Hudson hero - amazing simulation of events

As it has been lately with the financial crisis and crap like that, its amazing when you get to see real heroism at a time or peril. And with me, with all the free time I have I've managed to come across something amazing. This is the Flight Simulator....uh....simulation with cockpit voice recordings from the actual Hudson River crash landing that happened a few months back. I'm sure all of you know the story but if you don't the details are in the excerpt below. Talk about calm under pressure.

Originally from Gizmodo.com

If you thought that the pilot who landed US Airways flight 1549 on the Hudson River was cool, you haven't seen this simulation with the real FAA voice recordings. I'm absolutely stunned by his nerves.

The captain of Cactus 1549—the codename for flight 1549—is cooler than Batman, Iron Man, and frikkin Admiral Adama all rolled into one. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, 57, is a former US Air Force fighter pilot who left the military in 1980. Couple that with the fact that he is also a safety expert and a glider pilot, and you will understand why his nerves are made of steel.

Transcript from cockpit audio

AWE1549: Ah this is Cactus 1549 hit birds. We lost thrust in both engines. We're turning back towards Laguardia
L116 (NY departure radar contact): OK, yeah, you need to return to Laguardia. Turn left heading of uh two two zero.
AWE1549: Two two zero.
L116 (to Laguardia tower): Tower stop your departures. We got an emergency returning.
LGA: Who is it?
L116: It's 1529 (sic). He got a bird strike. He lost all engines. He lost the thrust in the engines. He's returning immediately.
LGA: Cactus 1529 which engines???
L116: He lost thrust in both engines, he said.
L116: Cactus 1529 if we can get it to you, do you want to try to land runway one three?
AWE1549: We're unable. We may end up in the Hudson.
L116: Alright Cactus 1549, it's going to be left traffic to runway three one. (First he got the number wrong and now he's not listening. Is this guy this thick?)
AWE1549: Unable.
L116: OK, what do you need to land? (big iron balls, that's what)
L116: Cactus 1549 runway four is available if you want to make left traffic to runway four.
AWE1549: I'm not sure we can make any runway. What's over to our right? Anything in New Jersey? Maybe Teterboro?
L116: OK, yeah, off to your right side is Teterboro airport.
L116: Do you want to try to go to Teterboro?
AWE1549: Yes.
L116: Teterboro, uh empire actually, Laguardia departure got an emergency inbound.
TEB: OK, go ahead.
L116: Cactus 1529 (again?) over the George Washington Bridge wants to go to the airport right now.
TEB: He wants to go to our airport. Check. Does he need any assistance?
L116: Ah yes, he was a bird strike. Can I get him in for runway one?
TEB: Runway one, that's good.
L116: Cactus 1549 turn right two eight zero. You can land on runway one at Teterboro.
AWE1549: We can't do it.
L116: OK, which runway would like at Teterboro.
AWE1549: We're gonna be in the Hudson.

(understandable silence from La Guardia)

L116: I'm sorry, say again Cactus.

US TV Season Closure - WTF Battlestar?

I recenly talked about TV shows and movies. I've been following. I've been looking them up on the TV spheric websites. Here's my word:

Season finales and series finales

Conan O'Brien made an agreement with NBC to take over for Jay Leno in June of this year as Jay proposed his retirement of the tonight show with Jay Leno. Then if this wasn't enough NBC couldn't live without Jay and offered him the spot before Conan. It isn't a big secret but NBC hasn't been taking all the chips from the prime time slots. They made a business decision and a wise one at that. But this is the same thing they did to David Letterman when they promised Dave (Conan is in his spot) when Johnny Carson retired. Instead NBC hired Jay, and Dave walked across the street to CBS.

Now that there's an earlier show before the tonight show, it'll mean that Jay will still be the main man on the late prime circuit on NBC.

Conan's last week on his show was spectular as usual. Funny, engaging. College boys late night classic. I'll be sad to not see him in NY. but then again when you got to go, you gotta go. His replacement, Jimmy Fallon has had a rough week. He's called all his friend from the rolodex and had them come on regardless of whether or not they have something to talk about. Comments on his show:

1. the pace is still getting tuned. its still not clicking together. good luck.
2. The skits are marginal. keep going.
3. The Roots band is great but they're no Max Weinberg 7.

I guess its all chemistry.

Battlestar Galactica

Don Cruz got me into this. I've got to admit I was not one to get behind a show after the third season (see: haven't watched The Sopranos, Lost. Yea, I haven't) because I feel I'm too far behind to watch it. Since then I've given shows the chance.  Battlestar is one of them. Its a good watch but it helps if you're a sci-fi freak (see: I'm a nerd/dork like Pat most of the crew at the AnD offices. Not you Boon).

I just watched the second to last episode last night and I still have no idea how they can close it off in one hour. You can't do shit in an hour. Well, we'll see in a week.

 

New shows that need a tuning or fuck it, cancel that shit

I've only felt two shows that I've watched are shit this year. One is Fringe. Its not completely shit. Its not what I thought it could be. JJ Abrams is a great creator. Alias. Lost. Slap a little X-files action and BAM. Should look like Brangelina's kids right? Fuck no. Its missing a couple of links. And cogs. and a decent script. The writing is one thing, the actors are not far off. The concept is great but the direction is not that pleasing. I've give this series my whole this year. I've been waiting for it to get better or get cancelled.

