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Canadian commentator Mark Steyn collects a “best of” from his hundreds of articles this year in an online summary (part 1, part 2). His political, comic, and elocution sensibilities tickle me giggly.
Lordy lordy, I still hear some ignorant Americans and others talk about the “failed attempt to impeach” Bill Clinton. In fact Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, but not because he lied to “the american people” about his sex life. It was because he and conspirators lied to a court holding a sexual harassment trial against him.
Several European countries are putting together a GPS-type satellite service of their own. But why?
Read more...It can’t be helped. Sometimes good people leave to go work elsewhere. How does the truncated organization react?
Read more...This morning, our one-year-old brat solved the common puzzler: what’s the sound of one hand clapping?
Read more...After a few days of work, sourceware’s new web search engine, mnogosearch is running.
Read more...Both Ian and Graydon have talked about the matter of cars and suburbia. I am not an expert in urban philosophy, but I might risk one small insight.
Read more...Can it exist? Should it exist?
Read more...My old colleague Ian Lance Taylor is not only a great software guy, but has an argumentation style that I wish I could more frequently emulate. Whether pondering technical or political subjects (see the blog and essays links), he has a calm, fair, honest tone that makes it impossible to come back at with a quick “you silly git!” jerk of a comment. I don’t agree with everything he says, but it’s intimidating trying to match wits with him.
Of all places, a Toronto Star article about the proposed handgun ban brought together for me a bunch of issues I’ve written about here.
Read more...I can hardly await the written form of Paul Martin’s latest reelection gambit. From what his minions are already talking about on TV this morning, I can’t help but support it Huh?
Read more...Private pilots often have the luxury of cancelling flights when something is wrong. This luxury is also a burden.
Read more...I am a big fan of the movie Airplane!. Today, I happened across its serious predecessor Airport.
Read more...Honesty is a scarce virtue in the public sphere.
Read more...I’ve been feeling like such a 50’s woman lately.
Read more...An odd little item came through the 0xdeadbeef mailing list today. Read it here.
Read more...When and how to dispose of an infant to the clutches of a professional day-care is often not up to the parents.
Read more...A medical concern that has become biennial has turned me into a pathetic slob yet again: an ear infection. Uncomfortable, painful, gack. Please send your sympathy notes to the charity of your choice.
One rarely expects a friendly chat from a customs officer at a US/Canada border crossing.
Read more...The Toronto police force has begun a so-called “gun amnesty” program today. But they are using a different dictionary than the rest of us.
Read more...There is a police union labour action going on in Toronto right now. The issues boil down to, as usual, money.
Read more...Two companies (Avidyne & Ryan) whose pricy avionics entertain in GXRP’s cockpit have merged the other day. The most interesting part of this is the pricing of the combined product line.
Read more...Yesterday I got to spend a day flying with angels, committing only a minor act of metaphor misuse. I carried some, and some helped us on our way.
Read more...I’ve owned a Pontiac Aztek for some time. Now almost four years into its life, some stranger struck up a conversation about it.
Read more...American politics is as intertwined with news media as it is here. I haven’t followed the Plame outing story much, but its climax today has funny elements.
Read more...There is some controversy about how pilots should track “actual instrument time”, a somewhat vaguely defined term in Canadian regulations.
Read more...FChE: ... cracks some bad joke …
Juimiin: “Does humour run in your family?”
FChE: “No, humour runs from our family.”
A recent pair of Hope Air missions have let me experience a wide spectrum of instrument flying occurrences.
Read more...Juimiin realized the reason for my recent rash of culinary disasters.
Read more...Imagine a huge cake, with nice creamy icing at 2000 ft, sitting over a city. Now imagine the cake proper being invisible, leaving only a paper-thin wafer of cloud suspended above. That’s what we flew in/near/through a couple of times yesterday. Wonderful sight. I was not able to see the wingtip vortices we were surely producing in the layer.
Juimiin has recently placed a subscription to the famous journal Nature. While it’s oriented toward practicing scientists, it also supplies fodder for TV talking heads. What it does not supply, is satisfaction of regular delivery.
Read more...To stash some cash, we’ve decided to open an account at President’s Choice Financial. It’s been strange so far.
Read more...I studied very little biology in school. To a better-informed reader, my new realization yesterday will surely be old news. But to me, brief bliss. The topic? Fruits. Eric loves to eat them. I love to eat them. Everyone loves to eat them. They are yummy. Why? Because the plants grow them in order to be eaten. I can think of no other plant/animal body part that evolved for that apparent goal.
On an old Mythbusters episode, the silly hosts tried to investigate whether water can explode after being microwaved. They declared “myth true” after an experiment.
