Certainly it's in the rights of the college to do this, because it's their property, after all, and they get to control it. But making such a fuss just means that people like me are going to spread the word wider.

As a side note, it seems to me that anyone that wants to make voting machines, should first profess to being neutral politically. Certainly the people in the company can hold political views, but the company -- and therefore the officers of the company -- should bend over backwards to avoid the appearance of partisanship, for who would fully trust a machine made by a company that openly professes a preference for any political cause?

10:40:11 AM    comments ()  trackback []  

I, like most every else (at least according to the poll that a local paper, the Seattle P-I ran on it's web page) would have jumped at a chance to fly on Concorde. Being as tall as I am (6'4"), I probably wouldn't have fit very well, but I would have gladly spent the time crammed into a seat in the only supersonic vehicle that civilians would have a chance to ride.

It's not all bad, though. The retired Concorde fleet will be placed in various museums around the world, and according to this page, the Museum of Flight, here in Seattle (technically in Tukwila) will be getting one. I haven't seen any official announcements of museum allocations, so that page could be wrong, but I really hope it's not. I love the Museum of Flight, they have many of the planes that I was fascinated with when I was younger, most especially a Blackbird, and not just ANY Blackbird, but the last remaining one that had been adapted to launch the unmanned D-21 drone.

Of course, given that they are the fastest air-breathing airplanes ever built, all Blackbirds are special.

Concorde will fit well in the Museum's collection of passenger jets. They have one each of all of the Boeing commercial jets, including the very first Boeing 747 (the City of Everett), and as an example of the Boeing 707, they have a retired airplane that had served as Air Force One.

If they do get one of the remaining Concordes, I hope I can be there when it lands. I would love to be able to say that I was able to see one in flight. I've seen one at the passenger terminal at JFK, but that's different. Airplanes are best seen doing what they do best. I regret never seeing a Blackbird take off, I hear it's an amazing experience. I know my heart leaps whenever I've seen the Blue Angels fly, and when I've seen an F-15 do a maximum perfomance climb.

It's sad that they are retiring Concorde. I understand the fiscal reasons, but it's still sad.

9:09:19 AM    comments ()  trackback []