Our story...

Our story...  In a two minute YouTube video...

Steel building (20' x 60') kit for sale...

Steel building (20' x 60') kit for sale...  This kit was made by U.S. Buildings about 10 years ago, and has never been assembled.  It's in excellent condition, almost like new.  Once assembled, my kit would look much like the building in the photo at right, except that my kit includes two solid steel end-walls and an extra-large hinged steel door (not a roll-up) for one end.  These end-walls can be easily modified for whatever kind of openings you want.  My kit also includes three fiberglass skylights that replace three of the steel roof panels.

The kit is currently sitting in my yard (see photos below), in Lawson Valley (about 5 miles east of Jamul town).  The manufacturer is still in business, and still offers the same model (so support and parts are readily available).  My kit is for a model “A”, and it is 20' wide and 12'3" high in the center.  The building comes in any length that's an increment of 2', and my kit is for a 60' length.  You could purchase more sections from the manufacturer to make it even longer.

The building is designed to be mounted on a concrete pad, and California-approved engineering drawings and a construction manual are included.  There's also several buckets of special neoprene-gasketed nuts and bolts (more than should be needed).  The photos below show all the parts stacked on two racks I built for the purpose (they're included if you buy the kit from me).

The kit originally cost me just over $12,000 ten years ago.  The first offer over $8,000 takes the kit immediately; otherwise the highest offer we receive before June 30 gets it.  American cash only, please, unless we already know you.

If you're interested, contact me by email: tom-at-dilatush-dot-com.

Layered rocks on Mars...

Layered rocks on Mars...  The Curiosity rover recently sent back the photo at right (click to embiggen), showing clearly layered rocks.  These look to me like shale (or possibly slate, which is a metamorphic rock derived from shale), a rock typically formed at the bottom of bodies of still water, like lakes or lagoons.  I haven't seen any commentary on the Curiosity site about this yet, but if I'm right, it's even more evidence that Mars was once a watery body...

The Glassmaker Who Sparked Astrophysics...

The Glassmaker Who Sparked Astrophysics...  A great article on another fascinating bit of science history.  It's features characters (especially Joseph Fraunhofer) whom I thought I knew well, but about whom I clearly have much to learn (that's a frequently repeated theme in my life :). 

Wherein I rant about the decline of writing skills...

Wherein I rant about the decline of writing skills...  Here's a headline I happened upon this morning:

Assassin bug uses a 'slight of leg' to deceive and subdue physically superior prey

I'm sure the clever headline writer actually meant to say “sleight of leg” – but just wasn't clever enough to spell it correctly.

As recently as 10 or 15 years ago, finding such an obvious error on the pages of a commercial publication was a rare event.  Today it seems to happen nearly every day.  It may simply be that the failures of American public education are now making it into the “professional” workplace.  Whatever the cause, it makes me crazy – my eyes jump right to the error, and my brain has to worker harder (and I'm lazy, dammit!) to understand it.

Like so many times before, I fired off a complaining email.  Only rarely have these complaints been answered by an actual human.  Once (with Scientific American) my complaint netted me a free one year extension on the magazine – which was nice, but then the magazine turned into a lefty mouthpiece and I dropped my subscription, free or not.  So really all my ranting and complaining has achieved nothing at all.

Maybe I should just give up :(

Geek: Cryptographic “right answers”...

Geek: Cryptographic “right answers”...  This is a series of common questions about using cryptography with direct answers that are briefly explained.  Though it was written (by Colin Percival, a well-known guy in the security world) over four years ago, it still looks like good advice to me, jibing with more modern advice I've read.  This post is referenced from hundreds of web sites, but somehow I've never stumbled across it before...

America has a corruption problem...

America has a corruption problem...  It's not as blatant as the corruption in Russia, China, India, or even Italy.  But it's there, it's insidious, and it's affecting American innovation.

Corruption:  Perversion or destruction of integrity in the discharge of public duties by bribery or favour; the use or existence of corrupt practices, especially in a state, public corporation, etc.

