More about a subject I first posted two years ago. Beware of cosmic rays!
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221011-how-space-weather-causes-computer-errors
Apple-infused Pumpkin
Good thing I kept last year’s PBS airing of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on my OTA TiVo. This year, Apple TV+ will be the only place showing the cartoon, ending its 55-year run on broadcast television.
Regretfully, PBS does not have the rights to distribute the Peanuts specials this year. We’ll all have to watch for the Great Pumpkin in a different pumpkin patch this Halloween.
— PBS KIDS (@PBSKIDS) September 29, 2022
Brother Andrew’s Traveling Salvation Show
Anne van der Bijl has died at age 94. “Anne,” as in a Dutch variation of Andrew, was better known by his alias, Brother Andrew. I learned of his passing at the library in, of all things, the print edition of The Economist.
In my “born-again” period during college, I read Brother Andrew’s book God’s Smuggler. It’s his autobiographical account of taking Bibles into what were then the Communist countries of the Soviet Union.
There was also a comic book adaptation of God’s Smuggler, by Al Hartley. Somehow I missed seeing this Spire Comic at the time.
Hartley was a former Marvel artist, who had drawn Patsy Walker for Stan Lee.
The notice in The Economist missed an opportunity to point out that it was economics, not Brother Andrew’s efforts at planting copies of the Bible à la the Gideons, that contributed to the breakup the Soviet Union. The seeds of discontent grew from the public’s awareness of the worldly benefits of 1980’s secular consumerism — plentiful food, blue jeans, CD players, VCR’s, etc. China has since embraced the advantages of Capitalism, independent of Christianity or Democracy.
Cuphead’s Underwater Ad-venture
Hold your breath for Downloadable Content that isn’t downloaded.
Blue Filter Blues
A buddy of mine used to tease me about using a blue filter to adjust the color on my TV sets. My first encounter with a blue filter was with Joe Kane’s A Video Standard LaserDisc, back when there were only conventional CRT screens. More recently, a blue filter came with the Spears & Munsil Blu-ray disc.
Blue filters seem quaint now, with all of the advanced technology in TV’s today. Vincent in England gets into the nit-picky nitty gritty of nits and display calibration.
Speaking of video, the YouTube app on my Sony Blu-ray player has a feature I haven’t seen anywhere else. Stats for Nerds, displayed here with nerdy Joe Pera.
A Tale of Tires
Today was tire buying day. My 2017 Toyota Camry has 21,500 miles on it, and before winter arrives I want to replace the very noisy Bridgestone Turanza EL400 tires that came with the car. For an all-season tire, I wasn’t impressed with its traction in snow.
I have been very pleased with the Michelin Defender T+H tires on my 2011 Honda CR-V. The ride in the CR-V is quieter with the Michelins than in Camry is with the Bridgestones! Which isn’t how it should be, comparing an SUV with a passenger car. Having a set of Defenders on the Camry seemed like a good idea, but another Michelin option seems even better — the CrossClimate2. Here’s the CR comparison.
The Camry’s mileage — up to 40 mpg highway — is much better than the CR-V’s, so the CrossClimate’s lower rating for rolling resistance compared to the Defender isn’t a concern. The Camry being FWD, not AWD like the CR-V, the CrossClimate’s superior snow traction is the big attraction.
Taking advantage of a Michelin promotion at BJ’s (the warehouse store for those of us not near a Costco), four CrossClimate2’s, including installation and tax, cost $800. The tires are on order and are scheduled to be installed a week from Monday. So if there’s a freak Halloween snowstorm like the one we had in 2011, I’ll be ready!
There are a lot of YouTube videos about the CrossClimate2. This one is the most informative and interesting overall.