My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on August 31, 2006

Lately I’ve been looking for excuses to click a photo or two with my handy dandy Palm Treo 700p, so today spotted an unusual Volkswagen for North America: a VW Gol – Pointer “City” 5 door station wagon.

The Volkswagen Gol (not to be confused with Golf) derived its name from the Portugese word ‘Golo’ according the information in Wilkipedia. It is Volkswagen’s entry level car in South American and can run on ethanol, natural gas or gasoline in its small 4 cylinder engines. It has been manufactured with several generation changes since 1980 in Brazil and is the best selling car in both Brazil and Argentina. About 4.5 million have been produced. The wagon model above has the ‘city’ engine option which offers a bit better fuel economy.

Let me know if you’ve seen them in North America, particularly the newer models. (early Pointers were rebadged Ford Escorts)

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Posted By RichC on August 30, 2006

Rain but not all that much wind in Delray Beach just north of Fort Lauderdale, Florida this morning as Ernesto makes itself known throughout the state. The winds are tropical storm force at a sustained 35mph and moving north at about 10mph. Not all that much fear from the wind but the rains are heavy. The risk of damage is now considered low in Florida and watchers are questioning if Ernesto will pick up additional steam when it moves into the gulf stream and heads up coast toward the Carolinas? No matter, it does look like a wet Labor Day weekend for the east coast.

Now Catagory 4 Hurricane John is a different story. Mexico’s resort towns and west coast are at risk … this one could be serious.

Category: Misc, Weather | No Comments »
Tags: hurricane

Posted By RichC on August 29, 2006

After beginning to move Atlantis toward the assembly building this morning at 10am, NASA officials have changed their mind due to tropical storm Ernesto’s westernly path. They are now returning the Shuttle Atlantis to Launch Pad 39B. By around 8 p.m. EDT tonight the move back to the pad should be complete and and “mission managers are confident in the ability of the rotating service structure to protect the vehicle on the pad.” Leroy Cain, launch intergration manager, indicated that earlier today (Tuesday) that the “forecast was just not quite good enough,” but that with the change in predicted path that the winds should not be a problem. At 2:40 pm the Shuttle Atlantis began the return trip to the launch pad atop the crawler transporter.

Current projections on Ernesto has the ‘tropical storm’ hitting the Florida Keys around midnight with winds predicted around 55mph.

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Tags: nasa, shuttle, space

Posted By RichC on August 29, 2006

I’ve been planning to write down some thoughts and include some personal photos from our recent family vacation to Hawaii. We enjoyed near perfect weather on our entire trip, both on a cruise ship, NCL(A)’s “Pride of Hawaii,” and the time spent with my nephew David and his wife Gillian who live on Kauai — they were wonderful hosts. (see following part(s) of this wrap up on Kauai — our favorite island)

We flew direct from Cincinnati just a day or so after new tightened security. (we wisely checked liquids, etc) We flew on a Delta 767 and the three in-flight movies and several podcasts downloaded to my Palm Treo 700p made the long 9 hour flight bearable; others slept. After the 6 hour time change we made our way through the beautiful Honolulu Airport, retrieved our luggage, and boarded our transfer bus for the drive to the port. The traffic was heavy in Honolulu, but the drive was only a short distance from the airport. After a fairly quick boarding procedure, thanks to having all our paperwork faxed in prior to the trip, leis and shell necklaces were put on each of us as we boarded the ship and the searched for our cabin began. The mandatory ‘muster drill’ was painless and a fun time as usual, but after a day of traveling wasn’t something we really were anxious to do.

We are somewhat seasoned when it comes to cruise ships, but we always enjoy being back on-board another ship. I suspect our expectations were a bit high or perhaps the service aboard the American flagged and crewed “Pride of Hawaii” was sub-standard. I suspect the latter. (maybe a little more on this later?)
🙁

Our first port of call, Hilo, was a night sail away on the ‘Big Island’ of Hawaii (click for map). We arrived early the next morning to a beautiful sunrise and, per usual, tropical breezes and temperatures in the 80s. Our ambitious goal for the day was to head to the top of the tallest peak in all of the Pacific … Mauna Kea. (13,796 feet) The five of us partnered in a 4 wheel drive Ford 350 turbo diesel van with a soldier just back from Iraq and his brother and started the long drive toward the 14 observatories built atop this extraordinary volcano.

On our way out of Hilo, we drove through moderate neighborhoods who have seen real estate prices rise to very high levels. A middle class home in much of the mid-west would be well over a half million in most neighborhoods outside of Hilo according to our driver. (most of Hawaii was that way) We stopped a beautiful Wailuku State Park and Rainbow Falls. (large photo) It was ‘picture perfect.’

As we continued on toward the Mauna Kea volcanic mountain (33,000 feet from the floor of the Pacific) and the celestial observatories, we passed alters that still are places of worship as they were in the days before the Christian missionaries arrived. We respected the flowers and palms left not all that long ago.
As we continued to climb toward our lunch spot we shifted into 4 wheel drive and noticed the vegetation disappear until the landscape started to look like another planet. The air started to thin and on went our sweatshirts — brrr from Hawaii! Along the way we noticed the different rock formations included something called “lava bombs” which are chucks of molten rock blasted years ago from the volcano when it was active. My son Taylor is holding a unique peanut shaped “lava bomb” that must have weighed 60 pounds or so … imagine the explosive power to send thousands of these into the air.

Our eventual destination was the top where the many observatories are. The one above is the Subaru Observatory built by the Japanese. There were many others including huge radio telescope dishes that sit on what looks to be an alien planet.

The observatories are at the top of the volcano, well sort of, as there is a hiking trail that heads down and then back up again to finally reach the pinned summit. Despite the cold and thin air at nearly 14,000 feet, we all were able to climb to the peak. At this peak is was eerie and quiet. Again, an alter was built to worship the volcano gods by the native Hawaiians … it has relatively fresh flowers, etc so it must still be used today? (Photo: Taylor at 13,796 feet below)

After our return to the van, some decided that a little oxygen was a good idea as getting acclimated while working in this kind of elevation would take some getting use to. All in all, the day was not exactly how I had perceived our first couple of days on Hawaii. I intend on writing up part two while out of town this week … stay tuned.

Looking at Hilo, Hawaii and Mauna Kea from the sea (large photo)

Category: Personal, Photos, Recreation, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: 2006 vacation, cruise, hawaii, ncl

Posted By RichC on August 28, 2006

I’m sure everyone has noticed the drop in retail gasoline retail prices these last couple weeks? The price has retreated nearly 60 cent per gallon in just a couple weeks and has me rethinking which car to drive each day: the diesel or the gasser.

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Posted By RichC on August 28, 2006

Adem Ruden, from the University of Minnesota, updated a previous post from July in regard to the UMN Solar Vehicle Project competing in Tawain. I’ll post directly from his email. Keep us posted … we’re pulling for the team! (Interesting fact: GeekSquad founder ‘attended’ UMN, but dropped out as a Junior because of cost … he is now worth millions yet is returning to college to finish his degree.)
🙂
Adem Ruden writes:
The car has supposedly arrived safely, sometime last week. Based on talk among teams and reviewing the participants page, the three cars to watch will likely be Ashiya University, Kamm Solar Racing, and us.

Ashiya’s built up an amazing record over the past decade, they’ve positively dominated Suzuka for at least the past 6 years. Mr. Joachim Kamm’s car is designed solely for this type of rally race (unlike many cars, such as ours, that were first and foremost designed for endurance races), and handily won the Rallye Solaire in France that was held in early June. As for our car, we have also built up an impressive record, and it is designed to handle well on curvy tracks. On the other end of the spectrum, there are two teams who are racing for the first time! I wish them well, and hope that they learn a lot.

It’ll be an interesting experience, and no matter what happen, I guarantee that we’re all going to have a lot of fun.

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Posted By RichC on August 27, 2006

As the friends and family gather today in Lexington Kentucky, the media continues to stress that it is too early to speculate on the crash of ComAir Flight 5191. Emotions are running high as family gather and the local community lends every bit of assistance it can. Stories like the local Rite Aid employees buying up all the tissues and delivering them to those gathering to grieve over the lost of their family members begin to make there way to the local blogs. What a terrible tragedy.

Those of us familiar with aviation, spectulate anyway as to what could have gone wrong. I’ve reviewed the available runways at Lexington Bluegrass Airport and in seeing the photos of the wreckage it does seem as if the 2001 Canadair CRJ-100 Bombardier Inc. built jet must have turn onto the wrong runway at 6:19am this morning? (see runway below and note photo of wreckage and building above) The 47 passengers and 3 crew were barely off the runway before the ill-fated take-off when down and fire engulfed the cabin. Only the first officer was pulled alive from the wreckage by 2 police officers.

Comair identified the crew members as Captain Jeffrey Clay, First Officer James Polehinke and flight attendant Kelly Heyer. Clay joined Comair in November 1999, Polehinke in March 2002 and Heyer in July 2004. The company didn’t immediately provide ages.

