Jumblerant

Monday, October 19, 2009

Keeping shtum

I'm a huge car racing fan, specifically Formula 1. I've been a fan since I was 11 and saw the speed that these guys drive at.

Image via Wikipedia

There was a huge race this Sunday, a championship deciding race, but due to circumstances beyond my control I was unable to watch it. As always I decided to download it and watch it in my own time.

No problem there except I can't read my emails because I get Brawn F1 team news sent there. I can't read blogs in Google Reader as I subscribe to 15(ish) F1 blogs (with Sidepodcast probably being the best one out there right now).

Image via Wikipedia

I also have friends who phone me during the races to chat about whats happening so I haven't been answering the phone to certain chaps. Sorry!

And I can't even check the news with the amazing Morning Coffee software in Firefox as all of the UK press will be putting the results on the front page.

So all day I've been bored at work waiting to rush home to watch the race. I even left the office early only to find that 'Her Indoors' had paused all downloads to make her Facebook surfing slightly faster and forgotten to start it going again. Grrr!!!

Now all is downloaded, I have watched the introduction, I have a 7 month old baby boy with a baby head cold in his exer-saucer beside me and I am watching the race.

UPDATE:

So far in lap 1; 2 crashes, 2 drivers arguing out fo their cars, one pit fire, one car driving off from his pit-stop with the fuel hose still attached.

I guess its not very proffessional but fun to watch!~!

kthanxbai!

Going Home

Back in May I wrote about The US's First Littoral Combat Ship and it's capabilities.

Over at Neptunus Lex it is noted that the amphibious transport dock, the USS New York, was launched on Tuesday for her commissioning in November.

As can be seen by the Coat of Arms of the USS New York, above, this ship was made with a purpose.

kthanxbai!

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Common sense out of the window

I was cub scout as a youngster. A member of the 36th Ilford if I am not mistaken. We used to learn first aid, build tents, raise money for charity and every now and then we'd go away for a few days.

I enjoyed it, had fun with my friends and I guess it added to my love of the military later on in life.

Six-year-old Zachary Christie was so excited to become a Cub Scout that he brought his camping utensil to school. The tool serves as a spoon, a fork and a knife, and Zachary wanted to use it at lunch.

Simple enough. I took my grandma's gas mask from World War 2 into school for show and tell. And I think my sister took me in once as well but I'm a bit more fuzzy on that one.

What Zachary didn’t know was that the gizmo violated his school’s zero-tolerance policy on weapons. And now the Christina School District in Newark, Del., has suspended the first grader and ordered him to attend the district’s reform school for 45 days.

Whisky Tango Foxtrot?? A kid brings in his own cutlery and gets suspended? I assume that they serve more than mere finger foods in their dining hall in Newark, Del., or are they all members of the canape and caviar crowd? At the age of 6.

Christ, at 13 I was playing with rifles at my senior school. I could have easily poked someone in the eye with a Lee Enfield number 4 rifel (the rifle used by the majo

Image via Wikipedia

rity of British Forces soldiers in World War 2) - it could have really hurt someone.

At 16 I was hospitalized whilst playing grass hockey at school after I received a hockey-stick to the head. I still have the 3 inch scar to prove it! But a spoon - wow, I'd have been scared of that.

It appears that the school district has now ovcerturned their original decision - sorry - let that read 'amended their zero tolerance ruling' to allow more discretion on the part of teachers.

The Christina School Board voted unanimously to amend the Code of Conduct for the 2009-2010 school year to allow individual schools and school administrators more discretion when deciding disciplinary actions for students in Kindergarten and First Grade.

Surely thats why we have teachers in the first place? To use their common sense in how to teach our children the ways of the world?

Also, the above changes to the 'Code of Conduct' does not allow 7 year olds to bring spoons to school. I guess they have to draw the backwards looking, petty ruling somewhere.

kthanxbai!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

No more Obama / Hitler comparisons

I'd like to apologize on behalf of all the blogs that I have read saying nasty things about President Obama, especially the comparison with Hitler.

Image via Wikipedia

It is unfair and rude.

Hitler, after all, managed to get the Olympics.

kthanxbai!

Need a real hero? Here's one

So President Obama won the Nobel peace prize for being the President of America. It doesn't make him a hero. Acts like this separate the men from the boys.

Lloyd Gardener came forward to answer a Crimewatch appeal after a woman was attacked and left for dead while walking home from a nightclub.
She was found naked under a truck with a fractured skull, and is still confined to a wheelchair more than three years after her ordeal.

A horrifying ordeal indeed. Mr Gardener realized that the man who did this must be apprehended and did the utmost to make sure that he was.

Well done Mr Gardener for coming forward.

Lloyd Gardner from Exeter, Devon, (above) was given a £10,000 reward for helping convict Polish national Jakob Tomczak

But that is not all.

