Which ship is it? I dealt with a few of them when I was in the Air Force. Not much on the actual ship side, but receiving/shipping ammo from them.

Short version of the name is USNS PLESS.

Never dealt with that one. Hell, I don't even recognize the name.

Full name is USNS MAJ STEPHEN W PLESS (T-AK). I was on a similar ship years ago sitting in DGar, we were carrying Marine equipment including their ammo. I remember at least one ship that I was told had USAF ammo but I don't remember which one it was. The prepositioning program has really ramped down, that is always the way until they suddenly need to move gear in a hurry and don't understand why they can't man the ships (and the ships themselves are falling apart).

Need a Half-Track-speed Miata kit.

--Ian

First week of the year, we got a bit of "wintry precipitation," I went ahead and went in at my normal time on that Thursday (in the office around 6:30am) because I needed some help from my boss to get my ScrumVM working, only to get to the office for him to text me that he wasn't going to bother going in. One of the few downsides to always being the first in the office, on the days I go in.

I left the office about 8:45 to head back home, even though OKC is very flat for the most part (I can see the Devon Tower from my office which is 8 miles away), there are a couple of very small hills on the way home. The 135i + sleet + Pilot Super Sports = me driving the car with left front tire on the double yellows and the right rear on the hashed white line a few times, for long enough both times, if I had run across an OKCPD officer, they would have thought I was just screwing around.

Gents, I need your opinion on a project...

I am thinking about getting a couple rain sensors.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d56a977b7e.jpg

With such a setup, you can adjust the sensitivity, and it will produce either a high side, or a low side signal - whichever is needed.
My plan is installing these sensors in the rear wheel wells, right behind the tires, where spray from tires will be concentrated.
That way, I will be looking for a wet road more than falling rain. I mean, roads stay wet long after rain stops. Also, road surface can be wet due to spillage, runoff, etc.

As the road surface dries up, wind and turbulence from the tires would dry the sensor surfaces pretty quickly.

The signal from these sensors will be fed into the
A) Boost controller, to reduce/limit boost especially in 1st and 2nd gears.
and,
B) Suspension controller, to switch to a softer profile, so the car will be less edgy in an environment with less grip.
(I already have a fully programmable, active suspension setup, and adding another profile into the controller is a breeze)

Oh, integrating the said signal to the windshield wipers goes without saying, of course. I could always use a 3rd sensor for that purpose, and hide the sensor in the radiator opening somewhere.

The idea behind using 2 sensors is simple: Confirmation of a wet road, as opposed to going through a local puddle. Managing that issue is simple. I would build a simple circuit that would be activated if both sensors were active at the same time.

What do you think, doable?

(My biggest fear is running out of projects for my car. I'm sure you guys have figured that out by now.)

EDIT:
I realize I typed front wheels.. I meant REAR.

I just don't see this happening.

Once you've got the turbo system sorted out, and built the design sensors, you'll decide that it needs machine guns. And the ability to fly.

My concerns would be road debris, rubber, and salts that might corrode/conduct across the rows.. WIndshield wiper sensors are optical (iirc) and have few more steps between on and off.

You are right.
But driving in the rain would pretty much wash the sensor clean.
And as cheap as the sensors are, I would keep a few spares.

Machine guns would be a problem with the inspection folk..

On a related note, a new law just passed over here. You can fail the emissions test and still pass the biannual inspection.
Failed tailpipe emissions has been reclassified as a minor defect, on par with other non-vital issues, such as mis-adjusted headlights.

So can you just pay a small fine and skip fixing the failed emissions or do you still have to "fix" it?

As far as I understand, there is no fine, and you do not have to "fix" anything.

Headphone suggestions?

My HD 280 Pro's just died on me at work. Let's say $300 or less?

Not on the baller end of that spectrum, but i've been really happy with my ISK HD9999s. They appear to be some sort of loosely-based-on-AKG-something-or-other-knockoff with bigger drivers. I think i paid $100 for them. They sound great, are comfy, and have been durable. I've been using them 40hrs+ a week for the last 2 years.

Yeah, I'm not too upset. I had been wanting to upgrade, but just not quite yet. I have a Headroom Total Bithead Amp, and I've had those 'cans probably 10 years?

I would have no question about buying another pair of open-back Grado's, but they recently consolidated a bunch of our empty space at the office, so I have one of the few empty spots next to me, and that should be going away soon when we hire an Editor.

