ALL THE NEWS THAT WILL FIT IN PRINT

A Japanese railroad has found a unique way of pulling itself out of the red.

Do you want to bet that somewhere during the East Hampton's art gallery owner's arrest the lady used the phrase: "I'll have your job!"

I wonder if the price of calamari is going to drop in the Melbourne area?

Even though Wal-Mart touts its price slashing, I guess Macy's in NYC didn't think this was a good idea.

In a case of being in the right place at the right time, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was able to take a high resolution image of the Phoenix Mars Lander as it was in the parachute portion of its decent to the Martian surface yesterday. Kewl! And the Phoenix is in the process of doing a self-diagnosis of its systems. It should start digging next week.

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge opened on this day in 1937.

Are you bi-lingual? Did you learn the second language before or after you turned 5? So what, you ask? If the second language was learned after five it registers in a different area, and with a different intensity, in your brain, according to a new report. No matter how proficient you are in the second language.

This could be the newest "pet rock" concept. Some guy in St. Augustine FL claims to have captured ghosts in a jar. They are for sale, if you want one. I think I'll file this one under P. T. Barnum was right.

I think we should all give the city fathers of Manchester UK a hearty Bronx cheer for threatening a retired old lady with a hefty fine. Just for trying to find the owners of a lost kitty.

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

"Let's all be careful out there!"

LOCAL & GLOBAL

Tornado season in the United States has been rough this year. In fact, it is the worse one in over a decade. Over 100 people have been killed, including 8 yesterday, one of which was a 2-year old toddler. Tornado activity typically peaks in the Spring and early Summer and resurges again in the late Fall.

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It was only 6 miles in length (10km), across flat agricultural land. For years it was a bottle neck that hampered movement from the south-side of Mau'i to the central business/industrial core. Often flooding 3-4 feet (1 meter) deep in monsoon rains. Hawaii's State Route 311's widening project began in 2002 to expand the roadway from a narrow two-lane road to a divided 4-lane highway. Tomorrow a ceremony will declare "Mission Accomplished". Of course the project isn't quite finished. The 3 mile section outbound from Kihei to the midway point will still be restricted to one lane as the necessary re-striping is completed. All the politicos are backslapping each other with the equivalent of "Heckofa job, Brownie" pride. Give me a break! 1 mile per year is atrocious. Especially across terrain as flat as a Kansas wheat field. On the mainland, this project would have taken 1 year, 18 months at most. One of the things I am NOT going to miss about Paradise. I guess it is on par with Interstate Highway H-3 on O'ahu, which took 17 years to build its 15 mile length. Don't even bother asking how Hawai'i could have an "Interstate" highway, let alone 3 of them.

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For a former French paratrooper, his 20 year, $20 million quest may come to an end this Sunday when he attempts to set numerous records during the worlds highest sky-dive. The current record has stood since 1960. While it will take him hours to reach altitude, once he steps off, he'll be back on Earth in about 15 minutes and will have broken the sound barrier along the way.

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Will newly announced Libertarian candidate Bob Barr suck votes from McCain in November's General Election? He does have a stronger appeal to the farther "right" of the political spectrum than McCain does.

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Talk about a logistical nightmare. The Chinese gov't is going to evacuate 1,000,000 people from the devastated quake area. It has to be done. There is no infrastructure left. Dams may rupture. Very strong aftershocks continue. 65,000+ confirmed dead and over 23,000 missing. Look at the efforts made to respond military personnel to the area and then try to guess what a headache its going to be to relocate one million people and provide them with shelter and food. Helping them rebuild their lives.

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

"Let's all be careful out there!"

SILENT COMMENTARY

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

"Let's all be careful out there!"

MEMORIAL DAY - 2008

PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO REMEMBER

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Received one image for your local fuel price over the weekend. This is Cumbria UK.
Rounding up to the nearest pence, thats makes their petrol £1.12 (€1.41) a liter and their diesel £1.23 (€1.55) a liter. The conversion makes that $8.40 a gallon for regular and $9.24 for a gallon of diesel.

With the cost of crude now over $135 a bbl, consider this:
When crude reaches $200 a bbl (and it will) then a gallon of crude will cost about $4.55. Thats before transportation costs, refining fees and distribution expenses are added. Guesstimates make the pump price around $7.50 per gallon. Since most of America doesn't have a reliable mass transit system alternative there will come a point when you can't afford to commute to work. This would hit the lowest paid the hardest. Those making minimum wage or slightly more. If they can't afford to work then their employers will have to pay more to maintain staffing requirements. Causing the cost of goods to go up. See where this is going? Inflation. Runaway inflation. You'll need a shopping cart to take cash to the store to come back with one bag of groceries. Just like pre-Hitler Germany. In fact, this was one of the driving forces behind Hitler's rise to power. We haven't reached the point of gas shortages, yet, but we aren't far from it. However, we are nearing the point where mandatory gas rationing may be just around the corner. $15 a gallon within 10 years. Regardless of price, we can't burn crude in our automobiles, we need it refined to gasoline or diesel. Our refineries are running at over 85% of maximum refining capacity and there are no new refineries on the near horizon. They can't be built overnight. You must allow about 15 years from proposal to completion. Most people are for more refineries, just not in their neighborhood.

Just some food for thought as you fill your tank.

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The Mars Lander has successfully touched down near the Martian North Pole. If it finds evidence that life has existed in Mars' past then the odds of finding it through out the cosmos will have grown exponentially.

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Its not that I can't see Dubya riding a motorcycle, its just that I can remember how dangerous he was on a bicycle.

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"Fearless Leader" has once again shown the true feelings he has toward the American GI. The proposed new GI Bill of Rights would provide benefits more in keeping with the 21st century. He opposes it because it might cause soldiers to not re-enlist and would cost too much money. Money he would rather spend getting them killed in an unwinnable war. He may have been part of the Vietnam Generation but he sure didn't learn from it.

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Tonight, on the American cable TV channel Arts & Entertainment (A&E), there will be a 2-part miniseries of the classic 1971 sci-fi film Andromeda Strain, which was based on the 1969 Michael Crichton book of the same name. It will conclude tomorrow night. Check local listings for time and channel.

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Happy Memorial Day everybody. I hope you had a very wonderful weekend. Thanks for stopping by. I'll have more later.

Mahalo

Aloha

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THE PICTURE GALLERY

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

"Let's all be careful out there!"