“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 108

July 16th, 2020

We have Science Sunday. I think I need to declare either “Travel Tuesday” or “Travel Thursday”, for the alliterative value.

We could sort of have a two-fer today, since it isn’t just Travel Thursday, but TWA Thursday. Sit back, relax, perhaps have a cup of TWA coffee, or some TWA tea.

(Somewhere, I hear Pat Cadigan yelling “DWIGHT!” the way she used to yell “GARDNER!”)

(I still miss Gardner.)

“The World of TWA”, from sometime in the glorious 1970s.

The film follows (in droning voiceover) a typical American couple as they travel around the world on TWA, starting in London, England, and continuing to Paris, France, Rome and Pisa, Italy, the Holy Land including the Sea of Galilee, Greece, Egypt, India, Thailand and finally Hong Kong.

I’m a little surprised they didn’t stop over in Hawaii. And speaking of Hawaii…

Bonus video #1: according to the YouTube notes, this is a Coast Guard video (composed of actual 8mm footage and some re-enactments) about Pan Am Flight 6.

Pan Am Flight 6 (registration N90943) ditched in the Pacific Ocean on October 16, 1956, after two of its four engines failed. The aircraft took off from Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, at 8:26 p.m. HST on the flight’s last leg to San Francisco. After passing the point of equal time, the flight received permission to climb to an altitude of 21,000 ft (6,400 m). When that altitude was reached, the No. 1 engine began to overspeed as power was reduced. The First Officer, who was flying the plane, immediately slowed the plane by further reducing power and by extending the flaps, and an attempt was made to feather the propeller. The propeller would not feather and the engine continued to turn at excessive RPM. The captain decided to cut off the oil supply to the engine. Eventually, the RPM declined and the engine seized. The propeller continued to windmill in the air stream, causing excessive drag that increased the fuel consumption. As a result, the plane was forced to fly much slower, below 150 knots (280 km/h), and lost altitude at the rate of 1,000 feet per minute (5.1 m/s). Climb power was set on the remaining three engines to slow the rate of descent. The No. 4 engine then began to fail and soon was producing only partial power at full throttle. At 2:45 a.m. the No. 4 engine began to backfire, forcing the crew to shut it down and feather the propeller.

This sounds very similar to the plot of “The High and the Mighty”, but the movie came out in 1954 (and the book in 1953).

I’ve seen that once, on TV, and I’d like to see it again. Lawrence has the DVD, but we have to wait until RoadRich can join us. (This isn’t ‘Nam, this is movie night. There are rules.)

(It’s also interesting to me that Robert Stack plays the pilot on the verge of cracking up. Compare to “Airplane!” Was this a deliberate choice? Wikipedia talks about the choice to cast Stack, but is silent on this specific point.)

Bonus video #2: inside the Eero Saarinen designed TWA Flight Center in 2014.

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 16, 2020.

July 16th, 2020

Over the past few days, the paper of record has run two obits that fall into the “obscure outside of a specific niche, but interesting” category.

Jay Riffe. He took up spearfishing when he was 10 years old (“to get food for the table”). He became the Pacific Coast spearfishing champion at 22.

When he died on May 11 at 82, at his home in Dana Point, Calif. — a death not widely reported beyond spearfishing circles — Mr. Riffe left behind a trail of accomplishments in his undersea world, including breaking three world records for deepwater sport fishing; founding Riffe International, a premier American spearfishing and freediving equipment maker; and advancing a campaign for sustainable-fishing regulations. His family said the cause was heart failure.

…

For nearly 50 years, beginning in the late 1960s, Mr. Riffe built and developed spearguns and other devices that revolutionized the sport in the United States. His company used supple woods, like teak, which could be grooved to fit a spear shaft snugly; corrosion-resistant magnets, which kept spear tips from wobbling; and textured nylon grips, which kept guns from slipping from the spearfisher’s hand.

Louis Colavecchio. He used to make jewelry, but turned his skills to a more lucrative occupation: counterfeiting.

…there was nothing more thrilling than creating counterfeit slot machine coins. The coins he made were so detailed that even federal officials and casino workers found it challenging to distinguish his fakes from legitimate ones under a microscope.

…

All of Mr. Colavecchio’s work was meticulous. He could toil alone under microscopes for days, filled by a desire to trick the federal government and the casinos. He would not brook the possibility of an error; each die had to be perfect.
“Making counterfeit items must have appealed to me in some way that I didn’t understand,” Mr. Colavecchio wrote in his book.

…

Mr. Colavecchio perfected his illicit craft over about four years, Mr. Longo said, making thousands of chips and slot tokens for 36 casinos. At one point, the Treasury Department even sought his expertise. According to court records, the department paid him $18,000 after he was released from federal prison in 2000 because his manufacturing dies had outlasted those of the U.S. Mint.

…

His tokens were masterly because he crushed the originals and got the exact breakdown of their composition, Mr. Longo said. Mr. Colavecchio purchased the material, bought a press and, using a laser-cutting die, made molds and copies.
“It’s like having access to the U.S. Mint on the weekend, printing your money and leaving,” Mr. Longo said.

In case you were wondering, his book is You Thought It Was More: Adventures of the World’s Greatest Counterfeiter, Louis the Coin (affiliate link). I may have to order a copy of that for myself.

Great and good FotB Borepatch sent over a nice obit from ArsTechnica for Grant Imahara, which I very much appreciated. There’s also a very good Hacker News thread.

Posted in Books, Fish, Food, Law, Obits, Sports, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 107

July 15th, 2020

This is partially a continuation of the survival theme, but I also see it as a slice of life from a culture that I’m honestly not all that familiar with. (Except for the jokes about everything outdoors being lethal, and “Fosters: Australian for Budweiser”.)

“Bush Tucker Man”, the original documentary, by way of Australian Bushcraft Magazine.

Major Leslie James Hiddins AM (born 13 August 1946 in Brisbane, Queensland), known as “The Bush Tucker Man” is a retired Australian Army soldier and war veteran who is best known for his love and knowledge of the Australian bush. Hiddins is recognized by his distinctively modified Akubra “sombrero” hat and big grin.

This is basically an Aussie version of Euell Gibbons.

Bonus: the documentary resulted in a spin-off series, also known as “Bush Tucker Man”. And many of those episodes have been uploaded to the ‘Tube as well.

Akubra hats in the USA. One of these days I’m going to hie myself over to Brookshire or Pattison and pick up an Akubra.

Posted in Food, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 106

July 14th, 2020

I’ve got survival on my mind.

(That song belongs on the soundtrack to a movie based on one of Joe Lansdale’s books. Just saying.)

From 1961, “Survival Stresses”. I find this interesting: while it contains bits from other survival films, it concentrates less on specific survival techniques, and more on dealing with the stress of being in a situation.

Bonus video: I might post some desert and mountain survival ones later, but this popped up and I couldn’t resist. “Living Off the Land”, from 1944. This is (according to the uploader, “Australian Bushcraft Magazine“) an Australian Army training film about edible plants (“bush tucker”).

I think tomorrow, we’re going to see more bush tucker.

Posted in History | Comments Closed

Art (Acevedo), damn it! watch. (#AE of a series)

July 14th, 2020

I kind of thought I was done with the Art watch. But great and good FotB RoadRich sent me a second tip yesterday.

In a June 2 video, the current Houston police chief takes aim at Austin diversity while also seemingly blaming the city’s residents for inciting violence in Houston.
…
“I plead with you, [Houston] is the most diverse city in the United States. This isn’t Austin, Texas, where they’re diverse as long as they’re on the east side of 35,” said the police chief. “This is Houston, Texas. And for the people of Austin who want to come here and tear shit up, you’re in the wrong fucking city.”

Yeah. People from Austin were driving 300 miles round trip to tear (stuff) up in Houston, Art.

It’s unclear from the series of videos how Acevedo gets the megaphone, but he uses it to take another shot at Austin. “I know there are people here from Austin yelling at me and stuff from Austin, but I’m here to tell you, you ain’t in Austin,” Acevedo says. “You are in Houston. You are in H-Town.”
“One of the things I know is I’ve been coming here my whole life,” he continues. “We may fight, we may be angry at each other, but we know that when all these fucking people come out here from the outside trying to tear this shit up while the rest of the country’s burning. Nothing’s burning in Houston.”

Yeah, you’re in H-Town, all right, where Art Acevedo’s police department executed two innocent people during a drug raid. But somehow this is all Austin’s fault. We’re just out to get Art and his police department.

“One of the things I know is I’ve been coming here my whole life…”

Acevedo served as Austin police chief for nine years before taking the top job in Houston in 2016. He grew up in California, according to his HPD biography, and began his career in law enforcement in 1986 with the California Highway Patrol.

Posted in Cops, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 14, 2020.

