Sun. Jul. 24, 2022 – in Houston, not amused

By on July 24th, 2022 in decline and fall, open thread, personal

Hot and humid, will probably get to well over 100F today.  And why not?  Giant fusion fire in the sky bathes us in its baleful glow…

Yesterday did not quite go to plan.   And ended early with a full septic tank.  So I’m home, waiting for the pack to be reunited.

I’m sure there is something here I can do to keep me busy.

Keep stacking my friends.

n

87 Comments and discussion on "Sun. Jul. 24, 2022 – in Houston, not amused"

  1. Denis says:

    Keep stacking my friends.

    Punctuation. It saves lives! 🙂

    We attended the Oberammergau Passion Play yesterday.

    https://www.passionsspiele-oberammergau.de/

    Amazing. A small village in the middle of nowhere in the Bavarian Alps. In the seventeenth century, to mark the end of the Black Death, the villagers swore to perform a Passion Play every ten years. We had tickets for the 2020 event, which was postponed until this year because of COVID-19.

    The production was astounding. Hundreds on stage, and more than half of the inhabitants involved in some way. Six hours long, and not a dull moment. Whatever one’s religious inclination or otherwise, it is a gripping story. Recommended.

  2. Lynn says:

    76 F and nary a cloud in the sky.  We got a few drops yesterday, just enough to remember what rain looks like.  Made the outside incredibly humid as I was dragging hoses around the office building. 

    The big ball of fire is coming up for the umpteenth time in my life.  Seems predictable now.

  3. paul says:

    The water well is running for 15 seconds every two minutes or so.

    You might need to air up the bladder in the pressure tank.  For me, that’s 30 PSI, the same as the pressure switch On setting.

    My system  is On at 30 and Off at 50.  Give or take a little.

  4. Lynn says:

    My system is on at 35 and off at 55 psig.  The air is added automagically through some gizmo using flowing water to suck in the air.  I’ve got three 75 foot soaker hoses running, May be a lot of water.

  5. Geoff Powell says:

    Do they use Ground Fault Circuit Interrupters in the UK? Outlets near water. With that kind of voltage it would seem some kind of protection would be wise.

    Yes, GFCI, or as we call it, earth leakage circuit breaker, is obligatory on new builds, or rewires, which have to be done to the current version of the IEE Regulations. Retrofitting ELCB is not required unless you rewire. My house, last rewired in, probably, the 1960s, doesn’t have one. And they’re whole-house, since they’re fitted in the consumer unit.

    Remember, we have 240V phase-to-neutral, we do not have split-phase, so voltage-wise, it’s no worse than one of your 240V circuits, if you get across both of your phases. One off the regulations disallows mains power outlets in bathrooms/showers. Shaver sockets are allowed, but they’re transformer-isolated, and fused at 1 amp.

    And my broadband is up-and-down like a fiddler’s elbow. This is my second attempt to post this reply.

    G.

  6. EdH says:

    It was astronomy club outreach night yesterday. 

    Because of the smoke overcast from the Yosemite fires 250 miles away I didn’t plan to attend originally,  but the wind backed and  it started to clear just before sunset, so I packed up the old manual C8 and went.

    The local planetarium director does a monthly star walk, and we had a crowd of about 200 after that finished, near 10pm.

    Because there was no moon, and no planets, I just found a nice open cluster near Scorpio and stuck in a low power wide angle lens and left it there.

    The folk with big scopes and goto capability bounced around from deep sky object to object near the zenith, M13, the Ring Nebula, Albireo.

    When we wrapped up at about 11pm it was still 90F…

  7. Ray Thompson says:

    Remember, we have 240V phase-to-neutral, we do not have split-phase, so voltage-wise, it’s no worse than one of your 240V circuits, if you get across both of your phases.

    That is isolated to a few circuits, requires contact both wires. Most of my brain rattlers have been from one hot wire to ground. Generally through me. I cannot imagine getting 240V from a single wire, through me, to ground. That would hurt.

    I have had much more from an electric fence. High voltage, low current, pulses. Not fun.

  8. ~jim says:

    We had a couple 240 volt space heaters from the 1920s (or possibly earlier) stowed away at the beach house. Big 2-prong plugs. 

    When I moved to a place with no heat but a 240 socket I liberated one of them and just replaced the plug. They put out a tremendous amount of heat, lol.

  9. Pecancorner says:

    Our Black and Decker rice cooker gave out after 20+ years and they don’t make it any more.   🙁

    We only need capacity for 2 dry cups at a time. I want a very lightweight, small one. The little Dash cooker isn’t big enough, so I am looking at this one.   

    I tried using the instant pot, but I don’t like the way it turns out, plus the pot is too heavy.  

  10. Greg Norton says:

    Our Black and Decker rice cooker gave out after 20+ years and they don’t make it any more.   

    We only need capacity for 2 dry cups at a time. I want a very lightweight, small one. The little Dash cooker isn’t big enough, so I am looking at this one.   

    We buy Zojirushi rice pots. The last one came from Tar-jay, but a big Asian market will have them in stock today.

    The basic mechanical pot will run $50-70. More than that is about features you may or may not want.

    Our previous rice pot was a gift and had all the bells-n-whistles (TM). The electronics fried after about 10 years.

    I’ve noted here before that I also have a P/N stove top rice pot from Korea, but there is a black art to those which I’ve yet to master after eight years experimenting on and off.

    If you want to know how bad the exchange rate is vs. Korean money, price the P/N pots at H-Mart. The local store keeps them on a very high shelf since they are up over $200. I paid … $40? … within the last decade.

    However, if you are serious about prepping, the upside of the Korean pot is that it does not require electricity, just a heat source of some kind capable of boiling water. In the hands of an expert, like the Korean wife of one of the Chinese relations in Seattle, it produces perfect rice from a bulk bag.

