Book Of Norm

I thought this was hilarious... From Engadget: Boeing has hauled in around 20,000 pounds of potatoes to use as human substitutes during its tests with airplane WiFi. The aircraft maker is checking that onboard wireless signals don't interfere with navigation and communication systems. Groaningly titled SPUDS (Synthetic Personnel Using Dielectric Substitution), the tubers apparently replicate how airborne signals are bounced and absorbed by real-life passengers, but without the need for Boeing to offer complimentary snacks or tiny drinks during testing.

What you may not yet fully understand is that no one - and I mean no one - has any idea how we are actually going to run ObamaCare. With the entitlement package looming, 26 states have refused to participate and only 6 states have been given "conditional" approval on their design for the exchanges which will be used to offer and buy coverage. The best part? Certain states have taken to filing freedom of information act requests in order to figure out what the fuck is going on... From the WSJ: For sheer political farce, not much can compete with ObamaCare's passage, which included slipping the bill through the Senate before dawn three Christmas eves ago. But the madcap dash to get ready for the entitlement's October 2013 start-up date is a pretty close second. The size and complexity of the Affordable Care Act meant that its implementation was never going to easy. But behind the scenes, even states that support or might support the Affordable Care Act are frus...

Ok... so no one has actually died yet.. but the idiocy which is Apple Maps is *nearly* killing off a large percentage of the Australian population (there aren't that many down there to start with - most Aussies are off getting drunk in youth hostels around Europe from what I can see). Not long after it appeared in the Apple's latest operating system, people noticed that it had a habit of showing destinations in the wrong locations, like a museum located underwater, or refusing to show locations at all, like the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon and most of a few world metropolises. The near death experiences are coming because Apple Maps lists the town of None of that has apparently helped drivers looking for the town of Mildura, in Victoria, Australia however. Apple Maps still places the hamlet in the middle of the Murray-Sunset National Park, about 44 miles southwest of its actual location. The displaced location map issue has reportedly left six drivers lost or stranded in the...

I have a '96 Chevy Tahoe. One of the things I love about my pre-millennium towing and hauling machine is that it is unapologetically a big truck. The design team drew two boxes and more or less called it a day. I love the way it looks. Towing my briefly lived 300zx  After a long period of making pretty rounded out trucks (especially in the early 2000s), Chevy today revealed their new Silverado/Sierra, and it looks.. a lot like mine. Which is to say - I like the design. It's a truck - it should look like a truck. Leave the crossover looks to the crossovers. Also - I like that it doesn't have the ridiculous "look at me" front grill of the Tundra or Ram - the 3rd and 4th best selling full-size trucks in the US always look like they are compensating for something. Can you actually see what's in front of you? Probably not.

You might not have a job right now, but these guys do: These two chuckleheads work for Chrysler - or more accurately for President Obama. Here is the story in a nutshell: "the 13 workers who were fired in 2010 after local news cameras caught them drinking alcohol and smoking what looks to be marijuana in a park during work hours have been reinstated following arbitration." What can Chrysler say or do at this point? Not a whole lot. The UAW is running the show: "Chrysler Group LLC acknowledges the reinstatement of a number of employees from the Jefferson North assembly plant who were discharged from the company in September 2010 after appearing in a local TV station's story about their off-duty conduct." While the company does not agree with the ultimate decision of the arbitrator, we respect the grievance procedure process as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement and our relationship with the UAW. Unfortunately, the company was put in a very d...

If you have not read Atlas Shrugged, go do so. Then come back here. I'll be waiting. Don't worry - the last 1000 pages go pretty fast a little while later... Yes - I know the book is 500 pages too long and I know the characters are... interesting... but, getting beyond that to the point of the book: I wish I had a gulch. Right now I am working my ass off and hiring people. And most of those people suck. People can't show up on time, constantly want to take breaks or just, in classic Atlas Shrugged fashion, want to avoid being responsible for anything. At the same time I live in a country (the USA) where I feel like the government more and more approximates the government in the novel. Everything has to be done "for the good of society" while "profit for profit's sake" is obviously evil and a sign of anti-social behavior. Companies should think first about their employees or the environment, not about making money. I also increasingly f...

