Warm and wet later? We’ll see….
Yesterday was another beautiful day. It did get pretty warm, mid to high 90s in the afternoon.
So of course I cut the grass. If rain is coming, I want to get the cutting done. I worked in the gardens a bit. Moved the hardware cloth (wire mesh) around to make room for the shoots. I’ve got corn, watermelon, and acorn squash sprouting. Added dirt to the potato towers. Found my nemesis, the caterpillars, on the grape vines. Sprayed those little leaf eaters. I’ll keep an eye on it in case I have to spray again. Tomato plants are healthy and sturdy looking, but no tomatoes. Nothing sprouting in my window boxes yet either.
I’m still working on cleaning and sorting in the back corner of the garage. Got my mountain bike dug out. Which prompted trying to air up the tires, and then that led to replacing tube and tire in the front. Used a compressor I picked up super cheap, and that will be a project too. It doesn’t turn off when it gets to pressure. I just kept an eye on the gauge and shut it off manually, but eventually I’ll take a look at it and fix it. I’ve got other pressure switches somewhere…
And then I tried to buy kickstands at amazon… and couldn’t get any without a 3 week delay for shipping. Weird. Ebay sellers had a couple, so I did buy one. All the family bikes need maintenance, lube and adjust at a minimum. Just more to do. While I’m at it, I’m getting some extra inner tubes. Somewhere I have a patch kit I need to find, but if the stem is leaking, you just need to replace the tube.
I spent the morning working on parts and ordering for my client upgrades.
Dinner was chicken curry over rice. I used one of my favorites, Vermont Curry (which is Japanese), one can of chicken, part can of carrots, fresh saute’d chopped onion, and a left over potato from dinner last night. Sometimes I add canned peas too. I made the “half” recipe which filled us up with only a tiny bit left over. It’s very mild and sweet/savory without any ‘heat’. Last of the birthday cake for dessert. There is a real advantage to using canned veg, as they are already cooked, you really just need to heat everything and dissolve the curry cubes. Saves about 15 – 20 minutes or more. It was one of my favorite ‘bachelor’ meals, and surprise, one child and my wife both really liked it.
More of the same today, little bits and pieces, but progress is slowly being made on lots of little things.
Make a little progress every day.
Stay in, stay safe, keep stacking.
n
A possible cause for recovered wuflu patients dropping dead?
https://www.foxnews.com/health/even-after-respiratory-symptoms-fade-coronavirus-victims-face-new-danger
TL;DR Version: Blood clot issues.
Any bets on if we start seeing reports of aspirin od’s once the masses figure out its a blood thinner?
The Walgreens pharmacy near our home had all of their Tylenol and generics behind the counter so I asked about it. The guy said their theft of acetaminophen/paracetamol was up to 35% (which I think means that of the inventory that is no longer there 65% was sold and 35% was stolen). All that driven by some early articles about how ibuprofen *may* not be good for people with COVID-19 and so use Tylenol instead. They have yet to prove this which is why Motrin and Advil now have signs up in the pain killer/fever reducer aisle saying there is NO proof that ibuprofen is dangerous to the health of people with COVID-19.
Personally, I take Tylenol (acetaminophen) for fevers, Excedrin (acetaminophen/aspirin/caffeine) for headaches, and Motrin (ibuprofen) for everything else (aches, pains, soreness). I’ve never had much luck with Aleve (naproxen). My doctor did have me on an a daily low-dose aspirin regimen, but took me off as all of the recent studies have shown no benefit in prevention of a first heart attack or stroke (though there is benefit in preventing additional occurrences).
Same here.
And speaking of FLASHLIGHTS, I am waiting for this little puppy to become available again. About twice the brightness of my current carry light (about 1600 lumens) and it is one bright light. The lighting technology has made great leaps over the years in terms of output, run time, and quality of light. If RBT was still around we would be arguing about the merits of spending $120.00 for a light. I still maintain that a person needs at least one, if not two, high quality FLASHLIGHTS. Stash a bunch of cheap ones around the house, car, mower shed, garage, whatever. But always keep a good light with you when out and about. One that you know will work.
