Lemming Tracks: Hey! Where'd Sunday Go?!

The Lemming was awake all the way through Sunday - afternoon naps were part of the routine, a few years ago, and may return, but they're not part of the Lemming's life at the moment.

Which has very little to do with the topic of this post. Whatever that is. The Lemming had something in mind a minute ago. It can't have gone far - - - aha! Got it.

The Lemming's household had some pleasant breaks in routine, more-or-less over the weekend. The son-in-law and #2 daughter visiting from Thursday to Saturday was one, then the Lemming's father-in-law stopped in for a chat Sunday afternoon - and stayed for supper.

The Lemming got the Sauk Centre Journal's weekly entry done:

• "Candles That aren't Candles; Candles With a New Twist, and a '50s Diner"
  Sauk Centre Journal Blog (June 26, 2011)

By the time that was done, it was late: and the Lemming had a decision to make. To wash, or not to wash: that is the question. Whether 'tis better to let the dishes go until Monday morning, anon explain why the fry pan isn't clean: or face the counter's clutter. And so, sitting well in order, smite the trumpet that will never sound retreat.

The Lemming seems to have slipped from Hamlet (more or less) into Battle Hymn of the Republic, by way of Tennyson's Ulysses. Not the James Joyce one, and that's another topic.

Come to think of it, that bit sounded a bit like Joyce's contribution to incomprehensibility as a literary affectation. And that is yet again another topic.

Briefly, the Lemming decided to wash the dishes, instead of writing a post for this blog. On reflection, that still seems like a prudent choice.

However, there's still one post to do for today - and the Lemming would just as soon have something to show for what you may, or may not, have expected to see yesterday.

Eco-Tourism and Complimentary Snack Trays

By the way, the Amazon Rainforest Hotel - "The Ariau Amazon Towers - Largest Treetop Hotel in the World" is near Manaus, Brazil.

Yes, now you, too, can "Escape to the natural beauty and wild majesty of the Amazon Rainforest... Nestled in a canopy of trees above the Amazon River..." at "... the only hotel resort built completely at tree top level in the Jungle."

"Experience the ultimate in eco-tourism ... " while feeling guilty about breathing in oxygen and selfishly exhaling carbon dioxide - that only encourages wasteful growth by those plants over there. Oh, wait. They're plants: so it's okay if they grow.

Actually, staying at that treetop hotel looks like fun, and the monkeys seem to enjoy hanging around the complimentary snack trays.

Wait a Minute: What If Those Weren't Always Monkeys?

At least, the Lemming assumes that those are monkeys in the photo. Which brings up the question - by all that is sane, why is a major section of Downtown Disney called "Pleasure Island?!" They're re-imagining the area (http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/faq/pleasure-island/, as of June 27, 2011) - but apparently keeping the name. Doesn't anybody watch Pinocchio any more? Remember what line of work the Coachman was in?

Oh, well: appreciation of metaphor and symbolism doesn't seem to be one of contemporary American culture's major strengths. And that is definitely another topic. Topics.

"Green" Doesn't Have to be Goofy

At this rate, the Lemming isn't going to get around to The Vermont Country Store, which isn't particularly near Manaus, or anywhere else in Brazil.

The Lemming remembers the first Earth Day. It was groovy.

The Lemming still lives on Earth, so what happens on this planet is of personal interest. Which may be why the Lemming is so annoyed when wackadoo fanatics make 'environmental awareness' sound like a psychiatric condition. Aside from practical concerns, the Lemming thinks that not pouring raw sewage in the well is a moral issue. Which may not mean what you think it does:

• "Lemming Tracks: Bird Poop, Animal Carcasses, and Dumping 8,000,000 Gallons of Drinking Water"
  (June 21, 2011)
• "Charity Demands Environmental Awareness (and God Doesn't Make Junk)"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (April 12, 2011)

Eco-tourism may still be controversial, or not. One (1) resort hotel, built in treetops or not, isn't likely to utterly destroy for all time the Amazonian rainforest. The local monkeys may actually have benefited from it - snack trays and all that.

The High Cost of Relevance?

The Lemming tried to discover just how much it costs to stay at the "Largest Treetop Hotel in the World" - and didn't find a price list. Which may mean that 'if you have to ask, you can't afford it.' Particularly since one of the vacation packages is called the "Berkeley Repertory Theatre Package."

