A heavily armed Mexican Navy helicopter was spotted doing surveillance in the Texas Valley

I just saw this on the local news.

“A Mexican Navy helicopter was seen doing surveillance in Starr County. Residents of Falcon Heights… noticed a Mexican helicopter hovering over a home shortly after six o’clock last night. Witnesses say the helicopter hovered for about 15 minutes over a house where a known criminal used to live. Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez Jr. says, “They had armored individuals in the chopper, open ramp, very military looking, in style and preparation.””

Um… and this was OK? The Mexican Navy is free and clear to send a heavily armed excursion into the United States?

Link to the story on KRGV.com.

Recall : Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger and Pringles Taco Night Chips

Salmonella is makin’ the rounds this week!

Proctor and Gamble just announced that are… “voluntarily recalling Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger potato crisps and Pringles Family Faves Taco Night potato crisps as part of an industry ingredient recall to protect consumers from potential Salmonella  exposure.”

Fortunately, it only concerns those chips with the following codes…

Product Name UPC Code “Best by” date
Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheeseburger, Super Stack Canister, 181 grams 37000 26936 02/2011
04/2011
Pringles Family Faves Taco Night, Super Stack Canister,
181 grams
37000 26773 03/2011
04/2011
05/2011

Toss ’em if you have them!

Wait… the same guys that make Charmin, Mr. Clean, Downy and Pampers also make Pringles? Those same Pringles that come in pizza, cheeseburger, jalapeno, and loaded baked potato?

Dude. That’s it. Kettle chips from here on out.

Here’s the link to the FDA recall.

UPDATE: And apparently this recall is about to snowball, but not just on Pringles. A company that makes hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) that’s used in a ton of foodstuff looks like the culprit. Click HERE to read more.

Abandoned Gas Station – 2010 Revisit [PHOTOS]

On my road trip last week I had a chance to drive through the same area I saw an abandoned gas station back in November of 2009.

It was beyond ruined now.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 01

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 01

The giant roof over the three rusted gas pumps had finally fallen and crushed everything underneath it. Getting closer to the store, I could see the roof apparently came straight down with the support beam pushed out and pointing toward the highway.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 02

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 02

I would have thought with the angle the roof and the support beams were leaning on my last visit, the roof would have fallen toward the store or toward the highway. Not straight down like this.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 03

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 03

The gas pumps that were once standing had been violently pushed aside…

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 04

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 04

…and covered with debris from the upper roof collapse.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 05

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 05

Around the corner, I could see what was left of the top portion of the roof.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 06

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 06

Surprisingly, the roof superstructure seemed mostly intact despite the fall. The criss-cross latticework of rusted metal hadn’t reflected much of the impact at all.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 08

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 08

The painted over red Texaco sign was smashed on one side, exposing what once illuminated the logo…

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 09

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 09

…but the other Texaco signs were completely intact on the other sides of the roof.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 10

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 10

The rusted gas pump near the lowest point of the roof’s impact was completely crushed and twisted underneath.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 11

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 11

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 12

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 12

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 13

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 13

While the gas pump in the center had been torn off its’ base in the impact.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 14

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 14

Although the door to the “Uncle Sam’s” store behind the gas pumps was broken on my last visit, I hadn’t bothered to take a look inside. Since I had a little spare time on this trip, I took a moment to get a few photos…

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 17

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 17

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 15

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 15

…and saw the interior was completely destroyed. Vandalized would be a better word.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 18

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 18

Someone tore apart the inside of this store. The light fixtures were pulled down, the window frames were bent out… pretty much everything that could be broken was broken.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 19

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 19

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 21

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 21

Back behind the beverage doors, some product display notice was inked on the wall around September of 2000. 10 years ago… not really that long for something like this to happen.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 22

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 22

I suspect this is one of the “window liberators” the vandals used.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 23

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 23

Even the glass on the periphery of the store was smashed and broken.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 24

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 24

Glass was crunching in my soles every step of the way back outside, and it took awhile to get every sliver out from where they had dug into my shoes.

I don’t think I will see this gas station again. At this point, this location is a complete loss, and only a complete demolition will make anything appear at this location again.

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 20

Abandoned Gas Station Revisit 20

GHOST.CC free service shutting down March 15

I was a member of GHOST.CC, a cloud computing site which enabled you to login from their website and access a web-based desktop service.

It was really straightforward. You log in with your username and password…

Ghost.CC 01

Ghost.CC 01

..and in a few moments a workspace would appear.

Ghost.CC 02

Ghost.CC 02

You could customize it, use it as a web browser, create and work on documents… just like you were connecting an working on another PC.

Ghost.CC was fun, but I just didn’t use it that often. Not when I could connect to my personal PCs and Macs just as easily as I could this service, and retrieve my own documents from my own trusted domains and servers. It was also easier and faster to use a proxy site (or my own proxy server) when I needed to bypass any firewalls.

Last night I finally had a chance to sift through one of my older email accounts and found a notice from GHOST.CC that they are closing down for good March 15th.

From their March 3rd email…

“We hope you have been enjoying our free Ghost service. Regrettably changes in the marketplace mean that it is no longer economical for us to host the Ghost service and we will be closing down the service on or around March 15. We will instead be focusing on licensing or selling our technology to larger companies.

We advise you to migrate ALL important folders, files and emails to another secure place before March 15. You might like to consider Google Docs or Microsoft SkyDrive for files and services such as Gmail or Yahoo! Mail for email. Some instructions for migrating data are included below.

We are really sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and are very grateful for the fantastic support we had from our community.”

Ghost.CC was a great idea, and I did get some good use of it here and there. This was an outstanding technical achievement, and it was integrated very well with every web browser I tried it in. I guess it just wasn’t the time for it. Best of luck in your next endeavor, guys.