Philip Greenspun’s Weblog

Woke up at 0445.  Cranked up N211SH at the Long Beach, California office of Silver State Helicopters, and departed north to Highway 91 then east to Riverside and Interstate 10.  A long beautiful pink sunrise gave way to a blinding sun as we flew over a city of commuters waking up.  Coming through the Banning Pass, we looked disconsolately at the GPS in the Robinson R22’s panel: 65 knots over the ground.  The 85-knot cruise speed of the R22 is bad enough, but with this headwind we could see cars passing us on the freeway below.

Our first stop was Thermal, California (TRM), a huge airport SE of Palm Springs, where private jets drop off polo enthusiasts at their 4th and 5th homes.  Self-serve Avgas is only $3.20 per gallon here.  We dropped into Million Air to chat and snack, but not to buy their $4.60/gallon gas.  By 9:30 a.m., we’d reached Blythe, California (BLH), on the Arizona border.  We bought a princely 10 gallons of gas and the owner of the FBO lent us his enormous diesel pickup truck to ride into town for breakfast at the Town Square Cafe.

At around noon, we departed eastbound on I-10 for Buckeye, AZ (BXK).  As soon as we crossed the Colorado River, we noticed mobile home parks for retirees.  Tony and I agreed that the only thing worse than dying in a helicopter crash would be not dying in a helicopter crash and having to live until age 100 in the middle of this desert.  We could tell that we were approaching Phoenix when the visibility dropped due to smog.  The Buckeye airport is just SE of a cattle feed lot, which lends the airport a rank odor and a lot of annoying flies.  We cranked back up and headed for the heart of Phoenix and its Class Bravo airspace, the most tightly controlled class of airspace.  In calling up the control tower for PHX, we confessed to total ignorance of Phoenix landmarks and said that we wanted to sightsee around downtown then proceed south to Tucson.  We were given the royal treatment and descended to around 600′ above the city streets, hugging Interstate 10 all the way through downtown Phoenix and past the departure end of the big runways at PHX.

The highlight of our trip SE to Tucson was orbiting over Pinal (MZJ), where the U.S. military bases more than 100 training helicopters, and where airlines park their discarded jumbo jets.  If you want to buy a cheap 747 and use it as a mobile home, Pinal has plenty to choose from.

We landed at Tucson (TUS), careful to land at the big international civil airport and not the adjacent equally sized Davis Air Force Base, parked at Trajen, where they pumped 18 gallons of gas into our Robinson and pulled up the Enterprise midsize car that I’d reserved.  In southern Arizona, a midsized “car” turns out to be a rather chunk pickup truck.  The folks at Trajen and Enterprise were able to arrange a swap for a Chrysler convertible.

Due to the presence in town of a national youth football convention, nearly all the hotels were booked and we ended up at a somewhat squalid Comfort Suites right by the control tower.  Dinner at El Nidito, the Mexican restaurant favored by former president Bill Clinton.  The largest and most fattening item on the menu is now named after him.

Stats:  around 450 nautical miles and 6.3 hours of Hobbs time.

Full post, including comments

Americans seem to be constantly debating the question of how many troops it should take to dominate Iraq.  On the JetBlue flight out here to Long Beach, I read the November 28, 2005 New Yorker magazine review of Tony Judt’s Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945:

Judt notes that France, a country with a population of some forty million, was administered by fifteen hundred Nazis, plus six thousand German policemen. … Soon after Germany was defeated, a Myth of Resistance sprang up in the former occupied countries of Western Europe and for many years it successfully obscured the truth about wartime life.  In Austria (a country that supplied half of all concentration-camp guards), and even in Germany, people managed to convince themselves that they, too, had been Hitler’s victims.  In a poll conducted in 1951, only five per ent of West Germans said that they felt guilty about what happened to the Jews; twenty-one percent thought that the Jews were “partly responsible” for their fate.

So the Germans were able to do a somewhat similar job with 7500 people.

