Book Of Norm

http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/cto/1617671574.html 1990 300ZX (needs bodywork) - $1900 1990 300ZX car was MINT before it was hit. Blk ext/tan cloth int. Auto/w od , t~tops with fact sun shades. 108xxx orig miles, no rebuilt motor or trans they both are orig, still runs great. Car is 100% stock (except for real HID zenon headlights). Car runs and drives, all it needs is a front bumper cover, pass side fender, hood and minor susp work. I dont know why stuff like this cracks me up, but the idiocy of saying "car was MINT before it was hit" is pretty much why craigslist is a great place for laughs as well as bargains.

MUAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHA ok. enough of that. But I am pretty excited that the Pre will be the first phone in the world to offer Adobe Flash 10. It will get it tomorrow. suckas. (actually - android will get it at some point.. as will windows 7 phone, and possibly blackberry now they are going to get a real browser.. but for now, the Pre rules the world.) The bigger point here is that phones will soon be able to run the full internet - something they got half-way towards with webkit browsers (what runs in WebOS, iPhone OS, and Android - the only three really capable of browsing the web), but finally with full flash support you will be able to access anything on the web. Millions of flash games, online apps, stock trading sites, banking sites, youtube, any millions of variations on maps and tools and utilities etc etc. It is, to a certain degree, possibly also the death of the app? I think the "app" - may have had its day? Not totally sure on that one, but I will certainl...

Solar powered cars are cool. They show that someday, somehow, we will be able to go around slowly in overgrown peapods with bicycle tires. But really, I do actually think they are really cool, and in general I love the idea of solar power. But this? This is just dumb. Its the world's largest solar powered boat, with 5,382sqft of solar panels. It is all set for its maiden voyage of circumnavigating the globe. You know whats really cool about that? It will be the first ship to circumnavigate the globe without burning fossil fuels... Errr I mean it will be the most eco-friendly way to get around on the open ocean, showing just what hundreds of thousands of dollars in exotic materials and rare earth metals mined and manufactured in China with no environmental controls will get you... whooops... So.. It will look cool, and show off what you can do if you are a big floating doofus. Because really, there is this little invention called SAILING which might have something to say a...

Pretty hilarious. I thought Nigerian princes had this market all locked up (or the Sudanese guy who wanted to "give power to your elbow" - which was also classic) but turns out south east Asia is getting in on the game: Good Day To You My Friend. It is understandable that you might be a little bit apprehensive because you do not know me but I have a lucrative business proposal of mutual interest to share with you. I got your reference in my search for someone who suits my proposed business relationship. I am Mr. William Leung Wing Cheung a South Korean, happily married with children; i work as an Executive Director of Hang Seng Bank Ltd, Head of Personal Banking. I have a confidential business suggestion for you. I will need you to assist me in executing a business project from Hong Kong to your country. It involves the transfer of a large sum of money. Everything concerning this transaction shall be legally done without hitch. Please endeavour to observe utmost discretion in...

This is the untold story of the biggest serial killer in the history of mankind. Well, at least as I have been able to discover. And its kind of untold. I connected a few dots before others did, as far as I can tell. It is the story of Tillikum. Tillikum was born in 1985 near the beautiful coastline of Iceland. His early years are shrouded in a somewhat murky mystery, though the general consensus is that it was likely a difficult childhood. At the tender age of 6 he moved against his will to Vancouver, which is where the troubles began. Tillikum is a killer whale. Quite literally. In 1991, soon after his capture, he drowned his trainer in front of spectators at Sealand of the Pacific in British Columbia. In this effort he was assisted by two female killer whales. Keltie Byrne slipped and fell into the water, and then Tillikum along with the other two whales held her underwater until she drowned. The whale exhibit was closed due to the incident. Some said it was just the whales playing,...

