Basically, all legal free speech is allowed. We will assist the authorities in dealing with illegal speech. You are each other’s moderators. Have fun. And don’t forget to MAGA at nuclear levels.
After going through the elements, we now enjoy a sequence of RANDOM somewhat pseudo-random topics that will be thrown out for investigation and commentary on each open thread. At some point, in a way something like composite numbers, I will accidentally hit a second occurrence of one of them – that’s just normal.
Have fun!
Citizen U
(a.k.a. W on the OTHER site)
Day 137 – The “Magic” Number 137
The U Tree 
137 is the approximate value of the fine structure constant.
Let’s see how well this works —
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For more fun and games, folks can chase stuff off of Wikipoo — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/137_(number) .
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If anyone is following the cthulhu computer follies, they may recall that the basic situation is that I’ve been running a spinning rust half-T disk as my daily driver, and wanted to see how a 1T SSD would change things. I got the SSD running and figured I’d introduce them to each other…..but they were both running LVM with the same Volume Group name (and some of the Logical Volumes were the same, as well).
Well, I can now reboot and go:
d*****@d***** ~ $ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
└─sda1 8:1 0 931.5G 0 part
├─minty-root 253:2 0 930.4G 0 lvm
└─minty-swap_1 253:3 0 976M 0 lvm
sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 243M 0 part /boot
├─sdb2 8:18 0 1K 0 part
└─sdb5 8:21 0 465.5G 0 part
├─mint–vg-root 253:0 0 461.6G 0 lvm /
└─mint–vg-swap_1 253:1 0 3.9G 0 lvm [SWAP]
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
d*****@d***** ~ $ getotherdisk
[sudo] password for d*****:
d*****@d***** ~ $ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 931.5G 0 disk
└─sda1 8:1 0 931.5G 0 part
├─minty-root 253:2 0 930.4G 0 lvm /other
└─minty-swap_1 253:3 0 976M 0 lvm
sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk
├─sdb1 8:17 0 243M 0 part /boot
├─sdb2 8:18 0 1K 0 part
└─sdb5 8:21 0 465.5G 0 part
├─mint–vg-root 253:0 0 461.6G 0 lvm /
└─mint–vg-swap_1 253:1 0 3.9G 0 lvm [SWAP]
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
They have different group names and can be mounted on the same filesystem. Whoo-hoo!
Mind you, this is the spinning rust filesystem…..
My latest little fiasco involved modifying grub to have a splash screen…..and it worked as I suspected it might. I believe that I’m loading grub from the SSD, and it’s deciding to load the kernel and filesystem off of rust, rather than the one sitting right next to it on the SSD.
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As is usual, there were some detours. I worked on debugging the sound system, based largely on https://thetechhacker.com/2018/05/19/ubuntu-no-sound-fix/ . I managed to uninstall the entire Cinnamon user interface in the process (“it’s just a flesh wound”). Fortunately, user interfaces in Linux are just a set of programs. Sound system still isn’t working, however. I’ll have to post Musical Interludes while deaf again.
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Sound systems are just weird. Especially on “old crap”. 😉
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Musical Interlude #1 —
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Too short —
A man walks into a bar where the only other occupant is a seal.
He orders a beer and hears the seal say, “I like your tie.” Confused, the man ignores the seal. But every few minutes the seal calls out another compliment.
When the bartender comes, the man asks “what’s with your pinniped friend over there?”
The bartender replies, “oh, that is our seal of approval.”
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Two Seals boarded a quick shuttle flight out of Dallas, headed for Houston. One sat in the window seat, the other sat in the middle seat.
Just before take-off, A Green Beret got on and took the aisle seat next to the two Seals. The Green Beret kicked off his boots, wiggled his toes and was settling in when the Seal in the window seat said,”I think I’ll get up and get a coke.”
“No problem,” said the Green Beret, “I’ll get it for you.” While he was gone, the Seal picked up the Green Beret’s boot and spit in it.
When the Green Beret returned with the coke, the other Seal said, “That looks good, I think I’ll have one too.”
Again, the Green Beret obligingly went to fetch it and while he was gone, the Seal picked up the other boot and spit in it.
The Green Beret returned and they all sat back and enjoyed the short flight to Houston.
As the plane was landing, the Green Beret slipped his feet into his boots and knew immediately what had happened.
“How long must this go on?” the Green Beret asked. “This fighting between our groups? This hatred? This animosity? This spitting in boots and pissing in cokes?”
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Musical Interlude #2 —
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The Navy found they had too many officers and decided to offer an early retirement bonus. They promised any officer who volunteered for retirement a bonus of $1,000 for every inch measured in a straight line between any two points of his body.. The officer got to choose what those two points would be.
