Virginia Postrel has this interesting post on the history of American automotive art, including lots of links, including this exibit at Detroit’s Skillman Branch Library, and this to the online collection, Plan59.
A decade and a half ago, Richard B. McKenzie and Dwight R. Lee wrote Quicksilver Capital: How the Rapid Movement of Wealth Has Changed the World. This has proven to be one of the most prophetic tomes on contemporary economics written in my adult lifetime.
Yet, capital markets have lagged behind others in employing information age technologies. But, as Hillary Johnson writes here at Samizdata, that is changing:
Should money be as free as speech? After all, it is also a form of communication.
In the past year, the internet has spawned a few companies aimed at helping individuals borrow and lend without bothering to involve a bank or credit agency. Zopa, based in the UK, aggregates individuals into groups for the purpose of making small loans, with a socially conscious slant. In the US, Prosper just launched a sleek, well-designed person-to-person lending site. Borrowers can also form groups on Prosper, for the sake of leveraging better interest rates. I also know of at least one nascent project, Bruce Boston’s Quid St., which aims to aggregate individuals for the purpose of making capital investments (as opposed to loans). I met Bruce recently, and he mentioned what an influence gaming had on his view of how to build an online marketplace. Which put me in mind of the Park Paradigm, a blog about digital markets whose authors think future finical [sic] markets may evolve out of sports book and gambling sites. And not entirely unrelated note, Paypal made it possible just this week for people to send each other money anywhere, via cell phone.
What we are witnessing here, I think, is the creation of a new international capital market.
Many of my libertarian compatriots cling to the antiquated ideal of a commodity (principally, gold) based monetary system. The justification for this is that it prevents abuse by central banks. But the information age is increasingly making the old central bank model, and with it the gold standard, obsolete.
I have been somewhat baffled by Dell’s purchase of gaming computer leader Alienware, which became official yesterday, particularly as Dell has been moving steadily upmarket with its own XPS line. Alienware intends to maintain it’s own sales organization, so there will be no savings there.
This doesn’t make sense, strictly from the standpoint of expanding the market base. Dell runs the risk of falling into the same trap as GM – with multiple divisions competing for the same customers. It might be that Dell (which has always used Intel) has plans on taping into Alienware’s considerable AMD experience:
SAN JOSE, Calif. — One of the worst kept secrets in the industry is Dell Computer Inc.’s reported move to develop PCs, based on microprocessors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
“We believe there will be an AMD/Dell deal announced very soon; more specifically, we believe it will come as early as March and involve Dell notebooks,” said analyst Doug Freedman of American Technology Research, in a report. “The deal will likely mature from there to include servers and desktops, in that order, in subsequent months.”
This makes sense; AMD has been eating Intel’s lunch for some time now.
Some while back, our own dear Timmer posted that he was considering purchase of a (wife recommended) Bose home theater sound system. I suggested either the (a little more expensive) full-tilt option, or the (much cheaper) “3-2-1” option. In the end, he went with his wife (always a wise choice). But, in any event, he would have been a winner. Any Bose choice is a good choice
What is Bose’ slogan – “better sound through research,” or some such? This has been proven out again and again.
Let’s go back to the audiophile wars of the ’60s and ’70s… I was a Klipsch man.. If you are in a good room, on axis, with a pair of Klipschorns, you might as well be tenth row center at Fillmore East – that’s how perfect it was. And then there was Bose… Those wonderful 901s, and their “direct reflecting” technology:.. You could be almost anywhere in a room with a pair of those, and be moving about (as if you were in a great jazz club). And you didn’t have to stay “on axis” – and you still got a great stereo image.
Well, the eighties came. I got (not quite) rich. I rented my “acoustically perfect” pad, and placed my studio speakers (first a local brand, and then some Yamahas – I couldn’t afford ‘horns, or even La Scalas) right in the corners of that vaulted ceiling living room. And I told all my neighbors: “I come home between 4 and 7, and I blast my stereo for about an hour.” The only comments I ever got were complements on my musical taste.
And then the hammer blow came down – the revolutionary 1984 C4 Corvette. And lost (to all those but a few audiophiles) was its revolutionary optional Bose audio system – engineered for the car’s acoustics. No-one saw the writing on the wall.
