Month: July 2006

  • Christmas Wish List

    All I want for Christmas is. . . .

    1. 3DS Studio Max

  • Maltese Falcon

    A big thank you to SalmonCakeDaddy for pointing me towards this website.


    Superyacht
    sets sail

    July 14, 2006 4:49 PM PDT

    The Maltese Falcon, a $100
    million yacht that the designers claim is the largest and fastest
    personal sailboat in the world, formally set sail in Italy on July 14.

    Built for venture capitalist Tom Perkins, the
    87.5-meter yacht
    sports three 57-meter tall masts and each mast has 6 yards from which
    the sails hang. This design gives it a slight resemblance to a clipper
    ship.

    The masts on the Maltese Falcon rotate to make the
    ship more aerodynamic. No word on how many cup holders are
    onboard.

    Credit: Insensys

    Such a beautiful ship!  It kind of reminds me of this hypothetical oil tanker with sails.


    http://www.transitionrig.com/windships.htm

  • Cheep

    If anyone knows of a relatively cheap 3D modeling program, leave me a note.  Muchas gracias.


  • Eleanor Roosevelt

    This fall, I have a cousin, a niece, and a nephew starting their lives away from their parents.  I have another cousin who is breaking away from the nest, and for that, I’m really proud of him.  Something changes once one leaves home.  One either discovers the strength and courage to do what one wants to do.  Or one is beaten into submission by the real world.  I pray that all of my relatives and friends who are leaving the nest will find that they do indeed have wings.


    “You
    gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you
    really stop to look fear in the face… The danger lies in refusing to
    face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it… You must make
    yourself succeed every time. You must do the thing you think you cannot
    do.”
    		  
    - Eleanor Roosevelt

    Thanks for the quote, RaymondLY.

  • Harpoon 4.6

    An awesomely beautiful sailboat. In case they ever go a-missing, as so many things on the Internet do, I repost some of its design points below, which I’d like to follow if I could ever get off my butt and actually build a boat. (You can read more about this awesome sailboat design at http://www.ruach.net/HarpHist.html#Debut46.)

    Before building the 4.6, we visited numerous Yacht clubs, schools and universities. We asked questions. We enticed debate. We received first-hand advice from some of the nations’s best teachers and sailors. And from all of this we formulated some critical requirements.




    - The boat must have a main and jib, for how else is the young learner to truly appreciated the relationship between main and jib.

    – The sails must be easily and fully adjustable for trimming in various wind conditions.

    – The boat must be absolutely safe…unsinkable, self-bailing and easily rightable.

    – The boat must be forgiving under sail to allow the less experienced sailor room for error without a capsize.

    – A highly resilient rubrail is a necessity.

    – The potential buyer must know that this boat will keep a high resale value.

    – The 4.6 must be roomy, sleek and uncomplicated, yet able to accept all the abuse of exuberant youth.

    – The boat must give the helmsman a good feel of action and control.

    – Sails must be carefully designed to suit the boat instead of the other way around.

    – Spinnaker packages should be included as optional equipment.

    – They must have storage area without cluttering or taking away from the sailor’s comfort.

    – Blocks, fittings and bailers should be correctly placed and guaranteed to last.

    – The boat must be competitive in a wide spector of winds.

    – She must be easily trailerable or dry-sailed.

    – There must be an aggressive fleet development program to assure keen, competitive fun away from one’ home base.

    We approached the C&C Design Group with our requirements. With their design in hand we then produced the prototype. Like the 5.2 prototype the 4.6 was extensively sailed and evaluated over many months.

    Finally the mold was made and early this year the first Boston Whaler Harpoon 4.6 left Rockland, Mass for the New York Boat Show and her inaugural showing. The boat is of foam sandwich construction reinforce at critical stress points. She’s completely unsinkable, self-bailing, and so durable that she carries a 10-year hull warranty. The sails are specially designed by North. And, like her 5.2 sister, the gear is first class, Harken blocks, Elvstom bailers, Kenyon spars.

