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| Kaywinnet Lee Frye: The Fall |
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| Life in Hell |
Friday, July 5, 2013
Addiction. Not always bad.
If you get hooked in your innocent youth:
there's no reason why it won't get much, much worse:
This is one of my favorite scenes from that show. Pure sweetness.
Organic rodent control
Our house backs onto a hundred acres or so of oak scrub wilderness (part of Belmont Canyon). So after our last cat died, the yard was slowly invaded by rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional raccoon. Last year I resurfaced the deck, which meant I had odd stacks of very long lumber lying around. One piece projected out over the yard, about 15 feet off the ground, and became a popular perch for a variety of birds, until this fellow showed up. It was a perfect perch for a lazy predator - instead of circling endlessly, he could take his ease while keeping an eye out for his next lunch-on-the-hoof.
Eventually he got accustomed to me and my camera, and I could get as close as 10 feet before he'd bail (which is what he's doing in this shot).
I think it's a Red-Shouldered Hawk
Sadly, one hawk is not enough to make much of a dent in our rabbit population, though the raccoons have disappeared. Also, he's not as tough as he looks - the local tiny songbirds gave him no end of grief (hilarious! I wish I had video of that) and he's been scarce for months now.
One squirrel turned out to be the most stubborn. He's still out there, rolling a pinecone on the roof over my head every morning.
Eventually he got accustomed to me and my camera, and I could get as close as 10 feet before he'd bail (which is what he's doing in this shot).
I think it's a Red-Shouldered Hawk
Sadly, one hawk is not enough to make much of a dent in our rabbit population, though the raccoons have disappeared. Also, he's not as tough as he looks - the local tiny songbirds gave him no end of grief (hilarious! I wish I had video of that) and he's been scarce for months now.
One squirrel turned out to be the most stubborn. He's still out there, rolling a pinecone on the roof over my head every morning.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Family time, pt.1
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| Fiddle, TWEAK, adjust. |
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| Lets see who has the coolest multitool arrangement? |
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| I lost. Way too symmetrical. |
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Another mystery
Everyone likes to get away with things. As Austen would say, it is a "truth universally acknowledged."*
For instance, programmers put Easter eggs in products. The first PostScript Level 2 Dataproducts laser printer (from the mid-90's), prints out a lovely picture of the lead engineer's wife in a sweeping floor-length ball gown, if you fiddle the buttons right. I had to dislike that guy, because his PS2 product beat mine out for the being the first by two weeks. Also, my Easter egg was lame by comparison.
During the Korean war (sorry, "Police Action") air cargo crews used to smuggle beer and other contraband in-country, hidden in things like empty fuel drop-tanks or bomb casings. They HAD to do this because the local Korean employees were also indulging in a little creative commerce. Legitimate beer arrived on base in wooden crates full of beer cans. The local staff would pop the crates on top of a washtub, and hammer stiff wires down through the cans, liberating the goodness inside without opening the crates. So there was a shortage of legitimate beer, naturally leading to a supply-and-demand problem.
Now if there's one thing for which there's always been, and always will be a guaranteed demand, it's a scantily clad MOTAS.
Which bring me to this picture.
The "why?" need not be questioned, of course. But what I always wondered, and never got a rational answer to, was the "how?".
This was almost certainly a military airbase (if I had to guess, I'd say it's El Toro) or a NASA facility (lots of which are located on mil bases). It's night. It's on the flight line. There are fences and there are armed guards. It's the height of the Cold War. She's definitely out of uniform. That plane resembles an A-4, which has barely enough room for the pilot and a toothbrush, so she didn't arrive in that.
I think I'll submit this to Car Talk as a Puzzler. Maybe they can crowdsource a good answer.
*Speaking of Jane Austen: Because I sometimes watch The Big Bang Theory, I was pointed to a web video production of a contemporary take on Pride and Prejudice at The Lizzie Bennett Diaries. 90-odd episodes, and pretty hilarious so far (after 25 episodes). Recommended. Kaley Cuoco's sister plays Mary (who is a cousin instead of a sister in this adaptation.) hence the connection.
For instance, programmers put Easter eggs in products. The first PostScript Level 2 Dataproducts laser printer (from the mid-90's), prints out a lovely picture of the lead engineer's wife in a sweeping floor-length ball gown, if you fiddle the buttons right. I had to dislike that guy, because his PS2 product beat mine out for the being the first by two weeks. Also, my Easter egg was lame by comparison.
During the Korean war (sorry, "Police Action") air cargo crews used to smuggle beer and other contraband in-country, hidden in things like empty fuel drop-tanks or bomb casings. They HAD to do this because the local Korean employees were also indulging in a little creative commerce. Legitimate beer arrived on base in wooden crates full of beer cans. The local staff would pop the crates on top of a washtub, and hammer stiff wires down through the cans, liberating the goodness inside without opening the crates. So there was a shortage of legitimate beer, naturally leading to a supply-and-demand problem.
Now if there's one thing for which there's always been, and always will be a guaranteed demand, it's a scantily clad MOTAS.
Which bring me to this picture.
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| "DANGER" certainly. But why is the GROSS WEIGHT blank? She doesn't look over-gross to me, even for the 60's. |
The "why?" need not be questioned, of course. But what I always wondered, and never got a rational answer to, was the "how?".
This was almost certainly a military airbase (if I had to guess, I'd say it's El Toro) or a NASA facility (lots of which are located on mil bases). It's night. It's on the flight line. There are fences and there are armed guards. It's the height of the Cold War. She's definitely out of uniform. That plane resembles an A-4, which has barely enough room for the pilot and a toothbrush, so she didn't arrive in that.
I think I'll submit this to Car Talk as a Puzzler. Maybe they can crowdsource a good answer.
*Speaking of Jane Austen: Because I sometimes watch The Big Bang Theory, I was pointed to a web video production of a contemporary take on Pride and Prejudice at The Lizzie Bennett Diaries. 90-odd episodes, and pretty hilarious so far (after 25 episodes). Recommended. Kaley Cuoco's sister plays Mary (who is a cousin instead of a sister in this adaptation.) hence the connection.
Catching up
Long time no post. Lots has happened in the intervening months. (EXACTLY 2 years to the day, how about that?)
Commenting on my 4/15/2011 post, John Murawski asked if my dad had ever used the centrifuge at Johnsville in Philly. By sheer coincidence I was moving some image files around today and ran into this:
It says AMES on the helmet and the suit, so this was almost certainly taken at NASA Ames, not Johnsville. Sorry, John.
[ Update: Hmm. The capsule says Navy. I would have thought a centrifuge at NASA Ames would say NASA on it. So, I guess I have no idea where this was taken. And probably the suit and helmet were merely brought wherever from Ames. ]
I have vague memories of seeing the centrifuge at Ames, probably in the late 60's. What I remember, though, is a framed certificate he had, congratulating him on his "unusual courage" in allowing his body to be subjected to extreme "eyeballs-in and eyeballs-out" G loads.
There's no real point here, just memories that floated up because of random coincidences.
Commenting on my 4/15/2011 post, John Murawski asked if my dad had ever used the centrifuge at Johnsville in Philly. By sheer coincidence I was moving some image files around today and ran into this:
It says AMES on the helmet and the suit, so this was almost certainly taken at NASA Ames, not Johnsville. Sorry, John.
[ Update: Hmm. The capsule says Navy. I would have thought a centrifuge at NASA Ames would say NASA on it. So, I guess I have no idea where this was taken. And probably the suit and helmet were merely brought wherever from Ames. ]
I have vague memories of seeing the centrifuge at Ames, probably in the late 60's. What I remember, though, is a framed certificate he had, congratulating him on his "unusual courage" in allowing his body to be subjected to extreme "eyeballs-in and eyeballs-out" G loads.
There's no real point here, just memories that floated up because of random coincidences.
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Ruminants
This morning there was a new issue of FLYING in my dad's mail. As is my habit, I skimmed through it looking for something interesting. I usually skip over the accident reports, but today one caught my eye.
Specifically, the word "cattle" caught my eye.
Now, "cattle" is not a word I'm used to seeing in aviation accident reports (and I used to read "Aviation Safety" religiously, so I know whereof I speak). "Ducks", "Seagulls", "Geese", and similar: OK, they populate the reports pretty often, as anyone who knows the name "Sullenberger" must be familiar with. But "Cattle"? No. Not at all.
Anyway, the FLYING report indicated that this pilot, flying an R-22 (small helicopter) had landed after using it to herd some cattle from the air. He intended to leave immediately, after fiddling some corral gates, so he left the engine running. Apparently, a cow, never the most intellectual of creatures, was spooked by the engine and spinning main rotor, and leaped the fence.
Now, if YOU were just escaped from a corral after being spooked by a noisy machine, what would you do? That's right: run RIGHT TOWARD THE MACHINE. And collide (or, in the language of the accident report "make contact") with the spinning main rotor.
The collision caused the chopper to jump around a bit, scaring a few more cattle, who proceeded to run right into the chopper, causing it to "become momentarily airborne".
This did not end well. The summary report only mentioned that the pilot was uninjured (except, no doubt, for his "incredulity" gland, which must have suffered a severe sprain.) No mention of the cattles' injuries was included in the summary. The R-22 did not survive.
Poor cows.
Anyway, this reminded both of us of a tale from Dad's time in Korea. Apparently, returning from a ground-attack mission (flying F4U Corsairs), they were so low to the level of the local rice paddies, that various water buffalo on the dikes between the paddies were, shall we say, "too high to avoid". A little cannon fire solved that problem. At least there was no collision between the buffalo and the Corsairs, which would, no doubt, have been hard to explain to the squadron CO.
Dad claims they were probably North Korean cows.
Specifically, the word "cattle" caught my eye.
Now, "cattle" is not a word I'm used to seeing in aviation accident reports (and I used to read "Aviation Safety" religiously, so I know whereof I speak). "Ducks", "Seagulls", "Geese", and similar: OK, they populate the reports pretty often, as anyone who knows the name "Sullenberger" must be familiar with. But "Cattle"? No. Not at all.
Anyway, the FLYING report indicated that this pilot, flying an R-22 (small helicopter) had landed after using it to herd some cattle from the air. He intended to leave immediately, after fiddling some corral gates, so he left the engine running. Apparently, a cow, never the most intellectual of creatures, was spooked by the engine and spinning main rotor, and leaped the fence.
Now, if YOU were just escaped from a corral after being spooked by a noisy machine, what would you do? That's right: run RIGHT TOWARD THE MACHINE. And collide (or, in the language of the accident report "make contact") with the spinning main rotor.
The collision caused the chopper to jump around a bit, scaring a few more cattle, who proceeded to run right into the chopper, causing it to "become momentarily airborne".
This did not end well. The summary report only mentioned that the pilot was uninjured (except, no doubt, for his "incredulity" gland, which must have suffered a severe sprain.) No mention of the cattles' injuries was included in the summary. The R-22 did not survive.
Poor cows.
Anyway, this reminded both of us of a tale from Dad's time in Korea. Apparently, returning from a ground-attack mission (flying F4U Corsairs), they were so low to the level of the local rice paddies, that various water buffalo on the dikes between the paddies were, shall we say, "too high to avoid". A little cannon fire solved that problem. At least there was no collision between the buffalo and the Corsairs, which would, no doubt, have been hard to explain to the squadron CO.
Dad claims they were probably North Korean cows.
Friday, April 15, 2011
New and Old
Took my father to the eye doc today. When we got there, the receptionist asked for his insurance card, which meant I had to plow through his wallet looking for it. I eventually found it, but among other thing I also ran across a card from the FAA.
His Air Transport Pilot rating card.
I did not even know such things were issued. When I was training, I only got a 4x6 cardstock thing with PP-SEL printed on it, along with some dates and vital statistics.
Curious poke-nose that I am, I flipped it over. On the back was a list of the aircraft he was rated for (back in 1988 when it was issued). CV-880. CV-990. CV-340. DC-8. Lear-24. ... and so on and so forth. Most of the other interesting stuff he flew either did not require a FAA rating (e.g. pre-certification Concorde) or had expired.
But, way down at the bottom, the last item was: DC-3.
Wow. I don't think there's been a DC-3 at NASA Ames since the mid-60's. What the heck was it doing on the currency list?
Ames had run a series of tests using the DC-3 as a platform, to see if video camera and display technology could be used for flight, especially landings, without "looking out the window". This was prompted by two things: the prototype designs for SST's, many of which did not have forward visibility, and the anticipated advent of weather-penetrating cameras using IR or similar (this was in the days before HUD were imagined.)
But all Dad wanted to talk about was a trip he flew in the Ames DC-3 to Philadelphia, stopping there and back at Glenview NAS (Chicago) and the then-new O'Hare airport. (He never did get around to explaining WTH they were doing in Philly.) Glenview NAS is no more, having been completely redeveloped into a small city / suburb of Chicago in the intervening years. I was just out there with Dad's brother, at his wife's funeral, and in passing Glenview he pointed out the street that used to be the main runway, and the houses under the approach whose resident's used to complain about those obnoxious Navy boys flying too low in those noisy Corsairs.
Anyway, back to the DC-3. Dad actually had no idea (or more likely could not remember anymore) why it was still on his ticket. Personally I suspect it had something to do with some private joke at NASA. No doubt, something to do with the old saying:
Real pilots fly behind Round Engines.
His Air Transport Pilot rating card.
I did not even know such things were issued. When I was training, I only got a 4x6 cardstock thing with PP-SEL printed on it, along with some dates and vital statistics.
Curious poke-nose that I am, I flipped it over. On the back was a list of the aircraft he was rated for (back in 1988 when it was issued). CV-880. CV-990. CV-340. DC-8. Lear-24. ... and so on and so forth. Most of the other interesting stuff he flew either did not require a FAA rating (e.g. pre-certification Concorde) or had expired.
But, way down at the bottom, the last item was: DC-3.
Wow. I don't think there's been a DC-3 at NASA Ames since the mid-60's. What the heck was it doing on the currency list?
Ames had run a series of tests using the DC-3 as a platform, to see if video camera and display technology could be used for flight, especially landings, without "looking out the window". This was prompted by two things: the prototype designs for SST's, many of which did not have forward visibility, and the anticipated advent of weather-penetrating cameras using IR or similar (this was in the days before HUD were imagined.)
But all Dad wanted to talk about was a trip he flew in the Ames DC-3 to Philadelphia, stopping there and back at Glenview NAS (Chicago) and the then-new O'Hare airport. (He never did get around to explaining WTH they were doing in Philly.) Glenview NAS is no more, having been completely redeveloped into a small city / suburb of Chicago in the intervening years. I was just out there with Dad's brother, at his wife's funeral, and in passing Glenview he pointed out the street that used to be the main runway, and the houses under the approach whose resident's used to complain about those obnoxious Navy boys flying too low in those noisy Corsairs.
Anyway, back to the DC-3. Dad actually had no idea (or more likely could not remember anymore) why it was still on his ticket. Personally I suspect it had something to do with some private joke at NASA. No doubt, something to do with the old saying:
Real pilots fly behind Round Engines.
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