Please Don’t Believe the Hype

This makes much more sense to me that this.

Ragin’ Cajun

Al Copeland lost his battle against cancer on March 23, 2008.  He was a true original, we’ll miss ya Al.

George Bernard Shaw

Forget about likes and dislikes. They are of no consequence. Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness but it is greatness. – George Bernard Shaw

Global Warming Is A Hoax

I’ve always been in this camp.  Now we have this from John Coleman, a meteorologist and founder of The Weather Channel.  I don’t want to be narrow minded, but I’ve heard enough.  This issue is a dead letter in my book.  Carbon credits, carbon offsets – what a fucking joke.

I Miss Angie

A distinct flavor of my grandmother’s pasta fagioli ran over my taste buds today. Nobody made it like Gram. In fact, no one – no, not even my wife or mom – could cook like Angie, just ask Susan. Gram lived to the ripe old age of 95. I’m convinced it was her liberal -LIBERAL – use of olive oil. Her eggplant parmigiana was other worldly. I’m convinced she could give her meatball recipe to anyone but nobody could duplicate the way hers tasted. Oh yeah, and garlic. It could go into anything.

Susan and I lived with Angie for a few months when we came back up from Philly. I will never forget how she cursed the hours Susan worked. She’d sit by the front picture window and look for the bus to pull up to the bus stop. “Ah, va a Napoli” or some similar Italian expression she’d say as she shuffled off to get dinner on the table. Old fashioned, but her own woman.

She was literally one in a million. I miss you Gram.

Man Burns Salt Water

Photo courtesy of Mahesh Hedge

Here’s a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story about a guy who discovered salt water can burn.  Apparently scientists believed this was impossible.

A guy names John Kanzius was tinkering with a radio-frequency generator he’d invented and stumbled upon the ability to burn salt water.  There is so much we know, but so much we don’t know.  This story is just another reminder to question that which is known and unknown.  You never know what answers you’ll uncover.

Acting Not Copying

Just read a blurb about Cate Blanchett getting early Oscar buzz for her portrayal of Bob Dylan.  You read that right, actress portraying Dylan.  The flick isn’t out yet, I’m sure she does a fine job.

But I’m sick of portrayals being widely praised, to the point where the last 3 Oscars for Lead Actor and last 2 Oscars for Lead Actress went to people portraying some historical figure.  Idi Amin, Truman Capote, Ray Charles, Queen Elizabeth II and June Carter Cash.

Give me an Alonzo or Maximus any day.  That’s acting, creating a character out of whole cloth.  I appreciate biographical stuff, but the ultimate form of acting is creating a fantasy.  That’s why we typically see movies, escapism.  So let’s get back to honoring the actors that take us somewhere we’ve never been before.

Are We Going Nuclear?

Three years ago I wrote my thoughts on the a sort of endgame for the war on terror. I argued it would “end” (terror will always be with us, we’re human and that won’t change) sooner rather than later with a nuclear strike.

Well, there was a story out a day or two ago about the US military “losing track” of several ballistic missiles. I saw the headline, glanced at the article and moved on. Too much work, soccer practice planning etc. (gets back to my thoughts on “what was it like during…).

Today I read this observation in the Atlantic Free Press which tries to connect the dots a bit.  Are we positioning the weaponry at Barkdale for future use?  Let’s stay tuned.

Losing My Religion

The unquestioned life is not worth living – Socrates

This article by LA Times reported William Lobdell really resonated with me.  Among other things, it touches on a few of the areas connected to religious faith that I find troubling.

I just finished watching Deliver Us From Evil last week.  As a father of two sons and a daughter, I couldn’t help but be enraged watching the exchange with the father who’s daughter was molested by a priest.  The priest was a family friend and molested the man’s daughter on more than one occasion in the man’s own home.  Watch as the man says forget the term “molestation,” that sugar coats it.  His daughter, around 6 years old, was raped and sodomized by this monster.

It’s one bad apple you say, don’t let it spoil the bunch.  Then explain the behavior of the church going to unimaginable lengths to avoid rooting out this cancer and instead doing everything in its power to protect and shield these sick, twisted motherfuckers.

I’m crushing keys just thinking about this holy hell.  And this is how the church deals with its innocents, its children.  Not in my world.  Not then, not now, not ever.

