Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Team Rubicon

We've all heard of the horrifying earthquakes in Haiti and the rather pathetic and quite unacceptable physical response from around the world.

According to most accounts I have read there is a large quantity of supplies stuck at the airport. Planes loaded with more assistance are being turned away for goodness knows what reasons.

And as a result people are dying.

What did you do about it? Probably the same as I, read some more news articles, forward some e-mails, maybe even donate $25 to a reliable charity and move on to the next article.

Not everyone is like us.

Jake Wood was a Marine Sniper in Afghanistan. He left the service and was kicking back and enjoying his life after a very stressful few years. When he heard about the earthquake he also felt bad and wanted to help. Except being a Marine and therefore medically trained to a certain level, he decided to head down there and help. But why go alone? He gathered some friends and other volunteers and traveled down there on their own dime.


Team Rubicon member Dr David Griswell, like yesterday, becomes the lead physician in the outdoor General Hospital. "It's a disaster. There is no drinking water

The team don't just serve as a first responder for injuries but they also help move power lines, inspect damaged buildings such as hospitals and gathering points and they also have to keep themselves, and others from wasting energy asking why such numb-skulls are visiting at a time when they're body weight in water or gauze pads or antibiotics would better serve the people.



With no structural engineer available, Team Rubicon Firefighters Jeff Lang and Craig Parello conduct the initial structural damage assessment on the General Hospital after the 6.1 quake this morning.



You knew this asshole was going to show up. (direct quote!)




Team Rubicon member Dr. Dolhun inspects a 4 hour old baby born in the street outside the General Hospital.
Go to the website, read the blogs, follow them on Twitter and donate. Whatever you do, please pass this on!

kthanxbai!

Something for when you are bored

When you have a few minutes to kill I suggest you look up the website below. You simply put in an address and you see an actual photo of the place. On the side there is a little blue man who you can move around to get different views of the street.


Above is VPIKE's view of my sister's house. And her car in the drive.



And if you recognize this house please leave me a note in the comments...

A very interesting little software. Invasive of your privacy? I suggest you go and check it out. Oh, and it's as addictive as crack cocaine with nicotine added.

VPIKE - be ready to lose the next few hours.


kthanxbai!

T-shirt spelling mistake

And no, I make no money off the sale of this particular shirt.

lolmart shirts, kthxbai
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

kthanxbai!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Hudson River landing amalgam

This video has been doing the rounds of twitter and the blogosphere after Captain Sullenberger was voted one of the top personalities of the decade. Normally I wouldn't care too much but it really made me realise just what an amazing, and speedy incident it was.



kthanxbai!

Monday, January 18, 2010

UNacceptable, UNimpressed and now UNderfunded

The most calm and collected country in existance is probably Holland but Canada comes a close second.

UNRWA LogoImage via Wikipedia


It therefore behooves me to mention that there must be something seriously fudged up at UNWRA (United Nations Refugee Works Agency) which administers 59 refugee camps for Palestinian Arab refugees and their descendants who left their homes in the wake of the 1948 war.

UNRWA maintains Palestinian Arab refugees in their facilities under the premise and promise of return to homes and villages from 1948 that no longer exist.

So what is the matter here then? Seems like a perfectly normal United Nations way of wasting money.

Canada has not only stopped paying into, but has actually withdrawn funds from UNWRA because it has been documented that Hamas terrorists have been chosen by the UNRWA labor union to actually administer UNRWA facilities.

Yes, it actually takes a report commissioned by the European Parliament to get people to notice whats happening in UNWRA. So why has only Canada left UNWRA and no-one who actually has a seat at the European Parliament? I don't know either!!

Here is the original article in The Bulletin, Philadelphia's Family Newspaper.

kthanxbai!


Sunday, January 17, 2010

I heart Walmart

I miss Walmart. Whenever I used to travel to the USA I used to Mapquest how far my hotels (Fairfield Inns, anyway) were from the nearest Walmart and spend my free weekends going to 2 or 3 of them.

Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Winter Springs...Image via Wikipedia



Really, you can get everything there. I loved the idea that not only could you buy great snacks and drinks but also handguns, ammunition and caravans!

Those crazy kooks over at collegehumor.com have created a Walmart Rap, an ode if you will, to the variety and greatness* that is the Walmart.



*please be advised that this high level of sarcasm can only be used safely by an Englishman with a highly elitist secondary education. This blog contains no peanuts or peanut derivatives.



kthanxbai!


The kids of today

So whats it all about? Where are we going adn what are we leaving our children and our children's children?

According to Tom Brokaw we are seeing the end of the 'Greatest Generation'. Surviving fighters of the Second World War, as well as Holocaust Survivors are dying off and we are left, at best, with video interviews and autobiographies. So where are we, the children of the children?