Full post, including comments

Items from David McCullough’s John Adams….

p149.  “Really there ought not to be a state, a city, a promontory, a river, a harbor, an inlet or a mountain in all America, but what should be intimately known to every youth who has any pretensions to a liberal education.” [1776]

p170.  “I believe there is no one principle which predominates in human nature so much in every stage of life, from the cradle to the grave, in males and females, old and young, black and white, rich and poor, high and low, as this passion for superiority.” [1777]

p297.  Beyond Chatham, [Abigail Adams and her daughter Nabby] rolled with all possible speed to pass before dark the Black Heath [in England, 1784], dreaded for its lurking highwaymen.  Fear of the road, the threat of robbery or worse at the hands of highwaymen, was something foreign to Americans.  At home it was not uncommon even for women to travel alone feeling perfectly safe.

p352-354.  In 1785, two American ships were seized by Algerian pirates.  Twenty-one American sailors were taken captive and forced into slave labor.  A war between Christian and Christian was mild, prisoners were treated with humanity; but, warned His Excellency [Abdrahaman, envoy of the Sultan of Tripoli, seeking an annual tribute from the U.S.]

p380.  He was not so concerned about a President staying long in office, Adams said, as he was about too frequent elections, which often brought out the worst in people…

p421.  he wrote again of the natural “passion for distinction” in all men and women — “whether they be old or young, rich or poor, high or low, wise or foolish, ignorant or learned, every individual is seen to be strongly actuated by a desired to be seen, heard, talked of, approved and respected.” [1789]

p570.  In the year prior to March 4, letters to President Adams numbered in the thousands; in the year that followed, citizen Adams received fewer than a hundred. [1801]

p573.  In addition, since the return from Washington, Abigail had acquired a Newfoundland puppy, which she named Juno. [1801]

p629.  He had read Cicero’s essay on growing old gracefully, De Senectutel, for seventy years.

p631.  In particular, [Adams] wanted religious freedom [in Massachusetts] for Jews.  [1823]

p639.  “No man who ever held the office of President would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.” [1824; when his son John Quincy Adams won election as the sixth president of the U.S.]

p647.  Reminder that both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, exactly 50 years after the Declaration of Independence.

Full post, including comments

I’ve completed the paperwork and registration for my new Robinson R22 helicopter.  I’m picking up the ship at Silver State Helicopters in Long Beach, California, right near the factory in Torrance, CA, on Tuesday morning.  I will fly it around Southern California on Tuesday to make sure that there aren’t any teething problems (the ship will have been test-flown for about 4 hours by Robinson and then another 1-2 hours by Silver State, the dealer).  On Wednesday morning, I plan to depart for Blythe, Phoenix, Tucson, Las Cruces, El Paso, and onward towards northern Georgia then up the East Coast.  The route is designed to stay at low altitudes across the Western mountains and to avoid snow storms in the Midwest and East.  Helicopters that cost less than $2 million don’t typically have autopilots, so this will be about 30 hours of hand flying.  I expect to have a 125 lb. helicopter flight instructor with me for most of the trip and therefore won’t have to be on the controls the whole time.  We might stop for a day of sightseeing in Tucson, but otherwise are going to try to make it to Boston fairly quickly.

Full post, including comments

I get a lot of folks emailing thanking me for the advice in http://philip.greenspun.com/photography/building-a-digital-slr-system but asking for more details on “what lenses should I buy now that I have a digital camera.”  I’m trying gradually to write a little bit about that and the first simple article is http://philip.greenspun.com/photography/sigma-lenses

Suggested improvements would be appreciated, either via email to philg@mit.edu or in the comments section.

Thanks.

Full post, including comments

Ran into Mike, a former Army chaplain learning Spanish in San Miguel de Allende.  Mike served two one-year tours in Iraq.  I asked him what he thought the country’s long-term prospects were.  “Democracy is a foreign concept to them, as is capitalism.  Whether we get out in six months or ten years, our definition of success is not going to be a nation like our own.  You have to remember that Iraq is fundamentally tribal.  Democracy is fine as long as my tribe wins.”  The main obstacles to peace, in Mike’s view, were (1) the fact that the Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis all hated each other, and (2) the fact that Saddam let 100,000 criminals out of his jails as we were invading.  “What will bring stability to Iraq will be a civil war, just as we had in 1861.  The Shiites will win.”