But come down that hammer did. And now one cannot buy a midrange or luxury automobile, without at least the option of a “designer” audio system. And simple stereo has been supplanted by “surround sound” systems. And “Bose” is a household name – and making big money on their “Wave” music systems – a development on Klipsch technology.
And Klipsch – it’s still in business, selling to a small cadre of audiophiles, but not pushing it’s innovative folded horns like it used to.
And Timmer, he’s cuddling on his couch, with his lovely wife, and his Bose home theater system.
And me: I’m stuck here, on-axis, with my keyboard, monitor, and (rather excellent – for what it’s worth) desktop speakers. Excuse me if I just lose myself in a bit of Procol Harum.
Now you can have a 16-core coprocessing supercomputer under your desk, with the Tyan Typhoon PSC:
Tyan said that it is not aiming its clusters at gamers, as the graphics solution is an underpowered onboard 8 MB ATI Rage controller. Instead, the PSC is marketed towards science researchers. With upgraded power supplies and some more graphics horsepower, the system, however, could become a capable solution for 3D graphic artists as several modeling programs including 3d Studio Max and Maya excel at distributed rendering. Linux enthusiasts may also like the new machine as there are several clustering oriented distributions including a version of Knoppix, aptly named ClusterKnoppix.
Here’s the features, from Tyan’s website:
* Incredible small-sized supercomputing system (14″ x 12.6″ x 26.7″)
* Support for up to four (4) nodes with one or two processors (including Dual Core support)
* Low-noise operation… less than 47dB!
* Up to 64GB of DDR400/333 Registered memory (AMD Opteron-based system)
* Up to 32GB of DDR2-667/533 Unbuffered memory (Intel Pentium D-based system)
* Eight (8) Gigabit Ethernet ports integrated for network expansion options
* Up to four (4) Serial ATA HDD devices supported
* Four (4) built-in EPS12V 350W power supplies with PFC
This is quite disturbing:
Although the Tribune’s initial search for “Central Intelligence Agency” employees turned up only work-related addresses and phone numbers, other Internet-based services provide, usually for a fee but sometimes for free, the home addresses and telephone numbers of U.S. residents, as well as satellite photographs of the locations where they live and work.
Asked how so many personal details of CIA employees had found their way into the public domain, the senior U.S. intelligence official replied that “I don’t have a great explanation, quite frankly.”
Tom Elia provides some extensive excerpts. But the original ChiTrib article is here. Read the whole thing.
Hat Tip: InstaPundit..
[Something to ponder when you are huddled inside your Humvee, on a cold, moonless night, in a G_d-knows-where stretch of Fort Irwin (or worse, Iraq), watching a bag in a cup of hot water.]
The answer is the sous vide process, wherein all the food and spices are packed in a vacuum bag. Originally developed in 1974, by Georges Pralus at Troigros in Briennon, France, this process affords rapid cooking and light, easily disposable packaging. Both are qualities the military finds most valuable. [However, I believe MREs are all fully-cooked, and (while sometimes gross) they can be eaten dead-cold]. Of greater interest to the world’s gourmands is that the sous vide process retains far more of the food’s original flavors and textures. So it is increasingly showing up in Las Vegas’ hotel/casinos, and Manhattan’s fanciest eatery’s:
Ponder this hypothetical: 2:30am. A guest exits a Las Vegas poker table. He’s hungry after a very profitable (unfortunately, not for him) losing streak. Refueled, he might net the casino an extra few chips. Does one really expect a chef, in his namesake restaurant cooking to order at such inhumane hours? Don’t bet on it. These fast-paced 24/7 cultures demand the very best food served ’round the clock. So we wondered how those special signature dishes are made available? How can our hungry poker player at 8am, 8pm or any time in between, dine on Alessandro Stratta’s Pork Belly with Marscapone Polenta from Renoir’s kitchen, or our famished New Yorker stroll into the W hotel and taste Paul Sale’s Saddlerock Oysters and Jelly Sampler at Blue Fin?
