The Lockheed Constellation was a beautiful aircraft and one of the most easily recognizable with its unmistakable triple tail. I enjoy hunting for videos of older aircraft on Youtube and was delighted to stumble across some of these. Take a look! Read more…

I drive most days to university in Las Cruces, which is about 80 miles one-way. During the trip, I’m usually presented with an amazing variety of unusual goods being transported on America’s highway system. I’ve seen quite literally everything from parts and pieces of wind generators to what seems to be the fuselage section of F-35s. Sometimes, however, the most astounding thing I see is the treatment other drivers have toward truckers.

Long-haul truckers no doubt have to put up with a great amount of abuse; they drive long hours, haul amazingly heavy loads, and are cut off by private vehicles whose drivers are in a hurry. Today, I passed one of the few LOX (liquid oxygen) trucks makes its rounds and witnessed first-hand someone cutting him off. Never mind that this occurred on the highway! Perhaps it’s important that every driver witness this video:

In this video, you get to see what happens when a charcoal grill is set on fire using liquid oxygen. Not only does it burn (and burn very well), but in the second experiment, the grill melts and some of the iron burns away.

Yes, folks, it’s important to be careful on the road. It’s doubly important to respect long-haul truck drivers whose cargo could incinerate you.

For some reason, I found this video to be insanely funny. There’s just something hilarious about a huge bulldozer sliding down an icy slope as if it’s a ballet dancer of sorts.

Oh, and there’s a few minor updates to my OpenOffice.org 3 commentary.