Tuesday, December 29, 2009

EcoSnoop

Well isn't this just special...

EcoSnoop is an iPhone app that allows people to rat out report neighbors and businesses that are not being 'eco-friendly'. Here is their mission statement...

Link to their web site...

A Mission for Change

EcoSnoop's mission is to help our communities heighten awareness of opportunities to be more green, save energy, improve treatment of animals, and even fill pot holes. Leveraging the power of the community, EcoSnoops use their Apple iPhone to capture clear pictures of a problem and post these pictures on a community website so that building owners and others can take action. Have you ever.....

Seen lights left on in a building, late at night, for no good purpose?

Noticed a door that never closes properly, wasting heat or air conditioning?

Observed a truck unnecessarily idling at a loading dock?

Been bothered by a broken sprinkler running non stop?

Complained about street lights left on all day?

Wanted a pot hole filled?

EcoSnoop lets you help solve these problems and more. EcoSnoop is a photo driven "Trouble Ticket" system, letting you identify a problem while leveraging to community to take corrective action. The EcoSnoop website is a tool for environmental awareness and a tool for actively promoting energy conservancy and green awareness. By using the EcoSnoop iPhone application, the user becomes an important link in the chain of helping to report and mediate green waste (energy, pollution, etc.). Additionally, by going yourself and encouraging friends to utilize the website to add as much information as possible about the picture (address information, responsible party information, etc.) you are giving the EcoSnoop community the tools to encourage positive change!


Nice, they even have a map so eco-anarchists can find the best route over to someones house. Smash all their evil incandescent lights. Pretty sure they don't encourage that, but hey, the info is there.

They tell us that it isn't 'Big Brother'. Which I agree with, if they are talking about the TV show. I would call 'EcoSnoop' more of a Big Brother/Stasi informant type mashup.

Good thing these little informant punks will have to break in to my house to find out that I keep the temperature at precisely 88.5° at night because I don't find a comforter that comfortable. Just a thin sheet thank you. Preferably washed daily, because I tend to sweat a bit at that temperature.

That, and my Commando 450 shower head. It's typically only used in the circus. For elephants. Power.

[h/t Watts Up With That?

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Monday, December 28, 2009

Poor Clyde

Clyde is not a happy-camper right now...


Took the big fella to the dog park the day after Christmas and ran him for an hour and a half. Good times, he loved it. Other than him getting a bit tired near the end I didn't notice that anything was wrong. When we got home and I hosed him off (couldn't keep him out of the water...), he was holding his foot up.

I took a peek and noticed that a huge chunk of skin from his pad was gone. Ouch!

That's why I love dogs. He would have retrieved his 'squirrel' all day with his foot like that, thinking that is what I wanted him to do. No complaints.

I take that back. He's complaining today. He is a mopey whine-a-saur. He's sitting next to me as I type with his head on my lap feeling sorry for himself. To keep him from licking his wound, we bandaged it up and put on a dog sock and shoe over it to keep it clean and together. He's not a fan as you may be able to tell from the above picture.

The good news is that I am now finally confident to take him out hiking with me. If I can keep him close to me at a dog park with hundreds of dogs running around (for the most part he ignores them) I'll have no problem in the woods.

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Sunday, December 27, 2009

Rock 'n Roll Fun

So your are at the Toronto Foo Fighters concert and Taylor Hawkins is playing his drum solo. He stops and plays plays a little morse code on the cymbal... (-.-- -.-- --..) and out walks Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to rock out to YYZ. Freakin' Awesome!!!



The reasons I find this cool are xxxx-fold
1) I like the Foo-Fighters
2) I LOVE Rush
3) I love the song YYZ
4) I am an aviation buff


'YYZ' is the airport code for Toronto (the home of Rush). The rhythm that you hear at the start is morse code for YYZ thy same that you will hear if your aircraft's radio is tuned to 112.15MHz in the vicinity of Toronto. Except it won't rock as much.

Woo!

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Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Boxing Day

Hopefully everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Here is my gift to you, almost five minutes of pure awesomeness.



I like the guys description of the video...

Yay for fireworks and UAVs.
I'm an unemployed Electrical Engineer, anyone want to hire me before I set the house on fire?

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Why Star Wars: Episode 1 Sucked - in 70 Minutes

70 Minutes?!? You gotta be kidding me!

Just finished watching these this morning, I was mesmerized... Episode 1 the Phantom Menace sucked so bad, you need 70 minutes to explain why. No worries, you don't need to pencil out a large chunk of you day to watch, it is nicely broken up into ten minute chunks.

Ever watch something that you liked as a kid, but when you see it as an adult you think, "that sucked, why did I ever like that"? You liked it because as a kid you are much easier to entertain. Things like 'The A-Team', 'CHiPs', and even some Christmas specials. It ruins the memories of joy I had as a kid to see these things as an adult. Sure I'll pull up the theme songs, or watch the opening occasionally on YouTube and it gets me excited... But any more than that and it is a downer.

After seeing 'The Phantom Menace', I was a bit worried that the same held true for the the original three Star Wars films. I went back and watched them. Thankfully, they still hold up well in my opinion. It is just the new ones that sucked. Like this reviewer says, they were written for babies. I blamed the stink on the Jar-Jar character but as this fella shows, it goes way beyond that.

No worries, this isn't some 'fanboy' review, it is very well done and humorous. Do yourself a favor and watch these.

[h/t Big Hollywood]

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


Part 4


Part 5


Part 6


Part 7

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Thursday, December 03, 2009

Best Christmas Song EVER!

