What's with all the airplanes crashing?

In the past four weeks, my count of plane crashes has totaled around ten, if not more. I was discussing this with my roommates the other day, and lo and behold, today on the BBC I read about yet another plane crash.
But you have to think, how many planes haven't crashed?
And what are the odds?
Is it because the planes are faulty, or is it just that the number of flights have increased dramatically, so that according to the odd, this is "normal?"
Makes me slightly nervous since I'm scheduled for 8 flights withing the next two months.....

Items from my Closet...

All this stuff is for sale, with prices listed next to the items. Shipping is 5.00 flat rate [some will be more, but whatever] and I accept paypal. Interested? Email me at karilangslet@gmail.com, myspace, or facebook. All proceeds go into my bank account so I can eat in Europe! Prices are listed under, feel free to ask questions/negotiate. I have a couple other things that I didn't get around to photoging, TBA


Vintage Leather Biker Jacket: $35

Green stretch cord blazer: $ 5.00
Holden Jacket, small, $75

Multi-colored hoodie $10


"Bowling" Beaded Jacket: $5

Vintage Hand Loomed Irish Sweater, XS/S: $10

Fab 80's stretch sweater: $7.00

Squishy soft Vintage colorful V-neck Sweater: $10
Volcom Jacket Sm: $15

Vintage silky Button Detail Tunic: $15


Matix and Billabong boardies, size 5: $5

Polkadot button up Blouse, medium: $5

H&M Windbreaker, ~med:$10

Vintage N. Marcus cropped teal 80's blazer LARGE $6

The snow falls again...

It looks so peaceful outside.
These are just about the daintiest snowflakes I have ever seen.
It's simply beeeeeeeautiful!
Today, however, I'm ditching the snow to eat crepes in Davis and go to a show in Sac.
When was the last time you had amazing crepes? If your answer is "not for awhile" or "never," head to Crepeville [yes, Crepeville] in Davis and indulge.
I used to work there back in the day, and have been craving their delicious crepes ever since.
Tonight, if you care to join, Portugal the Man is playing. Besides that, the band opening for them includes the lovely Mr. Barnes, who it will be a pleasure to see.

-BESIDES ALL THAT-

I am cleaning out my closet and selling vintage items, a wetsuit and lens that I put on eBay, new sunglasses, and other random items, so if you're interested, keep posted for pictures. I will ship.

AND LASTLY,

My roommates in Huntington still owe me about $600, and it has been almost six months. I was going to take them to small claims court in January, had a lawyer and everything, but they said they were moving out for February so I decided to ditch all that and give them the benefit of the doubt.
It is now February 26th, and I have no money. So, what do you think? Should I take them to small claims court or wait even longer?
Your feedback would be appreciated.

PS I miss Will Keegan in my life!!!

Good job Obama!

Tax cuts by April? Yeah! Too bad I won't be in the country to enjoy that quite yet.
Amazing. Only in office for a couple months, and already he has things rockin' and rollin'.
Danielle agrees.
Yes.
She does.
Oh yeah, go Dew Tour.
Give me more chapstick.

Obama hails 'fastest' US tax cut

Obama called the stimulus plan the most sweeping in US history

President Barack Obama has said US tax bills will begin to fall from April, hailing a tax cut he called the fastest ever to take effect.

In his weekly radio and internet address, President Obama said the typical American family would gain by at least $65 (£46) a month.

He also pledged to cut America's trillion-dollar deficit.

The tax cuts announced on Saturday are part of a $787bn stimulus plan approved by Congress earlier this week.

The stimulus plan, aimed at reviving the US economy amid a global economic crisis, is split into 36% for tax cuts and 64% percent allocated for spending on social programmes.

Mr Obama said the US treasury had already begun directing employers to reduce the amount of taxes claimed from pay cheques.

The savings will reach 95% of American families, he said.

"Never before in our history has a tax cut taken effect faster or gone to so many hardworking Americans," the president said.

Challenges ahead

Mr Obama said work must now start on trying to stabilise the banking system, stem the fall in house prices and get budget deficits under control.

We can't borrow and spend our way back to prosperity Republican Dave Camp Obama diary: The first 100 days US Senate approves stimulus plan

He announced that he would call a fiscal summit on Monday to discuss the deficit.

Mr Obama said he would then address the nation about his priorities on Tuesday before issuing a budget on Thursday.

