Cool edge to the start of the day. I’m sure it will get to be plenty hot today. We didn’t get any rain here though, despite the forecast.
I spent most of yesterday sitting at my desk watching youtube, and doing paperwork. Put my laundry away, and cooked breakfast and dinner. That was the extent of my involvement with the world.
Today I’ve got to get out of the house. I’ve got pickups to do, stuff to pull out of storage and get ready to drop off at the auctioneer, and stuff to donate. There are some other things I need to do too.
Can’t forget about the everyday, just because there is some bad stuff coming.
So get your everyday in order too, and consider that a prep, as you’re building the base that holds up the rest.
And stack. You know why.
nick
If it were anyone else I’d sympathize and protest. But Joe Biden has been a thief, a liar, a bully, and a pervert for his entire public life – which is almost as long as I’ve been alive – and a traitor for decades, so any abuse he receives is nothing but the justice he’ll never officially receive.
Yeah, dementia. Trump, tho.
The South Carolina primary is up first, and Biden is going to win that without even trying, establishing momentum to the nomination.
South Carolina is where the Dems struck the deal with the African American community in 2020 to hand the nomination to Corn Pop in return for consideration on VP and the Supreme Court along with reparations. God only knows what’s been promised this time, but walkin ’round money is always good.
A little walkin’ round money in South Carolina tends to find its way into neighboring states. The press is just going to hang in Savannah and wander across the border occasionally to Charleston.
The press guys will probably even hit The Lady and Sons … but off camera, of course.
BTW, I indulged my wife on Paula Deen’s restaurant in Nashville last year as a splurge on that trip. At least half of the customers and staff on duty that night were African American .
You forgot plagiarist.
Corn Pop was the case study for Business Communications class lectures on that subject 35 years ago. I sat through one.
That will only work on one-way streets. It can be done on two-way streets but doing so will cripple traffic the other direction. Some places optimize flow one direction in the morning, the other direction in the afternoon.
Another problem with coordinating lights is that the magnetic loop systems embedded in the road, used to measure vehicle traffic, are becoming unreliable as the people qualified to build and maintain the installations are literally dying off at an accelerating rate.
The “hoses” (treadles)? Yeah, don’t even go there.
One woman scammed management at the tolling company into giving her a high level job and supervisory title for what they thought would be expertise in the systems based on her resume, but it turned out that she played them and really didn’t know much about the hands on work.
I can’t imagine that was an isolated case, especiallly with all the focus on diversity hiring in government.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/yourmoney/banking/article-12540653/Stripe-backlash-debanking-controversy-Silicon-Valley.html
– based on the article, someone or an AI at Stripe tripped over the word “magazine” of 10 or more , pellets in this case and shut them off.
Got alternative financing?
—————
sausage is in the pan, muffins are in the oven. Kids are still in bed though, but that will change.
n
You are taking your chances at that Too Big To Fail Bank. They’ve been a ward of the Feds for 15 years.
Post-MF Global, all “money market” accounts at a place like that are property of the financial institution. Your account balance represents “shares” in the bank, not actual money.
Around here there are several intersections where it is obvious the sensors are not working. And have not been for several years. Lights will trip at intersections even if no traffic every few minutes to allow for traffic that stops over the stop line to get a green signal.
There are some intersections where the light will trip every couple of minutes, and stay green for a couple of minutes even with no traffic. Other lights have controlled turn lanes that trip and stay tripped even no traffic. Crossings that stay green way to long because the controller thinks there is a pedestrian.
None of the broken systems are getting repaired in spite of the city, which controls the lights, getting lots of money. Instead half a dozen workers will be standing around for 5 hours looking at a fire hydrant.
On the state highways the state simply does not care. Or the lights are never reported. About the only thing that gets repaired is a burned out bulb. The experiment in LEDs has led to many lights with half the LEDs burned out and have been that way for several years.
A total controller fail when the lights flash red in all directions is a traffic nightmare with clueless people not stopping. When the power goes out who goes first is predicted on who has the biggest pickup truck and balls.
Yep, just what we need. A trifecta of useless, liberal, woke crap. Her only qualifications are being female, black, and a FAQ. Intelligence and ability are apparently no longer required to be a senator.
The lights have a known average cycle count between failures, and this is accounted for in budgeting for the administrative entity. Replacement gets done on a regular basis as preventative maintenance.
LEDs are too new to have much of a track record, and they are a lot less predictable than incandescents. The deployments are as much science experiments as they are civil engineering.
