while this sounds interesting, may be tough to do this for such a small plane…..?

Horten HX-2 ‘flying wing’ makes its global debut

Other similar planes include the ill-fated Northrop YB-49, much of this same footage from the YT video also appears in part in the 1953 War of the Worlds movie when they use it to drop an A-bomb on the Martians (to no effect). Apparently even the Japanese had tried building one in WWII after hearing about the German plane.

Big list of Flying Wing Aircraft and drones to date, incl the recent B2 Bomber, also by Northrop, effectively a flying wing.:

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No first trip to Honolulu (or Oahu, for that matter) would be complete (for an American, anyway, maybe not someone from another country excepting possibly Japan) without a trip to the WWII Pearl Harbor Memorial in Honolulu harbor.

I had a series of WWII books when I was a kid, one was specifically about the story of the USS Arizona, sunk in the attack (and now with a memorial of its own in the overall park). However, when we were in Hawaii last week, we found out they have closed the Arizona Memorial because of cracks, and apparently there is no real timeline (despite some false starts) to reopen it anytime soon.

So that, to me, was a notable disappointment in visiting the park. I found out later that the boat that normally ferries you over to the memorial (it sits out in the water, atop where the ship was sunk during the PH attack) was still running, just doesn’t take onto the memorial itself. Had I paid closer attention when there, I would have done that, but I figured it was all closed up, so didn’t – doh!

Meanwhile, I went to the USS Bowfin sub moored nearby, then took the bus to the Aviation Museum. I had already seen a battleship (the New Jersey, many years ago) so didn’t want to bother with the Missouri – they’re fairly similar).

First up, the Bowfin. They give you the option of a self-guided tour using an audio device, which I used, a good addition. While the ship itself is pretty big, I couldn’t help thinking about being underwater for weeks at a time in a smelly, hot metal tub full of barely-showered men, at sometimes up to 120 degrees in there (because of the engines and the inability to surface in some tricky situations to vent heat, etc.). Hard. Core. Then you have to survive water battles, sinking enemy ships while trying to sneak away from Destroyers and Torpedo Bombers trying to sink you with depth charges and torpedoes!? A truly tough tour of duty, at the very least – and many didn’t come back, as we know.

Compared to seeing at least one German sub of the era a few years ago in a museum (can’t remember where/when now), the Bowfin is definitely bigger but I’m sure otherwise likely just as challenging to live and work in from day to day.

The other thing that really struck me was the slow speed at which it traveled – in the Pacific theater, that thing must have been trucking along for over a week(?) to get to the Asian Pacific area in fighting the Japanese – a modern day CAR could drive there faster (if you had a road and unlimited gas, of course). Wild stuff.

here’s some pics:

The Bowfin’s home page gives you a LOT more historical detail and history of this amazing sub. To those who served on her, whether through complete tours or died in action – RIP and thank you for your service.

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So just finished my second Justice Douglas biography, Independent Journey by James F. Simon (1980), published not too long after Douglas’ passing in 1975. I had read Wild Bill: The Legend and Life of William O. Douglas by Bruce Allen Murphy (2003) immediately prior.

I had heard about the later book originally via a New Republic article some years ago, a book review by Judge Richard Posner. But after having read it, and the second book having mentioned the earlier bio in the end credits, I really felt I needed to read the earlier book. You see, while certainly Murphy’s book is an amazing example of dedicated scholarship – it largely focuses on Douglas’ personal shortcomings – and while there are many, many such egregious examples of them, Simon’s earlier book provides a much better balance of the actual SUPREME COURT activity Douglas engaged in and in some cases, led. Murphy spends so much time uncovering all the personal flaws, problems and misdeeds of Douglas that he largely blows off most of the Court stuff (why he wrote the book, hello?). Unlike Simon’s book, which tells a lot of detail behind two huge cases for example (Brown v. Board of Education in the 50’s and Roe v. Wade just before the end of Douglas’ career) – Murphy doesn’t really deal much with either one, if at all.

