Frustrating Futility

Living in Switzerland is at times strange. There is no palpable evidence of Global Warming here, consequently the public here has no sense or urgency.

Fair enough. I can’t fault the well-meaning people here who do work on so-called “sustainability” measures.

But while I respect the people and their goodwill, I am a non-expert in this area so I can’t help but find the word “sustainable” to be somewhat silly in view of (1) the tremendous environmental debt that must be repaid (in other words, are we not responsible for the prior damage done?), and (2) the tremendous global warming momentum (in other words, if CO2 levels were frozen now, the planet would continue to heat). Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy if we replace a plastic bag with a paper one — but that hardly makes a difference to our situation.

Here are some interesting snaps from a place where the effects of Global Warming are palpable, and where many family, friends, and colleagues have now suffered real losses due to this effect.

 

Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | National Centers for  Environmental Information (NCEI)

2022 U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in historical  context | NOAA Climate.gov

 

2021 U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in historical  context | NOAA Climate.gov

Robostore @ ORD

I honestly don’t understand it. Here is a “robostore” in which you can select something you want and just walk out with it – apparently Amazon technology will scan it and charge you for it. But what is the advantage of this approach, if they must hire a person to guard the store?

Fighter jet at the San Antonio airport

A few years ago I was flying out of the airport in San Antonio, and I had the pleasure to see a military fighter jet land!  This is not really usual in San Antonio, since San Antonio is a well-known training center for military pilots.

Here’s the jet, turning off of the runway where it just landed:

Here’s the jet, taxiing parallel to the runway:

And even though the jet was still moving, the pilot lifted the canopy:

Rocket

I fired up my iPAD this morning and Google Photos showed me this snap, that I took at Cape Caniveral exactly 15 years ago to the day.

It makes me stop and think a bit: what happens when a hurricane hits?  Are these pieces all brought indoors?  Or, are that very securely fastened so there is little danger of them blowing away? Here’s an example of some hurricane damage I spotted during this trip, just a few miles away from Cape Canaveral,

It’s amazing that my brain is sometimes so slow as to think about important questions like this – in this case – 15 years too late!

An incredible treasure in Las Vegas – 3

Continuing the series, a lot of people go to Las Vegas, at least before Covid. Some of them travel to nearby sights, such as the Hoover Damn. But in my book, the most incredible, mind-blowing thing to see in Las Vegas is a state park buried deep, deep within the city – in a location so remote that no tourists ever come here.

It’s called The Springs Preserve, and it is a “patch” of native desert that is kept in its pristine form, almost 200 acres in size. Believe it or not, it is built on the site of the very first water spring discovered in the desert, making city life here at all possible.

As you walk around, you can see a good example of just about every type of desert plant, such as this cactus that I thought made an especially artistic snap:

 

Inside the preserve you’re free to walk around on trails they’ve set up.  In upcoming photos I’ll show some of the amazing, mind-blowing things you can find in this wonderful place!

 

An incredible treasure in Las Vegas – 3

Continuing the series, a lot of people go to Las Vegas, at least before Covid. Some of them travel to nearby sights, such as the Hoover Damn. But in my book, the most incredible, mind-blowing thing to see in Las Vegas is a state park buried deep, deep within the city – in a location so remote that no tourists ever come here.

It’s called The Springs Preserve, and it is a “patch” of native desert that is kept in its pristine form, almost 200 acres in size. Believe it or not, it is built on the site of the very first water spring discovered in the desert, making city life here at all possible.

As you walk around, you can see a good example of just about every type of desert plant, such as this creosote bush that I thought made an especially artistic snap:

 

Inside the preserve you’re free to walk around on trails they’ve set up.  In upcoming photos I’ll show some of the amazing, mind-blowing things you can find in this wonderful place!

 

An incredible treasure in Las Vegas – 2

Continuing the series, a lot of people go to Las Vegas, at least before Covid. Some of them travel to nearby sights, such as the Hoover Damn. But in my book, the most incredible, mind-blowing thing to see in Las Vegas is a state park buried deep, deep within the city – in a location so remote that no tourists ever come here.

It’s called The Springs Preserve, and it is a “patch” of native desert that is kept in its pristine form, almost 200 acres in size. Believe it or not, it is built on the site of the very first water spring discovered in the desert, making city life here at all possible.

Here is a historical water derrick, located directly as the site of the spring:

Inside the preserve you’re free to walk around on trails they’ve set up.  In upcoming photos I’ll show some of the amazing, mind-blowing things you can find in this wonderful place!

