The Happy Carpenter

Oil! A never-ending gusher deep beneath the earth's surface?

  Dr. Gold has been quoted saying that current worldwide reserves of crude oil could be off by a factor of over 100.

A consensus is building in the geo sciences that oil, commonly thought to be a by-product of decaying plants and dinosaurs, is in fact produced by geological forces.  In short, huge pockets of methane, deep under the surface, turn into crude oil and natural gas when subject to immense pressure and very hot temperature.  This naturally ocurring crude is then sometimes forced up to or near the surface, where we can find it and extract it. 

Indeed,

He was quoted as stating that "competent physicists, chemists, chemical engineers and men knowledgeable of thermodynamics have known that natural petroleum does not evolve from biological materials since the last quarter of the 19th century."

Dino-oil may soon be perceived as an idea just as silly as the flat earth.  And do  you know what that means?  It means I'm selling my 1970 Oldmobile 442 W-30 at precisely the wrong moment!  Damn that Bush!

This is all I want to hear from the National Hurricane Center for the rest of the year:

Atlantic - Carib - Gulf of Mexico Tropical Weather Outlook (en Español*) Tropical Weather Discussion TAFB Atlantic Forecasts and Analyses There are no tropical cyclones in the Atlantic at this time.

Nice to know not all Canadiennes have lost their minds

From Ottawa, allegedly:

David Warren.The Ottawa Citizen

Sunday, September 11, 2005

There's plenty wrong with America, since you asked.  I'm tempted to say that the only difference from Canada is that they have a few things right. That would be unfair, of course -- I am often pleased to discover things we still get right.

But one of them would not be disaster preparation. If something happened up here, on the scale of Katrina, we wouldn't even have the resources to arrive late. We would be waiting for the Americans to come save us, the same way the government in Louisiana just waved and pointed at Washington, D.C. The theory being that, when you're in real trouble, that's where the adults live.

And that isn't an exaggeration. Almost everything that has worked in the recovery operation along the U.S. Gulf Coast has been military and National Guard. Within a few days, under several commands, finally consolidated under the remarkable Lt.-Gen. Russell Honore, it was once again the U.S. military efficiently cobbling together a  recovery operation on a scale beyond the capacity of any other earthly institution.

We hardly have a military up here. We have elected one feckless government after another that has cut corners until there is nothing substantial left. We don't have
the ability even to transport and equip our few soldiers. Should disaster strike at home, on a big scale, we become a Third World country. At which point, our national smugness is of no avail.

Texas militia recruiting party

Oh that pesky 2nd ammendment!

Bullshit bingo, for Mavich

HOW TO STAY AWAKE IN MEETINGS: OFFERED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE

Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars? What about those long and boring conference calls? Here's a way to change all of that.

1. Before (or during) your next meeting, seminar, or conference call,
prepare yourself by drawing a square.
I find that 5" x 5" is a good size. Divide the card into columns-five
across and five down.That will give you 25 one-inch blocks.

2. Write one of the following words/phrases in each block:
* Basically
* core competencies
* best practice
* bottom line
* revisit
* obviously
* to tell you the truth (or "the truth is")
* 24/7
* out of the loop
* benchmark
* value-added
* proactive
* win-win
* think outside the box
* essentially
* "hit the nail on the head",
* "having said that"
* "ya know what I'm say'n"
* at the end of the day  (Put this one in the middle - The Happy Carpenter)
* touch base
* he goes/she goes
* client focus(ed)
* paradigm
* "I'm like"
* leverage

3. Check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those
words/phrases.

4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally,
stand up and shout "BULLSHIT!"

Testimonials from satisfied "Bullshit Bingo" players:

"I had been in the meeting for only five minutes when I won."
- Adam W., Atlanta

"My attention span at meetings has improved dramatically."
- David T., Florida

"What a gas! Meetings will never be the same for me after my first win."
- Dan J., New York City

"The atmosphere was tense in the last process meeting as 14 of us waited
for the fifth box."
- Ben G., Denver

"The speaker was stunned as eight of us screamed 'BULLSHIT!' for the
third time in two hours."- The Bullshit Bingo Championship will be
played at the next meeting.

Damn that Bush!

Q.: What is George W. Bush's position on Roe vs. Wade?

A.: He really didn't care how people got out of New
    Orleans, so long as they went when they were told.

from Fraleighmon

Anti-Protest pic's

From Kesher via TigerHawk.  Funny & inspiring.

OK, now it's getting serious

How much you want to bet some peace-loving Iraqi dropped a dime on this guy?

FOX News:

WASHINGTON — U.S. Special Forces killed Al Qaeda's (search) No. 2 terror mastermind in Iraq (search), Defense Department officials said.

FOX News has confirmed that Abu Azzam (search), who was believed to have been in charge of the financing of terrorist cells in the war-torn country, was killed during a raid in Baghdad early Monday morning Iraq time. Azzam is thought to be the top deputy to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (search), Iraq's most wanted terrorist.

Azzam is the latest in a series of top Zarqawi deputies that have been killed or captured by coalition forces in recent months.

Via Viking Pundit

The 442 auction is going well so far

After two days I have 14 bids and a million questions I can't answer from inquisitive gear heads.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1,1&item=4578356185&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT

How the hell do I know if it has the correct aluminum manifolds?  I mean, yeah, they look like aluminum to me, but are they correct?  Give me a break!