corn lamp

Yup. Although it can be battery operated if you use a polar relay that doesn't need to remain energized once it has arrived at each position.

By that time, if that ever happens, you and I will long since be six feet under.

Same here.

Except that in politics some voters are ... ahm, let's not go there.

All the Philips bulbs that I've tried with dimmers have worked very well. Better than incandescents on the low end.

Rather than buy or scrounge up taller harps?

The infamous 'Archice Buker Electric Bun Warmer'.

...

Yeah, well, personally I don't think voting is of much purpose myself. But I'm trying to understand how it does influence politics. Clearly politicians have to appease voters. But how much of that appeasement is part of running the country and how much is just tossing candy to the kiddies sort of thing with the country being run the same no matter who is in office? Do the politicians really run the country?

I've always been cynical about the world, but lately I'm totally cynical about politics.

I guess this is not a post I should make in this group. Politics is always a bad thing to discuss here even without taking a stand on any issues.

Rick

Most of the stores I was in I couldn't even find harps for the lamps they sold!

These harps were short because some Chinese manager decided to save that fraction of a penny on the material cost. They were a hair's breadth from touching a standard light bulb and the CFL I put in it pushed the harp aside just a bit. Then the first time the lamp got bumped the harp broke the bulb. I realized what had happened and returned the lamps.

Rick

I didn't have a problem with the low end. It wouldn't work on the full brightness setting. It came on bright for an instant and then went dim

- both dimmers I tried it in, the touch for three levels of brightness type.

Anyone know, are the zero crossing dimmers used pretty much universally now or do they still use the old style that comes on in the middle of the AC cycle making all the RF noise?

Rick

I don't know where you live, but a lot of home improvement & hardware stores sell them. There are also stores that specialize in lamps, and parts.

No, large banks do. But politicians can screw up massively, as is just being evidenced in the medical device industry. That has consequences which often come in the form of unemployment.

Since 2008? No wonder, same here.

Sometimes it's healthy :-)

Oh man, you guys are really spoiled. This doesn't just go for Germans, the folks from up north know a thing or two about cold "powder rooms" as well:

is

And a few other sectors of the economy (for large values of "few").

But oddly, rarely for bankers.

What took you so long? Hrmph. Kids these days...

Politics is fine. *Party* politics now...

Mark L. Fergerson

I prefer beer garden politics and "Standing around the barbecue with a pale ale" politics :-)

was

Interesting trick.

I found a make and model of trigger sprayer that shoots 10 feet and I put one into a bottle of Isopropanol.

Even in the middle of a hot summer day they don't get up again. It doesn't even take much Isopropanol.

On your vent a trap made with duct/tube and a jar of soapy water would wipe out a colony in an afternoon.

A plastic bag with soapy water in the bottom could even serve as a trap for the vent.

Spritzing just a little Isopropanol through the inside screen could accelerate their exit to the trap.

The bug guy probably just used the chrysanthemum diriviative spray.

Re: the nest on the window: What exact county agency controls wasp nests and do they go after them in every tree?

I hate wasps and hornets like most people but they'd be fascinating to watch like an ant farm.

I love those encased indoor honey bee colonies with a window where they exit through a tube. They're popular at state fairs all over. Some zoos do it also. Sometimes they mark certain bees with paint color dots to identify them.

Since you didn't know, there are already at least 4 competing incompatible standards out there for building wide and lamp by lamp simultaneously dimming systems. All 4 systems that i have looked at integrate with Daylighting systems. Plenty of standards, pick one.

The ideal place to control lighting and other non-critical subsystems is through a network which gets its connectivity and transport over the AC power lines. There are no high bandwidth or complicated security issues here. High level password protection can be kept as a hard wired local configuration thing on each device (or outlet for that matter).

Then you have a managere to orchestrate, and only you are the conductor.

The only problem with this is that during the entry of a password, the keystrokes could be captured. Hmmmmmm.... quandary.

I got rid of some wasps in a phone company connection box once using carpet spray. It was just soap, but it would shoot it for six feet or so and foamed up after it hit. Soap seems to be anathema to pretty much any insect.

They don't "go after" them. Someone complained and they said I had a "nuisance" so I had to get rid of it or they would and charge me.

Yeah, I could get right up next to them and watch them add to the nest. They have little limbs on their jaws that manipulate the paper that they chew into a pulp and shape it onto the wall being built. They add to the wall a little at a time in a row stacking the next row on top. That's why the nest has a ring like appearance.

Yes, they have one at the Frederick fair each year. I didn't know that bees return to the hive each night so they have to make sure the hive is accessible for the bees to come back in. I think one of the beekeepers told me once that they lose a certain percentage each time they take them to the fair, but that is just part of doing business.

Rick

My preferred wasp spray these days is a commercial one which is simply soapy water, pressurized with CO2, and a couple of percent of mint oil. It squirts effectively for at least 10', knocks them down quickly, the mint oil seems to act as a rapid neurotoxin for wasps, and it doesn't leave a nasty smell behind (I'm fond of mint).

Most of the wasps we have around here are either of the "yellowjacket" variety (very rarely a problem on our property) or paper wasps. We get a bunch of the latter trying to start new colonies on our eaves every spring, and as my wife is dangerously allergic to wasp stings I've found it prudent to get rid of them. One zap with mint-suds in the evening, when they've gathered on the partially built nest, and they're dead and gone.

Inside the house I've found ordinary hair spray to be fairly effective against all kinds of bees AND flies.

Squirt in the air... seize up >:-} ...Jim Thompson

Here at Thatcher Fire Department, we use standard class B foam.

Class A foam does not phase them in the least.