Margaret Maron, noted mystery writer. She actually passed away on February 23rd, but the paper of record didn’t get around to mentioning it until yesterday. The Rap Sheet has a nice tribute.
Bunny Wailer, of the Wailers.
Obit watch: March 3, 2021.
March 3rd, 2021“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 337
March 3rd, 2021So the governor reopened Texas:
Does this mean that we are out of jail? In my opinion, not yet.
- This doesn’t take effect until next week.
- I’m still a little concerned that we’ll see a surge after this goes into effect, and we will all end up back in solitary confinement.
- I want to see how far I can take this: maybe up to 365 entries?
- While the state has repealed the mask mandate, individual businesses can still require masks. Perhaps when I see more businesses dropping the mask requirement…
- Finally, I’ll consider myself out of jail when I get my Chinese rabies shot. I’ve been trying: I actually spent an hour last night on the Austin Public Health website trying to book an appointment, with no luck. There was about a 10:1 ratio of people waiting online to actual appointments.
In the meantime, it’s been two weeks since our last round of random gun crankery, so why not take another spin at the wheel? Especially since this came up recently and is relevant to my interests: Jerry Miculek demonstrates his technique for speed reloading a revolver with moon clips.
Bonus #1: “Taking A Break From The B S Of Life” from Blackie Thomas.
“A lot of you probably started out with one of these Red Ryder BB guns too.” (raises hand) Still have it, too.
Bonus #2: I haven’t run across Target Suite previously, but I wanted to link this video of him discussing the Ruger Single Six he picked up at a pawn shop.
I own a Single Six with both the .22 LR and .22 Magnum cylinders, and I think it is a pure fun gun to shoot. I’m actively looking for a second one at a reasonable price for something I have in mind. I might have to start visiting more pawn shops.
Bonus #3: “Using a Sling”, from our friends at the Army Marksmanship Unit.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 336
March 2nd, 2021Today, let’s rattle some sabres.
F-86 Sabres, to be precise.
“No Sweat!” is a nice little educational film: “…showing an under-the-weather F-86 pilot, who, through carelessness and preoccupation, turns a routine flight into a nightmare.” I think there’s probably some stuff in here that will also serve as useful reminders to general aviation pilots.
Bonus: “The Fighting 51st”, a documentary about the 5lst Fighter Interceptor Wing.
Bonus #2: Wanna see someone do aerobatics in a F-86? Here you go.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 335
March 1st, 2021Good news: I have a day off today, thanks to Cisco’s recent policy of semi-regularly granting “a day for yourself”.
Bad news: I have an engagement today that I expect will take all day.
So, this is a scheduled sampler pack.
There is a man named Charles Ingram. He used to be a major in the British Army.
In September of 2001, he appeared on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” in Britain. His wife and brother-in-law had previously appeared on the show, and had each topped out at 32,000 GBP. Major Ingram made it all the way and won 1,000,000 GBP.
And almost immediately, questions arose.
“Major Fraud”, from “Tonight” with Trevor McDonald.
Bonus #1: “The Guys Who invented the Video Tape Recorder”. This is an approximately 30 minute interview with Jim Wheeler, a senior engineer at Ampex…the guys who invented the video tape recorder.
On a semi-related note, I was amused by this article that came across Hacker News about the Cambridge University Tape Recording Society for two reasons:
“atonal guitar and shrieking vocals”. Need I say any more?
“Frankly, we’re losing our shirts on this deal. But we’re looking for audiophiles who are interested in high-quality cassette tapes…”
Bonus #2: “Of Dolls and Murder”, about Frances Glessner Lee and the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Deaths. If you’re not familiar with the Nutshell Studies, well, read the Wikipedia page, and then strap in, folks.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 334
February 28th, 2021Science Sunday!
I’ve stated before that computer science is science. So: from Dartmouth College, a semi-short documentary about the “Birth of BASIC”, featuring Tom Kurtz.
Bonus #1: Here’s a mildly interesting sidelight on science history. In 1945, Kodak had a problem: batches of X-ray film were ruined. Specifically, the film was peppered with dark spots. Turns out the problem was…the bomb.
“How Kodak Exposed The Atomic Bomb”.