  11. ~jim says:

    I watched Interstellar last night. Hadn’t seen it before. The word which comes to mind is bathetic, although I’d probably not use that in everyday conversation. Just awful. 

    *****

    How many amps is on a 240 volt circuit? I’m wondering how many watts that old space heater was drawing. 1200 W  seems to be the limit  in the US nowadays.  I like 240 volts. They use that in India, complete with bare wires, lol. Tea kettles heat water really quickly, etc.

  12. Pecancorner says:

    However, if you are serious about prepping, the upside of the Korean pot is that it does not require electricity, just a heat source of some kind capable of boiling water. In the hands of an expert, like the Korean wife of one of the Chinese relations in Seattle, it produces perfect rice from a bulk bag.

    That’s a really good point.  Rice can be cooked in any regular saucepan with a good lid.  Before we were given the rice cooker for Christmas, we just cooked rice in a pan on the stove, like Americans had always done.  

    My husband taught me a little trick on measuring the water:

    Put however much rinsed, dry rice you want in the bottom of a heavy pan with a tight lid.  Shake it to get it level.  Bend your fingers at the 1st and 2nd knuckles gently into a loose fist, and lay the hand on top of the rice.   Add water until it covers the knuckle bumps on top of your hand.  Bring to a boil, lower heat to very low, cover and cook for 20 minutes without lifting the lid.  

    It works great but I got spoiled with not having to watch the electric one. 🙂

  13. Greg Norton says:

    That’s a really good point.  Rice can be cooked in any regular saucepan with a good lid.  Before we were given the rice cooker for Christmas, we just cooked rice in a pan on the stove, like Americans had always done.  

    The Korean pot is a pressure cooker mechanism which doesn’t require exact measuring. Fill water to level number equivalent to 180 mL scoops of rice used. The trick is the right amount of heat at three specific stages in the cooking process, and I still haven’t got it down after much experimentation.

  14. paul says:

    That looks like a nice rice cooker.  Nice price, too.  I have a different model of theirs.

    https://www.amazon.com/Aroma-Simply-Stainless-Uncooked-Cooked/dp/B007TNXYYA?tag=ttgnet-20

    Paid $30 with some sort of promo for free shipping.  Almost ten years ago, before Amazon started collecting sales tax. Anyway.  I didn’t want the steamer feature.  Who want drippings from whatever in their rice?  Not me.  Another feature was a stainless steel insert instead of teflon.

    My first rice cooker and if it’s junk or i hate it, I’ll have a nice pot for the dog’s water or food.  Why are you looking at me like that?

    I stick one end of a kitchen sponge in the lid’s handle to mostly cover the vent hole.  Catches almost all of the boiling rice starch.

  15. Nick Flandrey says:

    Arrggg.   Just flipped from 91F to 92F, but only 64%RH.  And that is with bright overcast.

    Kid2 has good weather for sailing this morning, so she should be able to complete her required maneuvers.   Fingers crossed.    They have to sail a “box” but yesterday the wind was so variable that she did two boxes without ever having to tack.  Tacking is a requirement for the achievement.

    n

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  16. Nick Flandrey says:

    Speaking of punctuation, 

    “Let’s eat Grandpa!”  

    n

  17. Geoff Powell says:

    @~jim:

    How many amps is on a 240 volt circuit? 

    4 amps per kilowatt, approximately. So 1200 watts is 5 amps, or just under.

    A UK 13 amp plug, to BS1363, can pass 3KW, if it’s a reputable make, like MK. Chinese-made plugs, not so much. Some of them are actually too small – there’s a reason why the BS1363 plug is so big. It has to do with preventing touching the pins as you plug it in.

    Of course, the design is such that it’s painful to tread on if barefoot, since it always falls pins-up.

    Edit:

    I just checked our kettle, which is a Russell Hobbs jug style. The rating plate says 2200-3000 watts, so the full 13 amp monty. It boils 2 pints in a couple of minutes.

    G.

  18. Geoff Powell says:

    @ray:

    I cannot imagine getting 240V from a single wire, through me, to ground. That would hurt.

    It does. I’ve only done it once or twice, and I never want to do it again. I was lucky – dry floor, rubber-soled shoes. 240V can kill.

    G.

  19. drwilliams says:

    I don’t live in Wyoming.

    But I’ve seen photos of the “Ditch Liz!” billboards.

    I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done.

    Don’t they have backhoes in Wyoming?

  20. lpdbw says:

    re: boiling water and 120V kettles

    The tech connections guy on YouTube has a couple of videos on this, and how American kettles are different.  Love him or hate him, he covers some issues in great detail.

    Here’s the first video.

  21. dcp says:

    Interstellar

    I enjoyed parts of it, even though a lot didn’t make much sense to me.   I liked the first part, on Earth.   I liked a lot of the in-space part.  I liked the robots.  I didn’t like the on-planet shenanigans. 

    Every now and then I re-visit my honesty and humor settings.

  22. ~jim says:

    >>The rating plate says 2200-3000 watts, so the full 13 amp monty. It boils 2 pints in a couple of minutes. <<

    Me want! 

    I hate to get political but thank God for Brexit. Isn’t the EU limiting wattage to something like 600 W in the near future? I think it holds for small appliances, I don’t know about tea kettles.

    Conservation is not a path to prosperity.

  23. ~jim says:

    >> Love him or hate him, he covers some issues in great detail.

    Here’s the first video.<<

    In nauseating, excruciating detail. Even at 1.75 speed, I’m sure it wasn’t worth my time. I shut it off after a minute. Why do people post stuff like that? Do they just like to hear themselves talk?

    More information is exchanged in these brief little forum posts than all of his 25+ minutes of yada, yada, yada.

  24. Nick Flandrey says:

    With my interest in seeing ‘what’s not there anymore’ but that still shaped what is here now, this is pretty dang cool.   The dark green diagonal line is clearly a trench cut at some time in the past.    I’m surprised it didn’t elicit an archeological dig, cutting across all the old walls and paths.  Of course, they already knew what was there….