The first officer who accepted asked that he be measured from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. He was measured at six feet and walked out with a bonus of $72,000.
The second officer who accepted was a little smarter and asked to be measured from the tip of his outstretched hands to his toes. He walked out with $96,000.
The third one was a non-commissioned officer, a grizzly old Chief who, when asked where he would like to be measured replied, “From the tip of my weenie to my testicles.”
It was suggested by the pension man that he might want to reconsider, explaining about the nice big checks the previous two officers had received.
But the old Chief insisted and they decided to go along with him providing the measurement was taken by a Medical Officer. The Medical Officer arrived and instructed the Chief to “drop ’em,” which he did. The medical officer placed the tape measure on the tip of the Chief’s penis and began to work back. “Dear Lord!”, he suddenly exclaimed, ”Where are your testicles?”
The old Chief calmly replied, ”Vietnam”.
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Musical Interlude #3 —
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In response to rising global tensions the Department of Defense decided a new, elite top secret unit was needed. Recruits were assembled from the special forces units of all branches.
A panel of generals, high level intelligence officers and congressmen is formed to begin interviews. The first interviewee is from the Air Force.
He enters the interview room and takes a seat in front of the panel. He crosses his legs and throws an arm over the back of the chair. “What’s up?” He asks.
“We’ve asked you here today because of your many notable accomplishments, ability as a leader, you are emulated by your peers and received the highest accolades from your superiors. We would like to offer you a position in a new, elite, top tier secret forces unit”
“Cool.” He says, “Will I still get to play my Xbox?”
The panel is taken back, but often eccentricity is the price of exceptionalism.
“Yes, you will have adequate down time to play your Xbox. Before continuing further, is this something you are interested in being part of?”
“Well, I guess so. I mean, if I can still play my Xbox then OK.”
“Excellent. Rather than subject you to hours of questioning we have only one test to demonstrate your commitment and loyalty. You will be required to sever all ties with your family and friends. You will disappear. Are you ready for the one and only test?”
“Sure. Why not?” He says.
“Tape to the bottom of your chair is a gun. Reach underneath, take it and go in to the next room. You’ll find your girlfriend sitting in a chair. To demonstrate your willingness to never go back to your old life you need to shoot her.”
“Whoah, hey. Sorry guys. I do my killing with a button. Usually I’m the one sitting in the chair, preferably with a coffee. I don’t ‘do’ guns, man.”
He leaves. Disappointed, the panel moves forward.
Next to enter is a Navy Seal. He runs his hand through his hair a few times before taking a seat. “Sup Bras, just got back from the pool. Doin’ laps. No Big Deal. What’s up?”
The Seal is briefed on the mission
“I dunno bra, like, it sounds like it will seriously cut down on my time to do laps.”
The Seal is assured he will still have time to go swimming.
“Ok, bra, cus like, swimming – It’s What I Do.”
“… In the next room is your girlfriend.”
“Hey, easy bra. ‘Girlfriend’? I don’t have a girlfriend, and if I did you would have to be more specific – which one?”
“… take the gun and go next door…”
The Seal removes his aviator sunglasses for the first time and says “I dunno bra. I think, I think maybe I’m just going to go do some more laps. Peace brosephs.”
Dismayed, the panel pushes forward. The next recruit, an Army Ranger, Ghost Recon.
“Hoahh sirs and ma’ams. Army Strong. Can I get a Hooah?”
The mission is explained.
“And a motivated Hooah to that sir.”
“… take this gun…”
“Negative, sir. No can do, not without my battle buddy.” And he gets up and leaves.
The panelists are now visibly upset. One general speaks up “Is anyone left?”
“Just one. A marine gunnery sergeant.”
“Well send him in”
The Gunny is called for. He enters without a word. He takes a seat at attention, right hand right knee, left hand left knee, back straight, mouth shut. Motionless.
The mission is explained.
“Tracking sir, sign me up.”
“Excellent Gunny. In the next room is your ex-wife… take the gun…”
Before the interviewer can finish the Gunny reaches underneath his seat, takes the gun and walks in to the next room. Immediately, 7 shots are fired, followed by loud screaming. The sounds of a struggle are obvious. The panelists look to each other, worried.
A loud crash is followed by several dull ‘thud’ sounds. Everything goes silent and the door opens. Out walks the gunny, covered in scratches and cuts. His clothing is torn, blood is running down the side of his face.
“Gunny! What the Hell happened?”
“Well,” he says. “Some asshole loaded the gun with blanks. So I smashed the chair over her head, broke off one of the legs and beat her to death with it.”
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