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Showing posts from April 10, 2011

Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

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I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
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I am in Sevenum, Netherlands at the moment. I landed this morning at 7:00 AM local (Dusseldorf) and put in a full day. I only feel a little tired. I must be getting the hang of this. One of the tricks is to stay up after your first day is over. You have to move towards the new time zone. http://www.techworld.com.au/article/383125/facebook_biggest_bank_by_2015/?fp=2&fpid=1 I think the above article (and pasted as a image below) is important and a potenteous, and a bit scary. Especially, since it was written by the the founder of what facebook has become.
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I like this piece of music. It ties US immigrants together; New Orleans (African and French), western Appalachia (Irish), and the Midwest (German and Scandinavians). You can almost see tributaries of the Mississippi river. How shallow it is to think that we don't each come from a particular heritage. Pride (deferred or demonstrated), genetics and familiar water holes is what makes us real.
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I just received a Medal from the US Government for Service in Antarctica. Certainly, it isn't every day I get a medal. It is one of the few medals that the federal government gives out to civilians. I am not sure what to do with it. Maybe I can find an old Webelos uniform to wear it with (not that I could possibly fit into it). I would like to get back to Antarctica again someday. Early next month I am giving a presentation called "Aviation in Antarctica" to the Atlanta chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA). Tuesday I am headed to Dusseldorf Germany, The Netherlands, and Denmark. I will be spending next weekend in Copenhagen. I hope to rent a bicycle.