Points to Ponder

[green-horn]

Let me see if I have this right.



Ukraine buys almost all its energy (natural gas) from Russia. Revenues from natural gas sales are a primary source of income for Russia.

Because of the recent disagreement between Ukraine and Russia, Russia is raising the price of natural gas it sells to Ukraine.

Ukraine is almost broke and can't afford the increase in the natural gas price because it would be forced into bankruptcy.

Obama (the USA) just announced the United States is giving Ukraine $1 billion to assist in paying for the higher priced natural gas it buys from Russia.

So, the United States is actually giving Russia $1 billion because the money is just passing through Ukraine.

The first question: Has Putin figured out a way to raise the price of his natural gas sales and make the U.S. pay for the increase?

Next question: Was he really in the KGB or was he a commodities trader?

If this analysis is accurate, Putin just got Obama (the USA) to pay him $1 billion by holding a press conference and trucking some troops across town from the Russian Navy base in Ukraine.

Who is the smartest guy in the room now?
WELL DAMN!

 

[green-horn]

Quebecois vote for leaving Canada,

.....If Quebec should decide to hold a referendum and the Quebecois vote for leaving Canada, the fun starts.
1. Aboriginals will refuse to give up their traditional territory.
2. The St. Lawrence Seaway is jointly owned by Canada and the United States; Quebec has no claim to the lands set aside for the Seaway.
3. Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence and may not be part of a new Quebec.
4. All federal facilities (and English speaking employees) in Quebec would have to relocate.
5. Air Canada could not continue maintenance operations in a foreign nation.
6. The Port of Montreal would wither as Canadian companies would have to find a Canadian location for imports and exports.
7. Airlines would cease landing in Quebec until they could negotiate landing rights with the new nation.
8. The Canada Space Agency could move from Saint-Hubert to Calgary.
9. Federally licensed financial institutions (all banks, for example) could no longer operate in Quebec.
10. Bilingual courts and a bilingual federal civil service would be history.
11. The Official Languages Act would be history.
12. Thousands of translators we pay for would out of work.
13. We would have 78 fewer Members of Parliament to pay for.
14. We would have 24 fewer Senators to pay for.
15. The NDP would lose 57 seats including Mulcair’s;
16. The Liberal would lose 8 seats including Trudeau’s.
17. The Conservative party’s majority would increase from 52% to 67%.
18. We would save about $20 billion annually in federal transfer payments - which could be used to pay down the federal debt.
19. We could save another $543 million in funds currently earmarked for bridges over the St. Lawrence and in and out of Montreal.
20. We would no longer support Bombardier.
21. All military aircraft work contracted by Canada would have to leave Quebec.
22. Goodbye to the CBC French language networks.
I can't think of any good reasons not to cheer them on.

 

[green-horn]

Finally a plausible explanation! Great bedtime story no doubt. A movie version is most befitting don't you think? All the main players are featured - Navy Seals, Israeli agents, Talibans & the Chinese!

Folks, this is the best conspiracy theory yet - like a thriller that even the authors/Hollywood screenwriters can't imagine...

The story goes like this:
While the Americans are withdrawing from Afghanistan, one of their command and control system (used for controlling the pilotless drones) was hijacked by the Talibans when the American transport convoy was moving down from one of the hill top bases. The Talibans ambushed the convoy and killed 2 American Seal personnel, seized the equipment/weapons, including the command and control system which weighed about 20 tons and packed into 6 crates. This happened about a month ago in Feb 2014.

What the Talibans want is money. They want to sell the system to the Russians or the Chinese. The Russians are too busy in Ukraine. The Chinese are hungry for the system's technology. Just imagine if the Chinese master the technology behind the command and control system, all the American drones will become useless. So the Chinese sent 8 top defence scientists to check the system and agreed to pay millions for it.

Sometime in early Mar 2014, the 8 scientists and the 6 crates made their way to Malaysia, thinking that it was the best covert way to avoid detection. The cargo was then kept in the Embassy under diplomatic protection. Meanwhile the Americans have engaged the assistance of Israeli intelligence, and together they are determined to intercept and recapture the cargo.

