Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Islands Flooded By Sea Rise

This is amazing stuff!!

Maldives map from 1844 ...Click to enlarge it.




Today:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Maldives&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.450489,66.533203&ie=UTF8&ll=3.096636,74.311523&spn=10.844296,16.633301&t=h&z=6


Looks about the same to me if you zoom in. I guess I would have to go there with a tape measure to be sure. I am sure erosion from all of the Cyclones in the Indian Ocean have nothing to do with the problem.

Bye Bye California


Some think when they fire this up, the budget won't be an issue anymore, California will be the latest crater...

If it works, we might be on the way to ending all wars and financial crisis across the world. Think about it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7972865.stm

In Space, No One Hears You Fart

And no one shares; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7973747.stm

Sounds like they are being a bunch of babies. If you ever read the book 2010 (a follow up to 2001 a Space Odyssey), this kind of shenanigans were predicted.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Shopping = OK, Period



So says the BPS, what a fantastic use of their time. Maybe they can corner that nagging problem of why men leave the toilet seat up next?

Maurice Jarre, RIP


http://www.mfiles.co.uk/composers/Maurice-Jarre.htm

I would be a stone cold liar if I didn't say; the music Maurice created stirred me. You know, little flicks like Lawrence Of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, nothing major.

His passing is not lost on me, it is the passing of one of the great ones.

The GM of GM Gets Sacked

This is the Govenor of Michigan on the topic. I like her, but these car company bailouts are just subsidising her state, and she knows it.

Tourist Complaints


These are worth the time to read, just a few minutes..

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Hand It Over!


The stupidest thief in Pennsylvania decides to rob a guy at a Police meeting. He didn't do too good...

http://www.whtm.com/news/stories/0309/607836.html

Well, Jerome certainly doesn't look stupid, he must have hit a bit of bad luck. That is sarcasm... And why the hell is there a cat picture on this Blog?

Coming Home


The Shuttle Discovery just got the go for de-orbit burn, which will slow it enough to start sinking into the atmosphere, slow down and land. It has to be more violent than takeoff. It only takes 31 minutes from entry interface till landing, pretty fast considering it's gliding. God's speed Discovery, I am watching...

Friday, March 27, 2009

Where's That Nuclear Material??


Ah, we lost a ball of deadly nuclear material and we heard it was melted down at a steel mill. The workers there are all going to die, right?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7967285.stm

If this isn't a setup for a giant bug movie, I have never heard one...

Russia Will Have The Arctic, Or They Will Kill You..


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7967973.stm

Well, part of it at least. So what "Military" can hang out on an ice sheet and be considered useful? A whole lot of chest beating if you ask me...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Decemberists

I piced up their new CD, The Hazards Of Love, which is fantastic. I am more than a little pissed that the text/lyrics included in the CD are in a font that is unreadable. I am just trying to figure out who the two new girls are??

These are not videos, just the songs... Their web site sucks, so I won't post a link to that.



Denise Milani Is Perfect


http://www.hollywoodtuna.com/?p=8905

Well OK, near perfect. I don't think her thangs are fake either, which is a huge bonus, ah hem...
I am actually not a fan of big gigantic boobs, but I can always make an exception. Like Obama is doing with Iran, take the good with the bad. Do the right thing for the country and all. Hi Denise!

You Think YOU Have No Luck??


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7963581.stm

This guy survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuke attacks by the US at the end of WWII. The fact that he has lived to be 93 screams to me; get some DNA off this dude and study it!!

AIG Exec Reigns

This is pretty funny, and I see they guy's point, but he is a little out of touch. I have been in similar positions, but had no where near the amount of money he is talking about involved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&sq=Jake%20DeSantis&st=cse&scp=1

I know some people where I work who say things like "what poor people"? They do this because they live in their posh neighborhood and never see the people really being screwed by this bailout when they drive home in the BMW. Their only exposure is the beggers on the way to, or waiters/waitresses there when they get lunch, and probably under-tip. What do you people say to these people?

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Senate Disasters

US Senator Robert Byrd has been on the job so long, they have dirt that is newer than him in the US Capitol. Back during WWII he managed to stay out of the war and the KKK told him to go seek public office. Um, how is he still in office? Oh right, he is from West Virginia.

I was not even born when this guy first came to Washington and that was more than 45 years ago. How can anyone think he has any modern notion left in his head?

