My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on January 20, 2009

The Historic Inauguration of President Barack Obama - view on Jan. 20, 2009

On January 20, 2009,  Americans saw the power of peaceful change as President George Walker Bush stepped aside and heard the crowds cheered as President Barack Hussein Obama took office. Throngs of well-wishers filled Washington DC preceding today’s inauguration and many others gathered around televisions to watch this historic moment. It is a great testament to our great country to see such a site.

(Flickr.com slideshow removed)

I enjoyed the ceremony on television (some of it) and found it impressive to see past Presidents and Vice Presidents, and their wives, all gathered to welcome the Obamas and Bidens. Pastor Rick Warren delivered the prayer (mp3), Chief Justice Roberts swore in the new President and our new Commander in Chief delivered an inspiring inauguration speech.

Change has come to Whitehouse.gov too -- linked to 'new' site

Category: News, Politics, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: inauguration, obama, Politics, president, Washington DC, whitehouse

Posted By RichC on January 20, 2009

The Wallstreet Journal took  a look at  the job approval rating of our Presidents.

The graph illustrates public opinion of Presidents from Truman through George W. Bush. Th popularity of each President rises and falls as they were faced different crisis situations. Only President Truman and George W. Bush have  seen both support as high as 80% and as low as 20% in their terms.

Detailed graphs for each President (and key crisis points) are below. The charts show specific events that changed the way our citizens viewed the leaders of our nation.  (click on each individual graph to display a larger image)

Truman

Eisenhower

Kennedy

Johnson

Nixon

Ford

Carter

Reagan

G W H Bush

Clinton

G W Bush

Category: Politics | No Comments »
Tags: bush, carter, clinton, eisenhower, ford, johnson, kennedy, nixon, president, reagan, truman, wsj

Posted By RichC on January 19, 2009

Here’s another excellent Palm Pre interview, this time a little more of “Why they will succeed” from a business oriented perspective. (also $425 million from Elevation Partners doesn’t hurt either)

Category: Cellphone | No Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on January 19, 2009

“Tampa Two,”  as  Superbowl XLIII is being slated will be between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Arizona Cardinals.

The Steelers put down the Baltimore Ravens this weekend 23 -14 while the long time “dysfunctional” Arizona Cardinals  will make there first appearance  by a 32 -25 win against the Philidelphia Eagles.

Category: Sports | No Comments »
Tags: football, nfl, superbowl

Posted By RichC on January 18, 2009

“Hello my name is Rich, I’m a 24-a-holic” and I am addicted to the Fox Television Series 24, yet I haven’t watch the current season yet.  The intense neverending show has kept both my wife and I at the edge of our seats … or bed … depending where we watched it from. Blockbuster much surely be happy since we have singlehandedly kept at least on of their store’s afloat by renting DVD after DVD each weekend. Thankfully most of their older television series DVDs (4 shows per disk) are priced at 99 cents with only the recent season at $1.99 per DVD; its still cheaper than renting a movie.

We are almost caught up to the current season – which is two shows in, according to my Tivo “season pass” settings — so “no spoilers.”

I have particularly enjoyed the use of technology in the show and have noticed the change in tech gadgets as each season progresses. I can only imagine what we’ll think in 10 -20 years?  The one item that really makes me smile is when Jack Bauer holds his Sprint branded Palm Treo … I took this photo with “my Palm Treo 700p” while watching an episode from Season Six last night.  Maybe they’ll have the Palm Pre next year?

Category: Cellphone, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: 24, jack bauer, palm, television, treo

Posted By RichC on January 17, 2009

A new USCGImagery video shows how impressive the landing (about 2 minutes into the clip), exit and immediate rescue was from the US Airways Flight 1549. The plane impacted the Hudson River at about 3:31 PM and within a few second passengers were out on the wings and emergency slides. As the camera zooms in it is easy to see the emergency exit and the the first ferry showing up at 3:35 — that’s only 2 minutes after the water landing. As I said in the previous post, miraculous and incredible.

Category: Aviation, News, Video | 5 Comments »
Tags: Flight 1549, US Air

Posted By RichC on January 17, 2009

MSNBC’s Mike Wendland reported on the new parking assist technology Ford will be offering in select 2010 models.  As seen in premium … and not so premium …  models before, it is pretty cool technology.

