Hot eventually, but much cooler up here than in Houston. Only 77F when I went to bed, and everything covered with dew. Still gonna get hot later, I’m pretty sure.
Funny old weather liars, said no rain yesterday and yet I got soaked near Hobby Airport in the afternoon yesterday. Nothing at home though. P!ssing down in South Houston. I made my pickup anyway, mostly building supplies. Plumbing and electrical odds and ends with some romex and spools of wire. And three spools of pex. Now if I could just find some buckets of Sharkbite(tm) fittings and some liquidtight conduit….
I should have bid more for the sharkbite fittings in an auction last month.
Of course last month they were a “would be nice to have” and this month they are a “jeez those things are expensive but I have to fix this leak” thing. If you think you might need it, buy it when you see it.
And I think that I’ve put off pulling the toilets about as long as I can, so that is on the list for today. Find out what’s wrong with the flanges, solve it if possible, and see what’s needed to get a sink back in the hall bath. I might have to venture into town later.
I don’t like doing plumbing. I much prefer carpentry and electrical. But ‘needs must’ and all that…
Stacking up the skillz… hot skillz.
nick
“I don’t like doing plumbing. I much prefer carpentry and electrical.”
Anything that is not emergency.
And enough caffeine and foresight at hand to plan the work for minimal additional trips to get tools. Nothing like being under the car, on the roof, in the attic or up a ladder and reaching for the wrench that didn’t get into the tool belt.
Years ago ( the olden days when retail closed once in a while) I spent one holiday with a truck out of commission because I was sure I had another oil filter…
Its a delicate balance keeping enough oil filters on hand so you don’t run out, but not so many you have extras when you get rid of the car.
We have a small sacrificial shop vac for that specific purpose. Duct tape the nozzle of the vac to the outlet pipe and turn on the motor for a couple of minutes. Follow up with vinegar later. I tried bleach earlier in the week, but that obviously didn’t kill all of the mold in the line. Water did not smell “chlorine-ey” so I assume the bleach did something to dissolve the clog even if it was incomplete. I’m guessing there is some calcification.
The system stopped shutting down for about an hour, which was long enough to get the humidity and temperature under control.
The AC service companies are backed up here until mid August. If I play the emergency card, the service call would be $300 easily.
And, no, it isn’t about waiting for the next paycheck. We have the “Ramsey”-style emergency fund and had just talked about paying off the car loan on the Camry, our only debt except for the mortgage, earlier in the evening.
$300 will go towards finally replacing the Nexia thermostat. POS. I’ve hesitated because any replacement will be wireless in some way, and at least with Nexia, the wireless capability appears to have an off switch.
As documented here, I fired the original installer over the thermostat. I should have known better than to trust the salesperson, the owner’s daughter, who used to work for Jerry Jones.
I must’ve missed something…
I know that I have some views not shared by everyone. I still comment on those topics, and people are generally polite about their disagreement.
Granted, this is probably not the forum to campaign for sex-change surgery for children, or some other far-left topic. But anything else seems to be pretty fair game.
Here, our largest bill is Fr. 1000. While you don’t see bills that large tossed around for your average grocery purchase, you definitely do see them if someone is making a larger purchase: a new TV, say, or a few cases of wine. When my wife had her whisky business, we saw them pretty regularly.
The unwritten rule of politeness is: don’t use a bill that is more than double your purchase. That’s so you don’t empty the cash drawer, making life difficult for the cashier and later customers. We would usually start a whisky tasting with two “stocks” of change, each around Fr. 700 total. We wouldn’t necessary want to see a Fr. 1000 bill at the start of the evening, but later on (after a few smaller purchases) it was no problem.
Jodie Shaw from Smith College: “And now the virus has escaped the lab.”
https://jodishaw.substack.com/p/my-apologies-to-the-academics
From Ray:
I also have a fenix watch: https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/603229
TVs are a impulse buy credit card thing in the US and have been for some time. “Smart” TVs are subsidized by the placement of the streaming services and manufacturers selling the viewing data so it isn’t unusual to see 50 inch sets below $400.
The next round of North American HDTV standard will have targeted ads and IIRC some kind of two way capability so prices will probably go even lower.
Any bill larger than a $20 is generally regarded with suspicion. $100 notes are notoriously counterfeited. Anything larger than $100 would be accepted as legal tender, but the notes often have higher collector value at a coin shop.
That reminds me – the money printing plant in Fort Worth is stuffed with Italian machinery. That makes sense given what you said about cash still being popular for large purposes in your part of Europe.
Pre-pandemic, the plant used to have “Republic of Texas” currency samples on the wall behind the register in the gift shop. When I first saw the display, I joked with the clerk “Planning for something?” and the response was “No comment”.
Pappy Bush on the $100. “Shrub” on the $20. I assume Jeb! is on the $2. 🙂
A bag of gaskets for the drain plug.
I did the oil change once without a filter when the dealership Conan-ed the filter into place on the previous service and I didn’t catch it until I had removed the old oil. That isn’t an ideal situation, but if the filter sits on top of the engine like my Toyotas, you’ll get most of the oil out through the draining process. I did replace the filter the next time, however, after I got a better wrench.
The gaskets are not an option. When I skimped on replacing, the plug leaked slightly.
Been there. A screwdriver punched all the way through from the side will help. The problem with too tight is that it may cause the filter to leak as the gasket is crushed. The filter should be hand tight, then a quarter turn with the proper wrench. Lube the gasket before installing the filter.
I used to change my oil. I abandoned that process about 15 years ago. I got tired of crawling under the vehicle, dealing with hot oil on the hands, the mess, disposing of the old oil. The only oil I now change is in the lawnmower. I am giving serious thought to having that done by dealer and have the rest of the stuff serviced on the mower. Filters, hydraulic fluid, plugs, blade sharpening. I no longer have the desire to deal with that stuff.