    One interesting innovation to the 4.6 is the seat angle. Seats are angled 7 degrees in an opposite direction to the heeling angle. Thus, when the boats has a 7 degree heel, you are sitting at a neutral angle on the seat. This feature adds comfort and security to the beginner while making hiking easier for the racer. Now only eight months after her inauguration, the Harpoon 4.6 is “joining the club” all over the nation. And there’s every indication that when the collegiate racing year begins in September, she’ll be well represented. What else would you expect from a member of the Harpoon family?

    from http://www.ruach.net/HarpHist.html

  • Death of a One-Design

    I love all kinds of sailboats — catamarans, dinghies, cruisers, daysailers (not day sailors), and even occasionally huge boats I can’t even afford.  What sustains a class and keeps it from dying out?  Why do people continue to enjoy sailing Lasers single-handedly, but balked when the Escape line came out?

    Excerpt from http://www.ussailing.org/member/library/CMH-TaleOfTwoClasses.htm

    A TALE OF TWO CLASSES
    By Ed Adams

    . . . Glos simply dropped the hint that he wants to try a Thistle, and his
    telephone began to ring. First there was a call to read him the regatta
    schedule, then a call to offer him the use of a boat for a trial regatta.
    Finally there were calls to line up an experienced Thistle crew for him, to
    make sure that his first “ride” was an enjoyable one. “It was almost like I
    was being courted,” says Glos. “At the regatta, lots of people came by to
    give us boatspeed hints. There was a general feeling of being welcome, not
    like I was breaking into an exclusive club. I finished fifth in that
    regatta, and it was clear that they weren’t afraid of someone coming into
    the class and doing well.”


    It’s no wonder that the Thistle Class is thriving. It’s also hard to believe
    that it wasn’t always this way. Like so many other one designs, however, the
    Thistle has seen worse times. The most serious spell hit bottom in 1984, the
    year that not a single boat was built. . . .

    . . . There are seven Thistle fleets in the Pacific Northwest, but until recently,
    the closest builder was in Ohio. This meant expensive shipping and long
    waits for a new boat. The builder was too far away to be actively involved,
    and that discouraged growth. So the Thistle sailors of the Northwest
    District raised the money to buy a set of Thistle molds and set up a local
    builder. Since then things have been booming, says northwest sailor Ken
    Tucker. . . .

    . . . Today, the Thistle Class is alive and thriving. Why? It’s more than just the
    hard work of class management. It’s also the implementation of new ideas and
    the cultivation of new blood. The ability, as Alan Glos says, to make
    everyone “feel welcome.”. . .

  • Beached

    The sun was shining today, and there was a little breeze.  It had just rained, so it wasn’t scorchingly hot, either.  But why then did I not take the opportunity, in the 3 hours before sunset, to trailer the sailboat down the 3/4 mile to the shore?  When did three hours become “not enough time”?  A few years ago, if someone had asked me if I thought we could drive to the drainage lake and drop a boat in for a sail in under 3 hours, I would have been ready in < 5 minutes.  It was better though, for my patients and myself, that I read on neonatal abstinence and its treatment.

    Am I practicing self-justification?  You bet!  But still, a part of me thinks, “What a weenie!  3 hours was lots of time to go sailing!”

  • Laar

    One of these summer days, I might get to go sailing.


    Stanek: We have some debate in the United States about our
    income tax system and other taxes. If you had a room full of
    congressmen and senators here, what would you tell them about the flat
    tax?

    Laar: I think nearly all of them know it is a good
    thing. When you look logically at how the tax works and at the current
    tax system in the United States, it is very hard to find anyone who is
    satisfied with it. The problem is, even when the people know the flat
    tax is a good idea, it looks like the politicians are afraid to do it.
    This is because they are afraid to lose the wealth; they are afraid to
    lose the power; they are afraid of the discussion.

    It’s quite radical reform. There are influential groups in the
    United States who are against this kind of reform, starting with tax
    lawyers. This is one group that would be out of a job if you could do
    your taxes on a postcard. Last year in Estonia, 83 percent of people
    did their taxes electronically, and it took from five to 20 minutes for
    each of them. So you don’t need tax lawyers or a big tax bureaucracy.