I never understood why the hatchback sedan was not more widely adopted. I grew up in Saab 9000's and I have since owned one myself. They make so much more sense than a traditional sedan there is literally no comparison. And there is no downside - you don't have to look like you are driving around in a mom-mobile because it isn't a wagon - it's just a sedan with the hinge at the top of the rear glass. Maybe there is some complex reason why they are more difficult to design - something about cross-member stress and the strength of the c-pillars. Meh. Saab did it for years and they were the size of a flea compared with ToMoCo and GM. Not to rehash old ground here... but the 9000 Aero was a large hatchback sedan which was incredibly fun to drive, got 250+ hp from a turbo 4 and was very safe while getting almost 30mpg - all in the early 90's. Ahead of it's time? You bet. More practical than your car, guaranteed So what has BMW done? After many years of lett...

MIT Technology Review: How Solar-Based Microgrids Could Bring Power to Millions

Space... the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship  Voyager . Its continuing mission: to explore strange new mostly empty areas, to seek out new other empty areas, to boldly go where no one has gone before. Oh yeah, and to bring along some serious bling. It's like a grill for space ships So, turns out that the Voyager is on.. the final frontier. Before reaching "interstellar" space. In other words, it just crossed over into the last zone where our sun is more or less still in charge of everything.  Currently the spacecraft is passing through what scientists are calling a "magnetic highway" - which was, in fact, invented by Al Gore.  I'll give you interstellar wind, Trebek This is really just the pre-party though. The real party comes when Voyager crosses over out of the magnetic control of our sun... which could be anywhere from a few months to a few years away. At that point, Voyager will do a little dance, make a little love,...

Skylon Spaceplane Engine Endorsed By European Space Agency - http://pulse.me/s/fNLxZ

Back in the day the Buick GNX was the (unlikely) diamond in the rough which dominated drag strips (12 second times) and generally had way to much performance for anything 1) built by a US car company between 1977 and 2004 or 2) called a Buick.  It came to be known as "Darth Vader's Car"... I don't know why... And now, with Buick one of the final 4 GM brands (thanks to China), the corporate overlords are looking to inject some life back into a brand better known for ferrying septuagenarians to and from Florida golf courses. Yes, the Regal Turbo was a good first attempt.. but it just isn't serious enough to make me stop looking at everyone else's factory tuned specials.  Enter the GNX...  I work out Looks like the GNX will be based on the Cadillac ATS (the new little Caddy), and will be RWD with... wait for it... around 400hp. Yeah, 400. Grandpa will be able to get to Shady Acres REALLY FAST.  Will I want one? Remains to be seen. Yes - it wi...

Megaupload Shutdown: Negative Effect on Box Office Revenues Turns out that shutting down piracy is good for blockbusters but bad for small to medium sized movies. This makes sense to me, as piracy really just leads to information sharing for smaller movies, but can be a substitute for major releases. I don't know the numbers, but I think the same has more or less been true for the music industry in the last decade.

This is pretty bad... (Reuters) - Three primary school age children in one English city reaped more than the usual harvest of sweets and chocolates on Halloween when they emptied their trick-or-treat goody bags and found several bags of cocaine. On Monday, the man who had mistakenly handed out his cocaine stash to the children instead of candy was given a community service sentence in court, the Press Association reported. Apprentice panel-beater Donald Junior Green fished in his pockets for a bag of chewy sweets to give to the youngsters at his door on Halloween, but instead pulled out a plastic pack containing eight bags of cocaine he had bought for 200 pounds ($320) earlier that day, Oldham Magistrates' Court heard. He dropped the drugs into the goody bags carried by the three children, aged eight, six and five, who were out trick-or-treating escorted by their father, an off-duty policeman. The 23-year-old defendant then closed the door, went back inside the house an...

VENTURE™ Break into the world of Android™-powered phones with this little beauty. Featuring a 2.8" touchscreen, QWERTY keyboard, and a 2.0MP camera & camcorder. 2.7 / 5 // 347 REVIEWS // WRITE A REVIEW $49.99 $19.99 ADD TO CART FREE STANDARD SHIPPING CHECK COVERAGE . No joke - a decent ( see my review ) android phone for $20? They have to be losing money on this - but for that price you might as well pick it up as a navigation system, mp3 player, audible player, anything really. I mean - $20??? Damn.

