Solar panel experiment

This apartment has a southerly facing that may allow some sunlight into the balcony.  I don't know if it will be a whole lot, nor do I know what devices that the panel could power.  At the moment, I am considering powering my phones and tablet with it.  If I can make it work well enough, I may power my little scooter with it.

The scooter has a couple 12 volt batteries in it that I purchased in the summer of 2014.  It has been sitting around here for over a year.  There is also the 12 volt battery that I used to power my electric tools out at the ranch last April.  It got a good workout, but it is still relatively new.  I could bring that into the action, as well as the inverter and have all these tools get a workout.

Getting the solar panel a stand to sit on involved a bit of ingenuity.  I didn't spend a penny.  Just got a chair, some elastic cord, a "C" clamp, and put the thing together.  The chair allows the solar panel to lean on it, while the other stuff keeps it securely on the chair so that the wind won't blow it off.  If it hits the concrete, that won't be good.

I hope all this will give me some practice for living out there.  At least I will know what I didn't find out when I was out there.  I didn't find out the capabilities of the solar panel because something was wrong with it.  I wasted a lot of time setting the thing up out there.  That's one of the reasons it took me longer than I bargained for when I was planning the outing.

Of course I took the malfunctioning panel in and got it replaced.  I checked it out, as can be seen on one of my videos.

I've been busy today, even though I should be working.  Actually, this is a lot more fun.  They don't call it "work" for nothing.

Update:

It may take some maneuvering of the chair in order to get some sun.  Besides that, I've got to fix something that came loose.  Now, if I could only remember how I did it in the first place.  In the meantime, there's a football game.

Earlier today, I put in some work.  Need to make some bucks.

Update:

Set it up, but it isn't putting out much.  Too much shade.  Hopefully, I assembled everything correctly, and all it needs is some sunshine.  I'll check it again tomorrow morning.

Update:

Didn't wait till tomorrow morning.  Put a voltmeter on it, and it is generating some electricity.  Too much shade to be effective.

Update:

This is "tomorrow morning" and I've done a check out on the panel.  Sunny day, but the controller doesn't seem to be working.  The panel is putting out plenty of volts, but it doesn't show at the controller.  The battery shows no current going to it.  This suggests something, but not sure what.

Perhaps my mc4 work leaves something to be desired.

Need to check some more, and make sure it isn't the controller itself.

Gravity

This is not a review.   It is an impression of it immediately after watching it on my tablet.  I managed to get the rental for less than a buck and thought, why not

I liked the film.  There is never a dull moment throughout.  Very action packed.

As for realism, cannot answer for that.  I remember that an astronaut liked it.  Might have been Buzz Aldrin.  Seems realistic enough for me.

I suppose that this is not the best use of my time to spend over an hour and a half watching this, but since I am trying out the tablet, I suppose that I could justify the time spent that way.

Out west, I will not have the bandwidth available to downstream a video.  If I wish to see something like this, it will have to be on dvd.

Perhaps this was not the best use of my time after all.

Computer housekeeping

You probably wouldn't guess it if I didn't mention it.  I have a computer science degree.

Yep, didn't do me much good.  

My computer skills may not be any better than anyone else's.

Computers have a rapid obsolesence quality about them.  What you know today won't necessarily help you tomorrow.  What I learned in the seventies isn't much good now.

Anyway, I spent some of my time today fixing the netbook.  More RAM is now available.  There ought to be a way to get it ALL back, but I won't make the effort.  There may not be much life left in it anyhow.

This post is being written on my tablet.  I am thing of dropping the conventional internet and going all wireless.  I've done that before.  It constrains you, as you have to keep track of your data usage, and be careful not to incur additional costs.  The tablet uses wireless.

The desktop needs updating.  What a pain that is.

All the old computers are gone.  These three are what I have now, plus a couple smart phones.  I am wondering if I can use the old smartphone for something.  It has a better camera than the new one.

Once I get out on the property out West, blog posts may just be links to videos.  A heads up for you, in case you are interested.

"Best of" posts continued

In order to complete one of my goals, I want to go through all my posts, and update the "Best of" lists.

I'm working slowly on this because I don't like to do it much.  However, the compensation for such drudgery is some insights which might come from it.  In other words, it is work, and I don't like work.  Yep, laziness is one of my vices.

Let's get on with it...

