Fantastic Machine

8 Replies

============================================
Taking some time to research expensive electronics before you buy them can save you a lot of money on a TV, for example. If you haven’t had to choose between televisions in a while you might not know how advances in electronics have changed televisions, so reading online about LCD TVs compared to plasmas might help you a lot.
============================================

My brother emailed me this video today and I figured it was so cool that it already had to be on YouTube (see below).  In addition to the video the email contained the following information:

This incredible machine was built as a collaborative effort between the Robert M. Trammell Music Conservatory and the Sharon Wick School of Engineering at the University of Iowa . Amazingly,* 97%* of the machines’ components came from John Deere Industries and Irrigation Equipment of Bancroft Iowa , yes farm equipment!

It took the team a combined 13,029 hours of set-up, alignment, calibration, and tuning before filming this video but as you can see it was WELL worth the effort.

It is now on display in the Matthew Gerhard Alumni Hall at the University and is already slated to be donated to the Smithsonian.

Here’s the video:

Scary Bush in San Francisco

Leave a reply

Despite the title this post has nothing to do with POTUS.  Below is some video I shot this weekend in San Francisco down on Fisherman’s Wharf.  This guy took a couple of branches, hid behind them and then scared passersby.  Never mind that there’s not a tree or bush anywhere near him, that he’s on a sidewalk and that he’s sitting next to a bannister with a drop-down to the bay, he still was able to scare more people than you’d believe.  Best of all is that no one got mad and he was making out like a champ in terms of $1 tips. Full disclosure: he got me good before I shot this.

Yeah I’m Weird. Here’s a List.

3 Replies

I’ve been called on by Fec to list six weird things about myself. (He was called out by Billy).  Of course there are far more than six things that are weird about me, but here’s what come’s immediately to mind:

  1. I still like Journey. You’ll find this even weirder after you read item #6.
  2. I’m fascinated by hair removal products.
  3. I don’t like peanut butter and chocolate mixed together.  Watching the old Reese’s commercials used to make me gag.
  4. I do like banana sandwiches made with peanut butter and mayonnaise on white bread.
  5. I revel in schadenfreude, but despite this I can’t stand watching American Idol.
  6. I think the following artists suck: Dylan,  the Dead, the Band and almost every folk-rock singer ever recorded.

I’d Be Just Like John Madden

Leave a reply

Football commentator John Madden is afraid of flying and has a custom bus that he rides to all the games he covers, and I guess everywhere else he goes.  I’ve always thought that, while it might suck to have a phobia of anything, having a customized bus with a driver to get around in is about as close to traveling nirvanah I’d ever be able to find.

Well, after reading this Freakonomics post titled "Would You Fly on an Airplane with No Pilot" I can tell you that if we ever get to the point where planes are routinely flown by remote control with no pilot in the cockpit then I’m going to become a great customer for Amtrak, Trailways and all the cruise lines.  I know that auto pilot already does a lot of the flying, but at least there’s someone there keeping an eye on things.  On top of that the person keeping an eye on things has as much interest as I do in making sure the plane gets where it’s going without crashing.  Some guy working a joystick in Des Moines just doesn’t have the chips in the game, if you know what I mean.  What’s stopping him from having a couple of beers at lunch and then coming back to play "let’s land the 737 in half the distance it normally takes" just for giggles? And what about communications breakdowns? If you’ve ever watched satellite TV in the middle of a thunderstorm you know what I’m talking about.

Let’s put it this way: have you ever been to a hobby store to see who’s buying all those RC planes?  That’s probably the pool of applicants for this job and you’re going to tell me you’ll trust them with your life? 

Trailways it is. 

Esbee Hits the Bigs

2 Replies

Fellow Winston-Salem blogger Esbee has hit the mainstream by being Piedmont Parent’s first blogger.  I haven’t talked to her so I don’t know if this is a paid gig, but either way she’s now part of the hated MSM (mainstream media). Lucky for us she’s going to keep up her personal blog.

Personally I’m holding out for the really big time, waiting on an offer from one of the big MSM players.  My first choice would be the membership newsletter for the undertakers’ association;  I think my sensibilities are perfect for their publication.

Congrats Esbee.