He was given around $16,000 reward money for helping police track down witnesses. And here is where he became a hero. He donated it to the rape victim, a wheelchair bound Polish woman, who returned home after her vicious attack, as he thought it would help her more than it would him.

As we say over here 'what a mentsch!'.

Hat-tip to Welcome to Toy Town

kthanxbai!

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Kill the little green invaders!

I recently watched a very interesting TV show about the ring-necked parakeets that have become so prolific in England and other European countries. It included an interview with the holiest nature man of all time, Sir David Attenborough. Pictured below with a baby bird.

The Great British Parakeet Invasion was shown on British TV on 4th September 2009 so I guess its rather timely that less than a month later 'open season' has been declared on these colourful little squawkers that have invaded copses all over the UK with their bright plumage and noisy calls.

Sadly the ring-necked parakeet is now a viable target for farmers, councils and really anyone with an air rifle (we are talking about the

here) who finds them to be a nuisance *

I guess success has its drawbacks.

kthanxbai!

* I would like to take this opportunity to thank Blogger for making the fonts in this blog utterly impossible to change. Well done!!

Monday, October 12, 2009

Marek Edelman

A hero died last week. About 65 years after Hitler wanted him exterminated.

Marek Edelman, who died on October 2, probably aged 90, was the last surviving leader of the armed Jewish revolt against the Nazis in the Warsaw ghetto; having commanded the heroic but doomed struggle in April 1943 he was one of a tiny number of fighters to escape with his life, eventually taking part in the equally ill-fated citywide Uprising the following year.

Edelman was just 20 when the Nazis invaded Warsaw. By November 1940 the invading army had cut off his district from the rest of the city with walls and wire. As the anti-Semitic directives of the occupation were put into force, hundreds of thousands of Polish Jews were forced into the ghetto, inflating its population to almost half a million.

Image via Wikipedia

Conditions became intolerable and in the course of 1941 the ghetto population was decimated by disease and malnutrition. Early the following year however, with Hitler's decision to implement the Endlösung, or final solution to "the Jewish question", plans were put in place to liquidate the ghetto and its remaining occupants entirely.

Go read more at the link: Marek Edelman

kthanxbai!

I'm happy to say that Peter from Bayou Renaissance Man is not only feeling better after his QUADRUPLE BYPASS (!!) but has also already had the chance to blog about his near death experience.

Image by Smaku via Flickr

Now that is one committed blogger. Or is it a blogger that should be committed?

Personally I think Peter would agree that he'd have preferred having quadruple chocolate cake...

kthanxbai!

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The Nobel Prize Committee's Rebound Boyfriend

Dawn Cole writes a marvelous blog over at Not Going Postal. She wrote a very interesting blog at MySA, - "San Antonio's homepage", regarding President Obama's well earned Nobel Peace Prize for his work with. . .

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Oh, Nobel Peace Prize Committee. I understand. We've all been there.

You've been in a long-term relationship with someone who just doesn't understand you. Treated you like your feelings weren't important. Dissed your friends. Started giant fights that were just based on his wrong opinions, not grounded in facts.

Couldn't pronounce nuclear to save his life.

You knew you deserved better, and somehow, you finally found it in you to end things. You dried your eyes, and there "He" was.

Sparkly and handsome and smart, and he treats you so well: listens to your needs, takes you seriously, tells you you're important. He even talks in complete sentences.

And I'm so happy for you, really I am. I like him, too. I see a lot of long-term potential there. I think you and Barack Obama are going to be great together.

But honey, he's the rebound boyfriend. You don't just run off to Vegas and get married to someone just because he's not the other guy. You let things develop. You see if he's got what it takes, if he's for real.

You don't give him the Nobel Peace Prize on the first date, either. Bless your heart.

kthanxbai!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Just a pair of boobies

I hope you have fun looking at them.

kthanxbai!

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Infarction Interruption

I have just become aware that a great friend of this blog, Peter from Bayou Renaissance Man is not very well right now. Please send any prayers, positive thoughts and Feng Shuei based room rearrangement his way.

From his blog:

Gentle readers,

Peter is in the hospital from an incipient heart attack this afternoon. He's currently in critical care and stable. However, he lacks a laptop (and I'm a few time zones away, so I can't fetch it), as well as time and attention to blog, so no posts for the next few days.

Peter from Bayou Renaissance Man

Will keep you updated at his request; kind thoughts and prayers are welcomed wholeheartedly.

Miss D
Posted by Peter at 10/06/2009 12:01:00 AM

kthanxbai!

Roman Polanski is a child-raping shitbag

The Munchkin Wrangler is one of my favorite blogs. If you read Jumblerant frequently you'll know that I have the dubious honor of read over 150 blogs a day and so being a favorite really does mean something.

My trends from Google Reader as of about 5 minutes ago;

Jumblerant isn't about politics. If your politics can be swayed by any argument of mine you have bigger problems than whom to vote for. If you want to read a blog vehemently opposed to / pro the current President / Prime Minister / El Jefe then there a lot of blogs out there doing just that.