I put this up here because it is the second time in a couple months that I have been asked to put this list together for someone shopping for a car. To some - it is an odd idea. To others, it gives full control of the vehicle, better mpg, and more "fun to drive" quotient to cars that can otherwise be a little dull. I would love to have a manual for my Tahoe. Instead I bought a sports car.. but thats another matter. -PT Cruiser - junk -Jeep Patriot - mostly junk -Kia Sportage - the new one is pretty good actually -Chevrolet HHR - on norm's 10 worst cars of all time -Jeep Compass - same as patriot, just looks dumber -Hyundai Tucson - same as kia, looks pretty good -Honda Element - do you surf? Skate? Snowboard? Smoke? If not, this is not for you. -Mazda Tribute - see ford escape -Ford Escape - great little SUV -Suzuki Grand Vitara - they still make these???? -Didge Nitro - same as liberty but with macho Dodge looks -Subaru Forester - great little SUV -Volkswagon Tiguan - gr...

This is of course nothing new. But the following para from a NYT article about putting a special tax on soda really got me: “What you want,” says Kelly Brownell, director of Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, “is to reverse the fact that healthy food is too expensive and unhealthy food is too cheap, and the soda tax is a start. Unless food marketing changes, it’s hard to believe that anything else can work.” So - those who cant afford expensive food right now buy the cheaper, less healthy, stuff, and Yale's solution is to raise the price so that whole foods is the same price as Save-A-Lot? WTF. So with one hand we offer food stamps which are only accepted at no frills supermarkets and on the other hand we tax the less-healthy and more processed foods that those supermarkets offer. Seems like a great way to help people out. It is favored by the current administration. Obviously, the argument is that the tax will cause buyers to substitute more healthy alternatives inste...

The man behind the hockey stick graph has admitted that there has been no significant warming for the last 15 years, and that the earth may have been warmer in the recent past (800-1300ad) than it is today. Basically, global warming as we know it is shot (please let this mean Prius sales have peaked - otherwise I am installing hella lamps and a truck horn on the Tahoe just to get them out of my damn way) and now it is time for something new: news Wednesday, Feb 17 2010 6PM 1°C 9PM -1°C 5-Day Forecast Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/02/01/us/budget.html?hp This is a very impressive visual representation of where the budget goes. I know it was interesting for me to see where the big spending areas are, and often where those are versus the areas that are so often focused upon (NASA for example, which has a tiny budget). This was sent over to me from my brother at http://thefourpartland.wordpress.com/

One of the best magazine publications of all time, Car & Driver I still love dearly, though I have defected to autoblog and jalopnik for my daily car news. And this is why. A hilarious, informative and in my opinion accurate take on what exactly is wrong with Toyotas: the drivers. Prius Next Up for Recall Hysteria, Could Corolla Be Next? [Editorial] February 10, 2010 at 2:02 pm by Jared Gall [An intro tallying the dizzying amount of previous Toyota recalls was here, but you already know what's going on , and we know you've had a hard day— Ed.] And now, the recall sharks are biting at the Prius, with approximately 133,000 2010 model-year cars being recalled to have an update performed on the anti-lock braking software. The problem, it seems, is that “some 2010 model year Prius owners have reported experiencing inconsistent brake feel during slow and steady application of brakes on rough or slick road surfaces when the ABS is activated in an effort to...

Harry Reid just slashed the "jobs" bill that was making its way though congress, and seemingly had bi-partisan support. Instead of a bi-partisan $85billion package it is now a very limited $15billion package. They say the reason this is the case is he wanted to focus directly on "jobs"... well... a) $15 billion ain't buying a lot of jobs these days, and b) there was actually bi-partisan legislation on the table, why not go with it....? (Jekyll snickers) ...ahh option b. I'll tell you why. Its because if we passed the bi-partisan jobs bill right now it would totally take the wind out of the only tiny gust filling the dreams of Democrat's reelection campaigns right now: that they will be able to portray the Republicans as the party of "no" who have blocked beneficial legislation. Now they say "We have four provisions that should under any circumstance enjoy broad bipartisan support" - trying to work the Republicans into a corner. So far...

