Saturday snicker

We feel the need to forewarn those who look for
something to offend them, liberals, race baters,
and professional victims that this joke may offend
you. If so you should stop reading here.

A friend sent this joke to us and it made us
laugh. It is not here to be vindictive or racist
and any blame is to be placed for this joke
being here it lies with me. That being said, enjoy
the snicker.

The Zebra dies and arrives at the Pearly Gates.
As he enters, he asks St. Peter, ‘I have a question
that’s haunted me all of my days on earth. Am I
white with black stripes, or am I black with
white stripes?’

St. Peter said, ‘That’s a question only God can answer.’
So the zebra went off in search of God. When he found
Him, the zebra asked, ‘God, please – I must know am I
white with black stripes, or am I black with white stripes?’

God simply replied, ‘You are what you are.’

The zebra returned to see St. Peter once more, who asked
him, ‘Well, did God straighten out your query for you?’

The zebra looked puzzled. ‘No sir, God simply said ‘You
are what you are.’

St. Peter smiled and said to the zebra, ‘Well then, there
you are. You are white with black stripes.’

The zebra asked St. Peter, ‘How do you know that for
certain?’

‘Because,’ said St. Peter, ‘If you were black with white
stripes, God would have said, ‘You is what you is.’

WARNING :

If you laugh at this, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Rev Wright,
and Barack Obama will be comin after yo white honkey ass!!!
———————
Comments are always welcome.

Looking back for the future

Remember what you were doing in December of 1968?
We can’t even remember what we had for supper last
night, but what happened that December made the
cover of magazines, was reported on the news, and
excited our country.

You may remember Apollo 8 and the crew of Frank
Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, and the
day they first saw Earthrise. While orbiting the
moon they saw, and photographed, the Earth rising
on the Moon.

The crew even managed to get color photographs and
the event was released on video in 2013 in honor of
the 45th anniversary of the event. So if you’re old
enough not to remember, or too young to grasp the
importance of it, here is that video.

The friend who shared it described the video as
‘awesome’, after we watched it all we could say is
‘wow’, and we’re sharing it with you to make your
sound effects.
Comments are always welcome.

Losses and gains

A friend shared a list of 10 things that will
disappear in our lifetime and if you haven’t seen
the list we’ll share it along with our feelings on
the choices.

1. the Post Office. We believe the closing is
inevitable. It’s been bleeding money for years and
has too many competitors to remain relevant.

2. the check. With electronic payments to and
withdrawals from ‘checking’ accounts’ this is only
a matter of time.

3. the newspaper. The younger generation doesn’t
read it and online papers are charging to get the
news we get on TV for free. While I don’t see them
completely disappearing in my lifetime, newspapers
are on the way out.

4. the book. E-books are generally cheaper and just
as much fun to read once you get used to flicking
your finger to turn the page. I still think there
will be a market for books past my lifetime though.

5. the land-line telephone. Almost everyone has a
cell-phone today and if costs keep rising, we can
foresee the extinction of the land-line phone.

6. music. The claim here is that a lack of
innovative new music will be the downfall and not
illegal downloading. It may suffer a stroke, but it
will snap back.

7. Television revenues. Yes the revenues are down,
people are streaming media on their computers,
cable and satellite costs are up, and commercials
cut into programming every 4 minutes but we
believe that some form of tV will outlive us.

8. the ‘things’ we own on our computers. Documents,
music, movies, songs, and pictures we now save on
our hard drive will be in the ‘cloud’. Windows,
Google, and the Mac OS will use the cloud for
storage. We don’t see this as a big deal as we feel
that once something is online it is no longer our
exclusive property.

9. Cursive writing. Along with this we could add
paper, pencils, and pens because if nobody is
writing the need would disappear as fast as a
liberal at a gun show.

10. Privacy. With all the security cameras, traffic
cameras, computer apps, and bar codes, we have no
privacy now. It may be wise to curb the urge to
scratch your itch unless you’d like to watch the
event on someone’s online video.

