An attack that never should have been allowed to happen.
An attack that fundamentally altered the relationship between citizens and government.
An attack that cost the lives of thousands and altered the lives of millions.
Paid for by our friends the Saudis.
Never Forget. Never Forgive.
n
https://www.911memorial.org/visit/memorial/names-911-memorial
An actual Robert Francis commercial or the fear mongering “Paid for by Mothers Against Greg Abbot”.
Again, check the acronym.
The California money is really working the suburban female demographic.
Steve Sarkisian is Fired Coach Walking in Austin right now. His interim replacement was literally in the skybox yesterday afternoon. That should have been a blowout.
Oh Christmas Tree. Oh Christmas Tree.
No more patsy games in the SEC.
The alumni need to get the accountants working now.
https://www.badassoftheweek.com/rescorla
72 F here in the wild side of Fort Bend County. Had two Bisquck biscuits with Blackberry and Serrano jam for breakfast before church. The wife made biscuits last night for my supper, I ate four with the aformentioned jam.
I get the gag, but “Making Attorneys Get Attorneys” also seems to apply.
https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-lawyers-ethics-complaints-joke-maga-making-attorneys-get-attorneys-2022-9
Bezos Expeditions still lists Business Insider as one of their investments along with The Washington Post and, interestingly, Workday. Bezos held as much as 3% of the Insider at one point.
http://www.bezosexpeditions.com/
You can do your own research about current BI majority owner Axel Springer and alleged ties to US “Intelligence” agencies. That’s just conspiracy theory … like Hunter’s laptop.
I guess we know now why Workday had vaccination status added so early in the pandemic.
Man, that’s creepy that Bezos is involved there.
Still jab free! Now with natural immunity!
For those of you playing the home game, be sure to notch that Bingo card entry.
From NYT:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/us/trump-lawyers-legal-exposure.html
But, but, HR told us all of our info in workday was completely confidential. I think they actually believe that. At least our highly woke corporation hasn’t required proof of any boosters. But yeah, all of our data stored in the cloud is completely secure. Sure. The latest move by corporate is to abandon all local storage and go with Microsoft one drive for all storage. I’m sure that won’t be mined.
@Alan
>> Can we roll it back a few years? Say, to 1986 or so?
“We need to go further back for cars, definitely before catalytic convertors.”
If you go back before cats, you also lose EFI. Not a good tradeoff.
Although the process of rolling out unleaded gas, paying a premium for it, not being able to get it everywhere, etc. (Remember when they put the emergency knock-out ring in on the filler tube, in case you had to?) was a pain, our air quality in the cities is much better. The tailpipe emissions of a modern car are so good that a number of states did away with emissions inspection stations and the b.s. that attended.
And I can think of a number of late 1990’s models of autos that I would buy gladly new today if I could.
“Thankfully a real 16 oz pint of a similar flavor from Ben & Jerry’s was on sale for $3.49.”
I was never a B&J fan, but their latest anti-semitic shenanigans are a bridge too far. There is only one thing* more pathetic or stupid that old Jew-haters.
*Old Jewish Jew-haters.
Looks like “Pinch” Sulzberger and his brood got the same talking points memo for the week faxed from Chappaquah.
I was worried.
82F and sunny here in Houston.
Crazy looking orange moon last night as it rose. Full and cheetoh orange until it was well up in the sky.
Coffee brewing, thinking about muffins for breakfast…
need to cut the back yard, get some stuff from storage for the BOL, and get the live trap for the possum.
Far busier day than I’d like.
n
Bezos being involved means that everything goes on AWS shares. I’m sure that’s fine. Those have never been hacked.
@JimB
I had a 1975 Mercury. Nice car for the time. 15mpg. Didn’t make it much past 100k. The fit and finish in those engines and drive trains was much inferior to today’s. And they had enough of the electronic modules to meet your objections to parts obsolescence.
I mentioned above that there are a number of late 1990’s car models that I would gladly buy if they were available new. The Ford Taurus and Crown Victoria, Buick LeSabre, and Toyota Camry were sold in the millions for years, so parts obsolescence was not much of a problem. The biggest problem that I have seen is that the engineering departments would let the juniors muck about with secondary systems–taking perfectly good tied and tested solutions and fanny about with some new idea trying to make a name for themselves and shave pennies for the bean counters.
One of the classic screw-ups was Ford with their lighting control module. Slightly smaller than a thick paperback book, with two circuit boards. Ford had millions of these on the road when the headlight relays started to fail intermittently. You’d be driving down the road and suddenly have no low-beam headlights. Might work fine in an hour or the next day, until it happened again.
