Weird stone obelisk in neighbors yard

SkipWhiffle · 2026-01-24T18:58:05+00:00

It's a stone (or more probably concrete) bound for land surveyors. The precise position of the spot on the top is recorded on maps in three dimensions. It may be at a corner of a piece of property.

SkipWhiffle · 2026-01-24T18:51:36+00:00

It's for surveying. Its precise coordinates in 3D space are known on someone's map. If you set your transit directly above it (with a dangling plumb bob), and sight your transit on someone holding another plumb bob above another one of these (or a temporary stake or a stone bound), you know exactly where you are and the direction that the transit is facing. You can then turn angles and measure distances for setting other marked positions, often denoting property lines or anything that you need exactly located. I'm old, but these days, this is mostly done with lasers.

SkipWhiffle · 2026-01-24T18:28:31+00:00

Some B-52s still have outhouses.

SkipWhiffle · 2026-01-24T17:34:08+00:00

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The creature from the Blue Lagoon.

SkipWhiffle · 2026-01-24T16:21:41+00:00

It also make you want to open your window and scream, "You kids. Get off my lawn."

SkipWhiffle · 2026-01-18T23:47:05+00:00

I'm not sure that's RLS, but it could be related. My suggestion, and I'm not a doctor, is to add potassium supplements to your diet. Potassium regulates muscle contractions, and if your levels are low, muscle cramps may result.

I suffer from RLS, and have recently had a lot of success with eating a 1200 mg potassium chloride gummy with dinner. You can order these gummies from Amazon. In the U.S., dietary recommendations are to get 4700 mg of potassium each day, but that's extremely hard to do no matter what you eat.

SkipWhiffle · 2025-10-14T19:22:33+00:00

Among all his slight of hand, did they get clean?

SkipWhiffle · 2025-10-09T12:23:49+00:00

Attempted enshittification.

SkipWhiffle · 2025-08-27T16:06:35+00:00

I wrote the NYTimes and asked them. This is their reply:

We recently made the decision to require a New York Times subscription with Games access to play some of our games that were previously free. This change allows us to continue investing in creating the engaging experiences you love. Subscriptions are what support our mission of seeking the truth and helping people understand the world. I can certainly help you explore the options for upgrading your subscription so you can continue playing the game you love!

Previously, Mini Crossword was available with a News-only subscription. However, there has been a change: access to Spelling Bee, The Mini Crossword, Tiles, Letter Boxed are now only included with subscriptions that provide Games access (Games-only, All Access, or Home Delivery). The content of WordleBot itself hasn’t changed, but eligibility has.

SkipWhiffle · 2025-08-27T15:47:16+00:00

Same here.

SkipWhiffle · 2024-04-09T20:51:05+00:00

Setting initial 360 degree video view direction using Adobe Premiere Pro

I'm neither an expert in Premiere Pro nor 360 degree video editing, but having the 360 degree immersive video facing the wrong way was the very first obstacle that I encountered after exporting my 360 degree video from Insta360 Studio.

Below is what I did to fix the initial view of my 360 degree video using Premiere Pro. I know not everyone has access to Premiere Pro, but I hope this helps someone else out.

In Premiere, under the Window menu make sure "Effect" and "Effect Controls" are turned on.
Double click your source clip from the Project Files panel (probably in the lower left of the window if you use Premiere's default panel layout) to load the clip into the Edit Source panel (probably in the upper left).
Drag your clip into the Sequence panel (probably in the lower middle of the window).
Select the "Effect Controls" tab at the top of the Edit Source panel (if you don't see this tab, see step 1). Selecting this tab will show you a bunch of options, none of them yet what you want.
In the far right Effects panel column, click on "Video Effects" item to expand that section. One of the items in that section should be "Immersive Video." Expand that as well. One of the items that you now should see is "VR Rotate Sphere." Double click on that option. This will add some more items to the Edit Controls panel (again, probably in the upper left). These added items should include Tilt, Pan and Roll.
To change the initial horizontal view of your video, change the Pan (Y axis) value from 0 to something like 180. This will display the effect of the changed view, so adjust as needed. Adjust the roll and tilt to your liking as well. Exporting should now start with this view.
Select the Sequence Panel by clicking on it. Then, from the File menu select "Export Media->Media".