In Boston you take your life in your hands when you are on the road. As a quick comparison - when you are in NYC, you know everyone is going to try and screw you but at least they are paying attention, it's fun in its own way. In Boston, correctly guessing what a driver will do next is pretty much like winning the lottery, and just as likely. Today the city council is meeting to discuss ways they can improve the driving situation. Proposals include (and I am honestly not making this up) putting up signs so people know where they are going. I am not sure what paragon of innovation came up with that blue-sky idea... Yeah. Really. The city council is THINKING about putting up road signs. You know, just in case there is someone who has not memorized the entire fucking city. Given historical precedent though, I think the likelihood of that proposal being adopted is slim to none. But Boston driving stories get even better today.... Here it is, the best story of 2012: Hig...

Turns out that the Koreans were advertising fuel economy which was a little too good. The sister companies of Kia and Hyundai have admitted to doctoring results for the last couple years, leading to higher then actual fuel economy numbers being posted. The Chart is a Liar Net result? A big black eye and a whole boatload of cash going out the door...  The companies will spend millions of dollars compensating the owners of some 900,000 vehicles sold under the claims. All told, 35 percent of 2011-2013 models sold through October will see a reduction. Of those, 580,000 will see a drop of around 1 mpg, while 240,000 units will have their EPA figures cut by 2 mpg. The remaining 80,000 will drop by 3 to 4 mpg. Owners will be compensated based on their vehicles' odometer readings, and both automakers will contribute an additional 15 percent over the dollar value. The funds will be awarded via prepaid debit cards. For an owner who drove 15,000 miles, an adjustment of 1 mpg wo...

Unions can think about as far into the future as a goldfish. In this case, that myopathy has lead to the demise of an iconic brand: Hostess. This is, in fact, the president of the UAW Yes, this means no more twinkies. How did this come about? Well, one of the Company’s largest unions, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), initiated a nationwide strike that crippled the Company’s ability to produce and deliver products. Net result? The company filed for bankruptcy.  What the hell do we eat after the zombie apocalypse now??? However, this is the Obama era, so the union should not actually be worried at all. The bankruptcy should work out something like this: 1) The company goes under because the union drags them down  2) The President of the United States agrees to bail out the company on the condition that... 3) The secured debt holders (the people who bought bonds from the company etc) give up t...

This freaking awesome commercial from Toyota (which is already ironic because Toyota is advertising a car which makes you "feel something" after years of selling beige wallpaper paste) has reached an amazing level of irony. It has been banned from being shown in the UK, home of roughly 2 million CCTV cameras, because it "encourages reckless driving." Apparently completely failing to see the irony in this (it is a government after all), the UK regulators shut down the commercial about escaping a nanny state because 2, yes 2, people complained.

I just found this on craigslist in boston.... fail... http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/bfs/3399959282.html Honestly - I am not sure if the best part is the "Meatballs & Etc." or the fact that the website is spelled wrong on the side of the truck.... in the listing they state "SELLERS GONE CRAZY" - interpret it how you will. Mobile Food Truck - $51000 (Boston) Date: 2012-11-10, 11:21AM EST Reply to this post   gbxsc-3399959282@sale.craigslist.org [ Errors when replying to ads? ] Mike 305-205-3006 LICENSED IN MIAMI AND JUST EXPIRED IN BOSTON CHEVY P30 1998 WITH 118 K MILES ALL SERVICE BEEN DONE BY TRUCK MAX SINCE WE BOUGHT IT. THE TRUCK HAS BEEN USED FOR 8 MONTHS SO FAR AND READY TO GO. COOKING EQUIPMENT IS AS FOLLOWS; Meatballs and Etc Truck is a 18ft custom built food truck by Food Cart USA. Two 50 lbs ROYAL DOUBLE FRYERS 1 36'' ROYAL FLAT TOP 1 27'' ROYAL STEAM TABLE Inside lighting with wall switches Air conditioning in kit...

Do you work from home? Do you want to? Do you want to show the world that you care? That you are an architect and you traded in your Saab 900 for a Prius? You should have kept the Saab... Anyway, I think a small off-the-grid cabin is really cool, but in this case it might make more sense as an office in your backyard. Costco sells a perfect little shed for such an endeavor, the Aston shed. When I checked, it was on sale for $999, including shipping, which seems like a pretty great deal. http://www.costco.com/Aston-10'-x-7.5'--Wood-Shed.product.100003338.html Cozy At 10x7.5 you get... carry the one... 75sq ft of space. Which is about as much as a large closet.  But the cool thing is the design: with windows built in and the big doors, you can be pretty much working outside all summer (and you might want a screen of some kind come to think of it).  Here is where my upgrades come in: 1) Harbor Freight 45w Solar Kit $150 (with the right coupon) The tr...