Sleepless in Midland

Socialist Sweden -- how do they do it?

Sometimes Sweden is offered up as an example of how socialism can work. And I'm probably not alone in wondering how they do it.

My own theory is that the innovators, inventors and type "A" entrepreneurs have fled for more favorable jurisdictions. And the remaining residents are quite satisfied as government dependents. But just to show that all isn't really so great there, here are a few anecdotal news reports from The Local, Swedish news in English:

Stats reveal 'surprisingly strong' Swedish economy.

Says there was 1.4% growth in economy in 4th quarter of 2012, but still only 0.8% for the full year. Maybe it is "surprisingly strong," but it's not that great by American standards, at least prior to 2008.

Russia mocks Sweden's lack of military might. "In January, Swedish Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Sverker Göransson said that Sweden’s scaled backed military leaves the country vulnerable. Sweden, he claimed, could only defend itself for one week if it came under attack."

America's future?

Use Patriot missiles to defend Sweden: minister.

They can't afford them. Maybe we can barter for some Ikea furniture.

Out-of-hours police turn away murder suspect. "Upon ringing the bell on the door shortly after 6pm, he was informed that the police station was closed. 'Closed? I'm suspected of murder and a wanted man – you guys really want to get ahold of me,' he said into the intercom. But instead of being let in to the station, he was instead directed to another police station. When he had made his way there, he was placed under arrest."

OK, enough fun. Here's a real story of individual courage.

Swedish golfer tees out spider venom.

The golfer who was bitten by a spider while playing in a qualifying tournament in Australia. The photo looks like a black widow spider, but they called it a redback. Anyway, she punctured the skin at the bite site with a golf tee and squeezed out as much poison as she could. Then she finished the game, but unfortunately she didn't make the cut.

Now that's stoicism in any language.

The beauty of a crater

The World Geography website has a picture spread of ten volcanic craters around the globe, and some of the photos are really stunning.

They're in the middle of cities, the ocean, and nowhere. See for yourself at 10 Unusual Volcanic Craters. Note the crater within a crater in number eight at Aogashima, Japan.

Who knew a hole in the ground could be so picturesque?

What's the best way to hop across a river? By trampoline!

Click for pics.

The river is the Seine. How's that for a tease?

Modern cars provide everything but green traffic lights

There was a time not too very long ago when things like seat belts and right side rear view mirrors were optional on cars. Now days it seems like every feature any engineer can think up gets put in, with a corresponding price hike, of course. For example, some vehicles have sensors that will set of an alarm if it's about to back into an object. Some have TV screens where the driver can see what's back there. Some have both. Then there's the device that uses radar to detect whether another car is too close and sets off an alarm, or it might even put its own foot on the brakes.

It's all well and good that we arrive safely, but what we need is some technology to make the trip go a little quicker. Add the time a typical traffic light is yellow and red, and that time will exceed the time it will be green, so the odds are that at any random time more often than not a traffic light won't be green. Many a driver has encountered a frustrating red light at each lighted intersection between the starting point and the destination making a short trip seem like an eternity.

A traffic light that is oblivious to the traffic is a waste of time and energy. Now wouldn't it be nice if the traffic light system could sense the traffic flow and adjust accordingly? And who among us hasn't experienced a situation in which we face a red light, but there is no cross traffic? Like the conscientious, law abiding people we are, we just sit at that red light simply because it's red. A smart system might change the red light to a green light in that situation.

The "green movement" should be all over this. Instead of exotics like windmills, solar systems, and electric vehicles, they should focus on more efficient ways to get from here to there.

Here in Midland, Texas, fossil fuel is our life blood. But the citizens still like to save at the gas pump. And most don't like wasting time because of a poorly timed traffic light system. Our city leaders are planning to raise our taxes just like they do every year around this time. And all the city department heads are probably eagerly awaiting that new money so they can grow their departments, buy new hardware and build new buildings. It's probably too much to hope for, but it certainly would be nice if they could take a few steps to help the traffic flow a little bit smoother.

