To each and every one of you who read and comment on my blog.

I wish you happiness and prosperity in the upcoming year.

Sweden Government police say “women should not go out after dark, never go out alone, or should use taxis”.

Seems that since all those Middle Eastern “children” (male) immigrants are kinda changing the society in Sweden….

And the police, of course, say Women have to change their ways rather than the immigrants. Because MultiCulturalism.

Were I living there, I’d start buying rope and looking for sturdy lampposts for some political attention…..And I’d be making a list of each government official, elected or not, who approved the invasion of my country. And, of course, investing in rope suppliers.

Can’t the Phone Companies do something about the increasing use of spoofed phone numbers? Especially in “SWAT”ting cases like the one I wrote about 2 posts below this?

I mean, it is bad enough that they allow “Suzy from Credit Card Services” to spoof their telephone number…no one gets hurt, only annoyed. But “SWAT”ting and other crimes like this should lead to jail time. Murder charges if someone killed…There should be penalties for this behavior.

But people have been injured and killed by cops that thought they were arriving on the scene of a murder, or a hostage situation (which doesn’t excuse the injuries or shootings, IMO, but does lead to some leniency due to the situation). The telephone lines used, be they land lines or cell lines, have specific connections that should not be untrackable. The Phone Companies SHOULD be able to fix this.

Why don’t they?

Perhaps the NSA needs to step in and tell us who is responsible….

(I’d bet I could put together a lynch mob for the telemarketers though….if I cared to….)

Or is the Justice Department simply hoping that we, as a country, will forget? That we aren’t watching?

Awan Brothers trial date, delayed twice, now simply GONE from calendar…..

Were I a suspicious person, and an untrusting soul, I’d have to wonder if, having had access to MANY senators sensetive emails due to their control of the Email servers….DO they have enough dirt on some of those Senators to be able to blackmail their way out of a trial????

We all know that that would never happen, right? All those DNC and RNC folks are as clean as the driven snow and all that…..right?

Is it the cop that did the murder? (The cop that shot an unarmed man answering the door to his house when the cop knocked?)

Or is it the fault of the dude who called in a false report of a hostage situation and gave the cops the cops a false address in an attempt to “SWAT” a rival?

Either way, a cop shot an unarmed (and innocent) man last Thursday. And it looks bad for the cop.

Sad, all the way around.

So the shower faucet in the master bathroom was dripping.

Not that big a deal, except that it was there when I moved in 20 years ago, and I haven’t ever had it apart…and it is a “no name” faucet. Not a name anywhere, not the faucet nor the escutcheon, nor the knob….nothing.

Now, I never had a reason to do anything with it, or the most interesting and thought provoking valving arrangement for the water supply in this area of the house….until now.

Oddly, the faucet came apart with a bit of gentle persuasion and a bit of heat and some more gentle tapping and a few other tricks that most of us who work on shit know. I actually didn’t twist the faucet off…which is what generally happens in these cases.

Which was a good thing, because the previous owner did a most interesting install of the faucet valve. To replace it was gonna require that I pull the tub surround off, as the faucet was installed from the tub side, not the backside….so just cutting a bit of drywall on the other side wouldn’t have gotten me there. (who uses carriage bolts and lag screws to install a faucet???)

Plus the tub is, apparently, non standard, at 54 inches long and 23 inches wide. Menards/Lowes/Home Depot don’t carry anything even close to that size.

But, for once, the locking ring moved and nothing twisted too badly, and lo and behold, not only was the faucet a chinese copy of a Delta faucet, Delta replacement parts fit!!!! Ball, cups, springs, o-rings are all close enough to actually work. It’s a GOOD copy of a Delta faucet. 

This saved me from having to find a replacement tub/surround from, I am told, a mobile home supplier (Where this size is apparently standard) but a whole bunch of wall work and such. (Plus the tile floor, which was put in after the tub was installed, so would have had to be pulled up and replaced).

Once in a while the Gods smile upon me.

I’m just not sure what to sacrifice to whom now.

Watching the blurbs from this show, it is interesting to see the outright lies they state regarding the Waco standoff and the events leading up to it (and the members of the church and David Koresh himself).

One wonders why they feel the need to bring it up at all at this late date, much less the twisted version of facts and innuendo and half truths that they are peddling? I mean, we all know that the ATF version of the story was to cover the ass of the folks in charge of the operation….

Can you spot the outright lies, the half truths, the partial bits of the story, and the bits they fail to mention?

Again, WHY NOW?

Ha.

Not the pilots, the engineers. Powerplant engineers, specifically. (I am not an aviation powerplant expert, so bear with me).

I was flying today. The air temp was a balmy -4 degrees F at the surface….Neg 10 at altitude. Farking cold for the preflight, especially when I spilled avgas all over my hand.

The flight instructor warmed me on taxi to “be careful and make sure my power adjustments, especially power reductions, were done slowly and smoothly so as to prevent “shock cooling” of the engine”. (ETA: Apparently “shock cooling” causes issues with the heads and cylinders…cracking and/or other structural issues)

Now, as I said, I am not an aviation powerplant engineer, nor any sort of powerplant engineer…..I have, however, an engineering degree, and I have lots of thermal management experience under my belt….further, I used to service all sorts of air cooled small engines when I was in college for rent money.

Therefore the theory of “Shock Cooling” an aviation engine simply by closing the throttle quickly sounds fishy to me. Shutting down an already overheated powerplant? Maybe. Immersing it in water (or filling the cowling with a firehose?) maybe…but probably not.  But a gas engine that is still running should not be able to be cooled fast enough to damage it simply by slowing down the engine. What happens to an engine in flight when the airplane flies through a rain shower? Mist? heavy rain? snow?  All these should lead to significant cooling of the engine in a very short time. Water conducts heat better, plus evaporation. Faster cooling. Yet I don’t hear of Lycomings or Continentals (or Rotaxes (Rotaxi?)) suddenly shedding cylinders or valves because of rain.

I would think shutting the engine off after use would do more damage (due to sudden changes in cooling vs heat) than closing the throttle suddenly.  Or unloading the prop with quick attitude changes (say climb to level to dive)….And, of course, the sudden dimensional changes in temp due to starting the engine at all……

Again:  not an aviation powerplant expert. But have more experience than most on thermal issues.

Does anyone with real knowledge have some input? Is there something to it, or izzit just some myth carried forward by folks who are pilots but not engineers?

Damned Skippy.

Read THIS. Tell me where he’s wrong? Seriously,  if you think so, feel free to comment as to why. Be sure to be specific.

Now, you gotta understand that I have met and had a beer with “Mad Mike” a few times at blogmeets over the years (sadly not for a few years though). I like the guy, and if I could, I’d spend more time with him. If we didn’t live a few hours apart, we might (maybe) be friends…..Dude is a tiny bit nuts and a whole lot of good sense all rolled into a package that is, among other things, a great writer and a great commentor on life and people in general.