Friday, July 04, 2008

"Watching Microsoft in the company of Google and Facebook is a bit like watching your dad trying to be cool.”

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Quotable
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Friday, June 27, 2008

Please, please click on these to enlarge ...

A week ago a friend of mine and I took ourselves off to Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage Museum. He has collected about 15 WW II aircraft, restored them to flying condition, and displayed them in his new museum. A couple of weekends a month, they are flown to keep them in working order. The photo above is a panorama taken inside the museum. The photos below are of some of the more interesting things you’ll see if you go.

One of the things that’s interesting to me is the nose art on these planes. Just below is a caricature of Neville Chamberlin painted on a German Messerschmitt. The German translates roughly to God Punish England. Below Neville is the nose art from a German Rocket plane. It carried only 8 minutes of fuel. It was designed to fly straight up toward bombers overhead firing machine guns. It would race past them on its ascent and then dive past them on the way down again attempting to shoot them down. It had a 50% fatality rate ... which is to say, 50% of its pilots were killed flying it.

Below is a Curtis P-40C Tomahawk ... one of the famous Flying Tigers. It’s interesting because Disney designed the flying tiger fuselage art you see here.

One of the prettiest things in the museum is the propeller on this Curtis Jenny, below.

The Mustang above has 9 kills on its record.

But the record for the most bizarre aircraft has to go to the one below. Germany built V-1 “Buzz Bomb” rockets to attack London. These are similar to today’s cruise missiles but without sophisticated guidance. So even though over 9,000 were fired, only about 5,000 landed anywhere near London. Germany’s answer to better guidance was to put a pilot in them, and fly them over the channel under manual control. When the pilot had them lined up with the target, he would bail out (over enemy territory sure to be captured) and let the plane do the rest. One serious problem!  The cockpit is just in front of the jet intake. As soon as the pilot popped the canopy and started to climb out, he’d be sucked into the engine and killed. These were never successfully flown against London. Duh!

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Planes
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Saturday, June 21, 2008

Click on any image to enlarge ...

Today, there were three neat WWII vintage war birds at the Seattle Museum of Flight. Above and below, a B-17 bomber.

Besides being able to crawl around inside these, for the princely sum of about $400, you could take a 30 minute ride in them. This specific aircraft flew a mission for each bomb painted on the nose, and shot down a number of German fighters sent to interdict them. Each represented by a swastika painted on the nose.

They also had and flew a B-25, below. This one sank at least one japanese ship and shot down 10 Japanese fighters.

And finally, they had a neat P-51 Mustang. Only 6 Mustangs were made with 2 seats. This was one of the six. and for the princely sum of $2,200, you could buy a 30 minute ride in the Mustang.

This was a cool reminder of the progress aviation has made in the last 60 years. In 1948, the B-17 was about the biggest and baddest aircraft in the skies. This is a dinky little plane compared to a Boeing 747, or an Airbus A-380. It is roughly equivalent to an abacus compared to the super computer represented by, say, the B-2 bomber. The P-51 is more or less a Volkswagen compared to an Audi R8 representing a Stealth fighter. We’ve come a long way baby ... 

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Planes
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

What if the framers of the Constitution could step into a time machine, set 2008 Washington DC as their destination, and take a crack at a new Constitution? Would they set down the same rights and privileges as they did in 1787? Somehow, I doubt it.

Because the context of the country is different than it was in 1787 (or 1791 when the Bill of Rights was adopted), I think we would end up with different rights. Some rights identified then, make no sense in today’s context. Some rights we would insist on today would have seemed ridiculous in the 18th century.

Take the right to bear arms, for example. In 1787, the country was primitive. You could literally be eaten by the wildlife. A settler could be attacked and killed by Indians. Parts of the continent were colonized by different nations whose colonists sometimes attacked neighboring colonies. Law enforcement was far from a ubiquitous presence throughout the country. The “right” to bear arms and more generally the necessity of a well regulated militia made complete sense.

Today, the American context is entirely different in every important respect. I’m reasonably sure “the framers” would skip the Second Amendment!

In 1787, we had no telephone service (we barely had mail), a primitive banking system, and a fledgling criminal justice system. There were no computers to keep records and data. There was no internet with which to commit data theft. If you wanted to be a private person, you simply didn’t tell anyone about yourself and your privacy was all but assured. Consequently, there was no notion of the “right” to privacy.

Today, the American context is entirely different in every important aspect. I’m sure “the framers” would go well beyond the Fourth Amendment and insist on including the “right” to privacy in the Constitution for the new Century.

I’m not suggesting that Washington, Hamilton, Franklin, Madison (et. al. or their 21st century counter parts) rewrite our constitution. It has been perfected by 221 years of amendment and interpretation and works pretty well for us.

But it gives me pause when I think about the US trying to impose an American-style constitution on Iraq. It gives me pause when I observe America trying to impose an American-style democracy on Iraq.

If we believe in democracy, maybe the Iraqis should be free to develop a Constitution that is relevant to our times. Maybe the flavor of democracy they choose should be relevant to their context. Maybe we should let them experiment with a 21st Century implementation of a free and democratic state and stay the hell out of their way.

Maybe we would learn something … important … in the process.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Politics
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Monday, June 09, 2008

Well ... more like a pink streak.

I was on Seattle U’s campus today for a meeting (I’m on the Entrepreneurship Board, on a couple of Committees, and teach from time to time). Coincidentally, it was the last day of classes. The seniors have a tradition of streaking(1) the campus on the last day of class and today was no exception. About 50 men and women (a few % of the graduating class) participated. A few thousand observers (about 200% of the graduating class) … well … observed. And cheered!

The weather was about 50 degrees with light rain … which reminded me of one of life’s great lessons … “In the cold, all men are created equal,” at least anatomically.

And not to be outdone, all the women were … “perky.”

And as for the Jesuits, well they were mostly impersonating a famous 1982 TV character(2) … they were mostly St. Elsewhere.

A good time was had by all.

Footnotes:
1) In case there’s anyone on the planet who doesn’t know, the practice of streaking (running naked) may have originated in the early 70’s, mostly on college campuses but occasionally in other venues.
2) St. Elsewhere … 121 episodes over 6 seasons.

Posted by Digital Quixote in • Out and About
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