However, without tight process controls, there is a high possibility of the growth of botulinum spores. For large-scale food processing plants, the FDA requires a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point plan, designed by a credentialed food scientist. But this isn’t so practical for New York’s elite restaurants, and the city’s health code has no equivalent. So, despite no poisonings reported to date, the city is pre-emptively cracking down:
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has quelled the sous vide revolution, for the moment. In the past few weeks inspectors have told some chefs to throw out shrink-wrapped food, forbidden them to use the equipment used to make it and told them to stop cooking and storing food sous vide until they have a government-approved plan for it.
In some cases, inspectors are handing out fines, which start at $300 per offense. The department’s actions seem to represent the first time a city agency has singled out the technique, and how chefs use it.
Virginia Postrel condemns this, saying “If it’s not regulated, it’s forbidden.” I wouldn’t go that far. There is plenty of evidence as to the hazards of this process to warrant a moratorium on its use, until the city has reasonable regulations in the books. But it’s not as though there hasn’t been plenty of time for NYC’s bureaucrats to get their act together already. And, as there have been no reported poisonings as of yet, this sudden crack-down is totally over-the-top.
Update: I forgot to mention that this process has long been of interest to me, because I have wanted to try it myself. I have a laboratory hot-plate, replete with precision thermostat and magnetic stirrer, which would seem to be perfect for this.
[Yes, troops: When doing time at Fort Irwin, just envision you are a few hundred miles north, sipping a vintage Cabernet Blanc, and waiting for your food at the French Laundry in Yountville.]
This from Eric Auchard at Reuters:
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Google Inc. is preparing to offer online storage to Web users, creating a mirror image of data stored on consumer hard drives, according to company documents that were mistakenly released on the Web.
The existence of the previously rumored GDrive online storage service surfaced after a blogger discovered apparent notes in a slide presentation by Google executives published on Google’s site after its analysts presentation day last Thursday.
“With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc),” the notes in the original Google presentation state.
Nothing on pricing in that story. But some good discussion over at the Googling Google blog. There’s some concern, which I share, about 4th Amendment protection of data stored on a remote server.
….of this fully operational internet!!!
The VEV is back, after a fender-bender in January which smashed the headlights, side lights and the front grille, but left everything else untouched. But thanks to a very effective auto-parts search engine, and an enthusiast in West Virginia with a deep and abiding affection for the early Volvo sedans, the neccessary parts were located in three days at a moderate price. (All thanks to Dan, Dan the Volvo Man! Mwah!!!) (It just took a month and a half for the insurance to pay, me to pay, the parts to be shipped, and the garage to install. Nothing is perfect.)
“So, the 1975 Volvo is on the road again?” asked my insurance agent.
“Yes– so tell everyone to get the hell out of my way!” I said.
It’s nice to have it back again… but I keep hanging back from vehicles in front of me, and eying the back ends of large trucks with absolute loathing.
One of the things I have found most interesting about the YB-70 program was its possible use as the first stage in a parasitic Fly-To-Orbit system. This, and much more, is covered in this wrap-up by Aviation Week & Space Technology of everything they gathered, relative to the “Blackstar” program, over the years.
Hia Tip: InstaPundit
My first car was a ’67 El Camino Malibu, which I bought from my best friend, Paul. It was such a sweet ride when his father gave it to him (300hp 327, Powerslide, 10 bolt 3.08 Posi, factory buckets, total straight and rust-free). I still cry over the way we butchered it.
Anyway, El Caminos have always held a special place in my heart. So you can understand my girlish squeals of glee when I discovered this carnivale of El Camino hybrids.
El Camino/Olds 442 Hybrid
(442 Fans will immediately notice the subtle
rear fender bulges, which the Elky didn’t have.)
Hat Tip: Jalopnik
This month is the anniversary of the very crack of dawn, for American military aviation, and it happened in San Antonio. At the Fort Sam Houston parade ground… or to be precise, over it. More here, by a local reporter.
This Ceradyne press release via Reuters:
COSTA MESA, Calif.–(Business Wire)–Jan. 18, 2006– Ceradyne, Inc. (Company) (Nasdaq:CRDN) Chief Executive Officer Joel Moskowitz appears on KOCE in an interview on “Dialogue with Jim Doti,” which aired Tuesday, January 17, and is scheduled to air again at 10 a.m. PST on Sunday, January 22, on KOCE.
During the 30-minute interview, Moskowitz discusses his early days as a ceramic engineer, Ceradyne’s beginnings as a supplier of military helicopter armor, factors contributing to the Company’s growth and competitive position, and his outlook for 2006 and longer-term. Ceradyne develops, manufactures, and markets advanced technical ceramic products and components for defense, industrial, automotive/diesel, and commercial applications. Additional information about the Company can be found at www.ceradyne.com.
Except for the historical information contained therein, the interview contains forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future performance of Ceradyne that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. Words such as “anticipates,” “believes,” “plans,” “expects,” “intends,” “future,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties are described in the Company’s supplemental prospectuses, dated December 13, 2005, as filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and the documents included or incorporated by reference therein.
Ceradyne, Inc.
Joel Moskowitz, 714-549-0421, Ext. 8261
or
Silverman Heller Associates
Dan Matsui/Gene Heller, 310-208-2550
This should be a very interesting show for tech-heads. But I don’t know if Dialogue with Jim Doti airs on your local PBS station. I’ll try to find a link to a podcast.
This from Reuters:
Busher, Iran – Iran has reached a “basic” agreement with Russia on a joint venture to enrich uranium and will continue talks in coming days, Iran’s nuclear chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh said on Sunday.
My other sources believe the enrichment will be performed, at least partially, by Iranian personnel, but in Russian facilities. My only opinion, at this point, is: trust, but verify.
I’m still trying to limp along here – forestalling the inevitable wipe and reinstall. one of my biggest problems is the fact that I can’t get the freaking Acrobat reader to work. I’ve never really liked it anyway; it seems quite bloated and slow.
Checking around, the freeware Foxit reader looks pretty promising. It’s highly rated on C/Net. Does anyone here have any personal experience? Any gems of wisdom to offer? I’m particularly curious as to if installation automatically changes your linkages, so Foxit becomes your default reader?
Update: Typical BS – It downloaded and installed just fine, and seems to work well (and MUCH faster than Acrobat), but only with MSIE! Firefox still wants to use Acrobat. I’m going to go chew on my fingernails for a while. GRRRRRR!
I wish I could have been there to see this, but I was up the road at LB VAMC all day today.
(H/T Bob Chamberlin / LATimes)
Those are two of the most beautiful civilian ships on the ocean. They look to be similar in size in these photos. And, indeed, the Queen Mary 2 is only a bit over one hundred feet longer than her namesake (1,132′ vs. 1,019′). But she displaces almost twice as much (151,000 tons vs. 81,000). She is actually far less powerful; her four azipods producing “only” 86 megawatts total, verses the older ship’s mechanically coupled 119 megawatts (Cunard also boasts that her steam turbines’ boilers are far cleaner). However, superior hydrodynamics, and no mechanical transmission losses with the azipods on the newer ship, mean best cruise for both is the same: 28.5 knots.
QM2 is currently the largest passenger ship afloat. She will be supplanted shortly by Royal Caribbean’s Freedom of the Seas, which will be a tad shorter, at 1112′, but will displace 158,000 tons gross. “Purists” might say, “yes, but FotS is just a cruise ship, while QM2 is an ocean liner. Taken to task on the fine distinction between the two, one usually hears something about, “a cruise ship is not built to endure the rigors of transoceanic crossings.” That sounds like so much hooey to me; I mean, getting caught out to sea during a Caribbean hurricane has got to be pretty darn rigorous. I think the principal difference is more likely that cruise ship designers have less concern for range or speed. Best cruise on the Freedom of the Seas is only 21.6 knots. As well, the cruise ship designer will lean towards smaller, and more Spartan cabins (who wants to stay in their cabin on a three day, two nighter anyway?). FotS is designed to carry 3600 passengers, QM2 only 2620.
The more important difference to me is that Queen Mary 2, like her namesake, is all majesty, grace and elegance. Freedom of the Seas, on the other hand, is theme park kitsch. The water park, replete with FlowRiderTM surf pool, really takes the cake.
