willedoo

There's close to 20 Democrat Congress members calling for Biden to step aside. Obama has now joined Pelosi in trying to get him to evaluate his candidacy, which I think is the PC term for trying to get him to quit. It's not just the Presidency they are worried about but also control of the Senate and Congress in those elections. Biden did some interviews to try to show he's up to it after his woeful performance at the debate, but he muddled the interviews as well. We all know what he's trying to say and what he means, but he's getting increasingly incoherent. Here's an example from an interview the other day: "I remember as a Catholic kid growing up in an area where we didn't like, Catholics, didn't get. I'm the first President elected Statewide in the State of Delaware. When I was a kid, well, you know I was, I looked at John Kennedy and said, well he, God, he got elected, why can't I get elected? By the way I'm proud to be, as I said, the first Vice President, first black woman served with a black President, proud of the, the first black woman, the Supreme Court. There's just so much we can do because together we, there's nothing. Look, this is the United States, America." As said, we sort of know what he's trying to say but it looks and sounds bad. The best case scenario would be that he got no worse over the next four years, but that's unlikely given the rate of him slipping lately. For sure, if you put Trump's ramblings to print, they would read just as incoherent. But I think there's a difference. A lot of what Trump says and the rambling delivery of it is purposeful dumbing down to pander to a thick audience and voter base, whereas Biden seems genuinely confused on many regular occasions. Trump knows his audience adores him and every sound that comes out of his mouth, so he plays to that. It makes me wonder whether now that Trump knows he has almost got it in the bag and has the rusted on dumb ones on side, will he now turn the crazy dial down a bit to chase the business and middle class vote.

I've got a hot drum wood heater and it can sound and act a bit like a pulse jet when starting it up under certain condition. If you want to get the fire going quickly you can put in the kindling, some wood and newspaper then give it a good splash of diesel as a fire starter. The pulse jet effect happens if, once lit, the heater hatch is not open far enough to supply airflow to match the amount of combustion happening in the drum. The diesel cranks it along a fair bit with the exhaust going up the flue and air intake via the front lower vent and the slightly open door. If the door is not open far enough, the combustion starves for oxygen and blows back outside through the door and vent. This reduces the pressure inside the drum and I think it also stops exhausting through the flue momentarily allowing some O2 the enter from that source. This causes the flame trying to escape the front of the heater to retract back inside where the whole cycle starts over and repeats. Each cycle takes a split second creating that typical pulse jet buzzing sound and will keep doing it until the hatch is opened wider to balance the airflow and pressure. Just as a safety warning - never use diesel or anything like it to restart a fire where the firebox has some embers and is still warm. Diesel is safe with a cold start of a wood heater but if restarting a hot or warm heater it can explode. In that case it will produce white smoke which is the tell-tale sigh that it's near flash point.

I've got some plan drawings for a valveless pulsejet somewhere here. I bought the plans a few years ago but never got around to building it. From memory it was a Chinese design, about 50mm diameter and less than a metre long. They call them valveless only because they don't have a mechanical reed valve like the other type. The way the air compresses creates a valve effect but without moving parts.

That's a lot of money to live in an asbestos box in the middle of nowhere.

The King looked a bit subdued when he brought the football out. I don't think he's been very well lately.

It was an amazingly tough game, I think only the second in Origin history to go to half time without a try scored. NSW were the stronger team and in the end their fitness outlasted Queensland. Right from the start, NSW dominated ball possession and field position. If Queensland blinked, NSW would have rolled right over them. In the end the Qld. side tired out and the Blues were able to score. They'll be happy with the win; first time they've won a decider at Lang Park in 19 years. Interestingly, one of the commentators said Lang Park has made the list of the world's top stadiums. It's unrecognisable from the old stadium where we used to have our annual high school athletic meets and where they also staged concerts.

0

Looks a bit like my place.

I can't see Biden continuing his run for President much longer. Politically he's like a drowning man at the moment.

That reminds me of a story I read in an autobiography of a USAF F-4 pilot in Vietnam. It didn't involve him personally, but one of his associates at Cam Ranh AFB lost his WSO out the back seat in an uncommanded ejection. In training, two F-4's almost touched wingtips while performing a zoom climb, and the only way the pilot could avoid a collision was to nose down into a negative G dive. When he recovered from the dive he noticed a parachute canopy and thought it must have been from the other Phantom. It wasn't until he got no response from the back seat on the intercom that he realised it was his WSO under the parachute. He'd lost his Wizzo. It turned out the armourers hadn't secured the seat properly and when the plane went into a sudden dive, the seat rode up the rails and set the rear seat ejection sequence in motion. The ejection handle only activates the gun to do the same thing that the dive caused with an unsecured seat - make the seat rise up the rails and out into the blue. Everything else is initiated via static lines and other gadgets. I think I might have related this story previously somewhere on the forum.

It would be interesting to see them on maximum dive angle on bombing runs. 45 degrees is common, but I'm fairly sure I've read the figure of 60 degrees in the manuals I have. You would need to hold your mouth right.

They're a bit like the F-111 was, old design but still highly effective.

Not sure what you question there Marty. Let me use some other terms - still flying in service with the Hellinic Air Force. They're based in four squadrons. The RF-4E reconnaissance variants have been retired.

Greece still has 33 operational F-4E Phantoms. The F-4E was the variant we had, the one with the built in gun.

Now, let me guess which Foxbat you're referring to.

The word is that the Greek PM was partly influenced by the incident in March where the Russians almost blew him up with a missile in Odesa. It landed 150 metres from where he and Zelensky were and killed five people.

Greece is going to transfer 32 decommissioned F-16's to Ukraine.

No shortage of face marks at the finish line.

For a Queenslander, this is as good as it gets - Origin 3 decider at Lang Park. It's a cold night; the lads will have to wear an extra pair of cockroach stomping socks.

Cheer up Marty, it's only four years and after that his only influence will be if the Republicans win in 2028. If he wins this November, Trumpism will dominate the Republican party for some time beyond his term.

I think you'll find them up a certain creek.

And just for balance (no pun intended), one from the Trump side.

There's some footage online of Trump arriving at the Milwaukee convention and he's certainly got the A Team now.

There's been a lot of critisism of the performance of the female members of the Secret Service team and general critisism of the new Secret Service DIA hiring policy which aims towards 30% women employed. In the video footage I saw they didn't do too well, and one lady in particular seemed very flustered. The problem with social media video footage is that video is often clipped to suit the agenda of the person posting it and context can be lost. It can show what looks like bad performance only, with any good performance cut out. To have a balanced opinion, you would have to see the footage in it's entirety.