Friday, May 26, 2006- - -
Follow the deaux!
Interesting. Here it is, Friday, one whole week's news cycle since Rep. Jefferson's congressional office was searched. The public's outrage has been extreme and refreshingly bipartisan, while congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle have regrettably closed ranks with the accused. All of this is old news at this point, but there's something missing.
Here's what's puzzling me: Considering the obvious opportunity presented, I'm amazed that not one single member of congress has leapt at this chance to take the high road, stand up, denounce corruption no matter where it makes its lair, and applaud the FBI's investigation, if only in an attempt to distance themselves from the mess. I imagine such a move would be viewed as a stab in the back by the remainder of congress, but that's never stopped them from stabbing each other before, especially when there's an opportunity to pander to an outraged public and make oneself appear to be above reproach in a single stroke. Yet, if a single member of that august body has said a single word in support of the investigation and search it's news to me. As the InstaPundit opined earlier this week, this episode makes them all, each and every one, look like crooks. They've got to know that, but none of them has lifted a finger to dispell the notion. Quite the opposite in fact, they've been unanimous in giving the finger to the public. What gives?
Update -- Well slap my ass and call me Sally! From the Saturday Casper Star: WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., broke with top leaders of both parties this week over an FBI raid of a congressman’s office, criticizing their protests of the agency’s tactics and opposing their call for an immediate return of seized documents. [...]
Cubin put out a statement publicly disagreeing with the protests over the search.
“Nobody in this country is above the law, especially those elected to create our laws,” she said. “They should, if anything, be held to a higher standard. They should not expect their congressional offices to be treated as a safe haven to store incriminating documents or illegal products such as drugs or stolen goods."
"With all due respect to my colleagues, criticizing the executive and judicial branches of our government for fully investigating a member of Congress suspected of criminal wrongdoing sends the wrong message and reflects poorly upon all of Congress,” she added. “Alleged corruption and crimes in both the private and public sector must be fully investigated, and those found guilty must face a fitting punishment. Members of Congress are no exception.”
Good for her! Yet another reason to move to Wyoming. We may be the last bastion of sanity* in a thoroughly bizarre world.
*Ps. Okay, perhaps sanity isn't the most accurate term, there were those cookies..
@6:52 AM
Wednesday, May 24, 2006- - -
"Not a dime's worth of difference.."
If the FBI has any sense, which admittedly sometimes seems doubtful, they should be staking out the House and Senate office buildings right now to see which of our illustrious leaders have suddenly found need to remove files from their offices, or are spending an inordinate amount of time at the shredder. This article in the WaPo notes that the investigation of Congressman Jefferson has been on-going for 14 months, although it's just now hitting the news. Makes me wonder how many more of our congresscritters are being investigated and whether searching Jefferson's office is pokin' the anthill to see if anything slimy comes scurrying out (I suppose 'reconnaissance by fire' is out of the question). I'd bet there were some really sweaty palms down in DC right now. I like that.
[H/T InstaPundit]
Ps. Heheh. Yes, now we know where the money came from that all those Nigerians want so desperately to deposit in your bank account.
PPs. This is interesting. Another WaPo article from August 13th, 2005, says Jefferson's homes in DC and New Orleans were searched by the FBI the week before in this same investigation, which the WaPo noted had been going on for "nearly a year." That would suggest that the investigation has now been going on for nearly 21 months rather than the 14 noted in today's articles at the WaPo. It also raises the question of why it's taken nine months for the searches to expand from Jefferson's homes to his office. You'd think by now he's had ample opportunity to dispose of any damning evidence, so why bother? Curious. Do you suppose he had a 'fridge in the office?
I've got to love the hubbub this is causing amongst the leaders of the House though. Back in LBJ's time you had to actually accuse someone of beastiality to force them to deny it. I suppose all the current outrage isn't exactly a denial of corruption, but it's certainly hit a sore spot.
@3:31 PM
What's in a name?
Just Citizens names military impersonator Jesse MacBeth Nimrod of the Week. Can't blame them for thinking this guy is a genuine numb nuts, but it does raise the question: How did Nimrod go from being a biblical "mighty hunter" to being a term of contempt? It's certainly not the first time I've seen the term applied in this fashion, but it is curious.
Update: Reading further along in the Wikipedia article I find that some extrabiblical documents suggest that it was Nimrod who was fool enough to think he could get into heaven by building the Tower of Babel. That might certainly explain the Nimrod = Fool equation. Ya learn something new every day.
