Backgrounders
So, has everyone (or anyone) read the Backgrounders under Clean Power? They have a nice little section on the basic history, setting, whatever and then a very simplistic explanation of how the technology works with nicely simplified science. I quite liked them and highly recommend them. The author is extremely, um, excited by the workings of clean power.
The Hurricane Season That Just Wont Stop
Say hello to Delta and Epsilon. Woot. What is going to happen when the hurricane season doesn’t end? What is going to happen when a major hurricane hits American soil every three months. Will we have to abandon the coast? With tornados well into November, and the super strong hurricane season, we can only conclude that something is up. I would say this and many other things show rapidly increasing signs of global warming. How long will it take before people start to ride their bike, and take the train. How long will it be before we get our act together and outlaw SUV’s. Will rich people have to have their beach front houses swept away? Will D.C. have to be hit with a CAT 5 hurricane? I am just wondering just how bad it has to be before people pull their head out of their ass and wake up!
The Republicans Make This Too Easy
I don’t want to keep picking on the republicans, really. It makes me sad when the government of this country has its head in its ass. But GOD DAMN IT! they just keep fucking up. The latest little fun fact. Randy “Duke” Cunningham pleads guilty to being a lying cheating bastard.
Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham resigned his office today after pleading guilty to fraud, conspiracy to commit bribery and tax evasion in a political corruption case. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns accepted the pleas from Cunningham, 63, including the congressman’s admission in federal court that he had accepted bribes in exchange for performance of his official duties. “I misled my friends, family and myself. The truth is, I broke the law and disgraced my office and myself,” Cunningham said after his plea, breaking into tears at a news conference
Cunningham admitted to receiving at least $2.4 million in bribes — checks for over $1 million, cash, rugs, antiques, furniture, yacht club fees and vacations, according to prosecutors. He agreed to return $1.8 million.
read more here
read the plea agreement here (pdf)
Hunting Civilians In Iraq
A sick as it sounds military contractors may have been “hunting” Iraq civilians. A video of them randomly shooting Iraqi civilians was posted on the internet. Sick, just sick. Read more here.
The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on “route Irish”, a road that links the airport to Baghdad.
Download This Video (wmv)
Simply fucked up.
Our Friend The Banana
Here is some great facts about our friend the banana.
Banana, Pisang.
Musa acuminata Colla; Musa balbisiana Colla; Musa x paradisiaca L.
Family of Musaceae.
Description & storage
Long thick-skinned edible fruit that is yellow when ripe.
Keep bananas on a fruit dish in the living room at room temperature. If you want the bananas to ripen faster place the bowl in the sun. Like other tropical fruits and tomatoes and bell peppers, never store bananas in the refrigerator. Below 8 degrees Celsius the fruit will decay from the inside. These fruits will not ripen but will turn black in the refrigerator.
Plant
Banana-plants can grow up to 15 m. but most plants vary from 3 to 9 m.
It has very big leafs that can grow to 4 x 1 m.
Short history
Wild forms of the banana plant come originally from the Indo-Malaysian area and are now cultivated all over the tropical and sub-tropical continents.
Use
Bananas are delicious eaten with one’s fingers after peeling off the skin. Depending on the type of banana unripe bananas are also cooked, fried or deep-fried a lot. Bananas are the basic food in many tropical countries.
Types
At this moment there are five different types of bananas common on the market:
Red bananas: have a green/red peel and pink fruit flesh. They taste the same like yellow bananas. The redder a fruit, the more carotene it contains, so maybe they are healthier than their yellow colleagues;
Fruit-bananas: are the normal, yellow bananas, 15-30 cm.
Apple-bananas: are smaller, 8-10 cm., and ripen faster. They are also yellow;
The baby-banana (pisang susa): is yellow as well and measures 6-8 cm. It is the sweetest of the banana family;
Baking bananas: are 30 to 40 cm. large and are green, yellow or red-like. They cannot be eaten raw. They fulfill the role of the potato in the tropical countries.
Peculiar characteristics
Is the most well known and eaten (tropical) fruit;
In Eastern Africa you can buy banana beer. This beer is brewed from bananas;
Tropical fruit is usually picked unripe and has to ripen in the land of arrival. To make this process go faster bananas are treated with ethylene-gas. Normal bananas also ripen through ethylene -gas but exposing it to additional gas accelerates the process;
Is the (only) fruit that for some people can work fatting because they contain a lot of starch (more starch than sugar). Those people shouldn’t eat too many bananas a day;
Eat at least one banana a day, they are said to contain everything a human needs and they contain all the 8 amino-acids our body cannot produce itself. For more see the energy in fruit.
Bananas are a good source of fiber, potassium and vitamin C;
Red bananas are often dried and converted to meal which is used in many ways;
Red bananas contain more vitamin C as yellow bananas (the redder a fruit, the more nutritious elements it contains);
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