INTO THE NOT SO WILD BLUE

A PHOTO EDITION

Friends have spoken of the amazing aerial 

display in the morning skies near

San Simeon. 

Here is a photo log of what I saw in

the crisp morning air on a beautiful ridge

looking over the Pacific and the Santa Lucia

range.  Thanks to John, Joel and Jim

for the exciting show.

Sorry about the crash John.

More about that still ahead.

Yes, this F 16 seems to be near the ground.

It was.

 The Setting

What follows are 50 frames of planes and aerobatic maneuvers by land based pilots.  This is remote controlled

flying, Central Coast style.

It's hard to capture a plane in flight when they are 

moving as quickly as these were. But we managed a 

few shots and cropped a few to give you

a good seat for a great air show.

 John with his flying wing.

This F-16 includes a ducted fan that gives it a "jet like" quality.

 Joel's red wing is a warped wing creation.

 There are no control surfaces on the wing,

instead the wing itself is manipulated,

not unlike the Wright Brothers plane.

The handmade creations are exotic, like this Double Delta wing. 

 The pilots use a control panel that works on 

a variety of spread spectrum frequencies to control the plane

and its flight mechanisms.

 Connections to the navigation and flight controls.

 While some are gas powered, these craft are 

powered by lithium polymer batteries.

 Below, John puts the transmitter

on the battery so it is under control from

the moment of power.

 John brought out one "indestructible" plane and

gave me a chance to fly it.

 Well, I wasn't at the controls long before we 

made a hard landing, nose first, a full field away.

 John said a little glue

 to the break you see here, and it will be back in the air.

 The above adorns the side of Johns F-22,

which he flies when he and Joel engage in dog fights.

 I got lucky on a couple of frames and captured

both of the craft in their fight.

 The air craft are foam bodied,

made with a styrene, EPP (expanded polypropylene) or depron.  The light weight material was originally designed as 

insulating foam.

 This double delta wing creates a unique air profile.

 From a distance, without seeing the remote operators,

these craft create such a realistic profile

you could swear you were watching the real deal.

The guys are out most mornings, shortly after sunrise, filling the sky with great maneuvers and skill.

John says "it's a great way to start a day."

See you down the trail.

HEY FACEBOOK-WHAT ABOUT THIS?

SHARE THE WEALTH WITH

THOSE WHO MADE YOU

As the world awaits the Facebook IPO, the
experts are predicting the market value of
the company could soar to $100 Billion. One
analyst said anything under $75 Billion would be
a disappointment.
Mark Zuckerberg's company is expected to raise
some 10 Billion in the stock offering making
it one of the 4 or 5 largest IPO's in history.
Well Mark, here's something you should do-share
some of that wealth with the folks who have made
Facebook valuable-those who use the social network.
I can urge this without a conflict of interest, because
I have refused to do Facebook simply because of
the economics.  
The company has a market value now that is likely to
skyrocket when openly traded as stock, because of
those of you who social network there.  It is you,
and your exchanges and posts that give the
computers the data to mine that in turn has 
a commercial value.  You, your life, your habits
and a whole lot more creates a huge information
field which is then captured, analyzed and marketed, so Zuckerberg and company become billionaires.  
Here's a purely capitalistic entreaty-
return some of that worth and value to the 
users.  You can do that in cash, stocks,
dividends or other means.  
Facebook should attach a value to the amount of 
data and activity that you create by your use and 
compensate you accordingly.
One could even imagine a cooperative idea, 
not unlike an REI, where, based on your use
you have a percentage of year end wealth.
Be creative Mark.  After all if people found
another venue to social network, or another
way to do what they do on Facebook-and those
venues exist-and abandoned your Facebook,
how much would you and the company be
worth?  
If someone creates a model that accomplishes
what Facebook does, but also compensates
the people who make it worthy, we just
might witness another 
communication revolution.


DAY BOOK
Birds of a Feather

Several specie share a few moments on Moonstone Beach in Cambria.

Not bad for a winter's day.
See you down the trail.

THE WEEKENDER :) INCREDIBLE PITCH

JUST A WEE DRAM

The Weekender :) is posting an extraordinary video today.

Watch how it is shot and performed, as one long

movement.  Having directed in the field, I assure

you this is a great piece of work by director,

crew and actor.

Enjoy

Rumble, the band featuring our

Mac Guru and friend Rick Auricchio

on bass, rocked the Cambria Lodge last night.

The place was packed, and then made

more full by attendees of a conference

of trial lawyers. 

Yea, you can image the jokes and comments.

Sorry for picture quality.  Shot on a smart phone in looooow light.

See you down the trail.

DID TWITTER COMMIT SUICIDE? & BIG KIDS AT RECESS

NEWS FROM THE FRONT LINE

OF THE INFORMATION WARS

It's probably a result of my decades in journalism,

broadcasting and documentary production,

but I'm super sensitive when there are 

rumblings in the "force," that is

communications and information flow.
Veteran readers may recall a couple of 
posts that shook up a few people-
Posting (link here) about the convenience of algorithms and a kind of "thought control."  
Or about the danger of cyber crime
Read the post by linking here.
Now a new battle line has been drawn.
Here's the Forbes blog on what has set off many recriminations.


Twitter Commits Social Suicide
By Mark Gibbs, Forbes
27 January 12
Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country - while keeping it available in the rest of the world. We have also built in a way to communicate transparently to users when content is withheld, and why.
ith those words earlier today, in a blog posting titled "Tweets still must flow" the management ofTwitter's went over to the dark side and may well have dug their own grave
In what can only have been a fit of corporate insanity, Twitter announced that it has the ability to filter tweets to conform to the demands of various countries.
Thus, in France and Germany it is illegal to broadcast pro-Nazi sentiments and Twitter will presumably be able to block such content and inform the poster why it was blocke
Quite obviously, Twitter's management believes that there is some kind of value in being able to filter in this way but given that, over the course of 2011, the number of tweets per second (tps) ranged from a high of almost 9,000 tps down to just under 4,000 tps, any filtering has got to be computer-driven.
So, consider this tweet:
@FactsorDie Nazi Germany led the first public anti-smoking campaign.
Could that be considered to be pro-Nazi? How will a program accurately make that determination?
What concerns me is that if the algorithm Twitter uses registers a false positive (i.e. determines that the tweet is pro-Nazi when it isn't) and the tweet has any time sensitivity to it then that attribute will be completely nullified by the time the tweet makes it out of tweet-jail if it ever does.
On the other hand if the software makes a false negative (i.e. determines that the tweet is NOT pro-Nazi when it is) then the filtering is useless and Twitter will be held accountable by every political group with an axe to grind.
Now it might be argued that some percentage of false positives or false negatives will be acceptable but what is that percentage? 0.0000o01%? That equates, at a minimum of 4,000tps, to 3,456 misclassified tweets per day or 1,261,440 per year!
And will the filtering software be able to detect irony and sarcasm? I rather doubt it.
And what about the fact that Twitter will be implicitly editing all tweets? Doesn't that attract legal issues in that they are taking on an editorial responsibility and therefore become a lightning rod for lawsuits?
I see Twitter's management having made a huge epic, mistake. In trying to appease the demands of political pressure they've dug themselves a huge hole that they won't be able to climb out of. The mere fact that they have published a blog posting claiming that they can filter seals their fate.
I really like Twitter; it's a unique and amazingly rich social platform but Twitter's management may have just diminished if not wiped out their edge and their global relevance.
You can't service all of humanity if you allow the needs of politics to triumph over the needs of the people. And if you can't service all of humanity, what is your relevance?

What do you think?
It is certainly a different world from when most information flowed from major news gathering organizations dedicated to the proposition of the public's right to know and adamant about the First Amendment. That was of course a time before news organizations were expected to be profit centers and before mergers and group ownership of once competing media.  And certainly before the sophistication of data mining and social media.


DAY BOOK
ANOTHER FLASH MOB BIRTHDAY 
AND THE OLD SCHOOL HOUSE GETS A NEW CUPOLA.

The historic San Simeon school has been spiffed up.

While the Friday Lunch Flash Mob has grown to 4 tables.

 With the tradition of a candle in the chocolate chip cookie continues.

It's like big kids at recess!
See you down the trail.

SPRING TIME IN AMERICA? & THANKS SEALS

HOW WE LOOK AT THINGS
There's been a little uptick in the general
vibe. A few economic indicators
are showing signs of improvement. 
The Republican Party continues to
demonstrate it knows how to
stage an entertaining and spirited
chase for a nomination.
America's reputation in the world
continues to improve.
And those amazing Navy Seals
once again demonstrate efficiency and 
capability.  The hostage rescue
in Somalia, following the 
the taking down of Osama Bin Laden,
should be a source of great pride.
American military expertise and knowhow
used in proper proportion.
In a world where it is legitimate to ask
do you see a glass half full or half empty
there's one more vote for half full.
DAY BOOK

HINTS OF SPRING
As a now five year California resident, I continue
to be amazed that spring can arrive in January.
To all my friends and family in those 
regions where January means the grip of
winter, we send these images of 
the season of rebirth.  It just
happens here first.

