His name was But For The Love Of Our Lord Jesus Christ We Would All Be Damned. Smith. The Third. Or simply “BC” for short. Such is the introduction of the main character in TJ Morris’s debut novel The Cathedral, and from the naming conventions one can glean a bit of insight to Morris’s style—serious and driven with a wry sense of irreverence that hearkens to the great adventure writers like Ian Flemming and Clive Cussler. Cathedral pays homage to the dystopian science fiction writers like Huxley and Dick without slogging through unnecessary literary details, and keeps pages turning with snappy dialogue and heart-pounding action sequences.
Morris’s Cathedral mainly takes place in the titular building—a towering, monolithic arcology literally reaching to the heavens—that serves as the headquarters for the dominant political faction in his not-too-distant future: a grotesque parody of the worst parts of modern “evangelical conservative” Christianity that has all-but taken over the Earth and its extraterrestrial colonies. Humanity is a star-faring race now, driven less by the desire to explore and more by the Church’s lust for riches. Heathens who do not follow the Church’s doctrines are exiled off world while the faithful take residence in the Church’s babelesque Cathedral. Those off-worlders that dare resist the divine rule of the Church are met with the Cleansers, the psionic enforcers that ensure the Church’s flock is kept in line.
BC is one of the strongest and most experienced Cleansers in Church history. He is known and feared within and without the Church proper as the cold-blooded enforcer who answers to one of its highest-ranking cardinals, but he has a rival within the Cathedral. There is another psionic-adept secretly employed by BC’s master, brimming with envy and hatred for BC’s notoriety, who is anxiously awaiting his chance to challenge the Cleanser. Meanwhile, BC’s comrades are preparing a coup to overthrow the corrupt Church establishment and end the feudalist theocracy that has dominated interplanetary politics for decades. Will BC discover that his former allies are traitorous heretics? Will BC’s rival overthrow the Cleanser and finally get the recognition he desires?
With this first installment in what will surely give rise to an entire series, Morris weaves an exciting space opera through a thinly-veiled political satire and the pulpiest of classic adventure fiction. His characters are drawn from various archetypes, but are seasoned with enough personality that they stay fresh throughout the book’s 320 pages. Morris has an obvious focus on world building—as evidenced by his thorough history of the Church and psionic enhancement technologies—a talent that makes the somewhat improbable environment of The Cathedral wholly believable. The book is a bit busy, with multiple storylines following seemingly unrelated paths, but the payoff is a brilliant climax of frenetic action, suspense, and enough humor and warmth to keep you emotionally invested.
Come for the aesthetic, fun characters, and the world building. Stay for the tightly written action scenes, satire, and gripping suspense. Meanwhile, I’ll be eagerly waiting for book two!
Full disclosure: TJ Morris is my uncle. This review is not associated with nor is compensated by Bold Venture Press, publisher of The Cathedral. The Kindle book link above is an affiliate link, so please click that one if you would like to support this website.
Looking for a good, cheap way to upgrade an older phone to have wireless charging? This probably isn’t it. It’s the good, the bad, and the REALLY ugly about the SXE Electronics Wireless Charging Digital Alarm Clock.
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Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. At least one new video per month! Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
TRANSCRIPT:
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[Music]
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00:00:05,310 –> 00:00:15,459
okay so here we have the FX e wireless
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00:00:10,360 –> 00:00:19,929
charging digital alarm clock wireless
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00:00:15,459 –> 00:00:21,939
charging enabled smartphone anyway so
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here’s the box wirelessly charge your
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smartphone they can charge no wires
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needed because it comes with these
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handy-dandy
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wireless charging adapters that you can
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stick on the banking phone or your
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family ever and then of course you can
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wireless charging have on top a physical
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device to clock
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fuck your manual side and optional
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battery backup with to delay that’s the
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acquirement well it’s days you just like
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let’s do
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[Music]
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clock radio units we have two adapters
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AC adapter patient there this is light
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adapter the adapter it Saturday the
The Omoton cases offer great quality on a budget. This is a dual-layer case offering a shock-absorbing polyurethane inner layer surrounded by a rigid polycarbonate outer shell, and it fixes the biggest “feature” of the Moto X Pure: it’s curved back!
