Monday, July 30, 2007

Purdue?

Purdue University has recently released a computer generated animation showing the second aircraft involved in the 9/11 Twin Towers incident. It attempts to show the kind of damage that the airplane would have caused as it travelled through the tower. Don't expect anymore than that. Maybe the hope is that we will watch it and convince ourselves that the damage suggested was enough to bring down the towers.





The University took experience from the work done back in 2002 on what happened at the Pentagon, and this is a computer generated image from that time. It leaves more questions than it answers. The initial damage seen at the Pentagon was a 16' diameter hole at ground level, presumably made by the nose of the airplane as it entered the building. The image to the right would put the entry hole further up the building than actual pictures of the day showed. The building did not collapse, as shown in the next picture taken on the day, until almost an hour and a half after the initial impact.

The engines would have left some kind of trail across the lawn, but they did not. The lawn was as pristine after the event as it was before. So why did trucks come in and dump gravel all over the lawn? What was being hidden? One obvious thing missing from any pictures taken on the day is airplane wreckage.

Purdue, what are you trying to tell us? Is the purpose of your computer generated images to re-enforce the 'official' line, are you trying to tell us something else, or just hedging your bets on whatever truth is finally revealed at some point in the future?

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Thought of the day

A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices.

William James (1842 - 1910)

Remember the Chinese Buns?

Maybe you do, and maybe you don't, so a quick recap is in order..

A Chinese reporter ran a story about some kind of bun that was being made with a mixture of 40% fatty meat and 60% mashed cardboard. There was even a photo of a 'bun operative' preparing the major ingredient.

This story, in light of others escaping China about zero-quality goods, came as no real surprise in the true sense of surprises. Nevertheless, the Chinese Government refuted it, and told the world that they had jailed the offending reporter for fraudulently making up the story after having been put under pressure by his bosses to come up with something.

In deference to the above, I deleted my 'take' of it from this blog. However, it has come to light that the guy may have been jailed for telling the truth. The Chinese are a little sensitive about how their products are reviewed, and want them only to be seen in a good light. China recognises that attempts to get into world markets with cardboard buns is not going to work well for them, but maybe for reasons to which they are oblivious.

The simple truth is that we already have food items with the consistency and flavor of cardboard, so you guys can keep making yours, and we will keep making ours. Deal?

Banco Di America.. ¿este bien?

A conversation between a Customer and Bank of America Bank:

This is the Bank of America, can I help you?

Customer: Yes, I want to cancel my account. I don't want to do business with you any longer.

Bank: Why?

Customer: You're giving credit to illegal immigrants and I don't think it's right. I'm taking my business elsewhere.

Bank: Well, Mr. Customer, we don't want to see you do that, but we can't stop you. I'll help you close the account. What is your account number?

Customer: (gives account number)

Bank: For security purposes and for your protection, can you please give me the last four digits of your social security number?

Customer: No.

Bank: Mr. Customer, I need to verify your information, but in order to help you, I'll need verification of who you are.

Customer: Why should I give you my social security number? The reason I'm closing my account is that your bank is issuing credit cards to illegal immigrants who don't have social security numbers. You are targeting that audience and want their business. Let's say I'm an illegal immigrant and you've given me a credit card. I have a question about it and call for assistance. You wouldn't be asking me for a Social Security number, would you?

Bank: No sir, I wouldn't.

Customer: Why not?

Bank: Because you would have pressed '2' to speak in Spanish. We don't ask for that information when someone is calling in on the Spanish line.

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Grocery Store..

.. for Madeline Byrne of North Carolina (pictured right). A local Sheriff posted a summonsTHROUGH HER OPEN CAR WINDOW to appear for jury duty WITHIN THE HOUR or face contempt. No matter that the lady may have had commitments already!!

I remember jury duty only too well. The first job was to draw straws to see who would be jury foreman, the one that delivers the jury's verdict. It is a brave person indeed who would willingly take the position, especially if the supporters of the guy in the dock all look like they are directly related to Big Foot.

Sitting in the jury box, apart from being in direct view of the public gallery, could be quite boring. Seating was akin to church pews, with only a small flattened cushion to soften. The judge would tell us not to judge by appearances, but only to take into account the evidence from both sides. Prosecution and Defence counsel had a habit of talking in language that one usually associates with the small print on an insurance claim form.

The fun part of jury service is the private deliberation session. The court usher advises that refreshments will be provided. We all sit down. Somebody please start us off. OK, first problem is getting over the size and appearance, not of the guy in the dock who looks guilty as all hell, but of his supporter who sits in the middle of the unholy looking bunch, the one with the hair, and 6'7" before he stands up.

Is it any wonder that people do not want to serve on juries. Asking for protection just gets the same answer. "We can't do anything unless they do something first".

Very reassuring, huh..

In Line With One Of The Most Arcane Theories Yet..

A reminder of the theory.. "The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war!"

Apparently, the Bush administration is preparing to ask congress to approve arms sales over the next decade to States in the Gulf. This is an obvious first step. One can't realistically start a war without first appropriating the chattels of war.

The actual 'fighting a war' involves convincing the military and families that there is a just cause. Easy enough, one creates a just cause. Winning a war is a little more difficult and requires us to accept a level of collateral damage. Collateral damage has two forms, the innocent who get in the way, and the families of the 'heroes', those whom have been convinced that a war is justified.

I don't know about you, but I find the last part of the theory to be incomprehensible.

In the case of the 'War on Terror', collateral damage is proving to be something of a brickbat. Under normal circumstances, the 'loss' of some 30,000 troops would be a small price set against keeping the home population in line and on side. Unfortunately, the collateral damage has come to the attention of the home and international crowd because the damage is growing by the day, and with no end in sight.

What better way then, than to arm all of the Gulf States to the teeth and let them do the fighting. It is a tried and trusted method, well maybe not entirely trusted because arms were sold to Saddam Hussein and he didn't use them for the intended purpose. What a bad boy!!

Hopefully, the new lot will be more amenable to sticking by the rules, and we can all sleep safe at night again.

Tell me that there isn't a camera and crew around someplace. C'mon, this is all a joke, isn't it. Somebody is going to put their arm around me and tell me to look at the trash can. Yes, I see the camera now. You had me fooled for sure. NOT..

Little Wonder That He Looks Happy..

A lapdog for ten years, and now they are paying for his kennel? A trust fund set up for him by the US Government?

The thousands of families directly affected by the 'War on Terror' must really like this one. They are having to deal with the loss of a loved one, either through death or because the returning soldier is so physically and/or emotionally destroyed, and Blair gets a pukka post, having deserted his own government.

Thousands of Iraqis have died too, women, children, and all because Laughing Boy (in the picture) and his mates on Capitol Hill decided that they would go after Al Qaeda, the terrorist organisation they claim was responsible for 9/11. Iraqi civilians are dying because Al Qaeda were responsible for 9/11, ALLEGEDLY.

No, I didn't make a typo here. I'll pass it by you again, and you can see how close the spelling is.. Al Qaeda - Iraqi Civilians. See? Hardly any difference.

Blair, Bush and Cheney have yet to prove that Al Qaeda had any involvement in 9/11, lack of proof further backed up by the fact that they went after a completely different target, passing us off with the excuse that it had to be done anyway. These three have committed atrocities against their own countries, people, brave soldiers and against the people of Iraq who truly believed that the West wanted to help them. They gotten suckered in just like everybody else.

It must be heart warming for some that two of the three are still in power and that the third is being protected by them. For the rest of us, it sickens to the stomach.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

It Would All Be Too Funny..

.. if it wasn't for the fact that the lunatic statements made by a variety of governments didn't have such dire consequences for the rest of us.

The US is now blaming Iran for the accuracy of mortars fired into the Green Zone. Has it occurred to anybody on Capitol Hill that these guys may just be getting better by their own efforts? Most probably it has but that wouldn't garner support for maintaining and/or escalating the war in the Middle East.

North and South Korea are at serious odds over FISH? Is this what the 50 year or so standoff has been about?

Pakistan is now happy to announce that it has cruise missile technology which enables it to strike deep into Indian territory.

Well, these news snippets will help us all sleep better at night.

WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE TRYING TO DO? THIS IS ALL 4TH GRADE STUFF. DO US ALL A FAVOR AND GROW UP.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

If..

.. you were CEO of a company, and you made some totally dumb statement not just once but multiple times, or pursued policies that appeared to be flawed even in the minds of the criminally stupid, you would lose your job. You would suffer public humiliation to the point where crawling under an inconspicuous rock would be heaven.

Public figures, those high up on pedestals for whatever reason, seem to believe that they have immunity, that they deserve special treatment. The public can be a tough audience, and a performer of any kind is judged only on the last performance.

Lindsay Lohan has recently been busted on a DUI charge. Ms Lohan has only just finished treatment at a 'rehab' clinic, a short period of time where she appears to have taken nothing too seriously. She would do well to learn from Paris Hilton's recent experiences, but not to follow in exactly the same footsteps.

Paris did end up doing here time, but what did she really learn from it. Her attempt at being 'religious' fell somewhat flat during an interview with Larry King. She claimed that she read her Bible when incarcerated. She claimed to be religious, having attended a Catholic school. She couldn't remember her favorite passage from the Bible. She hasn't learned how to be truthful yet, to others or herself.

Onward and upward. Butch Bush and Sundance Cheney are both having fun in the sun, and more so since their overall popularity is so low that it doesn't matter what they do anymore. These two guys are so above the law as to defy belief. Nobody can tell me that there were not warning signs of what was to come. Take a good look at this statement, made during Butch's first presidential debate.

"The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war!"

For more like this, click on the 'How to create an angry American" video in this blogs basement.

I have just one question. Why are Butch and his sidekick still gainfully employed as leaders of the most powerful nation on earth?

Monday, July 23, 2007

Thought of the day

The American Indian found out what happens when you don't control immigration.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Genesis..

This is one of many depictions of the 'Garden of Eden'. There are also differing views regarding the location. You can see that this depiction shows the people as being 'white Caucasian', highly unlikely at best.

Every religion has its own 'Eden', and it always looks so good.

Darfur, 2nd Millennium A.D

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Take A Walk Around Your Neighborhood..

.. before deciding what vehicle to buy or exchange for the one presently owned. Look at what others are driving. If you want to be different, get a similar model but in bright pink. A man living in a Washington DC area didn't heed this advice. In fairness to him, he probably was never given it, or considered it so important. Bright pink would not have saved his new vehicle.

It lasted five days on the street before two masked men took a bat to every window, a knife to each 38-inch tire and scratched into the body: "FOR THE ENVIRON."

Welcome to the land of the free, home of the brave..

Free Speech Zones.. Only In America..

Well, not only in America. Venezuela maybe? North Korea, China, and all of the countries where human rights are low on the agenda?

A 'Free Speech Zone' is an area that your local police department has set aside as being a safe place for you to speak freely. It will be set aside from the 'Free Speech Zone', maybe even hidden from general view.

Why two 'Free Speech Zones'? Simply because there is 'Free Speech' and there is 'Free Speech'. I can hear you say that 'Free Speech' is 'Free Speech', and you would be right on all counts.

Your government grants you 'Free Speech'. You feel better because of it. 'Free Speech' is good, and it is your constitutional right.

To get into a 'Free Speech Zone', you need to be in possession of something that makes a statement. You can wear something that has a slogan imprinted on it, or carry a flag or placard. The message being projected by any of these means will determine whether you get access to the 'Free Speech Zone' or the 'Free Speech Zone'.

Hmmmm. The constitutional right to 'Free Speech' is not what a 'Free Speech Zone' is all about. Remember the 'Animal Farm' wall slogan? 'All animals are equal'. The wall slogan was extended later to include 'but some animals are more equal that others'. The US concept of 'Free Speech' works in much the same way, where 'Free Speech is good, but some 'Free Speech' is better than other 'Free Speech'.

Content is what determines whether you are ushered to a 'Free Speech Zone' or a 'Free Speech Zone'. In the event that 'Free Speech' might not televise too well, or maybe give a bad impression to a public reasonably convinced that they have the right to 'Free Speech', your 'Free Speech Zone' will be set at a safe distance and out of camera view. Determined efforts at 'creating a bad impression' generally result in being moved to a far more claustrophobic 'Free Speech Zone', often with no view to the outside at all.

Countries not having formally designated 'Free Speech Zones' include Canada, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, France, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.

All of the above countries have laws in place to limit damage should they feel the need but, at the same time, they do not deliberately lie to the people about how free they are either. People in the above countries receive a much broader education that allows them to gauge their own personal freedom against the freedom of others. They are educated to think 'outside the box', not blindly accept the contents as being the 'be all and end all'

Wake up, America. The world needs you, but not in your present form.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Word of the day

Hope is the only good that is common to all men, those who have nothing else still possess hope.

Thales of Miletus

The Result Of An Excrutiatingly Bad Hair Day..

Friday, July 13, 2007

If You Are Wondering..

.. what happened to all of the ideas and to-do lists of the guy for whom you voted, look no further..

Questions For Creationists..

.. from a somewhat bemused resident of the North American continent.

When Noah and his wife visited Canada to pick up a male and female of each resident animal, the task was made easy in some instances because a male Moose, for example, has a large set of antlers and the female doesn't.

Skunks are a whole different ballpark, and one has to be brave to take on the job of 'sexing' one of these critters. Also, when he was dropping them back off after the great flood subsided, would it have been possible to have inadvertently mixed the country codes on the tags or inventory listing. Should Canada have gotten the Kangaroos, and Australia the Skunks maybe? What safeguards were in place, if any at all?

If the voyage to pick up all animals was a long one, how did he cope with the inevitable Moose rut? Nobody in their right mind gets within a mile or more of a male Moose intent on 'rutting'. And just one more question for now. How did he or his wife stop the beavers from eating their way out through the hull of the ark?

High Rise.. High Fear..

Do you have a natural fear of heights? Does your mind fill with ideas of the part where you are standing or sitting snapping off and falling? Some people get all giddy if they just lift one foot too high off of the floor, so do not be ashamed. The top part of all modern high structures move around a little bit. They are designed that way otherwise the top would indeed snap off.

One of the worst fears that any of us have is fire. In 1974, a movie was released called 'The Towering Inferno'. Badly constructed, using cheap 'below spec' materials, we watched the unfolding drama of people trapped high above ground level, some perishing, some not. Right at the end, the fire chief tells the buildings owners/designers that maybe they should get guidance from the fire department about constructing buildings where normal firefighting equipment is less than useless. It made me think at the time and, during subsequent visits to high rise buildings, the events of the movie lurked uneasily in the back of my mind. I found it difficult to shake the image of the burned out shell left standing.

We have all seen news reports of buildings around the world savaged by fire, and they all look the same, windows shattered, dark marks left by flames and smoke, eerily empty. The question as to what to do with what is left must be a problem. Is it cheaper to re-construct, or maybe to knock it all down and start over? Whatever the decision, it must first be established that the building is essentially in a safe enough state for any work to begin.

Modern design is such that construction materials used can withstand fires, wind, high impacts and even earthquakes, the weakest link being furnishings et al introduced by whoever uses the spaces inside the building. These items are generally not fireproof, and they are loose. In the event of an earthquake for instance, not only does the building shift, but so do all of the interior fittings and in a wild random manner.

If we can't prevent destructive events, what can we do to make the aftermath more easy? How would you feel about working or living in a high rise building if you knew that it had been rigged, such that in the event of a fire, it could be demolished within the hour, so saving days, weeks and months of either re-constructing or removal? It is way easier to 'rig' a building while it is still in a good state of repair. Moving debris from ground level has to be a better option than sending demolition experts and firemen into buildings where the general integrity may be severely compromised.

Fire damaged high rises never fall of their own volition because the fire is never hot enough to melt the steel used and could never be hot enough unless pure oxygen is fed directly into the fire. It has always been possible to fix the buildings afterwards.

The idea of rigging is insanity itself. Ask yourself honestly if anybody would ever sanction such a crazy idea. Lets face it, when was the last time you saw a high rise building suffer a fire and fall as a direct result of the fire damage?

Do you need help thinking back? How safe do you feel now?

Breaking News Friday, July 13, 2007..

