Cool and damp, but maybe clear? Maybe not clear but not raining either. Yesterday started overcast and ended sunny, so it’s possible either way. I’m hoping for clear so I can do the stuff I haven’t been able to do.
Truck problems persist. Something is badly wrong, and I’m hoping it’s the alternator. That is on top, easy to get to, and relatively cheap. I need the pickup running for so many reasons, but mainly to move stuff around.
I did some errands, and some troubleshooting, and messed around. More of those same things on the schedule for today.
No further progress on the BOL work. Frustrating to be dependent on others. Yeah I know, I’ve been reading about the issues, and they’re not just happening to other people. They are real, not theoretical, and they suck when they happen to you.
Busy week and weekend coming up here at the Casa De Nick. Swim team is starting up with nightly practice, Girl Scout weekends are on the calendar, and all the normal stuff is happening too, AND the work at the BOL needs to keep moving forward. It’s a bit challenging.
But, hey, no one said it would be easy. Or cheap.
And in the wider world, the chip shortage will continue for at least another year, according to industry sources. Standing up new fabs takes time, and it takes some of the chips that are in short supply. Electronic Design magazine has several articles on the issue in this month’s issue, and there is some fascinating stuff there. Like that it takes about 6 months for a chip to move through the build process, or that 70 countries are involved in a typical chip, either through materials, or processes, or design and execution. I’ll link the article in the comments if I can find it online. As a note too, based on my habit of watching how thick or thin the trade mags are, we’re in trouble in the electronics design and manufacturing sector as the magazine is down to ~30 pages. The more general Machine Design magazine is 32 pages this month. MD used to be hundreds of pages 10 years ago but has really slimmed down since wuflu has been ravaging the world economy. ALL my trade mags are thin, some are VERY thin.
If you need it, or will need it, get it. Don’t wait, as it probably won’t be available later. If there is something you must have to live, or do business, or conduct your daily activities, make sure you have a spare, and repair and maintenance parts. Seriously, I’m behind the curve on some things and it sucks. We might be very close to the point where suddenly everyone is buying anything just to grab onto something they hope to use or trade or sell later. That truly will be ‘panic buying’ and it will kick off a major slide downward on the slippery slope. Get your ducks lined up.
And stack all the things.
nick
bonus points to anyone who identifies the movie quote in the day’s title…
Get ’em skeered and keep the skeer on ’em.
59F and 85%RH this morning.
Finally had an ebay sale.
Looks clear outside so far..
n
They’re still scared in Austin/San Antonio. The Good Germans have put away their party affiliation paraphernalia for now, fearing repprisals, but some holdouts still venture out with their political position visible on their face while the others maintain theirs within a moment’s reach.
The Texas Supreme Court still has several cases awaiting rulings regarding mask mandates and where the power lies, but I doubt they are going to issue decisions prior to the May 24 Attorney General Republican nomination runoff where the Bush family is attempting to extend the dynasty via P. Diddly.
The most likely decisions, wins for the current Attorney General … and for sanity … would end the dynasty.
Mr. Nick, I’d just tow the truck for repair. You depend on it so much. You are losing time which is $$ to you.
The big anime show in San Antonio is still advertising that they will require proof of full vaccination or a clear test administered by a clinic tech less than 72 hours before registration. In addition, masks will be required in the building at all times.
Labor Day Weekend. Four months from how.
My kids want to go, but my position is that it is strictly a one day trip *if* we attend. I’m definitely not going to reward the hotels in the convention center area for going along with the stupidity by staying overnight.
What do they consider “full” vacclimation? 1-2-3-4-or more clot shots.
The convention will go by CDC guidelines. One booster, currently, the specified sequence for “full” status completed two weeks before the start of the show.
Of course that leaves them wiggle room as does the test option.
The organizers and the hardcore fans who will show up regardless are Good Germans and will comply with whatever is asked, but the vendors can’t be happy with this many unknowns heading into that weekend.
Right now with the two big US comic publishers indulging in “woke” and multiverse nonsense allowing them to gender/race/preference swap the major characters, the Japanese comics have attracted a lot more interest and more casual fans.
From doomer Michael Snyder, but has plenty of quoted sources…
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/chronic-shortages-few-items-now-will-evolve-chronic-shortages-hundreds-products-later
I have mentioned the lack of cat food in the store, which was a bit better last time I was there. I didn’t know there were shortages of baby formula.
