Sunday, July 27, 2008

Cows eye view


Cows eye View
Wyoming field, July 2008

How many Zeros in a Billion

This is too true to be funny.
The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend,but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it' s releases.
A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain...
let's take a look at New Orleans ....
It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) is presently asking Congressfor 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. Interesting number...what does it mean?

Well... if you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child)
you each get $516,528. Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787. Or... if you are a family of four... your family gets $2,066,012.


Washington, D. C---
HELLO!
Are all your calculators broken??
Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) ,Fishing License Tax, Food License Tax, Fuel Permit Tax, Gasoline Tax, Hunting License Tax, Inheritance Tax, Inventory Tax, IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax), IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax), Liquor Tax, Luxury Tax, Marriage License Tax, Medicare Tax, Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Service charge taxes, Social Security Tax, Road Usage Tax (Truckers), Sales Taxes, Recreational Vehicle Tax, School Tax, State Income Tax, State Unemployment Tax (SUTA), Telephone Federal Excise Tax, Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax, Telephone- Federal State and Local Surcharge Tax, Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax, Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax, Telephone State and Local Tax; Telephone Usage Charge Tax, Utility Tax, Vehicle License Registration Tax, Vehicle Sales Tax, Watercraft Registration Tax, Well Permit Tax, Workers Compensation Tax..

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...and our nation was the most prosperous in the world. We had absolutely no national debt... We had the largest middle class in the world... and Mom stayed home to raise the kids. What happened?
Can you spell 'politicians!' And I still have to press '1' for English.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Life is not Fair ...

Every child in every school from the age of Kindergarten through every last year of college should hear this one - And not only hear it - they need to be required to memorize it and recite it outloud! This should be posted in all schools and work places. Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a high school about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.
Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!
Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice president with a car phone until you earn both.
Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.
Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.
Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.
Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer- This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.
Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don 't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you 'FIND YOURSELF'. Do that on your own time.
Rule 10 : Television and video games are NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.
Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

Tanganyika Wildlife Park


Zebras at a new wildlife park in Wichita KS. It's still under construction, but when it's done you can feed some of the animals! The enclosures are very open and allow people to get fairly close... and yes a zoo keeper stays nearby to answer questions and to keep idots away from the fence and becoming zebra lunch. Apparently they have additudes and will bite and kick. Did you know that baby zebras have brown stripes that turn black as they get older?!

Keeper of the Plains




Wichita, KS on the Arkansas River waterfront park. there are large rocks in the water infront of this. there are gas fire rings on these that they light up at night. very cool! well, the fires are very hot. We stood next to them. Every night the light the fires for 15 minutes at 9 & 10 pm.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

doe a deer!


well, 2 deer. out for an evening stroll and dinner break.

pines vs aspens


looks like the two species of tree are lining up ... who will win the battle over the road?

Lamartine Mine


T & I dropped a rock down this sealed mine shaft... it took 9 seconds to hit bottom!

Dixie Mine


found this one near by us...

Rest Area, gone to the dogs...




city dogs vs. country dogs