Cop Car's Beat

Snow day announcement via video - Hallelujah

With the frigid weather conditions in the upper half of the continental USA, this week, many schools, businesses, and governmental offices were closed down - even the postal service was closed in at least parts of eight states, including Kansas.

The following video was pointed out on All Things Considered by NPR. It is an announcement of a school closing, effective on 1/29/2019.

 

We are faring very well, comparatively speaking: wind chill of -3 degrees and temperature of +9 degrees Fahrenheit, this morning. Most of the day was sunny and, at about 3pm, we made it up to 22 degrees. Chicago was forecast to have a high, today, of -12 degrees Fahrenheit. (I didn't hear what they actually reached.) We feel for those folks north of us who are experiencing wind chills in the -40s and -50s. I believe that Europe is to be blasted by the polar vortex, too.

MADISON, WIS., JAN. 30, 2019: A person walks in downtown Madison, Wis. with belongings in the early morning as temperatures reach -48 with wind chill Jan. 30, 2019. (Photo by Lauren Justice for The Washington Post)

 

Mementos

In Things we old people must do - progress I wrote about the desirability of us (not including you in that, of course!) old people getting rid of excess "stuff", with which our lives are incumbered, to prevent headaches and stress for those left behind upon our demises. In that posting, I showed the shelves enclosed by one set of doors in some built-in storage in our basement following winnowing of some 45 rpm vinyl records from our collection of nearly 1000. WichiDude and Dudette were asked, by email, to consider taking bunches of records home with them to allow WichiDude to sort them at his leisure. Wonder of wonders, they accepted the idea. While they were here this last Saturday, we boxed up five boxes full of 45 rpm and 33 1/3 rpm vinyl records. Hallelujah! I have two more empty shelves, now (shown in the photo, below). The additional shelves of 33 1/3 rpm vinyl records enclosed by a neighboring set of doors in the storage unit are still full.

Mementos - from my days as a sailor

Today, while taking Elegant Friend out to lunch, I stopped by a military surplus store of which I had learned but a couple of weeks ago. It is up in her neck of the woods - far western Wichita. It got me to thinking that, years ago, when I returned to Kansas, I took my US Navy uniforms and shoes into the local US Naval Reserves facility in which I had drilled in 1980-1981. Those items were still in use by the Navy and could be given out as additions to the normal clothing issued to a new (female) recruit. I kept but a few items which have been gathering dust all of these years. Last spring, knowing that issue styles had changed in the past 30 years, I took the raincoat (a wonderful garment!) into a Disabled American Veterans' thrift store. Today, it occurred to me that I could give the remaining few items to the military surplus store. When I mentioned it to the store manager, he said they would buy the items from me. Well...I wouldn't expect them to pay enough to cover the $15 that I spent there today, but it beats a poke in the eye.

What do I still have? One short-sleeved shirt for wear with my "blues" and one flight suit - as appear in the next photo, for two. Women's issued clothing were not sized as commercially-sold clothing. For instance, women's short-sleeved shirts were sized similarly to men's dress shirts: neck size and bust size. The flight suit was not issued to me, but was given to me by a young sailor at Naval Air Station Pensacola when I was scheduled to participate in a helicopter checkout. That week, my assignment had been to run the helicopter maintenance shop. Opportunely, we were able to launch all 13 helicopters (mostly HH-46s, with a few Bell UH-1s) on that Friday. They formed up for formation flight out over the Gulf of Mexico and invited the local press out to take photographs. I never saw any of the newspapers that carried news of the rare event; but, I did fly along in one of the HH-46s as a systems monitor (watching for hydraulic leaks, of course!)

In addition, the photo (below) shows, at the rear, my hat box, the "Combination Cap" (with cap device) that came in it (with an extra white cover inside the box), and Garrison Cap with "miniature cap device". In front of the hat box are two neckties and a pair of gloves (never worn by me - they are for formal or dinner dress wear.) There are two rate badges: black-on-white to sew on (left sleeve, only) white shirts and white-on-black to sew on (left sleeve, only) black shirts. While, except for my utility uniform (blue dungarees, medium blue chambray shirt, and dark blue jacket), all uniforms are black and white, the navy calls them "blue" and white - as in, "dress blues". The rating badges show that I was a Petty Officer First Class, that I was in NavAir, and that I was a structures mechanic. The four insignia indicate Petty Officer First Class without denoting assignment.