Category: Automotive | No Comments »
Tags: assist, ford, parking, self, Technology

Posted By RichC on January 16, 2009

With the cold weather we’ve been having we’ll definitely be complaining about home heating bills and  the salt shortage when we get to February and March.  It definitely has turn cold across most of the nation. I did a double take when I checked the temperature today.

I probably shouldn’t include this photo when it come time to sell my Honda Pilot?

Salt shortage drives up cost, might result in slippery driving

At least one local municipality has placed itself on a restricted sodium diet – which could lead to treacherous driving, especially if a lot of snow falls this winter.

All jurisdictions that didn’t restock its salt bins at the end of the last winter season have taken a financial hit due to the increased cost of rock salt, the preferred product to melt ice and snow from roadways during the winter months.

The alleged salt shortage has some suspecting collusion among salt suppliers, as those suppliers charge vastly inflated prices for salt needed by all cities located in the “Snowbelt.”

The state has initiated an investigation into the increased cost.

Last year the going rate per ton of rock salt was $51. This year the cost has gone through the roof at $148 per ton.

Category: Automotive | No Comments »
Tags: cold, honda, pilot, winter

Posted By RichC on January 16, 2009

During a business call this week, a fellow who listens to streaming  radio and knows my interest in Volkswagen TDIs, mention that a station he listens to was holding a sweepstakes offering a  New 2009 VW Jetta TDI Clean Diesel as their grand prize. The station is  KCPW in Santa Monica, California and features “an eclectic mix of music, news, information and cultural program” … yes, its an NPR station.  If you are like me, you’ll at least sign up in hopes your name is drawn!

LISTEN

The All-New 2009 VW Jetta TDI Clean Diesel

Incredible mileage and performance in the same car. Up to 41 miles per gallon* and a ton of torque so you don’t have to sacrifice power to be environmentally friendly.

VW JETTA TDI SWEEPSTAKES ENDS FEB. 28, 2009

*Fuel economy figures for Jetta TDI with automatic transmission: 41mpg combined estimate based on AMCI-certified testing. 29 city/40 hwy mpg based on EPA estimates.  Mileage may vary.

RULES:

2009 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA TDI CLEAN DIESEL SWEEPSTAKES DESCRIPTION, VALUE, START AND END DATE, AND ODDS
Prize Description: 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI; Prize value: $26,880. The sweepstakes start date is 12:00AM on November 17, 2008 and end date is 11:59 PM on February 28, 2009. The odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received.

…

To participate without contribution, hand print your full name, complete address with ZIP Code, date of birth, and day/evening phone numbers with area code on a standard size postcard and mail with the proper postage affixed:

c/o 2009 KCRW WINTER HOLIDAY SWEEPSTAKES
KCRW
1900 Pico Boulevard
Santa Monica, CA 90405

Each postcard enters one sweepstakes. Postcard entries must arrive by 5pm of each sweepstakes’ end date (detailed below). You will be notified only if you win.

Limit one entry per sweepstakes per household.

MORE RULES

Category: Automotive, Volkswagen | 6 Comments »
Tags: diesel, npr, radio, sweepstakes, tdi, volkswagen, vw

Posted By RichC on January 15, 2009

Well this may not classify as a “miracle,” but its about as close as I can imagine. While driving home tonight I “listened” to television coverage of the incredible landing of US Airways Flight 1549 shortly after takeoff. The twin engine Airbus A320 jet had just left LaGuardia Airport enroute to Chalotte NC when it “may” have hit a flock of geese knocking out both engines which required the pilots to make and emergency landing on the Hudson River near Midtown Manhattan. According to reports, all passengers and crew escaped with their lives thanks to the incredible skills demonstated by the pilots. Equally credit need to go to the professionalism of the ‘well trained’ flight attendants as those being rescues offered their accalades. Its not often we praise the those in commercial aviation for a job well done — just incredible.

Emergency first responders in the NYC area were quickly to the scene, as the cold weather and 40-degree water left little time before passengers would start experience hypothermia. Ferry boats headed to the area and U.S. Coast Guard rafts were quickly in the water. Divers pulled passengers from the wings of the plane and rapidly brought them to waiting ambulances.  Again “incredibly” there were no fatalities.

US Airways officials said Thursday it was too soon to determine the cause of the accident.

Category: Aviation | 1 Comment »
Tags: miracle