Wishbone
Bloggers living off the grid
Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, and Me - RobertRinger.com
About this Remnant
Ramblin, Gamblin, Man
Charles Koch: I'm Fighting to Restore a Free Society
Can Niceness and Firmness Coexist? - RobertRinger.com
Goodyear Inflatoplane
Why Elon Musk is a Poor Person’s Worst Nightmare
I'm single at 50. Why? Men hate me being brainier than them, says KATE MULVEY
Social Disaster --- Mark Farner ( 1977 )
What happened to Al Fin?
Karl V. Kordesch: must remember that name


There's more in this category, but I'm spending more time on this than I wanted.  I'll stop here.  This is a lot of reading material in case anyone's interested.

Krugman: The exemplar of the Liberal catechism

In an earlier post, I struck upon the theory of the Liberal catechism.  I got the idea from watching the film Brave New World.   Thinking a bit more about the word "catechism" helps understand not only the concepts that one wishes to put forward with the catechism, but that the use of the catechism helps you understand the person or group using the catechism for their teaching.

I seek to put that theory to the test.  So, here we are.  So called conservatives are struggling mightily against the Liberal onslaught.  Surely something is wrong.

Rush Limbaugh loves to say that he knows Liberals.  Does he really?  A failure to understand Liberals is like the general who doesn't know his opponent, as in Sun Tzu's axiom that a winning general knows his enemy.  Know him not, and your chances are at best 50-50.  How can Rush really know the enemy then if he cannot consistently beat them?  Blaming it on "low information" voters just shifts the blame away from the failed general onto the troops.

But this isn't about Rush, it is about Krugman.

It's about his latest article, about how wealth is bad for the soul.  Did Krugman have a revelation somewhere down the road to Damascus?  Not to worry, Krugman didn't get all religious on us.  Krugman is probably just using this as a rhetorical device to gull you into believing his thesis.  His real target isn't about wealth per se, or he would divest himself of all of his.  I'm pretty sure that Krugman won't take up a vow of poverty anytime soon.

He bases his latest thesis upon some of what he calls "serious research", which is a Time op-ed.  Sounds pretty doggone serious.

If attaining wealth makes one more narcissistic, then why write this as a part of a "serious" piece of scholarship?

...there is a difference between narcissistic traits, as measured in this study, and clinical narcissistic-personality disorder. The disorder is actually more common among the poor rather than the rich, according to other studies. That’s probably because at its most extreme, narcissism destroys relationships both in the home and workplace — and therefore, is more likely to lead to unemployment and poverty, not success.

If there's a correlation between narcissism and wealth, that paragraph just blew it up.  Even if there was a corrrelation, there is no claim to causation.  In fact, correlation as causation is a logical fallacy.  Indeed, poverty seems to breed clinical narcissistic-personality disorder, not the other way around.  But if being wealthy means that someone engages in its traits, but not the clinical disorder itself, isn't that more benign?  This seems to be an argument for getting wealthy.  It reduces the clinical disorder.  If the price paid is a bit of annoying traits, then that isn't necessarily a bad trade.  However, this is just a musing of mine, not a claim to "serious research".

Krugman, after admitting there's no connection, which means he is being somewhat dishonest, then launches into one of his sermons that demonstrates the second triad of the Liberal catechism-- untruth, Equality, and Peace.  We all must be Equal, gosh darn it.

Finally, he closes in on his real target- Trump and the GOP.  So, the real design of all this is not to share his revelation about soulful things, but to go after the leader in the nomination for the presidency.

Trump is eeeeeeeeeeevil because he is rich.  Rich is bad.  Equality is good.  If we all were equal, the Utopia would be at hand.  Peace and prosperity would reign forever and ever and ever.  Amen.

Too bad it is all just another Liberal fairy tale.

"Super intelligence" tandem to solve AGW "problem" ?

Computers aren't smart.  They can only do exactly what they are instructed to do.  They can appear smart, if the programmers are smart enough to emulate intelligence in a convincing way.  You only have the intelligence of a computer programmer collaborating with a bunch of numbskulls who think computers are smart enough to tell them anything.

The trouble with this line of thinking is that there are those who are relying upon computers to do their own thinking for them.  That is all but an admission of failure, as far as I'm concerned.

I may get some argument for this, but what the hay?

You know, I was thinking about this just a few moments ago.  If you disagree with liberals, they tend to get mad at you.  It is like you are attacking them personally.  It isn't personal with me.  I just think they are stupid.

About those resolutions...

Let's do a "Best of" post.

The "Best of post" is to promote the blog a bit.  That's one of my resolutions.  I'm going to work the list in reverse order, because I'm sure I've worked the list the other way.  Maybe I'll find some interesting posts that way.

Here's the list:

Big Brother is Watching
Doodle Bug and Ying Yang
Frog and Scorpion
Dog and Butterfly meaning
When all else fails, think
Optimism v pessimism
Sleepless night
Connecting the dots

That's enough for now.  I will continue until I cover the entire blog.  If I don't, I will have failed at keeping my resolution.

Funny how the left wing mind works

They want you to listen to them, but they don't want to listen to you.

I check out their sites from time to time.  It isn't like I don't listen to them.  I have given their ideas consideration.  Perhaps a whole lot more consideration than they deserve.

No, it isn't like the so-called right wing doesn't listen to them.  It's because the left wingers have this habit of being wrong about 100% of the time.

Can't make the world go away

Just saw something on the Behind the Black Blog.  He mentions a filter that removes any references to Trump, so that those who don't like him can be spared his Trumpiness.  Yep, that's your basic snowflake attitude.  I'd like to make Obama go away, but that won't happen until about another year.  Thank goodness for the amendment that limits him to two terms.  Imagine if this jerk could run for another term and actually get his butt reelected again.

Yes, that could make the liberals go away- at least for awhile.  Fits the liberal catechism just fine.  It is an untruth, and that is what draws liberals like flies to you know what.

It reminds me of this song.  Make the World Go Away, by Eddy Arnold.  Sorry to include such a lovely song for something unpleasant, like these snowflakes.  But snowflakes will always be with us.  You can't make the world go away.  It's a fairy tale.

Forget launching fuel, use LOXLEO instead

Speculation alert

Anybody who reads this blog may recall my series on LOXLEO.  The series left off with a discussion of making fuels in space.  The LOXLEO device would gather gases, and then take it to the manufacturing facility in space.  At that point, it could be distributed to space faring vehicles for refueling.

The original LOXLEO device was to be nuclear powered.  However, nuclear power wouldn't be necessary if some other form of power could be substituted in its stead.  That other form could be space solar.

If a space solar facility could be built that would supply the necessary power to collect the atmospheric gases, and then transport them to a higher orbit so that it can be converted into a transportation fuel, the need for launching gases would be minimized.

Perhaps hydrogen can be launched with SpaceX's reusable spacecraft.  Then transported in the way just mentioned.  The advantage is that about 93% of the reaction mass is gathered in space using a LOXLEO device.  It means that about 7 %  of the reaction mass must be launched from the ground, which should reduce launch costs.  If the transport tank can be reused, all the better.

Perhaps a Dragon capsule could be converted into a hydrogen storage tank that could deliver upwards of 5k lbs of liquid hydrogen that could be offloaded and converted to ammonia.  The amount of reaction mass thus gathered by LOXLEO and converted to ammonia/lox would be about 68k lbs.  All for the price of one launch of a Falcon 9.

This could be done until the moon was set up to mine water.  Thenceforth, you could transport nitrogen from the Earth and manufacture the ammonia from the lunar water.  Since it takes far less energy to launch from the moon, it could become an important refueling station for trips to Mars.

Happy New Year!

Whoop-de-doo.

Another year in the can.  Another year for the history books.

If 2015 is to be remembered for anything, I'm going to predict that it will be remembered for Elon Musk's achievement in recycling rockets.  The reason is that it will open up space, and make us space faring species.

It may also make Elon Musk one of the most wealthy people, if not The most wealthy person on Earth.

Why did I have to ruin a perfectly nice day?

I did once I started writing about liberals.  Yep, that'll ruin your day in a hurry.  I'm being a bit facetious here.  I'm not bothered by it, but I'm sure some of the snowflakes that might be lurking about may be a bit discomfited by it.

Now that those of you who are liberals are forewarned, you can now retreat to your safe zones.  That way, you don't have to be bothered by the knuckle dragging, mouth breathing Neanderthal with whom you cannot be bothered to have a debate.  That's because you, being that special, special snowflake that you are, are so much better.  Of course you are.

The thing I wanted to write about is a word.  It is called "catechism".  As I noted in the last post, liberals have to believe certain things in order to be a liberal.  And Christians too.  Not necessarily the same things, though.  In fact, if you are a liberal, most likely you aren't a Christian.  That's because if you still are a Christian and a liberal, something's dreadfully wrong.  The two just don't go together.  That's because the catechisms don't match up.

Actually, I don't know what the catechism is with Christians, and I'm not so sure about liberalism either.  I have to infer from what I can observe.  I won't do it with Christianity, because I'm not trying to bury Christianity, nor to praise it.  Can't say the same thing about liberals though.