Simple $10-15 fix with plug-in relays. Not so with relays soldered to a board. The LCM was $600, after $100 for the diagnostics. But the LCM’s were also in short supply. Ford simply refused to do a recall and did everything they could to deny the problem. I took a couple of years to determine the absolute cheapest solution, which consisted of disconnecting several of the multi-wire plugs from the LCM, clipping specified wired, and splicing in a new box with new relays.
In the meantime a number of shops came up with mail-it-in and get it fixed options where they had techs desolder and replace the relays and send your LCM back, or swap for another refurbished LCM. If you were handy with a soldering gun, you could buy the relays and DIY. Those videos are still on YooTube.
Never been “publicly” hacked. I’m sure Jeff would tell us.
I had NCIS Hawaii on last night in the kitchen. Ransomware attack on the power system is going to shut electricity off if the ransom is not paid in a few hours. NCIS expert examining the utilities software for vulnerabilities identifies the signature code of an old mentor, who dropped out of coding and off the grid fifteen years before. They go find him, discovering that his new passion is rebuilding classic guitars and jammin’ with friends. When they get back to the crisis center, he sits down at the workstation and starts typing madly, identifying the problem and setting it right in a couple minutes, like he just stepped away for a few minutes to get a skinny latte with a doubleshot.
The Ford pipeline in the 70s was crippled by the failure of Henry II to take the Japanese quality threat seriously after turning down an offer from Honda to supply engines. Iacocca didn’t get the Tempo/Topaz moving forward until he was Fired Ford President Walking, and the minivan would have to wait until he got the team to defect to Chrysler.
(Nit pickers – go read Iacocca’s book if you haven’t in a while. That text was more sacred at Ford in the 80s than Chrysler. That’s the bible of Ford failures from the “Whiz Kids” to Iacocca’s termination.)
If you had a Fairmont relative, the engines were done at 70,000 miles. Sure, you could play with the carburetor settings, but the compression was gone, requiring an engine rebuild.
My Ford exec father bought a 78 Farmont for my mother, and, one day, in 1983, after having the car stall crossing a major highway, she parked the car in the garage, 50,000 miles, and proclaimed that she was never driving it again. She went and bought a Mitsubishi the next day.
Ironically, the Fairmon-derived Fox platform Mustangs which debuted in 78 and ran until 93 are highly sought after now. Go figure.
Yeah, and Bishop’s MacBook Pro could decrypt AES-256 in about an hour.
“Hawaii” is a head scratcher for us. CBS cancelled “New Orleans” and cut Scott Bakula loose so they could run that? It hasn’t exactly been a big ratings improvement in the timeslot.
Bakula must have done/said something. Just a little over a week from the “Quantum Leap” continuation (NOT a reboot) premiere on NBC, and the show runner still haven’t said whether Sam Beckett will appear, even with Bellisario being involved.
Yes, look at the Pinto. A good car, except for the gas tank ruptures, constant run A/C compressor, receiver in the wheel well, engine was SAE, bolt on items, were metric, had a tendency to toss a fan blade (happened to me), overall a piece of crap, that felt like you were sitting 3 inches off the road when driving. I hated that car, that my wife purchased before we were married, and came with the wife when we married.
My two favorite vehicles were my 1977 Honda Accord and my 1994 Toyota Camry.
Worst car I ever had was a 1974 Super Beetle. Nothing but problems. Four gas gauges replaced under warranty. Two instrument clusters replaced under warranty. Transmission rebuilt under warranty. Taillights that constantly corroded. Fuel lines that would rupture and spew over the engine. The rust through under the battery under the rear seat, yes you could road surface under the battery. After I sold the vehicle the next owner had the car catch fire (those nasty fuel lines) while on the road and totally destroyed the vehicle. A fitting demise to a real piece of crap that made the Pinto look, well, a little better.
Myself and the dealer went round and round over warranty issues. One time I stood in the showroom when several other customers were present and proclaimed that Rod East Volkswagen was a scam and failed to stand by their product. Two customers talking to salespersons (lot lizards), left the premises. That finally got the owner, Rod East’s, attention. Some outstanding problems were fixed, a couple not under warranty, with the understanding I never darken their door again.
A few years later Rod East went out of business. At least the last several times I have visited San Antonio. I don’t think I was their only thorn in the side.
And at one time my grandparents were the proud owner of an Edsel. Until someone pointed out to my grandmother the resemblance of the front to, ahem, part of the female anatomy. The vehicle was quickly sold and replaced with a Nova.
That was the second NCIS Hawaii that I watched. I’m not seeing a strong character from Lackey or the others.
NCIS New Orleans was okay.
NCIS LA surprised me when it started but I haven’t kept up.
The original NCIS is beyond iconic at this point.
Hawaii is a difficult location.
The Hawaii 5-0 reboot was pretty good up to the point where Grace Park left over salary. If the reports that she demanded salary parity with O’Loughlin and Caan were accurate but she walked with 90% not good enough, it was a huge mistake for he. When combined with Daniel Kim’s departure for the same reason, a disaster for the show. The final nail was making the shiite sandwich a year later by inserting the execrable Magnum PI reboot between Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods in the Friday night lineup. To be fair, it was only a matter of time before O’Loughlin’s accumulation of show-related injuries and the related reduction in action sequences took their toll. The whole restaurant thing just didn’t work out.
The Magnum PI reboot was poorly cast and poorly written. I quit watching after two episodes and quit watching Friday CBS entirely at the end of the 2018-2019 season. Ratings were disappointing and uneven and the plug was pulled after the fourth season.
There is reportedly a fifth season of 20 episodes under production that will actually be broadcast over two years and allow the show to limp into syndication. I have doubts. If so that would make it almost as good as the equally poorly written and cast MacGuver reboot.
@jenny:
I know you keep Cardigan Corgis, not Pembrokes, but Auntie Beeb posted an article a few hours ago about Her late Majesty’s life-long affection for the breed. And that article includes a link to the skit in which H.M. appeared (with her corgis) and Daniel Craig (James Bond) which was shown during the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony. And no, at 86 she did not parachute into the stadium, although the skit attempted to portray her as having done so.
Just an example of her wicked sense of humour. There are others.
G.
And here’s the last public instance of H.M.’s sense of humour – tea with Paddington Bear.
G.
I took that as sarcasm. There have been innumerable cases of AWS buckets being hacked. Generally not the fault of AWS, but rather of individuals screwing up security settings.
When I ran an AWS server, I basically had to block all of Asia, because of the constant flood of attacks. If that’s not an option, for whatever reason, you have a serious problem.
I’ve never touched that stuff, but I’ve read that AWS “security” settings are so incredibly arcane that it’s almost impossible to do it “right”, and that AWS by itself is wide open. And I wouldn’t trust anybody running an AWS server to have done it “right” either.
Sarcasm.
AWS is a Hot Skillz in the US so the people doing it know enough to get through an interview but lack deep knowledge about subjects like network security. This leads to the problems.
Nice surprise this afternoon.
The president of the high school booster club came to the house and informed me that I have been elected to the high school sports hall of fame for my support of the high school athletic programs. It is in recognition of the thousands of pictures I have taken over the years.
The first non-athlete to be inducted. There will be others going forward as the booster club realizes a lot of people behind the scenes help with support of the athletic programs
There will be a small presentation ceremony before the start of the homecoming ceremonies at the game on the 23rd o Septembe.
Five years ago the wife and I were honored by having the high school annual dedicated to us for our support of the school.
The Pinto was an Iacocca brain fart, rushed through development in two years after he became President of Ford. Still, like with the K-car and the minivan, the man understood what the market wanted at the time. Ford had nothing except a German-made sh*tbox (thank you Brock Yates) in showrooms when the Arabs started making noise about cutting off the oil, and having the Pinto in place when they actually did was huge. The car sold big numbers once the embargos really started rolling.
Iacocca insisted that the car come in under 2000 lbs so some corners got cut. Unbelievable today when the Sentra weighs nearly 4000 with the Corolla not far behind.
My dad had a 71 Pinto which he kept patched together over his decade separation from Ford. To deal with the fuel tank issue, he had some mod done by a metal shop in Clearwater who worked for NASA at Kennedy and the nearby Honeywell complex. All I remember about that place is that when we went to pick the car up, I noticed that they had a full size Mercury capsule hanging from the ceiling which I assume was a mockup they put together.
You actually had factory air conditioning? My dad’s didn’t. The option was pricey IIRC.
While rummaging in a freezer I found a box of Central Market (HEB) “Buffalo Milk Ricotta & Truffle Mezzelune”.
Made in Italy. It was a employee Perk Card thing, a freebie I stuck it in the freezer for later. If ever, I’ve had goat cheese that was WAY too Billy to be good. So buffalo milk is suspect.
We had goats when I was a kid and the milk makes fresh cow milk taste like the white water milk school had at lunch. But you have to keep the billy away.
So. Buffalo milk is suspect. But what the heck. The package rattled. A good sign it wasn’t a block of frost. I had a decent amount of spaghetti sauce with a few meatballs left from a few days ago. If the frostbite is real bad, make more spaghetti. I had a plan.
I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer and I can see “mezzelune” means “half moon” or “half circle”. The inner bag was well sealed. The bit of frost looked Italian. Like a Bangles song.
The pasta, well, wow. Very thin and very good. Not the usual thick and mushy frozen ravioli. The filling was great. Add some butter and a wave of black pepper… the box says 4 servings. I could have eaten all of it but I had to share. Add a bit of spaghetti sauce on the side for the win.
