42 Replies to “Reader Tips”

  3. Interesting video Vitruvius. I wonder if this is somewhat artifactual though, and not reflective of real flying conditions where the wings really flap around a bit.
    I’m also wondering about the relative properties of metal and carbon fibre, the latter of which I understand is increasingly used in aircraft manufacturing because it is lighter

  5. 154% of the strongest loads one could expect in flight. Normally, just cruising along at, what, 60% or so?
    No wonder the wings never fall off – except, of course, man-caused tut tuts.

  7. OK, Vitruvius, but my point was that as a non-engineer, I would have expected some other type of testing to be more useful, such as one where there is profound wing oscillations, or whatever the correct technical term.
    But I guess modeling has its purposes, and there must be valid reasons for performing that test.

  10. Yes, Vitriuvius, I am sure that they must have done much more testing. I’ll stop making further comment now before I embarrass myself even more!

  13. I’ll feel much better on the Air Bus 380–thank you very much. It’s the difference between a Mercedes and a Chev!

  16. Vit:
    Thanks for that video. Now I understand Obamenomics. He’s going to stress the US economy until it shatters and then rebuild it, even better this time! Hope and change! Hope and change!

  17. “Breaking out of green hell
    Peter Foster
    Thank Gaia for Steve Milloy, who has for more than a decade fought to stem the ever-rising waters of environmental hysteria via his Web site, junk-science. com, and his personal activism. He has now written a book, Green Hell, that provides a jaw-dropping account of a society gone eco-mad.
    How could you not love a man who, in 2007, rented an airplane to pull a banner over a Live Earth concert declaring “DON’T BELIEVE AL GORE.” Or who recruited students to hand out Earththemed beach balls at the same event bearing the words “I’m more worried about the intellectual climate”?
    How could you not admire someone who staged a virtual version of the debate that Al Gore refuses to have by interposing clips of An Inconvenient Truth with segments from The Great Global Warming Swindle and posting it all on YouTube?
    How could you not laud an individual who exposed Ben & Jerry’s corporate humbug? In the summer of 2000, Mr. Milloy noticed a brochure in one of their stores titled “Our Thoughts on Dioxin.” He read that “dioxin is known to cause cancer, genetic and reproductive defects and learning disabilities…The only safe level of dioxin exposure is no exposure at all.” So he had the company’s “World’s Best Vanilla” tested and found that a single serving contained about 740 times the level of dioxin considered “safe” for children!”
    http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1712574

  18. I’m getting an “Internal Server Error” message when I try to post at Show me an artist getting government grants.
    This is my comment:
    I saw that stupid red ball being squeezed into an archway in downtown Toronto a couple of weeks ago. ‘Didn’t pay much attention.
    Now, I realize I should have.
    The Taxpayer.com guy should have asked twitface-inflatable-ball-maker (NOT artist) if he knows that a full 1/3, often more, of Canadians’ hard earned salaries are taxed — a much higher percentage than in the U.S.A..
    ‘Not that he’d care.
    “Culture” that red ball ain’t. Crap would be a far more accurate definition.

  21. “DDT: banned lifesaver
    Death from malaria means convulsions and delirium, retching and diarrhea, joint and abdominal pain so excruciating that coma can be a blessing. The parasitic infection destroys the body’s red blood cells and clogs its capillaries, depriving vital organs and the brain of blood. That malaria strikes some 300 million people annually — and kills an African child every 30 seconds — is all the more tragic given how preventable it is. But modern environmental ideology simply doesn’t permit the use of DDT, the most effective means of eradicating the ghastly disease.”
    “Such policy yo-yo frustrates those on the front-lines of the malaria fight who see special-interest politics, not science, driving public health policy. Indeed, groups who prosper by collecting contributions for bed nets and other less effective prevention methods are among the most virulent critics of DDT.”
    http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=1712575
    …-
    Belinda Stronach and Rick Mercer Launch National Spread the Net …
    13 Sep 2007 … Today, Belinda Stronach and Rick Mercer, co-founders of the … challenged university campuses across Canada to raise funds to buy bed nets to help … of charge to children in Liberia and Rwanda over the next two years. …
    http://www.marketwire.com/press…/Spread-The-Net-769677.html

  23. “I’ll feel much better on the Air Bus 380–thank you very much. It’s the difference between a Mercedes and a Chev! ”
    Ya. A Mercedes bus crammed to the gills with people in tiny seats.

