Sunday Rant - 3517

PN:

Joe’s Comment – The last two weeks of August have been the most non-productive weeks of the year. In order to retain a semblance of self esteem, I’m calling it “a holiday”.

Peterson on Charlottesville VA
Dr. Jordan Peterson offers his reflection on the events in Charlottesville:

Which leads to an assessment of how the imbalance occurs in the first place. What is the affect and effect on the general populace as social inequality grows? Is it equally shared by men and women?
How about skin color, or (Joe’s favorite catch-all) IQ?
Perhaps it is the Gini Coefficient:

Joe on Charlottesville VA

Fear of Bathtubs
Professor W. Block explains the theory of “Sociobiology”. This theory is based on the idea that those alive today are an aggregate sum of human development passed via culture / heredity / genetics forward to now. Makes a lot of sense, especially to Joe. Who (he asks) gave us the “we love beer” gene? That person is truly worthy of a statue!
Joe also says that facts can lead one to see truths. The Bell curve of women’s diversity is narrow; that of men broader by far.
Solace is not gained by knowing where on the spectrum you are as an individual, but from the knowledge that there is a spectrum. Watch and learn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aUcOP6Iqo4#t=411.732041

The above is an excerpt from a longer presentation you can view here.

Mercury Madness
Joe and I have amalgam of mercury fillings in some of our teeth.
Long ago and far away, we had cavities.
Much to our surprise, the word “amalgam” refers (in chemistry) to the peculiar combinations of mercury with other metals. Only mercury.
Why is mercury so damn special that it gets it’s own unique descriptor?
Glad you asked!
NileRed has some amazing experiments on YouTube.
This is one of Mercury amalgamating (amalgamizing? amalgaming?) with our friend Aluminum.
Holy cow:

Joe’s Garage
The work on our 1949 F47 pick-up truck is proceeding, albeit ever so slowly.
The TCI IRS (Mustang II) front end was installed by a previous owner, to the extent that the basic frame box was welded into place and the A-frames are mounted. All attached parts are only loosely mounted. No shocks, no stabilizer bar, no alignment, power steering rack not torqued down, etc.
Each time we attempted to work on it this week someone(s) and / or something(s) diverted our concentration. The someone(s) were very welcome: there be beers involved!
Joe did his best and managed the following (before during and after beer):
1. Motor mount pads on the frame rails. The IRS suspension involved removing the stock engine mounting brackets. After some consideration, Joe designed and fabricated a simple right angle bracket, reinforced and cantilever strapped, using stock motor mounts. No picture yet.
2. Transmission cross-member. The previous owner bought a TCI supplied cross-member that was loosely fitted to the frame. After careful measurement, Joe fabricated a jig to hold the cross-member in position while being welded, and built a bolt hole drilling spacer to drill the frame. Here’s the jig –

3. Rear wheel spacers. One of the previous owners installed a Ford 8.8 limited slip differential in the truck. The axle is loosely attached – the spring perches are not welded into place, and is mounted ABOVE the springs, not under. Joe scratches his head at this detail…. In addition, the overall width of the axle assembly is a bit too narrow to use stock or normally back-spaced wheels. In order to roll the truck around we ordered a set of 1.5 inch wheel spacers. Great looking pieces –

4. Mount shocks. The TCI IRS kit included shock absorbers. For whatever reason, the previous owners did not mount them, but instead had some ready-rod holding the A-frames from falling apart.
The shocks are inserted from the bottom and held in place with a 7 inch long 7/16 inch threaded bolt. That was a problem.
The original mounting bolts were nowhere to be found in the truck. After finding that BC Fasteners, Lordco, NAPA and various buckets / bins / boxes around the property couldn’t produce this type of bolt, Joe decided to manufacture his own. Starting with 4 six inch long grade 8 bolts, several cuts with the hacksaw produced enough pieces to make two bolts. Here are the pieces after cutting the first two bolts-

Joe used a piece of angle iron and some C-clamps to hold the pieces in relation to each other, then welded them together –

A quick dressing on the bench grinder and a spin in the drill press to clean them up –

Do it again, and there are two 7 inch bolts ready to be installed –

Here is where they mount in the A-frame –

Finally!
Shock absorbers!

POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID

SUNDAY SERMON

The speaker this week is Dr. Jordan Peterson, continuing his lecture series “Maps of Meaning”. This is lecture 6: Story and Metastory (Part 2). Joe and I are fans:

WEATHER (OR NOT)

This week in Vernon was late summery.
Reminded Joe and I of September weather – warm enough during the day but definitely cool at night.
Only three more weeks of Summer.
Joe is starting to fidget.