July 05, 2007
On Gore's Boy
Al Gore's son (also Al Gore) was arrested for posession of marijuana and prescription painkillers.
The former Vice President was quick to point out that marijuana does not cause global warming.
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June 17, 2007
On Muslim Woman Speaking
| Arab woman dares to speak the Truth! Video |
Posted by at 02:26 PM
June 08, 2007
On Ups and Downs
I was thinking about all the graduating students today and it occured to me how quickly we go from being on top to being on the bottom.
See, graduation is the pinacle of academics. A Senior on graduation day is at the height of their achievement. The next day, however, they're at the bottom of the working world. No experience, little pratical skills, and competing with hundreds of new grads for entry level jobs.
I don't bring up this point to be negative, quite the contrary. It's this fact that pushes us to achieve. Being knocked from the top to the bottom constantly gives us a taste of what it is to be the best and motivates us to work hard to do it again. It's a wonderful thing, and its what keeps this country great.
Congratulations to all of the grads this year, from kindergarten on up. It's a bright future ahead, take advantage of every possible opportunity and don't be discouraged by the low points, they're what makes the high points so worth it.
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May 27, 2007
On Something Different
| Japanese Human Art - Why Is My Girlfriend Mad? Video |
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May 17, 2007
On A Possible Explanation
As a follow-up to my last post here's a bit of possible history according to some Biblical Scholars. Before you send me hate mail, I DID NOT make this up, I just report it.
Setting: A small building in early Biblical times. Abraham kneels praying to God for a son, as he's been doing for many years now.
Abe: God, I'm faithful, please honor me with a son.
God: Okay. Yea, you're right, you've been faithful. You'll have your son. As a bonus for making you wait, your son will be special. Revered above all other faithful. How's that sound.
Abe: Sweet. Thanks, God.
Abe to himself: Wait a tick, I'm REALLY old, and so's my wife. How can we have a son? God must have made a mistake. I think I've still got it in me to have a son but I doubt she does. I gotta find someone younger.
(Abe spots a maid nearby)
Abe: Hey there! Wanna come to my place and view my etchings?
(She follows him home, there are no etchings)
(A bit later)
God: Abe!
Abe: Yes God?
God: When I said you could have a son I meant you could have a son with your wife, who you promised to honor forever, foresaking all others. You remember that little bit right?
Abe: Well, yea, but I figured I'd hedge my bets with a younger gal. Hope you don't mind.
God: I mind. A little tip: When the Creator of the cosmos tells you to do something a certain way, you do it that way, without your own private spin on things. Got it?
Abe: Yea I got it.
God: Further, your son by this maid will not be honored. He'll be cursed, and his offspring will be cursed, and their offspring will be cursed, and down the line for all eternity. They'll be warlike and never know the true faith of God, though they'll think they do. But to show I'm not completely heartless when it comes to you, I'll give you another shot at a son. With your wife this time!
Abe: Seems kinda harsh, but thanks for the second chance. What are you going to call this race of peoples my accursed son will create?
God: Muslims.
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May 16, 2007
On One Man's Take On Islam
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On 99.9%
Recently at a large conference of major food manufacturers (Hormel, Kraft, General Mills, etc) one company, I won't say which, stood up to boast their 99.9% food purity rating. Food purity refers to the fact that it's not contaminated with E. Coli, Botulism, or some other nasty that'll make you sick. The chairperson then stood up and informed the group of how dismal a number that was. See, considering the mass tonnage of food that this company produces, that 0.1% of food that slips through still equates to several tons of contaminated food that this company packages and sells. The company spokesperson stood up again and stated that their food purity was actually much better, that she had used 99.9% as an figure only to prove her point, that she had no actual hard data. Everyone in the room belived her, and so do I. If 99.9% had been true then someone probably would have noticed the several tons of food produced that was making people sick.
This story got me interested in what other industries are doing better than 99.9%. Here's some examples:
At 99.9% the airline industry would have had 431 crashes last year.
At 99.9% 1200 babies would have been given to the wrong mother.
