Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

Our suburban driveway is about a quarter mile long and features a steep short hill. We currently have a plowing service that does an excellent job, but the plow leaves behind compacted flat sections of snow in various places. After a day or two, especially if it gets above freezing during the day, these compacted sections turn into solid ice. So then I ask the folks who plow to come back and spread out a salt/sand mixture. This melts the snow/ice during the day and then it refreezes at night into more ice.

Would a snowblower do a better job? Suppose that it were possible to remove all of the snow from the driveway. Then there would be nothing to melt and refreeze.

A friend suggested that we get a Bobcat and a wide snowblower attachment. This would cost $12,000, would leave us with a Bobcat to store, and the driveway would be done in 15 minutes. Honda makes some pretty serious walk-behind snowblowers, e.g., this 32-inch wide model. A neighbor has a 28-inch wide Honda that we could borrow, but somehow I think it would be too painful to use on a driveway as long as ours and his has wheels rather than tracks.

From looking at the Ariens Web site, I see that they also make “snow brushes” (example). I’m not sure where the snow would go after being brushed. Wouldn’t it fall right back down on the driveway? Anyway, if the brush idea worked we could use it to clean up after the plow and skip the snowblowing step.

Any words of advice from fellow denizens of the frozen north?

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Despite the fact that President Obama did not accept my offer to pay for his Aunt Zeituni‘s transportation out of crummy Massachusetts taxpayer-funded housing to a beautiful spacious vacant and already-secured Obama family house in Chicago, I would like to make an offer of a Christmas present: unlimited helicopter transportation for him and his family, at no cost to him or the U.S. taxpayer, through the end of his reign.

Background: the U.S. military has spent the last 10 years or so trying to buy some replacement helicopters for presidential transport. They settled on a huge $30 million Eurocopter with three screaming jet engines that put out a big welcome mat for a cheap heat-seeking missile, such as the Stingers that U.S. tax dollars purchased for the Taliban during the 1980s. By the time our military and Lockheed Martin added some anti-missile defenses and some U.S. manufacturing, the cost of each 14-passenger helicopter went up to about $400 million, far in excess of what airlines pay for the 853-passenger Airbus A-380. The program was shut down, in theory, but recently Congress authorized a $100 million gift to Lockheed Martin to keep the program alive (source). Does the U.S. really need to spend $15 billion on a handful of helicopters that will be used mostly for 10-minute hops? And should we buy helicopters that are so heavy that it will require several C-5 cargo planes to get them to foreign destinations (the president of the U.S. always travels with his own helicopters rather than borrowing local ones)?

Running the existing helicopter fleet is not cheap. There are literally 800 pilots, mechanics, and administrators, all paid federal salaries and pensions that are more than double their private-sector counterparts (source). Jet fuel is purchased in prodigious quantities.

I happen to own two nearly brand-new four-seat Robinson R44 helicopters. Powered by efficient Lycoming piston engines, these burn less fuel in a 130 mph cruise than each Eurocopter engine would burn at idle. Currently we use these for flight training at East Coast Aero Club, but in the interest of sparing the taxpayer from further ruin, I would be willing to move them down to Washington, D.C. I will also move myself down and one or two additional instructor-pilots from East Coast Aero Club. All of us have more than 1000 hours of helicopter experience. All are U.S. citizens and one of us is an Army veteran (given the recent tragedy in Texas involving a continuously promoted and decorated Army officer, it may be necessary to clarify that, to the best of our knowledge, he was not simultaneously serving in the U.S. Army and waging jihad on behalf of Al-Qaeda).

Here are some advantages of the Robinson:

• low fuel burn and high efficiency means that very little waste heat is generated and the infrared signature would not be sufficient for a heat-seeking missile, all of which are designed to shoot down fire-breathing jets
• small physical size means that it will be harder to hit with rifle fire than a monster Eurocopter or Sikorsky
• small size and 1400 lb. empty weight means that it can be transported to presidential travel destinations in a much smaller and more fuel-efficient cargo plane (one Robinson is no heavier than four average visitors to Epcot)
• high efficiency results in a range of about 350 miles on one tank of gas (the current Marine One helicopters have a range of only 100 miles (source))

I will pay all costs associated with presidential helicopter transport. I have already bought the helicopters. I will buy the fuel. I will pay the pilots (not being federal employees, they earn $25 per flight hour and receive no benefits or pension). I will pay Adam, Rob, and Sam to perform the 100-hour inspections and other maintenance (about $25 per flight hour). I will pay pilot hotel and meal expenses when President Obama is relaxing on Martha’s Vineyard or Hawaii. That’s my Christmas present to the Obama family and to the U.S. taxpayer.

Should Barack Obama accept this offer, I believe that the savings to the taxpayer will be in excess of $1 billion per year, reflecting cost savings from shutting down the 800-employee Marine One division and from not having to keep shoveling $100 bills into Lockheed Martin’s fireplace.

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Today’s aero-news.net carries a story about the cost of Obama’s Hawaiian vacation to the aviation industry there. It will not be a merry Christmas for the sightseeing operators, that’s for sure. Between economic losses due to restrictions and delays and the direct cost of naval, air, and land security, Obama’s vacation should cost the U.S. economy at least $100 million.

Now that we’re shutting down our Al-Qaeda Welcome Center in Guantanamo Bay, why not turn that into a fully secured tropical vacation destination for any senior government official who is entitled to Secret Service protection? The savings to taxpayers would probably exceed $1 billion annually (see this posting about what it cost taxpayers for the attorney general to visit Martha’s Vineyard last summer). Miss Universe enjoyed her recent time at the beach there (source). If it is good enough for the most beautiful woman in the world, why isn’t it good enough for our senior bureaucrats?

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Taking a break from my Tiger Woods vigil, I spent an afternoon taking photos at Epcot (background). These are available three ways:

• thumbnails linked to bigger pictures
• medium-sized slide show
• big slide show

Upon returning to Massachusetts, I discovered that Al Gore has not been spending enough time in private jets or burning electricity in his mansion. Temperatures are between 10 and 20F and more than a foot of snow has fallen: thumbnails | slide show.

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This seems to have been the year for Chinese-manufactured aircraft to reach the world stage. Here are a few news items from just the last couple of days:

• the first Cessna two-seat Skycatcher was delivered; all Skycatchers will be made in China (more)
• the 16-seat Eurocopter EC175, developed in collaboration with a Chinese company and ultimately to be manufactured in China, made its first flight (more); this will be somewhat larger than the Sikorsky S-76 airframes being made in China (previous blog posting)
• the Chinese assembly line for Airbus A320 airliners achieved its target by producing 11 planes in the second half of 2009 (more)

This represents a huge change from just a few years ago. An aircraft exported from China prior to 2009 would very likely have been a Chinese-made version of an old Russian design.

Speaking of aerospace and China, I had dinner in Orlando at the house of a friend who works for a jet manufacturer. The other day, his 7-year-old daughter read some boxes and labels then asked him “Daddy, why are all of my toys made in China?”

[Separately, this week’s New Yorker carries a story about the Chinese renewable energy industry.]

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Here are my best Christmas gift ideas. Most can be ordered from Amazon with one- or two-day shipping, so they are suitable for procrastinators. Nearly everything here is something that I own or have read.

For anyone born in New York City, Mannahatta: A Natural History of New York City.

For science-oriented middle school kids, The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe (I secretly want one for myself).

For a young kid, Samoyed stuffed toy (Okay, I admit that I have one in my bedroom).

Now that global warming has been discredited as a hoax, for anyone living in the northeast… Yaktrax Pro Traction Cleats (I arrived home last night from Orlando to discover a sheet of ice covering my driveway).

For anyone planning to vacation in Florida, any book by Carl Hiaasen, e.g., Skinny Dip.

For anyone who hasn’t learned anything new for a while, an introductory flight lesson. Your local airport probably has a flight school that offers gift certificates for $100 or $150 that will cover the first 30-60 minutes of instruction.

A friend asked me about a camera to give to her teenage daughter. She wanted something that the girl could use for creative purposes all the way through college. I like the professional full-frame Canon and Nikon bodies and lenses, but the weight and cost aren’t bearable for a typical consumer. I recommended the Olympus Evolt E620.

For a music, photo, or video-lover: load up all of your favorites onto a Seagate FreeAgent Go 500 GB and then mail the little hard drive to them. Most external hard drives require an additional power supply and an additional plug into the wall, but this one powers itself from a USB cable. Your friend can use the extra space on the drive to back up his or her PC (the software is included).

If you want that music lover to be able to play his or her collection throughout the house, Sonos BU250 Multiroom Music System (see my whole house music article).

For a football lover, Panasonic TC-P50G10 50-Inch Plasma HDTV (I ordered this back in April after reading an electronics reporter say that it was the best TV of the Consumer Electronics Show 2009.)

If you think that giving to charity would be more in keeping with Jesus’s philosophy, let me suggest Partners in Health, whose financials are discussed at the bottom of my posting on Mountains Beyond Mountains. If you’d rather do something more personal and direct, along the lines of the 2006 water buffalo donation (the video is great), let me put in a plug for my cousin Jennifer’s Enriching Education in Rural Ecuador (EERE). Jennifer is an American who grew up in Ecuador and currently lives in the countryside with her family. She sends her son to the local school where she volunteers as an English teacher. She takes no salary from her non-profit and 100 percent of donations are used directly for the benefit of students, e.g., to buy textbooks. Is she going to change the whole country and then the world like Greg Mortenson describes himself doing in Three Cups of Tea? No. And neither are your donations to EERE. But a donation will end up making a concrete difference to an identifiable child.

As Jennifer spends most of the year in Ecuador, the best thing to do is send a check to EERE’s bank:

Alexis Vives, Asst. Branch Manager
SunTrust Bank
11700 North Kendall Drive
Miami, FL 33186
Account # 1000099874991 (Enriching Education in Rural Ecuador, Inc.)
Questions about how to send money: call (305) 274-5722 or email alexis.vives@suntrust.com

Note that this guy doesn’t know anything about EERE or Jennifer’s work; he just works in a bank in Florida. If you have questions about what she is doing in Ecuador, contact her directly at jengittes@aol.com. EERE is an IRS-approved 501c3 organization, which makes your donation tax-deductible and your canceled check should be sufficient to verify your donation (though certainly Jennifer can send you a letter if you need it). Ecuador is a beautiful colorful country with a mild climate. Volunteering there at the school for a few weeks would not be a hardship.

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In colonial North America there were two currencies: coins of precious metal and wampum. I would have guessed that a more advanced society would have simpler and more efficient payment and exchange systems, but it doesn’t seem to have worked that way. Let’s look at a person who travels for business up and down the East Coast. He or she will need the following:

• traditional U.S. cash, the only acceptable form of payment in many small businesses
• a credit card, the only acceptable form of payment for many things, e.g., rental cars, airline food and entertainment
• a cash-equivalent card for paying for subway rides on Boston’s MBTA (they spent so much putting in the electronic fare machines that they had to raise the price of a ride from $1.25 to $2, but the new system cannot take a credit or debit card directly)
• a cash-equivalent card for riding the New York City subway and buses
• a smarter cash-equivalent card for riding the Washington, D.C. subway (charges a variable fare depending on distance and time of day)
• various cash-equivalent cards that pay for parking meters in more advanced towns
• an EZ-Pass for paying car tolls in the Northeast (this and other RFID-based toll collection systems are currently optional, as our business traveler could elect to wait in line and pay with cash, but proposals are on the table for making them mandatory (toll collectors can earn more than $150,000 per year, including the value of pension obligations, so there is some pressure to eliminate their jobs)
• an E-PASS for paying car tolls in Orlando
• probably a few more electronic toll payment systems for the states in between

Can anyone think of some more? Is this proliferation of currency hurting U.S. economic efficiency?

[The New York Times yesterday ran a story about running nearly $1 trillion in taxpayer money around in circles through AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and GMAC. I wonder if we’re doing the same thing on an individual basis, i.e., running our money around in circles through various cash-like payment schemes, each time losing about 5 percent.]

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Fifty years from now the Collapse of 2008-? might be looked at as primarily a fight between the old and the young. The New York Times yesterday carried a story about the city of Pittsburgh taxing college tuition to pay pensions:

“a 1 percent tuition tax on students attending college in Pittsburgh, which he says will raise $16.2 million in annual revenue that is needed to pay pensions for retired city employees.”

This is the most direct example I’ve seen of a tax on the young (the tax will be collected from universities but substantially paid by customers, as with most taxes on business) to benefit the old. An 18-year-old will pay more for college so that a 50-year-old can enjoy his retirement as though the Collapse of 2008 had not occurred. In California the pensions of those over age 50 are preserved while students at the University of California will pay 32 percent more (source).

The young start out with a lot of advantages. They have tremendous energy and physical health. But one wonders how much can be loaded onto their backs. Let’s look at what the U.S. government and state/local governments are doing to hobble young people:

• running schools with unbreakable standards for what administrators and teachers are paid and how much they will be paid decades after retiring, but no standards at all for the effectiveness of teaching (this is probably the worst because it will deprive many of America’s kids of the option to emigrate to countries where good jobs are available)
• borrowing trillions of dollars to pay for programs that primarily benefit the old, e.g., Medicare; this money to be paid back by today’s youth once they enter the workforce
• making it a legal requirement for healthy young people to pay for overpriced health insurance (Congress’s latest health care scheme includes new limits on the maximum difference that insurance companies can charge based on age)
• minimum wage laws that make young workers who would otherwise be cheap to employ unattractive to employers
• laws forcing employers to recognize unions; unions are run by older workers and they tend to organize things for the benefit of older workers at the expense of the young (which is why a 65-year-old airline pilot might earn over $200,000 annually for working ten 8-hour days per month while a 30-year-old airline pilot will earn $19,000 for working twenty-two 16-hour days per month)
• immigration policies that allow young inexperienced workers from foreign countries to flood into the U.S. and compete for low-skill jobs (a 50-year-old lawyer or doctor does not face competition from a 20-year-old coming in from Sudan, Iraq, or Latin America, but an American 20-year-old who received a poor public school education does)
• transferring hundreds of billions of future tax dollars into the pockets of Wall Street bankers, who tend to be older (we haven’t heard about too many 18-year-olds paying themselves $100 million bonuses)
• corporate governance laws for public companies that allow trillions in shareholder wealth to be transferred into the pockets of executives (I wrote about this in my economic recovery plan); senior executives at public companies tend to be older than average and the reduction in value for public company shares tends to weaken pension funds and inevitably it seems that taxes on young working people are required to bail out those funds… so that people aged 48-120 can continue to receive a pension (see GM and Chrysler)
• outlawing certain recreational drugs, which tend to be consumed disproportionately by the young, and therefore raising prices. Drug laws also result in a lot of young people being sent to prison while old people benefit from well-paid and pensioned government jobs in drug law enforcement, prison administration, etc. The drugs most preferred by old people, e.g., alcohol, tobacco, and various prescription opiates, remain legal and inexpensive.
• consuming the Earth’s resources at a rate greater than natural replenishment (a 35-year-old friend, when asked his views on global warming and pollution, replied “I don’t understand what the problem is; the Earth only needs to last another 50 years.”)

As a 46-year-old who has the right to vote, when I look at teenagers these days sometimes I wonder “What did they do to us that was so bad that we’ve decided to do all of this to them?”

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With new instrument flying students, we sit down together at a computer and obtain a weather briefing from DUATS. This is a 15-page document and one of the most important skills for an IFR pilot is to be able to pick out the important stuff and make decisions based upon that most critical information. The student sees a Web page on the screen. He or she sees a mouse cursor moving occasionally or some text being highlighted. He or she sees the Web page being scrolled down. He or she hears my voice explaining why a particular line or section is irrelevant or relevant. I went through this exercise with a group of pilots the other day and one suggested that it would be good training material to share on the Web. Now the question becomes how to do it. Here are my criteria:

1. authoring should be almost as easy as sitting down at a browser, putting on a headset, and speaking while using the computer in a natural manner
2. viewing should be sharp and crisp; the number of pixels being changed is very small and the amount of data necessary to transmit a perfect copy of the screen is small; (i.e., I would not want to stick a video camera a few feet from the screen and have the text be fuzzed up by the camera or by MPEG compression for distribution)
3. viewing should be possible in a standard Web browser with no need to install additional software
4. viewers should not have to pay a license fee for any software
5. I should not have to pay any ongoing license fees for any software (since I want to make just one recording!)

My initial thought was that this is essentially what various Web-mediated meeting programs (WebEx; Live Meeting) do. They let a bunch of people scattered around the Internet see some computer screen interaction and hear a voice. If such a program had a “record” button and a means of distributing historical meetings, that would be ideal, especially if the program could compile into Flash or something similar.

If not all of the criteria can be met, I would be willing to accept a situation in which we distribute a somewhat fuzzy YouTube video and then offer a much higher quality version to those who are willing to download and install a free Web collaboration client program.

Ideas? Suggestions?

[A totally different way to go would be annotated text. Distribute the original DUATS briefing as an HTML document tarted up with some JavaScript. When the reader moves a mouse over a particular line, a text annotation pops up. I’m not sure if there is a convenient way to author that kind of text. I’m willing to do it all in Emacs, I guess, typing tags, as long as all of it can be done with CLASS= modifiers on P and LI tags and the code remains up at the top or in a style sheet.]

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