I Remember This

How the United Auto Workers damn near killed Caterpillar and fucked their members too.

The link is very clinical and does its level best to use a neutral tone; but the fact of the matter was Caterpillar was losing market share to Japanese heavy equipment and there flat wasn't money to meet the demands of the UAW.

The thing I remember clearly was Caterpillar didn't come to the table saying, "no raises," or "we need to reduce the workforce."

They were offering a raise, about half what the union wanted, but refused to increase the pension benefits.

They were clear about why, there wasn't enough money to do so.

The long period of time they weren't making anything left orders unfilled and companies bought Japanese for the first time and never came back.

Slow clap.

It's A Race!

While we will certainly die in the dark if the private jet using climate warriors win:

It is a toss up whether we will starve or freeze first.

John "Three Purple Hearts" Kerry, private jet aficionado and long-time not-really-but-really luxury yacht owner, says we need to eliminate agriculture to achieve Gaea-Nirvana.

I am starting to think the best way to save the planet is to for these people to disappear.

The current press for electric vehicles sure feels like a precursor to taking away the food because the people will be pre-trapped where they are when the charging stations are cut off a couple of weeks before the food.

Can't take the pitchforks and torches to them if you can't get near them.

Well I'm Convinced

I wish I had copy-pasta'd before I got reasoned discoursed on it.

We have competing analogies.

A plumber asked:

"So what you're saying is that after I install the toilet as agreed, and the owner pays me for it; then still owes me every time they flush?"

The actor replied:

"No.  It's you installed the toilet and got paid; then the owner sells tickets for other people to use the toilet.  The owner owes you part of what he's selling tickets to use your work!"

I wonder if the actor realizes that they just showed how stupid their little spat is.

Most people are in the, "do the work, get paid, done," camp.

Dragging the analogy further.  Actors think that they should be paid for the toilet install, a portion of the use of the toilet if the owner gets any money for that use, a part of the proceeds if you sell the toilet to someone else and a portion of any money the new owner makes off of it.

Forever.

At a time when people are not paying for toilet installs.

PM in the comments gives a good link explaining how the actors and writers picked about the worst time to demand more money.  There isn't more money, there's less.

Some Facebook Car Group Observations

If you want someone to reply, "oh that sucks, you must really be bummed," instead of people trying to help you figure out how to fix it:

Get a girlfriend and unsubscribe from a hot-rodder technical group.

Don't be a dick.

If you're selling something, put your price where you mention you're selling it.  Don't make the customer guess.  If you failed to name a price in the post, when they ask, "how much?" just answer.  Don't be coy.

Don't be a dick.

It doesn't matter that you paid $11k for the car and dropped another $8k on mods.  If the make/model is worth $9k now, then the $19k you spent is a $10k loss; UNLESS YOU FIND THAT ONE PERSON WHO WAS PLANNING ON BUYING A STOCK EXAMPLE FOR $11K AND DOING THE EXACT SAME $8K OF MODS YOU DID!  That person is almost never found outside your own mirror.

Don't be a dick.

Related to the above, none of your mods have warranties.  That means they're not positive selling points.  Mods are, almost by their very definition, more prone to breaking than the OEM part.  Even if you used OEM parts from a different model in the same manner as the other model.

Don't be a dick.

Unless you got lucky and your car is the '57 Chevy of its day and it's become a highly sought collectable, you're going to lose money just owning it.  Even more modding it.

And, most importantly, don't be a dick!

Fuck Off Oliver

Oliver Stone regrets getting the president he's fomented for decades to get.

What changed that caused you to regret it, Mr Stone?

What's affecting you now that wasn't three years ago?

You sure didn't break stride when you were sucking Obama's dick or calling Trump names.

You know the internet has a long memory, right?

The Power Of The Purse

The longer the writer's and actor's strike goes, the less money Hollywood will get from the consumer.

The less money Hollywood and its herd of dancing monkeys have, the less they will have to spend interfering in our lives by paying politicians.

Without that revenue stream, the politicians will stop listening to what a small cadre of dancing monkeys wants.

Power returns to the people!

Keep the strike going!

For Democracy!

Cue The "What About China?" Dancers

Absolutely nothing the US or Europe does to eliminate carbon emissions will have any effect unless China does the same thing.

They show no signs of abandoning reliable forms of energy or reducing consumption, so even if the US were to completely return to pre-historic energy sources...