At 99.9% 26,000 surgeries would have been performed on the wrong limb.
At 99.9% over a million major medication errors would have occured in hospitals.
At 99.9% a fatal car wreck would happen every 11 second is California.
At 99.9% I would have been involved in 2 helicopter crashes in the past year while at work.
These are just a few numbers but they illustrate my point. 99.9% seems like a great success rate until you look at how many incidents are involved in that 0.1% failure rate. Most of our major industries enjoy a safety and success rating much higher than 99.9%. Despite that fact it's still a major media event when they make an error and someone gets harmed.
Posted by at 07:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
May 15, 2007
On A Fun Game
There's an on-going game in the Susanville/South Lassen County area that I like to call "Lanes are for Wimps". Here's how the game works. As people move their vehicles from one place or another they see how lanes they can use up at once. This extends to parking lots, only the rules change slightly to see how many parking spaces can be filled by the smallest of vehicles. The winner will be declared when a motorist is drug from his vehicle and beat about the head and neck by another motorist or pedestrian who doesn't feel like playing that day. Once the winner is declared the game starts again immediately without any lapse in play.
Main Street, Susanville is two lanes in either direction all the way through town. They're narrow lanes, and really poor quality streets, so I can understand touching the line now and again, but what I describe here is a literal strattling of the center line. I can excuse the huge trucks and things doing that, there's really not enough room for them in one lane, and when you're hauling an Abrahms tank through town out to Sierra Army Depot you can pretty much do whatever you want, but is there any reason why a Miata needs two lanes to cross town? I think they like the beatings!
The parking is what's really amusing. People just scoot into the parking lot and stop their car. Maybe they're in one space, maybe they're in six....maybe they're still in the thoroughfare, it doesn't really matter. When the voices say "it's time to turn off the car" they turn the key and get out. Sometimes they even put the car in Park and set the brake, sometimes Neutral is good enough. That really adds to the excitement, considering there's not one inch of flat ground in all of Lassen County.
The key to parking around here is to park AWAY from everyone else and walk to where you're going. You'll know where to go when you get into the parking lot. Off in the distance, in the farthest, most obscure section of the lot is a group of cars and trucks parked normally, usually accompanied by a few nervous looking drivers looking back at their cars like it's the last time they'll see it in that condition ever again.
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May 11, 2007
On A Must See
The following is the hottest thing on the internet and on Fox News today. Lizzie Palmer who put this YouTube program together is 15 years old. There have been over 3,000,000 hits as of this morning. In case you missed it, here it is.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1
I, personally, think every member of congress should be made to watch this video at least once daily.
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May 09, 2007
On Words
Lately I've been feeling that we as a society are misusing our language to the point where many words are losing their impact. These "big" words are used to describe such mundane things, or are used so often, that they lose their power. Here's a few that I see abused a lot:
GIGANTIC/ENORMOUS/HUGE: We see these words used to describe everything from a used car lot to "huge savings" on an item that really only adds up to a few dollars.
TRAGEDY: The news stations love this word. Everything's a tragedy. Now, I agree that the VA Tech shooting was a tragedy, but Sanjaya being voted off American Idol was certainly not.
FAIR: I hate this word. It gets used a lot in arguments. "That just isn't fair". Guess what, life isn't fair! It's never been fair. It'll never be fair. Besides, what's fair and what's not is entirely subjective. To the rabbit being eaten by the eagle, life's not fair. From the eagle's point of view life is wonderful. Unless of course he'd rather have had squirrel.
EMERGENCY: A friend of my wife's recently said she had a shopping "emergency". What she meant was that she felt an urgent need to go shopping because shopping makes her feel better. I've seen real emergencies, and they involve dead and horribly maimed people.
GINORMOUS: A cross between Gigantic and Enormous. Created because the other two words got over used, this word has now been so over used that it has no meaning either.
There are others, of course, but these are the ones that really bug me. A broad grasp of the English language is a fine thing to posess. It allows us to more effectively communicate and say what we mean without using the same over used words.
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