Then again, the Wiki article goes on to blame a certain cartoon rabbit: The name took on connotations of a dolt when hunter Elmer Fudd was called "Nimrod" by Bugs Bunny in the popular Warner Bros. cartoons. Long before that, there are recorded instances of its use as a slang word to mean simply "hunter" (from the Genesis account). Obviously I don't watch enough cartoons.
@10:42 AM
 What an implication!
Says Hugh Hewitt: "Off to a group think on the future of journalism at the Museum of Television and Radio Media Center in NYC." The future of journalism is to be found in a museum? I certainly hope not, but some certainly seem intent on that end. Of course, one wing should be off-limits to children and the easily frightened.
@9:37 AM
 Cool Tools!
Building something new wouldn't be half the fun if you didn't discover the need for a couple of tools you didn't even know existed. Here's a really handy gadget: The Wagner Safe-T-Planer.
The thickness of the fingerboard and headstock on a stringed instrument are fairly critical and this thickness must be as uniform as possible across each piece. Taking a 20" long piece of ebony 0.32" thick and making it 0.24" thick, not 0.25", not 0.23", would be a daunting task with hand tools and even a relatively inexpensive power planer is pretty darn expensive for a hobbiest. This little outfit will do the job, and a lot more.
A few words of caution are in order: The instructions and advertising will tell you that this gadget can't possibly injure you, and won't grab or kick back. It's true, it can't hurt you unless you stick your fingers in the turning blades. If you do stick your fingers in the razor-sharp blades it will cut you badly, so don't do that (a careful finger-count indicates that I avoided this woodworking faux pas). I also managed to make it grab and kick back, but only by feeding it more wood than it could comfortably cut at once. It will make a relatively clean 0.05" cut, but force much more wood into it and the cut becomes a bit ragged. Eventually it will grab under too much load. Best to be patient and take small cuts.
 One of the problems I faced in making my cittern was fitting the neck to the curve of the round body. Cutting a 5-1/2" radius curve precisely would be difficult at best with hand tools (at least for me, obviously some folks accomplish this all the time or there wouldn't be banjos. (Some people might think that's a bad thing.)). But, tilt the bed of the drill press and this little pup will cut a curved trough in a piece of stock. Slick.
Here you can see the neck attaching block I made which is curved on the body side to fit the rim and has a tongue on the neck side to align the neck perpendicular to the body. I also used the Safe-T-Planer to cut the tongue to a tight fit in a 5/8" groove I cut in the base of the neck with a router. This is a seriously handy accessory for anyone with a drill press.
While I'm at it I might as well describe some of the other details of my little monster. I wasn't quite sure how high the neck would need to be to give proper "action" -- string height above the frets -- but by attaching the neck via this neck block with a pair of bolts (you can see the head of one inside the rim) and cutting slots in the rim and neck block, the neck can be loosened and slid up or down to fine tune the action. This isn't really something I dreamed up, my dad had a Kay guitar with a Stromberg-Voisinet patent adjustable neck and this is my somewhat simplified rendition of that idea.
On the neck, in the very upper part of the photo, you can see the 1/4" wide groove I routed to accept a truss rod and flanking this groove a pair of 1/8" wide 3/8" deep graphite-epoxy neck reinforcing rods. Because this instrument will have five courses of strings rather than four the neck will be a bit wider than I'm used to, so I want it to be as thin as possible. Reinforcing the neck with a pair of these ultra-stiff graphite rods allows a very thin neck. Some manufacturers have gone to using one or two of these rods in place of a truss rod, but I'm not that brave. As soon as I've finished inlaying the position markers on the fretboard I'll install the truss rod and then glue on the fingerboard, hiding these neck reinforcements.
If you look closely inside the rim you can see two of the three 1/4" maple strips (the split between them is just to the left of the neck bolt) that support the resophonic cone in the rim. These were my first adventure in steam-bending maple and there are three of these supports because I kept snapping the 1/4" x 1/2" maple strip as I tried to bend it. I eventually figured out how to do it (get the wood very wet and very hot) but by then my maple strip was a bit short. I'd originally intended to use a piece of kerfing for this support, but thought a solid strip of maple would look better, since the back of the rim will remain open. It does look good, at the cost of considerable aggravation. But hey, I learned how to bend maple.
