T e n / b y / T e n

Asia 2009: the composite-hulled aircraft of tomorrow with the extruded eggs of the past

Recently, I traveled to Asia.  Here's what happened.

Modern aircraft make extended flights easier. On the horizon is Boeing's Dreamliner, with a composite hull that permits more moisture in the air (airlines intentionally dehumidify the air to prevent rust; safety > comfort).  But for today, this recent model 777 is certainly well appointed. The seats are wide, with plenty of legroom. Passengers have their own entertainment center with a wide selection of movies ready to be streamed on demand. There are even bassinets mounted on walls for infants.

A word about EVA Air, a Chinese airline.  Although the fares are (very) reasonably priced, it doesn't strike me as a discount airline.  The flight attendants are friendly, and on EVA's Boeing 777s, at least, the legroom is generous.  All things I confirmed ahead of time by reading online reviews. 

Curiously, the reviews complained about the food, but let's face it:  who flies for the food?  Complaining about airline food is like complaining that your Ferrari doesn't have enough trunk space.  When you sign up, you pretty much know what you're getting. 

Regardless, EVA's food wasn't bad.  The only thing that gave me pause were the scrambled eggs, which had the distinct look of engineered food.  The eggs were of such curiously uniform density that I imagined they were cooked in a vat, extruded into loafs and sliced.  Tucking into them made me think of Cold War bomb shelter rations.  Egg loafs processed by 1950s technology, engineered to stand the test of time.

Asia 2009: Fly by night

Recently, I traveled to Asia.  Here's what happened.

Finally, my date of departure.  This afternoon I'm driving to L.A. to fly out of LAX at midnight for a 10 day trip in Asia.  Normally, I wouldn't look forward to 14 hours in the air, but months of schedule-clearing almost came to naught as events both work and personal seemed to luridly spiral the closer I got to my trip.  Grinding away to get to this point has been a little like the Bataan Death March, so now that this day is here, 14 hour flight time or not, I suppose I should be grateful.

Not our Boeing 777

Is LAX the friendliest airport? Usually, the airport is panned for its teeming crowds and difficult layout.  But tonight, Linda at the check-in counter volunteers to get us seats together, giggling gate-screeners play passport-birthday bingo trying to guess each passenger's birth month, a janitor who sees me sitting on the side of an escalator pulls up a spare wheelchair for me to sit in, TSA security folks jest at the metal detector. What's going on here?

My guess: the lighter crowds for our midnight flight let SoCal friendliness effervesce to the surface, a trait normally masked by the crush of daytime crowds which ratchet up everyone's crankiness. Either that, or they've been slipping Prozac into the passengers' drinking fountains.

You rebel scum!

Behold the awesome power of this fully operational Star Wars marketing machine:  an action figure of the obscure admiral whom Darth Vader chokes in the first film. Intentionally ironic?  You be the judge.

 

Dude even had it autographed.  Hard core.

How can you not like Admiral Motti?  No, I didn't know he was either before the advent of Google, but this guy ranks right up there with that anonymous Imperial soldier who seizes the moment to talk smack:  "You rebel scum."  This got me thinking, and because the Internet is chock full of goodness, I located this actor too:  Barrie Holland.  As often happens, after the movie, things quickly got out of hand, and Mr. Holland soon found himself at conventions.  No action figure yet, but apparently, Lucas Film eventually trademarked the phrase, "You rebel scum."

The Men Who Stare At Goats

Dubai, meet Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude, Dubai.

12 months ago, Dubai was hailed as the playground for the ultra-rich.  Manmade islands rose out of the water, tourists marveled at the indoor ski slopes.  Now, it's a wasteland with discarded homes, dying lawns and abandoned cars.  It's actually kind of fascinating, a modern day Babylon.

The story of one expatriate couple who worked in Dubai is illustrative:  "At the time this photo was taken, Kayla had recently been laid off and Hendrick hadn't been paid in months. After exhausting their savings to pay the mortgage on an apartment that had lost 40% of its value, they were left with no choice but to go home. "No one ever said, 'Do you know that if you lose your job, or can't pay your mortgage, you'll have to go to jail?' " Kayla says. "We had to flee the country with our tails between our legs, as if we'd done something terribly wrong.""

For Fast Company's slideshow, click here.

Trio

As someone points out, one of technology's best attributes is helping us to better perceive our world. In that light, here is a trio of fascinating videos highlighted by one of my favorite sites, Gizmodo.

