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Lunch With George!
November 15, 2001 - Applebee's
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Agenda
- Lucifer's Hammer
- Amateur Auto Racing
- Three Steps to Better Flying
- Remember The Titans
- A Different Point of View
- What is the Speed of Gravity?
- "M-O-O-N. That spells 'moon', laws yes!"
Lucifer's Hammer
George has begun to read Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It is the story of a comet on a collision course with present-day (1980) Earth. I know this sounds familiar, but Hey! This pre-dated Armageddon (hated it) and Deep Impact (really liked it) by 20 years! I loved this novel, but I have to admit I read it almost 20 years ago. Maybe it is time to read it again.
George says he is enjoying the descriptions of the cosmos, both in the prologue (which is an account of the comet's existence prior to falling in toward the inner solar system from the Oort Cloud), and by the scientists who appear as characters in the book. As with all Niven/Pournelle books, it includes a cast of characters section, which is very handy in these broad works.
George is not enjoying the fact that the pages are falling out of his paperback edition as he reads them! He purchased it new from Amazon, but is wondering if it is really old stock. I noted that the cover art was identical to the 1980s paperback I once owned (the cover art is interesting and effective), the latest printing date listed on the copyright page was 1983, and we could noy find any web addresses in the book (you know, like on the "Other titles from Fawcett" page). This seemed to support the possibility of an older printing...
On the other hand, the printed price on the cover was $5.95, and another page asks the reader to sign up for a newsletter, and it asks for your e-mail address. This seems to point to a fairly recent printing.
Either way, looks like its time to return a book to Amazon!
Amateur Auto Racing
George is still on the waiting list for a 2002 Mini Cooper, and I asked him which car he was going to sell to make room. His only answer: I don't think it will be the RX-7! George has the most beautiful 1995 Mazda RX-7, the last year they were sold in the U.S. It has low miles, and is just a sweet machine!
George said he'd really like to race it some in auto-cross. I was worried about the mud and the jumps, but as he went on I realized it wasn't moto-cross for cars-- evidently they are time trials staged on a pavement course.
The Arizona Sports Racing Association sponsors autocross competitions (aparently in Arizona!), and George is interested. They even have a driving school! He was telling me that a few years ago, Road & Track hired a professional driver to drive several commercially available sport cars and rate them. The Porsche 911 received the highest marks for handling, but the RX-7 recorded the lowest track time. Sounds good to George!
I stumbled across an SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) auto-cross event (it was hard not to-- they had rented the Honeywell parking lot on this particular Saturday) a couple of years ago, and it looked like a lot of fun.
I found a site dedicated to Autocross in Arizona: Autocrossing.com! It posts a list of upcoming events.
Three Steps to Better Flying
George was telling me about a letter Andrew Tobias published November 12th on his web site. The contributor was describing what he thought were the three essentials for improved airline flying:
- An inflatable pillow (REI carries 'em)
- Noise-canceling headphones
- A portable DVD player
As for a DVD player, the only downside I see is the cost. Although if you are a frequent flyer, the $400 or so that you would spend would average out to a pretty low cost in a year. Personally, I would just bring along a laptop which plays DVDs (like an iBook), since you can do other stuff, such as working or playing games.
One solution to the cost issue is a service George discovered: DVD movie & player rental in airports! You pick out a movie, pay the rental, and you have your own inflight movie! Just drop off the player when you arrive at your destination. What? The city to which you are traveling doesn't have a drop-off station? No problem! They'll provide you with a box & label to ship it back. I found them on the web: InMotion Pictures. For $12, you get a one-day, one-way rental of a DVD player, a headset, and one movie. They have centers in 13 airports, but Phoenix isn't one of them (boo!). They're adding new locations every quarter, though.
Remember The Titans
Somehow we got talking about the movie Remember the Titans. George has a connection to the film, which is at least loosely based on a true story.
The Titans in the movie were from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va. in 1971. George attended Bishop Ireton High School (http://www.bishopireton.org/), also in Alexandria, from 1970-1974.
George says: "A quick look at the school website shows the Cardinals (I had forgotten! - guess I didn't follow the team much) played T.C. Williams in '71 and 'Ireton gave a very creditable performance in losing to State Champion T. C. Williams, 26-8'." [thanks, George!]
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I know I was surprised to find out it is a fairly low-tech device which is used. I wasn't sure how to find it on the internet, but George performed a Google search and was reading about the camera a moment later!
Check out Digital Air. They manufacture the cameras (called Timetrack) used to achieve this visual technique. The idea is pretty simple: Mount a bunch of cameras (Oh, say 30) on a semi-circular rack. Hook them up so you can activate their shutters simultaneously. Position the rack around one side of the object(s) you wish to capture, and hit the master shutter release! Then you need to process & digitize the photos, and use a computer to blend them together into a "motion" picture. They patented the system in 1994.
"M-O-O-N. That spells 'moon', laws yes!"
On the way to the cars, I mentioned I wanted a copy of Lucifer's Hammer to read again, since George was reading it. George suggested a used copy, and reminded me that there was a good used bookstore right across the parking lot. Unfortunately, it is gone! There's a "For Lease" sign in the empty window. I really liked that store, but I obviously didn't go there often enough. I even bought a first-edition, autographed copy of an Anne Rice book there for Teri!
The owner of that store pulled a trick on Jay Leno. Jay reads headlines and bizzare print ads which contain strange errors and unintended meanings one a week on the Tonight Show. The owner of the store ran a print ad about the virtues of reading, and deliberately misspelled a prominent word. He then anonymously sent a copy of the print ad to the Tonight Show, and they included it on the show! Now THAT'S a good free plug!
[Update: I found the store! Their lease was up last February and Bell Canyon Pavillions wanted too much rent... so they moved to 107th Avenue and Grand Avenue in Sun City! Not very convenient... but I'm glad I found them. I had remembered the name correctly: Mr. Books, (623) 977-7766.]
George has not read any Anne Rice vampire books, and asked me if I had read any. I read the first five vampire books, and liked the 2nd and 3rd (Queen of the Damned) the best. It reminded him that he really liked Salem's Lot by Stephen King (I liked that too), although the movie was dreadful. I thought the only Stephen King book which was made into a decent film was The Stand. In fact, I never would have read the Stand if George had not lent it to me back in the late 1980s!!! This is the BEST 1000-plus page book I have ever read (thanks to Tom Cullen, for the excellent quote used as the title of this topic!).
What is the Speed of Gravity?
George has begun reading Dr. Tom Van Flandern's paper, The Speed of Gravity - What the Experiments Say. We got wrapped up trying to interpret one of his diagrams (Figure 2), only to realize he wasn't claiming anything close to our misinterpretation. Oh well. This is the new reading assignment for the next lunch!
Copyright © 2001, Paul Wren. All rights reserved.