More Junkmail from Bob!

Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Important Stuff.

Deer Creek

Do you know how many people live in Deer Creek Oklahoma? Did you know that 80% of the female humans 15 and over in Deer Creek are married, and 90% of the people 25 and over have graduated from high school?

If some of these vital facts about Deer Creek or any other town have slipped your mind, you can jog your memory at:

      http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts

Ode to Eula

Well, it's not quite poetry...

      http://www.tgdaily.com/2005/10/22/rtf_eula/

Warm Blooded Fish

They told me in the 2nd grade that fish are cold blooded. They are, but some of them do generate heat:

      http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104543

F-117 782

A few weeks ago at the Edwards AFB air show an F-117 with a U.S. flag painted on the bottom made a few fly-bys. I wasn't impressed with the paint job. Later I read about the plane. It is an F-117 prototype, tail number 782, the oldest F-117 flying. At least it was at the time. It was retired after the show.

Number 782 made its first appearance in 1983, four years before the F-117 program was made public.

Dr. Raymond Puffer, Air Force Flight Test Center historian, recalled, "During a squadron change-of-command ceremony, four years before the F-117 was publicly acknowledged, 782 swept in low and then banked away suddenly, revealing the American Flag on its belly. The crowd went absolutely berserk, and the incident aroused intense excitement. The Cold War was at its coldest then, and the story (and the aircraft) was an incredible morale-builder for us all."

The flag was repainted onto the plane for its retirement.

      http://www.edwards.af.mil/archive/2005/2005-archive-f117_782.html

I kind of like that paint job now.

      P1020709.jpg      P1020710.jpg      P1020730.jpg

Holding Terrorists

      Article 1

      Article 2

      http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113101989054387251.html

ARC 2005

We have finished the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers, 2005.

      http://arc.worldcruising.com/en/

The Minnow went from the Canary Islands to St. Lucia. Here are the journal and photos:

      http://hmsminnow.blogspot.com/

Actually, I didn't make it to St. Lucia. I had a finger injury and took an oil tanker, helicopter, and some jets to the doctor. I'm typing this one-handed.

      http://xpda.com/mutiny

I think the Minnow did pretty well in the multihull division, after you factor in the motoring penalties. We didn't use the engines (except to kick me off the boat onto the tanker, and that was the wrong direction.) Most of the other catamarans motored quite a bit. We won't get the results for a few days.

Chesapeake Bay

Last Spring, Mike, Serge, Ken, Melinda and I left Chesapeake Bay and headed for France. The ocean temperature was a few degrees colder tan normal. Now, it's a few degrees warmer than normal.

      http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17082

Pirates

While on my short cruise aboard the Patris, I noticed some posters encouraging vigilance in high-piracy areas, and some instructions on what to do if attacked. One Catana 52 in the ARC, our closest competitor, sailed down the coast of Africa to find the trade winds at around 11°N. They made good time doing that. We had talked about doing that too, but ruled out the idea because we were afraid sailing that close to West Africa might not be safe, and because of the extra distance involved.

Maybe if we'd had a sound cannon like this cruise ship...

      http://mathaba.net/news/?x=423677

      http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2205022005

Charitable Compensation

There is an email flying about that gives the compensation of top people at the Red Cross, United Way, and Salvation Army. The Red Cross number is right at $600,000+, but the highest Salvation Army employee is apparently $160,000+, not $13,000. This article has a lot of info:

      http://www.forbes.com/2004/11/23/04charityland.html

Google 767

I think the Boeing 767 is owned by the owners, not by Google. It's a personal jet.

Not to be outdone by the Google bosses, a California lady named Francie bought a Boeing 747. She's building a house out of her airplane.

      http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/1107wsj-jet-architecture07-ON.html

Wireless Fun

I was in a Florida motel a few weeks ago and noticed several wireless networks were available for me to login to. Is it still bad manners to end a sentence with to?

When I embark on my life of crime, I think I'll set up a wireless network near or in a busy hotel. Some of the people will use my network to access the internet instead of the hotel's. Then I can grab usernames and passwords as they float by, and use them unscrupulously for despicable depravity, and possibly a little thievery. If you want to protect yourself from me, you won't use important usernames and passwords unless you're SURE who you're logged into.

A few weeks ago in Westchester County, NY, they proposed a law that would make unsecured wireless networks illegal. That's about like making it illegal for me not to lock my car.

      http://news.com.com/2100-7351_3-5934194.html

New Hampshire Walmart

When Walmart was trying to expand into New Hampshire a few years ago, the people of New Hampshire fought it. Last month an Embraer cargo plane crashed into the lawn and garden center of the Manchester Walmart. Coincidence? Maybe...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20051108-0547-smallplanecrash.html

Buy the Money Pit!

http://www.livescience.com/history/051107_oak_island.html#forsale

Decline in Arctic Sea Ice

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NasaNews/2005/2005092820527.html

Copper River

About three years ago I flew the Aircam, among other places, down the Copper River in Alaska.

      http://xpda.com/junkmail/junk176/copper.htm

On November 5 of this year, there was a big dust storm when strong winds blew the Copper River glacial sediment south.

      http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17088

Beijing Air Pollution

About 12 years ago I visited Beijing. There was a lot of air pollution.

      Img0020.jpg

Air pollution is still a problem there.

      http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=17087

Quote of the Day

"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
Thomas Hesse, president of Sony's Global Digital Business.

I think Columbus said something similar about smallpox and the Arawats.

      http://www.boingboing.net/2005/11/14/sony_anticustomer_te.html

      http://www.sophos.com/pressoffice/news/articles/2005/11/stinxe.html

      http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004145.php

Ultralight Migration

Ultralights have been used recently to lead small flocks of migrating whooping cranes.

      http://www.bringbackthecranes.org/

Last August a guy named Francisco left Quebec in an ultralight to follow migrating monarch butterflies to Mexico.

      http://www.worldwildlife.org/monarchs/projects.cfm

Flying in Storms

You should not fly airplanes in thunderstorms.

      http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=4085272&nav=23ii

Worst Bugs

What were the world's worst software bugs?

      http://wired.com/news/technology/bugs/0,2924,69355-2,00.html

      http://wired.com/news/technology/bugs/0,2924,69547,00.html

RIAA

The RIAA is now proposing to make it illegal for people to reproduce, unless they pay royalties to the music industry.

RIAA Spokesman said, "It is an established fact that young people are the ones ripping off music on the internet. We believe it is well within our intellectual rights to receive royalties from those primarily responsible; from those parents who reproduce these music pirates in the first place. Without the country's youth, illegal file swapping would go down 94%"

The RIAA is imposing a royalty "tax" of $8.27 per child born since 1992. 5,638,235 John and Jane Doe lawsuits have been filed in United Federation of Planets courts. An attorney for the RIAA, speaking under the condition of anonymity, said, "This is great! We don't even have to hunt up any IP addresses!"

      digital radio

      http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051110-5548.html

Karl Malone

I'm not much of a sports fan, but I think I like this guy! He's got style.

      http://sportsbybrooks.com/karlmalone.html

Typing Error

Last Thursday morning, a trader at Mizuho Securities in Japan tried to sell 610,000 shares at ¥1 each instead of 1 share at ¥610,000. No big deal. The error only cost $223 million.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/09/business/error.php

Pictures of Today!

North Carolina Outer Banks

      image09092005_250m.jpg     hi-resolution

Stealth Ship

      sea_jet_1.jpg

The Aircam, north of the Arctic Circle.

      img_6770.jpg

Alaska, 2002

      img_6577.jpg      img_6581.jpg      img_6584.jpg

      img_7410.jpg      img_7470.jpg      img_7523.jpg

All the Alaska by Aircam photos:

      http://xpda.com/alaska02/


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I'm Bob Webster from Earth. I usually reside at bob@xpda.com
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