Chlorine shortages affect every civil water treatment plant, every new style septic system, every pool…
Not good.
n
I recently went to a Billie Eilish concert that had all of those same restrictions. (Fully vaccinated or negative test required. Mask required at all times. Etc.) It was a bit of a joke. They weren’t checking photo IDs against the name on the vaccine cards or test results. You could show them your grandma’s vaccine card and they’d wave you through. Masks weren’t enforced at all. I completely forgot to show them my daughter’s vaccine card and she waltzed right into the concert hall no problem. So, just because that’s their published rules (which probably make their ultra-lib west coast organizers happy) doesn’t mean any of it will be enforced worth a damn.
Nick, been busy here, just catching up. On your battery, I agree with Ray, the alternator output wire would burn its insulation before it could draw enough current to warm the battery cables. Not familiar with your Ranger, but try to disconnect the big wire that goes to the starter, and leave everything else connected. You might have to disconnect it at the starter, but sometimes there is a junction near the battery. Remember the #1 rule of troueshooting: divide and conquer.
Starter relays (solenoids) do fail this way, but also visually inspect that big wire for chafing and shorting to ground. Sometimes vibration loosens cable restraints, and bad things appen.
Try to channel Gus of the Model Garage.
Re: chlorine
The “chlorine” shortage is only a shortage of stabilized chlorine—the solid granules and tablets known as dichlor or triclor. This form of chlorine ma
@Rick
All of my text entered after my first attempy
The organizers are in state. Last year, they used CLEAR to enforce the vaccination requirement, something that probably worked too well based on footage I saw of the show floor shot on Saturday, usually the busiest day for the vendors.
CLEAR is not planned for use this year.
Texas has a fair number of ultra-libs. It is easy to blame the California exodus, but I’ve met quite a few who were home grown.
@greg, you are in Austin though. Austin has been Cali lite for a long time. It’s the high percentage of .gov workers and the pols.
The major cities in Texas have very different ‘feels’ or personalities, for those who aren’t familiar. Not surprising really, given the size and varied settlement histories.
The secondary and tertiary cities are much more uniform as “rural” Texas.
n
The entire I35 corridor between Austin and San Antonio is drifting left. The north suburbs of San Antonio lean conservative, but the military base commands in the area find working with the Socialist city government on issues such as annexation an easier way to get things done than sitting down and talking to the neighbors.
re Ukraine war, Russia sanctions, and food, I’ve posted a snark, an observation, and a suggestion.
Site reliability has been very poor today. Very seldom can I get to the daily page without multiple tries. Even the home page needs a retry more often than not.
Ditto what Mr. SteveF said.
“Under the Yoke (Draka Novels, 2)” by S. M. Stirling
https://www.amazon.com/Under-Yoke-R-M-Stirling/dp/0671720775?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a five book alternate history military fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Baen in 1990 that I bought used on Amazon. I read the fourth book in the series recently and am now back tracking. I have acquired the third book in the series and am reading the third book now.
After the American revolutionary war, the British loyalists in the colonies mostly escaped to Canada. But in an alternate timeline, those 90,000 British loyalists were exiled to the southern tip of Africa at the direction of George Washington from 1783 to 1786. They took over the Dutch colony of South Africa as other unwanted groups joined them and merged into their slave holding culture. They eventually called themselves the Domination of Draka.
By 1942, the Domination of Draka is 36 million free peoples and 500 million slaves XXXXXX serfs, one quarter of the people on the planet Earth. They have spread throughout the entire continent of Africa to Egypt, the middle east (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia), Turkey, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and they have just completed taking Italy and then Germany. The rest of Europe fell quickly. They have used their incredible mineral riches to develop and purchase the best weapons in the world. And they have nuclear weapons that they used to destroy the German armies, not understanding of the dangers of fallout on their own armies.
“Service to the State” is the typical saying from one Draka citizen to another citizen. Their reply is “Glory to the Race”. These sayings exemplify all you need to know about the Draka. Their goal is to subjugate the entire human race.
By 1948, the Domination of Draka is 40 million free peoples and 1,000 million slaves XXXXXX serfs, one half of the people on the planet Earth. The Domination has subjugated the entire continents of Africa, Europe, and most of Asia. The only areas not subjugated are North America, South America, Australia, Great Britain, India, and Japan, The Alliance of Free Democracies. The Domination and the Alliance are in a cold war with spying and underground activities that go along with such while the Domination is putting Europe to the yoke.
The prolific author has a website at:
https://smstirling.com/
The five books of the series are listed at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Domination
My rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars (19 reviews)
Peanuts: Tough Rejection Letter
https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/2022/04/27
Wow ! That was harsh.