From the film Brave New World, I observed that the fictional place had the catechism of Community, Identity, and Stability.  A catechism, is---" a series of fixed questions, answers, or precepts used for instruction in other situations".  I would link to that definition, but that includes other info that I would just as soon not include.  I'm most interested in the precepts.  Maybe I'll just refer to them as premises instead.  My Neanderthal brain can't handle those fancy words.

This gives a working basis that may help in identifying just exactly what a liberal is.  Tough job, but somebody's gotta do it.  Can you reduce liberalism to just three words?  I don't know, but I know one word that applies to them.  What is that?  Equality.  Boy, do liberals believe in that.  They believe in it as long as it doesn't apply to themselves, of course.  That's because they are just so special little snowflakes, yes they are.

Ah, another pops up in my brain.  It is untruth.  No, not truth, but untruth.  If the liberals find anything that is true, it is like holy water to the Devil.  The run from it as fast as they can.  That's how they can embrace something like post modernism, which denies that there is any such thing as truth.  For the liberal to see truth would be a miracle that would rival the Resurrection itself.  For the liberal to see truth, they'd have to be born all over again.  What a concept!

Finally, the last word is peace.  The liberals love that word, but they sure don't know how to find it.  Sort of like truth.  Only they really want peace.  Oh, they do, they do, they do.  But as sure as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, the liberals will never find it.  That because of the second part of the catechism, which is about untruth.  You can't find peace without truth, and the liberals just can't see truth for what it really is.  That is why they are liberals.

You can always hope that liberals will see the light, but don't bet the farm on it.

Democrats have to believe certain things, or they can't be Democrats anymore

How to respond to stuff that the left says?  The Mahablog has something posted on her blog that supposedly explains the appeal of Donald Trump.

Supposedly, the "masses" are all the same.  The left lumps everybody in the same mold.

I've been over it more than once why I support Trump.  Evidently those on the left cannot accept explanations like that.  It has to be that I'm a racist, homophobic bigot that just cannot accept a black man as POTUS.  All Trump supporters are the same.

This line of reasoning strikes me as a fairly tale that the left has to tell themselves so that they can keep on believing in themselves.

If you really want to distill the appeal of Trump down to its core part, then do this:  recognize that the left is a failure, and that we want, need, and deserve something better than this for ourselves.

The Dems cannot admit failure, so they have to dream up their fairy tales so that they can keep on being Democrats.  If they recognized the truth, they'd have to become something better, which is really what they need to do.

Traveling Wilburys (Harrison, Orbison, Dylan, Petty, Lynne, Keltner) - End of the Line - HQ

I was in the Supermarket and the elevator music had on an interesting song that wanted to look up and embed here on the blog.  But I couldn't find it.  Instead, I found this one.  Not too bad, so I'll use it until I find the other one.


Oops!  Can't embed, so I'll just have to link.

Found another version that will allow embedding:




Update:

Here it is, doggone it.

New Year's Resolutions

This hasn't been done on this blog, I don't think.  (Pause, after reflecting upon that for awhile.  Looking up what I did last year on the blog at this time of year. )

Hmm.  I've returned now.  Some interesting things popped up on my screen when I went back into time.

One thing I forgotten about is that I stopped doing "Best of" posts.  It may reflect something of a resignation to failure to gaining an audience.  It was a promotional thing.  Well, one thing you gotta do is promote.  But I don't like that.  If it is good enough, it should be recognized.  Yeah, true enough.  I think the blog is better than the audience numbers suggest.  A lot better, in fact.

Do I add "promote the blog more" to my resolutions?  Meh.  I don't know.  I'm not great at keeping resolutions, and I wasn't into resolutions on this blog anyway.  I know, I just checked it.

Do I start with making New Year's Resolutions and then checking back next year and see how I did?

Yes!  That's number one.

Okay, and number two is to start promoting the blog a little better.  Like doing "Best of" compilations.  Maybe that will help the declining audience stats.

Number three is easy, because if I don't, there may not be another New Year's Eve for yours truly.  I need to take better care of my health.  That means losing weight, getting more exercise, watching my health issues more closely.  Yes, and get thee hence to a doctor, which I haven't done since March 2015.  Yep, I'm late with a doctor visit.  Partly because of ObamaCare's screwups.  It might be happening again.

Number four is to keep on keeping on.  This may sound too vague, but I do have this tendency to give up when things don't seem to be going well.  The thought of quitting this blog has intruded upon my thoughts, but that would be a mistake.