Here in SoCal $100’s are pretty common. Pretty much the new $20, what with the price of things. If you want to pay cash, and you want your wallet to close…
Suspicion? Well, the cashier will hold it up to the light, but that‘s mostly just performance art to keep the manager off their backs.
WinCo now has a little flatbed scanner they swipe the bill across. That’s new, I think.
I usually buy oil filters in quantity. Until very recently, all my cars could (and did by my choice) use the once most popular #1 size filter. Made inventory simple. Since I change at low mileage, the FL-1A (yes, Ford) or Purolator equivalent is adequate. No full-flow filter is adequate for high mileage drain intervals in our dusty environment.
Draining the pan will not drain the filter, unless the anti-drain back function is not working. That can be checked by listening for bearing clatter on startup, and should be fixed immediately if not sooner. Some engines have a check valve, but most rely on the one in the filter. The only way to empty the filter is to remove and dump it. Some people used to do this when the recommendation was to change filters every other oil change, but IMO is poor economy. Just dump the whole filter, after dissecting it of course.
It is important to dissect a filter and look for debris, especially at the first change on a new engine. Thereafter, optional. This is required every time on light aircraft engines, but I digress.
As for drain plugs. Chrysler and most US brands used a ½-20 thread plug. In my research, Chrysler dealerships used to sell the best plug, with an integral fixed flange covered with a permanent fluorelastomer gasket. Once I put one a car, it lasted the life of the car. Much better than the traditional crush washer. I have never found these in the newer metric sizes, but have found similar ones in tradional auto parts stores like Napa. Hard to find, so I have a drawer full.
I had to do that once on a Fram filter that welded itself to the vette. In fact, I ended up tearing the entire filter off the base. I then improvised a tool to remove the base. Having the car on a lift and plenty of room around the small block v8 helped immensely. No more Fram filters on the vette, and only oem filters for the daily drivers.
RBT made Nick, Rick, and a very few others administrators of the site. End of line.
Letting a stranger change oil is akin to letting a stranger date one’s girlfriend: risky. 🙂
Note I said stranger. I would trust a known mechanic, but would worry my job might actually be done by that risky stranger. Some shops, especially dealers, use their worst people for those jobs. They sometimes don’t replace important parts.
@Nick, Rick,
I’m new-ish to this community, and I think I knew what I was getting into when I joined.
Other than my immediate appeal for support of my lawsuit against “vaccine” mandates, I tried to fit in with the community, and I tried to balance my contributions to the conversations with some degree of tact and finesse to go along with my cynicism and snark. I’ve been mostly good about keeping it family friendly.
Whatever it was before Nick took over, the current character is steady and clear.
I believe it would be incredibly presumptuous and rude for me to dictate terms about content, moderation, and control of this site. Or for anyone else to do so.
We come, we read, we contribute. Or we nitpick and complain. Or we leave.
To me, this is like a daily version of my once a week lunch with friends. I don’t agree with them on everything, they tolerate me, and I look forward to the next meeting.
I don’t understand why anyone would feel the need to crash that party and pick fights.
Basically, I’m saying: Moderate away; keep peace; do what you need to do. If you get too heavy-handed, I’ll back away from reading and posting, but I haven’t seen that yet.
Arguments seem to be of mostly two forms: “I disagree with you, and here’s why” or “You stink and you’re not RBT and you don’t do things like I like and I demand you provide me evidence and I refuse to provide you evidence and I resent that I’m not the one in control”.
It seems to me the former cases are still welcome. I would not miss the latter cases if they disappeared, since they are basically content free and don’t advance conversation.
I like the youtube channel “Just Rolled In” for auto service disasters. I can’t believe the condition of some cars on the road, especially in areas with road salt in the winter. Oil changes seem to be a foreign concept given the number of engines featured with black tar throughout.
His vids are always short, sweet, and funny in a macabre way…
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elsewhere, currently 82F and 85%RH with full sun and clear skys. My wife says it’s storming down by the coast. Small boat handling in a storm is probably too advanced for the 11-12 yo kids
———————
Have I mentioned that I love coffee? I love coffee. US military thought it was important enough to include in rations, and I think so too. Even if you don’t drink it, you might want some in the stacks. And if you do drink it, you probably have 8 different ways to make it already. Caffeine helps in a variety of situations. Coffee is a nice delivery system.
n
@Greg Norton
“The gaskets are not an option. When I skimped on replacing, the plug leaked slightly.”
AT-205 Re-Seal Can be used to freshen up elastomers that have lost plasticizer due to age, heat or solvent exposure. Not a use documented or supported by the manufacturer, but lot’s of discussion on-line including YouTube.
Just don’t over-use it–wipe on a bit or give a light spray. I’d recommend testing it on some old gaskets first.
I wouldn’t try it with something like a BMW – and, @Jenny, a Mini is essentially a BMW – but I got away with not replacing the filter in my Toyota once in a pinch.
It pays to use a good oil filter. 20 years ago a guy did an extensive test of filters and put the data on the internet, including filter area and shell thickness. Cheap filters have thin shells that can crush. Sadly, that site has never been updated. Since reading that I’ve never used anything less than a Napa Gold or the equivalent Wix. I mail order from a place in CA .
I’ve seen cheap oil filters that have half the volume of the OEM filter. No way it’s going to do the job.
ADDED
I remember seeing an oil filter that used a roll of toilet paper as the replaceable filter media. Never knew anyone that tried it.
The plug gaskets are a buck each for my cars purchased individually, much less by the bag.
I have enough around to do oil changes for a lifetime on a dozen Toyota vehicles with the same basic engine design.
As I recall, and I’m too lazy to go look it up, right after Bob’s passing Barbara ended a post with ‘Take it away Nick’. She also continues to fund it. That makes it official for most of us I’m sure.
