What is a JR. sized cigar ???

Dominica Grande Natural 5 x 30 combo filler @ 65c

Dominican Pequeno Natural 3 1/2 x 22 combo filler @ 45c

These are such cute little baby cigars and like the big guys you'll have to use a cutter !!!

Well these are such a decent smoke for the price that I am wondering if I should point out that these cigarillos don't come 'box pressed' or even look like they were. Of course, 'box pressing' is usually only a temporary process, the claim is that the pressing causes the mixture of long and short (trimmings) leaf fillers to mingle or whatever. I'm going to guess that it's to hold them together while the glue dries.

Also the boxes they do come in are some sort of stinky pine that you don't want to store these guys in either. So if you buy cigarillos in bulk a $20 travel travel will hold a large number and I think any real natural tobacco will keep from drying out and will taste better properly stored.

So what's a JR. Cigar ? Well, 'little cigar' has already been taken (or likely misappropriated) for those faux cigarettes that are sold cheaply, by slipping into a lower sales tax surcharge catagory. And, well maybe 'cigarillo' doesn't quite keep people from calling them funny looking cigarettes.

That's marketing...

Cigar Paraphernalia : Jetline Triple Torch

Thankfully, I don't fish, but a few times sitting around herfing with a few of the guys that do, it's amazing the gizmos and must have dodads that they have.

Anyway, that comes to the issue of lighting a cigar. For years I have been sort of a wood match purist. Perhaps that's how I started out and was particularly conservative about it. Hard to imagine as the evening wore on and the Scotch started to make reality superfluous, how the argument over lighter or wood matches got started much less ended.

But, cut to the chase. After 2 months of rain here, (and nary a mention of how odd that is anywhere)... speaking of which, how come we have a Black Republican in the White House and nobody seems to notice ? Or for that matter, is the SURGE still working ? Really, now it's going on 9 years now and VICTORY looks even more remote than Afghanistan. ERRR... but it's so damp that matches don't always work !!!

But I did order a cheap cigar lighter from TCC, it arrived broken. I returned it and haven't heard a peep. But I did run across this &7.99 triple flame lighter, and it seems to do the trick. Haven't gotten to the part about refilling it or firing up some big stogies. But soon.

Some more paraphernalia reviews coming soon, and some little cigar reviews too. Promise. BTW, that's really cheap for a triple torch. Just do a Jetline search on EBAY.

One of those things I did in my free time...

I remember first using a computer in High School in 1971. Actually a lot of people don't believe me when I tell them there wasn't any computer monitors/screens back then. It was just a keyboard, modem and printer. You used the modem to connect to the main frame computer which was on the other side of town.

Anyway, I only learned of tertiary computers from George Brandes and until last month actually thought it was his idea. Of course, it being the cold war and everything, the Russian's were just a bunch of "ignorant commies" that couldn't do anything except build nuclear bombs, put them on missles and point them at the US.

A wood base 3 calculator was built in 1840 by Dr. Thomas Fowler MD of "Fowler's Solution" fame, an arsenic based medicine known for it's documented side effects: cirrhosis of the liver, idiopathic portal hypertension, urinary bladder cancer, skin cancers. There really isn't much know about this, whether it actually existed, worked, or created more work converting between base 3 and base 10 than it eliminated in calculations.














The Russian Setun was a balanced ternary computer developed in 1958. This might explain how the Russians put a satellite into space before the Americans.





Which gets me to this design I put together in 2000. Essentially, that was about 30 years between learning of ternary logic and concieving a physical model. It was another 6 years before I was able to correct the math and determine that a circuit MIGHT be made with four inputs: low, zero, high and ground. Or -1,0, 1 and ground. What escaped me for six years is that it also would have 16 outputs, which means such a circuit would be compatible with hexadecimal right down at the lowest circuit level.


The interesting thing is that this type of design would be hundreds of times faster and hundreds of times more efficient, in terms of lightning fast speeds and mere fractions of memory. Thankfully, so far I've just been met with total stone deaf silence, not a peep of derision or scorn.

So that's probably the future, you won't see it though. Frankly, I don't know if this is practical or will even work, nor do I know the next step to take. But, from my 20 years in solar energy I do know there's zero interest unless you can or will say 'yes' to the first question out of every bodies mouth: "Can I get rich...?"

First off I know the answer is NO, because even if there was a working model, patent laws are such in the United States, that only those owned by certain Delaware Holding Companies are ever upheld in the US Courts. I always find that sick, when various big wheels complain about "intellectual property" rights in China or Pakistan or the Sudan... What goes around comes around.

THE WESTIES by T.J. English

"The most savage organization in the long history of NYC gangs..." Rudolph Giuliani

To cut to the chase, I'm not sure who's more full of BS: English or Giulani. The book centers around Mickey Featherstone of the "hell's kitchen" section of NYC, circa the 1970's and early 80's.

