OPEC Just Collectively Shit Their Pants

It's the future baby and the Hydrocarbon Barons just got a whiff of it.

Breakthrough solar cell captures CO2 and sunlight, produces burnable fuel

Bill Burton

July 28, 2016  

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have engineered a potentially game-changing solar cell that cheaply and efficiently converts atmospheric carbon dioxide directly into usable hydrocarbon fuel, using only sunlight for energy.
The finding is reported in the July 29 issue of Science and was funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy. A provisional patent application has been filed.
Unlike conventional solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity that must be stored in heavy batteries, the new device essentially does the work of plants, converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into fuel, solving two crucial problems at once. A solar farm of such “artificial leaves” could remove significant amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and produce energy-dense fuel efficiently.
“The new solar cell is not photovoltaic — it’s photosynthetic,” says Amin Salehi-Khojin, assistant professor of mechanical and industrial engineering at UIC and senior author on the study.
“Instead of producing energy in an unsustainable one-way route from fossil fuels to greenhouse gas, we can now reverse the process and recycle atmospheric carbon into fuel using sunlight,” he said.

Someone pass the smelling salts, Al Gore just fainted at the prospect of cheap, renewable fuel that uses a greenhouse gas as a source, thus reducing it.

Here is where OPEC lost control of it's bowels,

The ability to turn CO2 into fuel at a cost comparable to a gallon of gasoline would render fossil fuels obsolete. 

Like solar cells, the price will come down as production goes up.
It's still a ways off but the technology has been proven to work, now someone just needs to start mass producing them.

There is more at the link. 


Theoretically, you could mount some of these and a small solar electrical panel on an autonomous vehicle out in the middle of nowhere and forget about it while it performs whatever task it was designed for.

Self fueling and unlike just electricity, you can get real work done with burnable fuels.

Obama Signs Executive Order That Instantly Criminalizes Millions Of Amateur Gunsmiths.

This is just laughable on it's face. I got news for you Jack, I absolutely will not comply with this bullshit.

Arrogant fucking asshole thinks that he can just whip out his pen and automatically write new regulations that would not only make anyone who merely threads a bolt hole on a gun register with a government agency but make them fork over 2,500 dollars a year for the privilege of having to do so.

You can kiss my ass if you think I'm doing that for one fucking second.

Obama regime targets gunsmiths with new executive order

President Barack Obama just quietly released a new executive order that could subject casual gunsmiths to thousands of dollars in fees and other regulatory burdens if they so much as thread a barrel on a firearm.

The executive order gives new authority to the State Department’s Directorate of Defense trade Controls, which oversees International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and the underlying Arms Export Control Act (AECA).

From the State Department: “Any person who engages in the United States in the business of manufacturing or exporting or temporarily importing defense articles, or furnishing defense services, is required to register with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls … For the purpose of this subchapter, engaging in such a business requires only one occasion of manufacturing or exporting or temporarily importing a defense article or furnishing a defense service. A manufacturer who does not engage in exporting must nevertheless register.”

According to the presidential directive, firearm modifications that do not require “drilling, cutting, or machining” are not affected by the new rules.

But a commercial gunsmith who makes just one modification on the list of activities the government believes improves “the accuracy, caliber, or operation” of a firearm is subject to the new rules.

Examples of included gunsmithing activities include:

Use of any special tooling or equipment upgrading in order to improve the capability of assembled or repaired firearms;
Modifications to a firearm that change round capacity;
The production of firearm parts (including, but not limited to, barrels, stocks, cylinders, breech mechanisms, triggers, silencers, or suppressors);
The systemized production of ammunition, including the automated loading or reloading of ammunition;
The machining or cutting of firearms, e.g., threading of muzzles or muzzle brake installation requiring machining, that results in an enhanced capability;
Rechambering firearms through machining, cutting, or drilling;
Chambering, cutting, or threading barrel blanks; and
Blueprinting firearms by machining the barrel.
Any of those activities would require registration with the government and an annual $2,250 fee.

Let' me make this perfectly clear to you ignorant gun grabbing motherfuckers.

I Will Not Comply With This In Any Way, Shape Or Form.

PERIOD.

Do you get that?

I mean, do you really get it? Because I'm getting the impression that you aren't listening anymore. You are just sticking your fingers in your ears, yelling LA LA LA LA and doing whatever you damn well please like 5 year olds.

Another thing I can absolutely guarantee you that I will not be alone in this.
As a matter of fact, I would bet money that there are a couple million other Americans who are going to say EXACTLY the same thing, TOMORROW.

I own my guns you sonsabitches. I own my tools also.

