Mad dogs and Englishmen

It was Noel Coward who famously pointed out that only "Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun". Dating from colonial times, all around the world, the English have a well-deserved reputation for eccentricity. It's still a reality, as evidenced by the annual Bramble Bank cricket match, held earlier this year. The Daily Mail reports:

Members of the Royal Southern Yacht Club and Island Sailing Club faced off in their annual grudge match on a sandbank in the middle of the Solent.

And whereas in normal cricket it's rain that often stops play, in the Bramble Bank match it's a case of tide always stops play, as the teams compete for less than an hour before the waves wash in and swamp the pitch.




Bramble Bank is a sandbar in the centre of the Solent - the stretch of water between the Isle of Wight and the Hampshire coastline. The sandbank is uncovered only once a year - for about an hour - when the lowest tide reveals a temporary 200-metre-long 'pitch'.

During that time the two sides, the Royal Southern Yacht Club, from Hamble, Hampshire and the Island Sailing Club, from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, sail out from the opposite coasts for their match.

The tradition, which began in the 1950s, includes the teams taking it in turns to win and always ends with a celebratory meal.

This year, in front of more than 150 spectators, it was the turn of the Royal Southern Yacht Club to be victors.

. . .

One of the stranger things about an already unusual event is that the rare tide and wind patterns which cause the Bramble Bank lead to a 'mirage' effect, with passing boats seeing cricketers appearing to walk on water.

There's more at the link. Here's a video report on proceedings.

It warms the cockles of this expatriate colonial Englishman's heart, I tell you! The only improvement would be randomly placed mines or depth charges around Bramble Bank, to make getting there an even more sporting proposition!





Peter

Does anyone remember the Merrill Staton Choir?

In my youth, I frequently listened to two long-playing records that were favorites of my father's. One was "Up Anchor!", an album of US Navy songs, and the other was an album of US Army songs, "Sound Off!". The recordings were by the Merrill Staton Choir (which I understand was also known as the Merrill Staton Voices), a choir formed by Dr. Merrill Staton, who died in 2000. I haven't been able to find any online sources about him except for a brief obituary here - scroll down to find it.

I'd love to find copies of these albums in digital format, if they're out there. Does anyone know whether they were ever transcribed into digital format, and if so, where they might be obtained? Otherwise I'll have to buy the albums in LP record format, get a USB turntable, and make my own digital conversions. I find the memories of those songs returning more and more often, and I'd love to hear them again, particularly the Merrill Staton Choir's rendition of 'Shenandoah'. It's hauntingly beautiful, far more so than any other version I've heard since my childhood.

Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.

Peter

Is the US Postal Service another "buggy whip industry"?

Readers are doubtless familiar with the case study of the 'buggy whip industry', frequently cited in business schools around the planet. Briefly, it points out that the manufacturers of buggy whips went on making them to their hearts' content, ignoring the advent of the automobile, until one day they found that their market had disappeared. Their 'industry' could only have been protected by banning the automobile, which would have been an even greater disadvantage to the economy; so they went to the wall.

The US Postal Service appears increasingly to be experiencing a modern version of the buggy whip industry's quandary. Time magazine reports:

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has been sliding down an unsustainable fiscal path for years. A toxic combination of a poor economy, an increase in online bill paying, the proliferation of e-mail and other digital communication, and congressional mandates have created billion-dollar deficits for the USPS since 2007. Last year it lost $8.3 billion. This year, it lost $5.1 billion (only because a mandatory $5.5 billion prepayment for retiree health benefits was postponed). Mail volume declined 1.7%. Projected mail volume over the next decade? Down, down, down. Officials say if nothing's done, the postal service will run out of money by August or September of next year, and absent congressional action by Friday, the USPS will default on that mandated $5.5 billion payment.

There are a number of plans in the works to stem the losses, including one now making its way through the Senate. Some proposals being considered would lay off 120,000 postal workers and cut another 100,000 through attrition, not to mention the recent announcement that two-thirds of all mail-processing centers will close and — the thing that has riled up people across the country the most — the closure of thousands of post offices. All told, it would reduce costs by $20 billion.

. . .

It wouldn't be far-fetched to argue that the postal service has been the most important institution in our country's history. For decades, the postal service was the largest public-sector employer in the U.S. At one point in the 19th century, three-quarters of all government employees were postal workers. The Founding Fathers considered the postal service so important that they put it in the Constitution, mandating that Congress have the power to establish and regulate post offices.

. . .

... in 2006, Congress passed a law requiring an annual prepayment of retiree health benefits, to the tune of $5.5 billion a year for 10 years. Except Washington didn't see the recession coming two years later. "That act has left such a devastating legacy that it threatens to drive our nation's postal service off the rails," Rubio said.

. . .

The Obama Administration recently extended the deadline for the post office to make its next $5.5 billion retiree payment. That deadline is Nov. 18. But even that isn't enough — even without making that payment, the USPS lost $5.1 billion in the fiscal year ending in September.

And that's where the post-office closings come in. Thousands of them.

. . .

The services are reduced, but the real issue that is driving those concerned and obsessed with the postal service is that we're slowly watching a piece of American history evaporate — the colonial Franklin post office in Philly, post offices (some designed by Franklin D. Roosevelt himself) with incredible New Deal murals, the South's first post office built after the Civil War. All of them could be gone as those and others get turned into shops and real estate offices and Bergdorf Goodmans.

In the end, the debate about the USPS is simple: it's the privatization of a service that is supposed to be universal. But universal access doesn't exactly sync with the market's guiding hand. That's why UPS and FedEx don't ship everywhere. It's just not profitable for them. So where do they turn for last-mile delivery? To the postal service. Those private mail carriers are two of the USPS's biggest customers.

There's much more at the link. Interesting and worthwhile reading.

V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai, the man who literally invented e-mail, has this to say:

For 20 years, as the Infographic shows, the US Postal Service (USPS) did not recognize EMAIL as a contender to their organization. In their focus in delivering physical mail, which they performed commendably, they lost track of another part of their mission: to be a communications organization processing and delivering MAIL. As the format of MAIL was explosively changing from paper to electronic, they remained silent and content, holding its highly respectable status as a $50 billion organization and viewing themselves as any other highly successful business such as Walmart. Proactive change from USPS could have diverted the current disaster of having to lay off 120,000 workers, which is initiated by the Congress. The leadership was slow in reconnecting themselves with the innovative roots of an organization started by Benjamin Franklin, an epitome of American innovation and resourcefulness.

. . .

Perhaps one can understand USPS, for not knowing about EMAIL in 1978; however, by 1996, annual EMAIL volume had exceeded annual USPS Snail Mail volume. EMAIL could have been a natural transition for the USPS. I know from personal experience that starting in the mid-1990’s, entrepreneurs and innovators proactively called upon the USPS to create EMAIL and digital products. Their calls to action were not given the right attention unfortunately.

I remember meeting with USPS officials in 1997 to convince them that the USPS’ trusted brand could offer a suite of EMAIL services to Fortune 1000 and small and medium businesses faster and better than we could. I recall this official’s comment, “We make $50 billion a year, we are like a Fortune 10 US Company. We cannot make such changes to our business model so quickly”.

. . .

Today, in 2011, over 50% of US Fortune 1000 companies are seeking trained personnel to process their incoming EMAIL. In addition, millions of small & medium businesses also need such workers. Today, American companies are hiring EMAIL workers half-way around the world in India and elsewhere to process your EMAIL.

The 120,000 USPS postal workers, facing impending layoffs, trusted and true, can do this job. Companies in the US need this service. US postal workers can be trained within 30 - 60 days, given their current background to offer a USPS EMAIL management service. From simple estimates, the USPS can generate a minimum of $10 billion per year with these same workers versus laying them off as currently proposed.

This is just one EMAIL service that the USPS can provide. Had the USPS gotten involved earlier, much of SPAM, EMAIL fraud, and other problems we face today with EMAIL could have been addressed. The USPS could have led the way. There are many other EMAIL and digital solutions that other entrepreneurs have proposed. There are many other opportunities that are relevant to meet today's needs are waiting to be explored.

If we want radical changes, we have to be innovative. America can no longer afford to not take action when Washington is failing to provide the right leadership and not helping the management of its public organizations, while the digital world disrupts everything in its wake.

Again, more at the link.

I'm encouraged to learn that a visionary entrepreneur and innovator can see a way forward for the US Postal Service; but I'm profoundly disturbed that the USPS itself can't seem to grasp that opportunity, and move forward aggressively to take advantage of it. It's hidebound by bureaucracy, entrenched labor union intransigence, and the same mentality that doubtless afflicted the manufacturers of buggy whips . . . "People will always need our product! We're indispensable!" Tragically, all sorts of businesses - and government departments - have found out the hard way that they're anything but indispensable.

Of course, it can take some time for that realization to sink in. As the late Robert Sobel famously pointed out:

The British created a civil service job in 1803 calling for a man to stand on the Cliffs of Dover with a spyglass. He was supposed to ring a bell if he saw Napoleon coming. The job was abolished in 1945.

I suspect that example is more applicable to the US Postal Service than that organization would care to admit . . .

Peter

LOLcat of the day

Courtesy of I Can Has Cheezburger?, we encounter a response that should be very familiar to all of us . . .






Peter

Is the US government deliberately empowering drug cartels?

I ask that question because of this report in the New York Times yesterday.

Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials.

The agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal cash across borders, those officials said, to identify how criminal organizations move their money, where they keep their assets and, most important, who their leaders are.

They said agents had deposited the drug proceeds in accounts designated by traffickers, or in shell accounts set up by agents.

The officials said that while the D.E.A. conducted such operations in other countries, it began doing so in Mexico only in the past few years. The high-risk activities raise delicate questions about the agency’s effectiveness in bringing down drug kingpins, underscore diplomatic concerns about Mexican sovereignty, and blur the line between surveillance and facilitating crime. As it launders drug money, the agency often allows cartels to continue their operations over months or even years before making seizures or arrests.

. . .

Those are precisely the kinds of concerns members of Congress have raised about a gun-smuggling operation known as Fast and Furious, in which agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed people suspected of being low-level smugglers to buy and transport guns across the border in the hope that they would lead to higher-level operatives working for Mexican cartels. After the agency lost track of hundreds of weapons, some later turned up in Mexico; two were found on the United States side of the border where an American Border Patrol agent had been shot to death.

Former D.E.A. officials rejected comparisons between letting guns and money walk away. Money, they said, poses far less of a threat to public safety. And unlike guns, it can lead more directly to the top ranks of criminal organizations.

. . .

It is not clear whether such operations are worth the risks. So far there are few signs that following the money has disrupted the cartels’ operations, and little evidence that Mexican drug traffickers are feeling any serious financial pain. Last year, the D.E.A. seized about $1 billion in cash and drug assets, while Mexico seized an estimated $26 million in money laundering investigations, a tiny fraction of the estimated $18 billion to $39 billion in drug money that flows between the countries each year.

There's more at the link. It's very disturbing material, but I highly recommend reading it in full, to see just how far law enforcement agencies can go when they lack a moral or ethical framework to restrain them.

I've written about the ATF's 'Operation Fast And Furious' on numerous occasions in these pages. It seems that, not content with that agency allowing literally thousands of illegally-acquired weapons to cross the border, arm Mexican drug cartels, and threaten the lives of US citizens and law enforcement agents, the Department of Justice is now allowing the DEA, another of its agencies, to provide the cartels with enough money to buy thousands more guns, as well as hire and train the criminals they need to operate them!

Has the entire US Department of Justice now become nothing more than an avid, enthusiastic and influential enabler of Mexican drug cartels? It certainly looks like it. I'm (medically) retired from the Department of Justice myself (as a chaplain with another of its agencies): and even though I never had any inkling of such operations or contact with them, I'm beginning to feel morally soiled and tainted by association!

It's long gone time for the heads to roll of all those responsible for this mess - starting with the Attorney General, and working down from there! I believe they should not only be summarily dismissed, but those most responsible for the tragic results of these operations, whether by acts of commission or omission, should face criminal charges as well.





Peter

A Christmas-related world record

For those who enjoy a Yule log, or Bûche de Noël as the French call it, there's happy news.

If you've never tried one, it's a very tasty Christmas dessert indeed, and not too hard to make. You'll find historical information and a couple of recipes here. Recommended.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #552

Today's winner is from Poland.

A woman in Warsaw, Poland, abandoned her car after she jammed it between two walls trying to reverse away from a car park.

Wiola Nowicka, 67, attempted to turn around in the car park's narrow driveway once she noticed the high prices she would have to pay.

Nowicka's bad sense of judgement resulted in the driveway being blocked for five hours, as her car was wedged between the driveway walls.




'I didn't mean to be a nuisance,' said Nowicka. 'After a few turns I couldn't go backwards or forwards any more.'

Engineers were able to get the car out from the tight space, with careful inch by inch precision.

There's more at the link.

I just don't get it. I mean . . . how can anyone get a car so tightly wedged as that? I'd have thought it impossible! Clearly, she's an above-average driver, if she can manage that!



Peter

World's most expensive car accident?

It looks as if Japan can claim that honor as of last weekend. The Telegraph reports:

A fleet of high-performance cars, including eight Ferraris, has been involved in one of the most expensive accidents in history after an astonishing multi-car pile-up in Japan.

Police said three Mercedes Benz cars and a Lamborghini Diablo were also involved in the massive crash at the weekend on the Chugoku Expressway, in the country’s south-west.




Witnesses reported hearing a “tremendous noise” just a few moments before the accident on the Yamaguchi prefecture highway amid terrible driving conditions.

While the majority of the 14 vehicles – which also included a Japanese supercar Nissan GT-R Skyline and a Toyota Prius – were travelling along the Osaka Prefecture-bound bended lane at least one Mercedes CL600 was driving in the opposite direction.

Television footage showed the cars - either wrecked or destroyed - spread across the highway, in a trail of crumpled metal and broken glass. Several of the vehicles were wedged up against the metal barriers.

Miraculously, none of the drivers – the majority of whom are reported to be foreign car enthusiasts – were seriously hurt in the wreckage but the bill is still bound to be painful nonetheless.

Such was the severity of the damage, several of the luxury cars have been written off, leaving their owners with the nightmare scenario of seeing their prized possessions turned into expensive scrap metal.

The total damage bill is expected to hit several million pounds. A new Ferrari 355 retails for several hundred thousand pounds.

The other Ferrari models understood to have been involved in the pile-up include a F512, F355, F430 and a F360.

There's more at the link. A Japanese-language TV news report on the accident may be viewed here.

Somewhere, a number of insurance agents are crying their eyes out . . .

Peter

Try eating that in one sitting!

I'm dumbfounded to find that a gift Web site has created what it calls the 'Party Gummy Bear'.

This 26-pound [11.8 kg] candy beast ensures that your shindigs have no equal.




Imagine the shock of your party goers when they realize that your 32,000-calorie gummy bear also features an integrated one-liter serving bowl! Serve punches, candies, or even more gummy bears from within this seventeen-inch-long confection.

There's more at the link. Scroll down that page to read more, see more pictures, and view a rap music video celebrating the thing (if you're into that sort of thing - I'm not, so I won't embed it here). The beast is available in four flavors (Blue Raspberry, Green Apple, Orange and Red Cherry). The 'bowl' in its 'stomach' can be filled with solid or liquid merriment, according to the occasion. I'm not sure whether the price is worth it, though . . . they're listed at $149.99 apiece.

I like Gummy Bears. I've been known to eat them on more than one occasion, and not in small quantities. However, the concept of trying to consume 32,000 calories of Gummy Bear . . . it's enough to give me a stomach-ache just thinking about it!





Peter

This is how your Government lies to you

I've said many times on this blog that you can't trust official US government figures for the rate of inflation, unemployment, etc., because they're deliberately inaccurate - designed to look as favorable as possible, for the benefit of those in power, but in reality disguising a steadily worsening situation. However, there are always those who don't believe me, who insist that the government wouldn't do such a thing because people would lose faith in them if they found out. (Some of us found out a long time ago, and we certainly did lose faith; but then, we're the thinking minority among a herd of non-thinking, emotional sheep, aren't we?)

