The end of college textbooks?

Heard this on NH public radio this morning. College textbooks will be replaced with E-books read on laptops. The advocates were making the usual happy noises about progress and change and whatever. I kept thinking about those awful no text book courses my children were subjected to. With a textbook, you have something to study from and to review before the test. Without a textbook, all you have is your own classroom notes, and memory. With a textbook, parents can help with home work. Without one, forget it. Far as I am concerned, teaching a course without a textbook is student abuse.
How long will e-textbooks last before the next release of Windows renders them unreadable? Or the coming hard drive crash erases them for good? I have college textbooks still on my shelf that served me well at work for better than 40 years. I've got a lot of e-stuff around that is no longer readable, 9-track mag tapes, 8 inch and 5 inch floppy diskettes for example. Won't be long before the 3.5 inch floppies go away too.

More Snow. Cannon gets 16 inches

Snowed all last night. It's deep and powdery. Skiing will be superb. And it's school vacation week too.

Real Estate Market, down, but not dead

North country home sales for Grafton County NH (Littleton, Bethlehem, Franconia) and the St Johnsbury area in Vermont are down 20% from 2007. Prices are down about the same amount. According to the Smith Peabody Real Estate Buyers Guide (a freeby that turns up in your mail box now and then) 638 homes were sold in 2007 and only 514 in 2008, a 19.4% drop. Average price was $230,597 in 2007 and dropped to $182,107 for 2008, a 20% drop. That's bad, but not as bad as it might be. It's clearly a good year to buy, or at least better than last year.
The drop in home prices means anyone who bought last year with 20% down is underwater (or at least decks awash). Anyone who bought with less downpayment is deep underwater. Refinancing is not an option when you are underwater. Selling underwater means the owner takes a bath.
Surprisingly, the length of time a home is on the market hasn't changed much. It takes about 6 months to sell a house, a figure that actually dropped 6 days.

Homemade chicken pot pie

Comes out just as good as the frozen supermarket type. In a casserole combine chicken (cooked or raw), peas, corn, carrots, potato, onion, and mushrooms. The colorful veggies improve the eye appeal. Add one can Campbell's cream of chicken soup for gravy. Bake in the oven, covered, at 350 F until the carrots are getting tender. (Maybe 45 minutes) When the carrots start getting tender, add crust. Use Pillsbury biscuits, the kind that come in the round pressurized cardboard tubes, the ones you slice with a knife to open. Place a layer of uncooked biscuits on top of the chicken and veggie mix. Cook uncovered at 400F long enough to brown the biscuits. (about 12-15 minites). Comes out as tasty and good looking and virtuously homemade. Quantities are not critical, just fill the casserole fairly close to the top.

Snow, Cannon gets 12 inches of powder

It snowed all day yesterday and all last night. I had 12 inches on the porch this morning. Light fluffy powder. Doesn't get much better than this.

Welfare for lawyers Part II

Lawsuits over the cancellation of the Navy's A12 stealth fighter program way back in 1991 are still going on. The amount of money is non-trivial, $2.7 billion for Boeing and $1.4 billion for General Dynamics.
Without going into the rights and wrongs, it is a scandal that US courts have been unable to settle the matter after 18 years. Justice delayed is justice denied. And want to bet all the lawyers are getting paid right on time, with your tax dollars?

Canada goose brings down A-320

The dramatic crash of US Air's flight 1549 into the Hudson River was indeed caused by bird ingestion by the engines. According to Aviation Week, the Smithsonian Institutes' Feather Identification Lab has identified the "DNA matter" from both engines as that of Canada geese.
Canada geese weigh 5.8 to 8.7 pounds, where as the engine is certified only against a 4 pound bird strike. Plus, the certification only requires the engine not to explode, not to shuck turbine blades thru the cabin, and not to fall off the wing. There is no requirement for the engine to keep running after a bird strike. Flight 1549 had the extreme bad luck of ingesting birds into both engines, shutting down both of them and turning the A0320 into a glider.
Captain Sullenburger and his crew deserve the highest praise for getting the plane down in one piece and getting the passengers off safely.