dandaman

Came home from work this afternoon to find this on CNN. I was wondering if you guys (R&E) felt it when they said it was felt, albeit minor, as far away as Vegas. Kinda figured Valencia had a slightly greater chance at that point! Glad everyone's OK. I remember doing our earthquake unit in geography last year on Halloween, the same day the last "major" quake happened. "What a twist!" P.S. Personally I'm actually pretty worried for Bill; the Juan de Fuca off of Vancouver's been building for a long time... major subduction + tsunami = potential for greatest Canadian disaster in history.

^Only if the dish he was contained in had plain pasta/skinned limp hot dogs in it. There's video of him here, by the way, about 30 seconds in:

^Too far, man... just... too far. By the way, would "ON THE MOON" be subtle enough? Almost like the "Presented by *Corporation*" tags on all the Disney rides...

Because if you include him and 9 other people, you get a special in-room wake-up call from Brian's mom!

1. LSHOF 2. ??? 3. PMW

^I mean the "here and now" version of technology and what can be done. Ladies and gentlemen, our next mission: Searching for PMW on Mars. (Technology has already got the P covered with the Mars "probe".)

If you were a diehard purveyor of the Triangle... you could always sacrifice your own oxygen tank for lighting some sweet, sweet W. I'm more interested in how you could get P on the moon...

Glad I'm not the only one who uses those to their advantage! $150 camera + CF trash can + tripod = great photos

^Let's face it, will there ever be an "All About Dan" day? That'd be eleventy billion e-mails he'd have to sort through! (From the same 10 people, no less!!) Artist's rendition of Dan's Gluten-Free Spamocalypse, c/o Tomi

^OK, what are the chances that that wasn't a TPR member's room? Honestly?

As far as I can recall, Rock 'n Roller Coaster in 2000.

*pats winning town on head* Yeeees, you're very special... good for you. *walks away*

Scott + Leafs + SNS = absolute win. (Also, PMW.) Awesome TR, this.

^Is it wrong that that's exactly what I was thinking when I attended? (The short answer of course being "yes". ) You pretty much nailed my feelings for the entire event. Kinda cool, but I might not do it again. Bonus points awarded for the BTTF reference.

Sorry about the delay... Photobucket wouldn't upload more than 100 megs, and it is an AVI file... so I ended up uploading my first Youtube video. Huzzah. (And it only took 3 hours! :rolleyes: ) Once again, videos first. The second day saw many of the same acrobatics as the first, therefore I got a second video of the F-18 flyby... this time it was about 10 miles per hour slower, therefore no window-shakin' sonic booms for today. Still loud as hell, though. And now for the Youtube video... I managed to get a full video of the first pilot traversing the race course. (A few heads in the way, too, but whatever.) Hope that works. So, without further ado, Les Picserables... And so, I end this TR here for a reason... my batteries died shortly hereafter. Thanks to anyone who happens to accidentally stumble across this page while on their way looking for a more important thread. FAIL Not failing yet... not failing yet... Oh, and by the way, he was British. Jolly jolly jolly! Considering his name was Nigel Lamb... how could he NOT be? If I recall, this guy was disqualified halfway through for flying too close to the water. (Hitting a pylon takes 5 seconds off, incorrect flying knocks 3... but endanger yourself or others and you're out. Kind of like how I wish the gene pool would work.) "99?" Now we know where Gretzky went after retirement. Oh noes! The parking structure is collapsing in on itself! The pilots basically have to go through the course twice; on the first time they pass through the start/finish on return, they have to pull 7 G's in what basically amounts to an Immelman inversion, then come back around and do it again with some slight directional changes. "Look! Up in the sky!" "It's a bird!" "It's a plane!" "No s**t, Sherlock!" These guys are at 20-30 feet above the water for most of the race... now THAT'S talent. (And not what Hollywood or the Disney Channel would consider talent, either.) Just about to fly through the quadro on return... ...But the best part was when he flew the entire damned (low) course using the helicopter and whatever inhuman nerve he happened to possess. This would be a good time to watch the Youtube video, because the races have already started! Some Russian pilot was announcing more information about the course while broadcasting footage on the screen again... Thought the shadowing on these were interesting, so what the hell... The Red Bull Skydiving Team: Powered by Taco Bell. If the Voyage was 1000 feet taller. They showed a helmet-cam on the big screen as they were diving. Immediately I thought of Robb jumping out of a plane, first with the helmet-cam, then with his helmet on backwards for reverse POV. Passing of the torch... namely, the lower plane being torched in the F-18's afterburn. WWII bomber. (B-25? I know it's not a B-29 Superfortress, but I'm not really a plane enthusiast to begin with.) "Same" This is what Patton would have looked like if he'd done his speech while parachuting into Normandy! Even though you're actually pointing at Cleveland... NOTED! The Detroit side looks a lot more crowded than ours, even though we apparently sold more tickets... The "quadro" gate. When the gates are red, the pilots must fly with the wings vertical (NINETY DEGREES!!!); when blue, they must fly as level as possible. At the breakneck speeds they take the course at, it's pretty hard to not take some penalty seconds when you're off by just over 5 degrees! This particular one makes the pilot cross through twice... think "interlocking B&M barrel rolls", folks. The collective audience: "Get that ugly sumbitch out the way!" (Yes, it's an MF shirt... moving on.) Start/finish line's ready to go. The air gates are made out of a light spinnaker material so they pose no danger to the pilots when they strike them (and they have). Apparently the crew can repair these sliced-up pylons in an average time of three minutes! Red Bull Air Race, take 2. Positioned about 7 rows further back today, but a great spot nonetheless.