Happy Holidays, The Holiday Season. Andy Williams.


Best part:
So whoop-de-do and dickery-dock
Don't forget, to hang up that sock
'Cause just exactly, at twelve o'clock
He'll be coming down the chimney down..

A couple glasses of Christmas cheer, and I am belting this out with my shirt off. Fantastic!

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It doesn't make cents!

Why are there still pennies?
Would it bother you if that item that costs $3.99 now cost $4.00 (or $3.95)?
Can you buy anything for less than five cents anymore?

Try walking around walking around with a dollars worth of pennies in you pants pocket sometime... Without a belt...

I cannot think of one good reason to keep them around. A friend of mine was recently complaining that his bank won't take them unless they were rolled. I don't blame them one bit. Would you give me a ten dollar bill for six pounds of pennies? You'd be making about eighty eight cents on the transaction... Probably only take you a half hour to count them... People forget that the bank has to pay the person that has to count them, and the machine they use probably costs a pretty penny too.

As of 2007, the penny cost 67% more to distribute than it is worth. All that work to get thrown away or thrown in a box in the closet.

Read more here...

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Sunday, November 22, 2009

Teh Hate!

[Note: the 'teh' was on purpose...]

Palinophobes Hate First, Ask Questions Later

Slate magazine is just one of the countless media outlets convulsing with St. Vitus’ Dance over that demonic succubus Sarah Palin. In its reader forum, The Fray, one supposed Palinophobe took dead aim at the former Alaska governor’s writing chops, excerpting the following sentence from her book:

“The apartment was small, with slanting floors and irregular heat and a buzzer downstairs that didn’t work, so that visitors had to call ahead from a pay phone at the corner gas station, where a black Doberman the size of a wolf paced through the night in vigilant patrol, its jaws clamped around an empty beer bottle.”

Other readers pounced like wolf-sized Dobermans on an intruder. One guffawed, “That sentence by Sarah Palin could be entered into the annual Bulwer-Lytton bad writing contest. It could have a chance at winning a (sic) honorable mention, at any rate.”

But soon, the original contributor confessed: “I probably should have mentioned that the sentence quoted above was not written by Sarah Palin. It’s taken from the first paragraph of ‘Dreams From My Father,’ written by Barack Obama.”


Heh, that is what I would consider a grade-A text-book troll. An art that wielded often on the i-nets, rarely this well.

I still find it amazing the bile that Palin brings out in people... I think that she is second only too GWB. Good lord, the AP devoted eleven reporters to fact check her book. Really?

If the roles were reversed and Palin was a Democrat getting ridden like this would we hear screams of 'sexist'?

Here is my favorite.... "AP: Palin book goes after McCain camp but not Levi". Fittingly it is in the entertainment section.

My two favorite parts, the tagline...
.. the 413-page tome doesn't contain a single reference to the father of her granddaughter, soon-to-be Playgirl model Levi Johnston.

And this line...
... the book - which contains 68 color photos but no index

The horror, no Levi, no index!!! My eyes are rolling.

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Monday, November 16, 2009

Is There Anybody Out There?

Mike's mind-blower for the day...

There are probably as many stars in the universe, ~1023 give or take, as there are grains of sand on Earth...



If one in a million of those stars had planets, and one in a billion of those planets had life-favorable conditions... You would be left with a hundred million planets that could have life.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if there was life out there... What would surprise me would be if we found it... ...or it found us...

BTW, that isn't a background from the movie Star Wars, that is a picture taken by the Hubble telescope. You are looking at over nine-thousand galaxies which contain between ten million to one trillion stars each. There are probably over one hundred trillion stars that you are looking at there alone. And that is literally just a speck of the sky...

Hmmmm...

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Saturday, November 14, 2009

Fu Manchu for You

Effin' Rock!

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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Big Wing

Dang that thing is impressive!

 

For a bit of scale, a 747s wingspan is only around twenty feet longer than this beast. The thing is like a fifteen story building moving around the bay. And quickly. Check it out compared to the aircraft carrier in the background (the CVN-75 Reagan?).


That was just the first sail with it, they didn't even opened it up. I can't wait to see it really fly.

Read more here, here, and here.

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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Spelin' not gud

That's a bit of an exaggeration, but I am not known for my spelling prowess. I find a bit of mis-spelling interesting, like a hidden gem in the sands of sameness.

Mark Twain seems to agree.

I don't see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells Kow with a large K. Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow.


Some see bad spelling as stupidity, yet some of the smartest people I have met were horrible at it. I think the reason that I have a hard time with it is the memorization. Memorization is why I never got good grades in school. It bored me to the point of not caring and I just shut down. Math and science, where things have a reason behind them? I always did way better. But I digress...

This leads me to pronunciation. If we all talked the same, we'd be a bunch of boring robots.

Pronunciation is the spice of conversation. When I say 'milk', it rhymes with 'elk'. I say 'both' with an 'L'. Who the hell cares! Stuff like that makes people individuals, gives them an identity. It is an accent, it is fun.

However, I draw the line when it is forced. Lame.

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Whiteboard



Best line, "Oh look, a package delivery czar".

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Thursday, November 05, 2009

I guess I can turn the spinklers off now...

For some reason today seemed like the start of the 'gray' season. Maybe it is the forecast....



I guess I'm wearing the Gore-Tex to the game Sunday.

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Monday, November 02, 2009

I got a Hummer!

I find out now that Clyde the wonder-lab has a larger 'carbon footprint' than a Hummer. That's it, we're gonna have to get rid of him...

What?!?

Just kidding buddy...

