What's new

Team USA

Everybody in my neighborhood is treating all this like an extended Labor Day weekend. People are mowing their lawns (i did mine), mulching, planting stuff, cookouts, kids on swingsets, etc

Nevertheless, people are keeping a safe distance from each other. I take daily walks and make sure to avoid other walkers by a minimum of six feet. It seems most people are taking common-sense precautions like wearing masks and avoiding unnecessary travel. Many of these precautions will remain even after the economy is opened up.
 
.
Nevertheless, people are keeping a safe distance from each other. I take daily walks and make sure to avoid other walkers by a minimum of six feet. It seems most people are taking common-sense precautions like wearing masks and avoiding unnecessary travel. Many of these precautions will remain even after the economy is opened up.

Yes, Coronavirus has pretty much ruined International Tourism and other stuff for a long time. It's like the new Cancer.
 
.
oldie

https://www.businessinsider.com/great-news-weve-become-a-white-collar-nation-2010-1
Great News! We've Become A White-Collar Nation

In a previous post, I'd mentioned that White Collar work had steadily grown throughout the 20th century, and thought I'd dig up the data.

As a percentage of the workforce, White Collar occupations grew from 18% to 60% of employees over the course of the 20th century, as show in this graph:

f


What does this mean?

Farm productivity has exploded, increasing 1.9% per year over the last half of the century. At that rate, every 100 years, the same inputs on a farm produce 6.5 times as much foodstuffs. The percentage of the population engaged in farming dropped from 40% to under 2%, and yet we became a great exporting power in agricultural products.

Similarly, manufacturing productivity rose 1.3%, on average, over the course of the second half of the 20th century. A brief list of 20th century mechanical engineering achievements is instructive. From better distribution (automotive), to better storage (air conditioning), to better production (glass, paper, metal), to better power generation (energy), the list of advances in making "stuff" has meant that we produce more and better stuff each year, with fewer costs and materials per unit.

Consider your TV, car, refrigerator, stove, and calculator in the 1970s compared to what you have today. They are better, faster, safer, and more effective.

The end result of our being able to make things more readily is that we've found we need fewer and fewer people to actually make stuff.

This is the process of commoditization, and it is a good thing for our economy.

If you think about it, all human endeavors become commoditized. Newton and Liebniz, in the 17th century, were the only guys in the entire world who were smart enough to figure out the calculus. Today, it's something bright high schoolers master before going to college.

If you had told J.P. Morgan, at the turn of the last century, that someday his specialized field -- that of pricing risk on debt to corporations -- would be profitably pursued by over 100,000 professionals in the United States, we can forgive his lack of foresight for scoffing at you.

Indeed, in every field we see the body of knowledge progress from discovery, to experimentation, to mastery, to routinization.

And because we've commoditized the skills behind production, it is easy for labor in foreign lands to master it, and earn the lower wages that come with routine skills.

What does that leave for us? Will we end up a nation bereft of earnings power, the equivalent of a couch potato uncle, past his prime? No.

In the United States, the increase in white collar labor means that we are becoming a nation of thinkers -- web designers, engineers, marketers, IP lawyers, deal guys, inventors, dreamers, and mavericks.

So while that iPod "counts" as $150 on China's export ledger, in reality, the majority of the profitability of the iPod goes to Apple, and to the national distribution channels through which it is shipped.

Really, it should be no surprise that final assembly is the least valuable, and the design genius of Apple the most valuable, work that go into an iPod, iPhone, or (coming soon!) iTablet. It's been that way all along.

What the 20th century statistics don't capture about the departure of our manufacturing base is it's always been that way.

The implementation of all of those fantastic mechanical engineering feats above, and the rise in productivity thereby produced, always meant that some marginal labor was being replaced by automated processes. But because it all previously occurred within the confines of a firm, it was difficult to piece out that value created at a GE was increasingly coming from the Masters of Crotonville and less and less from the factory floor.

Today, with the ability to componentize a company, and separate its marketing from its production from its distribution, it's more obvious when the jobs have shipped to another state, or another country. But the history of work in America is an inexorable, inevitable shift to the work of the mind.

And I, for one, think that's a good thing. Because the more people we have engaged in medical research, or designing great electronics, or simply making trenchant observations on our internet economy, the better for us.

We are a White Collar nation, and our future is very bright.
 
.
@Gomig-21

Looks like somebody got an old 1990 Firebird Formula 3rd gen

Hopefully he doesn't pull one of these
The guy walked away. These car are built like tanks.


Should have gotten one of our badass 4th gens
This is an American Experience

Hey pal, hope you and the family are doing well with all this history-altering events that are happening around here. Thanks for the videos. Yeah that first guy looks like he might have to put in a new tranny amongst a few other repairs. He didn't expect it to be perfect, did he? lol. But he should've been told about the transmission but so many dishonest people out there that you should never commit to anything until you check out the whole thing first. Yeah I've been driving mine A LOT lately, it's up to 35,683 miles on it!

EW83OkTXgAAbRED


I had to take the firechicken logo plate off the front end there (such a shame) and put the front plate on since MA is one of the 31 states that requires the front end plate to be attached, unfortunately, and I was pulled over for not having it on a few years ago. And since I don't drive it much (and haven't had the plate on since I bought it in 2001 looool), I figured I would throw it on now with traffic being a bit light out there and cops are always onto me whenever I'm in that thing. In the F-450 or the 350, they couldn't care less. Even stop traffic for me or allow me to get through certain blocked roads. In this thing?! I get pulled over sometimes twice a day for the most mundane and ridiculous things you can imagine. Friggin cops! :D I think I'll be giving it to my son pretty soon.

That black 2002 naturally aspirated WS-6 with 470HP to the wheels reminds me of my buddy's 2015 Roush Stage 3 Mustang. He's pushing 530 to the wheels in this thing, soon to be 600 lol! Crazy bastard. I'm fine with the stock 325HP! Plenty enough lol.

qkqazbe.jpg
 
.
Hey pal, hope you and the family are doing well with all this history-altering events that are happening around here. Thanks for the videos. Yeah that first guy looks like he might have to put in a new tranny amongst a few other repairs. He didn't expect it to be perfect, did he? lol. But he should've been told about the transmission but so many dishonest people out there that you should never commit to anything until you check out the whole thing first. Yeah I've been driving mine A LOT lately, it's up to 35,683 miles on it!

EW83OkTXgAAbRED


I had to take the firechicken logo plate off the front end there (such a shame) and put the front plate on since MA is one of the 31 states that requires the front end plate to be attached, unfortunately, and I was pulled over for not having it on a few years ago. And since I don't drive it much (and haven't had the plate on since I bought it in 2001 looool), I figured I would throw it on now with traffic being a bit light out there and cops are always onto me whenever I'm in that thing. In the F-450 or the 350, they couldn't care less. Even stop traffic for me or allow me to get through certain blocked roads. In this thing?! I get pulled over sometimes twice a day for the most mundane and ridiculous things you can imagine. Friggin cops! :D I think I'll be giving it to my son pretty soon.

That black 2002 naturally aspirated WS-6 with 470HP to the wheels reminds me of my buddy's 2015 Roush Stage 3 Mustang. He's pushing 530 to the wheels in this thing, soon to be 600 lol! Crazy bastard. I'm fine with the stock 325HP! Plenty enough lol.

qkqazbe.jpg
I think I was at 37K when I sold mine. I had the model before the door window rubber gasket redesign so my windows were starting to drip in the rain. Not sure how you are handling falling into your car's driver's seat at our age. Maybe yours is higher. Mine was a good kerplunk drop near the ground. Never an issue getting out though even with foot thick heavy doors. LOL!

I may buy your car off of you someday.
Screen Shot 2020-05-14 at 4.15.32 PM.jpg

(although I like the old pointier Formula wedge front-end better :-)). Hopefully no t-top leaks.


I told the dealer not to put their dealer monograms on my car and they relented but they wouldn't let me leave the lot without drilling three holes and putting on the ugly black front plate bracket. UGH!! I was soooo mad. I couldn't talk them out of it.

Screen Shot 2020-05-14 at 3.48.07 PM.jpg

I pulled it off and drove all those years with the stupid three screws that once held this ugly bracket. Worse..because of the curves..the screws didn't sit flush.

I'm doing fine here Coronavirus-wise.
 
Last edited:
. . .
I think I was at 37K when I sold mine. I had the model before the door window rubber gasket redesign so my windows were starting to drip in the rain. Not sure how you are handling falling into your car's driver's seat at our age. Maybe yours is higher. Mine was a good kerplunk drop near the ground. Never an issue getting out though even with foot thick heavy doors. LOL!

I may buy your car off of you someday.
View attachment 632427
(although I like the old pointier Formula wedge front-end better :-)). Hopefully no t-top leaks.


I told the dealer not to put their dealer monograms on my car and they relented but they wouldn't let me leave the lot without drilling three holes and putting on the ugly black front plate bracket. UGH!! I was soooo mad. I couldn't talk them out of it.

View attachment 632424
I pulled it off and drove all those years with the stupid three screws that once held this ugly bracket. Worse..because of the curves..the screws didn't sit flush.

I'm doing fine here Coronavirus-wise.

Glad to hear that, Ant. Problem with being in the construction busy is that you really can't work virtually lol. So we need a return to normalcy at some point soon and moratoriums on work to end.

LOL, WTF.

IKR. That's what super gear-heads end up doing. It's like an addiction. Nice guy and when you meet him, you'd never think he was into all this stuff lol. He owns a gun shop and his son is about to finish Apache flight school and we used to go to the local airshows since he was 7 years old and watch all the aircraft flying and him becoming interested in pursuing that type of career. Seeing it come to fruition is pretty exciting.
 