OWN THEM AS IN MY FUCKING PROPERTY.

I am really, really having a hard time wrapping my head around what it is about these words that you can't seem to grasp even though they were written down over two hundred years ago and the meaning hasn't changed in that time;

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.






Since someone has obviously been handing Mr. Obama some seriously bad advice here, let me perhaps clue you and him in.


Technology and innovation are not static things.
There is always someone out there trying to make a better mouse trap as it were and firearm technology is no exception.


Since the Supreme Court ruled in Caetano v. Massachusetts (2016), that "the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding" and that its protection is not limited to "only those weapons useful in warfare".[15] , it would seem to be crystal clear to someone with even average intelligence that maintenance and repair of said firearms is an integral activity relating to the ownership and functionability of said firearms also.

That would indicate to me that gunsmithing is an integral part of gun ownership and should also be part and parcel of what is a Constitutionally protected activity.

Apparently Mr. Obama is under the impression that you can have your guns but can't repair them without government permission, because National Security. The same lame assed strategy they have tried to pull bullshit with before.

All this amounts to is a backhanded, impotent swipe at gun control.



If all of a sudden here in the near future we start hearing about ATF raids on gunsmiths who aren't complying with this over reach either then I have one name I want you all to remember and especially the story behind why that name is so significant.

Lexington.

Vacuum sealing dry goods in jars with a pressure canner

I saw this idea posted over at SurvivalBlog a couple of weeks ago and thought it was pretty brilliant.

Since then I have ordered and received a brand new vacuum pump, one of those Food Saver adapters for Mason Jars and an adapter for the vacuum pump fitting. The vacuum pump is the kind you can buy to fix the air conditioning in your car with and I got a smoking deal on it from Amazon because I applied for their damn credit card and got 50 bucks off my order for it.

I also have had a pressure canner sitting in a box that I bought brand new a few years ago that I have never used.
I was bit disappointed when I finally opened it up and discovered the gauge and little rocker gizmo were missing but I'll be getting those coming here pretty quick now that I know that they weren't there for whatever reason.
I am going to get a little ball valve, a bulkhead type fitting for the hose I need to get and will put the fitting in the hole where the gauge was supposed to go.
I'll also throw a "tee" fitting inline and mount a vacuum gauge on that.
When It's all together, it should be a pretty first class set up for doing this.
Then I need the jars of course but since canning season is here that should be easy.
After that, It's keep an eye out for dry goods that go on sale and have at it.

I found this video on Youtube that shows how it works and also that you can do it cheap too.



One thing I noticed in this video is that the guy mentions doing this to his wine so it doesn't go bad. I would strongly recommend that you do this with dry goods only.
The reason for the ball valve is that while researching this, I found a guy who said that if you don't apply the vacuum gradually on powdery things like flour is that it will suck it up into the hose.

Not good, you definitely don't want that kind of thing getting into your pump and gumming it all up.

If anyone has any experience with this please let me know your thoughts in the comments, it would be nice to hear if there is anything else I should be aware of.

Everyone Is Watching Everyone

I found it more than a bit interesting yesterday to read on a couple of the blogs that they had noticed a huge bump in their readership stats that they discovered came from...... Russia, of all places.

I have been so damn busy that I haven't been paying attention myself so I just went back through the limited amount of data recorded by my free StatCounter account and didn't see that here but it only captures the last 500 hits and then writes over them.

That's because I am a cheap bastard and don't want to pay to upgrade it though.

I did see the usual U.S. Government entities which I have pretty much gotten used to.
They used to kind of freak me out a long time ago, it can be a bit disconcerting to see the Justice Department, Us Department Of Defense Network along with every branch of the military, The Treasury Department, The Spooks from Langley, and of all places, The Office of the Sergeant at Arms for the United States Senate show up repeatedly but it is what it is and they can come here all they want if they haven't got anything better to do.
I hope I entertain you folks as well because I know you are reading this.

So anyways we have the US government watching us, The Russians, The Chinese and I always get a few hits here and there from the perverts over in the Middle East looking for shit I won't bother telling you about. Sick bastards.



While I am on the subject of international visitors, I would like to give a Shout Out to my readers from Across The Pond and the many I get from Down Under too.

Y'all come back now, y'hear? I just love that.


It warms the cockles of my black little heart to be able to point out that I have readers from all the way around the world.
My Dad was pretty proud of me for that too.


Everyone is watching everyone, some of it is surely politically driven and a type of espionage, I am convinced of that.
There isn't a reason in the world that some Ivan over in Moscow should be traipsing around my joint, same thing for Sum Ting Wong in Canton.
My own government snooping around here stinks of paranoia to High Heaven, to point out the obvious.

