Dio's WorkshopWelcome to my brain. It’s messy. It’s interesting. And it’s all connected if you stick around long enough. "Believe Nothing: no matter who said it, even if I have said it, except it agree with your own reason and common sense. Siddhartha Guatamo, the Buddha.
Its not for me, that’s for certain. Yes, I am excited as heck about the idea of HUMANS getting off this damned rock.
Why?
Because we have always migrated away from power mongers. The Expansion of this country is a great example of that. The more territories opened up, the more people left the hustle and bustle and faced the unknown “To live as they saw fit”
We need that as a species. So what if we screw up and the laws of Physics destroy us. Hopefully, we leave a message of what when and how, maybe even WHY, and the next guy on the trail will NOT screw up,,, We evolve,,,
I’m long enough in tooth, I can’t see me making the trek: but someone will, and for them, I am excited beyond words. I see a future again. Not my future, but our species future. And it isn’t trapped on this prison planet. We may (currently) be relegated to our solar system only, but give it time. Who knows, in a hundred years, (or less) someone is going to make that breakthrough of FTL, or figure out wormholes, or something,,, I don’t think it will happen while we are stuck in this gravity well. I think the solution is out there waiting for us to find it, but to find it, we MUST get off this rock, FIRST.
dreams create reality,,, reality inspires dreams, and then the real magic begins.
Excites me SO MUCH MORE THAN THE DAMNED KABUKI THEATER IN DC.
Dood!!!
DOOOODDDDD!!! Two successful catches of the booster. watch the time frame,,, SEVEN MINUTES FROM LAUNCH TO CATCH, and the Starship was still accellerating and climbing when that happened. THINK ABOUT THAT,,,, Turn arounds in spaces of hours,,, HOURS!! not months and years, Even Better,,, a booster can carry far more than just a Starship: it could carry the means of other endeavors up to low orbit to be collected together in a more economical fashion ‘when all the peices are there’. This is a HUGE stepping stone to opening up our solar system
GOVERNMENT DID NOT DO THIS!!!!
Proof positive IMO that Government is NOT the answer and more likely an instigator of problems.
Now, I know that SpaceX is trying some new type of tile on Starship, so what happens on re-entry is any laymans guess, and even the Techs and Engineers are crossing fingers to some extent. So, there is still further to go before ALL of this becomes completely viable, but,,, That launch sequence is getting to the point where its going to be ‘just routine’, like a train leaving a station or a 747 making a milkrun to Europe,,,,
(and I know there are some that are still looking at those plumes from launch and saying “POLLUTIONS!!!” ,,,,
Give it a break guys,,,, Liquid Methane, and Liquid Oxygen. O2+CH4!!!! Water and carbon dioxide and lots of HEAT are your ‘exhaust’ components. Those plumes are vaporized water condensing into cloud/fog. You could breath in them (though it may, at first, have a higher CO2 content than your body would like. EVEN IF, the mix is off just a bit, running ‘lean’ so to speak, the CO (carbon monoxide) would burn off once it came into contact with the atmo. Or running rich, would make some interesting nitrogen compounds in the same way. (say, ammonia, that would decay rather quickly in atmo) seriously, this is BASIC CHEM 101, highschool level shit,(Correction,,, This should read ‘Rich’ in the first instance, lean in the second. Apologies,, my excitement made me dyslexic.)
AND IT WORKS. I even went back to look at some of the Shuttle launches,,, The launch plumes were much ‘dirtier’ and seemed not so focused as what we are seeing from SpaceX vehicles.(and they used solid propellant boosters along with LOX/??? rocket engines. The ‘dirt’ was from the solid boosters.)
