I haven't posted in a pretty long time, so let me take a minute to share some things that I dug up while reading the news this morning.

In July, scientists caught a giant squid (Yes, they really do exist.) in the Gulf of Mexico while researching the diet of sperm whales.  (Yes, they really do exist, also.)  The squid measured 19.5 feet long and weighed 103 pounds.  You may noticed that I referenced the squid in the past tense.  It did not survive being pulled from the deep waters of the Gulf.  (Yes, there really are deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico.)  The body of the squid has been donated to the Smithsonian's Natural Museum of Natural History for research.  This is only the second giant squid found in the Gulf.  The first was floating dead near the Mississippi delta in 1954.  Scientists have known of their existence in the Gulf of Mexico though, because they have seen remnants of them in the stomachs of their predators.  That does raise an interesting question:  Exactly what eats giant squid?  Perhaps they released more information than they had planned to about plesiosaurs.

On a more serious note, the government has released full numbers for the Cash for Clunkers program.  In early August, it was reported that the top ten selling vehicles sold under the program were as follows: 1. Ford Focus, 2. Toyota Corolla, 3. Honda Civic, 4. Toyota Prius, 5. Toyota Camry, 6. Ford Escape, 7. Hyundai Elantra, 8. Dodge Caliber, 9. Honda Fit and 10. Chevrolet Cobalt.  Now that the government has released the final numbers from the sale, it is clear that this is only half the picture.  The original release divided two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive vehicles as two different categories and did the same for standard motors and hybrids models.  For example, the Honda Civic and the Honda Civic Hybrid were recorded as two different models.  This was picked up by a few news sources, and they have combined the different setups for the same model to give a single number for the vehicle model.  This has changed how the success of getting fuel-inefficient cars off the road with the program looks.  The Toyota Corolla becomes the top seller with 29,488 vehicles sold.  The Ford Escape SUV enters the top ten at number five with 21,894 vehicles sold, followed by the Honda CR-V crossover at number six with 20,106 vehicles sold.  The Chevrolet Silverado full-size pickup truck is now number 8 with 16,330 sold, and the Ford F-150 full-size pickup truck is now number 10 with 16,263 vehicles sold.  The Toyota RAV4 SUV was the thirteenth best selling vehicle with 15,255 units sold.  Rounding out the new top 20 was the Toyota Tocoma "light-duty" pickup truck, which sold 10,692 vehicles.  That means that three SUVs and three pickup trucks were "gas savers" sold through Cash for Clunkers.  The AP also pointed out a couple of other surprising sellers through the program.  Toyota sold 2,015 full-size Tundra pickup trucks through the program, and Hummer sold 15 H3Ts through the program.  I'm sure glad we got those gas guzzlers off the road and took care of America's car-buying needs for the next three years.  Now we can just sit back and watch the evil car dealerships fold because almost nobody will need a new car any time soon.  I'll call this a win for the dealerships, the manufacturers, who will not be able to sell cars for years as a result of this program's "success," the environment and the American people, who will have to pay for this $3,000,000,000.00 program.  Considering the average American income in roughly $32,000.00, it would take 93,750 Americans to pay for it, assuming they gave ALL their money to the government, without keeping any for food, housing, gas, car payments, medical bills, movies, cable, internet or any other necessities or nicities of life.  That's just for the ONE program that ran for only 55 days.  I'd say this was definitely a win for everybody!