I just thought to follow up on this 2007 story about DayJet, a high-flying air taxi service that planned to operate tiny, three-passenger Eclipse 500 jets. The story doesn’t deviate from economic trends: DayJet ceased operations in September 2008, and the aircraft manufacturer entered Chapter 7 in February 2009.

The Air Taxi Association says their operators save big money over scheduled airline service, but finding the price of that service can be hard.

Aside from DayJet’s inventory of planes, the company has a lot of transportation research and service algorithms that may stand as assets. The research includes a “Sim City on steroids” that models “the entire U.S. transportation system. They’ve mapped travel patterns into 10-square-mile blocks, complete with income levels, demographics, historical driving patterns, airport drive times, and airline schedules and fares.” Further, they’ve developed an algorithm that supposedly could manage the resource allocation issues and estimate the cost for passengers trying to hail such a taxi.

This pedal-powered roller coaster is Washuzan Highland Park’s Skycycle in Okayama prefecture, Japan It appears that the only CO2 emissions are the huffing and puffing of riders peddling to the top. The park does have three traditionally powered steel coasters (the Ultra, Star Jet, and Chupy).

Ilya Schurov thinks this is the time capsule from from Isaak Asimov’s The End Of Eternity. It’s really the elevator and stair (or ramp)-way in Prague’s Old Town Hall. A clock and great views of the square are at the top.

Thinking of interesting elevators to be found in Europe: The Paternoster.

The Woodman Institute Museum in Dover NH is famous for having a four-legged chicken, but that’s only a small example of the weirdness you’ll find inside. A big collection of snakes and bugs and bears in top hats along with other examples of taxidermy fills the first two floors. The top floor is dedicated to war and includes the obligatory rusty cannon ball that killed and maimed.

The absolute scariest part of the entire museum, however, is the hall of dolls. Amanda Etches-Johnson calls it the stuff of nightmares.

The Albacore is a post World War II experimental submarine now on display in Portsmouth NH. Seeing the sub on land, some height above sea level, is a bit surprising, and it’s clear that moving it there was no small task.

Five dollars will get you inside the sub’s tight and awkward quarters, where you’ll see the Frankensteinian bathroom (and that’s for officers) and details such as lithium hydroxide canisters and signal ejector instructions that stand as reminders of the dangers of submarining. Still, it’s open enough that you can sit down at the controls and pretend to pilot the craft.

From Justin: real-time flight tracking. You can even overlay it on Google Earth. None of them as pretty as Aaron Koblin’s Flightplan, though.

What is it about abandonment that’s so compelling? From Chernobyl and Pripyat to mental hospitals to lost theme parks from Korea to California, we can’t help but stare at darkly vacant buildings.

Now add malls to the list. And put South China Mall, in Dongguan at the top of it. Unlike most every other expanse of empty hallways we can name, this one’ been empty since it opened in 2005. And, even more amusing, it’s actually still operating. Sort of.

The place was designed to house about 1500 shops, but only a few dozen storefronts are leased. Dismembered mannequins and an operating amusement park add to the Twilight Zone effect. Shoppers are rare. Some people show up for the amusements, but rarely venture inside “because there’s a weird smell.”

What sets the South China Mall apart from the rest, besides its mind-numbing size, is that it never went into decline. The tenants didn’t jump ship; they never even came on board. The mall entered the world pre-ruined, as if its developers had deliberately created an attraction for people with a taste for abandonment and decay. It is a spectacular real-estate failure.

Looking for more? There are lots of dead malls in the US.

Walking north on Valencia I heard the characteristic snap snap snap of an old manual typewriter’s hammers striking paper on the platen.

I was more than a bit curious about who might still use such a classic machine even before its operator called out to ask if I wanted to buy a poem. Still, it’d been a full day exploring The Mission with a fabulous host and the time for my flight home was nearing.

“A poem?” I asked, and before I could inquire what the poem might be about or demand to review samples of his previous work, this sales savvy poet asked my name and the purpose of my visit and started hammering away on the faded blue portable Remington.

His name is Zach Houston, and in addition to running the Poem Store on various street corners around San Francisco, he also just opened a show in a gallery on the other side of The Mission.

But if he’s running a store, if this was a commercial transaction, I wanted a receipt. Into the typewriter went the remaindered piece of the shipping labels that he uses as a canvas for his work and in several more snaps he tapped out a suitable bill of sale.

Photographer farflungphotos describes:

All the stations in Moscow’s metro are completely different from one another. Some of them are so opulent, with grand marble halls and chandeliers, all hidden away underground. People seemed to be using them as places just to hang out and meet up with friends. The trains were really frequent too, practically on each others tails. You never have to wait more than a few minutes for one to come along.