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11043597/Heatwave-drought-reveals-secret-garden-remained-hidden-300-years.html

    I had my own mini version of that at the BOL when the drying grass revealed a trench from a plumbing hookup out into the yard, that is certainly part of the homemade septic for the RV pad.  It was clear as day for a while, as the undisturbed soil stayed greenish just a bit longer.

    n

  25. Nick Flandrey says:

    Even at 1.75 speed, I’m sure it wasn’t worth my time.

    didn’t watch this one, but some of his others are worth the time if the topic interests you.  I liked his one on “brown”  particularly, because we had a saying in theatrical lighting “there’s no such thing as brown light”  but I had nothing but experience to back that up.   (IDK why but directors are always looking for brown light.)

    There are a LOT of things that would benefit from editing that for one reason or another (ie, fame of the author) (self publishing) don’t get edited in a helpful way.

    Choosing what not to say, ESPECIALLY in a post of video that a million people are going to pick apart, is very hard.*

    n

    *every sentence ends up looking like legal boilerplate, with a dozen dependent clauses.

  26. lpdbw says:

    Why do people post stuff like that? 

    He has 1.6 million subscribers, and I bet he makes a fair amount of money.  If I were him, I’d say it works and I wouldn’t change it.

    I watch him at 1.75 or 2x, and only when he does videos about things where I have more ignorance than knowledge.

    I find him infuriating for other reasons than his slow presentation.  He’s a believer in the global warming church, and he fails a lot in the calculations of cost/risk/benefit/return.  That latter is common among technophiles.

    Also, now that I think of it (in light of your very valid critique), I’m pretty sure his target audience isn’t well represented here.   Most of the contributors here have either broad educations or at least deep educations, or have learned an awful lot by actually working with their hands and minds at solving real problems.  In various combinations.

    If you’ve never thought about the topics of his videos before, he covers things at about the pace of an undergrad lecturer, only he usually includes some hands-on demonstrations.

  27. EdH says:

    re: rice cookers.

    Mine is branded “Rival” and not available, but looks virtually identical to Paul’s “Aroma”.  

    No frills, no fuss. I used a saucepan for years but this is far more consistent and requires no attention while bustling about with other meal tasks.

  28. ~jim says:

    >>He has 1.6 million subscribers, and I bet he makes a fair amount of money. <<

    PT Barnum would think so. Every second of every minute…

    Along the same lines, someone once said something to the effect of ‘never overestimate the stupidity of the (American) public.’

     It could have been Barnum, or Twain, or Mencken. I can’t recall.

    I appreciate the thought but I still can’t do YouTube in almost any way, shape, or form. I don’t see how it adds to the common weal beyond divertissement. 

    EDIT: “common weal” is redundant, is it not? I ought to be taken out and shot for using such fancy pants words.

  29. paul says:

    “Requires no attention” is the best feature.  Load it and turn it on.  Go swill some beer while something is being charred on the grill. 

    I use to make rice in the microwave in the two quart Pyrex measuring cup.  I think it was a cup of rice, two cups of water, and a bit of salt.  Maybe a pat of butter.  Cover with a Corelle lunch plate.  Five minutes on high and fifteen on 50% power.  It always boils over a bit.  A minute less at 50% and the rice usually wasn’t quite cooked but it didn’t boil over.  It’s a $69 nuker from Walmart and seems to vary in power.  The Baked Potato button works great and it’s been here longer than the $150 Panasonic it replaced. 

  30. paul says:

    EDIT: “common weal” is redundant, is it not? I ought to be taken out and shot for using such fancy pants words.

    I suppose we can arrange for someone to take you behind the barn for a few weals.  Not me, it’s too hot.

  31. Greg Norton says:

    I don’t live in Wyoming.

    But I’ve seen photos of the “Ditch Liz!” billboards.

    I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done.

    Don’t they have backhoes in Wyoming?

    Nah. You should want the RINOs to live a long time with the shame and defeat. Every time they go to the grocery store, there should be pointing and whispered comments.

    This critter also needs to go in the primary on Tuesday, but my money is on it not happening. She was elected in 2010 as part of the “Tea Party” fervor, but she votes RINO, including a “yes” for Impeachment over Jan. 6, and gets away with it because of the sympathy for her baby’s health issues in that part of WA State.

    https://jhb.house.gov/

    IIRC, the baby got a kidney and is doing normal kid things these days.

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  32. Nick Flandrey says:

    I used to watch a lot of ‘home shows’ on HGTV and the like.  Stuff where they show upgrades, repairs, construction, DIY, and even some pure design shows.   I figured out that what I like is the making and repair aspects of the shows.

    Youtube is full of really well produced maker channels and repair channels.  The best of them have next to no ‘fluff’.   None of them do the TV stuff, repeated intros, outros, recaps, etc that steal time from the real content, which on tv is already reduced to 22 minutes out of every half hour.

    Granted that some of them have figured out how to make a living at it, which is great because they can continue making the content I like, and sometimes that includes embedding a sponsorship message.  They actually get paid more for the same message if they integrate it better into their channel branding or their presentation.   In total, the sponsorship messages might approach the time stolen by commercials on TV, but I can just skip to the next segment on the timeline with a mouse click when it’s on youtube.   I don’t think I’ve watched any TV (on purpose) in about 4 years, but I watch youtube vids every day (except at the lake.)

    And the youtube suggestion engine works really well, although it can be very persistent offering something  you don’t want to watch but have no way to say “don’t suggest that again.”   I finally got Wranglestar out of my suggestions, but I noticed he was there on the hair dryer guy’s segment.  I really hope watching that vid doesn’t put him back in my suggested list.  

    n

  33. ~jim says:

    >>Not me, it’s too hot. <<

    Awww, paul. I was so looking forward to meeting you.

    Pyrex, the original kind, and a microwave serves me well too. I had to keep notes for a while, but as Richard Nixon once said, “I have it down Pat.”

