More Good News About Vitamin C

I just read this article about another study showing positive affects of vitamin C. This one involved the use of intravenous vitamin C to kill cancer cells.

Now there are two places where I never want to go.

I have always said there is one place that I absolutely never want to go, prison. The horror stories that come out of prisons tell me that anything, up to and including being dead would be better than being in prison. Now there are two places I never want to go. The second one is a relief shelter run by the government.

Truthfully speaking, I can't say that I was too surprised. I mean there is no activity on earth that the government can't make twice as expensive and only 10% as efficient. But even my low expectations were underwhelmed by what went on in the Convention Center in New Orleans.

I was in college when Camille came through and was working for a public utility when Fredrick hit Mobile. Both were bad storms, Camille especially. There was a lot of distruction but I don't recall there being snafus like Katrina has brought. Of course that was before FEMA. Nothing like a federal agency to gimmick everything up.

'Live and Let Live' and the Golden Rule

I know that you have heard the expression, "Live and let live." Have you ever stopped to think about what it means. To me, it means live your life as you see fit and let others live their lives as they see fit. I have said before that if people would follow the direction to 'Live and let live" and the direction of the Golden Rule to 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you', the world would be a much better place.

This brings me to the current situation in New Orleans. I, like most everyone else, have been riveted to the internet, TV and Radio coverage of the events as they unfold. The one thing that strikes me as odd is this obsession with 'getting everyone out so we can start over.' Why is every public official, every bureaucrat, and every TV reporter obsessed with this idea. Why do they think that everyone, even people who want to stay and defend their property must be gotten out so 'we can start over'? I've got news for them. We can't start over. History can not be erased. We have to go on with the hand we have been dealt. The one thing we can do is learn from our mistakes. What I have learned from this event is that you can't depend on someone else to make you safe, secure, or provide for your needs. Individuals need to prepare to take care of themselves. If you wait for the government to help you, you will probably end up a bloated corpse floating in dirty water.

I say leave those people alone who want to stay. I am sure that they have or will find what they need to survive until they can stand on their own two feet again. Sure, help everyone to get out that wants out, but stop harassing folks who just want to protect what is theirs and live their life the way they want to live it. Live and let live. And to the mayor of New Orleans and the folks working in the rescue effort, if you have an extra can of potted meat and some extra bottled water or better yet some clorox or iodine tablets, make it available to them. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Are you an environmentalist?

Do you think of yourself as an environmentalist? Do you really understand what environmentalism is all about? Before you answer, read the qoutes in this article.

Then compare what you believe to what these environmentalist believe.

Gold in your portfolio?

You might want to read this before you decide.

Why I take Vitamin C

Read this article, and you will see why I take Vitamin C and why you might want to consider it as well.

The NCAA

The NCAA is an organization that has out lived its useful life. It should be abolished and replaced by smaller regional associations that can interact with each other as they see fit.

Still Believe In Man-Made Global Warming?

I don't, in fact, I never have. Being an engineer, I have always wanted more proof, more hard data than was available. But even without numbers, it really did not appeal to me intellectually that mankind had done enough to alter the climate of a planet the size of earth. This morning, I came across this article by George Crispen. George provides some information in his article that further reinforces my skeptism. Read it for yourself and see what you think.

After you finish reading George's article, if you are interested in some further reading on this matter, you might want to look at this page . There is a link to James A. Marusek's paper, "Global Warming Theory" about midway down the page.

Charley Reese On Terrorism

Here, Charley gives a great description of terrorism and the situations surrounding it. If he would run for president, I would vote for him!

Iraq is not Vietnam

Back on June 28th, I posted my opinion that what is happening now in Iraq seemed eerily familiar to what I remembered from 1968 and the Vietnam War. This morning I came across an article by Jim Cox, Iraq is Not Vietnam. His article makes several comparisons of the two situations. His observations are enlightening.

You get what you get.

Heard the expression, "You Get What You Pay For." Well it has been my
experience that sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you get
more than what you pay for and sometimes you get less than what you
pay for. But you always get what you get.

Better Safe Than Sorry -or- Little Boy Who Cried Wolf

Well Tropical Depression Dennis is drifting along west of here. I lost one bamboo cane and a few
oak leaves. He really did not do too much this far inland, not even as much as a good late
afternoon July thunderstorm. What was more disruptive was the 3 days of preparation. The constant
harping on the TV about the dangerous nature of this storm. The likelihood of sustained power
outages, the need for serious preparation and the influx of thousands of people and vehicles from
South Alabama. There was even one unconfirmed report of a curfew in Alabaster.

I realize that it is better to be prepared and there is a lot of truth in the old saying "better
safe than sorry". However, humans are strange animals. They become jaded very, very quickly. False
alarms and needless hysteria make them discount future warnings a la "The Little Boy Who Cried
Wolf". I think we are all still a little sensitive because of what we experienced with Hurricane
Ivan and I will chalk this over prep to that plus a little tinge of puffing of goods by NOAA. In
the future, it might be wise to take a deep breath, take one step back, and prepare prudently
rather than hysterically.

