Book Of Norm

Its a long one, but a good one, read on: By CHARLES FORELLE REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- A boy charged to the front of an angry crowd here recently and tossed a carton of skyr , a popular local yogurt-like snack, at the Parliament building. It splattered on the rough-hewn stone. He and thousands of Icelanders were protesting one of the strangest economic failures of the global financial crisis. This past fall, every bank that matters in this tiny nation -- that is, all three of them -- failed. Iceland's currency, the krona, became worthless beyond its shores. The country's financial system stopped working. "We are pissed off at the government," said one young man, pausing between fusillades of eggs. A roll of toilet paper arced across the Nordic sky. Voices of Anger, Shame in Iceland View Slideshow Halldor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images In the whipping wind, a woman held a cardboard with a screaming mouth on Nov. 21. Iceland is an extreme casualty of an era in which it became...

Big news here: NASA has awarded resupply contracts for the ISS to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, both newspace startups which have been working towards private space flight. Important to note is that the contract did not go to Lockheed Martin or Boeing, it went to the little guys. Lets hope that this is a step towards NASA becoming a customer of "regular" spaceflight, and a pioneer where pioneering is needed.

In the last 60 years, India and Pakistan have fought 3 wars. It looks as though they are getting ready for the 4th. After the terror attacks in India, which were almost certainly financed directly or indirectly by Pakistan, the two nations are ready for war. Pakistan is deploying a 20,000 strong armored division into the cities along the expect path of an Indian armored invasion. The order of battle which is expected is that Pakistan's elite strike corps would invade India, eventually be repelled by the larger and superior Indian force, and then the newly moved in troops (along with a couple other divisions) would take the brunt of the Indian attack. They are not expected to be successful. And that is where it gets interesting. Because if the divisions designed to defend against the assault fail, Pakistan is then expected to nuke the Indian armored columns. And if that happens, god knows what happens next - most likely a full blown nuclear exchange, the first in the history of the ...

California, seriously short on money, and seriously unable to pass a budget for the state, is in pretty poor shape. The governators solution is less spending (good governator) but the democratic majority in the legislature has another solution: violate the constitution. The Dems have a simple majority in the legislature, which means they cannot pass taxes, which require a 2/3 majority. Their solution: "user fees." For example, they are going to put a $0.39 "user fee" on gasoline, as well as "user fees" on personal income, and sales tax. Because the "fees" will go into a pool, in the case of the gas tax, for highway funds, and not general revenues, they are not a "tax" and dont require the 2/3rds majority. It is another example of the complete and utter disregard the democratic party has for the constitution, and the rule of law. Thankfully, the governator will veto the bill (and the ACLU had promised to sue), but increasinly it seems as...

Well, kinda. They actually banned the incandescent lightbulb. From March 1st on, you will have to buy compact fluorescent bulbs. Interesting - mostly because this should be a consumer choice (but because of government involvement in energy production, it is not).

Taken from Gizmodo.. but just so good I had to republish.. What in the name of all that is good, sacred, and smells of PVC is this? A deer having sex with a trailer hitch? It's just one of the worst things in SkyMall's catalog. Actually I like it. It goes perfectly with this: But maybe I have had too much of accelerated wine and liquor:

Isn't our sense of heat a sense separate from the other 5? I have been thinking about this, and believe it must be the case. Heat is radiation - not touch. It would be a long-shot to claim that really excited electrons hitting your skin was a sense of touch. I posit that is the 6th sense.

A gondola at whistler collapsed yesterday - which must have been pretty damn exciting. No one was hurt, but I am sure a lot of people were scared shitless. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7786967.stm

Once my favorite car company (and honestly, I do regret getting the S4 over a much more practical stickshift legacy sedan - for a lot less $), Subaru has fallen far. Case in point: they just announced they are pulling out of the WRC (World Rally Championship). They have not been the champions they were in the 90's for a while now, but still, what the hell defines Subaru if it is not WRC? The WRX - the car that made Subaru famous for performance - is a RALLY CAR. Or really.. was.. I suppose. But without WRC, what the heck is Subaru going to claim for the STI and WRX? "These are our awesome detuned rally cars which.. um.. the last model.. a while back.. actually raced in rallys." A big chunk of Fuji Heavy Industries (parent of Subaru) is now owned by Toyota, and it is beginning to show. Pretty soon, we will be assaulted by a never ending stream of boring, floppy, appliancemobiles. Crappy.

