July 4th from the Air

Mich, Robbie, one of our friend’s kids, and I spent part of this past July 4th enjoying the view of the dozens of fireworks displays from the vantage point of a rental airplane.

The weather up North (Pennsylvania and the Northeastern states) was stormy and there were some storm systems to our West but none of these were going to affect us in the time frame I wanted to be in the air. However there was a ceiling at 11,000 feet and scattered clouds in the area at about 4,000 and 6,000 feet. There were also thunderstorms and light rain showers in the area, but according to the weather reports, none that seemed near us.

We took off from Briscoe field shortly after some of the displays began and travelled North toward lake Lanier. The cloud cover kept us pretty low (at about 3,000 feet) but that was ample to keep us safe.

To our left as we departed runway 25 was a grand display that was probably Lawrenceville’s official fireworks show.

There were dozens and dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of little residential fireworks displays to be seen scattered across the myriad neighborhoods that we flew over.

I did not see the grand display of fireworks over Lake Lanier but I did notice that the cloud cover seemed to be increasing more rapidly than expected over the lake so I decided to head South toward Atlanta’s displays instead. We could see several other major displays taking place as we headed downtown. While en route I started to notice some buffeting, which is unusual for night flying, and then we saw Mother Nature’s own fireworks display. Off in the distance there were some spectacular lightning strikes going on. So we knew that one of the warned-about thunderstorms was not only nearby, but approaching our area.

180 degrees and a landing later we got the first drops of rain while I was tying down the airplane.

I found out, after the fact, that the Phipp’s Plaza and Centennial park displays did not happen that night. I haven’t researched whether they did the shows early or cancelled them altogether.

But in the brief time we were up we *did* get to see far more than I ever get to see on the ground watching a single show. And I cannot tell you how amazing it is to see all the little shows going on as far as you can see in every direction. Picture the landscape of the movie “Blade Runner” (one of my all time favorite movies).

Longevity and the Human Condition

I’m having a back-and-forth with one of my friends and thought I’d share some pieces of it for perusal and maybe some discussion.

One Hand: I’ve read from several sources that with a healthy lifestyle, it is actually natural and normal for human beings to reach the age of 120 (the people of Okanawa are a good example). But how practical would that be on a large scale? As long as the western world is polluting the air, water and food, eating processed food, not exercising, creating stress in the pursuit of status and material gain etc. the extension of human life will only be achievable artificially and where is the quality of life in that? What would be the point? Can people even afford to live to 100 and beyond? What would it do to our economy? I don’t know what the current situation is in the US, but the Canadian medical establishment is on the verge of collapse because the cost of medical care is so extravagently expensive. Add to that a large population of centenarians needing replacement body parts, organs etc., how is it possible to sustain? Certainly an interesting subject to ponder.

The Other Hand: I have to disagree that the artificiality you cite as being necessary to the extension of human life would be a bad thing. How natural are antibiotics? Or living inside of heated dwellings with clean running water?

I read an interesting article about a year or so ago where a fellow with “Doctors without Borders” was working with folks in very remote locations where “modern” life had not yet encroached. Very contrary to his expectations he found that valium was a popular drug being dispensed there. It seems that stress and anxiety was a normal part of life out there, at rates very comparable to what we first-worlders experience. The only difference being the foci of the problems.
I think we can all relate, look at how worked up children get over simple things. They have no taxes, no job obligations, yet their concerns and worries are as real to them as ours are to us. I would put it to you that folks are either anxious or they are not. It is part of the human condition and very likely always will be.

I agree with the considerations that you raise about increased longevity. But don’t forget we’ve already dealt with many of these issues before as the average lifespan has been steadily increasing decade by decade. It’s now just a question of degree. Other cultural shifts have just as much potential for messing up actuarial tables. One that comes to mind immediately are partners in lesbian couples that can now benefit from each other’s pension and health schemes. I see many rate-setters scrambling to come up with revisions to such plans to keep them viable in the light of such new reality.

I recall that, in the 70s, there were dire warnings that the planet would never be able to support X billion people and we’d all starve in the early 2000’s if not sooner. Technology has a brilliant way of putting the lie to such doomsaying and I suspect that is a trend that will only continue.

I have a fixed confidence that both human civilization and the biosphere are much more incredibly robust than we allow ourselves to conceive. There will always be tragedy and problems on a small scale, but the larger context will end up accommodating and even booning from the break with old patterns.

Jeep Thoughts

I saw a picture of my old jeep pop up on my screensaver and thought I’d post a few pictures of it as a tribute. I only had the jeep for a couple of years, but I did enjoy it.

It also made me appreciate my Honda cars a lot more too! 🙂

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These are pictures of Mich and I on one of the North Georgia mountains on a fun weekend trip.

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Overly somber pose by me travelling through one of Georgia’s towns

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Wisteria hunting with Mich so she could take pictures. You don’t see her in any of these since she insisted on taking all the photos!

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Here we were out doing a “pre-jeeping” trip on Rich Mountain with a fellow called Jay Bird who was introducing us to a local jeeping club. Yes, that’s mud and water and yes, we had to keep our feet on the drain holes in the floorboard to keep the water from pouring in!

Red spot Junior meets The Great Red Spot on Jupiter

Don’t forget to point your telescope toward Jupiter in the latter part of July (originally July 4). Scientists tell us that the fairly new Red Spot “Junior” on Jupiter is catching up to the Great Red Spot and that the two will interact.