Don’t forget her tenure in a C-suite at a tech company and UC regent.
Qualifications? We don’t need no stinking qualifications here at Airbnb … or in the UC system.
If Corn Pop croaks before South Carolina, Newsom will need the “racial justice” cred to win what will be an extremely abbreviated competitive race. The fix has been in there since 2020.
Sweden is reaping the whirlwind. Ah, vibrant diversity.
So they are developing a military police state, because their laws were written for civilized white people …
So not only are they getting vibranced to death, they get a new police state too!
n
I have seen LED lights with half the LEDs non-functioning for over a year. I don’t know what maintenance cycle encompasses those lights. I suspect the heat is destroying the LEDs as the enclosures are probably not well designed to dissipate heat.
Politicians talk about the “skills shortage”, although the people immigrating illegally (a) are not allowed to work, and (b) have no useful skills anyway. Then they try on the idea that we need young taxpayers, because of the aging population. Makes just as little sense: see above “cannot work” and “no useful skills”.
But finally, finally, even moderate politicians are realizing that people have had enough. Sealing long, porous borders is difficult, but you can do more than the current “nothing” Europe is doing. Turn people away. With force, if necessary.
Meanwhile, you must get the illegals out of your territory. There is at least some talk of an Australia-like solution: pay some third-world country to set up camps and take them. If they have a serious asylum claim, you can process it remotely. Meanwhile, you are shipping them somewhere they don’t want to be, providing an essential disincentive for the next wave of potential migrants.
In the US, banning money transfers “home” would stop a lot of the invasion. So would stopping all payments and social services for illegals. Those two things would cause a lot of them to ‘self deport’.
Actual criminals aren’t going anywhere. When the wolf figures out he can live among the sheep and eat whenever he wants, only shooting him will remove him. Reducing the population that looks like the wolf will make it harder for him to hide in plain sight, and easier to shoot.
n
Huh, turns out I didn’t win the junky small gennie after all. I did win the medium sized one. Someone onsite bid after me, and because of lag and software issues, I didn’t see it to bid again. Doesn’t bother me that much as I didn’t have any strong desire for the item, but I’d be p!ssed if it was something I was trying to buy. It’s an imperfect world we live in.
n
SF author Michael Flynn has died.
With Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, he coauthored “Fallen Angels”:
https://www.amazon.com/Fallen-Angels-Larry-Niven/dp/0743435826/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1696256155&sr=1-1&tag=ttgnet-20
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/10/when-police-and-prosecutors-cant-or.html
– yep, as I was saying…
Rule of law made a lot of things possible. We’re going to miss it.
n
SF author Michael Flynn has died.
Wow, out of nowhere. I was just visiting his blog last week.
RIP.
“Rule of law made a lot of things possible. We’re going to miss it.”
The Trump persecutions. Open borders. J6. Asylum claims for invaders crossing from Mexico but not from Mexico.
I already miss it.
WalMart would never allow the remittances to stop. Visit one of their stores late on a Friday afternoon in an agricultural area on the West Coast or in Texas and you will understand.
Send a WalMart gift card balance south, and the store does not collect a fee.
The Unseen Emissions: Tire Dust
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/10/01/the-unseen-emissions-tire-dust-and-the-environmental-mirage-of-electric-vehicles/
78% of ocean microplastics is claimed.
That does not sound likely, but I haven’t read the paper.
Re: Michael Flynn.
Fallen Angels was OK, but I think some of his other work was better.
But at least two of his essays, The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown, and The Mean Streets of Old Alexandra, should be required reading in any college history of science curriculum.
Based on their history, one should filter through the refutable assumption that they’re lying by commission or omission or misuse of math or that they’re incompetent. It’s possible that they are not but they need to prove it through full disclosure of data and methods. You know, science.
I’ve wondered about that – mix mix of online and live participants seems like a big source of potential problems.
That shouldn’t even be a question. Here, they do get “emergency” support. Extremely minimal, but still too much. Here illegally? You need to go away, or be helped to go away.
The headline of the day. Still, it’s not a new issue. What may be new are the measurements. Where clothing fibers are visible, “tire dust” can be extremely small, down to 100nm. “Nanoplastics” small enough to pass through cell walls. Whether that’s important or not, is unknown. Tires also contain weird chemicals, which get distributed with the dust.
Serious issue? Or just climate panic of the day? Sadly, there has been so much exaggeration for so long: there’s no way to tell.
Work in any concrete floored building with forklifts and you’ll see some tire dust. Black stuff is everywhere. It’s very fine and silty too.