July 14th, 2020

Judy Dyble. I was unfamiliar with her, but she had an interesting career. She appeared on the first Fairport Convention album, but was let go from the group before it came out. She went on to do a lot of prog rock and electronic stuff:

After leaving Fairport Convention, Ms. Dyble met the saxophonist Ian McDonald. They advertised their services to work with other musicians and were answered by the brothers Peter and Michael Giles and the guitarist Robert Fripp; the three had already made an album as Giles, Giles and Fripp. All five recorded demo songs together, later released as “The Brondesbury Tapes,” before Ms. Dyble moved on. Mr. Fripp, Mr. McDonald and Michael Giles formed the now-eminent progressive rock band King Crimson.

Grant Imahara, for the record.

Posted in Music, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Happy Bastille Day, everyone!

July 14th, 2020

Posted in History | Comments Closed

Dedication. It’s a word.

July 13th, 2020

I’m stealing that title from great and good FotB of the blog, RoadRich, who tipped me off to this story from Plane and Pilot.

Carolyn Guertin turned 92 on June 29th.

…the State of Virginia issued a proclamation making June 29th Carolyn A. Guertin Day, and if ever there were anyone deserving of it, it is this woman. Oh, and the CAP also marked the day by awarding Guertin the rank of Colonel.

If you do the math, that makes her 13 in 1941.

Guertin joined the Civil Air Patrol in 1941 on the first day of its existence. She said she was first in line, but 10 guys took officially sanctioned cuts, so she wound up being cadet #11 in the State of Virginia. She was also the first female cadet in the state. That means her recent CAP anniversary commemorated 78 years in service, continuous service, that is. She started a squadron, which is still in active service and is today named after her, served as a member across eight decades and has met more famous aviators than you can shake a stick at, including a dance with General Chuck Yeager. She also met and spent time with Igor Sikorsky and General Jimmy Doolittle, and has met astronauts and presidents. But the thing that means the most to her is the chance she’s had to be a positive influence in the lives of so many young men and women, so many of who look up to her as an inspiration. As we now do, as well!

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 105

July 13th, 2020

The high in Austin today is estimated to be 104. I think it is time to bring out something I’ve been holding in reserve.

“Land of White Alice”. No, this isn’t a Lewis Carroll thing. “White Alice” was a communications system in Alaska that used “tropospheric scattering” for over-the-horizon communications links.

The tropospheric scatter system operated around 900 MHz, and utilized both space diversity and frequency diversity, multiplexing a maximum of 132 simultaneous voice channels. The tropospheric hops used pairs of 60 ft (18 m) or 120 ft (37 m) parabolic, billboard like reflectors pointed at a low angle into the horizon. The radio waves were scattered by the tropopause, returning to Earth beyond the horizon, allowing communication between stations hundreds of miles apart. Having two antennas allowed for space diversity, meaning that if tropospheric conditions degrade on one path the second path might still be clear and communications would not be disrupted. For frequency diversity, each antenna transmitted two separate frequencies. Using both frequency and space diversity was called quad diversity. System power output for most shots was 10 kW and used 60 ft (18 m) antennas. Longer shots used 120 ft (37 m) antennas with 50 kW and shorter shots used 1 kW and 30 ft (9 m), round parabolic dishes.

The video makes it sound like White Alice was a major communications link for civilian traffic, but from what I’ve read elsewhere, it carried mostly military communications at this time (though it was used to coordinate between military and civil air traffic). The system went into place beginning in 1955: by 1970 or thereabouts, the military considered it obsolete, and transferred it to RCA Alascom for civilian use until the late 1970s.

I’m putting this up for two reasons: in addition to my interest in cold war tech, there’s also a lot of great vintage footage of Alaska. There’s even an Alaskan bush pilot, RoadRich.

Bonus: “Seconds For Survival”, from those wonderful folks at the Bell System.

The film tells how the North American Air Defense Command links NORAD, Sage, SAC, the DEW Line (Distant Early Warning), BMEWS, White Alice System, picket ships, Texas Towers blimps and air ships and air patrols into a single giant warning system to protect Americans from Soviet attack.

Posted in History, Planes, Radio | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 13, 2020.

July 13th, 2020

Kelly Preston. THR. Variety.

Benjamin Storm Keough, Elvis Presley’s grandson. He was 27.

The number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-TALK (8255). If you live outside of the United States or are looking for other help, TVTropes has a good page of additional resources.

Posted in Movies, Obits | 2 Comments »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 104

July 12th, 2020

Science Sunday!

I wanted to do something a little different today. From 1960 and those wonderful folks at Shell Oil, “A Light In Nature”.

