Aorta

Aorta
The Aortic valve is the exit valve from the heart

Twenty odd years ago I ended up in the hospital because of atrial fibrillation*. Doc prescribed some meds, things calmed down and I went home. I've been taking the drugs ever since and my heart seems to be pumping along just fine. Doc also discovered I had an enlarged aorta. The risk is that a larger blood vessel is at greater risk of bursting due to high blood pressure**, so I take drugs to keep my blood pressure under control and I go in for an echo-cardiogram to make sure the aorta hasn't gotten any larger.

I had an echo-cardiogram today and the exam seemed a little more extensive than usual. She's running the probe over my chest, but then she goes around my left side, up to my neck and down towards my stomach. I always thought the aorta was only a few inches long and adjacent to the heart, so now that I'm home I gotta look it up and I find that the thing is a monster. Huh.

The first part of the exam was to check on a specific area, but the rest of the exam was 'protocol'. It makes sense, I suppose, if you are going to all the trouble to set up the scan, may as well make it complete. Who knows what kind of other potential problems you might encounter, especially on an old dude.

Old is relative. A friend of my wife went to work for a guy 20 years ago. The guy is 88 now. Who'd a thunk that starting work for a guy who is 68 years old could turn into a career? Still going, I dunno how strong, but still going.

* as opposed to ventricular fibrillation which is generally fatal.

** if the aorta ruptures I would be dead within minutes. Good way to go if you are going.

Joe Biden's Economic Vision

True, except the money he is sending is fairy tale money, money that was created out of thin air by the government. The taxes we pay are just the vig on the national debt. 

Su-57

Su-57 -  Boris Semyonov

Best part of the story is that the photo was taken in Novosibirsk, Siberia.

Novosibirsk, Siberia

Novosibirsk is also the home of Garage 54.

Intel Ronler Acres

Intel Ronler Acres

Intel's Ronler Acres plant is three miles east of my house. It's huge, it sits on a square mile of land.

Criminal Tax Collectors

Foreclosure For Sale

If you are a home owner and you fall delinquent on your property taxes, the local tax collector can kick you out, sell the house and use the proceeds from the sale to pay the taxes you owe. However, it seems that some places, like Multnomah County (our local hotbed of criminal Democrats), are keeping the entire proceeds from the sale even if it greatly exceeds the amount of tax owed. One dude in Lane County (another hotbed of foolishness and home to University of Oregon) owed $32K in back taxes. The county sold his house for $118K and instead of forwarding the surplus to the former owner, they put it in their pocket. What a bunch of shitheads. Jayati Ramakrishnan reports for The Oregonian. The Supreme court has found this criminal behavior to be criminal and now people who have gotten screwed over are going to court to get their money back. I would be happy to see some tax collecting heads roll, but it will probably be peons who suffer. The bigwigs who orchestrated this scam will undoubtedly skate free.

The Blower and the Battery

Duck Dome Airbag

I have a big, inflatable cushion that sits on the patio table and supports the cover - keeps the cover from becoming a lake. Took the cover off last spring and deflated the cushion, fully intending to clean it off, fold it up and put it away. None of that happened, so it just sat there all summer, draped over the side table. You don't suppose the surgeries and the remodeling project had anything to do with that, do you?

Coleman Quickpump

Anyway, it's fall and it's time to cover the table and chairs again, but where's the inflator? We've had a couple of these things. We had a sleeper sofa that had an inflatable mattress, and the kids bought an inflatable bed, but where are the inflators? Turns out Osmany had them. He brought them over. One is a regular, 110VAC powered one, but the other was a battery powered one that was purchased for camping. The battery powered one was broken. Score! A little project for me. 

Amartisan 10-Piece Magnetic Screwdrivers Set

I needed a long Phillips screwdriver to take the screws out, but it seems my long Phillips has crawled off into the weeds, so I ordered a cheap new set from Amazon. Curious thing is the tip on the #1 driver was too pointy to engage with what looked like #1 screws.  The #2 driver worked fine, probably because it was extra pointy as well.

When the screws came out, the grooves on the screw were filled with red plastic from the housing. It looked like the holes were all stripped. I cleaned the plastic off of the screws. It was surprisingly difficult. Trying to get it out using my fingernails didn't work, I had to use my knife and roll the screws along the edge of the table. When I put the screws back in they tightened up just fine. I suppose this is just a feature of self-tapping screws.

Mystery Circuit Interrupter

Check the wiring inside the case and it quickly becomes obvious that the tiny little circuit board in the middle of the charging line is preventing the charge from charging the battery. Take that out, splice the wire with solder and electrical tape because I can't find my box of electrical do-dads, charge it overnight and we're right as rain.

6V 4.5Ah Rechargeable Sealed Lead Acid Battery

I initially figured the battery was dead, so I thought about ordering one ($17 from Amazon), but then I'd have to get rid of the old one. Then I realized there is a battery shop not too far away that would be happy to sell me a new battery and take the old one off of my hands, but they'd probably want $40 for the battery and this stupid blower I am working on only costs $25. Not hardly worth it.

P. S. The magnetic tips on the screwdrivers aren't very strong either. Pretty sad really.

Ruger Firearms

How Its Made
RugerFirearms

Tam posted a link to a hipster's review of the Ruger P89 semiautomatic handgun. To my mind, Ruger has always been 'one of the other gun companies', meaning they weren't Colt or Smith & Wesson or Winchester. And somehow their guns just weren't as sexy as the ones from the big three. Can guns really be sexy? I think it's just another way of saying 'pretty'. 

Ruger Blackhawk

For instance, I never liked the way the Blackhawk looked with that rear sight hanging out like that, looks like it could easily snag on something and break off. Never mind that Ruger might know what they are doing.

Anyway, on to the main point of this post.

Ruger makes their guns by casting as opposed to forging. Casting is simpler and therefore cheaper than forging, which means Ruger can sell their guns for less. If it's done right, cast parts can be as strong as forged parts, though it generally means the cast parts will be slightly thicker than their forged counterparts, which means they will also be slightly heavier, which brings us to this line from the hipster's review:

The P89 makes “kerchunk” feel like a lifestyle choice.

Ruger has done a whole series of short videos on how they make their guns. They are great. If the video at top doesn't automatically lead to the next one, the whole playlist can be found here.