"I'll release a budget that's sober in its assessments, honest in its accounting, and lays out in detail my strategy for investing in what we need, cutting what we don't, and restoring fiscal discipline," he said.

However, he also warned of the challenges ahead.

"As important as it was that I was able to sign this plan into law, it is only a first step on the road to economic recovery.

"None of this will be easy. The road ahead will be long and full of hazards," he added.

"But I am confident that we, as a people, have the strength and wisdom to carry out this strategy and overcome this crisis."

The stimulus plan approved this week aims to save or create 3.5 million jobs, boost consumer spending and rebuild infrastructure.

Over the past week, Mr Obama has also announced measures to assist families facing foreclosures, and those struggling to meet mortgage payments.

But Republicans, only three of whom voted for the stimulus package in Congress despite calls by Mr Obama for bipartisan support, have said the new tax cuts are insufficient.

They have also complained that the president's spending plans will leave the US economy saddled with debt for years to come.

"We can't borrow and spend our way back to prosperity," Republican Dave Camp said in his party's weekly address.

"If he [Mr Obama] is serious about dealing with the tough issues and getting spending under control, his budget will show it."

Blah Blah Blah dew tour BLAH

Everyone is out and about, in town and up to SHENANIGANS.
And what am I doing?
Sitiing on the couch, feverish, watching crappy movies and wiping my nose.
HOWEVER,
I would rather stay at home tonight than partake in the after dew festivities on the off chance that tomorrow my fever will be gone and I can work, go to my Mom's birthday party, and after go to the Toyota/Antics party!
Should be tons of fun.
Jaclyn's in town, so you know what that means.
[You know you're trouble, Jax!]
Besides that, I'm getting more and more amped about my adventures that are less than four weeks away! That also means I need to give away my wardrobe.
Any takers?

When was the last time you ate PEAS?

Seriously.
When was the last time you had a home cooked meal, and one of the sides was peas?
Did peas go out with the early 90's, or even 60's?
WHERE ARE ALL THE PEAS?!!!!
I say we bring them back, full force.
Delicious and nutritious.
Peas anyone?

What to do?

I'm leaving to Europe earlier.
I'm excited. Tomorrow I'm going to change my ticket, probably to just after my birffffday.
So, where do I go?
Barcelona? Rome? Snow shralping in Austria?
I have noooooo idea.
So good.
soooooooo good!
help? Thanks!

PS. working a lot this week, but i'll still make time to hang out with all of you that are coming into town for the Dew Tour!!!! I'll be working at the mountain Demo Shop on Saturday, so if you're there spectating, drop in and say hello!!!

AHAHAHAHAHA idiots!

Out of all the places in the ocean to be....
AHAHAHAHA

Nuclear subs collide in Atlantic

HMS Vanguard is now back at its home base at Faslane on the Clyde

A Royal Navy nuclear submarine was involved in a collision with a French nuclear sub in the middle of the Atlantic, the MoD has confirmed.

HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant were badly damaged in the crash in heavy seas earlier this month.

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band said the submarines came into contact at low speed and no injuries were reported.

Both the UK and France insisted nuclear security had not been compromised.

Factfile: HMS Vanguard and Le Triomphant

BBC defence correspondent Caroline Wyatt said the incident was "incredibly embarrassing" for the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

She said HMS Vanguard, with "very visible dents and scrapes", was towed back to its home base at Faslane on the Firth of Clyde.

First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Jonathon Band confirms the collision took place

The submarines are equipped with sonar to detect other vessels nearby but our correspondent said it be might the case that the anti-sonar devices, meant to hide the submarines from enemies, were "too effective".

"This is clearly a one-in-a-million chance when you think about how big the Atlantic is," she said.

The two submarines are key parts of each nation's nuclear deterrent, and would have been carrying missiles, though both the UK and France have insisted there was no danger of a nuclear incident.

They were carrying around 240 sailors between them. A French naval spokesman said the collision did not result in any injuries to the crew.

Le Triomphant is based at L'Ile Longue near Brest, north-west France. HMS Vanguard arrived back in Faslane on Saturday.

On 6 February, France's defence ministry had said that Le Triomphant "collided with an immersed object (probably a container)" when coming back from patrolling, and that the vessel's sonar dome was damaged.

But in a subsequent statement, it admitted that the collision between the two submarines took place.

"They briefly came into contact at a very low speed while submerged," the statement added.

'Large ocean'

Retired Commodore Stephen Saunders, editor of Jane's Fighting Ships, said the cause of the collision appeared to be procedural rather than technical.