@drwilliams and @Greg Norton, thank you both for your recommendations for a pocket knife for my dad. As it turned out, he broke the blade on his EDC shortly before his birthday, and is very specific about “that” knife, so I ended up buying him a very traditional 4″ Case trapper. He was delighted: “That’s the one I wanted”. He said he really likes the sheepsfoot (?) blade on that one.
I’ve saved your recommends, though, for Christmas ideas. Unless he loses this one (which he does fairly often – drops them in the pasture, etc), I’ll want something more interesting for him by then.
@Greg Norton
Good plan. Now if they just don’t change the design…
Toyota is better than the US mfr’s (such a wonderful, dual-meaning abbreviation).
@ITGuy1998
When I was a lad it seemed like the oil filters proliferated without rhyme or reason–you had to put them side-by-side or use a caliper to figure out the size difference, and it never made any sense as there was usually plenty of room. That is, after you put an extra joint in your forearm and broke your wrist twisting around all the b.s. the designers left hanging in the way.
Took many a bag to Goodwill with obsolete (to me) oil and air filters. I’ve seen a few tucked in the bottom of the big storage chest that are probably collectible. I know that there are a few old cans of motor oil on one shelf that are desirable eye candy for the mancave garage, even though they only date to the 70’s.
For a while I had three vehicles with the same filter spec. I ordered them by the case. Traded one vehicle for 4 years newer model. Slightly bigger engine–smaller oil filter. Use the Napa Platinum on that one, with synthetic oil.
I have a small LED UV (395nm) light that reveals the security strips in $5, $10, $20, and $50 bills just fine, but when I tried it on a new $100 bill I got from my bank to give as a gift one year, there was no glow from the strip. That made me uneasy, so I deposited it back in the bank, hoping they wouldn’t question it, and they didn’t.
Should I try using a different UV source the next time I want to experiment with a $100 bill? A different frequency? A stronger emitter? Or was the bill I saw likely bogus?
@pecancorner
Sheepsfoot is a blade shape.
I recalled that conversation a few weeks ago. I was at an estate sale that had good kitchen knives and a knife collection. I stayed away from the knives, and then later spoke to a guy that had been in line ahead of me when it opened: “I bought all the Randall’s”. Nice.
One of the advantages of an EDC is having a model that is replaceable. When working outside a red handle can be the difference being losing and finding a dropped knife. Case has a red synthetic in their 4″ Trapper line, so you might run it past him as an option.
A few years ago I had a bad day baling and was up and down out and under the machines splicing twines and cutting snarls, until finally I reached for my knife and it was gone. Black handle. Ran the ATV up and down without much hope, but did find it on the bottom of the hay rack when we were unloading. Switched to a CKRT M-16 with red G10 handles (Fire Department model) and never dropped it once in the field, then took it to a play one night at the U and lost it. Go figure. Darn thing is collectible, now, too. Now I have an Ontario RAT II with orange G10 scales, cheap and a spare in stock.
@dcp
The $100 bill has a much more recent re-design than the others, which are all more than 10 and some nearly 20 years old.
A lot of the inexpensive UV LED’s are a bit off in frequency, labeled 395 but actually a bit over 400. If it’s violet rather than blue-violet and reflects that color on a non-fluorescing white surface, that may be the case. Expensive models use the 365nm LED’s.
There are websites that detail all the security features of the new notes.
Note that in Lee Child’s Killing Floor (1997), the counterfeiters were bleaching $1 bills and using them to print fake $100. The redesign of 1996 made this method obsolete, but the slow turnover of currency overseas gave the plot a fig leaf, and the recent mini-series just ignored the update.
Yikes! We always used a pen that made a black mark on legitimate bills, but not on fakes. It was a fast way to test. I don’t know if those still work on notes printed in the past 5 or 6 years, though.
Oh that’s a brilliant idea. Thanks!
George Floyd was trying to pass a $20 lookalike.
@drwilliams, this is the study you almost certainly saw:
http://www.minimopar.net/oilfilters/index.html
This site seems to have all the information on one page, but I did not check:
http://www.fd3s.net/oil_filter_study/
As the author, Russ W. Knize, says, the information is dated, but here is his Update History:
http://www.minimopar.net/oilfilters/updates.html
Anyhow, his methods are good. I have looked for newer information, but most of what I have found is inspired by the original. Some is not worth the time. I have not looked for SAE tests: that would consume more time.
As for your mention of a toilet paper filter, those were sometimes used as add-on bypass filters, and never should be used as a replacement for a full-flow filter. Even so, I would not trust them, because they probably emit downstream contaminants that would not be safe.
Diesel engines often use bypass filters in addition to full-flow filters. These have much finer filtering, and can remove the soot always present in diesels. That is a whole ‘nother subject. They can also be used on gasoline engines, and might be a good idea. I always wanted to try one of these setups. They could not, however, prevent the fine dust from entering through the air filter, and so might not be of much benefit. That is why I drain oil at low mileage.
I have looked at off road heavy equipment for some ideas. These operate in extreme conditions. Although they are successful, they are so different from modern cars that most of their techniques are not appropriate.
Filtration is a challenging subject.
Oh, BTW, when I mentioned an FL-1A filter, that was of an older vintage. As Russ W. Knize has said, Ford seems to have at least two sources. My stock is of the “good” ones. Doesn’t matter, as it is nearly exhausted. I will probably go back to Purolator, or use one of the newer premium filters.
While looking for something else, I found the comment where DrWilliams ‘de-lurked’. It was about 4 years ago and I’m glad he did.
We’ve had some great new commentors join the group in the last few years, so I feel like I’m doing something right. Thanks for the support.
@brad, all you missed was a troll trying to p!ss in the punchbowl. Same troll. Probably the same as the last outbreak but hard to tell, or care, much.
