Get off my LAWN! "Grumpy Old Farts"

[Winslow]

...at the KOA.

Many fond memories of summer trips to a KOA run by a friend of my father.

Train travel...

An excellent choice if one has an express option, but God help one's reflux if one is sleeping head-forward on a line that makes an ungodly number overnight stops at every single holllow log next to the tracks. I'm looking at you, [Southern] Crescent.

Otherwise, yes, trains are great. Especially in Japan.

 

[GwenOnBass]

There are many sailboats to see on the The New York - Boston Amtrak run

 

[Black Out Jazz]

Many fond memories of summer trips to a KOA run by a friend of my father.


An excellent choice if one has an express option, but God help one's reflux if one is sleeping head-forward on a line that makes an ungodly number overnight stops at every single holllow log next to the tracks. I'm looking at you, [Southern] Crescent.

Otherwise, yes, trains are great. Especially in Japan.

I've ridden a japanese bullet train from Yokohama to Tokyo and back. We went about 140mph. I (tried) to use my phone gps for speed. Unsure of accuracy.

 

[ahc]

The truth about Fluoride...

 

[beans-on-toast]

It’s raining cats and dogs today.

Bought a new upright vacuum cleaner. Same as my old Dyson, just updated. Way quieter, sucks like the dickens, more attachments. The one noticeable difference is 99% is plastic now, parts are thinner, and it seems much less robust than the old one. Time will tell how well it stands up.

 

[notJaco]

It’s raining cats and dogs today.

Bought a new upright vacuum cleaner. Same as my old Dyson, just updated. Way quieter, sucks like the dickens, more attachments. The one noticeable difference is 99% is plastic now, parts are thinner, and it seems much less robust than the old one. Time will tell how well it stands up.

It won’t.
I kid ; I don’t know for sure. Plastic these days is a different animal. They may use very sturdy stuff in that instance. But the stuff that is used on car interiors and some engine parts seems to be overly biodegradable for ecological reasons.

 

[beans-on-toast]

It won’t.
I kid ; I don’t know for sure. Plastic these days is a different animal. They may use very sturdy stuff in that instance. But the stuff that is used on car interiors and some engine parts seems to be overly biodegradable for ecological reasons.

I noticed that. The soft vinyl in cars like on door panels is painted, it’s more cost effective. Sunblock dissolves this paint over years. You’d think that they’d use something more stable such as vinyl with the color built in.

 

[gtmalone]

Train travel ... I mean, did you even see the new high speed rail being tested in France? There is absolutely no reason that travel should be an unpleasant experience. Airline crew calls us self-loading cargo. Cruise ships are uninteresting to me because they don't go anywhere. Book a sea passage from Belfast to New York? Those routes are closed to commercial human traffic ...

I pretty much despise driving. Like cars. Hate driving. Hate driving long distance even more. To me, a big car is a BMW 3 series.

All in for lighter-than-air travel. So it takes six days or something to cross the country. Who cares when you've got a berth, a lounge, food service ... a view. How cool is that.

Too long in port

Self loading cargo - LOL! A cruise ship is useful if you want to get sick then not be able to get off.

Driving for us works two ways - pain in the ass if you are just trying to get somewhere and/or the destination is not any fun. Great time if it's a fun trip to anywhere and no schedule, no reservations to worry about, no set route, etc. etc.

 

[beans-on-toast]

That Miami building that collapsed is troubling. I’ve heard of this happening in third world countries. One of the reasons for the destruction was reported to be cracking cement in below ground levels.

I see this in my parking garage. It’s below five high rise buildings. They are always making structural repairs down there and laying down new rubber surfaces on each level. Cracks in the cement cause the rebar to rust. Winter salt in the melting water from cars only makes it worse. A lot of potential for disaster with the weight of those towers.

 

[GwenOnBass]

That Miami building that collapsed is troubling. I’ve heard of this happening in third world countries. One of the reasons for the destruction was reported to be cracking cement in below ground levels.

I see this in my parking garage. It’s below four high rise buildings. They are always making structural repairs down there and laying down new rubber surfaces on each level. Cracks in the cement cause the rebar to rust. Winter salt in the melting water from cars only makes it worse. A lot of potential for disaster with the weight of those towers.

Good thing nobody learned what a metaphor is.

 

[Al Kraft]

The truth about Fluoride...

I watch that movie every time it comes on! Peter Sellers outdid himself with his three roles in that movie. Unless you knew that it was the same actor you would never have guessed he covered three main roles - and did them all well!

 

[gtmalone]

It’s raining cats and dogs today.

Bought a new upright vacuum cleaner. Same as my old Dyson, just updated. Way quieter, sucks like the dickens, more attachments. The one noticeable difference is 99% is plastic now, parts are thinner, and it seems much less robust than the old one. Time will tell how well it stands up.

That artifact is noticeable on many products compared to earlier versions. I've had a Black and Decker Workmate 100 for about 30 yrs. It was the low end at the time but pretty sturdy. Over time I replaced the self tapping screws with nuts/bolts and made new tops for it out of maple. I bought a new Workmate 225 about 6-7 yrs ago. Nice features and useful but disappointed in the quality. Much lighter frame. If you clamp anything uneven tightly the frame will twist and one leg will rise up. Most of the time I use the old one.