"I think one of the most pernicious aspects of the modern environmental movement is the romanticization of peasant life. And the idea that industrial societies are the destroyers of the world. The environmental movement has evolved into the strongest force there is for preventing development in the developing countries. I think it's legitimate for me to call them anti-human." -Patrick Moore, a founding member and former leader of Greenpeace

Hahaha blogger texting = FAIL. I guess I could use it to tweet. WTF is a tweet anyway? Tweet tweet.

(4 of 4) like, and wether this is a viable alternative. Too all the readers of the BoN, my apologies. Please know I do not, and never will, sell viagra.

(3 of 4) was struck down in the wake of a vicious attack. Or so it seems. This was sent from my pre, as a text, so I am intrigued what the formatting will look

(2 of 4) quite a fan of the feature. There is, however, no way to protect yourself from spam if they get the email address. Which they did when my poor laptop

(1 of 4) BoN hacked. The BoN was recently hacked due to a fwature which allows me to send emails to a specific address and them be posted automatically. I was

No, its not The Devastator from Transformers, though you would be easily forgiven for confusing the two, this is the latest in mine clearing to be used in Afghanistan and Iraq, found by Ranimal: If you read nothing else, read this: one driver went over a 60lb IED. His quote? "I laughed and I drove on." Marines push 'The Breacher' against Taliban lines By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU, Associated Press Writer Alfred De Montesquiou, Associated Press Writer Thu Feb 11, 9:44 am ET SI...

The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones.

Night Shuttle Launch A time-lapse view of the STS-130 shuttle launch, the last planned night launch of the Shuttle. kuyabic/Flickr

Pointless? Yes. Amazing? Yes.

Am I the only one who thinks that a little unintended acceleration for Toyotas is not a bad thing? On the way home today, I got stuck behind: 2 Camrys 1 Corolla 2 Prisses Prii POSes Priuses Seriously, I think most Toyota drivers would be improved by unintended acceleration, because they sure as hell never intend to accelerate.

The IPCC is completely shot. Turns out that their "research" and "consensus" on global warming is a scam and a farce, with research quality which would have gotten me pulled up for academic integrity in High School. There is both an upside and a downside to this. The upside is that the idiotic mindless belief that we are on the brink of disaster and have to sacrifice our economies and thus global development in order to "save the world". Sidenote: think about it this way global warming believers. A truly "green" global agreement with a target of 450 or 350ppm would lead to millions (billions?) of people in poverty over time who otherwise would have been lifted out. You see it as limiting big evil companies, but its really cutting back on development for the people who need it most. Cutting back on growth in the US and EU is a direct attack on the lives, health, and safety of billions of people around the country. You always quote numbers based on...

I love the vision of the idealized past. Or really the vision of the past as something more like The Lord of the Rings (the happy parts) or the world Pandora from Avatar. But the reality is different, and something that frequently annoys me is how little people understand how much better the world is getting. I have created the following movie to show how, according to live expectancy and income, the world is becoming a much better place.

I have not yet commented on throttlegate or whatever the cool bloggers are calling it these days (I am not part of that crowd - more of the socially awkward corner of the blogoshpere - I like thinks such as "space," "gadgets" and "weird news" after all - and I believe in ghosts, aliens, capitalism, and the innocence of Milli Vanilli.. ok, not that last one) So, toyota is pretty royally screwed in this country, and with good reason. Those of us who watch automotive news have seen these unintended acceleration claims for a while, but they were always pushed aside by the NHTSA. Turns out this was a pretty clear case of "agency capture" with ex-gov guys going straight to working for big T, and then lobbying to block investigations -- successfully. The whole thing is covered so much elsewhere, I wont spend much time on it here, but a few thoughts: 1) I have never liked Toyotas and have never recommended them to anyone I know. Actually, no one that I a...