Finally, looking closely at the rim you can see one of the seams between the three laminations that make up the maple rim. This inner lamination line will be hidden under the cover plate, but the outer lamination line will be visible on top and both lines will be visible on the back of the rim. I figured I could do better than that and routed a narrow groove down these visible lamination lines, installing a fine maple and ebony purfling in each groove. I'll mask these while staining the top and bottom of the rim fairly dark, leaving a pair of white lines flanking a fine black line around the rim on top and a pair of the same on the back. You can also see that I've installed an ivoroid/black binding around the rim on top and back to protect the sharp edges of the rim. In this photo I haven't yet scraped the bindings flush, as I discovered that the glue causes the bindings to swell a bit and want to make absolutely sure they've dried and shrunk before I scrape them so they don't shrink below the level of the surrounding wood.
Yes, this is an immensely entertaining project and I'm already planning my next creation, probably a tenor guitar. Frankly, I wouldn't recommend going to the trouble of making your own if you want a guitar, banjo, or mandolin; there are plenty of professionals who do a great job and you won't save a nickel by doing it yourself. The parts and materials are very expensive if you don't buy them in bulk and it does require a few specialized tools that aren't cheap either. On the other hand, I can see why some folks find this a fascinating hobby -- a friend of mine is a master woodworker, he makes guitars and can't even play the guitar.. Go figure. On the third hand, if you want something unusual or hard to find you can commission a luthier to make one, a very expensive proposition, or you can make your own. It's not that hard. Really.
@6:38 AM
Tuesday, May 23, 2006- - -
Off with his head!
Finally! A link from the InstaPundit that makes me want to click on over to the Daily Kos, a call for Rep. Jefferson's resignation. Frankly, reading the Kos leaves me feeling like I've spent the day with a particularly misbegotten batch of 2nd graders, without (I assume) the charm of missing front teeth. But this one I couldn't resist. Naturally, we find that Jefferson is guilty until proven innocent, a remarkable degree of deference to "the man" considering the source. And among the recommended punishments for this malefactor? "Remove all of the benefits associated with being a Democrat." Geez, I'd like to see a list of those.
Dare I take a look at the Comments?
Ayee! Yes, more than a few dentally challenged in that lineup and your average 2nd grader would do a better job with the spelling and grammar. Now I feel so unclean..
Update: Oddly enough, it took a couple hundred comments before this came out: "What if the money was planted in the fridge?
What if he is completely innocent and he is being set up by rogue (Gonzales??) elements of the FBI?" I'm faintly surprised that this didn't come up much sooner. And no, I didn't read all those comments -- my head might explode -- I just searched for "planted", assuming the conspiracy angle would be obvious.
Update Dux: Okay, call me a pervert but I've been reading the Comments and, to be fair, quite a few are calling for a housecleaning of the corrupt bastids, Dem and Repub. Can't argue with that.
@7:02 PM
So why a cittern?
I wanted a resophonic instrument but couldn't decide whether I wanted an octave mandolin or a tenor guitar or tenor banjo. All are tuned in 'fifths' and so are easy for a mandolin player to pick up (here's a good explanation of the tenor guitar and tuning in fifths). The difference between the tenor instruments and an octave mandolin is that the mandolin is generally tuned GDAE while the tenors are tuned CGDA, omitting the highest pitched E-string and adding a lower pitched C-string (and of course having four strings rather than four pair of strings). The modern rendition of the cittern commonly has five pair of strings and is often tuned in fifths CGDAE, which would seem to be the best of both worlds. We shall see. At the least it will certainly be one funky-lookin' instrument.
@8:41 AM
 Down to the fussy bits..
Here's the headstock inlay for my cittern. The horn sheaths are antelope horn -- I'll leave the original outer surface as it has a cool texture I'd never duplicate -- and the cranium is composed of nine tiny bits of fossil mammoth ivory.
It's temporarily glued (with water soluble hide glue) to a piece of scrap wood for final carving and polishing, after which it will be temporarily glued to a piece of thin veneer for inletting into the ebony headstock. Rather than inletting this flush I'll only inlet it 3-4 hundreths of an inch, leaving it standing 'proud' of the surrounding wood and giving me much more opportunity to carve and shape it 3-dimensionally. Pretty cute, eh?
This is my first attempt at working ivory (I bought a bag of scrap pieces from Boone Trading) and I'd expected it to be hard as the cobbles of hell. It is. But as usual it's all in having the tools for the job. I picked up sets of diamond impregnated needle files and diamond burrs for the Mototool at the rock shows in Tucson, and they make short work of it, although the smell is reminiscent of a bad day at the dentist's office.
