Comments received on my earlier blog relative to global warming indicate that some politcos took offense. While I think they should be wearing stripes ala prison garb, the stripes I had in mind at the time were those worn by family Mephitis mephitis.
A friend at work loaned me the book that I am reading now. A Geologic Trip Across Tennessee by Interstate 40 by Harry L. Moore. This is part of the Outdoor Tennessee Series. This book appears to still be available and if you are a travel, outdoor, hiking, geology, or history buff in the southeast, you might enjoy this book. I happen to like geology and hiking. While I am not fond of driving, I like to know the trerrain I am driving through. If you are travelling through Tennessee and looking out the window, this book will give you a good idea of things to watch for in the landscape and as you look at the ground underneath you.
I have said a number of times to a number of people that “Windows, any flavor, is unsafe for use in a home environment”. I use Windows at work where there are numerous, certified, compensated, experts to deal with the numerous and well-known security problems with Microsoft Windows. These experts along with significant capital investment create a network with sufficient additional protection that my employer can trust that the Windows computers connected to the company network will be safe.
But at home, I only boot Windows when not connected to the Internet. I only use Windows to play games that only run in Windows, most particularly Flight Simulator. This way I can avoid catching some dread virus or trojan. I use Ubuntu now and previously used Debian unstable. Keeping these systems safe is a relatively easy matter with System Update or apt.
Now comes news from New South Wales that one should not use Windows for on-line banking. Hmm.
The Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to treat the ouster of the strongman Manuel Zelaya for violation of the laws of Honduras as a coup. The courts and congress of Honduras support the ouster. Hugo Chavez and Hillary Clinton, along with the Obama administration support the ousted strongman. Of course the Clintons are lawyers and know how to twist the law to suit needs of the moment. The USA’s meddling in the affairs of other countries has always been annoying to the small countries of the world. Maybe just this once, we could do the right thing and let Honduran law rule Honduras. We could support the President Michelleti until elections are held and his term ends in January of next year.
The Steelworkers have persuaded the government to impose a tariff on tires imported from China. This seems to have sparked a trade war that will result in reduced Chinese sales for American companies and higher prices for American consumers.
If the unions wanted to do something useful for their members, they would lobby the government to insure that overseas workers had the right to organize and strike as American workers do.
The unions would then organize and lead the overseas workers to bargain for the pay and benefits that American workers have fought for and won. But the current crop of union leaders are to busy scamming the American workers and the American public to truly benefit anyone but themselves..
After beating up the auto executives for flying to Washington in their company’s jets, Congress has quietly added a cool $200,000,000 to the appropriations bill to get a 3 luxury jets more than the Air Force had requested. Our Air Force provides the aircraft to fly the President and Congress. We taxpayers of course fund it. At least with the auto execs, the stockholders (owners of the company) are the ones that pay. The jets are used by military and government travelers but apparently the problem is when the holidays come, some members of Congress can not get a seat.
And has unfriendly service besides. I heard the song behind this video on All Things Considered. An e-mail newsletter from Flight Aware jogged my memory so here is the video.
The last time I flew United Airlines, I was flying to a job interview with them. I did not know whether I was being treated liked dirt because something on my ticket let them know I was flying to headquarters or I was just another passenger to be treated like all the others. Still, I would rather fly United than Delta or American.
As I was goofing off today on vacation, I twittered that I was going flying on flight simulator. I later got an email that someone was following me. I checked and he was a flight sim enthusiast and he had links to 10 scariest airports. I took some notes and tried the first one on the list. Paro Bhutan runway 33. Here are some thoughts on the numerous attempts (more than a cat has lives).
There must be some way out of here. Said the Joker to the Thief…
The Paro airport in Bhutan is in a bowl in the mountains. The surface is over 7000 feet. How do you fly out of here in a Cessna 172 (or anything else for that matter).
I put the Paro airport in and took the defaults. Runway 33 faces a cliff way too high to get over. Forget treetops, this is solid rock. Let’s get real. You would not be headed in this direction without serious headwind. Adjust weather. Crank in an appropriate headwind. What would make you choose 33 vs 15. Do you need all that fuel? Lighten up. Leave those souvenirs behind and also that passenger. Know the Pilot’s Manual. Best angle of climb is key here. Review the route. The best mountain route is not always shortest.
Hints: The route to the north is a dead end. But you will always feel like you can make it. Wrong!
A well executed tight 180 to the left might work. Give it a try.
This will take you out to the SE which is probably the way you came in.
There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief.
Gotta beware gotta beware…
Credit to Bob Dylan and Jimmy Hendrix for the music playing in my head.
I was alerted by a Groklaw to an MSNBC article on the Ig Nobel awards. I really appreciate the folks who do these as it really is an award that truely extends the bounds of human knowledge.
The award for Medicine made me think that it would be interesting to do a 4-way double-blind study with a non-generic drug, its generic equivalent, and the non-generic in a different form. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of marketing and price. High and low price the real thing and the imitaion. What if it turns out that price improves the performace of the drug, regardless of composition. Would this make the ethical drug companies more ethical if they raised prices?
About a year ago, the ice maker in the fridge died. Since my brother and his family were on the way from where-ever to visit and spend the night, ice was vital. I went to the part store and got a new ice maker and put it in.
Recently when the ice maker started making no ice and an annoying clicking noise in midweek, no panic but genuine annoyance. There is good new and bad news. I can look at it on the weekend but the parts store is open week days. I unplugged the plug and my wife put the ice tray in the freezer.
On the weekend, I had time to look. The ice maker has a white cover on the end. It has some catches on the side away from you that you understand once you have it off. Slip a flat-blade screwdriver under middle of the lower edge and work it in a bit until you release the catches. Gently but firmly. The plastic cover comes off and reveals the motor unit. The shaft of the motor (on the side away from you) turns a shaft with a set of paddles on it. There is a metal mold to form the semi-circular-segment prism ice “cubes”. There is also a heating element and a thermal sensor. The underside of the cover has the a sticker with some clues to as to how it works.
The next post will discuss the fix.