Anyway, the latest unemployment figures, released last week, are a perfect opportunity to illustrate such lies in action, and debunk them thoroughly. Let's start with the numbers as provided. Time magazine reports:

Just when we were expecting the economy to go boom it went zoom.

The unemployment rate in November dropped faster than it has in more than 11 years. You have to go back to September 2000 to get a quicker decline. What's more, the jobless percentage, which fell to 8.6% in November from 9.0% a month before, was the lowest it's been in two and a half years. This alone is good news but it's even more amazing considering where we came from. Just four months ago, the obstacles for the economy seemed to be piling up. The debt stand-off in Washington was ugly. The U.S.'s credit got downgraded. Consumer confidence plunged. The Labor Department reported that employers added zero, nada, new jobs in August. And then came the growing debt problems in Europe. A double dip recession seemed inevitable. Apparently it wasn't. "Clearly, the growth of the recovery has stronger underpinnings than we thought," says Gary Burtless, a labor market economist at left leaning think tank Brookings Institute. "All of these shocks were not enough to knock us down."

. . .

... to me, the number suggests that the economy could be picking up ... That's not just good news for the unemployed, but for the long-term health of the economy in general.

There's more at the link. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Not so fast . . .

First, Zero Hedge points out that new applications for unemployment benefits - in other words, the number of newly unemployed persons - have been understated almost every time over the past year.

And going back to the BS from the BLS, as John Lohman's chart below shows that in 2011 initial and continuing claims have been revised higher the week following 91% and 100% of the time, respectively.




A purely statistical explanation for this phenomenon is "impossible."

Again, more at the link. Bold print is my emphasis. As the author says, it is statistically impossible that such adjustments, almost always in the same direction, should occur over so long a period by random chance. Inescapably, we must conclude that the figures initially released (always attracting the most publicity and attention) are almost always purposely skewed to present the most favorable picture possible. Later, when the powers that be hope that people have stopped paying attention, the figures are revised to portray a more accurate picture. So much for trusting Big Brother, eh?

Next, John Mauldin goes into detail about what the economy actually needs in terms of job creation, compared to what it's producing. (Link is to an Adobe Acrobat document in .PDF format.)

Employment Up But Not Enough

The headline number is that 120,000 new jobs were created in November, in line with estimates. That total is the sum of 140,000 jobs from the private sector coupled with the now usual loss of 20,000 jobs in the government sector. But when we look at the details, things are not as upbeat.

. . .

120,000 jobs is not quite enough to keep up with the growth in the population. Along with positive revisions to previous months, we have now averaged about 114,000 a month for the last 6 months. But then why did the headline unemployment number fall to 8.6%? That is a very large drop for one month. The simple answer is that the number of people looking for a job fell by 315,000. And the number of people counted as not in the labor force (a different measure) swelled by 487,000 to a record 86.5 million.

Again, for new readers, you are not counted as unemployed if you have not looked for a job in the last four weeks. Let’s look at a chart from the St. Louis Fed database that shows the number of citizens not in the labor force. What we see is a rise from 77 million in 2007 to 86.5 million today. Part of that can be explained by population growth, but it would be less than half of the increase of almost 10 million people not considered to be in the labor force.




If we looked at a chart of those counted as being in the labor force, we would see that it is roughly where it was back in 2007, yet there has been working-age population growth of at least (my guess) 5 million. And the next chart shows the number of people that are actually employed, private or government, full- or part-time. What we see is that the number of people working is about where it was 8 years ago.




That is not a pretty chart. What all that means is that unemployment would be closer to 11-12% if we went back to the labor force of just a few years ago and adjusted for population.

Let me quickly note, too, that if we went back to the unemployment measurement basis of a few decades ago, the numbers would be closer to what I suggest above. Counting unemployment the way it is currently done allows whoever is in charge to publish numbers that look better than they are in reality on the street. I expect Republicans to point this out in the next election cycle, although if they get into office they will have to live with that analysis when it comes back to haunt them in four years. Because as the next chart shows (from my friend Lance Roberts of Streettalk Advisors in Houston), we need job growth of about 400,000 jobs a month to get back to the long-term trend by 2020. This shows the employment-to-population ratio, which has dropped by 6% since 2000, falling precipitously since the beginning of the recession. We have never had such strong employment growth, and are unlikely to get it as we reduce government spending, which we must do.




This shows above all else why the #1 issue for the coming elections will be jobs. The US economy is looking more and more European all the time in terms of unemployment numbers. If the course is not changed, it will make any real recovery back to what we think of as “normal” for the US highly problematic.

. . .

Finally, the “quality” of the new jobs is not what we would like. More and more people are taking lower-paying jobs. We saw 105,000 jobs in retail, temporary, and food services out of the total of 120,000. Many of these are seasonal and will fall off in the next quarter.

Again, more at the link; and again, bold print (in the last paragraph) is my emphasis. John Mauldin is a very astute analyst, and he's right on the money here. (If you don't already subscribe to his free newsletter, I recommend it to you.)

The facts of our (un)employment situation, as laid out by Mr. Mauldin, certainly make that glowing report in Time magazine look more than a little over-done, don't they? The 120,000 'new' positions filled last month mostly turn out to be distinctly short-term, made up overwhelmingly of seasonal jobs that'll be gone by January. They aren't a factor of importance when assessing the long-term US employment situation.

This is an example of a well-known fraud scam phenomenon. If you give people only some of the facts, but not all of them, they can't make a properly informed judgement about what you've just told them. In the case of government statistics, our politicians and bureaucrats don't want us, the electorate, to know what they're doing with our Republic; so they don't release all the information we need to assess their performance. It's therefore become necessary for the average citizen to dig much deeper than the numbers they provide, in order to interpret them correctly. That's what I try to do for my readers in articles such as this one.

