Bye Bye Facebook!

Just nuked my account.
I really don't care to use it, I'm tired of getting "Friend Requests" from people I don't know, and I just don't see a need for it in my life.

In case you're curious about how to *really* kill your account, go here and follow the instructions.

You KNOW The World Is Upside Down....

.....When 911 "Truthers" accuse the 0bama "Birthers" of being conspiracy nuts.

Or so go the reader comments over at The Daily Bell.

My God.....what are they putting in the water over there?

Stupid Nissan Dipstick Tricks.....

The PLASTIC handle of the dipstick in my wife's 2005 Nissan Sentra has been broken for about a year or so now. Now why anybody in their right might, let alone a REAL "Engineer", would design this part with a 100%, NON-reinforced plastic handle is beyond me. The kind of plastic they use has been breaking more or less continuously since around 1998, and you'd have to be a real ding-dong to not change it.
It's been more of an annoyance than anything because I've had to use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull it out and check the oil, but in that category of "This'll work until I buy a replacement part", so we both kinda let it slide. I finally bought a new dipstick the other day, and figured while it was still light out, I'd pop the hood and install the new one.
NOT.....
It appears that the last time she had the oil changed, the moron who works there didn't realize the plastic handle of the stick was broken off, thought the dipstick was already out of the engine, and tried to jam another dipstick on top of it to 'check the oil'.
The previously reachable (broken) stick is now about 4~6" down inside the dipstick tube, and is barely visible, let alone grabbable.
Every little tool I have that might be able to reach down the tube and snag the stick just doesn't work.
I tried putting some Super Glue on the end of a chopstick, but the plastic is just too oily for the glue to hold.
One 'solution' I saw posted in a Nissan forum was to pressurize the crankcase with compressed air, which supposedly blows the stick out of the tube. I'll try that tomorrow, but I think this one's been stuffed down the tube too far to come back out with just a few p.s.i. of air, so I'm resigned to having to (carefully!) twist the dipstick tube out of the block, remove the dipstick, and then tap the tube back in.
That involves removing the heat shield over the exhaust manifold, a job best done after the car has sat over night.
I've read where they make an all-metal replacement dipstick, so that's next on the search list!

"Operation #EFAD" Is Live TODAY

Get Matt's book here at Amazon.

It's FREE, and you do NOT need a Kindle to read it.

Best ISS Video Yet!

Amazing time-lapse video from the International Space Station.
Enjoy!

Surplus Sodium Disposal

YOW!
Shamelessly borrowed from Blunt Object.

Word Verification Is Now OFF

I agree with OldNFO...the new "double captcha" is a royal pain-in-the-butt!
SO...I turned it off, but enabled moderation.
I get so few readers that I doubt if I'll much of a job!

Solar Cycle 24 Predictions

NOT good for those of us who enjoy long-distance HF contacts.
BUT....these guys have been wrong before, and predicting the 11 year sunspot cycle is still more of a "Black Art" than an exact science.

USS Midway Pictures

OK, finally got around to uploading the pictures to PhotoBucket.
Most of them should be self-explanatory to people who've spent time on ships. I only managed to get one picture of the helm on the PriFli/Chart Room/Bridge I was on because there were just too many people in too small of a space to move around with my camera.

USS Midway

I'll try and get the pix posted later tonight. We just got back from the Midway, a trolley tour of most of San Diego, and dinner at a nice little place in Little Italy.
The Midway was worth every penny of the admission, and the sore feet from FIVE hours of stomping around on her. Had some great chats with some of the docents who were working there. Most of them are vets, and a couple actually served on the Midway while she was in active service. One of the highlights for me was talking to an SBD Dauntless rear gunner who was there in front of the museum's Dauntless. Just an amazing guy, and sharp as a tack at 88 years old!
Besides the pictures I took of the large statue named "Unconditional Surrender" (the sailor kissing the nurse from the WWII photo), we also went to the Bob Hope memorial. Standing there among the statues of various military people "listening" to the statue of Bob Hope do his routines over the P.A. system really got to me. When you see the pictures of all the statues, I think you'll see what I mean.

San Diego Air and Space Museum

My wife and I decided to take a long weekend, and head down to San Diego to see some things. This morning we went to the Air and Space Museum, and then headed over to see the USS Midway.
Well....the museum went well, but by the time we got out of there, traffic had gotten to the point that there was NO parking to be had in the lot for the Midway, OR in any of the neighboring lots.
Jam city!
So we headed over to Old Town San Diego, and things were even worse!
Tomorrow we'll go back to the Midway, early in the day, and see some of the other sights in the surrounding area.

In the meantime, enjoy my (poor) pictures from the Air and Space Museum.