Alternative Transportation
Yesterday’s SFGate: Day in Pictures inspired a few delvings into alternative transportation methods that are not the Segway.

A gyroplane was named one of Time Magazine’s Inventions of the Year in 2001. It looks like a helicopter, but on closer inspection you notice the extra propeller which, on the Groen Brothers Aviation model is gas turbine­powered. Fixed-wing craft training is recommended before flying one as it navigates similarly in the air. Other models, mostly for sport, are available as evidenced by this Popular Mechanics write-up. The unfortunate gyroplane referenced in the SFGate photo was an experimental model which lost a part, killing pilot and passenger.

The Airboard, inspired by Back to the Future II and developed in a Australia, is an honest to goodness hovercraft. It runs off a gas-powered lawn mower engine with a 1.3 gallon tank, maximum speed is 15 MPH. It is available in the U.S. through ZAP Electronics and, wouldn’t you know it, Hammacher Schlemmer. Price is $14,999.95 with disclaimers “Not for use on public streets, sidewalks, and thoroughfares.” But you do get a choice of Red, Blue, Green, or Yellow.
TechTV reviewed it with a summary of “extremely pricey and cumbersome.” Hammacher Schlemmer also has a 2 person all-terrain hovercraft.

Yellowstone Park’s “let it burn” policy did not result in devastation. Since the 1988 fire, researchers believe that the park has achieved a natural balance. Trees that have evolved to mechanisms to survive fire were able to flourish. Animals who had greater competition prior to the blaze have made a comeback. With more sun on the forest floor, seedlings sprang up from the soil. It’s a cycle that is expected by nature.

With its genesis in a slide talk from the National Park Service’s former historical architect, The Walk Through educates and informs readers about identifying characteristics of historical buildings. The intent is to teach you how to examine and assess the features of a building, not just in historical context but for its current “character.” The photos of historical houses are an artistic accompaniment. (via Yahoo Daily)

This time around in The NY Times’ ongoing Writers on Writing series, David Mamet connects lessons learned from music with his own craft. If you are familiar with his sparse, minimalist style, often with twists, you will feel no surprise that he found inspiration from the musical philosophy “leave out the third — we hear it anyway.” How much can you leave out while keeping it intelligible, he asks? This minimal formula is an elegance, he claims, that separates those who can write from those who can really write. But the truly inspired will discover the creative way to get from point A to point B, or, the note A to note B, in a way that can surprise, delight, and refresh.

LibraryBookSales.org is fun to browse and another good place to search for something you’ve been seeking at the used bookstore. It’s a super way to network library booksale offerings. My only regret is that I may no longer be able to find the coveted bargains I’m accustomed to at library sales since they now have a convenient way to seek market value for their rarities. (via rebecca and BrainLog)

A burning question I’ve been pondering for 10 years has not yet been answered, but someone else was curious too and wrote to the Seattle Weekly’s Ask Master about it (second item). Why does butter in California come in shorter, chunkier sticks then in other states? Arizona, Oregon, and Washington butter is also in this form. My best shot at an answer is that these states are hotter and a chubby stick with less surface area is better. Let’s forget the fact that the temperatures in the other states are often higher in the summer months. The actual answer may be as mundane as learning it was the shape of the first west coast dairy farmer’s wife’s butter crock. But we may never know. Most people, upon hearing of my curiosity about this subject, shrug it off. They are saner people than I. (via Alt-log)

“As Norma Desmond might have remarked, classical music didn’t get small — the media world that it’s trying to be part of got real, real big.” In a two-part series, the Chronicle examines why the business of classical music is not growing, though it still has an active audience. Compared to the world of pop music, classical is small potatoes, and companies are no longer willing to wait for the long term return on slow, but steady, album sales. Online businesses are hoping to grow into this market, but they’ll need paying subscribers and advertisers.

The article mentions in passing that classical radio stations “are tweaking their formats to try to reach larger audiences.” The two stations I’ve listened to are playing shorter parts of longer pieces and putting the more popular tunes on heavy rotation. With the vast catalog of classical recordings and many unrecognized B+/A- composers, as my conductor likes to call them (he teaches), this is unfortunate. One doesn’t need William Tell all the time, nor the same Holst planet played every day. My husband owns a 200 disk CD changer and we are considering filling it with all our classical albums and using that instead of the radio. After a few days of listening to cropped popular symphonies on our classical station, it seems it can’t be that much worse. But if this format gets more people to support classical music, I will not complain.

The cracks that grounded the space shuttles have been found in all four orbiters. The same cracks were found on test equipment used before the first shuttle ever took off (that’s over twenty years ago now!). NASA believes missions can begin again this fall, but the investigation into safety concerns continues.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Chocolate. These do not keep well at blood temperature.

A former resident of the Bronx reminisces about the New York blackout of July 13, 1977, when the city and surrounding areas were completely dark, allowing him to see the Milky Way. There was no moonlight in the way either. Twenty-five years ago today I learned what the word “looting” meant.