Archive for August, 2020

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“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

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 126

Monday, August 3rd, 2020

I’ve posted some B-58 videos previously, but not in a while, and this one is interesting: “Tall Man Five Five”.

On March 5, 1962 two Convair B-58 Hustler supersonic bombers from the 65th Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Wing, Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, took off at sunrise and headed west to Los Angeles, California. Off the Pacific coast they refueled from a Boeing KC-135A Stratotanker, then headed east at maximum speed to New York. The total elapsed time, Los Angeles–New York–Los Angeles, was 4 hours, 41 minutes, 14.98 seconds (4:41:14.98) for an average speed of 1,044.97 miles per hour (1,681.71 kilometers per hour) The crew and the airplane “Tall Man Five Five” established three National Aeronautic Association speed records for Speed Over A Recognized Course. At Los Angeles the crew, Captain Robert G. Sowers, Pilot, Captain Robert MacDonald, Navigator, and Captain John T. Walton, were congratulated by General Thomas S. Power, Chief of Staff, Strategic Air Command, and each airman was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. For the eastbound transcontinental flight, the crew won the Bendix Trophy, and for “the most meritorious flight of the year,” they were also awarded the MacKay Trophy.

I can’t tell if that record still stands: I suspect it was broken by the SR-71, but the NAA’s records site is a bit awkward to use, and they changed the way they classify speed records a while back.

Bonus video: “Twenty Years of Strategic Air Command”, from 1946 to 1966. Silent, but short.

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: August 2, 2020.

Sunday, August 2nd, 2020

Your Wilford Brimley obits: NYT. Variety. THR.

Thing I did not know #1: he was, at one point (and “briefly”) a bodyguard for Howard Hughes.

Thing I did not know #2:

He had a pleasant singing voice and recorded several albums of jazz standards, including “This Time the Dream’s on Me” and “Wilford Brimley With the Jeff Hamilton Trio.” He could more than hold his own as a guitarist too.

The Brimley/Cocoon Line. (Lawrence told me about this last night.) Not to be confused with the Mendoza Line, or the Vicky Mendoza Diagonal.

Posted in Movies, Obits, TV | 2 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 125

Sunday, August 2nd, 2020

Science Sunday!

I’ve said before that I consider space stuff to be science. And computer history is science. So how about we cross the streams with another area that I find fascinating?

From the MIT Science Reporter circa 1965, “Computer For Apollo”, about the Apollo Guidance Computer.

I know I’ve mentioned him many times before, but Ken Shirriff has written a lot about the Apollo computers. There’s also this (affiliate link) which is even available in a handy Kindle edition (though it isn’t much of a savings over the physical book). May have to order that next time I get some funny money to play with…

Bonus video: also by way of the MIT Science Reporter, this time around 1961. We were riffing on Insane Clown Posse at one of the recent SDCs, and this may be more clearly science than the AGC.

“Big Magnets”.

Posted in Geek, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 124

Saturday, August 1st, 2020

Today’s installment is going to the dogs.

The Hound Dogs.

“Operation Blue Nose”, a co-production of our friends at the Strategic Air Command and the “Space and Information Systems Division” of North American Aviation. This documents a test of the Hound Dog (a fairly early cruise missile) in which a B-52 crew flew for 20+ hours over the North Pole and back…and then launched one of the missiles.

I’m amused by the banter among the crew (and the guy with the Confederate flag on his helmet – try that in today’s military), but I keep wondering how they got some of this footage.

Bonus video: what if we could launch an ICBM from an aircraft in flight, instead of a silo?

“Air Mobile Feasibility Demonstration” answers that question. Yes, the military actually tested shoving ICBMs out of the back of a C-5 and launching them.

“Coming up on a burn, coming up on a burn…” Do you get the feeling this guy went into sportscasting later on in life?

Posted in History | 1 Comment »

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