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sear

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Everything posted by sear

  1. Next presidential candidate debate: Sunday Oct. 09, 2016 Trump will lose on substance?
  2. I haven't seen a Broadway show since I was in grammar school. My interest is economic, and humanitarian, & historic *. How many $Tens of $Millions of $Dollars has Miranda made for Broadway? How many jobs has he created for ticket sellers, ushers, stage hands, actors, etc? How many playwrights can you name that have made a SMASH HIT about a U.S. Founder? Broadway shmaudray. Miranda is a talent. How he'll do on SNL I neither know nor much care. I wish my countrymen well. * My favorite span of history is the U.S. revolution, and that includes the biographies of the Founders, including Hamilton. PS BTW: I visited the bluff in New Jersey where Burr had the duel. You may not care about your own nation's history. But I do.
  3. What's the name of tonight's host? He's the author / actor from Broadway's super smash hit Hamilton? Lin-Manuel Miranda Love him or hate him, the man is an absolutely overpowering talent. I've never been an SNL fan. But if tonight's presentation is as successful as Hamilton is on Broadway, this is the one to watch.
  4. - alright - Is this the wrong time for me to point out a sanity check here? I'm not the only one to observe that the Republican party is imploding before our eyes. NBC's Chuck Todd said this AM that the entire GOP may be in jeopardy because of Trump. BUT !! Am I way out of line to note the identity of the most recent Republican U.S. president?
  5. #142 Well done. Lookit: OF COURSE you are right. It's a simple matter of physics that the sphere has the smallest surface area to volume ratio. That's why soap bubbles are spherical. Same thing for Earth's moon. And for the same reason, same thing for Earth. It's probably best to leave the flat-Earthers alone. They've got more severe problems.
  6. #614 What's a crackpot?
  7. Well don't squander your talent inventing gravity lieutenant. Why don't you declare your candidacy for president of the United States? If you " still know how to use a fucking quote button! " the cosmos would obviously benefit from your taking a top ranking executive position. Fill in as U.S. president until there's an opening for Emperor of the Cosmos.
  8. Let me take a wild guess: Two White guys?
  9. McDonalds chain restaurant: What finer outlet is there for food substitute served by distracted, indifferent teenaged entry level employees?
  10. I won't dispute here the "honest Clinton" argument. I think both Bill & Hill have conspicuous deficiencies in that regard. BUT !! If the issue is the Clinton Foundation, VP candidate Kaine said the Clinton Foundation charity rating rivals that of the Red Cross. Splendid! With all the fact checking, contradictions, refutations, and counter-claims, if Kaine's assertion was in factual error, wouldn't Trump or his cohort have seized on it by now? By inference, that would seem to be a Trump campaign endorsement of Clinton. No? Qui tacet concenteri videture.
  11. #100 How much fraud is there in Social Security? A simple numerical percentage will suffice. Three decimal precision not required.
  12. Correct. That's how I know it's so far lower than Bush's. [please note the numerical designation on the graphic] To elucidate that important point: UBL was #1 on the FBI's 10 most wanted list, because during the 8 years of the Bush administration he killed ~3K Americans. BUT !! During those same years, U.S. President Bush, an ostensible patriot, killed over 30% more, as the above graphic demonstrates. So: - Killing Americans is bad. - Public enemy #1 killed 3K. - President Bush killed 4K. - BUT !! UBL is the bad guy. What the %$#@ are you smoking ?!?! I wouldn't want theft or fraud in the private sector any more than I'd want it in the public sector. I agree. Stealing from retirement funds is bad. BUT !! SS took care of it in 10 minutes. The Fortune 500 people took 10 weeks. YOU tell ME which is the more efficient. Right. The Fortune 500 deal wasn't about fraud protection. It was about distinguishing with institutional maladroitness whether I wanted a lump-sum distribution, or a monthly stipend. piffle Pyramid schemes crash. It's as predictable as the sunrise. I'm vehemently opposed to Social Security. President sear would correct the Social Security system my first day in office. I merely acknowledge, I obtained my receipt of payments without any direct human intervention. I typed into the computer on the Internet. Quite a different story w/ Fortune 500. They're rich. Even if so, so what. The United States of America is not "3 people on an island". The United States of America is the most cosmopolitan nation in the solar system. And among many other factors, the resultant diversity of cultures results in occasional disputes. And know it or not, believe it or not, like it or not, admit it or not; dispute resolution is one chief role of government. Of our three branch federal government, one entire branch is dedicated PRECISELY to that one objective: dispute resolution.
  13. #70 Buoyancy would not exist without gravity. It's not that a kayak with a man in it isn't heavy. Instead: buoyancy results because the water that displaces them is denser. Buoyancy would not exist without gravity. Buoyancy results from gravity.
