Cannon Mountain Ski Weather

It's very cold today, bright sun, no snow.  They are making snow.  The radio is forecasting snow for tomorrow but it's just a plain forecast, no "winter storm watch" stuff. 

A-Team

I didn't bother to see it in theaters a couple of years ago, so when it came on cable the other night I had to watch it.  It's a shoot-em-up that never stops shooting.  It would have been better if the sound man had been better.  Much of the dialog was lost thru mumbling by the actors, or letting the score and the sound effects over ride the dialog, which is totally under control of the sound man.  And there was too damn much pointless yelling as the sh-- hit the fan, which it did in every scene. 
   The camera man wasn't much better.  He seldom gave you a good look at the actor's faces.  There was too much of guys sneaking around in the dark and the audience wondering who that guy was, good guy or bad guy.   Lots of car chases, explosions, gun fights, swinging thru the air on ropes, and suchlike eye candy.  Toward the end of the movie I totally lost track of the plot, who was on first, and who was a bad guy.  I just watched the bang-bang. 
   Too bad, it could have been a good fun action flick. 

Lithium Ion batteries setting 787's on fire

Lithium ion, stores lots of juice, very high voltage, great batteries.  Boeing used them on the 787 to save weight and space.  Looks like Boeing didn't see that U-Tube video of a laptop bursting into flame right on a conference room table.  Now they have customer's grounding their brand new 787's 'cause the lithium ion batteries are bursting into flame.  Aircrew and passengers take a dim view of in flight fires.

Cannon Mt Ski Weather

We got maybe two inches of nice powder today.  Unfortunately the thaw earlier this week did a lot of damage to the snow cover. They been making snow, but the thaw hurt. 

NPR pushes gun control

They (FM 91.9) have been on it all day.  Just one advocate for more gun control after another.  All day long.  Impartial they are.  Public funded they are. 

Russians discover socks.

According to the Wall St. Journal, the Russian army will issue socks to the troops for the first time.  Peter the Great's army began to issue portyanki,  squares of cloth, to the soldiers, who wrapped their feet in them before pulling on their boots.  Portyanki remained standard Russian Army issue thru the Napoleonic wars, the Crimean War, and the World Wars.
   Only now, as the number of city bred recruits, used to socks, rises and the number of country boys declines,  complaints about the lack of socks has caused the army to start up a sock issue.
    You gotta wonder about an outfit that only discovered socks in the 21st century.

How about a Republican Immigration Bill?

TV news reports that Obama wants to pass a "comprehensive" immigration bill.  Comprehensive means a huge stack of paper with all sorts of pork and special favors buried inside.  Britt Hume says the White House figures it's a win-win situation for them.  If  it passes the Hispanics will love them.  If it doesn't pass they can blame it on the Republicans. 
   Republicans ought to offer one or more short and sweet immigration bills of the sort no one can dislike.  For instance, anyone who served in the armed forces should receive US citizenship.  This ought to pass no sweat.  Or, anyone who was brought into the country as a child should be eligible for citizenship.  Who can be against children? 
   You get as much political credit for passing something small and limited as you do for passing something vast and "comprehensive".