“The problem is the bearings. If we make the bearings bigger, the bearings last longer, but making the bearings larger increases friction, which kills turbine efficiency. But we can’t keep using the current bearings – replacing them is sending us broke. What we need is a quantum leap in bearing technology – bearing materials which are at least ten times tougher than current materials.”
“death before decapitation”.
A minor drama just concluded in the Middle East. A couple of days ago, Syrian rebels identified with the Nusra front, Syria’s al-Qaeda affiliate, went up to a Fijian United Nations peacekeeping outpost on the Golan Heights and demanded their surrender. […]
The Fijians were taken into Nusra’s custody and the action moved to positions 68 and 69 on the Golan heights ceasefire line, which was manned by a Philippine battalion. The Nusra people made the same demand. ‘Give us your weapons and come with us.’ It was here that the Philippine commander made a crucial decision.
He refused.
The Fijians remain unaccounted for.
Reader Tips
They were driving merry automobiles in the 1920s, and they’re still driving today. Look out!.
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Operation Empty Chair
White House Says We Are Not At “War With ISIS”…
Y2Kyoto: Sucks To Be EU
The European Union is considering pulling the plug on high-wattage hair dryers, lawn mowers and electric kettles in a follow up to its controversial ban on powerful vacuum cleaners.
The power of hairdryers could be reduced by as much as 30 per cent in order to be more eco-friendly, a draft study commissioned by Brussels suggests, threatening many of the models favoured by hairdressers and consumers for speedy blow-dries.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Take Katherine Flegal, a statistician at the US Centres for Disease Control. Last year, she and her colleagues published a systematic review of 97 studies in The Journal of the American Medical Association and concluded that mild obesity produced no extra mortality risk and being merely overweight resulted in a small reduction in mortality risk.
Despite being supported with a ream of data, the study was savaged by the public health lobby.
Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?
Black Hole Firewalls
Conventionally, physicists have assumed that if the black hole is large enough, the gravitational forces won’t become extreme until you approach the singularity. There, the gravitational pull will be so much stronger on your feet than your head, that you will be ‘spaghettified’. Now, a new theory proposes that instead of spaghettification, you will encounter a massive wall of fire that will incinerate you on the spot, before you get close to turning into vermicelli.
It’s over an hour long, so grab a coffee.
We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors
You can’t make this stuff up: If the [Bright Source Energy] permit is approved, then this “solar” plant will produce about 35 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels.
So How’s That Hope And Hashtag Thingy Been Working For Ya?
Boko Haram as been quick to exploit the army’s low morale. After forcing government troops out of several towns and holding these areas for weeks at a time, militant leader Abubakar Shekau released a video proclaiming the establishment of a new caliphate in Nigeria’s northeast.
Sahara Reporters has translated parts of the video. Shekau praises his forces for their military victories and refutes the authority of the Nigerian state. “We are in an Islamic caliphate,” he boasts. “We have nothing to do with Nigeria. We don’t believe in this name.”
Shekau’s video includes footage of fleeing Nigerian soldiers and Boko Haram fighters sporting heavy weapons and armored personnel carriers.
Reader Tips
If you could filter out all the MOR and pop from country music and boil the remainder down to a fine distillate you’d probably get something that sounds an awful lot like Kitty Wells: Here’s her countrified version of Everybody Loves Somebody.
The comments are open for your Reader Tips.
Chow On This
Rex Murphy: And behind that seemingly frivolous responses is a deeper one. “Normal” politics has brought these voters no comfort, and the class of people that owns “normal” politics has brought no harvest of joy either. It is “a plague on all your houses” kind of moment. And Ron Ford is “a plague on all your houses” kind of candidate.
A Tale Of Two Taxes
Now is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
FiveThirtyEight.com: Burger King Might Save $8.1 Million By Moving To Canada.
Financial Post: Air Canada CEO warns Ontario fuel tax hike will undo plan to turn Toronto into global aviation hub
h/t to Iain
#graveyardofpoliticians
Meet Manitoba MLA Drew Caldwell: For more than a year, the @WMNewDemocrat account has targeted and harassed others with commentary that has ranged from annoying to slanderous.
Why Is There Always A Big Screen TV?
A list of reports on missing and murdered Aboriginal women. All forty of them.
h/t Orville
Let Me Fix That Masthead For You
Reader Tips
British rockers Deep Purple once said bands who won’t play in Israel are wimps. They certainly weren’t wimps when it came to touring, as evidenced by tonight’s reminiscences about their deeply-purple tour of Venus, Mars, and regions beyond: Here’s Space Truckin’. Yo!
The comments are open, as always, for your Reader Tips.
Cold, Canadian Hands
Luckily, There’s No Incurable Disease Outbreak To Exploit
The ISIS laptop contains a 19-page document in Arabic on how to develop biological weapons and how to weaponize the bubonic plague from infected animals.
David Cameron’s Britain
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch, and how is the time at SDA when we juxtapose!
UK PM @David_Cameron: "We are in the middle of a generational struggle against a poisonous & extremist ideology"..
pic.twitter.com/FU87fsFbrv
— Johnny Jones (@gamma_ray239) August 29, 2014
UK immigration numbers up by 68,000 in a year, despite David Cameron's pledge to cut m… http://t.co/7JKurisunw pic.twitter.com/dSg58X6WPK
— David Jones (@_dpaj) August 29, 2014