Yes, and you breathe it, as well as wear it, eat it, and maybe even absorb it thru skin or eyes or other mucus membranes.
Or live near an airport and see the black filth from the jet exhaust everywhere.
‘course, it has nothing on volcanic ash, sahara sand, or other smog particles.
n
Sshhh! You’re going against the narrative!
The Locust Class has done quite a number on Tampa, particularly Interbay, where everything which made the city unique has been razed to build townhomes for the infestation.
>> I see people replacing brake drums and rotors. Newer cars tend to have smaller brake rotors and drums to reduce weight, and some friction material wears the cast iron fast.
Mileage on my LEAF is just over 20K and with the regenerative braking doing 95% of the work, all the brake pads barely show any wear. Not sure what the factory service manual calls for in terms of replacement.
Now if I can only find where those dang spark plugs are hidden 😉
The coal, nuclear, and gas turbine generators that power your car don’t need spark plugs.
Of course, there aren’t enough of them to actually power all the EVs being produced and still keep people alive in their homes.
When you do, you will find that you need a special wrench that is not available anywhere. 🙁
I just tried and the side x side started up, no problem. I looked at the gas drip. It’s coming from a small bowl and since it has a place for a wrench, it can come off.
It looks like a sediment filter. I do not feel any kind of gasket with my finger. I poked with a small screwdriver and it’s just metal. The top edge of the bowl is beveled. And pitted. I’ll guess and say the other surface is also pitted. Or maybe the bowl is designed to corrode ala boat anode.
I thought, hey, teflon tape! Well. No. I put it back together and no leaks. Put the ignition wrenches away, fed the cats, fed the emu and checked on the SxS. It’s dripping. Who knew gasoline dissolves teflon tape in 12 minutes?
There’s some kind of Permatex product that will work. I’ll go to NAPA and see what they have.
It’s a Honda GX390 engine.
It’s called a Sediment Cup. And there is suppose to be an o-ring. Maybe I have one.
Pearls Before Swine: Book Tour
https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/10/01
Pig is cold, very cold. Of course, I have seen authors sitting in our B&N, all alone.
Sixty two people were shot dead in Sweden – home to 10.4 million people – last year and police figures show 42 deaths so far this year.
One was beaten and hung this year. Sounds like justified.
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2023/10/when-police-and-prosecutors-cant-or.html
The coal, nuclear, and gas turbine generators that power your car don’t need spark plugs.
Anything using natural gas, diesel with spark ignition instead of compression ignition, coal, or fuel oil has spark plugs. Except really old marine type steam boilers that used a torch to get started (been there, done that).
The headline of the day. Still, it’s not a new issue. What may be new are the measurements. Where clothing fibers are visible, “tire dust” can be extremely small, down to 100nm. “Nanoplastics” small enough to pass through cell walls. Whether that’s important or not, is unknown. Tires also contain weird chemicals, which get distributed with the dust.
Modern tires are made from translucent plastic from natural gas. Partially burned carbon (soot) from natural gas is added to tires to make them black. They use huge spools to make the carbon black with natural gas and then drill them out, making the carbon black dust (soot).
“Tesla whiffs on Q3 deliveries, says factory ‘downtimes’ to blame”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-whiffs-on-q3-deliveries-says-factory-downtimes-to-blame-150853624.html
“Tesla (TSLA) reported third quarter delivery figures that missed the mark, as scheduled downtime at some of its plants shifted future production further into the fourth quarter.”
“Tesla said it delivered 435,059 vehicles globally, of which approximately 419,000 were Model Y and Model 3 vehicles and around 16,000 were higher-priced Model X and Model S cars. Wall Street consensus estimates had deliveries pegged at 456,722.”
“A sequential decline in volumes was caused by planned downtimes for factory upgrades, as discussed on the most recent earnings call. Our 2023 volume target of around 1.8 million vehicles remains unchanged,” Tesla said in a statement.”
Still, that is a lot of electric vehicles. My cousin has 70K miles on his 2019 Tesla 3 dual motor and still loves it.
“It’s official: No more free Windows 10 upgrades”
https://www.zdnet.com/article/its-official-no-more-free-windows-10-upgrades/
“The party’s over. After seven years of looking the other way, Microsoft has finally announced that it’s closing the loophole that allowed PCs running Windows 7 and Windows 8.x to upgrade for free.”
I’ll be testing this soon.
I found an o-ring that should fit. I can’t get the cup started more than half a turn and it feels like it wants to cross thread. I double checked for an existing o-ring and I can’t feel one. I don’t see it on the ground.