What we won’t lose is our faith, love of family,
belief in God, and our guns. They cannot take away
our patriotism, memories, and knowledge we have
gained during life’s journey. And as long as we
keep these, we still win.
Comments are always welcome.

Wicked Wednesday

Even though it’s almost over we’d like to share
some things we found today while cruising the
information highway.

Still got cabin fever? How about listening to the
best muscle car sounds of 2014? Yes we can look at
the cars too.

How not to lose a drag race. I’m guessing someone
forgot something.

If you remember the movie ‘League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen’, you remember Captain Nemo’s Nautilus
car. And if you always wanted a better look, here
is the video for you.

Think criminals are smart? Here’s one who’s trying
to outrun the police in a Smart Car! I can’t make
these things up.

Just because you can’t take the country out of boy
here comes a John Deere tribute video.

For our song we have something a little different.
A little preview of “Sweet Dreams and Honky Tonks”
that will be at the Central Performing Arts Center,
519 East 11th Street, DeWitt, Iowa on February 15.

If this sounds like something you’d like to see go
here for ticket information.

We’ll even throw in a movie. This one should be a
cult classic by now and was so popular almost
nobody has heard of it. Enjoy ‘Drag Racer 1971’.

Enjoy the rest of our Wednesday.
Comments are always welcome.

Technology of the future today

Think much about spinels? No, not the transparent
red spinels called rubies before the end of the
18th century. Nor the natural white spinel or any
of the naturally occurring magnesium aluminate now
know as spinel.

The spinel we speak of is man made, trademarked,
and just may help automakers meet the emission
standards of the future while replacing rare earth
metals in catalytic converters.

The catalytic converter basically takes high
tempurature exhaust and grabs some oxygen out of
the NOx and turns it into nitrogen then the trapped
oxygen attaches to CO and hydrocarbons turning them
into CO2 and water.

The technology is easily explained by anyone who has
a basic knowledge of the sciences. Unfortunately,
that isn’t me.

But as we understand it the problem is twofold:
emission standards are going to get a lot tougher,
and engines using turbos for power rob the exhaust
of some of the energy needed for the current
catalytic converters to work.

So, in 5 to 7 years the Tier III Bin 30 will
require an 80% drop in NOx tailpipe emissions. To
use more rare earth metals (platinum) to solve the
problem is too costly. The spinel technology can
lower the emissions for a lot less.

Clean Diesel Technologies, Inc is the company
behind the nano-structured spinel material and are
predicting it will be ready in less than 5 years.

So that means we will be able to produce the part
for less, cut emissions by at least 80%, and keep
all the high performace goodies we’ve become
accustomed to. It doesn’t get much better than
that.
Comments are always welcome.

The calliope is playing

Here in our river city nestled on the shores of
the Mighty Mississippi River there has been talk of
improvement to our riverfront. RiverVision is being
talked about again.

We wonder why, at a time when taxes and fees were
raised two years in a row, some of our city leaders
think they have millions to pour into a park in a
flood plain.

Since we didn’t make the meeting we wonder why the
construction documents are going to cost a cool
million for a $5.7 million improvement to the park.
Seems a bit steep to change 9.5 acres of parking
lots into greenspace.

We don’t remember a big public outcry to change
the riverfront park after the riverboat moves on.
We have the skybridge to nowhere that lights up in
varying colors, the ferris wheel that lights up in
varying colors, the ball park, the bandshell, and
the old Dock there already.

And when all the parking lots are covered with
greenspace, where will people park during the Bix
road race and other downtown events? Guess the
parking ramps would finally see some use.

Sounds like the circus to us and if more color
changing lights are in the plan, it may just look
like one too.

On another note, we didn’t make the indoor car
show this year but found some pictures on the
QC Times.
Comments are always welcome.