The first video illustrates a 3D version of what scientists have called the most amazing photo of the universe.  Impressive, but for me, the narration helped me appreciate a more subtle fact.  When a star emits photons of light, many photons are lost in the sense that they embed themselves in lifeless masses, never having been observed by anyone.  But some photons, a precious few, traveled for 13 billion years through the vacuum of space only to embed themselves on the sensor of the Hubble telescope, allowing themselves to be discovered as perhaps the last remnant of a distant star that today may no longer exist.

The next video shows a more local miracle: a sea turtle grazing in a warm current, all captured with a state of the (commercially available) art dSLR camera which captures near HD video.  An interesting intersection between technology and nature.  Hard to not smile at this.

The final video shows our world on a more minute, more whimsical level: a dizzying array of flight patterns. Insects under a streetlamp, captured with a long exposure.

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

Parkour on two wheels

Okay, now this is impressive.  Plus, it features one of my favorite songs.
The good stuff starts around :55

.

Courtesy of SI.com.

Not Magnolia

Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you:  Kalachuchi.

Magnolia?  Not even close.  I find it interesting that folklore attributes it alienating properties ("In some regions, it is not planted in the immediate vicinity of habitation, believed to cause difficulties with personal relationships and separations.") given that I found it near a mausoleum, a place of separation. 

Hot, flat and crowded

It is a peculiarity of international flight that, apparently, I've arrived before I've departed. Kind of like Superman the Movie where Christopher Reeves goes back in time by causing the world to spin backward and instead of 100 foot high tidal waves and disrupted weather patterns, Margot Kidder lives to see a half-awesome sequel and two mediocre ones.  Anyway, I'm back safely, having landed 3 hours before I took off.

But the flight wasn't without challenge:  up against the front bulkhead in the upper deck on a 747 is the worst seat in the house. Crammed against the front wall, you have less legroom than other seats.  You stare at the front wall the entire flight. Worst of all, you have no ventilation - not even a fan nozzle - so while the rest of the plane is noticeably cool, that row is not.  As Thomas Friedman might say, you're Hot, Flat and Crowded. It's the kind of seat that, over the course of a 12 hour flight, makes you think it was devised by the CIA once waterboarding became illegal.  My advice?  Try to check in early online, and if you find you're on a 747, avoid this seat at all costs.

Oxygen

The unfettered idealism of an artist who wrote the song before he was 19, "captivating" is how Willy Mason's Oxygen has been described.  After all this time, the song still brings a catch to my throat.  

I wanna be cooler than t.v.
For all the kids that are wondering what they are going to be
We can be stronger than bombs
If you're singing along and you know that you really believe
We can be richer than industry
As long as we know that there's things that we don't really need
We can speak louder than ignorance
Cause we speak in silence every time our eyes meet.

I'm not alone.  Youtube is filled with videos of fans' heartfelt chanting of the lyrics.  This video, I found particularly moving because Mason unexpectedly alters the song around 2:56.  Maybe my copy is a radio edit, and everyone else on the planet has heard this, but then, maybe not.  Because it seems to me that the crowd stops chanting the lyrics and falls into an oddly respectful silence. 

An economy of word(s)

Apparently, I managed to miss this during the primary campaign.

Andy Roddick loses crown, wins over crowd

What a valiant performance.  Andy Roddick's stirring run to the Wimbledon finals ends with a five set loss (Spoiler alert!  Sorry, need to work on my timing.) to Roger Federer.  The final line?  5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 16-14. I picked it up at the beginning of the third set and was standing at the end.  Like SI.com's Joe Posnanski wrote,* you knew Roddick was merely delaying the inevitable, but you still appreciated his grit.

Earlier, Roddick related how crushed he was last year when he was ousted in the second round.  He found himself at the airport, listless, mulling over his future in tennis.  But he started watching the Nadal and Federer match, widely heralded as the greatest tennis match of all time, and Roddick ended up missing his plane.  And the greatness of that match helped motivate him to buckle down and start training.

After the match, the BBC reporter simultaneously consoled him and while shrewdly trying to prick a response, murmuring how the sport of tennis could be so cruel.  "No," said Roddick quickly, "I'm one of the lucky few who gets cheered for here.  So thank you for that.  I appreciate it."  And the crowd roared in homage.  Pete Sampras looked like he was choking back a tear.  Even Federer looked stylishly grave.  And before the interview began, it was hard not to notice that when the players were announced and handed their trophies, although the fans cheered for Federer, they cheered even louder for Roddick and chanted his name.

*  Not sure why it took Joe Posnanski half the article to get past the self-indulgence to the good stuff, and I'm perturbed to learn that "tennis at 42 is not like tennis at 36."  But he's usually entertaining when he's not out jinxing Ohio sports teams.  Bastard.

The doctor-patient privilege

Recently, Roger Clemens went on radio to proclaim that he would never use steroids because they weakened the heart and that he had a history of heart trouble in the family.  Turns out he was referring to his step-father.

It's in this light that I reproduce below a particularly clever piercing of hypocrisy.  Usually, I ignore political scandals, but Senator Ensign's affair seems to have struck a vein of schadenfreude as deep as any silver mine in Nevada.

One of Ensign’s roommates [at the Prayer House], Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, was described by Hampton as being particularly vocal about the importance of cash contributions to “make these folks whole.” Coburn denies this, although he won’t say exactly what advice he gave to his erring colleague. Coburn told Roll Call that he talked to Ensign as a “physician and as an ordained deacon” and that he will therefore have the right to keep mum even if he’s dragged into court or a Senate committee hearing.

This makes me sort of hope that some kind of investigation takes place just so Coburn, who’s an obstetrician, can explain how exactly doctor-patient confidentiality figures into this.

For the full op-ed piece from the NY Times, click here.

Meet ROTUS

In a droll reaction to the multitude of acronyms (POTUS is president of the United States; FLOTUS is the unflattering acronym for the first lady), President Obama likes to introduce his receptionist as:  ROTUS.

“This is the receptionist of the entire United States,” Mr. Obama said, introducing Ms. Page to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.

“How long was your confirmation hearing?” Mr. Holder asked with a smile.

And who might ROTUS be?  Some dour battle ax with a stiff upper lip?  She's Darienne M. Page, a 27 year old former army sergeant who served in Iraq who seems surprisingly pleasant and down to earth for someone who has to bear the nickname ROTUS. 

She still wears a metal bracelet on her right wrist inscribed with the name of Sgt. Maj. Cornell W. Gilmore, her commander, who was killed when enemy fire struck his helicopter in late 2003.

“He taught us to lead, but to lead with a smile and be calm under pressure,” she said. “A lot of lessons that I learned in the Army help me here....”

For NY Times article, click here.  Even better is the two minute interactive here.

Cathedral Rock

"To the west of Mordor was the narrow land of Ithilien
with the city of Osgiliath and the great river Anduin."

The trail up Cathedral Rock is traced with switchbacks and steps cut into the stone.  The cooler air met a group of friends and I as we trekked upward.  The valley below was 102 degrees, so the mountain temperatures, 10-15 degrees cooler, were welcome.  Living in a desert makes one forget how lush a land can be, so it was a pleasant surprise to find honest to goodness trees and wildflowers on the trail. 

If you hustle, you can probably complete the trek up and back in just over an hour.  We took two.  But we had company.  Our group had dogs, five in number; almost more than people.  Two of the smaller dogs struggled to scamper over the rough hewn steps.  Every step for them, an adventure.  But they were enthusiastic. 

The largest dog frequently slumped over on the trail, his sides heaving.  I wouldn't use the word eager to describe him.  His eyes plaintively spoke volumes:  is it time for breakfast yet?    His owner coaxed him back up with promises of crispy bacon. 

You are here

Strange and fey beasties on the trail

Bing was here

From a recent search on Bing.  I don't usually use Bing, but I couldn't find something on Google, so I went to Bing and stumbled on this image.  Note the surf instructor on the far left.  Alas, I did not find what I was searching for on Bing either.

Nietzche was here

Found on a log bench during a recent hike up Cathedral Rock. 

There is a tremor in the Force

Wish I came up with this, but alas, I did not.  For more entertaining Lego minifig wallpapers, see here. 

Riding out the Apocalypse in style

I must be part nomad.  Content as I am with my day to day life, I periodically get fed up and hanker for a mobile lifestyle.  There's just a part of me that likes the thought of leaving it all behind and living on the road.

So when I see this, a part of me starts to hoot and holler on the inside.  This may be is overkill, and internally inconsistent -- if you're really seceding from civilization at 7 mpg, where are you going to get your diesel? -- but prithee, let not practicality detract from its awesomeness.  Let's face it, after gazing upon its all wheel driven, hermetically sealed visage, you find yourself thinking:  'Like whoa, all that's missing is the shotgun for the zombie horde, and you're pretty much set.'  Sold at your finer separatist supply depots.  ATV not included.

 

For more details, including the recessed espresso machine, and the integrated ATV storage compartment, click here and here.  Below, notice the recessed passenger compartment that extends to reveal windows for non-armored situations.

Penn & Teller

Didn't think I'd be scribbling about this today, but I stumbled across an interesting article in Wired magazine about Penn & Teller.  Now, I'm vaguely aware that they are a duo of magicians, whose act consists of playing tricks on each other.  And that one of them doesn't speak.  But I wasn't aware how imaginative their routines were. Here are the 7 basic principles of magic, very neatly demonstrated.