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Video: ten terrifying landings, takeoffs and flights {Gadling}
Feb 25th 2011 6:09PM I've been in way too many of these. I have dreams about 'em almost nightly.
I was on the other Jet Blue incident; the one that hit ground in the middle of a whiteout snowstorm at JFK and instantly went sideways, slid off the runway, and landed in a ditch where we sat for an hour until the transports could get to us. Mad tourists busting out video cameras. Limited screaming. They deployed the yellow chutes and we went down the slide, landed in the snow. The transport got stuck mid-runway and we sat for another hour waiting to be dug out. Got a free Jet Blue voucher out of that one.
Another flight I was on, also trying to land at JFK but this time in late autumn. Tower Air. Got hit by a massive downdraft about 2000 feet from the runway. Altitude probably no more than 1000 ft and the thing nearly plowed into an apartment block off Woodhaven. It was a one-stop flight to Tel Aviv and a hundred orthodox Jews started praying. The pilot went into IDF mode and pulled straight up with no more than a couple hundred feet to spare, then circled and came again to land.
A third one I was on, Northwest back in 1989, LAX to Detroit, dropped so hard and fast that half the people hit the ceiling.
And four years ago, my brother's plane got hit by lightning over Connecticut, was somehow disabled and had to make an emergency landing at Hartford.
I know I shouldn't fly, but I can't help thinking this means I got good odds from now on.
Great American Smokeout is November 20. Stop smoking, save money {WalletPop}
Nov 20th 2008 6:33AM Alright, let's talk economics. Cigarettes aren't just one of the most inelastic goods on the white market -- and a basic commodity on all black markets -- simply because they're addictive. The point is that "economic man" has to break down at some point. Adam Smith's robot is a fantasy. If the break point is spending money on illogical psychiatry and prozac, or self-medicating with booze and smokes, it doesn't matter.
Until living healthy is a cure for death, I'll keep smokin'...
NEC tiling e-ink displays for massive coverage {Engadget}
Oct 28th 2008 12:58PM And finally, I'll be able to sit and work at a bar and look more like James Joyce than Bill Gates.
Sun prepping Java for iPhone: your craplet investment is safe {Engadget}
Mar 10th 2008 9:33PM Phones are for calling people. Other human beings. Like there aren't enough handheld video games in the world to keep anyone from ever making eye contact already? If you need network apps and tools, get a laptop. Step one is buying the most expensive phone to say "I'm rich," and it's in the same category as rims or a stereo for your car. Step two is using that device all the time as a place to bury your nose and retreat from the rest of the world with all the crappy little tv shows and stupid twitch arcade you can get at five bucks a pop. Suddenly you're incapable of having a real conversation. So what was the point of spending $500 of a freakin' phone when you could get one and be unable to hold a conversation on it for free?
From someone who has to be online 12 hours a day -- people, wake the hell up! Go out and TALK to a stranger. Platform independent code is great. If only more people developed meaningful apps instead of a million more craplets to waste everyone's time. A meaningful app -- at least the way it used to be defined -- was something that actually helps you spend LESS time on your phone, LESS time screwing with machines, and MORE time enjoying the world and the people around you. Oh yeah, that was before the end became the means and the process became the profit. Just waitin' for the next meltdown, now. Looks a lot like 1998 to me.
Home thermostats: Big Brother's next target? {Engadget}
Jan 13th 2008 11:21PM It's the suede/denim secret police!
They have come for your uncool niece!
Starbucks goes to Argentina {BloggingStocks}
Jul 26th 2007 11:53AM Argentina is certainly on an upward swing economically, but the country is completely unlike other Latin American countries in terms of its coffee consumption. Argentines spend hours every day sipping espresso. They don't care for American drip coffee. They expect to be waited on in cafes. Buenos Aires is jammed with cafes like Havana which serve coffee pastries that are much better (and much less expensive) than Starbucks'. Unless Starbucks goes McDonald's route of completely revamping their business model to fit the Argentine lifestyle, they'll never make much of an entry into the market.
Does the MacBook Pro fan constantly run? And a note about the whiney noise [Update] {TUAW.com}
Apr 13th 2006 10:29PM I gotta add -- the only way I'm not returning this thing pronto is if there's a hack that forces the fan on all the time. I don't mind a bit of noise in exchange for the power; but when the top surface of the laptop is hovering around 140 F and the bottom is over 160, there is something wrong with the design.
Does the MacBook Pro fan constantly run? And a note about the whiney noise [Update] {TUAW.com}
Apr 13th 2006 10:25PM Just bought a MacBook today - revision E - and I guess they fixed the fan problem, because the fan WILL NOT GO ON. This POS is running as hot as, or hotter than, my old Titanium that had a broken fan. To keep that one from melting down I used to keep a stack of magazines in the freezer and switch them out every 20 minutes. But this one's frying-hot. I finally made the fan go on by forcing a 3D rendering on both processors and running google earth at the same time. As soon as I shut out of Earth the fan went off again. What's the deal, did they just pull the heat sensors out of the new revision so the fans wouldn't go on?