    Meanwhile, in the Olympic peninsula,  the prognosticators are projecting a whooping 90° next week. Your sympathy is much appreciated.

  34. Nick Flandrey says:

    Trial balloon?

     https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11036509/Spain-confirms-case-Crimean-Congo-haemorrhagic-fever.html

    Deadly Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever which kills 30% of people it infects by making them bleed from the eyes spreads to Spain as man is hospitalised with virus

    • Severe case of illness with approximate 30 per cent mortality rate found in Spain
    • Middle-aged man hospitalised in north-western city of Leon after tick bite: MoD
    • Disease, which can cause bleeding from the eyes, found in UK four months ago
    • Three cases have been found in Britain since 2012, with three in Spain since 2011

    we’re all gonna die! (sooner!)  HT jim 🙂

    n

  35. drwilliams says:

    First case that comes over the southern border of the U.S. with an illegal alien invader, we impeach the entire Democrat Party.

    And if it’s someone not from Mexico, we close the border and build a trench half a mile into Mexico and make the strip a no man’s land.

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  36. Alan says:

    >> I don’t live in Wyoming.

    But I’ve seen photos of the “Ditch Liz!” billboards.

    I don’t understand why it hasn’t been done.

    Don’t they have backhoes in Wyoming?

    Warning: minor spoiler if you plan on streaming Yellowstone.

    In the series, several ‘bad guys’ need to be disposed of so someone from the ranch is told to take them to the “train station.” The station turns out to be a spot on the shoulder of back-country road right across the Montana-Wyoming state line with no traffic where there’s a deep ravine. Get on the train and you go over the edge.

    All aboard!

  37. lynn says:

    Pearls Before Swine: The Age of Bob

        https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2022/07/24

    Yup.  Closely related to 

        https://xkcd.com/1098/

  38. Alan says:

    Speaking of Yellowstone, we just finished watching 1883 which is the Yellowstone prequel. Well done, some dramatic scenes and great backgrounds.

    Recommended.

    O, and Isabel May (as Elsa) isn’t too hard on the eyes.

  39. paul says:

    Close the border anyway.  

    I don’t know about the trench thing.  Maybe if you control the water flow to the Gulf and fill it with hungry crocogators.  Toss in some pirhana and blood sucking leeches.   The mosquitoes could be a bother. 

    If five billion was too much for a fence as it “violates the rights of illegal aliens” (seriously? what rights? other than deportation vs stood against a wall?) but 60 or 80 Billion or however much to Ukraine is “cool”, minefields and machine gun towers seem affordable.  Sell folks a hunting license.

    A few rows of mindfields and machine gun towers.  Buzzards gotta eat.

    Even cheaper…. no welfare because no habla English, no anchor babies unless one parent is a citizen, and if you have a company and you run it on wetbacks, you go to prison with a 2×4 minimum shoved up yer backside.  

    No jobs, no welfare, no wetbacks.  Simple. 

    added: I’ve said the same thing to folks I know that live up north. Like in Oregon and Indiana and I’m scolded as mean and racist. Yet, I’ve been to both places and it’s all white folks. Folks from south of the border are not the same, their culture is not American.

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  40. drwilliams says:

    @Lynn

    The Age of Bob reminded me of one of a series of heartless and tasteless  jokes that I made up in the 1980’s.

    Part of the “q-plegics” series

    Q: What do you call a q-p that goes fishing?

    A: Bob

  41. paul says:

    And then …. there was a few years of dead baby jokes.  Get you fired now a days….   

  42. drwilliams says:

    The dee-bee jokes may have started in the late 60’s.

    Given the current headlines, I could think up a whole new series of really dark ones, and claim First Amendment protection.

  43. drwilliams says:

    If I had a hammer & sickle

    remembering the United States most successful communist:

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2022/07/if-i-had-a-hammer-sickle.php

  44. Alan says:

    >> @Alan (and others)

    I didn’t get the email from Alan via the contact form here. So I investigated, and that page is not sending out emails properly. (Common programmer lament – “But it used to work fine!”)

    Fixing it is on the list, but in the meantime, use the contact page at my “MutinyBay”  web site (https://www.mutinybay.net/contact.php ) if you need to contact me privately.

    @Rick, resent via MutinyBay, please let me know if you didn’t get it this time.

  45. Alan says:

    >> And then …. there was a few years of dead baby jokes.  Get you fired now a days….  

    Dad jokes, not so much.

    “Two guys walked into a bar. The third guy ducked.”

  46. lpdbw says:

    remembering the United States most successful communist:

    Now do Woody Guthrie.

    No argument about Seeger, though.

  47. paul says:

    Years ago we loaded up the old folks and did the “one lap of America”.  From Texas to Carlsbad Caverns to Meteor Crater and the House Built in The Rock and the Grand Canyon then up through Utah and Arches National Park and to Northern California into Oregon and Washington.  Wandered around some park full of sequoia trees.  Headed East along the Green River?  Snake River?  I forget.  But we hit Idaho and Montana along with both Dakotas.  I’ve left out a few stops, it’s been 35 years plus ago.

    Mount Rushmore is awesome.  Pictures fail.  

    Then we headed home from South Dakota.  Pretty much caught US 281 or maybe US 183.  All the way to Comanche.  You know what?  We all noticed it afterwards…. but once out of New Mexico and Arizona, there were no Mexicans or Indians.  Plenty of Indians (dot) women working in the various motels once we hit California and Oregon and Washington.  That seemed odd.  Shrug.  It didn’t seem like much, just different than living in central Texas. 

    What was really strange was we didn’t see a (pick your word for negro) after we left Texas until we were half way through Oklahoma.  That was a sort of “huh?” moment.  No, really. 