Have any of you ever used tirebuyer.com? Customer of mine says they are cheap but I haven't had a chance to compare.

MusicDirect has the Audioquest ones on sale for $300...Nighthawks I think? Was looking to swap out my B&W P7's for a set.

I'd go for the Audio Technica ATH-M50x's. Great can's for the money :2cents:

Wow. For $300 or less I could buy 10 pairs of headphones that meet my quality standards. My ears suck. Damn childhood and tubes!

I don't really drink soda, but I want to make a product called jounce cola. Lots of caffeine. Like maybe 2/3 of LD50. Call it 100 grams.

So far from playing super loud music in bands growing up and attending many dozen rock/metal shows over the years, I don't appear to have lost any frequency response in my ears, just a few decibels of volume.

*According to a hearing test I had to take for my previous job.

Do you guys still have Jolt?

* All the sugar and twice the caffeine

It's a bit hard to find, but yes. They sell it at Fry's.





I've used these headphones for the past 2.5 decades, originally as professional DJ:


I finally broke my first pair about a month ago, and have ordered another.

To be clear, these are not "Beats by Dre" style BOOM-THUMPA-THUMPA cans. They're lightweight, comfortable, and provide accurate reproduction.

My pastor’s wife passed away at 44 years of age after a 5+ year battle with Huntington’s disease; a progressive, genetic, neurological disorder. The funeral was yesterday, and was, by far, the most amazing funeral service I’ve ever been to.

Every time i want to find the @Joe Perez boiling thermostat video on youtube i can't find it. Then i get absolutely hammered drunk and find it. I just can never search for it and find it when not completely shithoused.

Reason for looking for it this time.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1765...eply&ref=notif

Starts now...


https://www.trt1.com.tr/canli-izle

Too bad I can't understand a word of it.

Same, but it's nice to see our salty hair friend.

Tomorrow is a once in a lifetime opportunity for everyone in Chicago to tune their Miata’s for -20F cold start.

I'm not even going to bother attempting to drive tomorrow. I know from experience that my engine won't even turn over on the starter at that temperature.

Hopefully there are enough Ubers on the road, as I really don't want to walk to the bus stop when it's -20° and windy.

I know my car would start. But the damage that will be done with such thick oil isn't worth it.

What makes you think the bus will start?

--Ian

Jesus just left Chicago and he's bound for New Orleans.

Block heaters. Plus a lot of them never get turned off (particularly on lines which run 24/7), and I know that they're running today.

With the rise of self-driving vehicles, eventually there will be a country song about how your truck left you, too.

A self-driving car can become a self-stealing car.

--Ian

Quote of the day:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is not even 30, and yet she is the tail wagging the entire donkey.
Deroy Murdock

Actual photo of Chicagoans commuting to work this morning:

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...a7f3406645.png

Which one is you?

I'm the one behind the camera. Passed these two dudes at the corner of Addison & Kedzie. They were asking about a droid, but when I showed them my phone, looked at me like I was an idiot.

Apparently it was warmer on Mars than in Minneapolis this morning.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...b448ffaf23.png

--Ian

Fucking hell. It's warmer on Mars than in Chicago?

(Dat barometric pressure, though....)


On an unrelated note, apparently my employer feels that it is a worthwhile use of corporate money and resources to create surveys in order to determine whether I understand why diversity & inclusion is important to the company.


Dafuq? We're a TV station. Ratings and revenue are what's important. And, to a lesser extent, pissing off Braineack with our liberal agenda. The shareholders don't give a shit how many gay, trans-gendered Armenian Buddhists we have working to make that happen.


I'm not making this shit up:


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...f31a604380.png



EDIT: god-fucking-dammit, I'm getting so tired of the image-uploader deleting everything I've written...

Every one of this sort of corporate stupidity I have seen always says somewhere that "X" company is committed to whatever it is they are wasting time with. That's a good signal to send employees.

It was 65F and sunny here today. I had to drive all over town to run errands.
I drove with the top down.

Well, they aired that show we shot in Africa with no fanfare, no promo, nothing.
They just quietly aired it on late Sunday, just after midnight. The only clue was a TV guide listing on TRT website which was posted a couple days prior.

No one had any kind of rating expectations. I mean, they used the show as some sort of a filler at midnight...

And then ratings were posted the next day.
We came in at #35 in ABC, and #48 in Total ratings for the whole day, with a share of 4.73.
Go figure...

Must have a lot of groupies

Not bad at all, for an un-promoted show buried in a graveyard timeslot.

On an unrelated note, the NB does not at all mind being left idling for 6 hours.

I watched the whole thing. I could not understand a single word, but it was still somewhat entertaining.

Battery in wife's car decided the cold was too much, and died. She was parked behind me, blocking me in. So, not only did I have to pull the battery* in sub-zero conditions, we had to borrow the neighbor's car to get the replacement.





* If I ever get my hands on the dipshit who designed the battery terminal and placement for the Ford Fusion, I am going to beat him (or her) to death with a jumper cable.

Must be different between generations of fusions. The 09 company car I have is right on top. Easy to get in and out.
I tell you though, that thing did not like being started at -20 this morning. Thankfully it's warming up, alright -7 right now should top out at -2. Yay.

That's a lot of people.
 

You may have heard about that recent record drug bust at the Nogales border crossing where, thanks to a drug sniffing dog, authorities uncovered 254 lbs. of Fentanyl hidden in a truck carrying cucumbers. The interesting part I find in all this is the shear scale of that much product, given its extreme potency. According to several medical sites online, a dosage of a mere 2 milligrams of Fentanyl is consider to be fatal for all but the most highly-tolerant individuals.

Conversion: 254 lbs. = 115,212,462 mgs .
Doling out two of those milligrams per person, you have enough to kill 57,606,231 people.
For fuck sake, are they literally trying to kill us all ?

I've never understood the appeal of recreational opioid use. I hate the fuzzy-headed feeling that they give you. It's not a pleasant buzz, like being drunk, it's just shitty and disconcerting. Plus, it screws up your ability to poop, which is unpleasant in an entirely different way.

Those drug sniffing dogs aren't all that reliable -- it might be 254 pounds of laundry detergent.

https://www.ajc.com/news/national/ma...GXVS7pkSDM21K/

--Ian

Depends, when I was younger I got a nice buzz from them. The last time I had them, two separate occasions when having a bottom wisdom tooth removed.

For about 45 minutes, I had a nice wave of no pain and calm, then hours upon hours of itching like a crack head.

That said, smoking actual opium never had the negative. It was all positive.

To be fair, if you are driving around with a little plastic baggie containing 92 grams of powdered laundry detergent, and you look like Florida Man, being arrested on suspicion of drug possession really should come as no surprise. I'm not saying it's right for police officers to falsify a test, but to quote Justice Bedsworth writing the court's majority opinion in People v Foranyic (1998):

Much cheaper and easier than a full scale invasion!

Spending the week in a pretty nice ski resort in southeastern Turkey.
The mountain is better than I expected, runs are pretty decent, a detachable quad chair reaches the 2344 meter summit with great steep runs, and the staff is cool.
Best part is the price..
The hotel is less than $250 pp for the week (full board), and a 5 day unlimited lift pass is just under $10. Less than ten bucks. For five days.
And, there are no lift lines.

That is my week in a nutshell.

Update: after a brief delay (seriously, Amazon, a month?), they arrived:

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...d8c8f4c513.png


(Yes, they actually are packaged in a bed of silk. I don't know why Sony find this necessary or appropriate, but whatever. This is a new addition since I purchased the last set in the late 90s.)

The design and build quality is absolutely, 100% unchanged since the last pair I bought. I consider that to be a sign of a company which knows when its done something right, and does not merely do change for change' sake.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...0edf87d3e6.png



I mean, how often do headphones come with a parts list and repair diagram?

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...ce3b642c84.png



Only complaint is that the bag they come with used to be leather, now it's canvas. Black canvas bags aren't as impressive as leather when you toss chicken bones out of them onto a large table containing a complicated schematic diagram plotted at ANSI E size (34" x 44"), just for show, since based on the description you're already 95% certain answer to the problem that mfg have been banging their heads over for a whole day, and are willing to take that 5% chance of looking like a complete fool in order to make a really impressive joke.

The quality of these cans has not changed a bit over the years. If anything, I think that my old ones might have been a tad worn out towards the end of their life. I may have to buy a new set of these every decade regardless of their condition.


Broke 'em in with some Blacktop Mojo:





Followed by a shouting, angry Norwegian making fun of an angry, shouting Australian:





If anyone in this thread is still looking for headphones, these are still the ones to buy after 20+ years of non-evolution.