Sinam & DayJet at Sun N' Fun in Lakeland, FL

For those interested in aviation and news on DayJet, try the Sun 'n Fun event in Lakeland FL.


http://www.sun-n-fun.org/content/

Very Light Jets for Sales at Walmart - April 1st

Wal-Mart Explores Another Move Upmarket ....... Sat, 01 Apr '06

Plans To Test-Market VLJs At Stores

As you may know, discount retailing uber-giant Wal-Mart Corporation is currently exploring a variety of ways to bring more high-income customers into its stores. In addition to recently unveiling a high-end SuperCenter in Plano, TX featuring such amenities as a sushi bar, expensive wine choices and high-end electronics, Wal-Mart also announced last week that it will test-market an innovative new program to introduce its customers to another high-end product: Very Light Jets.

"I didn't know what to think when [Wal-Mart] contacted me with this," Eclipse Aviation CEO Vern Raburn told ANN recently. "First I thought they had to be kidding... but I admit, the idea grew on me. It makes sense... the same way having affordable direct air-taxi service available to smaller regional airports makes sense."

"And you know how I feel about that," Raburn added with a grin.

Under the program -- which Wal-Mart expects to have in operation at the Plano store by early 2007 -- customers will be able to purchase their own customized very-light jet (VLJ) aircraft by obtaining a tag from kiosks located throughout the store. To discourage pranksters and teens, the customer will need to swipe three credit cards before a purchase tag is issued, in their name, which the customer will then take to a register to complete the transaction.

"We won't have any actual jets at the store," Wal-Mart spokesperson Skip White told ANN. "We toyed with that idea, but decided instead to expand our electronics, garden, and automotive departments into the area we would have needed to showcase a suitable range of choices. Oh, and we added a Starbucks, too."

"Instead, customers will pay a deposit on their aircraft at the store. Wal-Mart is committed to having a demonstrator aircraft at the nearest GA airport -- in this case, Addison (ADS) is just down the road from here -- within 48 hours of that transaction," White continued.

Customers will then be taken on a test-flight. Afterwards, the final decision to commit to purchase will be made, at which time the buyer will also be able to place an order for their actual aircraft. Should the customer decline purchase, a full refund will be given, less fuel and trip costs incurred to demonstrate the plane.

"VLJs, in addition to providing on-demand charter and air-taxi service, are also expected to bring a new kind of pilot into aviation," Raburn told ANN. "These pilots want value -- the ability to own an aircraft with many of the capabilities that, until several years ago, would have cost upwards of $5 million to achieve."

"Wal-Mart is right in line with this philosophy, of bringing affordable, quality products to the masses," Raburn said. "While it's true our jets will represent by far the highest-prices items available at your local store, we still believe customers will understand the comparative value -- these certainly aren't 'off-the-rack' aircraft."

While the test program will be launched at the Plano store to start, it is expected to spread to other SuperCenters throughout the country within a few years.

A similar purchasing process will eventually be set up for customers preferring to use wal-mart.com from the privacy and convenience of their own homes.

Aircraft purchased through a participating Wal-Mart -- initially, Eclipse aircraft are expected to be featured, although other models such as Cessna's Mustang, the Adam A700 and the Spectrum 33 will likely be added (all pending certification) -- will be identified by a small "price-saver" smiley (above, right), affixed to the airplanes' vertical stabilizer

Work for DayJet

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NFL Draft Order for 2006

The following is the order for the first-round of the NFL
draft:

1. Houston Texans (2-14)
2. New Orleans Saints (3-13)
3. Tennessee Titans (4-12)
4. New York Jets (4-12)
5. Green Bay Packers (4-12)
6. San Francisco 49ers (4-12)
7. Oakland Raiders (4-12)
8. Buffalo Bills (5-11)
9. Detroit Lions (5-11)
10. Arizona Cardinals (5-11)
11. St. Louis Rams (6-10)
12. Cleveland Browns (6-10)
13. Baltimore Ravens (6-10)
14. Philadelphia Eagles (6-10)
15. Atlanta Falcons (8-8)
16. Miami Dolphins (9-7)
17. Minnesota Vikings (9-7)
18. Dallas Cowboys (9-7)
19. San Diego Chargers (9-7)
20. Kansas City Chiefs (10-6)
21. New England Patriots (10-6)
22. Washington Redskins (10-6)
23. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (11-5)
24. Cincinnati Bengals (11-5)
25. New York Giants (11-5)
26. Chicago Bears (11-5)
27. Carolina Panthers (11-5)
28. Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4)
29. Denver Broncos (13-3)
30. Indianapolis Colts (14-2)
31. Seattle Seahawks (13-3)

Map Fair in Miami

Something for map junkies to do if in the Miami market.
Enjoy.
- Sinam

Thirteenth Annual Miami International Map Fair
Friday-Sunday, February 3-5, 2006

• Presented by theHistorical Museum of Southern Florida
• Sponsored by BrandsMart U.S.A.
• For Collectors and Hobbyists Programs and Lectures Expert Opinions Antique Maps for Sale by Top Dealers
  

Miami International Map Fair events (except as noted) take place at the Historical Museum of Southern Florida (101 West Flagler St), located in downtown Miami at the Miami-Dade Cultural Center.

For further information, contact:
Marcia J. Kanner, ManagerMiami International Map FairHistorical Museum of Southern Florida101 West Flagler StreetMiami, FL 33130
Telephone 305-375-1492Fax 305-375-1609email mapfair@historical-museum.org

http://www.historical-museum.org/mapfair/mapfair.htm

Finding Anything? Or just find something... (the link even)

An interesting book review from one of my GIS e-magazines.

Originally posted in DirectionsMag.com's book reivew section of their e-Newsletter, the book reviewer (credited below) puts her take on Morville's interpretation of "e-space".

She's a Penn Stater, and has a good review. I have been cautiously admonished about copyright rules on the web - so no more cut and pastes. (Guess I'm a bit to wild and fancy free for this straight laced web stuff - joke). But even good links fade away, so I have retained the author's credencies and article source for anyone to find.

See review here: http://www.directionsmag.com/article.php?article_id=2082

About the review author:

Adena Schutzberg , Directions Magazine
Email adena@directionsmag.com
URL http://www.directionsmag.com
Adena Schutzberg is Executive Editor of Directions Magazine and contributes to its widely-read weekly electronic newsletters and website. Before joining Directions Magazine, Schutzberg founded and edited GIS Monitor for nearly five years.She is also the Principal of ABS Consulting Group, Inc., a GIS consulting firm providing services to clients including the Open Geospatial Consortium and GIS software and imagery companies. Before opening her own company, Schutzberg headed U.S. operations for UK-based Cadcorp, and held several positions at ESRI over eight years. She began her career heading Arthur D. Little’s CAD/GIS lab and teaching college geography. She holds a BA in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and an MS in Geography from Pennsylvania State University.

Who is Bob, and Why is he your Uncle?

I've been hearing this phrase around, and just had to look it up.
Originally posted on www.worldwidewords.org

[Q] What is the origin and actual meaning of bob’s your uncle?

[A] This is a catchphrase which seemed to arise out of nowhere and yet has had a long period of fashion and is still going strong. It’s known mainly in Britain and Commonwealth countries, and is really a kind of interjection. It’s used to show how simple it is to do something: “You put the plug in here, press that switch, and Bob’s your uncle!”.

The most attractive theory—albeit suspiciously neat—is that it derives from a prolonged act of political nepotism. The Victorian prime minister, Lord Salisbury (family name Robert Cecil, pronounced ) appointed his rather less than popular nephew Arthur Balfour to a succession of posts. The most controversial, in 1887, was chief secretary of Ireland, a post for which Balfour—despite his intellectual gifts—was considered unsuitable. The Dictionary of National Biography says: “The country saw with something like stupefaction the appointment of the young dilettante to what was at the moment perhaps the most important, certainly the most anxious office in the administration”.

