Stranger things

[Taomeow]

[Nungali]

10 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

a lot of surfing has become  super competitive and dare-devil like,  there is still some communing with nature aspect to it but that often gets drowned out by all the hype.  Decades ago I was fortunate to get in a lot of such communing in far less crowded surfing breaks,  even in southern Cal! 

 

 

My 'local'  : 

 

looking north

 

looking south

 

I had visitors from California here and I took them there , they where rather astonished ; " There are not even any footprints on the beach ! "

Me ; " Yeah .... so ?"

Them ; " But its  10 am on the weekend in the middle of summer ! "

Me;  "  Yeah ! " 

[Nungali]

10 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

we have 240 but it is split down to 120 before being wired up in homes,  seems 240 would be a lot more dangerous if a person got across it!  I got a fancy inverter for dc to ac but haven't wired it up (or a battery bank) yet and don't know when i will unless the grid goes down and hopefully that does not happen in the middle of a winter blizzard!

 

I discovered 'Kings' recently ; outdoor and 4WD center .

 

I wanted a new solar battery , mine previously where 2 x 6v 120ah  wet cell ,lead / acid  .... and had been just about sufficient for years , but fading ( which is great as I got the second hand many years ago, supposedly 'faulty' - it turned out their charger was faulty , they found that out AFTER they gave away the old batteries to me and bought new ones    ) . To replace those . about $600  EACH !   Then I found a sealed gell lead / acid  1x 12v  135ah at around the same price , so I should get that .

 

Then I went to Kings ;  1 x 12v sealed AGM (absorbent glass mat )  180ah at $280 . So snaffled it .  At checkout, dude offered me an extra good quality led light , like an emergency  engine / bonnet light , dial up intensity, hook on one end , magnet on the other  ( I stuck it on the stove and the could  not get it off !   some magnet !  had to use a knife under the edge ! ), rechargable  AND the batter  for $220 .  !   Okay then .  Had it about a month , very good quick recharge ,  slow discharge and good constant  holding at low v.

 

 

Some of these setups are getting pretty complex,  but you dont have to go that far .  A rather simple set up and you can be a cruising , camping , living for extended periods in the outback !   Just gotta take care you have enough  water and fuel supply for the car .

 

Storage, fuel and water, solar panels,  management system, and fold out roof tent .

 

When I traveled up the coast of Western Australia, I met a few camps like that ;  people find a nice spot and just stay there as long as .... ?   Some even made their own '  shack towns'  ;

 

start at 0:33 ;

 

 

 

Edited August 6 by Nungali

[old3bob]

13 hours ago, Taomeow said:

 

There's lots of surfers in San Diego, and many look so picture perfect, sun kissed, in shape, you might think the ocean somehow works on their souls, not just their bodies -- but that, alas, proved to be an illusion.  When I was new here, at one point a group of surfing guys and gals plumped down on the beach to relax so close to me that I couldn't help listening to their conversation.  It mostly consisted of nonstop expletives, the dumbest of jokes, and unimaginative mundanities.  Not a spark of spirit or intelligence.  I couldn't understand how it could be -- they are in such close contact with the forces of nature and it somehow doesn't affect more than their sheer physicality?  Then it occurred to me...  society acts as a force of nature too, society is the "environment," and that environment has the soul-shaping (or misshaping) power exceeding that of the ocean.       

 

I'd say it depends on who is listening or not listening to ways of the elemental forces of the ocean, the sun, the singing of stars and a thousand others....

Edited August 7 by old3bob

[old3bob]

3 hours ago, Nungali said:

 

I discovered 'Kings' recently ; outdoor and 4WD center .

 

I wanted a new solar battery , mine previously where 2 x 6v 120ah  wet cell ,lead / acid  .... and had been just about sufficient for years , but fading ( which is great as I got the second hand many years ago, supposedly 'faulty' - it turned out their charger was faulty , they found that out AFTER they gave away the old batteries to me and bought new ones    ) . To replace those . about $600  EACH !   Then I found a sealed gell lead / acid  1x 12v  135ah at around the same price , so I should get that .

 

Then I went to Kings ;  1 x 12v sealed AGM (absorbent glass mat )  180ah at $280 . So snaffled it .  At checkout, dude offered me an extra good quality led light , like an emergency  engine / bonnet light , dial up intensity, hook on one end , magnet on the other  ( I stuck it on the stove and the could  not get it off !   some magnet !  had to use a knife under the edge ! ), rechargable  AND the batter  for $220 .  !   Okay then .  Had it about a month , very good quick recharge ,  slow discharge and good constant  holding at low v.