There'd still be carbon emissions from China.

It sure doesn't seem like China believes this shit is true.

But I think what's really going on is we're offshoring our emissions like we offshored the industries and jobs.

It makes us appear virtuous and good while not giving up the products and lifestyles afforded by the pollution we sent elsewhere.

I don't even believe that we needed to send those industries elsewhere, because the means of reducing the pollution were all, essentially, one-time costs rather than ongoing costs.

It was a virtue signal.

Like all virtue signals it does nothing about the thing it claims to solve.

This Climate Is Just Right

Software Janitor, in the comments, asks what is it about the climate just this second that makes it preferable to one that's a degree hotter or colder?

Well, nothing.

A slightly warmer climate, which we had in Florida until the 1970's, allowed for pineapples and citrus to be grown as far North as Gainesville.

The frost line moving south drove citrus ever further south and took out pineapple farming here almost altogether.

While it was a disaster for the farmers of those fruits, life went on.  Other crops replaced them.

The catestrophic anthropogenic global climate change people act as if the small change they predict will eliminate all life on the planet.

It won't.

It has been, historically, both hotter and colder than the direst predictions of the climate change alarmists.  Life, including human life, went on.

It has been far warmer and far colder pre-historically and human life kept going.

I'm not worried about the weather or the climate.

Climate change must be expected when you live next to a main sequence variable star.

Considering the "record" temperatures of the 1990's coincide with the most active cycle of the sun we ever measured...  Do you think it might be the sun?  The "ice ages are returning" winters of the 1970's coincide with a very inactive cycle of the sun too.

There's a land-locked shipyard in England from the middle ages.  Sea levels are lower from when that place was in business, but it proves that we were perfectly capable of living through higher sea levels and temperatures.

But we also have to remember that there's several places where the sea levels are getting lower and higher but the amount of liquid water isn't changing.

It changed, but that was thousands of years ago.  The ice is long melted, but the sea levels are still changing...

Because the land itself is rising and falling!  The glaciers that were pushing down on Canada also caused the land around Greenland to rise.

Now that the glaciers are gone, the crust is slowly rebounding and northern Canada is rising and Greenland is sinking.

Mean sea level is the same...

PS: If the assholes who're pushing climate change so hard really believed it; they wouldn't own anything below 75' MSL or outside two narrow bands of latitude.

They would also drastically reduce THEIR carbon emissions and stop living in gigantic houses and flittering around in private jets.

They would advocate for nuclear power.

I'll take it serious when they do.

Unalloyed Joy

The Boy, like many boys of his mental age, loves dinosaurs.

Jurassic Quest is in town, so I suggested to Harvey that we go.

We even shanghaied Marv into it.

$112 for the four of us.

If it were not for the happy-awed look on The Boy's face seeing those life-size recreations of dinosaurs, I'd have said it was a massive rip off.

Fun, but overpriced.

I liked seeing these critters in person full sized.

The Brontosaur Apatosaur seemed smaller than my mind said it should and a couple of the ceratopsians were a lot smaller than I'd thought.

Triceratops set the size for a ceratops in my head.  There are several species that are smaller, even much smaller, like the brachyceratops.  Brachyceratops probably isn't even its own critter, they're likely juvenile styracosaurs.

We had fun, making the gigantic rip-off worth it.

You Know

It's hard to take global warming seriously when it was 40° 20° warmer 90 years ago.

How Much

Seller: PM me if there's something you want.

Me: How much for those two things?

Seller: How much do you want to pay?

Me: I want you to fucking tell me how much you want to sell them for so I can decide if I want to spend that much.  You're selling, set a price or go away.

Look For The Union Label

Looks like the Teamsters have killed off Yellow Trucking Company in order to make UPS knuckle under.

Yellow is taking $700 million of your tax dollars with them to the grave.

Slow clap.

This story is going to repeat until something manages to break the union's paradigm that the economy is expanding at 15% with 3% or less inflation.  It's not and they need to Grok that in its fullness.

The Teamsters really wanna make their demands possible?  They should lean on their bought-and-paid-for politicritters to allow drill-baby-drill and get us back to energy independence and fuck the greenies.

That will reduce costs, increase profits and let the shippers actually have enough revenue and profits to pass the largesse to their union workers.

Stab Stab Stab

The Lovely Harvey's hair has finally grown out enough to use a gift Willard dropped by last Christmas!

Non-metallic for those scoring at home.

