Book Of Norm

Looks like Obama is not a fan of dissension in the ranks. First, Gen. Stanley McChrystal is getting called back from the job of running the war in Afghanistan to do the much more serious duty of apologizing to Obama for criticizing the administration and the braincell challenged Joe Biden. It all comes from a profile in Rolling Stone titled the "Runaway General" about how he is really in a wolf-pack of 1. Joe and Barak are not part of the wolf-pack. Then you have Rahm Emanuel - who recommended a watered down version of Obamacare (possibly one that would not screw over the American people to the same degree, nor be as unpopular, nor be politically stupid), and ever since then has been on the outs with el presidente. Turns out he has also been pissed that the administration has not taken the approach of compromise and getting anything done, but has instead insisted it live its life on a pedestal of impeccable moral superiority *cough* *cough*. He is much more of a "lets ge...

I just got back from a trip to the motherland (the UK) - where most of the population was really pissed off about Obama and the handling of the situation with BP. And I agree. The thing is, I am also really pissed off at BP for totally blowing, well, everything. And Tony Hayward really does seem like a douche. First of all - lets deal with the UK press. They for the first time, are anti-Obama. Really anti-Obama. BP is a big part of the British economy, and UK pension plans are huge holders of BP stock. In other words, Obama just fucked over the British population in general. Along with the fact that he has turned out to be a dangerous and self-absorbed idealist with little idea as to how to run a country (called it), the British press no longer love him. They now just see him as one more ideological and idiotic American president. Furthermore, this seems to be extending to the rest of Europe. The latest article I read from Der Spiegel compared Obama to Jimmy Carter: a one-term ideolog...

Yeah - I called it. Northrup Grumman just won a contract to build military airships. Read on - but I hope this is just the tip of the airship iceberg: Northrop Grumman 's announced that it's won a contract from the United States Army to build its LEMV surveillance ship . The Army is building the ship specifically to assist troops in Afghanistan, and they are expected to go into use sometime in 2011. Northrop Grumman has been commissioned to build three of the ships, which can carry up to 2,500 pounds and hover 20,000 feet above sea-level with a top speed of about 34 miles per hour. The Army will pay NG 517 million dollars for the project.

Norm is returning to the motherland (England) for the next week. Through the magic of science - there will still be some new posts. But this trip also made me realize something - of all the electronics I have (and I have a lot - I love gadgets), my phone is pretty much the most important gadget to me (my dSLR does not count as a gadget). I realized that even though I would not be able to use my phone as well, a phone, it was still the most important thing to bring. It has 4gb of music on it - and while I could bring my 30gb iPod - there seems no need. It wont have a cellphone connection - but if I find somewhere that has wifi, I can hop on, get my emails, and go online for a bit. It has a decent camera that's good enough for tourist and "remember this" shots. It is stocked with games - including a word scramble game that I currently love, but with a lot of others I like (and past loves). It has screenshots saved of my ticket and itinerary. For in-flight entertainment I dr...

The EPA recently announced the 10 Most Fuel Efficient Cars since Norm Was Born. Well - since 1984. Which is when I was born. Which is probably why they picked it. The thing is - you may notice a large number of old crappy cars on there - more on that in a min: EPA Ten Most Efficient Vehicles Since 1984 (City/Hwy/Cmb) 2000 Honda Insight 5MT CVT (49/61/53) 2010 Toyota Prius (51/48/50) 1986 Chevrolet Sprint ER 5MT (44/53/48) 1990-1994 Geo Metro XFI 5MT (43/52/47) 1986-87 Honda Civic Coupe HF 5MT (42/51/46) 1994-95 Honda Civic Hatchback VX 5MT (39/50/43) 2006-2010 Honda Civic Hybrid CVT (40/45/42) 2010 Honda Insight CVT (40/43/41) 2001-2003 Toyota Prius CVT (42/41/40) 1989 Chevrolet Sprint/Suzuki Swift 5MT (38/45/41) Yes - the 2004-2009 Prius does not make the list! I hate that car. Anyway - the point here is really that the main thing killing fuel economy? Not dying. And the fact that we love creature comforts and big cars. It is not hard to build a four passenger car that gets 50mpg. It...

Interesting infographic. Only a couple of things I would disagree with - first that GM is doing better just because of cutting brands: a year ago everyone thought they were dead and gone, with a lot of ill will towards them. I still think they should have kept Pontiac as a sporty-car brand. Second - it tries to make it seem that the Mercury Mystique took $6 billion to develop. It didn't. What may be true, and I am highly skeptical of, is that the world-car Ford Mondeo (known over here as the Contour) took $6 billion. Though it never did well here, it has gone on to be one of the best selling and most popular cars in Europe. I never knew why it did not do well actually, I have driven a Contour a fair bit, and they were nice cars. Anyway - the fall of Mercury, in big graphical form:

The Senate right now is considering a bill that would be a combination of tax cuts and spending increases. Yes - thats right, cutting taxes, and increasing spending. This includes the bullshit "doc fix" of fucking with Medicare payments again so that "Obamacare" did not obviously cost the few trillion over the next ten years it is going to cost in reality - how the hell did we pass that Obamination? Anyway, our fearless leaders have us covered: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that he will support an amendment to give a health insurance premium subsidy for unemployed workers under the COBRA program, a provision that was removed from the final version of the House bill because of its cost. Reid has said he hopes the Senate can approve the package soon. "We have to wind this down as quickly as we can," Reid said Tuesday. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that Republicans are worried about the deficit-increasing ...