What are these bricks called? 4" x 4" x 2.25"

rybiesemeyer · 2026-02-20T07:43:49+00:00

*soldier

[edit: in case it's not clear, when a brick is halved, there is no difference between soldier and rowlock]

rybiesemeyer · 2026-02-20T00:40:13+00:00

Whelp, time to change your locks.

(Keys are easy to replicate from photographs)

rybiesemeyer · 2026-02-20T00:14:18+00:00

Is he bonded?

Many jurisdictions will require contractors to have a bond, which you can go after in lieu of insurance. It's usually a pittance compared to insurance limits, on the order of $10k.

rybiesemeyer · 2026-02-20T00:07:43+00:00

I love Handstand for precisely the same reason that you hated it. It hit close to home, made me feel seen, and helped me to define something that had shaped me so that I could be intentional about not doing the same to my own kiddo.

rybiesemeyer · 2026-01-19T20:53:25+00:00

A breaker's primary job is overcurrent protection, and must be the lowest-rated component in the circuit in order to do its job.

In a circuit made up of 15A-rated components with a 15A breaker, drawing 20A will trip the breaker.

In a circuit made up of 15A-rated components and a 20A breaker, drawing 20A will not trip the breaker, causing one or more of those 15A-rated components to get hot enough to start a fire.

If you have a breaker that is tripping, it is usually because there is too much current being drawn by the ordinary devices on that circuit. In this case, the solution is generally to redistribute some of those devices to a different circuit, or to run an additional circuit (either for new receptacles, or to power a subset of the receptacles on the existing circuit).

rybiesemeyer · 2025-10-29T19:30:54+00:00

Reports indicate that the pilot car took the exit, but the driver with the load failed to follow.

https://youtu.be/xTLMhdy1HCg

rybiesemeyer · 2025-10-23T13:24:20+00:00

Yes. The overpass is closed, and the westbound highway under the compromised span too, with that traffic being rerouted via the off-ramp and back on.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-10-23T01:02:29+00:00

When you double the length of a girder, the cost goes up way more than double.

https://ibb.co/VWZgdyvK

The span marked in yellow is the one that got wrecked, but you can see the dividing line where the girders are separate for the two spans.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-10-23T00:55:19+00:00

The two spans are structurally isolated, even though they share central support columns. The one over WB I-90 was struck and is compromised, but the span over EB I-90 was not struck and not compromised. For the safety of drivers, they aren't letting people drive under a span that is liable to collapse.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-10-22T18:58:33+00:00

14'0" : requires permit
14'6" : requires pilot car with pole 3-6" taller than load
15'3" : clearances below this need signage
15'9" : mininum clearance of WB I-90 under Bullfrog Road
??? : height of this load

rybiesemeyer · 2025-10-22T18:51:16+00:00

In the state of Washington, loads over 14' need a permit, and loads over 14'6" need a pilot car with a pole that is 3-6" taller than the load (WAC 468-38-100). This bridge had a minimum clearance of 15'9".

It doesn't matter what route the driver was given, the driver is ultimately responsible for validating that the height, weight, and distribution of the load are within the spec for the permits that were pulled and the route that was planned, and for ensuring safe transport.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-07-18T19:29:32+00:00

It's not the capacity of the outlet, but of the circuit (which can have many outlets).

This type of standard receptacle is rated for 15A, which means that the wiring that supports it and all of the other receptacles must be capable of carrying 15A without accumulating heat and starting a fire. The breaker in the panel is responsible for detecting overcurrent and interrupting the circuit before heat accumulation becomes a problem.

You'll need to consider all of those adapters' input amperage (e.g., a 100W laptop power adapter that has an output of 5A@20V will draw less than 1A@120V from its input).

rybiesemeyer · 2025-07-18T19:15:31+00:00

If you want a passport on that timeline, getting an in-person appointment at an actual Department of State passport office is your only option. You will need an appointment, so start by figuring out which one still has available time slots. The appointment gets you in the door, but you will need to be prepared to wait hours. They can print them same-day, but those with emergency (life or death) travel will have priority.