The Chinese calculated that it will be safe to transport it via civilian aircraft so as to avoid suspicion. After all, the direct flight from KL to Beijing takes only 4 and half hours, and the American will not hijack or harm the civilians. So MH370 is the perfect carrier.

There are 5 Americans and 2 Israeli agents on board who are familiar with Boeing operation. The 2 "Iranians" with stolen passports are the two Israeli agents.


When MH370 is about to leave the Malaysian air space and reporting to Vietnamese air control, one American AWAC jammed their signal, disabled the pilot control system and switched over to remote control mode. That was when the plane suddenly lost altitude momentarily.

How the AWAC can do it ? Remember 911 incident ? After the 911 incident, all Boeing aircraft (and possibly all Airbus) are installed with remote control system to counter terrorist hijacking. Since then all the Boeing could be remote controlled by ground control tower. The same remote control system used to control the pilotless spy aircraft and drones.
The American/Israeli agents soon took over the plane, switched off the transponder and other communication system, changed course and flew westwards. They dare not fly east to Philippines or Guam because the whole South China Sea air space was covered by Chinese surveillance radar and satellite.

The Malaysian, Thai and Indian military radars actually detected the unidentified aircraft but as usual, did not react professionally.

The plane flew over North Sumatra, Anambas, South India and then landed at Maldives (some villagers saw the aircraft landing), refuelled and continued its flight to Garcia Diego, the American Air Base in the middle of Indian Ocean. The cargo and the black box were removed. The passengers were silenced via natural means, lack of oxygen. They believe only dead people will not talk. The MH370 with dead passengers were air borne again via remote control and crashed into South Indian Ocean, make it to believe that the plane eventually ran out of fuel and crashed, and blame the defiant captain and co-pilot.

The Americans have put up a good show. First diverting all the attention and search effort in the South China Sea while the plane made their way to Indian Ocean. Then they came out with some conflicting statement and evidence to confuse the world. The Australians are the co-actor.

The amount of effort put up by China, in terms of the number of search aircraft, ships and satellites, searching first the South China Sea, then the Malacca Straits and the Indian Ocean is unprecedented. This showed that China is very concerned, not so much of the many Chinese civilian passengers, but mainly the high value cargo and its 8 top defense scientists.


Don't believe the story? I don't expect you to but let's wait and see how the episode unveils itself. Or perhaps it will never be known until the next Snowden emerges.

 

[adamg]

Shh, stop posting reasons they would be hurting themselves if they left. We want them to leave, so only do and say things that encourage it.

Quebecois vote for leaving Canada,

.....If Quebec should decide to hold a referendum and the Quebecois vote for leaving Canada, the fun starts.
1. Aboriginals will refuse to give up their traditional territory.
2. The St. Lawrence Seaway is jointly owned by Canada and the United States; Quebec has no claim to the lands set aside for the Seaway.
3. Montreal is an island in the St. Lawrence and may not be part of a new Quebec.
4. All federal facilities (and English speaking employees) in Quebec would have to relocate.
5. Air Canada could not continue maintenance operations in a foreign nation.
6. The Port of Montreal would wither as Canadian companies would have to find a Canadian location for imports and exports.
7. Airlines would cease landing in Quebec until they could negotiate landing rights with the new nation.
8. The Canada Space Agency could move from Saint-Hubert to Calgary.
9. Federally licensed financial institutions (all banks, for example) could no longer operate in Quebec.
10. Bilingual courts and a bilingual federal civil service would be history.
11. The Official Languages Act would be history.
12. Thousands of translators we pay for would out of work.
13. We would have 78 fewer Members of Parliament to pay for.
14. We would have 24 fewer Senators to pay for.
15. The NDP would lose 57 seats including Mulcair’s;
16. The Liberal would lose 8 seats including Trudeau’s.
17. The Conservative party’s majority would increase from 52% to 67%.
18. We would save about $20 billion annually in federal transfer payments - which could be used to pay down the federal debt.
19. We could save another $543 million in funds currently earmarked for bridges over the St. Lawrence and in and out of Montreal.
20. We would no longer support Bombardier.
21. All military aircraft work contracted by Canada would have to leave Quebec.
22. Goodbye to the CBC French language networks.
I can't think of any good reasons not to cheer them on.