    Anyway.  Fun trip.  I spoiled the old lady by working the car doors and all that stuff.  And we tried, we really did try, to get her to pull the lever on various armed bandits.  Yeah, Gambling Halls are Evil.  But hey, it’s my nickle and if you win, give it to your church.  Nope.  Nope.  Nope.   She knew we were messing with her. 

    Oh.  She would order French dressing for her salads and always got Ranch.  Accent.  After I figured it out, I’d tell the waitress “she wants French, not Ranch dressing” and can you dredge my blue cheese dressing from the bottom of the tub ’cause I like the chunks?”.  

    Fun trip.  About 5 miles short of 7000 miles.  Well, yes, she kept track of fill-ups and all the rest.

    If you get to Tuba City there was a restaurant in a round building and the food was awesome.  Not TexMex.  IndianMex I suppose.   Real good stuff.

  48. lynn says:

    The water well is running for 15 seconds every two minutes or so.

    You might need to air up the bladder in the pressure tank.  For me, that’s 30 PSI, the same as the pressure switch On setting.

    My system  is On at 30 and Off at 50.  Give or take a little.

    My system is on at 35 and off at 55 psig.  The air is added automagically through some gizmo using flowing water to suck in the air.  I’ve got three 75 foot soaker hoses running, May be a lot of water.

    I forgot to mention that my 120 gallon tank on the office water well does not have a bladder.  It just keeps an air pocket at the top of the tank.  I stopped by the office after church and checked things out, all is well and still running the well pump for 15 seconds every two minutes or so.  

    As long as sand layer number three (from 200+ feet below to 240 feet below) does not run out of water, it should be ok.  And the water is fairly cool at around 65 F, that should keep the pump cool.  I had the well pump pulled last year to fix the screen, it had forty feet of water above it then.  Of course now, who knows now how much water is down there ?

    I did note that there are two bicycle pump style nipples to add air at on the tank.  One on the feed line and one at the midtank pressure gauge.  

  49. drwilliams says:

    A neuroscience image sleuth finds signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles, threatening a reigning theory of the disease

    https://www.science.org/content/article/potential-fabrication-research-images-threatens-key-theory-alzheimers-disease

    A history of fabrication going back 16 years. Theft by deception involving millions of dollars, and in turn misdirecting additional hundreds of millions of dollars, effectively starving if not actually blocking other areas of research, and delaying successful treatment that is tantamount to a death sentence for hundreds of thousands of elderly people.

    (Or, at least, the ones remaining after the Chinese, Fauci, and the Democrats tried to kill them off)

    Fraud on this scale should be subject to the death penalty.

    And it calls out, once again, the total inadequacy of the peer review system, and the total lack of ethics in the multi-billion dollar business that is university research.

    Note that university research produces the staffs of NIH and the gatekeepers of billions of dollars in taxpayer money forked out to these frauds as grants. A blatant example in the linked article:

    He became a leader of UMN’s neuroscience graduate program in 2020, and in May 2022, 4 months after Schrag delivered his concerns to NIH, Lesne received a coveted RO! grant from the agency, with up to 5 years of support. The NIH program officer for the grant, Austin Yang—a co-author on the 2006 Nature paper—declined to comment.

    Who’s running the ethical review shop at NIH? Fauci’s wife?

  50. Greg Norton says:

    For those of you familiar with the material, they’re hiding that “Claudia” in this adaptation is 14.

    Take your pick: “Interview with the Groomer” or “The Groomer Lestat”. Either way, it is terrible timing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P0loX83H6A

    AMC is going to hide the series during the run of the final episodes of “The Walking Dead” in October.

  51. drwilliams says:

    Monkeypox is being driven overwhelmingly by sex between men, major study finds

    Of the 528 confirmed cases reviewed, 95% are believed to have transmitted during sex between men, according to a new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

    For the new study, a consortium of scores of researchers pooled data on 528 cases of monkeypox that were diagnosed between April 27 and June 24 at 43 sites in 16 countries. These cases included 84 people (16%) in the Americas and 444 (84%) in Europe, Israel and Australia.

    All the cases were among men, including one transgender man, 98% of whom identified as gay or bisexual. This stark demographic finding is in keeping with data on the outbreak from around the world, such as a recent report from the British Health Security Agency finding that of the 699 monkeypox cases for which there was available information, 97% were in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. New York City, the U.S. epicenter, has seen only one woman diagnosed with the virus out of 639 cases confirmed through July 19. 

    https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-health-and-wellness/monkeypox-driven-overwhelmingly-sex-men-major-study-finds-rcna39564

    Three words for Fauci and the rest of the mfr’s in government health:

    Mandatory Contact Tracing

  52. Nick Flandrey says:

    The girl (love interest) in Almost Famous, def not of age, nor were her friends.   At least one of the characters mentions her age in the film.

    n

  53. drwilliams says:

    I’m so glad that someone invented coffee.

    If they hadn’t, I’d have to try, and I doubt I’d get it done (unless, maybe, I could Ouija Board G.W. Carver for help)

    But if I could, it would be very difficult not to get a swelled head, it being the greatest invention in the world and making me rich enough to buy-and-sell Musk, Gates, and the rest of them–if I took a break from playing monopoly with real countries.

  54. drwilliams says:

    For those of you familiar with the material, they’re hiding that “Claudia” in this adaptation is 14.

    The girl (love interest) in Almost Famous, def not of age, nor were her friends.   At least one of the characters mentions her age in the film.

    Normalizing pedophilia as Gascon races to let Polanski off the hook before he gets recalled,

  55. Nick Flandrey says:

    Even if you normalize pedos, polanski RAPED her.  Rape isn’t legal no matter the victim’s age.

    n

  56. drwilliams says:

    Gascon reportedly has a plan to let the great filmmaker walk with a slap on le wrist.

    Hopefully he will be getting much too busy with other things.

    Two words for this one:

    extraordinary rendition 

  57. Greg Norton says:

    The girl (love interest) in Almost Famous, def not of age, nor were her friends.   At least one of the characters mentions her age in the film.

