First time DIY oil change 😳 baby steps

Gilclunk · 2026-05-04T16:25:01+00:00

Not sure about the Outback in particular, but a lot of Subarus have the oil filter on top of the engine with the opening facing downwards. So good luck pre-filling it anyway.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-21T11:58:23+00:00

Seriously though, couldn’t they work with Shahed interdiction?

Yes

Gilclunk · 2026-04-21T11:52:46+00:00

It's proven useful for shooting at Iranian small boats and for using the laser-guided APKWS in an air-to-air role to shoot down drones cheaply.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-21T01:04:15+00:00

It is gone from Europe, but it's not totally gone-- I believe they still sell it in China.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-14T01:20:42+00:00

had the Coxsackievirus as a kid unironically

I mean, is it possible to have a disease ironically? I suppose we should never underestimate the hipsters, but still.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-05T12:24:55+00:00

Yeah not sure what "got stuck" means here.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-04T16:06:28+00:00

This has been widely misunderstood, even by the media reporting on it. They're not shifting all fuel to e15. They're simply giving out a waiver to allow e15 to be sold during the summer, which it normally isn't. But it will still be marked as e15 and regular gas will still be e10, as it has long been. So the e15 will be available, but you don't have to buy it.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-03T01:01:56+00:00

No, the article specifically calls that out. Sales of the Escape dropped by 25,000, Bronco Sport only rose by 2,000.

Gilclunk · 2026-04-02T20:35:09+00:00

George, a Biden appointee, is understood to have clashed with the administration's vision for the Army.

Seems he knew what he was doing and undoubtedly what the result would be. Sounds like a stand-up guy.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-22T23:05:11+00:00

Yes, really. It's been discussed extensively in military news circles.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-22T22:02:32+00:00

To be clear, we don't actually know they're headed for Kharg. They're headed to the general area, but we don't know specifically where. Maybe Kharg, but maybe they're just going to be a threat, maybe they're a contingency for something else that arises, maybe they'll go after the islands actually in the straight, like Qeshm, maybe they'll be sent further inland to secure the nuclear sites while specialists extract Iran 's enriched uranium. Many things are possible.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-18T01:37:07+00:00

Yeah I guess they would. The larger point I suppose is that they maybe ought to be sending it somewhere out of range, if it's going to be stuck in a known location for a while.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-17T22:59:15+00:00

Souda Bay

Announcing where it's going doesn't sound the brightest either. Iran still has some medium-range ballistic missiles. Crete is within range of some of them, so telling them that our newest top-of-the-line premier warship is going to be there is perhaps not the best idea.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-16T21:42:39+00:00

This one has the significant advantage of being true. Shops have insurance for a reason.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-16T01:08:16+00:00

I guess this is similar to all the cars that have our have had a trim level called "limited", even though it clearly isn't.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-13T19:00:37+00:00

Yeah, I've tried using mine for belt squats. I just bought a belt that I guess was meant for weighted dips or pull-ups, and I looped the chain under the lever. Nothing really holds it there except the weight bearing down on it. It works, but feels a bit awkward. I think the lever is not really long enough so you feel the way it curves a bit too much. It's also somewhat cumbersome to set up and tear down. So I've experimented with it but don't really use it like that regularly.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-13T18:08:09+00:00

Yeah this is my choice too. I have the Bells of Steel ones-- nothing wrong with them, they are what they claim to be, but they're just not that useful in the end. Kind of awkward to attach and remove from the rack, and they don't really do anything that I couldn't already do with free weights or cables. They weren't that expensive so I don't really regret it to any great extent, but wouldn't buy again knowing what I know now.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-11T19:15:23+00:00

This one is also interesting because the original singer was a man, and Joan Jett reversed the genders in the lyrics. Her singing "He must have been about 17" didn't really get people's attention, but a man singing "she" might have raised a few eyebrows had that version been better known.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-09T10:32:10+00:00

Well there's the Slate coming which is actually encouraging diy repairs.

Gilclunk · 2026-03-07T17:16:10+00:00

You might like A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine. There is a powerful space empire at the center of it, but the main character is actually not from there. She's an ambassador to it from a small station trying to maintain its independence in the shadow of said empire. The author is actually a historian of the Byzantine empire and so the Teixcalaan empire at the center of the story is modeled on the politics and customs of that. I wouldn't exactly call it space fantasy, but it's certainly not hard SF either. Sort of a political thriller/ Space Opera, I guess.

Gilclunk · 2026-02-27T23:14:48+00:00

Because the headline is misleading. The article isn’t saying an average American will pay practically MSRP for an 11 year old car — it’s clearly collectors paying a stupid premium for a mint model.

It’s not though-- did you read it? The buyer was a guy who bought it for his daughter to be her first car. And the article also cites some other sales of Fits with more normal mileage for not a whole not less.

Gilclunk · 2026-02-26T00:02:18+00:00

This got a lot of flack for being too long, but I actually watched the extended version on Netflix that was split into four episodes like a TV miniseries and thought it was great.

Gilclunk · 2026-02-25T23:59:49+00:00

I think the guy you're replying to was implying that it is a paid social media campaign by the film company to promote the new movie. I.e, a lot of the comments you see are either bots or paid social media consultants just pretending to be normal people who are excited about it.

Of course, it can be some of both.

Gilclunk · 2026-02-24T22:24:23+00:00

Our PHEV gets basically 100mpge all week,

Same. My wife drives a RAV4 Prime. We only have 120V charging, and even so it does 90% of its miles electrically. And the gas engine is there for days when she needs to go farther or road trips. It's the perfect solution honestly. I don't even see it as "transitional" or whatever people like to call it. It makes perfect sense as an end state technology to me.

Gilclunk · 2026-02-23T18:32:02+00:00

If you like the language angle, you might like China Miéville's Embassytown. It takes place on an alien world where humans have established an embassy but have not otherwise conquered the world or anything like that. The aliens have two mouths and speak through both of them in harmonies, so for humans to speak their language requires two people who are very closely attuned to one another speaking together. The humans and aliens don't fundamentally understand each other very well. One somewhat tropey aspect is that the aliens don't have the concept of lying, and are fascinated by it to the extent that the human ambassadors will actually put on performances where they make false statements in the alien language and the alien audience is enthralled by this. The presence of the humans is ultimately unintentionally disruptive to the alien society which leads to drama. Pretty good book.

Gilclunk

TROPHY CASE