Read more...I’ve heard several times that “politics is the only game worth playing”.
Read more...The civil servants working for our municipal government just can’t help themselves. When there is propaganda budget unspent, heads roll. With it spent on cartoons such as the following, only eyes roll.
Read more...Let’s resume the story from part 1.
UPDATED with pictures.
Seeing a Juimiin spend the occasional utterly miserable day with offspring gives me pretty solid evidence that time machines will not have been invented over the next few years.
I’ve been looking for this little ditty from The Onion ever since I caught a glimpse of it years ago. It’s from the 2000 April 19 issue.
As I write this, jets practicing for the upcoming Toronto air show are buzzing overhead the city. DAMN THEM. A tree outside my home office window is blocking the view. I wish GXRP was available so I could scoot around up there with them. I can’t concentrate on work.
A number of incidents over the last days and years reinforce my sense that our society is excessively centralized, and as a consequence excessively vulnerable to points of failure. At some point soon, I expect the preference for efficiency will be changed to a preference for resilience.
Read more...If you sleep in a ditch, don’t be surprised to wake up wet.
Seeing Lane Smith’s lovely performance as the fictional science journalist Emmett Seaborn in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon makes me wonder: where are such people today?
Read more...The social event planned for this location took place as scheduled.
Read more...This afternoon, the following verbal interchange took place.
Read more...Two days ago, GXRP’s repaired magnetos were reinstalled. Yesterday, the last day of its active airworthiness certificate, I flew it eventlessly to its inspection shop. Today I again start weeks of waiting to fly again.
A block away from our home lies a little shop named “Altitude Bakery”. Until about a year ago, this was run by a gentleman named Dennis Findlay, and produced sumptuous snacks. Then, he sold the store to someone else.
Read more...Congratulations to Andrew and Stephanie Overholt on their recently commenced marriage. Good luck!
Two weeks ago today, that troubled magneto has started to disintegrate during a series of flights.
Read more...I am a fan of Thousand Island salad dressing. It makes most dry foods go down really easily. Its sweet tang has graced my fridge for years.
Read more...Paul Martin’s choice of governor-generals continues to entertain. I wonder if the Queen approves of being represented here by a self-declared gift to humanity.
If it were not for one redeeming feature, today’s visit to the taste of the danforth would have been a total loss.
Read more...These politically correct days, it may seem like the anniversary of the Hiroshima atomic bomb is something to get all depressed and guilty about. Nonsense.
Read more...Broccoli leads people to ponder the pointlessness of their lives. This applies especially to nine-month-old people, who, after being offered said vegetable smush, immediately push and nearly topple their high chairs. Juimiin’s heroic jumper-catching maneuver saved Eric from a code 17, until next time...
Our town’s Special mayor found opportunity to speak on a series of recent shootings.
Read more...I have only a few little thoughts about this afternoon’s Air France crash at CYYZ.
Read more...Once my manly digital camera is repaired, I hope to catch a picture of a bus.
Read more...This morning, Eric suffered deja do.
Read more...Unless left alone, GXRP’s magneto system has hickups sometimes. It tends to confuse mechanics who work on it.
Read more...I just read that Alberto Mendelzon died about a month ago. I worked for him for several years, from when he opened his lab to employ a mere high-school kid on a co-op work term in 1989, through till I finally left the university nest in 1995 to go to IBM. I owe him tremendously for the opportunities those years opened for me, for the great gang of students he got together, for the work we accomplished. Though we did very rarely exchange email during the last few years, I regret not visiting him and thanking him in person. He was a warm man, as is usual of the south american / jewish variety. I’m sad that working with him again will not come to be.
Last night Eric had a little mishap.
Read more...Last week, I parked big yellow car (a 2002 Pontiac Aztek) with its sunroof just ever so slightly open, to ventilate the cooking temperatures inside. I thought the occasional bit of rain would not find its way inside the vehicle in any measurable amount. I was wrong.
Read more...I always thought centres renting out halls for weddings would ensure their organization treated customers well. After all, people spend ridiculous amounts of money making the perfect wedding.
Read more...Here is what the first flight aboard an airplane like GXRP might be like for a young pilot. Imagine a flight instructor hovering around, as the story unfolds.
Read more...You must have heard by now that several of the people identified as the likely London bombers were typical disaffected youth.
Read more...My ex-cow-orker Ben Elliston is by and large a great guy. A great, large guy.
Read more...I hate advertisements, and I fear+loathe the minds behind it.
Read more...Ladies who breastfeed their offspring in summer’s sizzling midsection may be doing a disservice.