Note the sticker on the lid of the hatbox that indicates that I carried it aboard a Braniff flight. Most of the airlines of the 1980s no longer exist - at least - not under the names used in those days. My flight was from Wichita to New Orleans (and return trip). I used a pay phone at my layover at DFW airport on my way to NOLA to call BDM, accepting their latest offer of employment. BDM wanted me to call Cessna, giving them two weeks' notice. That would have meant that I would go back to Cessna only to pack up my personal possessions from my desk. I refused to do that. Cessna was good enough to pay me the difference between what the Navy was paying me for my two weeks of active duty in NOLA and what my Cessna salary would have been and I had always been well treated by Cessna. I gave Cessna my notice upon my return, worked two weeks squaring things away, then drove to Florida to report in with BDM. Thirteen months later, Braniff ceased operations.

See how sidetracked mementos can get some of us?

ADDITION OF 1/31/2019 9:45am - Admiral Grace Hopper's Hat

Below is the only photo ever taken of me in uniform. It is cropped from a class photo. It was the first time I had been able to dress in uniform, its having taken nearly one year to get the female uniform parts issued to me. As it turned out, I was actually "out of uniform", as my instructor gently informed me. The rating badge on my sleeve (noticeably large) was the male version of the badge. Fortunately, at NOLA, I was able to get the female version (see the previous photo of mementos.) I was the only one in the Advanced Pay Grade Indoctrination Course who had no previous military service, but was designated as the class leader because I outranked all of the other participants. It was an experience!

_________

There is still an Advanced Pay Grade Indoctrination Course for US Naval Reservists; however, there are several differences in the modern program. I note that the current program does not allow enlistment at the pay grade level I was given, E-6. I did qualify for the permanent E-6 level within the two years that were provided; although, I had quite a scare when my unit at Pensacola notified me that I had failed to take the "final exam" for E-6, their having lost my paperwork. Fortunately, I have an honest face and was able to tell them that I had scored 92 on the test, so they awarded it to me.

B-29 Doc's permanent home open

Yesterday was the official opening of the permanent home for Doc, the B-29 that was restored to airworthiness by volunteers in Wichita, Kansas. The other day, I drove by the hangar with Elegant Friend. There was Doc, sitting on display in the "front window" of the hangar.

Front view:

Photo from Warbird Digest website

Of course, since Doc is an airworthy aircraft, she is brought inside through the rear hangar doors.

Rear view:

Photo from Hutton website. Hutton was the general contractor on the build.

As far as I know, Doc is one of but two B-29s that are currently airworthy - the other being Fifi.

Most of the restoration work was done inside a Quonset hut style hangar at (then) Boeing Wichita, abutting McConnell AFB. As I recall, back in the day, that building was used for painting aircraft - but don't quote me on that. Air Capital Flight Line bought the building (and over 100 others, as I recall) about one year after Boeing pulled up stakes in Wichita.

Read more here: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article225126925.html#storylink=cpy

First Deliveries Made - KC-46A to McConnell AFB Kansas

McConnell AFB welcomes first KC-46A Pegasus

By Airman 1st Class Michaela R. Slanchik, 22nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs / Published January 25, 2019

The first KC-46A Pegasus lands on the flightline Jan. 25, 2019, at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas. The KC-46 will serve alongside the KC-135 Stratotanker at McConnell AFB and supply critical aerial refueling, airlift and aeromedical evacuations at a moment’s notice for America’s military and allies. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Alan Ricker)

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (AFNS) --  Total Force crews delivered the first two KC-46A Pegasus aircraft to McConnell Air Force Base.

Thanks, Moon - by Richard Crowson, KMUE radio commentator

Crowson: Thanks, Moon.

By Richard Crowson • 14 hours ago

TweetShareGoogle+Email

 

 

Credit nasa.gov

 

 

I hate to play the “age card” again (who am I kidding – I love playing the age card), but I am old enough to remember a time when the moon didn’t do tricks. 

That’s right. There was a time when we weren’t entertained by a “super moon.” Heck, there wasn’t even a “Spidey” moon or a “Bat” moon. For the most part, the moon used to be content to just go through its normal routine: a quarter moon, a half moon and a full moon. That was it. Sure, now and then there was a “Harvest Moon.” And we thought that was a pretty good treat.