Do I feel guilty? Nope. Hey, if we figure it like that, I'm way 'greener' than a lot of people I know. They have kids! Carrie and I don't, just a ninety eight pound dog. If my dog is the equal of a Hummer, a kid is an airliner! They are destroying mother Gaia! My dog will live (hopefully) twelve or more years and consume a fair amount of food. It is basically all the resources used to produce that food that make up Clyde's impact. ...Oh and the farts, the horrible SPDs that he releases hourly.

Your kid will have twice or more of an impact, probably much more. (by my uneducated guesstimate). The kid needs clothes (carbon!). Their food comes in more packaging and needs more prep (cooking). Clyde's comes in a big bag that lasts us a month, two scoops at a time. Rides to and from school, sports, and many other activities. That's before they are twelve. After that, more food, more driving, etc, etc, etc... then they get their own car (carbon!), own home (carbon!), and gasp! maybe a dog! Then grandchildren and it multiplies! How can anyone have a child and a clear conscious? We should all stop propagating and go extinct!

Silliness.

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Saturday, October 31, 2009

Happy Halloween/Drunken Ewoks

My most favorite holiday of the year! (sarcasm) I miss living in the secure apartment complex.

If I ruled the neighborhood, instead of forty thousand packs of two trick-or-treaters ringing the doorbell every three and a half minutes, I would gather them up in one group. This group would gather at two set times on one side of the neighborhood. Say 6pm and 8pm and do one lap of the neighborhood. That way I only have to answer the door twice in the evening.

Bah-humbug you say?!

Au contraire, mon frere! It would be a Obama-inspired community builder! It would get the people together inter-mingling. Heck, I'd probably even participate in the march.

My other irritation are the lazy-ass parents that drive their kids around in the minivan. If you leg is broken, fine. If not, get out there and walk with them. I've seen kids hop out, hit a house, hop back in, drive 50 feet and repeat. Sad. If I see that this year, I'm going to tell the kids that they don't get candy unless their parents come to the door with them. (prolly not)

Enough of the rant, here are your out of control, drunken Ewoks...


A little slow to get going, but I was on the floor by the end...

Send those little bastards back to the forests of Endor where they belong! (Sadly I knew their home planet from memory, though I did have to verify on wikipedia)

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Monday, October 26, 2009

The Superfecta!

Well boys and girls, I have finally merged my identities (that I want you to know about...) on the internets together. Sure my blog has had my Flickr and Twitter feeds showing up for quite awhile, but now I have tied my blog into my twitter, which feeds my facebook, which leads back to here. Now everybody can see the real me (hint, it is all about the hair).

I'm now out there for everyone to see and lovin' every minute of it


I've been leading a double life for too long. Turn me loose, I gotta do it my way. Or no way at all. (I wanna fly.)

In celebration, I have decided to communicate exclusively through Loverboy songs, at least until I tire of it... This could be dangerous.

I'll just try to make it to the weekend.

The kid is hot tonight!

If I can turn just one more person on to the glory that is Loverboy, I'll consider my life a success.

BTW, I'm bringing head-bands back. ...And red leather pants.

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Fast Machinery, Slow Camera



Slow month for me in the ol' blog-o-sphere, so here is some cool slow footage of some cool motor racing. My favorite, the close up of the Mclaren MP4-23's rear wheel spinning (on intermediates). Yes, I love F1 above all else (sports-wise).

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Thursday, October 08, 2009

More Geeked Out Goodness!

Been scanning in some of my old photos recently and came across this one. It is a picture that I took when me and some buddies marched up Mount Rainier twelve years ago. Cool picture if I do say so myself...


A good adventure that day. Got some good turns in, almost went off a cliff, and had too bushwhack across a sketchy area to get back to our car. I miss that kind of fun.

Why is it geeked out goodness?

I was trying to figure out the name of the pointy ramp shaped rock about a third in from the right (Anvil Rock) in Google Earth. When I turned on the terrain and rotated my view to where I thought I was, I was amazed at how close it was to my picture!

Other that a different snow covering, it was pretty much spot on. You can see Little Tahoma peeking over on the right, Gibraltar and Cathedral rocks.

THIS IS WHY YOU NEED GOOGLE EARTH! For Gods sake, it is free!

Later I went to some high country lakes that I remember camping at and they too were just like I remember. Now that the bad weather is coming, I will be doing some exploring.

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Wednesday, October 07, 2009

How Much of a Nerd am I?

This much...

In honor of the UPC codes birthday today (according to Google), for my post-work entertainment I made a UPC clock in Excel.



The first six digits are the date ("MMDDYY"). The next four are the time ("HHMM"). The eleventh digit signifies AM/PM, 0 for AM, 1 for PM. The last is the UPC check digit.

BTW, yes, I can read the code... A little rusty at the moment. Got the hankering to learn it a few years back while on jury duty, bored out of my skull. No harder to learn than Morse code.

.-.. .- - . .-.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Awesomeness!



Sure it is too big for my blog, but I don't care. It is pure awesomeness!. The 'rock on' at 1:38 makes it. Beautiful!

I would love to see this event in Seattle. We have some great hills...

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Saturday, September 19, 2009

Seahawk DBs

...And by DBs I don't mean defensive backs...



Luckily one of them all but passed out in the second half.

Best moment, DB#2(just out of site in this vid) while being questioned by a female police officer, almost cop-ing a feel of her chest. (pun intended)

Second best moment, DB#1 was showing crack. The guy in front of me kept chanting, "no more... butt crack...". Surprisingly entertaining.