So, look for me to around for at least another year.   I know you snowflakes are really going to like that.  Bwah, hah, hah!

New Years Eve: Reviewing 2015 on Boots and Oil Blog

One feature that I added a couple years back was a "Predictions" category.  So, I just now went back to September and looked at my predictions.

One thing that I should do is to upgrade my predictions a bit.  They are too vague to be predictions.

However, those are interesting and thought provoking posts.  At least they are to me.  Maybe not my audience, huh?  What audience? lol  You know you little snowflakes out there are tougher than you look.  I feel like Rodney Dangerfield here.  I can't get no respect.

One thing that caused the pause in the review process was that I contradicted a prediction made earlier.

What good are predictions if you contradict yourself?

But, the thing to remember that predictions are hard, especially about the future.  So said Yogi Berra.

A bit of speculation yields one more reason to be optimistic about SpaceX

Speculation alert:  The following contains a bit of speculation, as I don't have the information about how SpaceX recovered its first stage recently.

If you followed SpaceX's progress over the years, you may have watched the video which illustrates their method to reuse the first stage.  The rocket flips and then fires retro to its movement.  This would eventually cause the rocket to slow down and then move in the opposite direction back to the launch site.  I think this is incorrect, from a technical standpoint.

What really happens, or should happen, is that gravity will stop the rocket eventually, so why use precious fuel?  However, the rocket isn't going straight up anymore, as it has gone downrange a considerable distance.  Some fuel may have to get expended in order to send the rocket back into vertical climbing mode, and then letting gravity bring it to a stop.

Once the rocket is climbing vertical, it should lose velocity rather quickly.  By the time it does, it will be almost in space.  In fact, from what I heard, it is already in space when it begins its journey back to the launch site.  This is important in terms of not having the aerodynamic pressure against the nozzles.  In space, there would be no atmosphere, and therefore, no pressure against the nozzles.

As the rocket slows, it can begin to move into position to flip, and then it will fire again.  At this point, it is just doing what it has already done.  The main challenge is to hit a second target with the accuracy required.

Accuracy in rocketry is a problem that has been solved for a long time.  I remember reading about this during the Cold War, as America's rockets were said to be more accurate than the Soviets rockets.  If this has been already perfected for decades, then hitting a spot on the ground could not be that big of a deal.  The rocket just executes mostly what it already demonstrated by getting to where it already was.

The main accomplishment then is just to get the thing to flip without damaging any components.  Since the rocket is moving rather slowly in space at this point, the danger is minimal.

The last part of landing the rocket had been practiced with the so-called Grasshopper rocket tests.  There's some discussion about how the rocket was guided, but it seems to me that the rocket's ability to compensate for wind is minimal.  Mostly, it is like how a military payload is delivered in war.  Whatever adjustments it needs to make would have to be limited.  It is just a dead weight hurtling downward to crash land to a precise spot, but the crash is averted at the last moment by firing the rockets to slow its descent.

Judging from what I have read, the rockets don't use gimbaling to adjust for wind.  Gimbaling the rocket nozzles would change the direction of force to compensate for the wind moving the rocket around.  Perhaps some other technique was employed?

Since there is some legitimate concern about retro firing of the rockets, one presumes that the rocket would not be allowed to gain too much speed.  The engines could be fired as a brake to prevent it from going too fast.  Since it must do that, I speculate, I'm guessing that rocket didn't have to undergo that much stress on the descent.

Much of the discoloration observed was most likely superheated atmosphere that scorched the side of the rocket.  This might be of some concern, but if the rocket survived, most likely it didn't cause much damage, except to the paint job.

Therefore, the rocket and its engines should be in good shape.  The chance of flying again with minimal refurbishing should be pretty good.

FuturePundit: We Are Still Not In The Space Age ( not so fast )

FuturePundit: h/t Instapundit

comment:

I am tempted to be critical here, just a little.  The big deal here is that space refueling may get enabled now.  If you deliver fuel to space for $250 lb, that means for the amount of fuel for the Saturn IV that powered the lunar landing and return capsule, you'd have the rocket and the main mass, the fuel, costing only a little over $50 million to deliver it.

It currently doesn't make much sense to deliver fuel, but if you use one reusable rocket to deliver 10 loads of fuel, it starts to make sense.  A Falcon Heavy can deliver about half as much as a Saturn V.  Ten Falcon Heavy launches can deliver 5 times as much as one Saturn V.

