Paradise Driver: 04/13/08

Sunday, April 13, 2008

THE BEST CAR AD...

IN YEARS

And not one "voice over".

The music and visual are stunning.

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

A SIGN OF THE TIMES...

Over The Limit?
UNDER ARREST!
Please don't drink and drive

"Let's all be careful out there!"

I DON'T WANT ANYONE TO PANIC...

BUT TUESDAY IS "TAX DAY"

Caused by human error, the ol' "oops" with decimal placement syndrome, a BP gas station in Wilmington, North Carolina, USA, caused massive traffic jams when they began retailing gasoline for 35¢ a gallon. Instead of the $3.35 that it was suppose to be marketed at. This price reduction continued from 9:00 AM on Thursday, April 10th, until 6:00 PM that same day. I would love to have a recording of that conversation when the employees called their district manager. Want to bet the fiber-optic line almost melted.

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Remember when it was called "Information" instead of "Directory Assistance"? Maybe the Law Enforcement community should come up with something other than "Tip Line".

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I wonder if the owners had their first hint that something was amiss when they noticed the water running from the backyard, down the driveway.

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The internet has "Black Holes". We all suspected it but dismissed errors and problems as just glitches along the information super-highway. Turns out the problem was greater than everyone guessed. Now I know where all those missing e-mails went.

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Located off the coast of Oregon, Washington (USA) and British Columbia (Canada) is the Juan de Fuca Plate. It is being squeezed between the more massive Pacific Plate and the North American Plate. On its western face is a strike/slip fault zone as the Pacific Plate grinds away in its relentless push to the northwest. The eastern edge is a subduction fault area, also known as a "dip-slip". where the Juan de Fuca Plate is shoved under the North American Plate. Of the two faults, the eastern one harbors greater potential for massive earthquakes. Possibly into the 9+ magnitude range on the open ended Richter Scale. Subduction faults also produce volcanoes. This is where Mt St Helens is located, along with Mt Hood, Mt. Rainier, Mt. Shasta and Three Sisters. In fact the Cascade Range is mostly, but not entirely, volcanic.

Oregon State University operates a series of hydrophones inherited from the "Cold War" days of the Department of Defense. Well, they are starting to hear things. And there has been a swarm of over 600 quakes, the largest being 5.4 magnitude, off the central Oregon coast. "Sounds like magma moving". So unless the fictional "Red October" is cruising just off shore, there is something massive going on deep within the bowels of the Earth.

(note to self: cancel Portland trip)

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Lest they be forgotten
45 years ago, the hunter/killer submarine USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank off the coast of Cape Cod, MA on April 10th, 1963. Sailing from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery ME, on its "shakedown cruise". 129 men were killed instantly when the submarine was unable to surface and imploded.

I was living at Pease AFB, in New Hampshire, at the time, which is located just across the river.

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Just a little video, flying south from the north end of Kihei towards Wailea. When you see Kihei Akahi and Maui Banyans indicated, I live at the tree line that marks the eastern end of development in Kihei. Right against the Pi'ilani Highway (SR-31), often called the "high road".