On at least two previous occasions I’ve looked at my own navel and found it ‘good’. Search might find the days, I tried “navel gazing’ and got far more hits than I expected and most of them were too recent. For anyone not up to speed on the ”inside baseball” stuff, please read the “About” tab if you care. I’ve stated my bonafides recently, and on those two previous occasions when they were called into question.
I originally ‘opened the door’ here and turned on the lights, made the coffee, etc. when Bob suddenly got sick. I did so because he’d already given me the keys and asked me to contribute, and I was the only one with the invite, time, and inclination. I thought it would be temporary. We all thought/hoped/prayed that it would be temporary. But it wasn’t. Bob was well aware of what I was doing and was fine with it. Barbara asked/allowed me to continue. She continues to support the site and me.
That’s all the ‘legitimacy’ I need.
I constantly re-read old posts, and old comments. There is a lot of great stuff there. If I find something that wasn’t tagged, I tag it with the keywords on the right of the page (or bottom if you are on a narrow screen.) The point of continuing this as a live site is so that all the good stuff doesn’t get lost. If this were a museum or tribute site, it would languish and slowly die. How many regular Chaos Manor readers still check there daily? How many check there even once a year?
I don’t just read for content though, I consider tone and appropriateness as well, and I make a conscious effort to stay within bounds, so that it continues to be a comfortable and familiar place for us to gather. But, as I’ve said before, and as I’ve heard from regular commentors, I’m not Bob. Couldn’t be. Don’t want to be. And that should be OK with everyone.
If it’s not, well, the free icecream is free. If it isn’t to your taste, there is no need to stomp your foot and demand something different. Nothing is stopping you from only reading posts prior to Bob’s passing or from finding a place that is more to your liking.
————
And there is nothing stopping readers and commentors from raising subjects they are interested in that I haven’t raised or explored. The range of knowledge and interests represented by the readers and commentors here is incredibly broad, and a chance comment or a request for help has often opened whole new topics of discussion. It’s VERY gratifying when something new causes a reader to ‘de-lurk’ and become a commentor.
Unfortunately, for a short while, anyone commenting without prior history is going to be looked at critically. I apologize in advance, but if you are a reader here, you will know how to communicate effectively, and if you aren’t the stompy foot child, we will recognize that pretty quickly. If someone makes a mistake, you can always appeal to Rick or me through the contact form.
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and that is about enough work avoidance for the day….
n
Speaking of oil, and filters….you might lose a little time in this site…
https://bobistheoilguy.com/
To me, this is like a daily version of my once a week lunch with friends. I don’t agree with them on everything, they tolerate me, and I look forward to the next meeting.
Exactly. Though I’m not here every day, that’s how I view y’all – a group of friends to have a beer and friendly disagreements with.
https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2022/07/23/nature-journal-prior-omicron-infection-provides-more-resistance-than-vaccines-n484655
First caveat is that Nature published this in a short news article. The work is very new, based on $ May to 7 July this year, and has not been peer-reviewed.
So follow the link and read the whole thing.
Second caveat is a caution that the conclusions are very nuanced.
But it’s also very evident that natural immunity from a prior infection is very real, confirming that the public’s trust in the U.S. medical establishment has been shot to hell due to huge and ongoing malfeasance.
“US Public Broadcasting Encourages People to Eat “Tasty” Insects to Help Battle Climate Change”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/us-public-broadcasting-encourages-people-eat-tasty-insects-help-battle-climate-change/
I say that we feed the insects to the blue city hellholes in place of their food stamps.
World Track and Field Championships in Eugene Oregon
Sydney McLaughlin lowers the world record in the women’s 400m hurdles for the fourth time.
From 51.90 to 50.68 seconds since June of last year.
https://olympics.nbcsports.com/2022/07/23/sydney-mclaughlin-400m-hurdles-world-record-track-and-field-championships/
Look at the video–it is amazing.
Interviewed after the race, she confessed that she and her coach thought that she could do a bit better. One comment put it into perspective: If she had been in the 400m, she would have been 7th. Speculation is that she will be changing events–to the 400m.
@JimB
That’s it. Pretty good methodology. As an experimental design it needs replicants, but that’s a quibble. Like many others, I offered to contribute funds for an update.
The main difficulty in such testing is that anything can be easily changed. The top performers in auto parts don’t get purchased and go into name-harvest mode very often, but the source of the cheap stuff can be easily obscured with a new box or paint job.
I paid about $3.10 plus shipping to order Napa Gold in 2016, with individual filters shrink-wrapped in a box of 12.. Current price is $5.63, and cases are not available from that vendor. Same filter at Napa is over $12
The game changer for engines has been machining improvements that improve accuracy, reduce tolerances and eliminate the break-in period that generated a bunch of crap that could hide and dribble out for years.
@Lynn
“US Public Broadcasting Encourages People to Eat “Tasty” Insects to Help Battle Climate Change”
Yeah, consumption should be mandatory in their cafeterias. And worms.
Bunch of pedo-loving PLT whackjobs on the public teat. One of the many reasons to kick out the RINOS is to get that travesty defunded by the US taxpayer.
For lunch I made a steak sandwich from grill leftovers. My steer, my cutting order at the locker, my freezer with my single-source beef. My burger comes from one animal, not trim parts of 100 animals from who knows how many sources. Every year I do a grill comparison of last year vs. this year steak and burger. The biggest variable is the location of the steak along the axis of the side, and since that is usually a gradation by size, I should probably weigh the steaks each year and number them. This year I did a better job keeping them in order from the locker, so I’m starting small and working up to the Porterhouse.
I think you have it backwards. A fake bill leaves a mark, real bill leaves no mark. It is illegal to deface US currency.
@ITGuy1998
Pretty sure that guy has a video on the AT-205.
You’re right! I misremembered! It’s been a while. thanks for the correction 🙂
A quick search on this gives mixed results. Some say it is illegal, others say it is a protected First Amendment expression.
