Thursday, January 31, 2013

"Why are you not a Christian?" (Bertrand Russell)

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Anything goes – Cole Porter

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Photo of the Day


1955 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon at the 2012 Father's Day Boca Raton Show

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Photo of the Day


Isetta at the 2013 Dania Vintage Motorcycle Show

Monday, January 28, 2013

Eyes on the Stars

Carl McNair tells the story of his brother Ronald, an African American kid in the 1950s who set his sights on the stars.

by Story Corps

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Ronald Ervin McNair, Ph.D., (October 21, 1950 – January 28, 1986) was a physicist and NASA astronaut. McNair died during the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L.

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STS-51-L crew: (front row) Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair; (back row) Ellison Onizuka, Christa McAuliffe, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik.

Remembering these brave scientists, explorers, and teachers who lost their lives 27 years ago today in the pursuit of science -  The crew of the space shuttle Challenger.

Why I Am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell (1927)

Bertrand Russell first delivered this lecture on March 6, 1927 to the National Secular Society, South London Branch, at Battersea Town Hall.

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Mockingbird

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Photo of the Day


Honda CB77 - 1964 at the 2013 Dania Vintage Motorcycle Show

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Photo of the Day


Boeing 727. This one has been retired and donated by FedEx to the George T. Baker aviation school across the street from KMIA.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Simon And Garfunkel - The Boxer - 45 RPM ORIGINAL MONO MIX

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Photo of the Day





1916 Overland at the 2013 Miami Beach Art Deco weekend

Friday, January 25, 2013

Pink Panther Theme Song–Intro to the remake

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Photo of the Day










Rolls Royce used in the movie "Goldfinger"

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Don’t Replace Religion; End It by Penn Jillette

 

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Pen Jillette writes in the NYT:

Religion cannot and should not be replaced by atheism. Religion needs to go away and not be replaced by anything. Atheism is not a religion. It’s the absence of religion, and that’s a wonderful thing.

Read the rest of this thought provoking article. Post your comments in the thread .

Buddy Hankerson - funk "1984" classic bass solo

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Photo of the Day


Annapolis

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Saturday, January 19, 2013

This guy is brilliant!

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Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay | Playing For Change

 

Street musicians from around the world.

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A rare visit to the ramp at Miami International Airport

I was invited to this year's exclusive visit inside the fence at Miami International (KMIA). This once-a-year tour has been done for a few years. It is organized by the Airport Director's office, and has been also done by the two previous directors before him whom although now retired, were there acting as Tour Guides. The tour takes photographers filling two buses. I was lucky to get in this year through a friend. They gave us badges to be worn at all times. Each bus had a tour guide (ex-director) and a badged employee. We were to stay with them by the bus at all times due to security issues.

 

The tour had unprecedented access as I had never been inside the fence and in the ramp before.

 

Unfortunately the weather was very overcast but it wasn’t that bad.

At some points we were allowed to get off (had to stay next to the bus). At other points, near Customs or busy areas, the bus drove by slowly and we had to shoot through the windows.

 

((phone-camera image)

 

We toured all the passenger ramps, plus several cargo areas, and also the flight line, where we caught several landings and takeoffs. We were in time to catch Lufthansa, flying the only A380 coming in regularly to Miami.

 

We also got her a couple of hours later taxiing for departure. Notice how she is escorted due to her over-sized width.

 

The cargo areas were very interesting. The major ones are full of Boeing 767 and 747 like these:

 

The northern smaller cargo areas have beautiful old planes like this Metroliner and Convair 580

 

The maintenance hangars had two rare Boeing 707s in. Once was John Travolta's but she was inside and could not be seen. In this area, run by private contractors, security was tight so we could not get off. Just took these pictures on a slow drive-by, through the windows (excuse the window reflections and tint). This B707 belongs to the Government of Congo and will soon be departing.

 

The day before this tour, there was a collision between two airliners. An arriving Aerolíneas Argentinas A340-312 took the wrong entry line to the ramp, going in the narrow body lane instead of the center-line for wide-bodies. An outgoing Air France B777-300 was coming out of the gate. The Argentina aircraft touched Air France and sheared the horizontal stabilizer tip. You can see the damage in these two pictures I took from the bus (sorry for the window glare)

 

Here's a close-up of the damage to the horizontal stabilizer:

 

Here is the article in The Miami Herald about the incident:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/17/3187955/two-commercial-airplanes-touch.html

 

 

Did you know that arriving passengers can see the word "MIAMI" built into the design of the ramp-side of the new terminal?

 

 

There are a lot more images in my gallery:

http://www.alexfeldsteinphotography.com/Airplanes/2012-Miami-KMIA-Airport-Tour/27623442_p2Vgjs

Hope you enjoyed the tour. I certainly did.