Feelin’ a little giddy right now,,, Almost like when I was a wee-tike, running around on my bigwheel, imagining being an astronaut, during the Apollo missions. I used to look at the moon and wonder,,, That all came to an end when they stopped the Shuttle launches, effectively killing the wonder of my younger-self. Well, SpaceX just woke that little gremlin back up,,, I see a future in space,,, Maybe not for ME, but some HUMANS are going to be going places and seeing things we have only pictures of (and not very good ones at that)
(UPDATED: A Falcon 9 is launching TWO moon landers (unmanned 😦 ) as I was posting this.
sigh,,,,, To be 50 years younger right now, watching all this develop and DREAMING,,,, realities are made on dreams, and when the realities start creating dreams,,, WONDEROUS THINGS HAPPEN.
Live
LOVE
LEARN
Laugh
LOAD
UPDATE 2: Starship lost several minutes into flight; “unscheduled rapid dissassembly”,,, LOL Really nice way to say “she blew the F! up.” And I will betcha, they learn 10X more from this blow up and the next iteration will be a screamin’ success. I love reading the naysayers in the comments of the report vids,,,, My only thoughts when reading them are “He who dares,,,,” The naysayers would never dare,,,,
So much going on,,, Fires destroying L.A. The incoming Administration getting its ‘leaders’ in place, more shenanigans from the current Admin,,,,
And I find I am not giving a rats ass. Not that I don’t care, I’m checking in trying to stay one step ahead of whatever is coming at us sideways.
And you know it is, whatever it may be,,, Black Swan event? Economic collapse (we are already in a reccession, even if the voices of the world try to say otherwise.) An Assassination? Who Frellin’ KNOWS,,, certainly not this one little fish in a great big sea,,, (or is that one small crayfish in the bottom of the cesspools???? There are days where that seems the more likely,,,)
I feel for those in California, that are finding out just what the hell they have been voting for the last few decades. And I can see parallels of Maui, North Carolina etc in the events happening there. And still, ‘no love’ from TPTB as they ship another sumpin’sumpin’ billy-yuns of dinero off to some other theater of pain,,,, Someone is gonna make bank on the destruction, IT WON’T BE the homeowners out there. Many are probably in need of selling off the property at pennies on the dollar of what it was worth before becoming an ashpit. Other sites have far more information about the debacle of Insurance retreats form a year or more back, along with other aspects that are going to create a perfect storm of horror for property owners out there.
And the destruction in NC and SETN are still ongoing. I think it will take a few more years before things there return to what I recall from just this past August… I could link to some of the feeds I get from that area, but its all private pages on Fakebuuk,,, You would need to subscribe to them and I know just how much my readers loooooooove Zuckers (sounds like ‘suckers!!!’) ‘Meta’ platform. Seems he also had a ‘coming to God’ moment recently,,, More like ‘saw the way the world was turning and decided to switch sides before the axes started falling’ moment.
We used to, in the Marines, call guys like that, ‘Buddies’.
Its not a good term, trust me. Buddies are the guys that will leave you hanging when y’all get caught red-handed, or in a pique of paranoia, rat ya out to the captain before hand. Not someone that ‘has your back’ in otherwords. (one of the reasons I like Farscape so much: they did a bang-up job showing the milquetoasts and ‘buddies’ that abound around those just trying to be left alone to get along in life.)
NO, right now, I have more on my plate ‘to get ahead’ to deal with. The last couple of months have put a dent in my progress,,,,,,,, even slid me back in more than a couple of ways, and I ain’t at all happy about it. I haven’t been venting about it too much since some of it was my own over-zealousness, (the three fingers pointing back at me thing.) I’ll get by, I always do, but its going to be a struggle, unless there is a major change in some things on my end. No need to go into that, I just have to hold my cards close, and be ready to cut or slash when the opening arrives. Burned bridges? Maybe,,, Don’t really want to, but there comes a time where that is the best road to take. Time will tell,,,
Am I selfish? No, but as I told Burnout a time or two: If you aren’t taking care of ‘#1’, #1 can’t take care of anyone else either,,,, Simple truth. I certainly can’t be helping those in other places rebuild if I can’t pay my own bills, right? (they are getting paid, but I don’t like the method I had to resort to this month to do so: felt far to close to how our Government pays its bills, by borrowing.)