An 23 year old Iraqi journalist working for the New York Times was shot and killed on his way to work.

Bill Keller, executive editor, said of journalists working in Baghdad, “Without them, Americans’ understanding of what is happening on the ground in Iraq would be much, much poorer.”

To Mr Keller: Could you please send a complimentary copy of your newspaper to the White House just so that the guys there know what is happening in Iraq too?

A Final Admission..

.. but isn't there something missing here?

The White House has admitted that it was 'behind the CIA leak'. At the time of the 'leak', G W Bush promised that the 'leaker' would be found and punished. So what happened next? Well, not a whole hell of a lot except that Lewis Libby was busted for obstructing justice. Whatever justice he was obstructing has still not been made public, as we still do not have the name or the head of the 'leaker'. Even that may not be true. Maybe we do have the name and the head but we just don't realize it!

To ensure better sleeps at night, G W Bush has pardoned Lewis 'Fall Guy' Libby. Meanwhile, the 'leaker' is still out there somewhere. All is ok though, because G W Bush says it is time to move on.

In my own opinion, and maybe that of a few others, it is a great pity that he didn't adopt the same attitude with Iraq's former leader. In his last speech to his indulgent audience, he talked of the progress made in Iraq. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words. I doubt that the man knows a thousand words, but here is a 'progress' picture anyway.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

It Makes One Wonder..

How many people think that a 'Deer Crossing' sign at the side of the road is so that the deer know where to cross?

When a Customs Officer asks if anybody has put something in your luggage without your knowledge, how does he/she expect you to know?

When a child is having a tantrum in a public place, why does a mother invariably say 'stop acting like a child'?

When ordering a take out Bacon/Lettuce/Tomato sandwich, why are we asked if we want bacon, lettuce, and tomato on it?

Why do people always address the person pushing the wheelchair, never the person in it?

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

It's Time To Play Again..

The first picture shows a smoke plume. It's of the type you may have seen for real or on TV where there has been an explosion caused by an explosive device, maybe plastic explosive or dynamite. Notice how the smoke cloud is rapidly starting to 'detach' itself, that is to say, there is little follow up smoke or anything else directly below it. This is a very different kind of plume that comes from an explosion and subsequent fire at an oil refinery, airplane disaster or store fire, where a much blacker smoke and flames are seen rising to quite a height and for an extended period dependant upon the amount of combustible material at the site.
The second picture is of a site where, again, some destructive force has left its mark. There is evidence of smoke and heat, again left by some small explosion. Part of the ground looks a little charred, but grass directly around the area has suffered little or no damage. Some soil has been piled up, and it is plainly obvious that something has been 'going down' here.

The third picture is an expanded view of the second, and again does not show that much has happened here at all. There is smoke in evidence, but were you to take a quick glance at a place like this, you might consider at best that a small fire maybe gotten out of hand but has been put out.

OK. Time for the game. Looking only at the second and third pictures, can you spot anything in them that would lead you to believe that a full sized, twin engined Boeing airliner carrying passengers and luggage crashed here? If you are wondering why I am putting this question to you, the answer is simple.

These pictures are not just anyplace. These pictures are of the Shanksville, Pennsylvania Flight 93 crash site, taken not too long after the event. Have you ever seen an airplane crash site so devoid of wreckage? Cast you mind back to any news item where an airliner has crashed into a mountain, or anyplace other than the crash sites of September 11, 2001 and honestly tell me that they were the same as this.

The first picture of the smoke plume is so unlike any other emanating from a crashed airliner still with half of its fuel load onboard, and yet we are told that it was, and we are expected to believe what we are told. Do your eyes tell you the same story as you were fed at the time?

Flight 93, according to United Airlines, landed at Cleveland Airport a while after it apparently crashed at Shanksville.

If Flight 93 did NOT crash here, and did land where United believe it to have landed, then it follows that the passengers on board of Flight 93 did not perish at Shanksville either. So if they didn't die here, where was their place of execution.

More to the point, who were their executioners?

Monday, July 02, 2007

Time on the beach

While I waked along the beach today, a few words of Longfellow came to my mind:

Sit in reverie and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind