Update on Solar Charger for Lee

The Solio has been purchased and is on its way. Many, many thanks to all the contributors!

Google Maps

To put things in context... Amazing terrain; I believe the green swathes are mostly poppy fields!

Helmand operation begins

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070103202_pf.html

Father's Day

This year's Father's Day gathering was graced by spring-like weather and scrumptious lasagna and garlic bread. Sadly, this was Olivia's last day with us for the summer. She and her mom are moving to Portland, Oregon. Claire, as photographer, took on the task of portraitist and as usual caught some real beauties.

Solar Charger for Lee

After Ike's post about Lee (see just below) I was thinking about living without electricity in Afghanistan. Wow! But of course, the workaround is solar, and I assume there is plenty of sun out there.

This is the device I've come across in the past as the must have charger for all of our now "essential" devices--whether you're in the mountains of Afghanistan or riding out a disaster here at home--the Solio--and you can find out all about it here. The SolioMG, in my opinion, seems the most rugged, durable and powerful and costs about $170. If anyone knows of a better option, be sure to chime in.

Anyway, thought I might jimmy up (sorry, Jim, don't know where that came from) a new thing here on the Sink. I've patched in a "Donate" button on the sidebar that goes directly to a PayPal account to purchase the device for Lee. Very easy to use, but of course, if you think the whole thing is too cheeky for you, do your own thing.

Comments?

Update on Lee

Hello all,
Lots of info about Lee's doings and whereabouts.

Back in May he was still at Camp LeJeune, NC and knew that he would be headed to Afghanistan toward the end of the month.

His inevitable departure date and time was not confirmed up until the last day or so. The twist in all this is that he was pretty sure that he and his unit would be flying into Bangor International Airport and then going on to Ireland-Germany-??

While I was all prepared to be at the airport at 3:00am to meet him I got a call from Lindy who had been in constant text message contact with him. At about 1:00am she informed me that she had lost contact with him. This could mean only one thing, he had left Carolina and headed straight over the Atlantic.

Long story short, his Mom and I were not able to see him off.

He headed straight to Germany and then on to a base in Kyrgyzstan where he stayed for several days.

At this point I figured the only communication we would have would be letters and packages.
Lo' and behold one afternoon I got a call from Lee and even though he was halfway around the world it sounded like he was next door...I was excited, to say the least. It was 2 in the morning there so he sounded a bit groggy but was good to hear his voice.

Apparently, upon arrival at the base in Kyrgyzstan all the troops are given a really great Care package with all kinds of goodies and a calling card with 100 minutes on it...very cool!!

This morning I got another call from Lee (again, sounded like he was right next door) to inform me he is in Afghanistan. Presently he is at a base comprised of US, Danish, British, Afghan troops.

I asked him if there were rivalries among the different nationalities and he said no. He said each group is interested in picking the brains of the others on military matters etc.

He said the British Army was a bunch of fat slobs but the British Royal Marines were sharp and tough as nails.

He will be there for days? weeks?

His eventual destination seems to be the frontier in southern Afghanistan near the confluence of the Pakistan/Iran/Afghan border.
Of course, time and location stuff is sensitive in the military. This is my best attempt at giving some generalities but keeping in mind they may be completely different from reality.

His unit has been designated an expeditionary unit because they will be the first Marines in that area and will be responsible for setting the stage for furture units.

I have listed his address below in hopes of people taking some time to send him letters and/or packages.

Sounds like books are a hot commodity and maybe some non-perishable food goodies (candy, etc).
He also will be in need of AA baterries. He has an iPod and I'm gonna send him an iGo so he can recharge it because there will be little to no electricity where he'll be.

For those of you who are more up on all the hand held iPods etc, if you can think of something else that might supplement his iPod that would be great.

Long update but that seems to be all for now,

Love to all,
Ike

P.S.
I wasnt aware but letters and packages to Lee are the same cost as mailing in the US

PFC Morgan, Lee R.
2/8 Golf Co. 2nd Plt
Uniti 73240 FPO
AE 09510-3240

The Math of 700 Billion Dollars (fun)

Ike's Math and Science

SVWeekly.com

It doesn’t take much for a seemingly innocuous, rarely used phrase to become part of our modern lexicon. Repetition and usage creates familiarity, so eventually the original meaning and purpose of the phrase ends up as a nonchalant, ho-hum label, pretty much devoid of meaning.
Take the phrase “700 billion dollars”, as in “700 billion dollar bailout.” (Actually, $787 billion, but who's counting?) It has been used so much lately that Americans have become numbed to the magnitude of the actual amount.
When the mathematician in me keeps hearing about 700 billion this, or 700 billion that, it makes me want to look a bit more closely at what “700 billion dollars” really is. Time for a paper, pencil, and calculator experiment.
My precision calipers tell me that a dollar bill is about 1/250 of an inch. That means a stack of 250 dollar bills equals about one inch. That means if I stack all 700 billion dollars, one on top of the other, it will be 233,333,333 feet high. My trusty calculator then tells me that stack is actually about 44,000 miles high.
OK, that’s a fur piece, but how fur is it really? New York City and Los Angeles are about 3,000 miles apart. This means that my 700 billion dollar stack, if laid on the ground, would go from New York to LA and back to New York over 7 times. Now that’s a fur piece!
So how about the weight of all those bills? My precision weight scale tells me a single bill weighs about .033 ounces which means it takes about 30 dollar bills to make an ounce. My ever trusty calculator then tells me that you would need about 485 bills to make a pound.

It’s going to take a mighty big scale to weigh all those 700 billion dollars…actually I don’t think a scale that big exists…thank goodness for mathematics. After a few buttons pushed on my trusty calculator I find out that my 700 billion dollar bills weigh 1,443,298,969 pounds. In English, that is one billion, four hundred forty-three million, two hundred ninety-eight thousand, nine hundred sixty-nine pounds…whoa! I think I’ll stick with the Arabic numerals.
That’s a lot of poundage, but what does it really mean? The average weight of a person on earth is about 150 pounds (closer to 160 pounds around the holidays, but I digress). My calculations tell me that my stack of 700 billion dollars weighs about the same as 9,621,993 people. That would mean if you took all the people in Maine and put them on a weight scale you would have to do it 6 times before the total would add up to the weight of my stack of 700 billion dollars.
OK, all this measurement stuff is pretty boring. Let’s spend our 700 billion dollars. Good Luck.
Twenty years sounds like enough time to spend it, right? Not so fast, chummy. To spend 700 billion dollars in 20 years means you would have to spend 35 billion dollars a year. Not impressed?
OK, how about trying to spend $95,890,000 dollars a day for 20 years. Still not impressed? How about trying to spend $3,995,433 per hour for 20 years or how about $66,590 per minute for 20 years.
Yep, that means every minute, of every hour, of every day for 20 years you would have to spend over sixty-six thousand dollars to equal 700 billion dollars.
I have a new found respect for “700 billion dollars“.

Ike Morgan teaches high school math and science in Exeter, Maine.
He can be reached @ imorgan@tds.net

Some Simple Americana

To all, Enjoy a few of this past year's picts that I took for the SVWeekly. No Pulitzers, but a lot of fun anyway.

Ike

Lovely Day