Apology To (Some) Bicyclists

If you are riding your bike and not blocking traffic, I have no problem with you being on the road.

I am sorry if my rant offended you.

There's actually plenty of room for you on the margin and space for me to hug the centerline so everyone avoids being damaged.

In most places there's even laws about how a bicycle should be using a public roadway.

Here's a bit of context to my rant.

Shitheads like Critical Mass, however, don't obey those laws and count on their numbers to chill objections to their blocking entire roads for miles while they travel at well under the speed limit.  Well under the minimum speed limit, as a matter of fact.

Then there's the cyclist who wants to use the rules for being a pedestrian as well as a vehicle; but only those rules which benefit their present behavior.  You've seen what I'm talking about.  They're a vehicle when they occupy the entire lane.  But they're a pedestrian when they have to obey traffic signs.

But on top of it, they're assholes.

Big enough assholes that it's getting dangerous for polite cyclists to be out and about.

Was That Even Legal?

Marv shot me a link that makes me wonder if the judge had jurisdiction to vacate Bergdahl's sentence.

Judge Walton doesn't appear to be in the military, nor on the Supreme Court, so...

How is he ruling on this?

He's not a military judge and this is a UCMJ matter.

That's Not How It Works

Dear bicyclists;

The taxes you paid at the gas pump to maintain the roads are for the car you were filling up, not your bike.

You can tell by the license plate on your car that's not on your bicycle.

You may also notice that you are not required to carry insurance on your bicycle.

Which basically adds up to you not paying your fair share while you're obstructing traffic.

So, when you have to pay a road maintenance tax, carry insurance, have a license to operate it and register your bicycle, you can just fuck off.

This Is My Shocked Face

 Bergdahl's conviction vacated.

That asswipe should be hanged, not let off.

There's still hope for justice, but it will be informal and unofficial.

He deserves it.

Above My Pay Grade

Are prime numbers still prime in bases other than 10?

CNN And Layers Of Fact Checking

 

Link to the page I screen shot.  Notice the "Yesterday at 2:21 PM" for when they posted that graphic?

Hurricane Dorian link from Wikipedia. 

If you watch CNN, Dorian has been stalled over the Bahamas for four years.

Dur

I have been obsessing over the lack of an oil-pressure gauge in The Beast.

If I'd known the car was making pressure the lack of the pressure sensor might have worried me less.

At first, I'd wished for a way to read the data stream for the oil pressure, but realized that the failed sensor was the source of that reading.

If I'd had a factory oil pressure gauge in the dash, it would have been pegged to the high side.

Thus, useless as a diagnostic tool to tell if there was oil pressure in the event of a sender failure.

I'm really starting to hate how everything is run through the body control module.

Even the tach is suspect.

I am astonished at how expensive 2-1/16" oil pressure gauges have become.

A good one is closing in on $200.

The cheaper good ones give a feeling of false economy because they don't include the sender, bringing the total back to $200 quite quickly. 

Appearance is also a factor.  I want it to look good, be easily readable and be lit at night.

Oh No! Anyway

Fucker deserves a medal.

Trucker in Germany drags and injures climate protestor.

 

One Two Punch

There's increasing evidence that the population of The Americas was heading for a massive reduction even if Columbus had lost all three ships mid-Atlantic.

Probably not the 90-95% reduction they got from exposure to the endemic diseases from Europe, but...

In about 1200 something wiped out Cahokia so hard they didn't recover.  Poor sanitation doesn't account for the sudden, and complete, disappearance.  It doesn't appear to be from war either.

The place was abandoned, and deserted like it was cursed.

Fear of disease by people who don't know what diseases are does that.

There's no clear consensus on what wiped out Cahokia, we're just getting to agreement about when.

But the populations in South America were going gangbusters compared the plains Indians.

Then...

The diseases imported from Europe really hit hard, but some are thinking too hard.

What if another plague was working its wonders on the indigenous population and making them more vulnerable to outside diseases.

It's an interesting theory.

It also speculates that the population loss would be more like 50% without a native plague, so it's not like they would have been hunky dory with European diseases.

However, it also looks like about 35% were going to be dying even if Europe never met them.  That's nothing to sneeze at...

Fits The Facts

 

The more history I read about the Indians, the less believable the "noble savage" narrative becomes.

Stopping The Beast

You might notice a bright red Brembo 4-piston brake caliper in a previous post.