I hadn't given it much thought until I saw this video, and I suggest that you too watch it to the end:


Hat tip to Old Plod

kthanxbai!

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Tiger's Transgressions

Do you have what it takes to be a top class golfer? Can you keep your cool under pressure? Do you want to be the next Tiger Woods?

President Barack Obama greets professional gol...Image via Wikipedia


Have a go at the game here, I think you'll enjoy it. (And I don't even like golf!)

http://www.atom.com/fun_games/tiger_woods_defense/

Hat tip to Throw The Ball Already

kthanxbai!

Friday, January 15, 2010

Incredible Climber

Incredible Climber over at Now Thats Nifty. Mind boggling in fact. SAdly, being an incompetent buffoon, I am unable to import the video here so you don't really have an option but to visit Now That's Nifty to see it.

Nat makes her way up Balthazar (12) in the Bou...Image via Wikipedia


If you think its a fake then can tell me how it's done?

kthanxbai!

Thursday, January 14, 2010

TSA agents, security and safe landings

I used to be a traveling salesman for a hi-tech firm. Pre 9/11 (therefore pre-TSA)I flew throughout the USA and Europe spending an average of 2 weeks abroad a month. So yeah, I know a thing or two about airport security.

Hand-luggage inspection machine at an airport.Image via Wikipedia


I was still a smoker when I was a salesman and every time I went through security in the USA with a coffee in my hand, having just had a smoke outside, I'd set off the alarm bells. Apparently nicotine and caffeine were a potent mix.

Sadly it appears to me that in the decade (oy vey!) since then security has really not improved much.

I recently read an article over at HillBuzz about mixing death threats, attempted mass murder and liberalism together creating a weird outcome.

Here is a snippet from the article:

Riding the Orange Line to Midway or the Blue Line to O’Hare we run into plenty of TSA agents, whether we are going to the actual airports or not. Most of these people are circus clowns. They’re very young, sloppy, completely unprofessional in public, and couldn’t care less about how they’re seen behaving in their uniforms. 90% of the ones we see in TSA uniforms are black.

It sure feels like there is a very high minority hiring push for TSA agents — and that the standards for the jobs are very, very low. The pay, from what we hear, however, is very good, especially in this economy.


And the article concludes:

Increasingly, we believe we need Israelis to come in and restructure the TSA, weed out the bad and lazy apples, and give the entire outfit’s professionalism a serious upgrade, Liberals be damned.
Go here, or here, or here to read the original article. Comments in the comments area - as if I need to tell you!!

kthanxbai!

I gone bin and dun it

I made good on my promise yesterday of getting more exercise.

Bat Mobile. Special Presentation of Cars Used ...Image via Wikipedia


Not only did I get up early - or as we used to say in the military "at the crack of sparrow's fart" - and drove off into the misty valleys that surround our home.

I dropped the car off at the garage after I'd been informed that the 200,000km service it was going in for would cost around $350. I then made myself a steaming cup of Turkish coffee, walked out of the garage, turned right and started my walk to the office.

Then I realized that going left actually made more sense, turned around and started walking that way instead.

On my little walk I listened to a podcast which had me laughing so hard that I had stop walking at some point to catch my breath. Answer Me This is a great weekly show that combines audience participation, standard jokes and general nonsense but be warned, strong language is rife. But it is sooooo funny.

I walked and walked and enjoyed the sun, the diesel fumes and the looks on people's faces as I cracked up laughing. All good fun.

When I got to the office I was hot and sweaty. Lucky for me 'the office' is in fact a volunteer job in a charity's main warehouse so everyone else there was sweaty too. I started heaving boxes and putting orders together and pretty soon I was up to 11,000 paces on my pedometer (it measures paces, not the location of pedophiles).

Another couple of hours passed and I was up to 15,000 paces.

By the end of my work day I was up to 22,000 paces, over twice the daily recommended exercise for an adult.

So I walked back to the garage to pick up the car where I was informed that the service cost twice what they said it would.

I smiled, nodded and looked at my pedometer - 31,000 paces.

Its good to realize what is important these days.

kthanxbai!

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Between friends

So what is 10kg?

98.0 newtons

50000 carats

352.74 ounces

22lbs

7716 scruples troy

10 liters of water

My baby boy, Jack

In fact it was this afternoon in the local mall that I had an epiphany. Actually, it was backache but I'll call it an epiphany for now.

Mrs J and I had a late breakfast / early lunch at the mall whilst waiting to meet up with the Sister-in-law. I decided to go and see my friend and barber Moody who works on the same floor as the cafe we were eating in. To give Mrs J a bit of time to eat her breakfast I said I'd take Jack along with me.

So far very simple. Taking a 10 month old baby to see my friend 150 meters away. When I got there I was knackered (or cream-crackered if your from Essex). I'm used to working in a warehouse moving heavy boxes around but this was just pain-pain-pain!

As I struggled back to Mrs J with Jack on my shoulder I realized what my issue was. Its not that I'm overweight, which I am, or that I am unfit, which I really am, but rather that I now understood physically what my body was feeling already being at least 10kg overweight.

Carrying Jack had instantly added the 10kg in one go to the 10kg I have slowly been adding to my body over the last few years.

I finally understood what I was putting my joints, my heart and my muscles through every time I started doing something.

Normally at this point I'd just use it as an excuse to never leave the couch but I feel now that I really have to either turn this blubber into muscle or get rid of it.

From now on I'm going to try harder, push further and really try to lose the weight. I'm starting with trying to get 10,000 paces every day. You can follow my alleged progress on the Walker Tracker widget near the top of the blog.

All words of encouragement warmly welcomed as are any hints and tips you may have.


kthanxbai!

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

He got talent - oh yeah!

Juggling is a talent.

Urban gymnastics is a talent.

Some might even call doing heads-over-heels on a treadmill a talent.

Mix them all together, add a few swords, flips and chairs et voila: The World's Most Talented Man



kthanxbai!

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Formula 1 in a nutshell

If you are interested in Formula 1 (open wheeled car racing) and whatever news those cheeky little monkeys are creating look no further than F1 Minute.

Felipe Massa. Formula 1Image by .:fotomaf:. via Flickr


Created by the geniuses behind Sidepodcast this daily podcast, made by Christine, talks about the most interesting Formula 1 news of the day - but in just one minute.

For a great example of what you'll find over at F1 Minute here is their first F1 Minute video from 4th January.



kthanxbai!

Thursday, January 7, 2010

The Fat Trap

My parents are vegetarian.

There I've said it. I've outed my self.

There are many downsides to having vegetarian parents. Nut-roast is one of them. Tuna casserole are two more. When your kids cheer when it's Tony the Tiger's Frosted Flakes for supper do you not understand that they are underprivileged?


Grilled salmon is a healthy and tasty meal to eat once in a while, just not every Friday night.


For 6 years.

Now, as a father myself, I realize just how my parents trod a fine line between a healthy lifestyle choice and screwing me up for ever more. A very fine line.

So what brought this up? I was cleaning the barbecue and realized that there was a mold filled drawer accessible from the back. I believe it's called a 'Fat Trap'. What should I do with it? How often should I empty it? Where do I put the contents? Answers on a postcard please - or in the comments.

kthanxbai!

Monday, January 4, 2010

From a Recon Marine in Afghanistan

This letter has been floating around the inerwebz for a while now so I guess we can conclude that it is not 100% real.

Its an interesting read anyway so enjoy!

From the Sand Pit:

It’s freezing here. I’m sitting on hard, cold dirt between rocks and shrubs at the base of the Hindu Kush Mountains , along the Dar ‘yoi Pomir River , watching a hole that leads to a tunnel that leads to a cave. Stake out, my friend, and no pizza delivery for thousands of miles.

USMC GuidonImage by Randy Son Of Robert via Flickr

I also glance at the area around my ass every ten to fifteen seconds to avoid another scorpion sting. I’ve actually given up battling the chiggers and sand fleas, but the scorpions give a jolt like a cattle prod. Hurts like a bastard.. The antidote tastes like transmission fluid, but God bless the Marine Corps for the five vials of it in my pack.

The one truth the Taliban cannot escape is that, believe it or not, they are human beings, which means they have to eat food and drink water. That requires couriers and that’s where an old bounty hunter like me comes in handy. I track the couriers, locate the tunnel entrances and storage facilities, type the info into the handheld, shoot the coordinates up to the satellite link that tells the air commanders where to drop the hardware. We bash some heads for a while, then I track and record the new movement.

It’s all about intelligence. We haven’t even brought in the snipers yet. These scurrying rats have no idea what they’re in for. We are but days away from cutting off supply lines and allowing the eradication to begin.

I dream of bin Laden waking up to find me standing over him with my boot on his throat as I spit into his face and plunge my nickel-plated Bowie knife through his frontal lobe. But you know me, I’m a romantic.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: This country blows, man. It’s not even a country. There are no roads, there’s no infrastructure, there’s no government. This is an inhospitable, rock pit shit hole ruled by eleventh century warring tribes. There are no jobs here like we know jobs.

Afghanistan offers two ways for a man to support his family: join the opium trade or join the army. That’s it. Those are your options. Oh, I forgot, you can also live in a refugee camp and eat plum-sweetened, crushed beetle paste and squirt mud like a goose with stomach flu, if that’s your idea of a party. But the smell alone of those ‘tent cities of the walking dead’ is enough to hurl you into the poppy fields to cheerfully scrape bulbs for eighteen hours a day.

