Crikey!

"I thinks we fractured me coccyx!"

Energy Charts

Perot Charts has compiled a good deal of charts to better educate us on the energy debate. I have previously published outdated data, such as the 2006 chart that lists Mexico as our 2nd largest importer of oil when currently it is actually Saudi Arabia. Take the 13 question energy quiz to see how much you know about our oil debacle. Like the after school message says "The More You Know!"

Rise of The Rock Star Politician

Rise of The Rock Star Politician

Although I doubt anyone reading this will be voting for Obama this year, with the exception of possibly my sister. If you can muster the patience or have a fascination for all things political then you must read the New Yorker write-up on how Chicago formed Obama's political rise. In fact I urge you to do so before you cast a vote. It is a long historical account of who's who, and how BHO grew to be the Rock Star he has become, or more accurately, who he has stepped on and how the seemingly outsider has bamboozeled America into belief of his brand of change. From the the deck stacking of redistricting to win his Senate seat, to gladhanding the right people at the right time and place. Like a blockbuster hollywood super hero remake, Obama has the right make-up, right special effects, and the publicists to become the Rock Star/Super Hero saving the liberals from Bush's evil empire!

Oil Independent

Because the US congress is controlled by those who want you to ride a bike, bus, or walk to work, we will never be energy independent. Congressman Lynn A. Westmoreland has compiled a petition to help you see if your representative is for, or against US oil independence, or are they for continued import of oil, and sending all of our wealth overseas in the form cash paid for foreign oil. Before our country gets owned by the very countries be buy our oil from, we must demand our leaders permit our own oil companies to exploit our own resources. Why we get most of our oil from Canada and Mexico when we have our own oil right here that we could extract if our own government would permit it is insanity.

200 Found and Counting

I just logged 4 of my most recent geocache finds putting me at 204 total found since I started playing. There really hasn't been any goal to hit a certain number but it was a shock that I have been to so many locations. They have taken me to places that I would have never visited had I not started up this hobbie, and it is one of those things that you can pick up and put down depending on your situation. Recently as the weather has improved I have been excited to go hunting and even hid 4 new caches in the last month. If you havn't tried it out before, it can be addicting at first, but eventutally it just becomes something you can do when you are visiting new places. Like a self guided tour of your everyday world.

Fireworks On The Fourth

Fireworks photography rarely works out, considering my small point & shoot Canon SD400, I was satisfied with a few. Oh, and revisit my Panoramio map below, for new photos of Opal Creek.

Happy Birthday USA!

Panoramio Photos

I just signed up for a Panoramio account to share some of my photos around the Google Earth community. Once approved these photos then become results in Google Map searches, and on Google Earth as well. Below are some of the photos & places they were taken that I published. You may have seen these before in my prior posts. Now you can see exactly where they were taken.

Quest For Alternate Energy

Congress was recently spotted on C-SPAN in a search to locate new reserves of renewable fuels.

AEI Syndrome (Alternate Energy Idiot)

All the news pundits that comment on the high price of gas love to bloviate about flex fuel vehicles, electric cars, hybrids and the new hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. What drives me crazy watching all these talking heads, is nobody will actually share the facts about our real energy needs. Surprisingly Bill O'Reily actually shared some facts regarding how the Norwegians, and the French generate much of there electricity with Nuclear plants, (Read here for more on Nuclear) , but sadly we don't dare build another power plant, or dam another river for hydro power. We just sit on our thumbs and hope the energy fairy delivers us from our energy crises with a magic hydrogen wand, or ethanol fountain.

If today it was possible that ALL cars sold were flex fuel, and all existing cars could be converted, there is now way we could produce ethanol quickly enough to make any dent in our energy needs. It would cause ethanol based products to skyrocket in cost, and production of them could not meet demand. We have already seen pricing for animal feed rise and effect dairy and beef prices.

In the same way if you could plug your car in to charge it tomorrow, our power grid could not keep up with demand, we would start burning more coal, and firing up the natural gas back up generators to keep the country from going into a brown out. You think the heat wave rolling black outs in CA were bad?! People! If you don't allow new power plant construction, such as clean coal, nuclear or hydro, where will you get your volts for your wheels?

Now take the Hydrogen fuel cell. Do you just plug it into your homes hydrogen socket? The fuel is not readily available, and it requires energy to create hydrogen gas, revert to my previous paragraph.

Lastly, although "in-town" hybrid cars are more efficient that gas, on the freeway they barely make the grade. When a Prius actually makes freeway speeds, it has to run on gas, getting around 34MPG, you can buy a turbo diesel engine in a better performing car that will last longer and achieve highway MPG nearing 50! Again why the Europeans prefer diesel to petrol.

Don't ge me wrong, I am no euro-liberal, I am just your average American sick of all the talk about alternative energy that is lacking any facts. We need nuclear NOW and more drilling until we get some supply chains built for a diverse future energy grid.

Pass this on to your Prius driving, Salmon worshiping, anti-nuke, greeney weenies, while I go gas up my SUV.

Thank You! Gratitude Campaign

Spread The Word

Iraq Hussain Osama

Happy Mothers Day

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Obama Does Comedy

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Watch For Zombies!

