Book Of Norm

if you have not seen the Italian Job (the original Italian Job) then stop reading now, and go watch it (I have a copy if one is needed). For those that are still with me.. this is a classic british article =) Spoiler Alert: If you want to be surprised by the ending of The Italian Job , stop reading now. We had a theory that humanity was officially bored when the carpet rake was invented. Once people didn't have to subdue woolly mammoths for dinner, they could focus on how to subdue the shag. That theory has been bolstered by news that the cliffhanger ending of The Italian Job has been attacked – and solved – by a host of amateur minds responding to a contest held by the Royal Society of Chemists (RSC). The end of The Italian Job sees the gang in the front of a bus teetering over a cliff, looking at all the gold at the back end of the bus and knowing they can't get to it without plunging to gold-plated deaths. The question posed by the RSC was simple: How could the gang get th...

Good article forwarded from my Mom on how recycling (in the UK) is not exactly the green pasture many it has long been touted as. However, possibly the best line is this: "Some town halls have admitted using anti-terrorism legislation to snoop on householders who fail to recycle properly," ... only in the UK ... On a heavier note, the recommendation of burning trash for electricity is a good one, and specifically the plasma systems now coming on line (which dont generate the toxic/heavy wastes that traditional incinerators do) I think would be a very good option. Recycling 'could be adding to global warming' Recycling could be adding to global warming rather than reducing it, a key government adviser on waste management has said. By Louise Gray and Gordon Rayner Last Updated: 10:39AM GMT 28 Jan 2009 Peter Jones suggested that much of the country's waste should simply be burnt to generate electricity Photo: PA Peter Jones suggested that an "urg...

Obama and his administration's first steps have been to close Guantanamo (a dubious decision), and antagonize China. The antagonizing China is what I think matters more. They have stated that China is manipulating its currency. Well no shit. Of course it is. The Bush administration (with their idiotic cheap dollar policy) never accused China of manipulation, and with good reason. The implicit agreement was that China bought US debt, and we bought cheap Chinese products. Antagonizing China is not the way to go right now, as US debt is already looking a little dubious--Trillion dollar debt, each year for the next few years?--I personally think it is a dumb decision.

I hate speeding tickets on open safe stretches of road, when you are from out of state. The only reason behind such things is revenue for the state cops. And that drives me crazy. Jackassery. A new study proves that my suspicions are correct (at least in North Carolina). The study found that the number of tickets issued in the state was primarily influenced by..... the state/county coffers. The less money they were pulling in from taxing you to death, the more they got you by claiming 74 in a 65 is really unsafe, especially when cops cruise around in their POS 70's tech Crown Vics at 80, just because they are jackasses. Yeah... at least we dont have speed cameras?...

No more $20 million fligts to ISS. Russia, possibly due to international pressure, is getting rid of its tourism program. Still NewSpace is alive and well, and I am hoping t o make it into space in not too long.

Officially passing GM this year, ToMoCo is now the largest car company in the world. Too bad for GM, but it is not as dead as many think. Tough times are ahead, but I think it has rounded a corner.

So, the big speech was not quite the seminal experience many were hoping for, harping on a lot of things in the past as it did. However, the Obama = Lincoln symbolism is alive and well, thanks largely to Obama and his team. Also, who the hell cares what Michelle Obama wears? Does that matter, at all? No, it does not. The press is working to turn them into the next JFK and JK, and they ignore the fact that other than everyone thinking he was a golden god, JFK was not actually a very good president. Neither, realistically, was Lincoln (in a sense of freedoms.) So, color me unimpressed, but I hope I am proven wrong.

yeah... its that bad.. they spammed out text ads for American Idol... TO THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS. Sinking.. sinking....glug..glug......

Hitting the UN Aid station in Gaza with white phosphorus rounds? Thats pretty low, even for Israel. Combined with all the other reports of civilian casualties, it is clear military targets far from the only ones hit. Sure, could be collateral damage and all that, but that still leaves only three solutions: 1) The Israeli army is incompetent (unlikely) 2) The Israeli army is shooting at whatever the hell it wants, if there is a slight excuse to shoot at it (highly likely) 3) The Israeli army is intentionally targeting civilians in order to put pressure on Hamas. Personally, I think it is explicitly and officially 2, but no one is really against 3 if it happens on a granular level -- the problem for Israel is that even in this very pro-Jewish country, the negative press and reaction is pretty strong.

