Monday, May 25, 2009

Larwyn's Linx: The useless, serial leaker -- Colin Powell

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Nation

Memorial Day Message 2009: USBA
On offense, Cheney scores points: Times
The useless, serial leaker Colin Powell: Greenroom

Father-son team raping New York taxpayers: AT (Lasky)
Obama gets schooled on terror: Goodwin
Americans want checks on Obama's Ambitions: HumEv

Who wrote Dreams and why it matters: AT (Cashill)
Bipartisan Team to Destroy Sanctity of Contracts: AT (Lifson)
CAFE sows seeds of U.S. auto industry's destruction: HC

UC Irvine Endorses a New Holocaust: Vicious
Tax the Rich: Charlie Foxtrot
Detroit official's creative method to evade taxes: BlogProf

World

Obama gives Iran time it needs to build nukes: Telegraph
Muslim migrants riot in Athens: Age
Norway's Hydrogen Highway: World

The truth about the Atomic Bomb: Eject Eject Eject
Hitler's European Holocaust Helpers: Spiegel
Planet Obama: Where Hitler spoke Austrian and Churchill didn't torture: AT (Lifson)

Long fight ahead in Swat Valley: National (UAE)
Obama seeks to divide Jerusalem: IsrMat
Now I'm worried about nukes: Surber

Climate

Moonbats sign petition to ban H2O: Moonbattery

Media

Violating "internal controls" at the New York Times: Tiger
Double-speak and the Economy: AT (Anderson)
Is it okay for liberals...: BMW

What the LA Times talks about... and doesn't talk about: Patterico
Newsweek Boob: Iran's Not a Dictatorship, Doesn't Want Nukes: JWF
Gingrich crushes Little Dick Durbin on Meet the Press: MTP (Transcript)

Cornucopia

25 Sites to Download Royalty-Free Stock Photos and Textures: BlueBlots
Flexibility: Ross Sisters Performance from 1944: IZI

New feature: Search posts by topic


Due to popular demand (okay, one person asked for it), here are the major categories of posts helpfully indexed alphabetically. Click on any term to see the most recent articles tagged with that topic. At top right, just above the search box, you'll notice a new link called See the complete index of article categories. That link will always get you back to this index.

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Sunday, May 24, 2009

Most creative homeless signs ever




















Hat tips: Oddee, AJSB, Officer.com, Tian.

Edison and Ford meet Waxman and Pelosi


The committee calls Thomas Edison to testify. Please swear him in.

Mr. Edison, describe for the committee the nature of your "light bulb" invention.

Distinguished representatives and guests, while the idea of electric lighting is not a new one, neither had it been a practical matter until we produced our new incandescent light bulb.

It uses a lower current of electricity and is both safe and economical.

So this electric light bulb that your firm invented: do you agree that demand for affordable lighting will skyrocket and that more and more electricity will need to be produced? Have you considered the impact on carbon emissions into the atmosphere -- the inevitable result of lighting all of these "bulbs"?

No, sir. We were simply trying to create a useful product for consumers, one that enhances safety and society as a whole.

Have you considered alternative lighting mechanisms that would consume less electricity? How many "green collar" scientists are working in your laboratories? Have you considered the impact of your invention on climate change?

No, sir -- I'll admit we were simply trying to create a functional light bulb.

And this phonograph you've invented, Mr. Edison, have you evaluated how its production could skyrocket due to high demand for musical recordings? Have you produced an assessment for the EPA and state regulators as to its impact on the environment? Production of tin, vinyl and other substances could explode!

Ah, never mind.

The committee calls Henry Ford.

Here.

Please explain this "invention" of yours: this "mass-produced" automobile.

Ladies and gentlemen, one day it struck me. We could produce cheaper goods, without compromising quality, by standardizing designs and assembly processes. We created an "assembly line" that helps us mass-produce vehicles...

These "cars" of yours are reproducing like locusts! Virtually everyone is driving them! And where do you think you'll get the fuel, the gas for these --

Distinguished Representative, America's natural resources are plentiful and there is no shortage of oil. Furthermore, our new processes are a significant improvement because automobiles can be produced more efficiently and consistently.

Mr. Ford. Mr. Edison. The conclusions of this committee are clear. The U.S. government cannot tolerate out-of-control corporate entities run by super-wealthy individuals such as yourselves. We must confiscate your factories and laboratories until they can be unionized; vetted by federal, state and local regulators; and certified as "green".

In short, we must call a halt to your outrageous activities. You and Mr. Edison are dismissed.


Quite the architectural debut


Trendir has a spectacular gallery of photos of a luxurious new home in Kuala Lampur.

This luxury house is quite the debut for Paris firm Jouin Manku, which was commissioned along with architecture firm YTL Design Group to take on this large-scale integrated architectural and interior design project...

...This modern home was the first of Jouin Manku’s architectural designs to be built, and talk about first impressions!

...Just when you thought this contemporary house didn’t have any more to offer, you’re surprised to find nine bedrooms, two dens, a family kitchen and a private dining area, a private library, a game room, a study, a foyer, a formal dining room, a ballroom, a chapel, 21 bathrooms, a swimming pool, indoor parking, two guest suites and guest parking...

You won't believe the home's fascinating and unique design characteristics.


Tank Dredging


English Russia has a photo album depicting "yet another tank" being dredged from a lake near St. Petersburg.

This is a Model BT, a small, dual-mode tank that could operate either on tracks or on rubberized wheels..

Many Russian World War II-era vehicles seem to have been deposited in bodies of water as a quick means of disposal.


Larwyn's Linx: Smaller Cars Lead to Smaller Families

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Nation

The Jihadi Virus in our Jails: Malkin
Letter from a Dodge dealer: AT
ACORN's gerrymandering: Blatt

Smaller cars will lead to smaller families: Pundette
Beating back Obamacare: Surber
Burning money: GWP

Statism the only thing being stimulated: Steyn
Distortion and Hypocrisy Galore: LegalIns
Southside tragedy: who's to blame?: BMW

What if W...?: Luskin
No class: Power Line
Terror informant shunned at local mosque: Daily News

Memorial Day Weekend: Dr. Sanity
'Outrageous' policies suddenly tolerable to propagandists: Rainmaker
Summer of '69 vs. Summer of '09: BillShrink

World

Why Socialism Fails--Every Time It's Tried: DrHurd
Oratory, Chilling and Projection: Anchoress
Joe Biden threaten's Lebanon's sovereignty: SoccerDad

All he is not saying...: Dr. Sanity
Less common sense than an amoeba: Watcher
Jerusalem and Paris: Bookworm

Media

Hysteria: Protein
Times' Strom and her last ACORN article: Gaynor
MSM goes to bat for the liar: GWP

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Death Trap


The Smart ForTwo is the reknowned Daimler product commonly referred to as "The Smart Car". A two-passenger, rear-wheel drive auto, the ForTwo is among the tiniest production cars ever seen on American roads.

The EPA rates the Smart vehicle at 36 miles-per-gallon (combined city and highway driving), barely beating the Obama administration's recent directive of 35.5 MPG for entire auto fleets by 2016.

Put simply, Obama and the Democrats want you and your family driving in these unsafe vehicles.

Oh, don't get me wrong, Smart Cars have performed reasonably well in some controlled tests.

Crash tests have shown that the Smart, while having little in the way of crumple zones, has performed better than might otherwise be expected. That said, NHTSA's testing group gave the ForTwo mediocre marks in both frontal passenger protection as well as rollover. It awarded the vehicle its highest score in exactly none of the testing categories.
As for those big government Statists (AKA "Democrats") who say, "well, there won't be any SUVs in the future", I simply ask: will there be tractor-trailers? Pickup trucks and heavy vans for business? If so, the physical mismatch between these types of vehicles endangers anyone inside the rolling death traps.

In January of this year, The Seymour Herald reported on one such encounter, which -- fortunately -- was not a fatal accident.

A two-vehicle collision on Chapman Highway Monday afternoon stalled traffic for at least an hour near Shiloh Church Road.

