The world is upside down!

[ex-khobar Andy]

Piers Morgan is talking sense! And oil is now negative! I'm letting my tank go to almost zero - I want that little yellow light to be glowing fiercely - to maximize my check when next I fill up. If I can get it down to vapor only I reckon they will owe me about $24.

Piers Morgan will be familiar to my American fans because he took over from Larry King as CNN's evening interviewer chappie. Actually he won't be familiar to them as he was canned after three years of poor ratings. He has an infamous position on Britain as a 'journalist' as he is prone to being in a bargepole relationship with the truth. In fact his first and longest social distancing experiment was with that concept. He edited the Daily Mirror and was found to be guilty of (but not punished for) buying shares his financial people were touting in the next day's edition. The Mirror also published obviously faked photographs of British soldiers 'abusing' Iraqi prisoners in the wake of the Abu Graib stories. He shares a habit with his BFF Trump of uttering lies which can be very easily disproved: for example, he claimed never to have met Jimmy Savile, the disk jockey knighted for services to charity who was later found to have been a serial pederast, rapist and all around world-class creep. However, anyone with a intertubes account could find the account of some event in which he wrote: " Jimmy Savile came up to me. ‘Your TV shows are BRILLIANT!’ he exclaimed. ‘And as I’ve been in the telly business for 50 years, you can take that as an informed view.’ I’ve always loved Jimmy Savile.”

So Piers Morgan has long been anathema to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Hence the surprise at seeing him on CNN. Amongst other things, he said: "He's turning these briefings into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan, almost like a rally to him -- almost like what's more important is winning the election in November".

I suppose I understand now why the nuns always seem to appreciate the reformed sinner more than those of us who have tried to keep a cleanish sheet.

[Darren]

I suspect you know if you have fuel injection and let the fuel level drop too low, you'll get to buy a new fuel pump. At least the mechanic won't have to wrestle with a tank full of gas when he removes it.

I was not surprised when Morgan's interview with Trayvon's girl friend went south when she revealed he attacked Zimmerman. Other than that I fondly remember Jeremy somebody cold cocking Morgan.

[BoSoxGal]

I have run my gas tank down to the alert light (which according to Toyota leaves me with a gallon or so remaining, and I often run on the alert light 15-20 miles) on a regular basis for years - never an issue with my fuel injection system. I put in fuel additive every few fillups, use mid-grade fuel, and steer clear of older gas stations (too much potential for extra water in the fuel).

[Darren]

I have run my gas tank down to the alert light (which according to Toyota leaves me with a gallon or so remaining, and I often run on the alert light 15-20 miles) on a regular basis for years - never an issue with my fuel injection system. I put in fuel additive every few fillups, use mid-grade fuel, and steer clear of older gas stations (too much potential for extra water in the fuel).

You've know what works for you and your car.

[MajGenl.Meade]

[Joe Guy]

There are grater things to come!

[MajGenl.Meade]

But should it say "If 2020 were a slide"? Make Amurika grate again!

[Econoline]

[Lord Jim]

I was never very impressed with Piers Moron, but I have to say that his interview with Robert Blake was one of the most hilarious things I've ever seen on television...

[Bicycle Bill]

I have run my gas tank down to the alert light (which according to Toyota leaves me with a gallon or so remaining, and I often run on the alert light 15-20 miles) on a regular basis for years - never an issue with my fuel injection system. I put in fuel additive every few fillups, use mid-grade fuel, and steer clear of older gas stations (too much potential for extra water in the fuel).

Now this may be apocryphal, and it does sound a little far-fetched to me (I can just see the designers at one of their planning sessions — "Hey, what do you think about putting something that could overheat in a tankful of gasoline?"   "Brilliant!!"), but it is my understanding that in many cars the fuel pump is embedded in the fuel tank itself and is cooled to some degree by the liquid surrounding it.  Supposedly, running a car down to 'E' could allow the pump to overheat and fail, and since the repair involves dropping the tank, it tends to be an expensive fix.  As a general rule, I aim to never let my tank get below 1/4, and try to keep it at 1/2 or better during the winter months.

