Arkell v. Pressdram

A some what famous British Defamation legal case

Arkell v. Pressdram

RWNJ Revisionist History 101 = The Nazi Were Socialist

The Nazi were SOCIALISTS!!!! After all the name of their political Party was the National Socialist Party (or there abouts) blah blah blah,...

This is the one of the favorite mindless talking point I hear from RWNJs who have never crack a history book in their lives. I really detest people who knowing or through ignorance play revisionist history. So it is time to review some of the really history of the Nazi Party of the 1930.
The Nazi were not Socialists, if they were Socialists, they were the were the worst failure at being Socialist in record history,... ever. Let examine WHAT THEY DID and NOT WHAT THEY CALLED THEIR PARTY

1. The Nazi took away the Germany peoples right to strike and it was illegal, punishable by some very serious prison time or worse. Kind of the freaking opposite of what socialist would do. 
2. The Nazi arrest and imprisoned all Trade Union leaders in either Forced labor camps or they sent them to concentration camps. Kind of the freaking opposite of what socialist would do. 
3. The Nazi privatized the four major commercial banks in Germany that had all come under public ownership during the prior years. Kind of the freaking opposite of what socialist would do. 
4. The Nazi also privatized were the Deutsche Reichsbahn (German Railways) which were under public control prior to their taking power. Kind of the freaking opposite of what socialist would do. 
5. Major steel and manufacturing industries that owned or partially owned by the Government prior to the Nazi were sold off to the private sector. Examples of this were
   - Vereinigte Stahlwerke A.G. (United Steelworks)
   - A.G. Farben Industrie A.G
   - Vereinigte Oberschlesische Hüttenwerke AG
   - The Upper Silesian coal and steel industry
   - Several shipbuilding companies sold off to the private sector
   - The Nazi also upgrade private utilities at the expense of municipally (aka publicly owned, not private) owned utilities companies
   Kind of the freaking opposite of what socialist would do.
6.  Oh and if you were member of one of Germany's communist parties (I think there were several, but need to verify) or suspect of having ties to the communist or accused of supporting or being sympathetic to the Communist cause,... well lets just say you got off easy if they just shot you in head with a bullet, because what they did to communists was equally horrific as what they did to Jews, and they did it first to the Communists before the perfected they mass industrial murdering techniques.
   

So given all of this, this must some new form or new definition of Socialism that I have never freaking heard of. No sorry people, the Nazi were in fact a Right of Center Fascist Oligarchy and to think of them they as Socialist is the finest example revisionist history. 

Feel free to share this info the next time some moron makes this claim.  If need be I will add proper verifiable link to reputable historical sources.  Most of this information came from Holocaust Historical Societies that are professional run and operated by accredited historians. In fact I will will add the links, but later, I will post updates as I fill in all the reference points.

PS, all of these fact are EXTREMELY easy to verify yourselves via reputable history sources or books.PSS, Happy New Year and may you experience less of the Burning Stupid in 2016

A Belated Merry Yuletide and Happy New Year Post

It has been nothing but work work, sleep, work, work, sleep, work work work
YEAH CHRISTMAS BREAK,... sleep sleep sleep sleep,...

That is what it has felt like for the last few weeks, and thus my absence from blogging.  Do not fear, the Grumpy Hobbit will return in the New Year, the Tiny Home Project is still continue, although the dog ate one of my design, or more correctly, I stupidly over wrote one of the design sections with a computer save and could not recover it, sigh,...

New solutions have been found that save literally a thousand dollars, new ideas have been formed and Engineering solution figured out based on them.  Things are looking Shiny.

So stay tune.  In the mean time, hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Yuletide and here is wishing you all a Happier New Year.

Grumpily,
A Grumpy Hobbit

URMURGURD - He's Back Blogging TOO!!! Mark Francis (aka Section 15)

My oldest and bestest of friends (deal with it Mark) is back Blogging, you need to check out his blog, he just started it and needs readers.  So head on over to

Korptopia

My New Years Resolution #1 - The Grumpy Jar

The Grumpy Jar

A facebook acquaintance of mine Bonnie Zink and I came up with an excellent New Years Resolution.  We will both try to promote the good things in world, Canada, our lives and try to be less Grumpy.  Now being A Grumpy Old Hobbit is one of my Secret Super Powers, but with great power comes great responsibility.  So whenever I go off on a Epic Old Man Rant, or get Grumpy and smack around Da Terminally Stoopid and write a Facebook post, or comment in a article sections or blog post about it, I will throw a quarter into the Grumpy Jar.  At the end of the year, I will donate the money to help Syrian Refugees who have come to Canada or some other worth while cause that needs aiding.  So if you see me being Grumpy, point it out and make sure I am throwing my quarters in the jar, its for a good cause.

I need a little advice - MIG Welding

In my tiny home project I am coming up against designs that need special fitting and design.  Buying off the self is very expensive and doesn't always fit my design perfectly, so I have to modify my design to fit the prefab crap you can buy.  Solution, make the stuff myself.  Problem, need to weld.

So I need to learn how to MIG and TIG Weld.  Anyone out there recommend good but short course in the Simcoe area or a good DIY Course?  Also recommendation on good equipment?  I know many of the cheap MIG Welders you can get from Canadian Tire and the like are crap, not penetration depth.  So equipment recommendation are more than welcome too.

Thanks,
A Grumpy Hobbit.

Going Green - The Tiny House Project - Trailer Design CRITICAL IMPORTANCE (Part One)

My current job, it is not mentally demanding and it allows me time to think through problems and find different solutions.  This often means that a design I figured out the day before goes in the filing cabinet and a new modified design or a entire new design is born to solve the same problem.

