The day is nearly done, and I haven't even gotten started. Well, actually, I have been doing stuff. It just doesn't seem like much in retrospect.
Did a little laundry and shopping today. Came back home and listened to some music, and then played around with my still. Just now, I made the video I promised, but I haven't run the test. It is a "static fire test" so to speak. A static fire test is what Spacex refers to when they light up the engines of their rocket, but don't let it launch. In the delivery business, we would call it a "dry run".
It looks like it is nearly ready for the big time. An actual successful test. I would describe success as substantially clean water, with few losses, and a reasonably efficient use of energy.
But in no case would I consider actually using this device. It was never intended to be a practical device. It gives me something to practice with until I understand how to do this well enough to make a real device.
I'm thinking about heat sinks right now. You need to get the water hot, then the water vapor needs to be cooled in order to get it to condense back into water.
In a still, the water gets to boiling point, becomes steam, and travels down the condensation tube. The tube needs to be cooled down before it reaches the collection point. Otherwise, the vapors will escape the system, and you lose water.
A heat sink will do the cooling. In a solar still, where to put the heat sink? You would want it to cool the glass so that the water vapor will condense on it, and travel downwards with gravity into the collection pot. I am thinking of how to get the glass cooled down while avoiding getting in the way of the sun's light, and the water vapor.
That one is stumping me right now.
Update:
There was a short break, and now I am back. Okay. Here's an idea. You need to keep the water hot, but the glass needs to be cold. The heat sinks need to be in contact with the glass, but not the water. The water is always transferring its heat to the glass, but you want to keep the glass from equalizing in temperature, so it needs to be cooled down. That's where the heat sinks come into play.
The solar still design needs to somehow incorporate these ideas into a structure that can hold the water, while at the same time keeping the glass cool and letting the water stay relatively hot.
Al Fin: "Cowboy Commentary", aka "Eat your veggies" The Flag banner is posted in order to defy those who would make patriotic symbols illegal or disreputable.
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Friday, January 13, 2017
Water and energy are the keys to success
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Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.
First order of business: tie together the previous two posts about water, which were not included in this series.
Another post in the water sub series in the main off the grid series of posts.
First order of business: tie together the previous two posts about water, which were not included in this series.
Success of my "moonshot" depends upon water and energy. Isn't it rather convenient to have a device that will do both? A fuel cell will. I priced one, and yes it is expensive. It will also need additional equipment in order to do what I want. I figured on making those devices myself.
Distillation devices will be easy. Osmotic devices should be easy, relatively speaking. The thing that may be hard is to convert smelling salts into ammonia. Why smelling salts? Safety. It would be hard to argue against it if it were to be done that way.
Anyway, this post is about the distillation device. It is only an experiment, but it is useful practice for yours truly. I will make a new video with my improvements.
I have the device nearly ready for another test. It is designed to use energy in the most efficient way, with the least losses of water vapor.
This post will go up without the video. I will update it later with the video once I get it ready.
Update:
And here it is...
Update:
And here it is...
Eisenhower's Farewell Address
There has been talk about a certain president who had a Farewell Address. Aside from their own, the liberal leftists liked Eisenhower. But it just so happens that Eisenhower warned about allowing the government to dominate science.
In my opinion, Eisenhower's warning has borne itself out with this AGW nonsense. The domination of science by the government has brought politics into science, and has rendered science as a type of charade that isn't science at all.
In my opinion, Eisenhower's warning has borne itself out with this AGW nonsense. The domination of science by the government has brought politics into science, and has rendered science as a type of charade that isn't science at all.
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Audit the Fed and the gold supply
All of this madness I mentioned is distracting Trump from what he should be doing. He should be exposing the malfeasance of the prior administration, and why that is hurting this country.
It is hurting this country so badly that it could be fatal.
I suspect that a lot of "naked shorting" of gold has taken place. A naked short is to short without having the actual goods to short. It is basically a type of fraud. The government has allowed this because they need the gold price to stay down so as to appear to have things under control. To short- without-having-the-goods ( naked short ) is making the supply to appear to be bigger than it truly is. This will have the effect of depressing prices.
The true price of gold should be much higher. If there was an audit, it may provoke a crisis. Precisely why they don't want an audit, in my opinion.
It is hurting this country so badly that it could be fatal.
I suspect that a lot of "naked shorting" of gold has taken place. A naked short is to short without having the actual goods to short. It is basically a type of fraud. The government has allowed this because they need the gold price to stay down so as to appear to have things under control. To short- without-having-the-goods ( naked short ) is making the supply to appear to be bigger than it truly is. This will have the effect of depressing prices.
The true price of gold should be much higher. If there was an audit, it may provoke a crisis. Precisely why they don't want an audit, in my opinion.
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
Their madness has a method
You know this crazy left wing stuff seems so nutty that it seems impossible that it could ever work and actually convince people to support it.
But it does work. But how does it work?
I think this nuttiness is a distraction. It is to get Trump to spend time with them and their nuttiness. If you have to attend to their idiocies, that gives you less time to do what you need to be doing.
Trump probably couldn't get away with totally ignoring them. But he doesn't have to put them foremost in his thinking. They should rank extremely low on his list of priorities.
If he spends too much time on them, he will be screwing up.
Just sayin'.
But it does work. But how does it work?
I think this nuttiness is a distraction. It is to get Trump to spend time with them and their nuttiness. If you have to attend to their idiocies, that gives you less time to do what you need to be doing.
Trump probably couldn't get away with totally ignoring them. But he doesn't have to put them foremost in his thinking. They should rank extremely low on his list of priorities.
If he spends too much time on them, he will be screwing up.
Just sayin'.
No more Mr. Nice Guy
Alice Cooper, anyone?
Since my medical "care" is going nowhere fast, I have some time on my hands. Too busy to be sick, I guess.
Now for the meanie stuff. You will have to put up with it until I can croak and get it over with.
That story about Memorial Hermann, wow. I never presented myself as having insurance. I asked them to set me up on self pay, which I thought they did. They call me and say it is on, and so we get all set for the biopsy, and what happens? They cancel me because I don't have insurance. They drop me like a hot potato.
Typical stuff. If you think that is the exception, you would be mistaken. MD Anderson seemed to be the ticket. They got great reviews over at the Facebook page that I was visiting. It is private, you know. The general public can't see it, so I cannot show it to you. It is all touchy feeling nonsense, if you ask me. The referral to MD Anderson was just so much hooey. That is what you get today. Just a lot of fake stuff. Anyway, I wrote something mean just now over there. They will probably ban me from the "Woolsworth" for this. FYI: this happens after the Facebook post.
Fake news is nothing compared to fake medical care.
If only the fakery ended there. But it is EVERYWHERE.
If you think Limbaugh is the answer. Forget it. It looks like he changed his website so that now you have to pay to see anything. Reminds me of what the New York Times does.
Even Barnhardt cannot get it right. Her "parable" was about Taco Bell having to shut down because of cockroaches.
I'm from Houston. If you cannot get medical care there, you can certainly find cockroaches. Let me let you on to a secret. You can get rid of them. I did, and didn't see one for twenty years. It can be done. Not one stick of that building had to come down.
You do not destroy a building because of cockroaches. Now you would for termites. But cockroaches don't eat wood, and don't destroy the integrity of a building. They're filthy, slimy little nuisances all right, but they can be eliminated.
What it requires is competence. Something sorely lacking in our increasingly fake society.
Just thought you might want to know before "Atlas Shrugs". The crash will be loud.
Instead of America the Beautiful, it can now be called America the Fake. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Update:
I should add that the Social Security Administration is not acting right either. That's what I spent my time on yesterday.
I didn't file online, but they say I did. No way. I contracted with an advocacy group to represent me, and to do my claim for me. Now, the thing I did do was to provide info and do it online. However, somehow, the claim got made even though I didn't "push the button" to finalize the claim online. That's because I decided to go the advocacy route. As far as the Social Security Administration is concerned, that online application should not exist because I had not submitted it.
I went over this with a representative of Social Security, but they can't undo what has been done.
The advocacy group knows about it too. Nothing they can do.
So, why bring it up? That's because this bureaucracy keeps acting like none of this happened. Nothing I say in protest will make any difference. If the claim is denied, it could be because of this.
Who knows why they did this. Maybe because I keep "mouthing off"?
Wouldn't surprise me if it were true.
Since my medical "care" is going nowhere fast, I have some time on my hands. Too busy to be sick, I guess.
Now for the meanie stuff. You will have to put up with it until I can croak and get it over with.
That story about Memorial Hermann, wow. I never presented myself as having insurance. I asked them to set me up on self pay, which I thought they did. They call me and say it is on, and so we get all set for the biopsy, and what happens? They cancel me because I don't have insurance. They drop me like a hot potato.