Third best moment. The two DB's handed their camera to someone behind them and posed for a picture. Sadly I wasn't quick enough with my camera to capture the moment. It would have made this website easy if they had a hot chick with them. They didn't.

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Friday, September 18, 2009

Splitting The Bill

Noam N. Levey of the L.A. Times compares the health care issue to three friend, with tight pocketbooks, trying to split a dinner bill.

All three have been struggling to pay their bills lately. When the check arrives, they try to figure out how to divide it. The problem is no one can really afford the meal. And if one manages to pay less, the other two will go home even deeper in the hole.


Who are these friends?
Think of our three friends as consumers, businesses and government, the three major groups that pay for health care in America.


There is one flaw in this... One of those friends gets all of their money from the other two. Can you guess which one it is? (hint: it rhymes with bovernment)

Patterico breaks it down best...
[...]it’s not very much like three friends. It’s more like you and your brother are eating lunch with your disreputable cousin Paulie, who has no job and stays alive by mooching off you and your brother. Paulie might play Mr. Magnanimous and pick up the check — but it’s hard to feel too grateful, because you and your brother both know that the money is coming out of your pocket anyway.


...And Paulie gets to pick the restaurant every time.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Healthcare or Getting Drunk...

You shouldn't have to choose...



Personal responsibility.

Yes, there are people out there without health care because of unfortunate circumstances. But there are also many without by choice.

$300 bucks a month for body-building supplements, but he wants me to pay for his healthcare? C'mon!

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Saturday, September 05, 2009

Station Fire Time Lapse



Came across a time-lapse of the Station fire in California... Looks like a volcano erupting. Lots of other very cool pics and videos over at BrandonRiza.com, go check it out.

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Friday, September 04, 2009

Big Head Clyde



Your not gonna find many dogs Clydes age with better looking teeth... He keeps them clean by chewing on squirrel tails in the back yard.

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Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The View From Up Here



About time I throw something up on Flickr... Hopefully I'll have more coming.

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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

More Quarters Please

Ah, the scourge of internets past... The animated gif. Used properly though, it can be a tool for good. See example below, found on Ace of Spades.

Horsey


Ace writes:
..here's Jennifer Connelly riding a toy pony in the movie Career Opportunities. No one saw it and no one remembers it, but this image, from the commercial campaign, is seared, seared into my memory.


When I saw this gif, I remembered that I saw this movie. I saw it because of this bit in its promotion. May have to see it again for the same reason. Such happy memories...

Here is a trailer... I do the research so you don't have too.

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Sunday, August 23, 2009

Eyes Rolling

John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods writes an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled "The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare" and liberals get their panties all in a bunch. Probably didn't help that he quoted Margaret Thatcher saying, "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money."

Now they are boycotting.

Eyes rolling.

Here is how Mr Mackey finishes his article...

Health-care reform is very important. Whatever reforms are enacted it is essential that they be financially responsible, and that we have the freedom to choose doctors and the health-care services that best suit our own unique set of lifestyle choices. We are all responsible for our own lives and our own health. We should take that responsibility very seriously and use our freedom to make wise lifestyle choices that will protect our health. Doing so will enrich our lives and will help create a vibrant and sustainable American society.

I don't see anything in there that is boycott material. It is a guy expressing his opinion. Of course, I am a guy that happens to agree with what he said. What are we going to accomplish boycotting him for expressing his opinion? Whole Foods employs over 50,000 people, you are going to punish them for his opinion?

His company is ranked twenty second in Fortune's 100 best companies to work for. ...And they are one of the 15 companies on that list that pay 100% of their employees health care premiums. He sounds like a horrible guy! [sarcasm]

Andrew Breitbart says:
The success of Whole Foods is largely built on Mr. Mackey's understanding of the liberal mind. It wants the good life - but with instant absolution for the sin of conspicuous consumption. Whole Foods is marketing at its best. Iconography and slogans throughout the store - not unlike those Barack Obama used to win the presidency - tell the shopper they are saving the planet in large and small ways.

The product is so good even conservatives and skeptics are willing to play along.

But Mr. Mackey missed the key ingredient of modern liberalism: intolerance to the ideas of nonliberals. And this miscalculation may prove to be devastating to his multibillion-dollar business.

[highlight by me]

There you go, intolerance to the ideas of nonliberals. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Heck, disagree with ObamaCare and the Speaker of the House labels you as "Un-American".
In the meantime, as members of Congress spend time at home during August, they are talking with their constituents about reform. The dialogue between elected representatives and constituents is at the heart of our democracy and plays an integral role in assuring that the legislation we write reflects the genuine needs and concerns of the people we represent.

However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign is underway not merely to misrepresent the health insurance reform legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue. These tactics have included hanging in effigy one Democratic member of Congress in Maryland and protesters holding a sign displaying a tombstone with the name of another congressman in Texas, where protesters also shouted "Just say no!" drowning out those who wanted to hold a substantive discussion.

Let the facts be heard

These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.

Oh, I'm sorry, "drowning out" opposing views is un-American. Funny, but that is just what the liberals seem to be trying to do. That and demonizing those who happen to disagree.

Some will say, "yeah but, that is what the conservatives Bushitler Fascists did..." So now it is the right thing to do? Some say, "but the others have no ideas to fix health care". BS, there are plenty out there. You just won't listen.

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Effin' ROCK!



Man, I love me some Mudhoney...

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Wednesday, August 19, 2009

...White People Showing Up With Guns...



There are questions about whether this has a racial overtones. I mean here you have a man of color in the presidency and white people showing up with guns strapped to their waists or to their legs...