I'll have more photos soon, but it's pouring rain outside right now and sunlight is the only way to go for really clear photos with my cheapo camera.
@8:07 AM
 Those darn spellcheckers!
Here's one from the bulletin board that's delightfully bad...
@7:59 AM
Sunday, May 21, 2006- - -
I'm so confused!
Today's Casper Star has the latest in the Preble's meadow jumping mouse controversy, a case study for those of us prone to jumping to conclusions. It's devolved into dueling geneticists, with some saying the Preble's is genetically distinct from the campestris mouse, or Bear Lodge meadow jumping mouse, and others saying they're the same species.
Would it be cynical of me to point out that the conclusions reached have always confirmed the preconceptions of those commissioning the studies?
@7:10 AM
Friday, May 19, 2006- - -
A resophonic cittern?
Why yes, glad you asked. Ever since I picked up an octave mandolin last winter I've been fascinated by the idea of a cittern, essentially an octave with an extra course of stings. I also like the sound of resophonic instruments and, although I've got a stack of instruments (yes, even a few banjos) I don't have anything resophonic. So.. I thought combining the two would be interesting. Apparently I'm an aberation because, near as I can figure, there's no such thing as a resophonic cittern. Not surprising I suppose, as the modern rendition of the cittern has only been around since the 1970's and they're mostly associated with Irish music (and we all know that Irishmen never get loud!). At any rate, after much searching and reading, I decided to build my own.
The beasty will be a bit different. In my reading I discovered that resophonic instruments were invented by the Dopyera Brothers, who shortened their name to create the "Dobro" company. Originally, the idea was to create a louder stringed instrument to compete in orchestras back in the days before electric amplification. The heart of the instrument is an aluminum cone that looks and works very much like the paper cone in a stereo speaker. Like a speaker, the body of a resophonic instrument is designed to be fairly heavy and impervious to vibration, as you don't want to have a lot of parasitic harmonics from the body competing with the sound of the cone itself. Thus, unlike other good quality instruments, the body of a resophonic instrument is commonly constructed of heavy laminates.
This led to my first problem: I didn't want to build the thing out of plywood. If I'm going to go to all the trouble to make my own instrument, I want it to look good as well as sounding good. That means premium-quality woods. There are a couple of outfits that sell woods specifically for stringed instrument manufacture, but their body woods are generally quite thin, being intended for more normal instruments (for more normal people). My research suggested that such thin body woods would be a problem, and it seems a shame to use such fine woods as a veneer.
So.. What to do? Thicker slabs of instrument-quality wood are available for constructing arch-top instruments, but the price goes up fast and, again, these woods are solid and intended to resonate, not at all what I wanted. Then I read somewhere that the banjo is really the first resophonic instrument although using a hide membrane rather than a spun aluminum cone as the amplifier. For this reason, the "pot" of a banjo is commonly constructed with a rim of heavy maple laminates over which the head is stretched. Most commonly, the rim is 11" in diameter and 3/4" thick, giving an interior diameter of about 9-1/2". Handily, this is the same diameter as a small resophonic cone. Since the whole idea is to contain the cone in a heavy body that won't vibrate, the minimalist solution would seem to be to install a cone in a banjo rim, and slap on a neck and a cover plate. A banjo resonator (which isn't really a resonator but rather a sound redirector) could be added, but plenty of banjos are open-backed too.
And an idea is born! Ultimately my creation will look something like an old Cliff Edwards tenortrope, although with ten strings rather than four. (Incidentally, you've probably never heard of Cliff Edwards, or "Ukulele Ike", his stage name, but you've heard him -- he provided the voice for Jiminy Cricket in Walt Disney's Pinocchio.) Unfortunately, I don't have any photos yet (picture a small pile of wood scraps and various metal bits that look vaguely like they could have been stolen from a guitar), but the project is coming into shape. I've got the cone fitted into the rim and the neck constructed and fitted onto the rim. The rim and fingerboard bindings are installed, and it's just about ready for the frets, trim bits, and final assembly.
In other words, I'm done with all the big dangerous power tools and down to the fussy inlaying and finishing. There's little chance at this point that I'll slip up and botch the whole job. I know I've got an instrument and it only remains to be seen what it will look and sound like. I've also achieved a whole new appreciation for the folks who make musical instruments. Fussy, fussy work and everything has got to be held to very tight tolerances: 'Should that neck angle be 1.5 or 2 degrees? It will make a big difference in the playing action.' The whole job has been made infinitely more interesting by the fact that it didn't come with instructions. I've spent far more time reading and studying and measuring existing instruments than I have actually mangling wood. In the process I've learned a good deal about stringed instruments that I didn't know before. Great fun!