Obama has been saying a lot of the right things recently, in an effort to move towards the middle (and I am not sure that Republicans are responding correctly: refusing to meet in the middle is a risky strategy). He has been pushing repealing the cap gains tax in a limited way (for small businesses - so really limited), he has been talking about freezing the budget, or parts of it, and trying to get spending under control, he has been discussing broader tax cuts. And then we get this on energy: "Don't give up on that," Obama said. "I don't want us to just say the easy way out is to just give a bunch of tax credits to clean energy companies. The market works best when it responds to price. And if they start seeing, you know what, that dirty energy is a little pricier, clean energy is a little cheaper, they'll innovate and they'll think things through in all kinds of ways." And the thing is... I completely agree with him. The issue seems to be transla...

A never ending source of amusement, whatever job I seem to have (though this one gets more than the last - though less than selling large lots on eBay)... From the Desk of: Sir. Jude Afam Director, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources Attn: Sir/Madam It is with trust and confidence that I make this urgent and important business proposal to you. I am a Director with the Presidency, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources Nigeria. I have been assigned by my colleagues to seek a foreign partner in the transfer of the sum of US$4,500.000 (Four Million Five Hundred United States Dollars) only. This money arose from a deliberate over - invoicing of a contract and supply of Drilling Equipment / Earth Moving Equipments awarded by our corporation in 2009. We have been safeguarding this money since then, waiting an appropriate time when the money can be transferred into a foreign nominated bank, pending our arrival for the sharing and utilization with the owner of the account. Now the new civ...

This is hilarious. And creepy. And sad. And a vision of things to come. And very very odd. And I thought this is why we put up with Las Vegas. And I just am not sure what to say about it. Roxxxy is a $7,000 sex doll robot. It (I refuse to call it a "she") has warm air circulating under its skin so it is warm and lifelike to the touch. It can talk. Kinda. It uses a preset list of words in order to respond to conversation - in other words, its ability to speak is somewhat, limited. One can only imagine what it is programmed to say. I dont really want to put up an image.. they are all creepy. Googly Roxxxy if you must, its... an experience (all pg-13 rated from what I saw thankfully so far, it just came out after all). But, here it is: The more interesting part to me is where we are at in terms of possible changes to the social structure, acceptance of some rudimentary form of robot into society etc. Granted, Roxxxy is really for the early-adopter do-it-yourself technically incl...

I once watched a truly bad movie, the Chronicles of Riddick. The story took the awesome Vin Diesel character (and essentially only person left alive) from Pitch Black and put him in a story that centered around Necromongers from the Underverse. Seriously. Comcast is trying to compete with that level of idiotic naming. They are going to rebrand themselves Xfinity. Obviously they did not get the memo about the 90's ending, I assume that they are going to then make the Nissan Xterra the only vehicle that company employees are allowed to drive: They will only be allowed to go skiing on Salomon x-screams: The movie eXtreme ops (which is truly truly terrible) will be played at every board meeting: After which, they will then be fored to watch the X-Files from start to finish. Including BOTH movies. The only shoes employees will be allowed to wear are X-trails, they will be forced to participate in eXtreme sports such as skyboarding (remember that one?) and inline skating (so damn eXtreme...

No need to watch more than the first minute or so (I think - I have not watched the whole thing) but this is pretty damn amazing.... and I want one..

Want to know what is wrong with this country? What caused the credit crises? Why we accept a $1.5 trillion deficit in the budget? MONOPOLY Brand Electronic Banking Edition Approx. Retail: $34.99 Item: 00114 Ages: 8 & Up Where To Buy Pr...

Ranimal's comment: "the 2014 version should be called the iMaxiPad"

Iran shot four astronauts into space yesterday. A mouse, a turtle and two worms. Seriously.

by going short... I really dont believe in Tesla. Their IPO numbers are highly dubious, they have built less than 500 cars, and they are living on investors money. Lets be real here folks, this company is a joke that is supported by the fact that Obama likes shiny green things (the DOE $465 million loan is what is keeping the company alive). So they filed for an IPO, to scam investors out of millions raise money for the model S http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000119312510017054/ds1.htm They had a gross profit of $7.7 million... but total operating loss of $31.5 million through 3Q 2009 for the year. In other words, in the first 9months of 2009 they lost a shit ton of money, and still think that they can go public. On top of this is the fact that the only reason they did not lose a hell of a lot more is because they cut way back on R&D spending, which is not a good thing when you are meant to be making the mainstream model S, and have recently announced the roadster ...

