Friday, June 11, 2004
Kerry on Reagan
"Are we rushing headlong into the next step of those 40 years of progressions by which we do something then they do something, by which we pretend that we're going to build this and it will somehow strengthen our deterrent then they do it, and low and behold, the next thing we know is, the President of the United States is addressing the nation saying, ‘My fellow Americans, I hate to tell you this, but the Soviet Union is deploying more of these, and we have to respond, and I'm asking the Congress for more money in order to respond.’ Star Wars is guaranteed to do that, and it's guaranteed to threaten the heavens -- the one line we haven't yet crossed with weaponry: the heavens." – Senator John Kerry, on SDI, the program that brought the evil empire to its knees, August 5, 1986.
Tuesday, May 18, 2004
With Oil being the hot topic
With Bush getting bashed for high oil prices and talk of using the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, I often wondered how this reserve was created. The Dept of Energy has a great web site that details the SPR. Here a link to how the salt domes were created
Salt caverns are carved out of underground salt domes by a process called "solution mining." Essentially, the process involves drilling a well into a salt formation, then injecting massive amounts of fresh water. The water dissolves the salt. In creating the SPR caverns, the dissolved salt was removed as brine and either reinjected into disposal wells or more commonly, piped several miles offshore into the Gulf of Mexico. By carefully controlling the freshwater injection process, salt caverns of very precise dimensions can be created. For every barrel of crude oil to be stored in the SPR's salt caverns, it took 7 barrels of water to create the storage space.
Besides being the lowest cost way to store oil for long periods of time, the use of deep salt caverns is also one of the most environmentally secure. At depths ranging from 2000 to 4000 feet, the salt walls of the storage caverns are "self-healing." The extreme geologic pressures make the salt walls rock hard, and should any cracks develop in the walls, they would be almost instantly closed.
An added benefit of deep salt cavern storage is the natural temperature difference between the top of the caverns and the bottom – a distance of around 2,000 feet. The temperature differential keeps the crude oil continuously circulating in the caverns, maintaining the oil at a consistent quality.
The fact that oil floats on water is the underlying mechanism used to move oil in and out of the SPR caverns. To withdraw crude oil, fresh water is pumped into the bottom of a cavern. The water displaces the crude oil to the surface. After the oil is removed from the SPR caverns, pipelines send it to various terminals and refineries around the nation.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Gas Prices are the highest ever?
Well according to this guy, if you adjust for inflation you get the real picture
The following plot shows how much I paid for each gallon of gas I bought over the past 25 years or so. The data has a somewhat varied pedigree. Most of the purchases from 1979-1982 were in the Rio Vista/Fort Worth, Texas area. From late 1982-1983 was from College Station/Rio Vista about equally. From 1984-1987 was a Rio Vista/College Station/Houston mix and from 1987 on has been mostly Houston with a little Fort Worth thrown in. Just about everything pre-1984 was full service and everything since has been self-serve. Every tank shown was "super" unleaded (92-93 octane).
Three curves are shown on the plot. The upper, black curve shows the actual price paid for each gallon. The lower curve is the data adjusted for inflation using April, 1979 as the datum. That is, the data in this curve has been adjusted to "April 1979 dollars". The "CPI-All Urban Consumers for all items less energy" was used to adjust the data using monthly average data interoplated to the actual purchase dates. The CPI data is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The third, faint line, shows the average price for the entire U.S., again from the BLS.
The plot contains data from 959 fill-ups.
Oh sure you're thinking this guy needs a life -- but Im thinking this country needs more people like this! Nerds are necessary..
The following plot shows how much I paid for each gallon of gas I bought over the past 25 years or so. The data has a somewhat varied pedigree. Most of the purchases from 1979-1982 were in the Rio Vista/Fort Worth, Texas area. From late 1982-1983 was from College Station/Rio Vista about equally. From 1984-1987 was a Rio Vista/College Station/Houston mix and from 1987 on has been mostly Houston with a little Fort Worth thrown in. Just about everything pre-1984 was full service and everything since has been self-serve. Every tank shown was "super" unleaded (92-93 octane).
Three curves are shown on the plot. The upper, black curve shows the actual price paid for each gallon. The lower curve is the data adjusted for inflation using April, 1979 as the datum. That is, the data in this curve has been adjusted to "April 1979 dollars". The "CPI-All Urban Consumers for all items less energy" was used to adjust the data using monthly average data interoplated to the actual purchase dates. The CPI data is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The third, faint line, shows the average price for the entire U.S., again from the BLS.
The plot contains data from 959 fill-ups.
Oh sure you're thinking this guy needs a life -- but Im thinking this country needs more people like this! Nerds are necessary..
Sunday, April 25, 2004
Bush Shoot-Out - Miniclip.com
If your bored at work try your hand at helping Bush escape the White house after terrorists swarm in:
Bush Shoot-Out - Miniclip.com
Bush Shoot-Out - Miniclip.com
Thursday, April 22, 2004
I've been bad about posting -- So lets bash the French
Interesting email exchange between a blogger and the French reporter whos magazine shot video of the attempted downing of an American aircraft in Bagdad.
