PN:

Joe’s Comment – I find myself lecturing my grandson about how things were when I was his age. Sometime it is about things. Sometime it is about being 7 years old. Sometime it is about culture. Sometime it is about relationships. Sometime it is about family. Sometime I tell him things were exactly the way they are now.

Getting Old(er)
Joe and I are in our 70th year.
Our bday is International Women’s Day.
We don’t know if that was a joke on doG’s part, a wistful wish our mother entertained, or some meaningless iteration of snake eyes in the crap game of life…..
A website we visit regularly is Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated, where we found these two lovely reflections on growing way past “middle age”.
The first is about exercise –

The second is a reminder of nine basic truths to keep in mind as you age –

Robert David Steele
Another interview about current events with this crazy badger.
Joe and I listen carefully.
Michelle Holiday (of Portfolio Wealth Global) came prepared for the interview.
Almost like she was given the questions to ask.
Joe says I’m getting paranoid.
A lot of truth we have heard and researched was discussed.
A whole lot more connecting of dots way out in the ether.
We have officially had our pants scared off.
Once again, we are reminded of Alex Jones.
Lots of loud.
Lots of conviction.
Joe says just how in hell can you verify what this man says?
I say only time will tell.
Joe also says Mr. Steele has some damn good ideas.
Judge for yourself:

Joe and I are tracking this very interesting and scary dude to see if his prognosis and conclusions are even in the same ball park as the rest of the pundits.
They might be on the grid iron punting long, or at the rink skating madly, while RDS knocks the stitching off the ball Mickey Mantle style.

David Jon Gilmour
Joe and I think this man has a very special gift; expressing himself musically.
We watched this video and learned an ocean about a man and his muse.
An old BBC 2 documentary (2015) about this incredible musician:

Being ~~Black~~ Bonkers
Joe ponders many things every single day.
Not a moment’s reprieve.
Some of that hard work, that mulling of ideas and concerns, that intense analysis to discern truth and fact, sifting wheat from chaff, that no holds barred thinking, brought Joe up against a politically correct no-no dead-end string of data.
Joe’s awkward question goes something like: are gay black “B film” (or worse) “actors” all low IQ idiots?
I cautioned Joe about (a) asking that question, and, (b) mentioning “Jussie Smollet” by name. 50% success. Joe asked the question, didn’t name the mentally challenged.
Joe always damns the torpedoes.
I help out by fitting one (or more) of my feet in my mouth.
We are opposed on this issue.
I don’t give a damn what some idiot gay actor does with his spare time, no matter what shade skin.
Joe says fine Dave, but what if it intrudes on our life? What if we have skin in the game? (Not necessarily any particular shade or gender or quality of skin. Just skin. In the game.) Free speech also includes responsibility for your words and actions, does it not?
As theoretical Libertarians, Joe and I reluctantly accept the “rule of law” as a foundation of civil society. In a world of 8 billion souls, an attempt however frail and fleeting to bring order from chaos is a necessary endeavor. Outside sane and stable humanity (yikes!) that is the job of law.
Enter some attention whore who can’t think past ~~his her its they~~ whomever’s immediate gratification, no matter the cost. Akin to shouting fire! in a crowded public place, this light in his loafers narcissist crossed a legal line. Already strained tensions stretch to breaking point. What our gay protagonist did was wrong morally, ethically, and legally.
Fine Joe. I get it.
What to do?
Scratch head. Tap toe. Cross arms. Roll eyes. Drum fingers on desk.

Coming up blank here, boss.
There is a solution to this dilemma and the good folks at Raconteur Report make the case –
The brilliance is unassailable. If you pick the right state to prosecute, he might get the death penalty for trying to lynch himself!
Damn! The infinite resource of the Internet finds a workable solution.
Joe is smiling his happy smile…..

