After removing the water separator/fuel filter and emptying it into an appropriate transparent container, I was surprised to see no evidence of water or ethanol/water sludge. Uh oh. That left one other possibility: electrical.
Because I had removed one of the batteries in The Boat to lend it to my work compadre for his boat and since the problem didn't occur until after I did this, I thought it might have had something to do with it. I reinstalled the battery, fired up the engine, and let it run for a few minutes to get it to operating temperature. Then I opened the throttle to rev it to the same level it was when I had the problem. There were no misfires, no sputtering, and the engine ran smoothly. This wasn't proof positive the problem had been fixed as the engine wasn't under load. That had to wait until today so I could take it out onto the lake and try it...or so I thought. Other duties took precedence so the test cruise out onto Lake Winnipesaukee will have to wait until after work on Monday.
One advantage of waiting until Monday: BeezleBub won't be working. Today was his last 'full' day because school starts Wednesday and he goes to his Saturday-only work schedule at the farm.
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It was Old Home Day yesterday here in our little town. It's a celebration of everything that makes our town special to us. BeezleBub's boss Farmer Andy and his missus were the Grand Marshals for the celebration.There were all kinds of activities running the gamut of kids games, tours of a number of historical society museums and sites, horse-drawn wagon rides, a parade, and lots of vendor booths selling all kinds of goods and food. I admit to partaking of an ice cream sundae (sold by our local church for fund raising), two oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (made by our favorite breakfast eatery), and some double fried french fries (really crispy, just the way I like them).
Needless to say I didn't feel the need to eat dinner after eating all that stuff. At least I didn't overdo it otherwise I might have never been able to work on The Boat afterwards.
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The big gathering hosted by Glenn Beck at The Mall in Washington DC was not what the MSM had probably believed it was. The Washington Post tried to minimize the size of the gathering, claiming 'thousands' attended. The photo in the article was misleading, giving a very narrow view towards the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. An aerial view of the same event shows over 300 thousand people attending the event.Beck's gathering certainly didn't fit into the narrative Reverend Al Sharpton was selling, trying to paint it as some kind of twisted theft of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's legacy. That Dr. King's niece spoke at the conservative gathering has more to say about the Tea party than anything Sharpton could.
Should the Left be worried about the gathering steam of the Tea party? Absolutely.
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Now to something entirely different: The Wankel Engine.
I've been a big fan of the Wankel ever since the Mazda RX-2 came on the market. A former girlfriend had one entirely tricked out and it was an absolute screamer, pumping out a lot of horsepower out of only 1300 cc's of displacement. I co-drove a Mazda RX-3 Rally car for a couple of seasons and was always impressed with the performance. I saw more than my share of RX-7's out on the track during my road-racing days. A co-worker drove a latter day RX-7 for a couple of seasons and had nothing but praise for its performance. I've even seen a head-to-head comparison of two identical boats, one with a fuel-injected 4.3L Volvo Penta V6 power train and the other with a marine version of the modern Mazda 13B Wankel. The Wankel powered boat blew away the V6, with equal horsepower (~225HP) but at a fraction of the weight. (A two rotor 13B Wankel has only six moving parts. The V6 has approximately 166 moving parts.)
Here's a video showing the components of a Wankel and how it works.
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A number of diseases once thought to be on the verge of extinction are making a comeback.I believe some of them have returned because misinformed parents have decided immunization is far more dangerous than the diseases those immunizations are supposed to protect against. They're wrong and it's their kids who are paying the price for it.
Other maladies have also returned, including bedbugs. These pests could be dealt with easily if the EPA allowed the use of DDT to eradicate them. But because of Rachel Carlson, DDT – one of the most effective insecticides ever created – has been banned. Not that there weren't problems with DDT if used incorrectly, but use in situations like this are highly unlikely to cause any disruption of the ecology or create a Silent Spring.
(H/T Instapundit)
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It's one thing when climate scientists 'analyze' data. It's another thing when statisticians analyze the same data sets and come up with entirely different results. And so it goes with the Mann Hockey Stick which, after the statisticians used Mann's data, came up with an entirely different looking graph. (Scroll down below the updates to see the original post and links.)(H/T Maggie's Farm)
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Adding a little more fuel to the fire about the Ground Zero Mosque is this opinion video from one Brit who gets it.
I'd say Pat Condell has hit the main points about the Ground Zero Mosque and how it will be perceived, not just in America, but in the Muslim world. Those perceptions will be entirely opposite to each other, sending the wrong message which in the end will mean more trouble, pain, and death rather than less.
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As if we need even more evidence that high tax rates affect business decisions, an increasing number of high tech companies are abandoning California for low tax states.The latest to join the departing crowd: Adobe, eBay, and game maker EA are all pulling up stakes and heading to Utah.
The list of companies that have already left or have moved a majority of their operations out of California include Apple, Buck Knives, Ditech, Fluor Corp., Lennox, Pixel Magic, Denny's, DuPont, Fidelity National Financial, JC Penney, Intel, Intuit, Hilton Hotels Corp., Nissan North America, Northrop Grumman, Schott Solar, Starkist, Teledesic, Toyota, Yahoo, and USAA Insurance, just to name a few.
And with those moves go a lot of jobs and the taxes that would otherwise go to California. And people wonder why some business in the US have shifted their operations overseas when the taxes and regulations being dumped on them in greater numbers makes it less attractive to do business here.
As has been said over the years “As goes California, so goes the nation.” Let's hope not.
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Cassy Fiano links and comments about Muslim bullying at Disneyland, where Disney officials have made every effort to accommodate the needs of a female Muslim employee who insists she be allowed to wear her hijab while in costume. Every attempt to reach a compromise has been met with rejection.I have a feeling this woman and her friends at CAIR have bitten off more than they can chew. I hope Disney stands its ground and doesn't cave on this issue. After all, this employee knew the conditions of her employment before going in and now after two years of employment wants to change the rules after the fact.
(H/T Pirate's Cove)
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I have to agree with Michelle Malkin on this one: The Summer of Recovery is looking more like The Beltway Chainsaw Massacre.**********
Gateway Pundit gives us the Tale of Two Rallies: Clean Conservatives versus Filthy Liberals.It appears conservatives clean up after themselves while liberals believe someone else will pick up after them.
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A bit of not surprising news: Used car prices are up as much as 30%. Gee, could it be that Cash For Clunkers had something to do with that? Radley Balko certainly thinks so.What did Obama and Congress think would happen to the used car market in light of Cash For Clunkers? When they artificially reduced the supply of used cars (using taxpayer money) did they really believe there wouldn't be a rise in used car prices? I certainly thought it was a really bad idea.
So we have a government program whose stated aim was to shore up huge, failed corporations by giving public money to mostly upper-income people that in the end will penalize low and middle-income people. But remember folks, it’s the libertarians—who opposed C4C—who are greedy corporatists who hate the poor.
Call it yet another example of the Law of Unintended Consequences coming into play and biting Obama and Congressional Democrats in the a**.
(H/T Pun Salad)