But there's hope elsewhere. Kurzweilai.net tells us about an ambitious program being tested in Michigan which lets vehicles communicate not only with the traffic lights but with each other to avoid accidents. If it works, full implementation will cost a lot of money and take years.

A much simpler program could work traffic lights for a better traffic flow now.

A museum for fooling the eye

Few things provide as much vacation fun as a gag photo that stretches the perspective. Picture a tourist about to squeeze the Eiffel Tower between his thumb and forefinger or perhaps a woman kissing George Washington at Mount Rushmore.

There's a museum in Busan, South Korea, dedicated to optical illusions called the Trick Eye Museum. And the beauty is that visitors can have their pictures taken among the displays to create some unbelievable scenes. The photo below is my favorite. Look closely and you can see the corner of those painted walls.

Click to see more photos. Via NedHardy.com.

Video demonstrates how to sneak something through TSA's full body scanners

The theory is that the image the scanner takes is of the front and back of the terrorist. The terrorist simply puts his box cutters in a secret pocket on the side of his shirt. And when the photo is taken the box cutters appear black, but since the background also appears black, the box cutters are invisible.

Video here.

It would seem that if the TSA isn't doing it already, they'll take four images: front, back and both sides. Or maybe not. More here.

An Arab Beauty Pageant

From SaudiGazette.com.sa:

A rare beauty pageant organized in Al-Qatif in the Eastern Province, was intended to highlight the real beauty of a woman, which is her inner beauty. 22-year old Hashimiya Al-Radi, a nursing student, was chosen as the winner of the contest among 385 participants and was honored with the title ‘Miss Morals’. The two runners up were 17-year old Suhaila Al-Shawaf and 19-year old Zahra Salman Al-Awa. The crowning ceremony was held at King Abdullah National Banquet Hall in Al-Qatif, with an attendance of 500 women from all walks of life and all nationalities.

Apparently this isn't a joke.

Vienna 1950

This is another set of pics taken in 1950 by a neighbor whose husband was stationed in Germany while serving in the US Air Force Counter Intelligence Corps. These are from Vienna, and the writing on the backs describe what we are looking at.

This tank was supposed to be the first Russian tank that rolled into Vienna. After the war Vienna was divided into sectors, like Berlin. And this monument to Russian prowess implies this was in the Russian sector. The handwriting says there was propaganda on the building in the background, although it's impossible to read.

This is a photo a big Ferris wheel, and the handwriting says it's the same one that was in the 1949 movie The Third Man which was about international intrigue in post war Vienna. I recorded "The Third Man" from a TCM broadcast the other day and planned to have screen shot of the scene in which Joseph Cotton walks toward the Big Wheel and gestured at it to his adversary off screen. But unfortunately, the Windows 7 upgrade refuses to acknowledge the TV tuner that came with my old HP computer. So you'll have to trust me on that. Or you can watch it in this clip at Youtube.

Added later:  Here's that shot of Joseph Cotton in front of the Big Wheel in "The Third Man," captured from the above linked Youtube video.

 

Wiesbaden 1950

Armchair time travel.

A neighbor loaned me a box of old photos and souvenirs from the time she lived with her USAF CIC husband in Wiesbaden, Germany, after WWII.

Looks like she happened upon a building fire one day.

That's a very distinctive helmet the firefighters are wearing. War surplus, perhaps?

German lookie loos.

Check out that firetruck.

See Lunch on the RMS Queen Elizabeth - 1950, previously for more from the time travel box.

Car2go -- innovating car rental concept in Austin

Residents in Austin, Texas, have access to a neat transportation concept. It's Car2go, a car rental that let's the renter find a car on his/her smart phone parked somewhere within the operating area, pick up an itty bitty Daimler smart fortwo car, use it for a while, and leave it at another parking spot near the renter's destination.

The cost is $35 to register then $0.35 per minute of use up to a max of $12.99 per hour or $65.99 per day. Plus tax. And there's a charge of $0.45 for each mile driven over 150.

From their website:

Our network includes more than 300 of the coolest cars on the road, the innovative smart fortwo. At 41 miles-per-gallon hwy, these amazing vehicles are the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid or electric vehicles in the United States and the 3rd most fuel-efficient vehicle in the United States. You'll see plenty of these blue and white vehicles all over Austin, handy and waiting for members to access and drive away.

