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Happy Talk

General discussions of the systemic, societal and civilisational effects of depletion.

Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Mon 17 May 2021, 12:51:08

This bit is eerily similar to our African Grey.

A good short funny read.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/grump
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Fri 11 Jun 2021, 14:39:15

Just down the road from our cabin yesterday....

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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Thu 08 Jul 2021, 11:02:29

Today I am happy.

After some self inflicted engine trouble last week (I filled the engine with water), and then ANOTHER trip to Philadelphia, we finally left Edenton 6:30 this morning. It always feels soooo good to get off the dock.

Tropical Storm Elsa will brush us. There should be no major weather. Ut in an abundance of caution we made 20 miles to the Scuppernong River where we will sit iut the storm. A very quiet and relaxing place this is.

I have some things to do today, hopefully not much. I could veg out for a while, for sure.
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Mon 12 Jul 2021, 16:12:24

And here we are 4 days later in Cambridge, MD for the duration. Good trip up but a few looong days on the water.

:-D
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Sun 01 Aug 2021, 09:31:02

$5, bottomless coffee.

URL=https://imgbox.com/dFAc9qtf]Image[/URL]

:-D
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Wed 01 Sep 2021, 18:08:53

Making progress on the apartment renovation. :-D
I need a vacation from retirement.

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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby The_Toecutter » Sat 04 Sep 2021, 17:44:39

The firm I got hired on with 6 months ago got more work in, and decided to renew my contract. They also gave me a raise. This is the first engineering firm to ever give me a raise without first working for them for 5+ years. My employer is more than satisfied with my work and commended me on my performance. That said, I find the work stupid and boring as hell, but it is money, and being without money for most of my life has been the cause of many woes.

My mother also finally got approved for disability and started receiving her payments(she can't walk or work and has a feeding tube, and it took 5 years!), so I no longer have to worry about her losing the house. So I took a chunk of my savings and bought a used Milan SL velomobile, paid $8k in cash. I'm reverse engineering it to improve the aerodynamics of my own design. The unmotorized Milan is faster than my motorized custom build, and I can almost hit 50 mph on flat ground, purely under pedal power, and frequently have rolling averages around 25 mph with 35 mph cruising speeds on flat ground. It only needs 140W of pedal output to do 30 mph on flat ground! I want to build a car with that sort of efficiency, and then put a disgusting amount of power in it relative to its mass.

The electric drive system I installed on the custom build has more than 10,000 miles on it so far this year since installation, and it has proven rock solid reliable thus far. Lifetime average energy consumption has been about 0.009 kWh/mile, or the equivalent of 3,700 mpg! If this drive system was in the Milan, the efficiency would be about doubled.

I haven't had free time to work on my projects, unfortunately. I have thousands of dollars of parts for my custom build laying around that I haven't gotten the chance to install. I'm intent on making it able to cruise at 70+ mph with mechanical reliability and dynamic stability, and maybe top out at triple digit speeds, while keeping the total vehicle weight under 100 lbs so that it can still be pedaled with the motor shut off. Range anxiety will be non-existent. I'm hoping to get the aero drag of the next body shell to have roughly 2x the drag of the Milan, which while not as good as the Milan, will have plenty of concessions made for practicality such as increased ground clearance, wider front track for cornering, and access points for all the mechanical bits to make working on it easier.

Provided the dollar doesn't inflate away its value before I get to use it, I won't have any financial worries for the forseeable near-term future because I already have enough saved up to pay my mother's house off, but since she is now getting enough disability to pay the mortgage/utilities, I'm saving up for a plot of land in the boonies instead.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Sat 04 Sep 2021, 19:50:04

Toe,

That is all great news. I am happy for your success and improved situation.

Good in you. :-D
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby The_Toecutter » Sat 04 Sep 2021, 21:26:47

Once I get my own place, I'd like to get another pet rattlesnake. That Western Diamondback named Nippy that I kept was a cute little thing, and brought me a lot of happiness. He liked being pet and scratched. My mom is not okay with one in her house. Understandably so, but they can be tamed to a surprising degree. As devastating as a bite would be, it is extremely unlikely once the animal is used to being handled/cuddled/loved.

https://youtu.be/frAsvNMYqnw?t=135
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Plantagenet » Thu 14 Oct 2021, 12:17:52

Just back from rafting down the Grand Canyon. I was on one of the last commercial trips of the season, and when we put in at Lee's Ferry it was 90+ degrees but at the end ca. 200 miles downriver it was rainy and cold and it even snowed a bit as we hiked out of the Canyon to end the trip.