.
Glad to hear that, Ant. Problem with being in the construction busy is that you really can't work virtually lol.

Well not in my neighborhood. House across the street is having new siding put on, my neighbor who for 15 years neglected his lawn now has some service where 4 guys run around every two weeks with machines doing stuff, groups of people walk by my house every minute with no masks, and there were even people with two horses giving rides.


Screen Shot 2020-05-15 at 1.05.04 PM.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_to_Think_That_I_Saw_It_on_Mulberry_Street
 
Last edited:
.
Well not in my neighborhood. House across the street is having new siding put on, my neighbor who for 15 years neglected his lawn now has some service where 4 guys run around every two weeks with machines doing stuff, groups of people walk by my house every minute with no masks, and there were even people with two horses giving rides.


View attachment 632649
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_to_Think_That_I_Saw_It_on_Mulberry_Street

It's crazy how it's very relaxed in certain towns while super strict in others. Unfortunately I'm talking about the people's republic of Cambridge where the moratorium is strictly enforced. People hear a hammer bang and all hell breaks loose!
 
.
It's crazy how it's very relaxed in certain towns while super strict in others. Unfortunately I'm talking about the people's republic of Cambridge where the moratorium is strictly enforced. People hear a hammer bang and all hell breaks loose!

Ah yes the San Francisco of the East. Well as kooky as they are it seems they have managed to keep their death count surprisingly low compared to their neighbors.

BTW for my previous post. Dr Seuss was a Mass resident.
https://www.google.com/maps/@42.101...4!1s6T-PSxLCuTxi8qEHIBImjg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
.
.
Try pronouncing this crap!

Lake Chargoggagoggmanchauggagoggchaubunagungamaugg in Webster, MA, is the longest place name in the United States lol!

EXi3cI-XYAEBY-m

Hey I bought one of these and highly recommend it.
So my pump is similar to the green one shown. However I'm not going to let the water rise that high to fully submerge it (that's just asking for leak problems). I have my LevelGuard tilted backwards at about 45 degrees. Works like a charm with NO moving parts to wear out (Hello sump pump manufactures with mechanical switches that fail)

I'm going to get a second one for my backup pump.
 
Last edited:
.
I'm going to get a second one for my backup pump.

That looks pretty good. I still have the old ball float and it worked great for 9 + 10 years and what actually happened was the clip holding the cable that the ball is on corroded before anything else! lol. So the pump, the float itself and everything else outlasted the small clip even though you would think it would be made out of stainless steel so it would last being submerged underwater for years. But out of all the ones I've used through the decades, this one was the only one where the clip went and I had about 1-1/2" of water in my studio. That wasn't fun.

The boat has a different style float switch than these conventional types of ball floats or anything else, although a sensor like the one you posted would be cool. It basically has a pedal-looking type of float switch for the sump pump. The reason is primarily that in a boat, you can't really wait until there's about 10"of water in the bilge LOL until you start pumping water out! :lol: Yeah, that stuff needs to be outta there ASAP or you're very quickly in a world of hurt!

That's in on the bottom left, made by Rule and the sump pump also needs to be checked every time you go out. Part of daily checks but you can see that low profile is designed to trigger the second there's a few inches in the bilge.

IMG_1930.JPG
 
.
That looks pretty good. I still have the old ball float and it worked great for 9 + 10 years and what actually happened was the clip holding the cable that the ball is on corroded before anything else! lol. So the pump, the float itself and everything else outlasted the small clip even though you would think it would be made out of stainless steel so it would last being submerged underwater for years. But out of all the ones I've used through the decades, this one was the only one where the clip went and I had about 1-1/2" of water in my studio. That wasn't fun.

The boat has a different style float switch than these conventional types of ball floats or anything else, although a sensor like the one you posted would be cool. It basically has a pedal-looking type of float switch for the sump pump. The reason is primarily that in a boat, you can't really wait until there's about 10"of water in the bilge LOL until you start pumping water out! :lol: Yeah, that stuff needs to be outta there ASAP or you're very quickly in a world of hurt!

That's in on the bottom left, made by Rule and the sump pump also needs to be checked every time you go out. Part of daily checks but you can see that low profile is designed to trigger the second there's a few inches in the bilge.

View attachment 634146

How does the pedal work on a rocking boat?? I assume if it is free to float up that means every time you crest a wave that thing is going to be bouncing.

So my pump has a metal bar on a seasaw connected to a float and the unit (basically like an up/down light switch). Worked awesome for about 8 years and then the switch wouldn't "click" anymore. Unfortunately the replacement switches I don't think are true OEM and only last about 2 years. The last one I only got a year out of it which is ridiculous.

So now its solid-state for me. The pump itself is 15 years old.
 
.

Pakistan Defence Latest Posts

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom