Saturday, December 30, 2017

Lindsey Graham confirms FISA warrant on Trump campaign obtained by fraud

Well, maybe not exactly what he said, but implied.

At least, that is how I am reading it.

Nothing really new here, except that Graham is not Trump friendly.  The most significant thing here may be that the Dems allies in GOP are backing away.

If this keeps up, the Dems will be out on the limb all by themselves.  Yet, they are still talking impeachment.  If they are not careful, this is going to look really bad for them.

Note that I don't care if it looks bad for them.  They've been looking pretty bad to me for a very long time.


Friday, December 29, 2017

Don Surber: Media won't admit its problem

Don Surber: Media won't admit its problem: In reporting that most Americans no longer trust the media, Indira Lakshmanan of the Poynter Institute showed why people should not trust th..


comment:

The article is about fake news.  It has been fake for a very long time.  Ben Bradlee was quoted as saying that he didn't care about facts, he cared only about causes.  This implies lying.

It is a crutch that the so-called right likes to lean on to explain away failure when they complain about media bias.  The difference about Trump is that he does something about it.

So, whatever you do, Mr. President, don't stop tweeting.


Triangulation – Special Political Lunch Alert!

Triangulation – Special Political Lunch Alert!


comment:

Dick Morris explains what is meant by the term triangulation.  What I get from it is that it is much easier to change how a party is viewed by the public, than it is to change how the public thinks about a political party traditionally.

Thus, Bill Clinton is seen as more conservative than what he really is, if viewed by the public as it usually views Democrats.  George W Bush is seen as more liberal than what he really is, if viewed by the public as it usually views Republicans.

Is this a distinction without a difference?  Well, what Morris did with Clinton seemed to work, so maybe it really does work.

One theme throughout this blog, but neglected as of late, is this idea of solving problems as opposed to fighting over them.  The thought occurred to me that Morris and I may be talking about the same doggone thing.

What a concept!

For example, as Clinton took away welfare from the Republicans, maybe Republicans can take away the environment from the Democrats.  How?  By a well thought out problem-solving way of eliminating carbon dioxide emissions without sacrificing anything in terms of environmental quality, nor of sacrificing economic efficiency.

Perhaps the idea of sacrificing these things are false choices.  Just a thought.

Is this an impossible goal?  Maybe, but if you cannot solve that problem, you cannot advance your agenda.


Obligatory, 12.28.17

Updated 12.29.17

I'm going to have to go into a store and actually talk to someone about these batteries.

If this one they have on the web page is what I think it might be, it may be the way to go.

But it isn't cheap.  Before I leap, I better look carefully.

Pain in the butt, I tell you.



original post follows:

Battery shopping.  If I am to use the hidey hole, it is going to need a better battery setup.

I found a 150 AH deep discharge battery that might do the trick, but it isn't cheap.

But whatever is?

Still don't want to spend a lot of money on this.  This little battery I am using now is like training wheels in order to learn what to expect.  What to expect with a battery like this is NOT MUCH.

Anybody who touts batteries is listening to the greenie weenies a bit too much.  Batteries suck.  You only use them when you need to.


Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Water and heat

As I wrote earlier, I want to get the most out of my propane bill.  With this cold weather recently, I am using a lot more of the stuff.

So, I am re-doing the experiments I did last year with the distillation of water.  I figured I might as well get something accomplished with the heat besides just heating up the joint.

As a result, I think I reclaimed a certain amount of water, but how much is hard to say.  This is not exactly a precise experiment.

The deal worked like this:  I took recently used water for dishwashing, and put it into the tea kettle converted to distillation.  This is a device that I made last winter.

The results were a really small amount of water, but the steam went into the trailer.  The steam was adding to the humidity of the trailer, so I used the dehumidifier to take out the water.  As a result, I have collected maybe a quart of water.  I may have evaporated more than that.

There is a significant amount of waste water that now goes into the septic tank.  The difference is that before I did this, ALL of it did.  Now, I can keep maybe half of it.  This was my goal all along.

The cost was a bit of extra electricity for the dehumidifier.  But that helps to warm up the place too.  Is this being efficient?

Let us hope so.  But even if it is not, it is a kinda interesting experiment.


The odd thing about gases

Perhaps you have heard about temperature inversions.  Those are temperature differences in gases in the atmosphere.  These have been blamed for smog problems, as the smog is kept low to the ground due to the difference in temperature between the ground level and a few thousand feet up in elevation.

Believe it or not, there appears to be a temperature inversion in this trailer.  At the level one sits at, the temperature is actually cold enough for a fog to come out when I breathe, but at standing level, this does not exist.  That means that the heat has risen to the top of the trailer, and cold air exists at the floor level.  The difference in temperature is significant.

Now, that is amazing to me that such a small volume as this trailer could support such a phenomenon.  Could this be a property of the gas phase of matter?  For example, are there temperature inversions in metals?  Why, yes.  I noted in an earlier post that the grill on the stove can get red hot near the flame, but a few inches away, it is cool enough to touch.  That would be a temperature inversion.  These are to be expected then.

But what makes temperature inversions different for gases?   A hypothesis is that even though there are these inversions, they are far less significant than for solids and liquids.  The capacity for movement of gases as opposed to liquids and solids could explain it.  Solids cannot move around, the molecules are locked into place.  Liquid molecules can move more, but gases move the most in relation to each other.  This allows for temperatures to made more even than for the other two phases of matter.

Why this discussion?  I love to go after the AGW crowd.  This is another argument against AGW.  Why?  The "heat trapping " of gases is unlikely due to the nature of gases.  That is because of the movement of gas molecules are much freer than for solids and liquids.  Heat trapping occurs much more for those phases of matter than for gases.  Gases do not trap heat very well at all.

But what about the temperature inversions in this trailer?  These can be solved with better air circulation.  The reason I have this phenomenon is that the air isn't being circulated enough.

Try circulating matter in a solid.  Cannot be done.  Liquids can be stirred.  Solids cannot.

When the sun hits the earth, the gas molecules in the air help convey heat from the ground into the air.  Think of air as a conveyor belt for heat.  Conveyor belts do not trap matter, they move it around.  Hotter gases will move around more, and mix with the colder gases in the upper atmosphere.  The thing that makes for inversions are a lack of air movement.  Let the wind blow!

Gases do not trap heat, but gravity can.   It is density of matter that traps heat.  The more matter in an enclosed space, the harder it is for the heat to move.  Solids are more dense than gases, so the heat doesn't move as much.  Hence, heat inversions are far more localized in a solid than for a gas or for a liquid.

The conditions of a runaway greenhouse effect exist on Venus, but cannot be replicated on Earth.  The atmosphere isn't dense enough on Earth, nor could it ever be.  The burning of fossil fuels can not change the Earth's atmosphere that much.  The gravity of Venus combined with its dense atmosphere explain its greenhouse effect.  There is no greenhouse effect on Mars even though its atmosphere is nearly all carbon dioxide.  There isn't enough atmosphere there.  The Earth can support a greenhouse effect, but this could never be replicated as it is on Venus, unless we figure out a way to import a lot more atmosphere than we have here now.  We have to change what is already here.

Let's say you burn as much carbon as is possible.   Do the math.  The Earth's atmosphere is 1/5th oxygen.  If you replace that oxygen with carbon dioxide, you increase its density by a factor of one third.  That is because the molecular weight is 32 for oxygen, and 44 for carbon dioxide.  If you replaced all the oxygen with carbon dioxide, that would increase the density by only one fifteenth, because it would be one third of one fifth of the atmosphere.  In comparison, Venus' atmosphere is 100 times more dense than Earth's.  You will never get there like that.  Besides, by the time you replace just one third of the oxygen, the air becomes unbreathable.  Humans could only change the atmosphere by a factor of one forty fifth, or approximately two percent before it would become impossible to make it more dense.

