For those that are interested in Building Codes you can click on this link. I know that you are out there.

The Last Samurai and Europe’s First Suicide does what all good historical essays should do. It draws connections between different historical events that you would not have thought connected otherwise. But the essay would have been better off if the author had been content to make the comparison and contrast between General Maresuke Nogi and the European generals of World War I. Unfortunately, the author felt compelled to go off on rant at the end of the essay that does not fit with the rest of what he wrote.

The Americans and the Germans had totally different styles as to how they manged the careers of their fighter pilots. The Americans would send their fighter pilots home after so many missions to train the next batch pilots . The German’s kept their fighters flying for as long as they could stay alive.

Thus, the top German fighter aces at the end of the war were the best fighter pilots around. But all of the rest of the German fighter pilots lacked basic tactical skills. The Americans aces never even came close to having the experience or skills that Germans aces had. But the quality of the American pilots over all was better.

One of the things to keep in mind about the American aces during World War II is that much of what they shot down were poorly skilled flyer’s who had little skills. This is especially true of those kills recorded in the latter part of the war.

But their is always exceptions. And one particular exception was Richard Candelaria’s last dogfight. In that dogfight, he tangled with two German jets and one yellow nosed BF 109 (the yellow nose being a sigh of an ace) as well as some 14 BF 109’s piloted by the usual low skill dog meat that the Germans threw up in the last part of the war. And he fought with all of them all by himself for what must have seemed like forever, but really was a matter of minutes.

The German’s always put their good pilots in the jets so Chandelaria was tangling with three good German fighter pilots in addition to the dog meat. Unlike so many other American air victories recorded in the latter part of the war, this dogfight took some real flying.

The clips below is part of series talking about mustang victories in World War II. But most of them where fights against low skill opponents. That is why I am only calling your attention to part 4 of 5 and part 5 of 5.

According to this account Chandelaria was shot down by German ground fire shortly after this battle took place. But since this account is based off of second and third hand sources and the writer was not even sure Chandelaria was still alive (he was cause History Channel talked with him for the above clips), I don’t know how far you should trust it.

Those who do not understand the principals behind absorption refrigeration click here.

From the New York Times.…

In the Seattle area, where rapid suburban growth has attracted a thriving crow population, researchers have found that the birds can recognize individual human faces.

From latter on in the same article…..

After their experiments on campus, Dr. Marzluff and his students tested the effect with more realistic masks. Using a half-dozen students as models, they enlisted a professional mask maker, then wore the new masks while trapping crows at several sites in and around Seattle. The researchers then gave a mix of neutral and dangerous masks to volunteer observers who, unaware of the masks’ histories, wore them at the trapping sites and recorded the crows’ responses.

The reaction to one of the dangerous masks was “quite spectacular,” said one volunteer, Bill Pochmerski, a retired telephone company manager who lives near Snohomish, Wash. “The birds were really raucous, screaming persistently,” he said, “and it was clear they weren’t upset about something in general. They were upset with me.”

Again, crows were significantly more likely to scold observers who wore a dangerous mask, and when confronted simultaneously by observers in dangerous and neutral masks, the birds almost unerringly chose to persecute the dangerous face. In downtown Seattle, where most passersby ignore crows, angry birds nearly touched their human foes. In rural areas, where crows are more likely to be viewed as noisy “flying rats” and shot, the birds expressed their displeasure from a distance.

I think this applies to more then just crows.

Gene Logsdon latest article is proof that he gets better with age. Much of his writing when he was younger was simply a collection old timer knowledge. In other words he would tell you people use to do before the age of factory farming and sprinkle it with a few anecdotes about his own personal experience just to prove it could be done. But now that Gene is in his 70’s, he has a lot of time tested ways of doing things that are all his own.

If you think you ever might need to make hay and store hay on the cheap you should read this article.

Charles Murray argues that America’s post secondary educational system is absurd.