Grab one here (AFFILIATE LINK): http://amzn.to/2sfntQm
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Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. At least one new video per month! Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
TRANSCRIPT:
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00:00:01,780 –> 00:00:14,920
I ordered this from Amazon
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00:00:09,070 –> 00:00:18,070
it’s the omelet on Moto X pure case this
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00:00:14,920 –> 00:00:22,150
is it’s like ten bucks on Amazon stuff
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like that and it promises to give you a
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flat back now if I just get blasting
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open promises to give you a flat back on
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your phone which can be useful for
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things like wireless charging okay so
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it’s in the box and then it comes in
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this kind of a plastic zipper top kind
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of bag here and when I feel hard just a
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business card
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Oh gonna come a little mock up going
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inside it’s got a nice feel to it it’s
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not it’s not super slick but it’s not
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like you know doesn’t feel like hard
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tough plastic so you know that’s or
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whatever it’s got this put the two-piece
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here
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thank you so it is a two-piece case and
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okay so you know you’ve got you’ve got
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this soft internal part and then you
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have this harder and you know it’s
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pretty rigid you know fairly rigid so
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it’s pretty you know seems like it’s a
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seems like it’s okay now you got some
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some weird sort of like I guess these
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are drip marks or something like that
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from where it was I assumed this was an
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extrusion but I’m not entirely certain
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looks like it may have been stamped into
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the shape so probably what this is and
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we’re just you know hot stamp you know
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press it into place of course it presses
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in this little lot with little branding
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knots you know which one it goes to of
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course it matches the inside of this one
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here so first things first is as we put
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this guy inside here and you know if
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it’s pretty snug
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it’s pretty stuff it is not form-fitting
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as you see I’m thinking there was going
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to be a spacer or something here but
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there’s there’s not there’s just the
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booster just a void here and I don’t
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know if I like them or not
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I will probably do something here to
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[Music]
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shore that up a little bit but there’s a
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little bit of a void there and then if
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we take that and we can snap that right
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over it
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you know the little beefier feels beep
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here now and doesn’t feel quite as bad
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right there where that point is but it’s
The 8-Bit Guy soundtrack is a great collection of electronic tracks in various styles from both amateur and seasoned professional composers! In this video, I’ll go over my first impressions and review a few of my favorite tracks.
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Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. At least one new video per month! Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe!
The Pevono PS305 review unit that I was shipped proves to be a well-built and affordable DC bench power supply. From its aluminum construction to its display accuracy, the Pevono PS305 is a great bargain lab power supply! In this video, we’ll teardown the Pevono PS305 power supply and see how it’s constructed as well as bench test it against is published specifications.
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Tech teardowns, repairs, and reviews; sketches; how-to; games; and lots of other interesting geekery. There’s something new every week! Thanks for watching, and be sure to like, share, and subscribe! Generally, any product links are affiliate links that offer a commission to support this channel at no extra cost to you. Affiliate commissions do not affect advertised prices, but do go to support this channel and affiliated website, AirborneSurfer.com
TRANSCRIPT:
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Pevono PS305 DC power supply is it
worth it
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00:00:05,490 –> 00:00:15,590
let’s find out greetings programs Atari
here you there and this is a Pavano PS
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00:00:15,590 –> 00:00:21,720
305 DC bench power supply now the folks
over Pavano they asked me would I be
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00:00:21,720 –> 00:00:25,109
willing to do a review of their product
so they sent me one of these is a
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demonstration unit that they sent me so
you know so far out of the box it looks
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00:00:30,269 –> 00:00:35,309
pretty decent a pretty decent build
quality it’s got these nice 7-segment
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00:00:35,309 –> 00:00:39,540
display on the front and of course
they’re either LED lit so it’s got a
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00:00:39,540 –> 00:00:44,789
nice look to it got your your voltage
and current adjustment to your course
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00:00:44,789 –> 00:00:50,489
and it looks fine on this side and then
we’ve got your positive negative and a
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00:00:50,489 –> 00:00:55,140
chassis crowd so let’s take her apart
and then let’s do it as a bench test and
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let’s see what we get so first things
first you have our ceremonial unboxing
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here the first thing we see is a pair of
leads here the banana clips and
Guided by aliens, a man builds a desert time machine. Can the Integratron work? Will he finish it before the government finishes him?
Calling All Earthlings (2018) is a sincere documentary focusing on the life and influence of aeronautical engineer George W. Van Tassel as well as the people who have attempted to pick up where he left off in realizing the dream that is The Integratron–a domed building in the California desert designed, according to Van Tassel, by extraterrestrial influence during a chance encounter one night. It is a tale of coincidences and intrigue that begins at a sacred Morongo site and ends with a suspicious heart attack in a Pasadena motel room.
