I got you, babe

[austin_dern]

Cinemax Asia just had a Free Preview Weekend. Singapore cable hasn't nearly the diversity of channels the U.S. has. The pay-movie (English) choices are HBO, Cinemax, and Star Movies. I've subscribed to Star, for little reason; it seems every time I look they're showing Groundhog Day.

The Preview didn't impress me; the first time I checked they had Dopey Action Movie With Inauthentic-Looking Archeologists Shooting Stuff, reminding one how tired we all are of CGI armies. Star had Muppet Treasure Island. That evening Cinemax showed Dopey Action Movie With Inauthentic-Looking Detectives Shooting Stuff, reminding one how tired we all are of rapid cutting. Star had Groundhog Day.

There's curious new digital channels, like Turner Classic Movies (years ago it channel-shared with Cartoon Network; they had ``turning off'' and ``turning on'' sequences) and MGM. Also Deutche Welle, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Discovery H&L Channel. I think that's one of those arts-crafts-and-food channels my parents love that I wouldn't watch under threat of torture. There's also ESPN Cricket, and E!. Things could be worse, and in fact, they are. There's Reality TV channel. A billboard announced Animax, all anime, but it's not in the cable magazine.

In my mailbox was a flyer from ``Liberal Air-Conditioning and Engineering.'' Seems like the start of a comedy bit.

Trivia: Condors can cruise 60 miles without flapping their wings. Source: 1982 Guinness Book of World Records, Norris McWirther.

Currently Reading: A Wodehouse Bestiary, P.G. Wodehouse. A fellow explains his gorilla career: ``A friend of mine in the circus business suggested to me that the gorilla field was not overcrowded. Plenty of room at the top was his expression. And I must say,'' said the gorilla, ``I've done pretty well at it. The initial expenditure comes high, of course -- you don't get a skin like this for nothing -- but there's virtually no overhead.''

Comments

[orv.livejournal.com]

Trivia: Condors can cruise 60 miles without flapping their wings. Source: 1982 Guinness Book of World Records, Norris McWirther.

I wonder what a condor's L/D ratio and minimum sink rate are? Clearly, we need more polar curves for avians.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I'd be curious but, of course, Guinness doesn't go into that sort of detail. The guide at the Raffles Museum last week said the flying lemur had a record glide of 137 meters of ground for only a 10-meter drop, which is pretty impressive on any count, really ...

[orv.livejournal.com]

That is, naturally, a 13.7:1 L/D ratio -- quite respectable for something as draggy as a flying lemur. It's actually pretty close to the glide ratio of a Schweizer 2-22 (http://www.svs-se.org/bilder/Schweizer_SGU_2-22E.jpg), which is (probably optimistically) claimed to have an L/D of 17. The Space Shuttle is rumored to have a best L/D of 7.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

That's a handsome -- if, somehow, toylike -- glider.

Oddly, poking through my references here I don't see any line about what the Space Shuttle's aerodynamic characteristics are like ... I suppose it's easy to say it flies for short a time they're not that interesting, but, heck, Jenkins's book identifies what spots in South Dakota are acceptable contingency landing sites; you'd think gliding characteristics could be mentioned somewhere.

(Ellsworth Air Force Base, as an emergency site for high-elevation orbits. The coordinates aren't programmed into the computer; it's assumed they'd be entered manually in the event of an urgent crisis that forces them to land in South Dakota.)