And such is why I am indifferent to the goings on in the world. My focus is on getting #1 back on track, and until then, the rest can hang. I can’t fix it, Even on the best of days, and these ain’t the best of days.
4X4: uh,,, Mehbe, or try again tomorrow,,,, (works great on the flat roads, goes in and out when on hills or in the bouncybumpy stuff.)
I tore the hell out of my driveway the other day getting home after the main snow storm. Made it I did, no small matter being I tortured tested that Posi-trac rearend,,,, That did excellent, and I would NOT have made it otherwise. And EVERY PART of that driveline was heated up and if damp, SMOKIN’!!! LOL (small dribble from the transfer output shaft seal, and I smelled it for certain before looking) I could tell the selenoid actuators did their job, because the front drive shaft was ‘cleaned off’ and fresh grease showing around the lubed bits, and it did shift into LO4,,, but it wasn’t able to engage the front tires since that vacuum motor didn’t ‘lock’ the front diff to the shafts. Things spinning around and not connected to anything means NO POWER TO GROUND. Just extra torque going “phlllbbbttttttttt!”
Don’t get me wrong, I love the “no need to lock hubs” aspect of the Chevy 4×4 options,,,, Too many blowed up hubs seen in the past; where someone had locked them, and promptly forgot and went highballin’ it down freeways.
What I DO NOT LIKE, is the vacuum actuators (nor the ‘pushbutton’ controls to selenoid actuators for the transfer case…) Give me mechanical linkages dangit!!! That was what was in Great White (prior truck that got shot and died slowly thereafter) and I NEVER had iffy-ness in the Four-by,,,,
This one,,,, Small vacuum motor located under the battery box, and roughly 20′ of 3mm vacuum tube ran will-he-nil-he from there, back to the transfer case and back up to the engine bay on the opposite side,,, Stuff just floppin’round under the hood and exposed to weather, heat, oil, gunk, you name it,,,,,
Cheaper to replace ALL of the vacuum lines than purchase a Hard LInk kit for the beast, but damned if I ain’ta tempted,,,,
But not today,,,, 1) its Sunday,,, no place open for the parts I need. 2) its melt off phase and my section of driveway is more swampish than drive-ish. 3) its cold: wet and cold don’t make for fun times while ‘wrenching’. Tempted to get some 5/64″ stainless tubing and replace all the long runs with tubing instead of that cheesy rubber line (think how toyota does all their long vacuum runs under the hood PITA, yes, Bullet proof, DEFINITELY.) I can get all the parts through the Zon for around $50, where the hard linkage kit runs $200. And there is just as much work involved.
OR, I may just replace lines until such time as I do the engine swap THEN do all hard lines for long runs,,,, Still time to figure it out, I only hope we don’t get hammered again with snow anytime soon. (and now, since I said that, YOU KNOW this area is gonna get pummeled again,,,,ROFL)
only that there were more than a few artists I worked with that would do something so ‘left feild’ during sound checks, Things that the fans may never have a clue about. Heavy metal artists doing bluegrass,,, Blues artists shredding,,,
Prince PROVES his musicianship in this’un
Not that he needed to prove jackshit to the world,,, IMO
Sadly, so many of that talent level are also leaning ‘not so vertical’ in the sanity department and end up succumbing to chemicals or other things. If I were to make a guess, the desire to ‘STAND OUT’ and be someone can also be self-destructive.
Not much to add to the fray, some thoughts going through my head and private conversations currently,,, Nothing hashed out to something I feel confident to put into the spheres at this time.
Enjoy your weekend,,, I’m buried under snow: And a word to one of my sisters.“HEY!!! Your weather got loose and is running rabid in my backyard,,, you need to get a STRONG leash and come take it home. NOW!”
and now, I am just gonna put on some chill music, gotta bottle of Skyy and a nice fire going,,, gonna turn out the lights and let the music take me away for awhile.
Started getting the sniffles early on Muhnday, Typical clear watery flows. KNEW that whatever Da had contracted was making inroads on me.
By afternoon, the schnoz flows had started to thicken up and I was feeling ‘irritation’ that could also be called ‘pain’ (I have a strange pain tolerance thing,,,, If I’m complaining ‘it hurts’ many others would be beggin’ for morphine.)
Started with saltwater flushes of the sinuses. This is usual sodium chloride with a dash of sodium bicarbonate to make it ‘not sting’ when you go irrigating the passages behind your eyes. (Table salt without iodine and baking soda,,,) You can buy this stuff at wally world in little packets to mix up with half pints of water. Cheap and effective.
Started gargling Listerine when I started feeling the sore throat coming on.
Irrigate the sinuses every 2-3 hours, gargle same or as needed. Blow the nose before you irrigate or you will need to do so even more often.
Any expectorations need expelled. don’t swallow dangit,,, you’re just sending that shit back down to do more damage if you do.
AND I did the ‘hot toddy’ thing before retiring for the night(s), except I still can’t get that mixture right so I just do a triple shot and call it good.
Hot showers, warm bed, warm house with cool air over the face seems to work best for me.
Last night (wednesday night) I could feel the irritation in my cheekbones, and my ears felt ‘itchy’. The infection was going for broke. Irrigate, gargle, shots, HOT shower and bundled blankets,,,,,
I came to around 3 am absolutely soaked in sweat. I never felt like I was running a fever while conscious, but obviously burned up last night.
Today, all clear. still the occasional dribble from the schnoz but a couple of irrigations and that has eased off too. No tickles in the throat, no drainage to cause such, heads clear.
No drugs other than Alcohol. No NSAIDS, no mucinex, no expectorants, NADA,,,
Like I said, your milage may vary, but this worked wonders for me. Da is still struggling with his (he won’t listen to me) and he has had it for a week longer than I. (he is also 84,,,, That could be a factor as well.)
here’s hopin’ those that catch this crud get off as light as I have. If you’ve already had it and fought, keep this plan in mind for the next variation. We WILL see this again,,, its the nature of living on this rock,,,
First off, PISS OFF,,, That’s not how science works. You start with a theory, you test that theory, and if it succeeds, it does not ‘automagically’ become ‘LAW’. the whole of ‘science’ is a process of discovery, not an end state.
Sorry, let me explain why I started with this.
In my post about “Fossil Fuels” there popped up a couple of anonymous comments, I deleted one since it seemed like a repeat of the first, and I did make a couple of (possibly construed as rude) comments in response. Note: in the above mention, I used quotation marks,, I am not calling oil or coal out as actual fossil based anything, I am only refering to a common term people recognize.
Its so common that most people accept the premise of “Fossils” and Dinosaurs as the basic component of the mixture. And oh believe me, both are mixtures of many things (we use fractional distillation to separate the components into usable stuff. EVEN COAL CAN BE FRACTIONALLY REDUCED and one of those components is a liquid fuel that was commonly used as lamp oil before Rockefeller turned the oil industry on its head back in the late 1800’s)
Science is NEVER settled. Even now, with the growth of Quantum Research, we are finding that “LAWS” everyone has accepted as ‘settled’, AIN’T! Newton’s Laws are starting to take a beating with discoveries in Quantum Research. They still hold above the atomic level, for the most part, but below that, things start to get a little (LOTS!) weird.
Weird enough that many researchers are reformed athiests, now believing in GOD,,, I kid you not. A large enough percentage of Quantum researchers are ‘born again’; a big enough percentage that its GLARINGLY OBVIOUS compared to other feilds of research.
But we were talking ‘Fossil Fuels’. I said I wasn’t a Geologist, Not a scientist either. I am a rank level wanna be teacher that burns metal to make the ends meet. SO, take anything I say as the blabberings of an idiot if you so choose. What I am most definitely: a lifelong student and curious enough to embarass a herd of cats: put them to shame I would. SO, when I mention fossils anything, I have to refer to the common THEORY, those accepted as case, not debunked currently (give it time,,,) and what our geologists believe is that micro-organisms died in various places for various reasons and were covered up/buried and over millions of years, pressure and heat did things and what we now have is Oil/Gas/Coal deposits. Not renewable in a time frame we as a species consider worthwhile.
Only, there are feilds that are self replenishing, and the geologists are scratching thier heads over it. I think, my opinion of course, that most of them are stuck in that ‘Box’ of accepted thinking that FOSSILS (not real fossils, just left overs from dead things) are the ONLY solution,,,,
And yet, we know how to create Ammonia out of thin air,,,,
We have created other chemical components from nothing but water, electricity and nitrogen and carbon dioxide.
Why couldn’t mama earth create hydrocarbons from similar base atoms/molecules. She has IN ABUNDANCE the pressure and heat we have to fabricate at great cost. And the earth is a ‘closed system’ (or was until we started launching things into orbit and beyond.) (Correction, not completely closed, we get all sorts of ‘crud’ entering our atmo on a daily basis,,,) Essentially what that means is this: the composition of our atmo is not fixed, and those molecules need to go somewhere when it changes. Who can tell me that earth doesn’t ‘breath’ and change that composition on a regular basis (over a millions of years scale that is)? Ice core samples show varied ratios from just thousands of years,,,, SO, where did the differences ‘go to’?
.04%,,,, Thats the current percentage of that deadly greenhouse gas that Thurnberg chick freaks out about (while sitting on a $2000 chair made from plastics ,,,,) Any farmer will tell you, if that percentage drops below the .03% range, crops DIE ENMASS, Forests die, and then WE DIE,,,, Starvation, not enough CO2 to allow us to maintain proper respiration, (our breath and heart rate regulate by the pH of our blood and that is drivin by carbonic acid in our bloodstream: Made by CO2!!!)
Conversely, raise that percentage by a hundredth to .05% and trees and crops blossom three seasons a year, two in the more northern climes, but faster, much faster. And that will lead to more O2 production bringing that percentage back down in short order.
THIS IS NOT A PROBLEM UNLESS WE MAKE IT ONE. Climate change as described by most, is nothing,,, well, no, it IS something,,,,,
Here in Appalachistan, we call it
WEATHER
There is more research showing that SUNSPOTS have far more to do with our weather than any odd composition of atmospheric gasses. You don’t hear too much about that because it doesn’t feed the narrative; that narrative that promotes ‘carbon tax’ ‘carbon credits’ etc etc which is really just OLD MARXIST Ideology of ‘spreading the wealth’ (and lining Politicians pockets,,,,)
And it doesn’t breed FEAR the same way. Even the most dull student can tell you we have no way of controlling what the SUN does,,,, yeah, she might blow a CME big enough to strip the Atmosphere from all the inner planets; totally out of our control, so why worry about it. That doesn’t put money in the pockets of power mongers,,,,
And I am gonna let this all lay right there. I could go on a rampage over some of the ‘Green Energy’ projects that are running rampant around the world. Simple base engineering studies would show the lies behind them. The numbers that are used to sell them ALWAYS leave out certain ‘costs’, or pad efficiencies,,,,
sigh,,, Nope, not an engineer either,,,, only raised around more than a few and that whole curiouser than a kat thing,,,, osmosis did the rest.
Natural Gas, Crude Oil (the better term IMO) Coal,,, Yeah,,, toss in some simple nuke plants and ‘recycle’ all those damned Canned sunshine toys for a better purpose (Is that possible? I don’t know for certain, but I know the accumulation process is similar for the two,,,)
It was the early part of the Tweens when the political divisions of the United States reached irreconcilable differences. Ted, a burnt out computer programmer, and Jim, a double amputee combat vet, reverse engineer the pentagons drone program and create a rebel air force. While traveling the country helping others defend what is left of the country, they run afoul a most evil woman intent on creating a serfdom within the country.
A beginner’s guide to going off grid. how to evaluate if you even want to make the attempt. written by the curmudgeonly author of this blog and his dog
Dio's Workshop 