Two Norwegian pilots were attacked by an axe-wielding Algerian on short final (about 100 feet above the runway) earlier today, and a Delta 737 pilot was shot in the eye with a laser pointer, causing temporary injury to his eye from which the pilot is expected to recover.
On a more personal — and positive — note, I passed my AGI and FIA written exams this afternoon, leaving my aviation career with one further written examination: my ATP. Wahoo!
From Jack Miller over at As the Apple Turns:
[I]f using Mac OS X is like, say, breathing through a mask in a sterile operating room of a top-rated internationally-known hospital, then Windows is roughly equivalent to licking every surface in a gas station bathroom and then kissing former Mötley Crüe drummer and BuyMusic.com spokesman Tommy Lee full on the mouth.
Priceless, I tell you. Simply priceless.
The first four hurricanes — Bonnie (technically a tropical storm, but still), Charley, Frances, and Ivan — weren’t enough. Now we have to contend with Jeanne. And, oh yeah, the remnants of Ivan that came back through here after making a 1200-mile loop through Washington, D.C.
Ugh. Time to evac again. Looks like Pensacola this time. I’ll keep you posted. And once again, over to Lee Bennett for your complete hurricane coverage. :)
I was watching the Today show this morning and they introduced a segment (which I didn’t watch, incidentally) about school administrators “endorsing” (or something — like I said, I didn’t watch it) the Atkins diet and other similar low-carb fad diets in order to keep school children from getting any fatter than they already are.
The introduced the segment with a quiz. Which of the following has the most carbs:
a) doughnut
b) artichoke
c) chocolate chip cookie
d) kiwifruit
The answer is (b), an artichoke. Which is surprising, but perhaps not too surprising considering it’s the one answer that looks out of place there.
Well, they proceeded to announce the segment and its sponsor. Who was…drum roll…Little Debbie Snack Cakes.
The Atkins Diet Snack Cake of Choice, right?
It’s funny, but it’s not. Today’s APoD pretty much sums up the current situation. Every time a new hurricane gets close to landfall, another one is brewing down there in the Carribean. And it always seems to be predicted to strike Florida.
Ah, the delicious sound of torrential rainfall. Some areas around here have had nearly two feet of rain in the last week. Now Ivan is set to add to that, and the end of hurricane season is in November? Are you kidding me?
There’s a cool story on Slashdot about the continued slight deceleration of Voyager 10 and 11 due to some as-yet-unexplained force that seems to be dragging the probes every so slightly toward the Sun. Wild theories floated thus far include electromagnetic effects, the Oort cloud or dust in that region of space, and, of course, the old standby: dark matter.
Every so often I feel a pang of regret that a mission like Genesis goes awry, and then I remember that we have these probes out there that were expected to be useless 15 years ago, but are still returning useful data. It makes the loss a little more bearable.
The Detroit Lions are no longer adding to their NFL-record streak of 24 consecutive road losses. They defeated the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field today by a score of 20-16.
Three cheers for Mooch! That’s the first road win for the Lions since Bill Clinton was President.
Oh, and to all you Bears fans: Heh heh heh heh heh heh. Suckers.
I’m hereby passing off all responsibility for updates about the hurricane and its impact on the area to Lee Bennett over at SecondInitial. His September archive has about all you need to know, keeping in mind that Jacksonville is about two hours north-northeast of Orlando and thus has experienced far less impact than Orlando has.
In short, I don’t expect anything will be too out of the ordinary when I get back tomorrow night.
Some of these are incredibly lame, and there are a bunch that are missing from the list, but WTHR in Indianapolis is running a list of pickup lines. (Thanks, Eric.)
Your eyes are the color of my Porsche. — Sounds pretty good, actually. Not too arrogant, easily passed off as a joke, almost guaranteed to get a laugh.
Excuse me, do you have any raisins? How about a date? — Funny, but terribly lame at the same time. Chances of success: I’d give it about 50% at best.
Can I buy you a drink, or do you just want the money? — This is a great way to get slapped.
Hi. I’m Mr. Right. Someone said you were looking for me. — This one’s really tricky. If you can deliver it right, it’s a killer line. The problem is that most people can’t deliver it right without sounding like total jackasses.
Do you believe in love at first site or shall I walk by again? — Only if when you walk by again, you’ve learned how to spell properly. Deal?
Well, I’m safe and sound here in Hot-lanta, hooked up on a wireless connection in the hotel (for free, no less). It’s starting to look like Frances might be a bit of a bust — she’s slowing down, almost stalled in place about 170 miles off Miami right now, and might (one would hope) blow herself out before she hits land.
The other option is that she’ll get a whole lot worse over the warm waters off the Florida coast and build back into a Category 4 storm. Let’s hope that isn’t what happens, because I’d rather not be stuck in Hot-lanta, no matter how hot the A-T-L is, for five days.
Haven’t had one of these in a while, because I haven’t had anything significant enough to warrant one. Well, now I do.
Blizza Blizza is proud to be the official (and probably only!) press outlet covering the release of the highly anticipated AirPort Colour Menu, Battery Colour Menu, and Bluetooth Colour Menu icon replacement sets for the aforementioned menu extras under Mac OS X. More information is available from the CLN Projects page.
Everyone in the area is beginning to brace for Hurricane Frances, which is expected to make landfall sometime between the wee hours of Saturday morning and midday Sunday, depending on how far north the storm tracks. Counties from about Flagler to Duval (approximately Cape Canaveral to Jacksonville) have cancelled school for Friday, and most sporting events for the weekend have already been cancelled. Folks are starting to sell plywood on the sides of the roads, and Duval County plans to announce evacuation plans tomorrow afternoon.
As for me, I’ll probably be evacuating an airplane to Pensacola, Atlanta, or Dothan (AL) and leaving the car at the airport, which is fairly free of debris-creating trees and the like. Here’s hoping Frances makes landfall somewhere between here and Daytona, where the coast is much less heavily populated, and where damage around here should be minimal.
Expect a full report (no photos; my digicam is back in Michigan) sometime after the weekend.
I love flying because I get to see cool stuff like the last launch of an Atlas 2 rocket from the air. Oh, and the sunset last night was spectacular, too. As was the moonrise. As was just about everything else about the flight.
Did I mention I love flying?