All of which will be news to folks at Fat Smitty’s (on the Olympic Peninsula in WA – great giant burgers and classic milkshakes, btw), where it has been a tradition for decades to write on bills and tack them to the walls and ceilings of the establishment. Every several years, the owners take down all the bills and donate to a local charity. They did this earlier this year, and donated $25K. (Story and pictures at above link)
I was there last week, and the walls and ceilings are filling up again with decorated bills of many denominations and countries. It may be that those that came with me participated in that tradition, but I have no knowledge of same.
If you are in the area, it’s a great stop on Highway 101 between the Hood Canal Bridge and Sequim WA. Google StreetView and more pix here. (And the ‘e’ in Sequim is silent.)
Lynn says:
Insects can be delicious if they are processed properly.
By feeding them to chickens.
If the Titanic sunk in 2022:
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/titanicc.jpg
I haven’t commented in a while… I got the China flu and felt pretty crappy for a few weeks even though the worst (flu-like) was over after 5 days. I haven’t read the site every day since recovering. Too much other stuff going on.
Did the troll call Nick illegitimate? lol classic lefty distraction technique. I wish MrAtoz well and hope he returns, but really, feeding the trolls gives them legitimacy and is best avoided. They need the attention.
The great thing about this site is that we can disagree without name calling. Let’s keep it that way.
Bills… the Fed at least has said they limit larger bills to limit money laundering. They also say they think they only catch 1% of money laundering, so clearly it doesn’t help much.
“Epidemic Center: Aralon (Perry Rhodan #37)” by Clark Darlton, translated by Wendayne Ackerman
https://www.amazon.com/Epidemic-Center-Aralon-Perry-Rhodan/dp/B000HYSRMC?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number thirty-seven of a series of one hundred and twenty-six space opera books in English. The original German books, actually pamphlets, number in the thousands. The English books started with two translated German stories per book and transitioned to one story per book with the sixth book. The German books were written from 1961 to present time, having sold two billion copies and even recently been rebooted again. I read the well printed and well bound book published by Ace in 1974 that I had to be very careful with due to age. I bought an almost complete box of Perry Rhodans a decade or two ago on ebay that I am finally getting to since I lost my original Perry Rhodans in The Great Flood of 1989. In fact, I now own book #1 to book #103, plus the Atlan books.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Rhodan
BTW, this is actually book number 45 of the German Pamphlets. There is a very good explanation of the plot in German on this website of all of the PR books. There is automatic Google translation available for English, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese, French, and Portuguese.
https://www.perrypedia.de/wiki/Seuchenherd_Aralon
In this alternate universe, USSF Major Perry Rhodan and his three fellow astronauts blasted off in a three stage rocket to the Moon in 1971. The first stage of the rocket was chemical, the second and third stages were nuclear. After crashing on the Moon due to a strange radio interference, they discover a massive crashed alien spaceship with an aged male scientist (Khrest), a female commander (Thora), and a crew of 500. It has been over ten years since then and the New Power has flourished with millions of people and many spaceships headquartered in the Gobi desert, the city of Terrania.
Perry Rhodan and his 5,000 foot spherical spaceship with the Ganymede travel back to Arkon again to see if the great positronic regent of the empire can help find the Aras main planet. The Aras have been the medical experts of the Empire for over 100,000 years and are spreading diseases that only they can cure. The positronic regent tells Perry Rhodan the location of the Aras main planet and gives him a 200 spaceship robot fleet at his command. The Titan and the Ganymede proceed to Aralon and force the Aras to turn over the cure for the euphoria disease from the planet Honur. They also find out that Aras are closely related to the Springers and the Mounders.
One has to remember that this book was written in German in 1962 and translated to English in 1974. Many items that came about in the 1970s and beyond such as cell phones are not reflected in the book. However, commercial aircraft commonly traveling at Mach 3 are not available to the public as talked about in the book. Niels Bohr’s saying “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future” comes to mind.
Two observations:
1. The publisher should have put two to four of the translated stories in each book. Having two stories in the first five books worked out well. Just having one story in the book is too short and would never allow the translated books to catch up to the German originals.
2. Anyone liking Perry Rhodan and wanting a more up to date story should read the totally awesome “Mutineer’s Moon” Dahak series of three books by David Weber.
https://www.amazon.com/Mutineers-Moon-Dahak-David-Weber/dp/0671720856?tag=ttgnet-20/
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 0 out of 5 stars (0 reviews)
“50 Years of Landsat”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/07/23/50-years-of-landsat/
“We’re celebrating 50 years of the Landsat satellite, the first of which launched on July 23, 1972. The latest in the series, Landsat 9, launched in September 2021.”
Some of NASAs finest technology.
The links about motor oil are interesting. Thank you.
I looked at the truck and there is nothing under the hood about what oil to use. The Ford van says to use “whatever” on the oil fill cap. Nissan, nah…. so reading the manual and yes, I knew the 5000 mile change. 5w30 synthetic.
My plan is every 4000 miles.
Hey, the Dodge Stratus said every 7000 miles and who sells cars? Dodge does.
Wait, every 5000 miles /or/ every six months? Well, I’m running behind. I’ve put almost 1100 miles on the truck since I bought in last August.
I don’t drive it the mile to the mailbox and back. I don’t think that enough to get it up to temp. I check the oil once in a while and it looks brand new.
100F in the shade but there is a nice breeze.
I’ve been sidetracked off the plumbing onto electrical. In order to start the plumbing I needed to move some stuff and open some walls in the garage. Those would be the walls with the water, gas, and all the electrical panels on them.
Yikes. Mike Holmes of the show “Holmes on Homes” has a saying, “if you can see a problem like that, what did they hide? Take it all down.” I learned a lot from that show before the product placement got out of hand and Mike sold out.
