Effervescent ruminations

Operation Smile

2011-10-14T09:57:00.002-08:00

Very heart warming video here.

A very funny man

2010-06-09T15:30:00.002-08:00

Almaty

2010-05-31T23:19:00.006-08:00

I went to Almaty, Kazakhstan the other day for the first time. Neat place. Beautiful scenery, interesting people, great food, way too much cigarette smoke.

Just for fun I'll add a quick shot I took of Denali the other day as well.

Denali - May 2010

Wildlife on the trails

2009-08-26T08:30:00.004-08:00

I'm a mountain biking newbie, but I love it. It's an absolute blast. While some of my friends seem to enjoy climbing hills--the fitness freak's version of insanity?--I much prefer careering down the hills, never really sure what's around the next bend, just hoping fervently that I don't run into a moose or a bear or even another human. At the speeds you reach, any of the above would be really bad. Imagine colliding with a surprised grizzly at twenty mph on a bike.

Anyhow, yesterday I rode both off the paved trails in the woods and also on some of our wonderfully maintained paved trails here in Anchorage, one of which is called the Tony Knowles (after a former governor) Coastal Trail. Coming up a hill on the trail, I came upon the scene you see in the picture. That's a mother moose and one of two calves she had in tow at the time.

Although it appears in the image that the onlookers in the background are pretty close, I think they were actually a bit farther back than that. I think maybe when I cropped the picture it ended up making them look closer than they really were. Still, they were probably too close. Typically we end up with tourists who get too close to the wildlife and this may be the case here.

Moose are, in fact, quite dangerous--especially mothers with their babies nearby. Bull moose during the rutting season (fall) can also be pretty cantankerous and can do really surprising things in a testosterone-filled burst of energy. For the most part, they will charge you to get you to move out of the way. If you do, you're generally okay, but occasionally they feel the need to stomp the living you know what out of you and that can actually be a terminal experience.

I have a bell on my bike that's very useful for letting pedestrians and other bikers know that I'm coming. I use it freely in the woods to let the wildlife and the humans know I'm coming. Interestingly, the moose are completely nonplussed by the bell. However, when I come skidding to a stop on my bike, like when I come zooming around a corner and the moose is RIGHT THERE (!), that seems to get their attention. But really, I do think it's the sound of the skidding as much as anything else. I have been in situations where I could observe the moose from a safe distance and have rung the bell repeatedly and/or sporadically like some kind of village idiot, but the moose just don't react. I've also skidded the bike from a safe distance and they always at least look up; more often they actually move.

Similarly, when we go hiking in the woods, most of us carry bear bells to let the bears know we're coming (some call them dinner bells), but I've heard that the bells really have little effect on the bears. But hitting a couple of sticks together (perhaps like the unusual sound of a skidding bike) does get their attention.

My bike once looked like this...

The Cove

2009-08-15T16:20:00.002-08:00

Looks like a good movie...haven't seen it yet.

Here's a review: Variety

Now they want 'em to have more kids...

2009-07-28T19:04:00.001-08:00

Baby boom urgently required by -- THE Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission is launching a campaign to encourage eligible couples to give birth to a second child as concerns mount over a rapidly aging population.

Population officials...

Racism

2009-07-27T22:32:00.002-08:00

Well, with all the hullaballoo over the Gates business and Obama's slips and all that nasty stuff, I thought I'd see what I could do to contribute to the end once and for all of racism throughout Planet Earth. And what should I find but the perfect...je ne sais quoi...that should provide salvation to one and all.

Falling Buildings in Shanghai?

2009-07-27T21:25:00.003-08:00

Checkout this article from the Wall Street Journal blog about a building in Shanghai that was being built, but collapsed nearly intact.

I read some pretty nasty comments by laymen about the quality control of their projects here in China, but I find it amazing that the building held together for the fall. Seems pretty well built if it could do that.

Now if it weren't for that Achilles heel...

Traffic in Shanghai

2009-07-26T19:09:00.006-08:00

Pix taken with my iPhone

I watched the traffic shown in this picture for thirty minutes or so and never saw a fender bender. I also saw no signs of what we call in America "road rage". Pedestrians, bikes, motorized bikes of all kinds, cars, busses, taxis...they all seem to merge in some kind of random cauldron of transportation means at the center of the intersection, then they all sort of squirt out the four arteries and buzz on their ways.

For a short time, a traffic cop attempted to provide some order to the chaos...

A very brief moment in time

Then he was gone again...

Cat like reflexes required

If you're interested in some history about biking in China, please see this excellent article that was written several years ago on www.bicycling.com.

Shanghai

2009-07-26T18:48:00.002-08:00

Just read this in the China Daily...

********************************************************************************************************************************
Girl, 12, loses memory after turtle falls on head
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-27 09:25

A 12-year-old girl in Chongqing has lost her memory after a turtle fell from a high building and hit her head on Monday.

The girl was rushed to a hospital where doctors concluded she suffered from cerebral concussion, which caused the memory loss.

All the 16 occupants of the building denied ever owning a turtle.

The girl's father said he would drag all the families in the building to court if no one came forward to claim responsibility.

(Chongqing Times)

********************************************************************************************************************************

It would certainly be in poor taste for anyone to joke about this poor girl, so I'm not going to do that. Clearly it would suck to be hit in the head by a turtle--regardless of the altitude from which the turtle descended--and I seriously hope she's okay.

However, from here on out, instead of blaming my faulty memory on my advancing age, I'm just going to claim I got hit in the head by a falling turtle. And now we've got proof that it's a valid excuse.

If only I can remember where to reference the proof.

DC-3 Video from 1940

2009-05-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

F-16 vs F-15 dogfight

2009-04-23T19:55:00.001-08:00

Dusk...to dawn...to dusk

2009-04-20T05:22:00.003-08:00

From www.outdoor-photos.com

The picture above is labeled 'Dusk' by the photographer, but have you ever thought about all the official terms we have for the different times of day? I'm completely enthralled with the colors of the sky, regardless of the terms we use, but just for my future reference, if nothing else, here are some of those terms. Most information below was gleaned from a NOAA site.

[Astronomical dawn]
This is the time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the morning. Astronomical dawn is that point in time at which the sun starts lightening the sky. Prior to this time, the sky is completely dark.

[Nautical dawn]
This is the time at which the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon in the morning. Nautical dawn is defined as that time at which there is just enough sunlight for objects to be distinguishable.

[Dawn or civil dawn]
This is the time at which the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the morning. Civil dawn is defined as that time at which there is enough light for objects to be distinguishable and that outdoor activities can commence.

[Twilight]
The time between civil dawn and sunrise.

[Sunrise]
The time at which the first part of the sun appears above the horizon in the morning.

[Solar noon]
This is the time at which the sun is the highest in the sky. This time varies through the year due to the change in speed of the earth's orbit around the sun.

[Sunset]
The time the last part of the sun disappears below the horizon in the evening.

[Twilight]
The time between sunset and civil dusk.

[Dusk or civil dusk]
This is the time at which the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time objects are distinguishable but there is no longer enough light to perform any outdoor activities.

[Nautical dusk]
This is the time at which the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time, objects are no longer distinguishable.

[Astronomical dusk]
This is the time at which the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon in the evening. At this time the sun no longer illuminates the sky.

Pilot Dies at Controls...Passenger Lands Plane

2009-04-16T06:50:00.002-08:00

Unintentional King Air Pilot ~ AOPA article

The Office

2009-04-13T19:40:00.004-08:00

http://www.airplane-pictures.net/image13302.html

It's Otherworldly Out There

2009-03-28T21:46:00.007-08:00

Redoubt erupting at night

See more amazing photos like this one at www.adn.com

This afternoon was beautiful in Anchorage. The sun was out; it was warm; the skies were clear...well, mostly anyway. Just a little bit of grayish-looking cloud here and there. But those occasional gray clouds were sort of like nagging feelings that you shrug away. They probably weren't ash clouds, I thought. And then, What does an ash cloud look like anyway?

I had other things on my mind, so I drove on, thinking about maybe going cross-country skiing in the park a little later. The darn volcano has been ruining my skiing plans for days now. It was time to go ahead and just go for a quick few laps around the stadium. The skis are brand new, for heaven's sake. I've only used them once. Good plan. After my errand. Driving on...

I was at a friend's house a little later, looking at (coincidentally) some amazing pictures of Redoubt on The Anchorage Daily News' website (referenced above). The dogs wanted out, so I turned around, opened the sliding glass door and the first thing that caught my eye was the deck. Earlier it had been clear. Now it was dusted with snow...dirty snow...didn't look quite right. And I noticed an odd odor--maybe like sulphur or soot or something--not sure what. As my eyes lifted, I noticed the rest of the snow beyond the deck--the snow that was formerly white--was dusted with ash. Oh no! "Ash!" I called out, like I'd just sighted a plague of locusts.

My wife was, as usual, quicker to act, as she quickly retrieved the dogs. I then quickly shut the door after the dogs were in and set about doing what I do best: I stewed. We weren't home and I wanted to be home. That meant I had to drive the truck, but when there's ash about, you really don't want to drive your vehicles any more than you absolutely have to. So now my sweet truck was going to be covered in ash--that's bad enough--but I was going to have to drive the thing--that's another really bad thing to do with the ash. So in the end, we just hunkered down while waiting for one of two things to happen: either I would run out of patience and just go on home or the skies would dramatically clear and I would go home then.

As it happened, the former happened first (as former things are wont to do). The sun was setting and I was running out of patience, so I headed on home, driving slowly so as not to ingest any more ash than necessary through the air intake. I set the air conditioning system to recirculate the air, put on a dusty old air mask (time for a new one!) from my wood shop (smelled like poplar) and repeatedly reminded myself not to use the wipers lest I scratch the glass with the ash.

Driving home the skies looked like something out of a movie. It was surreal. I wish I had a fraction of Sue Grafton's gift for metaphor so I could paint a better picture. If you've ever seen the skies when massive terrible thunderstorms are all about, when you know tornadoes are about to plunge out of the sky any moment, that's sort of what it's like. There weren't discernible clouds, but the skies were obscured, with a mixture of light, haze, and various hues in the blue-gray-purple spectrum. It was weird. The sun was setting, but you couldn't really tell where it was.

I remember watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds when I was a kid. As I drove slowly home, dust mask in place, with the eerie skies overhead and other drivers nervously looking skyward, I couldn't help but think back to that movie. Something evil lurked in the sky. That movie creeped me out as a kid. Creeps me out to think of it now. All I needed was some really creepy mood music.

At any rate...the sky may not be falling, but the ash is.

Volcanic Activity ~ Alaska ~ March 2009

2009-03-27T09:09:00.007-08:00

2009-03-27 08:59:59
An eruption of Redoubt volcano occurred at approximately 08:40 AKDT (16:40 UTC). National Weather Service reports the cloud height to be approximately 50,000 ft above sea level based on radar.

Image above courtesy Alaska Volcano Observatory

Image below...
AVHRR (Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer) false-color satellite image showing the eruption cloud from an explosion at Redoubt Volcano at 3:31am AKDT on March 23rd 2009. Image was captured at 5:30am and shows the ash cloud passing over other volcanoes and heading NE towards Anchorage.

Picture Date: March 23, 2009 14:30:29 UTC
Image Creator: Bailey, John; Image courtesy of the AVO/UAF-GI.

Our daily excitement

An Eye for an Eye...

2009-03-25T13:10:00.004-08:00

If you'd like to get in the habit of a daily Bible reading, but struggle for various reasons (as I do), I recommend reading Proverbs. A very good friend of mine recommended this to me years ago and I return to the concept--if not always the practice--often. The Book of Proverbs contains thirty-one chapters, so it's conveniently divided such that you can read one chapter a day. And even if you're not a big believer in the Bible or Christianity as a lifestyle, this book still offers sage advice.

I was reading today in chapter twenty-four and came across this passage:

Do not say, "I'll do to him as he has done to me: I'll pay that man back for what he did."

In chapter twenty, verse twenty-two, it similarly says:

Do not say, "I'll pay you back for this wrong!" Wait for the Lord, and he will deliver you.

Seems like there are other similar passages in Proverbs, but I cannot think of or find them right now. You get the idea: it's all about not plotting revenge. You might say it's also about forgiveness. That's certainly a related concept. But wait! you might think, what about that old eye for an eye thing? At least that's what I always thought. Seems like a contradiction. I thought if a dude punched me, I could punch him back. That's what they're talking about with the eye for an eye business, right?

Well, it wasn't terribly long ago that I came across the idea that the old eye for an eye thing wasn't about ensuring plenty of punishment; it was about limiting punishment. Think: no more than an eye for an eye. This site does a great job of explaining the idea:

Biblical Research Institute.

I actually don't mean to get into a discussion at this point about the whole crime and punishment thing. I would very quickly diverge into a rant about corporate heads and their evil ways. Actually, in this post there are just a couple of ideas I wanted to touch on: the first is that reading Proverbs daily is a pretty structured way of getting into a daily reading habit and the other idea is that once you do start studying, it can be pretty interesting if you follow the leads where they take you. As I used to tell my son all the time: Question your assumptions. See where that takes you.

FedEx crash Narita Monday, March 23, 2009 (local date/time)

2009-03-22T16:33:00.002-08:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

There but for the grace of God go I...

My prayers go out to the families of the pilots who died, the employees of FedEx, and to all of us who could've been sitting in those seats.

Cross country skiing

2009-03-21T10:20:00.002-08:00

This first video shows 'skate' skiing. I make every mistake the instructor demonstrates!

This second video shows 'classic' skiing. This is much easier, but I still am not nearly as fluid as the instructor.

I just wanna puke!

2009-03-15T10:33:00.001-08:00

Here's the first headline I saw: A.I.G. to Pay $100 Million in Bonuses After Huge Bailout

Okay, that made me sick. Then this morning I read this article:

Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House National Economic Council, said on CBS' Face The Nation this morning that recent bonuses paid out by insurance giant American International Group are "outrageous."

Reports came out this morning that AIG, which has received $170 billion from the U.S. government to prevent the firm from collapsing, has paid out $165 million in bonuses.

"It is outrageous," Summers told host Bob Schieffer. "The whole situation at AIG is outrageous. What taxpayers are being forced to do is outrageous."

But Summers also said that "you can't govern out of anger" and that the government doesn’t have the power to stop bonuses from being paid out under existing contracts.

"If we simply throw up our hands, refuse to deal with any of this, we'll have the kind of financial catastrophe that we saw after what happened at Lehman Brothers," Summers said. "[Treasury] Secretary Geithner has negotiated very forcefully with AIG. He has done everything that is legally permissible for the government to do to limit the payment of bonuses. But where there are contracts, binding contracts that were entered into long before the government put any money in to AIG -- we're not a country where contracts just get abrogated willy-nilly."

Summers added: "And if we were to start doing that, there would be potentially very destabilizing consequences."

What a bunch of crap. Excuse my language, but please, don't patronize me, Mr. Summers, with your complete and utter hogwash. What AIG is doing is utterly contemptible and what you, Mr. Summers, are saying is little better. Corporations abrogate contracts with their employees all the time. It happens every day in America. Now is the time for upper level management--or should I say in this case--mis-management to feel what it's like to have their contracts abrogated.

But simply eliminating the bonuses is not really enough. If only there were a way to put this soulless scum in prison...

Life After the other Shoe Falls

2009-03-13T20:20:00.006-08:00

Imagine this. You're in your late thirties. You fly aerobatic airplanes. You ride motorcycles. You sail competitively. You live in Hawaii. What could be better? What could happen?

Then one day you notice a little blurry vision in one eye. Nothing big, right? It'll probably go away. Then the next thing you know, you wake up in the hospital. You don't know how you got there or what happened. You try to ask the nurse why you're there and find you can't speak. And if that weren't bad enough, the right half of your body is paralyzed. This can't be real, you'd certainly think. I'll wake up soon from this awful dream. But it's not a bad dream. It's not a nightmare; it's real. Someone finally tells you: You've had a stroke...

Meet my new friend, Carl. About eight years ago, if I have the story right, that was his life and that's what happened to him. I've had some bad days and I've had some serious life setbacks, but holy crow. Can you imagine? Can you really imagine? I get frustrated when I can't think of a word I'm searching for or when I'm in a foreign country and can't make myself understood. But I can still speak. But what if you can't? And you don't know why? Oh man.

Carl had to learn how to speak all over again. He had to learn to use his limbs again (to the extent that he can). And he had to decide what kind of person he was going to be and what kind of life he was going to live. Fortunately for me, he taught himself to speak, taught himself to use a lot of his body, and now likes to spend a lot of time sailing with a little help from his friends. Last month I had the privilege of sailing with Carl in Kanehoe Bay, Hawaii.

Carl has the tanned, weathered skin of someone who's spent a lot of time on the sea. His face bears the lines that come with his mid-to-late forties' age and the road he's traveled. He has a quick, high-pitched laugh, a great attitude about life, and seemingly limitless patience for the ineptitude of novice sailors like me. Despite the fact that one arm is basically fixed in place as is one leg, he gets around pretty well. And despite the ineptitude of his crew, he could still communicate well enough that we could manage the ship under his command. We had a truly awesome time.

There we were, three active airline pilots and one former pilot, sailing on a breezy, sunny day in beautiful Hawaii. I couldn't stop thinking how incredibly lucky we all were to be there, doing what we were doing, at that moment in time. The boat was heeled over just so, with two guys out on the trapeze, knocking into one another, splashing us all like little kids, grinning from ear to ear. It was a moment to treasure. And every now and then, I'd glance back at Carl and see a man in his element, at peace with the sea and the world, with no limitations at all.

Thank you, Carl. You're a heck of a man.

Disaster lurks nearby...

2009-03-08T19:29:00.002-08:00

I've just finished reading a fantastic book that is a must read. It's called The Unthinkable, by Amanda Ripley. The subtitle reads, Who Survives When Disaster Strikes--and Why. That's the best one line summary I can envision. If you read this book I promise you'll be better prepared for the next emergency you face.

The Bachelor does some 'splainin'

2009-03-03T19:23:00.001-09:00

Part one of two (March 2nd, 2009)

Part two of two (March 2nd, 2009)

A neat flying video

2009-03-02T17:48:00.001-09:00

SoCal monsoons

2009-02-17T11:18:00.002-09:00

So what's the deal with this rain in southern California? I don't come here much, but last night was interesting.

We did the arrival over the mountains, complete with the slam dunk approach. Dropped flaps and gear early, which afforded a smooth, if steep in the early stages, descent. Landed uneventfully in light winds and sprinkles. By the time we got the plane parked, though, it was pouring. We're talking southeast Asia kind of pouring. I thought it was "always" sunny and warm here. ;-)

Tucson

2009-02-13T20:39:00.009-09:00

Get Back Up ~ an inspirational video

2009-02-08T09:17:00.001-09:00

Hudson River USAir "Splash" video

2009-01-20T19:39:00.002-09:00

The video will play for about two minutes before the splash down occurs. You'll see it to the left. The link may be intermittent.

4th & E about 4:45 p.m.

2009-01-15T21:39:00.000-09:00

Google Maps Experiment ~ Anchorage

2009-01-12T16:42:00.001-09:00

View Larger Map

Anchorage web cams

2009-01-11T16:12:00.003-09:00

Borealis Webcam Multiview

Quote of the day

2009-01-10T08:52:00.000-09:00

"Don't worry that children never listen to you, worry that
they are always watching you."

- Robert Fulghum

The "girls" wrestling

2009-01-09T11:48:00.002-09:00

Worth watching ~ A famous young athlete doing good things

2009-01-08T13:34:00.001-09:00

Okay, it's nippy in ANC, but...

2009-01-07T08:50:00.000-09:00

Catching a break from the heat - whew

2009-01-02T09:09:00.005-09:00

We're finally catching a break from the intense heat of summer here in Anchorage. Here's the current weather:

The good news is that the current cool trend is going to continue for a while, so we can let our air conditioners rest a little while longer. Tonight's forecast:

Mods to the blog

2008-12-27T23:35:00.003-09:00

"To whom it may concern," he began, with mock gravity in his voice, "I've started a new blog called Effervescent Cooking. You'll find my future really groovy cooking experiments there. Good luck and godspeed."

And all the people were amazed. They couldn't imagine how he could speak and insert a hyperlink within his conversation.

And they all lived happily ever after.

The end.

Leadership ~ An unknown concept to US managers

2008-12-24T21:32:00.003-09:00

U.S. CEOs Could Learn From Their Asian Counterparts

Great op-ed by Friedman

2008-12-24T10:03:00.003-09:00

Time to Reboot America

See cooking stuff below...

Effervescent Turkey w/ bok choy ~ no picture

2008-12-23T22:02:00.007-09:00

[See other posts w/ pix below this one.]
[And if you can eat (or enjoy dreaming about eating) wheat flour, you might enjoy this post: Lord Vitamix Seizes Weight Gain Initiative]

Today's protein choice was turkey.
Today's lettuce was leaf.
Today's grain was amaranth.
Today's fruits and nuts included peanuts, raisins, grapes, cranberry, mango and (I'm hoping this is okay) pear.
Today's cooking oil is olive.
One of today's condiments was cinnamon.

I cooked a turkey burger low and slow in olive oil. I added sage and some white pepper to the meat while cooking. Meanwhile, I put some amaranth on the adjacent burner in some water to boil, then simmer.

After cooking the first side of the turkey burger, I turned it over and, when it was just a bit cooked on the new side, cut it into chunks. I added some diced bok choy (just the white part first) and added a bit more olive oil, then turned up the heat some more. Once it started sizzling, I added the bok choy leaves and some peanuts. I cooked it a little while and called it done.

After you bring the amaranth to a boil, you let it simmer, covered, until most of the water is absorbed by the amaranth. Then it's done. It's almost like grits or Cream of Wheat or something. It's a base kind of thing that you can modify as desired. If you want something spicy, add spices. If you want it sweet, add sweet stuff.

I had the amaranth as a side with no seasoning except for the last couple of bites of the amaranth, to which I tried adding cinnamon. I think that might be a good combo if I also added a sweetener like xylitol or agave nectar. Next time.

The turkey and bok choy were great. A definite repeater. I really liked the added peanuts.

For juices today I had a mango/pear combo, then tried a cranberry lemonade. Quite nice.

Effervescent Cooking ~ Mystery stir fry

2008-12-23T21:50:00.002-09:00

This is a modification of an idea sent from my wonderful Mom.

The protein of the day was supposed to be fish or shrimp, but we got busy and I didn't thaw any out. Plus, Mom had sent me this interesting idea involving spinach and bacon. Hmmm...

The oil of the day was safflower. My veggies of the day included beans, peas, and spinach. A nut of the day was pistachio. The grain of the day was rice. Hmmm...

So I cooked the spinach* in the safflower oil, added some basmati rice, some sugar snap peas, and called it done. Tasted it. Pretty good. Added pistachios. Nice. Decided it was good enough after one serving to cook up the whole thing again. This time I added the nuts when the rest of it was cooking on the stove.

Ahhh...very, very good.

*I'm trying to remember if I added any seasoning to the spinach as it was cooking and I can't remember for sure. I'm trying to avoid using salt and pepper all the time. However, there's a chance I added a tiny bit of sea salt and white pepper. I'll make it again and experiment because it sure was good. The pistachios added their own salty flavor, so I may not have used anything else.

Effervescent Cooking - Chicken w/ herbs

2008-12-23T21:42:00.004-09:00

[Future cooking posts will be on Effervescent Cooking, my new cooking blog.]

I'll post more on the 'whys' behind the cooking images you'll see later. Meanwhile, the quick skinny on some alternative cooking.

We cooked the chicken breast on the skillet in extra virgin olive oil.
We seasoned the chicken w/ herbs de provence and nothing else.
That's bibb lettuce you see.
I added peanuts, raisins, and cranberries to the top of the salad.
Those are pear slices you see around the sides.
...and filtered water to drink.

Good stuff.

And Zoe Makes Two

2008-12-06T11:25:00.004-09:00

Her name is Zoe. Since it's pronounced with a 'y' sound on the end, we'll likely just spell it Zoey like her previous owners did. Makes it easier for everyone. She's a cute little Chihuahua we estimate is going on two years old. Raffi is delighted to have the new playmate. There have been very few dominance issues and Raffi is already sharing food with her new buddy.

More pix and flix to follow as time allows...

The Golden Age of Jet Travel?

2008-11-20T19:28:00.001-09:00

Sydney in November

2008-11-15T02:55:00.005-09:00

Dubai in November

2008-11-12T08:10:00.006-09:00

Click on the image and it'll enlarge to show detail.

Click on the image and it'll enlarge to show detail.

Hey Folks. These images are what you see if you open Google or Blogger while in Dubai. What's not immediately evident is that you need to read these pages from right to left. With that in mind, when you log into Blogger, for example, you put your user name in the right hand blank. Then you put your password in the left hand blank.

Hong Kong in November

2008-11-10T03:34:00.015-09:00

After repeatedly flying around and in between and maybe even sort of through the various typhoons that are ubiquitous in Asia in late summer and fall, it's very nice to be here in Hong Kong when the weather is simply beautiful. While on our layover, we took advantage of the nice weather and visited "the big Buddha" (a.k.a. the Po Lin Monastery) on Lantau Island.

Getting to the Po Lin Monastery was pretty easy. I asked the hotel concierge how to get to "the big Buddha" and he quickly and efficiently gave us directions. We took the subway to the base of the mountain and then took the lift to the peak. I think the cost for a round-trip lift ticket was 88 HKD (about $12 USD). If you like, you can instead take a bus to the peak. I don't know the cost for that and am sure it takes quite a bit longer than the lift. If you're really adventurous, you can hike to the peak or you can take the lift up and then hike back down. I know a number of folks who've done the hike. It's not for the faint of heart. We took the lift both ways.

<<< --- The subway

In short order you'll know way more than I do about the statue and the monastery
if you study this (Po Lin Monastery) site. I'll add some pix below. The visit is worth the time if you're in town. We enjoyed the trip and got to visit with some interesting folks both directions on the lift.

If you look closely, you can see the trail for the hikers directly below the lift. Sorry about the reflection in the glass.

I'll post more pix as soon as Blogger lets me do that again. I've run into some kind of glitch and can't load anymore right now. Maybe more later?

The Love to Weight Ratio

2008-11-02T21:44:00.003-09:00

Being a pilot and a bit of a geek, when our six-pound Chihuahua got really sick this week and I got choked up at the thought of losing her, I couldn't help ruminating on the idea of a love to weight ratio. It just popped into my head. I'll call it the LWR from here on out.

Airplanes have what is called a thrust to weight ratio. It's a comparison of the thrust provided by the engines versus the weight of the airplane. The T-38, for example, is a supersonic, twin-engine, afterburning, sexy little trainer used by the USAF and NASA. The total thrust is in the neighborhood of 7,700 pounds. The total weight is about 12,000 pounds. That makes its thrust to weight ratio something less than 1.0. While it cannot accelerate while going straight up, since you need better than a 1.0 ratio for that, it was quite the screamer in its day, setting four time-to-climb records in the 1960's.

By contrast, today's F-22 produces an amazing 70,000 pounds of thrust, while weighing anywhere from about 30k pounds to 60k pounds or so. Even at max gross weight, then, its thrust to weight ratio is better than 1.0. To give you some idea of what that means, think of taking off in your airliner and getting to cruise altitude. It generally takes about twenty-five minutes or so. The T-38 could probably get there in less than two minutes with a thrust-to-weight ratio less than 1.0. The F-22 has double that kind of climb performance. Think of that. And without afterburner. Amazing.

All of which is to give you an idea of where I got the idea of the whole LWR thing. Here's this little pooch that weighs just about six pounds. She's about the size of one of my shoes, but with little spindly legs and cute little feet. It simply amazes me how full grown humans can so completely and helplessly adore such a tiny little creature. Six pounds of pooch versus tons of love. What kind of LWR does that give you?

The Real Problem With Obama's Tax Plan

2008-10-28T21:34:00.003-08:00

I just read the following article on The Washington Post.com. These gentlemen do a great job of articulating why Obama's tax plan will hurt more than it will help. At first glance, I have only one issue with their article: In the second paragraph, they talk about Obama making the Bush tax cuts permanent. But later on in the article, they point out the exceptions. It's a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

By Alan D. Viard, Alex Brill and Arthur C. Brooks
Wednesday, October 29, 2008; A17

We've heard a lot this month about how Sen. Barack Obama's tax plans would affect Joe the Plumber -- the Ohio man who recently asked the Democratic nominee whether Obama planned to raise his taxes. Opponents of Obama seized on the incident to argue that his middle-class tax cuts are a scam. Some have even claimed that he has proposed tax increases for people with incomes as low as $32,000. Obama's supporters responded that the tax cuts are real (and noted that Joe is not a licensed plumber). The entire episode has only added to the confusion over what Obama is proposing for middle-class taxes.

How should an honest fiscal conservative see the situation? For those making less than roughly $200,000 ($250,000 for couples), Obama would not only make President Bush's tax cuts permanent but would also offer an array of new tax credits. Nobody should deny this.

To be sure, these "tax cuts" contain some sleight of hand. More than $400 billion of the money over the next 10 years would take the form of refundable tax credits paid in cash to people who already pay no federal income tax. It would be more accurate to refer to these cash outlays as cuts in payroll tax or -- even more accurately -- as transfer payments. Regardless of what the credits are called, though, they would put more money in the pockets of some American families. That sounds great in these tough economic times. Who can be against a boost to spending power and consumption?

We can. While a few of Obama's proposals may be sensible, the overall package would be bad for the economy. Unlike rate cuts for high incomes or reductions in investment taxes, most of Obama's proposed tax cuts would do little to reduce the tax penalty on work and saving. For some households, the penalty on work and saving would even increase because the new tax credits would be phased out as income rises. These proposals wouldn't deliver the economic growth that incentive-based tax cuts would.

Furthermore, there is no free lunch. Obama's middle-class tax relief would have to be paid for, either now or later. Middle-class tax cuts might make sense if they were paid for by spending cuts, but that is not Obama's plan. Like his opponent, Obama points to vague savings from reducing waste, the kind of savings that never seem to materialize. He also hopes to reap savings by accelerating our redeployment from Iraq, a project with an uncertain fiscal impact. At the same time, he proposes a wave of new spending on health-care, education, energy and infrastructure programs and declares his opposition to reforms that would reduce the growth of Social Security and other entitlement benefits.

So where would the money come from for the tax cuts and new spending? Largely from raising other taxes: the ones that have the biggest impact on economic growth. Obama would let key parts of the Bush tax cuts expire, causing the top tax rate on ordinary income to go back to 39.6 percent, up from 35 percent today. The capital gains and dividend tax rates would rise to 20 percent from today's 15 percent. Obama might also impose Social Security tax at a rate of up to 4 percent on wages and self-employment income above $250,000, starting in 2019.

These tax increases are not as bad as some Obama statements during the Democratic primaries suggested they would be, and they fall well short of what some of his conservative critics claim. For example, Obama does not propose to tax dividends at 40 percent or to impose the full 12.4 percent Social Security tax on high earners.

His real proposals, however, would still be plenty damaging. If rewards for America's entrepreneurs and firms are reduced through higher marginal tax rates, their incentives to earn, invest and create jobs will be diminished. Americans will have less incentive to save, and firms will have less incentive to pay dividends. Tax avoidance will become more profitable. A smaller capital stock will mean a less productive economy and lower wages for middle-class and other workers. These disincentive effects also mean that the revenue gain is likely to be smaller than Obama envisions.

In sum, Obama may very well give Joe the Plumber a tax break, but only if Joe does not become too successful. Obama is offering real tax favors for the middle class, but not real benefits for the economy.

Alan D. Viard is a resident scholar and Alex Brill is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Arthur C. Brooks will become president of AEI on Jan. 1.

I own a Mac and I vote!

2008-10-27T19:18:00.008-08:00

Have you seen those silly bumper stickers that say something like I smoke and I vote! They should add: Cough...gasp...wheeze...

Hmmm...I can only hazard a guess as to the message they're trying to send. I've seen other bumper stickers that say something like I own a gun and I vote!

Hmmm... okay. I think maybe I can guess the intent on that one. How 'bout the one I saw recently here in town: I'm low on estrogen and I carry a gun!

Now that's a pretty clear message.

Okay, my turn. If I had a similar bumper sticker it would say I own a Mac and I vote. In fact, it's October 27th and I already voted. Here are a few quick thoughts on both topics: My maverick Mac and the self-described maverick, Mc.

I bought my iBook G4 something like three or four years ago. I use the thing constantly, but I barely know how to use it. And that's why my next computer will be a Mac again--because you don't have to be an expert to use your computer. By contrast, if you're running a Windows-based machine, you are an expert. You have to be. To make an automotive analogy, I insouciantly drive around without any tools and without a spare tire. I don't change the oil or even buy gas. By contrast, the PC folks have to tow a trailer full of spare parts wherever they go because they're always breaking down!

There are numerous things I don't like about the Mac and its software; I'm not some kind of Mac disciple or anything. But the operating system just works. And unlike PC users, in the unlikely event that I ever do actually receive an error message, I'll read it and think about it. Actually, I'll probably get weak in the knees because I've never seen one. Ha! But by contrast, PC users have developed a Pavlovian response to ubiquitous, "meaningless" (you hope) error messages. They're like senseless pop-ups. You get the error message; there's disgust, annoyance, and a strong sense of deja vu. Then with trepidation in your soul but with little delay of your mouse, you click either 'OK' or 'CANCEL' with little comfort that you really know why the heck that meaningless message appeared in the first place. You just hope you haven't just nuked your PC.

Your PC: NOTE~ Your hard drive will now be erased by aliens from Mars.

OK or CANCEL?

You: Whatever...click.

Some day...poof. All that will be left is a puff of smoke and you'll have soot all over your face.

Just kidding. I hope.

So I chose the Mac for pragmatic reasons. I've saved approximately 72,000 hours that I would've otherwise spent troubleshooting a PC. Thank you, Mr. Jobs.

That's why I picked the Mac. Now let's talk about the other Mc, the "maverick" Mr. McCain. Chalk this upcoming loss to this headline: McCain snatches defeat from the jaws of victory!!!

Sorry, but I just couldn't bring myself to vote for him. I greatly admire what he did for us in Vietnam and I greatly appreciate his many years of service as an elected official, but he just doesn't strike me as stable enough for the job. And the way he has run his campaign...oy! If he had only stayed away from his incessant sophomoric negative attacks...if he had only kept to the high ground and stuck to telling us how he was going to save the world...if he only had kept his mouth shut instead of making up lyrics to that Beach Boys song...

Alas, he did not do those things and Sarah's just not ready to take over should the need arise.

What about B.O.? He'll likely win, but as much as I like Biden, I couldn't vote for Obama either. He hasn't done much good for anyone but himself so far. Ask his constituents about crime. Ask them about taxes. Ask them about anything else that matters to most of us and you'll not hear many glowing reports. He appears measured and thoughtful and presidential, though, so that's a good thing. Seriously; it really is. That will be a huge change from what we've seen from 'W'. Plus, he looks black (you can't honestly call him black anymore than you can call him white) and he will (hopefully) be a good hero image for thousands of young and impressionable black kids. And that truly is important. But I have many questions.

Does Obama really believe in distribution of wealth? Then why didn't he share his campaign money with McCain? What's he gonna do with those millions of dollars he has raised for the campaign? Will you or I see any of that dough? Can you really tax a country back to prosperity? Why do we park in driveways and drive on parkways?

Alas, I do not see him as having the answers to our dilemmas. A vote for B.O. is a vote for what you (desperately) hope he'll do for you in the future; but it's certainly not based on what he has already done for you or anyone else in the past.

Being pragmatic, I know my pick won't win, but I still had to vote for the one guy out of all the candidates who has actually done a tremendous amount of good in his career for a broad spectrum of Americans. I picked the guy who hasn't pandered to special interest groups. I picked the guy who truly is a maverick and who truly does know how to get things done. I picked the guy who understands the situation in the middle east better than the rest and who speaks the language fluently. I picked the guy with no chance of winning: Ralph Nader.

Please visit www.votenader.org.

And in case you're saying I've wasted my vote, I would say, "Bully." Honestly, I'm not sure I know what that means, but really I haven't wasted my vote. I voted for the candidate I believe in and that's what voting is all about.

So there you have it: I own a Mac and I vote!

Bear tracks?

2008-10-25T23:00:00.005-08:00

It's late October as I post this image. We've had a couple of good snows here in Anchorage already, but the snow has mostly melted from my suburban yard. Our home is not far from Cook Inlet, so we're close to sea level and our snow levels reflect that elevation. Up on the mountains, at the higher elevations, there's plenty of snow already and it's here to stay.

The other day, when we still had melting snow in the yard, I noticed a bunch of animal tracks in my front yard. The moose tracks were plentiful, including what appeared to be two sets of moose tracks passing across the driveway. It was a bit hard to tell at a glance because our driveway is paved asphalt. That day the driveway was clear of snow except for where the animal(s) had passed. You could see the tracks in the yard leading to the driveway followed by tracks of snow across the otherwise clear driveway and then tracks in the snow on the other side of the driveway. You could drive down the street and see that the animal(s) had cruised through the neighboring yards in the same fashion--through the yard, across the driveway, on to the next yard and so on. It was easy to imagine a pair of moose just ambling along, nibbling at various trees and shrubs as they worked their way through the yards.

So then I happened to look out my front window and was a bit startled to see the track you see above. Does that look like a moose print to you? No? Me neither. The shot is terrible, but it's honest--no retouching or enhancing--and the size of the print is comparable to a man's outstretched hand.

In case you're curious, this is about what a moose track looks like:

So maybe it was a bear and maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was a bear following a moose or mooses. There's not a good plural for moose. My wife and I call them moosers in fun, as in "I saw some moosers on the way to the store."

Interestingly, on the far side of the driveway you could see the moose tracks departing and you could see other tracks near the moose tracks. They may have also been moose tracks, but they were about the size of a paper plate. I didn't examine them closely when I had a chance. Until I found the possible bear track, I just figured they were more moose tracks.

So who knows? Interesting life here in Alaskan suburbia.

I'll leave you with a sunrise shot I took from our house. Those are the Chugach Mountains in the background.

Take care,
-M

Please watch this video

2008-10-23T16:50:00.000-08:00

Lord Vitamix Seizes Weight Gain Initiative

2008-10-21T19:08:00.002-08:00

Bi-partisan support unprecedented

Friends, family, surfers, and web-bots...

As those of you close to me know, I spent a king's ransom earlier this summer at the Alaska State Fair on an uber-blender called the Vitamix. In the days and weeks since buying that thing, I don't think a single day has passed in which I have been home and have skipped the opportunity to use my beloved Vitamix. In fact, I usually use it twice a day. My wife has looked on in bemusement and has dubbed me Lord Vitamix or King Vitamix or any number of other monikers I cannot hear when the motor is spinning at 240 mph. I just smile back at her and give her a thumb's up.

Anyhow, although almost everything I make in the Vitamix is really good for you (fruit smoothies, veggie concoctions, soups, etc.), I discovered with euphoric delight that I can make something that tastes intoxicatingly yummy and yet still has the added benefit of being really bad for you!

Yes!

In contrast to all the other stuff I usually make that tastes good, is good for you, and can potentially cause one to lose weight, I made something this evening that turns all that goody two shoes stuff on its head.

I discovered that I can bake cinnamon rolls that are stunningly, incredibly, mind- alteringly delicious. If I hadn't created these heavy little globs of pure bliss myself, I would've bet money they included some kind of narcotic.

Frankly, I was surprised. Not about the narcotic stuff; I was surprised at how good they are. As a novice cook, my expectations of success are fairly low. But from the first bite, I knew this was a winner. But one bite led to another which led to another. I couldn't stop. I was like that mouse in the experiment that ignores all other life-supporting functions in order to get his drug. My drug was those rolls. I just kept pushing the button like some freaked out junky mouse. More, moRE, MORE!!! GIVE ME MORE ROLLS!!!

Okay, that's only a very slight exaggeration. But my, oh my. This is good stuff. Who would've thought that brown sugar, white flour, and ludicrous amounts of butter could be so intoxicating?

Ha ha!

I'm gonna have another roll.

To your sugary good health. ;-D

-M

A Quarter Century of Flight

2008-10-02T22:31:00.007-08:00

The first really substantial milestone in a fledgling pilot's career is the moment he flies solo for the first time. It's almost shocking to me to realize that I flew my first solo more than twenty-five years ago.

Way back in 1983, the year of my first solo, Ronald Reagen was still president and in that year made a speech calling the USSR an "evil empire". Back in '83, Bjorn Borg retired from tennis while John Elway was the number one draft pick in the NFL. The 'A' Team with Mr. T was a big hit on TV, Michael Jackson thrilled us on MTV with "Thriller", and the cast of M.A.S.H. ended their long-running series.

If you were around then, you might remember Poland's Solidarity, the bombing of the U.S. embassy in Lebanon, and the shoot down of Korean Airlines passenger flight 007 just west of Sakhalin Island.

Arnold Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen that fall, the space shuttle Challenger was big news, and Yours Truly flew his first solo in the mighty T-41 Mescalero, a modified Cessna T-41.

Since then I have been an instructor and have "soloed" numerous other fledgling pilots and I can say with authority that it's a huge relief for the instructor pilot (IP) when his charge returns safely to earth. It's pretty darn close to the relief the student pilot feels when he shuts down his engine(s) after that first solo. It's one of those mixtures of pride and relief. You think: I did it! And at the same time: Thank God I didn't screw up.

In the years since then, I've been a pilot or flight engineer on the following:

T-37, T-38, B-707, E-3 AWACS, C-17, B-727, B-747, B-757, B-767, and the MD-11.

As I look back on a quarter century of flying airplanes, I feel a variety of emotions and when I stop to think about it, the memories come back in a flood. I can't help but think about the various friends or peers who lost their lives flying airplanes in training or who were shot at and nearly killed by the enemy in battle. I look back with fondness at a lot of really fun times flying the airplanes or hanging out with the other guys and gals who fly them. I can think back on times when we came a heartbeat away from disaster and other times when I've seen heart-stopping beauty; sunsets or northern lights or other scenes that you can only see from way up there.

I feel incredibly blessed to have done this as both avocation and vocation for all these years and hope and pray that I get to continue for many more years. For me, this is more than just a job. It's my art and craft. Every time I strap an airplane to my little pink behind, I try to fly it as well as I can fly it. Indeed, I want to fly it as well as it can be flown. Much as an artist must look back at a piece of art well-crafted, I look back on each flight as a piece of art as well.

There are probably thousands of great anecdotes to pass along to future pilots. I'm not good at recalling those and spouting them off, but I still remember one of the first things I heard when I was a brand new T-37 student pilot in USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training. One of the IP's had the following to tell us:

"You've all been issued two bags," he said, holding up two invisible bags. "One is an 'experience' bag," he said as he shook the bag, "and it's almost empty. The other is a 'luck' bag." This time he just regarded the invisible bag. "Nobody knows how much is in there. The more you fly, the more you'll fill your 'experience' bag. Our job is to make sure you don't have to rely on what's in the other bag."

The one saying I do remember that ties in well with that IP's little instructional tale is this: There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots.

To my fellow aviators I wish you fair skies and following winds.

-M

The Mid-Autumn Festival

2008-09-14T06:50:00.003-08:00

The guy who took this pic (i.e., not me)

It's mid-September in the year 2008 for those of you who insist on using the Gregorian calendar, but for those of us who happen to be in Asia right now, it's the middle of the eighth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. And that means it's party time. Put another way, it's the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival which is also known as the Moon Festival. And the moon is indeed full.

As far as I can tell, it seems to be a great time for people to take a break from work, the heat, or whatever. Seems pretty mellow. In Seoul, the weather was awesome a couple of days ago. But here in Hong Kong--whew! It's hot and muggy during the day. I took some pics, but it has been really hazy and I don't have any filters, so the shots were not great. Any posted pix will be harvested from the Web.

A big ole honkin' storm named Ike just hit the Gulf coast of the US and here in Asia, a similar storm just hit Taiwan. Although we could see the storm clouds en route, our flights were not adversely affected. Pretty smooth sailing all things considered.

Great times in Alaska

2008-08-22T23:07:00.007-08:00

We've had a great summer despite the few warm days. We've had family visiting in July, August, and (shortly) September.

We hiked; we fished; we traveled by car, boat, and plane.

In short, we lived.

Dynamic architecture ~ Dubai

2008-07-17T18:51:00.002-08:00

There are many notable things about this building, but what I particularly like is the idea that the building generates its own power.

Link to full screen:

Premiere architecture dynamique au monde à Dubaï
by allcurious

The famous '405' video

2008-07-17T17:10:00.001-08:00

This is an oldie, but a goodie. In fact, it's even better knowing that it was made a number of years ago with the technology that was then available.

Who's your pick for '08?

2008-07-17T13:16:00.002-08:00

Incredible stunt driving

2008-07-11T22:23:00.001-08:00

Some of my favorite humor...for now

2008-06-20T12:14:00.001-08:00

A link worth following

2008-06-20T09:30:00.002-08:00

REGINA BRETT
Columnist and Pulitzer Prize Finalist for The Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/brett/

And I don't even live near Cleveland!

An amazing ad w/ slo-mo water visuals

2008-06-06T15:47:00.001-08:00

A bit of humor

2008-06-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

Water Fuel

2008-06-06T14:59:00.001-08:00

"Watching saltwater burn... gives me the chills."

2008-06-06T14:46:00.000-08:00

Some green bikes and a great article

2008-05-23T23:11:00.007-08:00

The Flying Pigeon is a Chinese icon. This (Flying Pigeon) well-written article provides a neat story about the Pigeon, but also gives some interesting insight into China itself. As I type this post from Hong Kong, I think this article provides a pretty good picture of this part of the world.

Enjoy,
-M

Mark's Book Club

2008-05-06T20:36:00.006-08:00

The Few

Flyboys

Flags of Our Fathers

Ship of Gold

1421 ~ The Year China Discovered America

The Case for Christ

The Pillars of the Earth

This car runs on air

2008-05-06T17:28:00.001-08:00

Zero pollution car

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center

2008-03-27T22:28:00.003-08:00

Not all bears hibernate in the winter. One of the things that determines whether or not a bear can hibernate is his diet. I do not know why the bears at the Center do not hibernate. We haven't asked. But we're going hiking tomorrow and it does give one pause.

Hmmm...

Victoria Peak ~ Hong Kong

2008-03-04T18:11:00.003-09:00

Uphill or downhill?

I took this shot while hiking up the hills to Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island. I can't remember if I was facing down the hill or back up when I took the pic.

Any guesses?

Below is another widget from Nat'l Geographic.

Nat'l Geo Widget Test

2008-02-20T16:08:00.002-09:00

Playing around with Flickr

2008-01-29T21:47:00.000-09:00

The Arc de Triomphe in Paris

I took this picture in 2003 with an old 2 MP camera--my first digital. The photo is actually posted on Flickr. If you click on this image, it'll take you to what Flickr calls my 'photostream', which, right now, is more of a puddle. Or perhaps a drop.

At any rate, you can then enlarge the images you see on Flickr. It's amazing to me to see the detail afforded (when enlarged on Flickr) by this old image--especially considering the size of the image is only 372 kb.

Shows how little I understand pixels, compression, etc.

More pix to follow.

Changing the world one cow at a time

2008-01-17T21:35:00.000-09:00

There are millions of worthwhile charities around the world, but I know of two that I've supported that do so in a way you might find unique.

Please take a moment to visit this very worthwhile organization that has no stated religious affiliation: heifer.org.

I support them financially as I think this is a great concept.

Another organization I've given to that seems to be putting their money to good use is Samaritan's Purse for those preferring a faith-based organization.

Was hypoxia the stimulus for High Flight?

2008-01-17T20:37:00.000-09:00

Classic Aircraft Photography

In the course of my USAF flight training, there were several times in which I had the pleasure of experiencing the onset of hypoxia in the altitude chamber. It's a terrific training opportunity in that it affords aviators the opportunity to identify the onset of hypoxia symptoms without being airborne.

So what is hypoxia and why do we need to knows these symptoms? And what does it have to do with the author of High Flight?

In layman's terms, hypoxia refers to deprivation of oxygen. If your brain does not get enough oxygen, it starts shutting down, but along the way it starts to malfunction. Your judgment and problem-solving skills deteriorate as you head down the road to unconsciousness and perhaps death. Your peripheral vision may start to deteriorate. You might feel light-headed or giddy. You might feel tingling sensations in your fingertips.

If you're in a jet at high altitude and start to feel those things, it might be because the plane is gradually losing pressurization.

Remember all those flight attendant briefings in which they talk about putting those masks on your faces? This is what they're talking about. If you don't get to put on the masks, and the aircraft depressurizes at altitude, you'll get hypoxic.

Hypoxia symptoms vary from person to person. If you, as the pilot, expose yourself to this lack of oxygen in "the chamber", you learn in a safe environment to recognize your personal symptoms. With luck, if your aircraft begins to lose pressurization gradually, your awareness of these symptoms will prompt you to don your oxygen mask well before the lack of oxygen reduces your capabilities. You'll then take the appropriate steps and bring your beleaguered aircraft home safely.

But don't worry too much about this as you're flying the friendly skies. All passenger airliners have systems on board that will automatically alert the pilots that their planes are depressurizing. That same system drops the masks in the back for the passengers. If you're in flight and the masks drop, in short order, you should expect the airplane to descend to lower altitude or you should expect to hear from the pilots that all is well.

Tying all this in with John Gillespie Magee and the poem High Flight, are the inquisitive folks at the BBC in England. They hypothesize that the teenager may have felt the effects of hypoxia during his flying and that the euphoria he felt while airborne may have provided the exuberance necessary for his world-famous poem.

Please visit this link to the BBC.

Interestingly, I read a book a few years ago that was written during WWII by a pilot flying in the Burma-India theater. Those guys actually got addicted to oxygen because they breathed 100% oxygen daily for quite some time. When I remember the name of the book, I'll post it.

High Flight from Shanghai

2008-01-04T21:09:00.000-09:00

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .
Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

I remember being especially moved by the poem, High Flight, when I was a cadet at the United States Air Force Academy*. While almost everything about the Academy experience was oriented toward creating a dedicated career officer in the United States Air Force, for most of us who were aviation-bound, all the USAFA choreography was simply about flying. Magee's poem frequently accompanied incredible, motivational, audio-visual presentations of all kinds of flying. When I first heard the poem and was so greatly moved, I could only guess at the background of the author who had so purely captured and then articulated his passion for flight. Now that I know a little more about John Gillespie Magee, Jr., the poem is even more meaningful and I hope you'll agree.

So from his surprising birthplace, I offer you this little tidbit about an American boy who flew and died over England in WW II, and in the process touched millions with his words…

Magee

During the desperate days of the Battle of Britain, hundreds of Americans crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Knowingly breaking the law, but with the tacit approval of the then still officially neutral United States Government, they volunteered to fight the Nazis.**

John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was one such American. Born in Shanghai, China, in 1922 to an English mother and a Scotch-Irish-American father, Magee was 18 years old when he entered flight training. Within the year, he was sent to England and posted to the newly formed No. 412 Fighter Squadron, RCAF, which was activated at Digby, England, on 30 June 1941.

He was qualified on and flew the Supermarine Spitfire. Flying fighter sweeps over France and air defense over England against the German Luftwaffe, he rose to the rank of Pilot Officer. On 3 September 1941, Magee flew a high altitude (30,000 feet) test flight in a newer model of the Spitfire V. As he orbited and climbed upward, he was struck with the inspiration of a poem —"To touch the face of God."

Once back on the ground, he wrote a letter to his parents. In it he commented, "I am enclosing a verse I wrote the other day. It started at 30,000 feet, and was finished soon after I landed." On the back of the letter, he jotted down his poem, 'High Flight'.

Just three months later, on 11 December 1941 (and only three days after the US entered the war), Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee, Jr., was killed. The Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. The mid-air happened over the village of Roxholm, which lies between RAF Cranwell and RAF Digby, in the county of Lincolnshire at about 400 feet AGL at 11:30.

John was descending in the clouds. At the enquiry a farmer testified that he saw the Spitfire pilot struggle to push back the canopy. The pilot, he said, finally stood up to jump from the plane. John, however, was too close to the ground for his parachute to open. He died instantly.

He was 19 years old.

Part of the official letter to his parents read, "Your son's funeral took place at Scopwick Cemetery, near Digby Aerodrome, at 2:30 P.M. on Saturday, 13th December, 1941, the service being conducted by Flight Lieutenant S. K. Belton, the Canadian padre of this Station. He was accorded full Service Honors, the coffin being carried by pilots of his own Squadron."

Excerpts from Great Aviation Quotes: High Flight by John Magee
http://www.skygod.com/quotes/highflight.html

*A useful link for Zoomies: The AOG

**A great book on this topic is The Few, by Alex Kershaw.

--->>>Next blog...Was hypoxia partly the reason for Magee's passion for flight?

Hawai'i

2007-12-13T23:06:00.000-09:00

Kona sunset December 7th, 2007

That's how the cognoscenti are spelling it now--Hawai'i, with an apostrophe. Or maybe the locals have always spelled it that way. Or maybe they're spelling it that way again? I read while we were there that there was a time when the Hawaiians were concerned that their language was dying out, so they've been trying hard to preserve it. Ergo, the apostrophe.

I think it's pretty cool. I love to hear the language spoken. The apostrophe denotes a glottal stop and the the 'w' is pronounced like a 'v'. I wish I could insert a little file at this point that would demonstrate audibly how they say it, but I don't know how to do that. So with respect to the people of Hawai'i, I've put the apostrophe in the title of this blog entry and hope I've piqued your curiosity about their great language and culture.

Moving on, the short version of this entry goes like this...

We escaped the Alaskan winter for about ten days of fun in the sun. That was the plan anyway. As it turns out, the Kona coast received a ridiculous amount of rain while we were there. Nonetheless, we had a great time, saw lots of neat stuff, met great people, and cannot wait to return.

You can view a few of our photos here.

When I have a bit more time, I'll gab a bit more about what we saw and did.

Enjoy!
-M

An MD-11 Crosswind landing

2007-11-28T22:53:00.000-09:00

An MD-11 video ~ ground ops

2007-11-28T22:48:00.000-09:00

Hong Kong ~ November 2007

2007-11-04T04:30:00.000-09:00

This first video is from the (free) zoo I like here in Hong Kong. It's near the Peak Tramway on Hong Kong Island. The Buff-cheeked Gibbons are a hoot to watch. In this video, you'll see a mother gibbon swinging around her cage with her baby clinging to her belly. She went around and around the cage for a very long time. I've never seen her quite so animated.

Here's some info on the gibbons from www.cincinnatizoo.org:

Buff-cheeked Gibbon
Hylobates gabriellae

Spending its life in the trees, the gibbon is known for its specialized form of swinging locomotion called brachiation. Bending its slender fingers, the hand forms a hook. Reaching out a long and powerful arm, it hooks onto a branch and swings itself forward to the next one.

Fact File

Head and Body Length: 1.5 to 2 ft
Weight: Up to 12.5 lbs
Lifespan: Up to 50 yrs in captivity
Habitat: Tropical rainforest
Diet: Fruit, leaves and invertebrates

This next video is just a quick video panorama I took of Victoria Harbor.

Hope for a greener, meaner car

2007-10-30T16:17:00.000-08:00

The Tesla Motors Car

The tZero

The X1

Hong Kong ~ October 2007

2007-10-28T04:16:00.000-08:00

Just a few pix from Hong Kong with more to follow. Please click here.

Seoul ~ October 2007

2007-10-27T05:44:00.000-08:00

Just a few pix from my trip to Seoul. Please click here.

Quick Raffi update

2007-10-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a short video we took of Raffi after her subcutaneous water injection.

She was dehydrated after her recent illness. The doctor offered two choices: stay overnight in the hospital on an IV or go home with us, but with water injected under the skin. The water then gets absorbed into the system with the same net effect as the IV.

We chose the latter. Raffi was a real trouper and handled the whole ordeal quite well. When the water was injected under her skin, it looked sort of like a water balloon under her fur. She, of course, didn't understand what had happened and tried to sort of shake the thing off her back. Once she did that, the water eased down both her sides. The video doesn't show the results very well, but it was interesting all the way around.

Fortunately, she now seems to be well.

Blogging from afar

2007-10-16T18:29:00.000-08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/photocello/

The tall building in the picture is Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world. It's located right next door to our hotel. In fact, I just got breakfast over there in one of the bakeries. Among other things, I had sweet potato bread. It's interesting.

The best time for me to update my blog is when I'm on the road. However, I run into some unique problems. For one thing, many of my trips are to or through mainland China. The Chinese government censors access to many things on the Internet and blogs are on the list. I've found that I cannot access any site that has the word 'blog' anywhere within the URL. So I can't update the blog from China.

However, today I'm in Taipei and the Taiwanese are blessedly more lenient about these things.

This next photo is from a friend and fellow pilot. This is a lake in Alaska:

I got to go back to Cologne recently. The Dom (cathedral) is, of course, magnificent. It has been a few years since I've climbed the many, many steps to the top, so we did that this trip. That was great fun. But what's also neat about the terrazzo surrounding the Dom is that it's a great gathering place for all kinds of people.

You have beggars, tourists, locals of all shapes, sizes, and colors. You also have terrific artists who create wonderful chalk drawings on the ground. Here are a couple pix of them taken by my friend:

Please note: I'm trying an experiment here. These images are much smaller sized--more like 170 kb versus a MB or so. Let me know how they appear on your screens.

From Taipei,
-M

Bears, fall colors, and more

2007-09-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

Just got back from Hong Kong a day or so ago and, while there wasn't much to report about HKG this time, I thought our crew had some redeeming linguistic qualities. One of the guys was born in South America, so he was fluent in Spanish from an early age. But then his family moved to Italy where he became fluent in Italian. He told us he spoke another language or two passably. Thankfully one of those was English. At least when he spoke at about half his normal rate.

And speaking of English, another guy was Canadian and was married to a French Canadian so he spoke Canadian English, American English, and French. Pretty neat, eh?

And me? Well, once upon a time I could speak passable English. That skill seems to be fading. Ah well. C'est la vie. ;-)

Since that wasn't a very exciting trip, I thought I'd post some pix and videos from Alaska.

Enjoy.

Amazing Grace

2007-09-09T22:03:00.001-08:00

This is a powerful, moving, uplifting story.

Enjoy.

http://www.amazinggracemovie.com/

The F-word

2007-09-08T15:58:00.001-08:00

Potter Marsh sunrise

As I type this post, summer is waning and it's raining. ;-) Try saying that italicized phrase three times really fast without smiling. No pauses allowed.

Summertime in Alaska is usually glorious. After the long, dark, cold, overcast winter, summer comes along and brings almost unbridled joy. Cranky people start to smile again. You see neighbors you've never seen before. You even see it in the animals. When it's cold and dark, our pooch is pretty lethargic. When the sun breaks through, she comes alive. It's funny.

So when summer gives way to fall, it's really kind of a sad time. It reminds me of a summertime teenage romance. It almost breaks your heart when it ends, but somehow the memory of the glorious joy you felt in the summer helps you get through until the next year. And those memories of the previous summer create great promise for the next.

So what's this business about the "F-word"? Well, the other day someone said something about fall approaching and my wife forbade the use of the "F-word", meaning "f-f-f-fall" in our home. For now, we're not speaking that word out loud, but between you and me, we do know it's coming.

And with the coming of that season, we can completely forget about baseball and start thinking about football. With that in mind, let me share a football video. A friend of mine sent the movie I'll post below. If you're not a big fan of American football, you might have to watch the movie a couple of times to realize how some young players pulled off an incredible trick play.