Finally, let's examine the labor and employment figures provided by John Williams of Shadow Government Statistics, commonly known as Shadowstats. (We've encountered him in these pages several times before.) Mr. Williams knows full well that our government is, at best, being 'economical with the truth' when it comes to statistics. In all too many cases it's modified the method of calculating them, so as to leave out important elements that were once used, but became too embarrassing. You can read here how the government has modified the calculation of employment and unemployment figures. Here's an excerpt.

Up until the Clinton administration, a discouraged worker was one who was willing, able and ready to work but had given up looking because there were no jobs to be had. The Clinton administration dismissed to the non-reporting netherworld about five million discouraged workers who had been so categorized for more than a year.

. . .

The Clinton administration also reduced monthly household sampling from 60,000 to about 50,000, eliminating significant surveying in the inner cities. Despite claims of corrective statistical adjustments, reported unemployment among people of color declined sharply, and the piggybacked poverty survey showed a remarkable reversal in decades of worsening poverty trends.

There's more at the link. Basically, for the past couple of decades, the figures have been deliberately falsified through 'creative calculation'.

Mr. Williams calculates an 'Alternate Unemployment Rate', using the methods in operation prior to the politically-inspired meddling of the past few decades. Needless to say, it paints a far more disturbing picture than the artificially adjusted 'official' numbers. Here's how he sees our current unemployment situation, courtesy of Shadowstats.com .




The line labeled 'SGS Alternate Unemployment Rate' is calculated according to the methods and factors used up to the early 1990's, leaving out all of the 'politically correct' adjustments since then. As far as I'm concerned, it's a much more accurate measurement of unemployment than the BLS figures mentioned in the Time article cited above. It shows our real unemployment rate to be about 23% - almost three times higher than the oft-quoted 'official' rate of 8.6%!

There you have it. I've provided the 'official' government statistics on (un)employment, and shown how they're so skewed and deliberately flawed that they might as well be an outright lie. We could apply the same exercise to the 'official' rate of inflation, or the 'official' money supply, or any other 'official' statistic that our leaders issue. They're almost always guaranteed to be less than accurate . . . and that's being far too polite about them. Furthermore, this criticism applies equally to Democratic and Republican administrations. Both parties play the same dishonest game with the electorate.

We're being systematically hoodwinked by our own government. Please remember that in 2012, and vote for individuals (not political parties - honest, upright individual Representatives and Senators, irrespective of their party) who will work to undo that and repair the damage, as far as they possibly can. I don't care if they're Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street in their persuasion - we need them both! If we don't stop the rot now, it may be too late to do so next time.

Peter

World's fastest sofa?

An Australian drinks maker, Ice Break, has sponsored the building and racing of what's billed as the world's fastest couch, or sofa. Metro UK reports:

The humble sofa has come a long way - this one can do 101mph and has been named the fastest motor couch in the world.

Its driver, Glenn Suter, smashed the previous 92mph record in his unusual vehicle, powered by a 1,400cc Suzuki superbike engine.

A coffee table and fruit bowl were included by the Australian designers, whose previous speedy masterpieces have included a motorised toilet.

. . .

Paul McKinnon, who built the machine for Australian drinks maker Ice Break, added: ‘It’s the oddest vehicle we’ve ever built.

‘With race cars, you can use the aerodynamic body kit but with the couch it was a matter of just doing what we could. We tried to break the airflow with the coffee table.’

There's more at the link.

Here are two videos of the beast, the first as it breaks the 100 mph barrier to set a new world record for sofas, the second as it races a V8-powered Holden pickup (Holden being the GM/Chevrolet brand equivalent in Australia).

I think I'll leave my recliner serenely un-motorized for now, thank you very much . . .



Peter

Funny and creative inventions of the past year

Kaleazy.com has published an article titled '70 Funny and Creative Inventions of 2011'. Here are a few examples to whet your appetite.










There are many more at the link. Recommended and entertaining viewing.

Peter

Mike Williamson puts things in perspective

Many of my readers will doubtless be familiar with the books of Michael Z. Williamson, and/or with his blog, Facebook page, or other writings. Miss D. found the picture below on his Facebook page, and forwarded it to me, because she knew it would strike a responsive chord in a corner of my soul.

(Click the image for a larger view)

She was right! I can't think of a better way to encapsulate the differences between my formative years and those of all too many of today's youth. There are some pretty good specimens among the latter, to be sure, but there are also the kind exposed in this video clip from the Occupy Toronto protests in Canada.

I've never seen such a disgusting pair of cry-babies in my life! If I'd dared to behave like that as a teen, my father would probably have disowned me - and rightly so! I can't help but wonder whether that pair would be capable of serving in combat at the age of eighteen, as so many of us did in the good/bad/indifferent old days (delete whichever is not applicable according to your particular world view).

Ye Gods and little fishes . . .





Peter

The smartphone tracking scandal gets stranger by the day

A few days ago I asked whether Android smartphones were subject to a potentially massive security risk, with the discovery that Carrier IQ software is tracking almost every keystroke made on them, every Web site visited, etc.

The story gets "curiouser and curiouser", as Lewis Carroll's Alice might have observed. CNN reports:

The company behind the now-notorious Carrier IQ software that has been found to log every keystroke pressed, website visited and text message sent by 150 million mobile phone users said Friday it was shocked to learn that its software was doing that.

. . .

Coward insisted that the Carrier IQ software was not responsible for the logging of keystrokes and other user data. He said the program does not need to log that kind of information to serve its purpose of transmitting network diagnostic data to the phone's carrier.

Instead, Coward said the logging was happening at the operating system level, likely as a result of add-on software installed by the handset manufacturers. But he couldn't say for sure.

"We don't know enough at this point -- it's a very good question," Coward said.

Security experts say Carrier IQ's preliminary explanation makes sense, and it's at least conceivable that the company was "surprised" to learn that its app was logging data. But Carrier IQ isn't blameless.

"If the company says it's surprised, that indicates the handset manufacturers inserted some debugging code that the manufacturers are turning on when they shouldn't be," Rosenberg said. "But that still means Carrier IQ has some debugging mode built into it that is capable of logging everything. I'm not sure who wrote code, but that was a poor decision."

The fact that Carrier IQ itself doesn't know what's going on with its own application shows just how murky, complicated and entangled the debacle has become. The result is a lot of finger pointing: Spokesmen from HTC and Samsung both told CNNMoney that carriers forced them to install the program.

The wireless providers that have acknowledged using Carrier IQ -- AT&T (T, Fortune 500), Sprint (S, Fortune 500) and T-Mobile -- are all deflecting questions about the software's detailed logging to Carrier IQ. Which, in turn, is pointing back to the manufacturers' implementations of its software and saying that's where the problem lies.

The manufacturers, most of whom are sticking to painstakingly worded statements, are still trying to sort out their role in this mess. A Samsung spokesman said the company was digging into the issue and would have a comment later.

HTC tossed the hot potato onward: "Carrier IQ is required on devices by a number of U.S carriers so if consumers or media have any questions about the practices relating to, or data collected by, Carrier IQ we'd advise them to contact their carrier," a company spokesman said in a prepared statement.

. . .

Regardless of whoever is ultimately responsible, the app continues to raise privacy concerns. A stolen phone that hasn't been turned off -- a common occurrence among cell phone users -- could be a gold mine for hackers, who would have access to literally everything a user has done or said on the device since it was last powered down.

There's more at the link. I highly recommend reading the article in full, to get some idea of how complicated and legally murky the situation has become.

Right now, it seems that a company wrote software to track everything a smartphone user does; the providers of network services to smartphones insist that it be used; the manufacturers of the smartphones insist that they only install it because the service providers insist on it; and all parties concerned deny that they're doing anything unethical, immoral or illegal, and blame each other for the existence of the problem in the first place!

Sounds like a good reason to avoid buying and/or using any smartphone, if you ask me . . .





Peter

Climbing up - and falling off - some very high mountains!

We've covered BASE jumping here before, with some pretty spectacular videos about it. I've not seen much about highlining, which is apparently a specialized form of slacklining.

Highliners at work (image courtesy of National Geographic)

It seems there's a team called Skyliners that combines both sports at once. Here's a remarkable 14-minute video showing some of their members at work. I highly recommend watching it in high definition and full-screen mode . . . it's a wonderful piece of photography.

Personally, you couldn't pay me enough to attempt either sport . . . but I'm glad they seem to enjoy it!





Peter

Around the blogs

It's time for another blog-wander. In no particular order:


1. The Two Jonahs have a suggestion for the dream Democratic Presidential ticket for 2012. Warning - their proposal may not be safe for work!


2. Captain Tightpants explains why we shoot deer in the wild. An excerpt:

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

3. Ken at Popehat reminds us, "Oh, won't you please shut up?" He explains why at the link. It's very important and worthwhile reading.


4. The Adaptive Curmudgeon is reduced to calling in a plumber after his own efforts fail miserably. Hilarious frustration ensues.


5. Robb Allen points out that Federal expenditure on education has never been about the children, and backs it up with one of the most powerful pieces of evidence you could imagine. Go read, and let your blood boil at the waste - then vote in 2012 to shut down the Department of Education and fire everybody responsible for this fiasco!


6. John Robb tells us the Parable of the Happy Turkey. "It demonstrates how people that are comfortable are unwilling to question their vulnerabilities ... and dependencies ... until it's too late to do anything about it". It sure does!


7. Finally, Jason Good brings us "Self-Help Advice From A 2 Year Old". An example:

Pee on the floor and stomp in it like a puddle. You’ll be shocked how much better you feel.

I haven't tried that yet, but as soon as I finish tonight's blog posts . . .



Peter

A bleg to benefit our troops

Linoge, my blogging buddy over at Walls Of The City, is trying to raise funds for the Soldiers' Angels organization, which describes itself as follows:

Soldiers' Angels is a volunteer-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit providing aid and comfort to the men and women of the United States Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and their families. Founded in 2003 by the mother of two American soldiers, its hundreds of thousands of Angel volunteers assist veterans, wounded and deployed personnel and their families in a variety of unique and effective ways.

"May No Soldier Go Unloved," encapsulates the motivation behind Soldiers' Angels. The volunteers of Soldiers' Angels work tirelessly to demonstrate active care and concern for veterans, the wounded, deployed service members and their families.

To date, our volunteers have sent hundreds of thousands of care packages and letters to "adopted" deployed service members; we have supplied the wounded with over 25,000 of our First Response Backpacks directly at the Combat Support Hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan and the major military hospital in Germany, as well as provided care and comfort to those in stateside military and VA facilities; we have provided emergency aid to military families in need; we have partnered with the Department of Defense to provide voice-controlled/adaptive laptops to over 6,000 severely-wounded servicemembers, as well as other technology that supports rehabilitation; we have provided flights to soldiers on leave or in emergency situations, and to their families wanting to be with them upon return from overseas; we provided Level III KEVLAR armored blankets to give personnel extra protection in their vehicles when it was needed early in the Iraq war; and we help to honor and uphold the families whose loved ones have paid the ultimate price for our freedom and safety. With the assistance of our generous supporters , the many volunteers of Soldiers' Angels have accomplished this and much, much more on behalf of the grateful citizens of the United States of America.

There's more at the link.

Linoge's fundraiser is simple. Every five dollars you donate to Soldiers' Angels directly, or use to purchase products at their online store, or their Dollar Days or Amazon stores, earns you an entry into a drawing for some pretty nifty prizes. Full details are at Linoge's blog.

I'd like to invite any of my readers who feel so inclined to lend their support to this effort. I think Soldiers' Angels is worthy of our support, particularly at this time of year when so many of our soldiers, sailors and airmen will spend the Christmas season far from their loved ones. It's an organization that's making a difference for them, not just now, but all year round.

Kudos to Linoge for taking the time and trouble to set this up. I hope it's a great success. Please click over to his place and offer your support.

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #551

Today's winner is from Pennsylvania.

A robbery victim startled his alleged gunman in court Tuesday and cracked up a Lehigh County jury by delivering a simple, but unexpected, answer.

Philome Cesar, representing himself in a case in which he's charged with robbing 25 area hotels, convenience stores and other businesses in a three-month period last year, asked Daryl Evans to describe what the robber sounded like.

"He sounded like you," said Evans, a night auditor who was robbed at gunpoint around 3 a.m. on June 30, 2010, at the Holiday Inn Express on Hamilton Boulevard in South Whitehall Township.

Cesar paused. Jury members looked at each other and broke into laughter.

Moments later, Cesar, 32, of Bethlehem, asked one of the 19 other witnesses who testified Tuesday to also describe what the robber's voice sounded like. After Charlotte Sine answered, "It sounded exactly like you," drawing more snickering, Cesar stopped cross-examining the robbery victims with that question.

There's more at the link.

I understand it was Abraham Lincoln who said "He who represents himself has a fool for a client". Methinks Mr. Cesar has just proved the late President correct, yet again . . .





Peter

Why the prejudice against Aldi?

I shop at Aldi every week. The quality of their merchandise is excellent, in my experience (far better than most house brands, and fully the equal of major public brands), and their prices are considerably better than any other supermarket chain (including Wal-Mart, Kroger, Albertsons, Publix, etc.). I price-compare fairly often, and usually find that a basket of goods at Aldi is at least 10% cheaper than anywhere else - frequently closer to 15%. Sure, they only stock their own house brands, and have a limited selection of each item, but since the quality of that item is perfectly acceptable, so what?

That said, I was informed today that shopping at Aldi was somehow considered 'cheap' or 'lower-class'. I couldn't believe it, and did an Internet search, only to find many entries, articles and comments indicating that there's a stigma attached to shopping at Aldi. Can anyone tell me why this should be? I can't think of a single valid reason for it . . . unless it's somehow considered an inferior personality trait, or a social stigma of some kind, to shop on price, rather than on attributes such as a broad selection, or lots of frills like plenty of cashiers and free bags. (Of course, being an immigrant, I may have missed some innate prejudice that others have grown up with in America: but I still don't understand it. Can anyone explain, please?)

I find Aldi provides about 80%-90% of what I need each week (I do much of the cooking at home, so I do a lot of the shopping too). If it saves me money while providing high quality, what's not to like about the place? In today's economic climate, I guess most of us could use a few extra pennies in our pockets. If I can add to them by shopping at Aldi, to heck with the prejudices of others!

(Oh - in case you were wondering, Aldi didn't ask me to write this, or pay me for it. I'll gladly give them my personal endorsement free of charge - and I'll be shopping there again next week!)

Peter

Doofus Of The Day #550

Today's winner comes from Derby in England. Metro UK reports:

A Derby University student had to be cut free by firefighters after a freak accident left her trapped inside a clothes horse.

Danielle Morgan, 18, said she had been 'mucking about' in her flatmate Lisa Smith's bedroom when she fell off the bed and knocked over the drier, which fell on top of her.

. . .

The fire brigade eventually used bolt cutters to release Danielle - who, despite suffering bruising to her neck and shoulders she said she had now seen the funny side of the accident.

. . .

'When we called the fire service I think they were quite amused,' Danielle added. 'They said they'd seen a lot of things before but never this.'

There's more at the link. Here's a video clip of the poor girl.

With 'friends' like the one who filmed that (and put it on YouTube), who needs enemies? I wonder whether she'll ever be able to live it down?



Peter

If life gives you lemons . . . make lemonade!

I was amused to read of a novel tattoo developed for a man who lost his arm. The Daily Mail reports:

Heine Braeck, 33, was sick of his 'tired-looking' amputated limb, which was injured in a childhood accident on a train track.

The Norwegian, of Sarpsborg, decided its shape was identical to a dolphin's head, so he asked Bulgarian tattooist Valio Ska to turn it into a 3D tattoo of the marine animal - with uncanny results.

There's more at the link.

I've got to admit, that's a pretty lifelike dolphin's head shape - but wouldn't armpit hair make it look like a bearded dolphin? Also, I don't know whether armpits smell suf-fish-iently dolphin-like. Perhaps a fish-scented deodorant might help?