Here is the image that MSNBC showed....


Wow, white people showing up with arms like that to a black presidents appearance... Racism! There is one problem with the money shot there, though it was covered up with some tight camerawork. Here is a news report showing the face and actually talking to the fella with the firearm... Notice anything?



It looks to me like the guy happens to be black!

Now I am not sure that the point that people are making with firearms at these Town Halls is really conducive to their cause. Unless it is a ploy to get attention, to which it definitely works. But that is not the point of this post.

The point is, I believe that many (the media?) are WAY to busy playing 'chicken little' with the racism card. That little discussion there wouldn't have been as shocking without the shot of the guy with the assault rifle, it would have been silly (sillier) if they would have shown the guys identity. Unbiased... heh.

Sure there may be some in the crowd that dislike the president because of his skin, and they are as silly as these MSNBC people. I'll bet my big toe that the percentage of those people pales in comparison that dislike the president because of his policies...

[h/t Ace of Spades]

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Monday, August 17, 2009

In Summary



UPS and FedEx are doing just fine... ...It's the Post Office having problems.

There you go, do I have to say anything else?


As pointed out here, the package delivery business isn't terribly complicated. Yet even with a protected monopoly on a fair chunk of the market, the Post Office is not competing. Odd, most of the times I've had to go to a Post Office, I've spent a lot of time standing in line too...

From John Stossel's Take
His mistake is telling. If he didn't notice that the Post Office, despite providing worse service than UPS and FedEX, is bailed out by Congress, will he notice when a government-run health care plan is feeding off billions of your tax dollars?

Or would he care? Before the election he supported a single payer system. Subsidized co-ops would be an easy back-door way to achieve the same thing.


Would he care? That is the million-dollar (trillion) question... My guess is no, this is part of the plan.

How 'bout we deal with malpractice abuses? How much do frivolous claims affect my premiums? Nah, that could take income away from lawyers. What was it that Obama did before he was a politician?...

The good news is that people seem to be getting smarter about what is going on.

In summary, I think this quote by Milton Friedman says it best.

The government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem.

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Saturday, August 15, 2009

FW: Smart Car? Accident

I always get a kick out of email forwards. It is amazing how many of them are flat out wrong. Honestly, I can't think of any that I have received that are true.

The latest that I received is the "Smart Car? Accident" forward.

Here is a Smart Car......


Below is a photo of a wreck in Jefferson Parish, LA (near New Orleans ) between two trucks and a Smart Car. Think I’ll pass on the Smart Car.



Ouch!

Now I am no fan of the Smart car and unlike many, I have ridden in one (my company has one). Yeah, it works as transportation but that is about it. The transmission is harsh, and so is the ride thanks to a short wheelbase. The fuel mileage is good, but no different than a Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI. Check out the comparison. Plus with the Jetta I can haul three (or an uncomfortable four) of my buddies, with Clyde the wonder lab in the back. I would have to leave Clyde at home in a Smart.

Back on subject, something was fishy about this forward...

Take a look at the crushed cars wheel and compare it to the un-crushed Smart car above. The crushed wheel has five lug bolts, but the Smart only has three... That is a pretty solid clue that the crushed car isn't a Smart car. Heck, it probably isn't even a compact as most of those will have four lugged wheels.

Taking a peek over at my favorite forward busting website, Snopes, I found out that it was most likely a Ford Escape crushed between the two trucks. Ironic because an Escape is a small SUV, the type of vehicle that someone sending this forward is trying to qualify as better in accident. Honestly, I don't know if there is anything that you can drive short of another dump truck that would save you in that situation. That is about as bad as a vehicular sandwich can get. This kinda proves that.

Here are a couple pictures you can send back to anyone forwarding this your way...


Another Escape that didn't


Neither did this Hummer...

I'm kinda thinking that we should all just drive school buses. They seem to take a hit pretty well.

Wait, scratch that.


The moral of this story is, if you want to prove that small vehicles are less safe than larger, just use good old fashioned data.

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Sunday, August 09, 2009

Boat Show!

Mike loves himself some boat show, and luckily Carrie likes them enough to tag along. We headed down to the Seattle Boat Show at the Shilshole Marina yesterday ready to find our yacht. Boy, were there deals to be had. There was a nice Sea Ray for almost a half million off, but that wasn't our style. The boat we liked was an Ocean Alexander 58' Pilot House. Beautiful and spacious. It will be a blast cruising up and down the west coast in the thing. I made an offer thinking that it was a steal, but was unfortunately turned down. Apparently once things cross a certain price point they stop putting cents on the end. My offers decimal point had to move to the right two spaces. Damn.

We meandered over to the sailboats and checked out some used ones that were more in our price range. One of interest was a 1984 LaFitte 44' designed by Robert Perry. I had read a book by him so I took a look. Inside I took a look at the flyer and noticed the boats name, SohCahToa. (Sine - opposite hypotenuse, Cosine - adjacent hypotenuse, Tangent - opposite adjacent. Math.) The was the boat that some guys my sister knew sailed around the world on.

You can check out their log here. Only problem with the website is that it is written as a blog, the newest posts are on the top. Works great if you are following them live, not so great after the fact. You have to read from the bottom to the top, a small price to pay for an interesting story.

I really think I want to do this before I get too old, it sounds like the ultimate adventure. At this point in my life I'll need to take a different path though. First step, I need to get sailing! Dinghy lessons help, but aren't gonna cut it.

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Sunday, August 02, 2009

Well That Didn't Work...

