Wednesday, July 15, 2009
787 Taxi test
According to Aviation Week, the long delayed Boeing 787 started taxi tests this week. They have some pix showing the plane zipping down the runway. They still don't have fix for the wing-body join problem, but at least something is happening.
Vermont Wind Power in 1941
From "Engineer's Dreams" by Willy Ley.
"A really large wind generator worked faithfully for years on a mountain called Grandpa's Knob, near Rutland Vermont. There is often a steady breeze on top of a ridge of hills even though down in the valley the air seems perfectly quiet. In 1939 a Boston engineer, Palmer Cosslet Putnam, had the idea that a hilltop should be a suitable place for a wind generator. Since aviation engineers had gained considerable knowledge of how air flows around an airplane wing, a wind generator could be designed far more efficiently in 1939 that it could have been two decades earlier.
The tower for the wind turbine on Grandpa's Knob was 125 feet tall, just tall enough to carry the two bladed impeller, which had a diameter of 175 feet. Each blade looked very much like an airplane wing and the whole was mounted in such a way that it turned into the wind automatically. The turbine was ready for operation on October 19, 1941 and ran virtually without serious interruption until March 1945. Then the wind generator on Grandpa's knob became a war casualty. On the twenty sixth of March one of the two blades was torn loose. Since the generator was spinning at the moment, the lower blade smashed into the other one, damaging it badly. If the had happened in normal times the damaged blades would have been carefully inspected, and the accident would have resulted in new and better blades. But it happened during the second world war. Neither material nor labor could be obtained, and since the wind generator could not be classed as "vital" -after all it was mostly experimental even though it did produce current which it fed into the local network - the structure had to be abandoned. "
"A really large wind generator worked faithfully for years on a mountain called Grandpa's Knob, near Rutland Vermont. There is often a steady breeze on top of a ridge of hills even though down in the valley the air seems perfectly quiet. In 1939 a Boston engineer, Palmer Cosslet Putnam, had the idea that a hilltop should be a suitable place for a wind generator. Since aviation engineers had gained considerable knowledge of how air flows around an airplane wing, a wind generator could be designed far more efficiently in 1939 that it could have been two decades earlier.
The tower for the wind turbine on Grandpa's Knob was 125 feet tall, just tall enough to carry the two bladed impeller, which had a diameter of 175 feet. Each blade looked very much like an airplane wing and the whole was mounted in such a way that it turned into the wind automatically. The turbine was ready for operation on October 19, 1941 and ran virtually without serious interruption until March 1945. Then the wind generator on Grandpa's knob became a war casualty. On the twenty sixth of March one of the two blades was torn loose. Since the generator was spinning at the moment, the lower blade smashed into the other one, damaging it badly. If the had happened in normal times the damaged blades would have been carefully inspected, and the accident would have resulted in new and better blades. But it happened during the second world war. Neither material nor labor could be obtained, and since the wind generator could not be classed as "vital" -after all it was mostly experimental even though it did produce current which it fed into the local network - the structure had to be abandoned. "
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
All men are created equal
Jefferson wrote this as the preamble to the Declaration of Independence. It is a fundamental concept underlying American democracy.
Does Supreme Court nominee Sutomayer believe in Jefferson? Or does she believe that American citizens are divided into white, black, Latino, Japanese-American, and other ethnic groups, with each group entitled to special treatment before the law?
Does Supreme Court nominee Sutomayer believe in Jefferson? Or does she believe that American citizens are divided into white, black, Latino, Japanese-American, and other ethnic groups, with each group entitled to special treatment before the law?
Monday, July 13, 2009
US Rep Paul Hodes, Welcome to the Twilight Zone
Got a letter back from Mr. Hodes this morning, in response to a letter from me asking him to vote against the Cap and Tax energy bill.
"A recent study estimates that this bill would create 1.5 million new American jobs."
Right.
"The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has shown that this bill will actually save American families a net average of $3,500 each year by lowering their energy bills."
Right.
In 2010 we gotta elect someone, anyone, whose brains are not made of solid concrete.
"A recent study estimates that this bill would create 1.5 million new American jobs."
Right.
"The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has shown that this bill will actually save American families a net average of $3,500 each year by lowering their energy bills."
Right.
In 2010 we gotta elect someone, anyone, whose brains are not made of solid concrete.
James Bond no longer works for CIA
From today's Wall St Journal front page.
" A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill Al Qaeda opeatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn't clear, and the CIA won't comment on its substance.
According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement lnown as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts. The initiative hadn't become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it."
Hmm. CIA was given a "license to kill" eight years ago and the project was still in the planning phase eight years later? US Air Force (my old outfit) would have done better than that. With that kind of mission order, USAF would have produced results within eight weeks, not eight years. Might not have had any bodies to show after the air strike, but they'd be good and dead. US Marine Corp could also handle this mission within a few weeks. What in hell is the matter with CIA? Take eight YEARS and have nothing to show for it?
Clearly some one was reading too many Matt Helm thrillers.
" A secret Central Intelligence Agency initiative terminated by Director Leon Panetta was an attempt to carry out a 2001 presidential authorization to capture or kill Al Qaeda opeatives, according to former intelligence officials familiar with the matter.
The precise nature of the highly classified effort isn't clear, and the CIA won't comment on its substance.
According to current and former government officials, the agency spent money on planning and possibly some training. It was acting on a 2001 presidential legal pronouncement lnown as a finding, which authorized the CIA to pursue such efforts. The initiative hadn't become fully operational at the time Mr. Panetta ended it."
Hmm. CIA was given a "license to kill" eight years ago and the project was still in the planning phase eight years later? US Air Force (my old outfit) would have done better than that. With that kind of mission order, USAF would have produced results within eight weeks, not eight years. Might not have had any bodies to show after the air strike, but they'd be good and dead. US Marine Corp could also handle this mission within a few weeks. What in hell is the matter with CIA? Take eight YEARS and have nothing to show for it?
Clearly some one was reading too many Matt Helm thrillers.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Newspaper business so bad. New paper starts up
Brand new weekly paper launched up here. The Littleton Record. Vol 1 No 2 landed in my mailbox Friday. Sixteen pages with color photos. Front page color pix showing soggy WWII vets parading in the rain in Franconia right past Bob Warden's Mobil station. Local stories inside, even about local people that I know. Good photos of the Littleton boys playing baseball. Keep this up and it will give the long established Littleton Courier a run for its money.
And the Record is free, delivered with the usual load of Friday junk mail. Who says you can't make money in the newspaper business?
And the Record is free, delivered with the usual load of Friday junk mail. Who says you can't make money in the newspaper business?
Saturday, July 11, 2009
NYPD still paranoid from 9/11
They are so fearful of something, that they have blocked off a public street in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Police Hq on Johnson St has seven uniformed officers standing sentry duty 24/7. Two police cruisers, with police officers inside, engines idling, are parked across Johnson St blocking all traffic, even pedestrian traffic. Jersey barriers would be cheaper...
Putting seven officers on sentry duty 3 shifts a day, 5 days a week ties up 21 well paid uniformed officers. Covering the weekend uses five more cops and a fraction of a cop.
I heard NYC just raised the sales tax another 1/2 percent.
Will the last industry leaving New York please turn out the lights.
Putting seven officers on sentry duty 3 shifts a day, 5 days a week ties up 21 well paid uniformed officers. Covering the weekend uses five more cops and a fraction of a cop.
I heard NYC just raised the sales tax another 1/2 percent.
Will the last industry leaving New York please turn out the lights.
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