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Autocross – A fun thing to do
One of my favorite things to do recently is go Autocross racing or SoloII as it is now called in many areas.
Watch the attached video to get a good idea of what it is all about.
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Largest minature world (train set)
Watch the video the most spectacular scale world with an awesome train set included.
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TO: All U.S.A. school principals
To the students and faculty of our high school:
I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.
First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity — your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity, race and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values — e pluribus Unum, “from many, one.” And this school will be guided by America’s values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism — an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.
Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America’s citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here — it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English –but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning’s elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.
Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school’s property — whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can’t speak without using the f-word, you can’t speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as “Nigger,” even when used by one black student to address another black, or “bitch,” even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is myintent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way — the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago — by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.
Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky — to be alive and to be an American.
Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.
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Will Obamacare cost you?
IF you work for Boeing and are in management it will. What if you don’t? Lets look at the following from (AP). Someone has to pay for the uninsured and that someone is a working class person who received benefits from their employer. So, if a major company like Boeing is expecting a cost increase so will the company you work for. Therefore look for less benefits or higher cost of the benefits you are currently getting, and you owe this all to Obamacare.
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Aerospace giant Boeing is joining the list of companies that say the new health care law could have a potential downside for their workers.
In a letter mailed to employees late last week, the company cited the overhaul as part of the reason it is asking some 90,000 nonunion workers to pay significantly more for their health plan next year. A copy of the letter was obtained Monday by The Associated Press.
“The newly enacted health care reform legislation, while intended to expand access to care for millions of uninsured Americans, is also adding cost pressure as requirements of the new law are phased in over the next several years,” wrote Rick Stephens, Boeing’s senior vice president for human resources.”
The full (AP) article is available here.
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Remembering 9-11
“The day after the attacks, the American Folklife Center called upon the nation’s folklorists and ethnographers to collect, record, and document America’s reaction. A sampling of the material collected through this effort was used to create the September 11, 2001, Documentary Project. This collection captures the voices of a diverse ethnic, socioeconomic, and political cross-section of America during trying times and serves as a historical and cultural resource for future generations.”
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/911_archive/
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Worst company in America by vote
Comcast has just won the contest and was voted the worst company in America. Congratulation Comcast for all the distasteful things you have done to earn this title. You are definitely deserving of this title. Especially since you were the leader in restricting Internet speed based on content, messing up people’s bills, and generally having the worst customer service in the industry. Need I say any more.
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Amazing new robotic milling machine
The video shown here is simply amazing. This new machine cut outs a helmet from a solid chunk of aluminum. Take time to watch the video below.
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Net Neutrality?
What is Net Neutrality? If you don’t know, now is the time to learn what it is an why it is very important.
Net Neutrality as defined by Wikipedia is “a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as communication that is not unreasonably degraded by other traffic.”
Basically this means that the Internet should not be restricted as to types of web sites, software used to display data, not be restricted from the use of any type of protocol (traffic), and not throttled or restricted based on data types (streaming media).
Recently Comcast was restricting peoples Internet speed based the type of data (bit torrent) people were sending. The FCC told Comcast they could not do that and Comcast sued the FCC and won. This was a huge blow to the FCC on their power to regulate. Since then the FCC has asked congress for more guidance and authority. (Stacy Higginbotham explains this in great detail here)
So what does this mean to you and me? The following is an example of what can and will happen if Net Neutrality is not maintained. I am never around when the TV shows are on that I want to watch so I try to remember to record them for later watching but usually forget. Therefore I go to hulu.com and watch the TV show I missed. Since I have a high speed Internet connection, I can watch the show in HD over the Internet. If I were a Comcast customer, they could decide that I was using too much bandwidth and throttle my connection so I could not watch it in HD or possibly not at all. Hulu.com is in direct competition to Comcast since Comcast streams video content also.
(Jim Louderback has a more detailed explanation of the consequences of not maintaining Net Neutrality)
Please join myself and others to help the FCC keep Net Neutrality in force by signing this partition.
For a little entertainment watch the following video:
youtube video “home taping is killing music”
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Shuttle launch STS-131 photos
As most of you know I spend quite a bit of time at NASA. With that said, the space shuttle launched on Monday morning for a trip to the space station to deliver supplies. This launch STS-131 was the 38th mission into space. As always the launch is spectacular and launch pictures are always nice to view.
The web site spaceflightnow.com has some good pictures of this launch.
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Criminals are usually stupid…
How smart is it to be chased by cops and then stop your car and run, jump a fence hoping you won’t get caught? Duh, not the brightest person on the block, especially since the fence he climbed over was the fence around the state prison for women!
Read the whole story here
