Sunday Rant - 2417

PN:

Freedom (Just Another Word)

On Thursday, June 8th, Joe and I were relieved that the Provincial Crown declined to press criminal charges against us.
A peculiar form of exuberance overcame us as we voted on May 9th.
All y’all know how gregarious and extroverted Joe and I can be: we were moved to wax poetic.
The words we said were patently meant as hyperbola; any adult would know so.
However, the young ladies that heard our words were concerned, then upset, then active in contacting the authorities. They weren’t adults.
The short version is Joe and I were arrested and booked in the best Dano tradition about 1 1/2 hours after we voted.
The charge was “uttering threats”.
At the time of the arrest we were enjoying our 4th (maybe 5th?) libation, and had one difficult moment or two in ascertaining the seriousness of two (count them!) of Vernon’s best RCMP constables ready to take us by force, if necessary.
The expression YOLO (you only live once) seems inadequate as a dismissal of being party to a ceremony we would have rather not been a participant. We thought that a Kafka type trial might just be a possibility.
The Crown, in it’s wisdom, sent a letter warning that this issue will never go away, but there will be no charge or criminal record.
Needless to say we had a month of stressful thoughts up to the moment of receiving the letter.
21 friends, family, and acquaintances provided letters of reference re: our character.
We thank you for your support and letters.
The future is rosy.
Other than our big fat mouth, what could go wrong?

Reality vs Reality
Joe is adamant about electric vehicles – a wonderful concept but…. with an incredible Achilles heel – energy storage.
There are two worlds for the average Westerner; one is the urban / city existence where economies of scale NEVER make mass transit affordable (but that doesn’t stop politicians from wasting taxpayer $$$ trying), and two, the rural / small town existence where mass transit is even more expensive.
In 1828 an Hungarian, Anyos Jedlik, designed a primitive electric motor, attached it to a model vehicle, and is histories first “electric car designer” of record. A few years later (1834) in Vermont, USA, Thomas Davenport made a similar model that ran on an electrified track. The history of electric vehicles is older than internal combustion powered vehicles.
Back to the Achilles heel. From an article in Design News, author Charles Murray spotlights two glaring and obvious dichotomies – one of human nature, the second a law of physics. Regarding human nature, Mr. Murray states, “One unwritten rule of product design says that if you’ve given your customer a popular feature, don’t dare take it away.” Regarding the law of physics, “…..For all its faults, gasoline is still an amazing fuel. While battery makers burn the midnight oil trying to figure out how to reach a specific energy of 450 Wh/kg, gasoline already offers 12,000 Wh/kg. Even if you account for efficiency differences, the contrast is still enormous. ” Gasoline is one of the best compromise fuels (energy sources) – high specific energy per volume / unit of mass, portable, inexpensive, with a broad spectrum of “scalable usage”. The down side is safety and emissions, “renewability”, availability.
Joe points out that as you consume a volume of gasoline, the gross weight of the vehicle lessens (a small energy conservation, but legitimate). Conversely, as a battery discharges, the battery weight remains constant (more or less). Literally, for the life of the vehicle you must move a large mass of battery wherever you go.
The choke-point of the electrical vehicle world is energy storage. Until the invention of super batteries can meet the demands of customers who already have that popular feature, the electric car will be hand in hand with the mass transit dream – a grand idea so heavily subsidized that we can’t afford it for everyone. Indeed, it may be “discovered” that we can’t afford it at all.
More thoughts on the subject at Silicon Graybeard.
Joe says until the day nuclear energy can produce electrical energy directly (without killing everyone within 100 feet), the answer will never be simple or cheap.
Two songs sum up Joe’s “feelings” about the entire dream:

Joe’s Garage
Ha!
The long, tortuous struggle to re-wire and make whole again the Ammann AV95-2K tandem roller is finished.
This piece of Czekoslovakian engineering mastery came with a burned wiring harness in the engine compartment.
From a forensic standpoint, the original fuel line from the filter assembly to the fuel injection pump was the culprit. It was routed over and across hard hydraulic lines which constantly sawed away at its outer wrapping. The result was a ruptured fuel line. The fuel was ignited by who knows what (hot exhaust?) and quickly rendered the machine disabled.
Rourke and Joe ran over a pop can.
Rourke thought that was pretty cool –

POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID

THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ALL OVER US)

Dr. Bill Warner once again speaks calmly, firmly, and decisively about the incompatibility of Islam the system with Western values.
Joe and I keep posting these in hopes that factual information will eventually wear away the biased enamel-hard shield the main stream media and our political “superiors” protect this backward evil cultural pressure.
Go ahead and listen. The man is spot on:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a203bz7aLKE&t=14s

SUNDAY SERMON

Ray Kurzwell has a reputation of seeing the future clearly before the future sees us. This short presentation might be construed as “optimism”.
Joe and I were entertained:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzcLsCXR8qE

WEATHER (OR NOT)

Definitely weather this week.
It started out nice, clear, sunny, and warm.
This morning (Sunday) the furnace was still coming on from the night before…… June 11th!!! Lots of grey and black clouds, swirling winds, sprinkle rain up to downpour.
Just what we needed – more water.
Joe and I took a trip to Oyama on Saturday to visit Ricky D.
The calm waters of Kalamalka Lake are lapping the shore over a foot higher than the last bit of dock that hasn’t washed away. This dock on a “normal” run-off year would be two to three feet out of the water.
Rick says he shot (with a transit! calm down….) a few reference heights. 33 more inches and his home will have waves lapping the living room throw rugs. A big wind / storm would stir up dangerously high waves.
The lake looks very strange – no shore line before the tree line; it is all under water.
The Regional District has portable signage on the highway flashing: “boaters, no wake!”.
Not record high waters but the highest Joe and I have seen in the 40+ years we have lived in the Okanagan Valley.