I always hated those stupid speed bumps...

And now I have great news: They adversely affect the environment too!

Apparently, a study done in England has shown that reducing speeds from 30 mph to 20 mph results in a 10% increase in fuel consumption and emissions release.

Portland needs to get rid of those darned speed bumps that so many traffic engineers seem to love.

Story here

Confirmed: Politicians are generally dumb.

A proposed $300 federal tax rebate doesn't seem likely to stave off recession, and it is anticlimatic to the initial proposal of $800.


Gift cards that expire in four months.

What if the government issued every person $800 gift cards $2000 gift cards to businesses registered in the US, that expired in four months? That meant you'd have to use it or lose it in four months, and thus instant cash flow.

Healthy living through Natural products.

I was staring at two different tea products from different companies, and I couldn't stop laughing inside.

"Contains Healthy Antioxidants".

"Natural Tea".

Which led to the manufactured conversation in my head between two people:

Customer: Excuse me, but can you point me to the un-natural tea section?

Store Clerk: Unhealthy?

C: Yes please. You see, I saw this tea that said it had natural tea, so I figured I'd try the un-natural tea to save some money.

SC: Uh. There is no such thing as un-natural tea, sir.

C: Oh. I see. Well, how about some stuff with unhealthy anti-oxidants?

SC: Unhealthy antioxidants?

C: Well yeah. I saw a different tea that said it had healthy antioxidants, and I figured, since most things that are unhealthy for you taste good, I'd try some tea with unhealthy antioxidants.

SC: Ah. Well sir, all antioxidants are healthy, so there is no such thing as an unhealthy antioxidant.

C: Oh. I see. Well this tea stuff is just too much.

SC:Well sir, sorry to hear that. Would you like to try our Organic selection of produce?

C: Oh I dunno. I guess I've been eating all this inorganic produce since I was born, I don't know if it's a good idea to switch.

SC: Uhm. I gotta go now. Have a nice day, sir.

Mr. Christopher P. Bliley and the EPA

Interestingly enough, you can google Christopher P. Bliley and find out that he was paid a handsome amount for 2 days' work for Rep. Jim Nussle (Iowa) in 2007, but as EPA Administrator, Christopher P. Bliley won't tell you how the EPA came to reject California's request to self-regulate greenhouse gases. What's really entertaining is the excuse that Christopher P. Bliley puts forth - attorney to client privilege.

That's slimeball-low.

If you work for the government, you are required to have transparency. The same issue came up when Nike went to court against the City of Beaverton and the City's attempt at annexation of Nike property into the City's limits.

I'm sick and tired of the way government treats its citizenry. I'm slowly warming to Bloomberg's candidacy as the only viable way of forcing Washington back into the Constitutional framework that was created over 230 years ago. As an Indepedent, he is not beholden to the interests of any party, which is more appealing everyday.

The cheesiest car design, ever?

The Bubble Boy called, he's searching for his stolen car.
No, not really.

Actually, Disney called, China answered.
No, not really. Well, it was a Chinese company that designed this baby.

Ugh.



Image via Cnet.

A future batmobile???

The Mazda Nagare concept looks like the next Batmobile, don't you think?

Image via Cnet.

Bush+Bernanke = Prolonged suffering....seriously

They're a bunch of fools.

The parable of the fisherman...you'd think someone that openly wore his Christian faith on his lapel would not heed his own faith, right?

They're talking $800/person in a onetime tax rebate. They want to put cash in your pocket. Only problem is, that won't necessarily create jobs. We're facing a reduction of spending and this money will only prolong the spending for a short period. What happens when that cash is gone? Jobs go away. Well, that is, if the mood hasn't improved. If the mood remains the same, people stop spending and jobs go away.

Watch what happens, and then you'll know how screwed our politicians really are...the one at the top is the worst, BTW.

Bush + Bernanke = Failure

The President commented today that he would like to use tax cuts as the means to stimulate the economy. Here's what's wrong with his idea:

A stop-gap measure requires you to plug the hole now. A tax break is like slowly filling the hole with grains of sand, one grain at a time. You might use up all your grains of sand eventually, but you'll never fill the gap because the water keeps pushing the grain of sand away. Likewise, a tax cut only trickles cash into the pockets of people, and in fact most people will only realize their large cash flow come next year when they file their taxes for a refund. How often do you receive a nice, big check after you've filed your 1040? We're well into the new year and the budget has already been passed, so this year's tax refunds cannot be retroactively changed.

And so that's how I know that the President is emotionally and financially separated from the common man; he knows not how the middle class actually does things. We will be paying for his mistakes for a long time.

The problem of the global economy.

The US is caught in a unique situation of rising CPI/inflation and the economy tanking because of the credit crunch foisted by the sub-prime mortgage meltdown.

In the past, from what I remember growing up, the Feds used the prime lending rate to keep inflation in check by raising rates. To stimulate growth when the economy was down, they would lower interest rates.

Well, now we have the convergence of doubly bad news of growing inflation and a tanking economy, and it occured to me that the real culprit is the global economy. Not that the global marketplace is a bad thing; it is merely an observation that requires the Feds to change strategy. That is, that lowering interest rates really won't have an effect on the US marketplace, as it once did in a more insular economy.

