Month: August 2007

bonus quote of the day

from a comment here that reviews the poor condition of the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis.

No new taxes, bridge collapses.

The bridge was rated as being 50% sound, ie in need of rehabilitation/rebuilding.

This could the chickens of the Reagan-era slash and borrow tax policy coming home to roost. As ironic as Al Capone getting pinched for tax evasion if the world’s remaining superpower crumbles — literally — due to a misguided understanding of municipal economics.

aviation disasters

We took advantage of the fine weather, the Ten Year Old and I, to go fly some R/C planes. He has the one in the picture, and I spent some time this morning replacing a chewed tail section. These foam flyers are not all that durable, as I’ll explain further.


“Firebird Scout Rtf Ep” (Horizon Hobby)

Sadly, his wouldn’t fly at all. At full throttle, it would simply nose into the grass.

Mine is/was a larger one and I can’t find a listing for it. Also a foam flyer with the same pod and boom design, but larger and faster.

So with the addition of a little packing tape to reinforce the effects of some earlier hard landings, mine flew OK, if a little mushy in the controls. It was difficult to keep level and turning was a slow process. And that turned out to be its undoing, as a slow turn and a little less altitude than I needed put it right into a baseball backstop with spectacular results. The wing broke in half, the tail section was smashed, and the whole mess came to the ground in a cloud of dust from the dry field.

Oops.

So now I have two sets of components to use for Mugi-design planes. Not exactly what I planned . . . .

I still have to work out why the other plane doesn’t fly properly, but perhaps one of the Mugis, if the materials are in, will help scratch the flying itch.

the new non-political Washington DC

The Washington Monthly:

  • On October 24th of last year, U.S. Attorney John Brownlee, after years of effort and with the approval of the head of the DOJ criminal division, is a day away from securing a guilty plea from the manufacturer of OxyContin.
  • Mary Jo White, a defense lawyer representing an executive for OxyContin’s manufacturer, calls Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty to beg for a postponement.
  • McNulty tells his chief of staff, Paul Elston, to call Brownlee and ask him to slow down.
  • Brownlee declines and announces the settlement.
  • Eight days later, Elston puts Brownlee’s name on a list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired.

He survived the purge, but what other public business was tabled in a similar fashion?

eBay sellers to avoid, a continuing series

This guy is not someone you want to deal with. He changed the shipping terms on an item I won from the usual “shipping to arranged after close of auction” to “buyer must arrange shipment, here’s a list of local companies.” And the terms were changed after the close of the auction, so there was no way to avoid getting stuck.

What a loser. And then after being unresponsive to email, he lies on the phone that a. he never changed the listing because b. it’s impossible to change a published listing.

I’m looking into eBay wiping the transaction out. I doubt the shipping from New Jersey to Seattle will be worth pursuing, though I have requested a quote.

I always thought I could never make it in business, but evidently, it’s not as hard as I feared if you don’t mind lying to people.