I'm guessing this isn't what they intended to happen when thy tried to take down this building in Turkey...



[h/t Ace of Spades]

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Monday, July 27, 2009

Get Well Felipe

I want to see you back racing soon...

Photo by ph-stop


During qualifying for yesterdays Hungarian GP Felipe Massa was unlucky enough to catch a one pound spring off of Ruebens Barichello's Brawn while traveling close to 170 mph. He was kept in an induced coma for two days but it sounds like as of Monday he is awake and responding favorably. They still are unsure of the damage that he may have taken to his eye.

Jalopnik has a picture of his helmet and an embedded video here. Watch the video quickly because F1 is pretty quick about getting videos pulled.

Basically that spring had been bouncing on the track for four seconds before Massa hit it. Just about any other piece of a car except a wheel would have settled on the ground and been only a hazard to the car (puncture, broken body work). The odds of his head and the spring being at the same point at that moment are huge, but it happened. From the picture on Jalopnik, it looks like Massa was very close to being hit directly through his visor. We are talking another inch and almost certain death. This incident is remarkably similar to the incident that killed Henry Surtees, the son of former F1 champion, John Surtees. He was hit in the head by a wheel that had broken away from another car.

Massa has been the driver I love to root against ever since he put on the Ferrari red. But you never want this. Hopefully we will see him flying around the track in that Ferrari again. I will definitely be cheering loudly for him.

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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Thats Right!

I can across this tonight on Gunslinger's Journal via Cold Fury and it just clicked with me.

Health care is not a right. Why? Because it requires the labor of others. Same with a right to housing, education, or even a good beer. I'll let Gunslinger explain.

Anything that requires the labor of someone else cannot be a universal human right.

Our Constitutional, Natural Law rights require only that others leave us alone. They require no labor, action, payment, participation or sacrifice of anyone else on our behalf.

We have the right to NOT be interfered with when we speak, practice religion, gather, or bear arms. We have the right NOT to be imprisoned without due-process, to be searched without cause, to be made to testify against ourselves.

See how that works?

But the "rights" that the Progressives pretend we have, like health care, education, food, housing and jobs...all require the participation of others.

Health care requires the labor of doctors.
Education requires the labor of teachers.
Housing requires the labor of builders.

What if doctors quit? What if teachers quit? What if builders quit?

To provide YOU the "right" to healthcare, doctors would be forced to labor.
To provide YOU the "right" to education, teachers would be forced to labor.
To provide YOU the "right" to housing, builders would be forced to labor.

If you take any supposed "right" and you push it to its logical conclusion—and the only solution would entail the coercing of any individual—it's not a right at all.

It's just a greedy, selfish Want.

In a nutshell—nothing that demands the labor or sacrifice of another is your right.

This simple formula can be used to determine the truth about all those supposed "rights" the Progressive/Fascists are trying to sell us.

They, it seems, are perfectly willing to use government force, and confiscation to make sure somebody get's their Wants fulfilled.


Well put.

What if doctors were like the public schools.

Sure there are many great teachers, but there are some crappy ones too. Which one you get is the luck of the draw. You, are in Mr. Crappy Teachers class this year. Sure if you have money you can put little Billy in a private school, but that is a pretty expensive option.

Just replace teacher with doctor...

Hmmm.

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Saturday, July 18, 2009

Walkie-Talkie

This post is probably of no interest to most of you, but it brings up something interesting to me.

Calling All Agents: Kilometers Long Remote Camera Shutter Trigger


As a kid I was fascinated by walkie-talkies. Mind you this was way before the days of twitting-via-your-iPhone-while-getting-your-kids-picture-in-mail-and-SMSing-your-boss-that-you-are-going-to-miss-the-meeting-cause-your-stuck-in-traffic days.


I too dreamed of walkie-talkies as a kid. How cool would it be to be able to talk to my buddy hiding out in fort from my fort. (reminder: this is a kids dream, I also liked forts.) Magical! Now I have a phone in my pocket that can do that plus take pictures, send pictures, GPS, texting, internet, games, etc. Pretty much everybody has a phone that can do most of that now. We take it for granted, get pissy when a call drops.

So sad that kids of today won't have that dream. Then again, that is probably what my parents think about color moving pictures in our houses (TV's). ...And our grandparents think of indoor plumbing... What is it that today's kids are dreaming of that will become commonplace by the time they are adults?

I want to know!

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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

So Sorry



What, they welcomed Obama with the same excitement that they welcomed Bush?

Funny stuff when Mr. Lemon finds out the 'one' didn't get an unprecedented welcome. No bias... heh.

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Monday, July 06, 2009

Sore A$$

Took the new Stumpy out for a spin today on the BG. I actually survived an 11 mile out and back. It felt great to get out there and ride again. Already though my rear is hurting.... I'll take tomorrow off, but ride again Wednesday. Like they say, no pain, no gain. Just got to push through it.

Here is a shot of the rig after the ride. No dirt yet, but it will come. (Can you tell this wasn't taken with my SLR?)


Yes, I bought a hell of a bike for a fat guy that hasn't ridden regularly in eight years... I was pretty sure that it was a good bet when I got it Sunday, I am positive that it was a good bet today. The high I was on when I got home cemented that.

Ride on!

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Sunday, July 05, 2009

No Diving!



It was pretty warm yesterday and we couldn't go to the park, so we set the kiddie-pool out for the beast. He likes it.

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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Ancestry

For whatever reason, last night I got a wild hair and signed up at Ancestry.com. Five hours of research and I found an ancestor in the 1300's. Crazy!