The only solution would appear to be to pump cash into the economy, but that itself is prone to exporting cash to other countries via the marketplace (after all, we import more than we export). It appears that what we really need is to have the Federal goverment look closer at providing direct grants to revitalizing the existing infrastructure. This is a direct investment in jobs, people, and the local economies across the US. Sure, those dollars will eventually find their way overseas towards the purchase of consumer goods, but it will be a process by which it will have gone through the hands of several people and kept local companies afloat.

Stupid world.

All the freaking technology in the world, all the laws, and I can't get some dumbass from constantly calling me on my cellphone, all because he speaks spanish and I speak english. I tried talking to Sprint, Tmobile, the police...no one is able to do anything. Personally, I think the Portland Police officer that took my call is either stupid or lazy. He thinks that the person on the other end must know that they're reaching me in error, in spanish, before it is considered harrassment. That is flat wrong, because you can be in violation of any law without knowing that you're breaking it - you're always required to know the law, period. Harrassment is pretty cut and dry.

The Portland Police just seems lazy...or at least the officer that took my call.

The phone companies are no better. On the one hand they'll fall head over heels to help the NSA, but with the average customer??? Not really.

Okay, I'm just really really pissed off right now, and I need to sound off on all the freaking idiots that can't help me. I mean, what good is Sprint PCS if they can't send a simple message to their own customer to tell them to stop calling me? Or better yet, their customer service guy tells me that they can't restrict who their customers call. Right. They can cut off outgoing calls if you don't pay them on time, but if their customer is harrassing you, they can't do a thing? BULL.

Final football polls out.

USC is #2 in the final Coaches' Poll (didn't expect that).
USC is #3 in the final AP Poll (didn't expect that either). Should have been reversed, don't you think? I thought the press was in love with USC at the end of the season, especially after the dismantling of Illinois? Oh those media types, they're so finicky.

In both cases, Ohio State dropped like a dead anything...and rightly so. They had a patsy schedule with non-conference foes that read like the schedule Hawaii played. You can't argue that LSU didn't deserve the NC...but perhaps OSU shouldn't have been in that game since, after all...they like the rest of the Big-10 suffer from a lack of speed.

And so what if USC lost its chance to play for the NC? It was still a damned great year and USC finished #2/3. USC has finished in the top 4 every year for the past 6 years...beat that.

Sports observations.

1. Either Clemens is being truthful, or he's a total idiot. If he goes up to Congress and lies about not taking steroids, he will be prosecuted for lying to Congress, among other things. I think he did it, so I expect him to issue a carefully worded statement, and to circumvent Congress' questions. But then again, it's still going to come down to his being truthful or a complete idiot. Especially since he filed a defamation lawsuit.
   
2. Ohio State in the first 4 minutes of the game is thrashing LSU's defense. I look for both sides to settle down and the game to become a defensive struggle.
   
3. June Jones left Hawaii for SMU...the national media thinks it's about money, the local media thinks it was about the school not meeting the expectations regarding facility upgrades and commitment to the program. I think the local media got it right. They really haven't done much with the facilities since...forever.
   
4. The Seahawks look really good, defensively. The defense is really contributing to the scoring...they're going to have a heck of a time playing at GB.
   
5. USC was darn good at the end of the season, and everyone except those from the Big-10 knew that USC was going to blow out Illinois. It took only one series on each side, to see that Illinois was overmatched all around. I don't know that USC would have beaten Illinois if they played during the regular season, but give USC a month to prepare, they do the best job of any school. That's what makes them a tough team to play in a bowl game. They would have beaten anyone in the NCAA in a bowl.
   
6. USC has something like the top 3 of 4 offensive linemen coming out of high school. Now how's that for a statement? It's not about having the best recruiting class; it's about recruiting the best in the positions that you absolutely need.
   
7. Portland Trailblazers are amazingly improved, even without Greg Oden. They might actually have a chance to go to the NBA Finals next year when GO gets into the lineup.
   
8. Even with a +1 BCS game, USC wouldn't have played for the NC. So what's the point of even discussing it?
   
9. Now that June Jones has gone, I think Norm Chow might be willing to take a pay cut to return home and coach Hawaii. That would only go to improving the team's offense.
   
10. I like reading the sports writers talking about how they think USC is the best team this year, but that they didn't especially deserve to play in the NC game...and these are the same people that vaulted LSU from #7 to #2 in the final BCS poll. They get exactly what they voted for. Talking about the Stanford loss is pointless. USC is the toughest team right now; after all, they don't play the NC game in the middle of the season, do they? You pit a team that is playing the best at the end of the season, you pit the team playing the best at the end of the season and in the NC game. Bottom line.
    

Work in progress...

They're still working on the building, but here's a view of where the building stands, as of today. They've made more than a few mistakes, the worst of which is using black colored coping around the top of the red canopy...I mean, who made that decision? I certainly didn't design that in the drawings...they're nuts if they think that black on red looks good.
I didn't want to include a photo of the entry area, which I'm still working on the design and documentation for. It'll look damned good all together, except that we need to get the concrete wall painted between the two renovated areas.