The "Door to Nowhere" on the Winchester Mystery House
The Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California is a monument to one woman’s obsession with avoiding death. Sarah Winchester, the heiress to the Winchester gun fortune, had her carpenters working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year adding to her huge mansion. All of this was because her child, Annie, died in 1866 and her husband, William, died 15 years later of tuberculosis. Greif stricken, and sitting on a fortune estimated at $20,000,000.00, she consulted a spiritualist, like any normal, sane person would do.
The spiritualist, a medium from Boston, convinced her that her family and her fortune were being haunted by spirits of American Indians, killed by the Winchester rifles her husband’s family had invented. Since her daughter and husband had already been taken, naturally the medium convinced Sarah that she would be next. The only way to avoid this horrible fate was to move west and begin construction on a great house. This would appease the “spirits” and as long as construction continued on the house, Sarah would be safe.
Construction on the house continued for 38 years, until Sarah’s death in 1922. What was left is a massive mansion containing 160 rooms, 2,000 doors, 10,000 windows, 47 stairways, 47 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and 6 kitchens.
Exploring this weird, wonderful place is a great way to spend an afternoon, or even longer.
For those looking to relax and just enjoy the ocean, Kure Beach, North Carolina has everything to offer. With clean beaches, friendly people, and a real laid back attitude, Kure Beach is ideal for family fun. The crown jewel of this picturesque little town has to be the Kure Beach Fishing Pier. Built in 1923, it is the oldest fishing pier on the Atlantic coast. From April to November this 712 foot pier offers fishing, fabulous views, and if you’re lucky, a new friend.
I am one of those fortunate enough to make a special friend at the pier. While enjoying the sights and smells of the ocean, I noticed a rather large pelican just sitting on a nearby table. He was looking for scraps I’m sure and was quite comfortable with all the people bustling by. I couldn’t resist this photo opportunity so I set to capturing him on film. After a few minutes and several up close shots, my pelican friend decided to take over as director. He flapped his wings and in the process knocked me in the head. I nearly lost my hat and my glasses. Needless to say I was a bit startled by his sudden outburst. I’ve always heard a picture is worth a thousand words and in this case a whack on the head!
Put your baby into the mini Barcalounger and he can control his own destiny! The Korean-made device can be set to follow you around and rock the baby to sleep. I can’t see how this could possibly go wrong.
Some analysis from interested observers of Air France flight 447 is starting to appear. As you probably know, the aircraft (an Airbus A330-200) went down off the coast of Brazil on its way from Rio to Paris. There were no survivors.
Some information about the passengers is available here but I’d like to focus more on the reasons why it may have gone down.
Some good information about the weather during the flight is available from WeatherGraphics.com. Here’s an excerpt of the summary:
My own opinion of the crash cause, as of Monday night, based on the complete lack of a HF radio call and consideration of all of the above, suggests severe turbulence (see the BOAC 911 and BNF 250 tragedies) combining in some unlikely way with CRM/design/maintenance/procedural/other deficiencies to trigger a failure cascade. We can almost certainly count on some unexpected surprises once the CVR is recovered. Until then, all we can do is await the investigation and hope that the world’s flight operations stay safe until AFR447’s lessons are revealed.
Basically, the report contends and I concur (having flown “heavy” aircraft for a number of years) that the storm system the aircraft flew through was severe but not unusual. Lightning and turbulence are not normally sufficient to bring down a modern airliner (I’ve been hit by lightning about a dozen times with no significant damage to the plane). So, there’s likely some sort of system failure that may have been aggrevated by the weather.
I’ve seen some speculation about a bomb. Not likely, in my opinion. France is actually pretty friendly with Arab nations so I doubt any terrorist group would target Air France. Besides, it seems likely some terrorist group would have claimed responsibility by now, but I’m certainly no expert in those matters.
Based on the pilot reports and the automated reports coming from the aircraft, it sounds like the plane broke up in mid air. Although that shouldn’t happen in a modern airliner, there could have been a system or structural problem with the aircraft that went undetected and, combined with the weather, contributed to the accident. But the black boxes are down in an ocean that’s more than 20,000 feet deep in that area so finding them will be difficult, particularly given the size of the debris field. It’s possible we’ll never know the exact cause of the accident.
Leave it to an engineer to invent a recipe for perfect fudge. I’m a pretty good cook but my fudge is inconsistent–gritty one time and gooey the next. This fudge comes out perfect every time.
Perfect fudge is made by using condensed milk rather than boiling sugar and cream.
Fudge is a soft, finely grained (almost gritty) candy made from sugar syrup, cream, and butter. Making sure the sugar forms small fine crystals is essential to producing the right texture. Most traditional fudge recipes require patience, timing, and quick action to produce the right sized crystals. This recipe produces a confection that looks like fudge and tastes like fudge, but without the effort of making fudge from a sugar syrup.
This is a Busker Organ or Crank Organ as they are sometimes called. When the crank is turned, bellows blow air through a paper strip into the pipes to make music. The paper strip has holes in it that correspond to the notes to play. The strip advances as the crank is turned.
In this example, the crank also actuates parts of the monkey so there’s no need to have one on a leash with a tin cup! If you want to build your own Busker Organ, you can find plans here:
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