    Claudia in the “Interview With The Vampire” book series is five when she is bestowed with “The Dark Gift”. Making her a teenager dramatically alters the story.

    Kirsten Dunst was 11 at the time the Tom Cruise movie filmed, but that was way before the Epstein story, “Cuties”, and Warner having to face burying “The Flash” over the lead’s extracurricular activities.

    If I had to guess, the locations were too expensive to do reshoots to minimize the damage of the new version.

    Hollywood would like to forget “Almost Famous” for many reasons beyond the statutory rape question. They’ve never trusted Cameron Crowe with money at that level again.

  58. drwilliams says:

    CBS 60 Minutes (I had the channel on earlier watching golf) repeated their puff piece on solar power in the Bahamas.

    So, diesel fuel electric generation makes electricity 3-4 times more epensive than the mainland, and solar is almost competitive? Did you hear that you just blew the argument “competitive” under normal circumstances? 

    Solar microcell on Ragged Island. $3 million to produce power for 100 people? Absolutely not my problem, jack. 

    Listen closely and you hear “Rocky Mountain Institute” aka Amory Lovins and his office with a view. 3000 miles roundtrip and have the secretary pick up some more carbon credits.

  59. lynn says:

    “Offshore wind farm proposed for Gulf of Mexico near Galveston could power 2.3 million homes”

        https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/22/texas-gulf-of-mexico-wind-farm/

    “One of the new wind projects announced Wednesday will be developed 24 nautical miles off the coast of Galveston, covering a total of 546,645 acres — bigger than the city of Houston — with the potential to power 2.3 million homes, according to the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. The other project will be developed near Port Arthur, about 56 nautical miles off the coast of Lake Charles, Louisiana, covering 188,023 acres with the potential to power 799,000 homes.”

    Maybe 10,000 MW total capacity.  Big ones, 780 feet tall, 13 MW to 18 MW each with 250 foot long blades.

  60. drwilliams says:

    Yeah, in the prequel to Waterworld, the final shot will be an aerial view of 1100 square miles of wind turbines disappearing below the waves.

    But in the sequel, where Kevin Costner and friends discover the location of the tangle fiberglass reef, the fishin’ is bitchin’.

  61. drwilliams says:

    I tune H&I in Sunday morning for The Adventures of Superman. 

    26 episodes per year.  They started from the beginning about three weeks ago, and I missed the very earliest episodes, darn it.

    I remember seeing The Mole Men for the first time and wondering about Grandma’s vacuum cleaner being used as a prop.

  62. Nick Flandrey says:

    I wonder if they get carbon credits for sequestering carbon into the carbon fiber in the blades?  It’s certainly never going to be liberated…

    n

  63. lpdbw says:

    re: Note that university research produces the staffs of NIH and the gatekeepers of billions of dollars in taxpayer money forked out to these frauds as grants. A blatant example in the linked article

    The following excerpts are literally contiguous paragraphs in the same speech, Eisenhower’s farewell address from 1961. 

    In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

    We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

    and 

    Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.

    In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.

    Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.

    The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.

    Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.

    I grew up hearing anti-American professors, teachers, newsreaders, journalists, and other socialists whining about the Military-Industrial complex.  And yet, not once before 2019, when I read the whole speech for the first time, did I hear about the fearsome dangers of the melding of Federal dollars with the scientific-technological elite.  Ike’s prescient observation “a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity” is, in retrospect, chilling.

    I bet if he knew how his speech would  be misused to undermine America, he would have cut the entire military-industrial part from it.

  64. ~jim says:

    I lived not far from where Waterworld was filmed. If you have never seen Hollywood bucks going at full steam, Nick will try and tell you. The organization, the co-ordination is a spectacle in itself. It’s a marvel. How does that story about the dancing bear go? Not that it dances, but just getting it up on stage is a feat.

    We loved the bucks which poured in. And you guys cleaned up after yourselves very nicely. Thanks for that.

  65. CowboyStu says:

    Of the 528 confirmed cases reviewed, 95% are believed to have transmitted during sex between men, according to a new paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

    Okay, that does it.  I will tansgender to female and then have sex only with other women to preclude  getting infected with Monkeypox.

  66. ~jim says:

    >>Grandma’s vacuum cleaner being used as a prop. <<

    It crawled out of the woodwork. One of my favorite Outer Limits episodes.

    EDIT: No, not one of my favorites. I had it confused with the one with Miriam Hopkins.

  67. Alan says:

    >> Its a delicate balance keeping enough oil filters on hand so you don’t run out, but not so many you have extras when you get rid of the car. 

    Groan…anybody want a good deal on an engine air filter and cabin air filter for a 2015 Mazda 3?

  68. Nick Flandrey says:

    One year when I was working on MTv’s Spring Break, I was interviewed by a local paper.   I was just a grunt, but I knew the tack to take.    “We hired dozens of locals for production and services, rented hundreds of room night stays, payed for hundreds of flights, taxis, meals, and our account at the local Home Depot is 6 figures…”   Or very much something like that.

    I knew it because I was a member of the film commission and listed in their directory, and they had articles or web stuff about the benefits to the local community, which I’d read.   

    Most people have no idea the amount of money spent in the local economy by a “real” production.  (indy and low budget ←which is an actual defined thing, with all kinds of contractual obligations- have less of an impact.  They tend to go where it’s cheap because no one knows what they should be making.)  The flip side of that is that the local talent pool can be pretty shallow.

    n

    added- and if you love your house, NEVER rent it to a film production company. If it’s just a shack or a rent house you aren’t emotionally attached to, TAKE THE MONEY!! but expect it to be ridden hard and put away wet.

  69. Alan says:

    >> We have a small sacrificial shop vac for that specific purpose. Duct tape the nozzle of the vac to the outlet pipe and turn on the motor for a couple of minutes. Follow up with vinegar later. I tried bleach earlier in the week, but that obviously didn’t kill all of the mold in the line. Water did not smell “chlorine-ey” so I assume the bleach did something to dissolve the clog even if it was incomplete. I’m guessing there is some calcification.

