had been trying to post a book written by her. The impression I got was that people don’t know what copyright is. This article tries to address this.…

  • Medium Paywall Blocking Posts

    I haven’t paid attention to the Medium paywall, but I was deleting some stories and comments, and the site told me a comment wasn’t visible. I don’t know how this works, but they probably have a pay-to-comment scheme. I guess I’ll need to either pay up, or move some articles out to this blog. Oh…

  • Treasure Chest, Robert Louis Stevenson Jr. High School Yearbook, 1939

    Treasure Chest, Robert Louis Stevenson Jr. High School Yearbook, 1939

    Bought at a local estate sale, this yearbook is a look into history, into the East Los Angeles community. East Los Angeles was an unincorporated area east of the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. Many of the residents there came from Boyle Heights, which was a “melting pot” of different cultures. According to the…

  • My Top Favorite Conspiracy Theories

    The Civilian Space Program and NASA were Fronts for the Nuclear Missile Program. The NSA is Spying On Us, Scanning Our Public Posts for Keywords. The Real Estate Agent is Telling You Not to Move to Some Neighborhood Because they Want to Keep the Area White. The Cops are in the KKK. Drug Laws about…

  • Instagram Censorship Algorithm Failure

    I tried to get a racist meme removed from Instagram, but they said it didn’t violate community standards. Here’s the meme: The poster agreed, it’s racist. It’s a racist meme that’s been tagged to help it get some views. Instagram didn’t seem to be able to figure this out.

  • 1959

    Hello, neighbor to my dead family. A photo on a headstone, a teenage boy, his hair in a pompadour, collar rumpled, smiling, facing the sun, one of the neighborhood guys. Dead at age 18, in the 1950s, buried in the neighborhood. Tono, the only name on the grave. Japanese headstones stand at attention, waiting for…