Opining Online

I’m sure there’s a law by Murphy to cover the phenomenon that Razib is discovering.

My first choice:
You can never tell which way the train went by looking at the track.

Second:
Under the most rigorously controlled conditions of pressure, temperature, volume, humidity, and other variables the organism will do as it damn well pleases.

First is a self-portrait of an Apache Longbow pilot taken somewhere over Iraq circa 2003. Handsome, isn’t he?

Second is the eyepiece under the fancy shades. Just thinking about trying to use that is giving me a headache right now.

I got to see an Apache Longbow up close once. On the ground of course. Even though it’s a two-seater, no civilian passengers allowed. (IIRC, no military ones either unless they are also Apache pilots or training to be one.)

During Operation Desert Storm, I also got to take a tour of (parts of) a B-52. And because I live near an AF base, I get to see A10 Warthogs flying above my house occasionally. Years ago, it was common to see KC-10s regularly. Rarely do the B-52s fly near my house, but I do remember feeling and hearing them when they got home from Desert Storm as they took a celebratory tour of the area.

But I’m fascinated by helicopters because… well, because to me they still look like they shouldn’t be able to fly!

Third are some Apache helicopters in action, set to the theme from Airwolf.

I admit it, I liked that show.

BlogRolling blogrolls is shutting down the service soon.

BlogRolling has largely been on auto-pilot for the last six months or so. The people who built it for us don’t work for us anymore. Even though it doesn’t make us any money, we wanted to keep it running because we know folks like it.  But we’re not really comfortable with the code causing security warnings and that means it’s probably time for the service to end. 

This video made the rounds a few months ago and I like listening to the guy sing. The Star Spangled Banner is not an easy song to sing and he does a good job. At about 50 seconds in, this former Marine sings the 2nd verse of our national anthem.

He could learn something from Isaac Asimov. There are four stanzas.

One of my favorite bloggers, Eric at Classical Values has finally put Asimov’s essay “All Four Stanzas” online.

His reason for doing so is important. In his words:

Sometimes I have trouble sleeping peaceably in my bed at night because I know that rough men stand ready to do violence to quotations on the Internet.

As they say, read the whole thing. But if you don’t have time for the whole thing, at least read “All Four Stanzas“.

Anywhere. Anytime. For Anyone.

Nothing. Since that link will be gone shortly after Sep 24, here’s a screenshot:

(via Marginal Revolution)

I’ve let this place go, haven’t I?

Usually when I do this it’s because I’m vacationing in the comments on other blogs, but that’s not the case this time. I’ve actually been away from home for 10 of the 20 days since my last post. It’s not that I’ve lacked a connection to the internet, but that I really really am not flexible when it comes to using laptops or other people’s computer setups.

Oh yes, I am spoiled by my messy, but convenient for me, little office space.

I’ve also read four novels recently. Don’t worry; nothing particularly uplifting or literary. It’s just that for the last 10 years or so, I’ve read mostly non-fiction and a lot of that could be considered educational. That was a major change from my previous habit of consuming 3 or 4 novels a week.

I spent the Labor Day weekend with two of my grandchildren. It’s so very, very nice to have them only a 3 hour drive away instead of 20 hours. The 5 month old is just the sweetest baby. She’s fun and easy to care for. When she’s awake, she’s constantly cooing, laughing, or enjoying her new found manual dexterity.

The 3 year is not so easy, but she’s definitely fun. The theme of the visit was words beginning with P. She put together a 24 piece puzzle by herself. Her parents didn’t believe that I didn’t help her beyond verbal suggestions, but they should have. Did they really think *I* was going to actually get down on the floor with her? HAHA!

The other words were Papa, pizza, and piano. She has a little notebook that she wrote all those words in. There’s still a little work to be done in always pointing the z in the proper direction. I like the notebook because I found out that chalk dust really does a number on my nose and throat. She tends to erase her work with enthusiasm.

I was home for a few days and got word that my father was in the ICU with pneumonia. He’s 87 and a two-year lung cancer survivor, so that was scary news. I thought my step-mother would need help caring for him when he got home because he seemed really weak in the hospital.

Well, she didn’t because by the 2nd day he was home he had pretty much resumed his normal activities. Though the bug he got knocked him down quickly, modern antibiotics knocked it out almost as fast.

One of his current normal activities is running for mayor of his small town. I stayed another two days caught up in those discussions and helping a little with the campaign.   

That reminded me that my husband and I have to get absentee ballots this year because we’ve got a wedding in S Carolina to attend the weekend before the election.