  25. O’Lynch (CHRC): The O’bullies and O’Proskynesis.
    …-
    “The New Orwellianism [Victor Davis Hanson]
    We use Orwell, Orwellian, and Orwellianism loosely a lot these days, but what is going on in the Obama administration is beginning to get a little creepy and resembles a lot of things Orwell wrote about in 1984.
    When in, Soviet fashion, a critical overseer is dismissed as being “confused” and suffering mental problems in carrying out the law, as Gerald Walpin probably did in uncovering waste and possible fraud in connection with the mayor of Sacramento;
    or when the government begins to create new words like “overseas contingency operations” and “man-made catastrophes”;
    or when Justice Sotomayor says that a Latina is inherently a better judge than a white man — and then says she does not mean what she says — or that a female-only club that has no males does so because no males apparently applied (using the argument of pre-Civil Rights Southern country clubs);
    or when the president begins nationalizing companies because he has no interest in the federal government interfering with private enterprise or swears that he is going to uncover waste and insist on financial sobriety as he runs up a nearly $2 trillion deficit, we see a creeping Orwellianism everywhere.
    Bush (and “Bush did it”) has become the proverbial enemy at large, sort of playing the role of Trotsky in the Soviet 1930s, or the face on the big screen we are supposed to hate — alternately demonized and airbrushed (when Obama adopts his policies like military tribunals, Iraq, or renditions).
    Newspeak has even proclaimed our president a “god,” and a journalist has adopted proskynesis in his presence.
    All this dissimulation is based on two general principles — one, the cause of egalitarianism and equality of result is so critical that the tawdry means of distorting reality is not only worth it, but not tawdry; and two, 30 years of postmodern teaching in our law and graduate schools have insidiously convinced many of our elites that there is no absolute truth, only competing narratives that take on credence depending on the race, class, gender, and access to power of those who speak.
    As a rule of thumb, when key administration officials say they do not wish to do something, the odds are they have already done it, and when they imply “Bush did it” it means that they will adopt it (e.g., anti-terrorism protocols) or exceed it (Bush deficits).”
    http://www.freerepublic.com/focu…s/2275053/ posts
    “bully: “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates smaller or weaker people.” (dict.com)
    “Proskynesis, (Greek προσκύνησις formed from the Ancient Greek words pros and kuneo literally means “kissing towards”, and refers to the traditional Persian act of prostrating oneself before a person of higher social rank.
    According to Herodotus in his Histories, a person of equal rank received a kiss on the lips, someone of a slightly lower rank gave a kiss on the cheek, and someone of a very inferior social standing had to completely bow down to the other person before them. To the Greeks, giving proskynesis to a mortal seemed to be a barbarian and ludicrous practice. They reserved such submissions for the gods only.”
    (statemasterencyclopedia)

  26. The Toronto Star is running an on line poll:
    thestar.com Poll
    Some candidates for the provincial Tory leadership want to scrap the Ontario Human Rights Tribunals with a courts-based system. Is this a good idea?
    Yes 363 45%
    No 317 40%
    Don’t know 110 13%

  28. I’m getting an “Internal Server Error” message when I try to post at Show me an artist getting government grants.
    This is my comment:
    I bet without his government handout (my tax dollar) he would have “Do you want fries with that”
    down pat.

  31. A great rebuttal by Peter Worthington in today’s Toronto Sun regarding Jennifer Lynch’s Op-Ed in the Slop & Pail a few days ago:
    Free society needs free speech
    We don’t need human rights watchdogs and ‘hate’ police looking for violators.
    Link here: http://tinyurl.com/n6yeuw

  32. Red Cronkite and his MSM’s Motto:
    Better Red Than Dead.
    …-
    “Walter Cronkite, Vietnam, and the Decline of Media Credibility
    Walter Cronkite’s remarks at the end of his February 27, 1968 evening news broadcast, four decades ago today, were a watershed in the history of the MSM’s credibility.
    Unless you’re at least 55 years old, you probably don’t remember that CBS broadcast 40 years ago. The most trusted man in America had recently returned from Vietnam where he hosted a documentary on the VC/NVA TET (New Year) offensive that began January 31, 1968. Back in NYC, he closed his program that night by introducing “an analysis that must be speculative, personal, [and] subjective.” Among his comments were these:
    Who won and who lost in the great Tet offensive against the cities? I’m not sure. The Vietcong did not win by a knockout, but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw.
    It seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate.
    But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
    http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/02/walter_cronkite_vietnam_and_th.html

  33. Shameless plug of my eeny weeny blog today, I have a post about what racism would look like if it was really, really racism. If an innocent brown kid would get shot and the racists would just leave him lying there while they continued their shopping, that’d be pretty racist, right?
    http://phantomsoapbox.blogspot.com/2009/06/what-does-racism-look-like.html
    Oddly, this (particularly egregious!) example seems to have been missed by the MSM. I can’t imagine how this shocking oversight occurred. Can you, Lefties?

  34. There’s a link problem and comments can’t be posted about the big red ball. Sorry for the somewhat off-topic tip, but this seems the most logical place to post.