Your move Ron…
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/04/27/us/reedy-creek-disney-florida/index.html
“Under the Yoke (Draka Novels, 2)” by S. M. Stirling
https://www.amazon.com/Under-Yoke-R-M-Stirling/dp/0671720775?tag=ttgnet-20/
Book number two of a five book alternate history military fiction series. I read the well printed and well bound MMPB published by Baen in 1990 that I bought used on Amazon. I read the fourth book in the series recently and am now back tracking. I have acquired the third book in the series and am reading the third book now.
I forgot to mention that the Draka are big fans of Vlad the Impaler for unruly serfs. Big, big fans.
So…just like the current administration of plugs the McSpongeBrain.
“Texas soldier who drowned trying to help migrants wasn’t equipped with flotation device”
https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/27/bishop-evans-texas-soldier-drown-flotation/
Sad, very sad.
Truck problems persist. Something is badly wrong, and I’m hoping it’s the alternator. That is on top, easy to get to, and relatively cheap. I need the pickup running for so many reasons, but mainly to move stuff around.
Almost sounds like you have a dead short somewhere. Those can be difficult to find, been there done that with my 1973 Volvo around 1980.
“BrightDrop And FedEx Set New Guinness World Record”
https://insideevs.com/news/581542/brightdrop-fedex-guinness-world-record/
“General Motors’s BrightDrop announced that, in collaboration with FedEx, it set a new Guinness World Record title for the greatest distance traveled by an electric van on a single charge.”
“The BrightDrop Zevo 600, formerly known as the BrightDrop EV600, completed the nearly 260-mile (418 km) trip from New York City to Washington, D.C., driven by Stephen Marlin.”
Sorry, I am not impressed. Come back when you travel 2,000 miles on a single charge.
“DOE finalizes rules to phase out older light bulbs, estimates consumers will save $3B annually”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/doe-finalizes-rules-to-phase-out-older-incandescent-light-bulbs-save-LED-efficiency/622761/
“The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday finalized a pair of rules that will phase out older incandescent light bulbs in favor of more efficient LEDs and compact fluorescent lighting. The agency estimates families will save about $100 annually — or almost $3 billion, collectively, when the new rules are fully implemented.”
Are any LED bulbs made in the USA ? What could go wrong with this ?
My wife came home from work that day and said that the word in the building was that the “migrant” was a drug mule. Until someone goes on the record, it is strictly rumor.
They hear a lot of crazy things at that clinic, but they have a lot of Border Patrol through as patients every day.
“California readies regulations for zero-emission truck fleets”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/california-regulations-electric-truck-fleets/622735/
“Under CARB’s proposed ACF regulation, all trucks added to the California fleet must be zero-emission vehicles beginning Jan. 1, 2024, and internal combustion engine vehicles must be removed from the California fleet by Jan. 1 of the year following the end of the vehicle’s minimum useful life. CARB defines that as ranging from 13 to 18 years or 800,000 miles.”
I actually do not have a problem with this if it was just Los Angeles. But since it is the entire state, the policy is unworkable.
A deal is coming. DeSantis made his point.
Keep in mind, however, that Jerry Demings is married to the Congresswoman for that district, Val Demings, who was on the short list for notching the “African American VP” box on the Biden ticket and is the most likely Dem who will challenge Little Marco this fall for the US Senate seat from Florida which is up for grabs.
Someone has been giving Val Demings plenty of money to produce commercials for about a year. Lots of production teams are busy in Central Florida making her ads right now, including my wife’s nephew’s company.
“SEIA reports ‘rapid degeneration’ of solar sector following federal anti-dumping investigation”
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/seia-reports-rapid-degeneration-of-solar-sector-following-federal-anti-du/621654/
“UPDATE: April 27, 2022: U.S. solar capacity deployment in 2022 and 2023 is expected to fall by 24 GW after the Commerce Department initiated an anti-dumping investigation in Southeast Asia, according to new analysis from the Solar Energy Industries Association.”
Something strange is going on with solar panels right now. Are there any solar panels made in the USA anymore ?
Ah, I thought that Biden had canceled the Chinese tariffs. He has not. Looks like the Chinese solar panel makers are bypassing the tariffs on Chinese products by selling through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. Sneaky, sneaky ! I have a fix for this.
plugs The Imbecile:
Having been a professor, President Joe Biden knows that teaching is hard work
His brain is completely mush. He dreamt he actually taught something and now it is real in his sponge-brain.