For quite a few years now, I've been paying more attention to historians, economists, and political scientists who theorize that systems of government inevitably accumulate the elements of corruption over time, eventually becoming so dysfunctional, evil, or sclerotic that they are conquered or overthrown.  I am becoming increasingly convinced that they are correct about inevitability, and that even the grand experiment that is America will eventually succumb.  The only thing that gives me hope of escaping this fate is that it is at least theoretically possible for Americans to have a peaceful revolution through the ballot box.  The 2012 election cycle just about wiped out that hope for me.  The 2014 cycle is looking a bit better, but then the 2012 cycle looked pretty good 9 months before the election, too.  If the 2016 election cycle fails to look even remotely like a revolution, then I think the last vestiges of my hope will have been stomped into the ground.

And if the American experiment is doomed to fail, what then for someone living in these times?

Stagnant toilet of pseudo-justice...

Stagnant toilet of pseudo-justice...  Ah, that Mark Steyn certainly has a gift for a turn of phrase.  In a single post, he lampoons the American systems of criminal and civil justice, and the “over-lawyerization” of foreign policy and national security.  And somehow makes you grin while he delivers the bitter verdict!

If you'd like to support Mark Steyn's one man war on the Mann, he's got some ways to do it that are more amusing than simply dropping a few bills on him (though I'm sure he wouldn't mind that, either!)...

Obamacare bites prominent leftie...

Obamacare bites prominent leftie...  Will Pitt is a notorious flaming liberal of the activist variety.  His resume includes such things as a stint as Press Secretary for perennial presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, membership in Progressive Democrats of America, and columnist at TruthOut.  In other words, he's a certifiable loony leftist.  Here's what he has to say about Obamacare, in a post on Democratic Underground:

What I've learned after a three-month war with these fiends: the ACA says the insurance companies cannot deny coverage to those with pre-existing conditions, which is true as far as it goes. But they can deny coverage for the life-saving medications necessary to treat those conditions. The insurance company I signed up with through the ACA exchange just denied coverage of my wife's multiple sclerosis medication. We're "covered," to the tune of $700 a month...just not for what she really needs.

A cozy loophole, that.

Fuck you, insurance industry.

Fuck you, Mr. President, you piece of shit used-car salesman.

From my heart and soul, fuck you.

Then in the comments to that post, he says:

I helped, in my own small way, to promote this thing, because of the pre-existing conditions aspect that would benefit my wife. I feel like a fucking dupe.

On edit: I AM a fucking dupe. Last time that happens.

On the whole, that doesn't sound like someone still enchanted with his former hero, Barack Hussein Obama.  Much more from Mr. Pitt here.

Being a dyed-in-the-wool leftie, his solution of choice is a government-run single-payer system.  Like his fellow lefties, he completely ignores the conspicuous lack of a successful example of such a system anywhere in the world, at any time in history.  It will be right when we do it, they say.  But at least he's woken up to the disaster otherwise known as Obamacare...

The race to absolute zero...

The race to absolute zero...  A fascinating tale of science history in Victorian times...

A crack in the hockey stick?

A crack in the hockey stick?  All over the warmist world, heads are exploding because of the news that the American Physical Society has decided to conduct a high-level review of its position on anthropomorphic global warming (AGW) – and the six member committee appointed to do the review includes three prominent AGW skeptics (including a favorite scientist of mine, Judith Curry).

For some reason, the mainstream media isn't trumpeting this story.  But you can read all about it here, there, and (with actually exploding heads) over here.

Russia and Estonia...

Russia and Estonia...  Estonian President Toomas Hendrick Ilves: “Era of peace is over.”  The article makes it clear that he and other Eastern European leaders are deeply worried about the wimpy NATO and EU response to Putin's Ukraine incursion...

Obama & Putin phone call...

Obama & Putin phone call...  “In Russia, we have word for this...”