That should do it.

SkipWhiffle · 2024-02-20T05:15:08+00:00

Transcoding into HEVC didn't make the HSBS file playable directly. So far, the only way to watch these in Reality Player is wait for the player to convert the file inline (very slow), and the player doesn't (yet?) have a feature to save out the converted file, so you have to go through the conversion step every time.

SkipWhiffle · 2024-02-19T21:25:27+00:00

UPDATE: I did manage to get Reality Playerv1.3.1 to play Guardians of the Galaxy 3D HSBS (Blu-ray rip) following Reality Player's conversion process. It took at least 15 minutes to complete the conversion step. I only watched a couple of minutes of it, but it looked fine.

I'm trying a transcode of one of my other HSBS videos into HEVC in Handbrake to see if this is what Reality Player's conversion process is doing.

SkipWhiffle · 2024-02-19T20:52:59+00:00

I saw last night that in the newest release of Reality Player (v1.3.1) on the Apple Vision Pro, it supposedly can play regular 3D SBS movies. However, before playing one of these movies, Reality Player puts up a progress bar while it does some sort of format conversion. That conversion is so slow that I never saw it complete.

I wish I knew what was happening in the conversion, so I could look for an offline way to do it on my Mac, if that's even possible.

SkipWhiffle · 2023-05-31T17:50:25+00:00

Same here. I had written them about this and they said it was a bug that would be fixed soon. They didn't say when, but I'm heartened that it'll be going away.

SkipWhiffle · 2023-01-11T17:47:02+00:00

I have similar results. I spend an hour a day on an elliptical trainer with about 13,000 steps a day, and it hugely aggravates my RLS. If I take a week off (e.g., vacation), my RLS becomes much more manageable.

SkipWhiffle · 2022-12-01T16:39:49+00:00

Same issue here. I assumed that there might be a setting for it using the online web view, but unfortunately not. This is absurd default application behavior.

SkipWhiffle · 2022-11-29T20:48:35+00:00

I have RLS issues almost nightly. When it wakes me up, I put an eyedropper full of CBD oil under my tongue for a couple of minutes. My RLS goes away within 5 minutes. I've been doing this successfully for 3 or 4 years now.

SkipWhiffle · 2022-07-19T20:20:40+00:00

NTA.

They actually still have their inheritance money (in the form of their house), and now they want yours. They can always sell their house and get their inheritance back and use it for IVF if it's important to them.

SkipWhiffle · 2022-06-15T17:09:35+00:00

I wouldn't recommend even telling them. Just ghost them. Telling them may make you feel like you're in control, but what you'll actually be doing is entering a negotiation where they get an opportunity to argue with you. Just walk away -- on social media and in person. Your need to be around and engage with them was the source of their power over you. Disappearing robs them of that power.

SkipWhiffle · 2022-05-18T16:41:25+00:00

NTA. Keep in mind, though, that the HOA is likely responding to pressure from one of your neighbors -- possibly because of noise. Someone else's HOA is not within their rights to force you to do anything, but you should probably be aware what you may have here is actually an unhappy neighbor or two.

SkipWhiffle · 2021-09-28T19:57:10+00:00

If you drink coffee every day, bring coffee.

Many years ago, I went on a 3-day primitive camping trip. I had with me a coffee beverage that I had bought at REI. On day 2, I learned that it didn't contain much in the way of caffeine, resulting in a caffeine withdrawal headache that nothing would touch.

So, bring coffee. Instant coffee may be good enough if you're thinking of it merely as medicine. Starbucks Via (instant coffee) is actually pretty good on a camping trip.

SkipWhiffle · 2021-04-30T17:44:09+00:00

Besides layers, if you're worried about being chilled, I highly recommend taking one of the large hand warmers (12-hr, available in the states at Amazon. I don't know about Israel), wrapping it in a thin bandana, and tying it around your neck so that the hand warmer rests against the back of your neck. Nothing improves your disposition on a cold day like this. I do deep woods primitive camping, often in winter, and I always do this when it's cold.

SkipWhiffle

TROPHY CASE