Michael Bates: December 2014 Archives
Foxtrot Alpha: Exclusive: Meet The USAF's Long Awaited KC-46A Pegasus Tanker
Based on the Boeing 767, the first 18 KC-46As are due to McConnell AFB by the end of 2017, and Altus AFB will be the schoolhouse for pilots and boomers. MORE: Confessions Of A USAF KC-135 'Flying Gas Station' Boom Operator. And TSgt Jamie Morton, the "photog boom," shares dramatic photos of receiver aircraft from a KC-135 Boom Operator's point of view.
Illustrator Josh Ray has produced a series of ten drawings called the Ink Well, currently on display at the Cafe on Broadway in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. "Each of the 10 pieces is inspired from a hymn, and the images themselves are created solely from the words of the hymn, handwritten in ink over and over again. The Image is meant to signify the meaning or the imagery behind each hymn." The background of each image is the sheet music of the song, and even the staves and the notes are revealed to be, on close examination, the words of the hymn. The hymns illustrated are "Amazing Grace," "In Christ Alone," "O for a Thousand Tongues," "I'll Fly Away," "Jesus Paid It All," "It Is Well with My Soul," "The Battle Belongs to the Lord," "All Creatures of Our God and King," and "Our God Is an Awesome God." Prints are available for purchase, starting as low as $35 plus shipping and handling for a 9" x 11" print.
ShadowStats: John Williams' Shadow Government Statistics
There's a gap between Americans' experience of the economy and the rosy reports they hear from Washington. Tinkering with definitions is an easy way for government officials to make their economic performance look better than it really is, and it's a game that has been going on for years. Economist John Williams provides alternative calculations of key economic statistics, seeking to correct for the distortions that have been introduced into the numbers by nearly every administration since JFK's. From the site's primer:
"The first regular reporting of now-popular statistics such as gross national/domestic product (GNP/GDP), unemployment and the consumer price index (CPI) began in the decade following World War II. Modern political manipulation of the government's economic data began as soon as practicable thereafter, with revisions to methodology often incorporating positive reporting biases. As a result, investors and most economists, relying on the government's data, often miss underlying economic reality. "
Another article explains how the method for calculating the consumer price index has changed -- "CPI no longer measures the cost of maintaining a constant standard of living" -- and why it is to government's benefit to minimize the stated rate of inflation.
Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer: The New Yorker
"But the [airline] fee model comes with systematic costs that are not immediately obvious. Here's the thing: in order for fees to work, there needs be something worth paying to avoid. That necessitates, at some level, a strategy that can be described as "calculated misery." Basic service, without fees, must be sufficiently degraded in order to make people want to pay to escape it. And that's where the suffering begins....
"When customers miscalculate their schedules or their plans change, the airline is ready with its punishment: the notorious two-hundred-dollar rebooking and change fee. Those change fees are particularly lucrative: in 2014, Delta and United are projected to collect nearly a billion dollars each. And the greater social cost comes from those who didn't change their tickets even though they wanted to."
The airline fee model presents some dilemmas to the employee traveling at company expense and the company buying the ticket. Are all "extras" -- even luggage fees -- the responsibility of the employee? Will companies steer travel toward the handful of airlines that don't charge luggage or change fees? How much is wifi and enough leg and elbow room to work productively on the plane worth to a company? How much is it worth to have the employee arrive at the destination rested, happy, and ready to work, rather than harried, hassled, and annoyed?
Understanding old British money - pounds, shillings and pence
"I was born in 1943. The money used in our village was:- farthing, haypenny, penny, thrupenny bit, sixpence, shilling, two bob bit, half crown, ten bob note, pound note and five pound note. The crown coin was limited. I don't think there was a five pound coin. I believe the guinea was, still is, just a value and not a coin or note."
Unseen CS Lewis letter defines his notion of joy | Books | The Guardian
Lewis discusses joy in a letter found tucked into a copy of Lewis's The Problem of Pain which was bought in a used bookshop.
"Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is unlike agony...."
"It jumps under one's ribs and tickles down one's back and makes one forget meals and keeps one (delightedly) sleepless o' nights. It shocks one awake when the other puts one to sleep. My private table is one second of joy is worth 12 hours of Pleasure. I think you really quite agree with me."
In a postscript, he added:
"Don't you know the disappointment when you expected joy from a piece of music and get only pleasure: Like finding Leah when you thought you'd married Rachel!"
When in doubt: UPS avoids left turns
"'What we found: A significant cause of idling time resulted from drivers making left turns, essentially going against the flow of traffic. From there we explored routes where these turns were cut out entirely, and then compared data.'
"Even if this meant traveling a greater distance, results showed that more packages could be delivered in less time with reduced emissions by driving in a series of right-hand loops. It helped the bottom line, met consumer demands and increased safety."
Ben Edelman, Harvard Business School Professor, Goes to War Over $4 Worth of Chinese Food
And this is why people hate lawyers and Harvard grads: Edelman was charged more -- a grand total of $4 -- for Chinese takeout than the prices listed on the online menu, demanded triple damages, and suggested he would report the restaurant to the proper authorities. boston.com reports that this isn't the first time Edelman has gone all lawyerly on a restaurant: In 2010, he took on a sushi restaurant for not interpreting a Groupon deal as generously as he did. The sushi restaurant fired back by threatening to call the cops to escort him out as a trespasser if he ever set foot in the place again.
A Better Way to Say Sorry | cuppacocoa
A meaningful apology must be more than a mumbled "Sorry." This four-point pattern leads the apologizer to understand and express specifically what they did that was wrong, how it hurt other people, and what positive action he will take in the future to avoid repeating the wrong, and then it leads the offender to express humility to the person offended and invites a response, opening the door to reconciliation.
I'm sorry for...
This is wrong because...
In the future, I will...
Will you forgive me?
A fourth-grade teacher explains how she taught this pattern to her class (her use of role-play and peer critique is interesting), and the impressive results it produced.
Hughes's TNR Makeover Is The Obama Administration In Miniature : The Other McCain
Chris "Smitty" Smith ponders leftist angst over the planned dumbing-down of The New Republic:
"I just love it when these Progressives get all emotional about the destruction of institutions. Given that this has been their stock in trade since the Summer of Love, culminating in six years of #OccupyResoluteDesk making a total cock-up of the Presidency, one is left to wonder why the Lefties can't just enjoy their liberation from 'intellectual substance.' This is another suck-is-the-new-cool call from the manor house down to the the peasants working the fields. Dig it, lackeys.
"Progressivism is not a creative movement. It is the combustion of traditional, positive, moral values in a propaganda machine for the production of political power. Once all of the moral values of the culture have been burned, Progress will generally collapse into the kind of thuggery most recently seen in Ferguson, MO."
Converting 32-bit code to 64-bit code
Some resources for avoiding pitfalls when moving C or C++ software from a 32-bit computer to a 64-bit computer:
- Apple: 64-bit transition guide: Making code 64-bit clean
- Viva64: A Collection of Examples of 64-bit Errors in Real Programs
- Viva64:20 issues of porting C++ code on the 64-bit platform
- The Unix System: 64bit and Data Size Neutrality
- IBM: Porting Linux applications to 64-bit systems
- MSDN: Rules for Using Pointers
In 2008, legendary computer scientist Donald Knuth complained about gcc on 64-bit platforms forcing the wasteful use of 64-bit pointers, when 32-bit pointers would suffice, and that the man page advertised an option to permit this, although it's only available for the obsolete MIPS platform. This Ubuntu bug page pursues the question.