Read more...This afternoon, I went flying to practice some exercises similar to the ones in the multi-engine flight test. I was relieved that I could probably pass the test again. Still it required a good deal of effort, and brought back some bad memories.
Read more...Lock your doors! Hide your babies! The Little Tikes Wide Activity Walker is a death trap.
Read more...I don’t care about the Live 8 show. But others seem to, and make some pretty good babble.
Read more...Retiring an older personal web page with similar information, below is a list of some of my favorite slightly oddball films.
Read more...Li wrote about a spontaneous little day trip to Goderich we all took on Sunday. Eric survived his third and fourth flights, and his first long outdoor hike. We all failed to succomb to heat stroke or sunburn. Hint to future bipedal hikers: take the left fork off of Mill Rd.
Oleos are shock absorbing tubes constituting the main flexible connection between the wheels and the aircraft. When an oleo goes bad, the airplane can’t fly.
Read more...James Randi’s weekly newsletter transcribes a clever little speech from a scientist who’s tired of pseudoscientific garbage.
I have had only a few experiences of flying through stormy weather. Yesterday’s day-trip to/from Boston was one.
Read more...There is an old saying that all my G.A.W. performances have corrupted: “that which doesn’t kill Frank, makes Juimiin laugh harder”.
The same gang running Toronto’s municipal government that has recently instructed parking fines to be increased and enforcement tightened, has just told their staff to start enforcing the anti-idling bylaw.
Read more...For the last six days, I’ve grounded myself with the excuse of thunderstorms.
Read more...Although less popular than CNN, I watch the weather channel/network all the time. But why?
Read more...Not that the bulk of the universe has any reason to care, but Red Hat hosted a little conference in New Orleans last week. Among other speakers, Wil Wheaton was supposed to speak. Given the rest of the agenda, his presentation may well have been the most entertaining of the bunch. However, he cancelled at the last moment.
Read more...Often when bad news is announced in some public forum, a bunch of people will reply with “... I will include X in my prayers …”. People may or may not pray for me should something naughty happen, but I wonder whether they think it would “work”.
Read more...I’ll pat myself on the back for hosting a weblog of such grand stature that even individuals from the islamic Kingdom of Saudi Arabia come across it. At least one such individual did, looking for images of “she hottie” (sic) on google.com.sa, finding this old article and this one. Glad to be of service in some minor furtherance of the liberalization of that country.
Your normally jaded correspondent has just had a perfect weekend. I know I don’t deserve it, sorry universe. The ingredients: an airplane, a young boy, a wife, friends, family, and some exciting weather.
Read more...You must have heard the saying: “if you’re not a socialist/liberal by your 20s, you have no heart; if you’re not a capitalist/conservative after your 30s, you have no brain”. I offer this humble rationale.
Read more...Finally reading something non-technical, I’ve spent some kid crying (= no sleeping) time with Stephen Ambrose’s To America, a sort of synopsis of many of his previous history books.
Read more...There has been a big fuss lately about a rumour that US interrogators of terrorist suspects sometimes “desecrate” copies of the koran book.
Read more...Choosing the safest initial climbout speed in a twin is a matter of minor controversy.
Read more...One interesting glitch occurred during today’s extra-long Hope Air flight, which consisted of a nine-hour Toronto->London->Thunder Bay->Toronto triangle marathon.
Read more...If you have or know of young humans in the need of entertainment, consider bypassing the standard “Fisher-Price” brand products. These widely-distributed low-cost products are OK if that’s all you ever see. But if you come across products by Tiny Love, your eyes will open wide. The design elements are wonderful: soft, round, plush, organic shapes and colours, and interesting physical elements (sounds, vibrations, textures). Eric plays with them all the time, and so do we.
Maybe it was the lack of food, but yesterday’s flying got boring.
Read more...It seems daily that one hears of islamic leaders issuing a death decree against someone or another deemed to offend the religion or something. All that the police seem to do is offer guard to the more prominent fatwa recipients. But why stop there?
Read more...For a few months now, elastic.org has participated in the SPF email verification system to limit spam and forgeries, in both sender and receiver roles. As of today, we also participate in the DomainKeys anti-spam/forgery system, thanks to new support in the exim mail software. These measures, along with our established aggressive SpamAssassin and ClamAV installations, we are trying to model all the best technologies to clean up Internet email.
Here is some absolutely gripping first-hand reporting of goings-on in Iraq. And more, more, more, more, and many more…
The nobility of the military profession is eminent, and starkly contrasts the triviality of our day-to-day activities. It reminds me of deep sensibility in the clever satirical movie Starship Troopers. In that world, one become a voting citizen of a nation not by merely living there, but by serving in its armed forces, thereby risking one’s life for one’s nation.
