20180711

Wed Jul 11 10:09:46 EDT 2018 Slept from ten-forty-five to six-thirty. Woke briefly a couple of times in the night. High of eighty-five and sunny today. Stopped at Starbucks on my way to work. Work: - Continue fixing mail Done. - Patch Tuesday/Wednesday Done. - Old copiers picked up Done. Twenty-minute walk at lunch. Saw a dragonfly. Heard cicadas. Home: - Fix death and dismemberment rule Done. https://gizmodo.com/inside-san-francisos-fire-department-where-ladders-are-1552279252 > San Francisco's Fire Department is one of the few left in the United States that still uses wooden ladders. Each is made by hand at a dedicated workshop. Some have been in rotation for nearly a century. > Wood is resilient in ways which aluminum—now standard for fire department ladders—can't even compare. "You know if you take an empty coke can and bend it three or four times and it tears really easy? That's what aluminum ladders will do," Braun says. "They have a seven to eight year lifespan, after which they need to be replaced." > Wooden ladders, on the other hand, can last indefinitely. "You can stress wood right up to its failure point a million times; as long as you don't go beyond that, it will come right back to where it was. They can be involved in a fire for a pretty long time; after that, it's just a matter of sanding off the top coat of material then inspecting the wood. If it's good we'll re-oil it, revarnish it, and put it back in service." > There's a city-specific reason why San Francisco has stuck with wood rather than swap over to metals, and the answer lies in looking up. The high-voltage cables and wires that guide the city's (oft-maligned) public transport system Muni, and trolley cars crisscross above nearly every street, mean that ladders made of conductive elements are generally just too dangerous to use. > "I think there's a lot of fire departments that went aluminum and wish they could go back to wood but it's too expensive," Braun says. "There's only two ladders manufacturers in the states—and we're one of 'em. We only make our own ladders and can barely even keep up with what we have." Hmm, can I run Gog? I refuse to screw around with Steam until they get a real 64-bit client for Linux, but maybe Gog has one. I'd like to play Caves of Qud. https://www.gog.com/forum/blackhole/linux_howto_installing_missing_32_bit_libraries_on_64_bit_systems Sounds like: no, Gog is 32-bit. :( https://freeholdgames.itch.io/cavesofqud Breakfast: cafe latte, sausage sandwich Lunch: grape leaves wrap Dinner: Italian sub, fries

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