The previous owner did what's known to the PPV crowd as the "Big Brake" mod.

It's a bit Frankenstein's Monster, but it's not too hard.

Front calipers are from a 2017-2024 Camaro SS 1LE package.

Front rotors are the factory 345mm size, replaced here with aftermarket Raybestos.

Front pads are from a 2004-2007 Cadillac CTS-V or 2008-2008 Pontiac G8 GXP.

Rear calipers are from a 2007-2009 Cadillac CTS-V.

Rear rotors are 360mm off a 2015-2017 Chevrolet SS.  Factory size is 324mm.

Rear pads are from a 2004-2007 Cadillac CTS-V.

We Almost Died!

Well, we weren't even hurt.

We were sitting in the drive-thru of a local coffee shop.

I'd just paid for our order when there was a loud thunk and the car shook.

At first I thought some idiot had rear ended us.

But there was no one behind me.

Something HAD hit the car.

A wheel and tire.

A witness to the tire's ejection pulled up and told us where to find the owner.

He grabbed the wheel and we followed him to the 3-wheeled Toyota SUV.

I noticed that the tire looked brand new...

I'll let Ron White explain what happened.  Just insert "Toyota Dealer" where he says "Sears."

 The owner of the SUV is obviously not happy, and quite shaken by her left rear departing the vehicle.

She called the Toyota dealer and they sent the service manager to talk to her.

She delivered an ass chewing to that guy that would have put a sergeant major in tears.

He promised her he'd make it right by her.

Then he looked at my tiny little dent.

I have an appointment first thing Monday to get that fixed.

It is not the biggest dent on the car.  It's an ex-police vehicle.  It's covered in little scars.

I'm a little embarrassed to have them fix this blemish, but he volunteered.  If the body guy will address some of the other small dents while they're working on it, I will let them, but I will not make the suggestion more than a joke.

The scary part of this is that tire crossed six lanes of traffic and two medians to get to my car.  It traveled about 600 feet and didn't hit anything or anyone until it stopped by hitting my car.

It's a miracle, Vincent, and I want you to acknowledge it.

The Toyota Dealer is eager to handle this quietly and in-house.  I can see why.  His guy who skipped lug-nut day almost had them set up for a wrongful death lawsuit.  Fixing on my car is a small price to pay.

 

 

 

 

Test Fit

 

JT loaned me a wheel off his CTS to see if they cleared my Brembos.

No clearance issues that I can see!

Not a bad looking rim either.  Bonus: there are a lot of take-off rims available around here as well.

I want to stay on 18's if I can because going too low profile on the tires is uncomfortable and more susceptible to damage from potholes.

Not Every Hero Wears A Cape

Buy one of these. 

Attach it to your car somehow.

Park your normal, internal combustion, car in a charging station spot.

"Plug" the charger into the fake port.

Go enjoy the rest of your day.

Free parking because you aren't using any electricity!

Because I Am A Disgusting Lard Body

Replaced the toilet seat in my shitter today.

The old one had lasted for...

I don't remember but I it's been a long time.

While the seat was in good shape, the little pads that go between the seat bottom and the rim of the bowl had collapsed.

An easy, but icky, job.

Well, except for the 100° temperatures in the garage.

I got one of those fancy slow-fall lids this time.

I marveled that there were at least fifteen choices in toilet seats and absolutely nothing to distinguish one from another except price and if the lids were free-falling.

Is It?

A nipple I like to twist, from time to time, is the idea that an MMORPG is NOT a role playing game at all.

MMORPG are video games.

Despite the RPG being part of the name, there is no role-playing going on.

The problem I have is quantifying WHY a table top game with IS and the video game ISN'T!

For me it's the lack of boundaries and the ability to attempt anything on the tabletop versus the narrow restrictions of the video game.

The video game is just a playing piece with move/attack/defense scores and a different special effect based on your piece's class.

The table-top has those scores as well, but you can try anything you can articulate, including tricking the bad-guy verbally into defeat, rather than killing them.

It's ephemeral.

Farscape

OMG this show did not age well.

I wonder if the shine of "it's the only Sci Fi on" has faded when it's not the only sci-fi available to me.

The practical effects are still top notch.  Hensen would be proud.

The story and the plot in the first season...

I liked this?

I looked forward to this?

I was upset when we had to chose between cable and food and I lost access to this?

Clearly I was retarded.

I worry, now, that I am still retarded.

