ReconRat

silicone spray edit: also used on the rubber door seals to keep the doors from freezing shut

Sweetwater miniEX and a Katadyn Base Camp Water Filter Backpack and base camp edit: US Marines are trying out a Sweetwater model. They found previous use of "push-pull" types to be prone to failure too often. Plus the Sweetwater quickly disassembles and cleans in the field.

Made me look it up. Maybe not a mistake at all. The health care website is for citizens. A green card is permanent resident. Not sure that permanent resident is included or excluded. And probably no one else in government is sure about that either. The grey zone would be if a person would become a citizen in the next year (year of health care), or was within the 90 days prior to residency requirements (which is the typical in advance of application limit).

Lots of places have been doing something like that since around 1990. Too many fake social security numbers and stuff.

Plus AARP is #8 on the lobbyist list. Half of the top 8 are medical, one realtor group, General Electric, and the Chamber of Commerce. That last one is a surprise, since it's number one lobbyist. I guess a rally for reform of laws that effect small businesses.

maybe the USA needs to build health care facilities in Mexico

A plan? For the USA? Nope, for the European Union. Their illegal immigration problems are worse, at a much smaller percentage. They've already progressed to the stage of riots and vigilantes. One thing they do know, is amnesty doesn't work. It only causes more immigrants to show up to join the party. Sometimes a lot more.

or hoodies... hoodies are evil... please note I like hoodies, ergo I are evil...

Our attempts at universal health care aren't all that good compared to countries that have succeeded in doing so. On the other hand, they expect to pay a large percentage of their income. 20% to 35% of income for premium care. Way more than we are willing to pay. Our numbers, the percent of people with private insurance or government insurance stays about the same, but are paying more each year. 1.3% were picked up by state and federal marketplaces. Medicare enrollment increased. Medicaid about the same. The percent of uninsured drops by 5% of total population, leaving about 13.4% still uninsured. About 1% of population lost insurance coverage for whatever reason. edit: add about 4% illegal aliens... for 104% population - yeah, they don't have health insurance either

Tests show I have no allergies. But I don't know what the heck was outside this morning, but I couldn't stop sneezing. No clue... btw, supposedly we can get allergies that we didn't have before, as we grow older. Dunno about that one either.

It's simple. There should be 2.6 trillion dollars in the social security trust fund. Despite paying out more than it took in from 2010-11 onward. And part of that was less people working to pay those taxes during the recession we didn't have. It still is enough to pay out ok for about 20 to 26 years, depending on who you believe. It is forecasted to be balanced and solvent by then if nothing major changes. (Increase in health and longevity, decrease in wages and taxes, etc. Changes to balance of income and payments.) But there are doubters of that, who say that it will be reduced to 75% payout by 2033 or 2040. And 70% by 2080. Or go with George W Bush estimate of broke by 2042. But people fear that the federal government already "borrowed" the funds and spent it. More or less with a promise to pay it back. When Congress threatened a budget shutdown, the president said that social security checks would not go out unless a budget was passed. That wouldn't be true it there was actual funds in the trust fund. Only if the payments were made from the budget on demand. In reality, the surplus is primarily sold off as treasury bonds and "special" government bonds, which isn't really ready funds, and is indeed a form of borrowing. Although a profit can be made on the interest, if the timing is right. So which was the lie? That social security would not be paid? Or that the social security trust fund is solvent?' Probably both, but that's just me. http://www.forbes.com/sites/merrillmatthews/2011/07/13/what-happened-to-the-2-6-trillion-social-security-trust-fund/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Trust_Fund In the long view, nobody knows what will happen. Other than a good chance it will go broke and/or changes will have to be made. Count on certain things happening. If people start being healthier and living longer, the retirement age will have to go up (again) and people will work longer to compensate. The USA is pretty powerful with handling revenues, so expect some other countries to have problems or default before we do.

I never thought I'd see a payout back, but it looks like it will happen. And max payment also, I worked a lot, apparently. Not sure about the future, but from what I've researched before, once the "hump" of population retiring passes, the social security funding will be solvent without effort. That doesn't mean there won't be adjustments in retirement age. Nor does it mean that the government didn't borrow it all with a promise to pay it back later. That's another story for another time.

Found that salt brine was sprayed on the roads, on the way home. Bummer...

Considering the USA is the number one source of income for the UN (22%), perhaps they should watch what they say and do.

I like it. Amazing amount of data displayed. Another one that is hard to find on the weather.gov is the long range forecasts. http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/90day/ If you look, the jan-feb-mar for Ohio is forecasted to be normal temperatures and below average precipitation. Southern states show below normal temperatures and above normal precipitation. Forecasts change with new data and time.