First and possibly last time I base a post on a twitter comment, but it popped up on the side of a story, and I find it hilarious. The story goes that there will be anti-abortion ad aired during the superbowl featuring Tim Tebow and his mom lying that when she was pregnant in the Philippines doctors recommended abortion, even though the practice has been illegal in that country since 1930. The ad is obviously controversial on top of it being BS, but this was just hilarious: txgardeningmom : @ 11:15 Dallas time there will be a group outside CBS in NY praying for the ad airing during the super bowl with Tim Tebow & his mom. TY CBS 2 hours ago ago from web EPIC LOL

Bush Obama recently announced diplomatic discussions with Iran a giant missile shield to protect US interests from Iranian missiles. The President, long a war hawk elected as an anti-war socialist, believes that Iran will not play nice with diplomacy and so is using hard assets to counter Iranian aggression. Known for his swagger and go it alone communist policies, the President sent the CIA director to meet with the Israeli Prime Minister to discuss the Iranian threat. The President believes in containing an Iranian nuclear threat, and will seek diplomatic means of doing so will do so through hard-nosed aggressive realpolitik. In the wake of the surge in Iraq Afghanistan it seems the President has consistently hardened his military stance, refusing to put a definitive timetable for withdrawal and recommending certain detainees at Guantanamo be held indefinitely along with pushing through a major new arms sale to Taiwan in spite of Chinese protests. In addition, the new budget ca...

I like Germany a lot. Had a fantastic time there on vacation last fall. Beautiful country, great food, nice people, Munich is now one of my favorite cities and I would love to commute on the autobahn in a s4/m3/xfr/aston martin. But I will never live there. They just announced that they will BUY illegally obtained information on Swiss bank accounts in order to prosecute tax evaders. They already did this 2 years ago with Luxembourg. Seriously. The equivalent of the IRS is going to PAY HACKERS for ILLEGAL records in order to prosecute people who MAY OR MAY NOT have broken tax laws. Yes, the IRS pisses me off - but you would be able to shoot this down in court over here using a lawyer from Sonoma County Community College who failed the bar their first 12 times. So in addition to making me not want to live in Germany, it makes me want to hack into bank accounts in tax havens and sell the info to Germany - or at least bankroll the effort. Seriously, WTF Germany? And yes, the wtfasaur has b...

This is the way it was written up in Autoblog.. they dont get it... "Also, the General Motors board only named him the permanent CEO when a search for someone to step in and take the job from Whitacre came up fruitless. The search yielded no one qualified that was willing to work for the pay restrictions put in place by Uncle Sam as a result of GM's Chapter 11 bailout. Also, and you need to read between the lines for this one, Detroit for the most part dislikes and distrusts outsiders. Hence the fact that they are looking internally for a Whitacre replacement. Strange when you consider how much wood former Boeing-man and total Detroit outsider Alan Mulally's been chopping over at surging Ford . Still, "Whitacre and the board want the winning candidate to emerge from a new corporate culture based on decision-making and accountability."" The real story here is that the board recognizes he is a tool. He was known as a tool and not very capable over at ATT, and...

Looking at the results you might think this came from FOX, but nope... http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/19/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6116297.shtml?tag=pop Grade Obama's First Year in Office The Economy A: 3.59% B: 5.61% C: 5.71% D: 17.65% F: 67.44% Foreign Policy A: 7.32% B: 5.12% C: 8.85% D: 22.05% F: 56.66% Health Care A: 4.01% B: 4.26% C: 4.45% D: 9.27% F: 78.00% Afghanistan A: 4.81% B: 14.21% C: 26.69% D: 23.93% F: 30.36% Iraq A: 5.87% B: 11.47% C: 26.36% D: 23.30% F: 33.00% Threat of Terrorism A: 5.58% B: 5.88% C: ...