shocauto.com Blog

…Comes this interesting story from China about controlling the weather:

Beijing said to have some success preventing rain  

By Nick Mulvenney

BEIJING (Reuters) – has successfully managed to stop light rainfall in experiments aimed at guaranteeing a dry opening ceremony at August’s Olympic Games, officials said on Wednesday.

With no roof on the showpiece Bird’s Nest stadium, the Beijing Meteorological Bureau has been charged with developing methods of preventing wet weather spoiling what promises to be a spectacular start to the Games on the evening of August 8.

On Monday here in the Twin Cities, we experienced a heat wave. It was in teh 40s with lots of melting snow. It was light jacket weather. It was wet. At midnight on Monday night it was still 36F, above freezing.

Then Tuesday came. By midnight on Tuesday, it was -13F with a blowing wind. Although it was not a record, in the 24 hours from midnight to midnight on Tuesday, the temperature dropped by 49F. It’s amazing how quickly the temperature can change like that. The amount of air that needs to move or change temperature to allow for this is truely incredible.

Of course, with a temperature change this drastic, comes a wind, and this morning with a temperature of -13F, we had a windchill factor of -37F. When it’s 40F, the windchill can almost be ignored, but a 30 MPH wind at -13F that wind becomes painful and dangerous.

It’s now sunny, and we might see 0F as a high today, but it’s still -8F. Perfect staying inside weather.

I recently received a link to this blog entry of a friend of a friend. It involves some fun with a large printer and airports. It is definitely one of the funniest pranks I’ve seen recently, and I congratulate Bill on his humor and bravery in pulling this off so successfully!

http://bbryson.com/bill/have-you-ever-printed-a-boarding-pass/

For other shenanigans like this, feel free to check out these sites:

http://www.cockeyed.com/

http://www.improveverywhere.com/

I tried to get a group together in the Twin Cities related to Improv Everywhere, but couldn’t find somebody to lead it or the time or energy to lead it myself. Oh Well, I’ll just have to enjoy the acts of others.

I love bread. There, I said it, and it needed to be said. A love like this should not be denied. There is almost no food tastier than fresh, warm, bread perhaps with a little melted butter. But bread by itself is something that tempts me on a daily basis. Jam or Jelly? No thanks. Honey? Nope, not for me. Peanut Butter? Yeah, maybe. Butter? For sure. Mmmmm, fresh bread, ARghghghh….

I love the trend in restuarants to offer fresh bread free with meals. I could just eat that and be perfectly content, although I don’t think too many restaurants would like me eating free bread and leaving… But I really do love bread. With normal large restaurant portions and free bread, eating out can be a little too glutonous at times.

Although I love almost all breads, I tend towards the breads that are soft on the inside and crunchy or hard on the outside. Like bagels and baguettes. I also love soft breads like croisants and donuts. Even bread in it’s simplest form, the biscuit, can be delicious and tempting. And toast, mmm, toast, particularly with butter or peanutbutter melted tastily on top. I just love bread.

But every relationship has it’s problems, and my love of bread seems to not be too good for me. My friends have seen it’s effect on me, although many of them may not know that bread is a significant part of the problem. My doctor tells me that carbohydrates are my enemy. I have a few more pounds than I should, and they manifest themselves in a way that point directly at carbs. Well, that and my lack of excercise. So I’m trying to lose weight now, and I do not want to give up my precious Arnold’s Healthnut bread or delicious garlic buttered biscuits. It’s an addiction, and like many addictions, I can see the problems, and I understand the source, but I refuse to relent. I refuse to quite this love of bread.

But it seems that there may be hope for my dear beloved bread and I. I am working on a program of excercise that may allow me to continue this relationship. Perhaps I can make it work after all. Maybe if I change, my precious bread will be able to stay with me. Lord knows bread won’t change, and if it did, I’m not sure if I would want to continue this anyways. So it all falls onto my shoulders.

You are a bad influence, but I cannot help but love you bread.

This week Tata, an automotive company in India, unveiled their car for the third world. It’s a modern looking car that will cost new about $2500. By comparison, the least expensive car in the US is four times as expensive, it’s the Chevrolet Aveo at just under $10000. Now the Aveo is much cleaner, safer and faster, so it’s not a fair comparison, but it will be interesting to see if any of the cost savings ideas that Tata introduced will end up in vehicles we can buy.

For mor info on the Tata see these articles:

Yahoo article 

New York Times Article