Saturday, January 7, 2017

Social media platforms encourage bad behavior

An assertion that I am making here and now.  The thing that inspires this post is a post on Instapundit, which notes that a lefty writer decided to leave Twitter because of bad behavior that she felt was being directed at her.  To which Glenn Reynolds replies that the behavior isn't exclusively coming from the right.

But of course not.  It is only natural though, that people see themselves as faultless, while they do crappy things themselves.

It is why nobody is permitted to post anonymously here.  There is solid reasoning behind it.  Psychological studies have shown that man's inhumanity to man is encouraged by anonymity.  In other words, a KKK lynching takes place with men in masks, not in the open air in which people can be recognized.

But there's nothing new under the sun, as the good book says.  This is nothing new.  Evil likes the darkness and hates the light.

Social media, that allows anybody to post while anonymous, encourages this type of behavior.  It should be no surprise to anybody that these abuses occur.


Friday, January 6, 2017

Apollo Fuel Cells

You may remember this series of posts.  If not, this guy says he has a fuel cell tech that is affordable.

If it is, I may try one of his cells on my land out west.  But I have this medical issue to contend with first.  We will see.

Goin' back to Houston

for biopsy... unless something fouls up the plan.

Going to leave on Monday.


Thursday, January 5, 2017

Fake news, fake data

The lefties are hanging tough.  Pushing that AGW nonsense, I see.

Here's another idea to debunk the bunk, which I observed while doing my water experiments.  You no doubt have heard the expression "heat trapping gases".  Well, I noticed that metals will hold heat pretty darned well themselves.

Indeed, it would be interesting to see which would hold heat the longest--- a chunk of metal, or an equal mass of gas.

Trouble is, you cannot run the experiment.  I mean:  how do you measure how well a gas will hold on to heat?  You would introduce other variables into the observations, I would think.

Anyway, here's what you may try:  heat up a container of gas, which is in enclosed in another container.  Measure the amount of heat that is released into the the outer container.

You could do the same for the chunk of metal.

See which one cools off the fastest.  I would bet it would be the gas.

Why would solids hold heat better than a gas?  It is the forces that bind together the atoms and molecules that trap heat.   In a gas, it is presumed to be the makeup of the molecule of carbon dioxide.  However, there is no binding agent between molecules of gas.  For if there were, it would no longer be a gas.  The binding agents between molecules is stronger than any gas, and therefore, will trap more gas.

There is no such thing as a "heat trapping gas", in other words.  Fake news, fake data.  All fake.

Update:

What is heat, anyway?  Here's a link that discusses what heat actually is ( to wit) :  kinetic energy within a system.



Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Breakfast

Maybe I could write about my cooking.  Then I would lose what little audience I have.  Yuk, yuk.

I had some pancakes just now, and they weren't all that bad. 

Recipe:

1/4 cup white flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 pinch of butter salt
1 large egg

Whip up the batter and fry it in a pan with plenty of oil, so that it won't stick to the pan.  I like it that way in order to make clean up a bit easier.

Flipping the pancakes tends to be a problem for moi, because I get a little bit antsy.  Be sure it is good and firm, or it will fall apart on ya.  It did on me, but the result was not all that bad.

It may be a bit much on the baking powder, as it fluffed up a bit more than a pancake should.  Call it the BNO deluxe pancake.  Yuk, yuk.


Monday, January 2, 2017

Water out the kazoo

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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.

Seems like all I do anymore...

Anyway, I keep improving my system for handling water.  Now I can wash my dishes with about a pint of water a day.  Not only that, I can get the water quality up to better in terms of TDS than what is coming out the faucet.  How 'bout dat?  But it isn't good water because it has remnants of soap in the water, which is hard to get out with filtration.  So, an idea struck me to use an acid to make it precipitate out of the water.  The acid could be as simple as carbonated water.  If that works, it may make the water run clear, and it will have a pretty low TDS ( total dissolved solids ) number.

If it works, I can treat the bathtub water the same way.  Then, the system may be said to be complete.

How 'bout dat?

Update:

Too good to be true.  Decision is to distill this type of water.

Ran another distillation test on the dishwater sample.  Yield was poor, quality fair, but little waste.  It is considered to be poor yield in terms of energy required for the amount of water.  But water losses during the test run were quite limited.  Very pleased with that.

Bottom line is that this method of distillation is too energy intensive.  Must use solar still.