Vast Variety

Making Hay

Vast — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:14:30 +0000

Here’s to hoping Dad never gets a crazy idea like this.

Stimulating Results

Vast — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 13:33:27 +0000

Yesterday Vice President Joe Biden and House Republican Leader John Boehner gave dueling speeches about the state of the economy and the effects of the stimulus package that was passed as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It’s really hard to sift through the partisan haze of the speeches to really see what we got out of the record deficit spending.

The is according to a CBO report that was also put out yesterday.

They raised real (inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7 percent and 4.5 percent
Lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 percentage points and 1.8 percentage points
Increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million
Increased the number of full-time-equivalent jobs by 2.0 million to 4.8 million compared with what would have occurred otherwise (see Table 1). (Increases in FTE jobs include shifts from part-time to full-time work or overtime and are thus generally larger than increases in the number of employed workers).

The full report is after the break.

08-24-ARRA

Sometimes…

Vast — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:31:25 +0000

even the Onion can be true.

Number 38 and counting

Vast — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:52:00 +0000

At 10:52 am on August 13th of 1972 I was born in a small southern Iowa town. At the time I suspect that my mother had decided that being in labor with me was probably the biggest pain I would ever give her. Boy was she wrong. =) Here is a picture of dad “eating” my fingers. A funny trivia note about my family. My mother was born on the 13th of March and I was born on the 13th of August. My Dad was born on the 16th of April and my sister was born on the 16th of May.

Hiroshima – August 6th 1945

Vast — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:15:00 +0000

65 years ago from today, America became the first and only nation to use a nuclear weapon in war against the Empire of Japan. The Enola Gay dropped the “Little Boy” bomb directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the 1945 deaths from burns and radiation sickness brought the death toll to an estimated 90 – 140,000 people. Approximately 67% of the cities buildings were completely destroyed. It was only the second nuclear explosion on Earth. While only 2 bombs have ever been detonated against actual targets in war, in the time since (up till 1998), 7 nations have set off an additional 2051 bombs.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Breaking! Prop 8 – Unconstitutional

Vast — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:41:53 +0000

Perry v. Schwarzenegger – Proposition 8 Unconstitutional

Atom Smashing

Vast — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 18:30:17 +0000

Artist Isao Hashimoto has created an Atari game like video that shows every known nuclear explosion on Earth from 1945 up till 1998. The shear number of which totally blew me away.

Rolling

Vast — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 20:54:23 +0000

Ever have one of those days where you just felt like your were spinning your wheels and getting no where?

I do hope there was nothing breakable in that box.

From Anne Rice

Vast — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 19:16:13 +0000

"For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being ‘Christian’ or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten …years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.

"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of …Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen." – Famed novelist Anne Rice, from her Facebook page.

Crash at Elmendorf AFB

Vast — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:22:15 +0000

A C-17 cargo plan crashed at Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage Alaska late Wednesday evening. There is no ejection system on the C-17 so it is most likely that anyone on board is lost. Here is the statement that was released by the Air Force. The Anchorage Daily News has much more on the story.

An Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft, assigned to the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base crashed about 6:14 p.m. (Alaska time) today. At the time of the accident, it was on a local training mission.
Four aircrew were on board; their condition is unknown at this time.
First responders are on scene.
A board of officers will investigate the accident.
More information will be released as it becomes available

The plane appears to have gone down in a similar location to where the AWACS plane went down in 1995 after that plane had two of it’s engines struck by birds and killing 24 service members. I was stationed at Elmendorf from ‘92 to ‘94.

Photo Credit: ERIK HILL / Anchorage Daily News