Drive where you want for as long as you want. Afterwards, simply park the car in any legal parking place in our operating area, or one of the many car2go parking spots in Austin, no need to return the car to the original pick-up location.

It being Austin, a natural assumption would be that taxpayer money is subsidizing the operation, but surprisingly, a word search for "car2go" in the Austin 2010 budget didn't produce any results. So maybe taxpayers aren't kicking in. Not bad.

Dragin' a wagon

Old guy: "Towing is like a getting married."

"Ya just gotta get hitched up right, and even when ya drag bottom, it'll hold together tight."

T-shirt guy: "Screw the philosophy, and just call a damn tow truck."

What was your first clue?

... that the motel had paper thin walls.

He lost his head in the Paleozone

He wasn't the first guy who lost his head over a woman.

Or maybe he was. Maybe he was.

(Photo taken at Alley Oop Park in Iraan.)

Lunch on the RMS Queen Elizabeth - 1950

Sauerkraut juice, thick ox tail soup, head cheese, and devilled veal kidneys. Yum! Doesn't that make your mouth water?

A glass of Bordeaux to go with it would cost 1s. Better get the whole bottle for 5s.

Those delectable selections were from the RMS Queen Elizabeth lunch menu for Tuesday, December 19, 1950. There were other items on the menu that looked tastier, but those just demanded attention -- the kind of food that could make one's eyes water before they made the mouth water. At least they didn't serve haggis.

Click lunch menu 12-19-1950 PDF to see it.

A neighbor's husband was stationed in Europe in 1950, and she brought back a box of photos and souvenirs which included a set of menus from the voyage home.

It's great fun going through old stuff, and there may be some old photos posted here in the near future. But those menus certainly do serve as a reminder that they just don't make good devilled veal kidneys like they used to.

Around the world in 62 seconds

Over three million sets of eyeballs have watched this video. So if you haven't seen it yet, it's a time lapse video of the Space Station orbiting the Earth at night.

At about the 20 second point notice the lightening storm at center right.

Youtube link. Via.

Weary deer stranded at sea, rescued by humans

This is one of those feel-good viral stories that is almost impossible to believe without finding the source. But sure enough, it appears to be authentic. In fact, the boat owner posted a link to a PDF scan of the newspaper article. And here's an HTML link to the JuneauEmpire.com article. And see the slide show here.

It happened in October of 2010 near Point Arden in Taku Inlet Southeast of Juneau, Alaska. Map. The captain and passengers of the Alaska Quest watched four unusual objects bobbing in the water. Article excerpt:

Satre slowed the boat, and the group began to watch the group of four juvenile Sitka black-tailed deer.

"They swam right toward the boat," he said. "Then, they started to circle the boat. They were looking up and looked like they needed help."

These were wild animals, mind you. But they were desperate and willing to let humans help them. The deer were too weak to climb into the boat, so the folks lassoed them and hauled them aboard.

More:

According to Kelly, the typically skittish and absolutely wild animals came willingly and once on the boat, collapsed with exhaustion. They were shivering, she said. A few could not hold up their heads. She didn't know if two would make it.

"They couldn't stand up on their own," Kelly said. "(And) they couldn't shake the water off their coats. We didn't want to touch them, but it was clear they were happy to be there. They probably would have crawled on board if they could have."

One possible explanation for why the deer got in that predicament was that a predator chased them into the water. Or maybe they took a swim to find a food source. In any event, once the boat reached shore the deer were set free.

There now. Wasn't that a feel good story?

Thanks Sis.

Travel taxes -- paying the government to spend the night

A few years ago Midland County and the city of Midland, Texas, implemented in a hotel/motel tax on people who have to spend the night here.

The reasons given to the public was that the revenue would be put to use to pull in more travelers. Results would be difficult to measure, however. But a more logical reason was that the people who spend the night in a hotel or motel in Midland would probably do so regardless of the travel tax. It was an easy tax to get passed because it was a tax on other people, people who would likely be barred from voting in local elections because of residency requirements.