Anyway. I held the cup to the light and there’s a pin hole just the exact size for the gas drip. Not a gasket problem yet. I ended up at Big River and for $14.67 with tax it should be here October 6th or so.
Google and the Duck are pretty cluttered with BS while searching. I don’t need a video of how to replace the part. I know how. Annoying.
The Jesus Truck is still MIA.
An interesting bit of fallout from last week’s hail storm here in North Austin is how much the carriers are willing to shell out on collision claims for the pricey EVs. That was the dominant topic of conversation in our staff meeting on campus Friday afternoon since just about all of the people I work with have a Model X.
My manager had Prudential tell him that they would only reimburse him 50% of his purchase price.
Another manager is being reimbursed 100% but she has Tesla’s in-house carrier, the downside of that being a constant feedback of telemetry of the vehicle into determining the renewal rates every six months.
Tony is watching.
I thought the carbon black was a UV blocker to make the tires last longer. Not that I want bright blue tires on my truck… but I can folks getting tires the color of their paint.
I want tires that look like a Grateful Dead tie-dye t-shirt. And dancing bear hubcaps.
I want clear tires with flashing lights inside.
Not.
I want tires that look like a Grateful Dead tie-dye t-shirt.
You will have nothing and be happy.
You will have twice your body weight in hallucinogenics and be happy.
IIRC, the Grateful Dead still have very lucrative concert tours.
And as much as he ruined Florida spinning musical myths about moving to the area to lead a laid back lifestyle on just enough money to pay rent and buy alcolhol, Mississippi native Jimmy Buffett was well known around the state for being a workaholic task master and perfectionist.
Jimmy Buffett was also an early investor in Berkshire Hathaway, and, no, he was not related to Warren Buffett.
FED-UP PUBLIC: Ban money transfers to Mexico and other destinations south of the border.
WALMART: We don’t want that to happen.
FED-UP PUBLIC: Nice stores you have here. Shame if anything happened to them.
“FED-UP PUBLIC” could try scrubbing a toilet once a week.
MeTV has Home-A-Glow “$19 introductory visit” commercials every night during “Hogan’s Heroes”. The same is true over on the sister network H&I during the “Star Trek” hours.
And I won’t even get into how the domestic help skews the stats on landline phone service in California. Even though I know of the scheme first hand from Death Star scab training, there are always doubters here.
Who do you think works those gigs?
The money has always been in touring and merch.
n
If you sit enough monkeys at enough typewriters long enough, one is sure to write
“KARMA MAKES ME SMILE”
https://thepostmillennial.com/breaking-leftist-journalist-who-downplayed-violent-crime-gunned-down-in-his-philly-home?utm_campaign=64483
Pool is open on the perp’s party identification and preferred pronouns.
As I’ve been sitting at my desk all day, I’ve been feeding in DVDs to rip.
Did I mention that I solved the audio delay vs the video problem? The answer was to open and re-rip the saved file. Don’t try to rip the dvd again, you just get the delay.
So far it’s worked every time, at least a dozen files.
n
I’ve been using MakeMKV to rip lately and then down converting the files with HandBrake.
The number of new-ish BluRay discs which MakeMKV handles with recent versions is very good.
MakeMKV even handled “Picard” season three which is somewhat surprising given that the studio probably wanted to sell as many of those as possible.
I’ll have to find my copy of season two of “Ash vs. The Evil Dead”. That was consistently the most pirated show on the Internet during its original run, and the BluRay didn’t work in MakeMKV a few years ago.
I figured out why I can’t rip bluray discs, not a bluray drive! I think it was last month when I finally figured that out.
n
And, yes, I have the “flawed” “Picard” discs with the low grade special effects shot of the … Barchetta … in flight.
MakeMKV handles both forms of disc.
I have a cheap LG internal BluRay drive which works well.
Just watched “Asteroid City” with the wife. If you’re at all a Wes Anderson fan, I’d recommend spending the 105 minutes. Great casting.
Everyone knows that nuclear plants have 4 spark plugs in the reactor vessel to start the reaction. It only needs one and the other 3 are for redundancy so no-one needs to go into the containment if the reaction stalls.
🙂
“Everyone knows sheep lie!”
Falling asleep with my full belly. Big slab o meat in the crock pot for dinner tonight. Some veg in there too. Then added a heat and eat shelf stable loaf of sour dough… Good eatin’.