(Captain's log): Last November, I posted this article where I roundly condemned the magazine Paris Match for having reporters observe attempts by Iraqi insurgents to shoot down an American jet using SAMs. Somehow or other, I have no idea how, one of their reporters just stumbled on that post. He was inspired to write the following email to me:
Read the whole thing...
(Captain's log): Last November, I posted this article where I roundly condemned the magazine Paris Match for having reporters observe attempts by Iraqi insurgents to shoot down an American jet using SAMs. Somehow or other, I have no idea how, one of their reporters just stumbled on that post. He was inspired to write the following email to me:
Read the whole thing...
Saturday, April 17, 2004
More Kerry fun stuff
Friday, April 16, 2004
Interesting blog from Iraq IRAQ THE MODEL
Thanks again to Insta for linking this blog article. Glenn Reynolds be praised! This time we hear from 3 guys from Iraq living the day to day challenge of seeing their country profoundly changed.
First a bit about these 3 guys:
-Mohammed: 34 years old dentist/single/graduated from Baghdad university in 1995. Left his job 6 years ago because he refused to serve in Saddam's army, and now back to work in Samawa City in the southwest part of Iraq. Interests: poetry, reading (history, religions, philosophy and politics).
-Ali: 33 years old doctor/single/graduated from Baghdad university in 1995. Left his job for 3 years for the same reason, then did the military service after losing hope, just to go on with his career. Now working in Baghdad as a senior resident and studying to become a pediatrician. Interests: chess, reading (history, parapsychology, politics and novels).
-Omar (I'm the one responsible for the publishing and internet work): 23 years old dentist/single/graduated from Baghdad university in 2002. Saved from the military service only by God and the coalition. Now working in baghdad. Interests: music, sports (martial arts), reading (novels) and now blogging. We were all born in Baghdad and still living here.
This article from Omar is worth a full read:
I've been visiting the BBC Arabic site in the last few days and I found a forum where people from many Arab countries –including Iraq- post their opinions about some hot topics, the main of those is Iraq and terrorism of course. I wasn't surprised to see that most Arabs (especially from Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are forming one side of the debates while Iraqis and people from the rest of the gulf countries are taking the other side. But I was surprised when I found that the almost all the Iraqis who took part in the debates are on our side, maybe 95% of Iraqis expressed their rejection to the violent behavior of some Iraqis and condemned the terrorists attacks on both Iraqis and the coalition saying that the Arab world must stop supporting the terrorists and the thugs from inside Iraq. It's also surprising that many of those Iraqis live in areas that are recognized to have a public anti American attitude in general like A'adhamiya, Diyala and Najaf. I feel that those people are still afraid to voice their points of view in public in such hostile atmospheres but the internet is providing them freedom and safety to say whatever they believe in.
Here, I translated three of the posts made by Iraqis
First a bit about these 3 guys:
-Mohammed: 34 years old dentist/single/graduated from Baghdad university in 1995. Left his job 6 years ago because he refused to serve in Saddam's army, and now back to work in Samawa City in the southwest part of Iraq. Interests: poetry, reading (history, religions, philosophy and politics).
-Ali: 33 years old doctor/single/graduated from Baghdad university in 1995. Left his job for 3 years for the same reason, then did the military service after losing hope, just to go on with his career. Now working in Baghdad as a senior resident and studying to become a pediatrician. Interests: chess, reading (history, parapsychology, politics and novels).
-Omar (I'm the one responsible for the publishing and internet work): 23 years old dentist/single/graduated from Baghdad university in 2002. Saved from the military service only by God and the coalition. Now working in baghdad. Interests: music, sports (martial arts), reading (novels) and now blogging. We were all born in Baghdad and still living here.
This article from Omar is worth a full read:
I've been visiting the BBC Arabic site in the last few days and I found a forum where people from many Arab countries –including Iraq- post their opinions about some hot topics, the main of those is Iraq and terrorism of course. I wasn't surprised to see that most Arabs (especially from Egypt, Palestine, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Syria) are forming one side of the debates while Iraqis and people from the rest of the gulf countries are taking the other side. But I was surprised when I found that the almost all the Iraqis who took part in the debates are on our side, maybe 95% of Iraqis expressed their rejection to the violent behavior of some Iraqis and condemned the terrorists attacks on both Iraqis and the coalition saying that the Arab world must stop supporting the terrorists and the thugs from inside Iraq. It's also surprising that many of those Iraqis live in areas that are recognized to have a public anti American attitude in general like A'adhamiya, Diyala and Najaf. I feel that those people are still afraid to voice their points of view in public in such hostile atmospheres but the internet is providing them freedom and safety to say whatever they believe in.