The only time I used naproxen is when I smashed my *stick* hand. lol. The flight surgeon gave it to me for swelling (not down there, Mr. SteveF). It worked.
It’s tRump’s fault! Impeach! Impeach! He recommended the deadly poison salicylic acid. Anything with acid is deadly. Just like fish tank cleaner.
Ha, ha. I saw this meme on Twitter:
“Man eaten by shark died of coronavirus.”
New puppy arrived today: my wife had ordered it from the Netherlands before the Corona mess, and she was able to fly there and pick it up. We had planned on having the pup shipped by an animal transport company, but – oddly – airlines have shut down live-animal shipping. Driving wasn’t an option, because borders are closed (Germany/France/Belgium). But somehow passenger transit directly between the Netherlands and Switzerland is still possible, so that was the only choice.
One flight per day to Amsterdam. There were a total of three flights on the “arrivals” board. It’s weird being in such an empty airport. Half-a-dozen cars in the short-term lot, no waiting anywhere for anything.
I’ll be a curmudgeon and wish that flying would become something only done when necessary, and not “at the drop of a hat”. I’m not usually a “greenie”, but flying really is pretty wasteful…
I’ve never had much luck with Aleve (naproxen).
For musculoskeletal pain I find naproxen works great! Even better is an NSAID called diclofenac. OTC in some countries, not USA. Never get headaches except for a mild coffee headache so I can’t compare anyting else. Interesting that we have different responses.
“flying really is pretty wasteful… ”
Depends, look at histories of the Oregon Trail. I can/could fly that in a couple of hours, with almost no risk of death or having a child vs a multi-month journey with all the food, waste, animal killing, habitat destroying wagon wheels, and almost guarantee to have at least one baby during the journey…
My issue with any of the ‘green’ calculations is when do you stop adding stuff in?
n
I had a root canal a year ago, and the dentist prescribed Naproxen. I had a root canal many years ago, and had moderate pain the next day, so I filled the prescription. The pharmacist had to talk to me. He said something about it being an NSAID, and I remarked, “Just like aspirin?” That set him off, and he lectured me about the perils of aspirin. Took the stuff, and it had absolutely no effect. THEN I found out I couldn’t take aspirin or any other pain reliever for at least 24 hours. Went to bed, and the next day was OK.
Part two of the two part root canal a couple weeks later. Mentioned my experience with Naproxen to the dentist, and asked if aspirin, which is about all I normally take, and very seldom, would be OK. Yes, with some reluctance, because this session was expected to cause more pain than the last one. I took aspirin, and it worked. No pain at all. I guess I tolerate it very well.
I have read that if aspirin were discovered today, the FDA would never approve it. Pity. Some consider it a miracle drug. In the early days, people took much higher doses without apparent trouble. I had a friend with bad arthritis, who took a lot of aspirin, and it worked better than the wonder patent drugs; this was twenty years ago. Of course, YMMV.
There are so many variables to take into account when calculating what is “greener.” I recall when CFLs started getting real popular 15 years ago and were supposed to be so much better for the environment than incandescent bulbs. Then someone realized that if you take the energy required to produce an incandescent bulb plus all the energy it will use during its average life it’s still less energy than what it takes to produce a CFL bulb. People were so fixated on the energy savings on daily use that nobody considered how much more goes into manufacturing a CFL and how much energy that consumes (plus the added environmental impact of the CFL containing mercury).
OK, yesterday, I was also doing it: trimming my lime tree and fertilizing and watering tomato plants. Three are volunteers from last year and two are purchased seedings. I bought one of small variety for salads and one of large variety for BLTs. Oh yeah, SIL is 1/2 Mexican, so he needs lime wedges for Modelo and Pacifico cervezas.
