Saturday - January 28, 2006

Weekend Discussion

The topic for discussion this weekend is “Armageddon: Every Man For Himself”.

Scenario: the North Koreans and Iranians collaborate to sneak a submarine off the coast of California and launch a Taepo Dong-2 missile with a 50-megaton nuclear warhead. In a matter of minutes, the missile climbs over the Rocky Mountains to a height of 300 miles above St. Louis where it detonates. The military cannot respond fast enough to shoot down the missile before it delivers its deadly electromagnetic pulse just above the atmosphere.

All I’ll see here in St. Louis is a bright light and a brief concussion wave. As soon as the missile detonates, a travelling electrical wave spreads across the country at the speed of light. All electrical devices are instantly destroyed. All command & control infrastructure of the government ceases to exist. The internet disappears. Radio and TV are history. The power grid is down. Your vehicle’s wiring is melted. All public transportation comes to a halt. The lights go out and you’re cut off from everyone outside of walking distance. People in hospitals start to die. The food in your refrigerator starts to spoil. Panic sets in as people ransack and pillage grocery stores. Armed gangs walk the streets. Welcome to the 7th Century.

What’cha gonna do?

The scientific principles behind generating a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse are relatively easy to understand. A nuclear weapon is detonated between 25 miles and 300 miles above the Earth’s surface; the radiation reaching the atmosphere interacts with air molecules to produce high-energy electrons that speed across the Earth’s magnetic field as an instantaneous, invisible electromagnetic pulse. A nuclear device must be detonated above the Earth’s atmosphere in order to generate the high-altitude EMP effects.

An EMP can have devastating consequences for developed countries, because any metallic conductor in the area affected becomes a “receiver” for the powerful energy burst released by the blast. Such receivers include anything with electronic wiring--from airplanes and automobiles to computers, railroad tracks, and communication lines. If systems connected to these receivers are not protected, they will be damaged by the intense energy pulse. Indeed, depending on the strength of the pulse and the vulnerability of the equipment, the effects could range from interrupted phone conversations and radio interference to the melting of components in every type of electrical system.

An EMP damages unprotected electronic equipment within the blast’s “line of sight.” The size of the area in harm’s way (the EMP’s “footprint” on the Earth’s surface) is determined by the altitude of the explosion. The higher the altitude, the greater the land area affected (see Map below). A Scud-type ballistic missile launched from a vessel off the U.S. coast and detonated at an altitude of 95 miles would degrade electronic systems across one-fourth of the United States. A Taepo Dong-2 missile launched from North Korea probably could deliver a warhead 300 miles above America--enough to degrade electronic systems throughout the country. Crude weapons with low yields, like those used against Japan in World War II, would have ample power to cripple the United States.

_{Source: American Heritage: “America’s Vulnerability” and Congressional Record: June 9, 2005 (House): Rep. Bartlett On NUCLEAR ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE.}

 ^{(-- Thanks to Rancino for the concept --)}

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/28/2006 at 05:42 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity •  
• Comments (21) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Sound Effects

The coolest automobile ad you will ever see. Crank it up!

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/28/2006 at 05:22 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Liberal Lunatic Contest

Contest rules: All entries must be submitted by members of the human race (no exceptions) and all contestants must have a demonstrable IQ not less than the largest two-digit prime number. Residents of Massachusetts or members of their families or pets are disqualified from entering. Entries must be submitted in the comments in the form of “XXX” and “YYY”. References to “Dumb and Dumber” will not be considered as that is too obvious. Entries must be submitted by 2013, the year we make contact. Please type plainly and seal your entry before depositing in the comments. Entries will be evaluated based on the following criteria, in no particular order: creativity, accuracy, lunacy. Void where prohibited by Liberal Democrats, none of whom believe in freedom of speech for anyone but themselves.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/28/2006 at 05:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Satire •  
• Comments (44) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Saturday Silliness

  

_{- The story behind this silliness is here}...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/28/2006 at 04:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Animals • Fun-Stuff •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Just The Bare Facts

Playboy Wants You!

Playboy’s online cybersite just started a new gig for all you exhibitionists and others who enjoy titillating tales of sexual encounters across the internet. Just click on the ad on the right and go fill in your name and tell the entire world all about the nasty deeds you performed with the assistance of the internet.

Now’s your chance to let the whole world know what a really cool sexual dynamo you are and how you met some gal in a chat room and wound up in a hotel room in Cleveland, tied to the bed and being spanked by a dominatrix named Wanda.

Then again, maybe not. Wanda, if you’re reading this, let’s do it again this Saturday. Same place, same time.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/28/2006 at 04:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Sex •  
• Comments (25) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Who? Aha!

OK, here’s your chance to correct the Ol’ Skipper. I say the phrase comes from the sound a one-striper makes when he comes back drunk from his first night on the town. It is usually heard as the unshaven jeep hugs the porcelein throne and carefully allows the enemy in his stomach to make an orderly retreat. Anybody have a better explanation ... ?

‘Hooah’: Odd Cry Becomes Soldier Shorthand
January 27, 2006, 12:25 PM EST
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)

In the U.S. Army, which has so many acronyms, expressions and opaque phrases that it seems to deserve its own language, there is one word that is quite possibly uttered more than any other. That word is “hooah.” Pronounced HOO-ah. Alternatively spelled hua and huah. Attend a company command meeting and you’ll hear hooah uttered as often as a 15-year-old says “like” or “you know.” Head to the post exchange and buy a Hooah Energy Bar or Hoo-Ahhs wet wipes or HOOAH2O water.

It’s not just in Iraq. At U.S. bases around the world, hooah seems an inseparable element of Army life. Just don’t try to define it. And definitely don’t try to figure out where it comes from. “I believe it came from hurrah. It basically means everything from ‘yes’ and ‘yes, sir,’ to ‘that’s great,’” said Capt. James Lowe, public affairs officer for the 506th Regimental Combat Team. “You could use it as a generalized cheer. It’s one of those multipurpose phrases—when in doubt, say hooah.”

That doesn’t even begin to cover it. They shout hooah to get motivated, and they whisper it when they concur with something someone just said. Hooah means you understood something, or is the proper reply when someone says “thank you.” On the other hand, it may also be used to say “thank you.” Hooah is a catchall phrase that will get you out of any situation, particularly when receiving a scolding from a higher-ranking officer.

“You use it when you’ve got a flame on your butt and you’re just trying to extinguish it,” said Capt. Brian Buckner, 30, of Sumter, S.C. Take this conversation, overheard recently outside the mess hall at Camp Rustamiyah, on Baghdad’s eastern outskirts:

Soldier 1: How you doing?

Soldier 2: Fine. How you doing?

Soldier 1: Hooah.

For the different branches of the military, each vastly competitive with and jealous of its distinctions from one another, hooah has become something of a sore point. Marines and sailors have their own saying, more of a “hoo-RAH” or a “hoo-yah,” which they claim is entirely separate in origin. The Air Force brass once reportedly got so irked about sharing “hooah” with the Army that it tried to get airmen to shout “Air power!” instead. But “Air power!” did not have the same potency as “hooah,” and has been largely abandoned.

Sgt. Joe Carter, a 23-year-old from Kennett, Mo., recalls how, after arriving at basic training, he and other young Army recruits attended a motivational talk from their commander. “When we first got there, the commander gave a speech, and at the end he told us, ‘I want to hear a loud and thunderous hooah!’” Carter said. “We were real pumped and amped up.”

Yet the use of hooah by the uninitiated is generally frowned on. Carter recounted that a drill sergeant barred him and his fellow recruits from saying hooah until they had finished the basic course and earned the right. And civilians uttering hooah are generally looked upon with either disdain or the astonishment of a person who has just heard a koala bear recite lines from e.e. cummings. As with any good word, the origins of hooah are highly disputed.

Some claim it derives from the military acronym HUA—Heard, Understood, Acknowledged. Another tale: When Army Rangers landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, a sergeant ordered them to scale the cliffs looming above them and neutralize the German pillboxes perched on top. One soldier, aghast at the idea, responded, “Who, us?” Soldiers ended up following the order, in what became one of the most celebrated acts of World War II.

Then there’s the theory that hooah comes from hurrah and hooray, themselves believed to be bastardizations of the sailor’s cry “huzzah,” which dates back to the 16th century. With the Internet widening the forum for debate, blog entries suggesting definitions of hooah have been met with dozens upon dozens of comments from those who think they know better.

With all the derivations that exist, a few souls have tried to come up with an official meaning. One such half-serious, half-humorous definition, listed by the Urban Dictionary, reads in part: “U.S. Army slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except ‘no.’ Generally used when at a loss for words.” Lt. Col. Brian Winski, commander of the Army’s 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, who sometimes says “hooah” so often it seems to have entered into his subconscious, isn’t entirely satisfied with that definition, but says it will have to suffice. “That’s about right if you have to really box it in,” he said. “I guess that’s about as close as you could get.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/28/2006 at 03:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Military •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Friday - January 27, 2006

Under Siege

For local residents, the protocol on Fore Street is simple: do not confront, do not engage, stay inside.

This is what happens when there is no choice to defend yourself.

Things got worse at the end of the summer. A gang broke into a funeral wake in the church hall. They smashed ornaments and hurled abuse at terrified guests, who were ferried home while the attackers ransacked the vicarage.

Days later a church wedding rehearsal suffered a similar attack. Despite plenty of witnesses, and evidence, no arrests were made because the police wanted to catch the suspects in the act.

Go read the rest here.  Sure thing folks, disarming the public is the safest way to avoid the “Wild, Wild West”.  Oooops, that’s what this is already.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/27/2006 at 04:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
• Comments (10) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Throw it Back!

from James Taranto (WSJ Opinion Journal Best Of The Web Today)

Exporting Nuts
“Former U.S. vice-president Al Gore has accused the oil industry of financially backing the Tories and their “ultra-conservative leader” to protect its stake in Alberta’s lucrative oilsands,” the Calgary Herald reports:
Canadians, Gore said, should vigilantly keep watch over prime minister-designate Stephen Harper because he has a pro-oil agenda and wants to pull out of the Kyoto accord--an international agreement to combat climate change.

“The election in Canada was partly about the tar sands projects in Alberta,” Gore said Wednesday.

In response, Canada said, “This strange man seems lost. I think he’s yours. Please take him home and make sure he stays there.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/27/2006 at 03:47 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Odd-Strange •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(1)  Permalink •  

Bill Isn’t Dead, Just busy

But it sounds like we’ll get something to chew on in a few weeks.

LOST IN SPACEGreetings, pathetic Earthlings!

Yes, I’m still here. Yes, it’s been five months. I may have appeared deceased, but I was merely hibernating in one of the suspended animation tubes visible behind me in the picture above.

Here’s the skinny: for the last six months now, I have been pretty much totally consumed by a new project. I’ve returned to the dark habits of my misspent youth and have almost completed my seventh movie script. I suppose I could work three jobs instead of two, the third being essay-writing, but my back has been very delicate lately. Oh, the pain! The Pain!

Why go AWOL and write a movie script, when the Idiotarian Mootbat Hunting Season is in full flower, and the skies are black with swarms of gaseous, leathery-winged bloviators, ripe for the skewering? Well, I’ll tell you. On my best day here at trusty Triple-E, I might reach forty thousand people. With a semi-successful film, I might reach ten million, maybe ten times that.

Many times in the past five months—MANY times—I have felt the call to pound out some essay or another, and every time I am reminded of the huge lead time necessary for getting a film produced, a clock that only starts ticking once the script is finished. And so time and again I have forced myself to stay on target and press on with this screenplay; which, I am sure you will be shocked - shocked! - to discover, is somewhat overwritten. Overwritten by a factor of two. Maybe three.

It’s just that I have such a huge story to tell. I can’t reveal the plot as yet, but I can give you a rough idea of what has been taking my essay time away from us at such a demanding rate:

It’s a science-fiction story. It takes place in the Strange and Mysterious World of Tomorrow—the unimaginable world of TEN YEARS FROM NOW! In this mad, topsy-turvey, upside down Future World, several things happen that are inconcievable to Modern Man and his Puny Brain.

Here are some poster tag lines that may help. They are:

(spoiler alert!)

* Men travelling through space WITHOUT THE AID OF GOVERNMENT AGENCIES!
* People facing extreme risks and DECIDING TO TAKE THEM ANYWAY!
* Puny Earthlings using THEIR OWN MONEY ANY DAMN WAY THEY CHOOSE TO!
* Nuclear Energy being portrayed in a NON-EVIL FASHION!
* BUSINESSMEN and ENGINEERS as HEROES!
* PROTESTORS and CELEBRITIES as LAUGHING STOCKS!

It’s a World Gone Mad! Only Science Fiction can capture such a fantastical future!

Posted by Drew458     on 01/27/2006 at 09:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Philosophy •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

No More Free Drugs

As if the new drug prescription program for Medicare patients wasn’t complicated enough, now most major drugmakers are discontinuing their discounted prescription plans. Memo to old people: it’s cheaper to just die ...

Drugmakers to Cut Off Some Free Prescriptions
Friday, January 27, 2006
(WASHINGTON POST)

Several of the nation’s largest drug manufacturers say they will no longer provide free or discounted medications to low-income elderly and disabled patients because they should be covered by the new Medicare drug benefit. But for about 1 million Americans with serious illnesses such as AIDS and cancer—patients who last year relied on the pharmaceutical industry’s giveaways—that means Medicare coverage could cost them more than $3,600 this year.

Hardest hit will be patients such as James Hayes. Suffering from AIDS, the 45-year-old North Carolina man takes an average of 10 drugs each month at a cost of $3,700. In recent years, he has relied on several drug company patient assistance programs for his lifesaving medications. Because he is on disability, receiving $1,900 a month, Hayes qualifies for the new Medicare drug benefit.

But in the past few weeks, drugmakers such as GlaxoSmithKline have sent Hayes and others letters saying that as of Jan. 1, anyone eligible for Medicare would be dropped from its program. The cheapest Medicare drug plan he can find is expected to cost him $6,000 out of pocket. “I can’t afford that. I am struggling to make ends meet right now without going into bankruptcy,” he said yesterday. “I’m scared I’m going to have to go off of my drugs.”

Less than four weeks after the drug benefit went into effect, some of the neediest seniors have found themselves worse off. Although the new program, projected to cost $700 billion in the first 10 years, was intended to shield retirees from burdensome drug costs, several quirks in the law have had the opposite effect for some. “These are individuals who did have something before; they had patient assistance programs,” said John Coburn, senior policy analyst for the Chicago-based Health & Disability Advocates. “We are seeing the unintended consequences of this law.”

Drugmakers blamed the Bush administration for issuing a legal opinion that suggests companies could run afoul of anti-kickback laws if they provide free drugs to Medicare beneficiaries. That guidance, from the Health and Human Services Inspector General’s office, warned that providing free medicine to someone enrolled in a Medicare plan could be viewed as an effort to keep the patient on that particular product, rather than a generic or cheaper version sold by a competitor.

Administration officials, already racing to fix other glitches in the new drug program, yesterday pointed the finger back at drugmakers, saying there are a variety of legal ways to assist low-income patients. If a drug company’s patient assistance program ends, “that’s the manufacturer’s decision,” said Mark McClellan, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He said drugmakers could continue their patient assistance programs as long as they remain separate from Medicare or contribute money to charities that help poor patients.

- More on this here...

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/27/2006 at 07:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Corruption and Greed • Politics •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

SMOKIN’!!

Woof! Once again the world is shaken by the mighty brains of American technology. We’re so far ahead of the rest of the world it ain’t even funny. When are they gonna learn? While they’re busy fingering out how to build a nukular bomb, we’re busy developing starfleets, photon torpedos and phasers. Now with this latest development, no one can escape our wrath.

Picture this scenario: 3:22pm - Osama Bin Laden spotted in Afghanistan by spy satellites; 3:48pm - 12,000 pounds of cruise missiles and smart bombs loaded on this baby at Barksdale AFB, Louisiana; 3:56pm - Takeoff; 4:42pm - Missiles away over the Kyhber Pass, Osama is toast; 5:22pm - Return flight lands at Barksdale; 5:30pm - Miller Time!

Air Force Plans Flight Tests Of Hypersonic Vehicle
Thu Jan 26, 3:00 PM ET
(SPACE.COM)

A joint U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project is moving speedily along—intended to fly to Mach 20, plus some. The Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle program is exploring high-speed air vehicles designed for rapid, around-the-world reach. Project goals are to develop hypersonic technology for a glided or powered system, as well as advance small, low cost, and responsive launch vehicles.

A Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle-1 (HTV-1) is now on the books for a less than one-hour flight in September 2007. Attaining Mach 19 (19 times the speed of sound), the glided air vehicle will briefly exit the Earth’s atmosphere and reenter flying between 19 and 28 miles above the Earth’s surface. This inaugural voyage of HTV-1 would end in the Pacific Ocean.

The Falcon HTV program is geared to showcase the ability of a craft to attain hypersonic speeds - ranging from 6,000 to 15,000 miles per hour (Mach 9 to Mach 22), and reach altitudes between 100,000 to 150,000 feet. To do so will necessitate an airframe structure designed to survive intense heat and pressure. There are other partners participating in the demonstration program: NASA, the Space and Missile Systems Center, Sandia National Laboratories and the Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Air Vehicles and Space Vehicles Directorates.

Work is now underway to build the Falcon HTV-1’s flight hardware components. The test vehicle will be integrated at a Lockheed Martin facility in Valley Forge , Pennsylvania. AFRL’s Space Vehicles directorate, located at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, is specifically focusing on technologies for the glided system and issued a January 25 background release on the hypersonic work. Technologists there are helping to develop a thermal protection system for the HTV structure to withstand 3,000-degree temperatures and extreme exterior pressures - 25 times those experienced by NASA’s space shuttle orbiter.

Other critical technology to be investigated in the Falcon HTV work includes an all carbon aeroshell. This outer casing must tolerate crushing pressures and intense heat. To keep the vehicle interior cool, an advanced multi-layer insulation is being fabricated for long duration flights. In addition, researchers are designing tools for enhanced HTV navigation and maneuverability.

A second glided flight is slated for 2008 or 2009. That HTV-2 test would feature a different structural design, enhanced controllability, and higher risk/performance factors during its high-speed journey. Like its predecessor, the system will reach Mach 22 speed, and then finish its one-hour plus mission in the Pacific Ocean. Also scheduled is a third and final flight of a Falcon HTV. That test shot is planned for 2009 and will be a departure from the previous two demonstrations.

This time the reusable hypersonic glider will lift off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia. Screaming out of the area, the HTV-3 would be recovered in the Atlantic Ocean an hour later. In addition, the HTV-3—flying at a maximum Mach 10 speed—would achieve high aerodynamic efficiency and validate external heat barrier panels that will be reusable. “We have made great progress and are on track for the first glided hypersonic test vehicle flight in 2007,” said Russ Partch, Falcon HTV-1 project manager in the AFRL release. “It will enable a revolutionary capability to quickly respond to events anywhere around the world.”

Partch added that the HTVs will prove technologies for global reach vehicles that can get a payload to the area of interest quickly in support of the joint warfighter. The results of the trio of HTV experimental flights are viewed as having a significant impact in the development of future affordable, adaptable, and responsive military delivery platforms and launch systems. According to AFRL, the Falcon HTV program is expected—during the next three to four years—to tackle challenges related to hypersonic flight by in-flight validation of technologies while demonstrating operationally responsive space lift

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/27/2006 at 07:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (16) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Glowball Drowning

Hmmmmmm .... let/s see. Miami is approximately seven feet above sea level. That’s 84 inches. Which is 213.6 centimeters. Which is 2,133.6 millimeters. Let’s do the math, kids. If we take the worst case scenario and accept the scientists rate of increase in sea level of 1.75 millimeters per year then Miami should be under water sometime in February of the year 3225 AD.

Actually, Miami will really be only kinda soggy since the layer of water will be minimal at best. Still, we better get prepared. The end is near unless we sign Kyoto and go back to riding horses. Get out yer tinfoil hats and ... if you live in Miami you might want to invest in a pair of galoshes. It’ll be up to your ankles in just a few thousand years ....

Sea Level Rise Is Accelerating
Friday, 27 January 2006, 02:04 GMT
(BBC)

Global sea levels could rise by about 30cm during this century if current trends continue, a study warns. Australian researchers found that sea levels rose by 19.5cm between 1870 and 2004, with accelerated rates in the final 50 years of that period. The research, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, used data from tide gauges around the world.

The findings fit within predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC’s Third Assessment Report, published in 2001, projected that the global average sea level would rise by between 9 and 88cm between 1990 and 2100. In an attempt to reduce the scale of uncertainty in this projection, the Australian researchers have analysed tidal records dating back to 1870.

The data was obtained from locations throughout the globe, although the number of tidal gauges increased and their locations changed over the 130-year period. These records show that the sea level has risen, and suggest that the rate of rise is increasing. Over the entire period from 1870 the average rate of rise was 1.44mm per year.

Over the 20th Century it averaged 1.7mm per year; while the figure for the period since 1950 is 1.75mm per year. Although climate models predict that sea level rise should have accelerated, the scientists behind this study say they are the first to verify the trend using historical data. If the acceleration continues at the current rate, the scientists warn that sea levels could rise during this century by between 28 and 34cm.

Dr John Church, a scientist with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation based in Tasmania and an author of the study, said that higher sea levels could have grave effects on some areas. “It means there will be increased flooding of low-lying areas when there are storm surges,” he told the Associated Press.

“It means increased coastal erosion on sandy beaches; we’re going to see increased flooding on island nations.” There is now a consensus among climate scientists that rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide are the major factor behind rising temperatures. Increased temperatures can lead to higher sea-levels through several mechanisms including the melting of glaciers and thermal expansion of sea water.

Through the 1997 Kyoto protocol, industrialised countries have committed to cut their combined emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. But the US and Australia have withdrawn from the treaty. Dr Church urged: “"We do have to reduce our emissions but we also have to recognise climate change is happening, and we have to adapt as well.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/27/2006 at 06:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Environment •  
• Comments (9) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Technological Breakthrough!!

It’s official. Sliced bread has finally been outdone. Mankind’s greatest breakthrough since the invention of fire. Nay, the best invention since the wheel. Feast your eyes upon this friendly little creature. Cuddle him in a warm embrace. And tell him to pour another tall boy. This Bud’s fer you ...

Asahi’s Beer Pouring Robots
01.26.06 @ 1:55 am
(OHGIZMO!)

Here’s a match made in heaven: beer and robots. For most of the world, it’s a match we are left to simply dream of (you know, slave bots bringing you a cold one, instead of the usual “Get it yourself!”) If you live in Japan however, you should know that Asahi is running a promotion where they’ll be giving away 5,000 fully stocked refrigerator robots. What do these lovely creatures do?

Well, aside from stocking and cooling up to six cans of beer and two mugs, upon the press of a button, the machine will open up a can, and pour it into the mug with a perfect head every time.

To win one, contestants must collect 36 seals found on specially marked Asahi beers. Of course, you don’t have to drink the beer… but then you’d probably be missing the point.

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/27/2006 at 06:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

New Game Plan

_{Patrick Chappatte—International Herald Tribune}

Posted by The Skipper     on 01/27/2006 at 06:15 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (20) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner