Air France 447 black boxes

Ages ago when I was taking ground school, thinking I would get my pilot’s license, I asked my pilot friend some questions about the mechanics of flying. To my surprise my friend, a retired Eastern Airlines Boeing L-1011 pilot, could not answer my simple questions. I wondered to myself how a seasoned pilot could not know the basics. It seemed to me that, like many things people do in their jobs, the skill of flying a plane becomes second nature to many pilots and they no longer have to think about what they’re doing.

Except when they do have to think. Like in an emergency.

The news today is that investigators of the doomed Air France flight 447 have found evidence that pilots were pulling the nose up on the plane in reaction to the stall warning.
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Doggie arms race

The suspect

I’m locked in a doggie arms race when it comes to the garden. Once the plants were in the ground, I surrounded the garden with a two-foot-high wire fence, thinking that that would be enough disincentive for Rocket, our boneheaded Labrador, from wandering in and grazing.

I should’ve known better. At first I surrounded the garden on all sides but one, leaving a three-foot-wide opening to walk in. I was anticipating Rocket would be too lazy to walk all the way around. Needless to say, it didn’t take long to see that this wasn’t working. A few days later, I put up more wire fence to block it all the way around.

Then I saw the fence next to my new fence was dented outwards, as if a big, clumsy, lazy dog had not quite cleared it on his way out. I didn’t do much about that, preferring to keep an eye on it. Turns out I never saw that happen again: it seems the height was enough to keep him from jumping it.
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Shaken

Got a call tonight from my fellow coach of Travis’s T-ball team, which just wrapped up its season. He told me that his daughter was out riding her bike on Sunday and got hit by a car, sending her into the windshield! If it weren’t for the helmet she had been wearing she would’ve died instantly, he said. Instead, she suffered no brain damage but has a seriously broken leg that will take a long time to heal.

I was shaken when I heard that, as I’d just seen them the day before. She and my daughter, Hallie, had become fast friends during the games and practices. As a parent you try to protect your kids from harm but sometimes the unexpected happens.

I don’t know any more details about the accident but I am reminded of my recent post about many drivers just not respecting cyclists. This is one collision that could have had far more tragic consequences.

Please be careful out there. And hug your loved ones every day.

Gardening

As I mentioned before, I’ve been enjoying gardening this season: all two and a half weeks of it (ok, ok … I’m obsessed with it). My plants are going like gangbusters with the exception of my jalapeno pepper plants, which seem to be withering. They’re hanging on, though, so I haven’t given up on them yet.

I spend spare time during my day in the garden, pruning the plants. I was delighted to see many of my tomato plants sprouting flowers already. And, thanks to sites like vegetablegardener.com, I now know what kind of care these plants need. The 15 minutes I spent before work this morning out pruning my plants was some of the most delightful time I’ve enjoyed all day. There really is something zen-like about gardening.

After my plants were finally in the ground I saw how much our kids enjoyed gardening. That gave me the idea to start a gardening email list for Raleigh gardeners. After only a few days it had 65 enthusiastic subscribers. It’s now up to 67 and I’m expecting that to rise. If you’d like to join in and share your gardening experience, you can sign up for the list here.

Watch Lent Carr tell whoppers

I’ve been watching the raw video of Carr’s interview and my bullshit detectors have flat out exploded. Watch about 8:38 into the interview when he discusses his current job as a “Business Development Specialist” at Allstate Insurance and spends the next few seconds mumbling phrases about policies. Carr tap-danced around that question like Miss Teen South Carolina Caitlin Upton did. Nowhere on his LinkedIn profile (which is mostly fiction, granted) does he mention working for Allstate. Nor do any Google searches turn up any hits linking him with Allstate.

The guy isn’t simply a liar, he’s a pathological liar. It makes me feel sorry for him.

Lent Carr and District C

Lundsford Lane’s once-in-a-blue-moon blogging at Below the Beltline has apparently attracted the press’s attention to Lent Carr, the District C candidate for Raleigh City Council. About the same time Lane got wise to Carr I had done the same, though I chose not to post about Carr because frankly I was embarrassed by the guy.

Carr seems to me to be a con man. A harmless one, perhaps, but a con man all the same. His so-called credentials are completely bogus. Anyone can find that out with a few targeted Google searches. Like Lane, I’ve done my homework and can back Lane up on what he says.

Lane also reports that Carr no longer lives in District C, which is going to make it tough for folks who do live in District C to support him. If he has any supporters, that is: the folks I know around here know better than to fall for this guy’s tricks.

On the other hand, I am happy to see that Eugene Weeks is running to keep his District C seat. Eugene is a hard worker and a dedicated public servant. He doesn’t play the games that some folks in Southeast Raleigh play. He is his own man and has served District C very well in the time since he was appointed to replace James West. Things are looking up for my side of town.

Now if only Lane could find the time to post something more than once a quarter. Come on, Lane! Surely there is more dirt out there to be had!

Update 9:20 PM: WRAL ran their story on Carr on this evening’s newscast. The web version has more details.

Parcel arrived in the office of Postal service

Looks like more virus-laden emails are being sent, this time using “Postal Express” rather than the United Parcel Service notices of last time.

Again, do not open any attachments from people you don’t know (or services you don’t use).

Return-Path: post.express@wichita.com
X-Original-To: Mark Turner
Delivered-To: Mark Turner
Received: from wichita.com (200.146.124.135.dynamic.adsl.gvt.net.br [200.146.124.135])
by myserver (Postfix) with SMTP id 51AD9141BE
for me; Tue, 24 May 2011 00:27:25 -0400 (EDT)
Message-ID: 001a01cc19ca$e32ca4c6$0301010a@home-pc
From: “Post Express Service” post.express@wichita.com
To: Mark Turner
Subject: Parcel arrived in the office of Postal service
Date: Tue, 24 May 2011 01:27:27 -0200

Dear Customer

Your package has been returned to the Post Express office.
The reason of the return is “Incorrect delivery address of the package”
Information about your package is attached to the letter.

Thank you.
Post Express Service.

Attachment: Postal_Document_95816.zip

Fast food

Hamburger


On the way to Travis’s T-ball game, he asked me what fast food was. Surprisingly, I had to think about it. Like the famous definition of obscenity, it’s something that “I know it when I see it.”

So, what sets an Applebee’s apart from a McDonald’s? Or a Char-grill apart from a Mediterranean grill in a food court? And what category does Subway fall under? Is it the quality of the food, the speed of the food, or something else?

I decided that the best definition was that a fast-food place does not have a wait staff. Any place where you place your order at a counter (or drive-through) is fast food. If someone takes your order at your table, that is decidedly not fast food. Thus, even though Applebee’s are ubiquitous and the food is nothing to crow about, they are not considered fast food by my definition.

Leave it to six year olds to keep you on your toes!

To My Third Grade Class

It’s posts like this that make me wonder what it would be like to be a teacher:

To My Third Grade Class
We have 30 days left together. You don’t realize this yet – You are just eight years old and the only thing you count down to is Christmas. You are living for Soccer at recess, Spelling games, and Art on Fridays. You live for computer class free time and the moment you can multiply 6×7. That’s one one of my favorite things about you- you are too busy filling up today to worry about tomorrow.

This was written by an online acquaintance whom I’ve never really met but I read her blog because I love her writing. The post also reminds me of how quickly our own kids are growing, and how fleeting childhood (and life) really is.

It’s not about the bike, it’s about the EPO

Tyler Hamilton, one of Lance Armstrong’s most trusted lieutenants in many of his Tour de France victories, has told Scott Pelley of 60 Minutes that Lance doped regularly. His allegations follow those of former Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis.

Asked what he actually witnessed, Hamilton told Pelley, “I saw it in his refrigerator, you know. I saw him inject it more than one time.”

“You saw Lance Armstrong inject EPO?” Pelley asked.

“Yeah, like we all did, like I did many, many times,” Hamilton said.

Hamilton earned my respect when he rode through the 2003 Tour de France after breaking his collarbone. Later he lost my respect when he was banned from the sport for doping. After being busted for doping, Landis came clean with his doping history, which brought back a measure of respect for him. Hamilton says that if a rider isn’t taking EPO, he’s not going to win. Those seven Tour wins that Lance has racked up don’t seem as impressive or honest anymore.

In fact, I’ve gotten to the point that my respect for Lance actually drops now every time he denies doping. His claims of innocence are simply no longer credible.

I once loved the sport of cycling but the cheating and the fraud have long left me jaded and suspicious. If you have to cheat to become the champion you’re anything but a champion.