Dollhouse is a plain ole mistake. Eliza Dushku is a really hot mama. But she can't act her way out of a paper bag. Yes, its that bad. I gave this one three episodes because I was hoping it'd get better. Not even Dushku's pretty ass can get me to continue watching the show. Good concept but poor poor execution. Its sort of a Bourne and Total Recall rip off. Oh but with an attractive protagonist.

 

Ok enough ranting for now.

Seven girls I 've dated in college

This is really what is sounds like. I probably knew more of the type than others. I'm really into the definition of words, the etymology of words. I guess its got something to do with my facination with August Sander's work. Eh. Enough of me this is about the jewel I found today.

This is an entry about girls you'll date in college. I've dated about 3 of these kinds of girls (ok ok, the safe one, the friend, the perfect one.). This is a truth nugget in my opinion.

Read below children:   (Further insight to follow)

 

Original from CollegeHumor.com

The Athletic One

The Beginning:
Maybe you were good at sports, maybe you always sucked, but a semester of 4am burritos hasn't helped either way. She'll be cute, blonde, and look better in track shorts than she does make-up. Through careful deception, you'll convince her you can still play intramural soccer sans heart attacks.

The End: 
This, of course, is a lie, and you'll both discover that, in the strictest animal-eating/shelf-building sense, she's more of a man than you. You'll have fun, but as soon as you try to keep up with her on the field (and elsewhere), she'll be forever left with an image of you, wheezing, doughy, and begging her to slow down.

 

The one who likes to party

The Beginnng:
Scene: An awful club with a one-word name like "Velour" or "Prolapse". You hate places like this. She's skinny, tanned, and seems to be wearing a confusing handkerchief. She starts talking to you. You love places like this. Your friend's a promoter or a DJ, whichever is cooler? She offers pills, and you desperately wonder if there's a non-alphabetical difference between "E" and "X".

The End:
A few months later, you'll be broke, exhausted, and starting to resemble Christian Bale from "The Machinist". She'll pout, amused by your misery, and you'll suddenly identify strongly with those sleepy YouTube puppies. Before even remembering if the sex was good, you'll be dreaming of a world where naps are worth more than gold. Also, dinosaurs with lightsabers.

 

The one who goes to Church

The Beginning:
After years of being told you're a "nice guy", you'll finally meet a girl who makes you feel like James Dean, if James Dean had Wolverine claws and once drank eleven Bud Lites in a single night. To her puritanical sensibilities, you'll be a badass, and you'll fucking love it.

The End:
Option A, she's the real deal and will try to change you. There may be a girl worth waking up at 8am on a Sunday morning for, but you'll quickly decide she ain't it. Option B, under the thin veneer of virtue there's a boatload of real crazy, and she'll quickly realize your Level 60 Badass is as lame as the World of Warcraft reference I just made.

 

The dumb hot one

The Beginning: 
Not beautiful, not cute, just "hot". Whether it was Daddy, society, or the media who ruined her, she's spent years fighting her natural looks to end up in a place that should, by definition, be attractive, but feels distractingly photoshopped. She finds you interesting, and, in a moment of weakness, you're going to go for it.

The End:
You two will last exactly as long as your tolerance for crippling insecurities and songs by former Mousketeers. As insufferable as you find her, she'll find you distant, inconsistent, and generally a jerk. You'll still keep a picture of her to show off. She won't.

 

The safe one

The Beginning:
Between the tough internship and the actually interesting classes, you'll decide that a girlfriend should be like your old Ford Taurus: not flashy, but reliable, low maintenance and often mistaken for an undercover cop car. One day after Lit class, you'll ask her out and, when she says yes, you'll pretend to be excited, just like you did when you were sixteen.
 
The End:
There will be movies, dinner, and perfunctory but satisfying sex. It will be, by all technical definitions, "a relationship". Then, as your schedule clears, you'll realize you want something more, and that you just spent the last four months with someone "just good enough".  As did she.

 

The friend

The Beginning:
You've spent hours discussing weed, hoodies, and children's television from the 80s. She was there when you thought you could play guitar; you were there when she had that tat of Jem & the Holograms removed from her inner thigh. In fact, you're completely comfortable with each other - did you just discover the magic warp pipe to dating without fear or anxiety?

The End:
Well, yes, but without fear and anxiety, without the unknown, dating is about as titillating as a five-year-old Slanket. And nobody only a certain percentage of people (whose websites I find personally very confusing) wants to fuck a Slanket.

 

The perfect one

The Beginning:
Beautiful, funny, kind, she'll inspire you to acts of poetry that will inspire your friends to call you gay. You'll say it's "love", defined here as a one-sided activity comprised mostly of staring at her Facebook. After ten months of carefully planned, slightly pathological courtship, she'll take a chance on you. And it will be everything you hoped for.

The End:
Aesop had a fable about a squirrel so scared of someone stealing his nuts that he lost them. Actually, it might have been a lion. Or maybe it was a Michael Crichton novel. Regardless, you will always be afraid of screwing things up with her. And (irony alert) this is what will screw things up. You'll realize you're in a relationship in which you can never truly be comfortable, and, five sweaty weeks later, just as graduation rolls around, you'll realize she's moved on. Your turn.

 

Well, now I think about it one of the girls I dated in college started out as the friend, then the safe one then the perfect one. I kept in touch with her but just recently found out she's a republican. Don't get me started.

Another one was kinda of like the safe one. But she broke my heart in the worst way. It still hurts. Sometime, everybody hurts. REM.

More to come after the break.