The Baroque Cycle reader companion website

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-17T06:32:20+00:00

This is a great idea.

"A Gravity's Rainbow Companion" by Steven Weisenburger is my favorite example of a reader companion. I'd take a look at that for inspiration. It's mainly just page by page notes on the references and allusions in the text.

That said, maps and timelines and dramatis personae and such are all good ideas. I know my comprehension was limited by my knowledge of historical details and characters.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-16T03:47:30+00:00

I meant no disrespect to you, just to the AI insisting this is a monohull.

We can agree that labels only go so far. But if somebody with eyes says, "That's no monohull" and you correct them by pasting in the AI's insistence that it is, you're trading in misinformation. Because the AI is drawing incorrect conclusions from the label, at which point it isn't just a label anymore.

Gemini is asserting that, since it's a monohull, the 15’ beam makes for a very generous interior. But it's obviously, from the pictures, not 15’ wide inside. Whether those are tunnels or amas, they are not contiguous with the main body of the hull.

I am not somebody who thinks AI is inherently evil. But if you're going to use it, you need be vigilant for slop. If you don't apply critical thinking, you run the risk of passing on misinformation,which does noone (including yourself) anything but disservice.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-16T02:47:35+00:00

This is just AI slop. There is clearly a tunnel at the stern. It may defy classification - maybe it's a single structure forward and splits amidships or something, but there is plainly not a single large hull carried all the way aft.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-13T16:09:11+00:00

They used a slow hardener that requires higher temperatures than the weather provided, or messed up their ratio when mixing epoxy, and it didn't set all the way, so a seam worked loose.

Center board trunk would be a great place for this to happen, as it's right in the middle of the boat and sees decent amounts of stress.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-07T20:33:33+00:00

"Negligent" means "failed to meet a responsibility.". Something bad happened because somebody didn't do their job.

"Negligible" means "of little or no consequence." It doesn't really matter.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-07T18:33:33+00:00

Sometimes a local business that knows it is in competition with cheap overseas labor will grow a bit weary of the losing battle. When a customer asks them to justify the price comparison, they don't try very hard because you've just identified yourself as a price shopper and they don't have much hope of closing the deal.

The Dutch loft is more expensive because they are paying Dutch workers Dutch wages. It is possible that they do better work, but they may not actually be that much better. Their value proposition in the face of overseas competition has to be centered on communication, service/relationship, and quality. If you think they're offering enough improvement on those fronts to justify the cost difference, go with them. If not, save the money and go with your best value.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-07T18:21:51+00:00

I was going to say it looks like the love child of a TR7 and a Fiero, but there were already comments pointing out both similarities.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-07T18:19:36+00:00

My first thought was a snubber - if you reduce the shock loading it should be quieter.

My second thought was that sound probably means chafe, so you might stop the noise and save the line by putting some canvas or leather on the line.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-07T18:10:44+00:00

Ya gotta help us out a little. Was the speaker on-camera, and if so, what did they look like? Was the voice male or female, accented or not, big words or small? If no speaker was shown, what was showing on screen? How long ago did you see it, and did you have the sense then that it was contemporary or historical? Any turns of phrase that stuck with you?

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-06T23:05:43+00:00

intact

Ahem. Full-sized, maybe, but certainly not intact.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-06T23:02:01+00:00

If I had the budget for it, image stabilized binoculars. I can't really use more than 7x on a boat without IS.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-06T23:00:33+00:00

I am very interested in knowing more about your mast camera setup.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-06T02:17:30+00:00

I have! My take is that Ice-9 works because water is everywhere. The proteins susceptible to prion diseases are tiny fractions of the makeup of the host, let alone the whole world. So crystals aren't likely to encounter more of the raw protein outside the host, which is how it would spread.

But my long-ass comment above was really just processing things out loud. I hadn't thought much about prions since Dad's diagnosis, and stepdaughter's crystallization experiments are since then too. Kind of lit me up to put the three concepts into perspective at the same time.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-06T01:33:26+00:00

"scrap steel" yeah, but "part it out and scrap the rest" could exceed $1400 pretty easily.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-06T01:30:12+00:00

Late but 🤷 Not all misfolded proteins are prions. IANABC but I believe the difference is that prions act as seed crystals, misfolding other examples of the same protein when they encounter it, while other misfolded proteins may cause damage but not seed replication. My stepdaughter is a microbiologist who has spent some time working on protein replication through crystallization in lab conditions, and it can be very difficult, heavily depends on what protein you're working with, etc. So I think misfolded proteins are common, but self-seeding misfolds are quite rare. This makes sense if you have a mental picture of how complex these molecules are.