This isn’t a film about a specific area of science, but: “…shows scientific research and the creative process of discovery in probing radioactivity, astronomy, materials science, geology, biophysics, oceanography, the discovery of DNA, etc.” 1960 was the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Royal Society, and this was apparently sort of a tie-in to that. There’s some awesome vintage video of members of the Royal Society smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo hanging out, if you’re fond of early 1960s style.

Bonus: Space history counts as science, right?

“Apollo 8 Go For TLI”, a NASA documentary about the mission.

Posted in Geek, History | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 103

July 11th, 2020

This popped up randomly in my recommendations, but I would have posted it no matter what once I knew it existed.

From the “World Of Warships” channel: “Naval Legends: USS Batfish”.

As you may recall, Mike the Musicologist and I visited the Batfish…cheez louise, it has been almost six years?

And as I think I’ve mentioned before, the USS Batfish was damaged in the flooding of 2019, and the Friends of the Muskogee War Memorial Park are trying to raise money to put it back into shape. If you have a few dollars to spare, why not float them over to the Batfish?

Bonus video: an episode of “The Silent Service” TV series about the USS Batfish.

The Silent Service is an American syndicated anthology television series based on actual events in the submarine section of the United States Navy. The Silent Service was narrated by Rear Admiral Thomas M. Dykers, who retired from the Navy in 1949 after twenty-two years of service. He began each episode with this refrain: “Tonight, we bring you another thrilling episode of Silent Service stories, of warfare under the sea.”

Fun fact: “DeForest Kelley appeared in three episodes as Lieutenant Commander James C. Dempsey and Leonard Nimoy appeared in two episodes as Sonarman.” Also appearing at various points: Edward Platt (who played a lieutenant commander, not a chief), Jack Lord, Bob Denver, and Dennis Weaver. And that’s not an exhaustive list.

Posted in Endorsements, History, TV | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 102

July 10th, 2020

I thought it might be interesting to talk about Nike.

Not the goddess of victory, or the shoe company: the missile system. I’ve always thought that was a cool looking system.

First up, “The United States Army Air Defense Command”. This one is only about 10 minutes.

Bonus video #1, and also short: a vintage AT&T Tech Channel video about the Nike Zeus ABM system.

Nike Zeus was an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system developed by the US Army during the late 1950s and early 1960s that was designed to destroy incoming Soviet intercontinental ballistic missile warheads before they could hit their targets. It was designed by Bell Labs’ Nike team, and was initially based on the earlier Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile. The original, Zeus A, was designed to intercept warheads in the upper atmosphere, mounting a 25 kiloton W31 nuclear warhead. During development, the concept changed to protect a much larger area and intercept the warheads at higher altitudes. This required the missile to be greatly enlarged into the totally new design, Zeus B, given the tri-service identifier XLIM-49, mounting a 400 kiloton W50 warhead. In several successful tests, the B model proved itself able to intercept warheads, and even satellites.

Bonus video #2, which is a bit longer: “The Nike Hercules Missie System” from the US Army.

List of Nike missile sites from Wikipedia.

San Vicente Park in California. Part of the park was an old Nike-Ajax missile site, which has been preserved and is accessible to the public. I’d like to visit there one of these days.

There were two Nike-Hercules sites in Austin: according to the Wikipedia list, one is in Elroy (which is kind of near the airport and the Formula 1 track, and is the home of Wild Bubba’s Wild Game Grill), and the other “is now the location of the University of Texas System Police Academy”.

(I had no idea UTPD had their own academy. I figured they shared space with the Austin PD’s academy. You learn something new every day.)

Posted in History | Comments Closed

Quick follow up.

July 10th, 2020

Lawrence linked to a follow up story from Bearing Arms about a weird case I wrote about back in February: an ex-stunt woman formerly from Bee Cave and her husband drove to Ohio to shoot her ex-husband, and instead were shot by the ex.

Spoiler: the grand jury no-billed the ex-husband and his current wife.

Posted in Guns, Law | Comments Closed

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 101

July 9th, 2020

Today’s entries are part military aviation, part general aviation. Specifically, both of these focus on the kind of mistakes that got military pilots killed (not in combat) in the 1940s: many of those are equally applicable today, as I’m sure FotB RoadRich will attest. (I don’t know if any of the planes he’s flown have talking oil temperature gauges, though.)

“Unless You Fly With Safety”. This is the short version.

Bonus: “Learn and Live”. This is the long version, but it feels like some has been cut off of the end.

Posted in History, Planes | Comments Closed

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