Geezer

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The Bishop’s Boys

The_Bishops_Boys
Just finished the excellent biography by Tom D. Crouch of the Wright Brothers called The Bishop’s Boys. A few things I came away with after reading this book:

  • The Wrights may not have been the first to take to the air, but they were indeed the first to do so in a controlled, purposeful manner. That’s the difference between a glider and an airplane.
  • They stood on the shoulders of giants. The Wrights gathered up all the research they could find on the efforts to build an airplane and added their own to it. Granted it was pretty important stuff, stability and all, but they didn’t start exactly from the ground-up as I always imagined they did.
  • Though they shared many of the same unique qualities that aided their invention, the airplane started as Wilbur’s project and Orville joined in later. Wilbur primarily worked out the engineering problems and Orville’s mechanical skills transformed them into a working machine. They worked jointly on both but these were the strengths of each.
  • The brothers considered themselves to be failures, lacking ambition in life, before they were inspired to build the airplane.
  • Science said an airplane couldn’t be built. Engineering proved it could. According to the book, science couldn’t even explain how an airplane worked until a quarter-century after the first one took to the skies.
  • The Wrights were top-notch engineers. Smart, knowledgeable, intensely curious, and exceedingly careful. They really wanted to know everything that went into making an airplane fly. They didn’t take anyone’s word for anything. This is partially why they succeeded without killing themselves in the process, unlike so many of their contemporaries.
  • Once their airplane flew the Wrights became essentially arms dealers, selling it to the highest bidders among various governments. There isn’t much discussion about the moral repercussions of having their invention become a weapon of war. The Wrights seemed never to have a second thought about this, nor was there any apparent push to have it used primarily for peaceful purposes. The Wrights were too eager to cash in, in my view.
  • Orville Wright nearly died from typhoid fever in 1896, seven years before the first flight.
    • The Wright Brothers take to the air for the first time, Dec 17, 1903.

    The Wright Brothers take to the air for the first time, Dec 17, 1903.

  • Both brothers were high school dropouts.
  • Both were thoroughly unfazed by the rich and powerful. They were called on by kings and presidents and treated them the same as anyone else.
  • The Wrights never would’ve gotten off the ground if it were not for the selfless assistance of their unsung sister, Katherine. I suppose “The Wright Brothers and Sister” didn’t have the same ring to it.
  • For several years after their first flight, the world considered them frauds and liars. It was only several years later that the Wrights’ airplane was publicly demonstrated.

    • As Orville mused later in his life, he and Wilbur might never have created the airplane if so many circumstances hadn’t lined up precisely the way they did. The book is an entertaining account of how fate did line up.

    Fearing the radio

    Console radio

    Console radio

    News and Observer reporter John Murawski wrote today of a group of electricity customers who fear that the smart meter Duke Energy uses is poisoning them with radio-frequency (RF) radiation.

    Andrew McAfee of Raleigh submitted a 45-page filing, noting prominently: “Sent from a cabled computer with the WiFi turned off.”

    “Your body basically becomes an antenna,” he said from his landline phone last week. “I immediately feel a tingling, burning sensation on my scalp.”

    “These meters are designed to burst a radiation signal out a couple of miles,” McAfee said of smart meters. “Imagine every house in your neighborhood blipping out these things all day.”

    Apparently, people don’t understand that radiation of the RF variety is not the same as radiation of the nuclear variety. One is a known carcinogen. The other brings you Fox News (whether Fox News is a carcinogen is post for another day).

    Blaming RF (which I’ll call by their better-known name, radio) for something is akin to blaming sound: it all depends on what the sound or radio is. Listening to music with your ear placed on the grill of a 1000 watt audio amplifier will likely cause you injury, whereas the same music at a reasonable volume on your stereo at home can be safe and enjoyable.
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    The millennial work ethic – Baltimore Sun

    Some of my older friend scoffed at this column, but any mocking comes at one’s own peril, because this is how it will soon be.

    The bar has been raised. If you as an employer want to attract the best and the brightest of the millennial generation, you will have to treat your employees a bit better than you once did.

    Once upon a time, employment was for life. Joining a company meant you were looked after until retirement and even beyond. Then companies found that having massive layoffs and gutting these generous employee benefits appealed to Wall Street. Generations of workers became expendable to employers and learned wisely. The game had changed and job security was redefined as “how quickly one can get another job.”

    Now the pendulum swings in favor of the worker, particularly the knowledege workers building our digital economy. This generation is building our new economy and the opportunities ahead of them and the awe-inspiring imagination they bring are like no other. This generation is responsible for the dizzying, accelerating pace of change in our world. They will hold you to your promises. They won’t play by the old rules. They demand a better way and they have the hustle and moxie to get it.

    Laugh now if you choose, but soon you’ll be living in their world. Employers who understand this will help build this world.

    Dear Previous Employer,

    You may think that you have gotten the best of me, but you have not. I am a millennial. You may think that you have put me in a bad spot, but you have not. I am a millennial. You may think that you can threaten me, but I am not afraid. I am a millennial.

    I didn’t write this letter on a program that I installed with a disc on my computer, I wrote it on the cloud. I didn’t grow up hungry during the Great Depression, I grew up safe and comfortable. I didn’t walk to school uphill both ways, I took a bus.

    Source: The millennial work ethic – Baltimore Sun

    Principal Asks Parents To ‘Take The Time To Get Dressed’ For Drop Off – Scary Mommy

    This blog post generated some lively discussion on a friend’s Facebook page, both pro and con. There were lots of defenders of the UK principal’s position but I’m not one of them.

    School starts way too early in the United States. Ungodly early. I don’t think it’s fair to expect anyone to put two thoughts together before the sun even comes up, much less to be looking their best.

    If you’re dropping kids off at school and never leave your vehicle, no one should care what you look like. I agree with the author here: the principal needs to relax.

    A UK principal wrote a note to parents to ask them to please “take the time to get dressed” in the morning and stop doing drop off in their pajamas. She insists the letter has been well received. Mkay. I’m an adult and I do what I want. And that includes wearing whatever the hell I can get on my body before I get the kids packed up for school.

    Kate Chisholm, headteacher at Skerne Park Academy, Darlington, wrote to all parents imploring them to “dress appropriately” in day wear. “I have noticed there has been an increasing tendency for parents to escort children to and from school while still wearing their pajamas and, on occasion, even slippers,” reads the note The Telegraph managed to get a copy of. “Could I please ask that when you are escorting your children, you take the time to dress appropriately in day wear that is suitable for the weather conditions?”

    No. No you cannot.

    Source: Principal Asks Parents To ‘Take The Time To Get Dressed’ For Drop Off Scary Mommy

    Iran’s return of American sailors

    Riverine Command Boat (RCB)

    Riverine Command Boat (RCB)


    Let me start off by saying that last week wasn’t my Navy’s finest hour. When news came in Thursday night that ten U.S. Navy sailors had “drifted into Iran territorial waters” and had been detained, there was a sense of deja-vu. I thought about the collision in 2001 between a reckless Chinese fighter pilot and a Navy EP-3 surveillance plane. Known as the Hainan Island Incident, 24 sailors were detained for eleven days, interrogated at all times of day and night. The incident was George W. Bush’s first international crisis and it wasn’t clear things would be resolved amicably.

    The Navy tends to avoid entering unfriendly waters (well … most of the time!). The Persian Gulf (or Arabian Gulf as the USN refers to it) is tiny as far as bodies of water go. Our sailors are well aware of who occupies the eastern shore of the Gulf and know to steer clear of it. That doesn’t mean that encounters between Iranians and Americans don’t still take place. I vividly recall how surreal it was to lock eyes with curious Iranian ferry passengers as they motored slowly by my ship once in the Gulf. It was clear at that moment how ridiculous the bluster of our respective governments was.
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    Highlights of 2015: investments in health

    Waiting to get my septoplasty

    Waiting to get my septoplasty

    After returning from Jamaica in August 2014 with muscle twitches that wouldn’t seem to stop I decided it was time to take my health more seriously than I had been, so last year I decided to invest more in my health. I began daily walks at lunchtime at work, doing a circuit around N.C. State’s Centennial Campus for about 20 minutes a day. I installed a fitness tracking app from Google called Google Fit to help me keep pace. My goal was an hour of activity per day and I’m proud to say that I regularly exceeded this. Not only that, but I continue to exercise daily. My current job puts my office a little over a mile away, so I frequently walk or bike to work. I love doing this!

    2015 was also the year I took advantage of my health care coverage from the Veteran’s Administration. I had several tests done to determine the cause of the twitching (so far nothing definitive, though several baddies have been ruled out). I have to say I’m impressed with the VA. It gets knocked quite a bit but the people are courteous, I’m always whisked back to see the doctor during my appointments, and the quality of care is good or excellent. The only real concern I have is that the majority of useful appointments must take place at the Durham VA hospital. Raleigh has a VA medical clinic but cannot perform most of the most useful tests or procedures.

    Driving to Durham for VA appointments is not convenient for me. I can only imagine what veterans with fewer resources have to put up with.
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    Planting flags around Dix Park is so 17th century

    Raleigh Planning Commission member Matt Tomasulo recently planted thousands of survey flags to lead people around the Dix Park property.

    Dude, planting flags is sooooo 17th century. There are apps for this. Create a Google Map with landmarks at the sites worth seeing. Include links to photographs and, more importantly, open up comments for others to say why these sites are meaningful. I’m all for bringing people out to Dix but they should be out there seeing the beauty of the park and not thousands of plastic flags.

    With help from thousands of pink survey flags, one city planning commission member is hoping to bring more people to the former Dix hospital site near downtown.

    On Tuesday afternoon, Matt Tomasulo and five volunteers planted 4,399 pink survey flags throughout Dorothea Dix Park, creating small trails that will lead visitors around city-owned portions of the property. Tomasulo called it a simple gesture to say thanks to Mayor Nancy McFarlane and Gov. Pat McCrory for making possible Raleigh’s purchase of the former psychiatric hospital campus.

    Source: Raleigh Planning Commission member installs hundreds of flags at Dix Park | News & Observer

    The 19th Century plug that’s still being used – BBC News

    The BEEB covers Apple’s rumored plans to kill off the phono plug. The story includes a quote from an Apple analyst:

    “It feels painful because you’ve got hundreds of millions of devices out there that are using the old standard,” says Horace Dediu, a technology analyst with in-depth knowledge of Apple.

    … and …

    “Studying Moore’s Law and the history of technology, it’s clear we’re not going to stick around with something analogue for long,” he says. “It’s almost puzzling that it’s taken so long.”

    Maybe because analog phone jack technology Just Works? Any guesses why an Apple stock analyst might like this move?

    The Sum of Us petition is here, if you care to sign it.
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    Sinus surgery healing nicely

    I am now on day eight of my septoplasty (a.k.a. surgery to fix my deviated septum). The swelling is gone now, my nose is running but there is only the faintest tinge of blood. We’ve had a few cold days here, though, and the chilly, dry air has been stinging my nose. On our family dog walk last night the pain got pretty bad until I thought to bury my face in the scarf I was wearing. Also, my nose gets tender when I stretch my mouth open (to floss my teeth, for instance). I’m thinking that all these little issues will eventually go away as nose heals.

    On the plus side, I am quite able to breathe exclusively through my nose, which is nice, though I haven’t engaged in vigorous physical activity for the requested week after surgery. I have noted an improved sense of smell, which is nice. Also, I have not caught myself snoring so far, which is also good.

    Bottom line: I’m doing much better than I thought I would. The pain was not nearly as bad as it could have been. My nose is obviously working better than it was and it will only get better. So far, so good!

    Highlights of 2015: CERT lives again

    Oakwood CERT members learn basic firefighting

    Oakwood CERT members learn basic firefighting


    I’ve blogged here before about how much fun I’ve had participating in the CERT program, the Community Emergency Response Team training. I think it is important to get people trained to help themselves when the need arises. In cases of trauma, every minute counts. Medical experts talk about the Golden Hour, when the odds of saving a victim of traumatic injury are greatest. One doesn’t have to be a doctor, but anything that can patch a person up until medical professionals can get there will go a long way towards saving them.

    As you know, the first CERT program folded. I had heard rumblings of a new program being bootstrapped in the Oakwood neighborhood. A year passed and I wondered if the effort would succeed. Then in August I got an invite to the training class for the Oakwood CERT team – it was actually happening! About twenty of my neighbors took the training with me and we had great support from Samantha Royster from the North Carolina Department of Public Safety (NCDPS). Everyone left that weekend with some hands-on emergency training as well as a full CERT kit paid for through a generous federal grant.

    What’s more, my classmates immediately elected me … president. While I wasn’t in the room, of course. Heh.

    Fast forward to mid-December. My company’s foundation looks for non-profits that attract the passion of its employees and those employees are invited to submit grant requests. On the last day of the grant program, I put in a request to fund the Oakwood CERT team and was pleased to learn it was fully granted! It’s a modest grant but it’s one I hope to build on.
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