If it's where I think they're (and I'm) staying, the hotel would be about 10 minutes drive up Jane to CW and even closer to Wegz. Interesting fact about the weekend GO schedule. Somehow I forgot about the other mass(ive) transit options available. (I haven't been to Wonderland since '99, nor stayed in Tronno downtown for about 4 years. Even then I just walked, though in '99 we stayed at the Royal York and Toronto itself was our main draw, therefore we used the subway/GO system a lot.)

Ruh-oh, Raggy. You're right, though, given the size and possible (likely) aftershocks of this spill, CNN's really not getting into it much at this hour. A sad irony... the first Gulf hurricane of the year misses Nola, and you get a massive oil spill on the same day as landfall...

Pretty much the only reason I knew about the Les Mis thing is because my sister is musical-obsessed. (I'm merely musical-enthused. )

^I've always wondered, just how expensive is it? We've experienced cottage traffic on the 400 before... not fun. (What was fun was coming home from Algonquin Park in 2004, driving past Wonderland to see evac'ing rides everywhere, and to then find out that the "Great Blackout of August '03" had knocked out the Northeast grid. 10 p.m. candlelit block pool party for all! ) EDIT: Now that I recall, the blackout happened just as we were approaching the 407... I don't think we ever had to pay a cent for that 30K stretch to the 401 because of the electronic tolls being out of commission!

Two points: one for GeForce, one for the Les Miserables reference.

^^Your 3-4 hours could come from the walk between attractions alone! (Aided by the hobbling bestowed upon you courtesy of the citizens of Deerschwitz.)

*Note: This page contains the report from the 2008 Red Bull Air Races in Detroit/Windsor. For the 2009 update, see page 2. Do it. You know you want to. So this TR pretty much embodies a healthy mix of schoolwork, work-work and procrastination on the little free time between the two. In any case... The May 31st weekend saw the Red Bull Air Race take to the skies over the Detroit River, straddling the U.S. - Canaba border. This was a pretty big thing for both border cities (Detroit and Windsor), not only for spectacle but for temporary economic boost; being the auto capitals of their respective countries, in recent times one can understand how badly they needed the injection. Oh, and there were a few fun things before the actual events as well. I understand also that the Air Races are heading off to Jolly-Jolly-Jollyland for the first few days of August, so those Brits who want to get in on the action, tix available at http://www.redbullairrace.com. First, so I can post the (short, I assure you) videos here then upload the photos to the server, here's the in-flight entertainment before the time trials/qualifying on the first day. The first few are some acrobatics, courtesy of the Canadian Harvards... Unfortunately this is the second go-around for the F-18 (16?) screaming down the River... the first time, when I didn't have the camera out, it broke Mach 1 and visibly shook all the city windows. Finally, ye olde Navy plane that was in service during WWII: So "quality" videos aside, here comes the pics. I should have the second day up shortly, though that depends on if Photobucket wants to co-operate and upload my videos faster than a turtle with arthritis. "Ladies and gentlemen, due to high winds, tonight's performance has been cancelled. Check back with the moose out front tomorrow for more information." Too bad you didn't tell us before 4 p.m.! The moose out front says the TR will continue momentarily. (See: possibly tomorrow.) Pictured: TPR members. Not pictured: Voyage. The Red Bull doomsday plane rolled in after they got the pylon situation sorted out, and they had some skydiver entertainment of which I have no photos. "Good work, men. Now let's all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes." "Call in the fleet! Corral this bastard before it threatens our well-being and entertainment!" "...Johnson, you idiot! Running over the damned thing to trap it did NOTHING!" "Sir, my name is Jackson." "The hell it is!" "Freedom? In the United States? Not on my watch! Prepare to ram!" Be free, massive inflatable pylon! So today happened to be really windy... windy enough to send one of the "air gates" the racers fly through down the river. I think I have more video of this one tomorrow... quite impressive considering its age. If I could describe it in one word, it would be, *KABOOM*. (Asterisks now count as letters on the Interweb.) Surprised they got the permission to fly everything they did over a United States border... if they could, customs would probably try to make them declare crap every time they crossed sides! It's like Pearl Harbor with more yellow planes and less explosions or Affleck. "They're not Immelmans, they're half-Cuban-8's! Geez, get it right." Somewhere, Derek just came. In come the Harvard(s)! About as best as my $150 Powershot can muster on zoom... Finally around 2:00, the entertainment arrived. Can't remember who this first "act" was, but they did the standard loops, fly-bys etc., kind of like the Harvards did but less complex. As I am a weather fan more so than an aviation buff, I felt obliged to take this one over my shoulder. (If it weren't for the casino at right, the Windsor economy would pretty much cease to exist.) LIES! While these screens were pretty cool and provided some info about the races, advertisements etc., the air preshow didn't start for another 2 hours... This guy got his anchor caught or something... either way, when the police boat tried tugging the other, it was like watching a dog being pried off a mailman's leg -- in other words, knocked the guy on his a$$ for all the spectators to see. As the Detroit River is a main shipping lane to the world, they kept the river open for as long as possible before the aerial entertainment, which also was before the qualifying round scheduled for later in the day... "scheduled". When this is your view from your lawn chair, you can bet it'll be a good day for some air show action.

^Someone suggested Wegz Entertainment Center (giant sports bar, in a nutshell) for the Sunday evening, though you could go to the CN Tower, Hockey Hall of Fame, etc. if so inclined. You could even go to Ontario Place or Centreville (Dragon Wagon credit!!!) if it's open late enough upon your arrival. Be advised that the country of Canada closes at 5 p.m. on Sundays. (Also note that Vaughan is still a half-hour drive from downtown, and even then that's not factoring in traffic. Any Torontonians know if the GO train or subway runs up that far north?)

Was wondering when someone would say it. (Just switch #2 with #1 and you've got yourself a list...)