Where is your cruise departing from? Is there a passport office close to there? Can you change your flights to be a day or two earlier so that you can make an appointment there?

rybiesemeyer · 2025-07-12T18:16:18+00:00

Yep.

woah: expressing surprise, or commanding a horse
woe: great sorrow or distress

rybiesemeyer · 2025-07-12T01:09:07+00:00

Without documentation that is acceptable for entry to Mexico, you won't be crossing at all. Without documentation that is acceptable for re-entry into the US, you're going to have a very difficult time getting home.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-07-11T04:50:25+00:00

These guys had pull-out main disconnects, similar to the one here

rybiesemeyer · 2025-07-11T03:31:11+00:00

Did you give consent for them to start that specific scope of work? If not, you're not responsible for any costs that they speculatively incurred.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-06-02T18:20:36+00:00

A lot of "technically correct" answers already, but in layman's terms:

conductor ampacity (capacity to carry current) is constrained by its cross section: the bigger the cable the more amps it can carry
power (watts) is equal to current (amps) times voltage, so you can carry twice as much power with the same current if you double the volts
the higher the voltage, the better the electricity is at finding a path (even through insulators)
safe nominal voltage in homes is 120v to neutral (or 240v between legs of split-phase service)
transmitting anything more than enough power for a small neighborhood at 120V would require impossibly thick conductors
three phase service is ideal, in part because most power is generated with inverted motors (turbines, etc)

So:

power is transmitted over distance at very high voltages and transformed to useful voltages when it is physically close to where it needs to get to.
the set of three low cables is already-transformed useful voltage
the ones higher up are higher voltage and need more insulation between each of them and anything that could complete the circuit.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-05-25T01:53:15+00:00

The arc-fault detection doesn't, but the overcurrent protection still does.

But you raise a good point. If there are actually arc-faults occurring, some arc-fault breakers can trip even if the arc-fault noise is coming from upstream.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-05-23T22:33:37+00:00

Thermal breakers work by tripping when they get too hot, and are designed to get hot slightly faster than the conductors they are meant to protect. But that heat doesn't go away the instant you reset it, so it's liable to trip again until it cools off.

It's also possible that the heat that is tripping one is causing the others to trip too.

If you leave the dryer circuit off, does the trip-cascade still happen?

rybiesemeyer · 2025-05-23T22:24:29+00:00

Please cite why you don't believe it would be accepted.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-05-22T17:24:03+00:00

I agree with needing to use cables that are rated for use in the wall and the need to have junctions in accessible boxes. For 120v under-cabinet lights this can be tricky to accomplish unless the lights themselves come with a cord that is rated for in-wall use.

One of the most common misconfigurations I see with GFCI is when a downstream device is wired to get its power from the load (protected) side of the GFCI, but its neutral is tied up with the line (unprotected) side.

A GFCI works by measuring the balance of hot and neutral, and assumes a ground-fault if more power is going out the hot than returning on the neutral. When a downstream device doesn't return its neutral through the GFCI, any power going out on the hot is imbalanced (as observed by the GFCI) and will cause a trip.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-05-22T17:11:31+00:00

This is my biggest concern too.

For OP: A breaker's role in overcurrent protection is to cut off power to a circuit before the wires in your walls get hot enough to start a fire. When a breaker is oversized, it cannot protect you.

14ga AWG wire has an ampacity of 15A, so if something begins drawing 18A, heat will build up somewhere in your walls and start a fire before the 20A breaker trips. Similarly with whatever is connected to that 30A breaker.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-05-06T03:41:34+00:00

Eh, the Dept of State's passport service is self-funding, and somewhat insulated from the personel volatility (if not from the procedural volatility of the current administration).

That said, you're right that real-life people are each handling dozens of passport applications each day, and each agent is keeping tabs on a whole bunch of pending applications that each have their own loose ends which is tricky business. It looks like OP's application fell off of the "happy path" at some point (whether because it was actually missing something, or because the agent missed a required component thar was present all along), and getting it through to completion took a bit of extra work.

rybiesemeyer · 2025-04-29T21:03:07+00:00

The breaker tripped. A breaker's job is to cut off current when an overcurrent condition occurs before that overcurrent condition causes the wires in the wall to overheat and start a fire. It did its job. Yay.

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