All of which is okay - the Lemming made decisions that pretty much guaranteed a lifetime of not vacationing on Côte d'Azur, with a little 79-room cottage overlooking Kathmandu for seasons when (other) nouveau riche sully the pristine beaches. The Lemming isn't likely to see the inside of cruise ship, when it comes to that. So far, the tradeoffs have been excellent.¹

Encouraging folks with substantial disposable incomes to dispose of some of the 'extra' in around Manaus probably makes sense. Particularly for folks living in or around Manaus. The city is an industrial center, and Brazil as a whole isn't even close to being the poorest country in the world.² Still, folks with jobs at eco-resorts buy groceries and pay rent - and that's getting into economics. Also common sense. And yet another topic.

Which isn't saying that Brazil is a veritable Earthly Eden, where the Age of Aquarius really happened. More topics.

Bottom line? The Lemming figures that if folks with money to spend want to spend it in a few nights at a four-star tree house, where watching monkeys will help them feel good - well, there are worse ways to spend money. Much worse. Yet still more topics.

And the Lemming has got to stop writing - or this 'Monday' post won't be finished until Tuesday. If then.

Not-entirely-unrelated posts:

• "Endeavor's Last Flight, Orbital Hotels, and Spaceports"
  (June 1, 2011)
• "Last Trip for Space Shuttle Endeavour; and Reaching for the Stars"
  (May 16, 2011)
  Particularly
  • 'This Space for Rent'
  • Common Sense, Safety, and Leaving the 19th Century
  • When it's Time to Build Spaceships - - -
• "Japan, Cherry Blossoms, and 'a Limit to Extreme Self-Restraint' "
  (http://apatheticlemming.blogspot.com/2011/03/chefs-table-not-workbench-not-in.html)
• "Chef's Table: Not a Workbench; Not in McDonald's"
  (March 3, 2011)
• "Boeing 747-8: Big Can be 'Green' "
  (February 12, 2011)

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¹ The Lemming lived on the low side of the economic spectrum by choice:

• "Lemming Tracks: Lower Middle Class and Loving It"
  (December 14, 2009)

² "Brazil," CIA World Factbook (page last updated June 9, 2011)

Brazil Blackout: It Could Have Been Worse

"Power restored in Brazil after blackouts"
CNN (November 11, 2009)

"Electricity returned early Wednesday to a large swath of central and southern Brazil that was plunged into darkness when power from a major hydroelectric dam was lost.

"Up to 18 of Brazil's 26 states were left without power when electricity from the Itaipu dam was interrupted around 10:15 p.m. (7:15 p.m. ET) Tuesday, leaving Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and other cities in darkened chaos...."

Obviously, folks in Brazil - now that Job One of getting the power grid working again is done - are very curious about why the power went out in the first place. My guess is that whoever is in charge is highly motivated to make sure it doesn't happen again, any time soon.

Still, it could be worse: This blackout could have happened during the Olympics.

More:

• "Brazil's Big Blackout Raises More Questions for the Olympics"
  Time (November 11, 2009)

Rio de Janeiro Gets the 2016 Games - Now the Work Begins

"Rio de Janeiro to host 2016 Olympics"
CNN (October 2, 2009)

"Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday.

"The announcement brought tears to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief several times in a news conference afterward.

" 'Our hour has arrived,' he said. 'It has arrived.'

"In Rio, jubilation erupted at the world-famous Copacabana beach, where thousands of people gathered to hear the announcement.

"Rio organizers promised to start working immediately to make the games a success.

" 'Maybe some of the people tomorrow can rest,' said Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman. 'I'm not [resting].'..."

The 2016 games might have been in at Madrid, Spain; or Chicago, Illinois; or Tokyo, Japan. But that's not the way it turned out.

I'm pretty sure there will be Monday-morning-quarterbacking tomorrow, about how it's not fair, and Madrid, or Chicago, or Tokyo - or Khayelitsha, or Palembang, or some other place should have gotten assigned as host.

As it is, folks in Rio have a great excuse to spruce up their city, fix any chronic shortcomings in the city's infrastructure, and put up eye-popping buildings that will draw tourists and business conventions for years - decades, if they do it right - after the games are over.

All in all, sounds good for Rio.

Air France 447: Weather, Technology, and Questions

"Air France Flight 447: A detailed meteorological analysis"
Weather Graphics (last updated June 9, 2009)

(If you're not all that interested in a detailed and rather technical article, scroll down a bit: I'm covering two articles in this post.)

"I received an e-mail (see the comments page) from a scientist affiliated with the NASA TRMM mission indicating that no lightning was detected during a 90-second pass of the system that affected Air France Flight 447. This agrees with evidence from the WWLL sferic lightning network for that date. A review of the literature confirms these findings and suggests that convective systems over the equatorial oceanic regions do indeed exhibit an unusual lack of lightning activity. In a 1993 paper E. J. Zipser cites 'many examples of intense mesoscale systems, such as squall lines ... extending to 13–17 km in altitude, but that nevertheless produce few reports of lightning. This reinforces the idea, based on data from other tropical ocean regions and from global satellite data, that in spite of the ubiquitous "hot towers" over tropical oceans, marine cumulonimbus produce little lightning.'..."