Prager U
Dennis Prager is one of our heroes.
Over the years his simple message has multiplied to be the messages of a multitude of concerned conservative voices.
Marginalized by YoubeTube and other social media organizations, the voice of Prager U is still heard. Short concise terse and focused, there are hundreds of these vignettes available if you search them out.
A few recent releases:

Here is an older, longer, more comprehensive analysis from Dennis Prager himself, describing the differences between “Left” and “Right”:

Prager U is a beacon for Joe and me.
The long and short of it is belief.
If evidence is lacking, a good dose of belief can go a long way.
Much like Yossarian (Catch-22, chapter 18) speaking of doG –
“What the hell are you getting so upset about?” he asked her bewilderedly in a tone of contrite amusement. “I thought you didn’t believe in God.”
“I don’t,” she sobbed, bursting violently into tears. “But the God I don’t believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He’s not the mean and stupid God you make Him out to be.”
Yossarian laughed and turned her arms loose. “Let’s have a little more religious freedom between us,” he proposed obligingly. “You don’t believe in the God you want to, and I won’t believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?”
Against all evidence, Joe insists in believing a virtuous moral people can govern themselves effectively and intelligently.
Joe and I both believe that the “common man” (and woman) will cypher a working theory given the facts of any issue.
I believe in being magnanimous when people behave positively.
We are an embodiment of Pollyanna and Mr. Magoo.

Joe’s Garage

United We Roll
The pipeline and oilfield supporters arrived in Ottawa.
The proclamation from Rebel Media honcho Ezra Levant insisted the Canadian Main Stream Media® wouldn’t cover the event honestly, so Rebel would.
Joe says I’ll be damned if Ezra ain’t right on about that.
We watched a short CBC report for less than 1 minute before the talking head(ette) inferred the participants of being “white nationalists”.
Here is David Menzies from Rebel Media at the Ottawa event.
The anti pipeline crowd was there. Lots of bad language:

There is an “Indigenous Person” with a very big mouth and a very bad attitude. There are many masked men who are completely at a loss for words if you take away the conjugation of “fuck”. There are many mixed messages from the opposition to the United We Roll caravan. What a cluster fuck.
Joe says these morons don’t know shit from shinola.
Take a look around your home. Take a good look. Here’s what you might see if you’re not living in a Yurt or goat skin tent –
– Do you have running water? If you do, it is delivered by a pipe line. Even if you have a well, there is a pipe from the well to the pipe distribution system in your home.
– Do you have indoor plumbing: a flushing toilet, sinks, showers and/or bath? Your waste water is taken away via a pipe line. If you are in a large city the sewage collection pipe lines are hundreds of miles in total.
– Do you heat with natural gas? If so, the natural gas pipe line distribution is a marvel of technology, delivering clean, safe, and cheap energy. All across the country.
Some day the facts of who(m) is benefiting from the obvious attempt to beggar Alberta will be known.
We would support that the people responsible be dragged into the public square to face the good people of Alberta and explain their position.
Joe will show up for that.

Trucking (Delivering Mother’s Milk to the World)
Joe and I took our Class 1 license (BC Canada) for driving heavy trucks in 2005.
We started driving heavy trucks in 2006.
Our longest employment was with a contractor (Rory) driving for Pacific Coast Express.
Our weekly trip on average was 6 days, from Coquitlam BC to Los Angeles CA, returning to Coquitlam BC and ending in Kamloops BC. The average weekly mileage was 2,500 – 3,000 MILES.
We saw incredible sights.
Like going over the “Grape Vine” into the Los Angeles basin late at night on Sundays, the two outside (right) lanes heavy trucks only, nose to tail. Thousands of them.
Like truck stops on I-5. Truck stops so large 500 trucks can find a place to park.
Like idiot drivers surrounding you on all sides at all times of the day and night.
On those long hauls that go wonky, when the dispatcher goofs up, or the loading dock waiting messes up your schedule, or the truck shits the bed, or traffic / construction / accidents / weather / natural phenomenon stops the wheels from turning, you often make an executive decision: do I “modify” my log book, or do I lose my job? Most drivers (we included) learn to juggle early in your driving “career”.
If pressed, Joe will tell you that if you didn’t grow it in your back yard and make it yourself, whatever material you have may have been in a ship, in a train, in an airplane. For sure it was in a truck (or a pipeline – that’s another story).
Think about it.
In our small town of Vernon BC we are effected by the weather in the course of a year once or more on average. Winter weather on the mountain highways that are east and west and south and north of our town sometimes shut the roads down for hours. Once in a while, for days.
Joe and I have noticed some bare shelves in grocery stores when the later closures happen.
Joe will also tell you that like ranchers and farmers, the truck driver is among the most unappreciated class of citizens. The hours are long. The pay is inadequate. The risk level is higher than average.
Glen Beck has facts and figures about the trucking industry in the U.S. of A. in this informative video:

