An Apple A Day...

So, Apple have released their latest "must have" consumer gadget, the iPhone5.  I must rush out and get one - not!

If you are one of the mindless horde worshipping at the altar of the Cult of Jobs, camping out overnight and trading in (usually at a very significant cost) your more-than-merely-adequate iPhone <insert (current model minus one) here> then you need to know that it is idiots like you who are driving up the share value of a company that basically sells "cool designs" rather than necessity and purpose into the most "valuable" company in the history of capitalism.  And in doing so, the Apple marketing executives are laughing at you while your hard-earned cash is turning other people into millionaires.

And don't get me started on how Apple's massive profit margins are made upon the (broken) backs of an exploited workforce...

Seriously, if you honestly believe Apple's marketing spiel and think your sad and sorry life can only be fulfilled by having the latest and (supposedly) greatest mobile phone then you don't need an iPhone, you need a doctor.

9/11

Yesterday was the 11th anniversary of 9/11.  Which meant that once again all the loonies came crawling out of the woodwork and the world's flatulence level rose. I'm not sure which bunch I despise most - the "Death to America!" crowd or the conspiracy theorists.

So I'll start off with a fart in the direction of the "Death to America!" crowd...   If you're going to try to win me over to your cause at least get your facts rights.  I lost count yesterday of the number of derogatory posts I saw on 9/11 Facebook tribute pages which generally revolved around the lines of "serves you right for all the millons (sic) you killed in Afghanistan and Iraq".  Now, I'm not going to deny that these wars aren't/weren't a nasty business, but what really pisses me off is when you massively over-inflate the casulty counts and blame them all upon the US. After all, it's not the US who are behind Sunni-Shi'ite (and vice versa) killings, and contrary to left-wing opinion, the US military does not deliberately target innocent civilians,  Yes, mistakes occasionally do occur, but military operations are planned to minimise colateral damage and mission planning includes appropriate risk assessments.   As for the casualties, they number in the thousands, not millions.  And if you do massively over-inflate these figures, at least learn to spell 'millions' correctly!

Now I'd like to point out a few facts that you see to ignore: the United States only invaded Afghanistan and Iraq AFTER the incidents on September 11, so unless one of you smart-asses invented a time machine (or recruited Doctor Who into your terrorist organisation) how can it possibly "serve them right" (in terms of US civilian casulties) for the deaths of Afghanis and Iraqis which, at the time of 9/11, were yet to occur?  And don't forget that quite a few of the dead when the twin towers collapsed were foreign tourists whose countries were not involved in the subsequent war - or does it "serve them right" anyway, perhaps as a warning they must agree wth the hateful crap you are preaching?  

As for all the conspiracy theorists (i.e. nutcases) out there who claim that the US government was behind the bombings of the twin towers, well, I've got an even bigger fart ready to let rip at you...   Many of these theories (or "proof", as you often call it) is based on the opinions of "experts" (i.e. unemployed basement-dwellers with nothing better to do but to trawl highly dubious sites on the internet) who claim that the hijacked airliners were not civilian but military jets armed with missiles and other apparatus mounted on the fuselage so they could be flown by remote control.

Well, I'd hate to disperse all your rotten farts, guys, but the wing root bulges to which you refer are neither missiles nor explosives packs, but are in fact standard features of the types of aircraft that were crashing into the twin towers i.e. a Boeing 767-222ER and a 767-223ER.  In fact, here's a photo of the same type of aircraft flown by Aer Lingus, in which the wing root bulges are clearly visible.  That is, unless the Irish are also in on the conspiracy...  

As for the fuselage-mounted "remote control" apparatus, they're called pitot tubes, angle of attack vanes and blade antennae, and they're navigation and communication devices, you dumb-asses.  As another example, here they are on a Boeing 767 belonging to DHL.  Or maybe you think this company also flying their planes by remote control, to get your parcels to you more cheaply.  Yep,  that must be it - save on pilots' salaries, but spend on even more expensive technologies...

As for claims that a jet airliner couldn't make that much damage and the towers were brought down by explosives, well I've got more facts for you, you cretins. Al-Qaeda were smart and did their homework;  the flights they hijacked weren't chosen at random; they deliberately chose flights that originated from the eastern seaboard utilising long-distance aircraft so as to maximise the fuel loads that were being carried.  The two Boeing 767s were the 'ER' variant, which stands for "extended range" - these birds carry over TWENTY FOUR THOUSAND GALLONS of highly volatile aviation fuel when their tanks are full, and the tanks of both planes were almost full when they hit the towers (this fact was proven by the airlines' refuelling records).

Civilian jet airliners are normally fuelled with a product called Jet A-1, which has a nominal energy content of 43.15 megajoules per kilogram, and a weight of 6.8 pounds per gallon at standard temperature and pressure.  Now, assuming the fuel tanks of the 767s were 90% full, that means there was over 66,500 kilograms of fuel on board, which meant that when the fuel tanks exploded over THREE MILLION MEGAJOULES.of energy was released.  Or in other words, equivalent to the energy from over SEVEN HUNDRED TONS of TNT- which is why the explosions were as big as they were.  

And when jet fuel burns, it is at a very high temperature - so much that the steel frames of the twin towers melted, and severely weakened the stuctures' load-bearing capacity.  The planes were flown into the towers at a height approximately two-thirds of the way up, and at an angle to maximse the damage to the superstructure (bin Laden was an engineer who knew stuff like this; as I said, al-Qaeda were smart).  It resulted in about the top third of each tower being an unsupported weight, and as a result, the towers pancaked in on themselves, unable to support their own weight anymore.  This fact has been verified by subsequent tests and refutes your idiotic claims that it was a controlled detonation/implosion/demolition that brought the towers down.  

So to all you nutcases out there, it was simply a case of the US was caught with its pants down; they under-estimated al-Qaeda and they paid the price.  It wasn't a conspiracy, but instead was complacency - there were warning signs, but they were ignored (just like on a certain December day in 1941).  And maybe that's what really scares all these conspiracy theorists - many of whom are US citizens - that their country isn't really all-powerful as they think it is.

My First Fart

I've decided to set up this blog to let anyone who's interested know what's on my mind.  You may be wondering why I've done this and why I've chosen terms such as flatulence, farts etc.  It's simple.  

I think that political correctness is a pile of total crap.  Too many people are scared to voice their opinion - even in regards to issues they feel strongly about - for fear of offending the Thought Police. Or they say one thing and as soon as they receive criticism they back down and pretend they never said it. 

Well, I'm not like that - you want weasel words, listen to a politician.  Unlike them, you'll know where I stand.  You may not agree with what I say, but as long as what I say isn't causing harm, then that's my right in a free world (so if you have an opposing opinion that you feel very strongly about, well, there's nothing stopping you from setting up your own blog...)

After all, we as a society are better off with diverse opinions rather than blithely accepting the views of those who don't always know as much as they want you to believe.