Cannon Mt Ski Weather

We got it.  Snow.  We have 10-11 inches down and it's still falling.  Best skiing of the year. 

Laws of War

Used to be, the armed forces were free to kill the enemy.  Enemy civilians at their homes were bombed, enemy soldiers on the battlefield were shot, bombarded, machine gunned, flamed, everything except poison gas was used to make 'em into casualties. 
   War was something that was done between nation states.  Now we have Al Quada, Hezbollah, Hamas, Taliban and other shady clandestine organizations.  They aren't nation states, they don't wear uniforms, they hide within the civilian population. They are terrorists.  They blew down the Twin Towers in NYC and killed 3000 American civilians.  That's an act of war.  And, we took them up on that, we make war right back on them. 
   Far as I can see, under the laws of war, we are entitled to kill, capture, interrogate or wound any terrorists we can lay our hand on.  Doing 'em by Predator drone is just a neater technique than dispatching a sniper to do 'em.  You can stay on base, safe and comfortable, keep your uniform clean, take the terrorist out.  Going in after 'em Arnold Schwarzenegger style is hard work, your hands get dirty, and it's hard to find enough hard case snipers to do the missions.
   Now we have some lawyers whining that this terrorist or that terrorist was a US citizen and we shouldn't whack citizens without a lawyer giving the OK.  Pretty soon the lawyers will be wanting the infantry men to ask for a legal opinion before they take a shot. 
   In my humble opinion, an Al Quada terrorist is an Al Quada terrorist and it make no matter if he was born in the US, he is still a terrorist, and deserves to be whacked.  And the lawyers can just dry up and blow away.

PSNH telephones me with storm warnings

Groovy.  I am settled in to watch it snow.  The phone rings.  It's a robocall from the power company, offering advice on coping with power outages.  I pay 20 cents a kilowatt hour for this?

Cannon Mt Ski Weather

It's been cold enough to make snow these last few days.  The radio is promising a big storm tomorrow, like feet of snow.  If that comes thru, Cannon will be in great shape.

Update:.  It started snowing this morning and is still at it.  We have picked up 3-4 inches up here in the Notch.  We are getting more snow up here than they are down in the ville.  Driving ought to be OK this afternoon and early evening.  I drove down Three Mile Hill to the ville and got back up.  If I can do Three Mile Hill, then I-93 oughta be a piece of cake.  They are making snow tonight and conditions ought to be fabulous tomorrow.  

Feeding pets

Article on the Journal about pet food branding.  Colgate Palmolive's dog food brand "Science Diet" is loosing market share.  Pet owners seem to think the stuff is synthetic laboratory made and not good enough for their dogs.  It quotes one new dog owner who buys a "Taste of the Wild" brand containing bison, venison and berries.  Sounds yummy.  Stupid Beast is never going to eat that well.
  Stupid Beast winds up eating the cheapest dry cat food on the shelf down at Mac's Market.  After all those stories about Chinese pet food killing pets, I worry about what might be in the stuff but I buy it anyways. Occasionally I switch between "Alley Cat" and "Shurfine" just to mix  things up.
  I buy a few cans of wet cat food now and then because Stupid Beast loves it so much. 

Lithium Ion Battery Week

We have a story about Jim Wurth, who runs Start Pac, a maker of batteries and battery powered engine jumper boxes.  Mr. Wurth says you have to go to lithium iron phosphate batteries to prevent fires.  Wurth worries that additional restrictions on shipping lithium ion batteries by air will wreck his jumper box business, since the boxes run on lithium batteries. He also opined that Boeing needs to provide fireproof battery boxes to contain the fires and vent smoke and flames overboard.
 Moving on to the 787,  we hear that Boeing isn't talking about replacing the lithium batteries with something less flammable.  Boeing  is hoping for a small and easy change to the battery itself will solve the problem.  Boeing spent some time explaining to customers that one of the batteries didn't really catch fire, it just got very hot.  The customers revealed that better than 100 lithium batteries have been replaced, on a fleet of less than 100 aircraft. 
  There is an article dated lined Washington concerning FAA and NTSB reactions.  NTSB does allow that batteries should not burst into flames.  Well Duh!.  FAA is muttering about redoing certification testing, something that could drag out for months.
  There is yet another story about how both Gulfstream and Cessna had considered using lithium batteries and decided not to.
   And finally is a story about putting lithium batteries into the International Space Station in 2017.  Boeing has a $208.8 million contract to supply a mere 27 batteries.  That's about $10 million per battery.  SpaceX will sell you a whole rocket booster rated for 10 tons cargo to orbit for $10 million.  
  Finally we have some opining by Elon Musk.  He claims that Boeing's batteries is all wrong, and he has a replacement from his Tesla electric hot rod that will solve the 787 problems.

All this in today's Aviation Week.   The Journal has a story on page B1, front page of the Marketplace section.  The Journal merely says that the "root cause" hasn't been found yet.    Sounds like pressure for a fix is growing. 

The Green Meanies cut a deal with Mexico

You remember the Florida Green Meanies.  Used to come four to the cellopak, hard as rocks and about as tasteless.  NAFTA opened up the border to much better Mexican tomatoes, bright red, vine ripened, tasting like tomatoes even in February.  Grocery shoppers know the difference and overwhelmngly support good tomatoes from Mexico.
   Florida tomato growers lobbied for a new "tomato deal" with Mexico.  In return for continued imports of Mexican tomatoes, the Mexican agreed to raise prices on Americans, to keep the Florida Green Meanies in business.