15,000 Feet
When the air is too thin to breath, put on an oxygen mask.
wahoo
Military Intelligence=Oxymoron
Today, our honorable Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made a statement concerning the Somali pirate debacle in the Indian Ocean. In case anyone is unaware, pirates in that area had attempted to take a U.S. flagged ship but they ended up with only the captain of the ship. Just yesterday, U.S. Snipers killed three of the pirates and rescued the captain. This is what Robert Gates had to say….
“The pirates who kidnapped Captain Richard Phillips, three of whom were killed by US Navy snipers Sunday, were “untrained teenagers with heavy weapons,” Gates told a group of 30 students and faculty members at the Marine Corps War College in Quantico, Virginia.”
What i find ironic here is doubly emphasized with the bold which is untrained teenagers with heavy weapons. While this may seem shocking to the everyday reader, it might also be shocking to think of this. It is possible for a 17 year old to enter the US Military! So, we have an army of 17 to 19 year olds (of course older as well) fighting with heavy weapons! I just gotta love the irony here. I suppose our side are the trained teenagers with heavy weapons. lol.
Congratulations on your extension in the Defense Department Mr. Gates! May it bring many happy memories of record braking recruitment!
Two Things:
1) I’ve had like 5 nosebleeds today. Ugh, I hate it! I don’t remember the last time I had one before today, oh wait—yesterday. Yeah, the past two days have been rough.
2) I lost another follower…I really don’t know what I’m doing differently that would cause my followers to lose interest. Ah, well—I don’t blog for anyone but myself anyway (at least that’s what I tell myself).
People are always going to unfollow you… you will never know why. The only thing that matters is that the important people are still following.
Also, try jello for the nose bleeds. I heard once that it helped.
And I hope your weekend is better than the past few days have been. :)
jello, huh? am I supposed to eat it or stuff it up my nose?
and…thanks…I can always count on you to say something nice when I’m feeling dumpy :)
PShaw! Gimme a break, nose bleeds build character! ;)
This video is just an illustration of how bad the perspective of some Christians are in this country. To think that God would recognize a country simply by its geographical position is rediculous. Not to mention the way they talk about how God is punishing people for actions in which they wrent even involved. Just craziness! crazy.
There are no words to describe the stupidity of this
The fact that someone took the time to write all that out and the fact that there are people out there who are going to follow it word for ward.
ehow always manages to bring the lulz.
I feel like someone could have taken this directly off cracked.com, its flippin laughable! lol
Holy CoW! What if our Senate was like this?
I bet more people would pay attention to politics! lol!
btw, this is the english house of commons. The UK’s equivelant to the Senate(ish)
My Old School
So i visited my old School today and realized that i dont miss the dorm life whatsoever. As I walked down the hall, I was overwhelmed with the odors of swedish fish combined with stale urine….yeah…Im glad Im not there anymore… :)
Back to the Water
Many of you may know the blog at Wired.com. Recently, they posted an article regarding the new electric car Tesla. Here it is in all its wonderful opulence.
Several automakers are attempting to manufacture new vehicles that run on alternative fuels. This new car is actually run on electric power. The same lithium batteries that power your laptop are used in this vehicle except that they use several hundred of these batteries. They are located in the rear of the vehicle and make up a significant amount of weight(a few thousand pounds).
Another informative media outlet, the BBC has a TV show called Top Gear. In this last weeks show, they featured this new car tesla and tested it out on the track. While the car had impressive acceleration and at first glance the looks and technology of the car seem quite advanced, the latter part of the show was dedicated to the flipside.
This is a new car made by Honda.
the name of the car is the clarity. This vehicle which interestingly enough resembles another gas saver, the Prius runs entirely on compressed hydrogen and oxygen. During Top Gear one of the hosts described how the car works. Imagine you going to go fill up your gas tank. You drive into the filling station, you fill your car with gas and you leave. This is the exact thing you would do with the clarity. The only difference is that the clarity runs on compressed hydrogen instead of gasoline.
Now you might ask: Which car is better?
At first glance, the Tesla’s much better looking, faster, and for god sakes it runs on electricity. However, when you also take into account that the Tesla runs about 50,000$ and it takes nearly 16 hours to charge the batteries for about 300 miles of running time. It pretty much rules out any normal road trip. While this car would be good for the everyday commuter that only goes from home to work, the freedom that is part of our gasoline cars would be severely limited.
On the other hand, the Honda Clarity uses an unlimited source of energy. The compressed hydrogen is combined in the engine with oxygen. This combination might sound familiar to you because it is water; also known as H2O. The exhaust from the Honda clarity is literally water.
Today, these two vehicles live in two different worlds. A sports car versus a family car, an electric versus a hydrogen. Eventually though, it is efficiency, reliability, flexibility, and demand that determines who comes out on top. It’s not about these two cars, it’s about these two energy sources. Electricity is not produced out of nothing; it is made through other means. The majority electricity in this country is created through hydroelectric dams, nuclear reactors, and the burning of fossil fuels. While electric car is dependent on those energy producers, the hydrogen car produces its own energy.
It seems that hydrogen would be the sensible route; however, according to another article on wired.com the hydrogen car is about “as relevant as relevant as Keith Olbermann in an Obama administration.” It might be the fact that hydrogen would require a complete restructuring of our fueling infrastructure. Or perhaps that recharging batteries just sounds better then hydrogen powered vehicles. I mean, hasn’t anybody heard of the Hindenburg?
While the future is yet to be seen, it seems to me that change isn’t what we might have imagined. The prophetical sci-fi writers of the last century imagined us in flying cars, living in cities floating in the sky. Truthfully, most of us still eat real food not squirting out of tubes and wear clothes made of polyester and cotton rather than latex. The host presenting the Honda and the Tesla on Top Gear pointed out something I think is very pertinent. The future of cars is probably going to look like what cars are now.
Technology takes what is and improves on it, and unless someone comes along with an antigravity machine, our cars will probably continue to roll on pavement.
Any comments or rebuttals would be appreciated :-)
enjoy!