As the story goes, the consensus among the irreverent in Britain was that to have Bob as your uncle was a guarantee of success, hence the expression. Since the very word nepotism derives from the Italian word for nephew (from the practice of Italian popes giving preferment to nephews, a euphemism for their bastard sons), the association here seems more than apt.

Actually, Balfour did rather well in the job, confounding his critics and earning the bitter nickname Bloody Balfour from the Irish, which must have quietened the accusations of undue favouritism more than a little (he also rose to be Prime Minister from 1902–5). There is another big problem: the phrase isn’t recorded until 1937, in Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Mr Partridge suggested it had been in use since the 1890s, but nobody has found an example in print. This is surprising. If public indignation or cynicism against Lord Salisbury’s actions had been great enough to provoke creation of the saying, why didn’t it appear—to take a case—in a satirical magazine of the time such as Punch?

A rather more probable, but less exciting, theory has it that it derives from the slang phrase all is bob, meaning that everything is safe, pleasant or satisfactory. This dates back to the seventeenth century or so (it’s in Captain Francis Grose’s Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue of 1785). There have been several other slang expressions containing bob, some associated with thievery or gambling, and from the eighteenth century on it was also a common generic name for somebody you didn’t know. Any or all of these might have contributed to its genesis.

Mapping the Iraqi Election

http://www.style.org/iraqielection/

An interesting display of the election results.

Taken from one of my GIS e-magazines:

Mapping the Iraqi Election and Morecompiled by Nora Parker, Managing Editor

Don Cooke of Tele Atlas alerted us to an interesting website, published by Jonathan Corum of 13pt. Not only does it have some interesting maps (like the January 2005 Iraqi election one shown below), but other fun goodies such as a "composite panorama of Mars" and "The Strouhal Number in Cruising Flight" which has to do with the fact that animals swimming or flying at cruising speed use "similar ratios of stroke frequency and amplitude to forward speed." The Iraqi maps break down the vote in each of 18 governates by eight political parties. The map below shows the total valid votes by governate.

Out-of-country votes are indicated by the red dot to the southwest, outside the country boundary. The maps are interactive and allow you to choose various display parameters.

15 bad things...

From one of my GIS magazines, and interesting summary of 15 bad things...

Our nation faces numerous threats. Many citizens have come to expect the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to protect us. But from what? Not all these threats carry guns, wear uniforms or build bombs. Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that DHS had created 15 detailed scenarios (listed below) that represent real and critical security threats. Few people realized that only a few months later, one would have occurred (major hurricane) and indications suggest a second one is on the way to becoming a reality.

DHS Scenarios

• 1.) Nuclear detonation: 10 kiloton nuclear device*
  2.) Biological attack: aerosolized anthrax*
  3.) Biological disease outbreak: flu pandemic
  4.) Biological attack: pneumonic plague
  5.) Chemical attack: blistering agent
  6.) Chemical attack: Toxic industrial chemicals*
  7.) Chemical attack: nerve agent
  8.) Chemical attack: chlorine tank explosion*
  9.) Natural disaster: earthquake
  10.) Natural disaster: major hurricane
  11.) Radiological attack: dirty bomb*
  12.) Explosives attack: improvised bombs*
  13.) Biological attack: food contamination**
  14.) Biological attack: foot and mouth disease
  15.) Cyber attack*

A "Dam" Funny Email

-----This is an actual (?) letter sent to a man named Ryan DeVries by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, State of Michigan. This guy's response is hilarious, but read the State's letter before you get to the response letter. (This is the State's Letter!) (?)

SUBJECT: DEQ File No.97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Montcalm County


Dear Mr. DeVries:

It has come to the attention of the Department of Environmental Quality that there has been recent unauthorized activity on the above referenced parcel of property. You have been certified as the legal landowner and/or contractor who did the following unauthorized activity:

Construction and maintenance of two wood debris dams across the outlet stream of Spring Pond.