Bonus #2: Hey, they even call this a “Leadership Through Science” film! “The Inside Story Of Modern Gasoline: Science Fashioned Molecules For Top Performance”, from 1946 and the Standard Oil Company of Indiana.
You may know this particular Standard Oil better as Amoco, which is what the company was renamed to in 1985 (though they were using the Amoco name before that). They merged with BP in 1998.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 333
February 27th, 2021After last week’s storm ended and the ice melted sufficiently, both Lawrence and I had trouble getting our cars started.
In my case, the car was sitting from Friday the 12th to Saturday the 19th, so a little more than a week, and it seemed like the battery was basically dead. I have a jumper box: when I hooked it up, though, the car would respond (dash lights, etc.) but it didn’t seem like my jumper box was providing enough power to kick the starter over.
I ended up calling AAA, who arrived within 30 minutes of my call (!) and brought their giant jumper box. The car started right away: I let it idle and drove it around for about an hour total, and didn’t have any problems with it starting after that. (Knock wood.)
What brings this to mind?
“Can We Make This FROZEN Truck Run During A Polar Vortex!?” I have to say: this does not look entirely unlike my situation. I was in a suburban driveway instead of a field next to a barn, but other than that…
Bonus #1: “Costco Boost Pack: Electrician vs. Truck Starter”. Somehow this reminds me of standing outside in the cold with that jumper box…
AvE has a separate video on the “stupid design” of the Costco boost pack.
Bonus #2: My dad used to go around to various places in the winter and cut wood for firewood. What we didn’t burn in our own fireplace, he sold to friends and neighbors. Dad had side hustles before there were side hustles.
I was never able to talk him into doing anything with explosives, though.
Bonus #3: 60 Minutes Australia visits “the coldest town in the world”, Oymiakon.
If it’s warmer than minus 55 degrees Celsius, then it’s a good day.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 332
February 26th, 2021I thought it might be fun to dip back into the AT&T Tech Channel and their archives, and pick out some stuff related to telephones and telephony.
All of these videos have modern introductions, but I’ve set the embedded versions to skip over that intro. If you want to rewind, you’re certainly welcome to: I don’t control your browser. (Never mind that bitcoin miner I opened in a separate window.)
“Good-Bye, Central” is from 1978, and documents the last places that actually used central switchboards, instead of the dial system. This is just a little over 10 minutes, and even less if you skip over the intro.
“The Hello Machine” is also short, and is historically interesting: it was directed by Carroll Ballard in 1974. Mr. Ballard went on to direct “The Black Stallion”, “Never Cry Wolf”, and “Fly Away Home”, as well as doing second unit direction on “Star Wars”.
I know it might be a snoozer for some. (I think when you say “wordless film-poem”, you’ve lost Lawrence. Unless it has music by Philip Glass. Though now I’m wondering: could you do a “wordless film-poem” with tanks?) But: only 13 minutes, and less if you skip the intro.
One more: “To Communicate is the Beginning”, from 1976. This is a bit longer (32 minutes).
There are other interesting folks in this besides Brattain and Welles (though you know I had to use this because Welles): I won’t spoil all of them for you, but I will say I was surprised that Vladimir Zworykin shows up. (He actually died in 1982, at the age of 94.)
Another spoiler (possibly): the Bryant Pond Telephone Company lasted until 1981. The company was sold to Oxford Networks, and Bryant Pond’s cranked system was converted to direct dial and incorporated into the regular network in 1983.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 331
February 25th, 2021Travel Thursday!
I can’t find any evidence I’ve used this before. Google doesn’t return any results when I search my site, but I’m not sure how it escaped me for this long.
“Pan Am’s World”, a vintage 1970s promo film.
Bonus: this is something called “Flight Into Time” from the 1950s and TWA. The unifying theme is travel through the Mediterranean and the area around it: Portugal, Spain, Italy, Israel, Syria & Egypt.
Bonus bonus: Constellations!
Seriously, has everything gone completely nutso?
February 25th, 2021Headline:
Lady Gaga’s Dog Walker Shot and Critically Wounded, 2 French Bulldogs Stolen
I don’t want to seem like I’m making fun of the poor guy: he’s currently hospitalized in critical condition, and I hope he makes a full recovery.
