The Peckish Synapse

[customboss]

TRUTH : 

On this Memorial Day we remember the men and women who have given their lives for our rights, freedom, liberty and democracy – those who have given the last full measure of devotion to ensure that the federal republic would endure for our posterity.   To honor their sacrifice, we must contemplate the responsibility that each and every one of us has to participate in our democracy and ensure their legacy of selfless sacrifice is not wasted.   We owe that to every child of a fallen soldier, sailor, Airman, Coast Guardsman, and Marine.   Our responsibility is to ensure that their sacrifice was not in vain. That the federal republic they died to defend is not dismantled by the rise of an evil tyrant from within.   I have lost Marines and friends that have made this ultimate sacrifice and seen the last moments of life leave the eyes of the most patriotic our nation has to offer.   They owed no allegiance to political parties or fealty to anything but patriotism, God, and Country. And they gave their lives so that we could enjoy the blessings of liberty that we must secure for future generations.   May God bless their souls and may they rest in peace knowing that we have assumed the watch and that we would gladly take their place for Constitution and Corps.   Semper fi, Ike McCorkle   Combat Wounded U.S. Marine Corps, Retired Democratic Candidate for CO-04

Edited May 27, 2024 by customboss

[Grumpy Bear]

NO POLY-TICKS

 

[Grumpy Bear]

"Blood is thicker than water."

 

This saying implies our strongest bond is reliant upon blood. Really? 

 

What blood bond is there at the nucleus of your family? Better hope it isn't mum and dad. 

 

 

[customboss]

The bond of shedding your blood for your fellow soldier sailor marine airman coastguardsman. Serving to the point of ultimate sacrifice. Your snark shows ignorance of that bond. 
Odd that you don’t grasp the sacrifice since it’s the same template of Christs sacrifice of the blood and body to save those who follow.  

[Grumpy Bear]

 

[Grumpy Bear]

Why do people think like this?

 

This person, XYZ, is not mentioned ANYWHERE in history, so obviously, he never existed. Hum....find a mention of your 30th great grandfather. All of them. I'll wait......   Absence of evidence is evidence of absence? Hardly. What is obvious it you are here; hence he was REAL. A current truth makes a past truth self-evident.

 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident..." Sound familiar? Even the 15% of the human race that is irreligious pins their freedom and faith in human government based on this immutable fact. Even before they left Europe, and those words were penned.  

 

How about this one. Confusing a 'teaching' with a 'finding'. Repeating Genisis 1:1 after reading it doesn't make you the originator of life anymore that THE teacher of human origin as if you invented it. You don't get credit for the thing you are taught, read, discover the existence of. But you can share it with others that don't know. At best you are a facilitator of knowledge. 

 

Or, "I don't believe in what I cannot see".  How long is that list of things we believe we cannot see or even sense sometimes. Weak nuclear force? Infared light? Electricity? Radio waves? Human thought? Free will? 

 

Or, the belief there are people so smart that they do not error and thus must be held accountable to YOU. Thier error, a pretty human condition, doesn't make you smarter. Everyone calls the perfect play in the rearview mirror. 

 

Or, that their first conclusion based on observations are infallible. Even Einstein whiffed a few and never did complete his works. Stephen Hawking, ditto. 

 

Or, taking credit for finding something that wasn't lost or explaining something not before understood as if you were the prime cause/originator/first cause. Gravity? Geometry? Relativity? Nutrition? 

 

Let's flip the coin. You are caught on tape, film, someone's phone saying or doing something you will deny happening to the death.

 

That you can 'say a thing true', That one bewilders me. That you can defeat what is true with a lie.  

 

It took the scientific community about 30 years after Alberts death to confirm that light has mass and can be bent by a gravitational field strong enough. Did the lack of conformation make it untrue? 

 

Oh...just quit it now. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Bear]

Kohl's Dollars

 

Kohl's is one of those places that tells you what some pie in the sky retail value is as a way to tell you their price is such a good deal. If you buy this argument, you may be rewarded with Kohl's Dollars. Some discounting the price a good deal more. A $200, retail, Dutch Oven all said and done for $40.  

 

Belle Tire and is another shop I've had recent business with that has a similar sales model. A GM Direct Fit loaded strut from the dealer is $360. This is where they start and for GM end. Their house brand, a Monroe unlabeled is $280 but I want you to know how hard I'm working for you, so I sourced the Monroe from an out of network source at $240. That was my cost and I'm going to give you the parts at my cost. Rock Auto has the part for $119 and his cost would be less as a volume buyer. Shop rate is $145/hr. So, there is allot of pad in the bill.  

 

Now I know this and I'm not okay with it, but my brick-and-mortar mechanic moved on to a commercial private shop repairing cement mixers and dump trucks for a check he could, should not refuse and I'm happy for him and more so foor his children.

 

His hourly rate was about the same as Belle, but I could bring my own parts and if the book called for 3 hours and he was done in 2, he charged only the hours it actually took. AND it wasn't a job I want to do in the driveway. And he made good money, until his well-paid crew quit on him. It's a lot of hours and not everyone is cut out for it. 

 

It isn't the price I mind as much as the show of it made. The idea that while the pickpocket is picking your pocket he's whispering in your ear, "This is me not picking your pockets". 

 

I wonder. Who does one play with once they have all the marbles?

 

I feel chains coming. 

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Bear]

26 letters in the alphabet and 10 numerical symbols. Only 3 primary colors. All of which children know these days by age 4. Mostly taught by mothers and preschool babysitters. Who learned from their mothers. Add a finite range of perceivable sound, a bounded range of smell, fenced sight and range of tactile feeling and you have the basis for everything a human requires to learn anything else and far more than he needs to survive. Structure and the means to sense it. Add speech or sign and now you can convey it to someone else. You can even learn missing a few basic elements and do so quite well.  So, what does education do? Formal education? 

 

One big thing is it speeds up the process just like any training does. That can be a good thing. 

 

But it also shapes the focus of thought and moral code wherever the instructor so desires. This is useful at university as you can 'specialize' or have a directed focus. Many of those focuses will require an adjustment to the moral code. 

 

Which moral code? Two, the one your parents instilled in you and the one you are born with. The one instilled in you by the one you are created in the image of. The remainder are shaped and chosen and mostly by those who view you as an 'opportunity' to some end of their desire.  

 

Education is not always formal. News programs, Entertainment. "Other" printed materials and often without regard for the student's welfare but only its own. The human tendency to gossip and tell stories that place them in a favorable light or you in a poor one. 

 

Politics and religion are not the hammer driving the nail. They are the nail. The driver is education in the hands of the one that directs the inclination of "wherever the instructor so desires". 

 

One ought be careful in choosing their instructor. You put allot of confidence in???? No, not their skills but in their INTENTIONS. 

 

Education isn't just instilling facts and skills that make you useful to society, but it is also a tool to numb your moral code to the point you will do it without a response from your conscience. At least one that will not deter the intended result. 

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Bear]

Falling off a Log

 

 

In the lab/field each point of this cube is a 'variable' or a 'lever' that can be changed in a product or process or even a procedure. The point of construction of the cube is to examine the results of pulling one lever at a time on a set of requirements or goals. We used these effectively, exclusively, excessively and exhaustively in both the lab and the field.

 

Each point, and you can add points assigned to the middle of each line and lines that intersect those as well, is assigned a variable by a team, in our case, of 6 Sigma Blackbelts, Engineers of multiple disciplines, and lab techs and specialist to test the improvements required or the underlying reasons for. 

 

Given a half a thought it will be obvious that constructing of the box is difficult enough and the construction of the test to pull each level exhaustive. It should also be obvious that executing these test takes not just repeated efforts; each point is tested multiple times for the statistical evaluation and a generation of a second cube if it is deemed necessary. 

 

Some of these go pretty quick. A few weeks for a simple modification are all that is required and stone axe accurate if good enough. Others? Take years and multiple teams to cut the sheer volume of test time to something manageable.

 

I did this type of research work for the last decade of my oil/gas/chemical career.  As the lab rat running these experiments and having a good deal of input on the design and execution of the cube I and others like me (lab techs) had a wider view of the entire process than any other member of the team. Some never know more than a single point and only that to the degree required to complete his/her task. 

 

More often than not the result of a few years work is the realization that the goal you are attempting to accomplish is just not doable. A good number of others are but are cost prohibitive. A few more a competitor beat you to market on and the handful you have left won't pay the bills. Progress, real progress is slow in research. 

 

Then there will be one. A game changer. And you find it by accident. Like Firestone did vulcanization. Yea, once in a while you succeed. Even by design. 

 

So, how does this stack up against an outside entity that has input over your very existence with the power to fine you into the stone age over your work product? 