Nowadays? Forget about it. The moon is entertaining us with all sorts of pyrotechnics. You’d think it was a stage prop for a rock concert, the way it cavorts about – inflating itself to gigantic sizes, lighting itself in weird, psychedelic ways, calling itself by all sorts of bizarre, non sequitur names. Even teasing us by playing peek-a-boo games that it claims are lunar eclipses.

I guess it was the recent Super-Blood-Wolf Blitzer-Hyper-Doppler-Cirque du Soleil-Very Stable Genius Moon that finally made me realize that something weird is going on. Our old calm and placid moon is a thing of the past. The question is, why? Why now?

I think I know. We all need a distraction. Our world of politics has gone, well, over the moon with its lunacy. All our normal outlets for entertainment distraction have joined in. Sports, movies, music, they’re all hyper-politicized these days. The moon knows this and is trying its best to provide us with some new wondrous entertainment that we can all look up to for a few moments of respite from the nastiness.

Thanks, moon. I just hope things down here improve before the sun starts getting into the act. Climate change is disastrous enough as it is.

_________________________

Note: Mr Crowson is a local (mostly) political cartoonist Frequently, he sings his commentary, strumming on his banjo.

 

 

Upcoming Acquisitions

McConnell AFB, the main entrance to which is about six miles north and 1/2-mile west of our house, is to start taking delivery of KC-46A Pegasus Tankers within the next couple of weeks or so. Construction of facilities to support the KC-46A aircraft and crew/support personnel training mission has been watched with great interest over the past few years. McConnell AFB had been chosen for first deployment of KC-46A aircraft to an active-duty AFB in 2013. Construction of the required additional facilities began in 2014.

Below is a Wichita Eagle photo of two of the new hangars, as they stood in late February, 2016. (The large, round bales of hay are probably on Cessna Aircraft property where it abuts the northern boundary of McConnell AFB.)

The two videos of the KC-46A, immediately below and at the end of this posting, are from a Boeing website. In the video of the tanker in flight, note the appearance of aircraft in addition to the KC-46 aircraft. Can you identify them? (My identifications are at the end of this posting.) I recommend playing the videos from Boeing's website. The quality is better than that of the embedded videos.

 

Below are excerpts from an article published in The Wichita Eagle newspaper.

Air Force accepts long-delayed Boeing tanker, bringing the KC-46 to Wichita soon

By Chance Swaim - January 10, 2019 08:40 AM, Updated January 10, 2019 04:53 PM

The wait is almost over for Wichita’s McConnell Air Force Base. The KC-46A Pegasus tanker could come to town by the end of the month, officials say.

The delivery will happen despite unresolved deficiencies in the long-delayed plane, according to an Air Force spokesperson.

Air Force Cpt. Hope Cronin called the decision to accept the plane from Boeing “a major milestone for our next generation tanker” that will allow the Air Force to begin operational testing and flight training. She also said the plane has deficiencies in its remote vision system that Boeing will fix at its own expense.

….

McConnell was selected as the first active-duty base in the country to receive the new refueling tankers, which will replace KC-135s that have been in service since the Cold War. Boeing said the first delivery to McConnell will be four planes.

Thirty-six of the tankers will come to Wichita eventually, a spokesman for McConnell said. Boeing is on contract for 52 planes. It expects to deliver 179 of the new tankers to the Air Force by 2027.

….

The KC-46A is expected to replace the KC-135 air refueling tankers that dominate McConnell’s two air refueling wings, the 22nd and 931st. It’s expected to be faster, fly farther and be more fuel efficient than the Cold War-era tankers in use today.

The KC-46 can hold 212,000 lbs of fuel for refueling, 12,000 more than the KC-135. It also refuels faster than the KC-135. The KC-46 refuels at a rate of 1,200 gallons a minute compared with 1,176 gallons a minute for the KC-135.

McConnell’s KC-46A Pegasus Fuselage Training Facility has been in use since May, and will train Air Force personnel from across the country.

From the KWCH-TV website: McConnell gives tour of KC-46 fuselage training facility

Posted: Wed 3:37 PM, Dec 12, 2018  | Updated: Wed 4:44 PM, Dec 12, 2018

Read more here: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article224220340.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article224220340.html#storylink=cpy

ead more here: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article224220340.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article224220340.html#storylink=cpy

Finally, the second video from a Boeing website.

