Barack Obama has just been awarded the first annual "Kalance's No-Go Award" for his recent actions.

"US President Barack Obama has declared swine flu a national emergency...More than 1,000 US deaths have been linked to the virus."

MEANWHILE...the CDC estimates that there are about 36,000 annual deaths which can be attributed to the "regular" flu. Granted, these are deaths which have "respiratory distress" listed as a contributing factor, which can be many things like URI's, asthma, et al. However, if even a tenth really are flu related, that's almost four times more than the number of lives that "swine" flu has claimed to date!

In fact, 1000 is less that the number of people killed by the flu vaccine every year.

I sure don't see an annual national emergency declared every flu season...

It's NOT an epidemic. It's not particularly dangerous. It's not even in the top 50 leading causes of death in the world. It certainly isn't worth having a state of emergency declared because of it.

Is the world seriously not fucked up enough with Africa and the Middle East that people need to make mountains out of every little dirt clod they kick up?

People need to gain some God-damned perspective.

People say that not only the US economy, but in fact the world economy, is doing poorly.

I invested $4k back in March via Scottrade. As of today, that same portfolio is worth $6k. I've had a 50% return in 6 months. It'd have been a 220% return if I'd invested in those same stocks in January.

I wouldn't think that would be possible in a "bad economy". The "recession" is over people. Back to your lives!

( ION: )

"Life is like electricity: All paths eventually lead to ground; one way or another."

Call it some "electrical engineer zen" or whatever. I happen to think it's amusing as hell.

Anyway:

Time for round two in the middle east. With any luck at all, I won't be back for quite some time. If I do have any real say in the matter, I'll be one of the last US soldiers to leave.

That way, when I do eventually return, I'll actually feel like I went to war; and not just took a really shitting vacation.

That's the smell of the utter bullshit that's setting off my BS detector.

There is no way that "taking action" refers to anything other than troop involvement.

After spending the better part of the last four years criticizing Republicans over keeping our troops overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Dems are now threatening to send us into even more countries? WTF?

Don't get me wrong: I don't oppose doing it. I'd just better see a parade of liberals marching on Washington calling Obama a "warmonger" the same way they did to Bush, seeing as how they're employing the same policies. I don't much cotton to hypocrisy; especially when said hypocrites have been toting a holier-than-thow air for the last few years.

I can't decide if this latest development is bringing us one step closer to creating true AI's, or the Singularity; or both.

On the one hand, it is so extremely cool. I would very much like my car to drive me to work on its own, and be able to sleep while it takes me across the country to visit relatives.

It is also extremely worrying. Remember: so far all of the things that have been thought up in science fiction are become science fact (lasers, energy shields, cloaking devices, transporters, etc.). It also then stands to reason that things like "The Terminator", "Eagle Eye", and "The Matrix" could also become eventual fact. More so now that we have computers that are one step closer to actually thinking.

What's going to happen when a system like this DNA computer plugs in all the right rules and facts after the Singularity and discovers that humanity is obsolete?

I don't want to be de-compiled!

Came across this article as a result of some YouTube browsing. Side note: kipkay has some awesome DIY projects for enterprising people to try out.

I was certainly intrigued, to say the least, so I put it to the test. Here's the breakdown:

Traveled 274 miles WV -> VA, using 10.5 gals, for an AMPG of 26.1 w/o acetone.

Traveled 265 miles VA -> WV, using 9.2 gals, for an AMPG of 28.8 with acetone.

My assumptions/caveats are as follows:

--> I'm assuming that a pump at a BP in Madison, VA kicks off at the same fuel level as a pump at an Exxon in Morgantown, WV. Thereby having the tank start each trip with approximately the same amount of fuel.

--> I didn't have any sort of measuring device, so I poured what "felt" like a few .oz into my 18 gal tank.

--> Morgantown is 960 ft above SL. Madison is only 600 ft above SL. So, I got better then average fuel efficiency on my way down to VA, and worse on my way back.

--> In an effort to keep the trials as even as possible, I maintained an average speed of 75 mph as best I could, sans traffic/construction.

That said, I'm pretty sure that there's something to this acetone thing. By all rights, I should have had worse mileage on my way back; instead, I had better. I'll pick up a graduated cylinder or something sometime and actually measure out the 5 .oz or whatever I should add to optimize my fuel efficiency.

*Now wonders why gas companies don't just add the necessary amount of acetone instead of ethanol...*

...ochondria.

*flinches at his own bad pun*

That's all it is. Has to be. I can't find a reason why there needs to be health care reform in the US.

Oh, I've heard the big media hoopla about there being nearly 50 million people without health coverage.

But here's the thing; of those 50 million:

--> 25 million earn $50,000+ annual salary, and can easily afford insurance if they wanted it. They simply don't bother, since they figure they can afford any bills that happen to come up.
--> 10 million are immigrants, most of them illegally, and don't qualify for insurance under ANY sort of health care plan.
--> 10 million fall into that whole "I'm 18-30 and invincible" group who simply CHOOSE not to get insurance because they don't feel they need it.
--> 5 million qualify for current government assisted health care plans, but simply haven't applied for them.

*numbers retrieved from Department of Health and Human Services, (c) 2005*

Even allowing for overlap, that leaves about FIVE million US citizens who truly don't have any means of getting insurance and can only receive emergency medical care.

5 million is less than 2% of the US population. If you have a health care system than covers over 98% of your population and allows them access to the most sophisticated facilities and technology in the world: THAT'S A DAMN GOOD SYSTEM!

"You can please all the people some of the time, or some of the people all the time; but you can please all the people all of the time." And 98% is as close to "all the people" as you will ever really get in this world.

The bottom line:
The US health care system isn't "broken" and doesn't need to be "fixed". The news and the government should quit dicking around and start focusing on things that actually ARE broken. Like the US railway system.

Liberals really want to reduce emissions in the US? Then they should construct a railway system capable of competing with freight trucking. Something like a quarter of the cars on the road are semis, and you could replace a hundred of them with a single train that actually goes somewhere worthwhile.

----------------
Now playing: Ram Jam - Black Betty
http://foxytunes.com/artist/ram+jam/track/black+betty+1977

*Fingers crossed*

Just got the call: I deploy in January.

Don't know where, not even really with who. Don't actually care. The important thing is that after almost four years, I'm finally going back. Took long enough. My cousin's already been over twice, and he joined the army after I did. With the same MOS as me!

The real difference this time is that I won't be a mechanic; I'll be a medic. On the one hand, I'll probably have to endure being a fobbit most of the tour, just like the last time. Any unit I'm likely to be sent with is either a CASH or similar. However, if the opportunity comes up, it should be easier for me to get myself onto convoys. Medics are a proffered convoy asset over mechanics after all.

What I will not do is make the same mistake that I did last time. I will not come back after just one measly year. I'll only come back when one of two conditions are met: 1) They bring everyone home (2011-2012 tentatively I believe at last report), or 2) I have over 200k sitting in my account (2013-2014 depending on BAH and incentive pays).

Even with a pessimistic target of 2011, I should still have a decent bank roll after this time. Which means I'll be able to afford a decent place of my own, and not have to worry about juggling work and college. I've already done some math based on last time's BAH (Which would be lower than current) and I can pay rent and the car without it dipping into my actual base pay.

Say whatever you will about the armed forces, or even the government, but they sure know how to compensate us "no attachments" guys. I'm sure I'd hate getting deployed if I had a girlfriend or good paying job or something like that. But I don't.

Sandbox or Bust!

Obama may surprise me yet. It turns out that even he has found some merit to Bush's old policies.

Leastways, I'm thrilled beyond words that he didn't just up and release them. Though to hear the ACLU talk, you'd think that Obama was the next incarnation of Joseph Stalin. Yep, liking Obama a little more with each passing month, if for no other reason than because he's reneging on most of his campaign promises.

But I'll hold off giving him my full support until I see what his intentions are towards firearms.

BUT, I am concerned why there is still so much outcry over the Gitmo situation. I mean, if both an uber-conservative, and the most liberal president in recent history are using the same policy, then maybe there is something to it! Hmm? I mean, if Mozilla went out and said, "Hy, you know what? IE8 rules!" I'd start thinking that maybe there was something to it. I mean, it'll never happen. But if it did...

...They're probably on Yahoo Answers.

Dear God, I have just about lost faith in humanity after stumbling onto the cesspool of stupidity and ignorance that is Yahoo Answers.

( Tips for the ignorant: )

JFGI