 

 

Some of these setups are getting pretty complex,  but you dont have to go that far .  A rather simple set up and you can be a cruising , camping , living for extended periods in the outback !   Just gotta take care you have enough  water and fuel supply for the car .

 

Storage, fuel and water, solar panels,  management system, and fold out roof tent .

 

When I traveled up the coast of Western Australia, I met a few camps like that ;  people find a nice spot and just stay there as long as .... ?   Some even made their own '  shack towns'  ;

 

start at 0:33 ;

 

 

 

there are places in the US where some people are able to set up remote camps,  although sooner or later they are found out and are told to move along by the authorities,  unless they are so far out where there aren't any kind of roads or means of transportation,  even then a helicopter might spot them via their campfire or getting turned in by hunters/hikers who happen to come across them.

[Mark Foote]

On 8/6/2024 at 5:46 AM, old3bob said:

 

we have 240 but it is split down to 120 before being wired up in homes,  seems 240 would be a lot more dangerous if a person got across it!  I got a fancy inverter for dc to ac but haven't wired it up (or a battery bank) yet and don't know when i will unless the grid goes down and hopefully that does not happen in the middle of a winter blizzard!
 

 

 

AC has a tendency to kick a person away.  DC freezes a person to the contact.  Mostly the current that does the damage.

 

If I understand correctly.

 

 

[Nungali]

20 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

there are places in the US where some people are able to set up remote camps,  although sooner or later they are found out and are told to move along by the authorities,  unless they are so far out where there aren't any kind of roads or means of transportation,  even then a helicopter might spot them via their campfire or getting turned in by hunters/hikers who happen to come across them.

 

Someone came up with a brill idea ....   '  cultural heritage '  , it stopped the demolition of some of these , dont know what happens next through ?

 

WA came up with a great idea .  I was so impressed with the state of facilities in national parks and similar places ; clean,  tidy,  ( car parks, tracks, toilets, shelters  gas BBQs etc . It turns out there where a few people living in these parks in squats where they where not supposed to be . It was difficult to remove them , so they offered them jobs in exchange for some rearrangements in their lifestyles ; they still get to live there but they do maintenance of tourist facilities, and now get an income too .

[Nungali]

4 hours ago, Mark Foote said:

 

 

AC has a tendency to kick a person away.  DC freezes a person to the contact.  Mostly the current that does the damage.

 

If I understand correctly.

 

 

 

Its the amperage .  High enough and around 40v will do it .

 

 

https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/how-many-volts-amps-kill-you-human.html

 

 

[old3bob]

15 hours ago, Nungali said:

 

Its the amperage .  High enough and around 40v will do it .

 

 

https://www.scienceabc.com/humans/how-many-volts-amps-kill-you-human.html

 

 

 

that's right just 100 milliamps on the heart to stop it (which is a very small amount!!) ....BTW if a persons skin is dry and they have no cuts and are not grounded like on a cement floor along with wearing dry rubber sole shoes then their resistance in ohms is higher which lessons the flow electrical amps if they happen to get across household 120vac or other sources of voltage or a certain amount of DC volts if working around it (this includes not being in contact with any other type of ground or wire which completes a circuit through the body, for instance touching a metal water pipe or any other type of conductor material)  There is also the one hand precaution when working around electricity.  Which means if you get shocked through one hand and one side of your body the damage may be less compared to getting shocked if coming in contact with both hands since then the current could flow through both arms and across your chest and heart!!  These precautions in no way mean that one can touch or have any part of their body come into contact with hot electrical wires at any time or anywhere and not get killed,  although in an accident such precautions may improve one's odds of surviving.  I remember years ago when some guys set up their amplifiers for their rock band on damp grass and when one of them touched the amplifier he was killed. 

 

For any interested here are the ohms law formulas :  I=current,  v =voltage,  R=ohms,  p=power or watts 

Plug in some various numbers and you will probably be surprised at how high current flow can be at low fairly voltages!

 

 

I once got very painfully shocked by around 300vdc, which could have easily killed me! 

(which happened when I was a mechanic doing electrical work with hardly any training for same)

In industry with very high voltages like 13.8kv or 34.5kv and even far less at 440vac its copper based connection or buss equipment can be vaporized if shorted out which is extremely dangerous/deadly if a person is anywhere close to a resulting and intensely flashed/exploding cloud of vaporized copper particles!

 

Edited August 8 by old3bob

[old3bob]

 

next up we could talk about the potential dangers of hydraulic lines/equipment if its fluid were accidently injected into a persons body!  (namely with or while a mechanic is working on same)

Edited August 8 by old3bob

[old3bob]

On 8/8/2024 at 8:39 AM, old3bob said:

 

next up we could talk about the potential dangers of hydraulic lines/equipment if its fluid were accidently injected into a persons body!  (namely with or while a mechanic is working on same)

 

I worked on a lot of hydraulic based equipment for years, then come to find out after a  long time that I was not properly warned  about just how dangerous small but  high pressures leaks could be since they were often not given the needed precautions compared to working on the more obvious dangers of major leaks such as a line, ram or valve body erupting (a great deal) of hot fluid...

Edited August 10 by old3bob

[old3bob]

On 8/6/2024 at 3:52 PM, Nungali said:

 

 

My 'local'  : 

 

looking north

 

looking south

 

I had visitors from California here and I took them there , they where rather astonished ; " There are not even any footprints on the beach ! "

Me ; " Yeah .... so ?"

Them ; " But its  10 am on the weekend in the middle of summer ! "

Me;  "  Yeah ! " 

 

do you have those little sand crabs that momentarily surface from slightly below the top of the sand just as the waves water starts to go back out or just as it comes in to shore?  (at a few inches depth)  When I was a kid I loved catching those in my hand with a quick and shallow dig and then setting them down so they could burrow back into the wet sand.  (and they kind of tickled  the fingers)

[Nungali]

7 hours ago, old3bob said:

 

do you have those little sand crabs that momentarily surface from slightly below the top of the sand just as the waves water starts to go back out or just as it comes in to shore?  (at a few inches depth)  When I was a kid I loved catching those in my hand with a quick and shallow dig and then setting them down so they could burrow back into the wet sand.  (and they kind of tickled  the fingers)

 

Yep, various types . But those crabs ^  look more like tiny  'bugs' to me  - 'Mortan bay bugs ' or 'Balmain bugs' , but they are more related to lobsters than crabs ....

 

 

 

 

What I used to delight in where soldier crabs , not at the beach but quieter water , estuaries and   sand banks at low tide . Masses of them !   So many you can hear them  as they scurry along . We would walk through a huge  mob of them and watch the mass split or  burrow in as we approached  ( they do it pretty fast in a spiral, corkscrew motion ). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beware though ...  some crabs are  dangerous ! 

 

 

 

 

[old3bob]

fun pictures Nungali   Some of those crabs are tuff little buggers!

[old3bob]

Speaking of stranger things:  What is with all of the home and business explosions related to leaking gas lines that have been reported this year!! (in the US)  Normally natural gas related equipment is pretty safe and I don't remember of ever hearing of so many disastrous explosions in one year!  Are people doing something different with their utilities?   Then there are all the near misses (and some hits) going on with planes or at airports being reported at a level higher than what I've ever heard before ....we also have orca's attacking boats and sharks seemingly getting in a lot more attacks on people!

 

yikes!

Edited August 12 by old3bob

[Cobie]

17 minutes ago, old3bob said:

… explosions …

From the Netherlands:

“Propane is much more dangerous than natural gas. Due to its low GWP value, propane is gaining popularity as a refrigerant for heat pumps, but it also has a disadvantage: flammability and the risk of explosion.”
https://www.vakbladwarmtepompen.nl/9218/propaan-is-veel-gevaarlijker-dan-aardgas 

 

 

Edited August 12 by Cobie

[Taomeow]

I wonder how many eighth graders would pass this 1912 exam in 2024.  What do you think?  

 

[old3bob]

3 hours ago, Taomeow said:

I wonder how many eighth graders would pass this 1912 exam in 2024.  What do you think?  

 

 

also ask how many college kids would pass this test?  Remember when Jay Leno would walk around asking people on the street basic history questions  and such and most folks failed?  I'm up on powerhouse utilities/operation, electricity/& some electronics, some computer and  automotive tech, some other types of mechanics along with being a partial jack of many trades like carpentry, plumbing, heating, and various types of gadgets repair but answers to many of the questions above faded from memory or were never on my radar way back in the 60's...btw some of the things I mentioned that I'm experienced with most people could care less about or take for granted until such things quit or need work!  "Modern man" is kind of helpless without all our machines or conveniences.  

Edited August 12 by old3bob

[Taomeow]

38 minutes ago, old3bob said:

 

 I'm up on powerhouse utilities/operation, electricity/& some electronics, some computer and  automotive tech, some other types of mechanics along with being a partial jack of many trades like carpentry, plumbing, heating, and various types of gadgets repair 

 

Will you marry me?  

(just kidding, don't get scared)

I have great respect for practical skills of all sorts.  I like people who can build and repair and create and grow stuff, not just shop and order services -- or, alternatively, let things break and fall apart and do nothing.  But everything you mentioned is quite beyond me.   

[Nungali]

13 hours ago, old3bob said:

Speaking of stranger things:  What is with all of the home and business explosions related to leaking gas lines that have been reported this year!! (in the US)  Normally natural gas related equipment is pretty safe and I don't remember of ever hearing of so many disastrous explosions in one year!  Are people doing something different with their utilities?   Then there are all the near misses (and some hits) going on with planes or at airports being reported at a level higher than what I've ever heard before ....we also have orca's attacking boats and sharks seemingly getting in a lot more attacks on people!

 

yikes!

 

 

There is ?

 

There was a gas blast at work once . It was in a big building, in another part of the studious , about 500m away and around three corners (of the internal studio complex roads )  AND I was as well standing behind a shipping container ....  WHOOOFFF! , I felt the shock wave and my clothes flatten on my body from it !

 

Three poor guys  got whooofed to, one  instantly dead, two others died a slow painful death later and one horribly burned .

 

Burns are fucked !  I helped nurse some firefighters once in a burns unit .... tough stuff !    

[Nungali]

I looked up some sites ;

 

Us , since 2010, gas explosion average every 40 hrs. !  "  generally,  gas explosions appear to be increasing due in part to “aging infrastructure.”  "

 

and also 'companies release gas in pipelines when pressure is too high '    WTF ? 

 

AND !

 

“These figures only include the most serious events,” Matt Casale, the Education Fund Environment Campaigns Director at U.S. PIRG and one of the coauthors of the report, said in an email. He explained that PHMSA requires reporting only when some serious criteria are met, including when someone dies or is hospitalized, when property damage from an explosion exceeds $122,000 or more; and when there’s a significant amount of gas lost in the leak.

 

$121,000  ?  nah,  push that one under the carpet . 

[Nungali]

8 hours ago, Taomeow said:

I wonder how many eighth graders would pass this 1912 exam in 2024.  What do you think?  

 

 

First , can I use my phone ?

 

What is  a ft and an in or as 'yard'   ? 

 

In Grammar Q 7 . There is no question  or directive .

 

Questions like geography 3 have no multiple choice option ?  What ? You want some made up written story or something ? .

 

Geography 5 , 'Servia' is not a country it is one of the main towns in the Kozani regional unit, West Macedonia, Greece.

Trick question, nice try though .

 

History 1 , well, their indigenous peoples of course  .

 

History 2. Should not that be in the art exam ?

 

 

[Taomeow]

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

 

First , can I use my phone ?

 

 

Sure -- before the exam, and after.

 

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

 

What is  a ft and an in or as 'yard'   ? 

 

 

Been trying half my life to figure it out.  I also grew up with the metric system.  I miss it every day.

 

1 hour ago, Nungali said:

 

In Grammar Q 7 . There is no question  or directive .

  

There is.  "Diagram" means draw as a diagram the syntactic relationships between words in a sentence.  Aka a simple derivational tree.

 

 "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver": "The Lord" is the subject, "loveth" is the predicate, "a giver" is a direct object, "cheerful" is its modifier.  The diagram would look something like this:

 

Edited August 13 by Taomeow

[Nungali]

....  and 'Servia'   ?

 

 

[Nungali]

'Strange Fruit '  -

I just had a totally out of season (for here )  imported from USA delicious nectarine , which was 10 times better than our in season ones  that taste like they came out of deep cold storage  ( at the local super and some of the time , for some reason there is a few weeks break when we get nice fresh ones .

 

More strange fruit -  once I was buying bananas imported from Mexico , they where in large bins outside the  shop, against its wall and from there I had direct line of site to local banana plantations , local ones where 3 times the price .

 

What a wacky world we live in .