Roadside Attractions Fading from Landscape:

A staple of the American road trip could be slowly disappearing from the nation’s interstates and byways. Owners of some roadside attractions are deciding that interest is waning

It was cold. The air carried no scent, ice squeaked under our boots, and every little leaf and twig crinkled and snapped as we walked over it. But this was louder than that. Much louder. Neither Jon nor I saw it actually happen, but when I found Will he was mostly upside down between a boulder and tree. The trail at that point was elevated by some rocks and bordered by pines that grew from the forrest floor some distance below.

After a bit of struggle we removed Will’s 60 pound pack, got him upright, and back to the trail. He had no cuts, and his head didn’t show any signs of injury, but his left arm was about eight inches longer than his right, and he couldn’t move it. More significantly, he was now very much disabled on top of a mountain in November. The sun and temperatures were falling and all of us were at risk of hypothermia if we didn’t act quickly.

I had my iPhone, and it had a signal. I looked up “fix dislocated shoulder” and quickly read the WikiHow article that appeared on top. I passed it on to Jon for a second opinion, and he read it out loud for us all. Will choked on the line “this will not be a comfortable experience, but do not give in to the pain.” And I choked on it a few moments later when I performed the procedure as outlined and felt and heard the snapping like a popsicle stick bent too far. Thankfully, the line “when the shoulder pops back into its joint, relief will come immediately” was true.

We were prepared for a winter night, but not Will’s dislocated shoulder. The iPhone gave us access to the wealth of knowledge available on the web, and that helped us deal with Will’s injury on our own[1]. It was a cold night, and a painful one for Will, but we survived.

1: I often carry my iPhone on hikes, but what might we have done without it? If we had just a regular phone we might have called emergency services, who would have likely dispatched people to climb the mountain to rescue Will. Nobody should be hiking a steep, dark, icy trail. And if we didn’t have any phone? We would have worked from memory, which was informed more by Lethal Weapon than real medical facts. Who knows what harm we might have done to the guy?

Japan’s The Ministry of Foreign Affairs English-language Web Japan is a bottomless trove of in-flight magazine-quality stories like ANTIBACTERIAL EPIDEMIC and J-culture-hyping love-fests like Honoring The World’s Manga Artists.

If American propaganda efforts are this bad, why do foreign governments even bother blocking them?

I can use my iPhone pretty much anywhere, but ATT is going to charge me $1.30 a minute for calls, $.50 per text, and $.02 per KB for data while in Denmark.

ATT requires international activation but they do offer some tips for international roamers. I bought an international iPhone data plan (20MB for $25), but I also learned that visual voice mail counts against that (regular voice mail counts against minutes, at the $1.30 rate). I could have paid $6 a month to get a discounted voice rate, but I’d have to make 20 minutes of calls for it to pay off. And there’s no plan to give me discounted SMS.

All I know about Denmark is what gets imported: Legos, of course, but also a tradition of exquisitely clean and functional design. That’s why, as I prepare for my talk in Copenhagen later this week, I’m incredibly conscious of my own design and a bit jealous of Jessamyn’s outstanding use of orange.

Anyway, that’s where I’ll be all week. Any tips? Anybody up for a drink?

Corey, Will, and Jon were all as excited as I was to see the fabled Point Judith Corrosion Test Site, just south of Narragansett, but we were all surprised at how un-rusty the goods were.

Don’t laugh, corrosion is a big deal. According to the National Materials Advisory Board:

Corrosion of metallic structures has a significant impact on the U.S. economy. In a congressional study, the total economic impact of corrosion and corrosion control applications was estimated to be $276 billion annually, or 3.1 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).

This facility is one of a handful (though the heavy sales pitch on this NASA page makes it look like there are more facilities than things to test). Specimens are arranged on racks where they just sit…and slowly rust or corrode or exfoliate. The research papers read like, well, research papers, but I’m sure they’re good stuff. After all, the NanoTechnology Group says:

…chemical attack of metal surfaces may result in surface nano-structures with very interesting technological applications such as catalysts and sensors. Therefore, a better understanding of corrosion processes is required to both prevent it and make the most of it.

And from the looks of things at Point Judith, they’ve got it figured out. The most rusted thing we found was a bit of highway guardrail, everything else was just gray. Not so great for a purported “rust museum.”

Eh, we’ll have to console ourselves with subREVOLT’s rust museum for that fix.

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Will, Jon, Joe, Ted, and I arrived at Telos Landing with plans to run the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. As we prepared to embark, the park ranger appeared with a tape measure and told us our kayaks weren’t canoes.

Section 2.3 of the Allagash rules and regulations is quite clear: “A canoe is defined as a form of small watercraft long and narrow…. The width at the widest point shall not exceed 20% of the craft’s overall length.” Of our three kayaks and one canoe, only one met those regulations. The canoe, it turns out, was a cannot.

