Ozexpatriate

We have a Cape Disappointment here. For once, not named by the plucky Yorkshireman (though he did name Cape Foulweather in his particularly prosaic style). It was named by one John Meares, disappointed not to have found the Columbia River. (He actually had, but thought it a bay.) He also named Cape Lookout on the Oregon coast. We have a Cape Meares named for him.

From 2014. The passenger's glasses were knocked off - by a propeller blade. No fatalities.

They are not the only ones. The LDS practice of baptizing 'ancestors' deeply offended Jewish organizations in the US, particularly as it pertained to baptizing holocaust victims.

I have not looked up any recent crossing of floors but in the abstract, MPs should represent their constituency. They should vote for what their constituents want - not what the party whips want them to do. That is what representative democracy is about. There is way to much partisan politics today with representatives deliberately following party orthodoxy over what the people actually want.

Swiss Army not-knife anyone? CNN: The new Swiss Army Knife will be missing a key feature I travelled by air recently - on Alaska Airlines (the same airline where I flew a 737-Max 9 in December and no doors fell off, though this time it was a Embraer 175, technically operated by SkyWest Airlines). On my return leg the eagle-eyed TSA spotted contraband - a mini Swiss Army knife (34mm blade) in the bottom of my briefcase. I don't even know how it got there, or how long it was there, but the passengers were saved from any attempt at mini-mayhem by its confiscation.

Nice picture of the flight deck of the Mars here on p24. It's huge for aircraft of that vintage. Looks like a dance floor for the flight engineer and radio operator. The Mars had accommodation for a relief crew (4). My cousin and her husband will visit soon. I think I can talk him into popping down to say hello the the Hughes H-4 Hercules. (Less than an hour's drive away.) That is a flying boat. Last time I visited they had parked a B-17 under the tail plane of the H-4. It fit with plenty of room to spare.

I'm not sure why, other than because? What is the market for this? Aircraft customers turned their backs from amphibians (beyond small float planes, which are relatively common in the northwest of North America) long ago. Though the PBY was the most produced flying boat of all time. (Someone needs to do some homework and fill in the production totals here. Production on the Canadair CL-215 ceased in 1990. Japan still has the ShinMaywa US-2 in production. China has one too because of course they do. Why not go the whole hog and build a Martin Mars replica?

Dreadful stuff. Yeah "Ripper Rita" I remember, but I'm not sure if I missed the Five Star campaign. (Also here.) I remember it still in yellow tubs. I don't know exactly when Eta Five Star was introduced.

I salt fresh tomatoes, boiled corn (though less so these days), pasta water, unmarinated steak before searing and beaten eggs for a scramble, but that's about it. I rarely ever add it to cooked food but occasionally have added it to unseasoned potato salad made by others. I love butter on fresh bread or a roll. I never ever put it on the inside of a sandwich. I do use it (on the outside) for a grilled cheese sandwich. I don't use salted butter.

Starliner is not built by BCA - Boeing Commercial Aircraft. It is built by BDS - Boeing Defense, Space and Security. Predecessor companies of which back to Hughes Satellite, Hughes Helicopters, Vertol, McDonnell, Rockwell/North American Aviation etc. They are (almost) completely different companies. The Atlas V is a joint venture between BDS and Lockheed-Martin. Bell Helicopters and Boeing Helicopters jointly build the V22 Osprey. Now I wouldn't ride in that. I'd want to but be very afraid of the 'landing'.

Scrubbed due to a valve problem with the Atlas V launch platform - not related to Starliner payload.

A lot of television is filmed in Vancouver, BC.

Growing up a contemporary of mine was older than his uncle.

The red scarf and the leather jacket in the video are a great nod to Joan Jett. This is from her "I love rock n' roll" video. Her "I hate myself for loving you" was covered for the opening of Sunday Night Football - which is incongruous. For one season she appeared on guitar in the cover. She did a cover of the theme song to the Mary Tyler Moore show (Love is all Around) - which is quite brilliant.

Mare Nostrum?

Pedantic carnivores rejoice. There are no such things (taxonomically) as vegetables. CNN: There’s actually no such thing as vegetables. Here’s why you should eat them anyway

That certainly would have been the case then too. It is not unusual even today to have more than a decade between siblings. It is quite common with remarriages. EDIT: An (in)famous political family in the US has 28 years between siblings.

These are the classic Weird Al compositions, accompanied by piano accordion as original parodies of songs of the day like "My Bologna" (parody of My Sharona by the Knack). Songs like "Eat it" were a little later and came with a music video, as did "Like a Surgeon" because that had to be done in the 1980s. I used to listen to the Dr. Demento Radio show - where Weird Al got his break. Weird Al and Tom Lehrer were regulars in his rotation.

Yes it is. I didn't recognize it at first - not until it got to the "maybe Vader someday later" part of the chorus before I remembered it. It's works well being faithful to the unique phrasing of "American Pie"

This article was interesting: cellulose-based textiles produced by bacteria. The headline is kind of bogus. The important bit is creating a durable textile that is based neither on animal hide nor plastic. CNN: This bacteria can produce fibers eight times stronger than steel. See how one company is creating new material with it. Its not clear how sustainable it is relative to natural textiles - cotton, hemp, wool etc. They are a serious problem when blended with polyfibres - they are very hard to recycle - either producing microplastics or the plastics melt in the recycling process gunging everything up.

This was overlooked:

Genetic predisposition apparently: The weird homing instinct for the jolly old sod disappears after a couple of generations. But at least Aussies got long service leave out of it.

My emphasis. John, your comment is very accurate. And indeed it can be exceptionally beneficial. I've seen demonstrations of automated-abstract generation for human-created content in an archive that was exceptionally useful. Humans are not very diligent at writing abstracts and providing key-word tagging to help search find information. Generative AI is quite good at it, and useful too. No "original" content created.

Styles himself as the "unipiper". He's become a Portland institution. The Darth Vader helmet is frequently worn. I've seen him many times. Also available in Black Watch & weskit for "formal" occasions. And Arthur, King of the Britons, for those so inclined:

They do look like a floating bar of soap - or perhaps more accurately those plastic boxes with rounded corners that you used to be able to get to store a bar of soap while travelling. Amazon obliges - like these.