 

Tell you how. By designing methods that send product to market with known flaws the company HOPES will not sink the boat and then respond to failure in real time. This is much like jumping out of an airplane with the materials to build a parachute and hoping to succeed in your task before time runs out. Microsoft releases OS and patches them until your computer crashes then starts over. GM, OXM or whoever collaborate by the same methods to the same ends and goals. Agile Manufacturing. It even has a name. Many in fact. Done to exicute mandates they are not READY FOR. 

 

Thing is, the lab rat.... he knows the story and the difference and the deficiencies. And sometimes even the fix.

 

If you OUT this process, as I do constantly, you get resistance from those who promote the method. 

 

I'm in a happy place. Discouraged and heckled and I don't care.

My equipment loves me. I had/have the best seat in the house. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grumpy Bear]

Does it matter?

 

Pepper is inching up on 200K and I've spent under $20 in parts for non-routine maintenance. A leaking pinion seal and a warped plastic starter shield that made noise rubbing on the flywheel starter ring gear. Still on the original brakes and battery. Uses so little oil its hardly believable and gets amazing mileage even on Ethanol fuel. AFM is active and it hasn't a tune. Did my ******-retentive maintenance matter?

 

It didn't hurt. I have the receipt. Having said that I went an extra step. PROACTIVE modifications and routines.  

 

How does one get 125K miles out of a lowest bid factory OEM installed tire? Whisper quite interior, aka no rattles or squeaks? OEM installed Ball joints, tie rods and "A" arms/bushings, sway bar end links still in service and perfect working order?  

 

Looking back on her records she's had six alignments. 

 

Factory,

20K, to fix the awful factory setup

47K, when the King/Deaver/ Sulastic modifications were done.

48K, recheck unfamiliar setup and retorque

65K After rear spring 'squeak' repair and installation of lighter 600# King front coils

125,500 just after new tires installed.

 

You can see a few were nervous checks and suspension modifications. All part of the equation. Tires were rotated every 5K and balanced every 10K. Air pressures constantly checked and adjusted. 

 

130,300 refined alignment settings. 

186,360 refined tighter modified settings based on real time tire wear. 

 

This second set the tread has a ton of life left, but the rubber is succumbing to the elements of aging. 

 

That's the record. Lessons learned from my father and a youth where I learned my right foot controlled my vehicles wallet and a horrific accident shaped my choices.

 

Tires need to stay on the ground and go in the direction you are going with as little monkey motion as possible. Movement = wear. MOVEMENT = WEAR. (and rattles). 

 

Start straight, tight and well dampened and HOLD that with frequent services and finish with rotation, balance and pressure routines like you care what happens. Some pretty amazing things can happen. 

 

The factory OEM setup is pure garbage starting with the alignment and no, you don't have to go as far as I did but GREAT shocks early in their life will pay out in multiples. 

[Grumpy Bear]

Order of operations - Wikipedia

And the moral code

 

In mathematics and computer programming, the order of operations is a collection of rules that reflect conventions about which operations to perform first in order to evaluate a given mathematical expression.

 

Example: In the expression 1 + 2 × 3, the multiplication is performed before addition, and the expression has the value 1 + (2 × 3) = 7, and not (1 + 2) × 3 = 9.

 

As we all like to get back the right change and receive a fair weight the ENTIRE world has adopted a single set of rules that govern the order of operations so that we all get the same RESULT. Astronauts like this sort of 'sameness', right? Everyone benefits, not one gets hurt. 

 

But when it comes to our moral code, we reject the rules given us and the MAJORITY believe it is better to adopt or develop their own. How would that work if we applied that logic to mathematics? 

 

Why do we override that waving red flag we feel when we reject/ignore/push past that internal sense of right and wrong? 

 

Oh, you know the answer to that. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[customboss]

On 7/31/2024 at 9:08 AM, Grumpy Bear said:

Does it matter?

 

Pepper is inching up on 200K and I've spent under $20 in parts for non-routine maintenance. A leaking pinion seal and a warped plastic starter shield that made noise rubbing on the flywheel starter ring gear. Still on the original brakes and battery. Uses so little oil its hardly believable and gets amazing mileage even on Ethanol fuel. AFM is active and it hasn't a tune. Did my ******-retentive maintenance matter?

 

It didn't hurt. I have the receipt. Having said that I went an extra step. PROACTIVE modifications and routines.  

 

How does one get 125K miles out of a lowest bid factory OEM installed tire? Whisper quite interior, aka no rattles or squeaks? OEM installed Ball joints, tie rods and "A" arms/bushings, sway bar end links still in service and perfect working order?  

 

Looking back on her records she's had six alignments. 

 

Factory,

20K, to fix the awful factory setup

47K, when the King/Deaver/ Sulastic modifications were done.

48K, recheck unfamiliar setup and retorque

65K After rear spring 'squeak' repair and installation of lighter 600# King front coils

125,500 just after new tires installed.

 

You can see a few were nervous checks and suspension modifications. All part of the equation. Tires were rotated every 5K and balanced every 10K. Air pressures constantly checked and adjusted. 

 

130,300 refined alignment settings. 

186,360 refined tighter modified settings based on real time tire wear. 

 

This second set the tread has a ton of life left, but the rubber is succumbing to the elements of aging. 

 

That's the record. Lessons learned from my father and a youth where I learned my right foot controlled my vehicles wallet and a horrific accident shaped my choices.

 

Tires need to stay on the ground and go in the direction you are going with as little monkey motion as possible. Movement = wear. MOVEMENT = WEAR. (and rattles). 

 

Start straight, tight and well dampened and HOLD that with frequent services and finish with rotation, balance and pressure routines like you care what happens. Some pretty amazing things can happen. 

 

The factory OEM setup is pure garbage starting with the alignment and no, you don't have to go as far as I did but GREAT shocks early in their life will pay out in multiples. 

THIS IS WHERE YOU SHINE BRAVO. 

[customboss]

On 7/16/2024 at 10:22 AM, Grumpy Bear said:

Falling off a Log

 

 

In the lab/field each point of this cube is a 'variable' or a 'lever' that can be changed in a product or process or even a procedure. The point of construction of the cube is to examine the results of pulling one lever at a time on a set of requirements or goals. We used these effectively, exclusively, excessively and exhaustively in both the lab and the field.

 

Each point, and you can add points assigned to the middle of each line and lines that intersect those as well, is assigned a variable by a team, in our case, of 6 Sigma Blackbelts, Engineers of multiple disciplines, and lab techs and specialist to test the improvements required or the underlying reasons for. 

 

Given a half a thought it will be obvious that constructing of the box is difficult enough and the construction of the test to pull each level exhaustive. It should also be obvious that executing these test takes not just repeated efforts; each point is tested multiple times for the statistical evaluation and a generation of a second cube if it is deemed necessary. 

 

Some of these go pretty quick. A few weeks for a simple modification are all that is required and stone axe accurate if good enough. Others? Take years and multiple teams to cut the sheer volume of test time to something manageable.

 

I did this type of research work for the last decade of my oil/gas/chemical career.  As the lab rat running these experiments and having a good deal of input on the design and execution of the cube I and others like me (lab techs) had a wider view of the entire process than any other member of the team. Some never know more than a single point and only that to the degree required to complete his/her task. 

 

More often than not the result of a few years work is the realization that the goal you are attempting to accomplish is just not doable. A good number of others are but are cost prohibitive. A few more a competitor beat you to market on and the handful you have left won't pay the bills. Progress, real progress is slow in research. 

 

Then there will be one. A game changer. And you find it by accident. Like Firestone did vulcanization. Yea, once in a while you succeed. Even by design. 

 

So, how does this stack up against an outside entity that has input over your very existence with the power to fine you into the stone age over your work product? 

 

Tell you how. By designing methods that send product to market with known flaws the company HOPES will not sink the boat and then respond to failure in real time. This is much like jumping out of an airplane with the materials to build a parachute and hoping to succeed in your task before time runs out. Microsoft releases OS and patches them until your computer crashes then starts over. GM, OXM or whoever collaborate by the same methods to the same ends and goals. Agile Manufacturing. It even has a name. Many in fact. Done to exicute mandates they are not READY FOR. 

 

Thing is, the lab rat.... he knows the story and the difference and the deficiencies. And sometimes even the fix.

 

If you OUT this process, as I do constantly, you get resistance from those who promote the method. 

 

I'm in a happy place. Discouraged and heckled and I don't care.

My equipment loves me. I had/have the best seat in the house. 

 

 

 

 

 

You get corrected for being incorrect and pompous.  When accurate you are praised. See above. 

[Grumpy Bear]

 

[customboss]

2 hours ago, Grumpy Bear said:

 

Good old copper best. Just won’t last long in today’s engines. You want a spark “processor“ that works best engine design. I helped design plasma plugs for certain R&D engines. 
Note Haven’t had time to watch the video yet.