I need to also trim back my Meyer lemon and orange trees, Valencia and Navel.
There’s an old joke about aspirin, that of the 13 primary effects, pain relief isn’t even the biggest effect.
I stock some of all of the above mentioned, just because they are cheap in bulk and pain relief is one of the truly modern marvels. I will note that if you drink alcohol, you had better read the label and do some research on aleve and the others like it wrt liver damage.
If I had a moody teenage girl in the house, I’d lock up the Tylenol too. Literally lock it up. The sort of death that comes from an acetaminophen overdose is one I’d reserve for child molesters and terrorists.
n
Read an article years ago that compared flying to railroad to buses. It was based on full to capacity, which is pretty realistic. The trip was something like 1000 miles. The train was a diesel locomotive, and the bus was diesel. The results were surprising to me. Trains are usually the lowest fuel consumed per pound of freight, but passenger trains spend a fair amount of time stopped, and the diesels are rarely shut down. Buses were best, with slightly higher seat miles per gallon than the train, not at all surprising, because many bus routes are express. What was very surprising to me was how close the airliner was to the other two. I think only about 20% worse. Data. Would be fun to look up today, but not me right now.
Personally, I take Tylenol (acetaminophen) for fevers, Excedrin (acetaminophen/aspirin/caffeine) for headaches, and Motrin (ibuprofen) for everything else (aches, pains, soreness). I’ve never had much luck with Aleve (naproxen). My doctor did have me on an a daily low-dose aspirin regimen, but took me off as all of the recent studies have shown no benefit in prevention of a first heart attack or stroke (though there is benefit in preventing additional occurrences).
Excedrin has been unobtainium since … December (?). From what my wife understands, a key *imported* component was not available and the assembly lines shut down. This also affected the manufacturing of the generics, apparently.
We usually purge bottles that are more than a year out of date at our house, but I had to keep a couple I found stuffed in cupboards and suitcases since Excedrin is the only med short of the prescription pills that help my wife’s migraines.
I read somewhere about a month ago that people, fearful of gas shortages, were refurbishing their old bikes, which was causing a run on parts and gear.
Well, I ride a bike (A 1976 all-chrome Schwinn Paramount, with Campy Record components, thank you very much) but I’m also a prepper. And I’ve got a big carton full of tires, tubes, replacement parts (chains, etc.) and all the rest of the stuff you need to keep on pedaling for years. Including three kickstands. I guess you’ll just have to call me a “hoarder.”
Word to the wise: Use the heaviest duty locks and chains you can afford – and use them in tandem. I expect a lot of bikes are going to roll off on their own.
When I was in high school I took a lot of excedrin. I’d go to work at the restaurant in the evening, drink 6 RC Colas, get home at midnight, drink a beer to get to sleep, get up at 6 and head to school-where I’d have a blinding headache.
6 extra-strength excedrin would cure the headache. I learned later that the caffeine was most likely the cure. Excedrin was marketed as a weekend headache cure. Turns out that people would drink coffee at work all day during the week, but on weekends they’d drink a lot less and get caffeine withdrawal headaches. The large amount of caffeine in Excedrin would ‘cure’ that headache by curing the lack of caffeine in the body….
Eventually I quit taking everything, caffeine, allergy meds, allergy shots, aspirin… I was miserable for weeks, but then I felt better and best of all, I no longer was “sick and tired of being sick and tired.” A lot of my highschool years are a blur of very heavy duty allergy drugs, almost all of which had ephedra or ephedrine in them.
n
Agree. My field was electronics. I was mostly involved with RF stuff: receivers and transmitters, and later power supplies and digital stuff for computers and test equipment. I did design some stuff, but gravitated toward transition to production. I saw some good designs that could not be economically produced, and many that could. The differences were often subtle, and experience based. I also saw that in mechanical stuff, although it wasn’t my primary field.