Anyway, the book is badly written, the people involved basically do drugs and drink a lot. In fact, nearly all their 'violence' centers around blowing each others head off in a bar while extremely intoxicated. Very boring story with very boring protagonists. In fact, I'm not certain how accurate anything in the book is. Much mention is made of drugs, mostly cocaine, but nothing about pills, which suggests that most of the book is a fabrication of the NYC police department. And, all the "action" revolves around numerous instances of somebody pulling out a gun and passing it around the bar until somebody doesn't realize "the gun is loaded" or somebody decides to settle some personal dispute.

Other than that, the book does fairly well detail the deranged drunken exploits of some fairly anti-social individuals. But on the whole the book pretty much dispels the myth of organized crime that it pretends to expose. And it pretty much paints a picture of the NYC police as either inept or stupid (perhaps we ought to use the 'c' word, as in corrupt).

We are suppose to believe that it took Goohliani 20 years to get these drunken morons off the streets ??? I'm really not sure who the real criminals are.

TOO MANY PEOPLE

I sort of cringe when someone says "too many people". but it's probably true. that the 2% elite ruling class owns and consumes 80%, that puts it in a different perspective. there's only one guy i know who says: "we're all going to die..." and in his mind the only question is how ? nukes, starvation, epidemic, social collapse......


Ran across this: although my gramps always claimed if they sent a train going around for free, most people would leave small towns and go to big cities.... but who knows, and how is exurbia defined ? are they part of the sprawling metropolis? or are they just the amerikan equivalent of upscale shanty towns.....

"In 1800 only 3% of the world's population lived in cities. By the 20th century's close, 47% did so. In 1950, there were 83 cities with populations exceeding one million; but by 2007, this had risen to 468 agglomerations of more than one million.[126] If the trend continues, the world's urban population will double every 38 years, say researchers. The UN forecasts that today's urban population of 3.2 billion will rise to nearly 5 billion by 2030, when three out of five people will live in cities."


"One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, or one-third of urban population, now live in shanty towns,[129] which are seen as "breeding grounds" for social problems such as crime, drug addiction, alcoholism, poverty and unemployment. In many poor countries, slums exhibit high rates of disease due to unsanitary conditions, malnutrition, and lack of basic health care.[130]"

Let's see: shanty towns are a breeding place of poverty and unemployment. okay, i buy that, and the poor and unemployed don't end up in shanty towns except because their unemployed, criminals and drug addicts, plus they drink too much wine and scotch at night after a couple of rounds of golf.....


"UN Habitat states in its reports that urbanization may be the best compromise in the face of global population growth.[135] Cities concentrate human activity within limited areas, limiting the breadth of environmental damage. [136] But this mitigating influence can only be achieved if urban planning is significantly improved[137] and city services are properly maintained."

Okay that makes sense. we don't want any more communist agrarian land reformers taking land away from the rich and big corporations, because the poor will cause environmental damage but the corporat farms, mining and timber companies will protect the environment by clear cutting and strip mining......BTW, the mining cartels just eliminated the 500th mountain in the Appalachians.... that's right up their with 'cancer alley' in Mississippi. i think the Mississippi river pollution is killing more people than swine flu did.

And in other news, I see Hawaii is the eighth state to start a space port. I'm wondering if their going to issue space bonds to pay for them ??? Great, while the rest of us are biking down to the ration center for our cup of gruel; hairy read, blarney flunky and the board of the new improved brand new GM can take the space ship to work in the morning, check on their swiss bank accounts at lunch and pick up some good smack in Indonesia in the afternoon to get them thru the evening and night......

So we shall see how obammy does in the next 2 weeks with his health reform proposals... obviously, i only expect reform that's not just the same old shit, but even more expensive. so if something responsible happens I'll probably drop dead....

AND NOW A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR, Click Here, NOW !!!

Yeah! that's what I do with my spare time. Don't like it ? Then move to Baghdad.

I don't get it.  Other people sit around watching TV, drinking beer, or smoking dope and they chastise me for spending my time building instruments and recording music.

Of course, now that I'm fat, old, and jaded and really don't even give a rat's ass about what most people have to say in the first place (usually because it's all BS and their story  follows the plot of some crappy movie)...

But check out some of my recent tunes, please. And, BTW, it costs nothing to listen.

On that note, that's why the book reviews haven't started, yet. Be paitent.

Rain Check

I just haven't gotten around to smokin some of these. But there are a couple that seem ready to go, thats the 1888 and the REAL PALMA. So those are on the firing line next.

Being an avid reader I'm going to share a review of the book I just read and the one I am currently reading. But not tonight.