Toy Boat Woodshop for the Kids.

    Running out of things to keep the kids interested?  Teach them some wood shop.  Make some toy boats.  Make the hull from a board, or even a bit of 2 by 4, what ever you have.  Cut a bow.  Mark the middle of the board.  Lay a square (any kind, T-square, combination square, Speed square, what ever you have) across the hull, some inches back from the bow end, and draw a pencil line clean across the hull.  They draw diagonal lines to mark the bow from the middle of the end back to the square line.  That will give a symmetrical bow when you saw both sides of it.  You can cut the bow with any kind of hand saw, cross cut, miter, hack, coping; use what ever you have.  You can leave the stern square, or you can make a pair of 45 degree cuts to round it off a bit.  You can use a plane or a spoke shave to smooth and round the hull. 

   You need a cabin, a piece of wood nailed on lengthwise.  You need a bridge that is a short piece of wood, atop the cabin and cross wise up front.  You ought to have a smoke stack, although we left that detail off a lot of toy boats we built in the distant past.  For a stack you need something round, a bit of dowel, a bit of broomstick, a bit of PVC pipe, whatever.  Drill a hole in the cabin top.  Secure it with glue, white glue of yellow carpenters glue for wood, epoxy or superglue for PVC pipe.  The glue will bond better to PVC if you clean it with hot water and soap, or solvent (alcohol, paint thinner, acetone, lacquer thinner). 

Do I believe Corona virus numbers coming out of China???

I ought to say "No" but lets just say I am deeply suspicious.  I think the communist government has total control of the news coming out of China, and I suspect that they make up what ever Corona virus numbers they think makes China look good.   If you are making up world statistics, like how many cases or how many deaths world wide, I would be tempted to simply leave out the numbers from China. 

What is the Corona virus death rate?

Death rate is calculated by dividing the number of deaths by the number of cases, and multiplying the resulting fraction by 100 to make it into percent.  So far so good.  We are pretty sure that we don't know the true number of cases of Corona virus (COVID-19).  We only call it a case when some brand new test comes back positive.  We are no where near to testing everybody.  At a guess (wild ass guess, WAG) there are two or three times as many cases out there than the ones we know about.  We expect that as we do more testing, we will find more cases, which reduces the death rate.  Right now, using the numbers we have, the death rate from Corona virus is somewhere between  1 or 2 percent. 
  Listening to the TV this morning I hear about people who look healthy, feel good, show no symptoms. are testing positive for Corona virus.  This might be something wrong with the test (it's brand new and we haven't had time to check everything), or it might be these people have a good strong immune system, or the grace of God, or something that keeps them healthy.  We don't know if these people are infectious.  Maybe they are, maybe they are not.  Should these people be counted as cases of the disease?  Is it reasonable to call healthy people sick just because a test comes back positive? 

Spring snow. I have two inches down on the deck

And it is still falling.  Stupid Beast wanted out, even though it was snowing.  So I let her out, it was only a degree or two above freezing.  I left the door unlatched.  She understands that she can get back in by just pushing on the door.  She never closes the door behind her, but that is cats for you.  Spring must have missed her plane. 

What do the medics and the newsies want? Really?

The medics on TV seem more concerned with studies and papers about Corona virus than they do with curing patients.  They seem to be saying that by curing patients you upset their statistical studies of the disease.  I believe that doctors ought to be curing patients, not collecting statistics and doing studies. 

    Back in sailing ship days a British ship’s doctor came up with a cure for scurvy.  He proved his cure worked with a double blind experiment.  Half the patients got his cure and the other half got a fake (a placebo).  Neither the patient nor the doctor knew which was which to prevent preconceptions from influencing the reported results.  It was feared that the doctor writing up the patient’s progress would be tempted to report that patients receiving the real stuff were doing better than patients getting the placebo.  Hence keeping the doctor ignorant (blind) improved the objectivity of the experiment.  It’s good science, but it’s hard on the patients given the placebo. This "double blind" technique is still considered the proper way to test drugs and treatments now in the 21st century.

   Anyhow, the medics pontificating on TV about Corona virus seem more interested in good science rather than curing patients.  And the TV personalities seem more interested in trashing President Trump for his favorable comments on hydroxyl chloroquine than discussing how well it works. 

   Another strange thing.  Various bureaucrats, FDA, CDC, and others, seem to think that doctors may not proscribe “off-label” uses of drugs without their bureaucratic permission.  Me, I think the decision should lie with the doctor and patient, which means mostly with the doctor.  Most patients cheerfully accept anything their doctor says is good for them.  “You are the doctor” is the usual cliché.”  As it is, doctors are reluctant to discuss off label drug uses for fear of professional or bureaucratic retaliation.  

Networking Windows 10

Used to be, back when Windows XP ruled the land, that you could connect two computers and move files between them.  Somehow (Micro$oft programming weenies probably) that capability has been lost.  I have a desktop and a laptop, both running Windows 10.  They both talk to my wifi router; they both are connected to the internet.  I would like to back up a bunch of files on the desktop to the laptop.  So far I cannot do it.  Neither machine can see the other machine, let alone transfer files. 

   There oughta be a way, but so far I have not found it. 

What's a Samaritan?

It was winter, many years ago.  It was snowing.  I was driving Cindy and my kids home.  Cindy was maybe 15, old enough to baby sit my kids.  We are in the parking lot behind the supermarket in Melrose.  I see a woman a few parking spots over cannot get her car started.  I think of helping her, then I think of a car full of kids who really need to get home.  I make an idle remark to Cindy that I don't think I will be a good Samaritan this afternoon.  Cindy comes back to me "What's a Samaritan?"  This from a girl whose family made it to First Congregational Church  in Melrose every Sunday.  I know Cindy had done several years of Sunday School at FCC.
   Anyhow, it is perfectly OK to read the Bible to your children now that they are home for Corona virus.  Regardless of your personal religious views, I think every child ought to know the good old bible stories, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah's Ark, a gospel, David and Goliath, Exodus and Moses, Joshua and the battle of Jericho, and more.  The oldest stories from Genesis go back 3500 years or more to Mesopotamia, the beginning of civilization.
   The King James version is the best version in English.  Long time ago I started reading to my children from a bible we had kicking around the house.  I get to the story of Joseph and his brothers.  In this low speed bible version Joseph's coat of many colors has been down graded to a robe with long sleeves.  We can all understand that a fancy coat of many colors might arouse his brother's jealousy.  Who cares about a robe with long sleeves?  I got a closet full of 'em.  Anyhow next evening, I stopped at a bookstore and purchased a King James version.

So I went grocery shopping today

The weather people are forecasting snow for tomorrow, so I thought I would go to the Littleton Coop today.  Some customers were wearing masks. Not much of a crowd for a Sunday.  We have a lot of empty shelves and a lot of little signs saying "Please only take two.  Leave some for others." Toilet paper is all gone.  I got the last roll of paper towels, an off brand, brown, which I never saw before. Butcher counter was closed, sign saying they could not get any beef delivered.  No pork sausages, just chicken sausages, pork is all gone.  They were asking $8.59 for a pound of bacon.  I will go to Shaw's next time and see if things are any better. 
   Either the supply chain is breaking down because everybody is hunkered down at home, or they have had some really heavy panic buying.   We might need to get folks back to work just to keep us all eating. 
 

Have the kids measure the value of Pi.

Have them draw as big a circle as possible.  Measure the circumference.  Measure the diameter.  Divide circumference by diameter.  Quotient ought to come out 3.14159.  Small errors are probably due to crude measurement methods.  Large errors are some kind of blunder.  Repeat the exercise on other circles just to make it clear that Pi is the same for all circles.  This will give some practice using the calculator and give a real feeling for the size of Pi and what it means.  To draw big circles you can use a pencil stuck on the end of a yardstick and pivot the yardstick off a nail.  Or tie the pencil to a string. 

Writing is the other half of English.

 Best way to teach children to write is to have them write.  Now-a-days with rubout keys that really work, Word for Windows with spell and grammar check, writing is easier than in the bad old days of pen and ink on lined paper, or typewriters.   And now-a-days I think every kid needs to touch type.  For young children learning touch typing there are programs that teach it.  Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing is the one our family used.  I don’t know if Mavis is still in business but Google will tell you, as well as find other programs, and reviews of typing programs.

  Back in the old days I had to write a lot of book reports for school.  I am not convinced that squeezing a several hundred page book down to a one or two page book report is a learning experience.  Better exercise is to write the classic five paragraph essay.  First paragraph gives an overview “tell ‘em what you are going to say”.  Three body paragraphs (main idea and two supporting ideas) explain what you are trying to say, and a final paragraph summarizes what you have said.  Subjects for essays can be how to do something (cooking, fixing something, fishing, camping, kite flying), what happened at some time in history, how something works, political ideas (best for older children).  Parent can help their children to find a good subject.  An essay ought to about a page long and should not take more than 45 minutes to write. If writing an essay is taking too long the kid needs some help. 

   And, more fun than essays is posting something on line.  As parent you might want to have your children show you their posts before they post them.  And you might want to point out trolls, rants, hate speech, flame wars, and fake news as it appears and suggest that they never reply to such.  And the need for privacy, which means never post their contact information (home address, phone number, email address).  In fact you don’t have to reveal your name, post using a pen name.  Posts ought to be short; half a page is long for a post.  Witty is good.  Mean is bad.  Limit posts to a single idea.  If you have more than one idea make more than one post.

Fox News is giving New York Governor Cuomo a lot of air time

What can I  say?  Cuomo has little to say of worth, but Fox is putting him on the air, a lot.

English for Home Schooling

Learning English is half reading and the other half is writing.  Reading is terribly important.  Reading swiftly and well is one of the secrets to getting thru high school and college.  Any book cool enough to get a child to read it on their own time is a good book.  Doesn’t have to be the kind of book that school teachers approve of.  Just reading improves the child’s ability to read; even it is just a comic book. If the child has seen the movie, reading the book is not all that important, movies are vivid and the child will pick up and retain much of them.  If the child wants to read the book, even after seeing the movie, more power to her/him. Don’t discourage a reading of love.  The books my children were assigned from school were mostly terrible.  Dystopias that made 1984 look like summer camp.  Novels where the protagonist never did anything other than play the victim for 200 pages.  Riding the Bus with my Sister, where after 150 pages she marries the bus driver.  Or age inappropriate like Of Mice and Men in middle school.  For that matter my schools were not much better.  I never did appreciate Jane Austin or Thomas Hardy of which we had a lot.  In case you are short of ideas about good books to suggest, here is a short list of books that I enjoyed reading back in grade school and junior high school.  I didn’t bother to list the better known modern books like Harry Potter on the theory that everyone knows about them. 

The Thirteen Clocks James Thurber

Tom Sawyer Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Mark Twain

Mr. Lincoln’s Army Bruce Catton plus all of Bruce Catton’s other books

Aku-Aku Thor Heyerdahl  

A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens also A Christmas Carol

Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson

Stuart Little E.B. White

The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame

The Borrowers Mary Norton

The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury

Lest Darkness Fall L. Sprague De Camp

Lord Kalvan of Other When H. Beam Piper

The Last Planet Andre Norton

Mission of Gravity Hal Clement

The Battles that Changed History Fletcher Pratt

Run Silent, Run Deep Edward L. Beach

All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis

Three Hearts and Three Lions Poul Anderson

Have Spacesuit Will Travel Robert A. Heinlein plus all the other Heinlein books

The Long Ships Franz Gunnar Bengtson

Dune Frank Herbert

Robin Hood Howard Pyle

We cannot keep the country shut down forever

The Corona virus is going to be with us for years, perhaps forever. We cannot keep everyone hunkered down at home for years.  We have to farm the land, plant the crops, bring in the harvest. Process the food, turning oats into Quaker Oats and corn into Kellogg's Corn Flakes.  Distributing it to the markets.  Providing furnace oil and motor gasoline and diesel fuel and jet fuel.  Clothing, shelter, rail transportation, medicine, electric power, fresh water, and a zillion other life essential things.  We can shut down for a few weeks and live off inventory, but very shortly inventory will run out and we have to get back to work and grow and make stuff.
   And time doesn't make much difference.  Corona virus is pretty infectious, if we go out, we are liable to catch it.  It will be the same a year from now.  Only a vaccine will  solve the problem and everyone says a vaccine is at least a year away.   I am thinking that we have to accept our losses (deaths) from Corona virus and get on with running the country, and we might as well do it in a week. 

Corona virus strikes the town dump

Oh sorry "transfer station", dump is pejorative.  I went down to the Franconia "transfer station" with two weeks worth of trash.  And, the "transfer station" only has one guy on duty and he tells me they are only taking garbage, no recycling (cans, bottles, magazines, paper).  So I got rid of my last full pay-as -you-throw bag, bought a new roll of bags ($17 for 10) and went home with a trunk still full of cans and bottles. 
  And this evening, to add to my joy, it is snowing.  Forecast is for maybe six inches.  So I shall lit the fire. 

Senate Democrats kill "Phase 3" Corona virus relief bill today

The Republicans are lacking five senators who are self quarantined with Corona virus, including Rand Paul.  This weakened their hand,  The Democrats were demanding that the multi trillion bill be made yet more expensive by including all sorts of greenie demands, and union demands.  So our gallant US Senate hung the bill out to dry on a "procedural" vote.  They didn't have the stones to make it a vote on the bill itself.  Let's hear it for senate democrats.  They have the needs of us constituents close to their hearts.  Yeah. Right.

Show your kids how to use a hand calculator

Let's assume a simple four function calculator.  Show 'em how to add, subtract, multiply and divide.  For really young children see if they understand what these functions mean in the real world.  Add they probably know.  As in I have two baskets of apples.  How many apples do I have total. Subtract is not too hard, I have a dozen apples.  We eat 5 apples, how many are left?
   Multiply is a little more abstract.  Try this.  Each man eats three Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) a day.  We are going out on a seven day patrol. There are 29 men in the squad.  How many MREs do I draw out from supply?
   For divide consider a 40 foot long railroad car, a gondola say.  How many shipping containers 8 foot square can I load into the gondola?  Then try them on 7 foot shipping containers, which gets into remainders.  Then try them on miles per gallon. 
   Then show 'em how to add up a long column of numbers.  You clear the accumulator and punch in the numbers one by one.  Hit + after each number.  Hit = to add them all up.
   Then show them how to take a percent.  For extra credit show 'em how to convert a fraction into a decimal.
   Get thru all that and you have done something good. 

Heard another good one on TV. "Liquidity Facility"

"Liquidity Facility".  Part of the "Phase 3"  bailout bill going thru Congress.  What a nice name for a bailout bucket. 

Beat the Press was in fine form this morning

Of course all they talked about was the Corona virus epi/pan demic.  Chuck Todd opened with 10 minutes of just plain bashing of President Trump.  Helpful that is.  Then he gave Bill DeBlasio, the nutcase NYC mayor, a lot of air time.  DeBlasio wailed and cried that the government wasn't doing enough to help NYC.  He never got into specifics, except that he wants the US Army to send all its medical people to New York to help out. 
   And them we get to interviewing Pat Toomey, Republican senator from Pennsylvania.  "We have an important PROCEDURAL vote coming up this afternoon and then we will know..."  Good old US senate, the plague is sweeping the land and they cannot bring themselves to vote on a real issue, like passing the "phase 3" economic repair bill.  Procedural votes are just time wasters. 

Do a nature walk with the children

You would think every kid ought to be able to tell the difference between and an oak and a maple, a spruce and pine, and put a name to at least some of the wildflowers out there.  For this to happen, the kids have to see the trees and wildflowers in question.  Of course, either you have to be a fairly decent naturalist yourself, or you need a field guide to trees and wild flowers.  With the field guide the kids can find flowers and trees and you look them up in the field guide.  The weather is warming, snow is mostly gone, a;; the wildflowers are coming up as buds right now. 

The Incredibles II.

The first Incredible flick from Pixar was cute. The sequel is meh.  Not quite sure just what makes the difference, but the second one is not as cute, or as funny, as the first one. 

Try your library for educational videos

Franconia's library is about as small as they come, but they had/have a really dynamite video about the American revolution.  It was mostly lectures by a Gettysburg College history professor.  He was good, spoke well and clearly.  He had a few visual aids, a map or two, some paintings, but mostly just spoke standing behind a lectern.  No History Channel style CGI.  I watched the whole thing and enjoyed it.  He told the story straight, the accepted story, no Charles and Mary Beard Economic Interpretation of the Constitution stuff.  Although it was a college level course, I am sure that middle school kids and up would get a lot out of it.  I am sure there are a lot of other gems like this in your local library. 

Introduce your kids to Shakespeare

Yet another home school project to fill in the time while the public schools are closed for COVID-19.  Shakespeare is something everyone should know.  Reading Shakespeare is difficult, you  are reading just the dialog of a play not a novel.  Far better is to watch the play acted out by good actors.  Netflix has good productions of a lot of the Shakespeare plays.  Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, The Tempest, Henry the Fifth, Merchant of Venice, and more. Watch them with your children and then discuss them.  Talk about motives, who is a good guy, who is a bad guy.  Who did a good thing and who did a bad thing.  Who is REALLY in love with who. 

Things you can teach your children now that schools are closed

All this lesson needs is an ordinary ruler.  Let 'em hold it.  Get them to understand that it is a one foot rule.  Show them that each foot contains 12 (a dozen) inches.  Show them the fractional inch marks.  Get them to recognize the differences between, and names of, halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths.  Have 'em measure some things accurate to a sixteenth.  Get 'em to find the center of things, boards, blocks, tin cans, whatever.  They do this by measuring to width of the item and then dividing the width in half.  Show 'em the trick of  halving a fraction by merely doubling the denominator (the downstairs part of the fraction).  Show 'em the trick of laying the ruler slant wise so the width measures out to an even number of inches and the center is the center of the ruler reading. 
   Once upon a time I taught an evening wood shop class for middle school kids.  Not one of 'em could read a ruler, let alone use it to find the center of a board. 

Is CDC dragging its feet over a COVID-19 vaccine?

The TV showed a brave volunteer taking the experimental COVID-19 vaccine.  She was taking a risk, that risk being that the experimental vaccine might actually infect her rather than granting immunity.  Hoist a glass to her, let's admire her courage. 
The TV is also saying that it might take a year to get the vaccine approved, assuming it works and is safe.  Some testing is obviously in order, but a year's worth??  Or is that the time CDC and FDA and who knows who want to go over the paperwork?  They ought to be talking about streamlining the paperwork, and cutting the testing down as far as they dare. 
   How come we ain't hearing that kind of talk out of CDC and the rest of 'em???

Operation Torch, WWII turning point

Operation Torch, the North African landings was a fantastic operation.  New green American troops boarded ship in Norfolk Virginia, steamed across the U boat infested South Atlantic, landed on beaches all around North Africa, and with General Patton in command, smashed the Nazi forces.  We caught the Germans in between the British 8th army coming west from Egypt, and the Americans coming east from Casablanca.  Eventually the Germans surrendered and we took 250,000 prisoners, nearly as many as the Russians took at Stalingrad a few months earlier.
   Torch only happened because of Winston Churchill.  Right after Pearl Harbor the US Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed on "Germany First" as strategy and it was obvious that only a huge army landed as close to Germany as possible (Northern France) would do the job.  The Chiefs wanted to concentrate everything on building up the huge army needed, which would take a couple of years, and not engage in wasteful side shows.  In short ask the entire country to stand around, enduring war time shortages and hardships, while nothing much happened. 
   Churchill recognized that the Allies had to do something, anything would do, right now, in 1942, in order to maintain domestic support, both in Britain and in the US, for the war.  Torch was doable, in 1942.  The Germans didn't have all that many troops in North Africa, and  the Allied navies were strong enough to hold off the U boats and lay serious naval gunfire on anything ashore that was giving trouble.  Churchill managed to talk Franklin Roosevelt around to his way of thinking.  Roosevelt turned around and ordered the US Joint Chiefs to do North Africa and do it now, and no quibbling. 
   After crushing German resistance in North Africa, one thing led to another.  Sicily was not that far away and so it was invaded next.  And with Sicily in hand, Italy was the obvious next step.   That didn't work out as well as we had hoped but it gave a lot of green troops some combat experience before doing D-day in 1944. 

I remember the Asian Flu of 1957

I was in boarding school  (10th grade) at the time.  Every kid in the school caught it.  Fortunately we didn't all catch it at once.  The first victims were recovering by the time the last victims caught it.  Things were so tight you had to show a temperature over 100F to get admitted to the infirmary.  My room mate and I spent several low key days in our dorm room, telling stories, reading Playboy, and sipping hard cider.  Back then the farmers sold unpasteurized apple cider.  Put a gallon jug of it in your closet, wait 4 maybe 5 days and it became nice fizzy hard cider.  Not too much of a kick to it, but better than nothing.  You did have to take care to loosen the cap, lest fermentation generate enough CO2 pressure to burst the jug.  That happened to one kid, made one helova mess in his closet. 
   But, they kept playing baseball, going to school, running the trains.  No runs on toilet paper, or anything else.  Today we panic (largely egged on by the media who want to sell papers and attract viewers) and we are shutting down the entire country. 

So how bad is Corona virus a week later

It's got a new name COVID-19.  Death rate is now worse, about 2 or 3 % compared to 0.5% last week.  Tests are getting out in the field and that has raised the number of cases in the US to 3 thousand or so, a big up since last week where it was 244.  That's probably the result of testing.  A week ago the tests were not out there, and we were not calling COVID-19 infection unless we had tested for it.  Now that we have more tests, we are finding more cases.  So far New Hampshire is doing OK, only 6 cases so far.
    Apparently people under 50 can mostly shake it off, death rate for them is way less than 1%.  For old fogies like myself, the death rate can be as bad as 10%.  Youngest son called today and urged me to be careful.  If things keep getting worse, they may cancel Senate sessions down in Concord, at which point I can just sit back, relax, and  work on my HO train layout here at the house.  My old school has just canceled Alumni Day coming up in May.  Too bad, I was going, it would have been my 60th high school reunion. 

So how bad is that Corona Virus?

Hard to tell.  Today's TV news listed 244 known cases in the US with 12 deaths.  That yields a death rate of 0.5%.  That may change.  In patients, the Corona virus looks like plain old flu.  The only way to tell that the patient has Corona virus is a blood test, which up until the other day was only done by CDC in Atlanta.  Only patients with recent travel to China or other hot spots, or had contact with other Corona virus cases got tested.  Those 244 know cases represent the few patients who have been tested.  That's getting fixed, as I write this.  As of maybe Monday test kits will be widely distributed, and the number of tests will soar.  Expect the number of cases to climb, a lot.  That will reduce the computed death rate, a lot. 
   My sources tell me that the test coming out is pretty good at detecting Corona, but it also gives positives for a number of other common viruses (virii).  These false positives will further increase the number of cases, again reducing the death rate.  Some experts expect the final death rate for Corona will come out lower than for plain old ordinary flu. 
   The TV news has been yammering about Corona cases popping up in people with no travel and no contact with known Corona virus patients.  A likely explanation is some people are mostly immune to Corona and although infected, they don't show symptoms, and don't feel bad.  So they are out there, going about their business.  But they can infect other people.  I expect wide spread testing will find these people (if they exist). 
   And, based on the mere 244 cases that we know about today, we have been doing a pretty fair job keeping Corona virus out of the US.  The Democrats ought to get off Trump's case.  On the evidence he is doing a pretty good job keeping Corona out of the country.

I wonder where their voters will go. The Bern? Uncle Joe?

Been some thinning out over in the Democrat party.  Buttigieg, Steyer, and Klobuchar  have all thrown in the towel.  They all had some voter support.  Those voters will now move over to one of the surviving Democrat contenders.  Where will they go and are there enough of 'em to make a difference on Super Tuesday, which is upon us, polls ought to open in about four hours.  I'd expect these freshly orphaned voters would go for either The Bern, or Uncle Joe.  Somehow Mike Bloomberg doesn't look all that attractive.  Elizabeth Warren is coming from the same place as The Bern but she doesn't look as electable as The Bern.  There must be a couple of others still in the race but I cannot think of their names right now.

USAF tanker boodoggle[s]

Air refueling tankers are a range extender.  The KC 135's were purchased way back during the Eisenhower administration to refuel the B-52's.  The B-52's and their nuclear weapons were kept on US stateside bases for security reasons.  To bomb Moscow, the B-52s would be refueled somewhere over Europe before pressing on to Moscow.  And refueled a second time on the way back.  In Viet Nam the KC135s refueled our F105s just before they penetrated North Viet Nam air defenses, and a second time on the way home.  Without the tankers, the Thuds simply could not reach Hanoi from our bases in Thailand.  I expect that we will need the tankers to strike just about any foe we may encounter. 
   USAF has been trying to buy a new tanker to replace the 60-70 year old KC135s.  The KC135 is a good plane but 60-70 years of hard flying is asking a lot from it.  It's time for a new one.  And, a new tanker is a straight forward job, pick a jet liner in mass production for civil airlines.  Buy a bunch of 'em, take out the seats and the galley, put in fuel tanks and a refueling boom.  After  couple of bidding catastrophes, USAF managed to get a contract with Boeing to do just that.  They would take a Boeing 757 or 767 (can't remember which) and call it KC-46.  Except, USAF (or perhaps Boeing, they love gold plate as much as anyone)  speced a fancy TV system to allow the boom operator to sit up front with the rest of the crew and steer the boom out to meet the customer aircraft by TV.  The TV system has been unsatisfactory, (and unacceptable to USAF).  Last year they bitched about low contrast when the camera was looking into the sun.  This year they are bitching about "the rubber sheet effect" some kind of distortion of the image.  The Air Force is refusing to fly the plane.  Boeing is delivering them, USAF is withholding $8 or $12 million from the price of each KC46 until the TV system is satisfactory.  Aviation Week has a big color photo of  five finished KC46's parked on the ramp, canvas covers over the engines to keep out the rain. 
   This entire boondoggle could have been avoided by putting the boom operator in the tail and giving him a nice big window, glass or plexiglas, no moving parts, no contrast or "rubber sheet" distortion.  This worked just fine on the old KC135, and the much newer KC10.  But that was beyond USAF and Boeing, so we have Boeing loosing $8-$12 mil per aircraft, and they are just cluttering up a ramp somewhere, not flying missions.  Aviation Week has the story in the 24 Feb issue.

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

Sob.  No snow all night.  All we got was and inch maybe an inch and a half from yesterday.  It helps, mountain ought to be quite skiable.  But we were anticipating a lot more snow. 

Cannon Moutain Ski Weather

Today (Thursday) started out raining.  Cannon decided it was too miserable to open.  It has cooled down, we are now (3 PM) below freezing.  We have had two serious snow flurries, between the two they laid down an inch, maybe inch and a half.  More snow is forecast for tonight.  Cannon was hoping for 4 to 8 more inches.  I will post again tomorrow when we know what happened.  The weather forecasters are talking about more snow in the White Mountains tonight.  Lets see if they know what they are talking about.

FISA court is a rubber stamp. Let's stamp it out.

The TV news is jubilating over Justice Department news/leaks about "improper" FBI testimony to the FISA court that caused said court to OK snooping on the Trump campaign during the election.  Bear in mind that of the thousands of requests to snoop on American citizens only a dozen are rejected.  99.9% of all requests to snoop are approved.  This is a rubber stamp.  What's worse, the FISA court is secret.  We don't know who the judge[s] are, where and when it meets, where it's records are kept, nothing.  A FISA judge can rule any old which way and we citizens will never know.  And they have rubber stamped a helova lot of snooping over the years.
  We ought to shut the whole FISA court thing down.  Intelligence and police agencies wanting to snoop will have to get their warrants from a real judge in a real court, one that tries cases and is open for business 9/5  five days a week. 

Democratic Debate. A lot of bashing.

Politicians usually don't bash or trash each other, the thinking being that they might need the guy for something in the future.  But at the last debate before the South Carolina primary and Super Tuesday they figured their only chance of winning was to convince the voters not to vote for The Bern.  So The Bern had a lot lotta stuff dumped on his head this time.  A lot of it was old old old.  Some of it I didn't believe.  I'm a Republican, I don't have to vote for any of 'em.  Just between thee and me, I would love for the Democrats to select a candidate that would be easy meat for Donald Trump.  The Bern will do just fine.  Actually all of 'em look highly defeatable. 

Is India a member of the Anglosphere?

The Anglosphere is an informal interest group that goes way back, back as far as WWI, perhaps further.  Originally the Anglosphere was Great Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.  All English speaking British colonies or former colonies.  There is no treaty creating the Anglosphere.  As one might imagine, Great Britain and the United States are the biggest and strongest members, but the Anglosphere takes care not to trample on the smaller members.  Much of this is arranged in informal settings.  Since all the members share culture and history, they all tend to think alike and that makes for smooth and easy negotiations.

The Anglosphere fought WWII; they crushed the Nazis (with a lot of help from the Soviets) and set up the post war world.  The Anglosphere leaned pretty hard on the Soviets to keep them in line and contain communism.  They fought several small wars, Korea, Viet Nam, and Singapore. 

   Tonight I am watching the Indians putting on a show for President Trump’s visit.  They are doing it right.  The red carpet leading out of Air Force One has a band and dancers, all wearing colorful native garb, and belting out the tunes.  A fleet of shiny black SUVs and limousines.  I wonder if they are manufactured in India.  India has a decent sized auto industry. I could see the maker’s badge on the grilles but I didn’t recognize it.  It wasn’t a Caddy badge.  Indian Prime Minister Modi was on hand.  They did a motorcade, heading for either the Taj Mahal or Gandhi’s place, both were mentioned.  The streets were lined with cheering Indians.  Clearly a warm and enthusiastic for President Trump. 

   Can we admit India to the Anglosphere?  The British ran the place for a couple of hundred years and did a lot of Anglicization during that time.  We certainly have more in common with, and good feelings about, India than we do toward China or Russia.  Since the Anglosphere is informal, we would have to watch and see what happens.  If India supports the Anglosphere, and the other members talk with the Indians and gain their support before doing things then India is a working member.  Which would be good, India is an important country.  Indian science and industry are strong enough to launch a Mars orbiter.  India is a big place both in land area and population.  Many Indians speak English.  They have a lot of good engineers, many of whom work in US firms.  They have a fine national cuisine. 

Nevada can count. We have prelim results.

Looks like they know how to count in Nevada. The TV is giving early returns at 5 PM. Say 20 % of the vote is in. Saunders is doing well, 45%, with Biden trailing at maybe 19%. Not bad Nevada. Here in NH we don't give results until after the polls close at 7 PM. If this keeps up, Saunders has it knocked.

Airbus fesses up to bribery to sell aircraft

From this week's Aviation Week.  Airbus has agreed to pay a fine of 3.6 billion Euros to French, British and American authorities over a number of cases of bribing overseas government officials to buy Airbus aircraft.  Airbus is not admitting guilt and the case never went to court.  No Airbus employees are facing charges.  Airbus is paying up to get every one off their case.  The fine is substantial, Airbus annual revenues are 64 billion Euros  for 2018, of which 5 billion Euros are earnings.  So Airbus will notice those 3.6 billion Euros.  It will hurt.  The bribery acts occurred between 2008 and 2015. 
   One scam was a 5 million Euro bribe to Ghana to clinch the sale of C295 turboprop airlifters.  At a guess the C295 is a bit smaller than our C130 Hercules and costs maybe 45 million Euro's each.  Other bribery charges include a variety of mid east and far each airlines with names that mean nothing to me, two satellited deals and some military aircraft sales. 
   I am sure clearing this up makes Airbus' future more predictable.  They can go out and sell, sell, sell while Boeing is all wrapped around the 737 MAX axle. 

What was the worst mistake [you pick it] made in WWII?

Common question on Quora.  The worst mistake Japan made in WWII was attacking Pearl Harbor.  Prior to Pearl Harbor America was deep into isolationism, the idea that we could stand proud here in North America while the rest of the world sank into chaos.  Isolationism built on the unsatisfactory outcome of WWI and claimed that all we got out of WWI was profits for arms manufacturers (merchants of death they were called).  Japan had been agressing against China, and was running Korea and Manchuria as colonies.  We did not approve, and we had sent a lot of diplomatic nastygrams to Japan.  We finally decided to stop selling crude oil and scrap iron to Japan.  The Japanese could have replaced American sources of supply with oil from the Dutch East Indies, and scrap metal from somewhere.  The Germans had invaded and occupied the Netherlands, the Dutch colonies were on their own.  Should a Japanese task force conveyed a few Japanese bankers and their check books to the Dutch East Indies the Japanese could have acquired all the oil they needed.  We would have sent them a few more diplomatic nastygrams, but there was no way we were going to intervene militarily.  Japan could have done pretty much anything they pleased in Asia so long as they didn't attack American territory.
   After Japan sank our battle fleet at Pearl Harbor isolationism vanished, poof, within a few hours.  We were pissed off.  We had a far larger population than Japan, we had a far larger industrial base, we were a continental power, self sufficient in just about everything.  And we were mad. Japanese Admiral Yamamoto said at the time "I fear we have awoken a sleeping giant and filled him with a terrible resolve."  He had that right. 
   As it was, the Pearl Harbor attack changed the course of WWII.  We got our act together and clobbered both the Nazis and Japan.

Burning Bill Barr, Attorney General

The TV newsies have been dumping on Barr for listening to President Trump.  That's wrong.  The Dept of Justice, which the Attorney General runs, is a cabinet level department, just like State or Defense or Treasury.  They work for the President, and the President is perfectly entitled and empowered to give them orders.
   On this Stone case, where the president tweeted that 9 years was too long a sentence for a man in his 60's who had not broken any real laws, they convicted him of "lying to Congress".  That is a Mickey Mouse charge.  It just means a different of opinion between the Congress and Stone.  Lying to Congress, lying to the FBI, and lying to the police should not be crimes.  Ham sandwich nation.  They aren't like perjury, lying under oath.  And I think 9 years is entirely too long for a Mickey Mouse conviction.  So does Trump.  So does Barr.
   The four prosecutors who want off the case and out of DOJ, they are all long service snivel service, fireproof lifers.  These guys are all Democrats, and they enjoy doing anything they can to make life hard for the Republican Trump Administration.  Let 'em resign.  Good riddance to them.  
   I hear 1100 former (and perhaps current) DOJ employees have signed an anti Trump petition.  Same goes for them.  Died in the wool Democrats out to cause trouble for a Republican Administration.  Fire 'em all.  Cancel the pensions of the retired ones.

Trump goes to Daytona for the NASCAR race

They are having a wonderful time. Nice low fly over in Air Force One.  President to take a lap in the presidential limo.  And say a few words to the Yuge crowd.  Stands look full.   Continuous  live TV coverage on Fox.  What's not to like?

Boeing is hurting

Boeing has not sold a single airliner this last month.  This week's Aviation Week had two pieces on Boeing's plight.  Boeing lost $600 million on 2019.  They wrote about the "New Midmarket Aircraft"  (NMA) development of which is sorta underway with a delivery target date of 2025.  At the rate things are going Boeing will be toast by 2025.  Nothing was said about getting the 737 MAX ungrounded.  Things got so bad that Boeing stopped production of the 737-MAX, they must be running out of places to put them all.  And shutting down production has hurt/panicked/destroyed all the vendors that made parts for the 737-MAXes.  Boeing was one of the few American companies that did much exporting, and the 737-MAX grounding has done bad things for the US trade deficit. 
   As far as ungrounding the 737-MAX, the problem is the FAA people are just snivel servants who know little about flying.  They do know that if they let the 737-MAX fly and there is another accident fingers will be pointed at them, and heads may roll.  So they are shuffling papers, milling around, and demanding more and more engineering data from Boeing.  Boeing knows that it cannot press the FAA for fear of getting them more bent out of shape and less likely to ever let the 737MAX fly.

NH Primary Results as of 11PM

With 75% of the vote in Donald Trump has 92,000 votes.  Bernie Sanders has 58,000.  Pet e Buttigieg is right behind Bernie with 52,000.  The rest of the Democrats are way down from the two front runners. 

Learning the Hard Stuff

To drink that is.  We are talking distilled liquors which are sold at 80 to 90 proof.  For those just getting into drinking hard stuff, a proof point is one half a percent of the alcohol content.  100 proof is 50-50 grain alcohol (ethanol) and water.  A jigger of the hard stuff has the kick of a 12 ounce can of beer or a small glass of wine. 
   Of the hard liquors my favorite is whiskey, which comes from four important places, Scotch from Scotland, Canadian from Canada, Bourbon from Bourbon county Kentucky, and Irish from Ireland.  They are all good.  When you first try them the fierce bite of the alcohol will numb your taste buds and you won't notice much difference between them.  With some experience you will find Scotch has a sharper tang to it, Bourbon is sweeter, Canadian is somewhere in between, and good Irish whiskey is just very very smooth. 
    I drink my whiskey with ice and club soda (Scotch and soda).  A jigger (or two if you are hard core), an 8 to 12 ounce glass filled with ice, and fill it up with club soda, and you have a very nice drink.  If you are hard core, you can drink your whiskey straight, just ice, no club soda.  If you are really hard core you can drink your whiskey neat, no ice. 
   You can buy quite decent whiskey for $15 a "half gallon" (actually 1.75 liters today). And you can pay a good deal more.  In the quite decent class is Old Crow bourbon, Canadian Club, and Clan McGregor Scotch.   A notch up is maybe Ballantine Scotch, Wild Turkey bourbon ,and Seagram's VO Canadian.  My sainted (and now deceased) mother drank little else  besides VO.  I can enjoy the pricier whiskeys but I don't normally spend the money to buy them.   

Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

We got 8 inches of fresh snow on Friday.  That will make all the trails super good.  I wanted to post this earlier on Friday but the cable went down, knocking out my broadband and my TV.  Cable just came back. 

Everyone should vote in the NH primary next Tuesday

The primary is this coming Tuesday. Everyone should go out and vote. New Hampshire has a lot of fun doing the First In The Nation (FITN) primary. We also get a lot of good publicity, we get increased clout down in Washington, and all those candidates and news people help keep New Hampshire green, they bring money. The way it is now, all presidential candidates have to pass muster with New Hampshire voters. This is a good thing. Let's keep it up. To do so we have to show a good turnout. We want to avoid a catastrophe like Iowa. I am sure that Secretary of State Bill Gardner and countless poll workers (unpaid volunteers mostly) will do their usual good job. As American citizens, our duty is to go to the polls and vote.

Iowa still cannot count. and it hurts

At this point they are all claiming victory.  They all put a good deal of time and money into the Iowa caucus and what did they get? Diddly Squat.  Wanna bet nobody does much campaigning (and spending) in Iowa in 2024?  And apparently this is all the fault of the Democratic party, both national and Iowa.  Takes a lot of workers to mess things up so badly.

Iowa has forgotten how to count

It's after 8 AM on Tuesday and Iowa still hasn't counted up Monday's caucus results.  The Bern released his own count, which shows him winning, but even the Bern admits it is only a partial count.
NHPR radio said that better than 1000 precincts were instructed to punch their results into a smart phone program.  Apparently said smart phone program stopped working (or never worked).  So the 1000 precincts were expected to telephone results into state HQ.  Resulting in busy signals, hour long waits for an answer, and a massive arithmetic challenge at HQ.   Smarter would have been to have the precincts call the results into county, and have county add them up and call the sums into state HQ.  Fewer phone calls and less adding up that way. 

College is too damn expensive

I paid tuition for all three of my children.  They all graduated.  It was expensive.  Like $8000 a year, per child.  It's worse now.
  Big part of the problem, Uncle Sam will loan a student all he/she needs.  If the colleges find things are a little tight this year, they just hike the tuition.  Uncle will pay.  The students will sign, they are so deep in debt that another couple of K doesn't sound so bad.  Students are graduating with $50K debts that cannot be dumped via bankruptcy.  Lot of 'em are putting off marriage, home buying, child raising, everything, until their student debt is paid down.  This might take 10 years.
   Colleges could cut costs.  First off, lay off ALL the administrators.  Administrators don't teach, don't do anything connected with education, but they draw their very handsome pay regularly.   Then lay off the janitors and the buildings and grounds folk.  Have the students sweep the halls, mow the grass, shovel the snow, set the tables, wash the dishes, what ever.  We did that at Westtown school, it worked out well.  Lay off the IT department.  Have the computer science majors keep the school computers humming. 

Massive turnout at Trump campaign events

Watching the crowd at Trump's NJ rally the other night.  NJ is a blue state, but Trump filled the sports arena and had crowds who could not get in watching on big out door TV screens.  Can they really impeach a president with that kind of intense political support?  And so much of it? 

Winter Hot Rod

I need one.  My Buick is up to 90K miles and might not make it to 200K, you never know.  I will be looking for another car in a few years.  I would like to get a hot rod, Mustang, Camaro, Challenger.   Except all of those are terrible snow cars.  They cannot pull up three mile hill, they are totally squirrely after the first flake hits the asphalt.  They are so bad the people laugh if you turn up driving one at a ski resort.
  A good snow car has 50 50 weight distribution, same weight on both the front and back wheels.  And four wheel drive.  And limited slip differentials fore and aft.  And a manual transmission so you can rock the car back and forth between 1st gear and reverse gear to get unstuck. And door handles big enough to get all four fingers around them, even wearing gloves to tug open a frozen door.  Good strong defrosters, fore and aft.  No turned up rear edge of the hood that makes a snow dam around the wipers.  Windshield washer container big enough to take a whole gallon of windshield washer fluid.  Good snow tires.  Good solid way to mount the ski rack.  Battery mounted under the hood in case you need to jump start it, or jump start a friend.  And an outside thermometer so we can tell if that dark spot up ahead is black ice or just a puddle.
  You would think a good sporty car that was good in winter would sell.