Although I must admit I have had some pretty rabid political rants in my day, there may just be a few .Gov fans who are enjoying a good skewering here and there. Who the fuck knows.

I am here to tell you though that they do read the Blogs, so do some of the major "news" providers. I was once linked to by the Wall Street Journal several years back on the blog I started out with clear back in '06.
It would surprise you just who may be reading whatever it is you might have to say.

I would wager that I have readers who have been coming here for years and have never left a comment.

You folks need to get over that shyness.
The government knows you come here anyway.

Gauging The Mood of the Country.

Some recent conversations I have had with people I interact with on a regular basis has opened my eyes a bit to just how many people I am around who seem to share pretty much the same opinions and outlook that I have on the situation we are all facing in this country and what people as individuals can do to prepare for what we all seem to see as the short trip we are all taking, in a hand basket, to someplace very hot that isn't Texas.

The interest in storing food, common interest in firearms and the decidedly right side of the spectrum political opinions pretty much caught me off guard at first but it seems to be more prevalent than I would have imagined.

I was quite surprised to hear one fellow had been canning food for years and actually had chickens when he only lived a couple of miles from where we were sitting.
I heard of another fellow we were all familiar with who also had chickens and other small livestock within a fifteen minute drive.

One has been interested in and around firearms his whole life and has just started expressing an interest in "prepping" for lack of a better word because I have never really liked that one.

Not wild eyed survivalist sentiments, more of a family man who doesn't like what he sees coming and wants to some sort of food storage for at least emergency contingencies.

This was just one conversation.

It is not the only one I have had recently and the common thread seems to be that people are thinking they need to do something because of a nagging feeling that all is not well and may just get worse real quick.

I'm pretty certain that none of these people I have been talking to spend near as much time as I do wallowing in the Doom and Gloom corner of the internet nor have the faintest idea what the Baltic Dry Index is or why it should matter to anyone in the first place.

These are just average working class Americans and they are worried.
Rightfully so I am afraid.

I am pretty sure that these are not isolated sentiments and that conversations like this are happening all over the country every day.

Just for my own information, I am interested in seeing if any of the sixteen people who read this blog every day are hearing conversations like this lately also.

Let 'er rip in the comments please.

They Are Letting John Hinckley Out , The Guy Who Tried To Kill A President.

You gotta be shitting me.

Judge grants John Hinckley Jr. his freedom decades after Reagan assassination attempt

The man who tried to kill President Ronald Reagan is set to go free, after a judge decided Wednesday to allow would-be assassin John Hinckley Jr. to live with his mother in Virginia full-time.

Hinckley is set to begin his "convalescent leave" on Aug. 5, according to U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman's order.

“I’m very glad this happened after Mrs. Reagan passed on,” said Reagan’s 1984 campaign manager Ed Rollins, referencing the death of Nancy Reagan in March. “It would have been a very disturbing thing for her.”


Friedman wrote that "all of the experts and treatment providers" who testified during the hearing agreed that Hinckley's issues -- major depression and psychotic disorder -- were "in full and sustained remission and have been for more than twenty years."

"Mr. Hinckley is clinically ready for full-time convalescent leave," Friedman wrote.

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute issued a statement disapproving of the judge's decision.
"Contrary to the judge's decision, we believe John Hinckley is still a threat to others and we strongly oppose his release," the statement said.
Hinckley, 61, attempted to kill Reagan outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel on March 30, 1981. He fired six shots, hitting four people, including Reagan, who was wounded when a bullet bounced off his presidential limo. Press Secretary James Brady was shot in the right side of his head, sustaining serious injuries. When he died in August 2014, Brady's death was ruled a homicide.

The same Brady shooting that all the gun control efforts were spawned by.

Stick this fucking guy back in prison and break the key off in the lock.

Sure The Stock Market Is Rigged But Investing The 3 Million You Won Off A Scratch Off Ticket In A Metamphetamine Ring Isn't Such A Smart Move Pal.

Some people kids, I swear.

$3M lottery winner invested money in crystal meth ring

A man who won $3 million on a scratch-off lottery game last year in Waycross, Georgia, invested all of his winnings in a crystal meth trafficking ring, federal prosecutors say.
Ronnie Music, Jr, 45, plead guilty to federal drug trafficking and firearm charges during a plea hearing last week. Evidence presented in the case suggested Music worked with a group to gain access to and distribute methamphetamine throughout Georgia.

The words fucking moron come to mind.

Buy This Man A Beer For Speaking Truth To Power

This genteleman is a little farther North of me but still in my neck of the woods.
I see he addressed this letter to the two female Congress critters that are in this area too.

I know damn good and well they didn't read it and that he got the old form letter reply from a staffer but this pretty much lays it all out there. Take a few minutes and read this.

This is really a great letter. I am most impressed by the fact the gentleman that wrote it signed his name and address to it.

This came from a Democrat much to my surprise! I read it and it certainly hits the nail where it would hurt. Google has the letter posted on their web site. This is well written ....... and should be read by everyone in these United States! It will be well worth the three minutes it requires to read this. It is quite impressive.

You can be Republican, Democrat, Liberal, Conservative, Independent or Libertarian and I'll bet this will hit a nerve. Our country is in real trouble. This gentleman is obviously quite a bit smarter than the two senators he sent it to. All I can say is amen to everything he said.


Senator Patty Murray
Senator Maria Cantwell
Washington, DC 20510
****************************

Dear Senators:

I have tried to live by the rules my entire life. My father was a Command Sergeant Major, U.S. Army, who died of combat related stresses shortly after his retirement. It was he who instilled in me those virtues he felt important - honesty, duty, patriotism and obeying the laws of God and of our various governments. I have served my country, paid my taxes, worked hard, volunteered and donated my fair share of money, time and artifacts.

Today, as I approach my 79th birthday, I am heart-broken when I look at my country and my government. I shall only point out a very few things abysmally wrong which you can multiply by a thousand fold. I have calculated that all the money I have paid in income taxes my entire life cannot even keep the Senate barbershop open for one year! Only Heaven and a few tight-lipped actuarial types know what the Senate dining room costs the taxpayers. So please, enjoy your haircuts and meals on us

Last year, the president spent an estimated $1.4 billion on himself and his family. The vice president spends $ millions on hotels. They have had 8 vacations so far this year! And our House of Representatives and Senate have become America's answer to the Saudi royal family. You have become the "perfumed princes and princesses" of our country.

In the middle of the night, you voted in the Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a. "Obamacare," a bill which no more than a handful of senators or representatives read more than several paragraphs, crammed it down our throats, and then promptly exempted yourselves from it substituting your own taxpayer-subsidized golden health care insurance.

You live exceedingly well, eat and drink as well as the "one percenters," consistently vote yourselves perks and pay raises while making 3.5 times the average U.S. individual income, and give up nothing while you (as well as the president and veep) ask us to sacrifice due to sequestration (for which, of course, you plan to blame the Republicans, anyway).

You understand very well the only two rules you need to know - (1) How to get elected, and (2) How to get re-elected. And you do this with the aid of an eagerly willing and partisan press, speeches permeated with a certain economy of truth, and by buying the votes of the greedy, the ill-informed and under-educated citizens (and non-citizens, too, many of whom do vote ) who are looking for a handout rather than a job. Your so-called "safety net" has become a hammock for the lazy. And, what is it now, about 49 or 50 million on food stamps - pretty much all Democrat voters - and the program is absolutely rife with fraud and absolutely no congressional oversight?

I would offer that you are not entirely to blame. What changed you is the seductive environment of power in which you have immersed yourselves. It is the nature of both houses of Congress which requires you to subordinate your virtue in order to get anything done until you have achieved a leadership role. To paraphrase President Reagan, it appears that the second oldest profession (politics), bears a remarkably strong resemblance to the oldest.

As the hirsute first Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton (1834 -1902), English historian and moralist, so aptly and accurately stated, "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." I'm only guessing that this applies to the female sex as well. Tell me, is there a more corrupt entity in this country than Congress?

While we middle class people continue to struggle, our government becomes less and less transparent, more and more bureaucratic, and ever so much more dictatorial, using Czars and Secretaries to tell us (just to mention a very few) what kind of light bulbs we must purchase, how much soda or hamburgers we can eat, what cars we can drive, gasoline to use, and what health care we must buy. Countless thousands of pages of regulations strangle our businesses costing the consumer more and more every day.

As I face my final year, or so, with cancer, my president and my government tell me "You'll just have to take a pill," while you, Senator, your colleagues, the president, and other exulted government officials and their families will get the best possible health care on our tax dollars until you are called home by your Creator while also enjoying a retirement beyond my wildest dreams, which of course, you voted for yourselves and we pay for.

The chances of you reading this letter are practically zero as your staff will not pass it on, but with a little luck, a form letter response might be generated by them with an auto signature applied, hoping we will believe that you, our senator or representative, has heard us and actually cares. This letter will, however, go on line where many others will have the chance to read one person's opinion, rightly or wrongly, about this government, its administration and its senators and representatives.