SEGWAY, case in point, just got off my shift, but during my shift I mentally calculated my Minimum Critical Build Height requirement.  This excludes trailer bed height, and thickness of the floors and ceiling.  My critical required minimum build height is 10' 5", and can squeeze to 10' 2.5" but I will be making energy efficiency trade offs that I would prefer to avoid

The Problem - A Tiny Home on wheels requires a trailer, the size, dimensions and load characteristics of the trailer greatly effect the end design of the Tiny Home.  The end result is the Tiny Home is often designed to fit the trailer and not the trailer designed to fit the Tiny Home.  To get the MAXIMUM design space we need to design the trailer to FIT OUR NEEDS and not fitting our Tiny Home design to the trailer specification.

PROs - It maybe cheaper to construct the trailer than to buy a custom trailer or even a stock trailer.  The trailer construction will be designed to fit the needs of Tiny House Design.  The trailer will be design so it can be reusable.  By reusable, I mean it will be a simple process to jack the Tiny Home up and drop the trailer and then the Tiny Home could be lowered and leveled on to blocks.  So in theory you could design a Tiny Shed and attach to the trailer and move it, then attach a Tiny Green House and move it and the then attach your Tiny Home and move it.  One Trailer serving all you Tiny Homestead moving needs.

Since I actually plan on doing a storage shed and Tool Shop/Work Shop shed and I also want to do a Tiny Greenhouse and external vegetable garden boxes it makes sense to design one trailer to move all these objects.  So if I move from one plot of land to another I will only need one trail.  Moving day will require multiple trailer trips, but then again, most moving days do anyways.

It may also prove to be a major cost savings if we do this our selves.

CONs - We will have to go through the hassle of registering the trailer with the MTO and make sure it complies with ALL HTA codes.  We will also need to source and purchase all the parts and we will need to design and build the frame and all the mechanics for raising and lowering the Tiny Home and designing the connection and securing points.

MAXIMUM Tiny Dimensions

Since the Tiny Home we are design is meant to moved on the road without special permits, we have to comply with the HTA,  I am designing for Ontario, but the HTA none-special load restriction are uniform with all regions in Canada, and I believe the USA as well.

Load Restriction  Ontario HTA Section 109

There are weight, length, width and height restrictions that are all addressed under the HTA, the ones that are critical us are WIDTH and HEIGHT.  Weight is also important, but as long as your Tiny Home is within the weight restrictions of the trailer frame and axle limits we are fine in that department, I seriously doubt anyone's Tiny Home will exceed 65000 Kg (a special HTA weight limit)

1. Maximum Length - 23 meters or 75.4 feet (includes towing vehicle 19 feet)
2. Maximum Width - 2.6 meters or 8.5 feet
3. Maximum Height - 4.15 meters or  13 feet 7.25 inches

The Length Limit here is the combined length of the trailer, the trailer's tail overhang load and the length of the towing vehicle and the length of the trailer tongue and the length of the towing connection points.  A Ford F-250, F-350 and F-450 all have the same vehicle length 19 feet.  So we really don't need to worry about the length limit here

The Width Limit is not something to screw around with.  The width limit includes wheel axle assemble, the load on the trailer, the trailer frame, the trailer wheel fenders.  If you exceed this 8.5 foot limit you may be in for a world of inconvenience.  Getting special permits in Ontario is easy enough, providing you don't exceed other special over size limits, but if you want to go to another Province or to the USA, you will need special permits in each State or Province.

The Height Limit is another one not to screw around with.  If you get caught with an over height load the police can remove the plates and tags of the trailer right on the spot.

For the Tiny Home Design, it is the width and height that are critical design limitations, every inch is worth its a mile and the lose of a single inch in width can make or break a kitchen design.  Trust me on that one, going from walls with 2 by 4 studs to walls with 2 by 6 studs will cost you 4 inches in internal width, that lose of four inches was enough to completely trash my initial kitchen design. The difference in R value for a my 2x4 walls design is R=23.5 the 2 by 6 wall has a R=33.5.  So there are trade offs to be consider, loose 4 inches but get a 40% improvement in wall's ability to resist heat transfer.  The recommend R-Value for Southern Ontario is 28, so it is worth considering.  While Tiny Homes are NOT subject to building codes if they are on a trailer, you still may want to consider getting as close to or exceeding the building codes them if you can.

As for Height, it is best to limit your design to 13' 6" and this from the ground to the tippy top of Tiny Home WHILE it is on the trailer.  The critical trailer design characteristic here is your trailer bed height.  The lower slung the trailer the better.  Many off the shelf trailer designs have beds that start at 20 inches and go as height 30 inches.  That is a lot of lost height and can make or break you bedroom and storage loft areas.  So anything we can do reclaim from the trailer bed height is living space we can add to our Tiny Home. 

• A trailer bed with a 30" high bed is an 18.5% lose in living space
• A trailer bed with a 20" high bed is a 12.4% lose in living
• A trailer bed with a 12" high bed is a 7.5% lose in living 

The lowest deck height I could find in a trailer were those that are used to transport cars, from my limited search the lowest was 18"  I think this will be very best we can do in the design, but further research is required, but I think with specialty design for tiny homes I can get it down to 16", that and possible cost saving, the trailer designed to fit our needs and some other added design benefits, I believe it worth while to invest further research time into this area.

On a related note, just got the final design for the Kitchen and Bathroom completed.  I don't want to boast, but it is pretty awesome and fully functional.  Counter top space galore and plenty of room to move around in,... for one person.  Only one Chef allow in my Kitchen at a time,... and it be me!!!

Related Articles

1) December 3rd, 2015 -  The Tiny Home Project
2) December 5th, 2015 - The Tiny Home Project - The General Plan
3) December 7th, 2015 - The Tiny Home Project - Minimum Requires For Going Off Grid