Fun in Miami

Tam mentions the 'Miami gunfight era', which triggers my rathole diving reflex and I come up with a couple of items. Scarface came out in 1983. I didn't realize it was almost a documentary.

The Mutiny Hotel is the pinkish building on the right.
The taller tower on the left is where our condo was.

The Mutiny Hotel in Miami was a focal point of the drug trafficking industry back around 1980. Looking at the the Mutiny Hotel  on Google Maps I realized that daring daughter and I rented a condo around the corner when we were in Miami three years ago.

The picture is a screen capture from Google Earth. This area on Google Maps is littered with so many labels that the placemark for the hotel is almost invisible. Regular Google Maps used to have a control that would turn off labels, but not anymore. 

Airplane of the Day - Ilyushin Il-76

Ilyushin Il-76 navigator's view out the glass nose

Ilyushin Il-76

The Ilyushin Il-76 is a Russian air freighter. It is comparable in size to the Lockheed C-141 Starlifter and the Boeing C-17 Globemaster. It is slightly larger than the Starlifter and slightly smaller than the Globemaster. 80 of these aircraft have crashed. This high number might be due to the 46 years it has been flying, the large number produced (960), and the number sent to countries that are not known for their technical proficiency.

The IL-76 has appeared here before a couple of times.

Via daily timewaster

Airplane of the Day - English Electric Canberra

Classic British Aircraft English Electric Canberra
Chuck Pergiel
I've come across the Canberra before, but it never stood out as anything special. However, a couple of days ago I came across a story about a 1953 mission photographing a secret Russian rocket research facility and my interest was piqued. I hope to put up a post about that mission, but you know how things don't always go as planned, so we have this as a stop gap.

I kind of wondered about the name, I mean the English are weird that way sometimes. Here it's kind of prosaic. ". . . it was given the name Canberra after the capital of Australia in January 1950 by Sir George Nelson, chairman of English Electric, as Australia had become the aircraft's first export customer."

Update February 2021 the Canberra has been retired, so this video is at least 15 years old.

Update January 2022 replaced video with one that might be the same. It's from the same guy. The original is available on a Persian channel: Classic British Aircraft English Electric Canberra

Update December 2025 replaced missing video with the original that I downloaded from the Persian channel (Aparat.com) using TubeNinja.

Rising Fawn Georgia

THE FORESTER SISTERS old time religion
Donnie Brittain

Jack might be getting deaf, he misheard the name of Rising Fawn Georgia in a YouTube video by Keith Rucker and thought is was worth commenting on. So I go look it up and as you might expect it is just a podunk little hamlet in the middle of nowhere, but even so Wikipedia found a few notable people who originated there. The Forester Sisters were on that list. Their rendition of Old Time Religion was used in the movie Contact. I'll be durned.

Happy Hanukkah

Hannukah menorah at Burj al-Khalifa, world’s tallest building in Dubai

This is a nice surprise. I've been hearing that the entire Arab world chanting 'Death to Israel' since forever, and now we have several Arab nations singing a different tune. I wonder how this is going to play out. I imagine numerous Imams are going to have a problem with it.

Via Head Noises

Pic of the Day

Man fishing on the beach near La Paz Mexico

IAman went for a drive north on State Route #1 along the coast north from La Paz. At least I surmise it is a state road, because there is another highway #1 that goes to Tijuana. The mountains you see on the horizon are on the peninsula that juts north from La Paz into the Gulf of California. They are about 20 miles away. Those on the extreme left might the Isla Espirito Santo.

Printing Money

I said that all the stimulus money was the reason the S & P 500 was going up so fast.

. . . the bull market of our life time is explained by two words, money printing. - Howard Wang of Convoy Investments

Via Tyler Durden on ZeroHedge