PN:
Joe’s Comment – This sort of behaviour is more common than anyone would admit. Sort of an OCD thingy. You can watch someone push the button at a crosswalk to start the “Walk” cycle, but without fail when YOU get to the crosswalk, it takes a conscious effort to avoid pushing the button yourself. A programmed response coded in your cerebellum, triggered by your cerebrum, that will repeat until complete. Who says people are meat puppets? Why, Joe says so, that’s who!
Word o’ the Week
Logophobia – An obsessive fear of words; a fear of words, talking.
This word begs a question – are men ALL slightly logophobic? If so, does this mean all words or just some, such as “work”, “shaving”, “feelings”? Gotta love the depth and breadth of the English tongue.
My Dog (Bad Dog!)
The Hildebeest
This news isn’t new. There are legions of first person testimony about Mrs. Bill’s temperament and judgement. From YouTube, a sampling:
Hildebeest Magic
Joe and I are amateur photographers. Joe always insists that portraits must include the feet of the subject. I try to frame the shot so the subject is actually in the frame. We try hard.
The MSM tries hard too. Take a look at this photo of a recent Hillary rally –
Now look at the same picture with a few more folks in the crowd –
Notice anything peculiar? What has journalism come to in our modern Western civilization? Not anything worthy we suspect.
Rex Murphy Speaks
Jordan Peterson is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. At present. Who knows what the future brings for him? As a psychologist, he refuses to bend to the PC wind to use pronouns other than “he” and “she” to describe human beings. Or students (if they can pass for human).
Canada’s brightest and best bloviator (Joe so admires his command of language) speaks on the subject – “Jordan Peterson – a real professor, at last“. A quote from the oped –
“Is the university seriously claiming, by inference or direct assertion, that because a professor has freely chosen not to speak a set of freshly made-up words that others insist he speak, that others, because of the professor’s intellectual dissent, have really been made targets of “assault, injury, and death threats”?
Has the University of Toronto been moved to Iran now, that such things happen? That such “impacts” fall from the serene academic sky when a professor unfolds a reasonable (if contentious) argument, an argument moreover which, if at all studied, proves to be an actual defence of the idea of a real university, one that respects standards of debate, argument, and illustrates the very academic autonomy university tenure was meant to buttress and consolidate?”
The oped is Rex at his best. Well worth the read.
As for professor Peterson, he created three videos, released in September, regarding this persecution by the University of Toronto and the GYBTLFHWW crowd (hold the mayo). Since then he has been subject to what is essentially a gag order to remain silent, imposed by the U of T. WTF? Can this really be happening in Canada?
The following video is his comment on the request for silence:
This next video is his response to the U of T’s request for silence and conformance:
Joe and I are with Rex Murphy and most of the citizenry of Canada (we presume) in supporting Jordan Peterson in his struggle to introduce sanity in this matter. More to come, more to see, until YouTube decides to “censor” his videos for the sake of the SJW (bowel) movement. The assault of Lauren Southern (Rebel Media) is covered in the following video as well as give and take with Jordan Peterson and protesters:
This is insanity. Very difficult to watch without shouting at the screen. Who gave these shadow people the big stage? Something stinks…..
Thorium is NOT da Bomb (It Is the Power of the Future)
Joe and I have posted our support for thorium reactors, which were investigated almost 80 years ago as a possible solution for cheap safe nuclear power. The failing of the Thorium reactor is not it’s safety or cost (more safe, less costly), but at the time, the by-product of the reaction could NOT be used to create nuclear weapons. The ’30’s race to develop a weapon orders of magnitude more deadly than anything existing by-passed Thorium as a weapons solution. The Thorium technology was not pursued with rigor in America. The LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) research took a back seat to weapons materiel production.
Fast forward to current times. The green wienies don’t want oil, faint dead away at the thought of coal, don’t want dams, birth little kittens in their panties at the prospect of a nuclear energy solution, but do support hugely expensive solar / wind solutions that do not scale for safety and cost realities – in short, a conundrum of conundrums.
Enter Thorium.
If the amount of funding and research were spent on Thorium reactor technology that has been expended on Uranium reactors, the world would have safe, cheap, dependable, portable power scaled to the optimum size for efficiency, based on application / requirement.
What worries most people is safety.
Here is an excellent explanation of Thorium reactor technology by Rob Morse (of the “Slow Facts” website). This article is written for the layperson with plenty of examples and metaphors that make comprehension of the basic process and safety concerns understandable. An example –
“We can put all the fuel in one tank and it will not react. We can spill the fuel on the floor and it will not react, other than blistering the paint as it cools. We can mix the FLiBe salt with water or air and the salt sits there. That is a good thing. It is very different from other reactors you’ve heard about.
We feed this reactor every few days as the plant operates rather than once a year during a plant shutdown. We add fuel as we need it so there is not a year’s worth of excess reactivity we need to control. We could build a reactor that we only fueled once, but adding fuel as you go is safer. It is safer for the same reason you don’t want to drag around a years worth of fuel as you drive your car.”…….
……Low Carbon Footprint- Despite its considerable size, a conventional nuclear power plant has a very low carbon footprint that lies between the footprint of hydro power and wind. All three have a smaller footprint than solar power. The LFTR is better than conventional nuclear, and the differences in carbon footprint are sizable. The average person living the western lifestyle consumes the energy contained in a cube of coal that is 5 meters on a side. For comparison, the same energy is contained in a golf ball sized sphere of Thorium. Most of the carbon footprint from conventional nuclear power comes from mining, refining and concentrating uranium fuel. Thorium is much more plentiful than uranium and is a waste byproduct of rare-earth mining. The LFTR runs on natural Thorium without isotopic concentration. The massive concrete structure of a conventional power plant also adds to its carbon footprint. The LFTR power plant does not require a concrete building designed to contain a violent steam explosion. All of these differences significantly reduce the carbon footprint of LFTR.”