    Estonia Creates an Economic Miracle

    A conversation with Friedman Prize winner Mart Laar
    Written By: Steve Stanek
    Published In: Budget & Tax News
    Publication Date: July 1, 2006
    Publisher: The Heartland Institute

    Mart Laar was barely 32 years old in 1992, when he became prime
    minister of Estonia, a small nation on the Baltic Sea that had just
    emerged from decades of Communist oppression as a satellite state of
    the Soviet Union.

    He inherited leadership of a country with 1,000 percent inflation,
    30 percent unemployment, and government-owned businesses that were a
    shambles. Laar’s government removed price controls, cut regulations and
    welfare programs, sold state-owned businesses, introduced a new
    currency, and instituted a simple, flat-rate income tax that is being
    emulated in countries across Central and Eastern Europe. The rate has
    been lowered several times over the years and is now at 20 percent.

    The result? Inflation in Estonia has dropped below 3 percent,
    unemployment has plunged below 6 percent, and foreign investment has
    poured in. Estonia has enjoyed the greatest growth in real per-capita
    income of any of the former Soviet states.

    http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19289

  • 2 + 2 = A Nondiscriminatory Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Numeral



    SEBASTIAN D’SOUZA / AFP / GETTY
    Railway officials and workers clear the debris off of a train that was ripped open by a bomb blast in Mumbai, Tuesday. Seven explosions occurred in commuter trains and stations during evening rush hour, killing at least 163 people
    Who’s Behind the India Bombings?
    Suspicion falls on Islamic terrorists — but not al-Qaeda — in the country’s worst terrorist attack in more than a decade
    By ALEX PERRY/NEW DELHI

    When I lived in Berkeley, I learned that people really can be so brainwashed with Politically Correct etiquette, that they no longer see what is in front of their slogans.

    I wonder how many Americans actually worried about the civil war in India in the 1990′s — a war that was only occasionally in U.S. news (because the O.J. Simpson trial was just so much more important. . . .).

    For those who are poor at non-politically correct math, let me spell it out in plain arithmetic:

    1. Muslim minority in Philippines feels that by killing Catholic civilians, they can reclaim southern Philippines.
    2. Muslim minority in Thailand feels that by killing Buddhist civilians, they can reclaim southern Thailand.
    3. Muslim minority in Middle East feels that by killing Israeli civilians, they can reclaim Israel.
    4. Muslim minority in India feels that by killing Hindu civilians, they can reclaim Kashmir.

    Now, tell me truthfully, does it really take an International Law degree from Harvard to put two and two together?

    I really love how journalists (such as Time Magazine, above) justify the Muslim terrorist attacks in Bombay by saying that Muslims are in the “minority.”  In the same way, they justify Muslim terrorist attacks in Thailand and Philippines.

    And yet they use the reverse argument to talk about Muslim attacks on Christian minorities in mostly-Muslim Indonesia.  I laud your double standards, y’all.  Keep up the good work.

     

  • Because It
    Never Ends

     

    Every year, students breathe a sigh of relief when they finish taking the SAT (mostly on the Coasts) or the ACT (mostly in the Midwest and the South).  I get people asking me, “Do you think my score will help me get into so-and-so college?”

    And every year, I think, “Do they really want to go to so-and-so college?”

    Very few college majors are useful in real life (i.e. outside academia).  When I went home from University for the summer, my Uncle Danny asked me, “So!  What do you learn in chemistry?  Do you know how to make glass?”

    Despite 4 years of college level chemistry and biochemistry, and learning to make salts, plastic polymers, and plasmids encoding recombinant proteins, not once did anyone teach me something as useful as making glass.  So how did I learn to make glass?  I read a book that I found in a library — without paying $6000/12 months for tuition.

    I think I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again.  College is a very expensive place to want to “search for oneself” unless one plans on hemorrhaging money, and then paying out the wazoo for the standardized tests (GME, MCAT, LSAT, USMLE Step 1, USMLE Step 2, USMLE Step 3, Bar Exams, Board Exams) that “prove” that you learned something.

    And then, once you enter a career based on something for which you went to school, they continue to make you pay for exams to “recertify” that you know what you know.  Not to mention the “Continuing Education” credits (read:  “Continuing Extortion” credits) for which you also must pay.  Where does this money go?

    Probably to pay for software for the computerized tests — on a PC with an operating system, developed by someone who didn’t finish college.