Same here. Independent is less stress, if nothing else. I still believe that the people themselves are ultimately responsible. And sadly seeing that a spirit of unity as a country is slipping away to be replaced by that "me" generation thing. The needs, wants and desires of the individual are becoming more important (to the individual). It will change, and go back the other way. It always does. But it will require something major to happen that equally effects all our lives, in order to do so. History has a long list of such things. At those moments the people act as one in order to survive. Or choose not to. Having said that, I also remember when younger, it was more important to vote for whatever benefited myself. For young people, that part isn't going to change much. It's part of survival. Which points out a problem. Stress the other parts of the population, and they also start voting for themselves, to survive a little bit better. Which is probably where we are at now.

It amazes me that conspiracies tip toe around the really strange stuff, and yet never recognize it. Sort of not seeing the trees for the forest. Or vice versa. I realize that a portion of conspiracies would logically be disinformation, to distract from what is real. To find what is real, watch for what vanishes from public information. Disappears from the news or the internet. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it's very interesting.

Owens Corning is like a little skunk works. Secret. Serious stuff in materials and processes. edit: my experience with application requirements.... they always ask for more than they want. Gives them room to negotiate and/or reject. But their intent is to hire some one anyway. Usually some one with prior experience to bring in.

Your thermal and materials background will work for space applications. It's important there. Earth bound rules don't work. So aerospace electronics firms should be on the list. GE should be also, propulsion might be the next big breakthrough. Lockheed is building an atmospheric/exospheric fusion engine the size of an aircraft engine. Yes, a Tokamak in a small container. I hope it works. (It works so far, they are getting excited about it.) Rumor is Lockheed is trying to build something in Florida, but won't say who or what. Watch NASA Glen Research Center in Northern Ohio for openings. Currently zero openings. Argh. Me too, zero openings at Kennedy Space Center. But Florida space coast is starting to boom with new aerospace. http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/ The list of aerospace companies in Ohio. http://aerospace.regionaldirectory.us/ohio.htm Sad times. So many good (aerospace) engineering jobs gone from Ohio. But I also recommend the Dayton area for R&D jobs. Federal list Dayton: https://www.usajobs.gov/Search?Keyword=&Location=Dayton%2C+Ohio&search=Search&AutoCompleteSelected=true Federal list Fairborn: https://www.usajobs.gov/Search?Keyword=&Location=Fairborn%2C+Ohio&search=Search&AutoCompleteSelected=true Federal list Ohio - Engineering: https://www.usajobs.gov/Search?Keyword=&Location=Ohio&search=Search&AutoCompleteSelected=false Federal list Ohio - Physical Sciences: https://www.usajobs.gov/Search?Keyword=&Location=Ohio&search=Search&AutoCompleteSelected=false Dont laugh, I see one Senior Scientist in materials at 145k+.

me no can do - have to be somewhere at 1:00pm, far away...

I was kinda thinking Raytheon, Harris, Lockheed, Motorola etc.... Jet Propulsion Laboratory Skip California, look in Texas and Florida and North Carolina http://www.indeed.com/q-PhD-Mechanical-Engineer-jobs.html can you do finite element analysis? - solidworks?

A quick look for LED bulbs, 1156 and 1157. Phillips might be one of the few that have road legal bulbs. 35 bucks pair. I found and bought Denali motorcycle aux/running lights. Low watt. Bright. High output lumens. Expensive at 350 bucks/pair. With really careful searching, various strips of DIY add on LEDs can be found that are very bright. Make sure they are all weather for outdoor use, and that they aren't fudging on the brightness. Very few are high output lumens. I've had good luck finding correct high output add-on LED assemblies at boat yard websites and big rig truck websites. Mostly I was looking for small high brightness running lights to replace reflectors, and could be toggled on/off. Almost all of them work as reflectors when off. Haven't bought any yet. Just another project... edit: Rashed up headlight bucket. Body putty and paint.

A lot of LED stuff sold is low output on the brightness. Premium LED turn signals would probably be brighter if chosen carefully. Worst case is when trying to replace tail light and brake light. Don't want low output there. I looked at various LED running lights and driving lights, and found about 99% are worthless. Very few have a useful amount of light. Most are only decoration. But the extra LEDs could be effective as turn signal. Don't put white in the back. Not legal back there. Use yellow.

EGR valves clog up with deposits and stick open or closed. Not a big surprise since it's in the exhaust gas flow. No manufacturer likes to support them because of the failure rate. Makes me wonder if soaking one of them in a bucket of oven cleaner would work... I do crazy things like tap them with a hammer to see if they start working again. Or sometimes want to make a block off plate and remove it. I hate EGR valves. Not a good design decision and certainly not reliable. Seems like I mostly ignore EGR problems... Opinions of a backyard mechanic and in this case probably clueless.

Yes, I second your opinion. Some of the old style sockets were really thin wall. They look easy to break, but are old school sockets. When crap was made in the USA and would never break?