Granted, the big progress that I have made was on the backs of others. You can search public trees and bring others research into your own. There are a few lines that I am going to have a hard time getting to the mid 1800's. You have to search old records, all handwritten, to find clues. It is pretty exciting to make a match when you put two and two together.

Today being the Fourth of July, it was neat to see that I had a few ancestor in the states in 1776.

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Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Karl Malden

Today, Oscar winning actor Karl Malden passed away.



Why do I mention that?

Because, no joke, this morning at 4:45 am, his name (and nose) popped into my head. I have no idea why, I haven't thought of him or seen any work of his in quite awhile. It was just out of the blue.

Do I have psychic powers?

Developing...

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Sunday, June 28, 2009

It's Over!

I am now 98% sure that I'm getting a new rig soon. Watch this simple little video, If it makes you smile you should get one too!

Rock Shox Reba Team at Big Creek from Robb Sutton on Vimeo.



See the 0:24 and 1:12 marks for the reason that I'm getting back on the saddle. The flick.

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Saturday, June 27, 2009

Double Standard

If liberals didn’t have double standards, they wouldn’t have any standards at all.

Heh. So true, so true.

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Songs That You May Be Surprised That Mike Likes

That's Not My Name, by the Ting Tings.



Fabulous! Easily in my top ten favorites of the last twelve months.

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Bikes

Rode a bike for the first time in five or more years last week in San Diego. A cruiser around Mission Bay. It was good fun.

Tore my hardtail to the frame, need parts, gonna cost me easily $200+. Some very hard to find... ...and I'll still have old wheels that were beat on pretty hard before the bike hit storage six years ago...



Looking at new, and am amazed at what I can get for less than my last camera lens...

Need to do some soul searching to decide if I'll ride it two or more times a week...

Developing.

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A Ha!

More good news for me!

Excess Pounds, but Not Too Many, May Lead to Longer Life - The New York Times

The report, published online last week in the journal Obesity, found that overall, people who were overweight but not obese — defined as a body mass index of 25 to 29.9 — were actually less likely to die than people of normal weight, defined as a B.M.I. of 18.5 to 24.9.

By contrast, people who were underweight, with a B.M.I. under 18.5, were more likely to die than those of average weight. Their risk of dying was 73 percent higher than that of normal weight people, while the risk of dying for those who were overweight was 17 percent lower than for people of normal weight.


Nice, I am now that much closer to being healthy, and I didn't have to do a damn thing! Granted, I still have some work to do... To tell you the truth, it actually encourages me to get a bit healthier, as instead of a huge ordeal, I just need to make a few tweeks to get in the target zone. More some exercise, better food, less portions, and I'll be looking (and feelin') good.

I think that I'll go under the house and pull out my bikes. Tear them down and assemble the good parts into a "franken-hardtail" urban bike. W00t!

[h/t: Lifehacker]

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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Bully!

Check this video out... Try to find the clues that it isn't a model (it isn't). BTW, be sure to click through to Vimeo so you can view this thing in HD quality full screen. Fabulous!



Shot with a Canon 5d mkII (my next camera) and a tilt-shift lens (which I am going to have to try soon).

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Saturday, June 20, 2009

Bogey, Five O'clock

Just got back from a week stay in San Diego, where the air seemed to put Mike's booger (bogey) production on ten.

So, Mike's inquisitive brain decided to look up some info on said bogeys to learn a bit more... And I came up with this.

Top doc backs picking your nose and eating it

Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor.

Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies.

He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage children to take it up.


Hmmmm....

More-

"And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system.

"Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine.

"Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same thing through far more complicated methods, people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."


You know what, that makes total sense to me. Sounds like a natural flu shot!

When I was a wee lad, I know for a fact that I ate the occasional booger. You know what, I think I have a stronger than usual immune system... Carrie says that she hasn't eaten one that she can remember, and she catches more stuff than me.

Don't get me wrong, I haven't partaken in the salty treats for thirty years and I probably won't start anytime soon. The reason is the same for why I will avoid brussel sprouts... They disgust me. I'm going to have to see some eye-popping results before I start eating either one.

It makes me wonder about how we go OCD on disinfecting our kids nowadays. Yeah, cleanliness is important, but what if we aren't letting their immune systems develop? I believe George Carlin did a bit on this (that I can't find right now.)

Could bogey eating help? Further study needed...

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Monday, June 15, 2009

Coolest Video EVER!



Cockpit footage from the Blue Angels in the raw. Freakin' sweet!

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Best Buy



One of the best purchases that I have made.

My Weber 'Silver B' gets a ton of use once the weather gets good. Now five years old, the thing still starts with one click of the starter and the outside looks almost as good as new. The inside looks better as it is well 'seasoned'. I think in the last month seventy percent or more of our dinners have been cooked on the thing, and that will continue well into September.

Sure many will say, and I agree, that charcoal is superior to a propane grill. In fact, I think this summer I'll probably pick up a Weber kettle. But a charcoal grill can't hold a candle to this thing. I would say that it is more convenient than our range in the kitchen. Why? Because when I make a mess, all I need to do is crank the burners for a few minutes and hit it with wire brush. Clean!

Note: Notice that the pint glass is empty, that means that the grilling is done!

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Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Bird Dog

Clyde spotted this little fella in the back yard when we went back there to cut the lawn.


He was very curious as to what the thing was, but he didn't touch it or get rambunctious.


It is a fledgling Steller Jay. Mom and dad were not very happy with Clyde and I checking out their baby. One stayed close to it and made just a minor racket while the other was raising holy hell as only Jay Steller can. he was jumping from branch to branch, pecking at them, and squawking very loud.

Here is a the only shot I got of mom, dad, and junior. As you can tell, they wern't staying still.


Last I saw the little guy he was on the ground under the trees. I'm not going to interfere with it, I'll just keep the beast away. It was like Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom back there today!

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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Where is Clyde?

There he is!



Tired Clyde sleeping at my feet as I type this. He's dreaming about something because he keeps twitching. My guess he is dreaming about chasing his bumper in the Sound, which is what made him this tired in the first place.

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Saturday, June 06, 2009

Timelapse [like a minature]

Timelapse [like a miniature] from 46°Project on Vimeo.


Again, fascinating...

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Friday, June 05, 2009

Plastered or Not

You tell me.



Beer. Lol.

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Still Under Construction

Did some hacking of the template I found to make it 'mine'. I got the general layout where I like it, now for some tweaking of the fonts, colors, and other things.

Keep watching!

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Thursday, June 04, 2009

Under Construction

Sorry for the mess, changing up my template as it was a time for change.

Please be patient while I work it.


Did you see Clyde?

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Sunday, May 31, 2009

Do as I say, not as I do

First President in US History to Have Voted to Filibuster a Supreme Court Nominee Now Hopes for Clean Process

"What I hope is that we can avoid the political posturing and ideological brinksmanship that has bogged down this process, and Congress, in the past."


Kinda like dad telling me not to smoke and drink while lit on bourbon with a Marlboro in hand. (note- fictious event)

In January 2006, then-Sen. Obama joined 24 colleagues in a futile effort led by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of now-Justice Samuel Alito.


Sotomayors 2001 comment that a female Hispanic judge would often reach a better decision than a white male judge, troubles me a bit. Just as if a conservative white male judge would say that his life experience allowed him to make better decisions than a Hispanic female. There would be no issue in my mind if her comment was that her life experiences a Hispanic female helped her make better decisions. I'll wager that was the point that she was trying to make it just came out bad.

Of course any opposition to this choice will either blamed on her comment or her being a Hispanic female, demonizing anybody with a 'R' after their name. Sometimes I wonder if the left nominates people that aren't white just so they can do that. These are the same people that belittle Sarah Palin as stupid, how dare a woman have conservative views. Hypocrisy.

[h/t Patterico]

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

What Was Rockin' Mikes Cassette Player 20 Years Ago...

Damn I'm getting old.

UDS!


The old 6x9 three ways were pumping!

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Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Memorial Day

Clyde has had a rough day today... A hearty walk in the morning and two hours running around on the beach.

Here is what he is doing at this moment...


What a life he lives!

Hopefully everyone is enjoying as nice of a day as I am. When you are cooking some meat on a grill this evening, take time to remember the soldiers that died so we can enjoy the life we have today. Check out the post on The Big Picture. The pictures, as usual, are beautiful, touching and sobering all at the same time.

Another very touching story, the portrait of the dad and his infant daughter really got me.

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

I had no idea...

...That stuff like this went down at a horse race. I always imagined it was higher class. Hilarious!



[h/t Ace of Spades]

"MEN invented that. That idea would never occur to a woman."

Damn straight!

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High Speed Camera

Cool video showing showing a bullet ripping through stuff. As I have said before, I love when you speed up or slow down the time frame of what our eyes typically see. A lot goes on in between the around 30 frames per second that we view our surroundings.



I think the water bottle was the best.

Cute, kill the guns. Ahh, if only it were that simple.

How about kill the people that would use guns to kill people? That is the only way to solve the problem. It'll be pretty tough to do without a time cop. (he can travel back in time, and cap the crim before he shoots someone.)

If guns are illegal, only criminals will have guns. Yes, it may be a cliche saying, but it is true. Think about it... In most societies that I know of, shooting people is illegal. Yet people still do it. If you could melt down all guns and turn them into tricycles for impoverished third world children, the crims would find something else to use, say, a knife!

Then we get a video titled 'Stop the Stabbing, Kill the Knife'. Melt all knives down! 'Stop the Arrow, Kill the Bow'. 'Stop the Throwing, Kill the Stone'. 'Stop the Poking (with sticks), Kill the Tree'. 'Stop the Beatings, Kill the Fist'. Finally we'd end up with, 'Stop the Stompings, Kill the Feet'. We would be a bunch of torsos in a sandy desert. Is that what we want?

The gun is only around five hundred years old, and us humans go back quite a bit farther than that. Was the world a happy utopia that the gun ruined? Uhh, no. [h/t BlackFive]

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Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Eco-Sailors Rescued by Oil Tanker

Eco-Sailors Rescued by Oil Tanker",

An expedition team which set sail from Plymouth on a 5,000-mile carbon emission-free trip to Greenland have been rescued by an oil tanker.


Unlike rain on a wedding day, I believe this can be classified as ironic...

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Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Two Years Ago Today...



...We brought the big fellah home for the first time.

Here is Clyde in about the same place today.


Notice the work on the couch legs... Ah, the joys of owning a dog!


A nicer shot from yesterday -

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Feliz Cinco de Cinco!

¿Qué?



Bush es le estúpido!

Mas tequila!!!



Note - 'Le' is 'el' backwards... Done on purpose for net-cred.

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Thursday, April 30, 2009

More Time-Lapse

Man, I freaking LOVE time lapse photography and tilt-shift lenses!

Check it out...

Eclectic 3.0: The Roads Less Traveled from Ross Ching on Vimeo.
Click through for the HD.

I need to do this, I have a few ideas floating about in my head....

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