So now I’ve got the whole wall open. I’ve removed one circuit feeding an outlet, and then a switch and a light fixture. There was a nail driven right thru the romex. Luckily the negative side so the nail shouldn’t have been a shock hazard. I’ve also removed 8 ft of #6, three separate wires, run to where a receptacle must have been. Welder maybe? Not rated to run thru holes in the studs. Luckily not connected at the panel.
Unless I’m missing something, there isn’t a “main” breaker or disconnect for the house. It looks like you have to pull the meter to kill power to the panel (s).
The secondary panel in the garage is fed from the main lugs of the “main” panel. Since he didn’t do the math or maybe just didn’t know how,, or maybe just didn’t have the right sized wire to connect the two, he just doubled up the wires, that are incorrectly jammed into the main lugs, with the service entrance wires, which are also WAY undersized by today’s standards.
It was noted as scary when we looked at the house, and slated for early replacement. And I see that I need to call the elec-chicken asap.
Joy.
n
The Cabbage Key Inn in Florida does something similar.
Giant burgers – the original “Cheeseburger in Paradise – and … black beans!
Unless I’m missing something, there isn’t a “main” breaker or disconnect for the house. It looks like you have to pull the meter to kill power to the panel (s).
Each time you pull the meter they are going to charge you $40 for a disconnect. They have to send a lineman out to install a new meter seal.
I would look into installing a complete new breaker panel with a main breaker. I like Square D and GE. Should cost you $3,000 to $4,000. Maybe.
Nick: Electrical problems? Wow!
My problem is that I have practically zero actual manual skills. I have a degree in engineering, so I have a basic understanding of how it all works, but no experience. So when we bought this house two years ago, I had to pay an electrician to completely re-wire the house, because stuff that shouldn’t have been wired together was all going out together. So now everything is working, and circuit breakers aren’t tripping any longer.
@RickH, sent something via the Contact form last week (maybe two weeks ago?) and don’t recall seeing a response. If you thought none was needed, that’s fine, just checking that the message didn’t get lost.
@Mark W
Glad to see you back.
>> My wife says it’s storming down by the coast. Small boat handling in a storm is probably too advanced for the 11-12 yo kids
Isn’t it not the best idea to be out on the water in a craft with a
tall mastlightening rod?Good price. About 2010, I bought my FL-1A filters when Walmart had them on a clearance sale. Said they wouldn’t carry the line any more. Stupid cheap, but I don’t have a price handy. Only one left, so I need to start shopping.
>> As for your mention of a toilet paper filter, those were sometimes used as add-on bypass filters, and never should be used as a replacement for a full-flow filter. Even so, I would not trust them, because they probably emit downstream contaminants that would not be safe.
Charmin Red or Blue?
My problem is that I have practically zero actual manual skills. I have a degree in engineering, so I have a basic understanding of how it all works, but no experience. So when we bought this house two years ago, I had to pay an electrician to completely re-wire the house, because stuff that shouldn’t have been wired together was all going out together. So now everything is working, and circuit breakers aren’t tripping any longer.
You just gotta remember one thing in electrical. The black wire is death. The white wire is life and the bare wire is your backup.
And please do not switch the white wire like my grandfather used to do. Put the switch on the black wire.
I just watched the T-34 movie on Plex streaming on my Roku for free. Pretty good even if it was totally in Russian and German (I speak a little German but not enough). It is about a Russian T-34 tank in WWII.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-34_(film)
@Kenneth C Mitchell
Never too late to learn. If you have a handy guy in your circle of friends, offer to provide do some basic helper work on a project for the experience. I think “ask This Old House” is still pretty good, I pretty much gave up on the main show several years ago when they had an owner that was determined to get “net zero” and they installed a 7-layer roofing system that made “sub zero” economic sense.
Dean Johnson’s 28-year run with Hometime ended in 2014, but a lot of late episodes are still excellent. The show isn’t currently streaming, darn it.
ADDED
You can find a bunch of stuff on YouTube.
Toilet Paper Oil Filter
My Dad had one on his ’50 Ford Flat head V-8. Frantz was the brand name. He removed the optional by-pass filter to use it. His mechanic sold these and gave him a good discount on it. He gave me the car when I got married in 1965 – long story shorten for this: is my brother ruined my ‘53 Ford after I went in the Air Force and this gift was my parents way of fixing that. He showed me how to change the filter and oil (every thousand miles in those days.) The top of the filter was almost free of any debris. He gave me the paperwork for the filter which showed the kinds of dirt it would trap and how of identify each. I remember that some of the metal could be identified as steel by using a magnet.
Back in the ‘60s one of the more respected Auto enthusiast magazines, Motor Life I believe, did a study on these filters. They put them on New York City (NYC) taxi cabs to see how they performed. At first the cab company was very happy. Cabs had fewer engine failures. But when they did fail it was a nightmare. The cab company sent a sample of the oil at each oil change out for testing to identify failures before the cab broke down out of the streets of NYC because getting a cab towed back to shop was expensive and they almost always got a ticket for blocking traffic as well.
After some research they discovered that with the Frantz filter the oil was so clean that the chemical analysis was unable to predict the failures. The filter was trapping the small particles. Plus the paper was reacting with the acid created from the engine blow -by and neutralizing it. The oil was chemically clean! The mechanics in the shop had not been looking at the toilet paper filters when they were removed so they missed the failures also.
I put two on my ’69 Ford Galaxie 429 with a C6 automatic that I bought with my re-enlistment money that year, one for the engine and one on the transmission. (The one for the transmission was modified by drilling out the restriction in the base so it would pass more oil).
At 500 miles I changed the filters. Both were covered with shiny metal filings. At 1000 miles I changed them again. The engine filter was almost clean the transmission filter had less debris but still much more than I expected. At 2000 miles the engine filter had caught a handful of particles while the trans filter only had a few dozen or so. At 5000 miles (the mileage for an engine oil change) both were down to a less the ten particles. I changed both filters every time I changed the oil.
