via field.drums
F150 beats Silverado & Ram 1500
12.10. Ford pulled a random 3.5L V-6 EcoBoost engine off the line, did some dyno testing (for an equivalent of 150,000 miles), then mounted it into a SuperCrew XLT for some towing (11,000 pounds for 24 hours around a NASCAR track) and hauling (26 tons of logs at an Oregon tree mill) and racing (the Baja 1000) situations. But none of those tests pitted the new engine against any of its competitors, like in this Davis Dam grade test. The testing was conducting by a third-party test crew, running a Ford F-150 SuperCrew EcoBoost against a Chevy Crew Cab Silverado 5.3L V-8 and a Ram 1500 Quad Cab 5.7L V-8. All three pulled identically equipped and weighted trailers in two different types of runs-0-60 mph from the start line, as well as a 3.5-mile full run up the course.- Mark Williams
(via apple.bazzar)
timber (via britanica)
(via civil.war.pic)
Labels and Time by Jonah Lehrer (Wsj)
12.24.11. Material things give us jolts of pleasure, but that pleasure isn’t rooted in the thing itself. As a result, we end up squandering Christmas looking for joy in all the wrong places. …the pleasure areas of the brain responded solely to the perceived price. A fancy label can make even the cheapest plonk taste great. Similar results have been achieved with shoes, tequila and jewelry. In study after study, the actual products matter less than our superficial beliefs about them. Are the only gifts worth giving those plastered with prestigious logos? We should reassess our holiday priorities, spending less time shopping and more time with the people we’re shopping for. Nobel laureate D. Kahneman: “happiness is spending time with people you love.”
![General George (via explore.pa) Sherman the destroyer (via clc.charter)
Ricky Gervais quits being Christian(12.19.10, Wsj) Believing in something doesn’t make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn’t make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.I used to believe in God. The Christian one that is. I loved Jesus. He was my hero. God was by definition omnipotent and perfect. Jesus was a man. He had to work at it. He had temptation but defeated sin. He had integrity and courage. But He was my hero because He was kind. And He was kind to everyone. He didn’t bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty. He didn’t care who you were. He loved you. What a guy. I wanted to be just like Him… Later I learned of evolution– evolution of plants, animals and us- with imagination, free will, love, humor. I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are all good enough reasons for living. But living an honest life- for that you need the truth. The truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity. And why is [Christianity] such a popular view? That’s obvious. It’s an attractive proposition. Believe in me and live forever… “Do unto others…” is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is‐ a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. “Do this or you’ll burn in hell.” You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.](http://explorepahistory.com/kora/files/1/2/1-2-773-25-ExplorePAHistory-a0h2n0-a_349.jpg)
General George (via explore.pa)
Sherman the destroyer (via clc.charter)
Ricky Gervais quits being Christian
(12.19.10, Wsj) Believing in something doesn’t make it true. Hoping that something is true doesn’t make it true. The existence of God is not subjective. He either exists or he doesn’t. It’s not a matter of opinion. You can have your own opinions. But you can’t have your own facts.
I used to believe in God. The Christian one that is. I loved Jesus. He was my hero. God was by definition omnipotent and perfect. Jesus was a man. He had to work at it. He had temptation but defeated sin. He had integrity and courage. But He was my hero because He was kind. And He was kind to everyone. He didn’t bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty. He didn’t care who you were. He loved you. What a guy. I wanted to be just like Him… Later I learned of evolution– evolution of plants, animals and us- with imagination, free will, love, humor. I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer and pizza are all good enough reasons for living. But living an honest life- for that you need the truth. The truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity.
And why is [Christianity] such a popular view? That’s obvious. It’s an attractive proposition. Believe in me and live forever… “Do unto others…” is a good rule of thumb. I live by that. Forgiveness is probably the greatest virtue there is. But that’s exactly what it is‐ a virtue. Not just a Christian virtue. No one owns being good. I’m good. I just don’t believe I’ll be rewarded for it in heaven. My reward is here and now. It’s knowing that I try to do the right thing. That I lived a good life. And that’s where spirituality really lost its way. When it became a stick to beat people with. “Do this or you’ll burn in hell.” You won’t burn in hell. But be nice anyway.