I’ve been living with these Tajiks and Uzbeks, and Turkmen and even a couple of Pushtuns, for over a month-and-a-half now, and this much I can say for sure: These guys, all of ‘em, are Huns… actual, living Huns.. They LIVE to fight. It’s what they do. It’s ALL they do. They have no respect for anything, not for their families, nor for each other, nor for themselves. They claw at one another as a way of life. They play polo with dead calves and force their five-year-old sons into human cockfights to defend the family honor. Huns, roaming packs of savage, heartless beasts who feed on each other’s barbarism. Cavemen with AK-47’s. Then again, maybe I’m just cranky.

I’m freezing my ass off on this stupid hill because my lap warmer is running out of juice, and I can’t recharge it until the sun comes up in a few hours.

Oh yeah! You like to write letters, right? Do me a favor, Bizarre. Write a letter to CNN and tell Wolf and Anderson and that awful, sneering, pompous Aaron Brown to stop calling the Taliban ’smart.’ They are not smart. I suggest CNN invest in a dictionary because the word they are looking for is ‘cunning.’ The Taliban are cunning, like jackals and hyenas and wolverines. They are sneaky and ruthless, and when confronted, cowardly. They are hateful, malevolent parasites who create nothing and destroy everything else. Smart. Pfft. Yeah, they’re real smart.

They’ve spent their entire lives reading only one book (and not a very good one, as books go) and consider hygiene and indoor plumbing to be products of the devil. They’re still figuring out how to work a Bic lighter. Talking to a Taliban warrior about improving his quality of life is like trying to teach an ape how to hold a pen; eventually he just gets frustrated and sticks you in the eye with it.

OK, enough. Snuffle will be up soon, so I have to get back to my hole. Covering my tracks in the snow takes a lot of practice, but I’m good at it.

Please, I tell you and my fellow Americans to turn off the TV sets and move on with your lives. The story line you are getting from CNN and other news agencies is utter bullshit and designed not to deliver truth but rather to keep you glued to the screen through the commercials. We’ve got this one under control. The worst thing you guys can do right now is sit around analyzing what we’re doing over here, because you have no idea what we’re doing, and really, you don’t want to know. We are your military, and we are doing what you sent us here to do.

Saucy Jack
Recon Marine in Afghanistan
Semper Fi

“Freedom is not free…but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share”.

Hat tip to Mostly Cajun, All American and Opinionated

kthanxbai

The Great Office War

Whilst the world looks to Iran, N. Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan to see where 2010 will take us, we should look inwards to see the real future.

Or just have a laugh!



NERFWAR!!!

kthanxbai!

Friday, January 1, 2010

Solving the heroin and cocaine problem

Heroin bottleImage via Wikipedia

Bob over at The Drawn Cutlass has an interesting idea on how to stop international drug trafficking, narco-terrorism and crime.


Addict dies as anthrax infects heroin users

By Lucy Christie, Press Association Thursday, 17 December 2009

A heroin addict who died in hospital has tested positive for anthrax, health officials said today.

He died at the Victoria Infirmary in Glasgow yesterday. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said blood tests had shown the presence of the deadly bacteria.

Health officials said another heroin user being treated at the same hospital has also tested positive for anthrax. And a third patient, who is being treated at Glasgow Royal Infirmary, is being tested for anthrax. All three had infections in areas of the body they injected with heroin.

The health board confirmed that the dead drug user was male as is the patient at the Royal Infirmary, while the patient at the Victoria Hospital is a woman.

It is not known if the three cases are directly linked.

The victim is believed to have died from the anthrax infection.



kthanxbai!

National Geographic pix 09

Some amazing pictures from National Geographic's International Photography Contest 2009.

What also surprised me, when I thought about it, is the fact that even today, when not only does every man and their chimp have a digital camera, but we also have the interweb where you can find pictures of anything, these photos still leave you amazed.



Nazroo, a mahout (elephant driver), poses for a portrait while taking his elephant, Rajan, out for a swim in front of Radha Nagar Beach in Havelock, Andaman Islands. Rajan is one of the few elephants in Havelock that can swim, so when he is not dragging timber in the forest he is used as a tourist attraction. The relationship between the mahout and his elephant usually lasts for their entire lives, creating an extremely strong tie between the animal and the human being. (Photo and caption by Cesare Naldi)



Curious gulls on Sanibel Island, Florida. Meet my friend, "Gull-i-Bel"!!! (Photo and caption by Richard Rush)



Andrew and his friend, a young sperm whale named Scar, were swimming together off the west coast of Dominica. The two of them became "friends" after Andrew saved Scar's life. (Photo and caption by Peter Allinson)



Well done National Geographic!!


kthanxbai!


Thursday, December 31, 2009

Goodbye 2009

Wishing all of my readers a very happy, prosperous and love filled 2010!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!


kthanxbai!