"These submarines should not have been in the same place at the same time," he added.

If there were ever to be a bang it would be a mighty big one Nick Harvey Lib Dem shadow defence spokesman

Nuclear engineer John Large told the BBC that navies often used the same "nesting grounds".

"Both navies want quiet areas, deep areas, roughly the same distance from their home ports. So you find these station grounds have got quite a few submarines, not only French and Royal Navy but also from Russia and the United States."

In 1992, the US nuclear submarine USS Baton Rouge was struck by a surfacing Russian nuclear sub in the Barents Sea.

When the nuclear submarine HMS Trafalgar ran aground during a training exercise off the coast of Skye in 2002, the damage was estimated at £5m ($7m).

HMS Vanguard completed a two-year refit completed in 2007 as part of a £5bn contract, and is not due to be replaced until 2024.

Politicians have demanded more information on the latest incident.

Lib Dem defence spokesman Nick Harvey has called for an immediate internal inquiry with some of the conclusions made public.

"While the British nuclear fleet has a good safety record, if there were ever to be a bang it would be a mighty big one," he said.

"Now that this incident is public knowledge, the people of Britain, France and the rest of the world need to be reassured this can never happen again and that lessons are being learned."

Meanwhile, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson has called for a government statement.

"The Ministry of Defence needs to explain how it is possible for a submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction to collide with another submarine carrying weapons of mass destruction in the middle of the world's second-largest ocean," he said.

The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament described the collision as "a nuclear nightmare of the highest order".

CND chair Kate Hudson said: "The collision of two submarines, both with nuclear reactors and nuclear weapons onboard, could have released vast amounts of radiation and scattered scores of nuclear warheads across the seabed."

HMS VANGUARD Launched in 1992 One of four British submarines carrying Trident nuclear missiles Displacement (submerged) 16,000 tonnes, 150m (492ft) long Can carry 48 nuclear warheads on a maximum of 16 missiles Full crew is 145, including 14 officers Submerged speed of 25 knots

LE TRIOMPHANT Launched in 1994 One of four French ballistic missile nuclear-powered subs Displacement (submerged) 14,000 tonnes, 138m (452ft) long Can carry 16 ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads Full crew is 110, including 15 officers Submerged speed over 25 knots

it is POOPING

outside.
Really.
CRAZY.

Thinking...

Even though Tahoe finally is getting some amazing powder [that's getting waste don the tourists of President's week], I am biting my nails in anticipation of travel.
I want to take photos.
I want to eat a doner kebab by the MACBA in Barcelona.
I want to stare at a pile of Roman concrete and rubble.
SO, I am thinking; leave Tahoe early and kick it in Barcelona for a few weeks?
-OR-
snowshredding in Austria? Or Scandanavia?
Your thoughts, please.

GNARLY whales

Oh, my beautiful unicorns of the sea...

'Arctic unicorns' in icy display

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News

Advertisement

'Arctic unicorns' in icy display

Remarkable footage of elusive narwhal has been captured.

A BBC team used aerial cameras to film the creatures during their epic summer migration, as they navigated through cracks in the melting Arctic sea ice.

They believe the footage, which forms part of the BBC Natural History Unit's new series Nature's Great Events, is the first of its kind.

Narwhal are sometimes called "Arctic unicorns" because of the long, spiral tusk that protrudes from their jaws.

The appendages can reach more than 2m (7ft) in length; scientists believe males use them to attract potential mates.

'An amazing sight'

The BBC crew headed to the Arctic in June 2008, to film the tusked animals' summer migration.

At this time of year, temperatures begin to rise above freezing and the thick sea ice starts to melt, creating a complex network of cracks that cover the white expanse.

These animals are just so completely unreal - they are like something from mythology Justin Anderson, BBC producer

Every year, thousands of narwhal use these narrow fissures to travel thousands of kilometres, from the south of Baffin Bay to the high Arctic fjords.

But tracking these animals down is not easy.

Justin Anderson, who produced the programme, said: "Even though they are quite large animals, the area we had to cover was enormous - the size of Scotland.

"It is like finding a needle in a haystack."

A "dive" crew, equipped with underwater cameras, spent four weeks on the ice trying to locate the mysterious whales. But just as they caught a glimpse of them, the sea ice had become so dangerously thin that filming was forced to halt.

However, an "aerial" team arrived by helicopter to take up the mantle.