Go For It Michel!

Awesome stuff

Everything Is Sexy About Air Travel Today

 ”There’s nothing sexy about air travel today…” Owen Thomas, Valleywag

I think Owen’s looking in all the wrong places.  The presence of cheerleaders and “god-mayor” Gavin Newsom is just putting lipstick on a pig.  Our major airports and a large segment of commercial carriers are near or at the breaking point.  Seemingly a day doesn’t go by this summer without another story of record flight delays, record airport congestion – on and on.

As with most good things in life though, you have to know where to look to find them.  To find the sexy stuff in air travel you have to look at smaller regional airports and  smaller aircraft.  The trend started with fractional jet ownership and gathered steam with jet card programs.  As Adam Smith noted, “Today’s luxuries are tomorrow’s necessaries.”

That’s why at Jetworx we’re working on Networked Charter – networking people to share a charter flight.  If we can crack the code of networking folks with similar flight itineraries and finding capacity for the unused leg if any, the pricing becomes very competitive.  Will it ever rival JetBlue pricing?  Probably not, but it doesn’t have to.  The flight experience is so far superior that it should command some premium over the typical routine of being thrown together with a few hundred other folks in a jet designed to maximize ASM, not your comfort and enjoyment (though I do appreciate that JetBlue legroom).

And with the boom in private jet travel, you have the natural by-product of available empty legs.  The majority of flights flown using a jet card are one ways.  That’s because you’re better off financially booking a round trip charter on your own.  So you have all these one way drop offs, but the jets usually have to fly the return leg back to base.  Enter the empty leg.  If you can find one that matches your plans – or ideally yours and those of a few others – they can be a great deal.  Sexy!

You want more sexiness?  Very Light Jets (VLJs) hold promise of truly changing the face of air travel.  We don’t have a critical mass of these little guys in flight yet to determine if their promise will be fully realized, but there’s big players and big money fighting hard here.  Cessna’s Mustang, Eclipse’s 500 and Adam’s A700 are just a few.  Honda is working their magic and could have a winner on their hands very soon.

More sexy?  How about inside the cockpit?  Technology has redefined the way jets – hell even little single prop puddle jumpers – are flown.  Names like Avidyne and Garmin are making flight displays that are nothing short of revolutionary.  And how about a parachute for your plane?  Cirrus and BRS can hook you up, literally.

Are you seeing this sexy stuff at SFO on Continental?  Probably not, but it’s out there, you just have to know where to look.  Now you know how to start making air travel sexy again.  Don’t let the boss have all the fun.

Oh the picture?  I’m not sure if it was Owen’s recipe, but there’s your man-sandwich.  Enjoy!

War Is Hell. Or Why My Lai Always Confused Me

War is Hell. – Gen. William T. Sherman

Years ago when reading and learning about the Vietnam War, I was struck over the historical revulsion to the My Lai massacre. I bet you could examine any war and find a similar event or events. What struck me was the outrage directed at the men involved. We all know what happened was horrific, assuming you’re a moral person. But I was puzzled over the surprise that it happened at all.

What I understood at a young age was that these actions did not take place in a vacuum. They took place during a guerilla war. Stand in the boots of a bunch of 19, 20, hell even 30, 35 year old soldiers fighting a ghost. The enemy is there, the enemy is gone. These people are friendly, no the just set us up for an ambush. And on and on.

Existing under these conditions seems likely to produce behavior exactly like that which took hold in My Lai. Maybe not full time. But certainly it would produce, at minimum, short violent convulsions like My Lai, if for nothing more than releasing the crushing fear of your own mortality that shadows you through every rice paddy in Vietnam or dusty road in Iraq. I would like to think I would know good from evil, but I’m not going to deceive myself. It would become blurry at best certain moments. And that’s all it takes.

Here’s a quote from Gen. Colin Powell that gets right to the heart of the matter, “”I mean, I was in a unit [the Americal Division] that was responsible for My Lai. I got there after My Lai happened. So, in war, these sorts of horrible things happen every now and again, but they are still to be deplored.” (emphasis mine)

This article got me to thinking again about soldiers, fighting, and the transformation to killers. Unfortunately, I think it’s inevitable for survival in situations like this. So long as people thousands of miles away commit young men and women to war, it will always devolve into kill or be killed.  So let’s squelch the outrage.  It’s happened before, it’s happening now, and it will happen in every future war.