@7:00 AM
 Beisbol!
The real reason for light blogging. We took in the games on Monday and Tuesday and we'll catch one more this evening. When the games don't start until 6:30 or 7 pm it's after midnight before we get back to Ft. Morgan, way past my bedtime.
I marvel at the change in LoDo (lower downtown Denver) since Coors Field was built. Down in the old warehouse district next to the train yards, the area has gone from scary to up-scale in the last 10 years. Now it's great fun to walk around and look at all the wonderful old 1800's architecture and many of the modern buildings, like Coors Field, have been built in compatable styles, although you'd never mistake the ballpark for a converted warehouse or hotel. Best of all, there are five brewpubs within walking distance of the pallpark.
@6:33 AM
Nice mustache, Sis!
I'm faintly amused by the guns & testosterone study and I'll have to ask my sister what she thinks of it. I mean, that 12 gauge has got to be a heavy dose.
@6:23 AM
 Bioengineers gone bad..
Or not. One of these would be just the thing for steeplechase.
The jackalope is an iconic figure in Douglas, Wyo., where I snapped this photo at the KOA on our way down to Colorado. The sister-in-law called last Thursday with news that her travel plans had fallen through. Rather than cancel her vacation she decided to make a quick trip out to CO to visit the M-I-L. We didn't have anything better to do so we hitched up the ol' 5th wheel and headed south.
We've been on a dead run ever since, with a heavy schedule of shopping, Colorado Rockies games, eating, drinking, and being merry. We're headed into Denver again today to hit the bookstores and perhaps make one more pass at Applejack's for their wine sales. We do have to head home tomorrow as I have a couple of business meetings coming up next week that will require some preparation, so I'll be back to something like regular blogging then. Stay tuned for the big story on my cittern building!
@5:52 AM
Sunday, May 14, 2006- - -
Why not blame global warming?
The InstaPundit points to an interesting, if infuriatingly vague article on the Late Pleistocene extinction of the North American megafauna which concludes that climate change rather than human predation caused the extinction event. Only the National Geographic could make this sound like an amazing new revelation -- the drastic climate changes at the end of the Pleistocene had drastic and well documented effects on the period's flora and fauna -- but it also raises an interesting issue.
There's a great deal of resonance for some folks in the idea that evil human hunters killed off all those wonderfully bizarre ice age critters, and it is possible that human predation gave the mammoth a final push over the edge. But the mammoth is a special case. The species had a very low reproductive rate and low overall population, and already being under severe climatic stress it might not have taken much to push them over the edge. The big problem with the evil hunter scenario is touched on in the last couple of paragraphs of the article: Some of the megafauna, the mastodon in particular, appear to have become extinct before humans arrived on the scene. Hard to blame that on the evils of hunting.
So.. with climate change at the end of the Pleistocene being the most likely culprit, why aren't the usual suspects using this as an example of the horrors of global warming? It was the end of the last ice age, it was global warming or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof (although the end of the ice age may have had more to do with a reduction in precipitation than with an increase in temperature). Of course, that was 12,000 years ago, also hard to blame that climate change on we evil humans' taste for hydrocarbons.
@9:32 PM
Thursday, May 11, 2006- - -
Now here's a place I can't miss:
High Dessert Foods in Dolores, Colorado. Yes, the Heritage Foods directory says dessert. Unfortunately, they do get the spelling right later, which rather spoils the effect.
Another in the can't be missed category: Reason in Amsterdam. "Amidst the beauty of Amsterdam's canals, flower markets and colorful people, attendees of Reason in Amsterdam, 2006 will enjoy a unique opportunity to learn about the contemporary struggle in Europe from prominent European and American intellectuals." Of course, you don't actually have to go to Amsterdam to study their struggle for liberty, unless you also wish to, you know, partake in a little of that liberty. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park, are the top-billed speakers at the event! Sigh. The good folks at Reason do seem to be going all out to prove that they shouldn't be taken seriously.
Yes, I've been a busy kid. I've finally got all the bits together to make a resophonic cittern and I've been mangling wood with every power tool at my disposal for the last week. Fascinating stuff, I'll have a report with photos soon.
@10:11 AM
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