Jim Medding’s Blog

Even though it’s one of the most famous motorcycle races in the world, the Isle of Man TT get’s very little attention here in the States. Well, perhaps outside of the motorcycle racing world here in the states. Then again, motorcycle racing just doesn’t get any attention here in the States.

I’m not quite sure why. Whenever I happen upon a televised race on some obscure cable channel, I’m always amazed at how riveting it is. Man perched on top of raw horsepower with nothing between his fragile flesh and hard unyielding objects but a thin piece of leather.

It kind of looks like this.

Recently, a date encoding in an auto-generated e-mail subject heading caught my eye. It was an interesting pattern. Being the type of person to see the street number of a house and think “I like that number” before realizing that it’s my birth date, I decided to treat myself and ruminate on the pattern. The curious date encoding was almost a binary number; next year it would be a binary number. But there’s a date code next year which is binary and it has a repeating pattern – 101010. Repeating patterns are even better.

“Nice to look at, but is there anything else about this date pattern which is interesting?” I thought.

“Hmm, I wonder what that is in decimal.”

The Answer is – 42.

So, we don’t have to wait 7.5 million years for a supercomputer to calculate the meaning of life. It has its own date which comes around every 100 years. Spread the word.

10/10/10 is the Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything Day. Don’t miss it.

Recently, after I shared one of my favorite racing videos with a coworker, he responded by suggesting that since I liked old racing videos, I might like this one:

On an August morning in 1978, French filmmaker Claude Lelouch mounted a gyro-stabilized camera to the bumper of a Ferrari 275 GTB and had a friend, a professional Formula 1 racer, drive at breakneck speed through the heart of Paris early in the morning. The film was limited for technical reasons to 10 minutes; the course was from Porte Dauphine , through the Louvre, to the Basilica of Sacre Coeur.

No streets were closed, for Lelouch was unable to obtain a permit.

The driver completed the course in about 9 minutes, reaching nearly 140 MPH in some stretches. The footage reveals him running 20 real red lights, nearly hitting real pedestrians, and driving the wrong way up real one-way streets.

Upon showing the film in public for the first time, Lelouch was arrested. He has never revealed the identity of the driver, and the film went underground.

Wikipedia describes some of the facts about the video a bit differently, but it still leaves you using my daughter’s favorite expression – OMG.

While reading one of the numerous Stephen Ambrose books I own, I found this quote from Major General Fox Conner who was Dwight Eisenhower’s mentor and supervisor in the Panama Canal Zone in the between-war years.

Always take your job seriously, never yourself.

Major General Fox Conner, from The Supreme Commander by Stephen Ambrose.

The feature article in the Fall 2009 edition of Eagletter, which I was able to borrow, from the National Eagle Scout Association is an interview of Mike Rowe the host of Dirty Jobs. While the whole interview is well worth your time to read, I found a couple of quotes exceptional.

When asked about the highlights of his time in Scouting, Mike responded with this list of familiar activities.

I remember experiences more than accomplishments. Summer camp at Broad Creek in Maryland. Playing ridiculously dangerous games like “swing the thing” and “British bulldog.” Whitewater rafting. “Capture the flag” in the dark. Going to Philmont. Riding horses in New Mexico. Singing songs. Hundreds of campfires. Really bad freeze-dried food. Spam. Lots of Spam.

Asked to compare “Dirty Jobs” to the merit badge program, Mike said:

Both have required me to work in areas outside of my comfort zone. And both provide endless variety. However, the context is different. The merit badge program is designed to reward accomplishment and instill a sense of consequence. You meet the requirements; you get the badge. Otherwise, no badge. On “Dirty Jobs,” my only obligation is to make an honest effort and do the work at hand. The work itself (aside from my paycheck) is the reward. I am probably the only person working who is paid to try.

Well said, Mike.

Wikipedia says this is unsourced, I find to too good to not use.

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

Sir Winston Churchill

In a recent news event, it was mentioned that any e-mail sent to the White House must be retained, by act of Congress, forever. It occurred to me that this was a really cool feature which would allow you to send a message into the future for your decedents.

I mentioned this in passing to my son Greg who is, apparently, a bit more devious than I am. He realized that it was a great way to back up your term papers.

Now, the obvious thought one would have, is, sure you can have your data backed up, but how do you get it back?

No problem; it’s called the Freedom of Information Act.

Any one who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin.

John von Neumann

In my grandfather’s, Walter L. Medding, memoir of WWI is an engaging vignette which reminds me so much of the stories he would tell during our frequent visits with him during my childhood.

We had a hard boiled motorcycle driver who rejoiced in the name of “Spike” Adams. One day Spike took me, in his rattletrap motorcycle & side car, on a trip to Ft. St. Mange. In climbing the long grade to the ridge at the far end of which the fort was located, the motor labored considerably and the exhaust pipe became red hot. Finally a tire went flat and we had to walk half a mile to the Gas School. Here we begged transportation to finish our trip. A Dodge sedan was placed at our disposal and we were warned to hurry as the school was about to start a demonstration with chlorine gas. By the time we turned on to the main road the gas cloud had been turned loose and, as we had no gas masks, the driver increased his speed to about 15 miles per hour. Half way through the cloud a sentry tried to stop us, but we dodged around him and raced on. The cloud resembled a fog and visibility was very low. Suddenly, right in front of us there appeared a motorcycle. It had been stopped by the sentry and had hardly gotten under way again. It was impossible to stop the car and when we hit the motorcycle our driver temporarily lost control. We swerved to the right, bumped through the ditch at the side of the road and careened through the trees of a small woods. Although we avoided hitting anything as we entered the woods, it took 2 days to get the car out again.

Of course, we piled out of the car and rushed to see how much damaged we had done to the motorcycle driver. We found it was Roy McCutchen, who was badly scratched by gravel but otherwise unhurt, so we all hurried out of the gas cloud in the direction of Ft. St. Menge. Apparently the concentration of chlorine was not very heavy, for none of us suffered the slightest effects.

Hmm, it could only have happened in 1918.