Obama has commented on the trillion dollar deficit. His comment? It could go on for the next few years. Run for the hills. (I make no bones about the fact that where we currently are is due to the Bushster's lack of Presidentitudability when it comes to spending.) Graphical representation: 2007 Deficit 2008 Deficit 2010 National Debt

Ocean Pearl company: SEAmagine Hydrospace | passengers: 2 | displacement: 7000 lb max depth: 500 ft | max speed: 2.5 knots endurance: Up to 8 hours, with 72 hours of life support 1. Sonar: A forward-looking sonar sensor is mounted near the front of the vessel. A screen in the cabin displays obstacles obscured by murky water or low light. 2. Flotation Bladders: On the surface, inflatable sacs provide the vessel with more than 30 in. of freeboard. When diving , the operator deflates the bladders. 3. Vertical Thruster: Located at the center of gravity of the vessel to maintain stability, this fan produces a jet of water that is used to control the depth of the submarine. 4. External Diver Station: A scuba-equipped operator can pilot the craft from a master control panel located outside the sub. This allows a pair of untrained occupants to ride in the cabin. 5. Buoyant Tail: The rear of the vessel is filled with foam to keep the craft in a horizontal pitch on the sur...

An interesting article entitled 10 Things Bush Got Right. My comments will be in italics. I do believe Bush has been overly criticized, but dont agree with a number of these points: Bush's Achievements Ten things the president got right. by Fred Barnes 01/19/2009, Volume 014, Issue 17 The postmortems on the presidency of George W. Bush are all wrong. The liberal line is that Bush dangerously weakened America's position in the world and rushed to the aid of the rich and powerful as income inequality worsened. That is twaddle. Conservatives--okay, not all of them--have only been a little bit kinder. They give Bush credit for the surge that saved Iraq, but not for much else. He deserves better. His presidency was far more successful than not. And there's an aspect of his decision-making that merits special recognition: his courage. Time and time again, Bush did what other presidents, even Ronald Reagan, would not have done and for which he was vilified and abused. Tha...

When I was a kid, I wondered whether it would be better to keep selling one car and get the production as cheap as possible than keep developing a car. My thought was to take something simple and reliable - appliance transportation - and just keep selling it, never updating anything. Then in high school I learned the economics behind this thought, and fundamentally, they made sense. But I also learned about customer demand, and the idea pretty much failed here. To date, there are a few real-world examples. Most notably is the Ford Taurus of the 90's-2006, which became such a standard for fleet cars that Ford kept making them even after it stopped selling them to the public. Another was the Yugo, which was amazingly in production until this year. Another is the 80's BMW 3 series, which is still under production in South Africa and China (South Africa legitimately, China not so much). The VW beetle (the real one) was made in Mexico until 2006 - mostly as Taxi cabs. It cost only a...

"Magnetic Refrigeration Currently, refrigeration cycles typically use a fluid as the working substance undergoing a compression and expansion cycle. Efficiencies are limited due to irreversibilities in the compression and heat transfer process. A cycle that has the potential to be an efficient means of producing refrigeration at cryogenic temperatures is the Active Magnetic Regenerative (AMR) cycle. This cycle makes use of solid magnetic refrigerants typically composed of rare earth elements and alloys ordering ferromagnetically. The magnetic materials display a characteristic temperature rise when the magnetic flux density is increased known as the magnetocaloric effect (MCE). Near the ordering temperature, this temperature change can be highly reversible. When used in an AMR cycle the magnetic refrigerant acts as a thermal storage medium (a regenerator) as well as the means ...

Public schools are calling for bailout funds... slippery slope anyone?

Forwarded from my brother: A page from History: Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. The Socialist Party candidate for President of the US, Norman Thomas, said this in a 1944 speech: "The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened." He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform." "The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister, United Kingdom

The new Subaru legacy is here and... its weird. Ok, its only the concept vehicle for the next gen. So.. it will probably look a lot like this.. which is too bad:

Good reads - though my brother gave me the heads up on this a while ago, looks like the rouge team trying to get past the Ares disaster is going direct to the soon to be POTUS. STBPOTUS had no comment. Rogue NASA Science Team Pitches New Spacecraft Designs to Obama By Jack Loftus , 11:00 AM on Sun Jan 11 2009, 28,667 views NASA, when it isn't finding rogue space lights or mysterious BOOMs of the non-Steve Jobsian variety, is apparently sending rogue science teams to brief President-elect Obama on the future of the space program. These teams weren't sanctioned by NASA top brass, so in a way they are effectively going rogue , not unlike an Alaskan governor in a Saks Fifth Avenue. They were also not towing the company line about the future of the space program. In fact, they argued that NASA should scrap the upcoming Ares rocket program in lieu of a new program called Jupiter Dire...

BYD - a Chinese car company, is trying to become the largest car maker in the world. It has a long way to go, because it is barely in the top 100 right now. With $230 million from Warren Buffet though, it has a chance. Of course, it is trying to do it through building electric and hybrid cars. Considering I just filled up my audi for $30, I dont think that the time is ripe yet to pay an extra 50% for your car. Buffet is rarely wrong, but I would say I am not so sure about this one.

http://www.ereader.com/servlet/mw?t=free_randomhouse&si=59 8 free highish quality PDF books for your perusal, all for free. Put them on your ebook reader, PDA, or tablet computer, or just print them out at work. What you do with them is up to you, I am just here to show you the door.

The Congressional Budget Office has projected that the US Gov will run a $1.2 TRILLION deficit this year. I was guessing it would be around $1 Trillion, but to know that is what we are going to see, to think about the enormity of that debt.. It's staggering. Amazingly, everyone seems to think that the way to get out of a problem caused by over leverage, cheap credit, and irresponsible lending is overspending and irresponsible lending. Do people assume that the US govt. is immune to the same problems that Lehman, Bear, AIG, Freddie, and Fannie have faced. We're all screwed.

Only on the emerald isle could this happen.. and its a classic.. The Lewes District Council in East Sussex, England, has just banned whores in their district, although they don't seem to mind seeing jugs every now and then. Actually they decided to ban Hoare Road because of the potential homonymic mixup with ladies of the night, but felt that Juggs Road was okay. In an effort to clean up the smut all around them, the Council has just enacted a measure to ban suggestive, rude or just unpleasant road names from the map. Among the banned names are Gasworks Road, Tip House and Coalpit Lane, all of which were deemed 'aesthetically unsuitable,' as well as 'names capable of deliberate misinterpretation,' like the aforementioned Hoare Road and Typple Avenue, Quare Street and Corfe Close. Juggs Road and Cockshut Road will inexplicably remain.

"success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan"

In the continued evolution of our (highly limited) knowledge about our own solar system, we just figured out it was 50% larger than we previously thought. Which means we are no longer the little brother to Andromeda, but of a roughly similar size. The reason behind all of this is that it is much easier to look out of our galaxy than to see it, and thus we know much less about the Milky Way than we do about galaxies around us. Just recently, it lost 50% of its spiral arms (dropping from 4 to 2), now it gains 50% more mass. And, at the same time, scientists think that there are many more planets out there that would sustain human life than previously thought -- one big step towards the Star Trek fantasy of stepping out of the shuttle and taking a big healthy breath (most likely after a good bit of terraforming, but so be it.)

The Republicans, with good reason, had been planning to block the seating of Al Franken, who "won" in Minnesota through some seriously unconstitutional means. The democrats realizing that they had better hold off on this one, especially after all the stink they made with Al Gore in 2004. So, there are going to be a couple legal challenges, and since the nomination already rests on a unconstitutional (according to the state constitution) recount, who knows what the hell will happen. At the same time, the Democratic party is so friggin screwed up, they have been planning to block the seating of a Democrat: Roland Burris. There is a good reason behind this one too, its because Burris was appointed to Barack-I-Will-Serve-Out-My-Term-Obama's seat by Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who basically auctioned off the seat. How the hell we managed to get to the point that we elected an inexperienced and dangerous President with illusions of grandeur (he -- according to many sources -...

The next four years could be a very busy time for our military. But right now, the majority of that force is against the incoming president. It is not an ideal situation, but hopefully one Obama will be able to rectify by clear and decisive action: though that has not been the norm for his cabinet appointments. Other results from the same poll are also interesting to me, specifically that 23% of the military say they would retire from service if Obama goes through with his plan to allow gay men and women to serve openly in the military -- repealing the "dont ask dont tell" policy set by his spiritual father Clinton. Of course, this is a highly prejudiced viewpoint, and not to diminish the fight for gay rights, but at this point in time it is probably one of the last things I would be focused on when it comes to the military.

The UK Police Force has admitted that about half of all speed cameras in the country are inactive. They no longer meet the requirements for deployment (thus no tickets would be enforceable). But, because of their 'value' in slowing down drivers, the police refuse to remove the cameras. It has been proven that the cameras cause accidents due to irrational driving. So not only does the big brother state wish to record and monitor all aspects of your life, they are seriously inefficient at doing so. Double fail. (in the end though, it is good news half are off - because there is nothing scarier in my mind than an automated populace control system.)