News:

if there were no need for 'engineers from the quantum plenum' then we should not have any unanswered scientific questions.

Main Menu

Recent posts

#1
Laid Back Lounge / Re: animals in your life
Last post by Tank - Today at 08:37:25 AM
Awwww it's so cute!
#2
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Petrol head thread!!!
Last post by Tank - Today at 08:36:17 AM
I remember Gunk and I remember that smell!
#3
Politics / Re: Political picture dump
Last post by Icarus - Today at 05:55:43 AM

Just thinking about our past and present...........
#4
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Petrol head thread!!!
Last post by Dark Lightning - Today at 01:26:58 AM
Yes, those are some really nice looking bikes!

Icarus, I think that you meant cresylic acid, the strongest known organic acid of that era? Cresols were bad news for grease. Shell used it in their gasoline as "TCP"- Tri-Cresyl Phosphate. One could always tell when people ran Shell gasoline, as it left yellow deposits on the spark plugs, eventually fouling them. It was used to scour the tetraethyl lead (used as an anti-knock compound) deposits from the valves and combustion chambers.
My dad used to bitch about my Harley marking its spot in his garage.  8)
#5
Laid Back Lounge / Re: Petrol head thread!!!
Last post by Icarus - Today at 12:56:20 AM
That Beezer is scrumptious looking Billy. 

If I had it I would not put fuel in it either...or oil.  I'd leave the oil out on account of not wanting to have oil leaked onto my garage floor. Damned Limey crocks of that era had not yet figured out a way to not use kraft paper gaskets.

Not an exclusive BSA disgrace however. It was not uncommon to see cookie baking pans under Harleys in the dealer show room. Back in the day it was a routine chore to Gunk ones Harley on weekends.

Gunk was an essential item for most of the motorcycle world.  It was a solution of creolic acid (?) that dissolved grease and oil when sprayed with water. Gunk smelled good to motor head types.  sniff..sniff...aaaah!

#6
Music / Re: What are you listening to?
Last post by billy rubin - March 20, 2023, 09:49:42 PM
#7
Music / Re: What are you listening to?
Last post by billy rubin - March 20, 2023, 09:25:34 PM
i hadnt listened this for years. the i caught the 3rd movement on the radio and said

how could i have neglected this? its spectacular.

especially the third movement.

#8
Laid Back Lounge / Re: animals in your life
Last post by billy rubin - March 20, 2023, 07:08:51 PM
here it is



#9
Social Issues and Causes / Re: stop requiring college deg...
Last post by billy rubin - March 20, 2023, 04:04:41 PM
look at me. i went to university and got an undergraduate degree in zoology. went to graduate school to get a two year masters graduate degree. was expecting a to go for a pHd.

halfway through i realized the career opporunties for an academic evolutionary ecologist were zilch.

so i walked over to the geology department and used my biology background to talk my way into a masters program studying palaeotology. so i was in two graduate programs at once.

while in geology, i studied sedimentology as well as.paleo, got a masters there (two masters now)

and when tbe oil companies came to interview i talked my way into a job as a petroleum geologist and went to texas to look for oil.

without an undergrafuate degree in geology, just the masters. did that until the oil bust in 86, when everybody was laid off.

so i went to california and talked my way into a job writing computer manuals as a contractor for IBM in silicon valley. no degree in computer science or writing. but after a couple of years i was managing a department with a 2.5 million dollar budget and 30 writers.

then i said screw it all, ran away with my best writer, married her, became a commercial beekeeper with no experience or background by calling a beekeeper at random in the phone book and offering to work for him for free if he would teach me.  and in 6 years was running 800 beehives of my own and grossing $150,000.

NOT netting. i lived in a shack in a cotton field.

then i became a farmers market vendor, long haul trucker, frac equipment operator, dump, flat, tanker, and roll off driver.

anyway, i have all this education, but my chief skill appears to be in talking my way into careers for which i have no credentials. so now i drive trucks,  im still married to tbe love of my life,  have five kids, and will go to the races in july.

im not convinced sticking with mybeducation and holding down a steady job would have given me this much. so im not pushing my kids into college if theyre reluctamt
#10
Social Issues and Causes / Re: stop requiring college deg...
Last post by Asmodean - March 20, 2023, 02:56:33 PM
Quote from: No one on March 20, 2023, 09:58:15 AMYou could avoid all this by just being born wealthy. Do things smarter, not harder.
You won't though.

At least over here, for the vast majority of jobs, the employer could not even access the applicant's credit score. So, if you are in your early twenties and want a gig on my team, the most sure way of getting it qualification-wise would be at least a bachelor of science in a relevant field - whether your net worth be measured in cobwebs or private jets. (I won't even know which, and even if I do, it's your money, and as such beyond the scope of things I care to care about)

My team is nothing at all special around these parts, both business-wise and geographically speaking, in that regard.

Oh, I suppose a wealthy person could go into the family business "for free," but for the sake of this argument, I'm assuming that they are applying for the job they actually want to do - and not just to avoid slowly going insane from idleness.