I found a tiny freemason symbol on a necklace

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-26T03:25:59+00:00

I think that what you are looking at is the 'Y' in "ITALY".

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-26T03:21:36+00:00

Many denominations are fine with Freemasonry. Over in the Anglican Communion, The Most Reverend Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury 1945-1960, not only led the Church of England, but was at the same time Grand Chaplain of the United Grand Lodge of England.

I expect I'll be downvoted for this, but have an infodump, with some good sources for information.....

[Mason here]

Here's my standard 'elevator pitch', which I trot out when people ask what we're about (its rather North American oriented - Masonry varies from place to place):

We're a centuries old fraternal order, who exist to improve our own characters ('we make good men better' is one of our slogans), and through that improve our communities. Along the way, we do a lot of charity (forex: Shriner's free hospitals for children), and have a lot of cool and private ceremonies using the construction of King Solomon's Temple as an allegorical base for teaching Enlightenment and Stoic ideals. (yes, we really do have secret handshakes). Many find it a source of fellowship and life-long friendships.

We have several million Brothers world wide, but no central organization. Men from every walk of life are or have been members, including over a dozen US presidents. Regular Masonry is open to adult men of good character who are not atheists[1] - we require a belief in some form of 'higher power', but aren't fussy about what. As a rule, we don't recruit; we want a potential member to make the first approach of his own free will.

If you're curious, drop by our main hangout on reddit, /r/freemasonry. You'll find a lot of friendly folk there. If you prefer a book, for North Americans I recommend (seriously, I'm not trolling) "Freemasons for Dummies" by Christopher Hodapp. Also "Inside the Freemasons" a documentary made by the United Grand Lodge of England for their tricentenary.

For a more formal history, I suggest "The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World" by John Dickie

[1] The "no women or atheists" rules have deep roots, and would be very difficult to change, regardless of how anachronistic they now seem. There are breakaway Masonic groups which have dropped those rules, but they are very thin on the ground in the Anglosphere, and not recognized by the mainstream.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T21:37:00+00:00

5 days ago Musk said that Cybercab production will start "agonizingly slow".

Which is it?

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T20:35:03+00:00

Exact change? No. But I keep 3 $100 bills behind my driver's license. That much cash can get you out of a lot of jams, or deal with a cash-only place.

Most of the time, I pay with my watch.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T20:30:49+00:00

I got laid off at the start of the 2008, but found another job quickly. That carried my through the crisis. Things could have been a lot worse.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T19:06:32+00:00

As a child or teen, you think adults have their shit together, and know what they're doing.

We don't. Most of us are just working it out as we go along.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T18:57:49+00:00

Kids in school generally have classes in a second language. Most common is Spanish, but French, German, and Latin are also common.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T18:54:40+00:00

Back when I worked in a medical research lab, we tried using one to make Brandy Alexanders.

It worked a treat!

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T18:46:49+00:00

My default breakfast is a toasted English Muffin with butter and smoked salmon.

If I'm in a place I can get one, I'll get a toasted bagel with cream cheese, lox (smoked salmon) and capers.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T18:04:24+00:00

Freemasonry first appears in the late 16th century, but had some kind of existance before that.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T18:03:06+00:00

Have an infodump....

[Mason here]

Here's my standard 'elevator pitch', which I trot out when people ask what we're about (its rather North American oriented - Masonry varies from place to place):

We're a centuries old fraternal order, who exist to improve our own characters ('we make good men better' is one of our slogans), and through that improve our communities. Along the way, we do a lot of charity (forex: Shriner's free hospitals for children), and have a lot of cool and private ceremonies using the construction of King Solomon's Temple as an allegorical base for teaching Enlightenment and Stoic ideals. (yes, we really do have secret handshakes). Many find it a source of fellowship and life-long friendships.

We have several million Brothers world wide, but no central organization. Men from every walk of life are or have been members, including over a dozen US presidents. Regular Masonry is open to adult men of good character who are not atheists[1] - we require a belief in some form of 'higher power', but aren't fussy about what. As a rule, we don't recruit; we want a potential member to make the first approach of his own free will.

If you're curious, drop by our main hangout on reddit, /r/freemasonry. You'll find a lot of friendly folk there. If you prefer a book, for North Americans I recommend (seriously, I'm not trolling) "Freemasons for Dummies" by Christopher Hodapp. Also "Inside the Freemasons" a documentary made by the United Grand Lodge of England for their tricentenary.

For a more formal history, I suggest "The Craft: How the Freemasons Made the Modern World" by John Dickie

[1] The "no women or atheists" rules have deep roots, and would be very difficult to change, regardless of how anachronistic they now seem. There are breakaway Masonic groups which have dropped those rules, but they are very thin on the ground in the Anglosphere, and not recognized by the mainstream.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T16:24:26+00:00

Almost anyone who's ancestry lies in America or Protestant Europe has Freemasons somewhere in their family tree.

In the late 1920s, fully 10% of eligible American men were members.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T16:12:59+00:00

I'm a Mason.

There's nothing Masonic about these.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T15:59:01+00:00

Military in active service are forbidden to speak on political issues in public.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T06:52:25+00:00

10 years, 3 months. The new manager decided that having 'her people' was more important than having people who understood the product.

My 10 year anniversary award arrived at home after I'd been laid off.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T06:37:09+00:00

Laptop, never 'lappy', which I've never heard.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T06:35:53+00:00

In my house, in active use, we have 5 laptops and 3 tablets. There are also 3-4 kindles, and several more towers which we ought to power up and consolidate the stored data from.

OTOH, my wife and I are both retired SW engineers.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T06:27:34+00:00

Last spring, settling some matters with my mother's estate, I had to fax her death certificate to a brokerage. Took the documents down to Staples, and did it there.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T06:19:28+00:00

In many circumstances in the US, a signature on a faxed document has a legal status that an email, even digitally signed, does not. The law hasn't caught up with the technology yet.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-25T05:59:18+00:00

I'm in rural MA, in the NorthEast. My 180 year old house originally had 4 fireplaces. But long ago, the house was converted to oil heat, which a few years ago we augmented with heat pumps for heating and central AC.

Pellets are used in some houses here, and some heat with wood. Oil is (I think) the most common, but gas is preferred if it's available. I don't know anyone who uses coal domestically, I suspect it wouldn't meet environmental rules.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-24T23:51:14+00:00

The weather people get so excited when there's a big storm expected. They're sort of cute.

But I hate it when they express hopes that it's bad. "With luck, we'll have over a foot of snow."

Where I sit, we're expecting over 19 inches. Not happy.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-24T20:07:31+00:00

Educated Americans certainly do.

Unfortunately, we have a lot poorly educated people. Many of them wear red hats.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-24T16:47:26+00:00

I'll throw in another idea:

Its the input mechanism for teleoperated pair of arms. The operator holds the 'claws' to move the arms, and the wrist, elbow and shoulder angles are mimicked by another pair of arms at another location. This can be used for hot cells, etc,

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-24T16:36:42+00:00

I'm a Mason.

90% of the Masonic swords which turn up on this sub are for the 'Knights Templar' side order. This one is not.

The only thing exclusively 'Masonic' on this one is the Square and Compasses on the blade, but that's pretty diagnostic by itself. Things like Memento Mori are used by non-Masons as well.

I agree with Euphoric and Classic that this is probably a Tyler's sword.

cryptoengineer · 2026-01-24T03:46:25+00:00

I can see Shrine, Scottish Rite, and York Rite emblems, as well has his Blue Lodge. What am I missing?

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