ShowMeBlog

Tuscany in Italy

  I was watching a travel show on TV today.  It was on Tuscany (Italy).  If I won a lottery I think I would go and visit Tuscany and look into living there full time. 
  I love cheese but I would have to learn to drink wine.
  One thing that got my attention was that the government pays family farms money to help them remain small family working farms.  What a great idea.  We should have done something like that here in the United States.
  Now I just need to win a lottery.  Smile

Slot machines at Miami International Airport?

  The Miami Herald has a report that slot machines could come soon to the Miami International Airport.  Miami Dade County needs new sources of cash to meet rising airport costs.
  I think that we have to stop looking at gambling to pay for everything.  Where will it end?
  Now having said that…  Miami is a place that people come to for travel, recreation and leisure.  I could see slot machines at the airport.
  But the addition of slot machines at the airport is going to add problems.  Will the machines be in a public area for all people to use or just those that are using the airport?  They would add to security problems at MIA.  You have to worry about crime and crooks.  If it is open to the public you would have additional traffic and parking problems.
  If MIA can not make money with the thousands of people flying in and out of MIA then maybe they just need to shut down.  Or they may need new management.

Student twice puts planes on runway collision course

  I have posted a number of post on Howard’s Notebook about the ATC problem.  There were warnings about this sort of problem.  I hate to keep blaming President Bush and the Republicans but they are the cause of this current problem we have with ATC.
 
 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- “A student controller was directing planes during two runway mishaps in the past month at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, apparently giving instructions that placed planes on possible collision courses, federal investigators say.

Federal transportation safety investigators say the exact causes of the mishaps are still unknown. But in both cases, potential accidents were averted only after pilots recognized that mistakes had been made, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

In one instance, two commercial jetliners came within 500 feet of each other, the NTSB said.

Both incidents involved a "developmental" controller -- a controller who is not certified in every position in the control tower. The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates aviation in the United States including air traffic control, said Tuesday the developmental controller was under the supervision of different trainers during the two incidents, and that it is the controller/trainers -- not students -- who are held accountable for mistakes.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown did not immediately know what action, if any, was taken against the student.

But a controllers' union representative said the controller was still on the job, and deserves to be.

"This particular trainee had a total of 11 hours of training in the entire month of June. That's less then an hour a day," said Bob Kerr of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "He's brand new; he's going to make mistakes."

The student had completed about 30 percent of his training hours at the position, Kerr said. "He has plenty of time to not only learn from the present situation, but to continue learning and develop into a fine controller in that position."  …”

  President Bush and the Republicans wanted to break the ATC employees union.  They wanted to cut pay and take other action.  They would not hire and train new employees to do the ATC jobs and massive numbers of employees were leaving their jobs and retiring. 
  President Bush is gone but we still  have the mess that he has left behind and it is going to take years to clean up this mess.  It may cost lives.  It takes a long time to hire and train ATC employees.  Even after they get out of the school they still have to spend months, if not years, learning the job.

New Zealand flight crew in nothing but body paint

 

 New Zealand must be a pretty neat nation.  This is adv for their air line.  They are saying they have nothing to hide.  They do not add extra fees.  The employees in the adv are real employees and they have on nothing but body paint.

The Sarychev Peak Eruption – Kuril Islands

  I saw this on TV the other day.  I have heard people talking about it.  A friend, Dick, just sent me a link for the photo.  So take a look at what people are talking about.

“A fortuitous orbit of the International Space Station allowed the astronauts this striking view of Sarychev Volcano (Kuril Islands, northeast of Japan) in an early stage of eruption on June 12, 2009. Sarychev Peak is one of the most active volcanoes in the Kuril Island chain, and it is located on the northwestern end of Matua Island. Prior to June 12, the last explosive eruption occurred in 1989, with eruptions in 1986, 1976, 1954, and 1946 also producing lava flows. Ash from the multi-day eruption has been detected 2,407 kilometers east-southeast and 926 kilometers west-northwest of the volcano, and commercial airline flights are being diverted away from the region to minimize the danger of engine failures from ash intake…”   NASA Photo

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

  I just watched the launch of the LRO.  It is on the way to the moon and we are all going back to the moon but this time we will stay.

Google Street View Off-Road

“MONTEREY, Calif. -- Google is taking its popular "street view" map feature on a spin off-road by expanding coverage to include biking and hiking trails.

The program is in its early stages. In fact, so far the only trail to be mapped is the Monterey Rec Trail.

"This is the most beautiful bike trail I think I've been on in my life," said cyclist Dave Adrian. "If you could open the eyes of this and at least let people look at it, I think they want to come here and ride it themselves."

