Studies show that 5 out of 4 women have trouble with math and statistics…..

So, on Friday, I was digging some dirt out of an embankment with the backhoe for a Saturday landscaping project at the range. Not a big deal, just time to scratch out some fill for the project. I planned on it taking about 3 hours to get the work done in advance of the actual project to take place on Saturday.

2 hours into the work, I blew a hydraulic hose… Now, this is not a big deal, as it uses common fittings and is easily replaced. It took about an hour to have one made and for me to put it on. Easy-Peasy.

Easy in TODAY’S society, that is.
It caused me to think:

What happens to our machinery when such an event occurs if things aren’t like today’s world? What if we are living in a place where there has been a “Carrington Event”-like Solar Storm? Where there is no electricity, or no Internet, or other modern devices to look up and/or otherwise find the parts that we so easily get to fix our machinery? Bearings, hoses, belts, seals, filters: all are relatively simple things, but they are essential for the operation of our equipment. That tractor that tills the fields? A $30 belt is essential. Without it, that tractor is a large hunk of useless iron. Without the bearings for our machinery, they will cease to be useful. A simple oil seal failure will render the engine or transmission or axle unusable in very few minutes. Without those fittings for the hydraulic hose, or the hose itself, or the swaging machinery that is used to assemble that hose, your machinery is useless as soon as the hydraulic fluid is pumped onto the ground, and your machine grinds to a halt.

Where are you gonna get the wheel (or hub) bearing that fails on the axle of your pickup truck? Or the oil seal? Or the coolant hose? Yes, you MIGHT be able to scavenge one from another unit. But how will you know what other unit to scavenge from for a still usable bearing that will fit? Or an oil seal (If you don’t totally destroy the seal upon disassembly in the first place)? What other pickup trucks use the same length of belt as yours? Often parts don’t interchange even between the same model/brand from a different year. How about some of those critical sensors for your car or truck (or tractor). Even if you found a parts store that had a stock of parts (say axle bearings) which one fits your truck? Most are just part numbers on the box, unless you have a way to look them up….and these days, there are seldom parts books, only a database available only through the internet.

Yes, you can stock filters, and fluids, even some belts and hoses. How many do you stock? Which ones? You can’t stock a whole other tractor or truck (at least, very few of us can). Without that supply line, it won’t take more than a year for most equipment to shut down, even if you have a supply of fuel and lubricants.

You can’t make a modern hydraulic hose, or brake hose with a normal workshop. Nor can you make a bearing with fire and an anvil. Coolant hoses are pretty high tech, really. Oil seals too. Tires can be patched, perhaps, and they are more or less standard sizes with that info written on the side, so they, at least will be swappable until the supply runs out.

Think about it. Without today’s modern manufacturing, and without the modern information systems (much less the supply lines), most “soft” items on our equipment will be irreplaceable….and without those items, even the small ones, our machinery grinds to a halt quickly.

“For want of a nail……”

Duct tape CAN’T fix stupid….

But it CAN muffle the sound.

YMMV

So all those folks who protested on Friday…

All claiming their goal and their protest was to push for 100% renewable energy by 2040 or whatever (the date varied a bit)…

How have you changed YOUR lifestyle, folks? Did you WALK to the protest site? Do you live within walking distance of your workplace?

Do YOU use any Fossil fuel energy? I bet you do.
Are you living a totally renewable lifestyle right now? (I bet not, you wouldn’t like it, really)

I haven’t seen any of those folks looking like thy are not using the wonders of society that our high energy usage society brings. They all looked well fed, healthy, well clothed (in well made clothing  that didn’t look homespun to me, so they had likely been made on machines, in factories (and likely shipped from somewhere else) all using energy from fossil fuels.

I’m all for those who want to live a low carbon/renewable energy life. But these protesters really don’t. They want the rest of us to do so, but I don’t see them leading the way. They are enjoying the benefits that our current fossil fuel powered society provides while protesting the methods and the means with which those benefits are provided.

Show me the way, folks. Live the Word….

Until then shut up.

Yeah, fuck.

Pentagon will deploy US forces to the Middle East after Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia oil facilities

And exactly who is paying for this?

Saudi?

‘Cause if we are gonna expect NATO nations to pay their fair share, then we sure as hell should be getting a deposit for the cost of this deployment from the House of Saud.

There isn’t one thing the US needs that is in the Gulf.

We don’t need their oil. The rest of the world, maybe, but not the US.

Their religion government is antithetical to ours, they have squeezed the blood and treasure of our nation for nearly my entire lifetime, and there is certainly nothing there that is worth even one US service member’s blood, much less life.

But I should get to post sometime soon.

More later.  Mebbe tomorrow. 

There seems to be a campaign among the media to ramp up the “Glowbal Warming Climate Change” panic (again). The statistics they quote are, at best misleading, the stories they push are very close to lies, and the graphics they publish are dramatic, but, again, misleading at best.

This comes close to lies, and is, to anyone who bothers to investigate, is propaganda.

What is the end game here?

I mean, how many of the DNC candidates have you heard promise to violate one or more parts of the Constitution:

Squelch free speech that they don’t like.

Ban firearms.

Confiscate property.

Violate due process.

In a just world, these folks would be automatically barred from higher office simply due to their statements, 

Lots and lots of rain.

And, invariably, some folks trash a car by driving into water that is too deep, and have to be rescued…some drown.

This happens every time we get flooding rain.

How can people be so stupid?