It’s worth knowing that I’ve been told stories about how Maine Game Wardens are among the most empowered law enforcement officials in the US. “They can shoot you if they want to,” an older, drunken friend said once. Ranger Rick in front of us didn’t appear to have a gun, but I didn’t see the tape measure until it was too late either. And the difference between a ranger and warden seemed a bit argumentative if the gun did come out.

And those thoughts are what helped me keep a straight face while the ranger repeated “yep, they’re not canoes, you can’t go on the river with ‘em.”

Jon, however, was fearless.

“I’m not trying to argue, but these are kayaks.”

“They might be, but I can tell you they’re not canoes. And you can’t go beyond Lock Damn in ‘em.”

Jon and Ranger Rick continued for a bit. We all wanted to know why. What did the width and length matter? Why?

Rick was able to point out the regulations, but couldn’t explain them. “Nope, it’s not for safety,” he was able to say, but couldn’t offer any other insights to what the rules were about or why. He was quite excited to help us contact an outfitter friend of his who could rent us some official canoes, and he warned us that other rangers at the various portages would each stop us if we tried to continue.

Choose your own adventure indeed.

We cancelled our plans to have our cars shuttled to the end of the river and consoled ourselves with kayaking in the, um, brown waters of Lake Chamberlain. We spent three nights on the lake, paddling a 20 mile loop (to sustain our pride, we usually add that it was against the wind each way), long enough to enjoy the lake fog and some wooded sunsets.

Will lit our campfires with a bow. Ted feared our doddling would attract aliens. Rain blew in on the last night, and Joe taught us all fantan. Huddled around the picnic table under a just too small tarp we played game after game.

Allagash Wilderness Waterway, Allagash, river, kayaking, canoeing, canoe, kayak, maine, rules, regulations, vacation, mancation

Now matter how depressed I got in New Orleans, I still had to eat. A tip from the ladies at Molly’s on Toulouse led me to Yo Moma’s with instructions to try their peanut butter burger.

Yes. Peanut butter. On a burger. I was also told that if I don’t like mayo, I should tell them to hold it because they’ll put it on thick if I don’t.

Yes. Peanut butter, on a burger with mayo. Indeed, it even had bacon bits.

And, as it turned out, everything was in the right proportion. Each flavor revealed itself in every bite, and they were all yummy.

This might be one I’ll try at home.

Edit: changed some sloppy wording to correct the bad grammar Matt pointed out.

food, peanut butter, hamburger, yo mama’s, restaurant

It wasn’t until after my presentation that I had a chance to see the city. And I have to admit it was so depressing that I’ve been having trouble writing about it. I have a sick interest in abandoned theme parks and the like, but seeing the neighborhoods of all classes so destroyed, the symbols marking search and rescue attempts, and the general vacancy of the city left me confused and uncomfortable.

I took pictures of a number of houses, and morbid curiosity had me snapping photos of those symbols, but I can’t post them.

The destruction was real and remains, but the hope and commitment to rebuild is real too. New Orleans is city destroyed, but its people are not broken. And sadly, I haven’t figured out how to take a photo that does that justice.

The photo above is of the memorial in the lower ninth ward, dedicated August 27th 2006 (the governor’s dedication). The sign in the window reads: “I am coming home! I will rebuild! I am New Orleans!”

new orleans, NOLA, memorial, recovery, hurricane katrina

That’s me on JetBlue Flight 481 to Long Beach, wearing my noise canceling headphones. Sandee saw me wanting them, so she was especially happy to make them a Christmas present to me. And, with all the flying I’ve been doing lately, I was especially happy to have them.

I wanted the QuietComfort 2s not just because I like big, old skool, over-the-ear headphones (I don’t, actually), but because I really wanted the extra noise reduction that design offers. I had tried the QuietComfort 3s in a Bose store and wasn’t convinced they were better. Smaller, yes, but still large enough that I can’t lean my head against the window without knocking them off my ear. That, and I really didn’t want to have to carry yet another charger when I travel — the 2s take a single AAA battery (so carrying extra or finding more is easy), the 3s take a custom rechargeable battery. Still, if the 3’s electronics are really better, I’d like to see them applied to the OTE design to get even more noise reduction.

As it is, however, I’m quite pleased. Listening without music, headphones do a good job of quieting the drone of the plane, and with a bit of music, it largely disappears. And unlike with my iPod earbuds, which I had to run at full or nearly full volume, I can now listen — and hear the music — at volumes from the lower half of the range. What I didn’t like, however, was how bulky they are compared to my old earbuds. Sleeping required new attention to where I was leaning my head; tip my against the window or fuselage and not only would I rick knocking the headphones off my head, but the vibration would suddenly be amplified by the noise canceling hardware.

