What do you think?

Newsweek: The Car of the Future

Is Mr. Naughton on the right track?

Is it more “Smallville” or a little more “Jetsons” by 2013?

Image: Science

The flash of light that captured this amazing picture was only 80 attoseconds long…or about 0.000000000000000001 seconds long!!!

Every Friday the BBC puts out their Weekly world news quiz which asks questions about the news from the week.

In their quiz today they perpetrate an ongoing lie that irks me to no end:

Question 5:
Honda has started commercial production of an unusual new car. What is special about it?

A: The body is made entirely of plastic, and is much lighter than conventional cars

B: It runs on hydrogen and emits water vapour instead of greenhouse gases

C: It has fin-like wings, which make it super-efficient at high speeds

Now if you saw my post from a few days ago I posted an image of this car…the answer is B but there is a blatant flaw in the answer… "instead of greenhouse gases"…Really!!??!!

Definition of Greenhouse Gas: Gases that are in the atmosphere which prohibit the loss of heat from the planet into space.

From Wikipedia:

The most important greenhouse gases are:
water vapor, which causes about 36–70% of the greenhouse effect on Earth. (Note clouds typically affect climate differently from other forms of atmospheric water.)
carbon dioxide, which causes 9–26%
methane, which causes 4–9%
ozone, which causes 3–7%

Water Vapor is the number one greenhouse gas – why does the media and “global warming” nuts wish to ignore this large force?

England is planning on making English a requirement for spouses entering the country to join their husband or wife. But it is not yet ready to be rolled out due to protests and legal suits: Protests at pre-entry English tests for spouses coming to UK

Is this a bad idea?

I personally don’t think so…I think that the charge of this being a “breach of human rights law” is a hell of a stretch!

h/t RDW

It has been 80 days since Racine Unified Schools passed a spending referendum.

Now they want another one.

AP: Dems face budget shortfall for convention

This is the way they run their party…could you imagine them in power again!!

AP: Black conservatives conflicted on Obama campaign

I would like to thank James Harris for standing up for conservative values!

While I am a “white male” I grew up with and live my life by MLK’s dream…of not judging a person by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

Yet democrats and now black conservatives are moving over to Obama…not because of his character but because he is black…I am simply appalled.

If you call yourself a Republican and you vote for Obama…one of the most liberal Senators out there…you are NOT A REPUBLICAN or CONSERVATIVE!!!

There is a drumbeat coming from the far left that keeps things like rail on the forefront of their effort to socialize this country. They use arguments like “At $4 a gallon for gas, they'd embrace rail transit if only it were available” and state that “That future doesn't involve building more superhighways.” See Capital Time Editorial

Really? Have we fallen so far away from American innovation that we are going to sit by and let 1) the price of oil dictate the way we live and 2) allow a few kooks on the fringe of our society (albeit many of them are in the media) dictate that we must now pay to travel in a straight line and find other ways to get from train station to final destination? I don’t think we are their yet.

Every time the notion of KRM or “commuter rail” comes up I like to point out to people that this is not a step forward in commuting but a step back to the past!

Here is a brief history of travel:

Walking
Running
Wheeled Carts
Boats
Horses
Wheeled Carriage – pulled by horse
Steamboat
Bicycles
Trains
Motorcycle
Cable Car
Automobile
Airplane
Rocket

So let’s be real honest here gas prices are horrible but American ingenuity will bring about the next permutation in transport…won’t it? Why do we need to fall back to a bygone era where people have no say but to go from point A to point B with no option of going to point C?

We are a society of drivers…we love our cars…so why would we abandon the idea of them? There are ways to make cars more efficient, Hybrids are a great example of this. Currently there are cars running on fryer grease, fully electric cars, cars powered by natural gas, and there is even cars running on Hydrogen. These are examples of innovation.

We still have time to make the right choice when it comes to transportation. The next generation of vehicles is just around the corner we just need to be ready to embrace our imagination and not fall back on old standbys.

Wisconsin’s motto is “Forward” so let’s move in that direction.

This is simply a must read! For those of you who do not know; John Coleman was the founder of the Weather Channel.

Global Warming and the Price of a Gallon of Gas

Here are a few excerpts:

Hello Al Gore; Hello UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Your science is flawed; your hypothesis is wrong; your data is manipulated. And, may I add, your scare tactics are deplorable. The Earth does not have a fever. Carbon dioxide does not cause significant global warming.

Here is the deal about CO2, carbon dioxide. It is a natural component of our atmosphere. It has been there since time began. It is absorbed and emitted by the oceans. It is used by every living plant to trigger photosynthesis. Nothing would be green without it. And we humans; we create it. Every time we breathe out, we emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is not a pollutant. It is not smog. It is a naturally occurring invisible gas.

On May 20th, a list of the names of over thirty-one thousand scientists who refute global warming was released. Thirty-one thousand of which 9,000 are Ph.ds. Think about that. Thirty-one thousand. That dwarfs the supposed 2,500 scientists on the UN panel. In the past year, five hundred of scientists have issued public statements challenging global warming. A few more join the chorus every week. There are about 100 defectors from the UN IPCC.

Summary:

Oak Creek Power Plant (OCPP) produces 7,070,196 MW per year (based on the maximum output and the average real production for coal plants being 70%) and resides on 400 acres of land.

Today the largest solar plant in the world, Hoya de Los Vincentes in Murcia, Spain (HdLV), produces 60,444 MW per year (based on the maximum output and the average real production for solar plants being 30% – actual results are much worse) and sits on 247 acres.

The largest solar plant under construction, Girassol Solar Power Plant in Moura, Portugal (GSPP) expected to by in operation by 2011, will produce 162,936 MW per year and operate on 320 acres of land.

If we want to have a solar plant produce the same energy as that of the current OCPP then based on what is currently in operation we would need a solar plant that would take up 45 square miles of land (about 6.7 miles by 6.7 miles). Using the technology that is currently under construction we would be able to have a solar plant that would only take up 22 square miles (about 4.6 miles by 4.6 miles)


READ THE REST OF THE DETAILS HERE...

Last week we had the country of Laos, which I thought would be pretty easy and was. This week is even easier…again do to its shape.

4 out of 10

AP: McCain says gas prices won't drop and could rise

CNN.com: Bush: No regrets over Iraq

CNN.com: Grumbling Clinton supporters make Democrats nervous

AP: Senate Republicans block windfall taxes on Big Oil

And lets not forget this:

I have been offering up a new country every week for the past year and a half and I feel it has been pretty successful. So I have decided to offer something new…well new for me.

You see, if you are at all familiar with Jed’s Guess that Geographical Location at Boots and Sabers or Who What or Where? At Caledonia Unplugged what I am about to start doing will be similar in nature but limited to the Racine area for now.

Here is how it will work:

I will post an image from Google Earth (of Google Maps if you prefer) and your goal is to Name that Place. Sound simple?

Here is an example:

Name this place…

Image from Google Earth