 

Occasional shooter

I am just an occasional shooter, but still I have little trouble achieving better than a 2-inch grouping with a target at 50 yards, such as I’m doing with my father at a shooting range with this Springfield Armory 1911 handgun here chambered in 45 ACP.

My father is a regular shooter, at this distance his groupings are so tight that after a few rounds the target just has a big hole.

An incredible treasure in Las Vegas – 1

A lot of people go to Las Vegas, at least before Covid. Some of them travel to nearby sights, such as the Hoover Damn. But in my book, the most incredible, mind-blowing thing to see in Las Vegas is a state park buried deep, deep within the city – in a location so remote that no tourists ever come here.

It’s called The Springs Preserve, and it is a “patch” of native desert that is kept in its pristine form, almost 200 acres in size. Believe it or not, it is built on the site of the very first water spring discovered in the desert, making city life here at all possible.

Inside the preserve you’re free to walk around on trails they’ve set up.  In upcoming photos I’ll show some of the amazing, mind-blowing things you can find in this wonderful place!

Under the wing

Under the wing of an Airbus A380, that is. In any European airport it would probably be unthinkable, but here I am in a car at the international terminal of the LAX airport in Los Angeles, driving directly underneath the wing.  There was plenty of clearance – but still, things of this nature are not allowed at most European airports.

In a previous job I worked for Swissport, at the time the world’s largest ground handling company that earned its money by tending to airplanes after landing and before take-off.

But what does this post have to do with IT?

Airports are divided into roughly two groups: those that are private and want to make a profit, and those that are public.

The airport at Zurich is a good example of a „normal“ private airport: if you are a company doing business there like Swissport, just ask for what you need (networks, WiFi, offices) – and the airport is more than happy to sell you what you need.

But Los Angeles is more of a public works type of airport. There are regions at the airport that are totally empty of any IT services or even wireless connections. How do you bring in innovate IT solutions when you can‘t connect to an Internet? Our talented IT crew like Rui and Juan always found clever approaches, but they weren‘t always the best approaches. For example, the network connection to our refueling facilities at LAX was accomplished via a satellite connection, but with a bandwidth measured in the high KB/sec.

Long story short: it‘s really a myth to think good IT services can be rolled out to the whole world. Many companies struggle with overcoming challenges that are no fault of their own!

Those amazing Ritley’s: the world’s first panoramic photograph!

Continuing the series, I am always surprised when I encounter someone who has not heard the name Ritley.

OK, maybe I am an exception – I have not yet made my mark. But . . .

Hardly a man, woman or child anywhere on the face of the planet has not heard of their stunning accomplishments. They are a family steeped in the tradition of excellence, whose capacity for profound intellectual thought is exceeded only by their talent to affect meaningful changes (which often border on the revolutionary) to the fundamental problems of global significance they selflessly tackle.

This snap is not just any snap. Now hanging in the world famous Smithsonian Institution (Record Number SIA Acc. 11-006 [MAH-3002]), in its very own case in its very own room, it is in fact what most historians universally agree is the world’s first selfie, taken during the 1990’s by Ken Ritley, using a real camera with real film, while visiting the Experimental Aircraft Association meeting in Osh-Kosh, Wisconsin:

And with this Ritley contribution, many decades ago, the panoramic photograph was born.

If you happen to one day make it to Washington DC, and if you have a bit of spare time to visit the Smithsonian Institution, just ask any docent to point you to the Ritley Room – a tiny room to be sure, but the only room in the entire museum to house just one artefact, the world’s first panoramic photograph!

The mind blowing New York robo-train

Continuing the series, this is a snap as the mind blowing New York robo-train pulls into the Howard Beach JFK robo-train station:

When I lived in New York, the John F. Kennedy airport was not attached to any train systems, so it was necessary to take a taxicab to access the hotel. Now, a fully automated robo-train will take you to a nearby Long Island Railroad station, from which you can catch many trains and other forms of public transportation.

Here is another snap which I took up front, which is where the train operator would sit, if it were not being operated by a robot.

I am not sure what the robot looks like, where he sits, or even what his name is.

LIRR

I spent a lot of time on the Long Island Railroad, and one thing that I will always remember is how they handle the tickets.  You are issued a paper ticket, and when the conductor comes by he punches it with a hole punch.

The floors of the trains are covered in zillions of little paper punch outs.

The amazing drawbridges of New York

Interestingly, there are around 30 drawbridges that connect Manhattan to one of the other New York boroughs.

This is what they call an elevated drawbridge, because the center piece elevates. I am not sure which one this is – and I haven’t been bothered to look it up!

And this one is called a swing bridge – although if you ask me, rotating bridge is a more apt name: