Clint Eastwood is getting old.

Watched Clint at the Republican National Convention last night.  He is looking old (he is 82) and his voice was getting shaky.  His speech was good, and the audience ate it up.  Me too.  I have been enjoying Clint's movies since A Fistful of Dollars came out, nearly 50 years ago.  It's good fun to watch Dirty Harry Calahan dissing democrats.
   The sad part, is that I now fear for Clint's health.  He may not be with us for much longer.  He will be missed.

JSOW, Smart Pigs

Actually JSOW is "Joint Standoff Weapon".  It's getting smarter.  Aviation Week has a picture of the thing plunging into a container laden container ship.  Lots of text about net work centric weapons and the coolness thereof.  Seems like this JSOW was launched off an F/A 18 aimed at one target ship from 50 miles away.  A second F/A 18 took over control of the glide bomb in flight and retargeted it onto the containership. 
   Do we really want this?  I like missiles that hit the target they are aimed at.  If we can retarget the thing in flight, so can the enemy.  If  you have two targets, bring two missiles and get 'em both.
   Looks like yet another program that could be sequestered without hurting anything (except the contractor, Raytheon in this case).

54.5 Miles per Gallon. Oh Really

Obama just announced the final mpg rule.  Sometime in the future (after 2016) new cars will have to obtain 54.5 miles per gallon fuel economy.
  Does anything think this is real?  Motor cycles might get to 55 mpg, but no kind of car anyone would like to drive will ever get that sort of fuel mileage.  And attempts to get there are expensive.  Like hybrids.  A hybrid costs $10,000 more than the same car with just a plain old gasoline engine.  And hybrids don't get 54.5 mpg either. 
  I see two possibilities here.  Either they soften up the rules to permit continued manufacture of usable cars, OR they load the cars up with so much expensive stuff that people cannot afford them.  In which case, the car business becomes the used car business.  Sorta like Castro's Cuba where they keep a fleet of 1950's Detroit iron running. 
   Technological progress isn't gonna give us a breakthru on the gas mileage front.  The miles per gallon is set by laws of thermodynamics which won't change just cause we want them to.  We know these laws, and there is no way around them. 
 

Secret Serviceman leaves his gun in the lavatory.

On Mitt Romney's chartered campaign plane no less. 
Wow!
I have NEVER left a gun anywhere it doesn't belong.  Where does Secret Service find idiots like that?  I used to think Secret Service was fairly competent.  Apparently they have been taking lessons from BATF.

Ann Romney at the convention

I stayed up to watch the convention last night.  Ann Romney gave a moving speech.  She was posed; I mean speaking in front of a stadium full of people on national television is not easy.  She looked good, wore a good red dress and little jewelry.  She spoke with a carrying voice, enunciated her words clearly, and came across as a forceful hardworking decent woman.  She spoke of her husband, from her heart.  Since the Romney's have been married 43 years, her words carried conviction.  She spoke of her husband's love, and decency, and competence in an utterly convincing way.  I think she did Mitt a lot of good last night.  She impressed me. It makes me think more of Mitt to know that he is able to win and keep the love of  this fine woman. 
    Chris Christy spoke next, he was good, inspiring, and got a lot of applause.  But I think Ann's speech was more effective.  She done good for an amateur going up against a professional. 

Get the lead out

Aviation gasoline still contains lead.  Older engines need lead in the fuel to extend the life of the valves.  Lead does something magical to valve seats allowing better heat transfer from the hot valve to the cooler valve seat.  Detroit did something to automobile engines to cope when lead was banned from motor gas.  Aviation engine makers have not, as yet. 
  And leaded avgas is running short.  Some places are charging $22 a gallon for it. So Cessna is now offering a diesel engine in their Skylane 182.  Which works, but the price seems high.  The standard Cessna 182 lists for $398,100 with full avionics.  The diesel Cessna will cost $515,000   Which is a lot for an ordinary four place light plane that has been in production since 1956.  I suppose the full avionics, auto pilot, and GPS run the bill up some, and you can probably wheel and deal and get some kind of discount, sort of like buying a new car where nobody pays sticker price, but still a lot of money.

Polarized. Really?

Political pundits keep referring to our current situation as "polarized".  Usually after some bill they favor is defeated in Congress.  But is "polarized" the right word? 
   In electronics (my old day job) a part was "polarized" if it only went into the circuit one way round.  When a polarized part was inserted backward bad things happened, up to and including fire and explosion.  By analogy, taking the word from the electronics world to the pundit world, a "polarized" Congress ought to mean a Congress all pointed in the same direction.  Like wise for  an electorate.
   In real life, the Congress and the electorate are split, 50-50 on a lot of important issues (president to elect, taxes, spending, wedge issues).  When the pundits wail about nothing getting done, it because neither side has the votes to ram their policy down the throats of the other side. 
   "Divided" is a better description of the current state of affairs than "polarized".