    @Greg, have you tried using a plumber’s snake to clean the drain line?

  70. Nick Flandrey says:

    I have a piece of coax antenna cable I used to use to clean the drain at my rent house.

    Worked great, stiff enough to push, still flexible enough to make all  the corners.

    n

  71. Nick Flandrey says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11044215/Bronx-driver-crashed-man-crossing-road-robs-lies-unconscious-street.html

    Smash and grab: Sickening moment Bronx driver slams into man crossing street then stops so his two passengers can get out and ROB HIM as he lies unconscious

    • The three young men hit the pedestrian as he ran across the street on Saturday 
    • The victim, a 39-year-old man, went flying into the air and landed nearby 
    • The thieves then stopped their car and pilfered through his pockets then fled 
    • It is the latest incident in the city’s worsening crime problem that have prompted some to compare New York to a ‘third world country’  

    why would anyone live there?  Especially knowing it will continue to get WORSE?

    n

  72. Robert "Bob" Sprowl says:

    RE Frantz Filters:

    I should have provided more detail on my experience.  The Frantz filter was installed with about 400 miles on the ’69 Galaxie.  A Tee was installed at the oil pressure switch for the source for the oil.  The oil passed through the original oil filter before it got to the Frantz filter.  It is almost impossible to source the oil for the filter before it goes thru the factory oil filter. 

    After the initial break in with the Frantz filter changes at 500, 100 and 2000 miles, I changed the oil every 5000 miles changing both filters each time.  The only issue was oil seepage around the filter cannister seal. Never could get that to stop.  Note it was not a big deal just annoying.

    I had no engine issues.  I had ordered the trailer towing package because I flat towed a car to the drag strip and usually from one base to the next when I was reassigned.  I used a tow bar (flat towing).  When I divorced, my soon to be ex-wife had me sell the car and send her the money.  I wanted to see what the results were before the car was gone and the buyer just happened to come by before I got the valve cover back on the engine.  I had over 98,000 miles on the engine and the top of the head looked new.  The cast iron was grey with no black carbon anywhere.  I few low spots had gray gunk at the bottom of them where the gunk had settled when the engine was off but the valve train was shiny and only covered with a light varnish.  Again no carbon build up was found. 

    I had added a Frantz filter on my daily driver, a 1966 Galaxie convertible with a 428 Police Interceptor engine and 4 speed.  After an initial break in a little “dirt” appeared regularly.  But since the engine had 30,000 miles on it, I expected this.  The 428’s toilet paper filter was blacker that the 429’s filters; I believe the toilet paper was trapping carbon that would get through the regular filters and was removing carbon that had built up in the 428 engine. 

    When I bought a ’84 Escort for my second wife’s car I mentioned I was going to add a Frantz filter and the service manager told me my engine warranty would be voided f I did. Every Ford Service Manager since then has told me the same thing. 

    I have no reservations concerning the Frantz filters. This reminds me that I need to add one to my ’99 Ranger, I suspect the warranty is expired.

    Wasted the day trying to clean a frying pan I left on the stove overnight.  Forgot to turn the stove off and the interior and exterior now have a hard carbon film I can’t remove by scrubbing.  Reminds me of the cast iron skillets my wife had when I took over the cooking.  I finally threw those way and I guess I do the same with this aluminum one. 

    Has anyone seal concrete with water glass (calcium silicate). How does the water glass sealing compare to epoxy?  I’m going to weld.  Also, I will be using jack stand regularly to hold cars off the floor and was wondering if the water coating would chip where the hard corners of the jack stand dug in. Would the chips be glass chips?

  73. Nick Flandrey says:

    IDK about aluminum pans but the easiest way to start fresh with cast iron is put it in a 450-550 F oven until the stuff turns to powder.    I’ve done everything else to clean them and fairly recently saw this method on youtube.   It works very well, but has to be worth the energy cost… I did it on my grill one time too, with less satisfactory results, iirc.  (I’m sure I wrote about it here, but can’t be bothered to search.  I’ll get side tracked and lose an hour…)

    Try soaking the pan in soapy dishwater over night, remove what comes loose, and repeat if needed.   I’ve save any number of pans from Goodwill that way (when they are worth the effort.)  

    n

  74. Nick Flandrey says:

    It occurs to me that if the insiders are going after Hunter Bidden it means they know his daddy is finished.

    n

  75. drwilliams says:

    @Robert “Bob” Sprowl

    You were pretty thorough in your first post on Frantz. Thanks for the additional.

    Has anyone seal concrete with water glass (calcium silicate). How does the water glass sealing compare to epoxy?  I’m going to weld.  Also, I will be using jack stand regularly to hold cars off the floor and was wondering if the water coating would chip where the hard corners of the jack stand dug in. Would the chips be glass chips?

    Water glass is sodium silicate. Wonderful stuff, but difficult to find unless you mail order it. Concrete sealer based on silicates are sodium silicates at the low end, and lithium silicate at the high end. They penetrate the pores of the concrete and react to form calcium silicate hydrate, which reduces porosity, makes the concrete denser, and blocks infiltration of anything that is spilled. The lithium based materials are best, but pricey. Convergent Concrete Technologies in Utah has the best products. 

    Silicate sealers are not coatings and as such do not chip–anything left on the surface is wasted. Look at the manufacturer’s instructions, but the two most important things are to let the concrete cure properly and etch lightly to get any calcium hydroxide rich cream off the surface. 

    That said, CCT also has products that do provide a coating on the surface. Their traffic marking products are outstanding.