Typical stuff. If you think that is the exception, you would be mistaken. MD Anderson seemed to be the ticket. They got great reviews over at the Facebook page that I was visiting. It is private, you know. The general public can't see it, so I cannot show it to you. It is all touchy feeling nonsense, if you ask me. The referral to MD Anderson was just so much hooey. That is what you get today. Just a lot of fake stuff. Anyway, I wrote something mean just now over there. They will probably ban me from the "Woolsworth" for this. FYI: this happens after the Facebook post.
Fake news is nothing compared to fake medical care.
If only the fakery ended there. But it is EVERYWHERE.
If you think Limbaugh is the answer. Forget it. It looks like he changed his website so that now you have to pay to see anything. Reminds me of what the New York Times does.
Even Barnhardt cannot get it right. Her "parable" was about Taco Bell having to shut down because of cockroaches.
I'm from Houston. If you cannot get medical care there, you can certainly find cockroaches. Let me let you on to a secret. You can get rid of them. I did, and didn't see one for twenty years. It can be done. Not one stick of that building had to come down.
You do not destroy a building because of cockroaches. Now you would for termites. But cockroaches don't eat wood, and don't destroy the integrity of a building. They're filthy, slimy little nuisances all right, but they can be eliminated.
What it requires is competence. Something sorely lacking in our increasingly fake society.
Just thought you might want to know before "Atlas Shrugs". The crash will be loud.
Instead of America the Beautiful, it can now be called America the Fake. No more Mr. Nice Guy.
Update:
I should add that the Social Security Administration is not acting right either. That's what I spent my time on yesterday.
I didn't file online, but they say I did. No way. I contracted with an advocacy group to represent me, and to do my claim for me. Now, the thing I did do was to provide info and do it online. However, somehow, the claim got made even though I didn't "push the button" to finalize the claim online. That's because I decided to go the advocacy route. As far as the Social Security Administration is concerned, that online application should not exist because I had not submitted it.
I went over this with a representative of Social Security, but they can't undo what has been done.
The advocacy group knows about it too. Nothing they can do.
So, why bring it up? That's because this bureaucracy keeps acting like none of this happened. Nothing I say in protest will make any difference. If the claim is denied, it could be because of this.
Who knows why they did this. Maybe because I keep "mouthing off"?
Wouldn't surprise me if it were true.
MD Anderson Cancer Center cutting 900 jobs
Saw that story on Facebook, so it must be true.
No, really, the ABC affiliate there says it's so. Then, it is really true.
What really convinces me is that officially don't want my "business". The admissions lady is returning my CD with the imaging on it. Well, at least they know how to do that.
She asked for my return address. What? It wasn't on the envelope I sent it in?
What a joke. It surprises me that anybody has a job there, if this is the way they run things.
No, really, the ABC affiliate there says it's so. Then, it is really true.
What really convinces me is that officially don't want my "business". The admissions lady is returning my CD with the imaging on it. Well, at least they know how to do that.
She asked for my return address. What? It wasn't on the envelope I sent it in?
What a joke. It surprises me that anybody has a job there, if this is the way they run things.
How long does it take for lava to cool down?
The heat inside the combustion chamber of an automobile internal combustion engine may not be any hotter than a lava flow. By the time the exhaust gases get to the end of the tailpipe, you can put you hand back there and not get burned.
Try that with a fresh lava flow and see what happens.
AGW is poppycock.
Try that with a fresh lava flow and see what happens.
AGW is poppycock.
Obligatory, 1.11.17
The media keeps pushing the Russian "hacking", so to speak. Why do you suppose that they are doing this?
Frankly, I do not take the media seriously. They are just making a lot of noise. It isn't worth responding to.
On the whole, the left is anti-reason, anti-thought, anti-freedom, and anti-American. It is totally without grounds for them to claim that Trump is anti-American. As if they were pro-American themselves? Ha. ha. ha.
Yet, they can and probably will win again someday. Maybe soon. All that is necessary is for Trump and the GOP to make a mistake. Just one slip up, and these loons will be back in charge.
Other examples of their insanity abounds. AGW Theory, for example. It is not even science. It is a belief system. Gases do not "trap" heat. Quite the contrary. Gases dissipate heat. Gases do not collect heat. It is not in the nature of a gas to trap heat. If gases trapped heat, heat engines would be impossible. Heat engines do not use liquids nor solids. These do not dissipate heat the way gases do, and that is how a heat engine works. If it weren't for heat engines, there would not have been an Industrial Revolution. Perhaps this is what they really object to. Particularly since it was accomplished by white Christian people. AGW is rooted in the belief that white Christian people are destroying the Earth. It has nothing to do with the facts, nor the evidence, nor any scientific theory.