Ultimately, The Nation sums it up best for me in talking about both books and then about Douglas the man. Because so many of the *results* Douglas wanted to see (or helped bring about as part of the Warren Court or earlier as Chairman of the SEC) – are still RIGHT. So as bad a human being as he was in many, many circumstances, The Nation still makes the best final statement of him to me: “If more present-day Justices and judges embraced William O. Douglas’s ideals, constitutional liberties would be far safer than they are.” (and throw in environmental protection too, because while not part of his jurisprudence, he was d*** right on that one and way ahead of his time.

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Sneaker Wars: The Enemy Brothers Who Founded Adidas & Puma & the Family Feud That Forever Changed the Business of Sports

This is quite frankly, one of the craziest (nonfiction) books I’ve ever read. It tells the story of Adi Dassler and his rival, Rudi – as they created and fought for business over the decades since just before WWII with Adidas and Puma, respectively.

But arguably the most crazy (and interesting) part of the story is Adi’s son Horst, who literally built the Adidas brand and worldwide presence we know today, through athlete product endorsements, additional clothing lines and relentless promotion across nearly every sport imaginable. From the way the book portrays him, he’s all but a head of state in many ways, especially given the relationships he creates and cultivates until he passes away at a fairly young age in his early 50s.

Puma is kind of an also-ran in the later years as depicted in this book (Rudi also had a rival son to Horst, but seems to continually come up short on nearly all fronts, save for a few cases) – but it’s also interesting to see along the way how Phil Knight learned the lessons of Horst well and built his own, even bigger shoe and clothing empire starting with one Michael Jordan….the research that went into this book is top-notch and obviously took years to accumulate and review, especially given these are private companies, not governments or public entities.

defnitely one of the best books I’ve read this year.

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So following on from the previous post regarding touring the Shuttle Trainer at Boeing’s Museum of Flight, here’s the rest of all the ‘plane nerd’ photos from most of the rest of the museum – enjoy!

I have to say, despite no flash, that ridiculous new phone of mine actually takes decent pics…..click on one from the gallery, then click it again to get the high-res version….

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Love it!

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I’m sure Ayn R. is burning down there right about now – or sneaking around like Uncle Screwtape, talking s*** into people’s ears… 🙂

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NEVER time travel! 🙂

Obviously!

More war propaganda posters can be seen here. Some are quite ridiculous and have not dated well, including at least one very racist one targeting the Japanese.

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Went to see Iron Sky at SIFF Uptown last Sunday. This is an interesting movie, for several reasons:

1) It was apparently paid for in part by crowdsourcing – and given the diverse production credits (made by Finns, add’l product Down Under and Germany) that seems about right;

2) It kind of plays as a ‘Steampunk sci-fi epic meets Weekly World News fantasy with the ulltimate villains (Nazis, who else?) thrown in”

3) This may be the only way a certain self-important right-wing freak ever gets her claws on the White House (well, indirectly) – and that’s a good thing!

So in a nutshell, apparently a bunch of Nazis got to the moon and built a base prior to losing WWII, and are ‘discovered’ again by a new (meaning modern, not Apollo era) moon landing. There is a lot of attention paid to little details (actual vintage Beetles hauling them around the huge moonbase, over-fascination with huge ‘revenge weapons’, etc.) and the special effects – done in Lightwave (hooray!) are very good, IMHO. With this discovery, Ze Space Nazi’s now think their cover is blown and that Earth plans an invasion, so naturally it’s so ON, people! Battle(s) ensue and I wasn’t prepared for the ending, either – well done!

The actors are good, even though dialog-wise they are pretty flat and played for satire, not seriousness. Astute viewers will note the Bruno Ganz tribute just into the second act of the film (I won’t spoil it for you but pretty funny), how appropo. And the Spaze Nazi invasion force has to be seen to be believed.

So in summary, if you are looking for a ‘serious’ sci-fi epic – e.g. Prometheus (which was a sizable let-down in the end, see review) – this isn’t it. But it IS very entertaining, well made and worth a relaxing evening if you can catch it while still in art-theaters or later on DVD. Ja voll!

other reviews:
– The Guardian (UK)
– The Hollywood Reporter
– Rotten Tomatoes

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