Not enough difference to make a difference.  On Mars, the amount of gas in the atmosphere changes by more than that without a measurable difference in average temperature of the planet.  No climate change on Mars due to changes in carbon dioxide, as it is ninety five percent of the atmosphere.  It is just cold as hell, as someone once said.  Nobody lives on Mars, so you cannot blame humans for any changes in carbon dioxide there.  At least not yet.    Bwah, hah, hah!

AGW is bunk.



Tuesday, December 26, 2017

The reports of the death of this blog...

...have been greatly exaggerated...

Nevertheless, I find it somewhat tedious to write about things right now.

But, I press onward.  Maybe not upward.  More like sideways and downward, especially lately.

So, what to write about?  I got some videos for xmas presents.  Watched a couple of them today, and have one left to watch.

One of these I won't comment upon.  The other???  Well...  It seems like a propaganda video that the lefties have sent out.  Considering who gave it to me, I am somewhat surprised.  Well, once again, maybe all of this is on me.  Just about everything in this culture looks like a pinko plot to me now, so call me paranoid.  Hmm.  If you really did call me paranoid, I wouldn't care.   Just don't try to put me in a straightjacket, please.  Even I haven't gotten that far out there in the weeds yet.  But, I don't think it is me out in the weeds, ya'll.

That's all for the videos.

Let's go to my experiments.  I measured the water from the Coleman on the experiment the other day.  I seemed to have lost a bit of water.  Only 450 ounces came out, but I believed I had put in more than that.  Three and a half gallons of water.  No wonder it didn't last all that long.  Anyway, I am not including the bottles of dyed water.  I haven't inventoried those, but if I had it all in, it would have been about 22 liters more.  That water did not get all that hot, as it was not actually totally immersed in the water that was being heated.

Somewhat disappointing.  What did I learn?  It seems that the heat was being absorbed into the water, as opposed to being trapped in the ceiling when heating only air.  I am of the opinion that this may be a more efficient way to heat, but the findings are ready to be declared yet.  If using hot water for heating is better than heating air and circulating it, that may mean something.

I have been using a lot of propane, though.  Now I am looking for ways to economize on that.

My electrical problem is a mystery.  It doesn't seem consistent.  If I avoid doing certain things, the problem doesn't appear to be as bad.  Those things that seem to be a no-no include space heaters and electric blankets.  Just what exactly causes this electrical system to complain about those is the big mystery.

For instance, I used the dehumidifier today.  It definitely uses more electricity than the electric blanket, but no problema with the electrical system.  Strange indeed.  Anyway, I used the dehumidifier because of the very high humidity lately is making this place very damp.  I got a bunch of water out of it in the bargain.

At the moment, I got a bright idea to use the stove to evaporate waste water and the dehumidifier can reclaim it.  The propane can be used for a dual purpose, you see.  I get water and heat out of it.

You see?  That wasn't so painful.  Maybe I ought to stop writing about politics.


Monday, December 25, 2017

Turn out the lights, the party is over...

Update, 12.25.17:

Yep.  By the time I got up, it was 48 in my hidey hole.  It was so cold in the trailer, that my pee was steaming.  Never had that happen before!

Last night, the low was about 28 degree F.  So, my hidey hole was doing some good, anywho.

The sleeping bag is a winner.  I can keep reasonably warm to 48, or perhaps a little below.

If it gets much colder this winter, I am going to have to do something.

Fixing that electrical problem is a problem unless I hire an electrician.  But that costs money.

Well, this is a fine fix I got myself into.  Wtf.


The original post follows:


Back at it again.  Cannot sleep, so I guess I will write.

