Aviation
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Fendsday
Live and re-learn I’ve been a citizen of California for 41 years, and I learned here long ago that the narrow staircase-like parallel terraces on many ranchland hillsides were caused by cattle grazing on horizontal paths, because ungulates aren’t climbers. I have seen cattle on some of these, so the story made sense. But my… Continue reading
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Earth to Southwest (and every other service company): make your surveys about your service, not just personnel facing customers
Here is the survey hook that came in an email after a Southwest flight: And here is the first question in the survey one gets hooked into taking: I gave up after it seemed that all the questions were about flight attendants. None were about the whole service experience. So one doesn’t have a way… Continue reading
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Cryday
Haven’t figured out lighting yet, but I like the idea After struggling for days to make my new Epson FF-680W photo scanner, which does a much poorer job of scanning photos than my iPhone 16, I’m ready for one of these. Welcome to New York AeroXplorer: LaGuardia Tower Alerts Pilots to Possible Shoulder-Fired Missile Threat Near… Continue reading
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Sat a Day
Making more points Unless I write something new and provocative enough to generate fresh traffic, most visits to this blog come from searches on topics for which Google believes something I've written is relevant. Such is the case with a 2015 post called What are the balls on Prague’s spires called? I have a better answer now… Continue reading
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Flyday
Sigh high Nearing the end of my current travels. Sitting at Logan, about to board for O’Hare, and then the hour flight to Indianapolis, during which we will be in the air for nineteen minutes. Looking out the windows at planes taxiing, landing, and taking off, while container ships slide in and out of the… Continue reading
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Snucked and sucked, but never mind that
When you read a gruesome story on a polite service, and it sources a story on another polite service that still doesn’t give you the information you want—the gory stuff—you continue digging. The story in question here is a FlightAware one titled Frontier plane kills fence-jumping pedestrian during Denver takeoff. Its source is a story on… Continue reading
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An Airport Question
Today I flew from IND to DEN— Then from DEN to LAX— —Where I had plenty of time to fantasize about what could or should be done with the iconic but idle Theme Building in the heart of the airport, while waiting for my wife to pick me up. (She was, in the city tradition,… Continue reading
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Thrust Day
Some public notes:::: How can one not appreciate AI as a teacher and problem-solver? ChatGPT just taught me how to make a .ics file to put on emails out to people who should attend an event. Here’s my first, for Helen Nissenbaum’s talk next Tuesday. Click on it if you’d like it in your calendar.… Continue reading
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Early Day
Hope he doesn't block my double-shot I took Luke Kornet's coffee test, scored high, and wrote a comment. Go there I spent most of today writing Making a New News Business over at the ProjectVRM blog. It begins, In the dawning decades of our new Digital Age, the news business has shrunk from a galaxy… Continue reading
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Better News
I learned that a small plane landed on the Hudson near Newburgh, NY* from a notification on my laptop that said the story was from WNYC. So I went there. Found nothing. Then I went to Google News and searched for plane+hudson. Wanting to give some linklove to one of the local news (formerly newspaper)… Continue reading
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Endweek
Make America Grate Again Yesterday's depressing news was Trump's latest attempted slaying of the Hudson Tunnel Project, which may be more expensive to shut own than to complete. But that's just my off-the-wall take. The real story is far more complicated. Today's depressing news is the end of the CIA World Factbook, one of the… Continue reading
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Flying Fckery
Go now to FlightAware’s MiseryMap. Cick on the blue Play button and watch The Great Storm of January 25-26 move across the land and cause massive delays at airports in its path. I have a 1.59 GB movie (.mov) of what you just saw. What should I do with it? Bonus image: Continue reading
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Who New?
Might be Winter Every day it snows a little here. Required reading. Seriously. Adrian Gropper: Taking Control of Your Healthcare is More Important Than Ever—Get help from a private AI that works for you – and only you. Announcing the North Atlantic Takeover Organization I avoid politics here, but it’s hard not to hear echoes… Continue reading
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Dept. of Overstate
Pull almost-quote: Never mistake malice for stupidity Says here that 4% support for the U.S. taking over Greenland is in the lizardman range. When will he come to the US? Peter Bence is an amazing pianist. Made it a bit punchier I just gave The Only Way to Get Privacy Online a fresh edit, based on… Continue reading
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O’Hare can you see?
Always buy in the past In 1991, my bride bought us both lifetime memberships in United Airlines’ airport lounge, then called the Red Carpet Club. I forget the price, but it was cheap, considering. I’m guessing it was less than what one would pay now for just a year’s worth of club membership. Naturally (and… Continue reading
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Rethinkings Out Loud
Anchors Away Nothing is more North Atlantic than Greenland. If the US siezes it, NATO will transform from an alliance to a war zone, where allies become combatants. Does anyone outside Trump’s amen corner want that? But what if the US buys Greenland from Denmark, like it bought the Louisiana Territory from France and Alaska… Continue reading
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Not the other thing
Location, Location, Location I'm 30 kilofeet above the Missouri River, westbound from IND to DEN, with (United tells me) eight minutes to get from Gate B24 to Gate…?. It's blank. Doesn't say. I guess we'll find out. Update over Nebraska: We need to get from B45 to B25 in 8 minutes or less. It'll be… Continue reading
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States of Pay
Say Aaaahg! I try to publish interesting and useful stuff every day. And yet. And yet. Of the 17+ million views my photos on Flickr have had since 2004, the most-viewed, by far, is the scary one above*. Second-most is this one. Less dental, but just in-your-face (and mine). *All those gold crowns and inlays… Continue reading
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Cerebrations
Can you guess the two voices? Mr. Rogers meets the bass player. Still funny 50 years later. It burped in our direction How and why the Sun grounded 6000 planes last month. Watch out above As of 7pm ET, a solar storm is starting, causing auroras that may be visible in North America across many… Continue reading
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Breaking Points
Dana Blankenhorn, part-time Nederlander, calls bullsit on this. Facebook Marketplace, from which I have only bought cheap local furniture, recommends (no shit) that I buy (and I quote by plaintext copy/paste) a 2001 Prevost H345 Prevost H345 Team bus $35,000 Louisville, KY. Jim Fallows on air travel. Neal Stephenson on a weird kind of big… Continue reading