    I would advise avoiding epoxies. It’s expensive to do it right, somewhat less so if you do it yourself. With a new slab DIY is possible, as you can etch the surface with a good HCl/water wash and give it enough time to dry thoroughly. Then you do basecoat and a topcoat (urethane is best) if you use chips, or two basecoats and a top coat if you use quartz. Older slabs need professional equipment to clean (sanding the perimeter and shot-peening the rest)

    All sorts of YouTube vids on epoxy floors. Several of the guys are pretty good, but I haven’t tried their products. 

    Flooring epoxies are formulated to give the right performance properties. Too brittle and they chip easily. Delamination from hot tires is always a concern. So is staining and yellowing from UV. Urethane topcoats help, and they are also more repairable. A good epoxy floor with a urethane topcoat will last indefinitely and look good if it’s recoated when needed (non-commercial, figure 8-10 years, or longer if you keep it clean)

    There are other materials that have come into the floor coating market in the past twenty years or so. Generally more expensive.

    Unless you have experience doing floor coatings, I’d check the local companies reps and get a couple of quotes. Like the concrete guys, they generally have a sweet spot for size of job and might be too busy to price a small job reasonably.

    Welding is dirty, and dropping slag can potentially burn a spot. If you use jackstands, keep a square of ¼” OSB to throw under them to spread the load of the steel edges.

    If you have control joints they can be cleaned, filled with backer rod, leveled with epoxy (I like to put clean sharp sand in first), given a second coat to bring it proud of the surface, then sanded off flush. Done right you can’t hardly find the joints. There are also urethane fillers than work well but leave more evidence.

  76. Greg Norton says:

    I have a piece of coax antenna cable I used to use to clean the drain at my rent house.

    Worked great, stiff enough to push, still flexible enough to make all  the corners.

    The hole in the brick for the drain from our downstairs unit is in a really bad spot so a lot of twists and long runs are involved. The vacuum trick works if I keep the calcification from taking hold with some vinegar every few months.

    We’ve been lax on maintenance of the AC since March 2020. Both units are way overdue.

  77. drwilliams says:

    @Nick

    I would not be surprised to see the Biden criminal family start to migrate out of the U.S. 

    2
    1
  78. drwilliams says:

    @Greg Norton

    The vacuum trick works if I keep the calcification from taking hold with some vinegar every few months.

    A faucet vacuum aspirator would work and save your vacuum.

    Pool acid (muriatic, aka HCl) diluted to 20% would be more effective than vinegar.

  79. Greg Norton says:

    added- and if you love your house, NEVER rent it to a film production company. If it’s just a shack or a rent house you aren’t emotionally attached to, TAKE THE MONEY!! but expect it to be ridden hard and put away wet.

    When the “Ferris Bueller” “glass house” went up for sale in Chicago, I saw several stories about the hard bargain the owners drove in 1985, requiring the contract to specify that all of the windows would be cleaned at the expense of the production company, which had never been done in the history of the home since it was built in the 50s, one of the maintenance problems with the design.

  80. Denis says:

    drwilliams:

    Unless you have experience doing floor coatings, I’d check the local companies reps and get a couple of quotes.

    The 1-car garage (around 8m x 4m) and adjacent basement boiler room /  utility area (about 8x3m) at our BOL need a new floor covering. The garage has 16cmx16cm tile that is sound but ugly dark brown, and the rest is flaking dark grey floor paint over concrete. There are a couple of floor drains too.

    I am thinking a poured floor covering of some kind would be an improvement. I want something that will seal the concrete to keep dust down, be washable and easy to keep clean, and be available in a light (grey, blue?) tone to maximise the benefit of the LED lighting in this low-ceilinged area.

    Something DIY-able would be a bonus, as I see this as a job too small to be interesting for the pros.

    Any suggestions for something within the reach of a reasonably handy amateur? As this is the BOL, none of it is used full-time, or subject to high traffic, so it need not be of the highest durability, but it should be clean-looking and easy to maintain.

  81. Nick Flandrey says:

    Probably more gang violence

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11044849/At-seven-people-injured-mass-shooting-car-Los-Angeles-park.html 

    Two people shot dead and at least five more injured during mass shooting near car show in crowded Los Angeles park

    • The shooting took place at Peck Park in San Pedro at around 3:51 p.m. local time at the 560 block of N. Western Avenue 
    • The gunfire was apparently heard in the area of a car show happening near the park, LA EMS said 
    • The LAPD is issuing a citywide tactical alert because the shooter has not yet been caught
    • The entirety of Peck Park, a recreational site for San Pedro residents, has been declared a crime scene 

      n

  82. Greg Norton says:

    A faucet vacuum aspirator would work and save your vacuum.

    Pool acid (muriatic, aka HCl) diluted to 20% would be more effective than vinegar.

    The vacuum was $40, bought specifically for use on the AC system and we store it up there. It is pretty useless for anything else, with just enough suction to open up the drain after a couple of minutes but not much more.

    I had to laugh today when I took something back to Home Depot today and noticed the exact same vacuum model in a pile of returns.

    New AC units are touchy about corrosives exposure so small amounts of bleach are as far as I’ll go with that system. We are under parts warranty until 2027, and I don’t want to void that coverage.

  83. lynn says:

    BTW, I bought regular unleaded at my local Shell for $3.79/gallon yesterday.  Prices are coming down.  For a while.

  84. Nick Flandrey says:

    Scanner had the ‘street racing’ task force making arrests tonight.    “Two good arrests and three vehicle recoveries” was how the team lead put it when thanking everyone.

    Seems like a lot of resources expended to recover three stolen cars and get a couple of people on open warrants…

    But it is better than them chasing the racers around with no result.

    n

  85. Nick Flandrey says:

    And the frogs are back to keeping me awake with their mating cries…

    Ain’t nature grand?

    n

  86. ~jim says:

    I like Ike

    Thanks, lpdbw. We were warned.

  87. Alan says:

    >> It is the latest incident in the city’s worsening crime problem that have prompted some to compare New York to a ‘third world country’ 

    Hey, no need to demean third world countries like that. 

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