... read this. It is the amazing story of how Unions and the govt have come together to become an astoundingly inept drain on the taxpayer, called the Long Island Rail Road. The full article is worth the read, but the quick synopsis in copy and paste form is below: The L.I.R.R.’s disability rate, which since 2000 has ranged between 93 percent and 97 percent for retired career employees, is three to four times that of the average railroad. A worker, for example, could be considered disabled with “moderately severe antisocial ideas.” What constituted an antisocial idea was open to interpretation. The board, with about $34 billion in assets, had not met formally in nearly two years, and no new meeting was scheduled. The three board members, all full-time presidential appointees, rarely met even in private, The rail unions, which have remained powerful even as the nation’s labor movement has ebbed, have aggressively defended their interests at the retirement board. Management has largely a...

From Marketwatch: "It feels like we've seen this movie before. It's called "Government Without a Cause," and features a moment where angst-filled protagonists play a game of chicken that goes horribly wrong. You remember the original, the scene in "Rebel Without a Cause" in which James Dean and the other young man try to see who will be the "chicken" and jump out of the car first. The car, of course, is headed for a cliff and it's only after Dean leaps from the vehicle, laughing at the thrill of it all that he realizes the other guy never made it out. His sleeve got caught on the door handle and he went over the cliff with the car. In the modern version of this movie, the American taxpayer is the poor guy with his arm stuck on the door handle, frantically trying to get loose. The major difference is that in this case, the Congress and the White House have actually tied him to the car and given an extra push on the gas pedal. It isn't s...

I am seriously looking forward to this movie. The book is amazing, in a dark screwed up kind of way (and befitting the fact that it was named one of the 100 most important books of the 20th century). The trailer looks sweet, and from what I have seen so far, they are keeping it pretty close to the book (as in every shot in the trailer is directly taken from a scene in the book). This will be the first time that I watch a movie where I have read the graphic novel first. Interesting because normally with books you create your own images in your head as you go along, and the movie never quite lives up to those. However, in this case, it is literally the book come to life. Very very stoked.

In a not at all surprising turn of events, the reason that the bailout fell through was the UAW, which like most unions seems to believe that it is better to kill off the industry that employs you rather than take a wage cut. Idiots. At 7pm last night Senate Republicans were in closed door session with the UAW. The Democrats were in, the Big 3 were in, everyone was ready to go, except the UAW. Part of the bill called for the UAW to cut wages so that they matched the wages paid to workers in non UAW factories (i.e. Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan etc.) They refused, offering only to cut wages after their current contract expires in 2011. Yeah, thats real helpful. The crappy part is, the UAW might be rewarded for their idiocy, as the automakers might get their bailout from TARP - which may not come with the wage-cut strings attached. My hatred of unions knows no bounds.

Talks collapsed in the Senate. GM is screwed. So much for my long term options... damnit. Ford says they will be ok... which I think is seriously optimistic. Chrysler is likely to sell itself to someone.. possibly Renault or Hyundia. It is amazing to me that the govt. put up $30 billion to shore up Bear Stearns in a second. Offered $700 billion under tarp, $85 billion to AIG, and untold billions to Fannie and Freddie.... but wont give $14 billion in loans to the US automakers. As a single decision, I dont necessarily disagree... but looked at as a big picture, does that make a single damn bit of sense?

Because the new Knight Rider failed, NBC is going to pass on Top Gear USA. The logic is impeccable. Because one of the absolute worst shows ever made, one which simply infuriates car guys because of the complete stupidity of the events in the show and the it-can-change-into-any-shape-as-long-as-its-a-Ford car car in the show (its not KITT, i forget what the heck it is called), has something vaguely to do with cars, car shows must not be popular right now in the US. NBC is a bunch of idiots. Seriously, in Knight Rider, in the first show (the only one I watched), KITT2000 or whatever the heck it is called is being chased by the bad guys.. in a Ford Edge (the family 'crossover' SUV/Minivan). And it cant get away. At all. On a mountain road. Except when it needs to, the car can do 400mph. Yeah.... ok. So because that paragon of stupidity and unreality failed, they are not going to do Top Gear USA, and that show will be passed along to a cable station. Which is really too bad, becau...

Bush, famous for undermining environmental protections, is looking to keep his environmentally-unfriendly reputation strong by hacking away at the Endangered Species act among other things before leaving office. Along with eliminating protection for polar bears (even though they are threatened), Bush is pushing through legislation that no means major projects will no longer need to undergo environmental review unless they are likely to threaten an endangered species. Sounds ok, but the decision on which those are will be made by the agency pushing the project: an agency which will have a vested interest. Obama has said he will work to undo the legislation, but it will be a lengthy process (and one of few things I agree with him on). At the same time, Bush is looking to "blue" his legacy by creating a massive 700,000 square mile preserve in the Pacific. Most of this will be along the Mariana trench, an area of diverse wildlife which has yet to be hit hard by fishing due to its...

Anyone see anything wrong with the above two statements being together? 1) Tesla has asked for $660 Million. Or roughly 10% of what GM would get. 2) Tesla announced they sold their 100th car, which means, in the last year, they have sold 100 cars. Or 0.00001% as many as GM sold in the same period. I think they should get the money, dont you? Telsa was "a new kind of car company" which builds only electric cars. They are a Silicon Valley startup, have enjoyed amazing publicity, but they will, and deserve to, die. Basically all they did was figure out how to use laptop batteries to power a Lotus Elise. Admirable, but not groundbreaking. The car has decent range, and speed, and all the rest of it, but it cost $108,000 for what is a short-ranged electric track toy that would be beaten around the track by a Mazda Miata. Ok, maybe not the Miata, but a Sky Redline, shure. Elon Musk (the guy who started Paypal) is now trying to get a friend to talk to Oprah, so that Oprah will talk t...

Salton Sea at a Crossroads Michael Cohen Once a playground All images courtesy of Milt Friend More than 400 species of birds have been documented at the Salton Sea. It is a major stop along the Pacific Flyway, along which birds migrate between Central America and Alaska. The Salton Sea is an accidental lake, created out of a flood in the desert in Southern California in 1905. Since then, the lake has waxed and waned in both size and popularity. Forty years ago, California’s Salton Sea was a popular destination. Resort towns dotted its shores, offering fishing, boating, swimming and waterskiing: The glitterati of nearby San Diego and Los Angeles flocked there for vacations. The lake was teeming with life, making it attractive to birds migrating between Central America and Alaska along the Pacific Flyway. Though all but one species of fish have since disappeared, birds continue to frequent the lake in tremendous numbers. More than 400 sp...

...one word.. amazing. All back issues of my favorite mag, since the beginning of time (or 1896)

While fuel hit $4.00 a gallon, Geo Metro's broke their original MSRP, even ones with 100k miles on the clock. The Geo Metro is a crappy car. It was a crappy car when it was built, and today, about 10 to 15 years later, it is uber crappy in comparison to what is on the market. A stipper Nissan Sentra (surprisingly, the cheapest car on the market today), is better by 1000% than the Metro. Except for getting good mileage. The Metro got 50mpg, and 60-80mpg if you were careful. Why is that? Because it is a death box on wheels, with a lawnmower engine. With 49hp, and weighing about 1/2 of a normal car, it got good mileage for the same reason a dirt bike does. And you cant build one today, because of millions of safety regulations which dictate things like not dying when you hit a tree at 30mph. Consumers, aware that the Metro was a deathbox on wheels, pushed its price way way up during the oil price spike, and that was a rational decision: they wanted to save money, and were willing to r...

While I usually find Thomas Friedman interesting, I dont always think that he is the brightest spark. He likes the big picture, but he also likes bandwagons, a lot. And sometimes he comes up with interesting ideas, other times, he is way off base. This is a case of the latter. He espouses the organization "Better Place," which is really a pretty decent idea (though there is a lot of BS thrown in, Better Place essentially replaces gas stations with battery replacement stations, and allows you to buy the electric car but lease/rent the battery). It makes sense, other than the fact that it is economically idiotic, and can only exist because of people's desire to "live green." With gas prices readjusting to reasonable levels, it will be one more casualty of the bubble, not Car 2.0 as Friedman sees it. I see it being successful in only one place: Israel. Buying gas basically finances those who wish to wipe Israel off the map (most of the Middle East, Russia, Venezuel...

For anyone who is familiar with discworld, the fantastic world created by Terry Pratchett, you will know the Luggage, a chest with 100 small legs which follows around its owner wherever they go, whether the owner wants it to or not, whether small creatures, armies, or continents stand in the way. The RoboStool is one amazing step towards a real life Luggage:

My second favorite online shopping site now does new commentary as well, and it is of a very high quality = ) COLUMBUS , Ohio (UPI)—U.S. and French scientists say they’ve developed a new understanding of a process called adiabaticity that’s used to control atoms in magnetic resonance. The scientists also believe that “Adiabaticity” would make an awesome title for a Genesis song. WASHINGTON (AP)—The Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to let the nation’s older power plants draw in billions of gallons of water for cooling without installing technology that would best protect fish and aquatic organisms. Representatives for the Bush administration argue that giant mutant fish would really add a new dimension to fishing, and maybe help the sport recapture the attention of today’s video game obsessed youths. SHERMAN , Ill. (UPI)—A Sherman, Ill., man said he has created a 100,000-light animated Christmas display in his yard that synchronizes with a 43-minute lo...

Wards has released their list of the ten best (below a car price cap of $50,000 or so) engines. The price cap means that Godzilla (the GT-R) and the Vette dont make the list, but a lot of good ones do. Below is the list, with my commentary. Audi AG: 2.0L TFSI turbocharged DOHC I-4 (A4 Avant) - no two ways around it, this is a very nice, very smooth engine. The old 1.8T was good, but this thing is super smooth. BMW AG: 3.0L turbocharged DOHC I-6 (135i Coupe) - hells yeah for twin-turboified v6's, the cultural successor to the 2.7t in my s4, and it is meant to be a great engine. BMW AG: 3.0L DOHC I-6 Turbodiesel (335d) - Called amazing by Clarkson, this has to be a good diesel Chrysler LLC: 5.7L Hemi OHV V-8 (Dodge Ram/Challenger R/T) - w00t w00t for the only American v8 on the list - this thing is a great engine and gets good mileage as well. Too bad it will probably be dead in a year, but right now, you can pick up a Ram for about 50% off list, and maybe get a PT Cruiser thrown in ...

Just as Iraq started to stabilize, Afghanistan went down the tubes. Now, we are contemplating a "surge" there as well, as it worked in Iraq. Of course, Afghanistan is notoriously hard to invade or control, as the Russians found out. The advice from a leading Russian general in the Afghan war is as follows: You can expand your presence, but what will change? I think you need to do three things. First, create statehood. Set up a popular authority that would deal with corruption and social issues. Second, a combat-able armed force should be created in Afghanistan. And an economy should be created to help people. If you deploy 200,000 troops there, daytime is your time, you're in command. At night, the Taliban comes and they are in command.

Catching up on some defense news, and not a lot of it is good. Russia is preparing to launch its behind schedule replacement for the aging Typhoon Class SSBN submarine (their nuclear missile sub). The Yuriy Dolgorukiy will be the first Borei class sub (a much more modern sub than the giant Typhoon), and will carry 16 of the new Bulava missiles. The important things to note here are the new development of Russia's delievery systems, something which has languished since the 80's. The new missile is aimed at breaking through our missile defense systems (which we have always claimed, and I believe, are aimed at Iran etc: small states with limited 60's era missile+nuclear tech, nonetheless capable of destroying a city). Speaking of such states, Iran has launched their new two-stage solid-fueled Sajeel/Ashura missile, with a claimed 2,400km range, letting it hit a few European capitals as well as all targets in the middle east. Thankfully, the US conducted another successfull te...

Looking more and more like a sci-fi war book (or one large fortress), Israel has turned to unmanned but heavily armed sentry turrets to protect its borders. Right now, it is along the "hot" border with Gaza, but it could be expanded. Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the network consists of weapons towers, mounting a remotely-controlled 7.62 mm or 50-caliber weapon, linked to an observation station. The observation post, which are manned mostly by female soldiers (who are not allowed to have front-line roles in the Israeli army), monitors border activity around the clock. When an attempted border penetration (or other suspicious activity) is detected, operators can direct one or more towers to engage the targets. In addition to the tower-mounted guns, observers can also employ precision-guided missiles... yup. Crazy Israelis, though in this case I understand the value of the system. However, as is often my fear with remotely operated weapons systems, one has to w...

Yup. Thats right. Above most world events, breaking news, and even "How do I turn off my iPod when it crashes?" is "who is the stig?" As it should be. This vital question, near and dear to the hearts of millions, is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Is it Perry McCarthy, Ben Collins or Damon Hill? Is it a robot? Does Lewis Hamilton occasionally wear the white? As there is no one in the world around the Top Gear track (including, intrestingly, Damon Hill and Lewis Hamilton), he has to be one of the greats. Of course, it could just be James May's alter ego.

This is a pretty wild one.. Hurricanes, as we've seen, can wreak serious havoc when they strike populated areas. We've never had control over them before, but one researcher thinks they could be broken up with F-4 fighter jets. In theory, sending in a pair of the jets to do loops around the eye of the hurricane while it's still out over the ocean, creating sonic booms, would break it up before it hits the shore. Jet fighters flying at supersonic speeds along special trajectories with a hurricane/typhoon at various altitudes would create supersonic booms. In one such embodiment, the trajectories for the supersonic booms of the present invention are counter to the rotational component of the hurricane and/or typhoon being targeted. As such, supersonic booms can be tailored and/or designed to partially and/or fully -negate the basic rotational contribution in a hurricane by slowing down a hurricane's/typhoon's rotation. Additionally, when supersonic booms ...

So.. yeah.. been pretty heavy on the auto news recently, but it is something that I am really into, and we are in a market changing time. The UAW has claimed in testimony to Congress that GM could fail this month if there are not loans approved. This is not actually that bold of a claim, as if the US govt. does not give them a loan, no one else will take on the counterparty risk, and GM is screwed. On the other side, Ford, which has claimed it can survive without the govt. (good for you Ford), is now putting Volvo up for sale. The last of Fords "Premier Auto Group," this means that Ford will be left with Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury as brands, though the last of those hardly deserves the title, as it has essentially been a trim level for the last 20 years. Ford is hoping to get $6 billion for the generally unprofitable Scandinavian firm. One thing does have to be said though, unlike GM which has essentially killed Saab since taking it over, Ford has done good work with Volvo, p...

Zimbabwe has been well on its way to becoming a failed state for quite some time. However, as the article below shows, the deterioration in the last year has been incredibly rapid. Mugabe has managed to drive his "beloved" country into ruin, all the more terrible a crime given how stable and successful Zimbabwe had been before he "saved" it. It is quite likely that we will see either widespread violence, or a completely failed state such as Somalia emerge from the wreckage that is Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe Declares Cholera Emergency By BARRY BEARAK JOHANNESBURG — The Zimbabwean health minister, David Parirenyatwa, has declared the nation’s cholera outbreak a national emergency and appealed for outside help, the state-controlled Herald newspaper reported on Thursday. The epidemic has claimed more than 560 lives. The news emerged a day after riot police officers brandishing batons charged into a group of 100 doctors and nurses on Wednesday in Harare, the cap...