Moose hunt started this week around here.
Do watch this video. I can’t decide wether I find it scary or funny.
One thing is for sure. This guy will have to change his pants.
6 Likes
With respect to you Bill, and any others, and I truly do respect all on the forum. I’m sorry that political and corporate interests have been so far reaching at assaulting science. When it comes down to it, our civilization is based on nothing but scientific achievement.
I hear that climate change denial leads to end of employment in the insurance industry. They have seen claims double and double again. The numbers don’t lie. When business that deals with storms fires and floods tells us something is real and rapidly worsening, we can take that as gospel. Everyone sees this in their increasing insurance premiums.
This summer the last ice shelf in the high Canadian arctic collapsed. It had been there for at least 3,000 years. Similar story on the east coast of Greenland. Glaciologists were shocked, they thought collapse might occur by mid century.
Unprecedented wildfires after unprecedented heat and drought in Australia. And now the west coast. Salmon fisheries failed everywhere but Alaska. Salmon showing up now in rivers in the high arctic, even the north of Hudson bay. Greenland lost 543 cubic kilometers of ice last year in unprecedented heat and a sprinkling of soot from north American forests burning. Tropical fish showing up off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of Canada. Projections say the arctic will be suitable for growing potatoes and wheat by 2100. Something like 19 of the hottest years globally have occurred in the last 20. Roughly 9 in the last 10.
I could go on for a long while. But it’s obvious, beyond debating.
As is the cause. 85% of all fossil fuels burnt in history burnt since the end of WWII. Over 50% since 1970. Impeccable science shows the relationship between global temperatures and the quantity of CO2 (and methane) in the atmosphere over millions of years. Methane is critical, much lost in fracking and now more in the rotting of peat bogs. Runaway feedback loops.
As for the magnetic poles, they seem to have always wandered. The magnetic poles have no effect on climate.
It’s time to let go of the childish fantasy that we can pollute limitlessly on a finite planet, we’re living like there’s no tomorrow, now there will be no tomorrow for many.
4 Likes
Gary, unfortunately what you say is probably true–that’s not saying much for our civilization. Science might save the earth from destruction for a while longer, but what is going to save civilization . . . .
2 Likes
I hear you Steve. I think that sums up the trouble we’re in. People ought to be morally driven beings. Instead we equate everything to money, the fantasy of perpetual growth on a finite resource base and ecosystem that must maintain all life. 2 sayings come to mind. "The trouble with people today is that they know the price of everything but the value of nothing " Oscar Wilde. And, “Only when the last river runs dry and the last fish and bird are gone will the white man understand that you can’t eat money.”
My other meaning about science being the basis of our civilization is that we would still be shivering in mud huts and burning witches without it. It’s comical at best to take all the massive gains, plastics, vaccines, jet planes and the incomprehensible technology in our devices that allow us to communicate globally as we never could have dreamed 30 years ago, and then just cherry pick out the massivey reliable information that would cause us to question the lavish and very brief dream of the FF transportation age. That’s just too convenient and self serving to pass any credibility test.
4 Likes
Guys you are too much drifting into the collapse of Tolerance, jarring areas of sex, politics, and Religions.
Make no mistake CarlOr and GaryT. “science” as too much today imposed has become it’s own Religion now. It’s own self-serving political party.
Just as good Ol Karl Marx and his contemporaries’ intended.
Believing in God is just fine. I believe.
But man creates Religions.
Science is the man created religion of the intellects.
And their belief system was just as subjected to hijacking as any other.
Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pot Pol; want me to go on?
Then there is/was the very good God-fearing men and woman who did, and still do good science with no conflict to their God beliefs.
Gregor Mendel. A whole bunch of Jewish and Muslin physicians centuries ahead of the Roman Catholic churches restricted Christian physicians. A whole bunch of Islamic mathematicians and linguistics centuries ahead too.
Intolerant Religious insist that others Must adopt their belief system.
As related to woodgas: that Imbert is the only good way to do it. Not true at all.
Mammals lived and thrived in 4000 ppm CO2 world. 10X what we are at today.
I see this fixation with carbon-as-bad as just the latest Top-Downer fear driving social-political game. More power and control to Us as obviously the best educated. Less power and control to all you barely H.S. graduates. Sorry. You just too stupid to be trusted making you own decisions.
We must stop “discussing” this here. Now.
Keep your core beliefs to yourselves.
Tolerate those here who will need to express their one-word, short line affirmations.
They do you no harm. This is not an attack toward you. No need to counter attack. Preach. Prostalize your own chosen belief system as the Only.
S.U.
9 Likes
Fulltime burning wood for heating now.
Now is my time for getting rid of all of the annual accumulation of state issued aluminum license plates. Their make a job in prisons system.
Three pairs this year.
Their game is to force change every 3-5 years, “due to loss of reflectivity”.
$20. + $4.00 + $0.25 in stacked up fees each time.
Ha! Ha! Anyhow in this shoulder season need-heat, but not too-much I put these plates across the inside ends of my woodstoved firebox. Reduces the capacity. Hold in more reflective heat for a smaller hotter, cleaned burn fire.
Ha! And melts distorts these plates for safe retirement.
“Use it up. Wear it out. Make Do. Or do without.”
Steve Unruh
7 Likes
Steve; It sounds like you are having a good day.
My two cents---- It is all about ‘‘over population’’ Science or religion, we are using up all of our resources . TomC
4 Likes
Agree with you there strongly Tom. Population overshoot has a terrible classic end.
Steve, I strongly beg to differ. Science is not a religion. It’s the absolute opposite of a belief system based on faith against available evidence, one definition of religion. So that’s a basic misunderstanding. It is a common dismissal of science though.
There is elevation of science into the realm of religion though, by corporations. Remember “better living through chemistry”? The same people who brought us PCBs and DDT. And brominated flame retardants. Etc. Or how about Vioxx? Another good one. That’s all bad. They played on people’s faith. Real science caught all those things in time. Money and politics fought against them. Sounds familiar…
Science though, is a continual process of checking and challenge which has carried us so far none of us could retrace the steps, maybe not in a million years. I couldn’t recreate a cellphone no matter how much time I had. Thanks to science we have everything, from the steel in your car, to the paint on it, and thanks to Faraday and Maxwell and theoretical physicists all the electrical and electronics on board. All by the process of breakthrough, challenge, correction. That is science.
So when science tells us something with a 99% + certainty, challenge credibly or take note.
We’re at the taking note stage.
7 Likes
Turpentine as an IC engine fuel:
Reading in the past about WWII era use of gasifiers for needs-must engine fueling I’d come across a reference to the Japanese’s sending out their school age children to dig up pine tree stumps for stocks to make airplane fuel.
So many xxx stumps needed to fuel a Kamikaze aircraft run in.
I am far, far from the American far SE where they Pine trees pitch tap and make turpentine. Duh. Stupid me. I’d kept thinking the Japanese converted these stumps to an alcohol based fuel. Wrong.
Anyhow this fellow shows good comparison to gasoline using in four different engine applications. One an EFI generator.
One with neat in-cylinder combustion pictures.
And in his carbureted loaded acceleration test bed vehicle he even got better power than gasoline.
I still think has to be many less step just to woodgasify those pine trees.
But motorcycles just like aircraft you’d want as dense and compact of liquid fuel as possible.
So you far SE Carolina’s and Georgia fellows just how do they cook down pine tar saps to turpentine?
S.U.
4 Likes
Science is wonderful. Sometimes I just lay awake all night reading Einsteins general theory of relativity and wonder why such a marvelous thing has never made an ounce of difference in my life other than when they took the idea to where I was in elementary school diving under my desk twice a week because the Russians were going to kill me. Good times.
I’ve been pondering the idea of making a wood chunker. Last night I dreamed how I wanted to do it and it was pretty simple. Just need to get my hands on a couple two inch pillow blocks and some short pieces of two and a half OD to 2 inch ID pipe sleeves and I’ll be a wood chunking fool.
2 Likes
Winter is here to stay. Snow is forecasted for the next 5 of 7 days.
I’m never ready. There’s so much I wanted to do before this.
12 Likes
Yep, the actual truth…
Just think of it… where does fossil fuel comes from ?
and how did it get down there ?
The things we CAN do… respect each other and learn to understand each others point of view…
Enjoy life and keep your smiles up and your hearts open my friends…
9 Likes
Bill, If I didn’t know better I would have guessed that pic was taken around here. Birch and spruce.
We got our first wet flakes yesterday as well. They didn’t stay though.
7 Likes
Yes Jan, when I see your pictures, it reminds me of here. We also have moose but no more hunting season.
This snow is going to stay unfortunately. I mean, I don’t mind the snow it’s just way too early. Maybe this will force me to get back to building a charcoal gasifier?
4 Likes
Snowing hard here too. I hope I get a week before it stays…endless slogging around in muck boots with my socks at my toes. It will be worth it though if there is a 100ft corridor on each side of the driveway to blow the snow into.
Gotta quick move all the two wheel drive stuff somewhere it can be out of the way for winter.
Ok, here is the lament that comes when all the good junk goes under the snow for the season… I really wanted to get somewhere with the crawlers this fall. I wanted to put a SBC and THM350 in an ancient D6 Caterpillar, and see what fun moving the banks would be with that. ( I can’t chance the blower on places I haven’t plowed first) I had some HAM tower projects, and wind turbine projects to put up…but, nah.
Still, I look forward to skiing and perhaps riding the snow machine.
5 Likes
Bill,
It will be late December or maybe even January in north central North Carolina USA before we have a a snow like in your photo .
4 Likes
11 inches of rain in the last week of Sept.
Now 6 inches more in Oct. has greened things back up.
Hard frost now is color changing things.
Candice grapes at the left yellowing now.
Blueberries now reddening up nicely on the left hand side. (with two young squirrel-girls rare sunny afternoon playing inside of them).
Wife’s car hiding up on the lawn to avoid the nuts dropping black walnut tree overhanging the driveway.
The whitish spots under the pear tree and at the base of the Candice are the sunning, scratching bantee chickens.
The white Portuguese Pondengo dog on the alert child-minding.
Life is good.
Autumn. The best time of the year.
If a bit wet squish, squishy.
Regards
Steve unruh
5 Likes
We average 13 feet of snow a year. My driveway/road is a half mile long. For 17 years I cleared it with a plow truck but it broke down with a big snow coming so I went out and bought a snowblower. Before, by the middle of January the banks at the side of my road were higher that the plow would push over and on one side of the road is hills and the other a steep decline so no way to push the snow wider. Now I snow blow it. Takes four passes, so 2 miles. We get a lot of 12-16 inch falls and some 20 to 24 inch storms. The snow blower just walks through the regular snows and it takes some doing to clear a 2 foot drop but it blows the snow 30 feet off the sides of the road and I don’t have to bring in a loader to clear down the built up banks. With normal snows I can do the whole drive in and hour/hour and a half. People think that’s nuts. I hated plowing. I’d rather do this and since I don’t walk behind a lawn mower all summer I figure it’s a wash. I’ll be 80 in seven years. I may have to rethink it then.
6 Likes
Today was our first fire early this morning to make coffee but it has barely been going the rest of the day. We went out again on the boat yesterday the water has cooled off enough that it’s not comfortable to be in all day but for a while it is good. We didn’t get in yesterday just rode around for an hour or so.
5 Likes