Hiram at war in Mexico (via latin.ame)
Let us cross the river and rest under the shade of the trees- Stonewall
(via cdn.dipity)
Oil & Gas Boom by Wsj
11.26.11. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported recently that the U.S. jobless rate remains a dreadful 9%… Oil and gas production, which now employs some 440,000 workers, an 80% increase, or 200,000 more jobs, since 2003. Oil and gas jobs account for more than one in five of all net new private jobs in that period. The ironies here are richer than the shale deposits in North Dakota’s Bakken formation…. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have revolutionized oil and gas extraction—with no Energy Department loan guarantees needed… North Dakota has the nation’s lowest jobless rate, at 3.5%, and the state now has some 200 rigs pumping 440,000 barrels of oil a day, four times the amount in 2006. The state reports more than 16,000 current job openings, and places like Williston have become meccas for workers seeking jobs that often pay more than $100,000 a year.
(via 99.static)
September 12
You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward’s attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
On this day, the family’s bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that’s the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don’t know my people. You don’t know what we’re capable of. You don’t know what you just started. But you’re about to learn.
Jamey Skies
Hunter and Son (via.cali.relocator)
via alameda.info
Lookout Closes Doors (by Aidin Vaziri)
8.6.05. Lookout Records, the Berkeley indie label that helped launch the careers of artists such as Green Day, the Donnas, Rancid and Operation Ivy, laid off its staff this week after Green Day reclaimed ownership of its pre- 1994 work from the label. According to Lookout publicist Tristin Laughter, who is one of those out of a job, the move came as a result of unpaid royalties on four of the multiplatinum trio’s early releases, including 1991’s “1039/Smoothed-Out Slappy Hours” and 1992’s “Kerplunk!,” 60,000 copies of which the band originally sold from the back of a van.
“They made their decision because of royalties that are owed and the label is unable to pay at this time,” Laughter said. “Like many indies, Lookout is suffering and they couldn’t make the payments.” Green Day was roundly censured by the East Bay punk community, centered around the club 924 Gilman Street, when it left Lookout to sign with major- label Warner Bros. for its breakthrough 1994 release, “Dookie,” which sold 12 million copies. Yet Lookout continued to benefit from the band’s skyrocketing popularity as interest in Green Day’s older material rose, providing most of the revenue to support Lookout’s new signings like Ted Leo, Mary Timony and Engine Down. Former Lookout president Lawrence Livermore: “Lookout has been failing to pay Green Day (and other bands) for years now, and apparently using the money instead to put out a series of terrible records that very few people wanted to buy. Gambling on new bands is part of what a record label does but you don’t do it with other people’s money.”
Hakone, Saratoga (via lin.jirsa)
76 (via now.then/cuny)
Stossel trumpets Ame biz
7.03.11 Today, Asian students crush Americans on standardized tests, but it’s Americans who invent things like the transistor and the integrated circuit. Our culture of entrepreneurship turns that science into wealth. It’s relatively easy to start a business here. I opened one in Wilmington, Delaware. I named it “The Stossel Store.” It was just a table from which I pitched my book and Fox merchandise. I picked Wilmington because our research showed that Delaware and Nevada make opening a business easier than other states. It still took me a week to get legal permission, but it would have taken much longer in Europe. Unfortunately, bureaucrats are threatening this good part of America.
I had to register with the Del Sec of State and the Division of Corporations, get a federal employer identification number, buy commercial liability insurance, and register with the Del State Dep of Finance. D’souza: the Founding Fathers specifically put protection for patents and trademarks in the Constitution. Suddenly, the entrepreneur is taken from the bottom of the heap and brought to the front.
Chiara Offreducio saves child from wolf
by Gio di Paolo
Lady Cardinal (via go.stanford)
Santa Clara County pop: 1950- 300k; 1960- 600k; 1970- 1mil; 2010- 1.8 mil; growth of 6% from 2000- 2010 lowest ever. Politics: 2008 pres election- Dem 70%, Rep 30%; 1984- Dem 43%, Rep 55%.
Gaspar Portola and his paper (via ochistorical.com)
Juan Bautista (via bertc)
5.5.11. Vic Hanson on whacking killers
We have executed from the air over 1,500 suspected terrorists by Predators. President Obama has ordered four times as many drone attacks in the last two years as President W. Bush did in eight. Are those killings more constitutionally suspect than Bush’s treatment of the three terrorists at Guantanamo?… targeted assassinations are better done under liberal presidents, who are more likely to be seen as humanitarians who only reluctantly order such killings. The Bush antiterrorism protocols — tribunals, renditions, preventative detentions, Predator assassination missions, Guantanamo Bay — were decried as illegal and immoral. Such furor vanished, however, when President Obama embraced or expanded them all…. preemptively bombing Gadhafi to foster democracy in his absence is now considered morally justified.
Pony Express to Mento (1861) via wiki
Jim Boswell- cotton/tomato/ wheat farmer; 135k acres, Kings County
(via amazon)
Abrogation in the Quran
The principle of abrogation- al-naskh wa al-mansukh (the abrogating and the abrogated)- directs that verses revealed later in Muhammad’s career “abrogate”- i.e., cancel and replace- earlier ones whose instructions they may contradict. Thus, passages revealed later in Muhammad’s career, in Medina, overrule passages revealed earlier, in Mecca. The Quran itself lays out the principle of abrogation: 2:106. Whatever a Verse (revelation) do We {Allah} abrogate or cause to be forgotten, We bring a better one or similar to it. Know you not that Allah is able to do all things?
In order to find out what the Quran says on a given topic, it is necessary to examine the other Islamic sources that give clues as to when in Muhammad’s lifetime the revelations occurred. Upon such examination, one discovers that the Meccan suras, revealed at a time when the Muslims were vulnerable, are generally benign; the later Medinan suras, revealed after Muhammad had made himself the head of an army, are bellicose. (via jwatch.org)
via history.army. mil
“To practice freedom we must cherish the individual”- Omar Bradley
via audio.books
Payton Miller vouches for the Kahr K40
There’s no hammer, so there’s no chance of hammer bite. And that abbreviated beavertail was more than enough to prevent my right hand from being nipped by the slide (I’ve got medium-size mitts, but I tend to grip high). Probably its most appealing feature is that it’s a very effective compromise between shootability and carryability. Like all Kahrs, the K40 has a minimal number of controls: just a slide release and a Browning-type push-button magazine release. The sights are excellent: low-profile, three-dot, drift adjustable…. The star of the show turned out to be MagTech 130-grain SCHPs. To be honest, I’d never shot any .40 S&W loads under 155 grains, but this one was an eye-opener, averaging 1 3/4 inches at 25 yards. (via g&ammo)
Coolidge takes it higher
via ennui.org
via.harper.collins
Silverado 2011 received a new hood, front bumper, and grille. The engineers focused more on three key attributes: powertrain, frame, and suspension. Improving that trio provides more power with greatly reduced emissions, increased capability, and better ride and reduced noise levels in the cabin.- Allyson Harwood (truck.trend)
Spirit of Ike in 2011
(via subvert.nation)
in the bush (via tangled trees)
A stronger yuan would do little to boost U.S. employment. Fewer than 15 % of “top export products” feature direct competition between U.S. and Chinese firms. Wu says, “we market airplanes & pharmaceuticals. China sells electronics and textiles.” Beijing’s mischievous trade behavior- subsidies, tariffs, copyright infringement- warrants criticism, but the U.S. lost much credibility when it imposed sanctions on Chinese tires in 2009.- NRO (Jan19.11)
VJ Day (via history.com)
George, Bernard, Harry, and Beetle (via wsj)
“Can you remember the last day you didn’t have a drink?” Laura asked in her calm, soothing voice. She wasn’t threatening or nagging. She did expect an answer. My wife is the kind of person who picks her moments. This was one of them… I went on racking my memory for a single dry day over the past few weeks; then the past month; then longer. I could not remember one. Drinking had become a habit. Could I continue to grow closer to the Almighty, or was alcohol becoming my god?
I knew the answers, but it was hard to summon the will to make a change. For months I had been praying that God would show me how to better reflect His will. Faith showed me a way out. I knew I could count on the grace of God to help me change. Quitting drinking was one of the toughest decisions I have ever made… People can change. - George Walker Bush (Nov 2010)
