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Sunday, October 25, 2009

Don't kiss this guy!

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Just in time for Halloween: Sean Murphy of Lansing, Michigan stuffed 16 Madagascar hissing cockroaches in his mouth, thereby breaking the Guinness world record. Of course, any cockroach will hiss given the right amount of butter, heat, and a good frying pan. Sadly, no one gave Sean a congratulatory slap on the back during this news-making event --- I for one, would have paid good money see Mr. Murphy set the record for accidentally swallowing the most cockroaches.

And so, here is the video... the 'roach clip if you will (sometime words and phrases come together so well that I need 'term insurance' in case someone gets over punned by emotions ....)

Sunday, October 18, 2009

SEMA 2009

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The scramble is on! In couple of weeks, the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas takes place. Every year, my company has a booth to show off our latest and greatest car and truck accessories. The sad part is watching our technicians work feverishly to do and undo change requests from the marketing department who doesn't have an idea of the amount of work it takes to meet their demands. This year we have even less technical staff than ever. But this doesn't stop our marketing gang from wanting to build the Giza pyramid in less than two weeks and without spending a penny.

As important as this show is, my company rarely sends a engineer along to scope out the latest technological offers. All we get are the complaints that we not doing enough to come up with new gadgets. And that's unfair. Just because the adult film awards are going on at the same time and in the same building, that doesn't mean we wouldn't come up, that is, derive new ideas. People just might end up enjoying our accessories and their drive a little more than they should.

Today I noticed

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Today I noticed that when you shorten an automobile, you get a "Smart car". But when you shorten a bus, it becomes "special" ...

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Blogging downturn?

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Over the past couple of years, I have not pursued the art of continually making my blogs popular to the Internet readership. Somehow, the demands of keeping my day job and caring for a couple of other families has pretty much erased 'free time' to pursue my desires. As a result, my blogs have slipped in readership. I suppose I could submit my sites to several of the free directory services that have popped up now. Or I could wait until that day when everything can take care of itself and I can get back to my own self interests. Some day perhaps ...

Friday, October 09, 2009

Medical Travel

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A few years ago, NPR did a series on the high cost of medical practices in America. One piece that caught my attention was on medical travel --- people traveling to another country, getting their surgery taken care of in a safe, sterile hospital and end up spending less money than what what they would have getting things done at home with their insurance deductibles. Several Asian countries are actually setting facilities to handle this influx of demand from Americans. AND they -- the doctors, the hospitals, the care givers --- are making profits. How they can do this with efficiencies that revival the DMV, with the costs and red-tape that best any Amereican government agency, and without the nanny-state regulations we have here?