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How Thick Is Your Bubble?

bill — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:32:07 +0000

Charles Murray has a new book, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010. The Powerline blog had a nice bit about the book and a link to the quiz. I was curious so I took the quiz. Here are my results.

How Thick Is Your Bubble?

Guest

Score » 13 out of 20 (65% )
Result

On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.

In other words, you don’t even have a bubble.

Quiz School

Take this quiz & get your score

How Thick Is Your Bubble? » Make A Quiz

Cable Guy + drill + electrical panel = Trouble

bill — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:27:25 +0000

After church my mother-in-law asked me to come over to her house and look at the electrical panel. Yesterday she had some people working around the panel and they nearly got killed. They said the electrical panel was a safety hazard and that she should get some lawyers to sue the electrical company that put in it.

Although I am not an electrician I am an electrical engineer with some practical experience around electrical panels. When I got there the cover was off the panel. That is always a bad sign. So I asked my mother-in-law to tell me the story. Yesterday the cable guy installed new cable and telephone service. First he ran the cable came into the garage next to the electrical panel. Next he installed a device similar to the cable modem on the wall for the telephone service. When he plugged the device into the outlet next to the panel, he caused a breaker to trip. This is where the story gets real funky. The cable guy removes the electrical panel cover. I have no idea why he removed the panel cover but he does something in the panel and then has problems putting the cover back on. I am guessing he was having problems with one of the screws used to attach the cover to the panel not lining up with hole. So he pulls out his drill and sets about enlarging the hole on a live electrical panel. By definition anyone pointing a drill at a live electrical panel is an idiot looking for trouble and that is what he found. The drill went through the hole in the panel and into the 200 amp main feed to the house. A small explosion occurred, part of the drill bit is vaporized, and he is blown backwards. He is lucky. If the panel was not grounded, he would be dead now. Hopefully he knows the difference between electricians and cable guys. Cable guys do not work on electrical panels.

A Proposed Solution to Proposition 8

bill — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:59:23 +0000

I think the appropriate response by Judge Walker to Proposition 8 should have been to place an injunction on issuing any new marriage licenses in California and to stop enforcement of laws requiring marriage licenses. If moral reasons are not valid reasons for regulating marriage, we are left with a regulation that is an anachronism from the past. I have been married 27 years. I know where my driving license is. I hang my college degrees on the wall. I do not have a clue where my marriage license is. If I was not required to get a marriage license when I got married, I would not have gotten it. Marriage licenses are vanity plates. The judge had the opportunity to step back from the present and future controversies by declaring marriage regulations null and void. If California wants to continue to get the tax revenue from marriage licenses, legislators will figure out how to get the various parties to play well together. Which ever way this ruling goes in the upper courts, the bond between church and state on regulating marriage is defunct.

Cross posted on the article, Requiem For An Ideal, at doczero.org.

Andrea and Bill’s Wedding June 11,1983

bill — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 11:34:23 +0000

Andrea and Bill’s Wedding June 11,1983, originally uploaded by billhuber.

Twenty seven years ago we got married. It’s been a wild ride but I am glad I took it.

First Lilies of Spring

bill — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 21:57:21 +0000

IMG00012-20100605-0909.jpg, originally uploaded by billhuber.

I took this along the side of the road yesterday.

Things that make me go hmm… If deep-sea ice crystals are stopping the flow of oil, what’s the problem?

bill — Sun, 09 May 2010 12:11:32 +0000

As an engineer who lived in Houston for eighteen years I am fascinated with the engineering problem BP is facing. Its not my field but I guess that the pressure from the well and the buoyancy of the oil is enough to float the 100 ton structure. They probably are concerned with the riser integrity, too. If they stop one leak the pressure might cause a leak to open elsewhere on the riser.

It bothers me that they did not make the hole at the top of the structure big enough with a reducer they could slide over. It is interesting that the riser pipe has not clogged up yet.

As a farmer who is intimately familiar with frozen pipes, I can see why they are trying to jump start the flow. Once you get it flowing, friction should keep it from clogging but the calculations are probably pretty dicey when you are under 5000 feet of water. I suppose they tried getting one of those remote operated vehicles to stick its arm down the hole and keep the hole clean till the flow gets started. They must be pretty close to the right size opening on the structure.

AP – A novel but risky attempt to use a 100-ton steel-and-concrete box to cover a deepwater oil well gushing toxic crude into the Gulf of Mexico was aborted Saturday after ice crystals encased it, an ominous development as thick blobs of tar began washing up on Alabama’s white sand beaches.

Deep-sea ice crystals stymie Gulf oil leak fix (AP)
Sun, 09 May 2010 02:02:44 GMT

Hey, Congress, Fix This Now!

bill — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:12:13 +0000

Hey, Congress, Fix This Now!

Posted using ShareThis

Phys Ed: Can Running Actually Help Your Knees? – Well Blog – NYTimes.com

bill — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:12:56 +0000

A nicely written article that encourages me to continue running.

Bookmark this on Delicious – Saved by to running health exercise knees arthritis fitness nytimes aging nyt blog – More about this bookmark

Phys Ed: Can Running Actually Help Your Knees? – Well Blog – NYTimes.com
Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

The sun through the trees on a country road

bill — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:33:06 +0000

001, originally uploaded by billhuber.

My new smoker

bill — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:51:19 +0000

A friend at work mentioned that he was looking at a propane powered smoker being sold at Walmart. He thought it was a good deal, $108, since the smoker had such good reviews. I took a look at it and agreed. So I bought it. My first test was pulled pork using an America’s Test Kitchen recipe. Yup, this makes barbecuing much easier. No reloading the charcoal after a couple of hours with this bad boy. I think I will smoke a turkey for Thanksgiving.