I am reminded that the term engineering covers a lot. Some engineers are close to basic research, and others, such as civil engineers, apply their talent to designs controlled by various codes. When people tell me that isn’t engineering, I ask what discipline would you employ to design a pipeline?
Planning for defects and human error, either in production or application, is routine, or should be. I worked on some stuff where a failure could kill. We were careful. We tested. We learned. We applied that learning. Were not perfect.
IIRC, Excedrin used to have an ingredient called phenacetin. Probably an analog or precussor of acetaminophen, and pulled years ago.
Should be. Isn’t, or hardly at all, in the software field. Often isn’t in the electronics engineering places I’ve worked at.
You know what helps a real lot in learning what went wrong and how to prevent it from happening again? Blame-free post mortems, as are done in surgery and aviation. (Or so I hear. I’ve never worked directly in either of those fields.)
You know what I’ve never seen in any place I’ve worked or consulted? Blame-free post mortems. Even if the manager said no one will be blamed and we just want to improve the process, the person who made the mistake or the suboptimal decision was blamed and sometimes fired. The message was received: if anything goes wrong, CYA and keep quiet is the name of the game. As a consequence, faulty processes which make mistakes likely are seldom fixed.
Even network engineering requires a lot of very specific knowledge about the physical aspects of the network and how the customer will use the network. Experience is important and degrees and certs don’t provide that.
As an example… someone I know (not me) removed the secondary access path to equipment in a data center across the country. Too expensive, he said, we don’t need it. 3 months later he misconfigured the primary path and they had to send someone there to fix it while customers were down. That trip cost more than a year of the secondary circuit.
He had more certs than me, and “knew better”.
The way we make aviation post mortems work is to make sure an outside ranking officer/WO/EM is in charge. Usually from a sister unit. That is primarily for accidents (the Army also has the Aviation Safety Center that looks into all aircraft accidents). Safety violations are done in house led by the CO with appropriate action taken. The vast majority of aircraft accidents involve pilot error of some sort.
I haven’t ridden a bicycle in almost 2 decades. I wonder if I remember how…?
I do remember my first “real” bicycle. Fire engine red, 3 speed hub, banana seat, sissy bar, ape hanger handlebars. I’m guessing about 1974 or so. Saved up chores money and bought a speedometer to mount on the handle bars. Probably the coolest thing I have ever owned to this day.
Agreed, Steve. I worked in both kinds of places. One was in trouble, didn’t have post mortems, but did a lot of blaming. No one fired that I remember, but often shamed and given crap assignments. The other was not in trouble, but later was, and went under. To their credit, they were good about learning from mistakes, even when things got bad. Their declared and practiced attitude was that it was better to learn from mistakes than not. It was best to not make them in the first place. They did that by having some of the best design reviews I have ever seen. They were a non competitive, collaborative environment that encouraged mentoring. Really good, but nothing lasts forever.
I’m reminded of the story from the early days of IBM. There are many versions, but I will repeat mine. A young guy made a costly mistake, and faced the boss. He offered his resignation, but the boss refused it. He said it would be better for him to stay on and fix the mistake.
You never forget, although I can’t prove it. I never stopped. Of all the things I have ridden or operated, nothing is as much fun as something on two wheels.
Flying might be better, but I will never know. Three dimensions are hard for me to grasp. Maybe I’m a flat earther.
Oh, and MrAtoz, I have known a couple of helo pilots, one mil and the other civ. They love it, and say it really is a magic carpet. Only been up in one once, and it was fun.
Mine was yellow or gold but otherwise exactly the same! Shifter guaranteed to make you a eunuch if you crashed… and you forgot the chrome fenders and the playing card clothespinned to the spokes for the authentic ”brrrrrrrrrrrrrpppppppppp” sound 🙂
n
added- flat slick tire in the back too!
Anesthesia has a system where every malpractice case that is filed and concluded is reported (sans personal identifiers) and reviewed for what happened. The results have been used for years to improve best practices. It is responsible for a huge drop in fatalities and other incidents. The results are sent out monthly in a newsletter to practicing anesthesiologists and nurse anesthetists free of charge. The wife read it every month.
The most common malpractice award in anesthesia is for chipping a tooth on an untubated patient. Sometimes unavoidable if the patient clamps down and has a weak tooth, but the claims are pretty small and get paid off – cheaper than fighting.
I love them. Never flown, only been a passenger. A couple times the pilot was obviously messing with us and I’d yell “That all you got?” and made myself unpopular with the other passengers.
With my degree, BSChemEng, I can define the diameter of the pipeline.
“Climate Claim: By 2070 Average Temperatures be “Unsuitable for Human Life to Flourish””
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/05/04/climate-claim-by-2070-average-temperatures-be-unsuitable-for-human-life-to-flourish/
“According to a new study, people don’t thrive in places where the average annual temperature is higher than 15C / 59F.”
“”The people of Singapore endure average temperatures well above the 15C optimum. Their suffering is obvious. (The Singapore Merlion at the Bay) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.”
What is wrong with these study writers ? People are in the middle of moving closer to the equator right now, not further away. Air conditioning is way cheaper than heating structures above the 45 degree latitude.
With my degree, BSChemEng, I can define the diameter of the pipeline.
Yup, the inside diameter and the outside diameter both. With up to four inches of wall thickness on a 48 inch inside diameter pipe, that is important.
I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Plus designing a pipeline is not just about containing the fluid inside, but also about the pressure drop, heat (energy) loss or gain, elevation changes, compressors, pumps, drivers, etc, etc, etc. My software does this handily. The only thing that we do not do is transient pipeline analysis (water hammer and such).
When I said pipeline, I should have said piping, as in conveying fluids and gases inside a plant. I had friends who did that, and they said everything was in a handbook. They didn’t have to “design” anything. That doesn’t mean that just any arts major could do that.
When I said pipeline, I should have said piping, as in conveying fluids and gases inside a plant. I had friends who did that, and they said everything was in a handbook. They didn’t have to “design” anything. That doesn’t mean that just any arts major could do that.
Eeek ! Run away from their plant. Piping design is an art. Water hammer analysis is an art. Over pressure event designs are an art. And, my personal favorite, overfilling a pressure vessel and then heating it, causing the fluid to expand dramatically, and venting that fluid to atmosphere amidst very hot items … like an idling diesel pickup. Only 15 people died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_Refinery_explosion
When I say that piping design is an art, not only do you have the actual pipe and insulation to route, but major conflicts with electrical wiring and pressure vessels. Often these items are rerouted in the field with no consideration of altitude. I have had to walk out on an ibeam to open or close a valve before.
“”The people of Singapore endure average temperatures well above the 15C optimum. Their suffering is obvious. (The Singapore Merlion at the Bay) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons.”
The most common license plates I saw rolling around Austin last summer, after the real estate silly season, were WA State and Oregon, where the temperatures usually hover around the “optimum” most of the year.
I’ve been in one once as well. My wife and I went to Kauai for our honeymoon. We booked a helicopter tour of the North shore. It was beautiful. The trip lasted 50 minutes. Around the 45 minute mark, I was struggling. If the trip had lasted 55 minutes, there would have been a mess to clean up in the chopper. I had never had any motion sickness before, so it never occurred to me to take Dramamine before the flight.
I guess there are a lot of engineers here, well, as I went from URC32 to Transit to pipeline operation to finite elements modelling to Modbus to SAP, and a couple other fields, I remain that getting an standard (if you wish) engineering degree is at most, perseverance, build, broke, rinse and repeat.
I only put such acronyms because you know what they are
And yes, helo flight is awesome, I went twice, one on LAMA and another on Sea King, loved LAMA and scared to hell when I saw my feets flying
And yes, plant design is a dark art, now with fiber optics is easier (no electrical interference, only paths) but a lot of discussion with spread spectrum and bean counters (why people who knew his business sell such thing! it was better with compressed air)
The version I read years ago was that the response included the line, ‘We just spent $10 Million educating you. You’re not going anywhere!’
Woof. My wife and I did the same when she got a gig on Kauai. Retired Army Warrant Office flying a *slightly used* Bell Jet Ranger. Most of my time is in the Bell (Army designation OH-58 Kiowa (Aero Scout), then in UH-1 Hueys and lastly UH-60 Blackhawks). I loved flying with all the doors off, but alas, he couldn’t do that for safety reasons. Doors off can get many people to puke flying straight and level.
Mine also, calculating pressure drops and flow rates for compressed air going through an airplane to de-ice wing leading edges in inclement winter weather and maintaing cabin pressure at all altitudes and speeds. Similar in rocket propulsion systems with liquid propellants being fed to the engines by 4,000 psi stored He. For those, I had to verify the functionality for each flight. Also, had software that included steam table functionality for water vapor in cabin air systems.
@lynn, I was aware that we had a lot in common, professionaly.
OK, OK, OK! To paraphrase a three year old daughter of some friends…
You made your point, and I should never have strayed from my area of expertise. I do get that the things you mention are important, and that accident was horrific.
If I could try again, my point was that we EEs don’t use higher math to solve low frequency AC voltage drops. If my history is correct, we can thank Charlie Steinmetz for his interpretation of Ohm’s law to also apply to low frequency AC. Been through the math, and am very grateful for his work. And, the art is knowing when this is valid, and when not. We stand on the shoulders of giants. Might be a trivial example, but has saved countless hours and mistakes.
I also highly value mentoring and apprenticeship. When done well, these take the best from experienced people and newcomers who have the latest in learning. I have seen that happen, and it is inspiring. Maybe the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That latter might not be arithmetically correct, but team coaches understand.
Why is that?
Fear they are going to fall out. Acrophobia. And just plain motion sickness because you can see out. People would say they got a dizzy feeling that moved to the stomach and bleeeehhh. Mostly, I would guess at 500′ or more, even Flight Surgeons could not name a specific reason. I remember a fellow pilot during at tour with the Big Red One who was fine in the front, but would puke in the back. Fortunately for him, not a grounding condition. He never knew why.
There’s a few folks mad at WA Gov Inslee:
Interesting to read the whole thing…..
I suspect the same allegations could be said about the limitations in most states (maybe not NY).
NY law as written, especially the state constitution, has strong protections for civil rights as well as strong curbs on government abuses.
NY law as practiced, not so much.
Motion sickness never bothered me much. It usually lulled me to sleep. Whether it was a ship on choppy seas or an aircraft getting air-refueled. I joked with my wife after a cruise we took a few years ago that I had land sickness and couldn’t get to sleep without the rolling of the ship.
Ah, thanks. I have never been motion sick, but know that it just takes the right conditions. I hope I am never trapped in those conditions for very long. I hate puking a lot. Only did it from illness a few times. Didn’t feel any better after.
Me too, but I have heard that those roll stabilized cruise ships can produce a motion in heavy seas that will make even seasoned salts sick. Never experienced that, but my uncle was a sailor, and we were on a barge anchored in ground swells for several hours. He said he was a little queasy, which surprised me. He said ground swells were just the right frequency to get to him. Said he never had problems at sea. I was fine, but just a kid. Kids are pretty resilient.
Later, I flew on airliners quite a bit. I almost always slept. There is something about the noise that lulls me asleep. Keeps my wife awake, and she resents that. When they served meals, I requested that they wake me up. On short flights, landing usually woke me up, but not always right away. Probably over tired.
There’s a few folks mad at WA Gov Inslee
Mad enough to actually do something about Costco’s chore boy? By a margin to overcome possible Perkins-Coie’s antics with the mail in ballots?
