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“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 143

Thursday, August 20th, 2020

Travel Thursday!

I thought I’d do something different today. Instead of planes for our first video, trains. And instead of visiting a relatively civilized country, a fifth world banana republic.

“The California Zephyr”! With VistaDome! And courteous waiters!

To be fair, this is from the 1950s, prior to the decline and fall. And somewhat interestingly, Amtrak still runs a train called “California Zephyr” over a similar route (According to Wikipedia, the original Western Pacific Railroad, Burlington Railroad and Rio Grande Railroad incarnation shown here was discontinued in 1970, and Amtrak began running their version in 1983.)

Bonus video #1: More trains, this time the Santa Fe railroad. “Southern California Holiday”. Both of these videos also include some footage of the happiest place on Earth.

“You may cross here from country to country, with no passport problems.” I remember those days. (Never been to Tijuana, but when I was young, my family walked across the border between Texas and Mexico more than once. And when I was older, I made a couple more cross-border trips with friends. Then Homeland Security.)

Bonus video #2: Okay, travel by air this time. “California: World In a Week”, from the 1960s and United Airlines.

It is almost like being there. Except you don’t have to step over the needles and feces. Marineland of the Pacific operated until 1987, when it was bought by the people who owned SeaWorld. The new owners promptly moved all of the animals to SeaWorld San Diego, shut down Marineland, and poured concrete into the drains.

(Also.)

Posted in California Über Alles, History, Planes, Trains, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 142

Wednesday, August 19th, 2020

One thing that I love is a good caper.

Well, I do like capers. But what I really meant was “capers”. You know, heists. Daring robberies. That sort of thing.

Something called “Wonder” has been popping up in my recommendations. I’m a little hesitant about posting much from them, but these are fairly short and part of what appears to be the same series: “Daring Capers”.

The first one is the one that I really wanted to post, for reasons: the December 11, 1978 Lufthansa heist.

You remember the Lufthansa heist, don’t you? Jimmy Burke Jimmy Conway, Paul Vario Paulie Cicero, those guys, those Goodfellas?

I thought this was an interesting supplement, if you will.

Bonus: the January 2, 1972 Pierre Hotel robbery.

This robbery would later be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest, most successful hotel robbery in history.

I chose this one because I’ve read Ira Berkow’s book about the Pierre, which tells the story mostly from Bobby Comfort‘s point of view. I note that the paper of record says $3 million, while the series claims $10 million. The $3 million figure is supported (to the extent anything can be supported) by Wikipedia. But as I recall, there are some questions about whether the robbery victims reported everything they lost: for example, stashes of untaxed cash.

One more: the July 16, 1976 robbery of the Société Générale bank in Nice.

Tunnel heists are awesome. Also, Lawrence gave me a much appreciated copy of The Gentlemen of 16 July for Christmas one year.

Posted in Food, History, Law | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 141

Tuesday, August 18th, 2020

If you’re a big WWII buff (especially the kind of WWII buff that watches “12 O’Clock High”) you’ve probably heard of, or heard talk about, the Norden bombsight.

It was an early tachometric design that directly measured the aircraft’s ground speed and direction, which older bombsights could only estimate with lengthy manual procedures. The Norden further improved on older designs by using an analog computer that continuously recalculated the bomb’s impact point based on changing flight conditions, and an autopilot that reacted quickly and accurately to changes in the wind or other effects.
Together, these features promised unprecedented accuracy for daytime bombing from high altitudes. During prewar testing the Norden demonstrated a circular error probable (CEP)[a] of 75 feet (23 m)[b], an astonishing performance for that period. This precision would enable direct attacks on ships, factories, and other point targets. Both the Navy and the USAAF saw it as a means to conduct successful high-altitude bombing. For example, an invasion fleet could be destroyed long before it could reach U.S. shores.
To protect these advantages, the Norden was granted the utmost secrecy well into the war, and was part of a production effort on a similar scale as the Manhattan Project. Carl L. Norden, Inc. ranked 46th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts. The Norden was not as secret as believed; both the British SABS and German Lotfernrohr 7 worked on similar principles, and details of the Norden had been passed to Germany even before the war started.

In practice, it wasn’t quite that accurate: Wikipedia gives a combat CEP of 1,200 feet.

Faced with these poor results, Curtis LeMay started a series of reforms in an effort to address the problems. In particular, he introduced the “combat box” formation in order to provide maximum defensive firepower by densely packing the bombers. As part of this change, he identified the best bombardiers in his command and assigned them to the lead bomber of each box. Instead of every bomber in the box using their Norden individually, the lead bombardiers were the only ones actively using the Norden, and the rest of the box followed in formation and then dropped their bombs when they saw the lead’s leaving his aircraft.[40] Although this spread the bombs over the area of the combat box, this could still improve accuracy over individual efforts. It also helped stop a problem where various aircraft, all slaved to their autopilots on the same target, would drift into each other. These changes did improve accuracy, which suggests that much of the problem is attributable to the bombardier. However, precision attacks still proved difficult or impossible.

I wonder, if you had told WWII bombardiers at the time that the detailed workings of the Norden bombsight would be available to anyone in the world 73 years later, what would they have thought? Maybe nothing. Who knows?

Bonus video: and here’s how you’d actually use one in combat.

According to Wikipedia, the last use of the Norden bombsight was during the Vietnam War: “The bombsights were used in Operation Igloo White for implanting Air-Delivered Seismic Intrusion Detectors (ADSID) along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.“

Posted in Geek, History, Planes | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 138

Saturday, August 15th, 2020

I thought perhaps I could do something on the lighter, cheerier side for Saturday.

The late John Hillerman tells the funniest joke he’d ever heard. As an admirer of Churchill myself, I approve of this joke, even though I have heard it before. Really, Hillerman’s delivery makes up for it being oft cited.

I don’t want to post a bunch of these, but just one more that I couldn’t pass up. Because: Shatner.

(“There’s no rule that says a mule horse can’t play football baseball!” My DuckDuckGo-fu may be weak, but I looked through the 2019 MLB rulebook, and I actually do not see any requirement that players be human. I guess as long as your horse isn’t on baseball’s permanently ineligible list…)

(“Bojack Horseman, call the commissioner, please.”)

Anyway, I actually had not heard that one. And it gives me a nice transition into this video, which I thought I’d post since Eddie Gaedel was mentioned earlier in the week:

One thing that’s been popping up in my recommendations recently is “STEP promotion” videos. Now, we’ve already established that I never served, and there’s probably a few (okay, more than a few) people who think I place an awful lot of emphasis on military stuff, military history, and military leadership for someone who didn’t serve.

There may be some truth to that. But the STEP videos reinforce something that’s important to me where I am now, and where I hope to be in the future: immediate public praise and reward for exceptional performance.

And finally, someone commented earlier this week: “Veronica Lake always gets the thumbs-up seal of approval.” I usually don’t like linking fiction or movie clips here, unless I’m using them to illustrate a throwaway joke or a larger point.

I’m making an exception in this case to give you something even better than Veronica Lake: Veronica Lake, wet.

Posted in History, Leadership, Movies, Sports | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 137

Friday, August 14th, 2020

Here’s something that’s right at the intersection of military history, computer science, and general geekery.

By way of the Computerphile channel, “Turing’s Engima Problem”. This explains how the Enigma machine worked, and the problems Turing et al faced in breaking it.

This is a little long, but neatly divided into two parts. Part 1:

And part 2:

I think for Science Sunday we’re going to see some more abstract math from a related YouTube channel, so stay tuned.

Posted in Geek, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 136

Thursday, August 13th, 2020

Travel Thursday!

I know we went to Singapore last week, but here’s a different view, from a different airline that still exists and is one of my personal favorites. Why?

“Singapore Stop Over”, from Qantas sometime in the 1960s.

Bonus video: in all our travels, I’ve been neglecting the United States. So let us fix that. And it is the time of year when I want to visit someplace slightly cooler.

“This Land of Ours: Montana”, from 1947.

To be fair, yes, I probably picked this just so I could use the Frank Zappa video.

Posted in History, Planes, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 135

Wednesday, August 12th, 2020

Some military aviation stuff today. One short-ish, one longer.

The short-ish: I’m a fan of the US Naval Institute. I intermittently subscribe to “Proceedings”, and have actually gotten some valuable leadership tips out of it.

(I don’t want to post it here, but I think I have a PDF of that article somewhere, if you can’t access it through your local library.)

“David McCampbell: Ace of Aces” is a short documentary produced by USNI (including material from his oral history) about Captain David McCampbell (USN – ret.), the Navy’s leading fighter ace, the third highest scoring ace during WWII, Medal of Honor recipient, and F6F Hellcat pilot.

