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Do not click on this link if you are easily nauseated, as front-and-center is an image of someone who was arrested for protesting the Ahmadinejad coronation. This is how the mullahs treat those who disagree with them.
The guy was severely beaten and raped several times. (Wait, what does Sha'ria prescribe as punishment for sodomy?)
(Via.)
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Og discusses automotive technology.
Yes, points-type ignitions are EMP proof. Yes, they suck. They suck a lot, and they suck hard.
My 1974 VW 412 had points for both the ignition and fuel injection system. It had a Bosch analog fuel injection system; one peculiarity was that when it was cold outside it would not start without a boost. It never failed to start when it was warm, particulary after I re-plumbed all the vacuum tubing so that it was correct.
Before I owned the car, some moron got his hands on the engine and made a hash of it. In the tangle of spaghetti was this one hose that had something to do with the air/fuel mix; if it was disconnected the car had great power and lousy fuel economy. If it was connected, the car had great fuel economy but lousy power. After I spent two hours with a Haynes manual sorting out the plumbing, suddenly the car had great fuel economy and great power. (27 MPG, city or country.)
The distributor had two sets of points, and as I said one was for the fuel injection system. I never touched that one; I did clean the ignition points and set the gap for those. It took three trips (I think it was three) to Trak Auto to get the right distributor cap and rotor for the thing, too.
It was the first fuel-injected car I owned, so when one of the injectors sprung a leak I thought I was screwed. You see, it was a VW Type IV, and the Type IV shares many parts with the Porsche 914...so parts cost an arm and a leg. (And part of the torso, too, I think.) One fuel injector cost like $90, which was beyond my budget. The leaking part was a 1.5" piece of rubber hose, clamped onto the fuel injector with a brass collar; the rest of the thing was fine.
Fortunately, I learned that the fuel rail ran at about 30 PSI, which was well within the range that fuel hose can handle, so I cut the leaking fuel line off the thing and clamped a new piece on. No leak, ran perfectly. Cost to repair: $4.
That car was doomed by two things: the rather large hole in the driver's side floor, and a blown exhaust manifold. I could have fixed the latter--the muffler mounting flange merely needed to be welded back on, and it was all mild steel--but the bolts holding the muffler to the exhaust manifolds were integral to the muffler, and they broke when I took the muffler off. (Of course.) And what did a muffler cost?
$200. Because it was similar to mufflers for the Porsche 914. *sigh*
The hole in the floor made it economically infeasable for such extravagant repair bills. The sill had rusted through at the base of the A pillar, so the driver's side floor was supported only at the rear and side. (It was pretty fricking dangerous, now that I think of it.) It could have been repaired, but I really didn't know anything about repairing cars--not like I do now!--and I ended up scrapping the thing.
Oh well.