I have an article from Portland Business Journal printed at the beginning of April with an on the record quote from the CEO at my wife’s former employer in Vantucky (Vancouver, WA) stating that their normal office visits were down by 2/3. An off the record quote in the same article attributed to “some say” indicates that doctors in the area may face the possibility of going without paychecks for 3-4 months after the crisis passes and the partnerships recover.
I had to laugh when I saw this today in the Vantucky paper. The hotel rented by the county sits right across from Trader Joes, just down from Whole Foods. The interstate used to be a fairly significant barrier keeping the homeless out of East Vancouver, but now all bets are off.
https://www.columbian.com/news/2020/may/05/quarantine-site-rolls-out-homeless-testing/
It will be an interesting summer at the Firstenberg Community Center.
Are people mad enough to do something at the ballot box?
NY law as written, especially the state constitution, has strong protections for civil rights as well as strong curbs on government abuses.
NY law as practiced, not so much.
Typical commies.
I’ve heard that the Russian constitution has more rights and protections than the USA constitution. Rarely practiced though in Russia. And New York State.
I’ve heard that the Russian constitution has more rights and protections than the USA constitution. Rarely practiced though in Russia. And New York State.
New York removed Cuomo’s father in 1994, cutting short Saint Mario’s plans to finish a fourth term and run for President in 2000, so anything is possible.
The lesson of Cuomo the Elder’s mistake is not lost on Cuomo the Younger.
Take a look at this, JimB.
What do you make of this? A friend sent to to me, but I rarely stray into such things:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/facebook-spending-millions-plant-radical-activists-daniel-greenfield/
Did some poking around, and it seems credible, but who can I trust nowadays? I know, the fine folks here. Well, some of them. :-p
>”Somewhere I have a patch kit”
I never buy patch kits anymore. I cut patches from old inner tubes, and clean off what was the inside surface with alcohol. That gets rid of the talc that is usually inside the tube to keep it from sticking to itself. The inner surface doesn’t have mold release on it, so it isn’t necessary to sand it, but it doesn’t hurt, either. I use an old disposable razor to shave off the ridges from the mold on the outer surface of the tube I am repairing. I buy commercial grade rubber cement to glue them on. In addition to coating each surface and letting it dry until the shine is just gone, I cover the patch with a large piece cut from a thin plastic bag, and clamp the tube & patch between a couple of boards in my bench vice for a few hours (e.g. overnight). A little added pressure over time really makes them stick. I leave the piece of bag over the patch area to keep it from sticking to the tire. It isn’t as messy as talc. Some glues are better than others, but I have even been able to make school grade rubber cement work OK. It isn’t as good, though, and I will buy small tubes of tube patching glue in bulk when they are cheap.
New puppy arrived today: my wife had ordered it from the Netherlands before the Corona mess, and she was able to fly there and pick it up. We had planned on having the pup shipped by an animal transport company, but – oddly – airlines have shut down live-animal shipping. Driving wasn’t an option, because borders are closed (Germany/France/Belgium). But somehow passenger transit directly between the Netherlands and Switzerland is still possible, so that was the only choice.
Congrats ! What type of dog ?
SteveF, that was pretty gross, but nowhere close to cookie tossing material. Please don’t take this as a challenge.
Well, nuts. There go my plans for the evening.
No. Please, no. You have no idea…
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/coronavirus-mutates-now-dominant-more-contagious-form-doctors-ponder-east-coast-vs-west
n
Speaking of engineering,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8287689/Moment-giant-5-000-tonne-crane-folds-half-collapses-lifts-barge-load-tests.html
There’s video.
n
I feel like the 70s called and want their mercs back…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8287851/Two-mercenaries-arrested-failed-attempt-kill-Venezuelas-President-Maduro.html
–ok, I’m not a high speed, low drag, spec ops, ninja warrior, but ….
who the help takes their loyalty cards with them when goin’ rogue? Who takes a KINDLE? And it’s not even in a case! In the spy novels, the guys all ‘sterilize’ their belongings, to avoid ‘pocket lint’ giving away too much information if lost, stolen, or confiscated. These guy brought the phone book and every card they’ve ever carried. Freakin’ maroons.
n
Boondoggle.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8290413/Houston-pledges-100-percent-energy-renewable-sources-like-wind-solar.html
n
And I finally noticed that the end of today’s post got cut off and there was weird formatting.