Oh, and BTW: Sir Winston’s, with its sweeping view of the sea, and the Long Beach coastline, is among SoCal’s most romantic restaurants. Provided that the city continues to stage it this year, the restaurant is also the perfect place to take-in the Fourth of July fireworks show.
Hail to the Queen.
Noah Shachtman at DefenseTech has this post on new extended range less lethal weapons. I particularly like the idea of this electro-stun shell, which Noah says works in a standard 12 gauge shotgun (which you will find in almost any cop’s patrol car): But I haven’t heard anything about it since Taser received this half million dollar development contract from the USMC and the Office of Naval Research. Even a search of Taser’s website comes up blank.
But there’s a lot more, read the whole post.
If you could have your choice of a 100 pt. vintage Austin Healey 100-6 (or 3000 mk. 1), or a new Caterham 7 CSR, what would it be?
Well, folks: It’s been a long run: About two years or so, since I last put this system up.
And that’s surely a long run: Previously – before I installed this new hardware, I was lucky to get three months on a system.
But now, what has come to pass, has passed. I have been limping along for months here. And now, among all the other bugs, I can’t even read PDF files. And I don’t know how to fix it.
No – it’s time to wipe the disk, and start from scratch. And of course, I will preserve precious data – and cache everything important elsewhere. But I really don’t know WTF I’m doing. So important stuff is likely to be lost.
So. before I go do strange and exotic things to my hard disk, any words of wisdom would be appreciated..
This from Victoria Murphy Barret at Forbes:
BURLINGAME, CALIF. – Mårten Mickos may give away his software, but that doesn’t mean his competitors aren’t taking him seriously. His MySQL has raised $39 million in funding, claims to have more than 8 million installations of its database software, and counts Alacatel, Google, and Yahoo! among its customers; they get free software but pay the company for support and maintenance.
MySQL’s success has caught the eye of mighty Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL – news – people ), which is now buying its way into the same open source business: This week Oracle bought open source vendor Sleepycat, and observers expect it to close a deal on JBoss, another open source company, as early as today. The acquisitions are likely to let the database giant offer its own free, open source database for smaller customers.
We met with Mickos at an open source conference in San Francisco this week to discuss the evolution of the software industry, Oracle’s threat to the CEO’s company, and how discos are cool only so long as the kids think so.
[…]
How do Oracle’s recent open source acquisitions affect MySQL?
Mickos: They don’t. We did not see Sleepycat in customer negotiations. Oracle bought InnoDB last fall. December was our best month ever. Our customers voted with their wallets. Our revenues nearly doubled last year, of course off of a small base.
Oracle’s free database is crippleware. There is a glass ceiling, so once you get to a certain level of people using the technology, Oracle moves you up to their database. We don’t limit our customers that way.
These acquisitions give us credibility. People are wondering why Oracle has to buy all of this technology.
Is Oracle more of a threat now?
Mickos: No. They don’t really understand open source. It isn’t about price; it is about freedom of software. They think if you give people free beer you can take away their free speech. It doesn’t work that way in open source.
The last half-hour of this morning’s C-SPAN Washington Journal (check their website later for a download) was a brief repeat of a retired Marine touting the Pinnacle Dragon Skin body Armor, and an interview/call-in session with Col. John Norwood, Project Mgr., Soldier Equipment, and Col Spoehr, Dir of Material, Army Hq.. After a bit about the Dragon Skin (they’ve ordered evaluation units – Pinnacle hasn’t delivered), They went on to display the latest version of the Interceptor body Armor.
They’ve upgraded the SAPI plates, as well as added side plates. It’s better protection; but, full-up, weights 37lbs. – EGAD!. They went on to note that configuration is up to individual unit commanders and, stripped of its plates, it’s like a really good flak vest.
But, checking DefenseTech’s armor blog, I noticed this proposed facial armor:
You wouldn’t have to worry about hand-to-hand with that thing on, as any enemy that saw you up close would likely double-over laughing.
I wonder how many tech-head Soldiers and Marines peel off their current-issue body armor at the end of a patrol, and pray for the latest nanotech?