The little brat has been learning to have fun. Two recent breakthroughs were each the result of our persistent coaching.
Read more...I was reminded of a little thought I shared with my last Hope Air passenger during the flight. I wonder whether my life would have been even better, if during my youth I consumed similar gems with any frequency.
Read more...The little brat has found three different ways to move axially on the ground. Moving laterally has not been a problem for the last few months since which he learned to roll over.
Read more...As the scope of a political domain goes from local to global, the conflicts become harder, the stakes higher, the timescales longer, and the intellect sounder. (The same is probably true of law and economics.)
Read more...Today’s Hope Air mission was my longest day of flying yet.
Read more...When a twin-engined airplane “loses” an engine, student pilots are often under the impression that the standard emergency drill has to be rushed.
Read more...
Since last summer, GXRP has carried an Avidyne EX-500 MFD unit in its avionics stack. The MFD converses with the mothership across a radio data link to fetch weather and such info, and routinely transmits its position. Now Avidyne has added a new feature to the package: on-line flight tracking. People who receive a password from me can log on to a web site, and get a look at the position and planned track of the airplane, while still in the air. Soon they will be able to send/receive text messages to the flight. Cool cool cool.
Operations at uncontrolled airports are usually that way because there is not enough traffic to justify the expense of a tower. Some uncontrolled airports can be busy enough to desparately make one wish for one.
Read more...Flying commercially is not as bad as I remember it. But I’m still disappointed not to have used Air Frank for a recent trip.
Read more...Oh no, I’m getting cosmic payback for my comments about that Schiavo woman: Eric is showing signs of bulimia. Maybe comments that he’s so chubby have put a complex into his five-month-old head. He now regularly throws up after feeding.
Those residents of this town who are dependent on public transit to get around have been led by weeks and days of media hysteria to worry about whether they’d be able to get to work tomorrow. They need not have worried.
Read more...One might hope that the good people at ontario’s lottery monopoly who direct expenditures toward advertising responsible gambling would check with staff mathematicians.
Read more...The mediocre aviation magazine Plane & Pilot seems to have something offensive in every issue. Not rude, or opinionated, or controversial, but simply absurd.
Read more...Some phrases have entered English conversation that are symptomatic of our culture of pretense.
Read more...An “overshoot” or “go-around” maneuver is performed to abort a landing: to make an airplane climb up and away as fast as possible. It can be done well, and it can be done badly.
Read more...When you next hear someone kiss ass in an annoyingly extended, public, humiliatingly dishonest way, yell out “You’ll get deeper if you use your tongue!“.
I apologize for the visceral image.
How frequently do Catholics and other interested people pause and wonder what has become of the pope?
Read more...For a few erroneous minutes, Entertainment Tonight found itself running on our television. Then it struck me: I’ve seen this before.
Read more...Whoa, nellie, the procedure I’ve been taught for recovery from wing stalls in multi-engine airplanes is all wrong!
Read more...Microsoft has kindly agreed to subsidize a competitor’s office-space rent, by purchasing advertising space on the lobby elevator doors of the building containing Red Hat’s Toronto office. Gee, thanks guys! Please consider urinal cake ads too!
Yesterday, another report was released by one of the groups investigating the UN “oil-for-food” corruption fiasco. The response of the news media was sadly funny.
Read more...She died in 1990. One can reasonably consider anyone in such a long-duration brain-dead vegetative state as already dead: no more human than a ghost, an echo, a chimera. Let her shell of a body join her mind wherever it is. See the fascinating legal & medical history.. This is perhaps going too far.
Two fully qualified pilots in the front can work well together, or it can be worse than having a “back-seat driver” right next to you.
Read more...Ever since the first few days home, Eric has received regular baths. In order to entertain myself during this chore, I’ve been naughty in trying to teach him to splash. I whacked the water with his arms, repeating the word “splash”. Well, he finally learned. Within seconds of being put into his now-nightly hot tub, his legs (!) sometimes go wild, and a huge grin makes a convivial visit upon his visage. It’s another sign of his little brain starting to light up.
A few hours’ computer time was needed to regenerate all my public picture archives yesterday. Now the images from the morning flight look larger and sharper. One of them even made it to my favorites page.
After a few hours’ aviating this morning, I listened to Q107 for some rousing music for the drive to work. During a break between songs, they interjected some recorded listener feedback, in this case responding to another listener who complained that school/child sports are sometimes taxpayer funded. I had to give my head a shake at the logic of the responders.