The magnificent California poppy is back-

so are the bees.

This the first Lupine of the season

Pussy willows are opening

Spring is on the way-
or here!
See you down the trail.

A WORLD APART

TORO CREEK ROAD

This new walk offers great vistas. You might find it hard to believe it is only a mile or so from the Pacific Ocean.

"It's the California I grew up in" was the comment from a

couple of hikers.

It's cowboy country to me, like scenes

from the old westerns.

You can find it off the Pacific Coast Highway

between Cayucos and Morro Bay.

Whatever you are dealing with today,

take this walk in a peaceful valley.

 Accompanied by the sound of birds, the creek and wind through the trees.

 Post card scenes of California that many do not know exists.

 Below, the sun splashes off Toro Creek.

 An old ranch homestead.

 A combination of cattle country and agriculture.

Below, old gourds wait to enrich the soil.

 Typical to ranch and farm country-a kind of museum of

old implements.

Probably some life left in this old boy.  Just waiting till it is needed again. 

 I particularly like the frame below.

Five layers of mother earth

including a fault line.

See you down the trail.

A JEWEL, GOLD AND A DIAMOND

PRECIOUS- 

TOLD, FOUND, OLD

*Thoughts on an extraordinary new film

*A day of discovery

*A Neil Diamond encounter

REEL THOUGHTS

EXTREMELY LOUD AND OUTRAGEOUSLY CLOSE

I want to add a few more oxymorons to the title 

of the film-

uniquely extraordinary

powerfully moving

hauntingly reassuring.

This is not one of those big name (Tom Hanks,

Sandra Bullock, Max Van Sydow, Viola Davis)

formulaic and predictable films. Director Stephen
Daldry(The Reader, The Hours, Billy Elliot) keeps you off balance from the unsettling opening credits. He has a lot to work with.  Eric Roth's screenplay (Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Forest Gump,The Insider, Munich, Horse Whisperer)
is the latest in a series of brilliant scripts. He worked with
actor/writer Jonathan Safran Foer's  (Everything is Illuminated) book Extremely Loud and Outrageously Close.  These are some of the brightest, most
talented, gifted and cerebral people in film making.
What you get is a film that works on you in a 
special way.  The premise, a possibly near Asperger's syndrome nine year old, finds a key belonging to his father who died in the 9/11 attack. That launches him
on a search mission that leads viewers into a 
wonderful discovery of humanity and love.
Thomas Horn, the nine year old, carries this
film in a way that only seeing can convey.
Hanks and Bullock are again superb.
But Max Van Sydow, as a speechless man, is so good
he will etch a memory.  He uses no words, just
expressions,his eyes and body language. Wow!!!
It is an odd film, hard to categorize, makes you laugh,
cry, feel desperation and then joy.
Yea, guess I'm saying this is one you want to see. It's a jewel.
GOLD?

It was on this date in 1848 that gold was discovered

at Sutter's Mill, pictured below.

 Gold flecks in this creek set off what became

the gold rush of '49.

California was forever changed.

If you'd like a quick tour of California's Gold country
link here for an earlier post of the Mother Lode Highway.
A DIAMOND MEMORY
Noting that today is Neil Diamond's birthday
reminded me of an encounter years ago.
I was a college student working at a commercial station
that hosted a "Caravan of Stars" concert headlined by
Mr. Diamond who was just then breaking out. It was still very early in his career.
  Most of the tour traveled on a bus but we were told that Neil was traveling by motorcycle and would arrive later.
I had been scheduled to do dressing room interviews
with the singers as they were changing into their
performance outfits.  
Diamond arrived back stage, got a notice from the producer he was to be interviewed by me.  He came over to where
I was set up.  
"Hi I'm Neil, I'm here for my interview." 
"Nice to meet you.  I like your music, " I said.
"Would you like to change before the interview?" I added.
Diamond looked shocked, perplexed.
"What's wrong with this?" He said looking down at 
his jeans, boots and rubbing his leather jacket
over a ruffled shirt.
We did the interview.  I apologized in some mumbled manner
about insulting him.  He passed it off like it was no
big deal.
I soon noticed that more rock stars abandoned blazers, mohair suits and the like for "real" clothes. 
In his autobiography Keith Richards tells how the Stones
made that transition.  It was just a few months after the Diamond encounter the Stones
toured the mid-west and I was assigned to
a news conference with the lads.
No costumes for them.  Lots of cigarettes though. 
They had made the change.
Neil Diamond was the cutting edge of that cultural change
which just took a little longer to get to Muncie
Indiana in the mid '60's.
Thanks for the lesson, Neil.  Sorry again.
Happy Birthday.
See you down the trail.