I fixed it if anyone is interested in what I made for dinner. It was Vermont Curry, and it was delicious.
For anyone who is interested in what happened, I used the post editor to make ‘Vermont Curry’ a link to the amazon page. There seems to be some conflict with another add on or tool that appends the ttgnet affiliate link to amazon links, and the editor, as it mangled the link code, which gets too long to be a link and ends up truncated when published. It also messes up the page layout and puts my ‘gravitar’ icon and the comment link below the body of the post instead of to the left of it.
To fix it, I just deleted the link href and closing brackets using the ‘text view’ in the post editor.
And that was more than you probably wanted to know.
n
Ah, caffeine… I drink a *lot* of coffee, and over the years I’ve experimented. For a while, I drank only decaffeinated. That turned out to be a mistake, because I lost my tolerance for caffeine. Eat a chocolate dessert, and have the shakes for an hour afterwards – given that I like chocolate, that was unpleasant.
Engineering is a way of thinking, a way of looking at the world, of analyzing problems, etc.. I remember reading one engineer’s view: give him any sort of practical question, and he could come up with a reasonable, ballpark estimate. I’ve found that to be pretty much true. Fill yonder truck with gravel – will it still be allowed on the 10-ton bridge? What’s the usuable volume of your house, in cubic meters?
Where we engineers tend to fall down, of course, is applying objective analysis techniques to people. This leads to all sorts of strife and misunderstandings. “Why are you so worked up about X? Just do Y!” “But you don’t understaaaaand…”
Ah, well. Just filled out my weekly Swiss survey on how home-office is working out. Gave it top marks again – paradise for introverts. Although, even as an introvert, I confess to missing a few things. Apparently, I can start playing tennis again in a couple of weeks – that will be nice…
https://www.zerohedge.com/health/coronavirus-mutates-now-dominant-more-contagious-form-doctors-ponder-east-coast-vs-west
Crap, this is what I have been wondering about. There seems to be at least two versions of virus, a mild and a virulent.
First they released the natural isolated version of the virus. Now they have released the weaponized version of the virus.
Yup, living out here in conspiracy land.
Boondoggle.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8290413/Houston-pledges-100-percent-energy-renewable-sources-like-wind-solar.html
There are at least three solar power farms under construction in Fort Bend County. All are at least 100 MW (the one that I looked at the plans for is 130 MW). So, lets be generous and say 500 MW. The metropolitan area of Houston uses well over 20,000 MW peak. Maybe 30,000 MW peak. Gonna need a lot more solar power farms. And, each solar power or wind MW needs a gas turbine MW to back it up.
Get ready for power costs to double or triple in Texas when these bozos get their way. And, random blackouts on a fairly continuous basis.
BTW, each MW of solar farm requires an acre of land. So the solar farms are displacing food farm land. We are going to have to be more efficient on our food growing land.
I’m not too concerned about the space required for solar farms – there’s plenty of land, and not all of it is really suited to agriculture. However, the lack of storage for solar energy is a problem, and one that solar fans are determined to ignore.
If they were genuine environmentalists and actually understood the issues, they would push for nuclear energy. They’re not and they don’t, so they push for solar.
Locally, we have a different issue: EU politics. The power industry has a lot of tentacles into politics, and a lot of money changes hands. Switzerland has a number of artificial lakes that provide pumped storage. Germany has a lot of solar power that needs stored. You’d think that would be a match made in heaven. Sadly, politics means that the storage facilities are going broke, for lack of contracts.