How To Solve (part) Of The Mideast Crisis

In order to get to the solution, there's some backstory that needs to be presented.

Let's face it, the middle east is a shitstorm of war, poverty, religious oligarchy, dictatorship, tribal feuding, and radical regression that won't be leaving anytime soon. Unfortunately, it seems that nearly every world power wants (and has) their hand in the mix, making this somewhat isolated area now a worldwide issue. The powers can't slow the storm, thus making things either worse or moderately better.
In the meantime, though, there are were bright spots of greed prosperity seen in a few mideast countries - namely, the United Arab Emirates and the city of Dubai.
Dubai used to be a podunk trading town until some time ago, when greedy pigs intuitive foreign investors decided that it was a great place to build tangible insanity wonders of the modern world in the form of "the biggest", "the tallest", "the largest", and "the greatest".
Dubai's economy grew at a blazing pace, making China's economic growth look pre-pubescent in comparison. Sadly, Dubai fell just as quickly as it grew, and the many projects started in Dubai with foreign investors who loaned money from the city were hit hard from the global economic recession that began in the U.S. Due to the fact that Dubai's government legislation is still stuck in the 1600s, citizens (foreign or otherwise) can be thrown in to debtor's prison - something that all civilized countries have gotten rid of. So all of those foreign investors jumped ship, leaving behind not only their residences & cars (unlocked with keys in the ignition, I might add), but anything that didn't fit on a plane or a ship.

Thus leaving Dubai, once a city in frenzied construction, now a ghost town with unpaid debt.

So, what happens now?

No one seems to know. In the meantime...

The Stereotypes Of School Lunches Could Be True - And Joe Lieberman Gets Served On C-Span

Anyone in America who has attended public school sooner or later encounters the dreaded school lunch; it may not be found until junior high, or it may be found on the first day of school. Either way, at some point, every public school student will get to enjoy the experience of finding what looks like industrial waste on their plate - right next to their milk and side dish.

According to a story by Greg Plotkin at Change.org, "meat served at many fast-food restaurants in the U.S. is actually of higher quality and requires more stringent safety standards than the meat that is sold by the United States Department of Agriculture to many U.S. schools."
Apparently the USDA cut costs by buying up really, really, crappy meat and bypassing safety standards that were in place.
All in all, it sounds as if we haven't come too far from the nauseating scenarios meticulously described in Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle".

I'd like to thank the USDA for screwing with the food served at the schools I attended. It's no small wonder why the food was tasteless - the USDA had none either.

The Tesla Roadster, And Why Arnold Schwarzenegger Can't Own One

Tesla Motors is an automobile company that manufactures fully electric automobiles. Their first vehicle was the highly anticipated Tesla Roadster.

 Sporting good looks designed by Lotus, a range of approx. 200 miles, and a 0-60mph time of 4 seconds, this electric exotic changed the face of electric cars forever. The electric sports car was now a reality.
Tesla also is releasing their Model S, a cheaper (albeit slower - 0-60mph in about 6 seconds) and spacier vehicle for those who desire something a little different from the Roadster. Storage is in the back, under the hood and inside the cabin.

Both are great electric vehicles that represent the future of what electric motoring can (and hopefully will) be.

The Audi e-Tron: The Curious Case of Torqueage

For those of you who haven't been filled in, Audi just unveiled a fully-electric supercar called the e-Tron at Detroit's big ol' car show this month. Containing 4 electric motors (one for each wheel), a total of 313 horsepower and an almost unneccessary (yet amazing) 3,319lbs.-ft. of torque, this car is challenging conventional wisdom - and stereotypical views - about what an electric car can actually be.

 ...But there's a problem. Not with the car; the number cited by Audi - 3,319. Apparently Audi thought that quoting the torque from the wheels instead of from the output shaft of the motor (where the measurement is TYPICALLY taken) was a great way to sucker people in to seeing this e-Tron as one incredibly advanced vehicle.


Don't get me wrong; it definitely is - but the engine(s) do not have over 3,000lbs.-ft. of torque. Check Automobile Magazine's clarification here for more information.


Audi isn't the first to make an electric exotic; if you haven't heard of them, check out Tesla Motors. They have produced two electric vehicles - the Roadster and the Model S:

More on Tesla - and why Governor Ahnuld is desperately trying to return his Roadster - in the next post. 

Amber Alert: Color vs. Proper Name

So apparently the Amber Alert system was duly named because of a girl who was abducted before said system was enacted and activated (obviously named amber).

Yet every time I hear the phrase “Amber Alert”, my brain immediately associates it with the color amber. This may have come from the years of watching Star Trek episodes and hearing repeated calls for “Red Alert!”, “Yellow Alert!” and (rarely) “Blue Alert!”.

Would it be such a bad thing if we stopped associating this system with a child who was murdered in 1996? After all, the word AMBER is used as a backronym for "America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response". Constantly bringing up past nightmares of murdered children isn't exactly what I'd call a great idea to notify the public of a present kidnapping.

Try to imagine this kind of thinking being applied to other alerts, such as threats against the president. Who wants to hear about a "Kennedy Alert"? Or how about when racial tension gets too high - an "MLK Alert"?

Putting together an alert that doesn't force everyone to remember death is a much better idea, and a much less depressing one at that.

Dive for cover! It's SHOPPING!!

Came across a Chevy Equinox with this license plate frame today: