Gone East

Alternative energy.

My brother David turned me on to this. From the Toledo Blade, via greasecar.com:

Abraham Noe-Hays drives a car, but he does not contribute to U.S. dependence on foreign oil. He does not feel guilty about increasing the carbon dioxide in the air, and the smell of french fries follows him as he rolls down the road. Best of all, his fuel is free.

His wheels run on fryer fat.

Let's get ready to rumble!

Survivor 7 announced the players.

Ouch.

Gas prices here have gone up like 30 cents in the past month. Now I have proof. AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

Over the Hill!

Mary-Kate and Ashley, the Olsen twins, are coming out with their own toothpaste. The interesting thing about this is that the picture of them on the packaging will not be of their current 17 year old selves, but a pic of when they were 13. Yahoo News:
"...the Olsens, now 17, appear as 13-year-olds on the packaging."

Past their prime at 17. I wonder how old they say they are in AOL chatrooms?

You learn something new everyday.

We've all heard about the big argument going on in Alabama (?) about posting the ten commandments in the lobby of the courthouse. But even if they were allowed to leave them, there's a real question about which "ten" are the real ten, or even if ten is the correct number. It turns out that the bible has different lists in different chapters, and different editions of the bible are different too. SF Chronicle:

Then there are the commandments in the next chapter of Exodus, which allow fathers to sell their daughters into slavery (21:7) and say that "whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death" (21:17).

Neither of those commandments is included among the Ten Commandments currently residing under the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building.

I was expecting more!

Isn't this pretty much what they said about Challenger all those years ago? CNN.com:

The Columbia disaster "had as much to do with" NASA's organizational culture as it did with a piece of foam striking the space shuttle's wing, according to a final report released Tuesday by a NASA investigation board.

Cooookie

I'll have to show this to my niece who's working on her reading.

Scary vacation

Blogger Ben Hammersly is on his way to Afghanistan to report back. He's blogging the trip.

In a choice between dubious airline and a roadtrip where the Pakistani authorities insist that you take a gunman with you to the border, and I guess it’s more calming to take the plane. Of course, the incessant worries about the wings dropping off and suchlike are still there - it’s the *Afghan* national airline, after all - but I guess that both statistically I was more likely to be in an accident in the taxi ride to the airport, and, as I say, if you can read this I’m obviously ok.

Dean Rising

I'm liking Howard Dean more all the time. Chris Lydon has posted an audio recording of a talk Dean made at a campaign event in Manchester recently. It's 20 mins long but well worth the time.

He's making a list.

In honor of Attorney General John Ashcroft's upcoming visit to Boston michaelf has written this song. (To the tune Santa Claus is coming to town.)

He sees where you've been surfing
He knows what books you've read
He knows all of the treasonous thoughts
That you've got inside your head

[Whole song] [thanks Boston Common]

The voice of the Red Sox

Ken Coleman was THE VOICE of the Red Sox that I grew up with.

Coleman, a Red Sox broadcaster for 20 years, called the team's heartbreaking loss in the 1986 World Series, when a ground ball rolled through first baseman Bill Buckner’s legs and into Boston sports infamy. He was also with Boston through the "Impossible Dream" season in 1967, when the Red Sox made an improbable World Series run before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals.

He died Thursday at age 78. Story.

A calm excitement

Odd Todd writes about the great northeast blackout of ought-three.

But there would be no looting or rioting. It was close to unimaginable. In fact all I felt was the overwhelming goodness of it all- all around. Besides the people stuck in elevators or in subways (that sucked I'm sure) -people loved it. And with the darkness came excitement. But like a calm excitement. In my neighborhood people gathered around radios in the street and drank beer and held candles or flashlights. Or just walked around. Somehow it was like... everyone knew there wasn't going to be any rioting. It was too hot and cheery out. And you got the feeling if someone tried to start some shit everyone would have looked at him like the guy who tries to start the wave at the football game when your team is down by 56.  Everyone would eventually just start throwing their beers at him. Looting last night would have been uncool. Even by criminal standards.

Halley's Alpha Boy

Halley writes about her son. He sounds like a good kid.

I want to mention 18 wonderful things about my Alpha Boy and wish him the best as I watch him grow into the man he'll soon become.

The plural of Moose

Two different people have reported to me recent sightings of Moose in the local State Park. One sighting about four weeks ago on the back side of the "tower mountain", and another a week and a half ago at the Fundy boat launch.