  35. The reason for the unionists, aka NDP, rally? It’s a ploy to draw the leftist vote back to Taliban Jack’s NDP.
    Iggy drew their “ire”.
    But, PM Harper is the political skills/genius of the piece.
    Iggy has naively sent the left-Liberal vote to the NDP.
    Iggy is The Loser.
    No wonder Hebert had this to say:
    “Is it any wonder that the Prime Minister looked a bit like the cat that just swallowed the canary when he announced his deal with Ignatieff?”
    http://www.thestar.com/canada/columnist/article/653368
    …-
    “Unemployed Workers to Rally at Ignatieff’s Office
    June 18, 2009, 4:31 PM EST
    Unemployed workers will converge at Michael Ignatieff’s constituency office in Etobicoke, Ontario Friday June 19 to protest the Opposition Leader’s about-face on long-overdue and necessary unemployment insurance (EI) reforms by postponing fixes to the program until after the summer.
    Demonstration at Michael Ignatieff’s constituency office
    When: Friday June 19, 2009
    Time: 10:00 a.m.
    Location: 636 The Queensway, Etobicoke, Ontario M8Y 1K7 (west of Park Lawn Road)
    Labour unions and community activists have called on the federal government to introduce a suite of EI reforms that improves access, expands the benefit duration period and eliminates the two-week waiting period for laid-off workers, among others.
    Ignatieff drew the ire of activists across the country after striking a deal with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to establish a working group charged with reviewing a slate of possible EI reforms and providing recommendations that will be considered after the summer.”
    http://www.caw.ca/en/7598.htm

  36. CALGARY – Gorilla Mistaken for Ignatief at Calgary Zoo
    Photographs taken after a keeper accidentally left a knife in the zoo’s gorilla enclosure appear to tell a menacing story. One shows a gorilla, named Barika, clutching the blade in her black, hairy hand, seemingly pointing the sharp end at an unsuspecting troop mate sitting nearby.
    But zoo officials say the primates don’t understand the idea of using weapons and were never in any real danger.
    A keeper carried the paring knife into the enclosure to help prepare food for the gorillas, said Cathy Gaviller, the zoo’s director of conservation, education and research.
    He stuck the blade in his pocket, but it slid out unnoticed and was left behind.
    Soon, a curious Barika stumbled across the shiny object and picked it up by the handle.
    That’s when Joe and Heike Scheffler, who were standing outside the enclosure with about 20 people, including several children, noticed it glinting.
    “In the first moment, I thought it might be a (toy),” said Joe Scheffler, adding people began pointing and murmuring as they caught sight of the blade.
    “I though maybe it’s out of rubber, but I thought no, it’s … a knife, you can see the steel, you see it’s really bright and there’s no rust.”
    “You see that it’s a knife, but you think it’s not possible there’s a knife inside.”
    Scheffler’s wife snapped photographs as Barika carried the knife around, holding it near another female gorilla, named Zuri.
    Within minutes of picking the blade up, Barika placed it on a chair and all of the gorillas were called out of the enclosure by keepers, Gaviller said.
    The zoo actually has a system in place to retrieve lost items that have slipped into the enclosure.
    “The public members quite often drop cameras or sunglasses or hats or water bottles, by accident, into the exhibit,” Gaviller said. “So this … is actually a fairly common procedure.”
    The primates will often pick up new items in their enclosure out of curiosity, but they quickly get bored if they can’t eat the objects or figure out a use for them, she said.
    While gorillas will use crude tools in captivity, they have no concept of using weapons and would never have thought to be violent with the knife, Gaviller said, adding any aggression seen in the photographs is entirely in the eye of the beholder.
    “Gorillas are very passive, non-aggressive, shy-temperament creatures, and certainly the idea of a tool to hurt another gorilla is entirely foreign to their behaviour,” she said.
    It’s zoo policy for keepers to count tools and equipment going in and coming out of exhibits.
    “Clearly this was an oversight by a very dedicated professional, a very experienced keeper,” said Gaviller.
    “We will be reviewing those procedures will all the staff, just to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”
    This is not the first public issue the zoo has had to deal with related to its animals.
    Zoocheck Canada has called for an investigation after several high-profile deaths of animals at the zoo. Forty-one stingrays died in their tank last year and a Turkmenian markhor strangled to death on a rope in its enclosure in January.
    The zoo has countered that it passed a very stringent accreditation inspection from the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums in September.

  37. As a former aviation tech and engineering type, I always get an uncomfortable feeling when an aircraft gets bent, even on purpose. I’m one of those guys that would go half way around the world to recover an airframe and rebuild it if I could afford it.
    As for testing, this is just one of many, many tests that a design is put through, and yes there is even one where they flex the wings a lifetime worth and cycle the landing gear umteen million times. Aircraft design has progressed a lot in a hundred years. Non-distructive testing continues through out the aircraft’s lifetime as well.
    btw, for a real interesting story on aircraft recovery and restoration look up Glacier Girl, a restored P-38 Lightning recovered from inside a glacier in Greenland!

  40. Surrender, cut’n’run IggyDionky
    Maybe Ignatieff is vying for a cabinet post on the other side of the house; kind of a reverse-Belinda.

  41. oops, someone forgot to tell the RCMP that emails are forever?
    CTV, and others no doubt, are reporting that it seems the RCMP had conversed regarding the use of the Taser before confronting Mr. Dziekanski… this directly contradicts their sworn testimony …
    No charges will follow, as opposed to the sworn testimony of one ex-great Montreal Canadien. is this the time when we juxtapose?

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