Python has an initiative called Computer Programming for Everybody. It is fairly easy to convert Basic programs to Python. Like Basic, Python is interactive, where you enter commands at the prompt. Unlike Basic, Python has many additional libraries that allow you to solve complex problems. Scientists use Python as a problem solving tool, they don't have to wait for a programmer. There is an effort to bring Python programming to the math curriculum, see the Python EDU-SIG for more information:

http://www.python.org/community/sigs/current/edu-sig/

Not everyone will get hooked on programming, but I believe that everyone should learn how to write a computer program and this is what CP4E is about.

The Boeing 777 test was not a turbulence stress test, it was an ultimate load test. The wing failed just after the 154 announcement. The FARs require that transport airplanes have a 1.5 factor of safety, and the Boeign 777 failed at 154 percent of limit load (the maximum load to be expected in service).

I was there watching the test. One thing the video doesn't capture is the sound. The test was conducted at the east end of the factory, and the boom echoed off of each bay in succession, then everyone cheered and applauded.

Idlewild is such a romatic name. And who would name an airport after the guy who fired all the air traffic controllers?

Re: Standing

Southwest Airlines got in trouble a few years back by starting the pushback of the plane before everyone was seated. Their argument, when passengers feel the plane move they get in their seats quickly.

Re: Parachutes

On October 7th a Caravan crashed in the Cascade mountains, the pilot and 9 skydivers died in the crash.

It is interesting that the candidate who would do the most to promote the issues of blacks and women is neither.

John Edwards is the only candidate to present a plan to implement Tavis Smiley's Covenant with Black America.

John Edwards actively supports womens issues and has a large following as seen on the "Women for Edwards" site.

So I'm challenging readers to come up with the most elaborate, multistop itinerary possible that does not entail making contact with fresh air or touching local soil.

I have often looked over the OAG to plan a circumnavigation of earth with just one sunset and sunrise. At subsonic speed it is impossible to make a 25000 mile trip in 24 hours, but by chasing the sun with 48 hours it is in the realm of possibility. The hard part is crossing the equator to make a true circumnavigation. Starting North America, Nairobi, Kenya would probably be the shortest circuit. But schedule wise it might be easier to talk a pilot to dip below the equator on a Singapore stop. One plan had a sprint to the finish on the Concorde.

I got the idea while reading William Manchester's A World Lit Only by Fire. In his effort to tell the story of the Magellan's voyage he spends the first three quarters of the book painting a lucid picture of Medieval and early Renaissance life. This is one of the best books I have ever read. At the end of the voyage the crew could not explain how both log books were a day off. As a captian I am sure you will agree that log books are meticulously accurate, but the critics on the shore accused both sailors of loosing a day. The Renaissance mind did not have a concept of a spinning globe or the international day line in mind.

In Washington State all the news is about McCain with 25% and Huckabee with 23% challenging the count. No mention of 21% for Ron Paul. No mention of 15% still pulling for Romney!

Huck is the perfect punching bag for McCain, to keep McCain in the news along with Hillary and Barack, and to keep McCain from debating Ron Paul.

It is time to restore the Fairness Doctrine to the public's air waves.

The reason Michigan and Florida went early is they wanted to influence the candidate selection. Isn't it interesting that if they vote last they might have the most influence of all?

Maybe all the Super Tuesday states should rethink their primary date!

It is really difficult to incorporate beauty and style into an airplane where weight and cost prevail. The 787 started out with a lot of style, spy vs spy cockpit windshield, swoop rudder tip and a 777 style apu tail.

http://portal.aircraft-info.net/article1.html

But weight and cost prevailed and the plane ended up with a vanilla windshield, and an Airbus apu tail. The swoop rudder tip was flattened, Aero compromised to allow a slight curve.

The Connie had a lot of style.

In the 70's some shareholders petitioned the Boeing company to stop selling planes to South Africa because of apartheid. At the annual meeting a speaker against the proposal said that with more airplanes, more people will travel to South Africa to see the effects of apartheid, and more South Africans will travel the world to find opposition to apartheid, and this communication brought about by Boeing airplanes will help bring an end to apartheid.

I am pretty sure the profit motive was the reason shareholders rejected the proposal, and that SAA purchased the jets to make money, not to end apartheid. And I am also sure that travelers on those jets help bring an end apartheid.