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OT: 114th Obsequious Banter Thread: One fortnight and counting

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Beef Invictus said:
Whoa what the f***? Timing chain should last 80k-100k miles. Either something with the car is f***y or you gotta burn the place down.
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I guess it depends on who you ask but generally timing chains should last the car, timing belts need to be replaced every 80k or so. Unless for some reason the chain stretches then usually it's still good.

YMMV (Your mileage may vary) but that's from what I know. Best to consult the FSM (factory service manual) to see all applicable information on your vehicle.
 
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Chinatown88 said:
I despise Jane Eyre. I never want to see anything about Jane Eyre again. Or Wuthering Heights. AWFUL PIECES OF LITERATURE.
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It was The Canterbury Tales for me. I just couldn’t bring myself to read it no matter what I did. Even when I did, I retained nothing. To this day, it’s one of only three books I’ve ever given up reading.

It’s that, A Game of Thrones, and The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. I understand that I’m the problem in all three cases. But I’m also insistent that GoT is the worst of the bunch by a mile. You know I read a ton of fantasy. It’s not the genre. It’s an unbearably boring book.
 
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JojoTheWhale said:
It was The Canterbury Tales for me. I just couldn’t bring myself to read it no matter what I did. Even when I did, I retained nothing. To this day, it’s one of only three books I’ve ever given up reading.

It’s that, A Game of Thrones, and The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. I understand that I’m the problem in all three cases. But I’m also insistent that GoT is the worst of the bunch by a mile. You know I read a ton of fantasy. It’s not the genre. It’s an unbearably boring book.
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Speaking of fantasy currently restarting Rhythm of War in preparation for Book 5 next year. Man it's getting to be a chore and I'm like only a third of the way through.
 
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Flybynite said:


Two of the Hawaiian islands are experiencing severe wildfires on both Maui and the Big Island.

Apparently the hurricane that's like 500+ miles away has caused a pressure system to just unload massive winds and it just spread super fast. There are reports of like dozens of people actually jumping into the ocean as the fires moved into a coastal town and burned all the way to the ocean.
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The Planet is fine. Nothing to see here.
 
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Embiid said:
Carry on...

www.reuters.com

US crude output to rise to record 12.76 million bpd in 2023 - EIA

U.S. crude oil production is expected to rise by 850,000 barrels per day to record 12.76 million bpd in 2023, according to a monthly report from the Energy Information Administration on Tuesday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com
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We really should be making stronger efforts in nuclear fission for now. MSRs have some really nice benefits and even gen 5(?) LWRs are much safer than people think.

Monitoring radiation is easy but yet people seem to care very little about monitoring pollution from chemical plants/etc.

I doubt most people even realize that nuclear fuel are pellets and not some liquid green goo.

Renewable energy is great (solar/wind/..) when used properly but even dams have large negative effects. Energy storage is also very problematic since batteries now use a lot of rare earth minerals.
 
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Lindberg said:
We really should be making stronger efforts in nuclear fission for now. MSRs have some really nice benefits and even gen 5(?) LWRs are much safer than people think.

Monitoring radiation is easy but yet people seem to care very little about monitoring pollution from chemical plants/etc.

I doubt most people even realize that nuclear fuel are pellets and not some liquid green goo.

Renewable energy is great (solar/wind/..) when used properly but even dams have large negative effects. Energy storage is also very problematic since batteries now use a lot of rare earth minerals.
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I don't see the path forward for nuclear. The NIMBYs won't allow investment in large scale plants and the tech for small modular reactors doesn't appear to be ready for commercial use yet. Even with smaller designs, the public needs to be convinced of the benefits.
 
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I guess my favourite books/plays that I read in school? (read in school for the first time/might not have read until a while later if were not in school curriculum)

Snow Falling on Cedars (age 17)
Macbeth (age 16)
To Kill a Mockingbird (age 16)
A Streetcar Named Desire (age 15)
Of Mice and Men (age 15)
An Inspector Calls (age 14)

Least favourite:

Tess of the d'Ubervilles (age 15)

Though I just never liked basically anything by Hardy. Just awful melodrama and poor prose at times, goes on with himself too much for no reason, and very predictable.
 
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wankstifier said:
I don't see the path forward for nuclear. The NIMBYs won't allow investment in large scale plants and the tech for small modular reactors doesn't appear to be ready for commercial use yet. Even with smaller designs, the public needs to be convinced of the benefits.
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Years and years ago Nixon pushed for LWR over MSR R&D because he was from California. Lots of LWR R&D was being done in California and almost all the MSR R&D was being done in Oak Ridge, TN. I'm not saying MSRs are the way to go but from what I understand about them they have a fail safe that essentially ruins the reactor in case of a run away.