Mr Anderson explained: "It took us seven days to travel to the place where the whales had been spotted [Lancaster Sound] - we were stuck by possibly the worse thing you can encounter in a helicopter in the Arctic - fog.

They are following the retreat of the sea ice as they have done for thousands of years Mads Pieter Heide-Jorgensen

"But then we got there, we 'lucked out'; the skies cleared and we had eight days of 24-hour summer sunshine."

Using a special mount, cameraman Simon Werry filmed the creatures from the helicopter, as the narwhal swam through the melt-water leads.

Mr Anderson said: "This is the first time the narwhal migration has been filmed this way. It has been filmed from the ice, but this is the first time it has been filmed from the air.

"It was an amazing sight. These animals are just so completely unreal - they are like something from mythology - and we were all just completely gobsmacked when we saw them."

Thanks to their elusive nature, narwhal can prove difficult to study and there is still much to learn about these Arctic mammals.

Mads Pieter Heide-Jorgensen, from the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, said the purpose of the creatures' summer migration remained a mystery.

He explained: "The interesting thing is that these creatures feed in the deep water in the central part of Baffin Bay during the winter.

"But when they are in the summer grounds, they hardly feed at all.

"They are following the retreat of the sea ice as they have done for thousands of years, and spending summer in front of glaciers for reasons we do not really understand."

With such a connection to the Arctic ice, researchers are trying to establish whether narwhal will be affected by changes in the Arctic ice cover.

Professor Heide-Jorgensen has been using satellite tags, which, as well as keeping track of the whereabouts of narwhal, are also able to monitor the temperature of the waters where the whales swim.

He said: "They give us the temperature profiles in the wintering grounds and we can see the temperature of the deep areas has been increasing over the past 50 years.

"However, we cannot yet see any direct effects of climate change on the narwhal."

Nature's Great Events: The Great Melt is on Wednesday 11 February on BBC One at 2100 GMT

Truse Perserverance!

Strange News Man Runs 7 Marathons in 5 Days By LiveScience Staff posted: 05 February 2009 10:17 pm ET Buzz up! del.icio.us Digg It! Newsvine reddit 6 Comments | 3 Recommend Richard Donovan, a 42-year-old from Ireland, is as close to being the real Forrest Gump as anyone. Running to raise money for a charity called Goal, which works to ease suffering in Darfur, Donovan ran seven marathons on seven continents. If you know your continents, you know that's a challenge. More: He did it in 5 days. The order of Donovan's insanity, which began Jan. 31: Antarctica Cape Town, South Africa Dubai London Toronto Santiago, Chile Sydney, Australia "What he did was staggering, quite remarkable," John O'Shea, the charity's founder and chief executive, told the news agency AFP. To prove he's human, Donovan took airline flights between destinations. To keep it real, he flew coach.

Good Job Sierra Nevada!

Environment

Drink Beer, Make Fuel

By Jennifer Berry, Earth911

posted: 06 February 2009 01:24 pm ET

Buzz up!

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10 Comments | 0 Recommend

A brewing company in Chico, Calif. is adapting a new system at its brewery that will make its own high-quality ethanol fuel from discarded beer yeast.

The Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., working with the E-Fuel Corporation, will start testing the system in the second quarter of this year, and hopes to move to full-scale ethanol production in third quarter.

"This has the potential to be a great thing for the environment and further our commitment to be becoming more energy independent," said Ken Grossman, founder and president, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Currently, Sierra Nevada resells almost 1.6 million gallons of unusable "bottom of the barrel" beer yeast waste to local farmers to be used as dairy feed. The waste contains 5 to 8 percent alcohol content, including enough yeast and nutrients to enable the ethanol system, the MicroFueler, to raise that level to 15 percent alcohol, allowing for an increased ethanol yield.

"Creating ethanol from discarded organic waste is an excellent example of how the MicroFueler can help eliminate our reliance on the oil industry infrastructure. This is especially true when considering Americans reportedly discard 50 percent of all agricultural farmed products," said Tom Quinn, E-Fuel founder and CEO. "Using a waste product to fuel your car is friendlier to the environment and lighter on your wallet, easily beating prices at the gas pump."

The Technology:

The EFuel100 MicroFueler is the world's first portable ethanol micro-refinery system. The system also comes in a household appliance-sized unit, making it possible "for homeowners and small businesses to safely and cost-effectively create their own fuel, on-site," according to the company.