Friday, November 30, 2012

Mark Twain

Happy Birthday to the wise and witty Mark Twain. Born 30 November 1835.

Science

Burroughs

Photo of the Day


Indian Gharial, St. Augustine Alligator Farm

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Photo of the Day


Lockheed Constellation
Smithsonian Air & Space Museum - Udvar-Hazy Annex

George!

George Harrison would have been 69 years old today.

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Your music and legacy will live forever.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Congress

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by Matt Wuerker – Politico

Threats? Not.

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Photo of the Day


Monday, November 26, 2012

Photo of the Day

Visited Siesta Beach (near Sarasota, Florida) this weekend.
Black skimmer

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Photo of the Day

Visited Siesta Beach (near Sarasota, Florida) this weekend.
Black skimmer

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Paul Krugman: Grand Old Planet

Never vote for anyone who is anti-science and anti-education.

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(image by Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)

“That Marco Rubio interview in GQ was just another sign of how the Republican Party prefers to suppress scientific evidence if it contradicts faith.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/23/opinion/krugman-grand-old-planet.html

Standard Right Wing Propaganda: Heroic Red States Support Lazy Blue States

An interesting article on how you can skew your message b y presenting a misleading electoral results map.

This is the right map from 2012 results:

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http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/11/23/standard-right-wing-propaganda-heroic-red-states-support-lazy-blue-states/

Photo of the Day


The Albion on Lincoln Rd., Miami Beach

Friday, November 23, 2012

Black Friday

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Photo of the Day


C-47 at the 2012 Sun-N-Fun airshow in Lakeland, Florida earlier this year

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Matt Dillahunty Nails It

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John F. Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963)

Those of us of a certain age we will never forget Dallas 49 years ago today.

Photo of the Day


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Finally! A left-handed cup!


Too bad I can't use it properly as I am right-handed. My right-handed knives and forks work fine though.

Photo of the Day


US Capitol Rotunda, Washington DC

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Kevin's Handy Tax Table for Innumerate Rich People

"Too many rich people have no idea how income taxes work. They've heard that Obama wants to raise tax rates on people who make more than $250,000, so they're working on ways to keep their income right at $249,000. After all, if they go over the threshold, they'd suddenly have to pay the higher rate, and it would be a net loss. This isn't true, of course."

Take a look:
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/11/kevins-handy-tax-table-innumerate-rich-people

Fun fact

funfact

Photo of the Day


Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC

Monday, November 19, 2012

Monday

Monday

Photo of the Day


Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Saturday, November 17, 2012

Secession redux

 

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by Glenn McCoy

Photo of the Day


Piper J3 Cub

Friday, November 16, 2012

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Best of Times

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Hulu Link: http://www.hulu.com/watch/425938

Secession thoughts

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(by Rob Rogers Pittsburg Post-Gazette)

Photo of the Day


J3 Piper Cub at the Piper Factory fly-in (Vero Beach) for the company and Cub's 75th Anniversary.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Religious fanaticism

religiousfanaticism

Photo of the Day


A gaggle of J3 Piper Cubs at Vero Beach Airport (Piper Aircraft Factory)

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Photo of the Day


Smithsonian National Art Gallery, Washington DC

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Photo of the Day


At the 2012 Miami Beach Art Deco weekend car show earlier this year.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Piper 75th Anniversary

Brochure

Yesterday I was invited to the Piper Aircraft 75th Anniversary event at the Vero Beach (Florida) airport where the Piper factory is.

It was a fly-in with lots of visiting airplanes. Many Pipers were there, including over 20 of my favorite aircraft, the one which put Piper on the map, the J3 Piper Cub!

 

 

We flew in early morning form Miami’s Tamiami airport (KTMB), about 130 miles from Vero Beach Municipal Airport (KVRB) in a friend’s Cessna 182.KVRB

It was a wonderful flight. It took a little more than an hour as we had headwinds and our effective ground speed was about 117mph. The return trip had a tailwind so we made a ground speed of 130mph at times.

The flight path took us over the Florida Everglades as you have to fly way west of town to avoid entering the airspace of Miami International (KMIA), Ft. Lauderdale (KFLL) and Palm Beach (KPBI). We had a wonderful view of Lake Okeechobee

The event was a blast. They had a reception in a huge hangar with vendor booths (I bought a Piper Cub hat and T-shirt).

T-shirt

There were speeches by the President of Piper, Mr. Simon Caldecott, and the Director of the American Cancer Society, who received a check from Piper with donations received during the special campaign (they even painted a Piper Malibu pink), in support of October Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

We saw a video of Piper’s history, how it went from the early beginnings by the Taylor Family as the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Manufacturing Company in September 1927, which was then joined by oil industry engineer William T. Piper in 1929. Piper, often called “the Henry Ford of Aviation”, instituted simpler manufacturing methods.

In 1935, Piper bought out C.G. Taylor and in 1937 renamed the company Piper Aircraft Corporation.

We also received a guided tour of the factory (no photography allowed inside). This was a one-hour long tour where we visited almost all the manufacturing and assembly areas. Piper is vertically integrated , producing most of the parts in-house, except tires, avionics instruments and windshields.

It was a great experience to see the machinery and work that goes into building different models of airplanes, from raw parts  to flight testing.

I shot lots of images, which are in my gallery. Here are a few of them:

 

J3 CubJ3 CubsSuper Cub with FloatsJ3 Cub bare instrumentationPiper PA-32 SaratogaPiper Malibu Mirage ready for flight testing

and finally a group picture of the four people that flew in my friend’s Yale Cessna, with a Super Cub on floats as background:

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(Alex, Dave, Yale and Rick)