Here, I translated three of the posts made by Iraqis
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
CAMPAIGN RAGE: FLORIDA DEMOCRATS PLACE NEWSPAPER AD CALLING FOR RUMSFELD HIT; FUNDRAISING FOR KERRY
Campaign 2004 turns extreme in Florida with the placement of a newspaper ad calling for physical retribution against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld!
"We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger," the ad reads.
Developing...
Its this kind of shit the democrats always get away with. If the tables were turned this would be in the headlines of all the major news outlets in seconds. I bet this goes no where! I hope I am wrong but its doubtful.
Yes I know the scolling text is annoying! Just playing around
Campaign 2004 turns extreme in Florida with the placement of a newspaper ad calling for physical retribution against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld!
"We should put this S.O.B. up against a wall and say 'This is one of our bad days,' and pull the trigger," the ad reads.
Developing...
Its this kind of shit the democrats always get away with. If the tables were turned this would be in the headlines of all the major news outlets in seconds. I bet this goes no where! I hope I am wrong but its doubtful.
Yes I know the scolling text is annoying! Just playing around
Monday, April 12, 2004
Boortz offers a quote
In his "nuze" section Boortz offers a quote to put things into perspective..
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." .... John Stuart Mill.
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling that thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." .... John Stuart Mill.
Friday, April 09, 2004
New Spiderman trailer
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Right from the source: A Marine's letter
Andrew Sullivan has a great letter from a marine in action in Iraq.
Things have been busy here. You know I can't say much about it. However, I do know two things. One, POTUS has given us the green light to do whatever we needed to do to win this thing so we have that going for us. Two, and my opinion only, this battle is going to have far reaching effects on not only the war here in Iraq but in the overall war on terrorism.
Things have been busy here. You know I can't say much about it. However, I do know two things. One, POTUS has given us the green light to do whatever we needed to do to win this thing so we have that going for us. Two, and my opinion only, this battle is going to have far reaching effects on not only the war here in Iraq but in the overall war on terrorism.
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
F**K Yea: Private guards repel attack on headquarters
The media is crying "it’s another Vietnam" but I think the current "uprising" will be in the end a good thing. To para-quote the Joker in the first Batman movie -- This country needs an enema!
Ok now to the point -- this story from MSNBC is a must read. In a word "this is no crisis".
An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.
Ok now to the point -- this story from MSNBC is a must read. In a word "this is no crisis".
An attack by hundreds of Iraqi militia members on the U.S. government's headquarters in Najaf on Sunday was repulsed not by the U.S. military, but by eight commandos from a private security firm, according to sources familiar with the incident.
Monday, April 05, 2004
Wow -- Ten years since Cobain's suicide
Who could forget the news of Cobain's death by suicide? Sure he fit the profile but dammmm the guy had talent and a bright future. He had a kid and a wife (well lets forget the wife).
Nirvana was one of THOSE bands you take with you as you grow older. You remember the first time you heard any song from Nevermind. You remember the grunge craze spreading like wild fire as a result. You remember all the big hair bands suddenly out of a job. No more Cherry Pie..... Just crazy cheerleaders cheering anarchy in some form
On a side note, remember the baby from the Album cover? Well he’s 13 now and still in the business so to speak.
Nirvana was one of THOSE bands you take with you as you grow older. You remember the first time you heard any song from Nevermind. You remember the grunge craze spreading like wild fire as a result. You remember all the big hair bands suddenly out of a job. No more Cherry Pie..... Just crazy cheerleaders cheering anarchy in some form
On a side note, remember the baby from the Album cover? Well he’s 13 now and still in the business so to speak.
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
Politics: Great Bush Ad -- looks home grown
Check out this flash ad. Its very positive, got a good beat, and works better then most of the political ads Ive seen.
Monday, March 29, 2004
Safire slams the UN in Kofigate
In what has been called "the most underreported story of the year", Safire provides an update on the UN's Oil for Food debacle in today's NYTs (Registration Required)
At least $5 billion in kickbacks went from corrupt contractors — mainly French and Russian — into the pockets of Saddam and his thugs. Some went to pay off his protectors in foreign governments and media, and we may soon see how much stuck to the fingers of U.N. bureaucrats as well.
Responding to a harangue in this space on March 17, the spokesman for Kofi Annan confirmed that the secretary general's soft-spoken son, Kojo, was on the payroll of Cotecna Inspections of Switzerland until December 1998. In that very month, the U.N. awarded Cotecna the contract to monitor and authenticate the goods shipped to Iraq.
...The money for the huge heist known as the Iraq-U.N. account passed exclusively through BNP Paribas. French companies led all the rest (what's French for "kickback"?), though Vladimir Putin's favorite Russian oligarchs insisted on sharing the wealth. That explains why Paris and Moscow were Saddam's main prewar defenders, and why their politicians and executives now want no inquiry they cannot control.
Its good to see this story getting traction!