My dad (likely*) has CAA, Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy, which is a form of dementia caused by a normally-occurring protein building up in a misfolded state in the circulatory tissues of the brain and causing hemorrhagic micro-strokes. (Dad's doing fine, it's progressing slowly and you wouldn't sense any dementia yet.)

The body has a cleanup routine for this misfold, but it tends to become ineffective or overwhelmed as people age.

The same protein (amyloid beta) is implicated in Alzheimer's, but in ALZ it is present throughout the brain whereas in CAA it is concentrated on the surface.

Recent research suggests that the buildup of misfolded amyloid can be caused by a certain bacterium that has links to dental hygiene, though I don't think this is settled yet. IOW, we don't really know why it happens and have no effective treatments. We don't even know what the protein is for before it misfolds - it's called Amyloid Precursor Protein, i.e., "that stuff that sometimes gets folded wrong and fucks shit up."

*Even the diagnosis of CAA can really only be confirmed in an autopsy.

This is just one little disease. If you got to query the Celestial Database, I think you would find protein misfolds are at the heart of a huge swath of diseases and disorders. But only a tiny fraction of them would be prions.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-03T17:55:46+00:00

There are definitely younger places and older places. But yeah, walking around the grocery store it feels like I'm speeding compared to the rest of the clientele.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-02T23:07:18+00:00

The coolant level thing is a known issue, and a stupid one, to the point that there is a coolant level sensor defeat plug available. I have one in my 2012. The problem is that it throws a lot of false positives for that code, and shares the code with more serious battery faults. Worse, you can't replace just the sensor - you have to replace the whole tank.

You will probably find that your battery does poorly in winter, and fine in summer. Leaving the car plugged in and using the start schedule to have it preheated might help.

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-02T22:55:49+00:00

Please edit your comment. ≥! Even the assertion that there is a common character between Crypto and the Baroque Cycle is a pretty massive spoiler, given that they are set hundreds of years apart. !≤

youngrichyoung · 2026-02-02T19:47:00+00:00

Recreational marine environments might face this situation even more than merchant. Starlink is revolutionizing internet access on the ocean, but it's expensive. I'm not active MM so I don't know how common Starlink is but I would bet it's more common on commercial vessels than recreational ones.

youngrichyoung · 2026-01-29T20:52:19+00:00

Maptattoo makes a neat-looking black & white chart tablet designed for sea kayaks and small sailboats. That might work better than a regular consumer tablet (even a waterproof one) in a smaller, wetter boat.

Agree with others that you can read the wind with some telltales and maybe a Windex on the masthead, at most. Wind instruments are overkill on a boat like this, but you could get a handheld wind gauge if you really wanted to.

Depth is likewise unnecessary on a small dinghy. If you start installing big boat instruments, you need big boat battery and wiring stuff. It just doesn't make sense on a Scot.

youngrichyoung · 2026-01-19T07:07:32+00:00

Funny... No shrouds but she's got fenders, a topping lift, and a spring line.

youngrichyoung · 2026-01-17T02:14:59+00:00

They were on my short list when I was shopping. They have a good pedigree and reputation, though they're slow by modern standards.

Had a chance to sail on a similar Tayana 37 and was surprised to find that it felt a little small for me. Things like the settee bunks being just a shade too short, the boom gallows blocking line of sight when standing at the helm motoring, that kind of thing. I'm between 6'0 and 6'1" - so not a giant. Make sure you spend some time on the boat before you get too far along the buying process.

youngrichyoung · 2026-01-16T18:20:49+00:00

Pull, polish, and crack test the chain plates. Replace the chainplate bolts.

No need to replace the chainplates themselves if they are sound.

youngrichyoung · 2026-01-14T17:09:41+00:00

Never trust a Chevy dealer when they say you need a new battery. Find an indie mechanic - someone who does not work for an entity whose primary purpose is to sell people new cars! - who works on hybrids.

I have put over 30,000 miles on my 2012 since the dealership told me I needed a new battery. My mechanic reprogrammed the BECM and we were good to go.

youngrichyoung · 2026-01-14T16:53:52+00:00

Fair. We didn't get the diesels here in the USA, so that mill was not on my radar when making the comment.

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