So here is part of The Munchkin Wrangler's opinion about Roman Polanski the famous film director, recently arrested in Switzerland for an outstanding warrant from the US of A.

Image via Wikipedia

Let’s recap that “matter of morals”: a 40-year-old man plies a 13-year-old girl with booze and drugs to get into her panties, and then proceeds to have sex with her despite her refusal. Now, I’m not a prude, but where I come from, we call that “raping a child”.

Charges were brought, the court agreed, the defendant Polanski pleaded guilty, and promptly skipped the country before the sentencing to evade the punishment.

Simple so far. Did the crime, do the time.

A flange of actors and Hollywood types came together to write a letter, I imagine starting it with 'To Whom It May Concern', stating that Mr. Polanski's arrest some thirty years ago was in fact for “a matter of morals.”

By the way, if you are discussing any aspect of child abuse or child rape having Woody Allen on your team is a real disadvantage. The picture above is Woody Allen and his current wife.

Osama bin Laden would be a better character reference.

Seriously.

Read the article and all comments to Marko on his site, all comments to me down below the beautiful ads supplied by "Mr Google's Team of Subtle Admen".

kthanxbai!

Monday, October 5, 2009

One of these things is not like the other

One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong...

Can you see the odd one out?

Can ya?

And the bastards published it!!

Hat tip to Now That's Nifty

kthanxbai!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is Jewish

Yes its true. I read it in the Daily telegraph. And its nowhere near April 1st!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.

And the stunning article continues:

A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.

A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.

So Mr A is a closet Jew? Interesting.

Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past.

Now aren't they clever? So a big hearty Mazel Tov to Mr. Ahmadinejad on finding out his roots. He must be kvelling.

kthanxbai!

look how cool my iPod Touch is

Image by BenSpark via Flickr

look how cool my iPod Touch is. I can write my blog from it and ooops.

Yes, that is how the last post went out.

Sorry!

kthanxbai!

Sunday, October 4, 2009

kthanxbai!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Tough as nails

As you are no doubt aware, this blog has recently about guns and big vehicles and other big heavy manly things.

So here are some kittens to take the edge off.

100 Greatest Hits of youTube

As a YouTube-aholic I was glued to my monitor whilst this was on.

And I laughed hysterically.

And hurt my ribs a bit too.

Hope you do too. (The laughing bit, not the pain).

Hat tip to Now That's Nifty (again!)

kthanxbai!

Get streamlined

We recently moved and in the process of packing and unpacking, we managed to get rid of a lot of irrelevant rubbish that we had been hoarding over the years.

Over at SoBe Organized there is a little home truth being told;

It's Not About The New Boxes
It's not about the new boxes, folders, files or colored labels we buy. It's not about the new resolutions we make to 'be organized now!', it's about the moment we realize that a streamlined life is one with minimal stuff. It's about making tough decisions over what will be thrown and what will be giving away. It's about finding your shoulders soft and relaxed as you enter an uncluttered space. It's about finally realizing that less really is more.
Image via Wikipedia

So let's get out there and clean up our space and our lives!

kthanxbai!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

First M-ATVs Deploy to Afghanistan

oops I sent out an old blog by mistake.

What I wanted to say was:

I blogged about M-ATVs a while ago in 'Me wants one. Or two' and today The Marine Corps Systems Command has announced that only 3 months after placing the first order they are deploying the M-ATV to Afghanistan.

American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Sept. 29, 2009 – With unprecedented speed, the first of thousands of mine-resistant, ambush-protected all-terrain vehicles —known as M-ATVs -- are being deployed to Afghanistan just three months after a delivery order was awarded.
Conventional MRAP vehicles feature a V-shaped hull to deflect roadside bombs, and are proven to be lifesavers on the battlefield. The procurement of the M-ATV grew from an urgent requirement to provide troops a smaller and more maneuverable vehicle that can travel off-road and navigate Afghanistan's difficult, mountainous terrain, Marine Corps Systems Command officials said.

“We have pulled out all the stops to collapse the schedule and get these vehicles into theater,” said Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Michael M. Brogan, commander of Marine Corps Systems Command and joint program executive officer of the MRAP program. “We are doing everything that’s required to ensure that they are safe, that the risk assessments are complete, [and] that they’re fully integrated and flown into Afghanistan.”

The M-ATV supports small-unit combat operations in highly restricted rural, mountainous and urban environments that include mounted patrols, reconnaissance, security, convoy protection, communications, command and control, and combat service support. It is designed to replace the up-armored Humvee in Afghanistan. The M-ATV will carry up to five personnel: four plus a gunner.

The Defense Department has ordered more than 4,300 of the all-terrain mine-resistant trucks, and another 1,400 are planned. Oshkosh Corp. is producing the vehicles.

They really do look very mean don't they? Let's just hope they save lives and keep the boys safe over there.

kthanxbai!