Still hot and humid though. I guess Summer didn’t get the pink slip yet. More of the same is still on the menu for at least a couple of days. Some parts of town seem to have gotten some rain yesterday, but nothing at the house. Houston. Weird little microclimates.
Did my pickups. Well, some of them. Did a trash run while I was out. Then I spent time sorting and packing stuff at the shop for my next auction dropoff.
Had a nice chat with my mom. Her 86th anniversary of her birth was this week. She just bought a house and is mostly done renovating and updating it. The pictures look nice. She says she hopes to get past 100 and I hope so too, as long as her brain and body holds up. She’s from tough old hillbilly stock, without the lifetime of hard labor and alcohol abuse, so she’s got a good chance at it.
Today I’ve got my pickup in Alvin to do. It’s a gift for D2, so I’m kinda motivated. The price was right. Good enough to counter the long drive. Prices in the auctions have been low this last few weeks, after rising a bit for some items. IDK if back to school spending is limiting peoples’ available spending money or if this is a bigger trend as people run out of money in general. I hope it’s just back to school. Otherwise, this holiday spending season is going to be a retail bloodbath.
Gas was $3.69 when I filled up yesterday. That’s a pretty big jump for the holiday week. And my mileage is down enough that I’m wondering if something is wrong with the truck, or if they’ve increased the alcohol in the gas. I only got 16 1/2 mpg this last tank of all highway driving. I used to get around 18 on the highway. I even changed the air filter when I noticed it a week or two ago, and that has improved it a bit. Something to keep an eye on.
So that’s the plan for today, we’ll see how it actually goes.
Stack the tools you need, the supplies you’ll use, and practice the skills…
nick
Thursday. Good morning!
Work, work. I have to run an OS update to the work laptop. That needs to be done while connected to the office network, so no more telework for me today. Past experience indicares the machine will be unusable for an hour or two during the update, and longer if the update doesn’t work correctly, so I will print some dead-tree stuff to work on while the laptop trundles. Cross your fingers and toes, please!
Gold was discovered several weeks before the Treaty of Hildalgo was signed, which gave the US formal control of California. “Ownership” of the state is controversial even now.
The Mexican community has a saying that I’ve seen on posters and signs around San Francisco, expecially in The Mission 25 years ago, a Spanish equivalent of “Pardon us, but it is ours”.
I don’t remember the En Espanol version. Call me an ugly American.
California is one of those centuries-long grudge things that Americans don’t quite get but are not uncommon in the rest of the world.
Because so much of California’s population is third-worlders. Culturally; it doesn’t matter where they were born.
E15 is increasingly common, but the gas station cannot pump that without changing the stickers.
That level of ethanol will kill a lot of vehicles which barely tolerated E10, but I think that is the point.
Try a tank of ethanol-free gas from WalMart or Buc-ee’s.
Try a tank of ethanol-free gas from WalMart or Buc-ee’s.
– that should work, I’ll just have to find a local store. The only one I know is at GT in Conroe.
——-
78F last night, which means it’s falling below 80F at night now, somewhat more often. One more sign that Summer is fading into Fall, even if it doesn’t feel like it on a sunny afternoon.
——-
Gonna take a nap this morning. I am very tired.
n
Agreed. Ditto for lawnmowers and other small engines.
The only ethanol-free gasoline I can find around here is the 93-octane stuff, very expensive.
We’ve been in the 50s most nights for a week or two.
There’s a Buc-ee’s out here in Katy. I-10 past Pin Oak Rd.
Ethanol doesn’t kill engines. The original Model A was designed to run on straight farm-distilled ethanol. Ethanol blends were used in the 1980’s in the midwest—gasohol.
Prior to the widespread use of ethanol blends, ethanol was added to auto gasoline to absorb water and prevent it from freezing in the winter.
There are three issues with ethanol. One is that it requires somewhat different choices for seals in the fuel system. That used to be about $15 additional costs, and we know how the automakers love stepping over dollars to pick up dimes. It has long since become the standard.
The other two issues are that ethanol is hygroscopic and will absorb water. Too much water in an engine can be corrosive. The cure is using the right alloys and plastics, not letting atmospheric pressure changes pump air in and out of the gas tank, and not letting fuel sit in and engine not being used.
Auto makers should have addressed all of these problems for any engine made this century. Small engine makers have not. Any problem with a boat motor is always ethanol.
Research has conclusively shown that mileage calculations based on energy content of fuel components underestimate the yield for ethanol blends. But anyone with a flex fuel engine knows that switching from 85/15 to 20/80 is not smooth.
My mileage and range are significantly reduced using ethanol fuel.
———-
Currently 89F and partly sunny. We had a power outage for about an hour and a half during my nap. Fixed now. The Linux NVR doesn’t like power outages. It’s never quite right when it comes back up.
———-
Time to drink my coffee and get going.
n
Auto makers should have addressed all of these problems for any engine made this century.
– willing to risk a $40K vehicle losing years of life on that?
I’m with Lynn, whether it’s the seals or corrosion, if the engine becomes unusable because of ethanol in the fuel, then the ethanol killed it.
n
Mechanics and dealers will always blame ethanol, because they are never wrong.
There are tens of thousands of underground gas tanks that have had sh*t for maintenance and are past time for replacement. Amazingly, owners are reluctant to make the investment because EV is going to make them obsolete any day now.
Gasoline has little shelf life and degrades quickly. If gas cans were transparent you could see the crap in a load of bad fuel. Clean a new 5-gallon can with acetone, put four gallons into it the next time you fill up, then seal it and let it sit for a week. Transfer all but a pint to another can, using a funnel with a paper filter. Put the last pint in a clear glass jar. See anything that you don’t want in your engine? If not, you may have a good supplier. Check them again when they switch to winter blend.
I’ve put approximately a million miles on automobiles using ethanol blends. My 71 Olds with a 455 Rocket V8 got better mileage from gasohol than straight gasoline, as proved repeatedly going A to B with one and B to A with the other. Not EFI.
Just got this email
new2026 Ford Expedition Active$68,438was $72,415They have a specific VIN listed too, so it’s the loss leader that no one can qualify to actually buy…
$70K is nuts
n
A grim overview:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2026/08/25/they-know-whats-coming-because-they-planned-it/#more-421382
“FBI issues warning to US homeowners with 100% paid-off mortgages — new update reveals major risk. Is your house exposed?”
https://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/articles/fbi-issues-warning-us-homeowners-105500748.html
“For many Americans, paying off the mortgage is the ultimate financial finish line. After decades of monthly payments, the house is finally yours — free and clear.”
“But the FBI is warning that this hard-earned milestone could also attract the wrong kind of attention.”
“Criminals are impersonating property owners and attempting to sell their real estate without their knowledge or consent — and properties without a mortgage or other lien can be especially attractive targets.”
“In other words, the clean title you spent decades working toward could be exactly what a fraudster is looking for.”
“And the threat is not merely hypothetical. In a recent federal case, three people were charged over their alleged roles in a multistate scheme involving approximately $1.5 million in illegal proceeds.”
I am thinking about remortgaging my office complex because of this.
“9/11 Was The Beginning Of A Religious War That We Lost”
https://thefederalist.com/2026/09/10/9-11-was-the-beginning-of-a-religious-war-that-we-lost/
“Twenty-five years ago this week I listened to the late historian Stephen Ambrose deliver the opening remarks for a conference about World War Two at Hillsdale College. He had good news for us. The 21st century, Ambrose declared, would be an era of peace and progress. He said the major conflicts of the 20th century, the two world wars and the Cold War that followed, were fundamentally disputes within the West over competing visions for our civilization. The whole century had in a sense been a long civil war, and now the war was over.”
“Instead of blood and treasure being sunk into massive wars, the coming century would instead see our efforts spent in research and exploration of the oceans and space. The notion that the post-Cold War era would be a clash of civilizations, as the political scientist Samuel Huntington argued in his 1996 book, was totally wrong, according to Ambrose. There was no coming clash because no one could compete with the West, and the West was now at peace with itself. We could rest easy, our future was bright.
“Two days later the planes hit the towers.”
“Today, it’s easy to see just how naive and shallow Ambrose’s analysis was. The idea that there would be no more major ideological conflicts, or that Western civilization had nothing to fear from competing cultures and peoples, was positively delusional.”
It does not matter if you are Christian or not, there are people coming to the USA, EU, and UK that want to subjugate you. They want to force Sharia Law on you, throw away your existing constitution and laws, and make you pay taxes to them. Or, outright kill you and your loves ones because they want your property for their needs.
Hat tip to:
https://thelibertydaily.com/
Gas was $3.69 when I filled up yesterday. That’s a pretty big jump for the holiday week. And my mileage is down enough that I’m wondering if something is wrong with the truck, or if they’ve increased the alcohol in the gas. I only got 16 1/2 mpg this last tank of all highway driving. I used to get around 18 on the highway. I even changed the air filter when I noticed it a week or two ago, and that has improved it a bit. Something to keep an eye on.
The jobbers who mix the gasoline with ethanol have permission from the EPA and DOE to go to 15% ethanol. I suspect that they are doing so.
My new F-150 engine is not getting the old 20+ mpg on the highway that the first engine got. I got 19 mpg coming back from Dallas last week, I normally get 21 mpg. Maybe it is just breaking in.
BTW, Dallas was $3.699 for regular unleaded and $5.899 for diesel last week. My local Shell is $3.549 for regular unleaded and $5.399 for diesel. Get ready, it is going to be a wild ride to the end of the year.
There’s a Buc-ee’s out here in Katy. I-10 past Pin Oak Rd.
Yup, that is 20 hard miles down the Grand Tollway for me, usually a parking lot nowadays even with the new third lane from Westheimer to I-10. My Buccees only has six gas islands and none are ethanol free.
E15 is increasingly common, but the gas station cannot pump that without changing the stickers.
That level of ethanol will kill a lot of vehicles which barely tolerated E10, but I think that is the point.
The jobbers do the ethanol – unleaded mix and they will do things without notifying you for a month or six. It is just temporary at first.
However, most gasoline vehicles built in the last 20 years should have the upgraded MAF and the alcohol resistant seals.
The website is slow today.
“Strait of Hormuz Gridlock: Oil Surges Past $100 as U.S. Tanker Strikes and Iran Missile Retaliation Trigger Global Panic”
https://thelibertydaily.com/strait-hormuz-gridlock-oil-surges-past-100-as/
“(The Economic Collapse Blog)—For decades, foreign policy experts warned about what would happen if someone decided to shut down the Strait of Hormuz. Now we are living that reality. The price of Brent crude just smashed through the $100 barrier after fighting between the U.S. and Iran erupted once again last night. Gasoline and diesel are going to become even more expensive, and that is not good news for our economy at all. But that isn’t the big story. The panic that is starting to spread through global financial markets is not the big story either. The big story is that the war with Iran is dangerously close to spiraling completely and utterly out of control. If that actually happens, we really will be facing an apocalyptic scenario.”
“As I discussed yesterday, great efforts have been made to keep the price of oil under $100 during this war.”
“Unfortunately, those efforts have failed…”
Bummer. WTI crude is above $100 also.
https://oilprice.com/
My mother’s royalty check was above $100 last month for the first time in a long time. But there is about a 100 people getting checks off those wells since most of her cousins have passed away and their checks got split between their kids. And the Landman just got everything sorted again out a decade ago since mom’s grandfather and one of her cousin’s have the same name.
One year ago today, we lost Charlie Kirk.
What? Doesn’t everyone have a take home of $150k/year to qualify for the loan without Turo or other creativity from the F&I room?
Honestly, I think a lot of households are saying, “Ok, just this once …”, and they assume they will get 15-20 years of trouble free operation from the vehicle.
Besides, everyone is getting $5000 checks if the Republicans win Congress according to today’s Tyler Durden cowardice.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-floats-5000-stimmy-checks-every-us-adult-citizen-if-gop-holds-congress
There goes what’s left of the debt ceiling.
You are correct. It was Predator.
Another Arnold movie….
They have a specific VIN listed too, so it’s the loss leader that no one can qualify to actually buy…
$70K is nuts
n
Just wait until you need to put an engine or a transmission in your old Expedition. The reman engine is $17,000, the reman transmission is $12,000.
“PBS station fears losing 50TB of data after being ghosted by cloud storage provider”
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/08/pbs-station-fears-losing-50tb-of-data-after-being-ghosted-by-cloud-storage-provider/
“After its cloud storage provider went defunct, a PBS affiliate decided to sue a data center provider to regain access to 50TB of TV shows, videos, and other data dating back 70 years.”
“As reported this week by Current, a trade newspaper covering public broadcasting, St. Louis affiliate Nine PBS filed a lawsuit against Iron Mountain Data Centers on July 28, seeking access to the data. In the litigation filed in Denver District Court, Nine PBS says that its cloud storage provider, Open Source Storage (OSS), used one of Iron Mountain’s Denver data centers to store the channel’s data. However, OSS is being unresponsive, and Nine PBS says Iron Mountain has refused to release its data.”
This is idiotic. The cloud is just somebody else’s computer. And that somebody in this case went belly up.
Their 70 years of video is gone.
