Air-Minded: Converting Jet Fuel into Noise

THROTTLES—IDLE RUDDER AND AILERONS—NEUTRAL STICK—ABRUPTLY FULL AFT AND HOLD RUDDER—ABRUPTLY APPLY FULL RUDDER OPPOSITE SPIN DIRECTION (OPPOSITE TURN NEEDLE) AND HOLD STICK—ABRUPTLY FULL FORWARD ONE TURN AFTER APPLYING RUDDER CONTROLS—NEUTRAL AFTER SPINNING STOPS AND RECOVER FROM DIVE That, if you don’t recognize it, is the boldface spin recovery procedure for the T-37. Student pilots could […]

Paul’s Movie Reviews

“When daddy kill me I won’t be forgotten. I’m recording my story for the scientists in the future. In a million years, when kids go to school, they gonna know: Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her daddy in The Bathtub.” — Quvenzhané Wallis as Hushpuppy in Beasts of the Southern Wild […]

Air-Minded: the Magnesium Overcast

After ranting about the media I need a palate cleanser. The internet equivalent of a breath mint is a LOLcat. But I’m into airplanes, so I’ll give you a LOLbomber instead. As with the B-58 Hustler I described in a previous post, even though I was around during the B-36 bomber’s heyday I never saw one in […]

Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing

Three furious headlines: Chris Matthews Backs Anti-Abortion Shill Into A Corner Allen West Blasts ‘Misconceived’ Policy On Women In Combat S. Korean Authorities’ Fascist Oppression Flayed The first is from a leftie site called Crooks & Liars; the second from a right-leaning site called Mediaite; the third from North Korea’s Central News Agency. Each one […]

Tuesday Bag o’ Surveillance

That’s a speed enforcement camera. The reason you can’t see it is because someone put a bag over it. This rebellion against the police state happened in England; click on the photo to learn more. Here in Tucson we have speed enforcement and red light cameras: they’re not yet everywhere but we’re getting there. Just […]

You Can’t Read That! Banned Book Review Lookback: Uncle Tom’s Cabin

YCRT! is a periodic post featuring banned book reviews and news roundups. Banned & Challenged Books I’m not a big fan of lists, but here’s one I can get behind: five subversive children’s books everyone should read. Parents in Texas go after a high school AP English reading list and school administrators cave, removing Chuck Palaniuk’s Fight […]

Bisbee Run

For a motorcyclist, the best thing about retirement is being able to go for weekday rides in the country when traffic is light. My buddy Ed and I rode to Bisbee yesterday. Bisbee, of course, is the famous (infamous, when it comes to the history of labor in the United States) mining town on Arizona’s […]