Tara Bruno, founder of SNORT Rescue, a New Jersey-based organization that rescues bulldogs, pugs and Boston terriers, says French bulldogs are among the most stolen dog breeds because they’re very popular, are small and portable, and are expensive.
French bulldogs from reputable breeders cost between $3,000 and $5,000, she says, while dogs from puppy mills or overseas importers with designer coats in blue or merle can bring in about $10,000.
I’d like to think there would be some issues fencing bulldogs stolen at gunpoint. For example, I think most people who would pay money for a French bulldog probably want one with papers, which I’m sure the dog walker was not carrying around with him…
Obit watch: February 24, 2021.
February 24th, 2021Fanne Foxe. Ms. Foxe was also known as “the Argentine Firecracker”, though she became most famous as the woman who jumped out of Wilbur Mills’s car.
The first whiff of trouble broke about 2 a.m. on Oct. 7, 1974, when two United States Park Service police officers spotted Mr. Mills’s car speeding with lights off near the Jefferson Memorial and pulled it over. Apparently panicking, Ms. Foxe bolted from the car and, yelling in English and Spanish, tried to escape by jumping into the Tidal Basin, a Potomac estuary with an average depth of 10 feet.
The officers pulled her out, handcuffed her when she tried to jump in again and returned her to the car, where they found Mr. Mills and several other occupants intoxicated. Mr. Mills was bleeding from his nose and facial scratches, and Ms. Foxe had two black eyes. An officer drove her to a hospital and the others to their homes.
The incident might have gone unnoticed, but a television cameraman came upon the scene and recorded it. The police filed no charges, and Mr. Mills issued a statement that cast events in an innocent light. But within days the outlines of a political sex scandal began to emerge. Mr. Mills, facing voters in November, returned home to campaign and was narrowly re-elected to his 19th term.
But under withering publicity detailing his alcoholism and peccadilloes with Ms. Foxe, including an impromptu appearance at a Boston burlesque stage where she was performing, Mr. Mills checked into an alcoholic-treatment center, resigned as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and did not run for re-election in 1976, ending a 38-year congressional career.
…
Ms. Foxe appeared on television talk shows and in Las Vegas nightclubs, was featured in Playboy magazine in 1976 and 1977 and starred in several movies as herself, including “Posse From Heaven” (1975), about a stripper who becomes a guardian angel to a cowboy, and “This Is America” (1977), a documentary featuring car crashes and a nude beauty contest.
Her 180-page paperback, “The Stripper and the Congressman” (1975, with Yvonne Dunleavy), detailed an affair that began after she and her Argentine husband, Edwardo Battistella, met Mr. Mills and his wife, Polly Mills, in their building in 1973. The couples became friends and went dancing together.
Then, the book said, Mr. Mills began visiting the Silver Slipper often. He took Ms. Foxe on a three-week junket to Antigua and promised to marry her if he could get a divorce. Ms. Foxe’s husband, with whom she had three children, divorced her just before the affair was publicly disclosed. Mr. Mills, as a recovered alcoholic who counseled other alcoholics, remained married to his wife until his death, at 82, in 1992.
…
Ms. Montgomery moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., in the late 1980s, and undertook a series of challenging late-in-life academic pursuits. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Tampa in 1995 and a master’s in marine science (in 2001) and a master’s in business administration (2004) from the University of South Florida, all with magna cum laude honors.
“I’m not sure what her motivation was, but we were all very proud of her accomplishments,” Alex Montgomery said of his mother in a 2019 interview for this obituary. “She was a very intelligent woman. Remarkable. She also became a scuba-diving master at the University of South Florida and went to Cozumel, Mexico, to do some underwater filming.”
WP, and since the paper is basically unreadable without a subscription, here’s a slightly less unreadable version from archive.is.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, beat poet and owner of the City Lights Bookstore.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 330
February 24th, 2021I was reminded last night that the National Security Agency has a YouTube channel.
I’m not ready to post the video that reminded me yet: that will come up next time I want to do a radio post. However, I thought I’d do both some more history, and something I haven’t done in quite a while: cryptography.