New age religionists claim that the Integratron building is a device designed to “reprogram” human DNA, giving the opportunity for prolonged life while the site’s caretakers claim that it’s a time machine that runs off the natural bioelectric field of the human body. Van Tassel’s own family claims that it is a source of free electricity based on Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe prototype. The US government–particularly the FBI–in the 1950s frequently investigated Van Tassel’s activities in the Mojave desert and black helicopters from the nearby Twenty-Nine Palms USMC base add to the intrigue.
Did the government murder George Van Tassel for his work in free energy? Are there spirits roaming the Big Rock site, waiting for contact with the corporeal world? Will the Integratron work as intended? Like all good conspiracy theory stories, the answers are left open-ended, but the journey is a fun one for anyone who enjoys entertaining the idea of “alternative science” (even as a skeptic). The subject matter is treated with the respect that human beings deserve, and makes no judgement into their enlightenment or their quackery–much like Art Bell, et al. have done with Coast To Coast A.M. Interviews with locals, academics, and Integratron “stewards” dive into the feelings and emotions that one experiences in the area and pose questions about the madness that solitude in the desert can bring about.
Did George Van Tassel really have a close encounter with an extraterrestrial being? We may never know the real answer, but in Calling All Earthlings, the idea seems to be less answering the facts and more about exploring, documenting, and even celebrating the interesting characters who continue Van Tassel’s legacy.
The Duratool TC-110 tool case from Newark element14 is a great, inexpensive, heavy-duty case for transporting small hand tools and test equipment. It’s made of a lightweight MDF shell coated in textured, heavy-duty ABS plastic and accented with brushed aluminum on the corners to provide extra protection against bumps and dings. Inside, there is a large cushion of perforated foam that can be cut to custom size and shape for any variety of instruments while the lid is complemented by a solid piece of egg-carton foam and a removable pallet for small hand tools. For the price, it may be one of the best tool cases on the market!
After suffering my Harbor Freight helping hands for the umpteenth time, I decided it was time to get the best helping hands for the price that I could find. This search led me to the PSIVEN Helping Hands Third Hand Soldering Tool And Vise, a $40 set of helping hands that prove invaluably sturdy for the novice while still being perfectly adequate for a professional. The PSIVEN Helping Hands are the best prosumer level soldering helping hands that I have been able to find!
If you’re looking for the best Bluetooth shower speaker, look no further than the Soundbot SB510 waterproof Bluetooth speaker. This Soundbot SB510 review will show the features and use of the best waterproof Bluetooth speaker available.
As much as I love living in this little slice of madness and paradise that we like to call the LA Metro Area, the air quality often leaves quite a bit to be desired. Even in Orange County, where I hang my idiomatic hat, the air quality can get pretty rough–especially during fire season. Compound that with working in an industrial environment–replete with metal, wood, and plastics works, hunched over an electronics bench huffing solder and flux fumes, and a healthy dose of good ol’ dust and solvent fumes for good measure–and one might say that I’ve got a serious air quality issue. For the sake of my own health, I need the best air purifier available.
EnviroKlenz approached me, having seen some of my other critical review videos, to put their flagship air purifier to the ultimate test. Vacuum Wars already did some seriously impressive air movement tests of the system’s German-built impeller, so I opted for a more “real world” test: I was going to pit the EnviroKlenz against the worst indoor air quality factors that 23b Shop could muster: welding, machining, grinding, 3D printing, plasma cutting, plasticizing, soldering, and every other *-ing we have the capability of performing.
After a few weeks running, I have to say that the EnviroKlenz is possibly the best air purifier that I’ve run across, and I’ve been using various models from different manufacturers regularly for nearly 20 years! This one is not only incredibly effective, but it is also incredibly quiet. It’s not silent, but it’s damn close clocking in at an impressive 58 dBA on it’s “Whisp-Air” setting. It’s so quiet that I am able to record audio with my microphone mere inches from the machine and have very little effect!
If you’re looking for the best air purifier for a small industrial space, consider the EnviroKlenz as you will not be able to beat the price for the value you receive! If you’re looking for the best air purifier for home or office, this is almost assuredly the best choice as it’s quiet and requires minimal maintenance. VOC filter cartridges typically last almost 6 months while the main HEPA filter cartridges can last up to 3 years!
Don’t just take my word for it, order the EnviroKlenz here and start breathing easier tomorrow! Use my promo code SURF10 to get 10% off your system as well! The data don’t lie: this is a phenomenal system and I’ve got some even more extreme tests lined up, so be sure to subscribe to the newsletter to get informed when those are available!