Glen Beck mentioned the industry shortfall of drivers. Here’s an actual trucker with some words of wisdom:

Joe and I don’t think AI (artificial intelligence) will ever eliminate truck drivers. Joe’s favorite example is based on our own driving experience (thankfully we weren’t driving a heavy truck at the time). Coming home from Calgary via Crow’s Nest Pass (highway 3) on a late spring day, the cool cloudy weather and bare road turned absolutely nasty near Salmo BC. The snow came down in blinding flurries. By the time we started up the infamous Salmo Pass, the snow was over a foot deep. No center line. No ditch demarcation. Low visibility. There were cars spun out all over the road. There were transport trucks jack knifed blocking traffic. Our vehicle was equipped with excellent winter tires, 4X4 capability and chains if required. We were able to make the drive. The pass was shut down for a day for snow clearing soon after.
Please tell Joe how an AI piloted vehicle could cope. Take your time. Think it through. We’ll wait.

Opposed Piston Engine
One of the internal combustion engine designs Joe actually imagined all by his itty-bitty self is an opposed piston design.
No cylinder heads.
With a tricky drive train to connect the opposing crankshafts, the engine could be built to have a variable compression ratio.
This would allow a variety of fuel types.
Joe has been flipping this around in his noggin for decades.
Today he stumbled into a YoubeTube video about opposed piston engines.
Much to Joe’s chagrin, this design dates to the late 1890s.
Another field of study for decades of fun and learning.
Here is a video of a working Achates Power engine:

Nucleate Boiling
If you don’t love the scientific method™ you might be missing layers and layers and orders of magnitude of layers of interesting detail.
I thought I knew something about “boiling” – the state of liquid to gas transition.
Joe also had an idea of what was going on.
The 7.3L Navistar diesel engine used by Ford has a problem with cavitation. Cylinder walls on this engine can be perforated because the physics of cavitation are so violent and destructive the cast iron of the cylinder is literally destroyed.
Joe and I were minding our own business when we stumbled over the topic of “Nucleate Boiling“. A graph –

What?
This means that there is a “sweet spot” for boiling. Too much heat differential and the heat transfer is inefficient. Nucleate boiling for me, baby!
Here is the graph for water –
Joe has noticed that the electric kettle we use shuts off exactly when the bubbles are roiling and violent.
Whomever designed the kettle and selected the thermistors to control the switch did their job well. If you look inside the kettle, there is an array of thermistors at various heights in the chamber.
Very clever!
This allows the kettle to operate with less than a full measure of water.
In the 7.3L Navistar engine the correct coolant has an additive that suppresses cavitation.
The above general fluid graph and the water specific graphs are both typical curves at 1 atmosphere pressure.
The effect is magnified under pressure.
The bottom line is the pressure cap on your vehicle radiator or surge tank is very important. Test it to make sure the release pressure is accurate.
End of lecture.

POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID

SUNDAY SERMON

The Church of Joe is great!
Every single sermon ever presented in Joe’s Sunday rant has been given by a hero, heroine, or person of interest to Joe.
Ergo every single sermon is magnificently informative and interesting.
This week Joe has found an incredible discussion between Jordan B. Peterson and Steven Blackwood, recorded at Cambridge University this February.
The subject is “Our Cultural Inflection Point and Higher Education”.
Dr. Peterson is becoming more coherent and concise and focused with each discussion and presentation.
Joe and I are grateful. Such insightful observation presented so even our tiny pea brain can grasp the ideas is enough to make us weep with joy. We might not be getting any smarter, but our knowledge horizon is expanding:

WEATHER (OR NOT)

The weather this week in Vernon BC has been a lot of snow and an up swing in the average temperature.
Old Man Winter is losing his grip.
Joe and I have an incredibly optimistic attitude, considering the whole damn month of Febrrrrrrruary has been nasty.
Joe says it’s because we can smell Spring, just around the corner.
Even if it brings flooding, such as we’ve had the last three years.
The clear runny water is better than the solid white stuff we have all over the place. Turn on the pump and wait for April.
Only 36 days until April 1^st.