I need to buy some truffle oil.
I think I put this in the freezer in early November. Then Turkey Day and Christmas happened. Plus Mom was living here and was pretty picky about what she would eat by that time.
The Best By date was 7/20/2016. That’s some good packaging.
Yes. 4 cylinder engine, 4 speed manual transmission. Purchased in San Antonio so A/C was mandatory. The receiver/dryer was in the front right wheel well. The constant run compressor used a bleed valve to regulate temperature. Thus expanded, and cold, Freon bypassed the condenser. This caused ice to accumulate on the receiver/dryer. So much so that on a trip to Dallas, 260 miles with no stops, the block of ice was big enough that a full right turn was impossible. The ice had to melt before full turning was possible.
The Queen with Paddington Bear is pretty cool. Reminds me of my Granmama the last time I saw her. And my Mom, too.
@Ray Thompson
Outstanding news.
Since you will be in front of the camera, make sure you get a photo on your website to share.
Should have said evaporator, not condenser. Bypass was after the expansion valve as liquid could not be allowed in the compressor.
>> Although the process of rolling out unleaded gas, paying a premium for it, not being able to get it everywhere, etc. (Remember when they put the emergency knock-out ring in on the filler tube, in case you had to?) was a pain, our air quality in the cities is much better. The tailpipe emissions of a modern car are so good that a number of states did away with emissions inspection stations and the b.s. that attended.
I guess we could also bring back leaded gas, but after watching some of the latest Mecum auction yesterday, one of the classics given the ‘resto-mod’ treatment is probably a better option. And (now we’re into winning Powerball territory) a Ferrari SF90 Spider.
Oh, and no emissions inspection here for my LEAF.
Even more unbelievable when weight reduction due to much higher utilization of plastics, more use of lightweight metal alloys, unit-body construction, smaller engines, smaller gas tanks, the death of the full-sized spare, etc.
Mostly done to increase mpg.
And completely obliterated by 5-mph bumper requirements (cost saving now more than destroyed by the obscene cost of reskinning and repainting one after a scratch), standard a/c, power windows, power brakes, power steering, 79 air bags per vehicle, heavier seats required by endemic avoirdupois , heavier stereos with more speakers, etc., etc.
That Sentra and Corolla would probably tip over 5000 lbs if done with the same proportion of steel as the Pinto.
The Pinto was Ralph Nader’s second unwarranted but successful assassination of a perfectly good vehicle. The commie experiment in funding him to put ssticks in the spokes of American capitalism was so wildly successful that it begat the can’t swing a cat without hitting an ”activist” situation today.
The NHTSA Pinto test was rigged. If they had tested Toyotas and Datsuns the same way they would not have allowed one to be imported.
I think I had a ride in a Pinto, I don’t recall. A friend had a Maverick with faded avocado green paint . Three on the Tree. He let me drive it a few times for some reason. He might have been really stoned. I couldn’t push the clutch pedal with my leg so using a crutch made it all more interesting. Seemed like a decent set of wheels at the time.
A couple of friends had K-cars. Pretty nice, actually. Then someone bought a Mopar minivan. That was a cool vehicle.
I don’t recall anyone having mechanical problems.
About that time a friend came to visit. From Ohio to Texas in a Yugo. Dude was “add oil when the light comes on” smart about cars. For real. The light came on and I added oil. Like 4 quarts.
Ok. You’ve never had the oil changed in 30,000 miles and just add a quart when the light turns on? He had no clue. No one had ever shown him how to check the oil.
The oil plug was an odd metric size allen wrench. I had to file one down to fit. It was almost tar when I drained the oil. 90W anyway. Changed the oil and filter. Drive it around the neighborhood for a few miles and do it all again. And repeat after a few days.
He drove it back to Ohio and a year or so later drove it to Florida when he moved there.
So the folks trashing Yugos can trash away. It was a good car. Kind of flimsy, wouldn’t want to have a wreck, but decent wheels and comparable to the VW Rabbit and Plymouth/Dodge Horizon/Omni platforms.
I took that as sarcasm. There have been innumerable cases of AWS buckets being hacked. Generally not the fault of AWS, but rather of individuals screwing up security settings.
When I ran an AWS server, I basically had to block all of Asia, because of the constant flood of attacks. If that’s not an option, for whatever reason, you have a serious problem.
I don’t block any regions, just individual servers who DNS attack my server. I have been DNS attacked several times over the last 20+ years since they have not been able to hack my server.
My host takes very good care of my server for me. They run a custom version of FreeBSD x64 that they have hardened very well. I don’t even have the root password and I don’t need it.
From the various comments about cars, every manufacturer has had its share of good and not so good models. From my personal experience, and that of friends who like very different cars I would never own, driving carefully and good maintenance seem to be extremely important.