Chernobyl is an "interesting" case of how badly the USSR handle nuclear reactors. They really did about as bad of a job as possible when it came to it. SONGS (San Onofre) is another unfortunate US case when it comes to reactors. The amount of bad press that place gets with a significant bias(agenda) without the proper understanding of the process is pretty eye opening.

We are pretty pathetic as a country when it comes to handling radioactive material. We still haven't found a way forward to dispose of the waste. Interestingly enough the newer reactors can reuse spent fuel to reduce the amount of radioactive materials found in the pellets.
 
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Anything but Virginia Woolf. Anything. Even Henry James…..barely.

JojoTheWhale said:
It was The Canterbury Tales for me. I just couldn’t bring myself to read it no matter what I did. Even when I did, I retained nothing. To this day, it’s one of only three books I’ve ever given up reading.
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Try it in Middle English. That lasted until my midterm test in Middle English and not one minute further because I’m not a complete psycho. :laugh:
 
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Magua said:
Anything but Virginia Woolf. Anything. Even Henry James…..barely.



Try it in Middle English. That lasted until my midterm test in Middle English and not one minute further because I’m not a complete psycho. :laugh:
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You have ALL my sympathies. Middle English is the gum-in-the-hair of English-based comprehension. Sure, it's not an impossible task, but you're going to be pulling out your hair either way.

Don't even get me started on Ogden Nash, though...
 
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Kermit the Prog said:
You have ALL my sympathies. Middle English is the gum-in-the-hair of English-based comprehension. Sure, it's not an impossible task, but you're going to be pulling out your hair either way.
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Not all of them, I hope. I chose the class. :laugh:

I had an enthusiastic teacher, the writing assignment were open ended (I chose to write a screenplay instead for one of my papers), and it was one of my more memorable courses. 5 weeks of Middle English was simply enough for the “experience,” ya dig.

I wish I’d read more classic/medieval things, truthfully. The Odyssey, Beowulf, Divine Comedy, Canterbury Tales…..I thoroughly enjoyed them all.
 
JojoTheWhale said:
It was The Canterbury Tales for me. I just couldn’t bring myself to read it no matter what I did. Even when I did, I retained nothing. To this day, it’s one of only three books I’ve ever given up reading.

It’s that, A Game of Thrones, and The Moor’s Last Sigh by Salman Rushdie. I understand that I’m the problem in all three cases. But I’m also insistent that GoT is the worst of the bunch by a mile. You know I read a ton of fantasy. It’s not the genre. It’s an unbearably boring book.
Click to expand...

Curious when you read GOT? I read it when it first came out, and my memory was better then. I tried again a few years back and didn't make it. It's definitely a grind, although it does pick up eventually and the next two were much better in that regard iirc.

Agree on Canterbury Tales though. It wasn't required, but knowing a little of the subject matter I thought it sounded cool. I also thought having been raised with the KJV Bible, and reading Tolkien, that I'd be fine with the language. As @Magua said, f*** that noise.
 
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Danko said:
Took my car into the shop thinking i needed a part for my catalytic converter and maybe brakes, then they hit me with a Timing Chain Replacement with a bunch of other parts required for it before they even look at the Cat Converter and the brakes are fine...

$2400 quoted for the timing chain then the guys call me back, by the way, it's another $1900 for the cat converter...

Let me just pull that out of my ass.


Paid off 2015 Gmc Terrain with 65,000 miles on it...this is some straight up bullshit
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Not surprised. You go through the dealerships and they are going to try and ream you with no lube. Experienced this with my last car a VW Jetta. I have a mechanic I trust to do work like that.
 
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I am lucky to have a dealership I trust, and a local mechanic I can also trust. We have bought 6 of 7 vehicles from them, and each has lasted to at least 125k. Most 10 years. Buick/GMC.
 
Chicken N Raffls said:
Curious when you read GOT? I read it when it first came out, and my memory was better then. I tried again a few years back and didn't make it. It's definitely a grind, although it does pick up eventually and the next two were much better in that regard iirc.

Agree on Canterbury Tales though. It wasn't required, but knowing a little of the subject matter I thought it sounded cool. I also thought having been raised with the KJV Bible, and reading Tolkien, that I'd be fine with the language. As @Magua said, f*** that noise.
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I tried sometime in the late 90s, then again in ~2005 or so. I gave the book away, then got the box set of paperbacks as a present in ~2014. Tried to read that at least three times. :laugh:

Sometimes a book just doesn’t take with me, but almost always does on a second try. For example, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin took me two tries. Zero retention on attempt #1. Loved it immediately on try #2.
 
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