Oh, he is a Democrat, which baffles me.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Crackpots On Climate


Right, let's dump a bunch of Iron and thus Iron Oxide into the Oceans and all will be well.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7959570.stm

Hmm, seems to me...we could be recycling that Iron and reduce new mining, which would cut back toxic runoff into the Oceans and icrease forest conservation in the process. Does that sound at all more a feasible way to help the environment?

It will take the same amount of energy to re-mold that Iron, but at least it wasn't from newly harvested ore, which takes a ton of energy to refine. Does anyone else have a hint of common sense about this?

US Concentration Camps



Hmm, since 1995 this has been going on? Glen Beck makes an ass of himself below;



Now he drops the matter, no apology...



Sleep well Glen! Shocker that Ron Paul pipes in, with "It's a justified concern" and "FEMA needs no justification"?? I am so glad that the great unwashed of America are actually smarter than they let on and left R.P. RIP.

How's Your Floods?


One really cool thing I heard today on NPR, was that part of the economic "bailout" was to go towards buying Farm easements that would allow controlled flooding in areas that are prone to it. Farmers will fight this, because no one wants "their land" under water.

What people don't seem to get is that this flooding not only fertilizes the land, it keeps floods from being worse downstream. Everyone wants to send the problems "downstream". Lunacy.

These farmers need to move to higher ground for high yield crops and plant lesser needed crops (grasses) on the flood planes. It's not rocket science, it is common sense, right? I'm not even a farmer...

Well, Since I AM Dying...

Yes, this idiot in Tennessee decides to cop to a murder since he thinks he is dying. So he thought. What a fucking coward. It must have been really "eating him up inside" all those years. I hope he enjoys his stay in the concrete Hotel, until he dies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7959155.stm

Remaking True Grit?


Why would the Coen brothers do such a thing? They have zero fucking chance of making a movie nearly as good.

Variety.com reports just that they are making it, but no details about who they might cast. It's a sad day for Western movies, as far as I am concerned.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

I Like Jennifer Granholm

Too bad she can never run for President, she's Canadian.

Recycling Coal Waste


I thought this was interesting and definitely something to be investigated further. I guess the bottom line for me is how acidic any ash is and just how safe are these ideas are? You will wind up with that whole "give and take" argument about the results overtaking the risks.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/20/recycled.coal.uses/index.html

Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Grocery Store


I went to the store to pick up some groceries and something amazing happened.

They have been refurbishing the store and it's quite an improvement, even though I know the cost of it will be passed on to me directly. That sucks. But they also have undergone a change in attitude.

I get these Calzones and we have them for dinner every few weeks, but I couldn't find any on the shelf today. I walked to the nearby Deli area and asked if they had moved them, but the lady said if they were not out on the shelf, they had none.

No biggie, I could get them next time. I went about getting the other items on my list and had made my way all the way to the other side of the store, nearly ready to head to the cash register, when a guy, employee, walked up and told me he had the Calzone in a freezer in the back and asked what kind did I want?

That was shocking, at least 10 minutes had passed and this dude I had never seen before took the time to come find me and then went and got what I was looking for out of the freezer.

When he returned with the Calszones, he told me exactly where they would be in the future and that he would make sure they were stocked on the shelf.

I was impressed and thankful. The concept of good customer service is spreading and it shows when it does. Give it a try where you work.

Friday, March 20, 2009

A Joke, About Hand Lotion


So this woman I work with came up to my desk, held out her hands and said, "I put too much lotion on my hands, do you want some?"

I grinned, looked down and said, "I could make a hell of a joke here, but no thanks."

She laughed and went away. She didn't get it. Good thing I didn't proceed with the joke, she is my boss now!

The USS Hartford Has A Problem


Um, another crash?? They ran aground off Italy in 2003. The thing to realize is, nothing runs into a Submarine that is underway. The Sub can only run into other things. It's the nature of the mission and the way they operate.

It might be time to decommission the 768?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7955185.stm

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Um, France Is Closed Today

I see their point, I guess the fact that we see the US government doing something about the economy, makes the difference. Even if we don't agree with the tactics.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7951949.stm

Is Pope B A Disaster?



According to this, some insiders say yes. Since when are there leaks from the Vatican??

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Who Screwed The Economy?



A Republican Senator (started out as a Democrat), who switched parties in 1983, probably because of who was President at the time? What an asshole.

See page 7, item D: "(D) Issuing or selling instruments representing interests in pools of assets permissible for a bank to hold directly.". They are setting up for the knockout...yep, slick Willy signed it too.

This let the banks pool mortgages and consider them an "asset", thus they are something the can put on the market. It allowed the double leveraging to start things off back in 2000.