RINO and DINO meet NINO

1 Reply

RINO and DINO sounds like some sort of cartoon or maybe even a NY nightclub act from the ’50s, but in this case it means "Republican in Name Only" and "Democrat in Name Only."  These terms are bandied about online, usually as an epithet in some political nutjob’s rantings.  You know the kind: "Bush is God, the Republicans are the only thing standing between America and the Democrats’ bankrupting us with their irresponsible tax and spend policies and the liberals’ bringing about Armageddon with their support of baby butchering and butt humping", or, "Bush is the Devil, the Democrats are the only thing standing between America and the Republicans’ bankrupting us with their irresponsible tax-cut and spend policies and the neo-cons bringing about Armageddon with their foolhardy battle with Islam."  Basically I’m talking about the pains-in-the-asses who see all human relations as adversarial and somehow never picked up the finer points of civil discourse during their adolescent development.

I’m always amused by the RINO and DINO accusations.  As someone who’s never joined either party I can’t be called anything but NINO (nothing in name only) and since that doesn’t actually mean anything it doesn’t really sting.  My brother used to accuse me of being an independent because I didn’t have the balls to take a stand on issues.  I used to respond that I refused to be associated with any group that I could disagree with consistently since I didn’t want anyone to think that I might believe in something in which I didn’t.  I think I also said something nasty like he was a Republican because he couldn’t think for himself, but hey, we were young.

I truly have a hard time understanding why an "average voter" would join a political party.  It’s easy to understand why people who want to be in power would form or join a party since it’s a means for them to achieve their goals, but I just don’t get it for the average person.  Maybe they want to be told how to think, or maybe they look at it like supporting a football team, or maybe they like the snacks at the party meetings, but it’s still a befuddler to me. I mean if I were to declare myself a Democrat I’d be associated with people like Kennedy and Rangel, and if I were to declare myself a Republican I’d be associated with people like Foxx and Bush.

And what about the issues?  You ask any 10 Republicans what they believe about the war and you’re going to get a lot of different answers.  Some want to get out, some want to stay.  Ask them about the separation of church and state and you’ll get different answers depending on whether you’re speaking to a fiscal or social conservative.  If I were Republican I’d be spending all my time prefacing my remarks with, "I’m a Republican, but not one of those Republicans, because I don’t agree with their stance on…", and it would take me a full paragraph before I could actually state my own beliefs.  As an independent I simply start with, "I don’t belong to a party.  I believe…"  I’m not picking on the Republicans since the same would happen with the Democrats.

All this got me to thinking that maybe the solution is to start a party of NINOs.  We’d essentially be a party that professes a belief in nothing, requires its members to only vote their consciences and endorses no particular candidate or issue.  We’d have a big convention just like the other parties, and we might even nominate a candidate, but we’d do it by lottery.  Hell, our odds would be fantastic for putting someone better in the White House than the Democrats or Republicans, I mean even random selection could do better than those jokers have done for the last generation or so.  We could even give ourselves a nice all-encompassing name: The Elephant’s Ass.  Our slogan could be something pithy like, "All for nothing".  I wonder if the RINOs and DINOs would come over if we invited them?

Can Someone Explain Airfares to Me?

4 Replies

I’ve been flying a lot the last couple of weeks and will be flying again next week.  By some miracle I haven’t been cursed with significant delays or cancellations this time around (knock on wood), but I’m more than a little confused by the airfares I’m seeing.  For example:

  • Flying from Greensboro to New York (Sunday), New York to Chicago (Tuesday morning) and then Chicago to Greensboro (Tuesday evening) would have cost $1,500 (coach or 1st class, which is in itself weird).  By booking the trip through Charlotte the airfare went to $750.
  • Flying one way from DC to Charleston the Tuesday before Thanksgiving cost $320.
  • Flying from Greensboro to San Francisco cost $220 round trip.

That last one really floored me.  Why is it cheaper to fly to San Francisco from Greensboro than it is to fly to New York or Chicago (I checked for the same dates and times)?  And to top it off I connect to San Francisco in Chicago, so it would be cheaper to fly through Chicago to San Francisco than to fly to Chicago and back even though I’m on the same planes.

Some other observations about my recent flying experience:

  • I love flying out of National, which some people insist on referring to as Reagan National.
  • LaGuardia is a hole.  It is quickly becoming my least favorite airport.
  • Getting in and out of Charlotte is easier than I thought it would be, and it takes no more time than it used to take me to get in and out of Dulles when I was living in DC.  If Greensboro isn’t careful they’re going to lose another regular passenger.
  • The big differentiator between airports, to me, is the food service available in the gate area.  All of them seem to have places to sit and eat outside of security, but the problem with LaGuardia and Greensboro is that they only have crappy food stands or hole-in-the-wall joints that serve tepid coffee and day-old sandwiches inside of security.  Blah.