Mike was a fan of my old idea (proposed here in this Weblog 2.5 years ago) of splitting Iraq up into three new countries, one for the Kurds, one for the Shiites, and one for the Sunnis.  Mike was not a fan of the U.S. military staying there indefinitely.  He estimated that 50 percent of the troops were getting unbalanced mentally toward the end of their one-year tours.  “The divorce rate in the Army has gone up 50 percent.  Captains are leaving in order to keep their families together, which means that the Army is losing its future leaders.”

Full post, including comments

I’m now into the third week of my trip to California and Mexico.  I’m now able to report on a statistically insignificant sample of Internet connectivity in both countries:

• my cousin’s house in Piedmont (Oakland): fast and reliable
  
• Chaminade hotel and conference center in Santa Cruz:  slow and $10 per day
  
• Crowne Plaza Redondo Beach (service provided by LodgeNet):  throughput similar to a 56K modem; $10 per day collected via a painful process requiring a phone call to the front desk every 24 hours
  
• Courtyard by Marriott Buena Park, CA: fast, reliable, and free
  
• my other cousin’s house up on Mulholland Drive: slow and flaky
  
• Quinta Real Hotel, Guadalajara:  fast, reliable, and free
  
• jewelry shop in Tlaquepaque: fast DSL

So far Mexico seems to be coming out ahead.  Also, the general rule that hotels that charge for Internet tend to provide terribly slow and flaky service seems to be holding true.

Full post, including comments

Boring note to myself for the future, a diary of this current trip to Mexico.

Sunday: flew from Los Angeles to Guadalajara, GDL on Mexicana (2.5 hours; they upgraded me and a lot of other American Airlines ticket holders to First Class), checked in at Hotel Quinta Real in the Zona Minerva, a truly luxurious hotel with beautiful spacious suites ($215/night for the best rooms; all staff speak English; free fast reliable in-room Internet (wired)).  Anastasia says it is the finest hotel in which she has ever stayed.  Toured the lively and historic downtown.

Monday:  Visit to Tlaquepaque, great outdoor lunch at El Fuente (or Fuerte), on the pedestrian street.  Dinner at Casa Bariachi (good entertainment, bring cushion next time for the chairs, eat elsewhere).

Tueday:  ETN bus to Guanjuato (4 hours; incredibly spacious and luxurious; $25).  Stay at Hotel Refugio Casa Colorada.  Dinner at La Capellina (great salad and pizza, just E of the Jardin) with Daire and RoNelle, gringas from the bus.  Daire tells us of her trip on Primera Plus in which the driver lost control on a wet highway, flipped the bus through a complete 360, and then ran away so as not to be detained by police.  She rides on ETN now.

Wednesday:  All the downtown museums and churches.  Fabulous haircut for $5 just 1/2 block W of the university.  Ironic twist:  Diego Rivera’s house featured photo exhibit with pictures of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.  Dinner with Joe and Naeko at La Capellina.  Concert in Teatro Juarez, Jorge Buenfil, the trovador of Yucatan.  Drinks with Joe, Naeko, and their lawyer friends from Texas, Steve and Ray.  Steve tells us about Veracruz and how we must go there for the best seafood, the best coffee (“they don’t make one cup at a time; they have a machine from the 19th century that drips espresso constantly and they shovel the coffee in”), and the danzon.  Steve tells us about the medicine women that one can see for advice.  Steve finds out that Anastasia is Greek and tells us about Matala, Crete, fears of having contracted a disease from a Norwegian girl, the hospital in Irakleon where none of the doctors spoke a word of English and the waiting room was crowded and chaotic, then having to leave for Morocco to avoid the shame.  He hitched a ride with the British Army, who took him to an American air force base where the doctor told him it was urethritis, not gonorrhea.