Another annoying thing that both of them shared - the holes for the bench dogs are an odd size. Standard 3/4" dogs won't work. Have to buy from B&D. The new tops I made for the old Workmate have 3/4" holes. I had to buy 3/4 dogs but at least any stuff for 3/4 will work with it.

 

[Al Kraft]

Good thing nobody learned what a metaphor is.

...and sadly no one cared to learn what subsidence meant when an engineer mentioned it regarding that building decades ago.

When I saw this quote from the Mayor it explained everything: "There's no reason for this building to go down like that unless someone literally pulls out the supports from underneath, or they get washed out, or there's a sinkhole or something like that because it just went down."

That shows a total lack of understanding of how structural collapse can occur in a building where internal load bearing elements are being exposed to conditions that are outside of their original design envelope and beginning to exceed the design factor of safety. Subsidence in the foundational areas can easily cause this to occur. It's like our own skeletal systems where we can easily get out of alignment and do cumulative damage/trauma that appears as catastrophic loss as physical ability suddenly (e.g. I only reached for my toothbrush and my back just went out).

 

[Al Kraft]

It won’t.
I kid ; I don’t know for sure. Plastic these days is a different animal. They may use very sturdy stuff in that instance. But the stuff that is used on car interiors and some engine parts seems to be overly biodegradable for ecological reasons.

There are some composite/ceramic materials that actually outperform metals/meal alloys (even the exotic stuff), but we rarely see that kind of material in consumer products. The more expensive Dyson stuff could be an exception.

 

[notJaco]

That artifact is noticeable on many products compared to earlier versions. I've had a Black and Decker Workmate 100 for about 30 yrs. It was the low end at the time but pretty sturdy. Over time I replaced the self tapping screws with nuts/bolts and made new tops for it out of maple. I bought a new Workmate 225 about 6-7 yrs ago. Nice features and useful but disappointed in the quality. Much lighter frame. If you clamp anything uneven tightly the frame will twist and one leg will rise up. Most of the time I use the old one.

Another annoying thing that both of them shared - the holes for the bench dogs are an odd size. Standard 3/4" dogs won't work. Have to buy from B&D. The new tops I made for the old Workmate have 3/4" holes. I had to buy 3/4 dogs but at least any stuff for 3/4 will work with it.

Enter "Harbor Freight Tools". An entire store with inventory of short term tools. I must say that I own some of it. For stuff not used on a daily basis it work just fine and if it breaks I can buy another with that intent and have paid for both new and old at less than half the price of profession grade stuff. It's not like I wouldn't rather have quality but...I've no one to pass it on to when I break.
Aftermarket car parts seem to be much of the same thing. If a car is old and not liable to be on the road for but a couple more years due to rust and deteriorating interiors, just putting around town, the cheap stuff may be justifiable. Not so for hard core commuters.

 

[notJaco]

There are some composite/ceramic materials that actually outperform metals/meal alloys (even the exotic stuff), but we rarely see that kind of material in consumer products. The more expensive Dyson stuff could be an exception.

Consumer stuff has to deteriorate for people to remain employed. Although robotics may squash that theory.

 

[beans-on-toast]

That artifact is noticeable on many products compared to earlier versions. I've had a Black and Decker Workmate 100 for about 30 yrs. It was the low end at the time but pretty sturdy. Over time I replaced the self tapping screws with nuts/bolts and made new tops for it out of maple. I bought a new Workmate 225 about 6-7 yrs ago. Nice features and useful but disappointed in the quality. Much lighter frame. If you clamp anything uneven tightly the frame will twist and one leg will rise up. Most of the time I use the old one.

Another annoying thing that both of them shared - the holes for the bench dogs are an odd size. Standard 3/4" dogs won't work. Have to buy from B&D. The new tops I made for the old Workmate have 3/4" holes. I had to buy 3/4 dogs but at least any stuff for 3/4 will work with it.

I wound up replacing the wood on a bench top one that I had. I like the bench dogs and clamps that LeeValley sells.

 

[SoulReflection]

Consumer stuff has to deteriorate for people to remain employed. Although robotics may squash that theory.

Yah, but, the people who operate them robots are greedy types so built-in obselesince will continue...

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Train travel ... I mean, did you even see the new high speed rail being tested in France? There is absolutely no reason that travel should be an unpleasant experience. Airline crew calls us self-loading cargo. Cruise ships are uninteresting to me because they don't go anywhere. Book a sea passage from Belfast to New York? Those routes are closed to commercial human traffic ...

I pretty much despise driving. Like cars. Hate driving. Hate driving long distance even more. To me, a big car is a BMW 3 series.

All in for lighter-than-air travel. So it takes six days or something to cross the country. Who cares when you've got a berth, a lounge, food service ... a view. How cool is that.

Too long in port

A new TGV? What are they going to call it? The TGV2, like the ICE3 in Germany? I prefer the ICE3 cars to the TGV cars. It will be interesting to see what SNCF come up with.

 

[Deleted member 268085]

Google was my friend.

TGV M

Due in service by the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

The new TGV M is launching into an age of global high-speed rivalry