The entire article (from 2011) is easy to read and easy to understand. Do yourself an important favor and read the article. This technology will be an important segment of future energy production in the world.
Another source of information on Thorium reactor technology is this article (found at the Machine Design website).
A source page built by Bruce Hoglund.
This Rant has expounded on LFTR power before, June 3rd of 2012, which featured Kirk Sorensen at a TED convention.
A different presentation from Kirk Sorensen from a Google Tech Talk, December 2011:
“Energy from Thorium” website here.
Gordon McDowell released a very thorough presentation in 2011 regarding LFTR. Here is a 2016 update / remix of his presentations:
Gordon McDowell’s website here. He is an engineer from Calgary AB.
Bruce Hoglund has a very complete source website of Thorium reactor information here.
All of these web pages have many resources of information about LFTR.
An informed, virtuous citizenry is capable of doing the right thing.
“If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.” – Samuel Adams
Joe’s Garage
Finally got around to working on the ’50 Ford.
The 6VDC fuel pump Joe installed (flat head fuel pumps are notorious for weak fuel delivery) was pushing fuel past the float and flooding the crankcase. A quick trip to the local Lordco and we have a carburetor kit ($28 CDN) and a fuel pressure regulator ($15 CDN) and a window of opportunity – rain, rain, go away!
If you are at all familiar with engine compartments of cars and light trucks, this picture may bring you close to tears –
The carburetor and all 8 plugs took less than 20 minutes to remove. ‘Cause Joe was enjoying the job and sipping a beer. A few squirts of combustion chamber cleaner in each cylinder, crank the engine a dozen rotations, more cleaner, more rotations, repeat until the can of cleaner is done. In between combustion chamber cleaner applications, disassemble the carburetor (Holley AA-1), clean and inspect all parts, then reassemble.
The reason the carb was allowing fuel to flow by the float assembly? The float adjustment was out of specification by a huge factor. Someone had been in this carburetor before. The setting was over 1/4″ out of specification. Joe suspects the needle was binding in the seat bore because of the float dropping so far into the float bowl.
The Holley AA-1 carburetor is simple and efficient. Here’s a peek at the innards after cleanup and before assembly –
An easy to work on design. All jets can be changed while the carburetor is mounted on the engine. Only three adjustments required: idle air screws, accelerator pump stroke, and idle setting. Here’s what it looks like reassembled and ready to install on the engine –
Joe set the plug gap on 8 new Autolite 216 plugs (0.030 inches), torqued them to 20 ft.lbs., installed the carburetor and the pressure regulator, and had able bodied assistant Ricky Charley Davey start and drive the old lady to a parking stall. Runs like 65 years ago…..
Next steps: install new passenger front door window, install exhaust pipe and muffler, design and install signal light system, and repair rocker panel rust.
Who knows?
Joe might have this old lady on the road before Christmas.
POLITICS, POLITICIANS, WACKJOBBERY, HUMOROUS, STUPID
The Drudge report line below re: Podesta occult magic is referring to a ritual identified as “Spirit Cooking”. Strange as you could imagine – it involves disfiguring / harming your body. Reward is not clear (to Joe and me). If you are curious, take a boo here.….
GUNS, GUNNERS, GUNNERY
Joe and I like firearms.
The technology, the design, the purpose.
When we see a woman enjoying the same, it makes us smile.
Here is a young lady who’s Internet ID is “Mae Guns” firing a long barrel black powder rifle called a Wall Gun. Used as a defense against enemy sieges, they were 1.00 caliber (1.00″ bore), and could be fired from a rampart or wall to defeat enemy armament at a distance greater than that of a regular musket / rifle. The procedure to charge and load this gun is lengthy. When she pulls the trigger the flash pan flairs and lights off the charge. BOOM! She smiles from ear to ear:
Here’s another of Mae firing a WWI Lewis gun. It is an automatic weapon. Joe and I recollect building model fighter airplanes of the period such as the Sopwith Camel and the SE5a that were armed with a Lewis machine gun. Here’s Mae unloading an entire magazine on automatic fire. Damn, she smiles a terrific gun smile:
THE RELIGION OF PEACE (ALL OVER US)
Sam Harris
Continuing the Sam Harris theme of logic over belief, another collection of “mic drops” that nail his thesis to the portal of established religion and double speak:
Pat Condell
Joe and I continue to admire Mr. Condell for his candid outspoken views.
If more Europeans listen to him the news will eventually reach the political elite:
SUNDAY SERMON
The changes to the demographic in the U.S. of A. and Canada that have been gradually happening since the ’60’s is changing the culture. Stefan Molyneaux presents data to support the story Mark Steyn has been preaching for years – the change if allowed to continue will not be reversible. Worth a watch:
WEATHER (OR NOT)
Joe and I thought the rain would never stop this week in Vernon.
The yard (a thin cover of grass on 30 feet of clay) is a gooey slippery bog.
On Friday the sun came out!
Lordy Jesus did we enjoy every minute of that bright warmth.
Friday it started to rain again. And Saturday. And Sunday.
Rain, rain, go away
Joe and David want to play
Outside………
Rain affects the brain in a gloomy negative way.
The good side of the equation is the temperatures night and day have been well above freezing, allowing us to slack off of shutting the outside hose bibs off and putting the pressure washer away.
It’s a game of give and take.
Joe (drenched) Mekanic
p.s. Ramirez rains on the bad guys –
