Monday, October 30, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Coporate Political Donations
I thought this graphic was interesting: its from NyTimes and shows house and sentate corporate campaign contributions for Democrates and Republicans.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Solar Power Towers vs. $400 billion DD budget
Ok so I just read a post:
Aussie Sun Power
And it had some numbers in there that I wanted to crunch. According to Wired: each solar collector (big tower w/ Li Na as a heat transport medium/thermal battery) is capable of producting 154 MW each, and costs ~$420 million (hehe). Hookay, so that means that w/ our $400 billion DD budget, we could build ~1000 of these bastages (!) so that means we could bring 154,000 MW of renewable clean energy on line with ONE YEAR'S DD BUDGET! 154TW! Ok so now I gotta ask, how much energy does the US use in one year, and how big is say 1 nuclear plant?
So after figuring out some retarded units; the US consumed 2.76E7 TW(hrs)/year in 1998. One new nuclear power plants are typically 1TW meaning 8700 TW(hrs)/year. So you could get the equivalent 154 nuclear power plants.
As of Oct 2005 there were 104 nuclear power plants opperating in the US there by creating an equal chunk of the energy pie to nuclear which is currently at ~20%
Aussie Sun Power
And it had some numbers in there that I wanted to crunch. According to Wired: each solar collector (big tower w/ Li Na as a heat transport medium/thermal battery) is capable of producting 154 MW each, and costs ~$420 million (hehe). Hookay, so that means that w/ our $400 billion DD budget, we could build ~1000 of these bastages (!) so that means we could bring 154,000 MW of renewable clean energy on line with ONE YEAR'S DD BUDGET! 154TW! Ok so now I gotta ask, how much energy does the US use in one year, and how big is say 1 nuclear plant?
So after figuring out some retarded units; the US consumed 2.76E7 TW(hrs)/year in 1998. One new nuclear power plants are typically 1TW meaning 8700 TW(hrs)/year. So you could get the equivalent 154 nuclear power plants.
As of Oct 2005 there were 104 nuclear power plants opperating in the US there by creating an equal chunk of the energy pie to nuclear which is currently at ~20%
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Monday, October 23, 2006
In the News
OMG- Ford reports a loss of $5.8 Billion ($5,800,000,000)!!!
20x more of a loss than last year!
Nytime's Article
Seriously, not good. Get the hell out of Michigan before it rots.
"Ford is one month into an accelerated version of its turnaround plan, called the Way Forward, which calls for cutting 44,000 jobs and closing numerous factories in North America. In unveiling that plan, Ford conceded that its sales would probably be surpassed soon by surging Japanese rival Toyota and that it does not anticipate a profit in North America until at least 2009."
20x more of a loss than last year!
Nytime's Article
Seriously, not good. Get the hell out of Michigan before it rots.
"Ford is one month into an accelerated version of its turnaround plan, called the Way Forward, which calls for cutting 44,000 jobs and closing numerous factories in North America. In unveiling that plan, Ford conceded that its sales would probably be surpassed soon by surging Japanese rival Toyota and that it does not anticipate a profit in North America until at least 2009."
South Park Quote #1
Token's Mom: "Token did the boys come over and show you a movie?"
Randy: "Well you see when a man and a woman fall in love, the man puts his penis in the womans vagina. Its called love making, and its part of being in love."
Token: "And when the woman has 4 penises in her at the same time, and then pees on them...is that part of being in love too?...Five midgets spanking a man, covered in thousand island dressing...is that part of being in love too?"
Randy: "Well you see when a man and a woman fall in love, the man puts his penis in the womans vagina. Its called love making, and its part of being in love."
Token: "And when the woman has 4 penises in her at the same time, and then pees on them...is that part of being in love too?...Five midgets spanking a man, covered in thousand island dressing...is that part of being in love too?"
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Crazy Brits
So the Brittish gov't has recently passed a law banning junk food from their schools- Go Brits!
Teaching kids good healthy eating habits is obviously important, and I'd like to see a similar shift in policy here in the States. The funny thing going on in the UK is that the kids mums are actually making the kids junk food and smuggling it to them anyway! Can you believe it?
Meatpie Mums
Teaching kids good healthy eating habits is obviously important, and I'd like to see a similar shift in policy here in the States. The funny thing going on in the UK is that the kids mums are actually making the kids junk food and smuggling it to them anyway! Can you believe it?
Meatpie Mums
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
US population hits 300,000,000!
So in the news today:
US population hits 300,000,000 people the growth of our country has been due largely to immigration.
The Chinese step up border relations with N. Korea. Not a big deal but I found this picture and thought it was insane.
Disney has decided to pull its characters off of bad sugary fatty caloric intensive kids foods. They are trying to make a statement that kids need to eat healthy. Its about time Disney did SOMETHING good. I've been pissed at them since they made Aladin 25 and The Little Mermaid 69.
Finally, Google is building the largest coporate consumer solar set up on their building, providing 1/3 of its total power. Way to go Google. Say what you will about big business- its nice to see a company TRYING to do it different: Google Solar
Monday, October 16, 2006
Enroute to Arches
We went through some of the prettiest stretches of road I've seen on our way to Arches.
This is what remains of a Spanish watering channel.
