Category: Technology

Things aviation and the ‘wow’ effect.

Some stunning pictures.

Of the six active authors on this Blog, four have been or still are pilots.  Of course, only young Bob Derham is a ‘real’ pilot having been an Air Transport pilot for almost as long as Pontious Pilate (sorry, that’s an awful pun!).

Anyway, there has been a growing collection of some incredible photographs from odd sources around the Web and it seemed time to share a few.

Here’s a wonderful picture of an F-15C Eagle Fighter circling over the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida with Shuttle Mission STS 108 on the launch pad.

011129-F-1279W-025

See more aviation pictures

Against “Daylight Saving”!

An ancient idea may have run it’s course?

What is the purpose of “Daylight Saving”? [Interesting history of Daylight Saving on Wikipedia. Ed.]

clock faceThis week we are in a particularly interesting situation as we are in the middle of a one week separation between the dates when Europe and US change their clocks back to “normal” winter time. I.e. Europe changed their clocks back at 2am last Sunday and most, but not all, US States change their clocks back at 2am this coming Sunday.

This is even more confusing than normal. But why are we doing this at all?

Is it to save fuel, to save lives, to save time or to save something else?

In my humble opinion it is all nonsense!

“Time management” is a myth

Time is time! People say that they do not have enough time to do this or that, as if they have ways to make some more; and, of course, there is much talk about “time management”. Yet we all have the same amount of time and no amount of management will change that!

We are certainly able to manage the things that we try to fit into the available time.  That is, we can manage tasks, effort and so on. But, in everyday (Newtonian rather than Einsteinian) regimes, time is an inelastic independent variable. Fiddling about with the clocks and trying to “manage time” have no effect on the stuff whatsoever. Let it be!

There must be a better way!

Yes, I know! Some people make claims of wasted daylight or of the dangers to schoolchildren walking to or from school in the dark. These are valid areas of concern. If adjusting the times of business operations or schooling helps to deal with them, then by all means do so. But, for goodness, let’s not pretend the time is different.

By John Lewis

Lost for words!

Sent to me by Neil Kelly, a long-standing friend in Devon, England.

Wish I could add something witty to this, but I can’t!  But it does remind me of the saying, there’s no such thing as error-free software!

plane

P.S. the image is too small to read the copyright notice – anyone help out?  It would be good to credit it properly.

By Paul Handover

A Jet Powered Beer Cooler

A New Zealander, or Kiwi, demonstrates that a sense of ingenuity and humour survives ‘down under’.

It would be unfair for copyright reasons to reproduce this delightful story on this Blog, but here’s a picture to whet your appetite, so to speak.

engine1

Go to the website and enjoy.  Laughter guaranteed.

By Bob Derham

CERN

Is CERN investing in fundamental science or wasting money?

Frankly, any rational assessment of CERN must conclude that it is the most humungous and nonsensical waste of money at a time when millions or even billions of people are threatened by a) starvation and/or death from lack of water and/or b) flooding, burning or freezing caused by Global warming not to mention the wars that are inevitable as CERN LHCpeople (probably mostly in the Middle East, Asia or Africa) start to fight over scarce resources.

The billions spent on this rather esoteric and ridiculous research would be better spent on practical steps to save people and the planet. And, “yes”, I do know that basic research can lead to useful “products”, and I have nothing against research into, for example fusion power. But why we really have to know what happened in the universe one millisecond after it blew up is beyond me, especially given the cost.

Read more of this Post

Hire the attitude, train the skill!

Alex Cheatle
Alex Cheatle

How can we help you?

In a reversal of business models which are all too common, Ten UK sets out to help customers: what a novel idea!!

The following video describes the need to recruit and train staff who understand the real value and expectation behind asking:

What do you want in the context of … ?


Alex Cheatle describes what they do and how they do it.

Read the article on Real Business here.

By John Lewis

Integrity: adding up to something

Integrity as an idea that can deliver more than the sum of the parts

People who add up to something are remarkable, while at the same time being more common than we might think.

As I’ve discussed elsewhere, integrity is also about “wholeness”. The “adding up” aspect is relevant, because it links the parts to the whole. Many people achieve extreme and, sometimes, amazing feats; these are typically formed from many steps. But then to do that repeatedly, and continually exceeding one’s earlier achievements, has the effect of generating an overall record of achievement which is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Read more about the wholeness of integrity

Richard Noble and a 1,000 mph car!

There are cars, fast cars, extremely fast cars and the Bloodhound SSC.

Thanks to a thread on Flyer Forums for this.

Richard Noble of Thrust SSC fame is at it again.  This time fitting a ‘car’ with the engine from the Eurojet Typhoon fighter.  The ambition is to break the 1,000 mph hour mark and up the land speed record set by Thrust SSC by more than 30%.  Thrust SSC set the world land speed record in 1997 at the astounding speed of 763.035 mph (1221 km/h) or Mach 1.02.

More details about the project may be read here.

One aspect of the engine caught my eye,

In the middle of the BLOODHOUND SSC is the MCT V12 800 bhp race engine which doubles as our APU delivering hydraulic power as needed, starting the EJ200 and of course pumping the High Test Peroxide EJ200(HTP) through to the Falcon rocket. The pump has to move a ton of HTP through to the rocket catalyst in 22 seconds and at 1200 psi.

As someone said on the Flyer Forums, “So they’re not going for maximum mpg then…”

By Paul Handover

Growth of eBooks

Expansion or replacement of the traditional book?

My guess is that most people still value the convenience and sheer pleasure of holding and reading a traditional paper book.  It is difficult to think of a more pleasurable activity than browsing the shelves of a book-store or library.  But the eBook also is carving out a valuable niche, it appears.

Thus it was a delight to come across a ‘store’ devoted to eBooks.  Based in Paris, that virtual store is called Mobipocket.  New to me but, perhaps, not to many others (I can sometimes be a little behind the new technology drag-curve!)

Nevertheless, a veritable labyrinth of virtual book shelves with prices often well below print prices.  Here’s the WikiPedia background.

By Paul Handover (who has no commercial interest in promoting Mobipocket, not even a cent is earnt if you click through.)

Naked Capitalism – can you help?

Anybody out there who can offer some support?

Yves Smith is responsible for the Blog, Naked Capitalism.  It’s a great Blog and it must take a huge amount of effort to publish the volume of information that Yves does.

Yves has a problem, read here, an extract from his Post below:

Dear patient readers, this is a bit of sentence first, verdict afterwards, but it is 6:00 AM and I have spent all day and all night dealing with copy edits and am still behind the eight ball and need to sleep too, or my productivity will go from poor to non-existent.

So you get an antidote now, and if you check back later, I will fill in some links for your delectation, and hopefully at least a wee post too.

Sorry about this, I feel bad about neglecting the blog, particularly after the technical difficulties of last week, but the WordPress problems put me further behind schedule. And to be honest, they weren’t just WP.

If you can help or know someone who could, then contact details are here.

By Paul Handover