 

____________

My identifications of the aircraft, other than KC-46s, that appear in the first video:

    at 0:33 - F/A-18 Super Hornet

    at 0:51 - AV-8B Harrier II

    at 1:03 - F-16 Fighting Falcon

    at 1:11 - F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-16 chase plane

    at 1:23 - KC-10 Extender and F-16 chase plane

    at 1:27 - C-17 Loadmaster

Please let me know if you think I've screwed up any identification(s). Of all the models in the list, the only one I have never worked with is the C-17 Loadmaster.

After the eclipse

While some of us in the States were lucky enough to have great viewing, some of us are not equipped and do not have the aptitude for photographing lunar eclipses; so, we must steal from others.

First, a shot by Raymond Dodson who lives in our City of Derby, Kansas. Not a bad photo, but not a great one either. Obviously, much better than I could have done.

Next, a shot by Michael Quade, who lives in the City of Hoisington, Kansas - about 140 miles NW of us. He was better equipped. I'm reminded that, Hunky Husband worked disaster response when a tornado hit Hoisington rather hard in (May?) 2001. The tornado hit the night the high school seniors were having their Senior Prom, missing the VFW hall where the kids were dancing in the basement, but hitting their school.

Next, a fine photo by Tom Wildoner of Weatherly, Pennsylvania. 

Lastly, a photo by Karl Diuefenderfer of Quakertown, Pennsylvania. He was happy to see that the stars showed up in his photo. (We'll see how well the stars show through this medium!) My preview tells me that we must click on the image. The stars are visible (on my monitor, at least) in the larger presentation.

ADDITION OF 1/21/2019 - 9:35AM - from Stu of Eunoia, whose viewing position was not ideal but who took quite a nice photo. Thanks, Stu, for sending the photo in an email. Like you, I don't know how to embed an image in a comment. I'm not sure that it can be done. Beautiful photo!

ADDITION OF 1/22/2019 - 3:30PM - from Stu of Eunoia

Below is an interesting video, the link to which Stu was kind enough to include in his second comment on this posting. Thanks, Stu!

 

Upcoming Total Lunar Eclipse

Ethan Siegel, astrophysicist and science writer, of Starts With A Bang! has a fine posting concerning the total lunar eclipse that will be visible to many of us, tomorrow night (20th/21st). I've excerpted portions of his posting, below.

The Supermoon lunar eclipse of 2015 was the first such combination since 1982, and was the largest diameter Moon to be seen in lunar eclipse in more than three decades. 2018 had one, and so will 2019 on January 20/21. (JIMMY BAIKOVICIUS FROM URUGUAY)

Supermoon Lunar Eclipse To Become The First Pan-American Total Eclipse in 19 Years: On January 20/21, half of Earth will experience a total lunar eclipse. For the first time in 19 years, this includes all of North and South America.

….

Total lunar eclipses are relatively common; we get about one per year, on average. But something special is happening on the night of January 20th/21st: the entirety of the North and South American continents will get to experience the full show of the eclipse. This includes the penumbral, partial, and total stages from everywhere in the Americas. It’s the first time this will happen since the year 2000, and the last time it will occur until 2058.

The area shown in red, here, will get to observe the total lunar eclipse of January 2019 from Earth. This includes everyone in North and South America with clear skies. (TIMEANDDATE.COM)

….

Remarkably, binoculars or a telescope will allow you to see incredible features of the Moon with no additional filters. Normally, viewing the Moon through binoculars or a telescope is very harsh on the eyes, and impossible without a special lunar filter due to the Moon’s overwhelming brightness.

….

Small portions of northern Europe and northern Asia will experience the entirety of the eclipse, but all of North and South America will get to view the entire thing. This marks the first Pan-American eclipse of the 21st century!

….

________________

I've undoubtedly mentioned, previously, having observed a red moon during an eclipse as a child. At age 4, (I believe that I observed the eclipse of August 25/26, 1942) I feared that the moon was bleeding to death!

Not too well coordinated

Some days are like this. I'm just hoping the whole year doesn't continue in this vane. Considering the mishaps that have already happened in 2019, I think I'm ready for it to be 2020.