The regional jet had a “clean maintenance record, it had flown 14,500 hours, typical of an aircraft of that age” according to a Delta spokesperson (Delta is the parent company of ComAir).

The flight was the first of the day for the crew, which had spent the night in Lexington, Comair said. The crew’s rest period before the flight was “well beyond what is required by the FAA and what is standard for our own airline.”

Comair followed Delta in filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year and is working to trim $42 million from annual operating expenses.

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Posted By RichC on August 27, 2006

Every once in a while I enjoy posting something that tickles my funny bone. The Crab vs. Element clip is definitely a cute 30 second commercial. Honda would be smart to bring the creative Element and Friends TV “Crab” TV commercial to a few select markets … if not nationwide. I think it would be a hit? The California based Crab, call him “Gil,” has his own petition site that has over 12,000 online entries and even his own MySpace page. From what I can tell, there were a few others, but none quite as good as the Crab in my opinion.

Interestingly the 30 second internet posted video has been uploaded multiple times to YouTube as well as other video hosting sites and of course I’m doing my part too. The creative clip is short, cute and currently in sync with the internet oriented flash graphics found on many aspiring animated computer art sites. Even if it doesn’t get a spot on regular TV, its free publicity for the Honda Element on the internet. I believe it will appeal to the Honda Element ‘light’ SUV kind of buyer — especially the fun-loving young twenties crowd? I haven’t shown it to my beach loving surfer son (photo above from our Hawaii trip last week), but expect that at age 17 he’ll probably start looking at the Honda Element as a wish list car? I can hear it now … it would be perfect for college Dad!

Here is the link to the YouTube version of the clip, but you can watch a streaming Quicktime version below or download all of them by a right-click/save-as: Crab, Burro, Opossum, Platypus and Rabbit.

Category: Automotive, Video | 2 Comments »
Tags: crab, element, honda, pinch

Posted By RichC on August 26, 2006

I’ve been following the rumor sites in regard to the new Palm Treo … the antenna-less model. Besides the missing ‘stub,’ the new version looks to be a bit more streamlined and places the SD slot on the right side leaving only the ringer/vibrate switch on the top. In the US, it has been commented that Cingular will get the nod. Here are a few of the better photos from a Spanish forum called PDAExpertos put into composite form. As for timing, September 12 will be the introduction fo the 750w in the UK according to Reuters and it will be followed by the 750p release in the US a month later.

The new Treo release should be offered in Europe as well … with Vodaphone. The new model will be thumbboarded similar to the existing Palm Treo 700 currently by Sprint and Verizon in the US, but having that desireable smaller form factor.
It has also been rumored to be giving up a few prized features such as the improve 1.3 meg camera on the 700p for a lesser quality 0.3 megapixel similar to the Palm Treo 650 — although I’ve also read that the Palm OS could get the 1.3 meg chip? Battery size will also be something to check. (Palm has been very quiet on releasing any specifics until the slated official September 12th press event)
A few more specifics were quoted at EverythingTreo:
Treo 750p Specs
* GSM based
* 64mb memory
* 0.3 megapixel camera
* Palm OS Garnet v 5.4.9

For information from the UK and around Europe, Andrew’s comments on the Treonaut blog always comes through with a quick and easy read as well as reviews and recommendations on Treo accessories.

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Posted By RichC on August 25, 2006

Yes … in Cleveland, Ohio.
The Visitor Center Audutorium at NASA’s Glenn Research Center will be open to the public for Sunday’s scheduled launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-115). The center will open its doors at 1:00 pm for the 4:30 pm launch of STS-115. Four members of Glenn’s Electric Power System Management Team, Thomas Kerslake, Jeff Hojnicki, Penni Dalton and Gregory Schmitz will be available to answer questions regarding the the solar array segments onboard Atlantis. According to a press release by Katherine Martin, Thomas Kerslake will give a presentation at 3:30 pm on Glenn Research Center’s role in designing, implementing and managing the International Space Station’s electric power system.

The STS-115 astronauts and the station crew members will install the P3/P4 truss, a girder-like structure that includes the arrays. The P3/P4 segment will double the station’s power capability. Atlantis’ mission will also include all the safety features tested on the past two shuttle flights.

This might be a great opportunity to watch the launch and get the inside scoop on some of the components going into the International Space Station … besides its free as long as you have a “government-issued photo id.” Check out this link for additional information about Glenn’s Visitor Center.

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