Peter

Old-fashioned 'dumb' weapons are getting smarter all the time

A couple of years ago I wrote about new, small, 'smart' weapons being developed for light strike aircraft (and their heavier brethren, of course). We saw some of them in operation during recent operations in Libya, from which many useful lessons have been learned.

One of the weapons I wrote about was the venerable 2.75" (70mm.) unguided rocket, in use in various models since shortly after the Second World War, most recently in its Hydra 70 form (shown below).




I mentioned that various manufacturers are developing laser-guided versions of this weapon, with a number of models approaching entry into service. For example, the partnership of Raytheon and a United Arab Emirates company have just successfully completed tests of their Talon laser-guided rocket against small boat targets.

The problem with laser-guided rockets is that the target must be designated with a laser beam prior to impact of the missile. The Office of Naval Research has also been looking at these decades-old rockets, trying to find a way around that problem. It seems they've succeeded admirably, using a completely different guidance system. Ares reports:

A guided missile prototype funded and developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) successfully hit two high-speed boats during recent testing in Point Mugu, Calif.

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division engineers used a shore-based launcher to fire two Low-Cost Imaging Terminal Seeker (LCITS) rockets in the Nov. 3 test, one inert and the other with an explosive warhead, ONR reports.

Using inertial guidance, the missiles flew to a point where the infrared terminal guidance system took over. Onboard imaging infrared seekers identified their intended targets among five maneuvering small boats. The rockets adjusted trajectories to intercept and hit two of the boats.

The test was part of the Medusa Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD), an effort funded by the Department of the Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense and Republic of Korea.

The Medusa JCTD is designed to combine the missiles with the MH-60 helicopter. “It’s a fire-and-forget weapon,” said Ken Heeke ONR LCITS program manager. “No longer do you have to continue to monitor the target after you’ve fired the weapon. You can move on to the next threat with the assurance that the rocket will hit the target.”

ONR researchers produced LCITS, a suite of low-cost technologies that modify existing helicopter-borne rockets into precision-guided weapons. By adding an infrared imaging guidance section to 2.75-in. Hydra-70 rockets, the researchers are providing naval aviators with a new lethal capability.

Unlike laser-guided weapons that require operators to select and monitor a target from launch to detonation, LCITS gives unguided rockets the ability to compute and home in on targets automatically after launch.

There's more at the link. Here's a video report on the new system.

It's remarkable to think that a mass-produced, low-cost, unguided rocket system first deployed in the late 1940's is now, more than 60 years later, still being updated, to the point where it can hold its own against the most modern, latest-generation weapons in its class. A full-size helicopter can carry a lot of these things in its rocket pods, as shown by this test launch from a US Marine Corps AH-1 SuperCobra attack helicopter.




However, they're compact and light enough that even a small UAV such as Boeing's A160 Hummingbird or Northrop Grumman's MQ-8 Fire Scout could carry some of them (as illustrated here, for example, where the latter UAV is carrying eight such missiles), giving it the ability to help defend its mother ship against small craft (such as, for example, those operated by the Revolutionary Guard in Iran, potentially capable of threatening traffic in the Straits of Hormuz). Light warships such as frigates, corvettes, patrol craft, fast attack craft and the new Littoral Combat Ship might be equipped with pods of these rockets, to reach out up to 5 miles or so and combat mass attacks by such small craft. Since they're essentially simple weapons, not requiring a major investment in guidance and fire control systems, they might even conceivably be mounted aboard merchant ships transiting a pirate-infested area such as the Gulf of Aden, to allow them to defend themselves against attack (although this would require changes to international law, of course).

Full marks for imagination to the scientists and engineers involved. There's a lot of good skull sweat in this new system, and it'll save a whole lot of money compared to newer designs. Color me impressed.

Peter

I LOL'ed

Courtesy of I Can Has Cheezburger?, here's our LOLcat of the day:




It made me laugh, remembering the antics of cats I've known, so I thought you'd enjoy it too.





Peter

OK, that's big!

If you suffer from entomophobia (also called insectophobia), you might want to skip this post. If not, the New Zealand web site Stuff has a report that boggled my mind.

An American tourist has claimed he's found the world's biggest insect during a two-day hunt on Auckland's Little Barrier Island - but the experts aren't buying his tall tale.

Mark Moffett, a former park ranger from Colorado, found the Little Barrier giant weta up a tree and snapped it nibbling a carrot.




The nocturnal creature, known as wetapunga or "god of ugly things", is the largest sub-species of the giant weta, weighing the same as a small bird.

But Landcare Research entomologist Dr Thomas Buckley says, based on Moffett's photos, the weta's size looks about average for its species.

"The species itself is the heaviest in the world but whether that individual is the heaviest you couldn't really say.

"From the picture it's a female, but it just looks like an average sized one of that species."

The largest ever recorded weighed 71 grams - larger than the average sparrow.

. . .

The wetapunga can grow up to 10 centimetres long and its leg span can reach 20 centimetres.

There's more at the link.

The biggest insects I've so far encountered have been so-called 'Parktown prawns' in South Africa (you can read - and laugh - about an encounter with one here, and learn about their less-than-endearing habit of squirting vile-smelling feces when under stress here):




and Louisiana's hissing cockroaches, which are originally from Madagascar, but have enthusiastically adapted to the New Orleans environment, and also grow pretty big:




However, they pale into insignificance beside that New Zealand thingumajig! That's big enough to give me the creepy-crawlies all night, just thinking about it - and they say it's big enough to eat a carrot? Rabbits do that, not insects!





Peter