Still reading?

That's a pretty good sample of the page. There are diagrams and images, like the one thumbnailed here, to illustrate radar and other data that relate to the sort of storm Air France Flight 447 flew into.

This page isn't the most reader-friendly discussion you'll ever find of what happened to AF 447. But, it's the best and most complete discussion of the weather I've found, that's remotely accessible to the average reader.

Lightning or no, the Airbus A330-200 came down in very bad weather: "...Temperature trends suggested that the entire system was at peak intensity...."

The author gives a detailed summary of what might have happened, and a conclusion that we don't know everything there is to know about the flight:

"...Overall what we know for sure is weather was a factor and the flight definitely crossed through a thunderstorm complex. ... It's my opinion that tropical storm complexes identical to this one have probably been crossed hundreds of times over the years by other flights without serious incident....

"...We can almost certainly count on some unexpected surprises once the CVR is recovered...."

I appreciated the detail given by the author. A dozen airliners flying through an area of thunderstorms seems less daft now.

Another point which sets this article apart from so much news coverage is that it discusses possible equipment failures other than the Pitot tubes. For example, it's possible, if not necessarily likely, that the engines of AF 447 failed "due to precipitation or ice ingestion".

---

"Is Flight 447's 'Fly-by-Wire' Aircraft Technology Safe?"
FOXNews (June 12, 2009)

" As investigators search for clues to why Air France Flight 447 crashed, former pilots and aviation experts are debating whether the "fly-by-wire" technology in modern aircraft makes it difficult or impossible for a pilot to control a plane in distress.

"The Airbus A330-200 that crashed into the Atlantic on May 31 — killing all 228 people aboard — relied on electronic rather than hydraulic or mechanical systems to control the aircraft.

"It's akin to having a computer control your car, with the electronic brain doing the steering, hitting the gas and pumping the brakes as you tell it what to do.

"Some pilots claim the old way was better. In an emergency, they say, passengers are better off having a skilled pilot working all the systems.

"But planes built by Airbus, a European consortium based in Toulouse, France, give computers, not humans, the final authority on flight decisions...."

The article discusses two design philosophies, pointing out that both have something in their favor.

Airbus's fly-by-wire system has the advantage of allowing airliners to put pilots with less experience and training in control of airliners, and still get from point A to point B. And, if a pilot tries to force the airplane into a maneuver it's not designed for, the flight control system won't allow it.

Boeing's newer airliners have similar fly-by-wire technology, but Boeing includes an override, so that the pilot can take full control of the aircraft in an emergency.

As far as which design philosophy is 'right,' that's something that probably won't be decided for years.

"...In 2000, Capt. Paul McCarthy, then the group's [The Airline Pilots Association] executive air safety chairman, told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that its pilots had 'strong opinions' on the issue.

" 'There are good arguments on both sides,' McCarthy told the paper. 'Both make legitimate points. And both sides are correct ... It's a good, healthy debate that will continue for the next five to 10 years until everyone is confident which way we should go.' " (FOXNews)

Related posts:

• "Air France Flight 447: What's Known, What's Not Known"
  (June 12, 2009)
• "Air France Flight 447 Investigators Find Terror List Names: Suggestive, But Far From Proof"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (June 10, 2009)
• "US Airways Flight 1549: Lost Two Engines, No People"
  (January 17, 2009)

Air France Flight 447: What's Known, What's Not Known

"Air France crash: What do we know?"
CNN (June 11, 2009)

"In one way we know a huge amount about the loss of Air France flight 447 -- much more than is usual so soon after an accident. But in another, we know nothing at all.

"The simple fact is that the blizzard of airworthiness directives, company memos, weather reports, technical specifications and diverse other documents that have surfaced since last week constitute entirely circumstantial evidence.

"Aviation history is replete with accidents with causes utterly unrelated to what first seemed the obvious explanation...."

This article is a good summary of what's known - and what's not known - about what happened to Air France 447.

And, I think it is a good reminder of the value of suspended judgment. That something bad happened to Flight 447 is obvious. What that bad thing - or things - is - or are - simply isn't known at this time.

---

"Brazil: 6 more bodies found in jet crash"
The Associated Press (June 12, 2009)

"Six more bodies were recovered from the Atlantic Ocean where an Air France jet crashed, Brazilian officials said Friday, as the race to find the black boxes and gather key evidence from human remains and debris gained urgency...."

The good news is that some pieces of the Airbus - including a large section Flight 447's tail - have been recovered. And, that some bodies have been found.