A couple of years ago, I was researching a fault on various Internet sites. I was appalled to find some people’s experience, especially what they had done to trigger a problem. Some people would try to drive their cars across a river, and complain when it got moldy a few days later. I will admit that I take pretty good care of my cars, but… really!
The moral to me is that, for every good model, there are some people who wouldn’t be happy if the car took care of itself and paid them to own it. I have looked at a lot of used cars, and I can spot turkeys from a hundred feet without even slowing down. Then, there are others that look pristine, but are crud just beneath the surface. Have to look a little closer. The real gems are rare, but there is fun in finding them.
As for cars I have owned, I can only complain about one, but that would be a distraction from my point. I would rather talk about a couple that had many flaws, but had one or two characteristics so outstanding that it made up for all the nits. That’s because to me, a car is much more than just transportation. A car is freedom. It is fun on a nice day. It is so much more than getting from point A to B. Every time I start it up, it is exhilarating, even if I am just getting a box of nails from Home Depot.
Yup, I am irrational. If anyone thinks I am nuts about cars, don’t even get me started about bicycles and motorcycles. Oh, there, I did it myself. Let’s just say anything on two wheels has a bigger fun factor than anything on more than two. Whew, that was close.
Back to rest mode.
+1
I’ve had friends like that. Their guardian angel deserves a citation.
The inevitable “Putin finds out about Kharkiv rout” version of “Downfall”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2022/09/11/the-inevitable-putin-finds-out-about-kharkiv-rout-version-of-downfall-n495708
If this continues to go badly for Putin, NATO should probably send him a proposal for a deal. Something minimal like, “We will sit on Ukraine and keep them from going to Moscow to get you.”
He will bluster and threaten nuclear weapons, at which point he gets told what happens after the hot war cools off:
After 2024 maybe the U.S. could make a side deal. We could rent some gulag space for the Democrats.
You deserve it. I have looked at quite a few of your pictures, and it is high time someone did something in recognition. Also, IIRC your scholarship contributions and your substitute teaching. I hope some of those students acknowledge your contributions to good discipline in the classroom. I know some teachers, and they have had surprises from some of the challenging ones who have approached them years later and said they were inspired to do well by something that seemed unpleasant at the time. I would like to think that still happens.
Ray; Congratulations on the honor!
Paul:
The first car I ever “owned” – my father bought it for me when I was 17 – was a 1959 Rambler “American”. It was only 9 years old then, but was already mostly rusted out. Oil? Fill the oil every time you filled the gas tank, and it was generally 2 quarts. I was buying the cheap “15 cents a quart” stuff from the bulk dispenser at the cheap gas station. I drove it through a puddle in the street and got a shower, as water erupted through the floorboard around the clutch.
Unfortunately, I’ve never been handy about cars. About the only maintenance I’m capable of doing is an oil change. I think my father wanted me to learn to fix that POS, but that was never going to happen. I should have; that would be a very useful set of skills to have now.
I think I had a ride in a Pinto, I don’t recall. A friend had a Maverick with faded avocado green paint . Three on the Tree. He let me drive it a few times for some reason. He might have been really stoned. I couldn’t push the clutch pedal with my leg so using a crutch made it all more interesting. Seemed like a decent set of wheels at the time.
A couple of friends had K-cars. Pretty nice, actually. Then someone bought a Mopar minivan. That was a cool vehicle.
I don’t recall anyone having mechanical problems.
Dad rented a Pinto in Scotland in 1973 when we lived in London. We took the night train from London to Glasgow and drove all over Scotland, even up to the Isle of Sky. Me and my two brothers, 13, 9, and 8 shared the back seat. Any more growth for us and we would have exploded the rear seat.
I bought a 1987 Dodge Caravan in 1987 with the new V6 Mitsubishi motor. Was a great vehicle until the transmission failed at 63,000 miles. And at 86,000 miles. And at 93,000 miles. All under the 100,000 mile powertrain warranty. And the A/C failed at 80,000 on my dollar. And both front power plastic window gear strips failed after 70,000 miles.
The topper was the valve seals on the V6 started failing at 94,000 miles. Started burning a quart of oil per 300 miles. My brother and I pulled the heads and I rebuilt them. Put it back together and my Chrysler manual gave me the wrong head bolt torque. Things went downhill from there. I did not have enough abuse and bought a 1993 Dodge Caravan. After three events in the first 29,000 miles I sold it. I have bought my last Dodge.
The most important maintenance for long lasting service.
