Monday, November 14, 2011
The U.S. Military Today
The decline in troop strength from over two million in 1990 to the current about 1.5 million is due in large part to the famous "Peace Dividend" that many Americans have been hearing about for about twenty years. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 it was thought that the United States did not need to maintain such a large military force any longer and so it was reduced in numbers during the Clinton administration in order to save money and help balance the U.S. budget. The move worked and without any real sacrifice to the quality of the fighting force. President Clinton left office in 2001 with not only a balanced fiscal budget but a surplus in fact.
Friday, November 11, 2011
How Fast Is The World's Population Growing?
1805 - The World reaches 1 billion human inhabitants.
1927 - 2 billion reached.
1960 - 3 billion
1974 - 4 billion
1987 - 5 billion
1999 - 6 billion
2011 - 7 billion
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Tons Of Trash From Japanese Tsunami Headed For U.S.
A giant mountain of debris from the Tsunami was swept out to sea and with it went millions of tons of trash and garbage that is now floating on the surface of the Pacific Ocean. Included in the debris fields are the remains of thousands of homes that were destroyed along with countless numbers of cars, boats, furniture, tv's, refrigerators, bottles and corks, and other assorted junk. The stuff is now floating in the middle of the Pacific where ocean currents are slowly drifting it towards the west coast of the United States. Some of the debris fields are reported to be larger than the size of the state of Texas. The debris has been spotted in the Pacific by fishing boats that have reported back what they have encountered. It is now causing problems for U.S. Naval ships at sea also because it is forcing them out of their usual shipping lanes in order to steer around the floating garbage to avoid potential damage to vessels. Some of the skins of modern day Navy ships are only about 2 inches thick and are not designed to be crashing into giant fields of metal junk in the middle of the ocean. It would be potentially millions of dollars in damage otherwise so that must be avoided.
Some of the stuff is expected to hit the Hawaiian Islands by as early as January 2012 and possibly hit the west coast of the U.S. by 2013.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
FDR And His Secret Train Car
It is something of a little known fact to many Americans today but back when FDR was President between 1933 - 1945 there were very few Americans then that knew about the fact that he suffered from Polio and he in fact was without the ability to walk or even stand on his own. His administration would go to great lengths to keep this fact a secret and did so in many ways. Often when FDR was seen standing with other officials to be photographed by the press he always had bulky leg braces on to keep him from collapsing in a heap to the floor. Very often there would be Secret Service agrents standing next to him on either side who would be holding on to the president to further prevent him from falling to the ground.
The most elaborate length that his government ever went to in order to prevent him from being seen unable to walk in public has got to be the construction of this rail car that now sits under the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It was constructed with double wide doors that would be wide enough for his armored Pierce Arrow Limosine to be driven on board the car and then be able to drive off when they arrived in NYC without anyone ever having to witness FDR struggling to be removed from the car looking helpless. An elevator at the Hotel was even made extra wide in order to fit the whole car on to it and lift the President up to the ballroom of the Hotel where he would not be seen coming out of the car.
The train car was operated until FDR died in April of 1945. The car still remains there today at the Grand Central Terminal. The FDR museum is currently trying to raise the funds nessassery to have the train car moved and possibly in the future publicly displayed in some way as a piece of significant American history.
Friday, October 7, 2011
Space Junk In Earth Orbit Now Worse Than Ever
Since 1957 when the Russians launched the first satellite "Sputnik" mankind has been littering the orbit of the Earth with bits and pieces of debris from rocket launches and satellite launches. Much of the stuff over time falls back into Earth's atmosphere and is burned away but some debris achieves too high an orbit in space for that to happen and so it just circles around the Earth for years causing a hazard for space missions and expensive communications satellites. Even the International Space Station from time to time has to adjust its orbit in order to avoid a tracked piece of space junk from hitting it and causing devastating damage.
The amount of space debris increased greatly in 2007 when the Chinese government conducted an anti satellite weapons test. The Chinese launched a missile into orbit to destroy an old weather satellite. When the missile hit its target it shattered it into an estimated 150,000 new pieces of space debris.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Ground Zero Finally Rising from the Ashes
The building known as One World Trade Center (formerly The Freedom Tower) is now, as of this writing, 80 stories high and can claim to be already the tallest building in New York City. The design that was settled upon comes from architect David Childs. The building starts off at the base as a square shape and as it rises morphs into an eight sided obelisk type structure and then resolves back to a square shape at the top of the building. It will in the end top off at 1776 feet ( The year the U.S. was Founded.)
The entire complex of Ground Zero takes up 16 acres and 8 of those were set aside for commemoration of the 9-11 attacks. The center pieces of the memorial will of course be the "Footprints" which are the two square shapes in the plaza where the two towers once stood. They take up both one acre each. These areas have both been converted into reflecting pools. A total of 26,000 gallons per minute of recycled water rises from the sides of these pools everyday and then spills over into the base of the pools and creates a waterfall as the water goes down. It is a beautiful effect which will be most stunning at night. The waterfalls are lighted from the inside with white light which gives it this illuminating beacon like glow against the darkness of the night.
Out of the 17,000 people that worked in the World Trade Center that day almost 14,000 made it out alive.There were a total of 2981 victims of the attack on 9-11. There was not a trace found of over 50% of them. It is believed that they were simply pulverized in the collapse of the buildings. The names of the victims have all been etched along the edges of the waterfalls. The names were not just placed in any which way. Individual names were etched deliberately next to the names of either friends, spouses, and co workers who were known to be friends. The names of the victims of the World Trade Center attack in 1993 were also added and grouped in a similar way.
The trees that are used in the plaza only came from the three places where the attacks happened. The New York City area, The D.C. area, and the area around the crash site of flight 93 in shanksville, Pennsylvania. In a little bit of a high tech move a computer chip has been placed in the dirt under each tree in order to monitor and ensure that they all get enough water and remain healthy in order to avoid having to constantly replace dying trees.
Thursday, August 18, 2011
The President And His "Beast"
Gas Tank - A special foam is added to the gas and mixed into the tank. What the foam does is that it prevents the gasoline from exploding even if the tank suffers a direct hit in an attack.
Doors - They are armour plated and eight inches thick. They are also the same weight as the cabin door on a Boeing 757 jetliner.
Driver Side Window - Can resist armour piercing bullets. The driver's window is the only window in the car that can be opened. It will only roll down about three inches though so that the driver can communicate with Secret Service Agents running along side the vehicle and or to do things like pay tolls.
Body Work - The skin of the car is made out of double thick steel and Titanium.
Tires - The wheels are made out of Kevlar. They are shred and puncture resistant.
Boot (the rear of the car) - It holds an oxygen supply and also a fire fighting system.
Accessories On Board - Night vision cameras, pump action rifles, and tear gas cannons. There is also a generous supply of the President's blood on board maintained in bottles in case the President suffers injury in an attack and requires blood.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sometimes Even Presidents Don't Get Good Health Care
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Brief History About The Debt Cieling
Just in case you were wondering the budget submitted by Republican senator Paul Ryan, which would replace Medicare with "Block Grants" would raise the National debt ceiling 8 times if it were enacted. The progressive budget that was submitted by President Obama's Budget Committee, which was made up by both Republican and Democratic former politicians, would raise the debt ceiling not even once if it were enacted. It would pay down the national debt but it would take decades. By 2021 the progressive budget would be running surpluses in the annual federal budget all without any devastating cuts to either Social Security or Medicare.
Friday, July 8, 2011
The Most Profitable Sports In The U.S.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Most Nuclear Powered Countries On Earth
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Nasa Rover "Spirit" Feared Dead On Mars
Sunday, May 22, 2011
The Missing Girls Of India
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The Cost Of Bin Laden
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Facebook Facts And Figures
- In 2010 Facebook signed up profile number 500,000,000. That is 1 out of every 13 people currently on this planet who are now also on Facebook.
- 48% of 18-34 year old's say that they check Facebook right after they wake up everyday.
- 72% of the U.S. web audience is now on Facebook.
- 57% of people questioned say that they now talk more on Facebook than they do in real life.
- 48% of Americans say that they find out news for the first time on Facebook.
- 750 million photos were uploaded to Facebook over last New Years eve.
- Every 20 minutes on facebook there are:
- 1,000,000 links shared
- 1,484,000 event invites
- 1,323,000 tagged photos
- 1,851,000 status updates
- 1,972,000 friend requests accepted
- 2,716,000 photos uploaded
- 10,208,000 comments made.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Failure Steve Jobs And Henry Ford Have In Common
One failure that they have in common is that they both tried to create a new version of their original invention that was named after one of their children and in both cases it was a failure. In Henry Fords case it was the "Edsel." It was first released in 1958 and it was named after his son Edsel Ford who had died in May 1943. The model lasted less than three years and after selling poorly finally disappeared from showrooms nationwide. One of the biggest complaints that some consumers had about the "Edsel" was that its front nose design to some people resembled a toilet bowl.
For Steve Jobs the failure first began in 1978 shortly after the birth of his daughter Lisa. He got the idea to name the new computer system he was building "The Lisa." It took about 4 years and it cost an estimated 50 million dollars to develop and it debuted in early 1983 at a cost of $10,000 a copy. After two years and only about 100,000 units sold and many revisions to the original design the project was largely abandoned and replaced with a new computer system called "The Mackintosh" which after it debuted sold over 70,000 units in three months and went on to be much more of a success.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
What Is The Point Of Daylight Savings Time?
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
So How Do You Spell That Libyan Guy's Name?
- Muammar Qaddafi
- Mo'ammar Gadhafi
- Muammar Kaddafi
- Moammar El-Kadhafi
- Muammar Qadhafi
- Moammer El-Kazzafi
- Moamar Al-Gaddafi
- Muammar Al-Qathafi
- Moamer El-Kadhafi
- Muammar Qadafi
- Moamar Gaddafi
- Mu'ammar Qadhadafi
- Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi
- Muammar Quathafi
- Muammar Al-Khaddfi
- Mu'ammar Al-Qadhdhafi
- Mu'amar Kadafi
- Muammer Gheddafi
- Muamar Khadafy
- Muammar Ghaddafi
- Mu'ammar Al-Qaddafi
- Mohammer Q'udafi
POST SCRIPT: On October 20, 2011 Muammar Qaddafi was captured by rebels in Libya and brutally beaten, tortured, and finally shot at close range in the head. His death ended a 42 year reign as the leader of Libya.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Pentagon Testing New Super Tiny Spy Plane
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
It Was Machine Over Man In Jeopardy Computer Contest
Sunday, February 13, 2011
U.S. Population Breakdown
- 155.5 million Americans are male and 151.4 million are female.
- 102.5 million are minorities
- 27% of U.S. population is under 20 years of age.
- 13% are 65 or older.
- Median age is 36.8 years.
- U.S. consists of 4.5% of the entire World population.
- There are twice as many females as males that are aged 85 or older.
Friday, February 11, 2011
The World's 10 Largest Armies
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Gun Violence In The USA
More than 100,000 People are shot each year in America by various types of gun violence including murder, assaults, suicides, accidents, or some kind of a police action.
More than 66,000 survive gun violence every year.
More than 32,000 do not survive their gun attacks.
More than 17,000 people commit suicide every year using guns.
More than 12,000 people are murdered every year with guns.
More than 3000 children and teens die each year. Over 2000 of these the result of murder using guns.
More than 600 children and teens kill themselves every year with guns.
More than 600 total individuals are killed accidentally each year by guns.
More than 250 people are shot every day in the United States.
Almost 100 of these shooting victims die every day.
Almost 10 children and teens die every day from gun violence.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Dead Celebrities And Their Last Words
Mel Blanc - (Voice Of many cartoon characters including Bugs Bunny) - "That's all Folks."
Frank Sinatra - (Singer, Actor) - "The Best is Yet To Come."
Will Bonney - (A.K.A. "Billy The Kid") - "The Boy Bandit King, He died as he lived."
Al Capone - (Gangster) - "My Jesus Mercy."
Bette Davis - (Actress) - "She did it the hard way."
Dean Martin - (Singer, Actor) - "Everybody loves somebody sometime."
Jayne Mansfield - (Actress) - "We live to love you more each day."
Jim Morrison - (Rock star, The Doors) - "True to his own spirit."
Will Rogers - (Humorist) - "I never met a man I didn't like."
Merv Griffin - (Talk Show Host) - "I will NOT be right back after these commercial messages."
John Ritter - (Actor "Three's Company") - " And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."
Sir. Isaac Newton - (Scientist, Inventor) - "Nature and nature's laws lay hid at night: God said let Newton be and all was light."