I only hope that occasionally you might quietly thank the taxpayer for all the generous entitlements which you have voted yourselves, for which, by law, we must pay, unless, of course, it just goes on the $19 trillion national debt for which your children and ours, and your grandchildren and ours, ad infinitum, must eventually try to pick up the tab.

My final thoughts are that it must take a person who has either lost his or her soul, or conscience, or both, to seek re-election and continue to destroy the country that I deeply love. You have put it so far in debt that we will never pay it off while your lot improves by the minute, because of your power.

For you, Senator, will never stand up to the rascals in your House who constantly deceive the American people. And that, my dear Senator, is how power has corrupted you and the entire Congress. The only answer to clean up this cesspool is term limits. This, of course, will kill the goose that lays your golden eggs. And woe be to him (or her) who would dare to bring it up.

Sincerely,

Bill Schoonover
3096 Angela Lane
Oak Harbor, WA

H/T to my buddy Steve for passing this along in my Email.

Compare The Facts To The Narrative

Hillary Whines That She Is Under More Scrutiny Than Other Candidates

I wonder why she would think that?




BWAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep a straight face while I was typing that.

Is she absolutely fucking oblivious to all the scandals that have dogged her for the last forty fucking years?

OK, Everybody Pitch In A Dollar

Because Daddy want!!




Hooooooooly sheep shit Batman, that is one bad little motherfucker.

Snip

The XM556 Microgun was designed at Empty Shell “one guy over the last two and a half years with no training, no college, just a GED” and it is what every American has dreamed of since he first saw Predator and watched the forest get melted by a minigun.

Snip

The XM556 is a new platform system that was designed from scratch by the ground up. The parts are not just a smaller imitation of the larger M134, but were designed on its own. An absolutely all new style of bolt was conceived and designed to eliminate current known issues with the M134. The bolts combined with many other improvements have been made to not only extend the life of the gun but reduce wear and reduce or eliminate stoppages.

H/T SurvivalBlog for the link.

And STAY Gone!

Little Billy Bad Ass squirrel don't want you here.

Gotta love whoever is running the camera, "let's turn back Poppa". Pussy.

Fuck that noise, I'da punted that little fucker into the next county.

On One hand, This Thing Is Pretty Cool And Well Built But.......

For the kind of money they want for it, why not just get a motorcycle?

$3200-$3800 for a motorized "Survival" bicycle?

I mean sure, you can pedal it if you have or want to but it looks heavy and the gear ratio to me looks like you would be pedaling your ass off to get anywhere.
Another thing I can't quite figure out is if there is any kind of clutch to disengage the pedals while you are motoring or are they flailing around like an egg beater from Hell all the time.

Still, it is pretty damn cool looking.

It also looks well built and sturdy.

I'm not seeing any kind of clutch mechanism here.



The rack is big enough to attach a pretty serious load to though..

And a 300 mile fuel range is pretty awesome on it's face but look where all that extra gasoline is sitting.
It's a rolling firebomb.

Wreck it hard enough and I'm pretty sure those saddle tanks will come right the hell off and leak gas all over the place. I don't know if there are isolation valves to shut the lines off.

But hey, if you have money and calories to burn it would be a neat little gizmo to have stashed in the garage.

For Zoomie

He will get this right away.

TSA Lead Agent Arrested For Taking Upskirt Video At SeaTac Airport.

He must have been taking a break from stealing peoples shit for a minute.

TSA agent suspended, arrested for upskirt video at Sea-Tac

SEA-TAC AIRPORT -- A Transportation Security Administration agent at Sea-Tac Airport has been arrested for taking upskirt video at the airport.

The 29-year-old man, described as a lead agent, was under surveillance on Tuesday after authorities got information that the agent was taking photos of female passengers' skirts.

The agent was on a break Tuesday morning and went down the escalators to the north train level, court documents say. A special agent with the TSA followed him.

The 29-year-old man walked to the baggage claim escalator and got behind a woman. The special agent saw the flashlight illumination on the man's phone, then saw the phone placed under the woman's skirt, according to court documents.

The agent saw the screen of the phone, which appeared to be videotaping under the woman's skirt, according to court documents.

He was arrested for voyeurism and booked into the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

His bail was set at $7,500.

In a statement the TSA said:

"TSA does not tolerate illegal, unethical or immoral conduct. When such conduct is alleged, TSA investigates it thoroughly. When appropriate, TSA requests that it be investigated by a law enforcement authority. When an investigation finds that misconduct has occurred, the appropriate action is taken."

The TSA has suspended the man without pay, and the case has been referred to the King County Prosecutor's Office.