Thursday:  Museo de Momias, in which the mummified corpses of folks whose families could not afford to pay the cemetery dues are exhibited.  The state pays for the first five years in the cemetery and, after that, if no payment is received the body goes to be cremated or to the museum.  Cremation looks like a great option after you see how distressed the mummies look.  Visited La Valenciana, one of the most ornate churches in Mexico.  Fabulous lunch at El Conde, across the street from the church.

Friday:  Verdict on Hotel Refugio Casa Colorada:  incredible view, friendly staff does not speak English; no Internet; no writing desks in room; bathrooms outdated; restaurant fair, but not special and often out of menu items.  Might be worth the $250 per night if you stay in the presidential suite and are honeymooning.  Anastasia back to Boston; Philip to San Miguel de Allende.  Evening concert by Alejandro Campos Quartet at the jazz festival.

Saturday:  Breakfast with Gerald and Mora at the Posada Carmina (reasonably good hotel; $65-100/night; sort of noisy due to central location; no Interent).  Museums and churches.  Weather continues 75 degrees and sunny.  Evening concert by Salomon Maawad (Lebanese-Mexican) and friends.

Sunday:  House and garden tour with Biblioteca Publica.  Visited a beautiful house in Malanquin designed by Nicole Bisgaard and built in 13 months.  Second house was designed by Nicholas Schlee and also made good use of views to interior gardens.  Used free wireless Internet with laptop at Mama Mia’s.  Rumor has it that the Jardin is also covered by a free wireless network courtesy of the city government.  Enjoyed an evening concert, with dancing by 50-year-old (Mexican) couples, in the plaza.  Dinner at La Grotta.  Ended up at the owner’s table with their English expat friends.  One of them talked about how the U.S. economy couldn’t defy gravity forever and was headed for a huge crash because most people in the U.S. are useless realtor-style folks.

Monday:  Negotiated purchase of Robinson R22 helicopter, to be delivered in the Los Angeles area the middle of next week.  One-hour Spanish lesson at Academia Hispano America. Met Mike, a former Army chaplain, in the plaza and learned about Warren Hardy’s language classes (three two-week sessions), and also Casa de Mericela, 41B Jesus, $40/day incl bkfast and lunch, 3 blocks from Jardin, wireless Internet on 2nd floor, very clean and good food.  Visited at lunchtime, where 12 happy Americans were gathered around the table with their hostess.  The food did look excellent.  macahe2000@yahoo.com.mx.  Maricela Campos Hernandez, 1 409-209-0030 (U.S. number).  Quick lunch at Tortitlan.  Went with Sandy Baum out to the local San Miguel airport.  The strip is 1/2 mile long by his car’s odometer and in reasonable condition with grass and gravel.  There are some powerlines at the W end and some good-sized rocks.  Sandy’s friend operates a Cessna 206 out of here.  Enjoyed Munna Bhai, an Indian comedy, at the Cinemateca.  Dinner and wireless at Mama Mia’s.

Tuesday:  Breakfast with Rosalba Rangel, owner of www.rosalbarealty.com. Viajes Vertiz ride to the Leon airport ($25) and American Airlines to Dallas, then Boston.

Full post, including comments

http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail400.html is the most interesting IT Conversation that I listened to while driving around California.  This is Brewster Kahle, founder of archive.org, talking about the practicalities of digitizing and storing everything that was ever intended to be published (print, photos, sounds, films and video).  There are lots of numbers in the talk, which makes it satisfyingly precise.

[http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail94.html is an older interview with me that might be of some interest to newer readers of this Weblog.]

Full post, including comments

One of the things that I did while here in Los Angeles was check up on the fates of recent MIT graduates to see how their scientific and technical educations are panning out.  Here are the vital stats for one fellow:

• Age: 23
  
• Occupation:  Selling mortgages to people with poor credit records who are buying houses worth $700,000 to $1 million
  
• Income:  Over $150,000 per year (commission-based)
  
• Boss:  High school graduate; never attended college.
  
• Colleagues:  Mostly high school graduates.
  
• Rent:  $2300 per month for great 2BR apartment (shared)
  
• Social Life:  Meeting frisky young ladies (2X/week)
  
• Dream:  Break into the entertainment industry
  

Full post, including comments