A permit must be issued prior to the start of this type of activity. A review of the department's files shows that no permits have been issued. Therefore, the Department has determined that this activity is in violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101 to 324.30113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, annotated.

The Department has been informed that one or both of the dams partially failed during a recent rain event, causing debris and flooding at downstream locations. We find that dams of this nature are inherently hazardous and cannot be permitted. The Department therefore orders you to cease and desist all activities at this location, and to restore the stream to a free-flow condition by removing all wood and brush forming the dams from the stream channel. All restoration work shall be completed no later than January 31, 2005.

Please notify this office when the restoration has been completed so that a follow-up site inspection may be scheduled by our staff. Failure to comply with this request or any further unauthorized activity on the site may result in this case being referred for elevated enforcement action. We anticipate and would appreciate your full cooperation in this matter.Please feel free to contact me at this office if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

David L. Price, District RepresentativeLand and Water Management Division

** Here is the actual response sent back by Mr. DeVries: **Re: DEQ File No. 97-59-0023; T11N; R10W, Sec. 20; Montcalm County.

Dear Mr. Price,

Your certified letter dated 12/17/02 has been handed to me to respond to. I am the legal landowner but not the Contractor at 2088 Dagget, Pierson, Michigan. A couple of beavers are in the process of constructing and maintaining two wood "debris" dams across the outlet stream of my Spring Pond.

While I did not pay for, authorize, nor supervise their dam project, I think they would be highly offended that you call their skillful use of natures building materials "debris." I would like to challenge your department to attempt to emulate their dam project any time and/or any place you choose.

I believe I can safely state there is no way you could ever match their dam skills, their dam resourcefulness, their dam ingenuity, their dam persistence, their dam determination and/or their dam work ethic.

As to your request, I do not think the beavers are aware that they must first fill out a dam permit prior to the start of this type of dam activity.

My first dam question to you is: (1) Are you trying to discriminate against my Spring Pond Beavers, or (2) do you require all beavers throughout this state to conform to said dam request? If you are not discriminating against these particular beavers, through the Freedom of Information Act, I request completed copies of all those other applicable beaver dam permits that have been issued. Perhaps we will see if there really is a dam violation of Part 301, Inland Lakes and Streams, of the Natural Resource and Environmental Protection Act, Act 451 of the Public Acts of 1994, being sections 324.30101to 324.30113 of the Michigan Compiled Laws, annotated.

I have several concerns. My first concern is; aren't the beavers entitled to legal representation? The Spring Pond Beavers are financially destitute and are unable to pay for said representation -- so the State will have to provide them with a dam lawyer. The Department's dam concern that either one or both of the dams failed during a recent rain event, causing flooding, is proof that this is a natural occurrence, which the Department is required to protect. In other words, we should leave the Spring Pond Beavers alone rather than harassing them and calling their dam names.

If you want the stream "restored" to a dam free-flow condition please contact the beavers -- but if you are going to arrest them, they obviously did not pay any attention to your dam letter, they being unable to read English.

In my humble opinion, the Spring Pond Beavers have a right to build their unauthorized dams as long as the sky is blue, the grass is green and water flows downstream. They have more dam rights than I do to live and enjoy Spring Pond. If the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Protection lives up to its name, it should protect the natural resources(Beavers) and the environment (Beavers' Dams).

So, as far as the beavers and I are concerned, this dam case can be referred for more elevated enforcement action right now. Why wait until 1/31/2005? The Spring Pond Beavers may be under the dam ice then and there will be no way for you or your dam staff to contact/harass them then.

In conclusion, I would like to bring to your attention to a real environmental quality (health) problem in the area. It is the bears! Bears are actually defecating in our woods. I definitely believe you should be persecuting the defecating bears and leave the beavers alone. If you are going to investigate the beaver dam, watch your step! (The bears are not careful where they dump!)Being unable to comply with your dam request, and being unable to contact you on your dam answering machine, I am sending this response to your dam office.

THANK YOU.

RYAN DEVRIES & THE DAM BEAVERS