Then these same "assets" were allowed to be insured, which is why once the Mortgages started failing, AIG owed a lot of people a whole lot of money. So now we are paying AIG to pay the people they owe, who already made a ton of cash from premiums when these "assets" were doing well.

It's not much different than the ponzi scheme Madoff pulled, just this is "legal".

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Wild Dogs Ravage Sicily

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7949181.stm

Sicily in on my vacation list now! Why the hell is it illegal to kill wild dogs in Italy? They could sell them to the Koreans, right?

The Shuttle Arrives At ISS


Perfectly done too. This mission is going too good.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

The Madagascar President Offers A Vote

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7944476.stm

We don't know what they would be voting for, but the notion is on the table.

Discovery Is Off And Running

Shuttle Dicovery made a picture book launch today, go go go!

Gaithersburg Plane Crash

This crashed seconds after it flew over my house. Click the images below to enlarge them. You can see how close it came to hitting a house.

Looking at the propeller, it might have stopped turning before the plane hit the ground. The large orange and white thing that looks like a sail is a safety parachute that was attached to the plane.

I hear no one was injured, which bodes well for the parachute scheme on these small planes. The clouds were very low and when this plane flew over my house, it sounded very close, but I never saw it. A few seconds later...bang, down it went.



Crappy video below, it was cold.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

More Creepy Robots

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I saw The Stepford Wives.

Sri Lanka Suicide Bomber


This is a pretty stunning picture, because it caught the moment the blast started. 14 people died in the blast. Kind of creepy. More pics here; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1161220/Caught-camera-The-moment-suicide-bomber-blew-Sri-Lankan-mosque-killing-14.html

You can see the rest of the Telegraph's pictures here;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/4972586/Pictures-of-the-day-11-March-2009.html

Madagascar On The Brink Of Civil War


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7942252.stm

I guess if the Army backs Andry Rajoelina, he will take over. If only parts of the Army supports him, it will be a civil war. The Navy and Airforce are a bit of a joke.

Gil Mantera’s Party Dream

Kinda 80s-ish eh? They have a free download here;
http://sxsw.com/music/shows/schedule/?a=show&s=94393


Kitty Kitty Bang Bang

Keeping Burlesque alive, NSFW in most places, but not porn.



Volkswagen Parking Lot

Why haven't they done a James Bond movie scene here?


Pakistan Is Falling Apart




Thursday, March 12, 2009

Gobal Warming Again

Yep, these guys and gals have their "shit in order", right? That means they know exactly what they are talking about.

If so, why do they continuously use phrases like "waters could rise". And Lord Stern is an economist, where the hell does he get off saying anything about meteorology?? Oh, right, the economy is already fucked, so let's all panic about the weather that "could" happen.

Um, 2500 researchers saying the words "could", "may" and "might" don't scare me. Get an actual Meteorologist to speak up and I am listening. The problem is, they aren't saying anything because they know this is crap.

Chill out people, mother earth will kill us all long before we can do any lasting damage. And has a single person actually died from global warming? No, they have died from the same old weather we always get. The UK had snow for the first time in memory this year and the eastern US coast has had record cold temps. Explain this please? How can that happen on a globe that is warming all over?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7940532.stm

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

How's Your Terroist?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/10/gitmo.terror.prisoners/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

I am glad to see these guys repent for their actions that killed thousands of innocent bystanders in America on 9-11 (they are proud of it). So I suppose I can no longer feel shame for the killing of civilians in Iraq (most by terrorist's) and Afghanistan. Stuff those "badges of honor" up your....

Tibet Marks 50 Years Of Opposing China


Some cool pics...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/worldnews/4969208/Protests-around-the-world-to-mark-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-Tibetan-uprising-against-Chinese-rule.html

China should just back off and let them live their lives. What is the big gain in occupying Tibet??

Bite Your Tongue!

Literally.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/7935311.stm

I have had chicks pull this on me and it's obviously not fucking funny. Enjoy your time off lady.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The "Real IRA" Are Cowards


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7931260.stm

Grow a pair and fight a stand up fight if you must. The IRA is no better than the Taliban. Get stuffed.

Sri Lanka Battles Continue


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7931319.stm

I hope this is the tail end of this fiasco and Sri Lanka can get it over with and avoid civilian casualties.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Morocco Diss' Iran

And Iran is pissed. I love the wording in this IRNA story..

http://www5.irna.ir/En/View/FullStory/?NewsId=386791&IdLanguage=3

I guess the US is pouring $$ into Morocco to get this done. The only problem is, the extremists are already embedded from Iran, so there will be bloodshead.

