Timing really is everything, isn't it? Had the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded, sunk to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico and started leaking some 5,000 barrels of oil per day 20 months ago, the McCain/Palin political catchphrase, "Drill, Baby, Drill!" would've been just ruined.
Back during the presidential campaign, just months after gasoline had hit $4 a gallon nationwide, the battle cry in one party's platform was that America could become completely energy independent - if we would just allow more drilling for crude oil on lands controlled by our country. That demonstrated a spectacular ignorance of how the oil industry actually works.
It was bad enough that two individuals running for the highest offices in the land either didn't know how oil exploration and production actually worked, or were simply saying that because it was popular with the crowds. Fortunately, cooler (or more knowledgeable) heads pointed out that anyone who wanted to drill new platforms in the Gulf of Mexico immediately would have to have been on a waiting list for a drill ship for at least four years. And they'd still have to wait some more, while the final oil platform was constructed and put in place.
That reality doesn't seem to have trickled down, but it's why oil companies think in terms of decades for future oil production. The public, not knowing how long new production takes, just wants the price of gasoline to go down tomorrow. For politicians it's simply pandering, energizing everybody you can to go out and vote for you. In the long run, of course, "Drill, Baby, Drill!" was no more inane than their opponent's mantra, "Change you can believe in!"
Because the U.S. imports half the oil we use, becoming energy independent would mean we'd have to double our domestic oil production. Even if we could do that, it would just be kicking the can down the road. Because we couldn't keep finding enough new fields to offset depleting our oil reserves that fast.
Energy independence is a pipedream, but it reliably gets the crowds at political rallies fired up.
Last Friday, April 30th, was the 35th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War, and last Tuesday, May 4th, was the 40th anniversary of the shooting of protesting students at Kent State University. The Vietnam War and America's involvement in it affected the lives of millions for well over a decade, exacting a massive human cost with millions of deaths and countless injuries - both physical and mental - that plague many of those involved to this day. United States military involvement and troop strength grew rapidly after 1964 - at its highest level in 1968, with over 500,000 troops on the ground. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. now bears the engraved names of 58,267 of those troops. It's nearly impossible to encapsulate an event of such scale in a handful of photographs, but here, 35 years after the end of the conflict, is my attempt. (47 photos total)
Click the image to see the full collection. Warning: Some images are graphic.
Boxes have traditionally been the taskmasters of shipping. But what about those oddly shaped items that don’t quite sit right in a box or require a larger box and thus leads to increased waste? Well, now there’s a solution and it’s called the Universal Packaging System (UPS), though this is not an official UPS product.
By designer Patrick Sung, the cardboard sheet is covered with a pattern that makes it easy to fold and conform to any shape. Obviously, you’d need bigger pieces for shipping larger items, but the idea is golden and the product could likely be produced for less than traditional boxes. If UPS or another company adopts this concept, they won’t be the only ones getting rid of boxes.
With our “clever little bag”, Puma kicks-off the next pivotal phase of its’ sustainability program. The tens of millions of shoes shipped in our bag will reduce water, energy and diesel consumption on the manufacturing level alone by more than 60% per year. In other words: approximately 8,500 tons less paper consumed, 20 million Megajoules of electricity saved, 1 million liters less fuel oil used and 1 million liters of water conserved. During transport 500,000 liters of diesel is saved and lastly, by replacing traditional shopping bags the difference in weight will save almost 275 tons of plastic.
Debby Lynn Gross kept Burleson laughing for most of her 45 years.
Now, she's having the last laugh on us all.
Ten days after Gross' death, radio stations are reading her hilarious Sunday obituary notice, and bloggers are e-mailing it around the world.
We knew her obituary was different from the beginning: "Forgo the bad organ music and somber routine."
The notice told friends to "stir it up and laugh" at a memorial Saturday morning in Fort Worth: "She expects old-fashioned home-cookin' funeral food! If you try to sneak chain-restaurant brown gravy or powdered potatoes into the party, we will hurt you. Also, please don't ask when you can pick up your covered dishes. We're keeping them!"
Last weekend, powerful thunderstorms drenched Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi, dumping over 13 inches of rain on the region in two days. Creeks, lakes and rivers swelled with the rainwater, overflowing their banks, washing away roads, and causing the deaths of at least 24 people so far. The Cumberland River, which winds through downtown Nashville, Tennessee, crested Monday at 51.9 feet, 12 feet above flood stage, spilling into the city and surrounding neighborhoods. As the waters are now receding, cleanup and recovery begins, as municipal workers begin to repair power supplies and water treatment plants, and residents return to their homes to recover what they can. (38 photos total)
As the weather heats up, the Wiffle Ball season is once again upon us. Before you pick up your first white plastic ball and yellow plastic bat of the summer, we thought we’d fill you in on a few points about the proud game’s history and science.