All I gotta say is: EEEwwweewwwwww
Awe!
Dave's hat pic #2!
This is what remains of a Spanish watering channel.
All I gotta say is: EEEwwweewwwwww
Awe!
Dave's hat pic #2!
Unaweepe Valley, CO
So this was my favorite camping spot of the trip. Everwhere else we stayed w/ the 'rabble' as Dave likes to say. We had a spot on a cliff over looking the valley, with an amazing view. It was just great.
Dave's hat pic #1!
Lizzard on a cliff.
Dave's hat pic #1!
Lizzard on a cliff.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Grand Junction, Colorado
All of these pictures were taken from the Colorado Nat'l Monument outside of Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a very nice sandstone structure that we did a nice lil' mini-hike on. It rained a bit and we got a nice rainbow.
Friday, October 06, 2006
Yosemite in the Fall
Bri being Bri.
Lizzard hammin it up.
Bridalveil falls.
Look for a little orange spec on El Cap- that's people climbing it! (My heroes)
Crepscular Rays.
Shrouded Half-Dome
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
$450,000,000,000
So I need to do some posting so that you can actually see the personality test results, and I thought another critique of the government would be in order. Earlier this week, or maybe even last week, the Senate approved the Defense Department's budget in a close close vote of 100-0 yea's to nehs. It was a razor thin victory for the Halliburton/McDonald-Douglass/Boing/Lockheed-Martin group, but thank goodness they won. Now to put this into perspective, I thought that I'd look up some figures on just what stuff costs and how that money can be spread around:
Using the data from the National Priorities Project:
Ok well first off and easy figure, there's something like 250,000,000 people in the US (a lil' more) which would mean that we could each get $2,000 back each. I don't know about you but that would be very nice chunk of change to get back, I mean talk about trickle down economics.
The average salary of a full-time high school teacher is $47,500 per year so that means that we could hire ~10,000,000 more teachers, or 1 teacher per 25 people in the US. Thats not per kid, tha's per person. Per kid it would be more like 1 teacher per 7 kids under 18. I think a more realistic idea would be to just increase the average pay for teacher, making the job more competitive and getting more qualified people for the job. Imagine what would happen if the average pay were up to $70,000 per teacher...
The total amount of money spent on education in the United States in 2004 was ~$750,000,000 so we could effectively increase eduction monies by 600x what it currently is or by 600,000%.
I'm not going to quote the numbers because its obvious that the ~3% of the population of the US that are hungry wouldn't have to be hungry anymore.
The amount of money spend on the afforable housing inniative in 2004 was just over $3 million, so that could be increased by 120,000x what it was in 2004.
Finally, the cost of the war in Iraq to date is ~$375,000,000,000.
I ask you where does the priorities of the people of the United States lie?
Using the data from the National Priorities Project:
Ok well first off and easy figure, there's something like 250,000,000 people in the US (a lil' more) which would mean that we could each get $2,000 back each. I don't know about you but that would be very nice chunk of change to get back, I mean talk about trickle down economics.
The average salary of a full-time high school teacher is $47,500 per year so that means that we could hire ~10,000,000 more teachers, or 1 teacher per 25 people in the US. Thats not per kid, tha's per person. Per kid it would be more like 1 teacher per 7 kids under 18. I think a more realistic idea would be to just increase the average pay for teacher, making the job more competitive and getting more qualified people for the job. Imagine what would happen if the average pay were up to $70,000 per teacher...
The total amount of money spent on education in the United States in 2004 was ~$750,000,000 so we could effectively increase eduction monies by 600x what it currently is or by 600,000%.
I'm not going to quote the numbers because its obvious that the ~3% of the population of the US that are hungry wouldn't have to be hungry anymore.
The amount of money spend on the afforable housing inniative in 2004 was just over $3 million, so that could be increased by 120,000x what it was in 2004.
Finally, the cost of the war in Iraq to date is ~$375,000,000,000.
I ask you where does the priorities of the people of the United States lie?
Personality Test
So I saw Lizzard's personality test, and it looked so detailed that I just couldn't resist. This is my test, which is suprisingly similar to Liz's in a lot of ways:
Trouble in Motown
From the NY Times Website:
"General Motors ended its talks about forming an alliance with Renault and Nissan as they failed to agree on how G.M. would benefit from such a deal, the three companies said today.
In a statement, the companies said they could not agree on the total savings the deal would produce or how the benefits would be distributed.
“Based on its conclusions, G.M. had proposed that Renault-Nissan provide compensation as part of a potential alliance and for potentially precluding G.M. from entering other alliance opportunities if Renault-Nissan had made a significant investment in G.M.” the joint statement said."
-Sounds like the vultures are circling.
"General Motors ended its talks about forming an alliance with Renault and Nissan as they failed to agree on how G.M. would benefit from such a deal, the three companies said today.
In a statement, the companies said they could not agree on the total savings the deal would produce or how the benefits would be distributed.
“Based on its conclusions, G.M. had proposed that Renault-Nissan provide compensation as part of a potential alliance and for potentially precluding G.M. from entering other alliance opportunities if Renault-Nissan had made a significant investment in G.M.” the joint statement said."
-Sounds like the vultures are circling.
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