Why you might want to dust off your sextant...

A piece of the puzzle, an interesting discussion, and in the "not spontaneous combustion" department...

Over at Just an Earth Bound Misfit ( a blog you should really be reading) there's an interesting bit about the return of LightSquared to the playing field that you need to read and check out the provided links.

Since soulless greed has an annoying habit of trumping common sense these days you might want to work on your celestial navigation skills... Just in case.



Listening to Your Heart Breaks

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a neo-luddites thought process on a needful purchase...

On the subject of a fair living wages, a depressing trend in modern education, and just business as usual...

We live in wonderful times in some ways...

For instance, West Marine dropped me their usual weekly "you need to buy stuff" email and they had a deal on a floating, waterproof, and rather impressive pocket sized GPS for $99 bucks. Seriously, that much technology in something you can put in your pocket for $99 is just frelling amazing.

Since I was on the West site I decided to check out what a good cheap plastic sextant would cost and saw that, the one I tend to recommend is priced at $199... That said, a more than decent cheapie (the Davis MK3) sextant is priced at $57.99 so, I suppose, non-electronic position finding is still a bit cheaper than electronic but just barely.

Now, personally, me being a neo-luddite and all, I find the ongoing disappearance of traditional sailing and navigation skills somewhat irksome but, since my mother didn't actually raise a complete idiot, I also see the value of a pocket sized GPS that floats and has an on board celestial calculator as one of it's apps.

So, while I won't be trading in my sextant anytime soon, I may just be investing in another GPS while it's on sale.

Listening to a really good podcast

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Someone you might want to have bookmarked...

A couple of astute observations, some food for thought, and in the "racism no longer exists in America" files...

Being on a boat in some out-of-the-way places where you can't just go down to the local metal store and buy the needful bits it's good to have someone you can depend on back in the real world.

One such company that I use is Online Metal Supply who is based in Missouri and are purveyors of any number of needful materials for boats. The nice thing is when you call them up you're guaranteed that the person answering the phone has an IQ above room temperature. Sadly, a lot of companies these days can't make that claim...

Just the other day I asked someone in the States if he could mail something and he told me that he could not because his product was bigger than a PO Box and that he was pretty sure US Mail did not deliver to the US Virgin Islands because it was foreign... Obviously a guy a couple of sandwiches short of the proverbial picnic.

Not the case with Online Metal Supply they know how to ship stuff in a way that is fast, affordable, and will get to you in an undamaged state. Better yet, their prices are excellent. What's not to love?

Listening to the Pousette-Dart Band

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a very good article you should read...

How to screw up science, mean scary bullies with pocket protectors, and Farly Mowat the author of  "The Boat Who Wouldn't Float" and "A Whale for the Killing" has passed away...

Since we were speaking of one-hit wonders, I thought it only fair to point you to a very good article by Reuel Parker (his hits just keep coming) on rotating wing masts.

Rotating Wing Masts part 1

Rotating Wing Masts part 2

Listening to Steam Powered Giraffe

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