Enjoy.

Alaska

2007-08-26T18:05:00.000-08:00

Paraglider taking off from Alyeska ~ August 2007

Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center ~ August 2007

Alyeska Ski Resort ~ August 2007

See if this link works:

Video and more pix coming soon...

Raffi survives attack

2007-08-08T22:39:00.001-08:00

When we walk the wonder dog, we always have her on a leash. The leash is attached to a harness that keeps her secure without applying any uncomfortable pressure to any part of her body. And like a harness you might use to lift a human or perhaps a four-legged critter like a horse, you can actually lift the dog without harming it. I never thought about that until today...after the fact.

Although she's still quite fearful of nearly everything, Raffi has come a long way since we got her. She actually walks quite well. Yesterday, for example, she walked three miles in Kincaid Park without getting too freaked out by the other walkers and bikers. In fact, she learned a new command we now call, "Over-over", which means she needs to get off the path and sit right next to whichever one of us is walking her. We used that command when bikes came whistling by us again and again. And we used it with other walkers and joggers. She learned quickly.

Today we were walking in the neighborhood and all was going quite well. We saw a rather large, boisterous, noisy Lab-retriever type of hound loudly barking its way out to meet us on the street. I quickly picked Raffi up and held her close while spinning this way and that as the dog tried to make physical contact with Raffi, all the while barking his fool head off. Raffi was interested in the other dog, but appeared not to be overly concerned. We were very pleased with how she handled herself. A few blocks later, though, we were caught unprepared.

We were walking along on the sidewalk and saw a young man cleaning or working on his car. He was on the opposite side of the car as we approached, but we saw his head pop up and we exchanged hellos just as we passed. Just after saying hello, a large dog silently rushed out of the guy's garage and went for Raffi. Well Raffi took off like a jackrabbit (not a bad reaction actually) with me in tow. The guy started yelling and grabbing for his dog and I tried to reel in Raffi so I could pick her up. About this time yet another large dog bolted out of the garage and went for Raffi. So now we had three adults in a melee with three dogs.

At this point, Raffi was like a greased pig. She was darting and squirming and avoiding everyone and everything--including me! My wife was trying to help with Raffi but she couldn't really do anything. I was desperately trying to catch my dog and was wishing my wife would catch her before me. The other guy was desperately trying to control either of his dogs and was failing miserably. Raffi was trying to stay alive and the other dogs were trying to eat her.

Just as Raffi came within my reach, one of the dogs was just a fraction of a second faster than me and was just in the process of clamping his jaws down on Raffi's back. I didn't think; I just reacted and I pulled up hard on Raffi's leash. This probably saved her life. Much to my surprise, Raffi became airborne.

I think we were all a little startled. It was like flying a kite. She popped up in the air on the end of the leash and came up growling and snarling and snapping like some kind of rabid Tasmanian devil. Saliva and urine was going everywhere.

I think her instant upward mobility confused her predator just enough that the other dog didn't get a grip on her and I reeled Raffi in like a fish--except she was already airborne and it was something of a horizontal motion.

For the briefest portion of a second, I worried that when I grabbed her she'd bite the heck out of me, but as soon as she was in my arms, she knew she was safe and thankfully did not bite me. I cradled her in my arms as we hastily made our exit.

Once we got out of the killing zone, we checked her out and she was miraculously unharmed. We put her on the sidewalk and she busily walked on away almost as if nothing had happened.

Whew. That was a close one. Just the other day my flight doc told me a story about someone in his family having two dogs--a large dog and a Chihuahua. The two dogs got into a little tiff about food and the larger dog grabbed the smaller one and killed it. His description made quite a an impression on me. As soon as I saw that dog closing his jaws on Raffi's back, I saw that image in my mind. Ugh!

Anyway, all is now well and we all have a great tale to tell.

Charged by a moose

2007-08-06T17:57:00.000-08:00

Mama Moose and her two calves near Kincaid Park

Today was an almost perfect Anchorage summer day...blue skies, sunshine, warm temps, and hardly a breeze. When the weather's like this, you just feel like really good things can happen. You have energy, drive, and great spirits. Although I had yard work to do, I decided that could wait and I jumped on my bike for a ride.

As I was cruising down a paved walk/bike path in a new subdivision we call the gravel pit, I looked to my left and saw the mountains;
I looked to my right and saw the forest; I cruised by the pond and looked for moose and other wildlife and I thought, Man, I do love it here. I was just thinking it would be a great day to see a moose when lo and behold, a large moose cow slowly emerged from the left (opposite) side of the road.

I gradually slowed to a stop and watched the moose. She was probably 60 feet away--maybe three truck lengths. She seemed in no hurry and had no calves about. Ignoring me, she continued across the road and disappeared around the upcoming corner.

The path I was on dead ends at a T-intersection with a fairly well-used two-lane city street. To my right, the ground slopes abruptly up and it's wooded. To my left, the ground slopes abruptly down. All along both sides of the 'T' ahead it's wooded.

Anyway, the moose crossed the road in front of me, then continued parallel to the 'T' and went out of sight because of the woods and the hill. I waited for what I thought was a reasonable amount of time. I watched the traffic going both directions along the 'T' to see if anyone slowed down markedly and I even got to see a guy on a bike riding along the 'T' from right to left. He looked back behind him once, but then turned around and continued on. I figured it was safe to continue. My plan was to cross over to the left side of the road away from where the moose had gone. I would then approach the 'T' intersection with my camera ready to snap a picture of a moose from a safe distance.

Little did I know there were two moose calves coming up the steep slope to my left as I approached the intersection. And little did I know mama moose was coming back in my direction to check on her little ones.

At this point an independent observer would have had one of those experiences you often see in the horror movies. You know, the ones where the naive character is creeping through the house and is about to open the scary door--the one we all know has the scary monster behind--the one we all know the character should not open. You know what I mean.

Well, sure enough, it was one of those perfect storm kinda moments. I had unintentionally threated the young calves. I did not see them coming up the slope to my left and did not see Mama coming around the trees from my right. When I did quite suddenly see Mama, she was--much to my horror--much closer than I would've ever guessed. I'm sure the feeling was mutual and I think Mama and I saw each other about the same time.

Mama moose took one look at me; I took one look at her; and we both reacted. I remember seeing her forelegs coming up quickly and her head sort of bobbing (like a horse when it runs). Despite the fact that I had camera in hand, I turned my bike around in Olympic-record-setting time and began pedaling frantically away. While I am absolutely positive I did not scream like a little girl, I did not actually hear the moose pounding the pavement behind me. However, I did take one quick look behind me for posterity and saw Mama slowing down from gallop to trot.

Now I must interject a little something about moose at this point. Moose are incredibly dangerous animals. While they don't have fangs or claws, they are large, unpredictable, and absolutely devoid of fear. I have heard several long-time Alaskans say they're more afraid of moose than bears. Moose have killed people by stomping them to death and they have totaled cars by the same method.

I was pretty confident I could outrun Mama on my bike, but just for the record...I would not say the same thing about bears. At any rate, once I thought I was out of danger, I paused to take a couple of pix. I kept my bike pointing downhill away from the moose trio and twisted my torso around to try to take the photos. I don't know why, but my hand was shaking. ;-)

Although the pictures were terrible, I'm quite confident this is the same moose family we took pictures of just a couple of days ago and I've posted their picture at the top of this post.

Another picture perfect day in Alaska.

Corporate heads...Are they all related to Satan?

2007-08-05T18:22:00.000-08:00

Isn't it a bit on the evil side when corporate heads plead, cajole, and threaten the employees into taking large pay cuts and then reward themselves grotesquely in the process? I'm looking for the right (adult) word to use for these monsters and the only one that comes to mind is "icky".

Please visit this link

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/06082007/watch.html

I hope you'll find it informative regardless of your views on unions, the transportation industry, or anything else.

What can we do as laypersons to combat this lack of morality?

The "American Embassy" in Seoul

2007-08-02T00:37:00.000-08:00

For a number of reasons, I generally plan my meal times such that I'm eating at something other than prime time. However, today I was in a hurry and decided to get a quick meal at McDonald's (a.k.a. the American Embassy) about 5:00 p.m.

It was crowded as I took my place in line. The thing you have to remember in situations like these is that the American sense of personal space is different from the Asian sense of space. I know this, but sometimes forget--or perhaps I just hope the locals will respect my sense of space.

Not the case today.

Just as I would reach the general area of the counter, local folks would step in front of me and place their orders. After a short while I tired of this and forced myself to stand with my hands on the counter. This way, I established my position in line without having to stand quite so close to the counter. Besides, I can't get too close or I won't be able to read the signs.

I had decided I was going to try a new chicken based tortilla-wrapped thingy they now sell. I don't order fries any more; instead, I just order the sandwich itself. I'm under the impression that those fries are the intestinal equivalent of smoking a pack of cigarettes so I tend to skip that. However, when I got my turn to order and saw the look on the kid's face, I decided to make things simple for the teen who took my order.

"I'll have a number eight," I said, expecting to get the dreaded fries, a coke, and the chicken thingy.

"Number eight," he repeated in reasonable English and then turned to look at the signboard for confirmation. He dutifully plugged away at the cash register and took my money. He turned around to the food dispensing thing, grabbed my grub, set all my food on my tray, and pleasantly served me my number eight.

Or so I hoped.

Interestingly--and I don't know how they did this--I think I was actually served a Burger King Whopper with cheese.

You think I'm joking, but I tell you I'm pretty sure that's what I got. The thing they gave me included the bun, a big slab of hamburger, and the messiest conglomeration of lettuce, tomato, and God-only-knows what other condiments you can imagine. Sounds like a Whopper doesn't it?

One of the sauces they put on the Whopper was a red sauce that tasted vaguely like some kind of Tabasco. I really don't know what all they used for condiments. Because I'm adventurous, I ate about half the sandwich. When I couldn't take anymore, I attempted to cleanse the sandwich of everything but the meat and the bun. I didn't weigh the resulting mountain of garden- and condiment product I left on the tray, but it had to be about a pound and a half. Nasty.

All in all, it was a challenging, fatiguing meal to consume, but somehow I managed to get most of it down.

I know what you're thinking: Why didn't I show the young man the error of his ways from the beginning and ask for the chicken thingy? Although the shape of the paper wrapped "food" he put on my tray suggested I might be getting something other than what I ordered, it just wasn't worth the effort. Not with the language barrier and a whole crowd of Koreans standing uncomfortably close to me on all quadrants ("You orduh numba eight! You eat!").

Since the place was pretty much packed and people wanted my chair, I hurriedly wolfed down my Whopper (or most of it) like it was something I really liked and made ready my exit. On the way out I decided to give in to one of my true travel addictions--a McD's sundae.

As far as I'm concerned, whoever came up with this idea was a marketing genius. The McD's sundae generally tastes pretty darn good. It's a nice size for a snack. And best of all, it's generally about a buck. Except in our overpriced Alaska, where it's a buck fifty.

Anywho...I got my sundae after having a humorous exchange with a different teen regarding my desire to avoid the nuts this time--peanuts that is. She seemed to enjoy practicing saying the words 'no nuts' over and over again. I don't think she knew what it meant, but rather enjoyed how the words rolled off her tongue. At least she was smiling. She even shared the words with her friend who grinned broadly and said the words as well.

If there's a joke there, it's on me.

So I got my sundae sans nuts and departed the hordes for the walk back to the hotel. This particular McD's is located very near an outdoor market where they sell all manner of fresh produce, fish, and livestock parts. You can actually find things like an entire pig's head for sale there. No kidding.

Perhaps as a result of this proximity, you always see a number of enterprising folks selling their wares on the sidewalks near the area of the market. So when I walked out of McD's with my hot fudge sundae in hand, I was blasted with the muggy heat and the overpowering odor of "fresh" fish.

Although there's something about that combination of fresh fish and ice cream that doesn't seem to go together all that well, I managed to walk quickly through all the strata of the aromas, humidity, temperature, and cigarette smoke with desire for ice cream still strong on my palate.

Ah...fine dining on the road.

Guess it could be worse. Check this out:

That is supposedly a real picture from a real McDonald's. For some reason, the person who was served this fine meal was perturbed. As you can imagine, there are lawsuits involved. I'm not sure, but I believe the reason the connoisseur of fine chicken McNuggets was perturbed is because there was a real chicken head inside this breaded and deep-fried covering (http://salmonella.co.uk/chicken-mcnugget.html).

Personally, I think that's the finest looking chicken McNugget I've ever seen. It's about time they started making the darn things look real. In fact, maybe I should start a class action lawsuit against McD's for making their other nuggets look like...whatever it is they look like.

Who's with me?

Next stop: Alaska.

Lost in translation

2007-08-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't get out of your own country all that much, you may not be aware that when you go to another country and then launch yourself out into the rolling surf of the internet, the web pages appear in the language of the local country.

Let me see if I can paste an example below. My native tongue is English and my blog is in English, but here's how it looks in Korea.

You can click on the images to enlarge.

Let me try another one. This is the main log in page for Blogger...

Can you see how some of the characters are in English and some are in Korean? It can make your surfing more challenging.

Speaking of language problems, you know how it's not uncommon in America to find folks who display oriental script as artwork? In America, I've seen T-shirts, paintings or prints, and even stepping stones in gardens with beautiful oriental script displayed. But for most of us the question remains: just what are we displaying?

Here in Asia, I routinely see nonsensical combinations of English words displayed in similar fashion. And actually, it's just nonsensical to me. I need someone to translate the essence to me. Reminds me of going to England--I often clearly hear the words they're saying, but don't understand why they group them in the context they do. More on them another time.

My favorite little eating place in Shanghai is called XiLife.net. I haven't found a website associated with that name and don't know what it means. In general, it conveys something vaguely Chinese, vaguely positive in English, and the hip World Wide Web. Maybe that's enough.

We see T-shirts over here that are often amusing with their seemingly random concatenations of English terms, but what's more amusing are the risque ones. When you see an ancient Chinese woman wearing a T-shirt that screams: I like it on top! you have to wonder if she really knows what her shirt conveys.

Maybe she knows.

No jacket required in Shanghai

2007-07-29T16:08:00.000-08:00

The Shangai Daily...

Power, water crisis as the city swelters

SHANGHAI is baking under a relentless sun, and there is no respite on the way.

Yesterday the temperature hit 39.6 degrees Celsius, making it the equal hottest day in the city in 63 years, and the second highest since weather record-keeping began. The mercury reached the same level on July 25, 2003, and on July 6, 1944.

Mark's notes:

So it wasn't just me. It really is hot over here.

Another tidbit from the article...

The electricity-supply network is also under great stress. The latest power-supply peak, which also created a city record, occurred at 1:50pm on July 20 - an astounding 20.37 million kilowatts.

I thought this article was also interesting...

Heat bonus is mandatory, officials warn

THE Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau yesterday reminded all companies they must pay an allowance to all employees who work outdoors during extremely hot weather, a policy many private companies don't follow.

According to a policy issued by the bureau and the Shanghai Trade Union on July 11, workers should be paid an allowance of at least 10 yuan (US$1.28) a day if they work outside when the high tops 33 degrees Celsius.

The policy also states that companies can't reduce wages if employees are given reduced duties during hot weather.

While most employees of state-owned companies that Shanghai Daily talked to said they already receive the allowance, many working for private companies had never heard of the rule or received any bonus for working in hot weather.

"Sometimes the boss will offer us popsicles or cold drinks in hot weather, but we don't receive any allowance," said a water delivery worker surnamed Huang. "Our payment is in accordance with the number of water bottles we deliver - I earn one yuan for each barrel delivered."

Huang said he didn't dare ask his boss for the allowance as he was afraid of losing his job.

Mark's note: In case you didn't do the math above (10 yuan = $1.28) one Chinese yuan is worth about thirteen cents. So the gentleman mentioned in the article gets about thirteen cents for each barrel delivered.

Get these stories and more from http://www.shanghaidaily.com. It's much easier than coming all the way over here and getting them in your hotel room.

A candle prematurely snuffed

2007-07-27T22:24:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine lost his battle with cancer this past week. He was 43 years old.

I remember Rob calling me when he first found out. Last summer he called and told me he had something called dermoplastic small round cell tumors. These tumors evidently typically grow in between and around organs rather than within them. It's a nasty problem to have.

He said it was an extremely rare condition and after telling me of their proposed attack on the cancer, said that the survivability rate was extremely low. He spoke of his condition and treatment options very analytically for some time and then, toward the end of our conversation, told me his wife was pregnant...

Rob battled fiercely for a little more than a year. During that time, I don't recall him ever complaining. When I asked about his discomfort he admitted it, but he remained remarkably positive throughout the ordeal. When he spoke of his cancer and their treatment plans, he was astonishingly unemotional about it. You'd have thought we were talking about car maintenance.

I'm still amazed.

He leaves behind a wife, a teenage stepson, and an infant girl.

Rob was a good man, a good leader, and a good pilot.

I will miss him.

Hong Kong, July 2007

2007-07-22T19:05:00.000-08:00

Anecdotal snapshot from Hong Kong...

I walk into a Circle K convenience store. There's a lone teenage girl--apparently Chinese--working behind the counter. I walk up to her and she smiles at me and says something like, "Weclome to Circle K. How can I help you?" Her smile was genuine and her english was accented, but perfect. She was happy--genuinely happy--to see me.

She was the perfect little salesperson--helpful, courteous, conscientious, completely competent, bi-lingual and intelligent. I was amazed. Still am. There wasn't a hint of entitlement to her demeanor. She was just doing her job the best she knew how. If I had a Circle K, she's who I'd want working there.

Now, it's not like that everywhere here in Hong Kong or in Asia.

Snapshot from McDonald's just a little while ago...

It's not terribly busy, so I waltz up to the counter where I meet another teenage girl. She looks at me a little blankly, warily even. She doesn't look like she has complete control over her upper lip, so she always displays her top teeth. It's a little peculiar.

I give her my winningest smile--the one I've found to be completely irresistable to the most jaded human--and it registers absolutely nothing with her. I try again.

"Hi," I say and blast her with the full force of my gap-toothed Opie Taylor charm. Zero. Still the lips and the teeth.

Okay, this is a hard case. "I'll have a number three," says me. She says something to me without moving her lips. I'm not sure if she's maybe a wax dummy. I glance at her co-worker who gives me a shy smile and then back to the wax dummy. "I'm sorry, what?"

I'm pretty sure she has asked me what I'd like to drink.

I glance again at the other gal who smiles again (this is more like it) and then to the wax dummy, "Could I have some orange juice, please?" I give her a little crooked smile and raise my eyebrows in the international sign of The Question Mark. She nods ever so slightly and again without moving her lips seems to communicate: Would you like anything else? I tell her no and then pay with--and this is the cool part--my Octopus card.

You read that right. I paid with an "Octopus" card. This is the coolest thing since Google. You go to the subway or Seven Eleven or wherever else it is that you can get these things and you buy this card. You hand over a bunch of money and through the magic of computers and RF readers and all that junk, you get a little card that has virtual money on it. Then you can use your little cash card (except the term 'cash' is so 20th century) in many places. You can use it on the subway, at McDonald's, convenience stores, etc. It's way cool.

And speaking of cool, let's look at the weather.

Click to enlarge images

Okay, now really look at that honest-to-goodness-straight-off-the-internet-so-it-must-be-true weather report. Did ya see that heat index? Whew. That's hot.

Like in Seoul, the subway works well here. It's clean, efficient, and seemingly relatively crime free. Let me insert some other factoids I stole from the Internet here...

Hong Kong consumes more oranges than any other place on earth.

The territory has the world’s highest per-capita consumption of cognac (around 10% of the worldwide market) and highest ownership of Rolls Royces.

The Kwun Tong District in Kowloon is the most densely populated place on earth, with over 50,000 people per square km.

In Hong Kong, a betrayed wife is legally allowed to kill her adulterous husband, but only using her bare hands. The husband’s lover, however, may be killed by any manner desired...

Now I copied all that from another traveler's blog. I don't know if it's true, but she was a pretty witty young (British) gal and I liked her blog so I thought I'd add that stuff here.

This place is indeed congested with people. Walking around in all that congestion you find that people are very impersonal and there's a lot of physical contact. People jostle and bump into one another quite a lot. I don't like that at all. I figure my greatest danger--meaning the most likely threat--while traveling is that I'll have my pockets picked or I'll get mugged. The former is a very real possibility everywhere we go, so all this jostling is a great set up.

Plus, it's hot (remember the heat index above) and muggy, so this is not my favorite place in the summer. However, in contrast to the winter, we have had some nice clear skies. Our approach into HKG this time was particularly scenic--lots of isolated cumulous buildups everywhere, but also lots of clear skies. This part of the world looks from the air like about any other tropical island destination. Really neat. This time I saw reservoirs I'd never seen before. Then the next day, we went to a history museum and learned all about those reservoirs.

I think the museum we went to is this one: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/History/en/aboutus.php. It cost about $1.25 to get in unless I converted the currency wrong in which case it might've cost me $125. Who knows. Anyway, it's an impressive place. We spent about four hours there and learned that HKG has suffered both drought and severe flooding. The reservoirs I mentioned are a fairly recent development.

After the museum adventure we ate at a new (to me) place. I had a setup meal which included sea bass, chicken steak, veggies, bread, coke, and probably something else. Can't remember. It was, however, delicious. I think it cost about $8. Or maybe $80.

There are many things to do here in HKG if you're properly motivated, well-rested, and heat tolerant. ;-) This trip I'm none of the above, so I'm taking it easy, getting caught up on really important things--like blogging--and napping.

One of the neat things I've started this trip is a course from the Teaching Company (www.thegreatcourses.com) called the Joy of Mathematics. It's neat. And you thought I was a math geek before.

Next stop: home.

(Photo by Mark)

Korea, July 2007

2007-07-22T17:20:00.000-08:00

Nice weather, nice folks, good public transportation...

Eighty degrees (F) with a light breeze and sunshine is nice summer weather. I've been frozen to the bone in Seoul before and I've been really hot. It was nice to have some decent weather.

I like South Korea. A few years ago, maybe 2001, I was wandering around the city solo and was looking for an internet cafe. I ducked into a tiny electronics shop and chatted with the proprietor. I told him what I was looking for and he offered me his own computer. Then he provided me with a bottle of cold orange juice. After I quickly checked my email and sent a quick note home, I offered to pay for everything. He let me pay for nothing.

This past trip, my first officer and I made use of the subways. On two different occasions, an older Korean person (one time it was a man; the other it was a woman) came up to us with a smile and asked in perfect McDonald's english, "May I help you?" Now these were not public employees or scammers of any kind. They were just nice folks.

Here's some information from asianinfo.org...

The fifth largest city in the world, the Seoul metropolis has a population of about 10.3 million and is the center for economy, finance, the arts and culture. Seoul is known to be one of the safest places to travel in with its low crime rate.

There is a blend of old and new in Seoul with the modern high-rises and trendy shops mixed in with ancient temples and palaces. Shopping is not a problem with the many department stores and street shops located around the city. People are very sociable and kind to visitors in Seoul. You will always see people in groups laughing and walking along the streets...

The Han River flows through the center of Seoul. Encircling the city are rocky mountains which makes Seoul blend nature and modernization beautifully.

Temperatures in Seoul are clearly defined by the four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. Autumn is the best time to visit Seoul since the temperatures are mild and the sky is clear. Seoul has four palaces from the Chosun Dynasty. The Chosun Dynasty determined that Seoul was to be the capital of the Korean Peninsula in 1394. It remained the capital of the entire peninsula throughout the Chosun Dynasty up to the Korean War. During the Korean War, Seoul was almost totally destroyed. From 1960-1970, there was a tremendous effort to rebuild the city. Rapid economic growth was evident and by 1988, Seoul was home to the Olympics which brought to the world's attention that it was one of the major cities in Asia.

This image from a Rolex ad...

I think this is a picture of Namdaemun (Great South Gate), Seoul, which I saw for the first time this trip. This monument is South Korea's Treasure Number One. For more information, please ask Mr. Google.

South Korea...what an incredible story. These are impressive folks. Let me ruminate on that for a minute.

As most of you know, I'm not a profound thinker. If brains were sodas, mine would be Brain Lite: half the calories, no high fructose corn syrup, and lots of fizz. But when I look at the Korean peninsula, I see a grand experiment with clear results. You have the same land mass to the north and the south, the same great folks, the same basic weather, etc. So why is the north starving and scaring the world with their sabre-rattling while the south is, in many ways, more advanced than the good ole US of A?

Could it be that your political and economic systems really do matter? Hmmm...

Could it be that high personal standards, a desire for achievement, and some balanced nationalism are working here? Hmmm...

I'm not the grand thinker here; I'm just ruminating. Trying to keep the sugar from settling in the bottom of that can of Brain Lite.

On this trip, we used the subway system quite a bit and I was impressed with how efficient it was, how clean it was, and how orderly and nice the people were. We can all learn from them. This is a far cry--in a very nice way--from the subways of New York.

One thing about our trip was a bit ironic. I'm a veteran. My first officer is a veteran and a current Lt Col in the Guard. We couldn't get on the Army base (Yongsan) in town! This was less a matter of security and more a matter of bureaucratic idiocy, but there you go...post 911 security in a world gone mad.

I like South Korea and the Korean people. Interesting place.

Next destination: Hong Kong.

Homer, July 2007

2007-07-18T10:10:00.001-08:00

Day One

We left ANC on July 12th, 2007 in the midst of a blinding snowstorm, armed with little more than the clothes on our back and a sense of adventure in our hearts...

Okay, it was a little more sedate than that, but we did leave on the 12th with a sense of adventure in our hearts. We were bound for our beloved Homer and even though I don't enjoy driving long distances, I eagerly looked forward to our 225-mile drive because I knew it would be beautiful.

The adventure began as I turned the corner out of our subdivision. Less than a hundred yards from our home, a large moose was walking along the road head to head with my car. I pulled over to take pictures, but the moose started walking toward me. I backed up until the moose decided I was not a threat, then pulled over to take a couple of pix.

La moose...

We took the trip south in nice weather at a leisurely pace, stopping several times at favorite places. Our first stop this trip was at a bakery in Girdwood (about an hour south of ANC) where we get cake doughnuts. We seldom eat doughnuts throughout the year, but this has become a tradition. If you do something two or three times in a row, doesn't that make it a tradition? The teenage girl working behind the counter does nothing positive for the experience, but the doughnuts are good.

Another 90 minutes took us to Soldotna, where we like to eat at Charlotte's. This is a wonderful little cafe and bookshop where the food is moan-out-loud good. This is becoming another tradition we plan on keeping.

We arrived at our little cabin in the woods (www.moosecreekcabins3.com) a little later than planned in a steady, chilly rain. The innkeeper is a terrific guy named Ed Sotelo, who met us at his home and then showed us around. He's a neat guy who, like his wife, is a schoolteacher. He also does carvings, but his schedule did not allow us an opportunity to view his work.

The cabin...

Ed and his wife have a nice home situated in a clearing with an unrestricted view of the mountains. They have about six acres and have three places for guests to stay. You can stay in a downstairs apartment in their home or in one of two cabins. If you stay in either cabin, the setting is very private. Depending on the vegetation, you won't see the other cabin or the house from your cabin.

The larger cabin...

The other cabin is much larger and has a nice view of the mountains. Our cabin is surrounded by forest, but the view is only of a heavily grassed meadow. They have a little shed that has a sauna inside and next to the little shed is a hot tub. The shed is really quaint with its rustic style complete with grass growing on the roof. This area is also very private as it's nestled in the forest.

You can drive to and park near our cabin. Access is down a dirt path barely wide enough for your vehicle. However, you do not have vehicle access to the other cabin. The only access we saw was via walking down a little path through the woods.

Ed provided us with the fixings for continental breakfasts. He also left us with coffee, oatmeal, hot chocolate, etc. and the necessary appliances for small meals--microwave, refrigerator, hot plate, and so forth.

Although we were expecting the cabin to be small, we were both a little surprised at the reality. It's tiny. However, it has everything we need, so even though we stayed five nights, it still worked out just fine. See more pix on Picasa.

For most of the first three days, we had partly sunny skies with occasional rain. When it was overcast, even though this is mid-July, it was pretty chilly. The mornings are chilly regardless of the weather. Fortunately, the little heater warms up the room pretty well. First one up starts the heater and then jumps back into bed until it gets warmer.

By the way, if you come to AK in the summer, you still need to pack as if it's October in the mid-west. While you may get lucky and find warm, sunny days--some folks even call it hot--you'll really want those sweatshirts and gloves if you get out in the wind and the rain. When we walked the beach here in Homer, we wore several layers of clothes and our gloves. It was chilly walking into the wind. It's much more tolerable with the wind at your back.

Denise was the activities director this trip, so she made all our plans while I was gallivanting around Asia. In addition to finding this great little cabin, she signed us up for two trips with Central Charters. The first one was on Day Two.

Day Two

Our first trip was to Seldovia. We left port mid-morning and rode comfortably indoors (for the most part) for a couple of hours on a sight-seeing trip (i.e., the long way) to Seldovia. This trip across Kachemak Bay took us to several interesting islands, coves, etc. before disembarking in Seldovia, Alaska. Along the way we saw lots of birds and sea otters.

Seldovia is a unique little town that used to be larger than Homer. I don't remember the history of the town very well, but I think the short version of the story is the '64 earthquake hurt the city pretty badly and it has never really recovered. There are a few homes, a few businesses of various kinds, some places to eat, bed and breakfasts, etc.

Parts of the original boardwalk remain, however, so we tourists can walk about and see homes built right at the water's edge, many of them on stilts. Parts of the area are very quaint.

It was rainy and chilly while we were there, but it was a neat trip. We did have a very nice meal in town. Most of the ride back and forth on the boat was in the clear and the views were spectacular.

Speaking of which, when I think of Homer and the Kenai Peninsula, I think of spectacular views. You can't help but think of Julie Andrews and the Sound of Music. This is that kind of breath-taking beauty. It's hard to otherwise describe. Here's a panorama shot taken with my Kodak P712:

Day Three

We mostly drove around, did some walking, and checked out several eating establishments.

The food down here is great. Our favorite place is probably the Mermaid Cafe which coincidentally also has a used book store attached. Are we seeing a pattern here? Denise had a BLT that was probably the best we've ever had (I got a bite or two). Think homemade bread, large helpings of bacon fried to perfection, fresh lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise and whatever else (love?). It was awesome. I had vegetable soup that was also excellent.

And yes, I did buy a book.

Day Four

Day Four was very cool--in more ways than one. Denise had us booked to go to Halibut Cove in the afternoon so we spent the day prior to the boat ride doing what we do best: sight-seeing, walking, and eating. There's a quaint little general store about two miles from our cabin. They have post office boxes, general food items like milk, bread, drinks, etc., but best of all they also bake and fix a variety of interesting foods. We happen to love their BBQ sandwiches, but everything on the menu looks terrific. If the BBQ is any indication, this is another outstanding place to eat.

Speaking of nearby attractions, there's a great little nursery called Fritz Creek Gardens (I think). Last trip we got some plants from these folks and also toured their grounds. Neat folks and a really neat place to visit. This place is almost right next door to the general store.

In order to take the charters, you have to go out to the Spit. Prior to coming to Homer and thinking back to my incorrect, naive, visions of the Homer Spit from the late 80's, I envisioned the spit as a rather desolate place inhabited by some wildlife and a little old lady who feeds the eagles. There really is or was a little old lady who feeds or fed the eagles, but I'm not sure where she did that. And the spit was once that desolate landscape of my visions. However, that's not the case now and it probably wasn't that way when we lived here before.

The Spit is a flat, narrow peninsula that juts out into Kachemak Bay. I don't have any reference material handy, but I'd guess it goes out maybe a mile or two and it's pretty well packed with little businesses. It's quite the bustling place. There are tiny shops packed right next to each other along boardwalks that run along both sides of the road. The main emphasis here is fishing, fishing, and more fishing, but you do find T-shirts shops, art galleries, and places to eat.

On the north side of the road, you have a row of little shops and then the land drops steeply down to the marina. On the south side of the road, there's more land between the shops and the water. In fact, there are actually places to park RV's and camp. And it's pretty much wall to wall campers, RV's, and some hardy tent campers.

Back on Day Two this is where we boarded our boat to Seldovia. Likewise, on Day Four we boarded the Danny J for our 45-ish minute ride over to Halibut Cove. The Danny J was built in '42 and was once used to transport troops (as many as 75 men at a time) between ship and shore. A lady now owns the boat and has several captains who take turns running the boat over to Halibut Cove several times a day, every day of the season.

When we departed at around 5:00 p.m., there was a large cloud deck moving in toward us at sea level. I guess you might call it fog, but as we drove down the hill from our cabin to the Spit, you could very clearly see this cloud bank moving in. It was very distinct and pretty vast. By contrast, fog tends to be more ethereal.

In any case, as we were boarding, I asked the lady captain about her navigational equipment. She told me she had radar and a compass. I asked if they ever cancelled due to low visibility and she cheerfully told me, "No."

Shortly after departing, we were engulfed in the fog, but visibility wasn't that bad. It was probably 1/4 of a mile or better. For pilots, that's pretty low, but for a boat moving at 6 knots, it was plenty enough that we could see other boats that occasionally went by.

A couple of miles (I'm guessing) from the opposite shore, we moved out of the fog into brilliant sunshine and a gorgeous view of the land mass. Imagine snow-capped mountains in the background and lush green hills in the foreground. Some of the hills in the foreground eased gracefully into the bay. In other areas there are steep bluffs. At the top of one of these bluffs, you can see an old wooden fence. We later hiked to that fence line and viewed the bay from atop a grassy knoll.

As you pull into Halibut Cove, it's very much like a movie scene. There aren't many homes there as only about 30 people live there year round, but the homes and businesses are mostly built on pilings along a boardwalk. There are a few boats tied up alongside the pilings and docks and the hills rise up dramatically with the snowy mountain tops in the background. On this gorgeous, nearly cloudless, sunny afternoon it was a breathtaking sight.

We had reservations for dinner scheduled for the moment of our arrival, so we climbed the steep ramp straight into the open doors of the Saltry Restaurant. I believe that saltries were originally places where they salted fish before sealing them in kegs for shipment. This area used to be a huge herring fishing place but they actually decimated the herring population.

The restaurant that took the old saltry's location and name appears to do a thriving business. No small feat considering their very high prices and limited clientele. The food was good, however, and the ambiance or setting was worth every penny.

After dinner, we walked along the boardwalk and then made our way along some paths and up some steep slopes until we finally found those grassy knolls overlooking the bay. Once again, the views were just spectacular. From up on the hills, you see no houses, people, nor indications of mankind except for that very quaint wooden fence. I was in heaven. I didn't want to leave.

I'm not aware of any roads or any modern cars or trucks on this island. People get around on foot, on little golf-cart-like vehicles, and--get this--unicycles. Yep, unicycles. I've never seen so many. I didn't actually ever see anyone riding one, but I must've seen half a dozen of them lying around in different places much like you'd normally see bikes. Funny.

The ride back on the Danny J was very nice in nice weather. This is a must do trip if you ever make it to Homer.

Day Five

Day Five we meandered around, eating, hiking the beach, reading, and loafing. It was relatively warm, sunny, and gorgeous.

Day Six

We reluctantly left Homer on another gorgeous summer day. It was warm, sunny, and almost cloudless. The skies down there and in Anchorage are seldom that brilliant blue you see in Colorado. There is almost always a slight haze. Consequently you'll see that in a lot of our pix. Still, it's a magnificent view.

Because we kept stopping for one thing or another, it took us about an hour to finally drag ourselves away from town. Then on the drive home, we stopped several times to enjoy the views, stretch our legs, stop at our favorite eating places and so on. We also stopped by Portage Glacier to take some more pix.

When I get a chance, I'll post them on Picasa.

Stay tuned.