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An antique bobbin winder

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Blog

Published: 10 April 2025

Hits: 223

Never knew what it was, only that I liked pulleys and gears. Upon unpacking (and vaguely remembering it) I set out with Google Lens to find out what it was...

An Antique Bobbin Winder.

Now, even despite knowing how collectable and valuable this is I'll never be able to sell it because what, then, of all my antique bobbins came unwound??

Tariffs & Crashing the Stock Market By Design

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Ideas & Questions

Published: 10 April 2025

Hits: 601

Getting a lot of press today, that the Good Emperor Trump has put a 90 day hiatus on Tariffs, this the media is framing variously as "He's come to his senses" or "he's made his point", etc, etc.

Naturally, in this time of Global Uncertainty, all induced by a certain orange melon, following this announcement the markets rebounded. And a certain Bluesky user by the name of "Unusual Whales" noted that margins trading begun before the announcement, with some users seeing 2100% gains in a matter of a couple of hours.

Now given the downward trending of the market, due in no doubt to Trumps unpredictable tariffs and changing his mind; and looking at how this volatility is benefitting his cronies, it seems fair to say that all this is by design. This collapsing of the markets and global uncertainty is being done to benefit those closest to him in the administration, via offshore and shell accounts. 

Link: https://bsky.app/profile/unusualwhales.bsky.social

What is remarkable is how few of the new agencies are willing to confront this, although - as well by design, he keeps them busy with sooooo many other things, like illegal deportations, arrests, gutting infrastructure, etc. 

This does recall that bit in Brexit where Nigel Farage shorted the British Pound, in effect betraying the entire nation and lying to them about the benefits of Brexit so that he could profit from it. (

Link here: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/jun/25/nigel-farage-denies-shorting-value-of-sterling-on-night-of-brexit-vote)

Many of the same tactics were on display, the Xenophobia, bring the jobs home, etc. And while Britain has to some extent recovered from this, and never prosecuted Farage, I doubt very much the USA will ever recover from Trump 

USA. The new Hungary, Old Romania. 

A book by it's cover

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Written by: Rod Boyle

Category: Books

Published: 09 April 2025

Hits: 286

So for a laugh I tried to read the last book I posted ... I couldn't make it past 50 pages. I mean, this guy, he could give out his own "Bulwer-Lytton" prize. And I don't know what this prestigious literary award is about, presumably everyone who can write a book receives at least 3...

Anyhow, here's a fair sampling of his prose:

"A west bound train approaching the bridge on the other side began howling like a wolf looking for a bitch in heat. Its black metal sides had just been washed by hostlers in the C.P.R. Roundhouse at Nelson and it had a sleek, sweaty shimmer as it led a small following of faithful cars. Large drive rods jerked swiftly up, down and around, masturbating clouds of steam and white smoke to seed the sky. As it came onto the bridge the noise was deafening and the belching smoke tangled in steel bridge girders. The engine drove swiftly past, vibrating the earth's foundation and rumbling the span violently. High above them the engineer waved and blew the whistle shrilly, orgiastically."

I want you to know I embellished nothing. 

Or this, when he's mudding out his mine:

"The muddy mixture went clattering down the slope and lay on the white surface like excrement from a dinosaur with diarrhea"

From here we get to the love scenes...and I won't do that you. I couldn't do it to myself.

Anyways, a fair sample, I scanned ahead in it, my god what drivel!! I can't finish it.