Also, I’m posting three of these, but they are all fairly short. I’ve been running long for a while now, and figure youse guys could use some short history as a break.
“Cryptology in the American Revolution: Ciphers” part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
And a bonus for people who would like something a little more recent: “Civil War Signals”.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 329
February 23rd, 2021I don’t like falling back on the same people over and over again. In this case, I am pleading the timeliness exemption.
For those of you who may not have heard, there was an incident over the weekend involving a United 777 flying from Denver to Honolulu: one of the engines failed and the engine inlet separated from the aircraft. The aircraft was able to make an emergency return to Denver, and there were no injuries on board. Parts of the aircraft fell into a neighborhood in the flight path, and some of those parts went through the roof of a house, but there were no injuries on the ground.
So the question comes up: what do you do in these situations? What do you do if you’re flying a plane with 239 people on board, and the plane starts shedding chunks of itself on departure?
I’ve said this before, but one of the answers is: first, fly the plane. At least, for as long as you can: it doesn’t always end this way. (But we have learned a lot since 1979.)
“Captain Joe” put up a video explaining what happened (including what checklists the pilots would have used) from his perspective, based on what we know now.
Bonus #1: From the VASAviation channel, here’s the traffic between the United flight and Denver ATC.
This video states the plane made a full stop on the runway, where no problems were found, and then it was towed off to parking. However, the article I linked earlier says that the right engine was actually on fire when the plane landed: emergency services extinguished the fire and then it was towed off.
Which kind of made me wonder when I read it: why did they not evacuate the aircraft if the engine was on fire? My suspicion is that it was a trade-off. As I understand it, the expectation is that anytime they have to use those emergency slides, people are going to get hurt. They aren’t designed to be gentle, they’re designed to get you off the airplane fast, and there are usually bruises, sprains, or even broken bones associated with that. Emergency services may have felt the fire was small enough to be controlled, and decided the risk to passengers was manageable. It seems like that was the right choice in this case…
Bonus #2: sort of unrelated, but I wanted to put this here for reasons. “Reel Engineering” covers “No Highway In the Sky”.
We watched “No Highway” not too long ago (it is available in a reasonably priced bluray (affiliate link)) and I think it is a fine movie. The book, to my mind, is even better, and I would genuinely like to see more people seek out Nevil Shute’s work.
It seems like he’s mostly remembered for On the Beach, which, you know, is an okay novel and worth being remembered for. But he wrote a lot of other stuff as well: besides No Highway, I enthusiastically recommend Trustee from the Toolroom and Slide Rule, his autobiography of his experiences in the aviation industry.
And 2021 said, “Hold my beer and watch this!”
February 23rd, 2021As if it hasn’t already been a year…
Gender Reveal Device Explodes, Killing Man in Upstate New York
Peter Pekny Jr., 34, the oldest of the brothers, called what happened “the freakiest of freak accidents that I could ever imagine,” though he did not know what had set off the explosion, he said in a telephone interview on Monday.
He said that his brother Michael was in stable condition at a hospital in Middletown, N.Y., and that doctors were able to rebuild a damaged knee.
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 328
February 22nd, 2021Been a while since I’ve done any vintage police training videos, mostly because not that many have been popping up.
Here’s one for you, from the FBI apparently sometime in the 1970s: “Examination Of Stolen Cars”.
Bonus #1: Don’t you love stupid people getting what is coming to them? I know I do. Plus: CanCon!
“Bait Car Greatest Hits” from the Vancouver Sun.
Bonus #2: “Accident Investigation” from 1974. Not one of those traffic safety films, but more a guide for the patrol officer on how to handle these situations: use your car as a shield, don’t move injured people, watch for spilled gasoline, etc…
“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 327
February 21st, 2021Science Sunday!
It seems to me that a lot of folks I know are interested in the computers of the space program. Especially the Apollo Guidance Computer.
Well, here you go: from the National Museum of Computing, “Light Years Ahead: The 1969 Apollo Guidance Computer”. Bonus points: the presenter, Robert Wills, is (or at least was as of October 2019) a Cisco employee.
Bonus video: “Common Misconceptions in Aerodynamics”, a presentation to University of Michigan engineering students by Doug McLean, a retired Boeing Technical Fellow.