The LameStreamMedia just sits there and nods.
I wonder if the ‘hive’ of knowledge has an answer. (Thinking @Lynn perhaps?).
Pondering, as I do. If one had an ‘unlimited’ amount of energy source (Nuclear?); with water and carbon dioxide would it be realistically possible to create methane … ethanol …. gasoline?
Hmm?
I wonder if the ‘hive’ of knowledge has an answer. (Thinking @Lynn perhaps?).
Pondering, as I do. If one had an ‘unlimited’ amount of energy source (Nuclear?); with water and carbon dioxide would it be realistically possible to create methane … ethanol …. gasoline?
Hmm?
Sure, given an energy source. First CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O
reverses to CO2 + 2H2O → CH4 + 2O2 with a lot of energy used to crack the CO2 and the H2O.
You gotta crack the water first. So when you crack the water into O2 and H2, why perform the second step of cracking the CO2 when you have all that hydrogen laying around ?
In WWII, the Nazis converted coal into gasoline. In fact, there are several places on Earth now converting coal or methane into gasoline and diesel: South Africa, Qatar, and ???.
2C + O2 → 2CO
8CO + 17H2 → C8H18 + 8H2O and so on and so forth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer%E2%80%93Tropsch_process
Fischer–Tropsch is not a very efficient process and if you are not careful you end up with a lot of glycerine as your main product. But Sasol (oil company of South Africa) was going to put a 200,000 barrel/day natural gas to diesel plant in Louisiana about 7 or 8 years ago. When the project capex passed $12 billion ???, they walked away from it (ran out of money).
https://cen.acs.org/articles/89/i38/Natural-Gas-Sasol-proposes-gasliquids.html
You can turn anything with carbon in it to gasoline and diesel if you throw enough energy and hydrogen at it at the proper temperatures and pressures using a good catalyst.
@Lynn – thanks – more to ponder.
So…just like the current administration of plugs the McSpongeBrain.
I am fairly sure that Psaki and Plugs would like to shove a six inch diameter sharpened pole up the exit orifice of about half the USA population.
I ‘specs Bill Gates and his ilk would like to see the end, messy or otherwise, of a lot more than half.
Full disclosure: I’d also prefer the deaths of, say, 90% of the species. The difference is the fraction that I’d select for the axe and the fact that don’t have any plans to act on my desires.
Just got a 504 Error: “website down or capacity issues”. When I reloaded, it came right up. Often over the past few weeks the load is very slow but it has never timed out before. Usually I get tired of waiting, close the tab and click again and the second time it loads immediately.
BillG wants a grand, civilization-changing intellectual achievement credited to his name alone. If he has to kill half of the world’s population to accomplish that goal, that’s just the cost of doing business.
Gates’ srand()/rand(), allegedly cookbooked out of Knuth in ye olden days at Microsoft and still lurking in Visual C++, give me enough nightmares. I’ll pass on taking a vaccine with his name on it.
@Nick
I tried earlier but was on the mobile and having problems posting
The “chlorine shortage” is stabilized chlorine (dichlor and trichlor) used in swimming pools. One of the major manufacturers has a plant out of commission.
No shortage of gas chlorine used in municipal water treatment. Gas chlorine is used in many commercial swimming pools and in residential pools serviced by gas chlorinators.
As I wrote several months ago (and can’t find it today using search), the chemical backbone of the solid stabilizers remains in the pool after the chlorine is used up. It’s part of the TDS that shows up in the water analysis. The equilibrium of the reaction can be reversed by overchlorinating with gas chlorine or bleach, and I suspect that a number of pool service companies are doing just that in response to the shortages.
@Paulthe Manc
As @Lynn pointed out, it is indeed possible. He also pointed out that if the goal is creating fuel, the easiest way is probably to just crack the water and use the hydrogen.
If the goal is to reduce the CO2, there are a couple of other factors to consider.
First is the need to concentrate the CO2 before you can react it. That’s energy intensive.
Second is that reversing the reaction is thermodynamically inefficient.
Between the two, you probably liberate more waste heat than is gained by the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. (I leave it to @Lyn, who claims he likes TGD, to do the calculations).
Overall, probably easier to concentrate the CO2 and feed it to greenhouses, then sequester the resulting cellulose.
Any BTW, one of the things I left out of my comments earlier in the week wrt corn and energy is the irony that without the increased yield of crops provided by atmospheric fertilization from post-industrial CO2, world food production would be much lower.