So it's interesting to see an Economist article about travel taxes. They cite a report from Global Business Travel Association which lists, among other things, the five destination cities with the highest and lowest travel taxes, as follows:

The cities that impose the highest discriminatory travel taxes on travelers are:
1. Portland, OR
2. Boston, MA
3. Minneapolis, MN
4. New York, NY
5. Chicago, IL

Note the solidly Democrat Party leaning cities in the group with the highest tax. The Economist speculates that three of those cities are destinations for first time U.S. visitors, and a high tax probably wouldn't deter those travelers. Further:

The U.S. cities with the lowest discriminatory travel tax rates in central city locations are:
1. Orange County, CA
2. San Diego, CA
3. San Jose, CA
4. Burbank, CA
5. Ontario, CA

With the exception of one Mid-California city, they are in Southern California, an area generally considered to be more conservative than the rest of California. (Orange County isn't a city, but it's in there, nonetheless.) The taxes may already be high in California, but at least those jurisdictions don't discriminate against visitors.

Two addenda:

1. A portion of the Midland, Texas, travel tax receipts are doled out to favored businesses, like for example, the payment to the producers of a Christian rock concert -- see This Town Needs More Atheists -- demonstrating a lack of sensible uses for the money.

2. The GBTA also reports that business travel is increasing, a good sign, but so are travel prices, not such a good sign.

George Harrison (the Beatle) was Dallas (tv show) fan

This is amusing. That TV show "Dallas" really had the fans, among them, Beatle George Harrison. This comes from Houston Press where Richard Connelly tells us that Michael Palin's diaries reported that the Beatle didn't appreciate Palin's phone calls when "Dallas" was on.

J.R. Ewing certainly held the world's attention.

True story -- I was a tourist standing at a bus stop in Rome, Italy, one morning a few years after "Dallas" had finished its run. I struck up a conversation with another tourist, a Scot from Glasgow who introduced himself as "Join" (spelled John, actually). We did the "where are you from" thing that tourists do, and when I said I was from Texas, he replied, "Oh, that's where J.R.'s from." Yep, if Fes Parker hadn't already done it, J.R. put Texas on the map.

Road Notes -- Santa Fe, New Mexico

Springtime is a very pleasant time to visit New Mexico, or anywhere, for that matter, but this journey took me to the beautiful town of Santa Fe where the residents have done a good job of keeping the city looking old. There's an adobe house there that claims to be the oldest home in the U.S. Now it's a store. But even the new homes have that old adobe look.

Unofficial color of Santa Fe -- Adobe Roof Red.
Unofficial Santa Fe slogan -- "Visit our show room."

The trip up the High Road to Taos this time of year provides a spectacular view. Could it be one of the top ten scenic drives in the U.S.? Perhaps.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these pics.

Good Thursday Pilgrimage

A visitor driving a vehicle on the expressway on the outskirts of Santa Fe, NM, last Thursday may have thought that New Mexicans sure must like to walk as there were hundreds of people walking on the shoulder of the highway. Drivers had to pay close attention, because the walkers seemed oblivious to the potential for hazard. Signs cautioned drivers to watch out for walkers, and the sheriff's office gave the walkers safety tips and glow sticks.

Luckily I was with a knowledgeable native who politely explained that those pedestrians were making an Easter weekend pilgrimage.

Their destination was Chimayo where a miracle was supposed to have occurred a couple of centuries ago in that Spanish settlement nestled on the edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. And that tiny community attracts thousands of pedestrians every year.

Some people make the trek to heal themselves or others, although some probably do it to honor the ritual. It appears on the map to be about the distance of a marathon and then some from Santa Fe, and most of the hikers appeared to have readied themselves for a long trek. But the ones pushing a baby stroller? They may have been expecting a miracle.

Happy Easter, everyone.

Flooding in Australia

Old pal GR resides about 100 kilometers South of Brizzy (Brisbane, Australia), and he forwards this link to a video of some of the flooding the Aussies experienced on January 10, 2011.

The photographer is in an office building in Toowoomba overlooking what appears to be a drainage ditch. The ditch soon becomes a raging river overlapping the parking lot. Click to go directly to the Youtube site.

Toowoomba appears to be 126 highway kilometers West of Brizzy, according to this Google map.

Thanks, GR. Tie your kangaroo down, sport.

Is that a half pound of PETN in your pants or are you just glad to see me?

The underwear bomber's M.O. gets new life as "junk" takes on a new meaning.

See Airport Body Scanners Fooled By Human Tissue, subtitle: "Backscatter X-ray systems can't reliably spot even a large quantity of plastic explosives hidden against the skin, warn researchers."

Tip for terrorists: wrap it in aluminum foil. (Everyone else, see clip from This is Spinal Tap.)

The Clelia II took a wild ride on rough seas

Last week news watchers were treated to the vicarious thrill of riding a small ship in rough seas as the Clelia II bobbed up and down in the waves of the Drake Passage. Watch the video here and experience it yourself.

But watching a video and being there are two very different things. And one can only imagine the stomach churning that must have taken place as that ship made those rapid steep climbs and the drastically sharp drops. Here is a rather emotionless International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators news release from 12/8/2010:

Reports indicate that while Clelia II was encountering rough weather and sea conditions on the morning of December 7, a large wave hit the ship, breaking the starboard bridge window and dousing some electrical circuitry. This caused a temporary loss of communications and affected engine performance. Both engines remained operational and speed was reduced. There are no injuries to passengers, although one member of the crew sustained minor injuries. The ship reports no damage to the hull or discharge of oil or any other liquids or fluids from the ship.

But for the damage to the radios and the loss of engine power, that's a typical trip through the Drake Passage according to Chris Epting as he recounted a similar expedition in Waves of Terror in the Drake Passage. To wit:

OK, maybe "fun" is too strong a word. Yet, once you figure out the fairly consistent movement, it's possible to ride it out without too much discomfort (we did not get sick during the crossing, something we owe to the scopolamine patches, along with lying down as much as we could).

Of course, the fear of so-called "rogue" waves was always on our minds, it was hard to sit and eat, and the first night, when the ship had to turn quickly away from a brewing storm, for a moment I thought we were goners. I described my anxiety to a young Russian sailor the next day. He looked at me, surprised, and said thickly, "Drake Passage last night? Smooth like pond."

Emphasis added.

Meanwhile, Cruise Law News describes how the ship operator, the ship owner, the tour organizer, and travel agency are all scrambling to pin any potential liability on the other guy.

But if in spite of all this you want to take a trip on the Clelia II, rest assured that the "all-suite Clelia II will offer the finest in small-ship cruise travel," and its "spaciousness and intimate ambience combine to make her ideal for distinctive cultural and expedition voyages." Source: GreatLakesCruising.com.

Bon voyage. Enjoy the food.

Conaway's travels

The other day we talked about the excellent Q&A C-SPAN interview with Brody Mullins about our federal government officials taking foreign tax trips at the expense of taxpayers. See Congress loves to travel on the taxpayer's dime. An important piece of information he provided was the fact that the House Clerk's web page provides search links leading to copies of forms the members are required to file. So let's take it for a spin and see what it tells us about Texas District 11 Representative K. Mike Conaway's travels.

Among those filings we find that Mr. Conaway has taken quite a few trips, some at the expense of a trip sponsor. The sponsors must hope to get something of it, but we can only guess what that is. In any event, here's what we learn about U.S. Representative K. Mike Conaway's travels funded by a sponsor:

Destination: Cambridge, Maryland
Sponsor: Congressional Institute
Dates: 11/01/2007 - 11/03/2007 ;

Destination: Baltimore, MD
Sponsor: The Heritage Foundation
Dates: 01/30/2008 - 02/01/2008;

Destination: Las Vegas, NV
Sponsor: National Association of Broadcasters
Dates: 04/13/2008 - 04/15/2008;

Destination: London & Oxford, England
Sponsor: The German Marshall Fund of the United States
Dates: 05/22/2008 - 05/25/2008;

Destination: Chihuahua, Mexico
Sponsor: Midland-Odessa Transportation Alliance
Dates: 08/05/2008 - 08/06/2008;

Destination: Capetown, South Africa
Sponsor: International Conservative Caucus Foundation and the Nial Mellon Foundation
Dates: 11/30/2008 - 12/09/2008;

Destination: Las Vegas, NC (No such place.)
Sponsor: National Association of Broadcasters
Dates: 04/18/2009 - 04/21/2009;

Destination: Ankara and Istanbul, Turkey
Sponsor: The Institute of Interfaith Dialog for World Peace
Dates: 08/07/2009 - 08/20/2009;

Destination: Queenstown, MD
Sponsor: Partnership for a Secure America
Dates: 11/14/2009 - 11/15/2009;

Destination: Berlin and Cologne, Germany
Sponsor: U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress Study Group on Germany
Dates: 03/28/2010 - 04/02/2010;

Destination: Cambridge, MD
Sponsor: Congressional Institute, Inc.
Dates: 05/06/2010 - 05/08/2010.

Those are trips funded by someone else. Search for yourself if you care to. Would the sponsors pay for all this travel it if there were nothing to be gained? I don't think so.

Taxpayer funded foreign travel is a little bit harder to search. The searcher has to look at the congressional record in text or PDF for each quarters' filing, starting here.

Our representatives do most of their traveling on military supplied passenger jets, but the travel cost isn't reflected in the records unless they took a commercial airliner. That said, let's see what we can find for Mr. Conaway's taxpayer funded travels:

England - 4/24/08 -- 4/26/08 - Link.

Germany, Russia, Poland, and Czech Republic - 12/12/08 -- 12/16/08 - Link.

Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, Afghanistan, Germany - 12/16/08 -- 12/22/08 - Link.

Iwo Jima, Korea and Okinawa - 2/16/09 -- 2/21/09 - Link.

Middle East and Europe - 4/3/09 -- 4/10/09 - Link.

Latin America - 9/20/09 -- 9/22/09 - Link.

Romania, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, UK - 11/23/09 -- 11/29/09 -Link.

Africa and Europe - 12/17/09 -- 12/22/09 - Link.

Middle East - 3/5/10--3/9/10 -Link.

Surely the country and Texas District 11 are better off for having such a well traveled representative. Well, we have one whether we are better off or not.

Could this be the year for hill country bluebonnets?

Some years back a mild wet spring produced a spectacular crop of bluebonnets in the hill country of Texas. It took just the right combination of mild temperatures and Spring showers, and from all accounts, the subsequent crops were puny by comparison.

El Nino has dumped a lot of rain in Texas this winter. Fredericksburg, Texas, for example, got 2.57 inches in February and 1.33 inch in the first two weeks of March.

There have been some early sightings in East Texas. So maybe, just maybe, this could be another banner year. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Now here would be a good weekend outing for April 10-11, 2010. First, a leisurely drive around Willow City Loop to see the bountiful bluebonnet blossoms. Then finish up at the gun show in Fredericksburg. What a weekend that would be.  It doesn't get much better than that.

The Christmas Day Saboteur

So did al Qaeda want to ruin Christmas for Americans? Let's hope that the failed attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down an airliner is an example of their best efforts.

Jasper Schuringa and other passengers subdued the guy after he ignited the device. They demonstrated once again that when a threat is identified, citizens will come forward to save the day. It's reminiscent of the Flight 93 heroes on 9/11/01 and should be another demonstration to the al Qaeda minions that annihilating Western civilization will not an easy endeavor.

Early reports said that the bomb was "sophisticated," but perhaps that's code for "it slipped through without detection." And it's possible the bomb wouldn't have worked anyway. But hopefully our guardians of air travel will learn how to detect those things without too much disruption to travelers. Their first effort seems to be to confine passengers to their seats during the final hour of a flight. That seems more punitive then helpful, and better scrutiny of the passengers might be more fruitful. But, when CNN asks whether it's a win for al Qaeda, the answer is still "No."

And they didn't ruin Christmas, they just created an inconvenience.