At 63,200 miles the transmission failed when the shifter was bumped from drive to reverse at 2800 RPM. (Kids and dogs should have been in their seats.) The AAMCO shop gave me their extended warranty for the price of limited warranty if I would not remove the Frantz filter. They found almost no internal wear.
At 98,000 miles I sold the car. I got top dollar for it when I pulled a valve cover and show the buyer how clean the engine was internally. I should have taken a picture.
I think have that article saved but it is in storage.
@JimB
It pays to collect all of your vehicle info in one place. The order I placed in 2016 was nearly $300 and included farm equipment. Huge savings on the latter vs. dealer prices.
@Robert “Bob” Sprowl
Thanks for the info. I looked them up–Frantz has been in business since 1953. Their current universal kit is $289. I like the way their website reads–straightforward and no b.s. I am intrigued.
Sometiems I am easily amused:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1dpxn7MhLU&t=320s
This is excellent! I always got confused, because I was thinking “white-hot” and it’s not.
“Black Death” is much better.
@Alan (and others)
I didn’t get the email from Alan via the contact form here. So I investigated, and that page is not sending out emails properly. (Common programmer lament – “But it used to work fine!”)
Fixing it is on the list, but in the meantime, use the contact page at my “MutinyBay” web site (https://www.mutinybay.net/contact.php ) if you need to contact me privately.
This is excellent! I always got confused, because I was thinking “white-hot” and it’s not.
“Black Death” is much better.
My Dad taught me that back in 1983 when we were rewiring my house in Sweetwater, TX. Working on electrical stuff with his father was always exciting, too exciting. Dad is pretty good on that stuff.
That 2/1/1 house had two big fuses, one on each leg coming into the house. I replaced those two fuses and the attached fuse box for the window a/c unit with a 20 space square D breaker box. I had to have a new drop pulled to the house since I went from 50 amp service to 100 amp service. I then added washer and electric dryer connections in the closed in breezeway room between the house and the single garage. If we had stayed there another summer, I was going to pull another line for a window a/c unit in our bedroom.
That house is still there. I bought it for $28,000 in 1982 and sold it for $26,500 in 1985. TXU moved me to Dallas and paid me two months pay to sell it myself. Funny, we painted that house yellow from the dirty grey it was and it is still yellow. My wife’s uncle stopped by one day and chastised his niece for painting her house yellow with white trim instead of white with yellow trim (he was teasing). I see that the current owner has central a/c now.
https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/1201-E-12th-St_Sweetwater_TX_79556_M72119-57588
Maybe the cracks in the cult are finally showing. Remember “please clap”?
https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Makers-Armature-Making-Busts/dp/B00DLQDUIE?tag=ttgnet-20
Not all ‘eads are created equal, but some are.
Any color other than white or green is considered a hot wire. White is always neutral unless coded with colored tape on the end. Green or bare is always ground. Never switch the neutral, always the hot. In a switch loop hot is switched and white becomes hot when on and should be coded at each end of the wire. Especially helpful at the termination in the light.
In a residential environment it is permissible for two hot circuits to share one neutral. Not so in a commercial setting. Ground and neutral can be connected to the same buss bar in the main panel in residential, but not in commercial. In a sub panel ground and neutral must be on separate buss bars and not bonded. The bonding is only allowed in the main panel.
For working on electrical items a driver with an ECX bit is highly recommended. Doesn’t slip and allows good torque to be applied without damaging the screw. Next best is a square tip bit. Least recommended is a flat head screwdriver.
Twelve gauge Romex nonmetallic sheathing is yellow. 14 gauge is white. Best to not mix gauges in a circuit. When using 14 gauge the maximum breaker size is 15 amp. 12 gauge is 20 amp.
Do not use backstab outlets or switches. Best is the kind that use a straight wire and the screw clamps the wire under a small bracket. This avoids the need for loops. It is also possible to continue a circuit on the outlet itself as the screw clamp allows for two wires. Saves having to pigtail and the use of wire nuts.
WAGO connectors are a good, and approved, and easy, way to connect wires in a junction, outlet or switch box.
I ordered three new 75 foot long soaker hoses from Big River and took them over to the office today.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001IKU3QM/ ?tag=ttgnet-20;
I could only line three sides of the large office building since I have a big porch on the front.
https://www.winsim.com/media/8653_front.jpg
I left all three soaker hoses running. The water well is running for 15 seconds every two minutes or so. I don’t like that but the building foundation is moving. In fact, I have foundation company coming out in August since I cannot get the back door open.
Well, I’m back home.
Flushed the toilet and the shower gurgled and burped. “She’s full cap’n!”
Don’t know for sure what’s different this week, we’ve been doing ok and not hitting “full” even with the girls there. The only thing I can think of is that I ran the sprinklers for a whole bunch of hours last time. Maybe that flooded the tank, or interfered with the [almost completely useless] leach field.
It’s a drag because I have lots to do, and I didn’t even get to the ‘relaxing at the end of a hard day’ part that I love.
I will note that BOTH of the toilets are different from one another and BOTH have non-standard flush mechanisms, that regular replacement parts like flappers do not fit. You might want to take a look in your tank, and then get a set of parts that will fit it. Get a replacement ring and flange bolts while you are there too. You’ll thank yourself later. Oh, and spend the extra couple of bucks for the braided metal supply lines. The plastic ones get old, and fail dramatically. THAT bit of wisdom comes from a commercial landlord who also has apartment buildings. The cleanup is FAR more expensive than buying good hoses.
The same advice regarding hoses applies to your clothes washer, and dish washer.
n
>>Sometiems I am easily amused:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O1dpxn7MhLU&t=320s <<
Too easily amused if you ask me. Of course I was laughing so hard my stitches hurt. ~70 days post open abdominal sigmoid resection and colostomy. Doing fine, thanks.
