It’s Nevada Day, too

Most of my childhood memories are from Nevada.  I grew up in Reno and moved away when I was an 18 year old new recruit for the US Army.  One of the things I remember most about Halloween in Nevada was that it wasn’t just Halloween.  A fact that was drilled into every student in a Nevada school is that October 31^st also means Nevada Day – the day the state was admitted to the union.  There was always a parade (it was held this last Saturday, according to the news I’ve read from the state) and various celebrations to partake in throughout the day.  I never attended a parade, something I regret now – but hey, I guess Mom didn’t care to partake so I didn’t either.  If  I’m ever out there for Nevada Day in the future though, you can bet I’ll be a part. 

From the Nevada News:  Video: Nevadans Celebrate State’s Birthday

Pictures:  RGJ.com: Nevada Day Parade

Articles:  KRNV, RGJ

Airshows – a few videos to share

I’m just relaxing this weekend, so here’s some videos I found while browsing the net.

Spirit of Texas video.

Not everyone fires up a Merlin V-12 in their garage!

If you like airshows, you’ll really like this montage, more here [via].

Whew!  That was close – this Yak just about belly flops on the runway. [via]

Touch driven computer screens

A friend sent me the link to this.  I really like the thought process behind this.  Jeff Han is a research scientist at NYU.  This is a nine minute presentation where he demonstrates some ideas to leverage the technology further.  I really liked what he said about the PC of the future being more intuitive.  I’m sure it will be a while before any of this is affordable for the you and me’s of the world, but at least we can have a glimpse of something to come.  My daughter, who loves scrapbooking (and now does it online), really liked the photographer’s light box application.  Now, there are a lot of people out there that do so much more with technology than I do – I’m betting your mind can go wild thinking of ways to use this.  Personally, I like the idea of using something like this for data mining in a data warehouse environment. 

Is everything measurable?

"Not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts."
- Albert Einstein

I don’t know a lot about NLP works – but I’ve worked with Hugh in the past, value his friendship, and I really enjoyed his post with the above quote as the theme.  The main point of his message is that there is a lot of focus today on measurability in business, but he is not convinced (and neither am I) that everything is measurable.  Where do you draw the line?  I posted a little anecdote I learned some time ago in his comments too.

Tags: Business, measurablity, productivity

Voodoo Air Racing update

Bob Button gives an interview, here, where he explains what happened during the Reno Air Races.  I can’t help but think a few companies could learn from this.  Bob is extremely candid about how things transpired.  As much time and effort that goes into making these birds perform, I think he did the right think.  Tearing up the engine would have created so much more time and effort (and $$) to be expended…well, my mind already twists with what I IMAGINE the cost of maintenance is for the planes.  Bob also posted a letter to the fans on the front page of the Voodoo Racing website.

Relentless is being rebuilt

Great news from the Relentless team was posted on their website today.  The plane is coming back together.  Information about how the NTSB is going to rule on the crash is mentioned also.  It’s great to see that the team has made great strides in getting Relentless put back together.  Here is the related post from July, with links to write-ups on the accident.

Halloween Decor

One has to admit this guy has an original idea.  He decorated his yard to look like a plane crash site.  I’ll admit, I’m not into Halloween THAT MUCH.  Are you?

A new page

OK, I finally finished the page (for now).  The Aviation tab at the top of the page is an accumulation of all the links I’ve gathered through the summer of air racing and air show related content.  You’ll find links now for various air shows, air racing teams, museums and military sites related to the planes we admire.  Enjoy.

Of course, if you notice I’m missing someone’s air racing team, or a link to your favorite air show or museum, send it to me and it will get added to the list!

Merlin’s Magic repairs have begun

Merlin’s Magic is getting put back together. When you view these pictures, note the shot of the shrapnel damage – the folks in Reno were lucky there weren’t any serious injuries (related posts)

Thunder Over Reno: Isabella St. James

In the Thunder Over Reno arena, Isabella St. James, one of the actresses from the movie, has a post on her MySpace account about the movie.  I’m really looking forward to this movie.  It seems we can create a lot of crap for people to watch lately (like Jackass), and cool things like air racing do not get too much press.  Of course, there is always the worry that the movie will be flop – but we won’t know until Summer of 2007.  I’ve heard rumors around the air racing community that their will be some good racing footage in the movie – and that is exactly what I’m after.  So – fingers crossed!

Related posts for Thunder Over Reno are here.

Here’s a few fun things from the air racing/air show community:

The first Rocket League Racer (X-Racer) has been named “Thunderhawk” – personally, I’m very excited about this. I’m a born again air race fan, and think this is a very cool next step.

Jeffrey Archer has posted some nice pictures from Miramar.