New Michelin See-Thru Tire - Is It Tweel?

Radical new tire design by Michelin. The next generation of tires. They had a pair at the Philadelphia car show. These tires are airless and could be out on the market very soon. The bad news for law enforcement is that spike strips will not work on these tires.This is what great R&D will do, and just think of the impact on existing technology:

- no more air valves
- no more air compressors at gas stations
- no more repair kits

http://www.automedia.com/Future/Tire/is/a/Tweel/dsm20050201mt/1

Nanny State

Get Ready for the Nanny State...

www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16487654.htm?source=rss

Thanks, Tony B.

Saudis May Ban Letter 'X'

Here's an example of extremism at its silliest...

www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007/1/15/101803.shtml?s=ic

Monster Bunnies For North Korea

An east German breeder who breeds rabbits the size of dogs has been asked by North Korea to help set up a big bunny farm to alleviate food shortages in the communist country. Now journalists and rabbit gourmets from around the world are thumping at his door.

It all started when Karl Szmolinsky won a prize for breeding Germany's largest rabbit, a friendly-looking 10.5 kilogram "German Gray Giant" called Robert, in February 2006.

Images of the chubby monster went around the world and reached the reclusive communist state of North Korea, a country of 23 million which according to the United Nations Food Programme suffers widespread food shortages and where many people "struggle to feed themselves on a diet critically deficient in protein, fats and micronutrients."

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003554557_rabbits03.html

Weather Channel

Man, we can't even watch the Weather Channel without being affected by biased reporting...

www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53636

A Year in Pyongyang

Andrew Holloway lived for a year in Pyongyang, North Korea. I haven't read it yet but am starting...

www.aidanfc.net/a_year_in_pyongyang.html

Web-Based Applications

An interesting list of applications available over the web. I've never felt the need to do word processing on the web but it might be something you need. Upcoming.com looks about the most interesting to me...

tech.msn.com/products/article.aspx?cp-documentid=2521180

Prince's Shadowy Halftime Show

Some people are apparently upset about Prince's "phallic" connotations during the silhouetted portion of his Superbowl halftime show. I'm not surprised, as soon as the screen went up I told my wife that someone would wind up making a stink about it. It wouldn't have mattered what shape guitar the little guy used, the resulting "picture" would have been the same. Was the screen put up just for that purpose? Maybe... Perhaps he was going for a low-brow laugh reminiscent of Robin Hood: Men in Tights... But I tend to think it was less insidious than that. I think the giant outline of Mr. Purple was partly to disguise that Princey-boy was air-guitaring the music and partly to make sure that the people in the upper half of Dolphin Stadium could tell that he really was on stage.

msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/6447016

Senate Right-to-Carry Bill

We need this national right-to-carry legislation to be signed into law. Just like a driver's license, all state licenses should be recognized by all other states. Please contact your Senators and Representative and support these measures.

www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=189

Message from Ben Stein to the US Military

Greetings From Rancho Mirage
By Ben Stein
Tuesday

Dear Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, National Guard, Reservists, in Iraq, in the Middle East theater, in Afghanistan, in the area near Afghanistan, in any base anywhere in the world, and your families:

Let me tell you about why you guys own about 90 percent of the backbone in the whole world right now and should be happy with yourselves and proud of whom you are.

It was a dazzlingly hot day here in Rancho Mirage today. I did small errands like going to the bank to pay my mortgage, finding a new bed at a price I can afford, practicing driving with my new 5 wood, paying bills for about two hours. I spoke for a long time to a woman who is going through a nasty child custody fight. I got e-mails from a woman who was fired today from her job for not paying attention. I read about multi-billion-dollar mergers in Europe, Asia, and the Mideast. I noticed how overweight I am, for the millionth time. In other words, I did a lot of nothing.

Like every other American who is not in the armed forces family, I basically just rearranged the deck chairs on the Titanic in my trivial, self-important, meaningless way.

Above all, I talked to a friend of more than forty-three years who told me he thought his life had no meaning because all he did was count his money. And, friends in the armed forces, this is the story of all of America today. We are doing nothing but treading water while you guys carry on the life or death struggle against worldwide militant Islamic terrorism. Our lives are about nothing: paying bills, going to humdrum jobs, waiting until we can go to sleep and then do it all again. Our most vivid issues are trivia compared with what you do every day, every minute, every second.

Oprah Winfrey talks a lot about "meaning" in life. For her, "meaning" is dieting and then having her photo on the cover of her magazine every single month (surely a new world record for egomania ). This is not "meaning."
- Meaning is doing for others.
- Meaning is risking your life for hers.
- Meaning is putting your bodies and families' peace of mind on the line to defeat some of the most evil, sick killers the world has ever known.
- Meaning is leaving the comfort of home to fight to make sure that there still will be a home for your family and for your nation and for free men and women everywhere.

Look, soldiers and Marines and sailors and airmen and Coast Guardsmen, there are eight billion people in this world. The whole fate of this world turns on what you people, 1.4 million, more or less, do every day. The fate of mankind depends on what about 2/100 of one percent of the people in this world do every day and you are those people. And joining you is every policeman, fireman, and Emergency Medical Technician in the country, also holding back the tide of chaos.

Do you know how important you are? Do you know how indispensable you are? Do you know how humbly grateful any of us who has a head on his shoulders is to you? Do you know that if you never do another thing in your lives, you will always still be heroes? That we could live without Hollywood or Wall Street or the NFL, but we cannot live for a week without you?

We are on our knees to you and we bless and pray for you every moment. And Oprah Winfrey, if she were a size two, would not have one millionth of your importance, and all of the Wall Street billionaires will never mean what the least of you do, and if Barry Bonds hits hundreds of home runs it would not mean as much as you going on one patrol or driving one truck to the Baghdad airport.

You are everything to us, as we go through our little days, and you are in the prayers of the nation and of every decent man and woman on the planet. That's who you are and what you mean. I hope you know that.

Love, Ben Stein

"If It Weren't For the United States Military There Would Be NO United States of America"
"Home of The Free, Because of the Brave"

I haven't had a chance to personally verify that Ben is the author yet, but I like what it says...

Sixteen Urges

Sixteen tempting urges that men must control. #7 - that's mine. I don't know why I feel the silly urge to shout out "Mustang Sally!" at a bluegrass concert...

men.msn.com/articlemh.aspx?cp-documentid=2166289