U.S. Rail System?

Why can't this country get started on some serious high-speed rail projects?  I've lost track of the countries that already have some high-speed rail - most of Europe, Japan, China, Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, even Uzbekistan, fer Chrissakes!  

But here in the U.S.?  Nope.  Why is that?  Three little letters:  G.O.P.  Too simple?  Not really.  I am really getting sick and tired of the Republicans standing in the way of any kind of progress in this country.

Here's a map of what might be in the U.S.

Link

America's economy could be growing more quickly if we just focused on the right things—like high speed rail, for example. It takes cars off the road, creates thousands of jobs, makes travel easier, etc. One artist decided to draw up his vision of one potential future. We hope people consider it.

This currently is just a designer's dream. It can become a reality though, if you sign the official White House petition. It needs 100,000 signatures in order to get an official response.

This map is inspired by ideas from various agencies and advocacy groups including Amtrak, Wikimedia Commons, Florida High Speed Rail, Southern High Speed Rail, Southeast High Speed Rail, Ohio Department of Transportation, California High Speed Rail Authority, Midwest High Speed Rail Association, US DOT Federal Railroad Administration, and Texas High Speed Rail.

military rape

Here's another dark chapter of our epic saga:  rape.

Not rape in the historical sense, where the victors of war would, after killing enough of the men, keep the conquered female adults (and children) and rape them as a reward.  Lots of that in history, and in the Bible, you know.  

Not rape in the abstract or metaphorical sense, like what the big banks did to the rest of us in the 2008 financial crisis, but the brutal sexual violation of a female while in the U.S. military by another member of that same military.  

Click here for story.

You might have once heard about the high incidence of female soldiers being raped but stuffed it away in a cramped corner of your mind, duly noting the absurdity.  

If you do any research on this sorry topic, you will see it said and repeated that a women is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed in a battle.  

That sounds horrible, but they don't differentiate the numbers between those on active duty and those who are stateside in non-combat.  To me, even one rape is too many, but some estimates suggest that ONE OF EVERY THREE WOMEN will be raped while in the military.  33%?!  Is that possible?!

So ... what's that I keep hearing about our military being the greatest military in the world?  And every last one of them is a hero?

In 2010, there were 3,100 reported rapes in the U.S. military.   That's reported.  The Pentagon estimated that there were about 19,000 rapes in 2010; yet only 3,100 were reported.  The great disparity is because many women are simply not believed when they claim they were raped, or they are told to "just get over it."  

Can you imagine?

You join the military to serve your country, you get raped by your commanding officer, for instance, and no one will believe you!!  What a country!!

We obviously have a long, long way to go before women achieve true equality in this society.  While women may have it far better in Western nations than women in some Muslim countries, that is cold comfort when you have just been raped by your superior, or beat up by your husband or boyfriend.  But that's a different post.  

Viva the sexual revolution!  Look at all the attempts by the GOP to curtail women's right to control their own bodies.  The Neanderthals want to drag women by their hair back to the good old days, and it's going to take a continual struggle to beat them back.  

We know that Islam is the primary reason women in the Muslim world are so subjugated.  We're supposed to be better than that here in the West, but the way American women get treated in the U.S. military is a toxic shame that must be rooted out.

We also hear that now U.S. women will be allowed into combat roles.  Hey, maybe now they will have a greater chance of being killed in combat than being raped by a fellow soldier.  Until women can serve their country without fear of being raped, we are a long way off from true equality.

Killer Asteroid?

In the afternoon of February 15, 2013, an asteroid will pass very close to Earth.  It will be closer to Earth than the Moon.  It will travel so close, it has the potential to knock out some communications satellites.   

It's called Asteroid 2012 D14, and was discovered a year ago by an observer in Spain.  

If it were to hit Earth, it would be at a force equivalent to 2.7 megatons of TNT.  How strong is that?  By comparison, the bomb dropped on Hiroshima unleashed a force of 0.2 megatons.

Here's NBC's take.

What is so freaky to contemplate is that there are hundreds, nay thousands, nay MILLIONS of asteroids zipping around our Milky Way Galaxy.  It is as if we are sitting ducks in a cosmic shooting gallery.  Quack!  Quack!  Look at the moon and the impact craters that are obvious there. Our own solar system is littered with huge chunks of rock that are unseen until they start approaching Earth.    

A thought which turns a lot of people to God is, "WE COULD BE KILLED AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT!!"   The universe is so random, so ... "uncaring" that planetary destruction could become a reality at any time.  Trippy! 

This past December 12, 2012, Asteroid Toutatis, a 1.5 mile-wide planet killer passed within 4.3 million miles of Earth.   If that had hit Earth, it could have destroyed all life.  It wasn't noticed till 1989.

The day before that on December 11, 2012, Asteroid 2012 XE54 passed within 143,000 miles of Earth.  It was only 32 meters wide, but carried a 1 megaton force.  

So, what would happen if 2012 D14 were to hit Earth?  Well, "most" scientists think that it WON'T hit Earth, but if it did...

from Original Scientist

All three of these asteroids are registered as "Potentially Hazardous Asteroids" (PHA.) Fortunately Toutatis is the biggest one of these three asteroids which can wipe out life on Earth, and it remains far away. Asteroids earn PHA classification by a combination of Earth-crossing orbit, a certain size and velocity. All these characteristics combine together can enable a PHA to destroy a continent or even the entire Earth. Fortunately, 2012 DA14 and 2012 XE54 are not large enough to cause global or continental damage.

For larger asteroids, water impact simulations show an ocean impact will cause massive tsunamis towering a mile high or even more. Some computer models have shown that two massive tsunamis can be generated upon impact with an ocean and travel outward in opposite directions. These giant waves, which have never been seen in the history of the world can circle the globe. Eventually they will collide with each other on the opposite side of the Earth. There they will reverse direction and returning back to the asteroid point of impact and collide again. It is hard to comprehend short term and long term effects this would have on most of the world's major cities which are located on coastal areas.

A ground impact will be far worse. Scientists have modeled a ground-impacting asteroid. This type of impact will have far more devastating effects on life. Millions of tons of dirt and dust will be blasted into the upper atmosphere. There it will continue to circle the Earth for months, blocking out most of the Sun's light for up to one year. Trees and crops will die after three days if there is insufficient sunlight for photosynthesis.

Anyone who survives the effects of a large mile wide (or larger) asteroid strike will soon turn feral. A domestic house will turn feral when kept outside for just two weeks. People will resort to robbery, killing and cannibalism in a very short time after all the food is gone. When a plane crashed high in the Andes mountains many years ago, it was cannibalism of those who died which kept remaining passengers alive through the winter. Even though these people knew that eventually they would be rescued when spring came, the pain of starvation and accompanying symptoms was too much for anyone to endure. Now imagine the survival mentality an asteroid strike will create in everyone - seeing civilization as we know it wiped out, no food, electricity, running water, medicine, doctors, hospitals, etc... ever again. Even a simple injury could become infected and life threatening.

When trees and plants have died they cannot be replaced. Even if there were trillions of seeds or seedlings ready to re-plant the Earth, there would not be enough sunlight or oxygen to germinate the new plants and these would also die. Atmospheric CO2 levels for those that survive will rapidly rise without trees to recycle CO2 into oxygen around the world every day. Forget about global warming - all life on Earth will suffocate without oxygen-recycling by trees and plants.

Wasn't all that uplifting? Gives you a new appreciation for the modern life we have today. Hopefully 2012 DA14 will pass by and nothing serious will happen to dozens of complex, hard-to-replace, expensive communication satellites which have become the backbone of our civilization.

And of course a sizeable minority would claim that the asteroid was God's punishment of mankind for all of being so wicked.  I have come to the realization that they only way "God" will be eliminated from Earth will be when humanity is eliminated from the Earth.  

And that might just come in a flash of light; in the blink of an eye.  So ... enjoy!!

Here's a fun little video

2 Big 2 Fail

Here's another big job:  break the stranglehold that banks hold over the economy and psyche of this country.  To do that, we may have to neuter the GOP.

Adult Truths

Thanks to Lee T. for locating and sending these along.

1. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind-of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blu Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection....again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

15. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

16. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.

17. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

18. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

19. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

20. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front.

21. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

22. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

23. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Ladies.....Quit Laughing.

Tough toon 9/11

This is one tough toon, but very good. 

Naturally, the mind goes back to pre-9/11 days, when the incoming Bush administration turned a blind eye and deaf ear to Bill Clinton and Al Gore when they were urging Bush to pay close attention to potential terrorism. 

And then one is reminded of that famous Aug 2001 memo that Bush was presented with, "Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S."  But no, Bush had to take more vacation time.  There is even more evidence of Bush's incompetence, but I won't belabor that.  Suffice it to say they were totally asleep at the wheel leading up to 9/11. 

I remain convinced that if Bush hadn't stolen the Presidency from Al Gore, Gore would have continued to focus on terrorism and 9/11 would probably have been prevented.  But this is what you get when you coddle spoiled children and celebrate ignorance.