Nobody really knows what will happen but the last I heard is that “Junior” will very likely change color from red to white.

Talk about your perfect storm… Each of those spots is mulitiple times the size of our entire planet!!

Local Area Connection icon mysteriously returns

As a quick followup, mysteriously my icon is back. I’m happy ’cause now I can quickly look at it if I think anything odd is happening and try to convince myself that I’m not the victim of a root kit exploit (thanks Sony BMG for putting *THAT* at the forefront of our collective consciousness).

I *did* just apply the latest of Microsoft’s Updates and rebooted. I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

How fast is your Broadband connection?

These are the two resources I currently use for testing my broadband connection speed. This first one I was turned onto by Darrel Orpen and it is my current first choice: testmy.net. Look for their new “dual test” option to test first your download speed, then your upload speed in sequence. They even have a, not quite ready for primetime, automated test available if you register with them (for free) that is supposed to test your speeds periodically throughout the day so you can gather stats on whether you really are getting what you pay for. I tried it and it seems to work for a couple of hours and then simply stop working. I imagine it will be fine when they’ve had a chance to iron some of the kinks out.

The second one, which I’ve been using for years I found through broadbandreports.com (it *was* dslreports.com back when I first started using the site to see what might be available to me. You can see this from the fact that it’s URL is still the old name), and it’s the speakeasy.net speed test. I moved away from speakeasy since the upload test always seemed to take so long to load on my system.

As of this moment (Saturday July 1, 2006 – a long weekend so it’s a skewed result) my results through my Comcast ISP are:

Testmy.net:
Download :: 5998 Kbps or 6 Mbps (732 kB/s)
Upload :: 362 Kbps or 0.36 Mbps (44 kB/s)

Speakeasy:
Download Speed: 5872 kbps (734 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 352 kbps (44 KB/sec transfer rate)

Bank of America – What’s not to trust?

I have a “Financial Rewards” VISA card through Bank of America (BofA). I have it through them since, at the time, they were the only ones who seemed to be offering such.

In past dealings with BofA, I’ve been put off by what I interpret to be “Nickel and diming” behavior. They seem to have service fees for everything, monthly service fees for your checking account, check writing fees, you name it.

I found it amusing when I received this “Cardholder Thank You” item mixed in with the bits and pieces that accompany my monthly VISA bill.
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What was humorous to me was that this advert, in the form of a fake check, and with BofA’s logo displayed prominently at the top, had this to say in its fine print (you’ll need to click to read it):
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So, Bank of America is telling me that, even though they are sending me this advertisement in an envelope that is coming from them, with their letterhead on it, as a “Thank You” for being a possesor of their VISA card, that I can take advantage of by including the order form (on the reverse of the fake check) with my VISA payment, they have nothing to do with this offer?

I’m not sure I’m really impressed with a company using its brand to shill for “Gift Services, Inc.” and yet will neither stand by the quality nor service associated with the products.

I… think I’m going to get a new credit card from a company that I would prefer to be associated with. These “cash back” credit cards are becoming much more popular now, and no blackout dates 🙂

**Update June 30, 2006** I tried to find Gift Services, Inc. using Google. I found one company by that name based in Denver, Colorado, but the “Cardholder Thank You” document indicates that this company is using a P.O. Box in Utah. Same outfit? Perhaps.

Completed Turtle Pond

A while ago we picked up a “mini-pond” that we could easily host within our screened-in patio. We used it to replace the kiddie pool that we were using to give our turtles (red-eared sliders Zippy and Arthur) a “summer home” during the great long summer we have here.

You can see the black polyethylene (or similar) pool in the first picture below. It’s not super attractive to look at, so we built a frame for it and one of our friends offered to paint a long, attractive beachy scene on some canvas which we would then affix to the framework and then have a bright-looking enclosure.

Unfortunately, the canvas thing fell through and it took a little while to get up the momentum again but below I chronicle the update of the enclosure from a spartan frame to a painted beadboard accent piece.
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Here is the enclosure inverted so I can measure the beadboard and install the feet on it. I had to add some 2×4’s to raise it up a bit as Authur figured out how to get himself out of the pond and enclosure when it was at its original height.

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Here is the beadboard, I had them cut it at Home Depot so that all I needed to worry about was length, they were all the same width.

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After cutting the beadboard to size, painting it with KILZ, attaching the 2×4 feet and then the adjustable felt feet.

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Another angle of the above, also waiting for the application of wood putty to make up for a gap caused by the original frame and my complete inability to compensate for it when measuring and cutting the side panels. I tried twice and got the exact same gap both times, even though I could SWEAR I took extra special precautions the second time. Ah well, I suppose that’s why I spend most of my time working with computers rather than with wood…

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Now with the paint applied and drying on it. Michelle did this part. She’s much more skilled than I at painting so she did the two finishing coats.

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Arthur enjoying his new enclosure. I can see now that he can no longer see over the top of the enclosure. I need to get some nice, flat fieldstones to build up his sunning area so that he can see outside but can’t use them to “bridge” his way out of the enclosure on his own.

Starling Art

These are some of the noisiest birds you could ever want to have in your neighborhood. But it is always fun to go outside and yell “Boo!”. It’s quite a show to see them take off in unison swoop around almost as a single entity and then land back in the trees again.

I spotted this picture on Boing Boing