There is zero cell phone service and zero internet in the canyon and it was really great to get on the trip and take off the #$%$#$ masks and spend two weeks on the river never thinking about covid or politics or much of anything at all except getting through the rapids. I hereby attest that Lava Falls at the end of the trip is still one of the greatest rapids in the world.

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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Fri 15 Oct 2021, 14:15:25

We bought a 16’ contractor trailer so that we can get our stuff out of the house in prep for selling. We have a cheap and secure storage yard. This solves a LOT of problems.
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Wed 20 Oct 2021, 07:13:04

The Newfoundland and Labrador Tourist Bureau are featuring this photo.

It is of my Aunts house on the left and her sons, my cousin, on the right.

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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby AdamB » Wed 20 Oct 2021, 08:36:22

Newfie wrote:It is of my Aunts house on the left and her sons, my cousin, on the right.

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Beautiful.
Plant Thu 27 Jul 2023 "Personally I think the IEA is exactly right when they predict peak oil in the 2020s, especially because it matches my own predictions."

Plant Wed 11 Apr 2007 "I think Deffeyes might have nailed it, and we are just past the overall peak in oil production. (Thanksgiving 2005)"
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Outcast_Searcher » Wed 20 Oct 2021, 14:52:19

The_Toecutter wrote:Once I get my own place, I'd like to get another pet rattlesnake. That Western Diamondback named Nippy that I kept was a cute little thing, and brought me a lot of happiness. He liked being pet and scratched. My mom is not okay with one in her house. Understandably so, but they can be tamed to a surprising degree. As devastating as a bite would be, it is extremely unlikely once the animal is used to being handled/cuddled/loved.

https://youtu.be/frAsvNMYqnw?t=135

Sounds great. But would a nice garter snake or python be THAT different re enjoying the pet? And without the potential big downside?
Given the track record of the perma-doomer blogs, I wouldn't bet a fast crash doomer's money on their predictions.
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby careinke » Wed 20 Oct 2021, 14:58:50

Our crypto portfolio is making LOTS of money today, and everyone in the family is healthy and prepared for the turbulant times ahead.

PEACE
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby The_Toecutter » Mon 25 Oct 2021, 00:24:17

Outcast_Searcher wrote:Sounds great. But would a nice garter snake or python be THAT different re enjoying the pet? And without the potential big downside?


Certain species of rattlers are among the few snake species that actually seek out companionship and display some rudimentary simulacrum of empathy.

I've kept a boa constrictor, and multiple garter snakes and corn snakes, and once cared for a friend's 13 foot Burmese python while he was on vacation. Each any every one of them was a totally different experience from each other. One of the corns was surprisingly intelligent for a snake and figured out how to unlatch all four latches on the cage lid in order to pop the lid(and repeated the behavior), learned how to drown mice in the water dish to expedite the kill(and repeated the behavior), was able to recognize me from other people, would come over to me on its own, and could pick things up with its prehensile tail(it knew to grab a knife by the handle instead of the blade, but did not figure out how to use it or what to do with it, but that would have been awesome if it would have). The rattler was the one other snake out of the ones I kept as pets that could obviously tell me apart from other people(he'd rattle at my roommates and guests, but not at me), but from what I could tell was not as intelligent as that corn. The others were just derpy noodles that seemed to be mostly instinct driven, but all had different personalities that were independent of their species. I've seen pythons and garter snakes that were less calm than the 'lil Nipper and were so bitey they could not be picked up, handled, or pet without a bite resulting, no matter how long you worked with them. Nippy was basically a kitten, a venomous and potentially deadly kitten, but in terms of behavior a kitten none the less. He didn't start out that way when I first got him.