Someone building Hot Skillz at the PBS station’s expense.
https://x.com/WallStreetApes/status/2097538013349769274
“Today is September 8th. 1 years ago today I shared this video of Charlie Kirk warning ‘The Left will use Islam to bring down America’”
“He shared the post and said “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.””
“He was murdered just 2 days later”
“One of his final messages on this earth was a warning that the Left was uniting with Islam to bring down America”
““The spiritual battle is coming to the West and the enemies are woke-ism or Marxism combining with Islamism to go after what we call the American way of life””
““The American way of life is very simple. I want to be able to get married, buy a home, have kids, allow them to ride their bike till the sun goes down, send them to a good school, have a low crime neighborhood, not to have my kid be taught the lesbian, gay, transgender garbage in their school. While also, not having them have to hear the Muslim call to prayer five times a day. That’s important.””
““These two threats are combining forces to come after us.””
Yes. And actually, Islam is using the Left to take down America.
—
It is entertaining.
OSS had a contract to store the data from PBS, and subbed it to IMDC. Then, the middleman OSS, went bankrupt but the data does still exist, stored on disks at IMDC. The devil was in the details, and the contractual details here might be quite the ball of worms. IMDC said OSS owned the physical drives & data, but were, rightly, unwilling to turn it over to PBS because other people’s data was on them as well, and the ownership rights were vague because some third party claimed to have bought the OSS company rights but then dropped out of touch.
IMDC seems to have acted quite appropriately, nothing has been deleted or destroyed.
I imagine there’s precedent for this after 75 years of commercial data storage. If not there’s certainly precedent for actual physical items in somewhat the same situation.
What are people planning on doing when the music stops? The Buffett, Dimon, Bessent class must have some sort of personal plan for a financial TEOTHAWKI.
I have heard a ‘debt jubilee’ floated for personal and smaller loans, up to $1 million, but that doesn’t really cover big (or even small) businesses.
Loss Leaders: that was my 2019 RAM 1500. You’ve got to be quick!
A friend stopped by yesterday, up from San Diego. He had a rental 2026 Explorer, it still had that new car smell.
I miss that, my 2019 RAM is just a truck now, dents & dirty.
I’ve seen a couple of videos about mixing distilled/deionized water with ethanol ‘enhanced’ gasoline which will mix with the ethanol and will not allow it to stay mixed with the gasoline fraction. E15 has about 27.2 oz of ethanol, so at a minimum 30 oz of water per gallon to pull it out. Then decant the gasoline fraction. I have not tried this, but it seems plausible to me. It will still be more expensive due to the cost of the distilled water, but should be cheaper than 93 octane fuel, and you have the ethanol left over which you can recover by salting the water out of solution, if you have any need for pure ethanol.
They have a specific VIN listed too, so it’s the loss leader that no one can qualify to actually buy…
$70K is nuts
n
Just wait until you need to put an engine or a transmission in your old Expedition. The reman engine is $17,000, the reman transmission is $12,000.
BTW, I am running without a full warranty on my powertrain. I have the 3 years / 36,000 miles warranty on my new engine (long block). I think the turbos are covered ($2,500 each) but I am not sure.
I have been very tempted to get a warranty from Ford to cover my powertrain. The cost is about $2,500 for a 48 month plan.
I watched Mayday on Apple TV last night. A pretty good flick. Ryan Reynolds ‘ usual goofy schtick. Good action and fight scenes with Kenneth Branagh.
Ogbodiegwu.
Faith and begorrah! That’s a fine Irish name.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/round-rock-murder-affidavit-new-details
Local Faux News knows more, but that is the Austin station once owned by Lady Bird Johnson.
Legend is that the apartment on the roof of the building which the Johnson’s used when they were in town is intact.
Anyone remember the AfD video from a few months ago? I’m pretty sure it is totally AI and looks well done to me.
I saved an edited version. It just sort of chopped off at the end.
Found what seems to be the full video: https://thesteelfarm.com/p/afd-trailer.mp4
My German goes as far as maybe I can order from a menu. Call me crazy. It sounds right. I just don’t know the words.
And for extra crazy…. they look like my people. Ain’t a Mexican or an African in the mix.
“‘Grey Beard’ Reclaims Record as Oldest Hiker to Complete Appalachian Trail”
https://athlonuntamed.com/article/grey-beard-reclaims-record-as-oldest-hiker-to-complete-appalachian-trail/
“At 91 years old, Dale “Grey Beard” Sanders has once again made Appalachian Trail history.”
“Sanders has completed all 2,193 miles of the Appalachian Trail as of Aug. 31, reaching the summit of Mount Katahdin in Maine and reclaiming the record as the oldest person to complete the legendary trail.”
I have to admit, I would like to try doing this before I turn 70. Maybe.
https://www.har.com/homedetail/1700-s-virginia-st-port-lavaca-tx-77979/8997990
And I just dropped the price to $475,000. My dad would freak out.
Seems someone doesn’t think my kitchen chemistry is plausible.
I spent this afternoon moving the other power pole from the fenced part of the yard and mowing behind and under the spot, then moved my ‘rock collection’ (2 ~100lb, 3 50-75lb, about 200lb of smaller ones, intended for the patio area) and mowed that area. All with the intent to move my parts trucks to that area. I got that done and moved two, the Rangers, and got caught in what I thought would be a short warm rain shower. Eh, keep going, it’s going to disappear in a minute or two. No, it was longer, it got far colder and I was a bit surprised when the hail started. And I kept working, and couldn’t stop grinning. I’ve missed having the motivation to just get shit done when you’re doing it for years. Felt good. Am I the only one?
@paul:
Why would there be? This purports to be of German origin. Why would a Mexican (vanishingly rare in Germany) or African (less rare, but still uncommon) appear in German-sourced material?
Now, if you had mentioned Arabic origin, I woud give more credence to your suspicions, given the well-known problems with Muslim “refugees”.
G.
Ok. Your Dad would freak out. But on the other hands, what is the monthly maintenance cost? For an empty house? To have the utilities on and the yard mowed?
What’s it costing you, mentally, stress-wise, because you are worrying about it?
Oh. Sell it “as is”. The house was to code when built and and if the buyer wants current code or a new roof that’s on them.
Sell it. Walk away and be done. Get the elephant off of your back.
Aren’t many of those muslim rapefugies of african origin?
—-
Ogbodiegwu.
Faith and begorrah! That’s a fine Irish name.
– did you see the name of the head of Norway’s parliament? I was looking at the tailoring on the attendees at the King of Norway’s funeral…
———
Anyone remember the AfD
– since they’re winning, despite the fedgov’s best efforts, there is a move to make the party illegal…
Should be a nice civil war. Or at least insurgency.
——–
Western civ was nice while it lasted.
n
https://instapundit.com/822172/
As Dr. Pournelle frequently commented, Iranians are Persians, closer to Russians than Arabs or Africans.
Jerry was in favor of letting the Cultural Weapons of Mass Destruction do their work, but, as the special capability stored in Tonopah approached 50 years old, I’m sure the thinking was that they needed to use the airplane for the one mission it was built to complete.
It is too bad that Trump couldn’t stop with getting the Ayatollah.
Wow, been a while since I read The Burning Platform. Frothing comes close to describing the writing style.
Some interesting things, probably wrong because otherwise it’s amazing…
No way that number is accurate. No way we have only increased consumption 5MBBL in 45 years of growth in population. If it’s true, it’s a conservation and efficiency story that should be shouted from the mountain tops.
And then he closes with a NWO graphic with illuminati and freemasons…
SO while he may be making some good points, in the midst of the echo chamber, he still acts like the sheeple vs people like him ratio is 999:1 or higher, but just looking at percentage uptake of the notavax shows that ain’t right.
He thinks he’s preaching to the choir, but the choir is bigger than his whole church.
And seriously, after saying you don’t believe the official numbers, there is no point at all in quoting them and using them as a basis for anything. Use some alternative numbers, if there are any. I know there are alternatives to GDP, unemployment, and official inflation. Lazy to not use them.
n
@Gavin
“Seems someone doesn’t think my kitchen chemistry is plausible.”
Probably work up to a point. The point is the gasoline. It’s not going to be 93 octane. Ethanol increases the octane. Remove the ethanol, and you have Something lower than the initial RON number.
Reasonable experiment. Then try distilling the ethanol/water fraction, and see if any of the gasoline fractions remain and denature the alcohol. I’d want to run it through the mass spec before drinking, even if the odor was good.
Post-crash there ain’t going to be much petroleum available. Someone, somewhere has working plans for engines burning farm alcohol aka moonshine. Might be better to have a big pile of mixed manure producing methane for a natural gas engine. Probably a waste of time.
Yeah. It’s an AfD video. I guess I don’t know how to say it. But I’ll try.
My Dad was in the Marines. We moved every three years. 29-Palms to Oregon to Hawaii and to Oceanside. Then we moved to Mobile.
My 9 year old self had seen colored folks. Or as Granmama said, “darkies”. But in Mobile? Yikes, it was like an entirely new world. A whole different culture.
Oh yeah. I got teased plenty in 4th grade for talking funny. At both schools I went to in 4th grade. I didn’t like 4th grade much.
Then for some reason we moved to the Rio Grande Valley. No colored folks. Lots and lots of Mexicans. And my High School did the morning announcements in Spanish. Which I knew like ten words of. Not counting “taco”.
A bit of culture shock there.
I got chewed out one day for not doing whatever… it was announced on the PA this morning!!! Sure, if you say so but I don’t speak Spanish. I don’t know what you are talking about. And this is America and English is the default language. Oh. Ruffle some feathers! “Go to the Principal’s Office!”.
PA announcements started to be mostly in English.
And I was still teased for talking funny . Take a California/Hawaii accent and slather on a lot of Mobile southern drawl.
My High School was about 650 kids. 125 in my graduating class. Uh. Me, my sister, Carl, Brenda, Doug, and a girl whose name escapes me at the moment. Diane. Like six anglos in the entire class.
Mexican chicks can be hot hot hot. But they don’t flip that switch in my head that makes me want to chase them. I have no idea why, it’s just how I am.
I’m rambling but I don’t know how else to say all of this. Typing is too slow.
The women in the AfD AI generated video work. They look and are shaped perfect.
Dunno. Time to walk Buddy the Beagle.
“Get the elephant off of your back.”
Amen. Stressors multiply. I’ve got a couple medium-sized working on me. Mowed the lawn, grabbed a beer, let the meezer out to check the bushes, and spent a few minutes in the zero-gravity chair with Captain F*ckitall.
Apparently there have been a bunch of extra rabies cases, and the doc in the box don’t know how to treat the exposures.
https://www.cdc.gov/han/php/notices/han00533.html
I had a rabies series as a kid. That sh!t HURTS.
From reading the notice, I’d still need two doses now even though I had the series.
Stay away from animals acting strangely. Know enough about animals to RECOGNIZE when they are acting strangely.
n
And stay out of the middle east.
From some of what I’ve read, could be Welsh. But with a very dark genetic tan.
But I don’t know. England and Wales and Scotland and Ireland and probably several islands in the Channel…. seems to me that since oh, since QE1 they would have sorted all the shit out. If they wanted. I mean, the entire island is the like the size of Mississippi. If DDG is telling the truth.
“And stay out of the middle east.”
And keep the middle east out or our country.
Absolutely, but it’s going to be (theoretically) ethanol free, at the lower octane rating, but cheaper than the 93 octane. So, 87 octane without the ethanol, for a few cents more.
I’ll try the separation sequence at some point and let you know how it works out.
Google says Igbo which is a Nigerian ethnicity.
Seems someone doesn’t think my kitchen chemistry is plausible.
Me. Ethanol is miscible with gasoline to about 0.5% molar basis. The same for water. The blend of the two into gasoline is somewhat more than 0.5% but way less than 1.0%. My software will tell you how much if you know the molar composition of the gasoline.
From the intertubes:
“High Octane Rating: Pure ethanol has an octane rating of roughly 100 to 109 (and a blending value up to 113–114), which is significantly higher than regular petroleum base stock. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Today’s high compression engines do not like 84 octane at all. They barely take 87 octane.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel
@ Gavin
“I’ll try the separation sequence at some point and let you know how it works out.”
If you want to play around my third-best rotary evaporator is available.
Post-crash there ain’t going to be much petroleum available. Someone, somewhere has working plans for engines burning farm alcohol aka moonshine. Might be better to have a big pile of mixed manure producing methane for a natural gas engine. Probably a waste of time.
Wood gasifier is the best. You can just throw logs or sawdust into the burner / reactor. 20 lbs of wood for one gallon of gasoline (1 gallon of gasoline is 6 lbs).
https://www.driveonwood.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_gas_generator
Reasonable experiment. Then try distilling the ethanol/water fraction, and see if any of the gasoline fractions remain and denature the alcohol. I’d want to run it through the mass spec before drinking, even if the odor was good.
Isn’t that a difficult separation that forms an azeotrope if you look sideways at it? Ethanol and water are both polar and like each other a LOT (aka highly miscible).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azeotrope
Ok. Your Dad would freak out. But on the other hands, what is the monthly maintenance cost? For an empty house? To have the utilities on and the yard mowed?
What’s it costing you, mentally, stress-wise, because you are worrying about it?
Oh. Sell it “as is”. The house was to code when built and and if the buyer wants current code or a new roof that’s on them.
Sell it. Walk away and be done. Get the elephant off of your back.
You and me bro, you and me. The monthly cost is around $5,000/month. Houses on a salt water bay are expensive to maintain.
I was going to fix the pool (the plaster fell off into the bottom) but the estimate rose from $40K to $59K when he measured. Nope, not gonna happen.
No way that number is accurate. No way we have only increased consumption 5MBBL in 45 years of growth in population. If it’s true, it’s a conservation and efficiency story that should be shouted from the mountain tops.
Those number are very accurate. The average mpg of cars in 1973 in the USA was 13 mpg. The average mpg of cars in the USA now is 26 mpg IIRC. Double the mileage in 53 years.
My son’s 2020 Toyota Camry 4 cylinder automatic get 35 mpg in town and 40 mpg on the highway. I cannot believe it.
My 2019 F-150 4×4 gets 16 mpg in town and 22 mpg at 60 mph, 18 mpg at 80 mph. My 1977 Chevy C10 4×2 got 8 mpg in the city and 10 mpg on the highway with a 350 four bbl and a three speed automatic.
The world usage of crude oil is right at 103 million US barrels per day. This number has not changed in several years. Yes, the USA uses almost 20% of the world’s crude oil. We also sell 5 or 6 million barrels of distillates per day on the open seas and to Mexico.
My lawn mowing buddy who slipped his Scag ZTR into the office back pond yesterday left with “Just another day in paradise”.
He took his ZTR to the dealer this afternoon as he could not get a engine code to clear. Hopefully it is just a sensor. They told him they will look at it in a week.
This is not paradise.
“Isn’t that a difficult separation that forms an azeotrope if you look sideways at it?”
Most probably. Time is better spent triple distilling vodka.
“Diesel Price Now So High In One State Gas Pumps Don’t Have Enough Space To Show It”
https://dailycaller.com/2026/09/10/california-diesel-prices-pumps-gasbuddy/
“Several stations owned by Arco and Shell listed diesel at $9.99 per gallon across multiple California cities including Serra Mesa and San Jose on Thursday, according to GasBuddy. Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told the Daily Caller News Foundation that 3 total locations in the Golden State were showing this price, a figure down from earlier reports.”
““MAXXED OUT at $9.999!!” wrote in a Thursday morning X post. “GasBuddy data showing 5 stations in California that have hit the limit and are selling diesel at the dispensers’ highest possible price: $9.999/gal.””
““I will note that in this odd environment we previously reported up to 6 stations, but on further investigation some reports of 9.99 were due to the station running out of fuel, which is a common way of alerting GasBuddy users to a station out of diesel,” De Haan told the DCNF.”
Stations in California are starting to run out of diesel. Big surprise.
I wonder if the military is running tanker convoys from Arizona to Pendleton, San Diego Navy base, and the other military bases yet. I would be surprised if the military has that many tankers in California.
I can coax upper 40s, sometimes 50 MPG out of my 2018 Camry LE driving long distances with ethanol-free gas.
The tradeoff is that the eight speed transmission was new that model year, and the software/hardware is twitchy.
When we went to California last spring, we had a Camry Hybrid, and we only had to fill the tank once, on our last night before flying home the next morning. 13 gallon tank, range estimate 630 miles.
The tradeoff there was the hybrid system cr*pped out on us doing a three point turn in front of the High Tower Elevator in Hollywood when we went to play “Dead Again” tourist. I had to turn the car completely off, wait, and then restart twice.
When we went to California last spring, we had a Camry Hybrid, and we only had to fill the tank once, on our last night before flying home the next morning. 13 gallon tank, range estimate 630 miles.
The tradeoff there was the hybrid system cr*pped out on us doing a three point turn in front of the High Tower Elevator in Hollywood when we went to play “Dead Again” tourist. I had to turn the car completely off, wait, and then restart twice.
The hybrids have very strange electrical issues. Some will put you on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck.
I suspect that the new EREVs will have the same issues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended-range_electric_vehicle
“Fort Bend County lowers tax rate as Wong pushes affordability, business message”
https://coveringkaty.com/news/fort-bend/fort-bend-county-lowers-tax-rate-as-wong-pushes-affordabilit/
“RICHMOND, Texas (Covering Katy News) — Fort Bend County Commissioners Court approved a lower property tax rate Thursday after County Judge Daniel Wong pushed to reduce the rate below the level originally proposed, arguing the county could provide tax relief while maintaining its adopted budget and substantial reserves.”
“The court approved a total property tax rate of 40.7 cents per $100 of taxable value, half a cent below the previously proposed rate of 41.2 cents.”
Excellent, I am always in favor of lowering tax rates.
Over the road trucking has exploded during that time, as has last mile delivery. I still can’t believe the increase is that low.
n
Almost every station I noticed while doing my 100mile loop today had regular gas around $3.69/gal and diesel around $5.89.
That is a much bigger delta between them than the last time diesel got near $6.
———
Had my tiny little fire and read. No wildlife, no gunshots, but a lot of aviation including something low, jet powered, but fairly slow and making a weird whining sound as well as the rushing sound of the jet. They were all on unusual vectors and most coming east to west. Odd.
———-
Time for bed. Maybe I can get up and function tomorrow.
n
@gavin, which Rangers do you have, and have you done a bed swap or rear axle swap?
Have you done the main oil seal on the crankshaft? My mechanic says it’s a multi thousand dollar job, and the youtube vid I watched makes that estimate seem about right.
Replacing the rear axle on my 2003 is my next task, with new springs, shocks, and brakes. Seems like it would be easier while I have the bed off for a bed swap (to replace the damaged bed/tailgate/bumper from when I was rear-ended.) Doing all of it at once means I’ll procrastinate, but just doing it piecemeal seems dumb, especially without a lift.
n
“I’ve never listened to Dolly Parton…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9l4EoWRT3LE
Cool. Commentary on Dolly’s five best songs.
“Small Modular Nuclear Projects Advance Amid Supply Chain Challenges”
https://www.chemicalprocessing.com/utilities-energy/article/55402978/small-modular-nuclear-projects-advance-amid-supply-chain-challenges
“Advanced nuclear-energy projects have ramped up this summer, with Dow and X-energy announcing several key milestones over the past three months for their joint effort.”
“In August, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded X-energy another $1 billion in funding to build four small modular reactors (SMR) at Dow’s Long Mott Generating Station in Seadrift, Texas, said X-energy CEO Clay Sell in an earnings call. The additional amount increases the DOE’s cost share contribution for the proposed nuclear plant to $2.1 billion.”
“The news comes about three months after the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed its environmental assessment of the project, issuing a finding of no significant impact.”
“NRC is currently conducting its safety review of the site, the final step before issuing a construction permit for the project, said Helena Alonso, a spokesperson from Dow’s corporate media relations department.”
“Dow expects to receive the construction permit by the end of 2026, Alonso said in an email response. If approved, the plant would supply process heat and electricity to the Seadrift Operations. It would also be the first advanced nuclear facility at an industrial site in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.”
Cool.
Breaking up is hard to do.
I can reliably coax 30-35mpg out of the 5L V8 in the Ram 1500 … on a cool, still, winter day at about 35mph on the flat rural roads. Crazy.
I do it just for fun on early Sunday mornings sometimes, when going into town to shop, but since everyone else normally drives about 10 miles an hour over the 55 MPH limit out here it would be dangerous to do it any other time.
Prof Ruzic will be pleased.
The jet that is the most obvious one for a “weird whining sound” is the C-5 Galaxy cargo plane; that whine is DISTINCTIVE. Next time you hear it, fire up the FlightRadar app https://www.flightradar24.com/29.80,-96.10/10 and take a look.
Had my first round of “vibe coding” today. While I teach a basic course in Android programming, I don’t particularly enjoy it. I have an app for personal use that needed some updates. So I told Gemini what do to. It took 3-4 rounds, because it did overlook errors, but ultimately it worked. The total time was a lot less than I would have needed to do the same thing.
I pay a basic subscription to ChatGPT, at $20/month, and I use it a lot for all sorts of things. Certainly multiple times per day, from helping invent exam questions, to finding the best place to buy something, to fact-checking stuff I read in the news, to proofreading my sometimes shaky German, to…
I know they just calculate on an average user, but I must be on the far side of average. Which makes it weird: according to the usage stats I still have 100% of my monthly allocation available. Not complaining, maybe they don’t actually track “chat” usage (as opposed to agents)?
Insanity.
Speaking of politics: WTF is Trump doing, promising to pay people if his party wins the midterms? That must violate all sorts of laws?!
Haven’t checked in for a couple of days, so I missed any AfD discussions y’all may have had. It sure is funny, though, watching all the lefties scream “Nazi” and “Faschist”, claiming the AfD is a danger to democracy. The solution to that danger, apparently, is to annul the results of a democratic election.
Meanwhile the German Chancellor is doubling down on his politics, and claiming that ejecting illegal migrants is “ethnic cleansing”.