LEAF v iON

GREEN CRAP "I Stand By It as a Theatrical Work" climate change battle cry “ Top Gear Nissan Leaf from CollinsArchive on Vimeo. tomw made mention of the Nissan Leaf in comments on the "Record number of coal-fired generators to be shut down in 2012" post.  Last year Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson and James May drove a battery powered Leaf,  Peugeot iOn on a trip .. not a very long one as it turned out, across the English countryside.  It was both entertaining and instructive; the Green legions went up the wall, natch,   because, well  they only go about 100 miles and take 13 hours to charge- if you can find a charging station.  A bloke writing for Green Car Reports complained (with a brave face). "They needed to recharge their fully-drained 2011 Nissan Leaf  in the rural English county of Lincolnshire. Needless to say, they had purposely exhausted the car's battery, and chosen a place known for its lack of electric-car charging stations.  As with past Top Gear segments involving electric cars, many plug-in fans weren’t impressed. Neither was Nissan. " Really?  I don't know what "purposely exhausted the car's battery" means?  They drove them;  the batteries drained.  Give it a watch, and decide. ”

Oy

Women in space?

Top Gear Distractions

"A cast of thousands" This is hilarious.  As you know, I love Top Gear.  Just last night I finished episode 130 (last available)  and will begin my fourth circuit around.   Anyway, one of the things I've noticed are the  disproportionate number of  very, very attractive young ladies standing (the audience stand) behind the presenters.  That they're just "plain folk" adds to the fantasy quotient [ahem].  So look what I just stumbled on. A Most distracting audience member meme (with 1553 pages and counting).  It's so hard to be original anymore, wot.

THE RED SKANK

Police State Culture

Love Triangle and High Fashion

Two Things A Love Triangle and High Fashion

Court Aborts Part of Obama

Federal Court Aborts Contraception Mandate “ Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys obtained the first-ever order against the mandate on behalf of Hercules Industries and the Catholic family that owns it. The administration opposed the order, arguing, contrary to the U.S. Constitution, that people of faith forfeit their religious liberty once they engage in business.[...] In his order, Senior Judge John L. Kane of the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado said that the government’s arguments “are countered, and indeed outweighed, by the public interest in the free exercise of religion. As the Tenth Circuit has noted, ‘there is a strong public interest in the free exercise of religion even where that interest may conflict with [another statutory scheme]….’ Accordingly, the public interest favors entry of an injunction in this case.” This comes after two Federal District Courts had dismissed earlier lawsuits, citing lack of harm. [Full] However Would we even be having this discussion? ”

In 5 Years?

Sport Parents

U.S. Gymnast Aly Raisman’s Parents React to Her Bar Routine  Somewhere there are videos of me watching my kids play soccer, basketball or baseball.

Mason Jars

Gizmos    Mason Jars.  Is There Anything They Can't Do? click for more I use Mason© jars for big gulp drinks in the summer.  I use them to store damned near any kind of dry food I want to protect against insects and vermin, or as refrigerated storage for things like cucumbers and leftovers (all in conjunction with my Food Saver Mason jar air sucker attachment).  My daughter just attended a high end wedding where Mason jars were used in place of stemware.  Probably not any good for  Molotov cocktails though (long neck beer bottles work good).

Apple's Hard Core

TECHNO THRILLS                               Apple won't carry an ebook because it mentions Amazon “ Author Holly Lisle has a series of online writing guides that she sells. One volume of this, "How To Think Sideways Lesson 6: How To Discover (Or Create) Your Story’s Market" was rejected by Apple's iBooks store. At first, Apple told Lisle that she wasn't allowed to have "live links" to Amazon in her books. So she removed the links and resubmitted the book, and then Apple rejected it again, telling her that they wouldn't sell her book because it mentioned Amazon, a competitor of its iBooks store. [Full] LOL.  I spent my life in sales and marketing.  If you were a competitor I hated your guts, made war on you, and excluded you from my Christmas parties.  So. I understand; and it is what  Francis Urquhart would do. ”

City of Life and Death

At The Cinema                            City of Life and Death Since Maryland football is so predictably bad of late, games are relegated to ESPN 3, or on-line television.  Last year nearly an entire half  of one game was broadcast without announcers.  All you could hear was stadium noise—like you were actually at the game. So blessed was this novelty that I hoped it was the format ESPN 3 would stick with.  Sigh. Of a sudden the glitch was fixed and the blah-blah-blah was back.  Segue. City of Life and Death is an extraordinary movie.  This Chinese film is about the "Rape of Nanking," when the Japanese Imperial army captured the city in 1937.  What's extraordinary is the entire film is shown without subtitles, at least on my NetFlix version on ROKU. The Chinese, Japanese, Germans and Americans speak in their native tongue.  It was like being there; and it was brutal.  And so well produced that I had no problem following the story line.  I know this because when it finished I checked it out on Wikipedia (a valuable resource for understanding plot lines gone over my head). It helped  that I knew about  the "Nanking Safety Zone,"  run by German businessman and Nazi Party member John Rabe and other Westerners.  This refuge was constantly violated by Japanese looking for "comfort girls," or Chinese women they would repeatably rape.  Like the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan," the violent fog of war is so realistically produced as to be real.  It's sort of what to expect if Obama hangs onto his office and his OWS thugs are left to rampage.   That's what I saw. As you can see in this clip, there are subtitles.  It was a glitch after all. Never mind.