Blogger has just offered a "change the look and feel" of your blog feature. At least that's what I think they are talking about. I looked at some of the options and decided to leave things as they are. What do you all think?
By the way, Blogger's picture load/edit process sucks. You cannot see your photos as you write the captions, and Blogger moves text around randomly which is why the captions don't come out under the right photos.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Leaf season is starting
The Echo lake parking lot. From the shore of the lake you can hear your voice reflect back from the granite cliffs in the background. We are in Franconia Notch State Park, which is best known for the Cannon Mt. ski resort.
Mittersill Inn Driveway. That one red tree was peak a couple of days ago when I took this photo. It's turning brown now.
The Mittersill Inn, a vast ski place high up in Franconia Notch. Built right after WWII by Baron Hubert Von Pantz, an Austrian nobleman from Mittersill Austria.
The Franconia Notch Bike trail, northern end, looking north. The bike trail runs many miles to come out at the Flume on the south side of the notch. Great ride.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Terra Nova
New TV show on Fox. Watched the two hour premiere last night. Story opens in a bad future, the air is so polluted they wear oxygen masks, the sky is yellow, food is running out, drastic population control measures are in place. Paul Erlich's "Population Bomb" mixed with greenie nightmares. The family (husband, wife, three children) escape by stepping thru a star gate like machine, and with a flash of light they are elsewhere, 85 million years into the past. We, the audience, are given to believe it is a one way trip.
Elsewhere is a frontier village complete with metal palisade, armored personnel carriers(APC), energy weapons, and model suburban housing inside the stockade. It's run by a compelling and hard core old guy with a gray beard named Taylor. Taylor has dinosaurs, rebels, and stupid teenage colonists to keep him busy.
Dialog can be dumbass. "Do you think we did the right thing?" wife asks husband after taking a one-way trip to elsewhere. Doesn't matter if it was or was not the right thing to do, you did it, and there is no way back.
Teenage son demonstrates proper teenage rebelliousness right off by skipping first day orientation class. He is picked up by a native chick who takes him on a "OTG" (outside the gate) expedition. The native teenagers have a still hidden in the woods, they proceed to get smashed and turned into dinobait. Native chick, (no name was given) turns out to be tough and crusty Taylor's daughter. She has inherited her old man's leadership qualities and is the dominant member of the teenage gang and has teenage son well under control. The show ends with a dino attack on the APC the teenagers have taken refuge in, and a rescue with lots of zap-zap of energy weapons.
Could have been better in the plot, dialog, and characterization departments, but I think I will watch the next episode.
Elsewhere is a frontier village complete with metal palisade, armored personnel carriers(APC), energy weapons, and model suburban housing inside the stockade. It's run by a compelling and hard core old guy with a gray beard named Taylor. Taylor has dinosaurs, rebels, and stupid teenage colonists to keep him busy.
Dialog can be dumbass. "Do you think we did the right thing?" wife asks husband after taking a one-way trip to elsewhere. Doesn't matter if it was or was not the right thing to do, you did it, and there is no way back.
Teenage son demonstrates proper teenage rebelliousness right off by skipping first day orientation class. He is picked up by a native chick who takes him on a "OTG" (outside the gate) expedition. The native teenagers have a still hidden in the woods, they proceed to get smashed and turned into dinobait. Native chick, (no name was given) turns out to be tough and crusty Taylor's daughter. She has inherited her old man's leadership qualities and is the dominant member of the teenage gang and has teenage son well under control. The show ends with a dino attack on the APC the teenagers have taken refuge in, and a rescue with lots of zap-zap of energy weapons.
Could have been better in the plot, dialog, and characterization departments, but I think I will watch the next episode.
Perry as a Pinata
Those Republican debaters have been whacking away at Rick Perry. But the things they whack the hardest on I have trouble with.
Perry as governor signed a Texas law to grant children of illegal immigrants the right to attend Texas state universities at resident's rates. Sure, that deviates from a hard line policy of making life tough for illegals. But I find it hard to get worked up about letting teenagers attend a state university at a price they can afford. I have a lot of sympathy for immigrants of all kinds, and letting a teenager get a college degree is a good deal for everyone. College degrees make productive, loyal, citizens who stay out of trouble, pay their taxes and raise families. That's all OK in my book.
Then Perry was talking about securing the border by patrolling it on the ground from SUV's and in the air from Piper Cubs. He was attacked for this and denounced as "anti fence". Dumb and dumber. Fences don't keep people out, people keep people out.
Then Michelle Bachmann jumped all over Perry about Guardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine that became mandatory on Perry's watch. Far as I know, Guardasil works, it's a little costly, but I didn't see requiring a vaccination as any different from all the other shots they require to attend public school. But they beat Perry about the head and shoulders over that one.
Heh, I'm not the worlds greatest Perry fan, matter of fact I sent someone else a campaigh contribution. But if we are going to trash a guy, let us do it over something real. These issues are pure BS.
Perry as governor signed a Texas law to grant children of illegal immigrants the right to attend Texas state universities at resident's rates. Sure, that deviates from a hard line policy of making life tough for illegals. But I find it hard to get worked up about letting teenagers attend a state university at a price they can afford. I have a lot of sympathy for immigrants of all kinds, and letting a teenager get a college degree is a good deal for everyone. College degrees make productive, loyal, citizens who stay out of trouble, pay their taxes and raise families. That's all OK in my book.
Then Perry was talking about securing the border by patrolling it on the ground from SUV's and in the air from Piper Cubs. He was attacked for this and denounced as "anti fence". Dumb and dumber. Fences don't keep people out, people keep people out.
Then Michelle Bachmann jumped all over Perry about Guardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine that became mandatory on Perry's watch. Far as I know, Guardasil works, it's a little costly, but I didn't see requiring a vaccination as any different from all the other shots they require to attend public school. But they beat Perry about the head and shoulders over that one.
Heh, I'm not the worlds greatest Perry fan, matter of fact I sent someone else a campaigh contribution. But if we are going to trash a guy, let us do it over something real. These issues are pure BS.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Air Force gets suckered again.
From Aviation Week discussing the tanker job Boeing just won from Airbus:
" a master schedule , which outlines KC-46A milestones and the progress in developing the commercial Boeing 767-2C, a new aircraft that will be he baseline platform. The aircraft was a "catalogue" item, meaning it has been offered to customers but not yet developed, thus the Air Force will be its launch customer.
The 767-2C is based on the -200ER airplane and included Boeing 787 digital displays,main deck cargo door, and freighter equipment and auxiliary fuel tanks. "
Tranlation: Boeing got the government to pay the research and development costs of a new version of the decades old 767. None of this was necessary for the tanker mission, a run of the production line 767 would work just fine without all this extra engineering work at taxpayer expense.
"The FAA and the Air Force are also working to "streamline" the certification process so that tasks only need be done once for both authorities,"
And, the standard 767 was type certified by the FAA decades ago. Since we are redoing large parts of the aircraft we have to do type certification all over again.
"Boeing plans to conduct a major review of the 767-2C configuration by the end of November with a preliminary design review for the KC-46A in March. A critical design review of the KC-46A is slated for the summer of 2013 and of the -2C four months prior;"
And we plan to spend a two years messing around before we start to build the planes. If the Air Force had insisted upon the standard 767, production could start today. The Air Force has allowed the program to slip two years just to be nice to Boeing. Boeing gets a new commercial product on taxpayer money. The Air Force gets bupkis.
" a master schedule , which outlines KC-46A milestones and the progress in developing the commercial Boeing 767-2C, a new aircraft that will be he baseline platform. The aircraft was a "catalogue" item, meaning it has been offered to customers but not yet developed, thus the Air Force will be its launch customer.
The 767-2C is based on the -200ER airplane and included Boeing 787 digital displays,main deck cargo door, and freighter equipment and auxiliary fuel tanks. "
Tranlation: Boeing got the government to pay the research and development costs of a new version of the decades old 767. None of this was necessary for the tanker mission, a run of the production line 767 would work just fine without all this extra engineering work at taxpayer expense.
"The FAA and the Air Force are also working to "streamline" the certification process so that tasks only need be done once for both authorities,"
And, the standard 767 was type certified by the FAA decades ago. Since we are redoing large parts of the aircraft we have to do type certification all over again.
"Boeing plans to conduct a major review of the 767-2C configuration by the end of November with a preliminary design review for the KC-46A in March. A critical design review of the KC-46A is slated for the summer of 2013 and of the -2C four months prior;"
And we plan to spend a two years messing around before we start to build the planes. If the Air Force had insisted upon the standard 767, production could start today. The Air Force has allowed the program to slip two years just to be nice to Boeing. Boeing gets a new commercial product on taxpayer money. The Air Force gets bupkis.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Piece of Cake
A BBB Masterpiece theater miniseries from long ago. I got the first two episodes on one DVD from Netflix. It's WWII, with an RAF fighter squadron, a Spitfire squadron, none of your sluggish Hurricanes or bombers; Spitfires, the hottest plane the RAF ever flew.
The squadron moves to France in 1939, settles into a French chateau, and fly the Spitfires off the chateau tennis courts. The Spitfires are real, lovingly maintained and restored to better than new condition. The paint is flawless and glossy, waxed and gleams in the sun. Those Spitfires are in better condition than any of the jet fighters in my USAF unit during the Viet Nam war. The squadron officers dress for dinner, mess dress and take lessons in table manners from the squadron adjutant. In my USAF unit, the pilots went to dinner at the Officer's club in olive drab flight suits. Maintenance officers (like me) turned up in shade 1505 Class B uniforms. I don't think we had a mess dress uniform in the entire country.
The RAF squadron has some real turkeys for officers and gentlemen, the most offensive of which would have be court martialed in USAF. One goes thru a dead man's effects looking for money to pay a gambling debt. That would have led to a lynching in USAF.
The sets, costumes, and airplanes are first class. Too bad the rest of the show, plot, dialog, acting, and characterization is low speed. The actors mumble with strong British accents which renders half the dialog incomprehensible to Yankee viewers.
The squadron moves to France in 1939, settles into a French chateau, and fly the Spitfires off the chateau tennis courts. The Spitfires are real, lovingly maintained and restored to better than new condition. The paint is flawless and glossy, waxed and gleams in the sun. Those Spitfires are in better condition than any of the jet fighters in my USAF unit during the Viet Nam war. The squadron officers dress for dinner, mess dress and take lessons in table manners from the squadron adjutant. In my USAF unit, the pilots went to dinner at the Officer's club in olive drab flight suits. Maintenance officers (like me) turned up in shade 1505 Class B uniforms. I don't think we had a mess dress uniform in the entire country.
The RAF squadron has some real turkeys for officers and gentlemen, the most offensive of which would have be court martialed in USAF. One goes thru a dead man's effects looking for money to pay a gambling debt. That would have led to a lynching in USAF.
The sets, costumes, and airplanes are first class. Too bad the rest of the show, plot, dialog, acting, and characterization is low speed. The actors mumble with strong British accents which renders half the dialog incomprehensible to Yankee viewers.
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Grass Seed, fine print thereon
I bought a 1 pound bag of grass seed down at Wally Mart, to reseed the big dirt patch the town water guys left in the front lawn after replacing the watershutoff valve.
On the back of the bag, in the fine print I read:
"Warning! Treated seed. Do not use for feed, food, or oil purposes. Store away from feed and foodstuffs. Do not use bag or container for refilling with food stuff. Keep out of reach of children.
"Precautionary information for treated seed.
Wear long sleeved shirt, long pants, socks and waterproof gloves when handling treated seed. Wash thoroughly with soap and water after handling. Remove contaminated clothing and wash before reuse.
Damn. All that for just grass seed. This is the kinda warning they put on Agent Orange.
On the back of the bag, in the fine print I read:
"Warning! Treated seed. Do not use for feed, food, or oil purposes. Store away from feed and foodstuffs. Do not use bag or container for refilling with food stuff. Keep out of reach of children.
"Precautionary information for treated seed.
Wear long sleeved shirt, long pants, socks and waterproof gloves when handling treated seed. Wash thoroughly with soap and water after handling. Remove contaminated clothing and wash before reuse.
Damn. All that for just grass seed. This is the kinda warning they put on Agent Orange.
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