Fly away with me

NewMexiKen ran across these two books about flying.

More than ever, air travel is a focus of curiosity, intrigue and anxiety. This year, some half a billion passengers will ride aboard the ten largest US airlines alone. Fair to say each one has a question, a doubt, and a lingering fear in the back of his or her mind. We take to the air routinely, yet few of us understand the how and why of jetting from New York to London in six hours. Patrick Smith, an airline pilot and author of Salon.com’s popular air travel column, unravels the secrets and tells you all there is to know about the strange and fascinating world of commercial flight.

* Insights into safety, security, and the nuts and bolts of how planes fly

* Straight talk on turbulence, air traffic control, windshear and accidents

* The history, color and controversy of the world’s airlines

* The awe and oddity of being a pilot

* The poetry and drama of airplanes, airports, and travelling abroad

Patrick speaks eloquently to our fears and curiosities, incorporating anecdotes, memoir, and a life’s passion for flight. He tackles your toughest concerns, debunks conspiracies and urban myths, and in a rarely heard voice dares to return a dash of romance and glamour to air travel.

Talk about a fresh perspective! Perched 35,000 feet in the air, Window Seat decodes the sights to be seen on any flight across North America. Broken down by region, this unusual guide features 70 aerial photographs; a fold-out map of North America showing major flight paths; profiles of each region covering its landforms, waterways, and cities; tips on spotting major sights, such as the Northern Lights, the Grand Canyon, and Disney World; tips on spotting not-so-major sights such as prisons, mines, and Interstates; and straightforward, friendly text on cloud shapes, weather patterns, the continent’s history, and more. A terrific book for kids, frequent flyers, and armchair travelers alike, Window Seat is packed with curious facts and colorful illustration, proving that flying doesn’t have to be a snooze. When it’s possible to “read” the landscape from above, a whole world unfolds at your feet.

Both reviews from Amazon.com.

How many are drunk and on the phone?

Also from The Atlantic Online, November 2004, Primary Sources:

Driving while talking on a cell phone can be more dangerous than driving drunk. A recent study ran a driving simulation comparing the response time of drivers conducting cell-phone conversations and drivers who were legally intoxicated (they drank “a mixture of orange juice and vodka”—in more technical language, a screwdriver). Although the intoxicated drivers tended to follow other cars more closely and brake more violently, the drivers conversing on cell phones exhibited a greater delay in their response to events on the road, and were more likely to be involved in a collision. (Interestingly, it made no difference whether the cell-phone drivers were using handheld or hands-free equipment.) The intoxicated drivers actually drove more slowly, and had a better braking response, than the study’s control group (participants who were neither drunk nor talking on a cell phone). But before you toss away your phone and reach for another shot of tequila, it’s worth noting that the screwdriver-drinking participants had a blood-alcohol level of only .08—drunk, but not that drunk.

“A Comparison of the Cell Phone Driver and the Drunk Driver,” D. Strayer, F. Drews, and D. Crouch, AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies

The name game

From The Atlantic Online, November 2004, Primary Sources:

If you feel that the opposite sex isn’t giving you the attention you so richly deserve, maybe you should consider making a change—a name change, that is. According to a preliminary study by an MIT cognitive scientist, the vowel sounds in people’s names may have an impact on how others judge their attractiveness. Specifically, when the men in the study were assigned names with a stressed front vowel (a vowel sound spoken at the front of the mouth), they were rated as more attractive than when they were assigned names with a stressed back vowel. (In other words, good news for Dave, Craig, Ben, Jake, Rick, Steve, Matt; bad news for Lou, Paul, Luke, Tom, Charles, George, John.) In women the effect was reversed, and a stressed back vowel (Laura, Julie, Robin, Susan, Holly) boosted sex appeal, whereas a stressed front vowel (Melanie, Jamie, Jill, Tracy, Ann, Liz, Amy) had the opposite effect—to the author’s disappointment, no doubt.

“What’s in a Name? The Effect of Sound Symbolism on Perception of Facial Attractiveness,” Amy Perfors, MIT

The fans

If you stayed with the Yankees-Red Sox game until the walk-off home run by David Ortiz in the 12th, you must feel like NewMexiKen that Fox Sports showed us every single friggin’ freezing fan in the crowd. What’s with so many crowd shots? Can’t we just stick with ball players spitting like in the past?

It’s the birthday

… of Chuck Berry. Roll over Beethoven, Chuck’s 78.

… of Keith Jackson. Whoa, Nellie, he’s 76.

… of Peter Boyle. Raymond’s father is 69.

… of Pam Dawber. Mork’s Mindy is 53.

Let’s see if we can get anyone to comment

Atrios has an idea that NewMexiKen likes (maybe even Atrios is getting restless about being all-politics all-the-time). He’s interested in music and asks:

So, post your top 5 “still listen to frequently even though I’ve had them for years” CDs.

When I last looked, he had 479 responses.

Here’s mine (subject to reconsideration and change) —

Miles Davis, Kind of Blue
Cowboy Junkies, The Trinity Session
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, Facing Future
Eva Cassidy, Imagine
David Grisman & Martin Taylor, Tone Poems II

Can you hear me now?

MONTERREY, Mexico (AP) — Some Mexican priests, tired of Mass being interrupted by ringing cell phones, are using counterintelligence technology made in Israel to silence the devices.

In four Monterrey churches, cell phone blockers the size of a hand-held radio have been tucked among the paintings of the Madonna and clay statues of saints to bring peace back to Mass.

“There are still many people who don’t understand that being at Mass is sharing a moment with God,” said Juan Jose Martinez, a priest and spokesman for the Monterrey Archdiocese. “Sadly, we had no other choice but to use these little gadgets.”

A vertical expression of a horizontal wish

Much to my surprise (I’d read none of the reviews), NewMexiKen really enjoyed the film Shall We Dance with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Jennifer Lopez. A romantic comedy with all the bells and whistles, it was amusing, entertaining and, of course, romantic.

And, if it’s a hit, it would be a good time to invest in Arthur Murray Dance Studios stock.

Our far-flung correspondents

Nora reports on the real star at a Ken Salazar rally Saturday —

[Salazar] was introduced by Barack Obama. Obama spoke for approximately twenty minutes and he was, as you might expect, phenomenal. His message was necessarily similar to those of the other speakers (vote Democratic in November), but his personality and his thought process eclipsed all the other politicians’ speeches. He has this way of instantly making you feel like you know him, and he delivers his anecdotes so that you immediately understand why you have a responsibility to help people you don’t know. There was a stark contrast between Obama and Salazar — Illinois is lucky to have him.

Ken Salazar is running for the U.S. Senate in Colorado. Barack Obama is running for the U.S. Senate in Illinois.

Gesundheit!

FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) – People who went to a local clinic to get a flu shot didn’t receive the vaccine they wanted. Instead, they received an old-fashioned remedy.

The estimated 20 people who went to the flu shot clinic Friday at Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union were sent home with a can of chicken soup and a pack of tissues.

$1.4 billion deposit slip

Story from Saturday’s Boston Globe —

About half of the roughly $5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds disbursed by the US government in the first half of this year cannot be accounted for, according to an audit commissioned by the United Nations, which could not find records for numerous rebuilding projects and other payments.

One chunk of the money — $1.4 billion — was deposited into a local bank by Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq but could be tracked no further: The auditors reported that they were shown a deposit slip but could find no additional records to explain how the money was used or to prove that it remains in the bank.

Auditors also said they could not track more than $1 billion in funds doled out by US authorities for hundreds of large and small reconstruction projects.

Link via The American Street.

NewMexiKen

NewMexiKen passed 10,000 visits for October early this morning. They’ve come from 69 different nations.

Just a good half-hour for Kos perhaps, but a long way from the 25 a day I was getting last winter.

Thanks to links from Body and Soul and The Mahablog, we hit 897 Saturday, usually a slow day.

Jeb Bush isn’t our governor

From Bryan Curtis’ essay at Slate on swing state New Mexico (September 10, 2004):

Al Gore won New Mexico by 366 votes in 2000, and I’ve managed to track down the man who delivered them. … On Election Day 2000, George W. Bush appeared to narrowly win New Mexico’s five electoral votes. But more than three weeks later, with the nation’s attention glued to Florida, Davis, a retired engineer from White Sands, “discovered” 500 Gore votes that had somehow eluded the counters. Amid the howls of local Republicans, New Mexico shifted into the Gore column. If Gore had carried one more small state—West Virginia, say, or New Hampshire—New Mexico might have been Florida and Davis its Katherine Harris.

…. Davis had wandered into Dona Ana County’s adobe courthouse one morning, when he ran into the county clerk, Rita Torres. Torres needed a Democrat to monitor the formal vote canvassing, so Davis joined a Republican operative in Room 104. “I was sitting there next to the Republican representative, and he said, ‘Look at all these stupid Democrats, they didn’t even vote for president,’ ” Davis says. “It just didn’t jibe.” In fact, a worker in a heavily Democratic precinct had scrawled the number “620” on a tally sheet so poorly that it looked like “120”—thus, 500 Gore votes had vanished.

The polls

“The latest polls say Bush and Kerry are in a dead heat. Reuters’ three-day tracking poll says it’s tied at 45 percent; the CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll has it 49 percent Kerry and 48 percent Bush. In an election this close, it’s gonna come down to who wants it more and which candidate’s brother is governor of Florida.”

Jimmy Kimmel

More Stewart and Carlson

STEWART: It’s not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.

CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you’re accusing us of partisan hackery?

STEWART: Absolutely.

CARLSON: You’ve got to be kidding me. He comes on and you…

STEWART: You’re on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

The transcript

The video [Windows Media Player]

It’s the birthday

… of Arthur Miller. The playwright (The Crucible, Death of a Salesman) and one-time husband of Marilyn Monroe is 89.

… of Jimmy Breslin. The columnist is 74.

… of Evel Knievel. The daredevil is 66.

… of Margot Kidder. Lois Lane is 56.

… of George Wendt. Norm is 56.
“What’ll you have Norm?”
“Fame, fortune, fast women.”
“How about a beer?”
“Even better.”

… of Marshall Mathers. Eminem is 32.

Not one to complain, but …

AAA tells us the average gallon of unleaded regular in the U.S. yesterday was $1.989. It also says the record price was $2.054 a gallon in May.

In May crude oil sold for around $40 barrel. Today it is near $55 a barrel.

Why hasn’t the price at the pump kept pace with the price of crude?

How much do you think gasoline will cost after the election?

Diesel fuel prices are at a record high by the way — $2.136 yesterday.

Jon Stewart for President

From July 2003 interview with Bill Moyers on NOW:

STEWART: No. They vote… less than 50 percent of the country. The country is, look, the general dialogue is being swayed by the people who are ideologically driven.

The five percent on each side that are so ideological driven that they will dictate the terms of the discussion. The other 90 percent of the country have lawns to mow, and kids to pick up from schools, and money to make, and things to do. Their lives are, they have entrusted… we live in a representative democracy.

And so, we elect representatives to go do our bidding, so that we can get the leaves out of the gutter, and do the things around the house that need to be done. What the representatives have done over 200 years is set up a periphery — I think they call it the Beltway — that is obtuse enough that we can’t penetrate it anymore, unless we spend all of our time. This is the way that it’s been set up purposefully by both sides. In the financial industry, as well. They don’t want average people to easily penetrate the workings because then we call them on it.