Monday after Easter

2talljones.com website:

Monday is none other than Dingus (or Dyngus) Day. Now, no one I know who celebrates this wonderful holiday is particularly sure what it is for, so I did a bit of research. The explanation that I found had something to do with dumping buckets of water on one another to appease nature.

He goes on to say, "...mostly involves eating a great deal of boiled eggs and sausage and, here's the kicker, drinking enough beer to kill most small horses."

Get ready, cause I think that next spring, Pawtuckway Lake will welcome a new holiday.

Timberrrrrrr!

In comments Sherm called my attention to the 1,000 year old Sequoia that fell and crushed a car. Here's the story.

I can't decide if Sherm found this story notable because it crushed an (evil) SUV, or because he feels some kinship with the sudden fall of an ancient icon.

Ultimate SPAM offer

From NRO's, The Corner:

Dear Friend, My uncle, Dr Abraham Saleh Jombo, is the Chief Urologist for the Peoples National Congress. He has developed an all-natural formula for Manhood enhancement guaranteed to put a Nigerian Nightmare in your dungarees. Unfortunately, the current civilian government is attempting to seize the millions of dollars...

Nice story.

Doc Searls: "Except for school, I had a happy childhood. That means my summers were idylls." [Read More]

Quiet.

It's turning out to be a light blogging day for me. I'm making slow progress on some writing for a new aviation publication. More on that later.

Marine Docents Wanted

Portsmouth Herald: "The University of New Hampshire marine docent program is looking for volunteers who love the ocean and want to help others learn about it."

Sounds cool.

Making myself clear

A few days ago I posted an item about how the Boston Common site had linked to a silly little thing I'd put here. Later, Boston Common, apparently responding to comments about the things he links to, used my comment as an example of how his site is a collection of items that he personally finds interesting, even if they're a little weird.

I think that Adam at Boston Common knows that I was just kidding about his choice of things to link to. I hope that I was clear to everyone that I'm happy for any links I can get, and that I really like Boston Common. I look at it daily. You should too.

Social Networking

Word of Mouth advertising has moved to the next level. LA Times:

"...the 16-year-old high school junior had rushed out with her younger brother to see [The Hulk]. Now she wanted to tell her friends all about it. She whipped out her silver-and-blue T-Mobile cell phone, pressed a button and did something that strikes terror into the hearts of studio executives: She tapped out a message telling her friends exactly what she thought of the movie — and the verdict was brutal."

[Thanks BoingBoing]

Weighty Matters of Social Importance

As I return to regular blogging after my long weekend, let me direct your attention here: Virtual Bubble Wrap

[Thanks Doc Searls]

Suspected Terrorists

Dennis Kucinich is pretty much a non-candidate in my mind. But his thoughts on air travel searches are right-on.

Kucinich: "I have to admit to a feeling of resentment at the extent of the security searches every time I travel by air. The armed guards, the x-ray machines, the metal detectors, the pat downs, the search of luggage and personal effects, the removal of shoes, and for some, I suppose, the explanation of prosthetics, pacemakers, and appurtenances, constitutes a massive invasion of privacy. We have just come to accept this as a natural state of things because, like Gilmore, we’re all suspected terrorists."

[Thanks BoingBoing]

EAA on Discovery Channels

eaa.org: "On September 17, The Discovery Wings Channel premieres Oshkosh 2003: The Centennial Edition, an EAA TV-produced recap of the recently held EAA AirVenture Oshkosh convention. On September 19, a two-hour documentary, The Wright Brothers: First In Flight, premieres on The Discovery Channel..."

Check it out.

I got linked to by the Boston Common weblog. All the cool things I post here, and they liked the corny "Bostonian goes to hell" story that my Mom email-forwarded to me. Go figure. But thanks to them for the link.

Busy Day

There may not be much here from me over the next few days. This Centennial fly-in is gonna take up a fair amount of my time.

Gotta have it.

Neal Stephensons newest book, due in about a month, sounds great.

Daniel, Jack, and Eliza will traverse a landscape populated by mad alchemists, Barbary pirates, and bawdy courtiers, as well as historical figures including Samuel Pepys, Ben Franklin, and other great minds of the age.

Sigh.

I gotta figure that my friend Steve, well, his Mom must not read his weblog.

Too much spare time.

Race the old guy for the chips. A game.

EAA Good!

As I wrote over on the VAA15 site: "A big VAA15 tip of the hat goes out to Theresa Brooks, and all the others at the Vintage and EAA Chapter Offices, who have gone 'above and beyond'..."

100 Years.

I spent the morning at Hampton Field at my EAA Chapter's clubhouse collecting things up for our attendance at the Skyhaven Airport Centennial Celebration. It starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend.

Joy in Mudville

I received this in email. Occasionally fwded emails can be fun.

A Bostonian dies and is sent to Hell.

He had been a horrible man his entire life.

The devil puts him to work breaking up rocks with a sledgehammer. To make it worse he cranks up the temperature and the humidity.

After a couple of days, the devil checks in on his victim to see if he is suffering adequately. The devil is aghast as the Bostonian is happily swinging his hammer and whistling a happy tune.

The devil walks up to him and says, "I don't understand this. I've turned the heat way up, it's humid, you're crushing rocks; why are you so happy?"

The Bostonian, with a big smile, looks at the devil and replies, "This is great! It reminds me of August in Boston. Hot, humid, a good place to work. It reminds me of home. This is fantastic!"

The devil, extremely perplexed, walks away to ponder the Bostonian's remarks. Then he decides to drop the temperature, send down a driving rain and torrential wind.

Soon, Hell is a wet, muddy mess. Walking in mud up to his knees with dust blowing into his eyes, the Bostonian is happily slogging through the mud pushing a wheelbarrow full of crushed rocks.

Again, the devil asks how he can be happy in such conditions.

The Bostonian replies, "This is great! Just like April in Boston. It reminds me of working out in the yard with spring planting!"

The devil is now completely baffled but more determined to make the Bostonian suffer. He makes the temperature plummet. Suddenly Hell is blanketed in snow and ice.

Confident that this will surely make the Bostonian unhappy, the devil checks in on him. He is again aghast at what he sees.

The Bostonian is dancing, singing, and twirling his sledgehammer as he cavorts in glee.

"How can you be so happy? Don't you know its 40 below zero!?" screams the devil.

Jumping up and down the Bostonian throws a snowball at the devil and yells, "Hell's frozen over!! This means the Red Sox won the World Series!! "

Brittany-speak*

The English-to-12-Year-Old-AOLer Translator:

"Hi this is Jack. How are you today. I think that's pretty cool."

Translates to:

HI THIS IS JAK!!11! LOL HOW R U 2DAY!1!!! LOL I THINK TAHTS PR3TY COL!!111! OMG WTF

* Brittany is my 13 year-old niece, but same thing.

Wooden Mirror.

Thousands of servo controlled wooden blocks attached to a video camera via a Macintosh Quadra. [Quicktime movie] [Thanks BoingBoing]

Big Brother

Am I the only person who is absolutely horrified by this kind of invasion? Wired Magazine:

Just before flying, the passenger's name, birth date, address and phone number will be checked against a commercial database such as those maintained by ChoicePoint or Experian. The data companies then will use algorithms to judge how likely it is that a person booking the ticket is really who he says he is. [Entire article]

Adam & Eve

Joho quotes tinyapp.org on the oldest domains on the internet still in use. The oldest 15:

03/15/1985   SYMBOLICS.COM
04/24/1985   BBN.COM
05/24/1985   THINK.COM
07/11/1985   MCC.COM
09/30/1985   DEC.COM
11/07/1985   NORTHROP.COM
01/09/1986   XEROX.COM
01/17/1986   SRI.COM
03/03/1986   HP.COM
03/05/1986   BELLCORE.COM
03/19/1986   IBM.COM
03/19/1986   SUN.COM
03/25/1986   INTEL.COM
03/25/1986   TI.COM

TV Premieres

Thu Sep 18
8 pm Survivor

Wed Sep 24
9 pm West Wing
10 pm Poland NH

Thu Sep 25
8 Friends
9 Will & Grace

Wed Oct 1
9 pm Angel

Steve's in the paper.

Boston Herald:

So there was Steve Garfield, a 40-something JP guy prone to wearing polo shirts and jeans, out shopping at the DSW Shoe Warehouse in Framingham.

After picking up a sensible pair of Sperry Topsiders, he wandered over to . . . the pocketbook section.

Somerville's Davis Sq: Urban Hot-Spot

Back in the Day... Davis Sq was, for many years, the home of BCS*Mac, the world's biggest Macintosh User Group.

"...a form of looting"

Former Vice-President Al Gore:

The 2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, George Akerlof, went even further last week in Germany when he told Der Spiegel, "This is the worst government the US has ever had in its more than 200 years of history...This is not normal government policy." In describing the impact of the Bush policies on America's future, Akerloff added, "What we have here is a form of looting."

[Thanks Dan Gillmor.]

Recompressing

Sorry to be absent here after so much posting in the past couple of weeks. I've been adjusting back into the NH lifestyle after the non-stop activity of OSHKOSH. More soon.

Event Technology

NYT: "In some ways, advanced digital technologies made the entire [Phish] festival happen. While the record industry frets about the financial impact of music trading over the Internet, innovative bands like Phish are embracing the latest technologies to create spectacular live concerts and phantasmagoric festival experiences that are more like computer-controlled theme parks than like the rock festivals of yesteryear."

Home Again

I spent all day yesterday driving. It took a lot longer to get from Ann Arbor to NH than I'd expected. I arrived home at 11:30 pm.

Very soon now I'll post the promised Oshkosh 2003 wrapup.

He's making a list and checking it twice

Washington Post: "Attorney General John D. Ashcroft has ordered U.S. attorneys across the country to become much more aggressive in reporting to the Justice Department cases in which federal judges impose lighter sentences than called for in sentencing guidelines."

Visiting Ann Arbor.

We've spent the afternoon touring the Ann Arbor area. Rob ought to be getting paid by the Chamber of Commerce. It's pretty nice. A little background...

About a year ago Rob and Sarah announced that they were leaving Silicon Valley and moving to Ann Arbor. They had no jobs here and not really any family.

They had spent some months visiting and evaluating many communities around the country, and this is the one that won.

After the initial shock, I did a little research and discovered that A2, as they call it, is not the where's-that-backwater that I thought. Most notable is that this is where the characters from "The Big Chill" originally met as students at U Michigan.

Anyway, even though I had seen some plusses to the area I was still a little dubious even when I arrived yesterday.

But Rob's tour has really impressed me. The downtown is lots of older building, nicely renovated with many interesting shops and restaurants.

We had lunch at what is apparently a very popular deli called Zingermanns.

Late we drove along the Huron River which passes through town. We headed to the NW upriver along a river road that was quite picturesque. We ended up at a park with picnic area, hiking/biking/running trails. And we played frisbee golf, which is apprently quite popular here.

Then we went out to visit their new house that is being built. Nice, big.

Obligatory Aviation thing. Near there new home is the Ann Arbor Airport (ARB). It is the home of EAA Chapter 333.

Any way, A2 seems like a real nice place. Hopefully they'll let me visit again sometime.

Did you know that some people indoors?

I'm gonna go to indoors soon. But here's a pic of the staff of the AirVenture Today. This is a great group of people and I wish I could work with them throughout the whole year.

Spirit of St. Louis

A couple days ago I posted a pic of a Spirit of St. Louis replica. My brother David sent me this link to information about the REAL one.

Halfway house

I'm sitting in the living room of my friends Rob and Sarah Hafer in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

It was a fairly easy drive today. I left OSH at 11am CT and arrived here at about 8:30ET. All daylight driving, which is unusual for my OSH trips.

I'll be visiting here tomorrow and continueing to NH on Wednesday.

Heading home.

I'm about to pack up the laptop and hit the road. In the next day or so I'll probably post some retrospective notes about this year's OSH. See ya.

Around the Field.

Monday's column may not be posted before I hit the road. When it is posted, it will probably be at this URL. If not, check the main AirVenture page.

Good Morning.

Here we are at the final day of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2003.

Like many attendees, I'll be leaving early today. Probably hit the road around noon.

Here are a few more pics.

The Ford Tri Motor gives rides her all week long. Costs about $75.

Many of the P-51s have already left. But these four are still parked in the Warbird area.

The Old Crow is the P-51 that I showed you in flight earlier in the week.

A beautiful old Stearman. Some here were saying that this is not really faithful since it has some contemporary parts. But I think it's great.

Rutan Forum Notes

Here are some notes from yesterday's Burt Rutan talk on his Spaceflight project. They are not an attempt to transcribe the talk. It's just scribblings of whatever caught my fancy.

Rutan Notes
Oshkosh Forum
Aug 2, 2003 10 am

***

scaled.com

***

Voyager is the only single-stage to orbit vehicle.

***

(patch logo)
Scaled Flight Test
Interrogo Haud Defenso
("Question not defend")

***

"We win not be regulated because it reduces safety."

***

1908-1912 = Aviation Renaissance

***

US Space Launch Systems
Each abandoned when more expensive one became available

***

Manned Space Pgms, all countries

242 flights
111 pilots
433 total people
963 seats

Astronaut = anyone who has ridden on the shuttle

That's like calling everyone who's ever ridden in coach, on a 747, a pilot.

***

What the Renaissance requires:

Entrepreneurs trying weird, risky things. Exploration and fun, NOT politics and "science"

***

AvWeek article by Burt

***

Tier One

Development of an affordable, suborbital space flight capability.

***

SS1 tailnumber is N328KF (328 thousand feet)

***

Showed nice video of WK and combined WK/SS1 flights.

***

Q: How long have you worked on this?

A: I haven't worked since I left the Air Force.

Around the Field

Sunday's Column

Inform the Media

Here's a copy of the telegram that the Wright Brothers sent home after their successful flight. My favorite part of this is that they tell home to "inform Press". They weren't just a couple of homey-folksy tinkerers. They knew that what they were doing had historic significance.

Short Final

Things are really starting to finish up here. I turned in my final column a couple hours ago. Gradually all the writers are standing up from their keyboard and declaring, "I'm done!"

Out on the field, the number of empty parking spaces is increasing steadily. The campground is emptying out too. By tomorrow morning it will be a very different show.

I hope to post a couple more things today, then my final "from the field" stuff tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow noon I plan to hit the road for home. I'll be stopping for a day in Ann Arbor to visit my old roommate, then continueing on home on Wednesday.

Sometime after I leave here, either at Rob's, or when I get back I'll post a debrief of the week. After that I'll be returning you to your normal programming.

Cool Junk

One of my favorite parts of the fly-in is something called the "Fly Market". It's a 3-acre, aviation flea market that has small vendors selling all sorts of doo-dads, tools, rivets, cable-ties, books, used parts, t-shirts, household gadgets, you name it.

Some years I've come away from 7 days of the Fly Mart with some very odd, and occasionally useless, but cool, things. This year, so far, I've bought: tent stakes, a screwdriver head for my drill, and a little pair of scissors.

Good morning.

It was pretty foggy this morning, and it wasn't burning off very fast. We started to get a little worried that we wouldn't see very much flying. But it's now brightening up nicely.

Sean Tucker

Here're a couple of shots of Sean Tucker, one of the most popular airshow pilots in the world. He's from Salinas, California which is near where I lived in California.

For years before Sean "graduated" to Oshkosh I saw him at local and regional airshows. When he first appeared at Oshkosh, and made a huge, good, first impression, I was able to say to everyone, "Oh that's just Sean, yeah, he's pretty good."

Warbird Flyby

Every afternoon, for the seven days of the show, they have an airshow. Part of the show each day is a showcase of flybys by the restored military aircraft that are here. Some of this is formation passes like in this picture, and others are individual runs, often simulating combat attacks.

The image at the right (click on it for a wider view) is of one of these formations. Notice the other formation, higher up that is passing by at about the same time. Often during these showcases, the sky can be filled with planes, all very carefully choreographed to look scary, but actually be perfectly safe.

Around the Field

Saturday's column

Slow

My apologies if this site has been loading a little slowly for you lately. I've been posting so many pics that it's a little bogged down. I just changed the config so that it only displays three days' worth on the first page (instead of 7). That should speed things up a bit.

Mustang

I promised some pics of planes flying, and I'm still on the lookout for some. But I'm remembering now how hard this is. My little point-and-click camera just isn't very good at taking pics of something moving fast, far away, against the bright sky. Anyway, now that I've made my excuses.

Here's a P51 Mustang doing some fly-bys in front of the crowd. The thing that's really interesting is that it was being narrated live by Chuck Yeager, the man with the Right Stuff, and the guy who first broke the sound barrier. (Click on this image for a wider view.)

Catching up

Here's Yesterday's column.

Busy day

It's been a busy day for me here since, due to a scheduling weirdness, I had to write two column in one day. I did take a few pics for the weblog, and I'll be posting them tomorrow, and maybe later tonight.

Red One

Here's the big guy himself.