Weaponized Stupidity in the wild

In case you were wondering, this is what happens when you run a light aircraft up right next to a parked one. The neat row of slices are caused by the propeller.

Quote of the Day

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this. 
[Bertrand Russell]

Weaponized Stupidity in the wild

Quote of the Day

Only when the last river runs dry, the last fish drops dead, the last tree is cut down, will we discover that money cannot be eaten.
[Native American prophesy]

The very definition of Irony

Weaponized Stupidity in the wild

The world's ten largest urban agglomerations

This is a list of the world's largest urban agglomerations, with the estimated numbers currently living in them. Source is the CIA World Factbook.

1. Tokyo (Japan) - 36,669,000
2. Delhi (India) - 22,157,000
3. Sao Paulo (Brazil) - 20,262,000
4. Mumbai (India) - 20,041,000
5. Mexico City (Mexico) - 19,460,000
6. New York-Newark (US) - 19,425,000
7. Shanghai (China) - 16,575,000
8. Kolkata (India) - 15,552,000
9. Dhaka (Bangladesh) - 14,648,000
10. Karachi (Pakistan) - 13,125,000 (2009)

Big Brother is watching you

After 9/11, the US FCC mandated that by 2005 all cellular mobile phones need to be able to locate someone in the event of an emergency, by use of a GPS chip which can pinpoint the position of your cellular phone to within 30 feet. The data is classified and encrypted but accessible via military satellite.

GPS chips are standard in all models of laptops in the US since 2005.

 In South Africa, RICA [Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act] provides for the ability to monitor, record, store, and use in court where applicable, ALL forms of electronic communications. Cellphone service providers are required to warehouse all user data regarding cellphone usage and to record the positions of cellular phones triangulated via cellphone towers, as well as sms messages - and soon, conversations - for a period of up to 10 years. Email providers and Internet service providers will be required to begin archiving similar data, and any and all such recorded data is admissible in a court of law. Telephone conversations via land-line may soon also be recorded and similarly admissible.

In theory, access to all such records requires a court order. In practice, anything you say or do electronically, or any place you are with your cellphone switched on, could be used against you in court for up to 10 years after the fact.

Not even funny

The Emma Maersk

This is the Emma Maersk, part of a Danish shipping line and one of a new fleet of container ships. This is one of three presently in service, with another two ships commissioned to be completed in 2012. They were commissioned by Wal-Mart to transport all their goods from China. They hold an unbelievable 15,000 containers and have a 207 foot deck beam. The full crew is just 13 people on a ship longer than a US aircraft carrier  - which has a crew of 5,000.

 
With its 207 foot beam this monster is too big to fit through the Panama or Suez Canals.  It is strictly trans-Pacific. The Emma Maersk transports goods across the Pacific Ocean in just 5 days at a cruise speed of 31 knots (31 nautical miles per hour).

The goods arrive 4 days before the typical container ship (travelling at 18-20 knots) on a China-to-California run. 91% of Walmart products are made in China. So this behemoth is hugely competitive even when carrying perishable goods. 

The ship was built in five sections, the sections floated together and then welded. The bridge is higher than a 10-story building and has 11 cargo crane rigs that can operate simultaneously, capable of unloading the entire ship in less than two hours. Silicone painting applied to the ship bottom reduces water resistance and saves 317,000 gallons of diesel per year.

A recent documentary in late March 2010 on the History Channel noted that all of these containers are shipped back to China, empty. The USA sends nothing back on these ships. What does that tell you about the current financial state of the USA?

Additional info:

Country of origin - Denmark
Length - 1,302 ft
Width - 207 ft
Net cargo - 123 ,200 tons
Engine - 14 cylinders in-line diesel engine (110,000 BHP)
Cruise Speed - 31 knots
Cargo capacity - 15,000 TEU (1 TEU = 20 cubic feet)
Crew - 13 people !
First Trip - Sept. 08, 2006
Construction cost - US $145,000,000+

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quote of the Day

The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve, nor will he receive, either.
[Benjamin Franklin]

Sign of the times

World natural gas consumption

This table shows natural gas consumption for all 210 sovereign territories as listed in the 2010 CIA World Factbook. Figures are in cubic metres.