 

[pano-dude]

why would you want Quebec to leave..... the province and the people are very unique, they have maple syrup and the best stripper bars anywhere!

Shh, stop posting reasons they would be hurting themselves if they left. We want them to leave, so only do and say things that encourage it.

 

[green-horn]

No matter
how big your house is,
how flashy your car is, or
how expensive your clothes are,
our graves are still going to be the same size.

 

[green-horn]

No matter how much you think you hate school, you will always miss it when you leave.

 

[green-horn]

People never understand what you do for them ...... Until you stop doing it!

 

[Clode]

Why does your finger fit in your nose, if your nose isn't for picking

 

[green-horn]

1947 & 1948

The year was 1947. Some of you will recall that on July 8, 1947,
a little more than 66 years ago, numerous witnesses claim that an
Unidentified Flying Object, (UFO), with five aliens aboard, crashed
onto a sheep and mule ranch just outside Roswell , New Mexico ....

This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered-up
by the U.S. Air Force, as well as other Federal Agencies and Organizations

However, what you may NOT know is that in the month of April, year 1948,
nine months after the historic day, the following people were born:

Barrack Obama Sr.
Albert A. Gore, Jr.
Hillary Rodham
William J. Clinton
John F. Kerry
Howard Dean
Nancy Pelosi
Dianne Feinstein
Charles E. Schumer
Barbara Boxer
Joe Biden

This is the obvious consequence of aliens breeding with sheep and
jack-asses.

I truly hope this bit of information clears up a lot of things for you. It
certainly did for me.

And now you can stop wondering why they support the bill to help all Illegal
Aliens.

 

[green-horn]

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
~Oscar Am ringer, "the Mark Twain of American Socialism."

I offered my opponents a deal: "If they stop telling lies about me,I will stop telling the truth about them".
~Adlai Stevenson, campaign speech, 1952..

A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.
~Texas Guinan. 19th century American businessman


I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
~Charles de Gaulle, French general & politician

Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city,
it might be better to change the locks.
~Doug Larson (English middle-distance runner who won gold medals at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris, 1902-1981)

We hang petty thieves and appoint the bigger thieves to public office.
~Aesop, Greek slave & fable author

Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.
~Plato, ancient Greek Philosopher

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
~Nikita Khrushchev, Russian Soviet politician

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become PM; I'm beginning to believe it.
~Quoted in 'Clarence Darrow for the Defense' by Irving Stone.

Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.
~John Quinton, American actor/writer


What happens if a politician drowns in a river?
That is pollution.

What happens if all of them drown?

That is a solution ....!!!

 

[moyiesledhead]

why would you want Quebec to leave..... the province and the people are very unique, they have maple syrup and the best stripper bars anywhere!

But we could save all that money and just import the maple syrup. The strippers too....but they'd become temporary foreign workers, get paid more, and local strippers would get their hours cut!

 

[green-horn]

Bet you didn't know this.

HISTORY OF



THE CAR RADIO



Seems like cars have always had radios,



but they didn't.





Here's the story:

One evening, in 1929,



two young men named



William Lear and Elmer Wavering
drove their girlfriends to a lookout point high above the



Mississippi River town of Quincy, Illinois, to watch the sunset.








It was a romantic night to be sure,



but one of the women observed that
it would be even nicer if they could listen to music in the car.



Lear and Wavering liked the idea. Both men had tinkered with radios (Lear served as a radio operator in



the U.S. Navy during World War I)



and it wasn't long before they were
taking apart a home radio and



trying to get it to work in a car.








But it wasn't easy: automobiles have ignition switches, generators, spark plugs, and other electrical



equipment that generate noisy static interference, making it nearly impossible to listen to the radio when the engine was running.








One by one, Lear and Wavering identified and eliminated each source of electrical interference. When they finally got their radio to work, they took it to a radio convention



in Chicago.








There they met Paul Galvin, owner of
Galvin Manufacturing Corporation.



He made a product called a



"battery eliminator", a device that allowed battery-powered radios to



run on household AC current.








But as more homes were wired for electricity, more radio manufacturers made AC-powered radios.








Galvin needed a new product to manufacture. When he met Lear and Wavering at the radio convention,



he found it. He believed that
mass-produced, affordable car



radios had the potential to become



a huge business.

Lear and Wavering set up shop in Galvin's factory, and when they perfected their first radio, they installed it in his Studebaker.








Then Galvin went to a local banker



to apply for a loan. Thinking it



might sweeten the deal,



he had his men install a radio in



the banker's Packard.








Good idea, but it didn't work.



Half an hour after the installation,



the banker's Packard caught on fire. (They didn't get the loan.)








Galvin didn't give up.



He drove his Studebaker nearly



800 miles to Atlantic City to show



off the radio at the



1930 Radio Manufacturers



Association convention.








Too broke to afford a booth, he parked the car outside the convention hall and cranked up the radio so that passing conventioneers could hear it.



That idea worked -- He got enough orders to put the radio into production.




WHAT'S IN A NAME



That first production model was



called the 5T71.








Galvin decided he needed to come up with something a little catchier.



In those days many companies in the phonograph and radio businesses used the suffix "ola" for their names - Radiola, Columbiola, and Victrola



were three of the biggest.








Galvin decided to do the same thing, and since his radio was intended for use in a motor vehicle, he decided to call it the Motorola.








But even with the name change,



the radio still had problems:



When Motorola went on sale in 1930, it cost about $110 uninstalled, at a time when you could buy a brand-new car for $650, and the country was sliding into the Great Depression.



(By that measure, a radio for a new car would cost about $3,000 today.)








In 1930, it took two men several days



to put in a car radio --



The dashboard had to be taken



apart so that the receiver and a



single speaker could be installed,



and the ceiling had to be cut open



to install the antenna.








These early radios ran on their own batteries, not on the car battery,



so holes had to be cut into the floorboard to accommodate them.








The installation manual had eight complete diagrams and 28 pages of instructions. Selling complicated car radios that cost 20 percent of the



price of a brand-new car wouldn't



have been easy in the best of
times, let alone during the Great Depression.




Galvin lost money in 1930 and struggled for a couple of years after that.
But things picked up in 1933 when Ford began offering Motorola's pre-installed at the factory.








In 1934 they got another boost when
Galvin struck a deal with



B.F. Goodrich tire company
to sell and install them in its chain



of tire stores.








By then the price of the radio, with installation included, had dropped to $55. The Motorola car radio was off and running.



(The name of the company would be officially changed from



Galvin Manufacturing to



"Motorola" in 1947.)








In the meantime, Galvin continued to develop new uses for car radios.



In 1936, the same year that it introduced push-button tuning,



it also introduced the Motorola Police Cruiser, a standard car radio that was factory preset to a single frequency to pick up police broadcasts.








In 1940 he developed the first



handheld two-way radio



-- The Handy-Talkie --



for the U. S. Army.

A lot of the communications
technologies that we take for granted today were born in Motorola labs in the years that followed World War II.








In 1947 they came out with the first television for under $200.








In 1956 the company introduced the world's first pager; in 1969 came the radio and television equipment that was used to televise Neil Armstrong's first steps on the Moon.








In 1973 it invented the world's first handheld cellular phone.








Today Motorola is one of the largest cell phone manufacturers in the world.








And it all started with the car radio.




WHATEVER HAPPENED TO



the two men who installed the first radio in Paul Galvin's car?








Elmer Wavering and William Lear, ended up taking very different paths in life.








Wavering stayed with Motorola.



In the 1950's he helped change the automobile experience again when



he developed the first automotive
alternator, replacing inefficient and unreliable generators. The invention lead to such luxuries as power windows, power seats, and, eventually, air-conditioning.

Lear also continued inventing.



He holds more than 150 patents. Remember eight-track tape players? Lear invented that.








But what he's really famous for are



his contributions to the field of aviation. He invented radio direction finders for planes, aided in the invention of the autopilot,



designed the first fully automatic
aircraft landing system,



and in 1963 introduced his
most famous invention of all,



the Lear Jet,



the world's first mass-produced, affordable business jet.



(Not bad for a guy who dropped out of school after the eighth grade.)







Sometimes it is fun to find out how some of the



many things that we take for granted actually



came into being!








AND








It all started with a woman's suggestion!!

 

[adamg]

Motorola is dead!