Fire in Mill Town

We came upon a house fire on our way back to the office, post lunch today. A garage or as it looks converted room off the back of this old dilapidated house was ablaze and we were driving by only as the fire department we being called. Five young children, in poorly fitting, dirty clothes and pajamas were in the street (amid a school day BTW) worried about their cats. When asked if anyone was left in the home they said there uncle was still inside. In a panic we yelled and beat on the door to determine if he was going to escape. In a slow labored pace, the heavy and calm man eventually evacuated while complaining of asthma and fatigue. While I tried to tell the children that the animals would find some way to safety on their own, we quickly realized as the vinyl siding began melting off the neighbors home, that the nearby vehicles need relocated or they would become victim to the flames. Just then, the man who had just barely climbed up from his seat to escape was returning into the burning house to retrieve his car keys. One of our brave employees (Jim you know who you are) risked life and heath to climb into the man's bio hazard on wheels, moving it to safety. We also had to alert a neighbor whose vinyl siding was melting off, because her car was too in jeopardy. She 1st moved her car and then returned to the house and evacuated her child to a safer location. Only then did the fire department arrive and began attacking the blaze. Once all life an property were best out of harms way, I ran back to my office to get my camera and shoot. You can see more here. The real story is the kids. I wish I had taken the time to learn the fate of the kids and family. These kids were living in filth, and should have been in school. Life hits you this way at times. My job is providing affordable housing, and right before my eyes, footsteps from my desk, are homeless children with uncertainty as to where they might sleep tonight.

More iPod Touch Toys: PC Remote

iPod Command Central

My iPod touch has become my most valued possession, and to keep in close at hand for the hundreds of miles I drive each month I invested in a ProClip dashboard mount. This gadget & vehicle matched system delivers a perfect custom solution for safely reaching your toys while in transit. My iPod touch is already my portable jukebox, media player, and weatherman, and as soon as the LocoGPS navigation add-on is available it will be my navigation system as well. Unlike an expensive in dash radio, I can pocket my iPod so it doesn't get jacked, and unlike your typical vehicle nav system, my iPod can check the weather and email when a WiFi spot is in reach. If you have not experienced the iPod touch or iPhone yet, im sorry.

Giganoes?

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My Eye-Fi Review

As posted earlier I purchased the Eye-Fi wireless SD card for my digital camera. This is one of those items I wish I had long ago, it just became availible in October and I don't know how I missed it until this year. Because I am cheap I shopped for the best deal, and Costco.com provided free delivery and $10 off the $99 MSRP, so $89 poorer my patience had to endure the week it took UPS to get it in my hands. Because I was anxious to learn more about my investment I Google'd for some reviews to see how it worked and how people rated it. Pleasntly surpised most reviewed it favorably, with most of the critics just pointed to the fact that the Wi-Fi transfer speed for your 10 Megapixel photos takes too long. My response to that is, WHY do you need 10MP photos? Are you in the business of posting bullitin board graphics online and plotting out poster size prints of your daily shots? If you are into high quality photography and your camera is a mega expensive digital SLR and you typically need a portable hardrive to backup all your gigantic photos you take, than this is not for you. If you have a pocket point & shoot that used a SD chip, you loath the hassle of locating your card reader or USB cable, and you typically just like to quickly share the latest shots of your kids, adventures, or need to get your ebay photos online, this chip will be just the ticket.

Just like the instructions state, and the reviewers confirm, it takes less than 5 minutes to go from opening the box to snapping photos and having them magically appear online. The one thing I found interesting, is my Picasa web album was getting the photos about 2-3 minutes before my hardrive was. So it is apparent that the card sends the photos to Eye-Fi's system, then back down to your computer. When setting up your card, you do need to create a Eye-Fi account, that concerns in the event they go broke as companies like this often do, will my card become just your ordinary 2GB memory card w/o them to handle my uploads? On the bright side, from my understanding of the service, they hang on to your photos for you until they are safely stored on your computer in the event your computer is turned off. One example where you may want to resort to the old fashoned way of taking photos, is if you have a large assortment of photos you plan to take before you will be near one of your pre-set Wi-Fi upload spots, and then are in a hurry to review them. Because they do take a minute or so each to transfer, if you have 100 shots, it would be much faster to just use the provided USB reader to copy the photos to your hardrive. Since my typical collection of new photos is rarely this many, I would be fine with allowing the chip to do my work for me while I take off my shoes, and watch the evening news.

The choice to invest in this was simple for me, I often take only a few shots each time I power-up my camera, and then I usually want those photos off the camera as soon as I get home. Now with the Eye-Fi chip, the only thing I need to remember is to turn my camera on when I want my pics, and by the time get a chance to sit down, my photos will be there to greet me.

As this is my first night with my new toy, you can be sure I will post some more details on how it is working out in the near future. Now if there was only something to photograph?

Eye-Fi Wireless SD Memory for Digital Cameras

The convergence technology has taken another step in the right direction with this new memory card for your digital camera, the Eye-Fi Wireless Memory Card. This little number eliminates the need to keep track of that cord you use to connect your camera to your computer. It also saves you the process of uploading your photos to your computer and/or your online photo album. If you have a wireless network nearby, and a subscription to one of many online photo album services you can have your photos visible anywhere around the globe without ever touching your PC. I will post my full review when I get mine in my hands, I ordered it from Costco.com for $89 and I should have it by next week! Merry Christmas to ME!