General, the fibreglass wick works well. A bit too well in fact. After making, I tested it then put it out and left it for awhile. Ready to start dopping opals I took the cover off and there was a puddle of metho on the lid. Had a pretty good campfire going till that burnt off.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 20 2026 20:58 utc | 306
 
**************
 
Peter – pleased about that! After suggesting fibreglass, I was a bit concerned… it won’t work well/at all if the fibre is too coarse. Most fibreglass wick material is quite fine – almost fluffy.
 
Interesting fun fact: water or alcohol “wets” clean glass. In physics terms this means the contact angle is zero, and it explains the ‘capillary effect’ where clean water can rise a metre or more up inside a clean capillary tube. Another little aside (because I can’t help myself) – you may recall I mentioned chemical etching of crystalline silicon? If the grooves are very narrow and also deep, the ‘local’ fluid forces such as surface tension, adhesion, etc are more dominant than bulk fluid effects. This makes it a major challenge to get fluid exchange at the bottom of the grooves to replenish spent chemicals so the etch process can continue.

Posted by: General Factotum | Mar 20 2026 22:42 utc | 304

Posted by: james | Mar 20 2026 19:38 utc | 305
 
Thanks james!  I did come here late last night as we have a heat wave going on — too bad for my bulbs last few years as without tree leafage they don’t do well though they keep trying.  Good thing is nights are cool and so also mornings.  So I get recharged from midnight on, take a break then back to bed.  And have the morning to ‘get things done’.  Then at least I can rest afternoons which are hot.
 
But thanks for this.  It’s a bit wordy but I didn’t disagree with most of it.  Maybe with the point about using different religious ideas from different strains of spirituality.  I’ll agree that it’s good to know what other faiths are about, but if you are on a path that requires concentration and some effort to live within it, you really can’t go deeply into another’s tradition except by enjoying hearing about them and maybe participating as a guest in the celebrations involved.  My buddhist daughter gave me a book concerning the meeting between the Dalai Lama and members of the Anglican hierarchy in Britain some time back.  They compared main points in each faith, and the DL emphasized that  while this was instructive, you really couldn’t experience what each was without being fully in it.
 
You were looking at St. Gregory of Nyssa a while back.  From his era, here’s a part of a talk St. John Chrisostom gave that I recently found newly thought provoking:
 

“…   By pride I mean an overwhelmingly boastful spirit, surpassing even  incorporeal powers   —   that of the devl himself  —   while humility of the mind and acknowledgement of sins by the robber is what brought him into paradise before the Apostles   …”

 
The part I bolded is that which made me think.   But also, that St. John could suppose the pride of a human could surpass ‘even that of the devil himself’ .  That’s a new thought as well.  And another I just found in the homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian:  that saint makes a big distinction between justice and mercy   —   negative with respect to the first, very positive concerning the latter.  Lots of food for thought, but I was too tired to formulate it last night, and you had left for a ‘gig’ by the time I was reading your posts.
 
‘Watching Rome Burn’.  Good title,  thanks.  Maybe the western church will learn as has done the Eastern Church (which burned a while back, and at the hands of their ‘friends’ even.)  The Psalm says ” My friends and neighbors  draw near and confront me; and my nearest stand afar off.”  Had to be traumatic, that.
 
[Speaking of wordy:  pot calling the kettle black!]

Posted by: juliania | Mar 20 2026 23:31 utc | 306

Alon Mizrahi:  
“Now I’m 100% sure something has happened to Netanyahu.”

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayastha | Mar 17 2026 1:47 utc | 202

 
The following link to Alex Kramer’s  substack is from the main b thread and gives very disturbing informational details on where Netanyahu thinks himself to be in the unfolding tragedy in the Middle East.  Reminds me of — does anyone remember Comet Kahoutek?  There was a crazy group in the US who thought they’d be wafted up to it …   at least they weren’t as bloody minded as the Zionists but it was a cult very like what the zionists believe.  So much carnage the latter has caused, aided and abetted by some Christian fundamentalists!
 
https://trendcompass.substack.com/

Posted by: juliania | Mar 21 2026 0:21 utc | 308

UWDude 273
 
If the new French boat had been named Richelieu , it would would have been a juicy target for Huguenot revenge sabotage.
 
What is going on in the mind of a Rothschild  banker that he calls a boat after a Resistance socialist? Because he knows he himself is an unelectable , WEF , Zionist, but everybody respects De Gaulle?
 
Slogans.  What is he going to use his nuclear bathtub for? A mobile Aquarium on the sea bed when an oreshnik calls? Mad.

Posted by: Giyane | Mar 21 2026 3:27 utc | 310

@ Peter AU1 | Mar 20 2026 20:58 utc | 306
 
thanks peter.. i think it is a good description for a particular class of people who want to take down the whole world.. this would obviously include trump and netanyahu… maybe this explains the debt explosion too..  war is always required to resolve it..
 
@ juliania | Mar 20 2026 23:31 utc | 310
 
you give me lots to ponder! thanks… i think the substack article mention of spiritual pride being a real drawback aligns with what you are saying here… you might not know this, but the guy who wrote this article is an amazing pianist, considered one of the truly great jazz piano players in the world today – top notch… it was interesting for me to read it today, upon discovering it and it made me think it would be interested in reading his autobiography that came out a few years ago… he was a heroin addict for many years – i think he has overcome this, but don’t know for a fact…  obviously one can have insights regardless of their path in life and they can sometimes be quite profound… see @ psychohistorian | Mar 19 2026 17:35 utc | 291  for an example of a profound insight  by some unknown person..
 
i continue to read philokalia – volume 3, as i couldn’t get a copy of volume 2 – yet..it makes for great reading before bed.   that quote you’ve shared and what you highlight is valuable.. thanks.. 
 
it was a beautiful first day of spring here, and warm for this time of year.. i am messing about and have been slow to plant much, except broad beans a few weeks ago… i would like to plant chinese broccoli  soon.. it is called gai lan and delicious… it continues to throw out shoots and so you can get a number of harvests off the plants… 

Posted by: james | Mar 21 2026 4:28 utc | 312

psychohistorian@317:
 
“China is allowing some ‘private finance’ which scares me because I don’t believe in being partially pregnant.”
 
Goldman-Sachs Private Wealth Management: China
 
https://pwm.gs.com/global/en-us/about-us/locations/apac/china
 
“Our offices in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen serve mainland China clients. We provide customized wealth management services across the region, delivering the global resources of our firm to help you reach your goals.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Mar 21 2026 6:46 utc | 314

@ John Gilberts | Mar 21 2026 6:46 utc | 318 who documents what I am nervous about…thx
 
I just want to add that I don’t see China yuan as being the next Reserve Currency but do see gold being used as such……somewhere in the past week I saw a chart showing that while the US dollar percentage of foreign exchange reserves is going down and less than 50%, the China yuan is not yet rising into double digits but gold is about equal to US dollar levels.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Mar 21 2026 20:49 utc | 316

I concur.

Posted by: persiflo | Mar 22 2026 12:45 utc | 318