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[#] Sun Sep 20 2015 23:15:00 UTC from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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... which of course forces me to remind everyone of the "famous" cartoon of two VW Beetles, one "humping" the other, with the caption "Fahrvergnookie"...
<evil grin>

[#] Sun Sep 27 2015 11:40:48 UTC from dothebart

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heh, that guy actually got to the same conclusion with more facts:

https://medium.com/climate-desk/the-volkswagen-scandal-is-just-the-beginning-ba02110925cf



[#] Wed Dec 23 2015 16:38:06 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Although it's hard to defend fraud, VW had a hard time with this one.  EPA has become ridiculous in its regulations; basically they want all new cars to get 100 MPG and cost $250,000 effectively forcing everyone to buy pussymobiles (hybrids and plug-ins).  They did it for light bulbs, so why not cars?

Congratulations, you've made it to the second paragraph and past my usual hyperbole.  What I'd really like to see is for diesel to become commonplace in the US.  (Those of you across the pond might not know that we basically only use diesel for trucks.  Passenger cars overwhelmingly run on gasoline here.)  Evidently it's a tax structure thing.  This is of course very silly, considering that diesel engines are far more efficient than gasoline engines.

The EPA seems determined to exterminate small diesel engines too, though.  I don't know why.  For example, the engine in my beloved Aurora AGI6500 diesel generator can no longer be sold in the US.  The EPA stopped approving all products with small air-cooled diesel engines a couple of years ago, resulting in every single-cylinder diesel generator being taken off the market.

I'd like to drive a diesel powered car.  But they're more expensive and not every filling station in the US has diesel, so it's a bit of a disadvantage here.



[#] Wed Dec 23 2015 21:20:12 UTC from LoanShark

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VW's offerings almost (not quite) solved the diesel vehicle price problem. At least their offerings are in a reasonable price ballpark. You can't say that for one of the next-best-looking-on-paper cars, the BMW 328d. I would not mind driving a 328d. But paying an extra 20 grand for the BMW nameplate in the name of efficiency is just silly.

Now, about that fraud thing... a lot of unhappy owners out there.

The problem with VW is not carbon.. it's nitrogen oxides which are toxic to humans.

[#] Thu Dec 24 2015 15:12:48 UTC from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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The VW "scandal" seems to be making their cars quite price-attractive right now.

[#] Fri Dec 25 2015 10:54:13 UTC from dothebart

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We europeans have enjoyed that the US wouldn't use all its diesel they get by oil fractioning for the last decades. It was shipped over to us, and helped to maintain a lower price tag.

At least in germany diesel engines in cars have a higher tax rate. Since the tax rate is constant, it rather pays of for those with bigger milage per year.Considering that diesels are harder to get started but once warmed up run more smooth (nowadays;-) its not that silly to not use diesels for those that don't drive a lot.

 

While most other manufacturers went the route of filtering particles out, the VW solution was to just send them once more through the engine, so you would get smaller (even more aggressive but non regulated) particles.

Since they did the same for regular gas cars, they now may have the same troubles they have with diesels with the other cars.

Regarding the filtering approach - if you have the filter filled up, you need to find a good place to flush it. Either by service, or if the car is running on the highway, so the exhaust is reasonably hot to burn some more of these particles.

Given that most diesel generators are a backup for regular landlines, or just for people living abroad where its to long to put the landlines to, I can't really understand why they wish to regulate them.

Anyways, somebody operating it as an everyday device will want to get more from the money spent on diesel than just electric - You want to have one that also radiates your house.



[#] Sat Dec 26 2015 22:07:05 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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Of course. A diesel generator being run as a primary power source would be a lot different. Mine is one cylinder, air cooled, and runs at 3600 RPM.
It needs to cool down once in a while and cannot be hot fueled. A generator designed for primary power would be at least three cylinders, water cooled, 1800 RPM, and have either a belly fuel tank or an external fuel tank. <
(Aurora Generators sells some great ones.)

I bought the diesel because I had a home with oil heat at the time.

My current home has electric heat, so the generator is too small, and I have no easy way to dispose of stale fuel. I'm going to hook it up as a standby but it's still not great.

BUT ... knowing that its existence pisses off the Obama EPA makes me happy to continue running it.

[#] Sun Dec 27 2015 10:09:57 UTC from dothebart

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uh. I'd rather heat with open fire than with electricity since it produces poor air quality.

But nowadays the wind turbine operators are very keen on electric storage stoves, and flip them into heating mode when there is too much electricity in production at random times, while it was done at night time only when they were invented and deployed in the 60'ies...



[#] Fri Feb 05 2016 16:07:31 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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uh. I'd rather heat with open fire than with electricity since it
produces poor air quality.

Could you expand on that please?

It would seem that electric heat leaves the exact same air quality that you started with, since it only raises the temperature, while open fire converts O2 to CO2 and produces combustion by-products (bits of smoke etc).

[#] Wed Feb 10 2016 04:18:41 UTC from zooer

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Hot rods run on roads so I will ask this question here.

Does anybody know what the lines in the road are?

I have seen them in several cities throughout NY and they are in each lane, I almost think I have seen them in VA but I can not be sure. They appear before winter or a while before any snow is in the forecast..  I am not sure what their function is, if they come from a plow or a garbage truck.  

I see them before the snow season so I don't see how they relate to a plow.  I don't think it is garbage truck because there are several garbage collection services within the state.  It isn't wide enough for the postal service and I see it on streets where the postman walks the route.

The darker color is from moisture but they are usually just a shade different than the road surface.  There is eight of them and they run parallel to each other, they will follow the curves in the road and will "turn" at some intersections. 

I have noticed them the past two or three years.

 

Any ideas?

 

 



[#] Wed Feb 10 2016 17:30:55 UTC from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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Out here in California they are for water drainage - avoids potholes (most of the time). You - at least out here - only see them in "flatland" and not in the mountains where the roads are "hilly" enough to handle drainage-via-Newton....

[#] Wed Feb 10 2016 19:23:57 UTC from zooer

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I don't doubt it, but they are not raised or very minimally raised as I can see.  They started appearing two or three years ago and only during the fall/winter.  They don't seem to go to a storm drain and I have seen them on hills.



[#] Thu Feb 11 2016 12:47:00 UTC from Freakdog <freakdog@dogpound2.citadel.org>

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Tue Feb 09 2016 11:18:41 PM EST from zooer @ Uncensored

Hot rods run on roads so I will ask this question here.

Does anybody know what the lines in the road are?

I have seen them in several cities throughout NY and they are in each lane, I almost think I have seen them in VA but I can not be sure. They appear before winter or a while before any snow is in the forecast..  I am not sure what their function is, if they come from a plow or a garbage truck.  

I see them before the snow season so I don't see how they relate to a plow.  I don't think it is garbage truck because there are several garbage collection services within the state.  It isn't wide enough for the postal service and I see it on streets where the postman walks the route.

The darker color is from moisture but they are usually just a shade different than the road surface.  There is eight of them and they run parallel to each other, they will follow the curves in the road and will "turn" at some intersections. 

I have noticed them the past two or three years.

 

Any ideas?

It's a brine...pre-salting the road by spraying a brine solution on the roads, rather than chunks of salt, to get a head start on melting snow/preventing melted snow from freezing.



[#] Thu Feb 11 2016 18:25:46 UTC from zooer

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I noticed this long before and foretasted snow.  Is it a paste?  I never saw it wet.  The wet line in the picture is because it had recently stopped raining.



[#] Thu Feb 11 2016 21:12:32 UTC from zooer

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okay, I believe you.

truck applying road  brien



[#] Thu Feb 11 2016 21:17:36 UTC from zooer

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I thought a heavy salt like that before a storm would turn the road white or at least whiter.  I have heard of brine before but didn't know how it worked.  It gets in the cracks and prevents freezing reducing pot holes.  It can be applied 48 before a storm, but it seems to last longer and doesn't spread out, it stays in those lines.



[#] Mon Feb 15 2016 18:18:01 UTC from IGnatius T Foobar

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It's also good to keep turkey moist during cooking, if you can find a way to cook a turkey on a frozen winter road.



[#] Sat Feb 20 2016 00:21:14 UTC from zooer

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So the other day I get a phone call from the local dealership informing me about a recall on my car.  The person told me that the manufacture does not have a solution for the recall as of yet but by the summer they hope to have a solution.  (I checked after the phone call, all of this is true Recall INCOMPLETE. Remedy not yet available.)

The sales person wanted to know if I wanted to come in and trade in my current car for a new car to get that headache off my mind.

I was livid.  First of all, I like driving a car until the wheels fall off.  Second I thought that this was an opportunist little fux and using fear to get me in a new car.  These are the same people that ran out of inspection stickers.  This really pissed me off.

 

 



[#] Wed Feb 24 2016 04:05:54 UTC from ax25

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I feel the same way zooer.  My wife however does not.  Had to ditch the last car (never could park it in the garage as it had a habit of starting on fire due to electrical recalls).  I just get mail on recalls for it now that I toss, but it does always have a sales pitch on the letter.  Kinda pisses me off as well, even though I have a different car now.



[#] Fri Apr 01 2016 18:48:47 UTC from pandora

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https://tagisu.com/1456342314-27697-537

This is my youngest in my new car

 

https://tagisu.com/1456342146-27606-788

This is the car from the front

 

https://tagisu.com/1456950790-2421-410

This is her trying to help me troubleshooting a charging issue.

 

https://tagisu.com/1456950977-2505-468

This is my falcon when we went to a treat downtown.



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