Deja Vu Horizon

This clip is 7:54 long, but watch it anyway.



So, basically the deep-water oil drilling companies are currently using 30-year-old technology to contain the Deepwater Horizon spill.

I'm sick of seeing BP's Tony Hayward being held up as the single face of villainre in all of this. Sure, BP's involvement is egregiously negligent. But let's see Steven Newman and David J. Lesar put through the ringer. In my point of view, they're all involved, so they're ALL deserving of the same excoriation.

In 1979, it took them nine months to stop the spill coming from a well 200 feet underwater. We're now three months and 3 days into Deepwater Horizon oil spill. How long will it take them to stop this well that's 5,000 feet underwater?

So THAT'S what the sun looks like.

I wouldn't know. The weather's been very weird 'round these here parts.

Not to mention the ginormous migraine that I like to call the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill Clusterfrench is giving me high blood pressure.

So I need calm down and focus on something beautiful and awe-inspiring. Like this:

The big yellow thing is the Sun. But look at the upper right section. See those two dark blips? The one on the left is the Shuttle Orbiter Atlantis and on the right is the International Space Station! Incredibly, Thierry caught them as they passed directly in front of the Sun! To give you an idea of how talented Thierry is, the entire transit lasted just over half a second.

... Mind you, Atlantis had just started its pitch maneuver, designed to show its belly to the crew on the ISS so they can inspect it for heat tile damage. That means this image was taken shortly before the Orbiter docked with the station, on May 16th. Thierry was in Madrid specifically to get this shot.

Get a good look. This is the last mission of Atlantis (unless it’s needed as a rescue mission later this year), so we won’t get too many more views like this.

Aaaah. I feel better now.

(link)

So much for not blogging about politics.

I couldn't help myself.

************

Hey Carly! Nice save! NOT.

Carly Fiorina, a key surrogate for John McCain on economic issues, said on Tuesday that Sarah Palin does not have the experience needed to run a major company like the one that Fiorina formerly headed.

"Do you think [Sarah Palin] has the experience to run a major company, like Hewlett Packard?" asked the host.

"No, I don't," responded Fiorina. "But you know what? That's not what she's running for."

[...]

Fiorina went on MSNBC to defend her comments and decides to double down, arguing that John McCain, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden couldn't run Hewlett Packard either. The Obama campaign, seeking to compound the fallout of her earlier statement, highlights just the portion where she talks about McCain.

"If John McCain's top economic advisor doesn't think he can run a corporation, how on Earth can he run the largest economy in the world in the midst of a financial crisis? Apparently even the people who run his campaign agree that the economy is an issue John McCain doesn't understand as well as he should," said Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor.

Just sayin'.

(Props to my dawg, Ann, for the link.)


And: This is just fantastic. Just read it in its entirety.

So, when Barack Obama says he will put some lipstick on my pig, I am, like, Are you calling me a pig? If so, thanks! Pigs are the most non-Élite of all barnyard animals. And also, if you put lipstick on my pig, do you know what the difference will be between that pig and a pit bull? I’ll tell you: a pit bull can easily kill a pig. And, as the pig dies, guess what the Hockey Mom is doing? Going to her car, putting on more lipstick, so that, upon returning, finding that pig dead, she once again looks identical to that pit bull, which, staying on mission, the two of them step over the dead pig, looking exactly like twins, except the pit bull is scratching his lower ass with one frantic leg, whereas the Hockey Mom is carrying an extra hockey stick in case Todd breaks his again. But both are going, like, Ha ha, where’s that dumb pig now? Dead, that’s who, and also: not a smidge of lipstick.

A lose-lose for the pig.

There’s a lesson in that, I think.

Also: John McCain helped create the Blackberry? Somewhere out there, Al Gore feels vindicated, and I want to throw mine away.

Wii, Wii, Wii

My cousin and her husband scored a Nintendo Wii for Xmas this year, and we spent most of Xmas eve playing tennis on the Wii. She and I were both on the tennis team in high school, which made for some pretty interesting rallies.

That being said, I think I can take on this kid - his backhand sucks:

iSmoke

The good folks at Blendtec put their Total Blender to the test using an iPhone as part of their regular segment, "Will It Blend?"

It's almost too painful to watch.

(Props to Stachmo for the link.)

UPDATE, 3:43 p.m.: Oh yeah, and don't use your iPhone outside in a thunderstorm.

Gay Bomb

The Pentagon confirmed the existence of an Air Force proposal to create a special type of chemical weapon that would disperse strong aphrodesiacs and hormones that would "cause homosexual behavior."

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soliders to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviwing [sic] the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond.

The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994.

Firstly, do I even have to go into how stupid this is? Just like how you can't pray the gay away, you can't spray some love potion on somebody and >poof< make them gay.

However, some market-savvy inventor should jump on this idea, create a body spray and market it in a way that's similar to Axe that will make the gay menz swoon over each other. On second thought, gay men probably wouldn't buy it. All the ones I know are way more high-end than that, and would probably balk at the idea of buying a cologne from the drug store. But you know, this could be an option for the bois on a budget.

Hey, screw that; how about making one for us single, straight women out here? I can use all the help I can get.

FlyPink

I always hated the color pink. And now, I hate it even more:

THE WAGS have been doing it for years – but now every woman’s dream is about to come true with the launch of an airline for shopping trips to Paris, Milan and New York.

Called FlyPink in homage to all things girly, the airline which promises to put the glamour back into air travel, has a totally frivolous fuchsia-pink livery.

It makes its inaugural flight to Paris next month from Liverpool’s John Lennon Airport.

Passengers will sip pink champagne in a pink-themed cabin aboard the 100-seat Fokker aircraft. They will even be treated to a free manicure at the airport before they fly.

The boutique airline is aimed at Coleen McLoughlin and Vic­toria Beckham wannabes aged 21 to 35.

Heh heh. The aircraft's name is Fokker.

They had me at AOL

This article lists the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time.

AOL was listed first, and for that, can I get an 'amen'?




(Inspiration from, and title shamelessly lifted from Jet's post at Bring It On!)

Yeah, but I still want a Blackberry.

Today's Morford column discusses the recent HP study that says we're lowering our IQs while we use more and more technology that is supposed to make us smarter and more efficient. So much so that we're slaughtering brain cells "like Karl Rove murders joy." According to the study, this IQ level drop-off is even more pronounced than someone smokin' the Ganj.

I can see the point. In mean, we're human beings; we're not cyborgs. Technology does help us maximize our potential to manage data, get in contact with people at any time of day or night, or create works of art. What have you. On the other hand, a saturation point exists in which the returns we get from these supposed benefits of technology diminish over time. According to Morford, we're already there.

So pass the spliff. And have a great weekend.