As the old pilot's saying goes, one of the three most useless things you can have is air in the fuel tank.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

Been driving the car the same way for 15 years now, no worries on that score. The first time I let the tank get that low was on the way across Kansas while relocating from Maine to Arizona; I had no idea what long stretches of highway there were there with no services of any kind, and I have to admit to having been panicked that I was going to end up on the side of the road out of gas in the night with just Toto for company (ok, her name was Jenny). We ended up running on ‘empty’ for what seemed like forever and finally filling up just outside Ft. Riley, then on to sleep that night in Salinas.

I’m not saying I’ve always every time run the tank to empty, but in recent years especially it happens quite often. I no longer sweat because I know I have close to 50 miles left on that last bit of gas (which based on my average mpg. means it’s 2+ gallons of gas) and I’m never terribly far from a gas station these parts so when the light comes on I say to myself, ‘self, you need gas’ and I go and get some gas and voila! all is well again.

Haven’t done a thing to the fuel injection system in this car in the 15 years I’ve owned it - KNOCK WOOD.

Not so sure about how a bunch of air would get into a sealed system anyway? Gas goes in, full up to the tippy top, cap has to click 3-4 times (if it doesn’t in a Toyota, it can set off the check engine light) and then until the cap comes off again - no air in there?

What do I know, I’m just tits and ass that needs mansplained to.

eta: I was raised on the whole ‘don’t let the gas tank run low’ approach and for the longest time never let it fall under 1/2 tank - but then a million and one things started to occupy the space in my brain that I had devoted to things like timely fillups and weekly oil/tire pressure checks and quarterly waxing - things like child rape and elder abuse and the general fuckedupness of the world and most of the humans on it, so now I don’t always notice.

Worth noting is the fact that the one time in my life that I let my car run out of gas - my old beloved VW Rabbit GTI, and I had to knock on a friendly Maine farmer’s door for a half gallon to get me to town - there was no harm done to my fuel injection system.

[Darren]

I’m just tits and ass that needs mansplained to.

Let me interrupt you with the song of my people.

[BoSoxGal]

I’m just tits and ass that needs mansplained to.

Let me interrupt you with the song of my people.

[Bicycle Bill]

What do I know, I’m just tits and ass that needs mansplained to.

I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME BITCH.

Maybe you should change your avatar to this:


(yeah, yeah, I know ....  "Fuck you, etc ... ")

-"BB"-

[Joe Guy]

[Gob]

Piers Morgan has done what the BBC has neither the courage nor the will to do. He's stopped toeing the extreme politically correct tightrope imposed on morning news broadcasters, and started asking tough questions of politician and commentators.

The BBC has become a meaningless pablum of soft news. It's got so bad that even the fucking Guardian of all papers, is actually praising Morgan.

ETA:

See also.

[ex-khobar Andy]

But should it say "If 2020 were a slide"? Make Amurika grate again!

Long live the subjunctive!

[ex-khobar Andy]

I was not surprised when Morgan's interview with Trayvon's girl friend went south when she revealed he attacked Zimmerman. Other than that I fondly remember Jeremy somebody cold cocking Morgan.

I know we got side tracked into fuel injection arcana but I can't let this comment from Darren pass.

Trayvon Martin's GF (if that's what she was) never 'revealed' that Martin attacked Zimmerman in her interview with Piers Morgan. It's possible that at most Martin confronted the creep Zimmerman who was following him around for no apparent reason.

People who drink and drive don't set out to kill people. But if someone ends up dead, we rightly blame the drunken idiot. I don't believe that Zimmerman went out that night planning to kill anyone. But because of the choices he made, Trayvon Martin died. That's all I need to know to remove the danger to society that Zimmerman is, from that society.

[Gob]

Piers offers his thoughts...

SHUT THE F**K UP, PRESIDENT TRUMP.

Seriously.

Throughout this coronavirus crisis, the leader of the free world has turned the daily White House task force briefing into a rambling two-hour self-promoting rally.

He's devoted large chunks of them to trashing the media, attacking political opponents, telling us how great he is, and re-writing history as he tries to defend all the mistakes he's made since the virus first erupted.


