I Will Not Berth in Boston

--Vic

--Vic

There was another reference to popcorn in a different link Reggie included, but I can find it now. It said the exhaust *didn't* smell like popcorn. There was a comedian named Dave who appeared on the Joey Bishop show years ago as a used car salesman. Detailed his tricks, one of which was pouring used Crisco into the crankcase to suppress main bearing thumping. After about 5 minutes laying out his deceptions, Bishop asked, "So, Dave, what precautions do you recommend the used car buyer take when making a purchase?". Dave replied, "Well, probably the easiest thing to do is start it and run it untils it's warmed up a bit. Pull the dipstick and give it a sniff. If it smell like fried chicken, just walk on by."

--Vic

How to change a discussion of boat capabilities to a political flame fest. -- ***** Have a super day! *****

John H

Our Homeland Security/Customs/USCG boats are all very heavily armed. They'll know how to deal with you if you're a problem.

USCG at Ft Myers Beach has a "stealth" boat with entire hull and super structure painted in flat black, with 3 or 4 big outboards on the back painted to match.

Sounds *very* uncomfortable heatwise, and not too stealthy. Would probably hide it better if painted to look like a swarm of mullet toward the waterline, blending a pelican or jumping porpoise motif above that, then a transition to a cloud motif on the superstructure. Once when discussing a torpedo hit drill with a navy buddy of mine he came up with what I thought a brilliant idea for camouflage. We were on a can, in the boilerroom 15 or so feet below the waterline. The drill for preparing for an incoming torpedo was to firmly grip any part of the ship structure ensuring the knees were deeply flexed. The body was to be bent as much as possible with the head dropped between the legs. After attaining that position, you could kiss your ass goodbye. Never did it, because nobody ever sent a torpedo at us, but it sounds practical. But friend didn't care for this and thought preventing the torpedo attack was a better approach. Since we were then in the North Atlantic he came up with an appropriate disguise for that area. The ship would be painted white, and jagged plywood outcroppings would be attached to the ship. This would make the ship appear to be a common ice floe. Anybody abovedecks would have to substitute penguin costumes for their normal dungarees. All movement would be done in a waddle. When he demonstrated the waddle, after you stopped laughing you almost believed it could work.

--Vic

--Vic

Also, they are been some much publicized converted diesels that run on bio-diesel that have made long ocean trips to encourage the use of bio-diesel fuel. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14227765/ http://www.earthrace.net/ http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/07/operation_soy_b.php http://www.mirabilis.ca/archives/000580.html http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/135472_biodiesel18.html

I was reading a really interesting article recently about "green" fuels like ethanol blends and bio-diesel. Apparently what is happening is that the various grain like corn are driving the costs for food up so that things like food subsidies to third world countries, emergency aid and even feed grain prices will drive the cost of food through the roof which could lead to over production, over harvesting, etc.

One case the article cited was the tortilla in Mexico. Even though the corn used in the tortilla is white (as opposed to yellow), it is a commodity and it's base price has been affected such that the tortilla has become more expensive to make and purchase. The tortilla is the major protein source for Mexican poor and instead of buying/making three or four per day they are down to one and often times not even one substituting other, more starchy and less healthy food.

Kinda puts the whole "bio fuel" debate into a new and much more interesting light.