My first car, a five year old 1957 Plymouth, was not rusted, but the engine had been sorely neglected. I drained chunks, poked a wire into the drain hole to drain more. I pulled the valve covers and started with a putty knife and a stiff brush. More chunks in the drained oil. Changed oil every weekend for about five changes, until no chunks. All seemed well after that, but the rings had stuck, and the compression was so low it wouldn’t start without a push. Eventually I junked it because it would have been too much work and expense compared to buying something else. That was an important lesson.
@JimB
I remember hearing about incompatible oil additives, as in “stick with the same oil”. Pennzoil was supposed to be one of the “change to that and keep it forever” types.
I was taught to add kerosene to the crankcase to flush it before a difficult oil change. Now it would be Seafoam or something similar.
Thanks.
I looked back and I have been taking pictures for almost 25 years for the school. Been through about five different cameras during that time. Some equipment replaced because it was broken by sideline incidents.
Started with having to use flash to get any reasonable image. I carried a high voltage battery pack to power the flash and get quick recycle time. Now with the advances in digital, extremely high ISO, rapid frame rate, much better auto-focus, the task is easier and the results better.
I can get better pictures with my iPhone than I could with the first camera I started with. That is just amazing magic in my opinion.
I have never done any of that for recognition. The pictures I do as I enjoy pictures, it helps the school, and the parents and kids really like the pictures. I also get the kids pictures into a couple of local papers.
The scholarship is to help some child move into a good paying job that does not involve wasting years in a liberal college eduction. The annual staff is not allowed to make a profit per state rules and the extra money from ads that are sold is given to me. $750.00. Which I give back in a scholarship plus a little extra.
Taking pictures also gets me into games for no charge. Home concession stand gives me whatever I want for no charge. I get close to the action. One time I got slammed by a football player running full speed. Took me several minutes to get up and I suffered significant equipment damage. Mental damage was also high. I could not find a cheerleader fast enough behind which I could hide.
Subbing is again something to help the school. The pay sucks. Being retired I need something to do. A part time job was out of the question as they have a schedule. With subbing if I do not, or can not, work they day, there is no downside, no slam on the employment record.
A small school where most everyone knows everybody. I refuse to sub in Oak Ridge, almost twice the pay, but that place is full of thugs who could not care less about getting an education. Prison fodder for the most part.
Our Pinto had an aftermarket AC my father installed after driving the car cross country from Ventura to Florida as part of the move. The system made a compressor noise not too different from the TARDIS landing except the downward shift in frequency was dragged out over ~ 30 sec while the upwards shift happened in about a second.
That Mitsubishi engine was notorious for valve seal failures, and the rear head was hard to remove with the engine in the car. I have a cousin who did his himself. Put in Viton seals, and no more problems. He said correct NEW head bolts, torque, and aftermarket gaskets were extremely important.
As for transmissions, a friend who was an insider at Chrysler, said they handled the problems all wrong. Corporate-think that should have been revised. The problem was the software in the controller, and failures could be prevented by replacing it early before it damaged the hardware.
My wife convinced me to buy a used 1991 Plymouth Grand (long wheelbase) Voyager. It had the new Chrysler designed 3.3 liter V6 that was a cam in block design, just like the American V8s. That engine was trouble free for me, smooth as an electric motor, adequate power, and good gas mileage. The transmission broke a planetary gearset at about 85k miles, the result of a controller glitch. Since I was acquainted with the transmission problems from the insider, I had a local shop rebuild it with aftermarket mods and a new controller with a better software version (ROM, so not field upgradeable.) End of problems, but expensive. I have wondered how the company that designed one of the first self-adaptive electronically controlled transmissions could have been so stupid handling warranty problems. They forced dealers to replace the hardware without upgrading the software. To be fair, dealers were not smart enough to figure it out.
Our car was great and otherwise trouble free. When it had some cosmetic problems, as a result of being kept outdoors for all its life, I bought a replacement and downgraded it to local service. I finally junked it at 150k fifteen years later, with many things needed as a result of hard short trip service and dirt roads. The engine and transmission were still working like new, but the car needed paint and shocks all around – not worth it. The California taxpayers gave me $1500 to turn it in under a retirement program, not the cash for clunkers, but something similar. I hated to see it go. It cheerfully hauled six people and luggage comfortably, and never complained about steep hills. It was the best riding car both empty and full.
I replaced that Voyager with a used 1997 Chrysler Town & Country with the newly enlarged 3.8 liter V6 and the same transmission. It also had sliding doors on both sides. I still have it, but it has 200k miles, and has been outside for all but two years of its life. It has an emissions glitch that hopefully will qualify it for “retirement” under CA rules. It would fetch another $1500 to junk it. I just need a round tuit: the paperwork is a bit daunting.
That car was an example of one that had a few flaws, but was so good that I forgot about them. The engine and transmission run like new, but it needs enough cosmetic work that I bought a 2006 T&C to replace it. That car is another generation newer, with the fold down middle and rear seats plus power sliding doors and rear liftgate. My wife likes it to haul “stuff”. It is in beautiful cosmetic condition, and runs fine at just under 100k. A friend found it and called me. Bought it five years ago. Solid car. I love it.
There’s more, but I probably haven’t bought my last Chrysler/Daimler-Chrysler/FCA/Stellantis North America car. Uh, maybe I will draw the line at Stellantis North America. With a name like that, this may be the end. Oh wait, they said the same thing in 1934 when the original Airflow was a flop. Poor old Chrysler, one of the most interesting auto companies that still (almost) exists. Walter P is probably spinning in his grave.
Yup, and there were all sorts of other treatments, including a quart of good ol’ automatic transmission fluid. We had a 1971 Toyota Corona with the infamous 8RC engine. It developed stuck rings as a result of slow warmup (poor coolant flow design) and short trip driving. I changed the oil every two months in the winter, but it still burned oil. I was advised to put a few ounces of (IIRC) MEK in the crankcase, idle to distribute it without bringing the engine up to temperature, let soak for an hour, then bring the engine up to temperature and change oil immediately to avoid valve seal failure. Did nothing. Rings were probably worn too much already. That was at about 42,000 miles. Mercifully, it was rear ended and totaled shortly after. Good riddance.
That was the car my wife could only afford after her beloved 66 Mustang was totaled as a result of a stupid other driver. We were married after she had the Toyota for a year. We didn’t really need it, but decided to keep it because the depreciation meant it would not have brought much money. We towed it from Florida to California behind my 1969 Chrysler. That was fun. Not.
Tell me about it. I needed to document some small objects quickly a few days ago. I tried my DSLR, but couldn’t focus close enough to get the resolution I needed. I have a closeup lens (50 mm f/4 copy lens that can focus to 1:1,) but had never tried it on the digital camera. Instead, to save time I used my Samsung Note 20 Ultra 5G phone. I had used my older phone (Note 3) for closeup work, and didn’t expect much. Wrong! This new phone could focus very closely and produced images that impressed me. I have not yet used the camera much, but have been impressed with its versatility, especially wide angle interior shots. I need to get better acquainted with it.
The phone I wanted but couldn’t get, an S21 Ultra 5G, supposedly has a better camera, but that is debatable. I think it is mostly more digital zoom.
I just took some routine pictures today, and my phone again impressed me.
“Aussie Professors Push for $275 / ton Social Cost of CO2”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/09/10/aussie-professors-push-for-275-ton-social-cost-of-co2/
“I don’t know where the scientists expect solar panels to come from, if they keep deterring coal mines. The only commercial process available today to make silicon for solar panels requires reacting pure silica with vast quantities of coal. This is why the slave factories of Xinjiang are one of the major global centres of solar panel manufacture – Xinjiang has the vast quantities of coal required.”
Great comment:
“When I was born life expectancy in Australia at birth was around 65 years and the CO2 concentration was around 310 ppm, life expectancy is now 83 years with CO2 at around 420 ppm.
The corollary is: CO2 is good for you quod erat demonstrandum.”
275 Australian dollars is 188 USA dollars.
A USA $188 per USA gallon tax is about $1.50/gallon.
>> I think I had a ride in a Pinto, I don’t recall.
I don’t recall ever driving a Pinto but have ridden in one a few times. My friend had a Chevy Vega, learned to drive stick in that car, really heavy clutch. One time my dad had borrowed his boss’ BMW 750iL with a stick. Persuaded him to let me take it for a drive, that was a sweet car.
Then there were the two Gen1 Honda Accords that my dad bought from a dealer in North Carolina as they were practically unobtainable in the NY tri-state area. I flew down to NC twice, dealer picked me up at the airport and I drove each one home. One was silver and the other was gold. My brother usually drove the gold one and convinced my dad that converting it from an automatic to a stick shift would be a good project. As my dad was in the scrap metal business (before they called it recycling) he was able to find a manual transmission from a totaled Accord from a friend that ran an auto dismantler / parts business. They were successful with the conversion but unfortunately one of my brother’s good friends had borrowed the car and got a bit too “enthusiastic” with it and totalled the car in an incident with a utility pole. Thankfully he wasn’t hurt.
I recall getting a Honda Accord when they first came out. Had to pay $500 over list price, since they were in such high demand – so the price was $5000.
Sold my 1971 Chevy Camaro to help pay for it. (Which I got when I traded in my 1965 VW Bug – 6v system, but it had a hand-crank solid sun roof.)
@Rick, that Camaro is prob. worth $10K – 30K but the honda surely isn’t…
Of course none of my cars ended up being worth anything either. Still wish we had the Scout dad got as part of his comp package. New one every year…
n
Isn’t Cusack’s character restoring an early 70s Camaro in “Better Off Dead”? There are hardcore fans of that movie who will pay decent money for the cars.