Call this an experiment born by necessity.  It seems I have an electrical problem.  Since I am not an electrician, I don't know what the issue is.  I can guess, but the guess could be wrong.  For whatever reason, when I try turning on the lights, they dim and even go out.

And so I tried to warm up the place with my heated up water.  That is the experiment.  (Running out of ideas, ya'll. )  It didn't occur to me that the battery is being charged too, and so that worked until about 10 pm.  The water had gotten cold already, so it wasn't adding much heat to the joint.  The little pump was barely working cuz no juice.

So, here I am trying to stay warm.  It is not too bad.  The computer, by the way, is powered by solar.  This is what I have left to me in electrical power at the moment.  That doesn't work worth a flip, either, but for the moment, I have some juice there.

I am in a sleeping bag.  It is just under 60 degrees F, and it is near freezing outside.  Feels cold, though.  Anyway, the sleeping bag is warm enough.  It will stay warm until it gets about 45 or so.  By that time, it may be time to get up.

I bought an electric blanket earlier this week.  But it says don't use it with an inverter.  Psst.  I'm going to try it anyway.  It is a pure sine wave inverter, so it should be okay.  But, the battery cannot handle it for long.  I may not try it tonight.

Well, it is all very interesting.  I can keep warm by running the stove, if I want to go there.  However, I won't be doing that tonight.

One thing is certain.  I gotta fix that electrical problem.  This ain't worth a flip.  By the way Merry Xmas.

Wouldn't want to "offend" anybody by using the full word for you know what.  It might bother those people who were embarrassed by Judge Moore.



Sunday, December 24, 2017

Tank has run dry

Mark Twain once discussed his tank method of writing.  Once the creative juices run dry, he set it aside and did other things.  After a period of time, the tank fills up again, and he can write.

I am wondering if my tank is dry.  Blogging has been light and it is getting worse.  Once upon a time, I was putting up nearly 20 posts a day.  Now, I go days at a time without a post at all.  The tank is dry, it seems.

Or is there another explanation?

One other possibility is that my efforts are not appreciated, it seems.  After all those posts, it just doesn't seem to make a dent in the audience numbers.  Nobody seems to be paying attention, so why bother?  The effort has not paid off.

It could be both of those in combination.  A real one-two punch.

Well, as far as this post is concerned, I could mention the news.  It is not worth mentioning, though.  Some real news could have been a Moore victory and the defeat of the corporate tax cut.  Now, that would have been something.  What we got instead is more of the same junk that we always get.

People complain about things being on the wrong track, yet they keep doing the things that make things go the way they go.  Why not try something different?  Nope, it has to be the same old thing.

As far as the situation being on the wrong track, one thing does appear to be better than before.  That is, if you think that the terms of the unity is a positive thing.  The GOP seems happy and united for a change.  They get their corporate tax cut, and now they are really happy.  Who knows why.  Corporations may get favored treatment from GOP types, but the corporations tend to not reciprocate.  The big corporations are decidedly lefty affairs.  The GOP gets the bad press, and the lefties and their corporate pals laugh all the way to the bank.  Why the GOP thinks this is a good thing for them is hard for me to understand.  Maybe I am dumb, who knows?

I have tended to think too highly of others, though.  As someone once said, there's a sucker born every minute.  Another one said, that nobody went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.  A tendency of mine to think too highly of people leads me to these undesired outcomes, where I spend my time and effort trying to make a point with people who stubbornly refuse to get it.

Not much I can do about that.  Just for me to realize that people are just nuts and/or stupid.  It ain't me, but I never really believed that anyway.

Yeah, the tank runs dry, and insulting people who you want to convince is just not good human relations.  Well, to let you in on a secret, I never was really very good at that either.

Nope, won't be kissing anybody's butt here.  Frankly a lot of you people could use a real ass kicking.  But it won't be me giving it to you.  You'll get it alright.  From the same people that you foolishly trust.

If you call me dumb for saying that, maybe you ought to reconsider.  But you people will never learn.