Read more...The City of Toronto Diversity Management staff, among their other important and valuable work, somehow find time to produce some fine motivational posters.
Read more...Where oh where is that part of the brain that detects inconsistencies?
Read more...I propose a new game, which may be played with the whole family.
Read more...A 1970s era slow cooker, plus a few ingredients haphazardly mingled at nightfall, can occasionally result in a most sumptuous breakfast. Last night was such a night.
Read more...Those of you working in corporate land may be familiar with the concept of “document retention”, a type of policy that dictates orderly retention and destruction of company documents over time. It is sheer genius.
Read more...A working airplane, nice weather, and grandparents eager to visit the little brat, create a pretty flying opportunity.
Read more...In an article on powerline, the author complains of being called stupid. His crime is real enough: “happening to believe that the theory of evolution is not correct”. But he’s in plenty of company.
Read more...During the four or five days of my partial demise and subsequent convalescence, it’s been noisy around the house.
Read more...Being sick sucks rocks. Being sick in a house with an infant and a tired wife flings boulders.
Read more...Yesterday on TV, some old hippie lady, dressed in indian-style garb, belted out some ancient 60s style folk tune about something or another, probably something about how pink people shouldn’t hurt brown people. But was she serious?
Read more...I’ve made a little breakthrough in safety-oriented thinking.
Read more...I had the pleasure to use The Better Way, as Toronto’s mass transit system calls itself, a few times lately to commute. Advice: if one keeps one’s senses turned strictly inward, it’s not so bad.
Read more...What else would one expect from Calvin Klein advertisements, now that even Barbie is risque. After decades if skirting the gray fuzzy border between innocence, erotica, and indecency, here is another new poster selling with young flesh.
Apparently the little brat has completed a milestone, at a time roughly appropriate for his protohuman development timetable. He performed his first 180-degree roll today.
Grocery shopping is normally a lovely experience. But even the most saliva-drip-inducing proximity to raw meat and bread can be spoiled.
Read more...More than a week late, the Boston trip has finally concluded. GXRP is back home, with its starting problem diagnosed and corrected. Yey to Doug Mofford’s maintenance crew in Ottawa.
Now that Juimiin is resuming her flight training, I get to spend more private time with the little brat. Just to balance out some of the prior articles about the boy, this one is a bit more positive.
Read more...You might not think of time as having an appearance. Ordinarily, I’d agree, but this interval describes last night’s sleep, which was the longest span of time that Eric has ever slept uninterrupted. Since he’s become a separately living protohuman until before last night, the record had been five.
Last Wednesday’s excitement started a story that even now is not fully concluded. It continues the roller-coaster ride.
Read more...In reference to the last UPDATE of the last entry, I changed my mind. I flew over this afternoon after all. Total time from initial decision to try again, to the moment of arrival at the Red Hat Westford office was about four hours. This included making customs arrangements, preflight inspections, flight planning, the actual flight, hangaring at the destination, getting a rental car, and driving the final 20 miles. General aviation rules (when things work out).
Today I was to travel to Boston on business. A conspiracy of esoteric mishaps blocked my attempts.
Read more...Today’s Hope Air flight was special for a young pilot: it called for landing at Canada’s busiest airport: CYYZ aka Lester B. Pearson International.
Read more...There are only two fundamental difficulties that we’ve encountered so far during Eric’s first eight weeks with us. One strikes at the body, and the other at the mind.
Read more...Throughout his teenage years, your humble author’s younger brothers have teased me about my weight, earning one or two annoyingly persistent nicknames. While I don’t pay much attention to that, I have collected certain indirect evidence: that of chairs.
Read more...The tsunami disaster from a few weeks ago is of course very very bad. But in its wake, a weird sickly competition has emerged, one that is making me turn my back on the whole thing.
Read more...Masses of aviation people flock to the yearly Oshkosh show in Wisconsin for a week-long midsummer romp with thousands of airplanes and people. I visited last year in GXRP but I doubt I’ll go back.
Read more...I spent about three hours on several forms of public transit today, in order to pick up GXRP from maintenance in Brantford.
Read more...The AIM, or Aeronautical Information Manual is a regularly updated textbook on US flight procedures. It covers everything from airmanship to zulu time, and has been available for free, online, for years. After years of killing many trees, Transport Canada has released our equivalent, the Aeronautical Information Publication on the net too, but only in PDF form. This link takes you to an HTML-converted version of the 2004-4 edition, as generated by pdftohtml, a nifty little tool.
Next time you or someone you love confuses the concepts of causation vs. correlation when relating events to each other, point them to this little illustration.
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