Trump Derangement Syndrome even affects operations like keeping pools and drinking water clean?
– no solar panels are made in the US that I’m aware of. The difference between a Kyocera commercial use (ie. standby or charging power for infrastructure) and the shite on amazon for consumers is HUGE.
– from what I’ve seen and read, the panels might last but the buck converters die, see also MrAtoz on that
Almost sounds like you have a dead short somewhere.
– I agree, except a dead short would blow something. I took the starter and alternator to be tested. Starter was fine, alt tested “replace”. So I did. Got it all back together and no change. BUT. Some stuff has had a chance to percolate thru the sponge I call a brain. One of the troubleshooting steps in a youtube vid was checking the cables. I think Dr Pournelle wins again, as the only thing left is cable, and there are issues.
The last inch of the red cables is corroded. I put my meter on it and I’m getting ~2v drop in the first inch or so. That was the same part that got hot. I think I’ve got corrosion leading to resistive heating, and a 2 v drop. Tomorrow I cut and splice.
Messing around with it myself, I was hoping to be below the time required to get it towed to a mechanic, have them look at it and fix it. I think it’s gonna be a wash if the splicing works. Of course, I am exclusively working on the truck all that time, so there is a cost to my schedule either way.
@drwilliams, thanks for the chlorine info.
n
WRT the final death of incan lights, I’d love to see the savings. Consumers will be paying 1-2$ per bulb or more, and they don’t last. Lots of people got incan bulbs free from their Edison power provider, and incan bulbs are cheap.
No LED bulbs are made in the US that I’m aware of. Making them is like any semiconductor manufacturing, and has lots of nasty waste products, and uses rare earth metals. Granted that they aren’t really rare, we’re not mining them in the US either (although there was an attempt to reopen a mine to decrease our dependence, don’t know if that happened or not.) Just about any country with any industry at all could make incan bulbs locally. Not so much with LEDs.
n
I watched the SolarWorld boondoggle implode across the river when we lived in Vantucky. The State of Oregon spent millions helping the Germans poach workers from other states’ solar boondoggles with insane salaries/perks, and I’m sure the other states like AZ returned the favor.
I knew one person who worked at SolarWorld, but the guy was such a jerk about the money and signing bonuses he received that I wasn’t really sympathetic when the place started circling the drain and he sweat every layoff round. He and his wife were underwater in houses in both Phoenix and WA State, but they both had new vehicles — $40-50k each, truck and SUV.
Nowadays, everyone working at a solar cell plant in the US would not only want a six figure salary but a way to work the job from home as well.
Between the two, you probably liberate more waste heat than is gained by the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. (I leave it to @Lyn, who claims he likes TGD, to do the calculations).
Was ist TGD herr Doktor ?
I went to a presentation by several Chemical Engineering PhD students at OU a few years ago for their Doctoral thesis statuses. One of them was claiming that he could produce gasoline from atmospheric CO2 for around $10/gallon. Given that the prices have doubled since then and including his palladium catalysts, it is probably $20/gallon now.
Trump Derangement Syndrome even affects operations like keeping pools and drinking water clean?
TDS = Total Dissolved Solids, usually listed in ppm (parts per million)
I am worried about this notice from the EPA where they are outlawing the usage of asbestos in chlorine creation. “EPA Proposes to Ban Ongoing Uses of Asbestos, Taking Historic Step to Protect People from Cancer Risk”
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-proposes-ban-ongoing-uses-asbestos-taking-historic-step-protect-people-cancer-risk
No one took a swing at the movie?
–the irish gangsters talking about their upcoming retirement in the toilet in the movie Cotton Club…. iirc.
“we learn as we go.”
n
I never saw “The Cotton Club”. Too busy watching crap SF movies.
Between the two, you probably liberate more waste heat than is gained by the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. (I leave it to @Lyn, who claims he likes TGD, to do the calculations).
Was ist TGD herr Doktor ?
The Grateful Dead ? Yes, I do like the Dead. “Casey Jones”, “Truckin”, and “Touch Of Grey” are some of the great songs on my thumb drive in the truck.
https://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/TGD
The Cotton Club is an excellent movie that captures some really awesome performances. DEFINITELY worth the time.
n
>> I forgot to mention that the Draka are big fans of Vlad the Impaler for unruly serfs. Big, big fans.
So…just like the current administration of plugs the McSpongeBrain.
I am fairly sure that Psaki and Plugs would like to shove a six inch diameter sharpened pole up the exit orifice of about half the USA population.
You need to specify diameter and length.