On October 24, 1944, in the initial phase of the Battle of Leyte Gulf, in the Philippines, he became the only American airman to achieve “ace in a day” status twice. McCampbell and his wingman attacked a Japanese force of 60 aircraft. McCampbell shot down nine, 7 Zeros and 2 Oscars, setting a U.S. single mission aerial combat record. During this same action, his wingman downed another six Japanese warplanes. When he landed his Grumman F6F Hellcat aboard USS Langley (the flight deck of Essex wasn’t clear), his six machine guns had just two rounds remaining, and his airplane had to be manually released from the arrestor wire due to complete fuel exhaustion. Commander McCampbell received the Medal of Honor for both actions, becoming the only Fast Carrier Task Force pilot to be so honored.

Longer bonus video: “Gaining Altitude: The Mosquito Reborn”, about the de Havilland Mosquito…and the restoration of a vintage one.

Oh, what the heck. Nibbles: the Mosquito at Oshkosh in 2019.

And from the RAF Museum: “Under the RADAR: Mosquito versus Me 262”.

I’m fond of the Mosquito: how can you not like a fighter made of wood? At the same time, I’m not sure I’d actually want a Mosquito with the infinite money I don’t have, because I’m not sure I want to try to maintain a plane made out of wood. The Me 262 is closer to being my jam as far as vintage fighters, all that pesky Nazi stuff aside. Or a F6F Hellcat, but they aren’t making those anymore.

(I can’t find it now, but I have a general recollection of a company – somewhere up near Dallas? – that was building Me 262 reproductions with current engines. I think they were asking a little over a million each, but I have no idea what the current status is. If I am remembering this right, that seems a lot more feasible and fun than trying to find a vintage F6F and parts, or trying to maintain a Phantom jet.)

Posted in History, Nazis, Planes | 2 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 134

Tuesday, August 11th, 2020

Amateurs talk about tactics, but professionals study logistics.

–Gen. Robert H. Barrow, USMC

In that vein, “Of Ships and Butter”, a 1970s (in color!) US Navy film about the Navy’s role in protecting shipping.

Bonus video: “U.S. News Review”, one of those old newsreels. I put it here because Veronica Lake shows up at about the :24 mark. And as far as I am concerned (and I hope the vast majority of my readers will agree with me) I need no justification other than “Veronica Lake”.

Posted in History, Movies, Sports | 3 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 133

Monday, August 10th, 2020

Another area of crafts that I’m interested in is good quality woodworking. This is another place where I feel like it would take years of constant practice to be able to turn out something attractive and useful. But at the same time, there’s a whole lot of woodworking books out there: you can probably find plans and ideas for anything you want to build. And if you start out following the plans religiously, and only when you get good, start improvising, well maybe the ROI isn’t so bad after all.

I’m fascinated when I sit down, turn on PBS, and find something like “The New Yankee Workshop” on. For me, this is something like Bob Ross is for other people. (Except I don’t get stoned while watching it.)

It also seems like you can do some nice stuff with some basic hand tools. And a router. And maybe a table saw. And perhaps a lathe. And maybe…

(As a side note, that’s one of the reasons why I’m excited about TJIC’s book: because he’s going to talk about the tools he finds useful. And having seen pictures of some of his woodwork, I think this is a good starting point.)

One thing I keep thinking I’d like to build (when I get good enough) is a shooter’s box (or “range box”). Every now and again, I see nice ones at the gun shows, but they’re not for sale. I have a used (and slightly battered) range box made mostly out of plastic in with the gun stuff, and it is nice enough. But it gets back to the idea of using something you built yourself and that’s adjusted to your own needs, not something mass produced you bought from a store. Plus the wood ones just look better.

If you’re not familiar with the shooter’s box, well, that’s today’s theme.

This guy built a box for camera gear, but it is the same general principle:

Someday…

Posted in Geek, Guns, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 132

Sunday, August 9th, 2020

Science Sunday! And more space history stuff!

“Gemini Analog Reentry Simulation”, explaining how the simulator works, as well as how the Gemini re-entry profile was flown (yes, flown). Part of what makes this interesting (to me) is that it also shows some analog computers from the time (specifically, the Pace 231R, if that means anything to any of my readers).

And as a bonus, another bit of Gemini history: “Flight Controller Orientation”, a brief explanation of the workings of the flight control system.

And to complete the trilogy, a contemporary NASA documentary about Gemini 8. You may remember Gemini 8 as the one that rolled out of control during docking with Agena (due to a stuck thruster).