After the first month of keeping him, Nippy was a very chill and calm snake, and not the only rattler I've known with that sort of disposition. A friend of mine back in Texas kept a Timber Rattler named Rex that was "friendly" and would go over to strangers on its own looking to be pet when its keeper would let it roam around(supervised). I let that one lay on my neck after it crawled there on its own. He could be pet underneath the head and on the belly. Definitely not something you'd expect to experience. His wife made him get rid of it after it got out of the cage for the third time(likely the result of the oldest son unlocking the cage) and they found it under the couch(imagine stepping on that by accident without the snake knowing it was an accident...). Before that, his four kids, the youngest being 2 and oldest 7, got into the cage and fought over it. When he came into the room they were agitating it and it was rattling, but no one got bitten. It's as if the animal knew not to harm people and/or had no desire to harm anyone. A wild animal would not behave that way, especially considering that its first instinct is to bite at whatever its heat-sensing pits indicate is a potential threat or prey item. That snake was also a sweetheart. I was told I'm the only person it ever snapped at; long story short I was drunk and reached into its cage to pick it up the wrong way, and startled it. I was not bitten, but it was a close call. A collector from Dallas bought it from my friend and I do not know the snake's current status. I hope it gets as much affection and attention as it got from its previous owner.

I like the challenge of "taming" something that conventional wisdom says can't be "tamed". Of course, it's quite possible that if I got another rattler, it would indeed be entirely un-domesticable, unlike Nippy or Rex. It really depends on its personality, and loving these animals means caring for them anyway regardless of what you end up with, even if you can't pet or cuddle that one, ever. I've seen rattlers that were extremely nervous and bitey as well, and I would not dare try to handle one of those defensive ones without a hook. Learning to read these animals' body language is an art form unto itself. There's a lot more going on than meets the eye to the casual observer and these animals are not as stupid as conventional wisdom would have one believe.

http://www.animalcognition.org/2016/01/12/interview-with-snake-behavior-researcher-melissa-amarello/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3476971.stm
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Mon 25 Oct 2021, 08:26:26

Cool. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby JuanP » Mon 25 Oct 2021, 19:41:52

wow! That's really neat, Toecutter!
"Human stupidity has no limits" JuanP
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby The_Toecutter » Mon 25 Oct 2021, 22:06:40

In other happy news, I have a 72V 450A controller on the way for my custom velomobile. It's an ASI BAC4000 and weighs roughly 2 lbs. I do not know when I'll have the time to make all the modifications necessary to make use of this controller. I haven't had enough time off of work to take the necessary steps to prepare the vehicle to handle more power and performance.

Things I need to do:

1) Install rear suspension to compliment the front suspension, which requires removing the tail piece of the body from the frame, cutting the rear of the frame apart, drilling holes, then cleaning/repainting

2) lace up some 16" DOT rims with thicker 12ga spokes(still waiting on the wheel building stand to arrive) for both the front wheels and the 3T wind Leafbike PMDC motor(waiting on the motor to arrive)

3) install hydraulic brake calipers and thicker 206mm brake rotors to replace the cable pull brakes

4) install Mitas MC2 solar race car tires on all three wheels

5) fabricate/install the roll cage

6) fabrication of stronger spindles with the ability to use Cotter pin axles

About to order some solar panels for it as well. Its proving itself very practical and getting reimbursed mileage to use it to visit job sites has been paying for the upgrades. I can fit a measuring wheel, laptop computer, hard hat, vest, work boots and GPS equipment in the trunk space.

This vehicle is Jevon's-paradox-resistant. It's impossible to put enough miles on it to cancel out the efficiency gains versus using a 40 MPG car for the same purpose, because its efficiency is increased by two orders of magnitude versus said car.

Even if electricity went up to $10/kWh, it would still be relatively economical to operate. And if all else fails, one could simply pedal it with a dead battery and take advantage of the aerodynamics to still travel significantly faster than a normal bicycle, and in such a case would remain a lot less energy intensive than a horse and able to travel much further in a day.

I really need to learn how to do vacuum molding so I can ditch the body on frame design and go to a nice, stiff, lightweight carbon-fiber and kevlar monocoque with compound curves. Or hell, maybe try out hemp fiber if I can get ahold of some, which is not nearly as much of an environmental nightmare if for some reason it has to be disposed of.
The unnecessary felling of a tree, perhaps the old growth of centuries, seems to me a crime little short of murder. ~Thomas Jefferson
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Re: Happy Talk

Unread postby Newfie » Tue 26 Oct 2021, 08:06:56

Even without the vacuum bag, ir in anticipation if it, you could start making your male mold, no?

I made some simple portlight frames where I made a plug and mold, not vacuum bagged. There is significant effort into coming up with an acceptable mold that will RELEASE. Getting that first one to come off is the bugger. After 4 or 5 they come off much easier.

My understanding is you need to leave a nice wide edge for the vacuum bag material attachment.

I am presuming you would build a plug first?
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