According to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Teresa Melas, 41, of Knoxville, received non-life threatening injuries in the accident. She was driving a Mercedes-Benz Smart car that was traveling west on Chapman Highway.

Melas was removed from the car with the Jaws of Life, and was flown to an area hospital by a Lifestar helicopter, which landed on Chapman Highway at the intersection of Shiloh Church Road.

...Rupprecht, who had recently returned home from basic training at Fort Knox, Ky., said he was driving a white Chevy Camaro in the right westbound lane of Chapman Highway when the tiny car driven by Melas passed his car and clipped its front driver’s side tire.

“She was going really fast and when she hit his front wheel, her car came around in front of us and she hit the embankment and turned over,” said Ranieri. “It scared us, because her car went way up in the air and we were afraid it would land on us.”

[Passenger] Ranieri said she looked in the mirror and saw Melas’s car flip over several times behind them. Ranieri said it scared her because the car was lightweight and “flying like paper.”

In another instance, reported on AutoBlog Green:

...While driving along on I-95 in Connecticut at 70 mph, a [Smart Car] driver who goes by the name of "evilbean42" on the Smart Car of America forum (SCOA), was on the receiving end of a bump from a car which had been bumped by a car which had veered from the exit lane into the next, somewhat occupied, lane...

The momentum sent the Smart into the guard rail off of which it bounced "like a ping pong ball" and rolled three times back across the highway into the opposite guardrail whereupon it righted itself. The seat-belted evilbean42 opened the door and emerged unscathed, thanks to his Smart friend.

And this Edmunds reporter's eight-year old daughter intuitively knows that riding in a Smart Car is, well, dumb.

Although I'm not exactly keen on strapping my life's most precious cargo into the Smart's passenger seat, I have on occasion offered to take my eight-year-old daughter for a ride around the block just so she could see what the diminutive ForTwo feels like...

She vehemently refuses. Just doesn't seem safe, she says... She's always happy to pose in the Smart Fortwo, just don't ask her to ride in it.

While there are still very few Smart ForTwo's on American roads, other "fuel-efficient vehicles" have proven exceedingly poor performers when matched against larger vehicles.

This photo depicts a fatal accident in which an undersized gas-sipper (not a ForTwo) met up with a semi.

And these photographs illustrate an SUV and a normal-sized sedan after they smashed into each other. The driver of the SUV was unharmed while, tragically, the driver of the sedan was killed by the impact.

Knowledgeable commenters at Reddit observed the crash test footage and noted that the "Smart ForTwo has a tiny crumple zone, and as a result it's coming to a much more violent stop at the end. Notice how the rear end of the vehicle comes flying up off the ground."

The fact about the ForTwo is simple - there just aren't enough of them driving around right now to determine what actually happens. Far fewer of them have been in serious accidents. However... "In the 40-mile-per-hour frontal collision into a stationary barrier, Institute president Adrian Lund stated "We recorded a high head acceleration when the driver dummy's head hit the steering wheel through the front airbag." For responders, his indicates that the institute's test dummy used up all of the available ride down room in the Smart's seatbelt system and interior space as the crash occurred."

The test dummy hit the steering wheel THROUGH the airbag in a 40 MPH crash test. 'the crash test engineers also noted that during the collision, the driver's door unlatched. This also occurred during side-impact crash testing conducted by the NHTSA."

Still feel safer in that little Smart ForTwo? Personally, I think the thing is a little deathtrap but like I said, not enough of them have been wrecked to see. I have seen people driving them like complete assholes, though. Speeding through traffic and cutting into small holes that the ForTwo's size allows for, so it oughta be pretty soon...

And given the fact that modern SUV bumper levels are about shoulder-high for a typical Smart Car occupant, well, the results of a high-speed impact won't be pretty.

Protect your family. Protect your children. Say "Hell, no!" to the Statists that want to control the size of the cars you can buy, what types of lightbulbs are legal, how much water you can flush, and every other trivial aspect of your life. Say no to the Corpulent Government Democrats.



Update: True: "I think the theory with the midget cars is; if you die on impact then there won't be any healthcare cost for your recovery."

Linked by: Gateway Pundit, American Thinker and Fausta. Thanks!