Posted in Geek, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 131

Saturday, August 8th, 2020

Another dose of random.

It is August. It is hot in Texas. How about some trains dashing through the snow?

One more, but this one is special: it features the little-seen rotary snow plow operating in Donner Pass.

Totally unrelated: at the last SDC, we were talking about various WWII resistance films, such as Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Army of Shadows“. In that vein: “Poland Forever”, from 1944, about the Polish fight against the Nazis.

Last one for today. I thought this was kind of moving.

Posted in History, Trains | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 130

Friday, August 7th, 2020

More random!

Lawrence might approve of this: a tank battle. With remote controlled tanks.

The AAF Tank Museum. Flamethrower Day is coming up in September. Danville is only a little more than an hour away from Bedford, where the National D-Day Memorial is. Mike the Musicologist and I have talked about visiting the memorial, so the AAF Museum falls right in line with that plan.

I feel like this is going to turn some folk’s crank: a large R/C Airwolf in flight. With rocket fire a little past the 2:00 mark.

I have mixed feelings about some of these R/C aircraft videos. On the one hand, I admire the people who can build and fly these massive detailed objects. On the other hand, I keep thinking about the massive amounts of time, effort, and money that could be wiped out in seconds by one hardware failure or human error.

The “Leadership Secrets…” series is still active: I just haven’t found a lot of examples to post recently. But these two videos popped up in my feed. One short, but watch to the end for the point:

(This same point was quoted directly in a Twitter thread I linked to a while back. Thankfully, that’s still up.)

One longer:

It isn’t like Lawrence and I don’t have enough stuff already, but I’m giving some thought to “Band of Brothers”.

Posted in Geek, History, Leadership, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 129

Thursday, August 6th, 2020

Travel Thursday!

I was thinking about the Orient today. We’ve already done Japan. So how about the next best thing?

“New Horizons: Hong Kong and Singapore”. From Pan Am and 1960, back when Hong Kong was still under British rule.

And your bonus for today: “The Wonderful Jet World of Pan American”, from 1959 and the usual suspects, touting the virtues of Pan Am’s jet fleet.

Posted in History, Planes, Travel | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 128

Wednesday, August 5th, 2020

I’ve done a lot of plane stuff the past couple of days, so I wanted to break with that theme and do something different.

I haven’t run across any good car stuff yet. There are a lot of train videos coming up: many of them seem to be POV videos of guys hopping freight trains, and they all have the problem of being long.

Likewise, there are a lot of police video channels on the ‘Tube. It seems that various people have figured out that getting hold of body cam footage under local public records laws and posting it on YouTube is a good way to get views. Unfortunately, while I enjoy watching stupid people get theirs (especially stupid cop impersonators who are dumb enough to wear body cameras while impersonating a police officer) many of those also have the disadvantage of being long, long, long.

Here’s one that is about coffee break sized, though, that I’m putting up because it isn’t just Florida Man (“Florida Man, Florida Man…”) but also Florida Lunatic.

Bonus video: I’m being self-indulgent with this one, obviously. But when was the last time I was self-indulgent?

(That was a rhetorical question. Don’t answer that.)

Legendary shooter Jerry Miculek shows off his K-frame .22 revolvers, talks about his friendship with the equally legendary Roy Jinks, and takes some shots at 240 yards with an 85-year old K-22.

(By the way, you can still get Smith and Wesson history letters, but the current price is $100. It’s $90 if you belong to either the Smith and Wesson Historical Foundation or the Smith and Wesson Collector’s Association, or $75 if you belong to both organizations.)

Posted in Cops, Guns, History, Law | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 127

Tuesday, August 4th, 2020

I thought it’d be fun to post something especially for RoadRich, and something that is plane related, but civilian rather than military.

“Flying Fun”. This a Cessna promo video from the 1960s, talking about (and demonstrating) aerobatics…in Cessna airplanes. It is also coffee break sized.

Bonus video #1: while this is a Navy training film, it fits into this theme: “Flight Training Wingovers and Chandelles”, from 1953, demonstrating how to perform those maneuvers.

Bonus video #2: from our friends at the National Film Board of Canada, “Bush Pilot: Reflections on a Canadian Myth”. This is a little longer than coffee break size, but not too much so.

Bonus video #3: okay, one more, for fun. By way of Sporty’s Pilot Shop, a virtual airshow with Patty Wagstaff. This is recent, high quality, and coffee break sized.

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

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