To Boldly Go Where No Peep Has Gone Before

In the spirit of Easter.  At least for those who celebrate it. :-)

The Waterfall Swing

Now, why didn't we have one of these growing up?  It's pretty darn cool.

Designed by dash7design, the waterfall works by water recirculating through 273 independently controlled solenoid valves at the top of the structure to create a wall of water. This water starts from a collection pool on the ground and is pumped up to a 4" distribution pipe that feeds the solenoids. Rotational encoders mounted on the swing axis gather information about the angle and speed of each swing. That information is sent to a computer that predicts the action of the rider. The computer then creates a hole in the wall of water, allowing the rider to swing through without getting wet.

OMG Hilairous! - Petroleum Jelly

OMG, I saw this on Facebook just a few moments ago and had to post it. LMAO!!!!

A man escapes from a prison where he’s been locked up for 15 years.

He breaks into a house and inside, he finds a young couple in bed.

He ties them to a chair. While tying the wife to the bed, the convict gets on top of her, kisses her neck, then gets up and goes into the bathroom.

While he’s in there, the husband whispers over to his wife, “Listen, this guy is an escaped convict. Look at his clothes! He’s probably spent a lot of time in jail and hasn’t seen a woman in years.  I saw how he kissed your neck. If he wants sex, don’t resist, don’t complain. Do whatever he tells you. Satisfy him no matter how much he nauseates you. This guy is obviously very dangerous. If he gets angry, he’ll kill us both. Be strong, honey. I love you!”

She responds: “He wasn’t kissing my neck. He was whispering in my ear. He told me that he’s gay, thinks you’re cute, and asked if we had any Vaseline. I told him it was in the bathroom. Be strong honey. I love you, too.”

Nobody Forces Us To Eat Anything by Ryan Lopez

So on October, 2011 I offended someone with one of my blog posts, Foods That Will Make You Fat - Issue No. 25.   

I think I gave a pretty decent response, but suffice it to say, I discontinued the series with the hope of bringing it back someday.

But before I bring back the series - my partner, Ryan gave a response I'd like to share with my readers.  I thought it was great.

"nobody forces us to eat anything, unless you consider the peer pressure to 'be with the group and not a hater' when it comes to eating with family, friends or co-workers. Even so, most restaurants will nowadays at least try to offer something healthy to everyone that is knowledgeable about their health and cares to not over indulge.  Still, if I was raised in a family that never ate healthy and this food is all the food that I knew, I might not be aware of what is healthy and what is not. Granted, it's not hard to see how the sh!t on this particular blog, "Foods that will make you fat," will undoubtedly make you fat, but at the same time until people really started saying something about the health concerns that fast food brings with it, these restaurants had no healthy options. If they did they more than likely were not that healthy to begin with. 

My point is this: While there may be some frivolous lawsuits out there, lawyers aren't cheap and time is money, especially when you consider the expensive attorney you'd need to hire to try and take on a fast food corporation as well as the time it'd take for this case to go through the numerous courts just to possibly get anywhere with any results whatsoever. It's not easy to just go and sue and get money. The people that decided to bravely take this journey on are mainly interested in having their message heard and making change. Take the infamous hot coffee incident that, for the most part, everybody has heard of but no one truly knows the details. A woman at McDonald's spills hot coffee on herself, sues because the coffee is too hot, wins and makes money off her own mistake.

Sounds horrible right? 

But what if I told you that the coffee was so hot that it seared the flesh off her bones. When the poor woman got to the hospital the doctors could see the internal muscle and bones inside the two gaping holes in her legs that the hot coffee had made. She needed multiple skin graphs to fix the injury that her insurance wouldn't cover and that she couldn't afford. So she sues McDonald's for two reasons: To not only get the money that she needs to pay back the debt she owes on her surgery, but to also get McDonald's to lower the temperature on their coffee so this suffering could not happen to anyone else. 

While suing McDonald's because you're fat sounds outright ridiculous, it'd help get them to change what they offer so at least there's something somewhat decent to eat there now for all of us health conscious people out there. But what about those that aren't and all they can afford to feed themselves, as well as their children, is a quick fast food meal? At least those places now give not only alternate food options but possibly what their food products now contain regarding calories and grams of fat. They didn't do this on their own. Somebody had to have the bravery to stand up to them and say something. So next time you may thing about criticizing the "lazy, good for nothing" plaintiff that's suing somebody, or consider standing up and applauding tort reform (lawsuit reform) please check out the documentary, "Hot Coffee". Yes, a plug at this point doesn't sound too good, but it really opened my eyes to what's happening to the courts in our country and how it doesn't look too good for our future unless we stand up and say something right now. Change does not happen by itself, it takes people to make it happen, as well as a whole lot of bitching. I appreciate what these people have done for us, and we all owe them a big thank you. I won't forget it, will you?" 

- Ryan Joseph Lopez

Sir Ravi The Juggler

Okay, growing up - the only way I could solve the RUBIK's cube was by removing the stickers and gluing them back on, because separating the pieces were a bitch.  Excuse my French, but how in the hell does this guy manage to solve the damn thing by juggling it?

I'm assuming Ravi is going to Stanford, because the YouTube page was granted permission "by both Ravi and Humans of Stanford".  LOL.

Isn't This The Truth? Megastores

LMAO, oh yes it is!!!

Back In The Day - How To Use A Dial Telephone

You gotta love it when you can remember having a rotary dial telephone in your home.  Geez, am I really that old?  LOL.  Check out these pages from a 1950's instruction book.

via Retronaut

Things We Can Do To Save The Environment - Issue No. 12 - Capture the Carbon

Carbon emissions have been brought up before, from Turning Food Into Fuel to Paying the Carbon Tax, but what if we could take one of the world's dirtiest fuels and sequestrate it?

Giving credit to TIME,  I'd like to thank them for showing us the many ways we can help save the environment.  Just one person can make a difference, and it starts with YOU!  
                                                   ~ Peter aka Blade7184  

 

12. Capture the Carbon

Coal is one of the dirtiest fuels around and a major source of the world's carbon dioxide emissions. It's also hard to live without. In the U.S., half the electricity generated comes from coal. What if coal-fired plants stopped spewing their carbon dioxide fumes into the air and instead sequestered them—pumped them deep into the ground for storage?

Carbon sequestration is (despite its name) a simple-sounding idea that's exciting scientists, governments and energy companies as a way to cut emissions without disrupting energy supplies. One coal-fired plant in Denmark is working to trap carbon flue gases and store them in four spots, including an unused oil field off the coast of Spain. A Swedish utility is testing new ways to extract pure carbon dioxide from coal emissions in a lignite plant in eastern Germany. In the biggest test so far, a Norwegian energy firm is injecting 1 million tons of CO2 a year from the Sleipner gas field into a saline aquifer under the North Sea. "All the basic technology is already here," says Howard Herzog, an energy expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris says sequestration would be second only to energy-saving measures in reducing CO2 emissions, far ahead of better-known efforts like renewable energy.

There are two major obstacles. The first is cost, which the IEA estimates to be as much as $50 for each ton of carbon captured. Those costs may drop if the technology is successful and utilities are given incentives not to spew out carbon dioxide. The other obstacle is a lack of detailed scientific knowledge. The pilot projects are going well, but M.I.T.'s Herzog says, "We'd like to see more large-scale demonstrations worldwide to really bolster confidence." In the meantime, watch for sequestration to move quickly up the energy agenda.

Make sure to follow Blade 7184 every Tuesday for a new issue of Things We Can Do To Save The Environment.  Each issue is thought-provoking, informative and may hold the key to saving your children and grandchildren's future.

Please feel free to click on my logo to read any of the back-issues.

Must Watch: Two Marines, One Love!

It's amazing how far we've come in such a short span of time.  I had friends in the military who were afraid to come out, because of DADT.  But thanks to God and our President, this is no longer an issue.

I absolutely had to post this video on my blog today.  These two marines are so darn adorable.  You may have heard of Jonathan Russell - he's a YouTube vlogger known as "Your Favorite Gay Marine".  Well, in his most recent video he answers viewers questions about how he and his boyfriend, Matt met.  It's quite cute, and definitely very cool to see.

God Bless our men in uniform!

Cyanide and Happiness: Seat

LMAO.  To Catch A Predator - Chris Hansen Style

America's Most Protected Home

If you're into any movie involving the White House blowing up, then on May 22, you'll have your chance.  You may remember me talking about the upcoming movie, Olympus Has Fallen, but little did you know it takes thousands of people to protect our precious home of homes.

You can learn more about what it takes to protect the White House and the numerous attempts to infiltrate it with this awesome infographic below, courtesy of Ernesto Olivares and The Huffington Post.  Feel free to click on the graphic to enlarge.

Classified: Protecting the Most Famous Residence in the World infographic by ernestoolivares.

While someone did make the comment, "I don't think it is a good idea to be giving out this information so freely, right down to how many uniformed secret service men/women, seconds to walk from oval office to residence, how many stories below east wing, swat team...... ", I doubt there's much we truly know.   I'm sure there's plenty hidden we don't know about.

If you liked today's post, you might also like my post about America's Most Protected Car - The Presidential Limousine.

Ugly Is All The Rage

You may think it's funny, but it's not.  There are such things as ugly modeling agencies.  Yep, from tattoo artists to bearded ladies, from fat women to short people - the UGLY Modeling Agency doesn't play around.  UGLY is all the rage.

According to their 'About Us' page:

We like our women fat and our men geeky, we like the extremely tall and the shockingly small. No one is too abstract for our books! We are Ugly. And we are the leaders in character modelling.

With a unique outlook on modelling, our philosophy is simple – “Any beauty can be airbrushed but we want our look to have true character.”

We know each and everyone of our artists by name and face, and are the first and last modelling agency to still send books to clients; each jaw-dropping, coffee-table sized book shows off all our talent and their bizarre attributes!

We hand pick all our models to make sure we have a look for every market. With over 1,000 models on our books ranging from 18-100 years old, sizes 6-30, we have the most individual, wacky and peculiar looks in the industry; from trannies to grannies, burlesque to bikers, wee folk to rock blokes! We have the rarest and most eye-catching individuals in the country.

It seems National Geographic liked it enough to write a story about it.  Check out the short video.

Loving One Another - Issue No. 020

Land of the Lost - Issue No. 007: Airport Graveyard

Making this a regular series on my blog has been difficult.  My last post was early last year when we looked at some Yugoslavian Monuments That Look Like They're From The Future. 

For those not familiar with my "Land of the Lost" series, I cover anything from photographers who almost vanished to abandoned cities, highways, and naval ships.

Today's issue is about an airport graveyard located in Russia.

Airport graveyards are few and far between.  Most airplanes are reduced to scrap metal or sold for parts, which is why I found this Russian airport fascinating.

Located in the city of Ussuriysk, you will find the Vozdvizhenka Air Base.  There on the empty tarmacs and hangars you will find military aircraft "carcasses" as described by this Russian website.  

Empty shells of what once was.

Luckily for me there is "Google Translate".  I have included the translated text with the cool photos below.  Check them out.

Metal creaking in the wind and birds singing on tarmac and earth caponiers - is today the once powerful and militant aviagarnizon "Vozdvizhenka". More specifically, the former 444-th Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment.

History Bomber Regiment began July 5, 1941 on the Big Khabarovsk airport, July 22, he was given the name "444 long-range Bomber Aviation Regiment", and August 15, 1943 the regiment was handed Battle Banner.  Then there was the Great Patriotic War and the war with Japan. Crews Regiment bombers IL-4 clearly performed the task. After the war, some relocated to Korea, which stood until 1948, and then returned to the Maritime forever. In the 1950-1960-s staff mastered the Tu-4, B-25, Tu-16.

In the last type of aircraft, "Exaltation" regiment flew to the end of 1980, not having received the new TU-22, which in 1969 had to replace outdated Tu-16.

Finally, in November 1990, pilots began retraining for Tu-22M3. The first Tu-22M3 overtaken November 19, 1990 The first flight of the Tu-22M3 made February 18, 1991 the crew of Lieutenant Colonel D. Sigarev, majors VG Pukhov, V. Wetzel and GA Koshevarova.

The Tu-22M3 flights to Vozdvizhenka actively continued until 2007, then began to attack a gradual decrease, and finally to "destroy" regiment of the current military reform. Some planes ferried to Siberia, and the remaining in Primorye carefully dismantled. Moreover, any expert it is clear that here the "dismantling" with fighting vehicles took place in polushtatnom mode.

Moreover, any expert it is clear that here the "dismantling" with fighting vehicles took place in polushtatnom mode.From the "carcasses" not only lifted radar, engine, cabin equipment and feed shooting settings, but the entire surface of the fuselage turbine cut square holes, which will not allow the bombers will never ascend to the sky. This is done to reduce the strength of the airframe and planes. Now these machines are completely unfit for combat.

Continue Reading after the jump...

Early Childhood Education Matters

Education is of vital importance in your child's young life.  I can't recall how many times my mother sat me in front of the television to watch Sesame Street.  Practically everyday.  Click here to Learn More.

A Very Special Moment - Issue #5: Thank You Mom

Whether you're a mother, grandmother or even a father, having a child is A Very Special Moment, and this video is the reason why.

You may have seen the following commercial last summer during the Olympics, or possibly you never have.  In either case, now you have the chance to watch it again, or for the very first time.  Many "thank-yous" go out to Proctor & Gamble for paying tribute to our mothers in this intimate advertisement.  Be warned.. you may shed a tear.

Are People Really This Stupid? Issue No. 32 - Yes, This Will Shock You

So what do you think would happen if you touched an electrical fence without any shoes on?  Yeah - my thoughts exactly.  

These five fools thought it would be cool to try a little experiment...

Each person is standing on some type of stool with their shoes on, with the first person holding onto an electrical fence.  They each hold hands as another friend comes up to them, removes his shoes, and without any socks or stool for that matter, reaches for the hand of the 4th person in line.  Are people really this stupid?  Really?

Cyanide and Happiness: Computer Programmers Look Like???

Just Sayn'

LMAO!  Either the kid will become a severe diabetic or she'll have no teeth by the time she's 10. LOL.  Just Sayn'.

 

Things That Make You Go Hmmm... Oz - The Great and Powerful

Since we're on the subject of The Great and Powerful Oz.

The name for Oz in "The Wizard of Oz" was thought up when the creator, Frank Baum, looked at his filing cabinet and saw A-N, and O-Z, hence "Oz." Hmmm...

You can take Baum's word for it, or you can take his wive's.  Your choice.

We don't have to rely upon whatever Baum's children may have been told for verification, however, as Baum himself had offered essentially the same story many years earlier in a press release drafted to announce the reissue of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in 1903:

I have a little cabinet letter file on my desk that is just in front of me. I was thinking and wondering about a title for the story, and had settled on the "Wizard" as part of it. My gaze was caught by the gilt letters on the three drawers of the cabinet. The first was A-G; the next drawer was labeled H-N; and on the last were the letters O-Z. And "Oz" it at once became.

This evidence wouldn't seem to leave much room for doubt, as Baum himself is undeniably the one person who knows how he came to choose the name, and this explanation comes straight from the horse's pen, so to speak. Baum's version does differ from the one offered by his son in that the latter places him in a roomful of children rather than alone in his study, but that difference might be dismissed as a mere literary embellishment on his son's part. Even Baum's version contains its own discrepancies, though, as various pre-publication references and copyright registrations reveal that Baum considered several titles for his book using the word "Oz" but not the word "Wizard" (e.g., "The City of the Great Oz," "The Fairyland of Oz," "The Land of Oz"), so clearly he had not "settled on the 'Wizard' as part of it" before coming up with the name 'Oz.'2 Moreover, Baum's wife Maud wrote to a friend in 1943 that:

The word Oz came out of Mr. Baum's mind, just as did his queer characters. No one or anything suggested the word — or any person. This is a fact.

snopes.com