What Are You Reading?

[MarcusA]

I "read" Aaron Becker's wordless picture book, The Tree and the River, it was simply beautiful.

[MarcusA]

I "reread" Aaron Becker's wordless picture book trilogy: Journey, Quest and Return - it was coherent throughout.

[Icarus]

Rereading The Hacking Of The American Mind. How big business cons us into believing whatever they want us to believe. That persuasion is cleverly orchestrated and eventually profitable. We are also conned by politicians and religious leaders. Persuasive bullshit rules.

[MarcusA]

Rereading The Hacking Of The American Mind. How big business cons us into believing whatever they want us to believe. That persuasion is cleverly orchestrated and eventually profitable. We are also conned by politicians and religious leaders. Persuasive bullshit rules.

Persuasion is an art.

[Anne D.]

back when i was a technical writer i used three or four major style manuals to cover what i needed.

computer writing was punctuation-sensitive and i wrote without typoes using correct speling too.

lots of rules, from that/which to the oxford comma to correct leading within ordered and unordered lists. and so on.

lots of anal retentive stuff

In another life I was a technical writer too. Chicago Manual of Style is my go to. I found Microsoft's style manual helpful for instructions dealing with any user interface. Had fun writing some in-house style guides. Sometimes I really miss doing that work.

Currently reading Ian Rankin's Knots and Crosses. Having a hard time getting through my books these days. I read at night in bed and either fall asleep after a couple pages or reread the same page mindlessly over and over while thinking about work.

[billy rubin]

i prefer the chicago as well, but some customers speciied others, some completely out of date these days.

id d some contract technical editing, too, for some east coast publishers. very mixed results. i got applauds from some customers, and hates from others who were too ego-invested in their preferred punctuation.

for a while i was a tech documentations manager-- look, here is one of my writers!  i did the outlining and editing on the work she did for me, but i refused to ever put my name on my writers stuff-- i made sure that all the credit was theirs.

https://www.amazon.com/Automotive-Steering-Suspension-Alignment-Manual/dp/0065001672/ref=sr_1_9?qid=1686359438&refinements=p_27%3AChek-Chart+Publications&s=books&sr=1-9

when i did IBM MVS/CMS stuff i ran away with my best writer and married her. now shes planting chestnuts on the farm

[Tank]

I have just finished The Architect trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 1,700 pages of excellent space opera. He writes the most alien aliens I have ever come across.

[MarcusA]

I want to read Peter Carey's first novel Bliss, but I cannot find the time because I am lazy.

[billy rubin]

im reading whatever i can on advancing and retarding cam timing on old triumph motorcycles

[MarcusA]

I'm finished reading. Time to die.

[billy rubin]

https://vintagebikemagazine.com/technical-articles/cam-timing-and-the-meaning-of-life/

The useful lobe centers are typically between 99 and 112 degrees, but if you discover a trend of improvement, you must follow it wherever it leads.

kevin cameron is a man of my heart. i believe in usng conventional wisdom to start, but then to experiment. motors dont care about theory-- they either work better, or they work worse. if nature says so, you must abandon everything you think you know and do what nature says. period. nature does not care.

most racing triumphs use cam lobe centers of around 101/104. i use 106/109, and im faster than anyone else has ever been, ever, with this motor.

fuck science. fuck experience. i go where the timing slips tell me to go.

[MarcusA]

I read When We Say Black Lives Matter by Maxine Beneba Clarke, a children's picture book for the very young. It's not pedantic which helps.

[MarcusA]

I am rereading Jack Kerouac's Book of Haikus, published by Penguin. So many good poems, it's wonderful.

[Icarus]

Billy, I also used to be a Kevin Cameron fan. He had a lot of good tidbits for we ambitious motorhead types. Rob Muzzy had some pretty good stuff for us too.

Valve timing, the result of cam layout, is subject to all manner of selection variables, even barometric pressure. We can gear our cam setup to deliver torque or we can have it deliver RPM. Your are constrained to a realistic rev limit with the Triumph. Rev it beyond its component threshold and you'll have to use a broom and dustpan to collect the bits and pieces.

 Have you ever contemplated using longer rods and shorter piston compression height? The Esslinger Ford 2.4, as used in midget race cars and racing hydroplanes, uses that ploy among other mods.Some sweet geometry is involved.....piston side thrust, piston acceleration rate, and all that....

Just be sure that the exhaust valve is not going to be late to the party. Make damned sure that the exhaust valve, during the overlap period, is not in the way of the angry piston. Whatever cam timing you find best, just make sure there is sufficient space between the ex valve and the piston when at or near TDC. While you are at it, make sure that the ex valve springs have not gotten soggy......................Yeah you know all that, I am just reminding you to check all of those details more than once. 

I have a hunch that the new ignition system will give you a little better output than that mangey old magneto could.

We will be rooting for you and maybe talking to the FSM about not letting you wipe out at speed.     

[MarcusA]

Molly Guy, Tasmanian devil, is as smart as a whip and twice as funny.