What Bill Maher really thinks

Karl Rove suggests that Sarah Palin lacks “gravitas”

From The Daily Telegraph:

Karl Rove displaying his "gravitas"

“There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world’.” - Karl Rove referring to Sarah Palin

Ah, Karl, have you not noticed that we now live in an internet/facebook/twitter world? Gravitas is a word that had meaning in the telephone/radio/television world of last century. Gravitas conjures up images of the stuffed shirts and empty suits of yesteryear. It has the smell of “Good ol’ Boys” all over it. You can almost hear it whispering “She’s not one of us… don’t let her in!”

You Republican Sweathogs were happy to have Sara Palin as a sidekick for John McCain, as long as she kept her mouth shut, and played the game. But when you realized that Sara Palin appealed to a lot of people because she had (gasp!) her own thoughts and opinions, you turned on her like spoilt milk.

Sara Palin has the cojones (figuratively speaking, of course) to whip your gravitas. She proved it as a mayor and as a governor. Have any of you reprobates run a town, or a state? I’m not talking about buying off anyone who is loose enough to be bought; I’m talking about actual management - solving problems, dealing with issues, and using the law to protect the public.

So, Karl and Company, if Sara Palin does decide to run in 2012, she’s got my vote. If she wins, you may have to wipe the gravitas off your face.

The Dukes of Hazurdistan

Taliban Rednecks





A Very Large Boatload

The Emma Maersk is one of three ships presently in service, with another two ships of this size to be completed in 2012. Commissioned by Wal-Mart, each ship can transport goods across the Pacific in just five days.

These ships can carry 15,000 tractor-trailer-sized containers. Each is longer than an aircraft carrier, and with its 207-foot beam (width), it won’t fit through either the Panama or Suez Canals. It needs only 13 people as its crew.

The Command Bridge is higher than a 10-story building. The ship has 11 cargo cranes that can operate simultaneously, unloading the entire ship in less than two hours.

A recent documentary on the History Channel noted that all of these containers are shipped back to China, empty. Yes, that's right … we send nothing back on these ships. So much for the trade balance.



Look out CFLs!

By Dan Saelinger (popsci.com)

Never mind that twisty compact fluorescent. The new energy-efficient way to light your home is with LEDs. An upcoming crop of bulbs draw 12 watts or less, edging out a typical fluorescent, and they have a more conventional shape, contain no mercury, and last at least 25,000 hours, three times as long.
Read more here:
http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2010-07/updating-edison
___________________________________

Dan, you had me at “no mercury.” But don’t expect to get them on-the-cheap … at $60 each, I think I’ll wait a while (remember when hand-held calculators were a hundred bucks?) If the demand is there, they will become less expensive.

From Toys to Technology

What do Etch-a-Sketch, Shrinky Dinks, Legos, and balloons have in common? Other than being popular toys, they have also inspired some significant technological advances. Find out here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=toy-box-tech

German fishing boat flies giant kite to save fuel

Germany's largest fishing vessel is towed by a giant kite harnessing trade winds that will help cut its fuel consumption by up to a third.

The 15,000 ton 'Maartje Theadora' is the first fishing vessel to use the system, in which a 160 square metre blue and white kite similar to a paraglider pulls the ship on a 300 metre rope, assisting its main engine."

The SkySails system is expected to cut Maartje Theadora's fuel consumption by about 10 per cent in the first phase of the pilot project, supported by about 780,000 euros ($1.16 million) of funding from the European Union and Germany.

The kite, which can be used at wind speeds 18 knots and above, can add 1,000 kilowatts (kW) of power to the ship's 8,000 kW engine. SkySails hopes to eventually double the system's power.

Over the next two years Diederik Parlevliet, head of fishing firm Parlevliet & Van der Plas, operator of the ship, expects fuel savings will increase up to 30 per cent, and greenhouse gas emissions will be significantly reduced.

A NEW DIRECTION

There are those who have objected to some of my recent posts, indicating a preference for more uplifting and informative fare. I have vowed that I will attempt to move in that direction, so that no offense is taken and no disparagement is inferred.

My thanks to all of you who read these posts. Please continue to send your questions, comments and suggestions.

Robert Pattinson is allergic to ... what?

It's either a very bizarre PR stunt, or Robert Pattinson is trying to kill his publicist. In an age when young, hot movie guys are supposed to be super studs, he may have just handed his movie career a death sentence ...

Huh? What? ... Oh, I get it, now ... Ha! It's a joke, an English joke! Ha ... you see, when you're allergic to something you tend to ... swell up ... Ha, ha ... ahem. (I am so embarrassed!)

Just ignore that first paragraph. I didn't mean to mislead.

Bye now.

Politicians

What America wants from Obama

How much is a trillion dollars?

Here's an eye-opening graphic I found at My Success Club.Com:

Things that make you say "huh?"

You'll have to supply your own caption for this one...I got nothing.