There can be no truth in such an environment. Two plus two will equal five or five hundred. Everybody is entitled to their own "truth".
There is only one truth, and these guys are not in favor of it.
Put that in your crack pipes and smoke it, you lefties.
Frankly, I do not take the media seriously. They are just making a lot of noise. It isn't worth responding to.
On the whole, the left is anti-reason, anti-thought, anti-freedom, and anti-American. It is totally without grounds for them to claim that Trump is anti-American. As if they were pro-American themselves? Ha. ha. ha.
Yet, they can and probably will win again someday. Maybe soon. All that is necessary is for Trump and the GOP to make a mistake. Just one slip up, and these loons will be back in charge.
Other examples of their insanity abounds. AGW Theory, for example. It is not even science. It is a belief system. Gases do not "trap" heat. Quite the contrary. Gases dissipate heat. Gases do not collect heat. It is not in the nature of a gas to trap heat. If gases trapped heat, heat engines would be impossible. Heat engines do not use liquids nor solids. These do not dissipate heat the way gases do, and that is how a heat engine works. If it weren't for heat engines, there would not have been an Industrial Revolution. Perhaps this is what they really object to. Particularly since it was accomplished by white Christian people. AGW is rooted in the belief that white Christian people are destroying the Earth. It has nothing to do with the facts, nor the evidence, nor any scientific theory.
There can be no truth in such an environment. Two plus two will equal five or five hundred. Everybody is entitled to their own "truth".
There is only one truth, and these guys are not in favor of it.
Put that in your crack pipes and smoke it, you lefties.
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Obligatory, 1.10.17
After the fiasco yesterday, I needed something to take my mind off my troubles. It so happens while I was away for a few hours yesterday, my washer arrived. yay!
So, I got to play with this new toy today. It is actually a really small device. Looks like it might hold more than five gallons, but probably less than ten. It says it will hold 11 pounds of clothes.
I did a light load just to try it out. It is hard to get the plumbing to work on it, as the filler tube doesn't really fit anything. I rigged up something that acts as a funnel, and it will let the kitchen sink fill it up, but it is rather slow.
Nevertheless, I now have a batch of clean clothes thanks to this little gizmo. It may take some time to learn to use it to best advantage.
I need this thing to cut back on driving. It is more than five miles to the nearest laundromat. I might be lucky if I can drive one mile.
It took my mind off my troubles, but now the thoughts are back.
What am I going to do with these people?
So, I got to play with this new toy today. It is actually a really small device. Looks like it might hold more than five gallons, but probably less than ten. It says it will hold 11 pounds of clothes.
I did a light load just to try it out. It is hard to get the plumbing to work on it, as the filler tube doesn't really fit anything. I rigged up something that acts as a funnel, and it will let the kitchen sink fill it up, but it is rather slow.
Nevertheless, I now have a batch of clean clothes thanks to this little gizmo. It may take some time to learn to use it to best advantage.
I need this thing to cut back on driving. It is more than five miles to the nearest laundromat. I might be lucky if I can drive one mile.
It took my mind off my troubles, but now the thoughts are back.
What am I going to do with these people?
Monday, January 9, 2017
Travel time today
Starting off during early afternoon. Will stop short of Houston before going into town for the biopsy.
Hoping for the best, but keeping the worst in mind.
If all goes well, I could return in a few days.
Results will take a week, I was told.
Update:
The biopsy did not occur. As usual, these people put me off with some excuse. I am royally pissed, but there's no time for that.
Time to move on to the next thing.
Will try this closer to home for now on. Done with Houston. Maybe.
Hoping for the best, but keeping the worst in mind.
If all goes well, I could return in a few days.
Results will take a week, I was told.
Update:
The biopsy did not occur. As usual, these people put me off with some excuse. I am royally pissed, but there's no time for that.
Time to move on to the next thing.
Will try this closer to home for now on. Done with Houston. Maybe.
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Honestly, it is not mine
But it is mine.
Here's a little gizmo that I am fooling with these days. It doesn't work worth a crap, but it may be useful for passing the time.
Since I will be getting treatment most likely soon, this may be the last chance I get to fool with stuff like this.
Here's a little gizmo that I am fooling with these days. It doesn't work worth a crap, but it may be useful for passing the time.
Since I will be getting treatment most likely soon, this may be the last chance I get to fool with stuff like this.
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