And he's done all this while 50,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, the worst death toll in the world, and nearly a million cases have now been reported across the country.

But by far the most reckless and dangerous thing President Trump has done is use the most powerful podium on earth to air his batsh*t crazy theories about how to beat the virus.

And last night he stooped to a shameful new low by suggesting people suffering from COVID-19 should be injected with toxic disinfectant.

Yes, you read that right.

It's hard to imagine a more stupid thing for a President to say than publicly float a completely unsubstantiated 'idea' like that which will inevitably make some Americans believe having bleach inside them will cure the virus.

Yet that's exactly what he did.

Trump made his absurd claim after William Bryan, the Department of Homeland Security under secretary for science and technology, gave a presentation about new research which supposedly shows 'emerging results' that coronavirus degrades faster in warm conditions and dies quickest when exposed to direct sunlight.

He didn't explain why if this is the case, the virus has wreaked havoc in warm weather parts of the US like Florida and New Orleans.

Bryan added that his research also indicated bleach can kill the virus in five minutes, and a concentrated isopropyl alcohol solution can kill it in 30 seconds.

The President loved what he was hearing and decided to proffer his own ideas after Bryan had finished.

His first was that irradiating patients' bodies with UV light might work too.

'Supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it's ultraviolet or just very powerful light,' he said, turning to Dr Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response co-ordinator, whose blinking face remained wearily, impassive as he added: 'and I think you said that hasn't been checked but you're going to test it? And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do through either the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you're going to test that too? Sounds interesting.'

He asked Dr Birx if she had ever heard of the 'heat and light' treatment to treat the virus.

'Not as a treatment,' she replied.

'I think it's a great thing to look at,' he countered.

But this, it transpired, was just the warm-up – literally - for his BIG idea.

'And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks out in a minute,' Trump mused.

'One minute. And there is a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So, it will be interesting to check that.'

At this point Trump stated the only fact he uttered during this medical diatribe of nonsense: 'I'm not a doctor.'

No, Mr President, you're not – so why do you keep pretending to be one?

He gave his own answer to that question: 'I'm like a person that has a good you-know-what.'

No, I don't know what, actually.

I just see a president pretending to be a medical expert and spewing theories that might have disastrous consequences.

[MGMcAnick]

I have run my gas tank down to the alert light (which according to Toyota leaves me with a gallon or so remaining, and I often run on the alert light 15-20 miles) on a regular basis for years - never an issue with my fuel injection system. I put in fuel additive every few fillups, use mid-grade fuel, and steer clear of older gas stations (too much potential for extra water in the fuel).

Allow me to mansplain.

If your car has fuel injection, it almost surely has a fuel pump in its tank. Some fuel injected Mercedes I've owned had two pumps directly outside of their tanks, but those were older ones, from the late '80s to early 90s. They don't do it that way anymore. Modern fuel pumps put out 30 to 50 PSI in order to be able to squirt fuel through the injectors. Think of the injectors as the nozzle of an aerosol can. They atomize the fuel, be it gas or diesel. I don't know of any manufacturer who makes a carbureted engine anymore. The last one I can think of was a 1987 Yugo. Yes the fuel pump is lubricated and cooled by the fuel to some extent, but it's not going to fail the instant you run out of fuel. You run out, the car dies, you quit pumping gas.

If you're on a KS interstate, and cell phones have been invented already, then you call #47 (#HP) and a Highway Patrolman brings you a free gallon of gas. (I use it to report stranded motorists, or terrible infractions like an entire car club weaving through traffic 20 MPH over the 60 MPH flow. Seriously it was scary)

Gas today has all the additives you need. Buy good gas and save your additive money for masks and gloves. There is absolutely no need to use anything but 87 octane gas if that's what your car's engine is designed for. If there's no sticker on the fuel door, the correct octane is shown in the owner's manual. Many are viewable on line. It's a machine. It doesn't perform better if you treat it to higher priced gas.

Yes there is air in your gas tank. As the fuel is sucked out, air has to be introduced, or the tank would collapse. Actually it would quit pumping waaaay before the tank collapsed. Even at 30 to 50 PSI, there isn't enough oomph to collapse the tank.