p_eter_p

I have a buddy with a late 2000's F350. The head gaskets blew and the first step of the repairs was "Remove the body from the frame." Not something I'd like to try.

The short version is, I think one of the main things that separates, say, the U.S. from the E.U. is the ability to shift vast quantities of money around the country in the guise of federal programs. It's spectacularly inefficient, but it also helps to set a floor on how bad any one area can get. If that's good or bad largely depends on your personal politics.

A persistent failing in the U.S. system is the ability of congress to micromanage the minutiae of larger programs, all for pork barrel spending. Things like the gasket problems on the Shuttle SRBs, and NASA in general being spread all over the country are all related to every single Congressperson trying to get a little something to take home. In a perfect world, they would have to authorize money at an agency level and with no finer granularity. Of course, if that were the case no money would ever be allocated at all...

The article actually says it's not ready for use, has no instruments and has not been tested under vacuum. It's a big steel shell.

It seems odd that the source for the completed bots is not available. I would think many of the solutions would be substantially similar. Is there any plan to open source these?

A similar approach works in hot climates. A friend of mine saved a substantial amount of money by getting an efficient portable AC unit for his bedroom, and shutting off the main air conditioner for the house at night. In a southern summer, the savings add up quick.

One of the things I have been kicking around is a charity hub.

It seems like the tools for discovering and rating charities are well developed, but the tools for allowing them to collaborate and provide help are non existent. This causes a lot of duplication of effort. Someone who needs help should be able to fill out a survey detailing their needs, and then their profile would be available to any charity.

This would allow a more holistic approach to giving; A single parent who gets tuition assistance might also benefit from free babysitting or help with meals, which are probably provided by two different groups. Social workers would be able to assemble a variety of different forms of help for each recipient, and the program could automatically suggest donor/recipient matches.

re: Diesel emissions fuel. He may be referring to Diesel exhaust fluid, basically liquid urea that is injected after combustion to cute down on emissions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust_fluid

It could have been done with plywood, but then he would have had to learn veneer edge banding to hide the end grain. Both approaches work fine.

The Woodwright's Shop is one of my favorite shows for learning techniques like this. He uses all hand tools, so you get a better understanding of the theory without getting too wrapped up in what tool to use. This project has a lot of breadboard ends: http://video.pbs.org/video/2365004559/