{ Politics }

Joe Biden Thinks Health Care Is A “Big Fucking Deal”

Listen closely to what Joe Biden said to Barack Obama as he was about to address the onlookers at this meeting. Joe first introduces Obama and then turns to him and says “This is a big fucking deal.”

Yes, Mr. Biden, it sure is.

[Boing Boing]

{ Military }

Video: Boeing Plane Fires Frickin’ Laser Beams

The military has contracted Boeing to come up with a Advanced Tactical Laser (ATL) and the first video footage has been released on the net. It’s not as exciting as one would think, seeing as it’s the first test and all, but it still shows what the military can do with ray guns. I think Dr. Evil would be proud, no?

[Boing Boing via Smithsonian Air & Space]

{ Military }

Guy Wears A Dress To His Friend’s Funeral

For all the guys out there: would you wear a dress to your friends wedding? Probably not. But, what if you made a promise to your friend before you died? I guess that’s a game changer, right? That’s exactly what happen to a man named Barry and here’s how it happened:

Private Kevin Elliott and his friend, Barry Delaney, had agreed that whoever survived the other should wear a dress to the dead man’s funeral. Mr Delaney duly fulfilled the pledge as a tribute to Private Elliott, who was killed aged 24 while on foot patrol in the southern province of Helmand on August 31.

Mr Delaney wept on his knees at the graveside in Dundee as shots were fired during the military funeral. His dress plans are believed to have been known about in advance by other mourners.

Kudos to Barry for being a true friend keeping the promise he had made. I also salute Kevin for fighting for us in Afgan. God bless the both of them.

[Neatorama via Times]

{ Military }

U.S. Army To Create A 2.3 Gigapixel Camera

Remember that 1.5 gigapixel Obama inaguration picture? Yeah, that was child’s play. Apparently, the United States Army wants to take technology like this and create a 2.3 gigapixel camera. What they want to do with it is put it to use on drones — heck, eve manned aircraft  — and use it for surveillance. This camera would give “continuous coverage of area of around sixty-two square miles at 0.3m resolution with a single sensor,” according to Wired. Oh, and that’s not all either. This new camera would also have the ability to see infrared. So, if the Army decided to strap this thing to an unmanned helicopter and fly it over a valley with both good and bad-guys, they could see every single one, in the dead of night.

[Wired via Engadget]

{ Cars, Politics }

Joe Biden Announces New Battery-Related Grants

It’s about time the government helped promote innovation in batteries. The total amount being given out is $2.7 billion — a nice chuck of change. The grant, which was announced today by Vice President Joe Biden, aims to help innovate the need for car batteries. You know, to eventually help us get to full-on electric vehicles.

Of course, the big three are getting their portion with Chrysler receiving $70 million, Ford getting $92.7 million and GM receiving $240 million. Other companies receiving some portion of the battery grant include Johnson Controls Inc, who received the largest portion of the grant totally some $300 million, and also A123 System who was the next highest getting $249.1 million.

{ Military }

How To Build A Fighter Jet In 3.5 Minutes

Whenever we see military fighter jets, we almost never think of its initial creation. The time when hundreds of people work diligently to built one of the most technologically advanced machines of all time. And, if you think of it right now (as in before you watch the video), you’re probably thinking its all built in one spot. That’s not the case. There’s many different areas for building each piece, as seen in this time-lapse video of constructing a Super Hornet fighter jet. The video is really cool. Go pop in a couple of Hot Pockets — they’ll be done just as the video ends.

[Live Leak via Crunch Gear]

{ Politics }

Obama Gives ‘The Gays’ Benefits, Push Towards Ending Discrimination

Today, Barack Obama gave gay government workers limited job benefits in his fight to end discrimination. Before signing the order which would extend these benefits to the gay workers, he said

“Many of our government’s hardworking and dedicated and patriotic public servants have long been denied basic rights that their colleagues enjoyed for one simple reason: the people that they love are of the same sex.”

Read more

{ Politics, Weather }

Lightning Almost Strikes The Whitehouse, Nails Tree

Is this a sign from heaven? The image above is a picture taken by Haraz N. Ghanbari of the Associated Press. It clearly shows how lightning struck the grounds around the Whitehouse earlier today. Apparently, them-there politicians made someone above a little ticked off which led to various cloud-to-ground lightning strikes and an enormous amount of rain today between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm.

Note to Washington: someone, besides us, is watching.

[via USA Today]

{ Mobile Phones, Politics }

Cell Phones Officially Take Over A White House Press Conference

Press Secretery Gibbs couldn’t take the multiple cell phones that were going off in his meeting at the White House. So what did he do? He told them to hand over their phones, naturally.

What’s even more amazing is that there was one man in the audience that had the balls to not only forget to put his cell phone on vibrate, but when Gibbs asked for his phone, he answered the call and walked out of the room. Booya? I don’t know… If I was Gibbs holding a press conference at the White House, I would be hanging some peeps for not either turning their cell phones off or at least put them on vibrate. It’s really not that hard.

[via Engadget]

{ Military }

Video: Navy Seal Extraction

Ok — ‘I got this video in my e-mail. The video is of a Navy Seal Extraction, also known as “picking up the boys.” Kidding… Anyway, it’s actually a pretty sweet video. A MH-47 Chinook helicopter hovers over the water and starts its decent. It it eventually makes it into the water, which requires precise handling of the helicopter, so koodos to the pilot. Once in, the other Navy Seals ride into the helicopter at top speed in a life boat. Awesome.

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