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Found a pump that works

After two failed attempts with electric pumps, I have found a pump that works for collecting oil.
Originally, I intend to use a vacuum pump to draw the oil into a tank, but to date I have not
found a suitable tank. Since I had a 55 gallon drum filling up behind a local restaurant, I had to
start pumping. With the failure of the second electric pump, I went to the McMaster-Carr website
and did some searching. I found hand operated diaphragm pumps and purchased the model 400-H for
under $50. Took it to the restaurant yesterday and was able to pump out the barrel with ease. It
has a capacity of 10 gpm so the pumping was surprisingly fast. I don't know how long this pump
will hold up, but so far it looks good.

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Victors Muffler Bandage

During the time that I have been modifying the Mercedes, I noticed
that it had started to have a small but annoying exhaust leak. The
hole was in the pipe from the manifold to the muffler, just before the
muffler. Several weeks ago, I ordered a Victor's Muffler Bandage kit
from someone on the Internet. I think it was AceHardware.com. Anyway,
day before yesterday I finally made time to put it on the leaking
pipe. Although the location of the leak made it some what difficult
to apply the bandage, with a little time and effort I was able to get
the leak covered. I know this is just a temporary fix and that I will
eventually need to replace the front pipe if not the complete exhaust
system, but this was quick, easy, cheap and for the time being quite
effective.

Iraq 2005 = Vietnam 1968

All these excuses about why we can't get our troops out of Iraq sound awful familiar. I heard this same stuff back in the late 60's and early 70's about Vietnam. I was fooled back then and thought we had to stay the course or...

Now I know better. We need our troops out of Iraq NOW. Let the citizens of Iraq work out their own problems. I say bring our men and women home ASAP.

Pumping Oil

Last week I received the oil pump that I ordered off ebay. They sent the 115 volt model instead of the 12 volt model. No matter, I just fired up my little 1750 Coleman generator and it worked fine. When I got down to Columbiana Saturday, I did encounter a slight problem with the wand on the end of the pickup line. It was sucking air. Finally I took it off and put the end of the hose in the
55 gallon drum and the little pump pumped the drum dry in a matter of minutes.

Before my next pumping session, I suppose I will have to find and stop the air leak in the wand.In lieu of the wand, the seller where I bought the pump has a check valve, but it is $24 plus shipping and that seems like a bit of overkill just to keep the pump primed. Some how a $24 check valve on a $79 pump does not compute.

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Diesel Purge is Great!

A few days ago I ordered a can of Lubro-Moly Diesel Purge. I had read
about how good it was supposed to be. Yesterday afternoon the UPS man
delivered it. Later in the afternoon I went out and used it according
to the instructions. After I used the Diesel Purge, I noticed that the engine seemed to be idling better, but I knew the real test would be this morning when
the engine was cold.

I just got back from a trip down to Wal-mart and the change in the car
is amazing. No nailing, smoother idling and it seems to have more
power. It is hard to believe that 500 ml of Diesel Purge could
make that much difference in an engine, but seeing is believing.

Hwy 11 Antique Alley Sale

Friday I went from Trussville, AL to Chattanooga, TN on the Hwy 11 Antique Alley Sale, or as we call it around here, 'the springtime sale.' That distinguishes it form the big one in the fall, The World's Longest Yard Sale, aka The 450 mile sale or Hwy 127 Corridor Sale. Of course around here (Central Alabama) we call it 'the fall sale.'

I always go the full distance on the WLYS, but have only gone the entire lenght of the Hwy 11 sale once. This year I only went for one day on the Hwy 11 sale as I had no one to keep the dogs. Crowds and vendors seemed to be off a bit, I suspect due to higher fuel prices. It will take a while for folks budgets to accomodate the higher fuel cost.

If anybody out there took in the other parts of this years Hwy 11 sale, I would love to hear from you. Anything happening between Birmingham and Meridian?

First Filtering Today

Today I put the 32 inch 0.5 micron bag filter that I got from Greasel
in my plastic 55 gallon barrel and poured in the first of the oil that
I got from Beverly's. The oil was prefiltered through a 100 micron
poly filter first into a 5 gallon pail before pouring it into the
Greasel filter. I am still working on the 55 gallon steel barrel and
filter and hope to have it set up next week. I intend to incorporate
the 5 gallon pail and 100 micron filter in to that setup as a
prefilter.

Filtering Oil

Still working on filtering the oil I am collecting. Ordered Dana
Linscotts plans for the hand pump filtering system. Just about got it
set up using a plastic barrel. Also working on a different setup using
a smaller bag filter in a closed pvc container. It is based on a
modification of a design that I saw on one of the forums. If it works,
I will post a diagram somewhere on the net.