An article from our friends to the north

Caught this one from our friends at the galloping beaver. Who says Canadians don't have a sense of humor?

Never let it be said that ground crews lack a sense of humor. Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by UPS' pilots (marked with a P) and the solutions recorded (marked with an S) by maintenance engineers.

By the way, UPS is the only major airline that has never, ever had an accident.

P: Left inside main tire almost needs replacement.
S: Almost replaced left inside main tire.

P: Test flight OK, except auto-land very rough.
S: Auto-land not installed on this aircraft.

P: Something loose in cockpit.
S: Something tightened in cockpit.

P: Dead bugs on windshield.
S: Live bugs on back-order.

P: Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200 feet per minute descent.
S: Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

P: DME volume unbelievably loud.
S: DME volume set to more believable level.

P: Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick.
S: That's what friction locks are for.

P: IFF inoperative in OFF mode.
S: IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P: Suspected crack in windshield.
S: Suspect you're right.

P: Number 3 engine missing.
S: Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P: Aircraft handles funny. (I love this one!)
S: Aircraft warned to straighten up, fly right and be serious.

P: Target radar hums.
S: Reprogrammed target radar with lyrics.

P: Mouse in cockpit.
S: Cat installed.

And the best one for last...........

P: Noise coming from under instrument panel. Sounds like a midget pounding on something with a hammer.
S: Took hammer away from midget.

The Friday pussy

Okay I know you're buried under snow back east and we're in the 50s here. Now let the kitty back in he's freezing out there.

Odd thought came to me the other day. With all the text messaging on phones and email and all I just wondered what our language will be in say 20 years. With lol and wtf becoming common place and hundreds of acronyms and abbreviations working their way into main stream communications it makes me wonder if word derivations will be lost down some linguistic rat hole to be lost forever. And as the compression continues whether words will disolve down to two or three letters and numbers. Or even worse, just drop the letters and go with numbers.

That reminds me of a joke I heard as a kid:
A new guy was just starting a prison term at a local prison. Sitting in his cell late one night he noticed that several of the other prisoners were shouting out numbers. Taking turns one prisoner would yell out 37! And the other long termers would howl with laughter. Curious the new guy got the attention of the cell next to his. "What's going on?" the new guy said. "Oh they're just telling jokes" said the guy in the next cell. "They've been here so long they know the jokes so well they gave them numbers. "Hey can I try it?" said the new guy. "Sure give it a shot." With that the new guy yell out 47! Dead silence. Again he yells out 47! Nothing total quiet. The new guy asks "what's going on here? The guy in the next cell says "You didn't tell it right."

Update: Almost forgot again two more bank failures for the week one in Nevada and one in Tacoma Washington. And I hear some 702 banks are at risk of failure.

Republicans screwing over the unemployed

If your unemployment runs out this weekend you're on your own. The senate failed to pass an extention on unemployment today with one republican senator blocking the bill. If you live in Kentucky and your unemployment ran out email phone or snail mail senator Bunning and ask him if you can take up residence at his place. He won't mind having a couple thousand people sleeping on his couch. At issue was where to find the money to pay for the extention. Hummm... seems there's a couple hundred billion left over from the TARP program. And they didn't have a problem funding an illegal war with borrowed money.
Oh and one more thing. In that bill was an extention for providing TV service for rural areas. So if your in a rural area with satellite service sorry no TV for you. Them's fightin words for sure!
Of course he doesn't give a shit about people he's not running again. Nothing like setting the place on fire before you leave.
No TV for you!

Watch out for the nastys

In taking my haz mat recertification the other week I was reminded of what we can run into when doing other construction work. We do after all have to do demolition work many times to get to the bad stuff. We sometimes forget what things are made of when we're taking them apart. This was never a problem 50 or 60 years ago because nobody thought about it until workers started dying from exposures. So here's a little list (hope it doesn't get too long) for you viewing pleasure of the things you may encounter while doing a weatherization or remodel project.

Asbestos - was used in popcorn ceiling textures, drywall mud, drywall, window glazing, flooring such as tiles and sheets, glues and mastics for flooring and covebase, furnace joint tape, gaskets, pipe insulation, and paints. Exposures can cause cancers and mesothelioma.

Lead - was used in paints, roof flashing, and old plumbing. Exposures can cause headaches central nervous system damage and brain damage especially in children.