So while those of us out of harms way can continue to “deplore” such behavior, it won’t change a thing.  It’s human nature.  As long as we fight wars, deplorable things will continue to happen.  Let’s just drop the feigned outrage.

Now Go Enforce It

 

You could see this coming a mile away when the Leegin decision was handed down.  It would seem the burden/expense should be on the manufacturer to track down its contractual client that’s responsible for passing along underpriced goods.

If the ebay seller has no contractual relationship to the manufacturer where is the cause of action?  Those pushing for the Leegin-like laws (alliterate!) didn’t think through the real world implications of their enforcement.  Talk about a can of worms.

I’m Not a Plastic Bag

The last thing this and this are about is being friendly to the planet. A woman at the Montclair, NJ store summed it all up with this gem, “It’s status, my dear.” Yeah, waiting in a long line in front of a Whole Foods Market on a rainy day with a throng of other wet folks captures my idea of status.

And check out this “green preen” from the designer’s website:

We have shipped the bags by sea and carbon offset our production and freight through the purchase of carbon credits.

You’re…Hired

Anya Kamanetz’ Generation Debt today discusses the College Cost Reduction Act of 2007. For obvious reasons, the government should not meddle in this issue. Let the free market sort it out.

And here’s how the market is going to sort it out. I was beating this drum in 2005 and I’ll do it again. The problem is a vast majority of people don’t need all the education for which they’re paying. They would be much better served with some sort of finishing school – stressing communication skills, writing and speaking – coupled with some form of an apprenticeship. The finishing school would run concurrent to the apprenticeship so the student could put the skills learned to work in an actual business environment – immersion learning.  This may exist in some form at the community college level.  But this has to be divorced from that, a stand alone program focused on narrow educational goals (communication skills) that emphasizes the real world application of those skills.

Clearly I’m not talking about professions that require advanced learning or skills – engineers, vascular surgeons etc. No, I’m talking about the vast majority of people that simply do the day to day work the runs most businesses. But you say, why would one shoot so low? Well, based on the numbers it appears a lot of people are ending up at that outcome anyway. So let’s just deal with the facts. And the way the world economy is going it’s going to get even tougher. It’s all a numbers game. Everybody can’t earn the big money.

So how do you stack the financial deck in your favor, assuming you’re not going for a degree in some advance science? Go the finishing school/apprenticeship route. You’ll start working/earning sooner and you’ll have much less or no debt. Further, you’ll learn about business from your practical, real world experiences that can form your educational springboard to climbing the ladder at your company, leaving for better opportunities, or leaving to start your own business.

The problem the market has to overcome is the stigma attached to someone without a college degree. The best way would be to disprove this notion. Partner with willing businesses and produce exceptional graduates. It will only take a handful of success stories for business to recognize they’re getting great talent from XYZ finishing/apprenticeship school. And more importantly, high school grads will sit up and take notice of another viable post grad educational/work route.

P.S. – I have to look into who funds those studies about the benefits of a college degree. I suspect it’s the colleges themselves. Maybe in cahoots with the student loan companies. Clearly they already have one cozy financial relationship.

They’ll Buy It All Back

Dealbook brings us this article from FT discussing some of the first public criticisms of private equity shops going public. A rep from “Calstrs” voices concern over short term vs. long term thinking and diminishing manager incentive if their wealth isn’t exlusively tied to fund performance.

I would counsel him not to worry. Life in the public eye will be short lived. The people at Blackstone, KKR, Fortress and the like are arguably some of the smartest minds in business. They know a good deal when they see one. And the deal for going public right now is too good to pass up. Don’t believe the feel good crap about building organizations to outlast their founders etc. That is easily accomplished as a private concern.

The bottom line is the markets are offering these folks a deal they can’t refuse. And remember, they’re BUY OUT specialists. In short order, the day will come when they decide to buy themselves back. Why? I don’t know for sure, but you can bet it happens.  My best guess?  These guys know just how toxic the RMBS/CDO story really is and don’t like what lies ahead.  Just an idea.

In any event, I’ll be surprised if these stubs are public in 5 years time.

Josh Rouse

I’ve been listening to a lot of his stuff lately and really love it. If you’re not doing it already, Rhapsody to Go, Yottamusic, and a Sandisk Sansa are the way to enjoy music. Check ‘em out.

Drew Goes Yard

We had a great moment last night. On the heels of running around frantically looking for Drew’s mitt, we arrive at Schleine Field for the Sunday night game. Unlinke Monmouth Court, this complex of fields has fences for every diamond.

Drew steps up to bat in the #3 spot. He’s swinging his new Easton Typhoon. Coach Mike guilted me into buying it because when Drew would get up to bat, he would say, “Here’s the big guy with the little bat.” Truth be told, he was swinging a hand me down from Samantha that was too little for him. After we got home from Dick’s Sporting Goods with the Typhoon, I was worried the bat was too heavy. But it checked out on the in store chart. If it was too heavy we could always keep it for later. I figured he could give a try for a few games.

Back to the game. He missed a few and fouled off few. Coach Larry came out to remind him to swing with his body, not just his arms. What advice. He goes with the next pitch and sends out a shot to right field. The ball carries, carries – is it going to go over the fence?? It lands directly on the chain link fence and bounces over – legit HR! Wow, it was exciting.

Before the game started a few of us were talking about somebody popping one out. The general feeling was it wouldn’t happen. What a thrill. Drew’s teammate Chris, another great hitter, tagged one a few innings later and bounced it off the left field fence.

On the way out to the car, Coach Mike said his 3rd grader played on these fields and there were only a handful of dingers all season. Susan commented that you could really tell these were kids who loved baseball because there was real hitting and fielding. Monday morning Drew got up and Susan was calling him “HRK,” home run king. Awesome!

MEW Delays Bears’ Gratification?

“The sharp increases in energy prices over the past few years have not yet (emphasis added) led either to persistent inflation or to a recession, in contrast, for example, to the U.S. experience of the 1970s,” Bernanke said. “Although inflation expectations seem much better anchored today than they were a few decades ago, they appear to remain imperfectly anchored.” – Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke 7/10/07

This money quote jumped out at me. “Yet” is the operative qualifier as far as recession goes. Given the tidal wave of mortgage equity withdrawal (MEW) over the last 3-5 years, we really don’t know what our economy looks like against the backdrop of these rocketing energy prices.

Denying persistent inflation is just plain obnoxious. It’s all around us because of rates jammed down too far too long. The Fed just can’t say so because then it’s Katy Bar the Door. As long as it doesn’t cop to it, the markets can “discount” it in a more orderly fashion.

Time will tell. I think we’re getting close to the reveal. No more MEW, ARM resets beginning. Tide’s going out. Who’s swimming naked??

Oh, the picture. A band called Mew I discovered writing this post.

Never Let Childlike Curiosity Die

Kent Couch recreates Larry Walters flying feat.  I don’t know if I’d attempt this flight.  But I love the fact that Kent was willing to give it a shot.

On a somber note, Larry Walters killed himself years later at the age of 44.  Below of some stories about Walters turn of events.

From The New York Times 3 July 1982

LONG BEACH, Calif, July 2 (AP) A truck driver with 45 weather balloons rigged to a lawn chair took a 45-minute ride aloft to 16,000 feet today before he got cold, shot some balloons out and crashed into a power line, the police said.

“I know it sounds strange, but it’s true,” Lieut. Rod Mickelson said after he stopped laughing. “The guy just filled up the balloons with helium, strapped on a parachute, grabbed a BB gun and took off.”

The man was identified as Larry Walters, 33 years old, of North Hollywood. He was not injured.

The Federal Aviation Administration was not amused.

Spotted by Airline Pilots

A regional safety inpector, Neal Savoy, said the flying lawn chair was spotted by Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines jetliner pilots at 16,000 feet above sea level.”We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, some type of charge will be filed,” Mr. Savoy said. “If he had a pilot’s license, we’d suspend that. But he doesn’t.”

The police said Mr. Walters went to a friend’s house in San Pedro Thursday night, inflated 45 six-foot weather balloons and attached them to an aluminum lawn chair tethered to the ground.