I got thinking of the stuff I would reread. And DH Lawrence comes first to mind. _Lady Chatterley_ & _The Magus_. Dostoevsky; certainly _Brothers K_ & _The Idiot_. And finally an American author who I think deserves far more credit than Fitzgerald and Hemingway combined, Thomas Wolfe. _Look Homeward, Angel_, _You can’t go home again_, _Time and the River_.
I won’t try Dostoevsky again. Even if it wasn’t so slow and soul crushing, the freaking names kept killing me. ONE NAME PER CHARACTER PLEASE. Tried to call it what it is but got the spelling wrong paternomer? something like that.
ANYWAY, this recipe for ice cream is easy and works a treat. I’m eating a bowl now. I did use fresh heavy whipping cream but maybe next time I’ll try reconstituting some powdered.
It’s creamy and rich. And I can totally see adding all kinds of stuff to the vanilla. Made it with one can condensed, same amount whipping cream, one capful real vanilla extract, and about 5 minutes shaking in a big mason jar.
https://wondermomwannabe.com/sweetened-condensed-milk-ice-cream-recipes/
n
Here in UK, our equivalent of Romex is called twin-and-earth. There are many manufacturers, all are considered equivalent, and similarly described. Colour coding is different – we use red=hot, black=neutral, uninsulated=earth. When terminating to a wall socket, the uninsulated wire is supposed to be sheathed in green-and-yellow sleeving.
It comes in 2 sizes -1.5 sq. mm. for lighting and 2.5 sq. mm. for power, in a domestic environment. All circuits are wired as rings. so each socket outlet has 2 cables coming to it, and the 2 ends of the ring are terminated in the consumer unit (your breaker panel) on the same 30 amp fuse. There may be an unlimited number of sockets on each ring, and a function called diversity is assumed to operate, in that not all loads are active at the same time.
Movable appliances (those that plug in) have plugs that comply with BS1363, and each plug has a fuse in it, sized to suit the current draw. Appliance cords are colour coded differently – brown=hot, blue=neutral, green/yellow=earth. Not that we see this normally, because appliance plugs are moulded onto the end of the cord, and are not rewireable. BS1363 sockets may be switched or unswitched, if switched the switch is in the hot connection, by design.
We do not have split-phase wiring – all appliances (movable or fixed) are nominally 240 volt, and receive the same power. High draw appliances – more than 3KW or 13 amp at 240 volts – are normally hard-wired to a “spur box”, e.g. an electric cooker has a dedicated circuit from the consumer unit, which terminates at such a box (often called a “cooker unit”) from which a tail is run to the appliance. There is normally a rigid separation between house wiring (in twin-and-earth) and appliance tails (flex cable).
Lighting is more complex, but the same cable (1.5 sq. mm.) is used for all lighting premise wiring.
At least, that’s my understanding. But I’m not a sparky.
G.
>>ANYWAY, this recipe for ice cream is easy and works a treat.<
Try the Richard Pevear translations of Dostoevsky when the sugar tooth subsides. More rewarding in a post-apocalyptic world than ice cream.
Condolences, Nick. Sounds like you bought a lemon.
Condolences, Nick. Sounds like you bought a lemon.
– no need, we knew it was bad going in. We bought 170ft of waterfront with a view of the rest of the lake, on a quiet cove, on the downwind (ie cooler) side of the lake. The house that came with it is what it is…
Everything is fixable. The only issue is time and getting someone who is not me to do the work.
n
At least, that’s my understanding. But I’m not a sparky.
—that’s a pretty thorough understanding, and well communicated too. First time I saw the ‘ring’ layout was in Abu Dhabi. Took me a bit of head scratching to get it to feel ‘right’ to someone who grew up doing it in a branch topology. Coincidentally it was the same place I first saw insulated hand tools in everyday use. I saw the indian sparky had a pouch full and I thought “Wow, how progressive and safety minded, for a third world shitehole…” (my labor showed up wearing flip flops.) Then I watched sparky shove a screwdriver into the socket to defeat the safety interlock so he could stick the bare ends of wire into the 240v socket and use a power tool……….. and realized that insulated screwdrivers were cheaper than the death price.
There are some interesting economic trade offs when you look at the 240v vs 120v systems. Then there are the germans with the 440/388v craziness. That is a whole ‘nother level.
n
Amen. Wagos are the bee’s knees. For anything that might need disconnecting, the flip-lever ones (221 series) are super handy.
https://www.wago.com/global/c/installation-terminal-blocks-and-connectors?text=*&sort=relevance&f=%3Afacet_product_Produkttyp_7845%3ASplicing%20connectors%3Afacet_product_Serie%3A221
The braided metal supply line on the toilet at our hotel on South Padre Island was on the edge of failure last week, frayed with the lining exposed. Gulf climate does bad things to all metals eventually.
I unkinked the line, fustrated with the slowness of the fill the first night, and let the front desk know in the morning. When we checked out, the line hadn’t been touched. La Quinta but still not the cheapest on the island.
BTW, if you want to see what an 85 degree Gulf water environment does to building materials and systems even if maintained, I can’t think of a better demonstration than Sea Turtle Inc., one of the big tourist destinations on the island. They run a tight budget, but they know not to let things lapse. Plus a lot of the infrastructure is exposed.
That’s about twice the amount of power that is allowed on residential circuits with the exception of the 240V stuff (stoves, A/C, water heater, clothes dryer). You are running 240V which is twice what is on any single conductor in the U.S. Stoves and such are 240V but that is measured phase to phase. Phase to ground is still 120V. Whereas in the UK you are running true 240V on each live conductor. A mistake on 120V really stings, a mistake on 240V could really light your fire.
Do they use Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters in the UK? Outlets near water. With that kind of voltage it would seem some kind of protection would be wise.