(BTW, the local hardcore “Breaking Bad” fan now has a “HZENBERG” plate for his Aztec. I’ve been trying to grab a pic when I see the vehicle.)
The first Honda non-motorcycle I ever saw was our family doctor’s in mid-late 70s, whenever gas went to the outrageous price of 70 cents a gallon.
He may have imported the car. He was on the cutting edge with the vehicle.
Medicine was more of his hobby than job since his wife’s family owned half of the land under Downtown Clearwater.
Here, here. The best ending to any story involving auto stupidity.
There’s no way I could have kept them, unless I’d had a building on the farm to turn into a car archive. But there are times I miss the Mustangs and the T-Birds.
There was a night coming out of Cleveland when I heard the chick in the Camaro ahead of me do a bear check on the CB as we hit the on-ramp. My 67 T-Bird was fine to 110, but then I remembered that it had out-of-state plates…
That car was darn near impossible to start below 0*.
*Fahrenheit, like God intended temperature to be measured.
Texas teacher tells students to call pedophiles “minor-attracted persons”
“on administrative leave pending termination”
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/09/11/texas-teacher-tells-students-to-call-pedophiles-minor-attracted-persons-n495684
“During the board meeting, School Board Vice President Daniel Call actually attempted to defend Parker, saying that her comments were “taken out of context.””
He later recanted.
I would have moved to terminate him, if he could not formulate a defensible “context” in thirty seconds.
And I would have further moved to make the terminations for cause, with no negotiation, no arbitration, and tossed my compensation into the legal fund kitty.
Just walked thru the room while the family was watching the latest “Thor” movie. What was Queen Amadala doing fighting Voldemort? When did the greek gods become Africans? Did the narrator find love with another guy?
What a piece of garbage. Even D2 hated it.
n
L.A. Dem mayoral candidate’s home burglarized, guns stolen
Part of her statement:
other commentary:
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/09/11/l-a-dem-mayoral-candidates-home-burglarized-guns-stolen-n495674
uh-huh
What’s the chance that she failed to mention that stash of drugs for “personal” use?
AoSHQ “Sunday Evening Gub Thread”
Excerpt from an F-16 pilot:
Look it up and read the rest.
In the early days most of the “steely-eyed rocket men” got there by flying jets.
this video was embedded in the above-referenced thread:
Arcflash Labs EMG-02 Coilgub:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwHRjgVWFno&t=936s
Delivery Dec 2022. No MSRP discussed.
Tom Brady wasn’t 100% tonight, but that didn’t matter. The Yucs defense wants that ring.
“Woke” made for a miserable year for The Mouse.
Disney will have to cut a deal with DeSantis, but the Governor’s office isn’t accepting phone calls until after the election and, then, only after Cheapek is “encouraged to spend more time with his family.”
Tom Brady wasn’t 100% tonight, but that didn’t matter. The Yucs defense wants that ring.
19 – 3 over the Cowboys is not a minor event. That is a stomping. And Brady had nothing to do with the 19 points scored by his team ?
>> (BTW, the local hardcore “Breaking Bad” fan now has a “HZENBERG” plate for his Aztec. I’ve been trying to grab a pic when I see the vehicle.)
The first Honda non-motorcycle I ever saw was our family doctor’s in mid-late 70s, whenever gas went to the outrageous price of 70 cents a gallon.
He may have imported the car. He was on the cutting edge with the vehicle.
Medicine was more of his hobby than job since his wife’s family owned half of the land under Downtown Clearwater.
I suppose any Azteks still on the road only belong to BB fanatics. (Right now we’re in the middle of Season 3.)
We had one of the CVCC Civics with the two-speed semi-automatic transmission. Even with only 68hp from the 1.4L engine, the 1,600(?)lb curb weight and diminutive size made for some fun driving. My best time from NYU (Courant Building) to my parents’ house in Brooklyn (where the Prospect Expressway turns into Ocean Parkway) was 13 minutes. Yeah, those were fun times.
And here’s an interesting story about Honda putting one over on GM re the CVCC technology.
Downtown Clearwater – Scientologist or smart real estate investor?
Hmm. Unfortunately another woman in our fairly small circle of friends had been diagnosed with breast cancer. This time, the mom of one of D1’s friends.
I am anxious that this not turn out to be the first few stones of an avalanche.
n
Scientologists didn’t start buying up Downtown Clearwater until the late 70s, when the city’s major daily paper started its decline along with the commercial district. The newspapers, including The Times, were all over the church’s antics until the ad revenues couldn’t support the reporting anymore.
The doctor’s wife was part of one of the old homestead families in Clearwater.