Sunday snicker

There was once a newly ordained priest who
joined the staff of a large, well-to-do
parish. His boss, the senior priest, had
been there for many years and was steeped
in wisdom.

The young priest was very full of himself,
having taken a number of prizes for preaching
in seminary. He was particularly proud of his
efforts in the pulpit.

Indeed, he said to his boss one day, “Father,
there is not a subject in the world that I
could not, at the drop of a hat, find a Biblical
text for and then be able to preach a sermon.”
The senior priest decided to put his young charge
to the test.

“Well, my boy,” he said, “don’t you be preparing
any sermon for mass next Sunday. Instead, when
you get into the pulpit you will find a sealed
envelope which I will have put there. Inside the
envelope there will be a single sheet of paper on
which I will have written a one word topic. I defy
you to find any kind of text that will fit.”

The young priest looked forward to the test with
relish. The day came. He ascended the stairs into
the pulpit. His boss was squirming with anticipation.
The young man opened the envelope, glanced at the
sheet of paper on which was written the one word,
“CONSTIPATION”, and proclaimed:
“And Moses took the two tablets and went off down
the mountain…..”
———————–
Comments are always welcome.

A crying shame

Sometimes while cruising the information highway
we come across an odd story. We feel the following
tale falls into that category.

Perusing some newsletters we came upon a headline
that stated ‘Baby Mauled By Ferrets While Mother in
Another Room’. Well that just begged a bunch of
questions.

Who lets ferrets run around a month old baby and
isn’t physically in the room while it happens? Why
did both parents leave the baby alone long enough
for something this horrendous to happen? And many
more.

After watching this video we had some answers.

There are five children in the house along with
the three ferrets, an unspecified number of cats,
and both parents. The child will need many
surgeries to correct the damage done by the
critters, police want to charge the parents,
and the children are in the custody of
relatives.

Now, after five children, it seems like a funny time
to step in and say the parents can’t take care of
their kids. Yes something terrible happened, but
who is to blame? The parents, the welfare system,
our politically correct society, or someone else?
It’s a crying shame.
Comments are always welcome.

Got distracted Friday

Did you know it is National Pie Day today? When I
first started this post I didn’t either, but with a
little luck found a pie to devour in honor of the
day.

According to the label there were 8 servings in
the pie but rather than waste time it was devoured
by yours truly in one sitting.

This weekend brings in the indoor car show to the
QCCA Expo Center here, and the Grand National
Roadster Show out west.

From our ‘Just Because He Can’ department comes
this video about a mechanic who built a drivable
upside down truck.

From our ‘Just plain strange’ department we offer
this really short video. It will take you longer to
read this than it will to watch the human
transformer.

Our ‘Have to see it to believe it’ department
donated this video that you have to, well…

The ‘crystal ball’ department thinks this video
fit the bill. We don’t know, but we like all
things with wheels and engines.

This video of an octet of dancers is included
because the wife shared it and I’m still trying to
figure it out.

Included because I thought it was cool is this
video which shows a different take on sculptures.
These things seem alive.

Finally, as we usually add a song, we have
something different here too. John Wayne telling
us the history of “Taps”.

And now that we’ve finished this, and a pie, we’re
heading to the kitchen to make some more coffee.
Comments are always welcome.

A very short biography

When we mentioned that Ron Pratte was going to
sell his car collection at the Scottsdale auction,
a lot of people had never heard of him. Since the
sale many want to know more about him.

Well, we don’t know much about the man but will
share what we have authenticated. He is a Viet Nam
vet who made his money in the construction industry.

Ron Pratte was founder and CEO of the Pratte
Development Company, Inc., a privately held
company in Arizona that manufactured structural
wood products and concrete foundations.

At the peak of the housing boom, and before the
bubble burst, he sold his company to Pulte Homes
and never looked back. We don’t know what he got
from the sale, but he is now worth an estimated
$350 million.

And here is another look at the collection he
liquidated.

Comments are always welcome.