How would I know?

Don't answer.

I don't wanna know.

Speaking Of Poop

When I went to take the cartridges out of Willard's DP-51 to take pics, the rounds didn't wanna come up to the mouth.

At first I thought it was a bad spring.

But then I saw the specks.

At first I thought it was loose powder from a round that had come apart somehow.

So I dropped the floor plate...

The specks were roach droppings.

It was jammed full of little roach corpses.  So many that this mag would not have fed if needed.

No runners, all dead.

Allow me to use my vast college educated vocabulary and say, "Ick!"

If you have, or have ever had, a roach problem, you should check your magazines for this kind of thing.

Poop

Willard and I recalled that S&W 59 magazines worked in the Daewoo DP-51.

We cannot check that because the DP-51 has hidden itself from human sight.

Willard could lay hands on a DP-51 magazine, so he wondered if it would work in a S&W 59.

It does not.

The floorplate hits the front strap before the magazine latch can grab the hole.  The holes look identical and appear to be spaced identically from the mouth of the magazine.

So I checked it on a Marlin Camp Carbine.

Also no-go.  The latch never latches.

Oh well.

DP-51 on left:

The S&W magazine's hole is just a bit closer to the mouth of the mag.  That's why the DP-51 won't lock into the Marlin.

Concealed Means Concealed

The bowling alley The Boy practices at for Special Olympics has put "No guns or weapons allowed, even concealed weapons." signs on the entrances.

Well, it's got no force of law in Florida and all they can do is to trespass me if I refuse to leave once they decide I'm packing.

But if I never give away I've got a weapon, then they have no reason to bother me.

I do worry those signs will cause the worst sort to think they can shoot it up with impunity.

Gun free zones are dangerous.

Electronic Raining And Pouring

The Mother In Law's phone and Fire tablet both decided to take a dump at nearly the same time!

Ugh!

We'd been expecting this.  The Fire was 7 years old, the phone 5 years.

The phone is cheap, just a small add to the phone bill.

The Fire is a bit more.

The only real irritation is the lengthy set-up process that involves, basically, ignoring it while it does its thing and occasionally stabbing, "OK," when prompted.

No Warranty Expressed Or Implied

Buying someone else's project car is fraught with peril.

I'm watching a drama unfold on Facebook where someone sold a car to another which, promptly, grenaded once the new owner took possession.

He is, understandably, pissed at the seller.

The seller is maintaining that the car was running fine when the buyer bought it.

It's probably true.

The thing about lots of hot-rods is the mods are ticking time bombs.

It's fine, until it's not.

You have to pray that the person doing the mods both did a good job and picked a combination with some longevity.

You see the route to and from the Hot Rod Power Tour littered with the failures.

Not Today Mr ATF Man

Facebook, helpfully, keeps offering links to Temu to buy "fuel filters" which are obviously sound suppressors.

I know it's a suppressor.  You know it's a suppressor.  The ATF will sure as shit know it's a suppressor.

But I have an absolutely unreasonable desire to find a way to put it to innocent use on my car.

Just like the ad says it's for!

The best I've been able to come up with is a catch can to capture vapor from the PCV system.  The baffles would help to condense the vapors...

But I wont.  There's many better catch can designs out there which don't get you into potential trouble with the government.

I am also curious if that thing comes with instructions explaining how you install it as a fuel filter.  UNC threads are not the best solution for holding pressure...  NPT is far better.

The Warmth Of Hate

Because I'm the kind of person who reads lyrics, Bruce Springsteen never appealed.

But lots of people think the chorus is the song...

However, I have a friend who utterly despises Mr Springsteen, and it's because of him that I end up reading articles about The Boss.

Wow.

There's a few music critics who are on to the contrived persona that Bruce has worn with less and less success, and they sure can hate.

But, I guess they'd better be good at it; they're professionals.

Real Swords

I'm green with envy for Mr Savage's access here.

I love how close GURPS gets the weights.

I would have loved to see the historian spend more time on blade shape.

This Is Snark Not Serious

Why shouldn't I get you to pay for my student loans?

I've been paying your fucking union dues for decades.

Trinity

This very moment, 78 years ago, the first atomic bomb of any kind was detonated.

25 kilotons of canned sunshine.

Just 6dx14,848 cr ex linked 6dx9,651 burn ex rad sur.

The Gadget was also the first implosion type device, proving the concept for Fat Man.