The bad news is that, given conditions in the area, searchers are running out of time.

---

"Air France Flight 447: First bodies had minimal clothing, no burns"
Aerospace News, SeattlePI blog (June 12, 2009)

"Beyond an increasing body count, little new information emerged on Friday from official sources regarding the crash of Air France Flight 447.

"(By official sources, I mean the Brazilian military's official bulletins, France's investigations unit BEA, Air France and Airbus.)

"Brazilian military searchers pulled three more bodies out of the ocean on Thursday night, bringing the total body count to 44. The French Navy has also found an undisclosed number of bodies, according to Brazilian military bulletins.

"The plane crashed with 288 on board...."

This blog post is one of the more detailed one-stop sources of information I've found, and includes a timeline (with links) of coverage of the Air France Flight 447 disaster. The links are to Seattle Post-Intelligencer articles, of course: but it's still a convenient place to start.

The blog's author also gives specific numbers - which often helps puts facts in perspective. The first 16 bodies analyzed weren't wearing clothes, and weren't burned. The Buenos Aires Herald article the author cited as a source drew conclusions about what that means that professionals don't seem to have made.

Just the same, it does seem reasonable that, if AF 447 broke up in the air, people might have died before hitting the water, not been burned, and had their clothing torn away by air rushing past the wreckage.

Certain Knowledge of Air France 447's Fate? We May Never Know

I hope that a reasonable explanation of what happened to AF 447 and the 288 people on board can be made: one with a substantial amount of evidence to back it up. That will, perhaps, be some comfort to family and friends who lost people in the disaster: and may help make air travel safer.

Meanwhile, I'll be very skeptical of assertions about what 'obviously' happened.

Related post:

• "Air France Flight 447 Investigators Find Terror List Names: Suggestive, But Far From Proof"
  Another War-on-Terror Blog (June 10, 2009)

J. M. Barrie's "Peter Pan:" A Story that Hasn't Died, About a Boy Who Doesn't Grow Up

"Peter Pan" is a remarkably large cultural icon in America, considering that it's a play written by a Scottish novelist, Sir James Matthew Barrie or J. M. Barrie, in the first years of the 20th century.

Peter Pan first appeared as a character in "The Little White Bird" (1902), a novel by Barrie. The novel was written for adults, but the "Peter Pan" chapters were lifted out and re-published as "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens" (1906).

The play, "Peter Pan," opened in 1904.

Project Gutenberg makes these available as online books:

• "The Little White Bird; or, Adventures in Kensington gardens"
  J. M. Barrie
• "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens"
  J. M. Barrie
• "Peter Pan"
  J. M. Barrie
  (Currently for US distribution only!)

There have been quite a few screen adaptations of "Peter Pan:"

• "Peter Pan" 1924 (Cyril Chadwick, Mary Brian)
• "Peter Pan" 1953 (Disney)
• "Peter Pan" 1955 (television series, apparently made in Brazil, in Portuguese)
• "Peter Pan" 1960 (Cyril Ritchard, Maureen Bailey) for television
• "Peter Pan" 1962 (Wolf Ackva, Michael Ande, made in West Germany, in German)
• "Peter Pan 1976 (Danny Kaye, Mia Farrow)
• "Peter Pan" 1986 (Animated Australian version, it seems)
• "Hook" 1991 (Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams)
• "Peter Pan" 2003 (Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter)
• "Peter Pan" 2000 (Paul Schoeffler, Elisa Sagardia, made for television)
• "Return to Neverland" 2002 (Disney)
• "Peter Pan" 2003 (Jason Isaacs, Jeremy Sumpter)
• Even a video game1993

More, about Barrie and his works, at "Born in Scotland; Lives in Neverland – J.M. Barrie and the big adventure of Peter Pan."

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Update May 21, 2008

Someone's adding to the Peter Pan phenomenon: "Peter Pan's Neverworld" ("A new novel by Peter Von Brown, based upon the expansion ideas of Sir J. M. Barrie"). The author left a comment on this post.

He has a blog: "Peter Von Brown." A recent entry (May 13, 2008) says that he has an advance copy, and that the book will soon be available: "So hang in there, Peter Pan is coming back…and he's not alone."

There's a pre-release review at Lulu Marketplace: Science Fiction & Fantasy.

Digital Domino Flash Drives: No Kidding

" Domino-Shaped Flash Drive Indicates Used Space"

This is clever: Each half of a 'domino' is a flash drive that can be plugged into another of this design. "They have dots on them, that each represent a giga of space loaded on the drive."

A Brazilian company makes them: for their sake, I hope they get their global marketing set up for next Christmas season. I think they've got a winner here, in the digital novelties division.