Arsenic - It was a common practice back in the 20s and beyond to mix a 100lb. bag of arsenic into the soil under a house to prevent insects and rodents from taking up residence. Exposures cause central nervous system damage.

Formaldehyde - found in most pressboard, carpeting, and insulation when it's new. It has to be given time to outgas after installation. Exposures cause headaches, nausea and breathing problems.

VOCs - are volatile organic compounds found in paints, glues and mastics. They are only dangerous when being applied and outgasing or evaporating. Exposures can cause headaches, nausea

Molds - There are eight main varieties of toxic mold found where moisture is present. Molds love drywall because of the paper backing (a food source) but can live on any surface. Exposures can cause headaches, breathing problems, bleeding from the nose eyes and ears.

Insects rodents and other vermin - spiders rats and raccoons can take up residence in a crawl space or attic. Exposures: spiders bite, rodents carry disease and pigeon poop carries all sorts of nastys.

Concrete dust - When sawing grinding or breaking up concrete the dust contains silica that's very damaging to your lungs when it get airborne.

There's a bunch of other nastys but they're not as common as the ones above. So when your doing a remodel or weatherization project take a minute and think about what might things are made of and what might bite you.

And as always keep your drums upright.

I think we're all Nuckin Futs

I'm sure everybody's seen the girl in our Seattle bus tunnel get stomped before the never blinking eye of the TV camera. When I first saw it, her laying there and guards standing by I thought to myself there must be more to this story than meets the eye. And sure enough my gut instincts were right. As horrible as the scene was it didn't tell the rest of the story. That the victim being throttled had in fact done the very same thing to an unknown woman just a few weeks before (pulled her hair out, stomped on her head and stole her purse). And was caught shoplifting and assulted the store guard a few weeks before that. Then there's the issue of the guards who stood by passively and seemed to do nothing. I seem to recall some footage of a black gangster standing in the middle of the street emptying his gun at who we couldn't tell. Then there have been the drive by shootings and the mall shootings and the cops shot dead at a coffee shop. So sorry if I don't quite feel the empathy for the victim in this case but to be an unarmed guard these days with no gun and no martial arts training is futs.
Last night a guy gets shot at another transit stop. My guess is a drive by but we'll see if they catch the perps what that one is about. Add to that a stand off at an apartment in North Seattle and it makes me think that I'd never want to be a police officer in this area and we're supposed to be one of the safer cities. Think I'll stick with hazardous waste. At least it's predictable.

And update: a guy gets stabbed in the back in the Fremont area. Then there's been a gang of ruffians running around beating up people. Add to that several murder suicides and this area is getting down right dangerous.

This shows promise

This is a bloombox. No not a boombox. Those went out in the 90s. The bloombox is new type of fuel cell capable of providing all the power for your home. I had looked up fuel cells some years ago when they were in development. I thought they might have had promise until I got to see one in action at a fair from Ballard power systems. The 1000 watt unit at a price of $5000 would not fit the bill for most homeowners. The fact that they run on hydrogen didn't help either. You can't run down to your local hardware store for a tank.
The bloombox runs on natural gas and as a plus produces hydrogen as a byproduct. It can also be run on other gases like methane another plus. Now if they can collect the hydrogen and run that through another fuel cell the byproduct of that is water. So without burning any fuels you get electricity to power your home or car and you could get water. As an added bonus this would decentralize our power grid. Units could be installed at substations eliminating the need for more ugly and dangerous high power transmission lines. They believe they can get the price down to $3000.

More info: Bloombox

The Friday pussy and other items

This headline caught my eye:
Consumer prices excluding food and energy fall
Isn't that much like saying the patient is doing well if you exclude the fact that he's not breathing and has no heartbeat?

Dinners - You want to keep the baddies out of you house? Go down to a second hand store and pick up the following items:
1. The largest and cheapest pair of workboots you can find.
2. The largest dog collar you can find.
3. A length of large heavy chain.
Leave these items near the front door with a note that reads: Honey I think Pluto got loose again.
(hat tip to Dana of Life is good)

Update: Oops I forgot the bank failures. This week it was four more banks hitting the skids. And one I missed from Feb. 5. Sad to report you aint't seen nothing yet. Wait till the option loans come due later this year. Hummmm is it time to put my money in the mattress now?