ExxonMobil and its shareholders aren’t the only beneficiaries of today’s high oil prices. It seems Russia is starting to flex its military muscle again with its forays to the North Pole, dropping (unexploding) bombs on neighboring Georgia, and overflying our military bases with its Tu-95 bombers – the first since the end of the Cold War.
I tell ya, if the world wasn’t a safer place than it was seven years ago, I’d be a little concerned.
I just placed another digital thermometer on the south side of my house. It just registered 113 degrees! This while my weather station reads 112. Its obviously in the shade.
It really is that hot outside! No wonder my long-suffering lawn is dying (and my home AC is struggling).
…but not here. Yet.
You’ve probably heard the news of Wednesday’s inaugural flight of Virgin America, the geek-friendliest airline to date. With an in-flight entertainment system built around Linux, onboard wireless Internet, and power plugs at every seat, Virgin America appeals to geek customers like me.
Right now they fly between San Francisco and New York’s JFK airport, but will soon be adding more cities to their schedule. Wouldn’t be great if Virgin America came to Raleigh and offered our first Raleigh-San Francisco nonstop flight?
I signed up for Virgin America’s frequent flier program, eleVAte, with the hopes that if Virgin America sees many members in North Carolina, they might be willing to consider serving us. You can help, too! Go to the sign-up page and get yourself an eleVAte membership. Let’s bring the “Geek Airline” to the Triangle!
I am constantly amazed at the uses people dream up for Google Earth, like using it to track the space shuttle and the ISS. I’m not getting any altitude information in mine, but cool nontheless.
NASA makes the shuttle’s orbital elements available on their website, too, which is what this script uses. Pretty cool stuff.
Bonus: Here’s a page which tracks it with Google Maps and AJAX.
Yesterday I put another thermometer beside my home weather station’s. In midafternoon it recorded a temperature of 104 degrees F, hours after my weather station clocked 110.7 F. As I said, I think my station’s temperatures run a bit hot, but they aren’t too far off the mark. I think the other thermometer proves my theory that this location is simply hotter than RDU airport.
Glad to find out today by way of Planet Trilug that my friend and fellow ham Eric Christensen is on the air with his own blog.
I’ve worked a few Tour De Cure volunteer events with Eric and have great respect for him. It takes a lot of concentration and professionalism to keep an event like the TDC on track and Eric has lots of both.
His blog should be interesting. Welcome to the blogosphere, Eric!
(73, Mark N4JMT)