1.    Sprung something in my left knee while trying to get my heart rate up, sufficiently, on a treadmill at the local senior center. Walked away from the treadmill, realizing a couple of hours later (when paying for lunch with Elegant Friend, in Wichita) that, not only did my knee hurt, but I'd left my coin purse on the treadmill's "shelf". The coin purse doesn't hold enough coinage for the money to be a big deal; but, I don't know where I'd get another coin purse like it. Stopping back by on my way home from Wichita, I was pleased to find that someone had been kind enough to turn my coin purse in at the office.

2.    Attempting to prepare a couple of pork chops, I set fire to one of the meat wrapping papers by not noticing that a corner of one of the papers had come in contact with the stove's gas flame - until it flared up in my face, that is. The papers had pools of olive oil on them, which pools I didn't want the flames to reach, nor did I want the olive oil slung all over the kitchen (possibly catching fire). My options were thus limited. I repeatedly slapped the flames down to the tile surface of the kitchen counter with my right hand, to smother the blaze.

In the above photo, the burned part of the bottom paper has been cut off. I cut it off so as to put the ashes and singed edges into a tin can. The papers can thus be put into the trash bin, now, while the charred remains will be held for a day or two to assure that no live embers are left.

3.    Cutting up a pineapple to add bits to a "whipped cream"-type fruit salad for Hunky Husband, I fumbled the main cylinder of pineapple as I was trying to put it into a container with my left hand. Forgetting that the knife was in my right hand, I brought it across to "catch" the pineapple - neatly slicing a small gash at the base of my left thumbnail. Oh, me. Having once watched a guy cut off the tips of three of his fingers, I would not have liked it one bit had I lost the tip of that thumb! (Hunky Husband has always contended that sharp objects should be kept away from me; however, he doesn't offer to do the food prep, one notices.)

The good news: 1) I can still hobble and I got my coin purse back; 2) the house is still standing, not having burned to the ground; and 3) I caught the pineapple, guiding it into the container.

I think that I shall read for a while. What can I do to myself while reading?

More from Slashdot.com - All adither

From Slashdot.com:

Ask Slashdot: Is Today's Technology As Cool As You'd Predicted When You Were Young? 229

Posted by EditorDavid on Sunday January 13, 2019 @12:34AM from the back-to-the-future dept.

"How does the actual, purchaseable consumer technology available in 2019 compare to what you -- back in the 1960s, '70s, '80s or '90s -- thought consumer technology might look like around the year 2020?" asks Slashdot reader dryriver. Is today's consumer technology as advanced, inventive, groundbreaking and empowering as you imagined it would be 30, 40, 50 years ago? Or is the "technological future that has now actually arrived" different, in various ways, from how you'd hoped/imagined it might be a few decades back?

If so, what was different in your "future technologies imagination" than what is available to buy today?
Each generation received different dreams from the pop culture of their time. Back in 1969 an 18-year-old Kurt Russell starred in a Disney movie with a malfunctioning mainframe. By 1984 one TV series showed David Hasselhoff with his own talking self-driving car. But how close did your own personal predictions come, asks the original submission.

"Do today's technological gadgets manage to live up to how you imagined tech around the year 2020 would be, or do they fall short of what you hoped/imagined might exist by today?

 

I don't know about you, but I never was a visionary. Being more interested in basic science than in consumer goods, I have pretty much taken things as they come - used some of those things and ignored others.

The next article that appears in the Slashdot.com posting:

Old People Can Produce As Many New Brain Cells As Teenagers (independent.co.uk) 71

Posted by EditorDavid on Saturday January 12, 2019 @09:38PM from the senior-momentum dept.

Long-time Slashdot reader Futurepower(R) shares this article about a newly-published study which counters previous theories that neurons stop developing after adolescence: Healthy men and women continue to produce new neurons throughout life, suggesting older people remain more cognitively and emotionally intact than previously believed, researchers found. For decades it was thought that adult brains were hard-wired and unable to form new cells. But a Columbia University study found older people continued to produce neurons in the hippocampus -- a part of the brain important for memory, emotion and cognition -- at a similar rate to young people....

However, the researchers also noted fewer blood vessels and connections between cells in the older brains, which Ms Boldrini said "may be linked to compromised cognitive-emotional resilience" in the elderly.
The article suggests these newest findings may be hotly debated.

"They come just a month after a University of California study suggested adults do not develop new neurons."

Please note that last quotation. Also, if you didn't catch it the first time through, please note the pun in the "Posted by" line.