Tony's Place

Manure...

A True Story

Manure: In the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by ship and it was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large shipments of manure were common.

It was shipped dry, because in dry form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began again, of which a by product is methane gas. As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could (and did) happen.

Methane began to build up below decks and the first time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM!

Several ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just what was happening

After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term "Ship High In Transit" on them, which meant for the sailors to stow it high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.

Thus evolved the term " S.H.I.T " , (Ship High In Transport) which has come down through the centuries and is in use to this very day.

You probably did not know the true history of this word.

Neither did I.

I had always thought it was a golf term

Tired of Junk Mail?

Use these nine tips to help save some of the 100 million trees chopped down annually to produce junk mail in the United States:

Register your name with the Direct Marketing Association's Mail Preference Service. After you do this, the DMA will add you to its "Do Not Mail" database.

If you do business with a company via mail services, it will put you on its contact list. So the first time you make a transaction (such as placing an order) with that company, ask to be put on its "in-house suppress" or "do not promote" lists. Tell the company not to "rent" or share your name with other companies.

To stop junk mail from credit card, mortgage, and insurance companies, try going to OptOutPreScreen.com which allows you to remove your name from lists generated by the four major credit bureaus-- Equifax, Innovis, TransUnion, and Experian.

Get the Stop the Junk Mail Kit from the Consumer Research Institute. This kit comes with pre-addressed postcards for you to send to companies that send you those annoying catalogs, wasteful postcards, and unnecessary brochures.

Several subscription services will reduce your junk mail for you. You can pay a fee to join Stop the Junk Mail which offers an online service to reduce junk mail. Also, check out GreenDimes - for a dime a day, this service will reduce your junk mail and plant a tree in your name every month.

If you're fed up with other types of junk (faxes, email, phone calls, etc.), take a look at JunkBusters.com.

Try calling the phone number listed under the publisher details on the junk mail. Often if you call or email, the company will remove you from the mailing list for a publication.

If you've done everything above and there's still a trickle of junk still getting through, try one of these "Return to Waster" stamps, stamp the junk, and put it into a mailbox. Unless the marketer paid for first-class mail, the the junk isn't likely to make it back to the company; stamping the junk is more of an act of protest. The more people who do it, however, the more attention the issue will get.

And if, after all that, a few pieces of junk mail get through, try upcycling. Turn your junk mail into pieces of art, bookmarks, packing materials, envelopes, and more.

WHERE TO BUY AMERICAN GASOLINE. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW.

Gas rationing in the 70's worked even though we grumbled about it. It might even have been good for us!

Are you aware that the Saudis are boycotting American products? In addition, they are gouging us on oil prices. Shouldn't we return the favor? Can't we take control of our own
destiny and let these giant oil importers know who REALLY generates their profits, their livings? How about leaving American Dollars in America and reduce the import/export deficit?

An appealing remedy might be to boycott their GAS. Every time you fill up your car you can avoid putting more money into the coffers of Saudi Arabia . Just purchase gas from companies that don't import their oil from the Saudis. Nothing is more frustrating than the feeling that every time I fill up my tank, I'm sending my money to people who I get the impression want me, my family and my friends dead. The following gas companies import
Middle Eastern oil:

Shell.................................... 205,742,000 barrels

Chevron/Texaco....................

144,332,000 barrels
Exxon /Mobil........................       130,082,000 barrels
Marathon/Speedway.............       117,740,000 barrels
Amoco..................................       62,231,000 barrels
And CITGO oil is imported from Venezuela by Dictator Hugo Chavez who
hates America and openly avows our economic destruction!  (We pay
Chavez's regime nearly $10 Billion per year in oil revenues!)

The U.S. currently imports 5,517,000 barrels of crude oil per day from OPEC. If you do the math at $100 per barrel, that's over $550 million PER DAY ($200 BILLION per year!) handed over to OPEC, many of whose members are our confirmed enemies!!!!! It won't stop here - oil prices could go to $200 a barrel or higher if we keep buying their product.

Here are some large companies that do not import Middle Eastern oil:

Sunoco.........................    0 barrels
Conoco........................     0 barrels
Sinclair.......................      0 barrels
BP / Phillips................      0 barrels
Hess. ............................. 0 barrels
ARC0............................. 0 barrels
Maverick......................... 0 barrels
Flying J. .......................... 0 barrels
Valero............................   0 barrels
Murphy Oil USA* .............  0   Sold at Wal-Mart , gas is from South
Arkansas and fully USA owned and produced.
*Not only that but they give scholarships to all children in their town who finish high school and are legal US citizens..

All of this information is available from the U.S. Department of Energy and each company is required to state where they get their oil and how much they are importing.

But to have a real impact, we need to reach literally millions of gas buyers With the help of the internet, it's really simple to do. Now, don't wimp out at this point....keep reading and I'll explain how simple it is to reach millions of people!!

I'm sending this note to about thirty people. If each of you send it to at only ten more (30 x 10 = 300)....and those 300 send it to at least ten more (300 x 10 = 3,000)....and so on, by the time the message reaches the sixth generation of people, we will have reached over THREE MILLION consumers!!!!!!!

If those three million get excited and pass this on to ten friends each, then 30 million people will have been contacted! If it goes one level further, you guessed it...THREE HUNDRED MILLION PEOPLE-the entire population of the United States of America !!!!

Click

See the Trunk Monkey video's

USS NEW YORK

USS New York was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center.
It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept. 9, 2003, "Those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence," recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. "It was a spiritual moment for everybody there."

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the "hair on my neck stood up." "It had a big meaning to it for all of us," he said. "They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back."
The ship's motto? "Never Forget"

Tire purchases are not an every day occurance but when you buy your next set you should be aware of their manufactured date. It could affect your survival.

I was quite surprised about the danger in purchasing a tire that is more
than 6 years old but never been used. It turns out that many locations seem
to have no control on their inventory to make sure that older tires don't
accumulate. This video is well worth watching as you will know how to
verify the manufacturing date when you buy your next set. You can verify
the age of the tires on your existing vehicles but the problem seems to be
with older tires that have never been used. Although not mentioned, it
would seem to indicate that cars with full size spares should include the
spare in the rotation or else they would fall into the same situation when
that spare was actually used. There is less labor involved to rotate the 4
tires and skip the full size spare, which is what most locations do.

I cannot urge you enough to take the time to look at this 9 minute video.
I guarantee that after seeing the video, you will want to share this
information with others:

Don't want anyone to think I'm vulgar!

In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannons fired round iron cannon balls.

It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon, but they had to find a way to prevent them from rolling about the deck. The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of 30 cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem...how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding or rolling from under the others.

The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with 16 round indentations. But, if this plate was made of iron, the iron balls quickly would rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey.

Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". (And all this time, you thought that was an improper expression, didn't you?