There's Something About Brightwork

I have a puzzle. It is in the shape of a cannon, about 3.5" long. The object is to extract the cannon ball, after unscrewing four different parts of what at first glance appears to be a machined piece of solid brass.

My grandmother gave it to me when I was a boy. For the last several years it has been sitting, untouched, in an out of the way part of my home. Today I dug it out and showed it to #1, who was fascinated by it for one attention span. Then I started explaining the concept of tarnished brass to her. I am not entirely sure she got it. The lesson ended with me getting an old tin of Brasso out and polishing the cannon up until it shines like gold, and it is smooth as silk to the touch. She was suitably impressed, from the first black patch of paper towel, to the final wipe-down, three paper towels later. She sat and watched the whole transformation.

Just now when I walked by, I couldn't help admiring the little thing. It is so bright and shiny and perfect-looking. Perhaps it is the Navy man in me, or perhaps it is the male in me, but this golden, mirror-smooth thing gives me a simple pleasure the way few other things can.

:)

I am also glad I'm not the seaman responsible for this:

The Little Things That Make Big Differences.

How about a retrofit for your jumbo jet's wingtips that saves 600,000 gallons of jet fuel, per year, per airplane? Consider how small a change this is, then have a look at half the reason your old pickup only gets 13MPG:



Even the vaunted Prius has about a zillion little drag points underneath it.



Mythbusters added 800lbs of dimpled clay to a Ford Taurus and got ~10% better fuel economy. That's not exactly a "little thing" but it does prove a point.

What's your point, VFD?

It took legislators bullying them to do it, but finally OEMs are budging a little. With two relatively minor changes, Ford bumped a heavy pickup's fuel economy ~10% and nobody died because the thing had to me made lighter/weaker so it crumples like a tin can to achieve the difference.

Next time you hear someone complaining about CAFE standards being increased by the watermelons in D.C. (to include ME being the complainer) remember: making a car lighter is not the only, and not even the easiest, way to dramatically improve fuel economy. With the frikken ridiculous new CAFE standards recently passed into law by the watermelons in D.C., I suppose this sort of thing will be increasingly popular with car makers.

Good.

Gizmag Demonstrates The Demise Of Intellectualism?

Because you can't think far enough ahead to acquire sanitary wipes to clean your phone, a device to do it for you

Because it's just too confusing to figure out which way to insert a battery with only two possible choices, a battery with no "wrong way".

Because you are too simple to stand your toothbrush up, a toothbrush that stands up by itself.

The next two at least have some debatable redeeming value: a disposable (earth hater!) EEG helmet supersedes 20 wires placed by an expert, and remote probes to monitor heartbeats from a yard away.

And finally, because you are being dumbed-down so rapidly that the government must do for you what you ought to do, and because "less" is never an option when the government runs short on money, California looks at selling advertisements for your license plate. Nevermind whose car it is.

Quote of The Day 01 July 2010

"The whole continent of Africa is crying tonight" -Ed Clements

One last-play missed kick by Ghana, and the last of Africa's chances at a World Cup are dashed. Ouch.

Unemployment Insurance Money Is A CRUTCH!

Speaker Pelosi, being afflicted with a mental disorder (liberalism) is to be pitied when she says stupid things. Our nation of course is to be pitied for having such a woman in a high position. She says unemployment 'benefit' money stimulates the economy. The Republicans are superbad because they want to take this stimulating money away from the formerly-working, now merely poor, poor working stiffs out there. For some reason the "stimulus" money which was already appropriated (for TARP) but not spent, can't be put toward paying for the extension of unemployment benefits, because -why? Is adding to the national debt is a positive good in itself or something? We MUST appropriate (borrow) more money to give out unemployment checks, why exactly? Please NOTE: Those are HER Democrats preventing paying for these billions of dollars of 'stimulating' unemployment checks, because they don't want to spend billions of dollars that have not been spent for another crooked bailout scheme. Shades of Sgt. Rizzo.

Somehow, if money is taken at gunpoint from employed people and filtered through the Government, with perhaps a little off the top, and given to the poor poor pitiful poor people, that stimulates the economy. But if the actual "working man" people are allowed to keep their obscene profits, and leave them in a bank for the bank to invest and/or lend out, or if they spend their capitalist pig profits, the money of the employed people somehow wouldn't stimulate the economy? If 100% of us were on unemployment checks, would that stimulate the economy 100%? Who then would be paying for it? Why, the same people as are paying for the currently unemployed living on borrowed (from China) money: your children and grandchildren!

So your unemployment runs out. You tap out your savings, you run out of favors from your family, and your credit cards are maxed out. Or maybe just your unemployment runs out. What do you do? You go out and get a frikken JOB that's what. Then you have money to spend. So maybe you have to work two jobs. Maybe you have to do "the work Americans won't do" in order to make ends meet. Then what? Then nothing. You're employed, but you don't like your job. You knew you wouldn't like it, which is why you waited TWO YEARS to go out and get a job. But you didn't have to work while the unemployment checks kept coming. Now you have to get a crappy job, so you do. What were you leaning on for those two years, which prevented you from/allowed you to avoid working? The largesse of your fellow citizen, a.k.a.

a crutch.

Solar Powerplant In/For Pflugerville . . . Qui Bono?

I am not sure who benefits how, exactly, but some investors in India have agreed to part with their money. A 600-acre plot of land near the city (my the city) is going to be made into a power plant. Not a nuclear plant, where the M would be a G, but a 60MW solar plant. Acres and acres of glass gathering the sunlight. The City and the ISD want in on that "Green Energy" action, and the company somehow thinks they are going to make money by GIVING away three-quarters of a BILLION dollars worth of equipment. The city won't annex (read: tax) the land, but the investors will pay the city a couple of million dollars for Pflugerville being such swell cats.

Leaving aside for the moment that mass-produced solar panels still take more energy to make than they will ever produce, this sounds all well and good. One supposes they will make money by selling the electricity generated by God shining the sun on the panels. Good jobs will be available while the place is being built (5 permanent jobs when it is up and running). But I just can't help but wonder if those investors in India, the City of Pflugerville, or both, are being screwed over without realizing it (yet).

We'll see, I suppose.

Pico De Gallo

I came home to find fresh pico de gallo waiting for me. Sometimes it is very nice to be wed to a woman born to gen-u-wine Mexican parents :D

Pray With Me For Virginia

The healthcare reform bill recently passed into law does not ensure everyone will get the health care they need. They already do, which is why the system is going bankrupt. What it will do is force private insurance providers out of business, and tax the everlovin' snot out of your wallet. Yes, even your wallet, because you are going to be FORCED at the point of a gun to buy health insurance or pay a penalty for not buying it.

Virginia's is the first lawsuit against this unconstitutional mandate for every citizen to engage in commerce. Christians, please pray that Virginia and all the other States which have filed suit against this law prevail. Even if we don't get a veto-proof majority in Congress, the courts can still find this law to be a step too far by Congress, and strike it down.

zOMG REFINERY PERMITS REJECTED!!!1! EVERYBODY PANIC

Depending on whom you ask, that is. This is yet another reason why you must seek news from several sources. You not only can't trust the old media, you can't even trust ME! Or, as President Reagan said, "Trust, but verify"

A caller gave Sean Hannity a tip about the Environmental Protection Agency removing authorization to continue operations at 122 industrial facilities in Texas, including a couple of oil refineries. The more accurate way to say it is they have to change their permits for reasons which may or may not have anything to do with protecting the environment. Here is the money quote from a lawyer for local energy companies:

"I don't think anybody is going to shut down; it's just more of an environment-permitting nightmare," -Richard Alonso, counsel for Bracewell & Guiliani LLP

Thanks, You Jerk.

I got an e-mail in my spam folder, with something about a will in the subject line. This, shortly after I posted a note about the death of my grandmother. The e-mail came from a domain in the UK. I don't have any relatives in the UK. I didn't (and won't) click on it.

What kind of an [deleted] do you have to be, to prey on people who have just lost a loved one? It's fortunate for that sender I'm not a malicious hacker in my spare time.