So I’m full, and full of carbs, and falling asleep at the keyboard.
n
Everyone knows that nuclear plants have 4 spark plugs in the reactor vessel to start the reaction. It only needs one and the other 3 are for redundancy so no-one needs to go into the containment if the reaction stalls.
Pull the other leg, it has a bell on it !
Dadgum it ! I am looking for the boiling point at atmospheric pressure of AlO(OH), Aluminium hydroxide oxide. Nothing has it that I have found so far.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_hydroxide_oxide
I am beginning to think that I can estimate it to be 3,000 K.
Well, the minute I gripe about it, I find AlO(OH) boiling point in a very strange place.
http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1538901.html
Apparently somebody is using it as cosmetic. Not me !
And my estimate was horrible. Their quote is 373.15 K at 760 mm Hg.
Finished the second coat of paint on the repaired part of Northeast side of house. I’m going to find out what it will cost get a painter to do the rest of it; my hip didn’t like the ladder.
Got ahold of Bissell and they are sending my replacement carpet cleaner – 7 to 10 days.
Discussed with my son whether I should buy the transmission, clutch assembly and related parts now or wait until I’ll ready to use them. The money is in the bank, but inflation is driving the price of everything up. We decided to buy now. I got a quote of $6700 plus shipping. Ouch. (Flywheel, scatter shield, 6 speed Tremec TKX, twin disc clutch, hydraulic throw out bearing, etc.)
Checked my measurements for the TV wall mount in the shop office and drilled the holes. The next time my son visits we’ll mount it. The local Fastenal manager is a neighbor, and he gave me some high-grade pegboard that I can now hang behind the work benches/toolboxes in the office.
Dug out the carburetors that I need to get milled for the 2×3 setup. They have the full round airhorn and I need to get the airhorn milled for use in the 2×3 configuration. I need to write down what exactly what I want done I to better the possibly that I’ll get what I want.
Ordered replacement vacuum secondary diaphragms for two of my Holley 3 BBL carbs. I don’t know if the ones I have are usable, but I don’t want to start to use them and then wait for parts, most everything else is in the rebuild kit.
Put away some more small loose parts. (I can probably say this every day, but I won’t unless – like today – I spend over an hour doing so.)
Discussed with my son whether I should buy the transmission, clutch assembly and related parts now or wait until I’ll ready to use them. The money is in the bank, but inflation is driving the price of everything up. We decided to buy now. I got a quote of $6700 plus shipping. Ouch. (Flywheel, scatter shield, 6 speed Tremec TKX, twin disc clutch, hydraulic throw out bearing, etc.)
Nice tranny ! That is a stout beastie. Does the reverse sit outside the six forward gears ?
https://www.tremec.com/menu.php?m=104
Do you need to get a cut down or longer driveshaft for this tranny ?
I put a used manual four speed tranny (no electric overdrive) in the 1973 Volvo 145 that my mother gave to me in 1978 (and shouted good riddance !). I promptly threw a rod in it driving through deep water on the Southworst Freeway (I-59) which destroyed the starter motor and the torque converter (and the block). The manual tranny driveshaft was a foot longer than the automatic tranny driveshaft. I was very surprised.
Early indications is an ex romantic partner, and that meth may have been involved.
“The manual tranny driveshaft was a foot longer than the automatic tranny driveshaft. I was very surprised.”
There’s an urban myth there somewhere.
Lynn: I’m not sure how much I will need to cut from the drive shaft. I haven’t decided exactly where I’ll locate the engine. I have factory motor mounts, but the class rules allow to move the engine back several inches. I have several drive shafts but all of them are much too long.
More of a concern is where the shifter will be located. I have to buy a optional shift tower if I want to relocate it.
Lynn: I’m not sure how much I will need to cut from the drive shaft. I haven’t decided exactly where I’ll locate the engine. I have factory motor mounts, but the class rules allow to move the engine back several inches. I have several drive shafts but all of them are much too long.
More of a concern is where the shifter will be located. I have to buy a optional shift tower if I want to relocate it.
Which vehicle is this again ?
>> I want tires that look like a Grateful Dead tie-dye t-shirt. And dancing bear hubcaps.
26 inch tires with ‘spinners’…
https://www.dubwheels.com/dub-og-2020-chevrolet-silverado-14
At least she doesn’t need to remeasure for drapes when she moves back in…
https://www.the-express.com/lifestyle/life/113617/where-is-melania-trump
Lynn: ‘66 Falcon Sedan – it has the same engine compartment as the ’66-69 Fairlane which was almost the same as the ’67-69 mustang