  14. U.S. President Bush killed off 4,487. What's Obama's death toll? I used to claim that. I realize it's just an anecdote. AND !! I realize it may not represent the broader picture. BUT !! I recently applied for Social Security (public sector) AND pension (private sector). For Social Security, I did it online. It took about 10 minutes. On Monday afternoon I input the required information, including bank routing number. By Friday morning of the same week, my bank statement said the $money was in my account, and immediately available! I couldn't believe my eyes! In vivid contrast, my pension from my Fortune 500 former employer required literally months of phone calls and paperwork and administrative delays. I admit: this does not reinforce my pre-existing private sector / public sector bias. BUT !! I can't deny reality. The Social Security process was extremely efficient. I'll also add, that doesn't mean Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. It is! But at least, this one phase of it was impressively efficient. Can, and do. Communism is an obvious example. But there are aboriginal cultures on Earth where the chief of the tribe rules with supremacy, without private business, or even a standardized currency.
  15. Excellent. For it to be "useless" (the word YOU used) it would have to be with zero use. Therefore if I can cite ONE use, ANY use, I prove you wrong. Agreed? In aeronautical engineering, a powered aircraft needs enough thrust to create sufficient thrust to generate enough aerodynamic lift to lift the weight of the aircraft. An aircraft with a thrust to weight ratio of greater than one can climb vertically. But an ostensible aircraft that lacks the thrust to generate the lift to lift itself won't leave the ground under its own power. SO WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING? Horsepower to weight ratio is a significant parameter. And engine displacement influences engine weight. Most 7 liter engines weigh more than most 2 liter engines. It's not "useless" if it has a use. It has a use. It has more than one use. So you are wrong again. * Excerpted from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition © 1996 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from INSO Corporation; further reproduction and distribution in accordance with the Copyright Law of the United States. All rights reserved.
  16. Not for aeronautical engineers it isn't. Mathematics is the language of science.
  17. #23 - 25 splendid But that's hardly a scientific comparison of the mechanical virtues of the pushrodless engine. That scientific analysis would be presented in quantifiable parameters: - horsepower to weight ratio - hp / cubic inch - redline - etc. "nope" "Yup" doesn't cut it.
  18. I'm willing to review your data. But your assertion is counter-intuitive. A pushrod valve-train has the following lubricatable bearings: - Cam to lifter - pushrod to rocker - rocker to valve stem BUT !!! On an overhead cam engine the cam lobe operates the valve stem more directly. That eliminates some of the flimsiest components in the engine. That enables a higher red-line. That enables more power strokes per minute. That enables a higher power output. Again: I DOUBT it. But I'll be delighted to review your data, if / when you post it. (don't worry, I know you won't)
  19. #8 Fastest vehicles in the known world are rockets. Rockets don't have pushrods.
  20. Yeah. Too bad. Pushrods are obsolete, entirely unnecessary. My boss used race 5/8 mile oval track in Middletown, NY. He was doing pretty well, but a rocker-arm broke, and it sent the pushrod up through and part way out of the valve cover. I doubt F1 engines have pushrods.
  21. OK motor-heads. I can NOT authenticate the following. But I read it, found it interesting, and thought perhaps you would too: Dragster One top fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of stock cars at the Daytona 500. It takes just 15/100ths of a second for all 6,000+ horsepower of an NHRA Top Fuel dragster engine to reach the rear wheels. Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitro methane per second. A fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate but with 25% less energy being produced. A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger. With 3,000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. At the stoichiometric (stoichiometry: methodology and technology by which quantities of reactants and products in chemical reactions are determined) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture of nitro methane, the flame front temperature measures 7,050 deg F. Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing heat of the exhaust gases. Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After halfway, the engine is dieseling from compression, plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1,400 deg F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow. If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro immediately builds up in the affected cylinder and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half. In order to exceed 300 mph in 4. 5 seconds, dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph (well before half-track), the launch acceleration approaches 8G's. Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this one sentence. Top fuel engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. The redline is actually quite high at 9,500 rpm. Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimate $1,000.00 per second. The current top fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.428 seconds for the quarter mile (11/12/06, Tony Schumacher, at Pomona , CA ). The top speed record is 336.15 mph as measured over the last 66' of the run (05/25/05 Tony Schumacher, at Hebron , OH ). Putting all of this into perspective: You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter 'twin-turbo' powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a top fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the 'Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and pass the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment.. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds, the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1,320 foot long race course.
  22. Correct! - oops - NOTE: "Opt out" and "cannot" are not synonyms. If you don't like it, write your congressman.
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