Friday, May 05, 2017

Airbus A320 Whistling Sound


Last week, aircraft landing at SFO were routinely passing over my house at ~10,000ft. Some of these aeroplanes  made a ghostly whistling noise for 5-10 seconds, and I used Plane Finder app to identify them as the Airbus A320. I don't mind the brief whistle noise. But what's causing it?

A320whine.com has the answer, and Airbus has the solution to eliminate this noise.

 "The noise is caused by air passing over circular vent holes under the wing, similar to the wind blowing over a bottle – just a much larger scale. These annoying wailing sounds good be heard on the ground ... "   -A320whine.com


Monday, April 10, 2017

"The President again made unfounded statements about...."

(I want to read that as the first sentence of a news article)

I live in California , and get my news from foreign news sources. The best domestic journalism is being done by comedians, such as Samantha Bee.

Journalists do not have to defer to politicians. And they must stop struggling to find the sense and reason in statements made by politicians who are not concerned with the truth of what they are saying.


Tuesday, October 13, 2015

A List of Beers to Avoid

The following is a list of beer names owned by Budweiser and Miller, from an article on Chicagoist.
Most of them are watery and sweet lager beers. Some pretend to be folksy microbrews.

You and I probably drank some of these when we were young and practicing hard to learn the limits of our alcohol intake.

I've drank Bass, Becks, and Blue Moon. They taste ok. But I don't want to give my money to any company that likes to smear its logo-feces around my city/stadiums/TV.
("logo-feces" © George Carlin)

Up Yours Coors. Here's the list:

Anheuser-Busch InBe
  • 10 Barrel Brewing

  • Alexander Keith's

  • Antarctica

  • Bass

  • Beck's

  • Boddington's

  • Bohemia

  • Brahma

  • Bud Light

  • Bud Light Lime Ritas

  • Bud Ice

  • Budweiser

  • Busch

  • Cass

  • Chelada

  • Chernigivske

  • Corona

  • Elysian

  • Goose Island

  • Harbin

  • Hoegaarden

  • Johnny Appleseed Hard Cider

  • Jupiler

  • Kirin

  • Klinskoye

  • Kokanee

  • Landshark Lager

  • Leffe

  • Löwenbräu

  • Michelob ULTRA

  • Modelo Especial

  • Natural

  • Oculto

  • O'Doul's

  • Quilmes

  • Redbridge

  • Rolling Rock

  • Sedrin

  • Select

  • Shock Top

  • Sibirskaya Korona

  • Skol

  • Stella Artois

  • Victoria

  • Wild Blue

  • ZiegenBlock
SABMiller
  • 2M

  • Aguila

  • Aguila Light

  • Alpha Pale Ale

  • Arany Ászok

  • Arequipeña

  • Atlas

  • Balboa

  • Balimi Extra Lager

  • Barena

  • Beez Neez

  • Birell

  • Blue Moon

  • Bohemian Pilsner

  • Bohlinger's Lager

  • Brutal Fruit

  • Bulmers

  • Carling

  • Carlton

  • Cascade

  • Castle

  • Chairman's Extra Stout Beer

  • Chibuku

  • Ciucas

  • Club

  • Conquer

  • Coors

  • Coors Light

  • Costeña

  • Cristal

  • Crown Lager

  • Cusqueña

  • De Klok

  • Debowe Mocne

  • Dirty Granny

  • Dogbolter

  • Dorada

  • Dreher 24

  • Dębowe Mocne

  • Eagle Lager

  • Fat Yak

  • Flying Fish

  • Foster's

  • Frisco

  • Gambrinus

  • Gingers

  • Golden Light

  • Great Northern Brewing Co.

  • Green Mill Cider

  • Grolsch

  • Hamm's

  • Hansa

  • Haywards 5000

  • Helga

  • Henry Weinhard's

  • Hero

  • Icehouse

  • Impala

  • Imperial

  • Indus Pride

  • Keystone

  • Kilimanjaro Premium Lager

  • Knock Out

  • Kobányai Sör

  • Książęce

  • Laurentina

  • Lech

  • Leinenkugel

  • Lion Lager

  • Maluti

  • Manica

  • Melbourne Bitter

  • Mercury

  • Mickey's

  • Miller

  • Milwaukee's Best

  • Mosi

  • NT Draught

  • Ndovu

  • Nile

  • Olde English 800

  • Peroni

  • Pilsen

  • Pilsener

  • Poker

  • Port Royal

  • Pure Blonde

  • Radegast

  • Raffo

  • Redback

  • Redd's

  • Regia

  • Reschs

  • Rhino Lager

  • Royal Challenge

  • Safari

  • SalvaVida

  • San Juan

  • Saris

  • Sheaf Stout

  • Sibebe

  • Skelter's Straight

  • Smädný mních

  • Snow

  • St. Louis

  • St. Stefanus

  • Stone Lager

  • Strongbow

  • Suprema

  • Timisoreana

  • Topvar

  • Trophy

  • Tropical

  • Tyskie

  • Ursus

  • Velkopopovický

  • Victoria Bitter

  • White Bull

  • Wojak Jasny Pelny

  • Wührer

  • Zorok

  • Zubr

Friday, May 01, 2015

up yours, Coors!

I saw that faded bumper sticker on an old car in 1986. I don't know what it was about. Then I read that the anti-union Coors family had supported the Contra militias against the democratically elected Sandinistas in Nicaragua. Then "up yours, Coors!" meant that to me.

Today Eater reports that MillerCoors is being sued for marketing Blue Moon as a craft beer when it is in fact a mass produced beer.


Coors is not the only macrobrewery marketing slop in a folksy label. Maybe soon it will be easier to tell the difference without having to drink it.


Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Je Suis Charlie

" Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity. ‘Respect for religion’ has become a code phrase meaning ‘fear of religion’. Religions, like all other ideas, deserve criticism, satire, and, yes, our fearless disrespect. " --Salman Rushdie

Monday, February 10, 2014

Stream the 2014 Winter Olympics Without a Cable Subscription

This is how I watch the Winter Olympics: I open the NBC Olympics app on my iPhone, and turn the WiFi off. I enter my friend's cable account username and password. Over the data link NBC can't determine if I'm really a paying cable customer or not. I turn the iPhone WiFi back on and I watch the Olympics on my TV using Airplay. The app remembers my information, so next time it immediately starts streaming without asking for user my name and password.

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Add a GIF to your iPhone Mail Signature

This tutorial is from CNET in 2010(!), and I'll summarize it here. The final result will be a home screen icon you will click to write an email that will have that GIF or JPG signature (emails written directly from the native IOS email app won't have the signature, and neither will a reply to an email sent to you).

1) The GIF or JPG you want to use must be 80KB or less.

2) Go to CoolGeex on your desktop computer and open a free account.

3) Fill out the form with the information and logo/GIF/JPG you want to be your signature.

4) Click "Create Signature at the bottom of the page to see how it will look.

5) If you like it, click "Email Signature URL" at the top left of the page under "Options".

6) Open the email with your iPhone, and click the link. A new home screen icon will appear on your iPhone. Use this new app to write an email.

 That's it. Granted, it is limited.