If a rocket deployed permanently in space is also reusable, you could make a trip to the moon for what it now takes just to launch to Low Earth Orbit.  This could make the moon routinely reachable.  Repeat the same process by setting up refueling bases on the moon, which you can now reach frequently, ( provided that this works ) and then Mars becomes accessible.

What makes me hold back a bit on the criticism is that it hasn't been proven yet.  You still need to prove that it can be done, as well as space refueling.

ObamaCare Blues

I've had the Mooshot blues, so why not the ObamaCare blues?  What a pain in the neck this is.  It got screwed up last year and it looks like it is screwed up again.
I would say something about the GOP, but you've probably read it before on this blog.

Hopefully, this isn't going to be too big of a pain in the ass.  I don't know how much my old ass can handle any more.

Besides fooling around with the ObamaCare blues, I organized my tax records a little better.  Organization isn't exactly one of my strong suits.  What this means is my shoebox isn't quite as jumbled as it was a few hours ago.  Yay me.

If I had any musical inclinations, I would write and perform a blues song.  Maybe embed instead a Hank Williams "Lovesick Blues" will do in a pinch.

"Ain't nobody's Sugar Daddy now", indeed.

Weird day

Seems like I am busy , but nothing is getting done.

Okay, let's go over what I have done.

Currently, I am typing in this post using my tablet.  I fixed up a stand, so that the "screen" can lean back, like a laptop.  It isn't in my lap, because that doesn't work.  What does work is to put it on a flat surface, and then type.  Still hunt and peck, which slows down my typing.

Prior to this, I updated my desktop, which I seldom use.  I need to use it, obviously.

I deleted a few files on my old youtube account.  I may use that channel again, by the way.

While fooling around with my youtube account, I found my old friend's channel and posted a video here.

Which gets me back to how I started today: thinking about arrangements out west.  This has not been resolved.  I need to figure out something soon:  stay here or move.  The odds are that I will stay here.  But if I feel confident enough, I will move.   That's unlikely, maybe a 10 percent chance.

Oh, almost forgot.  Dick Morris has some videos up that make it look like Hillary won't be the nominee for POTUS.

Now, I'll post this thing and get on the next thing.

Sidecar shuts down

May have been the first of its kind rideshare companies-- like Uber.

The picture on their website reminds me of the song  "San Francisco".



Don't jump off that bridge without a parachute.  It's a long way down.

The Jaggerz - The Rapper - 45 RPM

There must have been a groove in that last song that reminded me of this one.  So I searched it on the YouTube and found it.

Always did like this song.

Ode To The Bayou City

High school classmate made this video.  He doesn't seem to hold it in high esteem, but I think it's kinda cool.

What cha' think?  Or am I asking bots?

Getting more than what you bargained for

The title to the post is one of those idiomatic expressions in English that says you might have made a mistake when there wasn't an obvious risk of that when you made your original decision.  Han Solo said that in the original Star Wars movie when he took on passengers Obi-wan and Luke Skywalker.  Yep, I got more than what I bargained for, and more could be on the way.

Such now appears to be the case with my "Moonshot".  When I made the decision to buy the land, it didn't seem like that big of a deal.  But now, it is becoming something of a problem.

I had no idea that it would cost so much for that last trip in April.  I haven't been back since.  Prior to that, I had made 4 trips.  So, it is quite obvious to me now that I wasn't expecting to spend so much, and accomplish so little.  It was indeed becoming obvious that a single day trip wasn't worthwhile, but staying for 12 days was too expensive.  Is there a happy medium?

That's the stuff I've learned so far, but there could be more.  It is almost like I regret my decision.  However, if it would be a workable idea, a big smile would come across my face that would make it all worthwhile.

Yes, I'm having doubts.  I don't know if I can solve the problems ahead of me.  It really is a personal test of some kind.  I expected certain problems, but these aren't really the big problems that I thought they'd be.  The bigger problems weren't obvious to me at the time.

Don't look now, but Trump may win in a landslide

What is the basis of such a speculation?  It comes from none other than the 538 site that I linked to awhile back.  Also, a poll, which claims that Trump could get 40% of the black vote and 45% of the latino vote.

That seems like a big stretch, but maybe not.  Considering that Trump is running something of a populist campaign, his appeal could result in a big victory that includes non-college educated whites, blacks, and latinos.

Testing that theory, I plugged in turnout numbers and voting percentages that came close to the poll.  What the poll didn't indicate is turnout, so I played with that number a bit.  The numbers I used were the following:

• college educated whites vote in same percentage, but turnout falls to non-college educated whites
• non-college educate whites vote in same percentage, but turnout rises to college educated whites
• blacks 61-39% in favor of Dems, but with turnout of college educated whites
• latinos 57-43% in favor of Dems with turnout the same
• asians unchanged

results  Trump wins with 53.3% of the vote and 322 electoral votes.

Thus, a populist campaign can win.  It would rely upon the demographic breakdowns that were in the poll, and a smattering perhaps of wishful thinking.  The wishful thinking relates to how this poll stacks up to anything in the real world.

If Trump is actually doing better than this poll, especially amongst whites, it's a landslide.

House Democrats Move to Criminalize Criticism of Islam | Frontpage Mag

House Democrats Move to Criminalize Criticism of Islam | Frontpage Mag

comment:

Here's a possible reason why Trump is ahead in the polls.  Why?  Democrats threaten to punish dissent, but Trump throws it right back.

If only the GOP would fight back, but they don't.  Here's what they should be saying:

"It took blood to make this country.  It will take blood to unmake it.  You do this over our dead bodies".

Yeah, they should say it, and mean it.  But, of course they won't.  That's why they aren't doing too well against Trump.  Trump isn't talking that way himself.  He only suggests a MILD alternative and these fanatics go nuts.

Did you see where Bush is positing himself as a tough guy standing up to Trump?  Bush calls Trump a bully.  One commenter noted that only sissified men called another man a bully.  Most of the commenters were laughing at Bush.  No, Bush ain't no tough guy.

When I read this piece, I really felt bad for this country.

What may be getting overlooked with respect to reusable rocketry

A few points to keep in mind about SpaceX's recent achievement in landing the Falcon 9 first stage rocket and recovering it intact.  A comparison with the Space Shuttle's main engine may not be apt for a number of reasons

1.   A different fuel that burns hotter in the Shuttle main engines.
2.  The Shuttle's engines burned all the way up, whereas this is only a first stage.  The return to launch site burn only took a few of the engines.  The burn was a lot shorter. 
3.  Besides the Shuttle, there were rocket planes flown in the fifties, and these were reusable.  How well did these hold up?  The point is that these engines may be more durable than commonly believed at the moment because of the Shuttle experience.
4. The Shuttle engines had to be rebuilt because there was no engine out capability.  A loss of a Shuttle engine meant an abort.  The Falcon 9 has an engine out capability.  No need to abort a mission because of a failed engine.  They can afford to push the envelope a little more.
5. The SpaceX people may already have a pretty good idea of how long an engine could last from test firings on the stand.  It stands to reason that they wouldn't spend a lot of money recovering a first stage rocket that wouldn't be useful at all.  In other words, they have to believe that they have a good chance to fly again, and that it isn't based upon wishful thinking.

I'd rate their chances at better than 50-50 at this point.  You don't really know how much better than 50-50, but it is definitely better than 50-50.

The Truth About Slavery: Past, Present and Future

Absolutely astounding factual information about slavery.  Slavery was called America's Original Sin.  Well, whether or not you agree with that or not, one thing you may not know, ( which I didn't) is that there were nearly as many white slaves as black slaves imported into America.  Yep, betcha you didn't know that one.

In other words, slavery wasn't confined to race in the beginning.  It ended up that way, sure, but it didn't start that way.

Slaves were treated much more kindly in America than was the case in Muslim territories.  Black slaves were treated more kindly than the white slaves in America!  Why?  African slaves required black African warlords to capture black slaves because the average white man doesn't live long in Africa back then- the consequence was higher costs.  Yep, you probably didn't know that one either.  ( Or maybe I assume that you don't know it cuz I didn't know it.  Most likely, the average person doesn't know, because if you did, you would be impervious to the guilt trip being laid on you for being a white person. )

So much of modern day liberalism depends upon laying the guilt trip on white people for being "racist".  The historical truth is a bit different.  Of course, you are not educated that way, because if you were, there goes their power.

First Amendment? Bah! Press censors the news like we were in an Iron Curtain Country

According to this article, the media censored three stories about AGW that would have cast doubt upon the theory.

Aside from not teaching us our own history, they are keeping the truth from the news itself.

You are mushrooms, my little snowflakes.

Trump speaking truth to power and winning

American Thinker

Trump is calling them on it and they don’t like it. More to the point, they don’t understand it. Donald Trump is challenging the liberal world. He is pointing out its failures. Trump is in the position of Harry Truman: he isn’t giving the liberals hell, he is telling the truth and they think it’s hell.

Yep, it's exciting, but the outcome hasn't been decided yet.  The outcome will tell us where we really are as a nation.

The West is the best

But not according to the left.  Mostly a good article ( Joel Kotkin ) , but it ends badly, as we see here:

Some people in Western countries are reacting to this abandonment of culture and heritage. Unfortunately, many of them are attracted to demagogues like Donald Trump or Marine Le Pen

You might even call this a rather slick lie.  Here this guy pretty much confirming everything that Trump has said, and then turns around, and sticks a knife in his back.

Nice try.  It isn't "xenophobic" nor "racist" to secure your own borders.  It is almost ridiculous that you have to defend this with the vigor that must be brought to bear.

He does have a lot of points there.  One may wonder how the whole thing could have happened.  It think it happened after many years of leftist ( cultural Marxism)  control of our culture.  You have to take the control away from them, and begin the repairs that must be made.   Don't know if Trump will do this, but his proposals are a step in the right direction.

Update:

This is a rather significant bit of information that most people have not heard about.  The reason is that our universities don't teach it anymore, as the article points out.  THIS POINT HAS A CRYING NEED TO BE BROADCAST OVER AND OVER AGAIN SO THAT IT WILL BE HEARD AND UNDERSTOOD.  Our government has been failing us in the most horrific way imaginable.  The author said that they abandoned our history.  They did worse than that.  They have abandoned us in every way.  The cure for this is new leaders.  There is not likely to be any other way to correct this.

Professor of Ignorance

There's this black Professor who wrote a letter to "white America", in which he accuses the whites of being racist.

This stuff is so old.  It is also ignorant.  If you would just watch the video that I embedded awhile back.  In it, it is discussed how WHITE people were taken as SLAVES for CENTURIES by the Mohammedans.  White people died by the millions during such enslavement.

Yet, you don't see white people blaming slavery of that time for all their problems.  What happened in the past is in the past.  It has little to do with today, yet the blacks allow themselves to persuaded that it does.

You won't get anywhere in life if you excuse your own failures by blaming someone else.  The professor doesn't enlighten anybody, he keeps them in the dark.  ( no pun intended )

Computer blues

Today's the day for the blues.  Weather is right, as it is raining.  The computer is old and worn out.  I've tried to restore it to its best possible function.  But it is kind of like being a doctor and telling the patient-- "I've done all I can."

The internals are a mess.  The externals are a mess.  It looks like a mess and it is.  It is literally being held together with duct tape.

I use the hell out of my computers.  This one is nearly seven years old, and it might as well be seventy.  The keys are worn on it.  I banged out a lot of blog posts on this little machine.  Nearly 10,000 now, and most of them on this little gizmo.  It has worked hard for me and I will miss it when it is gone.  That's why I'm working hard to keep 'er alive.

One thing is true, the world will kick your butt.

Moonshot blues

With respect to the off-the-grid project ( my personal "moonshot" ), it seems like I am not getting anywhere sometimes.  A tough decision is coming up and it is hard to choose amongst the alternatives.  There are a number of them that are possible.  Making the list produces the following:

• convert the van
• obtain a larger, newer "moving van" vehicle with a higher profile
• use the trailer
• use the trailer and convert the van
• do what Wishbone is doing

It will be necessary to identify what the problems are.

One of them is cost.  The budget is really tight.  That would seem to rule out the moving van.
Another is comfort.  Trying to imagine myself living like this doesn't seem appealing if it is full time.
Durability.  Can it last a long time?  It will have to because once it wears out, it may be impossible to replace.
Security.  A theft would be disastrous.  It would be very hard to replace this stuff.
Health.  Is it possible to keep healthy living like that?  Seems like a hard way to live.

Some of these issues may be considered "hard", others "soft".  Health and comfort may be soft.  Durability maybe deferred to future years.  Security and cost are immediate, and therefore "hard".

Seems like I didn't consider quality of life issues.  I relegated that to the back burner, or I didn't want to think about them.

Lately, it seems that an early move out West is to be ruled out.  No move in until begin receiving my SS checks.

I've just about transitioned out of delivery.  Even if I went back, it would have to stop no later than June.

That's a minimum of one year that I will subsist off Uber.  At the moment, this looks dicey.

I've re-read some of my prior postings on this.  It has a repetitive quality about it.  That's why it is the blues.  It reflects a lot of indecision.

Update:

Key is uber.  Have to make uber work better than what it is at the moment.  If it doesn't work better, then most of this is academic.  more

This post will be organized into the general subseries of the main series of  off-the-grid type posts.

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