The mapping of the trails is the brainchild of Google engineers who wanted to map places cars can't reach.

To do the mapping, Google constructed the Google trike, a tricycle armed with the same 360-degree camera technology used on the street view cars.

The maps will give users a preview of the sites they will see while on their excursion…”

  I think this is a great idea.  Google is going to start doing street view of off-road areas.  A person can check out bike trails and other places like that from their computer.  God, I am tired already.  Smile
   So many neat things and neat stuff happening.  I wish I was young again.  

Bike-to-Work Week

“Bicycle Friendly States Rankings Announced (5.8.09) The League released the second annual ranking of Bicycle Friendly States in conjunction with Bike to Work Week. View entire state ranked list. Click here to read more.

Smart Cycling Conference: Setting New Directions (5.8.09) Come to San Jose this June 18-20 to talk about the best way to teach cyclists; to help the League continue to improve our curricula; and to hear news and updates from the foremost cycling educators in the world. View agenda.

2009 spring Bicycle Friendly Communities and States (5.01.09) The League is proud to announce the 2009 spring Bicycle Friendly Communities and States in celebration of Bike Month 2009. The League is recognizing 13 new Bicycle Friendly Communities and three BFC renewals. Notably, five states have their first BFC designations. Read more.

DOT Sec. Wants “Sustained Engagement” from Bike Advocates (4.23.09) DOT Sec. Ray LaHood posted on his blogthat "When I told the League of American Bicyclists National Bike Summit that 'Cyclists are important users of America's transportation systems,' I meant it. Read more.

Where is Your Money Going? (4.22.09) On February 17, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 became law. ARRA provides $48.1 billion for transportation infrastructure projects to be administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation. Of that, $27.5 billion is for highways and bridges (3% of that for Transportation Enhancements). View specific state transportation funding info.” 
League of American Bicyclists

Secede Texas Please

“…Dressed in jeans, boots and a baseball cap with a camouflage peak and a hunting outfitter's logo, the Texas governor was one of the few major politicians to appear at the tea parties across the country. While crowds yelled "SECEDE, SECEDE," Perry, 60 but telegenic and youthful, thought out loud that secession might be the outcome if Washington did not mend its "oppressive" high-spending, dictatorial ways. (Most experts suggest the notion that Texas can legally secede is mistaken, but the state does have the right to split into five states, offering the prospect of 10 U.S. senators, math that would send cold shivers down any Democratic back.)…”   Time CNN

  I think we would be better off without Texas as part of the United States.  My feeling is do not let the door hit you in the ass as you leave.
  I think the war between the states has already decided the issue.  I do not think Texas can leave the union.  I am sorry to say.  I think that Texas does have the right to split into up to five states.  Man those “states” would suck.  I lived in Texas for a couple of years.  I never did a lot of driving across Texas but I know what it is like.  Have you ever driven across Kansas?  When you drive across Kansas there is nothing.  You just want to get across it so you can get some place else.  Texas, I think, is 100 times worst than that. 
  If Texas were to break off from the United States it would just become a third world nation.  (Sort of like Miami but with out the weather and the beaches.) 
  You have to ask yourself what sort of state is a state that is  “the reddest of red states?”  We all know how the Republicans have almost destroyed the economy.  In fact they may have done it.  I think the President Obama and the Democrats can fix the economy but I am not sure.  In fact it is not just the economy but the Republican have come close to destroying the United States.
  Now the rest of the United States sees and understands these facts.  But then you have Texas that does not seem to understand it.
  If the cries to secede are real on their part then that would make them a pretty low shitty state.  Things get bad and they want to take their dirty, little bit of oil and cows and run and hide from the problems.
  (On the other hand since I was thinking of moving out of the United States when President Bush won his second term I guess I am not one to talk.)

   Since Texas was a nation and voted to join the United States it come in with certain rights.  I do not think leaving once they came in was one of them.  But they do have the right to break up into up to five states.  That would be interesting. 

   The time I was in Texas I did not see anything that I liked about the state. I am seeing less and less that I like about Texas.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

  I signed back up with Netflix.  I watched last night “The Story of the Weeping Camel” and it was very good.  It was a documentary.  It was most interesting to see a Mongolian family and how they live.

 

“The Story of the Weeping Camel is a 2003 Mongolian documentary distributed by ThinkFilm. It was released internationally in 2004. The movie was directed and written by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni. The plot is about a family of nomadic shepherds in the Gobi desert trying to save the life of a rare white bactrian camel (Camelus bactrianus) calf after it was rejected by its mother. The documentary was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Documentary at the 77th Academy Awards…”