This morning, with half a dozen friends holding the tethers, he donned a parachute, strapped himself into the chair and had his friends let him up slowly.

Minutes later, he was calling for help over his citizens band radio.

“This guy broke into our channel with a mayday,” said Doug Dixon, a member of an Orange County citizens band radio club. “He said he had shot up like an elevator to 16,000 feet and was getting numb before he started shooting out some of the balloons.”

Mr. Walters then lost his pistol overboard, and the chair drifted downward, controlled only by the gallon jugs of water attached to the sides as ballast.

The ropes became entangled in a power line, briefly blacking out a small area in Long Beach. The chair dangled five feet above the ground, and Mr. Walters was able to get down safely.

“Since I was 13 years old, I’ve dreamed of going up into the clear blue sky in a weather balloon,” he said. “By the grace of God, I fulfilled my dream. But I wouldn’t do this again for anything.”

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From The New York Times 19 December 1982

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 18 (UPI) Larry Walters, the lawn-chair pilot who catapulted to fame when balloons lifted his contraption 16,000 feet into the sky, faces $4,000 in fines for violations cited by the Federal Aviation Administration.

“If the F.A.A. was around when the Wright Brothers were testing their aircraft, they would never have been able to make their first flight at Kitty Hawk,” said Mr. Walters, who plans to challenge the fines.

Mr. Walters, a 33-year old truck driver from North Hollywood, surprised himself and several airline pilots July 2 with his aluminum lawn chair tied to 42 weather balloons. He had to pop some with a pellet gun to land.

The F.A.A. has cited him for four violations of the Federal Aviation Act, including operating a “civil aircraft for which there is not currently in effect an airworthiness certificate” and operating an aircraft within an airport traffic area “without establishing and maintaining two-way communications with the control tower.”

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From The Los Angeles Times, 24 November 1993

(by Myrna Oliver, Times Staff Writer)

Larry Walters, who achieved dubious fame in 1982 when he piloted a lawn chair attached to helium balloons 16,000 feet above Long Beach, has committed suicide at the age of 44.

Walters died Oct. 6 after hiking to a remote spot in Angeles National Forest and shooting himself in the heart, his mother, Hazel Dunham, revealed Monday. She said relatives knew of no motive for the suicide. “It was something I had to do,” Walters told The Times after his flight from San Pedro to Long Beach on July 2, 1982. “I had this dream for 20 years, and if I hadn’t done it, I would have ended up in the funny farm.”

Walters rigged 42 weather balloons to an aluminum lawn chair, pumped them full of helium and had two friends untether the craft, which he had dubbed “Inspiration I.”

He took along a large bottle of soda, a parachute and a portable CB radio to alert air traffic to his presence. He also took a camera but later admitted, “I was so amazed by the view I didn’t even take one picture.”

Walters, a North Hollywood truck driver with no pilot or ballon training, spent about two hours aloft and soared up to 16,000 feet — three miles — startling at least two airline pilots and causing one to radio the Federal Aviation Administration.

Shivering in the high altitude, he used a pellet gun to pop balloons to come back to earth. On the way down, his balloons draped over power lines, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes.

The stunt earned Walters a $1,500 fine from the FAA, the top prize from the Bonehead Club of Dallas, the altitude record for gas-filled clustered balloons (which could not be officially recorded because he was unlicensed and unsanctioned) and international admiration. He appeared on “The Tonight Show” and was flown to New York to be on “Late Night With David Letterman,” which he later described as “the most fun I’ve ever had.”

“I didn’t think that by fulfilling my goal in life — my dream — that would create such a stir,” he later told The Times, “and make people laugh.”

Walters abandoned his truck-driving job and went on the lecture circuit, remaining sporadically in demand at motivational seminars. But he said he never made much money from his innovative flight and was glad to keep his simple lifestyle.

He gave his “aircraft” — the aluminum lawn chair — to admiring neighborhood children after he landed, later regretting it.

In recent years, Walters hiked the San Gabriel Mountains and did volunteer work for the U.S. Forest Service.

“I love the peace and quiet,” he told The Times in 1988. “Nature and I get along real well.”

An Army vetern who served in Vietnam, Walters never married and had no children. He is survived by his mother and two sisters.