-	World	3.073 trillion cu m (2008 est.)
1	United States	646,600,000,000
2	European Union	489,400,000,000
3	Russia	367,500,000,000
4	Iran	119,000,000,000
5	Germany	96,260,000,000
6	Japan	94,670,000,000
7	Canada	94,620,000,000
8	United Kingdom	87,450,000,000
9	China	87,080,000,000
10	Italy	78,120,000,000
11	Saudi Arabia	77,100,000,000
12	Mexico	59,800,000,000
13	United Arab Emirates	59,420,000,000
14	Uzbekistan	52,600,000,000
15	Ukraine	52,000,000,000
16	India	51,270,000,000
17	Netherlands	48,600,000,000
18	France	44,840,000,000
19	Argentina	43,140,000,000
20	Egypt	42,500,000,000
21	Pakistan	37,500,000,000
22	Thailand	37,310,000,000
23	Indonesia	36,500,000,000
24	Turkey	35,070,000,000
25	Korea, South	34,090,000,000
26	Spain	33,880,000,000
27	Kazakhstan	33,680,000,000
28	Algeria	26,830,000,000
29	Australia	26,590,000,000
30	Malaysia	26,270,000,000
31	Venezuela	24,860,000,000
32	Trinidad and Tobago	21,940,000,000
33	Qatar	20,200,000,000
34	Turkmenistan	20,000,000,000
35	Brazil	18,720,000,000
36	Bangladesh	17,900,000,000
37	Belarus	17,000,000,000
38	Romania	16,920,000,000
39	Belgium	16,870,000,000
40	Poland	16,330,000,000
41	Oman	13,460,000,000
42	Kuwait	12,700,000,000
43	Bahrain	12,640,000,000
44	Taiwan	12,440,000,000
45	Nigeria	12,280,000,000
46	Hungary	11,320,000,000
47	Azerbaijan	10,120,000,000
48	Iraq	9,454,000,000
49	Singapore	8,270,000,000
50	Austria	8,232,000,000
51	Czech Republic	8,182,000,000
52	Colombia	8,100,000,000
53	Vietnam	8,100,000,000
54	Slovakia	6,493,000,000
55	South Africa	6,450,000,000
56	Syria	6,180,000,000
57	Libya	5,500,000,000
58	Ireland	5,112,000,000
59	Portugal	4,846,000,000
60	Norway	4,620,000,000
61	Denmark	4,410,000,000
62	New Zealand	4,320,000,000
63	Finland	4,289,000,000
64	Tunisia	4,220,000,000
65	Brunei	4,200,000,000
66	Burma	3,850,000,000
67	Lithuania	3,530,000,000
68	Greece	3,528,000,000
69	Peru	3,390,000,000
70	Bulgaria	3,350,000,000
71	Switzerland	3,282,000,000
72	Croatia	3,205,000,000
73	Jordan	2,970,000,000
74	Philippines	2,940,000,000
75	Hong Kong	2,830,000,000
76	Serbia	2,610,000,000
77	Moldova	2,520,000,000
78	Bolivia	2,410,000,000
79	Chile	2,340,000,000
80	Latvia	2,050,000,000
81	Armenia	1,930,000,000
82	Georgia	1,730,000,000
83	Estonia	1,510,000,000
84	Equatorial Guinea	1,500,000,000
85	Cote d'Ivoire	1,300,000,000
86	Luxembourg	1,268,000,000
87	Sweden	1,229,000,000
88	Israel	1,190,000,000
89	Slovenia	1,050,000,000
90	Puerto Rico	806,600,000
91	Kyrgyzstan	750,000,000
92	Angola	680,000,000
93	Tanzania	560,700,000
94	Morocco	560,000,000
95	Dominican Republic	470,000,000
96	Cuba	400,000,000
97	Bosnia and Herzegovina	310,000,000
98	Tajikistan	266,100,000
99	Ecuador	260,000,000
100	Congo, Republic of the	180,000,000
101	Mozambique	100,000,000
102	Papua New Guinea	100,000,000
103	Macau	91,300,000
104	Gabon	90,000,000
105	Macedonia	80,000,000
106	Uruguay	70,000,000
107	Senegal	50,000,000
108	Afghanistan	30,000,000
109	Albania	30,000,000
110	Barbados	29,170,000
111	Cameroon	20,000,000
112	American Samoa	0
113	Benin	0
114	Botswana	0
115	Burkina Faso	0
116	Paraguay	0
117	Panama	0
118	Niue	0
119	Liberia	0
120	Lesotho	0
121	Lebanon	0
122	Laos	0
123	Kosovo	0
124	Korea, North	0
125	Kiribati	0
126	Kenya	0
127	Jamaica	0
128	Niger	0
129	Nicaragua	0
130	New Caledonia	0
131	Netherlands Antilles	0
132	Nepal	0
133	Nauru	0
134	Namibia	0
135	Montserrat	0
136	Mongolia	0
137	Mauritius	0
138	Mauritania	0
139	Malta	0
140	Mali	0
141	Maldives	0
142	Malawi	0
143	Madagascar	0
144	Iceland	0
145	Honduras	0
146	Haiti	0
147	Guyana	0
148	Guinea-Bissau	0
149	Guinea	0
150	Guatemala	0
151	Grenada	0
152	Seychelles	0
153	Sao Tome and Principe	0
154	Samoa	0
155	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0
156	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	0
157	Saint Lucia	0
158	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0
159	Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha	0
160	Rwanda	0
161	Yemen	0
162	Western Sahara	0
163	West Bank	0
164	Virgin Islands	0
165	Vanuatu	0
166	Uganda	0
167	Turks and Caicos Islands	0
168	Tonga	0
169	Togo	0
170	Zimbabwe	0
171	Zambia	0
172	Timor-Leste	0
173	Swaziland	0
174	Suriname	0
175	Sudan	0
176	Sri Lanka	0
177	Somalia	0
178	Solomon Islands	0
179	Sierra Leone	0
180	Greenland	0
181	Gibraltar	0
182	Ghana	0
183	Gambia, The	0
184	French Polynesia	0
185	Fiji	0
186	Faroe Islands	0
187	Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)	0
188	Ethiopia	0
189	Eritrea	0
190	El Salvador	0
191	Dominica	0
192	Djibouti	0
193	Cyprus	0
194	Costa Rica	0
195	Cook Islands	0
196	Congo, Democratic Republic of the	0
197	Comoros	0
198	Chad	0
199	Central African Republic	0
200	Cayman Islands	0
201	Cape Verde	0
202	Cambodia	0
203	Burundi	0
204	British Virgin Islands	0
205	Bhutan	0
206	Bermuda	0
207	Belize	0
208	Bahamas, The	0
209	Aruba	0
210	Antigua and Barbuda	0
Source: 2010 CIA World Factbook

Serves you right

How India got Bangalored

If you heard about it in London or New York, the pattern of news from India might sound like a nation on the move. Tales of Indian prowess in everything from answering US phones to buying venerable European industries were fostering a perception of a country whose seemingly infinite size was matched only by its limitless potential. Being "Bangalored" had become slang for one of the defining processes of the global economy – offshoring, the movement of jobs from the expensive West to the cheap East. Global communications had brought millions of Indian doctors, engineers and IT specialists into the world market. Western retailers were salivating over the idea of a billion new consumers. Put those stories together and the idea of an emerging giant was convincing.

But success was only half the story. Yes, there are new billionaires aplenty in India. In 2007, Forbes magazine found thirty-six – more than anywhere else in Asia. But next to 900 million Indians who earn $2 a day or less – a third of all the world's poor – those were thirty-six drops in a very large ocean. Nor was India's boom closing the gap. Contrary to a common supposition in the West, sucking in jobs from the rest of the world had not produced an employment bonanza in India. Offshoring only employs 1.63 million people out of a workforce of 400 million and a population of 1.1 billion [UN figures]. The desperation at the bottom of India's economic ladder can be judged by the 740 000 applications received by Indian Railways when, in 2004, it advertised 22 000 labouring jobs.

The reality is that India continues to be home to more poverty than anywhere on earth – more than all Africa, and more and more each day. It accounts for more than a quarter of the world's extreme poor, according to a 2005 UN report 380 million people who earn $1 a day or less. At 2.4 million a year, its families cope with more than half of all child deaths in the world. More than 770 million Indians have no sanitation, 170 million drink fetid water and the World Bank says 47 percent of all children are malnourished.

India's national budget is roughly the size of Norway's (population 4 million). In a country the size of India, that rules out a welfare system, meaningful attempts to address inequality or any of the normal state checks on capitalism you expect in the West. India had swapped its [earlier] socialist dreams for libertarian ones. But for most of its people, the same nightmarish poverty endured.

[Selected extracts from "Falling Off the Edge" by Alex Perry, Macmillan, London, 2008 (ISBN 978-0-230-70689-7)]

Submitted by Frank.

Not even funny