According an article called Bigger isn’t Better in the July 04 issue of Fine Homebuilding (which sadly, you can’t read unless you pay good money), more than 70% of newly installed central air installations are either improperly sized or installed. And 95% of all new air conditioning installations fail in regards to energy efficiency.
Now Click Here to continue reading.
Let’s face it, very few men in the trades can speak intelligently even when the subject is something that interests them. And don’t even get me started on the average tradesmen’s writing ability.
Good thing that are people out there who can speak for them. Otherwise, the views and the feelings of tradesmen would never Click Here to continue reading.
Want to read about a poor little rich boy who lost his grandmother?
No?
How about if the poor little rich boy belongs to the corrupt upper crust of Egyptian society and was sent off to collage in the US? How about if he does not really believe in anything but loves his grandmother and so goes through with a traditional Muslim funeral?
As you might gather, I don’t really like the Sandmonkey. There is something about his personality that comes through his blog that I don’t like. But I found his essay to be a fascinating window into a world that I don’t really know much about. As the essay went on, I even found that my cruel hard heart managed to feel some sympathy for him.
Spiders are generally solitary creatures and in the northern hemisphere they generally don’t get together and cover the trees with their webs. But rules are meant to be broken.
This New York Times story tells of spiders who are covering acres of Texas forest with their webs.
The BBC, reporting on a meeting at the Royal Geographical Society, says that 140 million people in developing countries are drinking water with such high concentrations of arsenic as to constitute poisoning. Experts estimate that one out of ten people living in these areas will die of aresenic-induced ailments, particularly cancer.
The problem resulted from the well-intentioned efforts of aid agencies to steer communities in poor areas away from using surface water, which is often badly contaminated by bacteria, towards well-digging, not realizing the well water could have high levels of arsenic.
You have got to like a paper that starts out by saying….
All else being equal, not many people would prefer to destroy the world. Even faceless corporations, meddling governments, reckless scientists, and other agents of doom, require a world in which to achieve their goals of profit, order, tenure, or other villainies. If our extinction proceeds slowly enough to allow a moment of horrified realization, the doers of the deed will likely be quite taken aback on realizing that they have actually destroyed the world. Therefore I suggest that if the Earth is destroyed, it will probably be by mistake.
Thus begins an excellent exploration of man’s innate tendency to overestimate what he knows.
Some of the best innovations in the world are things that seem ridiculously simple in retrospect. Israeli field bandages are a good example. They seem so natural you wonder why it took people so long to come up with the idea. That is a sign of good design.
You can go here to learn about them. I particularly recommend watching the training video (unfortunately it is QuickTime so I can’t direct link). It will give you a good idea of why Israeli field bandages are becoming the new standard for military medics and other first responders.
There is that saying, “Stop and smell the roses,” but even if some of us do slow down and enjoy the flowers occasionally, how many of us stop to notice the little dramas in life? I mean the very small dramas in life. So caught up in our hustle, we don’t notice the birds, bees, […]
That was my thought when I read this…..
The left side of Lincoln’s face was much smaller than the right, an aberration called cranial facial microsomia. The defect joins a long list of ailments – including smallpox, heart illness and depression – that modern doctors have diagnosed in Lincoln.
I always thought that the reason Sheet Rock screws had so little pull out strength had to do with the type of metal they were made out off. Shows how little I know. Apparently, their weakness has to do with the nature of there thread. From McFeely’s list of Standard Thread Styles…..
Double Lead: Two threads are wrapped around the shank, as illustrated by the blue and red colored threads. One revolution advances the screw 2 pitch lengths advantageous on long screws or in situations requiring rapid assembly. Drywall screws typically use this thread since pull-out strength isn¹t as important as speed. These screws lack the pull-out resistance of “Deep” threaded screws. Typically, #8 and #10 screws 4″ and longer use this thread because of the increased strength afforded by the larger shank diameter.
Needless to say, the whole concept of pitch lengths was knew to me as well. This is also from McFeely’s list of Standard Thread Styles….
Pitch is equal to 1 divided by the number of threads per inch. For a screw with 10 threads per inch, one revolution will advance the screw 1/10″ into the wood.