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I’m back in Oakland Airport, but this time I’m bringing my own network and I don’t have to deal with Sprint’s WIFI mess.

See, the problem isn’t just that it costs too much. The problem is that once you pay, you’re plopped at the login page where the login I just created doesn’t work.

And worse, the error offers absolutely no clue about why the username I just just created (and paid for!) would fail. NONE.

Fortunately, I’d left my signup confirmation open in another tab and was able to go back to look at the fine print. It was there that I learned I might have to log in with my username@wifi.sprintpcs.com. Might!

error message, errors, oak, oakland airport, sprint, suck, ui, wifi

While northern-hemisphere inhabitants are enjoying their first day of winter, our cousins in the southern hemisphere are just beginning summer. And in South Africa’s Shark Bay, near Gansbaai, the great whites are departing for other waters.

The great whites make their way to Shark Bay annually between September and January, though they are not hunting, and, as Rob Mousley reports, they “ignore bait slicks (and bathers), swimming through them without any reaction–in contrast to their behaviour at other locations such as Dyer Island” [link added].

Thomas P. Peschak and Michael C. Scholl began using kayaks to join the sharks in shallow waters (sometimes as shallow as 2 meters) where their research vessel couldn’t go. Testing showed the sharks cared little — “the sharks would circle the kayak and look at it, but they never tested it with their teeth.”

Michael is quite happy now to paddle with the sharks especially as the sea kayaks seem a minimally invasive platform from which to do so. Individual sharks sometimes circle the kayak, and will occasionally lift their heads out of the water to take a better look, but subsequently ignore the kayak altogether allowing the researcher to follow closely behind.

When asked what a paddler should do if a shark is sighted, Michael said, “First and foremost, enjoy the moment!”

Andre Hartmann, commercial fisherman and de facto shark tour guide enjoys grabbing their fins. From Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Adventures:

Jean-Michel and Andre snorkel near the surface, a very vulnerable position because great whites tend to feed from the sea floor up. An enormous great white advances, and the divers are careful not to provoke it. There is a waiting game. Eventually, the shark allows the divers to touch it. Then, amazingly, unlike its terrifying man-eating reputation, the great white allows the divers, one at a time, to grip its dorsal fin and be taken for a ride through the clear blue waters.

Hat tip to Joe and Flickr for bringing all this to me.

great white shark, sharks, photo, shark bay, kayak

Mt. Moriah, this time better than last time.

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Some time ago in St Louis, I stumbled upon Eat-Rite Diner. Aparently I wasn’t the first to be taken in by its charms. Yelp notes:

This is a MUST in St. Louis. However don’t go here for the friendly staff, good food, or fun atmosphere. This place is a joke! They will need to buzz you in the door to come in and try the delightful SLINGER. Eat right or don’t eat at all!

From Eaten Alive Books:

Another historic diner with a waitress/cook duo straight from the fifties. Open late night (post bar close), food for an iron stomach, not a wobbly one.

diner, st. louis mo, eat-rite, food, late night, slider, slinger, hamburgers

New Hampshire’s Highland Games are back where they belong in Lincoln NH. Fittingly for the Highlands theme, the weather Saturday was cold and misty, with fogs rolling over the hills. I half expected Lorna Doone herself to appear.

The games, of course, are “Scottish Heavy Athletics” involving the throwing (though sometimes carrying) of just about anything that can be found. Rocks… hammers… sheep… trees, they all count. Well, the “sheep toss” is actually the “sheaf toss” and is intended to measure an athlete’s ability to toss hay to the top of the pile. But can I be blamed for preferring to imagine it as the sheep toss and encouraging the audience to bleat “bahhh” with every throw. Surely you can’t blame me for explaining to the kids in the audience that the games come from the ancient practice of tossing sheep over the king’s bed so that he may count his way to restful sleep?

The big event of the games, however, is the kaber toss. A kaber can measure from 16 to 20 feet long and weigh 80 to 130 pounds. A birch tree fits the bill quite well, though this year’s kaber appeared to have been manufactured.

Sheep dog trials, dancing, piping, fiddling, and a visit to the sword tent all round out the day.

caber toss, festival, highland games, kaber toss, new hampshire highland games, scottish games, sheaf toss, sheep toss, throwing

The Mercury News’ QA on carry-on restrictions answered a big question I had:

Q Can I still carry my laptop, cell phone and iPod on board?
A Those items are still OK as long as you’re not traveling to or through the United Kingdom.

But a Reuters story posted at C|Net suggests the restriction on liquids won’t be going away any time soon.

Draconian restrictions on carry-on baggage may stay in place for months, even years…

None of this, of course, has anything to do with the mid-term elections and everything to do with our new understanding of evidence first uncovered in 1995.

Extra: Java Cafe’s photo of the flight home.

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