Venezuala Is Sinking

Not into the Ocean, it's falling apart from within.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/venezuela/4938993/Venezuelas-Hugo-Chavez-tightens-state-control-of-food-amid-rocketing-inflation-and-food-shortages.html

Hugo has his hands full these days and is finding stepping over that line of "socialism" can sting. Look at history. It doesn't work any better than capitalism. I am thinking monarchy is the best form of government, as long as the King is not a dick head.

Swimsuit News


Tired of those swim shorts bunching up in your crotch?? The Sun Dry Swimsuit may be the ultimate prescription to thwart jock itch. I guess the girls could benefit too, down there...


Friday, March 6, 2009

Francois Virot (right click and open in new window)

More from Music For Robots;

http://files.for-robots.com/daveb/cascadekisses.mp3

Not 8 Bit

Gui Boratto

From Music For Robots.

http://files.for-robots.com/mark/TakeMyBreathAway.mp3

http://www.guiboratto.com.br/download/beautiful_life_estudo.mp3

Right click and Save As, if you like them.

Obama Lifing Stem Cell Ban


This is a sticky wicket...

What doesn't get publicized much is the fact that the harvesting of these "Stem Cells" from an embryo, can only happen after it has been fertilized. Thus, to many, a living human. So I am a bit torn on this usage, because I understand the ideal of the opposition, even though I don't morally follow that line of thought.

You should respect that and I can easily support alternatives, like the UK finding that stem cells can be created from skin tissue. It just simplifies things and eliminates arguments. You know, it's something everyone can get behind.

We need more of that.

Back From Las Vegas

I made it home from my brother's wedding. I can't wait to get the pics! I will post a few here.

What I can add for now is my brother and his lovely wife to be, practicing their special dance, the day before the wedding.


Catch the theme here?? It was very cool and a little bizarre. Very funny at any rate, lots of laughs.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Call Me Ladies!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7914639.stm

Yeah, the gigolo is back! I need a change anyway. Make a line gals....

The Free Market Economy Fails

There has to be more to all this than shady home mortgages in the US/UK, right?

The "free market" relies on speculation and confidence. The problem is, all of the speculation now is bad and confidence is in the shitter.

I don't know if anyone realises this, but a whole lot of people watched the market going up, up up and have sold off their shares with huge profits (this would be the top 5% of earners in the world). Now these stocks are bouncing around as everyone else tries to dig out of the hole they are in.

It's all the people with 401Ks that are tied up in the market that are being screwed, 50%+ losses. We can't get out easily, especially at this point. Watching the 300 point drop in the Dow today, that 50% loss is going higher.

I am gambling that just keeping my cash in the bank now is the best thing to do. I cashed out my 401K 4 years ago because of the huge drop in the value of the US Dollar back then. I guess I am part of the problem, maybe I started the whole mess.

Sorry...

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Bela Fleck Are Impressive..



Looks Like We Are In For Some Snow!


I am right around where the red dot is. They are calling for up to 10 inches of snow (25 cm). It's the most we have had all year. Should be fun getting to work tomorrow.

You can see the radar loop here; http://www.intellicast.com/National/Radar/Current.aspx?location=USMD0169&animate=true

Stimulated?

Sorry to sound negative here, but not many people will take any time to read the Stimulus Package..

http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h1enr.pdf

Page 4, $11.5B for Section 502 loans. Um, if we don't have a job, we can't qualify for the loan. This will not be spent. Even if this is spent, it won't create jobs.

Page 7, $300M for food stamps, uh, WTF?? What job does that create?

Page 13, $1B to the Bureau Of The Census, no reason why or what to do with it. It must be Christmas!

Page 14, $650M for the "Digital to Analog converter box" program. So people can get the coverter to put on a TV that is about to die anyway. They will have to buy new TVs soon and the converter will go in the trash. Oh, guess where the converters are made? China...says so right on the box.

(click image to enlarge)

Page 17, $1B to NASA for whatever they like, no direction on what to use it for.

$2.5B to the National Science Foundation with directions on how to spend only $1B of it, the rest could go anywhere. That's not focused.

Pages 18-20, $4.5B for DOD, of which only $400M goes to the health care of our forces (sad). Can't we cut the DOD budget since they got all this money??

I only got through the first 48 pages today (out of 407). I stopped when I had that urge to get my gun out and put it in my mouth.

Venezuela Captures The Rice


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7917176.stm

You have no choice but surrender! Your rice or your life!!