Walking on the Moon

A few weeks ago I got a nice note from a fellow named Jeff Barlow who’s still making Twin Tier Tier in Elmira run. I’d posted some pictures from there when I was in Elmira for my 20th high school reunion and it had seemed like the place was closed. Jeff pointed out that the location had closed, but the business was still going strong.

That’s good news. Twin Tier Tire was my first real job, and the first time someone who didn’t know me from school paid me to make a computer work for them. I also changed tires, and stacked tires, and did other stuff that;s good for one’s soul. It was a good place to work, and I’m glad they’re still around.

Apparently the Santa Monica city council is continuing to try to block category C&D jets from using the airport. The FAA remains unamused.

I was at SMO today and saw some sizable jets depart. They didn’t have labels indicating their approach speeds, so I can’t be sure that they were illegal in the estimate of the Santa Monica city council.

I’ve got to say, 3 significant figures of accuracy on a 29 year projection is pretty impressive. Or something.

For an administration run by a uniter (not a divider), it sure has a penchant for building walls.

Mmmmmm. Frivolously suing lawyers makes for good fun (from BoingBoing). Best quote:

Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it.

The Monty Hall problem remains confusing to people (from SlashDot).

The Santa Monica city council is trying to regulate jets at SMO, and this perturbs the FAA.

Here are a few links and other stuff I’ve been meaning to pass on:

One Day I’ll Kill You – delightfully exploitive golden age comics.

Elfquest is on line now. Some seminal early 80’s independent comics.  I’ve read them all once, but don’t have copies.

Wondering when we’ll see Gustave Whitehead in Doktor Sleepless.

William Safire’s take on waterboarding.

More free seminal comics: Alan Moore and John Totleben’s “The Anatomy Lesson” from their unbelievable Swamp Thing run.  All of Vertigo started here, IMHO.

Warren Ellis‘s photo recommendations aren’t always awful.

Oh, and we had a critter stop by.

My instant messaging (IM) system of choice is Jabber, the IETF standard messaging protocol.  Of course, many folks don’t use Jabber, but that’s mitigated by the ability to use gateways to other IM technologies.  My Yahoo gateway’s been down for a while, but I think I’ve restored it.  If you know my old yahoo ID, look for me on yahoo messenger.  If you know me and don’t know my yahoo ID, send me mail and we’ll try to connect.

Thanks!

Nice excoriation of the stupid over at BoingBoing from Xeni Jardin.

I spent my morning driving fence posts into some very hard ground.  You’re all welcome.

This is the kind of thing we have to put up with.

and now, hometown hero.  Rod Van Meter.

Well, certainly I read him partially to feed my raging fanboy jealousy. And then there’s something like his piece on Roddenberry’s induction into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, which convinces me both that he’s a writer and that he’s a great guy.

A guy this decent deserves to be Cosmic Boy. Of course, I’ve always thought of myself as more of an Ultra Boy.