Any mechanical engineers here?

I trying to create a small "special effect" device that requires a pulley. I'll see if I can describe this.

A "gun tackle" type has a fixed wheel (sheave) at the top and a movable wheel at the bottom, which rides on the line as it's pulled from below. The load hangs from this bottom wheel, and the system gives you a mechanical advantage. Now, for totally weird reasons, what I want to do is turn this whole arrangement upside down so I would be pulling down on the "fixed" wheel, and the "travelling" wheel would be secured at the top. IOW, I would be pulling the load down with the free end of the line instead of pulling it up with the travelling wheel.

Would this still give me a mechanical advantage?

Tesla down 16. Wow. nt

I am really afraid the national strategic stockpile

of popcorn is going to run out, given what we're seeing of the magats in Congress.

I don't wanna see any more posts about MELTDOWNS

unless they are literal meltdowns. It's getting very old.

Conspiracy (tinfoil hat) time re: this Santos guy.

We're finding out that most of what he's said is lies, and then we find out that he got money from the cousin of a Russian oligarch. On top of which, the repukes have been curiously silent about him. Except for Margie, who was all for him.

Kinda makes you wonder... is it time for a tinfoil hat? Or is he just a first-class dumbass?

OTOH, I would think that the Russians would be a bit more careful about their sleeper agents.

I had a d-uhh moment this morning re: the tax refund cards.

Sorry if this has been posted before...

Probably like a lot of us, I've wondered why the state of CA is sending out tax refund cards instead of depositing the money directly or sending check. Like, is the card cheaper once you consider what the bank may be charging?

Then it hit me: is the card (the bank) just keeping track of what we spend money on, so the bank can sell the info for marketing purposes?

Remedial help with a toaster oven please.

We have an Oster toaster oven from when we cleaned out a deceased friend's house a few years ago. It was brand-new, still in the box. Yesterday I decided to give it a try toasting some Thomas' Toaster Cakes, so I read the instructions such as they were.

They told me what buttons to push to toast something, but there was nothing on whether the thing turns itself off, like a microwave, after a given amount of time, or if you have to stop it manually. All I could do was check it now and then and stop it when I thought the things were done (and before burning down the house).

Can anyone here give me some remedial help?

These gol-danged modern contraptions, geez!

Saw a Santa cartoon the other day.

Santa is going over his list. A reindeer is standing behind him saying stuff like, "Oh, Santa, you're so good at making that list," "Santa, you're such a good sleigh driver," "I love being on your team." Stuff like that.

The caption at the bottom says "Randolph the brown-nosed reindeer."

Is NASA considering cancelling contracts with SpaceX?

Purely speculation, of course, but wondering if they might be thinking about cutting ties for visibility or other reasons.

BTW, the alliteration in the subject line was totally accidental.

Where's that individual who was hacking

into RWNJ sites some months ago?

I can think of fun things to do to tfg's latest scam.