This from Matthew Jones at Reuters:
LONDON – Advances in mobile phone tracking technology are turning British firms into cyber sleuths as they keep a virtual eye on their staff, vehicles and stock.
In the past few years, companies that offer tracking services have seen an explosion in interest from businesses keen to take advantage of technological developments in the name of operational efficiency.
The gains, say the converted, are many, ranging from knowing whether workers have been “held up” in the pub rather than in a traffic jam, to being able to quickly locate staff and reroute them if necessary.
[…]
Kevin Brown, operations director of tracking firm Followus, said there was nothing covert about tracking, thanks to strict regulations.
“An employee has to consent to having their mobile tracked. A company can’t request to track a phone without the user knowing,” he told Reuters.
Obviously, despite any regulation, workers without strong market value will be compelled to submit to tracking, at peril of losing their jobs, or not being hired in the first place. All this is one of the sorry residuals of the industrial age: payment for effort, rather than results.
As for myself, I have a different paradigm for cell-phone tracking: If you want to know where I am, call me… If I want you to know, I’ll tell you.
:
Last May, I put up a somewhat skeptical post about an Arizona company called Ionatron, and their marvelous IED exploding vehicle.
Well, it is VERY real, being developed under the aegis of the Joint IED Defeat Task Force (JIEDD TF), and has passed initial trials, but getting productions units to Iraq (at least as far as the Army, Navy, and Air Force go) seems to have gone FUBAR:
Last April, Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Votel, the commander of a Pentagon task force in charge of finding ways to combat the makeshift bombs known as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, endorsed development of the vehicle, called the Joint IED Neutralizer. The remote-controlled device blows up roadside bombs with a directed electrical charge, and based on Votel’s assessment, then-deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz recommended investing $30 million in research and sending prototypes to Iraq for testing.
But 10 months later — and after a prototype destroyed about 90% of the IEDs laid in its path during a battery of tests — not a single JIN has been shipped to Iraq.
To many in the military, the delay in deploying the vehicles, which resemble souped-up, armor-plated golf carts, is a case study in the Pentagon’s inability to bypass cumbersome peacetime procedures to meet the urgent demands of troops in the field. More than half of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq have been caused by roadside bombs, and the number of such attacks nearly doubled last year compared with 2004.
[…]
A JIN prototype was tested extensively in mid-September at the Army’s Yuma Proving Grounds in the Arizona desert, destroying most of the roadside bombs put in its way. But the Pentagon’s IED task force said that the device required further testing, and that a decision to delay deployment had been made jointly by Pentagon officials and commanders in Iraq.
“The decision has been made that it’s not yet mature enough,” said Army Brig. Gen. Dan Allyn, deputy director of the task force, which was recently renamed the Joint IED Defeat Organization. Iraq is “not the place to be testing unproven technology.”
But the Marine Corps believes otherwise and recently decided to circumvent the testing schedule and send JIN units to Al Anbar province in western Iraq. Marines have been deployed in the restive area, home to the cities of Fallouja and Ramadi, since February 2004.
The Marines are now making final preparations to deploy a number of JIN prototypes to Al Anbar. Based on their performance, Marine commanders said, they hope the device can eventually be used throughout Iraq.
This will hardly be the first time the USMC, being the lighter and nimbler organization they are, has taken the point on new technologies. As the units can be remotely operated, the only problem I see with putting a few out to see how they work is that, were one to become disabled, that would be a piece of technology you wouldn’t want to just abandon at the roadside. You’d either have to tow it home, or blast it to kingdom come
Hat Tip: reader Glen Jarboe
About a week ago, I commented on the QDR’s call for a new heavy bomber. And this somehow morphed into a critique on the B-52H.
This is all wrong: The fact that the Buff does its job so well is evidence that we don’t need a new long-range manned heavy bomber.
Well, among our most eloquent participants was reader JG, whose comments seem to have been automatically blocked by the system (We’re working on that.)
But no matter: those are of such content and quality as to merit (with minor editing) a guest post. So here goes:
I didn’t mean to imply that Boeing was the first. The first fatigue tests were performed on chains and railroad axles. I too think Lockheed was the first to implement a full airframe fatigue test. The reason the B-52 program was so important to fatigue theory was the length of service and the complex loading. Perhaps some AF personnel can confirm but I believe at some point in time they had to log each flight profile. This was then used to refine the test profile to ensure actual flights were being simulated. As far as I know, no other airframe has had an ongoing fatigue test program the length of the B-52. Often fatigue tests are used only to confirm the design requirement, just like the standard test to failure of the wing. A very impressive test I might add. The B-52 testing coincided with the advent of large scale computer modeling, especially Finite Element Modeling largely for stress analysis. The push was on to do the same for fatigue, fracture mechanics and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics). While I have no personal knowledge – I was a design engineer – I suspect it was used to verify the advances in fracture and fatigue modeling. And maybe only for Boeing’s own needs – they were very big on showing empirical data to demonstrate correlation to theoretical calculations.
Boeing wanted the commercial carriers to log flight profiles also but the carriers baulked at the paper work. Had they implemented such a program, we would have never heard about Aloha Flight 243, which was still a testament to good design practice.
You might find these interesting:
DOD Aging Aircraft Sustainment – Lockheed Martin (no mention of B-52)
http://www.sae.org/events/dod/presentations/2005terrymitchell.pdfP-3 (Another ageing but significant airframe)
http://www.lockheedmartin.com/wms/findPage.do?dsp=fec&ci=17307&rsbci=0&fti=111&ti=0&sc=400AF review of bombers – 1995
http://www.afa.org/magazine/Oct1995/1095heav.aspAnd “Iron Maiden” is from my ageing memory. I only worked at Boeing (Seattle) for two years starting in 1969 and got laid off in the last layoff after the SST was canceled.
Even a RC model of a B-52 with eight jet engines is pretty BUFF!
http://www.alexisparkinn.com/photogallery/Videos/B52_RC_Test_flight2.wmv
This is required reading (viewing) for any Buff fan.
From the, “Gosh, what a bad idea.” bin come this little tidbit.
AOL and Yahoo put price on e-mail
By Saul Hansell The New York Times
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2006Companies will soon have to buy the electronic equivalent of a postage stamp if they want to be certain that their e-mail will be delivered to many of their customers.
America Online and Yahoo, two of the world’s largest providers of e-mail accounts, are about to start using a system that gives preferential treatment to messages from companies that pay from a quarter of a cent to 1 cent each to have them delivered. The Internet companies say this will help them identify legitimate mail and cut down on junk e-mail, identity-theft scams and other scourges of users of their services.
The two companies also stand to earn millions of dollars a year from the system if it is widely adopted.
AOL and Yahoo will still accept e-mail from senders who have not paid, but the paid messages will be given special treatment. On AOL, for example, they will go straight to users’ main mailboxes and will not have to pass the gauntlet of spam filters that could divert them to a special bulk e-mail box or strip them of images and Web links.
Yahoo and AOL say the new system is a way to restore some order to e-mail, which, because of spam and online scams, has become an increasingly unreliable mode of communication even as it has become more important in people’s lives.
So the two of the leaders in internet service are basically telling us that they can’t provide reliable spam-and-scam-free service unless they charge even MORE for it. I realize I’m not a marketing genius, but I’m thinking that’s a BAD thing.
Call me weird.
For followers of automotive art, tonight’s episode of Discovery’s Overhaulin’: That 70’s Van, features a collaboration between Chip Foose and Mike Lavallee. Foose’s subtle blend of blues and black, together with Lavallee’s “real flames” is absolutely breathtaking. This is a must see.
Verizon is currently the leading telco in the push to displace the cable companies as one-source voice-data-television supplier in markets they serve. They are doing this with their FiOS fiber-to-the-premises service, eclipsing the data rate capability of cable (DSL is typically half the speed of cable, or less.). They are currently offering it in neighboring Huntington Beach, I plan to get it (replacing my DSL, which runs about 700-800 kbs) when they introduce it here in Westminster. (Although I will likely keep my two-wire telephone, in case of power-out emergencies.)
Marc Strassman of Etopia Media has an interview with Verizon spokesperson Bill Kula.